The Webcomic Review

Name: Crass Sophisticate Link: http://crasssophisticate.com/ Author / Artist: Josh Reinwald and Justin Rosenberg Subject: "The Forum for all things CRASS and JUICY!!" First comic:  2007 Fave strip (s): Johnny Cash (Issue #13), Justins Diarrhea on life (issue #17), The Dwarf Jockey Fave character: Paulie the Steakhouse owner Eye Candy: moving on.... Started reading: September 2013 Last read: Today! Update dates: Monday and Thursday Last updated: 24th March 2014 Boy has it taken me a while to write this review - partially because of my normal range of lame excuses, partially because of my chronic laziness, and partially because I'm not sure why I actually like it. In a nutshell, Crass Sophisticate is a series of tales and vignettes from the lives of Josh Reinwald and Justin Rosenberg, two cousins living in Chicago. By pure co-incidence that the writers have the same names, relationship and live in the same city (of course). Purely from artistic standpoint the artwork is horrendous, perspectives are shot, textures are confusing, frames are crowded and dark due to heavy cross-hatching, character faces are grotesques and for a number of issues I couldn't tell the main characters apart (in fact for a number of issues I didn't realise there was more than one main character). Text is badly spaced and irregular (although this does improve in later issues) and the writing and dialogue reminds me of a extended conversation I had with a homeless man at a bus stop, and not in a folksy man-of-all-nations, the-whole-world-is-my-home kind of a way.... And yet this is also the reason I cant simply dismiss Crass Sophisticate - the stories are Hypnotic like a car crash, it's impossible to look away; the dialogue matches the schizophrenic and psychotic cast of characters that populate Josh and Justin's Chicago, repeating the same phrases and arguments like a drunkard at a noisy club, the art mirroring the squalid circumstances in which they find themselves, dirty, dark, rancid and splattered with various fluids of which inspection is not recommended. Crass Sophisticate is definitely crass; crass, crude, strange, disturbing, not my sort of humour, and yet I can't help being entertained. The issues themselves and the stories contained run the gamut from kinda sci-fi (Avatar in a washing machine for instance) through to kinda political-social commentary ( an issue concerning female empowerment and the Duggar family of "19 kids and counting" fame), but make no mistake, saying CS should not be used as a moral guidepost is an understatement on a level with 'Fred Phelps was not pro-gay'. The main characters are their own worst enemies, drinking and cursing their way through the bizarrest adventures of their own making and the most torturous situations a diseased mind could devise, pathetic and vitriolic, empathic and mordant in equal measure, and more often than not coming down on the wrong side of success (and wellbeing, and dignity) for their various endeavors. And it all just seems to work, seems to hang together - the ugliness of the characters, the squalor of the environment, the lunacy of the stories, the crudity of the language and the dinginess of the artwork all contribute to the... the... crumminess that is Crass Sophisticate. In the real world, people are grotesques, cityscapes are dirty, people are gibbering nonsense-spouters, and cousins drag cousins into illegal and potentially life-threatening situations purely to get laid, or make quick cash, or just to prove a point. In that respect, Crass Sophisticate is one of the realistic Webcomics in the spectrum. And like the real world, beauty and poignancy can be found in rare moments, like "Round Lake Roller Rink" from issue #5, or "The Dwarf Jockey". "Justins Diarrhea on life" from issue #17 may involve a zip-lock bag full of wee, but railing (pretentiously) against the perceived injustices of the world is something to which I and probably many others can relate. Suffice to say if you delve into Josh and Justins world be prepared to be disturbed, and charmed, but not in equal measure. I feel it is worth emphasising vehemently at this point that Crass Sophisticate is NSFW - Adult themes, mutilation, violence, drug and alcohol abuse and even cannibalism are just some of the subjects Crass Sophisticate revels in, and that is just one issue! (Porkbinge! with T.B. if you really need to know) - This is not for Cheebies or Piplings people!

So... how you guys doing? Missing my reviews? C'mon, its not even been a year since my last one! Its almost as if you expect me to review more than one webcomic a year or something! I'm close to burnout as it is! Ok so the lack of review in the last 9 months could also be attributed to the arrival of my baby daughter (or rather, wifey going back to work and my having to do my fair share of child-rearing, which seriously eats into my 'playing video games and other unproductive activities' time). So for your delication, Crass sophisticate! Crass Sophisticate was recommended to me by.... Crass Sophisticate (It was subtle but I spotted it guys). This is the way to get me to review your webcomics, people! I'd like to say I'll be following it up with another review soon, but I have no desire to be deafened by your collective internet guffawage, so I will leave it at 'so long'....

I'll be glad to take a look, hope you dont expect it too soon!

