Autumn, where I come from, is a season of rain. Even when it's sunny, the wind is always blowing cold and humid. The water which falls from the skies washes the earth in a blessing of purity, and allows ourselves to find the truths behind the happy personas we wear during the year. Autumn is a season of results, a season when we may harvest whatever we have done for ourselves, and, above all, a season of discoveries.

This review was done was hearing the rain falling, and The Voice, by Eimear Quinn.

OBS.: My first language isn't english. If by any chance you find a typo or an unintelligible sentence, please warn me =^,^=

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Two Keys, by Chloe Chan and Aliena Shoemaker

"In a city split between humans and occult, Colin Aston just wants to run his diner and make bad coffee. A peaceful life isn't on the menu though, as a mysterious blonde shows up with a job only Colin is capable of performing. If he takes it, Colin will have to face sorcerers, politicians, and little old ladies... not to mention a secret that destroyed nearly half the city and hits a little too close to home." On-site description

I guess this is the moment for me to assume that I'm a great fan of this comic. A really, really great fan. The art is amazing, and the story made me share the feelings of the characters more times than I can count. So, it's important to understand that, yeah, I'll say a lot of good things about this one. But, that doesn't means that I'll talk without basis.

I'll try to avoid the Plot-Characters-Drawing-Overall kind of review, as I find them lacking something. Instead, I'll talk about two things here: Visual Presentation and Plot Development. Keep in mind that both of this things are completely connected to the other, so I'm doing this only to have some guidelines. Ok? Let's do this!

Visual Presentation

Have you folks ever heard about Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá? These twins are one of the greatest comic artists I ever had the pleasure to read. I call them artists 'cause the write, draw and color their works, and they're good doing that. So, one of the things that amaze me the most is how well they can convey their stories and emotions with simplicity and beauty.

Two Keys is remarkable in this aspect. Chloe Chan's style is simple and yet filled with life, and every page brims with energy and feeling.

This bring us to the next point. The flow. It's no use if you can compose a simple and elegant scene if it's flow doesn't match the story you're trying to tell. And, again, the girls do a wonderful job.

The dark and light transitions brind the sense of movement, while the action lines merge with the hatchings which compose the shadows of the scene. The interrupted movement, combined with the simple forms create speed, and convey a feeling close to what one feel when moving like this. At the same time, the lack of great details allows the reader to understand the actions based on their own experience, further enhancing the effect. That's not easy to do, if I say so myself.

Plot Development

I want to work as a Game Designer and Scriptwriter, and for that reason alone I spend most of my time reading articles about what makes games so absolutely magnetic. Many resources can be used, but one that is probably the most famous is an effect we, gamers, call immersion, and the psycologists will call Spatial Presence. Simply speaking, you feel immersed in a experience when your primary reference of perception is moved to a point of view inside the scene. You feel as a part of the happenings, rather than a simple spectator. In games, this has a lot to do with how much freedom we give to the player, but as with every other media, it has a lot to do about how you tell what is happening. No matter what you have to tell, but how you will do that. And, Two Keys excels in giving the reader an immersive experience.

In the scene above, Colin, along with Audrey, his current partner, is entering Dominica, a urban complex to the North of Exodus. We are first presented a scene of the character walking down the streets, and giving a very personal description of how the place is. This is further explored by a aerial view of the landscape, which reafirms Colin's knowledge about the place, while he considers his objetive there. Than, to finish the page, we see the actual POV of Colin, something that furthers enforce which POV we should take in the scene. Thanks to this development, we fell that we know more than we actually do about the place, and confident that, no matter what happens, our character is treading in a safe place, something very important to how things will develop from here.

Oh, another thing worth talking about here is about the characters of Two Keys. Most of the cast is very unique, both in style and personality. And, they are presented in a way that gives us, the readers, reasons to like'em. Or, in one or two circunstances, to become very surprised with their behavior.

Conclusion

All in all, Two Keys is definitively worth reading. Great story and plot, amazing art and developments. Probably is the manga I like the most right now ^,^" I do hope the girls update it soon.

Thanks for reading, folks, and if you actually managed to get here, cookies for ya!

See ya next time! <3