Month: April 2016

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 18

Man has turned away from Grimmsy, facing now back to HIS left, seeming to have lost interest in him, not even bothering to gloat as the whole thing was so easy. Grimmsy’s scythe is flying toward the “back” of the frame, indicating motion that the man has absently tossed it away. Grimmsy stares rather woefully half at the man, half at the scythe, eyes starting to become sad.

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 13

Grimmsy responds via “bubble” (as before) as the man listens carefully, lips pursed and obviously thoughtful. The man has, very briefly, taken a very mildly serious tone; as if he’s trying to solve a crossword or something.

Grimmsy seems very solemn and serious, as if he’s trying to be commanding and fully expects the man to cooperate now. The text reflects this in that the letters are even more elaborately drawn than before; radiating an importance and semi-majesty that Grimmsy himself simply does not. The letters are not any larger nor do they in any way reflect anger. Grimmsy’s eyes have taken on a somewhat more commanding appearance; as if he fully expects his words to be heeded and taken completely seriously, though even so they aren’t particularly scary or even commanding.

DIALOGUE: “I understand your apprehension, Sir, but it is my duty to take you onward. If you do not come willingly I shall be forced to usher you onward via other means.”

What is “Homage”?

This is homage:

This is not:

Somewhere WAY in between there’s a fine line.

FAIR USE: CRITICISM – ‘In The Mouth Of Madness’ is a great homage to H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos. L.F. Dibley’s ‘If’ is NOT a great homage to anything, it just sucks. Also, this is a really bad review (criticism), but it IS a review.

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 10

Grimmsy betrays little reaction, explaining to the man as if he apparently had prepared for such an eventuality. The man has the look of the last frame, faded/changed only slightly, thoughtfulness just faintly crept in. The background is virtually unchanged; noone or nothing else has appeared in the frame(s), the clouds have very faintly drifted.

DIALOGUE: “It is my duty to journey with the essence of what is you; to assist and expedite your arrival and to make the transition as comfortable as possible, Sir.”

STUPID STUPID STUPID

Ok, ok…that’s it.

Enough with the STUPID beyond ABSURD vehicle commercials with some guy talking to people about really boring cr@p, and then he asks them a stupid, boring question and they pretend to care.

And they don’t. And…you know why. Because it’s stupid. And noone would care.

But the latest is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever seen.

The guy is talking to a bunch of kids, and asks who wants to play a video game. They all want to, but only one can! OH NO!

What to do? Well…

What if he told them that if they talked EACH of their parents into spending 30K on a car, they could ALL play a video game, TOGETHER!

Suggested realistic response by the kids, collectively:

“What are you, a moron?”

Deep Puppy Thoughts (Part 121)

I like ‘The Hunt For Red October’, but am I the only one that has to restrain a chuckle:

1) When some extra guy says “Emergency Blow!”
2) When James Earl Jones says “Mother of God”

and a WTF?:

When Alec Baldwin knows with ‘Professional’-age-omniscience accuracy (precision?) that the guy at the end is “THE cook” (as opposed to a cook, since I’d assume a cook’s assistant has to have a boss), and WHY he is so apparently shocked by that, since he NEVER MET THE COOK BEFORE.

Is he somehow affronted that the reputation of submarine cooks everywhere has been tarnished?

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 9

Man seems equal parts annoyed and confused at this point, as if the little being in front of him is becoming something of a pest. He responds in a voice that conveys that. Grimmsy’s posture and position are unchanged.

DIALOGUE: “What are you talking about?? I’m not dead…what the heck are you, anyway?”

Deep Puppy Thoughts (Part 120)

Very faintly related to ‘Film Imitates Hagakure – Part I-Don’t-Remember’.

Look through them all. *I* didn’t write them, they’re over 300 years old and they’re still relevant, in some ways.

“We may as individuals be rather fond of our own dialect. This should not make us think, though, that it is actually any better than any other dialect. Dialects are not good or bad, nice or nasty, right or wrong – they are just different from one another, and it is the mark of a civilised society that it tolerates different dialects just as it tolerates different races, religions and sexes.”

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 5

Grimmsy “speaks” – shown as text in a bubble above his figure, though without a “connection” to him…just a bubble by itself, as if it could be spoken, or thought, or magically induced. Text has a “gothic”, “formal”, and “old” look about it; in the way each letter is drawn, font, detail, etc.

The man seems even more confused as this tiny little thing addresses him.

