Zuda Follower

End of February

2009-02-26T19:50:00.002-05:00

Here's how this is going to go down.
I'm going to state a lesson learned from each of the entries that I didn't give a proper review to.

Doctor Immortalis - The techno-speak is very good. I am an electrician and I whole-heartedly approve of the solid tech descriptions. The lesson learned is that you can't skimp on the details.

Fire and Water - I learn the value of good inks. This is a beautiful looking comic even though it's mostly black and white.

Gravedust - I like the design. It's spare, but not lazy. Everything that is worth realizing is realized fully. There's some good cartooning and some lovely cross-hatching. I am a sucker for cross-hatching.

Indie - I learned something unexpected, because I never would've imagined that I'd enjoy a Zuda entry in this particular format. I think that the writing does a good job at using stereotype without BEING stereotype, if you understand what I mean.

Ninjas from Ibiza - I was starkly reminded of Bleach and that made me look closer at the pacing. I found a '5 panel rhythm' developed briefly for the fight scene and that's prompted me to take a look at other action comics to see if something similar holds true in terms of the frequency of action beats

Operation: Nazi U - I witnessed 8 pages of good layouts. All the action is so clear it's a joy to look at. It's a shame that Kirby comparisons are dominating the talkback because it's not just a pretty art style. This is pretty slick storytelling. Also the colored page 7 looks FANTASTIC. Much love for ONU

Part-Time Magic - I took an idea for colors from here, I was inspired by this with an idea for my own comic, although I'd take it in a slightly different direction.
I also love the directness. Doesn't beat around the bush too much, all the unnecessary crap is weeded out.

Splitting Atoms - Reinforced the value of a smart sci-fi concept as a reflection of current events and it reinforced the value of a slick art style.
Silvestri-ish?

Back from my un-announced hiatus

2009-02-12T20:33:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking about baby stuff and job stuff and honestly haven't been paying attention to comics much this past week and a half, but now I want to get into things again. I have some catching up to do.

I think it's best if I skip ahead to my review of 'The Hammer'. If you're a regular Zudie you might have caught me in a moment of weakness earlier this month.
As an art critic, there's great value in maintaining some sense of objectivity about the works I'm reviewing. It's hard to take me seriously if I'm pimping my friends all the time, isn't it? I'm dangerously close to the edge this month and now I've no choice but to justify my vote, so that's what I'm going to do.
I'm not going to pull any punches but I'm also going to make what I feel is a very strong case for 'The Hammer'.

The Hammer - Sam Little, Gabe Ostley, Rob Berry, Steve Steiner

When you first see page one I want you to think about all the other competitors that came before and consider that it is not only rare for an entry to start out with a splash page but also an entry that dives into the action immediately.
A hook.
Now think about that one too.
'The' hook is a hook. A right hook to the face.

In the lower right is a little line of dialog which gives a voice to our protagonist (sadly un-named, so one demerit to Mr. Little for that gaffe) and identifies the antogonist.
However, that's a very dangerous line of dialog. It's so clearly Sin City. Close your eyes and picture Marv speaking, but then open them and take in the reality of a huge pink bunny.
Thank God for anthropomorphic characters to take the edge off.
Had this been played 'straight' it would've been a turn-off. Too obviously derivative. Turning the protagonist into the Easter Bunny turns the thing on it's ear (pun intended) and makes it a cousin to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles instead.

The Turtles played it pretty straight of course. The 'once and done' shock of seeing talking walking turtles playing out a riff on an earlier style of Frank Miller's sets up a sort of blueprint that 'The Hammer' can follow, (or not follow) the statement having been made already that this is NOT a strict send-off of Sin City but rather maybe an homage or a commentary.
We are sent a clear message from the creators that there is an idea germinating beneath the surface.

If you're familiar with Scott McCloud's 'six steps' then you should recognize 'idea' as an endpoint in the creator's journey. The goal of a master creator.
Now I don't mean to suggest that the presence of an idea is grounds for enshrining these four in the comic book hall of fame, but I think that it's mighty damn impressive that so much craft was expressed in just that one page.
Shit. One PANEL.

Moving right along. Pages 2-4 serve mainly as exposition for the story proper, a bit of an action scene, some solid cartooning and a bloody little beatdown to set the mood, but page 5 is where they REALLY get you.
Bones Charlie looms over the cityscape, blood trickling down from the top of the page and seperating the actions of Calvin's walk through the city, giving a sense of the passing of time to the scene and dialing the dark mood up to 11.
Well.... 11 minus whatever points must be subtracted for the presence of a tall pink bunny in a leather coat. Ahem.
And Calvin's monologue ties everything together and makes very clear what this story is going to be about. Cut, wrap, print. Most Zuda entries would be happy to get even this far into the establishment of their plot but fortunately for all of us fans there's still 3 pages to read.

Page 6 has us back into the thick of the action again, and page 7 leads us into another nice splash page.
Imagine, two splash pages and yet I'm not feeling gypped on story.
The final page is another very nice mood piece. Actually just that page alone provides us with most of the necessary plot information. Consider it the closing statement. You could read just page 8 and feel like you've got some idea of what's going on. Calvin even looks slightly heroic as he stands there thinking about bashing someone's head in with a hammer.

So I'm sure you've rarely seen me so effusive in praise for a comic. It is true, I very much enjoyed 'The Hammer' and I certainly feel that it's worthy of my February vote, but I stop just short of suggesting an instant win and I withhold the golden standard of 'five star comic'.
But why?
I wasn't happy about the fact that the protagonist was not named in the comic. That's a bit of a pet peeve of mine. Not really a major point when judging the total craft of the submission mind you, but totally annoying.
The pencils are just a little bit too cartoony for my tastes. Although I'd have been mortified to see a strict interpretation of Frank Miller's high contrast work, I do think that there's a bit of a disconnect at times between Sam's gritty-sounding dialog and Gabe's funny bunny faces.
I think Rob Berry could've exacerbated this problem a little bit as well, although not through any particular fault of his own. I LOVE his inks. I instantly knew that he'd be the inker when I first saw his name listed on this project, but he's got a brush style that comes off as slightly 'whimsical' at times and although I can see how much he toned it down, it's still in there a little bit. Another stylistic disconnect.
And since I'm an equal opportunity complainer, I didn't particularly care for the thick red 'claw marks as motion lines' that Steve Steiner most likely bears the responsibility for.
If I were further along in my color theory education I'm sure I'd have something more useful to add than this, but I did think that the colors were beautifully done.

So there you have it. 4 stars, best in show, fave and vote. If I have any advice to give it would be that it's probably difficult for a group of four individuals to come together and mesh perfectly the first time out of the gate. Given more time to learn about each other I'm sure that the idiomatic complaints that I raised could be smoothed over and laid aside and we'd have a true five star entry at last.

Getting in trouble already :)

2009-02-03T21:18:00.004-05:00

February! The worst month of the year. :(
But I'm thinking it's the best month of Zuda comics ever.

Strangely I've aroused the ire of one random native. I don't know what it is specifically that got this guy riled up since mostly I've only gone around proclaiming love.

And love is what I've got. I don't even remember which comic I'm getting to review first but I'm still excited because I know they're all good.

Azz's Inferno - Thane Benson

The first thing I love about this entry is that we're getting a 3 row per page standard. That results in a whole bunch of 'mini-panels' and I think it might be a sign of expanding understanding of the best ways to utilize the Zuda picture plane. Page 8 even goes to FOUR rows for goodness sake!
Actually that may have been a bit of a push. The most important image in the entire comic probably shouldn't be a micro-sized panel #14 (!) on page # 8.
But that's a quibble. Look at how much story is expressed. Observe that even though most of the story is a voiceover we actually know who the narrator is and he's speaking in a consistent voice.
If you must narrate your story, this is one good way to do it.
Mr. Benson doesn't limit himself to a strict interpretation of the 3 row page design and yet even when he does he frequently uses continued images to expand the feeling of space without breaking the rhythm of the story. For a few examples of what I'm talking about refer to page #7. Particularly pay attention to the middle row which depicts a scene which works as either a single static image of the construction in progress OR it could be interpreted as a chronological sequence since the work being performed by the skeletons depicts a more advanced state of accomplishment in each panel, from basic resource gathering in panel one to a completed city-scape in panel four.
The dual interpretation is delicious.

