The Kea's Nest

Quik Shot

2007-05-17T10:34:00.000+12:00

It's going to be sporadic like this, but I wanted to share my Classics Geek joy at this semi-recent Bigger Than Cheeses comic.

300 is over the top and only vaguely historical and melodramatic and wtf with the scottish sounding Greek king?! And yet, despite it all, you exit the theatre with only one word on your lips, tumbling out over and over.

SPARTAAAAAAAA!!

Not about webcomics but I do have something in mind.

2007-04-26T16:44:00.000+12:00

Kia ora,

This post is a day late. I'd like to say it was because I was busy attending the appropriate Anzac memorials, but in fact I was recovering after a hard night at a friends'. I digress.

One of the things I find good about the Anzac tradition down here is that it remembers a great loss due to hideous blunders in World War One. But there's something about a screw up of this sort that binds people together.

Last year a comment reminded me that the Turks must have lost many times the young men that the Allies lost at Gallipoli and that was a good point. Somehow this attempt at invasion that ended in bloodshed for both sides resulted in a kinship even with the enemy.

The leader of the Turks, Ataturk, made this speech after the end of the war.

"Those heroes that shed their blood
and lost their lives;
You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country.
Therefore rest in peace.
There is no difference between the Johnnies
and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side
here in this country of ours.
You, the mothers,
who sent their sons from far away countries,
wipe away your tears;
your sons are now lying in our bosom
and are in peace.
After having lost their lives on this land they have
become our sons as well."

As Neil Gaiman said recently: There are no Other People, there's just Us.

Ka kite

Dead Comics: Anne Frank Conquers The Moon Nazis

2007-04-21T17:10:00.000+12:00

Kia ora,
One of the things that I love about webcomics is the amazing breadth of form that can be found in one basic setup. I have seen plenty of blog/real life comics and yet the boundaries are huge. Then comics with a story and characters in a set location can be interrupted by these self same 'real' interludes and sometimes even single gags with no relation, also a whole extra catagory of comic.

But we'll talk about some of those another time. What I'd like to take the oppourtunity to discuss with this Dead Comic post is high concept comics.

I don't know if I've been looking in the wrong places or if my temperment attracts me to the simpler sketchier gag type strips, but I haven't seen many original complex stories on the web. Goats has certainly sprung into that realm. Girl Genius could count but from what I've seen I could lazily claim there were plenty of steampunk stories out there. Family Man (which unfortunately fell away from my check up schedule) likewise, though well executed, could be tempting to place into a niche somewhere.

Which is why I was delighted to run across Anne Frank Conquers The Moon Nazis. When some one says High Concept or Original, I have to assume this is the sort of thing they mean. A comic wherein a janitor becomes friends with a replication of Anne Frank given exceptional powers and they both set off to destroy the Nazis hideaway on the moon. It's hard to say you've heard that one somewhere else isn't it?

With such a brilliant concept under its belt I would not have been surprised to begin reading Anne only to discover that the art was incompetant and let down the story or that the story was an incoherent mess that didn't live up to the concept or a meld of the two. But, thankfully, my fears stayed unrealised.

The very first strip introduces a pencil shaded lumpy bulgy cartoony style that one recognises from older animations. That loops stretchy sort of reality where Goofy might reach across a ten metre gap to grab his hat or something. We know this is going to be a fluid universe we are entering. But then the punchline for the strip is good too. How can one recognise the fact that Nazis and Jews are two subjects that will just automatically inspire powerful feelings that aren't humour when you want to make something funny? By making it up front. The camps finished, see that bulldozer? But still, they are trying to pretend it didn't happen in the most unsubtle heavyhanded way, simply putting a new sign over the old one. It might be a tight smile, but its bringing that conflict straight out before it can laugh at anything else going on.

The strip is poignant and crude, beautifully presented and the text beneath the panels is almost like watching a subtiled movie. I love this comic and its one fo the few story based comics that pulls hard enough to make me want to come back and find out where the artist is taking me. I'd don't have enough time to be hooked by story but I can easily be hooked by gags that don't need plot to understand. For Anne, I'd make the effort.

The strip ends just as Anne and Fleisch have met and mutually been shocked and angry and then gotten themselves sorted. We haven't seen the resturant seen with Anne as just a head that is on the cover and we've seen no sign of them venturing forth to stop the return of the Nazi's, under Walt Disney's command. And, dammit, I want to know why and if we ever will!

I'm not sure why the flashes of some other comic (Firefly fanfic?) keep showing up though...

Ka kite

New Statement of Intentions

2007-04-18T16:29:00.000+12:00

Kia ora,

Syndication
Animation
Plagirism
Commentary
Wikipedia

My my my, the world of webcomicry has gotten busy hasn't it? Along with the storylines to be found in classics like Order of the Stick, Sluggy Freelance and Elf Only Inn, it looks like I left the blogging business at just the wrong time!

I love reading comics and the stories going on behing the scenes are just as intriguing. But for the foreseeable future I think I'll be limiting myself to commenting on strips and such that I love on any particular day rather than trying to analyse and comment on the lifestyle.

This couples with the fact that I don't have as much time to read as many comics as I used. So, I'd be pleased to hear recommendations of moments or new strips, but I may not get round to doing large reviews or even mentioning them.

Ka kite

I knew this had to be coming since I saw the Guitar Hero and SingStar plugins.

2007-04-15T12:41:00.000+12:00

Here in New Zealand we sometimes find ourselves lagging behind the rest of the world. Things don't make it down to us until the hype has already faded in internet conversation. Well, there are some exceptions, movies such as Children of Men and Black Sheep were visible here before the States, so that helps.

What that means is that this christmas, as I was looking for something to act as a consolatory balm, I decided to get the Guitar Hero game for the PS2. Yes, everyone else has loved it for ages, but even my more with it friends had only picked it up about a month earlier.

That game is wonderful, my mates and I refer to it as SingStar for guys. I spent many hours buttoning away to the mighty strains of DethKlok and the Trogdor theme song.

Anyway, this is meant to be about webcomics. And so I shall turn my subject to Penny Arcade. We all know Penny Arcade and its hard to think of anything new to say. Sometimes the comics require that you have a fairly in depth knowledge of gaming news. The blog posts are very wordy.

But what this recent post and comic made clear for me is that Penny Arcade are really my gateway into the world of gaming that I haven't actually been a part of for a long time. My computer is old and crappy and I don't have money for PS2 games very often. But by reading Penny Arcade, I know what I'll like if I get the chance to grab it.

So. Not very much on comedy or webcomicy-ness but an aknowledgment of the role Penny Arcade plays for me.

Also, they're making a computer game now?! WTF? Awesome.

Mallory Celery snerk

2007-04-14T14:26:00.000+12:00

There was something wonderful about the little sketches my friends and I used to draw in our school books at college (that's New Zealand College which equals High School. Not to be confused with University). They were quick and there were silly and sometimes they incorporated the day's subject matter in ways that seemed much more high brow than one might expect from a classroom doodle.

When I was first reading The Mulberry Gallows Project, that same sense came through. Now, that was about 6 months ago if not more and so there has been a shift. As I go back through the archives right now, looking to remind myself what I'd like to say about it, the memories of the comic that was seem brighter.

Maybe its that the artist has improved on his visuals. The addition of a Russian (?) marionette with an amazingly familiar open personality must take up a lot of time to make the wobbling flailing limbs seem suitably complex. And many of the other simpler characters (Angry Chef, Abacus the Gnome) are showing a little more movement than earlier days. While this is good for the reader in that it looks much nicer, could it detract from the immediacy that those college sketches acheived? That line that smeared the truly absurd with the fiendishly clever? There are still moments that make me double over like when my friend in school did a small funny scene that had a tree in the background and he wrote "Look! A Tree!" next to it for no reason. In fact, that example is remarkably like that.

In his book Planet Simpson, Chris Turner talks long and in detail about his idea of Pop culture. He shows the clash between high culture and lowest common denominator through specific examples found in the show, often involving Lisa, Sideshow Bob or some ancient anachronism that no-one knows about invovling Mrt Burns. But his point is that these two extremes are not really seperate cultures but are both elements of Pop, as represented by the show.

I think that something webcomics have thrived on is the culture of the internet that grew up in that same cultural space as the Simpsons. The humour doesn't have to be 'clever' but it might be. It doesn't have to be crude, but it can if it likes. The examples of this abound and would be as simple as asking you to open up your favourite comic and look for something crass and then a flash of high minded intelligence.

And that was something I remembered from my earlier reading of Mulberry Gallows. Single strips such as this. Storylines like the one where the gang decide to dig up and revitalise the corpse of Duke Ellington in order to discover what his opinion on downloading music is. A blurring of the simple and gag-riffic with the thoughts and ponderations of someone with a mind they enjoy using. This is very much a good thing, all my favourite comics manage to ride this mixture with verve and style.

For awhile it seems Marien got bogged down with the mysterious story behind Anastasia and Angry Chef, and as I read over the archives I began to think that this is an area he might be pushing to work on for himself. A longer, more involved story than a series of related jokes. If so, then I wish him well because I have certainly noticed his learning curve and admired it since I first read the comic. I would be interested to see what Fleen's opinion is now also.

What gives me ongoing hope and expectations for Mulberry Gallows is this latest strip. Mallory has drunken a beaker of logic and begun to devolve to binary. Let's see what xkcd do with that!

Last One Dead, Turn Out The Lights

2007-01-08T13:06:00.000+13:00

I know it's not webcomics, but I had to get the word out.

Children of Men is phenomenal. I got to see it in November, but I know you are all over the planet and I hear the states only just got it recently.

Go and see it. You won't regret it.

I am curious about that girlfriend's comment though.

2007-01-07T09:02:00.000+13:00

It's been a long time and my analysis skills are rusty.

But I love Elf Only Inn. It's gone through so many changes in style and yet each time it brings something that is quality, even when it was cutouts.

And the current incarnation, as players in a MMORPG rather than people talking about each other in a chatroom, has created an absolutely massive space for possibilities of deception and intrigue.

We are watching players betray each other all over. One of the aspects that makes it most interesting is the 'real world' effect on the game, the livejournal posts, the phonecall to Woot.

The revalation that he is playing, on a different server, already is... Great. I don't know what other word to use.

But I am very curious to find out who Barbi is and why she wants a Dungeon Boss to use (other than raw power. Which may in fact be the only motivation).

There are plenty of comics that have been building stories that really get you on the edge of your seat recently, but Elf Only Inn has me.

The Return

2006-12-18T21:54:00.000+13:00

What the...

WHAT THE...

YAY!

AAARGH!!!

FINALLY!!!!

Edited to add, it restarted way back here. I am so pleased, and it looks like a really clever revamp of the old way the strip worked.

I feel so happy!

Is Anyone Still Watching?

2006-12-12T12:23:00.000+13:00

I just saw this over at the Wikipedia lite that is Everything2.

I thought it offered an interesting look at some webcomics in general terms, but wasn't sure how many people would notice it. So I'm directing it to your attention.

Good day.

Good-Bye

2006-09-24T12:03:00.000+12:00

I know I said that I should be back to this eventually. It's great fun tlaking about comics and what I liked and didn't like.

But the internet is encroaching on my real life in bad ways. My wife isn't part of the web and a wedge is growing between us. So I won't be coming back to The Kea's Nest unfortunately.

I wanted to talk about The Mulberry Gallows Project but never got around to it. Suffice to say, I loved it.

Good bye. Enjoy your webcomics, but never forget to make sure your not leaving anyone else behind when you delve onto the web.

Woo Hoo!

2006-08-23T21:01:00.000+12:00

I walked past the Dannevirke Public Library today and was pleased to discover a fairly well stocked Graphic Novels section (!), including The Sandman, V for Vendetta, a bunch of Batmans and Daredevils and...

A Girl Genius book.

I haven't checking which one it was yet but suddenly I felt so proud of the people who are doing that webcomicry stuff. Go you!

It'd be tought to choose just one character... I'm leaning towards Mr. Glass right now.

2006-08-18T20:11:00.000+12:00

Snakes on a Plane, really doesn't seem that enthralling. I mean, not as a movie. For some reason we've all latched onto it (is it just because it has Samuel L. Jackson? He is pretty damn awesome after all) but I'm not likely to go see it at the cinema (given my budget allowed me to see one moive in the last six months...).

It's made for some neat running gags and little in jokes that aren't fundamental to a strip, which is nice. That sort of whimsy that the internet does so well. But, like those Chuck Norris and Vin Diesel jokes, it gets old remarkably quickly. Mr. Brazelton gets it right in his blog with this Theater Hopper comic, the film didin't actually match pace with the spreading of the meme and now it's just a bit sad.

