Brilliant comics, unknown artists

November 1, 2007 12:41 AM

Online nerds have known for years that webcomics are often much more daring and interesting than newspaper tripe like Beetle Bailey and Hagar the Horrible. An unknown kid from Fresno by the name S. Sakurai has brightened many of our days with his frequently brilliant work. His ongoing strip Muertitos is a Beetlejuice-esque afterlife gem, and Gorgeous Princess Creamy-Beamy is mostly about skewering anime cliches, aliens, lesbians, and junk food. I was hooked as soon as one of his alien characters described our land vehicles as being "powered by exploding dinosaurs." Highly recommended for any Bloom County/Calvin and Hobbes fans, particularly those who grew up playing 8-bit Nintendo and watching Sailor Moon.
posted by ELF Radio (53 comments total)

I think this post just gave me back my virginity.
posted by Mikey-San at 12:55 AM on November 1, 2007 [2 favorites]

Recommended for Calvin and Hobbes fans? The artwork sucks and C&H was gorgeous. There is a huge difference between stroke efficiency and lazyness and suckyness.
posted by delmoi at 1:29 AM on November 1, 2007

Nice tags there, dear.
posted by liquorice at 1:32 AM on November 1, 2007

Delmoi,

I guess i should have added the caveat that my links go to the BEGINNING of the strips, and that they were drawn years ago. Perhaps i should have linked to the "current" comic, but i'm just not aware of the internet protocol of such things. The artwork gets steadily better as it progresses -- anyone remember how crude and scratchy the early Bloom County strips were?
posted by ELF Radio at 1:44 AM on November 1, 2007

Sorry, the artwork still sucks in the 'current' stuff as well. At least in my view.
posted by delmoi at 2:02 AM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

......then you could try READING them, maybe.

Or not. I ain't here to please you.
posted by ELF Radio at 2:16 AM on November 1, 2007

Sure, there are plenty of wonderful webcomics that kick the shit out of the dailies - Achewood, XKCD, Perry Bible, etc - but these are just terrible.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 2:18 AM on November 1, 2007

Creamy-Beamy and Muertitos are long-time favorites of mine, but my wife can't stand them. Not so much the fat-fetish* as something more elusive but also creepy I think.

Now Perry Bible, that's an unpleasant comic.

*Note: I read them for the humor, not the fetishy bits.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:31 AM on November 1, 2007

This thread ought to see a lot of fun when folks start waking up in the US. I better get ready now ...

1) Tsk-tsk noises at sebastienbailard re: his Perry Bible Fellowship comment.

2) Cue "Wendell" comment.

3) Quick perusal of Your webcomic is bad and you should feel bad.

4) Check a relevant earlier thread.

5) Make popcorn, sit back.
posted by barnacles at 2:38 AM on November 1, 2007

Loved Bloom County, Adored C&H, read 3 of these and feel no need to return. It feels

In the future, it might help if you don't build up expectations in your post. Anything called brilliant, should be so, as opposed to "meh"

anyone remember how crude and scratchy the early Bloom County strips were?

Yeah, but they were still brilliant.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:43 AM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Note: Perry Bible Fellowship isn't, stricty speaking, a webcomic because it actually sees print in some places.
posted by JHarris at 2:45 AM on November 1, 2007

What do you mean, Tsk-tsk? PBF is always a bit funny, but ultimately depressing. I call that unpleasant.

Now, Ziggy, that's some good funny.

"Art is just some aesthetical, intellectual wank fest so excuse me if I indulge myself in some art."

p.s. Is anyone else reading Hsu and Chan,
Pinch of the Glass, or Gnoph?
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:50 AM on November 1, 2007

Online nerds have known for years that webcomics are often much more daring and interesting than newspaper tripe...

And the rest of society has known for a long time that online nerds have a particularly narrow view of the world and are often out of touch with the rest of humanity.

To each their own. I find that many web comics are hyper-geeky and not very funny. If I want a truly funny comic to read, I flip open my complete set of Farside cartoons...originally published in newspapers.
posted by Muddler at 2:52 AM on November 1, 2007 [2 favorites]

ELF, your FPP text offered me hope that I had a new web-comic to add to my daily diet of web-comic consumption.

Love, love, love Calvin & Hobbes. I grew up playing 8-bit Nintendo and (secretly) watching Sailor Moon. This comic seemed to be me.

I promise you I read a lot of these and decided that I'm not a fan.

