REVIEW

Webcomic Review: Looking for Group

Written by Meg Heald
Published September 29, 2007
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The storyline of LFG is just that – a story. While many webcomics follow several simple storylines, LFG is composed very much like a graphic novel, with one overreaching plot which unfolds further and further with each strip. This results in an intricate and clever story which gradually reveals more and more about the world and its inhabitants as time goes by.

Sohmer crafts an eloquent and expansive storyline by drawing inspiration from sources such as the works of Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind and video games like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. The dialogue is very effective for such a complex world – Sohmer uses enough to make sure readers are tuned in to what’s going on, but not so much that they’re left drowning in text.

LFG’s art style is epically beautiful. DeSouza uses a traditional comic book layout in conjunction with attentively detailed artwork to create an aesthetically vibrant and elementally clean strip. Everything from the backgrounds of the strips to the characters' clothing is drawn with relentless attention to detail, thus creating a stunningly intricate world which makes the strip stand out among other webcomics.

One of the strongest parts of the strip is its humor. While LFG is primarily plot-driven rather than comedy-driven, the humor within the strip is fine-tuned and highly effective. Richard in particular is adept with one-liners that the rest of the group tends to generally disregard. In one strip, when Richard is ranting about his Fork of Truth, the rest of the group walks away and tunes him out, to which Richard sadly comments, “I’m just acting out because I don’t get to kill anyone.”

In another instance, when the group is enmeshed in a battle at sea, Richard is pinned to the mast by a pair of harpoons fired at their ship. While everyone else races around to prepare for battle, Richard simply complains that he feels silly, and later offers to let Cale climb him to safety.

While some of the jokes are simple and funny on the surface, others take a little thought before the humor hits home. In one comic, Richard mentions the name of his former imp familiar, Hctib Elttil. Cale remarks on the oddity of the name, and Richard replies he wanted a name that would define the imp’s role in their partnership (read “Hctib Elttil” backwards).

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Meg is a professional writing junior at the University of Oklahoma.
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Webcomic Review: Looking for Group
Published: September 29, 2007
Type: Review
Section: Books
Filed Under: Books: Comics and Graphic Novels, Sci/Tech: Internet
Writer: Meg Heald
Meg Heald's BC Writer page
Meg Heald's personal site
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Comments

#1 — September 29, 2007 @ 13:25PM — Mel

Really good review. I haven't heard of this one. I gotta check it out.

#2 — October 5, 2007 @ 15:06PM — Amanda Bittle [URL]

I'm not generally a fan of either gaming or comics, but I do have a severely WoW-dependent ex-boyfriend, so I managed to pick up some of the humor. Pretty funny.

That elf guy has some serious ears.

#3 — November 13, 2007 @ 20:55PM — simon

fanboy review!

#4 — August 28, 2008 @ 05:02AM — Roey

No offense to the writer of this detailed review, but it's a bad webcomic. I enjoy reading other webcomics, such as Order of the Stick, The Noob and Erfworld, and LFG doesn't even come close to their level.

The humor is anything BUT subtle, except when it can't be understood at all. There is no real characterization, and you can't sympathize with any of the characters. The story line has long ago lost any meaning it had.

In the bottom line, the only redeeming quality of this comic is the amazing graphics. I just wish they had a decent writer, who could put it to a better use. Take a look at what Rich Burlew does in Order of the Stick, to understand how much the story is important, even when your characters are drawn as stick-figures.

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