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It's funny. Laugh. Books Media Book Reviews

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell 115

Posted by timothy from the funny-"ha-ha"-not-funny-"lithium-time" dept.
Following the success of last year's User Friendly , O'Reilly strikes back. This time, it's a collection of 1999's comics (3 January through 11 December). Slightly oversized, with three daily strips or one daily and one Sunday strip to a page, this happy little collection will spruce up your coffee table and bring a smile to your guests. (If you have a coffee table, that is.)

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell
author Illiad
pages 122
publisher O'Reilly & Associates
rating 8
reviewer chromatic
ISBN 1-56592-861-x
summary See the world through slightly warped eyes with the gang at Columbia Internet in the second bound collection of Illiad's daily comic.
*

What's to Like?

When he's on, he's really on. Some of the strips in here are laugh-out-loud funny. Even when it's merely amusing, Illiad captures elements of the real world in their twisted glories. Who can't put real names to half of the personalities running around in his little experiment?

There's Mike, a network engineer, forced to choose a server OS based on mascot issues. AJ, the designer, is torn between his feelings for Miranda and his inability to relate to anything organic -- when he's not debating a caffeine-induced hallucination. Greg, head of tech support, can't believe his customers questions. Pitr, coder extraodinaire, eagerly awaits his recognition as an Evil Genius. Stef, marketing weenie, is haunted by his poor Quake performance and his inability to make any progress with Miranda. Miranda, equal parts geek and goddess, finds herself the equal of the male techs, but cannot quite understand their unique brand of communication. On the far side of reality are the Dust Puppy (an intelligent, innocent, and adorable ball of that stuff you ought to clean out of your server -- but with feet) and Erwin, an AI who's switched bodies more than Cher.

On his best days, Illiad reads like a combination of Doonesbury and Bloom County, with the requisite Open Source flavor. Linux usually comes out ahead and Microsoft way behind, though occasionally the situation's reversed. (Insert photo of Alan Cox reeling from sunlight after the MS Terminator steals his sunglasses). That's not to say that sacred penguins don't make good hamburger. (Once the boss approves migrating the servers to Linux, what do you do? Answer -- Nerf Gun duels to determine whose pet distribution is best.)

What's to Consider?

As UFies know, Illiad's Sunday comics are often topical. Remember eBay's spate of availability problems? ESR at Microsoft last summer? If so, you'll catch on pretty quickly. If not, you'll just have to scratch your head and keep reading. (There's also one comic missing the last panel on the top of page 18. If you're reading this, though, you'll find the proper punchline here.) For the purists, note that some strips appear in topic-related sections, not chronological order. That serves to bring out more of the subtle humor, in my opinion.

Also, Illiad's song parodies provoke mixed reactions. A lyricist, he's not, though his Gap parody hits squarely between the eyes. Illiad's better at the episodic stuff -- see his Star Wars storyline from the last book, or the strange tale of the One True Ping. Thankfully, the all-singing, all-dancing shorts are kept to a minimum.

The Summary

A potent mixture of wry social commentary, high technology, cynicism that bites back, and a good dose of innocence that really does win out in the end, if you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless. Submit to your inner Evil Genius, and let the rest of the world wonder why you're grinning so much. (And if you're really evil, you won't loan out your copy.)

Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.

Table of Contents

  • Preface -- Eric S. Raymond
  • Introduction -- Illiad
  • The Comics
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Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell More

Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell

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  • Still highly amused by UF, and I think 'Artur' said it best when he said this [userfriendly.org].

    --
    naguia
  • Maybe we should start a church you are so so very right brother. Bless you and stuff.
  • You can view it as selling out, or buying in. When people enjoy something like UF (or a particular band, or..) they want to buy the associated gear. If I buy a Chris de Burgh T-shirt, I know where the money is going. And frankly, I don't think Chris needs it, but it's my only way of rewarding the Artist and encouraging him to continue.

    I know it isn't a very Canadian thing to say but profit isn't a crime. If people didn't want the books, they wouldn't buy them. If his fans want the gear, why should Illiad refuse to sell it to them? Does this make sense? Why shouldn't Illiad facilitate his fans 'showing their colours', if THEY want? And lastly, if you don't like UF, then why are you reading this review?

  • You know, these comprehensive lists of "what we'll see" are becoming common enough that I think they now deserve a self-mention.

    --
    grappler
  • Anybody else notice the moon in this strip [userfriendly.org]? :-)
    The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
  • Let me first say that I do have moderater acces at the moment and I was going to mod you down but not because hating UF is not allowed. The reason I didn't was I wnated you to know why you where mod'ed down.

    Anyway, lets say that you made a website. This is all you did to recive income. You added new content to this webpage daily and you where getting millions of hits a month. However, you just relied on banner ads to pay for your expenses as well as those of three or four other people who are working full time four you. Withing a month your website would be shut down and you would be out on the street.

    Now, you may say the UF Media [ufmedia.com] makes them a sellout. Well, almost every sendicated comic has sold out so why not an online one? And even if UFMedia is not entirely a good thing, so what? The comic strip is still funny and they don't have anything nagging you to go to that site or that of your advertisers. The only thing are a few advertisements along the tops and sides of the page. And if this a bad thing I suggest you don't watch television because you are in for a real suprise.

  • I suppose you're a big fan of Family Circle then?
  • in a nutshell? tcd004
  • Ordered it the first day I could, read it, loved it. I read UF every day, so I'd seen all the comics before, but I still laughed out loud. Rating: Definite Buy

  • python. or i'll cut you.
  • And I suppose you have the same opinion about Dilbert or Rhymes With Orange, two of (IMHO) the most brilliantly funny mainstream comics out there right now. And neither Scott Adams nor Hillary Price is really all that much of an artist.

    If anything, User Friendly is much funnier than either of the above. The thing is that it's very in-jokey as well; for those who understand it, it raises the humor value, but for those who don't, it's a turnoff. I'm thinking you mostly just don't get the jokes.

    /Brian
  • wow, thats a good lesson on why you should ALWAY PREVIEW.
  • I read the strip every day, and (other than supporting Illiad), is there any reason to purchase this book if you've read ALL the strips?
  • Combine an egocentric creator....substandard artwork....repitious humor....and a fan base more concerned with the fact that the strip promotes their own techo-agenda than the fact that the strip is third rate on a good day.

    And there you have User Friendly.

    Demand the same quality from a designer (comic or GUI) as you do from your code and you might be surprised at the postitive reinforcement that will come from the online community as a whole.

