Webcomic Wonderland discussion

Read Knite here.

"The night sky is black, shrouded with a fog of soot and toxins. The gears of China's industrial revolution turn, unceasing, manufacturing the wants of an entire world. The consequences soar upwards until the lights of the heavens have dimmed and vanished altogether…

But there will be stars this night."

Knite is a flash comic, so in leu of the first page here is one of my favorite posters the artist has made for Knite:

Thoughts after a couple of chapters:

Not a lot of depth yet, but a neat premise inspired by a real world problem. Very deliberate in pace, but I'm enjoying it.

As I expected from being familiar with the artist and having seen posters for Knite before, the art is absolutely gorgeous. I particularly love the coloring.

The tone and author's notes at the end of the chapters are making it clear culture is an important theme, and perhaps the point, of this work.

Some discussion questions to think about:

1) Is Sen a compelling lead? Is he likable?

2) What's your favorite part of the comic? Least favorite?

3) How do you feel about the use of cultural themes and connections to real world issues? Are they well done? Thought provoking?

Chapter 3 - well, that certainly caught me flat-footed. Things just picked up quite dramatically...

Knite's a really unusual webcomic: format-wise, anyway. I read it a few years ago and it didn't really even occur to me to consider it a webcomic. I mean, it's hosted on deviantart. Not the usual place for webcomics.

The flash is what really makes this stand out. Seeing characters move adds a lot of atmosphere to a comic that already has a strong sense of its world. You can really feel the effects that the pollution has on the city and how the pretend stars give them hope for something better.

I haven't kept up with Knite in a while, so I'm not entirely sure if I'm completely up to date(I do recall that updates were slow and sporadic). I'll have to go back and reread the comic soon.

I've come across a couple "regular" webcomics that were hosted on deviantart, but yeah it's quite rare. Totally agree that the flash presentation is quite unique. It really makes an impression and enhances the comic.

I'd be interested in seeing the printed version of chapter 1 sometime to see how well it translated. I have one of the author's other works, 1000 Words, and it printed well but there is a little bit of atmosphere lost. Knite is much more about the backgrounds, so there likely will be even more of a difference.

I finished chapters 4 and 5, which is all there is for now. 4 was another powerful chapter, while 5 felt a bit transitional and seemed to set up the next phase of the story. Hope it continues sometime...

1) Yes, I think Sen is compelling enough and for the most part likable. He's rough around the edges and a little naive in some sense, but those slight flaws give him more room for growth and make him a better protagonist.

2) The art/atmosphere really stand out. My least favorite part is probably the pacing. I don't mind a slow build but I'm finding this uneven.

3) This is probably the hardest I've seen social themes pushed in a comic, but it's done very well. The premise takes an imaginative approach to the issues and integrates them so thoroughly with the story it avoids getting preachy. It's a neat way to share/explore topics the author obviously feels strongly about.