Pre-’Pothetical Promotion

It’s almost that time again, which means it’s that time again.

Don’t worry, it’s pretty harmless. But for those of you who play PMOG (the Passively Multiplayer Online Game), I’ve made a couple of missions you may be interested in.

One, Making the Comics Funny Again, is a general tour of comic snark blogs, which received “massive props” for the rhyme scheme used on lightpost descriptions. The other, Gasoline Alley, is a collection of resources related to, well, Gasoline Alley.

You’ll have to sign up for PMOG to take the missions; visit the About page to learn about the game and sign up.

A Single Tear Doesn’t Mean He’s Sorry

For the first time, I’m kind of bummed that Sturdy and Amanda Lynn have a star-crossed romance that is going to end badly. And not just because their names combine in such media-friendly ways (Amandavant! Sturdilynn! Wallakleeb!)

No, seeing the tear in Sturdy’s eye drives home just how much he’s the girl* in this relationship. We’ve certainly seen evidence of this before, what with Amanda Lynn’s ability to do things and Sturdy’s willingness to be off to the side, frittering his life away on frivolities. Off-stage, you just know that Amanda Lynn’s got a whole collection of strap-ons that she’s just itching to use, in creative and sometimes physics-defying ways. (Of course, as Sturdy may very well have been a member of those well-to-do secret societies that rich doofuses join at Ivy League schools—I’m looking in your general direction, Skull & Bones—it may not be a wholly unfamiliar experience for the fellow.)

That went a bit crass, moreso than I intended when I started, so while I’m not sorry (this blog isn’t child-safe**), let’s move back to tamer waters. Today we get the revelation (to me, at least; longtime strip readers may well already know this) that Amanda Lynn knows her grandfather, and still considers him kin. (“Grandpa”, regardless of how badly misspelled, still implies a certain relationship, and usually affection.) Which brings up the question of why she didn’t tell him she was getting married. I mean, if I were getting married, I’d tell my grandparents, and they’re not even alive anymore. (I wouldn’t expect a fancy present, but that’s really not the point of a wedding, is it?)

I don’t quite understand Sturdy’s reaction to the Pye entrance. I mean, sure, he’s horrified to be marrying into a family of rural bumpkins, but he already knew the family was a bunch of rural bumpkins. This isn’t new information to him! Why is he so shocked that this other wing of the family is also rural bumpkins? Or, was he perhaps willing to accept three bumpkin-in-laws, but not seven? How is that tear-inducingly worse? Does it get him kicked out of Skull & Bones, or demoted to umbrella stand? (And yes, I mean that in a filthy way.)

Sorry*** to work blue, but there’s just not a whole lot happening in this strip. Maybe I’ll just stop now before I go really over the top. Like I did in Faceplant, a truly vile (but very funny) show I wrote and performed in last year.

Well, that was just shameless. Again, sorry****.

*This is used purely in the traditional sense, where men are the dominant gender while women stay in the background being supportive and all that stuff, rather than implying that women are somehow less capable than men or that that traditional sense is accurate today or ever really was.

**And neither is life. Suck it, overprotective parents!

***Not really.

****Also not really.

Up-to-Weekly Pre-’Pothetical Self-Promotion

The first Petroleum ‘Pothetical winner is coming in just a few minutes. But before then, I’m going to once again abuse my blogging power for a bit of self-promotion. And this one is especially for fans in Iowa, and fans of me in a silly outfit.

Next weekend, I’ll be performing with my improv group Three Legged Race at the Iowa Renaissance Festival. It’s at Middle Amana Park in the Amana Colonies May 3-4 (See this page for maps). The hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days, and tickets are $10. ($5 for kids.) I’m not sure precisely when we’ll be performing, but if it’s like our previous renaissance fair (yep, we’ve done one before; judge how you will) we’ll be performing about three times a day at various times throughout the day.

So, if your lifelong dream is to see me in Renaissance wear, this is your opportunity! (If that’s your lifelong dream, though, yikes.

Metapost: Pre-Big-Announcement Business

The Big Announcement, such as it is, is coming, I swear. But before that, I’ve got a couple more or less noble things to cover.

The more noble: I want to thank everyone for visiting. Since the big Comics Curmudgeon bump, daily readership has settled around 170 a day. Having spent a lot of my life writing stuff that, you know, no one reads, it’s gratifying.

And a special thanks to all commenters, who have corrected a fair number of mistakes on my part, and who have often demonstrated themselves to be funnier and more insightful than I. Every time there’s a comment, WordPress pings my e-mail… but it also pings my heart.

(Did I just write that? Perhaps we should have a group barf-off.)

Anyhow, stampeding toward the less noble: I am going to use this blog for self-promotion from time to time. Mostly related to my improv habit. So, for anyone in Chicago, I’d like to invite you to:

Yes, Brat Pack: The Musical, an improvised take on the ’80s Brat Pack films. I’m playing the Judd Nelson criminal role — in the picture I’m in the top left, in the really frightening wig, but it’s tough to sing with it so I’ll probably have a different one in the actual show.

It runs Thursdays at 8 p.m., May 8-May 29, at Gorilla Tango Theatre at 1919 N. Milwaukee, and tickets are $10. We’re also doing a sort of preview show as part of the Playground improv showcase on Tuesday, May 6 at 8 p.m. The Playground is at 3209 N. Halsted and tickets for that are $5.

For more show details, visit the Recapitulation Myspace page. (Recapitulation is the name of the improv group. The name, like so many improv group names, is an inside joke that has become less funny as time wore on.)

Coming shortly: The big announcement!