The Extras – School’s In and So Is Fun!

The Extras is a fun webtoon comic from Imaginos Workshop. Four girls from all different walks of life meet up at a boarding school in this supernatural urban fantasy story. Fresh off a Zelda Award nomination in the “Webcomic Fantasy” category for artists Katie Hodges and Pam Bliss, I take a look at this digital coming-of-age story.

Creative Team

Writer: Jeff Lilly
Artists: Katie Hodges and Pam Bliss
Cover Artist: Katie Hodges
Published by Imaginos Workshop

Writing

I really love what Jeff Lilly did with this story. It has all the classic coming-of-age tropes you would expect in a story like The Breakfast Club or similar, but it pretty enjoyably weaves in some supernatural elements. The characters are multifaceted, and the world is well built. One of the things that I really enjoyed about The Extras was Lilly’s ability to craft a slow-burning story that doesn’t bog down. In today’s modern comic landscape, where major publishers are giving creatives only five issues to tell a story, writers like Lilly who can effectively utilize the slow-burn strategy for storytelling are the proverbial unicorn.

Lilly’s ensemble characterization is pretty awesome. Despite the fact that there is an ensemble of characters rather than focusing on a singular character, each character feels unique and distinct. The story feels very similar to a younger version of Strange Academy by Skottie Young and will probably be a hit with audiences who were fans of that series. Lilly’s dialogue feels natural to the teenage experience and gives us a rich blend of the lives of the underdogs and misfits.

Art

One page into The Extras, and it becomes really easy to see why Katie Hodges and Pam Bliss were nominated for a Zelda Award for their work on this story. The Extras does an amazing job capturing the manga-inspired feel with the art of Hodges and Bliss while still maintaining the distinct American coming-of-age style art as well.

With such a character-driven story crafted by Lilly, it was important for artists to be able to effectively communicate the character’s emotions and expressions through facial art and body language. Hodges and Bliss do a superb job in achieving that task.

The inclusion of little details and subtle flair to each of the characters builds on the narrative and establishes the unique identities of the characters’ personalities as well as the supernatural background. Even with all the details, Hodges and Bliss still are extremely effective in communicating through their art that this isn’t your general superhero story. The art doesn’t let you forget these characters are real and slightly awkward teenagers.

Final Thoughts

This was such an enjoyable read. Thank you so much to Imaginos Workshop for providing me with a chance to review this. It’s very clear after reading through The Extras that Hodges and Bliss received a nomination in the Zelda Awards honoring outstanding women in comics because the art is superb. Jeff Lilly makes the quiet, character-driven moments in the story feel just as important as the supernatural aspects. Hodges and Bliss capture the dark academia vibe, crafting a world that feels cozy and lived in while still surreal.

Overall Grade: 9/10

You can check out The Extras online HERE! or buy your own physical copy HERE!

Until next time, may your pulls be magical, and your multiverse remain stable.

Have you checked out The Extras? Let me know in the comments.