Favorite M.I. so far?

Discuss Scott McCloud's current online comic project. Be sure to check out <a href="http://www.scottmccloud.com/comics/mi/mi.html">the latest improv</a>!

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Which is your favorite Improv so far?

Happy Town
2
4%
Brad's Somber Mood
17
30%
I Am the Most Beautiful Dog in the World
5
9%
Flap those Flagella Like You Mean It!
1
2%
Man-Eating Shoes
4
7%
Meadow of the Damned
17
30%
Robots Love to Dance!
4
7%
When Luna Smiles
1
2%
Inertia Man
3
5%
No One Tells Interesting Jeff What to Do!
3
5%
 
Total votes: 57

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Greg Stephens
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Favorite M.I. so far?

Post by Greg Stephens »

These are the Improvs that have been completed as of April 2, so "The Paralellogram's Revenge" isn't included. Wouldn't be fair, you see, to vote on a work in progress.

Me? I like "I am the most beautiful dog in the world."
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Post by Randy »

I liked the art in "When Luna Smiles". I find the abstract nature of the storytelling to be refreshing. Most comics feature characters that tell you exactly what you are supposed to think about what happened, while Luna lets me just enjoy my personal version of it. Bravo to Scott!

later,
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Post by buzzard »

My favorite strip is Brad's Somber Mood: quirky art & use of fonts, some general silliness, and a nice ending.

I love some the more extreme art style of Proto the Pet. The Parallelogram's Revenge is an interesting move in the other direction.

When Luna Smiles doesn't work for me because the one processed-photograph image breaks me out of the mood. This may just be me--I've had the same reaction to a couple of other works that mixed media similarly, although other viewers didn't seem to mind.
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Post by Scott McCloud »

Ooh, cool feature!

I notice that you have to be logged in to vote, though, so if any of you are wondering why there's no submit button, now you know.

Just log in and return to this page to cast your vote.
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Post by losttoy »

It hard to say. I have always enjoyed McCloud's work and find it fun, creative and innovative. It takes some thought ... I hope you do not mind if I ramble.

Happy Town: reminds me of those old "Mr." books except dark and twisted. Although the story doesn't really end and reminds me of the comics I drew in junior high.
Proto: I love the art. Good story, but just doesn't capture me.
Brad's Somer Mood: is hilarious. The characters practicly jump off the screen and talk to you. I would love to see this story become a full-sized comic or a serialized story somewhere.
Most Beautifull Dog: Makes me want to smile. Has got to be one of the top canidates. It has that Charles Schulz feeling to it. I show this story to non-comic readers too enjoy.
Flagella: is new ... entertaining and educational all in a comic! How offen does that happen? Although the ending seems like the end to stories in creative writing class in high school. If you do not know what should happen next, have a truck drive through the wall and kill the characters. :P
Man Eating Shoes: is cute. Short. Would have loved to see some teeth or fangs on them shoes.
Meadow of the Damn: is just wonderfull. It is a well thought out story that had me checking for updates twice a day. It was drawn in the typical McCloud comic style that I have grown and love. It has a solid story and is very comical.
Robots like to Dance: Cute ... fun.
When Luna Smiles: is a bit too artsy for me. I agree with buzzard about the photo. Porphyria's Lover was better on poetry->comic.
Inertia Man & Interesting Jeff: are good "Gag-of-the-Day" comic strips. As much as I enjoy them, I kind of expected to see more content.

So all this rambling and I still haven't decided ... can I vote more than once?
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Re: the Poll feature

Post by Greg Stephens »

Sorry, only one vote per customer! I really try to be inclusive here, but unfortunately in order for the polls to be accurate or meaningful (even though they're just for fun), the only way to track 'em is by user ID, which means, yeah, you've gotta be registered and logged in.
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hard pick between Proto and Inertia Man

Post by Robin Skyler »

Although really my favorite part of Inertia Man is the first (non-title) frame, which kind of sums up the whole episode. Well, and I like the last frame of course. But I think Proto gets my vote thus far.

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Interesting Jeff

Post by MSUSpar10 »

Loved the title.

Meadow of the Damned was good, but waaaaaay too long. It seemed to be less improv. I felt like Scott knew what was going to happen, and that took som eof the fun out of it.
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Post by Aris Katsaris »

Taking out of consideration the completely one-joke improvisations (the Robots, Man-eating shoes, Inertia man, Interesting Jeff, Most beautiful Dog), we're left with the Meadows, Brad's somber mood, Happy Town, Proto, Flap those Flagella, and When Luna smiles...

Out of these, "Flap those Flagella Like You Mean It" had great promise but Scott seems to have gotten tired of it too soon and just decided to kill everyone - an unconnected, non-thematic ending IMO... I'd love it if he had really expanded *this* one, instead of Meadows.

Happy Town was just a bunch of non-sequitur incidents, not a story... Proto the Pet seems too obviously a day-by-day improvisation, even though it has a *beautiful* ending... (The "Stupid, stupid desert god." is a *lovely* line btw, even though I know it's not really commentary to real-life events...)

As for Meadows... sigh - it was too damn long IMHO... It's the description of a situation but it could have been made shorter but equally effective. In something so long, I had hoped for some kind of *change*, some climax, some escape, some *story*... The "lame hell for lame sinners" was obvious from part one IMO - I'd hoped that part two would go a bit deeper to show how different people can make hell of heaven or heaven out of hell. Was not to be, so it left me rather disappointed and unsatisfied...

And "when Luna smiles" is just not my thing, so that leaves "Brad's somber mood" for my vote of Best Morning Improvisation. Lovely, short and to the point, great use of contrast, and an ending panel that's at the same time humorous and sombering... (anyone else thinks btw that Brad is actually just as shallow -though in a different way- as Mandy and Sandy? That's what I thought, anyway....)
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Proto

Post by Drew »

Proto the pet is easily my favourite so far. I love the art work, I think the bevelled brush thing really works well for this story, gives it a unique feel, like an embroidered quilt or something.

Also love the "stupid Stupid desert god" line, I keep saying it in my head!

Plus, out of all the stories so far it feels least like a joke improvised around an idea; it has it's own atmosphere and emotion to it rather than just a sense of fun and experimentation. Although it does have that too!
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Post by Craig J. Quack »

Aris Katsaris wrote:Taking out of consideration the completely one-joke improvisations (the Robots, Man-eating shoes, Inertia man, Interesting Jeff, Most beautiful Dog), we're left with the Meadows, Brad's somber mood, Happy Town, Proto, Flap those Flagella, and When Luna smiles...
Well, I wouldn't take the one-joke improvisations out of consideration because I thought Man-Eating Shoes was great. It was short, sweet, to the point and just plain funny. I also liked Inertia Man for the same reasons, but for my money, the Shoes have it.

Of the longer ones, it's a tie between Brad and Flagella.
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Post by Lemon Aid »

My favorite Improv so far has been I'm the Most Beautiful Dog in the World. Why? It was sublime, it was just a joy to read, to look at, to see unfold. And it's so darn true about dogs. :D About my dog, anyway. :-? Panel after panel of the dog standing there, admiring his ego, was genius.

But of course there's also Meadow of the Damned, which had to go on as long as it did so we could, y'know, get it. Why were they there? It had to unfold like that. It just had to. I liked it anyway.
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Brad

Post by Renaissance Man »

I put my vote on "Brad's Somber Mood." As Aris Katsaris mentioned, I particularly like the contrast between Brad's deep philosophical tirade and Sandy and Mandy's blissfully jovial ravings about some crappy musical.

By the way, I don't think that Brad was really as shallow as the two women were. In fact, I think Sandy was the only shallow one there.

Brad has clearly been pondering about life (and reading Nabokov) and has come to adopt an existentialist attitude far on the pessimistic end of the spectrum. He's obviously depressed by his new realization that human life is ultimately meaningless, and conludes that there's no point to having fun because it means nothing in the "big picture." (Either that, or he's had too much to drink. Or maybe both.)

However, it's possible that his wife, Mandy, has extensively pondered and has come to this conclusion, too: for she remains unfazed by his lament (while Sandy nervously stares at something off the panel) and comments that he's being a sourpuss. She probably subscribes to the same existentialist worldview, but instead of bitter pessimism, she optimistically chooses to live a carpe diem lifestyle... because if your life is pointless in the first place, you might as well make it enjoyable.

And so they run off in the night with death cheerily on their trail. (Which is a nice touch, I might add.)
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Post by losttoy »

I am suprized that nobody has made a comment about the line "Stupid, stupid desert god." being a ripoff/homage to Jeff Smith's Bone "Stupid, stupid rat creatures."

Brad's Somber Mood seems to be my favorite for the reasons people have already stated in the last few posts. I love the Death figure in the last panel! :)
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Post by Zem »

I like the random wackiness of "Happy Town." I'd like to see more like that, maybe one every few "serious" improvs. 'Course, that's just me.
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Post by Josiah Rowe »

losttoy wrote:I am suprized that nobody has made a comment about the line "Stupid, stupid desert god." being a ripoff/homage to Jeff Smith's Bone "Stupid, stupid rat creatures."
Half the people probably didn't get the reference, and the other half probably thought it was so obvious it didn't bear mentioning. :)
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Post by Rip Tanion »

I'd have to split my vote into two categories.

On a purely graphic level, I have to go with "Luna Smiles"

On a purely comedic level, it's "Meadow Of The Damned", with "Uninformed Bob" a close second.
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my favorites

Post by Nathan P. »

Well, I couldn't decide which of all of these was my absolute favorite. I am very fond of Flap Those Flagella Like You Mean It, since I've made short comics about protozoa and bacteria before, and I found the humor splendiferous! I'm also very fond of Nobody Tells Interesting Jeff What to Do, because I can relate to Jeff quite well. The Parallelogram's Revenge was the most creative storytelling that I've seen in the daily improve, and I hope there's more like it.
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Post by William G »

Bump.

Meadow is brilliant. Lame hell?! Excellent concept. It'd be more realistic if they had the internet as well, but you cant have it all.
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Post by zerofoks »

Voted for "Meadow" here and for "Bob" in the other thread. :D
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