Hazing Bartholomew

So two comics today. I'm very pleased that Nedroid is updating so frequently, sometimes he'll almost have a full month of nothing, but then he'll make up for it like this. It's awesome, because I love these comics. So without further ado.....Nedroid!


I suppose we should start with some basic background information for those of you not following the comic from the start. Bartholomew was a cat that Reginald drew in an attempt to make a comic, like Garfield. He seriously did not understand how cats work. It's interesting here though, because unless I'm mistaken, up until this point, Bartholomew had been entirely imaginary and just a character in the comic. All in all, I like the comic, because the art change between the actual comic and Reginald's comic shows clearly how Reginald isn't that talented, and I almost think it's a mockery of his early art style. Also, talking cats! And the word bonk! I love both those things.


As for Superpowers, well, I supposed it's time for a good hazing

I like this comic, because immediately when you see two frat boys, you'd think they'd jump at the chance to down a full keg of beer. But no, they throw it off a cliff. My biggest question about this frat is were they near the cliff? Or did they have to walk a very long way? The background and the ground looks basically the same in both areas, but I think building a partying frat house near a giant cliff would be a very bad idea. The secret comic was good, mainly for the hilarious sound effect. All in all, a decent day for comics.

Flashback Friday, Nedroid, Superpowers and Finney. Can you say "Full plate"?

So, it's Flashback Friday, you know what that means!.... Old comics! Yay! But first, the recently updated ones

Let's start with Nedroid!

I like this comic for a couple reasons. First is the art style. He makes a point to never actually show the tie in the first couple panels, and if you look closely, it could actually be right below the comic. Also, color in a nedroid comic is always welcome. Lastly, I found it very amusing how pinching someone wearing green ends in jail, because there's always a consequence for doing that in younger grades, but to carry that onto the real world is hilarious. Not much else to say, good work though.


Now, time for Amazingsuperpowers:

 

I like this one, because usually Superpowers will do something like this, but have a.... real-ish scenario in which there's a reason, it's just humorous. This time... He basically just asks to be slapped. My favorite part however, is the secret comic. It contrasts the original comic very nicely, and I couldn't help but laugh.

Finally, time for some Finney!

This is a good continuation of the previous one, and I always like when the conversations carry on into another comic. It makes it so if you go back and decide to read the comics from a point, you get this sense of contiuation, not just pieced together jokes. Anyways, this comic seems to have two jokes. The main one is switching around the judgement, which is good. The second one was "This guy owns crazy things, haha!" Which.... I didn't find that great. Anyways, still a good comic.

And now, for the first time ever.....

Wait, nevermind! As I was in the process of typing up this review, a new nedroid came up (Thanks, Random updates!) So hooray! 'Nother comic!

According to the text underneath, this is an old comic he forgot to publish. So I guess this counts as our first FLASHBACK FRIDAY! Interesting comic, the humor is simpler, and it doesn't actually involve Reginald, but his phoenix counterpart. As you can see, the art style is much simpler, which the text being more cluttered, and the lines being less complete. This is probably about halfway through the Nedroid series, so you really get to see the halfway point in the art. Anyways, the joke is good. It's a super amazing, super exciting adventure, but then it's the guy next door. It's reminiscent of the opening to Monty Python's life of Brian. Anyways, good job, and if you want to see even further back, just go to the site.

Amazing Super Powers in real life!

So after much googling and hours of youtube searching, I thought I'd show you guys a video about a webcomic if it were in real life, and how.... The humour translates, but not as well as I thought.

Apparently this was part of a contest or something. For those who haven't read the comic, here it is.
I think the most difficult part of this the time it took to make the video. It takes about ten to thirty seconds to read a comic, but this video seemed much slower.

(The original comic, for those who haven't seen it is here)

Sorry for not updating! My computer wasn't working

Although I guess Monday of all days is probably the best day to not be able to post, because there aren't any new comics at this point. So... Finney and Superpowers then? The Amazingsuperpowers isn't really completely suitable, but it's pretty funny. The joke is expected, then takes a turn that made me laugh. Seems to be a theme here, with a double-punchline type of example, like with Edmund Finney:

At first, this joke is predictable, "Haha, he's a salesman" but then he's also still a crazy nutjob like initially shown. I like the art in this one, just because of the bearded man's face at the end. It seems to have stopped the theme of seasonal changes, which means I have no idea where this comic's going now.

Oh, before I forget, I did screw up last day's amazingsuperpowers. That's actually the original slammer comic, not the third one. I'll be fixing that, but I don't know if I mentioned this, but you should always go to the actual site to read the comic, because it usually has either rollover text (When you hold the mouse over the image, text will appear) or a secret comic. My blog just has the main comic.

A few announcements... Then some comics!

So, first of all, I'd like to announce that I'm going to start reviewing older comics from the series I've already reviewed. This will give people a look at how the comics started, and contrast them with how they look, and how the jokes play out now. I'll do one comic every Friday, and it will be Flashback Friday. No idea what comics I'll do yet, some might not even be up on the site yet.

Secondly, I've noticed all these comics have a very similar theme. Normal scenario > Expected result > Humorous twist. With these three steps, all the comics seem to play out that way. Now, this is just the comics I've reviewed, and I've seen these artists make comics that aren't like this, but still, an interesting observation

http://nedroid.com/2011/03/action-news-action-weather-action-stock-reports

We'll start off with some nedroid!  Finally it's updated, and not only that, it's proven my comment above, this one has a clever set up, and then a final deliverance that actually made... Relative sense considering the characters. Yes the final result of what Reginald has been doing with the news stations is unexpected, but you can suspect he's done something with them. Good show!

http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2011/03/the-slammer-3/

As for Amazingsuperpowers, it too has finally broken this cycle. It's an interesting contrast between the third and second installment in this series. In the third, the character was honorable, returned a nail file, then went back. In this one, he just flies away, even though he was meant to be rehabilitated. This is pretty ironic, and I'm glad that both comics are changing up the humor.

Jail time, and Spring time

Credits to Wes and Tony at amazingsuperpowers

eqcomics.com

So, new Edmund Finney today, and there was an amazing Superpowers yesterday, so I figure, why not review them both?

So, amazingsuperpowers first then?

I really liked this comic. A man is in jail, his lover gives him a file to escape, but instead he gives it back and goes right back into his jail cell. A perfect example of irony, and reading the secret comic (Click the top right of the comic) reveals a second layer, and made me laugh much harder than it should have. Not much else to say, except they are continuing the theme of the slammer/jail, as I predicted.

Speaking of Predictions, I seem to be right about the latest Edmund Finney saga focusing on the seasonal changes. First he's met the end of Winter, the ice man, and now he's meeting an absolutely insane robin... Man.... The alt-text was brilliant, because it says he later fights crime. And who's Batman's sidekick? ROBIN. Aside from the alt text, the post is funny, with the bird man, like most characters in this universe, being absolutely insane.

A new Day, a new quest....

Well, we have Finney and Amazing Superpowers today. Should be interesting.

http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2011/03/the-slammer-1/


Interesting twist, as is common at this point with AmazingSuperPowers. A gentlemen is in jail for some pretty perverted stuff, and the other jail-mates ask him (Quite threateningly) if he knows what they do with his kind. He guesses that they'd throw him a party.... And he's right! The secret comic is just an extension of the weirdness of these prisoners. Not much here, but it is part one, so I'm looking forward to seeing if it will be the same jail, or a completely different wacky prison each time.

As For Edmund Finney....

After leaving the Hotel, he's met a man fishing on the ice. Since it is nearly March now, he's worried he'll fall in. There's a long speech which I won't spoil for you, because I found it quite funny, but basically that fisherman is crazy. The most exciting part about this comic is that Edmund is about to enter a new arc, and based on this, it will be revolving around Winter turning into Spring. This should be interesting for him, because instead of a crazy town, it will just be a season. However that's purely a prediction, and might be completely wrong.

Finally, I have a question for my followers: Should I start reviewing old comics from these series? Since they're quite long-running I might not review all of them, but I could review one from each previous year, or one every six months, just to show how the art and humor of the comics has changed. I'll put up a vote box after posting this, so either comment on it, or just place your vote.

Hark a Nedroid's Superpower!

Alright, we've had a slew of updates over the weekend. With our scheduled update of Hark a vagrant last Friday, an AmazingSuperPowers today, along with the bonus of a nedroid, we've got a lot of work ahead of us.

http://nedroid.com/2011/02/grilling-weather/

I suppose we'll start with my favorite of the three comics, Nedroid. Nedroid has been one of my favorite and most followed comics since early 2009. The characters Beartato and Reginald are absolutely insane. There is no way to describe them other than out of this world. They do have more normal characters like Harrison, but they are rarely featured. Beartato appears to be a bear but.... Crossed with a potato. He's probably the more sane of the duo. Reginald is a bird, he's vain, crazy, and usually the one getting the duo into wacky situations. They're best friends, in a way reminiscent of Calvin and Hobbes, except not as imaginary. Today's comic however, was quite a disappointment. First of all, who barbecues tacos? I was kind of confused by this. As for the punchline that Reginald likes tacos, it's not that funny. Twelve isn't that substantial of a number, yes it's a lot, but I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who eat twelve tacos at a meal. Even the rollover text fails to add any humour to this. This is in all likelihood the weakest nedroid comic I've ever seen.
EDIT: After looking at this comic again, I've realized Reginald has 12 fingers in total, which, compared to his usual two, is quite shocking. I guess this is funnier than originally thought.

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=300

Now, as for Hark a Vagrant, that's an interesting comic. It has a very simplistic art style, very basic, and black and white. The jokes usually come from historical figures' lives, and how weird they actually were. The comic manages to be both historically accurate, and hilarious. It also has a frequent focus on Canadian history, which is great. This update has multiple comics, but my favorite is the first one, so I will focus mainly on that. Queen Elizabeth is doing a speech, saying she has the heart of a man, and courage. Out of nowhere, she states she has the wings of an albatross, and flies off. It made no sense at all, but the shock value itself made me laugh. The other comics have a similar shocked laugh.



http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2011/02/art-is-hard-2/
I've talked about AmazingSuperPowers before, so I'll keep this one brief. It was very funny, seeing police officers act like that, while on duty no less, was not expected. And the chief's order at the end made me laugh. As far as the secret comic, it shows that the characters actually did what they were talking about, and the chalk drawings made me laugh. This is also a perfect example of what I meant when I said this comic will often have a story line, such as "Art is Hard part 2" but the characters in part two are not at all the same as the originals.

EDIT: (Thanks to Marc) I completely forgot to point out that Hark A Vagrant's comic was their 300th comic. It updates once a week, so if they've kept that schedule sine they started, that comic is almost six years old, which is pretty impressive.

Amazing super powers! Thursday update

http://www.amazingsuperpowers.com/2011/02/art-is-hard-1/

Amazing super powers is probably one of my favorite comics on here. Its art style has drastically improved since it first began. Initially it was a very simple art style, with very simple jokes. But as the site has gained popularity, the humour and art style has improved. The jokes usually come out of left field, never being exactly what you expect. However, quite possibly the greatest thing about this webcomic is the secret comics and rollover text. Holding your mouse over the comic will reveal a caption with yet another punchline, or furthering of the story. Secret comics are harder to find. At the top right of the comic, holding your mouse over it will make a question mark appear. Clicking this question mark will re-direct you to usually a pencilled in sketch of another comic using the same characters, or continuing the comic on. The art style is very cartoonish, which is good, because so is the universe in which people reside. It's written and drawn by two people known as "Wes" and "Tony"


An interesting thing about Amazing Super powers is that is has no overarching story, or even a main character. There are characters that tend to re-appear, like Goldfish, or the police officers. However there's never a real story, which means that every time you read the comic, you can't guess what it's going to be. Even when they have a multi-comic story, the only thing usually similar about the story is the characters. It means you always get a refreshing experience with the webcomic

As for today's comic, it's very good. A man walks up to another man on the bench, asking what he's doing. He says he draws people based on their most defining quality. When the blond man asks for him to draw a picture of him he draws "Low self esteem." It's a funny twist, because while that may well be the most defining trait, it is by no means a drawing, and not a physical trait like expected. It's a good use of irony, and in my opinion, very clever. The secret comic continues this theme when he asks for another drawing, and the artist draws him "Greedy free loader" All in all, I think it's a very clever comic.