Check the latest Ink Pen cartoon
- Thread starter Dan McFeeley
- Start date
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OK - Dunlap's capped off the thread with the best possible panels, IMHO:
http://www.gocomics.com/inkpen/?ref=ql_cmcs&campid=0&ssns=9&
Absolutely perfect!!
http://www.gocomics.com/inkpen/?ref=ql_cmcs&campid=0&ssns=9&
Absolutely perfect!!
"You can say any cockamamie thing you want and no one will know you're making it up as you go!"
Hmmm; that's pretty much the essence of writing a comic strip, no?
I'm not exactly feeling the love from Dunlap here, Dan. So exactly what are you supposed to think when you and the beverage you love are being derided by a fictional Viking in a syndicated comic strip? If I were smarter than everyone else, I would surely know. Clearly I have not had enough mead yet. Still, any ink is good ink, and lo, the ink doth pour forth in abundance...
Thanks (?) again, Phil.
KDS
Hmmm; that's pretty much the essence of writing a comic strip, no?
I'm not exactly feeling the love from Dunlap here, Dan. So exactly what are you supposed to think when you and the beverage you love are being derided by a fictional Viking in a syndicated comic strip? If I were smarter than everyone else, I would surely know. Clearly I have not had enough mead yet. Still, any ink is good ink, and lo, the ink doth pour forth in abundance...
Thanks (?) again, Phil.
KDS
Awww, Ken. I'm reading it as totally tongue-in-cheek. Maybe it's just me, but I think he's setting up his Viking for an encounter with the "real" meadmakers of today.
Let's hope so, anyway....
Let's hope so, anyway....
Wayne;
My tongue is in my cheek, too. Phil's strips may be compliments. I've never been one to read the social cues very well. If they are compliments, they are as left-handed as they can be - so far left, they're right, in golf parlance.
We know Phil (Tyr) can serve, let's hope he can also volley. Perhaps he will come out of the woodwork, if prodded enough.
KDS
My tongue is in my cheek, too. Phil's strips may be compliments. I've never been one to read the social cues very well. If they are compliments, they are as left-handed as they can be - so far left, they're right, in golf parlance.
We know Phil (Tyr) can serve, let's hope he can also volley. Perhaps he will come out of the woodwork, if prodded enough.
KDS
Looks like Phil is playing with two extremes -- Tyr who slams flagons of mead and hardly tastes them v/s mead drinkers who wax overly eloquent about their favorite meads. This being a cartoon with a bit of an ironic edge to it, I'm not expecting a happy medium to emerge. It wouldn't be in character. ;D
I can almost picture how this particular series started -- on a caffeine fueled night Phil reads Ken's words "The folks at the lead of this comeback are not wearing horned helmets on their heads . . . " and yells out "Perfect! I'll use Tyr for this one!" Hence, Tyr, the mead pitchman. ;D
I can see one problem coming out of this cartoon series -- readers will be intriqued enough to ask about mead at their local supply store but there may only be some poor examples on the shelfs.
I remember the first commercial mead I tried, a number of years ago. It was awful stuff but not knowing better, I assumed all commercial meads were that way.
I'd also made my own first batch at about the time I tried that mead -- a historical recipe from the 1800's, made in a crock pot according to instructions, using honey, water and bread yeast. I guessed at the amount of honey since the recipe didn't specify. My mead tasted about the same as that commercial mead, so I thought I was doing alright at the time. ;D
I can almost picture how this particular series started -- on a caffeine fueled night Phil reads Ken's words "The folks at the lead of this comeback are not wearing horned helmets on their heads . . . " and yells out "Perfect! I'll use Tyr for this one!" Hence, Tyr, the mead pitchman. ;D
I can see one problem coming out of this cartoon series -- readers will be intriqued enough to ask about mead at their local supply store but there may only be some poor examples on the shelfs.
I remember the first commercial mead I tried, a number of years ago. It was awful stuff but not knowing better, I assumed all commercial meads were that way.
I'd also made my own first batch at about the time I tried that mead -- a historical recipe from the 1800's, made in a crock pot according to instructions, using honey, water and bread yeast. I guessed at the amount of honey since the recipe didn't specify. My mead tasted about the same as that commercial mead, so I thought I was doing alright at the time. ;D
Dan McFeeley said:
Exactly. And what about the irony of Tyr? He who (supposedly and traditionally) drinks frothy mead is lost in the new world, in more ways than one. If anything, Phil is poking fun at wine snobs more than anything and subtlety pointing out alternatives.
I've only tried four different commercial meads. Chaucer's was waaaaay too minerally for me, bad experience. The others I've tried were all from Camas Winery here in Idaho and were all just short of gaggingly sweet, except for their Tej. Thank god I had tried my own before I'd tried the others.
Most who are intrigued enough from the strip to try one are probably in for a bad experience unless they hit a regional good one.
That is not Phil's fault. It's more the fault of the market.
And Ken, I think it's a huge compliment to you. My god! Who else could pair a mead with a roquefort or bleu? I tried it last weekend with my cherry mel and some true Stilton. Damn dude, you nailed it! What an incredible and unexpected match! :notworthy: Thank you! It's not something I would have even thought of until I saw your response to the dick head on Slate. It works. Quite admirably and then some.
