What Did I Learn?
Okay, this week’s comic under scrutiny is Ed Contradictory and I think the keyword I would use to describe the style is “Freedom.” Of course, you have to say it in your internal Braveheart voice to really get a sense of what I mean by that. [Note: images aren't working in this post but I have my best tech working on it.]
Here’s what the About page begins with … “Ed Contradictory” follows the adventures of the title character, Pinder the pygmy panda bear, Mackenzie the automaton, Edgar the gentleman scientist, Marcus the mercenary, the Magical Booze Fish, and others as they struggle to survive in a crazy world and put together a weekly webcomic.
One cool thing about Ed Contradictory is that the characters are aware being in a comic and how they interact with the comic itself. That can be difficult to pull off because it usually throws one off the flow of reading. But not in this comic.
This comic has a Magical Booze Fish and Santa Gus and Pie the Argonaut and time travel and bad movie pitches (and more,) so nothing seems out of place. The crazy thing is that despite the freewheeling absurdity, it does all seem to hang together – with the help of those storylines, I suspect. They last for several updates and then bleed into one another, occasionally referenced later down the line.
Anyway, that’s freedom. Freedom from set storylines, a restricted character roster and any sense of a setting. For some reason, I kept expecting this comic to devolve into something stream of consciousness oriented. But it hasn’t so far.
What Did I Learn?
Maybe absurd comics don’t hold any interest for you but it seems like this one isn’t trying to pretend it’s anything more than a fun comic. Ed Contradictory might be worth a look.
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[...] and Steve on By Moon Alone (podcast) (Digital Strips) Delos on Ed Contradictory (ArtPatient) Larry Cruz on Moon Town (The Webcomic Overlook) Coyote Trax on Spooky Doofus (Coyote [...]
[...] ArtPatient.com reviewed us as part of their “What Did I Learn?” series. Aside from calling us “fun” and “worth a look”, they got a little into why this hodgepodge of absurdity works, speculating that the comic works due to it being free of the constraints some other comics have. Honestly, I’d never thought of it that way, so it was interesting, and appreciated, to see someone do such a close reading of my work. [...]