Ladies and Gentlemen!

Please be so kind as to allow me to bend your ears- Ears? Your eyes.. But can you bend an eye..

*thinks*

Let me come back on that one. At any rate, I would like to- once again- take a bit of your attention away from your regularly scheduled wastes of time and present to you two very rodentine diversions. They are both fan-freakin-tastic web comics and both feature a Rat as a prominent, main character.

However, this is where the similarities end. One is funny and happy and silly and fun, and the other.. Well, it ripped my heart out, threw it into a box of rusty thumbtacks, sent it through the spicy mustard factory, dusted it with fresh wasabe, an then tossed it into a brick pizza oven.

I can hear the question echoing over the Texas hills now:

“But, Nick, Why would I WANT to have my heart ripped out and yadda yadda yadda?”

Because this story will open your eyes. It’s beautiful in an agonizing sort of a way, and it might just wake you up a bit. Make you feel a whole lot more human. Funny, that coming from a rat, Huh?

So, let’s start with Grimal’s Deo: The Claw. There are a few story lines going on in this one, and you really gotta be kinda.. .. heartless to miss the hope and beauty drawn into these pages. The style is kinda’ abstract, and in the case of Deo, kinda’ cartoony in some places, but this only lends to it’s impact. The moment you accept these often cute critters as characters, and put yourself in an open mindset to receive their story, you let in all of the emotions, empathy, pain, hope and joy- the love, the need, the yearning, the agony and desperation.. everything that makes the sweet moment in life worth experiencing.

It’ll make you love, it’ll make you hate, and it might even make you bawl your eyes out a bit.

WARNING.. there is some .. VERY adult and alternative content on the site, which is why I will make you type it in yourself so there’s no accidental scare. Okay, Grimal’s website can be found at:

** http://www [dot] blackstains [dot] com **

You can order the graphic novel at Amazon.

I looked at the comic on a lark, and spent the entire night reading the whole damn thing from the beginning, and then I pretty much cried myself to sleep that night. The following morning, I went ahead and stopped talking to some of the people in my life who treat me like crazizzle, and bought myself a print copy. If it doesn’t move you, then you’re a freakin’ robot and you’re here to destroy the earth.I hope you’re happy with yourself.

Anyway, the next Comic is Doc Rat by Jenner.

Now THIS one is just fun. And a lot of cute. The MC is another rat, but this one is a doctor in Austrailia. And he’s got a lot of wacky, crazy patients and stuff. Now, unlike many of my favorite webcomics, this one updates pretty much daily, so there’s pretty much an IV drip of critter medical mayhem.

And AH HAH! Yes! I am sending you WAY back in time to start this one from the beginning, cause one of the story arcs is wrapping up right about now and it’s AWESOME and I don’t want you ruining it for yourself by starting at the end. So there!

Jenner’s got a clean art style, and a pretty classic, one, two, punchline layout. They are quick strips and just a lot of fun. Now, I got to reading this one a while back, and have been keeping up with it pretty devotedly, and noticed after a while that there was a plot arc or two starting up.

One recently got rolling and, dude, I ain’t messin’ with you, it had me concerned. I was all like, soap opera queen here! Had to see what’s happening day to day. **YOU** are lucky, cause you get to begin at the beginning and read through to the resolution of this plot.. so.. thank the good things in life for that.

I’m usually not one for romance. But.. No- I’ve said too much. YOU go read!

Oh, and, seriously, take a second or two and donate to these writer / artists. I mean, they put a LOT into these works and deserve a bone or two here and there, right? Share the love, seriously. Rats gotta eat, too.

Ooh ooh, here. Buy one of these and ship it to me! I wanna whole serving set of them >:)

Go ahead and get one for yourself too.

Happy Slacking!!

Nicholas

Being a gamer, and I use the term loosely, I’ve run the gambit of role playing games, from table top to computer/console. I’ve played the mages and assassins, rogues and fighters who go merrily about their days enjoying the adventuring life…and wreaking absolute havoc on hapless little goblin and kobold societies just gain a few experience points and some coin.

This is where we begin in Goblins; with the low level character who’s gone adventuring in the wrong place and is now running for his life. Or at being advised to before two goblins enjoy an attack of opportunity and take his holy rolling butt out. What? The idiot was a low level paladin. More power to the goblins.

Thus begins the comic, Goblins, taking the people who have played these games and slain countless of these little buggers and giving them the goblin’s point of view. It makes for a fascinating comic; with a touch of game speak as some of the survivors of a raid figure out how to defend themselves and their cities.

