Originally posted on Irish Comic News (17/May/2017)
Fate is the on-going webcomic created by Anthea West. Considering that it currently stands at 80 plus pages (and still going strong!), it’s long overdue a review.
From the blurb for Fate on Tapas:
There once was a grumpy dustbunny who lived in a tree…
But after a failed forced rescue attempt involving a bear and a not so sturdy tree, this little dustbunny is finding himself out in the big wide world. Where he’s going to soon discover that life outside of his books and tree just isn’t as simple.Webcomics can be a tricky thing. The creator(s) have to make a strong start in the first couple of pages to motivate the readers to return for the next instalment of the story.
Fate had no problem getting me hooked within the first few pages. I liked how Fate starts relatively small in story terms in the early part of the story thus giving focus to the dustbunny living in the tree. The reader very quickly gets a sense of the dustbunny and their place in the world. As the story unfolds, the world is slowly expanded to take in new locations and characters. It didn’t take me very long to decide that the dustbunny was a comic character whose story I wanted to follow.
One of the things that really appealed to me was the use of comedy throughout the story. Whether it’s the signposts that surround the dustbunnys tree or how profanity is represented in what is an all-ages webcomic. In addition to the main story, there are also information pages between chapters of the webcomic which further expand upon the world of the webcomic.
The art of the webcomic looks great. The line art is clear with some really good characterisation of the cast. Which is pretty impressive considering that the main character is a basically a little ball of fur. The colours are bright and strengthen the sense of fun the story has. I must also mention how much I like the ship and how it travels through the sea. It’s a detail that gives the world of the webcomic a distinct look.
As mentioned before, Fate is currently at 80 plus pages which means there’s plenty of reading to get you started on the webcomic. All you need is access to the Interweb as the comic freely available to all. For those that want to give back to the creator, West has a Patreon and Ko-Fi page (as well as ‘tipping’ in the Tapas app) which allows for donations to help fund the ongoing creation of Fate.
So fire up computer/ tablet/ smartphone and get reading a quality all-ages webcomic!