Accidentally, I’ve discovered another comic gem on the web.

I can’t quite remember how I came across it – because I’ve been reading it for about the last 4 hours, have nearly gone blind, and forgotten to do the Thursday O/S (now that I’m back online after a week of sucky computer problems which include the amazing dead laptop, Windows XP overwriting NTLDR on another computer, a wireless network card that keeps signal for all of 5 seconds and…  okay, deep breath, calm calm…  Okay, I’m better now…)

Anyway, it’s called Dustinland, and if you liked Bill Hicks’ philosophy (and the quote on the front page sums it up nicely), you’ll love this.  There’s elements of Ruben Bolling’s wonderful Tom The Dancing Bug about it, as well, but it’s mainly stand up in a strip, with the occasional Herriman-esque panel full of words too.  Like Tom The Dancing Bug (next time can I say TTDB?) he sometimes does political, sometimes observational, but unlike TTDB (toldja) rarely goes off into surrealistic fancy, preferring to stick with observational humour based around relationships, everyday life, people watching and commenting on what’s happening in the world.

Quick tip: due to the site design, if you’re planning to read the archives, start at the latest and work backwards.  (At least it’s easier than the TTDB archive, although I’m glad that exists at all!)

Yes, okay, I like comics.  User Friendly is the only one I still read on a daily basis*, although at the peak of my habit I used to do Rose is Rose, Robotman, Over The Hedge (round about 1996 I emailed them to say something about a strip, and they emailed back to ask how I thought Hedge humour works in the UK. Well, makes me laugh), Dilbert and about 2 or 3 others whose names escape me as well.

Free OS and free app of the week tomorrow, okay?  Nighty night.

* TTDB and Dustinland are weekly.

5. Daddy’s Song
Davy Jones and the Monkees at their finest.  Watch the syncing of the video as well, and remember this is Bob Rafelson and Jack Nicholson before they had a clue what they were doing…  “years ago I knew a ma-ah-an…”  Beautiful…  Watch at the end for Frank Zappa doing an impression of Marilyn Whirlwind.

4. Winnie Loves Satan
Not Churchill.  Obviously.  But strangely, weirdly – hideously, in a ghastly way – funny.  Remember to clean your mind after watching this, folks.

3. OK Go – Here It Goes Again
If you’re feeling guilty about watching Winnie The Pooh The Satanist, what better but a bit of OK Go?  This video is so good a pharmaceuticals company recently made an advert that is an homage to it…  In fact, it’s so good my brain hurts.

2. Krazy And Ignatz At The Circus
It may have first seen light of day in 1917, but it’s the only one of the Krazy Kat cartoons from that year that still works.  And if you’re a true Krazionista, like me and that Michael Stipe fella out of REM, then you’ll like this sort of thing.  And if you’re not, you won’t.  But it made me cry.

1. Lord Of The Rings, 1940 Vintage
You just have to pause this every so often just to look at it, especially when the credits are on (read VERY carefully at that point).  But this is so wonderful it needs no more hyperbolae – just enjoy!

PS: for those that have made Herbert Payne my top search result, just enjoy the man himself, on the new-fangled YouTube box of visual delights …