So, I decided to try a bit of an experiment. I’ve mentioned before that I’m a veteran of the DrunkDuck site, which is one of the larger of the many free web comic hosting sites out there. The nice thing about DD is that there’s really no approval time or skill with HTML necessary to produce a comic. The down side is that there’s no approval time or skill with HTML necessary to produce a comic. Just refer to my “editors” article and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Either way, the point is that there’s a lot of crap on the site. Well, that’s not entirely fair: there’s a lot of crap on the internet, and this site just happens to be on the internet. That aside, the site has this nice little part of the front page called “Quail’s Random”.
Essentially it’s just 10 completely random comics from the well of Drunkduck. So, what’s the experiment? Well, I’m going to check out the last update of every comic in the random list and give a short review of each one for you, the viewing public. This should give me a rough idea of what the ratio of crap to good comics actually is on the internet. Also, it’s a bizarre way to give a bunch of random schmucks essentially free advertising, so that’s gotta be worth something. I mean, aside from giving me something to write about so I can update my article this week…
As far as adult comics go, I find it hard to believe someone could masturbate to this.
I’m not really sure what to make of the incoherent rambling in that first caption. Students graduate then they leave? Apparently just saying things in a roundabout way makes them deep. The art’s definitely an improvement over Shadow Root, but when did Japan start telling artists it was okay to draw people without noses? I’m counting this as a bad for lack of backgrounds and noses, but it at least shows promise.
First thought: goddamn, that’s a big comic. Second thought: Oh no, a sprite comic. At first this one showed some promise: the speech boxes were awkward, but kind of reminiscent of how it would be handled in an actual video game. However, there was basically no proof-reading, and it gets confusing to tell who’s talking when. I’m gonna need to write an article about speech balloons one of these days. The fact that the panel size and layout varies is a nice change of pace from most sprite comics I see, but when it gets to the actual action it jumps between confusing or boring. So far, the odds don’t favor me finding a good comic any time soon.
Well, the ending gets close to funny, but after all that setup it’s just… kind of a letdown. Not to mention that I’ve got a low tolerance for forced edginess. It’s relatively attractive for the simple art style, though I’ve just noticed that the notebook paper background has been made entirely on the computer. Why? I guess it makes the simple, pencil art seem a bit more natural.
I can’ t habla realmente español, tan I’ m apenas que va a entrar en esto en Babelfish y la esperanza it’ todavía s divertido. De todas formas, esto parece otro de esos tebeos que piense el ” crude” es un sinónimo para el ” funny”. Bostezo. El art’ attractie de s en su simplicidad, pero it’ s que no me impresiona.
The Many Clones of X and other messed up characters:
Good God. I’m normally annoyed with people who say that all sprite comics automatically suck, but seriously, I’m starting to see how they could get that impression.
We’re six for six in bad comics so far, and I’m starting to feel bad for being so harsh with Moshi Moshi up there. Maybe I should have given myself more options besides “good” and “crap”. Well, no use looking back: onward, to the future of webcomics!
Oh, goddammit. I’m less bothered by the fact that he got lazy and skipped the character going downstairs and exiting his home than I am by the fact that he feels that should have been pertinent information. Also, you can’t see it here, but he makes a point of labeling his game system as a PS2 for no real reason.
I’m tempted to go easy on this one because, frankly, it looks a lot like my comic did when I first started. Still, no background, bizarre character proportions, confusing and poorly implemented speech bubbles. Sorry pal, another one in the bad pile.
Was this written by a 6 year old?
Aaand BAM! Something that actually makes me laugh. The art serves the joke well enough, and the actual joke is a bit subtle. Not the sort of thing to win any Eisner awards, but definitely an improvement on what I’ve seen so far.
One in ten sounds like a pretty fair assessment for the good to crap ratio. Maybe 2 if you like Moshi Moshi’s particular brand of wordy high school manga (I don’t). I hope you’ve all enjoyed this brief bit of science. Join us next week where I’ll be probably making fun of another comic with a shallow, attractive female lead.
Shane “Inkmonkey” Woodis started making webcomics in 2003, and didn’t stop until he graduated from the Joe Kubert School in 2008. Since then he’s worked as a freelance artist, and as a moderator for the DrunkDuck website. He has also contributed to two of their print collections. His best known work is Elijah and Azuu, an action/comedy series that ran on DrunkDuck for 5 years and over 1300 pages. 
