How'd I forget about...

Red Meat? Oh, Milkman Dan and Pipe Smoking Ted, I'm glad to see you're still around.

Oh goddammit what the hell is wrong with you people?

Is it really so hard to come up with good ideas for comic books? C'mon, military accident, miraculous circumstances of birth, space accident, oath of vengeance, school trip accident, theological inquiry, there's all sorts of things to do.

So why oh why would someone go out of their way to produce what looks like a woodenly staged comic book recreation of Pride and Prejudice?

Besides, there's only one person who should be making Jane Austen comics anyway.

Kate Beaton is awesome, by the way.

Life imitates stoopid funny art, sorta...

Okay, just about enough time has passed so that I can consider the following without wincing:

I got publicly betrothed this summer, and in an unpleasantly accurate twist of fate, the run-up to my event was eerily paralleled in the comic strip Achewood. For example, thoughts about dresses, vows, fears about the future, gift registry, fears about the ceremony, catering, the madness inducing lead-up to the day, and the interaction of the guests on the day itself.

Am I R. B. Kazenzakis? Not by any stretch of the imagination. A friend summed up my childhood, noting "you grew up with the Huxtables." Sure, there were fewer adorable children, no well-meaning neighbors, and much, much more swearing, but he's not far off. However, that didn't stop me from worrying that the caterer was going to fuck everything up at the last minute, that the ringbearer was going to wet his pants, or that I was going to preview the rest of my life through a haze of misunderstood advice from well-meaning strangers and reach a technically correct but functionally wrong conclusion.

Back to back to back...

Okay, so I ain't been on for a while. That's 'cause I've been getting re-married. Which isn't to say that I was divorced, but that the first time around was done on the quick and on the Q.T. It was almost like we eloped, except for the questionable choice of moving right back to the same island her family was on.

D'oh.

So once I got the visa I could get to work, which was a prerequisite for paying for the reception that seemed to be much in demand amongst people who'd heard that my special lady friend was now rocking a legally recognized husband.

Except she's already got a professional reputation in her field, and thus is in no hurry to start rebuilding it under a different name. And she's not my special lady friend!

Anyway, turns out that planning and executing a wedding reception takes up time. A damn lot of time. Time spent worrying about stuff that I would ordinarily never even be aware of. Like caring who sits next to whom, or whether there's going to be enough space on the dance floor, or whether the omnivores are going to eat too much of the vegetarians' options.

Okay, seriously, there was a whole roast pig to eat there. Like, over 175 pounds of slow-cooked pork. The pig roast was the most commented-on thing on the invitations, and people were lining up to see the pig before they even noticed the bride's dress. But for some reason, people still nearly ate all the fucking vegetarian lasagna before the actual vegetarians got a chance to.

But I digress. I've been busy, doing nuptial-type stuff. But today was my first Sunday off in a while, so it was a perfect chance to do some manly-type stuff. I bought lumber, saws, nails, big-ass brooms, and a bunch of cast-iron weights. Butch, man, butch! GRRRR-RARR!

Oh yeah, The Professor Brothers rock my historical world. (NSFW)

Next time: eh, whatever, man. You know how I live.

Kate Beaton!

There aren't nearly enough comics about history.

Wait, scratch that. There aren't nearly enough good comics about history.

No, hold on. There aren't nearly enough good comics, period.

Fortunately, Kate Beaton is making hella funny comics, many of which involve historical figures. Her linework is clear and evocative, her sense of comedic timing is great, and I really can't choose which of her comics make me laugh the most, because there are so damn many of them that leave me in fucking stitches.

Go to Kate Beaton dot com, now now now!

Excelsior!

Generally, I don't have a great deal of interest in Discovery News. Most of it seems to be the dry, simplified, stripped-of-sensationalism news that fails to interest the spectacle hungry like myself. Yeah, I'll probably chuckle when I read the story about an ancient coprolite, or the one where scientists stuck needles into elementary school children to see if their pain was better soothed by a mother's touch or television cartoons. But in general, not much there gets my attention.

But then I noticed a couple of interesting headlines right next to each other:

Robotic suit? Rocket man?


Robotic suit?
Rocket man?
Robotic suit?
Rocket man?

It's about damn time. Onwards and upwards, true believers.

It is capital-A Art

Jim Woodring, artist and illustrator of, among other things, the ever-astounding Frank, has an illustration blog. Sometimes it is dreamlike, sometimes bewildering, and other times it is simply inspiring.

The Woodring Monitor

My belly-laugh for the week was courtesy of:

Wondermark by David Malki! 155: In which a Dude is hit in the Nuts.