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The Incomparable

220: Authentic Cop Mustache

 

00:00:00   the incomparable number 220 November [TS]

00:00:11   welcome back to the incomparable i'm [TS]

00:00:13   your host Jason snow we are here in this [TS]

00:00:16   very special episode to talk about [TS]

00:00:18   webcomics that's right [TS]

00:00:20   comics found in Webb's put there by [TS]

00:00:23   spiders joining me to talk about [TS]

00:00:25   webcomics tonight are the following find [TS]

00:00:29   people [TS]

00:00:29   Glenn fleischmann hello hello pleasure [TS]

00:00:32   to be here mr. Snell welcome to the web [TS]

00:00:34   thank you hurt my way out of it i'm [TS]

00:00:36   still dubious about it's about I think [TS]

00:00:38   you're right [TS]

00:00:39   Erica and sign also here hello hello [TS]

00:00:42   welcome to the web of comic you and I'm [TS]

00:00:45   happy to be caught in the web [TS]

00:00:47   alright Tony Tony sindelar we'll see [TS]

00:00:49   what happens later you may regret this [TS]

00:00:51   choice [TS]

00:00:52   Tony simple are also here hi Tony hello [TS]

00:00:54   nerds the classic Tony you can that's [TS]

00:00:58   gonna be your thing now you're gonna be [TS]

00:00:59   mr. hello nerds that is it's my thing in [TS]

00:01:02   real life I'm just kind of my thing on [TS]

00:01:03   the internet okay good [TS]

00:01:05   and John siracusa hello no more [TS]

00:01:07   catchphrases [TS]

00:01:08   yeah I think that's probably also also a [TS]

00:01:10   webcomic is one word yes web comic [TS]

00:01:13   webcomic wow no no webcomic is a [TS]

00:01:16   comedian least note who is stuck in a [TS]

00:01:19   web and that is totally different [TS]

00:01:22   it's like a comedian spider-man doesn't [TS]

00:01:24   like is a webcomic so webcomics these [TS]

00:01:27   are like I said comics that you find on [TS]

00:01:29   the web and we had a conversation on a [TS]

00:01:31   little mailing list of behind-the-scenes [TS]

00:01:33   about web comics and I was really [TS]

00:01:35   excited by by the conclusion of Mona by [TS]

00:01:40   Noelle Stevenson and that would and I [TS]

00:01:45   have ever had like three webcomics ever [TS]

00:01:47   but everybody on the panel was like oooo [TS]

00:01:50   let's talk about what Kyle of webcomics [TS]

00:01:51   I thought okay well I consider a nod and [TS]

00:01:54   say I read pneumonia and I really liked [TS]

00:01:56   it and XKCD is a thing right and then [TS]

00:02:00   everybody else can talk about actual web [TS]

00:02:02   comics that people that they like and [TS]

00:02:04   the people should look at because these [TS]

00:02:06   are comics that you can find on the [TS]

00:02:07   internet did you know k people out there [TS]

00:02:10   did you know that you can read comics on [TS]

00:02:12   the internet it's true [TS]

00:02:13   Kevin webcomic something internet now [TS]

00:02:15   that you there are there one word the [TS]

00:02:18   webcomics so this is not a draft because [TS]

00:02:22   quite frankly after three rounds i would [TS]

00:02:23   be out of I [TS]

00:02:24   yes and that's only if nobody took any [TS]

00:02:26   of the three things that i've read so [TS]

00:02:27   instead i thought this would be more of [TS]

00:02:29   the e easygoing meandering let's talk [TS]

00:02:32   about some web comics that we like and [TS]

00:02:34   and and command them to the folks out [TS]

00:02:36   there John siracusa do you have either [TS]

00:02:39   an opening statement or something you [TS]

00:02:41   would like to discuss about promise I [TS]

00:02:44   don't know what the format of the show [TS]

00:02:45   is going well muted I so welcome i I [TS]

00:02:48   didn't remember if i had rsvp'd hurt [TS]

00:02:50   either [TS]

00:02:50   I don't have an opening statement but [TS]

00:02:53   what I was thinking about the topic i [TS]

00:02:54   realize i read a lot of webcomics [TS]

00:02:56   surprising amount and so yeah I have I [TS]

00:03:00   have selections I have things I like but [TS]

00:03:02   i do not have an opening statement [TS]

00:03:03   alright i actually have like I don't [TS]

00:03:05   think it counts as an opening statement [TS]

00:03:07   is now go for it ok here I go [TS]

00:03:10   you know last time we talked about [TS]

00:03:12   reading i had crammed a bunch of novels [TS]

00:03:15   before we recorded right and this time I [TS]

00:03:17   have been cramming webcomics because i [TS]

00:03:19   tend to go through webcomic cycles where [TS]

00:03:21   I will read a few for a couple years and [TS]

00:03:23   then something happens it was job or [TS]

00:03:25   something and I was track for a year or [TS]

00:03:27   two or three or more and then eventually [TS]

00:03:29   I remember and then I catch up on what [TS]

00:03:30   I've missed and stay current for like a [TS]

00:03:32   year too and you know leather rinse [TS]

00:03:34   repeat [TS]

00:03:34   so the last time I was having webcomics [TS]

00:03:36   like five years ago I figured it out and [TS]

00:03:39   that was that's probably the longest gap [TS]

00:03:40   I've gone and i was reading at that time [TS]

00:03:43   I think six of them pretty regularly and [TS]

00:03:45   for something that was every single day [TS]

00:03:47   and then I got a new job so the losing [TS]

00:03:50   track of them face started up again and [TS]

00:03:51   so now i guess i have to say thank you [TS]

00:03:53   Jason for being the catalyst of me [TS]

00:03:56   entering the reading webcomics phase [TS]

00:03:57   again because I've spent the last two [TS]

00:03:59   weeks reading about five years worth of [TS]

00:04:01   a couple of my favorite comics which has [TS]

00:04:03   actually been really fun of course now [TS]

00:04:05   I'm had so much material to binge on at [TS]

00:04:08   the time and now I've got like [TS]

00:04:09   withdrawal shakes try to go back to this [TS]

00:04:12   one a day it's a little sad things we do [TS]

00:04:14   for podcasting yep [TS]

00:04:16   yeah like read our paper comics yeah i [TS]

00:04:19   know in novels and that store it's what [TS]

00:04:22   you gotta do it anybody want to talk a [TS]

00:04:25   little bit on the road glen I sense you [TS]

00:04:28   might want to say something i have an [TS]

00:04:30   opening statements [TS]

00:04:31   yeah first of all you will so I've [TS]

00:04:35   always been a comics fan [TS]

00:04:37   dumb i'm going to office cleaning or not [TS]

00:04:39   but back in the late nineteen nineties i [TS]

00:04:40   want of writing quite as where it is [TS]

00:04:42   cme New York Times about comics on the [TS]

00:04:46   web sort of the nascent days of [TS]

00:04:49   webcomics and when people were taking [TS]

00:04:52   like scott adams was was early on to [TS]

00:04:54   even people like I know this will sound [TS]

00:04:55   ridiculous but Frank in earnest which is [TS]

00:04:57   still running the Creator is a super [TS]

00:04:59   nice guy passed away a few years ago his [TS]

00:05:01   kids still running it's one of these [TS]

00:05:02   sort of pun strips so you know I have to [TS]

00:05:04   like it [TS]

00:05:05   it'sit's dad humor and it's been dating [TS]

00:05:07   forever very clever guy PhD in [TS]

00:05:09   psychology and anyway so he he had gone [TS]

00:05:11   on they put an email address and his [TS]

00:05:13   strip it somewhere in the late nineties [TS]

00:05:15   and they were getting like thousands of [TS]

00:05:16   inhale speak here which stunned them [TS]

00:05:19   about a pun strip basically and and i [TS]

00:05:22   remember seeing like these little [TS]

00:05:23   glimpses there's a strip called Alex's [TS]

00:05:26   restaurant and like a few like early [TS]

00:05:28   things that were people who had been [TS]

00:05:30   conventional cartoons or maybe not [TS]

00:05:31   broken into the syndicate market and it [TS]

00:05:33   started to post things sometimes every [TS]

00:05:35   day and we're just playing with the idea [TS]

00:05:37   of being not comics that were somewhere [TS]

00:05:40   else put on the web because that's the [TS]

00:05:42   only way you could have made a living to [TS]

00:05:43   do it but like I say like that putting [TS]

00:05:46   you know making him [TS]

00:05:47   webcomics and mikael jansson who is [TS]

00:05:49   still very active and does animation [TS]

00:05:51   studio that animates other people's [TS]

00:05:53   webcomics his own he was very very early [TS]

00:05:55   and you can still find him active and he [TS]

00:05:57   may be one of the few people who has a [TS]

00:05:58   scope that spans sort of the entire you [TS]

00:06:02   know early period to now of of being a [TS]

00:06:05   web cartoonist and that is all i have to [TS]

00:06:06   say it's a great field tony do you have [TS]

00:06:08   any any statements you would like to [TS]

00:06:10   make her or would you like to cry [TS]

00:06:12   previous statements yes i'll just say [TS]

00:06:14   I've been reading webcomics for a long [TS]

00:06:17   time now since around 1998 and it's like [TS]

00:06:19   it's like the first thing i do every [TS]

00:06:20   morning [TS]

00:06:21   Wow some people some people like [TS]

00:06:23   newspapers for me it's like I read [TS]

00:06:26   webcomics and then I start working [TS]

00:06:27   through my email and then you know then [TS]

00:06:28   I do real work so I do my my day [TS]

00:06:31   wow I don't know what year is it now i [TS]

00:06:34   don't know i lost track but like 90 [TS]

00:06:36   years a while it might write 1999 yeah I [TS]

00:06:38   was like my ways of reading them has [TS]

00:06:39   changed a little bit over the years of [TS]

00:06:41   but yeah you're reading on your computer [TS]

00:06:44   on an ipad on iphone you know I mainly [TS]

00:06:46   mainly alta on a computer [TS]

00:06:49   I want the internet rely on bookmarks [TS]

00:06:51   and I would have bookmarked folders for [TS]

00:06:53   like comics that were only once a week I [TS]

00:06:55   would have liked the Monday folder and [TS]

00:06:58   click on that and it would open all the [TS]

00:06:59   you know all the Monday comics and you [TS]

00:07:01   read those words now we have things like [TS]

00:07:03   RSS or other things where it gets pushed [TS]

00:07:06   to us see my method of reading the few [TS]

00:07:08   web comics I've read is erica's method [TS]

00:07:10   which is you forget and then you for [TS]

00:07:12   remembering you're like oh I've been [TS]

00:07:14   there in a little while and you go and [TS]

00:07:16   you find that there are like eight pages [TS]

00:07:17   that you haven't read and you read them [TS]

00:07:19   and you're like oh man and then you [TS]

00:07:21   forget for another occasionally that [TS]

00:07:23   happens with like like when it was in a [TS]

00:07:25   fetal break and I realize I haven't read [TS]

00:07:26   that long time to the it's hard because [TS]

00:07:28   some comics like kind of trickle and [TS]

00:07:30   fade in and out and sometimes it's like [TS]

00:07:32   no they broke their feet and I have to [TS]

00:07:33   go find their new feed and look I got to [TS]

00:07:35   read got to read for the first time six [TS]

00:07:37   months of their crack all at once but [TS]

00:07:40   you know and then the number has been [TS]

00:07:42   floated their I think there's a [TS]

00:07:43   one-point probably in the early 2000s [TS]

00:07:46   where I probably reading about 20 or 30 [TS]

00:07:48   and i have paired that down to maybe [TS]

00:07:51   like a dozen now and you know i did that [TS]

00:07:53   like I'm not gonna start reading new [TS]

00:07:54   comics and thankfully these people are [TS]

00:07:56   like they can't keep making the same [TS]

00:07:57   comic forever so they'll die off and to [TS]

00:07:59   imagine the comics not that people [TS]

00:08:01   either way [TS]

00:08:03   oh I mean yeah comics yeah well it's [TS]

00:08:07   kind of a shame the webcomics like it [TS]

00:08:09   has all one word [TS]

00:08:10   it's so all-encompassing because i think [TS]

00:08:13   for other comics like when we say comic [TS]

00:08:15   books [TS]

00:08:16   everyone knows kind of what we're [TS]

00:08:17   talking about it right and then we say [TS]

00:08:19   comics without the books it's like three [TS]

00:08:22   panel gag strips in the newspaper don't [TS]

00:08:24   know I i would say i was a comic strips [TS]

00:08:27   comic reading that's what I'm looking [TS]

00:08:28   for comic strips comic book right but [TS]

00:08:30   when you say webcomics encompasses [TS]

00:08:32   basically any thing that has pictures [TS]

00:08:35   with words that's on the web because the [TS]

00:08:36   web part was deemed to be the most [TS]

00:08:38   important part and so it covers [TS]

00:08:39   everything like it does and you know not [TS]

00:08:42   all comics are the same to right i mean [TS]

00:08:44   not all comics are 32 pages you know [TS]

00:08:46   staple I know but like a very [TS]

00:08:47   experienced be there is no comic book [TS]

00:08:50   that is a one panel one based get you [TS]

00:08:54   don't mean that you wouldn't go to a [TS]

00:08:55   comic book store find a comic book open [TS]

00:08:57   up only to find a gigantic far side on [TS]

00:08:59   the single-page they're like that's not [TS]

00:09:00   a thing that you bought [TS]

00:09:01   I have a collection that is that just [TS]

00:09:03   one page comic books [TS]

00:09:05   it's one page comics in the assembled in [TS]

00:09:07   a book so I mean it's like the far side [TS]

00:09:09   tear off calendars but if you know [TS]

00:09:11   depends how it was originally pretty [TS]

00:09:12   wouldn't think of it as a comic book [TS]

00:09:13   whatever the web eNOS just seem to win [TS]

00:09:15   out so now everything that's on the web [TS]

00:09:17   is a webcomic which makes it difficult [TS]

