Friday 4 March 2011

Vanguard - Web Comic

Vanguard by Dan ButcherPage from Pictures of You WebcomicThis Comic is one I've been watching for a while. It's a superhero webcomic, which are pretty rare things to find online, well good ones anyway.
The creator Dan Butcher(Mr Hades) is a prolific online comic creator/collaborator having worked on other webcomics such as Retake(I blogged about this one) and Heros Unite over on DrunkDuck.
Having cut his teeth on those other books Dan's new comic Vanguard shows a certain level of craft and maturity that you dont get on many webcomics.

I'm really enjoying Vanguard but when it came to writing up this blog I was at a loss when trying to describe it. On the face of it, this looks like your typical superteam story but after a few pages you start to get concepts of a much larger story going on. My initial impression was of a superhero team like the Avenger or the Justice League but this got drastically changed when the team is sent on a rescue mission which becomes more of a military covert ops team of super soldiers.
I was having trouble labelling it so I did the only smart thing I could think of. I emailed Dan Butcher and asked him to describe it.

Here's what Dan says.
"Vanguard is the story of a team of genetically enhanced meta-humans employed by the British government to protect the nation’s interests, at home and abroad. It is set in the not too distant future, where the world is becoming more politically and economically unstable. There are food riots, water and power shortages and a rising crime rate as day to day living becomes more of a struggle. The story begins with a simple rescue mission and events spiral from there."

Now that's a perfect description, I wish I could have done that. Anyway, moving on.

The Story
Really good concepts and some excellent scripting so far have made me really enjoy this comic. Good character interaction and development are keeping me interested and coming back for more.
The Art
I've written about Dan's art before when I blogged about Retake(Go see that post) so all I'm going to say on this one is that his skills continue to develop, his colour work is vibrant and intense his use of textures and cg background and props integrate well with the line work. Go see for yourself and enjoy the comic.

As always let me know what you think of it, or better still tell Dan.

Vanguard Comic
Dan Buthcher on DeviantArt

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