Poor Voltron, you will be missed.
Yeah I know, that’s it for tonight. Working ten hours on a broken foot has worn me out for the day, hence having absolutely no creativity whatsoever. But seriously, go check out today’s Diesel Sweeties, because it’s awesometastic.
Art vs. writing discussed passim; xkcd brings the funny (thanks to Ryan “Nexus of All Webcomics Realities” North for the heads-up). Let’s see, the creator, Randall Munroe, is a physicist and works on robots for NASA. Nerd humor ahoy!
You got your math and STDs, Venn diagrams (true story: I grew up at the tail end of the New Math, and wound up learning set theory in second-friggin’-grade; turned out handy when I went to engineering college), relativity, recursive sets, gravitation and yo’ mama, Escher, and anarchy on the comics page! Add a little theoretical math, Boolean love, some probabilistic outcomes, frequency-domain felines, things I’ve actually done, astronomy, chemistry, and it all adds up to science!
In fact, reading through xkcd, one is left with but one conclusion: FUCK computational linguistics.
I think Boy On A Stick And Slither should be taught in schools. Steven Cloud is constantly throwing out life lessons that are consistently relevant, moral and humorous. Some might say dangerous. It’s one of those comics that I read and almost always think “wow, I wish I’d thought of that.” The world would almost certainly be a better place if everyone read BOASAS. People would certainly question society a lot more, and that would certainly be a good thing. I wonder if Steven realises he’s a potential figurehead for a world wide revolution, in which the tanks shall have green snakes painted on them, and crowds will fill the streets chanting “Bo ah sass! Bo ah sass!”
Heh. I got carried away. I’m going to get Mr Cloud in trouble, aren’t I?
Girly makes me uneasy.
Six comics in sexual harassment becomes a joke, in the form of an unwanted suitor who believes his penis is his only redeeming quality. The “joke� is reoccurring.
Girly makes me angry.
In the first part, the main plotline is both how Winter and Otra (“Girly�) come to be leader and sidekick, and then friends, and then lovers – as well as the downfall of El Chupacabre. Chupacabre is described as a lover, pleasurer, eater, and penetrater of women.
The first time a woman walked onscreen and then down a dark alley, I was expecting rape. Rape is defined as “sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female.� The woman was grabbed, and for all her scream of surprise or terror (most likely terror) turned into pleasure, as indicated by the hearts around the sound effect, it was rape.
Winter and Otra obviously don’t see it as a problem – they go after the elephants. The news doesn’t see it as a problem; Women being found naked runs as the secondary story.
I could dismiss this all as a satire if at the conclusion of the story the lesson didn’t fall so flat.
Winter says he’s been doing the right thing, in the wrong way. She proclaims that he has been practicing sexuality haphazardly, leading to guilt and resentment. But what about the common feeling of violation? Of shame? Of disbelief? Of fear and self-blame?
And then there is the statement that Chupacabre never attacked anyone. He was irresistible, and so they just submitted. Does this excuse him? Consider real life attacks – could a rapist claim that they just submitted? Could it be true? Would it make it any better?
Chupacabre was finally driven out of town by Winter and Otra. And I stopped reading.
The entire first part of this comic is a giant thumbs up to sexual harassment and rape. Joking about rape makes the act of rape a joke. Make a joke about murder, and you’re not likely to be patted on the back in the bar for doing it. Make a joke about rape, harassment, etc., and you may just be a local hero.
Or a webcomic creator successful enough to have a book published.
Everyone and their dog loves Questionable Content. Seriously, I’ve asked canines and they’re all “I love Jeph and that zany comic of his.”
But what about his other comic, Indie Tits? It has sat quietly by in the “Extra Credit” section of QC, waiting patiently for readers to come along. I started reading Indie Tits when Jeph first announced it’s creation, and have been a loyal fan ever since.
Now this strip is witty and sharp just like I imagine birds would be if we could understand them. They talk about bands, ridicule others for their taste in music, and constantly debate if Jesus could kick Darwin’s ass. They are crude, foul, and amazingly offensive to just about everyone. Especially if you enjoy soccer.