Of course, that doesn't stop me grinning when I see the latest Popcorn Picnic (which I can't directly link to for some reason...), a fill-in-the-blanks contest to win a Samuel L. Jackson character drawing from Mr. Shadoian. Regardless of Snakes on a Plane, Jackson is cool and having some 'to spec' cartooning done would be briliant.

There seem to be two ways to win (two winners or one but two paths?), one being the most accurate to Jackson the other being the funniest. See you in the winners circle.

The Art of Substitution

2006-08-17T15:57:00.000+12:00

Over the... months? How long has that site been going? Anyway, over the last period of whatever, Websnark has been well known to create clever little names for various things that happen in and around comics. Some of the best known would be Cerebus Syndrome and First and Ten. As I understand these terms, they both refer to a shift from gags and whimsy to more depth and seriousness in a comic. However, one is said to have acheived Cerebus if the result is good and succumbed to First and Ten if it becomes laborious and tiresome.

Neither of those would apply then to what's been happening with Yirmumah.

Yirmumah barely had a plot before now (in the short space of time when I've been reading it anyway) and could at times seem like a journal comic. Sometimes it made silly gags, like the bunny who says Fuck, and other times it used recognized characters in a funny situation.

Then, all of a sudden, we get Origins. A biker who reads the bible and gets into brawls with the seeming intention of knocking the stuff he doesn't like about himself into submission. All the stuff that led him away from his girls.

I think what makes this into a new 'syndrome' is the fact that it doesn't draw upon the characters that have been used before. It isn't like a journal comic, although it has the same feel as an autobiographical piece (I'm fairly sure Mr. Coffman never smashed and burnt a phonebooth because his daughters were being kept from him though*). It something entirely new but put into the same space a readers used to find something quite different.

It would be like Mr Kurtz over at PVP deciding to do a nuanced epic tale of sky ninjas searching for the last rain dragon but putting the comic onto the PVP website and ceasing to run strips about those magazine workers we've grown to love. Only I think that particular transition wouldn't go down as well as Yirmumah's experiment.

It would be interesting to find out if the readership has gone along with Mr. Coffman on this. I get the impression they have, but it seems like such a gamble in retrospect.

The only complaint I've seen was on the LJ feed here. A reader says that the story had been good up until this transitional comic, and I agree. That piece doesn't match the tone of what has gone before, though the shift into the 'present/future' does rematch that tone. The problems are things like 'Heck's Angels' and 'many adventures/many a locale' which undercut the serious detail that we had seen previously. Glimpses of those adventures leave the reader feeling a little cheated, missing out on something that looks promising. I was going to say that we could ahve jsut about skipped it completely, but that would have left some in the dark about how respected or useful Deacon became. It's a toughy.

Incidentally, Yirmumah might want to think about reorganising its archives somewhat. It was really tough to browse through for comics I wanted to link to...

*Just wanted to say that I think there is a strong biographical thing going down, but I'll just leave that to settle and then take a look at it.

My homeboy.

2006-08-16T10:41:00.000+12:00

[Teaching training going well, thanks]

I'm sure you are all aware that I'm from New Zealand. And that I'm more than willing to shill any connection to this country in the realm of webcomicry.

Which is why I was delighted to find out about Cheshire Crossing. Yes, the update schedule looks like something that will take some getting used to, but the conceit that (unfortunately?) begins somewhat similarly to Lost Girls is just too appealing.

Obviously that's not the Kiwi connection.

But the 'asylum' where the girl's have been brought? Is run by Ernest Rutherford. Check out his wiki page and then come back saying 'thanks for the brainiac New Zealand!' I felt kind of chuffed, even if he probably thought of himself as British but from a distant part of Britain.

One thing that concerns me is the association with fiction. As you can (hopefully) tell from the wiki article, Rutherford was a very real and influential man. But every other charatcer I've seen in Cheshire Crossing so far is fictional. Now, Rutherford has leant himself to stories about other worlds and strange things happening due to his atomic research (the title story of this collection is great, but the whole book is decent too) but I feel a little uncomfortable with how he has been brought in so far.

Now, I'm only about halfway through this first issue (I think) so it'll be interesting to see what happens with Rutherford. But I'll be watching.

Um...

2006-08-11T23:03:00.000+12:00

Nothing cracked me up today. No stories on my regularly checked list had anything that made me sit up and take notice.

And I've been too busy with assignments to think of what to say in a review of a new (to me) comic.

So... This is jsut to let you know I am trying to update daily. But today was a bust.

A Comparison

2006-08-10T15:14:00.000+12:00

So, apaprantly there's some new game that involves zombies? Or something like that? Frankly, it's not important. What is important is that both Penny Arcade and Ctrl-Alt-Del appear to be making jokes in reference to it.

At first I thought they'd both just decided to go on Zombie benders, like you do, but then I actually realised what Gabe was saying in the Penny Arcade comic and the Ctrl-Alt-Del suddenly made more sense. Yes, that means I totally accept a comic which devotes a period of time to an injured friend of the main character and his attitudes and reactions to potential dates and then simply changes to watching some zombies go shopping. Nothing strange or abrubdt (... how the hell do you spell that word?) there, no.

Anyway, I just like the way it's been done from the two comics. Penny Arcade has given us the oppourtunity to see a popular recurring character in a fresh light. Suddenly his anger seems a little more based on history. And, frankly, don't you just know you're going to ask Mabel to dance next time you manage to get your clammy little fingers around the handle of some sort of firarm? Pop guns and Oozinators are acceptable. The comic almost doesn't need the beginning bit with Gabe and Tycho trying to fend off zombies by hurling cellphones. Though it does get a little Alanis Morrisette gag in there. Obviously they've used that to provide a little setting and context, but I would have totally gotten just the final panel with a Daed Rising display in the window behind Frank.

Ctrl-Alt-Del have started a little storyline with its version of events and I particularly love the way its coming from the zombie perspective. It reminds me of the sort of humour Shaun of the Dead came with, seeing the normal things that get shaken up, but never quite vanish, in the middle of a plague of the walking dead. So a zombie flicking through a catalogue while his friend gets bored is such a true telling of mall shopping that a chainsaw is really the only plausible next step. And then, who doesn't love making fun of the speed of zombies? You could run up, smack them in the half-flesh face and run away again without risking anything worse than dead skin coming off onto your palm. I hope the story has a couple more in it because I'm liking it.

Anyone seen any other Dead Rising, zombie/mall comics?

Drawing from the Amores might have been interesting. Isn't there a new adult webcomic portal now?

2006-08-09T16:28:00.000+12:00

Unfortunately I missed Maroon ending about a week or so ago. I really enjoyed checking in on that one, because it always seemed to be willing to try something a little different. It wasn't about bringing the funny, but it did seem to carry a bittersweet overtone most of the time, as you can tell by the last sentance in it.

So that's sad. But then we find that Derik Badman has moved on to a new project, one that looks to update more often and draws upon the Metamnorphoses by Ovid, called Things Change. As a guy with a degree in Classical Studies, this makes me happy, though I am sad to see he doesn't expect gods and monsters to go tromping through the comic (Why not Derik? Why not!?).

Given his willingness to take time and create a gentle rhythm that carries you back over and over I think this will be a good one to watch. It certainly makes a change from the 'fit in all the gags and still have enough energy left for a rimshot' pace that is more typical for webcomics. The inspiration should also lead to wonderful artwork, as we can see appearing in the echoing images of the first strip.

Let's watch.

Monkeys and Hitlers and Vikings, oh my!

2006-08-08T23:05:00.000+12:00

I wonder about disclaimers like this one from Rob and Elliot. Would it relly matter if this comic was or wasn't aprt of an 'official' continuity? I'm assuming that iMonkey's are fairly interchangable, as their mass produced store display would suggest. So, if this one diued and they got a new one, would we notice if they didin't tell us?

I know it's 'funny' (hah, they say they don't have the balls but here the comic is!) but it just makes me wonder a little. But thenn, I tihnk too much sometimes.

--

I love how crazy scifi/fantasy Goats is now. I didin't really know about it until it was already going crazy so I don't know how the trasition went down, but just having the concept of Gigahitlers available for my everyday conversation now is going to make me a very happy camper.

--

Doesn't it always happen? It does at Cat and Girl, anyway... I bet Hagar is about ready to bury an axe in some skulls.

Got the cartoon on VHS a month ago. Great stuff!

2006-08-07T21:50:00.000+12:00

I like Dilbert and I don't care who knows it.

I've seen some pretty mean jokes about Dilbert in various places and, although they certainly deserve to be made, I think there's a feeling thatdilbert isn't really good comics.

But I don't know how you can pass stuff like this up? Seriously, the dog is putting the boot in after carefully pushing over the guy. Classic.

The last few days have made me really glad I read Dilbert and Scott Addams' blog makes more more interested. It's funny, sure, but it usually has some really tricky things to think about. He phrases questions to really ge thte mind working and I love it. I even used one of his more serious books in a philosophy essay last semester.

So. Enjoy the cubicle drone humour. I do.

No excuses but one thousand apologies.

2006-08-05T12:41:00.001+12:00

Man, what a week (ish) to get overwhelmed with my own stuff. I am in the early stages of training to be a teacher and discovering its even more intimidating than I had anticipated. And being stuck without resources due to a missing order form. Incidentally, this will likely mean I'll be missing some updates during my in-school experience in a month.

Anyway, it couldn't have come at a more momentous time. I'll just run through the things I wish I'd noted during the time off and had a chance to think about and talk about.

PVP won an Eisner.
Yirmumah 's D.J. won the Comic Book Challenge.
Eric Burns stepped away from that Modern Tales thing and hopefully will be getting order in his life back soon.
Least I Could Do had Fraggles(!).

Once again, I'm sorry I've missed out on posting for so long and don't have a chance to really talk about those events. Suffice to say that they are all amazing acheivments (or noteworthy events anyway) and there's going to be a lot to look foreward to next week, (including, hopefully, a proper review of a new comic I've been reading).

Swords and Sorcery.

2006-07-23T23:10:00.000+12:00

That's touching.

And carries just the right amount of humour in it.

Order of the Stick is one of the best fantasy stories I've read in a long time. Comic or not.

Sliding into disrepair.

2006-07-22T00:41:00.000+12:00

(Technically I'm an hour into Saturdya but I figured most of you were still living in the past and wouldn't mind so much.)

I've only sporadically been following Day By Day, and it's not because I don't see poltics in quite the same terms they do. It never quite hooked me and, today, I noticed something that might have shown me why.

Today's comic is set on a beach, with a redhead in a bikini. And I wondered 'Why?' There hadn't been any mention of beach going as far as I could tell. The characters weren't talking about beach related subjects. It just seemd like a way to get a female in a bikini onto the scene. Which isn't necessarily bad, but idicated a strange mindset to me. One of the stangest things I've noticed in newspaper comics is the strip that has a really crap pun placed in speech bubbles around a naked chick in a bath, perhaps with her man taking off his shirt as he walks in. The cheapest form of humour. It'd be sad if Day by Day was slipping into that.

Also, the time saving aspect of the art seems to me to be too clear. The characters are beginning to look like cut outs that get placed on the canvas then have words placed around them. Chris Muir does seem to be able to put together a more interesting image, but so many time saving buildings or faces that look the same in every comic are showing up that I feel a little cheated. Again, this is something that isn't necessarily bad (PVP appears to have templates, StarSlip Crisis does if I remember correctly, and Dinosaur Comics is a prime example) but it adds to the other problems I have.

Now, granted I'm not the audience for the political humour that is being dished out here, but am getting confused by some of his recent strips. I enjoy reading more conservative cartoons usually, such as Cox and Forkum, because I get the point of view even if I disagree. But I just don't know what Muir is talking about recently.

I guess I'm saying Day by Day comics is a strip that is losing what little interest I had.

Apologies and two that made me chuckle today.

2006-07-20T14:30:00.000+12:00

Zach Miller kindly pointed out that my single issue with the recent kidnapping storyline was a mistake. Way back here the same newspaper headline is visible. Chronologically it seems close (not long after they arrive at the playground the kidnapping takes place (although it put them in a perfect place for such an event to happen, now I come to think of it)) but it's quite a few comics distant which is good. If you actually read the comic closely like I obviously didn't then the strips in between serve to put that information into the back of your head, maybe leaving you with a slight concern. Exactly what I was trying to say I wanted yesterday.

--

Now that's a beautiful guest comic. I must take a good look at Silent Kimbly soon.

--

Asterix as a Roman toady? Where do you creators get your wonderful ideas?

