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-->January 22, 2005
Eric Burns-White: Fast Con Notes from Saturday
Today's panel was fantastic. An excellent group of people, engaged with the panel, who themselves rocked. Alexander Danner picks a good group, and is himself superior. Way to go, J.
Midway through the panel, my phone rang. It would have been embarrassing, but dumb luck let me spin it to my advantage. "Hey guys," I said to the audience. "Randy Milholland says hi."
"Hi, Randy!" they chanted back. I then handed my cell phone to Randy's roommate, who was in the second row, and she made sure Randy fed her cats.
Later, we had a Superguyish get together, though three of the invitees (Greg from yesterday, and Frobozz and Van, to use psuperguydonyms) couldn't make it due to A) other committments, and B) a giant freaking blizzard. But we did have myself (Sabre, to use the Superguyism), Gina (aka Crash), Jon (aka... um... Jon), and Randy (aka Nee). I had a glass of wine, which with my ultraefficient metabolism meant they got to see me get drunk.
Oh, and Betsy? Your sister Susan says hi, and says "hah hah -- I got to meet Eric Burns and you didn't." And she and I then talked about John Troutman and Meaghan Quinn.
I think it was Susan. I know it was Betsy. I hope it was Susan, because... well, she was a pretty girl, and I'd hate to think I've managed to forget the name of a pretty girl so quickly. On the other hand, I mentioned the drunk part.
Oh, and when we got back to the room, later, it was raining inside. Seems a pipe burst. We were moved to an absolutely gorgeous room. A large, gorgeous room. Life is good.
Except I'm like totally broke at this point. But hey, that's okay!
More notes from later, and expect the return of Journalist Snarky at some point.
Also, Drunk Snarky. Randy's made me a promise about Drunk Snarky. I'm holding him to it.
Got to go! Party with an editor to go to. This is your on the scene buzzed reporter signing off!
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 8:23 PM | Comments (8)
-->Eric Burns-White: What is this, the Year of Shocking Wedding Proposals?
(From Superosity! Click on the thumbnail for full sized GASP!)
Arisia is going excellently well. My panel last night, on graphic novels, was amusing and cheerful. I had dinner with old friend and Superguy cohort Greg Fishbone, which was an excellent time all around. Further, to date I have seen no skunk porn. This is a positive and healthy trend I can only support.
I don't have a lot of time before I need to be off and Guestly, but I had to make note of today's Superosity. Chris Crosby can bring resolution and evolution -- he honestly can. After many, many years of teasing a proposal, we now actually have one. Even if Arcadia says no (and I doubt she will), things will have changed. This is a good thing. And he managed to surprise me, and that's a very good thing.
Chris Crosby gets a biscuit. A tasty, tasty biscuit.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)
-->January 21, 2005
Eric Burns-White: Good Lord there are talented people out there.
I'm getting ready to hit the road for Arisia. While I wait for my laundry to finish drying, however, I've been going through some of the submissions and sketches I've been getting for my Webcomics Project. (In honor of Chad Underkoffler, who is the master of public secrecy, this is Sekret Project Triple-S. Not to be confused with Sekret Project L, which will be soon published by e23.)
I'm getting some astoundingly good character sketches, based on what I sent out to interested people. (Kate Sith -- your e-mail is bouncing. Please for to let me know if you got the "Pitch" document.) There are clearly very very talented people out there, and I'm thrilled some of them are expressing some interest in working with me.
(If you've expressed interest but haven't received any direct e-mail from me outlining the terms of the project, followed by a pitch document, please send me e-mail at websnark AT gmail DOT com or comment on this entry: to my knowledge, I've sent things out to everyone interested, but there's always a few.)
Sometime later this year, I might be able to call myself a webcomics creator in some way other than ironically. That excites the Hell out of me.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 12:03 PM | Comments (4)
-->Eric Burns-White: A very welcome Disturbance in the Symphony
For those who don't know, Steve Jackson Games has finally launched e23, their PDF/electronic publishing arm. And it's one of the most progressive of its type -- sacrificing DRM for portability and ease of usability, for example, and setting things up so that if you have a catastrophic disk failure, you can always go back and download the stuff you've bought again. (I have my iTunes bought music backed up in like three places, because Apple won't do something this consumer-oriented, as a counter-example. Bastards.)
