Hello again! This week's strip has been done in memory of Children's Week. That wonderful and joyous celebration that gets you a cute little tag along to play with, all in exchange for running everywhere in the entire world.
I have somehow managed to miss out on Children's Week every year, but knowing my luck, it's for the better! It would likely lead to a catastrophe not unlike what is featured in this comic.
Want to know what kind of catastrophe I'm talking about? Check out the Barrens Chat gallery for this and other comics!
Greetings fellow travelers of time and space! Welcome to the first official posting of Barrens Chat, a soon to be weekly implement of random craziness. Although I know I'm not the first comic strip, and likely I wont be the last to grace these glorious virtual pages, I invite you to take a romp with me, Megan, as I drag forth those silly comments people make that they hope no one noticed, and glorify them with fancy colors, and ever-changing art.
I will point out that although all of this is will all be incredibly funny to everyone who reads it, including me; it may end up being a "you had to be there" moment. In that case, come back next week! I'm sure it'll be funnier then. No really, it will.
This week we have a nice long list of comics for you to sink your teeth or tusks into. As always, don't forget to leave your tips to other WoW-themed comics so that they can be featured here! We're also saying a special goodbye to Manic Graffiti. Great work and we'll miss you! Here's hoping this isn't forever!
Connedromat from Awkward Zombie kicks off your Sunday morning with a little bit of logic.
Ana Hala Balablah from Dark Legacy Comics seems intent on being contrary to logic.
Shakes and Fidget have to decide whether their new acquaintance is Friend or Foe?
This morning, we have quite a few comics for you to peruse before you head out and start your day, including the February winner of Blizzard's Honorable Comic Contest. From poking a bit of fun at the election process to rooting out those terrorists, we've got you covered.
PvP Online by Scott Kurtz, who is a World of Warcraft player -- he plays a troll Shaman named after his comic's resident troll -- and GM of the progressive Panda Attack guild on Dark Iron, had this interesting strip last Saturday (Those slippery strips got past us! Arr!). In it, Brent takes advantage of the recently introduced paid name change feature in WoW to, uh, fiddle with Francis' characters.
The paid name changes have been available for all realms for some time now, and although we haven't heard of anything really bad happening, PvP Online puts a different spin on the matter. Have you ever seen any player with a name you'd like to change? What if you had the power (or, *cough*, account access) to change a player's name, what would you do? Would it make for a great practical joke? Or better yet, would justice be served? I can think of a few names that could, um... benefit... from the service. The legions of Legolas (or Legolaas, Leggolas, etc.) Night Elf Hunters or all the Blood Elves named Sephiroth (or Sefiroth, Sephirot... you get the idea), for starters. Seems like a nice Winter Veil present, actually.
Every weekend, I'll be rounding up the best of the recent WoW-related webcomic entries and bringing them straight to you. As a change, instead of simply commenting old stylez about your picks, for better or for worse, you'll now be able to vote on them in a poll; and who doesn't like polls?
Through the week, if you find a WoW-themed comic you particularly like, drop us an e-mail or throw the link in the comments section. Here are the picks for this week:
Number one is a quickie, but some of the others will require you to take a few moments to read through them. Although, in my humble opinion, they're all worth the effort.
You don't need to know all of the details, or what this means for Blizzard, to understand and have a laugh. Simply note that Activision is the company that brought out titles such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty.
I'm a particular fan of this comic, and I'm not exactly sure why. I mean, I do play Horde, and an orc at that; and no one likes to get ganked! The style in which the night elf is depicted, combined with the last frame, had me laughing out loud though.
If you feel you have a particularly solid grasp on the matter, Elizabeth has asked for your predictions on the future of the company. Because I know you can all tell the future, there's no point in keeping it to yourselves.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Due to personal reasons I can not and will not discuss here, I will no longer be drawing the weekly /silly comic for WoW Insider. I am thankful to you, the thriving mass of WoW Insider readers, for taking the time to view my strip for the past 11 weeks. To those that commented with support and praise, I offer an even larger helping of the Thank You pie. You are the reason I stayed up those late Monday nights, forcing myself to draw out the twisted images in my head in order to share them with the world. I sought your approval, and I received it in spades.
Will there be a future for /silly, after I am gone? That is up to the higher-ups at WoW Insider to decide. If they do replace me and continue on with the series, I hope you all will show the new artist the respect and support that you gave to me. And I hope that the comics will make me laugh as much as mine made you.
As for my future, do not worry. I have more passion for gaming than most people you will ever meet, burning deep within my soul like a warlock DoT that will never expire; like the Light that drives a paladin to battle against overwhelming odds. I will find another way to be a part of the industry that I love, and with a little luck, you will see the name Arturis again.
Due to unforeseen circumstances brought about by that dreaded time waster between WoW sessions we call Real Life[TM], it unfortunately comes to pass that this week's /silly will not be ready for your Tuesday morning perusal. Fear not, good friends! Not only will I have a dumbfoundingly witty (or unwittingly dumb, depending on your point of view) comic for you come Thursday A.M., but I also have gifts today to tide you over until then. Below, you will find links to a wallpaper based on the art from the third installment of /silly, featuring the ever-lovable Shadowsilk in both hand drawn and in-game model forms. For a refresher on who she is and why you would want to have a wallpaper of her, feel free to click the image above and reread the original comic. To skip straight to snagging the wallpaper, select your screen resolution from the links below.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled WoW Insider, already in progress.
Arthur E. "Arturis" Orneck apologizes for any inconvenience his murderous rampage may have caused, and reminds you that squirrels can be deadly when cornered.
