The Review Daemon: Area 42
Chugging away at our backlog of reviews, here we review the webcomic Area 42, by Mike Podgor!
Synopsis:
Area 42 is a science fiction fantasy comedy slice-of-life little of everything in one comic. Or, to put it more accurately, it’s a comic about a little of everything. It has aliens and robots. It has nerd references. It’s got demons and weird barkeeps and tons of crossovers. It’s also part of a larger series of connected comics with a lot of tie-in content. Ostensibly, Area 42 is about two paranormal investigators checking out strange and unusual cases for a shadow organization, but it’s mostly a light-hearted series about very strange people with very strange jobs who have surprisingly relatable interests.
Plot:
When it comes to genre, this comic has a pretty unusual approach. The creator seems to really enjoy the concept of taking strange and fantastic beings and putting them into mundane situations, just to see what they’ll do. It’s not really accurate to call this slice-of-life, though, even with the everyday life themes. There’s always something very weird a-brewin’ that keeps it just a little too far out of the realms of reality. Let’s call this thing a science fiction-themed urban fantasy.
So what is the story actually about? Well it all starts with a geek names Charleston Charge being held captive by a shadow organization. Luckily for him, he’s got an inmate one cell over to keep him company and the two hit it off immediately. As it turns out, his roommate is a little green alien called M. Far from being put off by this revelation, Charles is thrilled that his newfound friend is an alien and even more thrilled when he’s put on the job as a paranormal investigator with M as his partner. What ensues is a series of cases involving alien invasions, the supernatural, and cross-multiverse travel, punctuated with the occasional nonstop Doctor Who marathon.
The problem with the writing, however, is that these smaller moments greatly outshine the more serious parts of the story. There are action scenes and reveals that are meant to be the main focus, but these parts of the story feel less genuine. It’s more fun reading the “filler”. I give the comic credit because the parts that are done well are honestly enjoyable to read, but the actual plot doesn’t stand out as anything special. For example, we got lots of hints sprinkled throughout the comic about who M is, and it seems like that’s supposed to be important. But ultimately, what makes M interesting isn’t stuff like this. What makes him interesting is his enthusiastic and occasionally dry personality. It may simply be that the author is so good at making characters interesting just by being who they are that his skill at writing a storyline pales in comparison.
3/5
Characters:
The two most prominent characters are Charleston and M. Much of the comic’s humor comes from watching these two mess around and interact with each other. Interestingly, they both undergo a little character development as the story goes on, but the writing focused a lot on how well they play off each other. They have similar personalities and interests, yet manage to maintain their own unique take on their shared interests. There’s the occasional disagreement and even falling-out between the two, but they always make up, and for the most part, they’re two peas in a pod. Watching these two geek out together can be a real delight, but they’re not the only fun characters in this comic.
Rounding out the cast is the no-nonsense Edolie, who’s in charge of Charles and M, a robot named Perverto who…lives up to his name, M’s friendly(?) rival Crystal, and a whole lot of weird alien beings and demons. To spoil every one of these characters would be a disservice to the comic. Trust me, if you like weird, you’ll get weird. There are plenty of oddballs to go around here.
3.5/5
Dialogue:
The dialogue can sometimes be a bit awkward and stilted, but most of the time it’s actually quite funny. The character dialogue is at its best when they’re talking about everyday life. The more sci-fi things get, the less I felt the speech flowed. But when they’re just shooting the breeze about television, it started to come to life. As I said, this comic really enjoys placing fantastic beings into mundane situations, and it does that well. Just look at this amusing exchange:
The characters are just talking about competing to see who can finish the NaNoWriMo challenge first, but darned if this isn’t funny. The mopey, sarcastic dialogue in the first panel is just great and the punchline to this page is very amusing. This comic knows how the bring out the best in simple things like this. It’s just a shame the science fiction elements, which are supposed focus of the writing, don’t compare with these more understated scenes.
3/5
Lettering:
The choice of font is good for the purposes of this comic, but the word bubbles don’t look that great. For some reason, they creator went with rounded rectangles, except where robot speech is concerned. In that case, the word bubbles are just rectangles, but for some reason, that actually kind of works in the comic’s favor. There’s not too much to say beyond that. The lettering get the job done, but not in any way that benefits the overall visuals. Then again, the visuals themselves are…well, read onward to the next section.
3/5
Art:
The art is flat and unimpressive. I will grant that M’s green jellybean-shaped body is cute, but the human characters look gangly and stiff. Ironically, the character who poses the best seems to be Perverto, who has flexible robot noodle-arms that lend to more natural gestures. Most everyone else feels like cardboard. The expressions aren’t much better. Occasionally, M will eke out some cute puppy-dog eyes, but it’s nothing remarkable. It’s just so lifeless and despite all the action scenes, none of it ever feels dyanamic.
2/5
Paneling and Visual Storytelling:
The panel placement is nice and organized, but the way action is conveyed is sometimes confusing. The stiffness of the art doesn’t do the more action-oriented sequences any favors. At best, the characters look like posed figurines. There’s just not much to talk about with this. Like the art, it’s not all that good, but it gets the job done.
2/5
Website:
The website is a mess.
Here’s the deal. I got the link to the comic, which was http://area42.fictosphere.com/comic/1-best-or-worst/. This takes you to the first page. I read through the entire thing and stopped at this page, which is page 250 and was uploaded August 2015. I thought at first that this mean the comic was done, but the page clearly indicates otherwise, since it tells you to read Zeitgeist. What’s that? Why, it’s another comic entirely, hosted on the same site. But really, it’s just a continuation of the same story with the same characters, so why didn’t the creator make it so readers could click the “next” button and read on?
Good luck finding it, though. You have do some archive-crawling to even find the other comics and tie-ins, because they’re nowhere to be seen in the navigation. I’ll admit to not being the greatest website detective, but it shouldn’t be the difficult to find things. Add to the fact that there seems to be no archival page for the individual strips, and you’ve got some confusing times ahead. There’s got to be a better way to run a webcomic than this.
1.5/5
Summary:
The stiff art and underwhelming nature of the more sci-fi heavy story elements hold back an otherwise delightful cross-genre comic. Its strength lies in character interaction and how relatable these very weird people can be. The biggest issue is the labyrinthine website. You can circumvent this by just reading the comic on one of the mirror sites its hosted on, but that’s a disservice to the author, who clearly put a lot of time into the extra content on the site. I’d say that with some better organization and more polished visuals, Area 42 could make for a great webcomic. As it stands, it’s just okay, but there’s still a lot to like about it. If you read this and find it to your liking, I highly recommend checking out the other comics in this universe. You’ll find more of the same quirky fun.