Humor in Education

The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (San Diego State University) has posted an article Humor in Education, featuring a comic by yours truly, with a link back to my blog. The Math and Religion comic seems to be popular with folks who ask permission to re-use my comics. (Obviously, I don't know what's popular with the people who repost without asking, unless they link back to the site and I see a whole lot of pings from one source.)

In the Center of the Thunderstorm

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Yes, that's "I" in the center of the storm.
I was going to use "Religion" to get a whole pantheon in there, but I still had "Thunder" left over from a couple weeks ago.

For the record, the picture was taken at New York ComicCon, and the dude next to me is made out of wax. And my T-shirt has the Iron Giant made up like Iron Man.

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

I'm thankful for the library of images I've built up over five years. And yet it still look well over four hours to assemble all this!

Certainties

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

We did have one year recently where that intersection was actually null. But only that one year.

Congruent or Supplementary?

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

Unfortunately, my only student named "Watson" is in Algebra, not Geometry.

Veterans Day 2012

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

And to every man and woman my father ever introduced me to at every American Legion and VFW Post I've ever been in in my life: "Thank You".

Belong To

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

And it's one heck of a union. 8-)

What's in a Name?

So I've been thinking a bit about the characters in my comic. I'm sure most of you have noticed that I've rarely used their names. There are a few reasons for that. First, as I try to conserve space with word balloons, they can fall to the wayside. Second, I don't talk like that, using a person's name in the middle of a conversation with them. Sure, maybe to get their attention at the beginning or if there are multiple speakers, then I might talk like that, but not usually.

And then there's the reason that you've probably guessed: some of them don't have names, at least not "officially".

What makes it official? I guess using it in a comic. I can't say why it is that I don't want to pin them down. I'm sure I had a reason. And some of the characters were created to be in the background, and yet somehow got elevated in status (i.e., they were reused).

I believe two regular characters have complete names, and then there's a partial: Mike Keegan, Ken Wayne, and Michele, whose name has only one "l" in its spelling for the simple reason that the first time it was mentioned, I literally could not fit the second "l".

(By the way, that landmark event happened one day after another landmark event -- when the main characters ceased to be albinos. No seriously, I used color in the comic, just not skin tone, but that yard had so much color to it that I had to do something. But also note that Mike is wearing a plain white T-shirt in the pool. That fair Irish skin!)

In my mind, Michele's last name was something like Roberts or Robertson, for no particular reason, except that I looked up their heraldry a few years ago for a possible comic (I think it had something to do with pool towels or beer steins or something), but that never went anywhere. "Richards" was another possibility, and while it might sound Fantastic, since Michele's first name is actually Mary, it'd be as if I wanted to channel a Mary Tyler Moore character. (Not my intent. Although I did allude to Marlo Thomas once.)

As for the rest of the math department: I've informally referred to them as "Annette" (or "Annie") and "Barbara", but haven't gotten around to saying it. Then again, there's another member of the math department that I've been wanting to add just for a one-shot gag. No name and no image yet. Short shrift, you might say. Oh, and still off the record, Annie's the blonde.

The rest of the minor characters have first names or no names, with the exception of the sub, Quinn Jonas. His name isn't a pun, or a reference to the Jonas Brothers (which I thought about). It's more of an allusion to a sci-fi character for a plot thread I started and then dumped early because it wasn't going where I wanted it to go. But he's a good foil, like the young science teacher, but he's a sub, so he's only there when I need him. And out subbing elsewhere when I was out subbing elsewhere.

So, my dear readers who have stayed here thus far, (no comma in that clause), should I mention their names? Should I give them names? Make a Bio page on the Archives site? What to do?

TL/DR: No names? Wassup wit dat?

Alternative Solutions

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

I have heard this time and again. About time I used it in a comic.

And for the record, the "just about" is there because if the problem deals with geeky trivia, the answer "Buffy" is never incorrect.

Added note: And for the one or two of my readers who might have been curious about this: I typed the text so that it appeared on the Smartboard, and then used the marker to write the answer for added authenticity.

Three Limiting Factors

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(C)Copyright 2012, C. Burke. All rights reserved.

I love it when a Venn comes together.

Those three factors influence this comic (well, not the money, except for when I'm spending time making money) and a lot of other things I do, or more likely, don't do. So I enjoy when three things happen at once, like a movie with friends, or Comic-con, or a sci-fi convention.