Dog Hates Me, a comic

September 24, 2009 5:08 AM

Dog Hates Me is the Sam Brownyist comic ever by Sam Brown (of explodingdog fame). Expect big thick lines, bright colors, and robots.

Sam Brown became known for the red robot (previously: 1, 2).

posted by The Devil Tesla (66 comments total)

This, and the one about the robot that dates a girl, are proof to me that my sense of irony is busted. I love comics, but just don't get these.
posted by jbickers at 5:20 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh good, it's not just me. I see almost no humor in these. There are a few that are slightly amusing, but I think it's almost inadvertent.

If this is caused by a busted irony detector, jbickers, I guess we both have one. :)
posted by Malor at 5:39 AM on September 24, 2009

Believe me, I don't like these ironically. damn hipsters
posted by The Devil Tesla at 5:44 AM on September 24, 2009

Dog Hates Me is the ultimate comic strip.
posted by clango at 5:52 AM on September 24, 2009

Are you talking about Diesel Sweeties? I've never been able to get into that one, but I love explodingdog. I would love to see a Venn diagram of webcomics fans. Now I just need a ton of money so I can offer the Webcomix prize for a webcomix recommendations system that improves by 10%.
posted by edbles at 6:02 AM on September 24, 2009

I guess I'm too old to get these. I was brought up with comic strip that contained actual comedy.
posted by JeffK at 6:06 AM on September 24, 2009

Is this self-parody?
posted by fire&wings at 6:09 AM on September 24, 2009

Why are you all complaining? These are at least as funny as any comic strip you'd find in your newspaper.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 6:09 AM on September 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

Well, I'm a middle aged man and I think these are hilarious. Most of them. I laughed like a loon at this one, anyway.
posted by the dief at 6:10 AM on September 24, 2009

These are at least as funny as any comic strip you'd find in your newspaper.

Yes. Exactly.
posted by rusty at 6:13 AM on September 24, 2009 [7 favorites]

I like these because they evoke a mood!
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 6:21 AM on September 24, 2009

Is it bad etiquette to say you don't like Diesel Sweeties right after R. Stevens posts?
posted by bDiddy at 6:24 AM on September 24, 2009

Sweet. Something new for Natalie Dee to rip off.
posted by ElmerFishpaw at 6:26 AM on September 24, 2009 [6 favorites]

fleetmouse (a cartoon)

panel 1: I'm reading comics!

panel 2: but now I'm late for work! [wavy lines denote panic]

panel 3: [archetypal cigar boss yelling "you're late!"]
posted by fleetmouse at 6:27 AM on September 24, 2009 [5 favorites]

I love this one.
posted by Corduroy at 6:28 AM on September 24, 2009

These seem to suffer from the general webcomic malaise: they're only funny if you set your expectations really low.

Quite honestly I'd expect most people on MetaFilter to be able to generate better ideas than these at a rate of about one a minute. The drawing might take a little longer.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 6:28 AM on September 24, 2009

Is it bad etiquette to say you don't like Diesel Sweeties right after R. Stevens posts?

That wasn't him, it was a cartoon robot.
posted by The Devil Tesla at 6:30 AM on September 24, 2009

I agree...this one lacks artistic talent, humor, and interesting topics, other than that it has all the elements I expect from a comic strip on the internet, that is...being a comic strip (I guess) and being on the internet (that part I'm sure of, 'cuz, look, I'm on the internet reading it)..
posted by HuronBob at 6:37 AM on September 24, 2009

"My milks has booze in it."

What's not to like?
posted by chunking express at 6:49 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

While not exactly hilarious, these amuse me. That's enough, I think.
posted by Captain Cardanthian! at 7:01 AM on September 24, 2009

Yeah, these don't do it for me on the funny. The art is great, the design is wonderful, but that last panel in 9 out of 10 of these is just lame.

Really disappointing, too because the rest of the strip is really eye-catching and engaging.
posted by Lipstick Thespian at 7:06 AM on September 24, 2009

I'm going to make something that isn't disappointing...
posted by The Devil Tesla at 7:07 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ah, Exploding Dog. With all respect due to Captain Beefheart, I prefer Sam's version of making love to a vampire with a monkey on my knee.
posted by adipocere at 7:10 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm sorry, but I like these in a totally unironic way.
posted by scrutiny at 7:11 AM on September 24, 2009

Thanks for the post, because

1. now I know to avoid this comic
2. bad comic posts always generate good comic comments

posted by DU at 7:15 AM on September 24, 2009

People who don't like Sam Brown shall be damned to read Penny Arcade every day for all eternity in Bridgeport CT.

