Comments on: Ant Comics

Ant Comics

rollick — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 04:48:16 -0800

Ant Comics. (nsfw for giant ant queen sex).

By: seanmpuckett

seanmpuckett — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:23:25 -0800

Surreal & brilliant. Thanks for bringing it.

By: fight or flight

fight or flight — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:34:36 -0800

I'm going to feel weird about accidentally stepping on ants now. I think.

By: ook

ook — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:44:32 -0800

Very nice.

By: fight or flight

fight or flight — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:51:02 -0800

Aw dang, did we break the site?

By: orme

orme — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:54:13 -0800

Freeeeeeky. Here's the artist's blog.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 05:54:44 -0800

This is Michael DeForge's work. Immediately recognizable. Previously.

By: vasi

vasi — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:05:09 -0800

So strange! I love it! Those spiders are adorable!

By: MartinWisse

MartinWisse — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:22:18 -0800

Christ these are brilliant.

By: Capt. Renault

Capt. Renault — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:29:49 -0800

Great stuff! If you enjoyed reading about ant sex, you might also enjoy Chris Ware's depictions of idealized bee sex.

By: Paul Slade

Paul Slade — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:34:04 -0800

Caterpillars v ants v wasps in Hans Rickheit's six-page Mother's Day comic. (Metafilter Projects previously).

By: Obscure Reference

Obscure Reference — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:41:39 -0800

Strangely misogynistic.

By: ook

ook — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:58:05 -0800

Strangely misogynistic. How so? Much of the interest in this for me came down to the disconnect of human desires and motivations projected down into the alien society and biology of ants -- which ends up pointing up how both ants and humans are alien and artificial and bizarre. I don't think it's de facto misogynistic to point out that ant biology does not involve gender equality.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:58:46 -0800

Also: Very reminiscent of Anders Nilsen's Big Questions [PDF].

By: Lipstick Thespian

Lipstick Thespian — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:10:39 -0800

Loved this - more, please.

By: Obscure Reference

Obscure Reference — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 07:12:54 -0800

I guess it was the "so gross in there" remark that got to me.

By: Mr.Encyclopedia

Mr.Encyclopedia — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:41:28 -0800

I guess it was the "so gross in there" remark that got to me. I find this response interesting. It's misogynistic to say it's gross inside a vagina? What if it was a non-sexualized orifice like a woman's mouth or nose? Would it be homophobic if I said a man's anus was gross? I ask because frankly I believe every human orifice is gross in its own unique way and I don't think that says anything about the quality of the person in charge of the orifice.

By: thsmchnekllsfascists

thsmchnekllsfascists — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:42:52 -0800

I find this response interesting. It's misogynistic to say it's gross inside a vagina? What if it was a non-sexualized orifice like a woman's mouth or nose? Would it be homophobic if I said a man's anus was gross? I ask because frankly I believe every human orifice is gross in its own unique way and I don't think that says anything about the quality of the person in charge of the orifice. Also, it's an ant.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 08:59:16 -0800

Also this comic is not at all accurate in terms of ants' reproduction.

By: Buckt

Buckt — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:04:31 -0800

...But it's awesome nonetheless.

By: jewzilla

jewzilla — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:12:51 -0800

Thousands of ants just did their business in that vagina. That's why it's gross.

By: Jonathan Harford

Jonathan Harford — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 10:34:43 -0800

Holy moly this is just the kind of thing I'd like to be able to create.

By: Paul Slade

Paul Slade — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 11:44:32 -0800

Holy moly this is just the kind of thing I'd like to be able to create. posted by Jonathan Harford at 10:34 AM on February 27 [+] [!] What's stopping you? All you need to make comics is a pen, some paper and a little imagination.

By: ook

ook — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:02:29 -0800

But I only have two out of three! obvious joke is obvious and irresistible

By: Merzbau

Merzbau — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:12:49 -0800

Aw dang, and here I was working on an FPP about Deforge :( I'll try to get it polished up and post the links to this thread tonight while it's still on the front page.

By: benito.strauss

benito.strauss — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:31:41 -0800

What's weird is that I can't tell what's based on true facts and what isn't. Ants like sugar but are killed by Sweet'n'Low? That's totally believable. Ants affected by smells? Yeah, pheromones. Monthly sperm deposits in the queen? Um, that sounds odd, but I've heard odder on nature documentaries.

By: Quart

Quart — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:09:20 -0800

What's weird is that I can't tell what's based on true facts and what isn't. For starters, there are no male ants. Every member of an actual hive is female, males only show up during breeding season to inseminate new queens and then die off in a matter of days. Spiders don't have milk. Earthworms do not divide infinitesimally. It's best to treat it as its own little self-contained reality.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:26:14 -0800

There are male ants, but they have wings, and are short-lived enough and single-purpose enough that it's easiest to think of them as inseminators and nothing else (they develop from unfertilized eggs, to boot). Fertile females also have wings and they mate with the males in the air (once only), after which they are fertilized for the remainder of their lives. These new queens land on the ground, shed their wings, and crawl off somewhere either to start a new colony or to join an extant colony-- if they're starting their own, their bodies slowly digest the now-useless wing-powering muscles so they don't starve to death while they lay eggs and gradually build a colony which will then feed them. Every other ant is an infertile female, because (like in Jurassic Park) the biological default tends to be female.

By: asnider

asnider — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:46:58 -0800

This is weird. But awesome. But terrifying.

By: threeants

threeants — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:37:02 -0800

Wow. That was so good. I feel like I just got run over by a truck of creativity.

By: threeants

threeants — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:38:42 -0800

For some odd reason, the tone really reminded me of the manga The Drifting Classroom by Kazuo Umezu. (I've never read any other manga before or since, and I read it in French, so take that with a grain of Sweet 'n Low.)

By: Jonathan Harford

Jonathan Harford — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:33:26 -0800

What's stopping you? All you need to make comics is a pen, some paper and a little imagination. It's early days yet, but I assure you I am working on it!

By: Dr. Wu

Dr. Wu — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 19:47:32 -0800

I love ants. I also love comics. It's like this was created just for me! I love it.

By: One Second Before Awakening

One Second Before Awakening — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 18:41:03 -0800

I absolutely loved this, thank you! I'm definitely going to have to buy some of the man's work on paper.