Destroy the hand-bound webcomic via total existence failure.
As usual, I have about three LJ entries half-written, so I'm just going to fire one off now as is and never mind any fine-tuning. This is mostly a cool-links thing, so that's why I don't feel bad about cutting one of my children short.
First off: How to Destroy the Earth. This website is just awesome, that's all there is to it. I am especially amused by things that won't destroy the earth towards the bottom, but it's all good. Some of the rest of the fellow's website is interesting as well.
http://ned.ucam.org/~sdh31/misc/destroy.html
This website is about 180% as awesome as the other two websites combined. If you read only one SF-linked website this day, read this one. If you read only two, read this one, then fiddle around with the links WITHIN this link.
--
Those who know me might know that when I was young, I religiously read two comics in particular: The Far Side & Calvin & Hobbes. Both were fine examples of the pinnacle of newspaper comics. Anyway, this is hardly a new article, but apparently the Cleveland Scene had an article on what Bill Waterson's been doing since he stopped C&H. I hadn't known that he'd moved (back) to Ohio out of Arizona. If I'd known... and had a car... I definitely would have tried to a drive-by of his hometown, just to see what it's like. Still, I definitely cannot begrudge him saying "You know what, I have enough money, I'm going to sit back and do what I enjoy now," which is apparently paint. I'd be curious what he thinks of the webcomic industry. Full color panels, full ownership by the author, you can play with the strip size all you like, you're free to give yourself a sabbatical any time you like for whatever reason. I suspect he'd be a fan, if he could overcome his Luddite streak (anyone who is not a fan of cable surely can't be a fan of computers).
http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2003-11-26/feature.html/1/index.html
And pretty much his only two speeches in public, ever:
http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/spe_osu.htm
http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/spe_kc.htm
The transcription quality could use some work, but oh well. I liked the subtitle of his speech to the graduating class at Kenyon: "SOME THOUGHTS ON THE REAL WORLD BY ONE WHO GLIMPSED IT AND FLED."
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One last thing- I got to see an exhibit with my parents over the weekend that apparently one of the artsy friends of my mom had recommended, "Ashes and Snow." Amazingly enough, there were no pictures of ashes or snow anywhere to be seen, which is a shame, because they're really interesting. Instead, we got kids swimming with elephants. Or reading to elephants. Or swimming with whales. Yeah. Pretty much the theme was people & various animals hangin' out. Kinda neat when they showed some of the nastier cats right next to the smiling human. Allegedly there was no digital manipulation, but that doesn't rule out darkroom shenanigans, which I'm sure were done to improve the quality of the pictures- not that there's anything wrong with that.
Anyway, that's not actually why I bothered posting that. It was more the gift shop afterwords that piqued my interest. The artist had apparently composed a literary work to stand with the pictures, with 365 fictional letters home from a fictional character to his wife while traveling through the same areas he visited (India, Ceylon, East Africa, etc.). The thing was, the book was made on handmade paper, sealed by beeswax, and so on. Straight-up old school paper, back when it was expensive and annoying to produce. I think that's actually kinda cool. I remember making my own sheet of hand-made paper in 5th grade or so at a weekend-program thingy (was it in summer? can't remember) where we got to do fun science stuff, and it may have been pulpy as heck, but it was neat.
Of course, the catch is that it costs you 120 bucks for the book.
Oh well. I'm glad that this kind of thing is available for rich eccentrics, but if his work has any artistic value as opposed to merely craftsmanship in the binding and so on, you should really provide a vulgar version for the masses. Power to the people and so on.
http://www.ashesandsnow.org/
First off: How to Destroy the Earth. This website is just awesome, that's all there is to it. I am especially amused by things that won't destroy the earth towards the bottom, but it's all good. Some of the rest of the fellow's website is interesting as well.
http://ned.ucam.org/~sdh31/misc/destroy.html
This website is about 180% as awesome as the other two websites combined. If you read only one SF-linked website this day, read this one. If you read only two, read this one, then fiddle around with the links WITHIN this link.
--
Those who know me might know that when I was young, I religiously read two comics in particular: The Far Side & Calvin & Hobbes. Both were fine examples of the pinnacle of newspaper comics. Anyway, this is hardly a new article, but apparently the Cleveland Scene had an article on what Bill Waterson's been doing since he stopped C&H. I hadn't known that he'd moved (back) to Ohio out of Arizona. If I'd known... and had a car... I definitely would have tried to a drive-by of his hometown, just to see what it's like. Still, I definitely cannot begrudge him saying "You know what, I have enough money, I'm going to sit back and do what I enjoy now," which is apparently paint. I'd be curious what he thinks of the webcomic industry. Full color panels, full ownership by the author, you can play with the strip size all you like, you're free to give yourself a sabbatical any time you like for whatever reason. I suspect he'd be a fan, if he could overcome his Luddite streak (anyone who is not a fan of cable surely can't be a fan of computers).
http://www.clevescene.com/issues/2003-11-26/feature.html/1/index.html
And pretty much his only two speeches in public, ever:
http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/spe_osu.htm
http://home3.inet.tele.dk/stadil/spe_kc.htm
The transcription quality could use some work, but oh well. I liked the subtitle of his speech to the graduating class at Kenyon: "SOME THOUGHTS ON THE REAL WORLD BY ONE WHO GLIMPSED IT AND FLED."
--
One last thing- I got to see an exhibit with my parents over the weekend that apparently one of the artsy friends of my mom had recommended, "Ashes and Snow." Amazingly enough, there were no pictures of ashes or snow anywhere to be seen, which is a shame, because they're really interesting. Instead, we got kids swimming with elephants. Or reading to elephants. Or swimming with whales. Yeah. Pretty much the theme was people & various animals hangin' out. Kinda neat when they showed some of the nastier cats right next to the smiling human. Allegedly there was no digital manipulation, but that doesn't rule out darkroom shenanigans, which I'm sure were done to improve the quality of the pictures- not that there's anything wrong with that.
Anyway, that's not actually why I bothered posting that. It was more the gift shop afterwords that piqued my interest. The artist had apparently composed a literary work to stand with the pictures, with 365 fictional letters home from a fictional character to his wife while traveling through the same areas he visited (India, Ceylon, East Africa, etc.). The thing was, the book was made on handmade paper, sealed by beeswax, and so on. Straight-up old school paper, back when it was expensive and annoying to produce. I think that's actually kinda cool. I remember making my own sheet of hand-made paper in 5th grade or so at a weekend-program thingy (was it in summer? can't remember) where we got to do fun science stuff, and it may have been pulpy as heck, but it was neat.
Of course, the catch is that it costs you 120 bucks for the book.
Oh well. I'm glad that this kind of thing is available for rich eccentrics, but if his work has any artistic value as opposed to merely craftsmanship in the binding and so on, you should really provide a vulgar version for the masses. Power to the people and so on.
http://www.ashesandsnow.org/