Toonbots message board: General Comments (11/11 spoiler)

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Lord Emsworth Sat Nov 11 19:33:43 2000
General Comments (11/11 spoiler)

Well, another gripping installment of Toonbots! Rather liked the blue gradients in the last strip, btw, rather appropriate as the election situation seems to be drifting out to sea.

Regarding today's Toonbots, though, I found the multitude of angles and colors used for the captions to be mildly headache inducing (but I am rather prone to slight migraines, so I'm probably the only one bothered by it.) However, I was pleasantly surprised by the punchline in the center caption (though admittedly it would probably have simply bewildered me if I hadn't been reading the honorable Boxjam's forum.)

By the by, I tried to show Toonbots to my mother a couple weeks back. Unfortunately, she merely gave me an odd look and has been questioning how I spend my free time. Ah, well.

Would be interesting to have something other than panels and captions at some point, though, however fascinating they may be, so the possibility of "real functionality" at some point in the distant future is heartening (and might also allay the matriarch's fears regarding my sanity for reading Toonbots.) However, even when you are able to accomplish other functions, a strip consisting solely of panels might be nice every now and then, to break the monotony and possibly induce nostalgia. Indeed, a re-appearance from the famous dot would also be welcome at some point (though I gather you've taken care of that glitch, so I suppose a return would be unlikely.)

Ah, well. Be that as it may, I still believe that Toonbots is certainly among the more unique webcomics at the moment. I rather enjoy the humorous captions as well. Pardon me for going on so, and a happy belated birthday to you, sir. And as a final note, Mr. Roberts, may I heartily applaud you for your fine, albeit very unorthadox, strip so far.

*fzzt* Oops. My apologies. I think I shall go now.

Michael Sat Nov 11 19:59:53 2000
(11/11 spoiler)

Heh, heh, heh. I'm still laughing about the idea of a Toonbots spoiler.

> By the by, I tried to show Toonbots to my mother a couple weeks back.
> Unfortunately, she merely gave me an odd look and has been questioning how
> I spend my free time. Ah, well.

Just to put things into perspective, I've been rather careful *not* to show Toonbots to any family or business partners. Ahem.

> Would be interesting to have something other than panels and captions

Philistine!

Well, then, I've got two things to say. (1) I have tomorrow's strip drawn already and (2) positioning of characters is damned difficult even if you do it really crudely.... And if that ain't a spoiler I don't know what is.

> Ah, well. Be that as it may, I still believe that Toonbots is certainly
> among the more unique webcomics at the moment. I rather enjoy the humorous
> captions as well. Pardon me for going on so, and a happy belated birthday
> to you, sir. And as a final note, Mr. Roberts, may I heartily applaud you
> for your fine, albeit very unorthadox, strip so far.

I think I put more thought into the blurbs than into the strip. Sort of an extra meta-level. And then there's even another meta-level in the blog kind of thing down at the bottom of the page, and then this paragraph would end up being a meta-meta-meta-level. Kewl.

Thanks for the compliment, thanks for actually finding all this interesting, thanks for the birthday wishes, and thanks for your foolhardiness in showing Toonbots to one of the uninitiated. (Of course the PAFTWJ will have to kill you now, but it's the thought that counts.)

Unorthodoxity (-itude? -iness?) is, of course, Goal One here at Toonbots.

Tirdun Sat Nov 11 20:49:00 2000
Re: (11/11 spoiler)

> I think I put more thought into the blurbs than into the strip. Sort of an
> extra meta-level. And then there's even another meta-level in the blog
> kind of thing down at the bottom of the page, and then this paragraph
> would end up being a meta-meta-meta-level. Kewl.

meta-meta-meta-meta-meta.... Brian brain hurt. No feel good. Glork.

Lord Emsworth Sat Nov 11 21:27:13 2000
Re: (11/11 spoiler)

> Heh, heh, heh. I'm still laughing about the idea of a Toonbots spoiler.