DIALOGUE: “Excuse me, Sir. I have come to take your immortal being to its next destination.”

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 4

Grimmsy’s purple eyes gaze directly at the man’s eyes, the two seeming to take in the other. Grimmsy appears as if he is trying to be polite, “substantial” in a faintly commanding way, and quite solemn. The first and third succeed very well, the second comes across about the same as a kid threatening their parents with a plastic lightsaber. The man appears as if he is still just a bit confused and curious; mildly interested as they gaze at each other in silence.

U.S. Marshalls (1998)

Good: Jones

Pretty good: Snipes, Downey

Indifferent: Most of the rest

Really bad: The wig

If this came out by itself, on its own, it would be seen as a somewhat generic but decent chase/suspense/thriller/whodunit with a pretty good cast and a certain amount of intelligence.

As ‘The Fugitive 2’ it’s a huge disappointment.

So…if you’re gonna compare, don’t bother watching.

Without Harrison Ford, the focus shifts from “THE Fugitive” to “a fugitive”; Wesley Snipes is pretty good but he’s not Ford, and he can’t carry the movie.

The writer or writers probably realize this, which is why this is much less Snipes-centric than ‘The Fugitive’ was Ford-centric.

The addition of Robert Downey Jr helps, the lines are spread out more among Jones’ crew, and it becomes much more about the chase/suspense/thriller/whodunit aspect than the rooting-for-a-likeable-character aspect.

If you like TL Jones’ character and crew, give it a watch. If not, skip it.

Grade: C

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 2

Man’s head has turned slightly to HIS right, not quite directly towards the left side of the frame but enough to indicate something there has attracted mild interest in some way.

From stage left a very small being, no more than two feet high (in scale), has started to enter the frame.

Figure appears as follows: covered from “head” to “toe” in a long black garment; a cowl covering the “head” and draping down slightly from its apex but appearing held in place by something, and very neatly so. However nothing is visible under the cowl except for a pool of pure blackness, absolute and complete with the exception of two purple eyes that seem to glow slightly in an otherworldly fashion. The placement of the eyes indicates they may be attached to a “head” (and the relative distance from the top of the cowl indicates the same) of some sort, but nothing else is visible in that regard. The garment itself trails down from the cowl to the very top of the path: the appearance indicates the being may be either walking or floating, it’s impossible to determine. The fabric appears old, almost ancient, but is undamaged. The garment comes out from the bottom of the cowl in the front at a very slight angle, maintaining that until it reaches the same point as in the back; again suggesting a physical form may be there though none can be seen. The appearance is clearly supernatural but so tiny and with such cute big purple eyes that the effect is more “awwww” than fear.

Figure is holding a very real-looking scythe: appearance is of an extremely miniature version of what WOULD be, if much larger, a rather dangerous (and sharp) looking weapon. As it is, the relative size of it makes it rather underwhelming. How the scythe is being held is unclear: its appearance originates from the section of the garment where sleeves would be (and are drawn, again in the fashion of possibly containing a physical form), but the base of the weapon disappears into the sleeves near where “hands” might be, without showing whether they exist one way or the other.

There is a certain ominous air about the figure in all drawn aspects; the vast majority does not look “cute” in and of itself, but the size of the figure and the weapon it wields (as well as the purple eyes, which seem quite neutral, not sinister) combine to form a rather odd picture…unusual to say the least.

Grimmsy Grimmling – Number 1 – Frame 1

Plain box, grass in the background and a cobble path in front. Daytime, a very ordinary sky; a few happy clouds, pleasant, somewhat sedate.

Man standing on the right on the cobble path seeming fairly neutral, not doing anything, facing forward and slightly to HIS left in a manner indicating a calm, almost lackadaisical attitude.

Man is of average everything: height, weight, appearance. Quite generic, with just a few tiny touches to distinguish him from being completely clone-like.

Eugenics – A Travesty Of Science

Nazi Germany is the extreme example, but it makes the point: given the ability to interfere in any way with the reproductive process, even the slightest inroads to controlling what kind of people are born and what kind are not, ANY government with the wrong person or persons in power (which could occur in any government in the world) could – legally or illegally, hidden or visible, publicly condemned or publicly endorsed – wield enormous power over the “type” of people that they want…and do NOT want…born.

To suggest it’s not highly possible, and plausible, that this would eventually happen to some degree is naive. Science creates, it does NOT control. Power controls, government controls; and what is made to be benevolent can and always will have the potential to be used – by those with no interest in benevolence – to its worst possible extent. There are many examples in history of initially benevolent discoveries warped and twisted to be extremely malevolent.

