Tuesday, September 22

Batroom Humor

Bat-tastic! It's another Batman: Arkham Asylum strip!

(Source)

The thug's ear is a strange color, but this panel is arranged very well. Batman looks like he's sort of high up and a little ways off; the thug looks like a thug (Although he looks as if he may be wearing a medieval tunic). SK doesn't REALLY cut loose with posing Batman, however -- such as showing only his head in the frame (Rene Engström uses that sort of thing to tremendous effect), or showing him from different distances or angles ("Angles" is not much of a real suggestion, it's merely one of the possibilities. Repetition of the same angle can help to drive the jokes home, in much the same way as the repetition of Batman's stoic expression does). In fact, Batman is hanging so low in the 3rd and 4th panels that those jokes are vaguely diminished.

Seeing the earbuds set in the top of the bat-cowl really cracked me up! That was a lovely touch, even though it's pretty obvious that there's nowhere else to put them unless you want to slip them under the mask. The little musical notes have something odd going on with them, but it's probably just because they were drawn too small for the finished product's scale on the internet (So they'd look fine in the "buy a print" version or the eventual published book).

That is not mustard. I thought it was mustard when I saw it peripherally, and I think that helped ruin my taste for this joke. This might be a "less is more" occasion, where the less obvious the joke is the funnier it would be. Seeing pee rain down is not really quite as funny as imagining it (Yet you could remove either Batman or the urine from the panel to give it more punch), although mileage will vary from person to person. Personally, it reminds me of an awful scene from the movie Year One. I don't want to SEE people peeing -- not even Batman (And I think he'd have better aim!) -- but I think that the concept is really funny.

Still, we got three punchlines, good (And varied) scenery, solid artwork, and it was all video game-related! This was a fun strip, although the more I look at the urine (The way it's just being waved all around, augh) the grosser it seems.

4 comments:

  1. Are you sure that we'll be seeing a "buy-a-print" version? Isn't DC pretty litigious about it's property rights? I think the only way Scott can get away with using Batman's likeness on the internet is that it's free. But, even the fact that the strip itself could lead to ancillary income might be a bit of a grey area. Although there's a complete lack of any discernable bat symbol on the Dark Knight rendition (that hidden black spot doesn't count), Brent does call him by name.

    Granted, I'm no lawyer.

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  2. It's a parody, so I don't see why people wouldn't be able to buy prints. As far as I know, every strip on the site is for sale as a print (Although that raises another question: Can guest strips be bought? It seems very unlikely, but what if they provide SK with a very high-resolution image?). And Batman is not the first licensed property that's been portrayed in a PVP strip.

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  3. haha, nice write up Jai. My take away from the 'peeing panel' was that Batman has some serious prostate issues.

    And I also went to mustard first...maybe because he is working on a salad in the previous panel? Odd.

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  4. Special K - THAT'S how a comic should editorialize!

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It's unlikely I'll delete anything but spam (Spam spam spammity spaaam), but a little civility never hurt anyone. In fact, it will make you appear a good deal smarter than you already are -- try it out today!