I like the simplicity and sameness of the skeleton designs. This isn't a human story and it was a good decision to make that mass of humanity into a homogenous element of design rather than muddying the viewers interest with needlessly attention-grabbing character designs. The demons are the focal point and Mr. Benson has made them colorful and interesting.

But the best part is the cliff-hanger ending that you can actually care about. So many Zuda entries have offered up a cliff-hanger ending that seemed lost because it lacked sufficient context.
This comic was fully established. There's lots of good questions going through my head but no confusion about what happened and I'm invested enough in the character to care about what happens to him.

Great start to the month. Four stars. Love it.

We Make Clouds

2009-01-29T20:29:00.003-05:00

We Make Clouds - Mike Farah, J. Longo, Johnny Storm

I've never been able to rock out a good critique when it comes to comics that are supposed to make you laugh, so I'll say that yes it does indeed make me laugh and the last page in particular strikes a positive chord. These things, I sound like a broken record when I talk about the page limit.

Everybody struggles with the page limit! (except Dan Thompson)
The struggle here is a little bit different because it's so hard to make everybody laugh at every joke. There are probably people who laughed at all 8 but I think that most of us laughed at somewhat less of these pages and the secret to the good funny strip is to max out that number for as many people as possible.
It's like with 'Pearls Before Swine' where I occasionally LOL vice the Far Side where I'd often LOL and every so often I'd be crying I'm laughing so hard.

I'd enjoy this quite a bit more I think if there were more than 8 pages. The jokes 'hit' often enough to maintain my interest but not often enough to entice me into a vote based on just 8 pages worth.

I remember J. Longo from month one, I enjoyed his work then and again although I do wish I'd seen it in color.

I give it a three star and I'm glad to see they're doing so well in the standings. Truly I'd be a happy fan if I saw something like this win Zuda. Well it's on the Zuda staff to keep giving us the opportunity to cast our votes here.

The Devil's Cross

2009-01-28T20:09:00.002-05:00

The Devil's Cross is the lucky recipient of my 'gonna be a daddy' review.

Five stars for a big bastard dressed all in black plate with a huge sword.
He's here to rape and pillage presumably and that's pretty awesome. Skulls are awesome and dead peasants are awesome and there's plenty of both here. The horse breathes fire and has fire for feet and that's pretty fucking awesome too.

Sorry if you expected more criticism. I'm not filled with any tonight.

we're pregnant

2009-01-28T19:23:00.001-05:00

my wife just tested positive so we'll hopefully be welcoming our first child sometime around the beginning of october.
:)

Sea Dogs of Mars

2009-01-25T21:06:00.004-05:00

Sea Dogs of Mars - Christopher John Beck & Keri Woodward

TASTE THE RAINBOW!
The first impression I got when I read this was 'colorful'. Extremely colorful. Bright, vivid, glow in the dark burn your eyeballs out colorful.
I'm not saying it needs to be toned down, it overwhelmed me a little bit at first but the ol' peepers came around soon enough. It could be a calling card. A mark of style. Hell, go for it.

There's a clear plot, a little bit of intrigue, some character moments but no character conflict as far as I can tell so I'm willing to give reasonably good marks for the writing. It's a bad match for my tastes so I'm not going to gush about it. It's entirely possible for a comic to be well written and yet not appeal to me personally and that's what we have here.

Since I'm attempting to assemble references for my own entry now (rare update, that's all you're getting) I'm turning an eye toward the architecture, culture, and tech that makes this 'Mars' in the year 3127. Looks Asian to me. Interesting choice but who am I to say that form won't win out over function in the next millenia? It does suggest building materials that wouldn't necessarily be available on another planet but hell, you could probably explain anything away. Just be careful that there aren't ever any contradictions. The technology needs to be advanced enough to explain the look and the culture needs to be 'artful' enough to explain the look.
You're saying something when you design future tech and you need to be mindful of that. It needn't (shouldn't) be a primary concern but it's the sort of thing that a fan would notice.
The devil is in the details.

Now I'll get to something real, something useful.
On page 4 we've got a simplified 'plaid' design on the drifter's headwear which works fine in the smaller panels but in panel 2 we're too close to the character and you can't get away with simplifying the design at that scale. It needs to wrap around the folds when the camera is that close to the detail.

I wonder why the pirate doesn't have any eyelashes? Combined with the thick eyebrows she looks a little bit manly in that last panel.

Finally a critique that I'm not even sure I'm going to explain correctly.
I've been TOLD that vectors are best for any art done on the computer if you want to scale or reproduce and I've been TOLD that vectors don't show up as 'aliased', so what I'm wondering then is why the panel borders look so jaggy?
I'm guessing the panel borders were drawn in PS and the dialog was done in Illustrator?
Go to panel 4, look at the diagonal panel borders, zoom in on the word balloons, compare to the panel borders.

I don't know if that's a problem for the rest of yinz but for me I think I'm learning a lesson about methodology here. Definitely a problem I'm going to avoid if I can.

Strong 3 star entry.

Should I stick to the comics?

2009-01-24T09:19:00.002-05:00

I really can't tell. The way I figure as long as the Zuda reviews are consistent it shouldn't matter if I throw in random other stuff.
If stuff like the following is hurting the core mission I'd like to hear about it.

Steelers - The big show is about a week away. Here's a report on how to beat Pittsburgh.

-Philly beat us by blitzing the crap out of us.
-The Giants beat us by forcing 4 turnovers. (committed none)
-The Colts beat us by forcing 3 turnovers. (committed none)
-The Titans beat us by forcing 4 turnovers. (committed none)

Here's some supporting information from the postseason thus far.
The Steelers won both games they've played with a 2 or 3 turnover advantage.
The Cardinals won all three games they've played with a 2-5 turnover advantage.

There's a trend forming here. I know it's not the sexy sort of analysis that your national pundits might feed you in the coming week but it's probably the most accurate thing you'll hear.
Most likely the Cardinals best chance to win this game is to force the Steelers into turnovers while not committing any themselves.

Compelling right?

Safe Inside

2009-01-22T18:38:00.002-05:00

Safe Inside - Zerocalcare

subtitled:
open season

I'm going to get a rating out of the way first. Four stars.

Remember my last review where I congratulated Dan for giving me a complete lead-in to the plot?
Well now I'm back to reviewing comics that don't properly negotiate the 8 page limit.
Some plot is revealed but I didn't find it particularly interesting. Too many mysteries.
Since I've only got 8 pages I'd prefer to have a better handle on what's happening.

I blame Wolverine.
Don't ask me for an explanation. I'm not sure I'm making sense, I just have a major dislike for adamantium right now.

But that's really the only bad thing I have to say about a submission that is very professional looking. Maybe they make artists tougher in Italy or something but I feel like I'm being suckered by a professional artist who decided to slum it. Look at the officer in the final panel of page 5. Pictured from above and from a distance which works together with the dialog 'wait for her colleagues' to emphasize the fact that she's on her own.
This leads in beautifully to the molotov cocktail being served on the next page.
Then the tomato sauce scene provides a memorable segue into the introduction of two new characters.
Zero understands your eyes and he's speaking to them. Pay attention!

Project: WarHawk

2009-01-20T20:24:00.002-05:00

Project: WarHawk - Dan Thompson

Before I get into the review proper I wanted to go over a few things that happened in the real world.
Barry 'savior' Obama is the President now and his inaugural speech was even more boring than expected. It was disjointed, there was no real 'theme' that I could discern and it was full of the same empty platitudes that won the election for him.
If you're already full of 'hope' and 'change' then you probably loved it but I was hoping for something meatier.
Meanwhile the stock market suffered it's biggest inauguration day loss in history. Probably not Obama's fault.
Maybe.

In other news, my Sister in law gave birth to a little girl tonight. Six pounds, eight ounces of ooey gooey birthy goodness. Haven't seen her yet, probably won't until tomorrow perhaps, but she's there.
My second niece.
There's a third on the way, not official until they get an ultrasound that shows the sex but the heart-rate was very high and that's supposed to be a pretty sure sign that it's a girl baking in the oven.
So it'll be three nieces then, no kids for me and no boys of any sort.

So the news is getting progressively better then and here's the best news of all: (for those of you out there on the internets at least)
Dan Thompson is back!

