Seedless Vol. 1

by Corey Lewis

I really want to like Corey Lewis's work.  Glancing at his output, in books like Peng! and Sharknife, he would seem to be a frenetic, hyperactive comrade in arms of people like Brandon Graham and James Stokoe (whose King City and Orc Stain, respectively, are pure genius).  The problem is, he doesn't seem to be able to pull off the interesting plotting and visual thrills that the other two produce on a regular basis.

Instead, his work comes off as simply trying too hard, and emotionally flat (not to mention frequently hard to follow).  So, if that's my opinion, why give him another chance with Seedless, his collected web comic about sentient grapes?  After having read it, I have no idea.  I also have no idea who the audience for this book is supposed to be.  I think maybe it's a kids' comic, but I'm not sure that any of them would like it all that much either.

The story, such as it is, revolves around some seedless grapes.  One of them, named Crazy, is trying to destroy or take over the grape world, and for some reason has journeyed to Earth.  Three other seedless grapes (Crazy can take control of the minds of grapes with seeds) named Dash, Pulse, and Funky (seriously), have come to Earth to stop him, using mechanized Robo-Stomp things.  Oh, and for some reason they are hanging out in the kitchen of a half-android human girl who has an older lesbian stalker (but it's not creepy).

This comic is just about as awful as you can get.  Plot devices are introduced at random, and the dialogue is as bad as the character names.  Apparently this project was designed when Lewis was only twelve, and I suppose if he had drawn it at that time, I'd be a little impressed by everything but the plotting, but as it stands?  No.

Since I like to try to extenuate the positive in my reviews, I will say that there is a very nice pin-up by Brandon Graham in here.  Yah, that's as upbeat as I can get...