“The highs were high, and some of the humor was super excellent.
There was a little overuse of a joke type that I feel like crops up in web comics a lot. It goes like this:
Panel 1: Initiation of deep, philosophical discussion. Let’s say it’s about, I don’t know, whether we’re truly happy or it’s just brain chemicals.
Panel 2: “Are we anything more than juices in our brains? And if so, is there a problem with putting in a fake juice, a Sunny D of sorts, if it makes us happy?”
Panel 3: “And is there such a thing as happiness? Or is it just the right combination of chemicals?
Panel 4: Character two then says, “Hey, are you going to eat that donut?”
End scene.
I’m doing a terrible job describing this. What I’m getting at is the Calvin and Hobbes strips that go a little something like this:
http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/1025878/bill7.gif
There were a number of these in Supermutant Magic Academy that felt like someone assembling this big thought, and then someone else totally bursts the bubble, and the joke the way in which life works like that. You have a deep, existential thing going on in your brain, and then you just think, “I want popcorn right now.”
It’s funny and true, but that setup is something that I think has to be used sparingly. Because what happens is, I start to smell that joke coming, so I skip to the end because, eh, I don’t need to read this long setup if the rug’s getting pulled out from under me.
And skipping ahead undermines the joke. The gag is a lot more effective if I don’t skip the setup. But I don’t want to read the setup if it’s more of a half-baked philosophical backflip meant to distract me from knowing the joke is coming.
That’s a harsh thing to say about this book. This book didn’t do it a ton, and I’m totally blaming it for doing something that everyone is doing. It’s completely unfair. But if there’s one thing my reviews are, it’s unfair. So there you go.”