Web Comics! - Part 1

I call this "part 1" because I fully intend to discover more awesome web comics out there:

Anyway, here are ones I have read (and am up-to-date on or finished with) that I think really stand out for their humor (in order of discovery), rated on a scale of 1 to 5 stars:

xkcd **** (4 stars): This site is just hilarious. It's very witty and some of it requires prior knowledge, but most of the observational comedy should be understood by most people.

There isn't much that can be said about all the comics taken as a whole because many of them are so wildly different. Math, semantics, love, sex, and science (usually physics) come up frequently and prove to be the source of many crazy occurences in the lives of the graphically perfected stick-figure beings that inhabit the xkcd "world."

I'm a little stingy with perfect ratings. It is a little bit niche, so it will not appeal to everyone, and because some of the jokes do require some previous knowledge, they can be hit-or-miss at times. It still gets a solid 4.


Darths and Droids **** (4 stars): This one is definitely something you either appreciate or you don't, with nearly no middle-ground. The reason for this is simple: whereas xkcd is nerdy in a witty way about life, Darths and Droids is nerdy in a witty way about Dungeons and Dragons. That said, this comic is funny if you accept that it's about Dungeons and Dragons and you're willing to laugh at the game and at Star Wars.

I actually found this comic to be funnier than DM of the Rings, which was a big inspiration for Darths and Droids. DM of the Rings improves in the later episodes, but this starts out exciting from the get-go.

The characters (both the players and the in-comic characters of the players) are funny, active, and even plausibly real. There are certainly people that play like that, and the notes after episodes make a good point of acknowledging the truths behind player actions.

This would be a 3.5 if I could do half an asterisk, but I can't. It's definitely niche. Not everyone will "get" it or like it. But those that do will probably love it. It's fast-paced, full of twists created by the characters themselves (not contrived plot twists beyond the characters' control, even if the characters themselves are subject to the control of the author, because their actions still feel natural), and a great parody.


DM of the Rings *** (3 stars): This starts out pretty slow, in my opinion, but if you can push past the first few episodes, it picks up and ends up providing excellent entertainment value as it pokes fun at the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. My only major disappointment was that the ending felt a little weak: Gimli and Legolas' annoyance seemed to be stretched out more than it needed to be. Whether this was actually meant as a subtle joke about the ending of the movie trilogy (or "endings" rather) is not something I can confirm, but it doesn't feel that way. If it had came off like that, I don't think I would have any complaints given that it was a learning experience (explaining the progression from the early comics to the later ones).

This is definitely worth a read if you like the genre and especially if you plan to read Darths and Droids (it's fun to contrast them and it provides a little extra background information on the origins of Darths and Droids).

There are a lot of jokes that fall flat in their presentation, are already expected, or just aren't that funny in the first place (usually because they have been done to death). It's still funny and it gets a 3.


El Goonish Shive **** (4 stars): This is a long-running web comic, and I have to say I have never really been disappointed by it. Though the author is currently on a short break from posting them (to work on them instead!), there is plenty of material for new readers to play catch-up with.

I don't want to spoil anything, so any discussions of the exact oddities of the El Goonish Shive universe will remain omitted, but suffice to say this comic is filled with the antics of ani-morphing, gender-bending, extra-terrestrial, magical teenagers and their exploits. I may go into more detail in other posts.

It's hilarious and I highly recommend anyone who likes quirky, silly, sometimes witty material that leaves you quizzically looking at your screen while grinning and thinking, "What...? But why? Why di-... what?"

I want to say this is 4 stars because it has something for everyone. The characters are mostly goofy, but there are serious characters and serious moments even between the sillier cast. It has drama, action, comedy, and more (though there's no clear (Wild) Western element yet). It's still somewhat niche despite this, however, by virtue of the whole "animal-people, gays, bi-sexuals, straight people who just aren't their original sex at the moment, aliens, extra-dimensional beings, magic, Ki powers, and general nerdiness" thing. This might be a little low on the 4-scale, but I can't type half an asterisk to give it a 3.5 for niche-ness, so it's a 4 because of personal enjoyment.

Reminded

When I watched The Dark Knight (earlier today), I was reminded very much of Batman Begins at one specific line, but it needs to be put into context, so below I will quote the two crucial conversations.

