The Remonstrance

Back from Jellystone

2010-07-05T16:51:00.002-04:00

Hey everybody, thanks for having the patience to wait out my hiatus. Julia and I returned from a week long camping trip to Yellowstone, and while we saw many astounding animals - including a couple of adorable black bears -we luckily had a better time of it than Hector and Valdosta. Please enjoy the (hopefully) more regular updates from here on out.

Hard Drive Destroyed, Now We Get MS Paint Comics

2010-05-10T02:12:00.004-04:00

Well, it always happens to me sooner or later... I use a computer long enough, and the hard drive fries crispier than a funnel cake in a Southern county fair. Fortunately, I have long made it a habit regularly to back up everything I create. Unfortunately, my 2.4 GHz dual core, 3 GB RAM laptop - my entire art studio, if you will - is a useless brick until I get my new hard drive in the mail.

In the meantime, all I have is our underpowered netbook - armed with the fun, yet evil (in a vague Comic Sans kind of way), MS Paint program. But the show must go on, and I bring you this week's less-than-appetizing The Remonstrance, in all its jagged glory. This is the first time I've ever used MS Paint, and I have to say, its simplicity is deviously addictive.

Twitter Redux

2010-03-27T00:35:00.007-04:00

I posted on the subject of Twitter a few months ago, when I was testing the waters of this technology, both for my comic and for my personal life. By now, I've figured out pretty much what I like and don't like about tweeting.

First of all, it's just not a big deal. I think it's pretty funny to see Twitter hyped on the news as the next cutting edge communications medium that all the hip and tech-savvy kids are into. Really, Twitter is a super simple technology, seemingly used by mostly businesses and older people, that allows you to broadcast your short message through a site that is all too often down.

I don't find it useful for my personal life; Facebook gives me a similar broadcast outlet with the benefit of allowing friends to comment on my posts. Additionally, on Facebook I don't have to scroll through reams of out-of-context conversations such as:

sometwitteruser: I knew it! RT @othertwitteruser It's all my fault! The apocalypse is here. (47 minutes ago from web)

What?

Also I learned from day one that most of the people who followed me were basically shills for pornography sites, a common Twitter user experience I chronicled through Valdosta.

I do think it makes for a useful tool for promoting your product or service, since these types of posts aren't necessarily conversational and can be 140 characters or less without seeming artificially short. For this reason, while I've deactivated my personal account, I've retained @theremonstrance. So far I've mostly used it to announce new comic postings, but I do enjoy being able to follow other, more entertaining comic artists. I mostly see my Twitter feed through the iGoogle TwitterGadget; I rarely go to the actual Twitter site. When I had two Twitter accounts, I used the excellent and simple Matt web application to make posts.

In short, I would definitely recommend Twitter for anyone who wants to promote something (comic, band, dog walking business); but for personal stuff, I'd prefer almost anything else (e.g. Google Buzz) that allows for commenting, unlimited message size, and isn't always down.

Delay for this Week's Comic

2010-02-10T14:51:00.003-05:00

Hey gang, sorry for the lateness in comic posting this month. Julia and I just returned from our 5th wedding anniversary trip to Utah - we did some sweet snowboarding, Mormon watching, and cheered on the Saints from a cool Irish pub in Park City - but I haven't had a chance to finish the next comic. Hopefully I can get that out this week. In the meantime, why not visit a webcomic portal and discover something new?

Late Comic, No Excuses

2010-01-13T09:47:00.001-05:00

This week's comic is not yet done, and I don't have a good excuse except for the fact that I've been busy with something different every day. In the meantime, check out Nedroid Picture Diary , a cute and coolly stylized comic I have been digging lately (and maybe it's just me, but the I find the bird's big, dead-looking black eyes irresistibly unnerving).

Get Yer Tweets Here

2009-12-08T01:18:00.004-05:00

I haven't done anything nerdy to shake up the site lately, so I decided to add the latest tweets from my webcomic twitter feed to the front page. I used the very nice python-twitter library, which made accessing the Twitter API a breeze for me in my favorite scripting language.

I'm not a huge Twitter user, but I do post comic updates and short news bits, as well as any cool comic-related links I come across. If you want to see a pretty comprehensive list of other webcomic authors to follow - some of whom post spectacularly funny tweets - check out The Webcomic List's Authors on Twitter directory.

In a Literary Mood

2009-10-12T12:29:00.002-04:00

I realized that I subconsciously based the titles for my last couple of comics from literature; last week's from a David Eggers novel, and this week's from a story by the insufferably racist Lovecraft (whose collection of stories I'm still trying to slog through). Could I be any more pretentious?

Blame Rock and Roll

2009-10-05T13:31:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody - Sorry, but the new comic will be out a little late. I just joined a new band (3 girls and me, rrriot rock!), and spent the weekend rocking my face off, when I wasn't watching football (go Broncos!). Not that that is a good excuse, but I didn't have time to finish this week's comic. Please check back in a day or so, and I promise it will be out there!

Blame Iceland

2009-09-09T15:24:00.001-04:00

We just returned from our trip to Iceland - a gorgeous and magical country by the way - so I'm afraid this week's comic will be delayed. I'll post pictures soon.

What I'm Reading: The Call of Cthulhu and Other Dark Tales

2009-08-24T00:52:00.006-04:00

I was browsing the local Barnes and Noble recently, when a compellingly evil cover illustration caught my eye - it turned out to be for an anthology of H.P. Lovecraft's horror stories. I had read and heard many references to Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos, and I was vaguely aware of his historical importance to the horror genre, but I hadn't yet read any of his fiction. On a whim, I decided to buy it and educate myself. I was soon to find that the true horror of Lovecraft isn't necessarily his stories, but rather his appalling racism.