Tarol Hunt, or Thunt as he’s best known on the site, and his companion Danielle Stephens, have created the vast world of Goblins and take the reader through the lives of the raid survivors. The humor is outstanding, even in the midst of tense situations for the heroes. I think anyone who has played these games can identify with the situations the goblins are thrown into while adventuring, including coming across stereotypical gamers like Minmax.

Adding to the humor of the comic is the names of the goblins. Characters by the name of Dies Horribly, Complains of Names and Big Ears are just a few of the names you’ll run into. Another goblin by the name of Tempts Fate comes out to play when Thunt is holding a money drive to keep Goblins going. You decide his fate with donations to the site, which in turn gives you and extra comic to enjoy.

The only real issue I have with Goblins at all is the delay between comics. However, with everyone having a life off line it’s understandable that some comics can’t be updated as often as the fans would like. It tends to be the really good comics that do that to you, but you go back for more because it simply is THAT good.

Check it out, especially if you’ve done the whole goblin slaying in a D&D game before. I’d wage dollars to donuts, if I had any, you’ll laugh until your sides hurt.

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Once upon a time I came to you with the Lord of the Rings captioned comic DM of the Rings. That ingenious work of webcomic art has since ended and Shamus has moved on to bigger projects. Namely…

Having expanded his boundaries beyond movie captioning, Shamus is now working with artist Shawn Gaston in exploring the story and behind the scenes of a whole new adventure. The Nightmarish Legend of Deuse Baaj is a homemade D&D game lead by gamemaster Casey, who tries desperately to keep his players on track and played in by a number of frustrating friends.

Chuck, player of the barbarian Ramgar who until recently had no pants… he wasn’t even shown from the waist down until the last few weeks.
Marcus, a player who crosses the gender lines to play overly happy and gleeful females.
Ivy, the new comer to the group, playing the dark and mysterious Lucretia.
And finally Josh, the min-maxing gamer who annoys all the other players and drives the game master insane.

The comic began on 7 September 2007 to the delight of many of the DM of the Rings readers and fans have been sending in fan comics and art while the creators are throwing out extras, such as a look at Casey’s game notes and a Goblin Rights Group.

The hilarity that readers have come to expect from Shamus has continued to roll forward, going so far at times that someone would have to enjoy true British humor to get some of the drier jokes when the gamers themselves are talking. Combine with the artistry of Shawn and you have a one-two punch of gaming comedy worth every laugh and definitely worth wasting time with

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Being a fan of penguins I have to admit I love the tagline to Garth’s rants at the end of his Comedity strip. Better still, there’s a penguin the strip, who is beyond cool when he slides, but isn’t the focus of the comic itself.

Comedity follows the life of a fictional Garth with bits and pieces of his real life thrown in. We follow this lead through adventures in superherodom, dating, conversions and votes with “me, myself and I” and even some of his schooling.

Comedity is hands down one of the better drawn comics I read on a weekly basis, the skill in artistry actually shows improvement from strip to strip and it’s already good to begin with. Toss in the humor and sorrow of the dialog and one is forced to wonder why he’s not doing a professional comic book. Webcomics, however, are proving they are becoming as professional as the ones on the newsstands, especially with so many of the comics releasing collections of their works.

Collections, sadly, is where Garth is having some issues. He’s got it ready and sent to print, but the orders just aren’t coming in. The comic is certainly good enough that I’d shell out the money if I could, which is saying something in and of itself as the only other collections I’ve purchased are all from Order of the Stick.

In the meantime, wade in, enjoy the comic and seriously folks, don’t step on the penguin.

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Today I want to introduce you all, those who haven’t stumbled upon it, to the webcomic of Something*Positive.

I found this webcomic through Mur Lafferty’s Geek Fu Action Grip as I was listening to her podcast archives last year. Mur’s podcast is a whole different excuse for an entry and one we’ll explore later, the woman’s crushes on Wil Wheaton and Alton Brown are wonderful tales into themselves.

Back to Something*Positive.

Randy Milholland began the comic in December of 2001 and has either had daily updates, guest strips or filler running ever since. His comics are an interesting look at life through the various eyes of the cast though it primarily focuses upon Davan and his direct sphere of influence of friends and family.

Despite the title, not everything is uplifting and positive. There are comics that deal with the suicide of one of Davan’s best friends, as well as the death of his mother. But even in the shadow of all that darkness there are brighter notes, with the marriages of friends and the antics of Choo Choo Bear.