  • User Friendly is NOT funny (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Huh? 'Wry social commentary'? Where exactly? All I can see is a bunch of endlessly recycled Windoze Sux/Linux Rulez 'jokes' and excruciatingly unfunny demonstrations of the stupidity of people who call helpdesks. Oh, they put a cup in a CD driver! What biting social satire! Presumably it is claimed that it is topical because it refers to current stories on Slashdot, but this is simply the only way Illiad can extend the life of the 'User Friendly'. Each strip follows the same formula as countless before it, so the only novel element is usually the name of the hated corporation being bashed. I have no idea what is meant by 'a good dose of innocence', but the cynicism is all to apparent - the cynicism displayed by the humor-impaired author in peddling this woefully unfunny crap to masses of sad tech-support staff desperate to prop up their egos with a load of formulaic pseudo-elitist bilge. 'If you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless.' Maybe. But then again maybe it's because you haven't had your sense of humor surgically removed, appreciate art that goes beyond that which a 5 year old could produce, and aren't so pathetic that you need your self-esteem constantly bolstered by reading every day about how you're so much cleverer than all those Windows users and people who actually need to ask questions about how to use computers.
  • Well since the post that spawned the one I answered used Neil Gaiman as an example I figured I'd throw Kurt in there too. I also use art rather loosely, more in Scott McCloud's 'anything that doesn't directly relate to survival' definition rather than specifically graphics. And ya got to admit, your bro is a great artist... wordsmith-wise.

  • First of all, since when has CARTOONS been considered art?

    Art Spiegelman. Neil Gaiman. Peter Bagge. Robert Crumb. Bill Griffith. Walt Kelley. George Herremen(sp?). Roy Lichtenstein. Robert Williams. Shall I continue?

    I won't say I *hate* User Friendly, but I don't think it's very creative, well-drawn, or funny. In a lot of ways, I think that Iliad may be the next Scott Adams: both of them are much better at marketing than cartooning.

  • I've been quietly reading through this whole thread, but this post really seems strange. I have a hard time seeing how the Start Wars parody could POSSIBLY be any low point at ALL in the strip. I read the static daily, and am still waiting for him to do another thing like the SW parody. :)
  • Tell you what. You go watch this, and afterwards, tell me if you don't feel robbed of 10 minutes of your life.

    I just watched it, and it's pretty cool.

    *RANT ON*

    What is wrong with making a few bucks (US or Canadian) off an idea. If you don't like it, don't watch/buy/read about it. Lighten up, wish Illiad well for his success, and move on. Maybe you too, with some skill, or luck, or both will succeed.

    *RANT OFF*


    --

  • I can completely negate Watterson's point in two words:

    Charles Schultz

    "Selling out" was practically invented by the Peanuts franchise (Snoppy's image is on everything; a buddy of mine has a great "Joe Hacker" T-shirt, for example) but you will never find a strip with more heart.

    That said, Calvin & Hobbes was a great strip for the run that it had. I kind of wish BW would take another stab at it someday.

  • Watch any half-hour of the Dilbert TV show, and you will never accuse a cartoonist of selling out again. What began its life as the funniest strip in the paper ended up as the worst show on television.

    Between that and the weird psuedo-science chapter at the end of "The Dilbert Future", it looks like Scott Adams has spent whatever geek cred he ever had.

  • I would say that the real irony is that you were modded up to (Score:4, Insightful), when your post contained absolutely no insight whatsoever. I'm sure all the /. trolls & karma whores are in awe of your technique. :)
  • well it isn't.

  • The one most important thing I'd like to say about Valdrax's post is that it's one of the very very few that made me actually think about what was said.

    I think I'd be lying if I didn't admit to having been quite naive about the entire corporate sponsorship path. I didn't know, and still don't fully understand what happens when one gets involved in this kind of business. However, I'm sure this is not seen as an excuse for those who see UF Media as "selling out."

    And to carry that a step further, I confess to feeling uncomfortable about the tone of the corporate site. Of course I accept responsibility for what's there, but having said that, I should also make it known that the more I consider the content of the site, the more I want to change it. Which means that a change will likely occur in the not too distant future.

    But I will disagree with anyone who claims that making a living from UF -- or any creative endeavour -- is "selling out." I note that Valdrax made no such claim -- his issues are about creative integrity, which I can address with the fact that regardless of who sponsors UF, they're most emphatically not immune to being barbed in the comic strip. There are other points that surround this, but instead of getting into them one by one, I'm hoping Valdrax et. al. will extend to me the benefit of the doubt and watch for the course adjustments UF makes corporately over time as we feel our way through this.

    A fellow webtoonist mentioned to me once that it's strange that when a cartoonist gets syndicated (and has their art/creation plastered all over Hell's half acre in merchandise, sponsorships, endorsements etc.) they're applauded. When a webtoonist builds their own business unit to act as their own syndicate, and do the same things as a syndicate, they're often subjected to a firestorm of criticism that rivals the napalm drops in Viet Nam. I partly understand the reason for this, but not fully. Once again, I'm feeling my way through all of this, and I won't hesitate to admit that trailblazing can be bewildering.

    The point to all of this is that I do readily admit to being imperfect and to making mistakes, which I hopefully have learned from. The ultimate goal behind what I'm doing with UF is to prove that yes, anyone with a creative bent can indeed succeed and succeed in a big way without needing to sign on with a syndicate or record label.

    And I think that would just be too cool.

  • That link is EXCACTLY why I hate such pyramid-scemes. Bleh and bleh and bleh! ;-)

    Sponsor this and sponsor that. Why should I sponsor you just because you gave me the link? Such schemes are for stupid people. It encourages people to work for an organization for fictional value interest, which only those at the top of the iceberg will see the day of. If you do the math and calculate how the numbers escalate towards the top of an n-leveled pyramid, you'll see...

    - Steeltoe
  • If you're so tired of reading Slashdot I'll recommend going someplace else with higher value to you. Why continue doing something you've clearly and superbly grown out of?

    - Steeltoe
  • quit yer whining. It's not like it doesn't TELL you what it is doing. If you want to sign up and don't like the "pyramid scheme", simply don't list anyone as your sponsor. That's simply their way of getting more members.

    --
    grappler
  • Illiad will be appearing as a guest of SuSE at the Linux Expo, Olympia, London, June 1st + 2nd.

    Further details at IT Events [itevents.co.uk] site.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I don't like the jokes the UF makes at the expense of dumb users.

    I've worked on a hotline, and could have my share of doozies to report, but first, those callers are our customers, without them, we would have been out of business. Secondly, just because they're having trouble on a computer (in my case, a Sun with tiny fonts and 20 plus open windows) doesn't mean they're stupid, most of the time they're just novices, I doubt I would do as well if I were thrown in the print shop and told to run a Heidelberg Speedmaster.

