CAD is, in my opinion, abysmal. The script is what Marcel Proust would write if he had just had his brain replaced with a toy yacht. The art style is an exercise in cut'n'paste taken to an almost fetishistic degree. The characters are as engaging and warm as damp toast left behind on the surface of Ceres. And Buckley himself is filed in the OED as the definition of the phrase "Absolute pair-of-aching-balls of a man".

Why it gets so many readers is beyond me. I checked out the much alluded to "Miscarriage" arc, and it left me with the impression that Buckley was barking at the moon. "LOOK AT ME, I CAN DO DRAMA!!!", he screams, whilst firing an air pistol at anyone on the internet who dares tell him his strip (the word 'comic' implies that CAD is funny) is a hopeless exercise in truly bad drawing and worse writing.

I my selfe don't understand how people can call CAD a "funny and smart" comic, a sprite comic made by a 5 year old who was just new to MSpaint would have been twice's funny than this bull. I guess when Buckley isn't making crummy jokes (The one with the GTA4 having the Marshmallow man...WAIT WTF?!!! MARSHMALLOW MAN?! What the fuck is HE doing in GTA4?! I would understand if it was with Ghostbusters, but GTA fucking 4?!) he tries to go for serious stuff. My theory is that he mostly looks at other comics in hoping to copy their idea (Mostly I think he looks at PA and PVP since thoes sometime have the serious moments), while in the humor department he looks at VGCats, since Scott sometimes manages to give good and funny material, but since we know that Buckey is as funny as empty can of coke, he fails miserably and I woulden't be suprised if he knows that himselfe but doesn't wish to admit it.

Perhaps people still read CAD in hopes that one day it will be struck by the magic lightning of God and that Buckley will finally strat making good jokes, but I think that will only happen when Yathzee gives a game a good review and Bush will admit that his Hitlers reincarnation

TriGGeR_HaPPy:
Forgive me if someone has actually said this already ( MRMIdAS2k vaguely touched on it) but, being a regular to CAD, the maker of CAD said (immediately after the first comic which showed the Miscarriage) that he'd better clear things up because he himself got a lot of people complaining about this sudden turn in storyline.

He said that he had always thought of his comic as a comic about Gamers (again, as MRMIdAS2k touched on), not necessarily about games, and as such, he tries more to look at Gamers' Lives rather then the games they play, even though the games themselves are a part of his comic.
He also said he knew he would probably lose some of his less hardcore fans because of this though, and was willing to accept that.
Also, he said that he and his girlfriend had themselves gone through a miscarriage. I highly doubt he is trying to make fun of it, since he said he lost his girlfriend over it and it left them both with a lot of emotional trauma.

All that being said though, I kind of agree with some of the points that have been made against it too. Don't get me wrong, I sympathise with him, I'm sure it's something no one wants to have to go through... And I know that with something like that in the storyline it will help the story keep going for many comics to come... I'm just not sure if it was really worth it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! A Frickin Keanu Reeves full of WHOAS! Did I hear that right? He made a comic bout how HE and HE'S GF had a misscarrige?! That is just up-your-ass, in-your-face, downright, straight up BULLSHIT!!! WHO GIVES A FUCK! I'll tell ya..NO ONE! No ones gives two shits bout the guys, life! And putting such stuff in a strip is just plain stupidity, I mean you need to have your brain in your arse to think up such shit would be great for a strip witch concitrates on been filled with retarded humor for retarded kids who can't even read or spell.

I read CAD out of... Morbid Facination, it's not good, but I'm amused to see how bad it can be sometimes.

Kanashe:

TriGGeR_HaPPy:
Forgive me if someone has actually said this already ( MRMIdAS2k vaguely touched on it) but, being a regular to CAD, the maker of CAD said (immediately after the first comic which showed the Miscarriage) that he'd better clear things up because he himself got a lot of people complaining about this sudden turn in storyline.

