On Web Comics

Here's the thing about most web comics. It seems they have one of two things going for them. Either the artwork is really good or the story is. You either have a good artist who has no idea how to tell a story, or a storyteller who can't draw. Now me, I can forgive an ugly picture if the story is compelling. But it doesn't matter how beautiful the art if there is no substance behind it. With some of the web comics that I've listed on this blog you'll notice this. The Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew is drawn in stick figure style. As he goes on with the strip the style gets a little more refined, but it's still stick figures. The story takes a few strips to take off but in the long run it's a great ride. Goblins by Tarol Hunt and Danielle Stephens has the same issue.



I have gone through tons of other web comics that look amazing but they fall flat. This issue spans into other forms of media. Video games is one. You'll find games with amazing technical achievements but are nevertheless unplayable. The same goes for movies. I'm not sure what my point is in all of this. I guess just chalk it up to some of my blathering.

Web Comics

I added a few links to some web comics that I follow. They are really good, you should follow them to.

The Order of the Stick: This is a D&D spoof comic drawn in stick person form. It takes a while for it to warm up but it gets really good. If you played D&D you'll get a ton of laughs. Now I have never played D&D, but that in now way interfered with my enjoyment of this comic. It being drawn in stick figures actually adds to the strip's charm. I fell in love with every character in it, hero and villain alike.

Goblins: "See life through their eyes." This strip focuses on what its like to be the goblins in games like D&D. You quickly begin to care about their plight. It also showcases a world where things are seldom black and white. It also takes a while for it to find it's pacing but once it does it delivers a powerful story. Be sure to check out the fund raising goblin "Tempts Fate".

Looking For Group: Sometimes the comedic timing seems off, and the art style made me feel oddly claustrophobic. But Richard makes up for it. Most of the other characters come and go and don't do much, but Richard is the lynch pin of this strip. He makes this comic worth reading. He is just so delightfully evil it's a pleasure to read. And it's odd because all the other main characters have histories that normally would make them interesting, yet their not. So check it out for Richard, and for Pony.

Marry Me: What if a pop star like Britney Spears had a soul? What if a random fan proposed to her at a concert? What if she said yes? What if a priest was in the crowd to seal the deal? All these questions come true and get answered in the comic Marry Me. Its well written and well drawn. It has memorable and lovable characters. And who'd of thunk it, even though its not set in a fantasy themed world I still like it. Parker is my favorite.

Flaky Pastry: This is perhaps the zaniest comic I've come across yet it still manages to work. It's more concerned with having a punchline at the end of each strip than a grand continuing storyline but I'm not complaining. Zintiel is hot and über freaky. I've never been so attracted to and so scared of someone in my life. She has a killer body (Both literally and figuratively) with a smile that's right off of the Joker from Batman. And her eyes swim with and insanity that I just want to drown in. Then I love Nitrine with her neon green hair and lips. She's a feisty life addicted goblin. Sadly I have nothing good to say about Marelle. I would have thought it impossible to be unattracted to a Cat-girl. It's her potato like nose and know it all attitude. I put up with her for the sake of enjoying Zintiel and Nitrine. Then the dragon in the pipe joke got real old real fast. But check out the bizarrely named Flaky Pastry for silly fun

The Book of the Geek

"Now let us ponder the tragedy of Raziel, who in his pursuit of truth was ensnared by liars."

The Book of the Geek.

"Optimus Prime would die for you, and he doesn't even know who you are."

So the question is, what would you do for Optimus.

Five Songs from my iPod IV (The Quadrilogy)

#1- "Your Call." by Secondhand Serenade.
Gooey emotional stuff. I hear it, but I don't feel it.

#2- "Coming Too Close." by No Use For A Name.
Teen angst. A band for when the world vexes you.

#3- "The Angel Opens Her Eyes." by Live.
Not really sure what this song is about. Something about a storm, and the birth of a child. Some mother dies, and another arises? But it's a cool sounding song.

#4- "For The Movies." by Buckcherry.
"One more chance to make it for the movies." One last chance to make some part of this life worthwhile, just like they do it in the movies.

#5- "Walking the Streets of DC." by Good Charlotte.
Eh.

Five Songs from my iPod: The Trilogy

#1- "Sugar, We're Goin' Down." by Fall Out Boy.
Man this song got old quick. This band got older even quicker. Can't stand them now for the most part. This song was cool the first time I herd it. And by the way I was the first person to hear it thus making me cool. But by the time other people herd it I had moved on to other cool things thus making me even cooler.

#2- "God War Montage (live)." by Videogames Live.
It's God of War. Need I say more.

#3- "Hero." by Enrique Iglessias.
Would that I could be your hero. This song to me seems to be about someone who wants to be someones hero. But either that someone wont let them or the guy just doesn't have it in him to be a hero, as much as he may like to.

