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Evil Geniuses In A Nutshell
What's to Like? When he's on, he's really on. Some of the strips in here are laugh-out-loud funny. Even when it's merely amusing, Illiad captures elements of the real world in their twisted glories. Who can't put real names to half of the personalities running around in his little experiment?
There's Mike, a network engineer, forced to choose a server OS based on mascot issues. AJ, the designer, is torn between his feelings for Miranda and his inability to relate to anything organic -- when he's not debating a caffeine-induced hallucination. Greg, head of tech support, can't believe his customers questions. Pitr, coder extraodinaire, eagerly awaits his recognition as an Evil Genius. Stef, marketing weenie, is haunted by his poor Quake performance and his inability to make any progress with Miranda. Miranda, equal parts geek and goddess, finds herself the equal of the male techs, but cannot quite understand their unique brand of communication. On the far side of reality are the Dust Puppy (an intelligent, innocent, and adorable ball of that stuff you ought to clean out of your server -- but with feet) and Erwin, an AI who's switched bodies more than Cher.
On his best days, Illiad reads like a combination of Doonesbury and Bloom County, with the requisite Open Source flavor. Linux usually comes out ahead and Microsoft way behind, though occasionally the situation's reversed. (Insert photo of Alan Cox reeling from sunlight after the MS Terminator steals his sunglasses). That's not to say that sacred penguins don't make good hamburger. (Once the boss approves migrating the servers to Linux, what do you do? Answer -- Nerf Gun duels to determine whose pet distribution is best.)
What's to Consider? As UFies know, Illiad's Sunday comics are often topical. Remember eBay's spate of availability problems? ESR at Microsoft last summer? If so, you'll catch on pretty quickly. If not, you'll just have to scratch your head and keep reading. (There's also one comic missing the last panel on the top of page 18. If you're reading this, though, you'll find the proper punchline here.) For the purists, note that some strips appear in topic-related sections, not chronological order. That serves to bring out more of the subtle humor, in my opinion.
Also, Illiad's song parodies provoke mixed reactions. A lyricist, he's not, though his Gap parody hits squarely between the eyes. Illiad's better at the episodic stuff -- see his Star Wars storyline from the last book, or the strange tale of the One True Ping. Thankfully, the all-singing, all-dancing shorts are kept to a minimum.
The Summary A potent mixture of wry social commentary, high technology, cynicism that bites back, and a good dose of innocence that really does win out in the end, if you can put this book down for very long, you're either playing Quake or utterly humorless. Submit to your inner Evil Genius, and let the rest of the world wonder why you're grinning so much. (And if you're really evil, you won't loan out your copy.)Purchase this book at ThinkGeek.
Table of Contents- Preface -- Eric S. Raymond
- Introduction -- Illiad
- The Comics
You know, these comprehensive lists of "what we'll see" are becoming common enough that I think they now deserve a self-mention.
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grappler
Vidi, Vici, Veni
Anybody else notice the moon in this strip? :-)
The Divine Creatrix in a Mortal Shell that stays Crunchy in Milk
The House Between - Original Sci-Fi Series
wow, thats a good lesson on why you should ALWAY PREVIEW.
Charles Schultz
"Selling out" was practically invented by the Peanuts franchise (Snoppy's image is on everything; a buddy of mine has a great "Joe Hacker" T-shirt, for example) but you will never find a strip with more heart.
That said, Calvin & Hobbes was a great strip for the run that it had. I kind of wish BW would take another stab at it someday.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Between that and the weird psuedo-science chapter at the end of "The Dilbert Future", it looks like Scott Adams has spent whatever geek cred he ever had.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
I would say that the real irony is that you were modded up to (Score:4, Insightful), when your post contained absolutely no insight whatsoever. I'm sure all the /. trolls & karma whores are in awe of your technique. :)
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
He makes his ENTIRE collection of comics available freely over the net. Not free enough for you? Geeze who cares if he tries to make a little money on the side for his work?
I guess some whiners will never be happy though...
Finkployd
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Why do people resent the fact that Illiad is successful? I love it -- I enjoy User Friendly as a comic strip, and it's great to see an online comic artist actually supporting himself (and supporting himself well) on his work. It gives the rest of us hope, let me tell you...
