Saturday Revue December 23: Robo Hole

 Brace Yourselves!

Your Life Is Being INVADED By

Black holes. Hyper-evolved technology. Asteroids destroying your yard.

An Algebra test at 9 in the morning to top it off. 

Brace yourselves, you are now entering the Robo Hole. Jump in with your guide, the creator Trusty Shamrock.

The Rating

The Raves

A wonderfully sharp and snarky tone keeps this classic 'alien in my back yard' storyline moving at a good clip, the wheels liberally greased in sarcasm.  This clever and quirky tale takes the idea of E.T. in a far less saccharine direction, replacing adorable grade school characters with jaded middle grade kids and all that comes with it: the angst, the arguments, the snide comments and the wit. The color palette matches the slightly sour mood of all early teenagers as they navigate the rocky road to adulthood, with some very interesting cybernetic twists and alien-induced surprises along the way. Like Stranger Things? Add a fourteen year old sister who's not amused and you've got Parsnip, our main female protagonist.

There's a good sense of world building in this story, and the character design is consistently witty and distinctive.  As the story continues, the learning curve on the art really shows, and the backgrounds on the newest pages are especially gorgeous. I've been more and more impressed by the creator's grasp of texture and lighting in the natural world.  The scene building is both well done and witty. 

The Razzes

Now that we've talked about how lovely the static scenes are, let's talk about human form and movement. It needs a little work. When standing still Parsnip and her gang look pretty good

 But when there's motion, things start to get a little stiff. There's some serious work to be done in foreshortening and in facial structure.
Let's begin with facial structure in profile and at an angle. The human face IS HARD, mainly because we're programmed to read tiny differences in human faces and therefore any minor issue in the face makes our brains go 'wait...no no no not good'. This is a hellish bane to artists.  But there's specific things that can be done to improve.
DragoArt does a wonderful full  tutorial on the subject of the human face, but the basics are shown in a single image:

Another good point to remember is:

Basically, the face is not flat. Unfortunately the creator has a tendency to draw it as if it is, which results in this uncomfortably wrong look.

 I reccomend keeping a copy of a really reliable artist's diagram for the human face and referencing it regularly until the problem is solved. Here's a good one from an old art book.

Another good resource is "Headshots" by Christine Welman a.k.a Errant Crow • Blog/Website (www.errantcrow.deviantart.com)

Now, for the movement problem. There are very few straight lines in the human body, so drawing a figure with straight lines isn't going to help the human eye. Take this piece for example. Without the s-curve to the spine, the body seems stiff and unreal. I recommend trying the Line Of Action method to improve fluidity.

Here's some ideas (MC's note: I got these a few years ago from a friend, if you know the artist feel free to comment with credit dear readers.)

 The Revue

Grab your tunes, turn up the volume and sit down  on Saturday morning with your cheerios and Robo Hole. Give yourself a treat.

Saturday Revue Octobe 21st: Moses Jones,Apocalyptic Mama

A Girl's Gotta Do...

What A Girl's Gotta Do...

Modern parenting is hard, and it just keeps getting harder. Teething troubles. Deadbeat dads. Zombies?
But Moses Jones has four mouths to feed, Madonna the Katana and a lot of moxy. She isn't letting a few undead slow her down. 'Moses Jones: Apocalyptic Mama' is her story. Written by Em Mccarty, this is zombie dystopia as you've never seen it before.

The Rating

Hmmm....close, but no katana.

The Raves

At its best,  'Moses Jones' reminds me of  the art therapy journal of someone coping with trauma: raw, beautifully lucid and painfully candid. The story revolves around the deep emotional bonds Moses forms, and when it stays on those themes it's wise, moving and meaningful. The emotional content packed into the work is palpable even in the simplest phrases, and the piece really does make you feel for the characters when it stays focused.
The art style is a pen-and ink lucid dream, as raw in its execution as a piece of folk art and as bluntly powerful when at its best. Sacrificing finesse for emotion, it delivers a gut shot that reminds me of Cheyenne artwork: its stark simplicity doesn't give you any wiggle room. You have to face it head on. This story pulls no punches, in storytelling or in style.

The Razzes

Unfortunately, those powerful punches are often thrown with the finesse of a wild haymaker, and too often they miss the mark. I admire the style that Mccarty is aiming for: the wistful lucid dreaming of a sensitive woman in a dystopian world, coping with her issues through her art. But both the storytelling and the art have a long road ahead of them before they can support such a powerful tale.
Here's my advice: do a lot of study on the anatomy of the human face and head. Here's the basics:


1. The eyes sit at the vertical center of the head or just above, about halfway between the top of the skull (not the hairline) and the bottom of the chin.

2. The bottom of the nose (not the bottom of the nose tip, which can be angled however) sits halfway between the brow and the chin.

3. The ears stretch from the eyes to the bottom of the nose.

4. The width of the eyes is roughly 1/5 of the distance from outer ear to outer ear. In wider faces, this doesn't apply.

5. The eyes are one eye-width apart.

6. The width of the nostrils is the same as the width between the eyes.

7. The center of the lips is located 1/3 of the way down the distance between the bottom of the nose and the chin.

8. The width of the lips (from side to side) is roughly pupil to pupil.

Fix the faces and the rest of the art will look at least twice as good.

