Sorry about the radio silence, but I’m building Halloween. Let this rockin’ little dance number salve your grieving soul in my absence.
Category: Entertainment
Least I Could Do.
In an apparent continuation of pimping webcomics I enjoy, here’s another: Least I Could Do.
Chronicling the day-to-day life story of Rayne Summers, the primary theme of the strip is sexuality… especially the promiscuity of the primary character. It’s snort-out-loud funny at times, and quite touching (figuratively and literally) at others.
While always written by Ryan Sohmer, the comic has been drawn by three artists through the years… the most current being Lar deSouza– and in my opinion he’s the best… the meld of visual and writing comedy just gelled when they teamed up. The comic is updated seven days a week. The duo of Ryan and Lar also publish a second webcomic — Looking for Group, a fantasy based strip that is updated twice weekly.
I suggest, if you’re interested in reading the back-archives to catch up, starting HERE. That marks the beginning of Lar’s takeover of drawing the comic.
Against The Dead.
Martin Whitmore — my obnoxiously talented friend and illustrator — has been developing a d20 zombie apocalypse game for about a year now. The official title is “Against the Dead”. I know, I’m excited too. *glee*
He’s already amassed 70+ original illustrations for the book, and is looking to “flesh it out” with some more zombie-massacre (and flesh-eating) action shots. In order to generate some capital to offset the costs of putting the book together, he’s offering — for a nominal fee — to put a custom illustration of YOU in the book… as either a survivor or one of the unholy walking dead:
$20 to be a zombie, $30 to be a survivor. Your donation gets you into the pages of Against the Dead, as well as a signed print of your illustration.
Go HERE for more details, and to get your ugly mug into the book.
Continuing The Z Theme.
Seems to be the day for all things Zombie… they just keep shambling into my online surfing path.
Zombie shooting range targets, including the recently popular Nazi soldier theme.
Yet Another Zombie Webcomic.
Yes, the soft spot I have for the living dead is well known (I think it’s my abdomen…), and I ‘ve run across another very worthy webcomic. Raising Hell by Andy Belanger, who is also a freelance artist at DC Comics, Transmission-x, Oni Press and IDW. Here’s a preview:
And oh yes… I WILL make the bladed goalie stick to have in my weapons arsenal. It is made of dreams and awesomeness… and cold hard steel.
Neurosonics.
Bizarre and entertaining. I felt like sharing.
Nightmare On Yeast Street.
My darling, dear, wonderfully odd wife has created a new mission for herself… to instigate the spread of a growing blob-like creature to the four corners of the Earth!
Wait… four corners? Of a sphere? Who comes up with this crap?
Anyway, about a year ago Sweets as part of her coursework at the TCA, created a sourdough starter from scratch and it’s been living and growing in our fridge ever since. Its name is Bready Kruger, and he’s a happy, bubbling, alcohol producing amorphous mass of goo.
Her concept is this: send small portions of Bready Kruger to friends and family (and strangers) to grow and use and make bread from — a strong, healthy starter is a thing of wonder, and a good path to having a healthy starter of your own (and a hell of a lot easier than making one yourself). Everyone we send it to will be represented by a pin on a map. We’re encouraging these folks to in turn send a portion of Bready Kruger to their friends, family and strangers, then report back to us so we can put a pin in the map. Etc, etc, etc.
It’ll be amusing and awesome to watch the map slowly populate with pins as Bready Kruger starts traveling the world.
Go HERE to read Sweet’s post and get all the details if you’re interested in participating. The map lives as a link on the sidebar of both Sweet’s site and mine.
Ancient History.
Well, hell… I thought all evidence of me in the prehistoric “PB” era (Pre Beard) had been eradicated by my minions and the cleansing effects of Katrina.
Guess not.
So, before these pictures are used against me as some unsavory method of blackmail, I’ve decided to post them for the public record — because nobody is better at making a fool out of you than yourself.
My long-time friend Hitch dug these up (thanks a lot, man… like I needed a reminder of my larval stage of existence, and how old I’m getting these days) and posted them to Facebook, but since I vehemently refuse to drink that particular flavor of Kool-Aid, he emailed them to me so that I could swoon lightheadedly and have a good laugh.
The first three pictures seem to be from a costume-like event… let’s call it Halloween, because my crusty memory refuses to call up the actual facts. In this first picture, you see a young, clean-shaven me on the left… apparently laughing forward through the years at the decrepit me looking at this picture now, as if to to say “holy crap, look at all that gray hair, you furry freak!” To my right is MiltiMix, with his long-lost full head of hair. We’re both considerably thinner than we are now… in fact, EVERYONE is thinner in these pictures than they are now.
Ah, here we get a better picture of the outfit… my ever-present (at the time) round flip-up sunglasses and pea coat — I was a frequent Army Surplus customer in those years — no less than three mock weapons, and a pair of handcuffs. Jeebus, I’ve never been that skinny since. That’s Hitch in the red robes and hockey mask. He was one of the very few people who helped keep my very violent temper in check in those days… as tall as I was, he had me by almost half-a-head and 50+ pounds, and it took a big guy like that to keep me from being an idiot. Mostly.
Gah! Who let that ugly broad in here?! Wait… that’s no broad, that’s Michigan’s favorite son, James the I/O Master. Not much of an improvement, mind you.
The cheesy mustache era! May it go back to the grave, never to terrorize the good people of Earth ever again. That’s Hitch on the left (sans mask and robes), Susan on the right, and me second from the right (sorry dude, second from the left, but my brain ejected your name and replaced it with Cowboy Mouth lyrics about 10 years ago).
And one last throwback to the CM era. *hangs head in shame* I think I overcompensate now by only shaving every other week or so.
To you, my unsuspecting readers, there is only one response to these pictures…
… and one last sentiment to impart from an old fart like me …
Video Amusement.
In leiu of anything of substance, I give you the accumulation of more valueless internet fluff. Entertaining fluff, at the least.
The Slap Chop/Rap Chop remix:
The JetLev water-propelled jetpack:
Stand By Me – Playing for Change: Peace Through Music
Trailers for The Hunt For Gollum (click-through for the trailers), an unauthorized 45-minute fan-film set in the Lord of the Rings universe. The story was inspired by an appendix to Lord of the Rings, in which Tolkien explains “what Aragorn and Gollum got up to before the trilogy began.” The whole thing is being produced for £3000.
Readings.
In a William Gibson mood these days… getting back to the father of cyberpunk’s roots. Finished re-reading Burning Chrome and Neuromancer. I have a huge literacrush on Molly Millions.
Sadly, I devoured the latest Discworld book, Making Money far too quickly. I dig Terry Pratchett, and the entirety of the Discworld… world. His characters are so flesh and blood real, and his writing just keeps getting better. He’s not afraid to tackle serious topics, and his humor is both light and dark, and that suits me just fine. Also read Nation, his latest non-Discworld book, and ripped through the Bromeliad trilogy, both of which are billed as “young adult” literature, but addresses some very adult topics (just like Pixar makes “kiddie” animated features… yeah, right).
Currently in the middle of re-reading David Sedaris′ When You Are Engulfed In Flames. Such acid wit, razor sharp and wilting… especially when he turns the beam on himself. I think when I finish this I’ll be in the right frame of mind for…
Kurt Vonnegut. What a fantastic writer, but so dark and sorrowful. I have to be in the right frame of mind to read Vonnegut, I have to brace myself mentally before diving in to keep from being drug down with him.