"Something Positive" is an interesting thing- a "Slice of Life" type of Webcomic with the occasional bizarre fantasy thing, that combines "ludicrous circumstances" and over-the-top violence with absolutely true-to-life depictions of friendships, and how things work in large groups of friends.
A classic case is how certain characters just kind of "disappear" over time. I've seen this happen many times, and R.K. Milholland depicts it perfectly. "People who once meant the world to you" grow apart, and you pretty much never see them again. And when Randy wants to make you sad, HE WILL MAKE YOU SAD- I've yet to meet a writer so good at hitting you square in the nuts with sadness, and I think it's because his work is USUALLY so entertainingly-vicious and full of snark and jokes- it's when THOSE people get upset that you realize something is serious. No "ball of sadness" comic could ever make one incident (like someone's mother's death) so horrifyingly sad.
And the comic is BRUTALLY funny. I think the first couple years had all the best jokes, but even some of the later stuff is great. Especially when Randy goes on giant rants (within or outside of the comic) about whatever's pissing him off. Randy keeps adding new characters to the work, preventing many of them from getting stale, and allowing new points of view into the work.
There are flaws to the comic, of course. I've always found the artwork highly mediocre- Randy's best stuff leaves me yawning. At least he leaves all the characters recognizable. The comic falls into the "Strawman" flaw way too often- everything he disagrees with is spouted off through the mouths of idiotic hypocrites, and you almost never get both sides of the issue. Randy is also notorious for stopping and starting plotlines (you'd have to be reading for YEARS to remember why Davan & Jason were gonna start a webcomic, or understand who some "Old Familiar Faces" are), and dropping interesting "Backstory" bits like his Video Blogs and "Behind the Scenes" stuff. It's quite annoying.
But altogether, I think it's my favourite webcomic. It's failed to completely wither on the vine or get too annoying and preachy. It helps that the work is extremely cynical.
My Favourite Webcomic
"Something Positive" is an interesting thing- a "Slice of Life" type of Webcomic with the occasional bizarre fantasy thing, that combines "ludicrous circumstances" and over-the-top violence with absolutely true-to-life depictions of friendships, and how things work in large groups of friends.
A classic case is how certain characters just kind of "disappear" over time. I've seen this happen many times, and R.K. Milholland depicts it perfectly. "People who once meant the world to you" grow apart, and you pretty much never see them again. And when Randy wants to make you sad, HE WILL MAKE YOU SAD- I've yet to meet a writer so good at hitting you square in the nuts with sadness, and I think it's because his work is USUALLY so entertainingly-vicious and full of snark and jokes- it's when THOSE people get upset that you realize something is serious. No "ball of sadness" comic could ever make one incident (like someone's mother's death) so horrifyingly sad.
And the comic is BRUTALLY funny. I think the first couple years had all the best jokes, but even some of the later stuff is great. Especially when Randy goes on giant rants (within or outside of the comic) about whatever's pissing him off. Randy keeps adding new characters to the work, preventing many of them from getting stale, and allowing new points of view into the work.
There are flaws to the comic, of course. I've always found the artwork highly mediocre- Randy's best stuff leaves me yawning. At least he leaves all the characters recognizable. The comic falls into the "Strawman" flaw way too often- everything he disagrees with is spouted off through the mouths of idiotic hypocrites, and you almost never get both sides of the issue. Randy is also notorious for stopping and starting plotlines (you'd have to be reading for YEARS to remember why Davan & Jason were gonna start a webcomic, or understand who some "Old Familiar Faces" are), and dropping interesting "Backstory" bits like his Video Blogs and "Behind the Scenes" stuff. It's quite annoying.
But altogether, I think it's my favourite webcomic. It's failed to completely wither on the vine or get too annoying and preachy. It helps that the work is extremely cynical.