Now, I realize that racial perceptions were different in the early 20th century. I realize that we should be lenient about non-P.C. language in well-intentioned works by the likes of Twain, Faulkner, and Dickens. But Lovecraft's racism exists deep in the fabric of his horror; stories detailing the abhorrence of degenerative miscegenation; a passage blaming "negro blood" for the horrifying countenance of characters; and perhaps most amusing (in a kind of nauseating way), a main character's cat inexplicably named N*** Man. What what what?

If one can ignore his rampant racism, one can see how his writing had such an influence on horror. While his writing can seem antiquarian and overly turgid, Lovecraft does tap into some creepy, nightmarish themes, which were probably original at the time. Raising partially sentient bodies from the dead; secrets of a noble bloodline steeped in cannibalism; and of course the monstrous, mythological horror of Cthulhu and its stable of enormous and ancient creatures - these are ideas which I have to admire for their audacity and inevitable literary influence.

But can one separate an author's distasteful and immoral beliefs from his art? I can listen to Richard Wagner while mostly ignoring his antisemitism, but that is probably because his abhorrent beliefs aren't on display in the music or libretto. It is much harder to ignore racism that loudly proclaims itself on almost every written page in a work of fiction.

Alien Hands?

2009-08-03T00:43:00.001-04:00

The affliction in today's strip is apparently for real. How freaky is that? I found out about Alien Hand Syndrome from an Internet list of the 10 most disgusting diseases. Gross.

Mary Worth Weirdness

2009-07-25T14:23:00.008-04:00

I am always amazed at the amount of work people put into honoring / satirizing (the line can be very thin) their favorite serial comics, such as Apartment 3-G, Gil Thorpe, For Better or For Worse, and Mary Worth. This is great because these venerable comics have survived for decades, despite the fickle and unforgiving newspaper comics business, which has trended toward favoring gag-a-day strips (which I love too) to the detriment of serial dramas. These serial strips, which tend to be unintentionally hilarious and over-the-top outrageous, are definitely kept alive by their fans.

A case in point is a bizarre website installment I stumbled across while trying to search for a good Mary Worth RSS feed (still looking, by the way). I watched, in a state of unexplainable discomfort, these oddly hypnotizing movies: 3D Lego-styled characters acting out the geriatric, judgmental adventures of Charterstone's most meddlesome biddy. They speak in appropriately robotic tones and periodically pause to gesticulate and convulse with dead expressions on their smooth faces. What insane, dedicated fan spends the time to create this brilliant mess? I will certainly be following this site, which seems to contain a lot of other comic strip snarkiness and sublty funny strip modifications, in the future.

Congrats on 5 Years, Comics Curmudgeon

2009-07-12T19:34:00.006-04:00

The Comics Curmudgeon, a blog that cleverly snarks on, lampoons, and lambastes the funny pages, had its 5 year anniversary this weekend. I wanted to give it a shout out because I truly think it is a gem that never fails to brighten my day.

Most people can agree that today's newspaper funnies are generally pretty lame, but I nonetheless could never give up my Sunday morning routine of reading the big, colorful comics section while eating breakfast and drinking coffee. I always marveled at the audacity of cartoonists making a living off of such blatantly unfunny strips such as Family Circus and Marmaduke; the Comics Curmudgeon's Josh Fruhlinger reinforces my obsession with cartoon mediocrity, and employs observational snarks that are brilliant in their high-minded ludicrousness.

Where else on the Internet would you find someone making reference to an obscure 1930s German short story to describe a lame Family Circus "ants in the picnic" punchline, or bravely calling out irascible old Crankshaft for the bitter, lonely sex offender that he is? Just as entertaining are the numerous comments after each post from the CC's many dedicated readers. Bravo Josh, and congratulations.

My (Short So Far) Experience with Twitter

2009-07-11T15:17:00.005-04:00

As a computer professional I try to keep myself curious about new technology, even technology that I don't at first appreciate or understand. A perfect case in point is Twitter. I read about how microblogging was changing media paradigms and how everyone was integrating Twitter into their communications arsenal, from journalists to celebrities to special-interest websites.

To an extent, I understood the advantages of broadcasting short pieces of information; for example I think it's great fun to see what your friends are doing on Facebook. But I never quite got why there was so much hype, nor was I convinced that Twitter was much more than a fad. It seemed to be a lazy way to exacerbate our society's already epidemic attention deficit disorder, as well as an unnecessary tool for further increasing the noise-to-information ratio on the Internet.

But like a good curiousity seeker, I decided to bite the bullet and give Twitter a try. I signed up for an account a few weeks ago and have been tweeting pretty moderately since. Not on my phone - that would drive me crazy - but just in quiet moments in front of the computer. I found that Twitter is a great medium for broadcasting rhetorical questions and observations, as well as posting interesting links and special interest news, that you might never feel was appropriate for an entire blog post or for sharing with all your friends and family on Facebook. It's kind of a low-barrier outlet in which to throw your musings and stream of consciousness thoughts.

Most people who don't like Twitter, including myself just months ago, argue that they have no interest in reading inanities, such as what someone "had for breakfast" this morning. I think that may be a misconception - what I have found is that good Twitterers don't usually post mundane breakfast menus (although I am not proud that I once tweeted on flossing my teeth, which promptly led to my wife dropping me from her follow list). When you tweet, you tend to post your thoughts on things of interest to you - and presumably to your followers.

To that end I decided to start focusing more on The Remonstrance in my tweets, which you are welcome to follow, though I will continue to post whatever of my interests (music, computer programming, politics, sports) comes into my head. It may be that I will eventually lose interest and decide that Twitter is not for me. Or maybe something better will come along and leave Twitter in that same shadowy and moribund realm shared by MySpace and (shudder) Friendster. But for now I like that I found something positive about a technology that I used to think epitomized frivolous technological douchebaggery. Remember: cynism is fun, but an open mind will ultimately make you much happier and wiser.

