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[Nabubrush]

My dad's a writer of large, practically encyclopedic books about baseball, and I remember his mentioning their messing up various players' names. Flipping through his books, I always notice typos.

He's a fairly well-known author publishing with big houses, so you'd think they would be pretty careful about that kind of thing, but apparently not.

Is your dad Bill James?

[RMJ12345]

Is your dad Bill James?

Ding ding ding! I was wondering if someone would get it right right off the bat. Are you a sabermetrician?

[Nabubrush]

Ding ding ding! I was wondering if someone would get it right right off the bat. Are you a sabermetrician?

Dude, excuse me, but that's fuck*ng crazy! He's like world-famous and shit.

I'm sorry, but I hate baseball SO MUCH.

[RMJ12345]

Dude, excuse me, but that's fuck*ng crazy! He's like world-famous and shit.

I'm sorry, but I hate baseball SO MUCH.

Hahahah. How in do you know who he is? I mean, he's famous, but only in very certain circles. God of SABR, pedestrian elsewhere.

[Nabubrush]

It is my secret shame that I know so much useless shit that I have no reason to know. My brain is stuffed with total crap. It's kind of like how yesterday I went into the music store looking for Ohio Players CDs, and I ended up skimming through the vinyl section, and I came across Ratt's "Reach for the Sky" album - a band I never listened to deliberately, and one that my friends and I actively, viciously derided - and I looked at it and thought 'hmm, this is the album with Way Cool Jr. on it. That's what I live with every day.

Also, don't get me wrong. I hate baseball, but I love sports and I love stats, so your dad is basically my hero, and has sort of my dream job, it's just that I would have done it for football or hockey. Hey, have a comma or four million.

[littlefallsmets]

Well... that's ONE way for you to not be judged by people on the merits of the relative rudeness of your lady-body.

Being the progeny of one of the greatest baseball minds of the Baby-Boomer Generation.

You may underestimate your pop's fame amoungst sports dorks, Rumjay.

While he is probably only a full-on deity to complete baseball-stat nerds, any sports dork of any stripe knows of his work because...

Symbolically, in the sports-dork world, the entire saber-theory is the main argument for small-ball against the steroid-bloated long-ball culture that both saved and is killing again the mainstream popularity of the major league game.

Any sports dork of any type who is aware of baseball is somewhat versed in the saber/OBP/runs-created vs. hittin'-the-ball-eight-hundred-feet argument, if only to be able to hold their own in an argument about said debate...

And in that context, they know of his work.

Sports fandom is a good deal like comic book fandom... half the fun of knowing the minutae is not so much in knowing the minutae as it is knowing that if you got in an arguement over the minutae, you would be able to hold your own and probably win.

I say this as a man who owns both the DC and Marvel hardcover encyclopedias, to the point where I possess from rote, both of the holy grails of comic book minutae... being able to explain Cable's origin AND Power Girl's origin.

They gotta know your dad's work at least passingly... or they're at risk of not looking smart in a minutae-swinging contest.

In other words, I understand that you probably do not care for being judged as even more awesome because of association to your father's work.

I understand and appreciate it in the same way that some people only judge my shambling attempts at getting into the entertainment business by which famous people I have brought coffee to at which occasion.

However, that is pretty fuck*ng awesome, nonetheless.

[AugustWest]

Not only are you a good writer, you must be a hell of a typist too.

[RMJ12345]

Haha! No, I think Dad's job is pretty much awesome. I think it's funny when people geek out over it. It's an awesome job. Basically, my parents have the best jobs ever, because my mom is an artist/student. Which has put me in the position of growing up thinking that WHATEVER I WANT TO DO, I CAN DO. So I'm not looking forward to getting out of college and being faced with the reality of "No....you can't actually make money off your webcomic. Only like three people are able to do that. Get a real job."

Sigh.

