Calamities of Nature is about the absurdities of life and ourselves. Politics, world events and regular gags are mixed together for a very enjoyable blend.

The art is serviceable and fun to look at with its broad crosshatching technique. Likewise, the colors are handled very well in the way that they are combined. They nicely round the figures and scenery out. Look at this mountain range; it wouldn’t be the same without color.

The characters have a nice range of personality. Aaron (the one with the headphones) likes to vent about those odd things we see in the world. Alp is the mad inventor with the read and green hat. Ferdinand (Ferd) has the baseball cap and is the kind of character who does things on impulse. Harold is the nice guy who is also sort of a loser. We can identify with all of them at one time or another.

I found Calamities to be amusing sometimes but not always. For example, the current story topic of soda preferences was good fun. However, this is a popular and successful comic so my preferences may not be the right standard to measure by. It’s worth checking out even though I’m only going to give it two stars. Two stars represents an okay and functional comic but does not stand out to me. Rating:

Calamities of Nature
http://www.calamitiesofnature.com
by Tony Piro
review by Delos Woodruff
(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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Calamities of Nature, by Tony Piro, is probably the most uninspiring comic I’ve reviewed for the fencers yet. So, for me, this’ll be a short review.

Four loserly funny animals with one-word personalities live in…I guess modern America. And go on statically-drawn wacky adventures, which generally involve…one character being dumb and the other one being sensible to no avail. The, uh, adventures tend to be things we’ve all seen before. Repeatedly.

It’s like current Garfield, only stretched out over nine panels and lacking a punchline. Seriously, most of these comics have no punchline. They don’t even try. When the characters aren’t standing around not being funny, they’re standing around not being socially aware. Hint: if you’re trying to push social awareness, try saying something that not everyone in the media is already saying. The most exciting thing about the comic is it’s anti-Christian sentiment, and even that is just parroted from other general anti-Christian sentiments (and only exciting because supposedly, as a Christian, I should feel mocked), complete with lack of realistic example…or punchline. Has this guy ever had an original idea in his life? I mean, he makes an entire story arc based off of a guest strip. Wait…this one might come close… The mad scientist stereotype isn’t completely clueless! Haha, get it? No?

Oh, there’s art, isn’t there? Pretty flat and colorless for being in color with 2-tone shading. Again, nothing Garfield hasn’t already done. It’s not bad, it’s just not good either.

I have no idea why this comic is called “Calamities of Nature.” But do I think all the characters should be parrots. Then there’d be self irony. Intentional, rather than unintentional. The evolution of the horse exhibit? Are you serious? Even hardcore evolutionary scientists admit that that chart is propagandist bunk and intentionally misleading. Notice how it shows ONLY the forleg canon and hoof for each species, a tooth, and an artist rendition? Yeah, there’s a reason for that. It’s called “the rest of the skeleton.”

Uhm, I give it a star for being a comic on the web? But that means I need to give a star to the grass I’m watching grow… Fine, I’ll give it two stars because he actually drew it himself and the site’s decent.

Rating:
“Calamities of Nature”
http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/
By Tony Piro

review by Sly Eagle

(5 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Ok, I’ll say it straight up front, so there are no misunderstandings -

I didn’t “get” this comic. What’s more, for my own reasons, I didn’t particularly like it, either.

I read it, and in some cases I re-read it, and can honestly say I didn’t crack a smile or find things that really made me laugh. Was it because the comic was horrible and I was constantly cringing? Not at all. On the contrary, the art was good (although to be fair it looked like a meeting between Walt Kelly’s Pogo and some of the cast from Bloom County - that kept throwing me off), and I didn’t see anything that would make me caution children or the overly-sensitive to not read it.

Still - I didn’t laugh. There’s usually three reasons for that not happening; (1) The humor is either terrible or sophomoric or (2) It’s extremely metaphorical or “in the know” kind of humor, or it’s (3) the same old, tired, “trying to be with it and socially relevant” humor that we’re buried in every day. I think, in this instance, it’s numbers 2 and 3. I’m not really an “in the know” kind of person when it comes to the current trends, etc., when you get right down to it. I also don’t like most of today’s political/sociological humor, namely because it’s overdone, overused, and at this point has become mostly trite, in my opinion. (Perfect example - the comic used with this post. Like we haven’t seen the “evil cops abusing black people” jokes about a thousand times? What’s the point? Or perhaps comic # 67 from April 21, 2008 - tried and true “loud, obese woman with cart full of high fat products” - one of them says “Pig” - that’s subtle, right? Let’s see, “Obesity in America” comic? Come on. Imagination, anyone?) The current line of strips is, apparently, making fun the foibles of being a “connoisseur” by having one of the characters become a “soda connoisseur.” Ok, perhaps a little funny, but after 3 and more strips, kind of drawn out.

