Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is addicted to branding

None of them made me laugh.

fixed.

Seriously though, what happened to the funny?

And why is that Hsu and Chan comic in the list? It has nothing to do with videogames!

yeah, couple of them made me smile... but not much of a laughter group this week.

lol, awesome.

Thanks for the support. I'm disappointed as well, but there are only 7 slots every week and dozens of video game related comics out there to choose from. You included my link, so I hope people will check it out and tell me what they think.

LU-LU-LULZ.

if they posted that, that would have gotten my vote hands down. that was hilarious.

That one would have beat the field this week, no doubt.

that dipswitch was great

The Zork comics are funny because they aren't written by me, but rather one of the other guys who grue up playing them.* Look for two more to be released this coming week.

*Did you see what I did there? Bad pun I know. =)

Look, no offense, but really...why make a statement like that? My friend's and I have worked very hard on our webcomic and we've made quite a lot of mistakes since we launched it a year and a half ago. I've no experience in comic writing and I believe that my early comics plainly reflect that. But to make a blanket statement that our comic is never good is just ignorant.

In June of last year we had a comic end up tied for second with Castle Vidcons, or first if we excluded yahtzee from the equation. Check it out here:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/08/readers-pick-best-webcomic-with-or-without-yahtzee/

When we do reach the poll, we usually end up somewhere in the middle of the pack. That's fine with me as not every comic is a winner, but to arrogantly tee off on my comic for no real reason outside of your own personal opinion is just wrong. The appropriate thing to say would have been more like this:

"In my opinion, MNC is never good, so I'm glad it wasn't included.

I think The Metal with the Broadest Shoulders was the best."

I check out this poll every week and take away some fairly harsh, and often times deserved criticisms. I know I'm not the only writer/artist who checks his work being posted here and reads the comments section only to see his hard work blasted over the coals. I understand that this is the internet and you can say and do anything you want, with or without a reason behind it. But, I'm always looking to improve and better my comic through constructive criticism. If you aren't going to at least offer suggestions, how am I supposed to know what I'm doing wrong and fix it?

Look at Alienmastermind's comment right after yours. He's not into "tentacle hentai", so he found it a little disturbing. That's cool. His comment had a reason to go with it. Granted, his reasoning wasn't something that I can do anything about, but at least it's there.

Sorry, I'm not normally this bent out of shape but it's been a bad week. Stupid economy. I promise to make an effort to cheer up and put more smiley's in my comments. =)

He should be entitled to his opinion.

But a negative opinion is always better if it comes with some helpful criticism.

You'll never blow up with such a prickly attitude.

@bowser:

I know, you're right. Like I said, it's just been a bad week because of this economy and I think I'm letting it effect me. Silly and irresponsible on my part to say the least and it won't happen again.

=)

wiinterfang,

but just like eip is entitled to his opinion, he is also entitled to be criticized for his words, which were also harsh for the authors

"MNC is never good, so I'm glad it wasn't included."

Its not like he said "I don't like it" or "it could have been better", he outright wants Joystiq to not include them, that sire is being an ass.

Can he do better? If so then I'd like to see him do it. If not, then blanket statements like he said should be allowed to be criticised.

No, MNC does suck.

At least equally awful as most of the turd-fests that are usually on here.
This week was a real stinker.

This wrapup has gone to shit...

Half of these comics are "It would probably be funnier if you had been there" situations.

MNC bores me. Don't go and explode on me for saying that. It's your comic, so keep doing what you're doing if you feel you're having success. The fact that i rarely find MNC funny is just a personal opinion of mine.

VG cats is put up here almost every time they update. Usually they are alright, but this week i've got a small problem with it because fanboys-online.com did the same joke, and hasn't been mentioned on this list for a long while.

Castle vidcons is like the indie music of the webcomic world. You either love it or you hate it, i hate it. The style of the comic is sloppy, and hard to follow.

You know? Half the time, comics are mentioned whether they have to do with Vidja games or not. And it really just bugs the shit out of me. You migjht as well put explosms on here. They almost never have comics about gaming, but atleast theirs are funny, so they might actually win.

