Monthly Archives: December 2007

Enthusiasm is an Understatement

(From Operation Chutzpah. Click on image to see full-sized insanity.)

Back late in 2000 I started down the addictive world of webcomics with the comics Clan of the Cats and College Roomies from Hell. Of the two, CRfH had a very active and imaginative forum community, one that I joined with great enthusiasm. Indeed, I soon was writing fanfiction for CRfH and joining in various creative endeavors on the Board. One such endeavor was the creation of “Participation Fan Fiction” (PFF), in which various forumites would agree to let writers use their online avatars as characters in meta-stories tangentially related to the CRfH universe. These PFFs went on to shape the evolution of the CRfH forum, even as a reduced update schedule and a huge surge in webcomic communities reduced the size of the CRfH community. (Indeed, the Kitten mascots here at Tangents originated as a result of roleplay and PFFs on the CRfH forums.)

This meta-structure can still be found in the CRfH forum, with various forum members taking on personas on the CRfH forum and later branching out into other forums (such as the forum for El Goonish Shive). This manifested during the recent Crossover Wars in the Forum Wars segment, with various artists drawing the war between forum personas and the Evil Overlords who sought to take over comics these readers enjoyed. However, there actually is a precursor to Forum Wars, lurking unseen in the depths of the internet: Operation Chutzpah.

Working off of the original PFF by the Keenspot forumite Loweko, Operation Chutzpah integrates the mythos of the Boardies and FLEET into a cohesive whole, creating an ongoing history that exists outside of the PFFs and integrated into the cosm of Maritza Campos’s webcomic College Roomies from Hell. Included is a 25-page comic drawn by Maritza Campos (on commission) dealing with an infernal incursion and comically introducing a host of Boardie personas. But OC is much more than just a quick webcomic cameoing multiple forumites, and a fictional historic overview of the Boardies.Various CRfH factions are given descriptions and symbols. Fictional bases, vehicles and equipment, and descriptions of various Boardie and FLEET personas are also available, and how they integrate into the CRfH universe (at least, from the Boardie perspective – OC admits outright that while Maritza Campos pitched in on some ideas and assisted in editing some content, it is not CRfH canon. Though a picture of the Funky Horror space station did appear in the comic, much to the delight of various CRfH forum users.

The OC comic does give a good impression of just how over-the-top the CRfH forum can get at times. Such things as Musical Bonbardment Protocols (hey, if Captain Harlock can have a huge organ on the Arcadia, why can’t the Boardies have one on their starbase? Though I’m unsure as to their taste of bombardment music…) and Chicken Rays were common light-hearted aspects of the roleplaying aspects of the CRfH forum. And you have to admit, blasting a demon-prince into a chicken-form is twenty levels of amusing.

I’d say more, but the Kittens have alerted me that the Funky Horror is acquiring a target lock on my location – something about unauthorized transmission of classified information. Let’s see how they are with a mobile target… though their misses will liven up the New Year’s fireworks, no doubt.

Robert A. Howard

Operation Chutzpah (A CRfH Fansite)

Back late in 2000 I started down the addictive world of webcomics with the comics Clan of the Cats and College Roomies from Hell. Of the two, CRfH had a very active and imaginative forum community, one that I joined with great enthusiasm. Indeed, I soon was writing fanfiction for CRfH and joining in various creative endeavors on the Board. One such endeavor was the creation of “Participation Fan Fiction” (PFF), in which various forumites would agree to let writers use their online avatars as characters in meta-stories tangentially related to the CRfH universe. These PFFs went on to shape the evolution of the CRfH forum, even as a reduced update schedule and a huge surge in webcomic communities reduced the size of the CRfH community. (Indeed, the Kitten mascots here at Tangents originated as a result of roleplay and PFFs on the CRfH forums.)

