[a_g]: 2016

These are the posts I have chosen for Andy’s blog, t_s. This was fun! Yay small writing projects!

For the month of January I have chosen the post entitled, My Friend 2.0. While most of us sit in silence with our feelings trying to claw their way out of our eyeballs, Andy, in this sketch, admits love he feels for his friend, which ends up being more awkward and uncomfortable than he expected. I enjoyed the Robot 2.0’s reaction, being unaware that the word “love” would come into play between him and his platonic guy friend, he could only process the information silently and open-mouthed. The dynamic of Andy’s projected love versus 2.0’s warm, but obviously uncomfortable stance on the matter of his looming death and his friend’s feelings, created a silly, and relatable last two panels of the conversation.

Febdeb!

February’s comics were hard to choose from, as the series took a bit of a step towards the kind of open-ended question comics I have enjoyed since being a kid such as, “Non Sequitur,” and, “Pearls Before Swine.” As my dry humor becomes dryer, though, and my age makes me pose the question, “WHY?!” more than anything else in this world, I have chosen Lying Down Thoughts over the month’s first post, Topic of the Day. I’m a sucker for the more diary flair fever I felt as Andy stopped in the middle of a conversation and cruised the streets until he was home, all the while silent, dark captions hanging overhead like a French film’s dialogue box. Then came color and dissonance with the fact that we can question what ever we want, the world will go on and so will the universe. We’ll always look for an answer that doesn’t usually come until we aren’t looking for it anymore.

Ma…Ma…Marchooooo!

I have chosen for the month of March, the comic titled, Erin’s New Segment. First of all, Erin is probably the cutest character in the entirety of the blog to me, and every time she has a panel to herself saying, “OOOOOOO,” with that, “o” mouth I can’t help but smile! Then, a new feature of the blog I hadn’t seen before, a hip new beat from Soundcloud.com, a cool, popular source of media I have really come to enjoy over the past year, made by the author! As the panels continued with harsh black backgrounds and short, piercing words, I found myself literally raising my eyebrows, head rocked backwards at the final panel, “Acquire power and status to increase odds of reproductive success.” It hit me in a funny way, a real powerhouse way that I didn’t associate Erin’s cute little cloud with, and that contrast kept me interested.

Arra-Arra-April

Twoxas! What a funny little series within the month of April 2016. Encompassing the tension of friendship, road trips, and spontaneity, this small comic series kept me giggling with every side-glare. I’ve been through a few cross-country trips now, and even though this is a depiction of an imaginary one (I assume?!) it is very accurate. Especially in the end, when Erin realizes she has a dentist appointment and they must return. In my opinion, a brilliant end to a road trip that probably would have ended unhappily had they actually gotten to Twoxas.

May I?

The post I’ve chosen to talk about for the month of May is 6 Comics in One Day: Not a Spelling Bee, A Spelling CRAB! This post was hilarious, as I traveled through time to witness Crab’s spelling struggles. I don’t think many other characters are represented in the way Crab is, as a very strong, adaptable and powerful “good guy” character. When a flaw is revealed for the first time, the weight of his mother’s disappointment and frustration with spelling lands hard on the reader. But perhaps it’s not his mother’s disappointment we see, but, revealed in the future by the mutated alien cyborg Crab mom, her love and acceptance of Crab, the truth she felt she had to tell him when she wanted him to grow up tough, and, unfortunately, the truth he might never hear, that she loved him and always believed in him.

Jewel Eyes

I was glad to see the return of t_s after a month long hiatus wherein the author was participating in summer camp, experiences reflected in July. The quiet moments struck me the most in many of the segments, contrasting hard with the chaos of demon children and restless inner thoughts. I remember when the post, A Conversation on the Last Night of Camp was released, I might have read it three or four times. I’m not sure if the character opposite Andy was a young summer camper or another counselor, but the honesty in answering his or her own question with a reassuring confession made me feel warm inside. I liked that Andy let the person talk, something from the months other comics I could tell was a habit, letting the world happen around him and finding solace in the silence. I also enjoyed the reveal of a beautiful, clear night sky scene in the final panel, paired with, “I really really really love it here.” Well done.

Augustus

I liked several posts this month, mostly for all these unknown characters that appeared without much context except through Andy’s one-way conversations. The three I chose from were Predicament, Priorities N’ Stuff, and Tortidlos. My vote for Tortidlos was extremely biased, as he came from a comment I made on a typo the author made in a previous post. Priorities N’ Stuff is probably my favorite between the other two, because it shows how we tend to cast our problems out to our friends or strangers for opinions, answers, or conversation, but we don’t always look at what they’re dealing with on their own time. While Andy poses an important metaphysical thought, the creature he wishes was listening to him is hauling what looks like a giant rock. Or I could look at it as Andy’s brain trialing off onto a tangent while Andy himself is dealing with more physical hauls.

MY Birthday Month, Hooray, September!

Enough with the deep looks into these comics, look at the colors!! Posts Crullers, More Crullers, and Crullerful Cromics were definitely my favorite this month. I like seeing the artist’s creativity expand beyond what is expected. I especially enjoyed More Crullers because of the different predicaments of the characters, I imagined Erin in her own cloud of color, Andy next to a mountain, or a strange building, and then next to what I saw as a river and a sunset. They were very dreamy and very creative.

Octagonal!

What is the Opposite of Angst? This post! I felt my heart lift when I read this segment, because it’s so hard to find those nice moments and collect them all into one great day! I like seeing the character Andy succeed and smile. It’s a great contrast with Paper Clip Scientist and Rick, because Rick is the worst and Paper Clip Scientist just seems like he’s on an unsolvable journey. Plus, when my little second cousin read this post, perched on the arm of the couch beside me, he sang, “I got a pineapple hat!” and it made us both laugh and smile.

No.

Hummus and death tend to be two of my favorite conversation topics, so I have chosen About Hummus and the Inevitability of Death. Lately whenever I think about death, I creep myself out and send small shivers up my own back. “I’m not going to exist,” I think, “and that doesn’t make any sense to me.” BUT if I thought about that all the time, I would have a panic attack like my friend Blake did to his mom once because he couldn’t conceptualize his own death. This comic was a nice little reminder to us going through those weird quarter life crisis moments that the end may be nigh but who cares, there are nice things to think about like things that give us nourishment, like hummus!!!!! I wish I could show my Gramps this comic under a circumstance where he’d take it seriously.

DECEMBERNESS

December has turned out to be another hard-to-choose-from month, mainly because each post has a lot of good stuff going on. I enjoy the roundhouse kicking sheep who diminishes all in his path, I like that 2.0 is suddenly an uncle with a sister, Caroline, and I really like that fruit-head stealing flying guy who is challenged by Orange-Head guy. The Christmas posts with Andy and Erin are also really funny and fun, perfect dark humor for the holidays. December has been a strange, depressing month for me, so all of this sporadic comicking has been great for me to read! I’ll choose two different posts: Holiday Season, Conversate, Rock Friend, for its worms, awkwardly unwanted conversation, and deep looks into what it’s all about, and Sheep: Danger, for its cute sheep that kicks all manners of ass. Hooray for comics and good feelings!