00:09:19   to like when you guys are all talking [TS]

00:09:21   about things that you read i could have [TS]

00:09:22   to like kind of sniff out is he talking [TS]

00:09:24   about like a serialize thing with like a [TS]

00:09:25   narrative that goes over a series of [TS]

00:09:27   things is he talking about a gag strip [TS]

00:09:29   is he talking about you know like you [TS]

00:09:30   can't really tell up just based on web [TS]

00:09:32   comics that the great thing too is that [TS]

00:09:34   a any given thing you read could [TS]

00:09:36   actually more from one thing together so [TS]

00:09:38   there's stuff that stick strictly to a [TS]

00:09:40   form but they're certainly sites [TS]

00:09:42   everywhere sometimes it's one panel [TS]

00:09:43   sometimes it's like 40 feet sometimes [TS]

00:09:47   there's like animation and I other stuff [TS]

00:09:49   built into it i'm usually animation is a [TS]

00:09:51   bigger thing but even like Jeff [TS]

00:09:52   animation and the fact that some people [TS]

00:09:55   stick to a format that's not necessary [TS]

00:09:57   because they're on the web and others [TS]

00:09:58   you know push in all different [TS]

00:10:00   directions with it as well the infinite [TS]

00:10:02   canvas [TS]

00:10:03   yeah yeah well yeah well XKCD is time [TS]

00:10:06   won the hugo award my and it is I I [TS]

00:10:11   forget exactly how I it's essentially an [TS]

00:10:13   animation or you could you I it's hard [TS]

00:10:17   to describe what it is [TS]

00:10:18   yeah it is it is a story / 3099 unique [TS]

00:10:23   images and at one but what you didn't [TS]

00:10:27   win the dramatic presentation Hugo it [TS]

00:10:29   it won the graphic story you go which is [TS]

00:10:32   interesting because it's kind of [TS]

00:10:33   animation but it's kind of a series of [TS]

00:10:35   stills and that's just one example of [TS]

00:10:36   meanwhile be not only is it a webcomic [TS]

00:10:38   not only do you have webcomics that [TS]

00:10:40   could be comic strips are comic books in [TS]

00:10:42   serial form but you've also got the fact [TS]

00:10:44   that it's this dynamic medium and a [TS]

00:10:45   webcomic can be all sorts of things in [TS]

00:10:47   the middle that are not something we [TS]

00:10:49   could define i was in college in the [TS]

00:10:51   early 2000 you a bunch of people who are [TS]

00:10:54   involved in making comics for like the [TS]

00:10:56   college newspaper right and that was [TS]

00:10:58   kind of a weird time because there would [TS]

00:10:59   be things that would start as a webcomic [TS]

00:11:01   that would then become a print comic and [TS]

00:11:03   there would be things that we started [TS]

00:11:04   print comics that would then become a [TS]

00:11:07   webcomic and you know some people like [TS]

00:11:09   different things about the different for [TS]

00:11:10   matter who they would reach [TS]

00:11:12   but to a certain extent was like why [TS]

00:11:14   make a comic that would only be printed [TS]

00:11:16   in your college newspaper when you could [TS]

00:11:19   put it on the web and much larger honey [TS]

00:11:21   that's right you know and some people [TS]

00:11:24   jump back and forth and would you know [TS]

00:11:25   have a set of characters and produce [TS]

00:11:27   separate separate comics for each but [TS]

00:11:29   yeah well there's the commercial aspect [TS]

00:11:31   to which is that webcomics have been a [TS]

00:11:33   spectacularly successful forum for [TS]

00:11:36   people in a profession that has very few [TS]

00:11:38   people who actually make a living at it [TS]

00:11:40   in the in the olden days like there's [TS]

00:11:42   some professions where like editorial [TS]

00:11:43   cartoonists a great example is there [TS]

00:11:45   used to be not that long ago thousands [TS]

00:11:48   of people in America who is full-time [TS]

00:11:49   job was drawing a few editorial cartoons [TS]

00:11:52   we can occasionally writing and now [TS]

00:11:53   there are like a hundred and twelve or [TS]

00:11:55   something right and there's some all the [TS]

00:11:56   cartoonist many of whom I i know because [TS]

00:11:59   they're small circle on Twitter and it [TS]

00:12:01   but like you look at cartoon comic [TS]

00:12:04   strips there's always a finite hole in [TS]

00:12:06   the paper that they could fill and the [TS]

00:12:08   it was a power locker of distribution so [TS]

00:12:10   peanuts was in every paper and calvin [TS]

00:12:12   hobbes when it ran and so forth so there [TS]

00:12:14   weren't that many slots that can be [TS]

00:12:16   filled in the web gave infinite [TS]

00:12:17   opportunity but that doesn't always mean [TS]

00:12:18   it can be exploited but web cartoonists [TS]

00:12:21   I think our web comics managed to [TS]

00:12:23   somehow do this great thing which is not [TS]

00:12:25   only give people a place that they don't [TS]

00:12:28   have to you know there's no limit to [TS]

00:12:29   what they could do and they can control [TS]

00:12:31   it but to find an audience that's [TS]

00:12:32   willing in many cases to pay enough in [TS]

00:12:35   some manner by page views or books or [TS]

00:12:38   Kickstarter's or whatever that that [TS]

00:12:40   there are a lot of people who they make [TS]

00:12:42   some of their living and a reasonable [TS]

00:12:44   number to make a full time living from [TS]

00:12:46   it and that's actually kind of [TS]

00:12:47   extraordinary there's I think there's at [TS]

00:12:49   least hundreds if not in the thousand or [TS]

00:12:52   more who derive a real a substitute part [TS]

00:12:55   of a living if not better from it and [TS]

00:12:57   the way that has kind of emerged as [TS]

00:12:58   someone interesting i remember i did in [TS]

00:13:00   college I looked it up around 2001 a [TS]

00:13:02   presentation for a class on the future [TS]

00:13:05   of micro payments and how that was going [TS]

00:13:06   to change everything [TS]

00:13:08   you'll remember that that then never [TS]

00:13:09   happen everyone's going to pay a penny [TS]

00:13:11   to read their cum yeah everyone's going [TS]

00:13:12   to have plenty to read webcomics told [TS]

00:13:14   remember when that happened and then [TS]

00:13:15   didn't work out nope [TS]

00:13:16   yeah any day now like the answer was [TS]

00:13:20   actually t-shirts so close yeah the [TS]

00:13:22   answer the answer with teeth like this [TS]

00:13:24   macro payment is actually pretty cool [TS]

00:13:26   too yeah you know actually in going back [TS]

00:13:29   and reading and catching up on some of [TS]

00:13:30   these things uh one of them i noticed [TS]

00:13:32   that the Creator had a patreon page so I [TS]

00:13:34   went and I pledged it which is a good [TS]

00:13:36   way to do it i went at a comic con a few [TS]

00:13:38   years ago in San Diego I i went to a [TS]

00:13:40   digital comics panel and heard the guide [TS]

00:13:42   now I'm not gonna remember his name and [TS]

00:13:44   I really it's a guy who does love and [TS]

00:13:48   capes whose name escapes me which is a [TS]

00:13:50   fun webcomic Tom Sawyer is his name and [TS]

00:13:56   it's a webcomic about a superhero and [TS]

00:13:59   his dating life and it's actually pretty [TS]

00:14:01   fun but the point of the panel was that [TS]

00:14:03   a lot of webcomics people including the [TS]

00:14:05   lemon cake sky Tom there they actually [TS]

00:14:09   started structuring their comics at [TS]

00:14:11   roughly the orientation or end aspect [TS]

00:14:15   ratio of half of a printed comic book [TS]

00:14:17   page so that they could stack them and [TS]

00:14:20   do a print edition every so often of [TS]

00:14:23   what they did which I thought was an [TS]

00:14:24   interesting way of going backward into a [TS]

00:14:27   print medium in order to sell books by [TS]

00:14:29   coming up with a way to structure your [TS]

00:14:31   web comic in a way that you know [TS]

00:14:33   eventually it assembles itself and this [TS]

00:14:35   is one kind of webcomic right is the the [TS]

00:14:38   thing that's that's actually like a [TS]

00:14:39   comic book or a graphic novel but it's [TS]

00:14:41   being assembled in in in pieces right in [TS]

00:14:44   front of you which is was my experience [TS]

00:14:46   with pneumonia as well which starts out [TS]

00:14:48   much more punch line e at you know every [TS]

00:14:52   page is a punt has a punch line at the [TS]

00:14:54   end and over the course of of time it [TS]

00:14:57   becomes something that's much more about [TS]

00:14:59   the continuing story and that there [TS]

00:15:01   doesn't have to be a punch line but [TS]

00:15:03   that's the one of the great things about [TS]

00:15:04   this format is that it can be plotted to [TS]

00:15:07   go into other formats later and be as he [TS]

00:15:11   realises you wanted to be as well as [TS]

00:15:13   completely not if you don't want to be I [TS]

00:15:15   i had two comics that I wanted to talk [TS]

00:15:17   about one obscure one well-known but [TS]

00:15:19   speaking of like how comics can morph [TS]

00:15:22   and be different things on the web one [TS]

00:15:24   aspect of webcomics that I've that [TS]

00:15:26   really drew me into it is the idea that [TS]

00:15:29   you can participate in the you can be [TS]

00:15:33   there for the birth of something so that [TS]

00:15:35   the just this one compliment [TS]

00:15:37   comic that out well maybe maybe Tony [TS]

00:15:39   sort of it up it's called alpha shade i [TS]

00:15:42   was kind of a failed comic experiment [TS]

00:15:44   and i don't know how i came to start [TS]

00:15:45   following it but they did a podcast that [TS]

00:15:47   was associated with it and it's two [TS]

00:15:49   brothers working on this sort of in [TS]

00:15:50   their spare time one of them is a [TS]

00:15:51   graphic artist by trade and he was [TS]

00:15:53   drawing it in the other one drives [TS]

00:15:55   trains for a living and he wrote it and [TS]

00:15:57   they would podcast about their [TS]

00:15:59   experience of trying to do the comic and [TS]

00:16:00   fit into their lives and how they how [TS]

00:16:04   they wanted to be successful but didn't [TS]

00:16:06   know how they're ever going to do it [TS]

00:16:08   with their other responsibilities and I [TS]

00:16:11   how they wanted to make print books out [TS]

00:16:13   of it to make money and they would go to [TS]

00:16:14   comic conventions and say how successful [TS]

00:16:16   it was or wasn't and talk about the time [TS]

00:16:19   and effort required to put in the pages [TS]

00:16:21   and then and the difficulty keeping to a [TS]

00:16:23   schedule and that's not really part of [TS]

00:16:25   the comic but webcomics like so many [TS]

00:16:27   other things on the web lets you sort of [TS]

00:16:29   feel like you are participating in the [TS]

00:16:31   whole thing you never got to see like [TS]

00:16:32   the creative process behind like peanuts [TS]

00:16:35   or whatever maybe you like a new story [TS]

00:16:36   whatsoever but in the webcomics you got [TS]

00:16:38   to see everything the entire struggle [TS]

00:16:40   and alpha shade in particular is [TS]

00:16:41   interesting because it was essentially a [TS]

00:16:43   webcomic that didn't didn't fulfill the [TS]

00:16:46   dreams of its creator didn't make them [TS]

00:16:47   financially independent they didn't all [TS]

00:16:49   get the quick that quit their jobs and [TS]

00:16:51   just do the count full time and in fact [TS]

00:16:52   the comic is not done and they probably [TS]

00:16:54   bit off way more than they can chew but [TS]

00:16:55   it is a fascinating experimental [TS]

00:16:59   fascinating artifact of the creative [TS]

00:17:01   process and its alpha dash a comp you [TS]

00:17:04   want to pop some pages that have never [TS]

00:17:06   seen before [TS]

00:17:06   the artwork is absolutely amazing [TS]

00:17:08   especially compared to sort of the [TS]

00:17:09   average webcomics not that I'm slamming [TS]

00:17:11   web comic artist but artistic ability is [TS]

00:17:13   not the most important thing especially [TS]

00:17:14   if you're writing a gag strip but the [TS]

00:17:16   artwork is incredible and it does get [TS]

00:17:18   much better from the beginning towards [TS]

00:17:19   the end the writing not so incredible [TS]

00:17:21   the world much bigger than they could [TS]

00:17:23   think of but then they could possibly [TS]

00:17:25   pull off but it is a fascinating not [TS]

00:17:28   gonna say failure but it's a fascinating [TS]

00:17:29   sample of something that can only happen [TS]

00:17:31   on the web because you would never I [TS]

00:17:33   would never have heard of these people [TS]

00:17:34   they would never get a book deal they [TS]

00:17:35   would never you know have a [TS]

00:17:37   half-finished story on shelves somewhere [TS]

00:17:38   like they would have had to go through [TS]

00:17:40   an editorial process if I would not have [TS]

00:17:42   been able to see this thing at all [TS]

00:17:43   probably let alone see the entire sort [TS]

00:17:46   of creative process of it and that is an [TS]

00:17:48   aspect of webcam [TS]

00:17:49   accident kind of I guess it's kind of [TS]

00:17:51   like a reality-tv aspect where you feel [TS]

00:17:53   like you're a connection with the [TS]

00:17:53   creator's more much more so that you [TS]

00:17:55   would anything you would buy in a store [TS]

00:17:56   in decades past i completely agree one [TS]

00:18:00   of the ones that i caught up on was that [TS]

00:18:02   questionable content and one of the [TS]

00:18:04   reasons that i like that comics so much [TS]

00:18:05   is that after the end of every comic the [TS]

00:18:09   co-author puts in but you know sometimes [TS]

00:18:12   it's just that you know hey come and see [TS]

00:18:13   me at such-and-such a convention but [TS]

00:18:15   quite often it's like a little comment [TS]

00:18:17   on the story or the the strip that you [TS]

00:18:19   saw that day and quite often it seems [TS]

