Friday, October 28, 2005
These
funny cartoons are a funny old show. As
Frank points out, we've been leaving them all a bit last minute recently. Contrary to what he says though, the main reason today's was so last minute is because I decided we should have a
Halloween themed cartoon (that and, maybe, the fact that I got very drunk recently and lost my notebook of ideas). The rest of the Frank's post is utterly true.
I'm going to a wedding tomorrow and I've got about a hundred million things to get done. So all those wonderful things I was going to talk about - life, love and the mysteries of the world - will just have to wait.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Stayed up til around five in the morning, drinking whiskey and watching
Black Cat, White Cat - a nifty little black comedy directed by
Emir Kusturica and written by him and
Gordon Mihic. Well worth a watch if you don't mind sub-titles (or even if you do thanks to the
presence of
Branka Katic). I'm going to have to check out more of their work, if I can.
Had a wee meander around the
Free Webcomic Encylopedia.
So many webcomics. It's actually kind of weird to see that there are so many I've never even heard of, never mind never even read. I won't, of course, mention the fact that we're not even listed.
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Well, here's an intersting one, courtesy of
Digital Strips. DJ Koffman of
Yirmumah fame has launched a
new blog examining ways of making money from webcomics. The man himself has turned his own webcomic into a successful business, so his opinion's got to count for something. I'll have to set Frank to work reading it now.
Cork City are through to the
FAI Cup Final after a hard founght one-nil win over Derry City.
George O'Callaghan sank the winner from the penalty spot in the dying minutes of the game. It's only the second time we've reached the final, the last being in 1998, which incidently went to a replay before
Derek Coughlan headed home the winning goal. This year we'll face
Drogheda United but we don't, as yet, know where.
Friday, October 21, 2005
This week's
funny cartoon was a tricky beggar to get a hold of. We've had it bobbing around between us for a number of weeks but it never seemed to work. It wasn't until gone nine last night that we finally thrashed out the cartoon as it stands. Which was a relief. For me, at least. As I got to go home, put my feet up, light up a ciggy and crack open a can of Beamish. Frank on the other hand, well I'm sure he'll tell you all about it himself. My favourite part of this
particular cartoon, though alot of people probably won't pick up on it, is the implied jealousy of the film towards 'that other film'. Frank, on the other hand, likes where the guy wonders about the absence of dinosaurs. Make of that what you may.
An interesting post, and quite relevant to yesterdays post, popped on
Kottke yesterday. It seems
Jason received a letter from a reader who is a published author.
Meghann Marco had requested that her publisher make her book available through Google Print. They refused and
have since issued proceedings against Google. Meghann is understandably annoyed as she saw it as the perfect way to get her book in front of people's eyes, which would surely increase it's profile and increase sales. Which sounds strikingly like straight forward logical thinking. Her publishing company, and a number of others, don't seem to agree. As if to prove her point, I've never heard of the book or the author but it looks
exactly like the sort of book I'd be into. However, I've never bought a book in my life without reading at least a couple of pages first. Now, I wonder is there some way I could
possibly catch a quick look at it, without asking my local bookshop to order it especially for me.
BlueBlood, the seminal counter-culture erotica 'zine, are selling
these fantastic looking hoodies. I'm not a punk or goth but I know a lot of folks who would like one of these (not to mention one or two who'd look really good in one) and I can understand why. Which is odd because you'd think that whole skull thing was done to death by now - so to speak.
Thursday, October 20, 2005
So Frank's gone and installed
Statcounter, just to see how it compares. Having had a quick look at it, I can now safely say that I'm going to become obsessed with it. It really does display an astounding amount of detail. Of course, I'll still look in on our
Awstats but for more in-depth detail,
Statcounter is my new God.
Well, Eric Burns over at
Websnark seems to have done a
lengthy critique on the nature of criticism. I say 'seems to' because I'm too lazy to read it in it's entirety. What I did read was a complete statement, albeit very eloqently so, of the obvious. But don't think I'm criticising Eric's critique of criticism, I just wonder why people have to argue these points when they're so palpably obvious. Then again, maybe I've missed something.
One of the new contributors over at
Digital Strips has done a
nifty run-down of the whole Jack Thompson/Penny Arcade affair.
Some big, or relatively big anyway, moves in the webcomic world. Long running
Shlock Mercenary has
joined Blank Label Comics and
Girly has hooked up with
Dayfree Press. Both these moves hint that these collectives are looking like the way to move forward in webcomics. Eric over at Websnark has probably written at length on that too.
Yup, I knew it.
Cory Doctorow's new novel,
Someone Comes To Town, Someone Leaves Town, is now being
serialised via RSS. No matter when you subscribe, you'll get the whole novel delivered a couple of chapters at a time. You can even get it on your mobile phone via
Winksite.
