PolkOut

PolkOut is, for the most part, an autobiographical tale of social awkwardness and jerkassitude. It's overflows with pathos and raw human emotion, conveyed through a minimalistic art style.

i'm digging this comic.

no, the art isn't spectacular. however what it lacks in technical skill it makes up for in sheer creativity. for example, here http://www.drunkduck.com/PolkOut/?p=523044 , only the second comic, already you can see a distinct layout, a jumble of panels, speech, and etc. what caught my eye was the fourth panel, the guy going nuts with the slanted text behind him, even colored accordingly. i admit a small detail, but for whatever reason i really liked that. in any case, there is definitely an individual touch to the art, which i appreciate a great deal. especially seeing as how it has improved quite a bit throughout.

i do enjoy how personable the humor is; very quirky, and the artist is very unafraid to be himself, which i respect a lot. from intelligent xkcd inspired science jokes to jokes about combing your pubes upward to create the illusion of a healthy abundance of chest hair... this comic is not afraid to get stupid or smart. and i like that.

Polkout, for me, was quite a difficult comic for me to relate to. The artwork, yes, wasn't the greatest by any stretch of the imagination... but it didn't need to be. The creator gets his point across quite nicely with each comic, with only the occasional need to interpret what the heck's going on with the page.

However, my review of this comic really stops there. The subject matter didn't appeal to me at all, and I didn't find a lot of the jokes all that funny.

Does this make it a bad comic? Not at all. My genre of choice is serial comics, the longer the better... I prefer long-winded stories over the joke-a-day comics. This comic just simply isn't geared to my own personal target market, is all.

My apologies if I do not have much by the way of constructive criticism... it's simply not my taste, is all.

>Net

Writing:
As with all gag-a-day style comics, the humor will be hit or miss. I think a lot of the misses are due to me not being the target audience here (school-related jokes aren't going to be relevant to me - I'm old). I really enjoyed the writing with the coin story (it begins here ) - who doesn't love some good currency humor?

Art:
While it can be a little hard on the eyes and difficult to follow, I really appreciate the unusual paneling and layouts. I like the way the hair and expressions are drawn. On occasion, there is a large block of text that is squeezed into a tiny panel - this is an easy fix. Due to the nature of the comic, it would be easy and acceptable to experiment more with panel sizes and layouts in order to accomodate text and speech bubbles - I highly encourage that. I'd like to see more effort put into sharpening up the comic visually. Less MS Paint and more GIMP, perhaps.

Overall:
For some reason, I really love this one . Maybe it's because I wrote a paper on the blue-footed booby for a school project. I even made a papier mache one! It cracked me up.

This page is my favorite due to the sheer amount of effort and style. I love the crowds of people and gifts and the Pink Floyd shirt. Great work. This is what the comic should look like.

Net
Polkout, for me, was quite a difficult comic for me to relate to. The artwork, yes, wasn't the greatest by any stretch of the imagination... but it didn't need to be. The creator gets his point across quite nicely with each comic, with only the occasional need to interpret what the heck's going on with the page.

However, my review of this comic really stops there. The subject matter didn't appeal to me at all, and I didn't find a lot of the jokes all that funny.

Does this make it a bad comic? Not at all. My genre of choice is serial comics, the longer the better... I prefer long-winded stories over the joke-a-day comics. This comic just simply isn't geared to my own personal target market, is all.

My apologies if I do not have much by the way of constructive criticism... it's simply not my taste, is all.

>Net

Why even bother "reviewing" it then?

because it does have good points. As I said, you're able to get your point across quite nicely on most pages, and if one is into the sort of subject matter that your comic addresses, they'd likely like it.

Which is basically what my review said. I wanted to put *SOMETHING* down, since your comic hadn't received a lot of reviews yet. I wish I had something more constructive to say, honestly...

>Net

Fair enough.

Polkout review.

I am torn about how I feel about this comic. It works on what it is supposed to be, but the humor is a big turn-off. I’m a reformed smart ass and can identify so much of the comic’s subject matter but opinions change.

The art is perfect for it’s subject matter. Its chaos reflects the nature of the jokes and adds to how the artist intends them to be taken. Some of the gags take many words to get across and the panel design suffers. The art differs over the course of the strip and uniformity of style and presentation would assist the flow of the strip from day to day. I like the occasional scribble appearance as it makes the comic look like a doodle in the margins of a student’s notebook.

