Genre Savvy: Science Fantasy

In the bookstore, at the video store, or anywhere in fact, Fantasy is almost always merged with Science Fiction.  One might argue they have little to do with each other, I disagree.  They really do have a lot to do with each other, but not enough to really put them together.  So of course, I use the term Science Fantasy.

Why?  First it comes down to the time thing I mentioned last time.  Science Fantasy is more "futuristic," as it were.  Or at least it SEEMS like it's in the future.  We as a society can look at something and say, with reasonable certainty, whether it is from the past or the future.  Saying something looks "advanced" is our way of saying "that's future stuff."  This idea is what separates Science Fantasy from the other two and is its key element.

This futuristic look is why Star Wars is the poster boy for Science Fantasy as a whole.  Lightsabres, blasters and spaceships certainly all LOOK futuristic, but they don't mean much to the story or characters as a whole.  In fact, if you replaced those fancy future tech things with their contemporary, or even ancient, equivalents, no one would notice the difference.  Swords, guns and sailing ships could be used to tell almost the exact same story, sans the giant planet destroying space station.

It is NOT, however, Science Fiction.  The futuristic element defines Science Fantasy and everything under it's umbrella, including Science Fiction itself, but Science Fiction needs a bit more definition.  To sum up, all Science Fiction is Science Fantasy, but not all Science Fantasy is Science Fiction.  And capitalizing each of those words over and over again is making my pinkie tired.

So what makes Science Fiction what it is?  Technology.  As I said, removing all the futuristic stuff from something like Star Wars doesn't harm the actual story telling itself.  Removing that stuff from a piece of Science Fiction, however, ruins it.  Science Fiction is very much about man's relationship with his technology.  How that technology changes how people live, how people change the technology and all that stuff, for good or ill, is the essential element of Science Fiction, and without it, the point of the work is lost.  Often it can be regulated down to a key scientific advancement or technology, and everything in the story grows from that, be it cybernetic implants or time travel.

Let's go back to Star Wars for a moment and ask what is the key element of the entire series?  What one thing drives everything in the plot?  It's the Force, which is clearly not science or technology, despite the ham-fisted attempts to say otherwise.  The Force drives everything in the series, which is why the technology around them is basically unnecessary.  It's window dressing for something else.

This contrasts with the chief rival of Star Wars, Star Trek.  What is the key driving force in Star Trek?  What pushes everything forward and is the reason everything happens in every series, movie and book?  Warp drive.  Without warp drive, humanity never leaves Earth, is never visited by the Vulcans, never fights a war with the Romulans, never wages a cold war with the Klingons, never meets Q, never has to deal with the Borg and never fights the Dominion.  It is THE essential technology to everything in the series, and drives it forward, to where no one has gone before.  Now one could argue the same about hyperdrive in Star Wars, but again, remove it and the story would hardly notice, but without warp drive, Star Trek does not exist.

Which brings me to the comic examples.  On the Science Fiction end of the spectrum, there is Schlock Mercenary, which is about comedy as much as it is about technology.  The initial prime mover is the gates which allowed for FTL travel, and later the open source Teraport, which dramatically changed the very nature of the entire galactic community.  It's such a major shake up that the world the characters inhabit now is far different than the one at the beginning of the comic.  The fact that other technologies are explored, from DNA manipulation to artificial intelligence, further cements it in the Science Fiction branch of Science Fantasy.

The other example I spoiled right in the introduction article, Girl Genius.  It often gets labeled as steampunk, which is more an aesthetic rather than a genre, but it is a great example of the other end of the Science Fantasy spectrum.  The reason?  The main driver isn't a piece of technology, it's the Sparks, the super geniuses that rule, ruin and push forward the entire comic.  Remove the steampunk aesthetic and the Sparks would still be raising hell and driving the story forward.

With the Fantasy branches out of the way, it's time to start covering the over-genres, the three very powerful and very prevalent genres that they often engulf not only the three Fantasy's, but often each other.  Until then kiddies.

Genre Savvy: Urban Fantasy

As I've been thinking on these articles, the idea of time started coming up.  High Fantasy is very much a past oriented genre, as I said last week.  Science Fantasy is a much more future oriented genre.  Which means that Urban Fantasy ends up with the present.  Well, contemporary at least.

