Friday Pontifications
Webcomics seems to be preceding apace, and I don’t find myself with nearly as much on my mind as usual.
Nonetheless, there are a few interesting developments afoot:
–Penny Arcade has been enjoying quite a bit of success with their webcomic creation Podcast. (Guilty little secret: I have never actually listened to a podcast. Ever! Shamefully, nor do I own an i-pod or similar device. It’s true!)
I wonder how many other webcomics may follow in their steps – admittedly there are numerous others that already make use of the podcast medium, but with a bruiser like PA breaking it out, I can’t help but think it may pick up more notice than before. And, as usual, webcomics blur the line between numerous mediums of entertainment.
-Despite any and all claims against the character of Tim Buckley, he demonstrates mad ninja skillz, and as such, any and all trespasses are forgiven. Sorry, Citrus, but ninjas are awesome.
-I may be alone in this, but I am indeed feeling out of sorts with the wonderful world of Goats. I really had been grooving on the uber-storyline they embarked upon, but I felt is somewhat reached its peak… and simply kept on rolling. I do appreciate still the normal humor he has managed to keep cropping up, but the plot itself has left me restless.
-Does anyone else have a bad feeling about why Ornery can understand Brian? I know I do…
Not much else to announce, I’m afraid. On the other hand, it is somewhat nice for things to be on the casual and routine side. Well, no objections here!
Milholland is in his mansion, and all is well with the world (wide web.)
The Song That Ends the Earth
(Click the image on the right for full sized Text, Text, and some more Text.)
(And for full-sized crying Gabe and manical Tycho.)
As you can see on the right, Monday’s Penny Arcade contains quite a bit of text.
A veritable onslaught, one might say. Which is perfectly fine – the words themselves, as most ones chosen by Sir Tycho, are carefully and lovingly crafted to maximum effect.
His writing, as always, pleases.
That said, the writing was not what caught my eye in this strip.
Even here, in a strip that is overflowing with words, it was the art that caught my eye. Despite currently being the artist of the most popular webcomic in existence, and despite having come a long, long way from where the comic began, Gabe often talks abouthis desire to expand his skill as an artist. That’s commendable. Even more – he does so.
Gabe and Tycho don’t have a very wide variety of facial expressions. They are often wearing expressions of disdain, indifference, occasional disgust… and often simply rage. A good variety, but we see it all the time – one reason why I have always liked it when a character gets a bit of a maniacal gleam in their eye. When Gabe gets a chance to draw a bit beyond his usual repertoire.
Today is a good day. Tycho is stark raving mad and Gabe is confronted by horrors beyond mortal imagination. Now that’s a comic I can really get behind!
April Fools
Another April Fools has come and gone, and I wanted to give a shout-out to the best jokes I saw from the occasion.
I didn’t especially partake in the festivities myself, aside from helping to ‘celebrate’ the birthday of my sister, who had the ill-fortune to be born just alongside this day of mischief.
So, here are a few of the keeper’s that I got a kick out of:
–A Brainwarping Twist from CRFH: Good because Maritza is evil enough that it was hard to predict if this was the joke, or if the joke was that this actually happened.
–Brains! from Inverloch: Winner of the “Unexpected Undead Award!” (I just made that reward up.) Definitely clever and funny.
–Old and Alone from Shortpacked: Last year I didn’t notice the Dinosaur Comics nature of his April 1st strip, and despite not reading the works of Ryan North, I must acknowledge Willis’s mastery of this medium as being totally wicked. It wasn’t quite as innately funny as last year’s strip, but I think the laugh this time was more due to the style rather than the substance.
–Switch Up from Ctrl-Alt-Del: I may have ragged on CAD in the past for some of its riffs being a bit formulaic, but I have to say I really liked his April 1st joke. Subtle enough to take a moment to sink in, without the strip even bothering to slow down to acknowledge it. Just a clever nod to the event, and nothing more. That’s good stuff.
Anyway, those were the ones I most noticed and enjoyed. It ain’t easy to pull off a good April Fools joke, since people either expect it to be coming, or are tired of dealing with it already. So even though everyone is back to the normal swing of things, I wanted to recognize a few jokers that pulled it off!
Friday Reflections
A few brief thoughts from some comics this week:
Rich Burlew continues to show his mastery of the craft, as he managed to pull off a very powerfully cinematic piece here. We’ve just had the latest big plot arc come to a resolution… but this strip easily gives us the sense that we are only in the calm before the storm.
I can’t stress enough how much I like the pacing right here. As I said before – it is very cinematic. A classic build-up to whatever is coming, and I definitely am eagerly awaiting.
I like the fact that he is able to fit a good half-dozen plot points into the strip without them feeling out of place. I like the fact that, as in most of his work, he pays attention to all the characters. I like the fact that even with a serious set-up like this, he still pulls out a punchline.
And as good as this strip is… strip number 300 is only 2 strips away.
