Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Thay call
beautiful art made from knitting.
Gruesome might be a little
more apt. I like it.
For bloggers -
Snapshirts allows you to generate a word cloud from your blog and put it on a t-shirt, using our
good friends Spreadshirt as it happens. A word cloud, in case you didn't realise and I sure as fuck didn't, is a bunch of popular keywords drawn from your blog (or a literary manuscript).
A very good
screenshot of Shirley Temple from
Baby Take A Bow - just because.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Off topic and bound to offend/annoy/incite but
God is back. That's all I have to say.
There you go,
Ed Godsell,
a man who has heard the chimes at midnight apparently, makes his much pleaded for guest appearance in a
BifSniff Funny Cartoon.
Apparently, one of the first orders of business after the Disney takeover of Pixar was
to cancel production of Toy Story 3 because sequels should only be made if there's a really great story that demands it. Toy Story 3 was been made by Disney and not it's original creators Pixar before the takeover. What confuses me about this whole thing is that if this was a Disney takeover, why do all the Pixar guys seem to be calling the shots? There's some work of genius going on there, if you ask me.
Speaking of genius,
Achewood has been featured in
The Nerves New Radical Issue.
Today's Achewood is a prime example of why he deserves to be there, although I'm not sure I agree with the notion that Chris Onstad is single-handedly rejuvenating the comic strip.
Also on the Nerves list is
Damali Ayo, who has written a guide on
How To Rent A Negro. You can get more information on this unique service at her
Rent A Negro website.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
It could almost make your head hurt if you thought about it too much.
BiznicheMedia launch a
linkbaiting competition and then get
attacked for blatantly linkbaiting, which of course is what the point was in the first place.
Disney has bought Pixar, the animation company behind Toy Story and The Invincibles, in a deal that essentially makes
Steve Jobs a major shareholder in Disney.
Chris Penn's body was found in his Santa Monica home on Tuesday but no one has a clue how he died. Police have ruled out foul play and a
post-mortem has proved inconclusive. Strange stuff.
Great character though.
Seven people face a possible $100,000 fine and one year jailtime for copying Star Wars: Revenge Of The Sith a week before it's cinema release. George Lucas, however, is getting off scot free and he made the guff in the first place. Where's the justice, eh?
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Frank's posted up some info on where we stand on
acceptable/unacceptable blog comments. Some of them have proven to be not to liking of some of our visitors. Like I give a fuck. Some folks have decided we've been overreacting to certain comments recently and maybe we have, maybe we haven't. We've never stifled debate on it and I've never been one to walk away from a pointless argument-just-for-the-sake-of-an-argument. We could have ignored them all. We could have deleted them all. We didn't. We played them out. What became a problem was when people start throwing around insults and offensive remarks - none of which were particularly clever. Now if this were real world and in the middle of some heated debate, in my house, you just stood up and started abusing someone; you'd be out the door and counting your blessings that your head didn't bounce off a few walls on the way. I think alot of people would generally feel this way. BifSniff is our house and you'll behave accordingly when you're in it. If you don't like that, you can fuck off and you can call me a liberal fascist, bigot or whatever as you leave - I don't give a fuck. If you think you're impacting on my life to any great degree, you're deluding yourself. As you are if you think that you're able to make great insights into either of our personalities from the way we've responded to the comments. As you are if you think that anyone believes these are clever little tests that have been devised for us. Honestly, you might want to get yourself a more interesting hobby. For my part, this is the last bit of energy I'll spend on this.
Worth a look - Kazu Kibuishi has done a
step by step guide on how he creates
Copper Comics.
To mark the beginning of the fifth year of
Creatures In My Head, Andrew Bell is giving away a
signed and numbered limited edition print, worth $300, to one of his
newsletter subscribers. As he says himself, it's probably a good time to sign up.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
I've just been reading over at
BoingBoing, how some
large cinema chains in the States are refusing to show Steven Soderbergh's new movie Bubbles because he's doing a simultaneous DVD and Cable TV release. John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners, argues that 'if a high-profile Hollywood name like Soderbergh, director of Sex, Lies and Videotape, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, is trying simultaneous release, there is too great a danger of the strategy becoming acceptable to the mainstream'. Which might be true except for the fact that I can already watch almost any movie whilst it's in cinemas in the states and a long time before it ever reaches one here. Which is why the entertainment industry has been telling us for years that piracy and file-sharing is their biggest threat. Which, in turn, is why their experimenting with these 'day and date' release strategies.