Maybe I’m old fashioned, but does anyone else remember comics - even ones that spoke on social issues - using that little known trait of “subtlety” instead of the now used traits of “I’ll slam this RIGHT IN YOUR FACE so you can’t possibly miss my meaning,” coupled with “I’ll copy the same jokes/gags that most other comics of my ilk do, but I’ll change a word or two”? What kind of commentary must that be on the perceived education level of the readers?

Overall, not a bad comic, I guess - just kind of predictable and, for that reason dull, to me; definitely not one I’d re-read. If you’re a fan of that kind of humor, though, then I say in fairness, give it a read and make your own call.

The Doctor

Calamities of Nature, by Tony Piro

www.calamitiesofnature.com

Rating:

(2 votes, average: 3.5 out of 5)

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You know, I like aliens as the protagonists of stories. And I like robots as the protagonists. And I even like pirates most of the time (I mean, really, what’s not to like about Johnny Depp and Errol Flynn? But I digress.). I also like all three categories as the antagonists of stories. I’m also a fan of time travel stories and we all know how much I love random pop culture references. What bothers me is when two or more of these things are thrown together just to be able to say “hey, kids, look! Robots! Pirates! Aliens! Time Travel! Random Family Guy-like pop culture references! All in one place!”

I hate to try to figure out the intentions of a creator – unless they tell you themselves in an interview why they did something a certain way, you can never really know (and don’t get me started on the whole sub-genre of literary analysis that says you can’t actually understand a work of fiction until you’ve ferreted out every possible worldly thing that influenced the author during the writing of the work. Bleh.). However, to me “Robots” feels like a mish-mosh of anything that could possibly lure a reader in, including more than one reference to the classic TV Show What’s Happening!!! (The answer, by the way, is Dwayne Nelson, not Rerun. Perhaps Oscar is reading a mis-printed Trivial Pursuit card.) The comic really does include everything but the kitchen sink. And given time, I’m sure that will turn up as a robot alongside the chest of drawers and pop machine.

There are some very nice pages, art-wise, like this doomsday scenario. And the art does seem to get smoother, less rushed, as the story progresses. The more recent pages seem to feature heavier, more defining, inkwork.

Overall, while the creators may be having fun tossing everything they can think of into each page, I wasn’t having fun reading along. To paraphrase The Doctor, your mileage may vary. For my own part, I’m going to have to give this two stars. It just didn’t pull me along. Rating:

Jonah and Jeremy Gregory’s “Here There Be Robots”
http://randompiratecomics.net/webpages/robots.htm
reviewed by Anthony R. Cardno

(3 votes, average: 4.33 out of 5)

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This makes three “humor” strips in a row. I’m going to get a reputation as a grumpy reviewer who hates comics at this rate. I love comics, really! …just not these ones.

Okay, for our next dose of fourish-panels-in-a-row wish-I-were-in-the-newspaper-funnies strip, we get The Wannabe Pirates by Largent and McCrary. Mercifully, this comic follows a storyline. Unmercifully, it’s not much of a story. Captain Errol Flemm and Mister Sneeze are two pirates who know nothing about piracy. Or the way the world works. Sadly, these traits don’t help them stand out much from the supporting cast. It’s safe to say that real-world seafaring does not apply here. (A 300 gun frigate? Puh-leaze. That’s a bath-tub galleon if anything…certainly nothing that’d actually sail…) Which leaves the ZANY and no mercy on my soul.

Let me first be clear that this isn’t a bad comic. It’s just nothing special. We’ve got the pristine, clean, flashy Flash look that’s been gaining popularity ever since, uhm, I’ll say Penny Arcade. The work is varied enough to almost mask the copious amounts of cut and paste. I can read the comic without trouble, and while I have general animosity for the Comicpress layout, nothing unusual irks me about the website. Nothing at all special, which leaves the gimmick of incompetant pirates and “monkeys make everything funny.” Which, again, is…nothing special.

I can nitpick. It bothered me that the “French” pirate Cutthroat Jacques had an inconsistant accent. The beards have no shading, which looks really strange when the faces do. Occasionally, earrings would mysteriously vanish or change color. Now, why would I even notice minute details like this? Hint: I was booooored. I was so bored that I took several hour breaks between sets of ten pages. I was so bored that 87 pages seemed like forever (and I usually plow through several hundred page archives like it’s nothin’.) I was so bored I considered complaining to the boss. Stop making me read this stuff!

