Category: Commentary

Interesting Times Friday Mailbag: "Get to the choppah!"

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keep sending those questions,
(to journalcomic at gmail dot com don’tcha know)
and also keep sending those guest comics!
got some good ones so far, stranger!

BEGIN COMMENTARY: Sometimes, what I like to do is lie to readers. Of course there was never any Predator hidden in the specific comic I refer to nor any other. Okay, “lie” is a very strong term. I like to play small practical jokes in which I make up things that are totally untrue about the comic. (I exaggerate about myself all the time — why wouldn’t I exaggerate about the site itself a little?) I suppose my hope is that one day I will get an irritated email from somebody who says “You know I actually went back and checked out all those comics and there are no Predators anywhere! >:(”

Anyway the tendency to lie about past comics is a running joke of mine, for myself. I guess I really am a jerk sometimes?

P.S. I really like panel 2, and I did a surprising amount of research on how to do the Predator cloaking effect for panel 3 before giving up and faking it myself. I don’t remember what I ended up doing (all the guides are for Photoshop, which I wasn’t using) but I think it turned out nicely! [March 13, 2012]

make sure to emphasize the first syllable in ‘papsi’ and ‘ravel’, and you are golden

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Honestly I cannot even really explain the reference in the first panel. It’s a shibboleth for Mennonites from in/around Winkler, Manitoba; it may have been a popular snack combination at one time, or is possibly just funny because it really gives one the opportunity to play up a particular characteristic of the “Mennonite Accent”.

I don’t naturally have a “Mennonite Accent” (having never learned to speak Low German properly) but I can switch it on to the delight and amusement of others. I’m actually a little baffled as to why it’s so funny. I slacken my jaw a little and start dead-panning my way through a story about Peter Heinrichs getting his tractor overturned out by Schoenwiese (pronounced sorta like “Shine-vays”) and people from my area are in stitches. Not that I don’t find it funny myself, but I’m the sort of person who likes to think about why things are funny and this sort of eludes me. [March 13, 2012]

Interesting Times Friday Mailbag: "Why Chad Kroeger Hates Me"

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Send your question into the mailbag!
Send your question to journalcomic at gmail dot com!
Send your question so I can try to answer it!

BEGIN COMMENTARY: There are two things I want to clarify about this comic, although I’m sure neither of them actually requires clarification; I know the anime-style speed-lines in panel two are going the wrong way, so no need to point that out. And in the last panel, the name of the song I’m humming is “stress”. It’s not that I’m particularly stressed.

Also, when reading it over now I like the way I say “constructive criticism” when the actual panel looks more like I’m saying “HEY KROEGER YOU SUCK” [March 13, 2012]

There is an art, or rather a knack, to drawing stick people. Pick a nice day and try it!

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Of course, looking at THIS comic from my vantage point a few years later, I’d say that even the “improved” version could use a bit of work. I’m not even consciously aware of these changes happening, which is odd. It also makes me worry sometimes that I’ve hit a plateau, because even though I feel as though there’s a general upward trend in the quality of my work, I’m not really trying to get better. That sounds boastful, which I am not going for.

Let me try an analogy. Someone you know decides to grow a beard. You see them unshaven, and then don’t talk to them for a number of weeks. The next time you speak you might be surprised at the fullness of the beard, whereas they didn’t really notice a huge difference because the tiny bits of regular beard growth are harder to track and easier to adjust to. And on his part, it’s not like a guy just says “I’ma grow a beard” and it just appears, it’s a relatively small decision (“I’m not going to shave today” or in my case “What does it look like if I draw it like this?”) repeated over the course of many days.

Whether or not your friend looks better with a beard, or my comics look better today than they did years ago is going to be subjective for each person I suppose. But I happen to think your friend really does look better bearded. [February 27, 2012]

there was a dude in grade 3 who told me the CRAZIEST Mario stories

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I feel compelled to explain a few things.

First of all, the alt-text of this comic is in reference to the way it seems as though every amazing, probably-untrue video game story I heard as a kid came from somebody’s cousin. Growing up I knew a couple of different people that made a habit of telling outlandish stories, and according to them, their cousins were the most amazing people ever.

The title of the comic is referring to my old pal Tim. Not you, Tim B, a different Tim. (I know a lot of Tims). Tim had secret knowledge and loved to fill me in on what he knew. I didn’t believe any of it, but his stories were entertaining and I wanted to know what he’d say next. At the tender age of eight he already “knew” all about sex (I wish I could remember this conversation), the occult, and best of all — video games!

On one instance, Tim told me all about how his brother fired up a game of Super Mario Bros. and for whatever reason was compelled to ram a 5-1/4″ floppy disk into the system along with the cartridge. Miraculously, rather than damaging anything, the game turned from 2D to 2.5D! Mario still ran from left to right but obstacles and enemies had astonishing depth and the game was immersive in a way it had never been before.

Of course, to their sadness they were never able to replicate their success. [February 22, 2012]

Interesting Times Friday Mailbag: "Overdrawn at the Genius Bank"

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I’ve probably mentioned elsewhere that I draw these comics in a much larger size than what gets posted on the website. When I resize the image to post it, a certain degree of fine detail is lost. Sometimes I use this to my advantage, in order to ‘fudge’ certain scenes; it’s hard to describe if you’re not sure what I mean, but basically I cheat a little because I know readers won’t be able to see the difference.

In this particular comic, however, I clearly remember how sad I was after re-sizing the comic for the web. I went off on kind of a thing in that third panel, and added a lot of little lines and fine details that were basically lost. Oh well. At least I know they’re there. [February 22, 2012]

some days you should seriously never borrow n64 games to

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Ugh. The 2nd panel is the most confusing thing ever, now that I look at it. Why couldn’t I arrange it into panels that actually flow? Also, it looks ridiculous for a stick person to get stabbed; why am I trying to crowd a confusing image like that into a tiny panel? These are BAD CHOICES. On top of all that, I could have gotten an eight-year-old to draw the car in the last panel. I guess what I am trying to say is that this is not my favourite comic ever. [February 13, 2012]