Terebinth

Terebinth is one of those webcomics that always points out that it's different. Have you seen any others that schedule their updates at "Five Times a Fortnight?" Where else are there omniscient talking trees and story-telling rock?

It took me several attempts to read Terebinth. The artwork is a little rough, especially at first. Even more bothersome was the shakey lettering. I frequently rule out comics with difficult-to-read dialogue. In this case, it almost seems that straight computerized fonts just wouldn't work. The problem with calling the drawing style rough or crude, is that it works perfectly.

The borders are my favorite. Sometimes clever, sometimes appropriate, sometimes not even there. The segments blend together in some places as the story naturally flows along the page. Another nice feature in the panel layout are the numbers. Some comics leave you wondering where to read next: do you read down, then across? where does the tall panel fit? which row is the irregular panel on? Terebinth clearly numbers each segment of the page.

The dialogue often takes a clever turn. Quick rhymes show up in Kestrel's speech, other times he moves towards dramatic Shakespearian lines. Terpsichore balances him with clear expression. I've seen few examples where a character's dialogue perfectly describes their character.

And there it is all together: Cory's walk divides up the page, Kestrel monologues while Cory can wrap up the subject in a sentence. This is one of the earlier pages, you can see how in the previous examples the characters have becomes more prominent against the background.

Sit down and read. Once you pull through the beginning, the story begins to wander freely. Minor things like the simplicity of the artwork no longer matter, the execution is that well performed. The author has a second webcomic (updated 5 times a week) with more of a novel-like plot: Daily Grind.