Comic Site Rant: “I’m a 20th Century Girl”
…and with this strip, the entire comic takes place in Massachusetts. Well, I guess that was already the case when I made the characters hanging out at T Stations, but still. The location of the comic has always been a vague thing, but lately I’ve been opting to make the characters hang out in real locations… sometimes. I’m not in Boston right now, however, so I’m unable to snap locations and work off of them, but once I get back that’ll probably be happening. It makes for more realistic backgrounds! Anyways, I think this comic turned out fine. Some of the facial expressions are wacky, but overall I think it’s ok. The script is fine too, I guess.
One complaint this comic often gets from the Peanut Gallery– aside from the art being atrocious– is that it’s not funny. I’m inclined to agree; I’m not a good writer. I’m still trying my best to carve out jokes while staying true to my character’s thinly defined traits, along with only making comics based around anime fandom. It’s a hard thing to do, but I’m not going to use that as an excuse. Comics need to be funny, and if they’re not they fail, full stop. If I had to look at my work completely objectively, I’d say that most of it would barely garner a modest chuckle. So, I’m asking you guys– what do you find funny about anime and its fandom? What would you like to see lampooned? What kind of humour makes you go nuts? Or is the current style of the comic fine? Not sure how many of these responses I’ll actually implement, but it’d be interesting to read them. So, leave a comment!
Anyways, moving on to a less angsty subject (?)– Otakon. It’s in a week, and a few updates ago people said they wanted to meet up, so a meet up will happen. As of right now, I’m thinking 1:30pm on Friday would be good. IIRC it’s 90 minutes after the Dealer’s Room opens, and 30 minutes before the opening ceremonies, giving you time to shop, and time before the opening ceremonies if you wish to attend those (I kind of want to see the opening animation out of morbid curiosity.) That’s the plan for now– if any of the people meeting up have issues with that time, leave a message. The meeting place will be that coffee shop (I believe it’s a Starbucks) near the registration booths and by one of the main entrances. I hope everyone knows where that is. I’ll be wearing a hat.
Saimoe has apparently started, but I think I’ll watch it from the sidelines this year. It was fun to participate, but getting around Comcast blocks was a total pain. Once it gets to the point where I reside in Japan, I will participate no problem, but until then… I’ll just catch the highlights. Also, Kaede probably isn’t in the running, so what’s the point? :V
This anime season is really brutal. I’ve dropped Telepathy Shoujo Ran since I was three episodes behind, and it didn’t seem all that hot anyway. If for some reason it gets crazy good praise then I’ll get back on it, but for right now it’s dead. I’m enjoying the rest of what I’ve ended up with, but I’m still always stuck in backlog. Like I keep saying each week… I’ll try and finish that backlog off today. It’s only about four episodes now…!
And with that I’m off. Later.
I always find your comic funny and look forward to it every week. It’s frank about otaku lifestyle, unlike other comics like Aoi House. I don’t mind you lampooning “anime fans” who probably only watch Naruto or Bleach. Love to see that. Anyway, I love the art of this week’s comic and Brad is always fun.
Massachusetts truly is the greatest state in the union.
And while the comic certainly isn’t funny, it is certainly amusing.
Well, to get more in depth here, I’d say the problem with the strip’s humor is it’s really just “observations about otaku culture”…the joke is never really clever, it’s always like, “On nicovideo, they post “wwww” alot! HA HA!” Which is a kind of lazy humor, and wouldn’t get a rise at all out of a non-otaky.
Nice, Brad. Haven’t seen him around in months.
Too bad too, he’s my favorite character.
Yeah, I agree with Anon. While the comic isn’t “Haha!” funny, it’s still amusing. Also, personally I only have one other otaku friend; this is a nice place to get some opinions on anime besides kotaku.com.
