I was lucky to be able to track down Ryan North recently, after he graciously agreed to be interviewed for MotherFiver. In between trips stateside, appearances in his hometown Toronto and putting out his first book, Ryan had the time to answer a few questions. It was real impromptu, so there's actually a part two on the way. Part one started like this:

Ryan North: I am here!

M*therF!v3r: Hola! It's been difficult to get a hold of you.

Ryan: It's because I leave MSN on when I'm not around.

*@!#3: Oh, like a decoy! Very clever. You must be a hard man to kill.

Ryan: I'm still here!

*@!#3: So, somehow we need to initiate this interview in the near future.

Ryan: Let's do it! RIGHT NOW

*@!#3: Oh man

Ryan: What's the matter.... CHICKEN???

*@!#3: Hahaha

Ryan: we'll make it up as we go along! We'll live ON THE EDGE

*@!#3: Sounds rockin'! I still think that idea you had, about people skateboarding out of a crashing helicopter, is the best example of awesome anywhere

Ryan: Wait, is this the beginning of the interview? Because my interview response would be "Thank you!" while my chat response would be "I agree!!"

*@!#3: I was just free associating.

Ryan: *phew*

*@!#3: Ok, let's see. I know there are a few questions you get all the time. Like, "why did you choose to use static art?" My question is, can you draw? And, where did the dinosaurs actually come from?

Ryan: I can't actually draw that well at all, so it's good that my comic is in the format it is.

Ryan: And the dinosaurs come from this old drawing program from 1995 I had called "Warbirds" that was literally the only drawing program I had when I decided to do a comic! So I guess that was a bit of luck.

*@!#3: What other art was in there? Does an alternate universe exist where the dinosaurs are instead, fish?

Ryan: Well ACTUALLY there was this really good clipart of a robot dog, that I had there originally instead of Dromiceiomimus.

Ryan: BUT

Ryan: I thought maybe I was losing the focus with the robot dog, so I replaced him. It was probably for the best, because I don't know how to write for robot dogs. It is Beyond Me.

*@!#3: You wanted to keep a consistent milieu for your comic.

Ryan: Precisely!

*@!#3: Off panel characters: why use them? Did you find yourself at one point, limited by the three characters in the strip?

Ryan: Not really- they just sort of suggested themselves. The first time God shows up, he was hiding behind the couch, so it made sense not to show him- he's God, plus, he's hiding anyway. God suggested The Devil, and the other characters just followed. I find it's cool though, structurally, because God and the Devil let me have T-Rex talk to someone other than himself in the first two panels.

Ryan: The first person to speak off-panel was Utahraptor, and that took me like 2 months of comics to figure out I could do THAT. So- slow going?

*@!#3: Was it intentional at first that only T-Rex can hear them? What exactly are you telling us about T-Rex's mental health?

Ryan: I just thought it made things more interesting! As for T-Rex's mental health, he is absolutely healthy. How could he not be? He's awesome.

*@!#3: Aha! This leads nicely into another question. T-Rex is often the unintentional source of comedy... he plays a self-depreciating role, against the other two straight-men (straight-dinos)... do you see him as the clown, or genuinely as someone who does rock as hard as he seems to think?

Ryan: He's not the clown - sometimes he'll be goofy, but it's just as we'll be goofy to entertain our friends and to have a good time. He's not in it to make himself look stupid, though! That just- that just happens sometimes.

*@!#3: Is he a sounding board for your own ideas on life? It seems like often he'll latch onto a philosophical doctrine 110%, or invent his own silly (sometimes pun-based) way of living... and through the comic he'll come to some new understanding. Is this indicative of your thought process?

Ryan: Sometimes! Sometimes it's easy to work things out if you have talking dinosaurs doing the thinking for you. This has been my experience. You might want to try it!

*@!#3: I'd hate to be unoriginal! Maybe a pterodactyl?

Ryan: Sure! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.

*@!#3: So, Dinosaur Comics has static art. Everyone knows this. But you've also pioneered the comic Whispered Apologies. Art from one creator is given words by another- you seem to have a lot of ideas about the interaction between art and writing in a comic. Did one idea come from another?

Ryan: The idea for Whispered Apologies actually came from Exploding Dog, which is a comic where people send in words and Sam draws pictures. I basically just turned that concept inside out. But the idea did come from a desire to do different sorts of comics that I couldn't do within the Dinosaur Comics template!

*@!#3: Do you see comics like Whispered Apologies, comics that play with authorship, as becoming a new trend or genre in the future?

Ryan: Maybe! They do some interesting things, but I don't think a comic can JUST be about playing with authorship. There has to be more to it than that. If I encourage people to do more things like this with their own work, though, that would be cool.

*@!#3: Will you be jealous if someone figures out a way to create a continuous webcomic without doing any drawing or writing themselves?

Ryan: Man, that is my secret Phase Two of dinosaur comics! But it is a SECRET.

*@!#3: Sorry.

*@!#3: In fact, you do have a guest art page with quite a few ghostwritten Dino Comics episodes...

Ryan: Heh, that's true! Maybe I could just use those for a new comic series. I will call it "Dinosaur Comics 2: Professional Ruin Edition" and will make everyone who ever submitted one furious with me.

Ryan: ...Maybe this is not the best idea ever.

*@!#3: Especially not when you try to sell the book.

Ryan: True!

*@!#3: Let's talk about language.

Ryan: Awesome. It is a favourite topic of mine!

*@!#3: You were a computational linguist, right?

Ryan: Was/Am, still, sort of. I think you don't ever stop being one. NOT ON MY WATCH

*@!#3: Haha, so the license doesn't expire. When you devote your life to making funnies on the web, Academia doesn't visit your house and repossess your credibility?

Ryan: Oh no, not at all! Academia is actually really cool, and they like it when you do interesting things with it. Comics aren't exactly 100% related, but there is a bit of computational linguistics in Oh No Robot and maybe in RSSPECT. At least, the people at U of T are all awesome. I don't know about those OTHER universities.

