Webcomics You'd Like To See Improve

Sister Claire

I can excuse the Theme Park Version of Catholicism as Rule of Funny, but I cannot stand the toilet humor. The xonxwpr seems somewhat interesting, and the art style is very nice, but I find something disagreeable about the gross out jokes.

Then again, I haven't read the comic in quite a while so it may have changed since then.

edited 21st Sep '10 5:08:08 PM by Pentadragon

Surprised no-one's said The Last Daysof Foxhound. Good jokes and all, but the art is horrible.

edited 21st Sep '10 6:24:09 PM by SharpDressedMan

First off, it can't improve. It's done. Second, it's mostly an art choice, and I think it's funniness excuses it. Seriously, I've literally cried with laughter at it.

Likes many underrated webcomics

Maybe if it was redrawn or something, as is I have trouble taking something seriously when the 'art' looks like something I drew.

Okay, maybe that's going a bit far.

Girl Genius. Once it switched from black and white to colour, the linework got hella lazy and less detailed, to the point where hair and clothes colour is just about the only way to tell half of them apart these days. And the pacing has just gotten terrible over the years.

Dresden Codak. It's nice that Aaron Diaz wants to try extended storylines, and it'd be really nice if he did a totally epic one (even though his update schedule means we'll all be dead before it finishes :) ). But he seriously needs to lift his game, because his characterization and pacing are just atrocious and he relies way too much on exposition instead of just showing us what's going on. A big storyline cowritten by someone else could potentially be very awesome indeed. Meanwhile on the whimsical one-off fronts, he needs to drop a bridge on Kimiko already, because she's mutated into a mary sue of dizzying proportions. And she's only made worse by that new guy Ron, a walking talking strawman who only seems to exist so Aaron Diaz can portray all those mean ol' hipsters as the jerkfaces they really are. God how I wish Your Webcomic Is Bad was still going, because John Solomon and co would've had a field day with that character.

This. So much. I'm not sure I can even say Looking For Group was that good to begin with, as I really read it mostly because Lar deSouza's art is amazing. Ryan Sohmer cannot write. His jokes basically fall into these categories: over-the-top slapstick and random pop culture references. Sound familiar to anyone?

I've gotten to the point where I was cheering at my screen when I saw Cale about to get eaten by a great big sandworm... then freaking Pinnochio shows up in the damn thing's gullet. This is after a half billion references to other media in the previous dozen strips, including Zelda, Pokemon, and Star Wars. None of these references were all that funny, and by the third I had this bizarre urge to find Ryan and punch him in the face.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.

...why does that page say a movie is coming out in 2008?

New User Handle

Because a movie is coming out in 2008.

Sakamoto demands an explanation for this shit.

(responding to a few posts back) Yes, what is the deal with the pacing in Girl Genius? World-shakingly important stuff is introduced over the course of one page with no foreshadowing whatsoever. Sometimes this can actually be effective: for example, in the Sturmhalten arc, we're misdirected into believing that the danger is that Prince Sturmvoraus will steal Moxana, when it turns out that he kidnaps Agatha and uploads Lucrezia's mind in her body. Most times, though, it just falls flat. Othar's grand plan could be chilling and intriguing if introduced gradually, but instead, he just bluntly explains it (and so far, it hasn't been referred to again in the main continuity).

Then there's the tendency to introduce half a dozen new characters whenever there's a change of setting (the teens on board the airship, the circus folk, the castle mechanics etc.). Maybe most people don't have a problem with keeping up with all these new characters; I do.

It's such a great comic otherwise, but this irks me.

Yeah I think the Castle Sturmhalten arc was probably the last time Girl Genius had really decent pacing. It was a classic 30 Xanatos pileup where everyone turned out to have their own agenda, which were hidden behind false agendas, which were backed up by "I knew you knew I knew" contingency plans and bluffs, and it all came together nicely.

Cut to now and the Castle Heterodyne arc is just dragging on and on and on with no real resolution in sight, and all the plot twists are caused more by the fact that every character in the entire cast list has to have their time in the limelight than by any clever scheming on the part of the major players. And it doesn't help that the most ineptly plotted love triangle in history is being played out. I mean seriously, if there was ever any chemistry to justify Tarvek's position as Gil's rival for Agatha's affections, I must've missed it.

@Rallan: Oh, John Solomon and co did have a field day with the character and the comic. I seem to recall something about an ad hominem group attack on transhumanists, and calling Kim a psychopath for hitting an old man over the head with a rock.

Also, please explain what you mean by calling Kimiko a "Mary Sue". Specifically.

Things I like: Ghost In The Shell |Serial Experiments Lain |Eden: It's an Endless World! |Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri |Aeon Natum Engel

Out of all of Dresden Codak's failings, I wouldn't say that Kimiko being a Mary Sue is one of them. She has legitimate flaws that get in the way of achieving her goals and she brings a lot of her own problems on herself. She doesn't get everything she wants. Her ideals are at odds with the rest of the world and I never really had the impression that the comic was presenting them as the Ultimate Truth and all of Kim's naysayers were wrong. As of the most recent page, I'd even venture to say that she's an interesting character, and I actually like her.

