In case some of you are getting too much work done, there is a web comic I’ve mentioned in the forums before, that I’m going to remind you of again now. The xkcd comic strip is probably most accurately described as tech culture humor. At a time in history when so much of the population uses the internet so extensively, tech humor probably has a pretty broad audience though. The site could be more cohesively designed, but the strips are some of the most insightful and hilarious on the web. The “Someone is wrong on the internet” panel is pretty much my favorite thing I have ever seen in a comic strip and I think of it often. Normally, I’d talk a bit about genius strip creator Randall Munroe and how his strips started life as an archive of scans from his math notes and who he is and all, but his bio is just so awesome that I feel like paraphrasing its info would be leaving something out:

I’m just this guy, you know? I’m a CNU graduate with a degree in physics. Before starting xkcd, I worked on robots at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia. As of June 2007 I live in Massachusetts. In my spare time I climb things, open strange doors, and go to goth clubs dressed as a frat guy so I can stand around and look terribly uncomfortable. At frat parties I do the same thing, but the other way around.

That is sufficiently awesome that the only thing I have to add at the moment is that I’m buying myself a “Stand back, I’m going to try science” T-shirt if I finish everything in my inbox tonight.

Although generally less unsavory than the sorts of webcomics I tend to like best, Weregeek is a genially humorous comic by the very talented Alina Pete. It is the sort of thing you will appreciate best if you think Cylon when someone says Scilons.

The comic gets its name from its normal guy Mark. Mark is working on coming to terms with his taste for geeky fun. Hence Weregeek.

In today’s comic strip, Mark, who is in the process of coming over to the geek darkside, is chatting with more classic geek and DM Dustin. A gothic girl has been aggressively hitting on Dustin in their coffeehouse hangout, but he is clueless. Mark gives him some clue, but is a wee bit concerned when Dustin says the goth girl wanted to run a character who is a Gungan Sith Lord.

Footnote: Jar Jar Binks was a surprisingly poorly-animated cg and possibly racially-offensive character in one of the Star Wars movies which don’t count. Everyone knows Star Wars is for action figures, and Jar Jar Binks was a lame bid for a non-ironic plush toy. Jar Jar Binks was a member of the amphibious “Gungan” species from the Naboo planet. Sith Lords, of course, are the sexy Jedi types like Darth Vader. It is no surprise when a goth chick likes a powerful bad boy who has gone over to the dark side. There has been an extensive, largely tongue-in-cheek movement in online fandom to demand a Gungan Sith Lord from George Lucas. I think the feeling is that, if he feels compelled to eff up one of the greatest science fiction movie franchises of all time, he might as well really go for the gusto. Running a Gungan Sith Lord character in an RPG game would be pretty annoying, especially if the gothic girl talked in the horrible Jar Jar Binks Gunganese dialect e.g. “Meesa so hornyem. Meesa loven yousa longisha timen.”

Personally, I believe the original Star Wars was primarily directed by his ex-wife Marcia Lucas and George Lucas just got credit for it, the same way everyone now knows that best-selling fan favorite author Alan Dean Foster wrote the original Star Wars although George Lucas accepted awards for both directing and writing. I believe the more recent Star Wars movies appear to present a different vision because they are genuinely put together by entirely different people.

If you can tell me how to improve my Gungan dialect, or you just got heated up over what I wrote about credit for Star Wars, or if you actually have any sort of developed opinion on any of these Star Wars issues, you’ll probably enjoy Weregeek.

Alex Groh is an unofficial sort of cookie monster. He claims to subsist on cookies, jilting his loving refrigerator in the process, and only getting out of bed to draw and get milk for his cookies. This may be exaggerated for comedic effect, but that’s really not a bad quality in a cartoonist. Alex Groh draws a webcomic called Last Words and cookies and the blood of small children are his inspiration.

The comic strip stars the severely psychotic Loc with his trusty kitchen knife. No whining if you get cut. And remember to keep a magnet under your pillow, so your computer can’t come assault you while you are sleeping.

Alex Groh says just because I’m looking at porn doesn’t mean I’m not working and Emo Panda wants you to join him in therapy. Until Emo Panda whisks you away to wherever they hold therapy sessions for comic strips, what did you do for the 4th of July?

Carny: We have a WINNER! Choose your prize.

Little Girl: I want the blue Elmo!

Carny: Here ya go! One blue Elmo for the young lady!

Jeff Schuetze: Blue Elmo? Did you hear that? Cookie Monster is not a blue Elmo!!!

Sean: We are totally old.

Jeff Schuetze: And he eats COOKIES!!!

Actor/comic strip guy Jeff Schuetze (pronounced “shoot-zee like a gun”) writes a web comic called JEFBOT. His strips are mostly about pop culture and his trials and tribulations as a SAG actor. Although he generally brings readers a new comic twice a week, he does something unusual but clever in the world of comics and lists his acting resume on there. I always wanted to see what Dogbert’s Scott Adams’ resume looked like alongside the Dilbert comics, moreso when he still had a day job. At any rate, Jeff Schuetze’s acting curriculum vitae includes a special skills and abilities list. Having looked over mountains of headshot submissions myself, I can confirm that it is fairly common for someone to list unusual talents on the back of a photo or on an attached piece of paper, the sorts of oddities which might make them a better candidate for a booking. Jeff Schuetze’s list includes biking, bowling, hydroslide, ju-jitsu (brown belt), ostrich jockey, programmer, soccer, surfing, tennis, ultimate frisbee, and videogames. While including the list is common, I’d have to say that is a unique and interesting list. I googled hydroslide and I can’t figure out how it differs from regular water-skiing. I’m dying to know what exactly that is and how the artist became an ostrich jockey and what that entails.

JEFBOT is fun in general, but it probably comes as no surprise that I especially loved the cookie monster webcomic. It is actually currently my desktop on one of my laptops. All the recent legal coverage we’ve been doing, followed by getting the court documents from Verne Troyer’s manager had me thinking about my old crush Cookie Monster. So it was very nice to see someone else who remembers Cookie Monster from his glory days as a cookie-gobbling star, before he was forced to sell out and hawk health food.

In case you all were wondering, yes, I did hear from the Children’s Workshop in-house legal department when I wrote Cookie Monster was the first bad boy I ever loved. Given that I was one of many people who covered Mr. Monster’s surprising conversion to “Cookies Are a Sometimes Food”, I was surprised to get lawyer mail on that one. Then again, I did serious journalistic research for that article and I unearthed and exposed the business partnership that Sesame Street was involved in with Earth’s Best health foods. More and more, I realize that I get the most brutal pushback whenever I actually do serious well-researched hard journalism. And people wonder why it is getting more difficult to find proper even-handed journalistic coverage of anything anywhere.

Anyhoo, JEFBOT is a humorous entertaining read and I recommend webcomics fans check it out.

And now a word from one of our sponsors:

Thanks to Ginger Dead for their support and for the laugh and the truly appalling Thanksgiving cartoon. Happy Turkey Day everyone!