Toonbots message board: Sep. 24

Eric Schissel Tue Sep 25 23:13:00 2001 Re: Sep. 24 > Well... Rather unexpected, yes. By now, scores of political cartoonists > (and more recently syndicated newspaper "funny" cartoonists as > well) have already been dealing with the recent events, but nothing > *quite* like this. I have to admit, the "NEXT: OSAMA BIN LADEN" > panel really amused me. Makes sense that Lenin prefers topical humour, > really. Hrm... I recall reading about Stalin's tastes in music (which, judging from how many composers I liked that were in that famous (Zhdanov??) denunciation in the 1950s, and from the fact that he was listening to Mozart (agreed, a favorite composer of mine) when he died - they say...), but not about Lenin's tastes in humor... oh... My thought on auditing "NEXT: OSAMA BIN LADEN" might be perhaps : "I welcome this show of ambitious reach from an author who just recently was doubting his ability to adequately represent the physiognomy of the Wolverine." > Except I'm debating whether adding "Toonbots! Now with 22% more > international terrorists!" as a new tagline to my Keen forum > signature would result in positive results just now. (*chuckle* Somehow, that just... scans amusingly. ) And in this reader's opinion, one can but try and see, though I also doubt the wisdom of such a course (especially after browsing the temperature of several aforesaid fora and getting hand burnt. *g* )

Brother Emsworth Wed Sep 26 06:54:44 2001 Ahem. Sep. *25* Sigh. My dates have been off lately. > Hrm... I recall reading about Stalin's tastes in music (which, judging > from how many composers I liked that were in that famous (Zhdanov??) > denunciation in the 1950s, and from the fact that he was listening to > Mozart (agreed, a favorite composer of mine) when he died - they say...), > but not about Lenin's tastes in humor... oh... I vaguely recall that Lenin also admitted to enjoying classical music (though as I recall, also said that such music made him feel like "patting people on the head" when his own purposes required that they "hit heads." But that's as far as I can recall right now. Believe he did mention Mozart, and probably Beethoven, not sure though.) > My thought on auditing "NEXT: OSAMA BIN LADEN" might be perhaps > : > "I welcome this show of ambitious reach from an author who just > recently was doubting his ability to adequately represent the physiognomy > of the Wolverine." Haaaa! Good one! > (*chuckle* Somehow, that just... scans amusingly. ) > And in this reader's opinion, one can but try and see, though I also doubt > the wisdom of such a course (especially after browsing the temperature of > several aforesaid fora and getting hand burnt. *g* ) Probably rather true (though things seem to be gradually calming down, I hope.) Apart from the wolverine campaign, haven't been able to post as often on those boards just now anyways.

mouse Wed Sep 26 15:04:13 2001 Re: Ahem. Sep. *25* > Apart from the wolverine campaign, haven't been able to post as > often on those boards just now anyways. *double sigh* - i _never_ know what's going on. here i was, trying to figure out how you could be simultaneously depressed at 'the apparent end of the wolverine campaign' (probably not an exact quote) and confident that the wolverines _will_ appear in toonbots -- and it turns out the wolverine campaign was happening in a whole other universe. where does one look for reports from the front?

Eric Schissel Wed Sep 26 16:17:38 2001 Re: Ahem. Sep. *25* > *double sigh* - i _never_ know what's going on. here i was, trying to > figure out how you could be simultaneously depressed at 'the apparent end > of the wolverine campaign' (probably not an exact quote) and confident > that the wolverines _will_ appear in toonbots -- and it turns out the > wolverine campaign was happening in a whole other universe. where does one > look for reports from the front? I believe the wolverine campaign, such as it was, took place on the Keenspot boards (and perhaps on some Keenspace boards as well.) I certainly saw some activity on the The Class Menagerie forum. Go to http://www.keenspot.com and hit "Message Boards" for a list of fora (there are also links from most of the individual comics, though some don't have boards that are part of the Keenspot UBB system- either mailing list, board administered separately, or ...) Interesting coincidence, by the way (see http://www.keenspot.com/KeenBoard/Forum29/HTML/003243.html ) - definitely wolverine-related, written September 24, but not, I believe, by anyone who posts here (well, ok- "Eddie" -could- be one of the J. members, but I doubt it.) (Discovered via search; I don't follow that board (Sinfest,) fwiw.) Hope that helps.

