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Better Luck Next Time

Better Luck Next Time

Writing: blntmaker knows his characters and he brings them to life. Each character is distinct and lively in their own way and has a story, even the secondary characters. The school has a story, too. There's 6th grade politics with both the students, administrators and teachers. Sports and recess are shown, as are class interactions between students as well as teachers. The whole town and area seem alive as a community, including a local news channel and even the local police have a role in the story. There are elements of seriousness but there's always an undercurrent of humor in BLNT. It's a good blend!

I'll admit, if there's one critique I have, it's that sometimes we get a little too much info on characters. I don't always read the profiles, mainly because of their length. But that's a small quip about a great comic!

Writing Score: 4 of 5

Art: This is where blntmaker shines even more. He has a unique way of blending color and shadow and line art. Each character looks unique, every ethnicity is represented and the characters range in height, weight and build. The art flows and from frame to frame and you find yourself wanting to see the next page. A real treat!

Art Score: 4.5 of 5

Overall: BLNT isn't just about kids in school, it's about a community of people. And blntmaker brings that community alive with his writing and stylistic art.

Read it, folks!

Overall Score: 4 of 5

My review will consist of four categories, Artwork, Writing, Style and Overall. I'm also experimenting with a new reviewing style.

Artwork

BLNT has a purposely simple artistic style and makes good use of flat colours. Probably one of the surprising aspects is the excellent use of light and shadow in the comic -- it's not something expected with the style. The lines are sharp and clean, making it easy to follow the story. The biggest disadvantage of the style is that it makes it hard to differentiate some characters at times. I'd also suggest trying to either avoid using gradiants for light effects and shading, or re-filter them so they have less tones in them. When the general style of the comic uses flat colouring the gradiants stick out too much.

Strengths:
- Very clean
- Excellent use of light

Weaknesses:
- Sometimes it becomes hard to differentiate one character from another.
- Gradiant shading doesn't work well with the style. With a simple style, one or two tones would probably work best to match up better.


Writing

This is a definate strong point for this comic -- I normally would not read a comic about school-aged kids. The pacing, character development, and wit all make it an enjoyable read. My big indicator of a good comic is if I'm reading through it because I HAVE to in order to review it or if I'm reading through because I WANT to. And in this case, it was the latter; I wanted to keep going and get caught up.

I can't go much further into the writing beyond wit however as the setting is foreign to me. I'm Canadian, and where I grew up it was public school (JK to Gr. 8) then Secondary School (Gr. 9 to OAC, which has since been removed which sucks) and then post-secondary. Also I was a nerd and oblivious to most cliques. So this makes most of the situations in BLNT alien to me. So without knowing anything about accuracy of portrayals, what I can say is this: It's witty and entertaining, with memorable, likable characters.

Strengths:
- Witty
- Excellent pacing
- Characters have clear depth and distinct personalities

Weaknesses:
- None that are obvious to me.

Style

Probably one of the strongest points of BLNT. You can tell there's effort and hard work put into character histories, the fictional location where they live, school system, and other details of the world fo BLNT. It's also got a distinct "TV" show feel with the comic being separated by "Seasons" instead of issues or books. BLNT knows who it is and what it is trying to accomplish.

Overall

Definately worth your time to read, plain and simple. I'm glad I took the time (and these days I don't seem to have a lot of it) to check it out and review.

Better Luck Next Time comes across, to me, as a very busy comic. It was hard for me to really get into because a lot of the time, the pages are gargantuan and loaded with panels, and the panels are loaded with dialogue and/or narration. And sometimes I was able to get with the flow but a lot of time time I found myself skimming. But a lot of the time I was not being engaged and found my eyes leaping from word balloon to word balloon and not really absorbing the story. I couldn't put my finger exactly on why that was, I wanted to read closely, because the premise was interesting, but something kept me from attaching myself to the characters.

What I did manage to get was that we had some good potential here... a good premise, with characters that the creator seems know intuitively. Occasionally but not constantly, they seem a bit stilted and automatic, but they're often natural, which is a good sign for anyone who will follow the strip.

The art is stylish but not refined, at least not to the point I've read. Sometimes the characters look flat, their motions rigid, although the artist is capable of producing gorgeous pin-up-style panels. I just had a problem with a non-story pinup with a ton of words being jammed in every few panels, exacerbating some problems I had with its pacing.

