Confused on legality....

[Dominic Durgan]

Hahah, Elfelo.

I'll be interested to see what Durgan does with the orc rape storyline. May even make up for the braincells lost when I tried to understand the original comics.

Hey, come on. I cannot work miracles.

[EvilChihuahua]

To be fair, DD isn't exactly worse than the hundreds of other badly written webcomics. It's simply a victim of it's own popularity, which it owes most of to the fact that Mookie knows a few of the greats from cons and stuff.

[Swiftbow]

On the subject of fair use, you're all forgetting the parody clause, which is how things like Mad magazine make money and don't get sued.

[Ataraxia]

To be fair, DD isn't exactly worse than the hundreds of other badly written webcomics. It's simply a victim of it's own popularity, which it owes most of to the fact that Mookie knows a few of the greats from cons and stuff.

On the intenet, there is no such thing as "worst". Every time you think you've hit rock bottom, you find something new and even more disturbing underneath. Sure, DD is bad, but it's no "Tubgirl and Friends"... But based on the few pages I read and the report that it has a "justified rape/orc rape" storyline I'd say that DD is bad enough.

[P-Frank]

Yeah, I've read a few comics about bands, and the bits where they play music usually sucks.

A pin-up my girlfriend did for the comic, The Amazing Joy Buzzards. If you want a comic about music, that has people playing it, and you want it to be actually good. That is the comic for you. Go buy it

[Kasaii]

To be fair, DD isn't exactly worse than the hundreds of other badly written webcomics. It's simply a victim of it's own popularity, which it owes most of to the fact that Mookie knows a few of the greats from cons and stuff.

On the intenet, there is no such thing as "worst". Every time you think you've hit rock bottom, you find something new and even more disturbing underneath. Sure, DD is bad, but it's no "Tubgirl and Friends"... But based on the few pages I read and the report that it has a "justified rape/orc rape" storyline I'd say that DD is bad enough.

In defense of DD, I feel I should clarify the "justified rape" thing, since that's a fairly serious charge. The storyline in question created a situation where the 'rapist', for lack of a better word, was an entire tribe that forced an orc boy to have sex with an orc girl against her will in order for both of them to live. It was presented as a horrible act that scarred them both. The only 'justification' is her forgiving him for being the physical conduit of the tribe's terrible actions. The tribe is not given any sort of sympathy, nor should it be.

[Ryuko]

In the off-topic topic of music in comics, I particularly like this sequence in Crowfeathers, where they have the midi of the music they're singing on the page, and you can read along to the lyrics to the music. It was so nice that I wish I could do that in my comic somewhere.

[Dominic Durgan]

In defense of DD, I feel I should clarify the "justified rape" thing, since that's a fairly serious charge. The storyline in question created a situation where the 'rapist', for lack of a better word, was an entire tribe that forced an orc boy to have sex with an orc girl against her will in order for both of them to live. It was presented as a horrible act that scarred them both. The only 'justification' is her forgiving him for being the physical conduit of the tribe's terrible actions. The tribe is not given any sort of sympathy, nor should it be.

Already been covered:

Think about it: Dominic Deegan has outright stated that there is an afterlife. People have souls, which have been seen to go to A Better Place after they die (when not getting gangbanged by evil wizards). People who lead a good life go to Heaven, jerks go to Hell. This is fact, not theology. Souls and the afterlife have been observed by many people within the comic itself. So when a girl's parents are killed, the obviously correct solution is to kill the girl as well so the entire family is reunited in Heaven and everybody's happy. Instead, What's-his-face decides she'd be better off if she was raped, cast out into the wilderness to fend for herself and perhaps even losing her chance at going to Heaven forever.

AWESOME.

Any attempt to explain away the fact that Mookie loves him some orc rape can be countered by both that, and also the fact he's a misogynist.

In the off-topic topic of music in comics, I particularly like this sequence in Crowfeathers, where they have the midi of the music they're singing on the page, and you can read along to the lyrics to the music. It was so nice that I wish I could do that in my comic somewhere.

And Tailsteak's Band manages to do it quite well. I think the key point is that you have to either be an incredibly good artist or an incredibly creative individual in order to represent music in a soundless medium. Mookie isn't even an average artist, and he's creative like Kansas is mountainous. His "drawing style" is very flat and lifeless, which doesn't help... well, anything. But it definitely doesn't do any favours in trying to evoke mood or emotion in a scene.

Also he's apparently not musically inclined in the slightest, seeing how he can't write song lyrics to save his life.

[Dominic Durgan]

Also lmao sup P-Frank.

[Legendary]

Also he's apparently not musically inclined in the slightest, seeing how he can't write song lyrics to save his life.

He strikes down his enemiiiiiiiiies with the Sword of Centuriiiiiiiies.

Mookie's gonna cut you, man.

[TRI]

Um. Could be totally misguided here but does that song fit the tune of American Pie by any chance?

