Wild Angels comic makes Web debut
Posted by Angel_Bear (G. Raymond Eddy) on Sat 31 Aug 2002 - 06:15
Longtime Yerf and Yiffnet Attic contributor G. Raymond "Angel Bear" Eddy, long overdue for a comic of his own on the World Wide Web, can now boast of the world debut of The Wild Angels on Ottercomics.
The comic features many of his Wild Angels characters, some of whom have appeare din print in such publications as Cardinal Adventures and Galen the Saintly #1. Galen himself has appeared in certain issues of Shanda the Panda and made a cameo appearance in Giant Shanda Animal.
The page at the present time doesn't have a forum page, but Oren the Otter has two of his best guys on the problem. Keep watching Ottercomics for further developments.
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Angel_Bear (G. Raymond Eddy) — read stories — contact (login required)a security officer from Columbus, OH
Comments
This is great news, but it's sort of tacky and weird to see the poster writting about himself in the third person.
[long overdue for a comic of his own]
I don't know. It seems like everyone and their mother has a comic on the web these days. Why be in such a rush to join the herd, as it were?
-Feren
"We use them for divine retribution."
Hrm, another Guardian Angel comic.
Maybe we can have some wacky hijinx showing how they accidently let these girls get murdered:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/08/30/girls.service/index.html
Maybe one angel tripped over a potted geranium on the way to stop the murderer. Doh-hoh! That would be hilarious.
I'm sorry. I just find the whole concept offsensive. Children all over the world exist in incomprehensibly horrible conditions; living and eating and dying on trash dumps in Nairobi and Calcutta while middle class Americans buy hummels and swear that their pampered pudgy podlings are watched over by some mythological geese-people.
Way to go.
Check out http://jack.keenspace.com for a comic that doesn't hide from the tough issues.
First off, I don't want to offend anyone by saying this.
That said, I will continue. First of all, maybe these "pudgy podlings" have it so good because of the "gaurdian angel". Honestly, contempt and anger are not my intentions in this post. I just have the belief that people should be able to express their views and beliefs, that is what the internet is for in the first place. If it wasn't, this site wouldn't be here.
You shouldn't be offended by a view that is different than yours unless it attacks you or yours. And remember, just as you have a right to view it, you have just as much a right not to. And the creator of the comic has a right to express him or herself through that particular medium.
Hmm. What you're saying smacks to me of the classic question "Why Does a Good God Allow So Much Suffering In the World?" Such a question is never asked in honest seeking of God, but instead accuses Him of failure, or neglect, of biased treatment of some of His creatures over others, or perhaps even corruption.
If what God is doing is failure, what should He do for success?
Personally, I think it's really a good start, not to mention a nice homage to what happened on 9/11, putting the whole thing in a positive light (Yes, I'm a Jack fan as well, but I believe this version would be a bit more comforting to the victims of said attack).
This isn't bad at all...
Tlaren }:=8}
In addition, one also has the right to express the opinion that he or she IS offended, whether we think that's right or not.
That's the view being expressed up there. That's why we can have both intelligent discussions and loud shouting matches on the Internet. Because anybody can express an opinion and (hopefully) not have it censored out of hand.
Long live the Internet.
Smile! The world could use another happy person.
"You shouldn't be offended by a view that is different than yours unless it attacks you or yours. "
This is a strange philosophy indeed. Would you not be offended by a miscarriage of justice no matter who was the victim?
As you say, perhaps children who get to experience comfort, security and food on their tables have it so good because a celestial force intervenes. Does this not strike you as an injustice, when the selfsame forces can't be bothered to remove the worms from the bellies of a quarter of the world's children?
Whether such forces are at work or not I care not to debate. I just feel such a state should be mourned rather than depicted in grinning pictorials as if all is well with the arrangement.
With all due respect, Bull*.
One thing I learned from my family and my education is that questioning an honored figure critically is something one is obligated to do. Blind acceptance does neither of you any credit.
If God stands up to the questioning, good. If not, then he does not deserve the adoration/worship/etc he is being given.
"Such a question is never asked in honest seeking of God".
So did God grant you omniscience? Did He entrust you with the ability to divine men's thoughts? Has there has never been one man who looked upon the suffering, pain, war, starvation, and pestilence choking the world and glanced up with tears in his eyes toward heaven with an honest "why?" Not one man?
Perhaps you'd best rethink your blanket assertion that all who dare ask questions are impudent. I myself learned long ago to distrust the words 'never' and 'always'.
