Category Archives: Webcomic commentary

Commentary article concerning various aspects of webcomics

Skin Horse

Posted on May 7, 2013 by | 1 Comment

Perhaps one of the toughest characters to develop in any story is the straight-man. The very nature of the straight-man is that he plays a support role from which the humorous elements can expand upon. Unfortunately, this can impede on the character taking a central role in the story (unless the story puts aside its more humorous elements for a bit). But while this is a central element for the character Sweetheart in Shaenon Garrity and Jeffrey Wells’ Skin Horse, today’s update had me realize there is another aspect to her personality that helps to explain much of her behavior and her actions toward her teammates.

But first I need to rewind a little to a previous storyline in which Sweetheart was upset that her coworker and subordinate Unity was busy gorging on lab-grown brains… and in doing so, becoming more intelligent. She would become downright dismissive of Unity and do her best to ignore Unity’s perceptions as to what was going on; as a result, the Skin Horse team failed to realize what was going on until it was nearly too late.

Looking forward to the latest update, and I noticed this pattern was unfolding once more. Sweetheart was dismissive of Unity’s perceptions concerning WhimsyCorp (which Unity either hallucinated or was visited by). Further, the moment Unity comes up with a logical and reasonable reason for Skin Horse to try and save WhimsyCorp (in that corporations are persons but not human… and thus under Skin Horse’s jurisdiction), Sweetheart accuses Unity of being on brains.

This is the moment I realized Sweetheart is threatened by other people’s intelligence. Nor is this a recent thing; when Tip first joined Skin Horse, Sweetheart was threatened by his obvious intelligence (and disdainful of Tip’s eccentricities, despite the fact these “non-professional” tendencies have helped the group on multiple occasions). Similarly, when Unity becomes smart, Sweetheart immediately becomes dismissive and brushes off any suggestions Unity may make. This distrust of other people’s intelligence even can be found in her opinion of their boss, the sentient bee swarm Gavotte.

As to why Sweetheart is so distrustful of other intelligences, I have to wonder if part of it lies with the fact Sweetheart is just an intelligent dog. She’s not even necessarily brilliant by human standards; she seems to thrive in a structured environment where there aren’t a lot of surprises. Within that setting, she does quite well. Outside it, however, she becomes defensive and unwilling to consider the opinions of others. And she’s aware of her limitations… and may very well be afraid that if she’s revealed to be just ordinary, she’ll lose everything she’s built.

The question ultimately is, what’s next for Sweetheart? What are her motivations? Is she afraid of being shown up by Tip… and later by Unity? Does her rank as team commander mean so much to her? And if so, why? In time, Garrity and Wells will likely expand on this and on Sweetheart. In the meantime, it’s clear Skin Horse has room to grow, even as the Skin Horse team slowly learn more of the subversive elements operating in the background of their world and why the massive cover-up on the Old War. And perhaps along the way we’ll learn more about Sweetheart… and see if she can overcome her fear and disdain of other intelligences before it’s too late.

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April Fools Comics

Posted on April 2, 2013 by | 3 Comments

Another April Fools’ day has come and gone, and as is the norm hijinks was the norm for a number of strips. Fortunately, after two years of April 1st arriving on a weekend, the day has finally emerged during the week to garner more affection. Interestingly enough, I didn’t come across any “this strip has been shut down” pranks this time around; I suspect the joke has run its course (not that it ever was that amusing to begin with) though from what I hear several non-comic websites did indulge in that “hilarity.” The remaining pranks included garbled images or “new” art styles, joke comics, and one truly inspired April Fools story involving zombies, vampires, werewolves, and a good-natured prank over at the alternative history fiction site The Flying Cloud.

As a brief aside, one problem I do have with the April Fools comics is that often they vanish like mist in the light of day once the 2nd comes about. This is a shame, seeing that not every reader will read the comic daily, especially if a strip normally updates on a day other than whichever day April Fools has fallen upon. Thus when I was compiling my list of April Fools comics and those that might be a prank or might have used the timing to add to the cliffhanger aspect of the strip (I’m looking at you, The Whiteboard), I sadly forgot to check those comics that might have indulged in April Fools hijinks on a day where it normally doesn’t update.

