Tony Fleecs's Cover B has a lovely simplicity to it |
There were really two choices for a solo Fluttershy comic: either Kesel and Fleecs could make it an adventure about overcoming timidity, along the lines of "Dragonshy", or they could keep it as a slice-of-life story and explore the pegasus's psyche a little further. They chose the latter, and the plot about an art competition and Fluttershy's love of knitting could easily be boring in the wrong hands. Thankfully, I don't think these are the wrong hands, and this is another solid micro.
Not, and I want to be crystal clear here, a secret shed |
I said in my review of the Rainbow Dash micro that I generally liked Fleecs's style, and I stand by that here. The ponies are drawn with show-style coloured outlines, but they don't look as though they've simply been copied from the screen. Fluttershy's expressions are excellent when she's making her usual range of expressions, especially on the final page, though they do seem a little off when she beams with happiness. Her eyes, vitally important, are done well.
Not only knitted gremlins, but knitted parasprites too! |
As you'd expect given this comic's storyline, there are a lot of art-related references. The cleverest example is on page 7, where Angel is trying to support an increasingly nervous Fluttershy: he's seen in front of a selection of paintings, of which the last two are quite clearly Picasso and Dali. In fact, Angel even ends up dressing like those artists! Another nice touch is that many of the paintings on the gallery wall are based on cover art from the MLP comics.
Praiser Pan: the pony nopony should know |
This is a fairly lightweight story when compared to what's currently going on in the main series, but I've no problem with that. It's fairly light and frothy, but it also has some very nice touches and in general it looks good. Kesel seems a very worthwhile addition to the ranks of MLP comic writers, and I'd be more than happy to see her again. As a Flutterfan I'm fairly demanding, and this isn't up to the standards of the Rarity micro. It is, however, good enough to be recommended.
Additional, 3/6/13: Unfortunately, I feel the need to retrospectively knock a point off this issue's score. There are two main reasons for this. First, Rarity just isn't drawn all that well in too many places: page 16 has several examples. Second, the lesson is rather weak: Celestia says Fluttershy wins the contest because of the "originality and ... emotional resonance" of her piece, but it does come across as showing a little bit of favouritism. No comic with knitted parasprites can score too badly, though, so this is still a 7.
Yays
- Knitted parasprites!
- Some clever artistic touches
- A solid debut from a new writer
- Angel is in sympathetic mode
- It's Fluttershy!
- Rarity is too often drawn strangely
- The lesson is rather weak
- The occasional rather odd look
- Fancypants seems strangely unsympathetic
- Could have done with funnier names
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