Another round of old reviews because I couldn't come up with a Christmas themed post for this week.
February 25, 2007
126. Perchance to Dream - No comic has ever made me want to sit down and rewrite it more than this one. The concept for this comic is absolutely wonderful. The ideas, the characters, everything is about as interesting as you can get, right from the first line on. The execution, while decent, though, doesn't go far enough. I'd like to see more depth, more exploration of the topic, try to get into the character's heads, especially Katherine's. I am so tempted to rewrite it, using the comic as an outline, that it actually hurts. I enjoyed it, but it starts to fall apart during the build up to the ending (though not the ending, oddly enough). Worth the read for this dead comic.
TODAY - Still occasionally I think about doing a rewrite. I hold back because I have other projects I want to do, but it's still there.
127. Mixed Myth - Reading comic archives gives you a chance to watch the evolution of the artist as an artist and a writer. Mixed Myth gives me a chance to see a proto version of the artist of Metrophor and is a real treat in that sense. It's also pretty entertaining without being too big on itself. Unlike, say, Wapsi Square, it doesn't let the story's mythology take over, and actually makes fun of it in the process. I got some great giggles out of it, and it does have some interesting takes on characters and plot development (from Cynamatiks to the realtionship between rabbits and elves). It's light hearted fun and it's dead so you can read it at your leisure without missing anything new.
TODAY - The archives are still there and active. Yeah, I know, you wouldn't think so. I have fond memories of this comic, but nothing spectacular. Still miss Metrophor though.
128. Nobody Scores! - 8-Bit Theater is the most consistently funny comic there is. Nobody Scores, however, will remove your internal organs as you're laughing so damn hard. These are not short strips, I should say now, but they are extremely funny as you read through the bulk of them (there are always a few duds). The situations and charcters are just hilarious and tearing up from laughing while reading them is to be expected. Go read it already, it may take a while, but you'll thank me later.
TODAY - It's kind of stalled out. No, it's still funny, it just doesn't update regularly any more. I'm not sure why, actually, aside from artistic burn out. Eventually I may be forced to shuffle it off to hiatus land (unofficial at that) but I'll reread the archives before I do.
March 08, 2007
129. Avalon - Another addition to the dead comic party. Avalon is a high school relationship comic. There, that's about all you really need to know about it, I mean when you've seen one, you've seen them all. And no far out sci-fi/fantasy element to gum up the works. The only downside is that it doesn't end as a comic. Guess the guy just didn't want to do the comic any more and simply posted a summary of how the thing ends. At least he ends it, I appreciate that.
TODAY - I still remember it for giving an ending, even if it wasn't in comic form. Other comics simply stop (especially the long story ones) but few actually make an effort to give closure. Thanks for that.
130. A Miracle of Science - Make that two dead comics. This is actually a pretty damn good comic. It's got its share of the angst bug, but the universe is wonderfully detailed and well thought out. It's paced well, even the final climax. That said, I picked out pretty much how it would end while I was still in the second chapter. Predictability isn't a bad thing, and doesn't really hurt this comic at all.
TODAY - Still a pretty damn good strip and I recommend it highly.
Wow, that's a lot of dead comics on that list, and only one that is kind of alive. Next week I'm taking off, but I'll try to have something for New Years. Until then kiddies.
Friday, December 17, 2010
Friday, December 10, 2010
Newspaper Comics #7
Open up the Sunday comics page of nearly every newspaper and you'll likely be greeted by two comics on the front page: Peanuts and Garfield. Well, there is a third comic, that varies, but usually those two are there, and have been for every paper I've read, except one, Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper. Last time I saw it (and it's been a while now) the first comic on it's page is Beetle Bailey.
Ah, Beetle Bailey, I've read a lot of it. It's one of the few major newspaper comics that covers the military (I'm sure there are others, there has to be), but it didn't start out that way. When it premiered in 1950, it was actually about college, but less than a year later the star, Beetle Bailey himself, dropped out and joined the army. And he's been there ever sense, never promoted nor retired. Poor guy.
