it seems a lot of people on the forums have been ragging on CAD latlely. i like the comic, and dont really know why people are saying they suck. do you have a problem with the comic? what do you think? is it good? bad? is there somehting about the creator you dont like?
what do you think about ctrl alt del
- Thread starter josh797
- Start date
Durn burn, I accidentally hit report and not quote, mods, please disregard. It's a decent enough comic in its own right, but Tim doesn't understand what makes a good joke half the time. This results in the comic falling back on the staples of "wacky", "violence" and "melodrama". None of these turn out well, ever. He's not a bad artist, by any means, but he relies too much on copypasting and google images. It's better than many comics that are out there in terms of reliable updating, general art quality/clarity, and appeal. It is, however, somewhat bland. This, combined with a high profile and a conceitedness bordering on the "Woo-ha crazy" level (Winter-eenmas? The hell?) leaves a lot of people ragging on it.josh797 said:
Oh yes, forgot to mention something I've seen said, that as a gaming comic it has always "played go-bots to Penny-Arcade's Transformers" and also tends to borrow jokes. He does this enough to merit derisive satire from PA, though Jerry "Tycho" did write an introduction to a CAD book, meaning not all is strife 'twixt the two. My preferred poisons in the webcomics realm are The Order of the Stick, Goblins, Sluggy Freelance, and others.
I personally think the jokes are hit and miss, but I do enjoy the storyline arcs he puts in there. I'm a CAD fan, but I can understand how some people can not like it.
I like it but because of the character themselves not really as much for the gaming aspect of Ctrl Alt Del, which I guess some people think misses the mark.
I like the story and weird shit they get upto and when they do concentrate on games its usually spot on, I peronsally love the Guitar Hero strip, short and sweet.
I like the story and weird shit they get upto and when they do concentrate on games its usually spot on, I peronsally love the Guitar Hero strip, short and sweet.
I like it more than Penny Arcade, which is what introduced me to online comics. I consider it one of my favorites (along with 'Cynanide and Happiness' and, of course, Penny Arcade).
It actually has a story arc, plus its updated relatively quickly. But people have different opinions.
It actually has a story arc, plus its updated relatively quickly. But people have different opinions.
ctrl+alt+delte, great way to get to the taskmanager, but seriously I enjoy it because I like the lack of a deep storyline, and the humor which is good for a simple laugh (which I like). I hate reading comics where there is this really deep and complex storyline that forces you to read the whole thing; I like starting whereever the hell I feel like.
A good few years back I used to love CAD. I read it regularly alongside PA and VG Cats, but over the past year or 2 I've slowly begun getting more and more annoyed with it. It's become extremely formulaic with the characters filling extremely steriotypical roles. Ethan being the 'wacky' one had just gone on a bit too long really, and became repetitive and boring.
There began to be very, very few original strips; unless it was one of the dominating soap-opera-like storylines, it was a Chef Brian (and his quite appauling brand of 'randomness'), that Gamer's Vocabulary (that's probably the wrong name) or a very weak parody/joke of a game currently in the news.
It got to the point where I was reading them out of habit, and couldn't actually remember the last time I laughed at one. And apart from the comic itself, he(Tim) started indulging in his personal life way too much in his news posts, which should be left for game news. He also came across as very arrogant which I had previously overlooked in favour of the comic.
All in all, with all the merchandise and everything else, it's just became too much of a standard, which nothing like PA's sharp wit or brilliant news posts to save it. Oh, and his little following of almost cultist-level fanatical support is quite off putting as well. The forums tend to be a rather dark place.
There began to be very, very few original strips; unless it was one of the dominating soap-opera-like storylines, it was a Chef Brian (and his quite appauling brand of 'randomness'), that Gamer's Vocabulary (that's probably the wrong name) or a very weak parody/joke of a game currently in the news.
It got to the point where I was reading them out of habit, and couldn't actually remember the last time I laughed at one. And apart from the comic itself, he(Tim) started indulging in his personal life way too much in his news posts, which should be left for game news. He also came across as very arrogant which I had previously overlooked in favour of the comic.
All in all, with all the merchandise and everything else, it's just became too much of a standard, which nothing like PA's sharp wit or brilliant news posts to save it. Oh, and his little following of almost cultist-level fanatical support is quite off putting as well. The forums tend to be a rather dark place.
