Adis has ruined God Mode

[Kalmah]

What was once a great comic has been ruined by this talentless, unfunny hack.

I gave it a go, waited to see if everything would click. 12 strips in, every single one with terrible art and even worse stories, I've decided to delete this bookmark, and there could be no doubt that many people have already done this, and simply couldn't be arsed to register on the forums to complain about it. God Mode has gone from a funny comic with great art into a pile of steaming shit, and until a new artist takes over, God Mode will continue to rot, losing more readers and ad revenue, thanks to the unbelievably bad Adrian Ramos.

[csimonson]

I would like to politely disagree with the O.P. While my personal tastes do align more with the previous artists, I would by no means call Mr. Ramos a talentless hack. I would point to these two strips as examples of nice art and humour. I know there are elements of personal taste involved, and that nobody likes change, but this is no way to behave.

there could be no doubt that many people have already done this, and simply couldn't be arsed to register on the forums to complain about it.

Perhaps, or perhaps they simply were respectful enough of the artist's efforts not to blatantly flame him because they did not enjoy his work. Even if you did feel the need to point out perceived flaws, you could have done so in a constructive rather than destructive manner.

But, if we take the O.P. at his word he's already gone... so... I guess I'll just say that I'm sticking around, and am interested to see what new take on Gode Mode the artist has to offer.

[muzzle]

While I don't agree with the OP's tone, I'm personally turned off by the new style as well. It's not just the art (which is a big part of it for me), but the punch lines always seem to fall short to me. I have thought about not coming to this site, and I am upset about the overall change. Personally, I miss the continuity of the previous story lines (like when Craig and Barret became friends again, which either Adis forgot, or didn't use for his RE5 strip), and the over all change of characters. But, the biggest turn off for me has to be how almost every joke cops out to a sex joke or just crude. I mean, every once in a while is fine, but the lego strip, the strip with the two games, and the Rock Band 2 strips were just unfunny to me. Then there are strips like Elmer that just don't make sense.

I'm all for a strip that's off the wall, weird, and sometimes crude if that's what it started as. But, to me, Adis doesn't have the touch for this strip. It's a shame, becasue some of his other stuff isn't bad at all.

[CapnWellpoint]

I agree with the original poster's sentiments and tone. Furthermore, my least favorite thing about comic forums is that they always tend to be a place where the fanboys gather around the comic artist to give him congratulatory pats on the back whether deserves it or not. Generally they tend to have no perception of the writer's talent or lack thereof, and I'd like to point out that clearly some of us who agree with the original poster find it very arsing indeed to have to register to express distaste with the current artist. The fact that only one fan stepped in to disagree that this comic has not gone down the exciting career pathway of sucking like all hell demonstrates exactly how popular Adis currently is with the community as a whole. I've seen comics as captivating as wood glue with forum communities that behave generally like killer bees. You say something like, "I think a villain with a stark lack of motivation is boring," and after one nerd gets the to courage to sting they all rise up like a stinky, girl-fearing wave of jelly rolls to strike you down.

Now I'm not atually calling anyone in particular out about that bit, and let me be clear: I think csimonson acted like a perfectly polite, normal person in his post, and his rather formal disagreement should be the way more people behave when they differ with someone on the internet.

However, I think that Adis has completely missed the mark with this comic, and not just because he's brought change to the comic's style. I think his main problem is that he doesn't know what Godmode is - as if somebody just shoved the comic into his hands and said, "Here, it's about video games and shit." As such every character has become interchangable, the only difference being that female characters are the target of innuendo whereas the male characters are not. For example, you may notice that Kraig is a total shrimp now and that if you gave him a good shave he'd look exactly like Barret. Not only that, if you did shave him and dress him up like Barret, you'd find that nobody could tell the two apart by the way they behaved anymore.