Even compared to Blondie, Beetle Bailey is the quintessential gag a day strip. There are never any long running stories (in it's current form at least), just one joke after another. This also means the comic is frozen in time. Originally it was based on Mort Walker's (the artist) experience in the military, particularly a basic training camp, it just never got past that point. Today, despite Beetle being a private, he's at the same camp he was when he joined the military, with the same superiors and friends.
There has been some changes. General Halftrack had to undergo a series of sensitivity training as he constantly ogled the only single blond female on the came (who also happened to be his secretary). There have been characters who were retired and a few new ones added, but the changes are mostly superficial and do nothing to grow the comic in anyway.
And here in lies the comic's biggest problem: The characters are the definition of one note/one dimensional. They are literally defined by their one characteristic. Beetle is lazy, Zero is dumb, Sarge is hungry and angry, etc etc. For a gag a day strip that's not a bad thing, but it also makes the comic extremely predictable and also ensures that the character will only come up if the joke calls for them. Wikipedia lists 26 active characters, and but I think only half a dozen show up with any regularity.
For webcomics it is the example of what to try to avoid, even in a gag a day strip. One note characters should always be avoided as they often create an endless cast list, most of which will never appear in the comic more than once or twice in a year. A more compressed cast provides more opportunity to develop a joke or even short joke story and maintain the humor over the long term. Beetle Bailey suffers so desperately from the lack of joke material at this point that they created a new character a few years ago (Gizmo) to try to introduce more gadget based jokes and I can't remember the last time I saw the character at all.
I'd say most of the young gag a day strips on the net suffer from this problem initially and those that survive often evolve beyond it. Beetle Bailey is not a great comic, I wouldn't even call it a good comic. The jokes are flat, repetitive, predictable and worst of all dated. It is a comic even worse off than other legacy/zombie comics because the original artist is STILL working on the comic and there's little chance it will develop beyond what it is ever.
Well, enough about newspaper comics. I've got to go do more snowblowing/shoveling. I'm looking so forward to that. Until next week kiddies.
Ah, Beetle Bailey, I've read a lot of it. It's one of the few major newspaper comics that covers the military (I'm sure there are others, there has to be), but it didn't start out that way. When it premiered in 1950, it was actually about college, but less than a year later the star, Beetle Bailey himself, dropped out and joined the army. And he's been there ever sense, never promoted nor retired. Poor guy.
Even compared to Blondie, Beetle Bailey is the quintessential gag a day strip. There are never any long running stories (in it's current form at least), just one joke after another. This also means the comic is frozen in time. Originally it was based on Mort Walker's (the artist) experience in the military, particularly a basic training camp, it just never got past that point. Today, despite Beetle being a private, he's at the same camp he was when he joined the military, with the same superiors and friends.
There has been some changes. General Halftrack had to undergo a series of sensitivity training as he constantly ogled the only single blond female on the came (who also happened to be his secretary). There have been characters who were retired and a few new ones added, but the changes are mostly superficial and do nothing to grow the comic in anyway.
And here in lies the comic's biggest problem: The characters are the definition of one note/one dimensional. They are literally defined by their one characteristic. Beetle is lazy, Zero is dumb, Sarge is hungry and angry, etc etc. For a gag a day strip that's not a bad thing, but it also makes the comic extremely predictable and also ensures that the character will only come up if the joke calls for them. Wikipedia lists 26 active characters, and but I think only half a dozen show up with any regularity.
For webcomics it is the example of what to try to avoid, even in a gag a day strip. One note characters should always be avoided as they often create an endless cast list, most of which will never appear in the comic more than once or twice in a year. A more compressed cast provides more opportunity to develop a joke or even short joke story and maintain the humor over the long term. Beetle Bailey suffers so desperately from the lack of joke material at this point that they created a new character a few years ago (Gizmo) to try to introduce more gadget based jokes and I can't remember the last time I saw the character at all.