I used to be a big CAD fan, but at some point I kinda got that he only has a bunch of uninteresting and undeveloped characters who stick to some personality point and a bunch of unfunny jokes. He does get some jokes right at times, but most of the time he's just dead boring. The fact that he tries so hard to create some story arcs is kinda .... sad because his characters are so underdeveloped and arcs are so cliché that they're just uninteresting to read. I prefer Penny Arcade, though not for its jokes because they ain't that funny either, but because of the people behind it because Tim is quite unlovely person once you've hang around the place enough. My favorite comics are OOTS (deep story and good jokes), Goblins (deep story and good characters), Cyanide & Happiness (short and good jokes), Wulffmorgenthaler (short and good jokes), Girl Genius (deep story, some nice jokes at times and well developed characters), VGCats (funny AND cute!) and The Noob (quite an interesting story, good jokes most of the time, nice characters) tho. 
Edit: Just read YeOldeMunger's post and, well, it was pretty much the same thingy for me. Didn't quite get if he likes Chef Brian or no, but I've always disliked the character. Tim really tries to make him absolutely random and that way funny, but he fails yet again.
Edit: Just read YeOldeMunger's post and, well, it was pretty much the same thingy for me.
Didn't quite get if he likes Chef Brian or no, but I've always disliked the character. Tim really tries to make him absolutely random and that way funny, but he fails yet again.Don't worry, I'm not a fan of Chef Brian either. It really is quite the insult to Monty Python and others who were genuninely good at using completely random things as the basis for comedy. The Accountant Pirate Ship/Building anyone? ..ahh, classic..Jiki said:...
Edit: Just read YeOldeMunger's post and, well, it was pretty much the same thingy for me.
A warning to all about to lay eyes on this post: I am a webcomic geek of the highest order. I love them as an art form, read about four dozen regularly, and delight in immersing myself in the associated culture. I also follow and soak up webcomics drama like a hideous, insatiable sponge ('hideous, insatiable sponge' sounds to me like possibly the most unsettling sexual maneuver imaginable, but I'm digressing now.)
Tim Buckley is probably one of the least-liked men in webcomics to date, and given the sheer amount of vitriol and fanboyism that plagues the community, that's saying something. His infamy didn't arise overnight, however. Buckley has *worked* at this. When he's not producing immensely bland artwork to fit his equally unremarkable humour, he seems to be actively driving away the loyal readers he still has.
Among his exploits:
-forming a World of Warcraft guild in an attempt to mimick the thriving Penny Arcade-derived guilds in the game. The guild's membership swelled and for a time all was well, until one day Buckley logged on, possibly drunk. He proceeded to get into arguments with several senior guild members, and ended up kicking everyone and dissolving the guild.
-threatening to sue a young fan. The fan's crime? Using CAD's characters in a school animation project, which he then posted on the comic's forums to share with other fans.
-asking fans for money to start a Battlefield server, and then unexpectedly shutting it down without refunding their money.
-writing a long, rage-filled post about a holiday that doesn't exist (Webcomic Appreciation Day.) The post was inspired by a single line of an Applegeeks blog post, and was later removed (though I'll provide a link to a copy of it.)
-showing his penis to a 14-year-old female forum-goer. This is unconfirmed, but it is worth mentioning that Buckley banned every forum member who ever even mentioned seeing the post, even those defending him, and ended up closing a large chunk of his forums.
The man is so childish and tempermental that he has repeatedly trolled older, more established webcomic authors (most notably Kris Straub and Scott Kurtz,) and repeatedly removes information from his forums and post history that casts him in a bad light. He has gained such internet fame for being a pompus hack that at a convention a couple years ago about three dozen webcomic artists got together and produced an equal number of sketches of Buckley with both hands replaced with juicy hams.
And that's just talking about the man himself. Once you start looking at his terrible art (one hundred percent improvement-proof,) his fumble-fingered grasp of popular culture (making clumsy references to All Your Base and the Matrix more than five years after either were relevent,) and his inability to bring anything original or funny to video game discourse, is it any mystery why some people might not like him or his comic that much?
Sources:
-Me, You, and Mary-Sue Profile of Tim Buckley containing links to most of things metioned in this post:
http://dramapatrol.blogspot.com/2007/07/profile-tim-buckley.html
-Supplementary MYMS post containing full text of Webcomic Appreciation Day post:
http://dramapatrol.blogspot.com/2007/08/filler-more-buckley.html
-Forum post containing account of penis incident:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060206233945/http://forums.rantingsofmadmen.com/viewtopic.php?t=119
-Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad Review of Ctrl Alt Del, check comments for more drama incidents:
http://badwebcomics.blogspot.com/2007/06/ctrlaltdel.html
-'Ham-Handed' Collection: unfortunately lost when Kris Straub redesigned his site.
