Webcomic Review #1

SON OF SAM

"Walter Cohen hates his school, but in the words of the great Dee Snider: He's not gonna take it anymore!"

Son of Sam, by Zach Cox, is a light comedy comic about two outcast prep-school students where the timid male protagonist, Walt, is led into mischief by the heedless female lead, Avery, at the cost of what little reputation he has. The story is pretty straightforward, but the artwork is refreshingly simple and there's a punchline on every page. The aesthetic itself has progressed recently, and there's a distinct lack of dick jokes that heralded the introductory chapter, but I have high hopes for this one.

SHADOWEYES

"In the city of Dranac in the year 200X, aspiring vigilante Scout Montana is knocked unconscious by a brick in her first crime-fighting attempt. Upon recovering, she gains the ability to transform into a superhuman blue creature, which she quickly takes advantage of and becomes the antihero Shadoweyes."

I had first discovered the work of Ross Campbell through his printed short, The Abandoned, thanks to my good friend Boper9. The Abandoned was a tragic story about the survivors of a zombie apocalypse that took place in the South. The only thing more intriguing than his intricately detailed worlds were the charmingly designed characters. The tradition continues in Shadoweyes, where the only tragedy is the dystopian world that the characters live in.

I vaguely remember coming across this comic some time ago, but I probably glossed it over thinking that it was nothing too special. Boy was I wrong. I highly recommend this comic to everyone, and I myself will be paying close attention to this and anything else that Ross creates in the future.

BEARMAGEDDON

"Bearmageddon is a story about a few every-day twenty-somethings getting caught up in an all-out war on mankind by grizzly bears"

You probably know Ethan Nicolle better by his wildly popular comic, Axe Cop, a project illustrated by himself but written by his much younger brother. Bearmageddon is one of his other projects, and it's just as outlandish and zany as the other. Unfortunately, it has been put on hold while he helps develop the official Axe Cop animated television show (I'm serious). The archive is thankfully still online, and I urge you all to indulge yourselves in his terrific art that's married to a disturbingly funny scenario. I warn you, however, that it gets fairly gory on a few pages. As they say, you can't make a webcomic without a few college kids getting mauled by mutant bears. (I'm still serious).

JESUS CHRIST: In The Name Of The Gun

"Jesus Christ has grown fed up of watching humanity struggle without the aid of their Divine Father, so he resolves to do something about it... and so begins a mad journey through time with various historical figures, beating up villains of the past and generally kicking ass" 

Here's yet another comic that Ethan had his hands in, Jesus Christ: In The Name Of The Gun. This one is written by Eric Peterson, and the first chapter was illustrated by the aforementioned. Jesus Christ ITNOTG is an ongoing comic, but Ethan's contribution ends after Jesus assassinates...I'm not going to spoil it. Go read it! I apologize in advance to anyone who is sensitive towards religious blasphemy. It's damned funny, though.

Webcomic Funding: Ads vs. Crowds

When most people start out in webcomics, they're quietly thinking about the piles of cash they're going to make off of their cheap cartoons through ad revenue and merchandise sales. Little do they know that most webcomics are a money-hole; with the author either making just enough money to pay for the comic itself, or not making any at all. But if the cost is cheap, then there's really no loss anyway. Only the cream of the crop can dare to say that they "live" off of their comics, and not only do these creators employ quality art and/or writing, they make sure to update more than once a week without breaking their schedule. Most small-time guys have to take on commissions or beg for money like tramps, which could mean that they put new pages of their comic on hold, which means loss of fans, which means loss of money anyway. Regardless, the lifeblood of the webcomics world has always been and will continue to be advertising.

But something has happened on the Internet in the last few years. A development that could shatter what has been built up so delicately in the last few decades: crowd-funding. In 2008, both the popular Kickstarter and IndieGoGo were launched, and the first and so far only project I ever backed was the Boxer Hockey and Diesel Print Project. I, like many fans, was excited to support such a project, and the 6-thousand dollar goal was exceeded by over 20-thousand dollars in less than a week. I had never seen that much money raised in so little time, and for such a less-than-noble cause. Of course, problems arose with the printing of both the books and the t-shirts, and not only were the surplus funds exhausted, shipments would be late. I received my package last week, and I pledged my support last September. Tyson Hesse, the author, ended up breaking even after the ordeal and taking up freelance work instead, which cost him the time to ship the packages and to update the comic. This event, and witnessing countless other, more insipid causes reaching out for funding, made me callous towards crowd-funding in general, and I pledged instead to never support a Kickstarter project ever again, no matter what the cause.