In years to come people will be mourning the loss of cinema and wondering where it all went wrong. Well here it is. Cinemas should start adjusting to the new climate now and not when they've no other choice. They still have a whole social aspect that is still very much ignored. Cinemas will have to focus on the cinema going experience more than just the draw of the movie. So what? Get on with it and stop moaning about how other businesses aren't doing enough to artifically prop up yours.
Single panel cartoons for the ladies.
Apparently there were
'metrosexuals' around in Iron Age Ireland...but we tortured and murdered them. In some parts of the country, I believe we still do.
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
I haven't blogged in a few days, so I thought I'd better drop by, in case anyone of you were worried I'd been
scooped up by the CIA or something. We're
running fourth place in
The Best Of Blog Awards at the moment. The Hot Librarian has steamed ahead of everyone else, with Dead Guy the nearest challenger. So remember to get in there and
vote for us. We've even made it
easy for
you. I think you can vote once every twenty-four hours but
there's seems to be some confusion.
Brilliant, an
Australian man gets tanked up and performs life-saving surgery on a complete stranger. I once somehow managed to cure a chronic pain in my gums while utterly and profoundly scuttered drunk but I don't think it really compares.
Seemingly, neither
Paris Hilton nor
Lindsay Lohan ever change their facial expression.
A
photo gallery of New York pool hustlers as their pool halls are sold off and their way of life is disappearing.
Friday, January 13, 2006
Today's
funny cartoon is a triumph for teamwork and
Skype. Teamwork because, as
Frank mentioned in his
notes, it took a lot of back and forth to finally thrash out the right angle for it. And Skype because it saved me from ringing Frank's neck everytime he hummed and hawed at one of my suggestions, which meant I didn't have to go on the run and we ended up with a much better cartoon.
Heres
Robert Scoble holding up one of our Death & Penguins t-shirts at that geek dinner thing Frank attended before Christmas. Pics courtesy of
Captsolo.
We've nominated for
Most Humorous Blog award at Best of Blogs. So do us a favour and vote for us please.
Why last weeks
funny cartoon managed to inspire so much controversy and insanity, I'll never know. Besides the early accusations, which were dealt with and best forgotten, there was some, let's say, lively banter not wholly related to the cartoon. It becomes a fine line here. Up until now the only time we've deleted comments was when they were clearly spam. But here we were faced with comments that were causing offense to other readers and weren't saying anything contextually valid, if you catch my drift. So once the first complaint came in, Frank and myself agreed to delete some of the more, um, edgy comments. These comments made reference to rape and such forth - subjects that are clearly going to offend people. Now, I could have deleted the comments outright but I kind of thought that would be dishonest. Almost immediately after deleting, we were criticised for it - suggesting we lacked a sense of humour for doing it. Now whatever your sense of humour, and people will tell you mine is darker than most, you have to consider the appropriateness of the situation. If I'm sitting around the pub with a group of folks who know me, I can cut loose because they know how to take it and I know they know. However, if I'm sitting around a table with some buddy's in-laws that I've never met, I'll pretty much have to rein it in because they'll take offense. That's just the way the real world works. If this was
John and John,
South Park or some other such site, then anyone entering would probably have to leave their sensibilities at the door and live with what they saw. It isn't. We, much to our surprise, attract a very broad spectrum and therefore we have to draw the line somewhere - whether offense was meant or not. If offense was meant, and seemingly at least some level of enjoyment was taken from causing it, then I make no apologies for the deletions. If there's any offending to be done here, I'll be doing it, thank you very fucking much.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
I know I don't often post twice in the one day but I found a really
interesting piece about the media reaction to
Mary O'Rourke's 'worked like blacks' comments. It's astonishing that a member of the
Seanad should be able to make such remarks, refuse to apologise and be let off so lightly by the mainstream media. I could be wrong but I can't imagine it being tolerated in any other Western European country. You'll find a link to a video clip of the speech
here. O'Rourke is actually trying to play it down as political correctness gone wrong but it isn't. It's actually the very basis of what political correctness originally was; an attempt to root out prejudice. Political correctness may have been twisted, stretched and abused but asking someone not to make demeaning and racially stereotyping remarks is hardly 'gone wrong'.
It's probably a bad sign for me that
Frank is doing posts inspired by
posts I don't even remember doing. Seriously, every time he mentioned me I had to follow the link to find out what he was talking about.
Saw this on
BoingBoing and just had to link to it.
It's just so incredibly hard to look at.
