Optical Sloth

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Satisfactory Comics #7 Now Available! $2.50

Time for another issue of a comic from two of the most inquisitive minds in comics today. You know, these two could “mail it in” in any of a number of ways. They could make crappy comics, saying that they’re focused on the experimental side of things and that quality is bound to suffer. Or they could chuck the difficulties they set in their way when they make these comics, taking some of the structure out of them but possibly having more fun making them. Instead they manage to make great comics out of any circumstance, which somehow manages to amaze me every time. This time around they did this comic mostly in a 30 hour period, on May 17th and 18th of 2007. Strips in here are either one or two pages. Some strips are passed back and forth between Isaac and Mike from panel to panel, usually with no communication on where these strips are headed. One they started with the last panel of a strip, drawing their way to the beginning. One uses monosyllabic words and has the artist draw left-handed (which, oddly, helped with the dreamlike quality of that particular strip). The highlight, for me at least, was two page spread in the center of the book, The Graveyard of Forking Paths. This one can be read any of a number of ways, up and down, side to side, reverse side to side, with different possible endings. They’re nice enough to put a little coded system at the start of the book with the titles, so you can tell who wrote and drew which parts. Oh, and the actual topics of the stories? A lonely spaceman, a string of assorted sentences, a killer tattoo artist, a tricky gardener ghost, an unhappy seaman, problems with the interpretation of evolution, virtual reality, a Maakies tribute, and being able to hear the thoughts of plants. Not everything works perfectly here, but they get all kinds of credit for being willing to take so many risks. Well worth a look, for students of the possibilities of the art form and people who just like a good batch of assorted stories.

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Satisfactory Comics #6

These guys have won some kind of grant by now, right? I’d have to think that two people with as much practical knowledge of the medium combined with a willingness to put in some serious work AND at least a casual acquaintance with some of the best talents in the field would lead somebody to hand them a pile of money, lock them in a room and see what they come up with. The first story is one section of a map that different cartoonists took time to plot out, this one about a race of tiny people meeting a huge human for the first time. Next up is a (wrongly) rejected story from the 2004 SPX anthology about how Isaac conquered his addiction to turn-based strategic games. Full disclosure here, I’ve fallen pretty far into World of Warcraft, which is in the same general area of what he’s talking about. I don’t get how he can discount the whole experience, as he says it really helped him to look at battles and world events in a different light, but he seems to be “cured” at the moment. Then there’s a one page “guess which caption goes with which gag”, which is interesting in theory, as each answer has different ramifications to whatever gag you’re trying to set up. Their next story is done as each page being a stanza in the sestina form, and if you knew what that was before reading this you’re much smarter than I am. The story is your basic hard-boiled detective trying to figure out a mystery, but they manage to make it entertaining as well as a fun exercise. Finally they have their adaptation of a part of the Bible, for a project online to illustrate the whole sordid mess at http://www.flamingfire.com/bible.html, which is something that all of you people with some sort of artistic ability reading this should work on. Maybe it can be done in our lifetimes, who knows? And, for their last bit of creative storytelling, there are 8 two-sided cards in a pouch in the back of the comic. These cards can be arranged in any order, from any side, to tell the story of a young student trying to learn the secrets of the universe from an old master. Fascinating stuff again, as much for the ideas behind the stories as the stories themselves…

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Satisfactory Comics #5

What an odd concept for a 24 hour comic. First off, this is still Isaac and Mike’s comic, but there’s a huge pile of comics talent who supplied a lot of the characters. Tom O’Donnell, Jeff Seymour, Dan Zettwoch, Adam Rosenblatt, Jesse Reklaw, Jon Lewis, Scott Koblish, Melody Lu, Jenny Blair, Liza Graham, Linnea Duvall and Bill Kartalopoulos all developed a character in this. What could possibly require that many characters? Well, there’s this young girl, see, and she gets a letter from the creature in the sample (not that she knows that it’s that creature, which was submitted by Jesse Reklaw, by the way) that’s asking for her help. Once she arrives, she discovers that she’s in a huge house with multiple levels and different dangers behind every door. I have to say, this looks great for a 24 hour comic, which I’m seeing more and more these days, so good job on that, guys. One complaint I have is that the lettering gets more than a little sloppy at places, which would be a lot more excusable if the art wasn’t so good. Spend the extra 30 seconds and make sure those letters fit in the boxes! Hey, it’s a minor pet peeve, granted, but I think it’s legitimate. Anyway, an interesting comic, especially just to see the incredible array of characters. $1, contact info up there…

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Satisfactory Comics #4

Throwing a bunch of random things together (some reader submissions) and making a comic out of it is just a wonderful idea as far as I’m concerned. That being said, I’d have to imagine that it would be a fairly easy thing to screw up, and I’m happy to report that that hasn’t happened here. This is the story of Sam, a young boy who runs away in search of adventure after getting yelled at by parents. He runs into a skunk and a Pogo-like creature and they discover that a group of ogres is ransacking the area and trying to turn everybody else into ogres to help. There are a few other random adventures along the way (including a fantastic full page spread in the center of the book) and everything ends happily ever after. Not to give anything away, but that’s not the point of a book like this. The point is seeing how they use all the random things to make a greater whole. I honestly didn’t know about the concept of throwing a bunch of things together until they explained it on the back of the comic, so I guess you’d have to call that a success. Good stuff, I’d say it’s $2 and contact info is up there…

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Satisfactory Comics #2

I was thinking these comics were more random than this one, or was that only for #5? Whatever the case, this one is a split comic by the same creative team, with everything coming together in the middle. On one side you have Yeliz, who’s sick to death of dealing with inadequate men, get a set of “What If Men”. One is going to adore her, one is a lover of beauty, and one is a punk. Each have their own benefits to offer but, obviously, they all have negative aspects as well. Then you have Rob, who’s just trying to get over an old girlfriend but finds that everything he sees and does reminds him of her, until he has a dream about a monkey. Hey, I’m not giving anything away here. What I’ve seen from these guys so far tells me that they’re really good when they’re focused (here) and they’re really good when they’re mixing as many things they can into the pot and seeing what comes out of it (#5). Good stuff all around, and I really liked the ending. Contact info up there, $2, check it out!