Saying "urban" seems to imply cities, but that's not strictly true.  It is more about our modern world, which is mostly city.  It can still happen in small towns, in villages and farms, but odds are it will happen in a city.  Or the suburbs at least.  The real thrust though is that it is happening in OUR world.  Not some fantastic alternate world or the distant future.  The events of an Urban Fantasy story are happening right now, in our neighborhoods or even right next door.

Why, though, do we find this so fascinating?  Our world is full of wonders, if one knows where to look, and sometimes it jumps out at unexpected moments.  Perhaps it is related to the amusement park experience.  Why do people insist on riding thrill inducing rollarcoasters and other insane rides?  The safe world in which we live offers no such thrills, no dangers that even remotely comes close to the dangers we faced as we came out of the trees.  Riding some insane rollercoaster gives us a taste of that fear, that thrill, without actually ever putting us in danger.

Same goes for Urban Fantasy stories.  They put, in a very safe way, thrill back into urban life.  Even better, it puts magic back in, something sorely missing from our more technologically leaning world.  We know so much about how the world works that to a point it's removed some of the wonder of it.  Of course, the more one knows about the world, the more one realizes how little we actually know, so the magic is still there, but it's not as accessible as it used to be.  Thus, Urban Fantasy stories proliferate.

Putting magic back into the world, behind a veil we can't see through, is an important element to Urban Fantasy.  This also means, in order to maintain the illusion that it is happening in our world, that it must be hidden away.  This is the structure of the world in these stories should be built to keep the fantastic from the mundane.  It's not a hard rule, of course, and there's ways around it,but it should always be considered.

So examples, there are a lot of them.  Let's look at a pair from outside the webcomic world to show the real width and bredth of the genre.  I mentioned Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the introduction article, but I'm not going to cover that, instead I'll cover the "source" of all modern vampire based fiction:  Dracula.  Now I know this should be part of the Horror genre, and it is, but it is also an Urban Fantasy.  How?  Well, it involved Dracula moving to London.  There is a reason I said "contemporary" earlier, and this kind of thing is why.  Dracula is very much about modern (at the time) people fighting against an ancient monster.  A hidden magic that they never would have seen if it hadn't come home.

Speaking of home, one last example of Urban Fantasy before I move to the comics.  It would have been timely about a month ago, but I mention it anyway:  Santa Claus.  The magic of this fat man in red is so expansive that people don't even question his presence.  Better yet, when they TRY to take the magic out of him via television, movies or books, the result is even MORE magic.  He's very much part of collective mythology at this point, and the perfect Urban Fantasy.

Comicwise, well there's a lot of them out there.  Twilight Lady, Wapsi Square, Zebra Girl, Gunnerkrigg Court, Magic Chicks and Eerie Cuties just to name a few that fit the more classic molds, but there are also the superhero based comics, which are just as much Urban Fantasy as anything else.  Aptitude Test, Spinnerette and Superhero Girl have fantastic elements in a contemporary world.  Even dead.winter, the zombie apocalypse comic, is an Urban Fantasy story.  The list goes on and on, so I can't and won't cover them all, but know that the odds of a comic being Urban Fantasy is quite high.

Next time kiddies, Science Fantasy.  Until then kiddies.

Genre Savvy: High Fantasy

Last week, after I wrote the original Genre Savvy article but before it was published, I finally got to see The Hobbit.  I went with my sister who knows far, FAR more about Tolkien mythology than any sane person should.  She liked it, a lot, but could easily point out the parts that were not in the book, or even Tolkien's work in the first place.  It still worked regardless, and didn't feel shoehorned in as many book adaptations do.  So it's only fitting we now cover High Fantasy.

As I said in the introduction article, High Fantasy finds it's roots in Tolkien.  Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, wizards, etc, etc, all have their definition coming from Tolkien's work.  Why do wizards wear pointed hats?  Dwarves all live underground, why?  How come Elves are always so attached to nature?  Why is it that Orcs are evil?  Tolkien is the answer.

Sadly, this means Tolkien's work often becomes a template for less creative writers and artists to lay down their own stories.  There's nothing WRONG with this, of course, Dungeons and Dragons made a business of doing this kind of thing, with their own Tolkienesce universe.  At the same time, it does seem to lack the important point of High Fantasy.

