Dominic Deegan, Mk. L: The Snark(ie) Alive - Death Actually Is Zombies

[Sunken Valley]

I read Chapter 1.

It was ok. It set up the premise well and introduced hints of things to come. It did have a sexist joke though in strip 2 (early). I also didn't get why the one man's finger was broken. Not much to say because it's not all that big.

[Dodom]

I did the same thing as Sunken Valley, and read DD out of sheer curiosity after reading so many appalled comments on it. They made it sound like the worst thing ever, both in writing and in concept.
Reading it with that mindset was disappointing. DD is a mediocre comic. Not a terrible one, just one that isn't great. I spent thousands of pages looking for that point where everything really gets messed up, and it never came.
Mookie had great ideas, but never clung to one long enough to develop it properly. I often recognised the thought process that lead up from one concept to the next, and found enjoyment in it.
The pitiful thing about his work was that he always hurried to the next thing, tried to do everything he thought about instead of choosing what to leave out, and did everything halfway. The most notorious example would be the concept of "how a good man can willingly commit evil actions" VS the "sexy rapist" plot it turned out as. Why, this was a good idea, but one to be developped with care and thought through, not thrown in just because.
The characters as mere plot puppets with little individuality would be another of this comic's weaknesses, but it may simply be a result of the first. Too much following his guts, not enough planning.
I didn't mind the art that changed fairly little over the years. For all I know he may have put a special effort into consistency.

Globally, it's a comic one should be left to guiltlessly enjoy if one finds entertainent in it, it's not so bad that it takes abnormal tastes to like. It's not deserving of all the attention it got, nor of all the snark.

[Rosstin]

DD is a mediocre comic. Not a terrible one, just one that isn't great.

http://nooooooooooooooo.com/

[Cen]

stuff

Main problem I had was that Mookie tried to tell that Dominic is so super special awesome and noble, while he was just a-hole and jerk.

He neutered his talking, sentient cat.
He freaking neutered his firend.
And then told him a which stole his balls.

[Johnny Blade]

I've been done arguing about why exactly everything about this comic, from ideas to execution to Mookie talking about it in the newsposts, is utter garbage for a long time, but...

I spent thousands of pages looking for that point where everything really gets messed up, and it never came.

Allow me:

Spoiler

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[T-O-E]

That's not so bad. The idea of having your giant protagonist dressed as some kind of bondage He-Man wielding a phallic sword and invading the vulnerable mind of a woman who is presented as naked*, weak and tiny and being commanded by the male is a good idea that has potential. It just wasn't executed very well.

*Don't be so close minded.

[Traab]

That's not so bad. The idea of having your giant protagonist dressed as some kind of bondage He-Man wielding a phallic sword and invading the vulnerable mind of a woman who is presented as naked*, weak and tiny and being commanded by the male is a good idea that has potential. It just wasn't executed very well.

*Don't be so close minded.

I just want to nitpick one point, you wasted a lot of words there. You could have just left it as "He-Man invading the vulnerable mind of a woman who is presented as naked*, weak and tiny and being commanded by the male is a good idea that has potential. It just wasn't executed very well."

after all,

Spoiler

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Mookie just slapped doms head on a standard he-man pic and removed the muscles.

[Dodom]

Not giving thought to what symbolism people might see in art in a "mental" setting where people expect to find symbolism is exactly what I'd consider mediocre execution.
I'm pretty sure Mookie didn't cackle to himself madly designing it to be interpreted that way. He just skipped wondering what it came accross as.

[busterswd]

Don't be so clothes minded.

Fixed, with a pun worthy of Mookie. Just need to add an annoyed character looking at the foreground and you've got another comic update.

[Castel]

I've been done arguing about why exactly everything about this comic, from ideas to execution to Mookie talking about it in the newsposts, is utter garbage for a long time, but...

Allow me:

Spoiler

Show

Christ, man, careful with that thing! Some of us like being sane.

[Giggling Ghast]

I'm sure the thought process was "He-Man is rad" and "Wouldn't it be rad if Dominic was He-Man". Thus was an ill-fitting, horrid-looking abomination born.

But was not the true turning point of this comic the Snowsong arc and Supergreg?

[Vinyadan]

DD is a mediocre comic. Not a terrible one, just one that isn't great. I spent thousands of pages looking for that point where everything really gets messed up, and it never came.

Two things. I made more or less the same thing you did, but I didn't know the comic was bad. I simply had noticed that it was the most discussed here and was curious. And the comic is objectively bad, because it applies rules of a genre to other genres, without having the originality to create something new.