I can’t imagine he won’t do something special for it. I can only eagerly await and see what he’s got for us next…
Davan with a beard looks old.
I was really startled by how much it changes his appearance. We’d seen the start of the growth recently, but this was the first time we saw a full beard – and, as I said, it makes him look a lot older.
Now, it is admittedly true that growing up is one of the comic’s big themes.
I also recall that Davan’s father showed the signs of his age – take a look at his appearance over the years.
I’m not going to make any speculation on exactly what Davan’s new appearance might mean – it may just be as simple as pointing out that he is too busy and too stressed to have time to shave.
Still, it came as a bit of a shock to see, and I figured I’d make note of it.
Till next week!
Brevity
Just a few quick thoughts before I dash off for more of my wild life of adventure and excitement~
1) I thought the idea of the Inside Joker to be totally awesome, and “Butterfly” continues to be a hella fun strip.
2) Despite never having been able to enjoy reading Achewood, and steadfastly refusing to read a story arc without full immersion in background plot, I’ve been keeping abreast of the Great Outdoor Fight. It’s big, it’s brutal, and all the other bloggers have gone into more educated discussion of it than I ever could.
3) The final panel from yesterday’s strip of the Green Avenger was really, really funny. The facial expression are just perfect. I keep going back to that strip and giggling at it.
4) Mr. Milholland is done with his play, and comics are back not just for Something Positive… but also Midnight Macabre! Not only that, but I was struck by one quote from the recent strip: “Viewer’s aren’t going to give me that kinda money. People don’t pay for what they are used to getting for free.”
The similarity between Gaspar’s situation and Randy’s own from a few years back… well, I have no idea what it means. But I was definitely struck by it, I tell you what! Definitely eager to see where the strip is going from there.
5) And now to distract you all with kittens whilst I make mine exit. Caio!
"See? I know how to write happy endings… kinda."
One of the things Something Positive is well known for is its dark humor – and its cynicism in general.
Year One ended with Davan facing the death of his best friend from his youth.
Year Two ended with Aubrey dealing with a bleak job situation and a loss of independance.
Year Three ended with Davan’s home and possessions burning to a crisp.
Especially in the early years of the comic, there was a lot of reason to assume that the comic was, at its heart, pessimistic. The main characters get to deal with a ton of shit the world throws at them. Jobs are lost, relationships fall apart, friends and family move away… or pass on.
But the longer the comic goes on, the more and more optimism I see in it.
Oh, it doesn’t have things end in happy perfect fairy tales. Life doesn’t magically get better.
But for every moment of darkness they face… there is also a ray of light.
We’ll get back to that idea in a bit. For now, let’s take a look at the characters. Recently Randy provided a bit of fan-service by setting aflame Kharisma Valetti, one of the most despised personas in the strip.
Now, the obvious question one has to wonder is what this will mean for Kharisma. I mean sure – the fans hate Kharisma, and Randy thought it might be a nice tough to burn her face off. But… where does it go from here? She may well recover from the incident – but how intact will he beauty be? Given that her beauty – and the contempt she bears the world because of it – is her largest defining characteristic, what will this mean for her?
She doesn’t seem to have instantly woken up into being a good person by any means. Self-absorption remains pretty integral to her. And yet… what does Randy have in store for her? It wouldn’t be the first time a character has undergone an integral change by any means…
Something Positive is a story about people. There aren’t some set good guys and bad guys. There are just… people, getting through life. Sure, we have the protaganists – Davan, Aubrey, Peejee and their friends. But the troubles they face are anything from the world around them to each other.
The characters themselves aren’t perfect people – by and large they are an angry, violent and belligerent lot. They are more than willing to beat up, abuse or mock anyone who isn’t in their circle of friends and who deserves their antagonism – or simply happens to be in their way.
But we love them. Because they come off as real people, and they aren’t evil – they care about each other, deeply. They are a circle of true friends who simply happen to have a fair amount of megalomania, self-loathing and violent tendencies. And hey, its a comic strip – we can accept the sometimes overblown heights they reach.
One of the earliest true antagonists in the strip was Mike. Good old Mike. He represented everything bad about gaming nerds. He couldn’t show up in the strip without actively being an asshole to the characters we cared about. He ruins games. He ruins cons. He actively drives away the only people in his life that remotely care about him.
He is universally detested by the fan-base. He shows no redeeming qualities whatsoever… at first.
Time moves on. He comes to realize how much his own nature is responsible for the sad state of his life. And he does his best to try and get better. It helps that there are those who, even after all he has done, continue to show pity for him. But in the end – it is Mike, himself, who finds the desire to improve.
He still fucks up. Over and over again, he fucks up. But one day… eventually… he is accepted. The fans are actively rooting for him to finish becoming a decent human being.
It isn’t the first time a character has shown maturity. All the cast and crew have gone through moments where they have grown up… or moved on. Life continuing on is one of the underlying themes throughout the entire strip. Even Monette – who starts out airheaded, adrift, an objection of amusement and pity – finds herself. She finds a job, a family, a girlfriend – and more often than not, shows herself as mature and responsible enough to lead her own life.
