Review: Mr. Stickman.

Jacob Harding and Daniel Blythe, or Team Stick, have rained down upon us Mr. Stickman, the comedy webcomic that updates every Wednesday. I'm going to keep this one short, because there isn't a lot for me to really get into detail about, and I have a couple of Hot Pockets cooling down in the microwave. Okay, so the creators decided to ask for constructive criticism on a webcomic forum that I frequent, and I couldn't help but take a gander myself, and what I witnessed, well....here we go.

The title itself will most likely make the majority of people cringe, but stick figures don't necessarily mean that you're going to get a crappy comic. Cyanide and Happiness is a great example of a funny comic, with bare bones art. There are plenty of others out there. The point being that you can have simplistic art, but great writing and funny jokes can move mountains. Mr. Stickman MIGHT be able to topple an anthill. With the help of a strong gust of wind. The characters seem to know that they are in a comic, and that's about as original as this comic gets. I will give them credit for the fact that the writing is decent enough in that I can understand it, it's just that the situations the characters find themselves in aren't funny. Funny is pretty much up to individual taste, but I really don't think you're going to find a lot of people who find this comic to be a hoot.

The art here is really, really bad. I'm not one to be a harsh critic, but I wonder how old these two chaps are. In my head, they are maybe twelve and thirteen, trying really hard to get their comic off the ground, and thinking all the while that it's so awesome. Well, sorry dudes, but this is pretty bad stuff. Try much? Put some effort into it, instead of making a terrible strip and then apologizing for how bad it is. How can you do a stick figure comic, and then have trouble drawing a decent stick figure? Man.....to be honest, I was extremely frustrated when first reading these strips, because they could easily be much, much better. Small things, such as Separating the panels, erasing messy lines from the background, creating something akin to a word bubble, instead of the sloppy blobs encompassing the dialogue....simple things. Please, try em sometime. It will only make the comic better.

In closing, try the comic if you want to have a lesson in what not to do. Or, better yet, give them some constructive criticism in the comments box under each comic. Maybe they will take some of this to heart and try to improve. We can all use improvement. Only Mr. Stickman needs major surgery, or it's going to die a slow, painful death.
I generously give Mr. Stickman...