Second Looks
Websnark is back, in force. Websnark is the grand-daddy of webcomic blogs, but I’m pretty sure everyone already knows that. The esteemable Eric Burns has set a challenge for himself in 2007, and set out to accomplish a certain amount of writing by the end of the year. Towards this writing, he’ll be endeavering to post daily on Websnark.
I’m pretty pleased to see this for a number of reasons. One, my own webcomic blog was inspired largely by Websnark. Two, the final motivation for actually starting it was to give myself something to keep me actively writing day in and day out. And three – well, let’s face it, he writes some damn powerful stuff.
Already worth checking out is his final tribute to Narbonic, which says it better than I ever could.
I’m confident he doesn’t need the plug, but for those who weren’t aware of his resurgence, I figure it can’t hurt to mention it.
The Webcomicker is launching similarly forward with a hefty goal of a post for every single day in the year – and has brought back his webcomic, Birdsworth, as well.
While I don’t have any such lofty ambitions for my own blog, I do have some big ideas in store for the coming year. More will be revealed in time!
Moving on to other topics – I’ve got to give props to Questionable Content for some strips earlier this week. After suddenly (and skillfully) making Ellen into a villain a little while ago, he equally skillfully has rendered her human again. Despite being let-down by a lot of the other storylines in the strip of late, J.J. has done this little exchange extremely well, and I have to give him credit for that.
And finally, Scott Kurtz seems to be continuing his recent trend of stealing material from Tim Buckley, as he suddenly has his characters launching their own winter gaming holidays (complete with bizarre holiday outfit) in eerie similarity to Ctrl+Alt+Del’s Winter-een-mas.
Which, let me clarify, I don’t find despicable for its own sake. Stealing ideas you like from other sources is a long honored tradition in pretty much all forms of creative work, and there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that.
The problem is that Kurtz has spent so much time lambasting Ctrl+Alt+Del for just that – being a rip-off of PvP and Penny Arcade. Taking their ideas and somehow finding success with it. Kurtz has ripped into Buckley time and time again for this very thing. I simply find it rather… ironic that Kurtz is now doing the exact same thing. The plagiarism is fine – the hypocrisy, a little less so.
I’m sure Kurtz would give the same defense he gave when he launched the Animated PvP Series – namely that even if he was doing the same thing as Ctrl+Alt+Del, he was doing it better, funnier and with more quality than Buckley ever did. While I don’t believe that renders the hypocrisy null, I can’t deny the truth of it – I’ve generally flinched when I saw a new Winter-een-mass storyline, whereas this last week of PvP has been one of the funniest I have ever read.
So I can’t deny having enjoyed this storyline. I just hope that, after all this, Kurtz will at least ignore Buckley, rather than continue accusing him of ripping off other artists.
Oh, and a final disclaimer – I’m not saying all this in defense of Tim Buckley. Even if he’s behaved himself in recent drama this year, and regardless of his comic’s quality or lack thereof, his actions in the past have still rendered him, in my eyes, the vilest webcartoonist I know of.
Rather, I’m simply taken aback by Kurtz’s actions after his rants in the past. It seems a strange note on which to start the new year, but I suppose if Brent can do it, then so can he.
Happy New Year
A new year is here, and unsurprisingly, many changes come with it.
Some comics have ended, others have merely toyed with us, more than a few sport shiny new site designs, and while some comics are returning from hiatus, entirely new ones are beginning.
I hope everyone wrapped up 2006 successfully, everyone’s resolutions are working out well, and 2007 is off to a good start.
I’ll be back to regular updates on Friday.
The Future is Now
A little while back Kris Straud (the webcomic tactician behind Starslip Crisis) started Halfpixel.com, a site devoted to “disposable internet humor.” As far as I can tell, it is designed to give Kris a chance to experiment with spontaneous new comics without having to create a new site for each one – as well as all manner of other humor and thoughts as well.
And hey, that’s cool – it’s something between a webcomic artist’s blog and a new comic itself, and is both handy at peaking into his deranged mind and enjoying some random funny on the side.
But what makes the site really awesome is that you can use it too. Users can submit their own posts, and if he likes them, he puts them up. That’s wicked cool. I imagine there are a lot of funny people on the internet, and quite a few of them are part of the webcomic crowd. And quite a few of those don’t have the time to make their own daily comic – but will be able to produce some real gems on a site like this.
