Review: Windmill

Sitting in front of my computer yesterday, I began to give some serious thought into what the first webcomic that I should review would be. After all, the first review of the site will set a tone that will be followed for years to come. It's not a decision to be made lightly.

Several seconds later, I hit myself upside the head and told myself to just get on with it, and so today I bring you this review of "Windmill". To start off, I will point out that Windmill is not exactly new. The comic itself was started over two years ago, but has been on hiatus for the past year. As such, it is "new" enough for me.

Windmill is one of the many comics hosted at Smackjeeves. For those of you that are unfamiliar with the site, it has a bit of a reputation for hosting a large number of comics of questionable quality, most likely due to the fact that there is no investment cost required to start up a comic there. I've heard multiple times that a comic will not get taken seriously unless it has its own domain, signifying that the artist is willing to invest more in their comic than the bare minimum. I agree that it is nice to see a comic artist who is willing to actually put money into their comic (not that I really have a right to complain if they don't), but as with all things, it is not a sure indicator as to the quality of the site. I've read comics that have their own web domain that are utter garbage, and there are at least two long-running strips that I read regularly that still use Comicgenesis subdomains, despite being fairly well known. Windmill is a comic that has the potential to become one of the latter category.


Windmill is a soft science fiction story revolving around Dexter Barton, a formerly deceased former police officer. In the world of Windmill, the dead are reanimated as Dead-Walkers, mindless slaves who are used to work in conditions too hazardous for humans to handle. Dexter, however, was somehow reanimated with all of his memories, personality, and free will that he had prior to his death. He is then taken home by Eva Sphinx, a nurse who was present at the time of his resurrection. A little bit of poking around on the site indicated that the story is expected to last for roughly eight chapters, with the story currently being in the middle of the second.

One of the wonderful things about Windmill is that the artist, Charcoal-Grey, has the experience necessary to create some fairly decent art. The comic is drawn in a manga style that is well suited to the tone set in the early comics (rather, the only comics at the time). The only artistic complaints I would bring up are the fact that some of the post-hiatus comics are rough and sketchy, as opposed to the clean lines from when the comic first started. The strip makes occasional use of a chibi-art style as well, although for the most part the current, lighthearted tone of the comic makes such things forgiving.

Things don't look like they might stay that way, though. Sure, at the present time the comic looks like it could just turn out to be a cliched romantic comedy where one of the characters just so happens to have died, but I highly doubt that romance will be the primary focus of the plot by the time the end comes around. The second chapter opens with a good-sized infodump regarding the setting of the story (as a side note, I must admit that I am glad not to have been reading the comic as this was occurring. One of the greatest problems with webcomics has always been that overly wordy segments of exposition do not work well with the medium, since they can take weeks to complete. Unfortunately, there is not always an alternative, and so they remain a necessary evil). Ignoring the exposition, one could concievably believe that it takes place in the present world, with the exception that certain sciences have developed. We are informed, however, that the world of Windmill is bleaker than we have seen so far. A not-so-benevolent ruler is in control of the city (which is incidentally named Windmill Hill, if I recall correctly. This would normally be checked with the comic, but the site is responding slowly at this time, so don't take my words at absolute truth). Chekhov's Gun would indicate that these things were mentioned for a reason, and even the most recent comics have started to indicate that the authorities of the city are not very pleased with the fact that an abnormal Dead-Walker seemingly disappeared from their control.

The fact that the comic seems to be making a slide towards a more dramatic storyline is fairly evident, but whether it will keep it's comedic elements as it does so remains to be seen. To be prefectly honest as a reviewer, I must admit that nothing I have seen in Windmill so far has made me laugh, but I tend to be more appreciative of story- and character- driven comics, with humour being an added bonus. Since the story is just beginning to pick up and there hasn't really been time for much characterization beyond a few generalizations, that really leaves humour to be the main attraction, and Windmill just has the misfortune of belonging to a brand of comedy that doesn't really hold much appeal to me. Still, it seems to be making an effort to keep the readers engaged while later events are being set up.

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Well, that's all I can think of for now, so I'll leave you with some arbitrary ratings in various categorys... but don't take my word for it, go check out the comic yourself! You can reach the site by clicking on the banner at the top of this post, or by following this link here.

Art: B-. Clean and mainly consistant, but is done completely in black and white (not in itself a bad thing) and rarely features backgrounds. Can be occasionally sketchy.
Story: B+. I originally intended for there to be two story ratings (current story and future potential), but there's really no good way to do that. Despite the Romantic-Comedy look that the comic has at first glance, the seeds of the current plot were planted just as early.
Writing: C+. This rating is a little shakier than the rest, because I forgot to consider it when reading through the comic. It would have been nice to be introduced to the setting with something other than an infodump, but the way the plot is being eased into rather than dumped on our heads makes up for it.
Characterization: C. I can tell you general things about the various characters, but can't get much real depth out of them at the moment. This seems to be one of those things that results from reading the comic so early in its run.
Humor: C+. I think a genuine attempt is being made, but it just isn't the kind of thing I like. Make a decision for yourself.

Arbitrary Overall Rating: B. A good read for now, and definitely something to keep an eye on.

Mission Statement

It's a brand new day in a brand new year, and there's one question on my mind. "Why start a webcomic blog?"

Alright, I lied. That question isn't on my mind at all, but it's one of those things that needs to be written in this blog, despite the fact that very few people will probably read this blog, much less this first post. So, what does this blog offer that the dozens of other webcomic review blogs in existance right now don't have?

Nothing.

That was a lie too, in a certain manner. This blog is intended to offer my own opinion, which is no more valuable than that of any of the other reviewers out there. It is different, though, in the sense that no two people have the same thoughts on everything.

Getting along to a slightly more focused tone, this post is going to tell you (the readers) what you can expect from this blog. If you've figured out by the title of the blog and the past few sentences that I intend to put up reviews of webcomics, congratulations. More specifically, I intend to review new webcomics. Not things that have been running strong for the past decade, because those have been reviewed time and time again, and there's really no point in placing another review for the giants of the medium.

In this blog, reviews are intended to accomplish two objectives. First, they bring attention to something and tell people unfamiliar with the "product" what they could expect. A sort of recommendation, if you will. Even if I personally don't enjoy reading a comic, a review should at least contain enough information that the reader should be able to make a preliminary decision on their own. Secondly, a review inevitably contains critisism that the authors/artists of the comic can put to good use in improving themselves and their comics (or mock and ignore, continuing in their own manner. After all, it's their project).

The big webcomics don't need either of these things. While webcomics have only a few titles that can be recognized by anybody who is generally familiar with the medium, the big titles really don't need to have a backwater blogger handing out recommendations, when in reality nine out of the ten people reading this blog have probably already heard of it. Similarily, I highly doubt that one more person saying that Megatokyo needs to go back to how it was under Caston will make any change. It's nothing against the writers, but anybody who has run a successful webcomic for a few years has probably figured out what works, and any percieved 'flaws' are probably in the process of being fixed, or are kept that way for a reason. Starting webcomicers, however, would benefit most from a boost in traffic (however small) and an honest outside opinion.

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Now that we've gotten that out of the way, we will commence next week with our regularly scheduled programming. If you've got a webcomic that you'd like reviewed, send it in, regardless of whether you're the writer, friend of the writer, or just a fan. Don't worry about whether or not the comic is 'new' or not, because I'll arbitrarily assign that distinction when I read through it. At the same time, if there isn't enough in the comic to create a full review, I may simply read it now and wait until there's enough to give a solid opinion on.