The Pitt of Despair

[wombat]

Interesting point and I wonder if it's a question of what you are used to. This reminds of comic books with a style of art where everyone is always overreacting and yelling about the least little thing. They always put me off, but it's clear that it's a genre. The comics I read don't fall into that genre, so the art seems harsh and unpleasant to me.

But, that doesn't make it bad. If that's the effect he's going for, he's doing a good job of it, I'm just not his target audience.

[jaydub]

Wait - a color-blind graphic artist?  Does that work?

[Choop]

the comic is in black and white, jaydub.

[AugustWest]

I'll just jump on the bandwagon and agree with LFM.  I liked the art.  I liked the writing.  Something was bugging me and keeping me from fully digging the comic as a whole and I think Li'l Falzmetz expressed the trouble well.

[jaydub]

Der.  He's in school to be a graphic artist however (or was, apparently). 

[jay-ell]

Past tense. And yes, it's a definite handicap, which is probably why he's trying to focus on his writing at the moment.

[littlefallsmets]

Now that I am writing after work, not on lunch with my broken "v" and "b" keys having to cut-and-paste them in to make any sense, keyboard periperhal plugged-in... it's like in the Scott McCloud book, right? "Understanding Comics". Everyone even slightly nerdish has read that, right?

You simplify to draw people into identifying with your characters, "oh I went to art school like him, I was totally pregnant once like here" and you edge toward photorealism to underline the specificity of the character's experience "wow, this is totally this one person's life and I am getting to look in on that, that's rad". Either approach could totally work with the whole "slice of life" approach that your kin is going with.

But the whole "super-charicature of super-specific people" thing, which don't get me wrong, I like in a vacuum outside of the context of the strip's concept, sort of manages to fall in a valley between those two approaches and ends up with few of the expressive advantages of either and many of both of their flaws. Total bizarro-venn-diagram of what I think he's going for with the story and characters.

Womblet is full-on that this style... exaggerated, shaggy, bulbous and jaded... would totally work for a strip where people scream at each other about popular culture. Which isn't a bad thing, either, those few times it is done well. It would also work for a story about characters who are totally surrounded with wonder but ignore it all because of their petty self-obsesssions. This would also be a great style for a strip about, like, a dude working at the last Barnes and Nobles after the Rapture, having to kill mutants and wizards with a zap gun as a matter of daily course but only seeing value in his quest to climb to assistant manager at the bookstore.

But for such an essentially gentle story about a dude trying to get a simple life earned more or less the right way... I just feels lke it begs a siimple universality or a fairly strict trueness-to-life.

[CortJstr]

Now that I am writing after work, not on lunch with my broken "v" and "b" keys having to cut-and-paste them in to make any sense, keyboard periperhal plugged-in...

You should try the On-Screen Keyboard. I think it's built into all versions of XP. Look in the Accessibility menu. Clicking letters is a hassle but it sound less annoying than what you were doing.

[littlefallsmets]

can'd for tech support!

[pmcd9]

I didn't really care for it, sorry. 

I like biographical comics, Harvey Pekar comes to mind, love his stuff.  Your cousin's life however bored me to tears.

I don't have a beef with his artistic style either, but he does draw really ugly people, especially the women.

[littlefallsmets]

JL: did you ever run our thoughts by your in-law there?

did we help him out at all?

[jaydub]

While in no way impugning your SIL's attractiveness, after seeing her in pics on Facebook, I've gotta say Gabe nailed her in his characterization.  Um - so to speak.

[jay-ell]

We talked about it briefly at Thanksgiving, and he appreciates your thoughts. He readily admits that he's learning a lot from this experience, and may incorporate some of your/my suggestions into the Pitt, and may take some of them to heart in designing future projects.

Incidentally, I don't think I mentioned this before, but the title is a play on where he lives -- Pitt County, NC. Which I thought was a bit clever, particularly since he doesn't really like it there.

[jay-ell]

Also, the Pit of Despair (he changed the spelling earlier this week with his website redesign) is on Facebook as "The Face of Despair". Gabe is running a fan drive - he wants to get 100 facebook fans before the end of February, at which point POD will become a comic strip about a baby.

So if for those of you who liked the strip, I'd encourage you to participate.

[Arachno-capitalist]

You should try the On-Screen Keyboard. I think it's built into all versions of XP. Look in the Accessibility menu. Clicking letters is a hassle but it sound less annoying than what you were doing.

Yeah im still doing this now when I dont have keyboard plugged into my lappy. Except when Im playing some fullscreen multiplayer and the only way I can communicate is like: "Sorry 6uys my key8oard is 8roken. All of 7he keys down from 7he #five are dead. SNIPER ON 7HE ROOF." And then I just look dumb.