It’s been a while. Sorry. I had a birthday, and took a trip to New York, and another trip to Alabama. And stuff.

Here goes.

I disagree with Mandy Rice-Davies’ brutal review of Wondermark, but so what? I’m firmly in the “more honest reviews, please” camp generally, when it comes to webcomics. So there you go. In her introductory post, Ms. Rice-Davies says this about the fundamental problem with webcomic criticism:

…[T]here’s a reason nobody wanted to give constructive criticism to the quiet econ major in Drawing I whose final project was a labored, grease-stained pencil sketch of a battle between anthromorphic foxes in 18th century French military attire and the Transformers: there is a point where shit just isn’t worth it.

Yup. Pretty much.

Which reminds me: I saw the Transformers movie last night. I’m not in the target demo. The Transformers happened to hit the airwaves and the toy shelves during those three or four years when my little brother was into that kind of thing, meaning that I was obliged to dismiss them as amusements for whiny little children, like, you know, my little brother, so I have no nostalgia for the franchise. I went in expecting to be entertained by big whomping robot fights all the same. Weirdly, it was the little human bits I liked, like the scene in the FBI interrogation room. The robots bored me, fights and all. What does this say about my rapidly-degenerating literary tastes, that “quirky” moments in a stupid sci-fi blockbuster strike me as well-done, just because they try to strike a human note, when the reality is that they were probably just dashed off with no effort at all? Have I become that desperate? Webcomics — what have you done to me? Argh! I think I’d better go see Evening as soon as possible.

Longtime printcomics blogger and retailer Christopher Butcher has posted a long review of Jeph Jacques’ Questionable Content. It starts out like this:

If I didn’t have a vested interest in finishing this series, I would have given up in both anger and frustration about half way through. The sexual politics of the first few hundred strips are, to put it bluntly, completely fucked up, and so aggressively wrong-headed that I actually considered stopping at strip 400 to write this post with a WHAT DO PEOPLE SEE IN THIS? HOW IS EVERYONE NOT KILLING THEMSELVES?

… but it ends more along these lines:

I did really enjoy my experience, and have made visiting the site to see the newest strips part of my daily routine as of Monday morning.

How did he get from the one to the other? I guess you’ll just have to read the review to find out.

Jeanine at the Wednesday Webcomic Weview recently looked at something called Ardra:

Intelligent without being pretentious, there’s a good natured ring to even Eileen’s pessimistic sarcasm. The harsher pokings are reserved for popular culture rather than specific individuals keeping the “family” focused as a tight knit unit without fostering animosity. Sarcasm is a subtle game, and Jason definitely has the knack. … read more

… and something else called The World’s Worst Webcomic:

There’s one glaring problem with The World’s Worst Webcomic – it isn’t. Okay, the artwork is as amateur as possible without losing all cohesive and recognizable qualities, but the writing… the writing is fucking hilarious. …read more

Mr. Myth makes a tremendous discovery over on his Damn Good Comics blog, in the form of Planet Saturday, which I’d never heard of before now (probably because of its monthly update schedule):

Planet Saturday Comics are short little vignettes about life and the living of it. Memories, growth, hopes, dreams, and the myriad little things that make up the world. Cute, and simple, and heartwarming – in many ways, this resembles Calvin and Hobbes as told from an adult’s point of view. …read more

Since my last roundup, Jack has reviewed the sprite comic Patchwork Champions:

[I]f you want a superhero Clerks minus the cursing, give it a chance and decide for yourself. … read more

… and Electric Retard:

If I were an evil satanic perverted person lusting for mindless violence, then I would have to say this is great writing. Also if I were a Jew hater, I would find this comic amusing. But I’m neither of those things, so the writing is about as entertaining to read as the back of a tampon box. …read more

And, finally, John Solomon has returned, with a review of an obscure comic called Lowroad:

[A] desperate cry for attention from Hot Topic, wailing for a t-shirt deal for God’s sake please. …read more

That’s what I’ve got this week. Did you review any webcomics, or see any reviews out there? Post links in the comments, please.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 7th, 2007 at 8:08 am and is filed under Webcomics (Non-MT). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.