    Yeah, you can get an easy laugh by portraying dumb users, but I think it's wrong, alienating and too easy. What's next, hiring a tech support person in a wheel chair and laughing when they drop a CD and it rolls away out of reach?

    George
  • I actually quite like the song parodies. Those and when Erwin went through his beat-poet phase a while back. I'd be quite happy to see more rhyming in UF.

  • Apparently, you missed my point.

    My point is that the quality of the strip has deteriorated into zippy, because he is drawing the strip/developing the characters in a way that he's trying to pimp to companies.

    Tell you what. You go watch this [userfriendly.org], and afterwards, tell me if you don't feel robbed of 10 minutes of your life.

    User Friendly has been around for years.. in most online comic strips you can see changes, whether they be artistic (as in, quality of art improving), or development (character development). It is awfully difficult to put together a case for UF showing either.

    And I actually used to LIKE UF at one point, so I'm not some random UF-basher-slashdot-troll. I just find it sad that he is pimping his work like this.. ohwell.. hope he enjoys the $ that gets raked in, and when a company starts doing sitcoms based off of UF characters [ufmedia.com], I'll be busy turning in my grave.

  • To me, what's funny about the dumb user slant is not that I have had those same experiences with users -- heck, I spent several semesters as a teaching assistant for various CS courses and have listened to some really interesting problems from non-computer-literate students -- but that it lets me step back and laugh because I was once -- and still am, on some occasions -- that newbie. The "dumb user" slant helps me to appreciate what we, as computer professionals, generally take for granted.

    Been there, done that, got the T-shirt...

  • exactly.

    i'd like to see someone develop a comic strip whose sole purpose was to mock other "artists" with absolutely no artistic talent and a very weak grasp of humour.

    "i just had illiad on the phone - he's doing a really bad drawing, and he was asking me for ideas for really poor linux gags."
    'WHAT DISTRO!?!?!?!!!!!'

    oh, wait [penny-arcade.com]...
    ----

  • Burble (Score:2)

    by jd ( 1658 )
    1. Real Art imitates life. It's a reflection of it.
    2. History repeats itself.
    3. And social patterns change slowly.
    4. That's why TW3 is as relevent today as UF.
    5. That's also why surreal comics, such as AY2K, have a finite lifespan. They don't reflect anything, and therefore there's nothing really humorous there.
    6. Lastly, if I read comics for the art, I'd draw my own. I prefer reading comics for the storylines. Much like sci-fi, really. If you go for the SFX, you're wasting your money, however good it is. If you go for the plot, it'll stay with you forever. (Even when you'd rather it didn't.)
  • Damn StreetsOnline (www.streetsonline.co.uk)!! They've been keeping on saying "we're waiting for the book from O'Reillyon.co.uk has had it on 24h ship for about 2 weeks now. I ordered this on the release date (April 30) and now they're saying June 10th!!

    Maybe Amazon.co.uk can get O'Reilly books faster than other online bookstores. They have an O'Reilly section in their site....

    Some evil genius is at work here......

    (Apologies for the semi-offtopic outburst, but I'm frustrated...)

  • I enjoy User Friendly well enough, but I won't be buying the new book. Why? Well, the first one didn't print all the strips, and didn't print them in order (which, from the review, it sounds like the new book is also guilty of).

    Any other collection of comic strips doesn't do this (with the exception of some gag strip books that print Sunday strips back-to-back because gag strips don't generally have an order). And I don't think they leave strips out.

    As for the crappy art, hey, it's part of the appeal. I think that one of the best current comic strips is Fox Trot, and Bill Amend is not really a *great* artist. Not everybody can be Frank Cho.

  • This is just for those of you too anal to get it. Yes these lists of things that'll get posted are starting to get common. Want to know why? They're criticism in the form of satire. It's not just making fun of the views (Which, as zealous as some people get about this stuff, is needed), it's making fun of the fact that we the slashdot crowd are actually that predictable.

    I chose to post this cause frankly.. I agree with everything I posted. But a wishy-washy "well this is good but then that is good also and so is this" is not a good read. It's boring. This way, if nothing else, you get a good laugh.

    Oh, and the next person who posts one of these lists, you have to put in the obvious "post describing everything that will be posted." I thought the irony was pretty damn well implied by the last comment ;)

    Just thought I'd give the meaningless little drivel behind 10 minutes of fun.

  • isn't stupidity a handicap?
    ----

  • Why do people resent the fact that Illiad is successful? I love it -- I enjoy User Friendly as a comic strip, and it's great to see an online comic artist actually supporting himself (and supporting himself well) on his work. It gives the rest of us hope, let me tell you...

    The thing I've never understood about this kind of hate mail is that if you really dislike the strip, all you have to do is NOT GO TO USERFRIENDLY.ORG. It's not like Illiad spams the net with his strip or anything like that.

    Perhaps you're just unable to allow other people to appreciate what you don't? Only explanation that makes sense to me...

    I do my own comic strip. It's called Help Desk [ubersoft.net]. Illiad is a success story that has encouraged a lot of us... even some of the online comic strip artists who don't like Illiad are still spurred by his success. More power to him!

  • Face it: you've been brainwashed by the politically correct movement. It's ok to make fun of stupid lusers in their back. Being stupid is a good reason to be laughed off. I've been laughed at for saying something stupid -- hell, I've dealt with it, I'm not a child.

    Now, it's not ok to make fun of a handicapped person for instance. They can't do anything about it. Can you see the difference?

  • Someone needs to create a daily web page with all these comics (UF, AY2K, GPF, etc.) so we can see them all every day. Or is this done already? Anyone know?
  • Go out and rent something from Monty Python, Cheech and Chong, or Spinal Tap. You should sample some real comedy before you die, just so you know why UF isn't.

  • If Illiad suddenly started hawking Microsoft, plugging Microsoft on his strip, and the Dust Puppy suddenly appeared on Microsoft software boxes, that would be selling out.

    I don't see what's wrong with Illiad merchandising his strip. It is, after all, his, and if he wants to license Pitr out to companies, what's wrong with it?

    Why do people resent success? Illiad worked pretty hard to get where he is today, why are you dragging him down for it?

  • You oughta see the look on the Security guy's face when he's standing there, chatting, on one of his visits to the working class... scanning that long shelf of Nutshell books... "Java in a Nutshell"... "Java Enterprise in a Nutshell"... half a dozen X books... "Evil Geniuses in a Nutshell." :-)

    Haven't seen such a good double-take in weeks.

