Webcomic Wednesday: GOD HATES ASTRONAUTS
|
Jun 23 2010, 1:06 PM
The signal to noise ratio in the webcomic world is pretty staggering-- which is unsurprising, considering anyone with an internet connection, a wacom tablet or scanner, and a basic understanding of blogging software (in some cases, not even that...) can fancy themselves a webcomic creator.
...you get a lot of crazy.
(and hey, sometimes that crazy is super talented!)
Which brings us to this new weekly column, in which I'm taking it upon myself to be your filter to the world of webcomics. I'll sort the cool from the crap; the crazy-good from the crazy-unreadable, and shine a spotlight on some awesome comics to feed your eyeballs.
What are my credentials, you might ask? Why you, Tim Simmons?
Well, I've dipped my toe into the webcomic world with an entry in DC's Zuda imprint (now closed to open submissions, sadly) and I'm getting set to launch my own webcomic in a week-- so, I've been in research mode for the last few months boning up on a lot of webcomics. I've got a favorites folder chock-full of awesome, so I figured: Hell, share the wealth!
...so, enough intro! Let's get started!
I spent a lot of time thinking about what comic I should kick this column off with...until Monday that is, when God Hates Astronauts showed up in my Facebook feed.
GHA is written and illustrated (I presume lettered and colored, as well) by Ryan Browne, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was mentored by Dave Mazzucchelli. If you need further comic-awesomeness cred, GHA comes with a nice Darick Robertson quote:
"The funniest and most original book I've read in years..."
Darick ain't wrong-- God Hates Astronauts succeeds on both levels. The cover is a very nice piece of artwork, but by the credits page, wherein Ryan lists a "suggested voice cast" including John C. Reilly and Walt Goggins -- well, you know you're reading something that'll be pretty cool.
At its core, GHA is a superhero team book-- it sort of reminds me of a fucked up version of The Great Lakes Avengers, a team of fairly idiotic heroes with ridiculous powers. Like all great team books, GHA focuses on the inner dramatics/soap opera elements of its cast-- I'm not going to ruin the gag, but in this first issue, the team hits the point that it needs outside counseling from a pretty amusing source.
That's not to say there isn't any action-- hell, on Page 3 there's a friggin' Bear Blitzkrieg!
Ryan describes God Hates Astronauts as “about bears, giant swollen heads, super-hero infidelity, old tyme
boxers, and old tyme boxers who get killed and resurrected by magic
bears.”
Which, yeah, sounds insane-- but is also pretty damn funny. For example, take note of Ryan's sound effects through the action scenes-- quite a few of them cracked me up.
The GHA site is fairly minimal, which is a plus for me-- considering a lot of webcomics tend to widgetize themselves to death. The comic is accessible and easy to read. Navigation is a breeze, simply click on the page to advance, or use the the little arrows at the bottom. Simple and easy-- you'd be surprised at the number of other comics I've seen that fail to recognize something as basic as turning a page.
Equally as navigation friendly, but a little prettier, is Ryan's main site where he has some pretty cool design work up-- including some posters for the band Murder by Death and another short comic called Dutch.
You can check out it out here.
In the meantime, I have it on good word that Ryan is working with his best friend, Mike Costa (of GI JOE: COBRA, Hawksmoor, and Transformers fame) on a project that we'll hopefully be seeing soon.
So that's that-- the first edition of Webcomic Wednesday. I'll be back next week with another review! In the meantime, drop a comment and let us know what you thought of God Hates Astronauts.
Also, if you make a webcomic (or have a favorite one) let me know and I'll check it out. Be forewarned, I've built up a pretty good backlog of comics I plan to showcase, so it might take a bit to get to yours-- but I do promise to read them all.
Until next Wednesday, the balcony is closed...
...wait, someone used that log off already...hmmm, well, I've got a week to think up a new one.
Tim Simmons puts up the stupid Frodos on Friday. He's launching a webcomic next week and he's currently working on writing up a better signature line. You can follow him on twitter @citizentim
The signal to noise ratio in the webcomic world is pretty staggering-- which is unsurprising, considering anyone with an internet connection, a wacom tablet or scanner, and a basic understanding of blogging software (in some cases, not even that...) can fancy themselves a webcomic creator.
...you get a lot of crazy.
(and hey, sometimes that crazy is super talented!)
What are my credentials, you might ask? Why you, Tim Simmons?
Well, I've dipped my toe into the webcomic world with an entry in DC's Zuda imprint (now closed to open submissions, sadly) and I'm getting set to launch my own webcomic in a week-- so, I've been in research mode for the last few months boning up on a lot of webcomics. I've got a favorites folder chock-full of awesome, so I figured: Hell, share the wealth!
...so, enough intro! Let's get started!
I spent a lot of time thinking about what comic I should kick this column off with...until Monday that is, when God Hates Astronauts showed up in my Facebook feed.
GHA is written and illustrated (I presume lettered and colored, as well) by Ryan Browne, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was mentored by Dave Mazzucchelli. If you need further comic-awesomeness cred, GHA comes with a nice Darick Robertson quote:
"The funniest and most original book I've read in years..."
Darick ain't wrong-- God Hates Astronauts succeeds on both levels. The cover is a very nice piece of artwork, but by the credits page, wherein Ryan lists a "suggested voice cast" including John C. Reilly and Walt Goggins -- well, you know you're reading something that'll be pretty cool.
At its core, GHA is a superhero team book-- it sort of reminds me of a fucked up version of The Great Lakes Avengers, a team of fairly idiotic heroes with ridiculous powers. Like all great team books, GHA focuses on the inner dramatics/soap opera elements of its cast-- I'm not going to ruin the gag, but in this first issue, the team hits the point that it needs outside counseling from a pretty amusing source.
That's not to say there isn't any action-- hell, on Page 3 there's a friggin' Bear Blitzkrieg!
Ryan describes God Hates Astronauts as “about bears, giant swollen heads, super-hero infidelity, old tyme
boxers, and old tyme boxers who get killed and resurrected by magic
bears.”
Which, yeah, sounds insane-- but is also pretty damn funny. For example, take note of Ryan's sound effects through the action scenes-- quite a few of them cracked me up.
The GHA site is fairly minimal, which is a plus for me-- considering a lot of webcomics tend to widgetize themselves to death. The comic is accessible and easy to read. Navigation is a breeze, simply click on the page to advance, or use the the little arrows at the bottom. Simple and easy-- you'd be surprised at the number of other comics I've seen that fail to recognize something as basic as turning a page.
Equally as navigation friendly, but a little prettier, is Ryan's main site where he has some pretty cool design work up-- including some posters for the band Murder by Death and another short comic called Dutch.
You can check out it out here.
In the meantime, I have it on good word that Ryan is working with his best friend, Mike Costa (of GI JOE: COBRA, Hawksmoor, and Transformers fame) on a project that we'll hopefully be seeing soon.
So that's that-- the first edition of Webcomic Wednesday. I'll be back next week with another review! In the meantime, drop a comment and let us know what you thought of God Hates Astronauts.
Also, if you make a webcomic (or have a favorite one) let me know and I'll check it out. Be forewarned, I've built up a pretty good backlog of comics I plan to showcase, so it might take a bit to get to yours-- but I do promise to read them all.
Until next Wednesday, the balcony is closed...
...wait, someone used that log off already...hmmm, well, I've got a week to think up a new one.
Tim Simmons puts up the stupid Frodos on Friday. He's launching a webcomic next week and he's currently working on writing up a better signature line. You can follow him on twitter @citizentim
Comments
Sign in to comment with your TypePad, Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo or OpenID.