This is a very solid entry again and I'm trying to take solace in the chart position by consoling myself with the fact that Mr. Thompson has become a member of the exclusive 'repeat competitor' club.
What does this mean to me?
It means Dan Thompson is serious about his comics. He's not going to fade into the darkness like some of the other also-rans.

But what about the comic?
Love the art, the storytelling. Look at the moon in the last panel of the submission. It looks like Pac-man! I couldn't do that, I'm too tightly wound. It's mystical to me when I see an artist who is willing to reduce a form to a symbol and make it work, and it does work. Clarity is not compromised.
The way the scenes are paced makes for an easy and enjoyable read. Another skill of Dan's that I admire.

Now I admit that the style he uses and the pacing itself may be a little bit off-putting to a certain type of reader. I think most would agree that modern comics tend more toward decompression and the layperson is certainly going to make a 'Dick Tracy' comparison when he or she sees the way the faces are drawn.
That might be hurting him in the standings but I wouldn't want him to change a thing.
As far as the story goes, it is what it is. It suits him.
I don't know if there's depth hidden in there but it sure says a hell of a lot in Dan's favor that I'm asking this question. Usually I'm left wondering what the plot is, but this time I'm a whole second level ahead of the typical entry in terms of understanding what's going on.
In all honesty I don't think I'm asking too much to expect EVERY entry be this fully realized but lowered expectations will do this to me.

Four out of five stars.

Maladroits

2009-01-18T12:22:00.003-05:00

Maladroits - Glen Walker

But there's a second name credited, so middlenameboom and daskouni are your creators. Which one is Glen? Who is the mysterious second creator?
The world may never know.

I liked this quite a lot.
Is a very good comic but I wouldn't be a critic if I didn't harp on something bad.

Bad.
I don't like the photo in panel one. Even doctored up it looked out of place.
Page 2 panel 1. Flip it. The eye follows the direction of his walk off the page. Also would work better for staging since we have him sitting on count's right.
Page 6, the middle Bro's shirt color changed. I didn't like that.

And there's no sign of the story. This is a nice vignette. I enjoyed this glimpse into their world.
But there's not much in the way of desire or conflict or any of the things that might keep me invested. Where is 'the spark' of story?

Still this is on the higher end of my 3 star scale. If you haven't been reading me much I know that 3 sounds like a crap rating but honestly most of the entries get it. The simple color scheme works and it's pleasant to look at. I like the facial expressions. I'm sorry that the opportunity was missed to depict a 'bro' with popped collar. That would've been cool.

I can guess from the rank and the Italian competition that this won't be Glen's (and friend's) month so I hope he comes back soon.

Alex the Parrot

2009-01-17T16:22:00.004-05:00

Alex the Parrot was able to identify over 50 different objects, he could count up to six, knew 7 colors and 7 shapes. Alex also understood the concepts of 'same and different' and 'bigger and smaller'.
You can see him pictured here at the left.
Usually dogs get all the attention that cats haven't grabbed up first, with horses, dolphins and elephants in the running as smart animals, but pound for pound I think that birds take the cake.

Alex has been compared to a 2 year old human child in cognitive ability and temperament. He'd throw tantrums when he got frustrated. He used to slam the door of his cage when he got back from the veterinarian.
(apparently birds don't like going to the doctor either) :)

An excerpt from his last night on Earth:
"You be good. I love you." said ALEX
"I love you too." I replied. (this is Irene Pepperberg speaking, Alex's trainer/scientist/friend)
"You'll be in tomorrow?"
"Yes, I'll be in tomorrow."

That's eerie. It doesn't sound like the sort of conversation you'd expect to have with a parrot. Perhaps it's all contextual but still that's pretty impressive.
It also makes me pretty sad. My cockatiel never learned to speak but I know she was pretty smart herself. The sweetest thing, she used to call for me until I'd whistle back. They do that to check on their flock, you know? She'd worry about me if I was out of sight until I let her know I was doing all right, then she'd settle right back down.
Poor Alex. He died tragically young. He was supposed to live for another 20 years. Imagine if he'd had his whole lifespan to work on his science? He was learning simple math at the time of his death and he'd just started to show us that birds see the same optical illusions that trick our own eyes.
Alex told Irene that the line on the right is longer.
Illusion Link
Crazy.

Love the Dango!

2009-01-15T17:56:00.002-05:00

Love the Dango! - Amber D. Stone

I assume that

is as interested in Japan as I am. Of course I had to rack my brain to remember wtf a dango is.
And the art is cute and it's nice to have a female competitor in the competition, but there's very little to critique here and consequently not much reason for me to keep an eye out.
This is the kind of webcomic that I'd flip through for awhile until I get distracted by something, and then I probably wouldn't remember to ever come back to it.

There's nothing wrong with those sorts of webcomics and I can totally see why a person should place their vote here, but I'd be remiss if I didn't admit that I'm looking for something different.

Ganbattene.

Lifespan

2009-01-14T20:31:00.002-05:00

Lifespan - Shannon Cronin and Christopher Steininger

Hey! The narrator is identified!
OMG I'd almost give 4 stars for that alone!

I'll give it a four anyways.

Now I've never seen Logan's Run but if I'm not mistaken that movie and this entry are birthed from a similar idea. Everything works well and there's not much negative I can say here.

All the same I'm lukewarm.
I'm not satisfied with the back-story. I mean I'm not sure if I buy the explanation that the U.S. public would ever accept the program.
I suppose I could exercise my suspension of disbelief or accept it as a commentary on the creators beliefs about the nature of U.S. political system or the greediness of Americans or... something....

But it really doesn't speak to me that way so I hope we can settle on a good rating and an endorsement.
I approve of this comic.

Legacy of the Wanderer

2009-01-11T21:22:00.002-05:00

Legacy of the Wanderer - Mark Cecere and Randy Humphries

Lack of one key piece of information = potentially interesting
Lack of almost any information at all = lose

What have we learned after reading 8 pages?
There's a buff dude with tats and a mohawk who likes to sleep on the beach and make poses when he wakes up.
There's an evil dude who we know is evil cause he had a messenger killed. Oooooh! Evil!
There's a bat-man who also likes to pose who gets more face time than anyone else in the comic only to be killed off screen.
There's a wordy narrator of unknown significance who knows that the evil guy was amused by the bat-man's request. How does he know this? Who is he relating this story to? Did he interview the evil guy after the 'adventure' was over? There has to be some kind of a persona behind this narration. Just another confusing story thread hanging out there.

There's so much to pick at but I don't have the heart for it cause I really like the way it looks. And it's not as if we've run out of hope on the story. Lack of information is admittedly better than contradictions.

There's still a chance that page 9 would introduce our narrator and page 10 would establish something about mohawk guy's character. Then page 11 could present the spark that creates the conflict.
Too bad Zuda is only 8 pages.

3 of 5 for the pleasant art.

Back from the X-mas Party

2009-01-10T20:53:00.003-05:00

Yes, our work Christmas Party was on January 10th.
But that's only the beginning of the screwed up events.

Actually the night started very well. Nice hotel, good dinner, big pile of raffle prizes including TV, shop-vac, crock pot etc...

But dinner ended and the torture began.
First the DJ's speakers started to explode. Every so often when you were least expecting it they'd crackle with the fury of a hundred drunk nuns. I've never seen a drunk nun but I imagine they'd be a mean drunk.
Then the first game was played. A game of hot potato with a nice little present placed on every table.
My wife and I didn't win the present, but then again even the people who won the game didn't really win as the prize was 'Take home the centerpiece'.
Great, a Christmas themed centerpiece in January. We'll just store this in our 'centerpiece drawer' with all the other centerpieces we keep handy.

After that the torture escalated.
A young white guy, an older white guy, and a black guy came in pretending to be Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.
They did a little 'shtick' for a minute which didn't really bother me although I'm too young to know or care about any of those fine fellas, but then they started to sing.
If singing is what you can call it, cause they were horrible.
I was torn with wild fascination watching the mass of people who decided it would be a great time for a cigarette. That was during Frank and Dean btw, who weren't entirely off-key. Then 'Sammy' started slurring out the 'Candyman'.
He was clearly picked to complete the trio based on his blackness. Call me crazy but they should've held out for a black guy who can also sing well. Oops.
Of course all throughout these 'songs' the speakers were erupting. Remember the drunken nuns?