UPDATE 8/16/2009: I have since created a separate feed for The Remonstrance, to allow for a tighter focus on things related to the comic. You can follow it at http://twitter.com/theremonstrance.

Vigorish: Touche Dilbert!

2009-06-24T23:30:00.004-04:00

I thought I was the only cartoonist who tried to educate his audience with GRE vocabulary lessons in my strips, but lo! Today's Dilbert impressed me with its rather improbable use of the word vigorish - a word I had to look up (something I haven't had to do since I stopped getting Zippy the Pinhead in my local paper). Bravo Scott Adams, bravo.

Groggy Brainstorming

2009-06-14T15:20:00.001-04:00

I keep a pad of paper and a pen on my nightstand so that when I get a creative idea while lying in bed, I can write it down before I forget it. This has sometimes been useful in brainstorming gags for my web comic, but lately... I don't know.

Not only is my handwriting almost indecipherable after years of exclusively using a keyboard for written communication, but I'm usually in some half-asleep dream state when I write stuff down. Here are my latest two entries: "Domingo (our cat) why do you meow all the time?" and "Funny pie restaurant." What on earth was I thinking?

Late Comic Excuse Du Jour

2009-04-14T10:46:00.001-04:00

Hey everybody - I'm sorry that the next comic is taking so long to publish. For this week's excuse I will throw our good friends Todd and Bethany under the bus :). They did us the great honor of visiting Julia and me here in Denver for the last few days, and we had a great time sampling microbrewed beers, watching endangered animals in captivity, and wandering through hoary government institutions. However, since I have the feeling that Todd is approximately 1/2 of my readership, I don't feel too bad...

Evil Video Game + Vieques!

2009-03-21T12:10:00.004-04:00

My friend Kristian pointed me to a Dueling Analogs webcomic, which satirizes an article stating that the Animal Crossing video game is only useful to adults as a vehicle for child predation. I was confounded for two reasons: 1. I used to play Animal Crossing all the time on my Gamecube, and it is truly a fun, open-ended persistent world that has absolutely nothing to do with perversion. 2. Kristian asked rhetorically, "Why does this strip remind me of your sense of humor?" I don't understand where he's coming from, because as I told him, I am simply an author of an educational, family-themed webcomic.

At any rate, Julia and I are on a relaxing vacation on the idyllic Puerto Rican island of Vieques. Other than the disturbingly banshee-like wails of cockfight roosters in the morning, we are thoroughly enjoying the postcard-perfect beach, the warm and unrelenting tropical sun, and the endless rum cocktails in the beach house we are sharing with our friends here. Since we won't be back in Colorado this weekend, I regret to announce that the comic this week will be at least a day late.

Gainesville Represent!

2009-03-11T00:21:00.006-04:00

Whoa - it looks like achewood, one of my favorite comics, has started a story arc based in Gainesville, FL (thanks Todd for the heads up!). This is pretty exciting stuff to me because before moving to Denver, Julia and I hailed from the home of the Gators. And really, no one does a comic about that podunk town (unless you count The Remonstrance, where Mike and Lola very subtly live in Gainesville). Just when you thought Chris Onstad couldn't get any cooler - Bam! He even mentions Archer road on 75 ;).

Living Social: Books

2009-03-08T15:22:00.002-04:00

I previously wrote about LibraryThing, an online community for book lovers, where you can create a virtual library and share reviews, etc. While I really liked the idea of the site, I never fully integrated it into my online routine - perhaps because it stops being free after you add your 200th book.

That has changed with my discovery of Living Social: Books. Maybe it's because this site is free with no detectable strings attached, or maybe it's because of Living Social's seemingly more robust online community and modern user interface. However, I think the main reason I've been using it - religiously - to host my virtual bookshelf is its plug-in integration with Facebook. I really think the sites that will catch on in this era will be the ones, like Living Social, that allow you to use them as seamless parts of the "indispensable" sites into which you are already logged - or at the very least, ones that allow for the convenience of single sign on, such as Blogger's integration with Gmail.

Cheetah Men?

2009-03-02T10:56:00.003-05:00

The Cheetah Men referenced in this comic are perhaps not as popular as Probo thinks. They are mutant cheetah characters - obviously ripped off from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - from what is widely considered the worst video game ever, Action 52 for the NES. This was a bizarre collection of 52 buggy, unplayable, and unfinished games. Interestingly, while the Cheetah Men and its completely unnecessary sequel, Cheetah Men II, are considered awful, awful games, they are noted for having pretty spectacular music.

Why I Haven't Bought a Kindle 2

2009-02-16T19:57:00.009-05:00

I read a very interesting article which lists and debunks the common reasons why people don't like e-books. I think the author is a bit cynical and judgmental (he thinks that the people who don't like e-books are basically wrong and that the industry will thrive once these dinosaurs die, along with their unfounded prejudices), but he gives an insider's perspective that I found quite thought-provoking.

I love to read - so much so that I write a comic with the pretentious aim of increasing your vocabulary. Furthermore I am somewhat of a geek, having been a computer programmer and UNIX administrator for most of my adult life. So, you might think I would be a prime candidate for the Kindle, the new Kindle 2, or for e-books in general.

Indeed I have a lot of interest in the Kindle, but it took me a while to figure out exactly why I can't muster the enthusiasm to purchase and use one for my daily reading. It isn't really for the main reasons cited in the above article. I don't mind reading from a screen, and I have no problem with the type resolution or contrast, nor with the metaphysical implications of mistaking the media with the medium (e-book reader vs. e-book). Also as someone who cares about the environment, I am automatically attracted to the tree saving nature of e-books. After some consideration, I realized I am mostly turned off by the high price tag.

First of all, the Kindle 2 costs $359. That's a lot of money, and at this point, you don't have a single sentence from a book to read. You need to buy the books themselves, which seem typically to cost from $7 - $12 (New York Times Best Sellers and most new releases are $9.99). That is about as much, or more, than you would pay for a paperback copy of the book.

