Uku belongs to the daunting genre of "wordless" comics. There are quality comics to be found in this arena; they usually leave me with an impression or well-conveyed emotion. In Otto's comic, he does far more than that. He tells a cognitive, easy-to-follow story. His art is absolutely fluid, backed by a well-planned layout. Each is rendered in full color, and fades discretely into the background. The expressions and character design are fresh, each panel worthy of being framed and hung on a wall. I call this a very well-executed comic, definitely worth following.
... read it now!
Relatively few webcomics take advantage of the fact that they're presented on a lit screen rather than a sheet of paper, but Otto Uhrwerk van Germain's Uku has a unique style that lets the colors pop off the screen.
The colorful individual pages are set off against a black background. Otto also draws viewers into the scene through the use of soft, rounded panels that appear to be painted around each image.
The drawings are done in a nice, watercolored style, with a nice variety of compositions. In particular, there are quite a few wide shots that impressively convey the world of the comic. Otto also makes great use of light in order to create a mysterious world. During the daytime, rays of light shoot out from behind characters and scenery; at night, the palette changes dramatically, and the world is rendered almost exclusively in blues and purples.
The mysterious and silent narrative follows Uku, a humanoid creature from a tribal community, as he wanders through jungles, makes discoveries, and gets in trouble. There is occasionally some ambiguity as to what is going on, but that works well within the comic itself, as it creates a sense of mystery and draws the reader in.
Uku is a beautiful comic which is well worth taking a look at.
... read it now!
