April 6th, 2008
Commercial Disaster
(194 votes, average: 4.39 out of 5)
Loading ...Wow, that took forever to colour. Now I remember why I usually only do 3 panels!
Here’s the no-bubble version, if anyone wants it:
And the pencil draft:
April 6th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I like the no-text one better. The art is clear enough to convey its message; the text can and should be inferred by the viewer. This is especially the case in the final frame: in the textless comic, I saw it as the manatee joining the other abandoned, whimsical creatures; in the one with text, I feel like the elephant’s remark is a distraction from the meaning of the comic - it moves from the flying manatee joining other amazing, tragically exiled animals, to “why does the elephant say that?”
April 6th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I originally had made the last frame textless, but my test audience didn’t get it so I added the elephant’s speech. I think I like it better without the speech, but I erred on the side of caution.
I hadn’t considered making the whole comic textless . . . but I guess I added enough body language to get the point across. Hmmm.
April 6th, 2008 at 11:16 pm
Great comic! The floating manatee make me happy.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:46 am
Better with out the text.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:19 am
Shouldn’t there be four elephants and a turtle, sex unspecified?
April 7th, 2008 at 6:14 am
That’s amazing. 99 Luftballoon! I always love it when little German things are thrown in.
April 7th, 2008 at 7:23 am
don’t forget what they said in Beaver & Steve. hover manatees are the most dangerous animal.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:07 am
I had forgotten about B&S’ hover manatees!
By that logic, a hover elephant would be _even_more_dangerous_.
April 7th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Stop trying to be a bloody surrealist. It makes for bad, humorless comics.
April 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Now this is just great. But I agree that it’s better without the text-bubbles.
And since we are on the subject of Beaver and Steve… shouldn’t that mantee have some onomatopoeias, like *fly* or perhaps even better, *levitate* ?
April 7th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Yeah, that punchline about the triumvirate just doesn’t work.
April 7th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
i agree with Jake, this one is bad and humorless …
not one of my favorites .. thats for sure.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I wonder how someone can come up with a project name like Luftcow. Unless it’s a German-English or German-American project should be either Aircow or Luftkuh.
(Still a bit funny thst the project would be named after whatr seems to be its third product.)
April 7th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
I absolutely loved the final frame, text and all. Especially the text.
The middle two frames could of done without text though. However, if it was a commercial disaster, why destroy the research?
April 7th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Upon reflection, I’m going to go with my original intent, and have a silent elephant.
It seems as though some of you don’t appreciate this type of comic. That’s OK - not everything appeals to everyone. I find it odd that people tend to make such strong claims about the humourousness of things on the internet. Humour is a pretty subjective thing. I mean, some things (like the visiting hours comic) fall flat on execution, but I don’t think that this one did. It has a rating over 4, after all, so at least some of you like it.
April 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Heh. I was typing that last message at the same time as Belcher. Sorry Belcher!
April 7th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I rather enjoyed this one. I like it as it stands now, but for curiosity’s sake, could you link to the original? Some who came in too late might wonder just what was the elephant’s controversial statement.
April 7th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Of course. The elephant was saying “At last! The triumvirate is complete”.
April 7th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
I love this one–very good move to get rid of the elephant’s dialogue. The last panel is just kind of eerily beautiful. You’re not obligated to have a knee-slapping punchline in every comic, y’know, so well done. Several thumbs up.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Much better without the elephant talking.
As for not wanting strong claims about ’subjective’ humor, remove the comments feature. They all can’t be about praising your work.
April 7th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I value all feedback, good or bad. I just get tired of how extreme criticism is on the internet. People tend to either think something is the best thing ever, or that it is so bad that it should not exist.
Sorry if I seemed defensive
April 8th, 2008 at 12:23 am
Aww, floating manatee found his friends again!
I like the art, this has gotten so much better than it used to be (But I liked the old as well)
You seem to have gotten shading down quite well. (:
April 8th, 2008 at 1:15 am
This makes me so happy
April 8th, 2008 at 4:09 am
… I think it works well with or without text, but now that I know what the elephant’s line was… I agree that it works much better without it. Without it, it’s amusing and poignant, with a cheerful ending. WIth it… it’s just confusing.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:37 am
I agree it’s better without bubbles.