*@!#3: Dinosaur Comics stays fresh, because of the language- you've developed some pretty unique dialogue tics in your writing. I've already noticed a few times in this conversation when you've used phrases that can only be called T-Rexian...

*@!#3: 'He's not in it to make himself look stupid, though! That just- that just happens sometimes'. The self-aware, akward repetition- sometimes with a stutter, or the word "maybe"? M-maybe?

*@!#3: What is that implying?

Ryan: Yeah, that's me! I guess this is just something that I've found as a really handy shorthand towards this sort of awkward, self-questioning way people sometimes talk. It's not quite inventing your own punctuation, but I've found it useful for getting across how the lines should sound in your head when you read it!

*@!#3: So this is observed behavior? Do you ever do this for real, in conversation?

Ryan: You mean in conversation with people in real life? Sometimes, I guess! It's deliberate, though.

*@!#3: How about this: 'Sure! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG'. What's the idea behind the capitalization? What does that do? And why those words?

Ryan: Oh yeah, that's the same thing. That slightly-louder emphasis that gets put on the words when read like that is what I'm going for. I guess I am sort of making up my own punctuation, and using Dinosaur Comics to disseminate it.

Ryan: SINISTER PLOT: revealed!

*@!#3: Haha, you just did another one!

*@!#3: And what about the lack of a question mark on the end of a question? WHAT IS WITH THAT.

Ryan: Again, same thing! It's a way of asking a rhetorical question where you don't want an answer.

*@!#3: It's very distinctive.

Ryan: Thanks!

*@!#3: So, let's try and segue into webcomics in general. Do you think of yourself as a comics fan? Do you have a favorites list?

Ryan: I am and I do! They're all the ones linked to on my website.

*@!#3: How important is the writing in other people's comics? What sort of writing won't you tolerate, who has your favorite writing?

Ryan: Hmm - I guess what I don't like, and what I see a lot of in webcomics (though not in the comics of the people that I like, just in random comics that you come across) is where people use "I hate you" as a punchline. Huh? Maybe that was funny the first time, but after seeing dozens of instances of the last to frames being a beat, and then one character telling the other that he hates him- well, I guess it loses its otherwise inexorable charm?

*@!#3: I hear you. How about meta-meta-humor in which people play with how uncool breaking the fourth wall is? Ironic and hip? Or no? How many layers of irony will you tolerate?

Ryan: If it's fresh I like it. But if it's something old that wasn't that great the first time, it doesn’t really float my boat. Self-deprecating stuff isn't really to my taste, nor are comics where the characters are all "Hah! The joke is that YOU read this crappy comic!" in the last panel.

*@!#3: Hahaha! Like, they openly insult the reader? As though it were a trap?

Ryan: Yeah! I've seen that a few times! It seems a bit counter-productive.

*@!#3: Wow, I guess so. Right now it sounds so awesome to me, though. "Gotcha!"

*@!#3: Do you have any favorite lines, styles of dialogue from other webcomics? There is some excellent writing to be found, we think of John Allison's style, Jeph Jacques... obviously there are plenty to name.

Ryan: It's true! There're a lot of good comics out there. I really like Chris Onstad's style with Achewood. That is some excellent comicing right there.

*@!#3: I think Achewood works so well because the characters express with their faces the same tone implied in their dialogue. That is hard to do.

Ryan: I imagine it is!

*@!#3: Your dinos do the same (I think T-Rex has a monopoly on exuberance sometimes), but you have the challenge of always working with the same faces.

Ryan: Yeah, and that's actually really informed their characters. T-Rex is exuberant because how can he not be, when he's in that pose in panel 2?

*@!#3: And I love how in panel 6, he can be either horrified, or surprised, or happy... How many moods DOES T-Rex have?

Ryan: Somebody made a Livejournal emotion set with the T-Rex emoticon as the picture for every emotion, and they've got something like 200 emotions there, so I'm going to say- at least 200.

*@!#3: I still have a lot of questions about your new projects- perhaps there can be a second part soon? Ryan North, part two: the Future!

Ryan: Let's do it up then! Thanks for this so far- it's been fun!

Well a big thank you, Ryan, for being an awesome interviewee, and having so much to say! I'm jazzed about finding out more next time. Tune in for part two in the near future.

Ryan: The way Eddie Campbell draws, for instance, is perfect for the type of stories he's looking to tell, and the same for, say, Alex Ross. And Watchmen, while being a great STORY, I always wince at while reading because I'm really not a fan of Dave Gibbon's art in that book.

*@!#3: Now, how about webcomics? You must have a few online strips you love for the art? Don't be afraid to single 'em out!

Ryan: There's none that I love JUST for the art, but the art in, say, A Lesson Is Learned is gorgeous.

Ryan: As is the writing!

*@!#3: True! One of the benefits of a dual authorship.

Ryan: Yep!

*@!#3: You belong to a comic collective, Dayfree Press. What are the advantages of membership in a collective, or of belonging to Dayfree in particular?

Ryan: Well, one of the advantages is that you put link boxes to the other members on your site, which is a way of saying "Hey, you might like this comic too, I do!", which is nice. But the main benefit is really just being able to talk to people about comics stuff- running a preorder, things like that. You don't need a collective to do this, of course, but it is a handy way of getting it done!

Ryan: But people tend to want them to be more insular than they are, I think. It's not like if you're in Dayfree you can't like Dumbrella comics! There is no drama there.

*@!#3: And I think they do tend to come across that way, as amicable, like you said.

Ryan: Sweet!

*@!#3: except the Blank label/Keenspot thing... it seemed like people outside the issue were trying to invent drama that wasn't there? Drama can be entertaining!

Ryan: I guess! I didn't really follow the whole Blank Label thing but I remember the webcomics internets blowing up about it!

