Thursday, March 13, 2008

Dresden Codak

If you haven't already noticed, I've decided to make this blog my job, much like Aaron Diaz of Dresden Codak decided to do for his webcomic. In fact, we're using the exact same business model! After making my decision, I then decided to put off updating for a couple of weeks, and after this update is done I'm going to go off on a vacation. But don't worry, I'm selling you guys t-shirts, which is a perfectly acceptable substitute for actual content, at least according to Aaron Diaz.

Since a lot of you people seem to be utterly incapable of appreciating or even understanding subtlety, let me spell it out for you: Aaron Diaz is treating his webcomic, Dresden Codak, as a business. This "business" involves selling you t-shirts (that are mostly based on his older, funnier strips) and forgetting to update his comic. Get all that? Need me to grunt and paint some crude pictographs for you?

As of this update, the latest strip is dated March 2nd. The previous, January 28th. Now, I understand that if you're being an artiste and only drawing when you feel like it, you can update however infrequently you want. But Aaron Diaz, you are no longer drawing for fun. You are running a business, by your own admission. You are failing to run a business.

I know a lot about update schedules, I attempted one for this blog and then gave it up - mainly because I don't want to give any of you jackoffs a sense of entitlement. I didn't want to make this a business, I do already have a job and I'd rather not make a source of fun for me into work. Diaz still wants to see his webcomic as a business, but he has not given anyone a sense of entitlement, nor expectation. People do not consider Dresden Codak to have an update schedule, because it doesn't. This makes it a shitty business. Am I going to have to explain why? Because it seems pretty obvious to me.

It's a good thing that Dresden Codak mercilessly panders to the "pathetic, lonely nerd" demographic of the Internet (98% and rising) because otherwise its audience would have given up the first time it became apparent that Diaz is an unreliable hack who probably puts more effort into masturbating than he does his webcomic. Since he'd have to beat off less than once a month for that to be false, it's a good assumption to make.

Masturbation is the key, you see. The principle character of Dresden Codak is Kimiko "Thunderbolt" Ross. That's a Japanese name with a comic book reference, be still my beating +2 Heart. Not only is she immensely attractive and prone to dressing like the fine-ass piece of bitch she is, but she also gushes with girlboners over the concept of The Singularity.

If you don't know what that is, apparently Diaz envisions a future where people are popular nerd celebrities who have been struck blind by a wrathful compu-god who is probably going to be Kimiko, unf unf unf. For someone who apparently spent the whole month of February furiously masturbating to the concept, Diaz paints a rather lousy picture of the Singularity. I suggest people go check out the works of Charles Stross. Maybe if you'd simply just like to see competence.

That's really the only reason people come back to Dresden Codak. The unrealistic, "I wish she was real and mai waifu~" sentiment that its readers get when Kimiko flounces across the bizarre panel layout and fills the air with a wall of fucking text about how ridiculously Aspergian she is. If there weren't people on Wikipedia staunchly opposed to it, I guarantee you that there would be an article on her and this fucking awful webcomic ten times the size of the ones on Hitler, Stalin and Lex Luthor combined.

Dresden Codak can be, and has been, a good webcomic. I liked the earlier ones, before it became the ridiculous nerd fantasy wankfest starring Ms. Fap-To-Me Fantasy. I mean, Goddamn, a nerdy Japanese girl with no boyfriend? In the next update, when she inevitably takes on Evil Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew of (equally evil) cripples, I wouldn't be surprised if she wields not only a katana, but also a pair of railguns.

So maybe by about June, then. Until then, buy more t-shirts and support Aaron Diaz's noble quest to be paid for doing as little work as he possibly can!

194 comments:

Alice said...

When I first saw Dresden Codak it was one of my favourites. I haven't bothered to check back in some time. So much potential, disappointing in actual practice.

Anonymous said...

That review... ouch.

And not on the comic's part.

Anonymous said...

This was a terrible review. You didn't even explain why it was so bad. You even conceded it has been a good webcomic.

John Solomon said...

You're going to have to wait until April 16th to read the rest of the review.

Anonymous said...

Yeah that webcomic is a trainwreck. The really useless webcomics aren't the ones who pisses me off the most, it's the ones who show flashes of something interesting but just screws you over again and again.

Elijah said...

I don't think this article was entirely fair. Doesn't everyone want to be payed enough to live for doing a wank/philosophy combo doodle every other month?

Anonymous said...

Wearing double rail guns would be fuck-awesome and you know it

Also new Futurama MARCH 23 YEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHH

Also this review was short and you should feel short :*(

Brent said...

What really floors me is how the fans in his forum seem to want to CONGRATULATE him for never doing a damn thing.

Observe:

http://forums.koalawallop.net/viewtopic.php?t=2874

John Solomon said...

Also this review was short and you should feel short :*(

I'm on vacation, I think I'm allowed to make short updates.

Anonymous said...

I'm on vacation, I think I'm allowed to make short updates.

You can write what ever the hell you want, but come on John, you're breakin' my balls.

You're breakin' my balls John.

Anonymous said...

So basically the issue here is not that the webcomic itself is bad but the unprofessional way Aaron Diaz is managing the webcomic?

Lupe said...

I like this review. Short and sweet, not too long, not too rambling. I'm surprised by this comic's attractive artwork, haven't read much of it, but guessing by your review it just sounds a bit cliched, perhaps the type that's been done before. Maybe one of these days I'll actually read some of these comics you post...

OLD DC was awesome said...

DC takes so long because every time he ejaculates it goes all over the page he's drawing. Hence, by the end of the month, he has several unstained pictures of Hot Asian Ass to cut out, tape together and scan. What else explains the weird panel layout?

John Solomon said...

So basically the issue here is not that the webcomic itself is bad but the unprofessional way Aaron Diaz is managing the webcomic?

No, both. Try reading some of the latest strips, they're terrible.

davidson said...

Even though I still read this comic, I have to agree. It's been a mess lately. And Diaz's tendency for out-of-place fan service is incredibly grating.

Although I will admit I was actually enjoying the Hob storyline right up until the Historical Pre-enactment Society comic. From then on everything just seemed to fall apart.

Anonymous said...

The sudden and all-encompassing change that Dresden Codak went through kind of reminds me of the sudden and all-encompassing change that Power Chord went through a couple months back. Seriously, have you guys seen it lately? It's some sort of superhero comic about the eponymous Power chord and his exploits against people the writer doesn't like.

Anonymous said...

you nailed the annoying parts, the annoying-ness of the main character (if they just wasn't named kimiko I would be happy!), and the 'continually less sense' part of the most recent series.
I just don't get the plot any more! I lost it about three strips ago and it hasn't returned.

Steve said...

Yeah, it's a shame what has happened to Dresden Codak. It used to be really good, but I just plain don't understand what's going on any more.

I suspect Mr. Diaz might know it's gone bad and is struggling to write his way out of it? Maybe.

Anonymous said...

If you liked accelerando, you'll also like this guy (warning: page has java, the non script variety):
http://gregegan.customer.netspace.net.au/

He's my favourite author by far.

Benjamin said...

I clicked into this review with an attitude of "Oh shit, he is totally not ragging on Dresden Codak..."

I finished with an overwhelming sense of "Shit, he's right."

Eh, I'll keep the bookmark. It doesn't cost much of my time to check it every couple of weeks when there's the chance he'll put up a good update again.

MallardMan said...

Christ on a crutch. I just started trying to read through the archive. As soon as all the time travel stuff started I just couldn't bother to care anymore. That thing is drivel. Also, what the hell is up with his panel layout? I don't think there's really any way he could have tried harder to make his comic incomprehensible. I did like that one comic you pulled up, John, but I think it's one of the few.

Patrick said...

The funny thing was that I came here right after checking to see if DC had updated yet. These days I mostly just read it because I'm waiting for the fucking current story arc to end because then MAYBE FINALLY we'll get some goddamn laughs again instead of this crap.

This storyline was actually funny when it was about the incompetence of the time travellers at fitting in, and slightly entertaining for that one strip where it's obvious that no one gives a shit about all of the stuff Kimiko is saying, because God, really, she is intolerable.

Of course, Aaron even had to make a strip about how she is EMO and her MOM is DEAD and EMO and ALL PEOPLE DO IS DIE OR LEAAAAAVE WAAAAH.

All this thing lacks now is some re-occurring boy who's interested in her and then it'll be about as shitty as Questionable Content with giant robots.

But, again, to be fair, up until the current storyline(which, what, makes up about HALF of the goddamn archives by now? When did it start? 2005?), Dresden Codak was pretty heavily worth reading.

And to Anon: Hell yes, Greg Egan's a good writer, even if his writing can sometimes leave you feeling a bit unsettled. That was what Permutation City did to me, anyway, all those images of abandonment and utter loneliness.

Anonymous said...

Defensive and confused about female exploitation... and still not updating ever. (scroll down for Author's Response)

Anonymous said...

John you need to be more aggressive in picking the topics. Lilith gets Chugworth which she probably could have expanded to a trilogy and there still would be fucked up stones yet unturned while you get stuck with Zap and DC which the only real complaints are "Too much fucking anime!" and "Doesn't update enough and the main character is an attractive women and nerdy men might like that." You need to hit stuff that "Doesn't update much" would actually be the only good thing going for the comic like Lilith does.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who can't even understand what's going on in the newer strips? They're huge with tiny boxes with lots of text and I don't understand which panel leads to another.

Alisa said...

And just to chime in, once he started that whole time travel story arc, something weird happened with the art style. I'm not saying that I can pinpoint it exactly, but it's just different enough in a bad way to be jarring.

And there was one panel that I can remember distinctly that featured Kimiko clad in nothing but overalls sticking her chest out as far as it would go. It had no bearing on what she was saying or what was going on, it was just THERE.

Anonymous said...

You mean the drawing of Kimiko that he runs as a full-height ad all over the place to get lonely boys to click on it? He must be making a lot of sales, piling up a good income to run that many ten dollar a day ads.

