Thursday, November 09, 2006

Book-A-Day #116 (11/9): Brevity by "Guy and Rodd"

The first collection of the comic strip Brevity, by two guys who want to keep their last names secret.

For the most part, these are vaguely edgy and surreal single-panel cartoons, a third-generation descendant of The Far Side. (Which, considering most current strips are at least sixth-generation clones of Bringing Up Father, is not as much of a back-handed compliment as it sounds.)

I thought most of the cartoons were funny, laughed out loud at a few, and found a handful incomprehensible (where I literally couldn't figure out what the joke was supposed to be). That's not a bad ratio, and having the cartoons that don't seem to even make sense shows that "Guy and Rodd" are willing to try odd ideas, even when they don't work. I appreciate that in cartoonists.

The art is merely serviceable -- neither Dilbert-level minimalism nor Prince Valiant-level impressive; it gets the job done, but that's about it. The drawing could use a bit more expression to help the jokes work better, but this strip is still young, so that might yet happen.

The Fabulous Book-A-Day Index!

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