Air + Spaceby Jiffy BurkeReviews may contain information that could be considered 'spoilers'. Readers should proceed at their own risk. Publisher
Credits Grade: 6 Take one beautiful woman (in this case, Sierra) and place her directly between two male characters, one who has loved her secretly for a long time (her roommate Dale) and the other (Glenn) who is her fiance, add one embarrassing act by one and the sudden arrival of the other — and in one very long sentence, you have the basic plot (beginning) of Air + Space. Upon reading this online manga, I was immediately reminded of Rumiko Takahashi's Maison Ikkoku.The comparison continues when we meet Glenn the fiance, whose teeth are every bit as shiny as Ikkoku's tennis instructor Mr. Mitaka's. We also are introduced (very briefly) to Sierra's girlfriends, who are all blinded by Glenn's athletic good looks. Obviously they think of Dale as a buddy, not a real man — and so we discover another tangle in this manga's love triangle! However, without giving away too many plot twists, I was impressed by the fact that these male characters have spines. Other titles that I've read in this genre seem to portray guys in a very limited way. One is scheming, another will always just miss his big chance with the girl, then one guy will get lucky just as the other guy trips over himself, always just as the girl notices! D'oh! Poor guy. However, Dale and Glenn make some interesting moves as they pursue Miss Sierra. The story seems to jump around a bit and would definitely benefit from some slower character development side stories (a la Maison Ikkoku). The artwork is well done and fun to look at. The creator uses some chibi-style expressions to show extremes of emotion, as well as other common backgrounds and symbols to emphasize the meaning of the dialogue. An example of this is the dark "sun rays" on page 37 and the boys' faces as they're boys-night-out behavior is revealed on page 45. Overall, this was a fun diversion and made me want to see what other work the creator had available on her web site. Queenie Chan is an artist living in Australia who decided to self-publish her manga creations on the Internet, after unsuccessful attempts at traditional publishing. I will warn you that there are a number of pop-up ads, but not so many that I would be deterred from seeing more of Queenie Chan's work in the coming months. Throughout the other manga, the creator does a lovely job of explaining what she was going through as the story unfolded and gives a quick outline of the plot before linking to the work itself. Without the pop-up ads, this site would nicely represent the work of an aspiring professional artist. See for yourself whether Air + Space makes it off the runway! Written: October 15, 2003
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