Today’s post uses the Macromedia Flash plugin, so if you can’t view it, you’ll need to download it here. Also, it is very likely not to show up in your newsreader… you’ll probably have to view it directly on the soapythechicken.com website here.
THE SOAPY PONG contest ends at MIDNIGHT TONIGHT!!!
So far David Steinlicht is the only one who has sent in a screen capture with a 12 point game! Sure, you may be able to beat 12 points at Soapy Pong… but can you send in a screen capture of it? Better send it quick if you wanna win!
Thanks much to David Steinlicht for also designing the new Soapy Desktop! Put it on your desktop and show the world you read Soapy and you’re not afraid to admit it, and you’re proud, and you may even vote (While you’re at it, you may want the screensaver too.).
Speaking of voting, did you know that you can vote for Soapy the Chicken every single day? He is the lesser of two evils, although we haven’t determined what the other evil is yet. We’ve heard there are two of them though, and Soapy may as well be evil, because you can vote for him. Think of something you hate… Soapy is a vote against that! Even if you hate Soapy! Just follow the links below and follow their instructions.
Why not make it part of your morning ritual? What better way to start the day than voting for a simple, currently deceased chicken as you sip your morning coffee, sharpen your pencils, and wonder where you went so goddamn wrong.
Today’s post uses the Macromedia Flash plugin, so if you can’t view it, you’ll need to download it here. Also, it is very likely not to show up in your newsreader… you’ll probably have to view it directly on the soapythechicken.com website here.
THE SOAPY PONG CONTEST
The highest score in Soapy Pong in the next couple weeks wins a copy of the Soapy the Chicken mini-comic with hand screenprinted covers I mentioned the other day delivered to you by an actual employee of the United States Postal Service. Send me your address and a .jpg screen capture of your high score to me at mrmonkey23 at hotmail.com to enter. Deadline for entries is midnight on April 13th. No cheating please.
Today’s post uses the Macromedia Flash plugin, so if you can’t view it, you’ll need to download it here. Also, it is very likely not to show up in your newsreader… you’ll probably have to view it directly on the soapythechicken.com website here.
For today’s comic I used this handy ASCII art generator.
While I was there I also used their teriffic favicon maker. A favicon, if you don’t know, is one of those little images that appears next to the URL of some sites who have them in the address bar and favorites listings of most browsers. These are a pain in the butt to make for various reasons, or at least they were until I found this site tonight… very cool thing to find.
Thanks for the inspiration to Dave Steinlicht for making the first Soapy ASCII art in the comments here, which is much funnier. Dave did his ASCII by hand, the old fashioned way, and I bet it isn’t the first time, considering his other interests. Do yourself a favor and check out David’s comics at allsmall.net and cornercomic.com.
My first computer was a TRS-80, back in the early 80’s… here is what I used for a reference to go off of for what it looked like…
http://computermuseum.50megs.com/images/collection/trs80-III.jpg
It had no graphics. No internet. The only program I remember having for it was a haunted house text game that we had on a casette tape (the computer’s only storage was a tape recorder hooked up to it). The TRS-80 was a Radio Shack computer, affectionately and appropriately referred to as the “Trash-80” by computer geeks.
Soapy is actually not the first cartoon character to own a TRS-80… that honor goes to Superman! Superman starred in some comics in the 80’s with the TRS-80 Whiz Kids… they had piles of these for free in the front of every Radio Shack. And now you can read one for free online!
Today’s post uses the Macromedia Flash plugin, so if you can’t view it, you’ll need to download it here. Also, it is very likely not to show up in your newsreader… you’ll probably have to view it directly on the soapythechicken.com website here. Move your mouse left and right to create and destroy Soapy forever.
Today’s post uses the Macromedia Flash plugin, so if you can’t view it, you’ll need to download it here. Also, it is very likely not to show up in your newsreader… you’ll most likely have to view it directly on the soapythechicken.com website here. Move your mouse left and right to control Soapy.
FELIX THE CAT’S SENSES
Yesterday’s strip was inspired by this classic Felix the Cat strip by the wonderful Otto Messmer… one of the funniest strips ever drawn, in my opinion.
Messmer is definitely somewhere in my top 20 cartoonists of all time… I wish someone would reprint all of his comic book and strip work. Messmer created and drew Felix for years… the cartoons, the comic strips and then the comic books. He did all of this anonymously… a scoundrel by the name of Pat Sullivan took credit for all of his work. Wonderful surrealistic stuff full of life and character. I particularly dig his comic books with Felix taking rides on his magic carpet, which was a pretty frequent event, and always seemed to get particularly crazy. They are some of the best comics for small children ever done, I think… Messmer didn’t write with the same sophistication and depth of Carl Barks (Uncle Scrooge) or Walt Kelly (Pogo), but he’s still in their league for sheer enjoyable comics in my book.
The only book that I know of that is currently in print reprinting Messmer’s comics is Nine Lives to Live: A Classic Felix Celebration. Fortunately it is an excellent reprint…
Fantagraphics Books, the publisher, always takes great care in providing high-quality reproductions of whatever they are reprinting. However, it only reprints his newspaper strip, which is just as great as the comic books, but is a different thing… the newspaper strips often have extended storylines, but they flow much differently in the comic books. Hopefully someone will reprint them one of these days.
They are currently publishing reptints of the complete Peanuts, Dennis the Menace, and, my favorite strip of all time, Krazy Kat… previously they have done reprints of numerous other great strips as well, many of which can still be purchased on their website. Besides that they are also one of the best publishers of new comics around… you’re really missing out if you haven’t perused their publications.
There is also one dvd available of Messmer’s fantastic animated Felix cartoons, Felix the Cat (1919-1930 collection), which is great too. Felix the Cat was the most popular cartoon character in the world before Mickey Mouse and sound came into the picture. These are a good sampling of what made him so popular. Silent Felix has far more personality and charm than Mickey Mouse with sound.
