After the wonderfully unique and humorous Li’l
Depressed Boy #2 we find this issue of LDB has a bit of a sour note – but
still manages to strike a fairly nice note with me all the same. After finally discovering the name of his dream girl, Li’l
Depressed Boy must go through more torture after his loss of style bowling. After this torture comes the most
horrible punishment imaginable – shopping! LDB must help organize and attend Jazmin’s party and try not
to get lost in a crowd full of hipsters.S. Steven Struble brings us back into his world; a world
full of loveable characters that can really make you laugh. LDB and Jazmin still have the same
chemistry they had in Li’l Depressed Boy #2, probably one of the best
relationships I have ever seen in comics.
The characters are all very relatable and feel like people you would be
friends with in real life, making it all the more noticeable that LDB’s best
friend was absent in this issue, leaving just the dialogue between LDB and
Jazmin – more than enough to fulfill your needs in this issue, but he was
noticeably missed all the same. If
you could not already tell from my incessant boasting about how great the
chemistry is between the characters and how relatable all the characters are
then you can probably tell the characters are the strongest point in the Li’l
Depressed Boy series that keeps me coming back for more. Neglect the cast of loveable characters,
however and this issue runs into a ton of problems worse than the last issue’s.While the last issue of Li’l Depressed Boy was filled with
easily recognizable jokes every fan-boy knows and loves, this issue lacks the
amount of humor created by the second issue. Some jokes I could not fully grasp because they took a more
music related turn which I could blame on myself, but since Li’l Depressed Boy previously focused on more
game-oriented jokes readers may be scratching their heads during the “funny
parts” of this issue rather than busting out in laughter – but the issue still
makes me smile.There is definitely more going on with the story but also
several pages that fail to tell any story at all. The first page is just a series of pictures with LDB
listening to music, moving the story nowhere. The end of the issue has the same problems but the panels
are cluttered with song lyrics that I could care less about unless I could
really hear the song instead of just reading it. If this was an attempt to showcase the art it is a tactic Struble
should avoid since Sina Grace’s art is nothing to write about but does manage
to show some improvement.The emotions on characters’ faces are sometimes absent when
they could be used to further the humorous story. When employed in this fashion Grace does a great job,
especially with Jazmin. Her
various expressions are fun to look at and perfectly match the feeling behind
her words – when Grace decides to take the time and portray these emotions. Mostly she misses some great
opportunities when she can exaggerate LDB’s facial expressions more and make
the scene hilarious. Grace also
gives the backgrounds a little more attention but keeps the main focus on the
characters, and since there are many more characters in this issue than the
last Grace’s art seems to have improved because there’s more to look at… and
LDB is always the cutest thing to look at!The story has some minor problems and the pages could have
been put to better use, but the characters are still what makes the issue in
the LDB series and Struble knows how to write the perfect collection of
characters. The art could still
use some work too but definitely shows promise. Hopefully the lack of understandable humor will be fixed in
the next issue of LDB – I know I’ll be sticking around to read it!Overall Score – 7.5
An all-around nerdette, I’m a comic book connoisseur, horror aficionado, video game addict, anime enthusiast and an aspiring novelist/comic book writer. I am the head of the comic book department and the editor-in-chief of Entertainment Fuse. I also write and edit articles for Comic Frontline. I am also an intern at Action Lab Entertainment, a comic book publisher at which I edit comic book scripts, help work on images in solicitations and help with other comic book related project. My own personal website is comicmaven.com.
S. Steven Struble brings us back into his world; a world
full of loveable characters that can really make you laugh. LDB and Jazmin still have the same
chemistry they had in Li’l Depressed Boy #2, probably one of the best
relationships I have ever seen in comics.
The characters are all very relatable and feel like people you would be
friends with in real life, making it all the more noticeable that LDB’s best
friend was absent in this issue, leaving just the dialogue between LDB and
Jazmin – more than enough to fulfill your needs in this issue, but he was
noticeably missed all the same. If
you could not already tell from my incessant boasting about how great the
chemistry is between the characters and how relatable all the characters are
then you can probably tell the characters are the strongest point in the Li’l
Depressed Boy series that keeps me coming back for more. Neglect the cast of loveable characters,
however and this issue runs into a ton of problems worse than the last issue’s.
While the last issue of Li’l Depressed Boy was filled with
easily recognizable jokes every fan-boy knows and loves, this issue lacks the
amount of humor created by the second issue. Some jokes I could not fully grasp because they took a more
music related turn which I could blame on myself, but since Li’l Depressed Boy previously focused on more
game-oriented jokes readers may be scratching their heads during the “funny
parts” of this issue rather than busting out in laughter – but the issue still
makes me smile.
There is definitely more going on with the story but also
several pages that fail to tell any story at all. The first page is just a series of pictures with LDB
listening to music, moving the story nowhere. The end of the issue has the same problems but the panels
are cluttered with song lyrics that I could care less about unless I could
really hear the song instead of just reading it. If this was an attempt to showcase the art it is a tactic Struble
should avoid since Sina Grace’s art is nothing to write about but does manage
to show some improvement.
The emotions on characters’ faces are sometimes absent when
they could be used to further the humorous story. When employed in this fashion Grace does a great job,
especially with Jazmin. Her
various expressions are fun to look at and perfectly match the feeling behind
her words – when Grace decides to take the time and portray these emotions. Mostly she misses some great
opportunities when she can exaggerate LDB’s facial expressions more and make
the scene hilarious. Grace also
gives the backgrounds a little more attention but keeps the main focus on the
characters, and since there are many more characters in this issue than the
last Grace’s art seems to have improved because there’s more to look at… and
LDB is always the cutest thing to look at!
The story has some minor problems and the pages could have
been put to better use, but the characters are still what makes the issue in
the LDB series and Struble knows how to write the perfect collection of
characters. The art could still
use some work too but definitely shows promise. Hopefully the lack of understandable humor will be fixed in
the next issue of LDB – I know I’ll be sticking around to read it!
Overall Score – 7.5