This meta-structure can still be found in the CRfH forum, with various forum members taking on personas on the CRfH forum and later branching out into other forums (such as the forum for El Goonish Shive). This manifested during the recent Crossover Wars in the Forum Wars segment, with various artists drawing the war between forum personas and the Evil Overlords who sought to take over comics these readers enjoyed. However, there actually is a precursor to Forum Wars, lurking unseen in the depths of the internet: Operation Chutzpah.

Working off of the original PFF by the Keenspot forumite Loweko, Operation Chutzpah integrates the mythos of the Boardies and FLEET into a cohesive whole, creating an ongoing history that exists outside of the PFFs and integrated into the cosm of Maritza Campos’s webcomic College Roomies from Hell. Included is a 25-page comic drawn by Maritza Campos (on commission) dealing with an infernal incursion and comically introducing a host of Boardie personas. But OC is much more than just a quick webcomic cameoing multiple forumites, and a fictional historic overview of the Boardies.Various CRfH factions are given descriptions and symbols. Fictional bases, vehicles and equipment, and descriptions of various Boardie and FLEET personas are also available, and how they integrate into the CRfH universe (at least, from the Boardie perspective – OC admits outright that while Maritza Campos pitched in on some ideas and assisted in editing some content, it is not CRfH canon. Though a picture of the Funky Horror space station did appear in the comic, much to the delight of various CRfH forum users.

The OC comic does give a good impression of just how over-the-top the CRfH forum can get at times. Such things as Musical Bonbardment Protocols (hey, if Captain Harlock can have a huge organ on the Arcadia, why can’t the Boardies have one on their starbase? Though I’m unsure as to their taste of bombardment music…) and Chicken Rays were common light-hearted aspects of the roleplaying aspects of the CRfH forum. And you have to admit, blasting a demon-prince into a chicken-form is twenty levels of amusing.

I’d say more, but the Kittens have alerted me that the Funky Horror is acquiring a target lock on my location – something about unauthorized transmission of classified information. Let’s see how they are with a mobile target… though their misses will liven up the New Year’s fireworks, no doubt.

Brat-halla

I’ve long held an attraction to Norse mythology. Part of this lies with the fact that I’m one quarter Norwegian (though considering how widespread Norse incursions were, even my English blood very likely has nordic genetics added to the brew). Mostly it has to do with the fact that Norse Gods aren’t hedonistic fools who exaggerate the worse qualities of humanity, but instead are tragic figures who struggle to keep the end of the world from coming about (ie, Ragnarok). This does tend to make the Nordic myths a bit depressing, but in the same vein they’re a bit more heroic in stature as well.

Brat-halla does a remarkable job of humanizing the Norse Gods by taking a fun (and often silly) glance at the Norse Gods as children… and of Odin and Frigg as the parents of their wayward brood. Considering that Frigg had five children from Odin (not including Thor or other children he had during extramarital affairs), and you’ve a sizeable family. Add in a youthful Loki (seems our favorite trickster spirit ate an apple pie that de-aged him to infant) and you’ve a houseful of young headstrong deities that are an absolute delight to watch in action.

The comic’s a mixture of one-shot strips and short story-arcs, though the stories are loosely connected. Perhaps the longest story-arc can be found with the rather humorous story of Odin’s left eye (the one Odin tossed into the Well of Knowledge to find out how to keep his infant son quiet), who takes considerable offense at being tossed aside and starts various Machiavellian plots to gain his vengeance against an ever-increasing list of people who annoy the eyeball. That aside, it’s the stories of familial hijinks that truly endeared Brat-halla to me, with a mixture of modern society and ancient myths to truly give these young gods a human touch, and make this a comic well worth reading from the beginning.

Something Positive

R. K. Milholland has long been a master of screwing with his audience’s expectations and desires. Part of this lies with the very nature of Something Positive, which takes an absolute delight in cruelty to its cast (and thus indirectly to fans who love those characters). Nor is Milholland discriminate in his torments; even his primary protagonist, Davan, often feels the crack of the whip as Milholland finds more misery to pile on his cast. Of course, this shouldn’t be news to any long-time reader of the strip, seeing that Milholland has made the torture of his characters a work of art. Still, I look at the latest strip and feel a sense of déjà vu when I saw PeeJee snuggling up to Davan in bed.

