The Webcomic Overlook #132: Nathan Sorry
August 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm | Posted in 4 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, dramatic webcomic, webcomics | 8 CommentsTags: Nathan Sorry
There’s been a lot of scary hullabaloo in the media lately asking “What is it about 20-somethings?“, i.e. “How come my unemployed, lazy-ass kids are turning 30 and still living in my basement?” Seriously, my wife turned on the TV this morning, and that’s what they were talking about on the Today Show.
The argument boils down to the idea that 20-somethings are afraid of growing up. Now, I personally believe that a lot of this is the typical sensationalist media panic. When I was but a young El Santo, I remember being handed a similar article by my dad from the Reader’s Digest entitled “The Lazy American Teenager.” I imagine my dad afraid I was turning into a burnt out teen. (Guilty as charged!)
But, for the sake of putting together an intro for this here webcomic review, I’m going to go ahead and take this humbuggery seriously. Here’s a quote form the New York Times:
DURING THE PERIOD he calls emerging adulthood, Arnett says that young men and women are more self-focused than at any other time of life, less certain about the future and yet also more optimistic, no matter what their economic background. This is where the “sense of possibilities” comes in, he says; they have not yet tempered their idealistic visions of what awaits. “The dreary, dead-end jobs, the bitter divorces, the disappointing and disrespectful children . . . none of them imagine that this is what the future holds for them,” he wrote. Ask them if they agree with the statement “I am very sure that someday I will get to where I want to be in life,” and 96 percent of them will say yes. But despite elements that are exciting, even exhilarating, about being this age, there is a downside, too: dread, frustration, uncertainty, a sense of not quite understanding the rules of the game. More than positive or negative feelings, what Arnett heard most often was ambivalence — beginning with his finding that 60 percent of his subjects told him they felt like both grown-ups and not-quite-grown-ups.
In the end, the emotional paralysis stems from the attempt to maintain, for as long as possible, the elusive pipe dream that you can still mold your own destiny into something that’s better than the pains that the previous generation experienced. It rises from a fear that if you don’t get started on the right foot, you doom yourself to screwing up the rest of your life.
The webcomic I’m reviewing today, Rich Barrett’s Nathan Sorry, taps into the same anxieties. However, unlike others, he gains a priceless gift: an exit strategy for the curse of a life lived badly.
One Punch Reviews #31: Pressed
July 28, 2010 at 4:51 pm | Posted in 4 Stars, One Punch Reviews, The Webcomic Overlook, comedy webcomic, political webcomic, webcomics | 7 Comments
The slow, painful deaths of local papers has created some very interesting reactions within people in the webcomic community. Some webcomic creators seem to take a sadistic glee with how things are going. But where’s the democratic response? Ryan Pagelow is the creator of the Pressed webcomic. He’s also a newspaper photographer, a writer, and a print cartoonist. He has a few things to say about the newspaper business as it struggles to stay relevant in the digital age.
The Webcomic Overlook #129: Comic Critics
July 26, 2010 at 1:05 pm | Posted in 4 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, comedy webcomic, pop culture caricatures, webcomics | 7 Comments
So San Diego Comic Con is over, and life goes on. I didn’t go, what with our budget being tight and me not really being a convention-goer in general. I have, though, been following quite diligently online, with Todd VanDerWerff’s coverage at the AV Club being my main source. (#Notatcomiccon nation, unite!)
So what was the biggest story coming out of the San Diego Comic Con? This: “Is Comic Con even for comics anymore?” The answer is no, no it is not. My wife, who is not a huge comic fan but is a die-hard Glee fan (or “Gleek,” if you will), had her faith temporary shaken when she realized the Glee crew were at the Comic Con. “Does this mean Glee is for nerds?” she asked me witheringly. She needn’t have worried. There are panels devoted to Community, Sons of Anarchy, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, after all.
There’s a bit of the “nerds getting kicked out their own club by the cool kids” vibe going on, which, perhaps, is the natural order of things. “Know your role and shut your mouth,” as the Rock used to say. But, you know, the fact that this entire spectacle blossomed from the tiny kernel of comic fandom should tell you at least one thing: comic fans are a passionate bunch. Outside of Comic Con, look how much energy we spent reverse engineering Wonder Woman’s new outfit, or how we sneered at JMS for having Superman walk the Earth, or how we geeked out over the new Scott Pilgrim book.