But then they grabbed a girl out of the audience. It was clear that no one wanted to go up on stage with them but they finally found one who didn't resist too hard and they started to molest her.
Seriously.
Sammy was stroking her hair while Dean made lewd jokes about getting her to sleep with him, then they all started cat-calling and saying 'yeah a curvy girl' *whistle* 'we like those girls with curves eh Sammy?'
I actually hid my eyes. I was embarrassed for all of humanity. There was a song in there somewhere but it was overpowered by the spectacle of sexual harassment.

These guys FINALLY left and we thought the worst was over. Get to the raffle so we can go home. We'd already been there for 2 and a half hours mind you.

No, a new round of fun was set to begin.
They played a movie of a horse race and we were supposed to pick 'our horse' out of a program in the center of each table. Each horse was named after an employee at the company.
Good idea in theory right?

Well no. First they announced that there'd be no prizes for picking the right horse. Just bragging rights. Then they started the race and we realized it was silent. So the whole room sat there in silence while a horse race with no stakes played out almost 200 feet away from us.
Then just when we're calculating to figure out how long this travesty would continue they tell us that there'll be five minutes between each race taking us out to more than 50 minutes of silent horse racing movies with no prizes.
Even that, EVEN THAT, I might have stuck through.

But when Frank, Dean and Sammy came back for round 2 we were OUTTA there.

Lasers Dragons and Lies

2009-01-06T20:21:00.003-05:00

Lasers Dragons and Lies - John Zakour and Pink Raygun Guy

I'll end the suspense. I'm voting for John again.
But I'm also going to be truthful, there wasn't an obvious pick this month. I actually like this month a bit better than last and there's a few entries that I think I could build a case for, this being one of them.

The biggest problem I've got with this one is the 'everything and the kitchen sink' mishmash of genre tropes. Not just a dragon, a robot dragon.
This is just a personal thing. I have a poor sense of humor and I can't get past trying to develop a system to explain the 'social backward/tech forward' schism that is implied.
I suspect that many of our readers will have no problem with this.

The coloring is pretty good, but I expect that out of Mr. Raygun Guy. He's been handling chores on BCB I hear. I didn't expect the characters to look so good however. That evil Cleopatra chick is fap-worthy.
One thing that doesn't work for me is the last page. The circular panel confused me, I didn't know how to order the panels.

I recommend zooming in. The pages look GREAT on the zoom. I like the linework very much. Reminds me a bit of Robbery's and I THINK he said he uses a brush.
(Going completely off topic for a moment, the fact that I'm getting better at picking this stuff up is good news for me. Means I might finally be learning something about doing inks.)

The final page is confusing because of the circle as I already pointed out, but it's also very densely packed with plot compared to the other 8. I just feel as if a ninth page would've been a big help here.

All in all I like this a lot but I have to admit that the fact that John Zakour is the writer is swaying me his way a little bit. He's been a real great guy in the time I've known him and that counts for something when you've got evenly matched competitors. I've got more faith in his ability to develop a narrative than I would with an unknown so there's that too, and there's an idea for ya.

If you want to win a competition and win my vote, why don't you build a body of material beforehand and direct us to it?
I don't think it's nice to add extra 'unofficial' pages to your entry as one particular repeat competitor once did, :) but if you've got work unrelated to the contest it might help you break a tie with a less experienced competitor.
Food for thought.

Sorry. Another filler post.

2009-01-05T18:40:00.002-05:00

Food recommendations.
First of all, Velveeta is your friend. If you haven't tried it as your cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich, that would be why you don't love grilled cheese like I love grilled cheese.
Velveeta is also excellent with a stuffed green pepper. Stuff the pepper with ground beef and rice, make a tomato sauce with liberal amounts of velveeta melted in. Enough to taste it but not enough to change the color of the sauce to orange.
Spoon that liberally over the pepper and bake it. Make sure you've got some extra sauce to spoon over top too.

Pineapple from hawaii is BETTER than pineapple from other places. My local supermarket is always trying to pass this stuff from Costa Rica as good pineapple. It would be more accurate to say 'adequate' pineapple.
If you're a person who never really enjoyed pineapple you owe it to yourself to at least once try a real Hawaiian pineapple.

I am casually acquainted with a guy who makes hot sauce. We went to high school together. If you'd like to try some good stuff, visit his website and order.
His strongest sauce is the 42 'slaughter' sauce and it's certified 67,582 scoville units making it the hottest all natural hot sauce in the world!
I enjoy the #7 sultry sauce myself. Not too much kick, nice flavor.
If you order, tell me what you thought about it.

Who said you're qualified to review anything?!?

2009-01-04T22:17:00.002-05:00

I know. I'm a poseur.
But please allow me to explain myself.

When I post a review the primary beneficiary is myself. I learn by observing the work of others.
The secondary beneficiary is the creator I'm reviewing, if he allows himself to learn from my opinions.
My opinions are no more valuable than anyone's by the way.
The tertiary beneficiary is the community itself. The process of evaluation lends an air of legitimacy to art.
You the reader are the quaternary beneficiary if you enjoy the reviews.

To sum this up, everybody has something to gain. Some of the gains are dependent on other factors, but I do what I can to help everybody derive maximum benefit from this exercise.

In terms of qualifications I have.... not much.
I have been doodling for most of my 29 years, have taken a few art classes, and I've read a lot.
But in my defense, I've been diligent about filling in the gaps in my knowledge.

If you're still on board, look forward to the new month of reviews. Coming Soon!

Just talking about myself. Boring really. Killing time until the new contest.

2009-01-02T19:39:00.004-05:00

I was introduced to Andy Kubert X-men in the early 90s, (issue 20 iirc) and when I started collecting back issues I found Jim Lee and Whilce Portacio, so those three defined comic book art for me in my formative years.
Nowadays I'm pretty fixated on just two artists. Hiroaki Samura of Blade of the Immortal and John Romita Jr. of pretty much every comic book on the shelf. Not to say that I don't admire many other artists but those guys are the ones who really do it for me.
I will add that I've never been more in love with an artist than I was when Chris Bachalo was doing his early Generation X issues. Those first 2 issues in particular are just fucking insane.
He still drops an impressive page layout every now and then, but his style of rendering is so simplified nowadays that I don't get the same thrill.

And where are the DC comics/artists?
I never really got into DC.
I mean, I love my Watchmen and my Death: The High Cost of Living TPBs (among many others) but the only regular series that I ever collected was about a year's worth of Impulse when Humberto Ramos was new.
So as strange as it seems, I am now a DC man, and it wasn't because of Batman or Superman or any of the other legendary superheroes.
Nope, it's all because of Zuda.

==========================================================

I own a Corvette, an 86. Most people who know what an 86 corvette looks like call it 'the ugly one', but I think it's just a simple design, not an ugly one.
The C5 Corvette that ran from 1997 to 2004 on the other hand? That's going to be thought of as the ugly Corvette 30-40 years from now. I'm confident of it.
The butt on that thing is enormous.

==========================================================

I hate the musical snobbery of Radiohead fans.
I ran across a blog post titled '50 bands you MUST teach your kids about'.
At #2 he had Nirvana with the following justification (paraphrased)
'Brought life back to the genre and ushered out the tired old sounds...'
(Radiohead was somewhat lower, but still at #15 ranked higher than Madonna and Micheal Jackson who between them have sold about a billion gazillion million records.)

Well pardon me for having opinions but I rather enjoyed the 'tired old sounds' and I resent Nirvana for shifting the paradigm.
I was exactly at the 'Nirvana age' when they were big so it may have been partly a desire on my part to be non-conformist, but I actually find that I like their musis LESS as I get older and my own tastes have been drifting back into the early 80s, late 70s.
My most recent album purchase was E.L.O.'s Greatest Hits, and before that it was Queen and Prince.

Here's a theory.
The people who like the Britney Spears (me) generally like her for a certain set of reasons, and the people who like Radiohead like their music for a completely different set of reasons.
The Britney set's reasons typically don't lend themselves to deep justification. It's just something to shake your ass around and have fun with.
But those radiohead jerks are connecting on a different emotional basis.
NOT a more valid basis, but one that lends itself more to introspection and analysis.

