So this vicious illness will not let me go, which leaves me dizzy and drinking fluids at home instead of teaching at my school. This review is probably going to take a while to slog through because of my condition, but let's hope I don't make too many egregious errors.
Anyhow, Better Days. We're going to have a major digression pretty early into this review to a topic I spent most of yesterday researching so you don't have to: the Furry community. I have come to a few conclusions and yes, these will relate back to Better Days by Jay Naylor and hopefully give you enough reason to at least read a little of it.
The Furry community is widely panned by the misinterpretation of them as people who have sex in animal costumes. This is entirely true of some members of the community and the internet being what it is they have gained the most notoriety, unfortunately so. Other members of the community range from people who like dressing in costume for cons (odd perhaps, but certainly not abhorrent behavior, I still enjoy dressing up for Halloween after all) to people like me who enjoy anthropomorphic comics when they have good artists/writers. Yet, the minute you mention a webcomic as a Furry comic everyone gets quickly turned off or against the comic on that fact alone. Need I remind those people that Bugs Bunny was also a Furry cartoon, along with Garfield, Brian from Family Guy, and many Nickelodeon cartoons. Now, some might debate the validity of that statement because many Furry webcomics, including Better Days, have serious adult themes that other anthropomorphic creators like to gloss over or simply aren't interested in having in their work. Don't let that turn you off from some of these stories, there are some good ones to be had out there if you're willing to dig, and I did some digging for you.
So, Jay Naylor. Well, he presents a problem to my previous argument because while Naylor does write the (visually rated) PG-13 comic Better Days, which I swear I am getting to, he also draws adult Furry comics which can be accessed for a fee from his site. I assume this is where Naylor gets his revenue, it is unclear whether or not his art is self-sustaining but I would hazard a guess that it is not. While his decision to sell access to his online adult gallery of "yiff" (apparently the term for Furry sex comics) is upsetting I am going to treat his work in Better Days as a separate entity and withhold judgment. For those hoping to avoid the rest of Naylor's site and simply access his comic the address is www.jaynaylor.com/betterdays/
I mention Naylor's adult art so no one exploring the site will be caught off guard by something they weren't interested in seeing and also as an example of what I see as the strength and weakness of the comic: its adult themes. Better Days is not humorous, that is to say the success of the comic is not in the occasional humor but in the appeal of its characters and their stories. This is a soap opera with animal characters, but I don't mean that as an insult to the comic because, while I find the drama occasionally detrimental, most of the stories are interesting and well-told. Unfortunately, when Naylor pens a bad story, he pens a BAD story. Some of the chapters (and yes it is divided into chapters) are very good and hit home with some realistic themes delivered realistically. That sounds redundant I know, but think of how many comics or movies portray realistic themes in unrealistic ways. If you can't understand why a character is doing something, if you can't see the rationale or cause and effect behind the events then you lose interest and connection. Naylor can usually connect the dots, but his misses are jarring and can disassociate the reader from the story.
As I said, some of what is good and bad about the comic can be traced back to Naylor's adult gallery. Sex is a major theme in the comic, however, very rarely is it disruptive or nonsensical. The story follows the lives of Lucy and Fisk, brother and sister who live at home with their widowed, and rather promiscuous, mother. Fisk generally is the focus of the story, his deceased father and overly sexual mother causing him confusion and distress that he represses. Lucy and he alternatively struggle through middle school and high school and deal with the problems you would expect, but do so in a language you would expect as well. There's no holding back here, Naylor knows middle school kids meet up with the word "fuck" much sooner than their parents want to believe. Therefore, when there is humor it is quite funny because I believe most readers will be able to identify, at least somewhat, with Naylor's dialogue, characters, and plots. These first few comic chapters, dealing with adolescence and the concepts of family and love, are Naylor's best in my opinion, but that doesn't mean they are free of bumps in the road. Drama drives this comic so expect things like near-death experiences, adultery, underage sex, and abusive relationships. This mixes into the other, more reasonable issues of the comic you would expect from a story about young adults growing up. For me, it wasn't disconcerting and didn't take anything away from the work at hand, but it might turn other readers away.
