Math Horror Movie: 4Bidden Planet

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2024, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Monsters from the i.

So what was with all that "placeholder" nonsense? A report from June 2026:

The shorter answer is that I had intended on this comic to appear before Halloween, and I had another idea (long since forgotten) that would appear on the 31st.

Obviously, none of that happened.

I had delays as I was trying to get this done, mostly because I have an actual day job teaching, and October is still very much the beginning of the year when you're trying to get things up and running. So this comic was pushed back from 28th, to 29th, to 30th ...

It was just about ready to be posted on the afternoon of the 30th after I overhauled the entire thing. The plan, at that point, was the finish and post when I got home. And then I realized that I'd left my flash drive at school, and there was too many changes for me to attempt to do from what was on the hard drive at hard. So I put in the "placeholder" specifically because I still planned on creating a quick comic for Halloween day itself.

And once again, none of that happened. I can't tell you that I remember much about that school day last October, but I couldn't get to do what I wanted to do.

The slightly longer story: every time I looked at the blog after that, the old "imposter syndrome" reared its ugly head. And then there's the joke asking if you could still be paranoid if people really are out to get you, and I wondered if that applied to with this syndrome as well. It's not like I ever achieved major success with this blog, and for the time that I did, I really didn't know how to capitalize on that to take it to another level (like, for example, Math with Bad Drawings).

And now blogs are past their heyday. Even now, my Regents pages, which always got more hits than my comics, are down in views, as search engine AI spit out answers before they even point to my pages. Fewer of today's high schoolers would even know I exist.

So that's what's been going on. I've been in a decline pretty much since I knew I was closing in on my 2,000th strip and I would need to do something for it. I think I'm past the point of doing something BIG, not because no one is expecting much, but because few seem to be out there at all.

If you are out there, I will remind you of the many times that I've said, "I thrive on feedback." And then I might point out that I get so little of it.

I'll probably reprint a lot of this in the next post that bears the "Comic" tag, which will be in June of 2026.

Happy Halloween! BOO!

MY NEWEST BOOK IS OUT Burke's Lore Briefs: Yesterday's Villains, the following to Tomorrow's Heroes is now available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. If Heroes who don't die live long enough to become the villain, what happens to Villains who live long enough? When do schemes of global conquest become dreams of a quiet place away from all those annoying people you once wanted to subjugate? And does anyone really want to rule over the world's ashes if it means we can't have nice things?
My older books include three more books in my Burke's Lore Briefs series, and the anthologies A Bucket Full of Moonlight and In A Flash 2020. Vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, used-car salesmen, fairies, superheroes, space and time travel, and little gray aliens talking to rock creatures and living plants. Plus pirates, spies, horror, and kindergarten noir! If you enjoy my books, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads. Thank you!

(x, why?) Mini: Septagon

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2024, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Every slice sends you closer to prism!

It's a multi-layered story.

I also write Fiction! You can now order my newest book Burke's Lore, Briefs: A Heavenly Date / My Damned Best Friend, written by Christopher J. Burke, which contains the aforementioned story and a bonus story. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon.
Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Positive One

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2024, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Like your imaginary friends, you can be the positive one.

Now, I know the value of i, but what do we know about all those b g's?

If you're wondering why I didn't do a "four i" joke, well, because I did one a looooong time ago, in January 2011.

This wasn't a good "Mike" comic and definitely not a student comic, so I fell back on the tried and true stick figures.

A little trivia: I've lived a good part of the past three decades only a few blocks from that famous street walk from Saturday Night Fever. The famed Lenny's Pizza just closed its doors recently after all those years.

I also write Fiction! You can now order my newest book Burke's Lore, Briefs: A Heavenly Date / My Damned Best Friend, written by Christopher J. Burke, which contains the aforementioned story and a bonus story. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon.
Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Math Horror Movies: Children

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2023, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

y = 666

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Math Horror Movies: Mars A-Fracs

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2023, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Mars Continued Attacks!

Fractions within fractions! Frac! Frac! Frac!

This is a comic that didn't get made last Halloween. I'm glad I made a note of it for this year.

