Musings of a CreepKnight
Unemployment (in the sense of not having a regular paying job) is beginning to take its toll. I stayed up until five this morning re-reading the Girls with Slingshots archive. Enjoyable read, but now my eyes hurt.
So here's your friggin' comic.
And here's another one.
Enjoy folks. See you next week.
Grymm Ramblings
Its 5:22pm. Yesterday. I'm breaking from doing ad work and waiting for chicken to thaw so I may cook it and tear it asunder with my jaws and burn the bits into bio-fuel for the rest of me.
As I peruse the Project Wonderful ad spaces, I ponder today's page and I can't help but think about animation. Its possible that from previous pages, ramblings and comments, you've been able to deduce that I'm a big animation fan. I'm also a snob about it. I think that the animation industry, be it for feature film or TV peaked in the 90's and has been spiraling down into a bleak murky, sweat stained armpit of CGI, flash, and limited anime-esque movement ever since. There have been bright spots though.
The point is, I don't care which you watched as a child, shows about ponies, superthings that shot lasers at each other, or animated child friendly hair band protagonists, there was something about those shows that just had a certain something to them. As did much of the animation of the 90's. How about SWAT Kats? That was a fucking awesome show. Freakzoid. Tiny Toons. Batman the animated series. Eek! the Cat. Sam and Max Freelance Police. Love and wit and intelligence was put into shows back then. Now its all about shooting fucked up ugly little animals and robots out balls and cards or forver collecting shards of magical mystical crystal macguffin while the same guy keeps fighting you again and again and again and reusing the same stock animation of things transforming into other things and narrating what they're doing.
That may sound like I'm blaming Japan. But I'm not. They're not to blame. I blame the executives and the focus groups and the suits that have fucked with budgets and pulled editorial mandates on animators. Taking the stories away from the animators. Cracking the whip of "draw this" and thrusting the branding iron of "target demographic.
Here's a bit of trivia for ya. All those old Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies shorts? Those were brainstormed, written, directed and animated by animators. And 40... 50... 80 years later... They still look better than most of what Adult Swim creates. Though Venture Brothers is a fucking godsend and I do enjoy me some Metalocalypse in small doses. I also blame Nickelodeon and Cartoon network in the early 2000's. The Fairy Oddparents and Powerpuff Girls era. When everything went flat and angular and colored outside the lines and "retro" and scribbled. That was ugly as fuck. It was lazy. It was godawful. But no one said anything and they just... kept... doing it. Those cunting fuckbags.
On the other side though, recent years have seen a reemergence of some quality. The Princess and Frog was a breath of fresh non CGI film air. As were a few animated shows. The new Scooby-Doo Mysteries Inc for example. And as I said above, Venture Brothers proves that a show can be traditionally animated on a restricted budget and yet still go to lengths to look good and improve exponentially.
Okay... so... Yeah... I've probably bored a couple of you, alienated others of you, and the rest I may have even offended the childhoods of. My work is done here. See you guys next week when we wrap this first storyarc of the year up!
Byyyyyyyeee.
34 thoughts on “Multiple Meanings 3”
Akonite
…Pirates of Darkwater. I could rant for hours on how epic it was and unfair of Hanna-Barbara to nix it without at least completing the first season.
Grymm
Oh Hanna-Barbara… The things I could say about them. But I’ll just leave it with “Fuck you guys for engaging the first dark era of limited movement animation.”
Never got the opportunity to see Pirates of Dark Water growing up. Where I lived all we got were the toy commercials for it. But I’ll say this much, it did look like a damn pretty show.
Akonite
I think a fan of it went on to write Farscape.
Marchosias
Loved that damn show. Seems you can’t get decent scifi anymore either.
Kyriell
I remember Pirates of Darkwater! Pissed me off to tune in and see one of those fucking schoolhouse rock shorts instead.
khavren
I want a top hat. I want a theater top hat, where it pops up when you wack it
Grymm
I found places online that sell those a couple years ago when I was scouring the web for top hats. They are out there. Just waiting to be owned. In all their collapsible glory!
Ticker
I have two top hats. I wear them on top of each other whenever I go out. I am the ultimate form of class!
Rose
I watch Boomerang, and I am unashamed, because Fuck yea Swat Kats are still amazing! I miss Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, and the cool toons that some kids haven’t even heard if I /swear/ with the brainwashing of…ugh…chowder…and adventure…time…*washes hands* I feel filthy just typing the names.
The comic btw is amazing~ Pygmy cow armed with knives and Kaboodles with his epic lazer of Crispy Justice! And Grymm and Bowler are entirely unphased as they discuss the truly important merit of cartoon injustices!
Grymm
The last truly promising show that was mistakenly targeted at kids was Invader ZIM. And even that was like 10 years ago. ZIM, you and your enraged, incompetent screaming is missed.