It appears that in your comic an Angel is training a dog to save a life in Sarajevo. Assuming said Angel plans to descend to earth to watch, I might mention that there is a mass grave 45mi from Sarajevo where the victims of the Srebrenica massacre are buried.
... and you have Angels watching in shopping malls?
Couldn't spare the shopping mall-watcher for the killing fields of Cambodia? I suppose watching the Gap was too important to stop the Rwandan genocide campaign? And of course, on 9/11, i'm sure there was an Angel stationed on Fifth Avenue to make sure no shoppers were tripping over their toes or getting their wallets stolen.
My problem isn't with God. Its with your image of Heaven... as cheap and two-dimensional as a Hallmark greeting card.
Shopping malls indeed.
I like you and I wish to keep you. :)
(T'laren here, I'm not signed in because I don't want to be bothered with doing it at 4:30 in the morning... *Ahem*)
Dude, that was so dark it wasn't even funny... I give it a 9 *holds up a judge's card with a 9 on it*
Cripes dude, you're at the other end of the spectrum on this subject. Ever hear of lightening up? Angel_Bear happens to be painiting a good pictures and putting a nice spin on it, while you're at the other end. Were you born cynical or raised that way?
Have a little faith (unless you're Agnostic or Atheist [no offense meant to those groups])... Man, I need an asprin...
Tlaren }:=8}
Why is anyone judging/questioning others beliefs by their own self devised or handed down standards here? This is just sounding like bigotry in another form. Imho, if anyone wants to critique his style, or his content, then do it and move on. (Hint: Live and let live.) Leave the belief system of others out of it. I doubt if this wasn't a Christian oriented comic, not half of these anonymous posts would have even been made. On one hand everyone complains there aren't enough good online comics, and then on the next, they are complaining when someone else decides to make one of their own and it's not as good as "brand x" - or that isn't up to the other's own self made up standards... And we wonder why the fandom is hated by some? (Hint: If you can't say something good, then try say'n nothin'.)
This just isn't appropriate here imho. You want to question the style of his comics - then state an opinion and move on. His "image" of his version of heaven is just that... his. So don't view his comic if the story line offends... there are plenty of other offensive comics out there... all you have to do is pull up a web browser. But attacking his beliefs here anonymously seems really petty and lame to me.
[Furry soap opera drama queen detector buzzes]
> Perhaps you'd best rethink your blanket assertion that all who dare ask questions
> are impudent. I myself learned long ago to distrust the words 'never' and 'always'.
Point taken. I should know better than that after hearing my grandmother misuse those two words so much.
> It appears that in your comic an Angel is training a dog to save a life in Sarajevo.
> Assuming said Angel plans to descend to earth to watch, I might mention that there
> is a mass grave 45mi from Sarajevo where the victims of the Srebrenica massacre
> are buried.
> ... and you have Angels watching in shopping malls?
My intent is to achieve comedy. Involving my angels in a race around the globe to forestall man's every inhumanity to man, or their abject failure to do so, doesn't serve very well my purpose of telling funny stories about funny characters.
Give it time. I'm sure the comic will redeem itself.
Yet another point (or point of view). Maybe if we didn't see some suffering in the world, or suffer ourselves, we wouldn't be thankful for what we DO have. It doesn't mean that you can't sympathise for the poor and underprivileged. Just a thought.
All this over a comic strip and someone's personal point of view. Wow! Maybe if you don't like it, you shouldn't read it. But I tend to agree, attacking what someone believes in is lame and petty. After all, what do you believe in? Remember, you could be just as easily picked on for it.
In case you hadn't noticed, I was responding to the statement "Such a question is never asked in honest seeking of God." And it's hardly an out-and-out all-Christians-are-closedminded-bigots flame. I know better than that, give me some credit here. :)
You ask "Why is anyone judging/questioning others beliefs by their own self devised or handed down standards here?" I'm not. I'm responding to a statement someone else made about MY beliefs. You want to believe that angels save well-fed pampered kiddies in malls who are separated from their parents for a few hours but not children starving to death or children kidnapped from their front yards to be raped, tortured and murdered in the wilderness.... fine! No skin off of my hide. I don't care, it's not my place to argue with you.
But if you're gonna start making value judgements that yours are best and mine are cr*p.... you'd DAMN well be prepared to receive all the whalloping that my Philosophy of Religion course and meandering thought patterns can produce.
So please don't tell me that I'm bigoted because I'm standing up for myself, ne?
