Posts categorized “Comics”.

I just thought these were very entertaining.

It’s taking the creators of Baman Piderman so long to come out with the next episode of the cartoon that it’s making them feel bad. In order to say they’re sorry for taking so long, they’re drawing quick Baman Piderman comic strips to tide us all over. Like these:

You can, of course, watch all previous episodes of Baman Piderman over at their channel on YouTube. You can also visit the website of their creators, Lindsay and Alex. But it looks like the only place you can see these new daily comics is at Baman Piderman’s Facebook Page. So go over there and “Like” it.

Happy Festivus, everyone! I hope you get to air some good grievances. I hope the plain aluminum pole is not too distracting. And I hope you win the Feats of Strength!

Here I’m going to round-up a big random heaping of things I’ve found interesting recently. Artists, websites, musics, games, whatever. In random order:

Michaela Eaves

I saw her at a studio open house where she had some paintings and prints out for display. I really dug the way her paintings have heavy outlines, and the way the lines break up the colors in such a way that her paintings almost look like stained glass.

She also had an adorable painting of a rocket ship, done in a soft, children’s book style of painting. I dug it, but I can’t find a picture on her website (which is mostly about her graphic design & illustration business):
www.michaelaeaves.com

8-Bit Jesus

I thought this was pretty spectacular. Not only did Doctor Octoroc (sic) make 8-bit chiptune versions of many Christmas songs for his album 8-Bit Jesus, but he also wrote them in the specific styles of various 8-bit video games. My favorites are definitely “Carol of the Belmonts,” “Bubbles We Have Heard on High,” and “8 Days of Master Robots,” which very excellently captures the essence of the Mega Man experience. Also, “Icarus! The Herald Angels Sing” is quite accurate. Check it out:
http://www.doctoroctoroc.com/8BitJesus/

Machinarium

Machinarium is a beautifully done, old-style, point-and-click adventure video game, unbelievably done entirely in Flash. I like it ’cause it’s about robots. But more than that, the world is completely enthralling, and the puzzles all involve robot logic more than real-world logic.

The art style is pretty much spectacular. You can play a demo for free, or buy and download the full version here:
http://machinarium.net/

Kaiju Dance to Thriller

Just what the title says: a bunch of Kaiju dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”

Wonder Woman Pumps

This woman takes shoes and tastefully collages them with pages from Wonder Woman comic books. She tends to use mostly monochromatic images, so the effect is a little subtler than you might expect.

She has an etsy shop where she makes all kinds of shoes and boots (not just Wonder Woman):
http://www.etsy.com/shop/Pachainkapink

Regurgitated Thanksgiving Dinner Scarf

Taisha McGee sells what she calls “Ugly Scarves.” They’re mostly actually quite pretty, but she nevertheless gives them hilarious names based loosely on their color schemes, names like “Mulched Roses,” “Tidy Bowl,” “Moldy Cheese,” “Mushy Froot Loops,” and my favorite, “Regurgitated Thanksgiving Dinner.” She also has the sense of humor to take photos of the scarves wrapped around a cardboard stand-up of John Wayne. Bravo!

Check them all out at her etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/TaishaMcGee

Alexis St.John

An artist whose work I saw in a tea shop in Downtown Tacoma (Mad Hat Tea, 1130 Commerce Street) and I liked the humor and simplicity in it. I also really appreciated how most of the paintings were really small; a lot of ‘em were only like 6″ × 6″, and I don’t think anything of hers gets over 20″ in any direction.

You can buy the actual artwork, of if you’d prefer you can buy frameable prints of it.
http://alexisstjohn.com/Gallery.html

TheSixtyOne

TheSixtyOne.com is a fascinating idea for a democratic music website, where the more people like a song the more popular it becomes, and ANYONE can upload ANY song they’ve created (as long as they’re legally allowed to blah, blah, blah, y’know).

Not only that, but it turns listening to music into kind of an RPG. You gain experience (called “reputation”) and rise in levels. There are quests (like “Listen to 7 recently-uploaded songs” or “Listen to the radio stations of 5 other people for 5 minutes each”) that let you earn experience and “hearts,” which you can use to mark a song as a favorite (i.e., you heart the song). And you also earn experience as other people later heart songs that you previously hearted. The more reputation you have, the more likely other people are to listen to your opinions (in theory at least). So you get tangible rewards for finding new, unheard songs that you really like and then getting other people to like them as well, other than the reward of discovering good music.

Also, TheSixtyOne.com is the only place right now where you can hear Taisha’s musc (yes, the same Taisha that makes those scarves). Just go here:
http://www.thesixtyone.com/taisha/

A Very Alan Thickemas

THE Alan Thicke, Leeni, and puppets. Lots and lots of puppets. And Blake Lewis is somehow involved. It exists, I just have no idea of how to see it. Other than these:

That’s about it for now.

I updated my links page to include more webcomics that I’ve started reading recently. They are (in alphabetical order):

FreakAngels
Very cool, very British post-apocalyptic fun from Warren Ellis.

Girly
Terrifically appealing, very fluid artwork and crazy adventure fun.

My First Dictionary
Vaguely uncomfortable and disturbing retro children fun.

Pictures for Sad Children
Hilariously depressing fun.

I suggest you all (or “y’all” if you prefer) go check ALL of them out. Simultaneously if possible, but I understand if you’re somehow more “limited” than I am in that regard.
—————

Link of the Month:
Gunnerkrigg Court
A fascinating webcomic about a strange school in a vast, mostly-abandoned industrial complex with a mysterious history.  The main characters have an amusingly blasé attitude towards the bizarre scientific and supernatural things they encounter almost constantly.  The comic steadily builds an intriguing mythology, and the art style thankfully matures with the characters.  Good to sit and read several chapters at a time.  Also available in graphic novel format!

DVD of the Month:
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
A great, magical movie. I told a lot of people to go see it, and they’d often say, “I never saw Hellboy I.” I’d then always reply, “That’s okay; it wasn’t that good. This one is way, way better.” I’d tell you to read my full review of it over in my Movie Reviews section, but I haven’t actually written it yet. What’s wrong with me? I’m so behind.

Game of the Month:
Animal Crossing: City Folk
I’m kinda shocked it took me this long to make Animal Crossing: City Folk on my “Of the Month” list, considering that Carrie & I got the game back in late November and have played it pretty much every day since then.

Well, you might have heard of this, but it was leaked (due to an early mailing of promotional material) that Google has *surprise!* created its own web browser! It’s called Chrome, and since I’m a big fan of Google’s other products, I’m really looking forward to trying it to see what it’s like. You can read about it at the
Official Google Blog.

One of the coolest things about the whole launch, though, is that they got Scott McCloud, one of my favorite comic book artists, to draw a 30-page comic as an introduction to the concepts of Chrome! Here’s the first page:

You can read the rest of it here. It’s got some interesting stuff! I’m totally downloading it on Tuesday when it’s released.