By Dustin Cabeal

Cameron Davis’ Rose is an interesting comic in the modern industry. It looks like classic Archie and sounds like Family Circus. Your level of enjoyment with Rose will greatly depend on your feelings towards both franchises

The premise of Rose is that you follow the title character throughout her life. Sometimes she’s a kid, sometimes she’s an adult, but she almost always looks the same. It’s like Luann, you can change the hair, but she still looks thirty.

The humor is inoffensive, hell I’m almost offended by how inoffensive it is. Unfortunately, I didn’t laugh or even silently chuckle in my head once. Davis’ storytelling is competent, but that doesn’t mean the story is amazing or even that interesting.

The artwork is clean, but there’s a lot of problems when Rose’s age changes. She looks about the same all the time, so it’s the context at that point that informs you if she’s young or old. While it’s inspired by the Archie house style, it has its own flair here and there.

This is a difficult comic to comment on. The stories don’t contain enough depth to critique the writing. It would be like reviewing a comic strip every day. The art isn’t bad, but it’s a dated style even by Archie’s standards. Part of me is glad that something this quirky and wholesome exists, but then I wonder who it exists for exactly? Who is going to put down four bucks to read what’s essentially a collection of stories about a goofball character that feels more at home during the era of Father Knows Best than with the age of cell phones and the internet? I don’t have an answer for that question, but I know that while Rose is well produced, it’s not of any interest to me.

Score: 2/5

Rose #6
Creator: Cameron Davis
Self-Published