  • That says it far better than I ever could. Bill Watterson is the man.. it was a sad day when the last C&H strip ran. :( Comics haven't been the same since, but at least The Boondocks is entertaining.. aside from that, Dilbert, and Liberty Meadows.. there's not that much. :(
  • I think its the thing mylaptop sits on...there is a little extra room and I guess you could put coffee there....maybe the book keeps the laptop out of the coffee...if it spills...sort of like my dog...
  • What exactly did you intend to mod him down for? Expressing a valid opinion? I don't remember that one being on the moderation options. What you are admitting is that you were planning on abusing your moderator points to damage someone whose opinion you disagreed with.

    What's this about him having to sellout to keep his people paid? I mean, cry me a river. Just look at Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com] fame, and he does employ a staff of people to help him run the site and his business. I don't think he's having a problem getting by on banner ads, t-shirts, and book sales. The 30 or so other web cartoonist I read as part of my day don't seem to be having any trouble supporting theirselves economically. When you get as big as Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com], David Simpson of Ozy and Millie [ozyandmillie.com], Bill Holbrook of Kevin and Kell [herdthinners.com], or Scott Kurtz of PVP [pvponline.com], book sales and ad banners seem to be more than enough to keep yourself solvent. That doesn't even count the many popular artists who don't have anything beyond banner ads to sponsor themselves, such as Zach Stroum of Etherlife [etherlife.net], Gabriel and Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com], and Maritza Campos of College Roomies from Hell! [crfh.net] -- all of whom are either college students or fully employed and do their strips as hobbies.

    While I still find User Friendly [userfriendly.org] mostly funny and still read it regularly, I lost a lot of respect for Illiad when I came across UF Media [ufmedia.com]. The image he puts for on the site is one of someone whoring themselves out to corporate sponsorship. Illiad doesn't seem content with just selling t-shirts and books directly. He is actively calling to have his characters used as logos to curry favor with his fans for companies like SuSE. He wants the airline commercial spots, the suction cup animals, and co-branded food that syndicated sell-outs like Garfield have engendered.

    I think this [penny-arcade.com] strip from Penny Arcade illustrates the opinions that many of us have for his ethics and credibility, in spite of or along with our opinions of his work on its own. It hurts his credibility because corporate sponsorship and co-branding are often the vicious monetary cycle that keeps comics going in newspapers long after they stopped being funny or original and sometimes even long after the creator of the strip has died. It's that we object to.

    P.S. Slashdot readers should hopefully get a kick out of this [penny-arcade.com] strip. Just a friendly reminder for when talking to people who don't read Slashdot.
  • Thanks for the backup, though the moderation has been pretty fair so far.. at least, more than I expected.

    From that Watterson article, here's an excellent quote/point:

    Beyond all this, however, lies a deeper issue: the corruption of a strip's integrity. All strips are supposed to be entertaining, but some strips have a point of view and a serious purpose behind the jokes. When the cartoonist is trying to talk honestly and seriously about life, then I believe he has a responsibility to think beyond satisfying the market's every whim and desire. Cartoonists who think they can be taken seriously as artists while using the strip's protagonists to sell boxer shorts are deluding themselves.

    The world of a comic strip is much more fragile than most people realize or will admit. Believable characters are hard to develop and easy to destroy. When a cartoonist licenses his characters, his voice is co-opted by the business concerns of toy makers, television producers, and advertisers. The cartoonist's job is no longer to be an original thinker; his job is to keep his characters profitable. The characters become "celebrities", endorsing companies and products, avoiding controversy, and saying whatever someone will pay the to say. At that point, the strip has no soul. With its integrity gone, a strip loses its deeper significance.

    Thanks for posting that link.. moderators, please moderate that original post with the link up, it contains a lot of excellent points.

  • Wow, look at all that anger... (Score:3)

    by gilroy ( 155262 ) on Friday May 26, 2000 @08:57PM (#1046501) Homepage Journal
    I guess I had never appreciated exactly how much rage -- how much pointless rage -- resides on slashdot. I can't believe the intensity of anger displayed in some of the posts so far.

    I guess I'll admit to enjoying UF and even (gasp) owning both books. Apparently this makes me a miscreant or a fallen angel or something. But I really can't see getting worked up to defend the strip. Nor can I see spending so much energy venting over it, either. There are things that get my blood boiling -- such as watching the race between governments and corporations to be the first to completely strip us of human dignity -- but a comic strip just doesn't make muster.

    I simply don't have the time or energy to love or hate UF, or any strip, that much.

    I suppose it's obvious how this thread has highlit the dangerous fanatic tendencies of the slashdot readership. We all too easily veer off into quasi-religious debate over topics of dubious significance. Far be it from me to intone "Get a life", but an emergency helping of perspective might be in order.

  • This book proudly sits on my bookshelf, right between Unix in a Nutshell and Programming Perl. It's kind of funny when people look at the shelf (at work) and see a dust puppy book in the middle of all of the other animal books.

    ---------------------------------
  • Too many people say the art in User friendly sux. Big whooping deal. Half the art in the comics section of your local newspaper probably sucks too. It's the writing. (which i admit seems to have gone downhill a bit lately) I've always enjoyed UF, been reading it for about a year and half now (also gpf-comics [gpf-comics.com],and elf life). Hey why not check out my [elflife.com]comics [geocities.com]?
  • which aren't all that bad looking, especially in Black.

    Available, of course at the User Friendly [userfriendly.org] site at their store [ufstore.org]

  • Yeah, I still love the Dilbert strip and read it every day, but Scott Adams is not a geek and obviously has no real intelligence. That chapter massacared every scientific theory he mentioned. It looks like he saw a blurb about the single bullet theory on MSNBC or something and then tried to write a chapter about it. The book would be great if you tore out that chapter.

  • Well been happening for awhile. Geek culture. This is just another nail in the coffin. I can see it know. MTV with special host Richard Stallman.
    Seriously though UF is pretty funny stuff. I wonder how much revenue thinkgeek.com makes? They already have $80 of my cash.
  • I don't yet own this book (I am planning on buying it this summer) but I have read all them. That is unless Illiad added some previously unreleased ones! I suggest everyone but this book, but not before I do, because this many people would drive the price up.

    Devil Ducky
  • Basically....no. Outside of a one-page intro by Illiad, there's nothing new, no hidden suprises.

    But...I enjoy it, and I want him to keep producing. So buy it if you like what he does.