I would just stop looking at my extra life all together, because it rarely gaming related anymore, and when it is, its just one simple drawing with one simple punchline that everyone has heard already.

K i'm gonna go watch the office now.

Bye

You took the words right of my mouth you wonderful jackass.

Also I'm digging the new vote system, it looks professional.

the VG one was pure gold, you take that back sir. >=(

@ wiinterfang

there wasn't a punchline though. it seemed like the last part got cut off or something.

Almost. Damn. =)

The Warning may contain disappointment label on the boxart did it for me.

Ah well can't lie about my opinions now to make you (MNC Dover) feel better, can I? Wouldn't be the internet, then.

But seriously, whenever I read your comments on Joystiq I respect you and your comic a lot more, because you come across as a normal, humble guy. Even above when you went off on eip, it was hardly unjustified. Just because you suck at telling jokes doesn't mean you shouldn't be allowed to defend yourself.

...

jk

I'm with you yourself, it's my least favorite week after week.

@wiiterfang:

LOL, I missed that on the box art. Good find.

@yourself:

I try and be humble because it's who I am. I don't see the point of arguing on the internet with anyone, but I do crave feedback to improve my product. At least my jokes aren't this bad:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E34MfjC7oUM (skip to the 2:03 mark)

=)

Seriously?

What's not to get about a guy carrying flammables being shot?

It's alright though, Mr. Khan, not everyone 'gets' my comic. :)

Oh, and I call five posts in for next week, in the 'No comics are funny this week/there are never funny comics on here/ Yet, I won't deign to suggest a funnier webcomic'-pool.

Alienmastermind.

Damn am i stupid.

Just wasn't reading it right, i suppose

Hey, man. I think we both have some fault here. :)

The last panel is a little more than a little obtuse on purpose.

Alienmastermind

Your comic sucks.

I didn't even deign to click the link, because I can just tell by the way you write sentences that your comics are totally horrible.

Why do you waste your time? God, I'd suggest that you give up, but then I don't want to be sued when you take it out on the poor people at the methadone clinic when you finally hit rock bottom and raid a meth clinic with a flyswatter in your underpants due to my criticism of your comic.

That I didn't read.

Seriously, though, I liked the applesauce one. I like Sidescrollers most days. But, for me, it reads a lot like Penny Arcade (not an entirely bad thing) and the beats and punches are about the same. What program do you use to draw your comic now? The more recent ones seem a lot more polished/less flowy kind of lines.

Humorous stuff.

Alienmastermind

Ha! Nice burn :-)

El Verde and I both 'draw' in Adobe Illustrator. Sidescroller has always been done that way. Floppies started as a hand drawn comic, which I usually colored in Photoshop. I moved to illustrator because it makes it easier to reuse (or partially reuse) characters, which saves time in making a comic. I admit that's a semi-cop out, though the more time I can save making the comic, the more time I can spend on game design and graphic design. (the 2 things Robot Martini inc. actually makes money doing professionally)

As for surviving flame / burn, I wonder how many web comic creators ( at least those in the videogame / geek genre) are professionally trained artists? Seriously, You're never going to get a rise out of El Verde and I because there is no way you could be as brutal as our professors and employers have been for years already. (I dare you to work with the Transformers' brand marketing team for a week and not want to throw yourself out of a window)

gg

Well, I've taken a few portfolio classes, but didn't get my degree in Commercial Art or anything. I have a feeling that the best teacher in the case of comics is going to be actually drawing, and being willing to be taught. Once you think you're 'the shit' at something you kind of end up like Rob Liefeld or Todd McFarlane.

I mean that in the bad way, man.

I had a friend who was working with Hasbro in designing an RPG for the Transformers license based on the power levels on the backs of the toys (elements of which were used for the card games and he was paid for), so I know a little about constant...uh...'notes' would be the euphemism, I guess...little bullets of soul crushing passive aggression were more to the point.

It looks like Illustrator. I've been toying with creating templates, but I want the comic to retain some of the hand-tooled feel. And I think I'm improving...somewhat. :)

Alienmastermind