*@!#3: Yeah

*@!#3: ...

*@!#3: Good times.

Ryan: Good times!

*@!#3: How well did you know some of the other Dayfree Press members before you joined? How did you join?

Ryan: I knew Jeph the best, I think, but had corresponded with a bunch of them. The invitation process was they invited me and I said sure!

*@!#3: Ok! Nothing too earth shattering there, I guess... are there any disadvantages to belonging to a collective? Don't hold back!

Ryan: Um- I can't really think of any. There's no real disadvantage to being linked to by people and to hanging out with friends and peers online that I can think of!

*@!#3: You and your rational attitude! I'm not going to dig up any controversy this way!

Ryan: EVERYONE IN DAYFREE HAS A SECRET FURSONA

Ryan: But don't tell anyone. It is a secret.

*@!#3: As the webcomics community grows, we're seeing more and more collectives forming. Ultimately, won't the comics landscape look pretty much like the Borg?

Ryan: I don't think so! That would only work if the collectives enforced some sort of unity on the members, but none that I know do that. We just got Chris from Dr. McNinja and Liz from Stuff Sucks into Dayfree, and they're both unlike anything that was there before, so that's exciting. Also I really like both those comics, which is even better. It's like validation for my tastes! Somehow!

*@!#3: It's at least very convenient.

Ryan: VERY convenient.

*@!#3: RSSPECT and Oh No Robot. What was the inspiration behind them?

Ryan: Just that I saw a problem I could solve! Both sort of came to me in flashes of inspiration. I was at the opera when I thought of RSSPECT.

*@!#3: Do you view them as professional projects? Applications that increase your brand? Or do you see yourself as some sort of web philanthropist / web Robin Hood?

Ryan: Well, OhNoRobot is really a niche product, so that's more of a gift to the community, I guess. Basically it was a way of solving a problem I had (searching my own comics) and generalizing that to anyone with a comic. RSSPECT could actually make money (I offer premium accounts there that let you do a little bit more than you can do with the free account), so I guess you could call them pseudo-professional projects. All of the design and support of a professional project, one third of the corporate overhead!

*@!#3: All right!

*@!#3: So, after over 700 episodes, you've put out your first book collecting Dinosaur Comics. How does that feel?

Ryan: Good! It's nice to have a real book that you can hold in your real hands and flip through and so on!

Ryan: It's also kind of a free book, since I'd already written it when I sat down to put it together. So that's nice!

*@!#3: Why not include all your comics, perhaps in multiple books? Why only a "best of" collection?

Ryan: Well, I wanted the book to be awesome, and so I figured including my favourites would make the book more solid. There could always be a complete volume in the future, but I was more interested in a slimmer, "just the MOST AWESOME COMICS EVER" volume.

*@!#3: And how many comics made it in?

Ryan: About 250!

*@!#3: Title text and all!

Ryan: Yep! WHY, I WOULD BUY SEVERAL

*@!#3: I hope you don't shout this at buyers in person!

Ryan: N-not always.

*@!#3: WHY ARE YOU ONLY GETTING ONE THAT IS CRAZY

*@!#3: For someone who makes webcomics as a full time living, do you think book collections and other merchandise are nessecary to support the artist?

Ryan: If by "other merchandise" you include t-shirts, then yeah. I'm supported mostly by shirt sales- a few online ads here and there pay a little, but not nearly enough to survive.

*@!#3: What about the book itself? Did publishing come down as a financial decision for you?

Ryan: No, not at all! Al at Quack! (the publisher) contacted me after buying a shirt about maybe putting out a book, and we hashed out a deal. It was mostly I wanted to put out a book but didn't have the time or the kick in the butt to get moving, and talking to a publisher solved both those problems.

*@!#3: It seems as though Dino Comics is blessed by serendipity.

Ryan: Perhaps, the best kind of blessing?

*@!#3: But it seems to be a rule now that when a webcomic is big enough, it starts producing merchandise, particularly T-shirts. How long did you have to wait before you put out your first shirt?

Ryan: Oh, I had a Cafepress store after the first few months, but you don't open a Cafepress store to become rich. It was just shirts for me and my friends then!

*@!#3: When did you begin in earnest, then? When did you know it was time?

Ryan: Well, the Cafepress shirts let me measure demand, and so when it was at a point when the demand was there, and I had some designs that would work well when screenprinted, I started putting them together! This was a little over a year ago, I think.

Ryan: If you want to sell shirts on your site that aren't print-on-demand, I really recommend doing presales. They'll let you measure demand, and there's no risk. If you sell enough to make back your expenses, great- go for it, and you're sure at least not to LOSE money. If the demand isn't there, then you just refund the preorders, and there's no money lost.

*@!#3: So, it sounds pretty easy! Do you think every webcomic that has enough readers to support merchandise, should produce merchandise? Are T-shirts the natural companions to webcomics?

Ryan: Well, it's up to the comic owner, of course. If you don't want to take the time to run it properly, then don't do it. It is a lot of work to print and mail out shirts! But I do think they go nicely together. Everyone loves unique clothing!

*@!#3: So- how many webcomic t-shirts do you own?

Ryan: Oh man- most of my shirts come from online stores, actually. Not all webcomics stuff, but a lot of them are from comics.

*@!#3: What's the last webcomic you wore on your body? Give us a name.

Ryan: Actually I'm wearing my shirt from Poppycock Circus AS WE SPEAK!

*@!#3: Serendipitous!

Ryan: Indeed!!

*@!#3: I think I ran out of questions.

Ryan: The end! Thanks for talking to me, Andrew.

*@!#3: A minimalist conclusion, but I guess it works.

Ryan: THE END

Ryan: THIS INTERVIEW IS OVER

(Who am I to argue with that?)

