TWWR Round up 04/29/2024– The Pain of Loss

This one’s going to be a long round up. I had a lot to say this week about the comics I’m following. Africa, To Catch a Star, and Golden Shrike have been phenomenal, and I just had to get my thoughts out regarding these three comics.

Before I get to the regular round up, I want to talk about a comic I just started. I was recommended In The Lion’s Den and it has been a fascinating read. I haven’t caught up to the current pages yet, but I’m loving this story’s unique premise. Having anthro and feral elements put into the same story is quite different from everything else I’m reading. I never thought I’d come across a story featuring the term therian in a world without humans, but here it is In The Lion’s Den. Its use is quite fitting too. There’s a sharp contrast between the anthros who are portrayed as more toony versus the therians who are drawn more realistically. At times the conflict superficially gives me Attack on Titan vibes, especially during more violent moments. I’ll talk more about this comic once I’m all caught up to the current pages. If you’d like to check it out, it’s available on DeviantArt and on its own website. I’d recommend DA over the website only because the official site has a number of broken images.

Africa | Page(s): 369 | Patreon

Africa continues to embrace Mosi. The younger leopard notices Mondo and hisses at him before raising a paw to slash at the serval. Africa interrupts Mosi by begging him not to attack and to talk the situation over. As he thinks about his mother’s words, Mosi calms down, backs off, and turns away.

This is definitely not a happy reunion. Mosi can’t help but see Mondo as a rival or another unfamiliar cub to be done away with. As it has been noted many times in the story, he’s being driven by instincts he doesn’t fully understand. He’s caught between the instinct of wanting to kill another male’s cubs and the pull of fighting a rival off for his mother’s affection. Mosi is caught between these desires because he held Africa’s lesson about male leopards a little too close to his chest. Worse, he also had to continue to grow without her guidance. Seeing her nurse Mondo, the kit of the serval who arranged for Binti (and himself) to be killed took all of those negative feelings and warped them into something very ugly.

In short, the time Mosi should have spent under Africa’s care turned what should have been his adopted brother into a rival. Being older and larger than Mondo, Mosi sees him as a rival’s cub which feeds into his instincts to kill cubs that are not his own. Again, the young leopard doesn’t even completely comprehend his own feelings. I’m hoping that with Africa being older, more experienced, and kinder, she can help her son work through his complicated feelings. Yes, it won’t overcome his instinct, but perhaps he’ll come to understand that his feelings toward Mondo are misguided and misdirected.

I love the perspective in the fourth panel and how Mosi’s violent intentions are shown with red creeping back into the scenes. As Africa manages to calm him down, the red coloring fades away. These little touches of color impact mood and just add to the overall visual aspects of this comic.

To Catch a Star | Page(s): 487, 488, 489, 490 | Patreon

Shadow struggles to stay on her feet as she continues to push Takedown toward a cliff. The now blind wolf bites down on her back, trying to force her to release him. Instead, she trembles as she continues to move forward. Lupi’s eyes widen with concern and Shadow can only look ahead with a remorseful expression. Once she reaches the edge, she jumps, still holding Takedown in her mouth. Lupi can only scream Shadow’s name as the two large wolves plummet toward a small floating island far below them.

The Nova smashes head-first into a pile of boulders. The Dusky lands to her left at the edge of the island. He bounces off the edge and screams as he continues to fall into the void. Lupi looks down in horror when Backlash dashes by them. The Lost Dusky jumps off the cliff and crashes into the island below. He drags himself toward Shadow with broken hind legs. She wheezes in pain as blood runs from her nose and her injuries.

Let’s get the positive out of the way. First, has a lot transpired within the last four pages. I absolutely love the falling perspective on the third panel of page 488. I also love how Lupi breaks out of the first two panels as they scream for their friend. That same amazing falling perspective is used for Backlash on the first panel of page 490. The epic fall is juxtaposed next to him unceremoniously hitting the ground in the following panel. The moment would be a great case of black humor if the overall scene wasn’t so somber.

I found Takedown’s death to be immensely satisfying. His insistence on killing Shadow and Lupi after murdering Backlash caused him to lose even more. It wasn’t enough for him to chase off Danger as the alpha. He ran off his own pack, but still wasn’t satisfied until he killed the sun. Instead, the same brother he regarded as weak took both his eyes. Then, thanks to a combination of team work and self-sacrifice, he was bested by Shadow. In the end, he gets to tumble endlessly to his death, injured, blind, and totally alone. It’s similar to how One Eye died. Either Takedown will fall endlessly through the void until he dies from dehydration and becomes Lost himself, or he’ll die by slamming into another island. Good riddance to that psychopath.

