Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label comics. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

A conversation doomed to happen

"What is that?"

"What is what?"

"The giant laser!"

"Oh, that, that's just a giant laser."

"Why?"

"You know, that question never really came up."

"Laser! Giant!"

"Look how else am I going to-"

"No, don't what to hear about it! Don't want to be an accessory."

"Well, you should have thought about that before I took $100,000 out of your bank account to build this laser."

"What!"

"Look we could debate who stole, who's identity till the dogs come home-"

"Hey, where's my dog?"

"Oh, he's in the engine."

"My dog's in the-"

"Well if you know a better way to create a dog-powered engine, tell me."

"Get my dog out of the engine!"

"But-but-but-"

"My dog!"

"Fine, fine, fine... I'll get your dog out of that engine. But I hope you know that you denied the world a world-threatening super-villian threat."

"I'll be okay."

"I understand, it's okay, it's okay... we all have disappointments."

-DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday, June 12, 2009

Because the Rand Show is Comikier than yo'mama

It is, it is indeed:

Moreover, just as The Rand Show blog is making a comeback as is, soon mind you, the comic:

The Rand Show Issue #1
The Rand Show Issue #2
The Rand Show Issue #3
The Rand Show Issue #4

Saturday, February 23, 2008

One More Day with old Spidie

They retconned Spidie.

They finally blew it up.

YOU FINALLY BLEW IT UP!!!!!!

Damn, Damn, Damn.

Now, I'm not a hard-core Spider-man fan, I've liked the character but I've always been more DC-oriented than Marvel-oriented and I've always had trouble envisioning Spider-man in the same universe as the X-men (Ultimate Spider-man really does a much better job of this than the old comic). Still, when I picked up a Spider-man comic on occasion I would do so with strong hopes. Spider-man is the everyman-hero as is often said, but more importantly he's the everyman-angst hero. His angst is slightly teenagish, sure, but it's teenagish in the sense of coming of age. The angst is that of responsibility, power, love, family, duty, etc. Essentially the philosophical issues that inherently tear at people when they move from one phase of life to another.

But what is coming of age without some adulthood. Trapping Spider-man eternally in teenage-angst would be depressing, and so I was happy to see him have adventures where his relationships and attitudes toward life were maturing, till finally he got married and had to deal with that sort of angst.

He was the every-man hero not in the sense he wasn't heroic, but that he embodied the great heroics and great burdens that exist in every man, only brought out 100 fold by the circumstance of him being a superhero.

But then, to sap of all that by saying, all your struggles, your lifetime, and your essential earned adulthood are gone...

And just by magic!

Not by magic working under certain rules just magic!

If you haven't heard, Marvel, in what seems largely a promotion called Spiderman: One More Day, has erased Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane. In the process for some reason or other, they erased also him reveling his identity to the public, Harry Osborn's death and a number of other random details. Basically whatever makes it easier for them to do whatever the heck they want. And it was all by a snap of the wrist of a devil.

BAM!

All gone.

That's not how things should work with Spider-man. Angst only works if there's some significance to it, and there's only significance to his angst if his decisions have consequences and rewards, and if the sum of that actually leads him from one phase of his life to another, instead Peter Parker is doomed now to be trapped a teen...

DAMN YOU!!! YOU BLEW IT UP!!! YOU MANIACS!!! YOU BLEW IT UP!!!

But if this had been some grand adventure like Crisis of Infinite Earths, I still would have strongly disagreed, but I could forgive, but instead it's a short quick story, dealing with a crisis that's been dealt with before, and without any significance to the drama or even really to the personal weight, and without any strong, contiguous explanation for how this all makes sense within the Marvel Universe (which by the way is going on without a retcon, so JUST Spidey's being retconned) and...

DAMN YOU ALL!!!! YOU BLEW IT UP!!!

DAMN YOU TO HELL JOE!!!

Just give me one more day with my friendly neighborhood Spiderman.

The one who just like me actually grows up and lives with his decisions.

Because that's the Spiderman we all fell in love with...

