AAlgar’s Creative Resumé
The Great Gumban Novel (novel/podcast), 2010 – present
Writer/narrator
I’m writing a novel! Again! This is a project I’ve had on the back burner for – seriously – over 20 years. It’s time to get this thing down on paper. But since people seem more willing to listen to a podcast than they are to read an actual book (hey, I’m one of those people), I’ve decided to take a different approach on this one – I’m posting an audiobook, chapter by chapter, as a podcast. This project is a bit unlike anything else I’ve produced – it’s a bit more serious (though still very much a comedy), and definitely more ponderous than the bite-sized disposable comedy I’ve been doing for the better part of the past decade. But I think it’ll turn out okay. If nothing else, I can at least clear some space out of my brain for something I didn’t conceive of when I was fifteen.
Listen to the Great Gumban Novel.
The Post Atomic Horror podcast (podcast), 2010 – present
Co-host/producer
The topic on Sarcastic Voyage, more often than not, would turn toward a subject of great mutual passion in Matt and me: Star Trek. So I began tossing around the idea of doing a separate weekly podcast dedicated entirely to this. We found a format that worked for us fairly quickly (I’m certain the experience of reviewing almost 100 Transformers episodes helped there), and within the first three months we’d reviewed all thirty episodes of the original series’ first season. Even more than Sarcastic Voyage, we manage to produce content we’re both really proud of on a weekly basis. Even better are the occasional reports we get from listeners who claim to be watching Star Trek for the first time on our recommendations. That, my friend, is why you do things like this.
Listen to the Post Atomic Horror podcast.
The Sarcastic Voyage podcast (podcast), 2009 – present
Co-host/producer
As the last of our webcomics was winding down in 2009, Matt and I began discussing a different kind of collaboration. I’d been encouraged by my experiences with the Transformers reviews, and felt like, while I wasn’t a performer per se, I did have a decent mic presence. We tossed a few ideas around for a fake radio show, and we began taking tentative steps toward producing something. Then, to our utter delight, we managed to secure (once again) a relatively small but quite loyal audience. Twitter helped a lot. But I like to think we put together a decent enough show that people actually look forward to hearing our stupid attempts at comedy and commentary. Matt and I have what I think is a decent chemistry, and as the show continues, we continue pushing it forward in ways that interest us. We’ve talked to pseudo-celebrities (a writer from Transformers and GI Joe; the co-creator of the hit webcomic Axe Cop), we’ve recorded on location at events and we’ve even begun branching out into prepared comedy. Elements of so many projects before this one really came together to make this thing happen, and I’m quite proud of it.
Listen to the Sarcastic Voyage podcast.
Transformers: Lovingly Reviewed by AAlgar (short videos), 2008 – 2010
Writer/narrator/editor
This began as a bit of a goof in 2008, as I found myself without a job and with a fair amount of time to fill. I’ve been a fan of the 80s cartoon series Transformers since it aired, and I often find myself yelling at the TV, MST3K-style, in viewings as an adult. I thought it might be fun to put this material to video, and before I knew it, I had committed myself to reviewing all 98 episodes (plus the movie). As is so often the case with these “leap, then look” projects I take on, I ended up learning a lot as I went – specifically about editing in iMovie, and the power of YouTube. Because, while I’ve hardly hit impressive numbers, I did manage to pick up a pretty substantial (and loyal!) following as I did these. And, as always, the more I wrote, the better I got at it. I was a lot better at summarizing things in an amusing and concise way at the end of this endeavor than I was at the beginning.
WHY is that TRASH CAN on the TABLE?! (music), 2007
Musician
As I was taking a stab at various short-term creative ventures in 2007, I realized I’d had Apple’s Garage Band software on my Macs for years and never bothered even launching the thing. Proceeding under the assumption that any idiot can make music, I started making what some might generously describe as “songs.” And while I’m hardly going to give up writing to become a rock star, I think I put together some pretty fun stuff. It all sort of culminated in this “album” of material, largely inspired by message board in-jokes. And while only a few hundred people, at best, really get the joke behind “The Ballad of Winston,” I was sort of a celebrity in that tiny circle for a few weeks because of it. And if there’s one thing I love, it’s attention. If nothing else, I proved my original point – any idiot can make music. And I still do, from time to time.
