The Return of Stickman #1203

It is no surprise that drug dealers have hidden farms of the chronic growing in our national forest. What is a surprise is the different ways they go about trying to protect that crop. You would think that guard bears would be a good idea.

The Return of Stickman #1202

Maybe if I cleaned my office I could then take over the world.

The Comic Critic reviews "Zombiez"

The movie Zombiez has all the fineness of a high school film project, minus the high school students. I was terribly disappointed. At first I thought the plastic weapons, repainted to look even more like metal, were a joke, but there is nothing funny in this project. Okay, the guy in the chicken suit is funny. But you die of old age before you get that far in the story. Wait, did I use the word real quote marks “story”? My apologies. No story here. And for the love of all that is gruesome, if you are going to produce a horror film, own up and invest in several gallons of stage blood and not cheap out and buy what I can only assume was a discounted off-brand bottle of ketchup. In a zombie movie, guts should fall “out” of people, not “off’” them. Hello! Prop Master? House keys don’t open handcuffs! You would think that all of these obvious low production disasters might bring a few laughs, but it’s just too boring. If you decide to pull this one off the bargain shelf good luck staying awake.

The Return of stickman #1201

The Return of Stickman #1199 & #1200

The Return of Stickman #1197 & #1198

After viewing this stickman, my good friend John Schmelzer could not resist in sending me a follow-up guest strip. Thanks, John! And for those of you who were about to ask... No. J.P. Schmelzer is not J.P. Patches, that is a different clown all together.

The Comic Critic Reviews "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World"

The theater was packed at the midnight show I attended. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was extremely clever in its interpretation of this graphic novel. The visuals and references were so wonderfully over the top that I was thrilled all the way through. My movie afterglow took a long time to fade away, but my inner curmudgeon finally escaped from the closet that my enthusiasm had locked him in while I was enjoying the film; he finally had his say. Still, the part of me that still thinks playing Space Invaders is a hoot wants to give this film a ten.

Back Off! I have a carrot!

Back Off! I have a carrot!, originally uploaded by markmonlux.

I had no idea what to draw at this week's Tacoma Frost Park Chalk-Off, so I drew this.

The Return of Stickman #1196

I had a very hard time believing this news story when I read it. I'm glad she is getting counseling. I hope the boy is getting a little too.

The Comic Critic reviews Inception

For a couple of decades after Magnum P.I. was on TV, Tom Selleck was my cab driver whenever I took a taxi in my dreams. But after I told my friends, Mr. Selleck stopped appearing in my dreams. What does this have to do with Inception? I’ll get to that in a moment.

I loved all the terms Inception used when describing parts of dreams: projection, architecture, kicker, and layers. I also greatly enjoyed how the structure of the dialog was as important as the structure of the editing. While my eyes were busy gliding through a maze of visuals, my brain was also busy trying to decipher the dialog for clues as to what was true and what was a red herring in the storyline. Above all else, I love how this film doesn’t bother to explain itself and makes no apologies; you either follow it or you don’t. This film was very close to a ten for me, but if I told you what denominator made it a nine, I might never see Tom Selleck again.

The Return of Stickman #1192

I think it is a conspiracy. Either that or the chain of anti-squirrel websites were put together by high school students who had time on their hands but have since gone on to graduate, college, full-time employment, or anything else except obsessing over tree rats.

The Return of Stickman #1191

Sometimes the comments posted underneath the online new articles are the best part of reading the news. They are tiny, instant unedited letters to the editor. And they are a great source of inspiration for this strip

The Comic Critic Reviews "2012" & Gets a bit written up about him

I’ve been hearing a term for all of these global apocalypse films that have come out in the last decade: Apocalypse Porn. Apocalypse Porn can be differentiated from other apocalypse films by the emphasis on stunning visuals of roads collapsing, cities destroyed, continents crumbling, and big freaking waves washing away the filth of the world. Not to worry, there are still plenty of apocalyptic films out there that may require your gray matter. But for those of you who don’t mind just going for the sensual experience of the world coming to an end, your apocalypse porn will be guilt-free.

On another note, The Tacoma News Tribune did a nice little write-up on The CLAW, which has a nice picture of me.