Weekly Webcomic Reviews

Obviously, there hasn’t been an update here for quite some time. So I figure I’ll make things official - this blog is definitely on hiatus. I’ve been very busy lately, with a variety of personal things (moving cities, getting new jobs, etc) and an even bigger variety of creative endeavours (writing plays and short films has taken up most of my time lately).

When I come back to this blog, I’ll do a month of daily posts, and then try to slip into a “once per week” routine. Until then, I don’t think you’ll see many updates at all.

The other creative endeavour I’ve been working on has been my new webcomic, Samwise and Friends. If you’ll recall, when I started this blog, I said that the two things we’ll be seeing more of are comicblogs and fixed-art comics. Well, that was subtle foreshadowing for Samwise and Friends, which I started before I even started updating this, but has been put off for over 6 months.

So I recommend you all go to Looks to be.com, and start following the adventures of Samwise and his friends. (and, on weekends, the Tale of Michael!)

So, while I haven’t been writing about them much, I’ve definitely still been reading webcomics.

You see, after my month away from the internet, I came back, and had to read through a month’s worth of comics all at once. And it put me off them a bit. So I almost completely lost interest in webcomics as a whole.

While I was still reading the webcomics that I read, I wasn’t enjoying them as much as I previously had, and I wasn’t seeking out anything new. I would sometimes skip days, or even weeks of updates, and not really mind much.

Then, slowly, I started to enjoy my daily reads more. This was due mainly to the return of Sam on Sam and Fuzzy, and the general antics of Able and Baker. Without Sam, Sam and Fuzzy just wasn’t as much fun, focussing instead of a heap of characters that I really had no interest in, and Able and Baker’s profuse use of puns is just a joy to watch.

So while I enjoyed the comics that I was reading, I wasn’t at all interested in creating any of my own, or seeking out new comics, or even reading through the archives of comics I loved.

Then a post by Ryan Estrada (who I am shocked to discover doesn’t have his own Wikipedia page) linked to the comic The Future is Futuristical, which is a comic made to be updated by anyone. They’re creating canon in large groups.

So I thought “It’s been a while since I drew anything, I might give it a go.”

I nutted out a quick script, opened by drawing program of choice, and started to draw. After about 20 seconds, I thought “Geez I’ve missed this,” closed that window, and opened up a comic that I started about a month before this blog started updating. A few hours later, I saved what I had done, and decided to read through the archives of Daily Dinosaur Comics.

A few days later, I was back into webcomics as much as ever.

So I decided to read through a new comic I’ve been reading, but never read through the archives of, Jam Torbkberg’s Jam-O-Gram. It’s a daily comic with no set theme, art style, or size.

The more I read through the archives, the more impressed I am. Starting here, just go forward one entry at a time to read through the entire archives.

I love the art style - he’s not exactly Michaelangelo, but he’s not trying to be, either. He has trouble sticking to a storyline, so each day’s comic generally has no resemblance to the day before. And he updates simply using a livejournal, which a lot of people may dislike, but I happen to think is a great method: if this new comic mentioned above gets going, I’m probably going to use Livejournal to update myself.

Impressed as I was, it wasn’t worth updating about until I read a series of 5 comics he did. Click here to see all 5 on one page.

There’s really not much more I can say. Go and read that. If you’re not wowed, I’d be surprised.

Next on my list of comics to read through is Narbonic, which is finally available for free. I once read through the first few hundred, on “Free Comics Day”, but didn’t get to finish, and decided that it wasn’t worth paying money to read. Hopefully once I get through the entire archives I’ll be more impressed, but I’m not entirely sure what all the hype is about.

I’ve discovered one of the perils of writing a Webcomic Blog:

You can’t read webcomics.

You see, I have a huge, HUGE list of webcomics to read through some day. The trouble is, I’m afraid to read through them, because if I read through a webcomic, I feel obliged to blog about it. And I enjoy blogging about them, but my “blogging” mood is quite different to my “wanting to read through the archives of webcomics” mood.

I’m still unsure how to deal with this.

Anyway, this post, as well as complaining about said issues, is to promote a new blog that I’ve started. Updating daily (ah, do you remember the days when WWR would do that?), it deals with the fact that I know everything. So submit questions, and enjoy the bounty of my wisdom. You can check it out at I-Know-Everything.com.

Lemon Demon (famous for such cartoons as “Potter Puppet Pals”, and music such as “The Ultimate Showdown”) recently pointed towards me towards this webcomic. He described it as “the most obnoxious webcomic in the world”, which was enough to start me reading.

Unlike my other favourite “good because it’s so incredibly bad” comic, this one didn’t really seem to have a…goal. Or any logic behind. In Chick’s world, which I shall dub “Chicktopia”, there are set rules with a purpose. If you don’t do what the protagonist says, you’ll end up meeting a huge face-less man who will check a book, and send you to hell. If you’re gay, then you have to be really, really inappropriate at times. And if you’re Li’l Susy, then your friends are the most easily swayed people in the history of the world. These rules are set as they are in an attempt to convert people to Christianity.

