Muffin Time

The comic I was originally scheduled to review today, Casual Notice, has gone on hiatus while the artist improves his craft. I wouldn't have felt quite right reviewing a comic that the artist is currently working on improving, just seems like a cheap shot, so I've switched the schedule around a bit. Casual Notice will now set for a December 26th review. Today? Today it's Muffin Time!

As my schedule is still a bit hectic (you may have noticed I'm a tad behind, see MySpace later this week for details), Steven (BetaPwned's John) has offered to do today's review:



"It's called Muffin Time and there are no muffins. That's stupid. The art is funny though."



Uh huh. Then again, maybe I should just take the time to do this myself. *coughs*


Actually, Steven has given me a perfect segue into the review in that his sense of humor is nearly identical to that of the comic. Almost completely nonsensical, occasionally punny, and intrinsically silly, Muffin Time is what I read when I'm done thinking; when I'm looking for a zany, rainbow filled escape from normality and all the horrible sanity that comes with it. It's a static Saturday Morning Cartoon for quasi-adults, and I love it.

Though the comic began as something quite different stylistically, the humor has remained fairly constant. This isn't the type of writing you hone over time, that kind of approach would require you to take it far too seriously. The art, however, took a rather dramatic turn for the dynamic in 2006 and has become sharper and more fluid with time. The character designs are simple and reminiscent of those odd plastic type bendy animals you can buy to twist around pencils and such. The expressions are varied and attention grabbing and perfectly match the character personalities. The backgrounds are similarly dynamic, adding more backdrop than scene they allow the characters to pop forward in the frame.

The ability to change the "season" of the website ads an interesting bit of personalization as does the ability to easily tag a comic in the archive, effectively saving your place. This function is brilliant for those of us that find ourselves pouring through archives whenever we can find a snippet of time. There's also a rather funny little blog spot beneath the comic, saddled up next to a chat box, a few links, and a flicker spot. There are also some enticing items in the store, and a passable forum. The links page is a bit bare, and I'd love to see some information about the creator, but over all the site design is pretty complete. Especially of note is the Bonus Points page which, though a bit outdated, includes a snazzy how to section, a few desktop offerings, and a nice list of guest comics.

Come on. Where else are you going to find an anthropomorphic udder? Head over and take a break.

Ansem Retort

(Today's scheduled comic was Indefensible Positions, however, this wonderful (and highly recommended) sci-fi/fantasy comic has come to an end. As I've made it fairly clear that I won't be reviewing any comics that have stopped updating, due to either neglect or completion, I will instead be reviewing the last comic on the schedule - Ansem Retort. See, there is hope for those of you scheduled in 2009.)



I found myself on a panel not too terribly long ago discussing how to launch a webcomic. In that panel I offered the following piece of advice: Just say no to sprites. See... the word "sprite" is just a fancy way of saying "using clip art taken from someone else's work". Using other people's work without permission, and possibly a release form, annoys lawyers.

Annoying lawyers is generally a bad idea.

Sprite comics also annoy some potential readers because the artwork is, by definition, repetitious and unoriginal. The images do help tell the story, but not as much as images that were specifically crafted for the script. Additionally, there's no point in critiquing it... so I'm just going to move on.

Ansem Retort is a satire of the modern trend in reality television, with popular game characters as the unlucky house mates. While some of the humor is dependant on a basic knowledge of the characters, readers unfamiliar with the game elements should be able to ascertain the point of most punch lines. Adding a bit of a twist, the reality show is produced by FOX and the house mates are regularly assaulted by enemies in order to keep the show interesting.

Pop culture, drug references, and cartoonish violence are the building blocks for most of the scripts but there are a few character based plot points floating around. I certainly wouldn't stretch to the point of referring to it as intelligent humor, but it isn't Bevis and Butthead ridiculous either. Appropriately, I wouldn't give the comic's contents higher than a PG rating, and I didn't come across anything I would hesitate in allowing my ten-year-old to read. The humor is likely spot on for it's target audience, and even managed to pull a few chuckles from me.

Thanks to the premise, the comic is conveniently portioned into individual "seasons" - meaning that it's not entirely necessary to start at the beginning to find a good entry point. The website is dedicated to more than one comic so I couldn't find any of the additional goodies associated with single comic sites, but the navigation is simple and the comic takes center stage. All-in-all, it's a fairly entertaining comic and certainly worth a look.