Update will be late this week, but I’ll try and have something posted this weekend.
I am quite eager to take a look at Starslip Crisis, which has been going full throttle with awesome plot - perhaps in part because Kris Straub has an entire seperate strip devoted to humor alone… and that strip is also Starslip Crisis.
Anyway, a deeper look at this - and the rest of Straub’s comics - sometime this weekend!
Short post today, wherein I try and briefly cover a few things that caught my eye this week:
PvP
I was somewhat miffed When I saw the start of this week’s episode of PvP, Skull the Troll. In part, perhaps, because Scott Kurtz had just been involved in a minor webspat with D.J. Coffman over the same sort of parody that Kurtz is, here, engaging in. I largely was on Kurtz’s side in that incident, even as I felt he was being hypocritical given some of his own behavior in the past… or the present, as the case may be.
Once the Foxtroll strip entered the mix, on the other hand, I found myself enjoying the storyline, especially as another piece in the continuing saga of Skull. And this strip was pure genius.
And… that’s really all I have to say about that. Skull’s adventures as an imaginary friend to children are interesting, but I do find myself hoping that he actually gains something out of it. PvP develop’s characters slowly, but it does get them there in time - and the rest of the crew have gone through some big changes lately, while Skull has been left behind. And whatever happened to Sonya Powers? You know… Skull’s girlfriend?
(On a related matter, I recall PvP’s cast page used to have a big spread of all the main and secondary characters, but has now been trimmed down to size. There isn’t even a spot for Marcy! Combined with PvP’s hostile archiving system, I’m really not sure what Kurtz is thinking.)
Wowio
When I heard Platinum had acquired Wowio, I was a bit concerned, for what should be obvious reasons. (Namely, that Platinum tends to engage in some extremely sketchy business practices, making it likely that Wowio’s presence as a decent money maker for creators would soon be coming to an end.)
That looks likely to be the case, as the free downloads available via Wowio are, in fact, no longer free. Readers can purchase those downloads, certainly, but the presence of essentially free money for the creators is no longer there.
The new Wowio does have its products available for free reading online, though I have to imagine the creators are no longer receiving the same compensation they did for the downloads. Which… is a shame, but not entirely surprising - the previous business model seemed quite handy for creators and readers, but not altogether sustainable.
Also: The display reader used for viewing the work online is pretty bad. One day, these people will figure it out and get rid off these things… or come up with one that actually works.
SMBC
So apparently, over a month ago, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal added a little red button. This button is found just below the main comic, on the right, and mousing over it reveals a follow-up panel for the comic itself. It is essentially alt text taken to the next laugh, and adds yet another laugh onto a strip that is already pretty good at multiple punchlines.
However, the appearance of the button only received a short mention in the comic’s news, and then went unremarked upon… resulting in my lack of knowledge of the button until yesterday. At which point, of course, I had to read back through the archives and check the button each day, to see what I missed.
So I felt it fair to pass on word of the button, rather than let others suffer the same failing as myself. So go! Check out the red button! Enjoy extra comic goodness!
Sorcery 101
It is my opinion that Sorcery 101 has been exceedingly good as of late. The interaction between Danny and his daughter has long been a highlight of the series, and the latest storyline has only underscored that. And the latest events - in which Danny plans to use magic to fix his daughter’s health problems, only to learn they are, in fact, caused by magic - has had me more interesting in the series than pretty much any time previous.
But I probably wouldn’t have mentioned it if it wasn’t for a post on the Girl-Wonder forums that points out precisely what “disease” she is coming down with. See, Natalie has been having migraines and other concerns, which we discover is due to her latent magical power being bottled up and not having any form of output. The solution is to train her in magic, in which she will be naturally adept due to her situation - but this carries its own downside, as this may also make her arrogant or worse. It is also mentioned that most such individuals have purple eyes.
Now, at this point, I had bought the story hook, line and sinker. This was a serious discussion, I was seriously concerned for poor Natalie, and it didn’t even remotely occur to me to look past the surface of the story at hand.
But once the true tragedy was pointed out, I honestly couldn’t stop laughing.
