Comical Musings

By singular demand, I present to you Hereville by Barry Deutsch. Hereville proudly follows the tradition first seen in such books as Wuthering Heights, and later carried on in the writings of Flannery O’Connor and the like, by presenting us with characters who are very obviously from one place and speak their local dialect unashamedly. Unlike the aforementioned writers, though, Deutsch is polite enough to provide translations for the abundant Yiddish in his comics. And believe me, in a comic about Orthodox Jews in modern times, the Yiddish flows like a person’s tears after eating the horseradish at a seder. (Yes, let’s all watch Luprand pretend like he knows anything about Jewish culture.)

The art is generally quite appealing. For the most part, it’s a pleasant cartoony form that handily avoids the “I wish I could draw like my favorite manga-ka or anime-kun” style that I still have yet to escape. Occasionally he throws in a panel of startling realism or two.

About the only thing that bothers me is the Muppet mouth syndrome that seems to strike his characters. It’s not exactly For Better or For Worse-level, but in the second row of this page, I thought the top of Mirka’s head was slowly severing itself from her body and would start flying around and firing laser beams. That would have been so cool.

The plot looks like it will be an interesting one; it’s the first I’ve heard of a Jewish dragon-slayer, much less one who looks to be about twelve or so (unless I’m mistaken, which I often am). The upshot of this is a unique viewpoint for the main character and a really novel setting and personality for people. The downside of this is that right as the Marilyn Manson impersonator reveals how Mirka can get started on the path toward dragonslayerhood, the plot gets interrupted for The Great Muppet Shabbos.

(A side note: challah is delicious bread, and I wish I lived closer to a Great Harvest store so I could buy it more often, but after seeing this page, I will spend the rest of my life checking my loaves of bread for ethereal possession or possible interment of small young girls.)

The downside of any comic that cuts the action in order to present a tidbit of information in earnest (as opposed to Terry Pratchett or Douglas Adams novels, which play such up for laughs) is that the reader generally feels cheated. It may be interesting, it may be essential, but it’s not necessarily what the reader came for. It’s like when I went to Subway recently and they mixed my order up with another person’s, so I ended up with roast beef and mustard instead of peppered turkey and mayonnaise. Sure, it was still a good sandwich, but it’s the principle of the thing.

Still, Muppet mouths, educational interruptions, and truly horrifying visages aside, Hereville shows a good deal of promise. I’m particularly fond of this page, which depicts Mirka’s roiling thoughts as she sets out to slay a troll. In a lovely twist of events, she winds up arguing it half to death. I look forward to future installments.

Comic Rating: Who knows, who knows four? I know four …

Gamer comics are, generally, considered among the lowest of the low in the webcomic world, along with (at last count) college roommate comics, bizarre fantasy comics, comics that try to push a social message about alternative lifestyles, furry comics, anything to do with politics, drunken lout comics, and generally anything else that gets published on the Internet. People who review or talk about webcomics often point to Penny Arcade as the end-all, be-all of gaming comics and attempt to shut down any conversation about a new gaming comic. While I agree that maybe we could stand to stanch the flow of recolored Sonic and Mario sprites, I also think that credit should be given where credit is due.

And I think credit is due in the case of AWKWARD ZOMBIE by Kate Tiedrich. To start with, she draws the characters herself instead of ripping and recoloring sprites, which earns her a lot of points right there. It’s also interesting to see her art style progress over the course of her art gallery, starting with a rather odd cross of anime and Precious Moments styles, then progressing to a much more individualistic style. It’s always nice to see an artist who can be recognized when compared to others; I’m generally guilty of falling back on something that looks like anime when I’m pressed for time, and I admire people who can push themselves to go for a bit more.

As for plot . . . you can see that it’s pretty obviously a Nintendo fan-comic of sorts, mostly centering on the Super Smash Bros. series and the presumed interactions between the franchise characters (along with Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda, and World of Warcraft [in a slight break from the Nintendo things]). The comics on the site itself start with Tiedrich’s transition to doing comics in Flash instead of on oekaki programs, giving her the ability to do larger, longer comics and use smoother lines; right off the nailed bat, we’re treated to her characterizations of Roy as a somewhat attention-deficit wacko, Link as a clueless tag-along, and Marth as an imperious and somewhat effeminate fop. This is something of a thread in her Smash-related comics; she generally avoids the more notable characters (like, say, Mario) in favor of inventing her own personalities for the lesser-knowns. It’s a clever way to do fan works without being scrutinized over whether you’re properly matching canon.

One of Tiedrich’s quirks is to throw silly faces onto background objects and make enemy monsters look deranged, which I’m not above admitting gives me the giggles every time. And while her backgrounds are generally lacking, she makes up for it by getting the characters more detail than most people can handle.

It’s also refreshing to see an author avatar character who isn’t stunningly attractive, all-powerful, or generally just more awesome than everyone else. Tiedrich portrays herself as a scrawny, pale young woman with thick, uncontrollable hair, dark circles under her eyes, and what I can only hope are freckles and not some sort of polyp. Actually, she kinda creeps me out a little now and then.

And one last comment: I like her tendency more toward the “show, don’t tell” style. Some of her best comics use no words at all, other than the title. Sure, there’s commentary on the bottom for people who don’t get the strip at first gloss, but she can generally get the joke across without too much effort. And when she does wax verbose, it’s generally for comedic effect by making the long-winded character look like a babbler. Not to mention she really rocks the long, awkward silences.

I know a lot of webcomics rely heavily on wacky, random humor for their punchlines. And usually it’s what really turns me off to them (such as, say, White Ninja Comics or Castle Arfenhouse). But AWKWARD ZOMBIE manages to channel the wackiness into something pretty deft, and I give Tiedrich kudos for that. I recommend it to any Nintendo fan without a chip on the shoulder.

Comic Rating: Four Wii-motes, all pointing at Marth.

When it comes to comics and storylines, there’s generally a pretty strong divide between the serious action/drama comics and the fun little gag-a-day comics, and this divide is best expressed in the art style. The action comics are often closer to a realistic style (with the ever-present exception of anime), whereas the gag-a-days are done in a much more free-form, “cartoony” style (such as the chibi  or super-deformed style). And then there’s Cortland, which is about the most adorable drama you will ever see.

Cortland is the product of one Matt Johnson, a graphic designer and generally all-around great guy with the horrible misfortune of being located in the middle of nowhere. It is also the central kernal around which Cornstalker Comics was formed. That, of course, was a terribly corny pun. Dear heavens, it just got worse. Shoot me now.

… where was I? Ah, yes, the comic: From the start, Cortland sets itself up as a mock-epic, or perhaps a comedy of non-sequitur pratfalls. The main villain, I. T., is introduced pretty quickly, and by the second page we’ve also met the main character, Terry Cortland. Having met Johnson in person, I can tell you pretty quickly that yes, Cortland is a self-insert character, and he bears all the markings of a Mary Sue, including being much smarter than his superiors and always being right. It really doesn’t help when he starts to metamorphose into Neo the next day. And then we’re treated to a Dilbert-style lambasting of corporate hypocrisy.

But the pendulum swings toward the mock-epic again, including a bullet-time joke, another Matrix reference, complete with the usual strawmen that get used against PC users, and the inevitable anticlimax. But then it swings back to Dilbertitis. And back to Matrix.  (Note the cameo of Cortland/Johnson’s younger brother.) The Mac, of course, turns out to be the savior of the world, shortly before the strip swings back to Dilbertland again. Are you getting the pattern yet?

The problem is, the adorable three-heads-tall art style pretty much fails to do justice to either style of plot.  You end up having enough trouble believing that the cute little folks are actually old enough to work anywhere without breaking child labor laws (the effect becomes much more disturbing in such comics as Love Is, in which the naked child-like figures are supposedly married adults), but the effect grows that much more disturbing when he tries to depict anything approaching dramatic. Was the disintegrating cyborg supposed to be frightening? Full of pathos? Comedic? You really don’t know.

It occurs to me that I’ve written quite a bit and only looked over less than 1/16 of the current comic.

So we go back to the Dilbertisms again. And hey, there goes the fourth wall. Johnson wisely decides to stay with the Dilbert-style jokes for a while. I say “wisely” as a matter of my own opinion, considering that the art style fits the “comedy of the absurd” moments much better than it does when it eventually returns to the “serious” storylines.

Let’s not forget to put in a plug for our other favorite comics. I point this out knowing full well that I’ve done this repeatedly in my own comics, but good grief that doesn’t make it right in this case. Or anywhere close to deft. Likewise, allow me to point out that nudity is also best left avoided as an adult topic in a cartoonish strip format.

I’m curious as to who the two people in the lower-left corner of the inaccurately named Strip 100 are, as I don’t think we’ve seen them before in the comic.

And lo and behold, he swings back to the mock-epic.  I think you get the pattern that this comic will have for the ollowing 700-odd pages. Like any adventure/superhero comic, the bosses continue to escalate and grow more absurd, while the hero continues to pull random powers out of various orifices. Not to mention there are so many deaths and resurrections and returns-from-the-brink that I really don’t feel like linking them. Maybe I should take a dinner break.

*sounds of eating ensue*

And now we find out that the main villain is actually Steve Jobs and that Cortland is actually a super-programmer and . . .

. . . and I’m off my dinner. I can’t tell if the comic is taking itself seriously at this point. I haven’t even gotten to the part where I get a cameo, the random asides into what online forums are really like, or any of that. But the plot only gets thicker, more characters get introduced, personal lives get thrown in, and the comic still can’t figure out which way it wants to go.

And if you try to please everyone, you’ll please no one in the end. And as awesome a guy as Matt Johnson is, his comic could use some ironing out as to which direction it wants to go . . . except it’s actually stopped going. The comic reached about as happy an ending as it can (Terry Cortland died for your cyber-sins), and good luck to the author in whatever else he wants to do.

Comic Rating: Nine hours to drive across Nebraska on a good day.

I understand that making a venture into the wide world of webcomic critique is fraught with peril, flames, anger, and the occasional dancing llama or two, and somehow that doesn’t seem to be stopping me. What makes me so brazen as to think that I’ll do any better at it than the other reviewers, or make my name known, or somehow survive the flames that the people over at Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad habitually attract?

. . . well, I don’t. I just figure this will be a way for me to get my opinions written down, and I get to feel important for having published my opinions in a public forum.

So what qualifies me to critique others’ webcomics? Well, for starters, I’m an English major, editing minor, with plenty of grammar, spelling, and usage classes in my repertory. I usually know how to use the language and how it works. Naturally, this means I’m merciless about typos (make your spelling/grammar Nazi comments now). Likewise, I’m a certified Gadfly (among other titles) with experience both in critiquing others’ work and in making webcomics myself. I’ve made enough gaffes and blunders in my time to be able to see them.

Now that we know all this, what are you going to find in the reviews? I figure this will mostly be commentary on art styles, humor, plot points, and whatnot. Expect both sarcasm and politeness, random thoughts on nothing, and the occasional creative endeavors of my own to pop up. And while yes, I do admire the cartoonists behind some of these comics and have met some of ’em in person, I don’t plan on pulling too many punches about what I like or dislike about their comic. (I understand that this is the equivalent of beating up someone’s baby in front of them, but then I’ve always taken a page out of W. C. Fields’s book, even concerning my own relatives.)

So … look forward with amusement or dread.