Here comes another one!

http://teo.spiderspawn.com

Oh Try Everything Once. I've been reading this comic for...a rather long time actually. You see it's kind of a (not really) funny story. I had seen Ian Jay post on the forums, and I saw a few of his comics in certain DD jams that happened but I never really bothered to get into TEO. Not until I finally clicked that link in his sig...well it must have been the second or third time. Ian's art takes some getting used to. And so, while some of the instant wit on his jam comics got me farmiliar with his humor, I wasn't sure how this long running story would go on like.

I'm glad I decided to finally read it, that's all I have to say.

Ian's art, while taking some getting used to, is covered in individualism (feel free to use this sentence on the back of a possible TEO book as praise :P). I mean, the design of each character speaks of their personality. The sketchy art leads to some dramatic camera angles, since I suppose they're easier to draw when everything doesn't have to look perfect, and the coloring is rugged and stylistic (although that might just be because Ian was coloring with the mouse as opposed to his new tablet which effects will be seen on the next page).

The story is a crazy joyride of space (you gotta have space for an adventure like this) and bands. And music sequences which are the completely awesome and make use of some snazzy Photoshop coloring. Ian uses his comic to parody the music scene, crazy fans, religion, civilization, media, and um...a lot of other stuff, and still pulls off a great plot which continues to surprise and be awesome.

Now it would be entirely possible for TEO to fall into a completely satirical/almost cynical comic-type setting, but I have enough faith in Ian's humor (just read his forum posts, for Gods sakes!) to say that this will never happen. Unless he becomes a cynic.

In closing I wish this comic updated more, and I hope that Ian someday writes pro comics or directs a major TV animation. Or at the very least publishes TEO. And if Try Everything Once DOES get self published I want a shot at writing the introduction.

Final Thoughts? READ TEO NOW. No, drop those history books and studying materials and read this comic! I don't really care if you fail your next test. And now I'm going to stop reviewing before I go off on any more of a tangent.

You know what a really good comic to read is?
Try Everything Once.

At first, I thought Mr. Jay's art was horrible, something often seen in MSpaint mishaps that frequantly crawl around the duck to this day. But, as CCs said, it takes some getting used to. After a while, I started to figure out that his art was just fantastically different. A new wave in the endless sea of VERY similar looking stuff. And you can tell that he puts a LOT of effort into it, which I believe is a fantastic addition to the process. I think it looks great.

The humor? Well, I must say that this is one of the first times I've seen a comic on Drunk Duck that injects explosive, hysterical laughter with every sentance on the comic. In addition it has a well thought out story (space band! IN SPACE!). I like the charcters, like how one of them quite literally LIVES off sound to survive, and the other happens to be the daughter of the owner of a multigalactical supercorporation, whose business is about to be crushed by an evil competitor! I can't wait to see what THAT will add to the story as well!

So all in all, TEO is one of my favorite comics online. I most certainly will put it up on my links page when I finally get to changing it.

(Forgive occasional misspellings or incoherent-ness. It is very late at night. @_@ )

First Reaction Upon Clicking the link: "AAAYE! SCRIBBLE-HAIR!"

But I'm sure you're well aware of that, anyway. xP Alright, what did work for this comic?


My favorite parts of this comic are the moody panals used whenever the Flaming Crutons (xD) were jammin'. I think perhaps you want some insight onto how those ended up, so I will search to pick out the one I liked the best.

Interestingly enough, I liked the composition and colors of the proformance in This Page the best. Despite the sketchy linework, that particular panal has its mood and it is also still organized enough to understand.

This Page I like as second best. Mostly, I enjoy all of the orange tints and the implications of fire. However, since the theme here is as such, I would add more light to it. I see the swirling designs, but they are not luminated enough to give a full effect. I do love the moods in panals like these, however, and it really helps me grasp a feel of the music despite the absence of sound.


I really wish these guys were not all so sketchy, though. In the beginning of the comic, it was hard for me to create some kind of bond or have an attatchment to any of the characters... Mainly because I was just having enough trouble trying to see them amidst all the insane linework. My favorite character is Lloyd, though, I am reminded of an old cartoon show (the title I have forgotten), with the main character being.... a *pink* wormfaced man. That's just my eccentric mind at play, though. I did enjoy learning about how Lloyd feeds off of sound, and that's what I like best about him. Aside from eating, I wonder about how he speaks. o_O; But, being honest as I can be here, Lloyd is really about the only character that I like... I think this is because Lloyd can stand out from all the sketch-work... Perhaps, ironically, due to his simple design amongst complexity.

The humor is pretty good for this comic. I liked how they ran into a planet. That had me giggling. xD Although the little martians that were worshipping the toy there hadn't really caught my funny bone the right way... Perhaps it was just too "rediculous" of an idea and not necessarily "silly" enough...?