I’ll give it two stars because while I didn’t enjoy this comic, I know a few third-graders that would.

(For the record, the most guns a frigate ever carried was probably 60.) Rating:

The Wannabe Pirates
http://thewannabepirates.com
by Largent & McCrary
review by Sly Eagle
(2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5)

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Hi everyone. Here goes my début review on Comic Fencing. Wish me luck! The Wannabe Pirates by Largent and McCrary is a comic about pirates. So it be! What is it about pirates that instantly forces you to join in and start behaving and talking like a moron? It isn’t that way with other pop culture types – superheroes, zombies, ninjas, samurai, nerds, etc. OK maybe that last one. I’m certainly not immune to the piratical virus myself. Avast behind!

I’ve been asked to review the comic, but really it seems only to be part of a much bigger project with ambitions in the arena of animated cartoons. The evidence available seems to suggest that ambition might not be so difficult to fulfill. I was completely side-tracked reading from reading the comic by the news archive which contains all matter of goodies including 3-D modeling of the main characters, models of the ship, wallpapers, background info on the development of the project as a whole and even a movie clip - all suggesting that these guys are serious and hungry to make their venture a success. I wish them all the luck too – it’s quality work.

The comic therefore is really just some supporting material that helps the main animation project along. It’s obvious to a one-eyed pirate how good the other material is, but the comic itself? Well the weakest part for me is the actual cartooning which is a good attempt but lacking in any real distinctive style. That said, the creator’s probably weren’t even going for a style, more an imitation of what is already accepted. There is very little movement in the characters at the beginning which doesn’t disturb me too much, but later there seems to be a suggestion of something approaching sprite comics where figures seem be no more than cut-outs, being moved around the panel into a rough approximation of where they should be in relation to the action. If anything it’s getting flatter and flatter completely at odds with the 3-D ambitions of the project.

At the very least it’s functional and you always know what it is you’re looking at thankfully. That goes for the lettering and colouring (proper spelling btw) – all adequate but not overly inspiring. That’s not much of a criticism though as I hardly think these guys are after that particular prize. I think they’re more interested in character and design and making this a viable pitch rather than a long running webcomic. That idea makes sense to me and I think they should pursue it. As an animation I’m sure it’ll make ten times the impact it would have as a webcomic.

There are currently three story arcs on site and in the first the writing, considering the jokey, throw-away nature of the subject is really rather good. It carried me along with it and despite having seen this kind of thing before, I laughed. I laughed at most of the jokes and found the writing pleasant to read. I found a certain wit in the choice of words. All vaguely anachronistic but pleasant all the same. I warmed to the characters and fell into the conceit of the story easily, though that might all be the effects of the pirate virus.

The following two chapters did not fair so well. It’s always going to be a struggle to create the actual adventure and fit in both character and punch line within the three to four panel format. If you describe any action it leaves little time for the joke and if you rely on the joke the story doesn’t progress. There are only so many pirate jokes and the first chapter describes them all very well. I don’t believe there is an awful lot more for the creators to say on the subject. I am reminded of the struggle TV sitcoms have in making the transition to the big screen, not that that happens much any more, but the problem always was that a half hour sitcom is really just talking heads. The gags are in the situation and the conversation and the characterisation - hardly at all in the action or the extrapolation of the story. I think the writing suffers from chasing after the plot which isn’t that strong to be honest. My sympathies lie entirely with the characters and the plot is disturbing the writing which makes the later strips fall quite flat.

What I like about the creators is that they actually refer to each other by their surnames which is rather pirate like. I wouldn’t be surprised if they actually pronounced them in pirate style as L-ARR-gent and McCr-ARR-y! I’m a sucker for endlessly repeating the same joke over and over again until the brain starts dissolving so it’s easy for me to imagine them in a studio cranking this stuff out endlessly trying to force pirate speak into their everyday conversation until the sad day it spills over into a conversation with someone inappropriate in the real world. I can see their future mapped out for them. One day pirate comics. Then slow mental collapse. An early grave. X marks the spot. Arr!

In summation I don’t think it’ll make for an unmissable webcomic read any time soon, but I’ll be ready to tune into the cartoon series any time it makes it’s début. The stars are for the comic. The project has many more. Rating:

The Wannabe Pirates
http://thewannabepirates.com
by Largent & McCrary
review by Mike Perridge
(8 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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