That would be this Ardra Comic. Clearly, I have no financial or professional relationship with those guys… just a fan… and I think the t-shirt is pretty cool!

Okay, back to Penguicon. I would seriously like your input, so let me know who you’d like to see (keep in mind that the only weapons at my disposal are 3 nifty guest “free passes” and a shot at a one expenses paid Guest of Honor slot). Think about what panels would be interesting to you as a reader or a creator and let me know. Together, we’ll make this the greatest Penguicon EVER (wow, that’s actually an incredibly high bar, but I’ll do my best). Thanks.

Dave

“If the U.S. imperialists start another war, the army and people of Korea will … wipe out the aggressors on the globe once and for all,”

Oh, L’il Kim, you’re so silly! If you want to be a recurring character in the comic strip, you just have to ask. There’s no reason to run around shouting things and making people nervous.

Hey, if you’d be willing to leave the county for a day, The News Guy would love to do an interview. We can’t let him travel in to North Korea though because we’ve heard how you treat journalists there. But say the word and we’ll meet you in Hong Kong for noodles and a Coke.

On second thought, make that noodles and an Evian. You do not need any caffeine in your diet!

On a lighter note, it seems that Randall Munroe caught the same viewing of Wargames that I did. At least we went in totally different directions with it. Of course, his is funnier. I hate when that happens.

So the new iPhone was announced yesterday, the 3g S. Aside from the new firmware which all phones will get, it has a faster processor, up to 32 gb storage (!!) and a better camera. All of these features are, of course, very nice, but nothing compelling enough to make me throw my 3g out the window and rush to upgrade.

But then again, this is the 3rd generation iPhone, and it’s not really about greasing the converted for a few more quid. It’s about refining a design enough and seeing if you can’t entice some new users over to the Apple side.

So, what I think *is* compelling is that they are keeping the current 3g iphone in production and lowering the cost to $99. Now *that* is a sweet deal. Yes, it’s still tied to AT&T, but this really is the greatest phone I have ever used! As per the costs of the AT&T plan, they do stick you with a mandatory data plan, but I’m paying less for the family’s three phones at AT&T than I ever did at Verizon or Sprint, so I don’t see a problem there. I can also get a signal in my lab with AT&T which I never could with the other two, so for me, at least it works. In any case, the cost of entry for an iphone has just gone down a rather substantial notch, and that is a beautiful thing…

…now if I could just manage the thing from linux…

So the Zune HD has been announced. I’m sure the Zune fans are very excited by the news, but gosh, you’d think they could have made it look a little less like the Apple product…

And yes, I will admit that I have an iphone (I’ve mentioned it before), but I’ve had a lot of mp3 players in my time. I remember my Rio Karma. It was a great player except for the fact that you had to smack it every few days in order to get the hard drive to spin up and it took FOREVER to transfer your music to the thing. Simple lcd display and joystick control, but it fit the hand, and I liked it. I replaced it with a series of iRiver players. I like iRivers. Very nice file management, most of them play off files, and they’re nice to look at, but iRiver has stepped away from large capacity players and only supports a player for… about an hour before dropping a new one on the market.

When I finally broke down and bought an iPod, it was for the very simple reason that it had a large enough hard drive and was cheaper than the other options (Cowen, etc). I actually never liked the click-wheel interface, but it worked as advertised and was easy to rip and transfer music to with iTunes. I upgraded to the iphone so that I only had to carry one device around (though I gave up storage space which means I have to manage playlists (ugh)… I would LOVE a 60gb iphone, but a hard drive is a battery drainer).

The built-in HD radio in the new Zune is a neat feature, but I can’t imagine it being enough to convince me or others to start carrying a second device again. Going against the iPod Touch, I expect a lot will depend upon whether they’ve gotten IE mobile to be a decent browser experience. Mobile Safari is a tough act to follow (though I suppose if the Zune had… you know… flash support, that would probably go a long way). I’m not sure I can be made to care about the HD (720p) output capabilities of the Zune HD. They are marketing as the perfect integration with the Xbox 360, and if I already had an xbox 360, why would I be playing files on my TV from the Zune?!? That’s just another set of cables to manage, thank you very much.

In any case, I’m open to surprises, so maybe this third iteration of the Zune will just be super fantabulous. I guess we’ll find out in the fall.

And thus in our sixth chapter of Narutard Theater, I appeal to the legions of frothing fan girls out there to come to their senses. I know you all want to believe that Sasuke is dreamy and noble, but he is clearly a fellow that has decided the best solution to any problem is to stick a kunai in it’s back. This is, generally speaking, not the path of a noble warrior, and very few who start upon it are ever able to return. So do me a favor… just let it go, okay? There’s nothing I hate more than being surrounded by a gaggle of Sasuke fan girl discussing how they just know he’s truly a good guy, but he’s just misunderstood. Yeesh… I get chills just thinking about it.

So, I’m in the middle of putting together book one… which is a LOT of work. A lot of strips need tweaking just to fit the layout and still be legible. In the case of Narutard Theater strips, I have to put together a proper legal blurb citing that the characters are used as parody only and that they are owned by… well… whoever actually owns them. I’d like to get the actual blessing of the folks involved, but I that doesn’t happen too often for parody, I expect. I imagine there’s a good chance that Wizards of the Coast might give me their blessing for Dungeons and Dragons Theater as the strips are used to frame commentary on the state of the game and such. In any case, as far as a print bonus, what would you prefer to see:

1. Enhanced commentary on the strips
2. A few “bonus strips” tossed in
3. A few of the early strips redone in color and the current drawing style
4. Some combination of the above (be specific)
5. Other (be specific)?

Thanks for your thoughts on the matter.

