Back from the break!

And apparently, when the cat’s away, the mice come out and play. Over the break, it’s been crazy on this blog. The “Top Ten Best Webcomics of the Decade” article got linked on Fark. As a result, the post count has been up 8x more than usual. So a hearty hello to all you Fark visitors. Feel free to comment on this site as much as you like! Go ahead and tell me why you think my list is dead wrong and what the real Top Ten Webcomics really are. The list was meant to spark discussion, and it looks like everyone’s getting in the spirit.

Now, an interesting observation I would’ve made last Thursday if I hadn’t been spending 3 days entertaining family. I noticed that when the Spider-Man balloon, one of the first balloons out of the gate, arrived in front of Macy’s, the Today Show team made a comment that he was the star of comic books and, also, “digital comics.”

My wife, who doesn’t really follow this blog, was a little confused by the term. I had to explain a little on how comics were transitioning to the digital medium. She lost interest pretty quickly because … well, who wants to hear a nerd prattle on about digital comics?

Not me!

But it was a interesting moment that made me realize something: webcomics, digital comics, digital graphic novels, etc. are on the cusp of going mainstream.

Also, that Sesame Street float with the original cast (Maria, Luis, Gordon, and Bob) was pretty boss.

Amusing webcomic (be sure to let it load the whole way – comic 200) and in Youtube form for your convenience!

One to go!

-

Tessa is the face princess (her mother still reigns as the face queen), all she has to do is look at me a certain way and I’ll more or less just throw my hands up in the air and do whatever she wants, because she looks so cute I can’t help it.  It’s a fatal weakness.

-Costa

Do you know what I’m not good at? Making decisions. Well. Making good decisions, anyway. Ever. Give me two options and I’ll pick the stupid one. I could get a reasonable night’s sleep – or I could stay up late and be knackered and irritable tomorrow. I could cook real actual food, or I could have a sammich. Or biscuits. Or subsist purely on haribo. I am not what I would describe as a wise person. By any stretch of the imagination. But questionable nutritional choices and exotic sleep patterns aside, if I’m quite honest, I can recall scores of pretty terrible bigger decisions which have had wider repercussions and lead to quite epic quantities of fail in life more generally. In fact anyone with whom I share even the briefest of acquaintances with will probably be able to reel off a fair sized list.

Bob here, sometime companion of Dilbert, is not really about the decisions. He is what is known in the trade as a tool. Arguably worse than failing to make good decisions, he pretty much fails to make any decisions at all. Ok, here he seems to have chosen to eat his Blackberry all of his own accord but that’s not exactly a moment of triumph. Usually he plays the role of dumb henchman quite excellently with a dedication to passively carrying out orders. I almost started to attempt to justify him by suggesting that being somewhat lacking in initiative is not an actively bad thing in itself – however, there are definite grounds for arguing that following other people’s bad decisions is an equally tragic decision failure on your part also: you are complicit in their jackassery.

In some respects I guess I could substitute myself in the place of the bad decision dinosaur right here. Not an avid reader of cat and girl, perhaps I should refrain from passing judgement too harshly on the poor chap but nonetheless he makes my point. I’d be the one who says, “Sure, Boney, you can take Russia” and “I believe it is peace for our time“. Oh yes, that’s me – devoid of perception and lacking in foresight and better judgement. However, I would even go as far as saying that often the issue can not be put down to lacking foresight. I can recall plenty of instances whereupon I have been in such a position as to accurately perceive the consequences of my actions, judge them as undesirable and yet still persist to make decisions which ultimately secure these ends. I mean, nice going right there. Surely that requires a special kind of stupid? Or is it uglier things like indiscipline or plain old weakness of character? Perhaps it is a similar character flaw to following the bad decisions of others as well. Perhaps Bob and the BDD aren’t too different afterall.

Slightly more generously, perhaps I might even be favourably compared with another prehistoric patriarch of webcomic stardom – namely T-Rex of dinosaur comics. He’s naïve and boisterous, occasionally witty and sometimes even quite sweet. Often his ever present companions foil his ever more ludicrous schemes but generally he learns some form of life lesson from his musings and dialogue within those six strikingly similar boxes.

I guess my point is that although undeniably loveable the best thing you can say about these guys is that they are stupid rather than malicious (perhpas in contrast to the dinosaurs found here). They don’t intentionally harm anyone but often manage to in the course of their generally self interested (…if that) existence. That is the category in which I would like to place myself, the box I want to tick: my plea against the charges of ill treating those around me. I might be lacking in initiative, sensitivity or consideration but I am not malicious.

