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| I think I'm done.
That is to say, I think this blog has served its purpose. I haven't written anything here in three months--nothing of substance, at least. That tells me that I've finished what I meant to do here. I'm still writing, but the things that I've been writing lately aren't the sort of things that I'd put up here. I'll also be going back to school in August, and while that may kick-start my brain back into action, it'll also mean that I will be doing far too much writing. After all, the program I'm heading into is a Master's in Technical and Scientific Communication run through an English department. Meaning? I'll be teaching twenty hours a week and doing classwork the rest of the time. Lots of writing, but probably none for free. I may have time, but ... I don't think my thoughts will be going here. This blog has been around for four years, and it's been fun, but it's time to move on. I doubt I'll kill the page, but I also doubt that the few of you who read this will miss it for long. It's possible that there will be a revivification of this sketchbook at some point in the future, but if and when will have to present themselves later. In the meantime, I will continue to follow those of you whose blogs I read (there aren't many. Sorry.) and I will watch for comments if any of you care to point out that you're still around.
I probably should note before I go that I'm not outgrowing writing as a means of creativity. I'm not becoming a mere technical writer. No, I think my writing is just becoming too personal, too meaningful for an open sketchbook. Most of what I've posted here is light and ultimately silly. Even my philosophical posts were pretty empty. I'm only doubting the quality of my work as all artists do, and I'm not saying that this blog was pointless. It was a sketchbook. Sketchbooks get filled. Time to move on.
Lastly, I see this good-bye as another sort of closing for the college years. I started this blog at the beginning of my sophomore year. It's now been almost a year since I graduated and ... my inspirations are different, my location mentally and physically is different, and, as one would hope, I'm a different person. I don't even know if anyone reads this anymore; I think I'm just trying to justify another ending for my hypothetical audience. If you're out there, thanks for watching. It's been fun.
Good night, and good luck.
--Joel
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| Shutdown phase commencing. Please stand by.
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| Progress:
While refining my flying skills, I've also learned to breathe underwater. My next step is learning telekinesis and a gaining more solid control on the nature of reality.
(I've been dreaming, of course.)
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| The webcomics rundown. Grades run from A to F, with F being "I used to think this was good, but now I'm not sure why I read it." Many webcomics out there deserve worse than Fs. Many deserve Zs. This is only the list of comics I read now. So, here we go:
Schlock Mercenary: A-. Plot! You can always count on Howard Tayler (yes, I spelled that right) to kill off important characters or erase the memory of the entire crew or ... otherwise do things that push the story along nicely. It isn't always funny, but it's always at least moderately amusing.
Narbonic Director's Cut: B+. Yes, I know Narbonic ended over a year ago, but I still think it's awesome. Garrity's commentary on the comic is an interesting window into her mind and generally a cool view of the process behind the project. The reruns are still in the early years of the comic, and some strips are weak, but you can see the foreshadowing of later plot devices developing already.
Skin Horse: A. Another Shaenon Garrity project, and wow, I love this comic. It has actually made me laugh out loud a few times, which is a rare occurrence these days. It's very young (only around for a few months), so I can't really tell where it's going yet. I'm quite excited to see where it ends up.
Unshelved: D. Not completely sure why I read this, except that I like library humor because, well, I used to work in a library. And it is funny. Sometimes. It just doesn't go anywhere.
Irregular Webcomic: C-. I read this comic partly because it uses Legos. Mostly because it uses Legos. And inertia. It doesn't really make me laugh, but ... I dunno.
Questionable Content: B+. Good plot, characters, and art, and it does make me laugh. I'm not completely sure why I'm not giving it an A. I'm not a big fan of promiscuous sex in storytelling, which might have something to do with the lower grade, but at least it all happens offscreen, unlike some webcomics out there. The pace is slow, with a bomb drop every once in a while. One's happening right about now. I may also be giving it a lower grade because the setting isn't too original. Twenty-somethings going about their lives? Yeah.
Dinosaur Comics: B-. Funny, but it doesn't go anywhere.
Goats: C. More than any other comic I read, this one makes me go "what the hell?" Sometimes even more than Bob the Angry Flower. Unfortunately, I'm not getting into the current story so much as the last one (which ended with everybody dying.) I would have given it a B before everyone died. Now ... meh. Also, it too often subsists on weirdness for humor. BtAF at least has jokes, even if they are weird.
Girl Genius: A. The first purely story comic on this list, it's well-drawn, well-paced, and has some really cool moments (like Gil calling down lightning to destroy an army of battle clanks.) I'd like it to move faster, but it does well at the pace it goes. Most importantly, I haven't yet lost track of where it's going, which happens a lot with story comics.
xkcd: B. I don't get a good quarter of the jokes in this comic, mostly because I don't understand the technical content. What I do understand makes me laugh, and if stick figures can be well-drawn, this comic draws them well.
College Roomies from Hell: F. I honestly don't understand why I read this comic anymore. I have no idea what's going on, and I think it's trying to be funny, but I really can't tell. Campos killed off a major character recently, so I had hoped that might speed up the pace. It didn't. Probably I'm not giving up on the strip simply because I'll need to do a lot of catching up if I ever decided to come back to it.
Templar, AZ: B. Really good characterization, and pretty good sepia artwork. Spike (the artist, not a character) writes excellent dialog and does a great job with dialects (so good that I have trouble deciphering Reagan's speech sometimes.) Only trouble is that I've lost track of what's going on in the story. Negative points for that.
Crimson Dark: D. I really wish I could give this comic a better rating, because it has a great plot and amazing artwork. It just updates so infrequently (one page a week) that I'm having trouble holding on. I suppose I could check it less often, but that would deviate from my usual schedule, and I just don't do that. My fault, I guess.
Digger: A. Digger has the best artwork of any comic I read, hands down. Ursula Vernon is technically artist first, writer second, but her writing is almost of the same quality as her artwork, so ... there you have it. The comic has great characterization as well. I only wish it would update more frequently--twice a week makes it hard to track the story sometimes. Oh, and be forewarned, you have to pay to read the archives on this one. It only costs three dollars, though.
Bob the Angry Flower: B+. BtAF is second on my list of "what the hell?" comics. But unlike Goats, I can usually see where the joke is. Stephen Notley is a great artist, which helps things a lot. It's a testament to this strip's greatness that it's been around since 1994 and hasn't started repeating itself. The biggest problem I can find with it, though, is that it mostly
subsists on "what the hell?" and less on sophistication. Every joke in
BtAF comes from way out of left field (though I hate using a cliche to
say it.) Whatever. It makes me laugh, so it must be working.
Minus: A. This is an excellent comic. It has a reasonable dose of weirdness, excellent artwork, good humor, and a likable (though at times kind of scary) main character. The laugh quotient of each comic generally holds for later readings (which among the comics I read or used to read, is generally only true for Sluggy, BtAF, and maybe xkcd.) And last week Rezo drew a zombie suitor in a tuxedo. I still think that's funny.
Alpha Shade: F-. I am soooo close to dropping this comic. For one thing, I have no clue what's going on anymore. It also updates so infrequently that I wonder why I bother. I think I hold on because it has great artwork and because, like with CRFH, if I ever decided to go back to it I'd have a lot of trouble catching up. Oh, and because this one's done in Flash, the archives are a major pain in the @$$ to read through.
No Rest for the Wicked: C+. I like this comic a lot. The artwork is anime-influenced without looking unoriginal, and the plot and idea behind the story are quite amazing. I only wish it updated more often.
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| Grad school's out. So much for that idea.
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