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thewebcomicsreview · 4 years

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So I've been following this one guy who gives really good writing advice, but lately he's been: telling people it's OK to skip the Intermission in Homestuck; defending bad writing as a "structural issue" (those poor writers, it's not their fault they've structured their story / writing process in a bad way); priding himself on making a half-assed "unfinished-on-purpose" comic review. This person was my main source of writing advice, so I don't know where to turn to. Any recommendations?

The only other webcomic review guys I’m aware of are the Bad Webcomics Wiki, but if you think I’m too nice on writers, they might be up your speed anyway and oh my god they just posted a review of a SpiderForest comic. Guess it’s time for

The Webcomic Review Reviews Webcomic Reviews

So, this is a review of a SpiderForest comic called “The Guide to a Healthy Relationship” which is a comic about LGBT people, and it’s being reviewed by the Bad Webcomics Wiki, so obviously there’s going to be a whole bunch of slurs, so consider that a content warning and I’m putting the rest of this behind a ReadMore

This is going to be slightly disjointed because the BWW review is disjointed, but I’ll do my best

We’re already in some factual trouble right on line one, since TGtaHR is a traditional webcomic and not a long-scroll mobile-friendly webtoon, nor is it hosted on webtoons.com. Is this nitpicky? Maybe a little, but we’re off to a poor start here.

This comic is just under 200 pages.

I feel like if you’re going to write a big thing attacking a webcomic’s story, you should try to have some kind of understanding of what that story is. I know what the story of Sinfest is, and Sinfest is a confusing nightmare.

Okay, so maybe the reason you think this story is bad is because it’s 2deep4u.

So, in the space of about twenty pages, we learn that Apollo had a friend named Julian who killed himself, and then we cut ahead to Julian drinking on the job, going to a party, taking drunks, and waking up naked in the bathtub covered in beer bottles, and the living room is full of too-hot-for-tumblr passed-out drunks. The Bad Webcomics Wiki calls this “Softcore porn that is never brought up again”, because the Bad Webcomics Wiki is written by high school dropouts for an audience they presume has never read the comic proper.

This debauchery is never brought up again because it’s not relevant to the plot, it’s relevant to the character. Apollo is fucked up because his friend killed himself when he was a teenager, and he deals with being fucked up by retreating into sex, drugs, and rock and roll. That’s what’s being established here. Also being established if you’re paying attention: Apollo has scars on his chest.

In chapter 1, Apollo goes to a party, the entirety of which is dedicated to him walking around naked, and we get a bunch of obviously sexual shots of his dick, clearly catering to the author's gay fetish. His boss goes to his place to check on him, and it is revealed he is a hoarder. This never comes up again.

1. In this scene, there are two panels where you can see Apollo’s penis, one panel where you can see someone’s vomit-covered dick, and two panels where you can see a woman’s breasts. None of these panels of flacid dicks or sagging boobs are sexual, though. The dicks are unpowered, it doesn’t make a bit of difference guys, the balls are inert.

2. What the fuck is a “gay fetish” and how it different from just “being gay”.

3. I don’t know the author, even though we’re both in SpiderForest, so I don’t know where Dani The Carutor lies in the whole gender spectrum thingamabob, but I will note that “Dani” is usually short for Danielle. So maybe it’s not a safe assumption that the author is a man? I dunno. That’s just me, guessing people’s genders by screen name is hard, so I try not to lest I embarrass myself.

4.So, when you say Apollo is a “hoarder”, you link to a page showing his room is disgusting and covered in garbage

Is your takeaway from these panels....that Apollo is some kind of fanatic garbage collector? That his room is full of garbage because he actively works at having as much garbage as possible because he wants it?

There are a couple pages explaining Apollo's purple special snowflake eyes with some snowflake "disability".

Apollo has Ocular Albinism, which is a real condition that really exists, and really does give you purple eyes. It also gives you major vision problems, which are the context in which it gets brought up, because Apollo needs help crossing the road because he can’t see well enough in the light. So I don’t know what the scare quotes around “disability” are for. He can’t see. You could, if you were so inclined, connect this plot point with the way the chapter titles are named after mental conditions, and start to formulate some coherent critique with the seemingly cavalier way this comic uses disability, but that would require thought. It might even require research into difficult topics, because you’d ideally not want to make a fool of yourself talking about things you didn’t understand well enough to talk competently about.