The funny ones are funny, but there are sweet and sad ones too. It's basically directly from our secret hearts. Maybe it helps if you read them while wondering about what the hell your own life is all about while blinking back a ferocious hangover/heartbreak.

Je suis Lazer Eyes.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:19 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I love Sam Brown, but yeah his aesthetic doesn't appeal to everyone. And that's okay, we've all got our blindspots. I don't understand the appeal of Chris Ware at all, for instance, but many people that I like and respect love him.
posted by Lentrohamsanin at 7:28 AM on September 24, 2009

I don't understand the appeal of Chris Ware at all

Whoa, whoa, you don't whaty what now?
posted by everichon at 7:34 AM on September 24, 2009

Oh yeah, Chris Ware is the worst. Always leaves me both crying with boredom and bored by despair.
posted by DU at 7:36 AM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

That was nicely done, DU.
posted by everichon at 7:39 AM on September 24, 2009

Shark legs. Now that's funny.
posted by chavenet at 7:47 AM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

I haven't felt a need to move beyond Calvin & Hobbes. I'm good.
posted by itchylick at 7:47 AM on September 24, 2009

Antimetabole!
posted by everichon at 7:47 AM on September 24, 2009

I think brown’s aesthetic is all about colors and lines, and that’s why it works so well in the exploding dog landscape format, and not so well in the restrictive three panel form. His characters have never been the most dynamic part of his work, so it kindof flops when too much attention is paid to them.
posted by Think_Long at 7:48 AM on September 24, 2009

Well, at least he's updating on time with consistent stuff. I'm trying to get my own webcomic going, and until I have a good schedule down I've been in a holding pattern of crap crap I need an Idea before firing up MSpaint in desperation.
posted by hellojed at 7:54 AM on September 24, 2009

I've been in a holding pattern of crap crap I need an Idea

On the evidence of these Sam Brown has never let that stop him.
posted by unSane at 8:01 AM on September 24, 2009

Well, at least he's updating on time with consistent stuff. I'm trying to get my own webcomic going, and until I have a good schedule down I've been in a holding pattern of crap crap I need an Idea before firing up MSpaint in desperation.

all you have to do is ask
posted by Think_Long at 8:03 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I guess we're all weird in our own weird ways. I find this guy's stuff charming as hell, even when I'm baffled as to what he can possibly be on about.
posted by Skot at 8:06 AM on September 24, 2009

I'm going to make something that isn't disappointing...
posted by The Devil Tesla at 10:07 AM on September 24 [+] [!]

Fail.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 8:09 AM on September 24, 2009

Darn. I thought it was going to be about a dog. I like dogs.
posted by trip and a half at 8:11 AM on September 24, 2009

Actually now that I'm thinking about it my freshmen year college dorm broke down on explodingdog fault lines me and my roommate loved them. Everyone else hated them. I like them for the random drop principal. Where you read and respond boring, okay, kind of lame, milk snortingly funny, bittersweet, okay, heartbreaking, okay thing that happens. Kind of like Hodgman's 700 hobo names.
posted by edbles at 8:30 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Upon further viewing, the Exploding Dog panels work for me pretty well. I enjoy his artwork. I am not enjoying "Dog" very much.
posted by everichon at 8:47 AM on September 24, 2009

Er, not enjoying "Dog Hates Me" very much, that is.
posted by everichon at 8:48 AM on September 24, 2009

mehtafilter
posted by e.e. coli at 8:59 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Good, bad or indifferent, any webcomic that embeds the strips in their RSS feed automatically gets bonus points from me.
posted by Lazlo at 9:04 AM on September 24, 2009

Even though this isn't the type of webcomic discussed in the video, i feel the need to post this anyway:

Zero Punctuation - "Webcomics"
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 9:12 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

Kind of like Hodgman's 700 hobo names.

Not really selling it with that one.
posted by eyeballkid at 9:16 AM on September 24, 2009

It's not irony, its absurdism with a dash of poignancy. If you despise Pokey the Penguin, you probably won't like this... and even if you like Penny Arcade, if you don't like Catsby and Twisp, you probably won't like this.

That said, it lacks the gut-punch the best Exploding Dog comics have - it's engaging and entertaining, but I haven't seen a strip that makes me go "wow" in the same way this does. Single panel comics don't have to be funny to be powerful.
posted by Slap*Happy at 9:17 AM on September 24, 2009

You know what helps me with these? Mental Grover voice. I read these to myself and imagine the voice of Grover the Muppet delivering the lines, and it ups the funny (or the sad, when appropriate) by half. "And my milk has booze in it!" Hilarious. Yes, Grover, there is booze in your milk. Heh.

