Some Friday News, in brief
A recent JLA issue featured an exceptionally Shortpacked moment, as seen on right.
Anyway, the big news floating around at the moment is the webcomic exhibit at the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art, in New York. Fleen has a full rundown on the exhibit, and it certainly sounds like good stuff. It features some of the best work out there – including some amazing things I had never heard of before.
I kinda like the fact that, even though odds are low that I’ll actually have the chance to see the exhibit, it still managed to put me in touch with at least one awesome comic I had never seen before.
So, apparently Ryan Estrada is the new artist over at Life’s a Bluff. Which is certainly awesome news, though I’d be even more overjoyed if there was any sign of Aki Alliance returning from its long hiatus. That said, Estrada has definitely shown he can produce some quality work when dealing with other people’s comics, as is clearly demonstrated by the greatest PvP guest strip ever.
Speaking of PvP, apparently Scott Kurtz has started taking the drugs. Seriously, though, the recent anime storyline hasn’t been bad, but it has certainly taken the strip’s surreality meter and thrown it right out the window.
Stunning upset of the day: It isn’t unheard of for two popular gaming strips to happen to make near identical jokes on the same day. What was a shock, however, was the realization that on this day, Ctrl+Alt+Del managed to thoroughly out-humor Penny Arcade.
I… I’m sorry, but I think I need to go lie down for a moment.
Floppy Ears and Woodland Fears
Modern Tales continues to add quality comics to its roster – which is certainly not a bad strategy, as these things go. While recent days have been seeing all manner of discussion on Zudacomics, and ComicMix, and all manner of other BigName webcomic sites planning on launching, Modern Tales has continued to quietly chug along, and has resumed developing its steadily growing collection of enjoyable comics. I suspect it would take something big to really get attention (such as replacing their terrible archiving system and website layout), but it is nice to have a site that serves as such a reliable resource for first-class webcomics.
The latest addition to the site is Gothbunnies, which I stumbled upon today. It is a recent addition – so recent, in fact, it doesn’t even seem to have been officially announced! (Which, I’ll note, isn’t the first time I’ve reviewed a newcomer to Modern Tales before its official launch on the site.)
Gothbunnies clocks in at 85 comics, which I consider a nice and juicy number to encounter in a new strip – not so many that the archives are overwhelming, but just enough to give you a real sense of characters and story. It updates once a week – a bit slow for my tastes – but with full-sized pages, and what seems to be a good ability to move the action along at a steady pace. (Though I won’t really be able to judge that until after I’ve been reading for a while. For good or bad, reading a comic’s archives is a vastly different experience than reading it week to week.)
The art faintly reminds me of the works of Sylvan Migdal – which, rest assured, is a compliment, as I consider Migdal to be one of webcomics’ greats. The first page is amazingly gorgeous, with similarly striking moments ocassionally appearing throughout. Even when it is just portraying characters walking about, or conversing, the art is both clean and expressive – both of which I rate highly in the comics I read.
I have some small complaints about the character design – namely that, especially with some of the recent additions to the cast, some characters can be slightly difficult to tell apart. Similarly, it was almost fifty pages into the story before I realized that Larch, one of three main characters, was male rather than female. Of course, it didn’t actually change my view of the story in any real way, and I won’t deny that I fundamentally like the character designs – but a bit more distinction might not hurt.
As for the story itself, it is currently a solid blend of mischief and mystery, and is just beginning to hint at something more serious. The story begins with our three protagonists (who are, indeed, anthropomorphic rabbits that are also goths, as one might infer from the strip’s title) moving into a new house (warren.) Unfortunately, the house has a garden filled with plant monsters, a predisposition for unnatural weather, and is next door to mages, cemeteries, and all manner of assorted spookiness. Two of the roommates find the situation exciting, the other one is wary but resigned, and adventures, inevitably, ensue.
The characters have very distinct personalities right from the beginning, and the creator, one J. Wojtysiak, does a remarkably good job with the usual hurdle of expositing a character’s background. However, at least thus far, this doesn’t really appear to be their story – like many good adventure tales, the three of them (along with the reader) are plunged into a mystery in progress, and all they really need to do is survive it (and possibly learn what is truly going on along the way.)
Tied into the odd happenings in the neighborhood is Vetiver, a stranger in the woods and owner of a tome of magic, whom they find tied to a tree in the forest. (By plant monsters.) While Vetiver joins forces with them, after a fashion, to help get to safety, it seems clear he knows more than he is telling – and given all the other mysterious figures around who seem to wish him ill, there is clearly a lot more to him than there initially appears to be.
