Path Nine
Path Nine is © Dan Pevar
Genre:
Other, Comedy
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3571
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If you're a fan of the Far Side and The Simpsons like we are, then you're bound to enjoy Path Nine! Al Via's crisp artwork perfectly compliments Dan Pevar's dry sense of humor resulting in the 16 single-panel cartoons displayed here, two per page. The genius of Path Nine lies in honesty and simplicity... Jack Handy would be proud!
I originally wrote the one-liners for this comic after being inspired by Jack Handy's Deep Thoughts. If you like my captions here, then you may want to look me up on Face Book, I post new captions there every day! Enjoy! -Dan Pevar
I liked Skullgoyle, because I liked it's look the best. The art and the overall look are the first things I notice about a comic. I wasn't pulled in by Hammer Sound's look - the art was great, but I didn't like the coloring. By the way, I find it interesting how many more views the comics in the December competition have compared to October's - especially considering that the October contest has been active two months more than December.
Well you see it's not actually night time, where I'm at. I personally liked hammer sound in the october competition, mainly I felt the artwork was pretty interesting and quite dynamic, also the limited palette gave a definite mood. I also liked the distinguishing qualities of the text for the robot, how his words were more static than the other characters words, it was just a nice little tweak. I did not find the characters and their dialogue to be completely convincing. Also the plot was a bit too vague, but I prefer that over a comic that gives everything away in the first couple panels.
Ha ha. Wow, I really put my foot in my mouth that time! I stand by what I said, but I can see how you may judge my comment as having been boasting. In my opinion, I was just calling it the way I saw it. I judged my comic as being better than the other comics in the contest, and you judged my comment as being boastful. The mistake that I made was to list the specific qualities about my comic that I felt were better than the other comics in the competition. I did go overboard... On another note, did you have a favorite comic from the October contest? If so, how would you have improved it? Anyway, thanks for quoting me earlier, and I hope that the next time I feel discouraged by the results of one of the contests here, that I'll remember this dialog and show a little more tact! I hope your night is going well! -Dan
In one of the posts on that message board "My opinion of what makes ..." you said the following "In my opinion, the other entries either had inferior artwork, and/or worse writing, and/or worse lettering... not to mention the stereotypical characters and confusing plots." This is what I mainly reacted to. I may have overreacted abit in reply because there tends to be a good reason why one comic one or another comic lost. To say every other comic in the october competition was in some way worse than yours, I felt was quite boastful.
ZephiriusJixx, I haven't looked at Supertron yet, but I'll be sure to pay attention to the lettering, because it sounds really neat! I have heard great things about Supertron already, so now I'm really excited to read it! On another note, I feel grateful to Al Via for having had the courage to take the plunge and to collaborate on Path Nine with me. I don't like hearing you putting down such a talented artist, but you're entitled to your opinion, just like everyone else is. Just keep in mind that Al drew all of these cartoons in about two weeks during his half hour lunch breaks at work. Literally. ZephiriusJixx, I'm sorry that you didn't enjoy Path Nine, but I'm glad that you gave it a chance and took the time to look at it. I have valued and encouraged creativity in people around me throughout my life, so I'm a little confused by your quote about how I "put everyone else's comics down". To the best of my knowledge, I have only left a handful of comments on the comics here on Zuda.com, and all those comments have been what I consider to be constructive feedback. The only thing that I can think of that your comment may refer to, was the thread that I posted on the Message Board about "My opinion of what makes a solid Zuda.com entry". I thought very hard about everything that I said on all of the comments I left on that thread, but I think that I should have emphasized the fact that although I think Zuda.com would attract better artists and writers by offering to pay better, that I do think there are already tons of tremendously talented artists and writers here already! I'm sorry for having not been clear about that in the first place. I truly do have a lot of respect for EVERY single comic creator who was published here or who even submitted comics in the first place! Every artist and writer here brings something new and undiscovered to the public eye with their creative works! If they hadn't made their comics, then nobody else would have either - nobody else could have! And, all these creators have spent endless hours of time perfecting their crafts to get to the point where they are now. I sincerely think as a writer (and as an artist) that there are tons of lessons to be learned by studying the comics here and I'm looking forward to doing just that. Anyway, thanks again for your comment! -Dan
