Hey guys,
Sorry about this weekend but it was Valentine's and me and the woman had a great weekend planned and it turned out that way. As much as I love you guys: a) I'll take my kisses from her b) She knows where I sleep and I can't be kicked in the testicular region by you guys :).
Anyway, I did wait on Friday until that strip was posted because I wanted to combine critiques
Over His Head
More Problem Solving
Art - In both strips the overall quality of the artwork is excellent. I really liked the first strip as the backgrounds showed their movement from outside, to at the manager's door, to inside his office well. Also, Francis and Brent continue to be drawn well and Francis' cuffs (in panel one) are not glove-like.
The drawing of the little person is good as well as I'm sure it is either a reference photo or someone he knows so I guessing the features of the character comes from a real life example; drawing a little person can become an insulting stereotype but I don't see that here.
My one problem with the art is that the way the little person is drawn, just with his upper torso lower than Brent and Francis, didn't really help with whatever joke he was going for. When I first read the strip I took from Brent's reaction that something was off but I couldn't tell the problem from the drawing.
If you don't have Brent saying "...bigger" couldn't you assume the guy is just sitting at his desk? My first reaction was that the guy was in wheelchair and had to look closer to see that he was a dwarf/little person. Scott has been doing a lot of behind the head drawing and showing the view from Brent/Francis' perspective (showing the guy STANDING and being short) would have helped the punchline.
Story - My biggest problem and the reason I waited to see the 2nd strip was with Thursday's ending. Where is the joke? I know that Brent is saying "...bigger" and then a small person is in the room, that's the joke, but the context of the conversation before that wasn't about physical size and it just was not funny.
I hoped the second strip would lead me to say "well I hoped he had just combined it" and well I still kind of feel that way. If there were eight panels having them walk into the office, no reaction from Brent, explaining the situation and then Francis' anime-like response to the little person would have been better then separating them into to strips as it makes both strips feel stilted
PS - Yeah Friday's title was hokey.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Bigger Problems
Problem solving too
Art - For the most part Scott continues his excellence with his drawing. He only really has to worry about drawing Francis and Brent without any other details and he does it well.
However, I have two problems. First, that the background drops of the 4th panel, and while it my have been done for effect for what Francis was saying, it just looks stark compared to the other frames with grayscale backgrounds.
My second problem is mostly more of a character design problem I have with Francis since his change. I know the circle around his wrist is supposed to be the cuff of his undershirt, but half the time it looks like a glove, ala Mickey and other characters from the Tex Avery/Disney era. (while old school characters wore gloves I don't know). The drawing of his cuff varies in this strip 3 times from muddled in the first panel to looking like a glove in the fourth panel to clearly his cuff in the last panel
Story - This strip continues a solid week of strips continuing the bike cop arc. This is an example of Scott using the strengths of his "pop culture" strip as the younger person obsessed with pop culture (Francis) deals with real life situations in the only way he's seen them dealt with, television. I liked the reaction of Brent being the older, grounded, and more mature (depending on the day) person with the reaction he had.
Art - For the most part Scott continues his excellence with his drawing. He only really has to worry about drawing Francis and Brent without any other details and he does it well.
However, I have two problems. First, that the background drops of the 4th panel, and while it my have been done for effect for what Francis was saying, it just looks stark compared to the other frames with grayscale backgrounds.
My second problem is mostly more of a character design problem I have with Francis since his change. I know the circle around his wrist is supposed to be the cuff of his undershirt, but half the time it looks like a glove, ala Mickey and other characters from the Tex Avery/Disney era. (while old school characters wore gloves I don't know). The drawing of his cuff varies in this strip 3 times from muddled in the first panel to looking like a glove in the fourth panel to clearly his cuff in the last panel
Story - This strip continues a solid week of strips continuing the bike cop arc. This is an example of Scott using the strengths of his "pop culture" strip as the younger person obsessed with pop culture (Francis) deals with real life situations in the only way he's seen them dealt with, television. I liked the reaction of Brent being the older, grounded, and more mature (depending on the day) person with the reaction he had.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
A Day Behind
Me and My Shadow
Art - No real complaints; backgrounds are good as you know each situation where the cop is spying on him and even the mitten hands were minimal
Story - Straight forward gag and the bike tire in the stall did make me chuckle.
Problem Solving
Art - Again very solid on the details but thankfully (because you know I only live for criticizing this strip) there are a few flaws. The cops radio loses it's color again. Also, Brent's body is copied and pasted in the four panels he is in.
