Yahtzee vs. the Webcomic
July 9th 2008 02:56
This week on the Escapist, Yahtzee launched a tirade against mediocre webcomics, and the internet is lighting up with the flares of battle.
He criticizes webcomics in general, scalding them with insults for mocking up art in Photoshop, overusing dialogue and generally missing the humour.
He doesn't mention a comic in particular, but everyone knows which one he's talking about: Crtl-Alt-Del, the brainchild of Tim Buckley, one of the most hated webcomic artists on the web.
Here's the video:
There are countless forum threads dedicated to the anti-CAD anger, with most people agreeing with Yahtzee.
Myself, I have to admit that I've read a lot of CAD. Before I discovered any other webcomics, I found CAD, and read through the archives. It was decent - I liked the gaming humour, and it was the only one, as far as I knew, of its kind.
I didn't laugh very much, but it was mediocre enough to please me. I hated some of the surreal strips that Buckley drew, and the characters always looked clumsy. In fact, it strikes me as the type of comic that a college friend would scribble in the margins of his notebook.
Since then, however, the webcomic arena has exploded with opponents, some of them are actually funny. After reading Yahtzee's article on CAD, I was shown the light - I agreed whole-heartedly about the clumsy attempt at humour, and have switched to reading Penny Arcade, which is often funny, between the stinky bombs.
Here are the two strips to compare:
CAD strip on Penny Arcade
Superior Penny Arcade strip on same subject matter
Yahtzee says:
"Both comics identify the humour in the situation - that the rules of a game world seem absurd when applied to the real world - but while Penny Arcade understands that the crux of a joke should be reserved for the final panel, Ctrl-Alt-Del is apparently so excited about the idea that it blurts it out right away, leaving three more panels to flounder in excessive dialogue and pointlessness."
He criticizes webcomics in general, scalding them with insults for mocking up art in Photoshop, overusing dialogue and generally missing the humour.
He doesn't mention a comic in particular, but everyone knows which one he's talking about: Crtl-Alt-Del, the brainchild of Tim Buckley, one of the most hated webcomic artists on the web.
Here's the video:
There are countless forum threads dedicated to the anti-CAD anger, with most people agreeing with Yahtzee.
Myself, I have to admit that I've read a lot of CAD. Before I discovered any other webcomics, I found CAD, and read through the archives. It was decent - I liked the gaming humour, and it was the only one, as far as I knew, of its kind.
I didn't laugh very much, but it was mediocre enough to please me. I hated some of the surreal strips that Buckley drew, and the characters always looked clumsy. In fact, it strikes me as the type of comic that a college friend would scribble in the margins of his notebook.
Since then, however, the webcomic arena has exploded with opponents, some of them are actually funny. After reading Yahtzee's article on CAD, I was shown the light - I agreed whole-heartedly about the clumsy attempt at humour, and have switched to reading Penny Arcade, which is often funny, between the stinky bombs.
Here are the two strips to compare:
CAD strip on Penny Arcade
Superior Penny Arcade strip on same subject matter
Yahtzee says:
"Both comics identify the humour in the situation - that the rules of a game world seem absurd when applied to the real world - but while Penny Arcade understands that the crux of a joke should be reserved for the final panel, Ctrl-Alt-Del is apparently so excited about the idea that it blurts it out right away, leaving three more panels to flounder in excessive dialogue and pointlessness."
| 63 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
