Last week there was a comment from a comic artist, who finally put all the haters’ thoughts into words. It was about changing the comic’s formula, cause ‘Raz doin something scandalous’ is getting realy boring. Sorry, I cant define it so well, go back and read that comment (though I couldnt find it on this frigign new website, it only shows 4 comments).
Be more creative Jack!
(also I think that two gags in a one panel comic is too much)
Considering the way plenty of people bust their hands nowadays (extreme pianists/computer geeks – Repetitive strain injury; paper cutters – these guys operate freaking GUILLIOTINES; and other hazardous jobs which may cut/explode/maim/render unusable one or two fists), our favourite unfunny frog-thing just struck gold if these are human-compatible (as we can see with the cop).
….ok, this is the last straw. I’m done with Rad Raz. These comics are absolute shit and its clear that Jack has no intention of improving them. Out of all the time Raz has been here, only one of his comics has ever made me laugh and that was the christmas comic where Raz is waiting by the fireplace with a shotgun; It was unexpected and clever. These last few comics we’ve seen are reused images with a new background and text bubbles. Is that the joke? Are we supposed to find it funny that he’s reusing these images? If this is true, then you have done a terrible job of that. The joke is always “Raz did something deplorable. Laugh.” and you cannot make a funny joke with this to save your life. Consider 1930 Nightmare Theater: Often, the joke over there is “Kimbo did something frowned upon by society” but it works for him because Ricky’s jokes are actually FUNNY. The punchline is delivered in a way that is both clever and unexpected. Granted, his last few have been guest comics so they’re hit-and-miss, but look back at the latest ones he drew. “Kimbo’s Karma” had a bit of a predictable ending but it was executed in a way that still made it funny. “Kimbo’s Katch” was genius. I never would have guessed that, if flipped upside down, the tree spells “the end”.
But I’m wasting my time typing this. If I recall, last week someone offered you advice similar to this and, judging by todays comic, you have not learned a thing nor have you tried to improve. I am done with this.
What Ricky said. This series was an intentional running gag, and the cut-and-pasted image of RAZ getting arrested is part of the joke. Despite all the comments, I’m not about to drop everything in the middle of a series and just stop it, so I ran all 3 of them. Sorry for having follow-through and finishing the series, but if you know anything about the “comedy rule of three” you’ll know this is the last of the “RAZ gets arrested” gags (although there’s a final punchline of sorts coming next week).
PS: Just FYI, commenters specifically requested: A. RAZ doing things on his own B. Shorter gags C. Better background art D. Bad things happening to RAZ. I’m well aware that it doesn’t matter if I address any of the comments here – my first priority is to make sure I’m happy with the comics myself, and I’m really actually quite happy with this 3 part series of gags – but just so you know, these are all things people asked for specifically, and now are complaining about specifically. Be careful what you wish for, people. It’s like the monkey’s paw.
I’m actually surprised nobody understood the running gag thing. I think it is interesting how high and mighty and contemplative every reader at dumm plays but yet dismiss a comic right away just because it isn’t the norm to what they are used to, instead of actually looking at it and realizing that the things that they are complaining about are intentional jokes. I actually really liked today’s comic, I love the raz hand reference and just want to say; ignore these hating ponces.
In case no one figured it out, the main reason I copied and pasted RAZ & the cop (besides the fact that repetition is funny) was to let the background be the joke. It seemed like an interesting experiment, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Sorry Guys™ (PS Sorry Guys was hilarious).
PPS: While I’m explaining jokes, if you look back, all 3 of the things RAZ got arrested for can be looked at not only as crimes, but as works of concept art or performance art. Hence the punchline today, that applies to the museum gag specifically, but also RAZ’s actions throughout the series, and RAZ’s character in general.
Glad people caught the RAZ Corp® clone hand. Some more food for thought: Is the red-headed cop “getting it” because he’s just finally coming around? Or is it that RAZ’s clone hand has infected him with RAZ’s twisted worldview? I also wanted to point out that the stepladder is a joke – RAZ is too short to pee on a priceless work of art without some assistance. Jokes! Come and get ‘em!