It is rare that a comic can work on two such distinctly seperate levels at the same time. Kel McDonald managed to pull it off with perfect execution, and that deserves some major recognition.
Koala Wallop has always been one of my favorite collectives, featuring some of the most innovative and intriguing comics on the web. It has more than a few decent comics, but the three that really have always been at the top of my list were Minus, Dresden Codak, and Rice Boy.
All of which have recently ended or been hiatused.
Minus
In the case of Minus, an ending was always somewhat inevitable - from the very beginning of the comic, the author (one Ryan Armand) warned that the comic was only likely to last as long as he remained interested int it. With over 2 years and over 100 strips in the archive, his interest seems to have lasted longer than he expected - but, unfortunately, not long enough to keep the strip going on indefinitely.
Minus was a strip about a young girl with essentially god-like powers, who used them with whimsy and with child-like innocence. It dealt with the humorous and the absurd, but could also turn unexpectedly cruel - power like that, unrestrained, can very easily have very bad results. But in the end, the truly bad fates only go to those who truly deserve it… usually.
My favorite strips would probably be this one, which features the only logical response to an impending asteroid strike… and these three strips, a sequence that is immensely touching and heartbreaking at the same time.
But all things come to an end - and the end for Minus was clearly coming for months. In one sequence, the work of an itinerant ne’er-do-well results in Minus losing her nature as a child, and becoming more akin to a spirit almost entirely driven by pure whimsy… and from there, the strip loses its focus. Minus wanders about, her human contacts dwindling. And, eventually, Minus accidently kills off the human race - or at least, turns everyone into ghosts. Life goes on - in a matter of speaking - but there isn’t really much farther it can go within the strip.
And so it ends.
Dresden Codak
On the other hand, Dresden Codak has been felled not by a lack of excitement, but perhaps by too much of it - Aaron Diaz, the mad genius behind this work, was in a nasty bicycling accident and is in less than great shape. Nothing life-threatening… but injured hands and a damaged computer results in a comic on delay.
This is, perhaps, especially bad, given that last october, he decided to make the comic his full-time job. So long as readers keep up the purchase of shirts and prints, he aimed to make the comic a weekly strip, and even moved from his previous haphazard strips into a continuity-laden story.
Of course, even before the accident, updates had grown sporadic, as the weekly goal almost immediately shifted to an update every other week - and more recently, updates on a monthly basis. It should be noted that each update is an utterly gorgeous work of art, and the series managed to retain both its intensity, as well as its propensity for occasional brilliance.
But that said… even a weekly comic has trouble finding a hold in the attention-span driven world wide web, and a monthly comic is in a dangerous place indeed. Let’s hope for a speedy recovery all around - both for the creator and the created.
Rice Boy
The last strip on my mind, Rice Boy, had even greater chances than Minus of coming to an eventual end - what with being a story-driven comic with a specific end in mind. And end it did, with 439 strips to its name, and an excellent conclusion that probably shouldn’t have taken me by surprise - but did anyway.
And perhaps I still would have been distraught at the ending… save that the creator, Evan Dahm, almost immediately moved on to the next project, Order of Tales. It is something of a prequel to Rice Boy - or at least, another comic placed in the same setting, only earlier in time. It is only a few updates in… but it is enough to know that I’ll be enjoying it just as I did the previous work.
Which leaves me hopeful for Koala Wallop as a whole. Minus and Rice Boy have ended, and Dresden Codak is staggered and on hold… but replacements come, and not every hiatus goes on forever. The creators are the important part, and they’ve shown they are willing and able to create fascinating comics about fascinating things… and whether it is one comic or another, it seems likely they will continue doing so for quite some time to come.
Ben Gordon, in a comment posted the other day, says: “Just in case you’re wondering, some of us are looking forward to more.”
And it was a good reminder that - hey! I have this blog, and haven’t posted in over a month. And, while I’ve always argued for the right of comics (and the commentators thereof) to go on hiatus as needed, I’ve also always said that it is still very important to maintain communication.
Which, clearly, I have not done.
