The Weekly Webcomic Review: Flaky Pastry
Let us discuss, for a moment, why I am not Websnark.
Websnark – a.k.a. “Eric Burns and Wednesday White, though mostly Eric Burns these days” – is one of the hot spots for webcomic criticism. Admittedly, that’s not saying much; there aren’t a whole lot of serious sites out there dedicating to analyzing webcomic content, and what is out there tends to be either fluffy or OMG I LOVE EVERYTHING or both.
But I think the analysis of webcomics is something that’s good for community. We need guys out there to look at the comics that are succeeding so well that they should be marked for further review – and to look at the ones now failing in interesting ways. Reviews not only help to spotlight smaller comics that could use a boost, but they also contribute to the idea of what makes up a good webcomic. Eric’s articulation of “First And Ten Syndrome” – mainly, a webcomic that tries to make the leap from goofy to serious and falls into a pit of hopeless emo-wrist-slashing – is something that delineates something that happens on a fairly regular basis in the field. And knowing that it’s a danger helps me as a writer to realize that it’s a pit trap that can be fallen into, and to think carefully about how to avoid it.*
And the Burns swings a mighty stick. It’s interesting, because I had read Websnark intermittently before getting into the webcomics field, and once I had my own baby to tend I read it on a regular basis (because, really, it’s an industry trade rag, right along with Comixpedia and Fleen), and he highlights a lot of intriguing things that are going on in other comics. I don’t always agree with his takes, but they’re always interesting.
But Eric is deep. I am pathetically shallow. And this is a failing of my reviews.
See, Eric will follow the serious webcomics. He does not need to have a daily punchline; he doesn’t mind watching the day-by-day trickle as some humorless drama wends its way to a conclusion that may take months – nay, years – to arrive. Like a turtle sipping dewdrops off a cactus in some distant desert, he needs naught but character development and pretty art to provide.
Whereas I am a fat American. I am addicted to The Punchline.
I started writing the Webcomic Review in order to both highlight smaller comics (hopefully bringing them happy, happy traffic) and to see what other webcomics were doing. But if you look at my past trove of reviews, they’re all hideously monotone: Here’s a funny comic. Here’s another funny comic. Here’s a funny comic with a big sweeping plot and another funny gag-a-day strip.
Really, I’m cutting myself off from half the webcomics world here.
But I look at a comic that has nothing but a page a day of characters doing things, and it’s not enough for me. The punchline is like the kick at the end of a good drink; I need that little push to get me over the edge. Otherwise, unless it’s handled exceptionally well, what I get are four to six panels of a larger story that I frequently don’t understand.
I mean, for comparison, let’s take a look at today’s Home on the Strange (not that I’m an exceptional case, but I can critique my own stuff without any guilt). This is the next-to-last strip in a three-month (!) saga, wherein Tanner and Izzy are finally together after a lot of psychodrama.
If I had just stumbled upon that page today and knew nothing about it, this would still have an inherent meaning to me. I mean, fine, the couple is clearly in love, and now there’s this rat-thing menacing them. That’s not a good joke for the novice, certainly – it requires context of What Has Gone Before, as Stephen R. Donaldson used to say, to fully grok why this possum is here and why it's significant that after having rescued Tanner, it may now make his life more difficult – but it’s something.
Without that strangeness to hook me, what I would get out of my own comic would be pretty much nothing. There would be two people talking, and being happy about a story about which I knew nothing, and maybe some Great Plot Revelation about something else I didn’t understand. My enjoyment would depend almost totally on how well I knew the characters as presented in these four panels – which is not going to be a lot.
That humor’s the crack that allows me to wedge a piton in. It’s what allows me to scale this new and strange territory. I may not always get why the hell something is going on, but it lets me read back a few strips where I can get a solid-B laugh out of each one as I survey the landscape and decide whether I want to go through the trouble of either bookmarking it or (God help us) work my way through the archives.
