PvP is a daily online comic strip, and Image now brings you a bimonthly reprint version.

Now, I've always felt this is a problematic format.  I've written before about the pacing problems that come up when monthlies are collected in trade paperbacks.  Those issues are a thousand times more pronounced when you have 19 pages of material, originally intended to be read at a rate of three panels a day, and hitting a punchline with metronomic regularity.

Of course, if you're sensible, you don't sit down and read something like this as if it was a single story.  You take it for what it is - a collection of strips.  But the format still strikes me as odd.  Unless you're a fan with a passionate desire to keep an archive of the strip for yourself, why not just read it the way it was designed - on the website, in colour, daily, and free?

That aside, PvP is a pretty good strip.  It's about the staff of a gaming magazine ("PvP" stands for "Player versus Player"), some of whom do something, and most of whom don't.  There's a woman, who's on the cover.  She's barely in this issue, but it's nice to know she's there.  They play nerfball.  They kill mice.  They play games.  It's meandering, rather plotless, but quite entertaining.  The strike rate on the jokes is quite high, although they're generally amusing rather than laugh-out-loud hilarious.  Kurtz is a talented cartoonist, and his timing is pretty sharp.

Fine, as strips go - but unless you're an existing fan of the strip, you may be better served in the first instance by just reading the website.

Rating: B+

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