Alfred Pennyworth: When I was in Burma, a long time ago, my friends and I were working for the local Government. They were trying to buy the loyalty of tribal leaders, bribing them with precious stones. But their caravans were being raided in a forest north of Rangoon by a bandit. We were asked to take care of the problem, so we started looking for the stones. But after six months, we couldn't find anyone who had traded with him. One day I found a child playing with a ruby as big as a tangerine. The bandit had been throwing the stones away.
Bruce Wayne: Then why steal them?
Alfred Pennyworth: Because he thought it was good sport. Because some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Bruce Wayne: That man in Burma, did you ever catch him?
Alfred Pennyworth: Oh yes.
Bruce Wayne: How?
Alfred Pennyworth: We burned the forest.

The last is the line which reminded me of Batman Begins. Particularly, I was reminded of Ra's Al Ghul and the "League of Shadows," the organization desiring to eradicate the corrupt city of Gotham:

Ra's Al Ghul: Gotham's time has come. Like Constantinople or Rome before it the city has become a breeding ground for suffering and injustice. It is beyond saving and must be allowed to die. This is the most important function of the League of Shadows. It is one we've performed for centuries. Gotham... must be destroyed.

Ra's al Ghul: When a forest grows too wild, a purging fire is inevitable and natural.

And this idea of burning down a city or a forest to root out a problem reminded me of the story I have now just written about (but which I thought about much before I wrote). I will have to decide where I stand on this matter before I can call that work finished. In the meantime, I'll simply find myself bewildered and amused that Alfred and Ra's al Ghul share (or, perhaps, viewed) this view that it is sometimes necessary to gut a system to remove a problem from it.

A Dour Observation

With everyone claiming to have issues, and with more and more people having minor issues, society grows numb to them, and ignores its ailments. What happens when someone truly suffers? No one pays any heed until it grows too severe to repair, until that person snaps.

I write this because I am beginning the planning of a novel about such a person: a person whose symptoms are minor and not worth society's close attention until he allows himself to be carried away to the point of committing a series of brutal murders.

The observation depicts at least the society present in Southern California that has grown in the past few decades.

If this is published anytime in the near future, I expect the novel to fail miserably. There are a few reasons: I am no astonishing writer; teachers and others have said I am more critical of my own work than others are of it, but there's no sense in deluding oneself with undeserved praise; few appreciate when others criticize them and this novel is at least in part a criticism of society, even if I tell myself that it is merely meant to be read for recreation.

What I quote next is not meant to be read as praise for myself. In truth, it's become an inspiration to me. The quote is from a friend of mine to me, edited for grammatical errors (at least to some extent since there are run-ons I decided to maintain) and spelling errors (as it was communicated through instant messenger, where formalities are far less necessary).

I don't think it's the things you're good at, necessarily, but what you do to make them good that stand out. Like, I think that, especially in your writing (seeing as how that's really all I've had a chance to see), you really put your heart and soul into it and that's what makes it great because it's true, because you let yourself be vulnerable. And that's how you express yourself. And I think it's wonderful and it makes me think. I'm getting a little overboard, but sometimes it makes me want to cry a little bit too because the honesty that you portray in your poems is so pure that it, like, it sort of makes me think, like, "What am I trying to be? Who am I fooling?" And it makes me think about how I haven't written a poem in ages and how it might be because I'm just lying to myself. And hey-- if you faked all that, great job! Yeah, but seriously, I didn't make that up-- like that's kind of what took me so long to read your poems: 'Cause I'd start and I'd be like, "Okay, this is too much right now," and go back later because it just kind of shows off what I'm missing out on by protecting myself by putting up a big wall. And everything you do, even in your writing, it's just like a big mirror on the reader saying, "You can't hide from it anymore," and it's so freaking powerful.

If I ever have a chance to speak about my "work" (or works rather, since I have the depressing suspicion that the two will be quite separate), I intend to thank my friend for this. I took the last piece to heart during the past few years, and I have sought to polish that mirror in hopes that its reflection will be clear enough to capture all the vile imperfections. Of course, a mirror is worthless without light. People must be able to see a mirror before they can loathe the image they see within. And, if they cannot despise that visage captured inside, they cannot seek to reform it.

Writing about bleak realities is worthless unless you praise them or revile them. Expression (or communication) is a means of change: to further* or reverse polarities. There is no sense in "people talking without speaking," or "people hearing without listening," as Simon and Garfunkel sung in their own social commentary, The Sound of Silence.

*Maintaining a present balance or status is a version of furthering a polarity in that it furthers it through the axis of time.

