Monday, December 22, 2008

Sorry Guys

Hey guys, Christmas parties, going out with friends, wrapping presents and the Eagles playing a maddening game kept me out for Friday and this weekend.

Enter the Kringernaut: I must confess that Juggernaut is one of if not my favorite villains of Marvel (not the movie, comics only), so seeing the Kringernaut was a nice little thing for me. Also, my complaint from the previous post was rectified (no not just for me, but clarified) as Snow-Angel was seen flying outside. Also, for all the complaints about continuity, Scratch was working on this even before Skull left; I even remembered him working on SOMETHING in his lair before Kurtz even linked it.

Only Nit-Pick: The tree on Kringernaut's head, yes I know it’s supposed to be Christmas-y but it looks weird.

O Tannenbomb: As Djagir pointed out, through the mask Scratch looked like Cole in the armor. That was cleared up and made more detailed in this strip. Also, more Christmas puns are good, but I hope not too many more (ice puns in Batman Forever = *shudder*) even thought this one made me laugh. Also, good action sequence when the bombs went off as you can see Kurtz is comfortable with action.

Also, hat/tree still looks goofy, and bolt nipples remind of me of Clooney's Batman suit from Batman Forever.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

One Year Later (forgive me DC . . . )

Well since it has been a year I'll do some good ol' fashioned nit-picking.

1) Angel/Snow-Angel - In the second frame he just looks out of place hanging in the air, but aren't they in a house/office at this point? It’s just out of place the fact he's either flapping in the face of his teammates or he is just hovering. I think standing in an action position would have looked less out of place.

2) Professor's X-mas' beard- It looks like Cole's collar has a cousin and it’s the Professor's beard. I looked at the other drawings of his beard and there was no line to indicate and bend or fold yet in panel 2 his beard makes a 90 degree turn. I know there are some looping lines in the head-on shot but nothing to indicate his beard has that type of turn.

Otherwise the story remains in medias res and I am hoping that there is a punch line as a cliffhanger for the weekend instead of a dramatic pause. Also, hearing Santa having balls to do something is strangely disconcerting.

Well i hope you guys (and gals) enjoyed these nit-picks and happy anniversary PVPMMS!

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

In Fighting

Hey it's not late if the post is up before midnight. The strip continues a nice homage to classic Marvel/X-men art. I was watching a little bit of the drawing at the end of my lunch (it wasn't up at 2pm, so I was seeing what was going on) and he was using a drawing of Silver Age Captain America as a template/trace for Jack Frost in panel 3. It’s a nice way to continue the art of the Jingle Force 5 and a nice change from cartoony to more “comic book” style art.

I also chuckled at two points in the comic. First the premise of two teammates with the same power set arguing over who did what. As an avid comic reader you rarely see supes with similar powers (outside of maybe Green Laterns) unless something epic is happening. Secondly, there was a nice joke with Rudolph getting kicked out for his "games". Hey who doesn't like a nice pun?

Solid comic and continues a nice Kringus storyline.

PS - One year ago at 2 pm tomorrow FSM started a blog about PVP that despite its ups and downs survived a year and still is an enjoyable place to discuss about PVP. He even got mentions in a Time magazine blog, so he must have been doing something right. I know he is A LOT better at this than me and congrats to him for his baby surviving a year despite the bounty hunts and drama that took place here. Salute

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Kringus returns

Ok guys here we go. . .
I liked the strip today overall as the art was great. Scott did a great job of adding detail that a few months ago wasn't present. The needles falling off the tree when Scratch was talking was a nice subtle touch as it denotes him shaking around in the tree. Also, the explosion in the fourth panelwas very well drawn as the streaks of smoke and debris add a nice sense of realism.

With the story the "Frankincense Tingling" was a good play off the Spider-semse and made me chuckle. Also, the subtle part was that in the fourth panel Scratch called for Skull to look out. That is a continuation from the last Skull/Scratch arc where Scratch seems more appeciative of his owner after his absence; his protection of Skull was a nice reminder of that little character growth.

My one complaint is more of an overall problem with the Kringus character. When, in this persona, he isn't screaming to the heavens ala Shatner with a change in font with block lettering his "speech" or font is exactly the same as Scratch's. I looked at last years arc, when Scratch was in and out of the tree his normal speech font was the same. If Kringus is some sort of mythical threat, a change in font to something more ominous or threatening would get that change across. The one time last year was when Kringus was fighting with Santa's Helper (tm) and the word bubble was in a negative setting (black background/white lettering), at least in that case you can see Kringus as something different than a cat stuck in a tree (after all he scares the crap out of Santa so he's not an imaginary construct)

I look forward to a nice showdown/ battle stance with the 5 tomorrow ala '60's/70's Marvel though.