More than that… well, we don’t really know yet. We’re only just starting to stumble into deeper plot, and the story has a lot of directions it could go in from here. I am certainly eager to learn more – I find myself curious even about characters that have shown up only in the last handful of strips, but who already seem to have backstory that promises to be interesting.
And for all the discussion of story and plot above, this is a fundamentally light-hearted strip. Humor is present throughout, with occasional trips into raw silliness. I particularly like the sword-fight with a shovel-wielding bush. The jokes aren’t too over-the-top, and they don’t try to force their way into every scene, but they do set a cheerful tone that infuses the strip’s atmosphere. That is, in my opinion, just the right balance to aim for.
So, all in all? Brisk art, personable characters, engaging mysteries and an enjoyable mood all adds up to a damn good comic – and a good addition to Modern Tales, and a happy discovery for myself.
More Endings and Beginnings
Another comic that, sadly, appears to be drawing to a close is Get Medieval. I mentioned this strip a month ago, and spoke highly of it – thus it should be obvious while I am sad that it is heading towards what appears to be an ending.
It isn’t an entirely a surprise – the comic has a moderately intact storyline, and such things usually come with endings. But this is one of the webcomics at the height of professionalism, that does just about everything right, and it is always a shame when one of them walks off the stage.
(And, of course, it might not be ending – I’m merely basing that off of where the narrative is going, and it is certainly possible I could be completely and utterly wrong.)
But either way, I am excited – because the creator of Get Medieval is involved in launching another comic, and one that looks awesome.
There is, currently, one strip available for Knowledge is Power, so I can’t really make much in the way of judgement calls.
There is now a co-creator, so we’ll see how that pans out. But I have high expectations thus far – especially as KiP has a nice, proper webpage, while I was never quite as satisfied with Get Medieval being hosted on livejournal.
Additionally, the word on the street is that the comic is about superheroes in college, or something along those lines. Given that some similar comics are among my favorite webcomics out there, I’ve got a good feeling about this one, too.
So, now that I’ve spent a post mourning a comic that may not actually be ending, and reviewing a comic that has only barely begun, I’ll leave with a promise for something a bit more eloquent next time.
Endings and New Beginnings
Stuff Sucks coming to a close took me by surprise – and though it was sad news at first, it helped me realize a number of things about the comic, and for that I am grateful.
I hadn’t seen the ending coming – or even suspected one was in store – because I had become accustomed to the many, many webcomics out there with perpetually ongoing plots. Stuff Sucks, I naturally assumed, would be another such comic – the characters would continue to have wacky hijinks and interactions, relationships would hover up in the air, and resolutions would only come one small step at a time.
Instead, however, the comic has a cohesive storyline that has been heading for a very specific end. It reached that end perhaps sooner than intended, but the ending is a genuine one nonetheless.
It may not be an entirely satisfactory one – there are some open-ended questions, some plots left unresolved, some characters ending up together in a fashion that is both jarring, and yet all too tidy. And yet… I found I didn’t mind.
I realized that the story has never been what drew me into the comic. This isn’t to say the story was bad – but it was the art, the character designs, and the everyday extraordinariness of the scenes and concepts that won me over. All elements that will be just as fascinating regardless of what story is being told.
The story was a perfectly fine vehicle for delivering all these excellent moments, and phrases, and personalities – but I didn’t need it to be anything more than that.
Which just means that while I may have had a moment of sadness at seeing the current comic come to an end, I am all the more eager to see whatever Liz Greenfield comes up with next. Cause let me tell you – I’d bet good money that it will be awesome.
Meanwhile, DM of the Rings has come to a close as of today (and while the final comics were inevitably anticlimactic, I do fully approve of the farewell speech given, and wrapping things up with precisely one hundred and forty-four comics.) With this close, however, we immediately are moved forward to the new comic – Chainmail Bikini: The Nightmarish Legend of Deuce Baaj.
Right off the bat, it is clearly a different creature than the previous comic by Shamus Young – but the work of the new artist, Shawn Gaston, is quality, and the same irreverant humor is immediately present. While the LotR jokes may be left behind, this may open things up for more general commentary, and I suspect this strip will be a top-notch addition to the likes of Order of the Stick, Goblins, and Erfworld.
The first page itself certainly isn’t bad, and had some solid humor present – but it is the character profiles that already has me eager to see what comes next. The site is a little hard to navigate – but I’m willing to give that a pass on the first day of the comic.