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Math Horror Movies: Ghost Rhombus

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2023, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Yippie-yi-A! Yippie-B-C-D!

This almost was a comic about Ghost Peppers, but I wanted a Math Horror Movie before the month ran out. Plus, I couldn't buy any peppers because I didn't have any Cash on me.

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Night of the ______ Dead

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2023, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Honestly, I'm surprised that this hasn't been done with zombies, skeletons or vampires.

I didn't have a way to make this a Math Horror Movie.

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Welcome to Bored Panda Readers! (Suspension of Disbelief in Movies)

Welcome to new visitors who came here from the link at Bored Panda about the Supspension of Disbelief in movies.

My name is Christopher J. Burke, and I'm a high school math teacher. This used to be my class blog (back in 2006) but it didn't get used much, and then "official" blogs replaced it. In 2007, it became the home for a math webcomic, (x, why?), featuring math jokes, teacher humor, and whatever geeky references I can work in because that's who I am.

Feel free to look around and leave a comment or two. (Even if you're the first on the blog entry to do so.)

I'm also a writer, as you can see from the links below. Please check out those two books. I also do Writing Prompts on reddit, and some of them are in https://www.reddit.com/r/xwhy/

There's also more about me at http://www.mrburkemath.net.

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Math Horror Movies: Vector

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2022, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

Don't get me started about the Head of Vector!

I didn't get to do any of the Halloween comics that I actually planned out in advance. Ironically, this wasn't one of them. This one came just came to me Halloween evening.

Evil points this way sounded better than Evil has a direction.

What's your opinion?

I also write Fiction! You can now order Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Order the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Cuadricula

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2022, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

It'll rattle your diverticula!

If I can find a place in the curricula.

I have to translate some of my notes into Spanish for the English Language Learners in the class. And after the third or fourth time I said "cuadricula", you can imagine the Legosi accent that I wanted to add to it. And then I remembered from the old TV GUIDE that the spanish stations didn't have "MOVIE" listings. They had "PELICULA". So that was added in.

I did try to find more Spanish words ending in -icula, but Google would only give me English. Or it would translate the phrase "words ending in -icula" into Spanish.

Sadly, I thought the translation was going to be "box", but it was "grid" or "square". Had it been "box", then the vampire would've been in a coffin.

I tagged this one "Halloween" just so it'll pop up when I click on it.

I also write Fiction! You can now preorder Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Preorder the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Math Horror Movies: The Hungry Cardioid

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2021, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

At least, I didn't make a Cardioid B joke.

There's no "B" movie named "The Hungry Heart" that I'm aware of. I was originally going for a "Tell-Tale Heart" comic. However, when I started working on it, my homemade ink blot was telling me Pac-Man, so I went that route. But then I needed a new title because there wasn't anything "tell tale" about Pac-Man. Maybe next year for this.

No promises on Cardioid B though. How's that for scary?

I also write Fiction! You can now preorder Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Preorder the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.

Math Horror Ways: Seven Ways ...

(Click on the comic if you can't see the full image.)

(C)Copyright 2021, C. Burke. "AnthroNumerics" is a trademark of Christopher J. Burke and (x, why?).

It's to DivIdE for!

I have probably used all of these with the exception of b\a. The colon notation looked out at first, because I usually see it written in a proportion more than as just a single ratio, which is division.

The backward notation is useful for the distinction between "a divided by b" and "b divided into a". There are, of course, the same thing, but students get confused by the wording. I assume it's similar to the problem with "20 less than a number" being written as N - 20 and not 20 - N.

But everyone should have learned their "gazintas" at an early age.

I also write Fiction! You can now preorder Devilish And Divine, edited by John L. French and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, which contains (among many, many others) three stories by me, Christopher J. Burke about those above us and from down below. Preorder the softcover or ebook at Amazon. Also, check out In A Flash 2020, by Christopher J. Burke for 20 great flash fiction stories, perfectly sized for your train rides. Available in softcover or ebook at Amazon. If you enjoy it, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads.

Come back often for more funny math and geeky comics.