I wonder if anyone at gocomics.com noticed this particular strip’s use of the f-word.
WHAT? You mean the f-word EXISTED before WEBCOMICS?

Hello to anyone who arrived here by typing shortpackedblowschunks.com. Apparently, when David Willis posted today’s comic containing a fictitious domain name, he did not register that name at some $9 registrar (the one I use is NameCheap) and have it mirror his regular site. And I was fortunate enough to be the first evildoer to discover that and register the domain myself. Bwahahahahaha… So I am NOT the “blogmaster” depicted in that comic (although it does somewhat resemble a younger me, which I find a little bit eerie). This is a blog about all kinds of comics, paper and web, which tries to be positive, usually not even mentioning the ones that I feel “blow chunks”, but occasionally pointing out when a good comic does something bad AND when a bad comic does something good. But if enough people want me to ridicule Shortpacked daily, it’s not on my list of Favorites, so I could probably come up with something.

And would somebody PLEASE tell Ethan he’s not old. I’m 20 YEARS older than he is and still loving comic strips. Toys, not so much. I have bought a few action figures but only ironically, like when the Star Trek TNG series came out with the characters played by Whoopie Goldberg and Dwight Schultz. Who could resist THAT?

In the meantime, updating my recent “Below the Fold” posts:

As expected, a trickle of Big Name Webcomics has joined the “three (or four) links” meme. Okay, one.

Goats has linked to FChords, Gastrophobia and Sam and Fuzzy. This brings Gastrophibia up to an amazing 8 recommendations and Sam and Fuzzy to 5, leaving the pack behind. (Although, if the Goatherder had linked to Kris Straub’s OTHER new comic,it would be all alone in 3rd place… sometimes, diversification has its drawbacks).

There’s new action on the “Hitler meme” front too, from 3-time-linked Girls With Slingshots in the form of McPedro’s attempt at a replacement for his runaway mustache.

I wonder if he’s heard of Charlie Chaplin or Ron Mael either.

So who linked to whom? So glad you asked… (in alphabetical order)

The Adventures of Ellie Connolly linked to Clockwork Game, The Phoenix Requiem, The Rainbow Orchid and Gastrophobia.

Anders Loves Maria linked to Gastrophobia, Raymondo Person, Girls With Slingshots and Wondermark.

Diesel Sweeties linked to Sheldon, Gastrophobia, Gunnerkrigg Court and Kinokofry.

Dr. McNinja linked to The Non-Adventures of Wonderella, Chainsawsuit (plus a shout-out to Kris Straub’s other comics) and Gastrophobia.

Gastrophobia linked to Anders Loves Maria, Wondermark, Something Positive and Sam and Fuzzy.

Octopus Pie lined to Sam and Fuzzy, Boy on a Stick and Slither and Sheldon.

Overcompensating linked to Whubble, Ugly Hill and Little Dee.

Questionable Content linked to Ugly Hill, Gunnerkrigg Court and Schlock Mercenary.

Reprographics linked to Chainsawsuit, A Simple Apology and Sam and Fuzzy.

Sam and Fuzzy linked to Gastrophobia, Ugly Hill (and its current comic-within-a-comic) and Girls With Slingshots.

Schlock Mercenary linked to Chainsawsuit, Theater Hopper and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal.

Something Positive linked to Anders Loves Maria, Gastrophobia, The Adventures of Ellie Connolly and Reprographics.

Theater Hopper linked to Kate Beaton, Octopus Pie and Girls With Slingshots.

Ugly Hill linked to Sam and Fuzzy, Overcompensating and Dr. McNinja.

Unshelved linked to My Life in a Cube, HijiNKS Ensue and Captain Excelsior.

Wondermark linked to Anders Loves Maria, Gastrophobia, The Adventures of Ellie Connolly and Double Fine Action Comics.

I suspect that some other ‘big names’ in webcomickery will be catching up with this meme later (some of them are busy someplace this weekend, I hear)

If you’re keeping score (and I know you are), Gastrophobia got linked an impressive 7 times, Sam and Fuzzy got 4 links, and Anders Loves Maria, Chainsawsuit, Girls With Slingshots, Ugly Hill and Wondermark received 3 links each.

If you’re just getting into webcomics, you could do a lot worse than to start with these recommendations. (And I am going to start my “Directory of Really Above-Average Webcomics”, the “DRAAW” with these…)

First, the Goats strip is taking a break from its post-apocalypso jollity (with almost all significant characters accounted for - including the dead ones in an appropriately boring State of Limbo - except for Oliver, Toothgnip, Neil and Bob, am I right?) to take in a showing of one of the Adventures of Good Hitler (one of the most popular movie franchises in over 300 known alternate realities, am I right?). The credits alone are classic…

And we are now seriously into the action with a stunt J. Rosenberg admits he stole from Dr. McNinja. But really, is “bodyboarding” from space down to earth really the same as “bodyboarding” down a mountain slope? (The latter is more “body-skiing”, right?)

Ah, but not all Webcomics Hitlers can be Good. Diesel Sweeties (where robotmaster R.Stevens is dealing with the duldrums of doing ONLY 5 strips per week) determined the name for an “edgy” band that would be the most outrageous, offensive and yet also the most pun-tastic… Hitler’s Dick.

