HI.
MY OPINIONS ON WEBCOMICS ARE IMPORTANT.
DICKS/PRICKS (CLICK ONE)
I've come to realize something in doing this, that reviews of webcomics for the most part are unnecessary. Webcomics, no matter how good, bad or obscure, will develop a fanbase. It is usually because people are suckers for certain genres and art styles. It is also because webcomics are free. If there's really no cost in looking at a webcomic and deciding for yourself whether you like it or not, what point is there?
That's what people have told me, and I still have some reasons for doing it. One reason is that I feel that sometimes the authors could actually derive some meaningful help from my criticism. It's happened. Another function is to promote comics that are not in the spotlight yet if they're good. My main reason, though, is that it's fun. It's fun to write an opinion on anything, really, because on the internet it doesn't really matter what other people think of your views. Don't like cheese? Say something about it. Are you into ska-trance? Tell me more. Honestly, there's not much effort put into writing these things, and if you get a strong opinion one way or another about them, then you live an easier life than I do. I've stopped caring a long time ago.
This is all relevant because what I am about to 'review' has got to be the most bizarre webcomic ever. It uses an old program called Microsoft Comic Chat and the art of Jim Woodring to create a series of talking heads to speak in all caps, mostly talking about internet jokes, gay jokes, dick jokes and HUGLAGHALGHALGHAL. To be blunt: it's crap. Not preachy, incomrehensible morals over a pathetic non-issue crap, not schizophreniccombination of weak jokes and stupid, overwrought drama crap, not incredibly lame, ugly, overlong with a circle-jerking fanbase crap or so inept that it's not even funny to laugh at crap. It's a different kind of crap. It's a crap that knows it's crap, and revels in its own crappiness. Even the dubiously named author knows its crap and is surprised it has lasted this long. Clearly, there must be something special about this comic, as certain people just LOVE this junk.
I think it's the absolute lack of pretense and unabashed aversion from quality.
The comic has been described as a continuous story, just composed out of order. Fittingly, my method of viewing it has been through constantly cliking the random button. A comic from 1998 is indistinguishable from a comic from 2005, so there wasn't any problem regarding clashing or contrasting styles. Reading it was like walking through some kind of acid flashback (not that I know what that's like) in which the same thing happened all the time, but I had the feeling that each time was different. The jokes are all about the characters' apparent joy of dicks and homoeroticism, or it could all be just that they are continually sarcastic over that kind of stuff. Really, who can tell? Oftentimes, the dialogue is disjointed and nonsensical, about half the time not being able to stay in the same thought process through three panels. The strip is one giant non-sequitor, and for some reason I kept feeling compelled to go on.
Something happened while I was reading it. After reading about twenty strips in a row, they started to make sense. The jokes were getting funnier. I can't explain it accurately now, as I'm not reading it at the moment and I did not save the links to the comics, but I just hit a vibe. The dialogue, at first nearly incomprehensible, sounded reasonable! The leaps from one topic to another suddenly made sense, as in it was funny just because it didn't make sense. I was laughing at the sheer absurdity of the comic because there was nothing linking it to reality, yet I felt like there was. Really, does this make sense to you? Or this or this? Read a bunch of strips and come back to me.
I've compared comics to automotive accidents in the past, but now I realize that those weren't good analogies, as they weren't the kind I'd come back to just to get a glimpse at the horror. The strip was like several accidents happening one right after another, as if I were watching World's Wildest Police Chases. After a while, I just became entranced by the thought of vehicles colliding and started considering them an art form even though they were merely grotesque products of human stupidity.
I think Jerkcity's secret is that it's intentionally stupid and nonsensical, but the bizarre and surreal nature and stark simplicity of the comic will make people try to understand its schtick. In doing so, they will gradually get more stupid until they fall into a the right wavelength that Jerkcity eminates. Drugs help.
So read it if you want. A review of this comic doesn't matter, since it has already fallen into its own niche and knows exactly what it's all about. The people who read this comic have already formed their own opinion. No outside views will change your own opinion of this comic, and the author certainly doesn't need any help that I can provide. In this case, I can only give you the info. What you decide to do with it is up to you.
So proceed with caution.
I guess there's nothing cool about punching a florist. |
