Mad Scientist High

Owners vs. workers, mad scientist-style.

Phil — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

The son of a great mad scientist himself, Galt’s dad hasn’t ever had an easy time of it, especially after getting dragged away by men in white lab coats last year. Hopefully, his time in the mental (?) hospital helped him sort some things out. Maybe not all of them, but at least some.

Also, in a dispute between management and labor, I’m almost always inclined to side with labor, especially when management’s performed lobotomies on uncooperative workers in the past.

The power of rock is unstoppable!

Phil — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Kind of like when he met Coach, I’ve been excited to put Herr Veklempt and the metalhead freshman together for a while. While he’s got all the traditional hang-ups that you expect from a librarian, Herr Verklempt’s background in the mad sciences gives him a wide array of methods on which he can fall back to keep his beloved stacks and reading room in order.

If you don’t recognize the illustration on the freshman’s t-shirt, it’s either because a) you weren’t really the target audience for today’s strip (and I’m sorry for that – I’ll make it up to you on Friday) or b) I didn’t do a very good job of replicating the cover art to The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ire Works, which is easily one of my favorite records in the last 10 years. It’s demanding, complex, and aggressive, but really freaking funny at the same time.

You’ll also need to sing and dance (a special, Sunday-sized strip)!

Phil — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

If there’s one thing I won’t ever miss from my time in the performing arts, it’s the process of auditions. Forcing yourself to generate irrational amounts of confidence, just so you can step in a room and be evaluated by people who probably don’t have any interest in you at all, and leave with the best good sport smile you can muster, whether you bombed or soared in any measure. It’s kind of degrading no matter which side of the process you’re inhabiting.

For my final college film project, our teacher arranged an audition day one Saturday early in the semester, and we had to sit in this black box theater for most of the day, as a phenomenally odd assortment of actors and potential actors paraded in, performed their prepared scenes, answered some questions, and left with that same smile plastered to their faces. I’d cast my project earlier from among my friends and roommates, and it seemed as though many of the folks in my class had, too, so it rather felt like we were wasting our time. I think the auditionees picked up on that more and more as the day wore on.

I know you can’t get away from being dispassionately evaluated in life, but it’s far nicer when the people doing the evaluating have some kind of investment in the people they’re examining.

College application season is a stressful one…

Phil — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

There’s a lot that goes into deciding on a college: getting an idea of what you want to study, finding schools that have good programs relating to that thing you want to study, hopefully visiting them, discovering how much they’ll cost, groping about to figure out how you’ll pay for it, eventually accepting that you [...]

Typically, take the enemy you know over the one you don’t.

Phil — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

I spent a lot of time in the early going of the strip trying to wax philosophical about the true role of the mad scientist, if they could ever be more than simple threats to the social order. It took me longer to get away from that than it did to quit making dated political commentary (Mad Scientist High is not Doonesbury), but I’m trying to find a way to get back to the existential considerations. I wanted the strip to be more than just a joke three times a week. It’s not the easiest nut to crack, but thanks to a post I read on Twitter last week, I feel like I’m terribly close…

Why you might reconsider hiring zombie teachers:

Phil — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

We’ve all had that teacher (or those teachers) whose presence we dread. Even the upper echelon of my least favorite would pale in comparison to Mr. Ferguson, though. A partially cybernetic zombie who speaks through a vocalizer; he better be close to retirement…

The bonds of best friendship only stretch so far.

Phil — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Newton and Galt may be best friends, and cohorts in an endless series of plots to take over the world stretching back to their days in elementary school, but a relationship like that can still find itself fraying. When one best friend dates a member of the other best friend’s family over his express opposition, that causes some fraying. When one best friend kicks the other out of the band they founded together, you better believe that’ll cause some, too. At some point, you have to assume that this’ll get addressed, either by trimming threads or pulling them apart entirely.

You have to think about these things.

Phil — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Just like me, Galt overthinks stuff. Hopefully, he’ll have something to show for it some day (like unquestioned dominance over the world).

When it comes to world domination, there’s always next year…

Phil — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Well, dear reader, we’ve arrived at the completion of yet another calendar year here at Mad Scientist High. Another year (hopefully) of improved artwork, smoother joke-telling, and examination of odd philosophical fascinations. I feel like I’m the better for it, and I do hope you do, too.

Talk about a grave man…

Phil — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 14:00:00 +0000

I know Rupert’s taking certain… liberties in his interpretation of Mercutio’s character, but I also know that he’s very probably cast himself as Romeo, and will take every opportunity he can to jab at Newton a little. That’s just the nature of their relationship. While we’re on the subject of Mercutio, I’d just like to [...]