People grow up. People mature.
Now, admittedly, there are those that don’t show any emotional depth in the strip – generally one-shot caricatures such as gamer nerds, plushie abusers, and the like. And there are those in the strip who might occasionally try and improve, but keep failing. Kyle, PeeJee’s faithless boyfriend. Eva, Davan’s faithless girlfriend.
Eva is the biggest example of this – she dated Davan. There were good and bad times during that period. And eventually, she cheated on him and went back to the boyfriend that beat her.
She quit him again. Found a new boyfriend, one that treated her right. And dumped him at the altar to, again, go back to a disastrous relationship. And then pines after Davan again. And then acts like an asshole to him again. And so forth.
She isn’t shown as actively evil – just misguided. Just unable to really understand what is good in the world. And for all that you have to hate her… you have to pity her, too.
So now we have Kharisma. From her first appearance, she came off… poorly. She’s arrogant, not very intelligent, and self-obsessed.
But… there have been moments when she hasn’t come off quite so terrible. For all her outlook on pretty people first, she seems to genuinely care about Davan.
So here we are. What’s it going to be? She’s faced with a crisis. Will she end up as a Mike or as an Eva? It’s a story I am definitely eager to see.
Because for all the little bits of bleakness and biting humor in Something Positive, the title is very, very true. It is a story about life. About real people. It is not a perfect world. It isn’t filled with perfect people. But… it isn’t filled with perfectly evil people, either.
Even in the worst of those we meet, those who started out as vilified as they could be… there’s a little bit of something positive.
Mellow
So, has anyone else noticed, over at Sluggy, that Bun-bun seems to have mellowed out a bunch since his return? I mean, as if he… say… actually misses nerd boy and crew?
Well, I suppose 2 or 3 strips is too few to really draw any conclusions yet.
Still. I’m liking it.
Oh, I’m eager to see what’s up with Torg, and some resolution to all the loose threads of Oasis and Zoe and Aylee and whatever. But that will come in time, I’m sure.
For now, I definitely feel Abrams is getting his groove back. And if I might actually have reason to not entirely hate Bun-bun… well that will be something special in its own right.
Know when to hold ’em
Penny Arcade vexes me.
I find that their epic sagas to be both a blessing and a curse.
They are good. Full of the potential for… story. For adventure. For sheer awesomeness.
And then… as soon as begun, the game is up. Three strips is all the sacrifice they dare give in to the dread spectre of continuity, and after that, it is back to business as usual – a commentary on current events in the gaming world, spiced up with a crude reference to wangs, that requires intense delving into the news post in order to understand.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love PA’s standalone strips to death. They are brilliant, and when I’m sitting around with my friends quoting Penny Arcade strips for hours on end, its those strips that provide the fuel for our terribly nerdy activity.
But even so.
I like Penny Arcade as it is. But I also like the glimpses granted when they tangle with continuity and plot. O cursed fate, to be torn between such fields!
A blessing and a curse, indeed.
The Minds of Monsters
Thinking about That Which Redeems also left me thinking about The Minds of Monsters, a recent interlude in The Wotch. Like Sluggy, the Wotch has both wacky hijinks and epic storylines. This little story arc in particular had at least one ‘monster’ that reminded me of a similar character from That Which Redeems.
The conflict – especially internal – between dark and light is something I’ve been grooving on quite a bit of late. In any great tale of good and evil, well-designed villains can make or break the story. It is the reason I was so enthused about The Sundering. It is the reason I enjoyed Night Watch, a intriguing movie I saw the other day. It is the reason why I suddenly have much more appreciation for one of the characters recently discussed in Dominic Deegan. It is similarly one of the reasons why I’ve been completely unimpressed with the evil empire in GPF.
It isn’t that a villain has to be conflicted in order to be interesting. Maniacal dictators can work well, especially in the right setting. There can certainly be a bad guy who really is just out to gain power. Or to get revenge. Or to kill stuff just because he can.
But any villain you want readers to be interested in needs to be tuned beyond the surface alone. That is why so many conflicted characters are so engaging – instant conflict equals instant interest. And even for the characters that are fully evil, it becomes a lot harder to simply hate them if we have a glimpse of understanding for why they do the things they do.
It can be funny to just have a hate-on for a foe, sure. But with a villain that I can understand and even empathize with… well, it is a lot easier to get drawn into the story. Even if you know that, irregardless, the bad guy will lose in the end… there may be a tiny part, deep inside, hoping it doesn’t turn out that way.
The Minds of Monsters does a good job of giving some of those insights, and covers its share of villains – from the ones we can feel free to hate, to the ones we are rooting for deep inside. With all the silliness that goes on in The Wotch, it can be easy to overlook the more serious elements going on in the background. But they are definitely there, and definitely done well.
Damn Good Comics 