Ahem. Well, perhaps it is unnecessary in this case, as it is difficult to reach the forum without first accessing the main page, and presumably reading the current "toon." Force of habit, really, as I didn't wish to give away the punchline (or punch floating caption, rather) prematurely. Apologies (though please understand if I do use dates occasionally, if only because it's a simple way to label a thread relating to a particular day's strip.)

> Well, then, I've got two things to say. (1) I have tomorrow's strip drawn
> already and (2) positioning of characters is damned difficult even if you
> do it really crudely.... And if that ain't a spoiler I don't know what is.

My apologies. I didn't really mean to criticize too much, and would not have mentioned it if you hadn't raised the subject in the latest news. For myself, while it might be interesting to see, if only because of the sheer odds against doing it, it would probably be best to use characters sparingly, or at least in an unusual way. To do so constantly might deprive Toonbots of it's primary attraction, it's very unorthadox nature (though even if you did manage to create characters and establish a regular plot, Toonbots would still have the distinction of being the only webcomic generated by Perl scripts, but I'm not sure how effective that would be as a selling point on it's own.) (Note: These are merely my vague thoughts on the subject; it naturally depends solely on the inclinations and abilities of yourself as the meta-cartoonist, so please don't feel pressured or insulted by any comments I might make at any point in this regard.)

> Unorthodoxity (-itude? -iness?) is, of course, Goal One here at Toonbots.

I believe that unorthadoxy would be the term for which you are groping, sir (the state of being unorthadox, aside from Florida.)

Michael Sun Nov 12 21:11:15 2000
Orthodoxy or lack thereof

> I believe that unorthadoxy would be the term for which you are groping,
> sir (the state of being unorthadox, aside from Florida.)

No, no, no. "Unorthodoxy" would be a hopelessly orthodox term.

gopher Sat Nov 11 23:03:47 2000
Re: (11/11 spoiler)

> Heh, heh, heh. I'm still laughing about the idea of a Toonbots spoiler.

The day will come! Maybe.

> Thanks for the compliment, thanks for actually finding all this
> interesting, thanks for the birthday wishes, and thanks for your
> foolhardiness in showing Toonbots to one of the uninitiated. (Of course
> the PAFTWJ will have to kill you now, but it's the thought that counts.)

Do we have to kill him? As has been shown by several organizations throughout history (the only one of which whose name I can remember are the Shakers), if one does not allow for new members to be initiated into one's organization (which would, presumably, involve spreading the word of Toonbots to the heathen masses), one's organization will die out in 60 years or so.

On the other hand, if we allow anyone to join the PAFTWJ, we will have no one against whom to jihad. A paradox!

Since the good Lord Emsworth was only doing his evangelical duty in spreading the word of Toonbots, I propose that we kill his mother, since she doesn't get it. Yeah, that'll work.

Michael Sun Nov 12 01:37:10 2000
Re: (11/11 spoiler)

> The day will come! Maybe.

Maybe sooner than you think.

gopher Sun Nov 12 03:09:46 2000
Characters (spoiler?)

> Maybe sooner than you think.

w00t! Today's comic was great! Just thinking about Al and Dubya as rectangles made me laugh. And I did notice that "action=leaves" in the XML right before I read your blurb, and I thought to myself, "Wow, that's pretty awesome." I think Toonbots may now be entering that realm of cartooning that has characters, and maybe even stories and stuff like that!

Also, the titles on the post counts at the bottom was a nice touch. I wonder if the position of High Priest is going to become a competitive one now.

Michael Sun Nov 12 21:13:49 2000
Re: Characters (spoiler?)

> w00t! Today's comic was great!

Thank you, thank you very much. The Toon-o-matic has left the building.

> I think Toonbots may now be
> entering that realm of cartooning that has characters, and maybe even
> stories and stuff like that!

Well, I think it's going to continue to be pretty gag-a-day until I get a little more functionality done. I can't imagine getting attached to rectangles. Although there is always Triangle and Robert as a counterexample.

> Also, the titles on the post counts at the bottom was a nice touch. I
> wonder if the position of High Priest is going to become a competitive one
> now.

You'll never know until the day you find yourself usurped.






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