Monthly Archives: September 2008

The Webcomic Overlook #55: Jump Leads

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What is it with science fiction’s obsession about getting lost?

You’d think that, a hundred years from now, scientists would’ve created something that would put GPS to shame. Or, that in a universe governed by either an interstellar federation or a corporation that controls wormhole jump points, there would hopefully be enough regulations and protocol to keep hapless starships from getting stranded in the middle of nowhere.

But no.

The Voyager, due to no small part of the Captain’s ridiculous interpretation of the Prime Directive, gets stranded 75 light years in the Delta Quadrant. The Robotech series is partially based on the Super Dimensional Fortress accidentally teleporting to the outer rims of the Solar System and the valiant crew trying to make it back to Earth. Sam Beckett bounced from body to body in Quantum Leap, clueless for the most part as to why he ended up in a certain period of time. And the family from Lost in Space … well, you get the idea.

Which bring us to the central premise of Jump Leads. The series was created by head writer Ben Paddon and an artist from Moscow who goes by the name of JjAR. Mssr. Paddon can’t take total credit, though: Jump Leads, like a continuing series, is written by a stable of writers, and Paddon, thus far, wrote the first two issues. Other writers with their names attached to the comic are Psycheverse associates Andrew Taylor, Euan Mumford (who wrote Issue 3), and Paul Varley.


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Webcomics are serious business

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Entrepreneur magazine recently ran an article about the business of webcomics:


Entrepreneur.com: Funny Business

It’s a very short article, and I wish it had gotten into more detail. The article goes over the successes of Chris Onstad (Achewood) and Jeff Rowland (Overcompensating and Topatoco). By the end, I still had a sense that webcomics were still a growing business: $1 million in sales is a lot, especially considering that webcomics are hardly mainstream. Yet, considering that TopatoCo deals in merchandise from a relatively small number of titles — which include strong titles such as Kate Beaton, Dresden Codak, and Dr. McNinja (of which I am the proud owner of a shirt featuring Ben Franklin and the zombie Presidents dancing the Thriller, which went over extremely well at the school open house I went to last week) — I can’t shake the sense that there’s a whole field of untapped profit potential out there for starry-eyed entrepreneurs.

What if someone could reach out to the audience beyond the “young, hip readers”? Have webcomics ever really reached the point where “where traditional print comic books and newspaper strips have left off”? And while the advertising is mostly “word-of-mouth”, not “the traditional online model of SEO tactics and advertising”, what if an advertising model could be developed to better spread the word about certain titles? (Example: Marvel and DC tend to spread the word about lesser titles through massive cross-overs. Kris Straub tried to do the same in Starslip Crisis. Is this a viable business model?)

Argh, but that’s just my crazy inner businessman talking. Don’t listen to him. I’d be like a multi-kazillionaire if he was ever right. Back in the closet you go, you flighty chatterbox!

One Punch Reviews #18: Chainsawsuit

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On one of Halfpixel’s Webcomics Weekly podcasts, Kris Straub identifies with an e-mailer who claims that he has way too many ideas to contain in one comic. (The person who sent the e-mail got roundly mocked by everyone else at Halfpixel, though in a playful manner. At least, I don’t think Dave Kellett actually wanted to beat the snot out of him.) Now, he might have been facetious, but I imagine Kris Straub really is a man of a million ideas. He is, after all, responsible for comics with high concept ideas, like the one about a starship that displays art exhibits (Starslip Crisis) and a band that’s resigned themselves to the fact that they’ll never become famous (F Chords). Straub also does a third strip, one that’s more conventional and far less polished. It may, however, be Kris Straub at his funniest. Today, One Punch Reviews basks in the deliberately low-tech glory of Chainsawsuit.


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The Webcomic Overlook #54: Silly Daddy

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Some time ago, Joe Chiappetta contacted me by e-mail asking me to review his webcomic, Silly Daddy. For various reasons, I haven’t been reviewing solicitations lately. As I mentioned in one of the comments, it’s much easier for me to write reviews for a comic that reflect my own interests rather than tackling something that may or may not stoke my curiosity in the first place. Take the Beachnuts review I wrote, for example. This strip was solicited by the comics’ creator. Although I tried to keep as open a mind as possible, I discovered that I had my limitations. The strip is targeted for a surfing audience. Since I’m not one myself, my observations we weakened by self-doubt about whether or not I, as a layman, could ever truly enjoy jokes about how being in the water for an extended period of time causes one to be gross. On the other hand, as a proud Nintendo Wii and PS2 owner (two of the greatest consoles of all time *strut* *strut*), I can at least understand parodies Mario and Master Chief in, say, Crazy Buffet.

Thus, solicitations are often met with a tentative, “Eh, mmmmmmmaybe.” There was, however, something about Mssr. Chiappetta’s e-mail that piqued my interest immediately. First, there was the absolutely charming way in which he introduced himself: “I am a former wrestler and chess champion, but that has little or nothing to do with the comic.” (Note to aspiring webcomic artists — and, indeed, any else for all walks of life: this is the sort of cheesy trivia that tends to get people’s attention. Put this stuff on your resume. Seriously.)

Second, I was hooked on the premise: an autobiographical account on what it meant to be a father. I’m not yet a father myself, so to me, this is still some sort of magical mystery land and not some horror show combination of stress, sleeplessness, diaper changing, and love. (Awwww!)

