Webcomic Only One Thing that's Definitely Likable
That one thing, of course, would be his art. Which is impressive and has shown signs of improvement throughout the years. I know even most of the critics would agree with that, I being among them.
Admittedly, when I was significantly younger, I absolutely adored the comic-the only one really around at the time created by Bleedman. However, my standards were significantly lower, too. Really, the whole appeal to me seemed to basically be the novel idea of inputting some of my childhood fandoms into a story and the amazing art.
As cleverly as he applied some characters from childhood cartoons, and as much as I am for darkening childhood stories for the sake of an interesting plot, he has too many "hiccups", as another reviewer called it, in his plot. These plots are either too random or too predictable in these comics. While there's a few moments somewhat interesting, it's not well put together to have a smooth storyline. Sugar Bits, in particular, is really horrible about this.
Another thing is how he shoves lolicon underwear pictures and the like incessantly, which stops seeming to be for artistic effect when it's in near everything and for not only angles, but brief events. It's awful enough to spam this in a comic(as that's not why I would read such a comic, at all), but he has art that's blatant, lolicon pornography-which, to me, is pretty disgusting. Otherwise, there seems to be at least some subtle and tiny sexism on the author's part in the stories, though I could be wrong about that-somehow.
When it comes to the the matter of the author's personality, I find it worse than his comics-at least possibly so, as I don't know him personally. Which, if I were to be honest, has probably also made me dislike his comics all the more.
After all, he made use of 9/11, in one instance, for his comic-the one based on the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy. Note that the use of 9/11 isn't necessarily what infuriates me, but his justification for it-which sounded pompous and was complete bull. Otherwise, the lolicon pornography has somewhat ruined what little respect I might have ever had from him. I don't have some passionate hate against all pornography(and no hate against the use of nudity for art, in the right case), but the obsessive pornography of children? Yeah, I have something against that.
Webcomic I Quite Like It (up until 12-23-2009)
So, Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi, by Bleedman. I hadn't heard about this comic until I discovered it here, and the art style and plot description piqued my interest enough to check it out. It's apparently a very controversial comic from an equally convroversial fan artist, but in my own personal and humble opinion, I can't imagine why that would be. The art is top-notch, and the writing, though it hiccups here and there and occasionally suffers from Purple Prose (the villains are really long-winded, for instance), is pretty jazzy.
I'm not a big fan of Fan Works in general. I think that some of these people are very talented and should really be working on their own stuff instead of devoting so much time and effort into creating something they really can't benefit from, as good as some of their work can be. But in this instance, I'm really in awe. For a lot of us, Tropers in particular, the fiction we grew up with (and in some cases, the fiction we continue to live with) has become a nearly spiritual business in our minds, the figures that roamed the zeitgeist when we were kids having achieved nearly mythic proportions in our adulthood.
For this reason (and I'm about to make a huge leap here, so please hold your fire), Powerpuff Girls Doujinshi is good for the same reason that Neil Gaiman's American Gods is good. It takes a big pantheon of figures we regard almost reverentially and fits them all within the confines of a single over-arching story, where everything we "know" about them is true, and yet we get to watch them move around in a caricature of the world we recognize. In a world of childhood-worshiping geekdom where fandom is damn near a religion, this stuff is practically Holy Writ.
I may be using exaggerated language to describe a webcomic (Well, not may; I most certainly am), but I really think this Bleedman fellow is "on to something" here. To me, his work really seems to have captured what my generation's little niche of the zeitgeist feels like, what it's all about, like a thunderstrike caught on photograph. He still hasn't hit every peg of my inner child's world, but I'd say he's well on his way, and if you ever stayed up past your bedtime to catch Cartoon Cartoon Fridays twice over before going to sleep, my money says you'll dig this, too.
Webcomic Was fun at first but then loses it's luster
I, like many, fell in love with this series way back in 2004. Mostly due to the CN City bumpers that were running at the time that featured the characters interacting with each others. So it was a treat to get a series that did likewise. But as the years went on and times changed I see now how really shallow this series is. It runs on nothing but good artwork and pop culture references. The story just caters to being dark as possible and how many shock moments it can get away with with recognizable characters that'll never likely happen to in their own series and is so slowly paced as well. As of this review were still not really into the meat of the conflict with the villains nor have any of the majority of the heroes promised in the story have done much of anything. Again the only real saving grave is the artwork and that's barely helped by the panel structure which can be confusing at points to read not to mention some Wall of Text that crop up sometime. I'm not saying Vinson isn't a good artist, far from it and it still is cool to see his renditions of TV characters. And, yes, I know he's not the one telling the story merely drawing it with someone else writing. I'll commend Bleed for sticking with his passion to continue to do such a crossover when he could've quit long ago. But by this point, this series is far from the masterpiece we praised it as all those years ago and simply coasting on what some poor incoming fans that may think it's still "cool". To each his own I say, but I've long since taken off the nostalgia goggles and moved on. I still check on the series now and then, but just for curiosity sake and nothing more. Maybe it'll get interesting again, who knows, but for now I can't help but agree that it really is just an overblown fanfic that's been given way too much credit then it deserves.