Johanan- I agree I shouldn’t have assumed so much about his objectives or motivations. I’m guessing to be sure. You say he “never aimed for anything of the kind” but don’t offer any explanation about what you think he was aiming for unless you’re saying it’s “brute force stupidity”.
A strip about brute force stupidity is fine, there are many, like the Far Side and Rubes or Ballard Street but however stupid it is there has to be a punchline. Or I guess a funny punchline is what I mean. I have no reaction at all to these strips, “meh” at best. Maybe I’m just dead inside because I think Garfield has sucked forever and Peanuts was rarely ever funny but then there’s Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County which were genius. PVP is a well written web comic that’s kinda similar to Liberty Meadows with it’s eclectic cast and reference to pop culture. But it does it better. And the storyline actually progresses.
I stand by my statement that Frank just wanted to draw a pic of Jen holding up her huge boobs and wrote a strip around that. :)
Still guessing yeah, but I fall into the same pitfall as an artist that tries to tell stories so I’m projecting my difficulties onto Frank and his stories.
I’ve been following this strip for a while and finally realized I really can’t stay with it. I bought a Liberty Meadows book a while back for the great art in it but god this writing is terrible. Reading a book and looking at all the nice art all at once is one thing but reading one little strip each day and being constantly disappointed in the lack of originality and the story that never goes anywhere is another. I know that Mr. Cho does more then this strip so it could be that he can’t devote much time to this so perhaps he just needs a writing assist. But here’s more critique and unasked for opinion:
Frank, you write your story around what you want to draw but that doesn’t make for an interesting story. “The art must be in service to the story” is the phrase that artists need to keep in mind. Maybe work with a writer so you can stop writing like an artist. You’re a bleeep good artist but this strip seems to be written for 6th graders, but then you have Jen pushing her boobs up to ask how much cleavage she should sport so it’s not really for kids. You just wanted to draw Jen pushing her boobs up so you wrote a strip around that. That’s what an artist would write, not a writer. I love boobs myself but who cares when they are drawn at 1/2 an inch in diameter in B&W line art? I’m an artist myself but a comic strip needs to be about the story not the art.
I just can’t watch this anymore with the obvious punchlines, all the reused and borrowed elements* and the storylines that never progress. I’m not trying to be mean but if all Frank ever hears is “Great stuff!” then he’ll never know why he may be losing part of his audience.
*They don’t feel like homages-they just feel like stolen pieces thrown in for lack of anything original to put in- Jan6,2010 being a perfect example. “Don’t tell Harry”-I get it, it’s from Spiderman but why? The whole day, 3 panels wasted to include one lame reference.
Johanan- I agree I shouldn’t have assumed so much about his objectives or motivations. I’m guessing to be sure. You say he “never aimed for anything of the kind” but don’t offer any explanation about what you think he was aiming for unless you’re saying it’s “brute force stupidity”.
A strip about brute force stupidity is fine, there are many, like the Far Side and Rubes or Ballard Street but however stupid it is there has to be a punchline. Or I guess a funny punchline is what I mean. I have no reaction at all to these strips, “meh” at best. Maybe I’m just dead inside because I think Garfield has sucked forever and Peanuts was rarely ever funny but then there’s Calvin and Hobbes and Bloom County which were genius. PVP is a well written web comic that’s kinda similar to Liberty Meadows with it’s eclectic cast and reference to pop culture. But it does it better. And the storyline actually progresses.
I stand by my statement that Frank just wanted to draw a pic of Jen holding up her huge boobs and wrote a strip around that. :)
Still guessing yeah, but I fall into the same pitfall as an artist that tries to tell stories so I’m projecting my difficulties onto Frank and his stories.