Paul Varley said...

That's a pretty accurate review: the reasons you give pretty much sum up why I started to trawl the archives on a recommendation, but never finished it. A comic with potential that got hit by an awkward attempt to introudce a plot, irregular an infrequent updates, a main character who somehow manages to be fanservice while fully clothed (arguably not a problem, but it did make me feel a little unconfortable) and a mind-screwing panel layout.

Anonymous said...

You could have saved a lot of time on your review by condensing it down to one sentence:

"Dresden Codak advertises Two and a Half Men on its website."

limaCAT said...

@John Solomon:
You're going to have to wait until April 16th to read the rest of the review.

In the meanwhile can I have an XXL with Lilith's review on Shredded Moose?

ASECRETFAGGOT said...

that I think needs to be pointed out is that Mr. Diaz actually decided to quit his job in order to live off the comic.

That was January. We've gotten two updates since then.


And the worst part is that this comic actually has the potential to be good if that Diaz bastard got off of his lazy ass for five minutes.

Anonymous said...

42 bucks for a hoodie? No thanks.

Anonymous said...

I don't see why they're complaints that this review is short. The comic has only got 38 comics, compare it to vgcats with over 200 comics and an a very similar update schedule.

Baron said...

it'll be about as shitty as Questionable Content with giant robots.

a - actually that sounds pretty good

optimus prime all spending eight weeks deciding whether to talk to that cute mini-con at the coffee shop

anyway, john, if you do continue this one, hit up the forums and see Diaz at his aspie jerky worst! always a good time

it's a pity, really, because he does have the potential for genius in him

Zachary Cross said...

This comic really isn't all that bad, but apparently the creator (like most webcomic artists/authors) has fallen victim to greed and sloth. Once they start getting money, it becomes a test to see what is the lowest common denominator to get more money (sex, violence, furries, ect). Basically, it's like the classic "Garfield" effect. If you get a large enough following, you can churn out the same thing over and over and continue to make a profit without improving. JDR, Anne Onymous, Scott Kurtz, Tim Buckley, Fred Galagher and so many more make their cash through churning out the same thing. Mainly, it is why they suck so much, because why bother changing things if you are rolling in money?

Squigs said...

I think the point of the review flew over most of your heads.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's just me, but the comic you linked to that was apparently supposed to showcase the guy's tendency for drawing whatsherface all scantily clad really didn't seem that bad. I mean, I think I kind of see a cleavage shot at the beginning, but everything after that seems not too bad, unless you're considering the smallest line showing that she has boobs some wank-service. I didn't look at anything you didn't link to, but if that's as bad as it gets as far as that goes, the fans must find it really easy to get off

Robert Kelly said...

Wow, John. You must be really reaching now. What's wrong, John? Too busy trying to piss everybody off.

Anonymous said...

This review fucking sucked. What the hell? You're complaining he doesn't update? Fuck that shit.

Anonymous said...

The hate has become weak in you, Solomon.
Your snaps have lost their crackle and pop.
Perhaps you should look closer to the bottom of the webcomics barrel to remember why you do this.

Like Polymer City Chronicles.

Also, hey, let's get some badwebcomics t-shirts! An all-black shirt with the words "literary paedophile" on the front and "it's a metaphor, fuckwit" on the back might not sell, but it's mere existence is guaranteed to keep Terracciano weeping, and that's what matters the most.

Kautz said...

This review is like a preemptive strike.

Codak is starting to suck balls because the author is beginning to slide down the slope of "I'm a huge fuckwit." If he can save himself, and his comic in the process, we don't have to worry. If he can't...

We get a "More Dresden Codak" review that expands on why the comic sucks and (hopefully) why he should bring it back to ye goode olde dayes (but probably won't).

ediblestars said...

Oh dear lord, look what Aaron Diaz said in his totally-not-defensive defense of his comic over at sanspoof's LJ:

As far as character goes, Kimiko's major "flaw" is that she overanalyzes things to such a degree that she never achieves anything, which I think is the foundational vice of the Intellectual archetype. In every comic she "loses" at whatever she's trying to accomplish.

Two major problems here:

1. "Really fucking annoying to be around" is not a compelling character flaw. I can't believe someone has to spell this out.

2. Simply giving your characters flaws--or worse, "flaws"--is not automatically good writing. "Don't write perfect characters" is solid advice, but it won't magically make anyone good. Listing your characters' "flaws" will not make anyone think you're good. Seriously, what the fuck?

Great review. A bad webcomic doesn't have to be Deegan all over again to be really, really bad, and Dresden Codak is indeed terrible.

Anonymous said...

not one of your better reviews - complaints of nerd wankery can be applied to all too many comics

and you're a bad webcomics reviewer, not a bad business reviewer - even if the webcomic IS the business, i still think you spent a bit too much time dwelling on his crummy business practices

you should have expounded more on the decline in quality and fun from the earlier strips to the more "recent" ones, his "eclectic" panel-layout habits

even with all its flaws, DC has become at worst only an average webcomic as of late, and though i do mourn the loss of the good comedy it once brought, i do not think it quite deserving of lampooning here, the BAD webcomics blog

you should have waited until it got REALLY bad, which seems almost inevitable at this point

then again, you probably wanted to review it before you died of old age

Anonymous said...

Does anyone here hate the main character with a passion, other than me? Although she's supposedly a scientist, she doesn't act like one; and all the physics references she quips off seem like forced intelectualism rather than a genuine appreciation for the sciences.

Ironman said...

That was well done, but I feel like you took authentic Kobe beef and made a tasty hamburger.

I like hamburgers; don't get me wrong. But that could have been a filet mignon.

One brief quip about the layout? I mean, c'mon... I almost had a seizure; not to mention the fact that I'm still not clear on whether I just read a comic-strip story, or , rather, if I was staring at an impressionist painting.

But, nonetheless, it was good; and I hope you enjoy your vacation!

John Solomon said...

not one of your better reviews - complaints of nerd wankery can be applied to all too many comics

BECAUSE ALL TOO MANY COMICS FUCKING SUCK

Fuck you people. You say "be brief" and then "too brief" and now you're bitching that tearing apart a bad webcomic for being a bad business is a bridge too far? Like fuck.

People cussed out Joe Mad, people cussed out Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk - being late with your work and expecting people to give you fucking money is bad. It doesn't help if your webcomic is shit, either.

Fuck all y'all, anyway. I'm on vacation here.

Artstsym said...

Well, ok. You have some decent points, but you have to see what they mean. Pretty much all your other reviews come off as 100% Pure Rage, and this one just kinda seems like you pulled something mediocre out of storage to satiate us while you jerk off in Maui or where the fuck ever you spend your vacations.

Also, I have a friend whose sister dresses like Kim in that link, only all the time. She is HOT.

Artstsym said...

Also:

This was a terrible review. You didn't even explain why it was so bad. You even conceded it has been a good webcomic.

Has is the key word here. The Simpsons has been a great series, but then they kept making it. Now it sucks.

Anonymous said...

I fap to your rants. They are more gratifying then any fan service I have yet to see. The less you update the less I get to wank it. Please sir, update as often as possible.

Anonymous said...

Fuck you people. You say "be brief" and then "too brief"

You pissed away 4 paragraphs trying to say he doesn't update much. This post is supremely brief in content.

We're not calling your "cute" or anything. There is no need to piss yourself and be mad about it.

Cut down on the padding not the core points.

Matt said...

I finally deleted Dresden Codak from my bookmarks today. It wasn't because of John's review, but instead because of Diaz's response to it (located at http://forums.koalawallop.net/viewtopic.php?p=94336#94336 if you're interested). Aside from his inability to get John's point, he says he's not going to do any more comics like those early in his archive.

Now that I know I'm not in his "target audience" of lonely nerds who jack it to the Singularity and to Asian girls with self-diagnosed Asperger's, I'm done there. It's a shame, too, because the comic is quite pretty.

davidson said...

Hmm. That response from Diaz surprised me actually - I expected better from him than 'I'm successful and you're just jealous'.

While I respect his decision to take his comic in the direction he wants (I'm not all that attached to the old comics, to be honest) that sort of attitude is just arrogance.

Nyarlathotep said...

I think a review of Bleedman's comics may get things rolling again, Solomon. They have Unoriginal characters, paedophilia, a Mary-Sue, paedophilia, constant fan-service/panty-shots, and did I mention the paedophilia?

bar1scorpio said...

So.. basically, Diaz is at the point where he actually spends more time defending his comic to random LiveJournal Bloggers than actually working on his comic? That is sloth...

And um.. yeah. I could see Lillith returning for a Chugworth: Round 2.. or maybe something worse (though i think it keeps in with the blog's themes to not bother doing the NSFW comics. But i could likely be wrong.)

And before more people complain about April 16th being the next phase, if Ted David & Mike Saul could jump into the fray as well. I think the previous general rant post replies actually had some good stuff in there. Sin Angel just has my notice, for some reason...

Centipede Damascus said...

I thought this site was for terrible webcomics, not decent webcomics that have taken a bit of a slide in quality.

Anonymous said...

Dresden Codak?

So, what does this mean? After running out of bad comics and turning on mediocre ones, you now have run out of them too and have to attack good comics?

If you keep going down this route, in two months or so you're complaining about things that aren't comics at all, bitching about all the ways some grocery store differs from a webcomic.

jerkface said...

how long until diaz stops pretending to give a fuck and just updates with wallpapers featuring kimiko sitting on robot cocks

my money is on 3 updates/7 months

Anonymous said...

I think I can see why you are so annoyed at the comments you get, Solomon.

Anonymous said...

I have never understood this John Byrne -like fetish on updating on the hour you seem to have. Punctuality is nice, but it isn't even among the top 20 most important aspects of a webcomic. It doesn't even affect the quality of the end product, for god's sake, and the quality of the end product is the only thing that really matters with art.