[Legendary]

Okay, Mookie has crossed over from "Very uncomfortable territory" to "I am creeped the hell out."

[TRI]

I'll take that as a "yes."

[Dominic Durgan]

Okay, Mookie has crossed over from "Very uncomfortable territory" to "I am creeped the hell out."

Welcome to the wonderful world of webcomics-based-upon-fetishes. I think this might be the emoticon you're looking for:

[Turnsky]

On the subject of fair use, you're all forgetting the parody clause, which is how things like Mad magazine make money and don't get sued.

http://www.jamesshuggins.com/h/oth1/parody.htm

some articles and links.

[Kasaii]

That's a stupid argument, Durgan.

A) The people in the comic interacting with the afterlife are in fact people who are routinely exposed to the supernatural. That's like suggesting that because there is a Heaven in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy shouldn't be going out and saving people.

B) More importantly, that's a philosophy that I find extremely disturbing. You're advocating a "kill them all and let God sort it out" policy. This may come as a surprise, but a lot of people truly, firmly believe that when we die, in the real world, we will be reunited with our loved ones in Heaven. If you tell them it's just 'supposition', not 'fact', they will often be fairly offended. The fact remains that saving lives is a good act.

I'm not going to try to change your opinion about the comic as a whole, but trying to justify your hate by turning everything into a fetish on the author's part is far more disturbing than anything in the source material. There was nothing in that scene that was in any way supposed to be attractive.

[Keffria]

Has anyone linked this thread yet? It pretty much covers all of what I'm sure will be dragged out over here, except that it doesn't descend into a flame war.

Also, Elfelo. I guess I didn't manage to make it to the parts of the comic that were funny as well as being horrendously awful.

[Dominic Durgan]

That's a stupid argument, Durgan.

A) The people in the comic interacting with the afterlife are in fact people who are routinely exposed to the supernatural. That's like suggesting that because there is a Heaven in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy shouldn't be going out and saving people.

B) More importantly, that's a philosophy that I find extremely disturbing. You're advocating a "kill them all and let God sort it out" policy. This may come as a surprise, but a lot of people truly, firmly believe that when we die, in the real world, we will be reunited with our loved ones in Heaven. If you tell them it's just 'supposition', not 'fact', they will often be fairly offended. The fact remains that saving lives is a good act.

I'm not going to try to change your opinion about the comic as a whole, but trying to justify your hate by turning everything into a fetish on the author's part is far more disturbing than anything in the source material. There was nothing in that scene that was in any way supposed to be attractive.

A) Buffy the Vampire Slayer is modern (urban/suburban) fantasy. The whole deal is "the world between the cracks in the sidewalk" like so much other M(U/S)F. Deegan, however, is straight up formulaic high fantasy. The world is intrinsically bound to a very confusing, very inconsistent form of magic but bound nonetheless. The magical nature, and existence of super/para/meta/alternormal entities/worlds is (while perhaps not common knowledge) known by a sufficiently large portion of the population. Buffy saves people because that's her prerogative as the Vampire Slayer. Deegan saves people because, uh, Mookie lives vicariously through his darling self-insertion character.

B) Actually, what I was suggesting is more along the lines of a "mercy killing" than the #2 excuse for mass murder. (The #1 is "Satan made me do it.") The choices were for her to die, and so rejoin her family in Heaven and live a blissful life along with all the other good people and rapists who didn't actually mean it, or for her to get raped. Now call me an idiot but if I was a 14-year-old girl and I had a choice between a quick, relatively painless death and 15 minutes of some smelly 15-year-old raping me... I would opt for life everlasting. It's pretty much a no-brainer, to be honest.

Saving lives is a perfectly decent act just so long as it doesn't involve raping a 14-year-old girl. That's what we call a "leave it alone" situation. And I mean, jeez, unless orcs have radically different genitalia, the little bastard had to have got a boner at some point during the "procedure". That's just a horrifying thought.

Mookie's a misogynist, whether he realises it or not. I think he does. Try finding me a female character in Dominic Deegan who is still alive and hasn't, at any point, been evil, humiliated, exploited or suffered from crippling depression. Even the ones who died fit into those categories. I think the only one who doesn't fit the bill is Deegan's mother, and that's straying into Freudian territory.

Has anyone linked this thread yet? It pretty much covers all of what I'm sure will be dragged out over here, except that it doesn't descend into a flame war.

A thread? About me? Oh, I am loved! And let me tell you, it would have been a flame war a damn sight sooner if I'd know of it sooner

[The Neko]

Aw, man! I can't believe I missed this thread!

Deegan is mostly just sad because he hasn't gotten better in the years he's been drawing it. Seriously, how does one just stop having the urge to improve?

[Dominic Durgan]

Maybe it's like that whole fat girl/feeder dynamic and Mookie has someone encouraging him to be a lousy artist and an even lousier writer? Because otherwise I really, really can't see how someone can be happy to stagnate like that.