Dresden Codak Updates, Crowds Look on in Amazement

Whoa. This just in, guys: Dresden Codak updated. And it's huge, even by DC standards. It'll take some processing and I don't want to drop any hasty assessments, but I think this might be the best thing DC's come out with since Hob started. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Discoveries from the Internet: Sheldon Audio Tour, and More Dresden Codak

Did you know that Sheldon has an audio tour? You may already know--I discovered it just yesterday while browsing the net. If you click the above link (also accessible from Sheldon's "NEW HERE?" page), it will give you a guided audio tour of the Sheldon site. It makes a great introduction if you've never read Sheldon before, and even if you're already familiar with the comic, Dave Kellett gives a really funny audio tour. If you've got ten minutes to spare, I recommend it.

Does anyone else know of a webcomic with an audio tour? This thing is the first of its kind I've seen.

Anyway, another quick item of news is that Dresden Codak has finished the second half of the Advanced Dungeons and Discourse comic. The art continues to be spectacular (no surprise there), and one thing I particularly liked about the second half is that Kimiko doesn't take center stage. In the first D&Dis, she severely upstaged her companions, the beginning of a Mary-Sue complex that lasted largely throughout the Hob storyline. In the newest comic, however, everyone gets a chance to shine, and I think it works really well.

Bengo, over at The Floating Lightbulb, is particularly critical of webcomics that substitute pop culture references for genuine humor, and I've wondered more than once whether Dresden Codak's "Dungeons and Discourse" comics don't fall victim to this tendency, merely substituting esoteric philosophical references for pop culture. Sure, it's amusing the first time to see philosophies recontextualized as a tabletop RPG, but there's only so much riffing you can do on that theme before it ceases to be creative. However, I do think the latest D&Dis comic succeeds as a comic. All the references serve as an extended build-up for the final joke, which enhances its humor, and the joke is character-based. It's genuinely funny, and it's good art.

What's next for Dresden Codak? Only time will tell. I've got my fingers crossed for innovation.

Hey there once again, everybody. It's 12:30 as I begin this entry: it's time for lunch, and it's time for webcomics.

At Starslip Crisis this week, Cutter and Holiday have been watching their favorite show: the 21st-century crime-drama, Concrete Universe. Frankly, I didn't get a lot of laughs out of it. "Concrete Universe" tends to be a one-note joke, as the show's writers' tenuous grasp of 20th-century history results in anachronistic technology and slang. I mean, sure, there's another level there where it parodies the inaccuracy of our own "historical" films and TV, but it's just the same dang joke over and over again. Nonetheless, I chuckled at the punchline to this strip. It would seem that, whatever else may change, ham-handedly "clever" television dialogue is a timeless phenomenon.

Also this week, the judges over at the WebComic Readers' Choice Awards have selected their winners! You can check out the website yourself and see how your favorite comics placed, and maybe get introduced to a new comic. Particularly interesting is that to celebrate Angie Kurokami's first-place victory for "Best Supporting Character," Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin produced an Awards-Ceremony acceptance speech comic in which Angie thanks the readers for their support. It's pretty neat, and it captures all the traits that make Angie such a strong supporting character.

Also over at Multiplex, in a reference to recent news of Don Cheadle replacing Terrence Howard in Iron Man 2, apparently Franklin has been recast as well. But wait, now there are two Franklins? It must be a time warp! The whole thing makes a nice balance to the heavier Religulous storyline of two weeks ago, and plus it's really amusing.

Also, Dresden Codak's Hob Saga reached its final installment today. I'm still a little unclear on what actually happened toward the tail end of the storyline, and the final comic has done little to clear up the muddled plotting that preceded it. Still, it at least sorta brings things full-circle thematically, and ends on a light-hearted tone reminiscent of the Hob story's beginning. I do think DC is at its best when Aaron Diaz is doing unpretentious intellectual weirdness, and of course I'm interested in seeing what's ahead for DC now. Hopefully it'll be either a return to form or a more successful experiment. We'll see.

And finally, let's close out with miscellaneous humor from Thinkin' Lincoln, F Chords, and The Book of Biff. And:

Real Life Corner
about Real Life the webcomic, not about life outside of the internet

In Real Life's current extended storyline, a visit to supergenius Tony Flansaas intended to fix the plot hole in X-Tony and X-Greg's home dimension has met with unexpected complications: namely, the appearance of Tony's arch-nemesis, the Government Agent, accompanied by a clone of Tony. Last week, the clone engaged Tony's base's self-destruct sequence, and this week, everyone hurries to escape. Well, almost everyone. I'm not going to give it away, but rather than a cliffhanger, today's strip ends with a big twist. Does this mean what I think it means? Is Clone Tony not the only casualty from this catastrophe? Next week, we'll find out.

read this week's RL installment
start reading the entire story arc from the beginning

Aaaaaaand we're done. Check back on Monday--maybe I'll say a little something about Rice Boy, or maybe review another chapter of Jump Leads! Until we meet again, have a good weekend, everybody.