Jenn Thu Sep 27 07:58:28 2001 Forums and intimidation You know, I only posted once yesterday. Honorable Wannabe Generic Jihad Member like Emsworth - wan, pale shadow. Well, I gave it a shot. I know that sucked. Feel free to post how badly. But that's not the point! (get to the point, Jenn.) The point of this post is to comment on how I've been over to the Keenspot forum and it was scary and big and I didn't understand how I was supposed to do stuff. So I said, 'Blah. Michael's forum is easy and non scary, and takes a lot of my time as it is.' Which is why I haven't posted there. Well, that and Michael utterly ignoring me on the email list. *Sob* Okay, if I stopped putting fake email addy's up or was on the notification email list, perhaps he might not have been so...so...Orange. But you know, that's beside the point.

Michael Thu Sep 27 19:43:59 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > Which is why I haven't posted there. Well, that and Michael utterly > ignoring me on the email list. *Sob* No, I didn't. I thought that was your real email address. > But you know, that's beside the point. Thpppft.

Jenn Fri Sep 28 09:56:16 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > I thought that was your real email address. Oh, I /used/ to use my real email address. Until my husband (who also refuses to give his social security number out and who manages to look like a crazed serial killer while asking 'What do you want it for?' every time someone asks for it) had one of his patented hissy fits about how something goes through the net and sucks email addresses off of innocent little forums and uses them for various nefarious purposes, the least heinous of which is spamming the crap out of us. And I decided that it wasn't worth listening to him rant once a week. But you all can know, it's eidegoo, at plasticspork.com. Course that doesn't solve the problem of my inherent fear of Keenspot's forums.

mouse Fri Sep 28 14:01:25 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > Course that > doesn't solve the problem of my inherent fear of Keenspot's forums. fear is nature's way of highlighting common sense. i was overcome by the urge to post to 'schlock mercenary's forum and i did manage it, but they sure don't make it easy (and i tend to get a little homicidal with all the smilies, after awhile) (although one _can_ do things like fonts over there *sigh*) my advice is, stay over here and avoid the crowds (all the really _cool_ people are here anyway, right michael?) (besides, those other forums tend to get all tied up in all kinds of arcane minutia and speculation about the strip and artist's motivations, etc. _we_ are much more open and accessable. which reminds me - do you think michael's choice to mirror the spinning in osama's eyes (rather than make a firm stand with a clockwise or counterclockwise [and we _all_ know what that would mean, hehe] was intended as a subliminal comment on the bin laden interview which painted the US in terms that 'mirror' the popular US opinion on islamic fundamentalist terrorists, or do you think it was a nod to the whirling dervish influences (proposed by gatherton) possibly reflected in the original 'necronomicon'? and what does the color choice mean vis-a-vis the colors established in the pre-mao toonbot 'toons?) sl8so manny of thos poeple kan't sp3l.

mouse Fri Sep 28 14:05:06 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation on the other hand, the keen BB at least remembers your _name_ michael! - how come i have to keep telling this thing who i am? doesn't it _know_ me by now?

Eric Schissel Fri Sep 28 14:20:28 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > on the other hand, the keen BB at least remembers your _name_ > michael! - how come i have to keep telling this thing who i am? doesn't it > _know_ me by now? Equally surprising to me, is that WebBBS keeps forgetting that my preferred mode of browsing these fora is chronological-reversed, not threaded-reversed. And this browser (iCab pre-2.5.3,I) -does- take cookies. I wonder what's up. (I'd use Netscape, but trying to access this board on either of my machines using Netscape causes a freeze-up like nothing doing... and as to IE, well... one machine can't run IE at all, I should experiment on the other. Maybe Opera...)

