not falling down http://www.xorph.com/nfd big city Thu, 15 May 2008 00:22:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.3 en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Sumana, you should probably stop reading here http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/14/sumana-you-should-probably-stop-reading-here/ http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/14/sumana-you-should-probably-stop-reading-here/#comments Wed, 14 May 2008 21:26:30 +0000 Brendan http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/14/sumana-you-should-probably-stop-reading-here/ What you have to understand about the Burger King Loaded Steakburger is that I had no choice in the matter. The moment I spied it billboardwise, during the long drive west, I was gripped by the same potent mixture of revulsion and lust that came upon me once in college, when Jon and I first saw the commercial for the Bacon Club Chalupa. We turned to each other, then, eyes wide and desperate, like two men drowning who each believe the other can swim.

Neither could.

So it was only a matter of time before I ran out of excuses for not planting this particular meatbomb in my face. Leaving the drive-thru not ten minutes ago, I left steering to my nervous left hand while my right fumbled through wrappers. The first thing I saw was the edge of the patty, protruding a full inch beyond the hapless bun like a beckoning pseudopod; the second was the utter absence of traditional dressing. There is no pickle here, no tomato. The bastards have delivered a sullen daub of gray potato and onion shards instead, and they have somehow transmuted lettuce to bacon. The rites involved are none I care to imagine.

The sandwich is not good. I stress this even in the full knowledge that it will accomplish nothing; those who weren’t going to eat it won’t, and the rest of you will have no more agency than I did. But like any Lovecraftian narrator, I am bound to commit these desperate words by sheer force of narrative. I must write of its taste, like barbecue Spam fried in motor oil. I must write of its texture, which is also like barbecue Spam fried in motor oil. I must tell you how it sits in my stomach e’en now, heavily roiled, plotting its course downward with the slow cunning of a brain-damaged tiger on spelunk.

Taco Bell recently reintroduced the Bacon Club Chalupa. Should I even have time to post this missive, I cannot imagine that I will outlive it long. The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some crispy flatbread, sliding deep-fried fingers up to caress the latch.

]]>
http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/14/sumana-you-should-probably-stop-reading-here/feed/
Mars needs pull quotes http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/mars-needs-pull-quotes/ http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/mars-needs-pull-quotes/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 21:45:31 +0000 Brendan http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/sometimes-it-is-difficult-to-find-good-pull-quotes/ What are some of the brightest lights in webcomics saying about Brendan Adkins and Ommatidia?

“I didn’t know about it.”

–Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade

“Asshole.”

–Scott Kurtz of PvP, at the Emerald City Comicon

“Pretty slick, but my shout-out is not without motive.”

–Kristofer Straub of Starslip Crisis*

* Kristofer Straub was paid $50 during book creation for unrelated reasons

]]>
http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/mars-needs-pull-quotes/feed/
http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/1763/ http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/1763/#comments Mon, 12 May 2008 18:12:03 +0000 Brendan http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/1763/ OH SHIIIIIIIIIIT

]]>
http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/12/1763/feed/
Ozward http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/08/ozward/ http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/08/ozward/#comments Thu, 08 May 2008 16:08:22 +0000 Brendan http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/08/ozward/ I’ll be at Emerald City Comicon this weekend–not exhibiting, just visiting to get my copy of How to Make Webcomics signed. If you are going too then we should HANG. (Sorry, Calamity Jon, I will be getting there too late for Drink-n-Draw.)

]]>
http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/08/ozward/feed/
Photogration http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/06/photogration/ http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/06/photogration/#comments Tue, 06 May 2008 23:22:10 +0000 Brendan http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/06/photogration/ A cool thing about the emergent behavior generated by Flickr’s embedded Creative Commons licensing: people can actually find your stuff and reuse it at will, the way CC was intended to work. That means that this year, my pictures have shown up in an abridged article about the scientific accuracy of the animals in 10,000 BC, a newsblog post about a stupid person claiming to have a phobia of little people, and an opinion piece about HIPAA usage from the father of a kid with ASD.

]]>
http://www.xorph.com/nfd/2008/05/06/photogration/feed/