KOTOR #3

by: DarthMolen April 05 2006

Phenomenal Art. Good story. Crappy Cover-Art. Same old whiney Zayne. I guess nothing has changed yet, except for a couple more party members. Read on for more details.

The artwork, as usual, is phenomenal in this issue of KOTOR. The colors really pop, the hues are vibrant, and the contrasts between colors really stand out. The shading is spot on and breathes a sense of life into the close-ups.

I have noticed lately that a lot of the comics appear like they come from Photoshop. Everything is too perfect. The outlining is symmetrical and the penciling gets lost.

Not in KOTOR. One of the subtle things that really makes a difference, in this series so far, is the inking and outlining. If you look closely, you can still see a lot of the penciling which gives the caricatures depth. Yet there is not too much that it looks amateurish. The outlining is substantive and has a pencilled look without appearing sloppy. It comes off with just a jagged enough look to give the pictures a sense of life, as if they jumped off a pencil and into the panels.

I can’t really pin down whether it is the artist, the inker, or the colorist that is making the greatest impact on the art as a whole which is just the way that I like it.

The story is decent. I wouldn’t give it a failing grade but I also wouldn’t give it a Frank Miller score. I was especially confused with the disjointed flashback to start out but there is definite movement in the story line this time around. The characters are finished stumbling around trying to escape the planet and the writer should be finished getting the “Band” together. 

A writer has to be spot-on in comics because he is constantly vying with the action portrayal for enough space to advance the story and give his characters depth. It really is as much an art to write for comics as it is to draw for them. This is especially true when you are dealing in an epic format like the Star Wars universe. The writer, up until now, is missing that little extra something to make his characters and this story resonate. I can’t quite pin whats missing down but when I do, I’ll be sure to write about it

In conclusion, the art is awesome, the story good but not excellent. I give this issue a 3.5 out of 5 stars.