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Where No Goth Has Gone Before … Yes, I Know That Pun Has Probably Been Made At Least 50 Times

This is the second post from Contestant #2; the assignment was to review one comic from a list of three randomly selected from the backlog of sites submitted by creators to Fleen for review. I, your humble editor, have not read the comics in question.

The main character of Space Goth is a nice microsm of the comic as a whole. Teenaged girl Soli starts out as apathetic, almost nihilistic, as shown in the first strip. Then the first story, or “block,” follows Soli through what seems a typical high school experience: dumb jocks, boring lectures, frog dissections, and other teen woes; the fact that everything has moved to outer space seems purely a technological change.

If the strip had continued in this vein, I doubt it would have held my interest; there are other strips out there that can give me sci-fi, or teenagers, or both. However, just as Soli evolved from a one-dimensional “depressed goth” stereotype into a more fully developed character, the overall focus moved into a more interesting mystery story (first hinted at in this strip) instead of “high school … in space!” Through the course of this still-developing story, author Brenna Zedan has revealed more about her fictional universe, making it more her own and, consequently, more compelling for the reader.

The art, on the other hand, has been stellar from the beginning. Zedan makes solid use of black and white inks as well as infinite canvas, which is here mercifully free of gimmick or pretentiousness. I do have to say that it is fortunate that Soli and her mom are the only human characters, since they look very similar aside from hair style; this is a minor issue, but it did distract me a bit since I couldn’t stop thinking that Soli looked much too old for high school.

If I had been reading this comic at its inception, it would have been difficult to stick with, and there is no doubt that Zedan has much room for improvement. Now that I see where Space Goth is going, though (more space, less goth), I’d say that it is definitely worth checking up on once the current guest strip run is competed.

Interesting. After some fairly harsh reviews that didn’t encourage me to look at Space Goth You’s got me to open up some tabs (I do have more time than I did though).

I don’t think I’ll be reading it much, but it gave me a second look. coupled with Contestant #3’s very friendly way of saying ‘not that good, but promising’ it means I don’t avoid the comic altogether.

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