Name The Strip - 2/19/05

It's finally here. Behold... my first comic strip. Meet Orangedeath and George.



Help me come up with a name for this strip. Suggest a name and/or tell me what you think.

There will be more to come. I don't know at what pace, but the ultimate goal would be to have a daily strip.

Leave your comments.

FUNPAK - Week 3 Review

Rotting Hills and The Manly Bee round out the premiere of all 10 series. YTV has definitely saved the best for last. This week's show was chalked full of shorts worthy of a full length series. It's going to be quite a battle to see who comes out on top of this week as well as at the end of it all.

Last Week's Winner: Sidekick

This week's show featured:

Rotting Hills

Clark's New Home: Dad decides to move the family out of the chaotic city to the relaxing Restful Hills. He's the only one that doesn't notice that the town has been overrun by zombies and is now Rotting Hills.

Pro - Great characters and overall feel.
Con - Just an introduction to the series. Can't wait for more to see where they take it. (not really a con but I needed to put something down.)

The Manly Bee

Return of The Manly Bee: The Manly Bee after ridding the city of crime retires but promises to return if evil ever should. 50 years later his greatest enemy; Doc Zombie, returns and The Manly Bee and The Ugly Duckling are called back into action.

Pro - Bumble, Bumble, Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! You gotta love a good war cry. Funny premise think of The Tick aging and becoming Mr. Magoo.
Con - It's not The Tick(I miss The Tick). The newsreel intro of Manly Bee in his prime brings back too many memories.

Gruesomestein's Monsters

Dr. Heckyl & Mr. Jerk: Dr. Heckyl is riding the train and has to share his car with a jerk bank robber. Dr. Heckyl is passive aggressive but watch out when the lights go out.

Pro - Excellent Dr. Heckyl and use of the Jekyll and Hyde material which everyone is familiar with.
Con - Animation comes across and a little rigid.

Martini & Meatballs

Hiccups Begone: Martini and Meatballs are out of cash and want to eat. With the help of Silk E. Wurm they take to busking on a sidewalk until Meatballs gets the hiccups.

Pro - Pizza Gelati and the contents of Martini and Meatballs' Fridge.
Con - My pick for best show from Week 1 was clearly the weakest of the bunch here.

Vote: Rotting Hills

Cast your vote at YTV.
Remember to watch Thursdays at 7:30 pm EST (Repeated Tuesday's at 9:30 pm EST)

Previous Week

Week 1

If only Sunday weren't the only day of the week.

With Fox launching American Dad May 1st as part of the Seth MacFarlend Comedy Hour (the other half hour is new Family Guy) which will air after the 350th episode of The Simpsons. Arrested Development has been cut back from a standard 22 episodes to 18. This raises doubts of whether it will return next year. Although Fox has come forward and said that it is not cancelled. The rating are a mediocre 6 million a week, even with its critical acclaim and 5 emmys it still might be doomed.

I just latched on to this show, this season and would be pissed if it got cancelled. With the cancellation of Dead Like Me, I don't know how much more of my favourite shows going down I can take. It doesn't surprise me though, Fox has a horrible reputation off killing great shows.

Some great shows Fox has cancelled before their time.

The Tick (FOX, 2001)
Andy Richter Controls the Universe (FOX, 2002-2003)
Family Guy (FOX, 1999-2002)
Futurama (FOX, 1999-2003)

If you haven't checked out this show you should try to catch at least two episodes. Give it two episode because there is a lot going on in a single episode and you might miss a majority of the humour trying to keep up with all the characters.

FUNPAK - Week 2 Review

Sorry for the delay folks, I was away on vacation and there was no YTV there. This weeks entries are considerably stronger than all of those in the first week. A couple series are starting to show promise of becoming a show or shows that the public will come to embrace.

This week's show featured:

Sidekick

Maximoble: Maximan is missing and Eric and Trevor go through all his stuff. Trevor convinces Eric to take the maximobile out for a spin.

Pro - Loaded with pop culture references.
Con - Timing of jokes are a little off, given time this series could become very witty and sharp if they can pick up the pace.

Harold Rosenbaum: Chartered Accountant

Audit of Evil: Introduces Harold Rosenbaum, Jenny Florence, and Ledger Lad. Harold receives a file from a shady accountant as he prepares for vacation after tax season. He is jumped in his office by thugs and thrown out the window in a cliff hanger ending. Some many unanswered questions.

Pro - Similar animation style to rocket robin hood. Film noir feel.
Con - Terrible animation, similar to rocket robin hood. Title and character design suggest a show similar to Sealab 2021, but this show couldn't be further from it.

