I've started and deleted three drafts now trying to get my thoughts into a coherent recommendation, but there's just so much.
Let's start with the basics: You should read the graphic novel if you're a fan of the original show. You just should. It's new content of your old faves, and I'm telling you now that the art and writing are great and that you should give it a shot based on that alone.
But as for exactly why I'm losing my mind over it this much...?
It... feels like watching the show. But a version of the show unafraid to explore its own worldbuilding. A version of the show where continuity and character growth matter. A version of the show without jokes written by people far too old to understand mid-2000s teens.
And it is actually, honest-to-goodness funny. I went in fully braced for a badly shoehorned "fruit loop" one-liner, and instead I got incredible deadpan asides like this:
The art, too, manages to perfectly ride the line of looking enough like the original style to be convincing, but improving on the expressiveness of the characters' faces and actions to elevate it to something arguably better than the show:
(Like, I'm being so serious when I say the fight scenes are among the best I have ever seen in comic form. I'm the kind of person who tends to go for anime over manga because the fights are harder for me to follow in little sequential snapshots, but I can tell exactly what's happening in these battles AND they still look super cinematic and cool.)
And the story. Man, the STORY.
I won't spoil any of the plot here, but it's... really good. A little winding and goofy toward the beginning, but once things get serious, it really grabs you and refuses to let go til it's done. (Much like the best episodes of the show! Funny how that works.) It has a satisfying conclusion, but it also leaves a massive door open to continue telling more stories in the setting.
And I want more stories in this universe. The threads being dangled here might be even more enticing than those left by the original show. There is potential here for an INCREDIBLE series of comics.
We just have to prove how badly we want it.
If you can't buy the book yourself right now (it's relatively cheap for a graphic novel--I think it was about $15 even with tax from my Barnes & Noble), then please at least let other fans know it exists (I wouldn't have had any idea if not for tumblr) and keep the hype going on social media. I'm stoked to see that DP is trending on tumblr, at least, and I hope the same is true elsewhere. It's a small thing, but it's something corporate decision-makers take note of.
Fingers crossed we get to see more someday. This is one series that deserves to come back from the dead.
But, whether or not we get that continuation: welcome back, Phandom. Congrats and happy release day. 💚
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No abyssal go on
(nothing graphic, but I don’t want to make people uncomfortable, and I might be getting too comfortable talking vaguely of max and Volumnia fucking)
I just had a lot of questions and no real concrete thoughts:
Do you think she would want to initiate a threesome? Or just put Max in the cuck chair?
Do you think she wants to get Max’s wife pregnant? Do you think she wants to instruct Max on how to get his wife pregnant?
Does she have sex with them and compare notes? Does she make them have sex with her and each other and then compare notes?
Oh my god! Does she actually attempt to have a control for her mpreg experiment, and try to have Max and Max’s wife get pregnant at the same time?
Is this the origin of Felicia Crowmotion? (I guess I have to send this post to Lu now)
She’s bouncing these questions off Max and he’s like “my wife would not sleep with you.”
I think Max’s wife would be like a Toxic Besties hater but not of them as people just their whole relationship. She’d be like “I wish they were just fucking, because at this point I feel like they’re going to kill each other in front of everyone and it’s going to ruin everything.” <- I think this was basically what I said in the original Max has a wife idea post.
I don’t think she’d want to play into whatever this is but… well, when your husband irritates you enough who knows?
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Ill get into this later but the Star Flower x Clear Sky romance shit is legitimately some of the most rancid canon ship stuff in WC without full out having an on-screen Bramblesquirrel argument. I can't believe people legitimately take away that Star Flower has any canonical agency here and try to spin this like girlboss shit
You understand that what Clear Sky likes about this very young adult is that she "obeys" him, subjects herself to bad conditions, and tells him that she's soso loyal that she promises to never leave, yes? While holding up her 1 absolutely insignificant ""betrayal"" as morally equivalent to Clear Sky's murders, beatings, and starvations?
Played as a manipulation this would be interesting. But it's not. She is basically an 18 year old who thinks she's so awful she deserves a serial killer, while his mouth starts watering that his reward has finally come. In their second interaction.
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Don't watch then? If you're going to be disappointed no matter what then don't watch
I think some people don't realize that Helluva and Hazbin are capable of good writing, that they are capable of amazing animation, good songs, and ideas. They HAVE that stuff, they've done it before, and continue to do it, not as often as before, but there are diamonds in the rough.
It's the execution and vast changes in direction that fall flat, that are not good because the direction is lost, interactions become contradictory, the story doesn't seem as complex... and from a fandom standpoint, a lot of people within a fandom write fics, comics, or draw art based off things they wanted to see more of in the show. AUs to twist a direction, explore different arcs, expand a character, showcase a potential relationship- all of which the show did not. Whether a show is super good or terribly horrible, out of hype or spite, it is still an inspiration.
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