Official Comics

They're shit.

>>29347275

No

>>29347275
Some are good. Most are forgettable, many are shit. They contain more references and fanservice than the episodes. Don't expect masterpieces, but they're still pony, and that is all that matters to me. To you, I don't know. It's your choice.

OP here. It's too late. I'm reading through them now.
I got the bulk of them in a humble bundle a while back, so I already have them on hand. I just finished a lot of episode re-watches and still need a fix, so I guess I'll try to settle for this.

>>29347551
You should try the books too if you want your pony fix. Twilight's Crystal Spell book, Rainbow's, and maybe Pinkie's book aside, all the others have been pretty good.
Maybe start with the princess collection there if you want to test them out.

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>>29347573
The Princess Collection is literally in the mail right now, though I've read Twilight's before. I thought of downloading more, but figured I already had the comics. Anyways, just finished issue #1.

I'm still a little weirded out by how rough the inking is. It's not uncommon, but it's just strange after seeing ponies in flash for so long. The backgrounds have nice detailing, but I hate how creator OC's are in the very first crowd scene.
I recall that this is a Chrysalis arc, but not how she's psychically controlling all of the animals and ponies. I guess at this point on the show, Chrysalis's only known abilities were shape-shifting and mind-controlling Shining Armor, but that clearly seemed like the long-term affects of feeding off his love, while here it seems casual to do to hundreds of beings. Are they feeding off the animals' love, too? Because that's kinky.
Oh, hey, an Invasion of the Body Snatchers reference. Didn't remember that, either.
Wait, so they'r enot mind-controlled, they're actual changelings? Why are they acting like brain-dead zombies, then?
The letter Twilight gets from Celestia has English on it! Sacrilege!
I only just realized Twilight isn't an alicorn. Goddamn it, when did I get so used to that?
Prominent Derpy on the next page. Can't really blame them.
The changelings attack as Too Many Pinkie Pies. Did this predate that episode? I don't think so, but they don't really reference it, either.
I completely forgot about this Secretariat comet subplot. It sounds cool, but since I don't remember it, it probably doesn't amount to much?
The faces have been pretty great throughout this thing, I'll give Andy Price that. On to issue #2.

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Issue #2 opens to a map saying they need to reach the Changeling Kingdom by travelling south through the Macintosh Hills, the Appaloosan Mountain Range, then the Forest of Leota. The old official map of Equestria stopped at the Macintosh Hills, but the modern one doesn't quite match up anymore unless they're leaving out going extra far south past a hefty bit of jungle to hit the mountains.

These mines have diamond dog statues in front of them labeled "Ziggy" and "Stardust," confirming diamond dogs are the dwarves of Equestria.

Brony troll using the ponies as toys. I guess having the characters treated as toys is in itself a bit funny. Ponies should be in the next Toy Story movie.

It bothers me way more than it should how often Price's Rarity has her mane over one eye.

If nothing else, almost every shot of Chrysalis is fun to look at.

Strong wicked witch vibes from Chrysalis in this scene. I'm surprised they were able to restrain themselves from having Chrysalis scream, "Fly my pretties, fly!"

David Bowie references continue in full force. I miss you, Bowie.

The changelings putting the ponies against each other is a good idea, except they don't have the elements with them, and will still want to save their sisters, so what's the point? Just to fuck with them? Why is Chrysalis leading them to her in the first place?

Suddenly, clothed spider gangsters. What is this? Their design is just a touch too Looney Tunes for the MLP world. The others are horrified, but Rainbow actively cries on sight, which seems a little weird.

I'm glad the ponies got their asses kicked by the spiders. After they so casually stomped the changelings, they needed to lose a fight to ramp tension back up.

I just realized they went on a three day journey without bringing any saddle bags. It's fun seeing the ponies on a long journey, but the big difference from the show so far is a lack of lessons or character arcs. It's just gags all the way.

>>29347275

They're incredibly uneven, though there's a few decent ones and even gems in the pile of shit.

I'd look for an online archive rather than feeding IDW money. If you like it, you can always buy it for real later.

