There just isn’t enough buzz about Rob and Elliot. At all. It boggles my mind. Clay and Hampton Yount have been writing their off beat strip for nearly two years now, and any just man would have forgiven you for not picking up on it; that is until Clay started producing Saturday comics for none other than Sluggy Freelance. For me, the Sluggy Saturdays really hit the mark. With just the right amount of Sluggy fan nostalgia and a healthy mix of originality, they were a welcome break to the dark epic nature of Oceans Unmoving II. Eventually, a slow Saturday night rolled around and I burned through the R&E archives. It was (and still is) a good balance of improbable hijinks, pop culture humor and surreality with just a pinch of drama added for flavor.

Rob and Elliot, it seems, is a victim of market forces. There are comics out there on the web that are as funny, as well drawn and which update more frequently. In the world of Web Comics, we are spoiled for choice. If we don’t like something (I imagine some of the surreal moments in R&E aren’t for everyone), or don’t have the patience for haphazard updates then we can just go and read something else.

My suggestion for those who have yet to check this comic out, or those who did and got bored or frustrated, is: do what I do, pick a slow comic day (like a Thursday) and then head on round to robandelliot.com every fortnight or so on that day and read up on what you’ve missed. You won’t regret it.

Well, I didn’t.

I recently wrote the following:

My wife, who is usually mildly disinterested in my webcomics mania

I even more recently (about three minutes ago) received the following in an email from her:

Time to go see today’s Dinosaur Comics. Look what you’ve done!! I believe there is a lesson here for us all!

What I have been unable to accomplish in years of pestering, Ryan North managed with a single book. There is no limit to his power, and stay the hell away from my wife, North! I will not lose her to your seductive Canadian ways!

I’ve been casually watching Moose River for a while now with only a small but genuine interest. I like comics like Moose River because they are not birthed from Adobe Photoshop and their simple hand drawn look takes on a life and atmosphere of their own. Written and drawn by Phillippe Van Lieu, it’s strangely entertaining, though not quite addictive.

I am especially interested in Phillippe’s news posts as they chronicle his growth as a comic artist as he navigates the medium and the business. He talks about his own short comings and the complications that arise as a new up and comer. He deals with reviews and criticism with acceptance and admirable compromise. I like being able to follow his own story – beginning with the excitement of a new comic, then flustered excuses about his updating schedule, then taking responsibility for his creation, adding a little bit of doubt, and finally emerging with a new adaptable excitement ready for the next stage of the comic’s life. It’s impressive on its own merit.

Some of the comic is not as impressive as Phillippe, but only by a little. I like his hand drawn work as much as clean, digitally colored work. I like how the background color cues us into story focus changes. I even like the shameless use of stereotypes. I do not like, however, the hand drawn dialogue. The poor handwriting holds this comic back. Few people will be willing to get passed this amateur look to discover a fun storyline. Few will even stay on the site long enough to notice there are characters to care about.

Hey, on the plus side there’s swearing and nudity, and that always sells.

The slow marriage of video games and web comics have brought about wonderous bundles of joy. Such strips as Penny Arcade, Ctrl-Alt-Del, and Little Gamers have all contibuted in developing this new genre of web comic. Personally, I love the fact that two of the greatest loves of my life have combined into one super-mech of hilarity.

That is why today I’ve decided to mention Dueling Analogs. This strip is a nice slice of video game related humor; complete with bright artwork, industry know-how, and the edge that a comic needs to be noticed these days. This strip is certainly worth a look over, especially if you are in love with video games and crude humor.

I know I am.

Chris Onstad clearly needs to answer one of those late-night ads for a company that helps you develop your inventions. There’s lungs made from an AIBO, the insane dance move, the marijuana phone booth, the Sani-Taco, fake nuts for your cell phone, and possibly a machine that can tell if you are in Puberty.

Today, he adds the Greatest Underpants In The World to that list. Aluminum foil to prevent ding-a-ling cancer! An extended pouch so you can avoid brain tumors with the speakerphone! And if you ain’t got your phone you can just put lycopene-rich ketchup in there for dippin’ fries

Because everybody loves ketchup.

As Gary mentioned recently, young McConville of Mac Hall fame has finally graduated from college, to the tune of much well wishing from his adoring fans.

So here’s a thought. Now that the Mac Hall boys have successfully completed their college courses, what will happen to their autobiographical comic about college? Some may argue that this a moot point, since the comic ceased to be about its name-sake MacDonald Hall when the main cast moved into their first house.

Well, whether this new found freedom is going to mean more output from the Mac Hall boys or whether it means that the comic is coming to an end: I would just like to pay tribute to some of the funniest college related humor on the internet. It’s the Fleen.com Mac Hall Cheesy Flashback Show!

Hey,remember that time with…

The Road Trip

and who could forget when…

Drew’s eyes first turn red

And how about…

I wonder if this is true…

Gotta love that…

Mardis Gras!

Everyone went nuts for…

The infamous Digimon

and of course, Got Back?

Well, that’s all the time we have here today on Cheesy Flashback Show, but before we go, we would just like to wish Matt and Ian all the best in their future endeavours, whether they be Mac Hall related or not!

One of the biggest criticisms of the hit show Friends was the fact that they never seemed to work. They lived in two large, two bedroom New York apartments – even with rent control, it was hard to believe that they could afford things if they never worked. It is, in fact, a common criticism of television shows, the idea that the characters don’t live realistic lives. Not all shows can take place on a deserted island.