It's far better for the author to take his time with his comic and make it the best he can, rather than scramble to make the deadline and turn in a rushed piece of crap. And if you think that's unprofessional, let me point to Marvel Comics who have it as a policy to delay the comic rather than use a fill-in artist and certainly don't seem to be hurt by it.

Finally, if you don't like the subject matter of some comic (ewww, titties), that is NOT any kind of a flaw in the comic. All it is is an indicator that you are not in the target audience. You would do well to keep that in mind.

Anonymous said...

"I think I can see why you are so annoyed at the comments you get, Solomon."

Yep, we keep pointing out the flaws in his reasoning. That can be very annoying when the point of your blog is to stroke your own ego.

ironhill said...

Diaz obviously doesn't understand enough science, or even science fiction, to make a believeable and readable comic of this type. As a physics major, I would probably not start a webcomic about the life and foibles of an artist without doing some research. Diaz plainly knows nothing about the topics he's trying to broach in his recent comics. Certainly not enough to write fiction about them and sustain a narritive without the comic degenerating into nonsense, as it already has.

His early stuff was so good too, it's a shame to see him put out this crap.

David Parsons said...

“If you keep going down this route, in two months or so you're complaining about things that aren't comics at all”

Well, Dresden Codak isn't so much a comic these days as much as it's an advance-fee scheme, so he's already there according to your schedule.

vorzer said...

To Anonymous 14 March 16:04 (and like-minded):

Regarding update schedule versus quality, it isn't so much that Diaz updates slowly as it is that he sets a deadline and doesn't meet it. Part of attracting customers is consistency. And if the most you can manage is consistently-late-and-apologetic, then stop setting the expectation of a dealine. The fans on the forum may laugh it off, but that doesn't mean it isn't a viable complaint. Quality over quantity is fine if you set that expectation from the beginning.

Regarding subject matter, John's opinions on certain treatment of certain subject matter has been made abundantly clear. Most of us can see his reasoning, and some even agree wholeheartedly. Provide as many examples of Kimiko not being shown as a stereotyped piece of nerd-bait eye-candy, and maybe you'll change someone's mind.

I'm talking to the wind, I know; but I'm glad the blog is back.

Anonymous said...

"Yep, we keep pointing out the flaws in his reasoning. That can be very annoying when the point of your blog is to stroke your own ego."

A lot of this "pointing out flaws" seems like digging to me

Andrew said...

This review works on so many levels. It sucks and it comes after a delay . . . just like a new Dresden Codak! It leaves you unsatisfied and frustrated because you know Solomon can do better . . . sort of like a new Dresden Codak!

ASECRETFAGGOT said...

>>I think a review of Bleedman's comics may get things rolling again, Solomon. They have Unoriginal characters, paedophilia, a Mary-Sue, paedophilia, constant fan-service/panty-shots, and did I mention the paedophilia?<<

I think you're understating the pedophilia. Also: Lolicon (Which is Japanese for Pedophilia)

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed this review. I can't stand DC anymore because of how good it used to be. I actually laughed out loud at the "Dire post-modernists! They're immune to causality!" joke.

Despite his lacksadaisical "schedule," Diaz claims to be "well off." Ads and t-shirts can't bring in that much money. Ten bucks says he's living off a trust fund.

Wanker G. Spot said...

China Man screwed up his ASCII art. What a maroon.

What the fuck is a codak anyway? And is it the Dresden part a reference to the band The Dresden Dolls? Because they suck, and a comic's title really shouldn't go referencing things that suck. Bad for morale, y'know?

Wanker G. Spot said...

"I'm talking to the wind, I know"

You can't instruct me
Or conduct me
Just use up my time

lbc said...

god damn it used to be so good it could have been so good

Malethoth K. said...

You pretty much nailed how I feel about Dresden Codak. I feel less annoyed by Kimiko's stupid weeaboo-fanservice nature as the XKCD-style garbage plot points. You can't just Wikipedia science shit, ram it unlubed into a shitty dramabomb, and expect orgasms. Or, rather, you can, but you shouldn't be able to.

Anonymous said...

Aaron Diaz is a total egomaniacal cock.

also he threatened to beat me up once and has the guns to back that up :(

Tief Blau said...

The review really is too kind. Desden Codak simply sucks. The jokes are either lame or trite, and the plot just sucks. This is coming from a science/philosophy buff.

As of the most recent update, it's more than apparent that Kimiko is to be some sort of Mary-Sue messiah, and not in any interesting or original way. Then again, there has been so little story so far that it's hard to tell.

While it's good to have a plot that doesn't spell out every possible twist ahead of time, it's not good to have a plot that is absolutely incoherent. The story is more or less propelled by Kimiko's ability to look any object or person and say, "of course! *exposition exposition*" It ultimately results in something akin to literary constipation, with a giant wad of impacted verbal shit forced on you without any time to process it.

I haven't been following the comic from the start; I went through the archives entirely today. However, if it's true that the update schedule is absolutely horrendous, then it's unlikely that the story will ever move anywhere in the next five years. The author would have to completely reorganize his storytelling and attitude before this can become something good.

Sammy B. said...

I pretty much lost all respect for Kim on the page where she mourned Hob's death and called her friends hairless apes.

John, I get the impression that you really dislike it when comics start off comedic and then attempt DRAMA. Do you think it's possible for an author to make that kind of switch work?

Namiya said...

You want to know what is even lamer than an obscure (well, not that much, really) comic book reference?


An ancient Japanese folklore reference.
A little advice to you(given the above example of how he tends to defend his creation on weblogs), Diaz: Japan does not care.

Or rather, they mock you for it. I just hope that once I get out of this country, I never have to come back again. Not everything's awful(most musicians and other recording engineers are cool), but at every passing day, I'm starting to feel more and more something akin to this.

Tief Blau said...

Some anime is alright. Some is even outstanding. Most is absolute garbage.

Yet, it's absolutely undeniable that Japan has a severe problem with xenophobia and racism. The fact that most of the tourists they get are of the "OMG SUGOI KAWAIIDESUNEE~~ THIS IS GREAT YOU BAKA GAIJIN" variant does not help I'm sure.

But, let's get back to hating on Dresden Codak.

The fanservice was indeed annoying. I may like pantyshots and cleavage as much as the next social pariah, but it really doesn't mix well with highbrow humor and science jokes. Having the ass of the lead female cover 2/3rds of a panel just isn't classy.

el rallan said...

"What the fuck is a codak anyway? And is it the Dresden part a reference to the band The Dresden Dolls? Because they suck, and a comic's title really shouldn't go referencing things that suck. Bad for morale, y'know?"

The Dresden Codex is the most impressively awesome of the few Mayan books that still survive, and was hella important in figuring out the written Mayan language.

I have no fucking idea why the comic is named after an old Mayan book though, since it's got nothing to do with the storyline. And the only time a character called Dresden Codak ever turned up was in one of the abominably shitty early comics that are no longer listed in the main index.

Anonymous said...

This is a bad review. I'm sorry John. It's not about the length, it's the content. You spend a ton of time complaining about the advertising, which is actually pretty average for a webcomic, then you complain about the horrid update schedule(irony). You barely skim over the HUGE GLARING FLAWS like the unreadable panel layout, the drowning amount of text, etc etc etc.

You can bitch about us complaining all you want but if you're going to give criticism, you need to take it. Lately you've become really moody and a jerk, but not the jerk we loved that made Mookie cry.
It could be something in your personal life, I really have no idea. Could be just taking too much brain poison from the internet.
Maybe this vacation will help? Or maybe it's an excuse to abandon this blog again.

I'm not trying to be a whiny bitch here, I love this blog and I love the idea it supports. I just don't want to see it become the very thing it hates: shitty writing from a "flawless" authors.

Anonymous said...

Oops. Sorry about the grammar error above.

Farv said...

Oh thank god someone else hates this fucking comic.

It started great! It dove straight into shit!

The man can not handle a storyline to save his life. The whole Hob thing assumed like 50 comics of backstory that WASN'T THERE. The shitty update schedule, the mediocre art and poor layout...

Diaz is just trying to rip off Copper by substituting wank material, regardless of the fact that he doesn't have one tenth the talent Kibuishi does.

Scotty said...

I'm appalled that people believe that it's alright to not update and break your deadlines. He sells clothing, this is no longer a webcomic, this is a god damned business. If you try to turn a hobby into a successful money make, you'd better be willing to take on the responsibilities, and not just put it off.

Hell, I'm one of those people that feel that there should never be filler, unless the artists is physically unable to use the internet and/or make content. I mean, doesn't anyone draw their comics in advance encase of emergencies?

As for Mr. Solomon not going into detail about this comic, does he really need to? I mean, the comic only has 37 updates, and it's usually better to look at something yourself and figure out whats wrong with it (like the whole wanking after computers thing.) Plus, Mr. Solomon's on vacation, cut him some slack.

Anonymous said...

Breaking your deadlines does not matter, so long as it is a hobby.

If you are a business, you keep your deadlines.

You can sort of get away with it if you consistently push back deadlines - but when your work comes out, it's just so awesome that it blows everyone away and breaks sales records. Then, your lack of consistency becomes a quirk. It makes you seem like some sort of wacky uncle - no one knows when he'll show up, but he's always got presents when he does.

Inconsistent upgrades coupled with a spinning nose dive in quality is worth criticizing, though.

Plus, anyone who thinks this is "reaching" hasn't been paying attention.

This Blog is far from the first member of the "webcomic community" to take a recent look at Dresden Codak and say "... Is it just me, or has that been getting crappy lately?"

Wanker G. Spot said...

el rallan: I know what a codex is, just not a codak.

Anonymous said...

Aaron Diaz has specifically stated that his webcomic is a full-time endeavor, he left his job to work on this comic. It's not just a hobby, there is no denying that, here is a direct quote from Mr. Diaz on the matter:

"WikipediaI have decided to go full time with the comic. My regular day job ends in a week. This means that you guys are now my sole source of income. If folks keep buying shirts and prints, I'll be able to put a comic up every week!"

