UPDATING OCCASIONALLY (FOR NOW)

5 thoughts on “Issue 22 Cover”

  1. Dr. Norman (not a real doctor)

    Ooohhh … He looks – desperate.

  2. Zombatar

    No hat. He lost his hat. Which had a lot of his personality. Alert! Alert! We have a Lost Hat emergency! This is Not a Drill! Alert! Alert!

  3. Scarsdale

    Hang in there, I’m a retired fireman, and those pictures/videos have me sweating… The closest thing to a forest fire I ever fought was when a stupid tried to burn raked leaves on a windy day. 4 houses! Mostly grass and bush fires but, yeah.

  4. Clint

    Good news, we are back at home and there was a home to return to. It’s been a crazy week and a serious near miss seeing as several other homes on our block burned. Terrible stuff but the Ranch persists.

    1. Honzinator

      Welcome back.
      My mom’s whole town, Monrovia, seems to have survived so far, too, but it ain’t over yet.

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Issue 22 Cover
Posted on January 8, 2025 by Dawn

Traditional post-issue comic cover! Episode 23 is currently TBA but we're hoping to have the first page out on January 22nd so as to not leave y'all hanging from the proverbial cliff for too long.

[1/9/2025 NOTICE: Some of you may know we live in the Greater L.A. Area and if you've heard about the wildfires here: yep, we're currently evacuated from our home and still unsure as to its fate. We grabbed our computers and backup drives so whatever happens we still have our files, but definitely expect some delays and cross your fingers that the worst we're going to end up having to do is throw food out of the fridge due to power loss.]

[1/11/2025 UPDATE: Good news, we are back at home and there was a home to return to. It's been a crazy week and a serious near miss seeing as several other homes on our block burned. Terrible stuff but the Ranch persists.]

[1/22/2025 UPDATE: In the post-fire chaos we forgot to mention, no comic this week. Things are intact but there's still cleanup of smoke and ash to do, insurance to wrangle, etc. We had a really close call.

Since we're between issues anyhow we're going to push the start date of Episode 23 back to February 26th. Gives us some room to breathe (literally!).]

Chekhov’s comedy

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Clint
You know, Anton Chekhov actually considered some of his plays comedies, which is something to this day is hard for me to wrap my brain around. I’ve actually been in a production of The Seagull, the “comedy” where the rifle introduced in the second act is the same one the main character shoots himself with in the third. And speaking of Chekhov’s guns… Last week I touched on the very inexact (yet crucial) goal of having character actions and, especially, reactions, fit the situations they face in a way that reinforces their identities for the audience. Now one thing I didn’t bring up is that one of the easiest ways to create comedy is subverting expectations along such lines; for instance, the character of Chumley the troll in Robert Aspirin’s Myth Adventures series seems stereotypically large, mean, and ugly, until he privately reveals it’s all an act and he’s really a quite cultured chap who enjoys nothing more than a good read and a spot of tea. Even in a more dramatic story it’s not a sin to throw in a surprise here and there, because people really are surprising creatures. How many times have you given, received, or witnessed an exclamation of, “I didn’t know you could do/liked to do that!”? Comedic writing plays such revelations out for laughs, though the really stellar examples don’t just use it for a single joke but will actually incorporate it into the character after the initial shock, to where later on it seems only natural. Put more simply, the macho (American) football linebacker who is discovered to be moonlighting as a ballet dancer is an unexpected twist. Okay, arguably that’s an old one that’s played out by now, especially since there really are macho football players who do ballet. But bear with me, because despite all the good points brought up about the benefits of ballet, showing a bunch of big burly guys wearing tutus with their football jerseys is obviously staged for the funny. And funny it is, at least in my view. Yet I find myself appreciating a comedy show like 30 Rock or Parks and Recreation which may seem like they’re just going for a cheap laugh, but then 15 episodes later may have that football player suddenly hold forth on the story behind Swan Lake and how it applies to the current crisis, reminding those of us who were paying attention that yes, he was established as having that background in ballet. It’s related to the concept of the Brick Joke, and it’s a strangely satisfying reward for loyalty even (or perhaps especially) in the midst of the absurd, because it also functions as a character moment. Something to ponder, even if you’re not writing with humorous intent. A lot of the basic building blocks remain the same.