Madbury

Lets start this off by introducing you to Tom Falco, who is the editor and publisher of the CoconutGroveGrapevine.com , as well as a popular independently published cartoonist. His cartoons are published online at the Huffington Post, in newspapers and magazines and can also be seen at www.Tomversation.com. If you happen to be in New York City this year for the annual Comic-Con in October, you’ll find him there covering the event. I’ve posted his mug shot so you know who to look for! [grin]

With the new Madbury under way, I recently reached to the twitterverse for a critique on how things are progressing thus far. Tom saw the tweet and reached back to offer exactly what I was asking for, an unbiased review of Madbury. Here’s what Tom had to say about the Madbury reboot:

What I like most about the strip is the hometown atmosphere, even though most of the action takes place indoors, you can just feel that it’s a small town full of busy bodies and small town folk, which are usually one in the same in small towns. Hodge lives with his wife Melinda Madbury.

His favorite character:

Maggie May, the old lady, Melinda’s mother, is the breakout star, she’s hilarious. Her best line is “OH Gawd! I’m turning into Jack Nicholson with breasts!” when she told she was going through menopause.

His perception of Madbury:

A lot of the strip is about menopause, vasectomies, doctor visits, etc. So the strip may be geared toward the older crowd, which may be good or bad since I feel that the older crowd still reads newspapers for their comic strips and that webcomics are geared more toward a younger generation. But who knows, I don’t consider myself old and I read it and enjoy it. It has a feel of the “Newhart” tv show, when he ran the inn in Vermont.

He has a complaint:

If I had any complaints about the strip it is the minimal publishing cycle — it’s like once a week, it would better serve the readers if it was at least three times a week, but with the many panels and great amount of text, maybe it’s meant to be a Sunday-style strip and only run once per week. Other than that, I enjoy Jynksie’s sense of humor and the drawing style of the characters.

He sums it up:

All-in-all, the strip is funny, has very likable characters and continues from week-to-week, so you are anxious to see what is coming up in the next chapter. Each strip stands on its own, but they are intertwined and do follow a storyline.

Tom also included his thoughts on the concept of doing a comic in “seasons” and has even written a detailed piece on the subject on his own site, which can be found HERE! As for how Madbury is publishing it’s strips, here’s Toms thoughts on that:

One thing that I find quite interesting is that Jynksie is going to publish the strip in seasons. I had just written about webcomics having seasons, like tv shows do. The current batch of Madbury will run through December 17, there will then be a break and the strip will return in February and run through June. This concept I love, in that, it is quite innovative and may be the way of the future when it comes to webcomics. It gives the cartoonist a break and time to refresh and rejuvenate their mind and become more creative.

Thanks again Tom for taking the time to express your opinions of Madbury, my gratitude is immense! Happy comic-ing!

If you’d like to submit a critique of Madbury, contact me! Or, just leave a comment at will!