CulturePulp

2006-07-19T21:08:00.000+12:00

I love RockStar. It's the closest reality TV has come to creating something I want to see, namely heavy music and hot chicks. And it blends the two into one glorious whole.

And in my depraved search for more images of some of the hotties on the show (and previous material from them and the guys too, but let's not pretend we don't wanna see hotties...) I found this.

It's a comic strip review of one of the contestant's gigs from before the show. And it's funny and well drawn and interesting. So I go to the homepage of this creator and what do I see? A link list that could mirror my own interests. Including a huge variety of webcomics.

And an interview with the guy making the next Philip K. Dick movie. In comic form of course.

Oh this blog is going in the bookmarks and I mean now!

Seriously. Dangerous When Awesome.

2006-07-19T13:20:00.000+12:00

So, let's see how Joe and Monkey has progressed since the last time I mentioned them. I saw that a dark phase was in process, thinking at the time of the eleborate and possibly terrible revenge that Kleptobot was preparing to take on Megan. Then she was kidnapped.

The next strip upped the ante considerably by refering to a newspaper headline 'Another Missing Child Found Dead' but I didn't like this prop. I thought it seemed kind of clumsy to have a child dissappear and then 'discover/remember/etc' that there had been child killings going on. I would have liked to have been aware of the problem already, so I was worried about Megan. Although having her snatched so suddenly was effective.

From there we have seen a sequence of action that was perfectly timed. Despite having to wait between each update, just the right amount of movement was captured each time to feel like a discrete comic but also without losing the impetus that makes such a sequence interesting. Excellent work.

Then, today, Monkey gets aggro.

I was going to say that this violent promise was really pushing the comic down some odd avenues but then I noticed a discussion on the livejournal feed (from the man behind Theater Hopper too). Apparantly Monkey comes from Hell, something that was discovered in a different comic that is no longer online, hence the title 'Lost Continuity.'

I'm not sure how quickly we'll be able to get back to the bucket gags, the kidnapping of a young girl and the thought of her murder can't help but have huge influences on characters behavior (unless they are cardboard characters, which I merely mention as a possibility). But I get the impression that even those gag fuelled days might be different now that we've been introduced to demon monkey in this continuity.

I also wanted to say that the sudden switch seen in Kleptobot has been a great character touch. He's had some strange mentions while I've been watching the strip, he always appears to be going for the violent reaction, great for comedy. But I thought the build up of his revenge was dangerous and then it was turned against the kidnapper. One could be confused by this, wondering why he would care about Megan enough to save her but go to such lengths for revenge against her? There's a few answers but I like this one (probably because it's mine?): He's protective of his revenge.

He may not like Megan, but dammit, she's his enemy to get revenge on, not for anyone else to mess with. That strange attraction that we see in the movies so often, where the two who don't get along end up together. A dislike that becomes possession, a sort of caring.

I've been really enjoying this, I can't wait to see what comes next.

I even got a merit certificate. My best mate wanted to kill me.

2006-07-17T23:25:00.000+12:00

I've done this.

I've been enjoying seeing Toothpaste for Dinner turn up on my reading list. It reminds me of the sorts of doodles my friends and I used to entertain each other with in the backs of our books during school. Sometimes insane, sometimes kind of plain, always worth a smile, sometimes worth a belly laugh that makes the teacher look at you and you have to pretend to be coughing or something.

I'm not sure if everyone will have the same reaction to that last one. Let me know what you thought of it.

Excellent comic.

Three for one

2006-07-17T13:53:00.000+12:00

Man, I've been running around getting ready for a new semester and didn't get a change to link to a few poignant cartoons on friday.

I was going to mention Bunny's timely and thought provoking cartoon that seems directly related to the current/continuing violence surrounding Israel. I figured I'd leave my own comments on the situation out of it for now. The cartoon carries all the important things.

But Kate got to it first anyway.

--

There is something about this particular A Softer World comic that touches me. I think it manages to capture some of the confusion modern men might feel, unsure of how they should relate to woman, stereotyped into a sexual relationship but aware of so much more.

It makes me think of the way people accuse me of flirting with people but I feel like I'm just being a friend. I've never had anyone on the receiving end claim I was flirting, so I've not worried about it but it seems like a dischord in the way society operates.

--

Finally, a bunch of storylines come together at Medium Large, revealing that the pill people go around making drastic changes to comic strips to improve them. I love their idea of shifting the focus of the Garfield comic to Lyman myself.

But if Twin-Linked means two barrels, and I hit, why does it only cause one wound!?

2006-07-13T21:39:00.000+12:00

Turn Signals on a Land Raider is a rare thing. A webcomic about Warhammer, the table-top wargame by Games Workshop. I say it is rare because, although there have been various comics that address the games, they tend to fall by the wayside, unfortunately.

Obviously it shares attributes with other physical (as opposed to digital) gamer comics, such as Dork Tower, but I think the closest resemblence would be Order of the Stick. Like OotS, TSoaL features characters who are very much aware of there place in a game and will refer to rules as part of their battles. Unlike the OotS, the characters aren't existing in the Warhammer universe with an awareness of how it works but are actually the miniatures used in the games. We see them being painted and handled regularly.

Most of the time I find the humour is very much directed at those who already understand and probably wouldn't transfer so well to 'outsiders' but since Dawn of War came out maybe that understanding's spreading a little.

Anyway, today they make the best sort of Monty Python tribute gag, the obscure type that fits so well with the characters that you wonder just how long the set-up was planned. Those soldiers are part of units called the pointy sticks you see...

While looking for some other examples of wargaming comics I found a few others I might keep on the reading lists. I'll mention them if there's a particular reason later...

And I thought the OmniTaser was a throwaway gadget design!

2006-07-12T00:24:00.000+12:00

Is it just me or is Sluggy getting good again?

Oceans Unmoving never quite hooked me in, although I keep meaning to go back and try it again. But the follow-up stories such as Wayang Kulit and Stick Figures in Spaaaaaace have been cool and interesting (I loved the shadow puppets, it reminded me of class projects from school. Those things are awesome).

Most recently there's been a wine-tasting party, cows, costumes, mistaken identities and outlandish gadgets, all intersperesed with Bikini Suicide Frisbee Days which used to remind us of a time gone past but now seem more like what the gang has been doing recently.

It's reminding me why I'm determined to get the books and introduce my family to Sluggy. It's something we could all enjoy.

Galaxy Convey? Seriously?

2006-07-10T22:02:00.000+12:00

I can't remember whether it was in one of the sdiebars that go with Home on the Strange or on his LiveJournal but I remember reading an essay by Ferrett recently that talked a bit about gags in comics online. He wrote about how he had been writing to set up the punchline just like so many classic newspaper strips had (and influenced him in the process). But he had realised that there is no real need to wait til then to include funny and you did just as well putting jokes wherever they worked.

I think today's Shortpacked is an example of that. The actions of the unnamed chick, the facial expressions, and then finally the three outbursts all focused on different things. I was chuckling by the time I read the words Galaxy Convey.

Actually, Zeeland was a land near Denmark or something.

2006-07-08T10:29:00.000+12:00

Yay, New Zealand references! That don't call KiwiFRUIT Kiwis!

That is all. Thank you Cat and Girl.

If only he'd stop using that cursed slang.

2006-07-07T23:52:00.000+12:00

And so it would appear that that bloke over at The Webcomicker really seems to have some sort of Starslip mind, able to see what's going on in that scifi museum warship at early, early stages.

He thought storylines would slowly begin to come together (though from Straub's comment I think others will move apart and new ones will arrive to keep the varied suspense) and here they do. One of the more disconnected storylines has begun to twine with a charcter who did have a direct contact with the Fuseli.

One of the things I'm not clear on is when this meeting is happening. Afte rthe time police stuff and the Starslip Crisis, I'm wondering if this is something earlier than the meeting, later, or simply a totally different universe where the Fuseli never came by.

It'll make for interesting developments.

People don't think you can write about fiction that hasn't happened to you? Isn't that, y'know, part of the definition?

2006-07-07T23:38:00.000+12:00

I admit it. I don't actually read most of the Dinosaur Comics. I tend to glance at them and move on. Glancing at a static image comic might seem like a bad idea, but because of the way North distinguishes between offstage characters via fonts and includes titles and narration sometimes, you can get an idea of just how loony the comic is or how much it plays with a concept just from that glance.

It's a good thing I paid attention today. The novel concept that T-Rex outlines is something that I would absolutely love to read, it reminds meof the concepts behind such stories as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Without a Clue.

Speaking as someone who likes books, a novel like this would be like some form of crack, I can just iamgine it now. Is North going to do it? Or do I have to find someone else to provide for me?

Dangerous

2006-07-07T22:51:00.000+12:00

For a cartoon whose motto apears to be the barmy and affable Caution: Dangerous When Awesome Joe and Monkey has taken rather a dark turn with this business of revenge from Kleptobot. Today's kidnapping of a young girl captures the point exactly.

I'm not saying that Miller intends for us to assume the worst of what is happening. This isn't the recent girly/rape thing again. This is just a dark tone that is rather unsettling. As Girly went on to show that the darkness wasn't quite what some may have thought, I expect this to move back out into a lighter phase eventually.

Until then, I'll think hard about that motto.

Now there's a rebel.

2006-07-06T19:31:00.000+12:00

Of course the nudist from the library wears a suit at the nudist colony. What else could he do?

Strip Poker on a Nude Beach. Ow.

2006-07-06T19:24:00.000+12:00

There's something insanely brilliant about the team behind Wulffmorgenthaler.

Recently they redid their website which, unfortunately, meant I was unable to regularly get onto it in order to see the drunken, minute, goodness.

So I've been catching up. There's been quite a run of good stuff there recently. A long time ago I printed off a cartoon of theirs that had Sisyphus watching TV. What was on? It could only be reruns.

Only so many twisted minds would realise that and also see the link between sock puppets performing versus socks doing what socks are meant to do in terms of reality TV.

It reminds my a lot of those classic comedy shows like Monty Python or the Goons. While comprehensible jokes with punchlines are perfectly valid (the joke here is not that the worm is pushing out and talking, its that the host is 'extremely irritated' at the doctor's interest) it is much more interesting to jsut find something totally bizarre and mix it in.

Most of these comics, however, would probably benefit from dropping the little text box that runs along the bottom. Mostly they just rephrase the joke although there are times when a little clarification is needed (Sisyphus being a classic case. There's no way to know who the guy in the toga is without a title). Try looking at those jokes without the text box just looking at Garfield without his thought bubbles. Sometimes the bizarreness begins to get away on you but, as a whole, the jokes remain intact or only lose a tiny part of their humour.

Then there's the ones like this that aren't hugely funny but are jsut great concepts, both text and art.

Wulffmorgenthaler. It's got something for everyone.

Appropriately, he eats blowfish last.

2006-07-05T22:04:00.000+12:00

So, now we see the end of Moresukine.

It was an interesting livejournal/comic project to watch, though it suffered from somehow not showing up on some friendslists. That was a pain.

However the art and the concept were brilliant and made for one of the most interesting travelogues that one could hope to read. It delved into strange corners that most people passing through might never have found.

It reminded me somewhat of Azrael and his Gaijin ELT blog. Neither searches for humour but just the little differences that show up.

Someone asks him to do a new project in Cambodia. I'd liek to see anyone doing this project again, anywhere they are not at home. Let me know if you find one.

So, what do we call that, Earth Opera?

2006-07-04T22:16:00.000+12:00

Still not a lot to say. I'm going through the back numbers of Radioactive Panda. (because I don't usually) due to his recent announcement. Johnson is going to be wrapping up RP roughly around the beginning of next year. I felt sad as I read that, because RP looks cool and has been really funny so far.

But then he goes on to explain that he is going to start a new project, with defined beginning, middle and end, that appears to be some form of subterranean space opera.

Apparantly he started RP to practice drawing. I must say, he's gotten good, IMO. Though he started off better than I would have.

All I can do now is salivate and wait.

Mondays always slow over here. Everyone else is still on weekend.

2006-07-03T12:51:00.000+12:00

Nothing much to say really. I just noticed that my Sluggy feed hadn't been updating (neither has my Perry Bible Fellowship) and what does that say about my priorities?

--

I was impressed to see the peanuts spoof on PVP towards the end of last week (so I guess I should have mentioned it then...). And not just because this one made me guffaw.

When I read webcomics I notice that some seem to take shortcuts (totally understandable IMO) and reuse templates or something. But by so accurately translating his characters into Schulz style, Kurtz was letting himself show off a little bit of the artistic skill he's worked on over his time doing webcomics. And that's nice every now and then.

It seemed like the sort of mimicry we might expect from Checkerboard Nightmare, kudos PVP.

--

This is a good idea. Not only because I'm starting my teacher training in a few weeks but because... Well, alright, that is the main reason.

Simple/Complex

2006-07-01T11:38:00.000+12:00

I forgot to mention in my post about Ted Rall's interview that he mentions what he thinks good cartooning should be. It's in context of him discussing Chris Ware of whom I haven't seen much, but I can totally understand the intent form what I have seen.

"...deliberately making things obtuse and difficult is counter to the spirit of what is supposed to be a populist medium. Anyone should be able to read comics. The concepts can be hard. But the structure and presentation should be as straightforward as possible."

I don't think it's easy to argue with that. Given a visual medium which relies upon its ability to evoke thoughts with fairly simply lines, surely Rall is right? But would Ware argue that using every available image possible and bringing as much together as possible is a good way to build upon that experience?

I haven't seen many (any?) webcomics that become very very complex. Their stories may be convoluted and their artwork detailed, but nothing that brings in so much as to be potentially as off putting as some sort of drawn James Joyce.

Anyone seen anything like that? Anyone willing to create something like that?

"No cartoonists are gods. Bill Waterson, maybe. Gary Larson, maybe. Ruben Bolling… definitely."

2006-06-30T21:24:00.000+12:00

Amoung the many webcomicer interviews that can be found around the place, I thought it was interesting to see one from Ted Rall.

Rall is controversial and timely but his cartoons have an aesthetic that is very rough. He's said that he works hard to get just the look he's after, and I believe him, but it's not something that you look at and immediately think 'woah, brilliant.'

Usually I'd expect an interview with him to veer into the maelstrom of politics but this one is actually less about how he thinks countries/societies should work and more about himself and the comics world.

It is interesting that he isn't particularly impressed with some of the names that appear to have respectability. Perhaps that's why he was willing to do three compilations of lesser known comics and even devoting the third one to internet artists and not worrrying about politics as he did with the first two.

Finally, I can be a part of the drama!

2006-06-29T21:16:00.000+12:00

Can everyone say shitstorm?

It seems obvious that the best way to get a response (and what a response!) is to say something controversial. But it does seem a little strange that a statement decrying rape would come across as controversial.

I had nver read Girly before this. So I clicked on each link that Kate provided. And you know what?

It looked like rape to me too.

Now, Girly looks like a fun comic. I've added it to my lists. But it seemed in those first couple of strips that someone had been raped and left naked in the streets and that this had been done many times before.

In the comments mention is made of a superhero that was able to do this to people as way, make them want to even if it was a bad idea. The principple can raise a lot of questions about responsibiliy and culpability. But what it looked like was someone using some power over another to get something he wanted.

Where I differ from Kate is that I think there is nothing wrong with making jokes about the subject. In that, I don't think I'd want to hear them, but making fun of a thing is about reducing its power, isn't it? That's why making fun of victims is hollow and tasteless.

The creator comments that it is beyond him to see such an interpretation. I do find that a little hard to beleive.

A few thoughts on Home with the Strange.

2006-06-28T23:01:00.000+12:00

I'm fairly sure I mentioned that I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this strip when I first started paying attention. It's rapidly becoming one that sticks in the back of my head.

It's unexpected because of what I saw in it the first few times I looked, relationship stuff, funny but serious, somewhat along the lines of Something Positive, which still doesn't tickle me.

But, along the last few arcs, I've become hooked. There was the truly brilliant moment where Izzy 'ruined' a complex and intricate Roleplaying experience. In my mind, it's that sort of thing that brings games alive. There's been a number of 'gag' strips which seem most like the strips I've scribbled out myself, friends together making funny.

But the arc that resonated most strongly was the Superman Returns Trailer arc. I know the betrayal from both sides where new movies are concerned, or TV shows. I don't watch Lost if my wife isn't there with me and when I discovered that she had seen an episode while out at a friend's place I was horrified. It's always those damn little things.

Watching Tom try to pretend that he hadn't seen it revealed just how pathetic it is for me to try and rpetend I didn't see the Da Vinci Code without my girl. She knew the instant it happeend, even though she was in a different city at the time. That whole 'different area codes makes it okay' thing doesn't even cover movies let alone anything else.

One of the things I found interesting was a little note in the sidebar of this strip. The Ferrett had begun Home on the Strange with the idea that Tom reflected himself but as the character grew something has changed. Ferrett appears enthusiatic about the new Superman movie whereas Tom, as do I, finds the trailer unappetising.

The reasoning given by Tanner, to wit 'He takes a bullet in the goddamned eye' seems to sum up the conflict to me. Having only recently seen that particular part of the trailer I feel qualified to say that it's what makes me disinterested. I don't think I'd be going to far to say it's the sort of feeling Tom has.

Superman is invulnverable. He can do anything. Except for this wierd rock that keeps turning up. So what's so interesting about him? you know he'll save the day, he's Superman. It might be interesting if he has some pretty big choices to make, judging the worhtier thing to save. But I don't see him having an out like Spiderman did in the first movie. And I doubt they'd have him let someone die.

But hey, I could be wrong. I'll probably see it eventually. But Dead Man's Chest is going to keep my attention for now.

Actually, screw the Hot wheels, I'll stay...

2006-06-27T15:53:00.000+12:00

I haven't been reading shortpacked for long, but it has been fun so far. Some really strange characters that somehow still manage to seem like people I know.

The last two strips have been surprisingly disturbing. The concept of someone deciding that his toystore requires a heir and trying to force someone to impregnate his fairly good looking daughter is just twisted. And I'm saying that as someone who loves Edible Dirt and Wulfmorganthaler.

Apprantly this was going to be the way the artist started this strip. Which, woah.

Taking the time to build up characters and understandings (and probably running gags) would certainly help a concept as off-kilter as this. If readers didn't have some idea who everybody was, then what would stop them saying 'these people are crazy, and not in that cool-I-like-it-cause-it-makes-me-laugh way' and moving on?

Nervously looking forward to what comes next...

Oh god, that's not a pun either.

Gratiuitous mentions of a piece of paper that has done nothing yet.

2006-06-26T22:22:00.000+12:00

I totally ripped apart Rubik's cube when I was young, figuring it was the only real solution to the damn thing. But I never thought of the physicality of the age-old one guard lies, one tells the truth conundrum.

Kudos Order of the Stick.

Also, as someone who holds a degree in Classical Studies, I really love the reference to Alexander the great there. Classy.

--

Also, having done some papers on philosophy, I liked the way Bunny just asks the great questions of the philosophers. Sometimes there's a hint of an answer, but most times Bunny just captures the feeling we all get as we begin to see the point.

In this case, the emptyness around and the squinting to try and capture both states.

Screech WAS my friends and I...

2006-06-20T21:30:00.000+12:00

Why is it that Yirmumah has to reach deep into the shadows lurking in the back of my mind and grab the things that most touch my funny-bone? It's a regular thing, something fairly obscure or odd that I thought was a remnant of my friends and my childhood is pulled out and twisted horribly.

Most recently Coffman mentioned the need to save Screech's house. We all know Screech would have been the only one smart enough to install a red phone. But did we need the horrible topless truth about Slater's cavalier attitude?

Today he jokes about that element of love that implies stalking. I think it's a necessary part, though obviously subject to over inflation. It reminded me of a song from the newest Blindspott album that says "They say that if you love someone you're got to set them free and if they come back to you, make them bleed." Not actually that different to the original saying...

Odds and Sods

2006-06-19T20:27:00.000+12:00

How much attention do I pay to Evil Inc? It's hard to say, because I don't even know the name (or hideous evil identity?) of the boss who just sold off the business and retired. It's been some interesting and slightly melancholy strips covering the event, hasn't it? The final day, the impending realisation that life will change and the worry that one won't be able to adjust.

Today gives a sort of split idea how things will go. He's managed to turn his first breakfast with a woman I assume is his wife into the evil boss striding into his territory. It shows confidence and his wife's own strength in resisiting him turning retirement into his job.

Now, what's changing back at Evil Inc?

--

I love Samuel Jackson as much as the next man, but this Snakes on a Plane thing has gone insane.

--

I am enjoying the insane sci-fi adventure of Goats. I came in not long before the invention of Fineas.

At the moment there seems to be a lot of confusing double crossing going on. What with the whole in-entirely-other-dimensions things could get too confusing to be funny. But finding humour in one characters own discomfort with the turn of events makes us feel a little more sure of ourselves and our befuddlement.

--

Finally, an old friend of mine and I used to spend hours imagining crazy sci-fi worlds of our own. Among the ideas we borrowed from were Dyson Spheres, Ring Worlds, and those solar systems that swoop around entire rooms as seen in the Dark Crystal.

Bunny captures the difficulty of creating such worlds perfectly.

The Punker's Creed

2006-06-16T18:33:00.000+12:00

I know bands (well...) that would give a twenty minute version of the entirety of Annie a decent go. Hell, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes could probably do it as a regular thing.

And I admit that I really would like to hear it too...

Once again, I must tip my hat to Home on the Strange.

A quick update

2006-06-16T13:34:00.000+12:00

Sorry it's been awhile. Exams, sister's 21st, etc etc, you know how it is.

Just saw Mr Rosenberg's Diablo doll on his livejournal. Sweet.

But the big one I wanted to mention was Science Idol. Sure, it's pretty much partisan politics, but I love me some funny editorial cartoons. I saw it in New Scientist while waiting for an exam to start and immediately wanted to see what the webcomics world could come up with.

All Things End

2006-06-12T13:54:00.000+12:00

Now that megaGAMERZ 3133T has come to an end, I have a question.

What is the best way to leave a finished comic on the internet. In print the question doesn't arise, because reruns are common for popular strips (the Far Side still turns up, as do peanuts and others) and you can buy books which naturally have their own ending anyway (or massive collecters books like the double volume Far Side sitting nearby or the Calvin and Hobbes that I may have to sell a child for).

But on the internet, odds are that most of your audience will turn up at the website. Even if it's finished, shouldn't the site be left in a way that encourages your readers to read through? I guess I'm saying I feel that, after a suitable lapse, the megaGAMERZ main page should begin at the first strip instead of the latest. Any potential new readers (or nostalgic older ones) will be in a perfect place to begin and read through (particularly handy with that new 'remember where I am' thingy so many comics have now).

Obviously this is different to a comic that has stopped due to outside influences, simply having to be left aside by the creator. I know Queen of Wands is doing a director's commentary version, but that too will end eventually.

I'm not aware of many actually finished webcomics. How are they doing it in the wires out there?

When will someone contact me and tell me I'm wonderful?

2006-06-09T23:33:00.000+12:00

Grrr, Blogger, making me wait around to post today...

I few days back we acknowledged the truly evil date that had arisen. We had a few laughs and worried about the people who seemed to take it all too seriously (that includes marketing campaigns and release/commencement dates that co-incided with the date).

But there was other news that is the sort of thing that we really should be taking notice of.

A webcomic artist has an agent.

It may not be the first time. I'll not pretend to be as up with the really intricate and wide-ranging examples in the field. But it's got to be an important thing to acknowledge.

I don't read Digger because I don't have the means to constantly check a site like Graphic Smash in order to catch the one day at a time along with all the other sites I monitor. But the pay format implies to me that Vernon must be used to working to deadline and following schedule and all those other 'drawbacks' that come with having 'legitimate' projects on the go rather than 'hobby'ing it out on teh intarwebs.

An agent means recognition in a tangible world of print media. That implies a belief in potential profits to be made (and talent. But while you might watch talent, you snap up a chance to make money).

I know the webcomics world already makes its own books and merchadise. I know some of them are working with various ways to get regular print versions out (and some came back the other way). But I'm fairly sure none of them have agents out, hopefully setting things up to push the artist out into a wider world.

I think it sounds like a step up in the general recognition of webcomcis in the 'real world.'

Mywife's family would love this.

2006-06-08T15:47:00.000+12:00

Why did no-one tell me about this!?

It's one thing to have actual physical books of comics that I can leave around the house. They are great to read when I don't want to pick up one of the numerous novels that clutter the surfaces too, but others generally flick through them without much attention.

Some people let out a little yelp of recognition for the big names, like Andy Capp or Garfield.

However, I don't think they'd be fussed on any webcomic book I managed to find unless it was outstanding (Which the ones I'd buy would be, but I have limited resources...). But if I got them to play a game...

Of course I've seen this once before, with the Penny Arcade cards that work with Sabretooth's fighting system, but what I like about Get Nifty (from the .pdfs of the rules anyway) is the way it lends itself to imagining outlandish scenarios.

So, this is some of that more interesting merchandising that I like. T-shirts are well and good but i'm not likely to buy one because I have plenty. Books are the basics. Card games, stuffed animals and the like? Way cool.

Livejournal Whore

2006-06-07T21:28:00.000+12:00

You know, I think I like reading young miss Kate Ditzler's posts at Fleen. Why? Because she seems to have a large focus on running the internet through her livejournal, as do I.

I admit that she hasn't made a huge number of posts on the subject, but when she does she makes some good strong points from the perspective of someone who spends time using Livejournal.

She pointed out the magnificence of Kawaii Not to me, which has just recently begun it's own fully fledged website. You can still rely on the LJ feed if you want though.

On one of her more recent posts I made a comment that some webcomics around the place seem to be getting into the swing of icon viral marketing because I saw an icon for the Coffee Outage strip at Yirmumah. But then when I tried to find the link, it had vanished. I even started to write a comment over at Yirmumah's website, wondering what had happened.

Then I found it.

Like the best icons, it had been made by someone who reads the comic and decided that the funny had to be distilled and taken to further corners of the internet. The guy from Livejournal, Allah_Sulu, does read webcomics, though he focuses on other things. He has made an icon that goes with Goats (in that it matches a t-shirt they sell, not really based on the comic strip itself). And he has created a very useful program called Allah_Sulu's Massive Tool which he uses to read his webcomics all together. Some day I might try getting it to use for that purpose too.

Finally, I found that Least I Could Do has a well stocked avatar page that could work wonderfully for livejournal icons.

Throw up your goats.

2006-06-07T14:15:00.000+12:00

Okay, So I know lots of people took the oppourtunity to make jokes about the date yesterday (06/06/06 for the very few who didn't pay attention). And it was amusing. I saw a few posts about the silliness of it, or how some people didn't want to be a part of it, or enjoying the random devil day-ness.

I particularly enjoyed Yirmumah's whimsical take on celebrating that special day.

But the comic that makes the most sense to mention it is Holy Bibble. The Holy Bibble is retelling the bible in an amusing and sacrilicious way (check God's powers and brilliant green eyes over here man).

So, showing the Great Adversary sitting back and shooting the breeze with some buddies, preparing for a lazy and remarkqably fluffy afternoon, was simply the perfect tribute to a date that, when it comes down to it, means absolutely nothing at all.

[ETA:]
This is relevant.

Walking around, listening to the birds.

2006-06-06T11:34:00.000+12:00

A few days back, Mr Pellaeon made an animated short of his static-art comic Birdsworth Comics. Unfortunately I still haven't made time to go and read that comic... I feel guilty...

The talkie doesn't load properly for me. I would blame my increasingly annoying computer for this, but I managed to see the jaw-droppingly expensive recent blamimation from PVP with no troubles. I don't think I saw a loading screen on the Birdworth one, something that might make a difference in the future.

As I was typing I jumped because voices started talking to me. The comic loaded up segments and did them and then stopped to keep loading. A loading screen to buffer that sort of effect would be good.

I mananged to get a glimpse of the animation style taken and I liked it. It was still static but the movement made sense and wasn't too confusing.

However, the point of this entry isn't about Birdsworth Comics really.

Pelleaon mentions that he would like to put the animation (and any future ones) onto Clickwheel so that they can become vodcasts. As I'm sure you can imagine, with my lesser connection and the complete lack of iPod online services in New Zealand, I don't know much about this. But it seems like a much cooler idea than simplky having the day's comics on one's iPod. I imagine they would seem small and squashed, or I'd have to pan around them somehow, and generally not as much fun as reading them online or in a book.

But little short animations for one's iPod? That sounds clever.

A follow-up.

2006-06-06T11:23:00.000+12:00

This isn't actual a back down from a potential strip changing event. The strip fundamentals have changed, but Mr Kurtz is wise enough to not try too many new things at once. We have been given an idea how strong Max's aversion to seeing the trolls and we have seen a new source of drama for the stories.

We could see that it wasn't going to be as huge an issue as it may have been because of the timing of this strip. The funny comes from us knowing Max doesn't see trolls but there is no real sense that he has changed, just that he is shocked/scared.

This was nice.

Wham! Right in the kisser!

2006-06-05T09:14:00.000+12:00

So, things just took a turn over at PVP. This really is one of the more interesting events that Kurtz could have put into his strip.

Recent storylines have often included some note of how Max perceives the world, in that he doesn't see Skull. Kurtz had to explain how that all works fully after a strip that seemed to break the rule. I get the impression that he's having fun thinking of new ways to show the disconnect.

But now he's smudged that line that divided Max from everyone else. By introducing a new character that shares elements of Skull's make-up but with a personality that is much more likely to create conflict, Kurtz has pushed that 'What Max sees' thing to its limit.

A new character is always an interesting thing to add to a story strip, especially one like PVP that already has a fair share of characters. At the moment there is an equilibrium between them all, Kurtz knows how they interact. Shecky can only upset that balance and create fodder for new material. Which is why I found it interesting that he would be more happy to run this storyline, which changes the fundamentals of his strip, than the back-in-time/magic die storyline which didn't change so much. The blessing/curse of magic is that it can be discounted rather quickly (a sudden delorean perhaps?) but a new character will leave effects even if Kurtz removes him.

I get the impression that the 'new baby troll turns into ruffian' ploy didn't leave the best impression on some others and, I must say, there was something uncertain about Shecky's introduction. But now the he is playing poker with the gang, I think he'll settle into things in a more natural way. And the particular event that caused me to comment? Could be very classy.

Now, it's the Queen's Birthday and I'm supposed to be on holiday. Go read something else.

"Even Male Librarians Are Lesbians."

2006-06-02T12:58:00.000+12:00

So, it appears that Mr Rosenberg has decided to bring megaGAMERZ to an end.

Now, that's a shame.

megaGAMERZ must have been an interesting challenge to write for. As Rosenberg himself says, the non-sequitor nature of the lines in it have seemed like the products of a random generator at times. And that is what I've loved about the comic (when I could get the site to open for me. I don't know why but it was one of the longest loading webcomics I read).

Looking back we can see that there have been a few notices that things are coming to an end, intersperesed with the surprisingly timely culture commentary that the insane nature of the comic allowed.

And now we are left with DeathRumble 6000. I'm sure this will get bloody.

And then we can see his new thingy, yes?

Back in the Summer of '06

2006-05-31T10:56:00.000+12:00

Okay, it's everywhere in the webcomic world (well... more than one place at once and, for purposes of this little talk, that'll do). The Oozinator.

I'm curious if this toy exists outside the US? I know there must be plenty of webcomics that exist outside those borders (generally Canadian it seems, where it is still summer...) but I'm not sure if any of them have taken up the 'yay, inappropriate toy' thing yet.

Disclaimer: It is funny and weird and entirely appropriate to be joking about.

But the whole thing makes me very aware of how close most of the webcomic creators I really like seem to be. Most of the Ooze jokes are mentioning the idea of Summer and really looking forward to playing in the warmth with these new terrible toys. It's summer time and it feels good.

And here I sit under a blanket in my warmest clothes with a fire blazing because the cold is settling into the house.

Webcomics should be international, but I'm not seeing anything from outside the northern hemisphere at the moment. I'm not seeing stuff that shows differences to the standard US style of life (unless its drastically different, i.e. Sci-Fi).

This is all my own fault really. I've been trawling US comics for rec's and they have recced comics they know. So this is a call for everyone to point me out some very different country set comics.

Antartica is close but doesn't quite count...

Damnation, that's blood all over my cravat.

2006-05-30T11:13:00.000+12:00

I love Medium Large, it's got that great pop reference thing going that Family Guy does too. As I said last time.

But its a mixed blessing.

See, what Medium Large does so well is becoming a little formulaic. We know that we meet down and out characters at the bar. We know that TV shows get pushed to the next step such as Generic Family Sitcom #342.

We know that Teenage Girl President just keeps going... (actually, maybe not?)

Today marks Victorian Era Super Hero's triumphant... um... dressing, and shows that he is likely to be just as regular a fixture as Teenage Girl President.

I thought Victorian Era Superhero was a magnificent addition during Brit Week, and I just hope that it gives Marciuliano some more room to play rather than just becoming a new formula... Although, if the "Mondays this summer" in the announcement strip comes true that could be okay too.

Syndication: A Homonym.

2006-05-30T10:48:00.000+12:00

I forgot to mention yesterday, though it seems appropriate, that there is an LJ Feed for the Kea's Nest now and the Blogger xml syndication is here.

--

I'm very interested in Fleen's little post about Chris Baldwin getting Little Dee a step closer to newspaper syndication. I must admit that, although this sort of thing is obviously important, I ususlly skim discussions of various means of syndication. So I won't say much here other than it would be cool to see comics like Little Dee in the papers but I don't expect it.

So what does being on comics.com mean anyway?

Big Respect For Rsspect

2006-05-29T11:11:00.000+12:00

I figured a possible solution to the whole 'crap internet connection' thing that was slowing my viewing of webcomics could be solved by various means. The connection appears to ahve become a little more stable, but the important thing is that I divided up my personal livejournal (which had webcomics in it) and made a new webcomic following livejournal. It's not going to be used to update but the friends page is how I'll be following most comics now.

I went through my bookmarks and found every comic that had a feed already included and added it. However, there are plenty that don't have any feeds. What is a desperate man to do? Rsspect it.

Rsspect is really easy to use. This morning I started making feeds for various webcomics that, for whatever reason, don't have feeds of their own (I made some comments on problems that could arise from LJ feeds before...). It was quick and simple and, apparantly, the new feeds will only point me to the page and not deliver the content.

I'd like sites to do their own feeds, perhaps only linking to new comics so they don't lose revenue that way, but putting their blog posts out over feed would be nice.

So, we'll see how these Rsspect feeds work out once I've add some fully paid LJ friends make proper LJ feeds for me. But it certainly looks promising, helping me only spend the time opening a webcomic page when I know there is something new waiting for me there. In theory this means I'll be able to comment on comics more often.

Hiatus

2006-05-18T16:15:00.000+12:00

I'm really annoyed that I have to do this so soon after starting to write here.

But my internet connection barely leaves me able to receive email or check in on my family at the moment. Trying to read tens of webcomics during my breaks in study is no longer feasible.

Hopefully this connection trouble will be sorted in under a week.

Until then, Kia Ora.

Or should we just sit in our 'Free Katie' T-shirts?

2006-05-17T11:25:00.000+12:00

Given the plentiful oppourtunities Tom Cruise provides for joke making it was interesting to see two rather different takes on the opening weekend take of Mission Impossible III. While I largely agree with Brazelton's 'Keep the Crazy away' take on things, I have to admit that McAlpin has a good point.

It's something that comes up again and again and really will never be resolved. How much of the artist's personal life do you take into account? When I find Tom Cruise plastered all over the media around me, which I find annoying even when he's being nice like changing a tire for a family while filming the Last Samuri here in New Zealand, I want to punish him. By not going to see his movies hopefully the media will stop shoving him in my face so much. But Last Samuri and Minority Report were movies I enjoyed. Shouldn't I have kept away from them too?

Also, there's other actors in M:I.III that I want to reward, such as Phillip Seymour Hoffamn. But I don't know anything about his personal life. What if he's worse than Tom Cruise? Or is it just the intrusion that I want to punish?

Here in New Zealand there is an art collective known as et al that has represented the country in art shows. One of the things that has created controversy is that they simply refuse to be identified or do interviews. The art stands by itself and there is nothing to fall back on or hint at its purpose.

Obviously most comics aren't so esoteric as all this. In fact, most of them make a show of the creator's personality and regularly talk about their work to their readers. So, should we or should we not encourage this sort of thing? If we do, isn't it fair that Cruise's couch jumping influence my decision to see a movie? Or is the title the best option (someone remind to fix that link we needed).

[Edited To Add]
Theatre Hopper is in desperate need of more pre-prders in order to get the book off the ground. Please go and show some support if you can.

This is the catch-up post.

2006-05-17T11:11:00.000+12:00

Well, it had to happen. After roughly three weeks of getting in an update every day I missed yesterday. In my defence, I'm having serious trouble getting my crappy rural dial-up to hang in there (I don't even know that this post is going to work). Hopefully it won't happen again. what made it particularly frustrating was the fact I was unable to even see most of the comics I wanted to.

--

I was beginning to wonder if I'd missed the introduction of the new writers for Fleen. Surely the gap between the competition, with it's very interesting entries, and a new writer was beginning to become noticable (At least in Interweb time, where a week is forever)? But over the last couple of days Gary introduced us to Sommer and Alison. I'm looking forward to reading some more stuff on Fleen, and trying to guess which Contestant they were.

