Category Archives: Reviews

Digital Strips Episode 227 – Review: Scenes From a Multiverse

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Not only does this mark the first podcast of 2011, it also marks my first time editing this bad boy! Long gone are the days when Steve would cut out choice, prime rants of mine! Welcome the dawn of getting what I want out of this! At least, until he returns.

And under my watch we’re kicking the year off with a little bit of everything! In our first segment we’re hitting some video games! Specifically…

We’re talking about SMB because… well, it’s just a great little frustrating game that everyone should try. Ghost Trick comes up because this upcoming DS puzzler recently teamed with your favorite Internet-born-and-bred superhero and mine, Dr. McNinja, to produce a comic befitting them both. Steve also found a quick, infinitely-canvased comic that relates to the world of video games. Creator Nicholas Lieske has worked on many PC games, including the RPG Sacred, and is now branching out to try his hand at webcomics. His first foray?

Our thanks go out to Joystiq and Kotaku for stories about both! If it’s in video games, they talked about it on either Joystiq or Kotaku. Most times, both.

Our final topic has three ingredients: Reddit, our featured comic of this week, and the whipping post of webcomics:

It’s got it all! Controversy, betrayal, humor, and tragedy. At least it does the way Steve tells it. The whole thing wouldn’t mean much without again mentioning El Santo’s comprehensive dissection, lovingly spread out over two parts at The Webcomic Overlook. And yes, I have neglected to link to anything of Carlos Mencia’s for your benefit. You’re welcome.

Our musical interlude comes to us courtesy of Silence is full of birds. It is their (his? her?) song, “Flowers” (19:00), and it’s a jaunty way to bring us into the meat and creme, the creme de la potatoes of our show, the second segment review.

This comic comes from a well-known, well-worn creator and gives us not only a great comic but a new take on the updating schedule that we haven’t seen yet. That’s right, in this day of look-alikes and been-there-done-thats, here’s something new. And of particular note are the Star Wars homage we mentioned as well as the rabbits. Oh, the rabbits. Wee.

Finally, when our outro’s concluded, there could be some talk of Oglaf (link behind an age-check wall but EXTREMELY NSFW), Steve Carell movies, and bikini car washes? Possibly, I heard a guy say something…

Other webcomics mentioned briefly:

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Digital Strips 222 – Review: ChickenHare

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I have survived enough yummy stuffing to clog all my arteries with bread, sudden snow storms and 3 days with my family and I have done it all to bring you guys the latest episode of Digital Strips. Today the comic sacrificed to the gods of podcastery is Chickenhare, by Chris Grine. It’s a fantasy adventure tale without orcs, and it’s good, so how often does that happen? (Quite often actually, thanks to the magic of Web comics, but I still like to make a big deal out of it in case the video game industry is listening).

We talk about this comic, the fact that most of it cannot be found online, the transition to color, the characters, the dialogue and everything else that tickles our fancy. We take a look at some new comics and some classics that are pushing into new areas. And we do it all as quickly as possible, because Jason had the sniffles.

One of the shorter shows recently, so you’ve not no reason not to listen.

Show Notes:
Order of the Stick
Questionable Content
Imagine this
Pie Comic
Dracula vs King Arthur
Web comic factory
Rice Boy
Meek
Bean

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Digital Strips 218 – Review: Pokeweed

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There are some weeks where I get the show down and think, “Man, I’m glad I don’t have to listen to that again,” but there are others where I can’t wait to download it, put it in my own mp3 player and listen to Jason make a fool of himself over and over again.

This week is one of those weeks.

This time around the Internet we are taking a look at Pokeweed by Drew Pocza. It’s a black and white, gag a day daily the likes of which we have never seen before. The sketching, inky art style is worth a gander if nothing else. But there is more, puns and poop jokes abound as the comic continues.

We also talk a lot about things that comics can do in general, such as backgrounds, pacing and not having a penguin doing bad things to a woman and have our first big fight in a while about the merits of awkward last panels.

We also talk about Web-based fan films, web comic centric raps and podcasters who left us (on the show not this mortal coil) far too early. All this and more in the latest episode of the orignal Web-comics podcast, Digital Strips.