#4- "Leave Life Bleeding." by Fuel.
Just the imagery of some guy singing this with blood all over his hands is cool to me. Well at least that's what I see.

#5- "The World Is Not Enough." by Garbage.
The good:
It's a Bond song. It's a Garbage song.
The bad:
The movie sucked.
The ugly:
Put the good and the bad together.

Five Songs from my iPod: part Deux

#1- "Walls." by Emery.
Mournful harmony, is there anything better.

#2- "Harmageddon." by Apocalyptica.
This band does string versions of Metallica songs. This song is also used in a awesome amature zombie movie. (Which oddly enough also manages to feature "Popular" from the hit Broadway musical "Wicked.")

#3- "School of Hard Knocks." by P.O.D.
I own this song cuz I'm from the school of hard knocks baby. Who's ready to rock?

#4- "Placebo." by Placebo.
When he sings the line "Cuz I can see in the dark." And then the line "I'm coming up on infrared." This song reminds me of the scene in Silence of the Lambs when Buffalo Bill has the lights out. He's got the night vision goggles on and he's just toying with Clarice. It's like the song was written for the movie. (only the mood of the song doesn't match the movie, oh well.)

#5- "Pain." by Jimmy Eat World.
First herd this song on the show Smallville. Lionel Luthor and Clark Kent had switched bodies. Can't really figure out what the song had to do with what was going on in the show. But it's still a good song.

Five Songs from my iPod

So once a week (or whenever I feel like doing it). I plan to take my ipod, put it on shuffle and take the first five songs and then list and talk about them. They'll be whatever my ipod spits out, even if their embarrassing.
So here we go.

#1- "Take my breath away." by Ab Orchestra.
Man, I wish this hadn't been the first one. What are the chances that the first of all first songs was gonna be embarrassing. Oh well, at least you know I'm honest. This song is the instrumental version of the song "Take my breath away."
I got it on a whim, and I don't listen to it much.

#2- "Singing in my sleep." by Semisonic.
This song was on one of the first Cd's I ever purchased. I bought it for "Closing time" but liked the whole album. That doesn't happen very much anymore.

#3- "Still Fighting it." by Ben Folds.
Got this song for the "Everybody knows it hurts to go home." line. That line was part of the inspiration for my "You can never go home again." blog subject.

#4- "Got you (where I want you)." by The Flys.
You know they even sound like Flys, but in a good way. Love this song because it caputres the essence of every time I've try and to talk to good looking girls. Every thing I say bombs and I'm all like "I'm dying here." help me out.

#5- "Kuja's theme." by Nobuo Uematsu
It's from Final Fantasy IX. Not the best game in the world but some of the music was alright. This track was one of the good melody's. And it's by Uematsu, the guy who wrote the sound track to FF7, and every single song in that game was gold.

Well thats all for now.

Why Dr. Horrible is good

Recently I had a friend who upon my advise watched Dr. Horrible. As he finished it I asked him excitedly.
"Wasn't that awesome?"
"No," he said, "no it wasn't."
"Yeah it was." I said.
"Look I know that you like that type of thing. Stories where the popular guy loses-"

I interrupted him there because that's not why I like Dr. Horrible, well maybe a little bit. But there's more to it than that. It's not just a story with a sad ending. It's a story with a sad meaningful ending.

Spoiler Alert
Dr.Horrible is good because it's a super villain musical that stays true to it's premise. When I watched the first two episodes I was really afraid of how the third was going to end. The setup of the show made me want to see Dr. Horrible and Penny end up together, and see Captain Hammer get his comeuppance.

Now Penny doesn't seem like the type of girl who could be in love with a super villain no matter how benign of lovable he may be. Unless she were to change drastically she could never love our good doctor. And all of Penny's charm is linked to her good nature. If she were to change I wouldn't like her and the story would fall apart.

So that would seem to leave Dr. Horrible with the burden of changing. My mind concocted a ending with Dr. Horrible giving up a life of evil for Penny. That or Dr. Horrible becoming a good guy, Captain Hammer would then become a bad guy and they'd fight. Both of these endings feel like cop outs. They're both weak and leave a bad taste in the mouth.

But those type of ending are what I have come to expect these days. Thankfully this show had the guts to keep Dr. Horrible evil. He got to see his dreams come true and all it cost him was the one person he loved. How can you not like that. Bittersweet? Yes, but still awesome.

Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

This is the coolest thing Joss Whedon has done since Firefly.
(note: this is the first thing he's done since Firefly that I know of.)



You should check it out. It's a super villain musical. Yeah that's right, your eyeballs did not deceive you. A musical about a super villain. If you like super hero's, super villains, or anything Joss Whedon has done then you'll enjoy this. You may have to go to itunes to download it, but believe me it's worth it.

I kinda identify with Dr. Horrible, who is as sad as he is brilliant.