This is oddly related to a comment I made in my OTHER BLOG where my search for “porn Soundtrack Music” was hampered by the large number of bands that try to achieve edginess by having the word “Porn” in their name.

Now we get to the Third Hitler reference, which appeared in a guest comic for Dr. McNinja, which I would really like to show you, in spite of the fact that I criticized it on Twitter and in the Good Doctor Ninja’s forum. Apparently, my criticism was relatively mild compared to some others and either Dr. Hastings or his guest-artist, the lovely, talented, Swedish and controversy-loving (or so I thought) Rene Engström, creator of the Swedishly sexy soap opera strip Anders Loves Maria, decided to take it down, delete it, unpublish it, send it down the Memory Hole without an explanation that I can find anywhere (if anyone else knows where one exists, please let me know in the comments).

The strip showed (this summary is intentionally neutral and therefore less funny than the comic actually was) Dr. McN and sidekick Gordito going back in time to assassinate Hitler before he could start World War II and the Holocaust. Gordito was wearing lederhosen for no particular reason, except that lederhosen IS funny. They arrived to find Der Fuhrer alone and peacefully painting a picture and humming to himself. While McNinja watched unseen, Hitler then hugged a kitty and kissed a baby, making Gordito very reluctant to carry out the killing. But Dr. McN stayed strong and offed his intended victim off-frame (except for some blood and the crying of the baby who was still nearby). Returning to the present, proud of saving “six-million-plus” lives, they were immediately confronted by… a monstrously giant Rabbi and another giant Hassidic Jew towering over the city and terrorizing everyone.

I wont repeat the argument I made, but I thought my reaction was well-reasoned if a little bit overthinking-a-plate-of-beans (but I’m a long time MetaFilter member where we do THAT all the time). The comments in the McNinja Forum (mostly positive and encouraging) seem to be the only evidence the comic had ever existed, along with two clips from it that were used by commenters as avatars. One was the face of the “Monster Rabbi”

and the other, which I made myself (and since removed), trying to show that I still had a sense of humor, of Hitler happily painting.

And that would be the end of that, except that Kris Straub’s Starslip Crisis has since shown us how, IN MY OPINION, a “Killing Hitler” joke should be done.

Here are some other Hitler webcomics from the past I have located:
Irregular Webcomic #151 (Hitler’s Brain… a caption competition) One of I.W.’s ongoing stories is an Indiana Jones parody with Nazi villains and occasional Hitler’s Brain appearances.
Goats March 2005 (previous adventure of Good Hitler)
XKCD #29 (Hitler the painter)
Diesel Sweeties #536 (Halloween Hitler costume)
XKCD #261 (Godwin’s Law reference)
Questionable Content #1020 (more Godwin)
Subnormality #382 (more time travelers vs. Hitler)

And here is one that is SO distasteful, SO wrong, SO offensive, SO obnoxious, SO immature, SO stupid, SO humorless, SO lazy and SO badly drawn, Electric Retard Fag Art #0001 (you know what? I’m not even going to link that; the offensive/stupid title says all you need to know), that it will make Rene Engström breathe a sigh of relief and repost hers.

But to give you a better idea just how AWESOME that Sheldon illustration is, here is something that is significently LESS awesome.

Funny, just not awesome.

Yes, it’s true, and I can hardly believe it myself, a B.C. comic taking up about 40% of my Comic Surf montage. But the heirs of Johnny Hart have been working hard to make it a FUNNY comic again, not always succeeding, but this one clearly earns an Olympic medal for “breaking the Fourth Wall”, (FPA) as gravity is the enemy of an attempt to do a vertical-format strip and the characters complain to the cartoonist. It looks like B.C.’s cavemen and dinosaurs world is one of genuine whimsy now, and not just an argument against Evolution. And old Johnny would never have done a joke like this (FPA).

Speaking of cavemen demolishing the Fourth Wall, the very silly (in a good way) and sentimental storyline that led up to Alley Oop’s 75th Birthday in the funny papers had him meeting all the cartoonists who drew him over the past three-quarters of a century. (FPA) And the birthday party is still going on with Oop reunited with a dinosaur-load of past characters from his strip including… Will Rogers?!? (FPA) I don’t know when or how Rogers appeared before (especially since his real-life fatal plane crash was only 2 years after the Alley Oop strip began), but there he is again! And the big birthday is also providing an opportunity for Oop and Company to explain away a few things. (FPA) “…a fortunate side effect of time travel (is) that one doesn’t seem to age.” Yeah, sure.

BTW, those FPA links are to the Funny Paperless Archive of newspaper strips that are only available online for a month or less. Think of it also as a F***ing Permanent Archive.

One of my favorite dead tree comics, Over the Hedge, has been on a comedic roll lately, with R.J., Verne and Sammy (who has been upgraded to a primary character since Steve Carell played him in the movie) explaining the gas crisis (FPA), revisiting semi-forgotten past characters (FPA), letting their minds wander (literally) (FPA) and revealing Verne’s academic background (FPA).

