A look back on a old favorite.
Hemlock is a black and white webcomic about a witch named Lumi. She lives in a friendly giant snail’s shell and is about to cross paths with a young man named Tristan who dreams of a more academic life than that of a farmer’s son.
I was uncertain about Hemlock at the start but got drawn in fairly quickly. The atmosphere and tone is really well done. Lumi’s quasi-boredom at times and Tristan’s distress combine to make the introductory stuff quite interesting. There’s a great balance here between setting the stage and moving things along and a lot of intriguing things are foreshadowed for the future. This is also a nicely complete story in it’s own right in addition to being the first part of a longer tale.
The art’s a little too dark and abstract in a couple of places, but is very good overall with a unique, well executed style. The character designs are excellent, particularly Lumi and Tristan. Fenton is very good at conveying emotion through facial expressions and body language.
I’ve read this both online and in printed form. While smaller in paper size than most comic collections, in does not detract from the reproduction of the art and the paper and printing quality are high. The content holds up well to subsequent reading.
A good start overall with a lot of potential going forward.
Derailments of Thought 