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Strip Search - Elimination #7
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Strip Search - Elimination #7
As day 7 comes to a close another two Artists will face the Creators.
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I think Lexxy's strip is REALLY funny. Like the first comic, it looks great; however, this time it also has a stronger comedic punch. I really liked her first comic, and I don't think this one is necessarily better, but her initial offering wasn't funny in the same way. This one is more of a raucous laugh emitting, comedic style. Really great stuff.
Monica's confuses me a little. I think she took a really silly premise and rooted the comic in a more dramatic setting. I feel like this is one many people aren't going to respond to... However, I found it kinda ballsy that she didn't go for something more jokey. That being said, I feel like it is possible that I missed something and there IS a funny joke there that I didn't pick up on. Despite not finding the comic funny, I still think it was pretty good.
I would give the victory to Lexxy.
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And Monica's counter-trolling was great. Loved it.
The eliminations won't get much easier from here on.
I don't mean it was bad per se, I liked the art but I didn't find it particularly funny, Lexxy was a clear winner for me as well.
Monica's comic had extra value by alleged autobiographical meaning, Lexxy was a straight shooter, used the concepts and used them well.
I went in hoping for one result and came out hoping for the other.
/yeah... that's all I've got. Sorry.
I have loved Monica throughout the show, and I felt strangely uncomfortable watching her reaction to Mike's heckling. At the beginning her reactions reminded me of how she kind of shut down in the interview episode, but then she seemed to realise that not speaking wasn't going to work and she went a bit OTT on the aggression. It seemed like a defence mechanism for sure, and maybe it was more funny and less uncomfortable in reality than on camera. Abby sassed them back too, but her sass was much more comfortable to watch.
Still,
However, for trying to complete a comic of that scope, I can see why she opted for having more time to draw as opposed to banter. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I think it's the most ambitious in scale since Ty's. As for the comic itself, I had a hard time parsing it on the first read-through and the fragmentary quality of the dream text bothered me, but the last panel is really beautiful and touching, and I LOVE how it has the two interpretations (waking from the dream of the safe choice or dreaming of waking from that life). If that was intentional, then honestly I think Monica should have won this elimination.
Lexxy's comic was good but I liked it less than her first one, so I'm surprised that Mike and Jerry thought it was clearly better. However, I do think she's shown a degree of consistency that definitely redeems her and that other one-time Elimination veterans will have to show that they can beat. She's also great with the banter.
Sad to see Monica go, but definitely looking forward to seeing how the next few episodes play out!
I think I know what the problem was though. Monica hadn't "shit her pants" in two or three days' worth of shows, so she must have been super constipated.
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- "Uh ... yeeeeesssss?"
- "I wouldn't know, I've only ever won."
Although I did have a bit of trouble with panel 5, since the response ("yea") is vertically higher than the question that prompts it ("don't worry" etc.)- and the question is entirely out of frame. I realize this is a limitation of the format of watching and not the comic (though maybe it shouldn't be setup like that? def. nonstandard), and appreciate that presenting an extra long strip presented a fairly unique editing challenge, but having read that far ahead before the pan started I became confused. I'd say all the problems with parsing the comic could be based on the format of presentation, if it wasn't for the fact that Mike had problems too.
Lastly, was anyone else impressed/surprised by the sheer amount of content in Monica's strip? Holy CRAP that is a lot of output for 90 minutes, and without sacrificing the art quality.
Oh, God. I am so sorry; however, I have to reply to this...
Intentionality is almost completely irrelevant. Looking for an authors intent is a nebulous proposition. All that matters is the work. The work is an entity unto itself. If your interpretation is supported by the text then it is valid. There can be no wrong interpretation when that reading is supported by the materiel. As Barthes so succinctly stated, the author is dead.
Once again, I am so sorry. Please don't hate me; this is just the way I am.
I loved the Abby-esque sass Monica shot at times, I just wish she had kept on firing it off because the boys clearly enjoy the shit out of it. Not that I blame her, I would have been in tears after about a minute twenty of Mike's grilling, I just mean that as a fan I wanted the best for her.
Also, as TEAM TANGENT as I am I loved the extra props the boys gave Abby early in the ep.
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I'm going to miss Monica but Lexxy not only deserved the win, she came out of this looking like a potential champion.
I don't have a job that involves anything remotely creative. If I write a paragraph, chances are there's a cite to the least interesting statute in the world. But when I'm working, I'm not bantering -- I'm focusing on what I have to do. If I'm not, it's not getting done.
So when someone is doing something genuinely creative, and they decide to focus on that instead of bantering for the sake of the audience, I have no problem with that. I'd love another Abby style performance, but that's not how everyone rolls. If exchanging barbs with Mike and Jerry means your comic is going to be sub par, then you absolutely should just shut them down and do your thing.
Creating something worth reading is worth more than getting a few incidental laughs.