So this post is, sadly, not here to bring you any new content today - I remain behind on my webcomic reading in general (with 500 updates waiting in the queue on Piperka). This weekend isn’t likely to help that, as I am shortly off to fly to a friend’s wedding - and while I anticipate many festivities and entertainments at such an affair, internet access and webcomics is probably not on the list.
So no new content… today. Next week, there will be a new post. The week after, hopefully as well. And in the event that I am unable to maintain my weekly update, I shall make sure to at least have something as brief as this post to maintain the illusion of motion.
You know how people always take about having “one of those days” - you know, where things are just constantly going wrong, you fall further behind with every moment, madness is cropping up in every direction, yada yada widening gyre, yada yada the centre cannot hold?
I’ve never really had one of those days. But lately, I’ve been feeling like I’ve had one of those months.
And it has been lots of little things, really - one project at work finishes up just in time to get started on a paper to write; the paper gets finished up just in time to plan out upcoming summer trips; that gets taken care of, and it feels like there is a few moments to rest, and then - hey, what’s that dripping sound? And - my, but isn’t that a large puddle of water fleeing the air conditioning unit? And- hmm, what excellent timing, what with the temperature creeping up to new and unusual heights!
But the work gets done, and the paper gets finished, the trips scheduled, and the AC gets fixed… and, then it is a week later, and a whole new set of business on my doorstep.
So I’ve got one of those moments of breathing room here, and am wanting to write something, and… unfortunately, I’m way behind on all my comics. I mean, this isn’t like me, but Piperka is currently telling me I’ve got a backlog of some 700+ updates and… well, the more that pile up, the harder it is to really dive back in and get caught up. I’ve been keeping an eye on my favorites, but even then, it has been more skimming through things than anything else.
On the other hand, I’m almost glad I haven’t had the chance to talk about PvP. It seems like Scott has had some new twist every week, each one ramping things up to the next level in one way or another. I’ve been impressed - mainly because it has felt a natural way to make a normally somewhat static strip suddenly grow - but it feels like there hasn’t been a moment to really sit down and take stock of the new state of things. That the strip hasn’t yet fully settled down into its new status quo? Does that make sense? There’s been a lot of change, but it feels like we’re still waiting to see all the fall-out.
And, to suddenly shift topics again, I realize today is Friday the 13th. (I realize this, primarily, because my friends’ blogposts are abruptly warning me of the sudden zombie outbreak. The internet is a wonderful thing.)
It has been my tradition, when a Friday the 13th comes along, to try and take note of a quality webcomic in the genre of horror, and give all due recognition for such an accomplishment - horror seems to be the least represented genre in online comics, and thus it is rare indeed to find one that really works.
But… this year, I find myself without any recent finds to put forward. And, as mentioned, being behind on all my comics means not knowing if any are currently bringing the scary or if it simply the usual assortment of laughs and drama.
And my one real candidate, the delightfully twisted 5ideways… is currently on indefinite hiatus, with a decidedly less-than-functional website. Which is a shame, because it is was really just starting to hit its stride, and while the overall plot was still unwinding ever so slowly, the action itself had gotten to the really juicy parts.
The plot is… hard to explain, but I’ll try. As far as I can tell, one day the world broke. Things went bizarre, and we follow an unlikely pair of… survivors, I suppose is the best term for them. Though they themselves may be far more than the really seem to be, or are even themselves aware of.
Life proceeds onwards from there.
Now, this is a very different comic from Friendly Hostility, the other comic produced by K. Sandra Fahr. Friendly Hostility, like her previous work, Boy Meets Boy, Those comics are all about relationships, really - and they have their share of intense storylines and the occasionally surreal, and they are undeniably good comics at heart… but they aren’t much different than a lot of the other comics out there.
5ideways is largely unique. It reminds me of watching certain mind-twisting anime, where incredibly dark, incredibly bizarre events are… routine, even in their unreality, which somehow makes them all the more horrifying.
And 5ideways is very much the same, current hiatus or not. The fact that the most recent update ended on an especially monstrous note, and has left things dangling there for months on end… well, in many ways, it seems almost appropriate.
