Con 'Fused #1

Okay. New member here, and I've just read Con 'Fused issues 1 and 2 together. I'll try to keep my thoughts about each issue in the correct individual threads for the issues.

(Edit: I'm not sure how many of these in-depth reviews I actually have in me, but I'll do my best to pace out my reading and write these in the initial burst of enthusiasm that I get when I finish each comic.)

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The Art
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The cover art is fantastic. After glancing at all the titles, and having read none of them, this was the second one that I chose to read. So out of all of the covers presented, this was the one that made me go "Oh, I want to read that one!" (Honestly, this should have been the first judging by art quality alone. But Rent Control was higher up and featured dildos spread across the ground so... *blush*) Back to the point, the cover art is particularly well done, and the depicted scene is very intriguing.

As to the art as a whole, it was very good. This comic seems to have been hand drawn in full color, and I appreciate how hard that is to pull off well. The scenes looked very vivid, and the backgrounds were fully fleshed out and conveyed the ambiance of a convention quite well.

There's some room for improvement there too. In this first issue, I had a hard time pinning down what the body frame of two of the characters were supposed to look like. The blond who dressed in purple and stayed in the room for this issue seemed consistently drawn the whole time, but the other two (Edit: Kathleen and Lori) seemed to change at different parts of the issue. The first page featured two thin to average sized girls walking with one who appeared to have a squatter frame and much larger than average (but still natural looking) sized breasts. In the final page of the issue, we see the two (without the blond) looking thin(ner) and quite supermodel-like. In between, it sometimes appeared that one (Edit: Lori) went from having average sized weight to being overweight, while the other (Edit: Kathleen) sometimes looked overweight and other times looked like she simply had a squat body frame. The scene where the two were dressed ballroom gowns seems like a prime illustration of this point, but that could also have been the artist showing that different outfits affect how we perceive people. I felt that the two gowns were a great example of "yes darling, that really DOES make you look fat." So it could have been a subtle demonstration by the artist.

I am, in other words, a little Con 'Fused on that subject...

Other than that one detail, the art is definitely of professional quality. I liked the change of expressions on the subjects as they went through different states of mind (some of which were obviously them being messed with, while others were subtle enough that I only 'got it' after I'd finished reading. The sex scenes were well done, and certainly accomplished the goal of catching my 'interest.'

In trying to describe the one thing that niggled at me, I ended up writing more text about that one problem than how great the rest of the art was. Don't let this fool you- the artist is quite good. The only reason I'm not using phrases like "one of the best on the site" is because I haven't seen much else yet, but I wouldn't be surprised.

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The Writing
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The writing can almost be defined more by what it didn't do than what it did. It DIDN'T make me think "Oh look, it's some cheesy porn." It did not, at ANY point, make me think "Oh, that's bad dialogue" or "Kind of out of character there." The plot did NOT feel forced, and (most importantly of all) I did NOT want to cry while watching a terrific idea get mangled in the telling. (A trait that some "classics" do not share, which encourages my personal belief that some already deceased authors should be raised from the dead for the sole purpose of shooting them for their crimes against literature.)

What the writing DID do was make me think "wow, this a smooth flowing storyline with a great starting idea and enough hints of intrigue to make me want to see what happens next." The sex scenes made sense, rather than feeling like the author saying "we will now break from our ongoing plot to include some sex. Look! Boobies! Okay, back to what I was saying..." I saw a comment above saying that there was not enough sex versus story, and I'd like to disagree. With this comic, Daphne is obviously setting up for the long view. This isn't a one shot issue, it's the beginning of what could possibly become an epic saga to match the flagship series's/storylines on the site. In order to do that, the first few issues are going to move a little slow, but readers will NOT regret it when we get further down the line.

Really, there's not a lot left to say about the issue. It's got an excellent premise. I like what personality we've seen from the characters so far. I'm intrigued by the hints of mystery surrounding the mind control method, and I want more.

Or, to put it more succinctly, I want more.

Did I mention that I want more? Oh good. On to a review of issue 2 then.