I'd say most of the young gag a day strips on the net suffer from this problem initially and those that survive often evolve beyond it. Beetle Bailey is not a great comic, I wouldn't even call it a good comic. The jokes are flat, repetitive, predictable and worst of all dated. It is a comic even worse off than other legacy/zombie comics because the original artist is STILL working on the comic and there's little chance it will develop beyond what it is ever.
Well, enough about newspaper comics. I've got to go do more snowblowing/shoveling. I'm looking so forward to that. Until next week kiddies.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Not So Wild Review: Errant Story
Back with another Not So Wild Review and this is comic #13. Which is actually kind of odd, considering Sluggy Freelance was #2. That means that of the first 13 comics I reviewed, I no longer read 12 of them, for various reasons. So let's get going.
ERRANT STORY
My first encounter with the work of Micheal Poe came from his previous work, Exploitation Now! I don't even remember how I came across that comic, but I do know that it's run had more or less ended by the time I started reading the archives. Upon completing it, the ad came up directing people to follow his new comic, Errant Story. The comic was, at the time, about 2 months old, and I never stopped reading it. In fact, it remains the ONLY comic I have ever donated money to, not even Sluggy earns that honor. So what's so great about it? Let's break it down.
CHARACTERS
Whenever I read Errant Story, the main cast kind of reminds me of an RPG party, and that's probably on purpose. Each has a specialty and knowledge the others don't and when they get into a fight (which doesn't happen that often) they know their roles and set goals on the fly. They're also completely independent in thoughts and actions from each other. I think often when characters are built for a story, eventually they all come to share the same personality, but not this cast. Yes, they have the same goals, but they voice their concerns and act as one would expect them to despite all this time.
I guess the important thing is that they act in character without being stupid about it. When it's smart not to say something smart assed, they usually don't. But when it's time to, they aren't afraid to do so, at all. The downside is that we really don't seem to get a lot of time with them. It's weird, but there is so much going on that seeing the main characters interact with each other is a little rare, they're more often playing off the situation rather than each other. When they do interact, it's great and tells us a lot about them, but it's usually cut short by the most recent disaster.
Here's my thing, after 7 years of reading this comic, I can't remember all the main characters names. I know who they are, give me a picture and I would know what they've done, but I don't know their names, little of their backstory and what they're doing at the moment. Maybe it's the fact that I read so damn many comics and I just simply don't have the memory space for it, or maybe it's how frequently it updates, but the names escape me. Weird, isn't it?
ART
The art of Errant Story is some of the most detailed black and white artwork you will find on the internet, especially for a comic that updates twice a week (at one point it was THREE times a week, which is even more potent). Character designs are wonderful, detailed, and it's usually very easy to tell characters apart. Usually. The detail of the world is incredible and likely unmatched by anything I've ever read.
It is better than when it started, of course, you don't draw a comic for this long and not improve, but most of it seems to come more in the form of shading and realism than anything else. The line work has been universally excellent and while there have been improvements it's not such a completely different comic as some others.
STORY
This is an epic fantasy tale, a grand one involving gods, people with the best of intentions and whole governments going nuts. It has a deep backstory, with a world history running the entire time, but only recently has this really come to light through the off day updates. I think this is a good thing as dumping this kind of filler description on a young comic would have drowned it pretty quickly, but as the story is nearing it's close, it's nice to finally fit the pieces of the tale into it's historical perspective. Kind of a nice touch.
The story's basis is that Meji, a half elf with poor grades, has decided for a final project to obtain ultimate power and enslave the world! So she sets off and runs into various characters including profession assassin Jon, elf ranger Sarine, fellow half elf Ian and Jon's time ninja sister Sara. They then go play with gods and things go to hell in a handbasket, to say the least.
It's a well told story spanning a good chunk of the world and history. There's a LOT going on, but it's focused enough to be centered on the few important characters to not let it go spinning out of the control. There are some areas where what's going on is hard to follow, but those are mostly early on and eventually get ironed out.