While The Flying Cloud may have been my favorite prank update, others included Jupiter Palladium’s Lemonade strip, DMFA’s “reboot” strip, and CVRPG’s “wrap-up” comic which ended with Alec marrying four women after defeating the Big Bad. An honorable mention also goes out for Galaxion which took advantage of the day to prank readers on a genuine change from black-and-white to color.

Other pranks include:
S.S.D.D. and Magience which had pixilated art updates (which has since been “corrected”;
Misfile which updated in Japanese;
Faux Pas which switched half the cast over to Ponies;
Weapon Brown’s Garfield minus Garfield homage strip;
an imaginary “Night of the Killer Tree Zombies strip for Chirault;
Yosh!’s switching character types with another comic (though I didn’t bother trying to find out which one);
Go Get a Roomie’s “Body Swap” coming attractions
and Sandra and Woo which had a bottle of Heinz for all four panels.

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Schlock Mercenary

Posted on March 19, 2013 by | 2 Comments

Given how difficult it can be to make a living creating webcomics through online advertisements and the like, it comes as no surprise that merchandising has become the stock in trade for many self-sufficient webcartoonists. Indeed, Jeph Jacques, Fred Gallagher, and Aaron Diaz are just a few of the cartoonists who sell t-shirts and prints on their site; Jacques has gone so far as to use his characters as a form of product placement by wearing the t-shirts he sells (a practice that may have started in reverse; I think he crafted the t-shirts for the characters and realized after fan response that there was a market for them. I may be mistaken in this, however).

But there is a dark line between merchandizing and selling out. It would appear that Howard Tayler is walking over that line as he turns his science fiction comic Schlock Mercenary into Schlock Merchandising. Oh, he’s not changing the name of the comic or anything silly like that. Instead, he’s gone a step further and is using the comic to directly sell products; in this case, he’s stealing from the tradition of challenge coins and instituting it into his comic at the same time he runs a crowdfunding Kickstarter to (successfully) fund a product run of fantasy challenge coins for his fictional mercenary group.

I can’t help but think of the IDIC idiocy that infected the original Star Trek; it appears that series creator Gene Roddenberry tried to use the television show to sell a collector’s pin, but the actors rebelled against this crass effort to capitalize on the show. Sadly the characters of Tayler’s comic have been unable to resist their creator’s whims, and as a result it’s being directly integrated into the storyline. It is a waste of reader time and destroys any momentum moving into the new story. What’s more, it’s in poor taste. While I’m all for merchandising and cartoonists making a living there are more interesting ways to do it than force it into the comic’s script. Both the story and the readership deserve better.

Addendum note: I suppose I should mention one argument that was raised during the writing of this commentary: is it the timing that’s to blame? If the coins appeared a month or two after Tayler had introduced them in the strip, would it matter? And to be honest? I’m not sure. All I do know is that for the last couple of weeks Tayler has been beating the Kickstarter drum and commenting on how it’s exceeding funding requirements. We know about the coins already. He could have quietly introduced it into the strip by having our newest Sergeant be given one without making a big deal over it. Instead, we’ve had several days spent on this for what is purely mercenary reasons.

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General Protection Fault

Posted on September 10, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Perhaps one of the most common calls of armchair critics is that a character is a “Mary Sue” (which to me is a very overused term, especially when you consider the original “Mary Sue” was a parody character poking fun at the character type as a whole). But while the term has lost any real value due to its overuse and abuse, there is a core aspect to “Suedom” inherent in a number of characters… because those characters can be seen as an aspect of the author (or at the very least a character mouthpiece). It’s easy for readers to believe a character’s prejudices and beliefs actually reflect those of the author, especially when a character is developed further than a shadow with minimal definition or personality. Thus unfortunately authors sometimes attempt to sanitize their characters to prevent any controversies.

The sad thing is, it can take very little to create such perceptions. One such example can be found in the recent Global Protection Fault comics, with Fooker and Patty talking about Tim (another of the tertiary characters)… and his reaction when she implies to Fooker that Tim might be gay and seems to be attracted to Fooker. Okay, I’ll admit that if I was trying to put computer memory into a server and was told that a coworker was gay and into me, I might break the memory as well. But mostly it’s Fooker’s facial expression and how he worked things that hints to me that while Fooker might say he doesn’t care what people do privately, he personally doesn’t approve of homosexuality. And while I suspect cartoonist Jeffrey T. Darlington may not intend to imply this, I think it would be an interesting path to take with Fooker.

