Aurora

by Red (Overly Sarcastic Productions)

When the god Vash is abducted by a mysterious mage known as the Collector, it is up to Kendal—the second occupant of Vash’s incarnated form—to rescue the god. Joining Kendal in his quest is Alinua, an elven life mage with temperamental abilities, and Erin, the hubristic Elemental Magus.

Genres: Fantasy, Comics

Webcomic

About the author

Red is a college graduate with a degree in math. In addition to writing and illustrating the webcomic Aurora, she runs the YouTube channel Overly Sarcastic Productions with her channel partner, Blue.

She primarily focuses on covering literature and stories in general in her videos. She does summaries of books and plays, explains different myths, and explains various literary tropes. This love of reading was largely inspired by her parents.

Her artwork features heavily in her videos, as she frequently uses drawings to portray herself and the events of the story she's talking about.

She also sings and plays guitar, and her covers appear at the end of some of her videos and the occasional musical interludes.

Reviews

[Meaningless · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clear wit, intrigue, and amazing visuals; Red from the polished video essayist channel, Overly Sarcastic Productions, wins the day by producing her life-long-loved writing project with glamorous effect! Spliced in-between chapters, you can find her natural clever self-awareness commentary about the story she's weaving together, giving us insights into her personal feelings about it - which I found myself chuckling alongside. We also sporadically are given diary entries from a scientifically minded Avatar-like mage to give some brief exposition or to summarize the story thus far neatly.

Red makes no apologies for making her protagonist the cliche Link-like (from Zelda) character to familiarize us with the world. As a clueless, blond hair, blue-eyed, tall skinny white guy, myself, I always appreciate when people like me are given much needed representations are the hero of stories - I feel so much more immersed and engendered dearly to the character! Haha, no slight just silly observation.
The second main character, Alinua, is by far my favorite! Her powers are gorgeous, her lifestyle feels close to home, and she just emits good vibes :P

She hooked me into buying this after connecting it to her major talking points in her video, "Trope Talk: Elementary Magic System" at 19:20 in the video. I've only just started catching myself on their videos after a long hiatus from the channel, and was amazed to find out she wrote and drew a whole comic book! The art looked stunning and the magic system seemed to be intriguingly designed. Was what was advertised live up to the hype? If you read this far, you'd obviously know I'd say, "HELL YEAH!"
I will have to admit, the Trope Talk series was a huge selling point. Watching Red talk extensively about tropes invoked by story-tellers unconsciously or consciously, to see how this knowledge being applied to her own stories was a fascinating proposition, and now will be a point of mental reference for her future videos.
This para-social relationship I have with this channel feels like a healthy thing to maintain. She, and Blue, produce amazing YouTube and book educational-entertainment content, and I support them with them with this positive feedback, however insignificant it may be.

Can't recommend this enough <3

[Nessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been following this webcomic since its early days and rereading the beginning in a physical format has been a delight.

The storytelling of all the various chapters is so good. And so many little nuggets are set up in both the smaller arcs and, knowing how the first arc ends, all the way to its conclusion.

I love the fact it's not ashamed to be what it is. it's wild, it's wacky, it's full of heart and humor.

[Emily Owen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this webcomic (and physical comic as of June/July) so much! I've been reading it since April 2024 and have been OBSESSED with it. It as a really fun character-driven story, witty dialogue and beautiful art.
I would recommend this comic to anyone who loves high fantasy story's with exquisite world-building and lovable characters!

[Spencer Koelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This comic has very strong worldbuilding. The action is fast, but it leaves room for characterization. It's not my favorite fantasy work, but I'm interested enough in the characters to buy the next volume when it comes out.

[Marcie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This webcomic is fantastic - and not just in its setting! I cannot recommend this enough. Just, go read it!

[Juliette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this webcomic to death, so glad it's published now!

[Andie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished volume 1 of the published version today :D Can't wait to read the rest online - and for the rest to be published so I can have the whole collection!

[Setanta H · Rating 5 out of 5]

gorgeous visuals with fun worldbuilding, most captivated i've been by a story in years

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've followed Red on YouTube for years and this truly is a show of all the masterpieces she has researched and loved. Great characters, wonderful bonds, fascinating world building, intriguing plot. So many aspects and I'm eager to see more of all of them!
Kendal is a lovable main character who is kind but has lots of room to learn and grow. Alinua is mysterious and nervous but she sees Kendal's kindness and bonds with him quickly. Erin gives us detailed world building while being surprisingly hilarious. Falst just arrived but I love how cool he is with the craziness. I think they're all crazy in their own way, LOL.

[Zoeyreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Omg lovelovelovelove cant wait for more
Read it as a webcomic and its so cool how you can see the progression of the art throughout. Falst is my fav also falst x dainix pls pls pls???

Edit: i freaking called it what???????