Why Do I Have an Ominous Feeling About This?

Hey guys,
Everyone's least favorite poster has the keys to the car right now! ES is doing a great job, but like FSM, real life (what is that) is kind of bogging him down. As for now I'll be posting on here, but if FSM or ES ever get time to do it again consistently I'll go back to my posting roll as they are much better at this then I am.

For those of you who don't know, my REAL name is my tag, I live in Drexel Hill, PA outside of Philadelphia (go Phillies, Eagles, Sixers, Flyers, Soul, Kixx, Phantoms, etc.) and work as a physical therapist in Oxford, PA (where the Amish roam). I'll update my profile to back this up.

Ill stick to my strengths as a commentator as I am better suited to talk about story and general overall discussions. With art I'm more Frankenstein-ian in that its basically "art good" or "art bad". I do like the art for the most part in PVP now as it's more detailed both in the fore and backgrounds and Kurtz's art skills generally are strong throughout.

Also, as a sign of honesty I was *gasp* banned from PVP's forums by the Grand Poohbah himself (who said "it pains me to do this" which im guessing it probably wasn't). What did i do? I posted the Time blog that FSM put on here (PVPMMS - PVP-enhancing prosthetic) on the forums saying "hey look we're not all bad." Well the swarm of PVP-philes came around and then when i suggested there was a period of time (maybe a month or so) where PVP was late well it was like ants on a spilled bottle of honey. And, well you guys know me, I responded and defended my position to them, citing claims of trolling (meh, it was a discussion but whatever) and didn't even curse, knowing i'd get banned for that and i was off the boards.

Well I'm glad we have PVPMMS who is now 2 days away from a year anniversary (my the time goes fast) so i'll be here until the site dries up or when FSM pulls off the mask revealing "Teh Kurtz!" (ala Secret invasion)

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Falling Behind

So I've been pretty quiet over the last week and if anyone's really missed my commentary, apologies. Real life has been kicking my ass all over the place. I've still had enough time to watch you guys discuss things though, and to see Kurtz drudge up his usual complaints about this place.

To play catch up, here are some rapid fire thoughts on the last few strips.

Original Content: This just feels like Kurtz had a day of "I don't have a joke prepared, so I'll make fun of my critics." As filler strips go, it's pretty blah.

Time to light the lights: It's a cute little reference and the muppet style just cements it. God knows my friends and I have killed time applying even dorkier discussion to other shows of the 80s. I'm not entirely sold on Rolf being the muppet Jesus though. But I'm more of a Gonzo man, myself.

Christmas Time is here: Maybe I'm being a grinch, but I hope Scratch tries to mathmatics Santa away this year. Also, the line "not quite, my head elf" just reads poorly to me.

Monday, December 8, 2008

They Love the 80s

H-uh, a gaming strip about an upcoming game and a pop culture reference.

Incidentally, apropos doesn't mean appropriate. It means "in reference to". I've been guilty of this one myself in the past though, so I think it's a common mistake.

Update: It can in fact, be both. Thanks for the info, McGee.

Apropos one of the comments in the previous post, Atari is still around, just purely as a software development group.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

No Cutsies

Today's strip is a cute little one-off. But what in the name of Zeus is going on in panel two? At first glance it looks like Skull was wearing pants, or a shirt that cuts off at the stomach, or...something. It took me a few minutes to realize that he's standing behind a rope.

I know this is an oft-cited complaint of mine, but I'm begging you Mr. Kurtz; pull the camera back a little.

And I know I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm still not entirely sold on the idea of a jaded Skull.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Good Night (and good luck)

With this storyline appearing to have wrapped up today, I figured I'd jump in with some commentary.

The whole point of this arc seems to have been Cole coming to terms with the fact that he doesn't have a good reason to hate Max. Which is all well and good, except we already knew that. It's obvious that Max is just one of those lucky bastards who gets through life with luck and charisma. Meanwhile, Cole's life is far from perfect.

Of course it doesn't matter if Max is gay or not. His behavior isn't going to change and of course, the boys will still act the same around him. Oh, wait.

I'm just sort of disappointed. I think there was some really good potential here, but instead we got a so-so plot, terrible character development and ultimately, nothing is resolved.

See you tomorrow, folks.

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