"My intent is to achieve comedy. Involving my angels in a race around the globe to forestall man's every inhumanity to man, or their abject failure to do so, doesn't serve very well my purpose of telling funny stories about funny characters."
This is the crux of the issue. A comic set in a concentration camp would need to face some difficult issues. A comic set on a slavers' plantation would need to face some difficult issues. Dare I say it, a comic about who have power over global suffering must face issues just as difficult and sensitive (not a comparison between Angels and slavers or Nazis, but between situations of emotional peril). And its not just man's inhumanity - floods have wiped out thousands in China and Bangladesh, last year a a single earthquake killed more people in Gujarat in India than in the entire WTC disaster. I do not blame God, only natural laws. But then again, I don't believe God sends Guardian Angels.
He already sent someone, didn't He?
It is only humorous to think of an Angel watching over a shopping mall if you can ignore the fact that this in an incongrous place to try to watch against suffering, pain and death, considering how much of this goes on elsewhere in the world.
Religious comics will always be on the fringe. They deal with issue that are often too powerful to turn into comedic images. Suffering and death, eternal damnation, judgement, atonement, prayer to a God who so often seems silent when we need Him most, whom we can easily thank for the good things in life and feel driven to blame Him for the bad despite all our efforts - these are the issues pressing those who believe in the word of the Bible.
How to eek a smile out of all that without avoiding it all? I couldn't fathom how to guess.
As you can probably guess, I lost someone recently to a horrific death - and I'm fighting of a significant amount of bitterness. I apologize for the slights I have made. Just because I cannot find a smile in your work, it doesn't mean others cannot - and I wouldn't judge them for doing so.
Perhaps one can smile in heaven, secure in the knowledge that earthly suffering - no matter how horrible - is fleeting. A cosmic pinprick against the span of eternity.
But then there's Hell.
I think I'll shut up now.
Yes, I'm a cynic. Neither born nor raised as such, but grew into it by the observation of ignorance and suffering. But before you cast me off onto the 21st century connotation of the word - far removed from its philosophical roots - I might entreat you to research a bit on Diogenes of Sinope.
As I said elsethread; faith is emtpy unless unchallenged. Even if Angel_Bear turns aside all I have said, I have done him a favor. Faith is honed and strengthened by surviving challenge.
Lighten up?
"We wait for light, but behold darkness"
-Isaiah 59:9
The world is a dark place. Sometimes I wish I could stop thinking of all the pain, but to do so would be to forget those who experience it.
Have a little faith? Absolutely - as little as necessary - and examine it daily, lest one day you find it hollow.
The original instigator here -
On the contrary, if I wasn't Christian myself, I wouldn't have said anything.
And as far as I can tell, the fandom is hated by some due to percieved widespread perversion - not because of an overabundance of theological arguement.
If we take your advice, what do we have but a world where nobody changes, nobody thinks, nobody examines their beliefs and nobody cares to cause ripples in the grand pond of society - in other words; a world resistant to the greatest strides humanity has taken forward in the last hundred years. Not to compare my own bitchings to that; but it is a dangerous philosophy that espouses inaction for the sake of politeness.
Unchallenged faith is empty.
If your eyes are open, there are a thousand things around you every day that will shake the foundations of faith. My intent was not to be lame or petty. I may have failed on both counts, but regardless; if I have made Angel_Bear examine something of his beliefs, good! He'll be stronger for it, even if his beliefs don't change to a single degree. His comic made me think; it made me examine myself; and it made me speak. In that sense, Angel's comic was the most important thing to happen to me in two weeks.
I reject the notion that we should avoid intellectual conflict. "An unexamined life is not living" are the words of Socrates, and I agree.
I *hope* that not a day goes by without someone challenging something I believe in. Picking on my beliefs, so to speak. That is one of the few things that separate faith from fluff.
"will always be on the fringe"
How easily I fell victim to the allure of 'always' - I recant it.
I've got to thank camstone-fox for inspiring me for this little reply... you are low, considering you post anonymously and attack people's beliefs and the way they do things.
*shakes his head* sad...
I'm really starting to dislike this new layout... *grumbles*
Tlaren }:=8}
This article didn't start by questioning someone's faith for strength. You have no worthwhile purpose to question that here, except to try and belittle someone, and even now you evade by obscuration. I doubt many even read this now as it's buried so deeply. There is no intellectual struggle anymore when someone just slings mud from the shadows anonymously and then agrandizes themselves and self justifies besides the name of Socrates. You do his name and yourself great injustices when you do so. Stand on your own name, or leave others be.
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