3 out of 5

Richard is still funny.  I’m not sure what else to say about this ‘arc.’  Perhaps it’s the long break between issues, plus my reading habits of waiting for a chunk of books before diving in, plus that I’ve been reading this as I believe the LFG books divides the issues, whereas the story – owing to webcomic roots – doesn’t really split up that effectively, but besides our violence-loving dark wizard, I’ve pretty divisively fallen out of interest with the main plot, which is still…  Well, I don’t know.  I guess that’s the problem.  Sohmer has a weird way of scripting that feels like a million plotlines at once, that are really only a single plot, that seems to resolve something every issue or so, that never really resolves anything.  My lack of grounding in Warcraft may be informing my inability to get too invested, but all of my possible exceptions listed above aside, I still think it’s just part of the way the series is written, which is certainly one possible way to grapple with the bite-sized format of a webcomic that’s had to adapt to a sprawling storyline as its gone on.

On the plus side, this doesn’t render the issue un-fun or unreadable – my general praise that you can follow along and get into the general hijinks regardless of understanding the context remains – and Desouza’s art continues to get smoother and smoother.  Besides the computery coloring and lettering, there are pages that could easily slot into an 8″x 11″ book without looking off.  (This is not meant to be a slight against Desouza’s skills, rather to suggest that the pacing of webcomics seems to put a demand on the art that limits it in a way such that it always looks like a webcomic, and LFG has – at the point of these issues – begun to evolve past that, suggesting the artist finds a balance with time and design to deliver more substantial work.)

In these issues, peoples are defended, and many led to Kethenecia.  And yet, the storyline feels halted, which certainly had an impact on my rating, as though Sohmer needed some space to resolve bits and pieces before shifting his world toward greener pastures.