Review: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: the Movie

Scott Pilgrim is making some noise.

At a Glance:

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Cast: Michael Cera, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ellen Wong, Kieran Culkin
Director: Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead)
112 mins
PG-13
TWIW rates: 4/5

Bryan Lee O'Malley's graphic novel recently released its sixth and final volume, concluding the story of young-adult slacker Scott Pilgrim's battle for the heart of Ramona Flowers against her seven evil ex-boyfriends. Scott McCloud calls it "the funniest comic book on the planet right now." There's a Scott Pilgrim video game for PS3 and XBox, and "Scott Pilgrim vs. the Animation" on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. And this past weekend, the Scott Pilgrim movie hit the box office.

23-year-old Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a loser. He's unemployed, plays bass in a noisy rock band, lives in a tiny apartment with his "cool gay roommate" Wallace (Kieran Culkin), and has recently started dating a high schooler. But all that changes when he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), the literal girl of his dreams: as a courier for Amazon, she keeps showing up in his subconscious because of a convenient subspace portal running through his head. But in order to date Ramona, he must first defeat her seven evil exes. Not only does he have to deal with the same messy relationship history that we all must in meeting someone new, but he actually has to fight out that history in a string of escalating boss battles.

Like the comics, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World captures the ethos of our generation. Scott and Ramona Flowers navigate a sea of "It's Complicated" histories, grappling with the interpersonal relations of young adults who never emotionally graduated from high school. Characters speak in a vernacular of humor based on repetition, repetition, and jokes about how lame jokes are. Scott's battles with the evil exes are peppered with tongue-in-cheek, cheesy pun-liners like "You were a little bi-curious? Honey, I'm a little bi-furious!"

The movie is also steeped in video-game culture, up to the 16-bit pixelated Universal logo with accompanying bleep-and-bloop soundtrack. Contemporary movies often take their action-scene cues heavily from video games (e.g. Clash of the Titans), but SP uses video gaming as a framing device for its love story: battles are laden with pop-up score counters and special power-up modes, and defeated enemies burst into showers of coins. When mistaken for a band member and asked "What do you play?" one character responds, "Legend of Zelda, Tetris..." and a running gag has Scott explaining the history of Pac-Man as a pick-up line. With its audio-visual mash of digitized SFX, comic-book popups, and rock music, it's visceral and entertaining. And director Edgar Wright knows how to use a framing device to tell a comic story: what he did with zombie flicks and buddy-cop movies in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, he does again with video games in Scott Pilgrim.

So there's style. But does it bring the substance? To a degree. It keeps the plot, premise and characters simple, but Cera transcends his usual role of awkward slacker; he projects a Scott who, when given a second chance, steps up to admit his past screw-ups and set things right. As in the comics, Scott is an idiot who learns from his mistakes: a hero with a hair more nuance to him than one would expect. Winstead as Flowers brings a fitting measure of reserve to the table for a character with seven evil exes. The exes themselves rock their performances with outrageous energy; Indian guy Matthew Patel breaks out into bollywood dance-fighting, actor/skateboarder Lucas Lee delivers tough-guy panache, Vegan hipster Todd Ingram exudes arrogance, and sinister music mogul Gideon Graves plays his evil-concealing nice-guy facade to the hilt.

The movie stays as faithful to the comic books as a movie can. It faces the same challenge as Watchmen: condensing a large body of work into two or three hours and arranging the plot into a coherent cinematic presentation. And while Watchmen staggered under a slavish devotion to the source material, Scott Pilgrim enjoys considerably more success in striking the balance. A few elements such as the Katayanagi twins (evil exes 5 and 6) and secondary characters' backstories get short shrift, but the film actually bests the comic in its effective foreshadowing of main villain Gideon Graves. As a result, the film actually has a more fulfilling climax. Certain plot elements are changed slightly or rearranged to fit the cinematic medium, but all but the most diehard Pilgrimite will be pleased with the result.

The big question is, of course, is it worth your eight bucks? I can honestly say it's an entertaining production and a quality movie. Those outside of the comic-con crowd may have accessibility issues with it, as it appeals heavily to the viewer's inner dork, and in some instances I found the pervasive sexual jokes off-putting. However, the action rocks, the humor is laugh-worthy, and Scott is (more or less) a worthy hero for this generation. If you're looking for some quality fun for the dork within, you won't go wrong with Scott Pilgrim.

Review: Tuna Carpaccio P.I.

Tuna Carpaccio is many things. First, it is a dish made by thinly slicing fresh raw tuna and serving it with a savory and often spicy sauce. Second, it is a webcomic by Josh Dunlap and Tony Chavira. Third, it is the main character of said webcomic.

It may be still other things. I'll let you know if I discover any more.

Albacore Melt Carpaccio, better known as "Tuna," is a private investigator in a city of crime and mayhem. He's hard-headed, hard-hitting, and hardly competent. Even his secretary Pamela is more skilled at detective work than he is.

Tuna, however, is entirely oblivious to his own incompetence. He cracks cases with fisticuffs and copious property damage. He fancies himself on par with the city's Police Detective, Aurora Malta, even though his investigations (and I'm being generous with the term) constantly interfere with hers. Despite her low opinion of him (which she makes clear in no uncertain terms), he relentlessly hits on her. Tuna believes he is the sharpest detective in the shed--and he ignores all evidence to the contrary.

Carpaccio's primary adversary is the elusive mob boss Jose Maria De Jesus, but the road to the Hispanic crime lord is strewn with recurring "theme villains" in the vein of Dick Tracy or Batman. These include psychological psycho Ink Blot, zombie hipster Dead Beat, the bowling monarch King Pin (my personal favorite), and the Christmas criminal Coal Miner, whose slugfest with Carpaccio stretches out in a ridiculous infinite-canvas showdown that is sure to give the creators headaches when they're putting together a print collection. In these side excursions from the hunt for De Jesus, the comic both satirizes and revels in the bad-puns-and-punchouts villain-of-the-week style, but in a recent surprise move, all these crooks Carpaccio's put behind bars turn out to be relevant to the plot. It's one of many nice touches that make the comic such a kick to read.

Another is the art. Josh Dunlap's style is evocative of film noir, with a little animated-cartoon thrown in for flavor. It's got an inky look to it, with gritty backgrounds, sharply-rendered characters, and loose linework splashed with black shading. Fight scenes are rowdy, cacophonous affairs, the comic keeps things dynamic right down to the panel layouts, and characters have signature fonts for their dialogue. In less-competent hands, this would be a cheap gimmick, but from Pam's longsuffering all-lowercase lines to King Pin's regal script, it's a nice touch and an important part of the comic characterization. In short, Tuna Carpaccio looks good.

But don't let him know I said that. It'd go straight to his head.

Tuna, oblivious as he is to his own incompetence, can't help but remind me of Michael Scott, the bungling boss from The Office--which brings me to my only major criticism of the comic. Both Tuna and Michael have no idea how truly unproficient they are, and they make us laugh even as we cringe at their ridiculously unprofessional behavior. With Michael, however, you actually feel sorry for him: you get the sense that he actually cares about people, and his only real vice is that he cares more about getting people to like him. Tuna, on the other hand, more often you just shake your head and mutter, "I cannot believe this guy."

At this point in the story, to be perfectly honest, Tuna is a serious cad, and I'd be hard-pressed to name a redeeming feature beyond his right hook. He's persistent, I'll give him that much. But that's not much to hang your hat on when you're persistently bad. In essence, what I'm saying is that even though the art is great, the characters are funny, and the plotline packs more twists and turns than a retro dance move, it really loses some potential when you strain to sympathize with the main character.