00:18:21   like he is as surprised at what happened [TS]

00:18:25   in the strip as I am or that you know [TS]

00:18:27   the characters did something he didn't [TS]

00:18:29   expect and I just always find that kind [TS]

00:18:31   of hilarious and I don't know if it's [TS]

00:18:34   still going but for a while the many of [TS]

00:18:36   the characters in the comic actually [TS]

00:18:38   have their own Twitter accounts and he [TS]

00:18:39   had been playing back and forth and you [TS]

00:18:41   could follow all of them and it was just [TS]

00:18:43   it was it was kind of it was just great [TS]

00:18:45   because I really from reading so many [TS]

00:18:48   years of this comic I felt like all [TS]

00:18:49   these characters were my friends and [TS]

00:18:51   then going back and catching up on the [TS]

00:18:53   last five years was really cool just [TS]

00:18:55   like my life had been changing and and I [TS]

00:18:57   was growing and and they were to a their [TS]

00:19:00   lives had moved on and and and it was [TS]

00:19:02   cool catching up and I should look and [TS]

00:19:04   see if they still have Twitter accounts [TS]

00:19:05   because that would be cool i like that [TS]

00:19:08   comic a lot too [TS]

00:19:09   it's like the ancillary materials like [TS]

00:19:11   like the blog posts that associate that [TS]

00:19:14   are associated with a lot of comics or [TS]

00:19:15   podcasts or things like other like sort [TS]

00:19:18   of extra material surrounding the [TS]

00:19:19   comment that the comic is the thing but [TS]

00:19:21   there's like this expanded universe of [TS]

00:19:23   content from the author that is just [TS]

00:19:26   always surrounded as the communities the [TS]

00:19:27   forms that you're on there's the [TS]

00:19:29   blogpost the news post the you know the [TS]

00:19:32   even the merchandise that they sell [TS]

00:19:33   forms this world around this work and [TS]

00:19:35   it's all like one thing there's this [TS]

00:19:37   comment like this pretty popular cat and [TS]

00:19:39   girl and the artist and writer solicits [TS]

00:19:43   donations for maintaining the comic and [TS]

00:19:46   she then draws a comic about spending [TS]

00:19:48   the money that she gets on donations [TS]

00:19:50   here's the groceries hype ah here's the [TS]

00:19:52   community was repaying my cable bill you [TS]

00:19:54   know here's here's buying one take a [TS]

00:19:56   guess so i can do to some important [TS]

00:19:58   thing right [TS]

00:19:59   well it's interesting to think about it [TS]

00:20:00   to that a lot of these comics in the if [TS]

00:20:02   you draw that line [TS]

00:20:03   back to the content newspaper comic [TS]

00:20:04   strips especially that was something [TS]

00:20:07   that it didn't it didn't have a world [TS]

00:20:10   around it like like what you guys are [TS]

00:20:12   describing it wasn't a website and [TS]

00:20:14   ancillary material and expanded universe [TS]

00:20:15   it was literally like a comic strip in a [TS]

00:20:18   row you know in a column with a lot of [TS]

00:20:20   different comic strips and it would [TS]

00:20:22   change day by day and it certainly had [TS]

00:20:24   its fans right but it was in no context [TS]

00:20:27   other than the comics page inside the [TS]

00:20:29   newspaper and you you know peanuts by [TS]

00:20:31   Schultz ok and then that's all you [TS]

00:20:34   really knew and and the most you might [TS]

00:20:36   get is like my brother when I was little [TS]

00:20:40   I remember he had some peanuts books and [TS]

00:20:43   then when I was like 9 or whatever I got [TS]

00:20:45   some Garfield books and was like oh my [TS]

00:20:47   god the whole book of just got your [TS]

00:20:49   field comics it was really nothing more [TS]

00:20:50   than the comics but yet it it was like [TS]

00:20:53   this is just about peanuts or Garfield [TS]

00:20:56   or whatever and that's a great thing [TS]

00:20:58   about webcomics is that they can be [TS]

00:21:00   their own thing they have their own [TS]

00:21:01   product their own world they've got [TS]

00:21:02   everything around them if you really [TS]

00:21:04   love them you can know all these things [TS]

00:21:05   about them that when they were just a [TS]

00:21:07   thing stuck in the corner of the [TS]

00:21:08   newspaper that mean you literally [TS]

00:21:10   couldn't glean anything more beyond what [TS]

00:21:12   was in the newspaper [TS]

00:21:13   that's why you'd buy those books from [TS]

00:21:15   the comics from you know you by the [TS]

00:21:16   collections of like bloom county or [TS]

00:21:18   calvin hobbes and we have notes from the [TS]

00:21:19   author about the strips and I know [TS]

00:21:20   that's like oh they're gonna talk about [TS]

00:21:22   this trip that I read you know six [TS]

00:21:24   months ago or they're gonna have an [TS]

00:21:25   introductory paragraph or something you [TS]

00:21:27   just wanted anything from the creator of [TS]

00:21:28   this thing you love like these are the [TS]

00:21:29   color versions that papers that printed [TS]

00:21:32   in color used but my paper didn't and so [TS]

00:21:35   I never saw them in color even though [TS]

00:21:36   they made them in color stuff like that [TS]

00:21:38   too i mean it's yeah so and that that's [TS]

00:21:40   the thing about a webcomic is that it it [TS]

00:21:42   doesn't just change the form of the of [TS]

00:21:44   the comic that they can have it be [TS]

00:21:46   infinitely long and have it be an [TS]

00:21:48   animated gif or whatever that you know [TS]

00:21:50   all these different things that you can [TS]

00:21:51   do with the format but it's also that [TS]

00:21:52   it's surrounded by all this stuff so [TS]

00:21:54   that you can really connect to the [TS]

00:21:55   creator and other fans in a way that you [TS]

00:21:58   just can't if it's laying there flat on [TS]

00:21:59   the page and that's an upgrade over the [TS]

00:22:01   speaking of content like a comic was in [TS]

00:22:04   black and white [TS]

00:22:05   I think it's not great even over the [TS]

00:22:07   best quality color printed like x-men [TS]

00:22:09   comics not that [TS]

00:22:10   high-quality me but like for example [TS]

00:22:12   alpha shade is done in 32-bit color and [TS]

00:22:15   flash so it's a resolution independence [TS]

00:22:16   and has the full color palette available [TS]

00:22:18   nothing on the printed page can compare [TS]

00:22:20   with that and you know especially in the [TS]

00:22:22   pre sort of dark horse you know graphic [TS]

00:22:24   novel type of days when it was just you [TS]

00:22:27   know how many colors were comics when [TS]

00:22:28   you were a kid Jason 6 8 16 [TS]

00:22:31   well I mean it was a four color process [TS]

00:22:32   so they could be lots of colors but it [TS]

00:22:34   would be half tethering yeah yeah yeahs [TS]

00:22:36   dithering half-tones we call that [TS]

00:22:38   halftone to be the right time for our [TS]

00:22:41   first sponsor break it's a new sponsor [TS]

00:22:43   i'm excited to tell you about it's [TS]

00:22:45   Casper you may have heard about Casper [TS]

00:22:47   on some other podcast let me tell you [TS]

00:22:48   about it first hand i have been sleeping [TS]

00:22:50   for the last week on a casper mattresses [TS]

00:22:54   now Casper is like the fusion of the [TS]

00:22:58   sleep world with the technology world [TS]

00:23:00   there's a whole story about the people [TS]

00:23:02   behind Casper being obsessed with [TS]

00:23:05   engineering a great mattress at an [TS]

00:23:08   incredibly good price so the guys behind [TS]

00:23:12   Casper are revolutionising the mattress [TS]

00:23:14   industry they are cutting the cost of [TS]

00:23:16   dealing with resellers and showrooms [TS]

00:23:18   coming out of the equation passing that [TS]

00:23:20   saving directly onto you and doing it [TS]

00:23:23   with a mattress that is one-of-a-kind is [TS]

00:23:25   what they call a hybrid mattress it is a [TS]

00:23:27   combination of premium latex foam with [TS]

00:23:29   memory foam and put those two together [TS]

00:23:31   for better nights and brighter days [TS]

00:23:35   because you sleep well now I've had the [TS]

00:23:37   queen-size Casper for about a week [TS]

00:23:40   I have to admit I was a little bit [TS]

00:23:42   skeptical my wife was skeptical but you [TS]

00:23:44   know what it is [TS]

00:23:45   it does not feel like my old spring [TS]

00:23:48   mattress which was really bouncy this [TS]

00:23:50   one you just kind of lay on it you sink [TS]

00:23:52   into it but it's really comfortable i [TS]

00:23:54   had a good night's sleep the first night [TS]

00:23:57   and that's saying something with a new [TS]

00:23:58   mattress and I've really enjoyed every [TS]

00:24:00   night since then so you should [TS]

00:24:02   definitely check it out now what do [TS]

00:24:04   casper mattresses costs this one of [TS]

00:24:05   those crazy five-thousand-dollar [TS]

00:24:07   mattresses no it isn't about 500 is [TS]

00:24:10   where it starts for a twin 604 twin [TS]

00:24:13   extra long go up from there 754 full 854 [TS]

00:24:16   Queen 954 king and if you look at what [TS]

00:24:20   my mattresses are in the industry are [TS]

00:24:22   priced at [TS]

00:24:23   it's actually a pretty darn good deal in [TS]

00:24:26   fact people might say how could they [TS]

00:24:29   even do this how do they do it [TS]

00:24:31   I don't know some smart technology [TS]

00:24:33   cutting up the middle men shrink-wrap [TS]

00:24:35   because what happens is when you order a [TS]

00:24:37   Casper it comes to you in a box [TS]

00:24:39   surprisingly small box and you think [TS]

00:24:41   okay what if I got myself and i ordered [TS]

00:24:43   the wrong size what's going on here and [TS]

00:24:45   you cut the package open the box and [TS]

00:24:47   open and it unfurls and springs into [TS]

00:24:51   full-size it's not pretty amazing if you [TS]

00:24:54   want to put it back in the box below to [TS]

00:24:55   send it back to Casper if you're [TS]

00:24:56   unsatisfied you know you had those [TS]

00:24:58   moments where like you buy a bed and you [TS]

00:25:00   bought it and you're stuck with it [TS]

00:25:01   whether you like it or not not true with [TS]

00:25:04   Casper there's a free trial and return [TS]

00:25:07   policy free delivery and free returns [TS]

00:25:10   within a hundred days hundred days you [TS]

00:25:12   can sleep on a Casper for three months [TS]

00:25:15   and still have time to send it back if [TS]

00:25:19   it just isn't for you and casper [TS]

00:25:21   mattresses are made in the USA so go [TS]

00:25:24   give it a try [TS]

00:25:25   fifty dollars toward any mattress if [TS]

00:25:27   you're in the market for a new mattress [TS]

00:25:29   please consider Casper visit Casper com [TS]

00:25:33   cas pr.com / incomparable and use the [TS]

00:25:38   offer code incomparable and you'll get [TS]

00:25:40   fifty dollars off any mattress purcha so [TS]

00:25:43   thank you so much to Casper for giving [TS]

00:25:45   me a good night's sleep and supporting [TS]

00:25:48   being comfortable the I was gonna point [TS]

00:25:50   out a kind of extreme example of that [TS]

00:25:53   like the autobiographical elements like [TS]

00:25:55   knowing more about the artist is [TS]

00:25:57   hyperbole and a half by ali bouche which [TS]

00:25:59   is one of the it's almost you know it's [TS]

00:26:01   john redefining inside as onra insiders [TS]

00:26:04   genre which is if you don't overwork as [TS]

00:26:07   other people read her stuff i don't know [TS]

00:26:08   yeah I haven't I haven't gone back in [TS]

00:26:11   you know devoured it all but I've right [TS]

00:26:13   enough to know that that's something [TS]

00:26:14   that's on my to do this [TS]

00:26:16   oh my god it's just it's it's [TS]

00:26:18   mind-blowing because it's very personal [TS]

00:26:19   and it's very funny and it's very dark [TS]

00:26:21   all at once and it's you know [TS]

00:26:24   she's got severe depression and she had [TS]

00:26:27   she's kind of you know it's really weird [TS]

00:26:29   kid and she writes these amazing things [TS]

00:26:31   and she gets inside the head of what it [TS]

00:26:33   was like at the time she's going through [TS]

00:26:35   these things there's one of the more [TS]

00:26:37   recent thing it hurts go on and on and [TS]

00:26:40   on and they're like book-length accounts [TS]

00:26:43   almost there just one bit where she's so [TS]

00:26:45   their parents give her a dinosaur [TS]

00:26:47   costume and she's a little kid and she [TS]

00:26:49   conveys the power she fell and the [TS]

00:26:51   unlock of control she suddenly exercise [TS]

00:26:54   whenever she was wearing and how long it [TS]

00:26:55   took her parents to realize that her [TS]

00:26:57   terrible behavior was whenever she was [TS]

00:26:59   wearing the dinosaur costume but she [TS]

00:27:00   tells you the story from inside that and [TS]

00:27:04   her drawing a sort of purposely it's not [TS]

00:27:06   a lot of you like fake naive kind of [TS]

00:27:09   style but its its course in a really [TS]

00:27:11   specific way and when she wants to its [TS]

00:27:13   it's better but I think that's part of [TS]

00:27:15   the way that she's representing these [TS]

00:27:16   really jagged experiences but it's oh my [TS]

00:27:19   god is it funny and then she released a [TS]

00:27:20   book that has some stuff from that's [TS]

00:27:22   online there's a lot more words in the [TS]

00:27:24   book let's say and in some that were new [TS]

00:27:27   and the book is powerful and amazing and [TS]

00:27:29   whatever in and like other times you [TS]

00:27:31   know laughing so hard I can't breathe [TS]

00:27:34   sort of stuff and then others feel like [TS]

00:27:35   oh my god this woman is talking about [TS]

00:27:37   the deepest darkest point at which she [TS]

