#but I think that that's because it was probably jampole's first time with the style?

[e-adlirez]

When I asked about whether or not the books became egregious friendship in the later books I was just kidding I didnt expect it to be that bad 😭! Tho, a bit curious, does the graphic novels fell victim to this as well? Does Vi become a friendship god again. I only read the first 3 and I want to continue it but seeing the sudden change of the artstyle makes me not... want to continue it (no offense to the artist but the changes in the comic feels more jarring to me than the main ones)

Well thankfully the friendship thing doesn't show up much in the graphic novels since they're more nature-focused than friendship-focused. So all things considered the comics, though they suffer in narrative quality because of Papercutz calling the shots it's still pretty decent all things consi--

........ sigh

I'm not gonna get into that many details about it because I can't be bothered with this one, but good lord what an underwhelming send-off to what was a banger comic series. Its moral/theme is basically the teamwork song from Sponge Out of Water, Ryan Jampole's sketches of the panels look especially sketchy in this one (when they were already kinda sketchy, both in an art sense and in the vibe sense), and the only thing we really get from it is Vanilla getting a bit of a conscience and letting the girls have this victory I guess (even though I'm not sure why).

Oh and Trap plushie in Vi's room. N-not sure why she has it, but cool easter egg, I guess?

Issue 7 is the best of the newer ones I'd say, I genuinely liked it. Issue 5 and 6 though... Eeeeehhhhhh, I have mixed feelings about them. The premise is cute, both books gave me platonic!Vicky moments to revel in, Vi got to dish out a verbal smackdown in issue 5, there was a whole espionage mission thing in book 6....... but at the same time you can sense the dip in narrative thought and quality, and a part of you can't help but grieve what could've been. Especially seeing how well the first half was, and that they got Ryan "Jampolinski" Jampole to do the art of issues 5-8.

Ryan

Jampolinski

Jampole

HOW DO YOU FUMBLE A BAG LIKE RYAN JAMPOLE, PAPERCUTZ???

On second glance they don't look as bad as I remember them being, but there are just some panels that look... off. Or not very expressive. Or just...... Issue 5.

Don't clock him for the coloring, he wasn't the colorist in any of these; buuuutttt yeah :/

Even the Trap teddy bear is guaranteed to give you mixed emotions because on one hand it looks cute but on the other hand you look at Vi's proportions which makes you notice the proportions of the room which makes you realize the proportions of Vi compared to the room and-- yeahhh. Kinda understand why this is the forgotten child of the Jampolinski art gallery.

Like take a look at his portfolio on Deviantart and his Twitter (who's X? I don't have an ex) and there's literally no sign of his work for the Thea Stilton comics anywhere. I dunno if it's just a contract thing or something else but regardless it's kinda sad :'D

Anyway uh if you do plan on reading issues 5-8, just bear in mind three things:

The story is directed by Papercutz, so it's going to be screaming "THIS IS A KIDS' BOOK WITH KIDS' MORALS AND KIDS' CHARACTERS TALKING LIKE KID-FRIENDLY HAMLET MONOLOGUING ABOUT THE DAY AHEAD OF HIM, DO YOU UNDERSTAND HIS EMOTIONS AND THE LESSON HE'S EXPLICITLY TEACHING RIGHT NOW" the entire way through

Please don't clap Jampole for this, it's kinda embarrassing to come at him for a thing he drew back in like 2017 at earliest and y'know we dunno what happened behind Papercutz's neon orange doors, and also sometimes the forgotten child ought to remain forgotten sooooooo...... yeah, I don't want any trouble, just stating opinions here,,

There will be nuggets of gold panels there-- it wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered it being (in terms of artstyle), and there are some panels that I genuinely liked! It's just that the emotional range/nuance was just virtually nonexistent, probably because of point 1. There will be nuggets of gold in there, you just gotta sift through a lot of gravel to find it.

Anyway that's what I have to say about issues 5-8, issues 1-4 are goated and 5-8 kinda yeeted the formula of 1-4 out the window and replaced it with.... whatever 5-8 was (minus 7, I gotta reiterate that 7 is the best of the latter four). Aight see ya ^ ^