Show Notes
Paperless Comics
Bug
Fallout Nuka Break
8 -bit Theater
How I killed your master
Adam Warrock
MC Frontalot
Dresdon Codak
Johnny Wander
The Lonliest Astronauts
The Meek
Silent Kimbly
Dawn of Time
Bean
String Theory
Finders Keepers
Penny Arcade
Faraday the blob

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Digital Strips 216 – Horizons Watch : Grumpiverse and The Dawn Chapel

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It’s time we go back to what this podcast was always supposed to be about: Two guys with very different tastes in comics telling each other how stupid the other one is.

We take on two very different comics this week. The very political Grumpiverse an the very cute The Dawn Chapel. Both are new comics, both are trying to do stuff that will set them apart from the see of sameness that the Web often has to offer and both are worth checking out.

We also talk about what’s kicking right now in the world of Web comics. What’s speaking to us, what’s trying new things and some basic principles that can make any comic better. We also revisit some past Digital Strips picks to see how they’re doing. All this and more on the latest episode of the bestest podcast ever.

Show Notes:
Epicsplosion
Good Ship Chronicles
Bear and Tiger
Head Injury theater
Hyperbole ad a half
Pictures for sad children
Penny Arcade
DND Podcast
PVP
Cyanide and Happiness
Bear Nuts
Dawn of Time
My milk Toof
One swoop fell
Abominable Charles Christopher
Fleen

Next Week:
String Theory

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Digital Strips 214 – Review : Bug

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When I was a kid, I went through a phase where I would eat Junebugs for a quarter each. My teachers blamed my parents for not raising me right. My parent blamed the school lunch system for eliminating my gag reflex. But really, I just had no money, and needed a way to get quarters for Street Fighter.

Speaking of bugs, today we take a look at Bug, a comic that is (sort of) about bugs. This daily has a lot of slice of life humor that human and insects alike can all related to. It has punchy writing and just a big of attitude. But does it have class? Does touch me in all the right places? Does it bring the rain? Tune in to find out.

Jason and I are both big fans of the Film Sack podcast, a show where they talk about odd movies. They have a saying on the show that the more off topic they get, the more they hate the movie. We strayed off Bug a couple times here, but since we’re not Film Sack, it doesn’t mean the same thing. I’m not even sure why I brought it up.

Show Notes:
Anagram maker
Penny Arcade
Bear and Tiger

There may have been more that I forgot, please let me know.

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Digital Strips 210 – Review Bullfinch

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There are a few advantages to being as dumb as I am. No one asks you to create an equation that will quantify the universe. The ending to mystery shows is always a surprise. And you’re wrong so often that you have so much practice admitting you’re wrong that it becomes really easy.

And that’s what this episode is. Steve “The Geek” Shinney admitting that he was wrong about a comic. They say you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, which is stupid, that’s why they have the picture on the cover so you can judge it. If a book has a dragon and a barbarian chick in a chain main bikini on the cover, I judge that I’m going to like it. You should not however judge a Web comic by it’s first hundred strips. That’s the lesson I’m trying to expound on here.

The comic we look at is Bullfinch, by TL Collins. It’s gone through many changes, from gag-a-day to long form story, from black and white to full color and from boring to really good. Come along and we’ll explain what happened and why we were so excited that it did.

Show Notes:
Rip Haywire
Calvin and Hobbes search engine
lilformers
Cyanide and Happiness
Pictures for Sad Children
Realm of Atland
Penny Arcade
First Rape Strip
The Second
Web comic overlook
CAD Review
CAD
Red’s Planet
Superfogeys
Templar Arizona

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Review: SWOR Blood of the Empire

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It has been weeks now since I heard the news of Star Warsâ„¢: The Old Republicâ„¢, Blood of the Empire was being developed as a collaborative venture between BioWare, LucasArts, and Dark Horse Comics. BioWare long cemented their spot in my heart when they released KoToR, making them the only company I would leave my day job for. This love affair even managed to survive the buyout by EA. Written in conjunction with the BioWare writing team working on Star Wars: The Old Republic and produced by the comic experts at Dark Horse, the comic is supposed to offer readers a dramatic introduction to the Old Republic time period in two weeks intervals.

The first issue recently made it to the site and wasn’t overly impressed. Because it is BioWare I will continue to read the comic but it’s not the best start. we are thrown into the middle of a battle that ends within 4 pages. There’s something that doesn’t come across in a webcomic when using a bond intro. Without the music or at least some kind of forced timing there is no way to get the pacing required to build suspense. So right away I’m losing interest because i can’t figure out if this battle is brought to an end through normal means (extreme carnage) or through the Sith taking down the tower. Leaving a reader in confusion is not the best tactic.