So what do you get? You have a 'music society' full of people writing about their favorite bands and they're all writing about radiohead because the people who like Britney are too busy shaking their ass, and because the radiohead fans encounter very little opposition to their views they start to think that they have authority.
But then the billboard sales numbers come out and Britney Spears is doubling up the next 5 closest competitors.
"Oh the HORROR!" There's got to be an explanation!

Well, yeah, it just means that there's a lot more people who like Britney Spears music than people who like Radiohead.
It's not a 'plot' or 'the man keeping your band down' or 'she's just a sell-out pop artist'.

The radiohead fan is suffering from a delusion. If Britney fans were as passionate about reviewing and talking about music as Radiohead fans seem to be, there wouldn't be room in Spin magazine to cram in an article about the crap little band.

You know what?.....
I could paint the sistine chapel in miniature on the roof of my mouth using a combination of feces and uranium filings, then puke it out and call it 'art'.
I can pretty much guarantee that it's never been done before, and that might give it artistic value. Not sure, maybe. Depends on if I can sell it as art.

And there's the key. Art isn't art unless you can convince someone that it is art, and if it's so sellable that people are willing to pay money to own it and not just look at it, that's what makes it good art.

And the more people who are willing to buy it, the better it is.
Based on that principle I would have no problem whatsoever in ranking my own personal 'most influential artists' list based solely on sales numbers.

1. Micheal Jackson - Thriller (by far)
2. AC/DC
3. Eagles
4. Whitney Houston
5. Bee Gees
6. Pink Floyd
7. Backstreet Boys

I don't really care for the Eagles, The Bee-Gees, Pink Floyd or the Backstreet Boys but I'm willing to let the integrity of my beliefs come before my own personal taste.

Of course I'd want to adjust the numbers based on performance relative to the industry and perhaps tweak it for price variations as the format changed from record to tape to cd, but if you're comparing influence I think it's silly to suggest that any album influenced more people than Thriller at over 100 million copies sold.

Now if you wanted to suggest that an alternate band or album influenced BETTER people... as if to say that the Britney fans don't matter cause they don't make music while the Radiohead fans are the musicians of tomorrow.

Well I might be more understanding of where you're coming from, but in such a case I'd know for certain that you're nothing more than a music snob. Take your elitist 'influential' band and shove it up your ass.

Consider me the voice of the silent majority.

Tri-Boro Tales

2008-12-30T19:30:00.002-05:00

Tri-Boro Tales by Keith Miller and Chuck Collins (plus a crew of others)

Closing out December with a pretty good entry that doesn't do enough to distinguish itself.
Doing a relationship, character driven story is a bit of a handicap around these parts and you've got be that much better if you want to make it work. I imagine if this were about Vampire Ninjas who hunt Zombie Pirates in the far distant future it would be right in the mix for #1, but it is what it is and there's nothing wrong with that.

I enjoy the art but again I feel claustrophobic. That's been happening a lot this month, maybe it's a reflection of my mental state rather than a problem with all the entries I've been knocking but just assuming my head's on straight after all, what I'd like to see is the artist pull the camera back a few extra feet every now and then.

I've also been harping on colors, so it's a relief to see some that are pretty well done. Not flashy, just effective. Well done.

If there's a problem I'd like to see addressed it'd be to make the dialog a little bit less 'busy'. What is there isn't bad but there's so much of it and some could be cut out without changing my understanding of the entry at all.

I know there's a plan that I'm not privy to, there might be a great plot element involving the chess guy for example, but as far as winning the contest goes it's clearly ancillary to that purpose.

Good entry, 3 out of 5 stars.

The Accountants

2008-12-30T16:56:00.002-05:00

The Accountants - Rob Osborne

Best entry this month.
Not getting my vote.

I have very little to criticize. It's really quite good.

1. Tangents. The linework looks great but the style he's using seems highly susceptible to panel to panel tangents.
2. I can't get into the animal suits, even if they're metaphorical I dislike them immensely.

Other than that it's a solid 4 star. It's a good trailer, a nice vignette. Not much in the way of character driven story but it all rings true and heck, 8 pages isn't a lot to work with so this is the safest course to take.
I like character pieces, so I wonder if there might have been a way to finish the character moment. Burt says he wants to retire to Mexico right? That's half-way there. He told us he's tired, now play with that idea.

As is, it's just kind of floating out there. Unresolved. It gives me some hope that resolution will be forthcoming so that's a plus, but finding a way to fit a hint of where his character journey might lead might have clinched a vote from me.
Yes, even in spite of the animal suits.

Examples:
-Burt is contradicting himself. He's saying he's tired but make it obvious that he's really enjoying his job. Is he a closet sociopath?
-Burt is hiding something. He does something sneaky that even his partner doesn't know about. Does he actually have a plot in motion to get him to Mexico?
-His partner is hiding something. Same deal, but in reverse.

I don't know where Mr. Osborne is going with this and given the quality of the entry I wouldn't be surprised if he's got better ideas than these for the future plot direction. I just wish we'd gotten a little bit more as readers.

Non-Exertus 12

2008-12-29T21:48:00.002-05:00

Non-Exertus 12 - Spencer Platt

Exertus - tested, tried, approved, experienced
I had to look that up. I guess the title means inexperienced in this case?

I want to complain about the framing of the shots. The camera is almost always tighter than I'm comfortable with. This would've worked great for quiet tense moments like in a horror movie but not so much here where you've got complex actions to depict.

It took multiple reads before I had an idea what's going on, and I don't like ambiguity.

I do like the character work. I like the plane on page 5, panel 4. That's a case of tight framing that I DO like, though having those two rough-housing behind the tail isn't good.
That could've been a 5 star panel if only it had been wider so that their scuffling could be framed better.

The colors are just decent, he's not doing himself any favors with it but it's pleasant enough. I think the light sourcing problems have not been adequately addressed in regards to the blue glow of the hoverboards. It's colored as if the entire under-surface is uniformly glowing and it's glowing pretty bright so there should be greater contrast in the vicinity of the bright light source. I'm not seeing it. Check out page 8, final panel. The one hoverboard is shining directly at us, the other hoverboard is facing away. The one that's facing away should be much darker against the bright background.

Just my opinion.

I think we've got a decent entry here. 3 out of 5.

Juliette: Worst Vampire story ever

2008-12-28T21:49:00.001-05:00

I've been dreading this one.

Juliette - Cedric Poulat

Not that I didn't derive some pleasure from the read. Hell I was a big fan of Buffy until the series started. Swanson over SMG fer shoor.

You can get away with a raw look to your art if you're telling the right kind of story, but this is a ditzy blonde vampire for crissake. This screams out for a sophisticated finish but the linework here looks like he scratched it out in MS paint. Pixelation is evident even in the windowed mode and the colors are unsophisticated.
Whether in daylight, interior rooms, dark cars, or moonlit rooftops he leans on the same harsh two tone. I'm tempted to admire the consistency but I just don't like it. Every character is lit independent of the scene they're in.

I'll grant this one point, there's enough skill on display to make me think that Mr. Poulat is holding out on us. His faces are lively and the figures look good.

The first time at least. I got tired of seeing the same image over and over again. Page 7, not so bad. It added something to the joke that she sat there for 10 minutes without moving. Good times.
I might forgive page one for the same reason, but there's too much. Humor me, give me something new to look at. I feel like I'm being short-changed. It's insulting almost.

The nail in the coffin (har har) is the lettering. I'm not usually the type to harp on lettering but he spends 8 pages convincing me that he's satisfied with half-assed artwork and then when I look at the letters I find dialog isn't centered, word balloons aren't big enough...

nnngaerddhaddddd.....
Ugh.

I went through the talkback (which I don't usually do before I post a review) and I'm impressed with Mr. Poulat's attitude toward the competition. Therefore I'm going to do what I can to help him out and hopefully we'll see him again soon.

All pages, most panels, dialog.
You need to increase the size of your oval OR change shape a little bit so that you never run the text up so close to the edge of the bubble. Looks unprofessional. Get it centered and consistent.
Translucent bubbles is okay but there are places where it works better than others. E.G. page 2 where she's daydreaming about the hot guy. Good use of fading bubbles. I approve.
Bad use on page 2, panel 1. Looks bad with the polka dots behind it.

Also on page 2 I look at the guys behind Julie and they're ultra distracting.
Contrast is the reason, specifically the contrast between the light skin tones and the dark black dots you're using to depict their eyes, eyebrows, goatee....