Chapter 2 is the most pointless, as it is basically there to confirm what we already know so the author can insert a cringy buzzword (see image below)

Okay, so a couple of things

1. In what fucking universe is “tranny” an SJW buzzword? What the fuck are you even talking about?

2. Having the protagonist of your comic say someone is “smart, for a tranny” is like the least SJW thing you could possibly do.

3. Perhaps “Apollo is asking someone for help but casually insults her causing her to leave” is some kind of “character” moment? The author of this review is so /pol/-poisoned that they have no ability to understand “context” or “characterization” or basically any thing that exists.

4.Your list of the comic’s characters includes this bon mot:

So what the fuck? That’s so stupid I’d think it was an intentionally hypocritical joke if I had any reason to believe you were capable of it.

Chapter 3 is dedicated to revealing the boyfriend shit

I should point out that Apollo and Julian being boyfriends is something the BWW invented, the comic itself clearly states they were “best friends”, not boy friends. Couple of dudes being prudes.

Apollo believes that Julian faked his own death, which fucked up Apollo for years, and now that they’ve met each other Julian keeps ghosting him. Apollo’s motives for chasing Julian around are extremely clear.

That’s a scene transition, bay-bee!

Apollo finally gets ahold of Julian. Julian blows him off and Apollo gives up. There’s then a clear scene transition to Apollo, at a restaurant, talking about what we just saw. This is a perfectly clear scene transition, with a transitory panel and everything to indicate that this is the next day. It’s certainly more clear than Apollo waking up in jail in chapter 2 which you skipped over. Are you actually reading this comic at all?

You are such a fucking moron, holy shit.

Julian got beat up for being trans. It’s unclear if he’s actually trans or just a feminine-looking cis dude, but regardless it was bad enough to traumatize him and this all happened when he knew Apollo, who calls Julian his “best friend”, and says things like

There’s literally two dots here, and you’re unable to connect them. Galia even has the same hairstyle as Julian to make it visually obvious This Is What The Reference and you still missed it.

Julian and Apollo walk around the woods in their underwear for no reason whatsoever. Julian takes some drugs or something, and passes out?

Hm. Why does Julian go outside at night? I wonder if that’s explained in the comic?

Oh, I see. He went outside to smoke. But why did Apollo go outside at night?

Oh, he was looking out the window and saw Julian mysteriously go off into the woods. I guess that’s explained, too. I guess you just missed those pages

Julian takes some drugs or something, and passes out?

Huh, I wonder why Julian was asleep

Oh, he has Insomnia, so he took something called Halcion. I wonder what that is.

Oh, it’s a prescription insomnia medication. And you shouldn’t take alcohol with it, wow Julian is dealing with a super pushy alcoholic I should file that information away for later, like how knowing Wellbutrin’s side effects in teenagers were critical to understand Drop Out. Luckily webcomics are comics, on the web, and I can look this up!

He is then woken up by the fatty side character punching him. Somehow, Julian destroyed the kitchen, even though he was passed out - this is never explained, and makes no fucking sense

Sigh.

So, here are some hints as to what happened.

Julian has bruises all over his body, which you have consistently failed to notice.

Daniel, Julian’s friendly boyfriend, has like no negative reaction whatsoever to Brandon, some random dude, punching Julian in the fucking face

He even takes Brandon’s side and basically implants the idea that Julian did it into Julian’s head, and that last panel is rather threatening.

Julian took insomnia medicine, and fell asleep, and then got wrongfully blamed for destroying the kitchen by Daniel, who know’s that Julian was passed out and couldn’t have done it. Who actually did destroy the kitchen is a mystery, but Daniel is the most likely culprit.

it transitions into this trippy bullshit with blood, and body horror, and Julian's hair is suddenly short

It’s short because it’s a flashback to when he was a teenager, and he had short hair when he was a teenager so that literate people are able to understand this without getting confuzzled.

Apollo turning into Daniel in this trippy dream sequence is also pretty relevant!

Also, we have random nudity and sexualization of this sick person.

