Links:  a requirement for anyone who has a website (it's in the charter)

Here's the deal.  Below are the what-is/what-not of the websites that I visit regularly or that caught my attention. For flavor or just the sake of being different, I've painted them.  Click the Picture to visit the site.

  I don't pimp very many webcomics (as is required of any online artist), but I really cannot express the sheer volume of joy I get from reading about the adventures of a ninja who happens to be a doctor that's friends with the clone of Benjamin Franklin and who also rides a dinosaur and has a gorilla for a secretary.  Words fail me.  Check out the comic.

The Jenniverse is an interesting place.  Someone pointed it out to me when I posted an idea/premise that was very similar to something that this site's creator, Jennifer Diane Reitz, posted earlier this year.  And thus, after looking at the site, I realized that in an alternate universe the Jenniverse is Head Injury Theater...sort of.   It would have to be a strange alternate universe ruled by manga and all things cute, but I still stand by that little statement.  She's got all sorts of stuff coming from all sorts of directions:  Lots of Art, Comics, games, and talk of transgenderism abound in the galaxy of Jenny.  You might not dig all of it and it might not update as much as it should, but it's definitely something to check out.  Plus she's got her OWN miniature game that totally doesn't require that you buy miniatures.  As Batman says, nothing is original.  Damn it.  I'm just glad it's a totally nutty coincidence.  Really.  It's not like I'm plotting to jump out and eat her brain next Friday or anything.  Nope.  Not planning that at all.

Dear Lord...the radio isn't dead, it's just gone online.  What Clear Channel has destroyed, Sanctuary Radio has resurrected and made available to anyone who dares to listen.  Since I discovered it a little while back I haven't been able to turn it off.  I'm a little too young to enjoy some of the more retro songs, but by all that's holy they won't stop playing songs that make me want to take over the world (which means they rock me not unlike the Casbah).  They've got an active rotation of over 7,000 songs, so it's actually possible to listen to it for more than an hour and NOT hear the same thing three times (unlike most radio stations these days).  It's commercial free (and "free" in general) so donate if you can.  It's projects like these that I hope survive.  Because they need to.  And they bring me joy.

Trivia Time:  Just so you know, this is what I listen to while I paint these days. 

     Ryan Estrada brings me lots of joy.  He also fills me with ambition.  Maybe it's the insane challenges he accepts, or just his dedication to pull them off successfully.  Maybe it's his snazzy haircut.  All he touches turns to gold and, if rumors are to be believed, he craps candy and silver coins.  If you like reading comics and want so see someone who actually pulls off seeming like a real person on the Internet, check him out.  This link description is intentionally vague so that you check him out.  (I'm subtle, aren't I?)

   When I think of websites similar to mine that are infinitely better, X-Entertainment always springs to mind.  In fact, the original incarnation of this site (which did nothing but review/mock old movies) was nothing if not a tribute (read:  rip-off) to X-E.   He also celebrates Halloween like his life depended on it....which I can completely dig/relate to.  Click HERE to see his site that reviews old toys, video games, movies, commercials, and any thing and everything.   On a side note, while I won't explain the giant peanut, you can see why I drew him as a zombie with an umbrella by clicking HERE. (Did I mention he also likes The Creature from the Black Lagoon?)

  Amber Forever is basically a site detailing the adventures of one guy picking on pedophiles on the internet by pretending to be a young girl.  It's legitimately entertaining and more than a little sick (as such it may or may not be safe for work, depending).  It's from K. Thor Jensen, a guy whose online adventures I've been checking out for years now.  His stuff (art and more) is pretty killer and he's dangerously real, if that actually means anything to you.  You can check it all out by clicking HERE...I really recommend taking a look in the "Old Archives" section.

Why is it I can't feel but help feel like a total KeenToons WHORE by having both links to Bonus Stage and Space Tree on my far too short links page?  Bonus Stage is an animated series about...well it was about the zany adventures of two guys who shared a house....and then the creative juices (don't ask) involved exploded or something and now it's sort of plot driven with the cast trapped in space while...Wait.  I can't explain this.  It's awesome.  Take a look.  Right now there are over 70 episodes and, as the site says, about 9 hours of animated Flash entertainment.

Update as of August 2006:  Why am I surprised this site stopped updating?  There's a lot of drama involved, so check out their forum for the skinny.

  Bob Heffner's got a killer site.  There's not much to it, but what it does have is EVERY SINGLE one of the cards from Topps' "Dinosaurs Attack!" card series scanned, front and back.  If you don't know what that means, then it's probably for the best.  If you're curious check it out, or check out my review of the most violent depraved card set marketed to children that I've ever seen.  The review is found HERE, for the brave, curious, or just plain dino-crazed.

"Do you like Giant Lizards?  Sure, we all do."  Godzilla Stomp is one of the definitive Godzilla Fan-sites floating around on the internet.  Filled with miles and miles of useless but vital Godzilla trivia (from Godzilla films never made, like Godzilla Versus Zombie-Ghost Godzilla, to the name of that random octopus that King Kong fights in King Kong Vs. Godzilla) to other assorted madness, Godzilla Stomp is a pretty happening site when you really need to hunt down anything Godzilla-related.  They've also got a forum that's populated with the nuttiest Kaiju fanboys/girls that I've ever seen....which is both a very good and a very bad thing. Just because this website description needs to say Godzilla a few more times:  Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla, Godzilla.  :whew:  Check it out when you're in need of giant radioactive lizardly love.

