On Bats and Bones and Many Things
I had meant to comment yesterday on the appearance of a familiar face in Scary Go Round, but… well, let’s just say that dodging falling meteorites would have been a less harrowing ordeal than some of the chaos that ambushed me.
But aside from assuring us that the inimitable Rich Tweedy hadn’t simply just ceased to exist, we only had a moment’s glimpse at the blast from the past – and today we’re dealing with far more urgent affairs.
Still, as interesting as the current storyline is (the return of the inimitable Ryan Beckwith! Troubled times for Tim and Riley! Friend Bat is dead; long live Comrade Bat!), that glance back at the days of Bobbins did bring out a certain nostalgia.
Scary Go Round is one of several comics that I still think of as new, solely because I was around when they began. Of course, by now, it’s actually been around for four years, and almost as large as it’s predecessor. It is also sometimes hard to keep track of time in Mr. John Allison’s works due to the very structure of them, and the fact that he bounces from one set of characters to the next with abandon.
Scary Go Round represents a number of curious contradictions in my eyes. Allison doesn’t really like jokes, persay – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t funny. Humorous dialogue and scenes are as fundamental to the strip as anything else, and Allison shows that his comic can make you laugh at every panel without worrying about setting up punchlines.
Similarly, the plot tends to lack a central focus, and instead have any number of ongoing threads that it jumps to and from at any given time. When the strip started, the focus was a bit tighter than it had been with Bobbins. But over time it’s return to a similar style, and while a more polished work in general, it still seems to move from scene to scene at it’s creator’s whimsy.
Which isn’t a bad thing, mind you. Whimsy is what makes Scary Go Round… er, go round. Allison has never feared change in his comic. He often experiments with new art styles, ditches some characters and focuses on others, and occasionally even kills characters off… even if they equally occasionally come back. And despite the fact he doesn’t simply stick to a single tried and true formula, he’s one of the fortunate few making a living from his comic.
That certainly says a lot to me.
Addendum: Check out Saturday’s post, now that I’ve gotten around to realizing I only posted half of it.
Two Funny Guys
Today is the last day of Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days.It is strange to mourn it’s passing, for it isn’t the end of a webcomic, merely the end of guest filler in a webcomic. Of course, most guest strips are brief things, not weekly reoccurences – nor of they as supremely well done as BSFD.
Clay Yount, one of the geniuses behind Rob and Elliot, was able to perfectly capture the essence of classic Sluggy Freelance. Doing that in a single guest strip is hard – doing it week after week takes skill.
It helps that it isn’t too great a leap from the friendship and wackiness of Rob and Elliot to that of Torg and Riff – but at the same time, he managed to use the similarities without just writing a Rob and Elliot comic with a few names changed.
The previous guest-strip maker on Sluggy Freelance gave us Meanwhile, In the Dimension of Pain… which, let’s face it, just didn’t work. I have nothing against McDonald, but he just had a different brand of humor, and a different style of art, that just couldn’t quite do the job. It is nothing I would hold against him – after all, I don’t expect perfection from most guest strips I see – but it meant I skipped every Saturday strip as hastily as I could.
But Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days? They didn’t just work, they worked well. And at times, I even found myself as eager – if not more – for them as for some of the currently running Sluggy storylines.
Lately Sluggy has had my interest again, but I’ll be honest – I like seeing Torg and Riff around again, but just seeing them wandering around acting like the idiots they were in the good old days just doesn’t work. They’ve been through too much (Torg especially), and while I understand that they themselves want nothing more than to go back to being carefree and silly… it still rings a little false. It doesn’t drive me away from the strip, mind you – but it doesn’t do much for me, either.
We’re waiting for the more momentous events, these days. I know that Pete wants to preserve the humor that the strip was founded on, rather than just run with the more serious storylines it has built up to… but it is already past that stage. Does this mean the comic should abandon humor entirely? No way, certainly not!
But it needs to place the humor within the current setting it has grown into. Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days work because they were outside of continuity, set in the past, set in that atmosphere that really was just about random amusement.
The Bikini Suicide Frisbee days are long past in the main storyline, however – and now they’ve come to a close for a second time.
It is no small act that Clay Yount has managed to create a series of guest strips of such quality that people are sad to see it go. Rob and Elliot is slowing it’s weekly activity as well, due to the coming of Cosmobear.
Which I currently no nothing about, but let’s face it – it’s likely to be just as good as the rest of their works, and I’m sure I’ll be there in two weeks to take in the laughs when it is released.