But thanks for the link anyway. It's always nice to be led to new things that I may appreciate and while on this occasion I didn't, I appreciate the effort and your enthusiasm for the comic nonetheless.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:50 AM on November 1, 2007

barnacles, I just woke up!

1) Perry Bible Fellowship is consistently brilliant. Though I think it's totally fair to call it "unpleasant". I don't go around recommending it all willy-nilly any more than I tell my sister that she would would really love listening to Finntroll.

2) None of Sakurai's strips seem to end well. Or begin well. Also, the middle parts are not good. In other words:

3) His webcomic is bad and he should feel bad.

4) You can tell it's a comic because the font is comic sans. That's how you can tell it's a comic.

5) Lately, I've been adding a bit of curry powder and garlic-salt to the oil in which I cook stovetop popcorn. The results are pleasantly zesty!
posted by Greg Nog at 4:02 AM on November 1, 2007

Metafilter: I ain't here to please you.
posted by wfrgms at 4:09 AM on November 1, 2007

I feel like I've just been promised the best cake ever made, and someone thought that using a tin of prepared frosting on a Betty Crocker mix cake would be sufficient. These comics aren't horrible, but they're clearly pandering to certain audiences.

The cake is a lie.
posted by Saydur at 4:23 AM on November 1, 2007 [3 favorites]

edgier is not the same as funnier

(also what Saydur said)
posted by caddis at 4:33 AM on November 1, 2007

......then you could try READING them, maybe.

In the long run a webcomic with lousy art isn't worth it (unless "lousy" art is a key part of the comic's style as in the case of Jerkcity, etc.). The art is an integral and important part of a worthwhile comic. It's not just illustrations for a script. Cookie-cutter mangaesque styles are especially suspect to me, and I'll generally only read a few strips of one before moving on, and I'm afraid neither of these is an exception. Also true for anything that looks like Penny Arcade but isn't Penny Arcade. Or anything that looks a bit like Sluggy Freelance, including Sluggy Freelance.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 4:38 AM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

Now, Ziggy, that's some good funny.

oh no you didn't
posted by soundofsuburbia at 4:40 AM on November 1, 2007

Meh.
posted by tommasz at 4:42 AM on November 1, 2007

There's something really unappealing about nerd humour that I find difficult to put my finger on. Maybe it's just that the dialogue in nerd webcomics always sounds like it was written by Joss Whedon's retarded brother - but I think there's something more to it.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot at 4:53 AM on November 1, 2007

nicolas: In my case it's because I know that, any second now, somebody is going to whip out a line like "that's no moon, it's a space station!" or various Monty Python quotes. Too many nerds think parroting the same lines over and over and over is the height of humor.

I have managed, I think, to cure myself of this afflction. Yes I, too, once suffered from Nerd Humor Deficit.
posted by Justinian at 5:18 AM on November 1, 2007

Online nerds have known for years that webcomics are often much more daring and interesting than newspaper tripe like Beetle Bailey and Hagar the Horrible.

Online nerds? WTF?

And why the hate on Bailey and Hagar? Shouldn't the comics you link to be interesting enough on their own without degrading specific print titles? I mean, why not throw a little hate at Garfield?

An unknown kid from Fresno by the name S. Sakurai

An unknown kid whose location and name is known?

mostly about skewering anime cliches, aliens, lesbians, and junk food.

Because, you know, all of those things are edgy topics which have never been pursued in any sort of medium before... Aliens and Lesbians? Wow. I mean just wow.

I was hooked as soon as one of his alien characters described our land vehicles as being "powered by exploding dinosaurs."

You were huh?

Highly recommended for any Bloom County/Calvin and Hobbes fans, particularly those who grew up playing 8-bit Nintendo and watching Sailor Moon.

Oh oh! What about Thundercats?!?
posted by wfrgms at 5:43 AM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

posted by ELF Radio I ain't here to please you.

Yes, you are. MetaFilter is about sharing links with a community, which means if you wish to share a link, that link had damn well better be worth sharing. When you make a substandard front-page post, you waste everyone's time and valuable real estate on the front page by taking time and attention away from FPPs that really deserve it. MetaFilter is read by scientists, doctors, IT professionals, firefighters, soldiers, police officers, construction workers, elected officials, authors, reality television participants, people who screw caps on tubes of toothpaste, mechanics, students, overwrought housewives, bloggers, CEOs, unemployed middle managers, and many other people who do not have time to waste reading something only you think is interesting or funny.

