Review #6: Like Megatokyo, but 60% more funny...and not in Tokyo
[For those of you viewing this in the archives, click the title at the top of the page to see my more current work, if you are so inclined]
Title: Emergency Exit
Artist: NJ Huff
Collective: Comic Genesis
Genre: Comedy/Action with a pinch of soap opera.
Updates: Currently updating Monday-Saturday, but that may change soon.
Link: http://www.eecomics.net
I wasn't sure what to think when I first stumbled over this comic. It looked like your standard "roomies go on wild adventures, hilarity ensues"-type strip.
As I scanned through the archives one boring day, I found a lot more under the surface. It started out as mostly one-shot gag strips, and then transitioned into some story about recovering magical artifacts for a short Chinese-looking man named Bubba Miyagi using a cupboard in Bob's apartment that can transport people to alternate dimensions. Okay, the story isn't that great.
Why compare this to Megatokyo? One of the biggest webcomics out there today (and the first webcomic I ever discovered a few years ago)? When MT started out, it was a gaming joke comic, one you could have a laugh at Largo's paranoia in seeing zombies or Piro's attempts to get a girl. And now? It seems to be an angsty soap opera with the humor occasionally popping in to get the child support check after the bitter divorce.
But back on topic: Eddie, one of the main characters of Emergency Exit, is just hilarious on a different level than Largo, without needing to know much about videogames or the jargon therein. This dude steals parking cones, has a deep hatred of chickens (for reasons unknown), and is somehow able to make things so awesome with his coolness enhancer (similar to Largo's ambiguous "cool thing") that he somehow gains a new vest and can summon a powerful hammer out of thin air (one would think that this "hammerspace" law would only apply to females from various anime, but what do I know?).
Bob McKile plays the more serious foil to Eddie's craziness, the Piro to Eddie's Largo. Like Largo, he keeps trying to find love, and also find sanity in a world that seems to contain little of it. Unlike Piro, he seems to be sharing a body with a demon named "Nefarious" that causes major pain and suffering, including one scene where Bob tries to cut himself.
The comic gets even bigger when you have a girl who wields a "Zapper" (a.k.a. that light gun for the NES classic, Duck Hunt) as a real weapon, a mailman who has a monocole and a pirate hook, a green-haired gamer who can talk to a female cat named "Fred" (strangely, both of them play a mean game of Super Smash Brothers), and many, many more. Despite expanding the cast so widely, NJ Huff gives a good story for most of these characters, enough that you might find yourself caring about them.
Art: 3.5/5 (The coloring is quite good)
Story: 2.5/5 (They try to put a story in there, but it seems to be missing a few parts)
Humor: 5/5 (How many times are you going to hear the phrase "Pocky Sword" in a comic?)
Action: 4/5 (Mostly as a means of slapstick humor, but even when it's serious, it's very good)
Characters: 4/5 (Surprisingly deeper than you'd think).
Overall (Not an average): 8/10
Evil Stuff: Some blood, plenty of slapstick violence.
Final Thoughts: If you wondered where the funny of Megatokyo went, look here. If you prefer more intellectual humor, then you might wanna go elsewhere.
Title: Emergency Exit
Artist: NJ Huff
Collective: Comic Genesis
Genre: Comedy/Action with a pinch of soap opera.
Updates: Currently updating Monday-Saturday, but that may change soon.
Link: http://www.eecomics.net
I wasn't sure what to think when I first stumbled over this comic. It looked like your standard "roomies go on wild adventures, hilarity ensues"-type strip.
As I scanned through the archives one boring day, I found a lot more under the surface. It started out as mostly one-shot gag strips, and then transitioned into some story about recovering magical artifacts for a short Chinese-looking man named Bubba Miyagi using a cupboard in Bob's apartment that can transport people to alternate dimensions. Okay, the story isn't that great.
Why compare this to Megatokyo? One of the biggest webcomics out there today (and the first webcomic I ever discovered a few years ago)? When MT started out, it was a gaming joke comic, one you could have a laugh at Largo's paranoia in seeing zombies or Piro's attempts to get a girl. And now? It seems to be an angsty soap opera with the humor occasionally popping in to get the child support check after the bitter divorce.
But back on topic: Eddie, one of the main characters of Emergency Exit, is just hilarious on a different level than Largo, without needing to know much about videogames or the jargon therein. This dude steals parking cones, has a deep hatred of chickens (for reasons unknown), and is somehow able to make things so awesome with his coolness enhancer (similar to Largo's ambiguous "cool thing") that he somehow gains a new vest and can summon a powerful hammer out of thin air (one would think that this "hammerspace" law would only apply to females from various anime, but what do I know?).
Bob McKile plays the more serious foil to Eddie's craziness, the Piro to Eddie's Largo. Like Largo, he keeps trying to find love, and also find sanity in a world that seems to contain little of it. Unlike Piro, he seems to be sharing a body with a demon named "Nefarious" that causes major pain and suffering, including one scene where Bob tries to cut himself.
The comic gets even bigger when you have a girl who wields a "Zapper" (a.k.a. that light gun for the NES classic, Duck Hunt) as a real weapon, a mailman who has a monocole and a pirate hook, a green-haired gamer who can talk to a female cat named "Fred" (strangely, both of them play a mean game of Super Smash Brothers), and many, many more. Despite expanding the cast so widely, NJ Huff gives a good story for most of these characters, enough that you might find yourself caring about them.
Art: 3.5/5 (The coloring is quite good)
Story: 2.5/5 (They try to put a story in there, but it seems to be missing a few parts)
Humor: 5/5 (How many times are you going to hear the phrase "Pocky Sword" in a comic?)
Action: 4/5 (Mostly as a means of slapstick humor, but even when it's serious, it's very good)
Characters: 4/5 (Surprisingly deeper than you'd think).
Overall (Not an average): 8/10
Evil Stuff: Some blood, plenty of slapstick violence.
Final Thoughts: If you wondered where the funny of Megatokyo went, look here. If you prefer more intellectual humor, then you might wanna go elsewhere.
posted by Dr. Haus at
8:16 AM
1 Comments:
LOO, I read EE. It's really funny funny with the occasional drakness to balance it out. One of the better comics out there.
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Anonymous, at 11:03 AM
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