For now, it’s got potential, and that’s all that really matters on day one.
Triumphant Return
This was the first time I truly enjoyed flying.
Now, to be fair, it is only the third time I have flown. The first time I was 10 months old, so I doubt I was even aware of the fact I was hurtling through the sky a phenomenal distance from the ground. The second time was only seven years back, and was plagued by delays, detours, and other assorted bad things that begin with the letter ‘D’.
The third time I flew… was this weekend, on the way to and from Dragoncon. I had a window seat – but was above the wing, so my view was not all that amazing. Despite this, the flight was comfortable, quick and not much else – and there is something to be said for simple pleasantness.
Especially given where I was heading – Dragoncon is anything but simple.
It was an enjoyable convention, as always. An exhausting, draining, painful sort of enjoyment by the end of the weekend, but it was there, nonetheless. Gaming, panels, concerts, costumes – the great part about the con is simply the sheer amount of activity packed into a handful of days, far more than any single person can absorb. But I had what fun I could… and I was pleased that fun with webcomics was among the highlights of the weekend.
Awesomeness the first: Order of the Stick Costumes! A couple of my friends went as Xykon and the Monster in the Darkness (I’ll try to coerce some pics from them), and later had a showdown with a Haley and an Elan they found roaming around. Sometime later, whilst I was in the gaming room, another pack of costumers wandered in, and I spotted Roy, Redcloak, Thog, and another Monster in the Darkness – and while the costumes were cool, the true highlight was watching gamers suddenly gravitating towards them from across the room, setting down dice and characters for a chance to see the OotSers in action.
Awesomeness the second: Webcomic panels! I have to admit, the large majority of webcomic panels I’ve attended in the past (at previous Dragoncons, at Otakon, etc) have been somewhat… lackluster. This was occasionally due to it being late in the con, and the panelists being exhausted, or due to exceptionally small audiences because of scheduling issues. Whatever the reason, these sort of panels haven’t stood out in the past… but this year, I was astounded.
The big panel I saw featured a pretty stellar cast – Pete Abrams, Jennie Breeden, Rob Balder, The Gneech, Indigo, Bill Holbrook, John Lotshaw, and Kittyhawk, from what I can recall. This wasn’t just a large panel, but also a lively one – having so many creators on stage meant both a wealth of information and different perspectives, as well as a fast-paced, joking atmosphere that emphasized that these are all exceptionally smart, funny and talented people. There was a lot of banter, and the panel was as much about entertaining the audience as enlightening them.
Another panel followed shortly thereafter, and was something of a smaller event – which ended up meaning it focused more on some of the technical aspects of the webcomic process. (Which, for my money, was a worthwhile follow-up on the previous panel.)
All in all, despite the fact that webcomics are just one small element of the countless topics that make up Dragoncon, I felt their presence was strong and successful, and that was a pleasant thing to recognize.
I’ll be back with proper comics discussion tomorrow, once I’m completely caught back up on things. There are a lot of topics floating around I want to mention (including a number of webcomics that have recently come to a close), but for now, I’ll just direct folks to Sam and Fuzzy, whose recent storyline was a brilliant example of… well, of everything the comic has been doing right for the last few years.
The arc doesn’t involve any great world-altering changes or epic battles… but it does highlight adept characterization, undeniable humor, and some subtle messages about life in general. (And, of course, maintains the usual standard of quality art and reliable updates while doing so.)
There isn’t much more about it to say, other than point out a job well done. When a webcomic can pull something like this off in less than a dozen strips, I’d say it’s most certainly worth a mention.
Some Fine Reading for the Weekend
Some things that have been interesting this week:
First topic of note, David Malki! vs Comic-Con. I imagine most people have seen this by now – if not, it is worth watching, both due to the classy comedy of Malki! himself… but also due to providing a good look at the convention for any who weren’t able to go, and putting faces to the names of many of the webcomickers who were there. That’s good stuff.
Secondly, I mentioned two weeks ago that Scott Adams was providing advice to Scott Meyers on getting Basic Instructions into syndication. That advice wasn’t confined to a single post, however, and it continues to be interesting to see the different attempts they are playing with, and their discoveries as to what seems to be working and what does not.
Scott Adam’s Advice: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Scott Meyer’s Thoughts: 1, 2, 3
Also, compare one of his original works with the attempts to retool it.
