Cheese

Since I was all ranty last week, here's something more fun from SMBC...



 

It all makes sense, doesn't it?

Now I want some cheese.

Stick Figure Appreciation Day

Is this a real day or am I just making it up? If it’s not real, it definitely should be.

One thing I like about stick figures is that you don’t have to be good at drawing to make them (as I’ve plainly illustrated more than once and am going to do again in the future). What’s really amazing is how creative people can be with the most simple of tools. You don’t need illustratively detailed characters to entertain as long as you make up for it in other ways. Sometimes the simple figures even make it better.

Best Stick Figure Comics I’ve Come Across:

Explosm.net is home to Cyanide & Happiness (the name? from this), a comic by four guys trying to outdo each other in I-can’t-believe-you-just-said-that. Fair warning: none of this it is safe for work. I probably should have mentioned that before the links, huh?

Then of course there’s XKCD. At times it’s also NSFW, but then there’s also the home of Etymology Man. Also, a lifehack for writers (especially of fantasy) who need to remember that books don’t need words made up by the author.

Best Stick Figure Games I’ve Come Across:

The best is probably Stealing the Diamond, from the people who brought you Breaking the Bankand Escaping the Prison. They’re kind of less games and more choose your own adventure stories in flash format. They’re also totally worth your time. A more game-like game is Continuity, a puzzle game that requires literal outside-the-box thinking. Finally, if none of those are morbid enough for you, there’s Causality!, a game where the point is to find a way to kill all the stick figures in the fewest amount of clicks. It must be popular, as there have been five sequels.

Simple isn’t always better, but it sure is in these. Have fun!

Happy Tax Season

Because it’s April and here in the United States, it’s that time of year when everyone decides they’ll vote Libertarian in the next election (which, of course, they won’t) because . Also known as tax season.

Here’s something for you to enjoy. It involves super heroes, so I know I did.

Top Ten Reasons Why…

…People Have Got to Stop Bitching About Newspaper Comics.

10. Just because you think a comic is “sick sick sick” (actual quote from a letter to the editor), doesn’t mean it is. It means youdon’t like it.

9. We all know that the only way to get in the funny pages is to have gotten in there fifty years ago. It’s not going to change.

8. There’s this thing called “the internet” that has more comics than you could read in your lifetime. And most are free. Why don’t you go support one of those struggling cartoonists instead of someone with a fifty year contract in place?

7. Even with the hundreds of comics out there, there is not one single assortment of them that will satisfy more than one person.

6. You’re not going to enjoy something now like you did when you were five. It’s not that the quality has declined. It’s always been like that. But you still have that memory of laughing at Garfield or Popeye or whatever so you insist that it must have gotten worse. You couldn’t have changed or something.

5. Maybe it’s only the newspaper I read, but the comics very rarely change. Unless they’re doing an announced test run of a strip, it’s going to be there for a while. More than half have been there since I can remember, so over twenty years and only six, maybe eight have been dropped, and at least three of those were from the strips ending. So complain all you want. They aren’t going to listen.

4. If you read the Comics Curmudgeon regularly, you’ll start to see sinister undertones in everything, not just the comics you despise. So maybe it’s not the funnies that’s the problem. Hint.

3. You can just not read them. Is it really that hard? I ignore plenty of comics that bore me. You know what I do instead? Complain about them on my blog Read something else.

2. They’re freaking comics. Get over it.

1. Seriously. One more word and I’m coming after you.

Post inspired by recent letters to the editor. Because if I read another one whining about how every newfangled comic is pure evil and OMG they’re letting children read this filth? my scream will shatter the planet. Seriously, comics need to go up there with politics and religion as topics people can never discuss in a civil manner.

Random Thoughts

---You might think writing a post like this is easy, but thinking up words to fill these spaces is very difficult. Like I’m doing right now.

---I love the first few days of spring, when it’s warm and fun to enjoy. Before I have to spend the next four months battling wave after wave of the ant invasion.

---There are ants out there that cultivate a fungus (farming…a scary enough prospect for beings with a brain smaller than a pin) that they use as a glue to build a tiny tower that’s full of holes (architecture…even more frightening). What’s the tower for? To catch bigger bugs. They work together, each hole filled with an ant grabbing onto the larger insect while other ants go and sting it to death. Sleep well.

---They’re coming for you.

---Does anyone under 18 ever not click something that says “Only click if you are 18 years old or older”? EVER?