Some factoids that could be construed as spoilers listed here:
One note here. While sex is a major theme in the comic the comic doesn't have any explicit art to it, so it is more of a PG-13 comic (as stated before) though given language and themes it probably is closer to R if you are using the movie rating system.
The entirety of the first half of the comic, when Fisk and Lucy are growing up and getting ready to move out and beyond their mother's home, is by far the best. Naylor tells a good story for the most part, engages the reader with enough realism to not totally throw you when he ups the drama factor, and presents some truly likable characters. The second half of the comic however, has been a massive drag. I'll summarize here, but I'll have to include spoilers below to really explain what I mean. The simple explanation, where the story was always focused on the dynamic of growing up with a single mom who was no saint and yet was still a good mother and cared about her kids it has now shifted to those kids growing up and going in different directions. Where I always found Fisk the more interesting character Lucy now is because Naylor has made Fisk's adult life so damned impossible to believe, and that's hard to do when he was pushing the envelope before. If you really want to know what I mean check the spoiler below, but then again I could be totally off-base, maybe I just wanted them to stay kids forever.
Alright, spoilers now out of the way let me give you a final assessment of the comic. The artwork and writing is good, if you don't mind the constant presence of dramatic plots and the fact they occasionally will miss the target. The first half of the comic is very good, the second half has deteriorated considerably and I'm waiting for Naylor to get me interested again. He does still, from time to time, earn my interest, but not nearly to the sustained degree he once did. Having said all that I cannot recommend this comic because of it's inconsistency. You should go check it out, starting from the beginning, and drop it once it doesn't hold any interest anymore. Someone like me, who holds out hope for this work to resurrect itself, is unlikely to see their dream realized. Naylor had things clicking nicely, even if he was always throwing a new wrench into the works, and he just seems to have lost his direction.
Maybe this is due to the adult Furry comics he produces becoming more of a focus for him, I'm not sure, I just know it is a shame. The one word to sum up Better Days is "potential" because it had a ton of it. Whether or not it was realized is up to you.
Another Furry webcomic review, Jack, is coming next. That's going to be a lengthy review as well, because I'm still conflicted on how I feel about the work. Not sure when it will be out, might be later today. Please, if you want to respond to the spoiler content keep your response a spoiler or just message me, don't want to ruin someone's experience by giving it all away. Lastly, apologies for any errors, still not feeling well and though I took my time I probably goofed something up.
EDIT: Misuse of the word "hyperbolic," changed to "redundant" and ample heaps of shame piled on myself.
EDIT: Jay Naylor granted permission for the images from Better Days to be used, those will be up as soon as I get access to a better computer for pasting the URL link.
Anyhow, Better Days. We're going to have a major digression pretty early into this review to a topic I spent most of yesterday researching so you don't have to: the Furry community. I have come to a few conclusions and yes, these will relate back to Better Days by Jay Naylor and hopefully give you enough reason to at least read a little of it.
The Furry community is widely panned by the misinterpretation of them as people who have sex in animal costumes. This is entirely true of some members of the community and the internet being what it is they have gained the most notoriety, unfortunately so. Other members of the community range from people who like dressing in costume for cons (odd perhaps, but certainly not abhorrent behavior, I still enjoy dressing up for Halloween after all) to people like me who enjoy anthropomorphic comics when they have good artists/writers. Yet, the minute you mention a webcomic as a Furry comic everyone gets quickly turned off or against the comic on that fact alone. Need I remind those people that Bugs Bunny was also a Furry cartoon, along with Garfield, Brian from Family Guy, and many Nickelodeon cartoons. Now, some might debate the validity of that statement because many Furry webcomics, including Better Days, have serious adult themes that other anthropomorphic creators like to gloss over or simply aren't interested in having in their work. Don't let that turn you off from some of these stories, there are some good ones to be had out there if you're willing to dig, and I did some digging for you.