Still, Tuna Carpaccio is well worth your time to check out, and it's going to be well worth my time to follow in the future. It's a comedy comic with a quirky sense of humor (I can guarantee you've never seen a comic with as bizarre a beginning as this), and it's very slickly executed. For all his vices, Tuna is hilarious and his misadventures are entertaining.

Tuna Carpaccio is a quality comic. See if it's your style--give it a read.

Superfogeys, Chapters 4-6

Tone is tricky business.

The usual route is to give your work a single, general consistent tone. This adds an additional level of cohesion and consistency to the work, and you can easily see it in film. Pay close attention to the next movie you see, and it'll quickly become clear what sort of reaction it's trying to evoke from you, regardless of how well it succeeds. Many webcomics take the single-tone approach too, from newspaper-style daily doses of humor (Sheldon, The Book of Biff) or ongoing character-driven plot threads (Multiplex, Girl Genius).

However, life doesn't always stick to a single mood, so why should art? Some creative works try to capture a broader spectrum of human emotion. The phenomenon is especially common in anime. There's a risk involved in such an approach, and TVTropes.org's article on Mood Whiplash notes: "Done well, the contrast in moods can make each emotion all the more poignant and effective. Done poorly, the contrast can jar the reader/viewer right out of the story."

In reading chapters four through six of The Superfogeys, I realized that this full spectrum of tone is exactly what Brock Heasley is going for.

A lot happens in these three chapters--more than can be treated in detail in a single review. It also contains several important reveals and reversals that I won't spoil. Suffice it to say that The Third Man has assembled a powder keg of personalities at the superhero retirement home Valhalla. By gathering pint-sized villain Dictator Tot, senile superheroine Star Maiden, and super-anti-hero Tangerine among the current denizens of Valhalla, he can turn incident to injury, casual encounter to casualty, with very precise results.

I'm reminded of the quotation from Fight Club: "All a gun does is focus an explosion in one direction." And yes, someone does get shot here, and yes, someone dies. It's sudden, it's jarring, and it reminded me of a moment from a few years ago when I was playing baseball with some of my extended family. One moment we were all laughing and having fun, and the next moment my uncle's thumb was bent at a wrong angle. I didn't know how to feel; I couldn't believe what had happened. The death in chapter 5 left me with a similarly bizarre feeling.

But what exactly is the Third Man aiming at? Despite sparingly-given hints, his reasons have yet to be revealed. A lot hinges on the believability of his motivations, but that's a task for future chapters.

Chapter Six contains another of Captain Spectacular's reminiscences: his and Dr. Rocket's origin story. Overall, it's one of the more effective blendings of tone in the Superfogeys. Its jokes are generally humorous, its drama develops the characters of the Captain and the Doctor, and in particular it gives Dr. Rocket some very human motivations for his life of villainy. The story is also notable for its non-intrusive but interesting inclusion of religious elements. In short, it works.

Unfortunately, not all such multi-toned scenes are as successful. Captain Spectacular's marriage proposal to Spy Girl is treated with such casualness and humor that I found her acceptance hard to believe. In my opinion, without any ceremony or romance to it (not even a ring!), by all rights the Captain's proposal should have fallen flat on its face. On occasion, a strip ends in a punchline where a dramatic "punch" would have been more effective. Some moments are so surreal that I have trouble classifying their tone entirely. The musical number by the Healer and Captain Emo is an out-and-out dud, and I can't help but feel embarrassed for them.

These chapters of Superfogeys have some decidedly hilarious moments, though. A cameo of Clovis the Bear from Imagine This yields one extremely funny strip, plus a handful of additional jokes. Dr. Rocket's litany of crimes in this strip (spoiler watch active!) escalates the humor all the way to the knockout punchline, and this extracanonical comic makes an excellent and humorous introduction to Superfogeys as a whole.

I really can't say anything bad about the artwork. It's not the best in the business, but the linework is efficient, panel layouts are diverse and effective, and overall the art exhibits notable consistency. Many webcomics have artwork that is all over the board in terms of quality. In every strip, though, Brock Heasley exhibits a level of competence that, while not especially flashy, does the job, and does it well.

Brock Heasley is at the top of his game when he is presenting the lives of his elderly superheroes just as they are. It's most noticeable with Swifty, but his cantankerous cynicism is just one reaction to old age. Consider this strip where Captain Spectacular flashes back to his first meeting with Dr. Klein. There's a joke, but the humor underscores the reality that the Captain and the world have parted ways. He's in a dark place--literally.

On the whole, I feel like I can recommend Superfogeys as a quality comic at this point. I've read a good deal of it, and while the humor is about three parts hit and one part miss, there's more than just humor to its appeal. It has suspense, an engaging ongoing plotline, and a well-developed cast of unusual individuals. Plus, where else can you find a comic that takes the concept of elderly superheroes and doesn't stop at just playing it for laughs?

If you haven't already, give Superfogeys a look. Early chapters were shaky, but I've found it to be worth sticking with.

Getting Nifty with Sluggy Freelance

Welcome back, everyone. Today's post follows up on Wednesday's, in which I shared a Sluggy Freelance experience. Today the ensharening continues, with further reflections on Sluggy Freelance and some of my favorite Sluggy memories.

Like I said before, I'm well aware of Sluggy's flaws: a convoluted accumulation of backstory, a rocky transition from high weirdness to epic drama, and artwork that's decent at best. But no matter what John "Your Webcomic is Bad" Solomon may say have said, I don't consider a bad webcomic. It's no Penny Arcade, but if you can appreciate a "when weird things happen to normal people" story, it's worth reading.

Well, some of it, anyway. Thing's been running daily since '97--that's a lot of comic to read.

As I mentioned before, what I most enjoy about Sluggy is the central cast. They have genuine personalities, and as you spend more time reading their adventures, it gets to be like visiting good friends. Moreover, in a weirdness-driven strip, much of the fun comes from their diverse reactions to the bizarre phenomena around them. Torg meets the weirdness with boneheaded optimism; Zoe faces it with frustrated sarcasm or the occasional freak-out, and later on starts rolling up her sleeves and tackling things herself; Riff's basic response is "more firepower." Riff and later addition Gwynn are instigators of weirdness themselves. Sluggy's got the kind of cast that you can throw into a situation and just let them be themselves, and it's at its strongest when it does precisely that.

The art, moreover, has improved. It started off sketchy, with its share of stiff poses and proportion gaffes, but over time it's shown definite and substantial progress. Characters are drawn much more consistently now; Pete Abrams has developed particular strength with dramatic use of shadow and camera angles. Sluggy Freelance demonstrates that if you consistently pick up a pencil and go to war with the blank space, you will become a better artist. Never underestimate the value of dogged daily perseverance.

And that's true of more than just the art. Sluggy Freelance is significant for the webcomic world in that it showed new possibilities for cartoonists. As one of the longest-running comics online, and one that supports its creator as a full-time job, it's one of the success stories. Moreover, much of that support comes from its donor club "Defenders of the Nifty." As much as merchandise and ad revenue, Sluggy is supported by its fans simply saying, "We like what you're doing, and we want to enable you to keep doing it." Pete Abrams is willing to experiment, develop, and grapple with the balancing act between comedy and drama, and the cumulative effect of his tenacity is greater than any single flaw.

With that said (and said and said and said...get to the fun stuff, Jackson!), it's time for my favorite Sluggy memories.

