Today’s Dilbert, found here (for another 29 days, anyway), is an example of great writing and crummy cartooning.

Now many of you may argue that Dilbert has ALWAYS been an example of crummy cartooning, but I strongly disagree. He does a great job “emoting” with the simple and simplistic character art of his strip, and Dilbert has long been one of my favorite strips.

Today’s though… the PHB tells the “Boss’s Pet” interviewee to show him the face she’ll use when bullying employees behind his back. She growls and bares her teeth and scowls all at once, and he says “nice use of forehead wrinkles. You’re hired.”

The problem? The faces are so small you can’t see the expression properly. I suppose at 300dpi on newsprint it’ll look a LITTLE better, but looking at the enormous amounts of white-space around the characters, I’m forced to announce that the strip is poorly composed. If the faces had been just a little larger – say 50%, or maybe even double their current size – we could have really SEEN the forehead wrinkles. Scott Adams is capable of doing a convincing “angry” face, but when he limited the space in which he could render it, he blew it.

This piece of criticism has been brought to you by the letters “I R E A L L Y S H O U L D G E T B A C K T O W O R K” and the number “NOW.”

–Howard

When I was out and about on Tuesday a couple of birds saw fit to crap on Turbo Schlock, my 2003 Beetle. One of them had the usual birdie diet of “stuff that results in runny green-and-white crap,” while the other was apparently getting by on bags of Dr. Andrew Weil’s Holistic High Fiber Trail Mix.

On Thursday I considered washing my car, but I never did get around to it.

This morning it was raining. I drove my 8-year-old son to school, and then back at home I took my car-wash brush and easily brushed away the dried-green-and-white spot. Rain makes a great “pre-soak” setting, after all.

The Doc Weil splotch was stubborn, though. The brush did nothing, and the gentle-yet-scrubby car-wash-sponge with the netting on it only served to, umm… “loosen the stool” a bit around the edges. No problem: I parked the car outside of the garage, and waited. An hour later, just before driving my 10-year-old daughter to school, I took the same sponge, and easily wiped away the soggy guanola.

I’m feeling absurdly pleased with myself. Maybe it’s because I like the rain, and a rainy morning makes me happy. As for the birds, well, as my Dad used to say: “Grrr… they SING for the RICH PEOPLE.”

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In completely unrelated news, I’ll be at AutumnCon tomorrow, which (as of this writing anyway) is Saturday, October 29th. I’ll have some originals for sale, but I won’t have time to do commissions. Just pencil-sketches and panel discussions:

12:00pm – Intro to Webcomics (Seminar Theater)

1:00pm (or maybe 2:00pm) – How to be a great GM (TBA)

4:00pm – So you wanna be a webcartoonist (Canyon III)

5:00pm – Putting the Science into Science Fiction (TBA)

If you’re in the area, give this convention a shot. It’s a first year ‘con, so it’ll be fairly small and really enthusiastic.

Today’s Astronomy Picture of the Day is stunning.

It’s also deep-linked behind the cut.

Sandra recieved an unexpected phone call while I was out seeing Corpse Bride (which was delightful, except for the part where juvenile delinquents threw bits of ceiling tile into the theater, no, I’m not making that up). Apparently one of the local charter schools is forcing their students out into the wide world as interns for a couple of days. The mother of one of these high school kids managed to Google me as a “cartoonist” living in “Orem.” One local telephone call later, she reached Sandra.

Okay, an intern RARELY gets to do anything interesting — even “real” interns from collegiate programs often get relegated to the snack-fetch-itorial field. A high-school level intern is, in fairness, likely to be little more than an observer in whatever business he visits.

In most businesses this would be annoying. Me, though, I thrive on attention. Now factor in the following: the young man who wishes for a two-day internship with me has some Photoshop skill. I bet I can get a week of strips flood-filled for free. In exchange, I’ll have somebody looking over my shoulder while I pencil and ink, and I’ve found that always makes me work harder.

I’m looking forward to it. Besides, for a few hours, I’ll be able to guarantee that at least one of America’s Youth is not throwing bits of ceiling tile into movie theaters.

–Howard