Miracle Koala

Belt for Punishment: After escaping a mob after Miracle Koala, Joe "Miracle Koala" and Nero an emperor penguin find themselves taking part in a tag team wrestling match which has the winner moving on to Australia to defend their title.

Pro - Phenomenal character design and laugh out loud funny. An emperor penguin, second only to the jackass penguin.
Con - Can't find any...That it was only 8 minutes long.

The 9th Life of Sherman Phelps

Serenity Now: Ronald and Sherman unload a truck of beef disturbing Mr. Titi's on his day off. Ronald becomes possessed by one of Sherman's previously lives who intend to finish Sherman's 9th life.

Pro - Strongest series so far with non-speaking characters. Sadist gags similar to spy vs. spy.
Con - If only the characters spoke....(doesn't really subtract from series though.. still decent.)

Vote: Miracle Koala

Cast your vote at YTV.
Remember to watch Thursdays at 7:30 pm EST (Repeated Tuesday's at 9:30 pm EST)

Previous Week

Damn You Gary Larson!!!

Ever since Gary Larson retired and the production of The Far Side desktop calendar stopped I have wonder the comic strip world in search of a replacement.

I get the comic strip, Spot the Frog delivered to my inbox every morning from comics.com. They allow you to subscribe to one strip for free and have it delivered to you daily. You can pay a small fee and add several other comics and get your own comic section mailed out to you but I don’t feel like coughing up the money for it.

I’ve been following Spot the Frog strip since it began. It started off looking promising, a small talking frog lives with an old man and pays his rent with spare change he finds in the couch. It has a serial story or theme that would run for a week and then a new storyline the next week. But lately its seems for the last 2 or 3 months he’s been milking this snowman story line like it was a freakin’ soap opera. I’m so sick of it.

Today I’ve decided enough is enough. Reading my daily comic strip is too important to have a mediocre strip delivered to me day-in and day-out. It’s bringing down my quality of life and my attitude. I am changing my subscription to Monty.

Monty is a quirky comic strip created by Jim Meddick spoofs suburbia, trashes tacky TV shows and offers absurdist commentary on everything from hosing down spider monkeys to the latest conspiracy theory. The 20th anniversary of Monty is this Friday.

If anyone else has any suggestions on which strip I should check out let me know. The Far Side was my all-time favourite. Dilbert is second. Anything that has crazy off-the-wall humour I’m all over it.

I'm back.... and I'm deaf

I'm back from my vacation to Idaho.

Had an awesome time and will definitely go back, everyone I met kept telling come back in the summer there's a lot more to do. I had a blast snowboarding though.

While boarding the plane in Boise I'm pretty sure that I walked by Troy McClain from the first season of the apprentice. He was in first class, he had the hair and the accent. I didn't stop to look to closely but he is from Idaho so I'm thinking the chances of it being him were pretty good.

I was sitting in the John Grisham section of the plane, The two people in my row were both reading his novels. I was working my way through Douglas Adams' The Restaurant at the End of The Universe (which I finished as my plane touched down in Toronto, excellent ending but so frustrating to read because it was so excellent...read it and you will understand.)

My ears popped on the way up on the from Boise to Minnesota and didn't pop when we landed. I had three hours to kill in the St. Paul before connecting to Toronto. I walked at least 80% of the enormous airport in a near silent daze. I got burger king and tried to order onion rings instead of fries. I ended up with fries. I then went to TCBY and tried to get a raspberry frozen yogurt in a cone. I couldn't understand the guy behind the counter and he couldn't understand me. I ended up with a cone with free raspberry topping...yeahh!! Score one for the deaf guy!

I boarded my plane back to Toronto. I was assigned to row 16 by the time I got back to row 8 it started smell like someone had cut one. I figured someone trying a little too hard to force a bag into the overhead and one squeaked out. As I continued down the aisle it got stronger and stronger. I was practically gagging by the time I got to my seat. I don't know if someone crapped on the floor or someone unleashed the fury in the back of the plane from the last flight. After about 5 minutes the smell thankfully went away. I couldn't imagine being the person responsible for that, you'd either be laughing your ass off watching these people practically drop or die from the embarrasement.

Here's the only picture I took during my whole trip. This is leaving Idaho.

My camera is so large, clumsy and goes through batteries like they're candy that I didn't use it for pictures. My friend did use his camera and will be emailing me the pictures. I may post some of them.

My ears still haven't popped yet, hopefully my hearing will return soon. Until then enjoy sneaking up behind me.