Wade
Dan McFeeley said:
OK, so I'll thicken my skin up and not be so touchy about this.
Speaking of caffeine fueled, that Slate reply was written in a hotel room in Berlin at 2 in the morning, and then posted the next morning when I woke up. I love Germany.
See where writing a first reference book on the subject gets you? You end up sparking a thread on a syndicated cartoon. ;D
So when are you going on the Daily Show? ;D ;D ;D
There's some food for thought in yesterday's Ink Pen -- Tyr says that mead is so obscure that "you can say any cockamamie thing you want and no one will know you're making it up as you go along."
That's actually very true -- what kind of standards, general agreement, collective wisdom, ect., are there in the mead community that allows us to tell the not so well informed from the true mead connoisseurs? Drop a few lines about somebody serving a Cabernet Sauvignon with fish and you can almost feel the shudders among people who follow wine. If you enjoy wine, this kind of info quickly becomes common knowledge. Garrett Oliver's book, "The Brewmaster's Table" has gotten a lot of attention, and it draws from already accepted pairings of beer and cuisine around the world. Where does mead fit in? I'm assuming that there are similar standards in places such as Brittany France, but how well known are they?
Not long after the Slate article came out I sent an e-mail to Bill Daley, who writes the Drink! column for the Chicago Tribune, pointing out that he had covered a number of different drinks but to the best of my knowledge, had never looked at mead. I sent him a few links including the meadery directory here on GotMead and also your response to the Slate article, since it covered mead and food pairings. I haven't heard back from him, but I'm hoping he feels intriqued enough to do a future column.
So when are you going on the Daily Show? ;D ;D ;D
There's some food for thought in yesterday's Ink Pen -- Tyr says that mead is so obscure that "you can say any cockamamie thing you want and no one will know you're making it up as you go along."
That's actually very true -- what kind of standards, general agreement, collective wisdom, ect., are there in the mead community that allows us to tell the not so well informed from the true mead connoisseurs? Drop a few lines about somebody serving a Cabernet Sauvignon with fish and you can almost feel the shudders among people who follow wine. If you enjoy wine, this kind of info quickly becomes common knowledge. Garrett Oliver's book, "The Brewmaster's Table" has gotten a lot of attention, and it draws from already accepted pairings of beer and cuisine around the world. Where does mead fit in? I'm assuming that there are similar standards in places such as Brittany France, but how well known are they?
Not long after the Slate article came out I sent an e-mail to Bill Daley, who writes the Drink! column for the Chicago Tribune, pointing out that he had covered a number of different drinks but to the best of my knowledge, had never looked at mead. I sent him a few links including the meadery directory here on GotMead and also your response to the Slate article, since it covered mead and food pairings. I haven't heard back from him, but I'm hoping he feels intriqued enough to do a future column.
Well, today he's having at ad men, so I guess I definitely have to lighten up.
Dan, I think the only way I could get on the set at "The Daily Show" would involve an adrenaline-drenched scene replete with security guards, my face on a cold concrete floor and handcuffs. I'm not going there. Last time was a disaster. I still have no idea where all of that blood came from, and I never thought it would be that hard to pull a cork out of a bottle at full sprint. Maybe I should have rehearsed that move. I don't think Emeril Lagasse will ever want to hear about mead now, and Jean's said she'd never posting bail for me again. ;D
Dan, I think the only way I could get on the set at "The Daily Show" would involve an adrenaline-drenched scene replete with security guards, my face on a cold concrete floor and handcuffs. I'm not going there. Last time was a disaster. I still have no idea where all of that blood came from, and I never thought it would be that hard to pull a cork out of a bottle at full sprint. Maybe I should have rehearsed that move. I don't think Emeril Lagasse will ever want to hear about mead now, and Jean's said she'd never posting bail for me again. ;D
::wanders in Whistling::
Ken, brother... You need to relax... I used to get *REALLY* pissy when my column was attacked... Then I realised, they only pick the fights because I am established as something of a person in the know. Then I realised that them wanting to take me on, was them wanting to take on the "Big guy" in the scene...
In this case, you are not only a "big guy" in the scene, but brother, how many mead books are there out there... Hmmm... Amazon Says...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b...-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=mead&x=0&y=0
Yup... one... And one book of recipes... and one dude named mead...
Hrmm..
Ok, you are standing alone on the top of a smallish mountain, your choices are ::laughing:: sorry, Zork reference.
In any case, you are it brother, you are the "Published Expert" If there is fun to be poked, it will be poked at you...
Then again, you are *not* promoting as a wine snob... Matter of fact, the "snobbery" of the wine scene doesn't seem to exist here... And between this site, and your book, we have covered the *MAJORITY* of information that is actually available.
I have been hunting to get in touch with the cartoonist, I have a call with his Agent on Monday. I will ask the guy a few questions and report Back, unless there is a negative response from Vicky/Oskaar, I will be inviting him to the site and letting him know, if he wants it, there are a lot of people with damn good brew more than willing to hand off samples and you know what... I can't picture a cartoonist saying no.. They generally are about as well known as obscure book writers and Advice columnists ::coughs:: not that I know of anyone that will admit to being an advice columnist.
