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Comic Genesis 2

Posted by Shane Woodis | December 14, 2009 .

Okay, let’s get straight to this. Comic Genesis: the actually random version!

Golden Rock

Ah-ha! Thought you could pull a fast one on me, eh Comic Genesis? Looks like somebody has their own share of completely non-functional “comics” taking up space in the listing. Let’s see what other dirt I can uncover…

(oh, and for the curious, the image just links to some guy’s photo gallery, which doesn’t actually have anything in it)

Eating the Internet

Aww, that’s kind of cute. No idea what’s happening here. At first I thought that was the red robot from Diesel Sweeties, but I guess it’s some kind of cake… bot? Not that it’s a bad comic or anything, but I have no idea what to say about it. It’s just so bizarre. This is one of the rare times where I went back in the archives, and there’s really no explanation for this. There’s a cake that’s also a robot, and some kid fights it for 6 pages.

Nyuterran Chronicles

So, are there suddenly a few thousand more stars in the sky, or is there just a blizzard going on behind them? Where are they, anyway? I guess this is some kind of news show, but those usually at least have desks around. This comic is deceptive: the coloring is clean and there are some pretty fancy architectural pieces hanging around, but then you look at the people… stiff, ugly, and shot from the waist up. You never really realize just how essential hands are in creating believable characters until you start seeing work without them.

Erentia

There’s a lot of debate that comes up on what “defines” a comic. We all know them when we see them, but there’s a lot of wiggle room. The term “sequential art” is often used, but the art doesn’t necessarily need to go in any kind of “sequence” to count (just look at the Far Side). What I think we can all agree on, though, is that it doesn’t include less than a paragraph of difficult to read text, no matter how fancy the font is. And this is the only page of the “comic”!

Saga

Is that a moogle? I really don’t see how this one works. Like, if we actually saw the page that he was looking at, and on that page was the same page, then yeah, that would make sense.

Innies and Outties

Not bad. The art serves the joke at well, and the joke itself is actually pretty clever. I bet the artist is pretty annoyed at this point from people telling him his character looks suspiciously like Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes fame. That or a more realistically proportioned Bart Simpson. Also, is it just me, or does that look an awful lot like the zombie from Hocus Pocus? Either way, I’m not sure how I feel about the fact that this is apparently a repeat of an older update. I’ve seen that in webcomics before, and I always wondered why anyone would bother. It’s not like print comics where people won’t necessarily be able to look back through the archive to check out an older strip. The only time I remember reposts being interesting was when Queen of Wands finished and Aeire decided to repost the archive with additionally commentary on each page.

Sore Thumbz

I was really worried when I saw this, until I noticed the pointless Z. I’m not sure whether or not that’s worse. Either way, I hope you enjoy the wacky adventures of the Cut n’ Paste midgets. Today’s episode: the mystery of the empty store shelves!

Planescape Survival Guide

Y’know what? Fuck that. I’m not reading this jerk-hole’s wall of text. I’m already late getting this article. I don’t give a damn about Planescape or surviving it. Also, it’s interesting to see when people try to make their characters look sexy when their art style just looks wrong with it. You end up with this blocky, misproportioned… thing that just happens to have way too much cleavage. And yes, I’ve been guilty of that too, but I’m getting better.

Open Closet

Seriously, you couldn’t find a ruler for this? Hell, you couldn’t even lay another piece of paper down and trace along the edge? Trust me, I’ve worked with less. I’ve lined a whole comic with the edge of an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man when I didn’t think far enough ahead to bring my art supplies with me.

Tinted Windows

Aaaaand we’ve come full circle. Just as an FYI, this update is from September of 2003. Way to keep a promise, dude. Don’t worry, I checked the previous page: we’re not missing much.

And there you have it. Comic Genesis ultimately has about the same level of quality as Drunkduck or Smackjeeves: they just have the foresight to filter out some of the junk in the “random” filter. In all honesty, CG actually did a bit worse, simply because my method for finding a random assortment of comics occasionally brought me to pages with literally nothing in them.

The lesson here is that, if you’re going to host anything, then there’s no guarantee of quality. On the other hand, though, that doesn’t mean that every comic you let through the doors is automatically going to be awful.

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