So after specifically extorting his readers to buy his junk so Aaron could keep a weekly schedule, he fails to keep it up.

Anonymous said...

Well, this review certainly proved divisive. Here's a comic that we all might be able to agree on: The Foxfire Chronicles.

http://foxfire.comicgenesis.com/

It's a furry comic about a group of random civilians used as guinea pigs (uh, figuratively) in a dastardly military experiment. "Side-effects" turn them into furries. They escape their captors and soon find themselves mixed up in some shit involving time-travel and parallel fantasy worlds.

It starts off horrible, both in art and writing, but to its credit it does show significant improvement as it goes on. Still horrible and unintentionally hilarious, though.

You can expect the usual furry trappings - melodrama, tetchy sarcasm, nervous flippancy (why make such a SERIOUS BUSINESS story if you're going to try to break the ice all the time by having your characters constantly poke fun at your own plot?), and some juicy fursecution early on.

What makes this furry comic interesting in particular is both the "epic" plot and the fact that the later stuff might actually have had some potential, if it weren't such utter balls.

Hannah said...

You pretty much nailed everything I don't like about Dresden Codak, though I keep coming back on the off chance that Tiny Carl Jung will make a cameo. That grows increasingly unlikely now that DC has officially gone from occasionally charming to supposedly epic. Shame.

Wanker G. Spot said...

There's no need for this blog to review furry comics. Anyone who can't, after taking one look at any of them, just think "wait a minute, animals don't talk or walk upright, this comic is totally unrealistic" is a bit dumb. Same basic deal goes for superheroes and anything involving magic. The lack of realism should be obvious to anyone.

Malethoth K. said...

But.... comics don't have to be realistic.

Andrew said...

I don't think it's a lack of hardcore, balls-grabbingly verisimilar realism that makes a webcomic awful (although awful webcomics tend to lack any kind of realism).

Wanker G. Spot said...

Webcomics absolutely do have to be realistic, as does any kind of art if it wants to have anything to say about the world. To say something about the world you must be rooted in it. Emotion, humour or anything else will always ring false when couched in childish fantasies of magic, superheroes and animal-people. To set your story in a made up world or universe is simply avoiding the world and should not be tolerated. Good art can be related to.

Tief Blau said...

I disagree with that sentiment. The world itself does not have to be realistic to allow the story to comment on the real world. All that needs to be realistic is the human (or at least sentient being) interaction.

If the main character is a brain-dead idiot who manages to luck out on everything and somehow saves the day, then nothing that happens to him really reflects reality. Nothing he says will have an impact or meaning. The characters must react like real humans would, regardless of whether magic, anthropomorphism, or superheroes exist in their world.

Wanker G. Spot said...

But the thing is, characters with magic or superpowers would not act the same way an ordinary person in the real world would, because they can use magic or superpowers to solve their problems, and if they don't, then it's an unrealistic way for them to act.

As for anthropomorphism, if an anthropomorphic character acts just like a human with fur or feathers or whatever, why not have them be a human? It makes no difference to their character, and anthropomorphic animals are aesthetically displeasing, so it would be much better to have human characters.

Your statement about brain-dead idiots is correct, but the idea that a story can comment on the world when mired in the trappings of fantasy is misguided at best. How can I take, for instance, a political statement seriously if it comes from an orc, a superhero or a disturbing amalgamation of a human and a wolf? The setting and characters absolutely demean the point trying to be made.

You can argue, though, that not all art has to make a point, and in that I agree. However, I would argue that fantasy, science fiction, antropomorphic animals and magic/superpowers do not make for good entertainment, are not interesting, and basically do not allow for quality of other aspect of art. They are all devices of the untalented and the fact that the most popular fantasy stories these days are often those that mock fantasy itself bears that out.

ELO ELP said...

The problem with modern writing isn't whether or not characters have magical powers (Jesus, anyone?), the problem is that no one knows how to properly write with subtext, theme, irony, and symbolism. This problem isn't just apparent in webcomics, it's a problem with movies and other forms of modern writing, too. I get the feeling that many writers probably don't even know what a theme or subtext is.

Tief Blau said...

You're looking at it incorrectly. While we obviously don't have foreign concepts like magic in this world, that doesn't mean we can't relate to the story. Put yourself in the shoes of the characters and think about how you would react under those circumstances. When dealing with fiction, criticism of that nature is not uncommon. I mean, would a teenager that suddenly gets to pilot a giant robot and beat up aliens cry about it? Hell no!

As for the comment on using anthropomorphic characters when humans would suffice: it may be aesthetically displeasing to you (and to me) but that doesn't change the fact that we're not the target demographic. Furry art appeals to the fandom. But, that doesn't mean the opinions of a critic from outside the fandom are automatically void. Artistic quality is something that can be appreciated regardless of the medium, so poor art will always stick out like a mongoloid at a formal party.

Wanker G. Spot said...

"would a teenager that suddenly gets to pilot a giant robot and beat up aliens cry about it?"

LOL EVANGELION

That aside, teenagers cry about most things, so why not about that? But more importantly, what does a giant robot beating up aliens say about the human condition? Is it a satire of warmongering and xenophobia? Please, don't make me laugh.

"As for the comment on using anthropomorphic characters when humans would suffice: it may be aesthetically displeasing to you (and to me) but that doesn't change the fact that we're not the target demographic."

Target demographics are bullshit. If you have to aim towards a specific audience with your work you're limiting yourself. Aiming towards everyone would result in more universal appeal.

"Furry art appeals to the fandom."

They pretend to like it but I suspect that they actually do not. The lack of aesthetic value in an anthropomorphic character is objective, not subjective, and denial of an objective lack of aesthetic value can only result in being incorrect.

Tief Blau said...

It's a stupid thing to cry about. I'm put off by people crying about failed relationships and money problems, but I can sorta understand that. I can't understand whining about something that has next to no negative qualities. Entertainment doesn't always have to have a message. Sometimes a giant robot beating up an alien is just a giant robot beating up an alien, ja?

It's impossible to appeal to everyone. That's how shit like Shortpacked! comes into existence. The story starts trying to appeal to different types of people and manages to only appeal to a select group of retards with shitty taste.

Anonymous said...

The lack of aesthetic value in an anthropomorphic character is objective, not subjective, and denial of an objective lack of aesthetic value can only result in being incorrect.

While I'm not a furry myself, and personally don't find anything interesting about anthropomorphic characters, you cannot make such an idiotic claim without proof. Prove that it's objectively lacking in aesthetic value. Anthropomorphic art has existed for millenia in some shape or form. Even fucking Disney has used it. You cannot claim that something you personally dislike is objectively bad without some proof towards that end. All you can claim is the subjectively, you find it unappealing.

Wanker G. Spot said...

"I can't understand whining about something that has next to no negative qualities."

What has next to no negative qualities? Do you mean something specific?

"Entertainment doesn't always have to have a message."

I agree, but it does have to have aesthetic or entertainment value, and the entertainment comes from being able to relate to the characters and settings.

"It's impossible to appeal to everyone."

Try harder.

"you cannot make such an idiotic claim without proof. Prove that it's objectively lacking in aesthetic value."

I can make whatever claims I want, this isn't fucking Wikipedia. The only reason to doubt my words is cowardice. Cowardice and sloth. Any buffoon can look at an anthropomorphic character and declare "this is objectively lacking in artistic value", and they would be correct.

"Anthropomorphic art has existed for millenia in some shape or form. Even fucking Disney has used it."

I sincerely doubt it has existed for millenia. The ancient Egyptian art normally brought up as an example of anthropomorphic art supposedly existing for millenia depicts representations of gods, not anthropomorphisations of animals. Just because they are depicted with some animal features does not make them anthropomorphic. They were probably just depicted that way as a joke. And Disney makes shitty cartoons for morons.

Symbol said...

However, I would argue that fantasy, science fiction, antropomorphic animals and magic/superpowers do not make for good entertainment, are not interesting, and basically do not allow for quality of other aspect of art. They are all devices of the untalented and the fact that the most popular fantasy stories these days are often those that mock fantasy itself bears that out.

Five star troll. Would read again. Thumbs up.

Anonymous said...

I seriously cannot read a single paragraph of this comic. It's like "LOL RANDUM" smashed together with "THIS IS SCIENCE" and animu tits. I try and get a sentence in and just zone out and go back to the pictures.

Symbol said...

I can't get past the baffling panel layout. Perhaps it has some ties to superstring geometry or quantum gauge theory.

Or maybe he's just a twat.

Forum Jackass said...

"I sincerely doubt it has existed for millenia. The ancient Egyptian art normally brought up as an example of anthropomorphic art supposedly existing for millenia depicts representations of gods, not anthropomorphisations of animals. Just because they are depicted with some animal features does not make them anthropomorphic. They were probably just depicted that way as a joke."

Thank you. Your grasp on art and history is impeccable, highly-informative, and we can all go home now.

Simon said...

Just because they are depicted with some animal features does not make them anthropomorphic.

You're quite right. It makes them zoocephalic. They're anthropomorphic because they have human bodies.

ASECRETFAGGOT said...

>>John, I get the impression that you really dislike it when comics start off comedic and then attempt DRAMA. Do you think it's possible for an author to make that kind of switch work?<<

Well, I'm not John, but I've always thought that Jeff Smith's Bone did a pretty good job of it. Of course, the fact that the author had planned it out ahead of time helped a fair bit.

ASECRETFAGGOT said...

>>http://foxfire.comicgenesis.com/<<

It would be a very short review. It would simply say " Gonterman"

ASECRETFAGGOT said...

>>
As for anthropomorphism, if an anthropomorphic character acts just like a human with fur or feathers or whatever, why not have them be a human? It makes no difference to their character, and anthropomorphic animals are aesthetically displeasing, so it would be much better to have human characters.<<

I agree insofar as "Furry" comics go. But I think there have been some creative (non-furry) endeavors done in the past that are aided by anthropomorphic characters.