I had almost settled with that position. But you know what? It’s not good enough. It’s not enough to say, “Well, I meant to look out for ice bergs…” or at least, “well I had nothing against the guy I ran over, it’s not like I meant to kill him – I just needed take a call” – sometimes one has to take an active interest in specifically avoiding the bad stuff [Edit: contrast to my last post much?] rather than simply deciding not to aim straight for them. If we’re heading for problems because they seem to be the default then observing this and failing to change course has to be a problem in itself. The reason why any of this came to mind is that earlier I made a very small decision. I believe it was perceived as rudeness and I probably came out of the situation looking like the bad guy – but knowing that the alternative was all different kinds of ugly for everyone involved, to allow that to happen has to be seen as worse. I’ve got it wrong before. I got it right today.

It’s a women-o-centric blog and Im not disregarding my male counterparts however I’d like to give thanks to these women who have made my enjoyment of the internet go up a good few points.

I speak of the women web comic artists. On my bookmark tab I have a special folder devoted to web comics which constantly seems to increase in size. I have a thing for story based comics. Here are my favorites:

1-Yu and ME Dream

Running since 2004, updated weekday. A bit of Lesbian surrealism about Fiona,a girl who wanders through her own dreams rather than face a reality which is unkind to her. In her dreams she falls in love with Lia, the first girl to make friends with her, however has to keep their love secret from the conservative religious school and family she comes from. However not all is as it seems and dream world seems to have a mind of its own…

Yes, yes it’s lesbian love. But I like the way Megan Rose Gedris changes drawing style every new chapter or so. I enjoy the way the story changes and the way that it’s not made to be erotict (there is only 1 page NSFW) but romantic. It’s not a laugh a page but once you get into it… <3

2- Anders Loves Maria

Started in 2006 and set in Sweden, Anders, a photographer with a rather famous mother, suggests the idea of ‘baby’ to Maria. Maria is convinced they are too young. However, she falls pregnant and the two of them face parenthood. The story follows them to north Sweden into Maria’s hometown, through their past in flashbacks and along the months of Maria’s pregnancy.

Although long in places with quite a lot of backtracking, Rene Engström has a lovely style of art with some hand painted prints as well as her normal artwork. I like the way the story is, to use a cliché phrase, ‘emotional journey’ for all the characters involved- main and secondary. You should take an afternoon (I mean a good few hours) and read the whole lot. I love it.

3- Dar: A Super Girly Top Secret Comic Diary

An autobiographical diary updated on Tuesdays since about 2005, it follows the life events of Erica Moen- a queer married to a man. Used to be a dyke, then met her now husband who went and ruined that, her comics tell the story of what she does in work, social life, LIFE life… frequently NSFW.

It is funny, frequently hits life on the head and its addictive. I enjoy that because it is a representation of real life the story changes without corny plot twists. The strange mix of a heterosexual marriage and lesbian beginnings keeps things interesting. Good for a cheering up when you need to relate to something.

Well those are my favorites. =D

Thank you, you women web comic artists.

P.S I’m not gay… just in case you were wondering. Just liberal.

Last month I posted about webcomics for YA and said I would look for some webcomics created by young adults. I’ve been looking, but I’m having a hard time finding any. I know they exist, but it seems that teen webcomic creators don’t advertise the fact that they are teens. Either that, or my librarian-infused internet searching skills need a lot of work. Anyway, just thought I’d admit this failure.

Does anyone have any teen-created webcomics or other favourite webcomics suitable for young adults that you’d like to share? If so, leave a comment.

[A sketch from a page of something in the works... ]

I’m thinking of drawing a webcomic and my concern is how money can be made from it.

Lest you think me too mercenary, my goal is not to design a comic first to make money but because I want to draw and tell a story foremost; money is just important to facilitate me being able to dedicate time to this webcomic. Do I have a need to be defense about this point? Perhaps it reveals more of myself than I intend, so I’ll admit it: I do share Jonathan Blow’s views on the purity of art — in the linked example, as regards advertising in games. But to say it generally: I’m highly critical of the mixing of money and art. Yes obviously I need to pay rent and eat, and so does everyone.  I hear the “it’s just so” response far too often to justify abuses of commerce upon arts and I think it’s quite entirely unfortunate that discussion does not often get much farther than that. The status quo does not need your banal restatement, it already and overwhelming is!

Besides, if I wanted to make money I sure wouldn’t be trying to draw a webcomic to do it; there are better ways, I assure you. Like making a porn site or Evony Online or something.