Probably my favorite storyline of all time is when, after Torg has gone missing in the Dimension of Pain, the gang reach into the wrong alternate universe for him and retrieve a purple-haired Portuguese-speaking Torg. Meanwhile, the Torg we know finds himself in an alternate reality where everything is nice. The weirdness and humor are vintage Sluggy, including the fourth-panel reversal in this strip. In "Fire and Rain," a reference back to this story alleviates the drama with some much-needed humor. Sluggy often relies on classic setups with reversals and "What could go wrongs?" for its humor, but you've never seen them done with purple-haired Portuguese body doubles.

Another of my favorite storylines is Sluggy of the Living Freelance. It's a textbook example of the dynamic between the main cast that I mentioned before: Pete Abrams coops his cast up in a cabin, surrounds it with zombies, and lets the panicked terror do its work. The gags are entertaining, and the conclusion has two ridiculous twists to it.

One last strip bears mention in my Sluggy experience, but first a bit of backstory. In high school, my brother David began wearing gym shorts under his pants everywhere he went. If his pants developed a stain or a hole, or if he suddenly decided to go swimming, he would simply take them off. "You never know when you'll need them," he told us. One day Charles IMed me a link to a Sluggy Freelance accompanied by a single word: "Dave." As they say, great minds think alike.

What's been your Sluggy experience? What are some of your favorite strips or storylines? Drop a comment--I'd like to hear what you've got to say about Sluggy Freelance.

Review: Marooned

Webcartoonists, more so than others in the comic industry, have to be jacks of all trades. At a major comic company, a project typically employs a sizable team--a writer, penciler/inker, colorist, letterer, project director, marketer, and more--and a staff member rarely has to fill more than two of these roles. Even the syndicated cartoonist has his editors, helping him polish his strip and weed out unfeasible jokes. Ostensibly, anyway. The webcartoonist, in comparison, has to wear a lot of hats. For this reason, it helps to be completely and utterly off his rocker. Even if a webcartoonist is not crazy, he may soon become crazy, simply because he has so many hats to wear.

Today we're looking at mad hatter Tom Dell’Aringa and his comic Marooned. Marooned, billed as "a space opera in the wrong key," might also be described as a comedy of errors. On an expedition to Mars, Captain John and his robot companion Asimov find their shuttle broken down, and as they enlist the help of the local Martians to find a way off the planet, one thing after another goes wrong. Earth is unable to send help, hostile forces threaten their mission, and Captain John even acquires a serious illness.

The Story Hat

The comic initially takes the tone of a gag-a-day strip, but as cartoonist Dell'Aringa finds his footing, it becomes clear that he's much more interested in telling a story. And as a story, Marooned particularly succeeds in its pacing and overall scope. The plotline contains one twist after another to keep the reader engaged (most often in the form of something else going wrong), but the twists are never a gimmick to grab attention. Each revelation builds on the existing story naturally and fits into a larger plot structure, even hinting at parts of the structure that have yet to be revealed. At the first major twist--the introduction of a second, hostile robot that wants to take over the Mars mission--I found myself reading because I was genuinely interested in the storyline.

Its lead duo, John and Asimov, differs from your usual pair of protagonists in that both of them are thoroughgoing cynics. John is an egotistical space captain with an inflated view of his own abilities and a low view of his AI companion, while Asimov has low expectations for the fallible human astronaut. Much of the humor early on revolves around their back-and-forth insults, which are (truth be told) about as memorable as the typical banter that you exchange with your friends and colleagues. Pacing and plotting are strong points, but at points the script is lacking (as in this uninspired joke). At one point, an artifact of great power is revealed to be a glorified Rubik's Cube, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. Is it a successful joke that turns the whole drama on its head, or does it detract from the gravity of the situation to the comic's detriment? I don't know.

Also worth noting is the "humanity" of the Martians. Its Martian leads, Ugo and Ril, and the rest of the extraterrestrial cast are every bit as quirky, petulant, or grave as any human being. There is no language barrier, and with a few eccentricities, Martian culture is not terribly different from that of earth. Contrast that with Starslip, whose current storyline features twenty-story tall aliens with twenty-three distinct meter-long radial tongues. Now, I'm partial to science fiction that conveys the sheer alien-ness of its aliens, but Maroon's cyclopean Martians have their own charm, and their relatability as human-like characters actually enhances the story.

The Art Hat

Marooned is a color strip, making good use of dusty Martian reds and steely blue-grays in its palette. Additionally, despite its cartoonish and stylized characters, it occasionally employs digital lighting effects, spot hatching, and additional detail work to good effect. The art isn't sophisticated, but it's solid, functional, and willing to go the extra mile at times. The results can be striking.

I came across one serious hiccup, though. When a second human is introduced to the comic (warning: strip contains spoilers), Dell’Aringa opts to draw her in a realistically-proportioned style. Unfortunately, this choice reveals an artistic weakness in rendering realistic human figures. Additionally, the style clashes with John's cartoonish face and padded-spacesuit body, and with the appearance of the rest of the cast. I'd give Tom Dell'Aringa the same advice as Luke Surl: continue to practice real-life figure drawing, and make use of such resources as Posemaniacs.com.

But I don't want to harp on this hiccup, because the art is decidedly, decidedly above-average for a webcomic, especially with regard to lettering and word-bubbles. Even though Dell'Aringa experiments and develops his art as the strip progresses, trying out new shading and detailing techniques, it shows notable consistency. One week's comics, "Marooned Classics," revisits and improves upon previous strips. It's fun to see the results, and one revision employs some sharp digital effects.

The Bottom Line

It's quite a balancing act for a webcomic creator to wear so many hats on his head, and it's harder still to look good doing it. Dell'Aringa tackles that balancing act well overall--in some areas more so than others--but the real strength of his comic lies in how he wears each hat in the service of telling his story. As a webcomic, Marooned shows marked cohesivity, and its down-to-earth sci-fi story makes it a good recommendation for webcomic enthusiasts and the average reader alike. I might not have checked it out if it hadn't been recommended to me for review (thanks, you guys!), but I'm glad I did, and Marooned may well prove an enjoyable read for you too.

Interview: Brandon Bolt (Nobody Scores!)

Brandon Bolt draws things. He draws things as a professional illustrator, which makes him money, and he also draws the webcomic Nobody Scores, which makes him stay up all night drawing. Updated roughly 2.37 times a week, Nobody Scores delivers long-form tales of spectacular failure, where continuity is optional and pain is mandatory. Its four main characters--arch-capitalist marketing exec Sara, calamity-prone crazy chick Jane, starving artist Beans, and beleaguered intellectual Raoul--suffer each other's company as they share living space, enduring such disasters as time travel, nanorobots, and the typical workday. It's an anarchic, cynical celebration of everything that could possibly go wrong, and it brings the fun.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Brandon Bolt at a computer some 2,000 miles from Brandon Bolt and interviewing him over email. What follows is the uncensored entirety of our conversation. The insights contained therein will shake the very foundations of your world.

JF: So, "Brandon Bolt" is a pretty awesome name. You really lucked out.

BB: I always thought it was pretty weird myself. I blame it for my alienation from humanity.

JF: (awkward silence)

So I guess we should probably talk about the comic now!

Nobody Scores is a skillfully-executed comic, but the concept is a hard sell--its humor is dark, cynical, and almost aggressively cringe-inducing. How do you find a balance between making a comic that will pay you back monetarily for what you put into it and doing what you want to do as an artist?

BB: I hear if you tape layers of newspaper between pieces of cardboard they're warmer when it gets below freezing.

Yeah--don't ask me. I try to draw stuff that doesn't bore me. Difficulty level: I am super bored. There isn't any other consideration. I am not at any level trying to market it to target audiences or anything like that. I don't even know what target audiences look like. There is no balance. If I get money, that is nice.

Because focusing on exploring the art is the only real point... If you're just going to stitch together another Snuffy Smith to plague the world for another 75 years, what's the point? Better to make it with something that's worthwhile--your chances aren't very good anyway. That's my attitude.