All in all, this comic is very entertaining and does have it's "Soul". I just wish the art would be cleaned up a bit so that I could see more of everything...!

Watch out for becoming repetative though... Rock Opera type stuff has never been entirely my thing because it becomes repetative too fast... (they do stuff, they sing, they do stuff, they sing).... So that is an early warning that you probably wouldn't need anyway.

@__@v *peace OOOUT*

If there is one thing I love, it's sketchy, messy humor-istic comics, with good coloring/character designs.

I flipped through Ian's website and I must say I loved what I saw. While I thoroughly disliked the beginning, on account of me trying to think of the comic as a non-Breaking the 4th Wall comic, I continued to read it.

However, a complaint about the earlier text bubbles: They swarmed the pages and made me NOT want to read the comic, and skip to the last panel. Everywhere you looked, there were more and more text bubbles. Also, the font seemed too small for an effect like this, and it just kind of swarmed together.

However, I find the humor and/or art made up for this in a lot of the comics. I was not able to read all 40-some of the comics, but the first 10 and last 10 gave me a pretty good feel for what Ian's got, and I think he's got some pretty good potential. I just love the character design for Lloyd, the Mouthless, Sound-Absorbant character who always seems to be laid-back, and kind of a paced character, who always has the right answers.

I'd read this if I ever came upon it, but, sorry, I didn't find it bookmark-worthy.

Keep working on it Ian!

Ahh... so many fine and varied reviews!

Css, I wasn't expecting so glowing a review from you. You're like my posse. A posse of one. Thanks.

Barb, I agree that blocks of color would work well with my art style. However, I have to play around with it first-- I can't just spring a new look on viewers. But you will see the results of my experimenting sometime soon... here on DD... foreshadowing...

Giandroid, I'm getting around to finishing those plotlines I so eagerly planted back in, what, last April or whenever. Just... not there yet, in terms of plot. Soon, though. TEO is like a glacier: It doesn't move very fast, but it still carves the sides out of mountains.

Fyrsiel, I agree that the whole "rock opera thing" becomes repetitive after a while. (I'm working on that.) And was the TV show you were looking for called "Earthworm Jim"? (That Doug TenNapel, he knows where it's at...)

The Man from C.O.R.Y., I know that my earlier pages suck. But what do you want me to do? Redraw them or something? Pfah! I have to move the plot on faster as it is! Maybe when this book of TEO is done and I have a lot of time on my hands, but as of now they stand as a sort of testament to my early, suckier days. (I'm saddened by the fact that you didn't find it bookmark-worthy. I at least hope that you found TEO tell-all-your-friends-how-awesome-it-is-worthy.)

Thanks, guys. I've really been trying to improve, but right now I feel like TEO is either a really good amateur-looking comic or a really bad professional-looking comic. Or maybe both. Or maybe neither. I don't really know. But, hey, that's why it's a weekly serial, right? You update one week, go back, work on your technique and style, then update next week with something a little better, and so on, and so on, and so on. Resting on laurels is for dorks.

Keep them reviews coming! And keep reading TEO!

~IJ

One thing I'd really advise you to do after reading the few really-early pages again is to make the pages with ALL THE TEXT (this one, for example ) bigger. Because that really made my head hurt, and I'm pretty sure I probably skipped a lot of it on the first read as well.

Ian Jay
Fyrsiel, I agree that the whole "rock opera thing" becomes repetitive after a while. (I'm working on that.) And was the TV show you were looking for called "Earthworm Jim"? (That Doug TenNapel, he knows where it's at...)

Yessir, Earthworm Jim. *Usually, I can remember random nostalgic stuff like that, but that title had slipped my mind, temporarily xP*

I meant no offence, I just try to be honest in my reviews.

Also! No, I don't expect you to go back and redraw your earlier comics, but if you didn't expect them to be in the review, you shouldn't have uploaded them to the index (not saying you should've, I'm kind of being ironic here).

I do like your comic, and believe it or not I did think about it the next time I heard Outkast's "Hey-Ya," which is uncommon for a comic (to put an impression on me, that is), so don't think all is lost.

I liked your work, and I think that was the first thing I said in the original review, and that's not common nowadays, with all these sprite comics and whatnot showing up on DD.com, it's got my head spinning.

Consider it a polished rock in a large, large pile of crap. I think that puts it best. A polished rock is better than crap, but you can always get diamonds. Keep going with it Ian. I'll check it out every time I come upon it.

CORY
Consider it a polished rock in a large, large pile of crap.

Dude...

That's it. That's, like, the best review I've ever gotten. Not the highest apprasing review, but the best and most easily quoted. I'm definitely puttin' this up on my page somewhere.

And CSS, I'll get to enlarging Page 4 right away.

~IJ