However, what has me so totally stoked -- even more than new Chad Underkoffler works (and a new outlet for Dead Inside, which long time readers know is one of the best and most innovative new games of the last couple of years, and which you guys need to buy. But I digress.
What has me excited is broad In Nomine support.
I have never liked a role playing game as much as I like In Nomine. I probably never will. And like all the IN faithful, I've been scared that it would be going away sometime, since support was fading away. However, SJGames has figured out that there are people like me out there, and we're willing to spend money. Cash money, no less. And e23 is perfect for that.
I have nothing in the current crop of In Nomine offerings. (Though that should change one of these weeks. It's in the can and waiting.) However, I have lots and lots of excitement for these products. And the way they're going about doing the releases is just plain cool.
So, they're getting my money. Go check them out. Buy stuff. Make some of that stuff In Nomine. And Dead Inside. And then look at everything else.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 10:43 AM | Comments (8)
-->Eric Burns-White: A sudden thought.
Kelly J. Cooper, one of the editors of Comixpedia, devoted to webcomics, is on a panel with me that goes over the best graphic novels and comics available to the discerning viewer.
Alexander J. Danner (yes, he's going to be Alexander "J." Danner for the rest of the day now), the editor of Graphic Novel Review, devoted to graphic novels, is on a panel with me that goes over the best webcomics available to the discerning viewer.
I love conventions. I honestly do.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 9:39 AM | Comments (2)
-->January 20, 2005
Eric Burns-White: Is this Journalist Snarky or Public Speaker Snarky? Either way -- Arisia lives!
Arisia is almost upon us! I'm going to be at a panel called Don't Forget the Comics tomorrow at 9:00 PM in Franklin, moderated by the always superior Kelly J. Cooper. Her description:
Don't Forget the Comics: Comic books in all their forms, including graphic novels and trade paperback collections, cover many genres, including science fiction, fantasy, crime, mystery, espionage, etc. Comics can be beautifully strange works of art, superhero-packed adventures, scathing political screeds, gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans stories, works of base horror or great humor. Join our comics experts to discuss the medium and listen to their recommendations.
Then, on Saturday, I have a 1:00 panel moderated by Graphic Novel Review editor Alexander J. Danner on Webcomics. That information:
Certainly everyone's heard of Sluggy Freelance, PvP, Penny Arcade, Something Positive, and other staples of the webcomic world, some of which have already made a successful movement to print media (PvP for one). But webcomics today are more than cubicle humor for server administrators and bored college students. How have webcomics made titles possible which might not have succeeded in print? How has the webcomic transformed the graphic novel marketplace? Has it, in fact? Answers to all these questions and more from writers and artists behind Teaching Baby Paranoia, Picture Story Theatre, Streets of Northampton, and the critic Steven Withrow, author of the book _Toon Art: The Graphic Art of Digital Cartooning_.
I have no idea if they'll actually mention Websnark in the revised description or not. My bio, sans all the humor, is in the program guide.
I believe I'm on a third panel as well, but I can't tell you what it is at this point. More as I know more. Oh, and Saturday Afternoon/Evening, I'm going to hook up with fellow Superguy Alumni at an undisclosed location, but that's not a public event. So hah hah!
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 11:00 PM | Comments (4)
-->Eric Burns-White: If you're not following, by definition aren't you leading -- even if no one's following you?
(From Sinister Bedfellows. Click on the thumbnail for full sized leadership!)
Someone might ask if there was some reason I snarked this on the day of the American inauguration.
Someone might ask, anyway.
The thing I love about Sinister Bedfellows is the "found art" element of it. This isn't a pose, it's a photo, but Mckenzee makes it art. That still just blows me away.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 10:39 PM | Comments (1)
-->Eric Burns-White: So help me God, there's something cute about decapitated LEGO.
(From Irregular Webcomic. Click on the thumbnail for full sized expressions of mourning!)
