A Webcomic Review of “Deadlove”: I think I am a Sadist now.
Intro
WHOA WHOA WHOAAAA, before you skip this part, I tweaked the process of how I review webcomics after reviewing the webcomic before this one, “Wizard of Arsenia”. The changes aren’t earth shattering, but I just wanted to put that out there.
If you don’t care. I mean, you can skip reading it. I guess it's cool. I don’t mind...not like I didn’t spend time refining it- but it's OKAY.
Before we get into this review, there are two main parts of the review:
The General Review
This route will give you a simple idea of the webcomic you are about to read. It will naturally include my personal opinions, but they will not be inconsistent to any prior or future reviews I do (in the sense that I don’t do double standards when I talk about said webcomics).
Said opinions won’t really dominate this route because I will be mainly establishing what the webcomic has to offer in each part.
Because of this, my opinions will always be presented at the end of each section.
If need be, I will refer to events that might be considered as “spoiler territory”.
I will read as far as I require in order to get a good idea of the story I am reading, so the amount of chapters I read will vary. At a baseline, I will have read at least 10 chapters.
Granted, I doubt anything too important will change how you experience later chapters since it isn’t as, lets say, a “Season Review”.
The only sections that will be fully opinion within this route is: Execution and Conclusion.
2. Beyond the Border
This route will be available if you scroll to the very bottom.
Think of this route as the “New Game+” equivalent of the review.
I will read further either because the story has me hooked, or if I want to see if my criticisms still hold true.
EXPECT TO SEE SPOILERS. ESPECIALLY IF I GAVE THE REQUIEM TRADEMARK COPYRIGHT APPROVED THUMBS UP.
Disclaimer:
If you decide to skip “The General Review” to read “Beyond the Boundary”, don’t let it affect your opinion of the work too much (if you are easily swayed). Despite how open I am to webcomics, I might have opinions that could contradict with how you might view the webcomic if YOU were to read it.
I do advise that you read “The General Review”, and with that information in mind, proceed to “Beyond the Boundary”, if you so wish.
The Description:
*Ahem*
" They say you can’t run away from your problems... and Joel just learned that the hard way. Talk about having cold feet! Joel is all set to marry Kim, his art school sweetheart, but in a moment of poor judgment he has an affair with his roommate Zoe. Hounded by the guilt, but unable to fess up to his fiancé, he decides the most responsible thing to do is... run away. As far and as fast as he can. He now finds himself selling cosmetics at a shopping mall in New Zealand. Sure, he is homesick, and everything is unfamiliar, but at least he can work through his issues in peace and quiet, right? Wrong. Read this comic to find out how Joel’s plans fall apart, and how he puts himself back together, with the help of an unexpected guest… “
Y’know, this is usually the part where I give my own synopsis of the story, at times because the description is in no way useful.
But, I have nothing to add.
I will say that when I first read “Deadlove”, I don’t believe I read the description, and I think not reading it was a welcome surprise considering that although I was expecting a “Comedy with a simplistic art style that is kind of charming”, I think I got a bit more than I bargained for.
I should also note that if it were not from my blind curiosity, and I were to judge it purely on description and the title art, I probably wouldn’t have read it.
It doesn’t do justice towards how creative the Webtoon itself presents its characters and the story it wants to portray.
But we’ll get to that in a minute. For now, let’s get a good idea of the characters we will be following.
Characters:
Joel:
(A panel in the middle of Chapter 1)
As you will quickly understand, Joel as far as life decisions go is the definition of incorrigible. Despite having many opportunities to confront his problems, or even having moments of foresight. These 5 chapters, if you are one to hate misunderstandings or easily resolvable conflicts, will be hell for the reader.
Maybe it was because I was forcing myself to read another webcomic before getting to this one, but I somehow was not personally annoyed by the way Joel was acting.
Granted, if I read this on ANY other day, I would have been seething and/cringing at the sight of this imbecile.
Which, as Creator Teo reveals in his editors notes at the end of every chapter, will be a very common theme.
