[ALT: Guest comic by Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content, whose internal monologue hasn't been speaking to him for the past three years.]
It's a little weird doing these reviews for guest comics, which tend to be hit or miss depending on the comic and the guest author in question. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about how to write a negative review for this one, because I actually liked it. It manages to capture the spirit of XKCD without sucking like XKCD. It contains a subversion of expectations that is based on the art style, transforming the art from "something which sucks" into "a vehicle that helps with telling the joke." And that subversion isn't utterly confusing.
What a boring post, right? I'm just going to ramble on about guest weeks for a while now. You should probably have already stopped reading by now.
Most comics I read have had guest weeks at some point. Sometimes the guest comics are good, and sometimes they are not so good. But in most cases I am entirely supportive of the idea of guest weeks. Assuming (possibly a bit generously!) it takes a week of work to produce a week of comics, a guest week means the artist gets a week off to rest and think and all that jazz. Taking some time off from a project is often just what it needs to get back into the swing of things.
And Randy has never, that I'm aware of, taken time off from the comic. Hopefully two-ish weeks off will give XKCD the spark of life it needs to stop sucking! I mean, it obviously won't, but nobody ever accused me of being realistic.
First guest week xkcd's done? I wonder who else'll be doing strips. Hopefully funny people.
ReplyDeleteRyan North for sure, and maybe Aaron Diaz.
ReplyDeleteobviously the rest of the guest week will be the Buttersafe team, Unwinder, Ben Heaton and David Morgan-Mar
ReplyDeleteIN MY HEART
I think Carl and Rob should do a guest comic.
ReplyDeleteIt would only be fair, after all they've done for xkcd. And it would provide an answer to a question I've been asking myself for quite a while:
WHERE IS YOUR WEBCOMIC???
I hereby propose my conspiracy theory
ReplyDeletexkcd and all related xkcd sites are created and maintained by a singular entity known as... Crondalloria
Rob and Carl. You need to contact Randy and get yourselves a guest comic.
ReplyDeleteThe cuddlefishes DEMAND it!
@Ves
ReplyDeleteI resent that.
@Crondalloria
ReplyDeleteWhat did I ever do to you?
Hey, xkcd updated again tonight.
ReplyDeleteyou know, for all of the hate this website has demonstrated for both XKCD and QC, I found it startlingly odd that you wrote in favor of this specific strip. I personally found it boring, and a bit too vague to have a full effect. But that's just my opinion
ReplyDeleteDon't get the latest comic. Probably a reference?
ReplyDeleteI like the emerging trend of the guest artists having art that's indistinguishable from Randall's (or better, if anything) with jokes that mock XKCD cliches.
ReplyDeleteI find it unfortunate that when I checked xkcd yesterday around midnight (I was up and bored, give me a break!), there was no title text for the guest comic... and now there is for both guest comics.
ReplyDeleteDarn, I thought this would have been a trend breaker.
Hmm, both comics so far have been from the "Comics I Enjoy", at the bottom. Perhaps a pattern‽
ReplyDeleteit's funny when the guests are better at XKCD, both art and humorwise than randy
ReplyDelete@Anon 10:02
ReplyDeleteThe male and female's inner monologues hook up and ditch the real people.
Holy shit! That thing in the first two panels isn't a horrifying spider. I thought it was a spider-man (not to be confused with The Incredible Spiderman) who was saying he never has been so happy before (assumedly because he recently became a spider-man). Then a female head started budding from his torso.
ReplyDeleteThis has been the most harrowing (webcomic) experience I've ever had.
That's the most beautiful woman (oh wait, they're still only attracted to girls) he's ever seen? She's a frigging bean pole! She wears glasses! What, is she too poor to afford contact lenses? She probably doesn't even wear makeup.
ReplyDeleteI don;t get the new one.
ReplyDeleteIs it just a "nerd BITES BACK" type trope that's been going on since the eighties with basically no explanation?