Your ignorance and apathy is appalling and disgusting. How dare you post this tripe to MetaFilter and then claim you owe us neither an explanation nor an apology for wasting our valuable time that we have wasted reading MetaFilter. Posting to the front page is a privilege, which means you're signing a contract that guarantees you have made an effort to please us with a post that's worth our time and attention and you simply cannot throw up your hands in apathy when we point out that your post does not meet our criteria for acceptability. Yours is quite possibly the worst FPP in the entire history of MetaFilter, and you should be ashamed of yourself, but you clearly lack the wisdom to be so. We can only hope you will make every effort to please us in the future, which shouldn't be difficult, because you've got nowhere to go but up.
posted by fandango_matt at 5:44 AM on November 1, 2007 [5 favorites]

fandango_matt is a trifle harsh, but... well, Brandon Blatcher said it succinctly:

In the future, it might help if you don't build up expectations in your post. Anything called brilliant, should be so, as opposed to "meh"

This isn't the worst FPP in the entire history of MetaFilter, but f_m's right, you are here to please us. I realize that's what you were trying to do, but reacting to criticism with "I ain't here to please you" is just dumb.
posted by languagehat at 6:01 AM on November 1, 2007 [1 favorite]

I was kidding.
posted by fandango_matt at 6:06 AM on November 1, 2007

But you don't think this is a great post, do you?
posted by languagehat at 6:26 AM on November 1, 2007

No.

But you know what would be a great post? A&E stops production on Dog The Bounty Hunter after Dog tells his son to dump his African-American girlfriend or be fired.
posted by fandango_matt at 6:35 AM on November 1, 2007

Is this where we mention our favorite webcomics? I'm sure everyone and their mother are aware of xkcd, but I also like Unshelved (set in a suburban public library) and Terror Island (is it still a comic if it has photographs rather than drawings? Oh well. This one is better appreciated from the start, IMO.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 6:55 AM on November 1, 2007

Remember when the Sunday paper had something called the funnies? I couldn't wait to run down to the 7-11 to buy a pack of strawberry Now n' Laters and the paper. I'd run home all hopped up on sugar and barely able to contain my excitement in anticipation of reading what that nutty Marmaduke got himself into this week. Eventually I'd have to ask my mother "Mom, if these are the funnies, how come I never ever laugh?" She told me "Because they're called the funnies, silly!"
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 7:06 AM on November 1, 2007

Brilliant Comics = Patrick Farley.
posted by adamvasco at 8:50 AM on November 1, 2007

MetaFilter is read by scientists, doctors, IT professionals, firefighters, soldiers, police officers, construction workers, elected officials, authors, reality television participants, people who screw caps on tubes of toothpaste, mechanics, students, overwrought housewives, bloggers, CEOs, unemployed middle managers, and many other people...

Your description of Metafilter's readership sounds an awful lot like the Village People. Maybe that's why fun to stay at the M-E-T-A.
posted by MegoSteve at 9:24 AM on November 1, 2007 [3 favorites]

Ah, and yet another bright young poster is introduced unexpectedly to the prickly love pillow of Metafilter snark.

ELF Radio, I won't sugarcoat it for you. The strips you linked to are nothing special. But don't let the others here get you down too bad, they're just engaging in the Blue's national sport. Just calibrate your zeitgeist sensors and try again.
posted by JHarris at 9:33 AM on November 1, 2007

Girl Genius is my current fav. It's steampunk and a lot of fun.

Here is a single panel that gives a good taste of what it's like.

The story starts here
posted by webnrrd2k at 9:35 AM on November 1, 2007

 
posted by blue_beetle at 10:27 AM on November 1, 2007

I thought Cat And Girl was clever.
posted by JHarris at 10:34 AM on November 1, 2007

Well, since everyone already beat on the OP, here's an installment from "a webcomic I like, but unfortunately it's not in English":

Dorothy Band (index). It recently ended its run, but was awesome stuff. Great artwork and character design, lots of physical comedy. It was the Wizard of Oz, but if Dorothy and friends got together to create a band, and they head on their way to visit the Oz label to get a record deal from the Wizard. Going to be released in bookform. That's what I find cool about the Korean webcomic market. A lot of good quality stuff from talented people that gets enough attention to be released into books with backing from established online media outlets, even getting a movie or TV drama treatment; and there are also print comic and those with cartoon backgrounds crossing over to do webcomics. Wide pool of talent
posted by kkokkodalk at 11:01 AM on November 1, 2007

Fandango_Matt,

My deepest apologies, you elected-firefighting-executive-supermodel-cowboy-astronaut. Sure, maybe the webcomics i linked aren't as interesting or as worthy of serious contemplation as Cheetah Poops Through Sunroof, but then again, what is? Sir, you can't expect everyone to live up to that standard of excellence, it's just not fair. As for my shortness or dismissiveness, how else does one respond to people who start off with I don't like it, and then follow up with It sucks, and then caps off the scintillating argument with It's bad and you should feel bad? Seriously, if you could spin that into a grand Socratic dialogue, i'd love to know how. For then i would be a master of rhetoric, and perhaps worthy of standing on the same stage as the Pooping Cheetahs of the world.
posted by ELF Radio at 12:30 PM on November 1, 2007

PS...