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>>29347945

>Bowie dog will never be revealed to lead the Diamond dogs or perhaps be some distant legend of theirs
>Female d-dogs will never appear
>Diamond dogs in general will never return to the show
>The Mars spiders will never return to battle them
>They can never get Bowie to do a voice cameo
>RIP in piece Ziggy

>>29347275
Do whatever you want, OP.
It's your money, not ours.

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>>29348018
>Mars spiders
...OOOoooooh. Well, I certainly like them better now, but their design still sucked.

Anyways, on to issue #3:
Oh, there's a literal map here of everything south of the Appaloosan Mountain. Huh. I hope they're going West in the movie, because that's easily the least explored direction now.

Wait, what the hell, there's actually a lot of really cool stuff on this map, like "Kelpie Cove," an isolated zap apple grove, a lone royal guard tower in the wilderness, and a quarantied still chaos-ified "Site of the Battle of Discord."

Followed immediately by Chrysalis attacking a village of cutesy kittens. This still bothers me a lot. This town feels out of place in the universe, but Katie Cook throws it in anyways for the gag of Changelings feeding on lovie-dovey critters.

More wicked witch from Chrysalis. "I'll get here.. and her little pony friends too."

Also, she explains her plot. She's going to steal Twilight's magic, apparently using the comet. Why? Twilight's magic wasn't especially useful againt Chrysalis in the finale. I get wanting revenge, but I figure she'd go for murder.

And Fluttershy just quoted Spock. The references are getting a little too heavy for me.

Rarity and Applejack have a nice dinner of flowers. I miss when the ponies ate hay and daisy sandwiches regularly. They tend to stick with processed foods more often these days.

Pinkie tries to sing a song, but is stopped by Rainbow. I wonder if there will ever be an attempt at songs in the comic?

And there's the infamous pony costumes from this episode. Would that even work? Changelings could make Applejack's hat, so they can clearly mimic clothes. Wait, what would happen if you tried to take the hat off a changeling?

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Chrysalis admits she's just been fucking with Twilight's friends. Fair enough. Then she staight up thumps a kitten.

A Chupacabra appears. Not at all how I usually imagine them, though a quick Google search shows that they're often depicted more canine than I expected.

Rarity and Applejack, meanwhile, flee from sentient flying flowers.

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow run into evil, flesh-eating bunnies. None of these subplots are too good aside from the Rarity and Applejack one, which has a lot of fun imagery.

Infamous "Nature is so fascinating" scene from Fluttershy concludes events. Still a good scene.

On to Issue #4.

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>>29348263
These are pretty cool, OP. It's nice getting a fresh look at the comics from a newb. Keep it up.

>>29348263
Nice OP.
Though once you're done with this issue you should directly jump to the starting bad shit for our entertainment.
Said bad shit are Issue 17 to 20 and 25 to 28, and FF#1
In fact if you could do 25/26 when you're done with the first arc if you have em, I'm sure you'll LOVE twilight in those ones :^)

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>>29347275
Yes, you Will live it.

>>29348618
Ironically, while I hate the overly sugary ending, I think they did a good job with sombra compared to show sombra.

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>>29348660

Everything would be perfect if this conclude the whole Sombra character with this page, but they ruin it in the one

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>>29347275
Just read the 10 issues in the micro-series and leave it at that. It's all downhill from there.

>>29348687
That actually legit looks good. I'm guessing they dorpped the ball with a surprise, "Nope, Sombra's fine and good now"? Bonus points if he gets a shitty redesign like the changelings.

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Issue #4: The Return of Queen Chrysalis (Part IV)
The Changeling Kingdom is apparently just the most generic castle than MLP has ever had, with a town covered in gak next to it. I prefer the S6 hive.

Twilight says the Secretariat Comet will be passing through the Horsehead Nebula shortly. The Horsehead Nebula is 1500 light years from Earth. If ponies know of it with their limited astronomy, then we can surmise Equestria is at most 3000 light years away!

Wait, scattered cutesy hearts are laying around in the background. I guess this is just the cutesy kitten kingdom Chrysalis overthrew. That's a little better, aside from the fact that I had to remember cutesy kitten kingdom was a thing.

