Kirby Dots

He's No Joe Morgan!

Hey, just wanted to quick stop in to say that I'm still here, just a bit busy.  New posts are being worked out, I'm not disappearing, tail between my legs, etc.  Honestly, the few folks that are stopping by regularly are probably better served by Mike's quality work anyway, so comment and discuss there.

I just wanted to stop by to give kudos where deserved.  Zach Weiner, erstwhile site foe, wrote a really funny guest strip for the (new to me) webcomic Surviving the World.  The topic caught my eye because, believe it or not, I'm actually quite invested in sabermetrics and the advanced statistical approach to baseball in general.  It's a wonderful way to appeal to reason in an emotional game, and can serve to inform fan understanding of what to watch and who to watch monumentally.  As such, I'm really impressed that Zach managed to compose a comic that not only satirizes these stats, but does so in a non-snarky, obviously appreciative, and overall funny way.  This side of Fire Joe Morgan (for the love of God, why aren't you just reading Fire Joe Morgan over and over again?), SABR-based humor is hard to come by, and usually it comes from some doofy newspaper writer who tries to belittle the approach.  I don't know if Zach's a baseball fan -- if he is, we have more in common than I would've suspected, which is cool -- but if he's not, and he is going outside of his comfort zone on this one, he really nailed it.  The tone, the joke, and the approach are all top notch.

So, in conclusion to this brief interlude before a longer post, two things: one, I really am not unreasonable about jokes vis-a-vis their intelligence -- I just don't find some of them successfully funny; and two, I'm not above pointing out things I like as well as things I dislike.  Baseball is a sadly neglected focus of this blog too, and frankly, there's not nearly enough good humor about it to go around, so thanks for the morning laffs, Zach, they were well appreciated.  Til' next time, stay tuned for more baseball and comic related stuff, and thanks as always fer' reading.

Inception 2012

Since the success of The Dark Knight in 2008, “Christopher Nolan” has been a premier name among Hollywood directors—right up there with “Michael Bay,” “Ang Lee,” and “L. Wachowski.” So the fact that this Nolan guy made a new movie is hot news among the “Glitterati.” I know what you’re thinking: “Probably this new movie, Inception, deserves some consideration, and maybe it’s good?”

Those were my thoughts exactly. And with us having such concordant ideas, acknowledging that Nolan made a new movie and vaguely speculating about its quality, you’ll be happy to know that when I asked Kirby Dots’ webmasters if I could comment on Inception, they said, “OK. Who are you again?”

No Country for Writers

Suppose I’ll jump on this comics bandwagon. 

As the two readers of my articles know, I am an English teacher by day. By night, I attempt to be a writer. Presently, I’m working on a graphic novel script with my illustrator, Tim Durning. Tim is a phenomenal talent, and I’m lucky to be working with him. Having had some work published in the past, and generally being considered a fine writer, I would like to bring an equal amount of effort and ability to the table in this joint venture. So far, this has been the case, but soon we will begin the hardest part of writing a graphic novel: submissions and pitches. In this leg of the race, I will be nothing but a hanger-on.

New Directions: An Interview With Zach Weiner

Within the past weekend, this blog’s seen the most traffic it’s seen in any single month or year of its short existence.  1,000 plus visitors came by, which might not seem like too much until you consider that we had all of, oh, 2 unique visitors the Thursday before my (locally) infamous Zach Weiner article.  Along with the attention, I also unwittingly brought the wrath of the Internet on my head; this resulted, unsurprisingly, in some pretty predictable namecalling – I’m butthurt, a joke, unqualified, and a troll, it turns out.  But that’s what a blog’s for, right?  It caught the attention of not only a bunch of angry fans, but of SMBC’s author, Zach Weiner, who posted it on his twitter.   Wouldn’t the right course here be to continue calling out comics creators and waiting for the inevitable backlash and web traffic?

Not to spoil it, but the answer is no, of course not.  Below the jump, I’ll go into my thinking about what character comics critique should take on the blog, respond to my commenters, and give a half-apologia on my critique of Zach Weiner.  But first – an actual interview with Zach.  Nice!

Dismantling the E-Reader

Is…is everything cool? I feel like I walked into my house after the dog and cat destroyed the kitchen. If the trash is picked up and the cabinets are all closed, I’d like to get back to business, alright? 

Alright.

So e-readers. It seems like the weekly news cycle must have one or two stories about this nascent technology. The Kindle, Nook, and others are endlessly compared to high-end devices like the iPad. Consumers have unprecedented levels of choice when shopping for a worse way to read books. It’s a glorious day, friends—especially for educated people who like to prove their intellect with their disposable income.