Oculama

You got W4R in my Oculama! You got Oculama in my W4R!

That aside, this is a really awesome comic and a satisfying bridge between the two settings for the character. The long scroll pages are effective in cultivating a sense of anticipation and tension, as well as vast spacious loneliness as page plummets through the gap between worlds. I gotta applaud the fantastic colour use on the first page as Rayuba is quite literally ripped asunder. The following dull aquamarine & orange-red combo is very nice to look at and the discombobulated angles of the panels spinning around Page during the next look at them works well to mimic the loss of direction and grounding (emotionally and literally) within the void.

I want to draw attention to the writing specifically now because I'm personally a huge fan of your style of dialogue. When narrating to the reader, Page has a very clinical detached mode of speech, but is far more vulnerable and emotional when speaking 'in-universe' so to speak. It's a nice duality. The former clinical speech is where my real favourite lines come in though and really nail this beyond-human esoteric intelligence. It kind of reminds me of Evangelion's techno-spiritual babble if you get what I mean. I will say the grammar could use an extra parse though. There's a lot of points in Page's monologue where it feels like a comma should be added (but I'm by no means an expert so ?). Ultimately though, that didn't do anything to negatively affect my reading experience and was only something I picked up when I went to dissect the comic further for this review.

Great work and excited to see more!

god, monday, your art in general is always so raw and cool, this is a fact i won't belabor. all of the different modes you use throughout this comic work super well despite their disparity, are so evocative. now, i wasn't in w4r for rayuba, so i don't have any experience with squarehead here, but i do feel pretty on-page with what condition page's entering oculama in, what they're finally stepping out of—which is worth saying, because i know you've struggled with conveyance before—and it's pretty dang emotional to boot, with no necessary primer! absolutely marvelous work, and i'm excited to see what they'll do.

SHE'S BACK!! READY TO CATCH SOME PAPER THIEVES!! Where do I begin?? The art man! The art!!! It conveys so many emotions! The color rock and the lighting is so good! The use of the page height for pacing is excellent!! The plot is pretty cool too! I'll give this comic bonus point for nostalgia... Though, it might be confusing for those who aren't well acquainted with the War for Rayuba. Still, it's great seeing her in action again. Wonder how she'll fare in the world of Junction? What mystery could await her? Will she catch them thieves? We'll find out next time!
Great comic, Monday! Yours truly,
maxes

Wow...I am legit speechless right now. There's a lot of lore to unpack. Lore that I am unable to understand because I wasn't in Rayuba BUT! The in depth understanding wasn't really important to appreciate this great work of comic art and I am able to grasp enough of it to have the context of what really happened. That beautifully painted first page really sets the tone in a huge way and even though the rest of the pages are in black in white, the quality did not suffer in my opinion. Your energetic lines and brush strokes really bring your art to life, something I can only hope to achieve one day as someone who always gets so stuck with the technicalities of art. Page Turner is such a cool character and I can't help but be reminded of Yomiko Readman from Read or Die - one of my all time favorites!

Really glad to see you grace us with your talent and skills here in Oculama, Monday. I am looking forward to see more from you and Page Turner!

Stunning stunning. Your use of color amidst a dark background never fails to disappoint. I am especially digging the use of red as a source light on top of a green base. You'd think it'd come off kinda christmassy, but it works. I don't know how- I blame the witchcraft, lol.

And then we pop out to the 'real world'. The stark change from that dreamscape to black and white solid inkwork feels grounding and successfully elicits the effect I think you were going for.

I'll be the first to admit that when it comes to your comics, you have a penchant for getting so esoteric and off of left field you lose your audience, and sometimes your comics actual theme. But this was so direct and crystal clear I found myself a little surprised! It's charming to see a simple desire defined in the bigness of everything: 'I just want to read stories again'.

Great stuff and creative reimagining of a new chapter. Can't wait to see more!

A great intro. It's really cool to see Rayuba canonically acknowledged in a new universe. I hope to see more crossover characters like this. As someone who only read a handful of Rayuba comics, I'll admit, I'm not familiar with Page, but I had no trouble following along, despite the cryptic references to those past events and characters.

Your pacing and page design are excellent here. The scroll format is utilized to its full potential to really communicate the feelings of isolation, loneliness, weightlessness, and memory.

The stakes and consequences of Page's magic use are really, really cool, and work to sell the gravity of her situation (no pun intended), and establishes that you are willing to see Page damaged irreparably.

Can't wait to read her next chapter.