And then Penny Arcade proposed the idea of abandoning their ads in favor of crowd-funding. As Mike describes here, PA has launched their own Kickstarter to run their site for one year without advertising, which was apparently a burden on their fans. I wouldn't know, I've been running psychological-warfare-free for a while now. What strikes me as odd is that Penny Arcade would even need a Kickstarter for such a goal. They are the only webcomic-business that I am aware of, complete with their own convention, children's charity, tie-in video games, and over a dozen employees that make it all happen. And yet, over 250,000 dollars were raised over the last week, so now the site will run exclusively on fan support instead of the advertising middle-man. Unless, of course, the whole project fails like it did with Boxer Hockey and they come crawling back to the safe-zone of ads. Mike and Jerry are no strangers to financial trouble, as early in the comic's history they had to fight for the rights to their own work and ended up begging for donations to keep the site running. However, considering their string of success in recent years that no other webcomic can compare to, I like to think that this experiment will work out in the end. I just wouldn't be surprised if it explodes in their face like it has for others.

Jamie Noguchi from Yellow Peril has his own criticisms here. Not only would I agree with him that only webcomics that are already a big deal could possibly benefit from crowd-funding, the cause itself and the prizes offered to backers should be serious. Regardless, many of my friends are excited about crowd-funding and think it's preferable to fund creative works online through the support of fans than through the support of extrinsic marketing. I on the other hand will continue to ignore all these witty and charming Kickstarter projects while I browse my favorite sites with Ad-Block turned on. Newgrounds seems to be the only site that hates me for that.

And Now For Some Webcomic News...

ALEXDS1 IS BACK!!!


Back in January earlier this year, it was announced that Alexds1, the author of The Meek, one of the premier webcomics of the last few years, would be putting said comic on hiatus. Many fans including myself were heartbroken, perhaps more-so than when Gone With The Blastwave or Perry Bible Fellowship stopped updating (kind of). She claimed in her post that not only had she found paying work, she had succumbed to undisclosed medical issues. As time went on, some wondered if she would ever return to the Meek at all.

I had first discovered Alex on DeviantArt, through her figure-drawing tutorials and Avatar: The Last Airbender fanart. I read her then-new comic, the Meek, from the beginning, and also discovered new and compelling webcomics thanks to her "pimping" them out in her description boxes for each new update. It's always sad to see a truly great comic come to an end, but there's a unique tragedy to when a project like hers stops in the middle of its enthralling story, and for reasons such as personal health.

Thankfully, it turns out that she had not abandoned her craft, but instead directed her energy towards a secret project: a collaboration with the great Doug TenNapel of Earthworm Jim and Ratfist fame. Apparently, this project, Cardboard, started as far back as Fall 2010, and that between now and January of this year was crunch time. Her efforts resulted in a bout with tendinitis and, of course, a break from the Meek. But she claims that the story of Cardboard is superior to that of Ratfist's and that the artwork matches. You can buy the printed version here at a super-low price. Hopefully, we can now return to regular updates of the Meek with little to no interruption from such trivial concerns such as physical pain or actually making a profit from hard work, but I support her in any endeavor she chooses and trusts that she wouldn't abandon her fans without good reason.

Oh, and please read ALL of the comics I linked in this post. You can thank me later.

Heavy Metal: The Satanic Illuminati

 

April and Wayne have obviously never heard of Stryper.

Hello!

And welcome to my blogspot. I am Kurt Smith, a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art & Design and amateur 2D animator. It's been five years since I shut down my MySpace account and ceased to blog as I knew it, but I've returned to the fold to express the opinions I have on my favorite topics.

I don't have much to say right now, considering that I just launched this thing, so here's something animation and heavy metal-related to christen the maiden voyage of this blog. This is the latest animated music video from Municipal Waste, "You're Cut Off."

(WARNING: NSFW)

Have fun! I know I will.