After just reading what you said on the message boards, "I feel that my webcomic Path Nine was a solid single panel comic strip... it had clever writing, polished art, consistent presentation, and professional lettering, but it wasn't taken seriously", first off you should be more careful before you toot your own horn, and put everyone else's comics down. Everyone here is still developing their talents, and you could probably do with developing yours as well. What I find in your comic is that you take very mundane things and are trying to force them to be funny. You say you have polished art, wonderful you can deliver a comic without having extra lines that you didn't intend to be there, you figuratively can colour inside the lines. I like to see originality in the comics I read, not only in the writing but also the art, I don't find this style original or intriguing. Also you mention consistent presentation and professional lettering, I think this actually just makes it boring, if you look at a comic like supertron, the lettering is used to accentuate what is going on in the comic, I've also noticed a trend in most comics to use the same basic lettering, putting your own style into the lettering goes much farther for me than to keep it consistent or professional, which here means, I think, clean. Yes, your comic is clean, but it lacks style, it lacks a personal feel, and the writing is actually not that great, if you want to make terrible puns, fine go ahead, but I would rather spend my time not reading them.
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm working on just that right now :)
I liked the artwork, but the only strip I found laugh-out-loud funny was the "Handsaws grow on Trees" one. I can see how hard it must be to boil down a joke that everyone will get into a one sentance/one picture panel, but this strip feels like a less-funny Far Side. I mean, if you're going to imitate someone, you could do worse, but it is hard to compare to (Gary Larson's) level of genius. I'd say try again with a story that takes up the whole 8 pages and see where it takes you...
Hey RKB, thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you liked Path Nine! I feel really lucky to have gotten into this contest, and I can't tell you great I felt today when I deposited my DC Comics paycheck! It was the first time I ever got paid for my writing (yay!). Anyway, thanks again for the feedback... I hope your day went well!
Hello path nine, humor is not my go to genre, but 3/5 stars for you and a fav, I did enjoy a lot of the comics you had. 1 thing the huge logo really took up space (I know it wasn't made for Zuda), and i would have liked to have seen more comics on the page. Maybe 4 cartoons per screen sort of jam pack the comic's in, seeing as how you only have 8 screens.
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SCREEN 1 corny as hell, but I liked it. Never been good in math, so i felt for the kid, and the brass joke, so lame but so funny. :)
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I think the art fit the story well, but it should have been in color i would have liked it more, again I know it wasn't made for Zuda.
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SCREEN 2 Billy mack... okay???
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What really sold this comic strip for me was the pirate with pronunciation problems. In real life i have a lisp, can't say r's or l's right, and went to speech therapy for years during my grade school days just to learn how to talk as good as i do now. Living in the south the way i talk stands out (most people guess I'm from Wisconsin, Chicago, or Canada, no idea if I really sound like that I've never been there), I would have loved to have read a cartoon like this back in my school days, it would have put a smile on my face and made it easier to put up with the never ending school daze hell. It's why you got the fav from me.
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SCREEN 3 love it, the prison one is an old but good idea, and the give me another option 1, really nice.
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SCREEN 4 nice work here. The crazy eye 1 seemed like a play on how semi-crazy character's are sometimes shown in comic strip's I enjoyed the sight gag here.
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SCREEN 5 Nice sight-gag with the handsaw's. The messed up dark ritual one also stood out to me. My go to genre for comics reading is horror (besides superhero's of course), so of course i liked this cartoon. I wonder are their any regular stories that start off like this, if not their should be. funny stuff.
