Superseed by Tyler James is one of the most interesting strips on Zuda. A couple of reasons. It not only has a simple concept but one that is also neatly summed up in the title (without being ruder than it has to be). It manages those key elements of being simple, memorable, expandable and instantly understandable better than most. With all that it should have won by a country mile, but here’s the other interesting thing. Artistic snobbery! How many writers drawn their own comics? With no disrespect meant to Tyler – his art is a little on the shaky side, but here’s the thing. He understands that it is necessary to move things forward and that it is his job to do the heavy lifting. He doesn’t just sit there polishing his chair with his arse wishing for some fairy tale cartoonist to appear out of nowhere and wave his strip into being with but a wave of the magic wand. No, he rolls up his sleeves and gets on with the job. If only more writers would do that. Respect due!
Having said that, he also knows how to get things rolling in a more traditional way as evidenced byInterrogation Control Element by himself, Damian Couceiro and Paul Little with Steve Forbes. This is one of the best pieces of writing you’ll find on site, not withstanding the fact that it was more suited to one of those ‘real’ books, y’know the ones without the pictures? I mean both of these works favour the writing in the end, despite being at either ends of the scale production wise, but at least they beg the question – how much should we expect from a comic book? I’m not going to get into that here, but you might like to. Tyler is f#$*ing everywhere at the moment but this is probably the best place to start in finding him right here.
Considering the subject matter and the style of delivery I’m surprised that Robodeath by Marco Della Verde, Stefano Cardoselli and Bill Key didn’t do a lot better in the competition. I’m sick of zombies too, but if you can massacre hundreds of them with bullets in well detailed slow motion ala Geof Darrow or Juan Jose Ryp, well I could be distracted for quite some time. Thing is this – Zombies=Porn! And for us boys you’ve just got to cut to the chase and get on with the carnage. A little suspense is good to start with but really … just get on with it. Never mind the quality – count the shell casings! More brains … er, hard stuff here.
Dracula vs Santa by Ed Power and Melissa DeJesus is another entry trying to kick down that ol’ comedy glass ceiling at Zuda. And … it’s another near miss. A lot of fun, some nice cartooning, a great idea – oops lost again! Whatcha gonna do? Somehow I think it might take all the comedians ganging up to make one big comedy laughfest!!! Maybe not. I hope to see something from this pairing again though, as it is one of the better ones. Time perhaps for Zuda to do that unthinkable thing that they’ve already thought about and just DO an exclusively comedious competition! Best of luck guys! More Melissa here. More Ed - whoa! - Not that Ed Power obviously!
Reno by Dan Thompson. What can I say? Dan has one huge fan in me. Reno harks back to the golden age of cartooning and cartoonists. The whole thing is pure retro and totally hard-boiled. What a mix. Obviously not to everyone’s taste, but precisely my specific cup-of-tea! I love those first eight screens. It has to be said I’m not quite so mad for the following eight screens created for the invitational because they look rather rushed and the story wobbles off track as if the return was all a little unexpected. There were many criticisms and for once I felt as if the tables had been turned, even if only those feelings were on behalf of another. Grr!
Dan Thompson’s next strip, Project Warhawk also suffered a similar undeserved fate. He seemed completely back on form after the invitational – if not better. Those wonderful lines, those glorious colours, that enthusiastic story, that retro-grit. What a story, what a cartoonist! I have my doubts that Dan could bring anything to table that would knock Zuda from the path of least resistance that the current winning strips fall so easily into. I hope that someday Dan will get the recognition and support he so richly deserves. Check out Rip Haywire for Dan Thompson goodness.
The Harvest War by Kevin Manklow and Andrew Egan is another strip that lacks a big sell. The art is all there, the story too, but there’s something lacking at the heart of it. A heart maybe? It’s all very well having posturing manly heroes and yuchy demonic villains in a fantasy world but where’s the hook? In this case I mean the thing that prevents me going to play an online game or hang out with my buddies shifting figures about over a landscaped tabletop while rolling a dice. You see I have a theory about comics, whether on the web or in print and that is – they must function as comics. Sounds like I’m stating what experts have turned into a handy phrase commonly refered to by its Latin name – crudus obvious, but think about it. (*long pause*) Keep thinking … More Kevin here and here.
Little Inventor by Igor Noronha is certainly more comic-like but falls into the category of strips spoiled by broken English. There’s a fragmentary element as well to both the idea and the telling of the story which scuppers this long before screen two. Sad to say because I quite like the look of this and … good lord! Well, I’ll come back to this later – I didn’t realise this is the guy behind the art on Sidewise. Here though – not entirely the full package but good to look at and fun, though probably aimed at an audience younger than most Zudites (in some cases by up to 40 years). There are some cute animations by Igor which can be found right here.
The Litterbox Chronicles by Wes Molebash falls into that ‘webcomic’ category of my own creation: the cute newspaper strip that’s in need of a newspaper. The kind of thing that has long held sway over the idea of ‘comics on the web’. It’s very destructive to my idea of comics, on or off the web, so I found that in the competition I could not support it – despite it being very well done. The problem comes from the ages old tradition of lumping adventure strips in with funny animal cartoons. You can’t help but be dragged down to a reading age level that you don’t want to be seen frequenting. “Oh you read comics, like Donald and Mickey right?” Again I say there’s a place for this, but push me and I have to say “mleh, but not on Zuda please”. I realise that at some point I may have to reconsider my position, but we ain’t at that point yet! Wes’ other webcomic You’ll Have That is to be found here.
Lastly we find ourselves Screaming Eagles by Mike Sangiacomo and (the by now incredible) Alessandro Bragalini with Kurt Hathaway and I have to say that I hated this with every fibre of my being. But now that I’m over it (it’s the competition you know) I feel slightly more sanguine about it. There’s part of me that wants to enjoy this as a massive joke, but the thing that prevents me joining in is the idea that it may not be a joke, but some fool’s idea of a political way forward! If only the American military machine had a weapon that could transform … er, join together … er fly in formation, piloted by all the chosen … er, right people, that could then bomb all the believers/infidels/blacks/Italians/gays/stamp collectors – take your frikkin’ pick?!? – without killing any widdle bunny wabbits … (*blood vessel vital to brain function pops*) … ngg!
Of course it might just be an 80’s tribute comic – or something – in which case it is brilliant!
Phew! More Zuda tomorrow folks!