No, we have reveals that he’s in worse physical shape than we thought.

By the way, in your character list, you describe Daniel as

Daniel (Side Character): He may as well be a wall. This guy has no personality whatsoever. No quirks, no interests, no purpose outside of causing superficial melodrama.

If you’ve made it all the way to this point and not picked up on Daniel being an abusive boyfriend and the primary antagonist of the story, you may be beyond hope.

The rest of the chapter is Julian being angsty, and SO ILL while everyone talks about how weird he is

Again, that’s very clearly and obviously not actually what’s happening in the story.

What’s happening isn’t “Julian is sick lol”, it’s “Daniel is working to turn everyone against Julian”. That’s why he destroyed the kitchen and blamed Julian for it; to ensure that the other boys all thought Julian was a nutjob and thus keep them from reaching out to Julian and providing Julian with a guide to a healthy relationship instead of the abusive one he’s currently in. Your inability to read even slightly between the lines isn’t just distressing in terms of your inability to think critically about stories, it’s maybe worrisome re your ability to think about the real world, too. How are you this dense? It’s like watching Star Wars and not picking up that the empire and the rebellion don’t like each other. No wonder you’re confused!

Chapter 5 is still in the works. It jumps the shark right away with Apollo getting drunk and sleeping with Julian's boyfriend. The author makes Apollo the guilty party and not the boyfriend

The comic is fairly clear that Daniel is the bad guy

This webtoon is so convoluted there is no saving it at this point. Each chapter is titled after some mental illness such as 'Monophobia', 'Anxiety', 'Psychosis'. You think they would have some thematic meaning with each chapter being about one of those things. Nope, they're just titled like that to show how EDGY this webtoon is! You can taste the cringe. Julian's mental shit has no rhyme or reason - he will act sick when the plot calls for it, and if it has anything to do with the chapter's title, it is also crazy inaccurate.

The author of this review somehow managed to read the entirety of The Guide to a Healthy Relationship without picking up that Daniel was an abuser. The comic thus seems convoluted to him because he thinks all the things happening are random events without rhyme or reason because he has completely failed to notice the whole plot, which is not subtle. Just....fucking staggering incompetence, as a critic.

Guess you’re stuck with me, anon.

#Anonymous #The Guide to a Healthy Relationship #bad webcomics wiki #The webcomic review reviews webcomic reviews

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comicteaparty · 4 years

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November 16th-November 22nd, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from November 16th, 2019 to November 22nd, 2019. The chat focused on the following question:

Which of your characters’ relationships is your favorite (whether romantic, rivals, or something else) and why?

AntiBunny

So many to choose from. In AntiBunny http://antibunny.net/, while I'm tempted to say one of the more recent ones like Jack and Penelope, but I think one of the strongest is the relationship between Penelope and Pooky. Penelope starts off with a crush on Pooky, and Pooky starts off resenting Penelope, but they come to understand each other a lot more. Pooky comes to trust Penelope, and admire the strength of her convictions, and Penelope comes to respect Pooky's persistence. They'll never be a romantic couple, but they make each other stronger, and could be called friends. They provide a balance to one another's cynicism and idealism.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

For Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/) absolutely Cheth and Phaedra - they both hate each other, but one is a ‘I love annoying you’ hatred and the other is a ‘I legitimately want to stab you’ hatred.(edited)

But also Pavel and his mom. It’s just... so wholesome? Like, just a good mom and a good son. No angst. Just so sweet and nice to write.

The entire crux of the story is the triangle of relationships between Cheth, Phaedra, and Pavel - so I’m excited for each ‘side’ of that triangle to finally connect. Then the comic shenanigans can reach their peak

Cronaj

Oh boy~! The answer to this question is sooo spoilery. Well, I will say that my favorite relationship is between my hero and my villain in Whispers of the Past (https://www.callous-whispers-of-the-past.com/). As for why... The SPOILERS! To answer with as little spoilers as possible: they could have been friends.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

EHEHEHEHE WELLLLL In Court of Roses (https://courtofroses.spiderforest.com/), I make Merlow and Nocturne really obvious because GOD, I LOVE THEM SO MUCH!! Slowburning with them will be such a fulfilling journey. At the same time, I enjoy the rivalry I've got going between Sven and Feliks! Theirs will be a fun relationship to develop overtime. Also for spoilers I have to sit on my hands on what I have planned for Diana and it's killing meeeeeee aaaaaaaaa.

khkddn

In Helsirvente (http://helsirvente.thecomicseries.com/) my fave is Edith and Sadie, the whole story happens because Edith wants to impress her crush by finding a spooky ghost. But there's a lot about Sadie that Edith doesn't know, and she tends to be much less merciful than Edith toward bad ghosts. Can't wait for them to really get to know each other!!!

