Thread "Wayout West" in forum "The Webcomic Review Forum for the Webcomic Review Comic on the Web"

Posted at 9:06AM, Jun. 25, 2010

This one had its problems, but it was followable and compared to the last month's worth of comics, it wasn't too bad.

….wow, that's the best I can muster, "it wasn't too bad."

Anyway, what did you guys think?

Posted at 9:06PM, Jun. 25, 2010

There is a TON of BSing going on in this comic. I mean, fer a buncha burly manly men they sure do flap their yaps a lot.

The Sam Elliot dude is pretty much a cut n paste bad guy, that long winded back story on him was entirely unnecessary. We all figured he'd abandon his mother and gun down his brother for gold, shit, the dude can barely say a sentence without working in the word "gold".

Posted at 9:06PM, Jun. 25, 2010

It is entertaining to a degree and the art is interesting in a good way. That was about it, I basically agree with everything said.

It certainly has the usual cliches. Like the Greene fellow, enter evil scheming corporate business man type who sells bad products to people and gets them shot when they complain. In all honesty I'm surprised he didn't kill the fellow who was asking the questions. Cut and paste bad guy indeed. I've gotta say the evil giant lizard dude is also the usual western "bad guy" even if he is an alien. Him and his buddies roam from planet (town) to planet (town) robbing and killing people for fun.

That being said; I thought it was still fun. Sure, it lacks complexity at this point, but sometimes that's okay.

Posted at 6:06AM, Jun. 26, 2010

I think it would have been a much more interesting situation if Green had been a nice guy who was trying to protect the town and so collaborated with the aliens in the (correct) belief that if he didn't they would start laser beaming peoples houses again.
A bit of moral complexity is always good in my book.

Posted at 12:06PM, Jun. 26, 2010

Moral complexity is always good, I agree, it's just not always necessary. Sometimes a story can be fun without it. Then again, it's difficult for a story to be meaningful and, well, very good, without some moral complexity.

Raising the issue of collaboration, as you have for example, makes things far more interesting. I hadn't even considered that point of view until you mentioned it. That resistance group might just get everyone else killed by being hasty and aggressive; maybe they aren't doing the right thing! Are they willing to get the rest of the town killed for their own pride and desire for vengeance? It works even if Greene still is a greedy evil "bad guy." Of course this isn't considered in the comic.

Posted at 4:06PM, Jun. 26, 2010

Simple can work, absolutely.
Classic tales of good and evil battling can be great fun.
This comic just goes a bit too straight forward with the cliche, concepts like your suggestion that direct resistance will cause the aliens to kill more innocent people and some level of collaboration is needed to survive could be really interesting.

Imagine a confrontation where the Indian wants to launch an all out attack and Green tells him "That's easy for you to say, you've got nothing to lose! But my town still exists and it's us the aliens are going to take their revenge on when you're done trying to even the score with them."
There is a potential there for something really interesting.

The characters here are so simple that beyond your initial impression there is nothing else to learn.
Greens backstory is painfully redundant. We know immediately that he is evil and greedy (and wants gold…a lot) so learning about how he used to be greedy and evil in the past doesn't illuminate anything about him.