Monday, January 23, 2006

Alien Furries, Implied Nudity, and Sexual Humor

(All pictures from Our Home Planet by GD. Click on them to see them within the context of the website. (warning, this site might not be for sensitive viewers. See the title of this post to know what you're in for. The comic has tons of all three.)

Now, you may be wondering why I would choose this particular comic to review. Well, I wanted a a comic that hasn't been reviewed that much and Our Home Planet seems to be pretty much unknown in the circles I hang out in. Where did I find it? I'm not sure. I think it was a review, actually, but a quick search on Google doesn't bring it up so I can't verify it. Also, I wanted to develop my reviewing style, and this is a good one for doing that since I classify it as a "not too good, not too bad" comic.

But anyways, the comic.

Our Home Planet is a humor comic with a story attached to it. The humor is mostly situational and character humor. Most of the jokes have something to do with sex. As for whether or not the humor is good, it depends on your tastes. Personally it was hit and miss for me. There were comics where I got the joke but didn't find it funny and others which I thought were rather good. This may turn out different for other people.

Even though the comic is rather humorous, there are very few hard punchlines. It consists mostly of soft humor, or humor where you aren't necessarily laughing at a specific line or action, but rather at the situation as a whole. Comics that end on a punchline are even more rare. Many end one panel or line after what can be a considered a true punchline.

The comic is a mix between regular comic updates and one panel by itself. Usually these single panel comics are without dialogue and seem to be to try to catch a moment in time. It's an interesting way of doing things. None of the single shots really add much to the story, but they don't really seem to take away either.

The story itself is rather interesting. Rika and Mai are enjoying a massage when they find out their masseuses are a pair of alien space pirates named 'Dbo who want to eat them (two sisters with a rather.. interesting relationship). After they are tied up, they are rescued by Pepito, a bounty hunter. The plan to capture the aliens fails, and Pepito is left with Rika and Mai, and a need to hide from the 'Dbos. Rika and Mai offer to smuggle him away. That plan fails, too however. The 'Dbos find Rika and Mai's apartment and try to kill Pepito. However, they also fail miserably and are captured and tied up by Rika and Mai. The rest of the story continues pretty much in that vein.

There is something interesting I've noticed about the story which I kind of like, though, but to talk about it, we have to take a short history of literature lesson and cover Greek tragedy and the concept of hubris. Hubris is a sense of pride which ultimately brings the hero down. The Greek playwrights took great joy in building a hero up and then beating him down at his point. Usually the downfall is the pride itself, but sometimes it's the intervention of fate.

Our Home Planet works in much the same way. Everytime someone starts acting prideful or thinking they have the upper hand, they're brought, whether it be through fate or their own bigheadedness. Believe me, the characters in this comic have plenty of excess pride to take advantage of. It's not Greek Tragedy, but I think it's cool that a concept that old can still be applied to literature today.

So recap. Our Home Planet is good, and shows enough promise for me to hope it might get better. I don't think it's ready to go on my reading list yet, but I'm still willing to check in every once in a while.

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