comics

Randomness for 11/9

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1) I haven’t even seen this movie, just the trailer, and I already have my two word review: “Hot mess.” Video.

2) An insider’s take on AFM and the “shadow film industry.”

3) Meritocracy: it doesn’t work the way you expect. via James Nicoll

4) An 8-month old baby’s reaction to his cochlear implant. Video.

5) Teaching equality via the Socratic Method. Video. Gotta tell you, I love this one.

6) The Big List of RPG Plots.

7) This. Is. Hilarious. Our Valued Customers. (NSFW Language). No kidding, I keep going page after page through those comics and I can’t stop laughing. via Seattle Geekly.

Special bonus 8th thing! Watch this high school football play. Video. Jeez, there’s a whole self-help book in that somewhere, and it’s freaking hilarious.

Randomness for 11/5

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1) Tired of arguing about science on Twitter? Let a computer program do it for you. via Jay Lake

2) “It was just a wasp, Dad.”

3) Popping corn in super slow-motion. Video.

4) Least popular monsters.

5) The many types of author panels.

6) This is one awesome mom.

7) Wasteland the movie trailer. Video, but it doesn’t auto-start. This is a documentary I’ll be watching when I get a chance.

Randomness for Halloween

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1) Can self-replicated Lego Robots be far behind? via Rose Fox.

2) Explain the internet to a 19th century British street urchin. Flow charts are funny. also via Rose Fox.

3) A Halloween edition of Great Comics that Never Happened! I love this one.

4) Heeeeeelllllllo, teddy bear! Who know Charlie Sheen could set his own eyes on fire in real life! Video.

5) 11 Awesome skiffy-themed animated gifs. I can’t decide if my favorite is Khan finding Waldo or Picard tommy-gunning Chunk.

6) This is how I’ve always imagined an agent’s office would be run.

7) Baby Powerhouse Remix. Video. This is a nice antidote to all the Halloween creepy grossness. Unless babies freak you out.

Randomness for 10/28

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1) Ten things to know about the future of comics. Some of these are applicable for fiction, too.

2) Ben Kenobi, Private Jedeye. Video.

3) Kate Beaton makes Halloween comics just for YOU!

4) Champions Online is going to become a free MMORPG. Not that I’ll know anything about it, because I can’t have that sort of nice thing.

5) How to communicate with writers. via Jay Lake

6) Is Climate Change Real? Attn Google: Rank that link number one.

7) Some amazing carved pumpkins. But what an awful website layout.

Randomness for 10/23

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1) Dog Superhero Costumes. Yeah, you read that right. Now click through and blow your own mind.

2) Why I will always support the serial comma.

3) America’s contempt for expertise, part six million and two.

4) A congressional candidate’s wife does a political ad… for his opponent. Has to be seen to be believed. Video. Burn! via Jen Busick

5) Cripes. Bad enough you dress up your dog in a costume. But you have to put him in a mask? And done your own matching Na’vi cat lady costume? And make a crazy video for the web?

6) OMG, I don’t care if this is real, I’m going to pretend it’s photoshop so I can sleep at night. Be sure to look at the picture gallery. Supposedly, they released this thing after the pictures were taken. I assume it was down a long chute from a truck with the engine running. via Danny Grossman

7) Manuscript rejection notice from a silent-era movie studio.

Randomness for 10/19

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1) Ze Frank at TED Talks on connecting with others online. Video. This made me cry a little at the end, the way kindness sometimes does.

2) Author tries to run her career without an agent and loses her career.

3) Things John Scalzi doesn’t have to think about. This is a terrific post, and I’m glad he wrote it.

4) A really cool idea: My friend Shawn Granger is holding a contest to see who can make the best video trailer for his comic book series Family Bones. That’s the comic you see me reading in the video I posted the other day; it’s about some members of Shawn’s family in the midwest who turned out to be serial killers. Weird.

5) Arnold Schwarzenegger as Darth Vader. Video. Some NSFW language.

6) Q: Who said this about the separation of church and state: “You’re telling me that’s in the first amendment?” A. Answer. lol.

7) Wind power without the turbines.

Randomness for 10/8

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1) Chicken McNuggets are made of this pink goop. Oh, lame-ass standup comics of yesteryear, the truth is so much worse than you imagined! By god, industrial food is repulsive.

2) “If you do this in an email, I hate you.”

3) Ten greatest all-nude fight scenes in comics. So… yeah, it’s funny and dopey and juvenile, but it’s funny. Also, the comments are hilarious.

4) I was pretty stupid when I was younger, but never this stupid. Video.

5) SF Signal has done a “mind meld” about the idea of a Star Wars reboot, and most of the writers say “No,” “NO!” and “Don’t bother.” Of course, I planned out a Star Wars: A New Hope reboot last year.

6) “First with my son, and now with my new love, I was learning that conspiracy
and dominance are not the only ways to be close to someone.” This essay/memoir/confessional is a few years old (ancient in internet time) but still powerful as hell. Carver is a terrific writer.

7) Sucking air through clenched teeth alert: Woman mistakenly uses super glue instead of eye drops. Note to self: move all butcher knives out of the prop knife drawer.

Randomness for 9/21

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1) Miniature scenes crafted inside toilet rolls.

2) Superheroes imagined as hipsters.

3) Top ten cars the Car Talk guys hate the most.

4) “Hey, you’re the one who forgot the wheelbarrow!” Video.

5) Until I saw it, I didn’t know I wanted perfume that would make you smell like a library.

6) Now THIS is the A-Team movie they should have made! Video.

7) Dot, the world’s smallest animation character. Video. Truly amazing.

What happens to your life when you cancel your cable TV

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Last night my son insisted that we draw some comic books. He’d just watched Scott McCloud on TED Talk and wanted to try a branching “choose your own adventure” comic.

I don’t have permission to post his, but I’ll put mine below the cut. It’s not nearly as ambitious, and I can’t draw worth a damn, but here you go anyway. Continue reading

Randomness for 9/17

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1) Parents offer baby-naming rights to corporations.

2) Top 5 Regrets of the Dying.

3) Speed-dating in the Marvel Universe.

4) Eight historic symbols that mean the opposite of what you think.

5) A TED talk about sleep patterns, and it’s only 4 minutes long. Video.

6) I’ve changed my mind: e-books will ruin everything. E-comics allow users to leave comments. Yeah, it’s bad.

7) Why you should never date a writer.