Broken Frontier

Digging for Apples looks to be a little more involved than Baby Boomers, but a lack of all but the basics of webcomicking hampers the effort. Written and drawn by Donna Stewart, Digging for Apples is the story of an as-of-yet-unnamed girl who literally hates everything except for reading. She even rips out the pictures in books, as she despises anything which comes between her and the written word (coolly ironic considering she herself is the character of a webcomic).

Chasing away a poor kitty cat that makes the mistake of rubbing against her leg, the girl also inadvertently chases away the very predator who was stalking a strange pink rabbit. The bizarre creature immediately shape-shifts into a rabbit-eared youth who thanks the girl with more gratitude (and affection) than she’d like, but even she isn’t cold-hearted enough to turn the creature back onto the street. She begrudgingly allows the creature to follow her back home.

And that’s where the webcomic currently concludes. Unfortunately, there’s no indication when or if more installments will come. While the webcomic itself has some flaws (see below), it ends at just the right spot where we will want to see more. While Baby Boomers has several installments posted, Digging for Apples only has Book 1 listed in the contents, but gives no indication if this Book 1 is complete or ongoing. There’s not even a place on the Markosia site indicating when to expect general updates in the webcomics during a certain day of the week or month. All this serves to almost completely invalidate the usefulness of Markosia’s webcomics.

Digging for Apples is rendered in exceptionally exaggerated manga tones. While the webcomic is artistically solid, the writing still leaves something to be desired, at least in this early stage. The fairy tale narration disappears after the second page, leaving the audience at the mercy of an intensely unsympathetic character. I’m not saying the character has to be liked in order to tell a good story, but at this point, there’s very little incentive to read further, save to see the main character explode in wordy anime fashion in anything and anyone which makes the mistake of touching her.

On the other hand, Digging for Apples could be the start of an amazing whirlwind adventure in the weeks to come. It certainly has potential, especially given the simplistic exposition of the beginning. But it’s tough to tell, unless Markosia updates its webcomic system into better fighting form.

Speaking of fighting, tune into the end of the week to see a review of the last Markosia webcomic: Starship Troopers!