It's not for me. I'll give BLNT's creator credit for caring and putting effort for what he does, but the pacing - a large page of small panels and constantly flowing dialogue - wasn't working for me and at the end of Season 1 I didn't feel like diving into season 2.

Seems like its a busy time for everyone - I'd like to thank you all for your enlightening reviews. This should be um...un-stuck.

I will work much harder to make this comic a quality story for everyone to enjoy. I'm very proud of it because essentially, it is really what I do for a living - teaching and educating the youth - plus watching them grow in the process.

Peace be with you all. Thanks again for all your responses.

At 1st I had to agree with Sewer Man

When I 1st wanted to read the comic I kept putting it off because of all the text and the huge pages. Working with the author in Off Hours I decided to check out his work so I could learn more about his style.

I started off pretty slowly, but over time the characters, coloring, writing, and dynamic imagery he used began to captivate me more and more. I didn't seem to have a hard time following the pages. And I found some of the ways BLNTmaker fit all the dialogue really creative.

ART

The art isn't the eye grabbing kind I tend to gravitate toward, what does however make the art unique here is the coloring and the layouts. The way he combines them to work with his artistic style. It fits and makes the artwork really shine.

WRITING

Aside from the layouts this is another strong point that keeps me coming back. The characters are witty and well developed. The way the story is told really keeps me looking forward to the next update due to the powerful characters and conflicts they have with each other.

So the comic delivers on 2 important fields that I look for. It entertains me, and I learn new comic making skills from it.

I say the comic can just be a bit steep for new potential readers not aware of the characters and emotion this comic has in it. Despite all the dialogue and such it actually takes a while before you really start seeing all the charm. After you have read for a bit and get into it.

I look forward to where this story arc goes, I hope my review didn't seem too stern but we're told plenty of times our strong points in our comments sections. This seems like a good place to dive into the 'opinionated weaker' points of comics as to aid the author.

Well, well. Where to start. Why not with the first thing you notice about comics, the art.

The art has a style of it's own, no doubt. On that note, the art style makes all people look very similar which can be good at times but in a story that has many characters as this does, it kinda makes it a little confusing. Another thing would be the line quality, as the lines sit now, they are clean but they seem a little thin for my liking. A thicker character outline could really make the characters pop out of the page instead of blending into the background at times. While I'm at it I guess I might as well nit-pick on somethings; hands. The hand positions and the hands themselves just don't look... well, natural. But that alone, comes with practice.

OVERALL ART SCORE:
3/5

CLOSING COMMENTS:

It all comes with practice and what you feel works. With a consistent art style like in this comic, don't be afraid to try new things with the art like weighted lines.


WRITING:

As stated in previous reviews, the story is there but it's hard to get into. It often feels like pages and panels are almost compressed to fit as much as possible per update. It's okay to spread ideas over more panels, you just have to make sure that the flow is there. The flow is there with the jammed panels but it flows slower and I found myself skimming more than anything. I couldn't really get into the story itself. Perhaps because it just wasn't my type of story.

WRITING OVERALL SCORE:
3/5

CLOSING COMMENTS:

The writing is a tricky thing to review since it's all subjective, really. I'd say keep doing what you're doing.

Hello again - thanks for the recent reviews - I just have one question:

You guys that are just "skimming" through - How exactly is that objective or even...fair?

Like you were subjective without even understanding the SUBJECT of my comic.

I'm not sure what pages you read through or looked at but it seems as if some of you took the "this story and subject matter just isn't for me" route WAY too easily. There are many critiques I've appreciated and worked on as Season 2 went on, but it seems as if I got short changed a bit -

Anyway, thanks for those who gave my comic an honest and decent read-through. Beyond taking pride in my art, I take even greater pride in education from a teacher's stand point.

My apologies for the rambling - I was just expecting a bit more fairness. Reading HALF or less than HALF of my comic just doesn't seem fair.

Peace.

Sorry. It was late when I wrote that, I'll elaborate a bit more.

The story itself was a little on the weaker side. Therefore, I found my desire to read on fading, therefore, I skimmed it. I really can't say much more than that. I read all through season 1 and when the decision came to see if I wanted to read season 2, I respectfully declined. It's not that this comic isn't of quality, it is good in its own elements but I just found the writing a little weak. The premise itself is fine but I feel like the dialogue is a tad weak. I hope that elaborated on a bit of my previous review.

