Comments on: Retro Geek ends run

By: Hal Manning

Hal Manning — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:46:59 +0000

I had high hopes for Retro Geek, but the writing was too lukewarm and predictable for me.

It was also unfortunate that much of the clipart was grotesquely distorted to fit into the dimensions of a rigid comic-strip format. When the clipart fit nicely, it was beautiful… but when it didn’t, it was horrendous to look at.

Steve Dickenson looks like Kevin Bacon!

By: Pab Sungenis

Pab Sungenis — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 16:10:30 +0000

Retro Geek was amusing, or at least I thought so. The problem is that like similar strips, its appeal is limited and it just couldn’t survive in the “big leagues.” I doubt any of our photo-manipulated strips, except perhaps Wondermark, could.

By: Rick Ellis

Rick Ellis — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:19:58 +0000

For those who will miss the clipart , try this. It’s much better.

http://www.newadventuresofqueenvictoria.com/

By: Malc McGookin

Malc McGookin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 06:50:54 +0000

Retro Geek isn’t a bad idea, and it’s also not without humour, but I would have flagged this straight away as one for the “too hard” basket.

It has limited appeal, its target audience being the small proportion of comics readers who “get” the concept, plus the act of putting together all the retro-style art was ten times harder than drawing it from scratch.

By: Danny Burleson

Danny Burleson — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 05:33:39 +0000

Hmm, I hadn’t even heard of this until now. Looking through the archives, it doesn’t look like I missed much. I don’t care much for clipart comics in general, though, Wondermark does a good job with this type of style. It’s certainly more entertaining.

By: D.D.Degg

D.D.Degg — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 01:58:04 +0000

When Todd Clark took sole custody of Lola earlier this year I asked him about that and about Retro Geek. Responding to the Retro Geek inquiry he said,
“It’s quite a combination of things on retro Geek. Some images early on
we bought from sites that specialize in that stuff. Very pricey to get
permission for what we’re doing with them. Lately we’ve found a small
goldmine of very old magazines that everything inside is pd at this
point, so we’re scanning old images and photos and rendering the art
ourselves. Some thru tricks in photoshop, others painstakingly drawn
and retraced on the lightbox. No two are really done exactly the
same. it’s been quite a learning experience on legal issues and just
working the art itself. Actually pretty fun.”

The last week of Retro Geek had a new website listed:
http://retrogeekthecomicstrip.com/

As for the shortest syndicated strip…
for the modern age it seems to be a tie between
Retro Geek and Pete Murphy’s Hippy and Pop.
Both started January 7 – Retro Geek ended March 30th
and Hippy and Pop ended March 31st; but Retro Geek
had a Leap Day the H&P didn’t.

A complete Hippy and Pop archive at
http://www.geocities.com/hippyandpop/thestrips.html
A complete Retro Geek archive at
http://www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?catid=2046

Please forgive all the links.

By: Eric Burke

Eric Burke — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:49:55 +0000

Not sorry to see this contrived strip end. Based on the samples I went through, it was lame dialogue with xerox-quality clip art. Awful.

I hate Lola, too. But at least that’s original art I can dislike, not lame clip-art style.

Shame on everyone involved with this strip…

By: Rick Ellis

Rick Ellis — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:30:38 +0000

Wow. That was fast.
Is there some sort of record for the shortest time syndicated?