On Web Cartooning...

As the old saying goes, the great thing about the Internet is that anyone can participate; the bad thing about the Internet is that ANYONE can participate...

I don't see much of a point in bringing up bad Internet comics to make fun of; it's not like the 'camp' factor in bad movies. When it comes to comics on the web, if it isn't a fuckin' masterpiece, I don't even want to look at it. Thanks to Scott McCloud's 'Reinventing Comics', a lot of people without any innate skills felt that if they put up their derivative, self-involved, whiny crap, they might be able to get money for 'em. Here's a good rule of thumb: If a comic has 'furries', 'goths', 'gay college students', long-winded socio-political tirades masquerading as story-lines, 'nice-guys-finish-last' story-lines, drawn in a quasi-anime style, or horror of horrors, all of 'em in one package... it blows goats for nickels and gives change, figuratively speaking.

Instead, I'd like to point out four really good ones for the benefit of you all here. First off, we have Chris Onstad's Achewood, which seems to have 'furries' as it's protagonists. Actually, they're a collection of Onstad's toy animal collection brought to life in a demented manner. Onstad's line could be described as 'Adobe Illustrator Lite', and on casual glance, his strips have an improv feel to them. It's his quick wit and matter-of-fact weirdness that keeps the strip entertaining. My personal favorite storyline of his would be the "Great Outdoor Fight", in which rap mogul Ray Steckels and depressed slacker pal Roast Beef attend a Darwinian fight competition that Ray's been invited too, as he's B-O-C (blood of champions-Ray's dad won a match in the 70's) Oh, hell, just check it out here.

Tristan Farnon's Leisuretown is also a delight, though he's stopped putting out any new work for a while. I imagine the labour-intensive method of photographing bendy animals and painstakingly photoshopping them into urban settings took a toll from him. Coupled with the typical 'net audience' complaint of 'Hey, where's our free entertainment,man! What a rip-off! Farnon, you sell-out!", it probably discouraged him. Though I'd put good money on his return, if not to 'Leisuretown', then to something else. Humour this clever and subversive can't stay dormant for long...

In keeping with the blunt, snarky tone of my blog, I must tell you that political cartoons suck. Suck, suck, suck. The last truly great political cartoon I ever saw was one of a former B.C. Premier, Bill Vanderzalm, pulling the wings off a fly and saying, "It's a fun thing, don't you see?" (I now have no idea of what the issue in question was about, or even who drew it, but it made me laugh...) The vast majority of them tend not to rise beyond the cliche of a pig in a tuxedo eating out of a trough saying 'Taxpayer, restrain thyself!'. And that's what passes for discourse in our culture. I can't think of any body on the right side of the political spectrum successfully engaging in cartoon demagoguery, it would be like being the Iraqi Minister of Propaganda. Well, there's that 'tard that does that 'Mallard Fillmore' cartoon, but he got busted for a DWI a while back, and if I was a Republican, I'd still want him arrested for impersonating a cartoonist.

And really, the Left isn't much better, sad to say. If they're not being spineless, like Stephanie McMillian (she's like a nicer 'Mallard Fillmore' guy), they're being plain out of step with reality, like Ted Rall. When he's not pissing on 9/11 widows or espousing conspiracy theories, he just plain sucks as a cartoonist. (Most of the criticism against him would be blunted if he were a better draftsman.)

So it warms my black little heart to endorse the work of Tim Krieder. He's a skilled artist with the disciplined, elegant line of Kilban, Gerald Scarfe, and Ralph Steadman. With a little DuMaurier thrown in, I may add. Plus, his observations are well-thought out and astute. He realizes that the Left in America is as much to blame for the resurgence of the Right in America, and gives out the slaps accordingly. A kinder, gentler Christopher Hutchens, if you will. His cartoons of Dubya and Dubya's new best pal, Dick Cheney are a thing of joy and beauty. Krieder's rendition of Cheney, especially, capture the essence of what it means to be that horrid, small-minded, mean-spirited, selfish, cruel, sneering, hypocritical, tight-assed, greedy, grasping, hollow-souled, rotten, insensitive, criminal, lesbian-breeding, lawyer-shooting, useless fuck-pig son-of-a-bitch.

Ahem.

In his latest cartoon (see here) in the third panel we see a parasitical alien mind being transferred from Cheney to (I presume) Giuliani. "Ahh...", it hisses in what is no doubt a guttural, sibilant tone: "Such luxuriant hair!" That, to me, is, in essence, the heart and soul of the Bush administration.

And finally, let me point you all in the direction of one Steve LeCoulliard, a fine chap whom I've had the pleasure of working with at one time. If he were living in France thirty years ago, you'd see his name mentioned amongst Peyo, Uderzo, and Franquin in the classic "Bigfoot" school of Euro-cartooning. Well, I think so. Plus, there's a hint of Leiji Matsumoto and Akira Toriyama in his character design. He's currently running a 'Robin Hood' comic in his blog space which is turning out to be a hoot and a half. Please do check it out, won't you? (Consider this all penance for that truly libelous post I put in in his name several months back...)