JF: But you do have systems in place that allow for monetary support. You sell adspace and posters; you have a discreetly-placed Paypal donation button in your sidebar.

BB: Well that is currently pizza money. Sadly! But pizzas are delicious.

JF: Since this past summer, you've abandoned straight-up infinite canvas for fixed page divisions in your comic. So you're at least making some formalistic concessions in order to facilitate a print collection. By the way, how's the fixed-page-size thing going for you?

BB: I haven't totally abandoned infinite canvas, but there is behind-the-scenes work on books and I thought I'd make it marginally easier on myself.

I am cursed however. All formats are a headache. I still have an easier time making infinite-canvas comics "work", I think, but then I give myself an infinite amount of drawing rope with which to hang myself. I've developed a theory that every person is allotted a set number of allnighters in their lifetimes. I think I may have three left. Really, I had a startling number of allnighters in me, it turned out.

So, I don't really like fixed page sizes--although I've been able to keep using many of the infinite-canvas techniques I was using before, and also, I'd kind of run out of infinite-canvas tricks to try--but limits on the amount of drawing help keep me from dying and that's real nice.

JF: On the topic of marketability...what do you think of the webcomics business model, in terms of cartoonists giving away their art for free? Do you think that it's more viable or less for career cartoonists than going a more traditional route?

BB: It is currently the least stupid of a variety of terribly stupid options, if you want to get exposure. Newspapers keep shrinking; the alt-comics press is in its usual state of woe, but keeps plugging along. Graphic novels do have the occasional breakout hit, so there's that. Webcomics are... well, they aren't actually much less static than other types of comics--the internet generates inertia--but it is possible to build an audience if you first build a comic. The competition is still not as stiff in webcomics, if you're talking raw quality. The obstacles are mainly social. You need to have high-traffic friends slash appreciators to send people your way. As for business models, I don't really have one. Nobody Scores! is a dick to merchandise because it's in such an unorthodox format. I am working on books but I don't know how exactly that will go at this point. The subsidiary t-shirts-and-tchochkes approach seems to work for some people. I am sort of interested in how Assetbar turns out, but my regular comic takes enough time as it is, and if I have to do premium content too, my shit will explode. That is, it will explode everywhere it exists and the Portland sewer management peoples are in for a fun night and I will be a big ol' mess as well.

JF: So...you're an art guy. You have a fine arts degree, and you have a career as a cartoon illustrator. I guess these things kind of come together in things like "Nobody Scores vs. Fine Art." How do you think your background has prepared you for Nobody Scores?

BB: Doing Nobody Scores! is a betrayal of everything my education stood for and I live in fear of the day someone from college stumbles upon my cartoon and puts two and two together.

I went to a liberal arts college, and the culturally omnivorous nature of Nobody Scores! is a manifestation of my liberal-arts-geek nature, and you are this far away from me telling everybody my SAT score and nobody wants that.

It is pretty nice to be able to draw different things intelligibly and that is due to my background, I guess. Also everything you need to learn about color you learn in the first semester of art class; it just may be a while before you actually pay attention to it.

JF: SAT scores are best left back in high school. I had better change the subject quick here.

Let's talk about your characters. They're deeply flawed human beings, but it strikes me that their flaws are just strengths taken to excess. Sara's ambitious and driven, Jane approaches life with reckless enthusiasm, Beans actually cares about things, and Raoul is too smart for his own good. Am I just looking at these people too optimistically, or do they really have some redeeming qualities to them?

BB: No, sure, they do. Basically, every engaging comedic character does things we all want to do, somewhere inside our psyches: we want to get top scores on all the globally recognized indicators of success (Sara), crush those who would stand in our way (Sara), do whatever we want whenever we want (Jane), care a lot (Beans), pursue our dreams no matter how abstruse (Beans), be the smartest guy in the room (Raoul) and scorn everybody else (Raoul). At least I imagine we do. This is where unsympathetic characters can insert their hooks into you, if you let them.

So, good sides in a nutshell: Sara is productive and responsible (at least at basic day-to-day tasks), Jane is fun to be around, Beans won't betray you (unless you've really goaded him into it), and Raoul is knowledgeable, even expert in a variety of academic spheres.

The primary flaw of all of them, really, is self-centeredness and callousness, which manifests itself in different ways, depending on the character.

JF: It's interesting how often the characters' selfishness actively contributes to a given comic's catastrophe. Their own selfishness ironically undermines the pursuit of their own aims and ambitions.

BB: The tragic flaw! Sometimes I do that. But fate is a fickle beast in Nobody Scores! and its misfortunes do not hew strictly to dramatic conventions. Sometimes, ridiculous shit just happens despite the characters' best-laid plans.

JF: In another interview, you noted that you try not to let any one character's perspective become too privileged. Is there any of the cast that you struggle to maintain that balance with?

BB: The machine of the comic has three nodes; the fourth character, Raoul, sort of operates in orbit. Of the three central nodes, I have found that Sara and Jane are by far the stronger personalities and Beans tends to get overwhelmed. This is partially because Beans is softer overall, and partially because his sphere--artistic expression--doesn't generate as many plots as the others do. So I have to tell myself to push Beans out there more every now and then.

JF: I usually close out these interviews by asking the cartoonist to share a few of their favorite webcomics, but it occurs to me--if I do that, I am basically asking you to reduplicate your links page. You follow print comics fairly assiduously, so what are a few of your favorite print comics? What's a title or two that's worth shelling out money for?

BB: Well, I don't know that I've been following them assiduously these days, but...Lio is my favorite newspaper comic and there's a book. Two books! Also, in entirely different veins from Nobody Scores!, there is the work of Jason Lutes--I greatly recommend the two Berlin books that are out; Eric Shanower's Age of Bronze books, a cartoon retelling of the Iliad; and if I had to pick a print cartoonist I want all web cartoonists to read it's Kyle Baker.

JF: Thanks for all your responses, Brandon.

BB: I am always glad to respond to things! Well sometimes I prefer to stand inert but this is not one of those times.

4/17: Week in Review

Seems this has been a good week for storylines. It may just be the particular spectrum of comics I read regularly, but while comics like The Book of Biff and Sheldon are good for a daily smile, following the serial stuff has been a real kick this week.

Shortpacked has been crazy this week even by Shortpacked standards. Last week, with Galasso locked up and Ethan...also locked up, Robin proposed that the new manager be selected by fight-probably-to-the-death, while Ultra Car searches for a way to throw pies at Galasso without letting him out of his cage. This week, everything explodes and Galasso is released in the chaos. His first act as a free manager is to fire everyone. Good luck getting a job in this economy, guys, but at least you can go out with a bang. To the shins. Firing the main characters from the strip's titular toy store is a strange move, but we'll see where things go from here.

Moe continues its storyline from last week, in which Moe attends an anti-evolution protest rally at the museum to impress a girl he met. With no particular allegiance to the cause, however, he is easily swayed when the other side has a cuter girl on it. It's a ridiculous parody of the debates of our day, in a world where everyone is dumb, especially Moe. Read the week's comics beginning with Monday's.

This week, Gill initiates a new storyline: with Gill's birthday coming up, he has his heart set on a birthday party at Cheesy Chester's Pizza, but his mother insists on having the party at home. The week ends on a horrifying cliffhanger in Gill's darkest nightmares--what will become of Gill and his desire for a Cheesy Chester's party? Start with Monday's comic and start following the story arc.

