Review - Kyrra Alien Jungle Girl #1


"I hate little bugs that try to eat you!"

Like Tarzan? Like strange worlds with two suns and dreams of traveling far away? Then has Artist Alley Comics got a book for you in Kyrra Alien Jungle Girl #1! The issue is written and lettered by Rich Woodall, with pencils and inks by Craig Rousseau and digital colors by Lawrence Basso (assist by Jeff Fugelsang).

Kyrra is a fierce warrior living in the jungle on a foreign world. She counts Rollo as her best friend, a blue-haired, ferocious looking beast with an affinity for bangdanas. They live a fairly regular life, full of swinging through the trees and watching rockets take off and escape the planet's atmosphere. Those days are quite often, interrupted briefly by staring death in the face on occasion.

Woodall's story is essentially Tarzan with a twist. It's not really fair to pare the story down to such an easy comparison, but Kyrra does all the things Tarzan does. The big twist here though is the fact that she's on another planet. Her exact end game remains a little fuzzy though, as the story doesn't really inform the reader as to whether Kyrra is content with her life or wants something more. The first issue is also fairly short, which doesn't really give the introduction much room to breathe. The ending does offer some tension, but it wouldn't be surprising if it's resolved relatively quickly in the next issue.

Rousseau's art features a good blend of scenery and character. He does a great job showing Kyrra and Rollo enjoying some good-natured practice combat in the jungle, giving the reader a grand view of their world. The jungle they inhabit feels like a rather insignificant part of the greater planet, which helps to give the reader some sense of scale. The large panels that fill the pages are filled with very bold outlines of characters that stand out alongside the other bits of scenery. There's a rather muted color palette that relies on reds and blues, which works surprisingly well considering the book takes place in a jungle.

Probably the greatest flaw of Kyrra Alien Jungle Girl #1 is that it's extremely short. This hurts the pacing a little bit, mainly because it doesn't really give the story much time to develop and give the reader something to grab onto. The end of the first issue could easily have been the midpoint of a longer issue, which would have offered a rather predictable outcome, but would have given Kyrra more time to grow on the reader. That's not to say the second issue is predictable; it's just that the character development would likely have been better served in a longer first issue. It's an interesting take on a classic tale that could go in some very intriguing directions.

Kyrra Alien Jungle Girl #1 is available via comixology now.

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