Just one more day, Joe, can't you just give me one more day...

Thursday, August 2, 2007

The Rand Show - The next level

So I've been working on revamping Comikier into something that can be published as a strip
And so here it is
The first strip of the Rand Show

Sigh, never mind

I've got to start actually investing some effort in this stuff

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Never Fear Comikier is here

Gasp in amazement, Comikier #4 has arrived.

Check it out and all the Comikier comics!

Comikier#4
Comikier#3
Comikier#2
Comikier#1

Monday, May 21, 2007

Inside Outside and Inbetween

Hello, hello, and hello, all thee who read these words now, hi. Anyways, one of the problems with topical sessions is that I need to think up a topic. Now I do have a lot of thoughts buzzing around in my head in a maddening buzzing phenomenon, but summoning just a few good thoughts to expand into a session can be difficult, especially if I don't have enough time to take one of the ideas from way back in my head which deserves a long, big exposition. But I've delivered a few topical sessions and perhaps it is time to return to the topic of me, and by that I mean my thoughts and random digressions from those thoughts and by that I mean...well, nothing much in particular.

Let me recount some happenings in my life, now before you groan and moan, and I know who you are if you groan and moan, I have powers you know, I will be brief and limit the happenings to important matters worth talking about (of course anything having to do with me is worth talking about but I will try to be selective), if for no other reason than because I really do need to get some sleep soon. The most notable happening is that I have begun an internship at WRAT 95.9 The Rat , a nice little rock station if I do say so myself, and I do. In other matters, I am looking for a part-time job because I need money because the internship gives none (I am actually looking for alternative internships as well because this non-paying internship actually needs an 1 hr. and 1/2 car ride (if I'm not speeding, which I usually am, or was, since I'm going to cut down on that now that I have recieved a ticket for driving, oh, just a little fast (20 miles over the speed limit), and if I get another ticket, poof goes my liscence), which means it is actually costing me a decent amount of money in gas (of course it is really costing my father, but if it's costing him it makes me feel like a bum), also it is a rock radio station, which while very cool, is only tangentially related to my goal job of journalism), I also am working on a new Comikier comic, which should be done in a week or so, plus I might start making strip comics for Comikier (to check out Comikier and other great and grand things of Rand, the mighty and glorious, check out The World of Rand). I was ambivalent about this idea for a while. On the one hand, comic strips could be printed in a newspaper, say the Targum (the only newspaper which has any chance of publishing my comics since it has a quota of student-made comics to fulfill), on the other hand the full page a full page comic gives me gives a lot of options. I can experiment with form, I can do longer storylines without multiple comics, I can do extra designs in the margins, etc. However, it does have a limiting factor, the comic has to be long enough to justify a whole page. And while I do have a few ideas of comics long enough to justify a whole page, those ideas need a good deal of work before they are even drawable, delaying future comics for a while, and while I have a number ideas for multi-comic adventures, Comikier is still kind of new so I don't want to immediately expose people to that. The strip comic is restrictive in size and form, however, I have a lot of ideas for strip comics, and I actually can arrange several strips into a page if it makes me feel better (this would also give me an opportunity to throw in extra side material in the extra spaces that I might be uncomfortable putting into a whole page comic due to the prospect of distracting from the story (with the page already having several strips the idea of multiple features is already present and so wouldn't be too distracting). I still have to ink the newest comic page and then I'm going to start working on some strips, the first one will be a strip version of the first Comikier, and then I might do some random stuff, should be cool though.