What we're seeing here and why people are getting upset about the new God Mode is that it's like watching people we know get abruptly replaced by pod people. It's not a comic about the God Mode crew, but rather a comic about a couple of guys who play video games and talk about it sometimes. This wasn't a problem with the last transition because although the jokes got more low-brow and the animation got a little more wild, at least the characters were still people we knew and understood. Granted the number of web comics out there that are based on video gaming, I'd say that the characters who have ceased to be were all that set God Mode apart, as were their daily, cannonical, non-vdeo game related shenanigans.

So does God Mode suck now? Yes it does. After all, there are no people in it.

[csimonson]

I agree with the original poster's sentiments and tone. Furthermore, my least favorite thing about comic forums is that they always tend to be a place where the fanboys gather around the comic artist to give him congratulatory pats on the back whether deserves it or not. Generally they tend to have no perception of the writer's talent or lack thereof, and I'd like to point out that clearly some of us who agree with the original poster find it very arsing indeed to have to register to express distaste with the current artist. The fact that only one fan stepped in to disagree that this comic has not gone down the exciting career pathway of sucking like all hell demonstrates exactly how popular Adis currently is with the community as a whole. I've seen comics as captivating as wood glue with forum communities that behave generally like killer bees. You say something like, "I think a villain with a stark lack of motivation is boring," and after one nerd gets the to courage to sting they all rise up like a stinky, girl-fearing wave of jelly rolls to strike you down.

I'm going to ignore the several instances of argumentum ad personam and point out this forum frequently goes weeks and even months without comment, under any of the artists. Looking at the "Discuss today's comic" thread, we go from a single post on October 30th to a single post on November 5th, then two weeks of nothing. Two more posts, three more weeks of nothing. Finally two posts four days apart, then over two months of silence. Followed days after by another month of silence. This forum is perpetually dead, Adis has nothing to do with that.

[Hellbird]

Yeah, when I saw the comic today, I thought to myself "Ok, this one has some potential." The first 3 panels were good, but it just dropped off at the end. I think maybe some time would be good before I consider taking this bookmark out of my favorites, but I'm gonna stop reading so frequently and maybe take a break from it. I don't by any stretch of the imagination think that God Mode won't be returned to it's former glory.

Good luck, Adrian.

[Jerkasaurus]

Look, we're all entitled to our own opinions on the direction God Mode is taking, but if you think for one minute that the new style, humor, set up, and artist for Godmode is "going places" you are dead wrong.

Adis/Adrian, I'm not afraid to tell you that your art is boring, lacking, and hideous to look at. I'm not afraid to tell you that your humor is probably the LEAST funny out of all previous Godmode installments. I'm not afraid to tell you you should give up Godmode and either let the comic die or have someone else take the reigns, because at this point your total incapability to save the comic from anything other than total failure has been a wasted effort.

Godmode sucks, and it sucks because of you. Drop the comic and go home.

[HKim]

I like the new direction the comic is heading in.

I am a big fan of Count Your Sheep and I enjoy Adis' stories, humor, and drama. CYS and No Room For Magic are good examples of the amazing work he can do and the creativity he can bring forth.

Godmode lost a lot of appeal to me when Raven took over. The blatant crude humor overtook much of what was supposed to be a gaming comic. I wanted real jokes.

Adis is bringing the comic back to where it all started: Gaming.

I am glad he's helming the comic.

[godmodereader]

well at least one person likes the new direction the comic is taking

I've never read Adis other works, I read gaming comics, cause I'm a gamer. As a gamer, I enjoy some violent, crude, adult, and well drawn comics about Video Games.

The fact that you say the comic is returning to gaming, surprises me.
There has been virtually no comics taking aim at the various ups and downs of games that are coming out, and pointing out funny parts and making jokes or comics about them.

It's like the artist just doesn't get the sense of humor that has always been with God Mode. Like the latest comic, why is Barret all upset about mega man 9 being 8bit in that panel, its a return to the classics, something I think Barret would be going crazy over personally. Regardless of Barret's reaction, here comes the new Kraig, skinny, unoriginal, unfunny and not the stupid kinda funny he used to be with some beer, and this wierd time travelling kid making such a lame joke that even Barret is like "great." I'm not sure where I was supposed to laugh or find anything at all about that comic funny, and I can say the same thing about a lot of the new material.

