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Posted by Ben in Some Other Things on September 5th 2008 @ 4:50pm GMT
While you wait for Page 28, which will hopefully be up either later tonight or early tomorrow morning, I present you with the following Lovely Story.
Early last year I discovered a webcomic called Dresden Codak by a gentleman named Aaron Diaz. I absolutely loved it, seeing it as a glorious cross-pollination of XKCD and Perry Bible Fellowship - wonderful, varied artwork with incredibly geeky humour to back it up. There was no drive, no real focus other than being funny. I liked that. Going back and reading comics like this one here, or this one, still make me smile. This one continually makes me laugh out loud, caught in some perpetual giggle loop until the end of days. I love the clean art style and execution of this particular comic as well, although to be fair that one speaks to me on a very personal level.
Bugger, I think I've revealed a little bit too much about my psyche there.
The problem Dresden Codak has now, however, is that Aaron has made a conscious decision to veer away from those random, almost non-sequitur comics into a plot-heavy storyline entitled Hob. The story starts off with a couple of very good jokes which have very little relevance to the plot, and then with a brilliant idea which is superbly executed. But then a couple of comics later - about here, I think - Diaz apparently decides that jokes are beneath him and decides to focus almost entirely on the story instead.
"Er, hold on a minute," I hear your collective conscious scream into the ether. "Isn't Jump Leads incredibly story-driven?"
To which I can only respond: Yes, but we didn't start off doing one-off gags without focusing on any particular characters. You knew from day one what you were getting with Jump Leads. Diaz changed the rules of his comic quite suddenly, and to be hoenst it was more than a little jarring. It's also incredibly difficult to work out exactly what's going on in this story. The art, while beautiful, is confusing as Hell. I have no idea where the characters are, what they're doing, how they got there or what they're going to do to resolve the situation.
It's disappointing, really. I used to love Dresden Codak, but it's no longer the comic I fell in love with. I'll keep an eye on the RSS feed out of a futile hope that maybe, maybe, Diaz will return to his roots with the comic. But somehow I don't think that's going to happen.
Early last year I discovered a webcomic called Dresden Codak by a gentleman named Aaron Diaz. I absolutely loved it, seeing it as a glorious cross-pollination of XKCD and Perry Bible Fellowship - wonderful, varied artwork with incredibly geeky humour to back it up. There was no drive, no real focus other than being funny. I liked that. Going back and reading comics like this one here, or this one, still make me smile. This one continually makes me laugh out loud, caught in some perpetual giggle loop until the end of days. I love the clean art style and execution of this particular comic as well, although to be fair that one speaks to me on a very personal level.
Bugger, I think I've revealed a little bit too much about my psyche there.
The problem Dresden Codak has now, however, is that Aaron has made a conscious decision to veer away from those random, almost non-sequitur comics into a plot-heavy storyline entitled Hob. The story starts off with a couple of very good jokes which have very little relevance to the plot, and then with a brilliant idea which is superbly executed. But then a couple of comics later - about here, I think - Diaz apparently decides that jokes are beneath him and decides to focus almost entirely on the story instead.
"Er, hold on a minute," I hear your collective conscious scream into the ether. "Isn't Jump Leads incredibly story-driven?"
To which I can only respond: Yes, but we didn't start off doing one-off gags without focusing on any particular characters. You knew from day one what you were getting with Jump Leads. Diaz changed the rules of his comic quite suddenly, and to be hoenst it was more than a little jarring. It's also incredibly difficult to work out exactly what's going on in this story. The art, while beautiful, is confusing as Hell. I have no idea where the characters are, what they're doing, how they got there or what they're going to do to resolve the situation.
It's disappointing, really. I used to love Dresden Codak, but it's no longer the comic I fell in love with. I'll keep an eye on the RSS feed out of a futile hope that maybe, maybe, Diaz will return to his roots with the comic. But somehow I don't think that's going to happen.
8 Comments
Posted by Pants Commander on September 5th 2008 @ 5:12pm GMT
I completely agree on the assessment of the late Dresden Codek not making a lick of sense. The art still rules, and the story looks like something I would like, but I can't for the life of me follow it. Maybe I'm just dumb. Posted by Uthor on September 5th 2008 @ 6:37pm GMT
He's pertty much stated he's never, ever, going to make joke comics in Dresden Codak ever again.It's a shame, really. Every once in a while you'll find a guest comic that he does that brings back all the memories:
http://picturesforsadchildren.com/index.php?comicID=88
If you haven't, check out A Lesson is Learned But the Damage is Irreversible:
http://www.alessonislearned.com/index.php
It's like early DC, but better. Too bad it's over, now.
Posted by Ben on September 5th 2008 @ 10:03pm GMT
I know he's not going to return to his roots, and it's immensely disappointing. Posted by Jordan on September 6th 2008 @ 2:36am GMT
Honestly, I think that I would like the Hob storyline, but only once it's completed. When there are weeks or maybe even months between updates it's hard to remember all the details that have come before.Breaking your drawing hand doesn't help either.
Posted by Passer By on September 8th 2008 @ 2:28am GMT
Agrees. However, the problem (for me, at least) isn't that he went from wacky joke-a-day into Story Mode; it's that he went from "very quite cleaver and creative joke-a-day" into an Evangelion-esque enterprise with a need to sound smart and pretentious. There's nothing wrong with existentialism, but it's gotten to a degree that I'm sure the only person who really knows what's going on is the author himself, and the few who email him and pretend that they do. I'm surprised it hasn't ended with a floating black monolith; though it DOES have a space-fetus, so half-credit. Posted by Uthor on September 8th 2008 @ 8:42pm GMT
Jordan, you're in luck! He just finished Hob.Honestly, him breaking his drawing hand hardly delayed him at all. We went from 4-6 weeks between updates to like 8 weeks. It's like he only missed one update through his trauma!
Posted by SupSuper on September 10th 2008 @ 5:25pm GMT
I think it's something most webcomicers go through. You start off small, a few characters, a few jokes, get your comic nice and going.Eventually your fanbase and ego inflates so much that you think you're the shit, that if you've made it this far, clearly you can just start writing that serious and dramatic storyline you've always wanted and nothing's stopping you!
...and you becoem shit.
I never liked DC that much in the first place (it always played like a warmed over anime themed version of A Lesson Is Learned) but Hob is just unbearable. At the very least you can't get worse dialogue wise than "A long time ago...in the future" so maybe things will take a turn for the better.