  • Eratta (Score:2)

    by B-B ( 169492 )
    It is usually Greg who had halucinations of the large cola can. (Though AJ did once) And is it me, or did Greg get radically made over somewhere aroung the end of the first year, after the Dustpuppy rescued him from MS detox?

    UF rocks! Been a fan since (almost) day one. Remember when Cobb and Stef were forced to try to say ethical?

    Tom
  • At least there's always Penny Arcade.

    I keep seeing Penny Arcade offered as a much more funny, better comic, even on the new UF message boards. In fact, I followed your link and read the two dozen or so comics up to today.

    I don't think Penny Arcade is funny.

    Okay... I'm not telling you that it *isn't* funny, or that UF is better, but I just don't get any laughs from it.

    Maybe it's because I started an ISP in '94, and the last real video game I played was Apple Panic (okay, a slight exaggeration, but not much). What it boils down to is that I had no idea who "Looking Glass" was (the topic of the current strip), and had never heard of "Thief" or "System Shock 2". Dumb tech-support calls, on the other hand, I've had plenty of experience with.

    Oh yeah, don't forget to mod me down since disliking UF isn't allowed on Slashdot.

    Actually, I've gotten the idea that Rob, Hemos and gang *really* dislike User Friendly for some reason. They've started to make comments on "Geeks in Space", and then stopped themselves, and there was some other thing that I noticed. Anybody know what's up with the apparant hatred between the camps, or is it not there?

    --
    Evan

  • The Register also vends stuff of theirs. Personally I'm saving up for my very own dust puppy...
  • Right. It's more Doonesbury than anything else. Sort of a serial. I've seen a ton of the other ones (can't remember the ./ thread where someone posted a huge list), but I looked at all of them, and I can't say they were any better (Absurd Notions was okay, Help Desk is occasionally funny.)

    It doesn't surprise me that he's got a book deal, I wondered why his stuff doesn't get published in certain papers (Boston Globe would be good, but the editorial staff there HATES comics and says so every chance it gets). It's basic and mainstream and the humor and plotting fits the Dilbert audience well.

    Speaking of which, double_h's post was plain unfair, both to the artists(and writers) he named and Illiad. To even compare UF's setup-punchline system with Spiegelman's work is absurd: when you rate an artist's work you have to take their goals into account. Illiad isn't trying to communicate the horror of the Holocaust any more than Spiegelman was trying to poke fun at some bloated megacorp. One is "Art" art, the other is Sunday Comics at best. The guy you replied to was right, in the context of his own post, that comics like UF aren't really "Art".

    What we need is to standardize the labels we apply to these forms, ontology-like, in order to better delineate what we're talking about. Cartoons, Comics, Comix, Manga, Graphic Novels, we need a more systematized way of classifying this huge pool of culture. I wish the Museum of Sequential Art was still open, maybe we could get them to help.

    -jpowers
    You Know You've Been Watching Too Much Ranma 1/2 When...

  • There's a nice irony in the name, IMHO (Score:5)

    by WhyteRabbyt ( 85754 ) on Friday May 26, 2000 @04:14AM (#1046513) Homepage

    The (Note to IDG lawyers : fictional) character Pitr is often found reading a (Note to IDG lawyers : also fictional) book called 'Evil Geniuses for Dummies'. As we all know a certain publisher is (Note to IDG lawyers : allegedly) insanely protective of the name of a particular series of books bearing that series title. But since nice friendly O'Reilly are publishing this, they can use the title of an equally well-known range of computer books... their own Nutshell series.

    And everyone knows (Note to IDG lawyers : in my opinion) how much more informative Nutshell books are than the 'For Dummies' series anyway...

    Pax,

    White Rabbit +++ Divide by Cucumber Error ++

  • I have both the UF books, and they are nice. It's like a time warp reading through them, and also funny.

  • Another take (Score:4)

    by Rupert ( 28001 ) on Friday May 26, 2000 @04:15AM (#1046515) Homepage Journal
    I don't want to knock the book at all, but have no compunctions about lambasting this review ;-)

    My [non-techie] wife found it amusing, which is unusual for geek humour. I liked it, but since I check User Friendly [userfriendly.org] almost daily, I didn't see anything I hadn't seen before.

    Correction: there is a new joke in the book, and it is the book. This is an O'Reilly [ora.com] "In a Nutshell" book, right down to the Colophon: "The animal on the cover is a Dust Puppy". I can't help but think that if IDG [idg.com] weren't such assholes about their trademarks, this could just as well have been "Evil Geniuses for Dummies".

    Thanks to the reviewer for pointing out the missing text in the Windows refund storyline. I didn't get it, and didn't think to check the website to see if the print version was accurate.

    Isn't it Mike who is haunted by the giant cola can? The reviewer says it's AJ, but I'm pretty sure it's not.

    --
    At the time of writing, this is a first post.

  • The dustpuppy is *really* *really* cool :)
    http://evil.crudpuppy.net/dp3.jpg [crudpuppy.net]

    --
    naguia

  • UF used to be somewhat amusing for a little while, then I realized "Hey, they did this strip already.. 2000 times."

    Not to mention the UFMedia crap.. has anyone taken a look at that? The way he just pimps out his work.. I mean, it's one thing if someone comes to you with an interest in mind, but when you start creating your media to target companies and get the almighty $, you lose a little something.

    At least there's always Penny Arcade. [penny-arcade.com]

    Oh yeah, don't forget to mod me down since disliking UF isn't allowed on Slashdot. :| Loved how the review didn't have a "You won't like.." section to it like some normally do.

  • While I don't really care for UF as much as I used to, it's still nice to see an online comic getting some mainstream publishing so that non-onliners can even pick it up. I think the biggest problem today with online comics that are published in bookform is that they are not mainstream, but self-published or published by small houses like Plan Nine. I'd love to be able to walk into my local Barnes&Noble and pick up a copy of Goats [goats.com], PVP [mpog.com], PLIF [plif.com], or GPF. [gpf-comics.com]

