Starslip

Starslip by Kris Straub who happens to be among the internet's more successful webcartoonists.  Starslip is lots of fun and well worth getting addicted to. I like the silliness of looking for planets on hardcopy 2D paper maps.

Texas Tales

Here's the article that (kinda) explains this post:

Kringus reveals plans

This is farther in to the same "Kringus" story line form Scott Kurtz' outstanding Player vs. Player webcomic. This is where we finally find out what Kringus is up to.  If you think this is sinister, y'ain't seen nuthin' yet.  Later Kringus story arcs go way into the deep end. 

But even as fun as the Kringus stories can be, my favorite Christmas map-related comic is this one:
http://blueskygis.blogspot.com/2009/12/i-love-christmas.html

Kringus does GPS

Here's a treat: Player vs. Player by that giant in the webcomic industry (pun intended) Scott Kurtz.  This episode comes from towards the beginning of one of the first "Kringus" story arcs that Kurtz did. Notice the GPS device labeled on the diagram. This story arc starts here:
http://www.pvponline.com/2007/12/03/kringus-risen-part-1/

These "Kringus" story arcs have become rather elaborate in recent years.  Well worth the time of looking them up through the comprehensive archive. 

Rex Morgan M.D.

Rex Morgan M.D. by Woody Wilson & Graham Nolan.  Not only is the a folding map in panel 3, but there's a reference to a map light in the car in panel 6.  Do people still call interior car lights map lights?

The story arc this belongs to involves some Alzheimer-y elderly folks (who are nevertheless having relations) wandering off from the retirement community ... and I think getting themselves kidnapped by rather incompetent, very mild crooks.

A map in memorium to Bil Keane

You already knew that I would definitely have to post a Family Circus pun map in memory of the passing last week of its creator, Bil Keane.  Take a moment, won't you, and enjoy both his pun maps and the kids' dotted trails.  We will always remember Mr. Keane's contributions to cartooning cartography (even though it was actually his son Jeff who likely invented both).

Just occurred

The Buckets by Greg Cravens on a classroom conundrum... with a cute little globe

No more bogeymen

This Non Sequitur strip by Wiley Miller came up randomly, but it's nicely related to yesterday's post.  There's a good argument to be made that the military industrial complex (or is it the security industrial complex now?) is very adept at maintaining a level of fear in the general public.... a level of fear they need to sustain their existence.... a level of fear I'm happy to reject.

Generational directions 2

The Buckets by Greg Cravens on getting directions.  Does this seem familiar?  Maybe it's because about a year ago I posted the very similar one on giving directions:

At least one of them still seems to be using Mapquest.

By the way, about that sullen teenager who is simply complaining about not having a smartphone,  that presents a perfect opportunity to mention my most favorite recent quote about teenagers... from an article on evolutionary computing. The computer scientist was explaining his experience working with a self-learning software program and how the results were often less than useful:

"It's like arguing with a teenager, ... It just keeps coming back with things that are irrelevant."

That's just beyond perfect.

Girl Genius two-fer

Today, in honor of Girl Genius winning the Hugo award for the Best Graphic Story for the third year in a row (read the graphic acceptance speech... and the other one in 2009) I'm doing a Girl Genius Tuesday Two-fer... Which is tough because there's actually a LOT to choose from.  Phil and Kaja Foglio have mentioned maps several times in their Girl Genius webcomic and occasionally have drawn some rather beautiful maps.  So I think I'll do two sets: An amazing 3D scale model battle map, and an amazing 3D virtual map (and an extra set at the end). Here goes:

The first is a simply spectacular depiction of a scale model map of the town of Mechanicsburg, home of the artificially intelligent and homicidal Castle Heterodyne, which is under siege/protection by the Baron Wulfenbach, as well as under attack by practically every other fighting force in Europa, as the power struggle rages to see whether there is, in fact, a new Heterodyne heiress. This amazing map, by the way, is in one of the many, many chambers inside the ridiculously vast flying Castle Wulfenbach airship.

The next set is part of the story arc where our heroine Agatha Clay/Heterodyne is in her broken ancestral artificially intelligent and homicidal castle looking for a 3D map of the castle that will show them where further repairs need to be made:

With her are Violetta, an elite Smoke Knight who serves the Sturmvoraus family, Tarvek Sturmvoraus, Prince of Sturmhalten, and heir to the throne of the Storm King (well, he's the actual Storm King now, since his father was killed by his clank-daughter just before he tried to restore Agatha's mother/The Other into Agatha's body/mind), also Gilgamesh Wulfenbach, Tarvek's rival, and heir to the aforementioned Baron Wulfenbach's European Empire (his dad might also be dead).... Also Agatha is carrying the severed head of Otilia, the Muse of Protection ...only that's not actually Otilia, it's actually another copy of the Castle Heterodyne's fractured, and somewhat insane, identity. The identity of Otilia was actually Madam Von Pinn, nanny (not kidding), who ripped apart Agatha's adoptive parents, but who's identity has since been transferred into into a giant mechanical cat. ...Is this a great story or what!

Gil there in the bottom panels is getting abducted by a psychedelic Audrey II-esque plant.   

 So after their ordeal with the plant (and another hyper run-in with the Heterodyne pretender, Zola), Tarvek and Agatha get around to looking for the 3D map in the library... now where could it be...?

 ...under the rug? (by the way, here's the episode of Agatha talking to The Castle the first time 'round)

Ah! There it is! That's a pretty neato 3D steampunk map, wouldn't ya say?