That is quite enough from the dead trees. Let’s see what’s webbing…

You had to know that the Girls With Slingshots storyline about McPedro’s mustache running away would lead to this punchline. Especially since the t-shirt was available days before the strip ran. That’s an Oops without an Alley.

WIGU’s test of faith is over and things appear to be returning to the status quo (and I will never think of scruples the same way again). Meanwhile Jeffrey Rowland’s Other Comic has just celebrated the Month of Crazuary (also known as Black Future Month), the month between Blogust and Pretenber. Well, I’m sorry, Mr. Rowland, but I am not even halfway through Blogust myself. (Blogust is the “On the internet no one knows you’re a dog” days, right?)

In the realm of unconventional comics formats, Bad Reporter has successfully dovetailed the Bigfoot Hoax and the Presidential Campaign (FPA), but I’m less happy with Basic Instructions‘ entry into the political process - or lack of process.

And an Excellence in Punchlinery Award goes to Greg Dean’s (Kinda) Real Life for “Well these RSS feeds aren’t just going to read themselves, are they?”

Finally, I resume updating the ol’ FP (as almost nobody refers to it), and for extra bonus Webcomic wannabe effect, I’m using ComicPress and adding my own “comic highlight montage” to the Daily Comic Surf, which, hopefully will be something close to Daily. More about that in an upcoming “Below the Fold” piece (down there). But now, what have these wacky comickers been up to while I’ve been gone?

In Little Dee’s universe, Vachel the Vulture is engaging in a rap battle in the Furtovian Library, decked out in an “Anarchist Librarian” hoodie that Chris Baldwin is threatening to bring to market. I can see that being worn by certain characters in Unshelved, not to mention QC’s lesbian librarian (two words that go together TOO DAMN WELL). Speaking of the Questionable comic, it seems as if everybody has been taking turns freaking out the neurotic-compulsive-obsessive Hannelore. Just a heads-up, Jeph: that is NOT the kind of gag that never gets old - it quite hasn’t worn out its welcome yet but it’s getting there. (Uh oh, I’m addressing a critique TO the cartoonist. Kurtz is gonna hate me for that.) Anyway, I think he’ll be nicer to that particular character since he has seen her real-life doppelganger.

In other Reliable Character News, LICD’s self-centered, insensitive, irresponsible, misogynistic, offensive but still loveable (as long as he wears a condom) Raine Summers has exposed his most shocking personality trait yet… He’s a Trekkie.

And another cute animal has joined the cast of Sinfest, as the cute-as-a-button Little Demon has conjured up an adorable little Hellhound… or Hellpuppy. Too bad Hellboy never had a pet. I just hope Hellpuppy survives the current storyline to become a regular.

It’s nice to Francesco Marciuliano resuming his Medium Large comic, with the extra bonus of doing “vacation fill-in” for Dan Piraro’s long-running krispy kleenex-based Bizarro. But still, I’d be even more tickled if someday, as part of Ces’ day job writing Sally Forth, we hear Ted Forth talking about “violating a manatee”. Speaking of violating a manatee, I thought this comic would implode under the weight of its limited premise about 2 weeks after it debuted. Now, almost six months later, it’s still two weeks away from implosion. I should have known that manatees are not capable of Jumping the Shark.

And as long as I’m dealing with therapeutic dosages of cute, this IS what the Olympics are all about. Much more (hopefully) tomorrow.

This is only a test. If this had been an actual comic, it would have been funny. Really.

This is where I test the other stuff.

Strategic Sourcing!!!

Is there a job title the Evil Genius Francesco Marciuliano (who has done some subtly wonderful things with the post-feminist comic strip since inheriting it years ago) could have chosen that would be more buzz-word-o-matic?

Of course, in his blog, ‘Cesco had teased us with several mostly-unlikely career choices:

A Renegade Cop Who Plays by His Own Rules
NASCAR Pit Crew Member
Pastry Chef
Mob Accountant
Gay Porn Star
Gas Station Attendant
Drifter/Hobo
or Lion Tamer (”Not the face! Not the face!!!”)

His blog also recently included a better summing-up/taking-down of the intensely unfunny Mallard Fillmore than I could do.

In other dead-tree comics, this seems to be a “let’s see how odd we can be on the day of the week the least people are reading” Saturday.

The post-Johnny-Hart B.C. has gone totally off-planet (for, I believe, the first time)

And, maybe I just failed to notice before, but is this the first time in all these years Mom in Baby Blues has been depicted breast-feeding?
EDIT: shona in comments assures me that, yes, I have forgotten a lot of breast-feeding in Baby Blues. D’oh. In my defense, I’m trying to follow a couple hundred comics, and I never have been a cartoon breast man.

And is Satchel actually successfully pranking Bucky in today’s Get Fuzzy?

The usually easy to ignore Fusco Brothers hit an all new high in WTF?-ness

Ol’ Wiley Miller of the Non Sequitur, who has expressed his disdain for things internetish on more than one occassion, manages a blog-related toon that works for me…

And today’s Bizzaro didn’t break any new ground, but it was funny, even though it would have been better if it were published before the CourtTV channel had changed its name to TruTV.

Now we know who hasn’t been channel surfing.