In related news, Fox have put the kibosh on a Halloween fan adaptation, by non-profit theatre group
counterPulse, of the Buffy epsiode 'Once More With Feeling', even though Joss Whedon didn't want them to. There's a really interesting
analysis of the affair over at Lawgeek. I think I've probably said this before but these big entertainment groups really would want to start hiring new lawyers. This would have been so patently harmless, and potentially a great boost, to the Buffy brand, that it makes so little sense to come out looking like the bad guys in this manner. It just makes no sense to me.
Now you can get
humorous dust-covers to wrap around whatever book your reading.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Well well, well ho, I haven't a notion what I'm going to talk about really. Yesterday, I was going to post up some guff on the fact that the
Creative Commons crowd are working with the folks from
University College Cork, on
porting their licenses to Ireland. However, I couldn't be bothered. It's not that I'm not interested, it's just that I'm not that interested. Besides, the
FAI announced yesterday that they weren't renewing Brian Kerr's contract and that's far more interesting. I wasn't very impressed with his reign, tactically he seemed off the pace and he was very conservative, but I'd have reservations about who the boys at Merrion Square might go for. Either way, I think we're looking at a few years in the wilderness while we rebuild and I think the
Eircom League needs to play a much bigger part in years to come.
Still, still, there's been much fun and games going on at
Penny Arcade. Somewhere along the line, lawyer and computer game critic, Jack Thompson offered to donate 10 grand to charity if some games company developed his idea for a game - something to do with the player killing games company officials. When the game
did get developed by some GTA modders, Jack reneged on his offer and, taking the higher ground, Gabe and Tycho
donated the money on his behalf - to The Entertainment Software Association Foundation. After that, Jack tried to set the
Seattle Police on the 'extortion factory' that is Penny Arcade.
I also found a
massive gallery of Punk and New Wave single sleeves and a guy writing
an account of his trip to the Arirang Festival in North Korea. He's got some
video clips too.
The
latest PC Weenies is a gem too.
Monday, October 17, 2005
Bad hangover today, very sluggish. Everything might seem a little disjointed. First off
today's Alien Loves Predator is a classic. Once you're finished there, go take a look at these
Album Cover Trainwrecks at
Lingo Slinger. Magnificently creepy. I don't know why this fascinates me but this has turned up in our site stats for a couple of months now -
a forum for tanning salon owners. Don't get me wrong, I've no problem with it, I'm just really (and irrationally) curious about what our tanning salon owner fan has to say about us. That's about all you're getting out of me today. Oh, except congratulations to Shane and Anne on the birth of their new baby boy, Finn.
Friday, October 14, 2005
This week's, I'm quite reticent to say, is the first of our
funny cartoons that actually came to me in a dream. It's bloody odd to wake up, not just remembering the dream (something I'm not prone to doing) but to actually be thinking there's a good cartoon in there. Of course, I can't recall the exact details of the dream anymore but it's probably not nearly as interesting as your imagining it now anyway.
Our copies of
Zoinks! Magazine arrived but they were both sent to Frank's gaff and now he's gone on holiday. So as much as I'd like to comment, I can't. Frank has a
few good words to say about it though. Boneflake have also lowered the cover price to $1.95 if you subscribe for six issues or $2.30 if you buy a single issue. They're putting alot of effort in to this and I hope it really does take off.
I'm beginning to have
serious reservations about Frank.
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
Sometimes I struggle with what to write hear, sometimes it's just obvious. Today is actually my birthday. Pretty much nobody outside my family knows this because, pretty much, I've not mentioned it to anyone. I'm not really a big fan of birthdays, though they are a good source of booze (24 cans of Beamish and a bottle of Powers this year) and I generally prefer to keep them quiet. However, I have long since realised that someone always seems to work it out and they then become one of two things i.e. mystified or offended. So here it is, it's my birthday. Now I've told you, I've told anyone who cares to read it, leave me alone. Thank you very much.
Not sure where I found
this little gem but I'm very fond of it. The
rest of her stuff is
pretty handy too. As is the photography of
Lina Solander, who I'll admit I only found because I was quite taken with her
DeviantArt profile pic. I deeply suspect, though, that my shallowness has hidden depths because it also lead me to these, frankly,
stunning works.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Well, without our noticing, we got a quick mention on
The Irish Times website in their
list of blogs. Not sure who compiled the list, or even the criteria for it, but, as Frank is quite fond of saying, it's nice to be noticed.
This is the sort of thing I always end up doing on Mondays, so long as everyone has the good sense not to expect me to work.
Cute & Small Boobs
Raw score: 37% Big Breasts, 40% Big Ass, and 88% Cute! |
Thanks for taking the T and A and C test! Based on your selections, the results are clear: you show an attraction to smaller breasts, larger asses, and sexier composure than others who've taken the test.
Note that because you scored small on breasts but large on ass size, it might appear you like girls bottom heavy. That's probably not the case. What's more
likely is that you notice curvy, voluptuous butts, and you don't like big, fake boobs. Big real boobs are even worse because of the sag.