So, Jay Naylor. Well, he presents a problem to my previous argument because while Naylor does write the (visually rated) PG-13 comic Better Days, which I swear I am getting to, he also draws adult Furry comics which can be accessed for a fee from his site. I assume this is where Naylor gets his revenue, it is unclear whether or not his art is self-sustaining but I would hazard a guess that it is not. While his decision to sell access to his online adult gallery of "yiff" (apparently the term for Furry sex comics) is upsetting I am going to treat his work in Better Days as a separate entity and withhold judgment. For those hoping to avoid the rest of Naylor's site and simply access his comic the address is www.jaynaylor.com/betterdays/
I mention Naylor's adult art so no one exploring the site will be caught off guard by something they weren't interested in seeing and also as an example of what I see as the strength and weakness of the comic: its adult themes. Better Days is not humorous, that is to say the success of the comic is not in the occasional humor but in the appeal of its characters and their stories. This is a soap opera with animal characters, but I don't mean that as an insult to the comic because, while I find the drama occasionally detrimental, most of the stories are interesting and well-told. Unfortunately, when Naylor pens a bad story, he pens a BAD story. Some of the chapters (and yes it is divided into chapters) are very good and hit home with some realistic themes delivered realistically. That sounds redundant I know, but think of how many comics or movies portray realistic themes in unrealistic ways. If you can't understand why a character is doing something, if you can't see the rationale or cause and effect behind the events then you lose interest and connection. Naylor can usually connect the dots, but his misses are jarring and can disassociate the reader from the story.
As I said, some of what is good and bad about the comic can be traced back to Naylor's adult gallery. Sex is a major theme in the comic, however, very rarely is it disruptive or nonsensical. The story follows the lives of Lucy and Fisk, brother and sister who live at home with their widowed, and rather promiscuous, mother. Fisk generally is the focus of the story, his deceased father and overly sexual mother causing him confusion and distress that he represses. Lucy and he alternatively struggle through middle school and high school and deal with the problems you would expect, but do so in a language you would expect as well. There's no holding back here, Naylor knows middle school kids meet up with the word "fuck" much sooner than their parents want to believe. Therefore, when there is humor it is quite funny because I believe most readers will be able to identify, at least somewhat, with Naylor's dialogue, characters, and plots. These first few comic chapters, dealing with adolescence and the concepts of family and love, are Naylor's best in my opinion, but that doesn't mean they are free of bumps in the road. Drama drives this comic so expect things like near-death experiences, adultery, underage sex, and abusive relationships. This mixes into the other, more reasonable issues of the comic you would expect from a story about young adults growing up. For me, it wasn't disconcerting and didn't take anything away from the work at hand, but it might turn other readers away.
Some factoids that could be construed as spoilers listed here:
You're going to encounter some crazy events in Better Days, but that won't necessarily mean you won't still like the comic. Some that irked or just through me for a loop were...
Fisk and Lucy's dad was a military guy, Naylor's comic occasionally takes a conservative slant, not too bad though.
Fisk has sex at age 10, a little bizarre but given then events in his life before that point it fits his character. I largely feel that way about the super-drama in the story and to me Fisk and Lucy are the reason you read it anyway, not the constant issues that arise in the tale.
Lucy and Fisk have an incestuous moment in one story arc. I thought this would bother me and totally turn me off from the comic, but it didn't. Somehow, as much as I could never imagine that sort of thing happening to me or someone I know, it wasn't as jarring as it should have been. I could be totally off base with that and I bet many are going to feel it totally ruins the comic.
Fisk and Lucy's dad was a military guy, Naylor's comic occasionally takes a conservative slant, not too bad though.