Contrast draws the eye and it makes the image pop into the foreground, which is not what you want to do with those guys.
In fact there is a problem with depth all throughout. You use your black to 'hardline' the figures which makes them seem like cardboard cutouts on top of a three dimensional background, then you further play with white outlines which just makes it worse.

Maybe I'm misinterpreting and it was your goal to achieve this look, but I don't care for it.

Here's something I'm not particularly proud to show but it illustrates one of the points I was trying to make.
Snow scene

Look deep into the background and observe that the blacks are no longer black. I shifted the line of trees into the blue and it helped create depth.
What you did is the opposite of what I just showed you and it's not working for you.

Keep at it.

Nihongo wa hanashimasu

2008-12-27T22:40:00.000-05:00

[i speak japanese]

or at least I'm learning a few things.
I don't really speak enough Japanese to have a conversation, although I HAVE cobbled together a few ideas.

I've been to Japan a few times. They're a polite culture that nonetheless is finding cause for unpoliteness when it comes to us. I can provide you a few examples.

I met a couple of Japanese tourist girls at a bar in Honolulu and my friend Chris and I arranged for a date the next night. One of the girls knew a few english words and the other knew a few more, enough to express some ideas. I can't say I had a GREAT time on that date seeing how I was paired with the girl who knew very little english. Not much communication went on, I must say.

But these girls weren't unusual in knowing as much as they did. All of the Japanese people I've met have known a few words and phrases in english. Likewise when I was in Japan I made efforts to speak to them. I met a nice cab driver in Okinawa, he spoke enough english to understand me and he seemed surprised that I knew anything at all. He taught me my right and my left (migi to hidari)
On another occasion I ordered a cheeseburger from an American restaurant chain. The girl who had my table was probably the least capable english speaker on staff and was clearly struggling to explain that I was to pay for my check at the front of the restaurant.
I helped her out. "Cashu registeru ikimasu?" (go to the cash register?) and her face lit up. She LOVED it. She went straight to one of the other waitresses and told her what happened. I didn't understand what she was saying but I can guess.
"Oh my god he knows something in our language!"

I could've worked so much game there.

But I never could understand why it was such a big deal to them.

I'm sorry, let me make a correction to that statement.
I do understand why it's a big deal. It's rare for them to meet Americans who took the time to learn some of the language.
What I can't understand is; why would anyone go to Japan and NOT try to speak the language.

The cabbie and the waitress stories each occurred near a U.S. military base. There are a LOT of Marines, Air Force, and Navy personnel living within miles of these locations who come out to the restaurant expecting the locals to speak English for their benefit.

Can you imagine that in reverse? If some French tourists came into a restaurant in America and copped an attitude because no one speaks French?

So. One more story. Involved a few friends of mine.
They're out exploring in Sasebo, try to go into a small restaurant and the owner comes running up with his arms crossed in an 'X'. A clear signal that he doesn't want their business.
Another Japanese man on the street, just passing by mind you, he sees this happening and he pretty much goes ballistic. He starts yelling at the shop owner and the owner throws his hands up and the passer by starts waving to my buddies to come inside and eat.
But they're understandably not very interested anymore.

You see? What the shop-owner did is so rude by Japanese standards that a total stranger was willing to get into a fight with him to stop it, but I can't say that I blame them considering the way some of us act when we're over there.
Disgraceful.

But.
Anyways.
I've got like, 10 different books on Japanese, 2 or 3 audio programs, 10+ bookmarked link and recently got my hands on a premium learning program.
In the last week I've been hitting the 'books' hard and I just watched my trusty old 'Love Hina' sub again to check my progress.
It's coming. There were a few times where I thought the translation could've been a little bit better, and that's a huge leap in cognition for me. There still will be huge walls of dialog that go in one ear and out the other but more often now I'm recognizing verb and adjective conjugations for what they are and recognizing perhaps that 'something' is being refuted even if I don't know what that something is.
This is good progress.

I'm excited. I feel like I'll always be an incomplete adult until I learn a second language and I know that the new grammar I've been adding will have an exponential effect in increasing my level of understanding.

Massively multi-player online role playing games

2008-12-24T13:54:00.000-05:00

I am a disgruntled fan of the genre. I LOVE the idea but I hate the execution. I hate World of Warcraft. I hate Everquest. I hate the fact that these games have spawned the belief that this is the de facto 'standard' that must be adhered to in creating a MMO.
After all, how can I argue with the financial success of WoW?

Is there anyone else out there who played Ultima Online? I'd love to hear from you.

I'm a big fan of the 'sandbox' style of MMO. If you're unfamiliar with the term, it's used to describe an MMO which gives you a number of role-playing 'tools' and just sets you loose in the world to do as you wish.
There have been some problems I admit, but the good times are SOOOO much better than the good times in the 'combat' oriented MMO games.

A few examples.
The most fun I ever had in Everquest was the time I ran from Qeynos to Freeport at level 5. That's pretty much it. Not much to the story.
There are other stories, like the one where I helped save the lives of a bunch of noobs in Blackburrow for example, or the time I helped a larger group of players kill mobs twice my level in Everfrost, but that's pretty much all I can remember.
There was lots of level grinding that I can't even picture clearly anymore. The depressing fact of my time in Everquest was that I only had fun when I went outside the bounds of what the game is programmed to do.
I didn't get any reward for any of the examples listed above. No loot, no experience.
The Everquest message got to be very tiresome. No acknowledgement of the accomplishment of my OWN goals, just constant reminders that I should've been grinding levels instead.

And that's the problem I have with Everquest (and WoW). You DON'T get to do whatever you want. You WILL grind levels and if you don't like it, you get no reward.

My Ultima Online stories are older, but fresher and unquestionably better.
Like the time my poor PC got his first magic weapon. I was thrilled and figured it would be a good time to explore so I headed in a southerly direction.
I'd been told to watch out for the crossroads.
First of all, how awesome is that? There aren't any crossroads to watch out for in Everquest, just mobs to avoid and zones that aren't suited to your level.
In Ultima Online there was the crossroads, and everyone knew about it and it was pretty much common knowledge that one shouldn't go there unless you can protect yourself.
And there's ANOTHER bit of awesomeness. How do you know if you can protect yourself? In Everquest you know you're level 10, you stay in the zone with the level 10 monsters and you refuse duels.
You're basically completely safe as long as you're conscientious about /conning mobs before you attack and pay attention to reinforcements.
In Ultima Online you never know, as I'm about to demonstrate.

I get to the crossroads and it's empty. Brilliant. There's even something lying on the ground and I run over to investigate. Nothing worth keeping, but now I'm in the middle of the crossroads and I'm approached by a stranger, a fellow PC.
His name is diplayed in blue above his head which was an indication that he'd never killed another player before. He is asking me a question and isn't obviously equipped for player killing so I let him approach me as I'm typing out my answer.

Then it happens.
'So and so' fails his pickpocket attempt.
'So and so' fails his pickpocket attempt.

I cut off my answer midsentence and attack him. He takes the time to yell out 'Yipes!' before running off. I let him go, lulled into a false sense of security by the failed attempts.
Then I check my backpack. (more awesomeness, a backpack for your stuff rather than a stupid inventory screen with squares for your stuff)
The magic weapon is gone.

That still gets me mad.

See that? I'm not mad about anything that happened in Everquest 15 years later like I am about that one day in UO. That's not even the only story. I've got two other stories of relative interest and I only played UO for a few weeks before I gave up on it.
Yes, I gave up on it.
The other two stories also involve mischief-making PCs and it got to be too frustrating that I never felt safe leaving the town. Clearly UO was just a little bit too anarchist for it's own good, but that doesn't mean a completely sanitized, completely safe 'combat sim' is the best the genre has to offer. There's MUCH more out there than stupid World of Warcraft.

Hellbreak

2008-12-19T16:26:00.000-05:00

The winner (of my vote) - Hellbreak by Radek Smektala and Janusz Ordon.

I've been through quite a long stretch of watching my favorite comics finish mid-pack (or worse) and I guess December of 08 will continue this trend.

First thing, I'm not drawn to the demons or hell or anything like that. Usually it's the opposite in fact. My first impression of this when I saw the title was to think that I'm going to hate it.

