Wednesday - January 5, 2005:

Ribald Youth, by Ryan Armand, brings some great brush strokes and visual story-telling from time to time.

The site and graphics are in some serious need of a make-over though. Like HB, it took me several pages to realize I was reading the wrong way and once I realized the problem, I also remembered that I ran into this strip a couple of years ago while living in Cyprus. Knowing a little more about comics on the web now, I can't stress enough that two MAJOR changes NEED to be made to this strip. First, though it may be interesting to see every stroke and jag in every line when running the pages in the neighborhood of 700px by 1000px, this works much better at half the size. Secondly, if I've made the mistake twice in assuming the comic reads western left-to-right then I'm betting at least fifty percent of your other readers make the same mistake. I'm betting an even bigger chunk of the audience finds the procedure gets in the way of their enjoyment even if they do read the sign. It would not be all that time-consuming to reformat it in a graphics program and that I'd recommend strongly, unless there's some stylistic reason for it. The further you dig into the story, the better the artwork gets, but the story moves so slowly that I don't think too many people make it to the really good stuff. This is a comic that has grown and looks to continue. With a couple of design adjustments and a quickening of the pace, it could be very good. Thanks for submitting it for review.

-Bob Stevenson