Webcomic Review – Thunderpaw: In the Ashes of Fire Mountain by Jen Lee
I’ve been to several comics shows in the past few weeks, and picked up a LOT of new comics to read. So in the interest of getting more reviews out more frequently, I’m trying something new: shorter, quicker summaries of books that just give you a quick look at what I’m reading now, and what I think is worth sharing with you. I also want to better fulfill my personal mission for this website: to spotlight more than just manga, but also interesting indie, webcomics, and European comics that I find, buy and enjoy.
First up! A webcomic that’s not just any webcomic.
Thunderpaw: In the Ashes of Fire Mountain by Jen Lee
Thunderpaw: In the Ashes of Fire Mountain by Jen Lee
Self-published / online at http://thunderpaw.co/
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
For readers 16 and up. For some stylized gore and disturbing ‘end of the world’ imagery. Also, an incident involving ingestion of hallucinogens
Thunderpaw is really amazing webcomic that does something rare and wonderful: it makes the most of the multi-media capacity of online publishing by including animated gifs and a clever mix of horizontal and vertical scrolling to tell its tale.
Thunderpaw is basically about two dogs: Ollie and Bruno. They wear clothes and hats, and walk on two legs, but their understanding of the world is limited — somewhere between house pets and young children. As the story opens, we see that they’re huddled in a car as the world around them is in ruins. How and why they’re there is a mystery – but the two dogs know one thing: their human companions are gone, fire is falling from the sky, and they just want to go home.
Jen’s artwork is terrific – wonderfully expressive, often surreal and completely original. She uses animation sparingly but effectively. Quite possibly the cutest, strangest post-apocalyptic comic you’ll ever read – online or in print. She also weaves a compelling story that left me so eager for more, I now throw a few bucks a month at her Patreon campaign so she’ll keep going.
Check out some scenes from Thunderpaw below, and get yourself to http://thunderpaw.co/ to see the rest.
Ollie freaks out as Bruno tries to calm him down, in Thunderpaw by Jen Lee
Thunderpaw by Jen Lee