Now as much as I am open to the potential of e-books, I cannot truthfully say that e-reading is in any way a better experience than reading paper books. In order to get my business, Amazon would have to make me feel I was getting a decent bargain in return for the various minor inconveniences of reading a book on an electronic device. Additionally I - and I suspect many others - mainly get my books used. I read the entire Harry Potter series and paid no more than $5 (shipping included) for any one book, ordering them from half.com, finding them in a used book store, or simply borrowing them from a friend. Why would I want to buy a $359 device and pay $10 per e-book, for a decidedly sub par reading experience?

Ultimately, I want to join the next, exciting phase in literature. I want to be able to choose from a vast virtual library on a razor thin electronic tablet. But for the same reason I wouldn't buy MP3s if they cost twice as much as buying the CD, I just can't justify paying an arm and a leg for the electronic version of the same books I've been buying second hand for a pittance.

SLI

2009-02-04T17:32:00.002-05:00

This week's comic was inspired by an interesting phenomenon I recently read about. Apparently there are people who believe they cause street lamps to go out. I have the feeling that this is purely the result of confirmation bias, for haven't we all been surprised by a street light blinking off over our heads at one time or another? Most of us wouldn't attribute ourselves as the cause, but who knows, perhaps there are people to whom this happens all the time. In the world of the Remonstrance, Princess SLIder definitely possesses this mystical power.

Mr. President

2009-01-20T18:17:00.005-05:00

Today we usher in a new president for the United States of America, and Julia and I couldn't be more proud, not only of Barack Obama, but of our fellow Americans for making the improbable a reality. There are those who say that President Obama's speech isn't as sweeping or grand as they would have liked, but I beg to differ:

"For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace."

His speech emphasized his consistent message of peace in strength and diversity, of unity over divisiveness, and hope over fear and cynicism. Perhaps most important of all he never talked down to us. He never shirked from giving us his challenging and eloquent vision of dignity in hard work, in stead of an easier message of lazy nationalism or coded classism. He is the man Julia and I thought we voted for; he is the man who has helped us rediscover our pride in our country; and he is the man we hope and trust will lead our country into a new era of intelligence, reason, science, and compassion.

Also, my next comic isn't ready yet - I hope to get it out in the next few days.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T23:21:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year everybody! Julia and I just returned from our Christmas and New Year's trip to Arizona, which was a rather random, but adventurous, way for us to spend the holidays.

We climbed the Grand Canyon, explored the eerily beautiful Mojave Desert, hiked along the beautiful trails in scenic Sedona, and witnessed some awesome animals in the Phoenix Zoo (you haven't lived until you've seen the multicolored splendor of a baboon's ass!). To top things off we spent New Year's eve in a festive block party on Tempe's Mill Avenue, meeting some cool new friends and seeing Styx (yes they are still alive, and their big 80s hair hasn't changed a bit) kick off 2009 in classic rock and roll fashion.

Julia has posted her photo album of our trip. I have posted my noticeably lower quality pictures too, grouped by days 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. While the entire trip was a fun and new experience, as a cartoonist, I have to admit that one of the highlights for me was the opportunity to see Needles, CA, home of Snoopy's brother Spike. Although the town itself is no great shakes (just 3 miles of motels and a few restaurants and convenience stores), the local Denny's did honor Spike with a little doghouse in their parking lot. So, Denny's just got a little bit cooler in my book.

We hope you had a fun and safe New Year's, and let's all have a 2009 full of adventure, creativity, literacy, goodwill, and a sensible work/life balance!

Computer meltdown!

2008-12-22T00:50:00.002-05:00

This has been an unfortunate week for me computer-wise. At work, my machine would not start at all. I ended up having to replace the power supply and a fried stick of RAM. Later in the week, my screen froze up completely, and after rebooting I found the filesystem was corrupted. I spent the rest of the afternoon fscking my drive, which thankfully did the trick.

But to complete the trifecta, this weekend while we were in the mountains on a snowboarding trip, my laptop (which I use for cartooning) booted up to a big blank screen. After some fruitless troubleshooting, I could only restore the factory settings, wiping out all my data and installed programs. The good news is that I have most everything backed up on an external drive. However, I will be a little late with this weeks comic - hopefully I can put it up early this week.

Vacation Time

2008-11-21T02:04:00.002-05:00

I apologize for the lack of updates for this and next week. Julia and I are visiting our good friends in Atlanta and then spending Thanksgiving with family in Florida.

I promise to continue with our regularly scheduled web comics family fun on December 1. Happy holidays all y'all!

Hooray for America!

2008-11-05T19:14:00.000-05:00

America made the right choice yesterday, and we made a definitive statement with a landslide victory for the good guys. I couldn't be more proud of our country and with the rising level of intelligence and awareness of today's voter. I wrote a post in our other blog detailing what Julia and I did on election night. It was a celebration and a night to remember.

I am not sure if Obama's presidency will make "Joe the Cartoonist" a priority in his first hundred days, but maybe once he solves our country's staggering deficit, two wars, recession, and housing crisis, he could turn some of his attention to America's struggling working cartoonists ;).

Slight Delay

2008-10-20T00:45:00.000-04:00

I just bought a new laptop which is a huge improvement over my old cartooning machine. Unfortunately I have slacked a bit in setting it up to do all the things I need to create this comic (damn you, fantasy football!). I expect to have a new comic up early this week.

Incidentally, if you live in Colorado and want a good reference on how to vote on the staggering number of constitutional amendments on this year's ballot, I posted a blog that links to a good (progressive) source of information. Don't forget to vote in this most important election!

