Cates, Isaac & Wenthe, Mike – Satisfactory Comics #6

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Satisfactory Comics #6

These guys have won some kind of grant by now, right? I’d have to think that two people with as much practical knowledge of the medium combined with a willingness to put in some serious work AND at least a casual acquaintance with some of the best talents in the field would lead somebody to hand them a pile of money, lock them in a room and see what they come up with. The first story is one section of a map that different cartoonists took time to plot out, this one about a race of tiny people meeting a huge human for the first time. Next up is a (wrongly) rejected story from the 2004 SPX anthology about how Isaac conquered his addiction to turn-based strategic games. Full disclosure here, I’ve fallen pretty far into World of Warcraft, which is in the same general area of what he’s talking about. I don’t get how he can discount the whole experience, as he says it really helped him to look at battles and world events in a different light, but he seems to be “cured” at the moment. Then there’s a one page “guess which caption goes with which gag”, which is interesting in theory, as each answer has different ramifications to whatever gag you’re trying to set up. Their next story is done as each page being a stanza in the sestina form, and if you knew what that was before reading this you’re much smarter than I am. The story is your basic hard-boiled detective trying to figure out a mystery, but they manage to make it entertaining as well as a fun exercise. Finally they have their adaptation of a part of the Bible, for a project online to illustrate the whole sordid mess at http://www.flamingfire.com/bible.html, which is something that all of you people with some sort of artistic ability reading this should work on. Maybe it can be done in our lifetimes, who knows? And, for their last bit of creative storytelling, there are 8 two-sided cards in a pouch in the back of the comic. These cards can be arranged in any order, from any side, to tell the story of a young student trying to learn the secrets of the universe from an old master. Fascinating stuff again, as much for the ideas behind the stories as the stories themselves…