Monday, January 9, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Groo Watch: Sergio Aragones Funnies #4
I'm a few months behind on this, but in the October 2011 issue of Sergio Aragones Funnies, I only spotted two Groo appearances, both on the cover. First, there's a Groo hanging from Sergio's lamp:
And then, a stack of comics pages on the floor, upon examination, appears to be an issue of a Groo comic, featuring the wanderer himself, Arba, Dakarba, and Chakaal:
Fun times.
And then, a stack of comics pages on the floor, upon examination, appears to be an issue of a Groo comic, featuring the wanderer himself, Arba, Dakarba, and Chakaal:
Fun times.
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Webcomics shoutout: The Last Romantic Anti-hero
Billy Dogma: The Last Romantic Anti-Hero
By Dean Haspiel
Published online at Trip City
I never feel like I fully understand any of Dean Haspiel's "Billy Dogma" comics, but I certainly find them fascinating. They seem to be written straight from the subconscious, allowing Haspiel to pour his emotions straight onto the page (screen?), examining modern life through the lens of a bombastic action comic filled with honest, completely non-self-conscious romantic feeling. This installment sees the hero and his girlfriend, Jane Legit, trapped in a post-apocalyptic wasteland apparently caused by the narcissism of a society obsessed with "social" technology, deciding to fix things through the power of their explosive lovemaking. I think. It can be hard to tell, what with all the goofy symbolism and over-the-top weirdness (there's something about destructive satellites labeled with the word "AMGOD", which seems to be both a comment on man's self-centeredness, or maybe just "Dogma" backwards), but the centerpiece of this story is a trip through Billy and Jane's romantic history, which is where the series usually shines. The larger-than-life style Haspiel uses here takes the ups and downs of a love affair and gives it seismic, world-shaking importance to externalize the feelings of the participants.
It's lovely work, the kind of comic that invites immersion and interpretation, lingering in the subconscious and grabbing hold of universal emotions to add resonance to conflicts shared among all of humanity. This seems like the most personal work of Haspiel's career, but that relatability is what makes it so great.
By Dean Haspiel
Published online at Trip City
I never feel like I fully understand any of Dean Haspiel's "Billy Dogma" comics, but I certainly find them fascinating. They seem to be written straight from the subconscious, allowing Haspiel to pour his emotions straight onto the page (screen?), examining modern life through the lens of a bombastic action comic filled with honest, completely non-self-conscious romantic feeling. This installment sees the hero and his girlfriend, Jane Legit, trapped in a post-apocalyptic wasteland apparently caused by the narcissism of a society obsessed with "social" technology, deciding to fix things through the power of their explosive lovemaking. I think. It can be hard to tell, what with all the goofy symbolism and over-the-top weirdness (there's something about destructive satellites labeled with the word "AMGOD", which seems to be both a comment on man's self-centeredness, or maybe just "Dogma" backwards), but the centerpiece of this story is a trip through Billy and Jane's romantic history, which is where the series usually shines. The larger-than-life style Haspiel uses here takes the ups and downs of a love affair and gives it seismic, world-shaking importance to externalize the feelings of the participants.
It's lovely work, the kind of comic that invites immersion and interpretation, lingering in the subconscious and grabbing hold of universal emotions to add resonance to conflicts shared among all of humanity. This seems like the most personal work of Haspiel's career, but that relatability is what makes it so great.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Webcomics Shoutout: Blast Furnace
Blast Furnace
By Ryan Browne
Published online, but also available in minicomics format
Full disclosure: I'm friendly with Ryan Browne "in real life", so feel free to take the effusive praise directed his way with a grain of salt. I do really dig his comics though, really!
Ryan Browne's God Hates Astronauts is a comic masterpiece of a superhero parody, but he's got plenty more goofy humor to share with the world, so he recently set out on a quixotic quest to create a year-long webcomic off the top of his head, posting new pages every weekday, ostensibly following the adventures of the eponymous flaming-tied, handlebar-mustached master thief, but often charging off on random tangents, flashbacks, fantasies, and non sequiturs. In fact, those non-main-plot bits seem to have taken over the story, with a good deal of the comic so far being devoted to several nested flashbacks involving an outlaw owl, the naive bear she drags into a life of crime, and an Indian warrior named He Who Looks Like A Horse But Is Actually A Hideously Deformed Man, and also a separate plotline involving a pair of villainous henchmen who resemble the turtle and pirate from old comic book "Can you draw?" ads.
Blast Furnace himself has spent most of the comic killing or maiming everyone he comes across, making enemies and getting involved in ridiculous plots, possibly all leading up to a climax that ties everything together, if Browne can manage to wring a semi-coherent throughline from all this weirdness. No matter; it's all hilarious stuff, with Browne unleashing all the nonsense that's apparently cluttering up his head, including silly sound effects, horrifically funny violence, talking animals, barely-covered nudity, and goofy concepts like a giant businessman robot made of other combined businessmen robots, all delivered at a breakneck pace, concepts and jokes spilling onto the page at such a rate that nobody, apparently even Browne himself, have any idea what's coming next. That's webcomics heaven, if you ask me.
By Ryan Browne
Published online, but also available in minicomics format
Full disclosure: I'm friendly with Ryan Browne "in real life", so feel free to take the effusive praise directed his way with a grain of salt. I do really dig his comics though, really!
Ryan Browne's God Hates Astronauts is a comic masterpiece of a superhero parody, but he's got plenty more goofy humor to share with the world, so he recently set out on a quixotic quest to create a year-long webcomic off the top of his head, posting new pages every weekday, ostensibly following the adventures of the eponymous flaming-tied, handlebar-mustached master thief, but often charging off on random tangents, flashbacks, fantasies, and non sequiturs. In fact, those non-main-plot bits seem to have taken over the story, with a good deal of the comic so far being devoted to several nested flashbacks involving an outlaw owl, the naive bear she drags into a life of crime, and an Indian warrior named He Who Looks Like A Horse But Is Actually A Hideously Deformed Man, and also a separate plotline involving a pair of villainous henchmen who resemble the turtle and pirate from old comic book "Can you draw?" ads.
Blast Furnace himself has spent most of the comic killing or maiming everyone he comes across, making enemies and getting involved in ridiculous plots, possibly all leading up to a climax that ties everything together, if Browne can manage to wring a semi-coherent throughline from all this weirdness. No matter; it's all hilarious stuff, with Browne unleashing all the nonsense that's apparently cluttering up his head, including silly sound effects, horrifically funny violence, talking animals, barely-covered nudity, and goofy concepts like a giant businessman robot made of other combined businessmen robots, all delivered at a breakneck pace, concepts and jokes spilling onto the page at such a rate that nobody, apparently even Browne himself, have any idea what's coming next. That's webcomics heaven, if you ask me.
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