Change, For Better or For Worse

2008-07-20T15:29:00.003-04:00

No, that's not a reference to Lynn Johnston's brilliant comic, but rather a mundane announcement regarding a software change to this site. All the comic pages used to be served dynamically, using Python CGI. Under the hood, this involved a fair amount of processing, including XML parsing of the ComicsML data for each cartoon. I have rewritten the site to generate static HTML pages for each comic - this only affects you, the reader, if you have previously linked to any of the archived comic pages. If you have linked to a comic image, not a page, this will not affect anything.

I am generally against the practice of changing URLs, but I was always bothered by the limited scalability of my dynamic pages - especially since even the index page was generated dynamically (and my web host's machine isn't exactly a powerhouse). So I decided to bite the bullet and take the plunge. For the one or two people this may inconvenience (it's likely that no more than that many people actually read this comic), I offer my sincere apologies.

Writing the Not-So-Great American Novel, Part 2

2008-07-04T15:11:00.000-04:00

Happy Fourth of July! It is a day to remember and appreciate the freedom we enjoy in this great country, such as the freedom I have to produce my humble educational comic strip.

My birthday has come and gone, and I have to report that I have not completed my goal of creating the first draft of a novel. I have however breached the 10,000 word mark, which is further than I've ever gone before, and I fully intend to continue this endeavor.

Lessons learned so far: I have found that it is really easy to lose motivation. This is probably the worst enemy of completing the 50,000 word challenge. After a few days of frenzied writing, my day-to-day life catches up to me: going out with friends; work projects; social obligations; Battlestar Galactica; etc. I found myself putting off writing one day, then two days, then three days at a time. After a while my head was no longer in my book, and that is when my inner editor pounced with a litany of doubts and fears: my plot is dumb; my characters are flat; I don't know enough about my subject matters... why bother continuing?

I found the best way to combat this creeping despair is just to force yourself to write at least a sentence each day, even if you don't feel like it. No matter how tired or uninspired you feel, you can write a sentence. This forces you to keep your head in the story. You end up thinking about the plot, settings, and characters at least a little bit each day, and you avoid feelings of futility by knowing you can quit after one sentence.

This calls to mind a great blog post I read about the power of daily routine. Think about it: if you wrote just one sentence per day since that moment when you first thought, "I could write a book," you probably could have written a book by now (probably not a good one, but hey).

Vacation Procrastination

2008-05-26T01:15:00.000-04:00

I probably won't be able to get a comic out on the usual Monday date this week. Julia and I decided to take a vacation to New Mexico for Memorial Day weekend, which precluded my comic productivity. Hopefully I'll have something ready by early this week.

New Mexico, by the way, is beautiful. The weather is sunny and dry, and all the buildings look like adobe huts and forts. We had some great micro brewed beer in Santa Fe, and we learned a bit about the dinosaurs that roamed the New Mexico flood plains. Go New Mexico!

Writing the Not-So-Great American Novel

2008-05-01T23:17:00.001-04:00

I will finally take the plunge. I intend to write a novel by my birthday, June 30.

This is something I've always wanted to do, but for various reasons, I could never get very far. The task is simply daunting, and when I read good literature, I despair at the chasm in ability between myself and say, a Faulkner or a Nabokov.

But then I started thinking about National Novel Writing Month, and its simple tenet that you just have to sit down and write, and who cares about quality - it's all about quantity! I decided that the only way that I will accomplish my goal is to adopt a deadline and keep writing each day until the job is done.

Armed with a copy of SuperNotecard (which I highly recommend for fiction writing) and NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty's motivational book, No Plot? No Problem!, I am setting out to create the mediocre American novel. Truly, I have found out two things about myself in the last couple days:
1. I am a very bad writer. I mean, bad.
2. The above doesn't matter, because I know I can do this thing. If I force myself to turn off my "inner editor" I can churn out the dreck, and it's actually pretty fun.

My friend Todd got excited about the idea too and decided he wanted to give this novel writing thing a try. In order to keep us motivated I made a mailing list for us to share advice and encouragement. If any of you want to join us in our quest, please contact me and I'll add you to the mailing list. Let's write!

Garfield, But Better

2008-03-02T17:47:00.000-05:00

My friend Isaac sent me a link to Garfield Minus Garfield, which I thought was so funny I just had to share. I admit I grew up on Garfield, and as a child, Jim Davis's Garfield at Large, that unique horizontal-shaped collection of early fat cat cartoons, was one of my favorite books. Garfield was indeed one of the inspirations that led me to try my hand at cartooning.

Unfortunately over the years, the quality and humor level of Garfield has fallen to the point that it makes Ziggy greeting cards seem cutting edge. Who would have thought that the perfect way to revitalize Garfield is simply to remove the title character completely from each strip? Genius!

What I'm Reading: American Born Chinese

2008-02-19T01:56:00.000-05:00

In one sitting I read the remarkable graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Yuen Wang, and I highly recommend it. The novel contains three stories that interweave and eventually come together in a surprising, satisfying resolution, showcasing in the process the author's unbounded creativity, humor, and sensitivity.

As an Asian-American I can relate to the theme that pervades each storyline; that growing up in a predominantly white culture can make it confusing, difficult, and sometimes embarrassing for a first generation kid to find his identity. The conflicted characters have demons to confront (figuratively and literally!), their cultural identities relentlessly dogging them and demanding to be faced.

As a cartoonist, I felt awed by the author's clean, expressive artwork. It is always refreshing for me to read comics of an Asian bent that do not follow a generic anime style. I also realize I have a lot more to learn as an artist, if I am ever to reach Wang's ability to so cleanly express emotions and actions.

Also, one of the stories centers on a monkey, and monkeys are extremely cool.

Comic Delay... But Don't Forget to Vote!

2008-01-30T22:07:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately this week's comic will be delayed due to an action-packed weekend (we went to Vail to celebrate a friend's birthday) and a busy work week so far.