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SCREEN 6 i really enjoyed the art work in the sadly one. The create your own sandwich thing I really liked, A friend of mine told me 1 day a person ordered a cheese-burger with no meat in it, from mickie-D's and actually paid for it, so it's funny cause it's so close to real life WTH??? moments.
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SCREEN 7 really funny stuff here, the art and captions went well together.
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SCREEN 8 I really liked the wild rice 1, and the total nonsense of the watch children 1, very funny stuff.
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I would have liked the art in color, and more jokes per page, but for the R's 1 alone you got the fav from me, good corny, funny stuff here.
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Plus the fact you were trying to track down back issues of Groo shows damn good taste on your part.
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Again, much thanks for the read Dan and Omar.
Dear Zuda Competitors/Creators,
I’m the creator of the Zuda fan blog, and I would love to interview all of this month’s creators. If you would be willing to answer 5-10 questions, to be posted on the Zudafan blog, please contact me at: zudafan@gmail.com.
Feel free to check out the blog: zudafan.blogspot.com
Thanks!
~Liz
Thanks for your comments! As far as the review below goes... it was very helpful, so thanks! Tomorrow I'll be at the Philadelphia Comic Con searching for Groo the Wanderer comics! I'll probably hand out a few cards, too. By the way, I've been overwhelmed by responses to my ads on Craig's list about hiring a cartoonist for my next Zuda.com project - I'm stoked! Well, have a nice week-end!
My small but perfectly formed review is up on:
http://www.mpd57.blogspot.com
Funny! Love the one about seeing you sad makes me happy! Funny! Good Stuff!
These are very funny! I especially like Billy Mask and Dark Ritual!
They all made me smile, but I love the pirate and the watch kids. Nice work! Wishing you the best of luck!
Thanks for the kind words folks! It looks like I'll be able to qualify for a Creators Badge for the New York Comic Con in February - cool, huh?! I haven't been to that convention in about 15 years! I met some tremendous artists there like: John J. Muth, George Pratt, Michael Kaluta, and Mike Mignola - to just name a few. It's a wonderful convention and is definitely worth checking out! I'm also planning on going to the Philadelphia Comic Con on October 19th. Hopefully I'll meet some more potential collaborators for future projects! Anyway, I hope your week-end is going well, and thanks again for the kind words!
Whoa. Wasn't expecting this!
Occasionally, I think we need to take things less seriously, and I can see this being the kind of thing that would be of great relief to readers, especially with the world being the way it is these days. We need to laugh, and regularly. This strip (I guess I call it a strip?) would fill that need perfectly. Yeah, a few duds among the pack, but some clever one-liners in there too. Not really the kind of humour I go for, I'll be honest, but I can certainly appreciate it. And hey, the Simpsons got funnier and funnier, if you get my meaning.
Hmm...Fairly chucklable. I liked the "Give me liberty" panel.
awesome loved it very much. Refreshing and new! incredible.
Keep it going!
Beatrice
I don't understand why people like JannieB would leave one-liner negative comments with any of the comics here. Comments like hers aren't helpful - if she had wanted to be helpful, she would have left specific suggestions, or she would have simply offered some encouragement like, "keep on writing, but don't quit your day-job just yet..." It's a shame that she didn't like the comic, but it's also annoying to be cut down like that since nothing good ever comes from hearing untactful criticisms. Funniness is subjective - Period. On the brighter side though - thanks for the compliments Clsdesigns! I hope your day is going well!
Very cute, cleaver, and creative - Not only did I think it was funny, but very comical. First-rate humor!!! Plus, the art work is also very impressive. Good Job!!!!
It was like reading an un-funny version of Farside! Sorry, but they just weren't funny. You really need to work on the humor!
