Jul 09 2009
Sorry, but I have to rant
A little while back, Penny Arcade put up a few ideas for new comic strips. They already have a few ‘other strips’ on the side, the Cardboard Tube Samurai, Catsby and Twisp are two of these, but they were looking to make another. Three options were given, Lookouts, a very cute and pleasing to the eye strip, then there was Automata, which was poignant, but depressing, and lastly, there was Jim Darkmagic, which is actually a D&D character created by Gabe, but the comic fell short for me, as it was a bit too silly, and somewhat grotesque.
Voting was opened, and readers made the choice in the end that Lookouts would be the comic to be taken up. Unfortunately, Gabe and Tycho decided to bring in a new artist and a new writer for this comic, which is so very disappointing! It’s hideous, with the panels being disjointed and hard to read, and the story itself is completely lacking that Penny Arcade snap. I’m not the only one that thinks, this either, the forums over on the PA site have a thread dedicated to how disappointed they are in the choice of artist/writer. There are no fewer than 23 pages at this stage, all filled with people trying to make sense of this comic.
I know it shouldn’t matter, but I feel mislead. Readers were given the option to vote for which comic they wanted to see expanded on, but we didn’t get that, we got a completely different comic that looks and reads poorly. Bah! What were they thinking? It is just… frustrating. I can understand that Gabe likes the work of Becky Dreistadt, but I personally think its ugly, really, really ugly. Her website makes me want to vomit. Seriously, for an artist to be that lacking in understanding of what a maroon background with fascia fleur de lys will do to a person’s vision – and stomach – is mind boggling. The writer, Oliver Grigsby, is a part of the team that writes for Heroes, and the Heroes comics as well. But as I said, his work lacks the crisp snap of Tycho’s writing.
All in all, please don’t do this again, Gabe and Tycho, or I think your fans may be forced to beat you senseless with ham barbells and cardboard tubes.