Now to find the secret control room... right...about ...here!

... and with a few repairs, the lovely 3D map's looking much, much better, yes?  By the way, that rather battered gentleman is Airman Higgs.  Ya know, Higgs.... He has a map too...

...apparently.... Let's see, this is before the 3D map, and just after Zola has escaped and caused a collapse that sealed off Agatha-as-The-Other, Tarvek, Gil, & Violetta in Lucrezia/The Other's old secret sub-sub-sub basement lab, separating them from the rest of their crew, which includes Higgs, Zeetha (the green one, Princess of the Lost City of Skifander), Molech VonZinzer, Theopholous DuMedd, Sleipnir O'Hara, and Professor Diaz in the tall hat (who I think ends up dead later... I don't quite remember).

 ...right... he's got a "map". ...and that cat thing in the coat is Krosp, Emperor of Cats.

Well, that more than sums it up for today's map-related Girl Genius extravaganza. There's a few more but we'll take a break and get to those later.  Meanwhile I recommend heading over to Girl Genius and starting from the beginning of the story and enjoy the whole way through.  It's very worth it.

This little light of earthshine

Here Hammy squirrel of Over the Hedge by Michael Fry & T. Lewis gets too shiny.

Billy's trail map two-fer

The two most map-related regular features of Family Circus by Jeff and Bill Keane have been Billy's pun maps, and the kids' wandering-around-dotted-lines.  The latter of which are so iconic that they're part of the design of the official Family Circus website and have been endlessly parodied by other cartoonists.  This one above, in fact, I found in a Cracked.com article that proposed rather foul alternatives to some Family Circus captions (click link at your own risk).. 

Here are more, some original, some parodies.  Click on any of them to make them larger, easier to read:

This one is actually an original... but given that the subject is essentially feline drug abuse, it could easily have been a parody.

The art in this one is original, but the dialog, obviously, is not.  I've seen many, many examples of the art for this one posted all over the web, but either none of them has the original dialog, or the ovoid-headed kids are cropped out completely.

 A parody involving The Marvel Family.

 This one is a first-day-of-school original from 2001

 Here's a parody from Pearls Before Swine creator, Stephan Pastis

 And another parody from Randall Munroe's XKCD.(the title-text at the original site: "This was my friend David's idea")

 This one is kind of a self-parody original involving Sherlock Holmes, for some bizarre reason.

And finally a parody with a "Blair Witch Project" theme.

Mapping hell

This is from the webcomic Pibgorn, by Brooke McEldowney, who also does 9 Chickweed Lane. Pibgorn is actually the fairy dressed as death (not the hell beast) in that middle panel and is looking quite unlike herself. Of course Geoff there is completely out of his element... or is he? Pibgorn storylines tend to be ridiculously long and protracted... or at least ridiculous. But entertaining. Brooke did a Pibgorn adaptation of A Midsummer's Night Dream a few years back that was fun.

But Pibgorn story arcs very often end up in hell and so here we are again, this time with a map theme.

The next installment in this particular story arc arguably also continues the mapping hell theme, but I'm not entirely convinced that it does. You decide:

Supervillain origin stories

Stuart Immonen illustrated the origin stories of the great DC supervillains in the style of Winsor McCay, of Little Nemo in Slumberland fame. This is one of the pages, depicting the second half of The Toyman's origin story (I hadn't heard of the Toyman) which, conveniently enough, includes a globe.  Here's the rest: http://calamityjon.livejournal.com/1051434.html

Onomatopoeic pong

The random use of the globe makes this Frazz strip by Jef Mallet perfect for this blog.

Hacked IRL

What does this mean? IRL = Ireland or "In Real Life".

Theoretical museum

So this installment of Subnormality by Winston Rowntree is pretty fun and includes a few different maps.  As per usual, it's very wordy.  Worth the read though.  And be sure to click on it to see a larger, legible version because there's a large horde of fun details in almost every panel on this one.Have fun!

Looks like.... Two-fer

Last week was the obvious "Italy looks like a boot" two-fer.  This week's two-fer requires more imagination and some doodling:

I have no idea who did these, but they're certainly fun.

Dinosaur Comics

Dinosaur Comics by Ryan North is a webcomic that has been running since 2003.  In each and every installment the artwork is exactly the same.  Only the dialog changes.  This installment, from 2004, involved a map, specifically a treasure map. It was actually guest written by one Per Jorner, who was filling in for North for several episodes during that time.  Oddly enough, the installment from the day before was also geographically-related (see below).  I don't think that happens often with Dinosaur Comics.  But I'm not sure 'cause I don't follow this one at all.  I'm not entirely sure how I stumbled across this one in the first place. But from what I gather it's fairly popular.... in some circles... I guess....

By the way, like XKCD, at the actual webcomic, there is an extra "title-text" message that pops up while hovering over the image:

see, it's ironic both because he destroyed the treasure markers and because the trees would have been chopped down to build the cabins.

Here's the one from the previous day (click on any image to make it bigger and easier to read):

Circus in Chitown

Let's do tame with a Family Circus from 2006 by Jeff and Bill Keane. Of course we now know that neither Mrs. O'Leary nor her cow had anything at all to do with starting that fire.Way to perpetuate discriminatory stereotypes you ovoid-headed kids!

The thing that bugs me about this is the copyright laws which obligated the Keanes to have PJ there with the generic "Cubbies" pennant instead of "Cubs" which would have made some kind of sense.  MLB might want to consider laying off the fan art.