Let’s be honest here; while there is growing acceptance of homosexuality and the LGBT movement, prejudice is an ingrained trait for people. We can overcome it, but deep down there is still that tiny germ waiting to sprout at the most unexpected moment. Thus I feel it would be interesting (and valuable) to see this potentiality with Fooker expanded upon. Let him have a personal aversion to homosexuality… and show his efforts to keep this from influencing how he reacts to Tim or to other homosexual men if Tim is in fact straight – I’m afraid I don’t recall one way or another, though if Tim is gay, then Darlington has done fairly well at subtly introducing this element, laying the groundwork until Patty launched a salvo to disconcert Fooker.

Of course, this could just be Patty trying to disconcert Fooker, who’d been needling her about her own semi-relationship with Dexter. And let’s be honest here; Fooker was out of place to press her about things with Dexter. But if it were just Patty “getting even” with Fooker, it was in rather poor taste. What’s more, I’d be interested in seeing this element expanded upon. Things such as hidden prejudices tend to be ignored by cartoonists due to the ease of internet drama and reader misconceptions. While Fooker has never been a “perfect” character, his relationship with Sharon is stable now, his distrust of Trudy is understandable, and his other “flaws” tend to be lackluster or laughable. And to be honest, it’s Nick that is the author’s mouthpiece, so any flaws Fooker show can be brushed off as storytelling elements.

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Megatokyo

Posted on May 14, 2012 by | Leave a comment

While normally I tend to talk about webcomics, I’m going to go off on a tangent for a moment (yes, I know, how will you tell the difference?) and regale a story with just the slightest touch of irony here concerning the fan-community of the online manga Megatokyo. Seeing that the comic’s update schedule has been… intermittent at best for the past couple of years, the fanbase has taken to dissecting each comic and discussing every nuance of the comic to determine what meta-story aspects of the comic cartoonist Fred Gallagher has in mind as the story slowly unfolds. Given that Megatokyo itself has a tendency to take various memes and tropes from manga and storytelling and turn them on their ears, and you end up with a multitude of theories that would tie the Gordians up in knots.

As is tradition with any visual medium, people often see more into images than was intended (just ask the fine folks at Disney and the “sex” in an advertisement for the animated movie “Tangled”). In this case, it was a drawing of Sonoda Yuki’s almost-boyfriend Kobayashi Yutaka, bruised and semi-conscious, with a sizeable bruise on his side that could look something like an upside-down “2” to someone with entirely too much time and imagination on their hands. It was typical silliness brought upon by far too few updates, and the next update would have dropped this from the radar… at least, until one of the fans asked Gallagher during a live-drawing on Justin.tv last night. Gallagher’s reaction was… delightfully amusing, as he sputtered that it was scribbles… scribbled bruises at that. After which he threatened to shut down the forums to force people to step away from the computer and “get some fresh air.”

Taking a step back and this becomes an example of life imitating art. One of the main themes in recent storylines for Megatokyo is overzealous fans who take their fandom and the objects of their fandom far too seriously. And fans do sometimes tend to become overzealous about their pet theories; there are still some Harry Potter fans who insist Harry should have ended up with anyone other than Ginny, while I suspect small wars could erupt over which Companion is the favorite of the “Doctor Who” fandom. Having seen the image… I could see why people felt there was a “2” there… and having seen Gallagher draw the comics, I very much doubt there was rhyme or reason behind it. But it does say something about Gallagher’s comic; even with an intermittent schedule, it can draw the readers’ passions and whimsy. And that level of loyalty among fans is hard to come by.

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April Fools Comics

Posted on April 1, 2012 by | 2 Comments

For the past few years I’ve wanted to write up an article on April Fools webcomics. Sadly, something always comes up to distract me (or I run out of time and have to make due with a quick article on some random comic). This is particularly unfortunate as the number of April Fools comics has diminished over the years, and do note I say this as someone who was only reading around 30 webcomics in 2005 when I started reviewing them; in the last seven years, I’ve noticed a significant reduction in the number of prank comics played upon readers.