However, I did want to remind everyone who doesn't live in one of the states that already held a presidential primary/caucus, to vote! We live in Colorado, and like over 20 other states, our caucus takes place February 5. If you also live in our great state, please take a moment to figure out how to caucus. It's a rather baroque process, and not as straightforward as a primary - as we found out, having just moved from Florida last year.

You can find out here the location of your caucus (yes, the link is through Barack Obama's site - we are unabashed supporters of Obama - but I would emphasize that I would rather you vote, even if it's for someone else, than not vote at all!).

Have a Happy (and Literate) New Year

2007-12-29T21:37:00.000-05:00

Happy Holidays everyone! As the new year rolls around, I wanted to throw out a link to author Doris Lessing's Nobel Prize speech. She contrasts the hunger for books - any books - felt in an impoverished African village, with the attitude in a privileged London school, where many students don't read at all and the library is half unused.

Looking around at the kids (and adults) in America today, I can see this sad lack of interest in literature, despite our country's seemingly unlimited resources. Are we so inundated with reality TV, YouTube, IMs, and text messages that we find it boring to stimulate our minds with some good old-fashioned reading?

Let's dedicate some extra time in 2008 to reading good books. It's amazing how much more a well-written novel will affect you than even the best movies and TV shows. I'm currently reading some great Hemingway and John Irving; what are you reading?

Comics + RSS = Super!

2007-12-18T23:27:00.000-05:00

Since the inception of my little family comic strip, I wanted it to be available for easy consumption via RSS. I've found that RSS makes it convenient to keep up to date on the latest blog and news articles, so why not for web comics?

Recently I stumbled across Tapestry, an online directory of hundreds of online comic feeds. Awesome idea! Ironically, I found this resource at a time that I am actively trying to cut out RSS feeds and other noise, in an effort to be more productive and centered; but I think I will make an exception for the important things in life: comics and literature.

Delay

2007-11-06T10:29:00.000-05:00

Sorry but due to illness and a busy schedule, this week's comic will be late. In the meantime, you should check out Achewood if you haven't already - perhaps the best comic ever (start from the beginning!).

New Educational Feature

2007-09-30T17:30:00.000-04:00

The comic is finally back on schedule! For the last few weeks, I had been slogging through several huge projects at work, while simultaneously looking for a new job. I finally got a great new job, and now I have the chance to catch my breath and sit back in the cartooning seat.

I just finished adding a new vocabulary word feature for each comic. As some of you have noticed, I try to put a "word of the day" in each strip. This may come off as a bit pretentious, but my intention has always been that this comic should have some educational value. Now when you click on a comic, you get sent to the dictionary.com definition of the featured word. Could this humble comic strip be a valid SAT or GRE study tool? Perhaps!

Thanks to my friend Kristian for the idea to integrate the featured word into each comic page. Also I am glad finally to explain why I use big words in each strip, so that maybe I don't seem like such a conceited douche bag.

Just Another Excuse

2007-09-04T00:37:00.000-04:00

I realize my all-too infrequent blog posts have lately been nothing more than excuses for why my comic is late. Well for what it's worth, this post is no exception! I have been hammered with an unprecedented workload at my job, and I won't have a chance to come up for air until at least next weekend.

This weekend, Julia and I did take Friday off with a vow to relax, enjoy each other's company, and not worry about work for a full four days. We saw a movie (Superbad - very funny), took part in our neighborhood's block party where we met our new fun-loving neighbors, went in-line skating in Washington Park, and got a great deal on some awesome snowboards at a block-wide Sports Authority sale downtown. Indeed I had planned to finally draw a comic after a two week hiatus, but our schedule of complete relaxation won out, and I accomplished nothing.

I will return to a regular cartooning schedule next week. In the meantime, please enjoy some messed up animals.

Comic Late Today

2007-07-09T00:47:00.000-04:00

Julia and I are closing on our new house tomorrow, so we've been pretty occupied with house-type activities. I will have to post this week's comic a little late. Sorry, and I hope everyone is having a great week!

Update: Sorry folks, the comic is taking longer than expected due to our move. We just got the Interweb working today, and it took us two days and higher math to move our sectional couch down the stairs. But our new place is amazing. You must come visit! Expect a new comic this week, within the next few days.

I Blame a Stupid Flash Game

2007-07-05T23:55:00.000-04:00

Man it's been a long time since I've posted, and I apologize. Sure I've been busy - my work is always a handful, we're in the middle of purchasing a new home in Denver, and we've been actively searching out new experiences and adventures in the rocky mountain state.

But the biggest fritterer of my free time has to be the simple and bizarrely addictive online flash game, Desktop Towers of Defense. Now, I'm not much of a gamer. The last game I can remember playing is the ancient Warcraft II, and in general I avoid games that require ridonculous video cards and have anything resembling a learning curve.

But this game, in which you simply place defensive towers on a map to prevent monsters from reaching the other side, has me playing for hours on end. And boy does Julia hate it - you should see her eyes flash when she catches this on my laptop. And yes, so will your spouse if you get hooked, so don't say I didn't warn you!

New Comic Tomorrow

2007-05-06T20:02:00.000-04:00

National Free Comic Book Day was yesterday - hopefully some of you got a free comic book. Unfortunately I totally forgot about this important day until today; yesterday I was busy drinking beer in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, serious stuff here in Denver.

Amazingly I am still sick, though I have been feeling better over the last couple of days. I haven't felt well enough to post a comic last week as I thought I'd be able to do, but I will post as normal tomorrow. Hurray!

Been Sick, Thus Another Delay

2007-04-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

I came down with some sort of evil flu and fever during the week, and it hasn't let go yet. That didn't stop Julia and me from trying frisbee golf for the first time today with a couple of our friends (the weather has been gorgeous here in Denver), but nontheless I feel pretty awful. Trying to sit down and cartoon just didn't work, so I must apologize and promise a new strip sometime early this week.