Links to Much Better Webcomics:
- http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php
- http://drmcninja.com/index.html
- http://www.samandfuzzy.com/
- http://www.starslip.com/
- http://www.pandaxpress.com/
- http://malfunctionjunction.net/
Shameless Plug of Friend's Webcomic But It's Actually Pretty Good You Guys:
- http://dampwithmurder.comicgenesis.com/
Tim Buckley is probably one of the least-liked men in webcomics to date, and given the sheer amount of vitriol and fanboyism that plagues the community, that's saying something. His infamy didn't arise overnight, however. Buckley has *worked* at this. When he's not producing immensely bland artwork to fit his equally unremarkable humour, he seems to be actively driving away the loyal readers he still has.
Among his exploits:
-forming a World of Warcraft guild in an attempt to mimick the thriving Penny Arcade-derived guilds in the game. The guild's membership swelled and for a time all was well, until one day Buckley logged on, possibly drunk. He proceeded to get into arguments with several senior guild members, and ended up kicking everyone and dissolving the guild.
-threatening to sue a young fan. The fan's crime? Using CAD's characters in a school animation project, which he then posted on the comic's forums to share with other fans.
-asking fans for money to start a Battlefield server, and then unexpectedly shutting it down without refunding their money.
-writing a long, rage-filled post about a holiday that doesn't exist (Webcomic Appreciation Day.) The post was inspired by a single line of an Applegeeks blog post, and was later removed (though I'll provide a link to a copy of it.)
-showing his penis to a 14-year-old female forum-goer. This is unconfirmed, but it is worth mentioning that Buckley banned every forum member who ever even mentioned seeing the post, even those defending him, and ended up closing a large chunk of his forums.
The man is so childish and tempermental that he has repeatedly trolled older, more established webcomic authors (most notably Kris Straub and Scott Kurtz,) and repeatedly removes information from his forums and post history that casts him in a bad light. He has gained such internet fame for being a pompus hack that at a convention a couple years ago about three dozen webcomic artists got together and produced an equal number of sketches of Buckley with both hands replaced with juicy hams.
And that's just talking about the man himself. Once you start looking at his terrible art (one hundred percent improvement-proof,) his fumble-fingered grasp of popular culture (making clumsy references to All Your Base and the Matrix more than five years after either were relevent,) and his inability to bring anything original or funny to video game discourse, is it any mystery why some people might not like him or his comic that much?
Sources:
-Me, You, and Mary-Sue Profile of Tim Buckley containing links to most of things metioned in this post:
http://dramapatrol.blogspot.com/2007/07/profile-tim-buckley.html
-Supplementary MYMS post containing full text of Webcomic Appreciation Day post:
http://dramapatrol.blogspot.com/2007/08/filler-more-buckley.html
-Forum post containing account of penis incident:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060206233945/http://forums.rantingsofmadmen.com/viewtopic.php?t=119
-Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad Review of Ctrl Alt Del, check comments for more drama incidents:
http://badwebcomics.blogspot.com/2007/06/ctrlaltdel.html
-'Ham-Handed' Collection: unfortunately lost when Kris Straub redesigned his site.
Links to Much Better Webcomics:
- http://www.gunnerkrigg.com/index2.php
- http://drmcninja.com/index.html
- http://www.samandfuzzy.com/
- http://www.starslip.com/
- http://www.pandaxpress.com/
- http://malfunctionjunction.net/
Shameless Plug of Friend's Webcomic But It's Actually Pretty Good You Guys:
- http://dampwithmurder.comicgenesis.com/
@doctor shenanigans: im not gonna quote that entire thing, its really long, lol. just wanted to say thanks for citing sources, thats i think one of the only probs i have with these forums, however, all of them seem to be blogs, so im not so inclined to believe em. however most of the critiques coming in to this thread are pretty accurate so, anyway thanks everyone.
CAD is awful. Always has been. Like so, so, SO many internet humourists, the man simply doesn't understand what makes humour work. When he does tell a good joke it seems rather a fluke than any sort of talent, but that's rare. VERY rare. I've hated CAD ever since I first saw it, long before Yahtzee took a (justified) stab at it, and I never knew about any of the personal stuff that Dr. Shenanigans linked to until just now. Not that any of it is suprising. I don't care that he's a sick self-obsessed moron but I do care that he makes terrible webcomics.