The webcomics blog about webcomics

Lotta Chainsaws Out There Today

Turns out we had a lot more wind than rain from Isaias; personally, we got off lucky (a section of fence fell over from wind, just need a couple of angle brackets to get it fixed), but there’s a lot of trees down in town.

Over here, a full tree, with a root system more than 2 meters across, standing straight up in the air. Daycare across the street had their parking lot filled with half a tree, which also knocked down a section of chain-link and squashed some playground equipment. At least three sections of road completely blocked, two of which are on major thoroughfares. Last night was EMT duty night, and we spent some time out in the ambulance, figuring out what was accessible, and how to get from any given Point A (where somebody needs help) to Point B (any one of the six emergency departments in the area we transport to). We got lucky in that all the really big trees with insufficient root systems or structural weaknesses came down during Sandy back in Aught-Twelve.

And today, there’s chainsaws echoing constantly. These are accompanied by the occasional power fade (not all the way cut, just brownout) or internet interruption (three so far today) as a suddenly-mobile section of tree falls an unexpected direction and drags overhead cable with it. So I’m going to post quickly, hoping that I can get this up in my latest window of network access.

The very, very sexy Brad Guigar¹ has some useful analysis and recommendations over at Webcomics Dot Com, but I think the message is somewhat harmed by the choice of headline². The piece is about using a structure in comics without knowing why it’s the way that it is, but the headline is the somewhat curmudgeonly Manga-inspired word balloons (and why they need to stop)³.

It’s behind a paywall, and I don’t want to steal content, so I’ll say that Guigar’s got a reasonable explanation as to why people are designing word balloons incorrectly, but also that the headline is an over-generalization. It’s not that word balloons from manga are inherently inferior, it’s that cartoonists that haven’t thought about balloon design are taking the wrong lesson from them. Either take a test subscription to WDC to read more about it, or wait for it to eventually show up as a Free Friday repost.

Also, in case you forgot that Brad’s art tends towards the saucy, I’ll note that the ever so slightly prominent ass shot in the image he used to illustrate his point (and which is reproduced above) is definitely intentional. Brad Guigar likes cartoon butts and he cannot lie.


Spam of the day:

Hello! I really need a man for the rare pleasant dates without obligation. I have. I live nearby. You’ll like it!

Sorry, pleasant dates with me aren’t rare, they’re commonplace. Maybe try asking a guy who sucks?

_______________
¹ Dreamy, etc.

² And keep in mind that Guigar worked newspapers for pert-near two decades, and knows what a proper headline can do for — or to — a story.

³ The less said about Brad’s choice of case in this title, the better.

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