What can I say about Mac Hall? If you read comics online, you probably already know everything I can tell you. Mac Hall is one of the founding members of our modern webcomics community. It boasts great, I would say inspiring art. The writing has been consistently funny and the characters are unique. However, in recent months the comic has slipped into disrepair. I am of the opinion that Mac Hall needs to end.

The heart of the problem is Mac Hall suffers from updating problems. This is an understatement, a euphemism, because weeks can often go by with no comic, no warning or explanation (I am not here to open that ridiculous argument, "Do webcomics creators owe their audience a reason for missed updates?" No, they don't, and plenty of other writers have satisfied my thinking on the topic better than I can set down here).
Now, Mac Hall's lazy updating could be for any number of reasons; it’s not important why it is so. Ian, Matt and company simply need to understand that what is important is our perception of the comic. We, the readers. I am a webcomics reader, and a quick survey of me* reveals some interesting facts about my habits as a reader. I keep a bookmarks folder of comics to be read regularly. I check them often, but am forgiving of inactivity, most of the time. However, sit in my favorites for too long without updating... and the link is deleted.

I don't want to delete Mac Hall! That is why it needs to end.

Mac Hall has outlived its own name somewhat. Dorm life is rarely or never seen in its pages these days. The truth is, the characters' counterparts are finishing school and- may I draw a parallel? -moving on with their lives.
There’s nothing wrong with a comic evolving, changing settings, following the creators to new places (Real Life has done so just recently, and somewhat successfully, but it's an entirely different story that I think Real Life needs to end too). But with Mac Hall, it’s hard to tell what the setting is anymore. The creators, who are templates of the comic, are dispersing into the world. Now filler art is as common as comics. The truth is, art portfolios exist for filler. A comic does not seem to be the correct venue for filler. Has Mac Hall become a dumping ground?

Web comics are a new and exciting medium for art. They are unruly and unpredictable, wonderfully and desperately brilliant in their short lifetimes. But one artistic constant ought not to be forgotten, no matter how bohemian we think we are online- all stories, all art, must have an end. The prospect of a handful of new comics over the next few years is not nearly as appealing to me as a chance to let go of a comic I've loved, and fondly remember the characters I watched in their prime. With an ending, individual comics could be safely gauged against the whole. And with an ending, the creators of Mac Hall could try new stories, and thereby not deprive us of new works of genius.
There is a website called Six Six Five which is worth many hours of your time and adoration. It isn't like any other site I can think of for comparison, and I hate to use the word "blog", although it is a log of sorts, of the author's life. There are six hundred sixty-five entries, and the number was decided from day one- the author wanted his "experiment" to have an ending. On the site you'll find essays, jokes, drawings and chat pranks- the posts vary the way life does. The author says this in entry number 664:
"I know a lot of you would like it if I did [continue], but I set out to do a limited number of entries a long time ago, and I'm sticking to that. I am of the belief that a thing is only real if it's finite, and that every good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end ... In a lot of ways, this site has been a story. It's certainly told one ... I've changed a lot as a person, and I guess this site has had a lot to do with that."

Does Mac Hall tell us a story? Or just a series of punchlines?

The biggest impediment to Mac Hall ending, a concern you may raise with my argument and one I must admit I share as well, is, "What's the point? Mac Hall isn't hurting anybody".
Mac Hall is hurting itself. It suffers from its inactivity. The archives are becoming distended and the creators are dribbling away the reputations they have earned for themselves. I know Ian, Matt and others still make convention appearances... I wonder if they feel harder pressed to explain their presence now? Or do they feel they belong there, like Star Trek alumni who haven't done anything else in decades? The comic is hurting itself. And by hurting itself, it hurts the webcomics community that it helped create those years ago. There is a responsibility in Mac Hall's popularity, because our young medium is approaching the time when it may succumb to pitfalls we've all seen in print and elsewhere.

Mac Hall is becoming Garfield. The webcomics community needs to be careful.

*I say “a survey of me” with tongue in cheek, because of course you can’t rely on research data from only one person. This context of this article, however, is that of my feelings toward Mac Hall. So agree or don’t, you can still understand why my favorites are maintained as they are.

The first interview in hopefully a prestigious series is one featuring a Mr. Scheichelbauer, of the journal comic Mekka Blue. I've known him for a few years, ever since he wrote a short article about the Batman Remix, which he cleverly did in German, so I could not read all the invective things he had to say about my art. I'm on to him.

M*therF!v3r: First of all, why don't you introduce yourself. Who draws Mekka Blue?

Mekka Blue: Wha, what a question!

*@!#3: It's kinda formal, I guess.

MB: Well, my name is Rainer Erich Scheichelbauer, but please, just call me Eric. Or Mekka, if you will. I was born in Vienna, Austria on Women's Day.

*@!#3: Which is what, for the Americans?

MB: 8th of March ... it's a kind of left-wing/liberal/feminist kind of thing, the exact history of which escapes me at the moment.

*@!#3: I see.

MB: I'm sure one can find something on it on Wikipedia or Google or whatever. It was celebrated in the East Block in the good old Socialist times.

*@!#3: I'm sure we're all fascinated.

MB: Hehe.

MB: My first girlfriend was a Croatian Bosnian, and she used to make fun of my birthdate. Yugoslavia used to be Socialist too, you know.

*@!#3: Of course.

*@!#3: ...

MB: I am a trained photographer, but I've worked as a graphic designer all along. I also do type design, typography, I study Philosophy and Dutch, and I teach at a graphic art school in Vienna. You can look at a scaled-down portfolio at http://portfolio.mekkablue.com. Anything else about me? I speak a few languages. German, English, Dutch, a little French, Afrikaans and Swedish on the side. I dabbled in Ancient Greek, and I graduated from highschool in Latin. My English ain't all that bad either.

*@!#3: Not now that they've added "ain't" to the dictionary, no...

MB: Maybe it's just fun for me to imitate the sounds, maybe I am some kind of monkey, I don't know ... I listened to too many blues songs from the thirties.

