Sep. 22nd, 2007

Webcomics

Sep. 22nd, 2007 03:52 pm
stoutfellow: (Ben)
A couple of webcomics have caught my fancy lately, and I thought I'd talk about them here.

Goblins is a revisionist D&D-derived comic, centered on a handful of goblins. The early comics lead up to an attack on their warcamp by a group of standard-model adventurers, in which most of the tribe is killed. The survivors set out to... well, to survive. The goblins quickly are established as more sympathetic than the adventurers, and more distinguishable: Fumbles the klutz, who comes up with the idea that gives them hope; Dies Horribly the coward, who finds himself a slave to a would-be conqueror; Big Ears, who wants never again to see the helpless die; Chief, the unwilling leader; the irascible Complains About Names; and Thaco, the only one without a prophetic name and the best warrior of them all. There is humor; there is pathos; there is a great deal of blood; and the mix is strangely satisfying. Unfortunately, the updating is quite irregular, but if you can tolerate that I recommend this strip.

I'm still going through the archives of No Rest for the Wicked, but I'm already intrigued. This is another revisionist strip, this time focusing on classical fairy tales. Forty-five pages in, I've met analogs of the Princess (as in "and the Pea"), Puss in Boots, and Red Riding Hood, but none of them are quite the same as the bland characters of tradition. Perrault (the puss) is, after all, a cat, with all the baggage that comes along with that; he may talk, walk upright, and wear clothes, but he's a cat. Red seems a rather sinister character - some say she's a witch - but I've just met her, and the Princess vouches for her, so.... This one looks more lighthearted than "Goblins", but that may not last. They've just entered The Forest, and things may change quickly.

Anyway, both strips look entertaining, and if they sound appealing, check them out!
stoutfellow: (Murphy)
Why is it that memories of stupid things I said or did in high school, thirty-plus years ago, can still reduce me to fits of impotent rage and self-loathing?

How did I manage to eat a pint of Ben & Jerry's New York Super Fudge Crunch today, and then forget that I had done so?

What on Earth possessed me to tell the department's colloquium director that I wanted to give a talk, to be entitled "The Equals Sign: A Curmudgeon's View"?

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