Just when you thought only Schlock Mercenary can feature primary character death with repercussions, Irregular Webcomic steps up! I mean, who is going to fly the ship? Who will get Paris's cabin?
My favorite part is they're in cyberspace to essentially run a patch upgrade to their systems OS, and then the guys started screwing around with virtual laser swords and then killed off the pilot. Frankly, as someone who works in IT, I'm surprised we don't have more "screwing around" based fatalities.
Don't believe me? Remember, Livejournal's catastrophic loss of power and multiple day downtime was caused by someone essentially screwing around with the Big Red Button. And it's happened twice. If there had been a laser sword rack in Internap's cluster room, someone would be headless now.
Also? If there were a laser sword rack in Internap's cluster room? I would so have a resume in their HR department right now. Which highlights the essentially truth of this strip, doesn't it?
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 9:51 PM | Comments (0)
-->Eric Burns-White: And you know, you can't safely operate a stolen car without being alert -- better steal some coffee for everyone's well being.
(From Freefall! Click on the thumbnail for full sized honesty!)
One of the things I've always liked about Freefall is the way Sam's criminal lifestyle isn't a source of angst for him. He's perfectly cheerful when he's justifying stealing everyone blind, with a certain innocence that's just plain likable. And, as he says, the night is still young!
Also he interweaves between Florence's night out and Sam's "honest day's work," which keeps the frenetic feel to things without overloading either side. this is nicely done.
I'm just mister happy tonight, aren't I?
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 9:40 PM | Comments (0)
-->Eric Burns-White: Also born on that day? TV's Donna Reed! And Cinematic Also Rans Troy Donohue and Bridget Fonda!
(From Planet Earth (and other tourist traps) Click on the thumbnail for full sized cake!)
This is a nice prime example of Planet Earth. It has some surreality (Alien!), it's funny, and it highlights something about birthdays that seems interesting to me, and actually came up earlier today.
You see (well, probably you don't), I have a birthday coming up. For reference's sake, it's the same day as Lewis Carroll, Mozart and nuclear navy ubermaster Admiral Hyman Rickover. Hyman. Rickover. There's a man whose parents hated him. But I digress.
It came up at work today, and it turned into a flurry of finding out what days peoples' birthdays are. And in every case, everyone was excited to find out others peoples' birthdays, but didn't want their own known. It's not an age thing, it's a literal discomfort with becoming the center of attention. You feel like... well, you're older now, in your thirties. You have to be adult about this. But birthdays are fun in general. The party, the cake, the hanging around.
Over at Planet Earth, they've solved the problem. They just declare any given day the alien's birthday, and then they can have cake! Yay!
As for me... well, I tend to have my desire to be low key and self-effacing in such situations go to war with my arrogant desire to be the center of attention. I will say that with the declaration of that particular day "Through the Rabbit Hole" day on Livejournal et al, I'm pretty excited. Even though I have nothing to do with that, I can pretend people are doing all this for me. Anonymous, yet deluded into arrogance.
Perfect.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 9:20 PM | Comments (6)
-->Eric Burns-White: You know, that would make those silhouette ads a hell of a lot more interesting.
(From Lore Brand Comics. Click on the thumbnail for full sized insight!)
It's been a while since I've mentioned Lore Brand Comics. Given the construction of these strips -- a variation on cut and paste -- it's all about the writing. And Sjñberg is, simply put, one of the funniest human beings to ever stalk the web from behind sunglasses. His Slumbering Lungfish site is interesting commentary, and leads inexorably to the various and sundry funny things he's currently associated with. Though he doesn't link to his original breakout site -- the brilliant Brunching Shuttlecocks site he pioneered with David Neilsen back in that nebulous time we call "the day" -- it remains one of the funniest places on the web, and through Slumbering Lungfish you can find his great Bandwidth Theater, the Book of Ratings, and so much more.
This particular episode of Lore Brand Comics nails the Lore style pretty well, in my estimation. It's a dry humor, it poses a thesis you have to agree with, and it involves comparing consumer goods to vibrators. What more is there to say?
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 9:00 PM | Comments (5)
-->January 19, 2005
Eric Burns-White: Biscuits. Tasty, savory biscuits.