Also, I do this with MeFi comments.
posted by scatter gather at 9:17 AM on September 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

Sometimes Metafilter has an inability to understand things that are good.
posted by Artw at 9:24 AM on September 24, 2009 [3 favorites]

Sam Brown's Exploding Dog is all about exploring style, mood & message, not so much humor, so when he started the more conventional comic Dog Hates Me, I didn't expect "funny", and I wasn't disappointed. A few weeks ago he went over a week without updating and I thought, "OK, time to put this experiment to rest", but he resumed, did a couple full-ha-ha gags with lazer-eyes robot, and I decided I could live with it.

Now, Diesel Sweeties is funny. Nice mix of robotics, sexy fun and trendiness bashing, and r.stevens (MeFi's clango, so I know he's reading this) has been working on character building so the personalities have more detail than the ingeniously simple 8-bit illustration style. He has also spun-off the iPhone-sized twice-weekly LOLBOTS which aspires to nothing more than 'cute', even when Red Robot (created by Sam Brown) is bashing things.

But for a fresh new webcomic, I'd recommend Not Invented Here, the IT-based goody written by Unshelved's Bill Barnes and drawn by the 'I've-missed-your-style-so-much-since-Ugly-Hill-ended' Paul Southworth. Not totally LOL, but a well-defined battle of witlessness between two familiar tech archetypes, and to promote the new comic, the NIH guys are visiting the library of Unshelved, drawn by Southworth and putting Barnes' usual Drabble-esque art totally to shame (sorry).

I'm more concerned that MeFi's Own Lore Sjöberg has stopped updating his Bad Gods comic, right after doing a Leprechaun Cloaca gag.

(And speaking of MeFi/webcomic tie-ins, MeFi's Own John Scalzi is a guest 'character' in Rocket Roadtrip.)
posted by wendell at 9:31 AM on September 24, 2009 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I don't think these are that good either. Not as good as his one panel strips. And the art somehow looks way lamer too.
posted by delmoi at 9:37 AM on September 24, 2009

Speaking of webcomics with nice line quality, I see that Savage Chickens has only hit the blue once before - I quite like what he does in a very constrained format.
posted by dylanjames at 10:04 AM on September 24, 2009

It's no Ziggy.
posted by blue_beetle at 10:41 AM on September 24, 2009 [1 favorite]

I really really like this.

That is all.

Carry on.
posted by Ratio at 11:12 AM on September 24, 2009

dylanjames, I'm a Savage Chickens fan too, but it really isn't "MetaFilter" style. Maybe if we spread a rumor Doug Savage was Adam Savage's brother.
posted by wendell at 11:42 AM on September 24, 2009

but it really isn't "MetaFilter" style

There is a "MetaFilter" style?
posted by The Devil Tesla at 11:56 AM on September 24, 2009

OK, but this one is pretty much how I understand romance.

Love me, love my food.
posted by LMGM at 2:24 PM on September 24, 2009

There is a "MetaFilter" style?

It's sort of hipstery without being TOO hipstery.
posted by Artw at 2:27 PM on September 24, 2009

It's sort of hipstery without being TOO hipstery.

THAT EXPLAINS EVERYTHING
posted by The Devil Tesla at 4:31 PM on September 24, 2009

There is a "MetaFilter" style?

$20 SAIT
posted by blue_beetle at 5:08 PM on September 24, 2009

This webcomic is not good.
posted by m0nm0n at 7:10 PM on September 24, 2009

I for one love Diesel Sweeties but hate the shit out of this. It's like one of those "100 bad comics" challenges except that there's no constraints on time and the comics are actually terrible.
posted by tehloki at 9:58 PM on September 24, 2009

I knew I was getting that wrong. It's 200 bad comics and they're hilarious.
posted by tehloki at 9:59 PM on September 24, 2009

The reaction here seems strange. Comics shouldn't be required to be funny. I've always thought that his work was interesting and fun. Even if most of the energy was spent trying to figure out where he was coming from.

I get an absurdest INFPish vibe from exploding dog, and this is more of the same awesomeness. The only difference is that the ennui is overdone here in three panels in the same way sitcoms ruins humour. Ennui is more interesting than funny.

Or something. Anyway, it's wine and guitar night and I'm not quite sure how I ended up here. Night, everyone!
posted by xorry at 11:06 PM on September 25, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think the excellent use of lines and colour is underappreciated here.
posted by Soupisgoodfood at 4:15 AM on October 4, 2009