If we lose the spiritual core of Comic Con, I guess us comic fans will have to slink back into the shadows and await the smaller cons, while poring over comic sites, blogs … and, yes, webcomics. While not as prevalent as gaming webcomics, webcomics about comics do exist. I’ve covered them before — the now defunct Year One (reviewed here), No Pink Ponies (reviewed here), and Let’s Be Friends Again (reviewed here). And now we get Comic Critics, written by Sean Whitmore and illustrated by Brandon Hanvey. The comic centers around some of the most irritable, snobby, and unpleasant people in the world: people who review comics.
The Webcomic Overlook #127: Digger
July 16, 2010 at 2:00 pm | Posted in 4 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, fantasy webcomic, furry webcomic, webcomics | 3 Comments
After writing 127 large reviews, I become very self-aware that I’m repeating the same references over and over again. It can’t be helped. Writers are only human, after all, and the big moments stick out so prominently in our memories that we relate our new experiences quite often to similar experiences in the past. This is why “The Sports Guy” Bill Simmons will always refer to Karate Kid and Rocky IV and why Roger Ebert will always mention “uncanny valley” and “meet cutes” as if he invented those terms.
One reference I’ve considered retiring was Jeff Smith’s Bone. After a quick search, I discovered I’m mentioned that comic in reviews of Order of Tales, The Meek, Ding!, Sequential Art, Subnormality, Gunnerkrigg Court, and Sugary Serials.
“What’s with this guy?” you’re likely thinking. “Has he only read one comic in his life, ever?”
True, Bone is one of my favorite comics of all time… the high standard for traditional cartooning and fantasy storytelling. However, I should probably let off on the references, lest you get sick of the hero worship.
That said, Ursula Vernon’s Digger makes it very, very difficult not to fall back on that chestnut one more time. Here’s the tale of the tape: Digger‘s heroine bears a resemblance to a plush toy. She’s thrust into a strange world far away from her own. The strange new world features cartoony talking creatures of various shapes and sizes, and she’s thrust into a tale that turns out to be more cosmic than it seemed at the onset.
I’d be a fool if I didn’t start, uh, gnawing at the bone for a gratuitous Bone comparison.
The Webcomic Overlook #123: Wasted Talent
June 7, 2010 at 3:39 pm | Posted in 4 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, anime, comedy webcomic, journal webcomic, manga style webcomic, webcomics | 9 Comments
Before I start reviewing Angela Melick’s Wasted Talent, let’s talk a little about journal webcomics.
The Webcomic Overlook doesn’t typically review journal webcomics. (Out of 150+ reviews, this is only my fourth journal comic review.) To be honest, I don’t think most sites do. Journal webcomics are a tricky thing: part comic, part blog, part diary. I’ll admit this site is often cruel, but more often than not I try not to directly attack the creator behind the comic. The line between creator and creation, though, becomes exceedingly tricky when the the characters in the comic represent an actual person.
There’s the issue of the nature of the comic. Who in the world would want to read something that’s the equivalent of someone’s diary? I suppose a snarkier reviewer would say “voyeurs,” but I should mention that autobiographies have been around since the beginning of time. Those, though, tend to be written after the events depicted have passed, and there’s a certain distance between the author and the narrative. As a counterpoint, I suppose you can say that blogging is no different… yet most of these blogs get very few readers, and the one that do succeed at least have a unique quality about them — like, say, putting funny outfits on a pug.
The Webcomic Overlook #122: Spinnerette
June 2, 2010 at 4:12 pm | Posted in 4 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, comedy webcomic, fanservice, manga style webcomic, spoof, superheroes, webcomics | 16 CommentsTags: Spinnerette
There’s something you should know about what webcomics I select to be reviewed on this blog. Sometimes, I’m hopelessly attracted to the online equivalent of “bright, shiny objects.” That is to say, I’m easily distracted by some of the stupidest things. It does me absolutely no good to draft up a schedule, since I’d be champing at the bit to review something I’d only encountered at a passing glance. Two months ago, I drafted an ambitious plan to check out a list of review candidates. All of them were potential gems for review fodder. And I’d been doing well following it … until now.