Thus, I award my Fourth Friday the 13th Webcomic Horror Award to 5ideways, for being exceedingly casual about being very, very frightening.
As may be obvious, getting out more than one post a week is proving challenging, so expect that as the current pace for the moment. Unfortunately, despite not having the time to write multiple posts, I still find the need to discuss multiple topics, so expect the following to be long, meandering, and occasionally incomprehensible.
When Good Meta Goes Bad
T Campbell writes about a number of webcomics that have recently tossed meta-humor into their strips… often with terrible, terrible results. There isn’t too much I can say he didn’t already cover - he even cops to the fact that his own work doesn’t so much dabble in metahumor as dive in head first, and that any criticism he tosses upon others is also a warning to keep a close eye on his own comics.
But the things he said needed to be said. Least I Could Do seemed especially in need of being taken to task, wherein what starts out as some clever tongue-in-cheek self-mockery suddenly turns into Sohmer explain how his comic is awesome, and everyone else sucks.
Hint: If you need to brag about how cool you are, you’re doing it wrong.
Black and White and Dead All Over
You know what is cool? Dead Winter. I’ve mentioned the comic before, ever so briefly - but at the time, the comic was only a few months old, while now it has had a chance to much more firmly establish what it is and what it is all about.
Interestingly enough, things don’t appear to have moved all that quickly - our main cast has mostly come together and is making their way out of the zombie-infected city that used to be their home. But we’ve learned quite a bit more about some of these people, and the stakes have continued to rise as they try and find their way to safety.
What I love the most about the comic, though, is the fact that the zombies are rarely the threat, in any given circumstance. They are omnipresent, constantly seen in just about every single update, even if as no more than misty figures in the background… but right now, our protagonists are less concerned about the zombies, and more worried about Frank, homicidal chef and all-around unpleasant guy.
The zombies are… an obstacle. A dangerous, deadly part of the scenery. But they are, in classic zombie style, slow enough to be avoided in most circumstances. A danger only in numbers, or if you get cornered. A danger when you are distracted. But they aren’t the villain of the scenario - just a hazard that keeps the cast on the move in their search for safety.
Penny Arcade Adventures
So, in the past few days, I have played through and completed On the Rainslick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1, which is the first in potentially a long series of Penny Arcade video games.
The game itself isn’t bad - it is short, though with new episodes planned, from the sound of it, four months apart, the length is entirely reasonable. The game system is straightforward, but with enough quirks to avoid become redundant (at least during the 5-6 hours of play.) It isn’t an especially difficult game - I only died once or twice in the entire thing, and there is absolutely no penalty for defeat, as you just get bounced out of a fight and have to start it over again, sans any consumables used during the battle.
What the game is, however, is wholly and unabashedly Penny Arcadian. Every random bit of dialogue, the hundreds upon hundreds of little details and jokes scattered throughout the game, the storyline and the art - all bring together the best elements of the comic strip and the skills and talents of Gabe and Tycho. The game is incredibly funny, from the most profane depths to the most profound observances. The vulgar jokes and toilet humor fit side-by-side with a brilliant apocalyptic tale about clockwork robots, cannibalistic hobos and a cult of mimes that worship “Yog Sethis, the Silent One.”
That’s really the success story of the game. Penny Arcade has fully translated itself into the medium of a video game, and indeed, provided the strongest element of the game in its sense of humor, characters and story.
Given how many other attempts for webcomics to branch out into other media - such as the attempted animation series of PvP and CAD - have met with a somewhat tepid response, and have suffered from difficulty capturing the heart and soul of the comic in a new format… I find the solid first step of the Penny Arcade Adventure line to be a definite milestone for webcomics as a whole.
Admittedly, it has never been argued that Penny Arcade has established itself as a brand well beyond what most other webcomics have - the success of PAX and Child’s Play make that exceptionally clear. But I still feel this sets the stage for more attempts by webcomics to push their boundaries ever further.
Chainmail Bikini has announced its trek to the land of the Eternal Hiatus. Chainmail Bikini was, in and of itself, nothing too special - another comic about D&D that makes all the usual jokes about all the usual subjects. It had quality art, but its true claim to fame was being written by Shamus, who had produced the absolutely brilliant DM of the Rings.
