Aug 04 2008
Archive for the 'Comic Books' Category
Aug 01 2008
Is Wolverine the Latest Victim of Globalization?
A poster from Edmonton, my favorite Canadian city, notices that the new Wolverine trailer has Wolverine in an American military uniform. Assuming this isn’t just a Hollywood gaffe, Marvel is probably rewriting Wolverine as an American rather than a Canadian.
This isn’t as annoying as Superman’s motto getting changed to “truth, justice and the American way all that stuff” or the inseparably American GI Joe getting turned into international peacekeepers, but Canada still deserves better than this.
Jul 21 2008
“The Dark Knight” Rocked
I loved the new Batman movie. I’d say that it was the best DC-licensed movie I’ve ever seen, but that would be damning it with faint praise. Although the action was low-key and frankly forgettable, the writing and side-characters really redeemed it. Instead of getting campy one-liners from the Joker, the script echoed The Lord of the Flies. It wasn’t exactly deep or insightful, but it was unexpectedly dramatic and entertaining.
Jul 19 2008
Picking a Font for a Webcomic
I’m particularly fond of Gosmick Sans and Agency FB. Stay the hell away from Comic Sans, Times, Impact, and Helvetica. None of the default Microsoft Word fonts are particularly attractive. I recommend browsing through a free-font website like 1001 Free Fonts. I’ll have more thoughts on this later.
Jul 11 2008
Dr. McNinja
Although I think the name comes off as a kitschy attempt at Real Ultimate Power, ultimately I think Dr. McNinja is far superior to RUP. Plus, because McNinja is a webcomic, it has graphics. Suitably badass graphics, of course.
Jul 05 2008
Hellboy Quotes + Gunfire = Funny Hellboy Quotes?
The Hellboy Quote Generator is out, although it has been technically unreliable. On a comedy scale of 1 to 10, I’d give this a 5: amusing but uneven. It’s a well-done piece of viral advertising, though. (“Let me put this to you as delicately as I can.” *BANG*)
Jul 04 2008
Webcomic Issue #4: Jim’s Gunz ‘n Mattresses
Have a happy 4th of July!
FIRST COMIC — PREVIOUS COMIC — NEXT COMIC
FIRST COMIC — PREVIOUS COMIC — NEXT COMIC
Jul 02 2008
Adapting and Updating Cartoon Franchises
The New York Times has an interesting run-down of cartoon updates, from apparently successful endeavors like Strawberry Shortcake and the ugly-but-popular TMNT series to horrible flops like Magic Earring Ken and Warner Brother’s Loonatics…
Jul 02 2008
Season 3 of Heroes will have MORE characters!
The creator of Heroes, Tim Kring, has promised that season 3 will have more villains. Yes, more characters… that’s exactly what Heroes needed.
“You’re going to see a lot of bad guys,” he said to Sci Fi Wire. “We’re playing off the idea of our characters as heroes or villains. So it’s really the duality of good and evil.” T.K., I will see your duality of good and evil and raise you character development, interesting traits and a well-rounded cast. For one, I’d start by killing off about half the cast…
Jun 27 2008
Webcomic Issue #1: Ability to Work Well with Mutated Alligators a Plus
UPDATE: I forgot to leave an artist’s tag, but the drawings of Agent Black and Agent Orange were done by Polawat Darapong.
Jun 26 2008
5 More Mistakes of First-Time Novelists (#6-10)
This short article will help beginning novelists avoid another five common mistakes that will usually cause publishers to throw out a manuscript.
This article is a sequel to “Five Mistakes of First-Time Novelists,” which you can read here.
Jun 25 2008
5 Common Mistakes for First-Time Novelists
This short article will help beginning novel-writers avoid five common mistakes that will usually cause publishers to throw out a manuscript.
Jun 25 2008
Superhero Nation Webcomic set to begin on Friday
We had originally planned to launch it today, but unfortunately Paypal is stalling us. Rather than sit around waiting, I’ve drawn up scripts for our first five comics and the initial reviews have been very favorable.
