Stickman and Cube

No one biting? Ah well I guess I will.

First off, as stated before I am not a fan of man gag a day strips or stickman strips... bad start I guess.

So going to the beginning and... it's a stickman (and cube) strip with no real gag trying to be clever about the fact it looks rubbish and has no gag. A perfect entry for some kind of how not to make a webcomic entry but a poor start to a comic... or is it? Well pretty much but it has just enough cheekiness to the dialogue to almost get away with it.
After that things pick up with some mildly amusing strips before it comes back the strip linked below.
http://www.drunkduck.com/Stickman_and_Cube/index.php?p=251951
Which is like the first one only without the charm.

Things do improve again, it seems to sit at an average of mildly amusing but every so often it does shine.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Stickman_and_Cube/index.php?p=256280

And after a while the reused but slightly different gags start becoming more interesting and amusing, well slightly some of the time.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Stickman_and_Cube/index.php?p=296810

Overall I can't fully recommend it, going through the archive was a bit of a chore to be honest, I think I groaned more than laughed. Sometimes a mixture of the two.

It can be funny but really needs a little more work.

Art:
The art in this comic is deliberately bad; that isn't a good thing. The fact that each of the last 400 pages has used copied and pasted images means that pieguy has never actually been able to improve on his artwork, 400 pages is more than enough to have significantly improved the artwork. I get that it's supposed to look bad and I do believe that art isn't as important in strip comics as it is in stories; but the art should always be presentable, Stickman and Cube is not.
As with a lot of MSpaint comics, the art hinders the jokes. Having a flat boring world, where characters can't express any emotions makes it hard for any of the jokes to hit. If Stickman and Cube could express emotions I think this comic would be much better. Look at xkcd, even though there is no actual faces in that comic, Randall Monroe does a good job of conveying emotion through body language. This comic makes frequent use of beat frames, this is usually a good technique but without conveying any emotions they don't do much.
Another issue with the art is that there is very little change in any shot types, this just makes things boring. As well as this, art can often be used as a tool for conveying humor, it never is here. For example, there's one comic where Stickman is in hell and he's told to stand in line, at this point we see a few people standing around, not really the big line that's implied. The comic could have had a different view of the line, showing it stretching off into the distance.
There are plenty of jokes in this comic that would have been funny had the art conveyed them properly; however, with the art how it is the jokes just seem bland as having bland art causes bland jokes.

Writing:
The humor in this comic can often be amusing, unfortunately that's not all the time. Too often does it seem to rely upon meta-jokes, which are really just a crutch. The fatal flaw in this comic is how often the butt of the joke is how lazy the author and bad the art is.
In all fairness the jokes have improved, I think there is less "how lazy is the artist, right guys? lol" jokes than their used to be. They're still there and as unfunny as ever, but it's nice to see things improving. I did rather like the 2010 election comics.
It's not like all the jokes are bad or anything, this comic certainly has its moments. Sadly, as I said earlier a lot of these moments are hurt by the art, other moments are just ruined by poor pacing which cause the jokes to fall flat without really any punch to it at all.

This is one example: http://www.drunkduck.com/Stickman_and_Cube/index.php?p=774023
This is a comic I made up quickly with the same script but changed the pacing, and added facial expression and different shot types: http://www.drunkduck.com/Thors_Thundershack/gfx/smandc.png
The same process can be done with a lot of the comics, improve the art, change the pacing a little, give them faces, and the comic's funnier. Adding stuff like this just makes the joke more sharp instead of them feeling flat the whole time.

On a lighter note, I really thought that the dialouge between Stickman and Cube was clever and funny. It just fell flat too often. Funny ideas are there, just not kickin' in right.

In conclusion:
It's not like this comic is terrible, it just needs improvement. It suffers from laziness more than anything. My honest advice for pieguy is to ditch MSpaint and start improving the art, no more copy/paste, and also stop making jokes about how bad the art is. I think pieguy should hone in on his main talent, writing dialogue and focus on that more. If pieguy wants his comic to be taken seriously and be well liked then its about time he put more effort into improving it.
Eventually, when your art's decent enough and your jokes are working, scrap Stickman and Cube and just start a new comic. One where the characters have absolutely no knowledge of being in a comic.

TL;DR
Stickman and Cube isn't good in its current state but would be with better art and less meta-humor.

Stickman and Cube is a niche comic. It is not for everyone, but it has a large following (I'm jealous) and even a range of merchandise (jealous again).

The art is simple to the point of making a minimalist cry ... and that's the point.

There are meta-jokes that are run into the ground, stepped on, scooped up, shot, hacked to bits and spread on the lawn as fertilizer so they can be stepped on again ... and that's the point.

I don't think there's much point proclaiming this comic to be anything more than what it is ... a minimalist humour strip that derives much of its humour from the fact that it is a minimalist humour strip.

You will either find it funny and proclaim, "I love it!"; or feel uneasy about it, in a "I can't believe I'm reading this and laughing sometimes ... please make it stop! Scoop out my eyeballs if necessary!" kind of way; or possibly some combination of the two, "I love it, but please scoop out my eyeballs!"

(Note: I would have purchased a Cube mug from the 'Stickmart' ... a mug with a picture of a cube on it; genius! ... but the postage and packing to my part of the world was more than the mug itself. Sigh.)

By the way, my review may have seemed pretty negative, but I still do believe that Stickman and Cube has genuine charm and humor and that plenty of strips, even more so recently, have been funny.

All right, I guess I will start with the art. I do agree with BffSatan to a point. The artwork can detract from the joke, but only when the artwork is distracting, I understand that PieGuy is working with MsPaint and that the state of the art is not a lack of skill on his part, yet the complex backgrounds can draw away from the jokes. My case and point:
http://www.drunkduck.com/Stickman_and_Cube/index.php?p=677160
I think the comics where they go to hell are great, yet the background distracted me and took some of the edge off of the joke.

On to the righting. I love PieGuy's sense of humor. Honestly I like the fact that this comic's success is solely based on the humor. I dislike comics where the strip relies on the artwork, art is great and necessary for a comic, yet writing is the main factor. Yet, I digress. The writing is good, simple, and easy to follow. PieGuy does not suffer from the same continuity issues most do. By making many of his comics Independence and ending the narratives in a timely manner he is able to keep the plot from reaching critical mass and twisting itself until it breaks. Yet I digress again.

Alright, this last part will be a response to previous reviews because I am conceited enough to do so. Do not feel the need to keep reading, this is more for me than anyone else. First, Genejoke, you have some points, and I agree that some of his earlier comics lacked the charm he has developed with experience. Yet I think you just find yourself above his jokes and thus if you do find yourself laughing you immediately stop because the joke seems immature. That is me trying to be civil, and not offend, I am sorry if I did, and what I said could be completely wrong, it is just a hunch. I already covered BffSatan so I will make this brief, you are right somewhat about the art, to an extent, and the writing I agree with some of what you say, we probably just have different senses of humor, thus we will naturally have differing opinions. Last, but not least, Gunwallace. You are right on in the statement "Stickman and Cube is a niche comic." I could not agree more. You bring up great points, some of which I expand upon, with less... humor. Well That was cathartic, thanks for indulging me everyone, and congratulations on making it this far, as most fall out after the first paragraph.

To the three reviewers that I talked about, I hope I did not hurt your feelings and did not irritate you in any way.

Oh right, in short, I recommend that you stick with it for a while, the beginning can be a little slow but it picks up and don't be afraid to laugh at some of the less mature jokes. That Is all.
Unaltor