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Darla says that she gets asked a lot what are some of my favorite things to read, to watch, to listen to, etc . . . Well I thought we’d start with Jonathon’s and my favorite webcomics.
Girl Genius by Phil and Kaja Foglio (Gaslamp fantasy; what does that mean? It’s sort of steampunk but with more weird. This series has given me one of my new favorite phrases, “I’ll be your mad boy.”)
The Devil’s Panties by Jennie Breeden (Is not Satanic porn. It’s a semi-autobiographical strip about a webcommic artist. Whether going to a convention to promote her comic, or buying a house with her boyfriend, this series is just plain funny. Thanks to this comic I know to be on the look out for pirates bearing rum at Dragoncon.)
Schlock Mercenary by Howard Tayler ( I liked this one well enough that when he asked I did an introduction for his latest book. I thought I had blogged about that, but when I went back and looked, I had not. All you other artists and writers can thank Howard for this blog. I thought since I was catching up on Schlock I’d do the list.)
Irregular Webcomic by David Morgan-Mar (This is apparently his hobby, in his real life he is an astrophysicist. He does not draw. He uses Lego figurines and painted miniatures to do his strips. It gives hope to all of us who are drawing challenged.)
Sluggy Freelance by Pete Abrams (I actually met him once. He’s the only one on the list I can say that about, for now. Jon made me add that part. Sluggy was one of the first webcomics I ever read. Warning: if you go back to the beginning of the Sluggy archives be prepared to have it suck your life away for days. The Christmas episodes with Bun-Bun trying to do in Santa, who Bun-Bun calls, “the fat man,” are some of my favorites. Oh, who is Bun-Bun? Read the comic, I can’t do all the work for you.)
Brat-halla by Jeffery Stevenson & Seth Damoose(This is one of the newst ones we’ve found, newest to us. It is the gods of Norse Mythology going through the hell that is middle school. Come on Norse dieties trapped in Junior high, need I say more?)
Evil Inc. by Brad Guigar (Wonder where all the super villains have gone? They’re all working for Evil Inc. because when your evil pools it’s resources there’s more money to be had. You also have superheroes, of course. So call up, and have the receptionist, Lightning Lady say, “How may I harm you?”, or my other favorite, “How may I misdirect your call?” Haven’t any of us that have ever been stuck answering phones in corporate America fantasized about saying exactly that? I know, I did.)
Oh, I guess you guys didn’t know that I once worked in corporate America. In an editorial department at a major corporation. Editorial didn’t get much respect so we had no receptionist. Since I was the new girl, fresh out of college, I got phone duty. I didn’t like it much, since I still had to do my real job and answer the phones at the same time. I was so bad at it that my boss ‘talked’ to me about my voice not being professional. So I practiced my phone voice, and maybe got too carried away. Here’s what they told me to say, “Editorial department, this is Laurell, how may I help you.” Put a lot of sultry into that statement, roll the name off your tongue like you’re thinking dirty thoughts, and say, help, like you mean something entirely different. That’s about how I ended up saying it. Like I said, I didn’t enjoy doing it, but I did exactly what I was told to do. No one told me I couldn’t use a sexy phone voice. Not my fault they didn’t think of it. After a few days I got the voice down because men from other floors were finding excuses to come up to editorial and talk to us. After about the third or fourth man wandering about editorial for no reason my boss called me into her office. “Laurell, what are you saying to them?” I told her I was saying exactly what she told me to say. It would take her a day or so more to ask the right question. “Laurell, how are you saying it?” She finally asked me to demonstrate, then she told me, “Cut it out.” Strangely, though, I was off phone duty after that.
Also Jon Reads the following:
Penny Arcade Gaming, Pop Culture, and Expletives.
Starslip Crisis Far future Sci-Fi. In a Museum.
Turn Signals on a Landraider Warhammer 40,000 Humor. Mostly centered on Frep and Kren