And if you’ve managed to wade through all of that but haven’t actually read through his archives, you should probably do that too. The archiving system at the site is a bit of a pain, but this is a damn funny comic that is pretty much unique in concept.
There has also been a number of new webcomic blogs appearing recently, especially ones that are pretty… aggressive in nature. Your Webcomic is Bad was the forerunner of them, and while I had hoped it would simply fade away, it doesn’t seem inclined to do so. The biggest thing that bothers me about his posts is that they often have genuine, insightful criticism… buried under a festering mound of invective and obscenity, thoroughly obscuring the point from anyone who might be able to make use of it. But given his admitted goal is simply to entertain himself and those of like minds, I suppose that isn’t a surprise.
What was a surprise was the other blogs that have sprung up in his wake, and the fact they seem to be getting progessively more useful. Me and You and Mary Sue is largely about drama in webcomics. I’m still not really a fan of spite for spite’s sake, even if he focuses on the (largely deserving) Buckley. However, the information to profanity meter is pretty good, and having an actual catalogue of all this nonsense will probably simplify things years from now.
But the winner would seem to be Your Webcomic Can Still Be Saved, which thus far has a number of really useful advice on fonts, a somewhat overlooked issue with many webcomics. (And jumping on the stupid anti Comic Sans bandwagon doesn’t count.) Anyway, the site only has a few posts thus far, but this is the sort of solid, technical advice that people need to see, so hopefully it will keep going.
Anyway, in an attempt to balance out some of the negativity of those blogs, I’d like to direct folks towards T Campbell’s recent posts on Broken Frontier, which are recording his thirty favorite moments in webcomics.
I may not agree with all of them, but he isn’t putting this out there as a definitive list – just as scenes that have stuck with him. But as he has gone through them… well, there really are some powerful scenes in there. I found myself having to hold back from rereading all of Narbonic and Questionable Content, or hunting down the non-theoretical work of Scott McCloud.
It can be good, to remember why these comics are great. It can be good to remember the moments we are reading for.
Bad Dog
Today’s Gunnerkrigg Court caught my notice.
Now, this isn’t to say that most updates of this strip aren’t quality pieces of work, because they are. While the recent arcs haven’t quite had as much momentum as the early chapters, I attribute that more to the need to deal with a developing plotline, rather than being able to focus quite so clearly on small concepts and story-arcs. I think it would be a challenge to deny that this comic is a masterpiece, both visually and conceptually – but I’ve spoken on that before.
No, what caught my eye was how well it captured a demonstration in contrasts.
The strip features Coyote, trickster god of some reknown, and a minion of his, Ysengrim, who has flown into a rage. In panel one, we see Coyote stopping his minion’s rampage with a swift blow. It is comical in appearance – the image of the oversized Coyote dwarfs the other figures, even obscuring their features, and the blow itself appears as merely a playful tap, like that of a child playing with a toy.
In the following panels, we see Ysengrim’s broken and bleeding body hurled across the room, shattering marble pillars and cracking the stone wall.
Gunnerkrigg Court is all about contrasts. It blends science and magic without hesitation – melding the ordinary and the extraordinary is Tom Siddell’s stock in trade. Coyote is a silly being, full of mischief and pranks – but also incredibly powerful, and vastly dangerous. Indeed, Reynardine also falls into that category, as a killer demon trapped in the body of a stuffed animal. And, in fact, the mystery that surrounds the entirety of the strip revolves around things not being quite what they seem – there are many secrets throughout Gunnerkrigg Court, from the teachers to the students to the school itself, and exploring those differences is the driving force of the strip.
What makes today’s strip truly great is that it establishes the contrast so well – and more than that, it establishes it within the reality of the strip itself. Plenty of comics mix humor and story from one day to the next, but that is something largely experienced by the reader. For the denizens of Gunnerkrigg Court, that dichotomy is something they live with every day.
Being able to show that is just one of the elements that makes this such a damn good comic.
For Worse
I’ve been reading the Comics Curmudgeon for a while now, and have laughed along with the rest when Josh mercilessly mocked the direction For Better or For Worse has taken – even if I could remember, not so many years ago, thinking it was one of the best strips in the newspaper.
When I read Shaenon’s essay on Why She Hates Anthony, I nodded along in agreement – and even a bit in relief, at finally being able to pinpoint exactly why my opinion regarding the strip had shifted.
But from there… when Davi Willis added his two cents, I found it a bit lackluster. When T Campbell and Amy Mebberson had their say, I found it downright uncomfortable. And when a parody showed up in Least I Could Do, almost haphazardly thrown in for no reason, it seemed like people were beginning to simply try and jump on the bandwagon for the sake of publicity.
