Sorry I hadn’t put the new strips up here immediately. It’s been a busy week, but I promise you, they will ALWAYS go up here.
That said, I lovvvvved creating the green text screen. I’ve done bits like that before, notably when the Devilettes play Zork – but this whole comic idea came from the idea of the pun atropOS… if you don’t get it, go wiki it. You’ll probably have a guess as to what may happen during some of the future comics. <3
Hey everyone!
It’s time again for me to shamelessly promote, and for me to ask YOU to shamelessly promote FOR ME!
As we get into the Spring season and the upcoming convention season, I want to try and get a slew of new readers coming to the site. I’m never going to be satisfied… I know. So please, if you know a place where I could go and promote – please, let me know!
If you like IHL enough – please attach the image at the bottom to where ever you can!
The Dot Revolution starts and ends with all of you!
Spread and post as you see fit:
COPY AND PASTE:
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There’s only so many ways I can tell you that I’m a fan of showmen. I’m a fan of those types of people that go out in the middle of a crowd and stand apart. The type that the crowds tend to form around instead of the other way around. Almost every single person I’ve listed has distinguished themselves in their field (as far as I’m concerned.)
Why should music be any different?
I don’t remember which one of my siblings owned Queen’s Greatest Hits. At least one of them did. So when the recraze of Queen happened in the early 90s with the rerelease of Bohemian Rhapsody due to the popularity of Wayne’s World, it wasn’t altogether unfamiliar. Shortly thereafter I went and bought my own copy of their Greatest Hits (and ‘Classic’) and knew half the songs already. I went Queen crazy. Within a few years I owned all of the albums, knew their entire discography, and could sing as many B-sides as I could hits.
Freddie Mercury was a showman, if not a touch flamboyant. (Silver jumpsuits, who didn’t know, really?) Add in Bryan May’s frenetic guitar riffs and once again, I was hooked by another set of folks who help define eras. Now, whether or not you agree that Queen was an era defining band or not is actually completely secondary to the fact that they did. (See what I did there?) Distinct guitar, a singer with a voice that ranged from rocking to operatic, and stage presence that even watching on old videos carries with it a certain electricity.
To this day, when I’m in a horrendous mood, even with my ever expanding musical tastes, I can still throw in Stone Cold Crazy and feel awakened, Seven Seas of Rhye and feel empowered, or Who Wants To Live Forever and find myself introspective and reflective. If that can’t qualify as a major influence on my life, what can?
“Listen all you people, come gather round
I gotta get me a game plan, gotta shake you to the ground
Just give me what I know is mine,
People do you hear me, just give me the sign.”
(Brief update: IHL will be returning to schedule 03/04. The blog will explain the brief hiatus.)
“Because when I’m good, I’m great… but when I’m bad, I’m better.” – Piper
Up until this point in time, the people I’ve posted about have tended to be more obvious figures. Whether it be because of the fact that they are writers or have some comedic influence, they make sense. This one might throw a few of you for a loop. (Those that don’t know my outside IHL activities, that is). I’m a professional wrestling fan and I have been since I saw Hulk Hogan lose the world title on Saturday Night’s Main Event due to ‘an evil twin referee’.
The theatrics of prowrestling have been with me forever. The good guy versus the bad guy. The anti-hero. The redeemable villain. These are all standard archtypes of any story, good or bad. It just so happens that you never see Sherlock Holmes give Moriarty a suplex or Luke Skywalker throw the big boot to Palpatine. The characters fight it out in mock combat in the hopes to prove their point. Sometimes in this, wrestling is great. Other times, it’s one of the most horrendous and base things on television.
During the 80s and stints during the 90s though, there was a character that I couldn’t help enjoying. Whether he was a good guy or a bad guy, when he talked – I listened. He came up with some of the craziest explanations as to why he wanted to hurt his opponents. He then would talk circles around them and in the end… get his ass kicked by the biggest names in the business. Rowdy Roddy Piper, the crazy scotsman.