Art Spiegelman's Maus uses anthropomorphic characters to explore and subvert ideas of race in World-War II era Europe

George Orwell's Animal Farm uses animal characters to satirize communism

Even the classic Looney Tunes shorts were dependent on anthropomorphic characters for the ir premises (The Hunting Trilogy kind of falls apart without a rabbit or duck character to hunt)

So while there is a lot of bad anthropomorphic work out there (Furries) that doesn't mean anthropomorphism isn't a viable story-telling option.

I'm sorry, I'm babbling and tired.

SECRETFAGGOT said...

>>I sincerely doubt it has existed for millenia. The ancient Egyptian art normally brought up as an example of anthropomorphic art supposedly existing for millenia depicts representations of gods, not anthropomorphisations of animals. Just because they are depicted with some animal features does not make them anthropomorphic. They were probably just depicted that way as a joke<<

People! I'm going to say this very loud and very clear: "STOP CONFUSING ANTHROPOMORPHISM WITH FURRIES!"

That is what the furries try want you to do. But the two are very different. Anthropomorphism is the application of human-like qualities to non-humans (this includes plants and inanimate objects). Furries are people who like anthropomorphic animals in a way that is more than a olittle obsessive and creepy.

Thus, the Egyptian gods are anthropomorphic in the technical sense because they apply human characteristics to non-human beings. But not in the furry sense in the the Egyptians didn't whack off to the thought of their gods fucking each other. At least I don't think they did.

Anonymous said...

I'm guessing Wanker G. is either trolling or just really damn opinionated on this topic (i.e. another asshole).

bar1scorpio said...

I doubt Warren G Buffet or Waldo G Whiz or whoever is merely Trolling... he's kept this going for too damned long. He's merely wholly mistaken in his initial point.

There's absolutely no reason to be realistic, or hold to realism. Let's face it, it's ink and line. You've got an unlimited special effects budget. If you're not doing something that can't be done in real life, you're wasting the medium.

Anonymous said...

To go back to the comic at hand, I'll just throw my points in the ring (although they've probably all been said in some manner before).

With comics like Dresden Codak, XKCD, et al, it's pretty hard to balance the intellectual stuff with, well, substance. Comics like this are basically throwing out way too many things at once that, unless you (the reader) already know or plan on looking up the twenty different subjects it throws out at once, the jokes just aren't there.

Also, the point where I just really stopped really wanting to read it is when Kimiko's two friends all of a sudden became superheroes (random note, in that comic, the girl apparently flashes one of the time travelers while kicking them in the face). Nothing in the comic really even hinted at that, not even before it got all serious, and it seems like another excuse to throw in some more of this cartoonist's typical geeky/scientific references. His serious characters are basically using the same method he used to tell his jokes (the non-sequiter scientific topic) to activate their super-for-serious-powers.

One more point - mostly a personal annoyance - I really dislike how the main characters, Kimiko in particular, are basically super-right all the time. There's the one where they see a few oddly dressed people and basically say, 'They're time travellers, naturally' and Kimiko suddenly knows the exact mechanics of how and why they're there. Then, they go from one comic where she's being admonished for nearly allowing humanity to go extinct (I actually kind of liked that one, even if others here have said that the drama seems overwrought) to a recent one where she's basically portrayed as humanity's reluctant savior in the last four panels.

On the other hand, in his defense, I really like his hat.

Anonymous said...

I was the one who called him a troll, and to put it in perspective, this is why:

I can make whatever claims I want, this isn't fucking Wikipedia. The only reason to doubt my words is cowardice. Cowardice and sloth. Any buffoon can look at an anthropomorphic character and declare "this is objectively lacking in artistic value", and they would be correct.

His argument is that he's right. Not, "I'm right, because...", but "I'm right, you're a coward and a sloth". You'd have to be either be trying to be acerbic in the first place or really, really, really damn opinionated to say this, and, on the Internet, that's saying something.

Anonymous said...

Oh God, Wanker G, are you one of those high-minded faggots who took a couple community college English courses and now think they are at full command of the breadth and width of literary convention and genre?

I think you really are just a troll, because that whole "comics do have to be realistic to say anything about the world" was just to precious for you to be otherwise.

But, to be fair, it's a true statement, I suppose. I guess that's why fucking Animal Farm was disposable shit that had nothing at all to say about the human condition. And that furry novel Watership Down, as well as Midsummer Night's Dream, since it had fairies and magic and what-have-you floating about. Let's also chuck The Odyssey and The Divine Comedy on there while we're at it, too, shall we?

Anonymous said...

This comic is the same damn pseudo-intellectual bullshit as The Broken mirror, no matter how nice the art dresses it up.

As for Wanker G. Spot (hur hur wanker hur hur g-spot,) I too reject a line of reasoning that itself rejects Orwell, Vonnegut, Eisner, and countless others.

Franz Schubert said...

Okay, seriously now. All you people arguing with Wanker, you do realize he's being ironic with nearly every post he writes, don't you? He's writing as a parody of arrogant jagoffs who reject a comic based on the most insignificant superficial details. Somehow, some of you have not only totally missed the joke, but you're actually trying to have a serious argument with someone who's already established his persona as completely unreasonable. Indeed, his rebuttals to the arguments you've already brought against him are so outlandish that if you haven't figured out he's trolling you by now, you're truly braindead beyond hope. Come on, he actually said the Egyptian depictions of the gods were probably anthropomorphic as a joke. He's a joke. You're seriously making my head hurt by not picking up the little dead giveaways like that.

tl;dr: HE PLAYED YOU FINE. And that's all I have to say on the matter.

I don't know why I'm even bothering here; the only likely results of my well-intentioned attempt to bring reason to the table are that my words will either bring the ire of idiots upon me or have no effect at all.

davidson said...

>>It would be a very short review. It would simply say "Gonterman"<<

Bizarrely, it's actually not by Gonterman. I don't know if it's a reference or a coincidence or what, but the guy who makes Foxfire Chronicles seems to be a completely different faggot called Luke Turner.

el rallan said...

Webcomics absolutely do have to be realistic, as does any kind of art if it wants to have anything to say about the world. To say something about the world you must be rooted in it. Emotion, humour or anything else will always ring false when couched in childish fantasies of magic, superheroes and animal-people. To set your story in a made up world or universe is simply avoiding the world and should not be tolerated. Good art can be related to.

Well fuck dude, you'd better build a time machine and tell pretty much everyone from the impressionists onwards that they're doing it wrong!.

I mean I was with you on not liking furry comics (except the bit about how Solomon shouldn't review them, because I think it's his civic duty to make sure the world knows just how retarded most of them are), but everything after thas some of the dumbest shit I've ever read. I dunno what was more awesome, the idea that art always has to be as realistic and unfantastic as possible and taking any other approach is an automatic fail, or the idea of someone shitting himself about how webcomics are fine art damnit!

tehkou said...

I'm not so sure that the comic fails as a business model just because he doesn't keep up with the updates. After all, the business is selling T-shirts, not comics. If in fact the majority of his T-shirts are based on his funny (older) comics, wouldn't speeding up the development of newer (shitty) comics actually be shooting himself in the foot somewhat?

I will agree that it fails because of the layouts though. Jesus christ, my eyes.

Batman said...

What the fuck is going on in these comments?

This is weirder than that one time the comment section turned into huge, wordy rants about Frankenstein.

Now, it's a discussion about Furries, and classical literature, and possibly Evangalion, and how they all intertwine. All that, to disprove some really stupid nonsense posted that's not worth arguing with (it doesn't matter if he honestly believes it, or is just trolling, it's still stupid and not worth dealing with). Cut it out, guys.

Foxfire Chronicles itself isn't even worth that much. It's just... bad. The plot is moronic. It's a blatant Furry comic, and not a "talking animals" comic. The front page currently involves a fox pressing a tiny mouse-guy into her fox-boobs, and another fox who, for some Furry reason, has wings.

Looking back a few strips, I see some sort of horribly generic explanation on how Magic works in Furry-Town, or where-ever-the-fuck the story takes place. There are eight basic types of magic, and fuck, if you don't already know what they are, just throw in the four [i]useful[/i] parts of Captain Planet, then go ask World of Warcraft about what's missing.

So it's about generic furries, and a quick look back reveals a two-page exposition that explains a thing that the sort of person who could possibly be interested in reading a fantasy-scifi epic (even a terrible one about wing-foxes) would have no trouble figuring out from the context of the story. Everything else I saw was even less interesting than that.

There's really no reason for any sane people to read that comic.

The only positive about it is that artist seems to have improved from the early strips. His recent art isn't great, but it's a hell-of-a-lot better than his early strips. This means he might keep on improving and might one day realize he is working on something really stupid.

Then, he might team up with a half-way decent writer and make something that does not involve drawing Furry Boobs prancing around in Generic-Land.

ELO ELP said...

"Okay, seriously now. All you people arguing with Wanker, you do realize he's being ironic with nearly every post he writes, don't you? He's writing as a parody of arrogant jagoffs who reject a comic based on the most insignificant superficial details. Somehow, some of you have not only totally missed the joke, but you're actually trying to have a serious argument with someone who's already established his persona as completely unreasonable."

I thought he was a joke at the "cowardice" line, but if you seriously think there aren't people on the internet who make stupid arguments, believe in their stupid arguments, and defend them irrationally and are completely unreasonable, then you haven't been on the internet long enough. Also, it doesn't make any of the points raised in response to him invalid, either.

Wanker G. Spot said...

You are all complete morons. Look at you going "but but but it's okay as long as it's not furries". No. It is not okay as long it's not furries. Anthropomorphism is a played-out device with nothing to say used and defended by idiots. And don't fucking go namedropping a bunch of "literary classics" as if that somehow makes a point. Orwell was a hack, Shakespeare was a fucking moron, need I go on? You are too dense to realise anything.

As for the accusation that I took a couple of community college English course, please. Education is mind candy for plebs. You know who goes to college? Morons. If they're not already smart by then, a bunch of education won't make them so. You're either born intelligent or you're not, and I was born a fucking genius.