It's not about Elves and Dwarves and Orcs.  It's not about magic and adventure.  Hell, good High Fantasy isn't about the STORY at all.  It's about the world, it's history and culture (or cultures as the case may be).

This is what makes Tolkien's work so powerful.  His stories are really about entertaining his kids (the Hobbit especially).  The WORLD he created, though, was partly designed to showcase the languages he was inventing, amongst other things.  He built up a mythology and history bit by bit, showing how the world came to be as it is at the time in the story.

That's something a lot of works that claim to be High Fantasy fail, they don't build their world very well.  Or at all.  History is essential, without it any story built in this genre comes off as hollow and wholly lacking.  Pull it off, though, and a great piece of fiction can come from it.

Which brings me to the comic that most exemplifies the High Fantasy genre.  It should be pretty obvious that Errant Story is that comic.  History flows through this comic, not only due to the main plot point, looking for ancient supreme power, but through every action taken by both protagonists and antagonists.  Here's the funny thing though, as Poe reposts each page of the comic, a clearer view of how the comic developed, and the history was NOT done before the comic started going.  Like any good work, the history evolved as the comic did.  Allowing wiggle room to grow is probably what made Errant Story so damn great in the end.

But there is another comic out there that fits this model:  Prophecy of the Circle.  I haven't been following this comic since I did the original review, but it was obvious from the get go it was a High Fantasy comic.  I mean, look at this page.  That's history, culture, the world all there and ready for the taking.  And not an elf, dwarf, orc or wizard in sight.  Hell, there aren't any HUMANS in this comic, yet it is a High Fantasy comic.

High Fantasy is a very past oriented genre and not having a past or history is where a piece will fail to live up to it's standard.

Next week kids, Urban Fantasy.  See you then kiddies.

Genre Savvy: Introduction

Getting Guild Wars 2 is an interesting experience for me because, well, I've never played a traditional fantasy MMO before.  Hell, the last fantasy game I played was Final Fantasy 6, so it shows how long it's been.  That said, it did bring up the issue of genre, the category into which a story, game, or in this case, comic is set into.  There are a LOT of genres nowadays, more seem to be created every year, so the real trial is narrowing them down into a few categories.

Which is what I'm going to do.  Another series of articles going into the details of what an author/artist should be trying to emphasize if they're building a particular genre piece.  The first step, however, is defining these various genres I'll be covering.  As I said, there's a lot of them out there, but we'll focus on a few.

Now these are generalized genres, so one term can, and will, cover a great deal of territory.  As such I'll be covering only 6 genres total, and there's a bit of wiggle room on what goes where.  In fact, 3 of these "genres" are so broad as to actually cover the other 3 all on their own.  But for the sake of sanity, I'll leave them separate.  Each genre has a particular tone, mood or series of ideals they need to follow in order to to fulfill the requirements of the genre.  What those are, we'll get to in the next few weeks, but for now, let's just get some rough definitions.

High Fantasy - My inspiration for this was Guild Wars 2, which is a member of this genre, but the real "root" of the genre is J.R.R. Tolkien.  His main books (The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings) are the backbone of the High Fantasy genre.  Everything from Dungeons and Dragons to, well, Guild Wars, finds it's source with Tolkien.  So much so, the term "fantasy" is almost synonymous with his work.  We'll get into what this actually means next week.

Urban Fantasy - The first two things that come to mind when I think "urban fantasy" are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Harry Potter.  The core here is taking many of the High Fantasy elements (magic and monsters typically) and translating them to a contemporary world.  "Urban" would seem to indicate city, but here it's just a reference to our more modern world, nothing more.  True, Harry Potter doesn't run around with a cellphone, but he COULD have one with it really being an issue.

Science Fantasy - Okay, I know:  "don't you mean science FICTION?"  Well, no.  Science fiction falls UNDER the umbrella of science fantasy because this covers a lot more ground that standard sci fi.  As a kind of spoiler (depending on your definition of spoiler), Girl Genius, the steam punk inspired comic, falls into the Science Fantasy category, but wouldn't necessarily be considered science fiction.  Star Wars is famously described as Science Fantasy, and while they try to find roots in actual scientific knowledge, Star Trek often just makes stuff up that sounds cool.  All three are about fancy technology, but go about it in different ways.