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • What we'll see.. (Score:4)

    by Spiff28 ( 147865 ) on Friday May 26, 2000 @04:55AM (#1046520)
    • User Friendly rules - "At last! Illiad is getting recognition he deserves! This stuff is so amazingly great! It expresses the opinions of this underdog community so well, it's scary. There's everything a geek could want.. quake, internet, caffeine, linux, anti-MS.. it's all there! This review is awesome!"
    • User Friendly blows - "Illiad is dumb. UF sold out ages ago. Back in the day, it used to be funny. Now it's old and tired. I mean, before, when he was linux jokes and MS bashing.. it was funny. Now it's just nothing but stupid linux jokes and MS bashing. He's marketing his soul on material that is so lame. I don't care if it's his job or anything... the drawing blows. I completely disagree with the review."
    • (some random comic) is better - "Sluggy. Real life. PVP. After Y2k. Penny Arcade. The Bench. etc." (ok, maybe not the last one) "It's so much better! Why don't they have a book out, huh? I'd buy it!"
    • Karma... whoring, trolling, signal 11, trollmastah, poll mastah, hot grits, beowulf cluster of UF books ("will this be compatible with the first one?") etc.
    • IDG is Evil - "You know this should have been Evil Geniuses for Dummies. Bastards."
    • I love you variant - "Yes that's right, the 340 millionth variant to come out this month arrives with the subject 'I'm Friendly!' and will silently make UF your start page, and kill all files/folders that begin with 'win'. It mails itself out to all people that have msn or hotmail addresses in your address book."
    • Distro wars - "UF says this distro sucks" "Well this distro is better!" "Oh yeah, well my distro is gonna incorporate AtheOS!!" "Oh yeah, well my distro is gonna incorporate Aqua!!"
    • Actual posts commenting on the book itself (other than "I will buy it" or "It will suck") - Decidedly absent....

  • yeah, but then it wouldn't be an O'Reilly book, now would it? It's nice to see ORA have the smarts (although we knew this already) to poke a little fun at their own "serious" series of books - I mean, how perfect is that? You can put it right next to all your other "nutshell" books and nobody will notice! (at least not at first glance)

    -------
  • Surprise, surprise. With the sale of new books, Illiad is once again selling his sub-standard comic to the universe.

    A bit of jealousy perhaps? We never hear about "Suprise, Suprise. With the sale of new distributions Linus is once again bringing his sub-standard kernel to the universe". Why is that? Is it because he makes no money off of Linux and Illiad does? Money != bad.

    I'm actually rather surprised that more people have not boycotted UF and UFMedia for it's recent commoditization of its audience

    Audiences can not be commodized, product can. Get your words straight. I sure hope you're not a writer.

    In a recent conversation, someone said, "The biggest problem with User Friendly is the UFies."

    Hrm...people make the same argument about Linux, and yet it's a statement full of sound and fury, but signifing nothing. Get over it. IMNSHO The biggest problem with Windows98 is the [L]users.

    User Friendly is not good art, it's not good writing, and people need to give up their infatuation for a production that is *beyond* formulaic.

    First of all, since when has CARTOONS been considered art? It's COMEDY, by definition it's going to be formulaic, get over it. If you're looking for high-brow technical humor read some April 1st RFCs or something.

    The first person that compares Dust Puppy to Opus from Bloom County gets a sticker.

    And this would prove what? You might has well have said "The first person that compares Tux to MS Bob gets a sticker"

    User Friendly is also mighty derivative, I'll tell you what. User Friendly spoofs spoofs, and dammit, that just ain't funny.

    Jezus...what did they do to you to rip your sense of humour out so completely?

    So, I say these things - Why am I posting as Anonymous Coward? Because if I logged in with my real account, there would be a goddamned UFie Jihad on me and the place I work.

    As well there should be, I hope you burn in NT hell you heretic you.

    SgtPepper

    w00t?

  • Not to flame or anything, but doesn't that cover pretty much everything there is to say? Course, the posts are rather formulatic... Hmm...

    -Elendale (Trying to think of something unexpected... Oh yeah! Dust Puppy is ugly! Air that thing out! there... that ought to cover it)

  • At least someone has the guts to admit that UF is not funny.

    While both in the same vein humor-wise, only the best of UF is as good at the worst of BOFH [ntk.net]. To compare it to a broader range of humor in the same medium, Garfield and Cathy are more entertaining than UF, even if all three are not funny. I get a bigger chuckle reading Mark Trail, Judge Parker, and Prince Valiant, and they aren't even supposed to be amusing.

    --

  • ...and you went to, or are going to, grad school you'll almost certainly like Piled Higher and Deeper in the Stanford Daily. Check out their Matrix parody [stanford.edu]

    My god, that's funny stuff.

    p.s. I bought the Evil Geniuses book based solely on the title in a /. banner ad. I wasn't disappointed.

  • I'm not sure you got my point either.

    There is a difference between:

    Fans: wow, you should make some t-shirts, I'd buy them!
    Artist: cool, will do!

    or even

    Artist: I made some t-shirts for those who want to support this, click here

    but
    Artist: Hey corporations, pay us $$$ to use our badly drawn and poorly developed one dimensional characters to market your corporate image.

    It wouldn't really bother me so much if UF sold out to some corporation that came to them and wanted to buy them.. but when you peddle your warez on the street and make a website dedicated to selling out to corporations, that's where it begins to bother me a little bit.

    Hell, as much as I dislike UF, I kinda want them to survive just for the well-being of online comics in general.

    Call me idealistic, but I thought one of the purposes of doing a comic online was to gain some independence from the newspaper syndicates.

    Is there something wrong with making money off your work? Of course not! But my main problem is with UFMedia now, he is building a product designed to sell. Whatever WAS funny with UF has been lost in the process.

  • Heh... I wish the "mainstream" publishers even knew webcomics existed. There's a lot of lucrative material out there, being pumped out by independent artists who are doing it just for the love of their work. Certainly your examples are among them; some more can be found here [keenspot.com], and maybe even here [bigpanda.net].

    Now, I'm as much a fan of Illiad's "selling-out" as the next guy, but this could be the start of something good. If UF can help support the other quality comics out there, then everybody wins.

    Or he can hoarde his vast fortunes to himself, and continue to give UF Media a bad name. ;-)

  • Bill Watterson (of Calvin & Hobbes fame) wrote an interesting essay on the licensing wars over C&H and how he considers not licensing the characters to be a question of maintaining the strip's integrity.

    The essay can be found here:

    http://www.okidoki.com/calvin_and_hobbes/license .htm
  • OMG! Didn't he get part of the 'i' in there too though? Hmm...

    -Elendale (of course, the obligatory: SPOON!)

  • Like I've stated before, I'm happy in a way to see an online comic artist be successful, I'm dismayed to see it at the total sell-out of his strip, characters, and personalities.

    And yes, I could not go to userfriendly.org. I hadn't gone for several months actually, I quit reading it. But I'm still allowed to express my opinion on it, just as well as you're allowed to tell me to go to hell.

    And by the way.. I actually like Help Desk quite a bit, I have one of your comics printed out and posted on my cubicle wall. Good luck to you and your strip.
  • I don't know . . .you can fake being an idiot. You can't fake geek. Also, no one in my family gets UF - so we should be safe for now.

