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[PA Comic] Friday, July 19, 2013 - Sand, Part Three
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
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That moon has a moon.
This is not the Old West, as I was led to believe. This is either a New West, or a very, very Old Old West.
Pretty clear they are out in the alien Wild West given the two moons thing.
A long long time ago, in a west far far away?
but that could just be some JJ Abrams style lens flare ;D
Naturally, I imagine 'her' sounding like Jennifer Green, the voice of 'Angel' from Borderlands (1 and 2).
I think Mike was going for a "Head tilted forward with the brim of the hat blocking his eyes" look, like he got in the 4th panel, but the hat looks like it was drawn from a straight on perspective, making it look like the hat is pulled down over the top half of his face.
Otherwise, well done. I didn't even notice the trench-nose until it was pointed out here. Honestly, I think at this point Mike just does it to annoy people. On purpose like.
I think at this point we don't need to discuss it anymore. Yes, Mike has changed the way he draws noses as a result of drawing The Trenches. Do we need to continue to dwell on this in literally every new comic that comes out? No.
Get over it, people. It's a part of his art style now.
We know longer need a select few people to come into every New Comic thread and tell us that they don't like the noses. We get it. That's awesome that you have an opinion. It's been noted. That's enough of it.
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I thought I could "discuss the new comic".
Maybe the noses need their own thread.
Or maybe we should just email Gabe directly and bitch.
Or maybe we should give up and shut up, 'cause it sure seems like he's going to keep sticking these ruddy, misshapen protuberances on everyone's faces no matter what we think or say.
You can. That doesn't mean that every thread has to be the same avalanche of people saying "HAVE I MENTIONED THAT I DON'T LIKE THE WAY GABE DRAWS NOSES". No one fucking cares, move on with your life. If you have further snide, passive-aggressive bitching to do, address it to my inbox. Better yet, don't.
I rarely come to post my thoughts on the PA comics. When I do feel like talking about any aspect the comic, I want to come to a place where I, along with others who read PA as diligently as I have, can interject their opinions. I was under the impression that this thread is for that purpose.
Forgive me if I misinterpret but you sound annoyed that there is a large group of people who are turned off by the new noses. It's obviously more than just a "select few".
I could understand a request to forum users to post more than just "I don't like the noses" and to please elaborate more on their thoughts so that thread posts will spur meaningful discussion and not just complaints. You make it sound as if all discussion on the matter is closed. With that being said, if I am wrong in my assessment please let me know.
Personally I came to ask who exactly designed the Trenches characters, I was under the impression that it was Scott, the artistic style feels much more like his other stuff than Mikes. I was surprised when I first noticed the "nose style" and compared it to the first SAND. I was curious if there was any info on whether anyone was aware if Mike had said anything about experimenting with new stuff. Whether it was something he learned from Scott ect. I also wanted to express that I felt that the "new noses" were distracting to the other elements of the comic, something which I was pleased to find I was not alone in. I figured that this was a better place to vent these feelings and ask these questions than to tweet/email Mike himself. If he wants feedback, he knows where to find it, and this seems to be the place for that.
Perhaps this topic should just be its own thread, and perhaps it should be in the artists corner.
*Disclaimer--I know absolutely nothing about art and I may be completely wrong in this regard.
Fixed now. Thanks. I didn't realize my mistake, not until you graciously pointed it out.
Writing has never been my strong point, if you would like to further edit my forum posts for grammatical, spelling, and structural errors (as I am sure they exist), to help it better express my thoughts I would not be opposed.
SAND Spoilers, I guess?:
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And the main set piece is the interior of a boring jailhouse, there's no real tension in any of these. (So far)
What we're establishing is people's reaction to the phenomenon. The adults (lawmen) are perturbed. Children are filled with wonder and curiosity.
I'm nevertheless dismayed that he (and maybe Jerry, too?) seem to be looking to Scott Kurtz for artistic inspiration. Kurtz is a really funny public speaker from what I've seen (and the Blamimations are usually hilarious, too), but there's not a one of his comics that I find anything but boring, both visually and content-wise. Kurtz may have wanted to be web comic's Charles Shultz, but he seems to have ended up as web comic's Jim Davis.
Did not expect such an aggressive response to such a simple, easily ignorable opinion on on a single panel of a single, otherwise awesome, comic. It leads me to believe that one day we will witness another alternate existence (like SAND), where the talk of noses is only done in hushed whispers, for being caught doing so is an offense comparable to treason. Nosebots will zoom throughout the sky, their robo-nose hairs ready to snatch anyone into their dark recesses whom dare mutter the words "pug" or "Roman".
That's a really unpleasant, mean-spirited thing to say that, crucially, has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.
I also think I've been as clear as I can reasonably be about the fact that anyone who has a problem with a moderating policy or decision should contact me via PM rather than further derailing the thread, and from this point on cards and thread kicks are going to be thrown.
It's really noticeable in a comic like this too, as the characters lack the kind of grit you'd expect from this setting. Which is why the noses, in particular, don't work, they look comical in what is supposed to be a hard kind of place.
A good point. But to me, we still don't know anything beyond the dude can't die. When you have several day gaps between pages, I just think you need a certain economy to your scene composition and dialogue.
Another issue I'm having is these feel so cramped. Every panel is an extreme close up. Maybe i'm just too much of Western nerd, but I'm bummed he's not exploiting the vast, empty, expansiveness that westerns are so good at doing.
This third comic MIGHT be stretching it, but I think what we're doing now isn't just establishing the fact that he can't die: It's establishing that he's that western staple personality of "nonchalant tough guy who isn't phased by the people trying to kill him yet isn't above agreeably answering the questions of a random little kid." There's sort of a trope character that they're calling on with the last two comics, I think, to let us know what sort of guy we're dealing with.
It's sort of tough to go into detail on a guy's personality in the amount of text you can fit into a few panels, but having these sorts of exchanges which remind us of OTHER characters in westerns can give us the ability to fill out parts of his personality we won't be exposed to otherwise.
Edit: I also suspect this entire comic might have been an excuse for him to get to draw the alien cowboy jail house with two moons. You can tell he loves it whenever he gets the chance to draw landscape-type stuff, since it isn't something he normally does in the three panel beat.
Totally, I agree with you. I'm just surprised because usually when they do these one offs we're treated to these wonderfully detailed panels, each a story in and of itself. Mike and Jerry are really good that kind of thing, this one has just left me feeling like it's a bit of a missed opportunity.
But to be honest, it's not entirely fair to criticize one part of a larger whole when they haven't even finished the actual run yet. Anyway, I eagerly await the next one.