Horror - Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, even many slasher flicks come with this genre.  This is one of the 3 "over genres," whose power is so great that the others COULD fall under it given the right circumstances.  Buffy could EASILY end up here, if it was actually scary.  Fear and suspense are the core ideas here and while they can influence or seep into other genres, the really scary stuff is reserved for horror.

Drama - This one is a touch harder to nail down because as an over genre, it is the most over of them all.  Everything except the last one (Humor) falls under genre at some point in its life.  And that's really what drama is about, life.  Everyday life across social standing and gender, country and religion.  It's so large a topic that when the Greeks were writing their plays, they were either Dramas or Comedies.  There was nothing in between.

Humor - Speaking of comedy, I call this Humor because, um, because I've used the term enough when talking about comics.  From sit-coms to parodies, humor is the last over genre that can have it's influence felt throughout.  It follows the "rule of funny," also known as if it's funny, it happens.  Potent, nonsensical, and completely subjective, it is also the one I think I will have the hardest time writing about.  We'll see.

That's a start.  Next week, we'll go into what makes High Fantasy, well, High Fantasy and seek out a few comics that follow this genre.  Until next time kiddies.

Nothing this week

I WAS going to try to work on something this week.  But then I got Guild Wars 2 for Christmas.  Yeah.

That said, I do have an idea for an article for next week, so stay tuned.

The Christmas Yak

With Christmas just around the corner, rather than try to come up with some holiday webcomic related post, I'm just going to post an old Christmas story I wrote some time ago.  It's simple, not all that great, but fun regardless.  hope you like it:

The Christmas Yak

By:  Yours Truly

            One day, some time ago, a yak was wandering across the snowcapped mountains of the Himalayas very depressed.  It was the middle of winter now, and he had, for some reason, not been able to move down the mountain this year.  Cold, lonely, and really, really hungry, the Yak simply wandered the crooked paths of the blizzard strewn mountains.

            Then a monster leapt out from around the corner, and let out a heart stopping roar.

            "Hey Yeti," the Yak said.  "How's it going?"

            The Yeti, an eight foot tall white beast, dropped his arms from their 'I'm going to tear you limb from limb' position.  "Oh, hey Yak.  Didn't know you were still up here?"

            "Much to my own dismay.  Know which way is back down, I think I'm lost."

            "Sure, but you'll never get there in this blizzard.  Let's go back to my place for the night."

            The Yeti's cave was large and relatively warm compared to the outside.  It was well decorated for a Yeti's cave, with some clumps of white fur, grasses, branches and the occasional collection of bones here and there.  "Make yourself comfortable."

            "Mind if I munch on your couch, I'm starving."

            "Sure, but leave the bed," the Yeti patted on a red cloth that covered more branches.  "I need somewhere to sleep tonight."

            The Yak began to munch on the Yeti's couch and let his mind wander a bit.  "You know, this sucks."

            "The couch?"

            "No, the season.  Every year, the big blizzards blow in and I have to come down off the mountains to live.  But it's just as cold down there.  I wish I hibernated, at least then I wouldn't have to deal with it."

            "You don't?"

            "I don't.  Maybe some of those others do, but I don't."

            "Ah."  The Yeti sat there for a moment, sucking the marrow from one of the various bones lying around.  "Well, what should we do about it?"

            "Hibernating?"

            "No, nothing to do in winter."

            "Right, well, I'm not sure," the Yak stopped eating, sustained for the moment, and curled up on what was left of the couch.  "What do you think we should do?"

            "Well," the Yeti said.  "A couple years back, about this time of year, I came across a couple of those really pale colored humans in one of those brightly colored leaves they're always setting up.  This one, in fact," he patted the bed.  "Anyway, right before I tore the thing down and ate them, I heard one of them say 'merry Christmas,' and I could just see a shadow of one handing the other a squarish rock.  Course, after I tore into the place I looked around and found what looked like a box made out of really thin bark with some garbage in it."

            "That's nice, but how is that supposed to help?"

            "I don't know, but maybe you could copy the humans and give other people boxes made of bark with garbage in it.  Then maybe they'd give them to other people and so on and so forth."

            The Yak laid there in thought for a moment.  "I don't know, most don't like garbage."