The thing I've never understood about this kind of hate mail is that if you really dislike the strip, all you have to do is NOT GO TO USERFRIENDLY.ORG. It's not like Illiad spams the net with his strip or anything like that.
Perhaps you're just unable to allow other people to appreciate what you don't? Only explanation that makes sense to me...
I do my own comic strip. It's called Help Desk. Illiad is a success story that has encouraged a lot of us... even some of the online comic strip artists who don't like Illiad are still spurred by his success. More power to him!
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
Face it: you've been brainwashed by the politically correct movement. It's ok to make fun of stupid lusers in their back. Being stupid is a good reason to be laughed off. I've been laughed at for saying something stupid -- hell, I've dealt with it, I'm not a child.
Now, it's not ok to make fun of a handicapped person for instance. They can't do anything about it. Can you see the difference?
If Illiad suddenly started hawking Microsoft, plugging Microsoft on his strip, and the Dust Puppy suddenly appeared on Microsoft software boxes, that would be selling out.
I don't see what's wrong with Illiad merchandising his strip. It is, after all, his, and if he wants to license Pitr out to companies, what's wrong with it?
Why do people resent success? Illiad worked pretty hard to get where he is today, why are you dragging him down for it?
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
What exactly did you intend to mod him down for? Expressing a valid opinion? I don't remember that one being on the moderation options. What you are admitting is that you were planning on abusing your moderator points to damage someone whose opinion you disagreed with.
What's this about him having to sellout to keep his people paid? I mean, cry me a river. Just look at Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance fame, and he does employ a staff of people to help him run the site and his business. I don't think he's having a problem getting by on banner ads, t-shirts, and book sales. The 30 or so other web cartoonist I read as part of my day don't seem to be having any trouble supporting theirselves economically. When you get as big as Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance, David Simpson of Ozy and Millie, Bill Holbrook of Kevin and Kell, or Scott Kurtz of PVP, book sales and ad banners seem to be more than enough to keep yourself solvent. That doesn't even count the many popular artists who don't have anything beyond banner ads to sponsor themselves, such as Zach Stroum of Etherlife, Gabriel and Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade, and Maritza Campos of College Roomies from Hell! -- all of whom are either college students or fully employed and do their strips as hobbies.
While I still find User Friendly mostly funny and still read it regularly, I lost a lot of respect for Illiad when I came across UF Media. The image he puts for on the site is one of someone whoring themselves out to corporate sponsorship. Illiad doesn't seem content with just selling t-shirts and books directly. He is actively calling to have his characters used as logos to curry favor with his fans for companies like SuSE. He wants the airline commercial spots, the suction cup animals, and co-branded food that syndicated sell-outs like Garfield have engendered.
I think this strip from Penny Arcade illustrates the opinions that many of us have for his ethics and credibility, in spite of or along with our opinions of his work on its own. It hurts his credibility because corporate sponsorship and co-branding are often the vicious monetary cycle that keeps comics going in newspapers long after they stopped being funny or original and sometimes even long after the creator of the strip has died. It's that we object to.
P.S. Slashdot readers should hopefully get a kick out of this strip. Just a friendly reminder for when talking to people who don't read Slashdot.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
I guess I'll admit to enjoying UF and even (gasp) owning both books. Apparently this makes me a miscreant or a fallen angel or something. But I really can't see getting worked up to defend the strip. Nor can I see spending so much energy venting over it, either. There are things that get my blood boiling -- such as watching the race between governments and corporations to be the first to completely strip us of human dignity -- but a comic strip just doesn't make muster.
I simply don't have the time or energy to love or hate UF, or any strip, that much.
I suppose it's obvious how this thread has highlit the dangerous fanatic tendencies of the slashdot readership. We all too easily veer off into quasi-religious debate over topics of dubious significance. Far be it from me to intone "Get a life", but an emergency helping of perspective might be in order.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach
It is usually Greg who had halucinations of the large cola can. (Though AJ did once) And is it me, or did Greg get radically made over somewhere aroung the end of the first year, after the Dustpuppy rescued him from MS detox?
UF rocks! Been a fan since (almost) day one. Remember when Cobb and Stef were forced to try to say ethical?
Tom
Reality does not happen until you analyze the dots. -Don DeLillo (Underworld)
I keep seeing Penny Arcade offered as a much more funny, better comic, even on the new UF message boards. In fact, I followed your link and read the two dozen or so comics up to today.
I don't think Penny Arcade is funny.
Okay... I'm not telling you that it *isn't* funny, or that UF is better, but I just don't get any laughs from it.
Maybe it's because I started an ISP in '94, and the last real video game I played was Apple Panic (okay, a slight exaggeration, but not much). What it boils down to is that I had no idea who "Looking Glass" was (the topic of the current strip), and had never heard of "Thief" or "System Shock 2". Dumb tech-support calls, on the other hand, I've had plenty of experience with.
Oh yeah, don't forget to mod me down since disliking UF isn't allowed on Slashdot.
Actually, I've gotten the idea that Rob, Hemos and gang *really* dislike User Friendly for some reason. They've started to make comments on "Geeks in Space", and then stopped themselves, and there was some other thing that I noticed. Anybody know what's up with the apparant hatred between the camps, or is it not there?
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Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
The (Note to IDG lawyers : fictional) character Pitr is often found reading a (Note to IDG lawyers : also fictional) book called 'Evil Geniuses for Dummies'. As we all know a certain publisher is (Note to IDG lawyers : allegedly) insanely protective of the name of a particular series of books bearing that series title. But since nice friendly O'Reilly are publishing this, they can use the title of an equally well-known range of computer books... their own Nutshell series.
And everyone knows (Note to IDG lawyers : in my opinion) how much more informative Nutshell books are than the 'For Dummies' series anyway...
Pax,
White Rabbit +++ Divide by Cucumber Error ++
free experimental electronic music netlabel at www.viablehybrid.com
I don't want to knock the book at all, but have no compunctions about lambasting this review ;-)
My [non-techie] wife found it amusing, which is unusual for geek humour. I liked it, but since I check User Friendly almost daily, I didn't see anything I hadn't seen before.
Correction: there is a new joke in the book, and it is the book. This is an O'Reilly "In a Nutshell" book, right down to the Colophon: "The animal on the cover is a Dust Puppy". I can't help but think that if IDG weren't such assholes about their trademarks, this could just as well have been "Evil Geniuses for Dummies".
Thanks to the reviewer for pointing out the missing text in the Windows refund storyline. I didn't get it, and didn't think to check the website to see if the print version was accurate.
Isn't it Mike who is haunted by the giant cola can? The reviewer says it's AJ, but I'm pretty sure it's not.
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At the time of writing, this is a first post.
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E_NOSIG
UF used to be somewhat amusing for a little while, then I realized "Hey, they did this strip already.. 2000 times."
Not to mention the UFMedia crap.. has anyone taken a look at that? The way he just pimps out his work.. I mean, it's one thing if someone comes to you with an interest in mind, but when you start creating your media to target companies and get the almighty $, you lose a little something.
At least there's always Penny Arcade.
Oh yeah, don't forget to mod me down since disliking UF isn't allowed on Slashdot. :| Loved how the review didn't have a "You won't like.." section to it like some normally do.
BilldaCat
While I don't really care for UF as much as I used to, it's still nice to see an online comic getting some mainstream publishing so that non-onliners can even pick it up. I think the biggest problem today with online comics that are published in bookform is that they are not mainstream, but self-published or published by small houses like Plan Nine. I'd love to be able to walk into my local Barnes&Noble and pick up a copy of Goats, PVP, PLIF, or GPF.
--------- Beware the dragon, for you are crunchy and good with ketchup.
While both in the same vein humor-wise, only the best of UF is as good at the worst of BOFH. To compare it to a broader range of humor in the same medium, Garfield and Cathy are more entertaining than UF, even if all three are not funny. I get a bigger chuckle reading Mark Trail, Judge Parker, and Prince Valiant, and they aren't even supposed to be amusing.
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E2 IN2 IE?
I'm just suprised at all negative reactions from this post. I mean, I know a lot of people who don't care for User Friendly the comic strip. I know a few people who really dislike some of the jokes Illiad tells. But I never expected this amount of heat concerning Illiad's strip... it really does leave me feeling bewildered.
:)
Glad you like Help Desk... you'll be happy to know I have no plans to license my characters out to computer companies.
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
First off, let me save a lot of quoting and redundant responses by asking this: Where do you get off assuming that just because the poster you responded to doesn't like User Friendly that they are a Windows bigot? You are demonstrating first-hand the poster's assertions about User Friendly's problem being with it's fans, and you're giving fellow Linux users a bad reputation, especially with that "burn in NT hell" line.
A bit of jealousy perhaps? We never hear about "Suprise, Suprise. With the sale of new distributions Linus is once again bringing his sub-standard kernel to the universe". Why is that? Is it because he makes no money off of Linux and Illiad does? Money != bad.
That's a total non-issue. Comic strip artists like Pete Abrams of Sluggy Freelance do not have this issue because they handle marketing in a tasteful manner, unlike Illiad's crass "branding" web site. Bill Watterson of Calvin and Hobbes fame once wrote an article in his 10th anniversary special book about how marketing in the manner Illiad is doing devalues and cheapens the art of the strip. Illiad can only hope to be half the comic strip artist that Bill Watterson was.
Audiences can not be commodized, product can.
Ah, but is that really true? Illiad has a fanatically loyal following of techie fans. Illiad is selling the ability for companies like SuSE to target and market to his audience by using his branded characters. In effect, Illiad is selling his audience to interested companies. Of course, this is just dithering about semantics, so I'll leave it at that.
First of all, since when has CARTOONS been considered art? It's COMEDY, by definition it's going to be formulaic, get over it. If you're looking for high-brow technical humor read some April 1st RFCs or something.
My, my. It's a sad commentary when a fan of an artistic media doesn't even recognize it as art. Perhaps your satisfaction with sit-com style formulae has stagnated your appreciation of what truly innovative and creative artwork and comedy should be.
Once again, I refer to Bill Watterson's 10th anniversary Calvin and Hobbes book on issues of the artform of comics. The essay there, which delves into the history of the artform before it became wedged into its current limited panel layout and forced schtick format is very educational.
The rich and gentle satire of politics and day to day living, Pogo, and it's modern day successor, Ozy and Millie, certainly qualify as a some of the best of the 20th century. Who can deny that the Sandman series of graphic novels are art? Certainly not the people who awarded it the Hugo award for Science Fiction and Fantasy. Perhaps you should pick up the latest offering, The Dream Hunters, which features a return of Neil Gaiman's strong evocative writing with Yoshitaka Amano's etherial, otherworldy artwork narrating the tale. Then you may still attempt to deny to the world that comics are art.
Just because User Friendly and many syndicated sellouts like Garfield and Dilbert seem increasingly incapable of producing art and non-formulaic humor as their profits from merchandising increase, don't assume that comics cannot be art. You are only appreciating the most bastardised version of it.
And this would prove what? You might has well have said "The first person that compares Tux to MS Bob gets a sticker"
That makes absolutely no sense. It's obvious you aren't familiar with the character Opus from Bloom Count or you'd be able to see the ways in which the Dust Puppy and he share many, many similar personality traits. The Dust Puppy is at best a tribute to and at worst a rip-off of Opus.
Jezus...what did they do to you to rip your sense of humour out so completely?
Perhaps, he just doesn't think that all comedy by definition should be formulaic as you do. Making fun of something can be funny. Making fun of someone making fun of something rarely is.
The keys to comedy are spontaneity, creativity, timing, and relevance to the audience. In the world of comic strips, #1 and #3 are usually handled in the layout and pacing of when certain lines happen, with the comedic twist almost always happening in the last panel. User Friendly well appreciates its market and has #4 well in hand.
It's #2, creativity, that User Friendly is sometimes seen as lacking in. This is much the same as Odie getting punted off a table by Garfield or Dilbert's boss saying something really stupid. They're running gags that have been run into the ground. Since you think all humor should be formulaic, you probably don't have an appreciation for the importance of this. However, those of us who do see the complete lack of creativity in a spoof of a spoof.
Do some exploring. There are plenty of good web comics that break the formulaic mold. I read about 30 or so of them a day. It shouldn't be hard to find one to match your tastes that is better than UF.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Try BigPanda.net for a shifting list of almost all independent web-comics.. and if you want to customize a page to view some of your favorites try Mycomix.Toonscape.com.. -They have permission from a lot of online cartoonists (independent) to post strips.. including PopeAlien.Comics
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air and light and time and space
before you start making those accusations. It's only fair.
