There is much to be said for brevity. Ironic, no?
Alright, let’s see.
-Thank god, Ornery Boy is back. Just… please, please put his eye back in. I don’t know why, but that really wigs me out.
-I really liked the subtlety in the other day’s SMBC. Alright, it may not be all that subtle, but I thought it was clever, ok?
-Ah, right! Web Cartoonists’ Choice Awards are into nominations. Go and give your suggestions, etc.
-Note to self: Gaming Guardians is going to have to go on my List of Really Good Webcomics That I Need To Reread The Archives Thereof In Order To Know What The Fuck Is Going On.
-Note to self: Find a new name for that list. Brevity, yes, good. Endless torrent of words, no, bad.
-I’m thinking of seeing X-Men 3. Should I see X-Men 3? I’ve heard really conflicting reports about it.
That is all.
Expectations
You know, I never expected to see any sort of development of the character of Twitchy-hug.
I certainly didn’t expect the direction the current plot arc took us through (in a relatively short amount of time.) (This in spite of the fact that there was, in fact, a bit of set-up leading up to it.)
And I didn’t remotely see coming the conclusion of this little arc, nor the cameo appearance at the end.
The lesson learned here? I should predict the most dreary, banal things, since the unexpected apparently rocks my socks off.
Second Thoughts
I have, in the past, been somewhat critical of the Modern Tales collective – or it’s current state, in any case.
So I felt it would be the honorable thing to do to give a shout out to them in appreciation at the quantity of good stuff I noticed today.
First off, the infamous William G has been added to the line-up at Graphic Smash. For all that I’ve rarely agreed with his rantings and ravings, I’ve always been impressed with his comics, and glad to see one of them in a place it will be easy for me to keep track of it.
Next up, in Digger, it looks like the pursuit of the dark, malevolent entities is to be cut short by an attack from vampire squash. Man, how often do you get to write a sentence like that? Not very, is the answer.
I don’t really have anything special to say about the Guardians, Magellan, or Reckless Life, save that they are all rock-solid awesome strips, and getting all of them the same day is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
Picture Story Theatre continues its latest bizarre but entertaining piece. There are several other strips updating at Modern Tales, and even if not my cup of tea, I’m glad to see the activity.
Paradigm Shift is to my tastes, however, and its return from hiatus remains a pleasant surprise.
But the big winner, unsurprisingly, is Narbonic. We’ve been meandering of late, you see. The characters have grown distant, gone their seperate ways. There has been a dying down of the previous storylines, as the past is fading and the mood is subdued.
But now the spark just hit the fire. I mean, Lovelace. Whoa.
So yeah, I’d say we’ve got tension again.
Man, Narbonic rocks.
Fuzzy Friday
Despite the perhaps misleading title, this post isn’t actually about Sam and Fuzzy…
Though, now that I think about it, I feel the need to mention that I really like where the current storyline went. I wasn’t feeling much attachment to the band cast, but the last few strips have really pulled things together nicely.
So I guess my first sentence was a lie.
Anyway, moving on.
What I really wanted to comment on – emphasize, even, if I may be so strong – is for artists to do their best to make comics viewable. The goal of a comic is to communicate with the reader. Regardless of how or why it goes about this, if the communication fails, the comic fails.
I’ve seen blurry, fuzzy images that have been poorly scanned or rendered. I’ve seen strips with confounding directories that make it impossible to actually go through the archives. The latest offender is a recent Deathworld strip, which decides to use a painful lack of contrast in a font choice.
(As a note, I actually like Deathworld quite a bit, and like, in that strip, the ghostly Allison, even if she does look uncannily like a startled castmember from the Botmaker.)
Choose your colors wisely. Choose your fonts wisely. And this isn’t just about art – lay out your webpage well. Avoid browsing systems and subscription directories that actively impede the ability to browse the comic.
Make it easy, in every way, for the reader to enjoy your comic.
Because if you make it so people have to work at it, have to spend significant effort to decipher your comic… they’ll take their time elsewhere.
And that’s all I’ve got to say for today.
Transitions
One of the things I have found most frustrating about the Modern Tales collection – and this one, admittedly, is in no way their fault – is how easy it is to lose track of comics that leave.
