What Did I Learn?

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The Pretentious History of Everything by Otto Germain.

This comic is amusing and entertaining. The art style is graphic greys, with clean lines and high contrast. The cartoon exaggeration really plays up the humor side and matches the tone well. I usually don't discuss the art in any further detail but this art really struck me.

The art is pretty dazzling and pops right off the page. Upon looking it over, I realized that there was more I was expecting out of my own work. Of course, I have some definite time constraints and a pretty solid update schedule to keep, so I might not be able to do as much reworking as I'd sometimes like to. There are definitely some techniques to dig out and experiment with. I won't discuss all the specific ones here - sometimes artists don't like to share their art techniques that let them have that signature look.

I will talk about one technique, though. Those word boxes are pretty spiffy and they really impress me. The outside white boxes give it a nice frame that makes it stand out from the image. But then there's a couple of pixels of blank space and a light grey background that hook the text right back into the image behind it. This allows for a pretty complex process of 'taking in' the comic.

At first, I find myself scanning the image and ducking around the text. Once I've gotten a good impression of what's visually going on (this only takes a couple of seconds in real time,) I then go back and read the text. The text, in turn, gives extra meaning to the image and then I reexamine the image. After that, I find myself mentally wandering about the cool details in the background or about the consequences of the particular events. It's sort of like experiencing the comic.

It's a seamless transition from image to words - there's no jarring lurches back and forth or disconnects between what has been shown and what has been said. Of course, this style of presentation is not suited for all comics but it is well suited for this pseduo-historical history of the world.

The writing is handled in an ironic tone by someone who is describing what happened in history. It's almost as if the speaker is looking back and shaking his head the whole time. It definitely adds much more to the tone rather than have to explain it all with dialogue.

What did I learn? Make your art as visually rich as the tone allows and make sure the text and presentation is in line with that same tone. Think about how your audience will experience your comic. Is it in line with what you want? There are quite a few things that are worth emulating in The Pretentious History of Everything.

Next week's review: Just Outside.

Previous Reviews

Battlegate| Butterfly| Good Ship Chronicles| Evil, Inc.| Madscott| Jefbot| Chronicle| Sheldon| Stardrop| Theater Hopper| Knave| Lullaby| High Moon| Metadawn| Dead Days| PC Weenies| Ask Maridee | Tiny Folk | Gordian Algebra | Starslip Crisis | The Front | Coffee Time Comics | Patches | Little Creature | The Horrible Pirates | Serenity Tales | Crashlander | Girl Genius | This Is Me | Handle With Care | SuperFogeys | Copper | Eskimo Dave | Real Life | Chateau Wonderful | Count Your Sheep | Breakpoint City | Eeekeemo | Boxcar Astronaut | Zip and Li'l Bit | Wally & Osborne | Jump Leads | Dr. Sheep and the Aardvark | Station V3 | Dresden Codak | Lab Ratz | Toyzville | The Boids | Cow and Buffalo | Casey and Scotty | Just Outside | The Pretentious History of Everything | Tia's World | Quirks | Patrick Grey | For What It's Worth | The Sixth Dimension | Max and the Gorilla Goon Squad | Rainbow Orchid | Neko and Neko | Lions, Tigers and Bears | Spacequint | Lessons In Fire Safety | Corrupt Hardware | Enker's Tale | The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo | A Rusty Life | You'll Have That | From the Margin | Jitterati

About These Reviews

I love comics and I'm always looking at how I can improve my own work by examining other creators' works. It's such a wildly diverse field that it's not advisable to make sweeping generalizations and ignore special circumstances and subjects.

There's a lot we can learn from one another. And while there are many forums where you might discuss this, I haven't found any lengthy discussion on what we can do to make our comics more successful. There are a few good books on the subject but the aspiring webcomic creator is forced to learn by sheer brute force practice how to adapt his/her personal style to the medium. This is not as efficient as it could be.

Also, there are literally thousands of webcomics but only a handful of places where you can find decent, regular reviews. The focus of my reviews will be on trying to determine what is positive, successful and worth emulating about each comic. You might even get hooked on a given comic you read about here.

You may also wonder where the 'criticism' is and where the negative things about the comics are pointed out. As a matter of fact, I did mention some dissappointing issues with layout and such in my initial reviews. I quickly came to the realization that it's easy for any viewer to know what they like and what they don't. I don't need to call extra attention to the negative. I have, on a few occasions, emailed a webcomic author with a few ideas for improvements but there's no need to make that information public.

I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, mind you. I just wish to have an open discussion about what good comics do. Hopefully, more voices will join in.