Allow me to sum up the comics in order.

First comic with Broderick, I'll straight up give Adis some slack, the first comic someone makes for something generally isn't that great. Personally, not a huge fan of Broderick in general, he seems to be a character that can be changed to make a point about something accordingly, having him compare a baby chick to a wii or gaming system, doesn't make much sense to me. My whole life I've known young gamers, teenage gamers, adult gamers, and older gamers, the first comic in general doesn't make very much sense honestly, even the last line and the kid crying, it at least made me smile a bit knowing a new artist was starting comics for God Mode.

The second comic, ok, first couple panels alright, a lot of overused jokes/ideas though. The last panel though, come on, Barret and Kraig are adult gamers, they're not idiots, I get the joke your trying to make, but since when did they as characters turn into massive idiots.

Third, Way to go hands. That last panel, just terrible, where's the joke, one, two, onetwothreefour. This is where I don't get the comment that God Mode is going back to gaming, sure rock band 2 is mentioned in the comic, but did it make any joke or comment about rock band? No, it made a really lame hand joke, and a last panel that was just a waste of space.

Fourth comic. Ok, FINALLY, a comic that actually does have a game concept/joke/idea sort of thing. My only complaint is that Kraig refers to himself as a kid, and writes like one too. Not saying Kraig has ever been very intelligent, but still, he at least does not refer to himself as a child, and take the time to draw kraig dressed up as megaman if thats supposed to be a joke at the start of the panel, just saying it like it is and saying disregard that, this letter isn't about that, ok great, another panel filled up but no joke involved.

Fifth comic. Where did the old god mode characters go? you want a funny joke about barret's masterbation habits, I still laugh and think about that one comic where Barret's talking to Moru about how if you try real hard you can sweat just as much playing a hentai game as actually having sex, it was a comic about naruto or whatever that ninja game is that came out. Note the difference in the two kinds of comics, the old godmode makes a comic about a video game, and relates moru's experience of playing it to his own experience of hentai porn and sex, hilarious, man I was cracking up. This new God Mode however, seriously, this strip was just bad, it just took an idea of a spy cam and had barret saying euroboobies.com is a game for him. really lame, and it took all the way up to the last panel just for that terrible joke, nothing else in any of the other panels but the cam slowly coming closer.

Sixth comic - bad, bad, bad. You're welcome. hilarious. There have been great jokes about barret's hello kitty playing in the past, a joke about the boss being hard, and marceline saying you're welcome for having a password for all video games, lame. So lame, I'm sorry, I'm trying to give as much constructive criticism as I can about each comic, in hopes that maybe some of my advice will be heard. I've never registered on these boards before, I never found on a need to, I read a lot of gaming comics and God Mode just happened to become one of my absolute favorites, but when you make a comic like this sixth comic, and read it over, you should be able to just realize how lame it is, and trash it instead of posting it on the site.

Seventh comic - same thing as the sixth comic, just terrible. Already a bad start, going to pick up madden 09, boring! lol just joking, sorta, not my kinda game, but a gaming comic shouldn't exclude any game from a good joke, the problem is, this isn't any kind of joke about the game. Who the hell is Elmer, why the hell did he need to be incognito, and since when does Kraig have the ability to spray disease at people.

8th comic - This one wasn't terrible. I personally didn't find it funny, at all, I didn't laugh or smile when reading it. But, at least its a joke, talking about a video game character, however a bad joke it might be. Perhaps thats just personal opinion on my part, so I don't have much to say about this one other than that I just found it really lacking in humor.