Well, thanks for new comments! Just for the record, Path Nine has been online for about 4 days now, and it has 845 views and 19 favorites - it's also ranked 8. I just learned that the judges are primarily looking at the number of votes a comic gets - although the other three factors are taken into account, too. Even at the spot number 8, I'm still feeling the love! My friends and family have been very supportive, and I just want to give a shout out to them! For those of you who don't know me in real life, then thank you for reading my comics even though I didn't personally twist your leg to do so! ha ha. I just want to mention that I found a really good webcomic that's worth reading if you want some chuckles: garfieldminusgarfield.net. Somebody took Garfield comics and photoshopped Garfield out of them, so it's just Jon talking to himself and acting really weird and pathetic. The results are really really funny! Just for the heck of it, I wrote a few scripts for a comic like that, and it was pretty fun - but whether it was funny... I'm not really sure! Anyway, thanks again for the comments!
I tried to leave a comment before, but I guess I suck at using computers, so I'll try again...I really love this comic! It's completely different than the other entries, and as noted, has a Far Side flair which is great. Very intelligent and quirky. Best of luck in the competition!
I'm here for you...
:~D
I loved the pirate one...good stuff! Good luck in the contest
I always thought "Pathnine" was a play on "PLAN 9" and "Pathogen". Just goes to show what I know.
I like the humor, like the art. Whether I laugh or groan out loud...I'm a happy reader.
Yeah, I love Plan 9 from Outer Space! But, the real story behind where the name Path Nine came from goes back to 2000 when I was working as a custodian in an office complex in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. One night I was collecting the trash when I glimpsed a food wrapper out of the corner of my eye. It looked like it said Path Nine, but I forget what it really said - maybe Payday?! Anyway, I liked the name Path Nine, and I've used it for various things through-out the years. But, yeah - Plan-9 from Outer Space is great! You know you can see it for free on Google Videos!?
this is cool. me likee this. what's the story on the title? path nine from outer space??
Thanks for the new comments, and compliments! Dash, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of Path Nine winning just yet! I have some good ideas about how to bring new viewers to Zuda.com - I'm hard at work on that right now! In the future, my new submissions will be formatted perfectly for Zuda.com, but feel like this format worked out perfectly this time around. Speaking of new submissions, I'm still on the look out for cartoonists or illustrators to collaborate with on my next project! Please let me know if you have any suggestions about how I could find collaborators to work with. My e-mail is CaptionComix (at) gmail.com. By the way, one observation that I made yesterday is that maybe there seems to be a correlation between how many creators were used to create a specific comic, and how many "favorites" they are given. My explanation for this phenomenon is that when there are more creators, that they have a larger pool of contacts who are willing to take a minute to register and vote. All a person needs to do to register is to give their name, screen-name, and e-mail! And, Zuda.com never sends out spam! I just hope that anybody who thinks that Path Nine should return as an an ongoing comic will take the time to register and: vote, rate, comment, and make my comic their favorite! The grand prize for this month's contest is a contract worth over $15,000 a year! Winning October's contest would be my dream come true! I hope you'll help me land my dream job! Anyway, thanks again for your nice comments!
yes, Pathnine, Charles Schultz is genius! I am sad that a comic like this will likely not win in the Zuda competition, it would be nice to have some snack size funnies on the roster. My only quibble is that this looks forced into the Zuda format as opposed to tailored to it (it makes sense that these were originally intended to be syndicated features). I love your humor -- good-natured corn is fab : )
You should get your artist to create a Zuda account!
I enjoyed these very much. Great job guys
Thanks Rob! That's my favorite comic, too! Al Via did a great job illustrating it! Our method of collaboration has always been for me to send him my one-liners without any instructions on what the visuals should look like, then for him to produce all the artwork and lettering! He always cracks me up, too! Did I mention that he's the creator of the hugely popular Big Johnson T-shirts that are found being worn by beach goers across the country!? Yeah, I lucked out when I hooked up with Al!
More than one person has told me to learn to count past one. HA! Classic!! Keep up the good work. I hope you win!
