The Webcomic Overlook #99: The Meek
November 5, 2009 at 3:56 pm | In 5 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, anime, fanservice, fantasy webcomic, manga style webcomic, webcomics | 24 CommentsTags: The Meek
Typically, in the great tug-of-war over which is most important to a comic — great art or great writing — I tend to think that writing wins out most of the time. A good narrative will get me through a webcomic any day, while nice art satisfies only but for a moment. But, you know, there’s a chance I’m looking at this debate all wrong. What if a lot of webcomic artists are just poor storytellers?
It’s been said that a picture is of equivalent value to about 1,000 words. Unfortunately, most artists only go up to about 200. I’m a big fan of Jim Lee, especially since, back in the 90’s, his art on X-Men was one of the things that got me hooked into comics. But, you know, these days when I look at one of his comics the only words that pop into my mind are “boy, that girl sure has a nice rack.” That’s only eight words Jim.
On the other hand, there’s Frank Quitely. Take a look at Grant Morrison work independent of him (i.e., Seven Soldiers, Batman RIP, Batman & Robin #4-6). Sure, the stories are high concept, but in the end, they come off as rather pedestrian. But pair Morrison up with Quitely and the combination is transcendent (All Star Superman, Batman & Robin, New X-Men). Morrison’s plotting was only, at most, half of the story. The other half was the fantastic storytelling prowess of Frank Quitely. His illustrations alone spoke volumes about emotion, wonder, and action. Batman & Robin #2 opened with Dick Grayson slumped over while sitting on the stairs in his Batsuit, ill-fitted and hardly as intimidating as when Bruce wore it, while Alfred looked on sadly. That single panel was easily the 1,000 word variety… maybe more.
This is probably why I’ve really enjoyed The Meek, written and illustrated by Der-Shing Helmer. The art isn’t just pretty. It’s half the storytelling.
By the way, this webcomic does feature a cornucopia of nudity, so be warned: assume all links are NOT SAFE FOR WORK.
The Webcomic Overlook #98: Gunshow
September 29, 2009 at 12:54 pm | In 5 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, anime, comedy webcomic, spoof, webcomics | 7 CommentsTags: Gunshow, KC Green
At some point in the development of human culture, we — and I speak a collective “we” as citizens of the world — decided that we did not like fart jokes. The very term “fart joke” has become short hand for humor that’s crude. Unseemly. Lazy. Far too bourgeois. Any movie that employs a fart joke is immediately dismissed as the trash heap of comedy. A movie, for example, could have a script written by Garrison Keillor. But if you, heaven forbid, put a fart joke in it, lord how the critics will talk! They will stick their nose up in the air and say things such as, “Leave your surreptitious trumpetlike rump blasts for infants and rednecks.” (Notable exception: Blazing Saddles. For some reason, the fart scene there is considered high art, perhaps because it is the best fart scene.)
The paradox, though, is that fart jokes are funny. Let out a long, mighty rip — ideally punctuated by a motorboat staccato — and you can bring the whole room down with laughter and tears of joy. There’s something primal about hearing a fart and laughing in kind. It’s an instinct hard-coded the deepest recesses of our minds. We find it funny, our forefathers found it funny, and it doesn’t depend on witticisms that need copious amounts of cultural baggage or familiarity with the language. Sarcasm may be unique to Western culture, but fart jokes are universal. It’s somewhat of a comfort to imagine that our ancestors amused themselves around a campfire by ritualistically dancing around the campfire in their facepaint and decorative shields to celebrate the gods for their blessed feast of wild boar, only to have the festivities erupt into guffaws when one of the dancers felt particularly gassy. Naturally, his wife would be standing sternly to the side, rolling her eyes.
Which brings me to Gunshow, a webcomic by the irrepressible KC Green. It’s no insult, I think, to say that Gunshow is the fart joke of webcomics. I mean that metaphorically, for the most part … though it’s pretty literal at times, too. Gun Show taps into the most primordial instincts, daring us to laugh from something as ridiculously simple as a goofy-looking face. Like the crude humor you find in those early Mel Brooks films and South Park’s Terrence & Phillip, sometimes it takes a genius to remind you that fart jokes are, in fact, funny.
One Punch Reviews #24: A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge
August 11, 2009 at 3:39 pm | In 5 Stars, One Punch Reviews, The Webcomic Overlook, dramatic webcomic, historical webcomic, real life webcomic, slice-of-life webcomic, webcomics | 7 CommentsTags: AD: New Orleans After the Deluge, Hurricane Katrina
It’s not often that webcomics tackle serious subject matter. It’s even rarer when creators take the time to interview people who lived through traumatic real world events, then captured their experiences through illustrations. Creator Josh Neufeld, though, a Xeric Award winner and a founding member of ACT-I-VATE, was up to the task. Neufeld interviewed six different people about what the trials and tribulations they faced on the worst storm that New Orleans ever experienced and made a comic out of it.
This month, the highly acclaimed webcomic A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge hits the bookshelves. (Amazon.com places the release date at August 18.) The “deluge” in the title is, of course, Hurricane Katrina. The comic was originally serialized online between 2007 and 2008 in Smith Magazine. It was recognized in several publications, including Rolling Stone, the LA Times, the Wall Street Journal, and Newsweek. USA Today named it as one of 2007’s best comics.
Notices like these, by the way, can sometimes be detrimental. They can intimidate potential readers who see the attention the comic is getting from mainstream media reviewers and deduce that the work is difficult, given how praise is usually only bestowed to difficult works. Well, don’t be frightened. The voices of A.D. are those of everyday people, and the straight forward storytelling puts you in the shoes of those who witnessed it.