9th comic - Ugh I can't stand seeing Kraig looking all super skinny and undetailed in that first panel. Other than that, this comic just took a dive at the last thing Barret was saying. It's funny, cause I look back and read all the old comics pretty often. I remember that first comic when the wii-mote was coming out, and Kraig said it was so stupid, and barret handed him his own version of Kraigs ideal controller (a classic looking controller with a big win button in the middle to tap, if i remember correctly). So its really wierd to all the sudden hear Barret's comment at the end of this comic.

10th comic - not even going to go into it, its just a really lame comic and joke at the end. The humor is not there.

11th comic - about spore, but rather then talking or making a joke about the game spore, the gameplay of it and what happens in the game, its just a sad excuse for an attempt to make a joke about spore. My problem with a lot of these comics, like the latest one with megaman 9, is that I feel like Adis must have really never played any of these games, ever, otherwise he'd realize there is a lot better material and jokes to make about the games that go deeper and are more enjoyable by gamers, this is a gaming comic afterall.

12th comic - lame, and why, because theres lego games coming out? There's always lego games coming out, lego's crazy like that, they got all the starwars, batman, etc, if your going to make comic about the games, make a comic about the game, not something like this. This is one of those comics I would say after reading it you should be able to look at it, say, this isn't funny or about a video game, so I should trash it and not put it up on the website. If you can't think of a good comic, it doesn't give you reason to just put up something completely lacking in humor.

13th comic - the megaman 9 one, I talked about that at the start.

I'm not trying to be negative, but you give me very little to be positive about. I'll read this new artists other works, to see if I can maybe see where it's coming from, but these last 13 comics (unless I counted wrong or skipped any) have almost all been seriously lacking, and where as God Mode used to be a comic I would have a hard time holding in my laughter so the people around me didn't think I was crazy when checking for updates in a public place (I laugh out loud very loudly in my own home), not a single one of these new comics has made me laugh, and half havn't even made me crack a grin.

I never thought I would register on these forums, I just read the comics, laugh, and go about my daily life. I thank all the old artists for making me laugh harder than I have vs many other gaming comics, and I'm finding myself reading Raven's old work on his website now as well. The sad thing for me is that when I come to God Mode these days, I'm not laughing about the new comics, I'm searching through the old comics and re-reading them for the hundreth time now.

I hope my comments about the comics so far can help God Mode get back on the right track. I'm not trying to be mean or negative to Adis, he very well could turn things around and start coming up with some better material, but it certainly hasn't happened yet. I'm just trying to write out what has made God Mode such a drastic quality change for me, a comic I used to enjoy so much, and still technically do considering I can't stop re-reading the old ones. Eventually those old comics will become so burnt into my memory though that I will have no reason to return to the site, and I can only hope by that time the new comics start picking up.

[Hellbird]

I do believe the comic will pull out of this, because I have seen countless comics go from lameness to famous. The reason people have given up hope on waiting is due to having the previous God Mode suddenly drop off. I stand by my theory, and will guard it until proven right or wrong.

On a completely unrelated note, compare these 2 links, and you tell me whether or not it got better.

Before
http://yoshsaga.com/latest.php?i=040323

After
http://yoshsaga.com/latest.php?i=20080926

[lord Petrus]

Hello everyone,

I would definitely call myself a fan of Count Your Sheep. It made me laugh in moments I really needed to and I am thankful for that.

At first, I thought that "Adis the new God Mode artist" was such a strange idea that it would result in something priceless. It was like Roger Rabbit being suspected of murder, like the Happy Tree Friends being chased by a serial killer, like Solid Snake and Mei Ling discussing Mario's relationship with Peach...

Except this time, it doesn't work. I am sorry but I have to agree with the title of this topic. This is all going nowhere.

God Mode must rely on someone else... or go to bed !

[Hazama Itsuru]

I really hate putting down anything, but I have to. I gave Adrian a try and thus far, I do not like it. When Raven took over, I thought it was terrible but it grew on me. I can't see this version doing so in the near future. As stated many times before me, the characters are not the same and the humor has gone missing.

[moorg]

I really hate putting down anything, but I have to. I gave Adrian a try and thus far, I do not like it.