Mookie had great ideas, but never clung to one long enough to develop it properly. I often recognised the thought process that lead up from one concept to the next, and found enjoyment in it.

I don't think that's how a literary work is meant to be read, although it is an option. This should be a further step, after the normal reading; yours was already a meta-reading. Not saying that you shouldn't do that, simply that this is not how a comic is meant to be read or its quality evaluated.

The most notorious example would be the concept of "how a good man can willingly commit evil actions" VS the "sexy rapist" plot it turned out as. Why, this was a good idea, but one to be developped with care and thought through, not thrown in just because.
The characters as mere plot puppets with little individuality would be another of this comic's weaknesses, but it may simply be a result of the first. Too much following his guts, not enough planning.

That was the point that made me think "what?". It was also the point where I really noticed that nothing was too cheap for this comic. Plotwise the thing also doesn't work. I will probably write something about this in my ending.
This was the lowest point in the transmission of concepts, but I think this is not where things went downhill: that was when Dom left the village, random fights with psychologyless soon-to-be allies were added and the happy slice of life thing was sliced off and left to percolate on a comic which should become epic. Really, it would have been much better if Dom and Luna had kept living together in the shack doing happy random humor.

I didn't mind the art that changed fairly little over the years. For all I know he may have put a special effort into consistency.

Consistency into forgetting to draw limbs? I would rather say that he was too much involved in producing more to take the time and learn to produce better art. To me, the most painful thing are the featureless forests. If you have been in a forest once, you surely notice that things don't work that way. It's all too general and laking in detail.

Globally, it's a comic one should be left to guiltlessly enjoy if one finds entertainent in it, it's not so bad that it takes abnormal tastes to like. It's not deserving of all the attention it got, nor of all the snark.

You are right, it is guiltless and innocent, and also full of options for self-immersion. However, this is a thin veil. For me, it broke before I came to this discussion. Too many things are badly done, and, honestly, some things were over the top in these threads, but some others were too over the top in the comic. Four instances of rape or attempted rape? What the hell is this? Little nude Barnet? Redemption reserved to friends of the main protagonist and impossible for the others? Constantly creating situations, made only to have the characters give them an answer, and it's always the most improbable one possible?

If someone can read it without breaking the veil, he is lucky.

However, I do admit that it is better than many other comics. There are strange comics in the web, which probe the most unpleasant recesses of the human soul, and DD is not among these, in spite of its sexualization of improper moments (death scenes, for example). But exactly because DD did not remain in its little hole and instead knew success critic is necessary, as it is somewhere in the area of QC, OotS, DrMcN, and so on. And these comics are all a lot better than DD. I think this is part of the CAD syndrome - mediocre products are accepted, until they remain in their niche. After they get in the open, they have to confront themselves with other products and are destroyed by the comparison.

[T-O-E]

Fixed, with a pun worthy of Mookie. Just need to add an annoyed character looking at the foreground and you've got another comic update.

http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2011-07-22

[Lord Seth]

I'm thinking I should read this Dominic Deegan.

Does anyone want to give me advice before I delve into the "horror"

Two things.
1) It's not that bad. Heck, a lot of it was actually pretty good.
2) If you're out to legitimately enjoy the comic, and it is legitimately enjoyable for a while, my suggestion is to read until the end of the Storm of Souls arc. After that, just keep reading until you find yourself not liking the comic anymore, then quit, because at whatever point you get annoyed after Storm of Souls, I can guarantee it's not going to get any better.

I'm sure the thought process was "He-Man is rad" and "Wouldn't it be rad if Dominic was He-Man". Thus was an ill-fitting, horrid-looking abomination born.

But was not the true turning point of this comic the Snowsong arc and Supergreg?

Supergreg was dumb, but I at least get the feeling it was supposed to be kinda dumb. And I'll be honest, I did think it was kind of funny.

I'd say the point where the comic really started just getting stupid was Shadow of Sigfried. That was terrible character assassination via blatant retcon. Sigfried got the worst of it, but Jayden got hit pretty badly also.

And another big problem with Shadow of Sigfried is that the stupidity was tied straight into the arc. This wasn't just some side thing that was dumb, as it was in the previous arcs. For example, Supergreg was incredibly silly, but you probably could've rewritten the arc to remove it reasonably easily. Shadow of Sigfried's problems were the whole focus of the arc.

[Bobikus]

There's certainly worse comics out there (Moon over June), but DD's pretty objectively bad, and possibly the most incompetent writing I've seen in terms of writing a story from a comic not drawn by a kid/teenager.

