Geeks of the Round Table

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2/26/14

Web Comic Wednesday: The Adventures of Dr. McNinja



Do you need to see anything else to understand why you should see this web comic in all its glory? There is a GIANT LUMBERJACK fighting a T-REX. Anything else I can say here is moot. But fine, I'll say things anyway, its probably what you came here for.

The Adventures of Dr. McNinja is a comic about a ninja who is also a doctor. Does that sound absurdly silly? Well, what if I told you his receptionist was a gorilla, and his sidekick was a raptor-riding child bearing the most magnificent mustache this side of Burt Reynolds? Then it might be starting to sound crazy-awesome.

Dr. McNinja and his associates protect the city of Cumberland, Maryland from a variety of threats, including but not limited to Dracula, zombie ninjas, 80's action stars turned super villains and “the most radical man in the radical lands”, known only as King Radical.

The Doctor himself comes from a family of Irish ninjas, and his main interest in superhero and ninja skills in general come from an obsession with wanting to be Batman. Despite his best attempts as always being the hero, his ax-crazy nature as a ninja often comes out, especially in the beginning. He has issues with obsession in general, as seen when he tries to thwart King Radical, but is still highly skilled in both doctoring and ninja...ing.

I can't even begin to list all of the side characters here and do them any justice. There the time-traveling mayor, the rest of the McNinja family, who are disappointed in their son's choice of career, the citizens of the Radical Lands, the Doctor's mentor Ben Franklin (a clone of the original) and the list just goes on.

The Good
If you enjoy crazy-awesome, then this one of the best things out there for you. Nearly everything runs on a mixture of rule of cool (you kind of have to be familiar with tvtropes to understand me, huh?) and the best cliches of 80's action movies.
Well, the ones not in here.
But you know what? They're still good stories in the conventional sense. There's still an arc, still character development in which they find out things about each other and themselves, and the twists and climaxes are still clever and exciting. Creator Chris Hastings has worked on Deadpool since the this comic has come out, and reading it you can certainly see why.

There is a fine line being being awesome and being off-putting and confusing, and this comic has a fantastic grasp of where that line is. There is a point where Dr. McNinja has to surf a rocket-powered robot from Dracula's moon-base back to Earth, and in context every single one of those words makes sense.

The Bad
I can't think of much to put in here. If you're looking for something artsy or dramatic, this isn't your comic. If you like Tarantino's movies, or just want to read something that's off-the-wall fun with little to no limits, then this is definitely up your ally.

The Verdict
LUMBERJACK. FIGHTING. T-REX.
In case you'd forgotten.


2/25/14

Holy crap fan art!

JustPlainJim at deviantart brought the characters of Eclipse Nightfire and Gammie to life!

2/19/14

Web Comic Wednesday: XKCD

As a student, I always hated math. It's not that I was terrible at it, I could just never shake the question of when in my life I was going to need to use cosine, or calculate the surface area of a pyramid. SO when I heard about XKCD, a comic entirely based on science and math, I was skeptical of my capacity to enjoy it.

Fortunately, my skepticism was soon quashed. Understanding of math and science isn't usually a requirement for understanding the jokes here, though it just might make the better. I wouldn't know. I don't understand math. Instead, the humor comes from, frankly, incredibly clever writing. Sometimes there isn't really any humor, but the writing and ideas are still interesting enough to keep you fascinated.

I realize that I'm not doing a great job of telling you what this comic is about, and that's because it's a very difficult thing to define. There are no main characters, no overarching plots, just whatever Randall Munroe thinks is funny or insightful at the time.

The Good
As I've said, the writing and ideas are top-notch, and will almost certainly keep your interest. Several times a comic will get incredibly deep or existentialist, then be brought back to humorous through the sudden use of water guns or carnivorous dinosaurs.

Others that don't have humor at all are more of experiments with the art form of online sequential art. Notably, one comic titled “umwelt” displayed a completely different comic depending on your browser, location and IP address range. Others will take advantage of zoom, panoramic view or gifs to make their joke.

If it seems like this “the good” segment is relatively short, its because its hard to put into words what makes this comic good. Do not misunderstand me, this comic is better than good, this comic is great. But the existential nature of a lot of them, combined with the lack of overarching structure makes reasons and themes somewhat difficult to pin down. At the end of the day, all I can really say is that each comic will leave you feeling...something. Even if you aren't sure what that something is.
I THINK I was amused...
The Bad
If you're looking for a comic with a load of deep characters or a complex plot line, look elsewhere. Likewise, many may be turned off by the stick-figure art style, or the comics that are all text. If visual art is what appeals to you, well, maybe this isn't for you either.

There are also a number of comics that remind me of those “inspirational” posters you would see behind a manager's desk. They're more heartwarming and tell the message better, but you can't shake the feeling that they're telling you “what life is all about”. Some people really get into that kind of things, I'm just not one of them, I suppose.

Lastly, for the sake of fair warning, the first comics on the site are not indicative of the entire thing. They're doodles from Munroe's school notebooks, and if you skip until you start seeing stick figures, you'll be at the actual comic.

The Verdict
Read this comic. Seriously, at least give it a good chance. It makes you think, makes you chuckle, and makes you...well, we'll just say “other”. There are reasons you may not get into it, but from what I can tell they're few and far between.