Lookalikes

Preston the bearded dragon.

T-Rex:

Purely Visual Notes.

Sinfest: I love the thought (speech?) bubble with the shocked pig.

QC: Child-Marten doesn't really look like a child. I like his crazed look in the dinosaur costume though. It's interesting how masculine his father looks, but then even his mother looks more masculine than him.

Hanna V gets ready for a dangerous climb - to the bus stop. I can tell you it's only a slight exaggeration. Lots and lots of snow this winter.

Marc Johns has a very sad Christmas tree.

Abstruse Goose is so nerdy, even a Christmas tree is a mathematical concept.

Quality beats quantity, at Stuff No One Told Me. Just because it's so cute. I must say, those clouds or puffs of smoke always remind me of farting. I'm sure they're not meant to represent farting, but if you live in the same house with my father for a while, you will see this sort of thing everywhere.

Grumpy Fluey Comics Reader.

And now for my weekly Questionable Content rant! Possibly even grumpier than usual, due to my extended flu.

Marten's mother is in town - this calls for more penis jokes! And the waiter looks so much like Dora that I completely misread the first panel. I thought they were at Café of Doom, the mother was non-subtly bringing up the breakup, and Dora was meekly trying to serve them and not cause a fuss. But, of course, it's not Dora - Café of Doom doesn't serve food, and the haircolor and -style are different. Silly me! This is Dora as we last saw her. I had forgotten her hair was purple, but then this was a few weeks back. I mostly like the way the characters look (faces more so than bodies), but they need to look more distinctive.

Then they meet Tai. Apparently Marten's Mom and Tai have some mutual sex-thing going here that is pretty creepy. This is the only strip where even a mother's visit is only prelude to more sex jokes.

Will the Marten/Dora breakup lead to something? Or will they just keep talking about it ad nauseam and then get back together? Will there be more awkward sex jokes out of nowhere, while Mom's in town? Will she stay in town? Will Marten drink again? Will we see Dora talk to the psychiatrist?
All this and a lot more in the next episode of SOAP. 

Friday Nerd Special.

2-D Goggles discusses measurements. If Ada Lovelace is 5 heads tall, then so is Tintin! Tiny Asterix is only 1,5 heads. Awww. :D Also: chibi versions of Lovelace and Babbage! If you haven't read the comic yet, READ IT NOW. Especially for nerds.

In the vein of nerdiness: the definition of a mathematician at Abstruse Goose.

Calamities of Nature warns against being a thermodynamist. Or a logician. Dangerous fields, those.

Xkcd shows us how nerd love dies: with a graph. An overly simplified one. Have I ever discussed xkcd here? It's the ultimate simply drawn strip: stick figures, graphs and pie charts, computers and wires. I frequently find it funny, and I equally frequently have to ask my nerd boyfriend about the references. It's interesting that I'd much rather look at this than a poorly drawn but colored Paint comic. Stick figures can be pretty OK, but when almost-cartoonish-looking humans have outlines of squiggly Paint lines, and everything is neon green and pink, it's just visually ugly. I think more online comic artists should go for black-on-white and stick figures.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal has employed a xkcd-style graph, but also drawn characters. In this case, a winning combination. I also love all of the little details about how the human eye works. A pretty original look on the old "why?" conversations with children. (I'm linking to the gif image because the latest comic doesnt' seem to have an individual link that will work later. Just enlarge it. The main page is here.)

Then, to digress slightly, a nod to the Christian comics I posted about yesterday. Rock music: of the devil, see previous post. Here evidenced by Buttersafe.

The Most Important PSA's You'll Ever Read!

I interrupt this blog to give you a PSA. In fact, many PSA's. In fact, so many PSA's that your head is going to spin for JESUS OUR SAVIOR because what is a comic if not a tool to spread the
MESSAGE 

"As a medical professional, I must tell you the truth. An abortion would be one of the biggest mistakes you two could make." (God will hold you accountable for MURDER!)

"Bobby died of AIDS, Jimmy O.D.'ed. And Don is into vampirism." (Rock music, even "Christian" music, is a tool in the hands of Satan!)

"This is how the Gays are changing the way little schoolkids think."  (All three kids got saved.)

"God tells us in the Bible what happened.. and He should know... He was there!"  (You're calling God a liar! Evolution is FALSE!)

"If you were a true Christian, Susan, God's angels would be at your bedside to take you to heaven." (As it is, you're dying of AIDS and rotting in Hell. Pay at the counter. Next patient!)

"Those girls are about to be sucked into a very dangerous religion called "Islam". (Mohammed did some rotten things! Quite unlike Lot, and David, and Solomon, and...)

"I heard you guys.. He went to HELL, didn't he?" "Yes, Gloria, he's lost." (I know because I am God.)

8 weeks later, Roger dropped dead. (Also, don't commit adultery because an angel will be in the room TAPING the whole thing!)

"Samuel, you were DECEIVED, but you are without excuse!" (You are, in a word, Jewish.)

Drive-By Notes

A quick and random stroll in the meadows of the Webcomics List.

Chucklebrain Fritters seems like an interesting comic. I really loved this strip. It's just supremely surreal and random. It may be a one-time thing or a permanent feature, but I love the bizarro world idea.

I keep checking "Not Much, Said the Cow". I love the title, and I've read many strips. And I still don't have much to say about it. It's an easy read, kinda funny... but does it get under your skin? Is there an original voice? If not, why am I still reading? I will read more and comment once I have something intelligent to say.

A Chipmunk and a Lizard - some of these strips are pretty amusing. But of course, I found an annoying fatist one I have to rant about. Yes, that's right! If you tell people they're fat, they will thank you and give you money. Because it all comes from a good place, doesn't it? Doesn't it? I feel like I'm not giving the strip a chance now. So here's one I kinda liked, because it seems so random.

I LOL'ED:

Horseflies bite cows too - at Cows With Phones

"Stop being stupid" - at 28 Pancakes Later

"Thank you veiny dog" - at Buttersafe

"...Steven." - at Bear Nuts

The Usual Suspects.

Question Duck is truly touched by a film about ducks. (I'd say it's Nils Holgersson's travels with the ducks, but I don't know if that's known outside of Scandinavia.) Some strips ago, the comic broke form. The question is answered, the answer is simple, and the duck says something in return that isn't a question. I think I've finally figured out what this comic has been doing: they travel all over the world, the duck's owner was doing some humanitarian aid project, etc. and the duck is always there, unfazed by the circumstances, and asks an unrelated question. Perhaps the questions are related, after all - there could be more here that I've been missing. It's a very fascinating comic with a unique voice.

What's wrong with America, and what's right about Sinfest, all in one Sunday strip. Awesome.

Sometimes I worry about James Kochalka. But then I have those nightmares/feelings in sleep too. I think.

Nothing at all has happened in the past week of Questionable Content. We know Marten's mother is coming because it was pointlessly foreshadowed a week from Friday, but after that there's just been drinking. Marten and Dora broke up, and it seems to have made the strip duller. Kind of like Ethan getting married on Ctrl+Alt+Del made the strip even tireder. Not sure about this filler strip. The thing is, I love Randy. He's hilarious random and awesome. But Yelling Bird is just a cheap bird who screams obscenities, and I think that joke got old a long time ago. Randy is fresh and new. Lose Yelling Bird.

There's something really sad and touching about this Buttersafe. It's a morbid comic, but morbid and beautiful sometimes go together.