So I'm back in Maine tonight. Why? Because I forgot my winter coat over Christmas, and the Cold Miser decided to have a blowout sale, so I had to come and grab it. And along with it was a delayed care package from a noted British (well, Canadian, but currently British) Snarkoleptic of intellect and style. Which one? Well, if said Snarkoleptic wants to be identified, I'm sure there'll be a comment. However -- superior person in all ways. But I digress.
It had been frozen against my picking it up. And now I have.
And inside it?
Well first off, Crunchie Bars. They're honeycomb foam in chocolate. It's like eating styrofoam, only it's awesome. I loves me the Crunchie Bars.
But more to the point, it's stuffed to the gills with British Baked Mini Chedders. Baked, not fried! And as they say on the back, you the customer are "spoilt for choice!" They have Smokey BBQ and Cheesy Beans flavor available!
That's right.
I got sent tasty, tasty biscuits.
I love my life.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 9:14 PM | Comments (8)
-->January 18, 2005
Eric Burns-White: So, do we call his hit count "nielson ratings" now, or is that unique visitors?
(From WIGU-TV. Click on the thumbnail for full sized Science Cop!)
When Jeffrey Rowland ended Wigu, it ended with young Wigu Tinkle deciding to watch an episode of Science Cop instead of Magical Adventures in Space. Wigu was beginning to grow up, or at least outgrow Topato and Sheriff Pony. (Or, subconsciously had figured out the pair wasn't exactly helping him most of the time.) Topato and Sheriff Pony briefly mourned, and went out into the world to find a new young lad to get to know, protect and meddle in the affairs of in such a way to keep a healthy cashflow from merchandising coming in to Butter Dimension Quad.
Now, Wigu has ended. And yet, we're now seeing the world through Wigu Tinkle's eyes all the more. Literally, because he's squatting on the couch watching television, and we're watching with him. Specifically, the W-I-G-U Television station, thus recycling an acronym that Rowland has used since When I Grow Up.
I don't know that we're literally supposed to imagine ourselves as Wigu Tinkle, watching television, mind. It seems more likely that this is just what the station is broadcasting, but it's a nice bit of continuity between the two series -- specifically, a bit of continuity that couldn't possibly make any less difference to anything, and that's the best kind of continuity of all.
So, clearly WIGU-TV is going to show television shows, letting Rowland do things while he enjoys them, then letting him switch channels or programs when he's ready for a change. And he's shown skill at doing rapid setup -- in two days of "Science Cop," he's set up the premise, gotten Science Cop on the scene, and done a Kevin Costner joke.
And it's fun. It's clearly fun.
This opens a lot of doors for Rowland. If he wants to do any kind of story, he can, just by switching programs. If he gets a yen to do a Magical Adventures in Space episode, he can. If he wants to do the news, he can. If he wants to do riffs on Reality Television, he can. If he wants to keep us updated on the casts of Wigu or When I Grow Up, he can cut to news bulletins about the shirtless man who just foiled a bank robbery with the help of a small black boy who rapped himself into a seizure, freaking the crooks into surrendering.
Or he can never touch the old stuff again. It's literally what he feels like doing, when he feels like doing it, and from the look of things, he can execute humor in short form with the best, in this new format.
I'm feeling really good about WIGU-TV. This is one to watch.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 10:38 AM | Comments (2)
-->January 17, 2005
Eric Burns-White: This is me in a bitchy mood.
In a day where the level of whining about who said what bad things about webcartoonists has reached absurd proportions, I am having an evening where, due to events that have nothing to do with anything, I'm not in a good mood. I'm just not. And yet, there are big things afoot in the world of Webcomics, and it was time I went back to work. So I turned to the Night Trawl, excited to talk about the inauguration of WIGU-TV, which I glanced at at work and had a moderate-sized snark in my brain about it, and I come to discover that there's some kind of major issue with the account.
