Webcomic Review
The Apple of Discord
"Makin' Sprockets"

Kallisti has a webcomic.

Kallisti (also pseudo-known as Adam Smithee) has an amazing gamut of possible art styles to throw at this webcomic.

Kallisti has a page-toy, a floating wobbly tag cloud that spins and revolves for you when you mouse over it.

Kallisti has a link to the comic in his forum sig, but the actual link is to http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/o/12104 which is a redirect to his comic- in such a way that any sig click also counts as an increment to his ranking on that list site.

Starting to get the picture?

Scott McCloud once proselytized various marketing ideas under the tag-line, "I Can't Stop Thinking!" and got a fair amount of flak for it, as they weren't the most practical ideas. But what if you have a comic maker who literally cannot stop thinking? Who showers the comic, the web-page, even his sig file with unending ideas of one sort or another?

Meet Apple of Discord. Keep your arms and legs inside the car while the comic is in motion. If a joke falls off during the ride, do not panic- remain calm and another joke will be delivered while you wait.

Note that I didn't say 'great jokes'. I'm not a big messy pile of ROFL over any of Apple of Discord's jokes yet, but I'm still finding things worth talking about. I also hasten to add that I'm the guy who was totally besotted with E and Mu: I cannot be trusted with normal humor. Also, Apple of Discord just plain throws so many jokes, so tirelessly, that I inevitably 'snrk' eventually at SOMETHING, anyhow. For instance, this punchline. Or the title- not the strip, just the title- of the strip entitled "The Balsamic Vinaigrette of Dispair". I'm so tickled by that notion that I almost didn't point out how distressing it is that he spells 'Vinaigrette' right and then blows it on 'Despair'. Googling spellings is a trusty servant but a treacherous master.

I don't really care. By that, I mean, I just don't want to sit around nitpicking on misspelled words and gags that don't come off, because the thing is, there's another five jokes or sight gags in there before I even go on to the next comic. One out of five or so will get a 'snrk' out of me, and I'll end up smiling wryly at the page even though lots of gags just don't come off that well.

It's really hard to not like somebody who's trying that hard to amuse you.

Yet, there's more to it than just that. I have a theory that Apple of Discord is one of those pop-appeal comics where critics can easily dismiss it, but it gains fans anyhow.

Pause for "snrk" at the punchline of this comic- proving that Apple of Discord gets around to everybody's sense of humor eventually. It is very typical of my broken, fluff-brained sense of humor that I'll look over 200 relatively normal jokes like I'm reading the obit pages backwards for sport, and then he'll get me with a line like "Quickly! To my Dodge Omni!"

The jokes get better as the comic goes along, too, but that's not really the point. The point is- this guy just won't give up. You look at a comic like this one and at first glance it looks sort of like scrawly art, except that he's got different fonts going on, and then you notice the dying virus's digital 'NOOOOOO!!!!' is fading off into the distance- and that digital ghosts are pixilated when they raise their voices- then you realize he's done a logo for Apple of Discord which is using the Disney look, and that doesn't say 'Tron', it says 'Pron' for absolutely no reason except to be another joke...

I think a lot of people go to look at a web comic because they intend to be amused, and that works to the advantage of Apple of Discord. if you try to make just one ultimate gag, anyone who doesn't like that gag is totally left flat. But if you're just generally well-disposed to funny, when you read Apple of Discord you get a whole bunch of possible jokes and a great desire to amuse and entertain. I think the mysterious Adam Smithee must be a genuinely nice person. That's a handicap as it's easier for bad people to be funny, but it's also an advantage as it means you want to grow to like his comic. I know I'll be keeping an eye out for how he's doing.

The tagline? It comes from a notable exchange between Scott Kurtz and Kris Straub on a Webcomics Weekly podcast, which reveals a key difference between Scott's and Kris's mode of humor.

The setup was this: Brad Guigar's wife is cheating on him, by not reading his comic but being a huge XKCD fan. Scott's riffing on this, and in a single flash of inspiration, he has a little skit to do. He'll be Brad's wife, and Kris is to be Brad's wife's boss.