It's not that this comic isn't of quality, it is good in its own elements but I just found the writing a little weak. The premise itself is fine but I feel like the dialogue is a tad weak. I hope that elaborated on a bit of my previous review.

You just contradicted yourself. If the comic is of quality then the writing isn't weak. You also fail to elaborate; you say "the writing is weak" without providing examples and demonstrating how it's weak.

Plus Season Two is more fun to read; Desmond really demonstrates the kind of self-centred, short-sighted **** that he is, although he does so with such moxie that he's not entirely unlikable.

Getting back to the point -- you say the dialogue is weak, but you offer no proof that is is. And here is some proof that the dialogue is STRONG: (it's one of the reasons I read BLNT) http://www.drunkduck.com/Better_Luck_Next_Time/index.php?p=289176

There's a lot of good examples of wit in BLNT, but this one is really funny. It combines misheard lyrics (often funny in themselves) with a bit of culture gap. What makes it funny is that from Russell's point of view it makes perfect sense. Actually... speaking as someone who's pretty darn white, it makes sense from MY point of view as well. Future proof of the writing's quality is the fact that you could tell who was saying what without any pictures. If all the characters were reduced to a grey lump of clay, you'd still easily tell Desmond from Teddy from Rayne from Russell by their dialogue alone. That's more than a lot of other comics can claim.

One final time to try this;

The premise is cool. That is what writing is of quality. The premise and story is perfectly fine the way it is.

BUT!

I find the jokes fall short most times. An example of jokes I feel fall short:

http://www.drunkduck.com/Better_Luck_Next_Time/index.php?p=299521

http://www.drunkduck.com/Better_Luck_Next_Time/index.php?p=217183

http://www.drunkduck.com/Better_Luck_Next_Time/index.php?p=217220


I dunno what else to say, really. This comic isn't for me. Sorry, man.

You've said all you really need to say, Jay.

Thanks for taking the time to review my comic.

PREPARE FOR EXTREME VERBOSITY!

Well, humour is one thing that is very subjective. What you find funny depends on your personal make-up and experiences; what some people find hilarious might just bring back painful memories while others will be able to laugh at their past. Plus some things just tickle people for no explainable reason.

This is a hazard for funny pages, because so much of the entertainment value is based off humour. If your humour fails (and it will at some point), then you need stories or characters to fall back on.

If the humour doesn't work for you, then you have to switch to a more technical reviewing style. My review for Choking Dolphins is pretty harsh but fair in my opinion; I didn't like the humour at all, although it worked for me on occasion. Choking Dolphins, despite its flaws, was also able to throw in some pretty neat plot curveballs and so I figured anyone who liked that style of humour would love the comic, and I state that in my review.

Speaking of which, Choking Dolphins needs more reviews to move on.

Back to BLNT -- even if the jokes always failed, it would still have an interesting story, with well thought-out characters who have distinctive personalities and individual motivations. If everyone did that, then BLNT would have earned a '3/5' for writing. Point in case, a lot of people DON'T do that so it rates a 4/5, and 5/5 if you considered it truly exceptional.

I switched to a strengths/weaknesses format because it forces me to try to think of something positive and negative to say. In the cast of BLNT, I couldn't really find any flaws at all in the writing. You pretty much well have just stated the same by saying "the premise and story is perfectly fine the way it is". So we're agreed on that, and divided on the effectiveness of the humour. That's fine.

The Writing:

Aaron McGruder called, he wants Riley back.