Menace of the Intermen/God Damn It, Matt!/Vengeance of the Intermen(webcomics), 2007-2009
Artist/co-writer
I took another stab at webcomics in 2007, as I began to apply the lessons I’d learned about collaborative writing. Matt Rowbotham, a childhood friend of my wife and a pretty funny guy in his own right, joined me to create Menace of the Intermen. 2008 saw a sequel strip entitled God Damn It, Matt! (in which Kevin “Flonk” Lynch joined us as a co-writer), and we resumed it as a two-man show with 2009′s Vengeance of the Intermen. Nobody read any of these things, which is a damned shame. While the art is, as always, a bit weird on account of it being CGI, I think we wrote some good stuff here. I’m really proud of a lot of the stuff we came up with, honestly. But the internet was already overcrowded with webcomics by this point, and getting noticed among that infinite din was nigh impossible. Still, if nothing else, Matt and I learned that we actually make a good creative team, which would lead to more successful ventures in the future.
Start reading Menace of the Intermen here.
AAl2K8: Live from Inside the Internet (short film), 2007
Writer/performer
I hit a bit of a creative slump in the middle of the 00s, owing largely to some personal issues I had going at the time. In early 2007, as I settled into my new home in Seattle, I decided to take a stab at some small projects to get back into the creating mentality. One of the things I created was this sequel to AAl2K. It’s a reaction to the utter incredulity in the media regarding presidential candidates using the internet to reach out to potential voters. I think the joke is kind of lost in the shuffle, but the Bob-provided visuals make up for that, in my opinion.
Watch AAl2K8: Live from Inside the Internet.
Nick Bounty: The Goat in the Grey Fedora (adventure game), 2005
Co-writer
Brain Hotel was a great success (millions of downloads, favorable reviews in the legitimate gaming press), so Mark invited me back to help with his next game, another installment in the Nick Bounty series. I really admire the approach he took on this one – he gave an overview of the story to me and Nick Bounty performer/old high school pal Jason Ellis, and the three of us (Mark included) wrote separate scripts to that overview. He then took those efforts and combined the best from all three, which resulted in some incredible comedy. Brain Hotel convinced me that collaborating with people wasn’t a horrible experience. The Goat in the Grey Fedora convinced me that writing could be substantially enhanced with the right collaborators. It was an important lesson for me, and one that would inform my efforts in the years to come.
Play Goat in the Grey Fedora in your browser.
Tales of the Odd (comic book), 2004-2006
Writer/artist
After the release of Brain Hotel, and following a trip to my first real comic book convention (Wizard World Chicago), I decided to turn my webcomic ideas into an actual printed comic book. The art is a little weird at times (considering I created it all with 3D modeling, I’m frankly amazed it turned out as good as it did), but I stand behind the writing for the most part. (If I were to take a pass at it now, I’d slice out the ridiculous paragraphs of exposition. But the jokes and characters and plot are pretty solid, I think.) I ultimately produced six issues of Tales of the Odd, though I never properly wrapped up the story I meant to tell. I did start it as a webcomic thing, but that sort of petered out before it finished, and I was never really satisfied that the entire thing wasn’t produced in a uniform format. I’m considering correcting that in the near future. For now, you can read what I finished here, on my site. I also hope to have a reprint of those issues sometime in 2011, for those of you who prefer holding paper comics in your hands.
Tales of the Odd: Brain Hotel (adventure game), 2004
Writer/co-director/animator
I’d spent the first few years of the 00s teaching myself a 3D modeling program and attempting to produce a webcomic. The result was a bit uneven (though I would later salvage those efforts), but it had me very much in a certain creative mindset when I was approached by Mark to live out one of my life’s dreams: to be involved in the production of an adventure game. For four solid months in 2004, Mark and I pieced this thing together – writing and animating (me), programming and correcting (him), until we had something I was really proud to put my name on. And the best part? We somehow managed to convince a bunch of professional and semi-pro voice actors to participate. Which means that I heard my jokes coming out of the mouths of skilled performers. This game was a lot of work, but every second of it was worth it. Granted, if I had it to do over, I’d change a few things – but when is that ever not true? Quite honestly, this may have been the most rewarding creative experience I have ever had.
Play Brain Hotel in your browser.