            "Then give them a big square rock."

            "That might work," the Yak said.  "But if I gave one person a rock, I'd have to give everyone a rock, and that could take a while."

            "True," the Yeti said.  "Well, maybe you could make it so that the person getting the rock would regret it or something."

            "Regret it?"  The Yak stood up with a cheer.  "That's it!  I'll throw the rock at someone every year.  The others will be real nice to me then as they won't want me to throw a rock at them next year."

            "Course," the Yeti interrupted.  "They could start throwing rocks at you."

            "Not if they don't know it's me," the Yak said.  "I've got an idea."

            A couple of weeks later, another yak, a nasty bastard who had knocked over the pervious Yak and laughed on several occasions, was minding his business in the valley below the mountains when an unfamiliar shape appeared out of the woods.

            "Who's there?"

            The shape walked forward.  It looked like a yak, but was covered in a strange red leaf like the ones humans use as shelters, and with puffy white fur tacked on to it with branches.  "I am the Christmas Yak," the strange yak bellowed.  "Have you been a good yak this year?"

            "What the hell are you talking about?"

            "I know if you've been a good yak or a bad yak.  I know you've been a bad yak, always picking on the others.  So I have a gift for you."

            "A gift?"  The mean yak took a step closer.  "For being bad?"

            "Yes," the Christmas Yak said.

            "Well let me have it then.  I've been a really bad yak this year."

            "I know."  And the Christmas Yak through a rock at the mean yak.  A big one.

            About twenty minutes later, the mean yak recovered from the blow and searched around for the Christmas Yak, determined to beat the crap out of him for hitting him with a rock.  The mean yak searched around for several minutes, but was unable to find any trace of the Christmas Yak.  Eventually, he came across the Yak he had picked on last summer.

            "Hey!" the mean yak called.  "Have you seen some joker in a red leaf running around throwing rocks at people?"

            "No," the Yak said.  "I haven't."

            "Really weird, he said I was a bad yak and threw a rock at me because of it."

            "Serves you right," the Yak said.  "You've been a mean bastard to me, I'm glad he hit you with a rock.  Assuming, of course, you're not making it up."

            The mean yak's eyes grew wide.  Could the Christmas Yak have been an apparition, dealing out justice with flying rocks?  "Uh, listen, I'm sorry about that.  All in fun, you know?

            "Wasn't fun for me."

            "Yeah, I guess not.  Like I said, sorry."

            The Yak smiled.  "Apology accepted."  The mean yak wandered off, spooked but wiser.

            The next year, on that same day, the Christmas Yak appeared again, and hit a yak that ate more than his share of a bush.  And then the next year, with one who always pushed his way to the front of the line.  Year after year, the Christmas Yak would appear and hit the meanest yak in the herd with a rock.  Eventually, people would try to be nice to each other as winter came.  Mother yaks would tell their children the same thing every year.  "Be good, or the Christmas Yak will get you."

            And as the faithful day approached, yaks will warn each other of the coming danger.  "Beware of the Christmas Yak."  They would say.  And when the danger had passed, they would have a party to celebrate them not being hit by the rock.  Everyone would have a good time, except the one who got hit with a rock.

            So to all the people everywhere, remember, beware of the Christmas Yak.


Oh, the story isn't over yet:

A Visit from Saint Yakolas

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the Alps

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;

The notes were all hung by the chimney rock with care,

In the hopes that St. Yakolas would read them there;

The kids were nestled all snug in their hey beds,

While horrors of flying rocks flew through their heads;

And mamma ewe was asleep, and I on the cliff

Having just settled down like a lame working stiff

When down in the valley, there arose such a clatter,

I sprang from my perch to see what was the matter.

Away to the pass I leapt like a flash,

Tore down the pathway, and up through the gash.

The moon on the breast of the glacier ice flow

Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below,

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,

But a cart full of hey, and eight tiny sherpas

With a hairy old driver, so stinky and fat,

I knew in a moment it must be St. Yak.

More rapid than falcons, his carriers they came,

And he grunted and spitted, and called them by name;

"Now, Rinzen! now, Kalden! now, Tenzin and Dawa!

On, Dorjee! on Nawanq! on Karma and Mingma!

To the top of the arête! to the top of the headwall!

Now dash away!  dash away!  dash away all!