There are a lot of things to address here, so I'm going to start at the most apparent one. You're trying to do too many things at once. As a result your different story elements are often detracting from one another. As far as I can infer you're trying to
1) Accurately depict the maturity level of children ages 11-14
2) Have a fun gag-oriented tone
3) Have a sinister conspiracy making your characters involved in something larger than themselves
4) Depict relationships by means of melodrama
Now its possible to do any two of these things easily, and maybe even three of them at once if you really worked at it, but unfortunately when you try to pull off all four in one comic its always at the expense of one of the other story elements. For example often your attempt to depict the maturity level of your characters is undercut by the, I can only assume, soap opera inspired writing. If you want your characters to be taken seriously you can't expect the reader to accept that Teddy's girlfriend broke up with him because he wasn't ambitious enough. I wanted him to be just like "Dude, I'm twelve! What the fuck?" Additionally, you have many characters act contrary to their personalities in order to fit into the story. Teddy is written as character that makes friends easily. So logically he wouldn't be taunted by the characters in the seventh grade class. He wasn't held back because he's ignorant; he was held back because he got a concussion and missed a lot of school. If most of the kids in his class liked him in the first place they'd recognize that he received a raw deal, and if the didn't he wouldn't be so quick to make friends with the people in his current sixth grade class, do you see where I'm coming from here? Characters that act contrary to how their personality dictates is a major problem here, and it detracts from the ability of your readers to accept them as real people, which I think is one of the major drawbacks of your comic. For example, is Rayne supposed to be a raging bitch? Probably not, I got the sense that you wanted her character to be grounded against some of the over the top antics of her peers, and quick to pick up on the world around her. However that's not how she comes off. When Chelsea first meets Rayne, Rayne is the one who acts defensive, hostile, and frankly a little racist. Chelsea was just saying "What up" and Rayne just started insulting her. Who comes out of that situation looking like a douche? Rayne. You could have solved that whole problem by letting Chelsea get out a catty remark before Rayne put her in her place, but you didn't give her that chance. Then when the principal tells Teddy he can rejoin the soccer team she gets all crazy hostile again. There was no call for it. She may not like the principal. She may be weirded out by him, but that doesn't justify flipping out on him when he did something that was, frankly, his job, and additionally something that was good. Plus she seems like a smart kid, and a smart kid would know not to get all up in the face of an authority figure. Even if you don't trust them you don't let them know about it.
Also, your dialogue is rife with logical fallacies. It comes from the same soap-oprea overwriting I mentioned earlier but also you desire to characterize different people immediately rather than letting their character reveal itself over time. Seth's introduction is probably the worst. Firstly no one talks like that. Not even really smart kids. Secondly you have characters assume he means something that is illogical for them to assume. She thought he was taking about fish when he said spawn. Really? Is she a fisherman's wife because that's the only scenario that I could envision where that is the first definition of that word she would think of using. It was contextually clear how he was using that word. How does Teddy know who Andy Rooney is? I'm 27 and I barely know that. I'm just saying, maybe a more contemporary news anchor would've been a better choice.

Desmond is over the top and cartoonish, which would really be fine, if as a writer you took him as seriously as he takes himself as a character. Would that character ever sell M&M's and correlate it to dealing drugs? No of course not, he'd just deal drugs. And then you had that awful awful segment where his mom beat the black out of him. Know when to end a joke dude. Now that I know these characters are cartoons how am I supposed to consider them seriously? How can I treat these characters as real people if they can pull a giant cartoon mallet from behind their backs? This character is basically Riley from the Boondocks, only Riley actually acts gangsta and he has his brother Huey to bounce off of (which is why the Boondocks works). Desmond acts like a cartoon gangsta, so you cant take him seriously, and he bounces off of Teddy, who has no real reason to hang out with this idiot, except they had a stare down or something, Huey has to hang out with Riley because they're family. Teddy has no reason to put up with Desmond.

There is a lot of writing on any given page, and that would be absolutely fine if you were doing more with it, but a lot of it is full of things that are either unimportant, or just don't make sense, making reading through it all a bit tedious. You need to decide if you want your story to be driven by your characters or your characters to be driven by your story. If the former you need to dial back the melodrama and over the top comedy and stop having them say or do things that are unnatural. If the later, you need to make you comics a hell of a lot shorter and not focus so much on unnecessary character interaction, and allow your characters to be much broader and less defined. The words your characters choose, how they put a sentence together, how they react to situations and how other people react to them, all these things effect how your reader interprets your characters. So if you want to do a joke you need to make sure when it's over it hasn't left a lasting impression on your readers that you dont want them to have. If you have your characters act melodramatically and they are treated like real people, your readers will think "Why are they acting so melodramatically. That is more melodramatic than people act in real life."

I know children of this age often take themselves too seriously, but they often just act like children too, and there isn't any of that in this story. I'm interested in the repercussions of Teddy having to repeat the 6th grade, because that possibly has a lasting effect on his life. But I could give a damn about him breaking up with his girlfriend. He's like 13, how seriously do you expect an adult reader to take that relationship? And the more you, as a writer try to make me take it seriously the less seriously I take it. You should've down played it, and tried to do the whole thing subtly, then maybe I'd see the effect it was having on the character.

