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Let's look at the art style of this comic, the best way I can describe it that is kind
of like a simplified version of Shojo Manga, with a more westernised look to the faces
of the characters. It is a unique style. Sadly the unique style is rarely utilized
to it's best potential. In this first page we see a nice varied and creative of compostion.
However it's is instantly noticeable from the first page how poor and lacklustre the
writing is, and I am taking full account of the fact that this comic is designed for teenagers,
and must state that I have read many cleverly written and layered comics made for this target
audience. The plot of Sidescrollers is simple,padded,
and extremely one dimensional not to mention the dialogue often treats the reader as if
they can not understand basic plot points without having them literally explained. By
this very early point in the story alarm bells are already ringing, this comic seems intent
on copying the generic plot of mediocre 90's Highschool movies right down to the unimaginative
dialogue and poorly fleshed out characters. And it's really not long after having introduced
the plot point that the eponymously named character Matt has a crush on a girl called
Amber, Who by the way seems to fall under the stock Highschool movie idea that if you
put a pair of glasses on a girl we can tell that she is intelligent!
That we are introduced to the amazingly dynamically written "jock" character. Who I honestly can't
even mock because the character is written so poorly he does that job for me. How long
do you think it took the writer to come up with such amazingly lines as "I'll see you
at eight, babe" ? and "I don't get you wierdos." And I want to point out that this comic is
set in the present or at least was when It came out a few years ago, and is not a parody.
This truly is the peak of the writers abilities. And we are less than a sixth of the way through
this comic! A ridicolously long part of the comic is then
dedicated to poorly written humour and continual re-introduction of the themes mentioned earlier,
oh and by the way did you know these characters are nerdy? Since we are a 1/3rd of the way
through this thing, we have still not been told any other information about the characters.
We have nerds, a jock, oh and I may not have shown you, but we also have bad "smoker" kids,
no I'm not kidding that is how the writer decides to portray every character.
We are now at the home strectch the final third of this monstrosity. We will be treated
to guess what some more re-introduction ot the nerd/joke/bad smoker kid themes, and of
course the totally one dimensional unexplained love interest between Matt and Amber will
soon come it's completely unexpected conclusion. But before then let's see some more in depth
talented writing, hey pedophilla is hilarious and original let's have some jokes about that!
Usually I wouldn't want to give away spoilers but since it's is painfully obvious where
the plot is headed, I will summise the conclusion in one panel. Hell I could conclude the entire
premise of this book in panel so here you go.
And by the way the Jock character exposed himself to the Girl Matt loves and she didn't
like what she saw. Do you get the highly complex metaphor in the writing? I hope you enjoyed
it because that is the cleverest thing you are going to see in this book.