I never would have expected birds acting like total asses to be so damn funny, but it is. Thanks Jeph for the crude humor that is the bird kingdom, I can’t wait to see what you come up with next.
Speaking of merch, Diablo action figure pre-orders are now open! And, like all good action figures, it comes with a variant:
Pre-ordered Diablo is available in two flavors, a regular chicken-flavored variety and the special “personalized” variant. The personalized figure comes with some bonus stickers and is signed by Yours Truly, and the first 250 people to order one of these will get an extra Super-Bonus Glow-In-The-Dark Ecto-Skull in addition to all the other groovy accessories Diablo normally comes with. This skull can replace Diablo’s normal head; I cannot stress enough how radical this is.
How cool is this? Read on, my friend:
Diablo has four points of articulation, at the waist, wings and neck.
Diablo’s head is removable, just like in real life.
Diablo comes with accessories:
Diablo’s head can be replaced with his Human Skull for awesome skull-chicken action.
Diablo is approx. 3″ tall, and will be to scale with future Goats action figures. [emphasis mine]
Diablo comes in a neato collector’s box.
Diablo will bring you everlasting joy and peace of mind.
Serious collectors, speculators, and dealers are urged to stock up on plenty of both versions. I just ordered mine, how about you?
Webcomics aren’t just for geeks anymore.
I’m working at Michigan State’s sports camps this summer, and I’ve seen more than one kid come in wearing webcomic merch. These kids were generally under the age of 12.
I know parents are letting their kids onto the internet in droves, but I seriously doubt that a middle schooler has the patience or know-how to get through the entire archive of Megatokyo. They’re more likely to be playing Runescape.
Does this mean that webcomics are becoming more mainstream? We are talking about serious syndication, we are talking about books and merchandise. But do webcomics have what it takes to become Homestar Runner? I’ve seen more Homestar Runner shirts than anything else. Everyone I knew threatened to turn in an Englilsh Paper.
I don’t have much evidence for this, but I have a feeling it’s become kosher to talk about internet obsessions – many people, who claim to be normal, might just share them.
Adding to our previous list of webcomics panels at SDCC:
DUMBRELLA
FRIDAY, JULY 21
2:30-3:30PM
ROOM 7BArtists from Dumbrella, one of the most popular online comic collectives, discuss webcomics, independent publishing and subverting popular culture. Feel free to quiz Andrew Bell (the Creatures in my Head), Sam Brown (explodingdog), Steven Cloud (B.O.a.S.a.S.), Jon Rosenberg (Goats), and Richard Stevens III (Diesel Sweeties) about anything your inter-net heart desires.
Bonus points and a one American dollar cash money to the first person to ask the panel, “What is the collective noun for members of Dumbrella?”*
(more…)
I am so sick of hearing about the new Superman film. That is why I’m all about today’s Ctrl+Alt+Del comic. I love it when people make fun of Superman. Someone who is impervious to all kinds of danger should be the center of ridicule. Anyways, I’m not saying that Superman is lame, well I am actually.
The point I’m trying to make is that a super hero should have more weaknesses than just being allergic to a rock from a different planet that doesn’t even exist anymore.
I heard this thing today on the radio about how mobile phone companies (cell phone companies, if you will) are getting pissed off that people are just connecting to their wi-fi service and then using VoIP instead of using their phones. I found this fascinating. The Internet really is everywhere these days, this is the future folks, and it is changing how we live.
Here’s how I’m hoping it will change how I live. Sometimes I like to go in to town, buy a graphic novel and sit in a friendly coffee shop to drink coffee and read comics for a few hours. I like those days, but comics and coffee are expensive luxuries for us poor students/film producers/convenience store clerks/web comic editorialists. Now though, I could just load a version of Opera on to my Nintendo DS, and sit in the same coffee shop and read web comics all day. I really think this would be great. Not just because I am stingy and hate paying for stuff, but because it would give me more time to sample some of the web comics I keep meaning to catch up on.
Really though. I hate paying for stuff.
