Web Comic International Flavor

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Charlie Scovil — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:40:01 GMT

I can't say I'm impressed with todays comic strip "artistry". I find the radical change in style actually detracts from the storyline. Before I took the time to read the credentials of the artist, my thought was that the regular artists were unavailable and that you had decided to print a rough draft in order to meet some kind of deadline.

I remember reading comic books in the 60's and I don't recall seeing anything of this style. Color me NOT impressed.

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Lee Blake — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 21:52:06 GMT

I agree with Charlie, the artwork is not what all that impressive now.

I say go back to the original artwork!!!

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Jim Perry — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:35:58 GMT

Some people just have to complain about something I guess. After reading the explanation I think it's a pretty cool idea.

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Chris — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:35:08 GMT

I am absolutely not impressed with this artwork. First thing I thought was: horrible!

Please go back to the original artwork! I really don't like the idea of changing artwork within a story.

re: Web Comic International Flavor

SillyRabbit — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 19:59:52 GMT

And here I was thinking that this comic was supposed to "spotlight IT Pros and Developers" when in reality the comic is about spotlighting artists from around the world. I must have wandered onto a different project website. How do I get back to the Microsoft sponsored comic again?

re: Web Comic International Flavor

becn — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 22:30:35 GMT

what a completly dumb idea.

Hey - I know - lets make a TV sitcom and then change the actors each episode.

And sillyrabbit - I have long given up seeing anything that would "spotlight IT Pros and Developers". This strip has less real IT content than matrix or dilbert. It's just not being written by someone that knows anything about IT.

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Neil — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 00:51:10 GMT

All good and relative comments.

The radical changes in artist styles makes it hard to follow and this weeks story lines does not have any continuity which makes it even worse. Four episodes that have nothing to do with each other or the rest of the series.

I was intertained by the story before this week, but I do agree that it has little to do with real IT. They could have involved IT people and could have come up with something just as interesting but more realistic.

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Wesley — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:32:04 GMT

I thought I'd toss my two cents into the ring.

The first time I noticed a drastic change in the artwork was in comic 3-1. It took me a few days before I realized that the woman in the air sealed suit in the clean room was actually Chen, who we had been introduced to on day 14. After the second week, I started to notice anomalous character changes...

Shall we discuss some of those character anomalies?

Let's look at Chen Lee: Day 14 showed us Chen as a smartly dressed simpering woman with a Chinese name but looking ambiguously ethnic (Black, Asian, Indian, Caucasian mixture of some sort?). Week three shows her as being relatively similar to day 14, but with a different enough structure to make me wonder if this was a new character. The weeks progress and she shows more or less the same character design. Until day 5-3. Who is this craggy jawed lady with the under bite? Did the artist have the misfortune of painting the cells right as Chen was gnawing on a Gobstopper? Day 5-5: Another facial change. Day 6-5: ::double take:: Well /NOW/ who's that in the back seat?? ZZZ must pay Chen quite well for her to afford such short notice plastic surgeries. Day 7-2: Back to her old (relatively) normal self. Day 8-2: Oh just forget it.

Now for Emil, everyone's favorite social maladroit. First physically introduced on day 4-1, we see the gaunt face of an obviously older man with a middle-brown beard. Days 4-2, 4-3, 4-4, 4-7, shows the same man with SHORT BROWN HAIR peaking from under his cap. Suddenly, on day 7-1 a less aged Emil sports a sideways baseball cap that covers a cascade of LONG FLOWING BLACK HAIR!! Huh?! Is this Emil's stunt double? His hip younger brother? A long lost son? Or... is he wearing a do-rag of some sort? Maybe sometihng akin to a foreign legion hat with a black sun guard? Looking through the comics, that last possibility seems more likely. My next question: Where can I buy one? Emil also gets younger looking as time goes on. Bottle that and sell it at Macy's!

Steve Brummel (Chubby Blonde developer) must be a yo-yo dieter with the way his weight fluctuates, but compared to the problems that Chen and Emil exhibit, Steve isn't doing too bad. Toad seems to be the most normal of the bunch. However, if the trend of character mutation keeps up, by the time Steve sees his family again Merry will look like Condoleeza Rice and his son will be a daughter.

The artwork has had more good moments than bad. I was excited to see Rick Burchett's artistry in the first two weeks, having been a fan of the animation in the Batman animated series. Joe Ng does a good job with it as well. Other artists don't seem to capture the detail and life as well though. However, this criticism is coming from someone who can barely draw stick figures with a stencil set so it may or may not be valid.

As to the storyline... pardon me while I sink my head in my hands /yet again/. Will there ever be a fictional account of the technology world that actually has accurate representations of the technology that is supposed to be bolstering the plot? If anyone is interested, I'll list out some of the little things that annoy me in this strip, but I'll let it lie for now.

Let me end this on a sweet note. By and large, the artistry is wonderful. Yes, the physical characters change their appearance more than Boris Karloff, but the artistry itself is almost always very nice. It's also intriguing to have a story driven comic devoted to IT things. I'll definitely keep this in my Google reader and watch this to the end. I wonder how long it will last? Hopefully for a few more months at least.

All things considered, "Thank you" to those involved with producing this. It gives me a few moments of amusement in a busy day full of patch cables and blinkenlichten. :)

re: Web Comic International Flavor

David Cimini — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:06:49 GMT

How can I top Wesly? Anyway, I agree I find the art changes distracting, but I don't have any objection to the style of art itself. I think something of more concern is the storyline.

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Techno — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 06:01:04 GMT

Can you get back to drawing like you did in the 7's and 8-1.

I draw too, and I really like the way the 7's and 8-1 where done. I find 8-2 and 8-3 to be extremely amateurish. I also found 8-4 to look to retro look.

As a developer myself, I like how the 7s where going but the 8s are starting to lose my attention. The 7s were so good that I check every day for new ones and when the 8s started like this, I checked at 8-2 and didn't again until 8-4.

re: Web Comic International Flavor

Fly — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:18:50 GMT

Very nice comment Wesly, well done.

I didn't like the changes in the Art until I read the explanation and the credentials of the makers.

I know in comics this is something that works and is refreshing, changing the artwork. The problem comes that the regular comics can afford this change because the story, plot and characters are good enough to support the physical and style change.

In this comic this is not the case really, I find the Daily Dilbert comic more IT related than this. I already said it, in here the most valuable part are the comments from the readers.