Now, storytelling is harder to fix, but  my main advice is this: KISS. Keep it simple sir. Too often, the storytelling rambles off hither and yon: into the lives of side characters who aren't even named at first, into the past, off to moon about an absent lover. All these storylines have their place, but they feel more like loosely connected strands than a story fabric. I understand that the creator is aiming for a personal journal feel, but sacrificing story for style is a cardinal sin of comic making. Tighten the story up, or you're going to lose your readers.

The Revue

I'm keeping my eye on this one. With a little more attention and practice, it'll be shooting off zombie heads at two hundred paces!

Saturday Revue September 2: Lonely Skeleton

And Now, For The World Weary Reader, Presenting

 The Lonely Skeleton!

Sounds like the title of a kid's Halloween book, doesn't it? 'The Lonely Skeleton'. You can practically predict the plot. Poor Lonely Skeleton will be lonely. Then he'll make a friend. Then he'll be HAPPY!
....ahem. Not exactly. Imagine that kid's book was written by Kafka or Nietzsche. After a few shots of bad vodka. 

You get the idea....
That's 'Lonely Skeleton', a gaga gag-a-day strip created by João Duarte Silva.You were warned.

The Rating

Well played, sir. Well played.

The Raves

This offbeat comic will regularly have you bursting out in small spurts of giggling, because it states so baldly facts that we spend our entire lives dancing around that you laugh almost in self defense. Reminiscent of the Farside at its best, 'Lonely Skeleton' holds up a mirror to our lives and points out just how absurd the life we call 'real' is. Its main point is the meaning of life: that is, how desperate we all are for there TO BE ONE. Skeleton and Rock's pitifully desperate search for things to occupy their ENDLEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS time is at once hugely amusing and darkly satisfying. 

When you've had a rotten day at work, when you've realized that the paper you spent days writing will be read by the professor in about 5 minutes and then tossed, this is the comic to soothe your savage breast with. In future I know I'll flop down after a crappy day, flip through a few pages, smirk grimly and murmur 'damn straight!' to myself. And that, ladies and gentlemen, takes some skill. It isn't easy to tell people blatant truths in an amusing way, but Silva pulls it off with aplomb.

The style is classically gag-a-day simplistic, and has what I call the 'DIY aesthetic', meaning that a skilled artist is doing something with casual ease by hand. They aren't afraid for you to KNOW it's hand drawn, with slightly wobbly lines here and there, but the very fact that clean, well rendered drawings can be created in such a casual manner shows the skill of the creator. It took me back to reading Gary Larsen, PHD, Love And Rockets and some of my favorite indie zines.

The Razzes

Just one suggestion? Work on the lettering a touch; some of the hand-drawn letters are a touch blurry and difficult to parse at a glance. No big deal, but something to keep in mind. Other than that, as a reader I'd LOVE to see updates on a more regular basis, and would love even more to buy the print book of strips. When does it come out? Granted, I already know Skeleton's answer...

The Revue

Grab a shot of grey goose and give it a read when the boss has been an ass. You'll feel oddly validated in the ultimate meaninglessness of life...oh and you'll laugh too.

Sunday Revue June 5th: Brain Teaser Comics

Ladies and Gentlemen...

...Let your imagination run free with...

Brain Teaser Comics by Bruce Otter reminds me of the Rick and Morty episodes where they channel surf through inter-dimensional television (NSFW), because the TV shows they come across are surreal, gory, and at times defy explanation. You might also think of Brain Teaser Comics like Far Side strips because those were also surreal and expressed with wit through 1-panel of art, but these days I'm more familiar with Rick and Morty than I am with The Far Side.

Rating

Surreal, gory, Lovecraftian.

Raves

Whatever they remind you of, these stand-alone comics are wildly imaginative, and Bruce was really good at coming up with different concoction of ideas every week while this comic was running.

You do have to think of it like hors d'oeuvres for the mind (hence "brain teasers"). They're almost like writing prompts, or at least prompts to guide your idle, daydreaming imagination.

I didn't think I'd go through all of the teasers, but I did because I liked the combination of writing, Lovecraftian themes, and the sometimes shocking and off-putting graphic violence that accompanied it all.

A few more examples of the weirdness you'll find in Brain Teaser Comics:

This one has to be my favorite.

I don't even want to know how that "messy breakup" went down.

Joseph, you married poorly.

Razzes

The problem with Brain Teaser Comics though is that as a binge reader, it's like flipping through TV channels. After a while, I wonder why I'm doing it and I nod off. The comic doesn't further a plot nor is there any kind of shared continuity that follows through them, which is fine. I think it really means that this comic is better off read once a day -- you know, like if you had a comic-a-day calendar.

It seems like a work that's ideal for disseminating through social media. I don't know if Bruce ever considered it, but if not, even with the comic's run finished, maybe it could find some renewed life there.

Revue

If you're fine with a bit of shock and gore (or a fan of The Far Side or Rick and Morty) then feed your brain some of these surreal comics.