Partly it is due to how many of them have inconsistent updates – and as such, I don’t always register, promptly, that a comic hasn’t been updating for a while. Sometimes the comic is simply on hiatus – at other times, it has left. Even when comics do announce their departure, it may be a while before they set up shop on the web again, without any way to explicitly track where.
I have lost count, I am sad to say, of the number of good comics on those sites that have fallen by the wayside – some entirely, and some merely by my own radar.
As such, it is always pleasing when I stumble back across one of them.
Now, as is also often the case, their archives at a new location may be a bit behind, and I will still find myself awaiting new content…
But it’s good to know the content is there and coming, ya know?
Johnny Saturn isn’t anything special, itself. It’s a good comic, and a fun comic – one of the ones that really worked for Graphic Smash as an action comic. It has some attempts at throwing off stereotypes, but also lives up to a lot of cliches – but it generally does so with its own sense of style.
But while it may not be one of the heavy hitters on the web, it was still a comic I was glad to rediscover and toss back on my reading list. Some days, I suppose, that’s enough.
A Smashing Success
Now, I’ll preface this by saying that I am not, by any stretch of the imagination, much of a drinker. Upon turning 21, I very safely got drunk a single time for the experience, and since then have only dabbled in the beverage arts.
So, my appreciation of such things is lower than most. That said, I’m quite engaged by the latest little barhopping spree in Nukees. I still don’t know what is exactly going on in the big picture, but there are lots of little things to savor – in particular the well dressed gentleman who enjoys a midmorning brew, and the use of such terms as “bartrendresses” and “alcoholistic.”
I don’t have anything of especial wit to say about them, sadly. But Nukees has had me grinning a good bit of late, so I figured, hey! Why not share the love?
Friday Frenzy.
Man, I had all this stuff to talk about, and now can’t remember half of it. Isn’t that how it always goes?
Let’s see, let me take a quick glance through my notes…
1) Holy Cameo Crossover, Batman! Word on the street is that the two mac users are Penny Arcade’s Gabe and Tycho (the real ones. Not the pixel ones.) The truth of that is yet to be seen, but I can certainly see hijinks ensuing.
That aside, I also really liked yesterday’s comic, or more specifically, the way Jade and Miranda talk at each other, rather than to each other.
Also, I just took a look at the PvP Cast Page (which I rarely glance at), and was impressed by its quality. Gimmicks are a good thing, folks.
2) While we’re mentioning all the big names: Sluggy Freelance!
I am still reserving my final judgement on the current storyline. It is exactly what fans have been asking for, without being exactly what they have actually wanted. We’ve had some good stuff and some bad stuff, and it still has a lot of potential to go in either direction.
But what I am really digging is the art. As usual, Abrams is more than willing to flex his artistic muscles. It can be really easy to look over Sluggy art as less refined than other comics, especially during random daily strips – but the comic has a style of its own, and Abrams really takes things to a whole new level during intense storylines.
So I might not yet know where the story is going, but I’m definitely enjoying the ride.
3) Let’s go from the big names to the almost unknown ones: My Nemesis. (No, not Nemesis. Not Mnemesis either. Yeah, I get confused too.)
My Nemesis was introduced to me in a somewhat unusual fashion. Those others I discovered through pretty positive feedback in the web community (Nemesis through the artist’s connection collaborating with Burns of Websnark fame, and Mnemesis from having a cameo of a character from It’s Walky.)
But this comic, instead, I first learned of through the most painfully aggressive review possible.
It was rather surprising when, after the review sent me to check out this terrible comic… I discovered I actually kinda liked it. I actually really kinda liked it.
There is a guest comic today talking about some of the changes in the comic – in the look, in the movement from humor to drama, and so forth. It felt like a good time to mention it. The comic is at a definite turning point, and it has left me with a lot of things to ponder – hopefully I’ll get up a full review of it next week.
Well, I feel like I’ve tortured everyone enough for today. I seem to be in recovery from my allergies (the year-old medicine did the job frighteningly well… almost diabolically well.) So hopefully next week I’ll have my groove back and be able to get some more competent writing out here.
