[review] CONFUSED Volume 1 by TKO

So, among the many fun memories and cool stuff we got during this year's Pride March, Rocky and I also found a booth that was selling a bunch of indie comics, poetry and fiction zines.  Being a writer and artist myself, I felt the duty to support their work and give them my honest review/reaction to it.  After all, when I write and draw my stuff, I love being able to share it with others and even more so, hear from those who checked it out.

Tonight, I'm starting with CONFUSED Volume 1, which is a black and red two-tone comic by Trizha Ko (or TKO).  (A quick peek at the creator's tumblr reveals a healthy body of work which makes me feel shy and envious of not having been as prolific.

 

The comic is 16 pages long, and opens with "Why I Don't Like Talking To Myself" which I found to be a nice honest story.  I know I've found myself in such a situation many times in the past.  I loved how the word balloons were used in that story since they really captured the idea that was being presented.

"The Real Purpose Of Bras" followed, where we meet Melba Roast and learn of her three points on the issue.  The lack of actual "editing" is clear once you notice the addition of text in secondary world balloon that did not fit the earlier balloon, or the drawn-over corrections on some text portions.  This does not distract too much from the humor, though, of the piece.  (I did especially find fun the speech bubble nipple.)  Still, I kinda felt a tad let down that the story had to end with the last panel being duplicated twice, as if just to fill in the page.  If there was a deeper reason behind it, I didn't quite catch it.  I could have imagined it being repeated to suggest "free breasts" but that didn't seem to be the intention either.  (Yes, I know, I'm probably trying to read too much into it.)

The third story, "Androphobia" rotates the layout 90 degrees, and is nicely mostly wordless save for some panels.  I have to admit, I liked the non-realism of it all, with characters shifting into caricature faces as they blabbered about things and used their words to literally attack one another.

The fourth one, "Androphobia Part II" revists the characters but adds word balloons.    The use of red ink is nicely played here, and I have to admit, I admired the effort in creating all those textures and patterns to push the narrative and panel composition.

"Androphobia Part III" I felt was the weakest of the three.  Although it contains my favorite page.   This felt kind of rushed.  Or at least... "hilaw pa yung idea" and could have done a bit more incubating before being set down in ink.

"A Blind Man's World" was visually lovely, although I felt missed a mark when the last panel had the blind person mention the other's name.  I guess I always felt that blind people tend to develop their hearing better than their touch, when it came to identifying people.  But then again, what would I really know?

"To my Compromising lover" is a poem that follows with a small piece of support artwork in the corner.  The poem is interesting but I felt could have benefited from more show than tell.  Then again, I'm no published poet, so maybe its a great piece and I just don't know how to grasp it.

Afterwards, its mostly "Some Bonus Stuff you can rip out and hang on your wall" which features everything from a nicely detailed butt "magic" shot, to sketches "with Tads Tejada."  The sketches were nice, but given I did not know this Tads Tejada nor the creator of the comic, I felt they literally were just fillers instead of an opportunity to give the reader a chance to get to know the creator more (I guess I've been spoiled by DVD extras, eh?)  The "cover" to Androphobia was odd.  I felt it didn't carry the mood of the first three comics.  The "Prick" pages were kinda meh, as was the Venus with hand studies, but I will commend the artist for really having the determination to illustrate hair.  I usually just sketch a shape and fill it in with black.  The lats few pages were okay, I guess.  But admittedly, I felt the pages were kinda wasted opportunities to share more work, reach out more to the reader, or offer something more substantial given this wasn't exactly a free comic.

All in all, CONFUSED Volume One felt like its title.  It felt like there was an inspired attempt to create a comic to be shared to readers, but halfway through, simply because something that had to be filled up.  If that was the intentional message and reason for the comic's state, then I guess that worked.  But it did leave me, as a costumer who paid for the book, feeling cheated.    The stories within are quirky and definitely worth a read if you have time, but not what I'd mention if I were to be asked to recommend an indie comic to others.   The artwork shows huge promise (and in some cases I feel better than mine) but I do wish frames and panels were utilized better (as well as either a great letterer or computer-assisted lettering) to make the whole thing easier to actually read.

Comparing this to the creator's upcoming work, Bubble Gumball Girl! feels very wrong given how much more the upcoming project feels like a valid piece that is being truly invested with the creator's creative juices.

I'd love to read more of Trizha Ko's stuff, thanks to having seen the tumblr.  But had I only had this comic to rely on, I would have said, "That was nice.  Next please."