Julia's Concert Pics and Movies

2007-04-26T23:30:00.000-04:00

From Julia's post in the blog comments:

Linkys...
Brazilian Girls
photos: http://www.loveofapril.com/braziliangirls-april07/
movie clips:
http://www.loveofapril.com/MOV00077.MPG
http://www.loveofapril.com/MOV00114.MPG

Decemberists
photos:
http://www.loveofapril.com/decemberists-april07/
movie clip:
http://www.loveofapril.com/MOV00165.MPG

Enjoy!

Comic Late Today

2007-04-23T02:29:00.000-04:00

Today's comic will have to wait until after I get back from work this evening. We had an action-packed weekend, touring the local Denver bars, celebrating a friend's birthday, seeing an amazing show by Brazilian Girls on Saturday, and just returning from a Decemberists show tonight. Denver rules, but I need to catch my breath, whew.

Apologies

2007-03-05T08:03:00.000-05:00

For the handful of you who regularly visit my comic, I apologize that a new strip hasn't been posted in a couple weeks. I've been very busy with work and travels for the last few weeks, and now I'm hacking and sniffling through a cold (and got Julia sick in the process). I will definitely get the comic back on track next Monday!

Meanwhile, Julia and I have set up a new blog about our new lives in Denver. She has posted our first entry, and we plan to keep it updated regularly once our lives get less hectic. Thanks again to all of our friends, family, and readers.

We made it to Denver!

2007-01-30T00:23:00.001-05:00

Julia and I survived the cold, hazardous, four day trek from Gainesville, Florida to Denver, Colorado; me driving a 16' moving truck and dragging a car behind, and Julia shuttling a couple of (understandably) grumpy, mewling kitties in her car. You can view a camera-phone pictography of our journey in the photo album. There is a lot to say about our moving adventure, and we might have to start up a separate blog to chronicle our new lives in Denver.

But, for now I'll just say that Denver is everything we'd hoped for. There are tons of great places to eat, the public transportation system rocks (I can take the bus from my doorstep straight to the front of the building where I work), the downtown is lively and full of character, the microbreweries are ubiquitous and excellent, and the people are some of the friendliest you'll ever meet. As our cable guy said, "Denver is America's best kept secret". If only it weren't so damn cold all of the time... (and for those dear to us who we left behind, we miss you!)

Hector is a Cat

2007-01-11T19:12:00.000-05:00

Apparently there has been some misunderstanding in my office, where The Remonstrance is read with a mixture of disgust, confusion, and indifference on a weekly basis. One of my officemates assumed that Hector was a dog, and he was surprised to hear me describe him as a cat.

Looking back on my catalog of exquisite artwork, I cannot possibly see how anyone could mistake Hector to be anything but the extremely rare male variety of diluted tortie feline that he was designed to be. Sheesh.

GATORS WIN! GATORS WIN! 41- 14

2007-01-09T01:31:00.000-05:00

It was crazy as hell, man! Pandemonium 2007!

New Pictures

2007-01-04T19:42:00.000-05:00

I just posted new photos to the album of Julia's and my adventures for the last couple months. We travelled to New York City to attend a black tie event and to see Julia's grandfather's portrait hung in NYU medical school, and then flew to Houston - in a fit of spontaneity and temporary insanity - to see Jeremy Enigk and Cursive play. Then I flew to Denver for some job interviews (yes, I got a job, and yes, we're moving to Denver in a few weeks!). Not two weeks later, we both flew back to Colorado to go snowboarding at Copper Mountain... Whew. I don't need to see another plane for a long time.

What I'm Reading

2007-01-01T13:41:00.000-05:00

John Kennedy Toole, author of A Confederacy of Dunces, never saw his novel get published. According to the book's forward, his mother persistently pushed the manuscript on an unwilling English professor after her son's death. When he finally read it to appease her, he found it impossible to put down, and quickly agreed it needed to be published (it eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). I'm glad he did, because this book ranks among the funniest I've ever read.

All of the characters are drawn with such flair and audaciousness. The main character, the morbidly obese and pretentious Ignatius J. Reilly, has to be one of the most colorful antiheroes in literary history. He waddles around 1960s New Orleans spreading his peculiar brand of medieval nihilism, wreaking havoc and headaches for employers, his mom, her friends, and pretty much everyone with whom he comes into contact. I especially enjoyed the metropolitan setting, as Julia and I spent last New Years (exactly one year ago, at that) in New Orleans, and it was gratifying to read a narrative of the familiar street names and locales before they would forever be changed by the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina.

LibraryThing

2006-12-10T14:17:00.000-05:00

LibraryThing is a neat online service for cataloging your library (free for up to 200 books). It delves into social networking territory, allowing you to create a profile and connecting you to others who have similar libraries. It even offers book suggestions based on your catalog.

When Julia showed me this site, I kicked my heels with joy (figuratively speaking) - this is exactly the kind of thing the Inter-web is for! In a more civilized world, people would connect with like-minded peers using a site such as this, instead of trolling for jailbait on myspace at 3:00 AM.

ComicSpace

2006-12-08T00:13:00.000-05:00

If you're a comic artist or fan, check out ComicSpace - it's a brand new site, brought to you by the same fellow who brought us onlinecomics.net, and it's pretty cool. Yes, it's basically - well, exactly - myspace, but less meatmarket-y and more comic-y. Extreme!

What I'm Reading

2006-11-30T23:04:00.000-05:00

The Perks of Being a Wallflower didn't impress me at first, as it seemed just another coming of age book, in the vein of Catcher in the Rye, starring the type of protaganist who combines the qualities I find most annoying: cloyingly callow and good (much like John Irving's Owen Meany), hopelessly in love with a girl who, it would seem, won't return his affections, and maddeningly passive.