Give this man $50,000 or he will devour this bunny in cold blood with hollandaise sauce.  :)

Update:  Whether it's a scam or the guy was literally stopped from raising funds is anybody's guess...all I know is that the amount he was asking for has changed and the deadline was postponed until next year.  Lame.  :(

Lois Lane is a slut.  Superman only dates women with the initials L.L.  (That includes that mermaid he married and had a kid with)  Jimmy Olsen turns into: a gorilla, a woman, a werewolf, GIANT TURTLE, and so many other goofy things.  What the hell am I talking about? What I try to do with bad movies, this guy (and his followers) does with old Superman comics.  You haven't lived until you've seen the crazy crap that D.C. Comics pulled during the 1960's and beyond.  This website is really a tribute to out of context goofy comic book covers, and God bless them for it.

One of the greatest places to find people still obsessing about pin-ups of yesteryear, this retro-obsessed website is great for keeping you entertained.  While it helps to be in your thirties or older to get ALL the references, their website still kicks my ass.  Make sure you check out their crazy "Top 100" lists, from sexiest Cartoon Babes to Monsters to Giant Gorillas to God-knows what else.  You know you want to get out of here.  Well, screw you. Go. 

Kingdom of Loathing is an online game that makes fun of almost everything.  From tearing into D&D fanatics to openly mocking internet lingo, it's a pretty snazzy fun waste of time. KOL is filled with long item-searching quests, exotic enemies (including crossdressers and one pissed off BonerDagon), and a very strange PVP system. Did I mentioned it's also crazily addictive?  My addiction to the game and its forum is the reason behind the KOL art section.  Oh, and have I mentioned that it's a text-based online game starring stick figures and all the booze you can drink?   Seriously, how many games teach you how to mix your own drinks? 

Is Bob the Angry Flower a funny webcomic?  The answer is: eventually.  Both highbrow and lowbrow, Bob is all about one flower who lives with a fetus and a piece of driftwood....and somehow the comic isn't really about that.  It's about...well, the easiest answer is SCIENCE (as in, she blinded me with).  Bob's blinded with science and uses cloning, time travel, principles of physics that I've never heard of, etc. in ways that any normal human being would (like creating beer, for instance).  It took me some time to get hooked, but once...Never mind.  I suck at explaining what entertains me.  Just take a look sometime.  It brings me joy.

I'm a sucker for stupid webtoons.  This one's one of the strangest, but it's funny in a half-sitcom half-Dada half what-the-hell (I'm aware that's 1.5 a webtoon) way that makes me keep coming back.  I'm not calling this Art and I'm not calling this intelligent.  Whatever it is, it's fairly funny.  Oh and it's a webtoon about a Tree that flies around in Space....or something. I don't know anymore.  Go away. 

"Journey into History" is a webcomic about reviewing webcomics.  How's that for web savvy?  The comic's mission? "We will review whatever crappy crappy webcomic that you submit."  That's right.  Maybe it's not their main goal but Microsoft Paint nightmares to miles and miles of filthy fecal jokes sometimes grace the table of the site.  Sure, they review good stuff too...but it's the only place that proudly advertises that they'll review crap.  Somehow I find that so very hardcore.

Update as of September 2005:  Bob's taking a break from reviewing webcomics right now.  He still rocks though.

www.explodingdog.com is a special kind of website.  One guy, one style of Art.  He's been doing it for years and years and he's got the right attitude for an artist who's got the bulk of his stuff online.  Take a look at his "questions people ask me" section.  Did I mention that he's got the best Stick figures around?

I go to Cruel.com on a fairly regular basis.  The content's kind of erratic, but that's part of it's charm.  When you're tired of Fark's "shotgun" approach to finding links online, check out Cruel's...um..effective ninja strike...or something. Point is, this website's been around a long time and invariably finds the sickest of the sick for you.  Maybe.

The Internet Movie Database is both my Jesus and my Judas.  It's quite literally the largest database (I've seen) that lets you easily cross-reference who's in what and who's directing what these days.  Perfect for cheating at "6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon."  The downside?  The User Comments and the User Rating.  II've seen monkeys write better reviews, more accurate movie descriptions, and take themselves less seriously.   "I don't know why people keep saying it was terrible.  Blair Witch 2 r0x0red by s0x0rs."  :sigh: The best part is that recently it's been proven that some film's creators and staff have been writing comments and reviews for their own crappy movies.  Don't ask me why I drew the IMDB name on a Pyramid. I still don't know.

A Note on Links:

I really don't go for the whole "Link exchange" game.  Still, you've got to help a brother out for a brother to help you out so that's where things get sticky.  If your site is something groovy, it'll get one of the above doodles and a place amongst the others.   If it's not my cup of tea, well. Umm. I don't know.  Maybe I should go the "Bob the Angry Flower" route and create a dumping ground for random websites.  Still, that's kinda tacky, so I don't know.  We'll be in touch.