Which, clearly, is not Jeff Rowland's fault. So even though I'm in a bad mood, I just kind of deal with that. And I had a sudden moment of pleasure, moving to the very next site on the trawl, because that next site is Clan Bob, and Clan Bob's been down for something in the neighborhood of a full year. It went down in the wake of the death of a friend and collaborator of the Bobs, and it stayed down after hosting and server collapses and who knows what else. For weeks now, the site has pointed to a series of quotes from many sources -- Blade Runner and Ferris Bueller's Day Off leaping to mind. There was a sense that faith would be rewarded, that stories started would be completed, that all that is Bob would be returned. And today, the all new Clan Bob returned.
Most other nights, I'd just give this a bye. Most other nights, I'd just say "well, that's life in the webcomics world." But tonight, I'm in a bitchy mood, and the Bobs are the ones to prop themselves up in the way of it. So let's do this fucking thing.
The centerpiece and most popular element of Clan Bob over the years has been a webcomic called Life of Riley. This started as a goofy little strip, and over time expanded to be an epic, surreal, sexy romp. And then became serious and far grander and depressing in places and... and....
Yeah, you know the drill by now. They went for a Cerebus Syndrome, and they landed in First and Ten. But somehow, it was still fun to read. And they created a mythology that I found compelling even if it seemed a bit ridiculous at times. And it maintained a visual quality that was considerable, and even if it was pretty damn First and Tennish, it did it as well as you could ask. And, rather than just go three day a week, they updated as often as they could, and on the alternate days they put up artwork, or a sprite comic called Dreams in Digital devoted to... well, babbling about Final Fantasy XI stuff. It showed commitment.
All in all, I liked it. Life of Riley was distinctive, and when it vanished -- in the middle not only of a climax point but a fight scene within that climax point, it was sad.
But, as I said, I had faith. We had faith. Fans got information where they could, making reference to the fact that the downtime had turned to a disappearance of the site, then getting bits of information back. And, despite the fact that it had been many months, I left it on my trawl -- a hole that didn't resolve, over and over again. And then began to resolve with quotes, with messages... we were getting closer. The commitment they'd built up all that time ago kept a certain core of fans waiting and hoping.
Faith rewarded, as I said. It finally returned.
Except, there's no Life of Riley. They decided not to revive it "yet," though it's on "indefinite hiatus," which most of the time means "we're never going to actually do this, but we're not going to declare it ended, either." They announced that they'd continue to do Dreams in Digital (apparently as animations you have to download to watch, for reasons passing understanding), but that that there would be no more Life of Riley.
Now, even that wouldn't warrant more than annoyance. Annoyance mostly born of the fact that over all these months they might have mentioned they weren't actually bringing the comic back, so that the folks who came for other Clan Bob things could anticipate and the people who came to see if the Third Stage Dan could effectively fight Lilith would know it wasn't gonna happen and move on. That's minor.
Only, coming back, the front page had the following message from William (MentantBOB) on it:
Over the past year, and several failed attempts at getting the site back up and running (for too many reasons to list here) it is with great satisfaction that the site is here for all of you to visit again. Most of you will note that the 'Life of Riley' comic is missing. We have setup an FAQ where you will find many of the answers to the questions that you are sure to be asking.
Going to that FAQ page gives you:
LOR has been around for over four years now and there is much more we want to do with the current story line. However, after ***MUCH*** deliberation it was decided that we are going to take an indefinate hiatus on the LOR project until we can dedicate the time we feel it deserves.
That's it. There's nothing else about it. Nor is there any element of appreciation for their past fans, or anything like that. It was a short paragraph that, in the world of webcomics, means "we're not officially saying it won't be back, but duh. It won't be back, sparky."
Not letting your fanbase know your comic won't be returning while they wait for your site to return was an annoyance, because it strings them out and then lets them drop. Not having your comic return, and not even putting up a decent announcement message on the front page, but instead putting a link up to a FAQ page which itself is perfunctory shows contempt for your fanbase. These are people who have patiently held on, long after the casual fans had dropped off. They believed in the storytelling that Aaron and Dan had been weaving (I have no reason to think Dan's even still affiliated with the site, though again there's no info so he might be). They believed that with enough time, they'd get the technical issues resolved and pick the story back up.
