💼 Careercow Andrew Dobson (aka Tom Preston)

[Jewelsmakerguy]

I've been wanting to know, do the characters in AZP even do any pirate shit? You know, pillage and raid, drink booze all the time and violently execute prisoners. I swear to Jesus, their pirate cred is as legit as these guy's:

Hey now, at least these guys do something, like encounter rock monsters and sit around. I have never seen the AZP cast even do anything besides stand and crack "jokes".

 

[TheLateGreatBate]

Huh...I guess she is part rat.

 

[HelloKatie]

A completely unaltered Alex Ze Pirate strip.

 

[CrimsonKnight]

Huh...I guess she is part rat.

And critically panned by many.

 

[has]

Scanning through the Alex ze Pirate site out of boredom, and while I usually am not a fan of tearing into people's really old art since well, it's old:

This one just amuses me because their facial expressions show how completely unconcerned they both are about a possibly mortal wound. Atea seems more concerned about Alex's fucked up hand.

 

[Chan the Wizard]

I should not question this, but why on earth is Dobby spending the time to upload AzP?

If he's this attached to such a terrible product, why not reboot it?

He has wasted so much time uploading something no one asked for or wants.

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

Huh...I guess she is part rat.

Dobson confirmed for furry.

I should not question this, but why on earth is Dobby spending the time to upload AzP?

If he's this attached to such a terrible product, why not reboot it?

He has wasted so much time uploading something no one asked for or wants.

He is, we just don't know how. All I can assume is that he's simply going to add more lesbianism, write out the three male cast and make it look like shit...

Okay, more shit than usual, but you get my drift.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

I've been wanting to know, do the characters in AZP even do any pirate shit? You know, pillage and raid, drink booze all the time and violently execute prisoners. I swear to Jesus, their pirate cred is as legit as these guy's:

Actually, there's a decent amount of pirate stuff going on in AzP. There's just no context to any of it. It's like a little kid playing pirates. Today Alex and her crew are plundering a ship. Why? Well, because they're pirates.

 

[Observatory]

Huh...I guess she is part rat.

Oh my god that lineart.
Love how the skull of Alex shoes is going into the gerbils finger too.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Sexual harassment towards males is perfectly fine.

Keep in mind that Sam is Dobson's self-insert.

 

[Foltest]

Why did he use that artwork as a cover? The linework is awful and it doesn't look good.

 

[Mr.Bones]

I've been wanting to know, do the characters in AZP even do any pirate shit? You know, pillage and raid, drink booze all the time and violently execute prisoners. I swear to Jesus, their pirate cred is as legit as these guy's:

Y'know, that's not fair. The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. Don't constantly act like total jackasses, and they're actually capable of telling a funny joke.

 

[Male Idiot]

Huh...I guess she is part rat.

I wonder why he retired the rat-tail thing and just made Lez kick a black elf.

Maybe he was afraid that a half rat, half black person would offend SJWs (or skaven) ?

 

[Adamska]

Huh...I guess she is part rat.

That cover is the biggest lie I ever dun saw.

Dobson you fuck, you bought your Fedora from Haber's Discount Haberdashery up in Milwaukee Wisconsin. You cheapskate! I know it because I SOLD IT TO YOU!

I wonder why he retired the rat-tail thing and just made Lez kick a black elf.

Maybe he was afraid that a half rat, half black person would offend SJWs (or skaven) ?

Nope, too hard for him to continue doing it. Dobbo is a lazy lazy manchild.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

-SNIP-

At least the Veggie pirates aren't a gang of salty moral figureheads drawn by an artist who binge-watched The View.

 

[Stud2Stud]

looking through the old alex ze pirate comics, i found one that at least made me grin a bit

Spoiler

Goddamnit. In the beginning, Lesbiankicks design was shitty and generic. But this? This looks horrible. For what it's worth, the techniques used seem slightly more complex, but god damnit, that's some uncanny valley shit right there.