Your pathetic attempts to defend worthless literary devices amuse me. So here are a few more worthless ones for you to defend: mimesis, the fourth wall, plot, characters, all archetypes, the hero's journey, heroes, and morals. Have fun.

Wanker G. Spot said...

And by the way, for the person who accused me of believing webcomics to be fine art: there is no such thing as "fine art" and "not fine art". It is all shit.

Forum Jackass said...

*yawn* You have no power here. Begone.

Wanker G. Spot said...

I wouldn't say that. I have, after all, managed to get several people to argue with an incredibly obvious troll. Although I admit that that's not generally very difficult. I mean, how smart do you honestly expect someone who names themself "ASECRETFAGGOT" and has arguments with people named "Wanker G. Spot" to be?

tehkou said...

I don't know, I thought that was some pretty impressive trolling. There's a certain sense of brow-beating sincerity there that you don't expect from the average guy-who's-just-fucking-with-you, but which you do see very often from completely sincere people with wacko opinions on art. That's what really sells it.

So, kudos to you, Mr. Spot. Kudos.

tehkou said...

ps i know you are lesnick don't try to deny it

Wanker G. Spot said...

I'm not Lesnick, but I'm glad you think I'm a good troll. Thanks also to everybody who argued with me, I couldn't have done it without you!

Also, when is John Solomon going to review Suicide for Hire? It really sucks.

Malethoth K. said...

How could anyone who's read Wanker's blog about webcomics take him seriously? He's my favorite person ever <3

ELO ELP said...

It's one thing to make stupid joke posts. It's another thing to try to keep up the joke after you've been called on it.

Franz Schubert said...

@ Elo Elp: I've dealt with my share of people, both in the internet and real life, who will defend the most insane positions and cite "because I said so" as their reasoning. That's why I get Wanker's joke.

Also, I'm not questioning the validity of the arguments brought against him (as there are some valid points in there), only their effectiveness in the face of responses like this: "So here are a few more worthless [literary devices] for you to defend: mimesis, the fourth wall, plot, characters, all archetypes, the hero's journey, heroes, and morals."

@ Wanker: Really, I like your style. Next time someone tries to start a debate with you, I won't bother to interrupt; I'll just sit back and have fun watching the escalating absurdity. As for SFH, I'm considering ripping into it myself... no promises, though.

Wanker G. Spot said...

Well, I don't think anyone else will try to debate with me in the comments of this post now that they know I'm a troll. Maybe in the next post, though, I may be able to get some people who haven't read all the comments of this post to argue with me, and then the people who know I'm a troll will start arguing with them. It'll be priceless.

Jesse said...

John, I get the impression that you really dislike it when comics start off comedic and then attempt DRAMA. Do you think it's possible for an author to make that kind of switch work?

I personally think Sam and Fuzzy pulled it off pretty well.

Anonymous said...

This is causing me to remember the days of no article comments quite fondly. A little more and I'll be begging Soloman to disable the feature again, just to stop this torrent of drivel.

Anonymous said...

To be fair, Sam and Fuzzy never really stopped being about the jokes; I mean, he's trying to become the head of the ninja mafia (which started out as a joke, mind you) for some reason or another, and this comic is just full of absurdity. No way he's trying to take this as seriously as this Dresden guy.

Needs more Ninjawatts? Add Nunchuks!

justinian said...

Wanker G., I must applaud you. Some of the most masterful trolling I've had the pleasure to witness in recent memory.

Sammy B. said...

"Well, I'm not John, but I've always thought that Jeff Smith's Bone did a pretty good job of it. Of course, the fact that the author had planned it out ahead of time helped a fair bit."

Damn straight. Bone is amazing.

el rallan said...

Well fuck, I dun been had. Nothing for it now but to wait six months for the next time Solomon gets off his ass and does a review.

Anonymous said...

I need to spend less time on forums, because Wanker had me completely fooled. Well done sir, you have, indeed, PLAYED ME FINE, and I salute you and thank you for the wake up call.

Elijah said...

Dudes, a quote from the JS man himself, about his full-on Dresden Codak review to come.
>Rest assured I will address new and exciting
>complaints never before beheld by the
>citizens of this crazy blue marble we call
>Internet Earth.

Christopher Bird said...

I think it's time to uphold one of the grand YWIBAYSFB traditions which we have been slacking off on - namely, pointing everybody to bad webcomics via the comments.

Ladies and gentlemen, I gives ya Between Failures. Which at least deserves applause for daring to have a remarkably descriptive title.

Nonexistent punchlines, or alternately use of pop-culture references in place of actual, you know, jokes. Insipid snail's-pace storytelling. Dull, lifeless characters. Mediocre art.

And, for some reason I don't quite get, every character speaks in a different font. And they're not even aliens or anything. They work in a video store!

Franz Schubert said...

It's like Questionable Content, but with far worse art (Wapanese-style, no less) and more wangsty navel-gazing. I don't think it's between failures, I think it's right neck-deep in the middle of one.

Also, if the artist is going to use different fonts for each character, he could at least make the effort to find other fonts than the ones that came with Windows. Just a thought.

Anonymous said...

On the subject of bad webcomics, I submit Everlasting Wanderers http://everwander.ixlair.com

This is one of the 'small time' webcomics where one might think it's another Gaming comic. But it is, in fact, more of a doujinshi. The characters are pretty bland, the pacing is insanely slow and the only way to distinguish who's talking is by the font COLORS.

Anonymous said...

It is absolutely impossible to successfully turn a joke comic into a "serious" comic.

Virtually all comics that try this end up dragging a bunch of completely comedic elements into their serious arc. Stuff like Over-the-Top Comic Relief characters, Parody/Pop Culture Reference characters, Fuzzy-Animal-Who-Has-Special-Powers characters, and what-have-you. This is stupid, and ruins any sort of "serious" story.

Stuff like that does not belong in serious storytelling. Comedy stories can occationally deal with some more serious or dramatic elements (heck, Futurama did it all the time), but the comedy elements should remain.

Even if a comic somehow managed to make a transition from being a joke strip to being a perfectly serious "Epic" - without any left-over comedy sticking out of their new Epicness like a sore thumb, it is still a stupid thing to do.

It's a damn dirty trick to play on your audience. The two things have very different appeal. Most people do NOT care about your Funny-Clown character enough to stick with him, even when he stops dropping jokes, and starts struggling with repressed memories of child-abuse at the hands of his alcoholic Clown Father.

If you are writing a comedy strip, write a damn comedy strip. If you decided you want to write drama/epic sci-fi/a World War II altered history story/whatever, start a new strip. Put a big "Sorry, Funny-Clown is ending - but check out my new strip, Cyber-Hitler Z!" on your main page. Don't sledgehammer your comedy-characters into a completely new genre, right in the middle of your strip's run.

The entire strip is supposed to go together. If it starts as one thing, then morphs into something completely different, a lot of people reading through the archives will have a giant "What the fuck?" moment.

It's not really possible to make that transition "well", because it's not the sort of thing you're supposed to be doing. If you're running a marathon, you can't just suddenly decide to start Judo-throwing your fellow runners, just to mix it up. It doesn't matter if you're really good at running and really good at Judo. It's not what people came to see.

Drama doesn't need a bunch of comedy to start it off, and comedy fans who came for the start of your strip came for the jokes, not for your awesome, awesome characters.

Anonymous said...

I wish someone would hurry up and make "Cyber-Hitler Z"

Ike said...

Don't forget the completely disjointed narrative! It's not just a matter of what's happening between two strips (over the course of a month..), but half the time you can't tell what's happening between two panels. That's not necessarily a bad thing for a surreal comic, but when you try to take the serious road you need to be explicit.

The mary-sue angle wouldn't be as much of a problem if they'd give enough detail on the secondary characters to make them noticeable. You get flashes of personality here and there, and then SUPERPOWERS OF SCIENCE!, and then back to flashes. (Maybe. There isn't enough comic to reach that conclusion.)

Anonymous said...

I have been reading some the earlier ones, and when I finally got to the one with Niels Bohr, who I actually know about, I said, "Fuck this. What the hell does he have to do with being a cat?" It felt like he just referenced him just to reference him.

Does he look like a cat? Did he own cats or something? What does the creator of the model of an atom have to with the joke?

Is this how people who don't play video games feel when they read stuff like gamer comics?

Patrick said...

Ha ha ha, I think he heard John, because he just updated, and he wasted a MARVELLOUS opportunity with this latest strip.

Kimiko should have been blown to chunks, seriously, that would have been hilarious, the Mary Sue character actually undone by her flaws!

But no, of course, that's not going to happen, instead she now has fucking ninja training or some such dumb shit. Bah.

Anonymous said...

Somebody tell me this one thing: Where the hell did this "if you offer any merchandise related to your comic for sale at all, that comic is officially your profession and your audience are your customers" come from? All sorts of people keep repeating that dogma, both here and elsewhere, but it seems so... retarded.

Who the hell says you can't have a hobby that's financially self-funding? A comic is only a job if the author thinks of it as his job and continues to do it even when it's not fun. And if he refuses to do so, that doesn't mean he needs to shut down his web store to fit some arbitrary nonsense classification made up by assholes on the Internet. He is his own boss and does not owe anybody anything.

Now, this isn't related to just Dresden's, it's a principle that encompasses all webcomics: the audience is not entitled to anything. The artist does whatever the devil he feels like, when he feels like it, and the audience ultimately has no say on the matter. If they approve, great. If they disapprove, well, that's unfortunate, but doesn't really matter because the comic is not his job and he has no responsibilities related to it, and no matter how many mousepads or coffee mugs he sells, that will change only if he decides it changes.

VorpalAuroch said...

Hear, hear.

David Parsons said...

“Somebody tell me this one thing: Where the hell did this "if you offer any merchandise related to your comic for sale at all, that comic is officially your profession and your audience are your customers" come from?”