Waxen Wings

Waxen Wings
An Incomplete and Evolving Thought by Tyson Alexander Monagle

What does it mean to challenge the Sun? The Sun in the most literal of senses is just the star closest to Earth, provider of heat, sustainer and destroyer of life. In literature, the Sun has a different presence. The Sun has appeared as a symbol of hope, joyous wonderment, power, regeneration, and oppression - this last explored by Camus and others. And this meaning of the Sun reveals itself to us in much earlier writings as well. The tale of Daedalus and his son, Icarus, entrapped by the King Minos of Crete in the Labyrinth of Daedalus' own construction gives us a glimpse of this antagonistic relationship in the limitations it imposes on mankind. Of Daedalus and Icarus, Ovid's Metamorphoses tell us this:

"Upon the left
they passed by Samos, Juno's sacred isle;/
Delos and Paros too, were left behind;/
and on the right Lebinthus and Calymne,/
fruitful in honey. Proud of his success,/
the foolish Icarus forsook his guide,/
and, bold in vanity, began to soar,/
rising upon his wings to touch the skies;/
but as he neared the scorching sun, its heat/
softened the fragrant wax that held his plumes;/
and heat increasing melted the soft wax--/
he waved his naked arms instead of wings,/
with no more feathers to sustain his flight./
And as he called upon his father's name/
his voice was smothered in the dark blue sea,/
now called Icarian from the dead boy's name."

The Sun, set high in the sky, intimidates Daedalus and imposes its influence on the world of mortal men below, striking down any that dare compare themselves to its magnificence. Daedalus warns his son of the danger of flying too close to the Sun out of this fearful concern. And as Icarus attempts to fly, as Ovid tells us, far more boldly than he ought, into the realms of the Sun, its "scorching" rays melt away his wings and send him to his death in the crushing waters below. And for what? Icarus dies for no other reason than his ambition to experience a world beyond the mundane. The boy, seeing Phoebus' chariot, seeks in blind euphoria to bring himself but a little closer. For this, he perishes. A moment of pride leads to an eternity of damnation.

And yet this is not the only time ancient writings show us such cruelty over an insignificant action born of pride. We see again in Genesis the story of the Babylonians, so confident that they sought to construct a mighty tower that would reach to the Heavens. This, they did, of their free will. And God said:

"Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech."

Though here we do not see as clearly the Sun, the image of the Heavens and of God come plainly to the fore to take its place. And we should not find ourselves so surprised: Phoebus pulls the chariot of the Sun in Greek mythology. And again the justification of the ruination of a people is lacks sensibility. Though one can explain Icarus' death in more simple and scientific terms, cautioning simply against the heat of the sun, and the inability to test such an idea in the time of the ancient Greeks - for they certainly would have then known that the upper atmosphere freezes because of its low density - both these instances reveal the judgment against pride.

But even the Greek story does not presume itself so mighty as the God revealed to us in Genesis. For he did give man free will. And he let man experience sin and pay for his trespasses in the next life eternally. But he could not satisfy himself with that alone, no. He decided that the ambitions of man to achieve all "which they have imagined to do" should bring the destruction and division of an entire people.

Albert Camus' depicts a different oppression of the Sun, one which holds its own merit but has little relevance to this case. The Sun of Camus is the intensely burning emotion of man. Though cumbersome at times, and unnecessary to some, one need not form any judgment of these passions.

To challenge the Sun then, one must discard all notions of negativity associated with driving ambitions, with confidence, and with preconceived impossibilities. To one who dares to challenge the sun, the world lays open, yet desolate. To defy these beliefs so deeply ingrained into society, one has to discard the irrational and sometimes arbitrary moral constraints shackled onto oneself by others. And this does not go without consequences. The Sun burns not in the sky alone, but in the hearts of those who believe in its presence. And the surface of the world sears with the heat of billions of Suns. But one can not assume superiority and maintain such a meaning, or lack thereof. There is no valiance in seeking one's goals despite the tyranny of humanity. And there is no moral betterment in this humility. There is only betterment insofar as one finds fulfillment of oneself and one's goals.

And therein lies a distinction that must be clarified: if one's goals do not involve defiance of the cultural norm, one need not defy it if it would penalize him or her. To the man that makes his living and finds his fulfillment in tried and true actions, do not change simply for the sake of change. But do not feel the need to criticize those who do. Understand the universality of selfish motivation in determining one's actions. In this, perhaps, disagree with society, for selfishness drives the world ever onward and fuels innovation. In this, challenge the Sun, and let its fiery wrath bathe your body and mind and shoot through you. And reflect that you feel no burning sensation because you know that it affects you not. Find freedom and pursue your goals as high as they may lead you and never lower for fear of the vile hatred of the Sun.

The Titular Poem

To Challenge the Sun
by Tyson Alexander Monagle:

"The dark of the moon doth not challenge the Sun
Who returns anew each day
And the waxen wings of emboldened men
Shall make mankind to pay"