Let’s get to the sadder parts of this scene. I feared Shadow would likely die by going over the cliff and those fears were realized. Unfortunately, her fate was sealed the moment she engaged Takedown, and he seriously wounded her in several places. Given the look of remorse on her face, she knew she didn’t have much longer to live and decided to make sure Backlash’s older brother wasn’t a threat to Lupi. I’m surprised she survived landing on her head, but it’s a little less cruel than a slow death by bleeding out from her injuries. It’s also touching, but heartbreaking how Backlash has gone to join her. Which means, he really wasn’t following Takedown’s order to kill, and he likely deliberately took his brother’s remaining eye to save her life. Takedown might be his blood family, but Lupi and Shadow are his true family.

Shadow will likely become Lost soon and the two of them will remain on that small island together. It’s a shame Lupi can’t reach them to say goodbye, and they’ll have to continue on alone. The question is if Lupi will use their wish to save the world or save their family instead. To Catch a Star has effectively become the sun wolf’s story as they’re now the sole remaining protagonist. What a time for them to finally discover self-actualization.

Lost Scent | Page(s): 49 | Patreon

Tulpi reveals that she and Motte are headed to Houndip Hills, even as Motte tries to dissuade her from giving out their ultimate destination. The Akita-mix doesn’t notice, and Holly happily gives them directions. They’re quite a distance away from Houndip Hills. To get there they’ll need to venture through a pass and find a way across a long strait. Walking around it would take weeks, but crossing the canal is faster if they can find someone to ferry them. Near the coast is a town called Gooselake. They might be able to find someone there with a boat. Tulpi thanks Holly for the help as she, Motte, and PIG don travel gear and leave the farm. Behind them, one dog has a hilarious sledding accident.

This is the end of chapter 3 and Lost Scent will be taking a two-month break. This was announced on DeviantArt, but oddly enough not on ComicFury. So if you’re reading there, here’s your heads up about the break.

Given Motte’s hesitation about revealing their destination (and Tulpi completely missing that clue), I wonder if she’ll press the group to head elsewhere instead. Her goal is to completely hide from whatever dangerous dog arrived at the last town they visited for supplies. The last thing she likely wants is the farm dogs revealing their ultimate destination to whoever asks. I suspect Tulpi will remain confused about Motte’s urge not to be found (especially if she changes their destination), and will ask her about why she’s running. At that point, the Borzoi-mix will have to delve into her past. I suspect she’s either done something awful, or something awful was done to her. Maybe she’s a former mercenary or hitdog if they exist in this world. Time will tell!

My favorite aspect of Lost Scent is how the world feels so alive. Even with dialogue heavy pages, there’s always something interesting happening while the characters talk. It really avoids having a focus on talking heads. For example, Motte waving her paw hoping that Tupli would catch the signal not to say anything. Or her looking pensive as Holly explains to the girls how to get to Houndip Hills. And as the directions continue, the shots of the girls preparing to leave and receiving supplies from another dog. Then finally, the Shepard dog sledding down the hill and crashing into the snow, as Tulpi says goodbye. When Holly tells them to take care, another dog runs after the sled in concern, and the smaller dog who had been helping Motte looks over in concern, all while Holly doesn’t even acknowledge the crash behind her.

What a fantastic page to end the chapter on!

Golden Shrike | Page(s): 262 | Patreon

The buck falls over dead. His mate calls his name and goes over to his body. Realizing that Pou is dead, the doe rests her head on his shoulder and begins to sob. Antaras slowly walks toward her and states that he knows her pain well. As he looks down, he claims what he’s about to do is mercy. The ring on his tine flashes blue and black again. The scene fades into black with specks of blue light.

I’m completely unsurprised to see that Antaras has also killed the doe using Loss. After all, he likely needed to get rid of a witness to the demonstration of his power. I also feel he completely believes that he’s bringing this doe mercy after the loss of her son, and the murder of her mate. I suppose in his eyes it’s better to die alongside your family than live a life without loved ones. Nevermind the fact, that this doe likely had friends and other family that will probably miss her. The same for Pou as well. It’s arrogant to decide that someone ought to die in order to spare them the pain of living, then call that act “mercy.”

Anataras is a self-righteous hypocrite. He’s okay with spreading loss and misery to others by keeping Eve and Loss bound to him, but he’s actively concerned about the wellbeing of his unborn fawn. Leave it to this buck to be quite selfish in securing life for his family, while not caring about how his actions affect other deer. Helevise was completely right about him back on page 117. Worse, I believe he likely thinks he’s doing what’s best for deerkind. Sure, he might be holding two gods captive and as a result no one will give birth to live fawns, BUT deer will never die of old age. They’ll also come to appreciate the power of the gods, as guided by his actions. No wonder the Great Karuna never spoke to Anataras, and tasked Nero with finding his missing children. As long this buck feels he’s invincible, he sees himself immune to all the consequences of his own actions. His showdown with Nero’s group is going to be interesting when that day comes.

