Larry Gonick is a veteran American cartoonist best known for his delightful comic-book guides to science and history, many of which have previews online. Chief among them is his long-running
Cartoon History of the Universe (later
The Cartoon History of the Modern World), a sprawling multi-volume opus documenting everything from the Big Bang to the Bush administration. Published over the course of three decades, it takes a truly global view -- its time-traveling Professor thoroughly explores not only familiar topics like Rome and World War II but the oft-neglected stories of Asia and Africa, blending caricature and myth with careful scholarship (cited by
fun illustrated bibliographies) and tackling even the most obscure events
with intelligence and wit. This savvy satire carried over to Gonick's
Zinn-by-way-of-
Pogo chronicle
The Cartoon History of the United States, along with a bevy of
Cartoon Guides to other topics, including
Genetics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, Statistics, The Environment, and (yes!)
Sex. Gonick has also maintained a few sideprojects, such as
a webcomic look at Chinese invention,
assorted math comics (
previously), the
Muse magazine mainstay
Kokopelli & Co. (featuring the shenanigans of his
"New Muses"), and
more. See also
these lengthy interview snippets, linked
previously. Want more? Amazon links to the complete oeuvre inside!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 6, 2011 -
29 comments
Romantically Apocalyptic is a morbidly funny webcomic from Russo-Canadian digital artist
Vitaly Alexius (
interview,
gallery). Set in the
starkly diaphanous wreckage of post-nuclear Manhattan, it follows
an eccentric contingent of Soviet soldiers as they poke through the detritus of the past and contend with the mutants, cultists, aliens, and other horrors that inhabit the ruins. The comic's
striking art style is the result of an arduous process, using
"Photoshop, live actors, dead actors, sexy assistants, greenscreen, a camera, and a Wacom tablet" to composite "6 years worth of textures: 1 terabyte of stock footage, shot in real abandoned, forgotten places of our world." This multimedia ambition has burgeoned into plans for a
community-powered animated/live-action web series (
teaser video,
animatic,
fanart). While waiting for that to come together, be sure to spend some time on
Kimmo Lemetti's excellent
Gone With the Blastwave (
previously), a very similar webcomic project with a more subdued palette that turned out nearly fifty pages of richly-illustrated post-apocalyptic humor before going on indefinite hiatus.
posted by Rhaomi
on Mar 3, 2011 -
18 comments
Social news site
Reddit recently held their
"Best of Reddit 2010" awards honoring key players in the site over the last year, including the progenitor of
the Rally to Restore Sanity, the clever drive-by cartoonist
Sure_Ill_Draw_That, unofficial image host
Imgur, and feel-good story of the year
"Today you, tomorrow me." But perhaps most interesting was the winner for Best Big Community:
FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU! Originally inspired by 4chan's popular
Rage Guy meme, F7U12 (for short) is a clearinghouse for user-made web comics, slice-of-life affairs that
tell a story or
share a common frustration using
a small collection of crudely drawn yet highly evocative facial expressions. Several have become small memes in their own right -- the wily
Trolldad, the doormat
Okay, the prideful
Fuck Yea, the melodramatic
Gasp. And
one comic, inspired by the warped text randomly generated by
reCAPTCHAs (
previously), has given us
Lord Inglip --
god of
a dark religion now
rivaling FSM whose
cryptic commands marshal
loyal armies of
gropagas,
falcows,
Sellicks, and...
canary into exploits both
monstrous and
inconvenient (
timeline,
wiki). Obey him --
or else! More fun with F7U12:
rage face origins,
rage faces in real life,
Twitter feed,
search comics,
create your own (
alternate).
posted by Rhaomi
on Feb 8, 2011 -
168 comments
PhDChallenge.org proposed a
challenge: To have the phrase "I smoke crack rocks" included in a peer reviewed academic paper. The winner is Gabriel Parent from Carnegie Mellon, who included it in his
paper [PDF].
posted by reenum
on Dec 16, 2010 -
54 comments
The "
Benign Violation Theory" posits that for something to be funny, three conditions must be met. First, there must be a violation of the norm. Second, the violation must be perceived to be benign. Last, both these perceptions must occur simultaneously.
[more inside]
posted by cosmac
on Aug 27, 2010 -
106 comments
Good Night and Tough Luck "Getting a good night’s sleep is actually a lot more complicated than one would think."
An amusing look at the problems involved in getting a good night's sleep.
posted by nooneyouknow
on Oct 22, 2009 -
62 comments
Recently, there have been a host of websites that delight in exposing the inanity and stupidity of our society. There is the granddaddy,
Overheard in New York, which recounts silly conversations heard in the Big Apple, as well as a
host of similar sites.
There are now a variety of such websites, dedicated to different aspects of our society.
[more inside]
posted by reenum
on Jul 28, 2009 -
51 comments
Mortified is a group in various cities that allows people to "share their own adolescent journals, letters, poems, lyrics, home movies, stories and more." It's
embarrassing, to be sure, but it's frequently also
hilarious (NSFW). Recently they've set up
a page to share videos of live performances, and the latest is my favorite so far. "
500 Miles To Hollywood" features Elijah Wood, James Denton (Desperate Housewives), Busy Phillips (Freaks & Geeks), Kevin McDonald (Kids in the Hall) and Curtis Armstrong (Revenge of the Nerds) "helping Jason Smith fulfill his dream and bring a 2-decade-old screenplay to life."
posted by ktoad
on Apr 10, 2008 -
20 comments
JP Nicholas Reilly is a theatre (that's "
thee-AY-ter") artist who takes himself very,
very seriously. Most of his knowledge of the world comes from Hollywood blockbusters. Although his previous plays have sucked big fat hairy sweaty donkey balls, his latest production - about Hitler in college - promises to be his magnum opus.
And if that doesn't convince you, there's the wikification of the world, a phone call from Ira Glass, a Wii swapped for a Super Nintendo, and the Holy Fucking Grail.
Watch.
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane
on Jun 15, 2007 -
12 comments
"What are they talking about?" Was it just an April Fools' joke? Are they really gonna end
Red Vs. Blue: arguably the most successful
machinima series ever? Will Blood Gulch be silent of one-liners and snide comments once more, or is this a blatant attempt by
Rooster Teeth to drum up interest in their 100th episode? Considering the fact they started it four years ago
on April Fools Day, it's really hard to tell.
(surprise! no youtube links!)
posted by ZachsMind
on Apr 3, 2007 -
11 comments
IPR: Irrational Public Radio "We love NPR, PRI, & MPR. We are fans of
All Things Considered,
Morning Edition,
Car Talk,
This American Life,
Fresh Air, and
Prarie Home Companion. We like the commentaries, the features, the independent member station programs. We love them all dearly. But we also think they're begging to be made fun of. So here we are."
posted by jdroth
on Mar 29, 2007 -
31 comments
Mediocre Films consists of films which are... mediocre, hence the name.
Night of the Zombie.
Batty Bat-Bat.
Gorgeous Tiny Chicken Machine Show. Granted, it's not
LG15 but I think that's what I like about it most. These short subject films are made by some guy named Greg, with help from other people whom you
may have never heard of before. Occasionally they also feature a guy named
Adam whom you might recognize but you may not be able to recall from where. It's funny. Well. I liked it. My girlfriend didn't. She said they were mediocre; to which I said,
"exactly!" Sheesh. Women.
posted by ZachsMind
on Mar 10, 2007 -
10 comments