See? You had to explain the joke(s). Why doesnt Ricky, Katie or Gabe have to explain their own comics?
And lets see…
joke #1: Raz pissed off a painting and gets arrested again
joke #2: red haired cop got a Raz corp. clone hand
joke #3: the colne hand is infecting te cop’s mind…
joke #4: the stepladder
joke #5: running gag
joke #6: Raz’s actions as concept art or performance art
…so is it a crime that im so goddamn confused?
And to end on a positive note, a saying from my country: Too much criticism never made something worse, neither did too much praise made somtthing better. Or something like that…
There’s a difference between showing the same thing happening 3 times in a row and just copy-pasting the art. You could have still gotten the “background is the joke lawlz” across without using a copy pasted image. It’s lazy.
And frankly I haven’t found any rad raz comics funny yet. Too bad someone deleted bunches of comments on past comics…
I feel like you’re taking the criticism and warping it from the original intentions of the commentors. Specifically the “bad things happening to Raz” got translated by you into, “oh I guess I’ll arrest him for a bit then, that’ll be just what they wanted.” except the bad thing (getting arrested) is not presented in a way that is remotely funny or satisfying. In fact I saw a large amount of commentors finding trouble with your lack of sound effects, action lines, or in general any transition panels at all. We pointed out that your abrupt transitions and so forth confused the reading of panels and made many jokes fall flat. Yet you don’t seem to acknowledge that these criticisms were brought up in your list of things people have asked for.
Coming back to the first line, there’s a difference between something being “your style” and something being done poorly.
The cop’s clone hand is unexpected and creative! I didn’t expect that to be revisited and I think it’s funny, especially ’cause Raz caused the loss of the cop’s original hand in the first place. Not a big fan of this one-panel gag series but different strokes for different folks.
What I REALLY want to know is.. how did no one know that the stepladder was something silly?? Jack! Do not give your jokes away, let the DUMMies figure it out for themselves…Well.. One would hope the readers would catch on… Eventually! :)
No, Ricky. Don’t even try to use the “you can’t make a better ___ so you have no right to critique this” excuse. You don’t have to be a webcomic master to know a bad one when you see it.
i find this hilarious, and the copy-paste-a gag works great for me too, though I’d love to see a Rule of 5 variation ;-)
I don’t understand the vehement hate for this, and always the same people coming back week after week. If you hate it so much, returning for more seems like self-hate or masochism. oh, well- i guess this IS the internet, so, have fun with that.
Keep it comin’ Jack!
and no need to explain the jokes for the haters- let them puzzle endlessly why you keep including jokes in a comic. The rest of us get it :-)
as for the “you can’t make a better ___ so you have no right to critique this” argument, well, I don’t trust a non-artist to tell me what’s wrong with a comic any more than I trust a ballerina to inspect buildings for structural integrity.
I really hope the cop starts turning into a Rad razian. That would be awesome.
Oh, and Jack i think i might be high time to give out some refunds. You have got some pretty angry customers paying top dollar. Oh well maybe they can just shop somewhere else.
Just because one says “this dishwasher is not good” and is a good judge of dishwashers doesn’t mean she or he knows how to put one together.
Think about movie reviewers. And I am aware of Garduno’s strip criticizing some of them. But the better/best critics don’t know how to put together a good movie either.
GeneRasputinHole: “as for the “you can’t make a better ___ so you have no right to critique this” argument, well, I don’t trust a non-artist to tell me what’s wrong with a comic any more than I trust a ballerina to inspect buildings for structural integrity.”
Problem is, “reviewer” is a specific occupation different from creator. You can’t trust a ballerina to inspect buildings, but you can trust a person trained to inspect buildings. She/he may not know how to build buildings himself/herself, but she/he is good at looking at them
You should be able to trust a “webcomic reviewer” to tell you what is good/bad about the comic, even if she/he can’t draw or can’t write.
And now to talk about the complaints :|
I like the fact that some ‘trolls’ (for want of a better word) have complained about something in this comic series and have gotten their complaints addressed (rather literally perhaps…) and yet still complain. You can’t get everything your own way (no matter what burger king tells you). Obviously critics are important…. being critical of work is a good thing, but posting stupid comments saying how much you hate X, Y and Z in this comic without posing any suggestions is stupid.
