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Never bring a knife to a tank fight
 (From Schlock Mercenary. Click on image to see full-sized image.)
Well, Tayler has once again yanked the rug out from my expectations. Several weeks ago we switched from a gunshot and a voice calling out Kevyn's name to future Schlock on Colonel Pranger's ship. No doubt mine was not the only shout of "Damn you, Wi-- er, Tayler!" to echo across the planet, and we meandered our way through fecal jokes and the like, ending with mini-Schlock holding two guns on the guys in the ship.
Naturally, every day that went by, we wanted to know what had happened to Kevyn. Personally, I was expecting Howard to be even more evil and switch back to Petey and the Galactic Core story, but I suppose Howard was afraid some of his fans knew where he lived, so we switched last week back to Tagon and crew... and an all-too-alive Kevyn. The gunshot was Pranger's mercenaries shooting Tagon's gun out of his hand. (Hey, they're good!)
Things now looked like Kevyn had been betrayed. It seemed Pranger was satisfied with 50 million and a bunch of names, and now wanted to find out what Kevyn's fount of information was. I at least was expecting them to be brought back to Pranger's ship and then rescued by mini-Schlock, maybe (again) at the loss of Kevyn. But yesterday's triple cross... that wasn't expected.
Even today I wasn't sure what to expect. I figured Pranger was taking Tem Phica prisoner for ransom or some other reason. Pranger was now the enemy. Why would he actually end up helping Tagon? Especially when taking a week off to introduce mini-Schlock on Pranger's ship?
Thus the triple-cross. No doubt some of Howard's fans figured things out, especially near the end. But it speaks of excellence in storytelling and true skill to pull this off and surprise people. Especially an old cynic like myself. *wry smile*
Howard? You get a nromlicious homemade oatmeal cookie. Your choice of with or without raisins. Enjoy!
Robert A. Howard
------------------------- The Vanishing Keenspace Comic Trick!
Last night I was trying to create a monthly index of what comics I've reviewed and the dates I reviewed them when I suddenly realized I couldn't read any comics before April 28th, 2005. I'd done some editing earlier and figured that was the culprit... until I went to the Keenspace Help center and found that I was not alone in losing archives.
What's more, my old reviews were still in the archival records. It was the /d folder that had lost the proper html files. I checked out what had happened with others and how they fixed it, and then I went and implemented the one most likely to work (reloading all the old files that had been lost and doing a Full Update of my site). Tangents is working properly again (for now).
However, other comics (such as Burgundy Comics, Inc., which I was preparing to review for today) have also suffered this loss. If one of your Keenspace comics has lost the archives, don't worry. Keenspace's admins are looking into it even as we speak. Meanwhile, to the Keenspacers who have lost archives, here's a sequence that seems to work in restoring things:
Reload your comics into the workspace comics folder and do a Full Update.
This seems to fix the problem, though I'm unsure if it will reoccur.
I'll keep my eyes peeled to see if the cause is detected. And be patient, gang. Keenspace is (initially) a free service after all. Kisai and his fellow admins do an admirable job in this, and are quick in tracking down problems.
Take care.
Robert A. Howard
------------------------- Ah! But does she play hooky?
 (From Burgundy Comics, Inc.. Click on image to see full-sized image. Warning, some strips may contain nudity and/or adult situations.)
I started reading Burgundy Comics, Inc. yesterday, thanks to CJ's banner link on the .sig of her forum posts. (This just goes to show cartoonists to use those sigs wisely! A well-drawn banner ad can draw in fans like a new telephone number draws telemarketers!) It's a cute and fun mix of elements, but at its heart BCI is a fictionalization of CJ and her friends.
There were two things that immediately jumped out at me about BCI. First, the main character is a lesbian and proudly so. Second, the comic takes place in Alaska, which is reported to have one of the largest male-to-female ratios around. The comic doesn't dwell too much on the second, which I find surprising. You'd think that CJ would take advantage of the humor inherent in the situation and explore what it's like being a lesbian surrounded by so many men.
Instead, the comic focuses on CJ and her female friends. While there are (nominally) seven men in the strip, most of them seldom appear, one is possessed by a demon (then again, what landlord isn't? *grin*), one is a... I'm not sure if he's the embodiment of Chaos or a Chaos God (again, what man isn't? *grin*) and the third is the child of the goddess-character (and said Chaos chap). So we're left with four men, who appear incidentally.
This isn't a bad thing. These are (character) CJ's friends here. CJ seems more comfortable around other women, she can flirt with them and all that, and it helps build a certain chemistry to the strip that kept me reading when things didn't go the way I was anticipating.
Besides, of the women, one is the Devil's daughter Lust, and another is a Goddess (though she appears in a lot more strips than her ex-husband Chaos or their son). Oh, and Lust (until recently) was dating CJ, because she found CJ attractive (though it was mutual).
So BCI has a strange and varied cast, and focuses on various things. The only real problem I have with the comic is the tendency cartoonist CJ has on drawing a filler strip and letting herself get sidetracked from the story she's telling. (This happens on more than one occasion, and she knows she has a problem with it.)
Still, despite meandering through storylines, the occasional political activism, and downright whimsy, I found BCI interesting and fun. It won't be one of my favorites... but you need to be seriously into storytelling to get into that list of comics. *wry grin* If CJ could manage to focus on her storylines without missing updates, then BCI could easily excel.
Note: BCI currently is one of the Keenspace strips that is suffering from the Archive Vanishing Trick, but I'm sure the problem will be fixed soon and you can start at the beginning. For those of you at work, I do want to warn you that some strips of BCI do have female nudity and/or adult situations (approaching R-rated, I'd say, with one or two exceptions that are R), but these tend to be the filler strips more than the main storyline.
Robert A. Howard
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