A while ago I saw the movie Prince Caspian and enjoyed it for the most part. There were some bits that I didn't care for, and some that didn't quite make sense. Perhaps I forgave a lot since it portrayed centaurs in a good light rather than as evil or base creature with one bright exception amongst them. Since then I've seen a few reviews. One said it did well to jettison much of the book, but most claimed that too much was tossed. Some was clearly in the script and cut, which resulted in the parts that really seem not to fit.

However you look at it, it was rather simplistic and I'm not sure if that was due the children's book source or due to the moviemakers. I suspect the moviemaking process is responsible as the book's author said that the one to never do in a children's book is to talk down to your audience. The movie did seem to follow the plot summed up in this Shortpacked comic.

Current Mood: amused

Snagged from the_gneech:

This article goes into detail about the art of hand lettering comics.

Current Mood: artistically informed

As the_gneech noted in a followup to his post about the troll that failed, different styles appeal to different audiences which might not necessarily overlap. I regularly read Suburban Jungle[1] for instance, but find the style of It's Walky unappealing. Not bad, just unappealing to me.

That's just one example. The Animaniacs character of Rita (the cat) was voiced by Bernadette Peters. Rita often sang, the singing also done by Bernadette Peters. And the singing was, of course, quite good. But somehow it never appealed to me. Was it too many high notes? Too much like a whine? I'm not sure. When I listen to the singing to judge it, it's fine. But I can't listen to it for enjoyment.

There's a lot of stuff out there that isn't actually bad, but I simply don't like it very much. There is, of course, also an astonishing amount of genuine crud. Those are not the same, but sometimes I think folks get the impression that they're all lumped together. In the sense of "don't care for it" they are lumped together. The reason for not caring for each class differs, however.

( Example: Breakfast )

[1] Suburban Jungle is being done by guest artists for a little while, so if you're looking at it around the time I post this, you're not getting a representative sample unless you check the archives a bit.

Current Mood: pensive

There are a few cartoons that stand out as memorable to me. These I remember though I haven't seen them in years. Some I saw in newspapers, and a couple I saw in the yearly supplements to an encyclopedia. Here are descriptions of a few:

From a 1950s supplement: A kid stands with crutches and watches other kids running and playing as he wonders, "Why didn't my parents get me the Salk vaccine?" (I think it said Salk, but it might have just said polio.)

From a 1950s or maybe 1960s supplement: A personified world, a man whose head is the globe, looks at smallish rocket in the first panel, "The missile." He, a bit unnerved, looks a bigger rocket in the next panel, "The missile to stop the missile." He looks, now worried, at an even larger rocket in the next panel, "The missile to stop the missile to stop the missile." I no longer recall how many panels there were, but in the next to last panel, the personified world has fallen backwards and is sitting, staring up at a huge rocket, "ad infinitum" or such. The last panel has a technician in a lab coat running into a hanger-like building, arms extended, shouting "It's coming back!"

One of the few Peanuts cartoons I remember, from the late 1970s: Charlie Brown panics at it starting to snow, until someone explains that it is just snow. He had thought it was fallout.

From a newspaper in the 1980s: A lone house is labelled "Europe" in the first panel. In the second panel a figure, the USSR, pushes a large nuclear bomb up to one side of the house. In the next panel a USA (Uncle Sam?) figure pushes a similar nuclear bomb up to the other side of the house. In the final panel, a personified Europe is out of the house and yelling "Warmonger!" towards the U.S.

From a newspaper in the 1980s: Uncle Sam is walking away, possibly brushing his hands together, having just hit Libya. Two well-dressed gentleman, representing France and Italy, watch. One says to the other "That Sam, such a ruffian!" Meanwhile both have documents in their pockets, "Secret deals to let terrorists go."

From a campus newspaper, I think: Some scrap haulers are about to remove a junk pile when they're interrupted by a well-dressed fellow, "Stop! That's the Art in Public Places project. The junk heap is over there." And he points to something that doesn't look quite as bad as the alleged art.

On the wall outside a physics professor's office door: A scene of protesters with signs denouncing animal research. The caption reads, "Thanks to animal research, they'll be able to protest an average of 21.4 years longer." I might have the number wrong, but I think I have it close.

Current Mood: contemplative

If you don't care how I spent Saturday, then ( skip this )

Current Mood: content

There is a place for those who work in sales and support to let off steam. You can find it here, where customers_suck. Now, that those who have crappy experiences dealing with customers can let off the steam is fine. Many of the stories are about people I'd have even less patience with. (I've dealt with the bozos who proclaim "It's broke. Fix it." while not explaining how it is broke, or how it was broken. If I can't find the problem, then I can't fix it, now can I?) The thing is, there are few comments that indicate something is the wrong way to do something. ("NEVER whistle to get my attention!") But no mention of the right way. One commenter listed so many things I wondered if there was a right way for him (or her). Sure, I'm seeing the worst moments, but now picture this. Someone like that has just had a customer who actually was a real jerk, or three, and now you have to try to deal with this person. I get the idea from reading that account that it'd be like tap-dancing in a minefield. While theoretically possible, it's unlikely one would escape unscathed.

And I'd like to point out there really is such a thing sucky service, too. Not the accidental slip of an early morning or a late night, but the just plain wrong. It's one thing to be helping out a customer. I quite understand that. I can wait patiently for this. But if someone sees a someone at a counter and ignores them, chatting with who knows who, that's poor service. A quick "I'll be right there." would even be an improvement. This example is hardly unique. You've been there, haven't you?

So you can skip it: ( A tale of comic shops )