This is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.

No need for further commentary.

I’m trying to write more. I really am. But, see, I’m a bit busy these days.  I’ve got work, which while it’s ramping down to the end of the road is still going as strong as ever.  (Although admittedly last week was fairly light, and I got to leave around 6 every day.)  I’ve got Realms on the Thursdays, Mystara on the Fridays, and I’m hosting d20 Modern on the weekends.  Lots of stuff that eats away my evenings.

And I’ve got planning.  See, in 19 days, Brett and JP arrive for D&D Week, Year 2.  And I’m hosting/DMing.  So that’s a lot of planning there – and cleaning the apartment.  (Yes, it’s clean.  Or, well, as clean as it will ever get under my care.  The floor smelled of oranges for a week.  Though… that’s gone now.)  So I’m busy.  I haven’t had time to come up with things to write.

So just… chill.  Just another few weeks and we’ll get through this.  I know we will.

The art of creating gaming comics is a fine one.  Some people do it well.  Some people do it very well.  A lot of people don’t do it quite so well.

The problem of the gaming comic is the game/real life dichotomy.  There’s not just a fourth wall between the reader and the comic, there’s a fourth wall between the characters in the comic and the subject or universe of the comic.  The humor in the webcomic comes from the idea of breaking the inherent 4th wall in the comic (without necessarily ruining the 4th wall between the comic and the reader.)

Order of the Stick is really good at this sort of humor.  A lot of its humor comes from exploiting the idiocies and oddities of the rules of Dungeons & Dragons, or of the eccentricities of gamers in general.   Very rarely, although occasionally, does the strip break the 4th wall between reader and comic.

Thus bringing us to today’s Looking for Group.  First off, props to the writers.  Much of the humor in LFG comes not from breaking the fourth wall (in any respect), but rather flowing inherently within the comic.  And still, it’s a gaming comic.  The name “Looking for Group” implies connection to Massive Multiplayer Games.  The art and game world hints obliquely (or, oftentimes, fairly straightforwardly,) of World of Warcraft.  And yet, it is the characters within the game that have, so far, led most of the humor.  (And there are a few throws towards popular fantasy, in general.)

And, then, today’s comic.

I particularly love the tip in the bottom of the screen.

(Also, what the hell is this?  Websnark?  I’m going back to work.)

Wow.  I completely forgot to realize that the Manifest is two years old, as of a week ago.

Happy birthday, Manifest!

Although it is kind of sad to realize that back then I was writing two to four times a day, average, and have just trickled on down to just a few times per week thanks to work.

Ah well.  I’m still at 500 some odd posts.  If I work hard enough I can get it back to an average of one post a day!  Woo!

Interesting postscript to yesterday’s story.

I’m riding the elevator up to the office with a business-like older lady with her roller bag and laptop case, when she turns to me:   “The weather is so nice today.”

Now, yes.  The weather?  It’s nice.  The last week has had us in the throws of a Nor’easter, which is New England talk for “heavy winds and rains and/or snow.”  (Yeah – they’ve decided to own the storms.  Like the same storm didn’t just a few days before drench the Midwest in ice and rain.)

“Oh yeah!” I agree, with the same enthusiasm I reserve for these sorts of conversation, “it’s supposed to warm up quite a bit for the weekend.”

“I know, I love it,” she responds.

“I mean, who would have expected spring weather this time of year?”

She laughed.  I bid her a good day, and stepped off for work.