The art:
It looks like clipart. The proportionality between head and shoulders and length of torso and size of hand is always off (the hands are almost always particularly small, everything else is inconsistently disproportional.) And your characters all look the same. It doesn't matter their age, gender, or race, they all have the same facial features, they only difference, as far as I can tell, is skin-tone and hairstyle. And because all the facial features are the same, and the head shapes are the same, there really isn't much in the way of expressions. The black backgrounds that you've been using recently work much better than the white backgrounds did (they made the comic look empty.)

Oh and you don't need to plug your next comic at the end of every comic. This is a serial, I know its going to be continued, you don't have to tell me every day.

Final word:

The writing has had a grand design but unfortunately a lot of it fails under the desire to give its readers the instant gratification of a punch line, or the cliche of a unrealistically sinister or dramatic vein. Prioritize your goals.

kingofsnake
The Writing:

Aaron McGruder called, he wants Riley back.

Now there's a gag I haven't heard in quite a while. Pretty corny way to start a review given that many of you comic guys and girls wouldn't be doing this if you weren't first influenced by someone else's work. Considering that, your "Boondocks" jab was a pretty cheap shot Mr. Snake and very narrow-minded. I saw that comment you left on blntmaker's comic, "You're a breadstick"? What are you? Twelve?

Seriously though, I have to give a review because I'm dying to disagree with Mr. Snake and also because I really "get" and enjoy this comic.

Now keep in mind I am new to DrunkDuck, and I do not have a comic of my own, yet I have love for anyone who has a heart for something that goes beyond gags and fluff. This comic is a tool for educating others because it's drawn and written by an educator. Plain and simple.

Here we go:

ART: B+
It is what it is, right? Blntmaker has a style that seems to be of its own personality. Then again, all comics have an art that's a style of its own personality. I see a work in progress in what Blntmaker is doing and it shows he's trying to make an environment out of Better Luck Next Time that, in the grand scheme of things, isn't really as serious as some of you think it should be for a comic of this genre.

This isn't manga and it's not Picasso. It's Better Luck Next Time.

In saying that, all you artists and writers out there who have day jobs should put that in perspective. Given the magnitude of each page, it really does show that Blntmaker is putting effort into what he's doing and honestly, it's not bad. I like the colors and the scene set ups in particular. In addition to that, he's grown a bit from Season One to Season Two and trying more angles. I noticed the last few pages are even smaller in size and dialogue. Ninety-nine pages into his series and what seems like only two story arcs, I'm see the growth. Some of these comics up in DrunkDuck cannot claim that.

WRITING: B+
This is where I agree with most of the reviewers that are spinning both sides of the light here. Also, this goes to the personality of a comic. Better Luck Next Time is supposed to be a "soap opera". The melodrama is part of the comic. The whole Guiding Light/Tune In Tomorrow thing is part of the "next time" premise. Blntmaker seems to write his comic as if it is a TV show as one review put it and I think that's pretty cool. The comic seems to be about trying to come up and strive with each challenge you face and expecting to have "better luck next time". The characters are plentiful, yet the way Blntmaker writes for them makes them unique within themselves.

-Teddy flunked sixth grade, he lost his little, "bible thumping" girlfriend and he almost lost out on the most important thing in his life: soccer. When you think about it, that's a kid-like sensibility. Academics are secondary to soccer and that was the most interesting reveal for Teddy in Season One. He seems to be trying to turn it around in whatever way he can too. Come Season Two, he got past all that and now he's running his sister's class presidential campaign (Which looks like a fun story a la 24). I like how Rayne is suppose to be this angry genius, yet still has love and respect for her big brother. All the other stuff is just background music to the issues. Even if it's quirky and clumsy. Teddy is more like a Charlie Brown with tunnel vision.