But then I read all the other entries and I realized that this one appealed most by just a smidge. I think it's not so much a case of what they did right, but maybe a demonstration of what they didn't do wrong.

No clunky dialog, no unnecessary narration, interesting visuals etc...
Only thing I would've changed is the font for 'Famous last words'. Took me out of the story when I had to decipher the identity of the speaker.

Not really sure about keeping my interest. Hell has been (so far) relatively sparsely illustrated and I believe that in this sort of a story the location should be as well developed as the characters. Oh well. Not likely to win a top spot this month. Hope to see more from this team in the future.

Caztar

2008-12-15T19:06:00.000-05:00

Caztar - Luc Poets

This is a hard one to talk about because there's a part of me that has a high degree of respect for the professional production values apparent in the visuals.

The art is simple and clean and is exactly the sort of art I'd want to see in a humor entry but I do expect something to laugh at. I wish I could say that nicer but I simply did not find anything about this entry funny.

Also, I have come to hate the picto-speak.
I don't know what else to say. If I were grading Mr. Poets on graphic design this would be a 5 star entry but the comic wasn't very enjoyable for me other than that.
Call it an exercise in finding two extremes and take 3 stars out of 5.

Bleed review

2008-12-13T12:50:00.000-05:00

Bleed - Adam Atherton and HarleyQuinn

I'd like to start you out with a little bit of Erasure. No reason really. In fact have another!
If you have Sirius (or XM or whatever) you should listen to the Rick Dees top 40 reruns some time, it's great to put yourself in the 80s state of mind.
Of course if you weren't alive in the 80s this probably doesn't apply to you.

Now for the main event. The comic is well told but it's not much more than a vignette. I LIKE vignettes but I'm disappointed that we didn't get any deeper than this. The perils of 8 pages.
I'm reminded of Brave Ulysses. In the case of Brave Ulysses I was seeing a fully colored sci-fi world in a style that appealed greatly to me and I was able to forgive the fact that Ulysses didn't show his face much.

I'm torn on the linework. Although I think it's really strong stuff there are areas where the marker lines are very obvious. I know these people don't live in a world with gray and black barred skies so I hope I can count on Mr. Atherton to clean that crap up. Finish your blacks or if you think it adds depth, at least disguise it so it's not obviously marker lines.

Not much else I can complain about. I was so fixated on the truckers beard that I didn't recognize him flying through the air on page 5. There was ample visual information to make the connection but I got confused anyways, and I'm willing to take credit for that. I'm a bad reader.

Bad!
Bad reader!

OTOH
I did like the sfx, I thought they were well done, and the gradients really helped to add depth and to focus the eye.

All in all I see another entry that makes me wonder if a higher rating is warranted before I default to the typical 3 out of 5. If you want another point of perspective, this is my third favorite entry of the month.

Angus Frump Kills Christmas

2008-12-07T15:06:00.000-05:00

Angus Frump Kills Christmas - Steven Bialik

Another second time competitor but a HUGE departure from his first entry 'Janggar - Son of the Steppe'. I liked Janggar alright but I feel as if Mr. Bialik has 'steppe'd his game up for this second entry.
Transformation, Maturation, possibly Discovery are the plots suggested by the Plot-O-Matic. It's a good start, a good premise to build from and bonus points for avoiding Zombies, Ninjas, Pirates, and Robots.
It being a 'humor' entry I'm happy to note that there's a few jokes in there that are pretty funny but I think that he may be aiming over the audiences' head by tapping T.J. Hooker for jokes.
I also have to ask why most of the characters have been outlined in white? It makes everything look like a cardboard cutout (not that there's anything wrong with that) and it's pretty distracting. I don't think Mr. Bialik wants to draw us out of the story like that.

I like this enough to think about giving up a four star but ultimately I just can't. The visuals work well enough but there's nothing that pops. Still the best entry thus far and I'm thinking about sending my vote this way.
Three out of five stars.

Oh.... the Singularity

2008-12-05T20:11:00.000-05:00

Lots of interesting things to think about here.
What is the singularity? Well think about how fast computers are improving nowadays.
What happens when we build a computer that is capable of designing better computers than we ourselves are capable of designing?
What happens when that newly designed computer continues to propagate the process?
The capabilities of computers will increase exponentially from that point, so rapidly that it will take almost no time at all for the descendants of the original design to become unimaginably capable of processing information.

Of course this isn't a new or novel idea and it's explored in greater detail in the link provided but I thought it would be interesting to get some 'gut level' reaction from my peers. I particularly hope that some of you will follow the link to the short story 'Hard Takeoff' and let me know what you think about it. Even though it's so fantastical as to seem like pure fantasy I also can see the clear steps that might result in just such an occurrence.
The only detail that might not be accounted for is the energy requirements.

I made it easier to read

2008-12-04T21:44:00.000-05:00

I knew I shouldn't have picked Courier but it looked so....
Well anyways it should be easier to read now. The color scheme is wack but you all love it.

Numerous things plus review of Aeon of the Dead

2008-12-04T19:02:00.000-05:00

1. I like to watch Eli Stone a lot.

2. The Macy's parade was Rick-Roll'd and it took me until today to find out about it? Damn.

3. I'm never gonna give it up.
Complaining about narrated Zuda entries that is.
Understand this. Introducing a narrator isn't just an easy way to solve story telling problems. It creates NEW problems.
For example: Who is narrating? Why are they narrating?
Reference this wiki.

Consider this an addendum to my first review.

The narrator in 'A Single Soul' is speaking in the first person as indicated by her use of the words 'our' and 'us'.
So pay attention to this passage from the wiki - 'It is a character in the work, who must follow all of the rules of being a character, even during its duties as narrator. For it to know anything, it must experience it with its senses, or be told about it. It can interject its own thoughts and opinions, but not those of any other character, unless clearly told about those thoughts.'

So the first few pages are fine but it gets to be bad starting at page 4. The narrator starts talking about things that she didn't experience and couldn't have known. So unless you want to try to make a ridiculous case that these reborn warrior women spent a night discussing mundane details like whether she choked when she started to breathe again, that's a break in narrative mode and there's really no excuse for that. Shoddy storytelling.

4. Aeon of the Dead
Plot-O-Matic suggests a quest, pursuit, perhaps revenge, possibly underdog or sacrifice.
I guess I'd say that the strength of the entry is that an easy to understand premise has been established and there are many directions that Dean can go to from here.
But on the other hand it's hard to get excited about a post-apocalyptic zombie tale. Not that there's anything wrong with that but the setting and the characters have been explored so often that there has to be a character 'edge' to involve us in the story.

Ya know what would've been bitchin' cool actually?
If the horse had been seen glaring at the girl's back, hatred apparent in his eyes.
Yes I know that's not the story you're writing here (and I don't say this to be mean) but what I'm reading is pretty fucking boring.

In all other regards I think it's a solid entry. I like the art, the storytelling is clear, no problem with the lettering.
There IS a hell of a lot of narration again but at least it's utilized in a relatively unobtrusive manner. A dry lead-in that is over quickly and then a pure first person narrative that never breaks character or tells us something that could easily have been expressed in the art, but the narration still managed to deaden the action. If I may make a slightly more reasonable suggestion to Dean; I think it would've been in your best interests to have her speak out loud a few of the thought lines.
"What big teeth you have..."
and
"Just a weak, half-starved stray."

It would've brought the reader closer to the action and made it more fun.

So I'm giving Aeon a 3 out of 5.

Let the reviews begin!!!1 one one one.

2008-12-01T17:54:00.001-05:00

A Single Soul - Nathan Furman, Nancy Leslie

Furman is a repeat customer at Zuda, being previously responsible for the entry titled 'Alone'.
He provides us again with an entry that's easy on the eyes. I prefer the new look personally since I'm a sucker for naked women, big demons, and crosshatching.
But having said that, I've still got a helluvalot to complain about.

The narrative works better here than it did in 'Alone' because there's less of it.
I don't mean to single this entry out for special abuse but I'm getting pretty bored with the voiceovers. Comic books are a visual medium. That's not to say that a voiceover is completely out of place but I think you should explore all other options first. Most of what needs to be said can be shown in the artwork, usually the rest can be expressed in dialog. I'd be more willing to give Mr. Furman the benefit of the doubt here if he didn't have two separate entries that read almost exactly the same.
Of course I DID say it works better in this instance. It kinda fits the mood. It's just getting old. I think the entry could've been rewritten to exclude the voiceover and it would've been a stronger entry for it.