Got a lot to talk about for this week! Let's get down to business.

First off, today's the last day of the Sheldon Caption Contest--check out this earlier post for the details and links. Also over at Sheldon, the recent economic downturn has hit Sheldonsoft, so Sheldon's gone to the only place on earth that could conceivably grant him a loan to keep his company afloat: the country of Dubai. All of the strips in the Dubai arc so far have been decently funny, but this one I found especially good. And it wasn't the punchline either! It was the fact that Arthur's approach to gaining wisdom is precisely what someone with a lot of facts but not much wisdom would do. Clever comic there, Mr. Kellett. (Because Dave Kellett is totally reading this blog right now, no really.)

In addition to the Sheldon Caption Contest, I have some other old news that I should have mentioned earlier. A couple weeks back, Thinkin' Lincoln had a guest week, featuring the likes of Eli Parker from Tall Comics, David Malki! of Wondermark, Reprographics' Chris Yates, Justin Pierce from Wonderella, and even the illustrious Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics fame. In case you haven't checked Thinkin' Lincoln in awhile, the guest comickery starts here.

Monday's Thinkin' Lincoln was also noteworthy for cracking me up. It features Amelia Earhart misunderstanding Lincoln's use of a common idiomatic expression. I won't spoil it for you--go check it out.

Nobody Scores finished up another tale of protracted suffering this week: "Nobody Scores with the Chip Invasion." One of the longest Nobody Scores comics to date--and the longest since its Summer Formatting Reboot, clocking in at eight separate installments--The Chip Invasion features an obnoxiously sociable friend of Sara's who turns out to work for the NSA. As the arc spirals toward its inexorable horrific end, we have spy robots, Chad's crush on Jane, insidious marketing schemes, and repeated incidents of police brutality (all of them perpetrated upon Beans). Also, out of nowhere, fungus. The carnage begins here.

Nobody Scores will also be starting another epically huge comic series on Saturday, so we can look forward to even more tales of misfortune and comic violence in the very near future. Hooray!

Another of our favorite long-form infinite-canvas comics nears the end of an extended storyline: none other than Dresden Codak. And I've got to say, Aaron Diaz has kind of made me eat my words. In the most recent installment, we discover that mankind did not evolve to a new level of machine consciousness and merge with the Hob after all; as always, it's difficult to piece together, but the dream sequence that began in Hob #20 apparently didn't end there. Kim's been in the hospital the whole time, left with one arm from her scrape with the time travelers, who seem to have been driven off. As always the art is good, so even if stuff is confusing, it's worth tuning in for that.

Boxer Hockey also updated this week, which has been a rare occurrence lately. And that's unfortunate, because when it does update, the action is quite well-rendered and pretty dang funny. Check out this week's installment to see what's going on with lost-at-sea Not-Gay Chuck, and how the team is faring without him.

So there's been a whole lot of funny this week, but for those wanting something a little deeper, turn your attention to Multiplex. With the release of Bill Maher's Religulous, this week's Multiplex arc picks up where Angie and Jason's dispute about Expelled left off several months ago. Angie finds Maher's go-for-the-throat brand of abrasive comedy insulting, so she walks out of Religulous. She and Jason get to discussing God and science again, and once again they hit a dead end. To be completely honest, I'm feeling kind of tired as I near the end of this entry, but it's customary for me to take note when religion shows up in webcomics, so: there it is. Religion at Multiplex.

And let's wrap it up with some Chainsawsuit. Thursday's comic had a big surprise in the second panel that cracked me up. It was Kris Straub's random standalone humor at its finest. And Chainsawsuit has been generally good lately, so if you're looking for some absurdity and a few good chuckles, take a browse through the recent archives.

So, that's what I liked this week. As always, the comments section is your own open invitation to tell us what you liked this week. Drop us a note and share the funny.

P.S. Real Life continues to be awesome. 'nuff said.

Pseudo-Special Feature: Comics for a Change

Lately I've been running across comics online that, for lack of a better way to put it, aren't just comics. These are comics in the service of something else, some message or information to communicate, or in support of a story told in some other media. Comics are showing up in places you might not expect comics to be, about things you might not expect comics to be about. So, today's post begins with Comics for a Change.

