Doug TenNapel
Ratfist by Doug TenNapel
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 24, 2011 - 05:03
I've gotten to know Doug TenNapel's work through his graphic novels for kids, including his most recent Bad Island. It's fair to say I have become a fan of his work. This year he also serialized his first webcomic, Ratfist, which will be collected in a print edition to be published by Image this December. Clocking in at 150 pages, Ratfist shares a lot with his all ages work, but in other regards is completely different.
It's about the adventures of a superhero of sorts named Ratfist, although we are introducted to him as he is about to retire (or at least say goodbye to his partner, a rat) in order to propose to his girlfriend Gina. Since we don't get to see his actual adventures beforehand, I'm not entirely sure he's not just a deluded guy who liked wearing a costume and has a pet rat.
There's much less coherent world-building going on in this story than what I've come to expect from TenNapel -- it has much more of a, "yeah, let's throw that in too!" feel to its disparate elements which range from angels to aliens (tiki-aliens) to time travel to science fiction. It looks like TenNapel's having fun with the comic, but for me it doesn't really hang together as a convincing world. Part of the problem to me was the introduction of TenNapel himself as a character which doesn't seem to serve any real purpose other than to emphasize the fictional nature of the story we're reading.
Bad Island by Doug TenNapel
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on August 23, 2011 - 05:00
It was just a year ago that we reviewed Doug TenNapel's graphic novel Ghostopolis which was a clever, adventure in a purgatory-like world of the dead. This year TenNapel has a new graphic novel available this month -- Bad Island -- which is an inventive, exciting and moving adventure. It's much more science-fiction and action-adventure in tone than Ghostopolis which had sort of a noir detective feel to it.
Snowpocalypse Pending in Washington DC
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on January 11, 2011 - 09:11
I'm burrowed into the X-cave awaiting another edition of SNOWPOCALYPSEtm here where people raid the stores for eggs and toilet paper and drive like this guy.
WE ARE THE WORLD: Lora Innes writes that the Comic Creators Alliance has returned this year to raise money & awareness for National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. The Comic Creators Alliance is a group of over 100 comic book creators (both web and print!) who all contributed art that was assembled into a single image to raise money and awareness for this cause. The group raised 10,000 dollars in 2010 -- with more creators involved this year I hope they can raise even more money.
DEBUTING TODAY: Doug TenNapel (Earthworm Jim, Iron West, Ghostopolis) has launched a webcomic, Ratfist. There's only one comic up so far, but you can see the experience of TenNapel in deftly setting up an initial premise all at once. The coloring is also looking good - it's by Katherine Garner.
NEW YORKER REMIXED: Assuming Tumblr isn't down today check out The Monkeys You Ordered which pairs literal punchlines with New Yorker cartoons (the same concept as that literal version of the Take On Me video). It's often a funny result, even if it's more funny strange than ha-ha-ha.
MORE, META NEILJAM: Neil Fitzpatrick writes that his Neil Jam comic strip is making the jump to three new strips per week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’ve been doing this series of strips for over two years now, and am excited to step it up a notch in the new year. Recently, I grew tired of the antics of the characters in my comic strip and decided to enter the strip myself in order to shake things up. Adjusting to life as a comic strip character has not been easy but I feel it was the right thing to do.
REVIEW: Tangents reviews Eerie Cuties - Gisèle Lagacé's other webcomic.
Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel
Submitted by Xaviar Xerexes on July 13, 2010 - 06:28
Despite the angst of the long underwear crowd bemoaning the lack of superhero comics for kids, it is such a great time in comics for kids. The old model of kids going to the drug store for a few comics for a quarter is long gone, but it doesn't matter as libraries and book stores have a healthy stream of all ages graphic novels, not to mention that you can find great age appropriate webcomics too.
The latest young adult graphic novel from publisher Scholastic is Ghostopolis by Doug TenNapel (creator of the videogame character Earthwork Jim). TenNapel has created a spin on the traditional notions of purgatory, etc., by creating an afterlife way-station that functions very much like actual life with a city and different groups living together in it. This gives TenNapel lots of room to stretch his visual imagination with skeletons, mummies, goblins and zombies populating the crowds. The art is very sharp and TenNapel does a great job with the main characters -- a boy named Garth and the "supernatural immigration officer" Frank Gallows who accidentally sends Garth on into Ghostopolis. There's also Claire Voyant, Gallows' ghost girlfriend and Garth's grandfather Cecil. So much of the "world" that TenNapel built here is full of details and vibrant imagination that you're really sucked right into the book from the get-go.
Probably because it deals with death (and when the story opens, Garth is very sick) and some of the images could be a little intense for very young kids -- this one is probably better for 10 years or up. Just a guess really as my kids are younger than that and I'm not sure I'm going to let them read it... yet.
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