*@!#3: Where do you come by those?

MB: Amongst my ex-girlfriends, there are two African Americans, and well, they had music all around.

*@!#3: Cool... I think we'll be revisiting the topic of girlfriends soon, but first something basic about the comic... You started Mekka three years ago. What were you thinking? Were you a reader of webcomics? Did you have an inspiration?

MB: Oooh, that's a long time ago.

*@!#3: It is, for a webcomic.

MB: Well, let's see what I can save from the black hole of my Alzheimer brains. I do remember reading webcomics ... I read Drew Weing's Journal Comic, for one thing. [And] Little Gamers. I originally planned something completely different though. I thought about some kind of fantasy story with me and friends of mine as the characters. I was inspired by a German comic of the eighties called "Mike". And they had a looooong fantasy story line with all their characters in the early eighties. But then I saw the plethora of fantasy webcomics out there, and how utterly boring they were. And then I saw Drew Weing's JC, and how interesting it was. So I started to take the autobiographical path.

*@!#3: What would you say is the reason for the difference in quality? Assuming it's not "talent"? What makes a fantasy webcomic not work?

MB: Most fantasy webcomics have great art, really talented drawing. The storylines suck, though. Really uninteresting. Being able to draw is just not enough. What people want is a good story. Usually, mangas and fantasy comics are full of things you've seen over and over. And you've seen them better before.

*@!#3: How do journal comics avoid that problem?

MB: When you draw a journal comic, you don't have to worry that much about ideas, since it's obvious where your story has to come from, and you can choose to form your character a little by picking stories that fit your webcomic persona better. I, for instance, give a selective picture of myself in Mekka Blue.

*@!#3: Oho, the truth at last.

MB: My lack of luck with women IS an issue in my life, but there are other things as well.

*@!#3: You've segued right into my next question, you crafty bastard. If Mekka is a journal comic, what's the most you've ever stretched the truth in a strip?

MB: There are few Mekka Blues (don't forget the BLUE part) that are completely made up. Like the current one. Didn't happen.

*@!#3: Was it based on what was going through your head, or did you write a punchline and then fill in the emotion?

MB: I'm really not much of a drinker! I had some thoughts about Femke and how I miss her recently, that's true. The punchline, however is loosely based on a Woody Allen joke. In Annie Hall, he says "I'm not myself since I stopped smoking", and his date asks, "Oh, when'd you quit smoking?" and he says, "Sixteen years ago".

*@!#3: Who else has influenced your sense of humor?

MB: Woody Allen certainly is the major influence. When it comes to movies, I like Billy Wilder a lot too.

*@!#3: Can you do a Woody Allen impression?

MB: When I speak English, I stutter like Woody.

MB: Jay Mohr is very good. I stole one of his jokes once. Or should I say, I was inspired. This one. Jay Mohr had a joke about Al Green concerts. If you take your date to an Al Green concert, and you don't get laid, you have to hang up your dick and apologize to the western world. It made me laugh, even though I have no idea whatsoever who Al Green is.

*@!#3: Barry White?

MB: Barry White I know.

*@!#3: Similar reputation. You talk about love and loneliness in a lot of your comics. Is Mekka Blue a way to vent your feelings?

MB: Yes, Mekka Blue helps me get some things out of my system and helps me in getting more balanced. The minute you write it down, you can distance yourself from it, you see yourself from a distance, and your problems don't seem that terrible anymore. A cathartic experience in a way. Some Mekka Blues go very deep, some are a little shallower.

*@!#3: And how personal would be too personal? Or have you never hit that limit?

MB: I have to admit that I have become a little more inhibited since I know that students of mine are reading it.

*@!#3: What age group do you teach?

MB: The students are between 17 and 22. And naturally I am some sort of a role model to them, so this is where some responsibility comes in and where I tell myself, well I'd rather not say that. Or think a little longer about how to formulate this or that.

*@!#3: Is it a sense of embarrassment, given that these students know you personally? Or is there a broader sense of authorial responsibility?

MB: Both. I stopped telling students about the comic. The older ones know, the new ones generally don't. But the older ones soon graduate, and I can be a little less inhibited again.

*@!#3: You also seem to like philosophy a great deal. You mentioned that earlier, and it's often found in Mekka Blue.

MB: I study Philosophy, and I really am into it, that's right. It goes very deep, and there's something to it, to not stop asking, to go deeper. But... of course, philosophy doesn't make one happier. It's not philosophy's task, after all.

*@!#3: What does?

MB: Sex does.

*@!#3: That's very concise, for a philosopher.

*@!#3: Why sell Tshirts of famous philosophers? What started that?

MB: Hmm... well, I thought there was something both funny and cool about wearing your favorite philosophers like pop stars. You see Madonna t-shirts, Ozzy Osbourne t-shirts, Red Hot Chilli Peppers t-shirts, why not an Immanuel Kant t-shirt? The only thing I regret is not printing his Categorical Imperative on the back.

*@!#3: Will there be another run then?

MB: No, the shirts are strictly limited editions. It's enough hassle every time anyway. I only have a small number of orders, you know.

*@!#3: The plight of most web artists.

MB: And reprinting wouldn't really make sense.

*@!#3: Right.

MB: Yes.

*@!#3: If you run out of the big names to print, might you ever sell a Norman Vincent Peale Tshirt?

MB: Hehehe, that was in your guest strip, right? I have no frigging idea who that is, pal.

*@!#3: Yeah, I just wanted to plug my guest shot. He's sort of your master of the obvious of the philosophy world. Wrote a lot of self help books.

*@!#3: ...

*@!#3: Moving on... Combining our two main topics thus far: What is your philosophy of love?

MB: Frankly I've come to the point where I say, there's none. All I can say is that I've become more relaxed, more mature, more open, more honest over the years, and I do expect a little bit of the same from my partners, and I want to believe that it helps in a relationship. But the truth is, either it works or it doesn't. Nothing more to it. There's one thing though that I do not accept. Whenever I sense inequality in the relationship, I become less interested very quickly.

