Charly & Company

Hello all. I’m glad you found your way to this site. Some of you recognize this comic strip from my days over at Comics Sherpa where it was published under the title: Mingo. Well, there’s been a few changes, namely the title, which is now Charly & Company.

The strip did fairly well at the old site, but I’m hoping that with the few tweaks I’ve made, and with the new site, that’ll it’ll get a wider audience.

As far as a publishing schedule goes I’m planning on three times a week – Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I may throw in a Sunday here and there, but we’ll see how it goes.

So enjoy your stay here and tell your friends to stop by and have a look. And please, subscribe so you won’t miss a single installment.

Comments are always welcome.

Mike Sieber

If you look at my comic archive you’ll only see the current strips there. I’m new at using Comic Press so I don’t know how to upload all the previous strips that ran on Comics Sherpa so they can be viewed. I mean, I can upload them to the folder on my server, but I can’t post them without making each one a new post.

So, if you’re new here and want to see the old material, you can go here. Just remember that the title of the strip has changed as have some of the details. Either way it’s still genius

I loved Mystery Science Theater 3000 and if you’re a geeky nerd like me then you probably have a similar affection for the show. I stumbled upon Noah Antwiler’s videos on Youtube while checking out video game reviews, and he’s a helluva funny guy.

Turns out that he does movie reviews in the style of MST3K sans the robots (he does have a robot, but he’s not using it right now.) Anyway, Noah’s got a great sense of humor, and if you’ve got some spare time and want a good laugh, check out his new review for Yor: Hunter of the Future. It’s a deliciously bad movie and Noah’s commentary is spot on.

I swear this is exactly what it’s like at the gas station now.

I just created an account over at Buzzcomix.net and have purchased a bunch of advertising banners to be displayed at the top of their pages. I’m curious to see if it’ll drive any traffic here. In the meantime, I also posted a button here where you can vote for this comic, so please do so if you think it’s worth your vote.

Thanks!

Mike Sieber

Okay, so I’ve been in various web comic forums asking folks to stop by Charly & Company to check out what I’m doing and to give me an honest critique of the strip thus far. One reviewer commented that it had a Dilbert feel to it. I admit that I used to be a Dilbert fan back in the day, and that some of Scott Adams’ humor probably rubbed off on me. And after looking through the material I can see where people might see a Dilbert vibe going on here.

So I ask you – my loyal readers – what do you think? Am I copying Scott’s style here? Do I need to re-focus the strip? I’m pretty obsessive compulsive, so I’m probably going to be fretting about this for the rest of the week.

So I realized that I needed to do something to this web site to make it look better than the standard vanilla theme. I don’t know much (anything) about HTML. However, I did check out the Comic Press forum and found a few hints. As you can see the background color has changed. That’s about as far as I got after an hour’s work. A pro probably could’ve done it in 5 minutes. So I figure that by Christmas, I should have a revamped site if I continue to do it by myself.

On another note: Isn’t the crap that’s going on between Brett Favre and the Packers just disgusting? It’s sad to see this he said/she said going back and forth. And make no mistake – both parties are responsible for the mess they’re in right now.

In addition to being one of the web’s hottest cartoonists I’m also a freelance writer. Now, I realize that in the world of comics the rules of grammar get bent quite a bit, and that’s okay. However, there are a few mistakes that I see on a daily basis that make me cringe because they’re not cases of simply bending the rules, but rather not knowing them, or just plain sloppy writing. And here they are.

Your/You’re.

This is probably the biggest mistake I see web cartoonists (and other writers) make. For those who don’t know the difference between the two words, here it is:

Your signifies possession, as in, “That’s your car.” Or, “Your cat is brown.”

You’re is a contraction of the words you and are. “You are going to the movies – You’re going to the movies.”

Another common mix up is then/than.

Than is a word that shows difference. “My house is bigger than yours.” Or, “I like apples better than oranges.”

Then represents a period of time usually in the future. “I’m going to the movies, then I’m going to dinner.”

“But Mike, they’re just comics, aren’t you being nitpicky?” Well yes and no. I believe that if you want to be taken seriously then you should strive to write well, and that means using the right words. Also, it doesn’t hurt to proofread your work before you publish it, or have someone else take a look at it before you put it up.

Strong writing will always save weak art, and since most of us don’t have editors to check our work, we have to do it ourselves. I don’t know about you, but there’s nothing more embarrassing than putting a strip up on the web only to realize that there’s a spelling error in it a few days later (yeah, I’m guilty of that one.)

So what do you think? Does proper English matter in comics or is Mike just being too much of a stickler?

I just read a post over at Tall Tale Features where the writer examined what life would’ve been like had he made it big as an illustrator back when he was young. He – and most of the people who commented – are of the opinion that marriage and children are by far the better outcome for a life.

That’s fine. That’s normal. And I certainly won’t ever knock anyone who loves the family life. However, if I were choosing, I’d definitely choose a career as a great cartoonist, writer, musician, whatever, over marriage and children.

Why?

One word: Legacy.

See, I hear people say that their children are their legacy. But when you get down to it, it’s not the best one could hope for in my opinion. Children grow up, they get old, and they die. Your legacy is gone in like 70-80 years. The work, however, can last forever.

Case in point: Off the top of your head, what are Stephen King’s kid’s names? In a hundred years what will Stephen be remembered for?

Charles Schulz, a great and devoted family man, no doubt. But it’s his work that’ll live on long after the family is gone. In fact, I’ll wager that ten generations will pass and Schulz’s work will still be remembered and celebrated.

Again, if you’re into family and marriage then God bless you. You are normal, healthy and integral to society. And if you can have the great career AND the family then God bless you double. All I’m saying is that if God (or whatever power that be) came to me and offered me the choice between having a career that I loved, with the opportunity to do work that would stand the test of time, or family, I’d choose the former.

Selfish? Probably. Abnormal? Almost definitely. Egomaniacal? One hundred percent – guilty as charged.

Feel free to discuss, but please keep it civil.

I’ve resisted Twitter for a long time, but I finally broke down and signed up for an account. I still don’t know what good it does, but I’ve decided to give it a shot before I pass judgment. There’s a widget on the sidebar that shows my Tweets (I guess that’s what they’re called.)

Anyone else using Twitter? What’s your experience? Is it worth the time and effort?