I’ve linked to comics I’ve
liked
in the past, and have been meaning to do the same with this one for a
while. Starslip
Crisis
is the cleverest web comic I read. Set in the year 3441, the crew of the
Starship Fuseli take art and culture to the furthest reaches of the
Galaxy.
The Fuseli is a museum starship, and its curator Memnon Vanderbeam is
fussy, arrogant and rude, but also loyal, brave and a damn good captain
in a pinch. Cutter Edgewise is co-captain (much to Vanderbeam’s disgust)
Some fantastic sci-fi staples are put to good use too. The adding of
“space” onto normal
words to add a “futuristic” feel. The liberal use of
techno-babble.
If you have the time, start at the
beginning and work your
way forward. If you don’t, at least start with this
guide to get an idea of what’s
going. Then subscribe to the feed.
As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison
involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.Excerpt from Wikipedia on
Godwin’s
law
Now, when someone does make the comparison to Hitler their opponent is
declared the winner and the discussion is over.
Well, sadly I invoked Godwin’s Law on myself today. I was thinking about
how weird it is that I used to be so certain that I would always be a
Christian. I made promises to God that I would always be His, so certain
that no hardship would ever make me doubt Him.
I tried to think of other situations where kids have made promises that
might have been misplaced. That’s when I thought of the Nazi’s and their
brainwashing. Then I had to invoke Godwin’s Law and exit my own
conversation. You know how humiliating that is?
The Perry Bible Fellowship is the comic
strip of Nicholas Gurewitch. It’s at times very dark and always
absolutely hilarious. There are around 200 strips on his site, and it’s
well worth the time to read through them all if you have time, but today
I’d like to introduce you to him with just a couple of the ones that I
find very clever.
He doesn’t have a very easy way of embedding his strips into other pages
and it’s not clear that he wouldn’t mind me embedding them in my page so
I’m gonna link you to them on his site instead - please click through
and read them.
Here they are counting back up toward my favourite one:
Number 5 - Les Douleurs de la
Morte. This one
I like because in the second panel the Grim Reaper is acting so smug,
waiving goodbye and almost chuckling to himself. In the final panel you
just know he’s thinking “Well… Shit.” It was actually a toss up
between this one and Lord
Gloom for fifth place.
Number 4 - Falling Dream.
Reading this one again made me want to share PBF with you, so maybe it
should be higher in the list. It’s simple and elegantly done - the joke
is perfectly executed.
Number 3 - Hug Bot. Hugbot has
elements of the best PBF comics - an innocence corrupted, a devastating
twist, and dreadfully effective art that conveys exactly what it needs
to and no more to make the point. If I had to show you only one PBF
comic, it’d be Hugbot. The next two just tickle my fancy a little more.
Number 2 - Freaking
Vortex. As a sci-fi fan
(especially of the paradox/corruption of time-space variety of Sci-fi)
this one is enormously rewarding. Note the extra knife twist at the end.
Number 1 - Guntron Alliance
Force. I find this one
particularly hilarious because of how well he captures the essence of
Voltron - where he got his inspiration. This is the best explaination I
can give of why I find him so clever - by the third panel he’s managed
to convey enough information that I can figure out exactly who these
people are and why the green guy looks so worried, without having to
explain the history of Guntron/Voltron or who Skorpex is.
I told myself this blog would not just be made up of snippets of other
people’s work co-opted and written into mine. So I’m very appalled at
myself for what I’m about to do - namely: stick someone’s web comic into
a post and call it a night.
But damn if this one isn’t really funny. More than that it’s a comic
about a future that I feel is really possible and it scares me to death.
I’ve only just discovered Saturday Morning Breakfast
Cereal
(RSS), but it’s hit-rate is high
and I find myself laughing loudly to more than every second one.
It reminds me a little of The Perry Bible
Fellowship
(RSS), and both of them are
kind of crueller, surreal-er versions of The Far Side - what you might
get if Garry Larson had regularly maimed his characters or left them
devastatingly emotionally scarred.
If you find any of these comics amusing, you might try some of the
others I enjoy (click on RSS to immediately subscribe if you trust my
taste): Ctrl-Alt-Del
(RSS) - the lives and loves of
gamers and their robot. Dilbert
(RSS) - life in a
cubicle. Dr. McNinja (Unofficial
RSS) - He’s a Doctor, who’s also a
ninja. And he wants to be Batman (but who doesn’t?) Joy of Tech
(RSS) - geek
comic. Wondermark
(RSS) - old Victorian era
drawings given new life. xkcd
(RSS) - probably
the cleverest comic on the web. It’s about romance, joy, maths and
velociraptors.
Update: 2007-06-02 I don’t care if you like Fred Basset. If you were
thinking of commenting read this
instead and then go away!
Update 2: 2012-05-20 I still can’t figure out why people are still
commenting on this post. I’m closing comments. Read why
here.
Many of you already know that Fred Basset is close to, if not the
dumbest comic strip of all time. I know for a fact that there are whole
religions based on pondering the worthlessness that is “Fred Basset”.
For those that do not know, Fred Basset is a comic strip featuring a
basset-hound that does ordinary dog things, and comments about them as
though they are remarkably funny. They aren’t.
Now there never was much debate about it being a good comic, but in case
there were any remaining basset-hound loving comic-readers with the
sense of humour of a toasted marshmallow that thought Fred Basset was an
amusing slice of suburban doggy life - I present the following.
Reader Beware! Before you click, you must know your immortal soul will
be in jeopardy as you read it. It will cry out as though stuck by the
very pitchfork of Satan himself. Hold on, and pray to whatever gods you
must. I take no responsibility for it’s hideousness.
Fred Basset bringing pain to millions
Dear reader. I apologise for that, but I feel it is my duty to inform
the world that Fred Basset is the worst… comic… ever…
If you need something to ease the pain, I will provide you with an
example of the greatest comic of all time:
