Monday, May 5, 2008

Open Thread: Wedding Snark

The snark'll be in in the comments, not from me, if the two dozen comments from this weekend are any indication. :)

These last few strips are important to the canon, and I really have nothing to say about them. A lot of work obviously went into them, and while there are things I personally don't care for, they are all aesthetic choices rather than substantive ones, so I'll just keep my mouth shut.

It's impressive stuff though; I think each moment pays off well.

26 comments:

Anonymous said...

Five strips without a joke? I hope Scott is enjoying himself, because I doubt many of his readers are.

Unknown said...

Heaven forbid the man tells the story he wants to tell with HIS strip. Not to mention the fact that the artwork has been beautiful, and the events have not been full of cliched wedding humor, but satisfying, sweet updates. It is ten years, it is a wedding, it is an important part of the strip. He is just treating it that way.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised no one has touched on the possibility that Jade's "new" face is indeed her new face. That Scott has decided to change the way he draws her. We all know it's happened before

Anonymous said...

How about some non-cliche wedding humor? The Skull/something blue strip was great. How about something a little more interesting? Who wouldn't love a big, detailed shot of the guests so we can all pore over each face trying to guess who it is?

Frankly, the artwork isn't that beautiful. I'm sure Scott really enjoys big closeups of his two dream girls together (his wife and Jade, obvs.) but I think it's a little self-indulgent for his audience at large.

Melomel said...

Yarly.

I can respect one or even two strips done seriously, and the emotional impact - this is a big event. But doing so many is making me roll my eyes.

I'll bet it will play better in reruns, though.

Anonymous said...

It would seem like very bad timing to change the way you draw a character in the middle of a story arc, without explanation - especially an arc that Scott at least seems to place a certain reverence upon.

Unknown said...

As a long time reader of PVP, I am loving this. I don't need a joke every strip and that's not what I've come to want from this comic. Maybe other people get into the comic for different reasons, and maybe it's labeled incorrectly to fuel this misconception; to me, the comic is all about the characters. Not how they look, not what jokes they make. Just how they progress through life.

Working up to this occasion has taken years and I never thought he'd do it. I do remember the prediction that this would happen in May 08, so that was cool to see it really go through. I always figured this sort of event was something he'd string along forever.

No neckbeards running through the aisle on this arc.

Anonymous said...

I think anyone complaining about this arc needs to look at the bigger picture here. This guy has been drawing this comic for teb years. It's the ten year anniversary.
He did something special.
This seems apt to me. The drawings are different, detailed, and special. No, he's not Davinci, but is he claiming such? No, it's comic art. It's drawn special for a special occasion.
Special!
As an artist, it's easy to understand the need to break the mold every once and a while. Other comics, even web comics, do this occasionally as well. I don't hear anyone complaining about when Anders Loves Maria's beautiful artwork changes each and every strip. Plus, isn't it often complained that Scott Kurtz's art is stagnant in the strip and could use more emotion/less copy paste/etc? He totally went for it, and I think that's pretty cool.
This is also complete payoff for anyone who's been a reader of PVP for any substantial length of time. It's throwing a big, lovely bone to the readers for sticking around. It was nice, and was sweet, it was worthwhile. If you're complaining about the lack of a joke-a-day thing, I feel like you're missing the mark. The strip is billed as a humorous strip, but it's been multi-faceted in the past and I expect it to be so in the future. Since it is primarily a character driven strip, wouldn't you guys get bored and stop reading after a while otherwise? I would.
There is often good critique on here, and things that are well thought out, civily discussed, and positive. It's when things dip into the purely negative like this that you have to stand back and say, "Whoa, this is someone's passion and I'm crapping all over it just to be snarky."
I don't think PvP is the best comic out there, but I think it's a decent, funny strip that I enjoy reading over my oatmeal. I think the most recent set of wedding strips were a real artistic push from Scott Kurtz and are very interesting and admirable. It sort of irks me as an artist to see a great deal of people come down so hard on someone who is just.. you know.. drawing comics for you to read for free. Even more than that, he's actually been decently open and attentive to the crit he's getting here. It's disheartening to see people dog someone else so much for exploring artisticly.
I guess all I'm saying is he's drawing something for himself and for his fans. It was a really nice gesture, and there is tons of care and genuine love in these drawings. I dunno.. When you draw something that way.. it's like putting part of your heart out in the open. It's very giving and emotional, it's just a shame that people are snarking.

Cheers,
Lindsay

Anonymous said...

It's a small, tiny, insignificant thing, I know, but in the last couple full-page panels, I'm bugged by the fact that the lines on Jade's dress are breaking the panel. It looks sloppy, because it's not like the dress is outside the panel, just the folds.

When Kurtz has demonstrated his process, he has shown that he often draws his lines too long and then goes back to clean them up, so this instance of panel-breaking has to be intentional. I just can't figure out why.

Jeff said...

It seems that Scott has been planning this for a while now. I noticed some time ago that the page title is "Hmmmmm....May the Fourth be with you." So I figured something big was going to take place on that date.

Its still up there. I'm just glad I can stop wondering now.

Anonymous said...

@jeff: I assumed that the 'fourth' thing was a reference to the 'fourth wall' running joke.

@lindsay: i totally agree, i think it's great that scott is experimenting with different styles, and i personally feel that it was WAY overdue, actually. my only problem with it is that when he does experiment with different styles on certain characters, he keeps the old style present on other characters. a little consistency within the same panel would be nice, that's all i'm saying.

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

I think this is Scott's PVP "event" and even in the most comical, lighthearted relationships there are moments like those that Brent and Jade are sharing.

My only complaint was to have one of the the pieces in color (which may be something he is working to sell on) because I think that peace would have been great.

Hopefully the reception, like in most real-life situations, is the comical part of the wedding day. thats where some drunken revelry can be ripe for comedy.

Anonymous said...

So those beady little button eyes in that two-by-four of a head are supposed to enthrall any woman who looks into them? Riiiiight.

Anonymous said...

Au contraire, John Claude. Those beady little button eyes are why he never takes those shades off EVER.

Anonymous said...

Hey guys! There have been a few comments about Scott changing the look of his characters.

Awhile ago I remember him saying he had redesigned them. He had wanted to change them all at the same time but his brother convinced him to do it gradually, so the fans wouldnt freak out.

I think he's redesigned them again and we're slowly seeing the changes. It must have started when Brent's parents turned up.

Anonymous said...

@anonymous of 12:09 PM:
I actually think it's perfect timing to change how Jade is drawn. She's getting married and thus begins a new chapter in her life.

If Kurtz has decided that he wants to change the way he draws her, having that hange coincide with the firs day of that new chapter would be very fitting I think.

Kate said...

You know, I really have enjoyed the wedding moments. I think it's the nature of Scott's strip that he moves from the goofy storylines to the serious ones, and we have to remember that PVP is not just about gaming. Frankly, Brent and Jade have had some of my favorite arcs ever--I loved the pregnancy scare and the Francis-versus-Brent competition that ended up in Engagement Attempt #1 was not only hilarious, but very telling.

The fact is that Scott can and should take a break from fart jokes and game gags to bring us something heartwarming.

My only beef is still that dress. I really think he could have picked something more JADE, and I can't help but think that the design of the dress makes Jade look poofy and awkward.

But I can overlook that. It's a solid set of strips.

Anonymous said...

In regards to Jade's "apparent" re-drawn face I have to interject that most women's faces are made up beyond what they normally look like specifically on their wedding day. Kurtz isn't using color so I think he's trying to convey her uber-makeup...ness while sticking with black and white. And I think he did it very well.

Mr.Graves said...

You guys have wow'd my mind.

Love how Scott finally has Brent take his Sunglasses off, Its one of the common things you guys bitch and moan about. 10 years he's been wearing them, and it happens and all I read is "This is Bullshit. This should have been Color'd. There needs to be more humor." and you are all too busy bitching to realize that Scott just did something unexpected. He went beyond his normal expectations.


I swear, you guys are the kind of guys that would Start pointing out the fact that Charlie Brown has been wearing the same shirt for 50 years if he were to finally kick the football out of lucy's hands. You are never going to be happy unless you are unhappy it appears.

Bravo on your attempts to divide by zero. Bravo.

Unknown said...

I loved the fact that he finally took off his shades for her. It's nice to see it driven by the story for a change instead of the need for a joke.

And to everybody who complains about his art. Fire up the archive and take a look at what he [i]was[/i] doing 10 years ago.

SlinkyTheDrunk said...

i've mentioned this before back on the favorite strips topic, but brent has been without his shades before:
http://www.pvponline.com/1998/07/28/tue-jul-28/
http://www.pvponline.com/1998/10/17/sat-oct-17/
at least one of which in response to jade.
not to mention francis and a date with destiny.
Anonymous said...

I have to wonder if Scott will remember this comic when the time comes:

http://www.pvponline.com/2000/01/24/mon-jan-24/

Brett Schiller (Sage) said...

Mr. Graves,
I like this part of the comic, I said if I had a complaint, it would be one of the strips in color, however I thoughth it was because he was doing something on the side.

I have no complaints about the recent strips, theyre "event" comics, they tell a good story, and I think the humor will return with the reception.

Anonymous said...

It's probably just me but I hate it when someone says something negative and then a fanboy comes on and says "you're all a bunch of whiners, you love to bitch about this and that, get a life it's a comic!".

One or two individuals do not represent this whole community, so stop painting us all with the same brush.

Anonymous said...

Are some people missing the point of why Brent took the shades off? It was to show emotion, that he really meant the 'I do'. You wouldn't be able to tell otherwise.

Mr.Graves said...

@ Fox

I didn't mean to come off as a Broad Paint brusher, I mostly intended my rant to be directed at the people who didn't take note of The sunglasses thing.

So in other words, My rant was mostly intended for the people that would be offended by my rant, But I didn't illuminate that fact enough.

And I'm far from fanboyish. I was one of the many who stopped reading after the Timemachine storyline.


but then I realized that sometimes you gotta take the bad with the good, and I was rewarded with the good stuff. I think the exact moment I was hooked again was when I read the one comic he drew about Brent and Cole seeing superman and coming out as little kids cheering. That hit home with me, As I had the same feeling walking out after seeing it.

Plus, I think the way he's been taking the Ding series has been a ton of fun. Each one has made me chuckle.

Anonymous said...

Regarding Jades "new" face; when Scott introduced Brent's parents and they were drawn so dramatically different from the rest of the strip, didn't he have a news posts at some point stating that he wanted to move the art of the strip overall in this new direction, and would be implementing it with the classic characters slowly? Perhaps this is a move towards that end.

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