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Fun With Teh Internets… Again

18 Jun

June 18, 2012


I’ve never been able to grow decent facial hair. Instead of a beard, the best I could do was a little scraggly beardling. And don’t get Mr. Blog started on my weak attempt of a moustache unless you want to hear hours of laughter.  (It’s true. The time a piece of broccoli got stuck to his face looked better- Mr. BTR) So while I may be clean-shaven now, it won’t stop me from trawling the net to find the best examples of….

MOLESTACHE!
Most modern molestache debates center on who rocked the classiest one:

John Waters (the choice of the avant-garde)

C’mon, you just know there is some strange stuff in the trunk of his car.

Or

David Niven (pick of the molestache traditionalist)

Best David Niven film? Murder by Death. You cannot argue, don’t even try.

 No matter which camp you fall into, I think we can all agree that it’s none of these guys:

5:

It’s John Waters’ slightly asthmatic and much less charismatic cousin Rupert!

4:

Mr. BTR thinks that is Keifer Sutherland on a bad day, circa Lost Boys.

Taken just before some underage girl’s father knocked him out. Tip: When bringing  daddy’s little 14 yr. old home at 3AM, never use beer as a peace-offering.

3:

All that dramatic pose does is accentuate the douche-tache.

Trust him, he’s a blood donor! Trust me, I’d rather bleed out!

2:

PRESENTED WITHOUT COMMENT

And the #1 MOLESTACHE picture is……….

 

HA! You’ve been Rickrolled!

THIS GUY!

Sorry, I’m just really obsessed with this guy.  The real #1 molestache is:

Look, don’t blame me, ok?  It came up in the search. But the amazing thing is that I understand that his chest and….er, beer gut hair grew in that way naturally!

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The Saturday Comics: Mandrake The Magician (2012)

16 Jun

June 16th, 2012

We continue our look at past Saturday Comics features to see what they are up to now. The last time we checked in with Mandrake the Magician, I was a fan of the strip, including the art. This is what I wrote on March 26th, 2011, in the second ever Saturday Comics:

This is a classic strip that does everything right. The art is great- look at the coloring. Notice how Mandrake stands out? And the rest of the coloring works perfectly with the subject matter. The illustration is top-notch. The strip is atmospheric and moody and genuinely creepy. Even the lettering gives you an old-school vibe. That is no small feat to accomplish each day in three or four panels. And the writing? This was the first time I’ve seen Mandrake in years and it was easily accessible but got me right into the story.

It is a zippy little story that keeps the essential elements of Mandrake but successfully moved it into the modern era. Here is a week’s worth of Mandrake the Magician. Enjoy!

So what has happened in the fifteen months since? Let’s take a look at a recent run of strips.

Last year, my praise of the art brought a quick and passionate argument from the readers, especially Mac, who totally disagreed with me and violently hated it. And now, over a year, later, I agree with im. That art is pretty bad. It is the same artist and he is using the same color palate and effects but this run seems more rushed and less skilled. It really looks sketchy.

And the story? It doesn’t move. I’ve been through this before with other serials, but this is glacially slow. Remember you are seeing this all at once, but this actually unfolded over the course of six days, with a day out for an unrelated Sunday strip.  

The best Mandrake can do is a hippo illusion? This strip does not do comedy well. If Mandrake is such a great magician and illusionist I am sure he could get the information out of them some other way.

So the verdict on Mandrake one year later? This strip has gone downhill, both in terms of art and story. 

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