"Gil Thorp" - worst-drawn comic strip ever

[Fenris]

I imagine that once, long ago, "Gil Thorp" was drawn by a competent artist who was able to capture the sheer artistry of high-school sports. Perhaps he was even able to convey a sense of action into three tiny panels that under normal circumstances make activity confusing and stilted. But alas, that time has passed.



One panel of "action," one panel of applause, and one puzzling panel in which two characters discuss vomiting (apparently). A recurring theme in "Gil Thorp" appears to be the sheer volume of confetti at Milford High School sporting events. They must have zero money left for academics after buying 3 metric tons of confetti every school year.

The characters in "Gil Thorp" are so awkwardly rendered, so square-jawed and frightening, that they appear to have been ripped from a Soviet-era propaganda comic.



See?

Would it kill the artist to do some inking every now and then, just to add a shallow layer of depth? I've seen comics that run in high school papers that are more lively than this.

Which leads me to the conclusion that "Gil Thorp," like "Archie," is written and drawn by machines. I stand by this theory.

[swag]

1. I don't have anything to say about this except

KICKED AND RECOMMENDED!

[slj0101]

2. The 50-Foot woman is going to crush the little people with the basketball!!!

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!

[Call Me Wesley]

3. Ugh.

Yes, that's exactly what I imagine in the second panel if I hear 'Boys gone wild.' Some smiling and arm raising. Yep, that's it.

My that's bad ...

[jakefrep]

4. Is there a nuke plant in Gil Thorp-town?

That man in panel 3 has a rather disturbing deformity.

[bif]

5. Nah, Nancy was way worse.

[hedgehog]

6. I never read Gil Thorp becausesports tend to make my eyes glaze over

and I lose track of the plot!

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Prckly Shitty is much worse

[Fenris]

13. The politics of Prickly City is awful, the art is at best mediocre.

It's a stylistic thing. Prickly City's art is more in tune with "Shoe" and "Pluggers," which are, in their current states, pretty crappy.

[InternalDialogue]

8. I see that Central's Lisa Wyche tracked down my mother's 1962 hair stylist.

The artist also must have run across her Long Beach State University yearbook while checkin' to see what the kids were wearin' these days.

[mainegreen]

9. OMG. I went to the Gil Thorp site. AWFUL!

How can people read this and enjoy it. It's just so..... boring. Nothing happens. And how many people work in the athletics department? 30ish? And does *everyone* have a Buck Rogers jaw?

Wow.

[Beer Snob-50]

10. I use to be a regular reader of gil thorp

and then they got a new artist. this guy sucks compared to the orginal artist. have trouble now recognizing characters.

[GoneOffShore]

11. Mallard Fillmore is the worst strip

IMHO

[Fenris]

14. Mallard Fillmore is indeed the worst strip, but not the worst-rendered.

Mallard Fillmore is awful because of:

a) Tinsley's extreme right-wing politics. He's to the right of Johnny Hart.

b) It revolves around a duck who is a news correspondent? Or an avian Rush Limbaugh? I can't tell. Can anyone?

c) His drawings of Jon Stewart look like they came out of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."

His art is fairly crappy, but it's not sterile and lifeless like Gil Thorp.

[flamingyouth]

12. I don't know - Dondi always scared me as a kid

He had those cold, dead-looking eyes. :scared:

But points for the Soviet version, comrade! :D

[Fenris]

15. Dondi haunts your dreams.