All the pieces fall into place…
I read this week’s Perry Bible Fellowship, and somehow forgot which comic I was reading. I managed to finish the strip, thinking, “Aw, gee, this week’s PBF was actually nice and happy, with the kid using his gaming skillz to clean his room in a new and innovative way and OH MY GOD.”
Maybe it’s a sign of my boundless optimism that I didn’t immediately notice that this week’s strip was just as horribly evil as the rest of them. Maybe it’s just due to the wooziness from all the strange chemicals they dripped into my eyes during my eye exam earlier today. The world may never know!
No more to report today, but tune in tomorrow for a special Saturday post!
Topics of Merit
I found myself hunting around on the website of Ryan Estrada (artist and adventurer!) Wandering through his site is always a pleasant experience, even if not a fruitful one – it is easy to get sidetracked from one’s original goals, and end up reading through any manner of assorted oddities.
My goal in venturing to the site was to discover when Ryan Estrada (artist and adventurer!) planned to continue the great work that is Aki Alliance. My search, sadly, ended in failure, but I will hold out hope that it shall return when we least expect it, bringing with it salvation and hope….or something along those lines.
Anyway! As usual, despite a lack of success in what I was actually looking for, I did manage to find two things of note. The first was Ped X-ing, his 168 hr comic (yes, he’s aware that he’s stark raving mad.) Aside from the fact that it was, as mentioned, a 168 hr comic, it also stars Aki, of the self-same comic mentioned above. And some other interesting characters, too.
But the real treasure was Gamer’s Edge, World Reknowned Comic Strip of the Future, as produced by Ryan Estrada (artist and adventurer!) You see, there is this website called Acts of Gord. Acts of Gord is a collection of stories about a man named Gord who runs a gaming store, and the myriad and sundry acts of stupidity he must face on a daily basis, and his righteous humiliation of his most incompetent customers/rivals/foes.It’s a genius little gem of a site, and sure to bring many hours of amusement if you haven’t read it before. It’s been around for ages, and though finite (as Gord’s gamestore days came to an end), it is a long honored site in the stockpile of any true devotee of the internet. So to summarize: Act’s of Gord = awesome.
Gamer’s Edge is a comic based on it.
How cool is that?
(Answer: It’s pretty damn cool.)
The comic rendition is a tad more action-packed, but as mentioned above – it’s pretty damn cool. And really, anything done by Ryan Estrada (artist and adventurer!) is destined to be a quality read. So go, check it out, and hope nothing else on his site draws you in for another hour… or three.
Addendum: In other news, while shopping for holiday presents today, I spotted a copy of American Born Chinese in the local bookstore, and treated myself to it. It really does feel good whenever I see this material out in the open for the rest of the world to take a look at, and maybe take a chance on.
Additional Addendum: This is post number 200 of this here blog! It may not be much, but it still feels nice. You may have noticed the new look of the site, which I picked up when converting to the new version of Blogger now controlled by the powerful entity that is Google. I’m not entirely happy with it, but I think we can all agree it is much better than the horror that was the last site layout, yes?
Alternate Additional Addendum: Fleen has hit an even bigger landmark, and turns one year old on this very day! They’ve had some brilliant articles and some silly ones, but Fleen has definitely made itself a place in the wide world of webcomics, and all the more props to them for that. Regardless of the reviews themselves, what makes Fleen great (at least in my mind) is it’s presence as the most prominent news source on webcomics. They’ve done some solid stuff, and they certainly seem to be here to stay, so drop on by and say a few good words.
Something Wicked this Way Comes
R.K. Milholland likes to append a message at the bottom of every comic he posts. Sometimes these are in-jokes, sometimes they are random quotes, sometimes they are a commentary on the comic itself.One such comment, placed at a turning-point in the most recent storyline, was as follows:
“‘You’re supposed to redeem Kharisma.’ Funny. I don’t remember making that promise.”
It seems self-explanatory from the quote that there were quite a few people who expected Kharisma to overcome her own inherently hateful nature. The seeds were there, sure – Something Positive is about people, and no one person is no more than an icon of evil or hate.
(Well, not entirely true – many side characters, from e-bay scammers to perverse gamers, are presented as two-dimensional objects to be mocked and pitied and hated. But all the recurring characters in S*P have at least some measure of depth.)
I’ve touched on this topic before, when Kharisma’s fate was still up in the air. Would she end up like Mike, and find some measure of acceptance… and personal redemption? Or another Eva, whose view of the world would only grow darker as it fed upon itself?
I use Eva as an example here, but it is an imperfect one. We saw Mike’s redemption and development throughout the first years of the strip. Eva’s downfall happened in pieces here and there, often off-screen. She was more scenery than character, and while her flaws certainly grew and grew, it was more as an obstacle in Davan’s life, not as fully a story all her own.
