— Baroquen —

My brother and I are so glad to meet your acquaintance.  We have heard much of your exploits and hope that we will do well to get along and work fluidly together for our joint betterment.  We will do our best to be the humblest of guests in your expansive quarters and, I trust, you will be naught but the most generous of hosts.

I appreciate your allowing us to join the wing of your home populated by those of similar interests, the Webcomicry Wing.  And although our current space for our venture is small in comparison to those craftsman that we have admired for nigh on a decade now, I pray that one day I shall turn and be proud to see that my neighbors look upon me as an equal.

I am humble in knowing that I am both young and inexperienced, but know that I shall put in my blood, sweat and tears into handcrafting this small piece of real estate into a safe haven for the discerning Lady and Gentleman, seeking refuge from all but handcrafted humour.

Please, Dear Internet, or Net if I may be so bold, have patience, for you will swell with pride in the years to come for allowing us this fine opportunity.

And now, without further adieu, allow us this opportunity to set up shop and hone our skills.  Feel free to give suggestions or advice, we will graciously accept any opportunity to increase the quality of our wares.   Our workers have begun whirring with production and our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Drummond, Mr. Edmondson, The Dear Reverend, The Frenchmen and any other friends they may acquire in this vast land, Sir Internet, have begun their life’s work. Which is, of course, to bring you joy and to give to you a glimpse into their hearts and minds (and at times, cups).

Nonetheless, Sir Net, I am overjoyed to be working with you at present and I hope that we may continue to work together for a very long time.

Many Gracious Thanks,

~A. Kaufman

Manager of Baroquen Industries

Minister of Toast

Dear Internet;

The time has come for me to put a name plaque on my door in “La Plaza Internet” Hotel.  I’ve been having some troubles thinking of what I should use as my name on this here blog, and also I should use as my avatar. 

The following questions arrise:

1. Should I use a picture of myself? Or draw one? Or use a silly picture of something else?

2. What nickname to use? Is it dangerous to use my real name? Should I use a nickname? A pen name? Should it disguise my gender? Should I just remain A. Kaufman, Manager of Baroquen Industries?

From there I have so many nicknames to choose from, they range from the embarrassing to the obscure. They are derived from family pet names contrived from when I was a child all the way to names I use for my WoW character(s) (<– embarrassing) So… what to choose? AIM names? Family nicknames? One of the names I refer to myself as in my head? It’s tricky…

I will be discussing this with my compatriots, and this next blog I will most definately sign it with my new and (hopefully) permanent name for this wonderful comic for which we all have grown so fond of.

We’ve grown into this strip so much in the past months, and I hope you all stay tuned, for there are some new characters and some awesome storylines forthcoming.  So… feel free to put in your input and let us know how we are doing.

Peace, love, sunshine and rainbows,

A. Kaufman

Manager of Baroquen Industries

Hello People of the Internet:

We’ve been going at the Webcomickrey for a couple of months now, and I think we are really hitting a good stride.  I am very proud of what myself and especially my Brother Artiste have come up with. Oh and be sure that things will only get better! We are basically a newborn comic so we are learning so much every time we sit down to write, draw, and upload to the web.   With my excitement, I can’t help but to give a few shout-outs to those who have inspired us to get this far:

1. Mom and Dad — Despite their best efforts to push my brother and I away from possible careers in art, they have always supported our doodles, paintings and other mediums of expression.  I’m starting to rethink getting an MBA now… (MFA anyone?? just kidding :-0)

2. Our wonderful artist S. Kaufman, for I would never be as brave as him to draw that first comic strip and post it on the web for all the world to see.  For without him, we wouldn’t have a comic! These are all characters born of his imagination and his penmanship and without him, we would have NOTHING!

3. Batman, my favorite superhero EVER. Nuff’ said.

4. Mr. S. Kaufman, again, for being awesome

5. This one’s a biggie too, Halfpixel.  Formerly of halfpixel.com, currently of www.webcomics.com they are Mr. Kristofer Straub of www.starslipcrisis.com, Mr. Scott Kurtz of www.pvponline.com, Mr. Brad Guigar of www.evil-comic.com, and last but certainly not least Mr. Dave Kellet of the lovely www.sheldoncomics.com.  You should go read all of their archives and buy all of their stuff, like  I have.  They are all lovely gentleman who have published the wonderful book “How to Make Webcomics”.  You should buy that and read it too.  These guys really gave us the drive to put our stuff out there and see where it leads. I will always be indebted to these fellows. *bows*

6. And of course no list is complete without thanking you guys, you early adopters, please, keep on reading! Send us some suggestions on what you like, what you don’t like, maybe some encouragement, anything.  Maybe you want to mail me a dollar, hey, go ahead! I’ll take your dollar, sir, I’ll take your dollar and turn it into hilarity! So thank you so much for reading! You keep reading and we’ll keep working, hell we’ll keep working even if you don’t read, but Baroquen is proven to make you a more charming and tasteful individual so it really is in your best interest to keep reading 😉

So yeah, I’m still super excited about this strip. :D  I don’t mean to commit an act of hubris, but I think big things are on the horizon… watch out Halfpixel! Baroquen Industries and Pancake Farms are comin’ for ya!

On a side note, some other comics you should read which are personal favorites of mine and have inspired me to create are:

Wondermark @ www.wondermark.com

Dr. McNinja @ www.drmcninja.com

chainsawsuit (also by Mr. Straub) @ www.chainsawsuit.com

Penny Arcade @ www.penny-arcade.com

Least I Could do @ www.leasticoulddo.com

Achewood @ www.achewood.com

As for comics in print, I’m a big fan of The Boondocks, Get Fuzzy, and The Phantom (for different reasons 😛 ) Oh! And I don’t want to leave out The Venture Brothers on Cartoon Network.

*phew!*

And there is probably about tens of more comics I should list here, but I should get back to work 😉 Now, these are just my own influences, our resident artist and creator most likely has more and different influences from my own 😀

Keep on Keepin’ on and don’t stop believing,

-A

XOXOXOXO

Manager of Baroquen Industries

A tiny little division of Pancake Farms

To be specific, those who comment will now be able to upload their own avatars.  Now, when someone decides to comment, they need not allow themselves be represented by a little gray man!

-S

Artist and Amateur Fisticuffsman

Compatriots!

Let me tell you, if I could get a sample size of 1,000 or more people with a years worth of Alco-log-ism, I could write a paper of NOBEL proportions!

So… if anyone out in internet land would want to aid me in my THIRST (haha) FOR KNOWLEDGE, try keeping an Alco-log! be sure to list you age, gender, employment status, marital status, number of children and any other information so that all variables can be properly regressed.  Then in the log itself, simply list the type of drink, how much consumed, and the date and time of consumption.

As of right now I have no initial hypotheses, but I am very interested to see if any correlations occur. 

If I can get no other volunteers for my mini-study, I’ll simply have to write a paper on the habits of my brother, which would be much less scientifically significant and Nobel Prize worthy, but still interesting.

Forever yours in science,

A.

XOXOXO