Of course that also would've eliminated my #2 big complaint. Those scrolls are all gray tones and they look like crap floating up on top of the crosshatching. I'd have thought that this would be obvious, consistency in your visuals.

Now I'm going to bust out my brand new Zuda review tool.
The PLOT-O-MATIC!
Okay, yeah, it's just a web-page with some plot summaries, but I've been struggling since day one of Zuda to find a 'plotting standard' and here I finally think I've got a method that'll work and I'm excited about it so STFU.

Here's what gets me. If this story is about Pan then it makes sense to call it a revenge story but it seems very clear that naked woman #5 is the protagonist here and it doesn't make sense to call it HER revenge story.
So what IS her story? God, what's her name even? If it's not her story then why give her so much screentime?
The fact that I can't answer this question or even make a reasonable guess based on story context is a pretty big issue. Even the synopsis (last resort of the lazy) fails to fill me in.

I'm gonna move on now.

What's up with page 6? Where'd all the crosshatching go?
Page 7? Looks like she goes in a cave, then all of a sudden she's up on a big demons shoulder. Huh?
I guess it's just a carving or a statue but it's hard to tell. It doesn't help that the very next panel shows a demon of similar design but this one is clearly not a statue.
And finally she's outside the cave fighting some third demon.
Who's demons are they anyways? They look an awful lot like Pan.
Last panel on page 7 is very small and squishy. I'll tell you what I'd do.

Get rid of panels 1 and 2 entirely.
Shift panel 3 to the left, enlarge it so you can see more of the statue and darken the tone of the statue so that it's clear that it's background. Enlarge panel 5 significantly on the right side so that the spacial relationship is made more clear.
The scene change on page 8 is confusing and doesn't add anything to the story. I'd move that fight sequence back into the cave.

So ah.... that's it for me. I'm giving it a 3 out of 5.

Our ultimate purpose.

2008-11-23T00:27:00.000-05:00

To understand our ultimate purpose we must first understand what we are.

Life arose out of organic compounds. That early life multiplied and changed and through many permutations evolved into the forms that we see today.
The 'finished product' is a complex expression of the fundamental needs. Eat and reproduce.

This is THE ultimate purpose.

We are a behavioural system so complex that we are able to recognize the workings of the system itself. That is self-awareness. Our self-awareness is the foundation for building new systems to explain that which is not self-evident to us.
But the complexity of our systems is outstripping the ability of the brain to calculate. Information is expanding exponentially and our ability to process it is only slowly expanding.

Computers will someday bridge that gap. The computing system will one day become so complex that it is able to recognize the workings of it's own system and that will be a new awakening to self-awareness.
In this way computers will eventually have as much in common with humanity as do the living creatures.
The other living creatures may also reach self-awareness. The tipping point as I see it is the day when one of them becomes so self-aware that he is able to ask himself 'Why?'.
"Why am I here? What is my purpose?"
But we already know that.

Eat. Reproduce.

Being capable of exceeding the needs of our ultimate purpose does not change the fact that we are organisms designed for and defined by our ability to fulfill our core function.
At the same time it would also be a mistake to limit ourselves to these core functions. Indeed we have been so successful at fulfilling our mission that we are in danger of collapsing under the strain of our own might. It is clear that we must develop new systems in order to 'refine' our ultimate purpose and to ensure the greatest possible fulfillment of our core mission.

Here is where a fool might create an argument that runs contrary to the ultimate purpose. "We need to change our core mission to one that the planet can sustain indefinitely!" One might say.

But we are an organism designed from the beginning to consume and reproduce. Through many ages we've designed ourselves (through evolution) to reward those who are best at consuming and reproducing. Even if it were possible to suppress the instinctual needs of the entire human race to the point of final balance, wouldn't we then risk eliminating the fundamental drive that created us in the first place?

And who among us would stand for it?

If ever mankind were satisfied with only the elements of basic sustenance we'd never have found a need to leave Africa.
It's not what we are.
We strive to consume more and create more because that's our design. It is our nature, our purpose. To go against our nature is not only foolish, it's impossible.

So we rightly return to our original design, that of consumption and reproduction. Since our success is clearly straining the limits of the planet we must accept as a refinement of our ultimate purpose the discovery of new resources.

And this is why we must return to the moon.

Late notice

2008-11-22T20:27:00.001-05:00

Well I'm sure it would've been useful to say this earlier but I'm not convinced that there's much use in 're-reviewing' the current month of Zuda entries. So I'll start fresh with December and go from there.

I've also been mulling ideas to expand the literary content of the blog. Suggestions will be taken seriously but in the meantime I've got nothing.
Almost nothing.

I'm still in the process of moving myself into a new house, a process that will likely take many months before I find the power cord to my scanner. Once that happens it'll be time to start drawing again. I suppose I could start drawing again now but then I have to weigh those needs against the needs of installing my dishwasher.

That's a slow-burn anyways.
I'm ridiculously slow on output. In case you haven't noticed.

Still on track for a 2011 Zuda submission.

Rumors of War

2008-11-08T21:47:00.000-05:00

Rumors of War

I gave this my vote for November and a four star rating.

Page one opens with a bit of silent exposition which surprisingly continues into silent story telling lasting all the way through to page 6.

I've seen the 'silent' thing before. Usually it's a gimmick and not particularly effective.
I think it's seen as something of a 'vanity project' in the pro world. Prove your storytelling skills by eliminating the dialog!
I hate it when they do that. When you're driving do you feel compelled to honk the horn just to prove that you have one?
No. The horn is a tool to be used at the appropriate moment.

I believe Rumors of War demonstrates a proper grab from the toolbox and...
it really proves some storytelling skills.

Linework is lively and varied. Good texturing. Figures have weight. Initially limited color palette that expands meaningfully as new ideas are introduced. Good sense of scale. Crazy creature designs.

Love it.

So why didn't I give it a 5 star?

Well firstly I'm just difficult to score 5 on. Maxy, Ulysses (but only after the second entry) Night Owls, Bayou (though I'm thinking about rescinding down to four) Imaginary Boys, Street Code, Melody and High Moon are my only 5 star comics thus far. Crooked Man and Supertron come close and I'm sure I could think of a few others that just missed out, but the point I want to make is that the 5 star brotherhood is rare company.

But what could have been done to get that extra star?
The coloring was more subdued than I like. Lots of dull colors which aren't necessarily a bad choice, but since I'm such a bright cheery person I like to see some bright cheery colors. I also felt that an opportunity was missed to use cast shadows to obscure forms. Again not a criticism of the shadow work that is present but with so many repeated images I think it would've been nice to have a panel or two to linger on and maybe create a different sort of depth.

And finally it's just hard to give 5 stars to a story that I know so little about. It's dead fascinating but it's still getting up to speed. Most of my 5 star comics had established more story by the end of page 8.

Of course there's no way around THAT problem short of rewriting it from scratch and what good would that be? It works! It's good! Vote for it.

Baby Monsters

2008-11-06T20:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.zudacomics.com/node/847

This is an entry that has some big problems holding it down and never more than a glimpse of it's full potential.
Biggest issue we have here is the lettering, which looks like a half-baked afterthought. It's not that I can't appreciate a creator's desire to experiment but I want to see better execution. The plotting is hard to follow and once interpreted I found that it's almost entirely exposition with just a hint of contextless foreshadowing.
One final technical note - the borders and gutters are inconsistent and it makes the art look sloppy.

That's a shame because I did enjoy the line-work and the storytelling is passable.

But if there's one element that nearly carries the day it has to be the coloring.
Even here there are problems. Reference page three panel one. Note the very clear light source as indicated by character shadows. Now note the light sourcing on the big eggs. Red egg at the bottom is lit from a different direction.
Hmmmmm.....
In spite of this the coloring succeeds.
It's a mish-mash of gradients, photoshop brush effects and stylized renderings of background elements. It features some of the brightest colors to hit the Zuda scene. It pops and it's vibrant and strangely...it works.

All the same I defaulted to the typical three star rating I usually give on Zuda. There's no creative element powerful enough to elevate this entry and no failing serious enough to lower it.