Drama, on the other hand? I got nothing to hook me. And so I pass it by.
Thus, I can review what I know – and in this case, today’s comic Flaky Pastry is precisely the correct term for what I am discussing today, because it is a sweet little dessert of a comic with a consistent funny and some most excellent gorgeous art. But it is not serious. I don’t do serious particularly well.
Which makes me not Websnark.
Flaky Pastry, on the other hand, is not Websnark either, and let us thank God for that. Because Flaky Pastry is the perfect example of how a strong gag comic can work, even though it keeps continually mutating like a virus deep in the heart of the Congo.
The plot of Flaky Pastry is… well, I don’t honestly know where it’s going, because it keeps changing. All I can tell you about is where it’s been.
See, when Flaky Pastry starts, it’s got a great premise: there are two students living in an apartment. They have problems making their rent – which is an issue, because their landlord is a dragon and according to the contract they’ve signed, if they default on their rent he gets to eat them. So they have kind of an incentive to get with the rentage.
In traditional comic format, two is not enough, so we go through a series of pretty damned funny interviews of classic fantasy-style characters as they try to find a roommate (with predictably disastrous results). Eventually, they discover Zintiel, a crazy Elf who throws a bag of treasure on their table and collapses in the shower.
Awesome. I think it’s gonna be “Friends,” fantasy-style – hot, whacky elves and goblins living in an apartment. I like that.
Then the premise as I understood it changes. Zintiel reveals that she gets her money from the underground catacombs – a Wizard lost a great artifact down on the hundredth level of his dungeon, and for a free you can try to get it, snagging all the gold you’d like from the defeated monsters along the way. And for about thirty strips, it turns into a pretty decent high adventure, wherein they’re all fighting their way through the dungeons and trying to survive.
With a punchline. At the end of every strip. ‘Cause, you know, I need that.
Now it seems to be turning into a romantic comic – you have the hot not-a-catgirl Marelle who is snogging the neighbor, who must fight for her honor, and then you have the weirdly-bisexual-yet-cute goblin Nitrine, who is dating Kurt because he can bring her cool things but she doesn’t seem to be attracted to him per se.
And all of it is funny.
Flaky Pastry, I will admit, frustrates me from time to time. I want to find out more about the world they live in, because it’s a neat twist on fantasy genres, and I think there’s more to it than just whatever’s funny that day. Like Legendary, this comic feels like there’s some larger-scale plot bubbling underneath the surface that will one day rise to a glorious head. At least I hope it does.
Because the central thesis of what’s going on seems to change a lot, and I wonder where it’s all going. I suspect all of these things are going to get bolted together at some point, and we’ll find what’s going on and where the heart of this strip is. But I don’t know yet whether it’s a set of romances wrapped in a fantasy story, or an adventure story with a couple of romances thrown in, or just whatever’s funny at the time.
But the art is spectacular, with really excellent character models and good expressions – it looks professional, which makes me feel good about reading it.
I need my funny. Flaky Pastry delivers it on a regular basis, hot and steaming, even if the long-term occasionally is in doubt. And really, when you’re a punchline junky like me, what more do you need?
(And as always, if you have an underappreciated webcomic you think I should review, leave a comment and I’ll take a look at it. Reviews will be only for strips with less or equal traffic to my own strip, Home on the Strange, in order to highlight smaller comics; as such, the reviews will always be at least mostly positive. If you note any traffic I’ve sent your way and feel the urge to shower me with gratitude, feel free to plug HotS in your own comic. Danke.)
* - Everyone who thought that the Tanner/Izzy arc would end in disaster? Raise your hands. No, honestly, I want happy endings every bit as much as you do.
P.S. - If you're looking for other webcomic reviews, Mr. Myth's Damn Good Comics has been doing a pretty good job. I stumbled upon him because he reviewed HotS not once but twice in the same week, but I've kept reading after that. That's a good sign.
Tags: webcomic review
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