The Life of a Suburban Overlord

It’s been a hard decision, but as predicted by my numerous friends, I tackled way too many projects at the same time and ended up being swamped by them.

I will be focusing on my RPG projects, of which I already have too many of.

However I do like having this website around to post silliness and write anything not RPG-related.

So I’m just changing the ‘updates 3 times a week’ to ‘infrequently’.

Thanks to all readers.  I’ll be around.

I skipped a few days and I seriously pondered abandoning this comic over the last few days.

I have a lot of projects on the cooker.  I should get a contract to write RPG adventures, I have my own RPG project going, I have my main blog and, of course, my actual day job.

Plus with the arrival of fall, the seasonal slump hit me hard this week.  I’m fighting it the only way I learned to, by writing!

I have long since stopped promising to do things online as I more often then not end up doing the complete opposite.

Anyhoo, I actually have been receiving positive feedback for this little project of mine and I kinda like having a blog where I can talk about non-RPG things.  So I’m still on the fence about all this.

Have a great weekend, I hope you don’t live in the range of Rory’s Orbital Freezer.

<This post contains spoilers from the Eagle Eye movie>

Capsule review: A well told bad story.  Healthy thrilling Eye Candy, bad brain junk food.

Even the most dense of movie goers will get the core message of Eagle Eye without effort:

Technology, bad!  Computers, bad! The US’s well founded but out of control obsession with security, bad!

As my friend Overlord Danny said it, Eagle eye is a good action packed thriller but fails on many levels.

First and foremost, it’s based on such a failed premise that it makes any self respecting writer/geek repeatedly scoff and groan from the Frakensteinian clichés.

First, for a good 80% of the movie, the action is driven by ONE character, the Secretary of Defense’s near Omniscient and quasi-Omnipotent A.I. All others, including the lead actors, are mere pawns that obey her every whim.

Call this professional pride because of my other gig as a Dungeonmaster, I really dislike stories where the main characters can’t make choices or have a significant impact on moving the plot.  See The Last Mimzy and the first Chronicles of Narnia movie for other examples.

Then, there’s the idea that a super advanced computer would be given full control over all automated processes in the US (if not the world) WHILE STILL IN BETA!

I mean, as far as a super evil scheme, that’s awesome!  But supposedly coming from the US Government it…

…Oh wait…

Nevermind, it makes perfect sense now! 

Add to it a cheesy patriotic end where the overshadowed slacker gets the overly neurotic single mom and a medal. It just makes a weird package.

I’m usually able to turn my brain off to enjoy a movie.  Heaven knows I did it for Charlie’s Angels and the last Die Hard. For Eagle Eye, while I must say I enjoyed most of it, my brain just seemed to reactivate in places to tell me: “And you seriously want to keep suspending your disbelief over THAT?”

Your mileage may vary.

So the third season of Dexter has started and I keep not getting why the show is so popular.

Oh I get that it’s a clever, well written show with good actors.  I mean Michael C. Hall is absolutely scary-good in that role.

But people, we’re rooting for a freaking serial killer!

Yes he kills ’super bad people’ but do you realize that he does it with Saws and Drills and such and gets a sexual thrill doing it?

Ewwwww!

I stopped watching it 3/4 through the first season.  Mostly because by that time I could predict how it would end (I called who the evil killer was the 1st time we saw him, and I called his tie to Dexter a few shows before the reveal, I hate you TVtropes.org).  I also stopped because I became a bit revolted with my fascination for a character that’s such a monster.

Why do we like watching Dexter?

Is it because he’s fragile and we are morbidly awaiting for him to snap?

Is it because he appeals to our often unanswered lust for Karmic Justice when he offs repeat DUI offenders and child molesters?

My wife loves the show, is it because he appeals to the female “Bad Boy Syndrome”?

I’m stumped!  That’s probably why I have such a hard time being an Evil overlord.

Evil is supposed to be fun, not messy!

Being 35, I was bathed in Star Wars (both the movies and the Hasbro toys) for most of my life.

I saw Empire Strikes back when I was 5, I saw A New Hope when I was 10 and I waited for 2 hours, alone in front of a movie theater to see Return of the Jedi when I was 12… and loved every fraking second of the 3rd movie.

While I concede 100% that George Lucas is not the best caretaker of the Star Wars Franchise, I’m going to make enemies of the geek community by saying that we should all take a freaking chill pill and get that proverbial fan stick out of our butts about Star Wars.

