Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal
I am christening the new LJ account. I've tried really maintaining one before, which backfired when I forgot about it, but in our "try, try again" culture, I am trying again! ...I don't have much to say. Oh well. Time for some reviews, then! I love reading, and I'm not picky about what form it takes. I will read graphic novels, text-based books and stories, comics, and (mostly when I need to feel better about myself) bad fanfiction.
I am feeling graphic novel-y today, so let's start there. (A quick note: most of my reading material involves some sort of romance, as a subplot or as a main topic; it's about evenly divided between gay and straight romance. I will not denote the difference for the most part because I am lazy and you people are smart enough to figure it out for yourselves.)
The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal (In Progress)
This is probably my favorite graphic novel that I've found online. It is the story of an Indian med student, Amal, as he goes through a crisis: that of revealing his sexual preference to his family and calling off his engagement. In an effort to find himself Amal goes on a roadtrip with TJ, a random stranger he meets in a bar. Hijinks Ensue.
I would highly recommend Less than Epic to anyone who isn't bigoted. The art is amazing. It's in a semi-realistic cartoony sort of style which I adore--not manga in the least, but also not photoshop painting. The artist/author actually does each panel of the comic by hand, first in pencil and then in ink, and only uses Photoshop for touch-up and piecing the panels into a full page. The characters' expressions are spot-on, every time. Everything they feel, you feel.
Our protagonists are lovable, and they have real life problems. This story could easily happen. Their interactions are at first stilted and awkward, just as though two people as different as TJ and Amal had actually met and tried to become friends. I love that anyone can identify with these characters, even if the reader is nothing like either of them. Dialogue is witty, funny, at times serious, but always feels real.
One of the strengths of the graphic novel is that, in any creative story-type endeavor, the most important thing is the show-don't-tell rule. Because the story takes on the form of pictures, this becomes in some ways easier. But still the temptation is to have one character tell another in dialogue about whatever the issue is. I am glad to say that Less than Epic has navigated the dark and murky waters of telling and has shown the reader instead.
Less than Epic updates semi-regularly, on Tuesdays.