After all, companies that license UF characters need to know what they're getting into. It's not like Illiad keeps his opinions to himself, or anything.
Here's another example: I do a comic strip on my own (not to plug my own strip, but hey, the opportunities there) called Help Desk. Help Desk is a member of Keenspot, a (consortium? collective?) group of online comics that sort of pool our resources (and audiences). We now use banner advertising, and we've recently switched over to Sonar/Doubleclick ads (I protested. I was overruled. That's life.)
I'll be doing a Doubleclick parody in a month or so. I'm planning on making it reasonably vicious. Doubleclick might not like it. Tough.
The only way not to be endanger of compromise is to not try and make any money at all off anything you do. As soon as you try and make any kind of living off your work, you compromise. It's unavoidable. I didn't used to display banner ads, but I do now. That's certainly a compromise. I don't quite think it's selling out.
Illiad is successful enough that he'd have leverage when it comes to licensing. I doubt very much a sotware company is going to try and bring out the heavies on him -- he's got enough of an audience so that if he parodied them on it, they'd be pretty embarrassed.
So again, I feel the need to say, don't prejudge the guy.
Eviscerati.Org: All Hail the Eviscerati
Three steps to becoming an evil genius
======================================
1) Speak with an Eastern European Accent
["Checkski"]
2) Never Smile
["Checkski"]
3) Bring huge corporation selling crappy software to it's knees, by accusing it of monopolistic practices
["Hmmm - Am thinkink is not possible to do two and three at the same time!"]
Remember kids! Guns don't kill people - Americans kill people.
What is the deal with the pasting of Signal11's User Info in the comments of every story?
More On-the-Current-Topic though, I was always a sluggy diehard and knew of no other decent online comics until I was visiting a friend as he was catching up with old UF strips.
Note: I am still a sluggy diehard, I'm even eating with Pete at DragonCon. Every once on a while, though, I remember the dust puppy and go back for some user friendly love.
Be a moderator, not a brick.
Actually, Kurt's a writer, not an artist. I know because he's my stepbrother (yes, really). "Marvels" is my personal favorite work of his. And the story about the newspaper clipping in Astro City #2 is in fact true...
/. revolution fifteen years later....
ObUselessTrivia: back in 1982 when I was 12, I lived for a year with my father and stepmother (Kurt's mom, who is now battling breast cancer, more or less successfully) in none other than Acton, MA, out by Nagog Pond. For a while, first Kurt, then one of his sisters lived downstairs as well (this was around the time he was writing for Power Man & Iron Fist). To think that if only I'd stayed, I could have joined the
I use Macs for work, Linux for education, and Windows for cardplaying.
This is a book Brain would like.
Are you thinking what I'm thinking? I think so, Brain, but where are we going to find leather pants in our size?
-Frijoles-
In a recent conversation, someone said, "The biggest problem with User Friendly is the UFies." This is true to a certain degree. Illiad is surrounded by sycophants and people who just *love* his work. Who would've thought? A fan club for a scene whore who regularly fishes with Slashdot link-bait. The UF'ies will probably attack me here, but I really don't care. They'll talk about how Illiad is very, very talented, and that it's not about the art. Well, fuck that. If it's not about the art, he should be writing short stories.
User Friendly is not good art, it's not good writing, and people need to give up their infatuation for a production that is *beyond* formulaic. The first person that compares Dust Puppy to Opus from Bloom County gets a sticker.
User Friendly is also mighty derivative, I'll tell you what. User Friendly spoofs spoofs, and dammit, that just ain't funny.
So, I say these things - Why am I posting as Anonymous Coward? Because if I logged in with my real account, there would be a goddamned UFie Jihad on me and the place I work.
Interesting idea. How would it work out? Would the jocks pretend to be geeks to be cool, but still go around beating up geeks?
:)
Will teenagers who want to be diferent, drop out of school, and work at McDonalds? Will we see fine restaruants selling Pizza and Jolt? Street gangs fighting about which is best, Perl or Python?
This is begining to sound like a perticular episode of "Sliders" actually
Syllable : It's an Operating System