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Creator's Comments: Merry Christmas!
Merry Christmas!
If you don't know "Yosh!" then just know this. They consistently make slutty fan-service fillers, like these ones here. Well, I guess Kate has some self-respect. At least she's angry at Phil.
So, why am I picking on "Yosh!" you ask? Every season change I've decided to critique another web comic. So here it is. I wanted it to be a parody but I couldn't come up with anything using his characters. Anyway lets get crackin'
The Amazing:
If they would transcribe their archive with Oh, No! Robot! then they would have the ultimate archive!
Non-masturbatory artist insert character. Usually the creator insert character is the most amazing person ever. Sort of like how Randal Graves in "Clerks" only has the best lines because Kevin Smith was originally planning to act out that part himself. In "Yosh!" Phil is actually the least developed character! He didn't make the comic just as some medium of fulfilling a fantasy like many other amateur writers do.
Fan-service?
The good:
Proficiency with digital medium
Very random and humorous beginning ("Someone's committing crimes against Pepsi!" lol) but that starts to disappear as the giant master plot begins to take over.
Fan-service?
The bad:
Can be very farfetched (Mysterious rich guy owns an army of sexy robot girls in his skyscraper in which all of his friends live)
Stop and go plot. The plot will advance very quickly and easily sometimes and then it will come to a grinding halt as you have to read one comic with 2,000 words on it. (From "Mutts" to "Doonesbury" in 5.2 comics) They do give you a heads up when there's a ton of text coming up.
Main characters seem passive. Things happen to them. They rarely go out and do something. The more interesting supporting characters are the ones that go out and do things.
Fan-service?
The Ugly:
Too many characters (Some even get forgotten)
Everyone's Japanese except for the artist insert character (I guess my complaint here is that it's too much like every other web comic).
Too much emphasis on plot (this happened and then this happened) not enough emphasis on story (Who are the protagonists? What do they want out of life? What's standing in their way? How are they overcoming that obstacle?) Any attempt to develop a character seems to be rushed to a finish and leaves the reader wanting more. Recent comics have made great advances in fixing this though but there is still more to be desired. However it's been years into the comic and we are just now finding out about who Kate is.
Although I love the fact that Phil is the artist insert character and he isn't as developed as the other characters I have to say that this is also an ugly. Phil is the primary protagonist. Yet, we know more about the jell-o obsessed penguin then we do about Phil. Who is Phil and why do I care? He's a guy...who is a geek. He's spacey. He lives with a girl. He can't be hurt with magic or physical attacks. What does he want out of life? Um...Kate? Well, he has her. I guess the story is over.
I could tell you more about the talking penguin. Pen-Pen wants Jell-o. What's in his way? He can't open the refrigerator door. How does he overcome it? By getting Phil to make him Jell-o. Pen-pen is very pushy and demanding, possibly suffering from a Napoleon complex.
Protagonists seem to be minor characters in their own comic and are overshadowed by the more interesting supporting characters.
Fan-service?
Phillip Brown's Reply
To Whomever wrote the blog about my comic Yosh,
I just wanted to thank you a lot for criticizing my work. You helped me to
realize some of the thing's I just haven't thought about. I've noticed I have
been making the characters kinda side step every issue that gets thrown their
way recently, I just haven't been able to find the best way to get things to
clash. Most importantly you helped me to realize - while I know the character
Phil, the readers don't, and I have to find a way to show that more. I was a
little upset when you called my pictures of the girls slutty, but it is pretty
much true, I am however thankful that isn't what gets people into the comic
now. However I'd also like to point out that of the 11 you posted 2 of them
were not drawn by me ^_^; and I made up a bit for the Rieko one- totally out of
character for her to do that but it was fun to draw... And honestly that's one
of my favorite things about the comic, I love to draw.
However I also tend to ramble about every little detail, so the text starts to
fill up, and some parts get long and drawn out- while others are cut short
because otherwise it would take way too long to finish it and it would become
boring.
And because I have that annoying urge to explain everything, that woman who
talks way too much (The Magi of Water), it's part of her character to talk
waaaay too much and often using a ridiculous vocabulary ^^. And the running gag
is - Penpen is in every comic where you dont see bellow peoples knees... But
really he's been mentioned several times when he isnt around just to remind
people he isnt gone- but there are many reasons he isnt around as often- both
for the story and- because some people can't take a scene seriously when there's
a penguin in it.
I'll work on improving the comic even more, and hopefully I can figure out more
about this "Oh No Robot" search thing - my archive has been one of the biggest
complaints now that there are actually nearly 600 comics including guest art and
filler. And of course- continue the plot and stop grinding to a halt to say "in
the good ol' days" even though I'm going to have to do that again soon- I'll try
to space them out a bit more though if that helps.
Thanks again,
-Phil "Sage" Brown
Copyright 2007