The things that are obvious...
He read Slate.
He read your response.
He thought that the idiot writing the slate article was a wine snob.
He is making fun of the whole situation.
Mead and Viking lore go hand in hand, if we as a community try to deny this, we are not only foolish, but are in effect shooting ourselves in the foot, trying to pull off the "Knights of Columbus" bit. I would not want to admit that my ancestor was a political prisoner and incompetant colonist, but hey, I am proud of my fine Irish Heritage.
Take it all with a grain of salt... Have a mead... No, not the green bottles that say "Pineapple mistake, do not open until 2010" I think the only person that will be sampling that is Oskaar, and then only to tell me if it just needs aging... or to be poured out.
--L
Ken, brother... You need to relax... I used to get *REALLY* pissy when my column was attacked... Then I realised, they only pick the fights because I am established as something of a person in the know. Then I realised that them wanting to take me on, was them wanting to take on the "Big guy" in the scene...
In this case, you are not only a "big guy" in the scene, but brother, how many mead books are there out there... Hmmm... Amazon Says...
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b...-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=mead&x=0&y=0
Yup... one... And one book of recipes... and one dude named mead...
Hrmm..
Ok, you are standing alone on the top of a smallish mountain, your choices are ::laughing:: sorry, Zork reference.
In any case, you are it brother, you are the "Published Expert" If there is fun to be poked, it will be poked at you...
Then again, you are *not* promoting as a wine snob... Matter of fact, the "snobbery" of the wine scene doesn't seem to exist here... And between this site, and your book, we have covered the *MAJORITY* of information that is actually available.
I have been hunting to get in touch with the cartoonist, I have a call with his Agent on Monday. I will ask the guy a few questions and report Back, unless there is a negative response from Vicky/Oskaar, I will be inviting him to the site and letting him know, if he wants it, there are a lot of people with damn good brew more than willing to hand off samples and you know what... I can't picture a cartoonist saying no.. They generally are about as well known as obscure book writers and Advice columnists ::coughs:: not that I know of anyone that will admit to being an advice columnist.
The things that are obvious...
He read Slate.
He read your response.
He thought that the idiot writing the slate article was a wine snob.
He is making fun of the whole situation.
Mead and Viking lore go hand in hand, if we as a community try to deny this, we are not only foolish, but are in effect shooting ourselves in the foot, trying to pull off the "Knights of Columbus" bit. I would not want to admit that my ancestor was a political prisoner and incompetant colonist, but hey, I am proud of my fine Irish Heritage.
Take it all with a grain of salt... Have a mead... No, not the green bottles that say "Pineapple mistake, do not open until 2010" I think the only person that will be sampling that is Oskaar, and then only to tell me if it just needs aging... or to be poured out.
--L
Launcelot said:
Better and more appropriate advice may never have been uttered on this board.
Ken
::blinks::
Wow... I sounded almost profound... Ok, you are hired, I have no idea what they pay my current editor but he really sucks.
Hope working in the beautiful heart of Downtown nowhere appeals to you, the pay sucks, and the building is kind of trashed, I never actually go there but I think the editors do...
::grins::
--L
Wow... I sounded almost profound... Ok, you are hired, I have no idea what they pay my current editor but he really sucks.
Hope working in the beautiful heart of Downtown nowhere appeals to you, the pay sucks, and the building is kind of trashed, I never actually go there but I think the editors do...
::grins::
--L
Okay, now I KNOW this guy is reading this forum now. Did you check out today's strip on irony?
Speak up Phil! And welcome aboard!
Speak up Phil! And welcome aboard!
I'm pretty sure he's been reading the forums also, but more than likely this series with Tyr had been penned out not long after the Slate article appeared. Cartoonists usually keep well ahead of things, maybe a few month's strips drawn up at at time, in order to keep up while dealing with the ups and downs of everyday life.
A recent example -- Brooke McEldowney. He had surgery recently and was out for a little while. The regular strip, 9 Chickweed Lane, kept going with no interuptions but Pibgorn, which he does one at a time, stopped for a little while.
A recent example -- Brooke McEldowney. He had surgery recently and was out for a little while. The regular strip, 9 Chickweed Lane, kept going with no interuptions but Pibgorn, which he does one at a time, stopped for a little while.
Well, whether Phil's lurking here or not, I don't expect him to be revealing himself to us anytime soon. Most folks of any note are these days cited in hundreds of online quotes, references, blog postings, etc. Heck, even I've got citations going back nearly 20 years that are readily pulled up using Google. But Mr. Dunlap appears to be a man who values his privacy -- there's almost nothing on him at all out there in the virtual universe -- save several dozen second source references that are all taken directly from his official syndicate bio.
On no! Tyr's a deadbeat!
http://gocomics.com/inkpen/2008/07/10/
Well, I suppose being a god, he would suppose it's owed to him. ;D
http://gocomics.com/inkpen/2008/07/10/
Well, I suppose being a god, he would suppose it's owed to him. ;D