He said that he had always thought of his comic as a comic about Gamers (again, as MRMIdAS2k touched on), not necessarily about games, and as such, he tries more to look at Gamers' Lives rather then the games they play, even though the games themselves are a part of his comic.
He also said he knew he would probably lose some of his less hardcore fans because of this though, and was willing to accept that.
Also, he said that he and his girlfriend had themselves gone through a miscarriage. I highly doubt he is trying to make fun of it, since he said he lost his girlfriend over it and it left them both with a lot of emotional trauma.

All that being said though, I kind of agree with some of the points that have been made against it too. Don't get me wrong, I sympathise with him, I'm sure it's something no one wants to have to go through... And I know that with something like that in the storyline it will help the story keep going for many comics to come... I'm just not sure if it was really worth it.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! A Frickin Keanu Reeves full of WHOAS! Did I hear that right? He made a comic bout how HE and HE'S GF had a misscarrige?! That is just up-your-ass, in-your-face, downright, straight up BULLSHIT!!! WHO GIVES A FUCK! I'll tell ya..NO ONE! No ones gives two shits bout the guys, life! And putting such stuff in a strip is just plain stupidity, I mean you need to have your brain in your arse to think up such shit would be great for a strip witch concitrates on been filled with retarded humor for retarded kids who can't even read or spell.

After your frankly appalling spelling/grammar, I don't think you're in a position to slag anyone else's inability to do the same.

BTW the strip isn't about HIS miscarriage, it's about Lilah & Ethan's miscarriage, ok, the inspiration is from real life, and no, the strip about said miscarriage isn't funny, and it's not trying to be, it's sombre, emotional, and seems REAL.

If you can't understand that, there's something wrong with you.

Oh, and whoever slagged CAD off for using "copy & pasted" art, I have no idea one way or the other about that, but even IF Tim does do that, why is it a bad thing? people put up with identikit pedestrians in games. and do you slag off game designers for not using an individual polygon model for each frame of animation? No, but that's tantamount to copy & pasting, as he's using the existing model as oposed to "drawing" another one.

MRMIdAS2k:

After your frankly appalling spelling/grammar, I don't think you're in a position to slag anyone else's inability to do the same.

BTW the strip isn't about HIS miscarriage, it's about Lilah & Ethan's miscarriage, ok, the inspiration is from real life, and no, the strip about said miscarriage isn't funny, and it's not trying to be, it's sombre, emotional, and seems REAL.

If you can't understand that, there's something wrong with you.

Oh, and whoever slagged CAD off for using "copy & pasted" art, I have no idea one way or the other about that, but even IF Tim does do that, why is it a bad thing? people put up with identikit pedestrians in games. and do you slag off game designers for not using an individual polygon model for each frame of animation? No, but that's tantamount to copy & pasting, as he's using the existing model as oposed to "drawing" another one.

Listen I don't know HOW many twat's give their heart and soul bout the "WAAAAAAA!!!! SHE HAD A MISSCARRIAGE!!! Let's all cry river of emo blood tears" and personaly I don't even fricking care, but what ya DON'T do is put such bull in a comic that originaly was planned to be funny (and even in THAT department it fails misserably).

Oh ya think that copy/pasting is great huh? Well let me say this. You sir are a moron, congrats. Copy/paste is a thing ya use for SPRITE comic's NOT handdrawn comic's. Should I bring examples of the differences between a hand drawn comic and a sprite comic?

"The New And Cleaner Poll."

Well, it's certainly new. Kanashe isn't making it any cleaner.

I like the comic series...

The thing people tend to misunderstand is that Ctrl+Alt+Del isn't a comic about gaming. It's a comic about gamers. A subtle difference in text, but wide enough to warrant a mention. This means that the point of the comic isn't to comically talk about video games, but rather to talk about the people that play them and their lives and mishaps.

Buckley has never said that his comic was entirely about games and the making fun thereof. He focuses on the people that play those games, and their lives. Granted, his characters are for the most part extremes, but then again Yahtzee portrays himself as an extreme when it comes to critics and I don't see anyone getting upset about him. Instead I see constant "Let's be like Yahtzee" and "Let's agree with Yahtzee despite and perhaps because of the fact that we can't form our own opinions."

Sorry, I got carried away there.

The point is, hating CAD because it's a 'Game comic that talked about miscarriages' is a one way ticket on the train of ignorance. There are plenty of reasons to dislike it, there are plenty of reasons to like it, but that's just one of the reasons that isn't so well thought out. Just like real gamers, the gamers around which CAD's storyline revolves have dramatic happenings in their life. They are, again, to extremes but that's the point. We don't want average boring 'Hi my name is Bob and I like Halo' gamers, we want 'Hello, I'm a gamer and I bludgeoned my way through a line to get to Halo 3'. Since we accept that extreme, it would be hypocritical and arrogant of one to reject the opposite extreme.

Johnn Johnston:
"The New And Cleaner Poll."

Well, it's certainly new. Kanashe isn't making it any cleaner.

Indeed. I think he neglected to rememeber arguments presented in the way he is doing are what got the last thread closed.

Sethran:
The thing people tend to misunderstand is that Ctrl+Alt+Del isn't a comic about gaming. It's a comic about gamers.

Exactly, people seem to overlook that a lot.

TheNecroswanson:

Johnn Johnston:
"The New And Cleaner Poll."

Well, it's certainly new. Kanashe isn't making it any cleaner.

Indeed. I think he neglected to rememeber arguments presented in the way he is doing are what got the last thread closed.

Yes, yes it was.

It's hardly his fault, he's too busy trying to come up with snide comebacks to pay attention to the reason the poll was locked in the first place...

I understand Tim's comic is about Gamers. But the problem is presentation. He presents it as a comic about games, while labeling it about gamers. It's a confusing bit that he's struggling to get onboard with.
Though I agree the sudden drama helps him get his comic where it needs to go, todays comic is making it just seem like his tale through the eyes of Ethan. Like the old story scenerio, "I had a friend, *long depressing stroy*, and here's the kicker, that friend, was me"

I understand that, I was making the point of people who are just jumping on the bandwagon presenting a very shallow reason for disliking something they've little knowledge about. Like I said, there is plenty of reason to dislike the comic and plenty of reason to like it, but the least one could do is provide a reasonable excuse for one or the other.

Many of the statements I've read could have been reworded to "Yahtzee doesn't like it, so I don't." and not been far off, and as someone who respects Yahtzee's work it irritates me when people don't understand that being a fanboy is what he doesn't like, even if it's one of his fanboys.

While there is an 'occasional' strip that may make me chuckle, I have never found one that makes me roll on the floor or a side-splitter per-se.

I find the content or subject matter usually mundane, more commentary-ish than humorous. Feels like the poor-man's Penny Arcade (which doesn't always deliver either).

I stopped reading CAD when I realised that I'd stop laughing at it a long time ago. The miscarriage storyline made my jaw drop though, and I'm amazed that Buckley thought it would be a good idea. It's no skin off my nose however, as I don't read the comic.

I would like to address the copy & paste argument though. Comparing Tim Buckley using the same basic artwork in each panel of his strip is not analogous to Rockstar using the same model for random pedestrians. A better comparison would be if Rockstar used the same basic model for all of their major NPCs and just changed the details a little. For want of a better word, Buckley is a 'professional' webcomic artist/writer, he makes his living doing this, he has to draw 16 panels a week. Is it so much to ask that the art in each panel be different?

My question now is: If you don't read it anymore, how can you credibly argue that he copy-pastes? That sounds like the woman that claimed that Mass Effect was nothing but video game porn, but had never even looked at it, much less played it.

