Coming Soon: Zuda Week

Starting tomorrow (complete with a TWO-FER-TUESDAY offering), I'll be reviewing 5 different Zuda offerings. It would have began today, but life got in the way and I wouldn't want any of the comics to suffer from my rushing to get the review done.

In the meantime, if you haven't already checked them out, here's a list of the reviews from WEB COMICS WEEK:

Calamities of Nature
The Wang
Circle Vs. Square
Multiplex
Misery Loves Sherman

The review line-up for the week isn't set in stone, so feel free to post any suggestions of Zuda offerings you'd like to see on the blog.

Web Comics Week: Misery Loves Sherman

We end the week with the Chris Eliopoulos webcomic: MISERY LOVES SHERMAN.

Known to most comic book fans as one of the hardest working letterers in the business, he's also great cartoonist/artist that does really well at bringing the funny. While many readers know him for his work on Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, but I'll always associate him with DESPERATE TIMES.


But we're talking about Misery Loves Sherman.

The archive of the strip only goes back to 12/31/07. The strip kind of hits the ground running as if all of the characters are well known to the readers already. There might be strips that just aren't up on the site where people got to know the characters previously, but MLS provides a NEW READER section that introduces the entire cast fairly well.

(obviously from before the Wall Street hijinx)

On the surface, you might be tempted to compare the strip to Calvin & Hobbes (with two aliens replacing the stuffed tiger), but it would be a pretty unfair & inaccurate comparison. In Misery Loves Sherman, the title character isn't really the star. Sherman seems to serve more as our window into his world for our entertainment, rather than amusing the reader directly. All of the interesting quirks and personality traits belong to the other members of the cast. Sherman is just a fairly normal kid that we get to see the flaws and obsessions of other characters bounce off of.


Eliopoulos has expressed a goal to get this picked up by a syndicate, so you can fully expect the strip to be newspaper-safe and -formatted. I do tend to like webcomics that take fuller advantage of self-publishing on the internet by not falling into the old mold, but holding that against MLS would be like being mad that Boondocks strips on the 'net aren't reformatted and scripted (don't know whether or not that's the case, just using an example).

It's a comic that basically any member of the family could read and enjoy. For a family strip, it does push things to the edge a little bit (at least for how I remember strips used to be). I don't recall any strips ever making a weeklong gag out of a kid being "a mistake" or "an accident".


Miserly Loves Sherman is a winner. Friends I've linked to MLS have wound up going back to read the entire archive. It's like the Brian Regan of webcomics: you hardly notice the lack of shock value/foul language because you're having too much fun. As someone who has seen Regan live as many times as he's seen George Carlin, that's meant as a strong compliment.

Web Comics Week: Multiplex

Once again, here we are with a webcomic that has advertised on SCHWAPP!!!

Gordon McAlpin's MULTIPLEX has been around since 2005. I'm embarrassed to say it took me a long time to notice him plugging the strip in his old Newsarama signature before the remodeling over there. But I checked it out from time to time and enjoyed it. Ironic as it is, I'm not great at checking sites daily or multiple times a week (God bless the RSS feeds, I say). But it was a lock for being featured this week just because it's about time I took a more in-depth look at MULTIPLEX.


Now, there are 295 installments up on the site, so I wasn't able to read them all for this review. I caught up on about the first 40 and then skipped to the last 30 or so.

What I've found in those groups is both expected and surprising. It's natural that the strip would need to make observations and jokes independent of actual movies or theater chains, because it can't rely on the strength or weakness of the Hollywood release schedule. But what is surprising is how some of the non-movie-focused arcs are quite often the strongest riffs in the life of the strip.


After running for 295 installments, you'd expect the characters to have been fleshed out and evolved before your eyes...and you wouldn't be disappointed. You likely know people that match all of the personalities on display in the stories and, like in real life, they grow and change due to their interactions with each other.


McAlpin doesn't shy away from some controversial topics. It isn't all political correctness over on Multiplex and that's often a very good thing for the strip (tho' your mileage may vary).

Multiplex is a strip that finds equal parts of its humor in its world, our world & the movies. I think it's worth checking out.

Web Comics Week: Circle Vs. Square

A reader e-mailed in to suggest CIRCLE VERSUS SQUARE be included in Web Comics Week. After I recovered from the shock of having a reader that would actually e-mail in with something constructive ;), I checked it out.

It obviously not an artsy web comic, but what it lacks in stunning graphics it makes up for with wit and inventive situations to place the characters in.