As dry snow that before the snowstorm fly,

When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,

So up to the cliff-top the carriers they flew,

With the cart full of hey, and St. Yakolas too.

And then in a twinkling, I heard on the snow

The pattering of the climbers dropping their load

As I drew back my head and was turning around,

There at the chimney rock, St. Yokolas appeared unbound

He was covered in fur, from his head to his hoof,

And his clothes were made of an old tent, with some soot

A mouth full of hay he had brought from the cart

And he looked domesticated, though without a cart.

His eyes -- how they twinkled!  his horns, how merry!

His hooves were like clods, his snout like a cherry!

His droll mouth was drawn up like a bow,

And the hair on his hat was as white as the snow

The stub of the hay he held tight in his teeth,

And for a moment I though he would eat our wreath;

He had a broad face, and looked a little cranky,

That shook me in fear, like a bowlful of jelly,

He was chubby and plump, a right gaudy old beast

And I bleated when I saw him, expecting him to leave

A wink of his eye, and a twist of his head,

Soon led me to believe I had nothing to dread

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,

And read all the notes, then turned with a jerk

And flung a rock right at my head

Knocking me down and almost leaving me for dead

He sprang to his cart, to his team gave a whistle

And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.

But I heard him exclaim, as I held unconsciousness back

"Happy Christmas to all, and BEWARE THE CHRISTMAS YAK!"

Retrospective: Weapon Brown

Last week, Weapon Brown, the apocalyptic take on newspaper comics, ended it's current run.  Current meaning while the story as it started is over, I don't think he's done telling Chuck's story.  But for the moment, it is over, and thus it's time for a retrospective on it.

Last week, I said I almost wanted to compare the excellent Between Failures to the awful Blade Kitten, but honestly, the comparison wouldn't have been exactly fair.  Comparing Blade Kitten to Weapon Brown, however, is perfect.  A bounty hunter with a past, a world full of villains and virtually no heroes, a badass attitude but underneath a heart of gold?  It's weird how many basic traits Chuck and Kit share, up to and including the loyal pet.  But then, Chuck isn't a catgirl, so can't be a one to one match.

The other area where it doesn't compare?  Sheer violence.  Few comics I've read REVEL in violence the way Weapon Brown does.  It's completely over the top which makes it a thrill to read.  The fact that Chuck rarely gets through a fight completely unscathed gives an air of realism to the violent world around him, but doesn't reduce his badassery any.

The story is, well, just a vehicle for the violence honestly.  It's certainly modeled on The Road Warrior and it works well in that regard.  It's not perfectly a match for that classic post-apocalyptic film, of course.  There IS a civilization out there, it's just run by generally evil people.  Still, the classic trope of a lone hero working to save a small group of good guys is very much present in the second half of the story.  The first half, on the other hand, is more a lone survivor type tale.

As a character, Chuck doesn't really seem to change all that much through the course of the story.  He's a badass and while he may be weakened or beaten down, he keeps going.  About the only change is that he finds someone to love and when it's time to fight to save her, he doesn't back down.  Sadly, I will say that the rest of the characters are rather one note, but reading this kind of comic for character development is, well, kind of silly.  It's there for the violence, the glory of watching Chuck overcome the odds, and the references.

Ah yes, the references.  This is the real reason to read this comic, because it is a post-apocalyptic parody of the funny pages in the local newspaper.  Chuck is a grown up and hardened Charlie Brown.  His love interest is Little Orphan Annie.  His rival, CAL-v.1n is Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.  And that's just the tip of the iceburg.  Everything from Family Circus to Blondie, Gasoline Alley and B.C. gets a reference in there somewhere.  It can get quite obscure in some cases, so tags are often at the bottom of the comic to help point a direction, but guessing is part of the fun.

That's really the rub of it.  Yes, the comic is a good action/violence piece.  Yeah, the characters aren't anything to write home about, but they're based on even more one note characters and given a semblance of life.  It's just a lot of fun, and I'm glad to have found and read it.  Here's hoping that a sequel is in the works so I can watch Chuck and Jeffy carve a path of destruction through the Syndicate.

In many ways, Weapon Brown is the reason I started reviewing newspaper comics, and why I'll do so in the future.  Anyway, enough for today.  Until next time kiddies.