Webcomics are, by their very nature, a little bit ridiculous. I haven’t run into a drama yet, at least one that isn’t also a fantasy (and also adventure-y), and so we get little episodes of absurdism that probably don’t happen anywhere in real life. I think that slipstream as a literary movement is probably dominated by webcomics. The academics just don’t know it yet.

Rob and Elliot aren’t quite the same kind of ensemble cast as Friends. In fact, it’s just the two of them living in their apartment, and they’re not too terribly fond of their neighbors. In fact, they don’t often notice that they’re there, and when they do they’re often in some sort of argument.

And Rob clearly has a job. He works as teacher of English as a second language, and his work crush (and his failings at acting on it!) forms a rather large plot. Of course, work is only interesting when you’re teaching English to foreigners using 90s television shows.

Work is only interesting when you have a cool job, like writing the music for porn. (It’s a real job, guys. Enough to get news articles written about it. Scarily enough.) And to be fair to the characters of Friends, they did have jobs – we just didn’t see them often enough, because even if they had trouble with their bosses, none were quite as creepy as the Dean of Rob’s school.

ETA: [5:37 pm EDT] It was brought to my attention in an email from a Mr. T Campbell who has informed me that there is an online directory of webcomics, which shows that there are plenty of webcomics that are dramas, and not fantasies. I just haven’t read any of them.

For three years now I’ve either drawn comics or written for them or read them. I’ve done speeches about their advantages and importance as a unique medium. I’m a devourer of archives and a harsh critic of half-assed attempts. Most of the speeches I’ve given have focused on the dichotomy of the community fostered on the web as opposed to print, and they’ve been well received by geek kids. For others, I’ve been speaking another language with cultural references and inside jokes that the audience members are none to happy to be left out of. The biggest complaints seems to be that it’s too overwhelming, there are too many to choose from, where do you start?

These comics that I read I hand out like drugs to friends and acquaintances; the first one’s free but the others’ll cost ya. You like Ctrl+Alt+Del, here, try some Gamer Lamer. Feels good doesn’t it? It’s like introducing two close, personal friends to each other, offering interests to spark conversation. “Allow me to introduce you to my friend Two Lumps. You’ll get along great, you both like cats.” “Oh have you met Chopping Block? No? Well you guys have a scary amount of interests in common!” Creating dreamy fan-kid love is rewarding. I’m a modern match maker.

The hard sells are the ones you know someone will love, if only they’d give it a chance. Society stereotypes have spilled over into the webcomic-verse, apparently threatening manhoods everywhere. When my male friend caught me reading Little Dee, his reaction included grandiose accusations about delicate female dispositions and more than a few unkind words as to my apparent preference towards dolls over video games. I informed him, as I am informing you, that Little Dee is very manly, totally aggressive and more action packed than he could imagine.

So where do you tell people to start? Is there a starting point or do you just close your eyes and point? Are the big names really the best or can we move past the “fame=good” equation? The problem of community has been on everyone’s lips lately, with a different opinion from everyone you ask. As the medium evolves, how will we all play a part? The answers, I think, are for someone more political than I.

I’ll do whatever the hell I want. You heard me. I think I’ll review Ruhopty!, because Liam does whatever the hell he wants with his comic. If he feels like having reoccuring characters, then he’ll have them. If he feels like those characters get him no where and stops drawing them, who are we to judge?

He’s the creator, and he plays web comic god to those in his strip. He switches up the art style without notice, and without apologies. He’ll decide one day to write about a killer duck, and the next he’s warning kids not to run with Uranium. Don’t tell him what to do/think/feel or he’ll send Todd after you.

What I got out of this strip besides a craving for chicken-ade is the feeling that Liam does this comic for his personal enjoyment, and if others are entertained then all the better. He truly loves to draw, and makes dutiful effort to sharpen his skills. He chooses random humor over a story line, a recent decision made in his last post. This shift in format has created more of a web comic-blog, instead of the typical story-line driven, three panel strips found almost every where else.

This may not be the best that the inter-web has to offer, but at least the author is doing whatever the hell he wants.

In the past weeks, we’ve seen words (and pictures) regarding the college graduations of numerous webcomics creators. Congrats to all, although I feel like I’m supposed to say damn you, McConville for some reason.

This spate o’ graduatin’ puts one in mind of an oddity about this medium — it’s almost entirely dominated by kids. Meredith Gran and Ian Jones-Quartey have been pumping out webcomics to readers around the world since before they could drive. Flight? Three volumes in three years, and the median creator age seems to be about 22. The next generation of webcomics superstars have just started updating their sites from the womb.

I can’t think of another individual artistic endeavor that’s so dominated by the high-quality work of such young creators … and no, pop music doesn’t count: the songs, the production, the videos, the stage shows, and the very lives of the product are constructed by massive teams of grizzled, late-middle-aged marketers, and the pop tarts in question are little more than sock puppets, but thanks for asking.

The closest analogue in modern arts that I can come up with is the mad-talented indy filmmaker with a vision — most of whom will never be seen by anybody outside friends and family, sadly. The only historical precedent I can see for this situation is when a crazy visionary put together a radio theater company and grabbed the attention of a nation at the age of 23. Okay, he got wacky later on, but he also got to act with Muppets, so that turned out okay.

So in conclusion, as you young creators prepare to make your way in the world, let’s be grateful for this unique medium that allows anybody with talent and luck to find a world-wide audience. Now stay the hell off my lawn, you damn whippersnappers.