Michael Fri Sep 28 17:47:43 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > Equally surprising to me, is that WebBBS keeps forgetting that my > preferred mode of browsing these fora is chronological-reversed, not > threaded-reversed. Gah! You people! WebBBS is a clunky old piece of junk which I just happen to have had already! I don't have time to do better! I'm barely keeping my head above water as it is! Eventually I'll do a better forum! Really! Shortly after doing wolverines! And Capitalization May Be The Opiate Of The Masses, But Exclamation Marks Are More So!!!!!!! Less complaining, more adulation! Emsworth was worshipful enough to compose an *ode* to me, but with you people, it's just yap, yap, yap. Seriously, I *do* hate WebBBS just as much as you all do, but I *don't* have time to replace it right now.

Eric Schissel Fri Sep 28 18:04:39 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > Less complaining, more adulation! Emsworth was worshipful enough to > compose an *ode* to me, but with you people, it's just yap, yap, yap. > Seriously, I *do* hate WebBBS just as much as you all do, but I *don't* > have time to replace it right now. It's quite all right. I can't exactly think of any particularly good alternatives, anyhow (save perhaps phpBB, by reputation- I've only seen one instantiation of it- and that takes work to install and maintain.) No, I was referring to WebBBS's own claim that it would remember my post order choices, and wondering idly to thin air- nothing more- its failure to do so. I think I can guess why (viz., my very non-standard browser.) It filled the time to say so... As to composing an ode, alas poetry is more Emsworth's metier and not mine; mine is music (and I'm out of practice as a composer thereof- it's been 9 months since I finished even the first draft of a work...)

Michael Fri Sep 28 19:11:49 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > No, I was referring to WebBBS's own claim that it would remember my post > order choices, and wondering idly to thin air- nothing more- its failure > to do so. I think I can guess why (viz., my very non-standard browser.) It > filled the time to say so... Not your browser, it just doesn't work. I don't know why and I don't really care, to tell you the truth. If I'm going to go around debugging Perl I want to do something new. I have great plans for the forum. Just ... no time. I'm starting to get back in control of things here, so maybe there's hope.

Jenn Tue Oct 2 08:04:06 2001 Our forum is the bestest in the whole world! I /like/ the forum! Course, it's the only forum I've ever used so I'm not really qualified to discuss differences. But! If you never give me an oatmeal raisin cookie, I won't notice that this is just plain old oatmeal. Besides, the hearty goodness of oatmeal is somewhat refreshing in a world innundated with raisins, raisins, raisins. Yeah.

mouse Fri Sep 28 18:12:38 2001 Re: Forums and intimidation > Less complaining, more adulation! yeah, but it's so much fun to watch you stamp around yelling and making your face turn those funny colors when we poke at you.

mouse Fri Sep 28 18:21:26 2001 michael! michael! YAAAAAAY! how about a cheer: michael's great, michael's cool our boy michael is no fool he can toon and he can post meta'toonist, he's the most! yaaaaAAAY MICHAEL! how's that?

Michael Fri Sep 28 19:10:10 2001 Re: michael! michael! YAAAAAAY! > how's that? OK, that gets you back in my good graces.

