What Did I Learn?

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Boxcar Astronaut by Jeff Carter and Marc Lapierre.

This is the website blurb:
"Boxcar Astronaut is a weekly, four-panel comic strip created by two ordinary joes, Jeff Carter and Marc Lapierre. It follows the misadventures of two kids, Ben and Devin, who love to play in the backyard and imagine themselves as brave space heroes, protecting the galaxy from evildoers. Accompanying them on their missions are Diogee, Ben's loyal but mischevious dog, and Robot, an actual robot that finds himself stranded on Earth and in the service of two tiny children. There's also the occasional Caveman or space alien thrown in for good measure."

First of all, that's a good recipe for a great comic. It's a continuing mission that offers many storylines to explore. It's important not to be too vague (according to Dilbert creator Scott Adams) nor too limited with the potential pool of topics. It should be specific enough to have personality but open enough that a general audience can relate. In this case, kids having imaginary(?) space adventures fits that bill. What takes this comic further is that Boxcar Astronaut has a real personality of 'play' to it. It's all about the fun parts of a kids' day.

The art has very clean, interesting line work and cute characters who have great expressions. (I especially like Diogee's expressions.) There are also some nice, subtle textures used to good effect and help reinforce the style of the strip. Likewsie, it's very interesting how the sound effects are handled and how they serve the strip's style as well. Lots of good stuff there.

Another nice touch is the visual gags. As a visual medium, you might think that comics would be filled with them but most don't have any. The Hyperspace Trip strip is really wonderful - it's one of those things that you wish you would have thought of. There are also a few strips with x-ray skeleton type special effects that are outstanding. Something else of note is the variety of interesting, non standard viewing angles. These sorts of things help a comic stand out to their audience.

What did I learn?
There is always something more for me to work on. What's the idea and personality of my comic supposed to be? What art techniques can I borrow from another style that will add to the visual style of my comic? Finally, little things like textures and sound effects can add immensely to how much your audience enjoys your comic. Visit Boxcar Astronaut for a new comic every Sunday!

Next week's review: Eekeemoo.

Previous Reviews

Battlegate| Butterfly| Good Ship Chronicles| Evil, Inc.| Madscott| Jefbot| Chronicle| Sheldon| Stardrop| Theater Hopper| Knave| Lullaby| High Moon| Metadawn| Dead Days| PC Weenies| Ask Maridee | Tiny Folk | Gordian Algebra | Starslip Crisis | The Front | Coffee Time Comics | Patches | Little Creature | The Horrible Pirates | Serenity Tales | Crashlander | Girl Genius | This Is Me | Handle With Care | SuperFogeys | Copper | Eskimo Dave | Real Life | Chateau Wonderful | Count Your Sheep | Breakpoint City | Eeekeemo | Boxcar Astronaut | Zip and Li'l Bit | Wally & Osborne | Jump Leads | Dr. Sheep and the Aardvark | Station V3 | Dresden Codak | Lab Ratz | Toyzville | The Boids | Cow and Buffalo | Casey and Scotty | Just Outside | The Pretentious History of Everything | Tia's World | Quirks | Patrick Grey | For What It's Worth | The Sixth Dimension | Max and the Gorilla Goon Squad | Rainbow Orchid | Neko and Neko | Lions, Tigers and Bears | Spacequint | Lessons In Fire Safety | Corrupt Hardware | Enker's Tale | The Surreal Adventures of Edgar Allan Poo | A Rusty Life | You'll Have That | From the Margin | Jitterati

About These Reviews

I love comics and I'm always looking at how I can improve my own work by examining other creators' works. It's such a wildly diverse field that it's not advisable to make sweeping generalizations and ignore special circumstances and subjects.

There's a lot we can learn from one another. And while there are many forums where you might discuss this, I haven't found any lengthy discussion on what we can do to make our comics more successful. There are a few good books on the subject but the aspiring webcomic creator is forced to learn by sheer brute force practice how to adapt his/her personal style to the medium. This is not as efficient as it could be.

Also, there are literally thousands of webcomics but only a handful of places where you can find decent, regular reviews. The focus of my reviews will be on trying to determine what is positive, successful and worth emulating about each comic. You might even get hooked on a given comic you read about here.

You may also wonder where the 'criticism' is and where the negative things about the comics are pointed out. As a matter of fact, I did mention some dissappointing issues with layout and such in my initial reviews. I quickly came to the realization that it's easy for any viewer to know what they like and what they don't. I don't need to call extra attention to the negative. I have, on a few occasions, emailed a webcomic author with a few ideas for improvements but there's no need to make that information public.

I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything, mind you. I just wish to have an open discussion about what good comics do. Hopefully, more voices will join in.