00:27:39   just is telling people no it's okay i [TS]

00:27:41   just want to die [TS]

00:27:43   it's alright though it's fine it's just [TS]

00:27:44   I don't have any feelings and I'd like [TS]

00:27:46   to die and then realizing what that [TS]

00:27:48   sounds like to other people and it's but [TS]

00:27:52   i don't know if i can underestimate how [TS]

00:27:54   hilarious is because it's so raw but [TS]

00:27:57   also relatable and she pushed the medium [TS]

00:28:01   and she nurses webpages she's one of [TS]

00:28:03   these people this is something I point [TS]

00:28:04   out to is so many people who are on the [TS]

00:28:06   top of their profession I don't want to [TS]

00:28:08   say nobody you know people like which [TS]

00:28:10   Stevens his friend friend of the show [TS]

00:28:12   which yeah [TS]

00:28:14   diesel sweeties I mean he's been he's [TS]

00:28:16   been cranking it out for over a decade [TS]

00:28:18   and working his ass off for that time [TS]

00:28:20   but they're also the people like kate [TS]

00:28:22   beaton Oh [TS]

00:28:23   for uh you know is actually number of [TS]

00:28:25   people we talked about the tally bhushan [TS]

00:28:26   other folks who they just posted some [TS]

00:28:28   sometimes modest stuff for one thing and [TS]

00:28:31   people went berserk on tumblr or [TS]

00:28:33   facebook and then encourage them to do [TS]

00:28:35   more and suddenly know kate beaton went [TS]

00:28:37   from I think posting some sketches on [TS]

00:28:40   tumblr to a new york times bestseller in [TS]

00:28:42   under three years two and a half years [TS]

00:28:44   and her stuff is still out other people [TS]

00:28:47   talk about her too i'm sure but like [TS]

00:28:49   that's the phenomenon to is that it's [TS]

00:28:51   it's like music for artists like a this [TS]

00:28:55   person got discovered and then there are [TS]

00:28:57   top of the you know effective charts in [TS]

00:28:58   New York Times bestseller list that's [TS]

00:29:00   impressive [TS]

00:29:01   it's like music for artists she just [TS]

00:29:02   blew my mind well it's like chocolate [TS]

00:29:06   for wine so I'm we should take some time [TS]

00:29:09   and let people extol the virtues one of [TS]

00:29:11   the things I like to do on the show I [TS]

00:29:12   really love doing is having people talk [TS]

00:29:15   about things they like and that way [TS]

00:29:18   other people get to hear about those [TS]

00:29:19   things and then they could try them out [TS]

00:29:20   and I think that's really exciting so I [TS]

00:29:22   thought we would go around in a non [TS]

00:29:23   draft like fashion and let people share [TS]

00:29:26   some of the things that they like John's [TS]

00:29:29   you want to start sure i will pick the [TS]

00:29:31   easy for me it's not a pit or speak not [TS]

00:29:33   of their not first graph on pic [TS]

00:29:36   yes i will pick something the easy one [TS]

00:29:38   that everybody knows that may be [TS]

00:29:40   somewhat controversial but i'm here to [TS]

00:29:42   defend oh no that and that is the [TS]

00:29:45   quintessential webcomic penny arcade [TS]

00:29:48   this is this is not the episode where we [TS]

00:29:51   talk about difficulties with the [TS]

00:29:53   creators that was no more talking about [TS]

00:29:55   Colorado river's a penny arcade is a [TS]

00:29:57   fantastic webcomic I think it's probably [TS]

00:30:00   the first 1i i started to read regularly [TS]

00:30:01   it's a gag strip it's about video games [TS]

00:30:04   it does the webcomic thing and that [TS]

00:30:07   sometimes three panel sometimes it's six [TS]

00:30:09   sometimes it's it's laid out like a [TS]

00:30:11   graphic novel and goes on with [TS]

00:30:13   continuity and there's no gag like it [TS]

00:30:15   does whatever the hell it wants to do I [TS]

00:30:17   and in going through back through the [TS]

00:30:20   catalog trying to find some links there [TS]

00:30:22   is a fantastic amount of content first [TS]

00:30:24   love it its it's can do it a webcomic [TS]

00:30:26   can do in this comic for people who are [TS]

00:30:28   into video games which that would never [TS]

00:30:30   that doesn't work in a newspaper you [TS]

00:30:31   know it should have during the NES era [TS]

00:30:33   that shouldn't you should have been able [TS]

00:30:34   have a comment about video games but you [TS]

00:30:36   could write on the web you can because [TS]

00:30:38   you can connect traitor and their [TS]

00:30:40   audience right and in this comic yet [TS]

00:30:43   started off as a gag comic the artist [TS]

00:30:45   Mike could not draw very well in the [TS]

00:30:47   beginning that's that's a common thing I [TS]

00:30:48   think in a lot of webcomics you look at [TS]

00:30:50   the first year and you like it it's it's [TS]

00:30:52   in all comics because if you look at the [TS]

00:30:53   first year peanuts or or dare I say it [TS]

00:30:56   from my Garfield book reading years i [TS]

00:30:58   was actually the first Garfield look I [TS]

00:31:00   was like what the hell happened to [TS]

00:31:01   garfield the answers they had heard that [TS]

00:31:03   he hadn't figured out how to draw you [TS]

00:31:05   something sometimes when i was going to [TS]

00:31:06   say he didn't figure out how to get [TS]

00:31:08   ghost artist for a while there now see [TS]

00:31:11   it's not but sometimes it's like you're [TS]

00:31:12   just learning how to make your [TS]

00:31:14   characters in sort of a generic way but [TS]

00:31:15   other times you're actually expanding [TS]

00:31:17   the your artistry and i think that's [TS]

00:31:18   that's the case we can see Mike [TS]

00:31:19   developers an artist but some of the [TS]

00:31:21   things I picked out from from their run [TS]

00:31:23   as a couple of good gag strips that I [TS]

00:31:25   like that again the gag trips only work [TS]

00:31:26   if you have this deep deep knowledge of [TS]

00:31:28   video game culture that was happening at [TS]

00:31:30   the time this trip was made and so that [TS]

00:31:32   connects with an audience because you're [TS]

00:31:33   like i know this is you know this but [TS]

00:31:35   very few other people do but we find it [TS]

00:31:37   hilarious only do things like the paint [TS]

00:31:39   the line series which was a sort of [TS]

00:31:42   eighties movie send up involving [TS]

00:31:45   ping-pong they do things like automaton [TS]

00:31:48   which is a a gritty new are sort of [TS]

00:31:51   black-and-white comic about our robot [TS]

00:31:53   detective and his partner cardboard [TS]

00:31:56   tubes tubes samurai which is like a [TS]

00:31:58   send-up of the samurai movies but with [TS]

00:32:00   obviously with a cardboard tube which is [TS]

00:32:01   all born out of things that happen in [TS]

00:32:03   their lives and more recently that [TS]

00:32:05   lookouts thorn watch and daughters of [TS]

00:32:08   the our wood which is like here's the [TS]

00:32:10   thing about the penny arcade these guys [TS]

00:32:12   wanted to make a serious comic like when [TS]

00:32:15   they were in their kids they wanted to [TS]

00:32:16   make like the comics that they were [TS]

00:32:18   reading like you know the dark knight [TS]

00:32:19   and stuff like super serious like [TS]

00:32:21   everyone you know this is real art and [TS]

00:32:23   everything and yet what they found [TS]

00:32:24   themselves making was a comedy strip and [TS]

00:32:27   so everything they do with the comedy [TS]

00:32:29   strip you can see the thing they wanted [TS]

00:32:30   it's like it's like a sideways backwards [TS]

00:32:32   way to be able to do things they want to [TS]

00:32:34   do so cardboard samurais a joke pieces [TS]

00:32:36   his sword is a cardboard tube but it's [TS]

00:32:38   not a joke it's also us memorize strip [TS]

00:32:40   the same thing with automaton which [TS]

00:32:42   that's more straight up i think our [TS]

00:32:44   paint the line like it's again with [TS]

00:32:46   being being with these people on their [TS]

00:32:48   journey [TS]

00:32:48   of how are we going to make money should [TS]

00:32:51   we accept donations they didn't think [TS]

00:32:52   they have microtransactions but that you [TS]

00:32:54   know should we should we put out a print [TS]

00:32:56   book that them selling the rights to [TS]

00:32:58   their to their entire strip several [TS]

00:33:00   times to unscrupulous business people [TS]

00:33:02   and getting out of it then creating this [TS]

00:33:04   entire business for themselves and the [TS]

00:33:05   penny arcade expo and other things it is [TS]

00:33:07   a fascinating story outside the strip [TS]

00:33:09   which you know goes off and other [TS]

00:33:11   interesting directions but the strip [TS]

00:33:12   itself [TS]

00:33:13   this is a solid webcomic this is an [TS]

00:33:15   amazingly good webcomic it's just I have [TS]

00:33:18   literally pages of what i think are [TS]

00:33:20   fantastic examples of the form and so [TS]

00:33:22   despite all the other things that penny [TS]

00:33:24   arcade being the 800-pound gorilla and [TS]

00:33:26   all sorts of other non-comic related [TS]

00:33:28   things that are involved with them i [TS]

00:33:30   think it's important not to lose sight [TS]

00:33:31   of the fact that you know like ender's [TS]

00:33:34   game may have been a really good novel [TS]

00:33:35   and this is a really really good comic [TS]

00:33:37   strip [TS]

00:33:38   yeah i'll agree with you completely is [TS]

00:33:39   that I I stopped reading it but i think [TS]

00:33:41   what they do what they have done and [TS]

00:33:43   what they do is actually really [TS]

00:33:44   remarkable and even there it's a [TS]

00:33:47   fascinating to go back and look at the [TS]

00:33:48   early strips and watch the drawing style [TS]

00:33:51   improve fairly rapidly into something [TS]

00:33:54   that's incredibly slick and professional [TS]

00:33:56   and the overall billion forgot which is [TS]

00:33:59   a jury or is it gay produce the drive [TS]

00:34:01   member which to get Gabriel mike is gay [TS]

00:34:04   painters the drugs can he's using he's [TS]

00:34:06   he's got and he's got a tremendously [TS]

00:34:08   better as an artist and also he's still [TS]

00:34:11   not like awesome i think that's [TS]

00:34:14   endearing quality like this is somebody [TS]

00:34:16   who if they were just working as like a [TS]

00:34:18   traditional artist like not doing their [TS]

00:34:19   own thing would probably not be hired to [TS]

00:34:22   you know doing like animation hand like [TS]

00:34:26   his his skills are never going to be [TS]

00:34:28   sort of top-tier top-shelf kind of like [TS]

00:34:31   whatever is the most recent age like [TS]

00:34:34   what [TS]

00:34:35   silver age and Jason can tell me [TS]

00:34:37   whatever whenever there was a recent Age [TS]

00:34:39   of comics he would not be in that in [TS]

00:34:40   that camp but because he is his own [TS]

00:34:43   person that his own thing and because he [TS]

00:34:45   has come so far he's like he's good [TS]

00:34:47   enough and he and he pushes himself as [TS]

00:34:49   interesting things he's achieved the [TS]

00:34:50   apotheosis in his own milieu right is [TS]

00:34:53   that he's he he's kind of reached a [TS]

00:34:55   point in the kind of thing he does i [TS]

00:34:58   mean the art is very good but it's also [TS]

00:34:59   for what he does he's the best added in [TS]

00:35:02   that space because it's the thing they [TS]

00:35:03   defined and he changes that all the time [TS]

00:35:06   like gold back like out with these links [TS]

00:35:07   he changes our style whenever the hell [TS]

00:35:09   he feels like it wiping is going to stop [TS]

00:35:11   him [TS]

00:35:11   yeah i agree i mean-- and socially have [TS]

00:35:13   there's there's cannon there's sandal [TS]

00:35:16   and strips and I I'm not you know gamer [TS]

00:35:18   myself I barely know anything about [TS]

00:35:19   video games stuff but I read I don't [TS]

00:35:21   play that many and I found this trip [TS]

00:35:23   very enjoyable at times because they [TS]

00:35:24   provide just enough context so I could [TS]

00:35:26   read through the background to to find [TS]

00:35:29   it and enjoy it as well so yeah i'm i'm [TS]

00:35:31   a i'm a big fan of what they did [TS]

00:35:33   separate from being able to read it [TS]

00:35:36   anymore right [TS]

00:35:37   yeah that was actually one of the one of [TS]

00:35:39   the comics that was on my list you know [TS]

00:35:40   five or six years ago and I felt like I [TS]

00:35:43   one of the reasons i didn't even bother [TS]

00:35:45   to go back to it is that I have kind of [TS]

00:35:47   dropped off in gaming since then but [TS]

00:35:48   even at the time I wasn't gaming as much [TS]

00:35:50   as I had been in previous years but I [TS]

00:35:52   felt like that comic kept me connected [TS]

00:35:55   to the gaming world in a way that I [TS]

00:35:57   would have completely missed out on had [TS]

00:35:58   I not been reading it so I kind of knew [TS]

00:36:01   enough stuff peripheral to be able to [TS]

00:36:03   get most of the jokes and then anything [TS]

00:36:05   that didn't immediately twig to me I [TS]

00:36:07   could kind of figure out or go off on a [TS]

00:36:10   forum somewhere where everybody's going [TS]

00:36:12   on [TS]

00:36:12   sometimes you just resign your post [TS]

00:36:14   instead of actually living at the comedy [TS]

00:36:15   forget as a comic care to have family in [TS]

00:36:17   America do you have something you would [TS]

00:36:19   like to recommend well I i mentioned [TS]

00:36:21   briefly questionable content so i guess [TS]

00:36:22   maybe I will talk about that i think [TS]

00:36:24   it's probably at this point my favorite [TS]

00:36:26   webcomic just after doing my her quick [TS]

00:36:29   catch-up this is the 1i think I was most [TS]

00:36:31   excited about and I think it's because [TS]

