On My Other Blog

My other 40 Day Side Project . 

On Other Blogs

I'm not usually a fan of blogs which makes me blogging be all the more of an irony. I understand that some people will actively search the Internet for a blog to read that shares their opinion, has an inside connection or what have you. I am not one of those people. I might look for a review of a movie but it is usually quicker to look elsewhere or to use Rotten Tomatoes. I might want an opinion of a tv show and what happened but checking a Wiki for that article is usually more effective. Essentially my problem is efficiency in reading what other people write when I can just find the abridged professional version elsewhere. Or at least, that is why I used to think.

During the time that I have spent writing the blog, I've been introduced to a plethora of people who share the same passion about blogging whether it is their own views on web comics, tv shows or what have you. While I don't read them as often as I read web comics, their passion has touches my feeble little nerd heart. These bloggers are the future writers for newspapers (or whatever steps in).

On another note, those Yahoo bloggers who I figure get paid for what they write, have varying levels of skill and I mostly ignore them. Except for Eat This/Don't Eat This Guy. That stuff is like food erotica for me. I read the number of calories and my mouth starts to drool. And then I read the description. If it weren't for the healthy alternatives I'd have probably fouled several pairs of jeans. I mean, you go from meat loves deep dish to arugla and ham on thin crust pizza. Anti boner. Its like a bunch of naked senior citizens in the rain. Funny but oh so very very very wrong. 

Check back tomorrow for a little something special.

Partial Review

Templar, Arizona by Spike

Every once in a while you run into a wall that you can't go through. That's why they build a wall. At that point you can make the choice to give up and go back the way that you came or give it a shot as you try to climb up it. Templar, Arizona for me is a wall. The story line is complex, the characters are nice and it doesn't coddle you at all. It tosses you into the world that has been developed head first. The art is great, the dialogue is fast past and it all sort of runs like a dream but thats the problem. I personally found the comic a bit too thick to get into, mind you I read through the first year and a few months after worth of comics but I had very little of an idea of what was going on. Maybe I was tired, maybe I just wasn't focusing. Either way though, I wasn't able to get all of the way through the comic. I enjoyed what there was but it was that fascination with a dream that you get where you don't necessarily understand it but just continue to let it tell its tale. I do plan on trying to get into it some more but I am holding myself to a schedule and so here's the review. A-.

Midterms

It's midterms week for me so no post. I've got to focus on "class assignments" and "work I don't have completed." It's a bit ridiculous but I should be back next weekend with a review of at least Templar, Arizona. Current thoughts : (starts off thicker than British pudding.)

Forsaken Webcomics of Koltreg's Past

There was a time in the past when I was unaware of the Internet culture besides lol and wtf and the other macros and such that now seem to drive my mentality. It was a time before I knew what was amazing on the Internet, at least in webcomic standards. I read things that now cause me large amounts of discomfort and they often lead to a plague of copycats that have created the current webcomic plane of desolation we currently live in. I will abstain from rating them because I don't keep up with them and for a few other reasons I hold to myself. These are Forsaken Webcomics of Koltreg's Past!

Dominic Deegan by Mookie

Honestly I used to go crazy over this comic and I loved everything about it and I'd get into discussions about storylines and then I just dropped it. I'd been reading it for about 3 years at the time, reverently and on a dial up network. Then I stumbled onto a forum where they were complaining about it and my magical optimist glasses were broken. I tried to deal with the overly animu art but couldn't anymore. I found the storyline to be a depressing pastiche of overused storylines with barely anything that made it stand out besides the fact that it had been on since close to the beginning of the webcomic boom. Looking at it currently it looks like they still haven't resolved storylines that were around when I quit reading, the art hasn't progressed since then and nothing is making me want to return. 

8-bit Theatre by Brian Clevinger

Now I was honestly a huge 8-bit Theatre fan back a few months after I got into Dominic Deegan (followed by VG Cats). I read through the entire archive and kept with until about a year ago. I took off for vacation, came back, looked at all the text in the comics and then realized, in the time I am reading this overly wordy sprite comic, I could be reading at least 5 other comics. I am going to go out and blame the current flood of sprite comics on 8-bt. Every Sonic sprite comic, Fireball20xl, etc. 8-bit paved the way for it and while I will note that Clevinger did it the best and most likely still does as he is making ass loads of money off of it, I still think he can do much better now. His print comic (Atomic Robo) is proof. I might return someday when I am really bored but I would doubt it.

Ctrl-Alt-Delete by Tim Buckley

It started out generic and got worse. I think almost everybody who has stopped reading the comic would agree with this. I got into the comic back in 07 in Chemistry because I could half listen and still read the comic (or play KoL). I went home after first discovering it and read all the way through the archives. I kept up vigilantly. I even recommended it to other people for a while. Then I noticed the flaws with help from the Internet. The art not changing, the horrible jokes. I got out a while before the miscarriage but I don't think it matters. It's a generic comic not offering anything special right now and that is a shame. Especially since the guy is making a living off of it now and is living comfortably apparently.

The Wotch by Anne Onymous

Everybody makes big mistakes. all that came out of this that was positive was that I discovered Sins and El Goonish Shive. Why the comic still lives in mainly because it is a purely fetish cartoon functioning solely on the fact that horny people will take whatever they can get. Why did I get into it? I don't even remember. I don't want to. Enough said.

Those were the big 4 for me. They influenced me or at least showed me the breadth of webcomics and I thank them for it but I won't visit them anytime soon. Look them up if you want but remember, I left them all for a reason.