WEBCOMIC REVIEW: DEVOLUTION

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Review by A. Kaviraj

Ok this is a webcomics review for Devolution written by Matt Yocum and drawn by Jake Bilbao with inks by Ignacio Calero.Click here to read.

The art is great-that is what made me want to review the comic. Use of blacks and shadows is striking. The story is another matter entirely. It suffers from several fatal flaws. First, it's a slow starter. Remember-good stories have a 'hook' which GRABS the reader's attention quickly. This one I kept reading and waiting for something to happen. Then, when something finally does happen, it's both unexplained and cliche. Zombies or Hills Have Eyes or whatever they are attack the house, which we have been told over and over again has all this SECURITY.

Don't set up something that isn't followed through on-setting up a great security system for a house and then having a bunch of rabid hillbillies break it is a waste of all those pages where the security was set up and explained. Also, though the art is good-it also gets confusing. The attack scenes, which go on forever are really hard to make out what is happening. Example: page 15 panel 4 (see below). If the guy kicking the zombie or whatever then where's the rest of his leg? On page 16 (see below) a guy STABS a zombie with a saw???? I propose this is impossible.

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The use of a saw in the 'Two Years Ago Arizona' flashbacks further confuses matters. Running and getting chased through a house is hardly interesting. The major problem here is a fairly common one-the protagonist is undefined, has no goal. That makes for as Socrates would say, a 'wind egg'. We also have a confusing 'Two Years Ago Arizona' series of flashbacks.

Overall it devolves (pun intended) into a hodgepodge of confusing un-knitted scenes and horror film cliches. I didn't bother to read #2.