00:36:32   of the characters it's the comic of all [TS]

00:36:35   the ones that i read that has the most [TS]

00:36:36   realistic characters because they [TS]

00:36:39   sometimes act in ways that are [TS]

00:36:40   unexpected but they're not unrealistic [TS]

00:36:42   and I think that's an important [TS]

00:36:43   distinction [TS]

00:36:44   there's no big gimmick to this comic [TS]

00:36:46   it's it's it's definitely more a [TS]

00:36:48   serialize kind of a thing it's not a gag [TS]

00:36:50   strip although there are a lot of goofy [TS]

00:36:51   gags in it it's just sort of a simple [TS]

00:36:54   story of a few people that live in [TS]

00:36:56   northampton massachusetts you gotta [TS]

00:36:59   Martin who's an indie-rock aficionado [TS]

00:37:02   who doesn't really know what he wants to [TS]

00:37:03   do with his life [TS]

00:37:04   I can relate his friends he has a friend [TS]

00:37:07   roommate named feijoo she's kinda just [TS]

00:37:09   like what's Martin with a quick tongue [TS]

00:37:11   to match she usually keeps abuse on the [TS]

00:37:13   customers at the coffee shop where she [TS]

00:37:15   works and then that shop is run by Dora [TS]

00:37:17   who is a bisexual x gospel with an [TS]

00:37:20   amazing talent for coffee roasting and [TS]

00:37:23   then you've got handle or who is just [TS]

00:37:24   the super sweet character she's a little [TS]

00:37:26   shy and a lot OCD because she grew up on [TS]

00:37:29   a space station and the world is also [TS]

00:37:31   populated by robots with artificial [TS]

00:37:33   intelligence they are like pint-sized [TS]

00:37:37   who is Martin's and throw pc he's mostly [TS]

00:37:40   there for comic relief and really really [TS]

00:37:42   dirty jokes about cake batter and it's [TS]

00:37:46   just an interesting world is written by [TS]

00:37:48   I think it's pronounced Jeff jock jock [TS]

00:37:50   think that it didn't jph is a how Jeff [TS]

00:37:53   spelled by which i think is kind of cool [TS]

00:37:55   it started in august of 2003 and eyes i [TS]

00:37:57   think pretty consistently improved over [TS]

00:38:00   the years both in terms of the art like [TS]

00:38:02   we talked about and also the [TS]

00:38:03   complexities of like the storylines and [TS]

00:38:05   the character arcs there are a couple [TS]

00:38:07   things that I really love about the [TS]

00:38:08   comic um I love that the AI thing is not [TS]

00:38:11   a big deal it's just sort of a part of [TS]

00:38:13   the fabric of the the world that this is [TS]

00:38:15   told from and it's a world is very close [TS]

00:38:17   to ours there just happened to be well I [TS]

00:38:19   guess people i mean there are [TS]

00:38:21   campaigning for civil rights at some [TS]

00:38:23   points kind of just in the background of [TS]

00:38:24   this comic but it's not a really big [TS]

00:38:26   deal it's also super geeky there are [TS]

00:38:29   tons of references to indie rock bands [TS]

00:38:31   i've never heard of but there are just [TS]

00:38:33   as many references to star wars or XKCD [TS]

00:38:35   or mst3k in in one stay in one frame [TS]

00:38:40   they're kicking somebody out the coffee [TS]

00:38:41   shop and saying all right Tom servo it's [TS]

00:38:43   movie sign get the hell out [TS]

00:38:45   so you know that's that's my kind of [TS]

00:38:47   joke and though it's written by a guy i [TS]

00:38:50   think this comic has pretty much the [TS]

00:38:51   best treatment of female characters of [TS]

00:38:54   any kind of anything that i have read [TS]

00:38:56   lately they are real people with real [TS]

00:38:58   personalities real flaws they make [TS]

00:39:01   realistic decisions that don't always [TS]

00:39:03   revolve around the guys in the strip [TS]

00:39:04   which is sometimes a nice change and [TS]

00:39:07   among the main characters i think the [TS]

00:39:09   women actually outnumber the men by [TS]

00:39:10   quite a bit which is super rare and it [TS]

00:39:13   from an artwork perspective they are not [TS]

00:39:15   all super skinny or like super busty [TS]

00:39:18   some of them are just super skinny some [TS]

00:39:20   sort of real nice career [TS]

00:39:21   the ladies and the guys are really like [TS]

00:39:23   that to you get some chunky fellows and [TS]

00:39:24   some some really cut dudes there's a [TS]

00:39:27   little bit of everything and it's rare [TS]

00:39:29   that it's even mentioned it's just that [TS]

00:39:30   people are people and they look [TS]

00:39:32   different [TS]

00:39:33   actually come to think of it there's [TS]

00:39:34   kind of a nice diversity of races and [TS]

00:39:36   skin color as well they don't really [TS]

00:39:38   dwell upon it so I never never really [TS]

00:39:41   paid attention to that until I was [TS]

00:39:42   rereading it and now thinking and [TS]

00:39:44   talking about it and he also doesn't shy [TS]

00:39:46   away from discussions of sexuality there [TS]

00:39:49   are people all over the spectrum and [TS]

00:39:51   it's just sort of an accepted thing [TS]

00:39:52   which i think is really great it's kind [TS]

00:39:54   of refreshing to have it not be a really [TS]

00:39:57   big deal and in addition he's also [TS]

00:40:00   started taking on gender identity issues [TS]

00:40:02   recently he introduced a trans character [TS]

00:40:04   named Claire and I'm really really [TS]

00:40:06   loving this storyline and the character [TS]

00:40:08   because she's just super sweet and [TS]

00:40:10   lovable and adorable and he apparently [TS]

00:40:13   has worked really hard at doing the [TS]

00:40:14   research and talking to people to try to [TS]

00:40:16   make sure that he gets the storyline [TS]

00:40:17   right because he recognizes what a big [TS]

00:40:19   deal it is and doesn't want to screw it [TS]

00:40:21   up as much as possible and apparently so [TS]

00:40:23   far the feedback has been really [TS]

00:40:25   positive so I just I'm completely [TS]

00:40:28   enjoying it and in addition to all the [TS]

00:40:30   other sort of connection to the author [TS]

00:40:33   things that we had talked about he is [TS]

00:40:35   also very open about his own mental [TS]

00:40:37   health issues which occasionally get in [TS]

00:40:39   the way of putting out comics [TS]

00:40:41   consistently and I think that that [TS]

00:40:43   openness is really great i wish more [TS]

00:40:44   people would talk about that sort of [TS]

00:40:46   stuff to help distinc- ties it so that's [TS]

00:40:48   that's the kind of thing that really [TS]

00:40:49   makes me feel close to the author in in [TS]

00:40:53   a way that I don't necessarily get from [TS]

00:40:55   from the little goofy jokes on some of [TS]

00:40:57   the other web comics that i read and [TS]

00:40:59   enjoy its great highly recommend i will [TS]

00:41:03   second Erica's of recommendation of [TS]

00:41:05   questionable content that was on my list [TS]

00:41:06   is pretty high up [TS]

00:41:07   if we were drafting and I could only [TS]

00:41:09   talk about it but it is delightful i [TS]

00:41:13   used to live for many years in the city [TS]

00:41:14   where it set and so it's any he does [TS]

00:41:16   lovely stuff of dropping stuff in the [TS]

00:41:18   background of actual places around there [TS]

00:41:20   so when I lived there it was play like [TS]

00:41:22   oh yeah that place and now it's like now [TS]

00:41:24   I can just logically be like yeah that [TS]

00:41:25   place so that's cool [TS]

00:41:28   nice tony do you have something you'd [TS]

00:41:30   like to recommend since you don't have [TS]

00:41:31   to recommend that one because it was [TS]

00:41:34   recommended [TS]

00:41:34   it's been recommended um I've got a [TS]

00:41:37   bunch on here i'm gonna pick one that I [TS]

00:41:38   guess we'll be slightly uh obscured by [TS]

00:41:41   the metric that it does not have a [TS]

00:41:42   Wikipedia page about that so i will [TS]

00:41:46   recommend the webcomic metroid any dro I [TS]

00:41:50   d.com which actually has a website now i [TS]

00:41:53   think when i was first reading it was [TS]

00:41:54   actually just images posted on like live [TS]

00:41:56   journal pages I don't that tells you a [TS]

00:41:58   little bit about it its pedigree and the [TS]

00:42:01   the the artist who creates metroid i [TS]

00:42:04   think actually does a like the coloring [TS]

00:42:06   or other production stuff for other [TS]

00:42:08   perhaps better known comics but metroid [TS]

00:42:11   is a comic that just makes me always [TS]

00:42:14   feel much happier and better about life [TS]

00:42:16   i guess it is kind of one of those like [TS]

00:42:18   you know one gag comic occasionally [TS]

00:42:21   their their ongoing story lines but a [TS]

00:42:22   lot of it is just jokes and it's about [TS]

00:42:25   these two characters are potato or perto [TS]

00:42:28   depending on how you pronounce that [TS]

00:42:30   who is a bear shape potato-shaped [TS]

00:42:32   character and uh Reginald who is a [TS]

00:42:36   bird-shaped character who is kind of his [TS]

00:42:39   friend but it's kind of an awful selfish [TS]

00:42:41   jerk and they go on adventures and [TS]

00:42:43   things happen [TS]

00:42:44   I i would say that metroid is a is up [TS]

00:42:46   there in terms of being perhaps one of [TS]

00:42:48   the finest quality comics in terms of [TS]

00:42:50   the quality of the punchline delivered [TS]

00:42:52   in the alt tag for images which is you [TS]

00:42:54   know a format 22 which to my knowledge [TS]

00:42:56   is unique to webcomics obviously XKCD is [TS]

00:43:01   pretty well known for that too but [TS]

00:43:02   metroid is a delightful comic that i've [TS]

00:43:05   been reading for many years I have some [TS]

00:43:06   metroid shirts which lets you know that [TS]

00:43:08   I like Metroid I guess yeah and it's [TS]

00:43:11   great it's part of I think it's part of [TS]

00:43:15   the same kind of there's a bunch of [TS]

00:43:16   webcomics who live in east hampton and [TS]

00:43:18   western Massachusetts or who are [TS]

00:43:20   associated with that collective which I [TS]

00:43:22   think just socks is part of and I don't [TS]

00:43:24   know if if this guy actually lives there [TS]

00:43:26   or if you just gets his stuff published [TS]

00:43:28   to the same group and I know our Stevens [TS]

00:43:32   is affiliated with them too [TS]

00:43:33   ok 22 pitch it to particle to pay the [TS]

00:43:36   court to pappadeaux I think it's [TS]

00:43:37   something I don't know Ren Ren Caldwell [TS]

00:43:39   used to work for yes I was actually just [TS]

00:43:41   make browsing the two-particle [TS]

00:43:43   merch site before we came here making my [TS]

00:43:45   Christmas list gotta go is for all of [TS]

00:43:48   your Christmas needs unless you know [TS]

00:43:49   people that are great so I don't know [TS]

00:43:52   yeah that's right said and basically is [TS]

00:43:54   what you're saying [TS]

00:43:55   Tony I didn't say that ok I'm saying [TS]

00:43:57   that that this the network is great [TS]

00:44:00   alright an alternate universe tony is [TS]

00:44:02   part of the comments collective any east [TS]

00:44:03   hampton massachusetts instead of having [TS]

00:44:05   a game full employment but you know [TS]

00:44:06   probably I have to like ride motorcycles [TS]

00:44:09   in that alternate future too [TS]

00:44:10   yeah that's great alright metroid good [TS]

00:44:13   job Tony it's really late here you [TS]

00:44:15   forgive you yet turned into the spin [TS]

00:44:17   there and you got it all straightened [TS]

00:44:18   out [TS]

00:44:19   Glenn do you have something to recommend [TS]

00:44:20   i have so many things i'm going to pick [TS]

00:44:22   one that I think is most amusing and [TS]

00:44:24   since i already mentioned le bouche just [TS]

00:44:26   not abusing in the same way [TS]

00:44:27   axe cop axe costly greatest thing ever [TS]

00:44:31   story of an ex-cop no good ever created [TS]

00:44:34   in any medium ever forever ex-cop is a [TS]

00:44:38   cop and one day at the fire scene the [TS]

00:44:40   fire he finds it acts and on that day he [TS]

00:44:42   becomes axe cop and it's a great concede [TS]

00:44:45   it was this guy who's a comic book [TS]

00:44:48   artist he has kind of a blended family [TS]

00:44:50   and he was spending time with his one of [TS]

00:44:53   his brothers whose five and he wasn't 26 [TS]

00:44:55   at the time and they start you know [TS]

00:44:57   written on Stephanie's drawing things [TS]

00:44:59   like the little brother comes up with [TS]

00:45:00   this axe cop idea so he starts drawing [TS]

00:45:02   comics and building plots and so forth [TS]

00:45:05   and they post some of the facebook and [TS]

00:45:06   people go nuts and then they your cleans [TS]

00:45:08   it up and he produces website and its it [TS]

00:45:11   was a huge phenomenon few years ago when [TS]

00:45:13   there was little less going on in both [TS]

00:45:15   their lives lives for the cartoonist had [TS]

00:45:18   more going on and it's just a it's crazy [TS]

00:45:22   because it's what a five-year-old is [TS]

00:45:24   told ok tell me the next part of story [TS]

00:45:26   now the next part of the story shaped by [TS]

00:45:28   someone with a really great comic book [TS]

00:45:30   sensibility so you know there's flute [TS]

00:45:32   cop who when he's touched by dragon [TS]

00:45:33   blood because dinosaur blood becomes [TS]

00:45:35   dinosaur book cop and the names are all [TS]

00:45:37   ridiculous there's a super heroes who [TS]

00:45:40   are named beautiful girly Bob they're [TS]

00:45:43   all identical women and wrists [TS]

00:45:45   you know there's bad guys next cop just [TS]

