Last week, Scott Kurtz give a talk at San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum on (what else?) webcomics. One of the problems with webcomics, according to Kurtz, is that too many creators are setting up "Cargo Cults" to creators like Kurtz and Kris Straub, making their comics in imitation of those storied successful webcomics. Comics, Kurtz notes, should be about love. You should love your characters, love your art, love the things you write about -- be it history or geek culture or, hell, even love.
The inimitable David Brothers pointed me to World of Hurt, a webcomic that proves just how far love of a particular subject can carry you. World of Hurt is a comic in the style of 1970s blaxploitation entertainment -- not a sendup, not an update, not a parody, but a straight-up homage set in a 1970s California filled with corrupt cops, ambitious pimps, and the one man who can solve all of your problems. And you know what? It's entirely fun and satisfying to watch Isaiah "Pastor" Hurt knock heads, bed women, and watch out for the little guy. And the notes author-artist Jay Potts includes with each installment show what a careful student of the genre he is. Potts not only loves blaxploitation movies, he respects them, and we get an action pulp that's suspenseful and blissfully free of the furry hats, platform shoes, and exaggerated jive plaguing so many works dipping in the same genre well.
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1 comments:
Thanks for the great review and for noting my dedication to restoring some of the luster to this misunderstood genre. Your summary of strip's setting as "...a 1970s California filled with corrupt cops, ambitious pimps, and the one man who can solve all of your problems," is better phrased and more succinct than I've ever put it. I'm tempted to steal it as a back cover blurb for the eventual collection. ;)
- JEP
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