Tall Tale Features / Tall Tale Radio

Welcome to a brand-new feature of our TTF community. Webcomics Reviews. On a weekly basis, multiple members of the Tall Tale Features roster will review a strip submitted to us by its creator. The reviews will be honest (brutally if need be) and constructive (hopefully). If you’d like to submit your strip to be reviewed by the Tall Tall Features gang, send an e-mail to talltalefeatures at gmail dot com. Please note: Due to volume, not all submissions will be reviewed.

This week, we will review Robot Beach by Matt Forcum. Robot Beach “chronicles the epic adventure of lonely little robot trapped on a deserted tropical island.” New strips post on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Reviewers:  Norm Feuti, David Reddick, and Scott Metzger.

Reviews are split into four categories:  Art, Writing, Characters Design, and Final Thoughts.  Enjoy!

Art

Norm: I found the overall art in Robot Beach to be good. Forcum’s line work is confident and consistent, and he has a good sense of layout, design, and visual timing.

David: The art in Robot Beach is again, deceptively simple, but in my opinion, rightfully so. It is on par with art you might find in the newspapers, ala Pearls Before Swine or even Lio in some regards. I’m also impressed that Matt uses traditional media for his strip, which adds to the looseness to it, and in the use of a brush (at least i think he uses a brush.)

In my opinion, the art could be tightened up even more, perhaps streamlining some of Robot’s “parts,” and giving Carl a little more of a solid look, if for no other reason than to allow for more exaggeration of facial expressions. I also think that a little more detail in the water, such as the way waves are drawn, (although Marc does a great job in a dream sequence with Robot being swallowed by a monsterous set of waves) might improve the art to be even more compelling, as well as some more detail in some of the foliage would help drive the “beachiness” and setting even more, the way the backgrounds in, say, Lilo & Stitch did in the same way. and as the background story of pending danger unfolds, I think the backgrounds will become a character could themselves in many ways.

The writing, and the fact that the deceptively simple art does indeed coincide with the easy-going nature of the strip, overall it works.

Scott: The art drew me in immediately. It’s attractive and fun to look at. Forcum can draw.

Writing

Norm: I read Robot Beach in its entirety, which in itself is a testament to the quality of Forcum’s writing. I never felt bored reading through it – quite the opposite. The more I read, the more I became intrigued with the story. I felt compelled to keep reading, so Forcum is a decent storyteller in my book. Robot Beach focuses on three main characters living on a tropical island – a robot, a crab, and a seagull. The strip moves back and forth between gag-a-day type jokes, and a larger “sci-fi” storyline involving the robot’s origin.

While Forcum certainly handles the two writing styles competently, I think transitioning between the two tends to make Robot Beach suffer from a bit of an identity crisis. A good example would be to contrast the stand-alone jellyfish gags with the strips where the robot delves into his past and laments his limited memory. Two very different writing styles, both of which Forcum pulls off beautifully. I’m just not sure how well they mesh in the same strip.

As a whole, I think Robot Beach could benefit from being more focused in story and tone, but judging each strip individually I can find no real fault with it. Forcum’s strips are alternately funny and intriguing. As a side note, I would totally read a Matt Forcum strip called “Jellyfish”. Laugh-out-loud funny.

David: Robot Beach is a gag-a-day type strip that is well timed, and full of little nuggets of humor that made me laugh more than a few times. On the timing, I immediately noticed Matt Forcum has an excellent grasp of setting up a strip just to toss us a usual solid payof. he sets it up, twists it, and pays it off, usually… which is the mantra of a good gag-a-day strip.

However, in reading Robot Beach, the initial premise of it being JUST a gag-a-day strip is deceptive, and in a good way. Aside from giving us the occasional 3-4 strip story “arc,” such as Robot preparing the ride the surfboard into the ocean, there’s an underlying storyarc playing in the background that has a mysterious air, a feeling of impending problem and consequence, and I confess this background “issue” was what HOOKED me into NEEDING to read more strips, to see how it might play out. He’s slowly feeding us tidbits of Robot’s past which I suspect will reveal more about the edgy background that plays like a wolf in a fold of colorful sheep, waiting to pounce.

Scott: It’s immediately apparent that Forcum is a good writer. There’s a polish to his writing that you don’t see in a lot of webcomics. The writing in Robot Beach goes back and forth between being “silly and light-hearted” and “serious and somewhat profound.” Sometimes the shift between the two can be jarring. Going through the archive, it felt like I was reading two different strips: Silly Robot Beach and Serious Robot Beach. I’m sure that over time the two styles will blend together better. Robot Beach hasn’t even hit the 100-strip mark, which is about the time when most webcomics truly find their voice and hit their stride.

I think “Robot Beach” is at its best when it’s silly, sarcastic and lighthearted. The humor in Robot Beach reminds me “Seinfeld” — Robot being Jerry, surrounded by wacky sidekicks. However Robot Beach isn’t a strip “about nothing.” There’s a larger storyline of Robot trying to solve the mystery of why he’s on the island. While that’s kind of interesting, Robot’s quest makes the strip lag a bit. I think Forcum’s strengths are wry humor and slapstick humor. And when he does this, Robot Beach shines. His timing on jokes is great. Several strips really cracked me up – the funniest was a one-off jelly fish gag that was spit-out-your-coffee hilarious. (Strip #44- http://www.robotbeach.com/044-jellyfish-joke.)

Character Design

Norm: I actually found the character design of the animal characters in Robot Beach (the crab, the seagull, etc …) more interesting than the main character. I found the design of the robot to be competent, but somewhat uninspired.

David: The main characters, Robot, the loveable and innocently naive one, Carl, the hardened “seen-the-world-and-not-impressed” Crab, and Larry, the easy-going seagull, all play off each other well, and matt has done a good job at setting up these opposing personality types. again, a good mantra for a solid gag-a-day strip is a smallish cast, usually no more than 2-3 main characters, at least int he beginning year or two of a strip, to give us a chance to getr to know
what the strip is about through ther eyes of these peronalities.

I confess i found myself noticing this is totally a “guy” strip, and I think adding a female into the mix of Robot Beach would add a whole ‘nother spark and subject matter to allow the characters to play off of.

Scott: Larry is my favorite character. He’s a romantically challenged, lovable loser seagull. Robot plays the straight man to Larry (and Carl the crab) more often than he delivers a good punch line. That’s not to say Robot is boring but the sidekicks, in my opinion, are more fun and likable than the main character.

Final Thoughts

Norm: I think the strip suffers a little from lack of focus, and the main character could stand to upgrade his chassis to something a bit more distinctive, but overall I liked Robot Beach. Matt Forcum obviously has some talent. Many of his strips made me laugh out loud, and I found his story telling elements quite intriguing.

David: Final Thoughts: Personally, I found myself enjoying Robot Beach, and I pretty much felt like I had spent some time on a secluded beach somewhere with some new friends, and I find myself eager to discover what happens next in the background story. I’d like to see the art polish more in the future, but I also know this comes in time, as the strip evolves, and I also understand that style plays a lot in the drawing, and the writing of a strip. And the overall “style” of RB works for me, and if it stayed the same, I’d still read it. On a final note, I found myself wanting to sketch Matt’s characters, which is always a good sign as I find myself wanting to do that with strips I reaklly like.

Scott: I enjoy Robot Beach – it’s an original idea executed well. The storyline of why Robot is on the island gives the strip some substance and intrigue, but as Robot Beach evolves I hope it doesn’t get too “sci fi.” Funny is what Forcum does best.