goddamnwebcomics

[goddamnwebcomics]

You know, normally I don’t even bother with Dominic Deegan because I’m missing like a thousand pages of build-up to this point, but after the Biggest Idiot of the Month entry, I decided to skim the arc myself, and I get what Mookie is trying to go for with Bulgak, yet he misses the mark entirely.

He is trying to go for a tragic Machiavellian type, “the end justifies the means”. A character like Michael Corleone, Hamlet or Darth Vader. A character who will do anything to meet what they perceive is a noble goal, before slowly spiraling into villainy until they are left desperately grasping for any last vestige of decency that they have left when realizing how far they have fallen. For God’s sake, Bulgak literally says to himself “I’m not evil” while biting a child’s head off, Mookie couldn’t be less subtle about what he’s trying to do.

And yet, something about the way is executed doesn’t work, and I can’t pin what it is. It’s not that this character isn’t normally redeemed, because Darth Vader’s redemption was handled well. It’s also not the fact that Bulgak is not the villain, since Hamlet wasn’t the villain of the play either despite his actions.

I don’t know, maybe you could provide more valuable insight into this. What do you think makes Bulgak’s character fall apart?

I think it’s just that there is no nuance with Bulgak. He constantly thinks what he did was good, even if he was being evil during War in Hell arc, and it made us not want to root for him because we all know he is an idiot. Then it becomes worse with making Bulgak realize his mistakes when he sees he denied Karnak and quite frankly we have no idea what that means. Like if he wasn’t gonna deny Karnak, was Karnak gonna come back to life and save Maltak? Like what did Bulgak do? He was just an average necromancer and not this superpowerful entity. And let’s not even get into “I forgive Stoneraper because he said nice things during my funeral” aspect, which we never saw during War in Hell.

What would have been better with Bulgak is, this comic never really made Bulgak question why his demon lord, who resides in HELL, was dead. Make it that now that Bulgak is dead and he isn’t gonna receive a reward from his dead Demon Lord, he’s driven into an existential crisis. Instead of feeling like he was a good man, he feels that by taking infernomancer powers, he basically screwed over his own civilization and species. Then he meets Lady Loxo and learns she was in a similar situation. Then they go find Karnak, and at first Bulgak tries to get revenge but it fails, and then the three characters bond because all three of them not only hate Hell, they all made decisions in their lives that made them AWARE they would end up in Hell for the sake of a short term gain.

Then add in Siggy, the man who got doomed to Hell because of something he did while he was under the full influence of his racist father. Siggy probably still ends up being the antagonist of the arc because unlike the three heroes he never comes to terms with his eternal suffering and he probably ends up being turned into a ghoul or something.

Also, put more focus on The Beast, because every other arc this guy gets ignored. Make it that at the end of the arc, Karnak reappears to Miranda and tells her he is willing to work together with the living citizens to fight The Beast, proving that even the wicked forces of Hell are against The Beast’s existential treat. Maybe Bulgak, instead of exploding and becoming light, earns some ability that allows him to temporarily suppress The Beast’s spread over Hell.

[goddamnwebcomics]

FINALLY fixed those riff buttons.

[goddamnwebcomics]

Biggest Idiot of the Month April 2024

The Biggest idiot of April is Bulgak Adrak from Dominic Deegan.

This is the third time Dominic Deegan has won Biggest Idiot of the Month, and second time an orc has won. Bulgak won this award because he was the protagonist of Dominic Deegan's shittiest arc so far, The Court of Karnak. For the entire arc he kept telling himself "I am a good person" over and over while doing morally corrupt things, and he only stopped that facade when he saw that he denied Karnak, even though we don't know what would have happened if he didn't deny Karnak, and then later he instantly forgived the rapist who killed him because said rapist said good things about him in a funeral, this made his soul explode.

I know I left quite a bit of context out but, this entire arc is so dogshit, yet it could have been so GOOD. Like Bulgak could've had a great post-death redemption arc along with Karnak and Lady Loxo, show the pain of being a good person who ends up in Hell because of a single mistake, but sadly we didn't get that. Instead we got "THIS IS HELL", Siggy being a homoerotic idiot who doesn't know what Hell is and Mookie's delusional understanding of what makes a good protagonist, that delusional understanding being of course, our winner, Bulgak.

The second runnerup almost was going to be everyone else in that arc, but then Carry On gave us Kathy's even more moronic sister Sandy who recklessly drives around in an ambulance and forcing Kathy to take the role of the SANE WOMAN, something she had never done until this point. Far out in the distance we have the only idiot of Peter and Company, Trace, who refuses to forgive Peter after 10 years despite wanting to forgive him earlier. It is unlikely Peterverse comics will ever come close to winning Biggest Idiot of the Month again, especially now that we're going to move on from them soon.