It’s not that I’ve abandoned that list. The one or two of you looking forward to my take on Wasted Talent will be happy to know that I’ve already written a barely legible preliminary draft that I hope to have up cleaned up and ready by next week. However, as I finished penning my Marilith review, I ran smack dab into one such bright, shiny object.
Wondering what “Krazy Krow”* had been up to since he wrapped up his magnum opus, I clicked on Spinnerette, which he developed with artist Walter Gustavo Gomez. It answers the age-old question: “What if Spider-Man was a girl?”
The Webcomic Overlook #117: Moon Town
April 6, 2010 at 11:10 am | Posted in 4 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, sci-fi webcomic, webcomics | 6 CommentsTags: Moon Town
When not blogging about webcomics, I am often found hanging around comments sections discussing the finer points of Star Trek: The Next Generation*. That’s right people: I am a super cool and suave dude. In between tried and true discussions — such as whether Wesley Crusher or Deanna Troi were lamer, or if that Reading Rainbow behind-the-scenes look at TNG was the best episode or the best episode EVER — someone brought up a highly relevant question: how come on a starship of over 400 people, we never see the enlisted men?
Star Trek likes to pretend that their squeaky clean utopia of the future has no blue collar joes. But who cleans the Jeffries tubes? Who mops the floors? Don’t say robots, because in the future of TNG it turns out Data is an unreplicatable piece of work.
While the sci-fi working class more or less gets ignored in the Star Trek universe, they do tend to get their due in webcomics. I reviewed Jump Leads a year-and-a-half-ago, about two somewhat low level grunts on an inter-dimensional immigration office.
Today, we visit another set of blue collar working stiffs in Steve Ogden’s Moon Town, a comic that follows the adventures of an unfortunate security officer and a team of world-weary miners.
The Webcomic Overlook #112: Natalie Dee
March 11, 2010 at 12:22 am | Posted in 4 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, comedy webcomic, journal webcomic, stick figure webcomic, webcomics | 3 CommentsTags: Natalie Dee
An excerpt from THE WEBCOMIC ARMAGEDDON, A FANFICTION:
El Santo finds himself all alone in a dark alley. The flashfight had been brief and tense. He had barely escaped with his life. Finding temporary solitude, he adjusted his mask and lit a cigarette.
All of the sudden, lightning flashed across the skies. El Santo found himself face-to-face with webcomic uber-villain and intercontinental bon vivant known as the Fiendish Dr. R. He was elevated above the ground, propelled upward by the Smug Sense of Self Satisfaction. A flapping cape was draped over his arm, which he ominously lifted over his face.
“At last we meet, you infernal luchador,” he bellowed. Lightning flashed again, and for a short moment El Santo could make the outline of his big elephant ears and his potato-shaped nose. “Webcomics are but the domain of foolish dreamers who are destroying the industry! You will be but the lastest sacrifice in our rise to glory. The Media Syndicate shall rise again!” He laughed maniacally, an ungodly yet melodious cacaphony that was a mix of Dr. Doom, Raul Julia’s M. Bison, and Simon Cowell.
Attempting to make a comeback, El Santo whipped out a smartphone and pulled up the first webcomic bookmark he could find. The Fiendish Dr. R. sneers. “You pitiful imbecile. You have only proven to me that which I have warned you before: webcomic creators are nothing more than t-shirt salesmen.”
El Santo looked at his screen and he noticed that he’d brought up Natalie Dee, created by Natalie Dee. But… is it a webcomic? It looks like … well, frankly, it looks like a cheap-o t-shirt design. Could it be that the Fiendish Dr. R. … is right?
One Punch Reviews #27: Weapon Brown
February 20, 2010 at 1:38 am | Posted in 4 Stars, One Punch Reviews, The Webcomic Overlook, adult webcomic, adventure webcomic, comedy webcomic, pop culture caricatures, sci-fi webcomic, webcomics | 3 Comments
A desolate post-apocalyptic world. One grim warrior with cybernetic parts patrols the lawless wasteland with only his dog Snoop by his side. He’s bald except for a small wisp of hair growing out the front. He wears a shirt with a familiar zig-zag pattern. He’s called Weapon Brown, but some people know him as Chuck … wait a minute. Are you telling me that Weapon Brown is some sort of parody?
Warning, by the way: this webcomic is for adults only, and several panels are not safe for work.
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