Daily Archives: July 7, 2009

The Joy of Webcomics can’t find a cure for the summertime blues

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joyofwebcomicsBoy, there must be something in the air this month because a lot of people are sure mad about webcomics!  Maybe I should change this week’s entry to The Annoy of Webcomics, amirite?  (Double finger click.) Anyway, here are a few salty items that might make you think that there might be some speedbumps in the new medium.

  • What The Hell People starts off with a recent Lore Sjoberg post about criticism care of Wired.com. (Excerpt: “It’s important to let people know what parts of your work you won’t change, so they won’t bother criticizing it. For instance, you might say: ‘I’m writing an original story about a Jebi knight named Lucas Starwalker who fights an evil imperial overlord named Darthon Vaderon who turns out to actually be his father. I’m not going to change the plot, the setting, the characters or the names, but aside from that let me know if there’s anything I can do to make my story even more awesome!’”)He applies its words of wisdom to webcomics. Its concluding words:

    The Gutter Snipe, in its response to my post, noted that “aesthetics are not laws”–rather, aesthetic standards are now, as ever, in flux. That much is true. But I fear for the future in which our aesthetic standards reward laziness, accept pettiness and hold sacrosanct the lowest common denominator. You are no Cezanne, so don’t make subjectivity into your personal aegis.

  • Everyone’s offering tips for webcomic newbies! One of them is Hey! Look! Comics!, that offers 20 free tips for webcomic beginners.

    Use a blaring, ugly background, so your reader’s eyes get diverted to and stay on the comic! If your comic is taller than the screen, only have the navigation buttons above it OR below it, but not both! Use an intentionally confusing drop-down archive system so readers will be forced to look at a bunch of your comics before they find the one they’re looking for! If you can, use complex, “page turn simulation” animation between pages to give the feel of a real book- don’t worry if it compresses your image a bit small or makes the page slow to load, the effect is SO WORTH IT!

    Will do, E!

  • Jackson Ferrell does an interview in comic form with Unwinder of Unwinder’s Tall Comics. Somehow the discussion ends with them talking about Shredded Moose. Moral of the story: if you want to totally kill a conversation, TALK ABOUT SHREDDED MOOSE.
  • Now for my first sarcasm-free entry: Webcomics.com relaunches!  In one of the newer entries, Nathan Foreman takes a look at the ages old debate of art vs. writing.  Who wins?  Who loses?  And will there be a rematch?
  • In just regular comic/TV show news, Brian K. Vaughan has left the Lost writing staff! To be honest, I was much more a fan of Paul Dini and (yes, it shocks me too) Jeph Loeb’s contributions.  BKV got too… cosmic.  (Not that I still didn’t enjoy Seasons 4 & 5.) Who will be replacing the Y: the Last Man writer?  My money’s on Stan Lee.
  • Meanwhile, Pigs of the Industry takes a look at Sin Titulo and doesn’t like the Lost-like mystery aspects much.  To wit:

    I don’t think Lost advances much if anything in their going off in all possible plot point directions. I also don’t think they have a clue how it’s all really going to end. No road map to the words “THE END”. I don’t [think] ST is that bad off about direction, but all those new narratives just slow things down.

    Maybe there’s a roadmap now that Stan Lee’s in charge!

  • I haven’t read the comic yet, but Delos of ArtPatient did an expose on M.I.M.E.S. in his What Did I Learn feature. Supposedly, the heroes are silent … which is just enough to pique my interests. Flailing my arms wildly like I’m in an invisible box over here.
  • I Am Legend reviews Annyseed. It’s about a vampire girl who looks like a goth with black hair and two ponytails. Which … pretty much describes any goth girl portrayed in pop culture. Including that one chick from NCIS.
  • Why in the world do we see, anyway? Sounds like a fairly goofy question, until you realize that our vision is far more attuned than what simple evolution would require. Do we define certain colors as baseline? Do two eyes give us a sort of X-ray vision? Did our alphabet evolve from things we observe in nature? Let the Wall Street Journal walk you through the particulars in their book review of “The Vision Revolution.”

The Webcomic Overlook #88: Daisy Owl

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WCO-big-review

Online, Cracked has been going through a lengthy process to distance itself from it’s dismal and historical reputation of being the poor man’s Mad Magazine. The efforts, I think, have been largely successful. When you think Cracked these days, you think less of “magazine that also does comic movie parodies but not quite as funny or creative as Mad” and more of “Top 7 List of Trivia that makes you feel all smart and knowledgeable, although generally the information is pretty worthless and the only reason you read it was because you liked seeing the words ‘Max Planck’ and ‘badass’ together.”

Well, that’s not completely true. There’s also “Top 7 list of things where we can laugh about other people’s cultures,” “awkward YouTube sketches that used to be aired on public access channels,” and “photoshop contests that are not as quite as funny or creative as SomethingAwful’s Photoshop Phridays.”

Cracked is also a strong proponent of webcomics. Unlikely as it might sound, the site is starting to become key in introducing webcomics to new audiences outside of the typical circles (e.g. nerdy and verbose blogs like The Webcomic Overlook). Think of it as the funny pages section of your local newspaper. I can’t vouch for the quality, though; some comics, like the recently showcased Fatawesome, have been mind-bogglingly terrible.

However, sometimes Cracked strikes gold. The site and the members of its forum are partially responsible for the publicity of at least one decent webcomic. It’s the subject of today’s Webcomic Overlook review, Ben Driscoll’s Daisy Owl.

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