First of all, in his newsblog over at Calamities of Nature, Tony Piro pointed us over to a comic explaining Google's new browser, "Google Chrome"--drawn by Scott McCloud himself. It's cool to see comics used to convey information, something a bit more "practical" than your usual gag strip. The comic can get a bit dull and technical in parts, but still, that's to be expected when its main purpose is to educate rather than entertain. Basically, if you want to learn about the ideas behind Google Chrome, reading a comic about it is not a bad way to go about it.

Next up, socially-conscious alternative hip-hop group The Flobots have got their own comic: "Rise of the Flobots." But the comic isn't about the Flobots. It's about people like you. It's about people who are bettering their communities and improving the world around them. So far there's one story about an ordinary suburban guy fighting for freedom of expression through roadside signs, and another in progress about a soldier stationed in Iraq. It's pretty cool. Start reading here.

Finally, Joss Whedon's low-budget superhero-deconstruction internet musical, Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog, has its own short comic. Brought to you by Dark Horse Comics, it takes the form of a public service announcement from the super-self-absorbed Captain Hammer, urging you to do your part in the fight against crime and be like Captain Hammer. The humor is cynical yet playful, just as you'd expect from a Dr. Horrible comic. Check it out here--it's in the back-issues bar just below the comic viewer, so you may have to look for it a little.

It's cool to see the medium of comics put to unique use: information, social change, and indie superhero parody. If you've come across a comic using the medium in a new way for creative purposes, drop a comment and share it with us! But now, it's time for your usual webcomics rundown.

The Princess Planet, part of the Transmission-X webcomics collective, brought us this gem this past Sunday. A recurring setup is that Princess Christi, its protagonist, poses as a "treasure inspector" to confiscate "defective" treasure. The most recent comic piles one twist on top of another and escalates the treasure-confiscating scam to new heights of ridiculousness. If you haven't checked out The Princess Planet, I highly recommend it: it's colorful, imaginative, adventurous, and above all else extremely silly.

Real Life started up a new storyline this week that I'm pretty excited about. To be honest, when Real Life actually concerns itself with Greg's real life, I don't find it terribly interesting. I started reading because of the metacomic gags and the sci-fi humor; the mundane down-to-earth stuff, I can get that in my everyday life! So in Monday's comic, when an ordinary scene of Greg and Liz watching TV is interrupted by a wormhole spitting out female-Greg and female-Tony from an alternate universe where everyone's gender is reversed, my heart leaped for joy. Except that "my heart leaped for joy" sounds kind of fruity. Still, it looks like things are going somewhere cool, so I'm definitely pumped.

Joe Dunn is probably best known for his movie-review strip, but this week saw a funny installment of Matriculated, Joe's younger stepcomic about college life. In between extended storylines, Matriculated often does a couple of one-off gags, with this past Wednesday's being about the popped-collar fad. Sure, it's familiar territory, but Phil Chan's writing for the comic is clever and injects a little freshness into the topic. It was good for a chuckle.

Our last item for this week: over at Dresden Codak, the Hob storyline has concluded, with humanity evolving ambiguously into...I'm not even sure what they evolved into. Everybody disintegrated, including the Hob. I'm hoping that wherever Aaron Diaz decides to go from here, it's someplace less convoluted.

And that wraps that up. Check ya next week, webcomic enthusiasts.

Review: Dresden Codak

So: it's Dresden Codak review time, as promised.

You probably already know about Dresden Codak. It's the subject of much buzz in the webcomic world, some of it positive hype, some of it scathing criticism. Nonetheless, for those few of you who haven't come across it before, Dresden Codak is essentially a weird free-wheeling exploration of philosophical esoterica. With huge, experimental, lavishly-illustrated comic canvasses, DC creator Aaron Diaz takes concepts from science and philosophy, and takes them on bizarre creative journeys like something out of your strangest dreams. It's very much a comic for nerds.

Dresden Codak has gone through several stages in its creative development. Early comics have an experimental style and no consistent cast, although there are a few recurring characters (such as the geriatric superhero Oldman-Man and Victorian intellectuals Rupert and Hubert). However, by comic #22 or so, a cast has begun to emerge: science geek Kimiko Ross, her "possibly nuclear-powered" (?) friends Dmitri and Alina Tokamak, and Tiny Carl Jung, who is exactly what his name suggests: a foot-tall version of one of modern psychology's founding fathers. The comic follows this cast fairly consistently (with a few diversions) on freewheeling, self-contained adventures that descend into weirdness and folly. Then, with the 32nd comic, DC changes format again: as of February '07, it's been following an ongoing storyline titled "Hob" about a robot from the future and transhumanism and stuff. The art settles into a consistent look (which is a wise stylistic choice when you're entering the realms of continuity), the tone gets a bit more serious, and there is, on the whole, more comic-book-style action. At present, the storyline has not yet concluded.