That's where I am with Comikier. Amazingly enough, given that I do Comikier irregularly, I don't even have a legitimate webpage for it (just an extension of my, sigh, angelfire page), I don't have many Comikier comics, etc.,etc., Comikier is not the most pressing matter weighing on my head. What bothers me the most right now, is that I think I like a girl. Now this may not seem like news, but after two disasterous non-relationships (complicated matters which I have to tread delicately on to avoid offending the other parties), I have been somewhat avoiding romantic matters. Overall, I've never dated, but while in high school that was because of well, the non-relationships, well, it's complicated, in college the matter was because of fear and ackwardness most of all. Now there have been girls I was more than average attracted to and at least one with whom I made a clumsy attempt at asking out (I may have been rejected there, I might not have, I'm really kind of uncertain), but the emotion I'm feeling right now is stronger than that, although far, far weaker than love, although it has potential, for what... I'm not sure. Perhaps that's what bothers me more than the other feels I've had for other girls is the potential I'm feeling (although, then again... I'd rather not go through the exactitiudes of my romantic history right now, maybe later).

Now how to deal with this, that's the rub. Ask her out you might be thinking, well, duh, of course, but that's not going to happen. At least not immediately, maybe after a while as I get a little bit more comfortable with these feelings, or maybe I'll just delay the whole thing until the girl slips out of my reach. I don't know. Well, I know what I should do, but asking a girl that I like out on a date is an awful large leap from my normal behavior (actually not as much as it seems since I'm really not that ackward around girls nowadays, and this girl is a friend), and inertia has always been a powerful force for me. So stay tuned to find out (unless circumstances recommend otherwise, I'll probably drop a note, perhaps just a sutle one, noting that I have gone out on a date).

That's about enough for now, so anyways, take it to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks. Goodnight Folks!

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Comikier .3 is out

Check out Comikier #3! The newest Comikier comic, this time featuring Rand, Guy of the Universe!
While your at it check out:
Comikier #1
Comikier #2
And of course The World of Rand hompage

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Comikier #2

The second Comikier comic is up, it really is mostly an introduction to Comikier but it is worth a read.
Check it out: Comikier #2

Friday, March 30, 2007

Tech me up baby

I was planning to put up the first issue of my comic Comikier (you can see it at http://www.angelfire.com/freak2/rand/rand1.JPG, logically I should be able to make a link of this but angelfire is doing some wierd stuff to me), but circumstances intervened, instead, I'm putting up this essay on technology which I wrote a while ago and I thought it was pretty cool so check it out.

Technology is a force that often exceeds human control. Even when it is a tool that dwells in the hand of its user, its effect on its user can be hard to predict. In the last twenty thousand years or so, technology has grown by leaps and bounds at an ever accelerating rate. This has given society tools of immense power and these tools have changed society greatly. Within these tools are the potential for loneliness but also the potential for a greater community. Technology has helped forge a global community with greater communication and transportation. In addition, it has allowed larger populations living closer together. However, technology can also bring immense freedom, and in freedom lies the potential for great loneliness.

Technology has brought people closer to each other by means of communication and transportation. Communication technologies have advanced to a state which would have been regarded as magical a hundred years ago. Cables and sattilites carry information around the world allowing people seperated by thousands of miles to carry on real time communications in the form of telephone calls, emails, IMs and more. For most of history, the majority of people would have trouble communicating a hundred miles away. The people who lay outside the narrow world of the village were regarded as strangers, completely alien to the people of the town. In addition, people who needed to move would have to sever relations with their relatives. Modern communications has changed that. Now communities can be formed among millions and across huge swaths of land. Communities like this can take the form of nations, they can also take the form of online interest groups, as well as many other varied forms. This communication is bolstered by improving transportation. Transportation technologies have also improved greatly. Before the car, seeing a relative across the country was a risky and lengthy venture generally best avoided. Before the horse, travelling a city away was something only the brave endevored. But with modern transportation technologies people can meet in person despite great distances. Transportation technologies have shrunk the world, making everyone closer.

In addition to living closer metaphorically, technology has enabled people to live closer together physically through cities. The modern city is a technological marvel. It relies on an economic system and on infrastructure that enable thousands, even millions to be fed and to have sanitation in an area that is relatively miniscule. Without the technology the city relies on, a population the size of New York that did not farm could not have been supported. In addition, without modern technology it would be difficult if not impossible to contain and remove all the waste New York produces. Cities rely on technology, and cities have brought people closer together. A person living in the city can meet thousands in his lifetime. A person who visits a city regularly can meet hundreds. By contrast, a thousand years ago, cities were much smaller and people met fewer people. The density of cities bring people into contact more and more as it becomes possible to bring more people into the urban environment. And yet, despite this increased density, it is still possible to refuse the company of others.