Over at Starslip, the crew of the Fuseli Paradigm has encountered the Quel--the highly-advanced hive-minded inhabitants of a planet within an uncharted nebula. This week, Vanderbeam endeavors to facilitate cultural exchange and share the fruits of his own advanced civilization, but the Quel aren't biting. However, when an unnaturally grave surge of bug-predators attacks the Quel, the crew prepares to step in and violate the crap out of the Prime Directive. We'll see soon enough whether their actions are justified, but in the meantime, the week for Starslip starts here.

Penny and Aggie draws its present storyline to a close today. Picking up where Part 10 of the Popsicle War left off, Duane finds a common interest of literature and a new friend in Christian fanatic Charlotte--but also finds that Charlotte is far more interested in him than he's comfortable with. Find out whether he can defuse this relational bomb without turning his overzealous new friend into an enemy: read the ten-page storyline from the beginning.

Finally, Dr. McNinja continues his descent into the Ancient Mayan Tennis Temple, defusing traps, navigating architectural hazards, and dealing with unforeseen complications. The whole thing is light on plot, but heavy on parody: it's a relentless spoof of video-gamey Indiana-Jones-style adventures in which the whole point of the architecture is to kill you. Why not enjoy the whole spectrum of spoof, right from the point that Dr. McNinja enters the temple?

And that's a wrap for this week--though I'm sure with so many storylines going on, I'll have plenty to talk about come next Friday. I may have a review or suchlike ready next week, but one thing's for sure: you can always count on the Friday rundown. And, as always, feel free to drop a comment with anything you've enjoyed this week. Have a good weekend, and adios for now!

Superfogeys, Chapter 1

My fellow webcomic blogger, Larry "El Santo" Cruz of The Webcomic Overlook, has a way of writing his review introductions. He comes in from an unexpected angle, relating an anecdote, or talking about "stranded in the universe" as a science-fiction plot trope, or beginning with a line like "One day, I will be reduced to a quivering neurotic heap in need of serious psychiatric help." It adds instant interest to the review, as you wonder what his introduction could possibly have to do with the comic up for review. And sometimes I try to mimic this approach, but other times I am not feeling quite so clever, so I'm just going to drop right into the review here. Today I'll be reviewing the first chapter of Brock Heasley's Superfogeys.

Superfogeys employs the familiar retired superhero trope as its premise: the characters are retired superheroes or villains with a career of super-powered adventure behind them. You'll see some familiar archetypes among the cast, some based directly off existing superheroes: the Superman, the Flash, the evil scientist, the sidekick, and the action girl. With a few humorous diversions, the basic story arc of the first chapter is that lecherous sleazeball villain Dr. Rocket tries to take advantage of Spy Gal, but his plan backfires--rather unpleasantly.

The "retired superheroes" premise would be an old, tired choice if it were played as straightforward parody. Fortunately, it's not. To be certain, there are jokes--some of the expected "dirty old superheroes" variety, and some not--but superhero parody isn't the name of the game. The characters are funny not because they're poking fun at tropes, but because they're humorous characters in their own right. Captain Spectacular's amiable acceptance of retired life puts a unique spin on the Superman archetype, as does sidekick Jerry's secret unrequited love for Spy Gal. In particular, Speedy most perfectly embodies the picture of a "superhero past his glory years." As his powers have dwindled, the world moves too slowly for him, so he's bitter and just wants to sleep all day. Also, there's a running gag with a "space pig" that's an amusing touch. There's humor, but there's enough spine and skeleton of characterization to hang the humor on.

The art is polished enough and decidedly competent, though not outstanding. Characters have strong outlines with a a touch of detail work, and coloration strikes an appropriate balance between bold and subdued. Cut-and-pasted elements are noticeable in parts, a flaw which the creator acknowledges and endeavors to correct as the chapter progresses. And the art recycling won't jump right out at you unless you're looking for it, so it's a forgivable offense. Overall, it's good artwork, and the balding Captain Spectacular's persistent Superman curl is a funny visual touch.

My only complaint with the humor is that off-color jokes are used a little too liberally--which isn't a moral complaint, as the off-color humor is no more offensive than, say, PVP or The Office, and I'm quite fond of The Office. But in Superfogeys #1, the lewd jokes often feel like a crutch-like substitute for real humor. Still, it's a minor complaint, and I get the impression that as the characters receive more development, it will be less of an issue in future chapters.

Overall? Superfogeys Chapter 1 is a not-too-shabby beginning for this tale of the supertired. It has the earmarks of a creator getting a feel for his own story, but it's still a promising start. And, at 28 strips, you can easily read through it in a few minutes and get a feel for whether this is your kind of comic. I'm looking forward to reading the second chapter and seeing how it develops.

Interview: Tony Piro (Calamities of Nature), 2/2

Continued from the first half of the interview

JF: How do you view the relationship between art and writing in your comic? Do you think your approach to cartooning favors one or the other? Do you view one or the other as the "backbone" of a strip?

TP: I don't know. I find both to be a constant struggle. When I look back at my old stuff, I absolutely hate it on both levels. But I do see improvement over time. I guess that's what happens if you're in this game long enough. I would be interested in hearing what my readers have to say about this. As far as first impressions go, what attracted them to the strip initially, the art or the writing?

Ideally, I would hope that the art and writing work hand in hand in any given comic. Take either away, and the gag doesn't work the same. This seems like a reasonable goal, otherwise why choose comics as the medium of presentation? Nevertheless, many of my strips probably rely a little heavily of the dialogue to tell the gag. I'll have two characters discussing something as they walk through the forest. In a sense, they could be doing a lot of different things and still get the gag across. I have a visual medium at my disposal, I should sometimes try to "show" instead of "tell." I would say this a shortcoming of my strip right now. It's something I need to work on.

As for the "backbone" of the strip, I'm going go on a limb and say maybe color is the one constant that has been with Calamities since the beginning. When I changed formats I experimented with the idea of going black and white and updating 5 days a week. When I showed a few example strips to my friends they basically told me that my art wouldn't fly without color. I'd need to rethink my whole use of blacks. The use of color actually helps the reader process the information in the strip faster, so that the joke comes across clearer and is (hopefully) more funny.


JF: Your characters' personalities are pretty archetypal. What are the advantages and disadvantages of relying on character tropes? How do you put a fresh spin on them?

TP: If you look at comics in general, these character types show up all the time. Especially when you consider the classic group of three: the nice guy, the funny guy, and the angry guy. You see this everywhere, from Disney (Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck) to Bone (Fone, Smiley, and Phoney). There's a reason why this works. If you have a limited cast of characters and you want to get a wide range of interactions, these are sort of the natural character types you want to cover your bases. In that sense, over time I've felt like my characters have morphed into these archetypes, even when I didn't initially intend this to happen. For example, when I first started both Aaron and Harold were kind of the "nice guys." But as I wrote more and more gags, I would often find myself not needing them both (that's why Harold didn't appear in a lot of the early strips). At the same time, I kept finding I needed a character who was a little more angry and cynical to make some jokes work. So Aaron evolved into this role. So in that the sense, these archetypes are around for a very clear reason--it allows a lot of flexibility when telling gags.

The main disadvantage of having these archetypes is that it can feel pretty stale if you don't add enough depth to the characters. This is something I need to work on. Trying to tell a gag and make some sort of point in the space constraints of a comic strip, I sometimes feel I have little room for character development. What would help is if each of my characters had more of a back story, like a job, specific interests, and so on. I did this by making Alp an inventor, but I need to do this for the other characters. One of my goals for 2009 is to try to naturally work some of this into the comic. Hopefully this will make the characters that much more engaging.


JF: I'm curious--is Aaron listening to his headphones pretty much 24/7? Does he wear those things to bed? What's he listening to all the time, anyway?