  • I don't see what's wrong with Illiad merchandising his strip. It is, after all, his, and if he wants to license Pitr out to companies, what's wrong with it?

    Because having to look out for the sponsors' interests invariably compromises the artist's control over the strip. Let's say a fictional comics artist sells the rights to make Corageous Cat baseball caps. A month later, he is struck with the idea for a brilliant storyline that results in Corageous Cat dying, or taking an extended absence from the strip (this may be because the strip's creator thinks such a storyline would have great dramatic impact, or it may be simply because he is tired of that character, and thinks the strip would be better without him). But when the baseball cap manufacturer hears this news, they won't be happy -- who wants to buy merchandise featuring a character who isn't in the strip anymore? So there's a conflict of interests about what directions the strip can take.

    This situation is compounded in the case of UF. Why? Because (unlike the baseball caps), there is a close correlation between UF's subject matter and its advertisers. This seriously compromises UF's ability to be an editorial cartoon or offer critical commentary. What if Microsoft drives a truckload of money up to Iliad's doorstep in exchange for some merchandising rights. Do you honestly think the comic would continue its Microsoft-bashing in full force, or would that angle get toned down in order to preserve cashflow?

  • I'm just suprised at all negative reactions from this post. I mean, I know a lot of people who don't care for User Friendly the comic strip. I know a few people who really dislike some of the jokes Illiad tells. But I never expected this amount of heat concerning Illiad's strip... it really does leave me feeling bewildered.

    Glad you like Help Desk... you'll be happy to know I have no plans to license my characters out to computer companies. :)

  • Re:User Friendly (Score:3)

    by Valdrax ( 32670 ) on Friday May 26, 2000 @07:24AM (#1046534)
    First off, let me save a lot of quoting and redundant responses by asking this: Where do you get off assuming that just because the poster you responded to doesn't like User Friendly that they are a Windows bigot? You are demonstrating first-hand the poster's assertions about User Friendly's problem being with it's fans, and you're giving fellow Linux users a bad reputation, especially with that "burn in NT hell" line.

    A bit of jealousy perhaps? We never hear about "Suprise, Suprise. With the sale of new distributions Linus is once again bringing his sub-standard kernel to the universe". Why is that? Is it because he makes no money off of Linux and Illiad does? Money != bad.

    That's a total non-issue. Comic strip artists like Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance [sluggy.com] do not have this issue because they handle marketing in a tasteful manner, unlike Illiad's crass "branding" web site [ufmedia.com]. Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes [calvinandhobbes.com] fame once wrote an article in his 10th anniversary special book about how marketing in the manner Illiad is doing devalues and cheapens the art of the strip. Illiad can only hope to be half the comic strip artist that Bill Watterson was.

    Audiences can not be commodized, product can.

    Ah, but is that really true? Illiad has a fanatically loyal following of techie fans. Illiad is selling the ability for companies like SuSE [suse.com] to target and market to his audience by using his branded characters. In effect, Illiad is selling his audience to interested companies. Of course, this is just dithering about semantics, so I'll leave it at that.

    First of all, since when has CARTOONS been considered art? It's COMEDY, by definition it's going to be formulaic, get over it. If you're looking for high-brow technical humor read some April 1st RFCs or something.

    My, my. It's a sad commentary when a fan of an artistic media doesn't even recognize it as art. Perhaps your satisfaction with sit-com style formulae has stagnated your appreciation of what truly innovative and creative artwork and comedy should be.

    Once again, I refer to Bill Watterson's 10th anniversary Calvin and Hobbes book on issues of the artform of comics. The essay there, which delves into the history of the artform before it became wedged into its current limited panel layout and forced schtick format is very educational.

    The rich and gentle satire of politics and day to day living, Pogo, and it's modern day successor, Ozy and Millie [ozyandmillie.com], certainly qualify as a some of the best of the 20th century. Who can deny that the Sandman series of graphic novels are art? Certainly not the people who awarded it the Hugo award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. Perhaps you should pick up the latest offering, The Dream Hunters [amazon.com], which features a return of Neil Gaiman's strong evocative writing with Yoshitaka Amano's etherial, otherworldy artwork narrating the tale. Then you may still attempt to deny to the world that comics are art.

    Just because User Friendly and many syndicated sellouts like Garfield and Dilbert seem increasingly incapable of producing art and non-formulaic humor as their profits from merchandising increase, don't assume that comics cannot be art. You are only appreciating the most bastardised version of it.

    And this would prove what? You might has well have said "The first person that compares Tux to MS Bob gets a sticker"

    That makes absolutely no sense. It's obvious you aren't familiar with the character Opus from Bloom Count or you'd be able to see the ways in which the Dust Puppy and he share many, many similar personality traits. The Dust Puppy is at best a tribute to and at worst a rip-off of Opus.

    Jezus...what did they do to you to rip your sense of humour out so completely?

    Perhaps, he just doesn't think that all comedy by definition should be formulaic as you do. Making fun of something can be funny. Making fun of someone making fun of something rarely is.

    The keys to comedy are spontaneity, creativity, timing, and relevance to the audience. In the world of comic strips, #1 and #3 are usually handled in the layout and pacing of when certain lines happen, with the comedic twist almost always happening in the last panel. User Friendly well appreciates its market and has #4 well in hand.

    It's #2, creativity, that User Friendly is sometimes seen as lacking in. This is much the same as Odie getting punted off a table by Garfield or Dilbert's boss saying something really stupid. They're running gags that have been run into the ground. Since you think all humor should be formulaic, you probably don't have an appreciation for the importance of this. However, those of us who do see the complete lack of creativity in a spoof of a spoof.

    Do some exploring. There are plenty of good web comics that break the formulaic mold. I read about 30 or so of them a day. It shouldn't be hard to find one to match your tastes that is better than UF.

  • Re:We need a daily comics page! (Score:3)

    by PopeAlien ( 164869 ) on Friday May 26, 2000 @07:25AM (#1046535) Homepage Journal
    Try BigPanda.net [bigpanda.net] for a shifting list of almost all independent web-comics.. and if you want to customize a page to view some of your favorites try Mycomix.Toonscape.com [toonscape.com].. -They have permission from a lot of online cartoonists (independent) to post strips.. including PopeAlien.Comics [popealien.com]
    -

  • before you start making those accusations. It's only fair.

    After all, companies that license UF characters need to know what they're getting into. It's not like Illiad keeps his opinions to himself, or anything.