Continue reading One Punch Reviews #24: A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge…
The Webcomic Overlook #92: Gastrophobia
July 30, 2009 at 4:17 pm | In 5 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, action webcomic, adventure webcomic, barbarian webcomic, comedy webcomic, fantasy webcomic, historical webcomic, webcomics | 2 CommentsTags: Gastrophobia
Last spring, the wife and I booked a trip with another family on a cross-country flight to Virginia. “Visiting family?” our friends would ask. No, we were actually touring Civil War battle sites.
To which they would inevitably say, “Why in the world would you ever want to learn about history?!?”
I understand not grasping the appeal of a Civil War battle site. At the end of the day, they are, after all, medium-sized national parks with some earthworks you sorta have to squint to see. But I do take umbrage to my friends’ distaste for history. For them, “history” was a stuffy course that they had to suffer through in high school. That’s not how I see it. You can’t spell “history” without “stories”: real accounts of people going through incredible adversities that we in the Modern Age can only imagine.
I lay the fault on unimaginative history teachers. They reduce the thrill of humanity’s achievements into a dry list of dates, names, and places that must be memorized in order to ace the midterm exams. Clearly, they cannot be trusted. It’s up to armchair historians on the internet to bring history to life again. Mental Floss does a fantastic job re-interpreting history in modern parlance. Where else could I learn that porches on old houses were so big because that’s where folks spent their days cooling off in the sweaty days before air conditioning? Over on the webcomics front, Kate Beaton has made a name for herself mainly because she knows that even the most mundane historical details can be endlessly fascinating if you present it right.
You don’t even have to go into teacher mode to make history more interesting. Sometimes, the setting will suffice. Disney’s The Emperor’s New Groove makes Incan civilization accessible and less alien through Chuck Jones style antics. (The always classy vocal talents of the late Eartha Kitt contributed some, too.) In the same way, the subject today’s review makes Greek antiquity a fun place to visit.
Today, the Webcomic Overlook takes the wayback machine to the days when “Amazon” just wasn’t an online bookseller and reviews Gastrophobia, a webcomic written and illustrated by David McGuire.
The Webcomic Overlook #89: Girl Genius
July 15, 2009 at 5:16 pm | In 5 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, adventure webcomic, sci-fi webcomic, webcomics | 11 CommentsTags: Girl Genius
Some of my ideas for this site never pan out. A few weeks back, I had played around with doing a theme week. Specifically it was going to be Girl Power Week. (Motto: “Girls rule, boys drool!” Eh heh heh … so true.) A marathon session, reviewing webcomics with sassy, brassy ladies in the lead role! I even had a logo designed and an intro paragraph written (which can be found in The Black Cherry Bombshells review. OK, so it took me all of 3 minutes from googling “gurren lagann yoko” to slapping the logo together in photoshop. But still!
But, you know, actually finding the time to read webcomics and write about them takes forever. I finished about two-thirds of Girl Power Week: along with The Black Cherry Bombshells, I also finished the Earthsong review. But the third comic was too long to do properly. And now here we are, almost a month later.
More than one Webcomic Overlook reader has enthusiastically requested that I take a look at this comic. It’s one of the few comics set in the steampunk framework and does it right. It’s been nominated for Hugo Awards and Eisner Awards, and has won WCCAs and Squiddy Awards (whatever the hell that is). It’s the comic about “Adventure! Romance! Mad Science!”
Yup, you guessed it. The Webcomic Overlook finally reviews the infamous Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio. The webcomic takes a lot of surprise twists and turns, so I’ll try to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. However, there will be some revelations (minor ones, I hope), so proceed reading this review at your own risk.
The Webcomic Overlook #88: Daisy Owl
July 7, 2009 at 8:09 am | In 5 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, comedy webcomic, funny animal webcomic, webcomics | 5 CommentsTags: Daisy Owl
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.
The Webcomic Overlook #82: Sin Titulo
June 15, 2009 at 5:29 pm | In 5 Stars, The Webcomic Overlook, WCO Big Review, alternative webcomic, dramatic webcomic, horror webcomic, mystery webcomic, webcomics | 9 CommentsTags: Sin Titulo
As I mentioned in my review of The Princess Planet, the Transmission-X webcomic collective has, in my admittedly cluttered mind, been batting at 1.000. Fantastic writing, fantastic artwork, and accessible, friendly creators. Transmission-X is the webcomic gold standard, an admirable example for creators everywhere.
And yet, I was STILL apprehensive about the content of the webcomic for this week’s Webcomic Overlook review. The Abominable Charles Christopher, Kukuburi, and The Princess Planet are all generally peppy, upbeat, colorful, and fanciful. I like those elements in a webcomic. It’s like Pixar in print form. Sin Titulo, by contrast, is dark, noirish, and grounded in the harsh light of reality. It even comes with a “For Mature Readers” tag. There’s nothing sexually explicit in the comic thus far, by the way; the warning is mainly for language and violence.
Also, while I love me some mystery, suspense, and hard-boiled detective novels, noirish comic books are just not my cup o’ Bourbon. I’m not that huge a fan of Sin City, for instance. (Miller sorta lost me with the ninja hookers.)
What to make of Sin Titulo, then? And, a more important question: how do you pronounce the second part of the title? (I’m personally going to go with “Tah-TOO-low.”)
WCO Central
-
Recent Comments
Featured Products
Amazon.com links
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (Widescreen): MST3K: The Movie is back ... and on DVD! If you haven't seen it yet, you must check it out. If you've seen it 15 times ... well, that Rando joke never gets old.
The Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories: One of the most highly acclaimed webcomics in print form! Great art and dark yet surprisingly subtle humor.
Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art: Scott McCloud's influential guide on what makes comics tick!
Gunnerkrigg Court: Orientation: Tom Siddell's amazing comic of magic, whimsy, and steampunk robots.
Achewood: The Great Outdoor Fight: The legendary Achewood story arc.
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