TP: Hmmm...see this is one of those logical things you don't ever think of when you're working on a strip, but when someone confronts you with the question you ask, "what *was* I thinking?"

The history of the headphones was that the very first strip I drew with Aaron and Ferd was when I was 10 years old. It was at the time of the Bay Bridge World Series, and Aaron and Ferd were fighting over who would win. Ferd was for the Giants (giving him the Giants hat he still has to this day), and Aaron the A's (thus the green shirt). To portray him as a sports nut, I added the headphones, which I kept ever since without too much rhyme or reason other than I liked the way they looked (and the red helped to further distinguish Aaron from the other characters and the background elements). I actually still have this original comic, but I'm saving sharing it with the world until the time is right.

So what does he listen to? NPR? I'm not sure. I suspect a lot of the time, the headphones aren't even on, but Aaron uses them as a device to selectively interact with the world on his own terms (as I suggested in the strip you linked to). I guess you'll just have to ask Aaron yourself.


JF: Heh--I suppose so. Is there anything else you'd like to say before we wrap this interview up--maybe a parting tip for aspiring cartoonists, or a webcomic or two that you'd particularly recommend?

TP: I think the most important message for cartoonists is to remember what a unique opportunity it is to speak directly to an audience with a singular, unedited voice. So many other forms of media require a team of people to create something. It's just not practical for one person to do it all alone. Comics (and webcomics in particular) allow an artist to basically be the writer, director, actors, publicist, and everything else, all at the same time. This is special chance to share real ideas and feelings with other people, and this shouldn't be taken lightly. I've heard complaints from people who have told me that my work is too derivative, that the punch lines too obvious, and so on. But I hope at the end of the day, my readers appreciate that I'm sincerely trying to share real things with them, and I urge other cartoonists to do the same.

Concerning webcomics I'd recommend, that's a tough question because there's quite a few I read regularly. But here are a couple that often just make me want to throw my hands in the air and give up: Bellen!, Circle Versus Square, We the Robots, Savage Chickens, Octopus Pie, Wondermark, and One Swoop Fell. Oops, sorry, I guess that's more than one or two!


JF: Thanks for your time, Tony. It's been a pleasure interviewing you.

TP: Hey, thanks for offering! Keep up the great work on this site.

Interview: Chris Hallbeck from The Book of Biff

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Chris Hallbeck, the creator of The Book of Biff. Biff, the titular character distinguishable by his shaved head and crazy eyebrows, has bizarre, full-color, single-panel adventures every weekday over at thebookofbiff.com. His strange problems and stranger solutions make for a fun daily diversion, and cartoonist Chris Hallbeck regularly delivers glimpses into Biff's surreal world, often in themed weeks such as "magic tricks" or "childhood playthings." He and I sat down over email for a closer look Behind the Biff. (And by "he" I mean Chris, not Biff.)

JF: So how did you come up with the Biff character, anyway? And why did you decide to name him "Biff?"

CH: Biff evolved from a doodle that I did in my friend's student planner. We had lunch together and I would draw things to try and make him laugh. Biff became a reoccurring character in those doodles. I liked the name Biff because I didn't know anyone with that name and it could also be used as a sound effect.

JF:I always think of truck drivers when I hear the name "Biff." Or that guy from Back to the Future. But Biff seems to have a very different personality from Biffs like those.

CH: Biff is more of a childlike mad professor.

JF: How does it feel to take Biff from his humble origins to a widely-read webcomic with two print collections? Did you expect Biff to be this successful?

CH: I think one of the most important things to happen was that when I got out of college I tried to get Biff accepted as a syndicated newspaper comic. I still have the stack of rejection letters in a box somewhere. I stopped drawing Biff for a number of years after that but when I decided to start it up again it was without any dreams of success. I realized that I just wanted to draw comics for the sake of drawing them. I made zero dollars from this project for the first 2 years but that wasn't a problem since it was not my original goal. The main attraction to me to the concept of drawing a webcomic was that it would cost me a very small amount of money to make it available to a large number of people.

JF: It also allows for more immediate fan feedback; I imagine that's a plus too. What's your favorite facet of being the creator of The Book of Biff?

CH: I like the challenge of it. Each comic is a new puzzle to solve and it's satisfying when I find the solution.

JF: The Book of Biff is a unique webcomic in that it takes the single-panel approach. Apart from the ubiquitous Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, it's the only single-panel webcomic I can think of. I'm not sure where I'm going with this question, but do you have any thoughts on Biff's single-panel-ness? What made you decide to go with that format?

CH: There are definitely a bunch more single panel webcomics out there. Savage Chickens is one that I read daily. The reason that I draw a single panel comic is The Far Side. My cartooning developed from drawing in the margins of school books and notebooks. Those small spaces are better suited to a single drawing with a caption than a strip format. I think those early doodles wired my brain for thinking one panel at a time.

JF: The Far Side really is the iconic single-panel comic; it's what everyone thinks of. But one thing that sets Book of Biff apart from The Far Side is its recurring cast—of one. What do you think being able to center the weirdness and humor around a single individual does for your comic?

CH: On the positive side, it can give me speed and focus. The writing can go faster because I only have to figure out what Biff's reaction will be to the situation. And unlike a multi-character comic I don't have complex character relationships and storylines to maintain.

I think having a single character can also be very limiting. There are a lot of jokes that I throw out because they won't fit into the limits of one panel/one figure/one sentence caption.

JF: For a typical comic, what does the creative process look like for you? How do you take an idea from…wherever your ideas come from…and carry it to its completion? Is there a lot of variation in the process, apart from the particular content, or is it pretty standard?

CH: I have a few different writing strategies. Sometimes I think of a funny image and try to reverse engineer a caption to fit it. Sometimes I'll think of a theme and write a list of objects or activities in that theme to bounce ideas off of. Usually I think of some sort of problem that Biff has to solve and then explore a few successes or failures he may experience and then I write down the one that I think is the funniest. The writing is the hardest part and it is the most random in the amount of time it takes. Some comics pop into my head fully realized. Some take days of chipping away at them. I know there's a comic in that idea somewhere I just have to peel off enough of the bad punchlines to find it.

The physical part of the comic is pretty straightforward. I do the drawing in Flash and the coloring in Photoshop.

JF: The relationship between what's weird and what's funny is a weird one. What do you think makes weird things so funny?

CH: I think it's just enjoying something that's new or unexpected.

JF: I'm surprised to discover that you draw the comic in Flash. The linework looks really hand-drawn, at least to me. Do you have a personal preference for digital or traditional craft? Any thoughts on how new digital tools are changing cartooning?

CH: Well, I still draw the lines with my hand. I think there is sometimes confusion when I hear comics described as either "drawn by hand" or "digital." As if artists in the "digital" category are somehow bashing their face into a keyboard to create their images.

The reason I use Flash is because my computer is not powerful enough to draw in Photoshop at the file sizes I like to work in. For me, drawing digitally allows me greater speed an I'm more fearless with my brushwork since I can always undo. I was actually afraid that I was going to lose my pen and ink skills when I first started drawing in flash but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the speed and line quality improvements carried over when I did my first post-digital ink on paper drawing.

JF: Thanks for your time and responses, Chris. Do you have any parting advice for aspiring cartoonists? If you could give one single piece of advice, what would it be?

CH: Keep drawing. If you look back on what you did every 6 months and you hate it then you are going in the right direction.

Jump Leads, Chapter Two

Man. You ever about to go to bed, and you realize you made this promise you gotta keep before you go to bed, and it's not a huge trouble and it's even sort of enjoyable but frankly you'd rather be in bed? That's me right now. But I'm a man of my word, so...time to read through chapter two of Jump Leads, and then talk about it with you.

