Brushworm Speaks! - The Art and Evolution of TwoKinds Volume 1

Brushworm Speaks!

The Art and Evolution of TwoKinds

Volume 1 Artbook

by Thomas Fishbach

****

Acquired: Keenspot Shop

Series: TwoKinds 

Publisher: Keenspot Entertainment (December 2016)

Hardcover: 92 pages

Language: English

****

The Story: Deluxe full color hardcover artbook exploring the art and evolution of Twokinds, the wildly popular webcomic following the adventures of a lone mage with no memory of his past and the beautiful tiger girl that captures his heart. (Keenspot Store)

The Review: For the uninformed, TwoKinds is an online webcomic by Thomas Fishbach, that has lasted for well over a decade at the time of this writing. The comic is known for its diverse cast, engaging storyline and its exquisite artwork. 

Unfortunately, there is a bit of misnomer on the very cover of the book itself. While there is plenty of gorgeous art, there is very little in the way of evolution. Artist commentary aside, all the artwork in this volume is only a few years old at the time of publication. 

Of course, something that all purveyors of webcomics most come to terms with is the phenomenon known by TvTropes as “art evolution.” It is actually quite fascinating, to be honest. By reading a long running webcomic, the reader can literally watch the artist’s work improve little by little with every page. Of course that doesn’t change the fact that the oldest pages are often as ugly as sin compared to the newer pages, when their skill has fully blossomed. 

That is probably the reason why the author did not include examples of their comic’s rough drafts. They did not want us to see just how unskilled they were back in the day. 

The “evolution” section instead falls to the artist’s commentary, which for Brushworm, is often the most fascinating aspect of books that fall into this category. There is not a great deal of it here. That really hurts the book in the opinion of this reviewer. Considering how long the comic has been running and the sheer skill of the artwork, one would think they could find a bit more the say about the characters and images. Still, the commentary that is included in the book is worth the time to explore, and there is a lot to see in this world

This is an art book, after all. Art is primarily what the readers expect from a volume such as this. What the reader gets here is simply amazing. The artist is quite skilled at their craft. They have blossomed in their craft almost entirely. The amateur pages as mentioned above are well and truly behind them. One of the primary facets of the art that Brushworm noticed is color. The colors in this art are truly astounding. The wide variety of characters and the places they visit lend itself to a wide variety of palettes that literally shine off of the page. 

Brushworm would love to see the artist work on other projects, if only to see a wider showcase of their skill. That does not mean the readers don’t get a taste of that in this volume already. We see artwork that has not been included in the official release of the webcomic. Thanks to the larger format of the book, the reader is allowed to see it in greater detail and boy, does it pay off. The work includes the characters of Trace and Flora in modern settings or in places that were otherwise not permitted during the story. It adds another layer of personality to the characters, which another factor in this work’s favor. Even those who have not read the comic, even though they should, can easily discretion the nature of several of the characters on display. The visual identity of each is made with care to be unique.

What may be a turnoff for some readers is the fact that this book as well as its parent webcomic can be classified under the category of “Furry”. 

Furry is a cultural sub-genre that is defined as: “an enthusiast for animal characters with human characteristics, in particular a person who dresses up in costume as such a character or uses one as an avatar online.” (Google Dictionary). The community has attracted a share of criticism over the years, due in large part to the sexual fetishistic nature of the community. Brushworm will not deny that is some sexual material in this book, it is actually quite downplayed. In fact, Brushworm would go as far to say that this volume and by extension, the webcomic itself, would serve as an adequate introduction to Furry Community itself. Even though the creator of the comic actually tries to distance themselves from said community. 

Final Verdict: While the title is somewhat misleading and the text is rather bare boned, Art and Evolution of TwoKinds is still a delightful visual treat, showcasing the art and design of a very popular webcomic. After all…the has lasted for over a decade, must be doing something right!

Rating: Four Eye of the Tigers out of Five

thecultureworm.blogspot.com