In the recent comics I can't say I've ever seen two panels that look exactly the same. There are always differences, even if they are very subtle, and really if a conversation is happening over a series of four panels there isn't a whole lot of need to have them in four separate outrageous positions. If you and another person are standing around talking, do you assume a different pose every three sentences or do you, in general, stand still?

I'd be very disturbed if I saw someone strike a pose for every other sentence.

As sick as i am with this argument i feel compelled to weigh in, in the vein hope it shuts everyone up once and for all.

The comic itself isn't that bad. It's not great either, it's kind of like the comic equivilent of a popcorn movie. It's something you read, then forget about. it's no means brilliant and it's at times very poorly written. the art is less than awe inspiring to say the least and generic and bland to say the most.

That said, it's nice that Tim is trying his hardest to change that. He's working his arse off trying to get away from the wackyness and gaming humour and more towards some serious drama. I mean yeah, the shift was awkward and it's a big issue to challenge on your first dramatic arc, but he's trying. "but why?" i hear you ask:

the shortest answer is that Tim writes his comic for himself. Now, there are times when he'll talk to you as a fan and give you praise for reading, but rest assured, he's drawing it for himself. The nice thing about this is it gives total freedom. you only have to answer to yourself and you can always tell the fans that "you can do what you want with your comic". so thus, he wanted to do a dramatic arc and he did. this, of course, falls down when you realise that he depends on his fanbase's loyalty to keep him out of the food service and retail industries, so alienating a good portion of them isn't smart. It's also strange that if he's drawing for himself, Why would he publish it at all?

Look, its simple. He's big into himself (american idol syndrome) and he wont hear any different, he writes his strip for himself and publishes it for either recognition or critique, and refuses to accept when he gets it wrong.

Sethran:
My question now is: If you don't read it anymore, how can you credibly argue that he copy-pastes? That sounds like the woman that claimed that Mass Effect was nothing but video game porn, but had never even looked at it, much less played it.

In the recent comics I can't say I've ever seen two panels that look exactly the same. There are always differences, even if they are very subtle, and really if a conversation is happening over a series of four panels there isn't a whole lot of need to have them in four separate outrageous positions. If you and another person are standing around talking, do you assume a different pose every three sentences or do you, in general, stand still?

I'd be very disturbed if I saw someone strike a pose for every other sentence.

I read it for a long time before I stopped, then randomly checked it out of curiousity the day before the ZP review. If you don't see anything wrong with CAD's style then that's great, but I expect better from a supposedly professional artist.

I would bet Australia that the only reason your making this thread is Yahtzee.

Aries_Split:
I would bet Australia that the only reason your making this thread is Yahtzee.

Even if that's true, it doesn't make it any less valid a discussion.

the monopoly guy:
lock

damn, I was wrong...so far

I read CAD. I don't particularly like it, but I've certainly seen worse. What I don't understand is what about that comic inspires the levels of vitriol that we can see in Kanashe? What is it about this one website that makes people swear so profusely?

nilcypher:
I would like to address the copy & paste argument though. Comparing Tim Buckley using the same basic artwork in each panel of his strip is not analogous to Rockstar using the same model for random pedestrians. A better comparison would be if Rockstar used the same basic model for all of their major NPCs and just changed the details a little. For want of a better word, Buckley is a 'professional' webcomic artist/writer, he makes his living doing this, he has to draw 16 panels a week. Is it so much to ask that the art in each panel be different?

Well, he's not nearly as bad as Dinosaur Comics.

Nugoo:

Well, he's not nearly as bad as Dinosaur Comics.

Technically, I suppose you're right, but at the same time, that's kind of Dinosaur Comics' thing isn't it?

Well, now that the Miscarriage Monsoon has passed, I think Buckley's cleaned up his act and won't try to pull that on the readers for quite a while. Sure, it's not the funniest comic, the best drawn comic, nor does it have the best characters in a comic, but it makes for a good time waster when waiting for something to load, that and there's always the chance that there will be a funny non-plot driven strip whenever I;m bored. It's like panning for gold. Sure you mostly get mud and you're waist deep in frigid muck, but there's always the hope of a good find.

