Pop Culture Gadabout
Saturday, November 24, 2007
      ( 11/24/2007 03:24:00 PM ) Bill S.  


BOCTAOE: In a recent episode of Corner Gas (recent to the U.S., that is), Hank Yarbo, the Canadian sitcom's chatty doofus, launched his own web log as a forum for his less-than-deep ruminations on topics like who would win in a fight between werewolves and robots. The rest of the show's characters encouraged Hank in his bloggish endeavor since it's easier to ignore something on the Internet than it is some guy standing two feet away from you. No one actually read "Hank Talkin'" ("I spell talkin' with no 'g' - that shows I have attitude!"), of course. But perhaps if he was a world-famous cartoonist like Scott Adams, they would have. After all, the creator of "Dilbert" has enough of an online readership that he was able to convince Portfolio/Penguin to publish a 350-plus page hardback devoted to his old postings.

Stick to Drawing Comics, Monkey Brain! is a set of 150-plus pieces that originally appeared on Adams Typepad blog (and have since, as the book's dustcover advises us, been removed from the archives). A free-floatin' collection of musin's - Adams doesn't drop the "g" but he could have - on whatever tickles his active brain cells, the book moves from quippy considerations of politics & religion to whale watching & the disadvantages of x-ray vision. Theoretically, Stick represents the pick of the postings, though as with any collection of miscellaneous writings, not every piece is a winner. Still, fans of Adams' corporate humor should find enough here to be amused.

Reflecting the piecemeal nature of blog posting, the collection doesn't always cohere as well as it could. Early in, for instance, Adams introduces a cheerfully inconvenient acronym (for "But Of Course There Are Obvious Exceptions") only to drop it after just a few uses. A later piece on the nature of the universe appears out of order since it refers to concepts that get introduced several posts later. Read too many of these in one sitting, and the writer's voice can grow overly familiar, so that some of his comic devices (the willfully grotesque comparisons, for instance) lose their zing. Placing many of the book's best one-liners in an appendix only compounds the problem

As a blogger, Adams works overtime to position himself as a full-blown skeptic - he's as doubtful about God as he is evolution - though there are limits to this self-professed cynicism. He's more likely to crack wise about left-wing loonies than he is their right-wing counterparts, for instance, but perhaps that's what his core audience of cubicle dwellers expects. To my eyes, the more enduring pieces are the more personally specific ones: the cartoonist discussing his struggles with spasmodic dysphonia, a puzzling affliction that made it difficult to talk above a whisper unless Adams was public speaking; a set of posts comparing censored "Dilbert" strips with their original versions; pieces about his impending wedding. At his best on these, Adams comes off like a good observational stand-up, hitting just the right note of Cosby-esque peevishness.

And, thankfully, there's also room in Stick for some cheerfully pointless blog silliness, as when our man ponders the age old question of who would win in a fight: Jesus or Santa Claus. You know, I'm thinkin' Hank Yarbo has a few opinions on that one.
# |



Pop cultural criticism - plus the occasional egocentric socio/political commentary by Bill Sherman (popculturegadabout AT yahoo.com).



On Sale Now!
Measure by Measure:



A Romantic Romp with the Fat and Fabulous
By Rebecca Fox & William Sherman

(Available through Amazon)

Measure by Measure Web Page







Ask for These Fine Cultural Blogs & Journals by Name!

aaronneathery.com News
Aaron Neathery

American Sideshow Blow-Off
Marc Hartzman

Arf Lovers
Craig Yoe

Attentiondeficitdisorderly
Sean T. Collins

Barbers Blog
Wilson Barbers

The Bastard Machine
Tim Goodman

The Beat
Heidi MacDonald

BeaucoupKevin
Kevin Church

Big Fat Blog
Paul McAleer

Big Mouth Types Again
Evan Dorkin

Bloggity-Blog-Blog-Blog
Laura "Tegan" Gjovaag

Blog This, Pal!
Gordon Dymowski

Bookgasm
Rod Lott

Cartoon Brew
Amid Amidi & Jerry Beck

Cartoon Web Log!
Daryl Cagle

Clea's Cave
Juana Moore-Overmyer

Collected Editions

The Comics Curmudgeon
Josh Fruhlinger

The Comics Reporter
Tom Spurgeon

Comics.212
Christopher Butcher

Comics Waiting Room
Marc Mason

Comics Worth Reading
Johanna Draper Carlson

a dragon dancing with the Buddha
Ben Varkentine

Egon

Electromatic Radio
Matt Appleyard Aaron Neathery

Estoreal
RAB

Eye of the Goof
Mr. Bali Hai

Fred Sez
Fred Hembeck

Greenbriar Picture Shows
John McElwee

The Groovy Age of Horror
Curt Purcell

The Hooded Utilitarian
Noah Berlatsky

Hooray for Captain Spaulding
Daniel Frank

The Horn Section
Hal

The House Next Door
Matt Zoller Seitz

Howling Curmudgeons
Greg Morrow & Friends

The Hurting
Tim O'Neil

I Am A Child of Television
Brent McKee

I Am NOT the Beastmaster
Marc Singer

In Sequence
Teresa Ortega

Innocent Bystander
Gary Sassaman

Irresponsible Pictures
Pata

Jog - The Blog
Joe McCulloch

The Johnny Bacardi Show
David Allen Jones

Journalista
Dirk Deppey

King's Chronicles
Paul Dini

Let's You And Him Fight
One of the Jones Boys

Mah Two Cents
Tony Collett

Metrokitty
Kitty

Michael's Movie Palace
Michael

Nat's TV
Nat Gertler

Ned Sonntag

Neilalien

News from ME
Mark Evanier

No Rock&Roll Fun
Simon B

Omega Channel
Matt Bradshaw

Pen-Elayne on the Web
Elayne Riggs

PeterDavid.net
Peter David

(postmodernbarney.com)
Dorian White

Progressive Ruin
Mike Sterling

Punk Rock Graffiti
Cindy Johnson & Autumn Meredith

Revoltin' Developments
Ken Cuperus

Rhinoplastique
Marc Bernardin

Scrubbles
Matt Hinrichs

Self-Styled Siren
Campaspe

Spatula Forum
Nik Dirga

Tales from the Longbox
Chris Mosby

TangognaT

The Third Banana
Aaron Neathery & Friends

Thrilling Days of Yesteryear
Ivan G. Shreve, Jr.

Toner Mishap
B2 et al

Trusty Plinko Stick
Bill Doughty

TV Barn
Aaron Barnhart et al

Unqualified Offerings
Jim Henley

Various And Sundry
Augie De Blieck

Video WatchBlog
Tim Lucas

When Fangirls Attack
Kalinara & Ragnell

X-Ray Spex
Will Pfeifer

Yet Another Comics Blog
Dave Carter



A Brief Political Disclaimer:

If this blog does not discuss a specific political issue or event, it is not because this writer finds said event politically inconvenient to acknowledge - it's simply because he's scatterbrained and irresponsible.




My Token List of Poli-Blogs:

Alicublog
Roy Edroso

Eschaton
Atrios

Firedoglake
Jane Hamsher

James Wolcott

Lance Mannion

The Moderate Voice
Joe Gandelman

Modulator
Steve

Pandagon
Amanda Marcotte & Friends

The Sideshow
Avedon Carol

Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo
Skippy

Talking Points Memo
Joshua Micah Marshall

This Modern World
Tom Tomorrow

Welcome to Shakesville
Melissa McEwan & Friends



Blogcritics: news and reviews
Site Feed



Powered by Blogger



Twittering:
    follow me on Twitter