The main thrust of the comic is, as the title would suggest, pitting Circle & Square against each other. There's no real basis for the animosity, which the creator kind of admits in the way it is introduced in the first installment. But you quickly forget about that (as you should for a nonsensical humor strip) and sit back to enjoy the ride.

As I've stressed in the last two reviews, delivering the funny in each strip is important. Circle Vs. Square consistently follows the rule. Even during the Election (for lack of a better term) plotline, there are jokes delivered in each installment (and good for a chuckle 9 times out of 10).


The one drawback with the current Election arc is that it's a little unfriendly to new readers. Some of the jokes are more reliant on continuity and many characters are mentioned without appearing on panel or being given any bit of background. But I guess that's one of the benefits of being a free webcomic: that "FIRST" link is always there to take you back to a new reader friendly place in its history.

If you dismiss this comic based on the often basic drawings, you're making a big mistake.

Web Comics Week: The Wang

Yesterday, I started off Web Comics Week with a look at Calamities of Nature. That strip came to my attention due to having advertised in the past. So, why abandon that method of picking strips to take a look at already?

THE WANG is quite a funny comic. It has a diverse cast, as well as subject matter. Unlike the turn that Calamities took with changing to the old standard layout, WANG has at least kept to giving you something more akin to the double-sized Sunday newspaper version. And why not, since it is delivered weekly rather than 2-3 times a week?


But where it really breaks from standards is in the subjects and language used. Our protagonist, Eugene Wang, constantly has the short term romantic hook up between his mother and his ex-girlfriend thrown in his face. They have his friend, George L. Gedaladapus, tricks a dimwitted friend of Eugene's into bed and into handing him a check for a bogus pyramid scheme (that might be a redundant phrase, come to think of it). The language used tends to be a little blue from time to time and has no qualms about employing sexual humor.


In addition to going politically incorrect or with shock humor, they tackle the more "middle of the road stuff" (like what a dog on a walk is thinking) and politics (like addressing some of the voter suppression tactics used).


Unfortunately, since the online version only goes back to February 2008, I can't really compare and contrast how the strip started versus how it is today. It existed in some form before that date and, I'm gathering, previous strips were pulled down once they were printed in a collection. From the start of this iteration, though, Stan Yan (the creator) was in full stride.


Every strip has a laugh, even when it is really meant to set up for a larger joke. Maybe Yan is more keen on this due to his weekly schedule. Readers are probably even more concerned with having a payoff in each strip when they only get it on Mondays. But whatever the reason, it consistently works.


The cast is extremely well-balanced. While Eugene's ex-girlfriend might not be able to carry the strip with cutesy observations about a dog being walked, there is rarely a case of feeling the strip is lacking by the absence of a particular character. Quite the opposite, it works when it's Eugene & George, George & Sueann, Eugene Jr & Eugene Sr or any other combo that graced Yan's WebComicNation page. That page apparently does contain some old work with the character, but not the beginning of the version you'll see under THE WANG.

I'd head on over and catch up on the last year of strips. I don't think you'll regret the time spent.

Web Comics Week: Calamities Of Nature

As I mentioned in my previous blogs about Cru the Dwarf, I tend to check out my advertisers. I like to see who or what is taking up a spot somewhere on the blog.

Calamities of Nature is, quite often, one of my sponsors.

Reading through the entirety of the strip (current to 10/26/08), it has its rough patches early on, but settles into giving consistent chuckles.

In the early going, it tries to make statements without any real funny to it. It talks about the leadership vacuum that he felt the country was experiencing in 2007. He tries to tie the funny into it, but allowed the first part to be dry as heck. That's not generally the format for something that seems to be aimed towards laughter rather than arcs that are drawn-out and heavy on thought-provocation.

It only takes a few weeks for the creator, Tony Piro, to go for more of the wacky comic strip stuff, complete with making sure there's at least an attempt at funny in each individual serving. It starts with A Hairy Situation and seems to find a good formula from thereon out. While there isn't always a chuckle with each new page, there is more obvious setup, often using somewhat off-the-wall premises. While it might not deliver that laugh, it tries to make sure you know there will be an attempt at one in the next strip. I'd have to imagine that is key to keeping new readers around for more.

In September, Piro took a mildly disappointing turn, eschewing his fuller page strips and adopting something more akin to the newspaper strips. This necessitates most of the strips rushing the setup to get to the punchline.

Mind you, there are still a number of laughs to be had, but regressing to the format of the establishment (whether to become more homogenized or to be able to pop out strips more quickly) isn't the sign of a strip striving for originality. It will still manage to be entertaining enough to read for the price ($0), but it doesn't look like it will become a standout. Here's hoping I'm wrong.