Pre-Buttal (Let the internet drama continue)

Dock- I made a concerted effort. I produced a humour page that I was happy with. I wished that more talented cartoonists, writers, or illustrators submitted comics or came to my ‘comic jams’, but they didn’t. Over the semester, I kept most of the material that I felt was of poor quality out of the Peak, barring some filler on my part- So I feel that I did an ok job.  It wasn’t great, I’ll admit- there weren’t enough cartoonists to make it great, and I didn’t have a lot of time to pull the page together and last-but-not-least, my sense of humour just doesn’t jive with some people.

Now, what I’m saying is that I disagree with Kellen’s policies of putting WingNuts back in the Peak, and putting Warren’s Dream back in the Peak. WingNuts is sadly in need of .. some sort of punchline at the end, and some sort of streamlining to make it readable- But the team responsible for WingNuts actually can produce some top-notch one-shot political-ish comics for the benefit of the Opinions page. Warren’s Dream and Kellen’s Dream both have an almost Terry Gilliam-esque “What the fuck is the point of this?” kind of style that would be fantastic as a method of cutting from scene-to-scene in a movie but doesn’t make any sort of sense in the context of the humour page.

What happened to No Fools? I know Dylan Innes and Elaine Gebert are still making comics, and they are a talented SFU-Native comic-duo.  From what I hear from Dylan, Kellen wouldn’t run his comics just due to the format that they tried to send them in- A poor excuse, at best.  Even if there is a good excuse, I can’t see why the two of them aren’t being pursued. No Fools is *the bees knees*.

Webcomics? Yeah, they are a narrow line. You wouldn’t want to put a comic in the Peak that everybody can read on the internet. But you also wouldn’t want to put a comic in the Peak that nobody would read on the internet even if they had a chance- good webcomics tend to really high quality. Whenever I ask somebody what they liked about the humour section, I get a pretty high instance of “Almost Evil” or “Hey, who wrote that one with the flower?”- So I don’t see a problem with a percentage of web content: The real crutch is limiting yourself to student submissions in lieu of quality.

Penny-Arcade ripoff, Kellen? Okay, I’ll admit I’ve taken some stylistic cues from Gabe @ PA, just like I’ve tried to learn a bit about comics from any and all webcomics I’ve read. Tiny necks.. check. Shirts? check. Comics-from-the-waist-up? Check. Yeah, we have all of the classic signs of a PA-influenced comic. But the line between PA-influenced and PA-plagiarizing is a wide one, and I’m constantly trying to improve to the point where I have an identifiable style and people are accusing others of ripping *me* off. Dr. Googaw certainly never appeared in Penny Arcade, and there are points where my style is distinctly different from PA (Usually for the worse, but hey, I’m young and impetuous) I believe that if you had a problem with Penny Arcade Influenced content, you’d have a problem with Chris Baxter and Brian Shirlaw- who self admittedly “are a blatant ripoff of Penny Arcade with Canadian content!” (That’s from february 28, 2005, which is a long fuckin’ time ago, but their style hasn’t changed too much). I don’t have a problem with Chris Baxter and Brian Shirlaw, you don’t have a problem with Chris Baxter and Brian Shirlaw, ergo, you can’t have a problem with me… at least in terms of my work’s’ *PASSING* similarity to Penny Arcade. You can still have a problem with me because I’m an asshole, which is by no means something I plan to deny.

Kellen, as a humour editor, you’re going to have to learn to take some criticism.  Heck, thanks to the fact that interest in the humour page is low (as always) and satirical (as always), Humour Editors don’t have to deal with one tenth the crap that the other editors have to deal with.  The other members of the Peak staff, hardworking and diligent as they are, have been attacked, taunted, sued, mocked, disagreed-with and otherwise denigrated more than you or I with our delicate turn-criticism-away-with-humour psyches could probably deal with.   A few people predicting the end of the world based on Warren’s Dream reappearing in The Peak should not be enough to get your pants in a tangle, even if it’s on the *GASP* internet.

And finally, North California? No wonder.

Kellen Strikes Back, Dock Currie supports him:

In recent news, it looks like Kellen has decided to take offense at my series of attacks on the current humour page.
Dock, too.
And, of course, because I posted it on my blog, as opposed to sending an e-mail directly to The Peak (“Re: The Suckage”) , it’s an underhanded, sneaky attack behind Kellen Powell’s back.

I’d like to know exactly what I’m ‘plagurizing’, Kellen. I have no idea how one would respond to the rest of your claims.