If you're talking about early comic Kimiko though yeah she was pretty awful.

derp derp derp

Oh man, thank you. I thought I was the only one who felt this way! Though he's an interesting character aside from that, I kind of hoped he would just die throughout that whole sickness arc—partly so we'd be spared the love triangle, mostly so it would wrap up the arc early.

Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count Dorku

"Out of all of Dresden Codak's failings, I wouldn't say that Kimiko being a Mary Sue is one of them. She has legitimate flaws that get in the way of achieving her goals and she brings a lot of her own problems on herself. She doesn't get everything she wants. Her ideals are at odds with the rest of the world and I never really had the impression that the comic was presenting them as the Ultimate Truth and all of Kim's naysayers were wrong. As of the most recent page, I'd even venture to say that she's an interesting character, and I actually like her.

If you're talking about early comic Kimiko though yeah she was pretty awful. "

She's Aaron Diaz' dream woman. She's a lonely, awkward, antisocial woman who doesn't "get" any of the pop culture stuff that Diaz sees as vapid, and who's living the transhumanist dream. Oh and despite being a total hotty she doesn't like guys who are shallow jerks. Oh and she's mysterious and half-Japanese and gets loads and loads of sassy costumes. And the only people who dislike her or disagree with her are shallow caricatures of stuff Diaz doesn't like.

So give me oldschool Kimiko instead of newschool Kimiko any day. She may have had virtually no character development or personality at all back then, but at least she spent more time getting on with the business of surreal adventures instead of embodying the author's ideals. And meanwhile, a whole lot of character development later she still has no personality at all anyway :)

I think this was the point where Dresden Codak lost me. Kim's rant would not sound the slightest bit out of place coming from the mouth of a villain mad scientist yet we're clearly supposed to sympathize with her. This would not be a problem if the comic did a better job of making a distinction between Kim and Kim's opinions.

...so what you're saying, is that this is an unnatural state of being? I mean clearly, beautiful women should not ever desire "un-shallowness" in romantic partners! It's not like beautiful, intelligent women should be expected to have actual standards for their romantic partners!

I seriously hope that that's not what you're saying!

Things I like: Ghost In The Shell |Serial Experiments Lain |Eden: It's an Endless World! |Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri |Aeon Natum Engel

@PIAT:

I think what he's saying is that she's sorta too good to be true.

@Meta Four: We're supposed to sympathize with her, sure, but I'm not sure we're think we're expected to think she's right.

@Meta Four: We're supposed to sympathize with her, sure, but I'm not sure we're expected to think she's right.

edited 28th Sep '10 2:55:39 PM by Durazno

And I don't think the comic did a good enough job making a distinction between Kim and her opinions.

The ending of "Hob" certainly vindicated her side more than it did the opposition.

GG and OoTS are both mature, solid comics, and I can't think of anything that could really improve either on a fundamental level. I think OoTS' problems are entirely due to Schedule Slip, and all of this will probably look just fine in the archives. GG actually has real pacing problems in this arc though, probably exacerbated by the fact that the comic basically got better and better non-stop right through Sturmhalten until Tarvek got sick.

A comic I'd really, really like to improve is Schlock Mercenary. I wanted to like this comic so badly, as it's full of lovely SF stuff from all the great 50s-80s-era stories I like reading topped off with a mix of goofy humor and serious subplots along the lines of Retief or Stainless Steel Rat, but the comic just can't control its LOLRANDOM zany violence properly. What gets me is how the cast can go completely off the handle with zero consequences one minute, and then in another otherwise similar situation we're suddenly supposed to care about what's going on, the whole setting is compromised by the presence of poorly justified violence and stupid gags to the point where there's just too much Fridge Logic for it to be a satisfying read. I stopped reading at the end of the Credomar arc (which seemed to be trying to tackle these problems,) but I think a fresh start with a new comic would be the only way to really clean it up.

Eric,

It's not as bad as it could be, if only because the heroes never actually kill innocent bystanders. They still get away with thinly veiled threats way too often, though.

Currently taking a break from the site. See my user page for more information.

The End Of Things Could, you know, Update at some point. one update in the last.... two years?

"Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Coffee! Not as strong as Meth-amphetamine, but it lets you keep your teeth!"

The Zombie Hunters... well, regarding the zombie descriptions (narmtastical!) and pacing, but then again, I'm an ADD-addled shit.

Half-Life: Dual Nature, a crossover story of reasonably sized proportions.

Looking For Group - Needs no explanation.

Least I Could Do - Irredeemable.

VG Cats - Never updated in forever, devolved into stupid idiotic jokes.

Collar6 - I don't know how to describe this trainwreck.

My other signature is a Gundam.