Comic Review Time: Sulsi

From Rags to Ragdolls

   It's time for another comic book review and I'm going for another local comic. Thankfully we have plenty to go around thanks to the boom in recent comic book conventions here in the Philippines. I kinda love that I get to ride along with the new wave of modern comics in this country.

  But anyway, the comic book I'm reviewing today is titled: Sulsi #1 (I keep mistaking it for Sulis, I don't know why) by Ronzkie Pacho-Vidal (Ikos Komiks)

Front cover of Sulsi #1

   I get the appeal of these kind of comics. They look like they're made for kids and give adults a nostalgic feeling. The simplicity of the characters with the nice work of the details make it all the more enjoyable.

  The characters seem to be living rag-dolls with each their own personalities and costumes. Asul wears what appears to be a straw hat, Pula is wearing something of a Spartan soldier gear and Lila is wearing a dress and ribbons on her pigtails. There are also the 2 pets named Aw-haw (the dog) and Meow-Aw (the cat). The non-animal dolls have buttons for eyes.  They're nice to look at and I like how they seem to have their own personality and that they seem to be from some faraway land (since they come in falling from the sky.)

  The story is innocent enough with the band and their cat trying to rescue their dog. It doesn't really explain how they got to the point where they're falling from the sky trying to catch Aw-Haw. It's a typical RPG story where a band of heroes try to rescue their friend within a foreign land. Well at least I think it is since the environment of where they landed hasn't been established yet aside from the seemingly common household and Aw-Haw apparently being abducted by a full-sized pet dog. Maybe it's just the RPG player within me that wishes it to be so.

  Everything starts to get confusing once you start asking questions. It hasn't been established what they are or where they come from or how they survive falling from the sky and one of them losing an eye. So I think it's best to just keep moving on and hopefully the questions will be answered in the next issues. 

  Everything is nice and well enough. However I do have a personal pain point with this. The dialogue is sounds straight from a local telenovela with child actor stereotypes. I find that incredibly cheesy but that's a personal bias. The way they talk like prissy little goody-two-shows just irk me to the wildest sense. It makes them seem so one-dimesional.

  Again this is just for me, because I have an inate desire to squeeze child actors until they pop. Maybe others feel the same way so , yknow, you've been warned.

  Still it's a nice comic to give to your young ones. The art is nice and the story is sweet and simple. It shows promise and hopefully the story gets more interesting. As for me, I can't really stand the dialogue and my hopes of it being like Jeff Smith's "Bone" series seems a bit too far-fetched.

  So I'm gonna give this comic a "Pop a child star like a pimple out of ten!"

  

(This I can get onboard with)

On a side note, I might get into a review of the "Bone" comics later on. But for the short version: It's pretty great.