Coupla new characters, submitted to JohnnyBrad to put online when his wrist is feeling better...

Remember this?

Well, I have done two characters to use with it...

I have emailed them to JohnnyBrad, and he will no doubt put them up sooner or later... I have a request for an old-fashioned spherical helmet deep sea diver as well. Any more undersea character requests?

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Any more undersea character requests?

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You forgot the nudibranch.

In all seriousness, how about a swimming version of the elephant?

How about a gangster with cement shoes on?

Ooh! Ooh! The Thing That Should Not Be!

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How about a gangster with cement shoes on?

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Swipe some crap from The Little Mermaid. The mouse aint worried about the rent.

We should keep in mind that whatever characters are added can be used with any background. Not that I think it would be a bad thing to see a hooked fish floating next to the police car....

I'm definitely in favor of the cement-shoed gangster idea. That could be used to good effect with other backgrounds as well.

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The mouse aint worried about the rent.

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The mouse aint worried about the rent.

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Am I the only one who doesn't understand this?

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When bunner posted that I was gonna respond that "Eisner's balls tingle at the chance to use his high-retainer lawyers." But then I didn't because it seemed like I was just posting to show I got the ref.

Which I was.

Speaking of nothing relevant to what follows this comma, anyone ever read any of Douglas Adam's books other than the HHGTTG 4? I'm halfway through "Life the Universe and Everything" and am having such a thoroughly good time (that was my Arthur Dent impersonation), I wanted to see if anyone knew of any other good uns of his. I'm guessing they're all gold, but what the hell do I know.

ObiJo: HHGTTG 5 (i think), "mostly harmless," is poop on a stick. it almost made me dismiss the whole series, until i remembered how good the first four were.

everyone else: is it just me, or do the new dolphin characters appear to be on some sort of major mind-altering drugs? (no offense dexx)

oh yeah, and how many random comics do you suppose will use the dolphins outside of the undersea background and make that the whole basis for the comic?

DOLPHIN: "help me! i need water to live!"
JESUS: "sorry. i'm kinda busy."

DOLPHIN: "if anyone can help me, it's you, dog-on-a-ball!"
DOG-ON-A-BALL: "what do you mean? i'm just a dog on a ball!"

DOLPHIN: "eek! why are you driving a nail into your head?!"
EXPLODING DOG GUY: "why aren't you in water? this comic suXX0rs."

...did i just type that whole thing out? i need to sleep.

mr concrete boots would need to be dripping and maybe with a puddle

long dark teatime of the soul is very good, didnt put it down after i started and was prompted by it to go get dirk gently's holistic detective agency, not as good but good nonetheless

Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams was excellent. But I haven't read it in quite a while.

And personally I thought Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency was probably his best book. Less goofy, more clever and interesting. Good stuff.

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When bunner posted that I was gonna respond that "Eisner's balls tingle at the chance to use his high-retainer lawyers."

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Mostly Harmless is indeed of much lower quality than the rest of the series. I can't explain it. But if you're prepared for it to fall short of your expectations, I'd read it anyway, just so you can say you've read the whole series. It's not unbearable or anything... but I think a lot of fans would be happier if it had never been written.

After the first four Guide books, I think his next best are the Dirk Gently ones (Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul). There's also Starship Titanic, which was technically written by Terry Jones, because Doug was busy turning it into a video game which I have yet to play because it wouldn't run on my last computer. I think that's all the Adams stuff I've read. I recommend all of these books, but you should just be aware that the Guide series is far and away his finest work.

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Mostly Harmless is indeed of much lower quality than the rest of the series. I can't explain it. But if you're prepared for it to fall short of your expectations, I'd read it anyway, just so you can say you've read the whole series. It's not unbearable or anything... but I think a lot of fans would be happier if it had never been written.

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Maybe Roddenbury kicked off because he put a teenager on the bridge of the Enterprise.

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Regarding the undersea stuff... - I was considering doing a crab, among other things, but I am not sure how I would cope with the endless "crabs" jokes.

Regarding that motherfucking mouse... - I'll be happy to draw things that look a lot like Uncle Walt's characters, but are just different enough to avoid action. Pissing off lawyers is fun!

Regarding Douglas Adams... - Mostly Harmless is, I shit you not, a big "Fuck you!" from Adams to his fans. As far as I can work out, he was fed up with telling fans, "No, I am sick of H2G2, and I am not going to write any more of it." He eventually wrote a horribly depressing fifth book in which everyone dies, and many fans (myself included) will never completely forgive him for that, despite his passing. It will be remembered as one of the most spiteful acts in publishing history. Anyway, apart from that, his two Dirk Gently novels - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul (the latter's title taken from a throw-away H2G2 reference) - are excellent. Last Chance to See, a non-fiction book about his travels around to world to see and photograph some of the world's rarest animals, is also a great read. A fun book to have sitting around for occasional flick-through is The Meaning of Liff (or the expanded version - The Deeper Meaning of Liff) which is a dictionary full of international place-names given odd meanings. Apart from Mostly Harmless he only ever wrote good stuff, so read all of it.

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oh yeah, and how many random comics do you suppose will use the dolphins outside of the undersea background and make that the whole basis for the comic?

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Kaufman, have I told you lately that I love you?

Wow, thanks all. I'll start on the Dirk Gently duo when I finish the H2G2 4. Then it's on to Last Chance to See. In fact, I'll probably take DexX's advice and read them all. But not Mostly Harmless. It would be nice to read the whole series, but I'd rather remember Douglas Adams happily and with no reservations, calling up scenes like a fleet of starships that come to attack Earth and having made a terrible miscalculation in scale get accidently swallowed by a dog.

I, erm... I ... I liked Mostly Harmless. A lot.

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I, erm... I ... I liked Mostly Harmless. A lot.

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More Mostly Harmless trivia: Anyone who has read So Long and Thanks For All the Fish will have guessed that the late Mr Adams was madly in love when he wrote it. Well, when he started on Mostly Harmless, you guessed it, he had just had a very nasty and ugly split with the girl who inspired Fenchurch. He killed off Fenchurch in a completely pointless and throw-away fashion, almost like an afterthought, as his revenge on her, breaking the hearts of millions of geeks in the process. One friend of mine was woken up in the early hours of the morning by a drunken friend who was in tears because Fenchurch was dead. True story!