All in all, it's kind of like last week. I don't disagree with the end result, but I'm sad to see the loser go. (Well, from the competition. I realize they don't get taken out back and shot afterwards, and are in fact still making comics on the interwebs.)
Thanks for writing this. I would have butchered it had I tried to explain the same thing. You saved me the trouble of having to post. But I guess I'm posting to say this so.... damn. Meta.
Sad to see Monica go. I want to see the sass-off with her and Abby in one arena, fending off Mike and throwing barbs of their own! [Can we have this at PAX please?
but oh well
I wasn't put off by it really, if anything I felt almost protective of her because she wasn't handling the heckling well. At least, that was my impression.
This kind of jovial trash-talk can go sour so quickly if one person accidentally takes it seriously or doesn't want to play along. It could be like ping-pong, too: One person serves by cracking a joke. The other person doesn't want to play so they knock the ball away. The first person tries to serve again, trying to be playful. The second person is annoyed and hits the ball back harshly. The first person gets upset. The second person gets angry. Then they're both passive-aggressive. It usually stops here, but the next step is outright hostility. (And then fisticuffs.) I've seen it happen. -_- It's interesting to witness the contrast between this elimination and the last one. If conversations like this are navigated well, it's hilarious - but it's thin ice.
It feels so empty in the house now. =(
I also found the "comebacks" a little tiresome after a while, after a point its no longer sass it just crass. Yes some of it is intentional heckling, to get a reaction and a laugh but some questions were just straightforward. Would it have killed her to answer "why do you want to be a cartoonist?" No
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That being said, on we go to the comics: Monica's comic was sweet, awesome and had a lot of content and showed a more personal side of herself. But I think it could have been better with more time. Some of the pacing and how things were acted out were a bit off. I think that if she took out a day for a comic like this and worked on it, it would have been awesome. This one was great but a little rough around the edges. That being said I am about to go bookmark her comic page and read it (want to read their comics as they are eliminated) because Monica is gonna go places. I am sure of that.
Lexxy's comic, I was very skeptical when I read the first 3 panels. It was one of those "this could end up being really funny and good" or "this will be some dumb cliche" kind of things. But I have to say she hit it out of the park. I loved that comic. I will be honest and say Monica was my bias going in, but after I read the strips I immediately said that Lexxy should win it. Very well drawn, good visual jokes and nice punchlines.
And seemed lexxy needed some validation of her skills as a cartoonist as well looking at the talking bits, I am glad she found that.
Lexxy's strip was fantastic. Her illustration is what introduced me to her work, but it is really awesome to know that there is a great cartoonist inside of her somewhere!
At the point Mike asked those questions, Monica already knew she was answering them all in her comic, in a beautiful, artful heart-wrenching kind of way. If she explained those feelings to Mike before he saw the comic, then her art would have had a much smaller impact. In a way she had to shot those questions down.
But seriously, you could produce a massive hit comic by just doing a 90-min WBoBD comic each time. Your art style is excellent for it and your content is sublime. I would pay to buy a book of comics like the dino and clown comics, I would put such a webcomic into my regular reading list.
But watching Monica during the challenge was a little uncomfortable (partially due to Mike harping on the same topic instead of trying another way to get her to open up). I have to agree that I would not expect someone with Monica's standup to have that kind of mouth on her, which is one of the reasons why I have loved watching her this season.
Also, it is now a scientific fact that Lexxy participating in a challenge will screw with Mike/Jerry's attempts to destroy a comic.
I had picked her to win tonight and wanted her to get all the way to the final competition but I should have remembered how defensive she got against the interviewer and factored that into her performance.
As I said, her comic was beautiful though. One of my favorites in the show and easily my favorite losing comic since Lexxy's clowns. I'm really impressed that she didn't go for a gag comic. That's all I've ever seen her do before and she does them really well. Her webcomic, Phuzzy Comics, is my second favorite webcomic from this show, second only to Skadi. If she had chosen to do a humorous strip, I feel that i it definitely may have beat Lexxy's. Monica's is hilarious. But, in the heat of the moment she chose to go with an idea that spoke to her, an idea that resonated with her despite it being atypical and I've got to applaud that kind of thinking and dedication.
Way to go, Monica. You've always been one of my favorites and I'm sad to see you go but I'm glad to see you have so much versatility. I'll keep reading and supporting your dream as long as you're around.
As for Lexxy's comic. It was hilarious. It really was the better choice here, she did deserve to win this time. Even though I was rooting for Monica I do have to say that Lexxy won me over with this. DinoSkates are just too cool/hilarious to turn down. Her execution was great. Her art was great. Her humor was great. She really won this one hands down.
With Monica gone my rankings have changed a bit. My order of artists is as follows...
5. Tavis
4. Lexxy
3. Abby
2. Maki
1. Katie