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Ph.D Webcomic Gets Adapted Into Feature Film
Technically Inept writes with the lead paragraph from a report at Comics Alliance: "To the best of my knowledge, Jorge Cham's Piled Higher and Deeper (better known as PhD Comics) is the first webcomic to be adapted into a feature-length film. After months spent on a college campus screening tour, Piled Higher and Deeper: The Movie is finally available for purchase and streaming. And, like its comic inspiration, the PhD pokes fun at the frustrations of graduate students, those noble folks who enter academia with dreams of changing the world and inspiring young minds, only to be thwarted by indifferent professors, lazy undergrads and the ever-present fear that they'll never graduate." The short review linked makes this sound like a very watchable movie.
Richard is the man. Would make one hell of a movie.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
According to the Hollywood rumor sites, XKCD is held up because Michael Bay can't decide who looks better in a hat, Brad Pitt or Ashton Kutcher.
I saw this at a screening in March, and it was very good. The references to the comics would be lost on non-readers, but the movie is enjoyable even without them.
You forgot Pokey, you insensitive clod!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
You can access a streaming version of Piled Higher and Deeper: The Movie for $10
Read More: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/04/19/phd-comics-the-movie-video/#ixzz1spIbl05I
For one thing, they're using that Tynt garbage. For another, that's twice the price of, say, an iTunes or Google Play rental.
I figured it was because Michael Bay couldn't decide whether to put in 7 or 8 explosions in the scene based on a Valentine's Day comic.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I usually find amazing superpowers to be the best of my check daily webcomics.
There is a South Korean movie based on a popular webcomic here that was released last year called Moss.
Meh. Can't you enjoy all 6 for their existent value, rather than smugly putting the others down or pompously elevating your preferred tastes?
Are you kidding? xkcd is total shit. Let me sum it up for you: whimsical stick figures white knighting on the internet!!!!! But with pop culture references!!!!! LOLOLOLOL. Penny Arcade is better, but the blogs are frequently better than the actual strips. PhD comics is alright, but it's not exactly what I'd call great.
Let me introduce you to a real webcomic: The Parking Lot is Full.
Honorable mention to Gone with the Blastwave, Sexy Losers, and Perry Bible Fellowship, even though PBF is a pretty much a ripoff of PLIF. Still, it ripped off the best, so it gets an honorable mention.
If you're into insipid, warmed-over Monty Python references and "internet culture", then SMBC is probably what you're looking for. It's alright. It's shitloads better than xkcd, at least. And there's no desperate, low self-esteem white-knighting, which is a huge bonus. There's also Bob the Angry Flower, if you crave nerd humor that's got more substance than someone making fucking graphs.
I could mention a few others, but I was never that big a fan of Ghastly's Ghastly Comic (maybe you need to be a weeaboo to really love tentacle rape jokes... and Sexy Losers did it all first). There's also Subnormality, if you don't mind preachy, TL;DR strips about the totally wacky and off-the-wall adventures of a sphinx that -- get this -- likes to EAT PEOPLE!!!! LOL. What craziness!
But, really, xkcd is total shit.
My current ones are menagea3.net and megatokyo.com
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
PhD comics is about grad school. In grad school you're supposed to learn how to learn what you need to know. If you lack skills when you come out, it's because you failed.
Let me introduce you to a real webcomic: The Parking Lot is Full [courageunfettered.com].
According to the site, it hasn't been published since 2002.
I'm going to watch it, but as an amateur filmmaker, I'm bracing myself after looking at its imdb listing here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2066040/ ... The actors are all not real actors. I expect it's going to be silly in a painful way. The idea behind it is great, but, for the major roles at least, you can easily find actors willing to work for free who are worlds more believable than some lab rats trying to make fun of themselves.
Brad pitt's former role as Tyler Durden makes him suitable to play Hat Guy.
The only difference is head wear.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
As a grad-student that just defended I say,
$10 for streaming this? Grad-Students aren't made of money.
People have different tastes than me and all their tastes are wrong!
I summarized your post.
Penny Arcade would be the most difficult since it frequently rails against the tyranny of a causal universe.
Gunnerkrigg Court, Freefall, or Digger.
Can't you enjoy all 6 for their existent value
Can't you just accept an opinion?
...the Girl Genius web comic, it's from Studio Foglio. There are not many films in the steampunk style, though - maybe Spielberg could give it a fair rendition.
Shameless plug.
Girl Genius forever! I love you, Agatha!
No. No more adaptions. GG is one of my favorite things in the universe. Keep that cesspit Hollywood far away from it.
How about they write movie scripts with original ideas that fit a movie form and structure?
So, wait, what are you selling again?
Didn't one of the Occupy guys have a degree in puppetry?
Not exactly real in the past decade.
It sound to me like someone needs to learn the difference between objectivity and subjectivity. Google and read about them thoroughly.
Puppeteers can make a lot of money. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Muppets
I believe Undercover Brother was technically the first.
Hipsters man. Into old lame crap and all about how cool it is. Despite it being actual, old, lame, crap. Its like a hipster in a bar at the juke box.
At least my bike has gears. Oh, and brakes. Silly hipsters.
I read a lot of webcomics and I always buy the printed compilations and other goodies. So I buying the DVD a good use of money to support the art of webcomics from which I derive much entertainment. That said, in my opinion, the movie was only so-so.
Pros:
1) hit many great jokes from the strip - the conference in hawaii, Tajel's hippie-ness, lab role stereotypes, trying to secure funding, etc.
2) I thought male leads more-or-less matched their hand-drawn counterparts
3) I also thought DVD extras were entertaining, particularly the commentary
Cons:
1) the main character had two different haircuts! Thought it was two different characters at one point! I found it really distracting.
2) sound quality was awful
3) acting for the main characters wasn't great, and was flat out awful for all the non-main characters
4) the female leads were not well matched to their hand-drawn counterparts. This is more of a nit-pick than a real flaw. The girl playing Tajel was gorgeous, though!
5) I thought Tajel & Slackenery's roles were marginalized, while Cecila's romance was given unnecessary prominence. I'll agree that Cecila and the unnamed main character are the "leads", but in the comic they don't dominate like they did in the movie.
Bottom line: the movie was made by students, with students, for students. And I think it showed. I don't recommend it for people who aren't fans of the strip. But for people who are fans of the strip I found it to be a good use of an hour, if for no other reason then seeing your favorite strips acted out live.
Yeah, they screened it at my university. In December, if I recall.
You probably need to look up "viva voce" in the context of thesis defence.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
I honestly don't understand the response article about webcomics can provoke. I can understand different people taking the opportunity to share comics they like -- indeed, it's kinda nice -- but why so many would want to talk down comics (without, evidently, producing anything better of their own) is lost on me. Maybe it's just trolling but so much effort seems to go into it. Kinda sad. Here's something nice about most webcomics : they're free. Which means people can enjoy those they like and do not have to visit those they don't. It also means that a comic like XKCD can and does link to a comic like Perry Bible Fellowship. Even so, thanks for the recommendations. For my part : I'm having other post grad friends over and we'll make a night watching the film. Congrats to PhD comics. Hope the film's as good as the comic.
Just a heads up, [NSFW] on menagea3
You're also a lot younger than them - experience tends to result in greater pay.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
The part that confuses me is that I got modded up.
The disturbing thing is that someone out there agrees with me, but only when I phrase it in the most trollish and asshole-ish way possible. Whoever you are, I appreciate your moderation points, but you need to take a step back and think about whether you've made the right decisions in your life. You're modding up an overt troll made by a bipolar poster who's off his medication and thinks it's hilariously funny to flame people on Slashdot. If you're OK with this, then I'm OK with it, too. But you need to think long and hard about this.
Cripes. A bleeeeeeping cooler-than-thou grad student *comic strip* snob.
May thy dissertation committee complain interminably about footnotes and papers you didn't cite, for ever and ever.
Oh please. Many engineering jobs are project-oriented, a new project is often like an entirely new job, only you don't have to interview again.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Why is the parent modded as flambait? It might be provocative, but everything in the post is essentially true. It notes webcomics of actual quality, and explains why xkcd is indeed bad nowadays.
The only weird thing about the post is, that I can't really tell whether it recommends Subnormality (even in passing) or not. For the record, it should not, Subnormality is preachy, excessively wordy (albeit well drawn) tl;dr misuse of the comics medium.
The part that confuses me is that I got modded up.
The disturbing thing is that someone out there agrees with me, but only when I phrase it in the most trollish and asshole-ish way possible.
There, you finally grasped the idea of Slashdot :-)
Not when it's a blatantly wrong opinion.
Me think these grad students have too much time on their hands.
"Get back to work!" says Prof. Smith
From what I've read of this film so far, the grad students involved would have been better served if they had worked with the experts in the field: the drama department.
Why is it that so many "geeks" think they're good at everything just because they're experts in one or two fields? No one is good at everything, so sometimes you need to swallow your pride, shelve your ego, and call in people who are experts.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
And it was just that: a web-comic turned into a movie. It felt like a lot jokes from the comic strips trying to be linked together by a poor story. I'm a PhD student myself, but I hardly ever found it funny, just lots of overused cliches about students. I don't think a lot of people in the audience liked it too. It's not THAT bad, but it's not something I'd ever watch again or recommend.
Only way to make it would be to clone Mr. Foglio, and have him animate it.
The part that confuses me is that I got modded up.
The disturbing thing is that someone out there agrees with me, but only when I phrase it in the most trollish and asshole-ish way possible.
There's trolling and there's trolling. The fact is that xkcd fans are basically like Ron Paul fans; you say something about their beloved comic / the Fed and they go ballistic. Are you really a troll, or are they simply a hoard of thin-skinned losers?
well in IT trades / tech schools are better college CS just covers the wrong areas and the higher up you go the less tech skills are learned so it's the schools teaching plans that failed as well as HR who says they want a BA, MA, PHD for a Trades / Tech job.
Errant Story, First Blood, Marry Me.
But... the future refused to change.
As a grad-student that just defended I say,
$10 for streaming this? Grad-Students aren't made of money.
You can get the alternate version at the link in my sig for free.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
That's no fun with xkcd Hat Guy.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
I want to do PhD comics, except all the characters are gritty guns-for-hire trying to get by in an apocalyptic hellscape. I think that's the treatment this cherished favorite deserves
Cowboys and Aliens, after Moss, I think, well before PhD. No?!?
That's probably the most boring trailer I've ever seen. I don't even feel like pirating the movie, let alone paying $10 for it.
I don't have a sig.
According to the Hollywood rumor sites, XKCD is held up because Michael Bay can't decide who looks better in a hat, Brad Pitt or Ashton Kutcher.
He definitely should make #311.
PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
Perry Bible Fellowship, even though PBF is a pretty much a ripoff of ["The Parking Lot is Full"]. Still, it ripped off the best, so it gets an honorable mention.
Are you actually serious, or have I just been trolled? I clicked the link, and they're nothing like each other in terms of humour or format (even allowing for the different artwork styles).
That "Ghastly's Ghastly Comic" one you linked to was actually pretty funny (if very NSFW)...
I actually noticed- and was pleased to see- that no-one had mentioned the once-geek-favourite "User Friendly" yet (until I opened my big mouth just then). As I once said elsewhere...
Aside from its "moderately-promising 14-year-old still showing too much influence from the Teach-Yourself-Cartooning book" drawing style, User Friendly has always relied on its geek-friendly subject matter and viewpoints to flatter the audience and obscure the fact that it's neither creative nor funny.
Here's a good example.
There's nothing creative about this. The "news" was a real-life item reported in many tech outlets about a year back [i.e. 2008]. The strip itself is just a lazy [and badly drawn] excuse to let the audience laugh again at that story- it adds nothing to it except an audience-pandering but uncreative aside."
Frankly, I'm guessing that User Friendly got popular because it came out at a time when web comics weren't ten-a-penny and was targeted towards (and pandered to) a geek audience at a time when this was still a novelty. If it had come out later, it would have been seen for what it is- mediocrely-drawn, and not actually that funny, clever or insightful in itself... and perhaps that's what happened?
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
But, really, xkcd is total shit.
Agree. So often I check the latest xkcd and am dumbstruck by how profoundly not funny it is. I think he should just let it die now (though I'm of course ignorant of important issues such as how much money it's raking in....)
You called it shit, and then described it as profound.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
There is a surprisingly high overlap between XKCD fans and Ron Paul fans.
I really would be surprised as xkcd seems to market itself to center-smug wing of liberalism, whereas Ron Paul markets itself to Ron Paul Ron Paul Ron Paul.
Managing to disparage both at once isn't the worth effort, as the gain in population of pissed-off-people is marginal, at best.
I'll try anything... for science.
Things like plot, prequels, and a particular "second" movie only make sense in a causal universe. PA presumably would have none of these.