This installment picks up where the last chapter left off: Meaney and Llewellyn, stranded in an alternate universe, find themselves aboard a cargo ship that's harvesting the energy of a nebula. The crew, immediately suspecting that the newcomers are hostile, hold Llew and Meaney for interrogation...which is interrupted by the intrusion of something else. There's plenty of action and danger, but it turns out that things aren't always as they seem. Not to give the ending away or anything, but the resolution of this episode's conflict did remind me I was reading a humor comic. I felt a little bit cheated, but overall this installment was also worth reading.

A big part of that was the art. JjAR, the artist, continues to go the extra mile--environments and characters are skillfully rendered and colored, conveying a strong sense of three-dimensional space. Adding to the effect is the level of artistic detail on the technology (for instance, these backgrounds). Perspective changes (e.g. lofted camera angles) and foreshortening are employed for dramatic effect, with technical precision. JjAR uses his fancy visual tricks liberally, keeping things dynamic, but thankfully he doesn't overuse them. To sum up: continuing the trend of the first issue, the art here is decidedly above the bar set by the average webcomic.

Another plus is the humor and characterization. Llew and Meaney's personalities continue to bounce off each other, the perpetual tension between idealism and realism forced by circumstances to cooperate. There are some clever one-liners, like this quip about how sinister companies pay better than the moral ones, although Llew is a bit of a broken record with his cynical prognostications of interrogational horror. The supporting cast of the nebula-farming ship gets about as much development as you'd expect from folks we won't see next episode, but they provide a setting for our heroes' adventure in the unknown.

And the characterization of our two protagonists is solid and engaging. Llew's wit and Meaney's zeal make for good comedy, and when danger strikes, we care about their fate because they're entertaining. We're invested in their well-being! It's not a deadly serious adventure, but for all their faults, Llew and Meaney are likeable guys that we want to see get out of their predicaments alive. Just as JjAR is a above-average artist, Ben Paddon (the writer) is an above-average writer.

Well, I'm done! That was a fun little exercise, and weird as it may sound, I feel like I've earned the right to go to bed now. I enjoyed reading through chapter two of Jump Leads, and if it sounds from this review like you would also enjoy it, I encourage you to check it out. Ari Collins will be around sometime midweek to deliver his usual alliterative analyses, and I'll be back on Friday with the weekly rundown. Good night, everyone!

Interview: Gordon McAlpin from Multiplex

Multiplex is a digitally-illustrated webcomic about the employees of the Multiplex 10 Cinemas. It updates at least twice a week--often more--and much like its ensemble cast, it brings a little of everything to the table, with equal doses of movie commentary, workplace humor, and teen drama. And truthfully, what really sells me on Multiplex is the characters. You can stop in every so often and get your movie humor fix, but if you keep visiting this theater for long enough, you'll really get to know the employees. There's Jason, the perennially-grumpy movie snob; Kurt, the sharp-witted prankster with just enough responsibility to keep things together; bookworm Becky, who is a loyal friend once you get past her shyness; and a host of others. Seriously, I could go on--but the purpose of this entry isn't to reduplicate the cast page.

Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin agreed to have an email interview with me, so I shot him a few questions and he fired some answers right back. Gordon's a fun guy, and he's also very professional about his comic, so I was eager to hear his thoughts on Multiplex, the webcomic universe, and everything.

JF: First, as much for my own curiosity as anything: it’s no secret that you originally envisioned Multiplex in animated-short format. Any chance we’ll be seeing Multiplex-related animation in the future, not-too-distant or otherwise?

GM: I hope so. But since no animation studios are coming up to me with offers, I’ll have to do it myself (or mostly myself), and I barely have the time to keep up with the updates, let alone teach myself Flash. Long-time readers know I’m about six months behind on the ebooks (and counting), which affects the print collection, too, and that should really be my priority.

JF: Your other major comic undertaking, Stripped Books, was hand-drawn—and recently we’ve seen hand-drawn Multiplex bonus sketches and even some hand-drawn strips. What motivated your initial decision to draw Multiplex digitally rather than by hand? Do you have a preference for either approach?

GM: I did Multiplex digitally because I wanted to build up a library of vector shapes for an animated version of Multiplex. I can basically take what I’ve drawn for the strip and paste it into Flash now, and I just need to animate it and add sound and all that — which is still a lot more complicated than it might sound.

I liked the idea that Multiplex, being about movies, is more visually evocative of animation than comics; I lay things out more or less like frames of a movie and do the panel breakdowns pretty rigidly, to emphasize this, too.

But I also just really like well-done 2D vector illustration and had fun doing it for the second Stripped Book (on Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith). I don’t understand why everybody in comics is so locked into the traditional pencils-and-ink cartooning technique. Comics are stories told in pictures, not just drawings: you can make comics with photos, CG imagery à la Dreamland Chronicles, whatever…

So, no, I don’t have a preference for either. I just like to change up my drawing style a lot, and I’d settled on a vector style for Multiplex, and… well, it got popular, so that’s the style I’m best known for.

JF: What are some of your favorite parts of the comic? Do you have any favorite story arcs, favorite characters to write/draw, a favorite facet of what Multiplex lets you do as a cartoonist?

GM: Well, I’m really excited about the addition of James Harris, not just because I get to finally do some hand-drawn bits in the strip (which I’d actually intended to do for a long, long time), and because it adds a new dimension to the strip: movie theater history.

Multiplex is a comic strip about movies, but it’s not just about the new releases of the week. It’s really a lot deeper than that, despite all the bathroom humor. Or at least, I’m trying to make it deeper than that, if that doesn’t sound too pretentious. It’s about criticism and whether or not anybody really does have a more valid opinion about movies than someone else. It’s about movie theater industry, which a lot of people say is dying, but I call “bullshit” on that.

The addition of James is — in the long term — going to raise a lot of parallels between now and what was going on in the 1950s, when the film industry (and the movie theaters that played them) were taking a massive beating from, primarily, television.

Basically, Multiplex lets me talk about my love of movies in a way that is, I hope, very entertaining to the readers. That’s my favorite part of the strip.

My favorite character would be Jason, though. It’s no shock to my readers (especially ones who know what I look like) that he’s an exaggerated version of myself. He often knocks movies I enjoy, so he’s really not just spewing my own opinions, despite what some readers assume. But I like his asshole side, and his dry sarcasm, which kind of runs through the strip as a whole, I suppose.

JF: Some of my favorite parts of the strip come from the relationships between characters—Kurt and Jason’s repartee, obviously, but also Melissa’s tough-love friendship with Jason, or how Neil relates to his workers. Do you have a character dynamic you particularly enjoy writing or drawing?

GM: Kurt and Jason are my favorite, but I enjoy it any time Jason gets a dressing-down, either from Neil, Melissa, Angie… whoever. I mean, a lot of the time, he is a little asshole. But that’s the point, and that’s why we love him. He’ll grow up, eventually. A little bit.

JF: Kurt and Jason…ha, I really should’ve guessed that one.

Anyway. In a recent interview, you remarked that you’ve got Multiplex on your mind almost constantly. What do you do when you need some space from your creation? What other activities do you find help your creative process?

GM: I like to drink heavily when I need some down-time. Or, honestly, watch movies that have absolutely nothing to do with the strip, or with the Triple Feature.

But that’s the thing about Multiplex: because it’s really about a love of movies, I don’t often feel like I need a total break from it — and, in fact, when I’m back in my parents’ hometown, away from any computer that I can work on Multiplex with, I’m often pretty anxious to get back to the strip.