I do want to compare it to the end of Exploitation Now! which was a bit of a mess at the end. It went wild and over the top to the point that it was utter madness. Errant Story doesn't suffer from this as it was actually planned out to begin with, and while I'm sure there have been changes since the comic began, it isn't utterly random and chaotic. Well, chaotic in terms story lines.
OVERALL
Errant Story is a great comic, and while it has a few flaws, one would be hard pressed to find one that's better that updates as frequently and with such quality. It's one of the first comics I recommend when asked, and if you're not reading it, you must not like fantasy comics or something.
I've basically been reading this comic since nearly the beginning, and I know I'll read it through the end and possibly into it's eventual and possible sequel. So go read it already!
ERRANT STORY
My first encounter with the work of Micheal Poe came from his previous work, Exploitation Now! I don't even remember how I came across that comic, but I do know that it's run had more or less ended by the time I started reading the archives. Upon completing it, the ad came up directing people to follow his new comic, Errant Story. The comic was, at the time, about 2 months old, and I never stopped reading it. In fact, it remains the ONLY comic I have ever donated money to, not even Sluggy earns that honor. So what's so great about it? Let's break it down.
CHARACTERS
Whenever I read Errant Story, the main cast kind of reminds me of an RPG party, and that's probably on purpose. Each has a specialty and knowledge the others don't and when they get into a fight (which doesn't happen that often) they know their roles and set goals on the fly. They're also completely independent in thoughts and actions from each other. I think often when characters are built for a story, eventually they all come to share the same personality, but not this cast. Yes, they have the same goals, but they voice their concerns and act as one would expect them to despite all this time.
I guess the important thing is that they act in character without being stupid about it. When it's smart not to say something smart assed, they usually don't. But when it's time to, they aren't afraid to do so, at all. The downside is that we really don't seem to get a lot of time with them. It's weird, but there is so much going on that seeing the main characters interact with each other is a little rare, they're more often playing off the situation rather than each other. When they do interact, it's great and tells us a lot about them, but it's usually cut short by the most recent disaster.
Here's my thing, after 7 years of reading this comic, I can't remember all the main characters names. I know who they are, give me a picture and I would know what they've done, but I don't know their names, little of their backstory and what they're doing at the moment. Maybe it's the fact that I read so damn many comics and I just simply don't have the memory space for it, or maybe it's how frequently it updates, but the names escape me. Weird, isn't it?
ART
The art of Errant Story is some of the most detailed black and white artwork you will find on the internet, especially for a comic that updates twice a week (at one point it was THREE times a week, which is even more potent). Character designs are wonderful, detailed, and it's usually very easy to tell characters apart. Usually. The detail of the world is incredible and likely unmatched by anything I've ever read.
It is better than when it started, of course, you don't draw a comic for this long and not improve, but most of it seems to come more in the form of shading and realism than anything else. The line work has been universally excellent and while there have been improvements it's not such a completely different comic as some others.
STORY
This is an epic fantasy tale, a grand one involving gods, people with the best of intentions and whole governments going nuts. It has a deep backstory, with a world history running the entire time, but only recently has this really come to light through the off day updates. I think this is a good thing as dumping this kind of filler description on a young comic would have drowned it pretty quickly, but as the story is nearing it's close, it's nice to finally fit the pieces of the tale into it's historical perspective. Kind of a nice touch.
The story's basis is that Meji, a half elf with poor grades, has decided for a final project to obtain ultimate power and enslave the world! So she sets off and runs into various characters including profession assassin Jon, elf ranger Sarine, fellow half elf Ian and Jon's time ninja sister Sara. They then go play with gods and things go to hell in a handbasket, to say the least.
It's a well told story spanning a good chunk of the world and history. There's a LOT going on, but it's focused enough to be centered on the few important characters to not let it go spinning out of the control. There are some areas where what's going on is hard to follow, but those are mostly early on and eventually get ironed out.
