Webcomics: I read many.
Overcompensating, Rice Boy, Dresden Codak, Nedroid, Dead Winter, Bad Machinery, Questionable Content, Something Positive, Wondermark, Hark! a Vagrant, Dr. Mcninja, A Softer World, Dinosaur Comics, Cyanide & Happiness, and xkcd.
That seems like a lot, but it only takes up 15 minutes a day, three times a week. Which is less than soap opera or Britain's got Star Idol Factor viewers would spend on their nonsense, and is (mostly) done intelligently and tastefully, and with real talent.
Anyhoo, enough of me getting defensive.
What I wanted to say is this: of the comics I read, some have passed their respective heyday. This is not to say that I don't enjoy them, or that the output of these writers and artists is sub par (in fact many of what these individuals produce is excellent)
The most prominent examples are xkcd, A Softer World, Dr. Mcninja, Something Positive and Questionable content.
These webcomics just used to be better! For example, Dr Mcninja peaked at Punch Dracula. Why? Look at the title. Punch. Dracula. I rest my case? No, but it is very good. read it and find out!
Something Positive peaked when 3 of the characters were trapped by crazed catgirls on a cannibalistic orgy of death and fangirlism at a comicon, and where assisted by Wil Wheton. One of the funniest storylines ever. One of the reasons I'd state this as the peak is that [SPOILERS - text now in white] one of my favourite characters in the strip, a midget called Pepito, is killed and mostly eaten by the catgirls.
I used to find ASW hilarious. From clever wordplay to black humour, the strip, as I read through the back catalogues, never disappointed. Even now when I hit the "Random" button, the older strips make me laugh in a way the new ones never do.
XKCD: the 1337, The Race and Journal storylines. Check them out.
I'd recommend all the comics I've listed - as I said, just because I'd say they'd peaked, this doesn't mean I don't think that they are, in most cases brilliant.
If you're after great art, I'd recommend Rice Boy or Dresden Codak.
If you would be more interested in a quick laugh, that may often be thought provoking, read any of the following: Overcompensating, Nedroid, Wondermark, Hark! a Vagrant, A Softer World, Dinosaur Comics, Cyanide & Happiness, or xkcd.
SP and QC are slice of life comics, following the cast as they go about their lives. The former I'd place well below the latter in terms of writing, art, and content quality.
Dead Winter, Bad Machinery, Doctor Mcninja are serialised webcomics, though this is about as far as the similarities go - though DW and DM have both featured Zombies (the former almost exclusively), as did BM's predecessor, Scary Go Round. WARNING: BM contains children...
SF
Saturday, 14 August 2010
Friday, 13 August 2010
Um, hi.
Yeah, ok, 2 apologies: that last post was pretentiously written. it started ok, then it went on as though i knew what i was talking about; and I haven't blogged in aaaages.
I had a mixed day:
Got up at 8 (bad thing)
Successfully made marbled toast for the second time out of 3 attempts (good thing)
Had to wait for ages for flooring to be delivered (bad thing)
Had to transfer 240kilos worth of flooring up the stairs in front of my house into my front hall (bad thing)
Made home-made chicken soup from scratch (good thing)
Ate said soup (good thing)
Went shopping, came back, knocked on door, knocked on back door, threw stones at brother's window. assumed everyone was out, so went on a short walk. then stood around for ages. then went on another short walk in the rain. came back, brother was in all along. (bad thing, but the walk in the rain was fun)
Made home-made ketchup from scratch (good thing)
This took at least 4 hours (bad thing)
Wahey, I have sufficiently bored you to death!
Samf-iSh
I had a mixed day:
Got up at 8 (bad thing)
Successfully made marbled toast for the second time out of 3 attempts (good thing)
Had to wait for ages for flooring to be delivered (bad thing)
Had to transfer 240kilos worth of flooring up the stairs in front of my house into my front hall (bad thing)
Made home-made chicken soup from scratch (good thing)
Ate said soup (good thing)
Went shopping, came back, knocked on door, knocked on back door, threw stones at brother's window. assumed everyone was out, so went on a short walk. then stood around for ages. then went on another short walk in the rain. came back, brother was in all along. (bad thing, but the walk in the rain was fun)
Made home-made ketchup from scratch (good thing)
This took at least 4 hours (bad thing)
Wahey, I have sufficiently bored you to death!