Part of this lies in the very nature of Davan’s existence as the comic’s rotary blade for incoming fecal matter. If there’s any one law of S*P, it is this: nothing good can happen to Davan for long. A combination of his own snarky behavior and Milholland’s joy in creating suffering pretty much ensure that Davan’s happiness will be fleeting, at best. But mostly it’s because I see footsteps in the snow, and it is our own: last year we witnessed this before, only with PeeJee in the hospital, feeling miserable with chicken pox… and for Davan to change plans to be with her.

The deluded among Milholland’s fans (which included me) thought this could lead to a paradigm shift for the strip, with Davan and PeeJee finding a measure of happiness in each other’s arms. Milholland quickly beat any such romanticism about of his fans by having not only Davan sleeping around, but for PeeJee herself to date other people as well. Nor was it a matter of jealousy or revenge. Instead, looking at this latest strip with jaded eyes (and truly, can you read S*P any other way?) you see that yes, Davan and PeeJee do love each other… but as friends. But as lovers? Nice try, Milholland, but as they say, fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

Commentary

Rayne Shikama, of Abstract Gender, came home the day after Christmas to discover he’d been robbed. Not only did the burglers steal electronics and DVDs and the like, they also stole the contents of his refrigerator – close to $100 worth of groceries. More details can be found in this forum thread.

While he’s not asked for any money or anything, it might be a nice gesture to donate some money to him. I’m unsure if he has insurance or not… but even if he does, I doubt everything would be reimbursed (seeing that insurance companies go out of their way to screw their customers when possible – after all, if they pay for lost goods, then they’ve not made a profit off of you. A donation button can be found on his website on the left-hand column.

On a side note, Rayne did mention that this incident did teach him of the need to become better friends with neighbors, and let them know he was going to be gone. If they’d known, they might have helped keep an eye on his apartment, and perhaps notice something wrong and call the cops. We as a society are growing increasingly insular and separate from our neighbors. But this only opens us up to incidents like this. After all, if you don’t keep an eye out for your neighbors, who’ll watch your own back when you’re away?

Abstract Gender – Rayne Shikama

Rayne Shikama, of Abstract Gender, came home the day after Christmas to discover he’d been robbed. Not only did the burglers steal electronics and DVDs and the like, they also stole the contents of his refrigerator – close to $100 worth of groceries. More details can be found in this forum thread.

While he’s not asked for any money or anything, it might be a nice gesture to donate some money to him. I’m unsure if he has insurance or not… but even if he does, I doubt everything would be reimbursed (seeing that insurance companies go out of their way to screw their customers when possible – after all, if they pay for lost goods, then they’ve not made a profit off of you. A donation button can be found on his website on the left-hand column.

On a side note, Rayne did mention that this incident did teach him of the need to become better friends with neighbors, and let them know he was going to be gone. If they’d known, they might have helped keep an eye on his apartment, and perhaps notice something wrong and call the cops. We as a society are growing increasingly insular and separate from our neighbors. But this only opens us up to incidents like this. After all, if you don’t keep an eye out for your neighbors, who’ll watch your own back when you’re away?

Clan of the Cats

One tradition that Clan of the Cats has upheld since it first started is the holiday strip. While CotC is not alone in this regard, Jamie Robertson tends to go more toward mini-stories rather than the one-panel screenshots most cartoonists put up to celebrate the season (though Jamie has done that as well, as the last two updates demonstrate). There are seven strips and two artistic pieces up, including two strips from Jamie’s weekly subscription comic, Sebo. Still, my favorite holiday CotC strip has to be Jamie’s first Christmas Strip with Chelsea wishing everyone a holiday greeting of their choice, and for atheists a nice day. It only goes to show that the oldies are among the best, even with improvements in art and style.