Independent Propaganda

Reviewed by Matt Butcher / Writer for Independent Propaganda

One thing about reviewers is that we never usually have published credits in the field we are reviewing. Roger Ebert never directed a movie. I have never published a major comic. Sure, I’ve tried. I have a writing deal going on with Geekhead Productions that I think is a winner. It’s not listed in Previews (and may never be) so who the heck am I?

I’m a guy that has read thousands of comic books. If I could have majored in comic books in college, I would have. Instead, I now have a masters degree in English. I teach junior high school. I’m sure you’ve heard the cliché before about teachers: those that can, do; those that can’t, teach. Ha ha. Very funny.

When we see some of the self-published stuff coming out now, especially with how easy it is to publish to the web, we may tend to cringe. Comic books are a visual medium so our first impression is very important. Art has a lot to do with that impression. If it looks like a doodle, we may not get past the first page. If it looks like my eleven-year-old daughter drew it, we may not read a word.

That assumption, however, is unfair to The Afterlife by Michael Charlie. I admit that I wondered what I was getting into when I opened up the browser. First, the homepage was a bit difficult just to understand where to go first. Second, the pictures seemed like they were drawn by the seventh grade class I just taught. With all of the misspellings, I thought it was one of my seventh graders.

If you saw this first, you may not look twice. I almost didn’t. It reminds me immensely of that cartoon show Home Movies on Adult Swim. However, I am a reviewer. I have to read at least the whole thing. Then things got better. I wasn’t even looking for good things. I honestly was trying to see how I could pick it apart. The art genuinely got better. It isn’t Michael Turner or Jim Lee or Joe Kubert but it is interesting to look at. This is another step where the creator in me has to admit that Michael Charlie draws better than I do. At least he is using his cartooning ability to full effect in subsequent pages.

The use of paneling and movement isnt too bad and is actually incredibly cinematic:

I could easily see this aspect become a cartoon. There is a pacing here that the white space between the panels uses very effectively. (By the way, this is an actual term used by Scott McCloud in his genius book Understanding Comics.) It moves, it flows.

Then there were some ideas and images that were actually ingenious and fascinating. I dropped my jaw when I saw this idea of slicing the fabric of reality done so well.

Thats cunning. That’s smart. That hooked me. I am at least interested.

However, I can’t say there was a plan to any of the pages. I think he had this idea of one sentence and ran with it. Each page seems constructed solely from the last page, prompting the reader to wonder if there was a preparation or plot. Random additions are frequent. Some of the drawing gets even more crude but the same flavor of fun and adventure is there. New surprises abound, but you have to stick around for them.

If I were going to offer a piece of constructive criticism, I would tell the creator of The Afterlife to re-do some of it. Get rid of some of those distracting, off-topic pages and images. Keep the goofiness of the guides through the afterlife but remain on topic. Map out the direction of the strip. Keep the artwork as nicely done as the first ten or so pages of issue #1. Keep creating it as if it were a cartoon on TV.

We have to remember another cliché when we see comic books for the first time: Don’t judge a book by its cover. I’m not going to say that The Afterlife is the best hidden thing we will ever find. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it. It was worth my time to read. How many comics can we truly say that about?

Past reviews by Matt Butcher:

Cool Jerk Web Comic

Girl Genius Web Comic

Post Nuke Web Comic

About The Reviewer: Matt Butcher is a spoke in the wheel. He is a writing teacher all the way out in Nome, Alaska, and likes hunting for good web comics because he has no comic shop out there. You can visit his personal site called The Butcher Shop about anything random that comes to his head.

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