*@!#3: What sort of inequality?

MB: I don't like submissiveness, for instance. And the opposite as well.

*@!#3: So a good relationship needs to be between equals?

MB: Yes definitely.

*@!#3: All right, we'll go simple now: How do you make Mekka Blue?

MB: Completely digital. I work on a PowerBook, I use Adobe Illustrator for the drawing part, [and] I draw with a mouse, no tablet. Whenever I need a photo for reference, the iSight comes in handy.

*@!#3: Do you ever need to pull a photo of someone else, or a place, to draw from?

MB: Sometimes. I use photos when there is some weird angle or perspective, or when it's just too difficult to draw from scratch. I do wanna add some details here and there. I re-use a lot of pictures I've drawn, or parts of them, I admit. Take the current one, for instance. The first pic, the part of my hand that is behind the glass, the way it is distorted, and the way the lines of the glass go through it. I couldn't do that without some photo as a reference. I'm not that good.

*@!#3: It's good to stay humble. How long do you see Mekka Blue going on?

MB: Until I stop it all together, you mean? I feel like stopping the t-shirts after the ones I do now. But the comic itself, nah. I'm not done with it yet. Just like Kean Soo, I see it as some kind of therapy for myself. Btw, Kean started his one almost at the same time as I did mine.

*@!#3: So, Mekka will be around as long as Eric needs him?

MB: I guess so.

*@!#3: Quell any objections for a moment: If you were to get married, how would Mekka Blue change?

MB: Hmm, I've never been married, but I suppose I wouldn't find the time for it anymore.

*@!#3: You'd have your hands full elsewhere?

MB: I never found much time to do Mekka Blues when girls were around. Like, whenever Femke was with me in Vienna. This is another part where the comic lacks some authenticity: not every girl I have encountered makes it into Mekka Blue.

*@!#3: You're holding back on us.

MB: Yes, sort of. But you're not missing much.

*@!#3: I've exhausted my curiosity... anything you want included in this little interview? (featured exclusively on MotherFiver.com! wink!)

MB: Well, maybe an announcement of some kind. There is a new Mekka Blue game coming up, a Flash game, and I am thinking about adding a blog.

*@!#3: I am intrigued!

MB: But that will still take a little time. After this year's guest strip session, probably.

*@!#3: Ah, the guest sessions. Every summer, yes?

MB: Yes, and I probably will change the concept of the session a little. Maybe I'll have a country focus or something. Like, guest strips only from a certain country.

*@!#3: Are you trying to shorten the session?

MB: Yeah, maybe cutting it down to a week or so. We'll see.

*@!#3: Well, it's always something to look forward to.

MB: Thanks, and my compliments go to all the people who take part in it. It's always so much work for everyone involved. A lot of people don't know or appreciate how much work goes into a strip.

*@!#3: How true. Thanks for the interview ER.

MB: Thank YOU.

*@!#3: Absolutely.

This entry is a letter I composed and sent to one Scott Kurtz, of PvP. I felt like expressing an opinion on a comic he had just posted on the site. Click the image to go read it, and then continue with the letter.

However, I'm prompted to write you because I have a complaint. Or, a quibble? An opinion, I guess. I read the comic you posted early today. A salesperson says he's got "a gesture" for Cole and Brent, and then flips them off. I think he flips him off? I mean, it's his hand and it's blurred out, and humorous convention (not to use the word cliché) tells us that the "gesture" is going to be The Bird. In a way, the joke is defining the action instead of the other way around. But the way the image looks makes me think more of a croissant for some reason! It's so very blurry.

The fact that the hand was hard to see made me wonder why it was even blurred out at all. I know flipping someone off is traditionally a dirty gesture, but in this context, I don't think the finger is all that offensive, especially given that it's a cartoon The Finger. Your comic once received acclaim and critical attention for using a boob-grab as a punchline. That brazen statement did a lot to define your style, and showed critics that your humor could stand to stare directly at awkward situations like that because it is based upon real emotions. Given that fine tradition, I feel the blurring of the salesman's hand only slows comprehension of your joke, and hurts the execution overall.

I wonder if you've fallen into a trap with this. In a way, I think the blurring is a PART of the joke's execution. Like I said, the ol' middle finger is already part of traditional humor convention, and its blurring on network television and the like has slowly become parodied in other, less censored media. A webcartoonist or Adult Swim-caliber animator now blurs or bars the finger out not because they have to, but because it has been associated with the gesture. The fake censorship is itself funny. And, I think, is the largest part of the cliché. Using a pretend censoring has become expected.

You, sir, are Scott Kurtz. You can transcend the cliché, and present a real and frank situation to us: this nameless salesman is watching a symbolic and silly argument which is between Cole and Brent, and yet isn't really about Cole or Brent at all. It's about lampooning a cultural issue and thereby setting up a topical joke. The salesman interrupts, and flips off your main characters. Bang. Punchline. Without the blurring, it's a more honest experience. The Finger is more honest exposed, because it is a statement of how you really feel about the recent "Happy Holidays" hype.

Well, I love the comic. Thanks for the quality entertainment!

A friend of mine David has a Blog, and I capitalize "Blog" because it is one of those official blogs on that big official blog website.

He and I are mentally at the exact conflicting wavelengths that most conversations we have become lengthy debates. It's a good thing, to be often challenged intellectually in a friendly arena. One conversation we had was danger from the start: What's your favorite video game? Sure enough, we soon were at odds, but interestingly enough not over which games are best. In order to ensure our meta-geektude, we began arguing over which method of classification is best for listing our favorites. David wanted to compile a top five list, and share it on his Blog. I told him that a tiered system was better for video games. Well, he rushed to publish his method online, then invited me to comment with my side. Click the orange logo to read David's post on his five favorite video games. Then you can read my response, with some updated game reviews...