00:45:47   goes out and chop their heads off the [TS]

00:45:48   bad guys and well why'd you kill all [TS]

00:45:50   those people they were all bad guys and [TS]

00:45:52   and they turned it into [TS]

00:45:55   a webcomic web by animated series to [TS]

00:45:58   that I just watched a few weeks ago that [TS]

00:46:01   is crazy it's like the craziest thing [TS]

00:46:04   I've ever seen created in that way [TS]

00:46:07   because it has that five-year-old logic [TS]

00:46:09   presented in a super professional comic [TS]

00:46:12   way so it has none of the you know [TS]

00:46:15   script hallmarks like a five-year-old [TS]

00:46:16   wrong it for animating it would be very [TS]

00:46:18   different and they got patton oswalt and [TS]

00:46:20   some good names on it so i highly [TS]

00:46:22   recommend it because it's just it's so [TS]

00:46:25   weird and strange and funny and you can [TS]

00:46:26   see all the all the kids influences but [TS]

00:46:29   it's shaped into into stories that that [TS]

00:46:32   I think are really really entertaining [TS]

00:46:34   axe cop i was at penny arcade expo was [TS]

00:46:37   playing dungeons dragons as you do and i [TS]

00:46:40   was in a room and in a table and a [TS]

00:46:43   another one of these stories Tony we're [TS]

00:46:45   playing D&D at penny arcade expo jaan [TS]

00:46:48   okay go ahead a man who appeared to be a [TS]

00:46:50   police officer poked his head into the [TS]

00:46:52   room looked at us and said kids are [TS]

00:46:54   doing any drugs are you and we nervously [TS]

00:46:56   said no and he said ok then and he left [TS]

00:47:01   and as far as I could tell that guy was [TS]

00:47:03   a police officer until one of my friends [TS]

00:47:05   that did that police officer have an axe [TS]

00:47:08   it was an act top cosplayer I was not [TS]

00:47:11   familiar with that I saw a lot of axe [TS]

00:47:13   cop costumes including my friend in [TS]

00:47:15   Putney dressed up his axe cop i would [TS]

00:47:17   say that is his costume was dangerously [TS]

00:47:19   on the level of importance of a guitar [TS]

00:47:22   lesson 14 yeah it was pretty good and he [TS]

00:47:26   had an authentic cop mustache that you [TS]

00:47:28   know was not prosthetic so Dean party [TS]

00:47:31   here in this show episode below on the [TS]

00:47:33   futurama yeah Barbra Jean per episode [TS]

00:47:36   prefer yep that's my axe cop sorry [TS]

00:47:38   hopefully short good start good story [TS]

00:47:40   Tony 23 time for one more sponsor break [TS]

00:47:43   in the webcomics edition of the [TS]

00:47:46   incomparable and if somebody told you [TS]

00:47:48   about before i'd like to tell you about [TS]

00:47:49   them again it's lynda.com lynda.com is [TS]

00:47:53   an easy affordable way to help [TS]

00:47:55   individuals learn you can stream [TS]

00:47:57   thousands of different courses and their [TS]

00:47:58   courses by the experts experts on [TS]

00:48:00   business on software on web development [TS]

00:48:02   on graphic design and more you name it [TS]

00:48:05   now when i left my previous job [TS]

00:48:08   one of the benefits they actually gave [TS]

00:48:10   us on our way out the door for a short [TS]

00:48:12   period of time was lynda.com training I [TS]

00:48:16   thought that was really excellent like [TS]

00:48:17   to get us up to speed so when we look [TS]

00:48:19   for our next job [TS]

00:48:21   we have knowledge that we can apply [TS]

00:48:23   through Linda and actually when I was [TS]

00:48:25   building six colors calm i used [TS]

00:48:27   lynda.com CSS training to help me and [TS]

00:48:31   responsive design training to help me [TS]

00:48:33   figure out how to setup the CSS and the [TS]

00:48:36   web design for six colors because I did [TS]

00:48:37   that myself using the brains of the [TS]

00:48:40   experts at lynda.com Linda comms video [TS]

00:48:44   training if you haven't seen it it's [TS]

00:48:45   professionally done that these beautiful [TS]

00:48:47   modern studios they are not down in [TS]

00:48:49   somebody's basement with bad lighting [TS]

00:48:51   and you can't see what you're doing and [TS]

00:48:53   these are also like I said the experts [TS]

00:48:55   doing this so everything is crystal [TS]

00:48:57   clear they've got these beautiful studio [TS]

00:48:59   they've got this great technology you [TS]

00:49:01   can watch and learn on a smartphone on a [TS]

00:49:04   tablet or on your computer in a web [TS]

00:49:06   browser there are searchable transcripts [TS]

00:49:08   playlist you can get a certificate of [TS]

00:49:10   course completion with your beginners or [TS]

00:49:13   advanced people you can find courses for [TS]

00:49:15   you it's at all levels and all for one [TS]

00:49:18   low monthly price you pay $25 you have [TS]

00:49:21   access to the entire library it's more [TS]

00:49:23   than a hundred thousand video tutorials [TS]

00:49:25   and if you want to sign up for a premium [TS]

00:49:27   plan you can download courses to your [TS]

00:49:29   iphone or ipad watching offline any [TS]

00:49:32   software you can think of [TS]

00:49:33   lynda.com can help you stay current so [TS]

00:49:35   really it's a great deal you have access [TS]

00:49:37   to the entire library i used for web [TS]

00:49:39   design i've used for logic name the kind [TS]

00:49:42   of software you're interested in [TS]

00:49:43   Microsoft Office adobe creative suite [TS]

00:49:46   they're all there with courses on [TS]

00:49:48   lynda.com and here's a great thing about [TS]

00:49:51   Linda you get a chance to experience [TS]

00:49:54   lynda.com for free for 10 days [TS]

00:49:57   visit linda.com ly nba.com slash [TS]

00:50:01   incomparable to try it free for 10 days [TS]

00:50:04   and thank you so much to linda.com for [TS]

00:50:08   supporting the incomparable I've [TS]

00:50:10   mentioned before and so I'm just gonna [TS]

00:50:11   put out there since this this is my [TS]

00:50:13   impetus to to organize episode which is [TS]

00:50:15   no Mona which is coming out by Noelle [TS]

00:50:17   Stevenson you can get it in [TS]

00:50:19   you can read it at ginger hazing calm / [TS]

00:50:22   Damona and it's a really enjoyable story [TS]

00:50:25   that is now complete so you can read the [TS]

00:50:27   whole thing [TS]

00:50:28   it starts out as there's a villain his [TS]

00:50:30   name is balusters Blackheart the it is a [TS]

00:50:34   hilarious weird combination of a fantasy [TS]

00:50:36   and technology like if there's a castle [TS]

00:50:40   and stuff but there's also like a TV [TS]

00:50:41   station and scientists and balanced a [TS]

00:50:46   black heart is the villain but and you [TS]

00:50:47   get the sense very early that he had a [TS]

00:50:49   horrible falling-out with golden loin [TS]

00:50:52   who is the hero of the kingdom and uh [TS]

00:50:56   Ramona appears to balance your black [TS]

00:50:58   heart and basically says I want to be [TS]

00:51:00   the villain sidekick I i can change [TS]

00:51:03   shape and and I've got some big plans [TS]

00:51:05   and you know basically she tries to egg [TS]

00:51:07   them on to you you haven't been enough [TS]

00:51:09   of the supervillain let me help you out [TS]

00:51:12   boss and she know she appears as this as [TS]

00:51:14   this young girl but she's got these [TS]

00:51:16   powers and then the story over time as [TS]

00:51:19   the the art gets richer and the story [TS]

00:51:21   gets Richard because the artist is [TS]

00:51:23   really learning her craft that she goes [TS]

00:51:25   and you can see it the story the [TS]

00:51:28   relationship between Ramona and and and [TS]

00:51:31   balusters the relationship between [TS]

00:51:32   balusters & golden loin the secrets of [TS]

00:51:35   what's going on in this kingdom and how [TS]

00:51:37   it's being operated by some sinister [TS]

00:51:40   forces at work is uh it's a lot of fun i [TS]

00:51:44   really love the mixing up of the of the [TS]

00:51:46   genres and and the blackhearts golden [TS]

00:51:50   lion relationship is actually sort of [TS]

00:51:53   super adorable and and heavily heavily [TS]

00:51:56   ships [TS]

00:51:57   yes oh yes absolutely and intentionally [TS]

00:52:00   so but it's actually it's a it's a huge [TS]

00:52:01   amount of fun [TS]

00:52:02   the fact that you've got black heart and [TS]

00:52:04   golden loin as your blonde superhero and [TS]

00:52:07   your black-hearted villain who's [TS]

00:52:11   actually your main character and Jason [TS]

00:52:13   is isn't it true that you're you're the [TS]

00:52:15   golden line is the inspiration for your [TS]

00:52:17   D&D character on my imagination Peter [TS]

00:52:19   Peter dragon 4g is golden join said I [TS]

00:52:22   only I want to establish for the record [TS]

00:52:24   your level of murder [TS]

00:52:25   yes you have a dungeons and dragons [TS]

00:52:27   dragons character inspired by a webcomic [TS]

00:52:29   care i do in the 1i called Peter golden [TS]

00:52:32   loin [TS]

00:52:32   because that would be too much you just [TS]

00:52:34   changed everything in my my head but now [TS]

00:52:37   I'm never gonna forget the words I was [TS]

00:52:38   like uh huh well I wanted to be a big [TS]

00:52:42   you know like I its captain handsome [TS]

00:52:44   he's blonde and handsome and fancy these [TS]

00:52:47   offensive man and golden line is that [TS]

00:52:49   anyway it is it's great it's coming out [TS]

00:52:53   of it as a book i'm kind of fascinated [TS]

00:52:55   to see with it whether she's going to do [TS]

00:52:56   like real entering or actually even [TS]

00:52:58   redrawing some of the pages because the [TS]

00:53:00   art style change so drastically between [TS]

00:53:02   the first like 20 installments and the [TS]

00:53:05   rest of the the other hundred and forty [TS]

00:53:07   pages or whatever but uh it's huge huge [TS]

00:53:10   fun to the point that you know I've read [TS]

00:53:12   it multiple times now since it has come [TS]

00:53:15   to an end and it's got a nice story and [TS]

00:53:17   so I haven't had a chance to read it yet [TS]

00:53:20   but she has a print comic called longer [TS]

00:53:23   James yeah which I have not read but all [TS]

00:53:25   my friends who have better taste in [TS]

00:53:26   comics than i do say is excellent so [TS]

00:53:28   I've heard excellent things about that [TS]

00:53:30   as well [TS]

00:53:30   ya know is tricky because right i think [TS]

00:53:34   Jason's you're saying is like it it [TS]

00:53:35   didn't start this ambitious i don't [TS]

00:53:37   think i'll share the whole plot worked [TS]

00:53:38   out in like a burden i tell you better [TS]

00:53:40   you tell me about you told me about it I [TS]

00:53:42   think so yeah and I was like oh I'll [TS]

00:53:44   check into this and then like an hour [TS]

00:53:46   and 45 minutes later I'd read the whole [TS]

00:53:48   thing or three hours it was like I was [TS]

00:53:50   probably the middle of a workday and I [TS]

00:53:52   just I didn't actually realize what I [TS]

00:53:54   was doing and you and I are probably [TS]

00:53:56   doing that at the same time it was and [TS]

00:53:59   then oh and then i posted a link I'm [TS]

00:54:01   like oh my god Jason talked about this [TS]

00:54:02   amazing thing and then other people like [TS]

00:54:04   god damn you i just spent an hour north [TS]

00:54:06   platte river is this it was a virus but [TS]

00:54:09   uh it's incredible narrative scope [TS]

00:54:12   there's world building and then there's [TS]

00:54:14   stuff that's developing and I think like [TS]

00:54:16   this is a danger of working without a [TS]

00:54:18   net you know in in real time and I mean [TS]

00:54:21   obviously daily cartoonist have dealt [TS]

00:54:22   with this for you know a hundred years [TS]

00:54:25   we're doing stuff and it's the stuff [TS]

00:54:27   that has a narrative flow to it and you [TS]

00:54:29   know that the the oldest joke is that [TS]

00:54:31   the spiderman cartoon it's been around [TS]

00:54:32   forever is like the slowest moving [TS]

00:54:34   cartoon ever a comic strip ever [TS]

00:54:36   developed where monday someone sneezes [TS]

00:54:39   and on Friday someone says cousin I am [TS]

00:54:41   and and then it's monday they start with [TS]

00:54:42   a recap [TS]

00:54:43   yeah lesson [TS]

00:54:44   repeater was sneezing and then Mary Jane [TS]

00:54:47   so but but most strips you know there [TS]

00:54:50   they work some stuff out they have to [TS]

00:54:51   plan and she was kinda I don't know how [TS]

00:54:53   much from whole cloth she went so now [TS]

00:54:55   that she's completed this really [TS]

00:54:57   remarkable ambitious are you know if [TS]

00:55:00   she's clearly I mean will she go back [TS]

00:55:01   and redraw the early stuff i SPECT so [TS]

00:55:03   because going to a book so maybe she'll [TS]

00:55:05   preserve some of the field but but [TS]

00:55:07   recreate it so it's more consistent and [TS]

00:55:09   will she work out any of the narrative [TS]

00:55:11   stuff i mean Jason I know that you [TS]

00:55:13   weren't delighted with the way it ended [TS]

00:55:15   i guess no no I I like we have no I was [TS]

00:55:18   looking I have no comments about how it [TS]

00:55:20   ended I i think it's a I think it's [TS]

00:55:22   kinda nice I I i don't know it's like [TS]

00:55:26   you said it's working without a net I [TS]

00:55:27   think she also decided she wanted to end [TS]

00:55:29   the story and literally the way the [TS]

00:55:31   story is told she could have kept going [TS]

00:55:32   but she says note that that's enough [TS]