Undoubtedly part of the reason for 2012’s lackluster showing is due to April Fools landing on a Sunday (thanks in part to the Leap Year pushing it a day ahead). I actually did peruse my entire active reading list (well, outside of the Monthly list, which I probably should have read as well seeing it’s the start of the month). Oddly, we had no “this comic has been pulled due to a cease-and-desist order” pranks (though we did have The Devil’s Spanxx with new sponsorship), perhaps due in part to the decidedly unfunny issues that ACTA and similar copyright laws has inflicted upon the Internet community as a whole.

Instead, we’ve had several “defaced artwork” comics, with the ladies of Supernormal Step (which I’ve yet to review) sprouting mustaches, sideburns and beards, and Bardsworth adding facial hair and a top hat to various characters in the last update (along with velociraptors sneaking up behind the main character in the last strip). A couple other comics went with a more surreal note, such as the science fiction comic Galaxionhaving the entire series be a dream of Star Fleet Officer Aria Schafer (who ridicules the uniforms they have to wear), and The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred doing a “10 Years Later” strip that… defies a quick and easy description. And of course we can’t go through an April Fools without the traditional “twist final panel” shtick, such as Zebra Girl which has Sandra transformed into… a Demon Pony.

There were also a number of comics that fit under the “not quite sure” category. I’m almost certain that Maritza Campos’s “reboot” of College Roomies from Hell is a prank, despite the fact she posted it on March 28. But some pranks need extra time to build, I suppose. Similarly, Two Kinds introduced a character (“Maddie Addie”) that I can’t help but think may fit under the “twist final panel” category… but am honestly unsure of. And the attack of Grammar Divinities in Dungeons & Denizens is hard to place seeing that it is a humor comic, and weirder things have popped up in the past. Heck, the April Fools’ update for Kevil and Kell didn’t even have a prank aspect to it; instead, it was just an “art” update poking fun at various types of art using the K&K characters.

Looking back, I suspect part of the reason for the decline in prank updates and the like has to do more with the time involved than the day of the week hit with April Fools’ day. For storyline comics, the prank often disrupts the flow of the story, especially for those comics that update only a couple times a week (or less). When you add in the recoding of websites for some of these pranks and how this affects the pacing of stories and the like, April Fools becomes more trouble than it’s worth. This is a shame, seeing that some of the past jokes have been truly innovative, as have some of the pranks that appeared today.

Unfortunately, not all of these April Fools comics will be around for people to peruse. Much like the morning mists, they vanish once April 2nd comes about. (Indeed, already Bardsworth has undone the graffiti on its main page, which is a shame.) Oh, and on a final note, rumor has it that Fred Gallagher updated Megatokyo with two of his fan-favorite female characters wrestling in undersized towels in a men’s locker room, but I’m not sure how much credence I’d put to the rumor. I mean, Megatokyo already updated this month….

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Weekly Webcomics Worth Reading

Posted on October 17, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Seeing that I didn’t get any guest reviews for the second half of October, I figured I’d do something a little different this time through. I know of a number of people who only read one or two webcomics due to time constraints. Given that many webcomics update multiple times a week, it can be difficult keeping track of a dozen or so comic storylines (let alone the 200+ comics I read). Fortunately, there are a number of webcomics that update on a weekly basis, which makes it much easier for readers who only have a few minutes time to read their comics.

For the next couple of weeks I’m going to be posting a paragraph on seven weekly webcomics I consider worth reading. The schedule will run Tuesday to Thursday for the first week, and then Monday to Thursday for the week leading up to Halloween. These comics range from fantasy to science fiction, comedy to drama, and mixtures of these varied genres. I’m not going to rate these comics as the “best” weekly-updating comics (as such a rating would be purely subjective in any event). Instead, these are some comics I figure my readers might enjoy that won’t significantly increase their reading schedule (outside of the required archive-crawl that comes with any new comic), but I do enjoy all of them and recommend them to my readers.

Unfortunately I didn’t have time to include graphics for these write-ups. But I think a lack of graphics is a small price to pay for content while I’m sans-Internet for the next two weeks. Take care, gang!

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