Well, it's time for the first real post in this blog. Here goes...
Rant Alert
Following the agenda which was set by the webcomic reviewer John Solomon almost a year ago, I recently read Shortpacked! by David Willis.
Going into the comic, I had nothing to go on other than Solomon's opinions on the comic. For those of you who have not read Solomon's Shortpacked! article, I suggest that you do so now, because it's the best review he's put out to date. For those of you who don't care to read it, the gist is that Shortpacked! used to be funny before Willis began putting a bunch of drama into his strips.
Unfortunately, Solomon may have exagerated just a little bit. I went into the comic expecting a Megatokyo-caliber shift of writing style. It never happened. For the most part, the strip retains the same style of jokes from its start to the present time. What made Solomon so upset?
Okay, so I lied earlier. The strip does change, although you could consider it a beneficial change. Prior to this strip, Shortpacked! was more or less a collection of joke strips. You probably could have read them in random order and not missed much. When one of the characters pulls the drama tag (literally), we now have Drama.
What do we think of when we hear the word "Drama"? Solomon maintains that although the definition of Drama (according to www.thesaurus.com) is comedy, "drama is pretty much the unfunniest thing you can have in a webcomic. It is the antithesis of comedy" Unfortunately, the esteemed Mr. Solomon seems to be confusing a few other definitions. Solomon uses "comedy" and "funny" synonymously, and that's fine. In our present day society, that's pretty much the way everybody thinks. Go back to Shakespearean times or to the ancient Greeks, and you only have two kinds of stories. A "Tragedy" is any story in which the main character is dead, dying, captured, tortured, hideously maimed, married to his mother, etc at the end of the story. A "Comedy" is any story that isn't a Tragedy. Says nothing about the story having to be funny, although that is a good way to get readers.
But you know what? Drama can be good too. What Shortpacked! gains is not "Drama" so much as it gains a continuity. We can now have story arcs that build off of prior arcs. The jokes are still there for the most part, but our characters now have depth, even if it's only a little bit.
The problem with Drama is that it means that things have to change. The comic is no longer about a bunch of people who work in a toy store. Now, the comic is about a bunch of people, and right now they work in a comic store. Tomorrow they might get fired, or become a US representative, or anyhting else.
Is it possible to have drama in a story and still keep it at a point where everybody likes it? Questionable Content has drama, but for the most part things return to what is more or less status quo within a few weeks. Megatokyo has drama and things change from day to day (roughly one year if you live in the real world). Personally, I like my stories to have at least a little drama. It keeps the characters a little more three-dimensional and dynamic, it gives the story continuity...the only comic I really read that is completely free of drama is xkcd.
The Rant is over, Time for an actual Review
Artwork:8/10 The artwork is clean, keeps a consistant style, and allows for the characters to be easily distinguished from each other. One could probably accuse Willis of not working to improve at all, but his current artwork is still way above average.
Story: 6/10 The comic lacks a well defined story, but the premise of the comic is not one that requires much of a story, nor is it expected for there to be much of a story. Occasional attempts at Drama could be viewed as unsuccesful attempts to create a story, and detract from the jokes.
Characters: 8/10 The characters are well defined and moderately complex. Some minor characters may not be as "real"
Appeal:9/10 The appeal in Shortpacked! would be the jokes, mainly. They mostly revolve around toys, usually targeted so that people in the 20-30 year old age group will have the best understanding. Drama adds depth to the characters but does not provide much additional appeal. Sometimes jokes may seem to be redundant and use the same material over and over again.
Overall Score: 8/10
2 comments:
I think the point of the review is not that "drama" is necessarily a bad thing in comedy, it's just that certain kinds of drama are.
For instance: Facing termination of employment -- acceptable drama, if it's reigned in, since it doesn't necessarily eclipse the humor and in fact can contribute to it, developing the characters all the while.
A girl crying about being raped by her father, on the other hand -- big fucking roadblock to the whole deal. I actually haven't read much of Shortpacked, but the strip in question that Solomon linked to was almost surreal with how out-of-place it was. Things like that are just not the sort of stuff that light-hearted humor can be constructed from, and everything is just sharply contrasted. I mean, there was a goddamned Captain America joke on the strip directly after it. What the hell was up with that?
"Unfortunately, the esteemed Mr. Solomon seems to be confusing a few other definitions. Solomon uses "comedy" and "funny" synonymously, and that's fine. In our present day society, that's pretty much the way everybody thinks. Go back to Shakespearean times or to the ancient Greeks, and you only have two kinds of stories...."
You're reading a bit much into this, aren't you? Literally anyone who's taken a beginner's English course in college could tell you this, so I'm pretty sure he was just using that to illustrate a point.
The way Solomon puts it, you'd think that all drama is a bad thing. Regardless, I am aware that Shortpacked! is just a little too quick to switch back and forth, and I'm really starting to wonder why I didn't mention it earlier.
I think I was trying to be the opposite of Solomon at the time I posted this. Jackass though he may be, he still raises some valid points, which I might have glossed over because they had already been raised by Solomon.
Maybe with this new consideration, I'd put it at a 7 overall, since I'm not really sure if there's any one specific category that would cover change of tone between comics...
Meh, something I'll think about in later reviews.
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