Comments are closed.
False Positive: A Horror, Sci-Fi & Fantasy Webcomic Anthology
Webcomic Tales of the Surreal, Fantastic, & Macabre
Latest from the Blog
Good News for People Who Like Bad News
01-18-24
Dear False Positive Readers,
This is Ashley Walton, Mike’s sister and editor of False Positive. I have really terrible, awful news and a tiny bit of good news.
You might have noticed it’s been a couple years since we’ve posted anything on this website. Well, brace yourself for the saddest update I’ll ever share.
Okay. This reads “s-hh-f–(l?)-xd”, “bps mfks wl-(l?)-t-th-p”.
Greek readers roll eyes.
Obviously not meant to be read in Greek, as the typeface (as per usual in his previous comments) relate to the story in some fashion. For example, “Yolk”.
Usual readers roll eyes.
Yeah, it’s just that greek letters are often used as exotic (well, greek-ish) typefaces, based on the resemblance of their shapes to latin characters. This “works” if you’ve never read greek. If you’re familiar to some degree with greek, you “see” the shapes completely differently. The decyphering reflex is very different. And… that (widespread) usage looks silly, naive and comical. Not at all the intended effect. Seriously, if I was doing this the other way round, for a greek comic, it would strike you as quite awkward and clumsy (ooh they try to look latinish). And you’re eyes would roll in the other direction. Even though you’d understand the intention, the general context, the expectations, the reasons.
It’s like magic 3D images, or duck-rabbits. And what you see -whatever you’re supposed to see- in these depend a lot on your background. In a way, it’s a bit like insults in french/belgian comics, that were represented by chinese characters copied on ink bottles. The amount of characters calling each others “quality black ink” or such looks weird to french readers with chinese background.
But, I digress. It’s just, like pseudo-cyrillic in west-made cold-war tales, something that always makes my eyebrow twitch a bit…
if you do not read english, it’s just gibberish, whether you read greek or not. But since this comic is in english, readers decipher the shapes as a typeface for english characters, even if they also read greek.
this sort of graphic design/ typeface choice seems less like the french using asian character substitution for what was meant to be gibberish in place of profanity and more akin to spelling “boobs” on a calculator by typing “58008” and holding it upside down or substituting a letter with a shape like a triangle substitution for an “A.”
it might not be the most successful graphic deign choice, but i assume the title is shorthand for suggesting something of the setting of the story.
Seconding Posboro here. It’s embarrassing and shows blatant cultural myopia. But of course, if you think it’s kewl who are people with the *other* cultural background to tell you it’s childish. Do go on. No harm done. It’s your choice how to present yourselves and what impression you leave.
This is indeed the most horrible thing I’ve seen on this website.
Horrible cultural myopia? Seriously? I already knew that sigma isn’t the “E” equivalent, etc. but that doesn’t mean it’s some horrible culturally insensitive thing. I’m still capable of reading what was intended, and so are you. You really think that being so pointlessly patronizing makes a worthwhile point? If someone noticing visual similarities between alphabets (which doesn’t imply thinking that they actually *are* the same at all) looks childish to you, then you really need to find some bigger things to worry about.
Yes, let’s throw some stones and some crap at one artwork, let’s insult an artist that put his art for free, just because we can read Greek and this make us stand above standards of politeness.
Ok, now that we all acknowledged your coolness (you can read Greek, OMG), can we move on and enjoy “the most horrible thing”?
Strange that you didn’t react to “Yolk” like this, probably another cultural myopia, blatant, horrible…etc.
“And you’re eyes would roll in the other direction.” I think you mean, “And YOUR eyes would roll in the other direction.” Maybe you should familiarize yourself with English as well as Greek.
I realize that I’m responding to a ghost (from 2012), but this is absurd.
‘Our culture isn’t for you. This is ours. It’s us against you. Our God/s demand cultural purity. Don’t disrespect. Don’t borrow. How dare you find inspiration here? We will not tolerate abuse of our letter-forms.Your borrowing/ appropriation/ derivatization/ analogous works can only be interpreted as an insult.’
This is outdated thinking.
You’re choosing to find offense. You want to be offended. You’re encouraging exclusion and elitism. Why?
Don’t conflate custom with ethical conduct.
This and all “injuries” claimed by cultural appropriation are on a slippery slope. Where do you draw the line of cultural demarcation?
No more Tex-Mex or Asian-fusion cuisine.
Roll back modern music, only Spaniards can use guitars.
Only Disney shareholders can wear Guardians of the Galaxy merch.
Dreadlocks can only be worn by natives of India… or is that ‘owned’ by the Vikings?
And while we’re on the subjects of alphabets, look at how all us assholes are fucking with the Roman’s Latin alphabet. It’s just a bunch of gibberish.
Shameful.
Humanist readers roll eyes.
Do you design the title type yourself, it always looks ace!
I’m to blame.
Well I think it looks great, irregardless of all the hub bub 😉
Regardless. Irregardless isn’t a word, and contains a doubler negative.
Which will suck the world into a linguistic singularity… 😉
Exiled. Was that so difficult to work out?
also, predicting aliens/ancient evil
People, seriously, get off your high horse and go get your ego boost somewhere else. I’ve been here for a while and I’ve been enjoying the stories, but people like you are the ones who can really ruin a website with your insulting way of pointing things out. The one who made the comic is not a child to be scolded and shown the light, you’re talking about the work of a very talented artist who made a choice that I’m sure, as before, will have some relevance in the story. Make constructive criticism and elaborate on details that will promote discussion of the story or pages, don’t come in here like you’re superior and belittle people, especially the one who’s providing us with quality entertainment. Save your internet hate for those who truly deserve it and join us in our enjoyment of this site, be part of the discussion, expand that seed of wonder that the artist plants in our minds with these stories. What do you say?
I honestly can’t believe that anyone would come here to read this delightful and extraordinarily well-told and well-illustrated and finely-produced stories, and waste time arguing about whether the typeface on the cover is somehow not the correct way to tell the story.
Cultural myopia, or communicating effectively to the intended audience?
Shhh. It’s just a story. Try to enjoy it.
I know I would hate it if, somehow, I lost my ability to appreciate stories, and was reduced to petty critiques even before knowing how the story would go. How joyless that seems. Like no longer believing in fairies.
Which would be especially awful, since fairies are delicious.
Lol, to your last comment.
In imitation of prior pretentious comments I have to say, though, that it should properly be faeries as in the fae folk rather than fairies 😛
On a more serious note, I happen to have some actual Greek ancestry, Greek friends, and several years of training in Greek, and my first reaction to the typeface was to appreciate the humor of intentionally misusing the Greek alphabet to create an impression of an English word. For those of you with no sense of humor, note that our good friend Mike actually used two different letters for the English letter E: Epsilon and Xi. If he meant for it to be takes seriously don’t you think he would have, I dunno, made it less obviously a joke.
Just my 2 cents 😀
The only pretentious people I see in these comments are the people who have used “pretentious” incorrectly. It is not pretentious to be correct. Pedantic, perhaps, but never pretentious.
Hey Quasilucid,
Don’t worry about the flak, just do what you do best!
Still enjoying the comics!
Greetz,
Onno.
I just know I’m going to say this for every page, but good god, that cloud detail… <3
HAH! The first time! This is the very goddamn first time ever that comments for a FalsePositive comic took a somewhat mean-spirited direction.
It’s like a rite of passage 🙂
I love these stories and wonderful artwork. I hope the writer and artists understand that a large amount of the readers here can grasp the beauty and cleverness of your styles. Please disregard the few negative comments above. I, as well as many others here, love what you do.
Either I’m totally wrong, or someone watched Last Exile.