So I suppose I can understand why some people expected Kharisma to find her better side. Randy invested time in her. She’s shown up more and more the last few years – and even had quite a few storylines focusing around her. Like Mike she was an outcast, slowly becoming more and more attached to the main cast.
And for a time, she actually was a sympathetic figure. While working alongside Davan in his hellish job… well, let’s say she was the lesser evil in those environs. And when she left… well, those were the moments when she seemed to genuinely have the capacity to interact with the rest of the cast on an equal level. And when she even seemed to have a heart.And then she embarked on the path to becoming a homicidal murderess.
Kharisma is the counterpart to Mike. Eva wasn’t – Eva started off good, and then her duplicity was revealed. That’s a different story entirely – and one that, for the most part, happened out of sight.
We’ve watched Kharisma. Like with Mike, we saw her fail at being a human being from the very start, but she stayed in sight despite it. And we saw that the possibility for redemption was there.
But it was never promised. It was never guaranteed.
And in the end, she fell, and she fell hard.
I’m not surprised, and I’m not disappointed. I liked Mike’s path to humanity, but if every character was destined to overcome their petty flaws? Then doing so would be absolutely meaningless.
Would I have enjoyed a storyline where Kharisma did manage to overcome her failings? Probably. But this is the story Milholland is telling… and he’s telling it damn well.
This ain’t your momma’s fairy tale…
I’m surprised I haven’t heard more about Erfworld.
It’s a brand new webcomic. It just began last week, with a hefty start in the form of six full pages, each one a pretty impressive production. It came out the gates running, and even had a cast page all ready to go. That’s a damn good start – though it isn’t what caught my attention.
The comic is written by Robert Balder, the brilliant (and occasionally evil) mind behind Partially Clips.
The comic is illustrated by Jamie Noguchi, the enlightened artist responsible for Angry Zen Master.
The comic is hosted at Rich Burlew’s website, Giant in the Playground, most well known as the home of the Order of the Stick.
That’s a pretty impressive bunch of names. That’s a lot of individuals whose work already impresses me, and whose creative opinions I’ll put a lot of faith in. So right off the bat, I’m inclined to expect good things from Erfworld – and right off the bat, it doesn’t disappoint.
The comic takes a graphic novel style format, and seems to be unfolding a lengthy and elaborate story – but despite this, is filled with humor and just plain silliness. As soon as one sees the curiously familiar titans forging the world, it becomes obvious this isn’t just another epic fantasy.
It seems too soon to say much more. But the writing is sharp, the art is gorgeous, and the story is already intriguing. With less than a week under it’s belt, it’s hard to do better than that.
Second Verse, Not Quite the Same as the First
If nothing else comes of ComicSpace, it has already done me one great service – it has reintroduced me to the works of Corey Marie.
Some years ago, when the internet was young(er), she was the artist of a strip called Life’s So Rad. It was a brilliant fun little comic – and then it went away. It was taken down for personal reasons, and I can’t find any fault in that, though I remained sad to see it go.
Fast forward several years. Corey Marie apparently has a new comic: Scene Language. It’s been around for almost half-a-year now, but as is often the case, I only discovered it through sheer chance.
I will momentarily pause to belabor a point I’ve touched on before – keeping track of comics or artists who have gone on hiatus is difficult. I don’t know how many strips are out there that I once read, paused when they stopped updating, and never checked back with when they returned to action.
That’s one of the reasons I make posts like this, both for comics new and old – a comic tends to be almost entirely carried along by word of mouth. Advertising can help, sure, but that only does so much. A group can notice new comics (or returning ones) much, much easier than a single person can. That, in my opinion, is one of the real values of the webcomic blogs and news sites.
Anyway, back to the comic itself.
I’ll be the first to admit that I know very little about the scene. I enjoy music, but my knowledge of the subject is supremely limited. All I know about rockers I learned from… well, from webcomics much like this one. There are certainly comics with all manner of inside jokes that I just don’t get.
Fortunately, this isn’t one of them. My knowledge (or lack thereof) does little to impair my appreciation for the comic. Despite the setting, the subject isn’t really about bands and music – it’s about people. Which people isn’t entirely obvious at the start – we follow the misadventures of Phil for a bit, but he’s hardly the hero of the story. (Or, really, at all…)
The cast page lists four main characters. It seems clear the story is going to be about them, even if it isn’t entirely just yet. One of them has only just arrived, and the connections between the four are still immersed in a mess of other people and other lives.
It’s interesting, seeing where a story is going, and how far it has to go.
