Saw a link recently on Jennie Breeden’s site, leading me to a new-ish comic called A Girl And Her Fed. Interesting premise — the Girl (no name given) is a target of surveillance by the Fed (likewise) for being a bit noise-ity. The Fed’s a decent kind of guy, though, and he and the Girl decide that they probably have more in common with each other than with their respective colleagues (his) and lack-of-friends (hers).

Add to the fact that the Girl’s hallucination of Ben Franklin (an old recurring acid flashback, or something else?) is also visible to the Fed, and the Fed’s in-head mind-control chip interface (which looks like Dubya) crashes when around Ben, allowing the Fed to keep his thoughts private … oh, did I forget to mention the Pocket President™? Yeah, it seems most of the federal agents who had them implanted have wound up eating their guns, and the Girl and the Fed decide to get to the bottom of what may be a fairly nasty conspiracy. Also, very, very drunk.

The art is ultra-simplistic, by choice of creator (a lady by the name of Otter); with few distinguishing characteristics, or even names, the Girl and the Fed could be stand-ins for anybody. Fortunately, the writing is clever enough to keep the reader’s interest while getting used to it. And I wonder if there’s a reason that Pocket President™ Bush is the only character with visible eyes? The various Feds naturally all have dark glasses, Ben has his spectacles, and everybody else (even the dogs) has eyebrows without eyes. It’s curiously effective at providing facial expressions.

All in all, a strip with some interesting story potential (Otter is particularly not making the Fed, or even the government he works for, a black-and-white villian … he’s a decent guy doing a job he doesn’t particularly like). It’s worth keeping an eye on, if only because the Girl and the Fed desperately need all the eyes they can get.

So there’s a new site design in beta over at PvP. So far, I think I like it. There’s more colour and the layout is similar enough to be familiar but different enough to make a difference. If that makes sense. The whole page has a sort of “comicy” feel to it, probably due in no small part to Kurtz’s forays into the printed media. The new navigation tabs make a difference and seems like the searchable archive that we were promised has also been delivered.

So if you havent swung by the site lately, go take a look.

Sometimes I feel like this at my job. That is why I’m quitting. I just got this other most-likely-going-to-kill-my-soul job, but at least it pays more. Way more. I’m going to be wearing my bling on my teeth and puttin’ rims on my hamster.

Also, I’ve been playing way too much Guitar Hero…wait that’s impossible. You can never play enough Guitar Hero. I bring this up only because today’s Patches strip reminded me of the kick-ass game. Speaking of games, the new series of comics over at Penny Arcade is about one of my favorite fantasies: slaying zombies in a mall. I would make a mad dash to the knife store, and pick me up a Hanzo remake from Kill Bill. But it looks like in Tycho and Gabe’s case their only weapons are N-Gages. That’s horrifying, not because it makes for a shitty weapon, but because it’s a fucking N-Gage.

Anyways, has anyone seen those amazing Red Robot aprons over at Diesel Sweeties? I’m ordering one this week, since cooking and Red Robots are two of my favorite things. Go check it out if you haven’t yet, it’s worth the while.

One more thing, does anyone know what’s so special about this? Seriously I see these commercials during Saturday morning cartoons, and it baffles me. Please someone, tell me the appeal of this product.

Little Dee fans (and goodness, should that be synonymous with ‘breathing humans’?), the long wait is nearly over! As you will recall, Chris Baldwin (comicster extraordinaire) went semi-syndicated a while back, and we’ve been dealing with reruns to get new readers up to speed.

But that all ends soon. So very, very soon. So count down the days with me until next Monday, and let’s see what Baldwin has cooked up in his time away from us.

This page has previously written about Randall Munroe’s xkcd, a strip that knows the truth about computational linguistics (and the filthy reprobates who compute linguistically). Munroe, a robot-wrangler for NASA Langley Research Center, is clearly a very smart guy (although I can tell you from personal expericence that you don’t have to be a rocket scientist, to be a rocket scientist), and this week he’s turning his amazing percept-o-tron powers on webcomics.

Munroe has distilled some webcomics down to their essential oils, and it in doing so produced some brilliantly funny parodies. Check out his semi-loving tribute to Achewood, which features personalities and dialogue stretched to within 0.0004% of the Theoretical Onstad Limit; right down to the mouse-over text, it’s simply perfect. Today it’s Megatokyo in Munroe’s sights, with an emphasis on Fred Gallagher’s public persona (and perhaps a minor tribute to the stick-figure mafioso Dom). There’s a fine line between tender affection and savage kicking, and this strip straddles it neatly.

Not sure what other strips will get the xkcd treatment for the rest of the week (Do SGR!), but I have a feeling it’s going to be a real treat regardless. And be sure to tell your grandkids about this week, because I think it’s going to be remembered as when Randall Munroe hit the Webcomics Big Leagues.

What’s with Penny Arcade these days? Updates have been spotty, and today is hardly the first day that the main page has been updated with no comic. Now when I say “spotty”, I don’t mean Mac Hall spotty. I mean spotty for Penny Arcade. I remember a time when there would be an update in time for my 11 am ICT class, last week I had to wait until nearly midnight.

Usually, I’m firmly in the “webcomics are free so quit your yapping” camp when it comes to complaints about quality/consistency but this is Penny Arcade we’re talking about here. These are the pros. I know they’re busy these days, what with their childrend, charity and awesome convention that people are calling the new E3 (but not Gabe), but I hope they don’t loose sight of what got them there. Regular, high quality updates that had me laughing when I should have been building databases.

Well I’m back from my drunk-o-thon. All I remember is fish, loud music, and lots-o-margaritas. Hells ya. Not much to post about today, just a few things that might interest you though. Patches has joined DayFree Press, so hats of to Kelly V. Jeffrey Rowland is about to finish touching up his new Joanna doll, which I’m sure has caused many webcomic fans to shat themselves in anticipation. Also, click here for dinosaur humor and here for lab animal fun.
Time to chug Gatorade and chew some aspirin.

Joanna, you may be dead, and you may have a bit of a drinking problem, but if only for your brave battles against the Catcoon, I must have a representation of you!

Also, whoever bought this before I was even aware that it existed: I hate you and everything you stand for.

I think I should start a little conversation with you webcomic fans. Ever since Jefferey Rowland was on the panel for Mother-Fing Snakes on a Mother-Fing Plane, I haven’t been able to stop wondering on where the future of webcomics is heading. I mean, to Hollywood, Jefferey is just some guy who makes funny cartoons on the interweb. What was their process on saying “hey, he should speak on behalf of our new movie?” This boggles my mind, but that isn’t difficult. I am just amazed at how an artist that we, as webcomic fans, all know and love ended up in a glitzy hub-bub movie panel discussion.

I’m not saying this is bad, this is phenomenal for the webcomic industry. I am damn proud of Jefferey for blazing the trail for future webcomic artists wanting to expand their business and art to the Hollywood level. It just makes me curious on where webcomics is heading as an industry. If the art form starts getting that kind of press on a regular basis, well we’d be unstoppable. And isn’t that everyone’s goal in life?

Good news everyone! Zach Miller is here to spread the good word! Mitch Clem has been filling us in on all the religious antics in Chicago. I’m wondering how much of what we see represented in convention comics actually happens.

For example, would a vessel of Jesus Christ really call me a slovenly dip-wad? I don’t even know what that is!!