And third, Silly Daddy actually won an award in 1998, back in the days before it was even a webcomic. During its print run (which began waaaay back in 1991), Silly Daddy received the Xeric, an award established by Peter Laird (yes, THE Peter Laird, one half of the creative duo responsible for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) for self-published comic creators. My dear reader, you know how I love to chat up award winning comics. Okay, so most of the time, it’s to question the legitimacy of the award, but no such though crossed my mind here.

I shot him back an e-mail saying that I’d be honored to check it out.


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It’s the end of the world as we know it … and I feel fine?

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Dresden Codak pretty much takes the turn we were expecting … the end of the world. The current panel is ominously titled “Hob 25 — And That’s That.” (Link may be Not Safe For Work due to naked views of Kimiko’s butt and some boobage. I also expect this link to float to the top of one of my most clicked links on this site.) Of course, this being Dresden Codak, I fully expect the brave new world mentioned at the end of the strip to be some sort of magical fusion of man and machine. A transhumanist paradise (as alluded to two years ago in “Epilogue“).

So… does this remind anyone of Neon Genesis Evangelion? Not just how the end of the world is instigated by some cute girl who develops godlike powers. Or how everyone’s absorbed into a sort of entropy that gives birth to a new world (a theme that was also reiterated in Evangelion‘s close cousin in anime, RahXephon). How about how Dresden Codak, like Evangelion, started out a sort of a breezy saga with somewhat cerebral anecdotes into an oppresively serious storyline with cosmic aspirations?

Also, it’s kinda weird that this is the second major storyline in webcomics to touch on the end of the world. In March of this year, Minus concluded with everyone in the world still dead. It was played off as a pleasant thing, perhaps even better than life as a living person. Yet, like the similar ending at the end of Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle, I couldn’t shake the eerie feeling of melancholy.

EDIT: Argh. Stupid differences in date notation. I wend back to check that strip, and I just noticed they were using the day/month/year convention. Minus actually concluded its storyline in July.

Three things to improve on The Frog Pond

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My fellow Comic Fencer, Delos Woodruff, asked me if I could take a look at his comic and point out three things to improve upon. I was happy to oblige. Delos is very open to criticism; his blog at artpatient.com is dedicated to learning new techniques by reading other webcomics.

However, I’m not sure how much of my input will be useful to him. I review things from the perspective of a reader, some regular Joe surfing the web and reading webcomics to get his jollies. As an artist, I am average at best. So, if Delos is willing, I’m going to post my recommendations right here on my blog. You more professional types can go ahead and pick them apart of you reckon they reek too much of hooey or shenanigans or malarkey.

Delos’ comic is called The Frog Pond. It’s a tale of three boys as they go on fantastic journeys while voyaging the backwoods. I assume that their escapades are all products of an overactive imagination, not unlike the ones experienced by a urinary challenged boy in Calvin & Hobbes (which is referenced in one of the strips).

Be aware ahead of time that this post is going to sound rather nitpicky, so I ask for elegant forgiveness ahead of time.

Ready? Here we go!

MOST IMPORTANT/TOP THREE THINGS THAT NEEDED TO BE FIXICATED


Item #1.) The characters are too similar to each other.

Spike, Newt, and Gus have the same gumdrop-shaped head and same rail thin body style. The only distinguishing feature is the hair … and even that gets confusing when the comic isn’t rendered in color. Even their height looks about the same: they’re different heights in the picture above, but it’s not quite so apparent in other strips.

On a similar note, despite some attempts at trying to the three boys also aren’t very distinguishable personality-wise, either. For example, when Gus bullies around the aliens in one of your first story arcs, its felt forced and unnatural. I wondered to myself why this was so.

I played around with a whole list of suggestions: drastically redesigning the characters, giving them an actual wardrobe to accentuate their personalities, varying their body styles (like giving one kid broader shoulders), etc.

But then I thought that you might have your reasons for choosing the look that you did, and I decided that if you have good reason (such as maybe the characters are based on your real life boys or something), then you shouldn’t mess with that. (HOWEVER, if you’re going with the same style just because that’s how you started and you feel that you have to proceed in the same vein for the sake of continuity, then I say by all means take my above suggestions to heart. I point you to Scott DeWitt’s Fanboys, which started out with a style similar to yours but evolved to characters that were more expressive and distinct.)

So, I’m just going to leave you with four words: body language. Facial expressions.

Newt is the innocent, naive, and sweet one? How about sticking a more or less permanent goofy smile on his blank face? (If you’re already trying to do this, I suggest ramping up your efforts. Don’t be afraid to exaggerate!) One of the comics that does this rather well is Sluggy Freelance. Despite the comic’s simple style, you know that Torg is goofy and sorta brainless just by looking at his face. In Frog Pond, if you take away the hair and the freckles, Gus (the tough one) and Newt are nearly indistinguishable.

(While out at lunch, I started to think how the characters from Charles Shultz’s Peanuts are very similar in appearance. However, I claim that they are easily distinguishable from their expressions alone: a flustered, bewildered look almost always means Charlie Brown, while a crabby, angry look almost always means Lucy.)
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Sugar Bits review on ComixTalk

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The Webcomic Overlook is suffering from Bleedmania! First I did a review on what will possibly go down as Bleedman’s (a.k.a. Vinson Ngo) most award winning work, Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi. Now, I’ve decided to tackle his most recent comic at the ComixTalk site. I guess you can blame Christopher for stoking my interests. Is El Santo on the verge of a mental breakdown after reading through the archives of, not one, but two Bleedman originals? Only time will tell. Anyway, take a gander at my review for Sugar Bits!

Read my review of Vinson Ngo’s Sugar Bits on ComixTalk.