I was trying to list my favorite games last night, inspired as I was by a ROM of Earthbound and the sugar in my system from a questionable dinner. Given my adoration of those games in question, I hated to name certain contenders as better than others, and I felt it was somewhat messy that my list of favorites was not five, but seven games long. Well, the tiered system solved my concern. Solved it HARD. Here's the idea: certain games, those which are your favorites, all inhabit the topmost platform of your affections. Others inhabit lower tiers, grouped with games about which you feel similarly.

The problem with the popular "top-5" or "top-10" or "top-n" style ranking is dual. First, it creates too strict a hierarchy. Secondly, it creates an unfair cutoff point.
The reason different people enjoy different games more or less than others is obvious. It is because of subjectivity. It is because there are far more factors that go into a game than can be fairly judged across a wide swath of the populous, factors that may in fact be more or less important to certain people. But if we were to ignore the pitfalls of subjective terminology for a moment, we could come up with the word "fun". A game is considered as your favorite when it causes you to have the most fun. Of course this is an oversimplification, but it is also mostly true.
And here is where we first see the tiered system as being superior to the top-n system, as it allows for a more flexible hierarchy of games. The top-n system lists games in descending order, by how much fun they were for this player, eliminating the possibility of conditionals or grey areas. A tiered system, however, recognizes the subjectivity of games, and the fact that some games may be fun for different reasons. I personally think that it is unfair to place a racing game, for example, below a 3D platformer, if when in certain moods you would rather play the racer. Your top-n system has forced you to rate the one as lower, despite much more complex circumstances. By contrast, a top tier would not require games to be flat-out better than each other.
Top-n hierarchies are well known because they are often used in magazines, polls, and also everywhere. Why is this? Well, they are pleasantly simple. They are entertaining, because they appeal to our sense of competition, and give us points of contention and discussion in the arena of video games. They are also recognizable, and thus they sell well. However, an unfortunate aspect of this simplicity and ease of use is the unfair truncation of the list! That is to say, in a Top-"n" ranking, there is an arbitrary cut-off which occurs right before the game ranked n+1, which may in fact be an excellent game. Ask yourself right now: What is my sixth favorite video game? Do I own a copy? What is my eleventh favorite web comic? Is it bookmarked? In a tiered system, there is no abandonment of top-level contenders, as there is no cutoff number 'n', but instead a set such that N={kick ass games}.
On the internet one is not limited by physical dimensions such as on the page of a magazine, or by time constraints like in a broadcast. It is much easier, online, to ramble on for as long as one wants about anything and everything (right, Blogosphere?). The provider of quality content would want to enlighten his or her audience on every game classy enough to deserve mention.

The Tiered classification is an eminently fair system. Like the US Senate, some members of the top tier may have been favorites for longer, some may be stronger in certain areas, and some may be from Idaho, but none are placed above their peers. The very top games I have decided to call "Zero Tier" because that sounds delightfully like a tacky arcade game from the early nineties. The next best group is called Tier One.
There are a few requirements, in my mind, for a game to inhabit the upper crust. I need to have replayed the game many times, and not just because of multiple endings or bonus material. This is not "replayability", this is love for the content, like the way you probably know the all the words to "Genie In A Bottle", you weirdo. Another requirement is simply that I would hate to never play the game in question ever again. I would feel bad if all the copies of Xenogears or Mario Kart were somehow destroyed, but then I would forget after a while. Not so for Final Fantasy Tactics. And the best indicator that a game is top tier material is when I can spend hours playing with the game (as opposed to just playing the game, which is an important distinction), inventing little diversions not intended by the producers (see Zelda below).

I feel obligated, now, to share and review my Zero Tier. No I don't, I'm just an egomaniac. Here we go!

Earthbound Holy cow. This game is full of classic moments, great humor and fun secrets. It's full of innovations that still haven't been copied by other companies. The teddy bear in battle, or the bicycle (if only we could have multiple riders), or the way they get you to name your big attack spell*. It features a Blues Brothers homage, the Runaway Five, and anyone who loves the Blue Brothers is all right in my book. Speaking of the music, it's hard to find a similar score. Earthbound heavily features funk, jazz and blues, and in the right situations, downright spooky "ambient clangs and moans" style backgrounds. Another aspect which ensures that I will never forget this game is the superb writing. Toward the end of the game, visiting Onett and finding it overrun with flying saucers, you look around and realize exactly how far the game has taken you. In most RPGs, the characters slowly gain amazing powers and go from obscurity to being Saviors of the World. But only in Earthbound did I feel that sense of transformation. Sitting on my living room floor in front of the TV, I felt nostalgia for the simpler times of Ness' childhood. Anyone remember the strategy guide that came with the game? There were scratch n' sniff cards relevant to the plot, to the extent where there was a "Master Belch" puke scented card. I loved that dang puke card. Harry Potter jelly beans eat your hearts out.
*Reminds me of a Tier one or two game, Wild Arms. You can go to a spell shop and rename any of your spells. A friend of mine, somewhat hampered by space limitations, redubbed "sleep" as "snooz=lose"