---When I hear middle aged people complain about how “rude” younger people are, I know it’s the same ones who bitch at the barista for giving them the wrong flavor of coffee when it is, in fact, what they ordered. Shocking. People tend to be rude to rude people.

---Best moment ever: while working in a deli, a woman chewed me out because her heated tuna fish sandwich was cooled (amazingly enough, things can get cool very quickly). Then she yelled at me for adding peppers to the sandwich. I insisted that I did not. She pointed to a green blob and yelled “There! What’s that?” To which I calmly replied: “Celery.”

---My reasons for preferring online newspapers to actual ones can be summed up by what I think of the comics page: the local newspaper rarely debuts comics that haven’t been running for the past fifty years, so I was surprised when they got rid of the boring and ridiculous Rex Morgan MD and replaced it with the actually entertaining Gil by Norm Feuti. It’s almost unthinkable. A comic strip I actually enjoy! And of course people are writing to the newspaper to complain about it for the audacity of having actual characters in a realistic modern setting. Heaven forbid there be some innovation in the newspaper comics.

---Newspapers are great to use to clean windows. So that’s one thing they have over the internet.

---Whenever I hear “I deeply regret” used in a sentence, I know it’s got to be from a politician.

---Finally, I thought this was hilariously apt:

Grammar Nerd

Ha!



On one hand, good grammar is important. On the other, I can think of a few teachers who were such sticklers that I can totally understand making them explode. For crying out loud, there isn’t anything wrong with using decimals, why do I have to have points off? Just take a freaking Valium, Fogbert* and pass me in this stupid class I need for my major!


Ahem. I don’t know where that came from.**






*Not his real name. Just what we called him.
**I’m totally lying.

Distraction Friday

I was very disappointed last week when one of my favorite webcomics came to...well, not a close, but I guess you could call it an end . I’d been following since almost the beginning in 2004 after I saw a piece of fan art done by the creator. The link below her name said “The Bunny System” and I went “Hey! I like bunnies!”

Even better, these were snarky, inappropriate and violent rabbits. The two main rabbits once massacred an entire squirrel army (don’t worry; apparently, squirrels can regenerate a la the T-1000). It was exactly up my alley. I can’t believe it’s been almost seven years!

Audrey Soffa is a very talented artist and writer. Occasionally, she posted bits of her art school work (nice) and sometimes, other cartooning work. There was one month where she had a storyline about a young witch named Agatha Crawley. She’s a little girl with a witch like appearance and often the object of torment of the older, glam-witches. It’s cute and funny and unlike the Bunnies, entirely age appropriate.

So, I’m a bit sad it’s gone. If you have the same sense of humor as me (and if you do, I pity you) I’d advise you to go check it out.

EDIT: The contest is now closed. Winner announced tomorrow at 1 p.m. EDT.

Distraction Friday

Today for Distraction Friday, I’m sharing with you one of my favorite webcomics: Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weiner. The name is ambiguous for a reason. There is no plot, characters or story between strips. Every single one stands alone, which, on one hand, means that anything can (and does) happen, but on the other, means each one must connect with the audience without relying on history to build trust. One of the attractive points in writing a sequel is that bond you’ve already created with the audience. This comic doesn’t do that at all.

It still manages to be pretty damn awesome, too. 

There are more than two thousand comics, so I’m just going to focus on what I think is the best one for us writing types. It's one of those things that's all too true...

Distraction Back to Friday

For today’s installment, I thought I’d introduce you guys to a cute, kid-friendly webcomic that can be enjoyed by anyone. It’s called Silent Kimbly[http://www.silentkimbly.com/] and centers around the adventures of the titular character, a little space girl, and her zany friends. Like the title implies, Kimbly, along with the rest of the cast, remains silent. The comic is full of visual gags accompanied by a phrase of narration that usually involves a pun.

The comic was created by Ryan Sias, whose work can be found all over the place and is really quite amazing. The vivid pictures are always accompanied by amusing dialog.

Perhaps the only drawback to this comic is that Silent Kimbly no longer updates. It’s too bad because it’s full of cute characters (including the ball of fluff Tenderness, the naughty Cruelness, and the cute little Binx) participating in various puns, usually with crazy looking characters as visualization or by pointing out the literal meanings of things. Of course, not everything is a pun. Some things are just for fun.

It’s really amusing to see the different turns of phrase. So enjoy a look!