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Zod #7
posted February 16, 2006
 



Creator: Jacob Steingroot
Publishing Information: Self-Published, Mini-Comic, 8 pages, $2
Ordering Numbers: [email protected]

I like the color cover to Jacob Steingroot's mini-comic Zod #7, with its multiple red hues underlining the space theme and a couple of spots of blue that brings our attention to the faces. The inside presents a chapter in a loose science fiction cartoon adaptation of the Odyssey. After a disastrous shortcut forces them to crash land, Odysseus and Lloyd briefly settle down on a planet that offers up tasty sandwiches and cool movie theaters but eventually decide to re-start their journey home. Steingroot practices a very static kind of cartooning, with tiny figures and lots of dead space, where the cuteness of the characters and detail-light depictions of alien worlds are supposed to add to the jovial humor that runs beneath the calm surface. It is reasonably cute as far as it goes; it has the matter-of-fact deadpan narrative style of the longform puppet shows that played on Sunday morning when I was kid. But it's not something I'd seek out. I think for people to want to track this comic down, a lot of improvement needs to come in terms of craft, in particular the art of which the above is by far the best sample. I think anyone that might enjoy this would be encouraged to do so because of the reduced expectations that can come with a mini-comic. Taken out of that context, the story within isn't nearly strong enough to convince anyone not automatically worn over by drawings of little critter-people that it's worth their time.