#mst3k comic

[fleetn-crab85]

I’m calling upon MST3K tumblr, you guys gotta know about this

[horselover107]

Interview about the MST3K comic. The reasoning they give for experimenting with a new format instead of just plopping the shadowrama over panels makes a lot of sense. Basically, if you have the three of them sitting in theater seats with word balloons ala the VHS covers, Crow always gets the last word over and over again, because he sits to the far right, you’ll read the dialogue left to right. And that formula would get old quick. Like I guess if they REALLY wanted to keep the theater seats they could have done the color coded narration boxes instead of word balloons, but then you’d just be cluttering a lot on top of the original comic, which wouldn’t be visually appealing. Especially with jokes about the layout and scene to scene continuity like what we saw in the preview, you want to see as much of the original layout as you can. And I really dig the visual of them being redone in the original comics’ styles. It’s just the right kind of visually quirky and different, especially keeping the MST character’s heads, but the original artist’s bodies (where applicable). And it opens up the door for additional shenanigans over who gets casts in which roles.

[fleetn-crab85]

A mock comic book cover for MST3K for my first attempt at digital art!

[monkeypretzel]

@peteyplane:

This is really how they're doing this? Like, there's a lot of people that already riff comics in much more effective ways than this. I can kind of see what they're going for, like trying to make it a sketch/riff in comic form, but...it really comes across like a comic that thinks it's funny but just doesn't land. And I say that from some experience with comics fitting that description.

I guess? I’m not an artist or a comics person but it doesn’t seem like it’s that original or ground breaking to me. Frankly it’s a little disconcerting to see Tom Servo with a human body, and I’m a little creeped out. I had the idea in my mind that they were going to put the silhouette over the old panels with comments in word balloons, or maybe the bots would be inserted into a few panels as extra characters, playing along, like they were performing skits during the show but as part of the comic, if I’m making any sense?

Anyway, I think it’s interesting, but like you said, it doesn’t strike me as all that funny. It’s almost as if you have to imagine the infliction of the bots’ voices when they riff in the panels, and one of the truly funny parts about MST3K is how much humor comes out of just the performance of the riffs, with accents, infliction, emphasis, etc. used to make the jokes as well as the actual words. MST3K in a purely visual form like a comic just doesn’t have the same punch. I’m sure that the comic will be successful though. Joel does know his core fanboy/girl audience and how to market to them.