[The Troubadour]

2) If you're out to legitimately enjoy the comic, and it is legitimately enjoyable for a while, my suggestion is to read until the end of the Storm of Souls arc.

I think it's interesting most people seem to think Storm of Souls was either the comic's highlight or the last good story arc. I like it, too; it does have quite a few good moments, and it's overall quite enjoyable. But it's also the moment when the resolution to conflicts started to depend more on raw power than outsmarting the opposition, and the whole feel of the series changed to that of a Silver Age comic.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I think it's interesting most people seem to think Storm of Souls was either the comic's highlight or the last good story arc. I like it, too; it does have quite a few good moments, and it's overall quite enjoyable. But it's also the moment when the resolution to conflicts started to depend more on raw power than outsmarting the opposition, and the whole feel of the series changed to that of a Silver Age comic.

I like to view it as the comic's jumping the shark moment - "jumping the shark" isn't the worst point of a serialized work, it's just the point where you can tell the creators have run out of ideas and it's not going to get any better from here.

Also, it works perfectly well as a climax/conclusion and the plot hadn't had time to meander all over creation yet.

[Trazoi]

I think it's interesting most people seem to think Storm of Souls was either the comic's highlight or the last good story arc. I like it, too; it does have quite a few good moments, and it's overall quite enjoyable. But it's also the moment when the resolution to conflicts started to depend more on raw power than outsmarting the opposition, and the whole feel of the series changed to that of a Silver Age comic.

It's more that Storm of Souls was a natural stopping point for the comic and there wasn't anywhere for it to go after that. If Mookie had moved on to a new webcomic then, learning from his mistakes in his next attempt, then by now he would be a much better comic writer.

[Rosstin]

It's more that Storm of Souls was a natural stopping point for the comic and there wasn't anywhere for it to go after that. If Mookie had moved on to a new webcomic then, learning from his mistakes in his next attempt, then by now he would be a much better comic writer.

Troof.

We need to find something worse than Dominic Deegan to make fun of a bond over now. Star Power is just too utterly mediocre for me to even care about it.

[Turcano]

Troof.

We need to find something worse than Dominic Deegan to make fun of a bond over now. Star Power is just too utterly mediocre for me to even care about it.

I'm not sure that's a good idea. There are some truly horrifying webcomics out there.

[Johnny Blade]

For completion's sake:

The definitely last update.

And a newspost to go along with it:

Afterword. May 27, 2013 Posted by Mookie
I put this "afterword" image up so people coming to the site for the first time would not see the comic's ending.

As for the present and future of the site:

- I will keep the comic online as long as people are still interesting in reading it and I can afford to keep paying the hosting fees. And I finally updated the ARCHIVE, too.

- My new webcomic with Garth Graham, STAR POWER, is online! The site is a little rough around the edges, as we thought we'd have it fully functional by now, so please excuse the muddled RSS feed, the incorrect convention dates (the links are correct), and the lorem lipsum in the blog section. But the comics are easily accessible, so we hope you like what you see so far!

- I fully plan on releasing a "complete collection" of Dominic Deegan's adventures, but there are a lot of logistics to consider, such as book size (one 3000-page book, or two 1500-page books, or three 1000-page books, etc), quantity, hardcover options, price, and so on. I'll keep you folks posted.

- I took down the old Links and Contact pages because they've been updated on STAR POWER.

This has been an incredible journey, and I hope you folks join me for the next adventure. Thank you for everything!

Personally, I am incredibly disappointed that chapter 43 isn't called A Bort Mission.

That's not so bad. The idea of having your giant protagonist dressed as some kind of bondage He-Man wielding a phallic sword and invading the vulnerable mind of a woman who is presented as naked*, weak and tiny and being commanded by the male is a good idea that has potential. It just wasn't executed very well.

Yeah, he really could have done more with the scarf, at least. It's not even probing or anything.

Christ, man, careful with that thing! Some of us like being sane.

Terribly sorry. I have a few choice links from the War in Hell and its aftermath that I could replace it with, if that would be better.

[Rosstin]

The final image is sweet. It reminds me of reading the comic for the first time.

It really is sad that the comic wasn't better. I remember actually liking Dominic as a relatable character once. Oh well.

[Trazoi]

Personally, I am incredibly disappointed that chapter 43 isn't called A Bort Mission.

Chapter 37 should be "Just Desert. Go on. Run while you still can."

I'm not sure what to make of Mookie's commitment to a 3000 page Dominic Deegan collection. If he does go for it, I don't know how many people are going to shell out a couple of hundred bucks for the complete Deegan.

