Today, One Punch Reviews — the premiere blog article for short, punchy reviews — takes a look at the pop culture gag comic from Jeremy Kramer and Eric Vaughn, Truck Bearing Kibble.
One Punch Reviews #6: Truck Bearing Kibble
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Monthly Archives: February 2008
The Webcomic Overlook #32: Horribleville
Some things just hit the mark so perfectly the first time that anything done afterward, while decent, will look like an unsuccessful attempt to recapture the earlier magic.
I’m sure you all have your examples. Me, I’m going to wax eloquently on Aqua Teen Hunger Force. That first season (as defined by DVD volumes) was a perfect storm of absurdity, comedy, quotable dialogue, and shock value. Frylock, Meatwad, Master Shake, and Carl would encounter something ridiculous like a trio of leprechauns stealing shoes. Everyone got stuck with dialogue that was borderline rational and nonsensical, including — and especially — the alien Mooninites (“We are the Mooninites and our culture is advanced beyond all that you can possibly comprehend with one hundred percent of your brain”) and a pair of Plutonians (“When he gets here we melt him… and laugh… on into the night.”). And everything would culminate to a nutty non-conclusion, probably involving something nasty happening to Carl.
ATHF was all the more effective because of its shock value. And it was not the moral content, necessarily, but because the animation was so awful. Remember, the show was the successor the critically popular Space Ghost: Coast to Coast, and, unlike today, Adult Swim fans were not initially warm to something that looked like it was put together by six-year-olds.
Still, after a season or two of ATHF, the eventually shock value wore off. Quality seemed to suffer a little bit. The later episodes were still funny, and I’m a fan of the Billy Witch Doctor and Boost Mobile episodes as much as anyone. However, it seemed like Aqua Teen was trying too hard to capture the unique flash of the original episodes. Gags got more and more gruesome, as if to say, “Look at me! We’re still wacky and crazy and about to shock your pants off!”
I had similar thoughts when reading KC’s Green’s webcomic about himself and the writing process, the gleefully profane Horribleville. The comic, by the way, is summed up excellently on the site’s current subtitle: “TV is My Worst Enemy.”
Happy Valentine’s Day! And don’t fall in love with a ninja.
Here are some Valentine’s Day strips for you to browse while you try to vainly look for a restaurant that hasn’t been fully booked for February 14.
Don’t fall in love with a ninja. They’ll only break your heart. (from Jeremy Kramer & Eric Vaughn’s Truck Bearing Kibble.)
Joe comes up with a great alternate title for “Definitely, Maybe.” (from Joe Dunn’s Joe Loves Crappy Movies.)
Love is all about feasting on blood. (from Doug Savage’s Savage Chickens.)
The Webcomic Overlook #31: Cow-Man
This being Valentine’s Day, I (very briefly) considered reviewing a webcomic with a romantic theme? Perhaps Anders Loves Maria? However, that particular comic is in the middle of a heart-breaking plot to the point where the title banner now has a broken heart between Anders’ and Maria’s names. While this may be lauded by the cynical among you, I’m a more sentimental guy. I believe in the power of love, especially the kind that shoots out of your fingers to defeat evil villains like the type portrayed in final scene of Krull.
Also, I haven’t finished reading it.
No, today I’m going to explore a well-trod genre today: the superhero parody. For what was St. Valentine but a sort of superhero from the Medieval Ages. He was featured in the old-tyme best seller Legenda Aurea, where saints did superhuman things like slay dragons and stop fires with relics. St. Valentine didn’t exhibit much superhero prowess, but he did restore sight to a jailer’s daughter before being beheaded by Emperor Claudius and that’s pretty much the furthest I’m willing to stretch this admittedly thin premise.
(And St. Valentine was beheaded? What the crap?!?! I always figured his death had something to do with the heart. You know, like his heart was struck by an arrow or something. I mean … Valentine’s Day!)
Previously, I’ve reviewed two other formidable superhero parodies: Dean Trippe’s Butterfly and Brad Guigar’s Evil Inc. However, deep in the darkest depths of my soul, I knew something was missing. It wasn’t until I read today’s subject, Jim Ford’s Cow-Man, that I knew what it was: a man in a cow suit.