Sadly, Chainmail Bikini never quite lived up to its predecessor - despite having a genuine artist on board, it didn’t bring anything new to the table, and while DM of the Rings had carved out a dynamic little niche on its own, Chainmail Bikini wasn’t saying anything Knights of the Dinner Table hadn’t already said a decade earlier. Sure, the art was nicer - the art was spectacular, in fact - but as a comic entirely driven by humor, the art was also largely irrelevant. The humor itself wasn’t bad - just nothing new, and nothing strong enough to really draw in an audience.
Thus, in many ways the end of the comic almost leaves me hopeful - with this out of the way, perhaps Shamus will find himself stumbling upon a concept for another webcomic as unique and addictive as his first. He has already been doing a number of short comics at his blog, all focused around video games and the inevitable stupidities that come with said video games. From what I can tell, they’ve been funny, though my lack of video game knowledge has rendered several of them mostly inaccessible to me. Still, it definitely provides some hope for whatever he comes up with next.
Until then, however, we’ve got Darths and Droids, which has now smoothly settled into the true void left by DM of the Rings - and, 100 strips in, is going strong. Taking the Star Wars movie as its set-up, and using a game system that seems an amalgamation of all sorts of game out there, it manages to hit all the elements DMotR did… and even add one more. The “art” (screenshots) are well-chosen for maximum effect, the jokes manage to riff on both the mentality of game players and the inherent silliness of the subject matter… and it also manages to present the gamers with increasingly distinct personalities. Oh, in DMotR you had that to some extent - Legolas was played by the power-gamer, Gimli by the role-player.
But Darths and Droids has that, and also manages to make some of the characters likeable - like Sally, the younger sister of one of the players, who seems to grok roleplaying in the way that only a child’s view of make-believer really can. (And who manages to make Jar-Jar Binks an enjoyable character, even as the power-gamer playing R2-D2 makes the droid seem like a colossal jerk. Seriously, that’s impressive.)
So, what could possibly be better than a comic about a game that uses movie screenshots to tell its story?
How about a game about a comic that tells its story through… fisticuffs!
I think it is safe to say I’m excited about On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, and rather amazed it is only a week away from launch. Even better, Penny Arcade is celebrating the occasion by producing their own prequel comic for the game. I continue to find myself amazed that they’ve captured an interesting and exciting backdrop (steampunk adventures in the 1920!) that still feels completely and fully Penny Arcadian. The same sense of whimsy, the same saucy humor.
I suspect May 21st will be a day to remember.
With the onset of allergy season, I’ve finally been persuaded that Durkon was right.
Anyway - so there was this Iron Man movie that just came out, and, like, it was really good.
But it very much got me thinking about the character. I mean, I’ve never really liked Iron Man. I’m not even talking about whatever nonsense is going on with his current situation and the entire Civil War storyline - I’ve simply never found the character interesting.
Discussing it with my friends, I claimed that he simply wasn’t an iconic superhero the way others were - and I know that term is something of a meaningless buzzword, but what I meant was that there was almost no identity to Iron Man himself. Tony Stark had character, sure - he had all manner of flaws, and thus plenty of opportunity for character development and progress and redemption.
But Iron Man was just… an armored suit. Just some guy with a fancy piece of technology - indistinguishable from any number of nameless soldiers in power armor. Tony Stark wearing the armor was no real different than Tony Stark without it, whereas other hero/secret identity relationships were complex and intriguing. Superman vs Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne vs Batman, Spiderman vs Peter Parker.
While there are also some that have no real seperation from their costumed selves, that is usually because their secret identities are almost meaningless behind their superhero nature. The X-Men are primarily defined by being mutants, sometimes on the run, sometimes fighting for their people - but Cyclops is Cyclops, and Scott Summers simply happens to be another name that character sometimes uses. B
But Iron Man is just a metal soldier. Iron Man isn’t Tony Stark - it is just a suit of armor Tony wears. And there is no real personality behind that mask, no new persona.
Or, at least, that is how I previously viewed things.