[Rosstin]

Chapter 37 should be "Just Desert. Go on. Run while you still can."

I'm not sure what to make of Mookie's commitment to a 3000 page Dominic Deegan collection. If he does go for it, I don't know how many people are going to shell out a couple of hundred bucks for the complete Deegan.

Dominic Deegan is popular, for whatever reason...

Slight topic change. Does anyone read http://flipside.keenspot.com/ ? I'm surprised I never hear about it from anyone else, I really like it but the readership seems to be vanishingly small. Is it actually a bad comic and I just can't tell?

[Analytica]

Slight topic change. Does anyone read http://flipside.keenspot.com/ ? I'm surprised I never hear about it from anyone else, I really like it but the readership seems to be vanishingly small. Is it actually a bad comic and I just can't tell?

For all its sometimes blatant fanservice which additionally sometimes veers into odd territory (e.g. vore fetishes), I really like that comic. It has good art, an actually semi-consistent setting and magic system, and some genuinely unexpected ideas and developments. Not sure where the plot is actually going, but given that the main villain who has been spoken of since the prequels is just now actually appearing, I think there is some semblance of a path, at least...

I would compare it to e.g. Tales of MU.

[Lord Raziere]

oh Flipside?

eh. read it some time ago...

I dislike it. they decide to introduce us with a side-character as a protagonist, but then he becomes you know….a side character while they switch to the main character….

and um…honestly I preferred it when it was y'know, the first chapter, cause I liked the first guy, whathisname, better than the weird clown and her uptight knight girlfriend. if I remember, the weird clown girl willingly gets her arm eaten by a zombie for some reason?

I dunno, I don't remember it much. but I liked the first chapter with the side-character guy rather than the actual protagonists.

google search and an edit: yea, I definitely liked it when it was about Crest. that guy. he was cool. I think? I still don't remember much.

[ThirdEmperor]

I read a little. First chapter showed promise, if a few troublesome signs. It got taken over by weird fetishes and silly anime plots pretty fast. 'm not sure if I'd go so far as to put in Dominic Deegan's company but, I haven't read in a while.

[Cavelcade]

http://www.dominic-deegan.com/view.php?date=2011-07-22

I can't believe he went with clothed instead of clothes. Even when he's making puns, he's doing it wrong.

[T-O-E]

Chapter 37 should be "Just Desert. Go on. Run while you still can."

I'm not sure what to make of Mookie's commitment to a 3000 page Dominic Deegan collection. If he does go for it, I don't know how many people are going to shell out a couple of hundred bucks for the complete Deegan.

Perhaps he could collaborate with the people who hate his comic and make an annotated version, complete with edits and maybe cut-outs of the comic's most iconic scenes (Punchy, Stonewater etc) that can be placed on any comic to improve it.

[Juhn]

Flipside? Flipside has a number of problems. It's weirdly fetishy in an unsettling way (the aforementioned jester girl calmly and happily letting a half-naked girl eat her arm, superpowered bondage clothing in the first chapter, the main character turns meek and submissive when stripped naked but is confident and savvy while wearing a skintight jester costume), it sells itself on being a "sexy comic" ("a comic about a nymphomaniac jester girl with split personalities") and then the comic itself is incredibly chaste (aside from the aforementioned weird fetishy stuff), and the main characters themselves (i.e. Maytag and Bernadette) are incredibly dull. Possibly because Maytag is meant to be a savvy comedienne, but the author doesn't knoww how to write her as savvy or funny, instead leaving her comedic/entertainer skills as entirely informed instead of shown.

The comic has a nasty habit of undermining its own premiseThe three character attributes we're given for Maytag (again, taken directly from the author's own description) are: nymphomania, jester, and split personalities. Then she spends the entire comic in a committed monogamous relationship and manages it pretty well, she's never shown amusing people because the author doesn't know how to write that, and there's an eventual "revelation" that completely undermines the "Split personalities" thing as well.

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Specifically, she eventually reveals she was making that whole thing up as a gimmick to make people like her, because she's actually really boring and doesn't want to be. Apparently this is also to explain why her multiple personalities are incredibly inconsistent both throughout the comic and compared to how multiple personalities actually work

I agree that Crest is a significantly more interesting and well fleshed out character, but the author is insistent on making it about Maytag and Bernadette, despite them being boring.

The plot itself is incredibly dull, poorly conveyed, and moves at a pace comparable to that of teectonic drift.

Say what you will about Dominic Deegan, at least it's fun to laugh at and make fun of. Flipside is just... bad. And boring. So very boring.