-Then you have Desmond who is trying to be this thug but he's really more of a thud. He's what you call a "wanksta" Any 50 Cent listeners here? translation = Wanna-be gangsta. His father, according to Desmond's bio, is a legend in the hood as a thug so I think Desmond may or may not be trying to do the same thing in his own way. Desmond isn't Riley, he's more like a character I've seen on "The Wire", a show that aired on HBO. A kid trying to live up to the standards of his gangster father and failing miserably. That page with him selling M&Ms was pretty funny and had me fooled once I got to the end. Also, Desmond getting the "black beaten off of him" was funny too. See, we heard it off-screen, then saw it on screen in its cartoonish style. No big deal. And hey, I'm bi-racial: Black and White/German descent. Many "old school" black moms use that threat on their kids or in my case, my grandmother :P. I still get to see that he is a kid just trying to do something else while trying to be something he's not. Complex and a bit more dimensional than Riley. All due respect to Mr. McGruder.

-Rayne seems to come off as an angry, black girl for just no reason. I think I need to tune in and find out what her deal is because at first, I thought she had some daddy issues (but she has a dad). She seems badly written for but there are layers I found in her that stil speak for he adolescence. The whole weakness for Peanut M&Ms for one and he love for Harry Potter books.

-Vanessa could probably one of the most interesting characters because where I'm from, she tends to perpetuate some bad habits for being Latina and loyal to a guy. That's not a racist observation, it just speaks to Blntmaker's ability to mimic a culture even if its in satire. Plus she's winning in the polls in the student election. I hope later we get an explanation as to why she's so popular. She has heart and I like that.

-Seth is Cinderella. Cinderella with too much time on his hands and with a mild case of Asperger's Syndrome. Maybe the geek factor hit a nerve with Mr. Snake with the "Jedi Mind Tricks" thing. Or perhaps, Seth being the lone white regular character in a sea of, dare I say, minorities is unsettling to most as well. I live in the San Fernando Valley, the culture make up so far is pretty close region to region as city names are being dropped. The most interesting back story for Seth is that he skipped a grade in school and doesn't seem to want to reveal that to Teddy and everyone else. Especially since Teddy flunked sixth grade. When Seth says, "I already don't have enough friends as it is", I took that to mean Seth is probably just too weird at times to hang out with people. That doesn't seem too unusual to a "tween" trying to fit into a crowd. I'd like to see where that goes too. He's another character that needs to develop in the writing.

-Russell and Ethan have barely scratched the surface in what I can tell. All I've seen Russell do is listen to his iPod and draw. There has to be a reason for all of that. Ethan? I read his bio which was as long as Mr. Snake's review. That kid, for being a short time regular character, seems to be headed for a dark future. Bullies, dead military father, and the biggest gem of them all: MOTHER IS A PORNSTAR. I think that kid might snap. I asked Blntmaker about that in a PQ and sure enough, he had a student whose parent was in the porn industry. Not unusual for Los Angeles.

But see, cultures and subcultures play roles in the storytelling too. Matter of fact, the city of Los Angeles and the Valley are also a characters in this comic. What I said about Vanessa seems very true. Some of you don't get it because it seems the closest exposure you've had to any culture like this is what you may have heard in a rap song or read in "The Boondocks". Yes Mr. Snake, I'll say it again, cheap shot.

With that in mind, this comic is not about the gags. Some of the stuff is funny, some of it is not funny, but that's the OK. Not every gag is hysterical and its not designed for everyone to get it. I didn't get the Andy Rooney gag in Episode 2.2, but I sure did research to find out Andy Rooney tends to rant about things that just do not make sense even when they do make sense. Get over that people and read a bit. Educate yourself. I'm sure most of what Aaron McGruder speaks on in his highly political comic make some of you want to run for an encyclopedia because it just might make you smarter to read on the subject.

Finally, the writing and subplots seem to be inter-related to teach a lesson. That's pretty much what I get from Better Luck Next Time. We all learn a bit about an education system that is far from perfect and hot button issues within in it like grade level retention are just the tip of the iceberg. I knew that once I started reading Blntmaker's research profiles, which I found pretty neat. Note to Blntmaker: You should do more of those to tie-in your themes.

The only "logical" premise here is the life lessons to be learned at an age where development is crucial for kids. Making it over-the-top intensifies the cartoonish value because after all, this is a comic. Where would Charles M. Schulz be today if he listened to some of you people give critique here. We'd have Schroder playing a keyboard that didn't require crouching and a beagle that really behaved like a dog and crapped all over Charlie Brown's rug from time to time.