In my mind, apart from Empire Strikes back, the Star Wars saga are not particularly good movies in terms of original Story or acting.  They were original because they created the Sci-Fi genre as a viable cinematographic form in a time where disaster and road rally movies ruled.

The reason why I like the original movies so much is because I was so damn young when I saw them, and in those years, movies about spaceship, glowing swords, stuff that exploded and dark evil guys that turn to be a daddy with a (somewhat) good heart  were just plain awesome!  They left a deep emotional impression that I still live with.

That’s why I didn’t dislike the prequels. Yes they featured the same (or worse) cheesiness found in the original movies.  Being an adult when I saw them, I had to strain my suspension of disbelief past the breaking point to resist the countless fridge logic moments and paper thin character depth.

But it was still about spaceships, glowing swords, stuff that explodes and a Dark Good guy that makes a Face heel turn.  I particularly liked Revenge of the Sith because it allowed us to see the Clone Wars and how Anakin and Obi-wan were such bad asses.

Don’t mistake me, there were atrocious moments in those movies, like Jar Jar, the love scene of Attack of the Clone (George, if you aren’t going to develop your characters, at least don’t put a love scene, it’s like PG-rated porn), Anakin’s ‘Okay Chancellor, where do I sign up to be a Sith?’ conversion and the laughable ‘higher Ground’ shtick.

As a movie geek, I much preferred Iron Man and The Dark Knight, no contest.

However, as a 26-33 year old kid, I also liked the new Star Wars movies. I remember that when I was watching Phantom Menace for the 1st time, I kept saying ‘I can’t believe I’m watching a new Star Wars movie!!!’

And in that vein, I found the animated Star Wars movie, the Clone Wars, that I saw with my 6 year old, to be a good Star Wars movie.  Heck, it had better character play than most other movies of the franchise!  I liked how each clone officer developed a name and a different look.  I liked that it showed how Anakin did not transition from a jerk teenager to a Sith wannabe directly and was actually a noble hero and all around nice guy for quite some time.

Heck the whole Hutt family thing was cute, if a bit flimsy as a plot device… but who cares! There were spaceships, glowing swords, stuff that exploded and and Dark Evil chicks that actually talked while fighting!

Weeee!

Yes the canon characters and core plot had no room to evolve since the movie is an in-betwener. Given these huge constraints, SW the Clone war was an enjoyable dose of my favorite Sci-Fi opera.

In fact, I think that should the 6 movies be remade in the future, I’d go as far as say that CGI animation is the way to go.

Peace out.

After having discussed it on both sides, my wife and I agreed to give this Comic a go as planned.

I will have to be careful to leave out sensitive info out of the pictures I use and my wife has requested that I don’t portray my children as being evil all the time.

I can do that!

Project Urban Overlord is a go!

Yeah, it’s one of my favorite webcomics.

But that’s not the point of this post.

When my wife realized that I was turning this passing comic fooly of mine from a Flickr-based, friends only gag to a fully-blown out-in-the-open webcomic, she expressed serious reservations.  She’s unsure about the impact of me putting pictures of our family on the net, both from a ‘kids could get bothered’ to a ‘our pics could be photoshopped’ to ‘my buisness/job could be affected’.

I must say that they are all valid points.  So far I’ve been rationalizing it by saying I’m not going to name names or give addresses, that I have  a no-derivative license on the pictures and that this is like a standup comedian using his family for material.

But I might be lying to myself.  I would be bothered as HELL if someone defaced my family’s pictures, but then why am I putting them on the net?

The idea is strong and has potential, but now that I’m landing from my latest ‘ideas supernova’, I have to deal with the reality and possible consequences of this.

I might have to change the format and focus on pictures of me use Creative Commons pictures from flickr.

Now I know why Shamus Young uses video games screenshots.

Thoughts?

Earlier last year I tried my hand at doing a photo webcomics based on my D&D minis collection.

While the experience was very fun, and I think it showed promise, it was exceedingly work intensive to take the pictures, arrange them in a 6 panel comic and write the actual jokes.

After seven strips, I abandoned the idea to focus on my writing.

That changed earlier last week when my friend Fuitad bought himself an iPhone and started making one panel webcomics with the pictures he took.

That’s when it hit me…

One panel comics are a lot easier to do!  (Not easier to write but that’s another debate).

So I returned to an idea I had last year and this webcomic was born.

The first 4 comics will introduce the cast.

I’ll probably post them 2-3 times a week on days I don’t post blog posts on my main blog.

I hope you enjoy them