So here’s my thought:
One can think of a webcomic as a serially-updated attention-attractor (albeit one with strong narrative themes and characters, which I’ll discuss in a moment). In this, a webcomic is not so different from a small free web-based game like any number of flash portal games, web-based games, or Facebook apps. Farmville, say? Admittedly, I don’t actually play any of these games. They’re usually too … shamelessly commercial.
Q: How do these make money?

A1: Advertising
I guess advertising is an obvious approach for any web site that’s trying to make money. Ads interfere with content, however, and I’d be strongly concerned about having ads anywhere near my artistic vision (says The Artist). Maybe they could appear somewhere on a separate news page, not juxtaposed with the comic content itself; never.

I’m thinking generic and easy to implement here; Google Ads is the obvious answer. Not everyone is Penny Arcade and is an entire ad market and brand in and of themself (and I repeat this to myself over and over, I am not Penny Arcade).

A2: Micropayments
Players of certain otherwise free web games pay money for extra content, for extra-ordinary customization, or to sidestep tedious gameplay time (which speaks to me of a game designer purposely wasting my time, but I digress). I’m not sure how any of these could translate very well to a webcomic because reading the comic itself is about the whole of its content — and what, should I draw five panels and charge money if people want to see the sixth? I’d never stand for that as a reader and I doubt anyone else would.

Although: There could be some kind of extra content or privilege made available for being a “sponsor” or “patron” of the comic (thinking of a marketable name for a donation-giver, ya’see). I’m unsure what this extra content would be aside from more story. “Behind the scenes” content? Preliminary sketches/writing? (Are they really that good or interesting? It worked for DVDs, though “extra features” are too often hastily assembled fluff. More digression.)

The patron/donor bragging-rights idea is perhaps good for the donation model. Get your name on a public list to show off on, if you like. Maybe get a little graphic drawn for you and a personal ‘thankyou’.

A few? games run off donations; at least for beer money. One game that actually gets away with it that I know of is Dwarf Fortress.

Setting out a PayPal link is pretty much default practice for a hopeful webcomic in any event, so it’s something to try. I wonder how well it works. Maybe I’d have to ask some web comic artists how they do at it.

A3: Merch
Think hard-copy books! T-shirts, prints, coffee cups, stickers, print-on-demand Cafepress BS (though ideally not so cheesy). Comics have strong narratives and characters and can get away with merchandizing in a way that most games cannot (so this answer might well be swinging away from the considering-webcomics-as-games conceit, but it should be discussed).

Merch requires an established community of decent size slash enthusiasm as well as a certain amount of up-front investment and energy. Maybe: When the community (when you /have/ a community) starts making t-shirts for itself, you know it’s time to start selling them.  … I saw the DF forums spontaneously begin t-shirt production once…

Ultimately, community building takes time, and time is money, friend.

So here’s my plan:

1: Ads
Consider using low-key-as-possible ads on the comic’s news page and make token efforts to update the news page with something interesting as regularly as the comic is updated. Assuming this comic is a writer/artist team, there should always be someone willing to write something. Be upfront about what the ads mean for the comic; If they don’t work out or prove unpopular, remove them. (Yes, more projection of my strong anti-ad feelings.)

2: Donations
Set out the PayPal tip-jar and beg for change. Make a bragging-rights page for certain levels of patronage with fun icons next to people’s names/aliases. Maybe even custom art for a certain level of donation from a viewer. Do an extra content update if donations exceed a certain amount. This approach could be described as soft-micropayments : donations-with-rewards.

3: Merch
Do merch when/if the community gets to the point where it’d be worthwhile. How exactly to do this can be worried about when the time comes; skills can be learned or someone willing can surely be found from the unwashed masses.

The most important reason why this could work is that I think I can draw better than most webcomics and I wouldn’t write like an idiot — or I know a couple writers who can do that bit for me. (And there I go, wording in my typical negative manner: “Everyone else sucks so much that I can’t fail!”

It’s just a matter of having the time, and time, as said, is money. There is a starting investment to be made that may or may not end up paying off.

In the good old days of The Internet (beta version), a rather awesome comic appeared: www.xkcd.com

Alas — as is the case with many awesome things — Badass Decay set in and the comic has been dwindling in awesomeness. A few too many ‘It’s funny because I’m a guy being passive aggressive to this girl’, ‘It’s funny because my author self-insert is socially awkward around women’ and ‘It’s funny because it’s a reference to Firefly‘ comics have meant that I don’t read it as often as I did.