Welcome Girls!

--

Over at Comixpedia Krishna mentioned feeling like there was less interaction between comics nowadays. It may just be nostalgia for those giddy days of the internet oh so many years ago, but he has a point. One of the fun things about the medium is the way artists can mix and match a little. It's what made things like Queen of Wands ending, Something Positive's twisting that and Checkerboard Nightmare riffing off that so much fun to watch.

Because of the way an artist can change the comic he plans to upload (thus bypassing any queue he has set up to ensure updates) he doesn't have the same problem as a newspaper artist trying to comment on current events (even if they are webcomic related). Although two newspaper artists recently co-ordinated nicely to produce the following crossover (follow the 'Get Fuzzy' tag).

Funnnily enough, about a week before hand The Webcomicker had a link to this very classy little website: The Webcomic Crossover and Cameo Archive.

This has to be easiest way to keep track of clever uses of other characters. Although it really does emphasise another point I saw made recently: there are more interesting webcomics out there than anyone can ever possibly write about.

--

Speaking of Fleen and the Webcomicker, gilead has started his very own static art comic called Birdsworth. Because of the troubles with my connection I haven't looked at it yet sorry, but please have a look.

One of the reasons I didn't go after signing up for Fleen was because I have a notebook full of skeches and comic scripts. I have no equipment to get it online, so you won't have to suffer it yet, but Fleen's requirement for its contributors to not be comic creators made me keep a distance. I want that option available in the off chance I ever manage to get some gear to put my ideas online.

In Which I Enjoy My Hobby That Takes Me Away From Real Work

2006-05-15T23:57:00.000+12:00

When I first started posting to the Nest one of the first comments was from a certain Lucas Teodoro da Silva. In an attempt to avoid the incestuous back slapping routine that could arise from reviewing everyone who mentioned themselves here, I held off for a while to get a feel for his webcomic 8 1/2 by Eleven.

But now I feel the need to let you know it's lovely.

da Silva provides a couple of handy guides for the new reader, which are nice places to start. He mentions that he started the strip as a way of keeping his drawing hand in and I think that can be seen in some of the strange images that accompany otherwise potentially normal conversations. He also mentions that any humour is largely coincidental, but I found that the strip I link right there is one of the funniest I've read in a long time.

But one can see his point. As Joe and Monkey also commented on recently, da Silva ponders on the strange effect of reusing words too often. There is a lot of text and the action is slight, which carries a sense of lazy whimsy to me. It's a strip that strolls past and mentions amusing stories rather than jumping at you with a custard pie.

Because of the leisurely pace, we can find ourselves facing touching moments and still finding time for a laugh, or discussing light weight fluff and remembering the real world.

I personally cannot get enough of main character Nillan's younger sister. She reminds me of every person I ever thought was great to hang around with. Apparantly she will be receiving a name soon, as da Silva has been running a fan competition for it. I can't wait.

So, go and enjoy. It's one that I think you'll want to catch up with every day. Oh, and the titles kick arse.

I wore the funny hat and everything.

2006-05-12T15:53:00.000+12:00

Today I received a piece of paper proclaiming my intellect to the world by telling them I have a BA in Classics and English.

So it seems pertinent to mention Piled Higher and Deeper. PHD comics reveals the slacktastic world of postgraduate university study and all the trials and tribulations that go along with it. I'm only sorry I did a large number of papers via distance learning and avoided some of the more interesting elements of campus life. Although watching the nude scull at the drinking games in Auckland was enlightening.

Like Unshelved, PHD Comics show how the internet is a great place to find yourself a comfortable little niche and exploit it for all its worth. In this case it's the world of the grad student. And, according to the tour diaries, it's a fairly good market to have.

Γνώθι Σεαυτόν

2006-05-11T19:36:00.000+12:00

Ahh, doesn't it feel good to see that something you've decided to try and put some effort into is still denigrated by a section of people?

It's the same old story. Some people watching the LJ Feed for the Perry Bible Fellowship got confused by this recent strip. I for one agree, it's a little harder to follow than usual, unless you make the connection between the shape of the volcano and the drawing of the house. But even then you have to realise that the clown being in front of the red house could be seen as being inside the red volcano. I don't naturally see that version of the picture, I just see the smoking hill and the clown man.

Anyway, there was a discussion about what the cartoon meant. It goes back and forwards and people get annoyed at each other. Such is discussion on the internet. But then someone says "It's just kinda combining the two last frames...like if there was a second volcano seen in the distance of the last panel, and a big square red lava hole, then it'd click like that. This just necessitates too much concession in my opinion.

But hell, here I am critiquing about internet comics on the internet."

Not only did the enunciate why it didn't quite mesh into a conclusion that makes me laugh, but they did it simply and precisely. And then they make a comment that implies that they shouldn't be worrying about such trivial things.

It makes me so frustrated. Yes, webcomics are trivial. They are pictures that I get from my fancy machine that make me laugh. But geez, is it too much to ask that people be willing to think a little? Sure, it's fun to just watch TV or listen to music for fun. But can you understand why it's fun? Or, more particularly, when it's not WHY it's not?

It's self knowledge really and even the Oracle at Delphi knew that was important.

B.I.C.L.O.P.S.

2006-05-10T13:46:00.000+12:00

The denezins of Ugly Hill are mosters. Seriously, monsters. They have tenacles and wierd skin and everything. However, they are saurprisingly normal, for sufficient values of normal. They have countries and immigrants, credit cards and horrible amounts of debt. And, when things get down to it, wars.

We can empathise with these... people.

Part of what drags someone in to a story, be it a webcomic or otherwise, is how much they can see 'Human' in the characetrs. If someone wrote a tale about truly non-human characters doing unhuman things, odds are that it wouldn't be interesting, just more confusing than reading Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man backwards (actually, that might help...). But, if one human character was put into the mix...

Part of what Southworth has done to keep my attention is his care in making everything human, down to the people who are oblivious to what's going on around them.

And the introduction of the B.I.C.L.O.P.S. conspiracy blog just adds to that feeling. What with a major war on a physically different race of monsters, we all know that someone is going to be crying rascism... Eyeism... whatever.

I don't care if people talk about the blog as a construct of the artist. To me, it'll always be another sign that Ugly Hill is real and there are monsters under my bed.

It would be funny once but I've done exactly the same thing at least twice.

2006-05-09T10:14:00.000+12:00

I tihnk we can all relate to what Coffman is showing us in the latest Yirmumah. In my particular case it was something along the lines of:
Kea's Wife - I'm so glad that the Tool Concert sold out. I'm looking forward to going out for...
Kea - Hey, did you hear they're doing door sales!? If I take this money we had for going to a resturant I could probably buy one!
Kea's Wife - ...
Kea - See you afterwards!

What I particularly like about the comic is the small satisfied smile that Drew has in that doghouse. The punishment is so worth it.

Just leaves Sex and Religion to ensure offense...

2006-05-08T23:23:00.000+12:00

Not too many webcomics wear their politics on their sleeve. Most of them are more interested in telling a story or getting the reader to laugh. Although I must acknowledge that sometimes one just has to say something. Even so, there are more 'editorial' cartoons out there. Some of them seem to have jumped straight out of the newspapers, complete with single panel and names to ensure one understands the symbolism.

I really enjoy reading these, so I thought I quickly talk about a few favourites. Fair warning, on the ever popular Political Compass I come out somewhere in the vicinity of Ghandi. Which may well be an indictment of the Political Compass.

Cox & Forkum is one of the ones that really looks made for newspaper opinion pages. The artwork is supurb and most of them time their are small jokes hidden in the artwork, though sometimes it can get very simple and require labels, which I see as a failing in this sort of cartoon. It is also very right wing, though they are secular and the religous right gets it occasionally too.

Somwhat less right focused (in fact I wasn't sure where to place it for the longest time. It's really quite 'centre' I think) is Filibuster Cartoons. This has a similar presentation, generally one panel editorial cartoons. However it is much more prone to using labels and the aesthetic seems more like something you'd find in a computer game than on a newspaper page. I like the art.

Most of the political cartoons I read move outside the one panel approach, althoguh they mostly do a 2x2 grid instead. IDrewThis, This Modern World and Ted Rall all use this approach. I said a while back that I thought Ted rall was abrasive in a good way, and I stand by that. This Modern World has a fun 'clip art'-esque aesthetic which I enjoy and IDrewThis is very simple. IDrewThis was one a thrice per week schedule but since the 2004 elections it has dialed back to one a week, which has meant Simpson can make cartoons that focus on his point rather than just riffing on a recent event.

One of the elements of online comicry that I love is the interaction, the way most artists have blogs or at least accompany their cartoons with small posts. This, of course, has a whole different meaning in political cartoon land. Some have columns and irregularly updated blogs like Ted Rall. most have commentary related to the cartoon of the day and some even have full-blown blogs like Tom Tomorrow's. There are a few of the smaller cartoonists whose comics fit into their blog almost like drawings they've done for their online friends, such as Minimum Security, Mikhaela's News Blog and What Masheka Did.

Unfortunately there are a great mass of American centric politcial cartoons out there but very few New Zealand focused ones. Most of the cartoons in our papers also find their way online in various forms. Dorking Labs provided decent enough editorial style cartoons but appears to have died shortly after the South Park/Bloody Mary fiasco when it reached our fair isles. Thankfully Mark O'Brien, inventor of the Monsta, a favourite character from my youth, has started a (semi)daily comic here. To be honest, these show more flair and humour than Dorking Labs ever did...

Dead Comcis: Zombie Jesus

2006-05-05T14:11:00.000+12:00

Something I find sad about the internet is the way the past gets frozen in place as time moves forward. There are pages out there that were once updated regularly, interacting with their viewers, but somehow real life took over. As it always does. My wife still tells me off for not going out with our real life friends as much as I spend intereacting with online (thus false) friends. Anyway, I have found many webcomics that must have once been thriving, funny, clever comics but have fallen by the wayside. The way they sit, endlessly paused a few days before a never coming update is terribly poignant. Or something.

The first example I'll give today is the Living Tales of Zombie Jesus.

Zombie Jesus is really a self explanatory concept. We are all familiar with tales of the dead coming back to life, only most of us realise that it is more appropriate to run in terror than to poke our fingers through their wounds. Zombie Jesus is uttered on at least one episode of Futurama and I have seen other writers independently come up with the concept.

What makes the Living tales so special is the down to earth/modern take on the relationship between ZJ and his disciples. It's easy to picture this as almost any crowd of twenty-somethings confronted by an old friend as a zombie. Which allows the subtle nods to the 'actual' story to get us grinning.

It's been about two years since Zombie Jesus died. Hopefully one day it will rise again. Unfortunately it looks like the archives are dying too. That's a shame, we'll lose a very clever comic there and you won't even be able to revisit it in memorium.

I like the lion, though it must be used sparingly.

2006-05-04T16:41:00.000+12:00

Straub himself pointed out Radioactive Panda's recent storyline. I'm enjoying it so far. I may even check back through the archives if this arc is any indication of previous quality.

But it's clever enough to read now anyway, and I want to see where he takes it.

Basically, Ferrett sums up my position nicely, although I'm already hooked.

2006-05-04T16:23:00.001+12:00

The latest Home on the Strange truly does emulate the feel of reading the Wheel of Time series. As Tom says, 'Friends don't let friends read Jordan.' I was introduced to reading and fantasy as something I really enjoyed by a friend of the family who gave me a copy of Magician for christmas. But even he swore never to read Jordan until the series ended.

I laughed when I realised it was Websnark who gave this little piece of information a while back. It's always Burns that gets me the stuff I need. I know that a man's life is at stake and there are horrible horrible things that he must face. But one of my immediate thoughts upon reading the news was, Thirty years? Thirty years worth of books!? Now, that just seems unreasonable anyway. What the hell else needs to happen before the end of this series!? Maybe its another series he means.

Its what has kept me from commiting to unfinished series. Like the Martin of the title.

A thought though: I am willing to read webcomics without knowing how the story ends. Even ones based around a particular narrative. So what is the difference? The immediacy of the interaction. Although I feel sorry about strips that end midway, I have seen enough around to know that the chance of dissapointment is slim. Whereas I have seen far too many unfineshed series of fantasy novels.

One day I'd like to feel mauve. That'd be interesting.

2006-05-03T09:37:00.000+12:00

Cat and Girl is a very interesting little comic. The concepts that Dorothy (didn't see a last name, but I'm sure I'm missing it) uses aren't really that high brow but the way Girl attacks them tends to imply it. Just like so many bands that use language that is simple but try and make it sound weighty and meaningful.