There's nothing wrong with deciding not to continue providing the free comic strip you've been giving people for all this time. But to shaft your faithful readers, fail to give an appropriate announcement, and shlep them off the front page for what amounts to a brushoff? That, as I said, is contempt. "You weren't ever that important to us" is the message that gets sent. "We're a gaming clan. Anything else was secondary, and we've cut the secondary out."
And most nights, I'd just snort, say "that's bullshit," and move on. But today I'm in a bad mood, so I'll publicly say "wow, that's total bullshit. What a crappy way to treat your fans."
And then move on, because there's no reason anyone over at Clan Bob gives a damn what I think -- Websnark didn't even exist back in the day. But when I first put my Evening Trawl together, this is what it said:
Clan Bob. This is on the list in hopes that they may yet actually update. Until it does... no snark for you. NO SNARK FOR YOU!
Well, it's 'updated.' Whoo fucking hoo.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 7:49 PM | Comments (17)
-->January 16, 2005
Eric Burns-White: A difficult admission
You see, there's things I want to say, and do. And forms I want to work in. Very, very badly.
Or maybe you don't see. How could you. I did the in media res trick, only that doesn't work in essays, does it? Well, let me pick things up and see where they fall from here.
Back in 2002, I wrote a comic strip. It was called Unfettered by Talent, and it was terrible. It's not the worst strip to ever be written (some of the writing was actually okay), but I can't draw. It's possibly not the worst drawn strip of all time, but it's in the top twenty.
But I would like to work in the webcomics form. I honestly would.
I have a working plan to do so, in one sense. A quiet little strip with a collaborator, on the subject of In Nomine. But while I'm excited to do that strip, because I like In Nomine, I like that artist, and I like jokes about coffee and demons, it is what it is. And there's more I want to say.
So, I have a thought in mind, and I would need to find an artist who would be willing to draw it, at least initially. And perhaps later, other artists could try it out too.
In tone, it would be more story than funny, though there would be funny. Really, it owes more to Modern Tales and the like in concept than anything else. And, because I'm predictable, it's about art, and magic, and muses.
And I'd like to find someone who'd want to do the art for it.
In the best of all possible worlds, this would be a three strip a week comic, and many weeks worth would be completed before it even began to appear on a website. What home it would end up on depends a lot on what's available when we get to that stage, of course.
I'm open to suggestions, or offers, or discussions.
Oh, and the vast likelihood is there would be no money involved. So... yeah.
Anyway. The worst thing that will happen is no one will respond. I can cope with that.
(Oh, and the other strip? The In Nomine one? I'll keep you posted with where that one's headed.)
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 11:15 PM | Comments (17)
-->Eric Burns-White: Comicsnarkia! Or something like that.
I haven't had a chance to read through all of this week's offerings yet, but I should mention that over on Comixpedia, the next edition of my monthly column, Feeding Snarky, is out. This particular column goes into one style of Funny (since this is the "funny" issue and all), and invokes Men in Hats, Hound's Home and Nukees for examples. And that makes me a happy person, because I loves me the Men in Hats, Hound's Home (well, old Hound's Home. Recent stuff hasn't worked as well for me) and Nukees.
Anyway -- I'll have a look at the rest of the week's offerings too, but if you're jonesing for me to blather on about webcomics, here's something for you to chew on!
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 10:54 PM | Comments (3)
-->Eric Burns-White: Meet the Snarker!
It's now official. I'm going to be one of the guests at Arisia 2005 January 21-23 in Boston, Mass of the Chusetts. Other Webcomics luminaries will be on hand as well, including Alexander Danner of Picture Story Theater and Graphic Novel Review, Kelly Cooper, who's an editor and extremely cool person over at Comixpedia (and also, as it turns out, an author from Dragon's Inn, so I'll have to ask if she knows some folks I know who used to be involved with it), and many others.
There will be much fun, many good times, lots of shopping opportunities, and sooner or later, I will find Skunk Porn.
I always find Skunk Porn at conventions. I don't go looking for it. It finds me. It scares me.
So, if you're anywhere in or around Boston, come on down and have some fun.
Posted by Eric Burns-White at 1:57 AM | Comments (4)
