Practice makes perfect...

Whoops! I forgot to write this! Busy week involving labs, crabs and tonsillitis. And no crabs. Well here we be! Another week, another webcomic. Have you noticed the new title thingy? How could you not! Look at it up there, all shoddy and half-assed. I haven't actually had time to take it down to fix it. And no, I'm not a furry, that's not a "fursona" or whatever they call it: This is marketing, son! A marketing ploy. I’m pretty addicted to that Twitter thing. I demand you join it, if only to follow Wil Wheaton, he’s a funny guy. So I saw Watchmen last week. Good stuff, though there was a bit more quantum blue penis than I'm used to. Oh, and I’m sure y’all will be pleased to know that I’ve come across a treasure trove of comics in the last week or so too, so we’ll be plenty busy for the weeks to come. It figures, as soon as I start to tone down the blog a bit, I find more stuff to write about.

One of these new comics had me in stitches! That’s a pun, son. You’ll find out why right now. The Practice is a comic about two paramedics (not a bunch of lawyers, in case it crossed your mind). They drive around in an ambulance and get up to all sorts of crazy, medical-related doin’s! Sounds awewsome, doesn’t it? It gets better, one is a hardened, world weary, cynical medic and the other is the wide-eyed, naïve, newbie. Suffice to say, it’s got the makings of a great buddy-movie. Picture Dr Cox and JD from Scrubs as paramedics in comic form and you get the idea. The best part of it all is that it’s funny because it’s true. The Practice is written by Anna Bancroft, a real life medical person, who’s brain train took a left turn at sanity leaving only hilarity in its wake (must be all those long working hours and hospital fumes). She started it in mid-February (of this year) and it’s been going strong ever since.

This comic is exceptionally well written. It follows Rule One of writing in general: Write about what you know. And she knows her medical jiggery-pokery, let me tell you that much. And you don’t need to know fancy terminology for this, oh no sir! It’s not that kind of humour. It’s your basic run-of-the-mill cynical dude with his still-wet-behind-the-ears companion. “So what?” you say, “How is that new and exciting?” The real difference comes in the context. In this paramedic setting, there are new comedic doors open that people like you and I wouldn’t have even considered! It really is very well put together in that respect and I found a bit of a new appreciation for the old-school buddy comedy.

As far as comics go, there are many styles, most have a generic 3 or 4 panel thing with their content essentially making or breaking it. It’s nice to see something break the mold for a change. This is like, I don’t know, the art deco of comics. The characters look like they’re based off signs from a bathroom door (with some minor modifications) but that simplicity gives it a great sense of charm. Heck, Anna, if you’re reading this, you should get into the art business if whole medical thing goes down the tubes. Facial expressions are something I always look at. Here we’re only given the characters’ eyes, but more than enough emotion is conveyed across to the reader.

It truly is a unique perspective, elegant in its simplicity and side-splitting in its hilarity. And if I may paraphrase the site itself, it explains why they call it a medical “practice”. Fortunately for us all, practice makes perfect… But then nobody’s perfect… Who the hell is practising then? You know what, I’ve confused myself. The Practice updates pretty much daily, and you can follow Ms Bancroft’s musings on twitter. Oh, and here’s your taster, chief!