But the matter seemed to die down. Most seemed resigned to the direction the strip was going in, and put it out of their minds. The Curmudgeon continued to bash it – but then, that’s what the man does.
Then along comes Eric Burns with a simple proposal. And his proposal… well, it isn’t a bad one. In many ways, it rings true – he proposes that all those who remember the glory days of FBoFW band together to recreate the elements that made the strip great. When the strip goes into the upcoming time freeze, why shouldn’t fans step in to take over the story and tell it the way it should be told?
Well… I’ll admit, at first I thought it sounded like a neat enough idea – more from the perspective of the joint effort it would become. But still, it didn’t quite sit right, and the commentary from William G and R.K. Milholland really helped to put things into perspective – this was really, really disrespectful to the creator of FBOFW, a comic these people once loved.
Now, there isn’t anything saying they have to play nice on Lynn Johnston’s behalf – but I found myself pondering what the response would be if people tried this with a popular webcomic. Say someone came up with Debatable Subjects, wherein Donna and Freya realized they didn’t all need to fall in love with nerdy Marvin, and Freya managed to actually overcome her insecurities and begin leading a well-balanced life, and so forth.
People would be outraged. It would be the most thinly-veiled of rip-offs, no matter the intent, and it would be treated as such. Regardless of whether there was an audience that thought it was a better vision of the story, it would come off as a downright dickish thing to do… and yet here we are, proposing just that, only for a newspaper comic that doesn’t have a broad base of supporters in the circles we tread.
Now, some would say that there is a difference between copying off an ongoing story versus a completed one. In some respects, this is true – but that doesn’t really change the attitude it is displaying towards the creator of the work. And hell – FBoFW isn’t just vanishing away, it is simply transitioning from story-driven to gag-driven, becoming like the majority of the newspaper strips, or like any number of countless webcomics. Johnston has hardly given up the rights to her characters – and the fact that the proposal recognizes the need to change the characters’ names seems to tell me that, on some level, those suggesting this know that it is wrong.
If you want a strip in the spirit of FBoFW, then by all means, go for it. Celebrate the lessons that the early days of the comic taught you. Share the inspiration of a strip that was willing to touch on death, and differences, over a decade ago, while most newspaper strips would be scared to do so today.
But what does it really accomplish to produce an imperfect replica of the strip, tuned to your own personal tastes? It might not be entitlement – but it is indulgence, and perhaps a healthy dose of spite, directed at Johnston for “ruining” the story you used to like.
I’m not going to claim I like the story she is telling these days – I’ve argued with my mom, trying to get her to see the downward spiral of the strip.
But she doesn’t see it – and she doesn’t have to. Some people do enjoy the strip just as much as we all used to. And trying to prove them wrong, trying to prove the creator wrong, is not only a needless insult to someone who entertained you for years, but a complete waste of energy that could be spent making something new and inspirational.
The Road Goes Ever On
With my somewhat pessimistic commentary earlier in the week, I was hoping to spend today discussing some of the really awesome webcomic stories currently taking place, which includes pretty much everything going on at Blank Label (especially Starslip Crisis), the current cliffhanger goodness at Girls With Slingshots, and the stunning revelation that I live two hours from Dr. McNinja…
But alas, sadder news was to claim the day – Suburban Tribe has come to a sudden ending. Not the ending, perhaps – but an end to the current format and schedule.
And this, my friends, is tragic news indeed. Suburban Tribe is the comic that has most impressed me with how it matured and developed throughout its run – while many webcomics are reknowned for improving on the art, I find it a rarer thing for story, plot and characterization to undergo as great a shift. But John Lee managed to do so, and to do it well – despite the cast of the comic being far from the most likeable or heroic of characters, I found myself emotionally invested in them, and their stories, to a degree that few comics had managed to achieve.
The reason for the shift is not an uncommon one – four years of producing a comic every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, for free, with no real payoff in sight… well, I can understand how that can begin to wear thin. And while it may leave me, the reader, saddened, I can’t fault any artist who makes that decision. Especially not while there remains hope for more content in the future – as the artist tries to refocus, add in new projects, and see if a change of format can help to lead to greater success.
So while I’ll hope for a chance to see where the story of Suburban Tribe goes from here, I’ll also give my thanks for the great story told thus far, and my best wishes for success with John Lee’s future endeavors, whatever they may be.
Damn Good Comics 