Puns are fun :)
wow thats alot of puns
You may be right... most of the good webcomics that I've seen on Zuda.com have been dramas not comedies. When I was a kid I used to love different art based dramatic comics like: Sandman, The Books of Magic, Moonshadow, etc..., but now that I'm older I guess I just prefer to get a good laugh. Last week I picked up 6 old Peanuts books at a used bookstore in West Chester, and they were awesome! I love how the characters were so real! Everyone in Peanuts had their own unique personalities and I could relate to all of them! My web comic Poker Pauly has been running at PokerPauly.com since around April, but I still feel like I need more time to really make the characters sing. Path Nine was my first attempt at writing comics, so it has a special place in my heart. Whenever I saw Al's visuals for my captions for the first time, I just cracked up - the people next to me at the library computers were probably wondering what the heck was so funny! I didn't care though - it was exciting as hell to see my one-lines turned into real comics! Anyway, I hope that more of my readers here at Zuda.com will choose Path Nine as their favorite and leave comments and whatnot. The judges are going to factor these things together in order to choose this month's winner! Anyway, I'm going to crash-out for now! Have a nice night! And, thanks again for your comments!
Lol, wild rice?
The art is good and fits the humor, but it'll be tough. Generally, the humor entries have had it rough here at Zuda.
Thanks for the new comments! Your support is appreciated! I've got over 800 captions written that can be used for cartoons here, so my hard work is already done. Just so you know, these cartoons were done in black and white, because they were originally submitted to the newspaper syndicates a couple of years ago. I randomly came across Zuda.com two months ago, and thought that it would be worth a shot to submit the comics here! Winning this contest would be my dream come true! Anyway, thanks again for the new comments. They are all worth thinking about! By the way, I am looking for a new cartooning partner for my next comic project. If you are interested in reading my script, (it's about a hypochondriac skeleton man), send me an e-mail at captioncomix@gmail.com, okay? Thanks!
Aww man, you guys are hil-ar-ious!
It was like reading a twisted version of Farside. I giggled while reading it. And sadly, my life relates to more than one.
This definitely has potential! The art is really cool...
some were funny others were ok. It would be cool to have
a strip like this here it just needs to really kick!
....
Good Luck!
It's the (drumroll) HUMOR ENTRY! I almost always root for the lowly humor entry that wants to go up against them super heroes and what. That being said though - I also have to be hard on you too and all those other humor comics like Absurdity at it's Best, Spud Man, Mean Model, and last month's My Pet Human - And even myself and my humor comics. Not because our comics aren't good or anything, but because it's going to truly take something MINDBLOWING to change the culture on Zuda and get one of these comics the gold prize. So I guess what I'm saying it - us humor boys need to step it up and crank out some stuff that people are going to pee their pants to.
It's going to break my heart if this isn't going to at least make a run at #1 so give it all you got.
Now I've got to get Nasty and tell you what I think you could have done better :) The first thing I noticed was I think color would have helped you out a ton. It's not that I think your art is bad or that B/W art is bad. But I think color would have helped enhance the art a lot - especially when you're going up against the beautifully rendered art in Alone and Azure.
Another thing - and maybe this is because I'm just stupid. It took me until page two to realize they were single panel gag cartoons. I was trying to make all the panels into some kind of weird story. Maybe putting a black line or something would have prevented that. Of course if I'm the only idiot who did that, then there's no need to cater to me:)
I guess the only other thing I want to bring up, and you can disagree with me but I want you to think about it for a second - Maybe try and mix up the sizes and shapes of the different panels. Maybe make one page 2 landscape horizontally or something. I just think that, in the context of the 8 pages, perhaps peoples' eyes get bored with the kind of boring 2 same shaped boxes every page. Like I said - something to think about.
Good luck guys!
-Steve
The art is really good for the subject, just keep working the gags guys. It's the hardest thing, doesn't get better except by practice, and it takes a ton of work. Just ask Gary Larsen about how much of his day was taken up getting a single Far Side gag worked out.
Good Luck!
16 gags - most of which made me smile, some of which made me laugh! Good stuff.