Teardroppe Comiques Spectaculare

Posted: Tuesday, July 20, 2004
By: Steve Saville

Cover of Teardroppe Comiques Spectaculare Creator(s): Matthew Teardrop
Publishers: Self Published
From: USA
Price: $1 or trades(US)

Someone much wiser than me once said about comics that they could be well drawn but have nothing much to say and that is enough or they could have something important to say and be badly drawn and that is enough but to be perfect they have to be well drawn and have something to say.

Well no one could say that 'Teardroppe' contains anything other than simplistic, basic, clumsy even crude drawings. Quickly drawn rough caricatures free of anything remotely representing background or variety of angle. And lettering that is just as primal. This is as raw as it gets. I’m talking 'South Park' simplicity here.

This in itself is no big deal providing there is something valid or amusing to say within. So is there? In places the shorter strips are just jokes with drawings. Some are funny some miss the mark. Of the longer strips the opening 'When You're dead' is promising enough, representing as it does a look at the validity of believing in cliché. but the parody of the Cruise Kidman movie 'Eyes Wide Shut' misses the mark.

This is indicative of the rest of the collection, some of the strips work and raise a smile, for example 'Get Over It,' others just lack the punchline that they seemed to be building up to. Overall it is an amusing, inoffensive collection. There are signs of promise that will hopefully blossom in future publications but are not sustained here.

It is not necessarily new or innovative but sometimes being creative is just about having fun. I have no doubt that Matthew had a heap of fun drawing and writing this comic and I thank him for sharing this with us.



In a Word: Spasmodic.



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