I'm Positive I've Got Something Good for You

I’m awfully sorry I haven’t been posting lately.

I know how all five of you are disappointed (sorry, Mom).

I was thinking about bitching to you as to why I haven’t been posted, but I’m going to postulate that your lack of caring plus your own problems means . . . well, I’ve never been good at math, but I’m sure someone out there can figure it out.

Anyway, one of the biggest drains on my time recently has been a new web-comic I’ve discovered.

That’s right: I discovered. I’m like Columbus all up in this Internet-shit, and just because there are a bunch of naked, indigenous people looking at me like “What the hell does this guy think he’s . . . AGGGGHHH! SMALL POX!” doesn’t mean I don’t have a good claim. As Eddie Izzard says in his special, Dress to Kill, “Do you have a flag?” I’ve got a flag, son, and I’m planting it on the World Wide Web.

Screw Internet neutrality.

Never mind that for now. What I was trying to say was that I’ve started reading a new web-comic, and as I am wont to do, started from the beginning. Unfortunately, the artist, R.K. Milholland, was a little bit of a “go-getter,” and having started in 2001 (and updating a lot more frequently than many web-comics), left me a great deal to go through to catch up. I’m currently somewhere in the middle of 2006. It’s nice.

Oh, the strip? It’s actually pretty famous, as far as web-comics go. It’s called Something Positive, and it’s essentially the story of a group of late twenty-somethings in Boston. It’s got its requisite nerd-fodder (lots of gaming – D&D and the like), melodrama (relationships), and pretty good artwork (for a comic).

It’s also incredibly wordy. This is dialogue-driven, and that’s one of the reasons it’s taking me so long to read through them all (that and the pirated wireless I’m currently using is in-and-out – Thank you, East Village person who doesn’t know how to password protect their network!). Granted, some of the words get in the way of . . . I guess I’d call it “enjoyment.” Milholland is writing semi-autobiographical stuff, so a lot of it can tend to be personal. That in and of itself isn’t bad, but it sometimes means that the Milholland is a bit into the narrative, and seeing it’s his own site, can be as verbose as he chooses.

As someone who isn’t at all like that, it can sometimes be annoying.

The other thing is that a lot of the jokes get repeated. Again, though, I’m reading them straight through, so it’s a lot easier to recognize the patterns (which is an interesting idea to study: how does reading through a web-comic archive or a television show DVD change the medium . . . Oh McLuhan, you’ve invaded my life again!)

What I like so much though, is that it is not just a comic with characters, but a comic about characters. These characters grow, change, and amazingly enough, age (think of a certain Bill Watterson character and the fact he keeps coming back from summer vacation to have Ms. Wormwood – and the fact that he has different summer vacations). They may not be the most realistic characters, but they’re also cartoons.

I will warn you, though, that the subject matter is Rated R for extreme violence, adult language, strong sexual content, cruelty to animals, excessive drinking, abject pessimism, sickly-sweet sentimentality, and adult situations.

“Adult situations” is such a stupid term – reminds me (and man, I’m already repeating my references) of a Calvin and Hobbes strip where they want to go see a movie, and Calvin notes that it has “Adult Situations.” Curious, he asks Hobbes what that means, and he says: “Oh, you know, paying bills, doing laundry, going to work,” to which Calvin replies “I guess that’s why they don’t want kids to go see it.” Or something like that. "If my answers frighten you Vincent, then you should cease asking scary questions".

Extremely violent, but ironically acceptable, because most of it is girl-on-guy violence.

(Huge Aside: Acceptable, I say, because in our culture, we seem to have reached a point where man (especially The Father), is seen as an object of easy ridicule. I might have mentioned this before, but either way, here it is again: Watch television commercials or sitcoms. See how the father is situated in the family dynamic. I guarantee you that nine times out of ten he will be a bumbling-yet-tenderhearted idiot, who continually messes up, but usually makes good in the end. He will have a sassy and out-of-his-league attractive wife, and you will wonder, if he’s such an idiot, why they are together in the first place. Like this show . . . )

There is also a lot what I guess I’ll call “queer content.” There is a strong pro-gay sentiment in this strip, and Milholland is almost nonchalant about his inclusion of the topic. I think the fact that it is on the Internet, and there are no censors except advertisers, means that content can go in any direction the writer wants. Based on the “success” of Something Positive, I would say that he’s giving his audience what they want, and part of that is a whole lotta’ gay.

Speaking of a “whole lotta’ gay,” I seem to do that a lot. Well, try taking a class about gay identities in popular culture, and see how far you can get without noticing it. I promise you soon to give you my list of things I’ve noticed this semester. Something Positive will be on it.

That’s all for now. Devote some time, start from the beginning, and read the strip. It’s like an good, easy novel. A summer read that you can’t take to the beach.

Peacey-weace, sausage guts.