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The Layer Method
Our top Secret time-saving technique for creating and merging balloons and tails in Illustrator.
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Thursday, September 2, 2010
Coydog Café
Review by Michael May
Written and Illustrated by Monique MacNaughton
Published by DrunkDuck.com
Coydog Café is the rather mysterious title for Monique MacNaughton's second online comic after UNA Frontiers, which I reviewed last time. It's a mysterious title because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the story. But forgetting that for a moment, Café is a mature, well-researched comic. Not "mature" in the sense that it's naughty, but in that it's complex and thought-out. It's not War and Peace, but it's not light reading either. MacNaughton has created a science fiction world and has done enough studying to make it feel like it could really exist. There are print versions of Coydog Café that precede the online story (titled "He Crossed his Neck with Thunder"), but MacNaughton catches the reader up quickly and those stories aren't necessary to the understanding of this one. Like UNA Frontiers, Coydog Café is set in the future. But it's an alternate reality future and it doesn't involve an apocalyptic holocaust the way Frontiers does. There's been trouble in the world, but it's economic and medical in nature rather than martial. North America is a fascist theocracy now and the Middle East is the center of a cruel jihad movement. The conflict between these two superpowers forms the backdrop for the comic. Hope for the rest of the world seems to lie in a strange pair of individuals: Mariah (a Canadian freedom fighter) and Sky (a sentient fighter plane). I say it "seems" to lie in them, because in this story they do very little freedom fighting, at least not on a grand scale. Sky has the ability to make himself look like a human boy and he and Mariah find themselves (somewhat inexplicably) caught up in Britain's social services system. There they (and we) learn a lot about the life of the average person in this world. There's a subplot about another sentient plane (created by the same program that was responsible for Sky) that's trying to track down Sky and Mariah. One could argue that this subplot is the more interesting one because it involves more action and some very fantastic elements, but the real triumph of Coydog Café is the way that the Sky/Mariah story line simultaneously develops their characters and the world in which they live. That's what makes this a mature, thoughtful book. MacNaughton uses Sky and Mariah to explore such subjects as education, social services, and social order (e.g. friendship and bullying). MacNaughton's artwork is just as professional here as it is in UNA Frontiers. She's researched her planes and draws them convincingly. Her manga influence is even stronger here than it is in Frontiers, which shouldn't be a drawback to anyone, but probably will be to some -- unfortunately. But if you don't mind a manga feel and a thought-provoking tale, Coydog Café is a wonderful strip with a lot to offer. Coydog Café can be read at www.drunkduck.com
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