There are certain things about Fort Thunder artists that we've all heard repeated over and over again. For instance, those Fort Thunder guys love to make marks on paper. Also, they can't get enough of drawing characters wandering around. Oh, and don't forget: They're into wizards and Nintendo and punk rock.

I suppose all of these things are true, to a certain extent, but since this type of assessment comprises the bulk of what is written about The Fort, I can understand how casual fans of cartooning might be reluctant to seek out work by someone like Brian Chippendale. Cartoonists who love to make marks on paper about punk rock wizards wandering around and playing Nintendo sure sounds interesting to me, but it may not seem all that engaging to everyone around. Hey, some people want to be engaged. There's certainly nothing wrong with that!

The good news is that Brian Chippendale is engaging. There's a lot more to his work (and the rest of the Fort) then you've been led to believe. First of all, Chippendale is one of the funniest cartoonists working today. What's more accessible then funny? And what's funnier then the following exchange from Ninja #4?

Our hero is caught in a room. A guard looks in on him and says "tell me how you made the darkness go away." Our hero responds with "Well, that's easy... I'm Suck-in-Darkness Bear... S.I.D. bear."

It's the way Chippendale draws his character off-handedly shrugging as he says "S.I.D. Bear" that really makes this scene work. This is where we can see the stereotypical Fort Thunder traits working at full effect: Chippendale is drawing that shrug with such obvious enthusiasm that you can't help but pick up on it and enjoy it yourself. It's not a Beetle Bailey shrug. It's a shrug where the characters entire body is in full-thrust-service of the shrug and delivering the punch line.

This might also be why people miss the point with the Fort Thunder guys. Chippendale's visuals are so overpowering that they might make you forget everything else. He's almost a little too enthusiastic. The manic detail and cross-hatching on every page, the Winsor McCay level of ambition in creating a beautiful page layout -- it's all a little hard to process. In fact, there's so much going on that you might miss the punchline all together.

But it's worth focusing on Chippendale's work to get that punchline. If you can train yourself to enjoy the punchlines in Ninja, there are a dozen other things you'll be able to enjoy too. Chippendale is a master cartoonist who draws amazingly fluid characters that exist in a chaotic (but cohesive) little world -- and it's a funny, involving little world that no one should have any reservations about exploring. Don't be afraid of the Providence, RI noise-rocker undertones. This is cartooning for everyone, and not just drugged out, roller-blading, asexual German photographer types.

(The price of Ninja #4 is unclear, but send $5 to: Lightning Bolt, PO Box 1361 Providence, RI 02901 and I'm sure you'll get a bunch of great stuff in return. Too cool for school and too cool for e-mail (thank god someone still is). Try the Load Records website, maybe? Plus, he might be on tour, so it could take a while for your comic to get sent. Or not. I'm just guessing on that one.)

David Delahoussae has been making comics for a long time now, and as often happens when you keep drawing, he's actually getting pretty good. The first page of Utopia #9 is well composed, funny, and just plain well-drawn. You can feel Delahoussae working on that page and knowing it was coming out just right, and enjoying the triumph.

But despite having developed some genuine cartooning chops (which weren't evident in earlier issues of Utopia), Delahoussae seems reluctant to use them as often as he should. After the initial excitement we feel after seeing the skill displayed on page one, we're treated to page after page of quickly dashed-off talking heads in panels without any backgrounds. This is the kind of cartooning you often see from first-timers figuring out all this stuff and saying, "Well, I've gotta get through this story somehow. I'm scared to death of drawing that background, but hey, I can draw faces like a genius. I'll stick to that!"

That kind of approach is perfectly fine. You do have to get through that first story somehow, and filling it with stuff you like to draw is a good way to do it. But Dellahoussae shouldn't fall back on this mentality. He's moved beyond it, and the maddening thing is that anyone looking at the first page of Utopia #9 knows he's moved beyond it. Dellahoussae knows how to draw, and he knows how to draw well. So why are so many panels in Utopia badly drawn?

Dellahoussae has the makings of a fine cartoonist, but he needs to put the effort he puts into his best panels into all his panels. If you have the patience to put out 9 issues of a minicomic -- no small feat -- you should have the patience to draw everything to the best of your ability. There's no rush. Minicomics will still be around when Dellahoussae redraws every panel in Utopia #9 to the level he knows it can be drawn.

($2 plus $1 shipping to: PO Box 41191 Memphis, TN 38174-1191. There's a newer issue out too, so throw in some money for that one. His e-mail address is hard to decipher. It's either: rrkravitz@hotmail.com or mkravitz@hotmail.com or plain old kravitz@hotmail.com. Try 'em all!)

Tim Motley is a great cartoonist who's been around for a while now, but he's still relatively unknown and underappreciated. This may be because his stories still don't read that well: They're not gripping enough to be melodrama, and they're not meandering enough to be whimsical. Motley's writing is caught somewhere in no mans land between those two extremes. But it doesn't really matter, because there's still so much stuff to enjoy in any Motley comic.

I really love Motley's line. At times it's a bit too clean, but since True Fiction #5 is a 24-hour comic (everything in it was completed within a 24-hour time frame), all of the best qualities in Motley's drawing are on display: Motley can draw clean, but he's at his best when he's loose. He could be drawing for the Big Two if he put his time into lobbying enough editors. Somehow, he's been able to learn how to draw in a very commercial, sophisticated style while retaining the ability to be very free in his drawing. It's a potent effect, like watching a Hollywood actor you've only seen in a lousy TV show really do an amazing job in some Masterpiece Theater movie. There are some artists who can risk their looseness to learn how to be slick, and come back from learning sophisticated technique as a slick-loose hybrid. Motley is a great argument for more slick-loose hybrids.

I don't really like the story in True Fiction #5, but Motley's drawing is so charming that I'm willing to let it slide. You should too. Like any true cartoonist, Motley's drawing is part of his writing, and the sub-par story (about an artists' model who lets her mind wanders while she poses) has a pleasing, clever tone to it because the drawing itself is pleasing.

($3 plus $1 shipping to 1532 Elm St., Denver CO 80220. Send more money though, because this guy makes about a dozen minicomics and they're all worth a look. E-mail him at: mot@tmotley.com.)

Austin English is a writer living in New York City.