I’m also pretty sure Jack is trying something a bit different (i.e. Raz not getting his own way constantly) and he even points out that this is so. At the very least, feel ‘privileged’ that he’s considered some of your ‘suggestions’ (to put it politely). Please also be a bit patient. If he is to try and adapt to what you like, it’s going to be hard to do every suggestion at once, because alot of them are conflicting.
Although the copy/paste thing may be seen as lazy by some people, I thought it was quite funny. Firstly, repetition is funny. Also, the fact that we already understand what’s happening (he’s getting arrested) can let us see the stuff we may have missed if we had to try and understand a new situation. And if we are going to dissect the comic (as some people seem to want to do every single week) it shows a bit about Raz’s character. It seems to imply that this happens all the time and that he always performs crimes and such. It may also suggest that those two cops are assigned to arrest him all the time (e.g. back at the police station, they get a call about Raz and they’ve had past experience with him so they go).
However, it’s just a comic. It’s meant to make you laugh or at least find it amusing. If you don’t, that’s fine. You have another 4 (or now 5) days of different comics to look forward to.
But some people allow their blind hatred of this comic to overcome them, becoming not just loathing, but warping round and becoming some kind of twisted ‘love’. They seem to arrive all the time and spout an essay dictating how much they hate this and that. I’ve seen this happen on many things (comics, videos, even facebook pages) and the answer is always the same. If you don’t like it, don’t try and spoilt it for everyone else and just leave.
And lol, I’ve just spent like several days writing a very large comment which will probably be disregarded by the trolls, or I’ll get a lovely hate-filled reply. It’d be a nice suprise if I didn’t. Oh well….
The internet shows its powers of bipolarisation and jerkification in these comments. Most people either like Rad Raz or hate it. The likers are generally not too constructive and the haters are very, very harsh, considering they’re critisizing a free web comic here. No one forces you to come her, let alone to berate an artist.
That said, there’s some critisism I think you should take to heart, Jack. Your style has a distinct lack of motion/sound effects, which does indeed make things static and sometimes even confusing. There’s no need to go all TV’s Kyle on us and bombard us with ZIFFs, SMACKOs and KAPOWZAs, but an occasional word here and there might well make the comic come more alive.
Secondly, something about Raz’s character. Consider Richard from Looking For Group, Belkar from Order Of The Stick and Kimbo. What I feel is missing, is some more character for Raz. He is an ass in all of your comics, but doesn’t have any real motivation to do what he does. Richard is a being of immense power who enjoys showing off and generally pleasing himself: he’s eccentric and funny. Belkar is an egocentrical, selfish asshole who cares for nothing but his own pleasure. On top of that, he is badass and craves attention, which makes him funny and cool. Kimbo is an unpredictable, unstable character who can fill many roles. I absolutely love how his character can vary between comics, one of my favourites being the Columbine highschool one, where he ends up doing something ‘good’ and cool, opposite to what you expect. Raz, however, doesn’t seem to have any motivation to do anything he does. He doesn’t seem to enjoy anything. He doesn’t seem to really want money or a business. Personally, that bothers me the most about the comic. However, If this is the way you intend it to be, then by all means keep it that way and hopefully you’ll show us the concept can be funny.
Finally, 3 comics ago it did feel very satisfying to me to see Raz get arrested. Bad things occasionally happening to Raz = good. I am glad you took that advise to heart! And don’t let the horrible people get you down. Some people seem to think that having a strong opinion on something gives them the right to be complete assholes to others. Words can hurt; don’t let them tho.
I’m surprised Rad Raz has attracted so much hate. Sure, the comic hasn’t done a whole lot to ingratiate itself to me, but it’s well-drawn with some clean, charming character designs, and at any rate it’s hard for me to get angry if free entertainment doesn’t reliably deliver the funny. What am I going to do, demand my money back?