    Here's another example: I do a comic strip on my own (not to plug my own strip, but hey, the opportunities there) called Help Desk [ubersoft.net]. Help Desk is a member of Keenspot [keenspot.com], a (consortium? collective?) group of online comics that sort of pool our resources (and audiences). We now use banner advertising, and we've recently switched over to Sonar/Doubleclick ads (I protested. I was overruled. That's life.)

    I'll be doing a Doubleclick parody in a month or so. I'm planning on making it reasonably vicious. Doubleclick might not like it. Tough.

    The only way not to be endanger of compromise is to not try and make any money at all off anything you do. As soon as you try and make any kind of living off your work, you compromise. It's unavoidable. I didn't used to display banner ads, but I do now. That's certainly a compromise. I don't quite think it's selling out.

    Illiad is successful enough that he'd have leverage when it comes to licensing. I doubt very much a sotware company is going to try and bring out the heavies on him -- he's got enough of an audience so that if he parodied them on it, they'd be pretty embarrassed.

    So again, I feel the need to say, don't prejudge the guy.

  • I read both UF and AY2k, and of the two, I much prefer the writing and simple graphics of UF.

    Perhaps if After-y2k would make a book it would sell well. Nitrozac's merchandise seems to sell quite well.
  • Three steps to becoming an evil genius
    ======================================

    1) Speak with an Eastern European Accent
    ["Checkski"]

    2) Never Smile
    ["Checkski"]

    3) Bring huge corporation selling crappy software to it's knees, by accusing it of monopolistic practices
    ["Hmmm - Am thinkink is not possible to do two and three at the same time!"]
  • [Shaking fist in general direction of /.] Curse you, slashdot! Now I have to go and buy something else this weekend. Don't you realize how dangerous that is!?!?
  • SHOOT. It is Mike, not Greg. But it definately is not AJ.

  • my god. when is someone significant going to have the bollocks to stand up and say how truly dreadful user friendly is? come on, this isn't even subjective. i can prove it with a fucking slide rule.

    it's poorly drawn. every single joke is of the "let's use microsoft windoze"/"no it sux let's use linux!"/"BUT WHICH DISTRIBUTION!!!!!!" variety and it gets incredibly tiresome incredibly quickly. why anyone would want a book of this rubbish is beyond me.

    i'm absolutely dumbfounded by the quotes on the site from various high-profile open source types. have none of these people read a good comic? do none of them know how a good joke works? for christ's sake, if you're genuinely amused by endless repetition of anti-microsoft/pro-linux sentiment combined with that low-level cup-holder-anecdote tech support humour, why fucking bother reading a comic at all? i'm sure a quick browse over the mindless shite that gets moderated up as "funny" on slashdot will be enough to hospitalise you for a week.
    ----

  • Someone must have read this book. Is there anyone of you who'd actually care to make a comment about the book itself here? All I see is spam and offtopic...

  • What is the deal with the pasting of Signal11's User Info in the comments of every story?

    More On-the-Current-Topic though, I was always a sluggy [sluggy.com] diehard and knew of no other decent online comics until I was visiting a friend as he was catching up with old UF strips.

    Note: I am still a sluggy diehard, I'm even eating with Pete at DragonCon. Every once on a while, though, I remember the dust puppy and go back for some user friendly love.


  • the worst (l)users are the arrogent ones, not the dumb ones. I'm sure you all have dealt w/ the people who activly refuse to learn anything about the task they have to do, or believe that they can accomplish something that they have no experience, aptitude or training for, and then blame you when they can't accomplish this task. It is perfectly okay to make fun of these people.
  • I work in a large firm with a support staff of over a hundred for my domain. As such we have plenty of management as well as techie types. I have come to the conclusion that all truth can be found in the mystical tomes of Illiad and Scott Adams.
  • And as we all know, all humour is objective.

    *zot*

    :wq!

  • Re:User Friendly (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    But you're missing the basic point which is that the cartoon is just awful. I realize that everyone has objective tastes and all, but lets face it, some things are just bad. Plan 9 from Outer Space is bad. User Friendly is bad. It's never funny, and the art looks like it was drawn by a 10 year old. It's probably the most embarressing thing about the Linux community.

    signed,

    Another U'fie fearing AC

  • Actually, Kurt's a writer, not an artist. I know because he's my stepbrother (yes, really). "Marvels" is my personal favorite work of his. And the story about the newspaper clipping in Astro City #2 is in fact true...

    ObUselessTrivia: back in 1982 when I was 12, I lived for a year with my father and stepmother (Kurt's mom, who is now battling breast cancer, more or less successfully) in none other than Acton, MA, out by Nagog Pond. For a while, first Kurt, then one of his sisters lived downstairs as well (this was around the time he was writing for Power Man & Iron Fist). To think that if only I'd stayed, I could have joined the /. revolution fifteen years later....

  • This is a book Brain would like.

    Are you thinking what I'm thinking? I think so, Brain, but where are we going to find leather pants in our size?

  • User Friendly (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Surprise, surprise. With the sale of new books, Illiad is once again selling his sub-standard comic to the universe. I'm actually rather surprised that more people have not boycotted UF and UFMedia for it's recent commoditization of its audience. There are comics out there a lot better written and drawn than User Friendly. AfterY2K and Penny Arcade come to mind, and as far as I know, AY2K is the only 'independent' comic left.

    In a recent conversation, someone said, "The biggest problem with User Friendly is the UFies." This is true to a certain degree. Illiad is surrounded by sycophants and people who just *love* his work. Who would've thought? A fan club for a scene whore who regularly fishes with Slashdot link-bait. The UF'ies will probably attack me here, but I really don't care. They'll talk about how Illiad is very, very talented, and that it's not about the art. Well, fuck that. If it's not about the art, he should be writing short stories.

    User Friendly is not good art, it's not good writing, and people need to give up their infatuation for a production that is *beyond* formulaic. The first person that compares Dust Puppy to Opus from Bloom County gets a sticker.

    User Friendly is also mighty derivative, I'll tell you what. User Friendly spoofs spoofs, and dammit, that just ain't funny.

    So, I say these things - Why am I posting as Anonymous Coward? Because if I logged in with my real account, there would be a goddamned UFie Jihad on me and the place I work.

  • Interesting idea. How would it work out? Would the jocks pretend to be geeks to be cool, but still go around beating up geeks?

    Will teenagers who want to be diferent, drop out of school, and work at McDonalds? Will we see fine restaruants selling Pizza and Jolt? Street gangs fighting about which is best, Perl or Python?

    This is begining to sound like a perticular episode of "Sliders" actually :)

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