Rosscott, Inc.

Things are happening! I’ve got the HTML / CSS / Javascript almost built out, and the joyous thing? It’s going to have MORE FEATURES than before!

• Controls on the left that scroll with you
• Lots of awesome CSS3 powering it for less images, smoother transitions, etc.
• MEDIA QUERIES. This probably doesn’t mean much to most of you, but here’s the skinny: The site will be built to know how wide the browser is, and update the design accordingly to better fit the space. It’s in progress now, and if you load the examples below you’ll see what I’m talking about. For now, it just kinda breaks when shrunk, but you can see a little about what’s going to happen. And it’s gonna be great!

• New Homepage
• New “Single News Post” Page
• New “Single Comic Post” Page

By the way, I know it’s broken in a lot of places (mostly with the media queries, aka when the browser is set to smaller than 950px wide). It’s still in progress, but I’m too excited about it NOT to share it. Stay tuned!

To be honest, I’m not sure why more sites aren’t doing this kinda stuff. I can only assume it’s because most webcomic people are a) poor and b) not web designers themselves. Still, lately I’ve seen a few inklings of the ideas I mentioned back in this post coming to fruition. Largely in the shape of Dueling Analogs’ new site (persistent elements! Oooh!), and also somewhat in PVP’s new site. Also, I have to give credit to BoingBoing, who just put in infinite-scroll on all their index pages, which is how my site will work as well.

And, in case you’re wondering, yes. I’m for hire to redesign your site, as soon as I’m done with my own. Shoot an email to systemcomic at gmail dot-com if you want to start talking.

Thanks to SCSpooner for sending my way this part-typography-part-sci-fi (that’s-a-lot-of-dashes) poster, an eye chart of all letters from well-known sci-fi logos. Can you name them all?

CHECK OUT THE WHOLE POSTER »

Friday night, a big show is hitting Baltimore. I’ll be there MC-ing as usual, hope you all can make it! Here’s the details from SuperArtFight.com:

Super Art Fight LIVE! at The Ottobar
Friday, March 16th, 2012 – 8pm Doors, 9pm Show

The Ottobar
2549 North Howard Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218

Admission: $15 (All Ages Show) – Tickets ON SALE NOW

Facebook RSVP: Right Here!

The Card So Far:

• Main Event – Super Art Fight Championship Bout: “The Nicest Man In Art Fight”Brandon J. Carr (Champion) vs. Jamie “Brawlin’” Baldwin (Champion)
• Super Art Fight Tag Team Title Bout: “The Business” Henry Alexander & “Charm City Shinobi” Dann Malihom (Champions) vs. “Angry Zen Master” Jamie Noguchi & MECHA IMPACT
• #1 Contender’s Bout for SAF Tag Titles: Michael “Spaghetti Kiss” Bracco & Chelsea“Grose Misconduct” Grose vs. Darl “Apocalypse” Gnau & Bryan “Silent But Violent” Prindiville
• Grudge Match!: Nick “Ghostfreehood” DiFabbio vs. Kelsey “Killer” Wailes

Also Appearing:

• Your Super Art Fight Hosts Marty Day & Ross Nover
• Live DJing from The Megadrives

Musical Guests:

• Paul and Storm
• Beefy

Thanks to one of my students (Morgan) who posted a link to this Tumblr, collecting (and designing) hipster versions of current brands such as McDonalds, Ikea, and Harley Davidson. Nice, clean designs and a fun experiment, done very in a very minimalistic style. So minimal I don’t even know who’s behind it or any information about it except that it exists (so very hipster, I guess?).

CHECK OUT HIPSTER BRANDING I GUESS »

I love this song and music video all about biking. It shows all the different types of bikers (we’re not ALL hipster fixie douchebags) and does a nice job of parodying many of the stereotypes, while still being generally positive overall. The song is called Motherf*king Bike by Sons of Science. Their site is http://www.motherfuckingbike.com/.

You can even download the song here!

By the way, I think it’s choose to say “jiff” not “giff”.*

Thanks to Kottke once again!

*BECAUSE I LIKE PEANUT BUTTER.

1. I love them, and the people who write them. <3
2. There’s been a lot of spam comments coming through on the site, things like “I love your content, the way you describe the topic really intere/sts me.” I’ve been deleting them. In an effort to keep them off the site, I’m currently moderating all comments to keep the spam away. So yes, I read them all. Because I care.
3. If you know how to fix this, please tell me. I don’t think this is the best use of my time.

At least, I will now.

This comes from a collection of posters advertising against Syphilis, collected at the  “The Passion of Former Days” blog, which are worth checking out if you have a moment and want to see some interesting posters. I just can’t get over the design decisions that led to this poster. Can you see a Don Draper-style meeting between a “creative” and his boss on this project?

BOSS: “Good news, Jimmy!”

JIMMY: “What’s that, boss?”

BOSS: ”The eggheads and pointdexters over in R&D have finally come up with something useful. Seems as though Syphilis is now curable.”

JIMMY: “Criminy! Can’t wait to tell the wife! She’s been on my back about getting that checked out for ages.”

BOSS: “Don’t I know it. Anywho, we need a new campaign to let the world know. Something with some whiz-bang. A real socko poster that says ‘Hey, got Syph? Not for long!’”

JIMMY: “Hmm, maybe it’s the Syphilis talking, but what about dinosaurs?”

BOSS: “A sexually transmitted disease poster featuring an extinct animal. I don’t know if it’s my Syphilis talking, but I think that’s gangbusters. Can we set the whole thing in Neuland?”

JIMMY: ”You bet your ass we can, boss.”

BOSS: “Jimmy, this is why you’re our best ad man. You really keep your finger on the pulse of things. Real cutting-edge thinking. That’s what’s gonna beat the Krauts, don’t cha know.”

JIMMY: “Now if only they’d find a way to get rid of my herpes!”

BOSS: ”That’ll be the day, Jimmy. That’ll be the day.”

And oh good, now I have the “Syphilis” tag on my website. Let’s all hope that doesn’t come up much, or if it does it goes away quickly.

Thanks to @ryanqnorth, @dirtbagg (via @annakrentz) for all the linkage that brought this to my attention.

A while back I did a comic about the International Standards Organization (ISO) and their attempts to standardize the shit-ton. It’s here, if you want to see it. An anonymous fan (he signed it “Anonymous System Fan”), sent me the following note:

Hey! So I read your System Comic about how much a “Sh*t-ton” is in comparison to a “Sh*t-load”. Well, I found the iPhone conversion app that settles that argument

Well, good thing we answered that question. Now we know how to convert between shit-loads and shit-tons. How to convert to a “Metric Shit-Ton” is anyone’s guess, but I suppose the Queen’s Measurements make more sense for this kind of shit anyway.

By the way, if you want to send anything my way, send it over to systemcomic at gmail dot com. It might sit in my inbox for two months, but I’ll get to it. Eventually.

As seen on Kottke.org:

Fotoshop by Adobé from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.