I think the comic could be a real winner if it did more to establish the world Raz lives in and his relationships with others. As it stands, I find Rad Raz basically decent, which still puts it ahead of 95% of all webcomics out there…
@ Chris Grazillo
I”d like to respectfully disagree in regard to the building inspector analogy. A building inspector may not be an active constructor of buildings, but has the knowledge of what goes into making a good one- specifics like what grade of materials to use, what gauge of wiring for circuits, etc. A building reviewer, however, can merely express a subjective opinion, i.e., whether or not it appeals to them, whether they like how it looks and functions. I don’t trust movie reviewers’ opinions any more than i trust an opinion of someone commenting on a comic. collectively, the opinions of readers is valued to me as a measure of whether the audience is enjoying the product, as that is the whole point of a comic, we write and draw them to be read, seen, and enjoyed. But making a value judgement of “this is bad or good” requires a knowledge of the craft that goes beyond merely reading. When I read a movie review, I only do it to find out the content of the movie, to get an idea if it will appeal to me; i get very little out of the ratings they are given by an individual reader. As a filmmaker, however, I would find it helpful to see a collective rating, for example, Rotten Tomatoes, in order to learn if my work was being received as I intend it to be delivered.
So, I understand and respect that some people don’t always enjoy this strip, but to merely whine habitually each week about how it isn’t to my tastes is of little value to me. And this is why I think the “if don’t like it, why don’t you do something better” argument, while often coming off as somewhat elitist or defensive, is a basically sound one.
I feel like theres not much wrong with these comics, but the order doesnt work for me. I would rather have seen the cloning/sawing hand comic as the reveal or the topper to these three.
I enjoy Rad Raz, it’s far better than a lot of comics on the web. I’m sorry to see you get so much hate over it. There’s times that I wish people would comment on my webcomic but reading the commentary here reminds me that perhaps it’s not such a bad thing that I seldom get comments.
“In 1996 a 22-year-old Toronto art student vomited over Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red and Blue which was hanging in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Despite gallery officials dismissing it as “an unfortunate incident” the student, Jubal Brown, said he intentionally defaced the painting. He later consumed red food colouring and gave a repeat performance all over a work by Raoul Dufy at the Art Gallery of Ontario.”
Isn’t that why we sat through Introduction to Art? lol
Ah, good one, Jake! I was not familiar with that particular incident, but I would side with Jubal Brown that that is a legitimate work of art in itself. Weirdly enough, I don’t think I learned about that in Art as Interface or the Art History classes I took with Cutler, but maybe I just forgot it. I was thinking of artists like Andres Serrano when I drew this, though.
JESUS CHRIST, Stop fucking complaining you goddamn philistines! The art looks great and it’s clear that this was a running gag. These artists make these comics on their own time for free. Shut the hell up and don’t read it if you don’t like it. I swear to god, people think just because the internet allows them to complain about shit that someone else put effort into, that it’s required for them to. You don’t like the comic? Great, take your ideas and make your own fucking comic, YerSuhSmart.
He reused the same pictures from the previous comic
hahahaha, ok, now it’s funny because this is the best way to take the previous comic’s comments
Rad Raz go to hell
I like that the skinny cop has a bandaged hand now
Last week there was a comment from a comic artist, who finally put all the haters’ thoughts into words. It was about changing the comic’s formula, cause ‘Raz doin something scandalous’ is getting realy boring. Sorry, I cant define it so well, go back and read that comment (though I couldnt find it on this frigign new website, it only shows 4 comments).
Be more creative Jack!
(also I think that two gags in a one panel comic is too much)
@sfdjhlkfdsh
Not only bandaged. Its a zombie hand :D I may even say its one of RAZ’s clone hand :D
Considering the way plenty of people bust their hands nowadays (extreme pianists/computer geeks – Repetitive strain injury; paper cutters – these guys operate freaking GUILLIOTINES; and other hazardous jobs which may cut/explode/maim/render unusable one or two fists), our favourite unfunny frog-thing just struck gold if these are human-compatible (as we can see with the cop).