So, what's to like about DC? The most obvious thing is the artwork: Diaz clearly has chops. I could talk at length about how great his artwork is, but a picture is worth a thousand words, so go check out his gallery. The man has outrageously creative concepts and the skill to illustrate them beautifully. My only real complaint about the artwork is that he tends to use bold colors, which can look overly cartoonish. Also, while the gratuitous chest shots of its protagonist may draw in more readers, they really don't add much to the work. But those are minor complaints. His backdrops are particularly imaginative: towering edifices and floating things and funky Mayan-esque robot tanks.

DC's writing, on the other hand, is a mixed bag. I'll be honest: while I've enjoyed the Hob storyline, I really do think pre-Hob DC is some much stronger work. It's fueled by a solid premise--the exploration of an esoteric concept through cartooning--which gives Diaz an opportunity to play with science and mythology and get creative in his illustrations, and the length of each comic gives him ample opportunity to take each comic to some crazy conclusions. For example, Rupert and Hubert begin with a preposterous armchair-science discussion of how to exceed the speed of light, and end up, through a series of surreal turns, end up elaborating on Victorian table manners. Another of my favorites, "Dungeons and Discourse", cleverly combines philosophy and tabletop role-playing. The illustration is top-notch, particularly in the subtlety of the shading and texturing, and the application of philosophical concepts to a fantasy RPG gives ample opportunity for wit. For example, a horde of skeletal dire postmodernists who are immune to causality and attack with arrows of deconstruction.

In addition, the older DC comics are bound together by a more subtle theme: a motif of folly. Kimiko pursues a goal yet consistently finds her efforts not so much thwarted as made trivial. She finds employment in her subconscious, only to discover that working in your dreams violates federal labor laws. She faces down shadow-creatures to acquire a vial of absolute truth, which she drinks, only to find out it's supposed to be applied topically. Her ideas get stolen by a bear. Her failures, which often stem from her overly analytical nature, make her more accessible and human. But, like I said, this is subtle. It's in the background of the comic-fun-with-esoteric-ideas premise.

This approach, I think, better suits Diaz's strengths as a cartoonist, particularly as a writer. However, in the Hob storyline, he's...well, decided to tackle actually having a storyline. The results, in my opinion, have been rather uneven. There are some promising moments, such as an intriguing show-rather-than-tell beginning, and some funny lines, mostly coming from the time travelers' clueless grasp of past culture. Additionally, this action sequence captured what I liked best about old DC: getting creative with science through sharp illustration. The notion of science superheroics is both awesome and funny! However, the story has also been rife with misfires: several episodes of Wall-o'-Text Exposition Theater and a confusing narrative jump, for starters. Additionally, some comics feel like contrived, heavy-handed attempts at character development that exist solely to manipulate the reader into sympathy for Kimiko. "I come in peas?" Come on, Diaz. That kind of "endearing" malapropism is generally reserved for The Family Circus. Fact is that Kimiko, in her nerdiness, is not a very charismatic spokesperson for transhumanism, and when she actually succeeds at things, she runs the risk of becoming a Mary-Sue. This is a risk which Diaz has not entirely been able to mitigate.

But for all its flaws, Dresden Codak is a pretty good comic. However, no discussion of it would be complete without addressing the panel layout and update schedule. Some people complain that DC's panel layout is unorthodox to the point of incomprehensibility, but I've rarely had trouble following it. Maybe it’s just me. Additionally, DC updates quite irregularly, sometimes taking upwards of two months between new comics. It’s up to you if it’s worth the wait to stay tuned in. As for me, I’ll happily pass the time between updates with Dr. McNinja and Nobody Scores.

TRAGIC NEWS: Aaron Diaz, creator of Dresden Codak, has apparently had a bicycle accident in French. The ensuing carnage left his hands mangled, such that he cannot create comics until they are healed! This is not exactly new news, but I am only just now finding it out.

So, this is a good opportunity for me to do a full-fledged in-depth look at Dresden Codak. In addition to the usual Friday update, you can look forward to a Big Spotlight-on-DC Update sometime this week. I will have it up by this coming Sunday, and that's a Jackson Ferrell promise to you! Jackson Ferrell promises are exactly like other promises.