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…who would ever need to convert acres to square light-years?

It also works with square megaparsecs and yottameters, but I think I’m the only one geeky enough to even know those units existed.

I decided to check upon the infrequently updated Pokey the Penguin web comic and was met with a giant blue link that simply said “YOU BUY IT!!!!!” This took me to an eBay auction for the very ownership rights to Pokey the Penguin himself. On any other day I would be shocked, intrigued, and saddened all at once, for this would mean the end of Pokey along with the possibility of me (or someone else) becoming The Authors. Today, being what it is, I am not convinced. If the auction is seen through its seven days without being cancelled, though, maybe we can all get together and buy ourselves a web comic. SMASHING

UPDATE: Turns out it was a joke after all. You almost had me going, you sneaky The Authors!

So let’s talk web comics. There are a million of them. Literally. I counted. Yet amongst the vast multitudes to be had online, only a very few stand out to me. I’ve already mentioned Pixel, which documents the daily and often bizarre lives of our favorite digital image constituents. As you may imagine, today will cover Dinosaur Comics.

After going back through the archives, you might think I’m pulling some elaborate joke on you. “All of these comics are the same!” you’ll yell, throwing your drink in my face. As I dry myself off and silently laugh at your wasted beverage I’ll declare, “Au contraire, you square!” The comic features the same configuration of the titular dinosaurs day after day, but in different- sometimes wacky- situations.

We are normally greeted by three characters: T-Rex, Utahraptor, and Dromiceiomimus, but are occasionally treated to guest appearances by the Devil and none other than God himself. Also, sinister raccoons and cephalopods have been popular recently. T-Rex would be the “main” character, appearing in every panel and having the most poses. Being forever locked in a house-car-girl crushing sequence doesn’t seem to get him down, though, as he is always able to bring up an interesting and frequently misguided topic. The unchanging canvas lends itself to consistently clever dialog and funny punchlines, since the author needn’t worry about getting the panels drawn. And, if once you’re done reading a given comic you still want a little more, check the image’s ALT tag and the “comments” link at the top of the page. Further insight and/or comedy is held within these hidden fields.

Lastly, it seems to me that the author wants his readers to feel awesome, and he awesomely does just that. It’s awesome all around. You don’t have to take my word for it, though; the community of fans speaks for itself with a huge page of reader submitted stuff. Awesome stuff.

As comics go, PIXEL (which I will henceforth stop refering to in all caps) is kind of strange. The comics are spartan and make sense only in reference to themselves (and other Pixel comics). They take great liberties with the concept of comedy, yet are almost always amusing. A whole world of pixels, vectors, polygons, and voxels has been created with clever and random connections. The entertainment value is bolstered by the structure of the dialogue (which is nearly Pokey-esque) and the haiku-like comments the author writes beneath each comic. The rest of his site isn’t half bad either.