….ok, this is the last straw. I’m done with Rad Raz. These comics are absolute shit and its clear that Jack has no intention of improving them. Out of all the time Raz has been here, only one of his comics has ever made me laugh and that was the christmas comic where Raz is waiting by the fireplace with a shotgun; It was unexpected and clever. These last few comics we’ve seen are reused images with a new background and text bubbles. Is that the joke? Are we supposed to find it funny that he’s reusing these images? If this is true, then you have done a terrible job of that. The joke is always “Raz did something deplorable. Laugh.” and you cannot make a funny joke with this to save your life. Consider 1930 Nightmare Theater: Often, the joke over there is “Kimbo did something frowned upon by society” but it works for him because Ricky’s jokes are actually FUNNY. The punchline is delivered in a way that is both clever and unexpected. Granted, his last few have been guest comics so they’re hit-and-miss, but look back at the latest ones he drew. “Kimbo’s Karma” had a bit of a predictable ending but it was executed in a way that still made it funny. “Kimbo’s Katch” was genius. I never would have guessed that, if flipped upside down, the tree spells “the end”.
But I’m wasting my time typing this. If I recall, last week someone offered you advice similar to this and, judging by todays comic, you have not learned a thing nor have you tried to improve. I am done with this.
Goodbye, Rad Raz.
3 of the same comics in a row, im kind of sick of it. i used to really like rad raz too.
Raz-hand is definitely the funniest part. OH IRONY, THAT THE VERY MAN WHAT TOOK YOUR HAND SHOULD PROVIDE THE NEW ONE OF HIS OWN FLESH
I call trollin’.
Rad Raz is totally trollin’ Dumm Comics.
it’s called a running gag, you maniacs
it’s been a staple of comedy for thousands of years
if you don’t like it, that’s fine, but have try to have a little respect for artists when critiquing work you couldn’t possibly make yourself
What Ricky said. This series was an intentional running gag, and the cut-and-pasted image of RAZ getting arrested is part of the joke. Despite all the comments, I’m not about to drop everything in the middle of a series and just stop it, so I ran all 3 of them. Sorry for having follow-through and finishing the series, but if you know anything about the “comedy rule of three” you’ll know this is the last of the “RAZ gets arrested” gags (although there’s a final punchline of sorts coming next week).
PS: Just FYI, commenters specifically requested: A. RAZ doing things on his own B. Shorter gags C. Better background art D. Bad things happening to RAZ. I’m well aware that it doesn’t matter if I address any of the comments here – my first priority is to make sure I’m happy with the comics myself, and I’m really actually quite happy with this 3 part series of gags – but just so you know, these are all things people asked for specifically, and now are complaining about specifically. Be careful what you wish for, people. It’s like the monkey’s paw.
I’m actually surprised nobody understood the running gag thing. I think it is interesting how high and mighty and contemplative every reader at dumm plays but yet dismiss a comic right away just because it isn’t the norm to what they are used to, instead of actually looking at it and realizing that the things that they are complaining about are intentional jokes. I actually really liked today’s comic, I love the raz hand reference and just want to say; ignore these hating ponces.
In case no one figured it out, the main reason I copied and pasted RAZ & the cop (besides the fact that repetition is funny) was to let the background be the joke. It seemed like an interesting experiment, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Sorry Guys™ (PS Sorry Guys was hilarious).
PPS: While I’m explaining jokes, if you look back, all 3 of the things RAZ got arrested for can be looked at not only as crimes, but as works of concept art or performance art. Hence the punchline today, that applies to the museum gag specifically, but also RAZ’s actions throughout the series, and RAZ’s character in general.
Glad people caught the RAZ Corp® clone hand. Some more food for thought: Is the red-headed cop “getting it” because he’s just finally coming around? Or is it that RAZ’s clone hand has infected him with RAZ’s twisted worldview? I also wanted to point out that the stepladder is a joke – RAZ is too short to pee on a priceless work of art without some assistance. Jokes! Come and get ‘em!
Three In Da Row. :3
I’m wagering for the fourth time Jack will use!
See? You had to explain the joke(s). Why doesnt Ricky, Katie or Gabe have to explain their own comics?
And lets see…
joke #1: Raz pissed off a painting and gets arrested again
joke #2: red haired cop got a Raz corp. clone hand
joke #3: the colne hand is infecting te cop’s mind…
joke #4: the stepladder
joke #5: running gag
joke #6: Raz’s actions as concept art or performance art
…so is it a crime that im so goddamn confused?