Jenn Fri Sep 28 14:25:54 2001 The Evil That Is Other Forums > etc. _we_ are much more open and accessable. which reminds me - do you > think michael's choice to mirror the spinning in osama's eyes (rather than > make a firm stand with a clockwise or counterclockwise [and we _all_ know > what that would mean, hehe] was intended as a subliminal comment on the > bin laden interview which painted the US in terms that 'mirror' the > popular US opinion on islamic fundamentalist terrorists, or do you think > it was a nod to the whirling dervish influences (proposed by gatherton) > possibly reflected in the original 'necronomicon'? and what does the color > choice mean vis-a-vis the colors established in the pre-mao toonbot > 'toons?) > sl8so manny of thos poeple kan't sp3l. You know...I sat here at work and I just blinked and blinked and blinked. Then I thought about asking if they capitalized on the uncool forums. (I'm joking! Please don't write me a four page essay in response!) (I'm joking about the four page essay, too!) Dang, I didn't realize we were supposed to be all /deep/ and stuff about Michael's comics. I thought it was enough to say 'that made me laugh!' and let Emsworth do the commenting for me. Now I feel all deficient and stuff. Um. I think that the hypnoto spinning is a parody of the old films where people get hypnotized by watching a watch swing. Clearly, Michael is harkening back to a simpler time, before we had to worry about terrorists. A time when people could think they were a chicken just by sitting in an audience. And bringing in the slogan is obviously a cry to our national heritage of commercialism and industry. If only, boys and girls, if only we could eat more Pickle Crisp. /Then/ the world would be a decent place to live in.

mouse Fri Sep 28 14:42:17 2001 Re: The Evil That Is Other Forums > Then I thought about asking if they capitalized on the uncool forums. capitalization is the opiate of the masses. > Um. I think that the hypnoto spinning is a parody of the old films where > people get hypnotized by watching a watch swing. Clearly, Michael is > harkening back to a simpler time, before we had to worry about terrorists. > A time when people could think they were a chicken just by sitting in an > audience. And bringing in the slogan is obviously a cry to our national > heritage of commercialism and industry. If only, boys and girls, if only > we could eat more Pickle Crisp. /Then/ the world would be a decent place > to live in. actually it was just supposed to be a parody of the type of posts i was talking about -- but nice comeback!

Jenn Tue Oct 2 07:53:00 2001 Re: The Evil That Is Other Forums > actually it was just supposed to be a parody of the type of posts i was > talking about -- but nice comeback! See...I was parody-ing your parody. It was supposed to be funny. You know, ha-ha? *hangs head and goes to stand in corner* No one understands me. You know what would make me feel better? A rousing rendition of the Pickle Crisp jingle. Pickle Crisp, Pickle Crisp, You are so crisp, You make me lisp. Pickle Cwithp, Pickle Cwithp, Yum!

Pale Wan Shadow of Emsworth Wed Sep 26 20:27:05 2001 Re: Ahem. Sep. *25* > *double sigh* - i _never_ know what's going on. here i was, trying to > figure out how you could be simultaneously depressed at 'the apparent end > of the wolverine campaign' (probably not an exact quote) and confident > that the wolverines _will_ appear in toonbots -- and it turns out the > wolverine campaign was happening in a whole other universe. where does one > look for reports from the front? Didn't you receive the e-mail Michael sent? Jihad members were supposed to be posting to the Keenspot and Space boards about the wolverines, to stir up interest and spread wolverinous fun. Been very pressured past few days, but I posted when and as I could. Chris and (apologies for forgetting him earlier) were the only other Jihad members to make even one post on the subject (though as far as I know you and Jenn aren't registered to either Keenspot or Keenspace yet, anyway, and it might not have hurt if we'd been notified at least a week in advance.) As it was, most of my posts were ignored, and as I was nearly alone, it wasn't much fun either (though things are sort of picking up at BoxJam's forum, but even if Michael has decided to let the wolverines dangle, I don't think I can keep it up much longer.) As Schissel said, you can check the Keenspot and Space forums. I suppose I could cut and paste a list of threads in question, but only one really achieved several posts inresponse, and for the most part the results were rather lackluster and mostly uninteresting (many ignored the wolverines entirely.) One or two responses were mildly amusing, though. However, at moment, humble self feel like gentlemen tired of inhaling pulverized tobacco.... not entirely up to snuff. Maybe I'll collect the thread URL's later on, but only if anyone's seriously interested.