Aries_Split:
I would bet Australia that the only reason your making this thread is Yahtzee.

Why? ABout what, four months back, (It was longer but I've no clue when it was.) we had a good 5 page thread about CAD. Just because you're new, does't mean it hasn't happened before. Beleive it or not, we don't all worhsip Mr. Croshaw.
He doesn't actually create the entirty of our discussions you know.

John Galt:
Well, now that the Miscarriage Monsoon has passed, I think Buckley's cleaned up his act and won't try to pull that on the readers for quite a while. Sure, it's not the funniest comic, the best drawn comic, nor does it have the best characters in a comic, but it makes for a good time waster when waiting for something to load, that and there's always the chance that there will be a funny non-plot driven strip whenever I;m bored. It's like panning for gold. Sure you mostly get mud and you're waist deep in frigid muck, but there's always the hope of a good find.

I agree. But while he doesn't have the best characters, at least he has set characters. I've seen a lot of comics of which the character's personality changes often.

Aries_Split:
I would bet Australia that the only reason your making this thread is Yahtzee.

Because I live in Australia I have to worship that hat wearing Pom and jump on every command. You are correct.
In all honesty, I didn't enjoy that webcomic rant Yahtzee had. He's already stated his hatred for CAD a few times, and it seemed so unnessissary. I just didn't find the rant all too funny.

Kanashe:

Listen I don't know HOW many twat's give their heart and soul bout the "WAAAAAAA!!!! SHE HAD A MISSCARRIAGE!!! Let's all cry river of emo blood tears" and personaly I don't even fricking care, but what ya DON'T do is put such bull in a comic that originaly was planned to be funny (and even in THAT department it fails misserably).

Oh ya think that copy/pasting is great huh? Well let me say this. You sir are a moron, congrats. Copy/paste is a thing ya use for SPRITE comic's NOT handdrawn comic's. Should I bring examples of the differences between a hand drawn comic and a sprite comic?

FFS, He drew the original drawing, so the comic is hand drawn.

Tell you what, since you're so keen on not using timesavers, how about no computer aided colouring?

now we've got our black n white comic, how about we remove all the perspective blur too, as that's done in the computer.

How about we remove all the text in the speech bubbles too, that's been TYPED in.

Fuck it, why don't we just do the greatest webcomic of all time and have a blank sheet of paper, as there's nothing there, so there's nothing to criticise.

Oh, and YES a funny comic can take a serious turn every once in a while.

Oh, and YOU'RE the moron.

moron.

MRMIdAS2k:

Kanashe:

Listen I don't know HOW many twat's give their heart and soul bout the "WAAAAAAA!!!! SHE HAD A MISSCARRIAGE!!! Let's all cry river of emo blood tears" and personaly I don't even fricking care, but what ya DON'T do is put such bull in a comic that originaly was planned to be funny (and even in THAT department it fails misserably).

Oh ya think that copy/pasting is great huh? Well let me say this. You sir are a moron, congrats. Copy/paste is a thing ya use for SPRITE comic's NOT handdrawn comic's. Should I bring examples of the differences between a hand drawn comic and a sprite comic?

FFS, He drew the original drawing, so the comic is hand drawn.

Tell you what, since you're so keen on not using timesavers, how about no computer aided colouring?

now we've got our black n white comic, how about we remove all the perspective blur too, as that's done in the computer.

How about we remove all the text in the speech bubbles too, that's been TYPED in.

Fuck it, why don't we just do the greatest webcomic of all time and have a blank sheet of paper, as there's nothing there, so there's nothing to criticise.

Oh, and YES a funny comic can take a serious turn every once in a while.

Oh, and YOU'RE the moron.

moron.

And that's the clincher. This is getting locked again guys, sorry.