I also like Green and Red together but it's very unhealthy, they're my problematic fave ship

DanitheCarutor

Ah this is kinda spoilery, so I'll block out the text. For TGtaHR (http://tgtahr.spiderforest.com/), SPOILER my favorite relationship would have to be the one between Julian and his tutor Professor Jackson. It won't be showing up till later on, but he was Apollo's sorta live-in private teacher who wound up seeing Julian on the local news when they were first found, and decided to tutor them since he knew Russian and that was the only language Julian vaguely knew at the time. The two got really close, enough so that Prof. Jackson was going to adopt Julian once he found a more stable job and living conditions in Cleveland (being a temp live-in teacher isn't the most ideal situation), although he never came back. Still, it was a nice moment in Julian's excessively miserable life.(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

I really enjoy writing the often complex and subtle relationships between kids/young adults. Current favourite at the moment is Foot, the future leader of the winged folks and Bell, who’s trying to uncover the secrets the adults are hiding. It’s a sort of misunderstood rival situation where one feels threatened by the other’s cleverness and the other just wants to get to the bottom of everything. I love relationships with a bit of conflict for the tension Can view the kids bickering here: https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/keyspace-a-winged-tale/arc-1-children-of-the-forest-6/viewer?title_no=322364&episode_no=8

FeatherNotes

For Ghost Junk Sickness, (https://www.ghostjunksickness.com/) there are certainly a lot of dynamics that I like to explore with relationships, my fave is a major spoiler, so I'll probably go with the main duo, Vahn and Trigger. the comic is very centred around the un-stability of their relationship, as it is a deconstruction of that unhealthy side of a co-dependancy. One is a coward, running from his mistakes and refusal to own up, and the other reluctant with their own acceptance with inner strength and confidence. It definitely makes for a lot of conflict with not only themselves but with how the two interact with others-- there's always something to explore and discuss!(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

I love that Feather. It’s very interesting to explore the flawed relationship. I hope to delve deeper into codependency too but also show ways that healthy relationships can be restored

sssfrs

In Joe Is Dead, Cricket and Hopper have the best relationship. They each act so differently around other people than they do around each other. Hopper is usually so cold and aloof around her crew but when alone with Cricket she feels safe being vulnerable. Cricket is usually prickly and mean and pushes everyone away, but she cares a lot about Hopper and treats her gently and kindly. Cricket still has trouble with opening up about her own feelings, even with Hopper, and there are some other problems too but mostly they're cute together. They have a really long interaction in this chapter: https://tapas.io/episode/1513354(edited)

kayotics

I feel like this question is a little difficult for me right now, just because in Ingress Adventuring Company https://www.ingress-comic.com/ every chapter has had a different secondary character so far. Even so, I think my favorite relationships so far are Toivo and Rosemary's relationship as father and daughter and Toivo and Aidan's relationship as exes but still friends. Both Rosemary and Aidan have to deal with Toivo being a little too reckless and impulsive, with their own frustrations about it in different ways. Especially Rosemary, who is reaching the age where she can understand that her dad has flaws and is a regular person who makes stupid decisions just as much as anyone else does.

Deo101

This is a very hard question for me, as relationships are kind of the centerpiece of Millennium http://millennium.spiderforest.com/ ! Though I guess if I had to pick, I'd go ahead with the two main characters, Luzio and Sage. They're very much an "opposites attract" dynamic, and I love juxtaposition and all sorts of "balancing things out" kinds of relationships. So probably them!

eli [a winged tale]

Opposites attract definitely works! Lots of great dynamics to play with

Eightfish

@kayotics Woah, I'm subscribed to Ingress. Small world

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble

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