Samf-iSh
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Effin' n' Jeffin'
I say we remove all censorship from swears, sexual phrases, and racial slurs.This would remove the concept of such things within a couple of generations, as if no words are prohibited, then none are stigmatised.
For instance, the word f--k. It is one of the most versatile words in the English language, for frak's sake - it can be used as a verb, a noun, an adverb and an adjective - yet we either bleep of blank it out when it appears in songs or on television before 9 O'clock (a purely arbitrary time, surely, in this age of on-demand viewing and 'plus' boxes), all because it's a "dirty" word. When censored in such a way, the quality of these media are very noticeably reduced - who hasn't been annoyed when listening to a song containing expletives that has all these gaps in the vocals, upsetting the vocal rhythm? Or been watching a program that, when a character says the frankly weak, "ass," has short periods of total silence - silence that one would normally associate with a fault in broadcast?
Words that describe the anatomy, such as "ass" (corrupted from arse, but the more commonly heard of the two in television), c--k, or t--t, when censored, surely show a childlike embarrassment in regards to such things? A censor would not censor "penis" or "vagina", as these are medical terms - why is the distinction made for slang?
When one removes the stigma and the shame from these words, these words lose their power. I'll explain my meaning: say a man A is angry with man B. A says of B, "You're such a penis". It seems childish, amusing, and without any real power as an insult. Consider, however, A caling B a pr--k, a c--k, or a d--k - this is clearly an insult, as man A is using a "bad word". Therefore, if we remove the stigma from the latter three words - bringing them into true equation with the former- they lose their power as insults.
The area of racial slurs is not such a simple one. If we allow musicians to use them in their work unrestricted, then, yes, as the words enter the day-to-day lexicon, they will eventually be seen as synonyms. On the flip-side, however, if we cease punishment of aggressive use of these terms, then those who would use them to cause harm would be free to do so. I say this, however: this does not matter. I'm not saying that using such a word aggressively is without moral negativity, but this use would only last a generation or two - again, if no stigma is placed on a word, it loses its power. After all, racial slurs can lose their meaning in less than a generation - the word "black" was once considered offensive, the word "coloured" acceptable, and now the reverse is true; who's to say what will and will not be acceptable in 50 years time?
This last point, "who's to say..." can be said of all such words - s--t was a perfectly acceptable word in this country 1000 years ago - why shouldn't any word become stigmatised? Why shouldn't any word have it's stigma removed?
SF
For instance, the word f--k. It is one of the most versatile words in the English language, for frak's sake - it can be used as a verb, a noun, an adverb and an adjective - yet we either bleep of blank it out when it appears in songs or on television before 9 O'clock (a purely arbitrary time, surely, in this age of on-demand viewing and 'plus' boxes), all because it's a "dirty" word. When censored in such a way, the quality of these media are very noticeably reduced - who hasn't been annoyed when listening to a song containing expletives that has all these gaps in the vocals, upsetting the vocal rhythm? Or been watching a program that, when a character says the frankly weak, "ass," has short periods of total silence - silence that one would normally associate with a fault in broadcast?
Words that describe the anatomy, such as "ass" (corrupted from arse, but the more commonly heard of the two in television), c--k, or t--t, when censored, surely show a childlike embarrassment in regards to such things? A censor would not censor "penis" or "vagina", as these are medical terms - why is the distinction made for slang?
When one removes the stigma and the shame from these words, these words lose their power. I'll explain my meaning: say a man A is angry with man B. A says of B, "You're such a penis". It seems childish, amusing, and without any real power as an insult. Consider, however, A caling B a pr--k, a c--k, or a d--k - this is clearly an insult, as man A is using a "bad word". Therefore, if we remove the stigma from the latter three words - bringing them into true equation with the former- they lose their power as insults.