It makes sense for the last three since time in those panels is only a few seconds, but you would think Brent would be waving an arm instead of both arms resting at his side in the first panel. The body language doesn't match the frustration/angst that he is expressing in that instance.
Story - Again straight forward comic: cop thinks Brent is bad then makes a less than stellar exit. Done well but I likes Monday's gag better.
PS - Thanks to whatever reader a few weeks ago shared this but a fun website to just explore is Alexa which shows internet traffic patterns. Just type in a website (from deadspin.com to yahoo.com) and all the stats show up. Kind of cool to see day to day page views.
Art - No real complaints; backgrounds are good as you know each situation where the cop is spying on him and even the mitten hands were minimal
Story - Straight forward gag and the bike tire in the stall did make me chuckle.
Problem Solving
Art - Again very solid on the details but thankfully (because you know I only live for criticizing this strip) there are a few flaws. The cops radio loses it's color again. Also, Brent's body is copied and pasted in the four panels he is in.
It makes sense for the last three since time in those panels is only a few seconds, but you would think Brent would be waving an arm instead of both arms resting at his side in the first panel. The body language doesn't match the frustration/angst that he is expressing in that instance.
Story - Again straight forward comic: cop thinks Brent is bad then makes a less than stellar exit. Done well but I likes Monday's gag better.
PS - Thanks to whatever reader a few weeks ago shared this but a fun website to just explore is Alexa which shows internet traffic patterns. Just type in a website (from deadspin.com to yahoo.com) and all the stats show up. Kind of cool to see day to day page views.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Evil Cop
Hey guys, normally I'm not that busy on weekends but I had work, a house warming, then a 21st birthday party yesterday, followed by 4 hours of work, a 1 year-old's birthday party (for my fiancee's cousin) and a date night today.
So let's get this post done!
Pushing it
Art - No real complaints about today (I know what has happened to PVPMMS!?): the background is better as we see there are trees, the Mini is still drawn well and the characters has no ridiculous flubs like a collar-arm.
The only thing wrong is the cop's glasses lost its color.
Story - Why is Cole leaning across both seats to talk to Brent and the officer? If Kurtz wanted him involved in the strip why not just put the officer and Brent on the other side of the car. Just save me the thought from Cole having to be that nosy he has to lean across two seats.
Also, here we see confusing from whether this officer is actually on-duty police or a rent-a-cop. In Philadelphia, a good amount of cops do add to their income by working as bouncers/security. However, they don't wear their gear when they do so. I would have changed his first line to: "The manager of this property complained about people speeding in his parking lot and I am patrolling here to enforce. . . " simple, the guy is still a cop without the confusing "I was hired" line, and it makes sense why he was there.
A couple easy changes would have made this a lot less convoluted
Uncivil Disobedience
Art - No real problems except I thoroughly dislike Cole's collar-arm.
Story - Well I dislike Brent over the last two strips and if that is what Kurtz was going for, it's a success. So the guy gets you for speeding, sure it's slow, but it's still speeding, and you want to report him. Ah gotta love that snark coming out.
However, the foreshadowing for the cop giving Brent a hard time is good, but does anyone think anything that funny will come out of it? I'm not really looking forward to that set of strips.
Oh and what did the cop do, scurry behind that tree when he was done talking to Brent? It's not like we know if they traveled down the road some more or are just getting of the car because this happens immediately after the previous strip where they are standing in a parking lot without any traveling. If I were Brent I would report him for that.
So let's get this post done!
Pushing it
Art - No real complaints about today (I know what has happened to PVPMMS!?): the background is better as we see there are trees, the Mini is still drawn well and the characters has no ridiculous flubs like a collar-arm.
The only thing wrong is the cop's glasses lost its color.
Story - Why is Cole leaning across both seats to talk to Brent and the officer? If Kurtz wanted him involved in the strip why not just put the officer and Brent on the other side of the car. Just save me the thought from Cole having to be that nosy he has to lean across two seats.
Also, here we see confusing from whether this officer is actually on-duty police or a rent-a-cop. In Philadelphia, a good amount of cops do add to their income by working as bouncers/security. However, they don't wear their gear when they do so. I would have changed his first line to: "The manager of this property complained about people speeding in his parking lot and I am patrolling here to enforce. . . " simple, the guy is still a cop without the confusing "I was hired" line, and it makes sense why he was there.
A couple easy changes would have made this a lot less convoluted
Uncivil Disobedience
Art - No real problems except I thoroughly dislike Cole's collar-arm.