But this novel has a way of sucking you in, and I found myself enjoying Charlie's tumultuous journey through a year in high school, narrated in a series of letters Charlie writes to an anonymous recipient he barely knows. Author Stephen Chbosky has a warm, unaffected style, and almost anyone can identify with the sensitive Charlie and the archetypical cliques of teenagers with whom he interacts; in particular his friends, who would fit into the "freak", "goth", "alternative", or "artsy" category recognizable in any high school. And most of the annoyances I found in Charlie's character are vindicated in the epilogue's surprising revelation; this I think made the novel especially memorable.

I feel this book probably would have resonated with me more had I read it at a younger age. Nonetheless, I would recommend it unhesitatingly to anyone as a sweetly inspiring look at human nature and adolescence.

Root for the home team!

2006-10-20T17:44:00.000-04:00

I read an interesting piece which examines the idea of "the home team" - something that I've often wondered about. When watching professional sports, isn't it ridiculous to associate oneself with a team, just because the franchise is geographically close to your home? To take the analysis further, isn't the idea of a local team even more meaningless when you can be sure that virtually none of the players actually originated from the city that the team represents?

This may be especially true in baseball, where it seems as if the great American pastime has become dominated by expatriates from the Dominican Republic and Japan. But hey, I fully embrace and welcome this irony - it is the red-blooded American tradition to invent something, and then let others do much better at that thing.

Sports is funny - nothing about it makes sense when analyzed. Why should we cheer on the accomplishments of other people, especially when the "accomplishment" is throwing a ball through a net, or carrying a ball past an arbitrary line, and the people we cheer are often little more than steroid-riddled neanderthals? But we do, or at least I do; and sometimes the bad performance of your favorite team can ruin your day a little - another concept which is really ridiculous when you think about it.

What I'm Reading

2006-10-06T13:14:00.000-04:00

Philosophy for Beginners is a book I may have poo-pooed in the past, having little interest in either philosophy or "Dummies" type books. However I recently resolved to learn new things every once in a while (especially things in which I wouldn't normally have interest), and it would certainly be snobbish of me, as a webcomic guy, to look down on a beginner's book made from cartoons.

I find the book to be quite fascinating, and actually inspiring. I enjoy learning about people who broke the mold of conventional thought and defied oppressive authorities, even if their philosophy seems silly to me. Did you know that the term "dunce" came from the followers of Duns Scotus (1270-1308), who were called "dunses", because they opposed classical studies? Neither did I!

In the chapter I'm reading on medieval Scholasticism, I found particularly interesting all the information on great thinkers like Roger Bacon and William of Occam, who show up as constant references in one of my favorite novels, The Name of the Rose.

Other tantalizing subjects in the "Beginners Documentary Comic Book" series: UNICEF, babies, sex, the Black Panthers, and yes, the history of clowns (!).

Aldo Kelrast, may ye rest in peace

2006-09-25T13:02:00.000-04:00

My god, they killed Aldo, creepy captain Kangaroo lookalike and octogenarian stalker; the man who single-handedly transformed Mary Worth from a frumpy senior-citizen soap opera, into a riveting national addiction! Oh Aldo, you will be missed.

Guest comic

2006-09-20T09:14:00.000-04:00

On this fine September morning, I am honored to have my guest comic posted on the most excellent Toasted Pixel comic site.

Atlanta pictures

2006-09-18T22:46:00.000-04:00

As promised, I've posted the pictures I took during my brief romp at Dragon*Con in Atlanta. These include the very friendly and knowledgeable Klingon who taught me how to say "thank you" in the his native, made-up tongue (it's always nice to meet a polite Klingon!), Electro hamming it up with his reality-defying electric sparks, scantily clad Princess Leia walking down some stairs, the icy Ice Queen, and even what appear to be porn stars. And yeah, I'm a terrible photographer, and every picture is an unsatisfying blur.

Witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational comic site

2006-09-07T22:30:00.000-04:00

I finally finished writing the various Python and bash scripts that act as the gum and duct tape for this site, so now I plan to settle into a regular weekly update schedule. Look for a new comic every Monday morning, starting next week.

This week has been very busy, fun, and rife with addiction, due in part to the following:

The second season of Lost just came out on DVD, so Julia and I have been doing some marathon video renting and TV watching. This series is so addictive it boggles the mind.

We recently joined our first fantasy football league, which I found to be more enjoyable than anything involving statistics and AOL has a right to be.

The Cubs season is drawing to a close, and they are going out in style, doing what they do best: losing, losing, and losing some more. Yet I love 'em and can't stop following these guys. I figure all this abuse just makes me stronger. As George Will wrote, "Chicago Cubs fans are ninety percent scar tissue."

Julia and I spent a great weekend in Georgia, visiting friends in Atlanta, and then running a 5K in Athens. I'll have to post the pictures I took when Kristian, Ed, and I walked around at Dragoncon in Atlanta. How often do you get to hang out with Orcs, superheroes, and Klingons all in the same day?

What I'm Reading

2006-08-28T02:33:00.000-04:00

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood. This is one of those classic books that I've meant to read for decades, but only recently got around to it. I didn't really know what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised. The story is chillingly unnerving, the writing poetic and efficient.

The novel's cautionary political and feminist message is no less relevant today than when it was written. But I like that Atwood conveys her message through the strength of the story and her relatable protagonist, as opposed to dogmatic exposition and characters that serve soley as mouthpieces.

New Comic Strip

2006-08-26T16:17:00.000-04:00

Guess what? I created a new webcomic, The Remonstrance. However, before promoting it to the world at large, I would like to create a buffer of several more strips, as well as finish coding the Python scripts that make the site tick. Hopefully this will happen within a couple weeks.

Who would enjoy this comic, you might ask? Well, do you like kitty cats? How about cats addicted to psychotropic drugs? Then this one's for you!