Anyway, my third variable, "cuteness" is a mostly objective measure of how innocent a given model looked. It's determined by a combination of a lot of factors: lack of dark eye makeup, facial expression, posture, etc. If you scored high on that variable, you are either really nice OR you're into deflowering teens. If you scored low, you are attracted to raunchier, sexier, women. In your case, your higher than average score suggests you appreciate a cuter, nicer look. Kudos!
Recommended Celebrity: Hilary Duff, because she is the ultimate in cute! Especially since she lost that baby fat! |
| |
My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: | You scored higher than 25% on tit-size | | You scored higher than 37% on ass-size | | You scored higher than 97% on cuteness |
|
I particularly like that I'm either really nice or someone who likes deflowering teens. Couldn't I be both?
Friday, October 07, 2005
I can already hear the muffled groans at this weeks
funny cartoon. Some might call it cheesy but, then maybe, that's just
Martin and
Brian all over. Really though, I think it looks good and,
as Frank mentions, reusing the same characters seems to heighten the joke. Or maybe not, who cares?
Once again
Drawn has thrown up a couple of sites of interest. It's hard to work out what I make of the
work of Italian artist
Laurina Paperina. Very simple and very odd, I do really like her
You Are Infected series.
Also there's a
slideshow on the New York Times showing some sketches and behind-the-scenes stuff from the new
Wallace and Gromit film. Nick Park gives a commentary to go with it. Short but interesting.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Well, having stayed in two hotels over the weekend (scarily I think it's actually the first time I've ever stayed in a hotel but I could be wrong), I found
this piece on Drawn quite interesting. For the launch of the new Volkswagen Fox, Volkswagen invited 21 artists, graphic designers and illustrators to redesign the Park Hotel in Copenhagen. The end product is
Hotel Fox. Now the most interesting thing I can think of about the two hotel rooms I stayed in, was that the first one offered it's two shaven-headed occupants a free hairdryer and the second one complimentary shower caps. Oh and the first had some strange religious channel on the telly. Other than that they were pretty bland and non-descript. How there isn't a higher rate of suicide or depression amongst travelling salesmen, I don't know. Now, of course, if
we'd been staying here or
here or
even here, it'd have been a different story altogether.
For anyone who hasn't noticed yet, we've
launched a new shop using Spreadshirt. That means we can offer a
US store and a
Euro store. Now instead of just transferring our
funny cartoons onto t-shirts and the such, we're
developing designs inspired by
them - you know, like with those soundtrack albums that have loads of songs that never actually appeared in the film. Anyway, we'd appreciate your feedback on the designs (and, of course, we'd like you to buy some) and if you have any favourite cartoons you'd like to see inspire a t-shirt, let us know. We're also looking into doing up some Christmas cards this year, so if you're interested in them let us know too.
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Right right then -
300 Faces in 30 Days is this very cute little charity fundraiser. The idea is that an artist will draw 300 different faces over the course of 30 days. Then you can go along and buy prints, zines or posters of the images and all the money raised goes to the charity of the artists choice. It's run by MakePeace Media, a not for profit company that raises funds for charities and community driven groups in Australia through a number of innovative funding programs(and yes I lifted that line right from the site).
I found this through
Drawn -
Agent Double is a new agency representing French and Japanese illustrators/artists. Amongst the many great artists they already have on their books are
Ed,
Azisaka Koji and
Arthur Du Pins. It's all well worth a look if you have some time to kill.
And I'll leave you with my favourite
Perry Bible Fellowship strip -
No Survivors.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
A couple of pretty interesting moves in the webcomics world. First up was Rich Burlew, creator of
Order Of The Stick, has announced a
strategic alliance with gaming magazine publisher and gaming e-commerce site owners, Paizo Publishing. I know nothing about gaming or how big these magazines they publish are, but it does sound like a match made in heaven for both concerned. From now on Paizo will be handling all of Rich's publishing and merchandising needs. The other interesting one is
The Perry Bible Fellowship being
picked up by The Guardian. They have a quick interview with Nicholas Gurewitch online, which is interesting if not very illuminating. Anyway,
The Perry Bible Fellowship is one of those cartoon strips everyone should have a look at. Whether you like it or not, and it probably isn't something you can be indifferent to, you'll have to admire how he's created an unmistakable style all of his own. It's one of those things that just defies comparison with anything that's gone before - just highly original.
Monday, October 03, 2005
I've been away for the weekend. Went on a stag in Galway and Ennis. Pretty much drank solidly for three days. At one stage I found myself standing outside some Galway nightclub, in the early hours of the morning, without the foggiest notion about how to get back to our hotel. Some how, I did though.
Not in the best of conditions right now. Much assorted ugliness happened.
Ed sent me on some reviews of The Lump. Bret McCabe of the Baltimore City Paper called it
'...the most flat-out-fucked movie experience you will have in a long, long time." In an email to the Manhattan Short Film Festival organisers, a Sandra Martin of Omaha (wherever that is) called it "...the most highly original and creative film I have ever seen, and, as your publicity stated, one I have not been able to forget!" I even got a mention in
one of the reviews.
And the
shop is up and running but
Frank will tell you more about that.