Kris leaps into the skit, with no idea what he's supposed to do, but full of willingness to just wing it, and he assumes the boss role by going "hum de dum, makin' sprockets" which totally derails Scott for a moment. However, Scott controls himself (and the skit) and launches into a long diatribe on how the boss should check out XKCD, how funny it is, with grapefruits and math and stuff- while he covertly sends Kris an IM with his setup line- and then Scott waits expectantly for the setup line he's just fed Kris.

Who hasn't checked his IMs, and just goes *pause* "Get back to work!"

At which point everybody laughs, and Scott points to the IM, and they go again, from the original setup and Kris's intended line- "Doesn't your husband make a webcomic?"

"He does a thing. Anyway, XKCD..."

Now, here's why the tagline to the Apple of Discord review is "Makin' sprockets".

The styles of creating humor shown by Scott and Kris in that exchange are very, very different. The fact is, Scott's version of the skit is just funnier. It's mean, it's loaded with implications, it covers an incredible amount of ground with very few (four!) very simple words, and it's a perfect setup. But, there was no room for Kris to improvise on that at all- he needed to recite lines fed him by Scott in order for the funnier joke to come off.

By comparison, the way Kris was riffing, he had people laughing even though "Makin' sprockets" and "Get back to work!" aren't the funniest jokes you could possibly have. They're fuzzier, not anything like as tight as Scott's jokes, but Kris came up with them without even a hesitation and had everyone laughing anyway, even though Scott's joke was tighter and he had it instantly.

(Cue Scott with, "That's why I get paid the big bucks!". Which would also be a funny retort- and which is also a little mean, and a little alienating.)

Adam Smithee is in the Kris Straub camp, not the Scott Kurtz camp. He doesn't have the ruthlessness, the discipline, perhaps the confidence to come up with a guaranteed killer joke and put everything into that- the sort of 'screaming headlong stab at a single tiny target' that guys at Kurtz's level can pull off. He will instead do a version of what Straub is so good at- throwing out a lot of generally funny stuff, doing a little tapdance, putting in a little more effort, thinking up a new widget or webpage tweak- and the shoutbox on the Apple of Discord page shows people enjoying these efforts.

Artists are like Elwood P. Dowd. You must be oh, so smart, or oh, so pleasant. It's tempting to assume that it's all about being the most smart, the most scathing wit, and you can earn respect by this, but it becomes about your ability to perform at that level. It requires daring and the willingness to risk terrible failure, and your highest achievements will always be the riskiest ones that could get you in the most trouble. That's a tough gig.

If you just keep plugging away and genuinely want to be pleasant and entertain, and you work tirelessly at it, it will show through in many ways, and you'll instead earn love. Then you can sneak in a little respect where it's convenient, but you have a fall-back position and you're hedging your bets in lots of ways- and you never forget that you're trying to do something for people.

And that's just good sense.

And that, in the end, is what got me reviewing Apple of Discord with a lot of sympathy even though I hadn't been that blown away by the jokes- I kept looking, and became more and more aware that Adam Smithee was really "makin' sprockets", plugging diligently away and getting better and never forgetting that he was out to amuse me.

I do love the outbursts of strips like 'E and Mu', of which I said "I love this fucking comic", but the thing is, I realize a thing like that is totally out of my control. That artist could start doing any number of things I might hate, and I'd be out of luck because nothing about it is trying to amuse me, or even aware of my existence. I don't think that guy could tailor his strip if you begged him- it's strictly an undisciplined outburst. You have to go to it, it won't or can't come to you.

It's good to not be too hung up on that sort of thing as a comic reader, because if those strips all flamed out in masturbatory self-indulgence, Apple of Discord would still be there throwing out jokes and unexpected premises, and it would still be making an effort to be fun to visit. And I will be keeping an eye on it- probably through Kallisti's forum sig, knowing that he's set it up to give him a little list-boost when I visit his page that way.

I think he deserves some readership love.

If he keeps sharpening up his jokes, he'll deserve some respect as well.

Keep them sprockets coming! :D