Choo Choo Bear deserves his own post, but will have to settle for a paragraph. He is my favorite of the comic cast and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. I was iffy on the comic itself until he was introduced and then I was like an addict, looking for more and more Choo Choo. Choo Choo Bear is a melting, furless pink cat who swallows anything from keys, to his collar to underwear within the confines of his boneless body and ensures the hilarity of the comic. One of these days I’m going to find a print of this cat and hang it on my office wall.

Something*Positive is in my daily regime of webcomic checks, and usually the first one I’ll open. It’s one I recommend for any of my readers, especially if you’ve stuck with me on this blog and learned of my sick sense of humor.

Long live Something*Positive and a huge heap of thanks to Randy for such a wonderful comic.

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On a side note: Weekly Recipe is up on Your Cre8tivity. This week I covered a fried rice recipe I learned from my mother.

**Edit** Hopefully corrected all instances of Davan’s name, this is what I get for RPing with a friend who plays a Davin online.

By Shamus Young

I’ve only been reading this one for about a month. Its certainly a different way to re-live the Lord of the Rings and I have to give kudos to Shamus for this idea. On the other hand I really need to swat Xeno for introducing me to another addictive webcomic.

DM of the Rings takes Tolken’s beloved books and Peter Jackson’s widely accepted films and turns them into a D&D Campaign. The characters are suddenly Player Characters with a dungeon master who is desperately trying to keep the players on track for the game. Aragon becomes a total letch who has the hots for “Leg-o-lass” and darling Frodo becomes even more of a pain in the ass played by some guy named Dave.

As wonderful as the comic itself is, and the side tracking the players do, it’s the DM himself that makes it funny. Having done the dungeon master thing once myself, I can feel the pain of trying to keep the players interested. Shamus takes it a step further and at the end of each comic has some little side note about personal experiences and admittedly some of these are actually funnier than the comics themselves.

If you enjoy The Lord of the Rings then this is definitely a comic worth wasting time with. Bonus, the website is very in-depth about other geek culture items, such as anime, movies and video games.

In the meantime, here’s hoping the DM of the Rings continues successfully.

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By Greg Dean
Making the world funny since 1999

I promised a break from the Anitaverse and here it is. True, it’s still reading, but with this at least it’s fun reading. It’s a five minute break now and then to get your eyes off your work and enjoy some really funny antics. Well, it’s five minutes unless you intend on prancing through the archives now and then, which I still do.

My friend Jason introduced me to Real Life in 2002 and I dove into the archives soon afterwards. Greg’s take on reality blended with the oddities of his own mind work well for the comic. Especially when friend Tony decides its time to take over the world again, and trust me, neither Stewie Griffon or Brain the mouse have anything on Tony and his diabolical schemes.

Real Life has maintained its hilarity thoughout the changes in Greg’s life, up to and including his marriage to Liz, his move to San Francisco, and his recent stint in a culinary academy (that series was wonderful considering it’s a path I still think about now and then). He is a skilled artist who I think needs more recognition for his work.

He takes his fans seriously and often kicks in extras for anyone who can donate to the site. In the last few years he and Liz have been having Real Life Support Group gatherings at a beach house where fans can meet each other and mingle with both Greg and Liz.

So whether you like your comedy with a seemingly straight laced trip to the airport (see today’s comic) or involving the mystical shirt ninja I can promise you’ll find many antics to laugh at with Real Life.

Not up to high diving into nearly nine years of comic goodness? Book One is avaliable in the Real Life Store and he’s currently working on Book Two.

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Considering some of these are published off-line I guess it counts as a book, but, I don’t see anything preventing me from tapping into the world of the webcomic.

Commonly known as OOTS to my friends and I, the Order of the Stick is a web comic based on a fantasy role-playing game. You’ll know which one, if you play them, when you read the first comic, I’m not risking getting sued in this sue happy world we live in.

Rich Burlew, creator of the Order publishes his comic three days a week and has over 400 comics in the storyline. Few of the comics pass day to day without a snort, chuckle or rather loud laugh among the readers, as is evidenced in the Forum area.

The Order consists of Roy, V, Durkon, Elan, Belkar, and Haley who joined together to defeat the evil lich Xykon and his assistant Redcloak. They encounter freakish paladins, whacked out demons and the inevitable evil twin as they work to stave of the lich’s heinous plot.

Enough praising the comic god that Burlew is, you’ll have to read it for yourself to really enjoy it. But, don’t let the comic alone take up to the Giant in the Playground site, as Burlew, fans of the comic and others also discuss RPGs and post short stories. It’s all in good fun and definately worth a day of exploration.

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