We've had a bit of hassle over the
latest funny cartoon and I keep meaning to do a couple of serious posts addressing both issues raised. Well, kind of. I mean the second issue raised wasn't really an issue, it's just a complete misreading of the cartoon. But, I suppose, it does raise issues of creative freedom and so on. And, yes, I guess I'd like to talk about that some time. However, looking at my notebook, where I jot down all my ideas, I'm guessing I'm going to get plenty of opportunity to talk on that particular subject. The first issue raised interested me. Not just because
it's been raised before but, also, because at first it could seem quite valid. Are our
funny cartoons formulaic?
This is how the commentor sees our formula:
1. Find random phrase/cliche.
2. Put a spin on it.
Now, on the face of it, it could be taken to be true. Alot of our funny cartoons are based around common phraes, sayings or cliches. Except it kind of over-simplifies it. I don't just pick a saying out of the air and work at it until I find a twist. These are things I hear or think of that strike me as being funny.
Think Tank was inspired by, I think, an episode of
Law And Order. Even then, I often spend weeks refining the idea until it works and plenty of ideas are rejected outright. I also like to think that we don't just put a spin on it, I like to think that we create a little story around the
toons. I think you could take alot of our cartoons and write a story around them. Whether it be what happened to
Clive to lead him to this point or what happened that night as
Rudolph staggered out drunk to lead Santa's sleigh or what was about to happen when
Eddie first lost his nerve. I'll admit that maybe we don't always pull it off but, I like to believe, it's there more often than it isn't.
My second problem with this commentors point is whether this actually works as a valid criticism at all. We play with words, puns, phrases, sayings, cliches, stereotypes etc etc. It's what we do. Why should that be a criticism? If you buy a newspaper one day and happily read the news, you don't go back to buy it the next day and expect to get a 400 page essay on particle accelerators. If you turn on the telly every day at the same time to get the sports news, you don't one day hope that they'll be showing a documentary on 16th century art. If you go to see a
Farrelly Brothers' film, you're going to be pretty disappointed if you find yourself watching a
charming comedy of manners. If
BifSniff Funny Cartoons were daily, I dare say we'd have to broaden our scope. But they're not and, for the time being, we'll continue to stick to the theme we've come to enjoy. If you want to call that a formula that's your business.
Monday, January 09, 2006
I'm surprisingly sprightly for a man who was sitting up til the early hours, drinking whiskey and having wholly amoral thoughts about Winning Streak presenter
Laura Woods. I'm not sure if that's a good sign or a bad one but grateful all the same.
One of the more animated discussions around the christmas dinner table concerned this book -
Mommy Laid an Egg: Or, Where Do Babies Come From?. Years ago my brother bought it for our niece in Australia but, without telling him, our mother 'forgot' to send it. Fittingly, my brother was furious about having his presents censored and, unsurprisingly, my mother was unrepentent. It is a great book though. I actually only mention because
this reminded me of it.
Fianna Fail Senator Mary O'Rourke, after winning a nomination to the party ticket for the next general election, thanked her supporters because 'they were there for me and they worked like blacks.' In the ensuing furore
she refused to apologise because it was meant in a complimentary sense about her party workers. She also added that it was ok because three people who she had been referring to took in that spirit. Which to me reads like she thinks everyone wants her to apologise to her staff, for implying their like black people.
Friday, January 06, 2006
So, I have a number of interesting projects in the pipeline for this year. Some will happen and some probably won't. One you might already be familiar with is, obviously, the
children's book that Frank is getting so excited/worried about. It's just a little bit insane to conceive of a
children's book idea based on a t-shirt, mention it to people and then discover that they think it's a great idea. I will try but, honestly, it was a bit of a half-arsed hangover notion that got out of hand.
The next project of note concerns our friend to the left here. Work has started in earnest on the next short in the Sex, Booze And A Sheep Named John series and it's looking good. It's called Building A House and I'll post up some screenshots for it soon. But in the meantime, I'll just point you back in the direction of the first in the series. Crimescene was produced under an
Irish Film Board scheme called
Irish Flash. The budget I think was something along the lines of €4000 but I could be wrong. Emmet and Frank collaborated on the animation, while Frank's family were roped in to do the voice acting (I won't mention who's dulcet tones you can hear emanating from the sheep's gob). Had the budget been bigger and we weren't so tight on time, we may have put a little more effort and care into the casting. Still, that's not a reflection on those who did get involved. I doubt we could have found a better Miles Bland than Frank's Dad anywhere. In the end, the animation got a mixed reception - some got it and some didn't, some liked it and some didn't. That's the nature of things anyway. I liked it, even though I think it could have been better.