I will come right out and say it - it is just plain silly how incredibly under appreciated mages are. I'm not referring to how they are treated on the forums for how much DPS they can dish out or what absurdly high numbers they can crit up to. No, I'm talking about the services that mages do for others on a daily basis. As illustrated in today's comic, they open rifts through the fabric of reality to help you get around quickly and conveniently, and far more amazing then that, they give you food. How can you beat that? Next time you are munching down on a health and mana rejuvenating slice of conjured heaven, take a moment to give some kind words or a hug to your guild's resident chef/chauffeur. Every time you thank a mage, an angel gets its wings. (and then a warlock rips them off and sets them on fire, but that is a fairy tale for another time)
This is the first comic Ive done that draws from a source outside of the Warcraft Universe, and I'm hoping that the majority of our readers will "get it" even with the external reference. The way I see it, we WoW players do not live in a gaming vacuum - we are aware of other worlds out there beyond our cherished Azeroth, and possibly even spend time in them ourselves. As always, I will keep a close eye on the comments to gauge how well this little diversion came across. If you like it, you will let me know. If you don't, you will let me know even more verbosely. But hey, at least we have our new comment system so you can all show how much you agree/disagree with each others opinions, and all this feedback will help shape the comics to come. At least, until you all figure out my home address and assemble the lynch mob. Let me just state for the record that I'd hate to be burned at the stake... again.
Every Tuesday, Arthur E. "Arturis" Orneck posts another hand drawn snapshot into his demented little mind, because he learned way back in kindergarten that its polite to share, unless what you are trying to share is lycanthropy, vampirism or the T-Virus.
Jim Lee is excited about the World of Warcraft comic-- he makes that clear in this short clip from a Gametap interview done with the veteran comic book artist. Lee isn't actually drawing the comic, unfortunately (the little preview we saw didn't look bad, but it didn't look like Jim Lee, either), but he is putting the cover together, and the comic is actually being released under his imprint at DC, Wildstorm.
He's also a player (paging Blizzard's ad department), and enjoys ganking "low-level noobies." He says also that he was glad to grab the comic license, since they did it so long after WoW actually got successful, and that Wildstorm has big hopes for the comic (apparently they're not just pinning their hopes on the Heroes serial). We're rooting for you, Jim, but only as long as you draw some more cool pictures of Shamans. Totems FTW.
This comic began its life in the 1960s as a "Dangers of Alcohol" comic, but with updated text it manages to fit World of Warcraft surprisingly well. (And before you click, be warned -- though the first panel looks innocent, the comic itself is not at all safe for work.) And for those of you in the same situation as poor John in our comic, just remember that the first step in your standard 12-step program is to admit that you're powerless over World of Warcraft and that your life has become unmanageable. Step two usually involves extensive EverQuest therapy.
I would assume that the life of a warlock is saturated in paranoia. To start with, it is a well known fact that 'locks play loosely with that whole "morality" concept. Both the Alliance and Horde tend to distrust them, and for good reason; never leave a warlock alone with your virgin daughter if you don't want bloody demonic ritual mess all over your carpet. Worse then that, however, is the unspoken truth that Zahktib or Jhar'kruk or whatever the heck randomly named demon they currently have as their minion is doing so entirely under coercion, and most likely has dark, bitter, perhaps slightly silly revenge thriving in their shadowy demonic minds, as illustrated in the comic above. Special thanks go out to a strategically placed forearm/bracer, preventing me from having to submit the image for ESRB approval or label the post NSFW.
As long as we are on the subject of warlock pets, one question has puzzled me from the moment I first saw their big blue gaseous level 10 companions:
Why are they called Voidwalkers, when don't have any legs?
No no, don't answer. Just ponder it for awhile. Let it rot away a few layers of precious brain cells. You'll thank me for it later, as those specific cells were the ones that were going to spark up next week and convince you that you should re-roll as a Dwarven melee hunter that only uses throwing weapons for ranged pulls. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight.
Arthur E. "Arturis" Orneck sold his soul for the honor of drawing this weekly web comic that you partake of each Tuesday morning. The WoW Insider staff went to great expense to have a real-world warlock turn it into a large purple shard, which he gets sent photos of once a week from various exotic locations, much like the gnome from Amelie.
You probably forgot about it in all the shaman-loving, melee-hating, troll-centric patch fever, but World of Warcraft #1 came out in comic book stores Wednesday. For those of you without access to the book -- or maybe those who want to know the story without carrying around a giant GEEK! GEEK! sign -- I've summarized the plot and characters here. Spoilers follow beyond the cut, so beware!
It's an interesting read. They don't waste any time getting right into the mix of things-- there's background on Reghar Earthfury (supposedly our Horde hero for the comic, and he's a Shaman, which automatically makes him a badass), and the story revolves around an event-- just as we were told-- in the Dire Maul arena. A gladiatorial group called the Crimson Ring also features, but I've never heard of them. Either they're new to the lore, or I'm just not as knowledgeable about underground fighting rights in Azeroth as I should be.
The art isn't bad at all, but it's nothing to write home about, either. Still, it's nice to see the World of Warcraft in comic form, and hopefully the story will turn out to be all that the fans think it should. Gonna grab the comic later this week?
PvP Online
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Due to personal reasons I can not and will not discuss here, I will no longer be drawing the weekly /silly comic for WoW Insider. I am thankful to you, the thriving mass of WoW Insider readers, for taking the time to view my strip for the past 11 weeks. To those that commented with support and praise, I offer an even larger helping of the Thank You pie. You are the reason I stayed up those late Monday nights, forcing myself to draw out the twisted images in my head in order to share them with the world. I sought your approval, and I received it in spades.
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