Moving on to the art, I felt like nothing new is being introduced. There is a vague similarity to the game art but when seeing it in comic form it just looks like something from the 90’s. Perhaps I’m being a little over critical but I read webcomics because they introduce me to something I’ve never seen before and/or do it better than anyone else. The art and font are so generic that I completely ignore them and have to say there is nothing remarkable worth mentioning, but I’ll try. Overall everything is fairly realistic and to scale, with no exaggerated features present in other art forms, such as manga. So you could say it follows the current trend in American comics, by softening the lines and killing off most of the detailed that would truly make it pop. Almost as if the things that would make each page salable have been sacrificed in return for mass production.

Despite having so much about it I don’t like I will be coming back. This is solely based on the product and my trust in the writers. My recommendation is to wait 3 months and then start reading it.

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MyCartoons.Org Review

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I was out of action for a month and let me start off with not a manga news update, but cute webcomic blog. This webcomic blog is MyCartoons.Org, and I believe that this webcomic blog has German origins.

Now I applaud this webcomic website because it tells a story with just a single panel and yet it can be so interesting to read. You will find yourself smiling, even with some snickering to yourself with the webcomic while the author toys with some dry wit or lame jokes into his artwork.

This is not easy because with just a single panel, the author manages to illustrate scenarios well, leaving you just enough hints to piece together what the author is trying to say. I really find that this is an ingenious way to portray a webcomic and it is an incredible job to pull it off well! Pretty sure not many folks could do that.

Best of all, the webcomics is actually ageless; it does not tell a story, and you do not have to check on it everyday or the archives to enjoy the webcomic. I guess I just like the casual and lighthearted way of the author’s illustrations, just like how I would read some Calvin and Hobbes random comics in a newspaper.

Just to note, sometimes the author tries to implant mature and suggestive thoughts into you in order to make you laugh, and I will rate it a PG-13 just for that. Beyond that, it is really safe for you to read them anywhere.

The author may not update every week; he draws for local publishers and gets paid by them. However it is still worth a good read, so
grab yourself a cup of coffee, take a break, and just take a look at this lighthearted webcomic when you are feeling stressed or down. I am sure you will feel pretty good after that!

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Digital Strips 191 – Review: Gastrophobia

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We already knew that barbarians can leap into the fray, sword raised he and while wearing nothing more than an animal skin drive an entire army of their enemies before them to the sounds of the lamentation of their women. But in today’s comic, Gastrophobia, we learn whether or not a barbarian can love.

This week we look at Gastrophobia, by David McGuire. It’s the story of a hardworking single mother Phobia and her quest to raise her short dumpy son according to her values despite a world who doesn’t share them. She also stabs monsters in the back and bosses their slave around. But this is Ancient Greece where such activities were considered moral.

This is another Jason pick, will his streak of unpolishable turds continue, or have I opened my heart enough to allow other people’s tastes a place inside? Find out on this episode of Digital Strips.

Show Notes:
Skaadi
Skaadi review show
Realm of Atland
Realm of Atland review show
Lovecraft is Missing
Storming the Tower
Web Comics Ponies
Dawn of Time
Girly
Gun show
Hereville
Lackadaisy
Wonderella

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Digital Strips 190 – Review Marooned

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People always ask what book/movie/cast member of Chuck you would want to have with you if you were stranded on a deserted island. They never ask this about Web comics, probably because if you had the internet you’d just send an email asking some one to come rescue you after you finished the archive of Sinfest.

Being stuck on another planet is an all together much more frightening proposition, and that forms the premise for this week’s comic Marooned. Captain John is stuck on Mars, and despite the fact that he lacks all skills, training and common sense, he’s doing his best to survive along with his angry robot Asimov and the many Martian races waiting beneath the surface. Is that hijinks that I smell about to ensue? It sure is.

This is actually the second time we’ve talked about Marooned. The first being almost two years ago when it was competing the Web Comics Idol competition. I’d tell you to go back and listen to that show, and you can if you want to, but I’m a better editor now, I’m almost embarrassed by the old episodes. I am still learning however and still trying new things with the mic.

Show Notes:
Not Invented Here
Pixton
Bill Barnes
Dinosaur comics
Real Life Comics
Wondermark
Dawn of Time
Order of the Stick
XKCD Sucks
PVP Makes me Sad
Bear and Tiger
Pajama Forest
Realm of Atland
Riceboy
Goodship chronicles
Jackie Rose

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