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Comic Genesis

Posted by Shane Woodis | December 7, 2009 .

Okay, I did DrunkDuck, I did Smackjeeves, and now there’s one left: Comic Genesis. Actually, there are probably a dozen smaller free hosting for anyone sites that I don’t know anything about, but whatever. Comic Genesis is a subsidiary of Keenspot originally known as Keenspace. Why the name change? As far as I’m aware, the owners of Keenspot noticed people confusing Keenspace for Keenspot, which didn’t go over so well because the standard of quality is so much lower for ‘space than for ‘spot.

CG has a few key differences from DD and SJ. For one, there’s an actual application process. They don’t generally check on the quality of what goes through, but they do confirm that it’s a comic that’s actually real. Perhaps more importantly, they don’t allow sprite comics. CG is better known, and as such has a greater possibility of facing legal action from game companies for, uh… theft. There was a bit of a stink about this when the policy was first enacted by sprite comickers who suddenly found themselves without hosting, but they make sprite comics so no one really cared.

While DrunkDuck had a list of random comics and Smackjeeves had a recently updated list, Comicgenesis has a modest “random comic” button.

They also have a list of comics on their front page, but it’s not clear whether these are random or just chosen as some of the better comics on CG. For the purposes of this review pile, I’ll be sticking with the button. At the very least it’ll be a nice surprise. Since there’s no listing to work my way through this time, I’ll just give myself a restriction of 10 comics, otherwise we’ll be here all day.

Wingmen

Not good enough to impress, and not bad enough to be funny. Next!

Between Places

Pretty cool. The picture looks a bit sloppy in parts (especially the hands), but the lighting is really cool here. There’s certainly some real skill involved here.

Empires of Steam

This page is awfully empty. It’s hard to have an opinion on this since the whole thing is kind of focused on a simple, large effect. I don’t like this page, but for all I know the rest of the comic is really well drawn. Bah, I might as well check.

Nah, the rest of it is pretty underwhelming too. The site design is nice, I guess.

Twisted Sticks

Uh… I don’t think I should count this one.

Hazards Wake

Ooo, pseudo-manga bullcrap. I like how there’s practically no motion in any of the characters and how the women have broad, masculine shoulders. Check out two-sword dude’s gay little hat. I’m guessing he robbed Mary Poppins on the way to this basement. Is the green-haired girl wearing a cowbell? Man, there’s so much to be underwhelmed by: I don’t know where to start!

The Mansion of E

Again, not really sure what to say about this one. On the one hand it doesn’t necessarily look good, but on the other it doesn’t look particularly bad. The art style is fairly attractive, though a bit dull and stiff. Whatever the story is it’s not really bad or obnoxious just on this one page. It’s… just kinda there.

Insane Undertakings

Ooh, not bad. The characters are well drawn and they interact with their environment realistically. It looks like a fun, original style, and it has manga elements to it without looking like the artist is just slavishly impersonating a Japanese comic. There’s perspective, the characters have distinct body types… all in all a really solid page.

Brother Swan

Not too bad; the faces distort a bit at times, but you certainly can’t fault the artist for effort. The background does a decent job of conveying a n idea of location, but I’m really not sure if this is taking place in a giant tree or a cave or what. Mostly I’m just bothered by the names. I mean, I know it’s a fantasy setting and all, but “Farlynne” isn’t the strongest start, and “Byrdi” doesn’t help either. Get it? ‘Cuz she’s got wings!? That’s so goddamned clever, isn’t it? Then we have… wait, no… Shadow!? You’re actually naming your character Shadow!? I don’t care if you spell it wrong, the character’s name is Shadow. Is there someone else in the comic named “Zero” somewhere? How about “Blade” or “Rouge”, are they around anywhere? Seriously, people, stop naming characters “Shadow”. It was cool the first couple of times, but now it’s just getting confusing.

Idget

Hm… another one for the “average” pile. The art’s not great, but it seems appropriate for this comic strip style comic. The character design kind of reminds me of Ray Man. The joke’s not bad or anything, just kinda underwhelming. I’ve certainly had days like that in my writing, so I won’t hold it against them.

Kokiro

I don’t necessarily like the art. I think I’m just thrown off by how huge and empty that room is. At least there was an attempt at a background, though. That said, there’s certainly something attractive about it. I think it’s the use of subtle expressions; the girl in the first panel looks kind of scared and worried, maybe a little exhausted, but she doesn’t have extremes of these emotions. You really get this sense that she’s in over her head with just that one panel.

Ultimately Comic Genesis has a much higher score with the quality of their random comics, but I suspect that the “random” button may not be as random as one would assume. The last comic, Kokiro, is also on their unspecified list on the front page. In fact, refreshing the page brings up “Idget” and “Between Places” on what I’m assuming is their “recommended” listing. I’m confident at this point that this is a bit of a stacked deck I’m looking at here. I might just have to come back to this later and find my own truly random listing. Drunkduck and Smackjeeves both have recommended sections, and I’m sure they would have done a lot better if I’d looked at those. A less observant man would give Comic Genesis the win in this, but for my money they lose points for misleading use of the term “Random”. For shame, CG, for shame.

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