Story - Well I dislike Brent over the last two strips and if that is what Kurtz was going for, it's a success. So the guy gets you for speeding, sure it's slow, but it's still speeding, and you want to report him. Ah gotta love that snark coming out.
However, the foreshadowing for the cop giving Brent a hard time is good, but does anyone think anything that funny will come out of it? I'm not really looking forward to that set of strips.
Oh and what did the cop do, scurry behind that tree when he was done talking to Brent? It's not like we know if they traveled down the road some more or are just getting of the car because this happens immediately after the previous strip where they are standing in a parking lot without any traveling. If I were Brent I would report him for that.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
I've seen this somewhere before . . .
Way of the Bike
Art - Nice to see the background is grey at it takes away the starkness of the characters that was seen against white at least. I also liked the characters again and the face of the cop in the last panel sells the joke very well.
I didn't like Brent's hands in the last two panels. First we had mitten hands in the last panel and Brent's 2nd and 3rd fingers* are weirdly long and slender especially compared to the rest of his hand.
Oh and the officer's radio goes from black to white in the first and final panels, respectively.
* To avoid complaints: anatomically the thumb is the first finger, I'm a physical therapist after all
Story - This is a story of two punchlines. The line said by the officer was great and went well with the art and was a good result of the set-up of the comic. The line said by Brent is a pop culture reference that no one under the age of 35 will likely get. I understand who Magnum is but the show went off the air in 1988 and I'm 26, so being 6 at the time of the show's cancellation I cant understand why Tom Selleck trumps all because I (and likely many others) had no real chance to see it.
Also, I chuckled at Brent's comparison's in panel 4 just because in the Feb 2nd post I made a similar comparison. First off, Segway cop is less then bike cop in my opinion, I don't care what you say. Secondly, I AM IN NO WAY SAYING THAT I INSPIRED THE JOKE; it was either an obvious joke to make or it's a coincidence. Lastly, we both made lame jokes at the end of our comparison's, it's just that mine was seen by dozens and PVP is seen by thousands.
Art - Nice to see the background is grey at it takes away the starkness of the characters that was seen against white at least. I also liked the characters again and the face of the cop in the last panel sells the joke very well.
I didn't like Brent's hands in the last two panels. First we had mitten hands in the last panel and Brent's 2nd and 3rd fingers* are weirdly long and slender especially compared to the rest of his hand.
Oh and the officer's radio goes from black to white in the first and final panels, respectively.
* To avoid complaints: anatomically the thumb is the first finger, I'm a physical therapist after all
Story - This is a story of two punchlines. The line said by the officer was great and went well with the art and was a good result of the set-up of the comic. The line said by Brent is a pop culture reference that no one under the age of 35 will likely get. I understand who Magnum is but the show went off the air in 1988 and I'm 26, so being 6 at the time of the show's cancellation I cant understand why Tom Selleck trumps all because I (and likely many others) had no real chance to see it.
Also, I chuckled at Brent's comparison's in panel 4 just because in the Feb 2nd post I made a similar comparison. First off, Segway cop is less then bike cop in my opinion, I don't care what you say. Secondly, I AM IN NO WAY SAYING THAT I INSPIRED THE JOKE; it was either an obvious joke to make or it's a coincidence. Lastly, we both made lame jokes at the end of our comparison's, it's just that mine was seen by dozens and PVP is seen by thousands.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Bike Cop, Bike Cop, what you gonna do?
Blind Spot
Art - The characters and everything that is there in today's strip is great and detailed no complaint about what is drawn.
The only problem I have is the total lack of background which is especially noticeable in panels 2 and 5. It looks like Brent/Cole are driving into nothingness and parked next to nothingness respectively. A generic background of town buildings would have helped to take that away.
Story - Well it was more than a one-off but still likely less then a story arc. I liked today's comic as I'm sure that goes through the mind of everyone who sees a bike cop coming after them, even if they were only speeding.
My only problem was with the word bubbles being switched in the second panel. I did know who was speaking but it was distracting as I had to wonder if they had switched positions in the car. If it was a matter of Scott wanting it to be read left to right, well he did something better in panel three that solved that.
Two side notes -
1) I like the redesign of the PVP site as it is a much friendlier and easier site to navigate. I like that the twitter link is easier to get to, just because I use Scott's twitter to get to Renee Engstrom's twitter to see if she has a new comic up.
