#good comic

1. Dobson acknowledges that he knows people consider his stuff too negative, but instead of creating something more positive or fun, he essentially just makes a stupid troll joke and then it is back to business as usual.

2. Like many of his SYAC strips featuring that blue UncareBear, it is less a comic than an opinion piece. Though at least this time it is one with a punchline. Sorry, but if I have one major criticism of SYAC in general to get out here already, it is that in more than 85% of them he simply just uses his self insert to address the readers directly like some really unpopular teacher, instead of actually telling a “story” through the panels.

3. Never reference a better piece of fiction in your own work, if you are not doing anything with it.

4. The spoiler “punchline” is just stupid. As brought up in my first point, he does not use his talent to create anything interesting and entertaining, he just holds a carrot up making you believe  he is going to talk about something interesting for once and then he whacks you over the head. Which honestly I get was not meant really out of a nasty impulse, but still is a dull punchline and only raises the question “okay, why did you even make the comic? Is that Underground thing interesting? Is there genuine quality to it, or was Dobson just trolling us?”

Well to that last thing I can say, for once he actually seems to show some good taste, cause Underground is actually pretty good.

I decided to look it up online (if you are interested in reading it, try to google for something called readcomiconline) and it is a pretty good story. Published by Image Comics in five issues between 2009 and 2010, Underground was written by Parker and drawn by Lieber.

The story is as followed: Stillwater Cave, an underground cave system near the town of Marion, has been closed to the public for decades. In order to bring business to the town, a lot of people want to convince governmental officials to open it up for public use as a tourist attraction. People that include Winston Barefoot, a man of native American descendancy who is also one of the richest man in town.

However, one local Park Ranger, Wesley Fischer, who is also a cave climbing enthusiast, is not very happy about the idea, believing that tourism may destroy the fragile cave eco system. When she and a colleague named Seth, whom with she also has an affair, stumble upon some local guys using dynamite to “restructure” the cave so that it may later on look easier to access in the eyes of a government official, things escalate quickly. She and Seth are forced to escape deeper into the cave system, the guys in hot pursuit. Tensions rise as both Rangers have to pass through claustrophobically tight places and unknown passages, while those pursuing them are growing increasingly frustrated and willing to take them out before they can reach the surface. That is, if the cave system even has an exit point.

Honestly, knowing Dobson I did not expect the comic to be as mature as it turned out to be. Not that it really touches on any deep social issues, but it works well as a thriller in five parts. Unlike certain other stories with caves that have become popular over the years, like the horror film “the Descent”, this story has no supernatural elements to it. Any tension in the story is genuinely conveyed by claustrophobic atmosphere of the cave. The story has a pretty long sequence of Wes and Seth escaping through a water tunnel with only inches between the water’s and the cave’s surface, so seeing them trying to keep on as much air as possible by tilting their heads up and with their noses almost touching the stone creates some intense scenes. It also helps that the artist knows how to use bare minimum of colors for the dark caves, working almost exclusively in black, white and some very dark blue. Which creates a great contrast to any scene set outside the caves, where people try to find a way to rescue the rangers while also figuring out what the hell happened.

Wesley and Seth are pretty damn good characters, with both sharing some nice banter even in light of the dire situation they are in. Wesley in particular is pretty much the stories true main character, though I would not say to a degree that she is stealing the spotlight. She is just written extremely well and seeing how she is a free time cave climber that even travelled through a major part of the cave before (a fact established well in the story), her abilities don’t feel out of nowhere. Even the bad guys in the story are well enough written, making most of them essentially locals who just found themselves in a situation way too big for them to handle, from which unfortunately quite a bit of tragedy and tension will come from.

I am not going to spoil how the story plays out, I do however, unlike Dobson, genuinely recommend you to read it, if you are bored of mainstream comic stories and want to read something more mature. And to sweeten the deal, here a few pages of the comic so that you know I am not talking out of my ass.