Slam McCracken
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Other, Action/Adventure
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Slam McCracken is a mystery/crime webcomic with a goofy twist: the main protagonist is a hard-boiled egg hired to find a missing tube of paste by a glamerous and mysterious tooth brush. While facing dastardly villains (the fortune cookie cookie yakuza and a banana assassin) and plot twists galore, Slam eventually solves the case. My webcomic is a fun homage to film-noir crime stories, using ordinary items as characters for gentle humour. My choice of textured linework is also inspired by the grey tones of 50s crime movies, and hopefully creates a visually interesting look as well as rich atmosphere. My goal was to create an original concept that all-age readers could enjoy.
I'd like to take a second on thank everyone for the kind words and votes. This experience has been simply wonderful, and y'all definitely haven't seen the last of me! Congrats as well to the other competitors this month!
Thanks for the kind words, guys (and thanks for the review, Mike). This entire experience has been gratifying and inspirational; I'd always wondered if I could make a go of it as a webcomic artist/creator, unsure if my skills were pro enough. I've realized that I should focus on transcribing my passion to 'paper', and iron out any kinks on the fly.
A review at: http://mpd57.wordpress.com/
I really enjoyed and appreciated the writing in this a lot more on my second read of it. Good job!
Fantastic work, Greg! I can't wait to see where you go with this...specifically, I'm lookin' forward to seeing what other strange "tidbits" you turn into characters!
You got my vote, bud.
I agree with @MarkRoberts this is amazing, I love the detail, I love the story, it grabbed me, although I had some doubt in the beginning, but the entire story just took it away!
as for @frequentcontributor please spare us your pointless contribution.
Noir can be very fun, and I think you have a neat idea here--just not sure how long the gimmick of inanimate objects'ed last. I got the hard-boiled part, and even the parody of cliched inner-monologue of a P.I. in these types of stories...just not so sure I'd be up for an entire series. Maybe a story-arc would work. Ah well, humour is subjective. I'm sure many would love the idea. Good luck this month.
The character designs are the bomb. The font choice really fits the narrative well. Overall I enjoyed it immensely.
Thanks, James. Zuda has been an extremely interesting and rewarding experience so far, and I remain proud to simply be chosen to compete this month.
I'd say you're definitely a victim of over-analysis and brutal dissection. That's a strange feature of Zuda competition I think; some entries get a lot of flak and are forced to run the gauntlet whereas others are championed without much in the way of scrutiny (or so it appears in my humble opinion).
Slam McCracken is definitely fun. I love this.
I sincerely appreciate the feedback. I've been drawing since I was a teenager, but have only recently begun focusing on my writing. That being said, I think the webcomic has a unique identity, and some folk have gotten what I was going for. I find there's a general trend to over-analyze and dissect media based on personal taste, while casually dismissing the efforts and passion put into a given work. I'm quite proud of my little hard-boiled detective; producing the pages was tremendous fun, and I'll definitely continue to develop my webcomic ideas in the future.
Except for the occasional sight gags there's no reason for this to be an anthropomorphic egg and other inanimate objects. This isn't a comedy story, so the wacky twist undermines it. That said, the writing is too focused on pulp noir cliche's and not enough focused on having it's own thread. I love noir, but the best noir stories have something in the character voice that makes him unique. I'd much rather see someone write their own story with a noir feel than just copy existing hardboiled literature. And if meant as a parody, there should've been more jokes (or any jokes)Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid had a twenty by this far into the story already. The art is really good though. You capture the mood with the art, and with the lettering so well that it's really disappointing the actual writing could do nothing to create it's own identity
Loved the art, and I'm usually not sold on B&W. Some of the jokes were groaners, but that's maybe a side effect of going for the all-ages appeal. Careful walking that tightrope with the writing ;-) You hit noir on the nose.
Hi 'boss' is really bad news ...
That looks like one tough banana...
My favorite is page 5. The noir is just oozing off the page here. Really great work!
Best inks this month.
Wow! Very clever and fun. Left me craving more. Good luck!
Thanks for the kind review, Scott. I appreciate it.
Howdy, nice comic. Love the black and white and your style, it suits the setting of the story. Also really like your fresh spin with the objects, veg/fruit as characters and the subtle humor of choosing certain objects for certain characters (bartender is a bottle opener, lol). Only crit was that there wasn't enough of a clifhanger, although I could have quite happily read on if there was more. Well done, great entry.
Howdy. If you're interested, my review of this comic can be read here. Good luck with the competition:
http://comicsvault.blogspot.com/2009/11/november-zuda-reviews-part-2.html
This is def my favorite.I really like this.I love the art and the writing is very funny...I love the coloring or well the lack there of,the B&W is very cool.
