Från: BILD & BUBBLA 2/06 Avigserier
Citerat med tillåtelse av Tinet Elmgren.
Anima del 1, 2, 3 och 4
Av: Stef Gaines Format: 17 x 13 cm, 44 respektive 28 sidor i färg (nr 1 och 2); A5, 32 respektive 44 sidor i svartvitt (nr 3 och 4) Pris: 15 kr/st Kontakt: stef.gaines@gmail.com
>>Anima<< handlar om Mikaela som åker på semester till Slovakien och råkar ut för äventyr som involverar sommar, sol, mystiska och skrämmande drömmar, snygga främlingar och vampyrer.
Även om teckningarna inte är så finslipade, språket inte helt grammatikaliskt och lexikalt korrekt och tryckkvaliteten kunde vara bättre, så är >>Anima<< ändå en serie som man gärna vill läsa mer av. Dessutom är det klart sevärt hur Stef Gaines tar mangastilens klichéartade stora ögon till helt nya dimensioner.
Från: Dancing_Moons blogg den 30/4 2007 : SPX
Citerat med tillåtelse av Dancing Moon
Anima by stef_g
Ahh, thick! A lot of pages for a little money and most of it comics = win!
First time I tried to buy Anima one and two, I wasn't allowed, since Stef wasn't satisfied with them. But now she's redrawn it and made a gorgeous double issue, so I guess I should be happy that she said no at first =)
Anima is about vampires and teenagers and love and ghosts. And if you want to know more, head over to her homepage, where the first chapter is up for reading.
When we got home, I re-read the following issues and it was really startling to see how much more "herself" her style has been. That is to say, in Anima 3, I could spot influences from manga (especially Sailor Moon. But the angry pointy eyes are very Rumiko Takahashi) even in scenes where I don't think the references were direct... Of course there's also some homage scenes, but that's different. But in this issue, it really feels like the default drawing style is "Stef" which is very nice.
Good use of raster and I love the heavily inked emotion and dream sequences. Small white details on black is eyecatching.
I think the only downside are some of the backgrounds? When the characters are expressive and the shadows looks great due to raster, it really stands out in a negative way that some of the angles of buildings etc are a bit wrong. I didn't even notice that before o.0 Must be due to the increasing contrast in art style.