Michael Wed Sep 26 23:01:52 2001 Re: Ahem. Sep. *25* > Didn't you receive the e-mail Michael sent? No -- mouse posts anonymously. Somewhere I have an email she sent, but I couldn't find it (I was too darned tired after all those two-hour episodes, my God that was work.) > and it might not have hurt if we'd been > notified at least a week in advance. If I had thought of it a week in advance, I would have told you. Unfortunately, it was a last-minute thing, like everything in Toonbots. At least I had two days' warning, for what it was worth. And the wolverines, as far as the storyline goes, are *still* in the Keen framework. ) As it was, most of my posts were > ignored, and as I was nearly alone, it wasn't much fun either (though > things are sort of picking up at BoxJam's forum, but even if Michael has > decided to let the wolverines dangle, I don't think I can keep it up much > longer.) As Schissel said, you can check the Keenspot and Space forums. I > suppose I could cut and paste a list of threads in question, but only one > really achieved several posts inresponse, and for the most part the > results were rather lackluster and mostly uninteresting (many ignored the > wolverines entirely.) One or two responses were mildly amusing, though. > However, at moment, humble self feel like gentlemen tired of inhaling > pulverized tobacco.... not entirely up to snuff. Maybe I'll collect the > thread URL's later on, but only if anyone's seriously interested.

mouse Wed Sep 26 14:58:57 2001 Re: Sep. 24 > By now, scores of political cartoonists > (and more recently syndicated newspaper "funny" cartoonists as > well) have already been dealing with the recent events, but nothing > *quite* like this. syndicated cartoonists do have to play more to popular emotions (did anyone keep count of how many political cartoons were done of Uncle Sam standing amid the ruins of the WTC, grimly rolling up his sleeves? i lost interest at 5 or 6) and osama in a speaking role (commenting instead of commented on, as'twere)...that's one i'm having a hard time visuallizing (altho of course satan has speaking parts in a number of strips). i think the only cartoon i've seen attempting anything close in any attempt at humor was jeff danziger's 9/24 panel. (i also loved ted rall's 9/25 (which is sans osama) -- it was sort of an evil laugh, but i was wondering how long he could hold himself back from doing it) (all of which has _nothing_ to do with toonbots, but i had to tell someone about rall's strip - michael, _you'll_ probably like it) i feel the sort of anticipitory mingled glee/horror of say, watching evil knievil (that can't be the way his name is spelled) attempting to jump the grand canyon - it could be really awesome, or a really spectacular crash and burn. still, i always thought you had it in you to do political cartoons, michael -- i look forward to your brave and valiant attempt (and i'll hang out on shore with a rope, should you go through the ice) > Except I'm debating whether adding "Toonbots! Now with 22% more > international terrorists!" as a new tagline to my Keen forum > signature would result in positive results just now. while the slogan _does_ have appeal - remember, whether or not something is 'positive' sorta depends on which side of the equation you are standing on. and speaking of equations -- your math is unclear to me. counting all communists* and terrorists (mao, lenin, ho, fidel and osama) - adding one gives a % increase of 100*(5-4)/4 = 25%. and then ho actually didn't appear (being revealed as dubya in disguise, and lenin wasn't really in power long enough to be much of a terrorist. so that gives us 100*(3-2)/3 = 33% (perhaps you mistyped). *and some would argue, they are not necessarily the same thing as terrorists - karl, for example, was strictly theoretical.

Brother Emsworth Wed Sep 26 20:31:14 2001 Re: Sep. 24 > syndicated cartoonists do have to play more to popular emotions (did > anyone keep count of how many political cartoons were done of Uncle Sam > standing amid the ruins of the WTC, grimly rolling up his sleeves? i lost > interest at 5 or 6) Only Fox Trot and Beetle Bailey have done anything thus far (and while few more will probably join in, I suspect most will ignore it, which is probably fine with me.) > and osama in a speaking role (commenting instead of commented on, > as'twere)... Well, considering the "NEXT" panel (and the fact that most things signaled with "NEXT" in Toonbots take awhile to appear, if they do), we'll see.