From the secret laboratory of renowned videogame developer Double Fine Productions comes this incredible collection of funnies created by the one and only Scott C, art director of Psychonauts and Brütal Legend. Chock full of 300 strips, as well as the coolest behind-the-scenes pages you ll ever find in a book, Double Fine Action Comics by Scott C is an absolute for anyone who enjoys frequent amusement and side effects like laughter. The Really True Myth of Double Fine Action Comics... Once upon a morning, way back in 2002, Scott C stumbled into work at Double Fine Productions. On that particular morning, he decided to get extra inspired and draw a comic to warm up the creative side of his brain. It depicted a two-headed baby (also known as 2HB) and a knight doing not much of anything. Scott quickly got into an amazing groove, drawing a new comic every morning, just to see where the adventure with 2HB and the knight would go. Tim Schafer, founder of Double Fine, suggested to Scott C that he never stop doing comics every morning. In fact, he was so excited about the idea, that he empowered three other Double Fine artists to join him with their own Nathan Stapley, Razmig Mavlian, and Mark Hamer. Every, single day these dudes would make comics and upload them to doublefine.com. And the world was made amazing.
Scott Campbell (born December 28, 1973), known professionally as Scott C., is an American artist and production designer, known for his work for LucasArts and Double Fine Productions.
I really wanted to like this one. I really did. I appreciate an unrefined drawing style (à la "Hyperbole and a Half") and nonsensical stories, but this collection of daily webcomic strips fails on a long-term scale. The artist's method was to wake up and complete these strips first thing in the morning, writing the plot as he drew. As a result, the collection suffers from a lack of point, and too many of the comics fall into "Whoa, look at us here. Ha ha. Cool." It's only 120 pages, but it felt like a slog because I just wasn't enjoying it, and the genuine laughs were too few and far between. Too bad.
From the guy that brought us the genius of Igloo Head and Tree Head, this is a very silly collection of irreverent strip comics featuring Knight Guy and Muscleman and the Two Headed Baby and more.
Let me say that I love Scott C's work. He's one of my favorite working artists and I have several prints of his work which I love. So I expected to love this book but only liked it instead. The light and whimsical qualities of his work, which are so charming in his individual paintings, weren't quite enough to carry some of the longer plot arcs. But then again it's a collection of comic strips he wrote and drew daily, which in and of itself is impressive.
There isn't a big point or narrative arc to these strips, but that's what makes them so enjoyable and relaxing to read. The characters are all funny in a quirky tangential way, so the humor has a way of sneaking up on you. I suspect this is the kind of thing that readers will either really enjoy or not at all. I really enjoyed it and will be reading the second book.
These comics come from Scott C's daily comic blog. His wonderful style and quirky sense of humor pervade, but it doesn't hold together as well in bigger doses.
I'm glad to have it in my library, but best sampled occasionally.
These comic strip topics are so random -- almost like stream of consciousness that Campbell weaves into bizarro but humorous plots. I think these comics are better served in small doses than as a book, so I recommend for the collector and Campbell fan, not as an intro to his work.