I do want to compare it to the end of Exploitation Now! which was a bit of a mess at the end. It went wild and over the top to the point that it was utter madness. Errant Story doesn't suffer from this as it was actually planned out to begin with, and while I'm sure there have been changes since the comic began, it isn't utterly random and chaotic. Well, chaotic in terms story lines.
OVERALL
Errant Story is a great comic, and while it has a few flaws, one would be hard pressed to find one that's better that updates as frequently and with such quality. It's one of the first comics I recommend when asked, and if you're not reading it, you must not like fantasy comics or something.
I've basically been reading this comic since nearly the beginning, and I know I'll read it through the end and possibly into it's eventual and possible sequel. So go read it already!
Friday, November 26, 2010
No post this week
With Thanksgiving this week, I really don't have the time for a post. Next week I should be back, hopefully with another Not So Wild Review. See you then kiddies and happy Thanksgiving.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wild Webcomic Review 121 - 125
Time for another old batch of reviews, mostly because I don't have time to come up with an article (aka: I'm lazy).
February 12, 2007
121. Daniella Dark - It's cliche to the max. I don't mind cliches, never have, as long as they're done well. This comic fails at that. On top of that, it DUMPS the entire exposition on you like a freaking weight. I don't think the actual comic starts for a dozen strips, and there's only 25 of the damn things. Maybe I could over look this, but the art isn't that great either. It's just and overall bad comic. Don't even bother, not worth it.
TODAY - It still updates, so that's good, but I just don't read it. First impressions are important, and this comic failed there for me.
122. Diesel Sweeties - I hear this comic got into newspapers. I see syndicates are holding up there very, very, very low standards as usual. This comic is actually pretty bad. Not gouge-your-own-eyeballs-out bad, but when that's all it has going for it you know it isn't worth it. The jokes are wooden, the delivery is often terrible, there's this pretentious sense about the whole thing that just irritates me. Worse yet, it has fart jokes. And they're not even funny. Wordy as all hell too. It wasn't so bad when they were doing 4 panels, but at some point it was decided they could do as many damn panels as they liked and you're going to like it. Few comics, very few, have been bad enough that I skimmed through a signficant portion of them. Diesel Sweeties managed to do it, I don't think I read more than a half dozen comics worth in the last 500 strips. Pathetic comic, I'm glad I never have to look at the website again.
TODAY - The more I think about this comic, the more I hate it. It even surpasses my dislike for Penny Arcade and I really don't like Penny Arcade. I hate that I had to put the link up there, but I did review it.
123. On The Edge - Well, that's better, a comic that can actually be funny once in a while is a breath of fresh air. It's not a great comic, few are, but its a decent enough little strip to help wipe a bad taste out of your mouth with a bit of sarcasm and humor. I like the characters too, for some reason. There's nothing special about them, there's no overarching super storyline that makes them stand out, they just seem comfortable. Maybe I needed that after Diesel Sweeties, I don't know. Worth a look at least.
TODAY - I still read this comic, and it remains fun, light and interesting. It even has a graphic novel style comic running at the same time that is going very slow but is just as interesting. Go read it, it's worth it.
February 25, 2007
124. Wapsi Square - No, I don't know how to pronounce it either. It's a comic about a short woman with big boobs and the weird things that happen to her. It starts off as a simple, fairly generic comic, but near the end it starts getting wrapped up in it's own mythology. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and it is interesting, but it kind of bumps along. Revelations suddenly occur without any explination as to why, the beat of the comic is off when they start tackling the mythology (and you'll know what I mean when you read it), and a lot of the characters get lost. There are a TON of characters in this comic, and luckily they all look different enough from each other to keep track, but the comic DOESN'T keep track of them, or at least it doesn't seem to. Which is a shame, they are all great in their own way. Not as great as other comics, but a good enough read.
TODAY - The original story line FINALLY wrapped up a few months ago and the comic has started to really open up. I still wish there was more exploration of the characters that don't get much screen time, but I think the increase in simple scale of the images has made the comic so much better than when I first read it.