As mentioned before - the Iron Man movie was really, really good. It had fantastic acting, a great balance between character development and action scenes, and some damn fine humor worked into the mix. Great graphics, solid pacing, etc, etc.
And after seeing it, I came to realize that Iron Man was iconic, in certain ways. Was, in fact, almost the perfect superhero icon for the modern age. The businessman, the industrialist, the playboy - that is Tony Stark.
But the inventor? That’s Iron Man.
Iron Man is about imagination, and pushing the limits of technology. And, of course, about doing good with that technology. It is not just about wearing some power armor, but wearing the absolute best power armor that the human mind can build. About doing so through trial and error, and eventually getting to feel the raw enjoyment of success, the thrill of flight, the sense of accomplishment.
Iron Man is the suit of armor - but also everything that went into making that. And realizing that suddenly made the character interesting and appealing.
I have to rate the Iron Man movie as the best superhero movie I’ve seen. Because making a movie about character I already like - that’s easy. But making one that takes a character I’m indifferent towards, and propels them into one of my favorite characters?
That’s a whole lot more impressive to pull off.
When I was browsing through my backlog of comics, one of the ones I had fallen behind on - and was expecting to shortly put aside - was You’ll Have That. For pretty much all the same reasons as I mentioned on Monday regarding Taking the Bi-Pass.
YHT is another slice-of-life strip without much in the way of an agenda - more polished artwork and presentation, to be sure, but how much more does it have to offer? Isn’t it just another collection of the same sort of casual jokes and storylines seen in so many other places?
So I was wondering - and then I actually bothered reading through the missing month or so of comics, and found myself hurtling through the archive to get caught up, eager - even desperate - to see how the current storyline was going to end, and what the fallout from it would be.
The storyline in question (SPOILERS!) involves Steve (best friend of Andy, the strip’s main character) discovering that his girlfriend once briefly starred in a “Girls Gone Wild” style video - at which point he breaks up with her. And… it’s a reasonable sort of thing to have happen, which isn’t to say his response is itself reasonable but that it is typical - it seems true to life, and exactly the sort of dumb situation that makes for the usual ridiculous drama.
This, really, is YHT’s strong point - it manages to wander along through the normal elements of life, and it does have its share of boring (which is to say ordinary) events wander in along the way… but it also brings in an appropriate amount of excitement, without ever making it seem forced or out of place. When relationships form or break apart, when new characters enter or vanish or suddenly start punching people in the face… it all feels natural.
Which is why it can be easy to think that nothing much happens in the comic, right up until things get shaken up. And YHT seems to be doing just that, while also not letting its current moment of drama overwhelm the entire focus of the strip. That kind of balancing act can be hard to pull off - but clearly it seems to be working, as I find myself eagerly awaiting each update, when not so long ago I was planning on ditching the strip entirely.
This week, we saw yet another moment of change as Steve decides to shave his head. I’m reminded of a similar recent storyline from Girls With Slingshots - but while that one spent what seemed like ages building up to the moment of eradication, YHT dove right on in. For the better, I think… the longer the build-up, the more likely that the culmination of the storyline won’t live up to expectations. GWS - which is otherwise about as excellent a strip as can be found - does seem to have its one weakness in overindulging in redundant jokes rather than actually cutting to the point.
You’ll Have That, on the other hand, simply does its thing and then moves right along. And given that’s usually how life actually works, that can be awfully compelling indeed.
I can’t recall when I started reading Taking the Bi-Pass.
Now, to be fair, that is the case with the vast majority of comics I read - but usually, if I make the effort, I can track my path backwards and puzzle out what crossover led me there, or what other webcomic posted a link for me to follow. Or, occasionally, what random banner ad managed to actually succeed in snagging my attention and drawing me in.
If nothing else, I can usually recall the experience of reading through the archives, and then adding the comic to my daily list to be followed on a regular basis.
Yet with Taking the Bi-Pass… there is nothing. I know I must have encountered it in the same fashion as other comics. I know that I must have one day stumbled upon it, read through it, and added it to the list. But there is no memory of doing so. It simply became part of my routine, without my notice.