What I love about today's comic is that it attacks pink for all the right reasons. It attacks the ideas that are often linked to pink, although pink may be innocent in and of itself. Cat trys to defend it with something that sounds good but is really not a good thing (lying to oneself). Girl lists all the downers that are associated with pink (often attempts to sugarcoat something unpalatable).

Then Girl mentions blue as the opposite of pink, associated with all the positive and powerful forces that she feels are denied her on a whim. She also mentions white as a perfect neutral colour.

And then we are left with an obvious and, really, quite powerful down association of blue. It's not just funny but it also makes me sad that people can't get around the associations that colours have already been given.

Gah, all my bookmarks are at home!

2006-05-02T12:10:00.000+12:00

I am a long way from home right now. I've gone to visit my family and go to a concert. So, there's a strange familiarity and yet distance where I am now, my mother's home having changed since I left nearly five years ago.

So it's nice to see those familiar cartoon faces cracking wise all around me anyway. It gives me a feeling that I'm still right where I started.

I can totally relate to Dean's horror of not having the complete uniform. In my current job I didn't wear a nametag for a month or two, but the job before sent me home to iron my shirt once, an hour and a half round trip.

I too have noticed that Tom Cruise's crazy is far too contagious.

I'll be away still tomorrow. I don't expect to have anything hugely relevant then either...

On Being A Freeloader

2006-05-01T10:31:00.000+12:00

I read a large number of webcomics via their Live Journal feed. Does that sound like something from some form of Anonymous Association?

Anyway, I get LJ feeds for some of my favourite webcomics so that I can catch up with them alongside the happenings of my friends. I understand that you can also get programs that basically do the same function, although I've never strayed from LJ really... I've been wondering if these are detrimental to such a niche group as webcomics though.

I notice that the income for a large number of webcomics relies upon ad banners or merchandise sales. However, most feeds that I have seen don't carry ads with them. In fact, until just very very recently, the Real Life feed didn't even bring the image of the comic with it, it just gave me a link to the comic that sometimes didn't even work. And, by being a reader who almost never checks out the homesite of the comic, those vital sources of income don't manage to pull at me.

Another lack that the feeds have is communication. One of the things I have come to love about the world of webcomics is the interaction with the creators. If I want, I can go and comment or directly email pretty much any of the artists I admire (or despise) and let them know. Heck, I can email them a tasty recipe that I think they may like. Sure, it's a downfall and potential annoyance for them, but it makes reading the comics so much more interesting. And reading the comics via feed strips out a lot of the commentary that goes along with them.

There are some who find ways around these issues. Dinosaur Comics includes a snippt of commentary or advertising at the bottom of its feed. Penny Arcade's feed includes there oh-so-loquacious blog posts. And there are a few comics who seem to work primarily through Live Journal before anything else, such as McMillan's Minimum Security or How To be Happy (Formerly Too Much Coffee Man, and probably an off web comic first).

So I was thrilled to see that Real Life's shift to a new server (created by one of the minds behind Goats) includes the ability to get posts as Dean makes them. Now all he needs to do is include an ad at the bottom of each one. I don't mind the 'intrusion', because I'm getting off even more scott free by using the feed.

Welcome to the Third World. Yorkshire.

2006-04-28T11:57:00.000+12:00

When that lovely lady in charge of programming over at Medium Large announced that Brit week was beginning, I wasn't paying much attention. I was laughing at Mr Blobby and the way Teenage Girl Prime Minister's were dressed in drag. As The Family Guy knows, all British men find Drag hilarious and probably indulge whenever possible.

But then it sunk in to my shallow mind that the entire week was Brit focused. Andy Cap, Mods and Rockers, the inevitable conflict of superheroism and class stratification. The whole week should show up at this link later. I checked the blog part of the website but I couldn't find any reason for the theme, such as a recent holiday or something. Ah well.

While this sort of a theme was amusing and created a different emphasis for the usual pop culture skwering of Medium Large, it was the comments that really tickled my fancy. If you don't understand why the advisors were dressed in Drag than you will never know.

I think many of the simpler one-shot strips could use ideas like this. Taking a theme and creating a slew of jokes centred on it. You could even time them together and have everyone laughing about the way Hummingbirds don't hum all around the world.

That's my girl.

2006-04-27T12:02:00.000+12:00

Some days I want my daughter to be this girl. Bald faced lies, geek references and an insatiable desire for ice-cream.

At others I realise she already is the young girl who swears with malevolent glee in public.

Should I be so encouraging?

There, but for the grace of God...

2006-04-27T11:53:00.000+12:00

I started this blog because of Fleen's recent call for fresh ~~meat~~ talent. The only reason I didn't submit any entries myself was because I wasn't sure if I would be able to keep to a strict once-per-weekday update schedule. Two weeks in and I am, but it might not stick. Life gets in the way, as even the big guys can attest.

However, the new writers have been winnowed through and Fleen has a bunch of reviews and things from them (most of the random reviews so far seem pretty stern, though I haven't really gone over the strips being reviewed). Go and comment on things you liked.

Big Ba-da-boom?

2006-04-27T11:28:00.000+12:00

Ah, Starslip Crisis. How can you not love the noseless denezins of Kristofer Straub's strange worlds. I was lucky enough to really discover Checkerboard Nightmare just as he decided to wrap that all up and start Crisis, so I've been watching from the earliest stages. The speed at which he developed a book was amazing, I'll have to get some money together some day.

I was pointed to The Webcomicker who has a theory that the recent storyline will bring together all the odd elements that have been shown previously in Starslip Crisis and create some huge event, possibly in time for the first anniversary of the strip (Geez, has it only been a year!?).

I find myself agreeing with what Simon Roberts says here. I never conciously thought about the formula that seemed to happen in Straub's strips before, but it was something that had tingled in my head. I've often felt that Straub races through some of his ideas and it can be a little dissapointing to realise that what one might have been really excited over is rapidly vanishing into the archives. However, the flip side of that is when you get arcs that don't grab your attention one can be sure that the status quo will probably return soon.

That said, I think continuity would be a very good thing for Crisis. I recall Straub saying something about the weight of continuity becoming a burden to Chex, and that is clear. Chex wasn't able to be a critique and parody of outside events as much because there was too much internal baggage to sort through. But Crisis seems to be aimed at creating a world and part of that is allowing change to work through.

So, while I haven't seen much that really says big shake up to me (although this is interesting...) I hope I'm wrong. Let's watch.

I may be slow, but I get there.

2006-04-26T00:01:00.000+12:00

Today I realised that I could actually read what Haley is saying in Order of the Stick. I had foolishly believed that it really was just gobbledygook coming out of her mouth, frustrating as it was for her.

But we see her mind, telling herself to say 'Elan, I'm in love with you' and then the gobbledy matches the punctuation. Too much coincidence, I realsie, and begin the conversion.

'Elan, I'm in love with you' becomes
'Yrhw, N'u nw rdjy mnck vdg.'

So we have a key.

But unravelling the rest of her words is turning out much trickier than I had hoped, and I only have so much time to spend on it. So, I ask if I'm just abysmally slow and everyone else already knew this? Because then you can all supply me with a key or translations. Alternatively, can anyone help fill in this key:

a - h
b - a
c - l
d - e
e - y
f -
g - p
h - k
i - n
j -
k - t
l - r
m - u
n - w
o - d
p - z
q -
r - f
s - b
t - c
u - g
v - j
w - m
x - q
y - v
z -

Which leaves 'i, o, s & x' unassigned to 'f, j, q & z.'

So the strip reads:
Elan, I'm in love with you.
Elan, I'm in love with you. Completely in love.
Love, love, love, love!
My dad is being held ransom by an evil dictator.
I'm not really in the Thieves' Guild anymore.
I cheat at Solitaire.
I kissed a girl once.
Ok, Ok, more than once.
Elan, it turns out I may not be exactly what you would call-

Anzac Day

2006-04-25T07:03:00.000+12:00

It has only the most tenuous links to webcomics, but it's an important day, indulge me.
--
Nearly one hundred years ago New Zealand answered the call to join its colonial leader, Britain, in the First World War. It became a moment that helped create a sense of ourselves in the world. It also lead to a tragic campaign in Gallipoli where one in four New Zealand soldiers died. To commemorate their sacrifice Anzac Day was created (Australian New Zealand Army Corps) as a day of memorial and tribute.

Today there will be thousands of people attending sombre ceremonies, while wearing poppies, at small memorials in towns across the country. As seen in one cartoon (I'm sure there will be more, but I'm not likely to get online to make a post about today later), it is important to make sure that the younger generations know what they are remembering.

One thing that I find important about Anzac Day is that, generally, we do not celebrate the war. The day commemorates a hideous military failure. Although we are thankful that so many were willing to give themselves to defend us, we also note that their sacrifice was largely pointless. We can see that war is foolish and must be held back from if unnecessary. As Dean Parker said in an opinion piece yesterday, let's remember the eleven conscientious objecters from so long ago who, when asked why they refused to go to a war on the other side of the world, simply wrote that they were scared. I would be too.

Neil Gaiman and Comics Online

2006-04-24T14:28:00.000+12:00

I admit it. I will do just about anything Neil Gaiman tells me to.

Recently he mentioned that someone he knew was doing webcomics and, possessing no will of my own, I immediately visited the link. I was surprised by what I found, because I haven't seen many online comics versus online cartoon strips.

... And, interestingly, he mentions more recently that his opinion of Webcomics has climbed since a post in 2002 (quoted here) because Scott McCloud keep making him read the good ones. His old point stands, but he seems to acknowledge that it is a medium that has good things in it.

Family Man is a comic. Each update appears to be at least one large page of story (although it might be more than one page. This would make a difference to something I'll get to soon) and it is humorous rather than funny. Clearly something momentous (even if only in a domestic sense) is coming.

The sounds of the comic are placed so that, even though you are reading words, there is a sense of hearing them. Meconis has thought carefully about exactly how to spell some of the stranger ones and it pays off.

There was something that came to mind out of reading it though. Doing an actual comic in this way online seems to lose a little in translation. Whereas if you buy a physical comic and are left at a cliffhanger there is still a sort of resolution simply in closing the pages of the comic. You can begin to envision what might come next. Whereas one of the benefits of the interent is immediate gratification which dissappears by doing a comic in this way. Suddenly you reach the last page of story and you're stuck. Now, obviously, there is time needed to create the next part, but because it is much larger and intricate than the average small strip style webcomic, the wait must be longer and some readers are going to fall away. If Family Man is updating in chunks, then this problem is alleviated somewhat, but it still seems to be losing some advantages of placing it online.

Sluggy Freelance seemed to try and blend the two by doing daily strips that were longer and intricate for the Oceans Unmoving storyline. Unfortunately it seemed that fitting that much work into such a small space resulted in something that didn't quite please the audience or the artist (I would, however, be interested in seeing a print of Oceans Unmoving as someone who barely got their toes wet. With it all in one place to absorb, would it go down better?). It seems the medium of the net really does apply better to regular punchy items than longer works.

I'll keep checking on Family Man but it's not the sort of thing I'm after in my moments online. Anyone got any similar projects to recommend though?

I want that t-shirt.

2006-04-23T07:52:00.000+12:00

Okay, I mentioned Unshelved not too long ago, but this is an example of a more regular strip rather than the book reccomending Sunday strips.

The recent storyline has follwed Dewey's attempts to artificially increase the number of reference calls the library receives. And he's done well. But in today's strip it doesn't appear that he is doing anything, just making a joke about why.

Unless you look really close at that T-shirt. That T-shirt is all class.

Man, that's a lot of words to say nothing much about movie comics...

2006-04-21T12:12:00.000+12:00

I started this blog in direct response to Fleen's call for fresh writers. I figured it would be safer to write somewhere where I didn't 'technically' have to write something new every single day. The flip side of that is that I am challenging myself to bring something new each day.

Which meant I was reading through a lot of comics today and laughing and in the back of my head wondering what on earth I should write about. And then I read that Comixpedia's next theme will be movies. I hope this doesn't seem like some sort of obscure new-media thought theft, but I had a few things to say about movies and comics. In case you think it is, go and read how real commentators discuss this stuff. And check out the list of movie-themed comics, I like them so far.

Anyway,I was wondering about the reverse. That is, how about making movies based on webcomics? I know there exist certain... hybrid versions, but these have to be short enough to download and are generally of a less than professional veneer. I hear about other experiements with animation, even so far as some becoming TV shows. This seems very much like Newspaper Comics in a way to me.