Does Chrysalis really need the CMC anymore? Twilight's already here. Just eat them.

Oh, wait, she agrees. Good on her.

The inside of the kitten castle is an Escher painting. Why!? Continuing to feel like Cook is writing whatever's funny or cool to her without considering its place in or implications on world building.

I legit chuckled at pic related.

All the doors contain horror movies, and also Temple of Doom for some reason. Makes me want to watch House 2, actually. I want to say they should chill on the references again, but I'm a huge horror fan, so I'll give it a pass. Still... Why does Chrysalis have an Escher castle full of portals to horror movies?

Oh, riddles! "How is a pegasus like a writing desk?" Umm... they both have quills!

The answer is that you can't answer it. That's fucking stupid.

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Chrysalis makes the most wonderful shit-eating grin when the mane 6 finally find her, then two panels later makes what I suspect will be the worst face of the entire comic series.

Some legit metal talk from Chrysalis once they start fighting proper. "Love is fickle. Love can change. Love can be consumed and the leftovers of a heart spit out like a seed."

TWALOT'S FAYARIN' HER LAZORRR!! After Twilight's inexplicable super laser, Chrysalis now has a reason to want her magic, justification came after the actions in this case, I guess.

Chrysalis wants Twilight to become her pupil, so she can teach Chrysalis how to cast destructive spells. I don't think you understand how the teacher-student relationship works.

I think this panel of Twilight and Chrysalis fighting is what the Guardians of Harmony toys were based on. Price made them look PISSED.

Applejack declares Twilight best pony.

So, the comet that was supposed to strengthen Chrysalis didn't seem to do much for her, but it activated Twilight's avatar state, and now Team Rocket's blasting off again.

>RD: "Everypony, duck!"
>FS: "There are ducks here? Oh no! Protect them!"
I chuckled again.

Wait, Chrysalis's fucking crown came off! I always assumed that has like a horn or head growth or something.

Celestia reveals she and Spike were busy fighting a giant cockatrice invasion of Canterlot during this arc. I seriously hope this is depicted at some point.

Price's Celestia is kind of smokin'.

Wait, now Chrysalis is trapped in the castle by a door being blocked by a riddle about oranges? What about the hole Twilight blew in the wall? And why can't she just answer that she can't answer like the mane 6 did?

All in all, this arc is actually a lot better than I remember it being, and Price has a lot of really good expressions and backgrounds. Cook's comedy and characters were pretty good, but her world building is more like demolition.

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>>29348708
For a little while I thought I didn't have the micros, but it looks like the trades of them were relabeled as "Pony Tales." I guess I'll hop on the first half of them next.

The Vol.1 trade also had a short story in the back, "How Much is that Pony in the Window?" with art by Cook. I didn't know she drew at all. It's just Pinkie Pie ruining clothes Rarity put on her by running to the ice cream truck. Could've been a three-panel Sunday strip.

Wait, shit, it also has one for Celestia and Spike fighting the cockatrices! It kind of sucks, though. There's not really any gags or funny imagery. Just Spike recapping the main story while Celestia shoots beams at some cockatrices, the end. Boo!

Cook's art is perfectly serviceable. Poses are more static, shot composition is so-so, but there's some cute faces.

Then the back has a bunch of cover arts. A few great ones by Price, a set of awful ones from Cook (way worse than her interior art, oddly), a bunch of cute ones by Stephanie Buschema, cool one by Amy Mebberson, and a surprisingly show-accurate one by Amanda Conner.

Then a god awful one by J. Scott Campbell. Pic related. God, what the fuck with their brontosaurus faces?

I recognize Amy Mebberson's name, but not most of the others, so I dunno' if they ever become regular artists or not. Hoping so for most of them. On to the micros!

>>29348710
>"Nope, Sombra's fine and good now"? Bonus points if he gets a shitty redesign like the changelings.

