This is my first webcomic review - something I've always wanted to do! Though I myself am not a comic creator, I have had a love of comics since I was a kid. Webcomics offer a truly unique platform for creators to explore stories while reaching a wide audience. I follow tons of webcomics across genres and styles and am always looking for recommendations! Please enjoy the first of my reviews:
Webcomic: Cucumber Quest
Creator: Gigi DG
Cucumber Quest, on the surface, reads like a familiar and formulaic hero's journey story - reminiscent of a linear action rpg or standard adventure anime. A villain unleashes an ancient evil and a "chosen one" must fight to stop it. This chosen hero and their party visit different kingdoms/worlds, defeating each level's boss and saving each level's princess, before eventually facing off with the main bad guy and returning peace to the land.
What makes Cucumber Quest so different and intriguing is in its resistance of the tropes and predictability the story seems forced into. The characters are aware of the narrative and each struggle with their own role, particularly the story's main characters, brother and sister, Cucumber and Almond.
Cucumber, a young bunny boy from the Cupcake Village, is seemingly chosen at random by the Oracle to be the legendary hero to defeat the resurrected Nightmare Knight and his 7 Disaster Masters. Cucumber is far from your hero "stereotype", instead reserved and bookish. He had plans to study academic magic, and expresses apprehension and frustration over this new imposed fate. As is often the case in these stories, the chosen one struggles through feelings of self doubt - your Luke Skywalkers and Harry Potters - through which training and the support of others eventually empowers our hero with the self confidence needed to accept and embrace their role. What makes Cucumber different is that he recognizes the needlessness of the entire plot. There's a million ways the quest could be avoided, yet fate seems to keep pushing him against his will.
Cucumber points out glaring plot holes to the Oracle
Talking to his father, Cucumber suggests avoiding the conflict altogether
Sharing this frustration is Almond, Cucumber's adventurous, quest-loving sister. Almond was born for this, not only training to become a knight, but idolizing the butt-kicking TV star, Punisher Pumice. Both siblings would be happy to reverse roles. Again, this needlessness is echoed throughout the comic, but is always met with the rigid guise of "that's simply not how things are done"
Cucumber again questions the Oracle's choice
Both Cucumber and Almond mutually consent to a role reversal
Much of the plot's conflict stems from the siblings, as they struggle between accepting what "fate" has in store and being true to themselves. Almond commandeers the quest, often neglecting Cucumber's opinions, and Cucumber fails to advocate for himself when he senses something is amiss. And amiss they are. As mentioned earlier, the comic is full of dichotomous character tropes. There's Sir Carrot: the cowardly royal guard, Princess Parfait: distressed damsel who befriends the villain, and Nautilus: the worlds most forgetful academic on legends. The most compelling dichotomies, however, come from the villains and the existentialism shrouding their reason for being. In Chapter 1, it's revealed that the Nightmare Knight and Disaster Masters have been resurrected and defeated 99 times prior. It's a never-ending cycle that no one can escape. As they each struggle to cope with their roles the plot becomes steeped in disorientation. The story increasingly "breaks the fourth wall", inviting the characters peer beyond what they've been told is reality.
Rosemaster having an existential moment before her "performance"
On one hand, Cucumber Quest is this cute, colorful, fluffy, feel-good comic about a group of adventurers out to do what's "right". On the other hand, the story is deeply self-aware, unafraid to plunge the depths of discord. Each chapter adds a layer to unpack, and tons of hilarious and eccentric gags throughout. There's Cucumber's recurring magic power allowing him to "place a comically oversized bathtub drain on any surface", Captain Caboodle's ill-timed crash landings, and the Nightmare Knight's new hobby.
Cucumber learns how to cast the mega bathtub drain spell
Captain Caboodle's crash-landing introduction
The Nightmare Knight's 3am cupcakes
Overall Cucumber Quest is fun, thought-provoking, and downright random. It embodies the idiom, don't judge a book by its cover. Updates are every Friday! Happy reading!
All pictures used are credited to the incredibly talented Gigi DG and her comic Cucumber Quest. Please check them out!