I have the opposite problem from needing to drop stuff due to time. I can’t find anything this season I want to watch. I dropped World Destruction because it failed to grab me. And Ultraviolet Code 044… jesus. I can’t remember the last time I dropped a show before even managing to finish the first episode. That show is just horrible. I’m just continuing with Macross F and Code Geass, plus the usual never ending shonen series. I’m looking forward to using the coming months to work down some of the backlog of older shows I never got around to watching though.
Your comic is somewhat humorous, you’re certainly much better at humor than you used to be. In particular, comic 103 does shows a certian comedic mastery above that of many professional and sucessful webcomic artists. (particulary Tim Buckely, who can be quite unfunny at times due to his complete inability to understand the concept of a punchline, and his mountians of text.) And if his sucess means anything, you don’t need to be funny to gain sucess on the internet.
But hey, your comic at least gets a chuckle out of me. The best (and funniest) part of the comic is still the blog though.
Ugh…Tim Buckley. Man, I can’t believe I used to like CAD. Yeah, his comic is going downhill and I hear he’s a bit of a jerk.
I think you are too hard on yourself. Although your comic isn’t often “bust out laughing” funny, it almost always gets me to chuckle. (well, when I get it. so..9 times out of 10?). With the such a specific niche, I believe that is a reasonable and respectable result.
As for the art…what is so terrible? I’ve always felt that it suits the topic and characters well..but I guess that all depends on what your goals and expectations are.
MORE PENIS JOKES
Jokes that specifically reference certain shows are likely to fall flat if the reader hasn’t seen said shows. The last comic, for instance, relies pretty heavily on the reader having knowledge of Kanokon and NHnH. The one before it is better, since a lot of your audience will know about the pants-free nature of Strike Witches from blogs and such even if they haven’t watched the show.
IMHO, the most laugh-out-loud funny comic you’ve done recently is this one. No show knowledge needed, a premise that I can definitely relate to as an anime fan with an interest in the Japanese language, and a great wordless punchline (oxymoron? who cares!).
I guess this is just a roundabout way of saying that if you have to explain the joke, it isn’t funny… at least not for people who need the explanation.
I think the comic is fine the way it is because it doesn’t try too hard to be funny, so it’s a more subtle kind of comedy in my opinion.
Looking forward to the meetup at Otakon.
I thought it was funny. Not LOL, but any Cobra fan will understand.
I personally think that this was the best strip that you’ve put out in a long while. A LONG while. Still, I like this comic, it’s heads and shoulders above all the other anime fan webcomics ( Damn you, Megatokyo, why’d you have to become serious for? It could have been a great skewering of dating sims and harem shows but no…).
As for what I think is funny, I’d like you to make fun of the American/Western side of fandom a lot more. I mean, Nico Nico jokes are fun and all, but I don’t think there’s ever been a real good mockery of mainsteam fandom. The “Rets meets the Narutard” strip was funny. You seem to be really more in tune with the Japanese side of things, though, so I don’t expect that to happen anytime soon.
Another thing I find funny is the whole “Moe” love/hate phenomenon. Watching people going absolutely mad over Moe, whether they love it or not, is great. It’s also why I was ecstatic when Daryl Surat made a comment about you in one of the recent AWO episodes. The sort of feud you two seem to have have is fun to watch. Hopefully that can be reflected with more Brad and Rets strips.
One more thing I find funny: Character quirks. Jokes about anime and anime fandom itself is nice and all, but some of the best stuff comes from the characters themselves.
Rets is fine. 2D obsession paradoxically coupled with an obsession for Gundam? Perfect.
Brad is good as well, but he needs to appear more often. Perhaps he should be more of the straight man in this comedic trio?
Tina, I think, has a lot of potential to be an awesome character. You were heading into a great direction in earlier strips, what with the yaoi obsession and yandere personality. Lately, though, she seems to be sort of slipping into the background, becoming more eye candy than anything else. Not that I disapprove of such eye candy, though! I’d think it be funny if you were to emphasize the yaoi fangirl side of her a bit more. It could provide a whole ‘nother aspect of the fandom to draw comedy from. Also, more yandere. Everyone loves a good yandere, I’m sure you agree.
