The Chronicles of the Angry Geologist

Here...ville

This is one of the neater concepts for a webcomic I've seen in a while. It follows the adventures of a headstrong girl Mirka, who wants to grow up to be a dragonslayer, and her family. It's pretty standard fantasy, with a couple of twists that make you unable to put it down.

First, I've been unable to nail down the time period and place this is supposed to be set in. We could be talking about an insular community in post-war Europe, or a 1950's Levitton, or ten years from now. I mean I can nail it down a little bit- they didn't have electric stoves or lightswitches in the 1400's. Stuff like that absolutely fascinates me. And as far as we can tell from the kids' point of view, magic more than exists in the world.

Second, the cast is entirely Orthodox Jewish (with the exception of the possible witch that Mirka and her brother meet, but you'll have to read it to find out what's up with that), and the creator Barry Deutsch really brings their family traditions to life. You don't see too many of that particular faith in comics, and it's a refreshing change of pace.

Mirka's relationship with her shrewd stepmother is also something to hold dear in this comic. Mirka will, as most kids do, start arguments to get out of doing chores- but Mirka and Fruma don't have normal mother-daughter fights. They argue about free will, or good and evil, or the ecology of dragons. And yet, throughout each exchange, you never get the feeling that either one doesn't genuinely care about the other. I'm really looking forward to seeing this develop.

The magic is real. The art is sepia-toned. And the challah smells delicious, I imagine. I've found a new reason to look forward to Wednesdays!

Read em if you got em.

To be honest with you, I'm not really sure what to make of this one. I like the premise- brilliant female scientist and single mom with two brilliant little girls. It's got potential to be a good story- but that's about where it stops.

I can identify with the kids- one is crazy and causes trouble, the other is cynical and was probably born thirty. They're the kind of answers to Calvin and Hobbes that I'd like to see in the papers. Sometimes, the strip gets a bit preachy and political, but that's forgivable.

But the adult protagonist I'm having trouble with- name one female scientist that treats her kids as a science experiment (even more unbelievable that they're OK with this). She's totally unbelievable in other ways, too, like the fact that she got a sperm donor and a surrogate mom to both carry them and take care of them for the first year of life, rather than... you know. In fact, the author of the comic leads the reader to believe that she's never even begun... you know... the normal way. Can you identify with that? I can't- and I haven't even done "the normal way" yet.

And yet for as tough and no-nonsense as she seems to be, she breaks down in front of her kids' dad's wife because she's worried she's not doing right by them (if you feel that way, you're probably not and you should probably change something, then!) But it all magically ends up to be OK, and nothing changes. I understand that comics are the realm of the absurd and impossible, but you've at least got to make your characters have some kind of depth- right?

There's quite a bit about this comic to like- the art has improved since the inception, largely due to the author hiring a cartoonist (*shrug*). It's got a couple of good one-liners, and the running gag about squid ink is worth showing up for. But as far as a review, I'm going to go with, "Doesn't live up to its full potential." And that's really kind of sad.

This more or less summarizes my interactions on the discipline end with the majority of my teachers.

Ozy and Millie

As many of you who have known me for over five minutes will attest to, I absolutely despise plagiarism. I deal with it enought that I've come to believe that if a student is caught copying a homework assignment off of a webpage, he or she should fail that assignment. If he or she is caught twice, he or she should be kicked out of college and be forced to take that minimum wage job at McDonalds.

I value intellectual property very seriously, and if you're profiting off of something that isn't yours without giving the guy that actually did the work a cut, you should face consequences.

( Which is exactly why I'm pissed off about this! )

I have decided I need to post here more often, so I'm starting a new tradition. Today and every Thursday from here on, I'd like to share with you a few of my all-time favorite webcomics. Unlike the stuff you find in stores, these are independent, uncensored (some are very NSFW), and most importantly, free. If you don't mind looking at a few ads, you can gaze, gasp, and giggle all you want!

So, let's get started: first up is my new discovery, Digger. I liked it right off the bat because of one thing: geology humor! Where else can you find that? The heroine, a wombat named Digger-Of-Unnecessarily-Convoluted-Tunnels (Digger for short) has somehow gotten trapped far away from home because of a magic spell of unknown but likely malevolent origin. It takes elements of myths and religions from our world and mixes them all together with a good helping of fantastic creatures and talking animals.

I could sit here and go on and on about it, but I doubt I could do it justice. You should go read it, come back, and tell me what you think.

Seriously! Go!