Refusing company has become easier than ever because of technology. The freedom technology offers has made people more able to ignore each other, and this can lead to an increase in loneliness. Technology has allowed people to do more with less effort. While the overall economic system technology has produced has made us interconnected, the ability to do more with less has reduced the need to ask for help. Historically, people might need help to entertain themselves, now they turn on the tv. Before they would need help to get rare herbs, now they can order it over the internet. There are greater opportunities than ever for meeting people, through the online world, the telephone, community centers, etc. But all of this takes effort, and if one chooses to minimize all effort, it is perhaps easiest to avoid people and the attention they require. Increasingly this is possible due to the power of technology. The power of technology has the potential to bring people together, but it also has the potential to keep people apart.

Technology has brought people closer together by creating new methods of communication and transportation, as well as giving people the ability to live closer to each other. Yet it also gives freedom, which allows the user of technology to keep away from society. But if society places a high value on community this can be overcome. If people are convinced that community matters then they can use technology to move closer together and communicate more with each other. If technology is properly used, it can create a global community with all of humanity living with each other as neighbors.

Monday, January 15, 2007

Baby did you forget to take your meds

The funny thing is, I was singing that in the shower when I realized yes, indeed I had forgotten to take my meds. Funny, funny stuff and excellent, excellent song. Though it was a bit odd to here the main singer take on the final chorus. I thought the whole thing dialoguish at first and I think his "intense" (that's not derrogatory it's just describing the type of singing he does at the end) singing voice that he launched into at the end was not the best, but it's still an excellent, excellent song, and who knows maybe otherwise it wouldn't have come out as well. Now that that's said on to other matters.

I've been looking on view count, and it seems my philosophical blog got a lot of views. Perhaps I should launch more of them. However, I do not feel like doing so right now and so I am writing a rather scattered brain little blog that serves more to get down thoughts and further introduce you to my personality. However, it is unlikely probably to get many views, so what's the point. Ah, whatever, maybe it'll surprise me yet, and if anyone then checks out the archive once I'm rich and famous (oh I will be), they'll get a little more of my personality and thoughts.

What are my thoughts right now? They are focused on my scheduling and plans for the next semester. You see, the next semester will start tommorow and so I'm reviewing my schedule seeing if I want to make any changes. Looking at it I realized that my self-imposed scheduling limitations are making most classes out of my reach, however, I think I'm ok with that. This semester will be about me, about exploring my non-school side, perhaps to generate a little more pride in life and maybe get some direction too. So that's that.

My schedule also has a nice variety of classes that will again let me try out different things, though not perhaps in a depth that will help me make any final decisions. I was a little bit ansy about revisiting math in my new schedule, but after a winter break when I realized I still love analyzing stuff, I think this math might be nice, perhaps.

I've also been checking out Megatokyo a lot within the last month or so (I ate through the archives within a couple days). A "vetern" manga reader said on amazon that in was largely for amateurs and just wish furfillment for otakus, but I don't really think so. I am perhaps not a "vetern" (I don't think I'm an amateur, perhaps somewhere in the middle), but think Gallager does a good job of capturing the good, bad, and the crazy in the geek's soul, and I think his story is pretty engaging, it is a bit slow, but it keeps moving with new events and stuff (even if said events are sometimes less than the main story at times) and any "vetern" manga reader should be used to slow moving stories by now.

Anywho, I think that's all I want to write for now. Perhaps the scatterbrain nature of this will attract a few views, or maybe when I tell some friends to check out this blog they'll find oh, what a normal blog. But, that's just for today probably, I'll try to get more philosophy in and more crazy in in future blogs, still it's nice to change pace every now and then. So take to your head, take it to your heart, and remember Rand rocks.