"When a strange woollen man comes to the aid of a hapless bankrobber the ensuing crime spree prompts this urgent appeal for help from the forces for law and order."
Watch It Here!I'll have more about other projects/plans/ideas, and plenty more about John, soon.
Ok, I had a little dig at
Frank's lack of blog posting yesterday and, in his notes for this weeks
funny cartoon,
he took me up on it. Well, Frank, if this is an argument that requires me to become so sad as to think of an equivalent action to taking the time to count the number of posts we both did in the run up to Christmas, then this is an argument I can't be bothered winning. Take the rest of the year off boyo. Do something productive. Count your leghairs or something. You've earned it.
Frank's leghairs aside, I was scooting about the place when I stumbled on
this post about the importance of infrastructure to the success of a webcomic. It's something we, as in Frank, spend alot of time on getting right. So it was interesting to see that the only cast iron rule in the writers opinion is that you need to have a next and previous navigation. As anyone who comes to this site often enough to read this guff knows, we don't. So I thought about it and had a look at the
ComicPress Theme for
Wordpress - as we're likely to swap over to Wordpress as soon as Frank has recovered from his manic pre-Christmas activities. It looks workable and seems to be a fairly flexible theme but I'm quite fond of having the
four funny cartoons on the one page. Maybe on the
homepage we could have previous and next buttons, I don't know. Certainly bloggers or frequent blog readers are, likely as not, very comfortable with our navigation. Quite a few even view them in RSS readers anyway and are therefore pretty oblivious to the issue (if it is even an issue). But, do webcomic fans mitigate against us because of our navigation? It's entirely possible. We do seem to make more friends in the blog arena than we do in the webcomic world. Should we change our way of thinking to yield to the needs of a potential webcomic audience? Maybe. Should we try find some balance that respects our current audience, whilst making ourselves more attractive to the webcomic crowd? Possibly but you'll have to ask Frank about that because I'm way too bitter and begrudging to be bothered kowtowing to anyone's needs. As you might have guessed, I started this post with great intentions but now I'm bored of it. Well, there you go - your opinions on the matter will probably be valued but I wouldn't go betting your house on it.
I still really want to do a range of
Valentines Day cards but that probably goes some way to explain why I'm single.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
What's happened to Frank? It's now the fifth of January and he hasn't posted
since the 30th. I go missing for a couple of days and he's off
bitching like a Jack russell in heat but he can take all the sweet time he wants. Oh, the double standards.
Anyone who's into football(soccer), and especially
Liverpool, will probably
enjoy this. Had we laughing out loud.
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Right, right, first post of the new year. Not much to it really, just thought I'd beat Frank to it, so I can snear at him for being a lazy bastard like.
I know I've mentioned it before and I shouldn't go on about it. But the fact is I'm still kind of
grumbling under my breath about this. Not that I want to seem begrudging but when someone gets that sort of exposure with a
joke you did
around 11 months earlier, you start to wonder if maybe you're doing something wrong.
Anyway,
Cat & Girl creator Dorothy Gambrell has been running a
blog detailing how she spends every donation over $5 - in sketch form of course. It's a pretty cute and novel way to encourage donations. Maybe, we could try something similar. And by the way,
Cat & Girl is well worth a read and she's working working on a book.
I was going to say something about the new
PVP Alive thingy but, actually, I just don't see the point. I'm sorry if that pisses on anyones parade but I just don't think it adds anything.
The next project of note concerns our friend to the left here. Work has started in earnest on the next short in the Sex, Booze And A Sheep Named John series and it's looking good. It's called Building A House and I'll post up some screenshots for it soon. But in the meantime, I'll just point you back in the direction of the first in the series. Crimescene was produced under an Irish Film Board scheme called Irish Flash. The budget I think was something along the lines of €4000 but I could be wrong. Emmet and Frank collaborated on the animation, while Frank's family were roped in to do the voice acting (I won't mention who's dulcet tones you can hear emanating from the sheep's gob). Had the budget been bigger and we weren't so tight on time, we may have put a little more effort and care into the casting. Still, that's not a reflection on those who did get involved. I doubt we could have found a better Miles Bland than Frank's Dad anywhere. In the end, the animation got a mixed reception - some got it and some didn't, some liked it and some didn't. That's the nature of things anyway. I liked it, even though I think it could have been better.