Fisk has sex at age 10, a little bizarre but given then events in his life before that point it fits his character. I largely feel that way about the super-drama in the story and to me Fisk and Lucy are the reason you read it anyway, not the constant issues that arise in the tale.
Lucy and Fisk have an incestuous moment in one story arc. I thought this would bother me and totally turn me off from the comic, but it didn't. Somehow, as much as I could never imagine that sort of thing happening to me or someone I know, it wasn't as jarring as it should have been. I could be totally off base with that and I bet many are going to feel it totally ruins the comic.
One note here. While sex is a major theme in the comic the comic doesn't have any explicit art to it, so it is more of a PG-13 comic (as stated before) though given language and themes it probably is closer to R if you are using the movie rating system.
The entirety of the first half of the comic, when Fisk and Lucy are growing up and getting ready to move out and beyond their mother's home, is by far the best. Naylor tells a good story for the most part, engages the reader with enough realism to not totally throw you when he ups the drama factor, and presents some truly likable characters. The second half of the comic however, has been a massive drag. I'll summarize here, but I'll have to include spoilers below to really explain what I mean. The simple explanation, where the story was always focused on the dynamic of growing up with a single mom who was no saint and yet was still a good mother and cared about her kids it has now shifted to those kids growing up and going in different directions. Where I always found Fisk the more interesting character Lucy now is because Naylor has made Fisk's adult life so damned impossible to believe, and that's hard to do when he was pushing the envelope before. If you really want to know what I mean check the spoiler below, but then again I could be totally off-base, maybe I just wanted them to stay kids forever.
Alright so Lucy goes to college and meets a nice guy who she then gets into a serious relationship with and it's all very enjoyable to read, especially since her friends are as interesting and dynamic as you could ask for. Fisk joins the army (unsurprising given his dad was a soldier) and then gets ensnared in a humorless commentary on Iraq that is a very poor man's version of Jarhead. After that he finds out, surprise, dad was a CIA-like operative and super-spy and all of the sudden Fisk is the new James Bond and I have lost understanding of his character that I enjoyed so much and I'm not really sure where the story is going any more. I can't be sure if this is a failed Cerebus Syndrome moment because the comic always had very serious undertones and that never really left, but maybe it is since we went from drama to action-packed in such a jarring way. I just don't think this made sense, why does Fisk have to become Fisk 007? Why can't he be a veteran or a military officer like his father should have been instead of a super-secret operative? As you can tell, I am bitter about this.
Alright, spoilers now out of the way let me give you a final assessment of the comic. The artwork and writing is good, if you don't mind the constant presence of dramatic plots and the fact they occasionally will miss the target. The first half of the comic is very good, the second half has deteriorated considerably and I'm waiting for Naylor to get me interested again. He does still, from time to time, earn my interest, but not nearly to the sustained degree he once did. Having said all that I cannot recommend this comic because of it's inconsistency. You should go check it out, starting from the beginning, and drop it once it doesn't hold any interest anymore. Someone like me, who holds out hope for this work to resurrect itself, is unlikely to see their dream realized. Naylor had things clicking nicely, even if he was always throwing a new wrench into the works, and he just seems to have lost his direction.
Maybe this is due to the adult Furry comics he produces becoming more of a focus for him, I'm not sure, I just know it is a shame. The one word to sum up Better Days is "potential" because it had a ton of it. Whether or not it was realized is up to you.
Another Furry webcomic review, Jack, is coming next. That's going to be a lengthy review as well, because I'm still conflicted on how I feel about the work. Not sure when it will be out, might be later today. Please, if you want to respond to the spoiler content keep your response a spoiler or just message me, don't want to ruin someone's experience by giving it all away. Lastly, apologies for any errors, still not feeling well and though I took my time I probably goofed something up.
EDIT: Misuse of the word "hyperbolic," changed to "redundant" and ample heaps of shame piled on myself.
EDIT: Jay Naylor granted permission for the images from Better Days to be used, those will be up as soon as I get access to a better computer for pasting the URL link.