I especially like that the boss points the way for the scientist, and then the scientist points the way for the manatee. Also, the change in the manatee’s facial expression is nice.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:18 am
I think I prefer it without the final speech bubble. Good call on that. I find “Triumvirate” to be an overly distracting word in pretty much every situation.
April 8th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Actually, to add to my previous statement, I have to go against the general sentiment and say it’s slightly better with speech bubbles than dialogueless, just because “Project Luftcow” is inherently funny.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I guess some people´s brains freeze when something surreal or even sarcastic appears before their eyes. Hopefully it´s just an american thing…
April 9th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
You’re catching a lot of flack for some reason, so I thought I’d leave a comment for a change. I didn’t find it to be a funny comic, to be honest, but I think there was value in it anyway. For some reason people seem to think a comic has to be funny to be enjoyable, but I think the medium has gone beyond that these days. It’s still not one of my favorites you’ve done, and the happy ending was unusual for you, but I enjoyed it regardless.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Well, I’ll be different and say that I preferred the comic with the triumvirate punchline. The textless last passion seems to me to be just bittersweet; but the triumvirate comment turns it from touching to sinister. I would have preferred all the first panels to be textless, and the last one to be different, like this:
http://xs226.xs.to/xs226/08153/commercialdisasterrmx480.jpg
And try to remember you can’t please everyone. It’s great that you pay close attention to your readers’ wishes, but don’t try too hard. In the end, the content of your comic is for you to decide, and people can take it or leave it.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Wow, when I said “passion” I totally meant “panel.” Sorry. PLUS I linked to completely the wrong file!
http://xs226.xs.to/xs226/08153/commercialdisasterrmxx206.jpg
^^This is what I’m talking about.
April 9th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I’m reminded of the mini-dinosaur strip, where the punchline also seemed to rely on the reveal that the scientific wonder in question is actually common enough to be mundane. Because that’s all I get from the textless version of the last panel. I don’t find it particularly funny, but I enjoy the quick peek into a different world.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
I like David’s ending best! What if instead of an elephant and a turtle there were a realistic-looking beaver and lizard?
April 9th, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Heh, get it? Low profile? Cows low…
April 10th, 2008 at 8:55 am
Ragnar’s right, dammit. It should be “Luftkuh”. But then, nobody would get it and a (very,very small) part of the joke would be ruined.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Ahahahah I love this.
April 10th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
@Ragnar: I think it´s part of the joke that they already had two other projects, “Luftelephant” and “Lufttortoise”, but even though both were obviously a failure as well, they still pursued another absurd “Luft”-project… I think they might finally succeed with “Luftfly”…
April 11th, 2008 at 3:19 am
This strip wins.
Incidentally, have you heard my new punk band, Project Luftcow? No, not really.
April 25th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
i’m not reading most of the comments, but i agree that it looks better textless. the simplicity and elegance make the point much better. the only thing about it is without text you’re not sure what the boss’s plans are. however, it seems like it is less than animal-friendly either way and effectively gets the point across.
in any case, i think it’s a very solid strip.
May 24th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
This made me so happy! The animals’ expressions in the last panel are cute on their own, but the change in mood from the rest of the comic takes it to a higher level of delightfulness. I agree that the speechless version works fine, although the use of the phrase “PROJECT LUFTCOW” makes it a lot funnier. (I’m glad I saw it after the “triumvirate” remark was removed, though).
This is also a very nice use of the webcomic format — at least on my monitor, the top row of strips is all that’s visible at first, so it forces a short beat between the grim upper panels and the unexpected conclusion.
Have you noticed a change in emotional tone over the strip’s run? It seems like your earlier strips were usually sad or grotesque, while there are now frequently ones that move more towards serendipity / pronoia (i.e., happier, but still weird).
June 11th, 2008 at 10:32 am
http://xs226.xs.to/xs226/08153/commercialdisasterrmxx206.jpg
That’s definitely my favorite version. Taking out the triumvirate part abandons one of the twists of the comic that makes it great. Google triumvirate if you had issues with it.