The one thing I had to chuckle at was that there is a "comment tab next to the comic and when I clicked on it it took me to the fan site sign up for $1.99 a month. I'm all for making money from the webcomic author but at least here at PVPMMS you can comment for free. So if you're a PVP-phile or hater or anyone in between leave your wallets in your pocket and come on down to this site!
2) One of our own posters, Jim Thorpe, has a webcomic called The Suckerboys.
While I agree that he is finding his way a bit I fully disagree with him that it is weak-azz. There is some great stuff there and it is kinda cool to see a webcomic start since we've only been commenting on a webcomic that's been established for nearly a decade.
Art - The characters and everything that is there in today's strip is great and detailed no complaint about what is drawn.
The only problem I have is the total lack of background which is especially noticeable in panels 2 and 5. It looks like Brent/Cole are driving into nothingness and parked next to nothingness respectively. A generic background of town buildings would have helped to take that away.
Story - Well it was more than a one-off but still likely less then a story arc. I liked today's comic as I'm sure that goes through the mind of everyone who sees a bike cop coming after them, even if they were only speeding.
My only problem was with the word bubbles being switched in the second panel. I did know who was speaking but it was distracting as I had to wonder if they had switched positions in the car. If it was a matter of Scott wanting it to be read left to right, well he did something better in panel three that solved that.
Two side notes -
1) I like the redesign of the PVP site as it is a much friendlier and easier site to navigate. I like that the twitter link is easier to get to, just because I use Scott's twitter to get to Renee Engstrom's twitter to see if she has a new comic up.
The one thing I had to chuckle at was that there is a "comment tab next to the comic and when I clicked on it it took me to the fan site sign up for $1.99 a month. I'm all for making money from the webcomic author but at least here at PVPMMS you can comment for free. So if you're a PVP-phile or hater or anyone in between leave your wallets in your pocket and come on down to this site!
2) One of our own posters, Jim Thorpe, has a webcomic called The Suckerboys.
While I agree that he is finding his way a bit I fully disagree with him that it is weak-azz. There is some great stuff there and it is kinda cool to see a webcomic start since we've only been commenting on a webcomic that's been established for nearly a decade.
Monday, February 2, 2009
So fuuulll of buffalo wing dip
. . . and because Rdy demanded it again.
Art - Solid and good again everything remains great and the detail is present in every frame.
However, you can tell the Mini is from a reference shot. Also, the trees look awkward as they are the only things without shading. Finally, some of the bottom front tire gets lost in the final frame, unless his tires are really flat.
Story - Not sure whether this is a one-off or an arc (if so how much mileage will this get?), but it was ok tody. Good current pop culture banter that makes no sense (like good pop culture banter should).
Btw to Rdy the joke is that the boys are in a parking lot going 12 mph in 10 mph zone (I think becuase where else has 10 mph speed limits?) and they are about to be pulled over by a bike cop. Now I saw someone get chased down at the Philly stadiums by a cop on foot after making an illegal right when he was directing traffic. I thought it was hilarious to be pulled over by someone on foot.
My guess is being pulled over is funnier when done by a: foot cop > bike cop > patrol car > Robocop.
My problem with today's strip is that you can't tell what the joke is supposed to be. From the outer shot of the car you can't tell whether it is a parking lot or street. You can clearly see the cop has him at 12 mph, but what the hell does it matter without knowing where he is at? The strip relied more on the title than anything else to explain the joke.
Art - Solid and good again everything remains great and the detail is present in every frame.
However, you can tell the Mini is from a reference shot. Also, the trees look awkward as they are the only things without shading. Finally, some of the bottom front tire gets lost in the final frame, unless his tires are really flat.
Story - Not sure whether this is a one-off or an arc (if so how much mileage will this get?), but it was ok tody. Good current pop culture banter that makes no sense (like good pop culture banter should).
Btw to Rdy the joke is that the boys are in a parking lot going 12 mph in 10 mph zone (I think becuase where else has 10 mph speed limits?) and they are about to be pulled over by a bike cop. Now I saw someone get chased down at the Philly stadiums by a cop on foot after making an illegal right when he was directing traffic. I thought it was hilarious to be pulled over by someone on foot.
My guess is being pulled over is funnier when done by a: foot cop > bike cop > patrol car > Robocop.
My problem with today's strip is that you can't tell what the joke is supposed to be. From the outer shot of the car you can't tell whether it is a parking lot or street. You can clearly see the cop has him at 12 mph, but what the hell does it matter without knowing where he is at? The strip relied more on the title than anything else to explain the joke.
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