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Camp Weedonwantcha by Katie Rice — Inauguration Day
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Camp Weedonwantcha by Katie Rice — Inauguration Day
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But yeah, nice knowing you, Brian is about to open a keg of Presidential Pain on you
p.s. I laughed for a good 5 mins solidly at Malachi's jump in that bottom panel... Even did a little high pitched "nooooo" in my head, it was glorious.
/watch?v=jLJLyneZGKc
You know, Malachi was already in front of Brian and Seventeen, so why on earth did he feel any reason to move so far to the side when he jumped? A small part of me wants to believe he was just getting out of the way so he wouldn't get shot. :P
simple geometry: Brian is to the right of the blood spoor; Mal's now-vacant spot was to the right of the spoor; and the forced perspective of the barrel on the right show them to be in a line.
Mal was not going for the hero schtick, he was going for the 'live to be wishy-washy another day' IMHO.
also: based on the last split panel, are Brian and Purdy primordial nemeses (he being of nature, she being of technology) before the creation of camp and treetown?
That and his flair for the dramatic are the exact reasons I love Malachi's character.
she dose have some of the coolest eyes, They tell so much about her.
Now the flaws have started being stacked fast and hard whilst the virtues have been left by the wayside, and his character is becoming less "Jerk in self-defense" and more "Jerk in pettiness".
Is this supposed to be a sliding scale experiment? A case of the water rising so slowly the frog doesn't realize it's being boiled moment?
Because my sympathy for Malachai is slipping very much and I'm wondering just how much of it is intentional. Maybe if the compulsive lying were played up more because of trust issues, or abandonment, or anything that *humanizes* him, I'd be singing your praises. Instead he's acting to the direct detriment to the few people he feels any loyalty to. Instead we're shown remorse only when he's thought he's gotten *caught*. Even then that brief moment of conscience is quickly forgotten.
I'm conflicted here.
I mean, I adored Breaking Bad and Dan Vs because they were intentionally loathable protagonist/antagonists, but because Malachai isn't quite relatable enough to be an effective protagonist, nor detestable enough to be a sympathetic antagonist, it's seriously starting to detract from my enjoyment of a comic which is otherwise fantastically drawn with a wonderfully, almost macabre, premise.
... oh dear.
I'm sorry for the horribly mean essay I've just written. I think a lot. I don't mean anything nasty by it, because I literally love everything else in this comic but.
Purdy may not, however, actually find out that they call him that, or who "they" are.
Malachai is just annoying enough to be offputting whilst not being offputting enough to be interesting in that regard either. If he pushed further in either direction his delivery would be a lot more effective, in my eyes.
"Also, I still feel as though all of the central characters have a lot of aspects yet to be revealed, not to mention the possibility of change and/or growth."
~ Yes, which is why I muse about it now, rather than later, when things become more set in stone. I'm worried about the direction it's heading far more than merely musing over where it's at now.
But speaking of "literature," Katie... whenever you feel the story has come to a point where it's ready to take a pause, I would really love to be able to buy these collected as a graphic novel!
(This is _not_ that point!!! The battle of the scary eyes has yet to begin...)
I don't know if I agree with the interpretation that Malachai jumped to save himself. His expression in the previous panel does not look like one of fear. I think it's more like he panicked when he saw his lies coming down around him and took refuge in a movie cliche he hoped would redeem himself in the eyes of his friends.
I kind of see where MrNumbers is coming from. Malachai was always selfish, and he was always a liar, so he hasn't really changed in that regard. But earlier, the narrative tended to focus on his attempts to adapt and survive in this confusing, terrifying existence, and there was some nobility to that despite his flaws. We haven't seen much of that side of him in the recent arc, but I don't think that's a character derailment or anything. The focus has just changed, and may well change again later.
we have moral/immoral and sympathetic/unsympathetic. for comparison you could say Walter White was highly immoral and fairly sympathetic, and malachi is somewhat immoral and somewhat unsympathetic.
So in that regard I agree, in that fictional characters must be outside of the realm of normal to be entertaining. Maybe he will redeem himself, or maybe he will become more of a snake in the grass. I guess we don't know for sure where things will end up later, but we'll have to put up with his moderately off-putting self to find out.
Uhhh. Wow. That's forced.
She wants to murder a small cute animal and is also pointing a rifle in their direction, which is nothing if not threatening behavior.
The girl in the very first comic (Dear Mom) does look a little like Purdy, but it's definitely not meant to be her. However, that is her in the first comic that was made after the original six for Strip Search (Motivation). Purdy's design was actually one of the first I came up with! I went and dug up my first drawing of her, along with some early Malachis and Seventeens:
Purdy... RUN. JUST RUN NOW.
Formal point for this one though: as we read from left to right, wouldn't you say that a character's dramatic movement such as Malachi's leap here would look better and feel more dynamic if it were staged to happen from left to right? A "hero pose and pause" works really well from right to left, because your eye "stops" on it, but a flowing move feels more natural if your eye can glide over it because it's drawn in the same direction your eye is going anyway.
Right now there's the tiniest hiccup of processing when we get to panel seven: we know Malachi can't be going backwards, so he must be jumping from right to left, but it's something your brain has to determine and it just stops you, even if unconsciously, for a tick.
Feel free to disagree, obviously.
To @MrNumbers: You need to adjust your expectations. This is a comic about kids at a weird summer camp. Bringing up Breaking Bad here is just ridiculous. If Malachi is wishy-washy, petty, by turns selfish and overeager to please, it's because he is a child, and that's the way children often are. This is especially true when they're in stressful social situations (like, say, being abandoned indefinitely at a summer camp full of oddball strangers). That doesn't make Malachi a "jerk" any more than adolescents are customarily jerks. Comparing him to a dramatic anti-hero like Walter White, for good or ill, is nonsensical.