Creator: Vincent Davis
	Started: 02.10.2006
	Pages to date: 222
	Updates: Tri-Weekly
	GENRE: Action/Fantasy/Furry
	http://www.antibunny.com

AntiBunny takes place in Gritty City, and it’s a place that looks exactly like it sounds. Gritty City is home to two races: you've got your rabbits who the story follows, and you've got your humans who live to harass their cuter peers without end. This already brings us to a small snafu in the plot, if only a nitpick. This relationship is seen a good deal, so it may be easy to take it for granted that the audience will understand, but there is never really a reason given for this behavior. Do the humans just see themselves as superior? Do they hold the rabbits responsible for some historical crime? Are they second-class citizens? It's never quite clear, and the immersion suffers for it. The comic lacks a human in the main cast, too, which further alienates us from this important aspect of the setting. Instead, AntiBunny follows the life of several of the rabbit citizens of Gritty City, at first a goth by the name of Pooky, another goth by the name of Hannibal, and a cutesy girl named Petunia. Unsurprisingly, the atmosphere is very gothic, with poetic narration and themes of suffering and nonconformity, which are no doubt embodied in the rabbit/human relationship.

AntiBunny’s writing is a roller coaster ride of quality. The inner dialogue and narration typically fit the goth theme and are genuinely interesting. There is not much of an overall plot at first, so the comic instead focuses on its characters, and this is where the comic suffers a bit. Characters are developed directly, either by describing themselves to the audience or by someone else doing this for them. It’s cheap and ingenuous, and immersion suffers for it. Likewise, dialogue tends to be a sore point as characters address each other two-dimensionally, making observations and judgments but lacking any subtlety or meaningful depth. It may just be my tastes, though, as anime and manga tend to do the same thing, and they seem to be doing something right. All the same, I see a lot of influence from Japanese cartoons in AntiBunny, sometimes too obviously, like in this scene which brings a reoccurring joke from Bleach to mind, or a cast member that is essentially Haruko Haruhara (of FLCL) complete with the same yellow vespa and a guitar that she uses to hit people on the head with.  It detracts from my overall enjoyment of the comic.

On that note, AntiBunny jumps from dark writing to humor very often. It keeps things fresh, but sometimes it happens so abruptly and passes so quickly that it can be jarring. It's not bad (it's interesting, actually), but if AntiBunny has one issue in its writing, it's in its pacing. It needs to slow down a bit and spend some more time establishing its characters, at least the first three. The second chapter, the Nail Bat chapter, fares better but suffers a new issue. Nail Bat takes its time with its origin story and establishes the fear and trepidation in its hero by his actions and thoughts, like it's supposed to be, and then how he changes when he discovers his power. Nail Bat runs into the Grim Reaper and is able to see the date at which he is to die; doing so forces him into a metaphysical loophole. Essentially, he knows that he isn’t to die for about a year, and as such cannot be killed for about a year. He kinda gets drunk on the power and decides to follow his dreams and childhood love of a comic book hero, complete with an additional ability to see the dates where others are to die, a skill he uses to seek out people who are about to be murdered and save them. It’s a cool concept, complete with a fleshed-out character who is dynamic and relatable. It's easily the best story in the AntiBunny universe. It's odd, but another thing about this story arc is that characters previously established with the poor dialogue I mentioned earlier noticeably improve in quality when injected into the Nail Bat plot, probably because they have a slower pacing to develop in. The thing is, the story of Nail Bat is told in a fashion alternating between his story and the stories of the rest of the bunnies every comic. It gets confusing, especially when some of the cast are in both comics.

AntiBunny pays homage to and relies on many previously established archetypes and devices, and while this is okay sometimes, this hurts the originality and uniqueness of its characters. For instance, Nail Bat follows the Batman archetype, which is fine, but there is a distinct difference in the two that complicates their flaws. Batman became Batman out of a hatred of the criminals that killed his parents and the weakness that allowed it to happen. He has a flaw of vigilantism, in being just some guy that put on a costume and declared himself the law. He’s no different from the villains he combats save for everyone enjoys the results Batman brings more than the Joker, and that’s why violating his own laws, like killing, is such a temptation. Nail Bat never shows any signs of hating the crime he saw, he's just afraid of it. His origin wasn’t a tragic one, but one where he found himself outside of the metaphysical laws that apply to everyone else. His flaw should be one of a God complex, and while it’s present in his first struggle with resisting to kill a thug, it is nowhere to be found elsewhere.

The comic has a lot going for it. It has grown from something that was pretty two-dimensional to something that’s pretty interesting. Its major problem is its pacing. It should slow down a bit to let the characters grow on the audience a bit more, but most importantly it needs to pick one story arc to work on at a time. I can't stress that enough. It’s confusing to jump from Nail Bat to Pooky with every update. But yeah, if you devote some time to AntiBunny, you won’t be bored.

AntiBunny is done by almost entirely traditional means (i.e. nothing digital). There aren’t many other comics like that, and it's charming, but it isn’t without room for improvement. The older AntiBunny comics were dark, with plenty of pencil shading as a color leaving little-to-no white space. The newer comics have dropped this for more color and whiteness, and frankly, I don’t think this is a step forward. I think the older methods actually fit the mood better than they do now. Although, the comic looks a lot cleaner the way it is now, and I'm not without appreciation for that; cleaner is definitely better. Gray markers may be the key, and perhaps using black as a color more often.

I think the line work needs help. Cartooning seems like a simple man’s attempt at fine art, but there is a lot particular to the methodology. One is that lines need to be intentional and look that way so as to confidently portray an image as a simplification of something as opposed to a doodle. AntiBunny looks like it has many lines drawn with the “scratchy style” (as I call it) of drawing, consisting of several short lines next to each other to appear as one as opposed to one smooth, flowing line. Even with fur involved, I think a focus on singular lines would improve the art.

There is a lot of diversity in the action in the panels of AntiBunny, and that’s quite enjoyable. The rabbits are stylized and have a certain charm about them. Backgrounds are pretty developed, too, although interior rooms are sometimes empty. All-in-all, there’s a lot to look at and a good flow going on in AntiBunny... but hey, what’s up with the clothing? Are they nude under their clothes, or is it just optional, like with Mickey’s pants or Donkey Kong’s… um, tie? See, sometimes the rabbits react adversely to being seen without garments on, but other times they’re totally cool with it.

There’s a major problem with side scrolling on the site itself. Since we typically have to make this adjustment more than once, it’s frowned upon. The comics should be a bit smaller than they are. Other than that, the color scheme is fitting and everything looks nice.

AntiBunny is interesting to say the least. The pacing needs some work, but there’s something nice for those who stick with it to overcome the problems that the poor pacing brings. The art is unique and dark, and while it’s not very clean, it’s fitting and flows well. AntiBunny is a roller coaster with its dips and peaks, and you’ll likely be satisfied with the ride when all is said and done -- especially if you have a thing for rabbits and anime.