I mean, why are they on the moon- this is almost as bad as boston and shaun's debut
I thought it was a spider at first.
ReplyDeleteI too thought it was a spider. That caused me considerable confusion. A guest comic with worse art than xkcd, quite surprising.
ReplyDelete@Arthus
ReplyDeleteInteresting... did you start LITERALLY BLEEDING FROM YOUR EYES at the sight of that abomination?
Anyway... it seems the guest week comic will be other artists mocking xkcd tropes. Which is good, it's definitely funnier than Randall playing them straight!
I doubt Aaron would do an xkcd comic considering he doesn't like xkcd.
ReplyDeleteArthur, that comic confused me so much until you mentioned it's not supposed to be a spider man.
ReplyDeletealso it would probably take him months to do and slow his already ridiculous update schedule.
ReplyDeleteguy on the moon = SO WACKY
punishing someone who = JUSTICE, TAKE THAT!
...beat him up = NERDS LOVE ME I FEEL YOUR PAIN
...in highschool = BUY MY POSTERS ASPIES
now all we need is quirky dialogue from the date, a sex joke and an internet meme
I don't understand... They're sitting on the moon? Why?
ReplyDeleteI don't know who David Troupe is, but this is a pretty shitty comic...
ReplyDeleteI WANT TO DO A GUEST COMIC
ReplyDeleteRandaaaaaalLLLLllllLLLL
i fully endorse this idea
ReplyDeleteget to it munroe
Hey guys Randall is writing the intro to the new dinosaur comics book if anyone cares
ReplyDeletealoria, my guess is that all the guest comics are spoken for/already done. But you can ask him to do it next guest week! (What am I saying, there won't be another guest week.)
ReplyDeleteIs 823 a reference to the flash game "I wish I were the Moon"?
ReplyDeleteAnon320, I don't want to associate XKCD with cute emo flash games, so no. No it isn't.
ReplyDeleteI am your moon.
Personally, I like to think all these guest artists are actually making fun of XKCD.
Aloria - We all know your guest comic would be a scan of drunken vomit on a page. Either that or you'd slip a trojan into the email.
ReplyDelete@ that -
ReplyDeleteI did terrible, terrible things to Crondalloria.
And I enjoys speaking about himself in the third person
It looks like everyone is better than Randall at doing xkcd style art.
ReplyDelete5 minute xkcd week: SO BORING.
ReplyDeleteGuest xkcd week (so far): SO BORING.
xkcd better return to its shitty former self again to fuel my need for hatred, or... or... well, I might just stop reading it altogether and move on with my life.
CAPTCHA: outta, I'm outta here.
Bill Amend strip:
ReplyDeleteHonestly not sure what to make out of it. I suspect it might be making fun of xkcd, but it's hard to tell.
that Bill Amend strip is awesome, mostly because it's fucking Bill Amend guys
ReplyDeleteThe Bill Amend strip is awful. It's like even blunter "here are some maths/physics jokes" than XKCD. LOLOL HEISENBERG'S UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE.
ReplyDeleteGUYS DID YOU KNOW THE SQUARE ROOT OF NEGATIVE ONE IS i? DID YOU SEE HOW THAT GUY IN THE CROWD SAID IT INSTEAD OF AYE. DID YOU?
ReplyDeleteI read the Bill Amend strip as making fun of Randall. That is the only way it is enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteIf it's seriously trying to make those jokes then it sucks.
I've enjoyed Bill Amend strip more than any Randall strip in a long long time, et je vous chie au nez.
ReplyDelete(And it seems indeed he is making fun of Randall, in the first strip at least.)
I dunno - between the opening, the intentionally lame joke complete w/nerdiness, the "hey guys, check out how I know some science!" and the shoehorned reference to a pretty basic math/science concept it's almost as if he hit most of the major xkcd "jokes" at in one fell swoop. That can't be unintentional. Just add a guy in a black hat involved in WACKY SHENANIGANS!! and you've pretty much got it.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait until we get a guest strip by Jim Davis...
