Stickers!
September 30, 2007 ~ 10 Comments
Yeah, I made a set of stickers to be printed out on sticky paper, should anyone happen to have such a thing. I did, for some reason. Not much to be said about this installment; as those who have slogged through the Narbonic archives are only too aware, sometimes it was all I could do to throw together a goofy piece of filler like this to get through a Sunday. Still, that pile of gerbils isn’t bad, and the Che Guevara image of Artie came out surprisingly well. I did it with a Sharpie and surprisingly little Photoshop filtering.
To make myself feel better about my legacy of lame Sunday features, I’m going to run this embarrassingly complimentary poem by Peter Mack.
Alas and alack, I’ve no Gerbils to share,
No haiku, no cosplay pictures to bear
Witness for the genius that is Shaenon Garrity
Oh woe! this is soul-crushing disparity
In my own humble way I give thanks for the pleasure
Of reading this calamitous webcomicing treasure
In all of my years of webcomic exposure
I’ve not read a comic with such lofty composure
As this one lay before me, which I have spurn’d before
But now in my maturity, I so greatly adore
And now it is finished in the span of a week,
And thus my future reading looks bleak
For what can compare to this unrivall’d comic?
How will I survive without cherish’d NARBONIC?
Thank you, Peter! I feel slightly less of a loser now. Um, sorry I stopped drawing the comic.
I like the evil(heart) one!
That circular sticker looks to be the one that best describes the advertised comic, and also the one that would look most nifty when made into a badge!
Also, it seems a little odd that ANTONIO SMITH, FORENSIC LINGUIST recieves this much representation in early Narbonic merchandise considering how seldom he appears in the comic after his introductory arc.
Finally, I for one welcome the return of “C++ Made Difficult”, quite possibly the funniest background detail you’ve ever written.
“C++ Made Difficult”: He needs a manual for that? I thought that came naturally…. What are the other two books in that stack? I can’t quite make them out….
(Back from a multi-day disconnection….)
The “Hasta Los Gerbils Siempre” is one of my favorite things what every came out of Narbonic. It’s twisted, subtle, and a cool graphic design to boot.
If I asked my wife to get me that on a t-shirt for Christmas, she’d tell me I’m an idiot. Then she would get me the @#$in’ shirt. She loves me, I know not why. Lord knows I don’t deserve it.
While Tristram Shandy is fresh in our minds, I would like to share something with you all: the mocking song that the Narbonics Research Twelve sang at their valiant last stand.
(To the tune of Lillibullero: The tune and lyrics)
Poor Mister Dave forever will pine –
(Gerbil Rebellion, pity the man!)
Till he can sleep with Seven of Nine –
Peeks at those pics whenever he can!
CHORUS:
Fight the power, Gerbil Rebellion,
Gerbil Rebellion, blow ’em away!
Win the hour, Gerbil Rebellion,
Gerbil Rebellion, carry the day!
Mell is a gal who can’t take a joke,
Lives in a state of partial undress –
Her prom date was made by Heckler and Koch,
Melody Kelly, oh, what a mess!
CHORUS
Although her brain is stuck in her teens,
Helen B. Narbon likes pain and whips.
And as we watch, she’s splitting her jeans –
All of those ribs have gone to her hips!
CHORUS
And a quick correction for meter: the third line of the chorus should be “Win the hour, fellow gerbils.”
Ok, I have a little trouble with the translation of the last one. Literally, Until the Gerbils forever? Does this relate to the World domination by Gerbils and that they rule forever, or is this more of a wistful kind of thing, like Until the Gerbils will forever run free? With the author’s (How about that Shannon, you’re now an author!) description of looking kind of like Che Gueverra, this may be the appropriate one. Kind of like free the Gerbil 10.. 9.. 7.. (and so on).
Or do I have my latin confused?
Ooops, Shaenon, I misspelled your name above. Mea Culpa.
Much-belated Big Freakin’ ™ Gun count: 6
Much-belated linguistic note: In the last letter that Che Gueverra wrote to Fidel Castro before Che was killed, he ended it with the line, “Hasta la victoria siempre”, which is Spanish for “Until victory, forever”.
Years later, but I want to add two tips about the che-gerbil image:
1. “Hasta la victoria” is often typed under the image of Che in both t-shirts and flags.
2. “Hasta los gerbils” has a striking resemblance with “Hasta los huevos” (often pronounced like “güevos”), a popular sentence you better not say in polite company.