In Minimum Security, however, there seems to be no rhyme or reason behind the rules. For instance, in this world, animals can talk. Animals talking is perfectly acceptable, as long as it’s that one-eyed (Why is it one-eyed!?) bunny. Vegetables talking, however, is WRONG WRONG WRONG. Secondly, the ruler of America is a guy with the strangest hair I’ve ever seen. For the first 20 or so comics I read, I thought he was wearing some kind of swimcap with a fish tail poking out the back. Why was there a fishtail poking out the back? Probably for the same reason that bloody rabbit has one eye. (Why!?)

This ruler (for the sake of argument, we’ll call him “a badly-drawn satire of George Bush”, or “Abdsofgb” for short. (pronounced “Ab-deh-sof-gib”)) is completely without conscience, remorse, or any type of logic whatsoever. Why he’d steal a widow’s cheque when he obviously makes so much money posing for playboy, I don’t know. He seems to want to become supreme overlord, however he inexplicably evicts people from hotels.

Seriously, what the hell is this comic even about?

My favourite part of the site (apart from the comics which don’t even bother with a punchline or disguise their rant in any way, other than making it come out of three character’s mouth, instead of just in a livejournal post) is either the testimonials page (quotes such as “Nice site. It’s always refreshing to see that sometimes the brainwashing doesn’t take.”, showing that the strip’s author isn’t the only entirely deluded person out there) or one of her many interviews, particularly the one where she explains the origin of the strip’s name.

Lemon Demon suggested that it was a hoax. After delving through all the various facets of the page, I have to say…if it’s a hoax, it’s a Jack-Chick-level one. After first reading Chick Tracts, I assumed that it was a hoax, before discovering how long he’d been around. So if it is a hoax, it’s one of the most elaborate hoaxes out there.

I’m tempted to read through all 200 or so comics, but I think that my brain would burn up after the first 50. I sincerely wish that there was a “view by topic” option, as I’d love to see her take on the Twin Towers. Anyway, I’ll leave you with some of the more confusing/amusing comics she’s done:

Ah, those pesky Christians.
I really, truly have no idea what this one is about.
Ah, pop-tarts. I’m going to assume they’re representative of communism or something.
Bonus points for the use of “Whelp”, which I’m going to assume is a reference to Men in Hats‘ “Welp”.
The greatest comic of all.

Okay, finally, I have read through the archives of all (but a few) of the comics which I missed during my month of “nonternet”. So, here’s a quick recap:

• I’m amazed at how very little actually happens in a month of Questionable Content. Ditto Sam and Fuzzy. Although perhaps the latter is because of the absense of Sam, and the introduction of all these characters I have a lot of trouble caring about.
• I didn’t read through the archives of Commissioned!, because
  a) There’s no actual archiving mechanics going on there where I can find comics from a certain date
  b) Going back through the archives, I couldn’t even remember which comics I’d read, and which I hadn’t
  c) It’s not the biggest plot-centric comic, so I know that I won’t miss anything in that respect.

• While I read through the archives of Able and Baker, I again had trouble remembering which individual comics I’d read, and which I hadn’t. Able and Baker should be everyone’s first stop for puns.
• Obscured by Species actually failed to update even once during the month, so it’s moving from “Comics I Read” to “Comics I’ve Read”. It’s a pity, for it was such a promising comic.

• Order of the Stick managed to get even more hilarious. Next pay check, I have to buy the two books that he’s offering.
• Despite me having a dialogue with the creator about the subject, Four Panels is still yet to develop a decent archive system. Frustrating.
• While having most of the webcomics I read on Livejournal Syndication is great for convenience, it makes reading through their archives a lot harder. So much that I actually skipped doing it for all but QC, Casey and Andy and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. I’ll catch up on the others later, I suppose. As a result, nothing that’s currently happening in PvP makes sense to me.

  So, all things going well, I should resume regular updates. Once a week or so - it’s no Websnark, but at least it’s more frequent than Carzorblog, which would be my new favourite comicblog if it would just update more damned regularly.

Hey hey! Sorry about the inactivity. After I returned from the ‘net, I had to read through a hell of a lot of Livejournal posts. Then I started on webcomics. I’ve been trying to get through a bit over a month’s worth of comics for over 50 or so comics, and it’s really not easy. As soon as I finish that, however, I shall update with a few things:

-A new Weekly Webcomic Review (I promise)
-Thoughts about various comics
-Comments on Casey and Andy ending
-And possibly a contest.

So, look out for that then. Good.

I have both this webcomic blog and a livejournal. I sometimes forget that not everyone who reads one, reads the other, and vice-versa. So it may come as a surprise to readers of this comicblog (but not of my livejournal) to discover that I am taking the month of May “off” from the internet. I’m allowed to read emails marked “URGENT”, and use the net for research purposes, but I’m not reading any webcomics, updating my blog or Livejournal, or doing any of the other social things which I normally do on the internet.