Also, looking through the comics, you can see why they suck within just a few strips. There's no connection between the strips, no consistency. Given they seem to be out of order in many cases, there's still no flow between strips even if they follow each other directly. In one strip, they are out on the sea, the next strip has Gypsypirate annoyed at being mistaken for a guy while on land, next strip is her beating up lesbiankick for some shit. It's really bad. It's just a mess of setups for really lazy jokes that stand on their own without any kind of contextual connection between strips.
Dobson tried to make it a comic strip where every page has a payoff/punchline but they are not connected in the slightest. Compare that to Girl Genius, 8-Bit Theatre, Order of the Stick or something along those lines. Most of them manage to have jokes every few pages, awesome storylines, interesting worlds, great pacing, characters that are funny, likeable and unique...
Then look at Dobson's Magnum Opus. It seems there's a point where an overarching plot starts -kinda- but it's just so not worth reading for the most part. The jokes are reused from early 90s Anime clichees in many cases and it's just really unremarkable, both in its presentation and its actual content.

And worst of all? The origin story where the characters met and the likes is in a book you have to buy.
OOTS has a similar thing, there's a book that explains the origin of the name "order of the stick" and how the characters met... Yet the comic does a great job of puling you right in, even without the origin story. In its early days, OOTS was a "joke per strip" thing, yet it still has a nice plot that's been going on for years and has just reached a new climax after an insanely long timespan of setups. From a rather joke-centric approach, it slowly evolved into a really epic story that never fails to amaze me.

 

[Trans Fat 41g]

What the hell is that comic strip with the creepy eyebrows all about? I'm guessing the billionth non-statement he liquid shits out on a daily basis?

"WHERE'S THE EDGY STATEMENT DOBSON?"

 

[Jewelsmakerguy]

I wonder why he retired the rat-tail thing and just made Lez kick a black elf.

Maybe he was afraid that a half rat, half black person would offend SJWs (or skaven) ?

Best guess- He didn't want to be labeled a furry (which is easy to do, given his stupid bear avatar and all). That or he simply forgot, which seems like the most likely reason.

 

[Stud2Stud]

Actually, pretty sure Chris's work is better than Dobson's. Hear me out.
Chris's art is legendarily terrible, but that's just the reason he's better than Dobson. Sonichu is so autistically insane that it becomes hilarious. The crayola art, the retarded world building, the nonsense lines, all of it makes it unforgettable and, in a way, endearing. And don't forget that Chris had no formal art training, unlike Dobson.
Dobson's art, in contrast, is just flat and boring. Whereas Sonichu is entertaining in how bad it is, AZP and Dobbie's other crap is just bland, milquetoast. That's the perfect word for Dobson, Milquetoast. AZP is just the bland, forgettable swill pushed out by a milquetoast whiner. Can you remember anything from AZP? Any entertaining moments or characters? No. Does AZP inspire any sort of parody? No, because there's nothing to parody. Dobson failed so hard, his comic couldn't even reach "so bad it becomes entertaining".
And that is why Chris is a better artist and cartoonist than Dobson. Do you agree? Vote here.

The weird thing is: Both wanted to make cartoons, but ended up doing comics since they didn't have the capability to create animation on their own.

Seriously looks like he tried to rip off 4 panel comics (my bet is on Azumanga Daioh) wholesale without understanding how comedic beats work. Hint Dobby, they're called 4 panel comics for a reason.

Funny you'd point out Azumanga Daioh, the "Cat Underwear" joke from one of the first strips is taken from there.

Spoiler: things

Granted, in Azumanga Daioh, it was a bit different, but still, it's a lot like it.

If one was willing to put forth the effort, you'd most likely be able to track down almost all jokes in AzP to either Slayers, Ranma 1/2 or AzumangaDaioh.

 

[Johnny Bravo]

Best guess- He didn't want to be labeled a furry (which is easy to do, given his stupid bear avatar and all). That or he simply forgot, which seems like the most likely reason.

I think he found the rat tail difficult to fap to.