In DC's case, it might have to do with the "I'm going to quit my job and make a living from my Art(tm), so hurry on out and buy lots of shirts and prints, k?" mot(month or three) that Mr. Diaz posted a year or so ago. It doesn't help that there was the assurance that the horrible Hob series was prewritten so it should only be about a week between strips.


But, given the way the art has been getting worse, it does seem unfair to be complaining that the updates come approximately once a month, because it delayed the onset of the horror that DC has become.

It's as if DC is getting a subsidy from some transhumanist think tank which doesn't particularly care about things like good art, storylines, or publishing regularity just as long as the story claims that the singularity will deliver lollypops and ponies to all the good little boys and girls.

Franz Schubert said...

Although I don't generally like Websnark, I recall one point he liked to make that I generally agree with: If a webcomic isn't the artist's primary source of income, then the artist doesn't owe his/her readers consistent updates or content worth reading.

However, if the webcomic is the artist's primary source of income, then he/she damn well needs to start acting like it. In the print comic world, you can't expect to get paid if you don't meet your deadlines; likewise, if webcomic artists don't keep deadlines they themselves set, they shouldn't expect readers to donate, buy merchandise, or even bother to keep reading.

I don't believe, though, that simply offering merchandise or a PayPal donation button is the same thing as declaring your comic to be your primary source of income. It just means the comic is popular enough that some (foolish, deluded) readers are willing to pay money to support it.

It's simple math, really: Money from day job + money from comic donations/merch = MORE money than day job or comic alone can provide. I think we all like money, so I don't see what's so hard for some people to understand about this.

Anonymous said...

The fact of the matter is that web comics are free and the author should feel free to do whatever they want with it.

What I really fail to comprehend is why some people bitch about DC selling shirts as his main/only source of income. Most of the shirts he is selling are the result of his fans practically begging for him to sell them. If you had hundreds of people begging to give you money would you tern them down?

tehkou said...

What I really fail to comprehend is why some people bitch about DC selling shirts as his main/only source of income.

Probably jealousy, mostly.

I mean, not in the sense of "he's so talented, I wish I could be that awesome." Just, doesn't everyone wish they could have a racket like that? I know I do.

Like I said way up above, I don't see a problem with someone basically building a brand and making money off that brand. If putting out new comics is actually hurting the brand, he's actually smarter not to do it.

However, if David Parsons' allegation above that he basically coerced people to buy shirts under the false pretense that he'd update more often if they did, then that is truly and egregiously lame.

Sonty Mick said...

This is really a decently fairly good review of Dresden Codak, but it does not go into the mighty levels of depth that I did when I reviewed it. It is a good topic, but if you are going to play in the big leagues, then ultimately you should be able to detect the minute little things that make a comic bad.

There is a school of thought that says that we should all join hands and call the bad comics OK, but I have never believed in the god of tolerating crud. That's not what my calling is, and I don't think that it's yours either, my fellow commentors.

Let's get back to basics.

Let's find some common ground.

Ghede said...

I wouldn't have bought a Dresden Codak T-shirt... if it weren't for the fact the Tiny Carl Jung T-Shirt is gold. Lookit him! Writing his book of Tiny Dream Analysis.

I showed it to a psych major friend of mine. He loves it. I'm getting him one too.

Freeze` said...

Diaz belongs in webcomic author hell along with Randall Munroe and any other assholes who turn their comics into fanservice slop once they know what the retarded portion of their fanbase likes.

Yes, I fucking hate XKCD.

Anonymous said...

Hey solomon, I know you get pretty tired of being told about crappy webcomics, but here's a really great webcomic you're sure to love!!!

http://www.drunkduck.com/Charby_the_Vampirate/index.php?p=373960

AltWorlder said...

What the hell is up with imitation anime style, Asianphilia, and Singularity babbling? Check out a Miracle of Science:

http://project-apollo.net/mos/

Sammy B. said...

Somebody tell me this one thing: Where the hell did this "if you offer any merchandise related to your comic for sale at all, that comic is officially your profession and your audience are your customers" come from? All sorts of people keep repeating that dogma, both here and elsewhere, but it seems so... retarded.

As best I can tell, the whole "The comic is your job, so treat it like one!" meme is a response to this comic by Diaz.

Anonymous said...

... Wow. Yeah, that guy is scum.

I knew he officially announced that he was turning it into a business, but I didn't see that strip. He's basically calling on all his loyal fans, and asking them for help. In return, he makes a promise.

It's got some of that standard nerd self-deprecation we all love to hear from every internet author/artist/maker-of-net-stuff ever born - but, for the most part, it's all cheery, uplifting, and has a real "We can do it, guys! Help me, and we'll make this thing work!" message.

The fans delivered. He took that money, and, like some sort of newly-elected politician, conveniently forgot everything he said.

When some of those fans started complaining, he told those fans to fuck off. He's got new fans, now. Better fans. Fans who just buy shirts and shut the fuck up.

No, there's no legal obligation there. There's just a promise and a call to his loyal readership to support him in his time of need.

As we look back at it, we can tell he was lying. He was never serious about it - or, even if he was, it was the kind of "serious" that evaporates the moment something gets hard - and not the kind of serious that sticks to its promises.

Man. What a scumbag.

What kind of scumbag, though?

If he really did quit his job, then he is a lazy, lying scumbag. If he didn't (his updates didn't get any more regular), and just put that out as a scam to boost sales, then he is a greedy lying scumbag. There's a difference between the two.

Jachra said...

Man, this review struck a nerve, I went through much the same rollercoaster when he started up this ridiculous 'Hob' storyline where he wanks to himself (and, not content with that, circle-jerks among others) about how great it is.

Really, those older comics were great. Hilarious even. I printed out the Heisenberg one... but this story comic is just pathetic.

el rallan said...

I think it's time to uphold one of the grand YWIBAYSFB traditions which we have been slacking off on - namely, pointing everybody to bad webcomics via the comments.

Works for me. What I'd really like to see on YWIBAYSFB one of these days is a nice aggressive swipe at political webcomics. If there's one type of webcomic that's full of masturbation and fail (apart from furry webcomics), it's the political ones. From Day By Day to This Modern World, they're a cavalcade of pretentious, partisan, smug, unfunny shit that's forever beating up strawmen, pretending that trivial shit is the most embarassing humiliation the party they hate most has ever endured, and using "logic" that's more convoluted than a swingers party for octopuses to try and explain how every single fucked up thing their favourite party or politician does is actually awesome.

It's just a shame that my favourite awful political webcomic ended last years, because The Leftersons was the sort of no-talent trainwreck that thoroughly deserves a spot in John Solomon's blog.

Anonymous said...

Argh, my local independent newspaper prints The Modern World.

I cringe every time I see it. It's like Red Meat except with anything remotely objectionable removed.

They also print Diesel Sweeties, so I really don't think they're on top of this whole comic thing.

kingofsnake said...

Yeah, this wasn't up to your standards. Your issues with this comic were...it doesn't update enough. Oh! and you thought it explained a complicated theory in an oversimplified way and had a attractive albiet cliched main character. Thats like 90% of all fiction man.

I'm not trying to stipulate that the comic is actually good. Just that you didn't actually raise any issues against it.

Anonymous said...

"Thats like 90% of all fiction man."

I dunno, I don't think the fact that it's cliche makes it any better.

Namiya said...

I'm not trying to stipulate that the comic is actually good. Just that you didn't actually raise any issues against it.

As if you needed some sort of goddamn guide dog for this kinda thing. Most of DC's issues are rather self-evident. Besides, Solomon(at least I think it was him) had already mentioned some time ago that good art didn't necessarily meant a good webcomic.

And while most of the earlier ones weren't as polished and "pro" looking as the current, they had some mean potential... yeah, fat lot of good that did.

el rallan said...

As if you needed some sort of goddamn guide dog for this kinda thing. Most of DC's issues are rather self-evident. Besides, Solomon(at least I think it was him) had already mentioned some time ago that good art didn't necessarily meant a good webcomic.

I think it was more that bad art doesn't necessarily make a bad webcomic (just as long as "But it's a stick figure / sprite / clipart comic, the art doesn't matter!" can be backed up by story, characters, and dialogue that don't suck cock).

Anonymous said...

Oh Jesus! sonty mick showed up. Maybe he thinks john solomon is going to lick his ass or something...

Your reviews are total crap, sonty! Go home!

Anonymous said...

John, i really dont understand why did you disabled to comments for so long. They're definitively the best part of your blog.

Anonymous said...

Come on Josh Lesnick review Megatokyo!

Just kidding. Don't shoot.

Anonymous said...

Hmm... Bleedman's crap actually sounds like a good idea for the razor wit of John Solomon. It's like the worst fanfiction imaginable realized into the form of pseudo-Japanese crap style. Oh yeah, it's also a horrific plot twist when a cartoon girl causes 9-11. And amazingly enough it's still running.

Professor Utonium said...

Bleedman's stuff gave me some of my most mind-scarring "What the Fuck" moments out of everything on the internet. Yes, I've seen the gaping anus. Yes, I've seen all the Slash fan-fiction. Yes, I know those people who waste more than a novel's worth of words on arguing about Star Wars vs. Star Trek. Yes, I more than likely know about the "Really shocking thing!" that's on the internet and freaked you out.

I still found them to be the most confusing and mind-breaking.

I kept reading and going "What the hell? Why? Why? Huh? Why would someone do this? Damn - I mean... The art-work's really friggin' well-done, too - yes, it's anime, but this is way above usual webcomic levels. So someone put a lot of effort into this! Why!?"

The worst part of it, though, is that I have this strong, strong, strong notion that someone with significant control over Cartoon Network's intellectual property actually looked at it, and decided that it was an awesome idea, and just what they needed to cash in on the whole "Internet Thing".

Have you guys ever heard of FusionFall? Go ahead. Check out FusionFall.com Look at it. Go look right now. Do you see that? Yes, it's basically an MMO that looks eerily like Kingdom Hearts set in Bleedman's vision of the "Cartoon Network universe".