OVERALL: B+/EFFORT a big fat A+
I say, keep doing what you're doing, Blntmaker. Your comic is in the vein of Doonsbury and your influence, Funky Winkerbean. I didn't know what Funky Winkerbean was until I did some reading up. Now that's a good comic. There are lots of comics on here filled with guys on couches being topical about pop culture stuff from PS2s to beer. Never mind the teen and school-themed comics that dig into being gay, lesbian or just surviving school. This site is loaded with that. I'm with smkinoshita on this one. This stands out and has the potential for bigger and, "better".

Here's what you do: Ease up on the story arcs a bit because you don't want this to be "Trapped In The Webcomic" and round out your characters and you just might pick up an appeal from people with more of an open mind about what you're doing. Also, don't try too hard with the gags because obviously, you're trying the intelligence depth of the people who are unfamiliar with certain topics or cultures you're trying to cover. You don't want to do that on this site.

This comic isn't for everyone that much is true. But that's what makes this a gem because of where the creator comes from as a teacher who is doing what he loves and trying to parlay it into the medium of webcomics.

YES! Another review for a comic that really deserves it! I have to admit I've never read BLNT's sync off-shoot, but it sounds like you have and now I'm going to have to do that at some point.

Actually, I should say "YES! Another WELL WRITTEN REVIEW", because those are hard to find.

In my book, you get points for knowing and liking Funky Winkerbean. We didn't get Funky until relatively recently in our paper, but we had Crankshaft, one of its offshoots, for awhile. Funky Winkerbean is one of those rarities: A quality syndicated comic. Hard to find these days. (Others include For Better Or For Worse, Non Sequitur and Bizarro to name a few)

I just PQ-ed KingOfSnake on his review and then I come here and find THIS action. Pretty cool!

All I have to say to KayleeVersus...um...versus WHO? Ahem...is THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! You say you live in the Valley here in LA - If you're ever in Altadena, come join me at the Coffee Grounds for tea! I need to put you on retainer!

You get my comic! You REALLY get my comic! Sounds like you've been reading the biographies closely and even checking out Synchronicity pretty deeply too! And thanks again, Scott. Or in Desmond-speak..."Good lookin' out, man".

This review thing is an educational experience for me. You learn a great deal about the process and the kind of people in this community. I appreciate everyone's feedback and promise that the evolution of BLNT will be ongoing!

Peace, man!

Holy crap. The King Of Snake and KayleeVersus review combination is exceptionally cool.

You hit the jackpot getting different well written views like those BLNTmaker!

Sorry if I came off as overtly hostile. I didnt intend to.

I just wanted to point out the things that I thought detracted from the overall quality of the comic, not to imply that there was nothing good about it.

I share some of KoS's opinions. I read a good deal of BLNT shortly after this review thread went live, & I was so torn in my reaction to the work that this will be the forth time I've started a review of it. Maybe I'll finish this one.

The enthusiasm behind the creation of this work is impossible to miss. It is obvious this is an act of shear love & dedication. I honestly do not type this as a consolation price, but because I was genuinely moved by the emotional impetus present in every page. So often I read books that come across to me as a creative person idly doodling during meetings during their 9 to 5 jobs. I could tell this story & it's characters were well-loved.

That being said, I had a dickens of a time making it through most of the archive, and was unable to finish it.

The art is WAY too busy, bordering, if not surpassing, cluttered. My mind very seldom knew where to rest on a given page, as the shifting silhouettes & similiar foreground/background intensity sorta gave me a headache. Given the artistic style exercised on this book, I was surprised I had this reaction. I very often had a dickens of a time discerning the depth within a panel. The approach to the art is simple, the finished image is not.

While the characters feel real, almost like the book has an autobiographical slant, the dialogue often comes across as written as opposed to spoken. I can hear the writer's hand when the characters speak. I don't know if this is because of the "joke-a-page" approach or just a stylistic approach of the creator, but I found that it constantly reminded me I was reading a comic, as opposed to watching someone's life unfold before me.

The plot itself also suffered from the deus ex machina present in the dialogue in more than a few points. I hold suspect the "gag-a-page" format myself, but whatever the reason, constantly being reminded that I was reading a comic took me out of the moment & ruined the illusion.

There is alot of heart in this book, but ultimately the execution undermined the effort & reminded me I was reading instead of experiencing.

Art 2.5/5

Writing 2.5/5