Name: Hearts of Roese Link: http://www.heartsofroese.com Writer / Artist: Whitney Brown First comic: first July 8th 2012 Started reading: 24th June 2013 Last read: Today! Update dates: Sundays and Weds/Thurs Last updated: 2nd July 2013 Retro is definitely IN these days, from the new (ish) Mini Cooper and Fiat 500 cars, Mustang etc, to the re-invention of Star Trek and the Sherlock Holmes films and TV series.  I tend to think that sucessful re-imaginings use the parts of the original we are nostalgic for without the crappy bits that our memory glosses over, like the Mini being cramped and dangerous and Sherlock Holmes being a manic depressive drug user. With Hearts of Roese the slightly creepy little-girl obsession and subtextual drug use have taken a back seat (so far anyway) from Lewis Carroll's seminal work. So we have a less psychadelic version of Alice in Wonderland, with a Queen of Hearts who has replaced the hearts of her population with timepieces to which she has the only winding key - (she does in fact hold the key to her subjects hearts). Fair enough its still creepy, but it's creepy with a steampunkish edge! The strip is just coming up to its first year anniversary and and such there are just 50 or so strips, covering the prologue, first chapter and interlude. Its a quick trip to start from the beginning of the archive, and with so many characters from the original material still to make an appearence it feels as though the story is just about to dig its heels in and get going. The art is uncluttered, sometimes just a single frame to a page, without being simplistic. Background detail varies, but is never lacking to the degree whereby characters are floating unanchored, and I like the imaginative use of framing and the soft colour palette which lends to very realistic and natural style, expecially with clothing and other fabrics. In fact the artwork and composition itself is good enough not to require the action lines and written sound effects (like "gasp") but perhaps thats just my opinion. waitaminute, its all my opinion! Fine! in that case it definitely doesn't need it! The effort put into the artwork is readily apparent and for that and partially for the creepy Cheshire Cat(s) I am looking forward to reading the story for a long time to come

I love the orginal PPG so I will definitely take a look, thanks for your suggestion, slightly-offensive-racial-slur-atpaste!

I'm still not sure how this affiliation thing is supposed to work.....

Name: Mandatory Roller Coaster Link: mandatoryrollercoaster.com/ Author / Artist: Aram J. French Subject: "A webcomic about loneliness, alienation, and pizza. Every Monday." First comic: 06 June 2011 Fave strip (s): Sloths, Get Rich Quick, Ultimate Treehouse Started reading: Dec 2012 Last read: 6th April 2013 Update dates: Monday Last updated: 1st April 2013 Mandatory Roller Coaster is a single panel, colour, NSFW, stand-alone strip webcomic which came to my attention when the Author/Artist started following me on tumblr (which, by the way, is a great way of bringing yourself or your webcomic into my zone of awareness, one reason being that like most blog owners I pour over every message and statistic possibly connected with my little portion of the webnets, and another reason is I have yet to receive any request or recommendations for webcomics to review....). However, excellent taste in webcomic reviewers and loyal army of fans aside, there is little to recommend this webcomic I'm afraid. The humour is relatively inoffensive, but also relatively bland, the characters are unengaging and simplistic, with the (very) few reoccurring characters lacking any sort of development or depth. And as for the art....  Well, for an example check out Space Jam. Note the spaghetti arms, the mis-shapen and odd-sized heads, the lack of any background whatsoever - now I know that one of my all-time favourite webcomics, xkcd, is almost entirely background-void, but xkcd has a specialised brand of humour, as well as a determinedly 'F-u' attitude to backgrounds and pretty much art in general on its side. For a relatively recent webcomic dodgy artwork is not a death sentence, artwork can and does go through a progression, and even a progression of artists! But as an example here is a strip right at the start of the archive, where are this guys hands? and from last months archive a similar issue. Amputee superheros aside, I have said many times that quality of art has no bearing on whether I think a webcomic is good or great, and it really doesn't - The strips I have selected as my favourites have pretty ropey artwork, I selected them for the writing in those cases - but there does have to be something that stands out, The writing. the humour, the storyline, the pacing, characterisation or, indeed, the art. In this case, the art shows little to no progression, the writing and humour have their brief moments in the sun, but these moments are not common enough to justify wading through 130 or so strips to find them. As I have said in this blog before, criticising people who put themselves and their creativity out on the internet is something I find myself reluctant to do, but on the other hand I won't be checking out this strip again, so I can't recommend you do either. But don't let me stop you if you feel the need, after all my recommendations are simply my options. They're not Mandatory.

Enjoy the salty goodness.

Plus, Bill Hicks, Y'know?