Rose
Did you know they’re airing it again! ZIM! ZIM HAS BEATEN THE WORM MONKEYS KNOWN AS HEE-U-MANS, for you can not keep down the MIGHTIEST INVADER THAT LIIIIIIIVED!
…ahem.
I would concur that it is a most amazing show~ I watched it when it was new….makes me feel old. It reminds me of Ren and Stimpy almost~!
Marchosias
I’d be interested to know if the ‘actual’ Bowler you’ve mentioned had anything to do with the alternate strip. Has our blood-soaked charm worn thin with her?
Grymm
Ah! But it in this that the odd levels of meta we exhibit rear their ugly heads! How do you know the fans being spoken of are our real life fans and Bowler isn’t simply speaking of the fans Grymm and CK must deal with in regards to Ferretman and other past books they’ve released?
After all, some of those fans that popped up during the InfernoCon arc were pretty goddamn frightening. Especially the quiet guy!
Marchosias
True.
However, I must protest – we the commenters, here, in this malign plain, are far more disquieting and disturbing than any fictional or metaphysical fans. Take Curator, for example.
Grymm
I see your protest. But I must direct you to this page: http://voodoowalrus.com/?p=48 , specifically panel 13 as my rebuttal.
Not to mention, if that page had been colored, the good gentleman in question would probably be stained with cheeto dust, congealed sweat, and what looks almost like, but not quite like year old blood.
Marchosias
Point taken. Sweet mercy…
Granted, our first communique was on the technical details of human sacrifice. Specifically, whether to knife someone like that, or a sack-full of street urchins.
Akonite
… I would be afraid of a fan like me too, or at least intimidated. At least I’m the sort of fan that only touches after I’ve warned people I’m going to (Yeah….Abney Park and Voltaire will even receive warnings but I’m blaming it on the character I’m playing for WildWildWestCon entirely).
Also, snazzy hats are just asking for molestation in my book.
Grymm
@Marchosias I had hope the revisioning of Battlestar Galactica would be good new sci-fi back when it came out. I watched nearly every episode hoping to see humans beating the crap out of clanky metal robot bits. What did I get? Crying. Crying. More crying. And a side order of crying with nervous breakdowns.
Marchosias
Exactly! Where the hell are my alien sex jokes?
Grymm
Some people just lose sight of what’s important. Tranformers for example. It should be about giant robots turning into stuff and shooting lasers at similar but morally opposite robots. That’s the main, core focus. It need not be interrupted with focus on mundane human characters. Especially children.
Sometimes, its best to just keep things simple.
Marchosias
Mad badger with a two stage Tesla cannon… Brilliant man, brilliant.
As to hats – we love hats. We do in fact post some damn weird things on here, as Bowler suggests, but we love hats. Continue at your pleasure.
Though my knowledge of animation is limited – I can say 90’s animation has a certain something that little today has. Even high-end, “chibi” free, anime lacks originality anything resembling originality or promise.
-Yeah, Grymm, I know.
Marron
I always forget to comment on these; I always look at the comics the day before they come out, want to comment, and can’t because it hasn’t gone live again. And then I forget what I wanted to say. And I still forget, so I guess I’ll just give this the WEBMISTRESS STAMP OF APPROVAL.
Grymm
The most awesome kind of approval in existence! We wouldn’t want to be taking up your server space with anything less than the most awesome of what we can offer, you know.
Sandra
Ok, ladies and gentlemen, it seems that today’s theme for comments are scifi, cartoons, and hats. I hope yiou all enjoy, I know I did.
Grymm
This is what happens when badgers wield super science for the greater good.
Ticker
But what about when they wield it for the greater evil?
Grymm
Then we all submit to our new badgery overlords and make sure that no one plays that Badger Badger Mushoom flash cartoon ever again. It enrages them.
Akonite
…to my knowledge it enrages most creatures of intelligence. Kind of like the sound of dueling banjos makes some people from the southeastern USA foam at the mouth and reach for something heavy and blunt.
Vensik
I dunno, I used to make my black Stetson look damn good.
Rose
I love my fedora’s personally~ nothing snazzier than a good old fedora~! Stetson’s only look good if you’re not a sequin cowboy…*eyes* Yer not wanna them wanna-be’s is ya?
Oh and on a Side note to anyone that bothers with my rambling…HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME~ BE AFRAID! I’m almost legal to buy liquor. A year to go and i am counting down!
Marchosias
Best wishes! I raise a theoretically legal beverage in your honor.
Rose
Oh I can drink~! Just can’t buy it, I love Texas drinking laws~ *uses my Stout to toast with you*
And thank you very much, your well wishes mean a lot to me~!
Ticker
@ Akonite: I resent that. As a proud member of southeastern Florida, I’d like to say that I typically reach for short and pointy. Or a mace. Maces solve everything.
Ticker
I meant sharp and pointy. But short sometimes applies.