It’s like the saying goes…

“First they came for…”

Even starting out with only the SLIGHTEST interference has very real potential to lead to, eventually, total control.

If you believe that any government, given the ability to in any way control reproduction in terms of filtering out “undesirable” elements…or to have any say in what “types” of people are born…would not potentially misuse this ability, you are either incredibly naive or you have a faith in the essential “Good” of humanity that is well-intentioned but false.

Thoughts that came so easily after a recent re…viewing of Star Trek:TOS ‘Space Seed’…

A suggested slogan: “Eugenics – For When You Want Your Accomplishments Created In A Test Tube”.

Really that’s all it is…nothing a “superman” has as ability is earned or worked for in any way, merely given. No accomplishment, no hardship, no effort…pride over how they happened, by pure chance, to be created.

Now that’s just sad.

Khan is pretty much the equivalent of Mr. Dingle, The Strong…except more dangerous. Given amazing ability (by pure chance), using that ability on petty, selfish, completely NON-“superior” actions and pursuits.

The brilliant idea of the eugenically enhanced super-mind:

Conquer the world.

Wow…noone’s ever thought of that before.

In fact, anyone that believes that by virtue of an enhanced ability to learn/improve/comprehend that they did NOTHING to acquire that they are in ANY way “superior” to others is actively INFERIOR…a completely illogical, self-deluded, LaVeyan-like idiot who would fail John Cleese’s school in the first year; worthy of pity if they weren’t dangerous by their inherent boorish, arrogant, petty “goals”.

Eugenics is a vicious, brutal, disgusting, totalitarian, fascist and complete violation of individuality and the rights, dignities, and worths of the individual.

Unless you stand to gain from this (wanting only the best, strongest, most intelligent genetically engineered I-hesitate-to-call-them-humans to make up your workforce) or unless you have absolutely no regard for individuality, liberty, or the concept of personal identity as sacred, I fail to see how any “intelligent” person cannot understand this. Assuming, of course, they have the basic morals of a non-sociopath.

People are born the way they are, and everything they do (assuming they aren’t in the .1 percent) requires at least SOME effort…an active desire to learn or improve, not an egotistical vegetable-like state of soaking in things because you can’t help it, like some sort of sponge or a parasitical being that required no apparatus.

In FACT, people born eugenically “perfect” would be an active detriment to the human race: perfection would become the norm, destroying individuality…among other things. Since only the most desirable traits are necessary, selective filtering would make mankind smarter, stronger, healthier…more homogenous, with fewer and fewer variations, closer and closer to simply clones of the one “perfect” example.

You can only make people perfect by taking away their humanity.

Knowledge or power gained without effort lacks wisdom.

Is the slow devolution of humanity into more perfect, more machine-like, more egotistical – the slow transformation from diversity to a more Borg or Landru inspired society something positive?

Let’s not make this statement accurate:

“This is a soulless society, Captain. It has no spirit, no spark. All is indeed peace and tranquility; the peace of the factory, the tranquility of the machine. All parts working in unison.”

HOW I WROTE THIS:

I think
I went to school
I’ve read books
I’ve read articles
I’ve undergone hardships
I’ve actively analyzed with the possibility of my premise being incorrect
I’ve expended effort
I have morals
I am not an elitist
And lastly and leastly, I was born with a certain degree of intelligence

Inspirational Quote: “Khan…I’m LAUGHING at the ‘superior’ intellect.”

And, of course, the “superior” intellect responds with arrogance and stupidity.

No surprize.

Also see:
‘Space Seed’
‘The Return Of The Archons’
‘Gattaca’
‘Brave New World’ (imagine it’s better written)
‘1984’
‘Minority Report’
‘The Hangman’
“Foot-In-The-Door Technique”
“Creeping Normality”

The Circle Of Death And Cute Purple Eyes

Since everyone else seems to find the idea of drawing for my comic really…interesting, I’ve decided to present it in pure written form.

That’s right, each frame will consist only of the pure, undiluted description of what happens. This brings to you a higher degree of authenticity, and is only being done because I can’t find an artist.

And I assure you, I am the best comic writer in this room.

I shall make you a comic. I shall call it…”Grimmsy Grimmling, Escort Of Souls”.

*boppy music…*
*finished, pushes it to the edge of your Circle Of Protection: Little Death*