One of my other hobbies is photography. I’m not terribly good at it, but I enjoy wandering around and taking pictures of old buildings. That interest is where my interest in old movie theaters came from, actually.

And, of course, I read comics. I love comics every bit as much as I love movies. I really just love visual storytelling.

JF: Unlike many webcomics, Multiplex has a racially diverse cast—but when it comes to race, it’s anything but politically correct. Was it a conscious decision on your part to expand your cast beyond the typical “white and nerdy” ensemble?

GM: Absolutely, and not just about race.

I’m keenly aware that there are people out there who are absolutely incapable of reading any characters that aren’t white, straight, and male as anything other than statements, which is why so many cartoonists are reluctant to break out from that.

An early strip set up that Becky doesn’t like action movies, so that must mean that I was saying all women hate action movies. I read a review of Multiplex that leaped to exactly that moronic conclusion. Guess what? There are women out there who don’t like action movies. They exist by the thousands.

But that’s really what most white, straight, male cartoonists are afraid of: “If I have a black/gay/woman character and they do ANYTHING, people are going to assume I’m trying to Say Something and somebody’s going to get offended.” Oh no!

It’s just cowardice, and it just perpetuates the lily-white state of comics. I don’t think having token minority characters or cool-chick characters (hot girls who are just one of the geeks!) cuts it, either.

JF: Your characters often have a surprise twist to their “first glance” identities—the resident goth turns out to be a serious Christian, the “dumb guy” has been playing dumb to con the theater, the skeezy pervert discovers that he’s gay. Given your fondness for pitching change-ups like that, is it ever tough to keep it from getting gimmicky?

GM: Angie being a Christian was not a twist! I put a cross on her in her very first appearance specifically because I wanted her to be a Christian, even though I never had any plans to use her beyond that first appearance (in #40). And making it an important part of her life was to counter the fact that the only other vocal Christian in the cast was Sunny – the dumb blonde girl.

I say "vocal," because America is something like 60 or 70% Christian, so to me it just stands to reason that about that many people on the staff are Christian as well. Just because none of the other characters in the strip have talked about it doesn't mean they aren't religious.

Anyway — back to the point — as for the other two examples you mentioned, those were really jokes not twists — albeit complicated jokes that were set up and played out over the course of several months. As long as I think they're funny, I don't worry about things like that seeming like a gimmick.

Generally speaking, the characters are not fundamentally different before and after their big reveal: Chase was and is the guy who tries too hard. Brian is still stupid, but differently stupid.

JF: Yeah, I guess by “twist” I just meant “surprise.” Not very precise of me! Still, I was plenty surprised by Angie’s disclosure. You really couldn’t expect people to infer that her cross is more than your standard Goth accoutrement. ;)

GM: You’re right — but I don’t see why people should assume that it’s only your standard Goth accoutrement, either.

JF: Fair enough. Your comic also stands out because in a world of talking dinosaurs, improbable antics, and magic robots, it’s essentially 100% realistic—the sort of thing that might actually happen to you if you worked at a movie theater. What role do you think the impossible has in fiction?

GM: I do think that there is some absurdity in Multiplex; it’s maybe more 90% realistic than 100% realistic. But the reason for the amount of realism in the strip is that I’m talking about real movies and a real industry. Any serious commentary on that stuff is meaningless if I have a talking robot in the strip.

But I love random, impossible, absurd things. I’m just… well, honestly, my writing interests have always leaned towards the real. When stories have almost nothing to connect itself to reality, they’ve got to be beautifully rendered, or I tune out really quickly.

As for the impossible, I think it’s obviously used as escapism a lot, but in the right hands, the impossible can be used as sort of a fun-house mirror to look back at ourselves. It may be showing us a distorted image, but it’s still real; it’s still truth. There has to be some element of reality in a story or it cannot have any real meaning.

Not that stories need to “mean” something; action movies often have absolutely no purpose other than to entertain, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, you know, too much junk food rots your teeth. Too much junk storytelling rots your brain.

JF: Amen to that. Why don’t you leave us with a recommendation? A webcomic that’s both fantastic and says something substantial. Or, barring that, I’m sure we’d appreciate anything that’s just good storytelling… ::grin::

GM: Well, it’s not running anymore, but I think Minus managed to turn out a few soul-wrenching strips in-between its tales of an omnipotent little girl. The three-parter beginning here — http://www.kiwisbybeat.com/minus25.html — has really stuck with me.

I can’t just recommend one webcomic, though! I love Octopus Pie. That seems to be everybody and their mother’s favorite recent webcomic. I also love Diesel Sweeties, Girls With Slingshots, Voids… Theater Hopper and Joe Loves Crappy Movies, of course. I miss Perry Bible Fellowship and Beaver & Steve (which is on hiatus). Ummm… I dunno.

Outside of webcomics, I’ve recently gotten into The Wire, and although I’ve only seen the first season so far, it’s absolutely brilliant. Some of the tightest, best writing I’ve ever seen. Mad Men is also pretty amazing.

JF: Good comics, all of those. Though I certainly don’t keep up with Octopus Pie like I should. Thanks for the interview, Gordon!

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.

Feature: Chase from Multiplex

Hey, folks. Jackson Ferrell here, reporting in from on vacation. It's not Friday, but stuff has been goin' on at the Multiplex what bears mention. Let's get up to speed, 'kay?

Multiplex is a biweekly workplace-humor-and-movie-commentary webcomic about the staff of the (fictional) Multiplex 10 Cinemas. Since he first signed on as a Multiplex 10 employee, Chase has been the resident skeezy guy, hitting on anything female that's not underage. The week before last, the release of the Sex and the City movie gave Chase ample opportunity to ply his trade, resulting in a string of turned-down pick-up lines. The five-strip, week-long series culminated with Chase, shall we say, getting lucky with two ladies who turned out to be dudes. Chase later has a personal conversation with his assistant manager about the experience: "Hypothetically, would something like that mean you're gay?" Neil: "Probably..."

Next time Chase shows up, he's gone from lust-for-the-ladies posterboy to 100% gay-guy stereotype. Yeah, you know Jack from "Will and Grace?" The new Chase makes him look straight.

The whole "Chase sequence" has had several funny moments (if you are able to tolerate a measure of South-Park-style gross-out comedy). In this entry, I'd like to take a closer look at Chase and what makes him funny.

To my thinking, Chase is a funny character because he's just the right mix of earnest and oblivious. It's not like he's trying to hide anything with his hyper-heterosexual girl-chasing antics. You get the impression that on some strange level, he really means it when he wants everything to be a euphemism for something. Similarly, after his turnaround, he throws himself into his new fruit-flavored persona because he's utterly certain that this is what being gay really is. Either way, Chase is so thoroughly confused that he doesn't even know how confused he is. He is really sincerely convinced that he's got a handle on his own identity! And that's funny.

Something else that's worth pointing out: whether you believe homosexuality is a choice or not, you can still enjoy the humor in Chase's plight. It would be easy to make some heavy-handed point here about sexual orientation and identity, something about Chase "accepting this facet of himself." But here's the thing: an artist's worldview influences his work, but a creative work should never be merely a vehicle for one's worldview. Multiplex creator Gordon McAlpin understands that, and whatever his views on the subject, he's not going to dilute the comedy by getting preachy on us. As a result, even a guy like me with conservative sexual views can get a few laughs out of the comic. There's a time and a place for talking seriously about sexuality issues, but Multiplex's focus is first and foremost entertainment. Creative people, take note--you could learn a lot from the Chase sequence!

Anyway, I've got to get back to the serious business of vacationing. But tune in on Friday for your regularly-scheduled "This Week in Webcomics," this time guest-hosted by the illustrious Peter Metzger.