From the ashes of the once awesome comic rose an even more awesome blog: www.xkcdexplained.com

Where the Johnny-come-latelies of the internet are forcing themselves to laugh at the recent XKCD strips (because if you don’t laugh, you didn’t get it and it’s incredibly important that you get it), XKCDexplained shows that it’s not really that funny, even if you did get it.

That alone isn’t enough for the title of Awesome. Oh, no. No, no. You’ve got to be a Rocketman. Rocketman! Burning out his fuel out here. Alone!

What makes XKCDexplained awesome is that it managed to get a bunch of highly strung XKCD fans to completely lose their shit. Behold! www.xkcdexplainedexplained.com

Here’s a rather representative example of its content:

The author of this explanation has a curious definition of the word “hilarity.” It appears that his personal definition is something along the lines of: “uninteresting (though slightly horrifying) inside joke.”

NOTE: Based on a sample size of eight people, it’s been my experience that physicists are really awesome people. Therefore, it’s fair to assume that none of them would ever actually say the above-mentioned things, unless they were saying them so someone who was a huge douche. In other words, physicists do not have Asperger’s.

Yeah… You sure showed them, Jocelyn!

And, because this is the internet, where would we be without: www.xkcdexplainedexplainedexplained.com? Probably having sex with extremely attractive people, that’s where.

So I am currently working on the Pencils for A Call to Destiny Reloaded: Troll Quest 2 with a special guest appearnance! FA Fans keep your mouths shut please!

Hoy os presento aquí las principales tirás cómicas online (webcomics) que sigo, las que considero las mejores para mí hasta el momento.

Bien, empiezo.

Tira Ecol

Tira Ecol

Bit & Byte

Bit & Byte

Ngendros

Ngendros

Y ahora otros que recomiendo pero son o en vertical o más grandes

http://palomitasymaiz.wordpress.com/

http://perdidos-comic.blogspot.com/

http://www.tortugasradioactivas.com/404/

http://www.alexmh.com/

http://www.narizpuntiaguda.com/

Saludos. Ameisin.

Well the turkey is officially left overs and the green bean casserole has left with a bad case of gas.I hope you all had a pleasant Thanksgiving. Its time to move on to the next big consumer holiday. Yep the fat man , the 12 days, the yule log.It all starts today. BLACK FRIDAY!!!!!!! It sounds like it would be my kinda holiday but, its not .Although I do partake in a big part of this WHOOMPLA consumerist ritual ,It does not put a spark of joy in my heart.I consider myself more of a freegan. Its true what the old Barrett Strong song says “the best things in life are free” You may be familiar with the Beatles version but no matter. I don’t want to give ‘em to the birds and bees. Money is not what I want. What I want is the joy of knowing that everyone has what they need. That people have peace in thier heart away from the suffering of life. Or for every ignoramatron To stay out of my way while they go about thier stupid greedy ways!!!!!! Look I want everyone to have a good time …..and have a joyfull season but when I’m in a store full of people that are rudely grabing for the next big thing and pushing shopping carts across my toes.. I start thinking about George and his bloody Hatchet. How he must feel yearning with hunger ,to only fill his stomach with brains of this capitalist holiday. Wow !!! that came out a little more metaphorical than I ment.
I guess all I’m saying is this is a time to be joyfull.Please help those around you keep that joyfull spirit. And every day for that matter. We never know when the hatchet my fall .And remember santa is watching so be good for goodness sake.
BAHH HUMMBUG !!!
MADDOG

If you don’t read Dinosaur Comics, you really should. They mentioned a favorite subject of mine…Traumatic Insemination. They also mentioned the female counter-adaptation…the paragenetalia. As the comic says…this is where the male bedbug splooges when he stabs his girlfriend.

Here are some pictures of the paragenetalia. As you can see, there’s quite a bit of morphological variation in the structures which runs the full gambit from none (genus Primicimex, upper left hand corner) to two compete units in genus Leptocimex.

The genus which commonly infests human habitations is the genus Cimex which is shown in the top center of the diagram.

Anyways…just thought I’d share.

Expect the blogging frequency to go down soon…Thanksgiving break allowed me some extra free time, but it looks like I’ll be back in the grind sooner or later.

I have, however started a twitter account. You can follow me here.

I will also be giving a presentation about secular rationalism in 277 Science 2 on December 2nd at Iowa State University

Picture lifted from:

MT Siva-Jothy (2006) Trauma, disease and collateral damage: Conflict in Cimicids. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 269-275

Indeed.