Happy International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant day, everyone! While I still don’t pretend that my work approaches “professional” quality, I do believe that today’s strip is in the right spirit. For those that missed it, today’s strip is an homage to to Wiley Miller’s (Non-Sequitur) take on the subject presented last week. I’m actually a big fan on Non-Sequitur, so we’ll just chalk this one up to “No one can be right all the time…”

In any case, content delivery is changing in this technological age, and businesses and professionals must change to as well. I’m not saying the complete Napsterization of the world would be a good thing. I firmly believe in the value of copyrights to provide incentive to the artisans of society, but I don’t believe in the Mickey Mouse-extensions of copyright to unreasonable terms. I believe if you can make money selling your content directly, that’s a beautiful thing. However, I also believe that those that make their money by giving away their content are just as beautiful. It’s a laissez-faire world, baby! Don’t cling to the past when you can embrace the future!

It’s that time of year again. Time when we at Slightly Off-Topic take a moment to reflect on the great maritime tragedy. I won’t repeat what I’ve said before other than to say that I still believe that it was an inevitable tragedy. For every great lesson learned, there is a great price paid… and we paid that price in blood!

My friend John and I have been doodling Titanic vs Iceberg cartoons since the seventh grade. It’s how we processed the seemingly wasteful tragedy back then, and it’s done in respectful remembrance now. Laughter is ultimately the best response to any tragedy. It’s how I view the world and why I offer this annual strip.

With that in mind, take a moment to remember the 1,517 lost, the 706 who survived and Millvina Dean who, just two-months old at the time of the tragedy, lives today as the sole survivor of that doomed vessel.

The sad thing is that this isn’t even a particularly rare occurrence. Don’t get me wrong, I get it. The stress levels are very, very high at the (any) Cancer Center. The doctors and nurses are in a never-ending battle against the disease, and the civilians… well, they’re watching their friends and family members struggle and often die.

So, I understand. I mean “cancer” isn’t necessarily even a death sentence these days (depends upon the type and stage of the cancer), so maybe folks figure they can get away with the cigarettes. Maybe it won’t get them. The thing is, though, that while it may not kill you, cancer is always, always, an ugly disease. Believe me, it’s really not worth it… put the cigarettes down.

Heck, I’ll make you a deal. You stop with the cancer sticks, and I’ll redouble my efforts to shed my many excess pounds. After all, who am I to preach if I’m a walking heart attack waiting to happen. Deal?

Yes, Brittany, men are pigs, but most of them do get better as they get older. Not all of them, of course, but most… Aaron Spelling dramas not withstanding…

I thought today’s comic was going to be simple as it only had two panels. Then I spent two and a half hours doing the background. The coconuts were easy enough, but filling that freezer took FOREVER! I think the glass turned out nicely, though. I’m not overly satisfied with the text layout, but it’s the best I could do. “Dave” also needs some work, but the fact that I have trouble with drawing people probably comes as no surprise to anyone. I’m working on it… get a little better each day, right?

It is what it is..

http://bananatron.com

Special thanks to Zed the zombie of Ted & Zed fame for stopping by the Studio today. For those that have never been, Ted and Zed is my all-time favorite Zombie comic. Sure, he’s a Zombie, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a bosom buddy, right. I highly recommend you all stop by for a dig through the archive.

So, I know what you’re all thinking. “Dave, why is the News Guy a Zombie?!?” Well, he’s crossed over to the dark side in honor of the coolest freakin’ piece of fan art I’ve ever received. I opened the mail box the other day to find a note:

It occurs to me that we haven’t seen much of our friendly neighborhood News Guy in a while. And how much do we really know about how and where he spent his recent sabbatical. A lot can happen down the Rabbit Hole…

Happy Birthday! Of course, it isn’t enough to make the News Guy or a Zombie - It has to be the News Guy Zombie.

Accompanying the note:

How cool is that? Now, full disclosure… I’ve known the sender for years, so it’s more a “friend” art than a “fan” art, but I like it either way!!!

Of course, this leaves the News Guy is in a bit of a pickle…

I won’t go into too much detail as I like to keep Slightly Off-Topic family-friendly. Let’s just say that for those of you that are familiar with the comic and were assuming that Hollywood would make changes to the costuming… not so much. They dressed Doc Manhattan just as they did in the comic. You’ve been warned.

Below this point there be spoilers!

So, what did I think of the movie? I liked it. I was quite surprised by the very mixed reactions heard from the movie-goers as they were leaving the theater, but I suspect that the extra hour in the director’s cut promised for the dvd release will make this a must have that everyone can agree on.

What I liked:

• They managed Doc Manhattan’s time shifting narrative much better than I thought they could. I thought it dragged in the comic, but they played it well in the movie. The Doc also gave a nice detached persona, as one would expect, but I’m not sure he pulled the emotional points off as well as could have been done.
• Rorschach was great. They nailed him. I don’t get why they cut some rather significant scenes though. It kinda hurt the narrative, and I don’t understand the change to the kidnapped girl scene. It seems gratuitous, but maybe they were just trying to keep from using a bit that has appeared in crappy horror flicks.
• Night Owl was great. He and Rorschach really pulled off their characters as intended from the source.
• The intro was great in that it covered a lot of the necessary world history without a lot of the dragging down of pace that was present in the source material.

What I didn’t like:

• Ozymandias was miss-cast. Period. This is the man that wants to carry on the work of Alexander the Great and Ramses II. Too slight and soft-spoken for the character.
• They cut a lot of the psych scenes. I expect it will return in the dvd.
• I was okay with them changing the mechanism for the ending, but have a hard time buying what they came up with in the end. I don’t buy it as a long-standing deterrent.

Just my thoughts, but I’d easily give it a 3.5 out of five, and suspect the director’s cut will go even higher, but we’ll have to wait and see.