And to end on a positive note, a saying from my country: Too much criticism never made something worse, neither did too much praise made somtthing better. Or something like that…
ROFL
(the Cop clone hand)
There’s a difference between showing the same thing happening 3 times in a row and just copy-pasting the art. You could have still gotten the “background is the joke lawlz” across without using a copy pasted image. It’s lazy.
And frankly I haven’t found any rad raz comics funny yet. Too bad someone deleted bunches of comments on past comics…
I feel like you’re taking the criticism and warping it from the original intentions of the commentors. Specifically the “bad things happening to Raz” got translated by you into, “oh I guess I’ll arrest him for a bit then, that’ll be just what they wanted.” except the bad thing (getting arrested) is not presented in a way that is remotely funny or satisfying. In fact I saw a large amount of commentors finding trouble with your lack of sound effects, action lines, or in general any transition panels at all. We pointed out that your abrupt transitions and so forth confused the reading of panels and made many jokes fall flat. Yet you don’t seem to acknowledge that these criticisms were brought up in your list of things people have asked for.
Coming back to the first line, there’s a difference between something being “your style” and something being done poorly.
I like this. The cop confiscating one of Raz’s clone hands is great.
The cop’s clone hand is unexpected and creative! I didn’t expect that to be revisited and I think it’s funny, especially ’cause Raz caused the loss of the cop’s original hand in the first place. Not a big fan of this one-panel gag series but different strokes for different folks.
Does the skinny cop has a cloned rad hand on? lol
Raz needs to drink more water. His pee looks a little dark…
What I REALLY want to know is.. how did no one know that the stepladder was something silly?? Jack! Do not give your jokes away, let the DUMMies figure it out for themselves…Well.. One would hope the readers would catch on… Eventually! :)
No, Ricky. Don’t even try to use the “you can’t make a better ___ so you have no right to critique this” excuse. You don’t have to be a webcomic master to know a bad one when you see it.
i find this hilarious, and the copy-paste-a gag works great for me too, though I’d love to see a Rule of 5 variation ;-)
I don’t understand the vehement hate for this, and always the same people coming back week after week. If you hate it so much, returning for more seems like self-hate or masochism. oh, well- i guess this IS the internet, so, have fun with that.
Keep it comin’ Jack!
and no need to explain the jokes for the haters- let them puzzle endlessly why you keep including jokes in a comic. The rest of us get it :-)
as for the “you can’t make a better ___ so you have no right to critique this” argument, well, I don’t trust a non-artist to tell me what’s wrong with a comic any more than I trust a ballerina to inspect buildings for structural integrity.
I really hope the cop starts turning into a Rad razian. That would be awesome.
Oh, and Jack i think i might be high time to give out some refunds. You have got some pretty angry customers paying top dollar. Oh well maybe they can just shop somewhere else.
MrNope: I agree.
Just because one says “this dishwasher is not good” and is a good judge of dishwashers doesn’t mean she or he knows how to put one together.
Think about movie reviewers. And I am aware of Garduno’s strip criticizing some of them. But the better/best critics don’t know how to put together a good movie either.
GeneRasputinHole: “as for the “you can’t make a better ___ so you have no right to critique this” argument, well, I don’t trust a non-artist to tell me what’s wrong with a comic any more than I trust a ballerina to inspect buildings for structural integrity.”
Problem is, “reviewer” is a specific occupation different from creator. You can’t trust a ballerina to inspect buildings, but you can trust a person trained to inspect buildings. She/he may not know how to build buildings himself/herself, but she/he is good at looking at them
You should be able to trust a “webcomic reviewer” to tell you what is good/bad about the comic, even if she/he can’t draw or can’t write.
I’m loving how serious the comments in this running gag have been.
The situation may be repeated, but the joke is different and creative each time.
I’m loving it!
Lol, I found this rather funny :D
And now to talk about the complaints :|
I like the fact that some ‘trolls’ (for want of a better word) have complained about something in this comic series and have gotten their complaints addressed (rather literally perhaps…) and yet still complain. You can’t get everything your own way (no matter what burger king tells you). Obviously critics are important…. being critical of work is a good thing, but posting stupid comments saying how much you hate X, Y and Z in this comic without posing any suggestions is stupid.
