URL:
http://blotcomic.smackjeeves.com/
Author: kirbaroonie
Author: kirbaroonie
Genre:
Sci-fi, Action, Humor
Schedule:
Multiple pages every week or so
Fun fact: The concept of robots
becoming self-aware and dominating their human masters has been
around since the word “Robot” was coined in the 1920 play
Rossum's
Universal Robots. And I'm sure anyone aware of robots could
probably name a book, movie, or film that fits that description (even
the film adaption of Isaac Asimov's I, Robot
ironically enough, considering that his robots were specifically
designed with rules
to not go on a rampage and take over the world). Not to say that
this premise shouldn't be used, but it is a common trope, and one
that is used in the reviewed comic Blot.
And while the art and the spin on this rendition of this standard
are interesting, the characters are lackluster and not really worth
caring if the world gets saved.
Writing
As a result of experimentation in AI and human cryogenics, robots
called Blots become sentient and take over the world, running on the
blood of the preserved humans as fuel. However, there is a
resistance group of humans who are liberating frozen humans from the
compound and recruiting them in their efforts to take the Blots down.
At the start of the story, we meet Cedric, a 70's male porn
star/stripper who is liberated by the resistance, which includes the
strict leader Sal, the blushing doctor Rosie, the technology expert
Jasper, father Dale, and later, Dale's son Hank. Later, a defective
robot Gary abandons the Blot with plans to help them end the Blot's
reign. But the Blot have the mysterious Project 89, which threatens
to locate and squash the remaining resistance groups.
As I said in the introduction, the idea of robots taking over the
world isn't new, but there are some changes to the formula that make
it more interesting. For example, the robots using blood as fuel is
particularly creative, and also explains why the robots don't just
carpet bomb everything within a 50 mile radius of the compound to
wipe out the
rebels. Likewise, the robots have human-like personalities as we
see with Mom, the queen of the Blots who acts like a hard to please
berating mother who
barely cares about the children she creates except Sydney, her
favorite. Or the milquetoast Gary who gets mocked by the other
robots about his allergy to blood (he
runs on milk) who has a love/hate relationship with them until
Sydney crosses the line, making him the most interesting character in
the story. Similar to Mystereobot,
it's these human-like traits that make the robots more interesting to
read.
Ironically, while the robots are imbued with human traits, the humans
are the exact opposite. For example, the humans are supposed to come
from different time periods. Cedric comes from the 1970's, Rosie
comes from the 1920's, and Jasper comes from the 2020's, and yet
there is nothing in their speech or mannerisms that would indicate
that they were from different time periods. While it could be
explained away with the pre-existing members of the crew because
they've been together and they got over the initial culture shock,
Cedric integrates pretty quickly. Flashbacks to their respective
periods reveal plot points and minor characterization, such as that
Cedric was an aging
male stripper, Jasper finding
a device that will likely be important later in the story, and
Rosie being
gay, the concept doesn't seem like it was used to its full
potential.
Also, the human characters are either flat or just unlikable. For
example, besides being a father looking for his son, Dale is a bland
character that only shows up as Cedric's drinking buddy. Once he
finds his son, there's little else for him to do. Jasper's a tech
guy, he has a girlfriend or wife but she rarely shows up, but that's
all there is to say about him. Sal in the beginning comes off as an
insufferable jerk, it being implied that she locked Rosie
out of the base on purpose despite the fact that he synthesizes a
poison
that can be injected into the blood so robots can't use it.
Cedric is a drunk, gets lost on two rescue missions (which
considering the Blots want to find their base, you'd think they'd
plan these missions better), and when he finds important intel
regarding the robots, refuses to say anything because Sal
was rude to him. The characters do soften up later, with Sal
becoming romantically involved with Hank and Cedric and Rosie
becoming an item as well, it comes off as a cheap gesture to make
these uninteresting or unlikable characters more interesting by
throwing in some romance (and with all the romantic subplots coming
to fruition around the same time as Project 89 being enacted, tear
them apart for drama).
Art
This
is a grayscale comic, which appears to be penciled and inked by hand
(you can see the pencil
marks
on a few pages and on large black areas, you can see that the lines
are somewhat fuzzy from soaking into the paper some parts are darker
than others), then colored and lettered digitally. It's honestly my
favorite part about this comic, and what drew me to it in the first
place. The author clearly knows her way around pen and ink, as the
lines are fluid and go from bold to tapered effortlessly, giving the
art some depth and weight. If this comic was just the inks, it still
would be pleasing to look at.
The
art's not perfect though. The scanned pages aren't too cleaned up,
with the pencils still showing through. And while they're not too
noticeable, it can be cleaned up during the scanning process pretty
easily. There also appears to be some sort of texture on the page,
either from an overlay or just picked up from the scanning process.
While it makes the flat colors more of a gritty look to them, it also
results in poorer contrast, with nothing lighter than a light-to-mid
range gray and no white spots.
Finally,
a recurring nitpick of mine, word balloon tails. They should be
pointing to the mouths, otherwise it can get confusing (1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6),
Conclusion
Like
Mystereobot from two
weeks before, the comic has some good art and offers an interesting
take on robots in science fiction. However, the characters aren't
fleshed out enough, and considering that this comic has gone on for
over 180 pages, the author had more than enough time to do so. But
it's a good enough comic nonetheless, and definitely deserves more
readers.
3/5
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