125. Seraphic Blue - This is not a bad comic. I say that now because I'm about to make it sound like I dislike it. I don't. Alright, that out of the way, this comic is like every anime cliche strapped together. Earth mostly destroyed by cataclysm? Check. Few, select people can defend surviving people? Check. They all happen to be young, sexy women? Check. One has a mysterious past? Check. Etc, etc, etc. It's probably BETTER than the schlock that comes out of Japan, but it's the same damn thing, it really is. It's not bad, not bad at all, but it's completely uninteresting to me. You might like it, but I don't have the tolerance for this kind of thing any more.
TODAY - Dead, about a year after the review. I don't know if it got any better, but I imagine not really. Oh well.
That's it for this week kiddies, see you next time.
February 12, 2007
121. Daniella Dark - It's cliche to the max. I don't mind cliches, never have, as long as they're done well. This comic fails at that. On top of that, it DUMPS the entire exposition on you like a freaking weight. I don't think the actual comic starts for a dozen strips, and there's only 25 of the damn things. Maybe I could over look this, but the art isn't that great either. It's just and overall bad comic. Don't even bother, not worth it.
TODAY - It still updates, so that's good, but I just don't read it. First impressions are important, and this comic failed there for me.
122. Diesel Sweeties - I hear this comic got into newspapers. I see syndicates are holding up there very, very, very low standards as usual. This comic is actually pretty bad. Not gouge-your-own-eyeballs-out bad, but when that's all it has going for it you know it isn't worth it. The jokes are wooden, the delivery is often terrible, there's this pretentious sense about the whole thing that just irritates me. Worse yet, it has fart jokes. And they're not even funny. Wordy as all hell too. It wasn't so bad when they were doing 4 panels, but at some point it was decided they could do as many damn panels as they liked and you're going to like it. Few comics, very few, have been bad enough that I skimmed through a signficant portion of them. Diesel Sweeties managed to do it, I don't think I read more than a half dozen comics worth in the last 500 strips. Pathetic comic, I'm glad I never have to look at the website again.
TODAY - The more I think about this comic, the more I hate it. It even surpasses my dislike for Penny Arcade and I really don't like Penny Arcade. I hate that I had to put the link up there, but I did review it.
123. On The Edge - Well, that's better, a comic that can actually be funny once in a while is a breath of fresh air. It's not a great comic, few are, but its a decent enough little strip to help wipe a bad taste out of your mouth with a bit of sarcasm and humor. I like the characters too, for some reason. There's nothing special about them, there's no overarching super storyline that makes them stand out, they just seem comfortable. Maybe I needed that after Diesel Sweeties, I don't know. Worth a look at least.
TODAY - I still read this comic, and it remains fun, light and interesting. It even has a graphic novel style comic running at the same time that is going very slow but is just as interesting. Go read it, it's worth it.
February 25, 2007
124. Wapsi Square - No, I don't know how to pronounce it either. It's a comic about a short woman with big boobs and the weird things that happen to her. It starts off as a simple, fairly generic comic, but near the end it starts getting wrapped up in it's own mythology. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and it is interesting, but it kind of bumps along. Revelations suddenly occur without any explination as to why, the beat of the comic is off when they start tackling the mythology (and you'll know what I mean when you read it), and a lot of the characters get lost. There are a TON of characters in this comic, and luckily they all look different enough from each other to keep track, but the comic DOESN'T keep track of them, or at least it doesn't seem to. Which is a shame, they are all great in their own way. Not as great as other comics, but a good enough read.
TODAY - The original story line FINALLY wrapped up a few months ago and the comic has started to really open up. I still wish there was more exploration of the characters that don't get much screen time, but I think the increase in simple scale of the images has made the comic so much better than when I first read it.
