CT Review #5: The Perfect Fantasy Webcomic
Review Here. This time around, I used Wayfarer's Moon as a way to talk about most "serious" or "epic" fantasy webcomics I've seen. But as it stands right now, Wayferer's Moon is possibly the most generic of generic fantasy comics in terms of plot. A shame, because the characters actually look kinda different, and the artwork is pretty freakin' good.
posted by Dr. Haus at
10:47 AM
4 Comments:
Your last few reviews tell me two things:
1. There's too many fantasy webcomics.
2. They all suck.
Are there any good ones out there where the creators color outside the lines a little? That's always been my biggest problem with fantasy. It's always a bit too familiar.
By
Anonymous, at 11:30 AM
John,
...what exactly would you consider a "fantasy" webcomic?
Would Gunnerkrigg Court (paranormal), Kukuburi (secret magical world) or No Rest for the Wicked (based on Grimm's fairytales) count, or does a "fantasy" webcomic have to be specifically high fantasy/Tolkienesque?
Would Order of the Stick not count because it's humorous?
It's true, Dr. Haus has been picking on a lot of fantasy/scifi-ish webcomics as of late. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I don't. I'm getting disgruntled with how he likes to focus on all the negative aspects of the comics he reviews nowadays. There are good things that can be said about these comics, and maybe he'll sort of concede to that with a half-assed sentence or two, but it's always the heavy-handed sneering derision.
The Paradigm Shift review was the worst. "Oh, woe is me. This comic actually stands on its own two feet. How depressing."
Maybe that's where he thinks his identity lies, I don't know. But I got to wonder, if he hates webcomics so much, why does he bother?
(Dr. Haus - feel free to substitute "you" for "he/him". This started as a response to John, but turned out to be for you as well. Blogs are a weird place to communicate.)
By
Anonymous, at 9:20 AM
I tempted to just link to this and call it a day. But I feel I have to repeat what I have stated several times before: Just because I point out the flaws does not mean I actively hate the comic being reviewed. Even if I do it with an acidic voiceover or snarky musical pun or even linking to various TV Tropes entries to further demonstrate a flaw in the comic being reviewed.
As a reviewer, I'm not supposed to be all buddy-buddy with the people I'm reviewing. The Internet has very little concept of quality control, and those of us who review comics don't just do it because we hate comics, but because we think they can be better than they are. Even the horrible webcomic bogeyman John Solomon said this at one point. You don't like my tone? Fine. But under the snark, there is a grain of truth to what I say.
By
Dr. Haus, at 7:49 PM
Fantasy definitely has a wide spectrum and I guess I usually pigeonhole it too much as the Tolkienesque stuff. I just have a hard time with the genre because it always feels as though it hits the same beats or exists in the same world.
Personally, I think Haus does a fine job. He's a critic, and he's being critical in a medium where almost everyone is an amatuer and there is a high volume of crap. I don't agree with everything he says, but I'd disagree more if he was just patting everyone on the back.
By
Anonymous, at 11:04 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home