As for this scene, I wonder if Usma saw any of it? I can’t imagine she’d approve of him using Loss to murder deer who were just looking for help regarding their dead baby. I get the feeling Anataras is going to do something awful that causes Usma to eventually leave his side in disapproval.

Home | Page(s): 851 | Patreon

My god. I spent the last 1800 words talking about GOOD webcomics. Now it’s time for this dumpster fire. Honestly, I’m looking forward to the day Home ends, and I will no longer have to write about it, or any of Kique’s future projects.

The fighting begins as Roamer, Rogio, and Kargo clash with the three leaders of the raid. Rogio kills one, while Roamer and Kargo push the other two back. The raiding dogs go around their fight to seek out the other members of Nordgarde Tribe. The nova antelope Vigr is handling breaks free and slams him into the cliffside before running off. A raiding dog prepares to capitalize on him being stunned by knifing the Lead Shepherd. Before that knife can find its target Raun intercepts the attack, catching the raiding dog by surprise. Vigr can only look on in shock. Meanwhile, the loose nova runs past the others and trips Elvind, who’s too close to the cliff. As she sides off the cliff, she panics, digging her claws into the rock, but is unable to pull herself up.

There’s just so much wrong with this page that I don’t know where to start.

The epic clash in the first panel just looks dumb. The dogs are swing knives hard enough to cause the metal to spark. While such a thing is possible at the right angle (and not taking into account how much carbon the iron in the steel has), any actual sparks would look less impressive than what’s happening here. Nevermind the dogs being able to hold the knives and not have them go flying out of their mouths or damaging the teeth holding them. Again, we have the rule of cool just because and it doesn’t work.

On the second panel we have all the other raiding dogs going around Roamer, Rogio, and Kargo’s fight with their leaders. If these dogs were serious about killing a perceived threat, at least some of them would circle back around and trap these three in a pincer formation. The defenders would be surrounded on all sides and unable to effectively fend off all their attackers. Sheer numbers alone would bring this fight to an end, even if the trio were able to take a few other dogs down. If Roamer, Rogio, and Kargo were focused, they might be able to break free of said formation. However, Kique is just avoiding the obvious scenario to give his main characters a reason for not being seriously injured or killed.

Going from his own lore, it blows my mind that Roamer has been and continues to use a long spear in combat. By the end of Asmundr, all the dogs used short spears.

The shorter shafts were easier for the dogs to handle while giving them some range over their opponents. I’d imagine he’d have a preference for the weapons he was trained to use when he lived with his birth pack. Roamer using a long spear against the Taiga Gazal just looks awkward all around. I’m surprised he’s even able to balance himself on his hind legs while doing that downward thrust action.

On the fifth panel Raun’s knife comes in from the right, but the next panel flips, and he’s suddenly on the left. Getting a sense of placement for these characters just feels confusing. It’s like the camera is being spun around for kicks and giggles. Why change to a view of the attacking dog from the front and left, only to move him to the right for the next panel? Why not have him attack from the same side where the cliff face is visible?

I’m also astounded he was caught off-guard by Raun’s block. It’s like Raun teleported into the scene, as he wasn’t in any of the establishing shots in the previous pages. Where the heck did he come from so quickly? Why not add some suspense by having him run to Vigr’s aid and it not being clear if he would make it in time? As for his knife, the handle and the blade are not aligned in the same direction. By the way he’s holding the handle, the blade itself shouldn’t be visible. Its angle should be similar to the attacking dog’s blade. Here, it just looks twisted. I guess so more of it was visible to get that rule of cool spark. Vigr is supposed to be looking up at the two, but the position of his eyes makes it seem like he’s looking forward instead. The expression is less shocked and more derpy. Maybe he wants out of Home.

As for Elvind tripping, I refuse to believe she’s actually in any danger short of her falling, and a visible view of her corpse. As she’s dangling off the cliff, there’s time for someone to come to her aid. Kique refuses to kill off characters, so I’m fairly certain this is just a fake out. It’s not like these raiders are actually doing their job and putting up a united front against Nordgarde. These characters have plenty of time to save her.

This raid should be exciting, but looking at this page is like looking at AI art. Sometimes it looks good enough at first glance, but the more you look at it, the more you notice is wrong. The only way this page could be worse if it were actually generated by AI art. Not even this author is willing to go that route, so that’s a positive at least.

On hiatus:

The Order of the Black Dog | Page(s): | Patreon