#biggest idiot of the month

[goddamnwebcomics]

We're back to running in circles. Kathy is going to eat AGAIN, this time with her not love interest who wants to have his prey be afraid of him, because 1000 years of social and evolutionary progress don't exist. Don't make me apologize to Las Lindas PLEASE.

Anyways, will Kathy and Scooter eat eachother's asses? Will this comic actually find a real life purpose now that the Giraffe wedding is FINALLY over? Find out later. Next time we're riffing this comic, it will have taken the place of the Peterverse comics. That's right we're gonna start riffing this shit every month! Hooraugh!

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

I admit the elephant is my new favourite character, he don't give a shit.

Uh, what is the tiger trying to prove? That he is expecting the elephant to lynch him because he is a tiger? Isn't he proving the opposite of his point?

What a weird way to write, but I guess this is just how people thought in 2006 so I am not gonna apply modern day perspective to it, unlike certain morons.

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

Oh, elephants. Because Elephants exist in this comic too, but they don't wear clothes like giraffes do, imagine a naked taxi driver who you have to ride in...NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

And suddenly we get...this. Pretty bold for a comic that also did "Al Qaida Pepe".

Did Mookie take over the writing booth because there is no nuance here. "Oh no I am getting racially profiled for eating meat, this is somehow exactly like profiling me for the color of my skin" Another credit I give to Gene Catlow, racist themes in that comic was handled so nuancefully they actually almost never used the word "racist", of course there was zero fucking nuance when it came to anything else.

Well to be fair, if Kathy saw Zootopia she probably wouldn't have written this into the comic.

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

Is your "why does any of this matter" line a form of sarcasm? You say it a lot when there are slow moments in the comics you riff, mainly the slice-of-life ones.

I say it when there are moments that in my view, don't seem to matter. Sometimes it's a genuine question.

If it's annoying or bad criticism I will stop though.

[goddamnwebcomics]

Apparently, Scooter here faints at the sight of blood like that one Alien Dice twin. At least he doesn't vomit.

Also, why does any of this matter?

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

Uhhh, did these animals gain sentience yesterday? Imagine a human saying this.

NO, I don't want to sound like a Twitter user who demands every bit and story to be applied through human lens and not being able to have a distinct acceptance of different cultures that have completely different morals and ethics that are completely alien to us!

But still, imagine a human saying this.

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

Haha.

Vomit.

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

She was Kathy's SISTER? That now makes perfect sense, this whole family is fucked up.

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

Well it's official, Sandy is my least favourite character. Now I am wondering which is worse, reckless driving or saying "I am a good person" over and over.

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

Reply

 If you’re talking about a future storyline, then yes. Just wait until the latter parts of 2008.

Boy, that’s gonna take a while.

[goddamnwebcomics]

Reply

They’re all more weird than immature, and would you believe me if I told you there was a reason why this panda speaks with an Engrish accent?

Reply

Did the comic not make it obvious that Sandy, Kathy, and Arfur are siblings? It’s a pretty easy thing to catch when Sandy mentions ‘mom’ as a shared person. This is all more casual conversation than “nonsense exposition,” really. 

It’s amazing how even in the year 2066 (same timeline as 21st Century Fox, by the way), talks about peer pressuring people into dating and marriage, moms wanting grandchildren, and “slackers” living with their parents being designated as failures of society, like in the 60s or 70s, are still present talking points. This era’s like a worse man’s cheesy sitcom fused to a wacky comic strip ironically written in the 90s.

Is the reason gonna be revealed in the future or is that only in the lore???

Oh, yeah. It was so oddly framed I didn’t even realize that, but now I know.

So wait this takes place in 2066 and not thousand years later. Then I can forgive the somewhat old school thinking of certain characters. But also, I know a lot of people who still have problems with those issues, so I am not completely opposed to depicting it.

[goddamnwebcomics]

I get it. "Hurr hurr it's supposed to be funny because she is an unprofessional jerk". Unless you're Mr. Bean or Misato Katsuragi, reckless driving is never funny, ESPECIALLY ON AN AMBULANCE.

Also I get it. "It's probably based on something that happened to Kathy IRL!" If this happened to her IRL she wouldn't be fucking ALIVE to tell it!

#carry on

[goddamnwebcomics]

You know it's bad when Kathy is the sane man. Sandy is SOOOOOO gonna get fucking fired.

#carry on