Pretty much. Although it's not entirely out of nowhere, in an earlier issue Hope earns her cutie mark in healing spells by saving a younger Sombra from being disintegrated by the Crystal Heart and restoring his "normal" unicorn body. She does the same thing at the end of the story (with assistance from the 4 alicorns.)

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My Little Pony: Pony Tales #1
Twilight Sparkle
Story, Art, & Letters by Thomas Zahler
Colors by Ronda Pattison

Christ, the art's awful. I've never heard of Zahler, and I appreciate his trying to use soft outlines like the show. He's clearly aiming for show accurate. But that just sets off the uncanny effect more when all the limbs and eyes are in slightly off spots.

Twilight is in Canterlot for a test from Celestia. Ah, the good old days!

Wait, change of plans. The royal archivist, Summer Mane, has fallen and she can't get up, so Twilight gets to go help her instead. Decent premise.

I can't get over it. This looks like some teen's MLP web comic.

Spike's upper torso is three sizes too small for his lower torso in this panel. Christ.

So, turns out the archivist is an insufferable bitch.
>You probably don't even read!
I love to read!
>Well, you probably read casual shit!
I read esoteric and classic literature!
>Well, you probably don't understand it!
I do actually! Why, I wrote my thesis paper on-
>Well, fuck you anyways.

This man just cannot draw expressions to save his life. I keep thinking there's too much same face, but whenever a pony actually emotes I regret seeing it. It's distracting me so much that I keep having to re-read pages to not lose the story.

Now Summer Mane's delighting that she gets to torture Twilight with backed-up book sorting. Joke's on her, Twilight loves it while casually points out that it's backed up because Summer Mane sucks at her job.

Now they're arguing about how to fucking alphabetize. Twilight's right of course.
She glares at Twilight when she tries to have casual conversation. Then starts casual conversation.
She yells at Twilight for singing, then blares dubstep.
I hate this fucking nag.

Now they're bonding over books, despite Twilight's trying to do so from the beginning.

First thing I've enjoyed in this one: Twilight sitting on top of a tower of books, reading a book.

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Yells at Twilight for reading on the job.
>"Why I never..."
Twilight apologizes.
>"Happens to me all the time, Twilight."
Fuck this piece of shit horse.

They're having macaroni for dinner. Of all the books she's read, this bitch couldn't take the time to read a cook book?

"I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" reference. Seems out of place, unless it refers to the readers.

Twilight uncharacteristically disobeys and goes in Summer Mane's office when she steps away.

>"I'll decide what to do with you later!" Summer Mane threatens.
wtf are you going to do to the out-of-town non-paid pony assisting you for 3 days that was assigned by your god princess?

She says Twilight can gtfo, and if Celestia doesn't like it, then she'll gtfo too. I guess she's too old to give a shit.

Twilight responds by clearing the whole backlog of work in one night, proving how inadequate Summer Mane is.

Twilight reveals that she's a liar, and Celestia was never going to fire her.
Summer Mane, never to be outdone, reveals that she also lied to get jobs before, and is working under a false identity even now. Instead of using this info to get her fired, Twilight fangirls about discovering her real identity is her favorite author.
Turns out Summer Mane was right when she said Twilight has shit taste in books.

So she changed her name and went into hiding because she was scared her second book wouldn't be better than her first. Sounds like something this backwards autist would do.

Twilight makes her publish her sequel she's been working on for thirty years, its a success, and Twilight passes her test. The fucking end.

Then there's a cute alternate cover by Sabrina Alberghetti that is unsurprisingly super show accurate.

This issue was inspirational. The writing was bad, and the art worse. My brain started tuning the art out altogether about halfway through. Any doubts I had about my own drawfag abilities have been washed away, filling me with a previously unknown sense of confidence and peace.

>>29348796
>After Twilight's inexplicable super laser
The comet powered her up. They show it passing in the background as they begin to fight

>>29347275
Just read the few good issues
Read dragontown just once to see how bad it is but dont pay for that issue.

>>29348416
What was wrong with friends forever one it was a little off in parts sure but it was hardly shit.

>>29350471
The very first one is the pseudo-Fluttershy cooking show one, you don't remember it?

Bumping for continued reading.