Ditto here. I'm out.

At least I can see Raven's stuff over at his Dojo.

[scadada99]

What was once a great comic has been ruined by this talentless, unfunny hack[&c, &c].

Before you go calling someone a "talentless, unfunny hack", maybe you should show someone an example of how you could do it better.
So, where's your comic?

I personally never thought the original artist of this comic was that funny at all. Raven was fucking hilarious. Adis! has a different interpretation of it than either Ryan Kearns (who, I might add, was a "weaboo faggot" according to most of the people on this forum) or Raven...and he's allowed to interpret it how he wants; he's doing the comic now.

Every day, this forum becomes more and more like the Dominic Deegan forums (which is a hut for raging, lava-hot snark and personal attacks on the author).

[Ralfah]

What was once a great comic has been ruined by this talentless, unfunny hack[&c, &c].

Before you go calling someone a "talentless, unfunny hack", maybe you should show someone an example of how you could do it better.
So, where's your comic?

Please don't rebut an honest (if abrasive) assessment with a tired "Let's see you do better." It makes you look overly defensive and less inspired than the original poster. If this were to be the only piece of work I've seen from from this artist, I'd probably come away with much the same opinion.

Sorry, Adis. You just don't seem suited for this comic. It's probably time to move on.

[CapnWellpoint]

scadada99 wrote:
Before you go calling someone a "talentless, unfunny hack", maybe you should show someone an example of how you could do it better.
So, where's your comic?

No, no! Wait, I think I'm with you on this one scadada99. I mean, your argument is wholly valid.

For example, a lot of people say that Hitler did not make a lot of good decisions as a dictator, but I don't see any of those people running countries! Maybe we should all try saving Germany from economic collapse before we presume that the "final solution" was a sub-par thing for a ruler to do. Our lack of experience in the matter surely indicates that we are unable to make value judgements.

Likewise, why don't we all try devoting our time to drawing comics for a living before deciding that certain comic artists do or do not have talent. That would surely be time spent reasonably.

Let's face it: unless we actually do the things we criticize, we must not know what we're talking about.

I liked God Mode and checked up on it pretty regularly. Forgive me for being a tad embittered by this whole thing with Adis turning it into a tired toilet joke on its best days.

[scadada99]

I'm impressed.

It only took 3 posts after mine to invoke Godwin's law...

Well played, sir...

[Zok Wobblefotz]

Scadada, are you saying that because you can't do something better, that makes it great? My roommate can paint better than I can, but he and I both know he's got a LOT of work to do before he ever thought of making more than a hobby out of it.

I had periodical laughs at the previous artist's art and humor, and it made me bookmark the comic. I never even bothered to go back and read all of them, because I didn't like it THAT incredibly much, but it made me laugh on a regular basis. However, Adis has not brought me so much as a chuckle since I've began reading and this thread has given me the last nudge I needed to just put it down.

Whether or not I can do it better, scadada, I have grown tired of revisiting the same uninspired comic week after week waiting for something to jump out at me. I've got roughly 15 other comics I read on a day-to-day basis, and I find no reason to continue waiting for this comic to re-amuse me.

Thanks for trying Adis, it's not the end o' the world, this just may not be the right environment/subject matter for you. However, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again." right?

[wbzll]

I used to love the old true God Mode. This "new look" must be some kind of bad joke.

[LuvLuv_G1981]

Is Adis the person who's doing God Mode now? If so, I thought it was Adrian Ramos? Anyway, I don't like the new look, because whoever this person is, took Kraig's muscles away......Now he's this skinny bean pole........

[LilithShadowsong]

If by ruined you mean added a degree of artistic class, then yes he's ruined the comic. Adis has improved the comic drasticly if you asked me. The Way Raven had it it was a string of degrading and sick punchlines. The Manhood test arc from Raven forced me to vomit. It was terrible. I was really ready to quit reading GODmode untill i found out that Adis was going to start doing it. Now not every joke is a sex joke, or a poop joke, or a combonation of the two. I'm seriously pleased with this. As to what you feel are weak jokes, this isa new comic style for Adis and I'm sure he's just working out the kinks. Or the truth could be thery are just a bit more subtle than you are used to.