Piper’s name is fairly well known in pop culture. It’s probably a mix of his wrestling, and his acting (Ok, specifically They Live) – why does he qualify so strongly to be listed in this influence list? It’s because of his attitude. His fire. He played the crowd when he was a bad guy and made them hate him. When he was trying to get under the skin of his opponent, he would take any piece of their character and pick it apart. The speed that his brain worked just to verbally massacre someone was incredible. Now imagine watching that as a chubby pre-teen in a middle school, surrounded by kids that mocked and teased… a little hero worship for a smooth talker might be kind of expected.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve gone and revisited the old tapes and promos that Piper did. They still mostly hold up. At times, when I’m on some sort of verbal tirade, I can even catch little cadences that I’m sure I took from my hundreds of hours dissecting prowrestling, and more specifically Rowdy Roddy.
Whether or not you like professional wrestling or even Piper himself, it can’t be denied that there is a raw charisma there. That charisma and almost insane elocution helped me get through at least a little bit of the worst years of my life – and in turn helped me find my own voice which is really all this is…
“Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased—thus do we refute entropy.” – Spider Robinson
In High School you have to discover yourself. The sporty types are moving into sports. The well developed girls are heading towards the sporty types. The dramatic are heading to the stage. I don’t think it’s a far off mark to say that I was a big huge frakking geek in high school.
Have I shocked you? Have I surprised you? I didn’t think so.
I read science fiction and fantasy and played dungeons and dragons and acted in a rennasaince festival. I’m not shooting these things down. I still do most of them. You figure out which ones I don’t… but, the fact is I was exposed to a lot of things and people. Hell, I was probably exposed to more than most, if only because I’m kind of charming so I slip into a crowd easily.
During these strange eclectic and wonderful times of my life I was introduced to Spider Robinson. He’s the sci-fi writer you’ve never heard about. Part Robert Heinlein and part Piers Anthony, the majority of his stories take place in Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon, a bar hidden on Long Island where people go to find out what they need. Some of the regulars are time travelers and aliens, Nikolai Tesla, and Pixel, the cat who walks through walls, but each of them has a story to tell eventually.. and they will.. eventually.
I won’t ruin how fun and silly and sarcastic and punny these stories are, because there are some mind-bending groany puns in there – but, the attitude of the book always felt right with me. If you need help, we’ll listen when you are ready to talk about it and share a drink to commiserate. If your life is overflowing with good, we’ll listen and drink with you to commend your good fortune. It’s a thought process that would make the world a better place. It’s a set of books that helped define who I am as a person, and inspired me to want to write.
So for those of you that are familiar with Callahan’s, please watch as I step up to the line and raise a toast to Spider Robinson for trying to refute entropy… somebody’s gotta do it.
‘…and the tumultous crash of shattered glass shook the God & Devil from their panel.’
“You’re doing it again…”
That’s what Bill of Silver Rage fame said to me as he read the ‘IDOL IDOL’ storyline. I had no idea what he was talking about, but he gestured to the Horsemen sitting in the front row and mocking Poseidon and whatever else is going on. Whether or not I (or any of you) realized it, there is another, more simple, story going on right underneath the main plot. The Horsemen have to sit and watch this… so they mock it.
If that’s not a small homage (one of many, mind you) to Joel, Mike, Dr. F, TV’S Frank, Pearl, and the Bots… nothing is.
I’m fairly certain my audience is pretty geek-savvy, but for the one or two of you who missed the MST3k boat, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 was a cable show (Comedy Central, Ha!, Sci-Fi Network) that featured the sillouette of a guy and his two robot pals mocking the best of the worst sci-fi, horror, and action flicks. Whether it was Sandy Frank, Toho Studios, or Ed Wood, they picked the creme de la crap and beat the hell out of it.
Raised in a sarcastic family, with a sarcastic brother and mother, and learning that shared pain is halved and shared joy is doubled leads you to the belief that runs hard in me today. If I laugh at it, it can’t be so bad. Ignoring the emotional ramifications of this (which are 100% accurate.. I laugh at the most horrible things), MST3k was the same reaction to cinema. It’s easy to tolerate anything when you can laugh about it with a friend. The show was meant to be watched by people like me… and whether it’s in IHL, or my wrestling reports, MST3k has continued to be a driving force behind all that I do.
If any of you Misties are out there and don’t know – Mike Nelson is currently doing RIFFTRAX, where he mocks big blockbuster hollywood movies – and Joel has joined back up with many of the team to do CINEMATIC TITANIC. I highly recommend them to all.
“If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes,
and other science facts…
Repeat to yourself it’s just a show,
I should really just relax…”