We have all seen that newspaper comics can result in more and more types of media being used to spread the comic-y goodness. Witness Garfield's TV shows, TV specials and even an eventual live-action movie. Of course, in my opinion, Live action kind of removes the point and such versions of comics tend to the poor (with certain exceptions).

And I wonder. Because here in New Zealand we had the very, very popular cartoon Footrot Flats, which doesn't seem to exist in any online archived form. this is a shame. It was a simple long running newspaper comic but it got it's own movie in the mid eighties and the movie is a classic of New Zealand film (heck, it had a theme park for awhile, but that went bust. One of my fondest childhood memories was going along with a family friend and tearing it all down for a bonfire.).

So, what is the difference that allowed us to do that in our country with the population of a small city while much larger markets don't? And with the way webcomics can spread out beyond certain regional restrictions, isn't there the chance that they could grow large enough to do it too?

...
..
.

You know, I just realised that there are now two movies where Ben Affleck convinces a lesbian to sleep with him anyway, Chasing Amy and Gigli. Something about that seems very, very wrong.

A couple of addenda.

2006-04-20T16:35:00.000+12:00

Immediately after my last post I began to think about the implications of the man who killed a young girl. I myself have a little girl who is just more than two and the thought of her being snatched off the street brings a sick dread to my throat. So I wanted to make sure it didn't sound like I was simply pointing at an event and then dismissing it.

That in mind I don't think there are any particular implications for this. It's not the first time I've heard of or seen a blog by someone who did something terrible and I'll bet it's not the first time for most of you either. People always find things to blame these events on, be it violent TV, violent games or fantasy games. The fact that this guy enjoyed reading a few webcomics didn't actually rate a mention in the CNN story and I doubt it will come up in any other conversations.

My only concern is for people who make webcomics like Chopping Block. Will their audience suddenly feel more self concious about their reading material? Will the artists decide they feel uncomfortable providing potential ideas to the audience? I hope not.

Quickly, secondly, Gordon McAlpin tells me that Stripped Books and Multiplex were part of one website but that the audience showed very little overlap. So, I guess my hunch was off. Apparently Stripped Books will taking some form of break. I hope it doesn't last too long. In the meantime, keep reading Multiplex.

Thank goodness that rabbit is make-believe. And no-one better try to prove me wrong.

2006-04-20T14:47:00.000+12:00

Apparently my commenting on Chopping Blocks style of humour was particularly well/mis-timed. A clearly troubled man did something awful and it is noted that he read webcomics. All I can say is, whoops.

So, let's move on to slightly fuzzier though no less rabid topics. Sam and Max.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I see a large swathe of a particular demographic being represented in Webcomic subject matter. That demographic responds well to fantasy and science fiction, and is at home with computer gaming. Therefore, I was surprised not to see many people cheering at the discovery of a Sam and Max webcomic.

The Sam and Max game, Freelance Police, provided me with hours of fun as a young lad. The absolutely ludicrous plot. The surreal characters. Oh, the joy. And it was based on a comic back then. So to see Sam and Max literally rise from the grave to take their place in the new media was a wonderful thing.

Steve Purcell has done something interesting with the medium. It's not amazing and seems to make my poor little dial-up connection faint, but it is interesting. The dialogue to each panel appears only when you move the mouse over it. So you get a clear view of all the artwork and then activate the nosies as you are ready. They even appear in order, staggered one after the other, so that you almost see it happening in front of you.

So far we have seen an earwig lay eggs and leave a cellphone in a Dog Dectective's ear and a wierd hallucination. The only problem is not knowing exactly when it updates. It seems to be going for a roughly monthly schedule. I guess I can't complain about not getting enough free entertainment, but I really want to.

I'm gonna get me a Butch doll. Some day...

2006-04-19T17:11:00.000+12:00

It's dangerous business, starting a webcomic about a very touchy subject. The life and times of a vaguely lovable serial killer, as found over at Chopping Block, could very easily become simply horrific and something most sane people avoid. You have to have a very particular sense of humour to laugh in the face of this sort of thing.

But Lee Harold accomplishes it wonderfully. And I think there's a very particular reason why. Harold makes sure that his star is very much aware of the role he is supposed to play as a serial killer. He is the villian in the horro movie, and must be that mysterious. He is the smiling face on the news and must be that insidious.

But being this self-aware also opens up other paths to humour. I flinched when I read this strip at first because it fulfills the same 'family' horror that terrifeid me about Red Dragon. But then we see Butch knows that, as an adult, he is meant to be an example. And so he will struggle on, despite wanting to quit. It is this down-to-earth quality, in the midst of stark fear, that makes us laugh, sometimes jsut for the shock.

And then there's the times that we find being a serial killer isn't all it's cracked up to be.

[Edited To Add:]
Diablo appears to think that the niche is larger than I give it credit for.

Yes, I love books.

2006-04-19T09:30:00.000+12:00

Guest strips are a fun way to see how others look at a comic. The recent guest strips at Joe and Monkey showed me a strip where humour came from a really odd combination of unrelated punchlines and stupid behaviour. Just my kind of thing. I followed over there from Kris Straub and now I stay.

But the recent guest strips on PVP have shown me something else. I recognised the work of Multiplex's McAlpin and thought it was cool to see his take on the staff of PVP, even if it came down to a fart gag in the end (and isn't Kurtz encouraging that genre splendidly?). Interestingly, Kurtz also pointed out something I had missed over at Multiplex. McAlpin also does a more relaxed comic thing called Stripped Books. As someone who loves reading, this is cool. Especially his illustrated version of Neil Gaiman's Nebula awards speech.

I'm not sure, but in my opinion, people who love movies enough to follow the adventures of a group of people who work in a cinema will probably love stories enough to follow a series of literature related comics too. So why is there no obvious link on the front page of Multiplex? Or am I just blind?

Then we have today's guest spot, from Paul Southworth who does a strip called Ugly Hill. I have just recently added Ugly Hill as something to keep an eye on, so you can see that I'm not familiar with it. However, apparantly Southworth's idea of humour is so wonderful that he can turn Skull and Brent into Stimpy and Ren quite convincingly, pull off a really wierd fart joke and draw in a way that supports both (and go along with that whole fart gag thing Kurtz has been encouraging...). This encourages me to pay attention to Ugly Hill.

Oh, read that as soon as you can.

2006-04-18T09:26:00.000+12:00

In the lofty tradition of pointing out comics that reference authors I enjoy, first seen all of four days ago, check out this Unshelved sunday strip. Terry Pratchett is, of course, one of the best things to happen to fantasy in a long time, but I would have recommended Guards Guards to new readers. I'm sure the dragon and all the secret societies would have made for a fun comic too.

I first came across Unshelved when another top author, Orson Scott Card, linked to a sunday strip about his classic Ender's Game. At first I thought the premise was too simple, drawing quirky jokes centred around book recommendations. Then I realised that Unshelved offered so much more.

The life of Dewey, the main character, covers alot of ground. There's the usual bookish humour to be expected from a comic set in a library. However, they manage to stretch out by focusing on things like the pointless bureaucracy of the head staff and weighty issues like censorship and recent politics , all without losing their simple charm and friendly humour.

The Sunday strips that hooked me in are a clever addition to an otherwise great niche strip. Rather than simply drawing a bigger joke than usual, Abaum and Barnes show that the setting isn't a gimmick (cue Pamela Anderson's Stacked...) but a location they understand.

Webcomics as blogs

2006-04-17T10:13:00.000+12:00

I have seen a few places where people wonder why they keep reading particular webcomics. The one that is often cited is Greg Dean's Real Life. I can understand what they mean. Real Life is amusing and friendly but not one of the most hilarious webcomics out there. I really enjoy finding strange and surreal, laughter-inducing comics; I want to roar with laughter in my study and scare the wife. So why do I keep reading Real Life even though my connection is slow and Dean sometimes fails to update regularly?

It's the same reason I keep reading all my friends journals on LiveJournal. Although we may not share some interests or we may have differing opinions on various issues, they are my friends and it's nice to keep up to date with them. So it is with Real Life. I see the comic almost more as a blog or journal, highlighting the amusing moments out of Dean's life and showing them to his friends. And I like Dean so I keep reading.

This is something that I've seen in a few comics. Most of the time they don't interest me, because it's not what I'm looking for. That's what I see Something Positive as which is why I tend to only read it when someone points me to a particular strip for some reason. However, Home on the Strange works on a similar level but seems more interesting to me. More like a group of people who I might actually be friends with.

Something for everyone

2006-04-15T12:06:00.001+12:00

I really enjoy Penny Arcade but PVP got it right in that long ago strip where Francis shows Cole all the news posts and information one needs to actually understand the strip of the day (which I couldn't find to link to. Hopefully this new site overhaul will include some way to search PVP somewhat and a better blog system).

And that applies somewhat to today's strip. You need to understand what a Gold Farmer is in context of online games. You needs to know that they exist far from here, that they are not really a good thing. You need to know the lengths gamers can go to.

But even if you don't understand all of that, you can see the nervous fear in one man's eyes as he wonders whether those are cries for help and the subtle threat in the other's as he delivers his warning.

Those eyes are fantastic.

A collection that'd be worth it.

2006-04-14T12:05:00.000+12:00

Of the political cartoons I read online, one of the most abrasive is Ted Rall. I mean that in a complimentary way, though it might not seem so. Rall manages to find absurdities in any situation and isn't afraid of tackling issues that most would deem outside the target range (he made fun of widows from 9/11 and Pat Tillman, a man who volunteered to go to Afghanistanand was killed by friendly fire). He is quite comfortable depicting George W. Bush as a bestubbled milatary dictator with violence and stupidity reigning supreme. Alternatively, he absolutely thought every single newspaper in the world should have reprinted the Muhammad Cartoons in support of free speech.

This isn't really about him.

Rall appears to want to encourage others to write cartoons and has put himself behind two collections of cartoonists material under the heading Attitude. The first two were about political cartoons, drawing that pushed the boundaries. I knew a few of those artists.

But this post is about the new collection. It is specifically about webcomics. The artists found in Attitude 3 are all based online, trying to make use of the interconnectivity that comes from its creation. While some of the other cartoonists had online presences (some of them primarily) this is the first collection that focuses on that.

Of the 21 features artists, I have read:
Mark Fiore: "Fiore Animated Cartoons"
These short animations can be very funny, but I don't read them very often unfortunately.

Dorothy Gambrell : "Cat and Girl"
These are very surreal and witty comics. Not usually gut laghter but lots of smirking.

Nicholas Gurewitch: "The Perry Bible Fellowship"
One of the most outstanding comics I've read in a long time. Surreal, slightly morbid and obscene, but in a family friendly way. Can be simple gags or complex jokes. Probably partially repsonsible for my half broken sense of humour.

Ryan North: "Daily Dinosaur Comics"
I don't read these that often actually, but the concept is brilliant. Its exactly the same artwork every day but the text changes. It's incredible how much character can be found in that process. Oh, and everyone is dinosaurs.

August J. Pollak: "XQUZYPHYR & Overboard"
I actually only ever read one of these. But it was funny.

D.C. Simpson: "I Drew This"
A weekly politcal cartoon that makes me laugh a lot.

Richard Stevens: "Diesel Sweeties"
Very odd but stylish. Can be gags or clever too.

Bigger Than Cheeses takes on the big boys

2006-04-14T11:57:00.000+12:00

Bigger Than Cheeses is a very... Over the top webcomic. It suffers from an update schedule that doesn't feel very regular (though the seven part series on superman vs Batman (Here's a hint. Gadets don't beat being a crazy alien) makes up for it somewhat). But the level of violence can be traumatic (even when offstage). In this, and its large breasted females, it reminds me somewhat of the Perry Bible Fellowship. PBF is certainly the more family friendly strip though.

Anyway, I bring it up to mention Neil Gaiman. Do you know Gneil? If not, then you need to just go and get a copy of American Gods or Smoke and Mirrors and come back when you're done. Actually, given the subject matter, read The Sandman while you're at it to avoid the spoilers in the comic.

Everyone up to date? Good.

In my opinion Gneil is one of the best storytellers that is living today. I am sure that the upcoming Henson film Mirrormask will be just as good as Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal and the movie of Stardust is probably going to be good too. Don't take my word for it, Stephen King says we 'are lucky to have him' and calls him 'a trove of story.'

Therefore, when someone takes his materpiece (the piece of art that an artist creates to end his apprenticeship and prove that he is truly a master of the craft), Sandman, and skewers it in four panels (not even four panels! It's really only two because one's a title card and the other is a joke on Gneil!) I have to say, that person is either a comic genius or an uncouth nerfherder.

I say genius.