As I was poking around this old internet of ours, I recently came across a new(ish) webcomic, Abstruse Goose, which is invariably compared to xkcd. #9, for example, makes me almost wonder if they are drawn by the same person. The author knows that he is writing in the same style, as you can see here and here. There's no getting around it, it's very, very, very similar to xkcd. Though where xkcd draws people without faces, Abstruse Goose draws only faces.
I think it is accurate to call it the next xkcd. In a perfect world, Randall Munroe would start fading out his comic and this would would take its place, until it ran out of ideas, and so on, in the great Circle Of Webcomic Life. It currently has a much better average comedy value than xkcd; for example I found AG #15 to be way funnier than a comparable xkcd, #307.
But it too is not immune from the flaws of the genre - the current comic is very preachy, and not in any way funny.
20, as well, is just plain dumb. "That's a totally lame wish, loser" would have been way better. As it is it's just like "wooo, look who found some lame freeware stereogram software it's meeeeeee." But I digress - in general, I like it.
I would like to know a bit more about the author, and whether it is updating regularly. The first mention of it on Digg.com appears on or about June 18th, though that doesn't really tell me much about how new it is. Anyone know more about this comic? I'm also curious what you think about it in general.
Update: Hm, I think think comic 52 (posted after the preachy your-life-in-months one) is also pretty lame. It better not start to suck right after I discover it. Come on, Abstruse Goose. I went out on a limb here complimenting you. Don't embarrass me here.
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In other news: 35% of top companies register [their name]sucks.com. But do they register [their name]sucks.blogspot.com, is my question. This was actually a problem I thought about when making the url for this site - it was a bit harsher than I wanted (at the time) but I wondered "what would be the most likely search term for a website of the kind I am envisioning?" and "xkcd sucks" seemed best.
Abstruse Goose is pretty good, just like xkcd (was). I don't know yet if it would be terribly funny or pretentious to start adding an "Abstruse did it first and better!" link to future posts. But The Goose is just about bangin' our moms, right?
ReplyDeleteGoogling "xkcd sucks" is what brought me to this shrine of enlightenment, after feeling a vague discomfort with xkcd for a while and wanting to see opinions that could justify my webcomic ennui.
Stay strong - this blog has become a favorite bookmark!
Cool link - this is a great comic. I actually like the "preachy" 51 and it was fun to find the text in the stereogram, and even funnier to read your criticism of it :)
ReplyDeleteI am annoyed that googling "xkcd sucks" still brings up that lame metafilter.com thread above this blog. Some day, a blog entitled "xkcd sucks" will be the top google hit for "xkcd sucks," some day...
ReplyDeleteAnd - the more I think about it, the more I really can't stand that stereogram comic. It's hard to describe why, but I think it's that there's such a great opportunity for greatness and he just goes with a lame Magic-8-Ball style non-joke.