/ Comic Crit - Out There /
It may be interesting to note that I actually have five of these in backlog, but haven’t revised/finished/posted them for oddball reasons. In any case, one more for the month of June, and this one isn’t going to be bitchy either.
I also don’t have a real rant other to say there’s a reason I like what I’m presented more than half the time. The people who submit themselves to the BFLoD (pronounced: B-Flood), are more often than not established, community, and interested in webcomics for either career or general profit (read: serious). Some are just starting out, and that shows. I don’t hold that against anyone if there’s solid progress with a few wrinkles. But often, there’s some pretty good shit I’ve never heard of…
And I actually have a sort of rating system now. And it’s not a thumbs up, thumbs down. It’s not a grade or number.
It’s a question, and an often arbitrary one:
“Would I pay to read this?”
Even for half the glowing reviews I’ve given, the answer would have been no. And for some of the ‘needs improvement’ crowd, the answer mayhap be yes. Basically, it’s that balance of quality and entertainment everyone is shooting for, and even that’s based on my taste.
Here we go: Out There
At around 300 strips, OT has been running six days a week since June 2006. A 5-panel newspaper comic, it’s a B&W road-trip turned relationship story.
Hottie 20-something Miriam embarks on an American west-to-east-coast quest to visit her best friend and her online beau. Just a day into her journey she finds a homeless backpacker in the middle of nowhere. In odd reaction to her drop-dead looks and seeming generosity, he denies her twice until Miriam convinces the traveler, John, to a ride to the next town. Push to shove, the self-centered female protag and philosophical lead male become near-inseparable traveling companions (no, it’s not an overt romance).
This is far more my vein of writing: more mature and modern in context, more social and psychological in commentary. It’s not artsy, it’s adult–even without violence, nudity, or profanity. No real pop culture jokes, no geek humor, it’s a flat-out character story that depicts two sides of the same coin. Miriam is a good person underneath her frivolous boozing demeanor. John is obviously awesome with his straight-man insight. But John is running from something and Miriam is always running towards something.
When the pair finally reach the destination the story actually develops and their dymanic continues to evolve. A love square forms between Miriam, John, the best friend, and the no-longer-online beau. The plot still hasn’t confirmed any romance beyond a kiss, but considering Miriam’s impulsive, sexual nature, it’s difficult to imagine no decisions, zero payoff.
Expert fucking writing. Almost without pretense though it’s more sophisticated than 95% of the stuff I’m used to.
The line art is as tight as it needs to be. I already stated its genre. Characters look different. Girls look pretty. Boys look like boys. Expressions come easy. Good black on white isn’t easy to do by any means, so I hate to understate it, but criticism thereof is non-existent with this project. However, the glimpses of colored art all look like trash. It dates the character designs and seems ultimately insulting to their ‘look.’ I blame it on to color choice and style itself. It just doesn’t translate well. Where the characters normally pop, color looks flat and frumpy on this one.
As for the site, it’s super-functional, but I’d really enjoy more blogging and an in-depth ‘about’ page. It always feels self-indulgent, but some of us are honestly interested in the reasons and foundation behind top-tier storytelling. Worst-case scenario: no one reads it. Best: you connect the reader into the conditions behind and purpose of the story.
Out There really was worth it, start to finish. 300~ish strips take a while.
Would I pay to read it? Yup. Fuck, I’d damn near pay you to read it.
9 Comments so far
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yay! im glad you like it cuz i like it too ^^
By nikie on 07.10.07 2:37 am
Hey Aarin, nice review. Out There is one of my favorites, so I could’ve guessed that you’d like it too. If you’re really hungry for more blogging, RC Monroe replies pretty regularly on his forum about the motivations of the characters. There’s some interesting insight over there.
Also, though its hard to tell because Monroe fictionalizes the city names, I’m pretty sure the road trip goes west-to-east, as they start in Vegas (Los Vicious) then Chicago, where the baseball game incident occurred, and I’m pretty sure the final destination is either New York or Boston.
You’re dead on about the coloring, too — some really bad color choices there. He should stick to black and white.
By Scott on 07.18.07 1:06 pm
I’m pretty sure the road trip goes west-to-east
Ah, I had a suspicion lately that might be the case. Imma edit it for a better guess at the locations. Vegas is only a day’s drive from Cali anyway, right?
Portstown = Portsmouth, VA?
By Aarin on 07.18.07 3:03 pm
Yeah, from the Bay Area it takes 8-10 hours to get to Vegas, much less from LA. So I’m guessing Miriam is from Cali, and given her personality, LA would probably be a good fit for her.
Portstown is the main setting, right? It seems bigger than all that — that’s why I guessed NY or Boston, big east coast cities with very famous ports. Don’t think we’ve gotten any landmarks from there yet, though.
By Scott on 07.18.07 7:08 pm
Oops on the Chicago thing! The baseball incident went down in “Arch City” where the team is the “Starlings”.. So yeah, that’s St. Louis.
I’m going to start a forum discussion about this on RC’s board.
By Scott on 07.18.07 10:55 pm
But not just Sher’s bar, I got a very blue-collar feel of Portstown. When Mir first entered it went from downtown to run-down pretty fast, suggesting a more intimate city and a focus on the docks. I never once got a large metropolitan feel from the city, what little we’ve seen of it.
Portsmouth/Norfolk fits the blue-collar bill nicely, if using RCM’s naming tricks as a too-obvious pointer in that direction.
My original confusion was that the city was Portland, OR, so thanks for setting me straight on the coasts.
If we asked RCM he might say, “It’s not Portsmouth or Boston, it’s Portstown,” which is the kind of answer I’d give :P Still, a fun debate for the readers.
By Aarin on 07.18.07 11:38 pm
Yeah, I noticed Aarin mixed up the direction of the trip in the review, but it seemed like too minor a point to correct. Another minor point is that Miriam isn’t a 20-something. She’d have to be at least 30, or very close to it, since she last saw her high school flame 11-12 years ago.
Anyway, about the cities:
Los Vicios (it means “vices” en español) is Las Vegas, obviously.
Arch City is St. Louis (Starlings = Cardinals).
I suppose Miriam is from Southern California (since I am), although I don’t state that anywhere in the strip so it’s open to interpretation.
Portstown was originally going to be based on Boston. The problem with that is I don’t know Boston very well (I was there for two days over twenty years ago) so I’ve avoided showing or mentioning specific landmarks. It doesn’t have to be Boston. It’s an East Coast city with a port, and a Downtown area that’s very close to the waterfront. That probably describes more than one Eastern seaboard city.
Basically the locations aren’t important to the story. I didn’t want to tell a “it could only happen in Cleveland” type of story; I wanted the settings to be somewhat generic so that more people could relate to them.
By R C Monroe on 07.19.07 1:07 am
I wanted the settings to be somewhat generic so that more people could relate to them.
Validation!
And I’m keeping 20-something. It’s a gray area :P
Thanks for stopping in and clearing that up! I also appreciated your July 1 rant-rebuttal to my ‘moar blogging’ suggestion.
By Aarin on 07.19.07 1:21 am
My pleasure. It wasn’t really a rebuttal, more like an explanation. Nevertheless, I am trying to blog moar. I just find I seldom have anything to say that’s of interest to others. Or me, even.
By R C Monroe on 07.19.07 3:37 am
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