Zelda 3: a Link to the Past As a child I rented this game more times than I can recall, and I've played through (and hacked) the ROM even more times than that. I've beaten Link to the Past more than I've read my favorite book, which I think supports the idea that video games are a viable intellectual art form. The one quibble I have with Z3 is the linear storyline. You may have the option to beat the dungeons in (almost) any order, but beyond that, there isn't much to find hidden in this game. I can remember being a kid and pretending, even after the first game in the series, there was another item screen available, with more items. I even wrote down what sorts of items there would be. As a matter of fact, I am still convinced that Nintendo stole the shovel (I was thinking spade) and the Mirror Shield (my EXACT idea) from me by tuning in on my gradeschool recess conversations (I also thought of MegaMan having a robotic bird companion before Capcom did, but I don't begrudge them that one, given that it was so obvious and trite. In fact, the adults responsible for producing the MegaMan series should be ashamed for stooping to that level of predictability). The real strength of Zelda 3 must be in its thoughtful construction. I never get tired with the layout of Hyrule, or with fighting simple enemies, where some later, larger games already have become boring. And there is no other game which has inspired me to exhaustive interaction with its most basic denizens, as seen in Chicken Football and Teaparty. To wit:
Hit a chicken in the wide open area below the Blacksmiths' house. When chickens begin swarming you, pick that chicken up and run! You know that being hit by an airborne chicken will hurt you, and make you drop the one in your hands, so try and hold on as long as you can! The pattern in which these little guys swarm makes it possible to watch a perimeter and estimate escape paths, but it is very hard to keep up.
To play Teaparty, go to Kariko Village, and get some guards to chase you. Once you have enough of them in your wake, either cast Ether, which will freeze them all, or hit them individually with the Ice Wand. Now they can be posed facing each other around an imaginary tea table! Have conversations with them! Give them personalities and invent dark social intricacies. Try picking up the one who's speaking and walking around with him. If he gets mad, throw him at the other frozen participants! Too many hits and they shatter! Don't forget to give them silly voices. And sidebar: You can have a Monster Teaparty by casting Quake before freezing your guards. This turns them into Mealy Mouth Pears. Yes, that is the name decided upon by young me. It is better than "slime" or whatever.

Final Fantasy Tactics If you've read David's Blog, you know why this game rocks. Let me point out, too, that the sort of animation drawn for the sprites in this game was more complex than anything seen previously, and really belies the love the creators must have had for the look of their game. Remember Zalbag flipping that coin to the chemist at the gravesite? Beautiful.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night This is a game which simply refuses to be over. You cannot ever be done playing SOTN. I spent hours getting some of the special swords. And there are like a million ways to fight the second doppelganger, a boss who mimics all of your best abilities. My favorite feature, though, was Joseph's Coat. For 30,000 coins, you can buy a cloak which has two colors, inside and outside. Both colors are completely customizable with Red-Green-Blue sliders. I would put Alucard in a pure white/banana yellow cloak, and pretend he was in a swing band.

Mega Man Legends Capcom did something trendy by converting a 2D property to 3D, and they scored a huge hit. The writing and voice acting in this game are topped by none. And leaping around platforms as the Blue Bomber feels more like freedom than kicking fifteen Sadaams in the nuts simultaneously. The voice acting hit its crescendo (several times) when Professor Barrel, the crotchety old father figure, screams MEGAMAN!! in that hilarious way. And also, in MML the world finally knew that Mega Man was Canadian.
"Is something wrong, Mega Man?"
"Nah, don't worry aboot it."

Mega Man Legends 2 These games deserve separate entries because the second Mega Man Legends took control of the series in its own right, and did everything we didn't even realize we wanted the first to do. The gameplay was fantastic, the huge robot bosses were always fun to fight, and the dojo lady who ran the quiz game was the hottest Playstation girl this side of Tifa. Yowza.

Super Mario World This game is big in the replayability department, and the graphics may have been some of the best of the system. In the Lost Woods, I felt confined; on Choco Island I felt hungry but also afraid of rhinos. And the cape might be the most fun item to use from any game I've played! An excellent reason for Super Mario World to be included in Zero Tier is that when I was young I longed to be able to make my own Mario levels. This shows the deep level on which this game is able to affect me. The Star Road provides a level of challenge not seen since the NES era before its conception, and finishing that last bonus level and seeing the words "You are a super player!!!" really made me feel like a super star.

And there's my list! Good night.

Continuing from the post above-
I had to think about Final Fantasy games, and why none of them are in my top bracket. The simple answer would be that they're each too long to facilitate my playing them through more than twice, although that's counterintuitive given some of my other choices. Another reason is that I find it hard to choose just one of them as leagues better than the others, enough to justify just one inclusion, and I don't want to include the whole series in Zero Tier either. I didn't care for FFIX, true, and I never played FFXI. But what about VI? If I put VII in there, don't I have to include VI? Well, fine then, what about FFI? Doesn't it deserve credit as the foundation? This thinking compromises the criteria of Zero Tier as set forth above.

But the best reason not to include any of these titles is that Final Fantasy games defy my singular categorization, and as such inhabit a miscellaneous space to the side of the tiered hierarchy. I feel that FFVIII was the best of the series, with VII and X pulling in right behind. So why do these three games fall outside my normal purview of the best of the best in gaming? Because they are a series, in the truest sense. The FFs are all so wound around each other that I cannot justify giving them a single ranking. Whereas a normal game might have (for the sake of analogy) two judgeable vectors, the interconnectedness of the FF series causes it to have third dimensionality. It is a cube, so to speak, in a world of squares (ignore the irony). This does not mean automatically better... it just involves a new level of complexity, an axis along which the other factors may gain depth. When I consider the annoying characters in IX, it brings down my appreciation for the entire set. When I look at how X worked upon the calculating of turns in the Final Fantasy battle system and added new features, my regard for the principle of Active Time as a whole rises. For this reason, I cannot fit any of these games into Zero Tier, or any other tier. They must be classified as outside the tiers... along with Dance Dance Revolution, which I could hardly include in a categorization of video games, yet which deserves recognition as a pastime I would hate to be without.

Why are Final Fantasy games a series, when Mega Man Legends aren't? It's more than a simple commonality. The chocobos, the spell names and the little traditions too numerous to list are important, yes. They contribute to the feeling that these games belong together. But there is a more important feeling, an emotion in the games. Though the characters are always different, the themes enacted in the plot and the style of storytelling lend a nostalgia to each experience, a way of connecting with the creative teams that craft each Final Fantasy out of love for the series. Simply put, the Final Fantasys have achieved a level of unity through their power and popularity that I have not seen in other games.