00:55:35   especially now that she's got the comics [TS]

00:55:37   he's working on the book deal and what [TS]

00:55:38   has some other projects I think she [TS]

00:55:39   thought that was a fitting kind of and [TS]

00:55:42   although my understanding is that she [TS]

00:55:43   also one of the part of the book deal is [TS]

00:55:44   that there's a an apple log that's only [TS]

00:55:46   going to be in the boat yeah [TS]

00:55:48   yes with a little more closure there too [TS]

00:55:50   I I felt it could have been a little [TS]

00:55:51   stronger at the end I felt that she had [TS]

00:55:53   set a target to finish it and rushed a [TS]

00:55:57   bit headlong other some magnificence [TS]

00:55:59   that the end not to not to you know [TS]

00:56:02   denigrating that but I felt like she was [TS]

00:56:03   rushing headlong towards add a new model [TS]

00:56:05   that wasn't totally didn't all meshed [TS]

00:56:08   together as neatly as possible so maybe [TS]

00:56:10   the Apple well but but very so I mean [TS]

00:56:12   remarkably satisfying it's like watching [TS]

00:56:14   someone right there first sci-fi or [TS]

00:56:16   fantasy novel and have this incredibly [TS]

00:56:18   rich intricate thing that's different [TS]

00:56:20   than anything you quite seen before [TS]

00:56:23   their aspects of of different fantasy [TS]

00:56:26   sci fi hybrids in it but it was her own [TS]

00:56:28   thing in the sense of humor is quirky [TS]

00:56:30   and the drawing is quirky and just works [TS]

00:56:32   it's it's an amazing thing for someone [TS]

00:56:33   to come out of the gate and build and [TS]

00:56:36   gain you know she posts a comic and [TS]

00:56:37   there be four hundred and sixty comments [TS]

00:56:40   on it within hours from people following [TS]

00:56:42   it by the end it's incredible thing she [TS]

00:56:44   did both in terms of scope and [TS]

00:56:46   community-building you know it's a fan [TS]

00:56:49   art and stuff too [TS]

00:56:50   I so knew Mona you read it it's free or [TS]

00:56:54   you can wait and get the book we are [TS]

00:56:57   probably only have time to go around one [TS]

00:57:00   more time so I feel like perhaps this is [TS]

00:57:03   this can serve as the bring out your [TS]

00:57:05   dead round that where I'm just going to [TS]

00:57:08   give each of you the floor to talk about [TS]

00:57:09   other comics you want to talk about and [TS]

00:57:11   then that will be the end of the episode [TS]

00:57:12   let's start with jon is going to pull [TS]

00:57:16   out a plan is not to obscure Perry bible [TS]

00:57:19   fellowship [TS]

00:57:20   hello the list and that list yeah I [TS]

00:57:23   don't understand I don't understand that [TS]

00:57:25   comic and I occasionally forget it [TS]

00:57:27   exists and I don't even know if it's [TS]

00:57:29   still running and not a percentage of [TS]

00:57:32   the ones that I find funny is low and [TS]

00:57:33   yet the ones i find funny and hilarious [TS]

00:57:35   so I keep returning to it [TS]

00:57:38   I've correspond with the guy and I said [TS]

00:57:40   like look I could I help you improve [TS]

00:57:42   your website is really i spend my next [TS]

00:57:45   and previous buttons sons looks like [TS]

00:57:47   technology is later when i was here in [TS]

00:57:49   Lake County understand it I can't search [TS]

00:57:51   on his like wait come again there's [TS]

00:57:53   pages like well if i want to find the [TS]

00:57:54   type and I he just couldn't you know [TS]

00:57:56   he's a really interesting creative i [TS]

00:57:58   think very introverted introverted guide [TS]

00:58:01   i think he appreciates the attention of [TS]

00:58:03   book but yeah the site is unnavigable [TS]

00:58:05   but it's me and very similar is space [TS]

00:58:08   avalanche space avalanche com is very [TS]

00:58:11   similar to that I don't even know the [TS]

00:58:12   same guy I can't even tell [TS]

00:58:14   I also forget the space avalanche exists [TS]

00:58:16   until it comes up again I go yet that [TS]

00:58:18   exists and take a look at it [TS]

00:58:21   couples in my feeds those the tools i [TS]

00:58:24   wanted to throw out there if you've [TS]

00:58:25   never heard of one of those there you [TS]

00:58:27   can just grind through the entire series [TS]

00:58:28   in less than three hours so it's not [TS]

00:58:30   like Mona period bible fellowship there [TS]

00:58:32   are new episodes being pretty [TS]

00:58:33   installments but I think he's working [TS]

00:58:34   with a bunch of other stuff in this is [TS]

00:58:37   not the same fervor but everyone's well [TS]

00:58:38   there'll be a new one that comes out [TS]

00:58:40   like the beach ball the hanging rotating [TS]

00:58:41   beach fault but not just erasing all [TS]

00:58:45   right uh Erica do you have more that you [TS]

00:58:48   would like to talk about do i do i'll [TS]

00:58:50   try to keep it short but the one that I [TS]

00:58:52   was just thinking of when we were [TS]

00:58:54   talking about dnd is called order of the [TS]

00:58:56   stick which is a webcomic that very [TS]

00:58:58   lovingly satirizes tabletop RPGs [TS]

00:59:01   specifically dungeons and dragons and [TS]

00:59:03   the characters are all stick figures as [TS]

00:59:05   you might have guessed from the title [TS]

00:59:06   but they have surprisingly effective in [TS]

00:59:09   emotive faces when there [TS]

00:59:11   no an adventuring crew made up of the [TS]

00:59:12   usual suspects you get a fighter rogue [TS]

00:59:15   barred paladin Ranger wizard all those [TS]

00:59:18   kind of things and it's just it's super [TS]

00:59:22   mega they're constantly referring to in [TS]

00:59:24   world events and items using DD terms so [TS]

00:59:27   like you know thank God just what i need [TS]

00:59:28   another random encounter on the way to [TS]

00:59:30   blah blah or ok so this belt you gave me [TS]

00:59:33   it gives you the strength of a giant are [TS]

00:59:35   we talking a plus for type giant or plus [TS]

00:59:37   6 and a giant like that kind of stuff [TS]

00:59:39   which is just hilarious or their content [TS]

00:59:41   commenting on the content of the strip [TS]

00:59:42   itself like referring back to pass [TS]

00:59:44   storylines as past story behind and [TS]

00:59:48   there's no shortage of puns [TS]

00:59:49   I know if you're a fan of the [TS]

00:59:50   incomparable you're probably kind of [TS]

00:59:52   okay with funds from good yeah the bard [TS]

00:59:55   uses puns when he attacks in episode an [TS]

00:59:59   issue 684 [TS]

00:59:59   issue 684 [TS]

01:00:00   specifically there are six panels of [TS]

01:00:02   beatles song related puns during a fight [TS]

01:00:05   scene with some beetle people some bug [TS]

01:00:07   guys so it's kind of glorious it's just [TS]

01:00:11   incredibly fun the characters are well [TS]

01:00:13   developed and hilarious and the [TS]

01:00:15   storylines are like a really good RPG [TS]

01:00:17   adventure so what's not to like and then [TS]

01:00:20   i'll just use a couple of honorable [TS]

01:00:21   mentions buggy freelance was my very [TS]

01:00:24   first web comic I've read most of it [TS]

01:00:26   twice and some of it more than that and [TS]

01:00:28   it is pretty much daily comic started in [TS]

01:00:30   august of 1997 so that's a lot and it's [TS]

01:00:36   it follows the adventures of some-some [TS]

01:00:38   you know crazy people and their crazy [TS]

01:00:41   not quite pets and it's hard to describe [TS]

01:00:44   a comic that's been going on since [TS]

01:00:46   probably some of the listeners were in [TS]

01:00:48   diapers but i can safely say that it's [TS]

01:00:51   fun [TS]

01:00:51   most of the time and when it's not [TS]

01:00:53   exactly fun it's usually because there's [TS]

01:00:54   a pretty heavy arc based storyline going [TS]

01:00:56   on that general genuinely pulls on my [TS]

01:00:58   heartstrings kind of goes back and forth [TS]

01:01:01   between light and silly stories and [TS]

01:01:03   truly epic plots that the silly ones are [TS]

01:01:06   usually the things that I care about the [TS]

01:01:09   least like parodies like toward potter [TS]

01:01:12   and the sorcerer's nuts or muffin the [TS]

01:01:14   vampire Baker that kind of silly thing [TS]

01:01:16   but the epic posit plots are truly truly [TS]

01:01:19   epic and there's so much continuity he [TS]

01:01:21   does a great job of keeping track of [TS]

01:01:22   things he even includes references [TS]

01:01:24   reference links after the comics so he's [TS]

01:01:27   referring to something that happened 12 [TS]

01:01:28   years ago [TS]

01:01:29   you can just click the link and go back [TS]

01:01:31   and see the you know where it's all [TS]

01:01:33   coming from because you know maybe [TS]

01:01:35   you're not gonna remember what was [TS]

01:01:36   happening when bill clinton was [TS]

01:01:37   president I certainly don't um so anyway [TS]

01:01:40   I quite enjoy that it there that i have [TS]

01:01:43   a few minor issues with it but i'm not [TS]

01:01:45   going to get into those because i'm [TS]

01:01:46   going to just stay happy here and then [TS]

01:01:49   the the other couple I just wanted to [TS]

01:01:50   quickly mention one is is a one that's [TS]

01:01:52   actually finished its run and finished [TS]

01:01:54   it quite a while ago it's called [TS]

01:01:55   user-friendly which is a Canadian comic [TS]

01:01:59   strip which was set in canada in [TS]

01:02:02   internet service provider fictional one [TS]

01:02:04   and it's just it's very much and attack [TS]

01:02:06   audiences lots of IT and programming and [TS]

01:02:09   gaming based jokes just about the humor [TS]

01:02:11   of the stuff that happens working at [TS]

01:02:13   based world but there's a decent amount [TS]

01:02:15   of character development and in [TS]

01:02:17   storyline and there's a little little [TS]

01:02:20   romance and it's just sweet and then [TS]

01:02:22   I've also been trying to catch up on [TS]

01:02:24   dinosaur comics which another Canadian [TS]

01:02:27   one actually [TS]

01:02:28   and that's not why i like the comic [TS]

01:02:29   though Oh incidentally but i like it [TS]

01:02:33   because it's funny and inventive every [TS]

01:02:35   single strip almost every single strip [TS]

01:02:37   use exactly the same artwork in the six [TS]

01:02:39   panels and you might not think that's [TS]

01:02:41   exactly a haven for creativity but when [TS]

01:02:44   you're constrained that much by the art [TS]

01:02:46   or lack of art it really makes you [TS]

01:02:48   stretch to find other ways to make [TS]

01:02:49   things interesting so I I just enjoy [TS]

01:02:53   watching the the dialogue play out in [TS]

01:02:56   the interesting ways of sort of using [TS]

01:02:58   the characters without actually changing [TS]

01:02:59   anything on the screen at all [TS]

01:03:02   every time and then that's one that has [TS]

01:03:04   we talked about like the alt-text the [TS]

01:03:07   titles there are few easter eggs with [TS]

01:03:09   each strip of this one actually only [TS]

01:03:11   found out about one of them today when i [TS]

01:03:12   was looking at it on Wikipedia you so [TS]

01:03:15   you can mouse-over and you can read the [TS]

01:03:16   title tag but also in the subject line [TS]

01:03:19   of the contact email address every day [TS]

01:03:22   it has something different which I'm [TS]

01:03:24   excited to to check out now and also if [TS]

01:03:27   you read through the archives when you [TS]

01:03:29   link into the archives the archives [TS]

01:03:31   actually has a line or two of texts from [TS]

01:03:33   the author about the comic or his [TS]

01:03:35   process of creating it or or whatever so [TS]

01:03:38   a lot of layers to dinosaur comics there [TS]

01:03:40   that are really fun i know the Canadian [TS]

01:03:42   content laws i'm not sure if you're [TS]

01:03:44   allowed to talk about them but I realize [TS]

01:03:45   you do have to report you recommend 75 [TS]

01:03:48   versus the third were speculating strips [TS]

01:03:50   but I I know you can't [TS]

01:03:51   yeah well to to finish that off and make [TS]

01:03:54   sure I hit my thirty thirty percent or [TS]

01:03:56   whatever it is a quick shout out to a [TS]

01:03:59   certain new-ish comic book shelf doctors [TS]

01:04:03   which is actually done by my friend [TS]

01:04:04   Warren from the radio freescale podcast [TS]

01:04:06   he takes what he refers to it so good [TS]

01:04:08   doctor who is Doctor Who action dollies [TS]

01:04:10   for his action figures and set them up [TS]

01:04:13   on his bookshelf and and has them you [TS]

01:04:15   know face each other puts him in amusing [TS]

01:04:17   little scenarios and then adds little [TS]

01:04:21   talky bubbles and has them talk to each [TS]

01:04:23   other and usually there's just three or [TS]

01:04:24   four panels and they're they're totally [TS]

01:04:26   gags and there [TS]

01:04:27   very much the kind of inside gags you're [TS]

01:04:29   probably only going to get if you're [TS]

01:04:31   pretty hardcore doctor who fan but that [TS]

01:04:33   is me I am the target on you know and I [TS]

01:04:36   like it but I think that those are very [TS]

01:04:39   funny [TS]

01:04:39   the so just photographs of little of [TS]

01:04:42   doctor who figures with funny dialogue [TS]

01:04:44   it's great [TS]

01:04:46   Tony what do you have high so we [TS]

01:04:50   mentioned diesel sweeties we mentioned [TS]

01:04:52   XKCD so we make sure those were those [TS]

01:04:55   are mentioned other ones I've got on my [TS]

01:04:56   list here are piled higher and deeper is [TS]

01:05:00   a very long running webcomic which is [TS]

01:05:02   basically to graduate students what I [TS]

