A problem you'd think noone ever had

[ZOMBIE USER 17345]

<Starcraft Brood War Expansion Protoss Corsair>I wonder what this one does. *sound of button being pressed*</Corsair>

[Astral Blaze]

<Starcraft Science Vessel>*gradually increasing pitch*I think there's a gas leak!</Starcraft Science Vessel>

[ZOMBIE USER 17345]

<Gore Mitchbot>I'll remove your spine!</Mitchbot>

[Astral Blaze]

<Voldo>HISSSSSSSSSSSSSS! COUGH!</Voldo>

[Plothole]

<Terran Siege Tank>
"I'm about to drop the hammer...

...and dispense some indiscriminate justice."
</Terran Siege Tank>


Trivia: What gag (other then the bonus dialogs) is common to all Blizzard RTS games?

[ZOMBIE USER 17345]

Exploding critters, DUH!

[Plothole]

I never said it was tough trivia.


Have you seen the sheep explode in W3? Most Satisfying.

[ZOMBIE USER 17345]

<Warcraft 2 Sheep>Ba-ram-you!</Sheep>

[MechaByrd]

<WarCraft III Archer> Why am I not running out of arrows!?!?! </archer>

[ZOMBIE USER 17345]

I often wondered that too.

Take Brood War for example. In the opening movie a Marine runs out of ammo while firing at a couple Zerglings, but for some reason I have never had a Marine run out of ammo in the game itself.

Oversight, in my opinion.

[Warren]

I updated my storyline dropdown. Yes, that's all the important news. It goes like this:

HISTORY
At mcDuffies
Rat wars I
Sunday
Caught in act
Split functionality
Jessie and Smiley
Ricochet!
STORY
Relations
College case
Lousy Hollywood horror clich?
Goodbye Dolly
New pet
McFillet
Getting lucky
Rat wars II - Rats strike back
Interlude
Love slave
Dog people
Gordon's hooked on Crfh!!!
Music
Mcduffie Babies
Rat-alarm
Killer sheet
Amazing Adventures of Sam and Christian
Stupid Psychic school
Gym
Smiley's mr. Hide
Calvin & Hobbes in student's restaurant
Rat Wars III - Rats Reloaded
Handbag of doom
Worlds of delusion
A spot in a record
New year's special winter walking festival
Birthday trilogy
Teasing
...

(Note: The point of this is not a plug, it's just the oposite: it allows me to talk about stuff without you having to visit the site. Shame of you to think I was plugging)

So, anyway, I'm sitting there, in front of blank notepad, trying to give names to my last three storylines... And I just can't figure out some stuff.
I think lots of artists don't show a lot of imagination when naming their stories. As if that's not important at all. But it's one of those first things a reader sees.

Let me visualise: I'm having this storyline where events started in a storyline "Stupid psychic school" continue. So, first thing that'd come to mind for the new storyline is "Return of the psychic school".

Now, am I weird or this just sounds stupid? (I won't take "both" for an answer)

I mean, not only that school never went anywhere so it can't return, but it's also continuing a long proud and boring tradition of "return of something" names. Yet, it's what lots of webcomickers (even the best ones) would name their story.
In some cases, artist puts a name that is a pure description of the story in one sentence. It other cases, he puts a lame joke applying that story with some popular reference, film quote or phrase. I can't say I approove of either. Really, when you say it outloud, it doesn't sound right.
I think the most drastic example in where in Funny Farm storyline meny, third chapter/year starts with "REAL STORY BEGINS" (an example of describing the chapter). Now, if I was a reader, and I load the site for the first time and realise that real story begins in third year, well having to read an intro two years long would be a major put-off for me. Luckily, I already know FF is great and that description is missleading and all.

So, what did I do with my psychic school story? I scrolled through strips, found a sentence that sounded ok and figured that it could be understood not only in context in which it's said, but could be related to a few more things in the same story. So now it's named "A spot in her record".

Yeah, that's the story. Anyone else having problems with naming storylines?

Most of my "storylines" last for 1-3 days. Yikes. I can't imagine doing sonething like that.

[YarpsDat]

I did make a callendar with chapters and storylines too.
(big calendar was just too big, and I don't like the calendar2003 ect tags, because IMHO there is no reasone to make the beginning of the year more important than it already is)

And I give titles to all my pages.
I'm no longer sure why. I used to use them in my html- in name in hrefs, so the name would popup if you hovered over a link. I no longer do it.

I wanted to use names to make it easier to navigate the comic, ie. find the one you're looking for by just looking at names. But I had second thoughts...

Look at MacHall,StrangeCandy or MegaTokyo
They all use the funny comic titles in dropdowns, and personally I have trouble connecting the titles with the comics.
Sometimes the title is a bonus joke, but it usualy doesn't make finding the comics easier.

ie. why is this named "strike three"???
I think it's hella funny, but whenever I want to plug it, I spend 5 minutes browsing through their archives.
If the name had anything to do with pancakes, or food, or giving up, or anything.

[Sortelli]

I kinda regret that I started to name individual comics. Sometimes I have to post random Aquabats/TMBG lyrics because I usually have the comic done before I come up with a name.

[Rkolter]

My comic is broken into questions and intermissions, but none of them are overly provocative in their naming.

'Do multiple universes exist?'
'Why do slugs melt when they are salted?'
... etcetera.

[Astral Blaze]

My comic is broken into questions and intermissions, but none of them are overly provocative in their naming.

'Do multiple universes exist?'
'Why do slugs melt when they are salted?'
... etcetera.

Same here. A good joke in the title dilutes the main one sometimes.


SOMETIMES though. Not all the time.

[McDuffies]

Well, exactly what I tried to say:
1. It's not easy to come up with a good name. I mean, it's gonna stay in your archive as long as your site is, and if you start to hate it, you'll have to watch it every time you load the site...

2. Jokes are IMO not a really good choice for names. I personally don't like to see them in comics of others. Well, not if it's name of the whole storyline.

Thanks for returning to subject.

[Astral Blaze]

2. Jokes are IMO not a really good choice for names. I personally don't like to see them in comics of others. Well, not if it's name of the whole storyline.

Well, not really a seperate joke, but more like a pun or something based on the story. Like I said, a good joke in the title pretty much dilutes your whole comic.

Thanks for returning to subject.

Don't say that ever again. You'll tempt someone..........and it won't be me. But on a lighter note, no prob.

[KittyKatBlack]

I often wondered that too.

Take Brood War for example. In the opening movie a Marine runs out of ammo while firing at a couple Zerglings, but for some reason I have never had a Marine run out of ammo in the game itself.

Oversight, in my opinion.

Generally Marines don't survive long enough to run out of ammo.

[ZOMBIE USER 17345]

Unless you use "power overwhelming".