Which is why, perhaps, it has taken me this long to actually realize I don’t get anything out of reading it.
Now, in fairness, I certainly don’t have a wealth of terrible things to say about the comic. Indeed, if anything in it actively repelled me, I’m sure I would dropped it from the list long ago. But just as the comic isn’t actively bad in any real sense, it isn’t good, either. It is altogether harmless and plain… and so I read it for month after month almost without noticing it. It was one link among many, briefly clicked on and checked every few days, and the content behind the link vanished from my mind almost as soon as I looked upon it.
It’s not hard to find the reason: the strip is, at heart, a slice-of-life comic. Sure, it has plenty of gags about pop culture and geek lingo - especially in its early strips - but the driving force behind it is following “the lives and random adventures of a small group of friends.”
The thing is? Life is dull.
Some people might have crazy adventures 9 days out of 10 - but not most of us. Most people spend most days doing ordinary things and living ordinary lives. And even those times when life is good and fun and enjoying - it is largely because you are living in that moment. You are hanging out with friends and throwing around jokes and chatting about random things, and right then and there, it is a blast.
But go ahead, try and take a snapshot of that conversation, try and find a way to share those inside jokes and the hilarious banter with others… and it falls short. The jokes don’t work without the context of the moment and the atmosphere of the group.
The moment is lost.
Life is dull.
Life is also, admittedly, filled with vast excitements and moments of wonder, with incredible adventures around very corner, with a thousand shards of genius found in every second of the ordinary - but it takes a special talent to be able to notice and enjoy such things. And it takes an even greater skill to be able to share such sentiments with others - to paint a scene and realize the moment in all its raw glory. To convey why the evening with friends was filled with laughs, or why the drive to the airport was a nerve-wracking experience, or why a visit at the museum felt so genuinely enlightening.
Without that skill, you can still recount your experiences… but it ends up as a slideshow, a series of hollow moments and faded images, with the colors never quite as vibrant as they were in life. And you know, that’s fine - sharing your life with others, even the dull and boring parts of it, is a lot of what the internet is designed to do, and forming those connections is not a bad thing.
But it isn’t something I need to read a comic for.
The art in Taking the Bi-Pass has come a long way from the beginning, but has never really pushed beyond its own limits. It is serviceable, and good at presenting a cartoony feel, but breaks down when it tries to depict an infant. Still, progress is progress, and “slow but steady” is a perfectly reasonable method of improvement.
The characters in the strip manage to fit the ‘everyman’ tone of it while still remaining relatively distinct. The storylines… less so, but they tend to be good while they are in motion. Seeing these characters slowly moving forward with their lives, going through marriage, having a child… there is a good feeling to it. There is no real sense of action or urgency as the strip essentially proceeds in real-time… but again, slowly but steadily, it moves forward much as life tends to do.
The website is reasonably well laid-out. It could use a cast page… but at the same time, the strip is often just as easy to read without having to know anything about who the characters are. That’s the benefit of being drawn from life - situations are easily identifiable and characters easy to empathize with. The layout of the site does a good job of balancing out the comic itself with the regular newsposts from the creator, and having that bit of personal connection to the author is likely more useful than anything else that could be presented to the reader.
It isn’t a bad comic. I read it faithfully, probably for years, without ever having a moment where it let me down, offended me, or drove me away. It has room for improvement, sure, but it doesn’t really try to go beyond what it is - there is no pretension to it, no posturing or arrogance. It’s just a strip by an ordinary guy about an ordinary life.
There just isn’t any reason for me to keep reading it. I like the characters… but don’t feel any need to see their story unfold. Indeed, I can visualize it on my own, with ease - I doubt there are any great surprises down the road. And I don’t need to see the little details or the small jokes as they play out, or see more of the same riffs on geek culture that I’ve seen a hundred times before.
There might be those around who do, and that’s all to the good. The comic is certainly no worse than the majority still found in the newspaper - it is the same sort of peaceful and plain material that many find a comfort in having as part of their routine.
But I’ve already got plenty of other comics to take that role. A few seconds each day might not cost me much, but I’ve still got plenty of other uses to which I can put the time.