I decided early on that I'd do the webcomic in b&w, like the noir films I was riffing off of. Cross-hatching has always been one of my favorite techniques; I figured that a realistic, textured approach would suit the mood and characters, 'grounding' the world a bit. A watercolor greyscale approach would've worked equally well, but hey, I like tiny lines. I was worried the dpi would produce murky results, but it looks pretty sharp (I'm biased)....
The musicians were carrots!?! Good One! Funny. Liked your cross-hatching/inking job. Anyone mixes 3 bourbons is ok by me! Fun!
fortune cookie yakuza, banana assassins, rotten tomateo snitches, hard boiled egg detective, It's Veggie-Tales meets Dashiell Hammett. I'd love to see some dialogue balloons sometime, but you did black and white without having it look like a coloring book on Zuda and that's a rare thing. you got a fav.
This is the first time I've seen 5 o'clock shadow on a (hard-boiled) egg. Sweet. The art's just amazing, as is the dialog. Great stuff. I love that the bartender is a bottle opener.
Aw man, I was skeptical at first but you had me at page 2.
This is dope. I don't mind the lack of balloons and I Think you nailed the art on this piece. Hard boiled detective aaaaahhhhh...brilliant.
Even though color would fight the noir thing it would almost be nice to have some just to help figure out what all the various characters are, y'know?
Really clever and different presentation of a very basic noir set up. Fun.
This = awesome.
Reviewed: http://leftyfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/zuda-november-2009.html
Very sophisticated use of contrast and composition. wonderful subtle line work and creative perspective. Man, I love this!
Thanks, James . I write and draw Slam in a way that I personally enjoy, and would read myself; that being said, I totally expect that the concept and its execution won't be everyone's cup of tea. Ultimately, I'm pleased that one of my ideas is getting some exposure.
Honestly, despite what FrequentContributor says (mainly, what he wishes it was or would like to create his or herself), this is something special and isn't a missed opportunity at all.
Greg, you've got a great concept here and pull it off. You're the creator and you can do what you want; and if that's writing a hard-boiled comic that may appeal to all-ages instead of sticking in seedier "adult" realms of usual noir fiction then all power to you. It kicks arse: my choice to win this month, and if it doesn't then some bad eggs are going to get scrambled.
This is your best work, Greg. I love the black & white. Excellent execution on all fronts. I think you have found your niche.
Thanks for the kind words, guys. Constructive criticism is also appreciated, I'm always trying to improve as a creator. Slam is a labour of love, and I hope it shows. I tried to create something that was quirky, different, and visually interesting, and I'm honoured simply to be competing this month.
Weird and wonderful. A lot of potential here. Egg-Noir - a new genre? :) Best of luck. I really like what you're doing here. This is the exact kind of product Zuda is made for. I'd love to see it continue.
I like the concept and most of the art, but too many missed opportunities really ruined this for me. I see the author has intended this to be for "all ages", which is a polite way of saying that kids should like it, but kids don't give a crap about detective fiction, so this comic should be a LOT seedier and more adult. Also, the endless narration boxes started to get annoying. While I wouldn't mind them doing some of the work, simply word balloons would have served a lot better once the story started to get moving... And my god, has the humor been sucked out of this. After seeing clever things like Brick and Bored to Death, this just seems bland. It should have just been titled Hard-Boiled Egg, first of all. Also, Slam should have had his shirt off at some point to show us a bunch of cracks in his shell. And a framed photo of a chicken (his mother...) in his office would go a long way toward world building. Anyway, this could have been really great, but fell quite a bit short.
Ridiculous....AND AWESOME ! Its so weird, yet so straight....Obvious and totally unique. AND the Artwork is beutiful...dosnet have a a "web comic' feel...which is great...WELL DONE !
sort of cookie cutter noir, but the visual punch really makes it breathe. And i am totally buying it even though it is a story about an egg talking to a toothbrush. Neato!
Holy crap this is awesome. Man this month has the most amazing collection of off-beat styles done right of any that I can remember. I love the variety this month but this one will be hard not to vote for. It gets me on a lot of levels. Really great job. Good luck!
I love it!
welcome back! liked the art in this
Ace, inspired entry. Really creative and - as others have said - you've got the hard-boiled, noir vibe dead on through both dialogue and art. Slam McCracken is crackin'. Brilliant stuff!
You've got the noir style nailed down. As TheFarlander noted, this is great use of black & white. Good luck this month!
This is wonderful. The main character is tough, gritty, and yes hard boiled. Great Entry, and for those of you taking notes. THIS is how you do Black & White. Fine job Sir.
A coupla hiccups in the dialogue but very good looking and a very strong sense of design. Not a ninja kangaroo in sight :-)
Warped, and really funny. 4th screen, 2nd panel was hilarious. This'll may be the best collection of material that I've ever seen on ZUda... Good luck Greg!