October - reMind

[Kristen]

Discuss reMind here!

Sonja, the lighthouse keeper at a seaside oil drilling town, loses her cat, Victuals. Everyone blames the Lizard Man, the local boogeyman, which Sonja knows is a myth created by her late father to generate interest in the town. But when Victuals unexpectedly returns and has the brain of a strange intelligent creature; it seems someone is doing experimental transplants.

With the brain of a lizard and the body of a cat, Victuals must now fight to recover his original lizard body and confront what he thought was the all-powerful god.

Here's the first page:

[Mike]

I've heard a lot about this one and am looking forward to diving in.

From the first page here the art looks quite good.

[Kristen]

I agree. At first glance, it's very pretty.

We had excellent timing on this. The very last page went up yesterday! We finally have another webcomic that is actually completed.

[Mike]

Cool! Nice to know the whole story's there if I get totally sucked in.

Although speaking of completed wotm's I still haven't managed to get back to finish Digger yet...

[Mike]

Just starting the second chapter. The art is incredible. Particularly the coloring. Very unique but doesn't draw attention to itself. Manages to be vivid while using a great subdued palate.

Looks like we're in for one seriously odd story, but an extremely intriguing one.

[Mike]

So I got seriously sucked in and ended up plowing through both volumes. Interestingly enough they contain the entire story, even though the last page just went up. I guess he finished and published the books first and then posted the pages one by one.

The story is ok. Probably would have given it 3 stars for that. There is a lot of interesting stuff going on and obviously I was quite drawn into it but I do feel like there is also a lot of missed potential.

The art is continual fantastic all the way through (and hence the bump up to 4 stars).There's some really gorgeous stuff and the art really creates a great atmosphere for the comic.

[Mike]

Here are a few discussion questions for everyone to think about (Please remember to use spoiler tags as appropriate to your answer, even if the question didn't contain spoilers. Thanks!):

1) How do you like the characters? Do you feel invested in their problems?

2) How do you like the art? Were you as impressed as I was or was it not to your tastes?

3) What do you think of the story? Are you happy with the plot focus? With how it unfolds?

4) (view spoiler)[ How do you feel about the fantasy elements? The idea that the lizard's soul was imprisoned into Victuals as punishment? When that concept changed to possibly being a brain transplant instead? (hide spoiler)] Ok to look at after reading through chapter 2.

5) (view spoiler)[ What do you think of the ending? Do the unresolved issues of Victuals status with the rest of his lost society and Cyrene bother you? Is there anything specific you wish was explained more? (hide spoiler)] Contains spoilers for the end of the series.

[Kayleigh]

1)I never felt the characters were really developed to their full potential. Obviously, I felt invested enough in them to finish the comic, but their personalities all felt unfinished to me.
2)The scenery and color palette are gorgeous, but the character designs feel kind of half-baked. It's a weird juxtaposition for me--these sketchy, often monotone characters with their rubber-mask facial expressions surrounded by gorgeous, elaborate and beautifully-colored backgrounds. That inconsistency bothered me; it felt like Brubaker put a lot of effort into making the scenery look great but ran out of steam when it came time to draw his characters.
3) Love the story. I wish we had a little more background on Sonja and her father, and the pacing was a little uneven in some places (for example, Volume 1 is mostly buildup, while much of Volume 2 feels rushed), but the concept is original and engaging. That alone probably would have been enough to keep me reading.
4)(view spoiler)[The fantasy elements were one of the things that felt inconsistent to me. The idea of a soul being transplanted as a punishment is an intriguing one, the brain transplant idea actually seemed less plausible to me--how did an underwater society of technologically-backward lizards suddenly figure out complicated brain surgery? Still, since the technology of the comic is never really explained anyway, it still (mostly) works. (hide spoiler)]
5)(view spoiler)[The ending felt too abrupt to me. I don't have a problem with unresolved issues or ambiguous endings, but this one just felt lazy. I wish we'd seen more of Cyrene's journey and how she actually managed to get everyone to safety (up until then, pretty much all we'd seen her do was cry and run away from her problems, so if she was going to become some kind of badass heroine, it would have been nice to see the process). I wish the anemone and its relationship with the Invisible (the identity of which we never discover)had been explained more thoroughly as well. On the other hand, I didn't have a problem with the loose-ends feeling of Victuals' status in relation to the rest of his society--a perfect, Disney-style ending with everything all neatly resolved and tied up in a shiny bow would have felt unrealistic for a story like this one. I enjoy wondering what will happen and how he's going to explain things to his people when (and if) he finds them again. (hide spoiler)]

[Mike]

Kayleigh wrote: "1)I never felt the characters were really developed to their full potential. Obviously, I felt invested enough in them to finish the comic, but their personalities all felt unfinished to me.
2)The ..."

1) Totally the same for me. I was compelled by the characters but there was definitely development missing.

2) Interesting observation. It didn't bother me that much there was something "off" about the anthropomorphic characters and I think you nailed it with the "rubber mask" description. They seemed a little too cartoony. I liked Sonja's design/execution though.

3) Same here again. Wish this was closer to three volumes to allow better pacing in the second "half."

4) (view spoiler)[ Yeah, when I thought it was a false god sort of thing with unjust punishment it was a bit more interesting. The brain transplant stuff does pretty much work, but a couple of inconsistencies with it drove me nuts. (hide spoiler)]

5) (view spoiler)[ I also thought things were rushed. More exploration of the Invisible definitely would have been appreciated.

The ending bother me a little, just because so much was left for Victuals. If this had been more Sonja's story it would have made sense to end it at that point, but she was really a supporting character and we end Victuals tale with him separated from his society and the woman he loves, AND vilified by that society for all of the former king's sins.

That last part makes me feel like his real quest is just beginning (he not only has to search for his lost people he has to somehow clear his name and reestablish his relationship with Cyrene, who thinks he tried to kill her) and makes this whole thing feel like a prologue. Compared to what's ahead of him dealing with the king isn't that big a story. Could just be me, but if this is it (and it seems to be) I really wish Cyrene at least knew the truth. Then I could deal with the outstanding stuff and still feel like enough was resolved here. (hide spoiler)]