Casting Call

Finally got my hands on a copy of Nautilus Comics' Cast #4 a couple of days ago. I first mentioned the series in a previous blog entry, and back then I promised that I wouldn't do a review until I was relatively well into the story.

Admittedly, I'm not really well into the story yet. But I do have a few choice comments on how it's progressing so far.

The fourth issue of Cast follows multiple plot threads - a class field trip, a mall gimik, and a blind date all at the same time. We get to see how a number of characters relate to other people - parents, classmates, the cute girl sitting across the table - and it feels like an introduction, in a way. It's a strange arrangement, for a fourth issue.

I feel that the major weakness of Cast lies in the fact that it has too many characters for the reader to reference. At the moment, I still find it difficult to say how each of them thinks and feels because I'm simply not familiar with most of them. While the emotional situations presented in the series do have some impact, I find myself unable to empathize with whoever's going through whatever. The fact that the fourth issue's art duties were handled by a guest artist doesn't help much in this regard.

That assessment allows me to raise my justification for a review at this point: We're at the fourth issue, and we should be well into the story already. But we're not. Why? Because we're still making introductions. We've got too many characters to flesh out.

In addition, I think the comic really needs a better touch of detail in order to burn the stories into its readers' minds. Where was Janina going for her field trip? What's the name of the restaurant that Lel's (at least I think it's Lel's) family handles? What does Erica model for? Little details like these are important for making each of the characters distinct and coherent.

On the plus side, I think I can name all the characters on the cover of the issue now. But I still need a little help from the little guide that appears on the inside front cover.

Interestingly, though, the backup story was pretty good. We get a look at some characters outside the two schools, and we get a beautiful observation about what being in a relationship really means. While it didn't offer much in the way of specific introduction, it provided excellent character development.

The essay on Beta-Carotene didn't leave such a good impression on me, though. I'm actually familiar with it - I also entered the same Roche-sponsored contest back in 1994, although apparently Jaime Bautista's submission took it all home. The true issue there involved how to make a lecture on Beta-Carotene into an interesting, readable essay, and I think that Bautista deserved every inch of that first-place trophy. It's a very good piece of writing, easily comparable to making a silk purse from a sow's ear.

The trouble is that, even though it's a very good piece of writing, it's an old piece of writing - it's over ten years old. Why would Cast bother printing something that's over ten years old? I mean, it has little to do with the comic's subject matter to begin with. Does it look to resurrect old glories, perhaps? Bring us back to simpler times and more poignant writing exercises? Fill out a few more pages of the issue? The presence of the Beta-Carotene essay puzzles me.

So do I have anything good to say about the fourth issue? Sure. I love the Janina-Jem conversation, and Jem feels more fleshed out to me than any other character I've seen in the series. Will and Meg's first exchange is right on the money. And there are all these nagging questions about where Erica is, and how she feels now that she's been kicked out of the play.

However, I'd like to see a lot more with regards to the series. It's hardly been a story so far - it's been more of an endless character walkthrough, if you ask me. Unless Cast #5 does something pretty drastic about this, I might not be reading this series much longer. For a comic about high school students experiencing life as they prepare for a major production, I think that it may have some serious growing up to do.