Introduction
Twilight Key is a sprite comic, but unlike most others of its genre, it attempts
to tell a serious, serialized story. It follows the adventures of the bumbling,
somewhat consciencious 15-year-old angel Harru as he tries to deal with his
introverted partner, the mysterious being he was ordered to destroy and even
his own arrogantly independent subconscious. While there are elements of humor in the
story, for the most part this could be considered a typical fantasy drama web comic,
with the exception that the panels are filled with sprites rather than hand-drawn.
The Positive Aspects
"Twilight Key" is an unusual sprite comic; it attempts to break out of the stereotype of
its "Sonicized" genre and actually use sprites as a serious story-telling medium. And in
attempting to do so, it could teach a lot of other fledgling sprite comic authors a thing
or two about skillful sprite manipulation and sprite comic potential. Technically speaking,
it is a unique and refreshing comic, and one every sprite artist should look at and learn
from.
The comic never devolves into the run-of-the-mill "random humor" that most
lower-end sprite artists seem to love so much, but keeps fairly faithfully
to a telling a concrete story. The first page should give readers a clue of what to
expect in this comic: Each episode starts with an "Episode Cover," and reads like
a chapter in a book. While this isn't a groundbreaking idea in and of itself, the fact
that a sprite comic is being used for serious storytelling is an impressive
and intriguing premise to begin with.
Beautiful muted pastels coupled with smoky blur effects work together
to make this a visually pleasing comic to look at, regardless of how you feel about
sprite art. A lot of care was taken to customize the look and feel of this comic.
Sprites, scanned images and artwork are used cleverly together, melding smoothly to
create an overall result that looks just as nice, if not more so, than many traditional
hand-drawn web comics.
The site itself also has a good, clean design. There's nothing fancy about the
customization of the Smack Jeeves default template in this design, but everything is
clearly labelled, easy to find and pleasing to the eyes. Where this comic really
shines, however, is in the manipulation of the sprites themselves. As stated before,
visually this comic is absolutely beautiful. Randall knows how to use photoshop and
has a good eye for color; characters blend seamlessly into their backgrounds and the
special softening and blur effects that used are delightfully subtle. Later pages in the comic
are even more adventurous, mixing drawn panels with sprited ones and succeeding fairly
well at creating a smooth transition between the two.
The Criticisms
While "Twilight Key" has the potential to grow into something unique, it suffers from a lack
of focus and character development. While it has the potential to grow into something unique,
the plot is currently suspended in the precarious limbo of having a plucky young angst-ridden hero
save the world, again. Harru, the protaganist, is a typical teenager for all
intents and purposes; there seems to be no reason he was "selected" to be the hero in the
comic. He certainly hasn't displayed any qualities that endear or humanize him to the
readers. His partner, Ravage, is slightly more interesting. While similarly angst-ridden,
he at least has been granted enough of a personality for readers to either love or hate him.
Other characters are simply not worth mentioning; even the "pivotal" Guardian of Life is a
flat cardboard cutout, given to spouting obtuse dialogue with no specific purpose other
than make the protaganist look good (or bad, depending on the situation). Fortunately, the
story is just beginning, so there is still a chance for all of these characters to develop into
something more than just a flat stereotype. Whether or not this will happen really depends
on the focus of the plot. A little time spent on character development, - such finding a way
to facilitate a discussion of their backgrounds, motivations or emotional responses to
challenges - could potentially bring the story a lot further than the addition of more action
sequences or jokes.
A great part of the problem could be attributed to assumptions. Randall obviously has an epic
story in mind that he wants to convey, but his choppy method of telling it assumes that we, the
readers, know as much about his universe as he does. Reading the "cast" page helps put some
assumptions into context, but a visitor really shouldn't have to start a comic with its supplemental
material. Another reason the characters don't shine on their own is because they are pastiches of
popular video game stereotypes. Less time spent trying to make the characters look as "cool" as
their well-known archetypes and more invested in treating each one as a unique creation would
really benefit the comic. A regular update schedule would also help; readers of fantasy works usually
want and need them in order to make an investment in following a serious story.
Structurally speaking, the design of the web site is clean and simple, but the excessively large
Buzzcomix and Top Web Comics vote buttons at the top of the page are an annoying distraction.
It almost feels as though potential readers are being "yelled" at to go vote, which can be
disconcerting.
While the comic is beautiful to look at, like most web comics (sprite or not) it
suffers from a lack of script editing. Proofreading or sometimes even a simple
spell check would clear up the errors that appear in character dialogue.
These frequent and repetitive grammatical errors detract significantly from the
enjoyment of the plot. Language errors can sometimes be ignored in humor-based
comics, but in serious graphic novels they stand out just as much as they do in
their real-world text counterparts.
Additionally, panel layout and separation are not as clearly defined as they could be;
while not as glaring of a problem as the grammar failures, it does sometimes lead to
confusing story sequences, particularly during "action" scenes. Granted, there is only
so much an author can do with only 2-5 character poses to chose from when constructing
a battle. That being said, more than a few of the action scenes are difficult to follow due to poor
layout. Slower pacing or perhaps more support from hand-drawn panels would help clear
up some of these problems.
The Conclusion
If you're looking for a good read, "Twilight Key" might not be it; if you're looking for a
beautiful sprite comic, however, this is definitely the one to watch. The artistic editing is
already impressive and promises only to get better with time. One thing I would enjoy seeing in
a comic such as this would be the addition of animated gifs or swf files to the story; sprites
obviously lend themselves easily to animation. A few subtle additions, such as twinkling
stars, blinking eyes or flapping wings could really bring this comic visually one step further
than it already is.
In short: "Twilight Key" is worth a visit; whether or not you stick around is a matter of taste.
- Enkida