When I return, however, there shall be updates by the barrel-load. Perhaps even guest updates as well. So just bear with me for a while, while I’m not here.

(special thanks to Malach for reminding me I never actually mentioned here that I was taking the month off.)

Well, I woke up to an email from a guy named Will Dinski asking me to check out his webcomic, Habitual Entertainment. I went and checked it out, and quite honestly…I don’t know what I thought of it.

It’s not a humour webcomic. I think it’s a story-based comic, though “comic” to me suggests that every strip has some kind of pull at the end to bring you back next time. This comic doesn’t. It has a nice art style, with the only colours being red and white, but it’s not a blood-red. It’s more of a…heck, I can’t even describe what kind of red it is. It’s not aggressive, I’ll say that much.

The story is, at first glance, about a man who wants his son to become a farmer like he is. I think it’s set in the future, based on the presence of robots and an “antique” tractor, but it could be an alternative universe for all I can tell. It’s very stylistic.

It reminded me of Imaginary Friends in parts, though the archive system is more like Panel One.

In short, I have absolutely no idea what I thought of it. I can’t recommend it as a “good” strip, but I do suggest that you all go and have a look at it for pure weirdness. It’s not the story that weirded me out, it’s the whole concept that you’d spend the time to make a story like this, and then publish it on the internet, week by week, expecting people to come back.

Somehow, it worked. I’m going to keep coming back to it, at least for a while. So go and check out Habitual Entertainment, come back here, and try to have more coherent thoughts on it than I do.

I, like 95% of the people on Livejournal, read theferrett’s journal. I’ve done this since long, long before Eric Burns made it cool. I also read Ferrett’s webcomic, Home on the Strange.

So in Livejournal recently, Ferrett posted a link to a comicblog which I had already seen recently, called The Silent Penultimate Panel Watch. He then joked about how many times he himself uses the technique of the “beat” panel, as I like to call it. I have nothing against this technique, personally. I consider it the equal of a comedian pausing before a punchline.

Of course, I think it can be overused, a fact I made fun of in my webcomic Soap. (here and here)

I found it odd that Ferrett was pointing out his own overuse in Home on the Strange, because the one time that I’ve ever noticed the underuse of the technique was in that webcomic. (This is one of those posts that I mentally wrote during my absense from this site)

If you haven’t read through Home on the Strange, go do that first. It’s a good comic, and it’s short enough that it won’t take you two weeks. (Unlike Real Life, the comic I’m reading through at the moment.)

Now, I want to draw your attention to this strip in particular. You see, I read that, and my first thought was “Wow, that could really use a beat panel.” The joke works as it stands, but I can imagine a shot of Karla staring, open-mouthed at Izzy, before grabbing her and saying “We need to talk.”

What’s even more interesting than the comic itself is Ferrett’s writings about the creation process. Both in the newsposts on the site itself, and on his Livejournal. Other comickers write about this, of course, but few to none are as experienced at writing as he. (Eric Burns is the only exception that I can think of, but then his fans bullied him out of writing about it.)

That’s not to say the comic isn’t great. As a Buffy fan, I’m appreciating all the Buffy in-jokes, and the art perfectly matches the writing. Definitely a recommended read.

Well, since my last proper post, I’ve been dumped by my girlfriend, quit my job (well, one of them) and discovered the wonder that is Scrubs. I plan on spending all day tomorrow trying to find a new job. So I’ll make this quick.

(Image from Panel One)

Panel One is a comic I found quite a while ago, and I have no idea how. All I remember is that I discovered it before Penny Arcade did. It’s an experimental webcomic about a comic and its caption, and the entire english alphabet (that’s a character, by the way.) Despite the three characters being integral parts of the strip itself, they each have a seperate personality, and the comic in general is well-written.

Recently, the english alphabet (affectionately referred to as “Phoebe”) took the caption’s “e”s away. Everything that the caption said could no longer contain the letter “e”. Whatvr it said would rad lik this, you s.

So I was rather surprised when I tuned in a few weeks ago (I really need to update more often…I’ve had this update mentally written since this comic first aired) to find the Caption saying, as you can see in the strip above, “Show it to me.” and “How does that work?”

Obviously, I thought at the time, Mr Danner was building up to some fantastic twist in which the caption could overpower Phoebe. It would be the start of a fantastic fight between freedom of speech and Phoebe’s powers!

It’s been a while now, and I’m less hopeful. In fact, I’m starting to suspect that Alexander Danner actually…

…made a mistake. I know, I know. I feel dirty just typing that.

Go and check out Panel One. It has a great archiving system, and it’s an interesting read. Mild language, nothing that you haven’t heard before if you’re older than 12.

Next time I get 10 minutes spare, I’ll try to update again. This is the advantage of RSS, you see, you don’t have to pop in every day to see if I’ve updated.