And no day reflects this evil like the darkest day of the year, Black Friday. Shopping malls turn to lands of desolation, lives are lost (literally) as warring factions set upon the dwindling resources of a forgotten age (bargains).

The question is….

WHY!

I mean what is it about this day that drives the hordes to pillage and plunder as they do?

I can see it from the retailer’s side, they want to make as much money as possible, but what about the consumer?

I guess the clue is in the word, isn’t it? Consumer. It’s Xmas, we have money in our pockets (bonuses) and we have to get little Johny the latest robot and Susy the latest doll. But if it is a question of getting a certain toy, why not order it from a catalog or online? You can do that from the safety of your own home.

But let us not forget the real victims:

Poor Gabe!

And he is right. Yes, store attendants can be snooty little brats who could find their heads in their own asses with both hands and a telescope but when you have to put up with shit like this:

You know what “the back” is? Is the space between the store walls and the actual walls of the mall. Cramped, smelly, cold and crawling with things that where old when the dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Trust me, this is maximum sale time. What you see is what you get. The store will not hold back anything. Who would even try to pull that off when you have the angriest/hungriest mobs this side of Attila the Hun devouring everything in sight? The aloof manner of the average teenage sales clerk is a defense mechanism, my friends! Jaded by countless hours of horror as reality is torn asunder in front of their very eyes (I know, I seen it, I SEEN IT!).Stuff that makes men out of boys, women out of girls and veterans of us all in a matter of minutes.

The greed, my god, the greed.

Of course, the media doesn’t help.

Oh no!

They hype this dark day for a month or so and then feast on the carcasses of the fallen (again literally fallen), the trampled, the dead (I wish I was making up that one, I really do) with stories of specials induced madness and blue light shock and awe.

And what about those vaunted Black Friday savings?

Buy one, get 50% of a second one? Really, that’s like 25% off (which it was the week before) and that’s only if you buy items of the same price.  Plus, factor in the sales tax which cuts into that percentage. On my desk I have a 25% coupon for Borders. It says, and I quote “list price of almost everything!”  Almost? Great!

On second thought….

But not everyone is compelled by this rush to the bottomless abyss of consumption. No, others wait, and wait and wait some more, while every show on radio and television tells us how many days are left till Xmas.

A countdown to another dark day!

Happy Holidays! And stay safe!

Now for some music by Armin van Buuren, Burned with Desire:

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving!! Figured I could share a goofy Thanksgiving sketch I did before it’s too late. Now it’s time to put it in cruise control and ride out the rest of the holiday season. Enjoy your Black Friday and all that good stuff! –Shawn

mais aqui

mais aqui

What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!

Some interesting discussions going on today and some lessons to be learnt from diving back in to the blogosphere. Banter on Twitter with…well, twits, I guess is fine – you block each other and forget all about it if it really doesn’t work out – but when teh interwebz cross over with issues IRL then one must tread more carefully. I think that treading more carefully is a very valid life lesson which I should take on board anyway – I’m pretty insensitive at the best of times. But when one is publically recording ones thoughts one should probably realise the potential audience; in this context, just about anyone. It’s tempting to find ones self (ok, myself) being drawn in to the delusion that you must communicate your point and when you do so effectively everyone will understand and agree. It’s not the case! Thankfully we are all so very different and our opinions and experiences clearly reflect this. I think that commentary on a topic and actual dialogue between interested parties – or even between any particular individual human beings – are very different; there are different social conventions. Interestingly, people might have different ideas concerning what those are and it turns out they’re probably different from yours. I have a lot of respect for the author of this post which I found particularly insightful and something to which I should definitely refer back to at a later stage.

I was reminded of bits of Romans 12, specifically, wait, no, generally. Pretty much all of it. Go read it, it’s got pretty far reaching implications.

“If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

I think this is to do with the principles of the oft quoted Micah 6:8 rather than just prohibiting physical violence with neighbours. In fact I would go as far as to say that it seems that a lot of what Jesus had to say was more about developing Godly attitudes and relationships than avoiding doing bad stuff. As the Pharisees found out, you can avoid doing bad stuff all day long and still have a terrible attitude to those around you, those in need and even God. I think that I end up stuck in concentric circles of legalism and guilt and invented or perceived rules when I’m pretty sure that Jesus set me free from all of that and just wants me to focus on him. Perhaps I should put a lot more heart and soul in to doing that.

Click to see the turkey mayhem full size!