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Spider-Man, 5/7/15

Oh hey remember how MJ mysteriously wasn’t in the hotel where Spider-Man had dropped her off, which meant she could’ve been in mortal danger? Ha ha, turns out nope, which Spidey could’ve very easily determined by using the tracer he put on her clothes, rather than going through all the rigamarole with the hotel clerk. All he has to do now is not startle his wife into thinking he’s some kind of scary pervert! [Panel three: Spider-Man 100% fails at not startling his wife into thinking he’s some kind of scary pervert.]

Marvin, 5/7/15

You know the only thing lazier than setting up a speech or joke or any creative work with a dictionary definition? Setting up a week’s worth of jokes with the exact same dictionary definition. Still, kudos to Marvin for not breaking out the poop joke variation on this thing until Thursday!

Herb and Jamaal, 5/7/15

Jamaal, he’s literally clenching his fists and smiling cruelly and bellowing “power.” I’m pretty sure which direction he’s planning on going with it.

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Hi all! A quick few items on the recently completed fundraiser:

• I just sent out a batch of rewards today, polishing off my reserves of magnets and tote bags. Both reserves should be replenished by the end of the month, so don’t panic if you don’t see your reward just yet. I’ll put up another note here when the second and final batch goes out.
• You are only in line for a reward if you filled out the Google Form like I asked in the thank-you email I sent you! So, if you are one of the eleven people who got that email and didn’t fill out the form, you are not getting any rewards, unless you fill it out, which you are still welcome to do!
• If you’re saying “Hey, wait, I never got any thank-you email with any link,” you may be one of the three people whose email addresses just bounced back any attempt to communicate with you! Or maybe you’re one of the other people and it went to your spam filter or something. Please email me either way at bio@jfruh.com and we’ll get you taken care of!

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Marvin,5/6/15

We live in a world where everyone is eager to #engage with #brands, but it can be difficult to tell if the resulting #conversation is #authentic. For instance: this week, the syndicated comic strip Marvin has been featuring its own versions of the lovable Minion characters from the successful Despicable Me franchise. In order to find out if this represents true #engagement or just paid-for corporate #synergy, we need to do a little sleuthing!

• Marvin is syndicated by King Features, which is owned by the Hearst Corporation, which is privately held by a trust created by William Randolph Hearst himself.
• Despicable Me and its sequels and spinoffs (including Minions, headed to theaters on July 10!), is distributed by Universal Pictures, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is in turn a subsidiary of the publicly traded Comcast Corporation.

Now, although the Hearst Television subsidiary does own several local NBC affiliates and has some joint television production ventures with NBCUniversal Television Distribution, the two parent companies are not significantly entangled, and so it seems unlikely that this week’s Marvin strips represent corporate-directed buzz-building. Thus, we can enjoy them for what they are: just some wacky jokes using someone else’s characters to make the point that Marvin is a huge dick.

Spider-Man, 5/6/15

“Why is nothing ever easy?” The cry … of a hero!