The area of racial slurs is not such a simple one. If we allow musicians to use them in their work unrestricted, then, yes, as the words enter the day-to-day lexicon, they will eventually be seen as synonyms. On the flip-side, however, if we cease punishment of aggressive use of these terms, then those who would use them to cause harm would be free to do so. I say this, however: this does not matter. I'm not saying that using such a word aggressively is without moral negativity, but this use would only last a generation or two - again, if no stigma is placed on a word, it loses its power. After all, racial slurs can lose their meaning in less than a generation - the word "black" was once considered offensive, the word "coloured" acceptable, and now the reverse is true; who's to say what will and will not be acceptable in 50 years time?
This last point, "who's to say..." can be said of all such words - s--t was a perfectly acceptable word in this country 1000 years ago - why shouldn't any word become stigmatised? Why shouldn't any word have it's stigma removed?
SF
Thursday, 24 June 2010
Capitalism makes me :(
I was listening to one of those adverts earlier that made me want to never ever use the service/buy the product (I can't remember what it was for, so I guess my resolution failed) when I realised: They Don't Care TM.
This rather made me sad. No matter my attitude to something, no matter how strongly I feel, no matter how far into the moral right I am, unless the majority of people feel the same way, it doesn't matter
Welp, goodbye
SamfiSh
(The home of They Don't Care TM!)
This rather made me sad. No matter my attitude to something, no matter how strongly I feel, no matter how far into the moral right I am, unless the majority of people feel the same way, it doesn't matter
Welp, goodbye
SamfiSh
(The home of They Don't Care TM!)
Sunday, 20 June 2010
Salut!
Merci bonne chance? Bonjour madame et monsieur, comment êtes-vous? Je suis un bon champagne. Rhinocéros, et la pamplemousse.
Hi there, inter-folks!
I feel I need to compensate for the absence of Tobiwan. I don't have one of my own, but Google hath provided:
Hi there, inter-folks!
I feel I need to compensate for the absence of Tobiwan. I don't have one of my own, but Google hath provided:
George Osborne has set out plans to set out a four-year plan. Oh yes, George, because those long-term plans always come to fruition...
I was going to do a blog about the BBC news website headline, but now can't come up with any comment. This whole "do blogs in daylight" idea appears to have truth in it.
Oh well. I need to a-bed-u-late.
Watch out for Con-Gratulat Ions, folks, they're lethal
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
Hello, dear listeners.
It's been quite a while.
Sorry.
Well! My life has been shuffled a tad since last we spoke. I am now possibly going to live in Cardiff for a year. Apparently a nice city, and also the setting of Torchwood. It'll be interesting and straight up weird living in a new city, with strange people, in a new church. After all, I've attended NKCC my whole life, and visited very few other churches. Hopefully I'm making the right choice here, but if I'm not: whatever.
I think (probably erroneously) that it'll be easier to sing in front of people I don't know, so maybe the whole "worship leader" thing will be advanced faster than if I had remained where I am. Throws the "start a band like Larry Mullen did" idea out the window, but again to that I use my teen prerogative and give the answer: whatever. What shall happen will happen and what won't wot'n't.
My plans to write a comic are still going. I still need a drawerer though.
Enough boring you! Away with me!
SamfiSh
Sorry.
Well! My life has been shuffled a tad since last we spoke. I am now possibly going to live in Cardiff for a year. Apparently a nice city, and also the setting of Torchwood. It'll be interesting and straight up weird living in a new city, with strange people, in a new church. After all, I've attended NKCC my whole life, and visited very few other churches. Hopefully I'm making the right choice here, but if I'm not: whatever.
I think (probably erroneously) that it'll be easier to sing in front of people I don't know, so maybe the whole "worship leader" thing will be advanced faster than if I had remained where I am. Throws the "start a band like Larry Mullen did" idea out the window, but again to that I use my teen prerogative and give the answer: whatever. What shall happen will happen and what won't wot'n't.
My plans to write a comic are still going. I still need a drawerer though.
Enough boring you! Away with me!
SamfiSh
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