I’m new to this sort of writing, but I’ve read through all the entries for “Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should Feel Bad” to help avoid common mistakes. On the plus side, I think we’ve already gotten past problem #1: terrible art.
Jun 16 2008
The Luck of the IRS? (Or: Eat Pennies!)
Agent Orange: Greetings, Mammal-Black! I require your expertise.
Agent Black: Tax trouble again?
Agent Orange: Indeed. Your former colleagues at the IRS persist in their shameless schemes to extort me.
Agent Black: And did this vendetta against you begin before or after you insisted on paying your income taxes in pennies?
Agent Orange: That wouldn’t have seemed unreasonable if they hadn’t demanded so much money!
Jun 14 2008
Iron-Man, Hulk, Hellboy 2, Punisher: one of these is not like the others…
I would venture to say that Iron-Man is the only Marvel movie released this year that approaches watchable. (I liked Iron-Man, but I found its action scenes disappointing).
Speaking of the new Punisher movie, you can see its trailer below. It looks like it will be beyond bad. I’m not adverse to wanton, cybernoir violence (The Matrix!) but the concept should have translated to film much better than it did in the 2004 Punisher film…
The last trailer I’ve seen that was this bad was Vantage Point. If the movie is really as loaded with goofy stunts and groan-inducing lines as the trailer is, comparisons to Elektra, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD, and perhaps even the 1990 Captain America “movie” may be in order.
May 31 2008
Comic Book Art: How to Make Speech & Thought Bubbles in Photoshop
In this article, Jacob walks you through how to illustrate speech and thought bubbles for comic books, webcomics and header art. He also has a few free samples for your convenience.
May 30 2008
The Office of Special Investigations Does Clue!
Mike challenges Agent Black and Agent Orange to a game of Clue. Question: if the victim was killed by a noose, was it murder or assisted suicide?
May 27 2008
Quote of the Day: Halloween Ideas
Agent Orange: Greetings, Mammal-Black! I have an excellent costume for our upcoming office Halloween party. It makes full use of my mammal-frightening teeth and reptilian horror factor and this pleases me.
Agent Black: Godzilla?
Agent Orange: IRS agent.
Agent Black: That’s a terrible costume.
Agent Orange: Don’t make me take 28% of your candy!
May 19 2008
Featured Quote of the Day: Bring the Kids!
Agent Orange: Kids today are so hard to please.
Agent Black: I don’t even want to think about how you might know that.
Agent Orange: Yesterday…
Teacher: Class, today our guest speaker is Agent Orange.
Agent Orange: I’m a Special Investi-Gator.
Teacher: Could you explain what it is you do?
Agent Orange: Are you sure? There are kids here.
Student 1: Have you ever killed anyone?
Agent Orange: Laws need claws or they’d just be words.
Student 2: How many people have you killed?
Agent Orange: The confirmed score or a rough estimate?
Agent Black: …
Agent Black: Suddenly I have questions of my own.
Apr 24 2008
Two Magical Words
Agent Orange: I have learned something important about mammals. Two quasi-mystical words will put a mammal into a hypnotic stupor that will force him to believe anything.
Agent Black: You’re crazy.
Agent Orange: I am prepared to demonstrate my new-found learning of mammalian psychology. First, I will greet a victim-mammal of your selection. Then you will make an outlandish statement. And I will administer the two word hypnotic spell.
Agent Black: Let’s see it.
Five minutes later.
Agent Orange: Greetings, Mammal-Darpa! We have learned something intriguing on our latest posting.
Dr. Darpa: What?
Agent Black: We were attacked by robotic, flesh-eating airplanes.
Agent Orange: IN JAPAN!
Agent Black: … !
Dr. Darpa: Egads! How did you survive?
Agent Black: …
Agent Black: NO!
[end] (If you’d be interested in reading a related article, “Stuff Mammals Like: Japan,” please see more.