Well, that’s what I think is funny. Sorry if it’s a bit tl;dr or a bit off topic. I look forward to your next strip.
For me, the funniest jokes are the ones that pertain to a specific series that I have seen. And the more I care about the series, the more lol-inducing it is. Though overall you have too many series specific jokes.
It doesn’t have to been, just a comic, frankly I enjoy every minute of it and that fact that I don’t get some of the jokes gets me interested enough to see the show to get the joke. I.E. I’m now into Zero no Tsukaima thanks to you >>;
Thanks for indirectly reminding me to check out Birdy.
As far as the content of the comics goes, I really couldn’t overemphasis how much I’d like to see things continue as they are. The comic is great BECAUSE it makes obscure references and has jokes that only so many people will get. It appeals to a specific audience, and for that audience it’s great.
When a comic tries to generalize its subject matter too much, in most cases it ends up treading on ground that’s already been stomped flat and salted. In the end, it ends up being something that does appeal to a larger group, but only to a mild extent. I’d say it’s much better to have a comic that generates a strong following from a small audience, than a weak following from a large audience.
One comment mentioned the comic about Japanese class as being one of your better works. I disagree. Although it WAS a funny comic, jokes similar to it have been done many times in other places. My favorite comic(s) of yours would be the two-part for 99 & 100. The main reason I like those two comics is that they feel like slice-of-life. The conversation flowed smoothly, seemed natural (to me, at least), and yet was very, very funny.
In the case of 99 & 100, the humor would still be there for someone who doesn’t get the references. But it’s much funnier if you’re familiar with the referenced characters and the “gar” mindset. The more familiar you are with the subject matter, the more natural the comics feel, and the more you can enjoy them. And that’s how it should be.
I’d very much like to see more comics like 99 & 100. They aren’t traditional, get-to-the-punchline comics, but are instead something that I believe could be much more interesting. I’ve been following this comic for a couple months now, and I’ve greatly enjoyed pretty much every installment. I’m following about a dozen different web-comics right now, and this is my second favorite behind Penny Arcade.
Even though I really loved 99 & 100 and would like to see more of the same, my greatest hope for this comic would be that you continue to do your own thing. Of course, input from comments can be really helpful, and makes it much easier to realize strengths and weaknesses. But I’ve seen a lot of artists that give up their individuality, and end up doing whatever their fans tell them to. And without exception, their work ends up being a water-down shadow of what it used to be. I don’t get the feeling that this sort of thing will happen to this comic, but a reminder like this can sometimes help.
I love your work, and I know many others who do as well. I’d be fine with receiving more of the same for years to come, and yet I’m sure the comic will only improve as it goes. Just…keep doing what you’re doing.
meaning as little offense as possible, your hair looks like pubes in that pic
as far as humor goes, well a couple of my favorite strips are the one about writing an english paper about moe, and the mob charging Studio Palm.
I also think it would be funny if you took up 00 again and filmed your reaction
Actually, there is no requirement that a comic needs to be funny to be good, that is just a misconception caused by the historical origin of modern comic which also explains the name. You just need to be interesting. Being consistently funny is just one way to do that. For me, for example, this comic is interesting enough to have on RSS feed because it gives me a peek to an aspect of anime and manga I have no other contact to. Honestly the social phenomenon of being a fan of anything is alien to me, so the comic and the characters are always interesting to me. Even when they are not particularly funny. Kind of like manga with various interesting sexual practices are popular even with people who’d never ever even voluntarily be in the same room with anyone who actually does any of those things. So as long as this comic retains the slice-of-life quality it is okay to have weak jokes. IMHO.
The best way to do it is to emulate your funniest strips. Perhaps hold a poll.