125. Seraphic Blue - This is not a bad comic. I say that now because I'm about to make it sound like I dislike it. I don't. Alright, that out of the way, this comic is like every anime cliche strapped together. Earth mostly destroyed by cataclysm? Check. Few, select people can defend surviving people? Check. They all happen to be young, sexy women? Check. One has a mysterious past? Check. Etc, etc, etc. It's probably BETTER than the schlock that comes out of Japan, but it's the same damn thing, it really is. It's not bad, not bad at all, but it's completely uninteresting to me. You might like it, but I don't have the tolerance for this kind of thing any more.
TODAY - Dead, about a year after the review. I don't know if it got any better, but I imagine not really. Oh well.
That's it for this week kiddies, see you next time.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Letting Go Part 2: Achewood
Last October (2009 October), one of the first articles I wrote was on Letting Go, pulling comics that once held a high place on reading lists from those lists. It's a difficult process, comics are habit forming (which explains the zombies that dominate the newspapers). At the time, two comics dominated that idea for me, College Roomies from Hell and General Protection Fault. Today I add a new one to the list, however reluctantly:
Achewood.
I don't do this lightly, Achewood has been a great comic. The Great Outdoor Fight is probably one of the greatest stories ever told in webcomic form. I can think of few other storylines that even remotely come close to matching it, and I very much doubt any ever will. It held the internet by the balls, and everyone who read it loved it for that.
Now? Not so much. The comic has been in a steady decline for some time, occasionally reaching for those great moments and damn near catching them. But it never did.
The GOF storyline was so great, perhaps it should have been expected that it would never again hit that high note, and to be fair, I never expected it to do so again. Still it was enjoyable, for a time, and I kept reading. As of late though, the updates have become increasingly erratic. At one time I could expect two or three comics a week, though never sure on exactly what days, but now getting one a week is unlikely at best. Monthly would better describe it in many cases.
Achewood as a comic doesn't need or require this amount of time to build, not when the pace was much, much faster before. Maybe this is the result of the artist's family taking off, or perhaps the steady updates are being dedicated to paid subscribers, but for those of us who are fans and have no money (or a steady job), it feels as if the comic has come to a near standstill.
The humor, once a touch twisted, has started to fall flat. Oh, there are still moments, but for the most part, the comic has lost that spark that kept me enraptured. The characters feel tired and uninspired when once they were fresh and raw. Maybe I'm growing too old, maybe they are still the same as they always were, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm right.
The last few weeks have strangled the last bit of my enjoyment from the strip. It has lost me in a fundamental way, a way I'm afraid can't be recovered from. Onstead, the artist, once said he finds the joke of each strip to be funny, and if he still is, good for him. I don't, not any more at least.
And so my run of Achewood is being brought to a close. I'll probably go back and reread the Great Outdoor Fight again before I close the book on it forever, but after that, I doubt I'll return to the comic again. Letting go of a comic that held me tight for so long is hard, but it's time.
See you next time kiddies.
Achewood.
I don't do this lightly, Achewood has been a great comic. The Great Outdoor Fight is probably one of the greatest stories ever told in webcomic form. I can think of few other storylines that even remotely come close to matching it, and I very much doubt any ever will. It held the internet by the balls, and everyone who read it loved it for that.
Now? Not so much. The comic has been in a steady decline for some time, occasionally reaching for those great moments and damn near catching them. But it never did.
The GOF storyline was so great, perhaps it should have been expected that it would never again hit that high note, and to be fair, I never expected it to do so again. Still it was enjoyable, for a time, and I kept reading. As of late though, the updates have become increasingly erratic. At one time I could expect two or three comics a week, though never sure on exactly what days, but now getting one a week is unlikely at best. Monthly would better describe it in many cases.
Achewood as a comic doesn't need or require this amount of time to build, not when the pace was much, much faster before. Maybe this is the result of the artist's family taking off, or perhaps the steady updates are being dedicated to paid subscribers, but for those of us who are fans and have no money (or a steady job), it feels as if the comic has come to a near standstill.
