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So since I haven’t really read any comics in about three months I decided it wasn’t fair to just stick to comic book reviews. I don’t want to tell you to read something that I don’t personally read myself. Instead, I’ve turned this column into a review of good webcomics that I’m currently reading.  If you want your comic reviewed, you can e-mail me at Chuck [at] troubleticketcomic [dot] com… Reviews are divided into three categories: Comic (design and layout), Website (design and layout), and Community (that little “extra”), and rated on a 10 point scale, with Four points for the comic, and three each for the site and community. One last note… My reviews are strictly my own opinion, and meant as nothing more than constructive, positive criticism.

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This week, we continue on the heels of last week’s writeup of Fantasy Story by jumping right into another “off the beaten path” comic called Union of Heroes. This comic has a huge creative team, but the “Fantastic 4″ so to speak consist of; Arne Schulenberg & Eric Wünsche, photography by Jens Sundheim, and site Illustration by Patrick Soeder.

Union of Heroes - a review by Johnathon “Chuck” Brock

COMIC (3.0)

- From the site: Union of Heroes is a photocomic about superheroes – from Germany. Our photographed heroes experience their adventures in the Ruhr Area of a parallel earth.Now this would already be enough to drag me in, but trust me, it gets a lot deeper. First off, it’s hard to call UoH a comic. It’s long form, has panels, and word bubbles, and is intriguing, story driven, and filled with top quality character development. Absolutely none of it is drawn…See, now I’ve really got your attention. The crew behind UoH created a whole new genre of picture comic, and it’s beautiful. Every picture is perfectly laid out, with beautiful backgrounds, actors, even costumes. It’s all inlaid into a comic book style format where the word bubbles are then added. It took a little getting used to, not seeing art when I read a comic, but the story soon made up for this. Also, every now and again, the creative team dazzles us with a display of multiple photo flip book style animation that conveys more emotion and interaction with the viewer than I’ve seen on the last season of “Heroes” for damn sure.

WEBSITE (3.0)

- I had to give the website the full score here. I’ll be honest, it’s not the flashiest site I’ve seen lately, but the layout is almost perfect. The central comic is surrounded by a very attractive custom border, it loads incredibly fast, everything is within a one click reach, and most importantly, even though it’s a German comic, there are no translation issues when I try to read it. The black background surprisingly works to set the tone of the story, and everyone involved with the site is easily contactable. Quality work all around sums it up.

COMMUNITY (2.0)

- Unfortunately, the community is where it begins to falter just slightly. UoH has the typical Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter, but in my opinion, nothing that really sets them apart from anyone else. Also, you have to navigate through a few different pages before you can even find the links to the Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter profiles, which is a chore, to say the least. With just a little work, I think all of this could be resolved, and there certainly isn’t a lack of community, as shown by the sites success on the numerous top comic lists that it links from the main page, but the community just isn’t as connected as it could be.

OVERALL (8 out of 10)

- In closing, Union of Heroes would make an excellent addition to any one’s read list. It updates every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and in my opinion, if you’re an avid comic book reader, it more than fills the gap from Wednesday to Wednesday.

~Chuck