You can eitehr stop reading or stop whining and see waht happens. I'm gonna do the later.

Now in the words of Adis himself "Now go to Sleep!"

Raven here... When I got in the thread I saw this post awaiting approval. Ha ha. Maybe it didn't get approval because it was talking shit about me, but I'm thick skinned and don't mind. Here we have a great example of someone who hated my stuff because it's vulgar *and hey... That's just who I am*, but seems to really love Adis' run. So rock on!

[AKeenGuy]

Is Adis the person who's doing God Mode now? If so, I thought it was Adrian Ramos?

As I mentioned when he was announced, Adis=Adrian Ramos. And like I said a while ago, I agree that he is no good for this comic. Interesting that Raven is still around but hasn’t really comented on the state of the comic. Guess that is kind of a delicate position to be in.

[J.]

Adrian's done some really good work. I just looked over the archives, and these are the new strips that I like the most:

http://godmode.keenspot.com/d/20080627.html

http://godmode.keenspot.com/d/20080721.html

http://godmode.keenspot.com/d/20080818.html

http://godmode.keenspot.com/d/20080908.html

http://godmode.keenspot.com/d/20081010.html

http://godmode.keenspot.com/d/20081027.html

[Braidboy]

@ a Keen guy

It's a tough spot to be in only that I dont' want to make things worse by posting. I still like Godmode. I've always been a fan and Adis is doing a good enough job. It's a tough gig to take on.

You have to deal with the legacy of the guy before you. This was suprisingly double bad since people who hated the strip STILL hated the strip and people who loved the strip usually hated the fact you were "ruining the comic". So you end up feeling like you're only making a third, slim margin of readers happy that you have something different to offer.

It's topical humor. That means that you're only amusing those who are in on the gag . I laugh at jokes written about games I've played. PC games are alien to me so they're not funny to me at all. Then you've got 3 major systems... 2 handhelds... Plus you've got to work in gags about the characters personal lives. It's a juggling act!

Lastly, since it IS topical humor AND there are already very high profile gaming strips out there you get tossed into a rather pointless competition as to whether or not you're making strips as well as those guys.

Oh... And the sad thing is that Godmode has this stigma. For some reason even people who like it don't seem to really want to admit they like it. I've seen forum posts and threads where people would comment in timid ways about how they liked a strip only to have several other forum users swoop in to remind them that they are to "never praise Godmode". And if they did like it they'd have to praise the strip in a manner that reminds people that they still HATE Godmode, but they liked this particular strip.

An anonymous user signed my guestbook and told me to "Please do Godmode again since it sucked slightly less dick when I was doing it". ha ha. That's a glowing endorsement! I'll jump to it.

The silver lining is that there are many fans who are silently enjoying the comic. They don't post because there's not much point to it I suppose. I commented when I left that I felt I didn't do as good a job as I should have. That's why I left Godmode. I wanted to stop sucking ass and let someone else maybe get in there and kick some ass. But I was pretty surprised by the amount of GENUINELY positive feedback I suddenly got. And I don't mean timid "You didn't TOTALLY suck" feedback. I mean full on support. I wished I had known! Maybe I would have kept at it.

Anyway in the end it doesn't matter. Everyone's different. This strip will be different with each new artist and it will appeal to different folks. Adis, it's a helluva job, but you're doing great. Just keep at it.

[cerse]

In Chris's defense, Bob Ross is a really relaxing fellow. I learned a thing or two about painting happy little trees from watching his program. If you want to borrow my oil paints, Chris, you're more than welcome to them.70 536 exam questions

Please be more respectful to us whack-o Melonpool puppeteers. They all can;t be as grounded as me. Which reminds me, I have to polish my Mr. Fusion and Gilligan's Island radio one of these days. ccie training