Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonists

Rall's third effort in the Attitude series turns its focus to online cartooning, a somewhat nebulous field that Rall has only middling success corralling into a book. There is a basic contradiction involved with publishing Web material in print: if the medium is viable, why does the work need a book? But that speculative question aside, this is a decent massing of some young cartoonists who practice the gag-a-day format in cyberspace. Most are no different from what one might see in a local alternative weekly, with unremarkable but competent drawings, generic gags and so on. But there are a couple of standouts: Nicholas Gurewitch's funny, surreal comics come from a personal, highly idiosyncratic place, as do Ryan North's, who has taken a clip art approach to gags. It's still unclear how these comics benefit from being online, as they don't use any of the features the Web offers (besides nearly free space), nor is it clear if the Web breeds a new kind of cartoon sensibility. Attitude 3 is an entertaining but random assortment of artists who happen to publish on the Web. (July)