The writing needs to be tightened up. Some of the statements take too many words and crowd out the panel. Too much explanation can kill a gag and it is hit and miss. More miss than hit, but then that may a reflection of my opinion of the subject matter. It brings back memories that today are embarrassing and come across as very immature but I’m not going to hold my nose and I will say that there is an audience for this and they will enjoy the comic. A variation of reaction to the set-up would add to the strip as the dumb-founded reaction or “I’m going to kill you” gets tired. Introducing a character that can give as good as he gets and provide some verbal sparring or a true foil who encourages and feeds into the humor would help keep the comic fresh.

As a teacher I dread students like this. However I can usually disarm them, hit them with my vicious sarcastic wit and disarm their attention getting behavior. Or just do what a teacher without my gift is supposed to do and completely ignore the statement and minimize the behavior. My experience as a teacher and seeing the smart-ass student from the other side ruined any joy I could have gotten from the strip, but I’d recommend it to fans of such comics.

This comic is great. Nuff said.

Art:
The minimalistic art style matches up with the crude but funny humor and the borders (or lack thereof) are a unique touch. Choice of colors are good and they aren't too saturated or anything. As another comic artist, I have nothing to complain about in this comic artistically.

Writing:
The jokes are hit or miss for me, I like crude stuff, but sometimes it goes too far and I don't like it as much, not that that matters, Polkster will still keep doing it. This is the same kind of humor that the Splash Damage writer would want to do, but I hold him back.
Sometimes, the comic gets really bogged down with text and that can be a bit annoying. So that's the only real issue I have with it that I can think of right now.

We're recommending this comic for anyone who can take the crudeness.

-The Darrel

I like it its kind of like if Morning Squirtz & cyanide & happiness has an ugly redheaded step child.

I'm going to judge this a little harder because I feel that you are super great.


Art: It conveys everything well. I wouldn't want a comic like this to be drawn in any other way. I liked it a bunch. The subtly and expressiveness of your characters is the defining feature of your art. The comic that featured Pooh and his poo was were I really took notice of this. The difference between your main character's expression when he first exclaims "like a bear" and the second made him appear like an actual (albeit eccentric) person would have while explaining that story. Your Characters seem real (In an over dramatic kind of way) because of the way you articulate them. This is a feat that practically no one on this site has mastered to such a degree (IMO).

Your use of color is refreshing and appropriate as well.


Writing: When it's good it's a bust out loud laughing knee slapper (which is often). When it's bad it's usually still funny. Your main problem I feel is that you frequently have a very strong set up and then fubar it on the punchline. It's not a problem if you are content with the popularity of your comic as it stands, however, with your potential as a writer/artist you could do wonderful things if the punchlines always hit home and hit home hard. Spend a little more time figuring out what the funniest thing you could do at the end of a strip is. If the set up will not allow anything substantially hilarious throw the strip idea out. You can afford it. You are running a pseudo slice of life comic and you, I'm guessing, are a laugh riot in real life. Just keep thinking and experimenting and you'll be churning out one of the funniest comics on the tubes.


Layout: Awful to begin with. As time progresses it becomes fantastic.



Overall: Everything in this comic comes together almost perfectly. Hone your craft. Charlie loves you.

9/10 (Because you have some room to grow)

K, this my first review thingy, so bear with me on this.

Art
Artistically, there is not a whole lot to say; it's kinda like Cyanide & Happiness from the waist up with hair. It's very simple. With that said, I still love it to pieces. All the characters emote very well. Sometimes it's really wierd, sometimes it's adorable and it's all just a joy to look at. The layout is really nice, too. Very unique, I love it. :D

Wrting
Easily the funniest thing I've read all week. Some of the jokes were gloriously creepy and offensive, and some were just flat-out funny. I think the first few fall into the latter, like the science class ones in the first 3. This one right here probably creeped me out the most, which is most of the reason this is one of my favorites.

Overall
I love PolkOut to death, and I only just read it today. Instant favorite, instant 4 stars. You are amazing. :D

K second review

Its a very simple comic(Art,coloring,comedy,characters)so there is not much to talk about . But theres one thing and that is that its just freakin' random! I read some and was confused and lost out of mind. I really didn't find it funny because I don't like that kind of humor but thats only my opinion because my sister found it hilarious. Every once in a while it had its ok points but other than that I rate it maybe a 5/10.