Metapost: Huh… John Solomon’s back
I know this piece of news is going to rankle some of you and be greeted with praise and adulation from others, but I had to post it here…
Remember John Solomon?
Of “Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad”?
Well… he’s back.
The first review back from the site’s self-imposed hiatus is Chugworth Academy. I’ll have to read it to see if the rapier wit is still undulled, and if the crew is still full of their trademark piss and vinegar.
UPDATE: I just finished reading his “Chugworth” review, and … what can I say? The webcomic deserved John Solomon.
UPDATE 2: I just realized that the review was written by Lilith Esther, not John Solomon. Whoops! In any case, “Your Webcomic is Bad…” is back.
UPDATE 3: After a small time out, I think maybe I was hasty in my first “Update.” I arrived my initial perception of “Chugworth” mainly through the links that Lilith posted. I agreed with Lilith as far as what I saw, however, I will admit that perhaps the linked strips were not representative of the series as a whole. So it may or may not have deserved John Solomon. I’m not posting this update because I’m suddenly being hunted down like an escaped prisoner by Chugworth fans. Rather, I realized some readers may be taking the opinion as canon, and I decided to give “Chugworth” a little leeway in the spirit of fairness.
However, Lilith was completely right about “Shredded Moose,” and if “Chugworth Academy” is anything like it, I reserve the right to completely delete this update.
The Webcomic Overlook #30: Achewood
If there’s anything that’s explicitly terrible about Chris Onstad’s Achewood, it’s Achewood fans.
Like other members of rabid fanbases, Achewood fans seem to have no idea how to express their love for their strip except in the most boorish way possible. It seems like every message board I go to, there’s a dedicated Achewood thread. Why? Because Achewood fans were posting their favorite strips in threads where Achewood is not wholly appropriate. It’s as if mods everywhere came to the same conclusion and set up a separate Achewood thread just so the meatheads would leave everyone else alone.
And so, my first impression of Achewood was very negative. First, the asshole fans. Second, of the strips that were posted, none of them struck me as very funny. Achewood seemed to have a system of in-jokes that are not very funny to the casual viewer. Third, the art is very off-putting. I mean, the main character is an anthropomorphic cat in a thong! And finally, every Achewood strip fans posted seemed to boil down to a penis joke. I mean, even the title sounds like a penis joke. (Yeah, Onstad says it’s named after moonshine, but that explanation sounds a tad too convenient, if you know what I’m saying.) Wow, right up my alley … if I were 14 years old.
Thus, I was set to pretty much ignore Achewood for the rest of my life. However, two things happened that made me decide to give Achewood a spin. First of all, on a respected message board thread about webcomics, there was discussion on how Achewood was one of the most plot-driven webcomics around. Hold the mayonnaise, chief … this chuckleheaded webcomic has a story? And second, Achewood became Time’s #1 Graphic Novel of the Year. Now THAT got my attention. Time Magazine has made some absolutely boneheaded nominations recently — lest you forget, YOU, dear reader, were 2006′s Man of the Year — but this accolade seemed almost legitimate … despite the hilariously flowery prose.
(OK, I can’t be the only one laughing my ass off at Time‘s “The art is at times crude, but it rises to moments of extreme lyrical beauty,” right? This is Exhibit A why positive reviews are tougher to write than negative reviews.)
So I checked out Achewood for the same reason I check out a lot of things … morbid curiosity.
Dresden Codak review on ComixTalk
Hey folks, some exciting news.
I’ve got a review published on the highly reputable ComixTalk website! It’s a great honor. The site does a lot of great stuff, like interviews with webcomic creators and a roundtable that included well-respected print comic editor Heidi MacDonald. Anyway, the editor Xaviar Xerexes asked me to do a monthly review feature, and here’s the result!
My first contribution to ComixTalk is a review of Dresden Codak, a very surreal webcomic written by Aaron Diaz that stars a mentally unhinged cutie named Kimiko Ross. Check it out!
