Artist/Author Spotlight: Tri Vuong

Tri Vuong is the creator of the creative, charming, and funny Webtoon, The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn. It has beautiful art and creative characters. Yet I recently found out that his work stretches out beyond that; he has even done illustrations for author Andy Weir, the writer of the critically acclaimed The Martian. The illustrations go along with a short story series about Professor Moriarty. 

I'll talk about the writing for Oscar Zahn first.

These begin more like paranormal investigations, but by the second arc, it seems to be more like character driven plot lines, with the title character helping out ghosts. What makes this different is that the main character seems to be a ghost himself; he may be a paranormal investigator, but what helps him do his job so well is that he is a skeleton. A British skeleton, to be precise.

In a way, this is a continuing story, as each arc (minus the first one) is fairly long, going on for months. However, this attention to detail in each story actually benefit it in the long run; some may say that its pace is too slow, but really, it helps keep plot holes at a minimum. Plus, it helps grow attachment to each of the characters. Every arc introduces at least one new character.

Each arc also deepens the mystery of Oscar's past. Oscar himself is a very mysterious individual, and we are getting more and more tantalizing hints at his past, especially when we meet characters who know Oscar, seemingly for a long time, such as Agnes, who appears in the first arc, Edmund, a sailor who accompanies Oscar for a while, and Nora, a hot tempered ghost.

The slower pace of the story helps with emotional involvement, definitely. This can become very feelsy, especially since most of the people Oscar helps are, well, ghosts. Our hearts go out to them, and they are written very realistically and sympathetically.

If my summary doesn't help motivate you to read this, check out some art. It's amazing!

 

The art starts off as really, really good, really unique. It has a soft touch to it that you don't often see. But it has recently developed a new art style that is even better. It's hard to explain how, but it took a absolutely gorgeous now. It's had great art development.

You can find the comic here: The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn

I haven't read much of Moriarty, but the illustrations I've seen are lovely and match the stories very well. You can find it here: Moriarty



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