Today’s webcomic is brought to you by Matthias Grunewald, an old churchy story I heard when I was young, and loopy end-of-the-day thoughts. Enjoy! Don’t eat too much turkey like JC did.

In somewhat related news, here’s a BBC article I found while looking for an appropriate image for the comic.

 Church Removes ‘Scary Crucifix’

This weekend was the Big Apple Comic Con here in NYC and earlier today Nadir and I, along with friends and family, went to take in the sights and buy lots of comics. I’ll have a more in depth report soon as I sort through the photos and read all the comics I bought. Until then, here’s a comic that was much funnier on the train when I thought of it Clicking the above image will take you to it in all its non-sequitur glory.

Note: Shatner was indeed there, though the image of him shrewdly poking his head out from behind a curtain I was standing next to will now always be how I remember him. Enjoy!

New webcomic today, featuring myself this week. Any New Yorker can tell you about the intricacies of the subway system and its riders.  You see some messed up stuff sometimes. This story did happen and I do truly hate people who talk out loud to themselves. Stop it. We’re not interested.

Old news by now, but the October Issue of Auxiliary Magazine is out featuring spooky halloween themed fashion tips, music reviews, and an interview with Doc Hammer of Venture Brothers fame! Auxiliary is run by friend/classmate/one-time-roommate Jennifer Link whose design and photography background lend to a beautifully constructed periodical. As usual, I contributed some frantic doodles this issue, which I posted below.  Click on the link above to view a definite up-and-coming alternative life/art/music/fashion magazine! 

 

BONUS: These should have been different posts, but I’ve been lackadaisical in my updates. Below are some sketches and recent entries into my facebook group ‘Ozgur’s Photoshop-Arama’ now affectionately known as OPA!!!!

 

The first image is a pinup for Dusk creator/writer David Doub in anticipation of the second trade paperback of the series!

 

 Seems to be an issue with NextGen Gallery (my spiffy image plugin) and the new version of Wordpress so image uploads may be on hold as I really don’t like making thumbnails myself after years of NExtGen spoilage! Cheerio!

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 Oh man, this post is looking like a cheesy motivational poster already. Right below the clouds should be:

OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD

Which happens to be what the placard out in the hall outside my new apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn reads (I have an awesome new landlady who decorates the hallway of the building). I have to admit, the phrase has grown on me. But before you begin to wonder if I rediscovered religion, just put it outside of its Judeo-Christian context. It sounds downright boastful, and I love it. If you still aren’t seeing it my way, here’s a little comic for you:

This is what goes on in my head when I read that quote. And it feels even more fitting for a neighborhood dominated by East Indians and Orthodox Jews. I only wish today’s webcomic was as inspired as the little gem above. Herein we have a classic case of ‘Maki thinks of the punchline and tries to mad-lib the rest’. I’m not sure how well it worked. Sometimes I feel like I’m a brilliant writer and sometimes its a mad-lib where somebody has scribbled swear words into all the spaces. To make matters worse, my bum-ass computer kicked the bucket and all my fonts are on that drive. So today you get Comic-Sans and a generic block type. Sigh indeed. 

Though if I got anything out of this, its that I like painting clouds. The ones you see here were sitting happily outside my window. Happy, dancing little clouds. I can see this as a comic I’d come back to. Maybe scramble the dialogue a little bit or enter a blank into the next Ozgur’s Photoshop-a-rama. Stay tuned and enjoy!

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This Mad-Lib brought to you by Nadir, though I’m surprised there isn’t a shamcock somewhere on there.

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[Edit] I wrote this thing to announce a related comic, which can be viewed by clicking above. My absent mindedness is fittingly ironic here.

Today we delve into the line between fantasy in reality and fantasy in subconscious. Some people like to read into dreams, but my dreams are usually so direct and so insultingly simple, that it’s too clear and obvious what they ‘mean’. Thus I have no problem having a dream about swimming with my iphone and thinking ‘Gee, I guess I’m worried about breaking this thing’ or jump kicking helicopters and thinking ‘Ok, that was too much game time before bed.’ I buy into the camp that believes dreams are a subconscious and often irrational manifestation of everything from anxieties to a weird mix of what you did that day. So having dreams about work usually worries me because I shouldn’t be thinking about it that much.

Self-analysis describes me pretty reliably as an escapist. I love movies and video games for the total immersion, for that moment where you forget where you are and what you have to do later in the day. This is why I never go to see documentaries at the movie theater because I see a movie to get away from reality, not to have it put in front of me during my special escape time. You watch that movie about Darfur, I’ll be over in the next theater watching Star Trek. This love of escaping has been with me for quite some time. As a child, I was a chronic daydreamer. School was always a colossal battle of me vs. my attention. And when I wasn’t actively daydreaming, I was trying to make it look like I was paying attention. That or pushing on my closed eyes to get a fireworks display in my head. School was kinda rough. I still find myself daydreaming, but it limits itself to the occasional lapse in attention, while listening to music (I direct music videos in my head.), or when talking to you, because you’re boring. Oh ha ha ha, I’m only kidding, loyal reader. Without you around I’d just sit here and enjoy the light show. Which doesn’t sound like a bad idea actually. TTFN, folks.

P.s. For you folks who love podcasts, I highly recommend the Radiolab episode on sleep for some great stories about studies done on tetris dreams and if I can find the episode, the story of Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote his books based on narratives played out by little people in his dreams. Wacky.

During the recent election, Jailbreak Toys ramps up and makes a slew of Obama and McCain toys. When McCain lost, they began selling off the McCain variants en masse.  So how did I end up with a garbage bag full of them? Well, a friend of a friend had a hookup at the Conan O’Brien show and got me a backstage pass wherein O’Brien himself confided that he had aquired all these McCain toys in an ill planned business venture. Now all I had to do was score 30 grand in 4 hours in order to save Conan and get all those McCain dolls.

No not really. She and my roommate did go to the show and were picked out of the audience to hand out these McCain dolls en masse. 

I see all these toys and think ‘We gotta have a paint-a-mccain party where everybody repaints them’ a la the dunny. This grand idea became ‘Maki camps out in his dark room and customizes one’. I figured I’d send Nadir one as well, almost certain that he’d make a John McClane for obvious hilarity’s sake. Instead I stole what could have possibly been his thunder and made it myself and gave it to him as a gift! Below is the result along with the original. Classic. I even crudely painted the letters to say ‘McClane’ and pasted printouts of Bruce Willis’ face over McCain’s on the packaging.

As you can see, I had to beef up his wiry form a bit.

Fast forward to the Philadelphia Comic Con last week, where Jailbreak had a booth set up and was selling their new line along with these McCain dolls for $1 each. There were some Obama mods on the table so we brought up my McClane and I e-mailed the photo to them. Good Story. I’m going to bed. Yes, at 5. Here’s some doodles for ya.

 

 

I have to thank Nadir for taking us to the Con, his brother Yener for the camera, and Scott for being an awesome cameraman. Nighto!