I know, I know - it might not be JUST the web-comic's fault that this exists. There is even a chance the two are unrelated - and that the horrible idea to cross the "Cartoon Network universe" with anime (and put it on the internet) occurred to two separate people, for two completely separate reasons (insanity and fanism in Bleedman's case - sheer greed in whoever started the idea of FusionFall).

However, I'd still like to blame its existence on him. I'm confident that somewhere, in a dark, smoke-filled office-room, Bleedman's comic was used as evidence that "The Internet" was totally ripe for this product.

If this is even partially true, then he's caused more damage to human culture than any other webcomic creator in history.

Ace ofspade said...

@ professor utonium

You know, if bleedman actually got someone else to write for him or suffered some sort of massive stroke that robbed him of the use of his legs but gave him the ability to write like Shakespeare, and drew everything equally instead of devolving into amateurish chibi by the seventh panel (like Scoot), and, you know, stopped being a pedophile, he might actually create something worthwhile.

Malethoth K. said...

Damn - I mean... The art-work's really friggin' well-done, too - yes, it's anime, but this is way above usual webcomic levels.

No, it's NOT. It's stupid shiny crap. And what the fuck is wrong with everybody's wrists and ankles?

Just because it's polished doesn't mean it's good.

Anonymous said...

linked from /co/
This selfrightous little SA prick again? I doubt he does it justice.
...
Nope he doesn't. He bitches about two things. Updates being to far apart and the main charachter being japanese. The first is nobodies business but the authors if he didn't set a schedule. The second has been mentioned a grand total of once, in the famous d&d philosophy strip. She is not set up as a sexual character and is in fact an asshole and the writer knows it from what i've seen. There are legitimate gripes about this comic. None of them come from this shitstain copy/pasting complaints from the SA webcomic thread.

Anonymous said...

So wait your problem is that he is running a buisness by making a product that people want to buy and then having people buy said product?

Uh... isn't that kind of how a buisness works?

Malethoth K. said...

So wait your problem is that he is running a buisness by making a product that people want to buy and then having people buy said product?

He's running a business by promising more content in exchange for T-shirt sales, and then not following up with the content. He said that he would do weekly updates if people financed him; people financed him; he still updates every other month or so. It is a business founded on false promises and fraud.

An actually good author who deals with transhumanism: Stephen Baxter.

David Parsons said...

“So wait your problem is that he is running a buisness by making a product that people want to buy and then having people buy said product?”

Selling tee-shirts is a perfectly legitimate business, but it's not a webcomic business; if you're claiming to be a webcomic and asked for people to buy tee-shirts and the like to fund the webcomic, it's perfectly reasonable to be taken to task on it.

And, even if you ignore that, Dresden Codak just isn't that good anymore; the art is starting to look forced, the characters are going cliche, and the "storyline", such as it is, is a transhumanist wankfest with extra added fanservice.

If you want to be part of the paid-up secret club and don't care about reading a comic, DC is for you. Who knows -- maybe Mr. Diaz will even keep the site running after Dark Horse offers him a real job and he doesn't have to phone in comics to justify the tee-shirt club.

AltWorlder said...

The second has been mentioned a grand total of once, in the famous d&d philosophy strip.

It's still apparent that she's got the tie to olde Nippon, though, in her stupid name. Granted, the lack of focus on her Asianess puts Dresden Codak a step up your typical animu-slinging Japanophile webcomic. But it's still irritating- in the old comics, there was no sign she was half-Japanese. Her first name wasn't even given.

She is not set up as a sexual character and is in fact an asshole and the writer knows it from what i've seen.

There's still self-indulgent fanservice. Like all of the cleavage-baring outfits and boobs physics. C'mon, this is a post-Beyond Good and Evil world. Can't we have a protagonist that isn't gratuitously sexualized for no reason?

AltWorlder said...

Also, the time traveling villains look like knock-offs of Ex Machina from Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot.

Kurtz said...

YWIBAYSFB is being gentle to Dresden Codak because they're both members of the grand circle jerk which is Something Awful.

el rallan said...

YWIBAYSFB is being gentle to Dresden Codak because they're both members of the grand circle jerk which is Something Awful.

I thought it was being gentle because there's fuck all to say. Dresden Codak's update schedule is shit, sure, and the fact that it continues to be shit even after Diaz announced that he'd be doing the comic full time and supporting himself on comic-related merch is worth taking him to task over. And making the main character half-Japanese for no reason several strips after her first appearance is a hella weeaboo thing to do.

But that's sorta about it. Which is probably why half the entire goddamn review is a blogger who couldn't stick to his own update schedule if his life fucking depended on it bitching about a webcomic being as bad as him, and the only other complaint apart from the protagonist's weeaboo nature is "I don't like this new storyline but I'm not gonna bother explaining why except to say 'Hey, transhumanism, pretty dorky!'" (and yeah it is dorky, but at least only one character's shilling for it). When did this place turn into Your Webcomic Is Pretty Much Alright In General Except For A Couple Of Recent Things That Bug Me And You Should Feel Bad?

Anonymous said...

Am I the only person who thought this was an awesome review BECAUSE it was short and only ragged on the douche's business model?

Sure, Solomon could have written a lengthy bit and ripped into the comic as a whole, but why bother?

Read between the fucking lines. He did with this review what Dresden Codak does -- and it fucking worked. Tons of you are pissed off about this.

Short, no substance, one dimensional.

The kicker: What did I just describe? The review, or the comic? Good work, Solomon.

Anonymous said...

No offense, John, but that last comment you made...well, I've never seen anybody buttfuck themselves before.

Yeah, ya kinda let your anger wear on your sleeves a bit there. I was pulled in for awhile before your sudden fuckfest. Sorry. Still friends?

Enjoy your vacation.

Anonymous said...

Mate, you started with Dominick fucking Deegan.

C'mon. You know there is some truly awful shit still out there, and you're picking on a decent, if admittedly fanservicey and longwinded comic for it's fucking UPDATE SCHEDULE?

You're in this because you're a bastard and enjoy making people impotently angry. I realize this. But c'mon, have the class to do it more subtly than this. Take some pride in your fuckery.

Peter said...

Am I the only person who thought this was an awesome review BECAUSE it was short and only ragged on the douche's business model?

don't worry, it's not just you

this review captured the very essence of dresden codak, in my opinion. from the way it was initially well-received despite its insipidity to the slowly-building resentment once everyone realised john blatantly phoned it in, it pretty much elicited the feeling i get from looking at d.c.

let's look forward to another short, cruddy, unsubstantial review at an indeterminate date (it sure as hell won't be on the promised date, in true d.c. fashion) next month, maybe it'll even mention transhumanism?! buy his t-shirts and maybe he'll even update at the promised time! maybe.

also, sonty mick and wanker g. spot are my two favourite people, keep it rocking guys, fuck the haters

Space Ace said...

I still like DC, but also agree with the review.

If the prediction about the katana turns out true, I'll stop reading, however.

Also: I saw a hot, Asian nerd/cosplayer on Roomraiders the other day. But as the guy wisely choose her, I'm not so sure about her being single.

But hey, it's possible.

Anonymous said...

Dresden Codak updated today! It didn't update with any new content, of course, but it has a kind of photomontage effect of links to stuff like Diaz' sketch blog (which will be "updated daily" hahahaha) and a gallery (last updated with his Pictures For Sad Children guest comic from like a month ago) and the first page of Hob. Must have been a lot of effort to drag Photoshop open and make that. Don't expect anything in the next fortnight, he's exhausted.

Anonymous said...

Yeah no, A while ago i got fed up with the updates and left something on the forums about the t-shirts coming out more often than the comments. Got flamed. I had no idea webcomics had groupies, but Mr.Diaz might want to reconsider his occupation... typically groupies aren't 500 pound sycophantic asiaphile losers living in the basement of their parents at 43 years old. Fuck you, McMuffin.

David said...

This is ages too late, but anyway.


DRESDEN CODAK UPDATES INTERMITTENTLY WITH SHORT, UNSATISFYING COMICS.

JOHN SOLOMAN UPLOADED A SHORT, UNSATISFYING BLOG AND IS PROMISING TO CONTINUE WITH IT AT A LATER DATE.




THE LINK BETWEEN THE TWO MAY BE INTENTIONAL.



Sorry for the shouting, but I'm hoping it penetrated a few thick skulls.

Anonymous said...

>Read between the fucking lines. He did with this review what Dresden Codak does -- and it fucking worked. Tons of you are pissed off about this.

"HAHAH, BATMAN, THE JOKE IS ON YOU - I WAS TRYING TO LOSE! BAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Kagemusha22 said...

Never heard of this Philip K. Dick-esque rip-off, but just had a look at a recent strip, and it's incomprehensible. It's like the 'artist' (if you can call him that) is trying to do everything at once, that kind of layout should only ever be used if... say an earthquake happened or some other massive disaster, with a layout that could give a multiple view to the various happenings, whilst giving a sense of chaos not when they're drinking coffee and sleeping. (with their breasts nearly being revealed, fanservice Fanservice FANSERVICE!... pointless if you ask me)

Anonymous said...

John Solomon is Charlie Brooker.

guy said...

(Months later, someone wanders in and comments...)

This review is spot-on.

I bought a shirt and a collectible limited-edition print. That was when he "went pro." I'm always happy to support starving artists.

Then he immediately stopped making any comics, and those he occasionally did draw were this god-awful futurist wank-fest storyline. Who actually wants to read that? I hope it has finally wrapped up now. Maybe he'll never draw again.

I actually liked the comic a lot at first, but Aaron Diaz has consistently failed to honor any form of commitment to his fans.

Besides, he's tanking my investment.

RanmaSolo said...

Oh God a storyline!? I have to follow this for more than one page? I'm gonna fucking die! You are all a bunch of idiots. Jesus Christ, a story line.... Oh the horror.

He updates slow. Pfft. It's the internet. Nobody gives a shit.

-Mike