And Dock? My humour page was not a fantastic example of what a humour page should be, I agree.
The number of good, contributing cartoonists @ SFU is very, very low. Mike Hingston is good, you’re good, No Fools is fantastic.  I’m filler, with an occasional “Oho, that’s a bit of a chuckle!”. Based on that, I’d say that The Peak barely has the infrastructure to support a one-page Humour section.  One solution is to import good stuff from t3h internets (Like Sam & Fuzzy, Achewood, even The PBF).  Another solution is to run a tiny humour page, maybe one or two good comics hidden in the Arts section.  A third solution would be to find some *good* cartoonists at SFU, but I have no idea how they would be unearthed. Subliminal messaging?

———————–
curtis, curtis, curtis

i was doing my daily google of my name and low and behold what have we here.

wingnuts, for what its worth, is made by probably two of the nicest people i have ever met, and they clearly put more work into it than anyone else who submits [with the exception of vietnam vet], also, i happen to think running wingnuts is funny (that is not to say to that i necessarily think wingnuts is funny).

also, PEOPLE LIKE PHOTOS AND TEXT. ITS THE HUMOUR SECTION, NOT THE “CUTE COMICS” SECTION. as for sam and fuzzy, why would i run something people can read on the internet any time they want already? if i was going to run any webcomic, it would be achewood.

you need to accept that you have a terrible sense of humor and a boring overused drawing style.

i told almost evil they could submit but they haven’t given me anything, i’m fine with it. i actually plan on doing a full page of only written submissions a week by the time the semester is over.

oh, and i’ve read enough web comics to know that everything you’ve ever done borders on blatant plagurism. i never said anything to anyone at the peak don’t worry, i wouldn’t want to embarass you like that. besides, i’m not the kind of guy that talks shit behind someones back…

———————————

Don’t talk shit on the internet unless you are a. telling the truth or b. willing to fight about it.

I don’t think you are either.

Warren’s dream admitedly has it’s ups and downs, and Kellen is like a Japanese Noise Rock collective in that he likely has as many brilliant ideas as he does terrible ones.

But your section in the peak, Curtis, was the worst that the peak has ever been, ever.

It can only get better.

——–

Intern Vs. Documentation: Round 1

Click and zoom for ‘large-enough-to-actually-read’-style picture

This is inspired by a true story (And a true binder. A scary binder. A binder that I hope nobody ever must have to see.)

The Wrong Thing To Say

This is new.

Mac Hall! Noo!

The final Mac Hall is out today.
Well, actually , it was 2 days ago- but last one nonetheless.

Bye for now, Mac Hall!

I curse the air conditioning system that blows such a cold wind!

My company is incapable of understanding software development, and so likes to change things endlessly in mid-development.  The company doing our software development likes to look frustrated, then charge out the nose for such a privelige.  Our company then likes to complain about how they’ve missed a bunch of deadlines and are charging us out the nose.

When your entire business model revolves around a website, perhaps it is wise to construct said website oneself. Alternatively, given the boss’s apparent and lordly assessment of the skills of ‘computer people’, she’d probably hire 2 co-ops to do it in a week.

I’m just happy when I have some free time to set down reams of documentation (Documentation that is overwhelmingly represented by ‘to be filled in later’ types of comments), stop fiddling with the insanity-generating randomly-located XSL code in our frustrating CMS, and relax writing a Python script to parse registration information from a .csv file into a demographic report. Python is the best thing ever.

The Saga of You, Confused Destroyer of Planets

Okay, I was right to read the whole thing- Girls With Slingshots is fantastic. Go read it. From the beginning. Now!

PVP

Well, I’ve never found PVP very funny (I read it anyways..)

But the last couple of guest comics have been hilarious.
The strip by Danielle Corsetto from Girls With Slingshots was hilarious enough so that now I have to evaluate Girls With Slingshots.. possibly from the beginning.
The strip by Lar Desouza & Ryan Sohmer from Least I Could Do was pretty good- Least I Could Do has been on my sidebar (—>) for a month or so- A new addition, but possibly the funniest thing on there.
Chris Giarusso finally made the “Mothafuckin’ Snakes on a Mothafuckin’ Plane” joke funny. Good for him!

And for anybody who misses comics: Filler!

From deep within the Peak archives!:

Kellen Powell horribly rapes The Peak Humour.

Extra, extra.

I just saw the first new Humour Page for The Peak.
And then, afterwards, I wept.

WingNuts is back. And here I was hoping it was “burried” for good.
Warren’s Dream is back. The horror. Oh, the horror.
Kellen Powell’s ‘hey, look, a picture with some words on top of it’ comics are back.

Sam & Fuzzy is gone. *tears up*. My favourite comic in the whole world- and it’s not in The Peak anymore!

I just didn’t write anything for the Peak. Too busy with my new job.
You know what I miss? Almost Evil. That comic was *ghetto fabulous*, by all definitions of the word.