I’m also pretty sure Jack is trying something a bit different (i.e. Raz not getting his own way constantly) and he even points out that this is so. At the very least, feel ‘privileged’ that he’s considered some of your ‘suggestions’ (to put it politely). Please also be a bit patient. If he is to try and adapt to what you like, it’s going to be hard to do every suggestion at once, because alot of them are conflicting.
Although the copy/paste thing may be seen as lazy by some people, I thought it was quite funny. Firstly, repetition is funny. Also, the fact that we already understand what’s happening (he’s getting arrested) can let us see the stuff we may have missed if we had to try and understand a new situation. And if we are going to dissect the comic (as some people seem to want to do every single week) it shows a bit about Raz’s character. It seems to imply that this happens all the time and that he always performs crimes and such. It may also suggest that those two cops are assigned to arrest him all the time (e.g. back at the police station, they get a call about Raz and they’ve had past experience with him so they go).
However, it’s just a comic. It’s meant to make you laugh or at least find it amusing. If you don’t, that’s fine. You have another 4 (or now 5) days of different comics to look forward to.
But some people allow their blind hatred of this comic to overcome them, becoming not just loathing, but warping round and becoming some kind of twisted ‘love’. They seem to arrive all the time and spout an essay dictating how much they hate this and that. I’ve seen this happen on many things (comics, videos, even facebook pages) and the answer is always the same. If you don’t like it, don’t try and spoilt it for everyone else and just leave.
And lol, I’ve just spent like several days writing a very large comment which will probably be disregarded by the trolls, or I’ll get a lovely hate-filled reply. It’d be a nice suprise if I didn’t. Oh well….
I love this comic, and you should too.
Lower your standards and have some fun!
The internet shows its powers of bipolarisation and jerkification in these comments. Most people either like Rad Raz or hate it. The likers are generally not too constructive and the haters are very, very harsh, considering they’re critisizing a free web comic here. No one forces you to come her, let alone to berate an artist.
That said, there’s some critisism I think you should take to heart, Jack. Your style has a distinct lack of motion/sound effects, which does indeed make things static and sometimes even confusing. There’s no need to go all TV’s Kyle on us and bombard us with ZIFFs, SMACKOs and KAPOWZAs, but an occasional word here and there might well make the comic come more alive.
Secondly, something about Raz’s character. Consider Richard from Looking For Group, Belkar from Order Of The Stick and Kimbo. What I feel is missing, is some more character for Raz. He is an ass in all of your comics, but doesn’t have any real motivation to do what he does. Richard is a being of immense power who enjoys showing off and generally pleasing himself: he’s eccentric and funny. Belkar is an egocentrical, selfish asshole who cares for nothing but his own pleasure. On top of that, he is badass and craves attention, which makes him funny and cool. Kimbo is an unpredictable, unstable character who can fill many roles. I absolutely love how his character can vary between comics, one of my favourites being the Columbine highschool one, where he ends up doing something ‘good’ and cool, opposite to what you expect. Raz, however, doesn’t seem to have any motivation to do anything he does. He doesn’t seem to enjoy anything. He doesn’t seem to really want money or a business. Personally, that bothers me the most about the comic. However, If this is the way you intend it to be, then by all means keep it that way and hopefully you’ll show us the concept can be funny.
Finally, 3 comics ago it did feel very satisfying to me to see Raz get arrested. Bad things occasionally happening to Raz = good. I am glad you took that advise to heart! And don’t let the horrible people get you down. Some people seem to think that having a strong opinion on something gives them the right to be complete assholes to others. Words can hurt; don’t let them tho.
Hope you read this.
Cheers,
DysprosiumDy
I could have sworn his motivation was to be as rad as possible.
I’m surprised Rad Raz has attracted so much hate. Sure, the comic hasn’t done a whole lot to ingratiate itself to me, but it’s well-drawn with some clean, charming character designs, and at any rate it’s hard for me to get angry if free entertainment doesn’t reliably deliver the funny. What am I going to do, demand my money back?
I think the comic could be a real winner if it did more to establish the world Raz lives in and his relationships with others. As it stands, I find Rad Raz basically decent, which still puts it ahead of 95% of all webcomics out there…
@ Chris Grazillo
I”d like to respectfully disagree in regard to the building inspector analogy. A building inspector may not be an active constructor of buildings, but has the knowledge of what goes into making a good one- specifics like what grade of materials to use, what gauge of wiring for circuits, etc. A building reviewer, however, can merely express a subjective opinion, i.e., whether or not it appeals to them, whether they like how it looks and functions. I don’t trust movie reviewers’ opinions any more than i trust an opinion of someone commenting on a comic. collectively, the opinions of readers is valued to me as a measure of whether the audience is enjoying the product, as that is the whole point of a comic, we write and draw them to be read, seen, and enjoyed. But making a value judgement of “this is bad or good” requires a knowledge of the craft that goes beyond merely reading. When I read a movie review, I only do it to find out the content of the movie, to get an idea if it will appeal to me; i get very little out of the ratings they are given by an individual reader. As a filmmaker, however, I would find it helpful to see a collective rating, for example, Rotten Tomatoes, in order to learn if my work was being received as I intend it to be delivered.
So, I understand and respect that some people don’t always enjoy this strip, but to merely whine habitually each week about how it isn’t to my tastes is of little value to me. And this is why I think the “if don’t like it, why don’t you do something better” argument, while often coming off as somewhat elitist or defensive, is a basically sound one.
I’m actually pretty thrilled at the vibrant discussion going on. And don’t worry, guys, I read eeeeeeverything that is posted here :)
Well shucks, this comic must be doing something right to stir up the shit every week. I wish my comics got this much Raz.
Cheers Jack!
any comic that has a character pissing on lame art is cool with me! hahah nice work :)
The irony of commentators pissing on jack’s stuff with negativity. HMMMMMMMMM
I feel like theres not much wrong with these comics, but the order doesnt work for me. I would rather have seen the cloning/sawing hand comic as the reveal or the topper to these three.
I like Raz and I think it’d lose its spirit if it didn’t half-ass SOMETHING
also john I’ll stir whatever you want just please update the damn site
Very soon now INKY!
david, I don’t think you understand what “irony” means.
Honestly for me the part I love the most about RAZ on Saturday is to read all the comments!! :D!!!
the comic I dont think is funny but the comments are AWESOME!!
I enjoy Rad Raz, it’s far better than a lot of comics on the web. I’m sorry to see you get so much hate over it. There’s times that I wish people would comment on my webcomic but reading the commentary here reminds me that perhaps it’s not such a bad thing that I seldom get comments.
Urine? I thought it was vomit….as in art history:
“In 1996 a 22-year-old Toronto art student vomited over Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red and Blue which was hanging in New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Despite gallery officials dismissing it as “an unfortunate incident” the student, Jubal Brown, said he intentionally defaced the painting. He later consumed red food colouring and gave a repeat performance all over a work by Raoul Dufy at the Art Gallery of Ontario.”
Isn’t that why we sat through Introduction to Art? lol
Ah, good one, Jake! I was not familiar with that particular incident, but I would side with Jubal Brown that that is a legitimate work of art in itself. Weirdly enough, I don’t think I learned about that in Art as Interface or the Art History classes I took with Cutler, but maybe I just forgot it. I was thinking of artists like Andres Serrano when I drew this, though.
JESUS CHRIST, Stop fucking complaining you goddamn philistines! The art looks great and it’s clear that this was a running gag. These artists make these comics on their own time for free. Shut the hell up and don’t read it if you don’t like it. I swear to god, people think just because the internet allows them to complain about shit that someone else put effort into, that it’s required for them to. You don’t like the comic? Great, take your ideas and make your own fucking comic, YerSuhSmart.
Geez… same people every week. I love Rad Raz.
Too all the complainers, I have only this to ask: What are you doing to put yourself out there/try something new? Cut people some slack sometimes.
Ah that’s why it was so. Thanks for putting that in the comments as I would have otherwise stayed uninformed.