Oh GOD my feelings. I've got to find the full version of this as soon as possible, as the version I downloaded just up and decided to corrupt about 120 pages in. Perhaps I'll check the library for it. That's neither here nor there, though, as we're here to talk about my feelings towards Asterios. Dude's had some crazy kind of life, it would appear. I feel like I share a lot with this character, actually. Sudden tragedies that don't appear to outwardly affect him, passionately devoted to the pursuit of obtaining knowledge on whatever subject may appear, and kind of up his own ass. Outwardly, appearing to be very up his own ass, but in reality only being kind of up his own ass. I just... want to know more about him.
And oh man, those colors? I love the fact that there's no black to be found, or even a dark shade of blue. It doesn't appear that any of the colors had a value over 50 in a photoshop scale; that is to say, no color was even half as dark as it could possibly be printed. I love the lightness that comes from that, though. Playing with the whites and lighter values makes the work feel airy and ethereal -- like a dream. I feel somehow as though I'm looking into the thoughts of another while reading this comic, though I'm not sure if it's Asterios's or the author's.
I don't think I've been able to empathize with a character nearly as well as I've been able to with Asterios this entire year so far. A whole semester of reading comics and I finally find the one character I feel I can truly relate to... which feels odd to me. He's much older and wiser than I, but for some reason I feel this distinct connection to the poor, strangely stalwart guy. Though maybe I shouldn't be too surprised, considering my favorite television character of all time may just be Frasier Crane, similarly aged and learned.
From the images that I saw on google whilst searching for this work and the introduction of a character that watches the sky for asteroids of close proximity to the earth, I can imagine what may eventually happen in this tale, and I'd like to think that Asterios will be fine. I... kind of need him to be fine, at the end of his story.
-Will Avery
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
OGLAF... might just have a new regular customer.
So at first I figured "yeah, alright, a little bit of absurdist and sexual humor in a fantasy universe, I can deal with that", and then I slowly stopped being able to deal with that, for some reason. Call me old fashioned, but I've never been a huge fan of the shock gag. Sure, when it's done right it can be great, but most of the time if you build up what seems to be some kind of clever joke and just cap it off with "balls! haha!", I'm not going to laugh. Just isn't something I can do. As there were a good few of these kinds of jokes in OGLAF, initially, I was beginning to think that perhaps this series wasn't for me.
But then, possibly my favorite comedic trope showed up: the running gag. This comic's loaded with 'em. The cumsprite, the two adventurers seeking various fountains, the falcon with laser vision, and my personal favorite, the ghost of the lizard of guilt. I swear to god, I lost my sh*t at the idea of that stupid lizard following people around just trying to rain on their parades (http://oglaf.com/night-shame/). Hearing what it said in a generic ghostly "ooOOooOOooo!" kind of voice just made it too much. What a life that would be.
Then there are the occasional one-off jokes that just seem to work. A time where the shock gag pulls it off right. This (http://oglaf.com/breastplate/) is a prime example. It's not relying of the absurdly graphic nature of the comic to deliver the joke, and its not even that crude. Well, not that crude when compared to the rest of the series. There's just something that really tickles me about how out of place something like engraving "slut" into a breastplate is in this world.
To top it all off: dat art. I'd be interested to know what else this author is involved in; clearly they've been art-ing for quite a while. The line work is great, the palette selection on most of the comics is phenomenal, and even the designs of the various characters and creatures is spot-on. I really appreciate how you can tell exactly what kind of personality or role a character/creature fits into based solely on their appearance. It's all solid A-tier work.
-Will Avery
But then, possibly my favorite comedic trope showed up: the running gag. This comic's loaded with 'em. The cumsprite, the two adventurers seeking various fountains, the falcon with laser vision, and my personal favorite, the ghost of the lizard of guilt. I swear to god, I lost my sh*t at the idea of that stupid lizard following people around just trying to rain on their parades (http://oglaf.com/night-shame/). Hearing what it said in a generic ghostly "ooOOooOOooo!" kind of voice just made it too much. What a life that would be.
Then there are the occasional one-off jokes that just seem to work. A time where the shock gag pulls it off right. This (http://oglaf.com/breastplate/) is a prime example. It's not relying of the absurdly graphic nature of the comic to deliver the joke, and its not even that crude. Well, not that crude when compared to the rest of the series. There's just something that really tickles me about how out of place something like engraving "slut" into a breastplate is in this world.
To top it all off: dat art. I'd be interested to know what else this author is involved in; clearly they've been art-ing for quite a while. The line work is great, the palette selection on most of the comics is phenomenal, and even the designs of the various characters and creatures is spot-on. I really appreciate how you can tell exactly what kind of personality or role a character/creature fits into based solely on their appearance. It's all solid A-tier work.
-Will Avery
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