Nick Bounty: A Case of the Crabs (adventure game), 2004
Voice actor
My old friend Mark Darin found himself in an interesting position in the middle of the 00s – he’d worked his way through school (though I suspect many of his skills were self-taught) to become a video game designer, but it still remained for him to prove himself to the industry-at-large. So he did what he does best: he gathered the limited tools he had available to him and started creating quite brilliant games on his own. Resurrecting his Nick Bounty character, Mark created a point-and-click adventure in Flash, and enlisted me and a few others to assist in with the voices. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I’m no actor. But I think I did an okay job here. More importantly, this project would lead to a much more fruitful partnership with Mark. (Not coincidentally, Mark now makes point-and-click adventure games for a living, working for the most prominent company in the genre.)
Play A Case of the Crabs in your browser.
The Sarcastic Verses (book), 2001
Author
Holding Fish Stories in my hands was, as I have stated, an intoxicating experience. And it got me thinking – I’d been writing for a tiny (though loyal) audience for five years to that point. Surely I’d generated enough material in that time to warrant collection in another printed volume. And, you know? It’s still not quite professional-level, but I think I chose this “best of” sampling of half a decade of essays pretty well. I had hoped to republish this book in 2010 when I was seeking a new publisher for Fish Stories, but sadly, I’ve lost the manuscript. So, if you’re willing to spend $22, I suppose you can get a copy from Amazon. While I’m pretty happy with the contents of the book, I’m gonna tell you: they’re not worth $22.
Buy The Sarcastic Verses on Amazon.
Fish Stories (novel), 2001
Author
This started as a serialized fiction project, distributed to a handful of my Sarcastic Voyage readers in 1997 or so. When I learned of the existence of internet-based print-on-demand services a few years later, I dusted the thing off and reworked it into what I thought was a decent first novel. Looking back, I stand by that assessment. The plotting and actual narrative don’t embarrass me now, ten years later – mostly, it’s the rather juvenile mindset that does. I used this story to sort out a lot of personal issues from my teens and early 20s, and while the resulting catharsis was important to me as a person, I’m not entirely sure it created a novel that will survive the ages. There’s a bit of “look at me, I can be Douglas Adams!” in this very stream-of-consciousness sci-fi-ish story, but it’s very much the product of an amateur, and deserved exactly the limited distribution that it got. Listen, though: having a 500 page book in your hands with your own name on it is a feeling that’s entirely as amazing as you think it is. Totally worth it. All that said, I’m looking to reprint the thing in a more affordable format sometime in 2011. Fingers crossed.
Available for purchase again soon!
The AAlgar Corporation/General Humor (Category), 2000-2001
Writer/designer
I was getting a little burned out on Sarcastic Voyage in 2000, so I began dabbling in more visual humor. I had intended to use this as an excuse to teach myself some basic graphic design and html, though all I really gained from the experience was that I’m more comfortable using Photoshop and GoLive now. There were some pretty funny ideas in this stuff – especially some of the fake products and services I offered as “The AAlgar Corporation.” The iTari (for which Bob graciously donated the visuals) actually got featured on slashdot when it posted, and nearly crashed my site. And not a holiday season goes by where I’m not approached at least once for “RealBaby” (which was a live infant wrapped in cellophane. People are weird.)
Check out The AAlgar Corporation.
hackedtobits (online magazine), 2000-2001
Writer/co-editor
Like so many other people at the time, my friend Jen Siciliano launched a website in 2000 or so – a sort of “alternative newspaper” thing. It was actually really good for the year or so the thing existed (I contributed as a writer, and occasionally served as editor), but sadly it’s all been lost to the ages now. I really wish, if nothing else, I could find the interview I conducted with the creepy curator of the one-man Museum of Menstruation in DC. I was especially proud of that.
AAl2K: Just Like You (short film), 2000
Writer/performer/director
Following the completion of the PressTime edit in 1998, and A Big Blue Pain in the Ass in 1999/2000, Bob and I intended to move forward with a series of short film projects under the “Station in the Metro” banner. Sadly, not much ever came of that, but I did manage to throw this little thing together, pretty much entirely on my own. It’s kind of a one-joke premise, but to my credit, it doesn’t really overstay its welcome. I think this idea would be funnier with a little punch-up and a better performer.
