Official Off-Topic Thread

[Mirre]

Wow. Lots of cute cats! Everyone has such pretty companions.

My younger brother told me yesterday that he convinced my parents to get a cat for the family. We have been trying to convince them for years and then they give in just like that, when I'm on the other side of the planet! No fair! I hope they wait until I get back home in the spring. Or the cat will probably just like them, and take no shine to me at all.

[Helm]

I will suggest artists to you, and if you would like to know where to start, I can suggest specific comics by them too.

Are you familiar with Chris Ware? I do suggest his work. Also, Burns, Tomine, Clowes for the more existential American indie comic.
You could do worse than read Moebius, Bilal, Pazienza, Manara, Liberatore... so on. There's just a huge range just right there that is inexhaustible.
Alberto Breccia is our lord and master he's done all that the above did, before them, alone, while struggling to feed a family and help a sick wife with the little money he made from his work in Argentina. and he did even MORE. The true master, the unsung genius of the field.
Speaking of genii If you haven't read Will Eisner, you simply must.
Robert Crumb, surely.

Dave Sim went halfway crazy to give to you comics like you never thought there could be.
Paul Chadwick certainly.
Craig P.Russell and Barry W. Smith are my biggest inspirations about the beauty in human forms (perhaps Neal Adams too!).
Geoff Darrow for detail.
Mark Schultz.

Do you want manga artists too?

[McStinkus]

Carl Barks, even though hes been shoehorned to the dead funny-animal genre, is a real great.  He managed to write and draw compelling and aesthetically pleasing ducks.  disney characters for christ sakes.  He has some pretty decent torchbearers but they are all fairly derivative of his style. 

[Ryumaru]

Helm: That Alberto guy seems pretty extraordinary.some of his techniques are so unorthodox! Oil based inks on glass?

[Sohashu]

Should i be considered a comic book noob (which I know I am) if I like Frank Miller? From what little i've read its okay..  but then again, lack of monetary status disallows me from pursuing the reading of comic books/graphics novels. 

[Helm]

Frank Miller did some very important things in his Daredevil run in my opinion, and DK is a huge, very important point in american superhero comics. However it's been a long way, decidedly, down since. His very good stuff resonates with me still, but as I grow older I can see the pathology in his writing. He seems incapable these days to write a woman character who isn't a ninja whore, which is kinda depressing and I must say I didn't take kindly to his take on spartan culture and so on.

[Opacus]

Yeepee, time to ruin someone's ego give constructive comments about a music 
First of all, I'd say you're on a good way and I think that the flaws I hear in this song are the type of flaws that will simply vanish away with practice.
Next good thing is that you captured quite well the Uematsu feel and it pops very quickly as an influence of yours so you can consider this a success.
Now about the flaws : the first problem I hear is the samples' quality which is pretty low. Your brass sound is especially cheap and only the Hammond Organ wasnt too amateur.
About the instrumentation, I'd say that there's one missing layer or something like this. There's nothing between the bass+drum duo and the lead tracks. The overall thing sounds a bit "empty" because of this. The bass-brass duo bit especially suffers from this lack.
Regarding the composition, I think that percussions are your weak point because they sound a bit messy, esp. in the beginning (it gets better at 0'50 though).
On the other hand, the tune is easy to remember so that's a good point for you =)

EDIT : While we're at it...a WIP of mine. CC is very welcome 
http://fil.razorback.free.fr/n3.mp3

Thank you Fil. It's hard getting by good instruments, especially since I don't have money to spare on them.
However, it might also just have to do with my choice of instruments that maybe sound akward together or something?
I'd love to be able to buy Steinber's Symphonic Orchestra or something.
I don't think I did that bad though, considering I have only been working with Fruity Loops for about 2 months, mostly focusing on house and electro.
And I furthermore have no musical experience whatsoever.
However I will be taking guitar lessons soon!

Your WIP sounds nice, I don't have anything to critisize on it...yet. Maybe on the full version. We'll see

[ptoing]

Frank Miller did some very important things in his Daredevil run in my opinion, and DK is a huge, very important point in american superhero comics. However it's been a long way, decidedly, down since. His very good stuff resonates with me still, but as I grow older I can see the pathology in his writing. He seems incapable these days to write a woman character who isn't a ninja whore, which is kinda depressing and I must say I didn't take kindly to his take on spartan culture and so on.

See, what you have to do is go to some event where Miller is, ComiCon or something, dunno. Dress up in proper spartan gear and the go "THIS! IS! SPARTA!" and boot him in the gut!

[Ben2theEdge]

Not to ruin the best scene in that movie but... before he kicked a bunch of Persians into it, weren't they using that well?

"Mommy this water tastes like dead people."
"Shut up and drink it! You're a Spartan!"

[ndchristie]

Not to ruin the best scene in that movie but... before he kicked a bunch of Persians into it, weren't they using that well?

"Mommy this water tastes like dead people."
"Shut up and drink it! You're a Spartan!"

if i remember, they actually did throw the messengers into a pit, as did the Athenians, but it was more along the lines of a "refuse pile" and may have been figurative description rather than a literal one (as most ancient cultures are known not only for using metaphors, but knowing what they meant).  Herodotus, our best contemporary source, was like four years old and lived in modern turkey, so he was citing legend and gossip more than history.  Of course the greeks, famed for cleanliness and oration as they are, may still have decided that a few dead guys in their water was somehow acceptable.


saw dark knight again (third time's the charm?), few scenes lost their edge when you know what's going to happen, but the one that was definitely more intense each viewing was "why so serious?" and shortly after the "tryouts" bit.



While I respect many comic artists, there are few that I love.  Alberto Breccia is one.  The one catch is that his work needs to be read in Spanish, even if Oesterheld wrote it.
Speaking of Oesterheld, i should say that while i respect many comic writers, there are few that I love...although his most moving work is probably his own unwritten biography.