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Wow, talk about the redemption arc of the year! I thought this comic was dead for good; I am impressed the artist decided to come back to it after being away from it for so long. That said, there are a few things I would like to point out.
When I originally read this comic years ago, I thought the dialogue flowed well. It sounded natural. Upon reading the first new page >>2099424, Clarice sounds overly aggressive. I'm not saying kids don't swear, but we get hit with a "fuck it", her calling his sister a bitch, a "fuck that" and a "shit" all in one page, and then her calling someone a cunt next page >>2103598. They sound like teenagers now. I much prefer the exchange that was originally written here >>1290965. I also find the dialogue doesn't flow as well and feels choppy in areas. Spelling error on the second panel here >>2104217 ("gimmie me" should read "gimmie the"). On this page >>2105225 she mentions "I said I didn't care if you looked at them". Not only did she never say that, it goes against the entire run of the comic up to that point - she kept trying to conceal her chest from Thomas. Her personality sounds completely different, as if she was cool with just wearing swim trunks from the beginning.
There is a significant change in the art style. It's obvious the artist behind this comic has been drawing in between the time gap of the old and current pages (who they really are is anyone's guess), as there are signs of improvement here and there. Echoing the comment made in this post >>1777255
>I would be afraid at this point that the artist may have trouble matching the style they had going a few years ago. Too much time has passed
There is a clashing of styles here. The comic started out with a look that tried to emulate Original Life, and was cartoonyish and fairly consistent with designs. Page five is an interesting mix of what appears to be an old page that was finished later on. Starting at page six, there is a noticeable shift in art direction. The characters are drawn more detailed and expressive. In one aspect it can be interpreted as being better, but on the other hand the comic has lost its more cartoonish, cleaner look from the early pages. The character designs are not as consistent, with body changes going from small builds to larger builds (bottom panel in page 12 the bodies look adult). They look more like teenagers to me now rather than kids. When you look at how Clarice was drawn before, she was flat-chested and just budding with small nipples. Now she has more predominant small breasts, with larger nipples that are almost too overly detailed that remind me of the Palcomix nipples that are copy-pasted on basically everything they produce. Overall it feels the comic has a more anime-ish style applied to it - take for example Thomas' face in the panels on page 12.
I know what the artist was trying to go for regarding a "fumbling" of bodies on pages 11-14, but it just doesn't work. The actions don't make sense. On page 11 we don't even see the very beginning of what happens it's just shown to us in speech bubbles. Thomas is up to his neck in water. On page 12 I guess she is trying to lift herself up using Thomas' shoulders to get un-caught off of his trunks? She looks much taller than him here. On page 13 her crotch is in his face despite her body just being underwater at the same depth of his on the previous page. She falls backwards with a big splash (how did she get so high in water so deep to make that splash?), and I don't even know what his face is supposed to represent in the middle panel - that he saw a snapshot of her cootch? It's so random. The bubbles are drawn as white circles which is weird and incorrect to how they would actually look. At the bottom panel I am not sure who is saying "What was that?!" but its better suited to the one who has their mouth open with an expression to match it. On page 14 her face meets his crotch despite her falling on her back with her head away from Thomas on the previous page. Then right in the next panel Clarice is face down with her head no where near his body? In the last panel it looks as if they are standing in knee-high water despite supposedly being in the deep end.
I will say that this comic did the "girl in boys swim trunks" thing years before it became a popular prompt to draw, so there's that. I also wasn't expecting Charlie and that other character (don't remember their name) to be in this comic. It will be interesting how they will become intertwined in all of this.
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