H-uh, a gaming strip about an upcoming game and a pop culture reference.
Incidentally, apropos doesn't mean appropriate. It means "in reference to". I've been guilty of this one myself in the past though, so I think it's a common mistake.
Update: It can in fact, be both. Thanks for the info, McGee.
Apropos one of the comments in the previous post, Atari is still around, just purely as a software development group.
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Actually, apropos means several different things. You are thinking of the idiomatic version, but as an adverb, he used it correctly.
ap⋅ro⋅pos
/ˌæprəˈpoʊ/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ap-ruh-poh] Show IPA Pronunciation
–adverb
1. fitting; at the right time; to the purpose; opportunely.
2. Obsolete. by the way.
–adjective
3. opportune; pertinent: apropos remarks.
—Idiom
4. apropos of, with reference to; in respect or regard to: apropos of the preceding statement.
Today's comic bored me, but at this point that's about what I expect from PvP.
'Still around' in the sense of it being the same company, is complete rubbish. 'Still around', as A Nonny Mouse meant it, that someone had merely bought the name and was trading as Atari doesn't really imbue the statement with any meaning. The name might be still around but it bears no relevance on what Infogrames does.
Around enough. The logo still exists and is used in advetising. Isn't that all that happens in the movie anyway? I've never actually seen it but what I keep finding online is that the logo appears but that there really isn't any other reference.
Brent will be disappointed to hear that Pan-Am and Bell Telephone aren't around any more.
@Josh
He's talking about Atari. Infogrames bought the rights to the Atari name and logo and releases their games through that heading now. But it only has a superficial relationship to the 80's company. It's pure marketing.
If we could have sigs on this board
Re: Today's comic- Atari isn't "still around." Its disfigured remains were dragged out of the ashes and stapled to a crude cardboard cutout of a phoenix.
would be mine.
er, blog, not board.
Today's strip was, at best, an exercise in drawing realistic looking people. Kudos on that.
Is anyone really interested in a Ghostbusters game? (Not to sound like the whiny bitch that I am. I'm curious to know...) Thanks to Comedy Central, I've been over any kind of nostalgia for that for years.
Atari doesn't have anything to do with making the Ghostbusters game. The game was finished before Atari was associated with it at all. Activision Blizzard dumped the game at the last moment, and the devs shopped around until Atari stepped up to do the publishing.
This wouldn't make a lick of difference, except that Cole is supposed to running a gaming magazine. This is the sort of thing that 15 seconds and a Google toolbar would have caught...
@ TheOriginalJes - I was kind of interested in the GB game when I heard the original cast were voicing the parts but after seeing clips of the game, it's all a bit soulless. They're (obviously) old men now and their input appears to suffer from that bane of voice-over work - the sound of people who clearly didn't record their lines together. All in all, there's no snap to the delivery, just the dry sound of cheques being written.
@The trouble
Right, I understand that, and I said as much in my first post. What I'm saying is, the logo still exists, and still appears in advertising, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future, which is the only connection Blade Runner has to Atari, isn't it? Like I said, I've never seen the movie, but that's all I can find online anyway.
It's not like I'm claiming that Scott Kurtz is some expert on the video games industry. I'm just saying that this is a nit-pick that's intended to make someone sound dumb who hasn't asserted anything false.
Thanks to those who appreciated my comment about Atari. For the record, I wasn't really trying to dismantle the comic when I said that. I was just bringing up a relevant fact. If I was going to dismantle the comic, I would have questioned the idea of product placement being an important aspect in the reproduction of a movie's events in real life. "Maybe the comic should have been entitled 'They love awkwardly shoehorning 80s references'," I would have inanely quipped.
I didn't do that for two reasons. One is that lots of people do love awkwardly shoehorning 80s references, and there's no point complaining about the comic catering to such people. The other is that I wasn't not sure whether I had forgotten about Atari having a significant role in the creation of replicants. I'm still not sure about that. I haven't seen the movie for a long time.
Apropos of the modern Atari's involvement in the upcoming Ghostbusters game, it would be more apropos if the game had nothing more to do with Ghostbusters than a picture on the box and a series of unlockable Slimer subgames.
@josh
Opps, yeah you're right. For some reason when you said "the movie" I thought you were talking about Ghostbusters and not Blade Runner. My Bad.
Sorry, I hadn't even seen the original post since it's not in this thread. Something I'm very used to seeing on the internet is someone bringing up a technicality that relies on willful misinterpretation in order to say something is "wrong". It annoys me because the person is more interested in being right than actually communicating something of value. Clearly my nit-pick detector is getting false positives. I'm usually the first to point things out like that anyway.
12/9 comic "original content"
Man he showed them critics . . . ?
I mean at least fanboy who got shelled with paintballs (Paintball arc!)was a somewhat funny parody of nit-picky critics.