The humor, once a touch twisted, has started to fall flat. Oh, there are still moments, but for the most part, the comic has lost that spark that kept me enraptured. The characters feel tired and uninspired when once they were fresh and raw. Maybe I'm growing too old, maybe they are still the same as they always were, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm right.
The last few weeks have strangled the last bit of my enjoyment from the strip. It has lost me in a fundamental way, a way I'm afraid can't be recovered from. Onstead, the artist, once said he finds the joke of each strip to be funny, and if he still is, good for him. I don't, not any more at least.
And so my run of Achewood is being brought to a close. I'll probably go back and reread the Great Outdoor Fight again before I close the book on it forever, but after that, I doubt I'll return to the comic again. Letting go of a comic that held me tight for so long is hard, but it's time.
See you next time kiddies.
Friday, November 5, 2010
Politics and Webcomics
Since we just got done with an election here in the States, I guess I should talk about politics in webcomics. Which is another way of saying I just randomly came up with this topic.
I have no problem with other people's politics (as long as you don't want to burn books, those people can die, in a fire, for irony). But I really don't like comics based on them. Which is odd since one of my favorite comics is The Pain, which is mostly a political comic. Maybe I just don't like them based on politics I disagree with, but then I didn't much care for the political comics of Deep Fried.
So what's wrong with politics in a comic? Well, it mostly restricts your audience. Some people simply refuse to read comics that hold different political views then themselves. I admit I have a similar bias, there's at least one newspaper comic (Mallard Fillmore) that I just can't stand to read. At the same time, I do try to read various conservative websites and news because I don't want to blindly hate them, but I don't do that for fun.
The real problem, though, is how comics do it. Even The Pain and Deep Fried, which are funny comics normally, have this annoying habit of bashing their message into the heads of their readers. But if I think those comics beat the message in, and I line with them politically to a point, those on the other side of the political spectrum probably have it worse. This comes from the first political webcomic I read, Small World.
Reading that comic was a chore near the end because it became VERY political, and running along lines opposite of what I normally support. The pounding suddenly became concussive and it became hard to read or even enjoy, and in the end I didn't. Now putting the politics into the background is something so hard I can't even think of a comic that has ever done it.
Basing your comic on politics is probably not a good idea because it is VERY hard, and even if you do it well, you'll have to be really into politics to pull it off. Covering multiple angles might help, but I can't see anyone really giving each side a fair shake. It's too hard.
So don't do politics, it's not worth the effort. Until next time kiddies.
I have no problem with other people's politics (as long as you don't want to burn books, those people can die, in a fire, for irony). But I really don't like comics based on them. Which is odd since one of my favorite comics is The Pain, which is mostly a political comic. Maybe I just don't like them based on politics I disagree with, but then I didn't much care for the political comics of Deep Fried.
So what's wrong with politics in a comic? Well, it mostly restricts your audience. Some people simply refuse to read comics that hold different political views then themselves. I admit I have a similar bias, there's at least one newspaper comic (Mallard Fillmore) that I just can't stand to read. At the same time, I do try to read various conservative websites and news because I don't want to blindly hate them, but I don't do that for fun.
The real problem, though, is how comics do it. Even The Pain and Deep Fried, which are funny comics normally, have this annoying habit of bashing their message into the heads of their readers. But if I think those comics beat the message in, and I line with them politically to a point, those on the other side of the political spectrum probably have it worse. This comes from the first political webcomic I read, Small World.
Reading that comic was a chore near the end because it became VERY political, and running along lines opposite of what I normally support. The pounding suddenly became concussive and it became hard to read or even enjoy, and in the end I didn't. Now putting the politics into the background is something so hard I can't even think of a comic that has ever done it.
Basing your comic on politics is probably not a good idea because it is VERY hard, and even if you do it well, you'll have to be really into politics to pull it off. Covering multiple angles might help, but I can't see anyone really giving each side a fair shake. It's too hard.
So don't do politics, it's not worth the effort. Until next time kiddies.
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