ReplyDeletewill it be a blaze of dadaist glory?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I rather like the Heisenberg one, let's acknowledge that the jokes are clearly forced "nerd jokes." But the presentation means it's not "Bill Amend tells a shallow math joke." It's "cartoon character Jason Fox tells a shallow math joke." And that is all the difference.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that seems like a copout. Maybe it really is one. But the thing is: it works, and is is exactly why characters are so important. When a character speaks yes we all know it's the author's voice. But if the character is written with consistency, then everything they say has added depth because of that history.
Amend is saying "You know my character who doesn't fit with normal society and is obsessed with shallow displays of intellect? He's a big xkcd fan." And he did it all without clumsy exposition. That's why the man is a giant.
When I first read comic n°824, I had never heard of Bill Amend or FoxTrot and I honestly thought that it sucked hugely, especially the square root of -1 one.
ReplyDeleteNow if it is indeed Bill Amend's character trying to draw xkcd jokes and failing, well the problem is that the jokes are not that different from xkcd jokes in bad days.
Why is each guest making fun of xkcd? This is mean...
@Gabriel: je te chie dans la bouche.
Heh, this recent FoxTrot seems appropriate.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxtrot.com/2010/11/11142010/
Wouldn't it be funny if this was all just a ruse by Randall to test our consistency?
ReplyDelete"Randall sucks huge elephant dick!"
"These guest artists are great!"
Randall: *Evil mustache twirl*
jeff jacks
ReplyDeleteNo, it's a ploy by Rob to test our sincerity. Get your facts straight.
ReplyDeleteAnd meanwhile he doesn't have enough time to do daily strips? FUCK FOXTROT
ReplyDeleteI'd want to see DMM do a guest strip too actually. Might be cool!
ReplyDeleteGuest pages are not bad. But they do give a vibe as if the jokes are at RM's expense. Does Randall realize this? Requested it, in an effort to placate anti-fans' claims that the creator of XKCD is too full of himself?
1. BILL FUCKING AMEND. HOLY SHIT
ReplyDelete2. As much as I wish it were, the joke of this strip is not "xkcd sucks". The theme of "jason emulates industry/artist for fame and/or fortune and does a really shitty job" is one that Bill has used for years ans years. The punchline is that jason sucks at writing comics, not randall.
3. Many illiterate fucktards on the xkcd forums are shitting themselves over the delusion that Bill Watterson would EVER write a guest strip for xkcd, let alone ANY comic at all. This blatant illiterate fuckheadery makes me quite angry.
*fucktardery
ReplyDeleteBill "Calvin and Hobbes" Watterson?
ReplyDeleteCome on, hysterical enthusiasm and glee at a delusion that Watterson would dignify a webcomic with some guest creation is wholly understandable. Because C&H effing rules.
But whatever gave anyone the idea that Watterson might make a guest XKCD strip? If we're after big names, why not Gary Larson, say? Which would be just as delusional, but I guess I think Randall would feel closer kinship with the Far Side's nerdy humour than the innocent world of imagination of Calvin and Hobbes.
Except that C&H made a guest appearance on xkcd, which means Bill Watterson actually has a deep spiritual connection to the webcomic that he probably doesn't read on a regular basis (although this is just a guess on my part, I honestly don't know what retired successful cartoonists do with their time).
ReplyDeleteExcept that it's as stupid as going "OMG WHAT IF JD SALINGER WROTE A STORY FOR THE SECOND EDITION OF MACHINE OF DEATH", because bill watterson is never going to return to the public again for anything (the only exception was the complete calvin and hobbes, which he chose as a farewell on his terms).
ReplyDeleteI rather liked the new guest comic. From what I can tell, it's supposed to be making fun of XKCD, and did a good job of it.
ReplyDeleteBill Amend got xkcd all wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe girl should be saying radical -1.
@Ves
ReplyDeletebill watterson = alive
JD Salinger = dead
So no, that's dumberer.