I'm going to go way out on a limb here and assume that somebody accused Kurtz of repeating a joke.
See, having a buffer of strips would help to prevent this type of inane over-reaction. If only...
I thought the new strip was pretty funny. Maybe it's because I've been reading PvP for quite a while.
I have for at least 5 years myself, I don't know why all of a sudden (well RW has the real reason) he decided to go after critics (again). Plus like i said before at least the fanboy was a FUNNY parody of the nit-picking critics, this wasn't so much.
Ahh, PvP circa 1999 - before mitten-hands and balloon-arms. Good times.
He's done the "snarky aggrieved artist" joke before. PVP is just getting repetitive.
So is it the Blade Runner joke that was a repeat, or what?
It seems more appropriate to me that Activision was making the Ghostbusters game, as they made the original ones... but I guess Atari is kind of a "80's" thing.
you thought the candle harmonica monkey fart joke was about you guys?
Wow. And you say I'M egotistical.
Haha Scott
Nope, starting with my comment on that strip there was no first person reference to the critics u were going after.
We kinda knew someone went after a joke for being repetitive (no one here said anything about that) but no one wrote that you were coming after "us"
Good try though at trying to start "teh dramaz!"
Plus it wasnt even that funny its like saying "you're momma is so fat because she eats a lot!"
Wokka Wokka
Btw 8 days until PVPMMS 1 year anniversary
...nobody said that they thought the comic was about PVPMMS?
Everybody was just reacting to the comic you made like they do every day?
Yeah...since nobody here claimed that you repeated a comic, I don't think anybody here thought your comic was about us.
If it was, it makes absolutely no sense.
Sorry about the multiple posts, I had a bottle of Diet Coke at lunch at got hopped up
So Scott, ES, and FSM have big mistakes where they said something where they should have known better :).
Actually, Scott, we're just upset because we knew we weren't talking about that, and so now we know that--that *sniff!*...this means you're seeing other critics! Oh, Scott, I thought we had something special together here! And now we find out you've got a relationship with other critics behind our backs! And we had to find out about it this way! How could you do this to us?!
scott said: you thought the candle harmonica monkey fart joke was about you guys?
Wow. And you say I'M egotistical.
Huh? Were you just ITCHING to say that and didn't even bother reading over the comments first? Like others have already pointed out: no one here suggested the strip was about us.
@ Reader - It's amazing that I'm actually laughing at something Scott did but a little depressing that it's not his strip. The desperation in his 'zinger' is almost palpable. :)
Wow. Now my zinger comments get critiqued. You guys should start a separate blog to review my comments.
I thought I read in your comments that I was making fun of the neckbeards.
Nobody accused me of repeating a strip (although I'm sure I have an I'm sure I'm more than capable of it).
In fact, today's strip about muppets. I just posted it and it feels way familiar. I'm terrified I've done THAT joke already too.
I think it's because we've discussed that muppet thing before.
Oh well. it happens I'm sure.
Wow. It's funny how hard you're trying to insult us. I almost beginning to believe the strip was for our benefit now.
Haha! I loved today's comic, late though it was. The muppets look great. And Rowlf really does rule. The rest of the band does, too. Rizzo's pretty good at being a rat, come to think of it.
I've noticed Scott featuring the back of characters' head angle a lot lately, he's getting quite good at it.
About "Original Content"
It did kind or read like hissy fit about some comments (ok, my comments, I'm the one with teh EGO) about how un-original the telling of Max's possible "gay"-ness.
But, what really stands out is how Scott came here to look for shots at his character.
About Muppets -
Wow!! I loved it! I thought the representation was spot-on and charming to beat all hell. And, the insight about the Muppets was something I'd never considered before. It almost deserves it's own thread.
That is what a pop-culture comic should aspire to be. What do you think, Astor?
Let's hope it stops now, before Scott screws it up again. OHH, Ho, ho, ho...
I like seeing Scott do interesting things with his artwork, and I can't help but notice that it almost always happens when he is in contact with the Webcomic Gods of Seattle aka Penny-Arcade. I guess they must be a good influence.
The muppet strip was a solid one-off.
Loved the Muppet comic. Clever, funny, and very well drawn.
Too bad he had to come here and ruin what would have been a good Kurtz day.
geez. you guys can be such glum-gusses some times.
I love how RW had to qualify a genuine compliment by wrapping it in an insult. Clearly I can't write a decent strip without the help of the Penny-Arcade guys.
You ruin my day everytime I remember this site exists. the least I could do is come ruin your entitled day for once.
Yeah, I think PA is a good influence. Really he's at his best when working with/around other creative people (which isn't all that unusual). Really all the stuff he does with the WW guys is very funny and entertaining.
When Straub moved down and they got the office together was really when I thought PvP started being funny again. I was kinda bummed when that situation dissolved.
