Broken Frontier

Fey Winds isn’t the bad side of a Tina Fey joke – it’s actually a fairly compelling fantasy webcomic which has just burst onto the scene of Top Webcomics. There’s honestly not a lot of room at the top. The site is frankly being dominated by a variety of similarly-themed webcomics ranging from The Phoenix Requiem to Cru The Dwarf, but like all of those, Fey Winds brings a distinguished style and sensibility to the fold.

Fey Winds follows probably one of the most eclectic group of adventurers – including a cursed mercenary, a randomly possessed elf, a cursed prince and a fox-turned-girl – in the quest to find the artifacts left behind from a powerful spirit. What makes Fey Winds so accessible is how bluntly main character Kit – a fox enchanted to become a semi-human heroine – lays out both her situation and her friends. In fact, it’s every character’s reaction to one another – ranging from mercenary Nigel’s swaggering estimation of his female colleagues to cursed elf Larina’s embarrassment over his teammates’ less-than-tactful approaches – which make for a great story.

Creator Nicole Chartrand’s style is ostensibly anime, insomuch as it is kinetic fight scenes, bright colorings and occasionally simplistic expressions, but save for the odd Sailor Moon reference, Chartrand’s style is largely her own. There’s a sharp American influence in the artwork which keeps the result fresh and entertaining. Chartrand also does an exceptionally job of framing the action, although sometimes the action needs more panels to effectively play out.

The only real noticeable problem is the relatively young site is devoid of a few webcomic staples, including character page, creator page and easy navigation. The latter is probably the most noticeable. The main page has no real way of drawing the reader to the webcomic save for a small highlighted link in the main page text and a sidebar Comics link. There’s also no First or Last button, making it a bit hard to cycle through the comic or go back for further reference. There is an Archive contained on the bottom of the first page which solves some navigation problems, but the pathway still needs some work.

This webcomic is definitely going to need both a Character page and a Creator page. So many characters are either popping up as members of the group, possible adversaries, or possible reoccurring characters that a page needs to be written to keep track of all of them, whether they have a large role or not. A Creator Page – listed as forthcoming on the site – will also help readers get to know this artist, who has done great job forging a very original world and style.

Overall, Fey Winds is an engaging webcomic with a refreshing sense of humor. Most webcomics at this early of stage of full of potential, but Fey Winds has an alarming amount of potential already realized in hilarious storylines, madcap adventures and more. A rising star in the webcomic world, this is one fox you’re going to want to keep an eye on.