Bec and Kawl: Disect.

[jont]

Nurse, don't bother with the screens!

Have to say I'm kind of disappointed by this strip.
It seemed like it was going to be the goods: Bloody Students, a fat wanker, a goth with dress sense (crazy) and a tasty bit of paint by Fegredo, and it would be a comedy (dire lack of laughs in most editions of 2k)

And what do we get movie references, lot's of references.

Blatant ones at that
Overall the strip piques my interest and gives me at least one laugh a week but that's hardly value for money is it?
Oh, may I add that I do actually think Si Spurrier is one of the comic's most promising writers.

>>jont

[The Amstor Computer]

Bec & Kawl needs *two* writers. Writing by commitee doesn't work for nearly every other genre - the best stories come from one person's vision - but when it comes to making you laugh, you need feedback & a second writer is the best idea. What might seem hilarious to Si Spurrier just seems like a mish-mash of film-references & zit-jokes to me. B&C *does* have genuinely funny & clever moments, but they're few & far between.

Interesting idea - throw it open to Si & another 2000AD scribe & it might become a damn funny strip.

[christophe]

Dear Blackblood,

that is a interesting idee. Certainly it has worked for Wagner and Grant. What other pairs of authors have made scripts for 2000AD? I only think of the brothers Gurr with the Future Shock in verse. Hey, Wagner and Grant also made verse! With some of their strips, where the characters sing. May be two authors equals poetry! If Spurrier has a writing partner he will write a rhyme story?

I thought of an other pair. Diggle and Wagner - Dredd/Alien.

To be serious, I like bec and kawl a lot.  I think it is very British humor, like Sooner or Later.

But if you propose an other author to verify the jokes, it is the same function as a editor, no?

C

[paulvonscott]

I think its fucking abysmal.  Really, just shite, like that piss poor kebab story and the ejaculating whale that everyone enjoyed so much.  

I've stopped reading bec and kawl, it is arguably the single worst thing I've read in AD since Bradley.

But I look forward to any serious story Si does.  If he can leave out the dumb humour, he has a chance.  I actually thought that planet story, where he slagged off the artist, was okay, and as I said, any serious stories mucho welcome, but the jokes?  For fucks sake.

Oh and I am sorry, I kept off the topic diplomatically for so long, but with a title like "Bec and Kawl: Disect..." I couldn't help myself.

[2000AD Online]

I`m with Blackblood on this one, I think Bec and Kawl has nothing going for it after the punny title.  Any argument about how many writers it has or who they could be is beside the point, the characters are just too thin, too pointless.  The student one does being arty and having tits, the bloke does being stupid and....nothing else really.  He`s like O.C and Stiggs (or whatever the 2000AD version was called) with all the fun drained out.
 Still, it was nice to see so much new stuff being tried out.
 

[paulvonscott]

Ignore that whale comment!  It was complete rubbish but sounded good at the time.  I've only read the script online and that sounded fine.

But jokes about spots and dodgy food.  Aaaggh.  I feel ill just thinking about them.  Can't we just stick with hideous violence and explosions?  

[Matt]

Bec & Kawl is about the wankest strip to appear in 2K since the Space Girls. The writer is just jerking off on all the cultural references he can fit into each episode. STOP IT! IT'S BOLLOCKS!!!!!

[Wood]

I like it.

It raises a smile, which frankly is my primary criterion for liking a strip.

[Oddboy]

I like it too.
The second story was better than the first one.
But I liked 'em both.

[Art]

Well, I think 2000ad needs a something like this in spirit, and Si definitely seems to be the Man to write it, but Bec & Kawl seems to have gotten off to a rocky start, mainly due to being weighed down by the need to stop the action and quote Reservoir Dogs every other panel. It's not that riffing off culture is wrong, is that directly quoting films is the lowest form of it and shouldn't be stretched out over an entire strip.

Other than that, the level of manic intensity is right, the settings and characters are pretty much right, the occult aspect maybe should be toned down a little or made a little less obvious.

(The second one is actually a lot better for this.The low point was definately midway through part II of the first one)

...and I still maintain it's ten times better than Teleguff.

Give him a bunch of speed, get him to write 20 of them and pick the best ones, that's what I say.

[Thread Zero]

Let wise scojo intercede oh fallen brethren.

Or let me speak some guff mate.

You have forgotten the unwritten law, that one sacred covenant that not even Tharg will utter....

Comedy strips never work in 2k.

Tis a factoid my munchkins. Why?

Well for some strange reason it alienates the fan base like no other strip.

OTT humour just doesn't sit well next to the more conventional action strips. Fans get all foamy mouthed and scream out "I HATE THIS!"

See Space Girls, Balls Brothers and now Feck and Fool.

For what it's worth I like B and K. I love scripts which are all comedy from time to time. I find them amusing.

But Tharg, you must remember this...
Publish OTT comedy stories at your peril.

scojo writing triangle twins, the off shoot of Balls Bro...oh that wasn't funny so ..er...

[Oddboy]

Woah!
For once a very accute message from Scojo!

Comedy stories in 2000AD/Meg are always very hit/miss.  And it's not the same people!  I can't stand Soul Sisters or Space Girls, but I love Hewligan's Haircut/Balls Brothers/Bec&Kawl.  Other people like B&K and Soul Sisters, but can't stand Balls Brothers....  it's like a random allocation of fans with no "if you liked that then you'll love this"ness about it.

If Tharg wants to live this dangerously then he might as well sellotape freegift tubs of Marmite to the front cover...

[Wood]

Yeah. The scojster may in fact have something here.

For once.

Are you feeling OK?

Oddboy's right, too. For example, I was utterly unmoved by Ace Trucking and the Balls Brothers, but loved Hewligan's Haircut and Bec and Kawl.

de gustibus non est disputandum.

[JTurner]

PvS - The worst since Bradley? I saw a couple of Bradley strips in a 2K special and I really liked them.

Bec and Kawl's fault is that it lacks a life of it's own after being swamped in cultural references and attepts at being OTT. Wipe away the Tarantino and you're left with just another steriotypical student gag, hence Si's (inexplicable) introduction of the occult elements, which, frankly, jars with the down to earth elements of the script. If I was to write this story (god forbid), I'd either have it totally based around cultural/media references and send-ups, with the 'gag' being these two students showing just how shallow the whole film/arts world is. Or I'd stick with the other goth sendup gag, like a tongue in cheek Telguth, but frankly I've met very few film students who think that they're dead, these days my contemporaries at art school were mostly wannabe media trendies and cocky fashion victims.

I'll still persist that the best comedy script is the that which can also be played as drama (just think of the best, or at least most sucessful TV sitcoms). Bec and Kawl has a very blunt edge and Scojo's view on OTT comedy is quite correct.

But hey, it's still readable, and it seems that some people think it's great, but like the Balls Brothers (the only 2K strip I refused to read), I doubt we'll be seing much more of it.

[Trout]

I'm not really a fan of it, but full marks for originality.

13 is also failing to thrill me but, again, at least it's a bit different.

I'm giving them both a chance. We'll see.

MikeD