Ones that stick out to me are the End of Gurren Lagann, the “True Romance of Men”, the “Don’t interupt me when i’m making paper aeroplanes”.
Basically, where the main character is eccentric and makes batshit insane faces.
Try not to make comics where you just comment on an anime, try working with it and coming up with an innotative idea involving some concept from the anime.
Like the paper plane thing from Macross F.
Is your goal to make humor that only people who’ve seen the shows or understand the concepts understand, or are you trying to make the humor accessible to all of the masses? I think you succeed pretty well in the former (which is why I really liked this strip for today), but are lacking in the latter. :3
dude, stop posting with your nick on 4chan. srsly you’re only make an idiot out of yourself.
That’s why I’m doing it, dur
>>Is your goal to make humor that only people who’ve seen the shows or understand the concepts understand,
this
The comic itself is of it’s own variety. It makes people laugh and chuckle in their own way. Is that not enough?
You’re able to get people to be amused and laugh a little. That alone is a great ability for the comic. Trying to go overboard will only bring it down to the mud and negate it’s niche to be funny.
At this point, your comic has defined itself how it is. Why change it? You can make people laugh in your own way, and it’s a very unique way as well. Lord knows we’ve all seen too many Anime comics trying to go overboard with every single moment, and they blow it.
This comic doesn’t take what happens on Cartoon Network, or the moments in Anime which 200 other webcomics will try to do a page about. It takes what some of us see and enjoy and simply tells the other side of it, which we can all relate to one way or another.
What makes it good is how you do things, and most of your readers will agree, even though they will probably not post here or even on the forums (which I am guilty of). To ask the few readers that do post how differently the comic should be done is like an Evil Overlord asking a 5 year old if there’s any flaws in his plans. Sure, he might get the right idea from him, but he may also get a dumb look as the kid doesn’t know much.
If the people like your story, that is great. If they don’t, they can simply choose not to read the comic. It should be something that the artist enjoys doing, and that his/her readers decide that they like.
That’s my two cents, though I would love to go more in depth with it. Maybe some other time.
I think it the comic has some fun moments, and it’s often made me smile. I do have some problems getting past the whole moe/liking-young-girls-too-much-for-comfort. I’m probably out of my element here on that topic though.
BUT, NEVER MIND THAT. You do have a sense of humor, maybe you just need more practice still so you can be really confidence in how you’re executing it.
I enjoy your comics, even if I don’t burst out laughing all the time (though I occasionally do). I think that the only issue I have is when you get into a niche show that I don’t know about, like that one where Ret’s and Tina are talking at the fountain, I didn’t really know what you where talking about.
While the dialogue oriented comics work when they play to character traits (highlighting Ret’s hypocrisy when he disapproves of Tina’s $50 yaoi doujin and the depicted age of her fanart, or Brad’s disgust with Ret’s), if you step back and find you could have any character speak the lines, and the joke would retain it’s humor, you should switch it up and try to draw it in the context of the show, like you did with the Macross Frontier one. Show, not tell, and all that. Also, you would have reference to work from, and you could stop being so self-depricating about your artwork.
Also, I don’t think you should alter the subject material just because a bunch of people tell you they want to see something different. It’s your comic, and if the masses think they can do better, they should make their own.
After all that advice you should totally go and do the opposite and make a comic with really obscure references to shows that no one has watched.
And with that, we cue the Chinese live action Golgo 13 opening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJkw6eLjQ0k
GOOOOOLGOOOOOO!!
Oh and forgot to add, I like your comic the way it is, but I would appreciate more bashing of the current generation of fans like you had in your earlier entries to the series.
That shit was painful to read in a good way, because it emulated the fucking anguish my brain goes through when I look at what the fandom has become nowadays, and provided a great laugh.
But like I said, don’t change too much. If you want to be topical, be topical. If you want to talk about a show you’re currently watching, do it. It’s your comic, and there’s no reason it can’t be fun for you.