01:05:06   guess Gilbert is to office workers so [TS]

01:05:08   it's very amusing if you have ever spent [TS]

01:05:11   a extended period of time in academia [TS]

01:05:12   but also therefore somewhat depressing [TS]

01:05:15   but that's how it goes [TS]

01:05:17   American elf is a an example of a format [TS]

01:05:20   that I is you know not unique to web [TS]

01:05:23   comics but i think is really interested [TS]

01:05:24   in which is a diary comics so American [TS]

01:05:26   elf is a by James kaka who is a [TS]

01:05:28   published comics artist but he [TS]

01:05:31   maintained for many years it's no longer [TS]

01:05:33   running a daily comic diary that he [TS]

01:05:36   would maintain that was pretty neat and [TS]

01:05:38   interesting i like that format and then [TS]

01:05:40   the other one I mentioned it because it [TS]

01:05:41   used to be in my college newspaper now [TS]

01:05:43   it only exists as a webcomic buttercup [TS]

01:05:45   festival which is a very strange very [TS]

01:05:47   kind of surreal comic that you I cannot [TS]

01:05:51   explain it you need to see it and read [TS]

01:05:53   ten strips of it and hopefully find it [TS]

01:05:55   funny or we're not friends anymore sorry [TS]

01:05:57   that's it for me was that one another [TS]

01:05:59   cup what buttercup festival festival or [TS]

01:06:02   I feel like I've heard of that one but [TS]

01:06:03   I'm really a Tony you know how old I am [TS]

01:06:05   our college newspapers comic strip was [TS]

01:06:07   calvin hobbes oh yeah talenthouse [TS]

01:06:11   reprints that's what your Cinco where's [TS]

01:06:15   Calvin and Hobbes it both of them [TS]

01:06:17   yeah I haven't you know I've read the [TS]

01:06:19   the college newspaper strips that the [TS]

01:06:21   watterson made of before he did Calvin [TS]

01:06:23   homes which are weird but yeah okay [TS]

01:06:27   Glenn what do you have left [TS]

01:06:29   I got a I got a bunch but i will keep it [TS]

01:06:32   small because I'm small dilemma conus is [TS]

01:06:36   a disclosure friend of mine she is [TS]

01:06:40   a really talented artists to sort of [TS]

01:06:42   took to the web in this remarkable way [TS]

01:06:45   and she's just very productive and is [TS]

01:06:46   really interesting stuff and she's got [TS]

01:06:48   this long series going on called family [TS]

01:06:50   man that's a very detailed I think she's [TS]

01:06:52   in the second volume is almost done with [TS]

01:06:53   that and she produced she's printed the [TS]

01:06:55   first but so she's doing it you know [TS]

01:06:57   sort of live online and drawing kind of [TS]

01:07:00   in real time and she has plotted out [TS]

01:07:02   it's much more like you know work of [TS]

01:07:04   fiction that she has a i think a more [TS]

01:07:06   exact idea but she also did a series [TS]

01:07:08   called bite me about vampires and unlike [TS]

01:07:12   revolutionary france i think and one of [TS]

01:07:15   her first outings without Fox which is [TS]

01:07:17   really lovely beautifully drawn drawn on [TS]

01:07:21   short account is almost a parable love [TS]

01:07:23   her work and she's also involved we did [TS]

01:07:26   mention pvp which is less p the guy who [TS]

01:07:29   behind it works with penny arcade on [TS]

01:07:30   stuff it's part of a decade sort of like [TS]

01:07:32   more and less problematic so we'll look [TS]

01:07:34   into the people side but PvP is a game [TS]

01:07:36   development company you know that's [TS]

01:07:39   where the plot happens and there's like [TS]

01:07:40   some kind of giant creature knows what [TS]

01:07:42   is the sort of well-meaning a talking [TS]

01:07:44   cat and so forth but it's it's actually [TS]

01:07:47   quite funny it's got apply and dylan now [TS]

01:07:49   recall right she is scripting and he's [TS]

01:07:53   drawing or vice versa because he's got [TS]

01:07:55   other projects he's working on as well [TS]

01:07:57   the fellow behind got hurts yes that's [TS]

01:07:59   right because they've also got to stop [TS]

01:08:00   calling in the trenches which is a [TS]

01:08:02   co-venture with penny arcade that I'm [TS]

01:08:04   not as excited about it a little more [TS]

01:08:05   and more walkie the PDP is as can be fun [TS]

01:08:10   i was gonna mention wonder mark which is [TS]

01:08:12   a long-running strip by David Mulkey [TS]

01:08:14   super nice guy super funny and he [TS]

01:08:16   started out by using almost like what [TS]

01:08:19   Tom tomorrow did with this modern world [TS]

01:08:22   decades ago which evolved into a drawn [TS]

01:08:25   strip David Mulkey found old are you [TS]

01:08:29   know public domain artwork is actually [TS]

01:08:30   filmmakers not cartoons by trade and [TS]

01:08:32   hold public domain artwork and started [TS]

01:08:34   combining it and putting captions on it [TS]

01:08:36   and you know making essentially strips [TS]

01:08:37   out of pieces and he's kind of becoming [TS]

01:08:39   kind of an expert on engraving and early [TS]

01:08:42   periods of cartooning because 10 so much [TS]

01:08:44   research and if you watch the movie [TS]

01:08:46   stripped he comes up with some really [TS]

01:08:48   great historical observations because [TS]

01:08:50   he's looked at decade's worth of stuff [TS]

01:08:52   during the trends [TS]

01:08:53   action from angry engraving to [TS]

01:08:55   photography when cartooning is invented [TS]

01:08:58   because you have all these engravers you [TS]

01:08:59   suddenly have no jobs it [TS]

01:09:01   he's under mark is it's a lot of [TS]

01:09:04   hilarious standalone things the [TS]

01:09:05   juxtaposition of absurdity of having an [TS]

01:09:08   old-fashioned people say things but it's [TS]

01:09:09   very cleverly scripted and he had the [TS]

01:09:11   strip recently went viral about [TS]

01:09:13   gamergate about with a sea lion which [TS]

01:09:15   has now become pretty much instantly [TS]

01:09:16   became a meme and never talks about some [TS]

01:09:18   see lining into your comments [TS]

01:09:21   it's because he developed a strip like [TS]

01:09:23   three weeks ago it was so perfect that [TS]

01:09:26   the tournament literally the term became [TS]

01:09:28   a meme like within a enough hours and we [TS]

01:09:31   have been used and also mention modest [TS]

01:09:35   produces interesting long-running strip [TS]

01:09:36   that's got a strong narrative to it's [TS]

01:09:38   very sweet about a sort of like baby [TS]

01:09:40   Medusa she can't turn to stone yet but [TS]

01:09:43   it's a lot more clever than that a lot [TS]

01:09:44   of interesting world stuff and some [TS]

01:09:46   creature of casual characterization and [TS]

01:09:50   also chainsaw suit i'm a late comer to [TS]

01:09:53   that strip and it's just funny as hell [TS]

01:09:56   it's just a very funny it's almost like [TS]

01:10:01   it's a little guide comma key but it's [TS]

01:10:03   like more like if Steve Martin did a [TS]

01:10:04   comic strip [TS]

01:10:05   it's more like what he would do then say [TS]

01:10:08   daily comic strip and it's very tied [TS]

01:10:10   into both like video games in the online [TS]

01:10:12   vibe and there's also a podcast that he [TS]

01:10:15   that he too [TS]

01:10:16   that's associated change the podcast [TS]

01:10:17   which is also quite strange at times [TS]

01:10:19   sometimes just very straightforward it [TS]

01:10:20   was very odd but but interesting as well [TS]

01:10:22   alright I will also mention some some [TS]

01:10:25   mailed in choices from people who could [TS]

01:10:27   make this india naka wanted to mention [TS]

01:10:29   girls with slingshots the abominable [TS]

01:10:32   charles Christopher and Connie to the [TS]

01:10:35   huanni okay and he's not here to explain [TS]

01:10:39   himself and David lower wanted to [TS]

01:10:40   mention pipcorn which is by brooke milk [TS]

01:10:43   mikkel mceldowney I think who does nine [TS]

01:10:45   chickweed lane in the newspapers but [TS]

01:10:47   this is the webcomic again so it's [TS]

01:10:48   weirder and more fantastical and he [TS]

01:10:51   likes that [TS]

01:10:52   so those are out there pigborn pipcorn I [TS]

01:10:54   don't know if that score oh well I'd [TS]

01:10:57   forgotten about you know you read that [TS]

01:10:58   years ago and I actually completely [TS]

01:11:00   forgot existed [TS]

01:11:01   this is the problem with having so much [TS]

01:11:02   plenty as i was doing some research to [TS]

01:11:04   remind myself of ones that i read [TS]

01:11:06   and I actually literally maybe I should [TS]

01:11:10   tailor I've found a tons of ones i was [TS]

01:11:12   reading years ago and forgotten and if [TS]

01:11:15   you look at if you try to find list of [TS]

01:11:18   webcomics most decisive list are [TS]

01:11:20   unmanageably large they're like yahoo [TS]

01:11:22   was you know a year after yahoo started [TS]

01:11:25   in the nineties you're like well there's [TS]

01:11:26   a few website well here's a bunch [TS]

01:11:28   let's put into categories ok we just [TS]

01:11:30   give up there is just like it's just [TS]

01:11:31   there's that like about three different [TS]

01:11:33   sites that each had I think thousands of [TS]

01:11:36   listings and none of them were complete [TS]

01:11:37   obviously yeah lots of comics out there [TS]

01:11:39   anything else we should mention before [TS]

01:11:42   we go [TS]

01:11:43   yeah i'm gonna throw in camp we don't [TS]

01:11:46   want you which i think is but the one of [TS]

01:11:48   the best titles of a comic strip ever [TS]

01:11:50   this this is came out of the penny [TS]

01:11:51   arcade strip-searched reality show where [TS]

01:11:53   they had people auditioning to be a [TS]

01:11:55   comic artist and then penny arcade put [TS]

01:11:57   them up for a year and their facilities [TS]

01:11:58   and promoted their comic but the winner [TS]

01:12:00   of the contest was then Katie rice and [TS]

01:12:02   her comic strip is about a camp where [TS]

01:12:04   you drop off your kids and then you'd [TS]

01:12:06   never come back so it's can watch huh [TS]

01:12:08   and so it's just a bunch of these young [TS]

01:12:10   kids drawn in a very interesting sort of [TS]

01:12:13   big bobblehead art-style stuck at this [TS]

01:12:16   camp and the adventures they get up to [TS]

01:12:18   now they have a deal in a world without [TS]

01:12:20   adults and again I'm the attachment i [TS]

01:12:23   feel to it is driven and large part by [TS]

01:12:25   watching the reality show and knowing [TS]

01:12:27   how like she you know she was an artist [TS]

01:12:30   she was a professional artist working on [TS]

01:12:31   live television shows and Nickelodeon [TS]

01:12:33   whatever but always wanted to do her own [TS]

01:12:34   thing and when this weird reality show [TS]

01:12:36   thing and won the contest and that was [TS]

01:12:38   is you know has to draw or strip and you [TS]

01:12:40   know is trying to make a go of it by [TS]

01:12:43   herself and that aspect of it draws [TS]

01:12:45   being just as much as the strip itself [TS]

01:12:46   but the script is adorable too [TS]

01:12:48   alright well this has been a lot of fun [TS]

01:12:51   i feel like now we can all do what we [TS]

01:12:53   described earlier which is just [TS]

01:12:55   descended to browser tax and never ever [TS]

01:12:57   come back to the surface but in a good [TS]

01:12:59   way so we would like to thank everybody [TS]

01:13:03   out there because we've we're with your [TS]

01:13:04   lives and you will never do anything [TS]

01:13:06   productive ever again [TS]

01:13:08   so thanks for that at you no no don't [TS]

01:13:11   thank us thank you and i would like to [TS]

01:13:13   thank my guests for making this possible [TS]

01:13:15   John siracusa thank you very much for [TS]

01:13:17   being here I stuff it like i have our [TS]

01:13:19   way [TS]

01:13:19   comics I guess we're done huh yeah I I [TS]

01:13:22   said bring out your dead you got more [TS]

01:13:23   dead said you do it now [TS]

01:13:25   it wasn't a draft i would have a longer [TS]

01:13:26   list now it's fine somewhere over that's [TS]

01:13:28   all right [TS]

01:13:29   yeah find more webcomics i bet if you [TS]

01:13:30   start from the webcomics we be provided [TS]

01:13:32   to you could my lord i bet i bet you're [TS]

01:13:34   right Eric and sign thank you for all of [TS]

01:13:37   the great webcomics you talked about [TS]

01:13:38   today thank you yeah actually most of [TS]

01:13:40   the ones that i found were just through [TS]

01:13:42   the other web comics I was yeah and to [TS]

01:13:44   hit the slippery slope guide yeah it's [TS]

01:13:46   like Wikipedia with comics you just keep [TS]

01:13:48   clicking and you like it well i gotta [TS]

01:13:50   click on that link to when fleischmann [TS]

01:13:53   thank you for being here [TS]

01:13:54   a pleasure thank you for doing this [TS]

01:13:55   episode yes yes of course of course and [TS]

01:13:58   Tony sindelar thank you for being here [TS]

01:14:01   always fun to talk to you every night no [TS]

01:14:04   Jason by nerds good binders affects [TS]

01:14:10   everybody out there i hope you enjoy [TS]

01:14:12   spending the rest of your life reading [TS]

01:14:14   webcomics that we recommended to you we [TS]

01:14:16   will see you next time [TS]

01:14:22   we're getting toward the end of the year [TS]

01:14:24   and you know what that means very soon [TS]

01:14:25   we're gonna be recording our best 2014 [TS]

01:14:27   episode and we want to have your [TS]

01:14:29   comments involved so send us an email [TS]

01:14:32   podcast at the incomparable com or tweet [TS]

01:14:35   us at the incomparable [TS]