The individual comic threads are as much of the xkcd forums as /b/ is of 4chan.
ReplyDelete@ Capn: no shit? Assume Salinger is alive for the purposes of this exercise.
ReplyDeleteAlso, bill got xkcd all wrong in the second joke as well (the heisenberg one). It clearly depicts a female doing something imperfectly (the act of remembering where one placed one's car keys). For shame, Mr. Amend, no wonder you're single.
Also holy shit bill amend looks like my old physics teacher.
what the? Bill's married with kids.
ReplyDeleteBesides, I find it kind of sad that he did stuff for xkcd I mean, why? Bill at least can draw stuff somewhat competently whereas Randall can barely draw stickpeople well, does Bill honestly think Randall can last as long with just stickpeople and really, REALLY shitty nerd jokes?
Also, agreed with anon 9:28, Bill has free time to do guest strips for shitty webcomic artists but he won't go back to doing dailies? Mother FUCKER >:(
@ Cam -
ReplyDeleteOf course he has a wife and kids, [i]I was not being serious, I was mocking randy munroe's pathetic white-knighting[/i]
@Ves
ReplyDeleteHe only died this past January, its not like you used someone that's been dead for more than a millennium, or a century, or a decade, or even a year.
So, sorry. I try not to assume that people actually know things, when it appears that they don't, and it isn't explicitly mentioned otherwise.
Like knowing that BBS style tags don't work here, only html ones!
But yeah, I get your meaning about them sharing their recluse tendencies, I just find your example retarded because he's dead :).
hahaha good catch on my fucked up tags, I can never keep them straight.
ReplyDeleteI hope I didn't offend with the "no shit" comment, it wasn't meant in a nasty way.
Also, Salinger came first to mind because he's probably the best-known analogue. I assumed people would discount the deadness from their comparison for the sake of a point.
Similarly, if there isn't a second edition of Machine of Death with more stories added, I hope to god people will have the wherewithal to understand that I was not being entirely serious, and was instead stretching things a bit for the sake of analogy.
@Ves
ReplyDeleteNot offended at all, and Salinger is a good Watterson analogue, but you made no obvious indication that you knew the impossibility of your comparison given his relatively recent death. But hell, maybe its more common knowledge than I'm giving credit for.
Now if you would have said ZomB Salinger, that is a horse of a different color entirely!
Wow.
ReplyDeleteI've just come from redux and found out Bill Amend drew for xkcd. That's... odd.
Also, his comics are pretty much on level with the recent best xkcds. The intro is a reference to a very old(and fairly good) comic. The first one is pretty funny. The second is nerd-pandering, the third doesn't even make sense! Mathematicians should run the congress because... congressmen would say "square root of -1"? That's a LAZY pun, and that's saying a lot when the standard is Randall "the king of Lazy" Munroe!
So, I'm very disappointed, especially because, with two comics that were funny for being parodies of XKCD, he actually follows Munroe's footsteps. Bleh.
Mole, you must not read foxtrot. The punchline is that the three xkcd imitations suck; the joke isn't "durr heisenberg", it's the oft-visited theme of "jason (the kid on the phone in the first 2 panelss) tries to fill in for someone else and does a shitty job". The joke is on jason, not the reader.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, bill amend is a funny motherfucker. If he wanted to make a straight-up physics joke, it'd be leagues better than the shit randy comes up with.
I thought all three of those pseudo-jokes were better than the shit Randy comes up with.
ReplyDeletewhere's Mal with his scanner when we need him, because he can show that the "square root of -1" was done about 12 years ago by Jason and it was actually waaaayyyy funnier in that context
ReplyDeleteRYAAAAAN WHAT HAVE YOU DOOOOONE?
ReplyDeleteno worries, the new book will probably be as shitty as his old one
Oh, fine. I don't read Foxtrot(I read some... not regularly), so I didn't know.
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense. Bill Amend is forgiven. =]