It is probably blatantly obvious from my reading selection that I’m not much into humor comics. Part of this lies with my enjoyment of storyline comics (which is not to say that humor comics can’t be storyline comics as well), but I’ll admit another reason lies with a comic’s content. Often it seems humor comics delve into humor at the expense of the characters, which tends to hit several of my buttons unfortunately. In this, Danielle Corsetto’s Girls with Slingshots is no exception, and as I read the comic I found myself laughing and then cringing in turn with some of the situations that the cast would find themselves in. Fortunately, Corsetto has managed to effectively balance humor with story without sacrificing either on the altar of necessity.
At its core, GwS is a slice-of-life comic about a twenty-something alcoholic writer, her buxom best friend, a talking cactus, and their cast of friends. The alcoholism (or at least, as I view it; Hazel admits to a drinking problem but others might just consider her a binge-drinker) is often played up for laughs, which I’ll admit I find a tad disturbing. Hazel is written up to being a better writer when drunk (for the newspaper she worked at and the columns she writes for a monthly magazine), and there are few consequences seen for her drinking. As Hazel doesn’t drive, we’ve not seen any consequences with getting behind the wheel, though Hazel has more than once woken up in a strange bed (mostly that of a friend who brought her home so she’d be safe).
Hazel’s “buxom friend” Jamie is described as the “cheery yin to Hazel’s yang” and I must admit it’s an apt description of Jamie. Short and buxom to Hazel’s lankiness, it’s a rare instance when Jamie’s not in a bubbly mood. Or to put it another way, Jamie’s an extrovert, while Hazel’s a die-hard introvert who often relies on her more outgoing friend to help find new nightclubs to write about; Jamie’s the driving force behind more than one of the situational humor Hazel finds herself in. Oddly, while Jamie often mooches drinks off of adoring guys (with the help of low-cut shirts that often reveal her ample cleavage) little is played off of how much she drinks; if Hazel has a drinking problem, Jamie appears more to be a social drinker who doesn’t rely on this crutch.
It’s the friendship and mutual dependence of Hazel and Jamie that helps drive several of the storylines. As I mentioned above, Hazel writes columns about nightclubs and hot spots for people to socialize, but Hazel herself doesn’t go out much. Instead, it’s Jamie who drags Hazel from place to place, and Jamie also is the driving force behind Hazel’s own personal life, encouraging her to meet new people and even enter relationships.
As the comic has grown, the comic has become more of an ensemble cast. While Hazel and Jamie often are the stars of the comic, it’s the other cast who help bring the comic to life. One example is the relationship that grew between Jameson and Maureen (whose marriage helped drive the rather eclectic crossover with Something Positive). Their relationship (which had a rocky start due to Maureen being vegan, and unable to initially cope with her boyfriend eating meat) also helped drive some of the early character conflicts with Hazel being jealous of Maureen’s relationship with Jameson (who she herself was crushing on at the time).
When you get down to it, the primary draw of GwS is the characters. They aren’t all positive (I rather dislike the depiction of Candy, an antagonistic foil for Maureen who tried her best to ruin Maureen and Jameson’s marriage), and they aren’t always funny, but each character remains human. Perhaps this is why I continued to read the comic, despite my discomfort about how Hazel’s probable alcoholism is played for humorous effect (and also perhaps why that dark humor worked; there is that fear among some real-life writers that without the booze or the drugs, they can’t write) it still remains a very human depiction of Hazel, and of her friends. While the humor (and situations) can get dark in places, Girls with Slingshots is an enjoyable read and well worth the archive crawl.
Girls With Slingshots/Something Positive
The hijinks actually got their start back in July of 2009 when Randy Milholland drew his main protagonist, Davan, posting a comment in the wedding blog of two characters over at SWS. Danielle Corsetto of GWS responded with a brief cameo of Davan and his current girlfriend surfing the wedding site. Davan’s decision to attend the wedding (undoubtedly out of a perverse desire to see if the wedding became a fiasco) started one of the more… unusual crossovers that I’ve come across.
Of course, the ultimate goal of any crossover is to encourage cross-pollination of readers. In this, I’m not sure if the SP/GWS crossover will succeed. As Davan is primarily an observer of the wedding and hasn’t played a significant role (which is actually quite logical seeing that he barely knows these people and they don’t know him), his own readers don’t really have a reason (outside of mild curiousity) to delve into GWS’s archives. While Milholland isn’t lacking in readers, Corsetto’s own readers have even less of a reason to read SP (except to find out who that guy is who fed the usher booze strong enough to intoxify with only a swig or two). But when you consider the sheer amount of work in plotting out even a short crossover’s storyline, and in timing the presentation of the strips, drawing characters the artist isn’t familiar with, and cooperating in a storyline where the cartoonist’s pride and joys won’t necessarily prevail… and I’m left wondering if Milholland and Corsetto are onto something here.
The majority of webcomic crossovers often appear inspired by the zero-sum games that typify traditional print superhero comics. Often the cast in both comics come to blows before eventually teaming up to prevail against some greater antagonist. In the GWS/SP crossover, the only conflict is that inherent within GWS’s own plotline, and Davan’s own presence as a guest is touching mostly upon secondary aspects of the story that would otherwise detract from the wedding storyline. It is a more casual form of crossover, and readers don’t need to read through the other comic in order to decypher what is going on. I suspect it also requires far less work on part of Corsetto and Milholland; whether the two artists are collaborating more closely, or if the crossover truly is a series of improv strips feeding off of one another remains to be seen.
→ 5 Comments
Posted in Webcomic commentary
Tagged Crossovers, Humor comics, Storyline comic, Surreal comics