(The last paragraph of Chapter 2’s Creators Note ^)
(The beginning of Chapter 3’s Creators Note ^)
I think it’s safe to say that Joel's current situation is the logical extreme of not taking responsibility for your poor decisions and refusing to confront and learn from your mistakes.
I feel like because of how his character is written, everyone is going to be on the same page, regardless of personal views on life when reading this webcomic, specifically because of how comically stupid we as the audience see Joel as.
I mean, at the very least that's how I feel…
At the same time, after reading the first chapter multiple times, I decided to set my personal biases aside just so I could be sure Joel is full of shit.
There were two parts of the Webtoon that caught my eye:
^ For this dialogue portion, the part that caught my attention was him brushing past keywords that we have likely heard before when hearing about cheating: “Love isn’t Binary”, “I thought only assholes cheat”, and “She looks hot”.
Now, I could easily be reading too much into these lines, and I probably am. But this isn’t the first time I have heard or read about someone cheating on someone they love for “X,Y, and Z”, so I decided to look up a random case to see how the cheater in that situation felt.
After reading about it, I felt myself not necessarily thinking he wasn’t an ass, but I did end up feeling bad for Joel. Not because of the lines I just showed, but for the lines in the following panel towards the end of the chapter:
In the case that I looked up, they felt miserable at the development that had come of their new relationship, despite cherishing the one they already had.
Now granted, Joel does say that he isn’t a reliable source of info for the story, but I feel as though the points where he does start deviating from truth are obvious enough to the viewer that we can differentiate it from the real truth.
At least, that’s what I believe, I tried reading back to see if there were any obvious deviations in truth but I couldn’t find any. Maybe you found some? Share what you found in the comments section down below if you have.
I think this simple meme panel that is shown at the end of chapter 1, although very simple, justifies the way I think about Joel as a character:
Execution:
When I first started reading “Deadlove” I thought the charm would come from the simplistic art style, and I wasn’t wrong about it not having charm, but it is certainly not the main appeal of the Webtoon. The way the visual and writing style compliment each other reminds me of my time reading “God of Bath”. But with “God of Bath”, that would moresoe be applied to the gag panels.
For “Deadlove”, it's every panel of every chapter.
Visual Style:
I think my favorite part of the Webtoon would have to be the way Creator Guy makes visually metaphorical jokes, and just the way he decides to show Joel’s interaction with the audience as he breaks the fourth wall.
An example of a visually metaphorical joke would be something Creator Teo actually had to point out for me. Had to do a whole double take:
( ^ A panel in the latter half of Chapter 1 )
( ^ The fourth paragraph of Chapter 2’s Creators Note )
( ^ Joel revealing his wishy washy nature to the audience in a panel towards the end of Chapter 5 )
Although there might be better examples of Joel’s audience interaction, I personally love this one. I can’t help but chuckle every time I remember it.
The Writing:
I rarely consume media that breaks the fourth wall. And even then, they would break the fourth wall for comedic effect, not for telling a story.
Then again, many stories will have a narration at the beginning where they basically guide you in the beginning portions of the story, only to return every now and then.
Joel is telling the story as he is living it. I mean, he does say the story isn’t linear, implying that this isn’t the case, but I still appreciate how the story is written nevertheless.
Conclusion:
Overall, I feel like I’ve communicated how much I love “Deadlove”, and I shouldn’t be surprised considering the talented duo of Creators Teo and Guy have experience telling simple yet fun and captivating stories, such as “The Adventures of God” and “My Dictator Boyfriend”. Both Webtoons that I love.
I already feel like I am someone that Joel is talking to, making me in some way a part of the story too, but having Creator Teo talk say reveal some insights about the Webtoon and giving some giving some thoughts about “Deadlove” shows a connection with me, the reader, that I don’t really feel in other Webtoons, even if they do Q&A’s every now and then.
That being said, I think that Teo’s quick tidbits are a consequence of the very stylized nature of the story itself.
I would suggest “Deadlove” to anyone, even if they would hate a character like Joel. Just because I feel like he is interesting enough to see him continue to make mistakes and follow his overall journey.