It gets even better, too. One of the funny little strips he came up with on the site is Time Friends. Each strip of Time Friends has the same art as the others, but with the joke and punchlines changed. Very similar to many other fixed-art webcomics out there, though few of those were quite as gag-oriented, and tended to thrive more on their own wordiness. (Which is not to say that is a bad thing.)
But Straub’s little strip was quick and easy. So easy that everyone could pop their own words in, and could make their own Time Friends strips. Heck, they didn’t even need to photoshop the strip (though plenty did), but simply post the four or so phrases the comic would consist of. And when Straub saw these goings on… well, at first he was less then pleased at seeing others honing in on his field. After some thought, however, his generous nature won out, and he not only accepted it, he embraced the idea with the Time Friends Maker.
Enjoy.
Weekly Round-up
I haven’t done one of these in a while, so here’s several tidbits of news or observations regarding developments in webcomics this week:
NEWS: Gunnerkrigg Court is moving to three days a week, starting next week. Voted as the Outstanding Newcomer in this year’s Webcartoonist Choice Awards, Gunnerkrigg Court has been living up to its potential, and having even more content from it is nothing but good news.
NEWS: Kismet: Hunter’s Moon has come to a close. When I first joined Girlamatic, this comic was one of the top discoveries that convinced me I made the right choice. Even though I’ve since unsubscribed from Girlamatic (primarily due to the sparsity of new content), I still made sure to follow this strip on it’s own site.
It’s a good strip that goes into unexpected places, and I’m eager to see the short stories that flesh out the backgrounds of the strip’s characters, as well as keep my eyes out for the sequel coming next year. Congratulations to Layla Lawlor on a strip well done.
NEWS: Drama has been at an all-time low in webcomics this year, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there – and another scuffle has broken out in a debate between such long time stars as DJ Coffman, Joey Manley, and William G.
What really struck me about the entire debate was how… well, completely silly it was. I mean, not that I don’t normally find most flame-wars a tad ridiculous, but this one seemed to be entirely insults and misrepresentation for its own sake. When all an argument does is paint every single participant in a bad light… well, far be it from me to be the voice of reason, but I’m wondering when will some of these people realize that arbitrary mockery and debate is tarnishing their own reputation as much as the person they are trying to make look bad?
I just feel bad for Xavier Xerexes, since he had to deal with all the hullabaloo taking place on his site.
NEWS: Speaking, however, tangentially, about William G, he’s posted some preview art for his upcoming storyline (which arrives tomorrow, if I don’t have my wires crossed.) And let me tell you, that has to be the most horrifying thing I’ve seen all day.
RANT: Least I Could Do has been running a serious and intense storyline all week, which has been both heart-wrenching and an insight into Rayne’s character. I was really impressed with it, right up until today, when I wanted to reach into the computer and start punching people. (And, let me assure you, I’m usually a far more peaceful sort.)
Let’s talk about Rayne Summers.
Rayne Summers is an asshole. There’s no two ways about that – it’s basically the premise of the strip. And I’m ok with that – the strip is not only aware of this, but bases a significant majority of it’s humor off of this. Rayne’s a dick. He sleeps with women. He messes with his friends, and occasionally comes to their rescue. He’s shallow and self-centered, but charming enough to thrive despite this.
While I typically have a tendency to hate this sort of character (male Mary Sues who manage to miraculously come into dream jobs and have their way with the world without any real reason for it), Least I Could Do pulls it off well enough for me to stay interested, and even enjoy the strip. I tend to enjoy seeing Rayne get his comeuppance, of course, but I still laugh and read along in the storylines when (as is often the case), he comes out on top. (No pun intended.)
But this latest storyline left me intrigued. Rayne get’s his own little christmas spiritual visituation, in the vein of Scrooge before him. We all know where this starts, and we get to see Rayne in his past. We get to see exactly how Rayne became the asshole we know and love. And that was a great scene – it not only worked, it not only was enjoyable to read, but it genuinely was decent character development.
Next step: the present. Rayne waxes eloquent upon seeing the results of his actions, and professes how he never set out to hurt anyone, just to have a good time. And again… I can buy that. It might ring a little false, given some of his behavior in the past, but I can accept this attitude. And seeing him feeling remorse at his actions… not expected, but again – he pulls it off well. I can buy it.