Another recent addition to the world of Webcomics, the archive starts Jan 3rd 2011, which makes it nice and quick for me to catch up and review the entire archive. I found the strip after seeing a project on Kickstarter to print a dead tree edition of the comic. The strip is autobiographical, apart, I assume, from Jake finding a Medusa in his toilet. And this is the proper, Clash of the Titans / Ray Harryhausen medusa with the snake bottom half (although without the petrifying gaze and the bow and arrows). The strip occasionally takes a turn for the gory, but usually doesn't last too long. It does not take long to finish the archive, and, tie-in with certain American snacks aside, there isn't really much more to recommend it. I know, I know, I hardly ever make negative comments about webcomics, mainly for the reason that however bad the comics are, the artist has at least gotten off his ass and done something creative, unlike the majority of internet users. Putting yourself and your art out there, whether its music, writing, video or comics, for other people to criticise (ahem) is a brave thing to do. The other reason I don't like giving negative comments is I'm just a really, really nice guy (really!). But as nice as the art is (and it is nice, simple and bold with easily recognisable cast and locations), and as cute as the characters are (and they are, as cute as a button on which a bunny rabbit has painted Hello Kitty), the story didn't grip me and the humour left me.... puzzled. Perhaps its the small cast, or the pacing of the story, but something didn't gel here. Perhaps it is because of the lurching tone of the comic, from light and humorous, to unexpected  gore, to moral pontificating and then back just as quickly. Or perhaps its being repeatedly told in the strip that the medusa is cute - we shouldn't need to be told, we can see it for ourselves! Perhaps the strip will improve as time goes by and the story will pick up, or perhaps the arc will play out and turn about to be better than I have painted it, but I'm not going to hold my breath to find out,  I will not, and probably never will, tell you to avoid a webcomic, so go ahead and check it out, wifey likes the cuteness and the story, so your mileage may differ, but its not a comic I'll be putting on my daily reading list.

Plus he likes Minecraft, so y'know, extra points.

Anyhoo, here is a review, more reviews will be along at some point in the future:

So stay true Jeff ( that's your name from now on by the way, reader ) and be assured I will be spilling bile and praise in measured doses into your eyes for  a long time to come.

As an Addendum, Javis loves Game of Thrones, which endeared him to me, and True Blood, which endeared him to wifey, so this is a recommendation from the whole household! (apart from the Leopard Gecko, but then she only likes 8-bit webcomics. Loser.)

Read now and Bookmark!

Name: Gunnerkrigg Court Link: http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/ Author: Tom Siddell Subject: Everday life (in a wierd techno-magic school where strange things happen) First comic: April 4, 2005 Fave strip (s): 'deely boppers' / GTA fave character: Renyard, of course. Resident Nutter: no-one or everyone, I have not really decided. Eye Candy: Miss Jones Started reading: Last read: Today! Update dates: Monday, Wednesday, Friday Last updated: 04 May 2011 Gunnerkrigg Court is a rarefied type of Webcomic, one that blends the magical and the mundane in a story that continues to grip, even if you might have lost the plot a few pages back. The tale follows Antimony, a new pupil at the strange and inexplicable Gunnerkrigg Court. Cue ghosts, robots with tree branches for arms, possessed cuddly toys, more robots, shadows, a minotaur and a boy with entropic reversal skills (oh yes). The art has progressed significantly since the beginning of the story, from awkwardly angular to smooth and detailed, but the writing has maintained its high quality right from the start. The conflict between the technological Court and the mystical forest is underplayed just enough to give the reader the impression that something big is going on just behind the scenes, but not enough to anticipate the storyline. The central characters, logical and mechanical Kat and spiritual Antimony, have a natural juxtaposition (ooh look at me, big words) between the 'normal' world and the mystical forest. The evolution of the characters and the storyline feels very natural, and the more the characters discover about the court, the more questions arise, and the greater the feeling that some questions will never be properly answered, which doesn't seem as large a problem as in some other strips. Wifey also likes Gunnerkrigg, and is usually the first of the two of us to read a new strip. Considering how few strips we both read, this should be taken as a GOOD SIGN.

A strip that does not rest on its scientific laurels as much as blend them in a centrifuge, add a polymisation compound and create its own improved memory foam mattress to lie on, xkcds artwork mainly involves stick figures with no expression, little or no background, and sometimes involves (gasp!) Graphs! Whilst some people may decry this as the very worst kind of laziness and a sure sign that the comic sucks harder than a black hole, I value the writing, creativity and humour above the artwork (after all, any fool can draw, right? right? guys? hello?). Plenty of Webcomics have artists who have nothing to do with the creative side, some have paid artists and lots have very very good artwork, but xkcd stands alone in its ability to laugh at some of the oddities of science and the scientific community - and considering the unique style of humour, simplistic art is a small price to pay. The vast majority of strips are stand alone, with characters (purely defined by different hats, I'm not sure they even have names) re-occurring even after death, space exploration and being transported into parallel dimensions. XKCD has a romantic streak, which shows through in such strips as (my usual approach is useless) and (stealing the worlds momentum), and offers a reprieve from the scientific humour (or in my case a break from looking up the meaning of the strips in Wikipedia or xkcds own forums). I would certainly recommend this a semi-weekly read, and a trip through the archives, although what I would class as the 'proper' xkcd strips don't start until around strip 54. XKCD seems to polarise opinion between arrogant scientific eliteism and the most hilarious science-based Webcomic ever to grace the space that is Cyber. My opinion is firmly in the latter category, and if that makes me an arrogant Elitest then so be it pedestrian scum! PS I still love you.