31 Days Of CCS, #11: Ksenya Kouzminova

I quite enjoyed Ksenya Kouzminova's entry for this series. She noted that she didn't have a minicomic she wanted to send, so she sent a hand-annotated copy of several entries from her gag strip, Zinka's World. It was only 8 strips in total, but that was enough to get across the flavor of this gentle, funny comic. The chief virtues of the strip are Kouzminova's highly appealing line, her stylized character designs, and a strong grasp of character interactions. Her line is bold and confident and gives each strip a certain amount of weight and power. At the same time, she doesn't feel the need to over-render, trusting in the clarity of her designs to carry the storytelling.

The one distracting thing about her art is her use of hatching. Ksenya's hair is hatched in a fairly loose pattern, and it looks very much like a technical trick than a natural part of the character. Also, her line is so strong that the hatching feels redundant. Some of the finer hatching and cross-hatching on objects n the strip is more effectively used, like on a sweater or a bedspread. The humor itself is quotidian, dealing with the smallest details of life these days like the pandemic, decorating early for Christmas, and playing with one's cat. Some of the punchlines are sharper than others, with the more visual and/or conceptual jokes being the best. Kousmniova's talent is obvious, and it simply needs to be refined.