A Big Blue Pain in the Ass (short film), 2000
Writer/performer/director
In 1998, Bob helped me re-edit PressTime into something you could actually see and hear. (Okay, he actually did all the work. I mostly stood over his shoulder and told him what to do.) I was pretty convinced by that point that we’d made as much as we possibly could from that material, and it was still pretty terrible. But we’d had a lot of fun behind the scenes, and little of that actually showed on the screen. So I convinced Bob to help me produce a pseudo-ficticious “behind the scenes” documentary, using some of the better footage and a bunch of new jokes. I’m actually pretty happy with what we came up with. It’s a fun mix of that high school exuberance and some of the lessons I’d learned about writing comedy in the ensuing decade. It’s hardly high art or anything, but there are some decent laughs in it. If I had to hold up a single example of a decent collaboration between Bob and I, this would probably be it.
Watch A Big Blue Pain in the Ass.
Audio Sarcastic Voyage (podcast?), 1998 – 1999
Writer/performer/producer
I’m not going to claim that I invented podcasting, but I was creating original audio comedy and distributing it via the internet as early as March of 1998. Like most things I produced in those days, it’s a bit rough around the edges, but there’s a glimmer of some decent comedy in here. And you know, the fact that I managed to put out a bunch of these things with equipment that was on the low end of affordable in 1998 is, let’s be honest here, kind of cool.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for all eight installments of Audio Sarcastic Voyage.
Sarcastic Voyage (comedic essays), 1996 – 2001
Writer
This was where I finally got my act together and learned how to be a comedy writer – by jumping in blindly and just doing it till I got better. What began as the unfortunately named The Gar Side in late 1996 grew into a “column” of sorts, distributed at its peak to a few hundred friends and acquaintences. Sometimes funny and insightful but more often self-indulgent and overreaching, Sarcastic Voyage was a lot of things in the five or so years I kept up with it semi-regularly. Some of the more political stuff is cringe-inducing to me now (hey, I was in my idealistic early 20s), but overall I’m really proud of the work I did during this period. If nothing else, I learned a ton about writing for an audience, comedic timing and regularly delivering content on the internet. Internet-based comedy was in its infancy in those early days, and while I never really gained a substantial audience, I still feel like I was part of a unique time and culture that can never be duplicated.
The Missing Sock (short film), 1995
Performer
My pal Mark “Bob” Boszko was pretty heavily involved with the production of PressTime, but that was still very much my baby. So he took it upon himself – without even scamming class credit out of anyone for it – to put together this little movie a couple of years after we graduated. I’m sure he’s quite ashamed of it, but it was definitely the most polished of the amateur efforts made in our little circle. I played the villain. Badly. This – among other reasons – is why I went with the writing path, rather than the acting path.
No longer available for viewing online. Sorry.
PressTime (short film), 1992
Writer/director/performer
The experience of working with Mark on Aerosol Nights was a lot of fun, so I attempted to make a movie of my own. I even managed to convince a teacher in my high school to sponsor the production as an Independent Study project (meaning I would actually receive credit for the thing, and be allowed to work on it during school hours). I’d like to say that this process convinced me that I was some kind of Orson Welles-ish wunderkind, but such was not the case. I could blame our available resources (I often wonder how much better a job we might have done if I’d been 10 years younger, and had access to now-ubiquitous digital editing tools), but let’s be honest: I was 17. I was profoundly lazy. And not only did I not know what I was doing, but I barely cared to figure it out. Still, there’s a laugh or two in this mess. I’m not entirely ashamed of it. Not entirely.
Nick Bounty: Aerosol Nights (Short Film), 1991
Co-writer (uncredited)
Back in the summer of 1991, just before my senior year of high school, I worked in a video store with Mark Darin. Mark and I were already pretty good friends, and I wanted to get involved with the short films that he and our mutual friends were producing at that time. As he poked away at the third in a series of adventures for his comedic noir detective Nick Bounty, I contributed a fair amount of jokes that made it into the script and, ultimately, onto the screen. It’s been a running joke for years that he deliberately left me out of the credits (though I’m sure it was a simple oversight). Anyway, he’s long since made up for this by involving me in his Pinhead Games projects some 13 years later. As for this project… well, look: we were teenagers, and all we had were camcorders and VCRs. We did the best we could, all right?
No longer available for viewing online. Sorry.