The comic is only in it’s infancy, despite already having 64 strips under the belt. But I can already tell that I like it. The art is solid and lively, a stronger version of the style I liked from Life’s So Rad. The characters are… well, human, to start, which means they are engaging, interesting, and flawed.
Which, really, is about as good as it gets.
It’s not Life’s So Rad, but it isn’t supposed to be. It’s good, and that’s all that matters. I know I’ll be watching it eagerly.
The Hits Just Keep Coming
Scott Kurtz never ceases to surprise me.
Addendum: Oh, and what’s with this? You guys aren’t allowed to be all serious and cliffhangery on a weekend! I’m not primed to deal with character development right now, man – it’s just too much!
Collective Contributions
Child’s Play is once again doing amazingly, and is already just shy of the half a million mark – with plenty of time still to go.
But this comes as no surprise, really, considering its past success. It’s good news to be sure – but it isn’t what caught my attention in the latest Penny Arcade news post.
GameTrailers.com is having a promotion. You earn some virtual money on their site – via watching trailers, writing reviews, rating games, etc – and you can turn that virtual money into a donation from them to Child’s Play. They’ve got a cap on it – their goal of $10,000 – and at the rate the donations are going, it seems likely they’ll easily meet that within the day.
I find this vastly intriguing. The virtual money idea in general is pretty cool, and certainly makes for a solid way to forcibly build community. More than that, I like the way that gaming entities are working just as hard as individuals to contribute to Child’s Play – while in many ways this isn’t really any different than other companies directly donating money to the charity, I like the way it lets people help make a difference, even if they can’t directly donate themselves.
Sorry there isn’t anything of more substance today (or even this week) – I’ve got a ton of things that I’ve been wanting to review, and just haven’t had the time to really sit down and do them justice. Hopefully next week will be a bit less hectic.
Till then, do what you can to help Child’s Play, even if it’s nothing more than continuing to spread the word!
Com(ics) Unity
So… there’s now a MySpace for Comics.
I like the idea, certainly. I don’t know how much I, personally, will make use of it, as I never really entered the MySpace craze… but nonetheless, I like the concept of it.
There is often a lot of discussion regarding the so-called webcomics community. Sometimes the talk centers around whether or not there actually is one. A year or two back, when it seemed drama lurked around every corner from one month to the next, it seemed like the community was nothing more than small dedicated camps devoted to their favorite authors, ready to tear into each other at the slightest provocation.
Hmm. That might, just might, be overstating the case a tad. But it is certainly true that many people, time and again, have proclaimed the need for more of a sense of… unity, among the movers and the shakers of the webcomic world. It’s a young medium, sure, but that can be all the more reason for people to be presenting a undivided front, all the more reason to work on improving the entire field as a team.
Now, this is another idea I like. It’s a great sentiment. That said, I don’t expect cartoonists to feel any obligation to work together or devote valuable time and resources to building up the ethereal concept of a webcomic society. The fact is, the majority of webcomickers have enough troubles working on their own comics alone. It’s enough that they put up free comics once, twice, three times a week – if not daily – and expecting them to work on things beyond that scale is, well, somewhat unreasonable. More than that, many of the greatest strides and recognitions earned for webcomics comes from individual successes – Penny Arcade’s work with PAX and Child’s Play, for example.
So I don’t expect much. I can’t demand much – most webcomics are free. I support them where I can, I enjoy their works and recommend the ones that impress me, and as long as they keep providing them, they’ve already done far more than they are obligated to.
But it’s still damn nice when I see groups like Blank Label form, with members pooling their resources to work together. It’s nice to see more and more panels on webcomics, especially with some going an extra step to really discuss more than just your stand Q&A. It’s nice to see, in the last year, a lot of previously antagonistic webcomic camps acting reasonably civil with each other in various matters.
Sure, the drama still pops up from time to time. And sure, the webcomics ‘community’ remains something hard to pin down and point at. But there is more and more discussion going on, both among those who want to take a more intellectual approach, as well as those who just want to sit around and talk about comics. There are more and more gatherings of fans, more and more webcomic collectives, and more and more independant locales for fans of the medium to gather.
ComicSpace isn’t really anything world-shattering, or even entirely dedicated to webcomics alone – but it’s a neat place on several levels. “A place for comic fans and creators to connect with each other.” Sure, you have plenty of those in the form of private forums and messageboards – but an impartial one, open to all? That’s a bit scarcer. Also, free comic hosting. That’s never a bad thing.
Even if it isn’t anything more than a nice little idea, that’s good enough for me.
This has been your daily overanalysis of a very simple topic. Tune in next week, same bat-channel, same bat-time!
Damn Good Comics 