6-6-05

One Thing Leads to Another

I decided, recently, to clean up my Links page.  What this did, besides sending me on an all-day websearch for 88x31 buttons to replace the banners I had, was it caused me to think over the whole point of me having a links page at all.  Sure, it's a great way for me to have a bookmark list that's relatively safe from any computer mishaps, but what if people go there and click some of those links assuming I recommend them the way Amazon recommends similar books and things.
          At about the same time, I realized that there isn't a whole lot on my mind, lately, that would come across in the commentary as "middle-aged man bitching abut kids and whining for the good old days."  Well here's the solution to both problems:  henceforth, on Fridays, I will be posting webcomic reviews.
          Mind you, what I mean by "webcomic review" is an over-all review of the comic.  If you want someone who's willing to go through individual strips and tell you which is the best strip that day, go read Tangents or Websnark.  I'll be dealing with body-of-work, and each time I finish a review, I'll link the review in the text column of that comic's link along with its star rating.  For quick reference, I'll use a star rating, 0-5 stars, with 0 stars being a sprite comic with MSPaint backgrounds written by monkeys, and 5 being almost unattainable (although 9 Chickweed Lane and Get Fuzzy come close—but they're print comics, so they don't count).  I suppose I could have come up with some hip, original rating Icon, but I already have the stars from the Book of the Trip, so there.
          Eventually, I may get around to reviewing the big boys (PA, PVP, S*P), but, since only one of them is currently listed on my links page, and I want to cover the existing links first, it'll be a while.  Besides, they get enough blow jobs from Comixpedia and Snarky.  (Not that they don't deserve them—just to read the current review sites, you'd think there were only 7 or 8 webcomics around instead of the thousands that exist).
          So here , without further ado, is my first review.  I chose Filthy Lies for a couple of reasons:  Scrubbo helped me a lot when I first started transforming the site to a webcomic host, and he just posted his 250th comic today.
Filthy Lies
The first thing you have to know is that Filthy Lies is not for everyone.  It's usually something vaguely resembling work-safe, but not if you have coworkers who like to look really closely.  Filthy Lies is brutal humor.  Scrubbo (who goes by Enigma for some reason when he writes FL), doesn't pull any punches on anything he comments on in the comic.   He draws the comic on his computer, and he's one of the few I've seen that pull it off nicely-enough to look like he's scanning in hand-drawn art.  He also includes a short 50-250 word rant below each comic so readers can see just what got up his shorts that day.
          Now the problem with such humor is that it's often hit-or-miss.  Sometimes a hyperbolic comment on society's ills will not come off as particularly funny.  Sometimes Scrubbo will just make you cringe.  Not that he cares.
          Therein is the beauty of Filthy Lies:  Scrubbo isn't really worried about supporting himself with his comic.  He is, in real life, about to finish his doctorate in Bio-physics, and, as far as I know, just wants the comic to pay for it's own use of his time and electricity (not to say he wouldn't like to have the comic support him). This gives him a freedom, both artistic and philosophical, that a lot of comics—especially those that seek broad-spectrum popularity (and therefrom, the holy grail of financial success)—don't have.   Scrubbo has, and uses, the liberty this gives him not only to slay sacred cows, but to chop them up and revive individual parts through unholy experimentation.
          You think I jest.  I do not.  The most beloved character on Filthy Lies is a piece of reanimated meat named Beefsteak.  When Scrubbo still had a Tagboard, there was even talk—serious talk—of making a Beefsteak plushy (there was also talk of inserting a vibrating motor in the plushy but that was probably just a jest based on a guest strip by Teague Tysseling).  The other characters are just as notable, for the same reason as Beefsteak.  They are stereotypes, that become three-dimensional in spite of Scrubbo's intentions.  Damian (the dark-haired one with the lightning slash in his hair) is the wise-cracking ne'er-do-well who does most of FL's iconoclasm, but he shows a remarkable sensitivity and real social conscience; the things he trashes, he often trashes because they're stupid or harmful, or both.  Joel, the gay-conservative-Christian-blonde, is more tolerant of others than would be expected; really his NeoCon intolerance is almost completely limited to himself.  There are other characters, all born from a stereotype, all grown into sympathetic beings (even Ted).
          The art isn't exactly Rembrandt, but so what?  It's serviceable, and, as I said, it looks hand-drawn (and yes, that's important).  Scrubbo does a good job of differentiating his characters despite the simplicity of his art-style, and anyway, some of the things that show up there wouldn't be as funny if they were drawn in detail.
          Filthy Lies isn't for everyone, but it's a good read if you have an open mind and an eye for the absurdities of society.

Updates:  MWF
Caveats:  Mature themes and humor, reanimated steak
Rating: