Archive for July, 2009
14 items.
(4 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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Wow. It’s crazy how fast a month can go by when you’re trapped inside a glass jar. Yup, that’s where I’ve been — trapped in a glass jar. Thanks to the bad minifigs. Now the tables have turned, and the bad minifigs are receiving their just reward.
Unfortunately, I’m still a little maimed, so I will only be posting new comics three days a week for a little while.
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The Brick Side goes for a ride in a little yellow boat.
Well, summer is definitely upon us here in sunny South Carolina. But with all this global warming, that means that our typical 90′s weather is now intermixed with days that hit in low 70′s, too. When things err more toward the 90′s side, I try to make it out to the pool with a pile of LEGO bricks. Okay, that’s not true. I try to get out there on Saturday mornings before the sun bathers get out there so they don’t wonder who the weirdo is with the LEGO bricks and the camera. Blah blah blah something about a web comic. Blah blah blah built with LEGO. Blah blah blah you should check it out, it’s TheBrickSide.com. Blah blah blah grow up? Never.
Anyhow, all that to say I’ve got a few shots I’ve done at the pool and I haven’t dropped my camera in yet. Let’s hope it stays that way. 
(3 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
For reasons unbeknownst to me, at times my children will randomly begin begging for a particular type of cereal. For weeks on end.
This only stops when I buy the box of cereal.
Which sits there.
Uneaten.
But they no longer complain.
So then I start eating the cereal.
Which inspires new web comics.
So, not a total wash. And I’ll be the first to admit a preference of corn flour & sugar over ABS by the mouthful.
Where bad minifigs go…into the deep end.
While setting up at BrickWorld a few weeks ago I put a few minifigs here and there just for fun. I had a few pieces of furniture, including this table. And a banana, a giant troll, and a monkey. So, I guess that means the folks at Brick World got a preview of The Brick Side #36.
Ah, minifigs at the pool. This particular strip marks a slight change in the format for my multi-panel comics. I hadn’t really settled on a “preferred” dimension to do these in until I did a fair amount of research on the topic lately. What I came up with follows the Sunday comic strip standard.
The layout supports up to 4 square boxes across, though here I’ve made sets of 2 that are “2 boxes wide” — mainly because that’s what the story lended itself to. In days to come, when I vary from the 1 panel comics, you should see this width, though there may be one of several combinations of box widths. I can also add a 3rd row and still keep “the Sunday Standard” with a “third page layout” as opposed to this common “quarter page” layout.
Check out Wikipedia’s article on Comic Strip Formats for more information.
One of the reasons I’ve started using the wider format for some of the comics is because I have a few stories I’d like to tell here that lend themselves much better to a multi-panel format where more dialogue between characters can occur. This is one of those stories. It doesn’t have far to go, though it does introduce a couple new concepts to The Brick Side. One of those concepts is taking a real live person, and having him be the character in The Brick Side. Who is this character? Well, if you’d really like to track down a bit of background, his name is Jonathan Bender, who to the AFOL community is known as Brick Bender. ‘Nuff said for now.
I recently got the Crystal King set (8962) in the Power Miners series, and my wife got the Police Pontoon Plane (7723). The Crystal King naturally gravitates toward destruction and I was able to snap a few shots before he completely wrecked the plane.
As you may have noticed, this is not my normal day for posting on the “new” schedule. After a couple weeks of doing 3 comics a week, I’m moving up to a 4 a week schedule — planning for every weekday except Wednesday, for the time being. Consider this the new new schedule.
So here we begin dropping names in the web comic. It all goes downhill from there. Okay, so maybe not, but I’m thrilled to put a “live person” into my comic strip. I don’t think he typically goes by the name “Brick,” his real first name is Jonathan — but for a LEGO web comic, a name like Brick goes over much better than Jonathan. Really, Jonathan goes over kind of like a brick. Er, maybe a different sort of brick.
If you didn’t catch it, this strip is a continuation of #38. (And will be continued in #42).
By the way, can you believe I’ve made it to #40? Death and defamation to all the critics who said it could never happen. Okay, maybe that was a little drastic — how about a round of the flu and a discouraging word?
Now, onward to 50!
What else can I say? I certainly wouldn’t want to have to sleep on a bed made of Lego. It’s bad enough to roll over and find one in your sleep! Almost as bad as stepping on a Lego in the middle of the night when you need to make a bathroom run.
And I’m still trying to figure out how that minifig is going to get under the quilt…
For the uninitiated, AFOL is “Adult Fan of LEGO” — that is, grown-ups who still build and/or play with LEGO stuff. “Brick” in the phrase “love of the brick” refers specifically to LEGO bricks, and is also a vague allusion to a fan-filmed documentary that aired at Brickworld 2009.
Today’s comic was inspired by several of Jonathan Bender’s sentimentalish posts that started hitting around the time that his “one year as an AFOL” was concluding. On his blog he was recognizing an “end” to a year, but an inability and lack of desire to abandon the brick. Congrats, Jon — you’re stuck; you’re non-biodegradable.
Death warmed over and a little hungry, today on The Brick Side.
Ah, another refreshing bowl of Cap’N Minifig Head cereal. But this one doesn’t say “Snap, Crackle, Pop!” It has a few other choice words for you. Bon Appétit!
Joe Meno (pronounced as Brick Bender misinterprets), for those non-LEGO folks in my readership, is the editor of BrickJournal magazine — billed as The magazine for LEGO enthusiasts. Yes, you typically see him running around with a camera.
Oh, and I’m not trying to imply that Brick Bender is a boring person — simply when an AFOL (adult fan of LEGO) gets started on a topic, he may have a lot to say. Like most of us when it comes to our hobbies. Right?
