Monthly Archives: December 2011

Hark A Vagrant! scoring high on Time’s 10 best books list

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Things are coming up roses for Kate Beaton. Her print compilation, Hark A Vagrant!, scored the #7 spot on Time Magazine’s Top Ten Fiction Books. (Coming in at #1, by the way, was George R.R. Martin, and given the Game of Thrones mania sweeping the nation this year, the bearded one is a tough guy to beat.) Here’s what Time had to say:

It’s tough to say what list this book belongs on, but it’s the debut of a smart, funny, wholly unique voice, and it ought to be somewhere, so let’s put it here. Kate Beaton is a cartoonist who draws wildly expressive portraits of historical and literary figures and then makes them say funny things. Quite often her comics reveal basic truths about who these people were or are. (Lenin: “Is the right time for revolution.” Russian: “I do not wish to be communist.” Lenin: “Would murderous atrocities convince you sir.” Russian (rubs beard thoughtfully): “Go on …”) But the main point is that they’re hilarious. Whatever else it might be, Hark! A Vagrant is the wittiest book of the year.

And before you can write that off as perhaps cold, calculated commercial pandering, these words were written by one of Webcomic Overlook’s favorite modern authors, Lev Grossman. (Mr. Grossman was also once a video game critic, which makes him a soul brother of sorts.) When the author of The Magicians and Codex speaks, El Santo listens.

This also proves, by the way, what trendsetters we webcomic readers are. While the rest of the world is just now catching up to Ms. Beaton’s works, we can all put on our lensless glasses and sneer, “Psssh… I was totally into Kate Beaton 3-and-a-half years ago.” Webcomics: turning all of us into hipsters one webcomic at a time.

(h/t Fleen)

The Webcomic Overlook #187: Clandestinauts

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It sometimes astounds me how many posts I’ve devoted to webcomics. It’s, like, more than “a lot” and just short of “a buttload.” The peril, at this point, is that sometimes you run the risk of saying the exact same thing about one webcomic that you said about another webcomic. Repeating myself is perhaps my second greatest fear in the world.

The first is my mom’s dog, Cinnamon.

Curse that Japanese Chin his sharp, pointy fangs. Why am I the only person he ever seems to bite?

So when I sat down to write about Tim Sievert’s Clandestinauts (a webcomic that I chose to read primarily because I am a big fan of the world “clandestine” — seriously, when I was a kid, I even created a superhero with that name), I was set to write, “Well, as much as I like the art, I wasn’t too big a fan of the story.” Then I thought to myself, “Wait. Didn’t I write that once? Like, at least five times before?”

If I had the time or inclination, I could probably track down all instances I expressed the exact same sentiment. I’m pretty sure I said the same thing about, say, What Birds Know. But life is short, and plan on spending my free time owning noobs on iPad/iPhone game Valor later, so let’s just say that I’ve said it a lot.


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SPEAKING of Comics Alliance…

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Reader “algeya” has pointed out that Comics Alliance has gotten their feet in the webcomic game by doing a weekly “Best Webcomics Ever” piece. (I’m just linking their “webcomics” tag, since the article-specific tag is thus far woefully inconsistent.) The latest one takes a look at Gunshow, Shortpacked!, Amazing Super Powers, Bearmageddon, and the rest.

This makes me go all: Oh. Emm. Gee. Is the Webcomic Overlook now a dinosaur? A product of an earlier time when it was all like Websnark, YWISAYSFB, and myself reading and commenting on webcomics? Is it time for me to get on that boast into the West with Frodo Baggins and smile at y’all with radiant pools of blue eyes that you can get lost into forever?

Did I mention that I’m hopped up on industrial strength pain killers right now?

In any case, if you’ve been feeling webcomic deprived lately, check it out and see the world of webcomics through the eyes of CA writer Aaron Colter.

Holy LetterCols, Batman!

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Huh! While I was out taking care of my sick ma, it seems that one of the Q&A’s I sent to ComicsAlliance got answered when I wasn’t looking. It was answered by the venerable Chris Sims (author of the recently reviewed Awesome Hospital). Here was my question:

Q: There have been some theories that Azrael was a parody of the X-tremeness of Image Comics heroes at the time. I’m not sure, since at the time it looked like DC Comics was committed to putting out a new generation of heroes to catch on with younger readers at the time (a la Kyle Rayner). So what do you think? Was AzBats a parody, or was he a legit Batman replacement that never really caught on? — Larry, via email

That “Larry” would be me, if y’all were wondering. Finding it published in the “Ask Chris” article made me feel as giddy as Geoff Johns did when he was but a young nerd spinning far-too-elaborate theories about the Green Lantern.

So what was the verdict on AzBats? The answer may surprise you.

Or not.

However, it is incredibly in depth and for that I thank Mr. Sims for taking the time to answer it to the fullest extent of his abilities. It’s not just about AzBats, but an exploration of the superhero phenomenon of the 90′s. Here’s an excerpt:

After all, the whole story of Knightfall and Azrael kicked off in 1992, during a time when comics were absolutely dominated by characters of the Badass Killer variety. Wolverine, Cable, the original bunch over at Image, hell, the Punisher was supporting three ongoing monthly comics, and as much as I love that guy, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t his compelling origin or character development that made him so popular. It was the fact that he was a ruthless killer. Same goes for Wolverine: Claremont, Byrne, Cockrum and Miller may have made him a surprisingly rich, deceptively complex character, but the reason most people were reading those comics was because he had knives sticking out of his hands that he used to stab ninjas. Believe me, as a kid who was ten years old in 1992, I can totally confirm that this is a premise with huge appeal.

And comics fans being what they were, they wanted everything to be like that. Well, I say “comics fans,” but that’s not really fair — fans of all media tend to be like that. Doom’s great and becomes a huge success, so we get a ton of first-person shooters that are variations and improvements. Street Fighter has kids lining up around the block, so Tekken and Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter become the main attraction at the arcades. Grand Theft Auto 3 is revolutionary and phenomenal, so suddenly everything’s got to have an open world sandbox.

It’s required reading for fans of comics history and people wondering why ever hero in the 90′s had those friggin’ pouches.

(On another side note, I’m halfway to finishing my next review, so The Webcomic Overlook should be back in business some time soon.)