Oh, Fandango, i actually thought you were serious for a moment! I just looked at your posts, and i see that you've linked us to Big Pig, Cat Furniture, Bald Cock, a Star Wars YouTube video, and Pornographic Pastries... which appeared to be a link to a bunch of photos of cakes shaped like gentalia. Bravo, sir, bravo.
posted by ELF Radio at 12:39 PM on November 1, 2007

Oh ELF, but you see, those are amusing. We don't care if something isn't high-class as long as it's funny. And your shitty webcomics are neither.
posted by schroedinger at 3:38 PM on November 1, 2007

Schroedingle,

I can't help it if my sense of humor is perhaps more refined and literate than yours.

/kidding
/or am i?
posted by ELF Radio at 3:53 PM on November 1, 2007

MetaFilter is read by scientists, doctors, IT professionals, firefighters, soldiers, police officers, construction workers, elected officials, authors, reality television participants, people who screw caps on tubes of toothpaste, mechanics, students, overwrought housewives, bloggers, CEOs, unemployed middle managers,

and a guy who opens boxes.

(I'd like to second the slapdown of the Beetle and Hagar hate. Are they groundbreaking art? No. Are they good for a chuckle? Sure. That's a long way from tripe. Not everything has to be a grand new aesthetic experience, and thinking that it does leads to the stilted, arid 'humor' of most webcomics)
posted by jonmc at 4:54 PM on November 1, 2007

Too many nerds think parroting the same lines over and over and over is the height of humor.

So this parrot, it vibrates?
posted by quin at 4:57 PM on November 1, 2007

I can't help it if my sense of humor is perhaps more refined and literate than yours.

You aren't clever or funny. You cannot win in this thread, nor can you break even at this point.

But feel free to go Three-Mile-Island on us. The MetaTalk thread you post afterwards will be awesome.
posted by Mikey-San at 8:20 PM on November 1, 2007

What's a MetaTalk thread?
posted by ELF Radio at 8:29 PM on November 1, 2007

This thread is painful to read. Quirky newbie posts his favorite webcomics, proceeds to be shredded by MeFi's quality cops. I've been in that position in other places :(
posted by p3on at 11:26 PM on November 1, 2007

and to answer your question: metatalk
posted by p3on at 11:29 PM on November 1, 2007

Wow, i'm receiving actual hate mail over this! They all boil down to "everyone hates you, you suck, go away." I'm left with very little insight as to why these suck, just that they do and "everyone" knows it.

Good Lord, this isn't Fark, people.

Mikey-san, i wasn't even aware that threads could be won and lost.
posted by ELF Radio at 11:31 PM on November 1, 2007

p3on: "This thread is painful to read. Quirky newbie posts his favorite webcomics, proceeds to be shredded by MeFi's quality cops. I've been in that position in other places :("

Yeah except this one didn't know when to quit. Which, specifically, was before he began with the insults-in-reply.

ELF, I refer you again to what I said up-thread, and add that I think it best if you take a deep breath and walk away from this thread. I say that not as an insult, a snark or a joke. I say it as someone who once was a n00b in a similar position to you and wants you to stick around to link to other things that might be worth seeing out there on the web.

Remember this; that whereas you think your FPP was awesome, not everyone will agree all of the time and you just gotta accept that sometimes. Going postal when the quality police are poking you with sticks is not the best way to make your early Metafilter experience a positive one.
posted by Effigy2000 at 3:30 AM on November 2, 2007

But Effigy, i'm a southern boy. We was taught to fight back.
posted by ELF Radio at 12:05 PM on November 2, 2007

In the big picture, this is just another datapoint for my ongoing amazement at how totally fragmented the world of webcomics is. There are a million strips out there, and most of them are only read by a handfull of people who think they're awesome.
posted by COBRA! at 12:54 PM on November 2, 2007

Telling people what to do to be cool isn't particularly cool.
posted by krilli at 4:59 AM on November 3, 2007