Till then, keep on keeping on… and don’t forget Free Comic Book Day!
The patriotic screams are a nice touch, I thought.
Pacing is key to a good comic. It is key to humor, and it is key to drama.
And, unsurprisingly, it is the key to blending the two.
Despite how much I tend to be turned off by heavy politics in comics, Southworth’s latest story-arc has been easily holding my attention. I wasn’t expecting things to escalate to the sort of action at hand, but I can’t argue with how well it has been executed – or how perfect the entire thing is brought together in this strip.
It helps that a harbor a private joy in using the word “sure” to confound my enemies – but that is a story for another time. For right now, this strip really works wonders. I don’t know whether to break down laughing, or stay glued to attention to find out what happens next. And I get the same thing every time I look at the comic.
It can be easy to make a comic do what you want, to toss out an easy punchline that works once. But coming up with a comic that still holds the punch even once already read?
Now that’s good stuff.
All Good Things…
So.
Casey and Andy is coming to an end.
In a lot of ways, that is pretty depressing news – one of the best part of many webcomics is that they are stories without end. They just keep going, on and on, and we don’t have to leave our favorite characters behind.
But sometimes that changes. Comics change, and people change – it happens to the best of us. (And mark well, Andy Weir qualifies for that category.) Sometimes other interests take root. Sometimes the demands of real life come to the forefront. And sometimes, the character’s simply have finished their stories – they’ve done their jokes, won their wars, and their time has come to retire.
Some comics simply fade away… and others go out with a bang.
Given the history of Casey and Andy, is it any surprise as to which one they intend to do?
There is one final story-arc planned – a proper sending off of the cast and crew. It will run for several months. No holds barred, no status quo to protect. A grand finale worthy of the whimsical, explosive, crazy legacy of Casey and Andy.
I will be there to the end. I will gladly enjoy this last triumph of Casey and Andy.
So while I may be sad to see it go… it is the same bittersweet sadness of a well-read book. A story that may be finished, but was more than worth the read.
I have utmost faith in Andy’s ability to tell a story, and am confident this last arc will be a wild, wild ride.
And when the last page is done, and the lights go out? I’ll be glad to have read the comic for the last few years, and glad for the story they brought with ’em.
I can’t ask for more than that.
Friday Frivolities
So, first off. Obligatory discussion of Wii. Yeah.
Like everyone else talking about it, it fails to appeal to me as a name. Or as a gaming system. Or as a philosophical concept.
Of the various rants about it, I think Logan said it best – I’m not all that concerned about the “filthy joke novelty” of it, I’m just concerned that it doesn’t work for me as a word.
It just sounds bizarre, and has trouble rolling off my tongue. Will that change? Perhaps. Give it long enough, and it could forge its way into sensibility.
But still. Wii.
They came so close to an excellent name for a gaming system, too! Ah well, maybe next time.
Moving on – in addition to his wise thoughts on the Wii, Logan continues to show us how awesome ninjas are. I just can’t say no to ninjas! Because, see, they’d kill me if I did.
Finally, the most exciting thing currently going on is over at the Digital Pimp. The big showdown between George and Joe is coming to a head, and this is a moment I’ve been hella waiting for! (Apologies for use of the word “hella.”)
What really impresses me isn’t that we’ve had this big dramatic story in a strip devoted to one-shot weekly jokes. Nah, what really gets me is how much of this little plot was developed not through the comic itself, but outside of it – in the newsposts. In the forums. Throughout the website entire. The comic itself was just part of the medium for telling the story.
Little references to the whole shebang showed up here and there in the strips, sure, and someone reading the comic alone wouldn’t have any trouble reading through the whole arc without pause.
But there was that extra step for those looking behind the scenes. That takes imagination, and that takes skill. I thoroughly approve.
And now we’ve got the pay-off about to hit. I’m all a-shiver with anticipation.
It’s been a great comic from the start. The art is fantastic. The jokes are generally dead-on. I mean, I’ve never been one to see all that many movies, and I used to be dead set against shelling out cash for bad ones – but when I read the comics? I feel the need to get in on it.
Cause Joe Loves Crappy Movies… and now, I do too.
Damn Good Comics 
