Sunday Revue January 14: Elsewhere

Grab Your Lightsaber, Here Comes

 Get your geek gear together for an amusing romp through all things college, nerd and pulp. If you need a chuckle, the gag-a-day comic Elsewhere isn't a bad place to turn. Created by Joseph Krejci, the comic is a cheerful blend of all things goofy.

The Rating

The Raves

With plenty of clever visual jokes and a good sense of fun, Elsewhere is the perfect thing to click through to supplement your funny papers. Elsewhere has a great sense of fun and regularly comes up with a lip-twister of a joke, especially for followers of pop culture or the state of human nature.

The art's come an awful long way in ten years, and these days it's quite stylish, with a good classic Sunday-funny-strip color scheme that compliments the material. The characters are cheerful and visually engaging, keeping you amused throughout. And the scenes are often quite relatable.

The Razzes

Elsewhere's greatest stumbling block is with its own indecision. I'd love to see it make up its mind. Is it a gag-a-day strip or a slice of life? If it's a gag-a-day, it could use tightening up on its jokes. For example, this snippet makes a great joke by itself

But the full page is rather unwieldy and a bit clunky.

 Humor needs a quick setup-delivery bounce to it. When a joke gets too elaborate, it becomes heavy and far less engaging than it is in a stripped-down form.

I'd also like to see a little more attention paid to anatomy, especially in the area of shoulders and hands. Granted we're discussing a simplistic style, but arms, shoulders and elbows should still be attached in a natural way and move in natural fashion. The page shown here has examples of the issues: The waving hand is attached to a straight tube, and the pointing hand in the third panel is attached oddly and looks crooked. Attention to details of anatomy like these can take a strip from good to great.

Reference photos might be a good method of improving in this area. I also recommend Kibbitzer's work on Deviantart for cartoonists: they do a lovely job of balancing style and creativity.
I'd also like to see a little more website work done. A ten year old comic shouldn't be without a favicon and a nice banner. This is another touch that polishes up a webcomic wonderfully.

The Revue

Stay in your pajamas, grab your Star Wars cereal bowl and have fun with a little humor and nostalgia a lá Elsewhere.