Skunkzilla

Oh! Skunkzilla is coming to weigh in on airport debate! Aha! Oh!

Mark Trail. Giant animals. And so on.

Carbon Alley - 4/27/2007

Click here to see what Einstein really said.

It's also worth noting that I dumped half a bottle of India ink all over my carpet when I was working on this strip. I accept it as an occupational hazard, but for a second I looked like Reddy in the last panel. And it happened right after I finished the last panel. I guess that's what you call synchronicity.

On Blogging

Ha ha. I love O'Reilly's book covers.

I saw mention somewhere today of how blogging has jumped the shark. I actually think the phrase "jumped the shark" has jumped the shark, but on a somewhat related note, my blog is having an identity crisis.

I first started this thing as a cheap and dirty way to get my comic strip online. Very soon after that carbonalley.com was born, but I thought I would use my blog as an RSS feed and to continue to promote the comic. Right away I realized that to keep my blog fresh with Technorati I would have to post more than once a week. Combine that with a compulsive need to talk about whatever I happen to be wrapped up in on any given day and there you go, consistent bloggage.

But what is a random blog worth, really? It's one in a hundred million. Everyone thinks they've got something interesting to say. I do know, however, that despite my low volume of traffic, I have come into contact with some pretty cool folks. So that really makes it worth it, as I ponder this right now.

Anyway, this blog may be evolving soon. The most popular blogs tend to be about technology and whatnot, whereas niche blogs, whether they be about cartooning, Hungarian film, or Faberge egg collections, have much fewer readers. This blog has the distinction to be the only blog about random stuff that Jeff likes, a niche that I fear is, although underrepresented, much too subjective. But we'll see. I'll be heading to NYC in a couple weeks to see some art and culture, so maybe I'll come back with a clear idea of why humans do the things they do. But in the meantime, I'm just going to post more stuff that I like.

Thanks for reading!

Carbon Alley - 4/20/2007

Oh, Those Sirens

When I was digging around for Vonnegut images the other day I found this book cover of Sirens of Titan from his early, less-renown days. The artwork is less about the actual story and more about sexed up aliens and probey things. This is one of those instances where I love something for it's visual style and vintage '60's flavor, and hate it because Dell is manipulating the buyer at the expense of the author. Of course, if you as the author are trying to break out, I'm sure you'd favor anything that got the books off the shelves. But the same thing goes for some of Kerouac's early printings. I'll post more when I find them.

Birdland

Cool Charlie Parker album art I pulled from this comprehensive Japanese website.

Carbon Alley - 4/13/07

Vonnegut, RIP

I first read on Boing Boing that Kurt Vonnegut passed away. The web is being loaded down with remembrances, so I thought I would add mine. I had read several of his novels before I got to Sirens of Titan, which was the second he wrote. But this is the one that really spoke to me, for reasons that are a little vague to me now. I suppose I should read it again, but the part of the story that always comes back to me is when they are marooned in the bowels of Mercury and they discover the little blue creatures. I can't begin to give it justice, but it was just so perfectly odd and poignant and sad to me. But Vonnegut was good at that, giving us the ridiculous but making it sound perfectly natural while leaving us subtly and profoundly affected.

He came to NMU about eight to ten years ago, and for some reason I didn't go. I'll always regret that.

Big Animules in My Dreams

Another grotesque monstrosity of a critter in Mark Trail. Incidentally, I had a dream last night about big animals. Here's how it went, and this is all the absolute truth, I swear -

I was a passenger in a elaborately constructed metal glider. Me and a bunch of people I know. Well, first we were attacked by gigantic storks, some with human bodies. We managed to evade them by employing some chain-type mechanism. And then we crashed into a lake full of fresh water sharks. These were just average in size. However, once we were airborne again, and flying over Kentucky, below us there appeared hundreds of giant gorillas fighting not-so-giant elephants. And then giant gorillas were dropping from the sky, from B-52s. And then a giant tucan attacked us, but I threw something sharp at it and it disappeared. We finally landed in a shallow cove, and the U.S. Marines came, and gave us a round of applause.

Thank you Mark Trail, for making my dreams incomprehensible and idiotic. Regardless, I hope it picks up where it left off when I fall asleep tonight.

Carbon Alley - 4/06/07

Public Domain Daffy 2

To Duck... or Not to Duck
1943

Here's another short off this hideous VHS tape I own that's still in the Public Domain. It's by Chuck Jones, and for the life of me I can't figure out why it hasn't been in regular circulation, because it's hilarious. Must have something to do with the violence. I gotta admit, I remember wanting to play out the whole scenario for real, which would mean a whole lot of hurt for some unsuspecting friend. But, it's all for the comedy, you know.

Big Ol' Animules

This is nothing new for Comics Curmudgeon readers, but I'd like to point out to everyone else that humongoid animal mutations are quite commonplace in the strangely disturbing world of Mark Trail.



Here, a gigantic goose comes to a reasonable conclusion about a visitors itinerary.



And here we're beaten over the head with some clunky symbolism. Kinda like the rat at the end of The Departed.