Today, though, we get to find out that Rayne’s not really responsible, however. Apparently, the only women who he hurt are the ones that brought it on themselves.
Fuck. That.
Look, as I mentioned earlier, Rayne being an asshole has been core to the strip from the very beginning. He has treated women poorly on many, many occasions. Ok, that’s fine. (Well maybe not fine, but it’s basically acceptable within the context of the strip.)
But going on to then say, “Hey, just kidding, he’s actually not an ass – it’s their fault for sleeping with him and expecting something more out of it?” Once again: Fuck. That.
It’s a shame, because Rayne, as a character who was hurt in the past and chose to become a womanizing asshole, but is now regretting the harm he has caused, is an intriguing character. Rayne, as a character who remains infallible and bereft of the responsibility of his actions, is completely uninteresting. It not only doesn’t help to develop the character, it actively undermines what the last week of strips has been building up.
If all that was happening was losing out on Rayne’s character development, that would be one thing – but this is actively sending a pretty terrible message down the line. Oh, I know what you’re saying – why in the world shouldn’t I expect a strip like LICD to be sexist? Isn’t it sexist all the time?
Well no, it’s not. Characters in it are, sure. But you can tell when Rayne’s being a dick, that’s because he’s a dick. There is a difference between that and the strip itself saying, “Hey, it’s ok for a guy to be an ass, he’s only going to hurt girls who are asking for it.”
Maybe I’m reading things wrong. The storyline isn’t over, and we still have (assuming things stay true to form) Rayne’s future to look in on. But seeing the morale of the story – even if only for a single day – be that the only women Rayne hurt were the ones who brought it on themselves? After seeing countless examples throughout the strip where that just isn’t true?
Once more with fervor:
Fuck. That.
NEWS: Finally, since I’d rather not end things on a bad note, especially so close to the holidays… go check out the news over at Penny Arcade today. In addition to some very nice discussion on everyone’s favorite Cardboard Tube Samurai, it looks like Child’s Play will be going the distance and breaking the one million mark this year.
Go ahead, spend a few minutes grinning about that figure. I know I did. Anyway, I’ll be back next Wednesday – till then, enjoy the holidays!
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.
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!
Comics I Read on My Lunch Break
There has been a good deal of hubbub this week concerning the new PvP animations, and discussion regarding that is scattered… well, all over the web.
But the news that I heard that really got me excited was that Crap I Drew on My Lunch Break is back!
Rest assured, the comic is far from crap. It’s a fun little strip with gorgeous art – it doesn’t hold itself to be more than that, and that’s what makes it great.
The strips are sometimes just simple randomness from life, sometimes rants on the trivial, sometimes rants on the profoundly horrible. It’s about the artist, her boyfriend, and their pet rats.
And really, that’s all it needs to be. Sometimes the simple things are best.
A pirate, a flying monkey, and a mad hatter walk into a bar…
Public Service Announcement:
Issue 2 of Cheshire Crossing is now available.
And yes, it rocks out just as much as the first one.
Enjoy.
Child’s Play
One doesn’t really need to extol the merits of Child’s Play – but it is so incredibly hard to avoid doing so.
This is a program that has seen an astonishing amount of success. It has earned recognition from defendants and opponents of the gaming world alike, and has gone a long way to combat the ill reputation that is sometimes thrown against video gamers. It has seen public exultation by the very same people who previously criticized gaming as violent and causing violence.
It is amazing because it shows the character behind the people at Penny Arcade – the most successful webcomic to date, which doesn’t have the slightest need to produce things like Child’s Play or the Penny Arcade Expo, or to have demonstrations at children’s schools or do any of a number of myriad things outside the base needs of their comic. But they do so anyway, because they want to give back to the community, and they want to celebrate the gaming community.
It is amazing because it is successful due to the thousands of ordinary folks, gamers and non-gamers alike, who donate to it.
I doubt it needs, even remotely, any mention from me. I doubt I can say anything about it that hasn’t been said with better words and more effect by other people. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t still worth saying, still isn’t worth recognizing the power of this program and value of this effort.
Child’s Play is back for another year, and that is a damn fine thing to take note of.
Damn Good Comics 