Impressions: Kerslash!

Ninjas + Vikings + ... Art School?

A recent addition to our site, I was almost not going to include this webcomic as an impressions when I discovered it was started in 2005. Still, since it is updating and only has 36 comics it warrants some comment.

Kerslash follows a young college student/ninja named Paige in a somewhat unconventional art college. The Kannon Institute of Art and Design prides itself on accepting transfer credits from any school, not matter how unconventional the subject matter. Which is useful in the world of Kerslash, as this means ninjas, vikings, sky pirates and magic users have the option of becoming art majors. While a little silly, the premise is a fun concept that gives the creator, Ben Reynolds, a lot of material to work with.

Which is why it is so disappointing to see only 36 comics in 3 years. What makes this webcomic appealing is that they are 36 very well designed pages with an interestingly simple, but engaging, storyline. The classic theme of "girl surviving college" takes a very literal twist once swords and magic are thrown into the mix.

The art-style has become more refined over the years. Exciting line-art combined with halftone black-and-white and some greyscale coloring gives Kerslash a unique style that many could quickly label as a rip-off of manga; and be very wrong. While I'm sure Ben was influenced by manga, it feel very much like a stylistic choice for the comic rather than many manga-styled webcomics copying the style simply because they don't know any better. Kerslash wouldn't work as any other style.

The website itself needs some work. It breaks one of the biggest rules for Webcomics: The latest webcomic is NOT on main page. It seems that the creator decided to put his comments on the main page instead. There is a big "View Comic" image, but it is dark enough to go unnoticed. In addition, hitting the FBNL buttons simply navigates through the comments, not the webcomic. Thankfully, once you get to the webcomic itself, navigation works as expected.

Oh, and if you like your eyeballs as much as I like mine, avoid the archives and links pages; the link colors of dark-red on dark-blue are just painful.

I enjoyed what little I read of Kerslash so far. I'm hoping that the creator can find the time to update on a schedule that is more regular than "every few months." At the very least add an RSS feed so we can know when it updates. Give the site a look-see and let me know what you think in the comments at the bottom of this article.

Update: An RSS feed has recently been added to the site. Ignore my earlier comments regarding that issue.

Additional Update: 2009-07 - The design of the site has also recently been updated. It is much easier to read now.