How is that an insult Scott?
Man, you're on a PA podcast (the one where they did the comic about one guy seeing a Martha Stewart Living billboard, and the other guy saw barnyard porn, but pretended he saw Subway) and in that Podcast, Krahulik was showing you the best way to use some new wacom tablet type thing, by using your arm instead of your wrist, and zooming in to ink. So, you're already on record with PA my friend.
And there is nothing wrong with that, or insulting.
If I'm writing, and some other author helps me with my technique, and other people thought that was good for me...I wouldn't see that as an insult.
Take it how you will, though.
Man, that back-of-Cole's-head view is terrible. He looks like a Muppet in it.
I liked the "repeated joke" joke, Scott, and took it more as the strip poking fun at itself than critics. Not trying to suck up, that's honestly how I approached it. I liked the muppet strip a lot, too.
I hope the comment about this blog "ruining your day" was a joke.
Ah its good to see good old Scott (whether its the real Kurtz or not) as its truely inspiring to see someone look so hard for a negative comment to expound abound upon to start "teh drama"
Between the dig at us thinking the critic strip about us when none of us did to being cranky at RW for at worst an average comment.
Plus I love the fact that we say that being with the PA guys will likely improve his work when Mr. Kurtz has said it himself and the excitement of moving to Seattle is palpable in his posts.
Oh well, i guess he'll find something negative in what I say about today's strip: great pop culture reference (that most of us understand) great art styling (captured the muppets theme great and Cole/Brent look great) great punchline. this and the SKull strips from last week is what shows me that PVP is on par with PA(ok scott not an insult remember you think PA is great)
And if Scott and the real Kurtz are one in the same: you cut out your forums so that you wouldn't have to listen to opinions and random crap let Straub or whoever it was put PVPMMS back on your block list. Even when we are ambivalent to supportive (not full-fledged slurping like you want) you see only insults even when there wasnt any its ok man, its ok
Oh and a little over 7 days until the 1 year anniversary of PVPMMS. Either Scott is FSM or we've had a real community for that long, either way its been fun.
Oh and I love Yahtzee, he's now above Yahoo Serious, Paul Hogan, and nicole kidman and only Heath Ledger is above him because his joker is the villain all comic book movies should strive to have
@Scott. Lol. Entitled? Still trying to pedal that "You don't tell me what to do!" crap, Scott? Funny how it's always YOU coming to US to point that out, eh?
And ruin your day? Like Brett said, put us back on your taboo list. If you don't like your thumb throbbing with pain, ya gotta stop hitting it with the hammer.
I'm not trying to start drama. I would love to (and have tried) to embrace this site as some kind of constructive exercise.
but I can't manage it. It doesn't mean your bad or that I'm bad. It just means I'm not really capable of not taking shit personally and I'm aware of it.
Some days the site really bums me out. Some days I read it and go "huh?" and chuckle it off. Some days I forget about it.
One year huh? It doesn't seem that long.
I really appreciate that comment, Scott. I think it makes things a lot clearer.
I actually really liked this strip, it felt like a welcome return to the old days of PVP, with the classic one-liners and pop-culture geekery lacing every sarcastic line.
Since Kurtz updated his drawing style, the quality of the stories seems to have dropped drastically. He can't seem to make up his mind if it is a comedy or a soap opera, resulting in a comic that isn't realistic enough to be taken seriously, and isn't *comic* enough to be amusing.
But this was a heart-warming harken back to the days where PVP was an actual comic strip, that nerdy little focal point for modern gaming and obscure sci fi spoofing.
It wasn't an especially funny strip, it wasn't anything special, but it was certainly a step up from the melodrama we have tollerated for so long, and a nice little glance back to the old days.
Indeed, his most recent strip seems to indicate his awareness of this, and perhaps his shift back to his more classic writing style is somewhat intentional. I certainly hope that it continues like this.
Come on Scott, don't let us down, keep going toward the light!
The Founder
But lets be honest Scott it hasn't always been about you looking for an exercise in constructive criticism.
Most, if not all, of the flames that have gone on this site have been from you flailing your arms wildly about a criticism or nit-pick and our responsive flails and maybe 20-25% us starting a flail and you responding in kind. And it started months ago when your "friend" tried ripping on the site for nit-picks and discussions.
Plus the smugness you (if you are REAL Kurtz) and paulsouthworth had when FSM and ES had a misstep in their critique didn't always scream that you were looking to this site for anything other then "got ya!"
But like you said you are human and we are as well, (despite what you and paul might think :) ) so that means we're all douches at some point. I may never buy anything from you ever again but I do have best wishes to your strip, your family, and your health (nice weight-loss as I saw ur pic at the Child's Play and your looking non-gay great) and like I said PVP is on par with PA in my book in terms of when its at its best, take that what you will.
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