Bob Stevenson (rstevenson) says:

 

1. Written by Guest, on 14-03-2005 13:05
I've recently discovered this strip and I devoured the archives section in one sitting. The artwork is fantastic, and the two strips that used an embedded soundtrack used the technique to perfection. 
 
I have laughed at almost every strip, and it stands now as the only web comic to make me literally laugh out loud. The updating is abysmal, but the strip is just too damned good to pass up. Given the creators' ties to the comic book industry, and the fact that BNS is going to appear in a staple and paper comic book here in meatspace, I hope to see BNS as a real-live comic book one day. I think it would fit in at Oni just fine...

 

2. Written by Guest, on 14-03-2005 14:04
Thanks for the detailed comment. I like the idea of a review on top of a review. 
 
-any opinions on my break in style with the woman? The guys at Digital Strips suggested I take the characters on set. I'm not ready to do that for several reasons, but I guess there's nothing with a reviewee-esque character walking throug. 
 
-Bob Stevenson

 

3. Written by Guest, on 14-03-2005 15:59
I dug the woman cameo/break in style...though 2 things: I think this is the first time on HB that I've seen ANYONE from the waist down and 
Well, the pencil's head in the background is tenatively and implicatively poised. Translation:The big yellow arrow pointing to her crotch in the 4th panel gave me the biggest laugh. 
-Jared 
 
btw I'm glad you like the idea of a review on top of a review. Whenever I post here I'm always worried that I'm overstepping my bounds by doing something remotely like that.

 

4. Written by Guest, on 14-03-2005 16:53
There were two other ocassions with waist down views, but I'll let people dig for those. 
 
Quote:

 

Translation:The big yellow arrow pointing to her crotch in the 4th panel gave me the biggest laugh. -Jared  
 
Your translation gave me the biggest laugh. 
 
As for reviews on top of reviews, that's part of the reason the comments are there. I love the cases where people have disagreed with me. I'm looking to be convinced that a particular strip is better or worse than I've portrayed it. I want a public airing of all of it and when creators have written to complain, I've encouraged them to post here, in public.  
 
In my mind conversation is the key to success of this new media. As a kid, my father taught me that television was a participatory activity. Talk to the screen. Yell at the screen. Never be passive about what it throws at you. I'm not talking sports here, but the evening news, Nova, Star Trek.  
 
"Kirk! You fool! Always anxious to leave the ship. Who should we fear more? -the enemy or a Vulcan in command."  
 
You know, that sort of stuff. The internet, and more specifically these content management systems make yelling at the screen a little more productive. And when the screen answers back. That there's the charm. 
 
-Bob Stevenson

 

5. Written by Guest, on 14-03-2005 23:32
If we're going to discuss how the internet Comic/Review/Blog format creates a fluid dialogue, I might as well point out something that makes me envious out it.  
 
You, the reviewer, can change your mind.  
 
Ever since I started paying attnention to the comment portion of HB (and hence the posting on my part) I noticed that often you talk about how you changed your mind, or softened your opinion concerning the strip. By creating a dialogue about it you create something that's not written in stone and you're free to interact with public (or private) opinion. 
Makes me recall something from Years ago with Floridian Film Critic Matt Soergel. He reviewed Jurassic Park and completely blasted it. He talked about how the acting fell flat and it was just a cheap special-effects show. 
Apparently the newspaper got enough complaints (or Soergel got to look at other critic's reviews) because the very next day he wrote ANOTHER review of it where he gave it 4 stars and said everyone should see it. Came across as completely whorish but it illustrated something: people forget what they read yesterday.  
:end tangent: 
 
I guess my point is I really enjoy seeing interactive reviews where a critic can either defend his opinion or actually listen to the people and give it another chance. The recent review of Filth and Decay is a fairly good illustration of that. 
-Jared

 

6. Written by Guest, on 15-03-2005 12:18
"Me thinks some psychological study of the webcomics world might be in order. Sounds like a job for the Webcomics Examiner." 
 
Har har, you card... 
 
-William G

 

7. Written by Guest, on 15-03-2005 13:47
Ooops. Hey. That means this here little blog just moved up one more step on the crit-wagon. -Still a long way from "discerning" though, maybe muddled. 
 
-Bob Stevenson

 

8. Written by Guest, on 16-03-2005 02:36
"Muddled" was the best way to describe all of my reviews 
 
-William G

 

9. Written by Guest, on 16-03-2005 02:44
A professor of mine taught an entire semester of Latin American History based on the premise that Britain's policy towards the region was to muddle through. He stuck to it too, from mining bat guano to the Falklands, the Brit's muddled their way right off the continent.  
 
Looks like we've muddled ourselves out of work on the Webcomics Examiner. I'm sad to see it go, even if it may be only temporarily. Back to slaving away in relative obscurity, I guess. 
 
-Bob Stevenson

 

10. Written by Guest, on 16-03-2005 03:04
Completely off topic: 
Bob, you're a history guru. What do you think of Goenig's Cartoon History of the Universe? I got turned on to the first book when I was a LOT younger and have been buying the updates whenever they come out (every 3 or so years). 
There's something about being able to read in comic format history from the begining of time (Big Bang theories) to the Renaisance. 
-Jared

 

11. Written by Guest, on 16-03-2005 04:06
I have them all in one form or another. I think text-books could learn a lesson or two from his stuff. He's one of the reasons I started my own little text-book project, an internet-based one. He doesn't always get at the most important things, opting to dwell on the funny despite it's irrelevance a little too often. I remember enjoying his take on Messopotamia and the importance of mud, a chapter he did well with. 
 
-Bob Stevenson

 

12. Written by Guest, on 16-03-2005 11:20
I still haven't got a clue where the name Butternut Squash came from. How did they pick it? I mean I still have its look-up produce code stuck in my head from working as a cashier at Shop Rite almost twenty years ago. It's 9745, I think, or was that romain lettuce. Spaghetti squash is for sure 9888. Blue cap gallow of milk 52. Damn, what a waste of small pieces of my brain. 
 
MUST KNOW where name came from! Must fill brain with more useless dribble to spit back at people while I'm collecting social security, er, selling my comic books to survive the twilight years. 
 
-Bob Stevenson

 

13. the name
Written by Guest, on 17-03-2005 12:33
I thought they explained it somewhere on the site. I'm pretty sure I've read their explaination for it. Lets see... something about it being a rediculus vegetable (are squashes vegetables?) and the comic being sometimes rediculus? eh, maybe I'm just being rediculus...  
 
-ashley

 

14. Written by Guest, on 18-03-2005 00:35
-and there it is, a little anti-climactic though. I was hoping for something along the lines of one of them being forced to sit at the table until they finished all of their, well, butternut squash. Oh wait, that was me only it was green beans. 
 
The book, The Corrections still haunts me in ways people cannot imagine. 
 
-Bob Stevenson

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