[CortJstr]

Haha! No, I think Dad's job is pretty much awesome. I think it's funny when people geek out over it. It's an awesome job. Basically, my parents have the best jobs ever, because my mom is an artist/student. Which has put me in the position of growing up thinking that WHATEVER I WANT TO DO, I CAN DO. So I'm not looking forward to getting out of college and being faced with the reality of "No....you can't actually make money off your webcomic. Only like three people are able to do that. Get a real job."

Sigh.

If I may cross threads you could always pose for sexy photos instead of getting a real job.

[littlefallsmets]

To be somewhat crass but also realistic, generally being a Good-Looking Lady doing something on the internet that is usually done by Weird-Looking Dudes is usually a definite plus in your favour.

Male fans will often show up faster and stick around longer if they develop a child-like unspoken unrequited crush on the strip and the artist at the same time because, hey, there is a Good-Looking Lady saying and thinking things that are usually only said or thought by Weird-Looking Dudes.

That... that is pretty much what got me into Narbonic, back in the day. haha.

ALSO: Yeah, I type like 70 wpm and.... yeah, I've been posting a lot today. A work-from-home day plus a kind-of-depressed-and-anxious day equals an on-the-computer-a-lot day. Mea mea mea culpa.

[RMJ12345]

saying and thinking things that are usually only said or thought by Weird-Looking Dudes.

As a true daughter of The King Of Nerds, this may be the most descriptive sentence of me ever written.

[littlefallsmets]

Oh man, that is true, too.

People would more quickly accept you as being a Genuine Hot-Nerd Girl doing a comic strip online and not simply a Hot Girl Pretending to Be A Nerd (i.e. every girl on G4) because you have pedigree.

You come from the line of the Stan Lee of baseball nerds.

That is instant geek-cred to draw in people who might eventually make your comic strip profitable.

Here. Here is the thing.

You just need to prove your particular ability to make a profitable comic strip through statistics. Throw your parental weaponry back at them!

You just gotta statistically quantify your abilities and attributes and how they apply to Making Money in Comics. You gotta come up with your OWN statistical proof of this.

I ain't no math major, I graduated magna cum laude in the made-up-sounding-major of writing-for-television-radio-and-film and a minor in the made-up-sounding-minor of comparative religion. Math is pretty much not my thing.

But there must be some equation you can come up with, making numbers out of the fact that your geek-cred lineage and being-a-pretty-lady-status totally make your ability to make an online comic profitable much stronger.

(Geek-Cred(Rude Titties)/Findin' A Web Designer * Generally Drawin' A Lot)How Long They'll Let You Live at Home And Basically Just Draw and Maybe A Part-Time Job/How Good You Actually Are At Drawing And Being Funny.

This is just a rough draft. I'm just sayin'... throw it back.

EDIT:

Here's the best part. When they call you on the fact that this is clearly the insane ramblings of someone on the internet, generating an equation to explain success in internet comics? Then. Then you fuckin' go meta on their ass.

You full on go meta and say "well, Jesus, that's the POINT, Dad... you're a famous writer because you broke down how often Chris Sabo would get a hit with or without the goggles... internet comics sound normal compared to that."

And that's when you've totally logicked yourself into full parental support.

...or into getting kicked out of the house.

But, like, definitely one or the other.

[Nabubrush]

LFM, sometimes it's just like cataracts of words and information. Not a bad deal, you understand, jus t a bit overwhelming. I'ma go get a burrito.

[RMJ12345]

(Geek-Cred(Rude Titties)/Findin' A Web Designer * Generally Drawin' A Lot)How Long They'll Let You Live at Home And Basically Just Draw and Maybe A Part-Time Job/How Good You Actually Are At Drawing And Being Funny.

Minus the Rude Titties part, I think this might actually fly for a while with my parents. It would at least fly with my dad, he is (predictably) all about Doing What You Love. Mom is more about Getting Good Grades and Prospects.

[AugustWest]

LFM, sometimes it's just like cataracts of words and information. Not a bad deal, you understand, jus t a bit overwhelming. I'ma go get a burrito.

You took the words right outten my mouth.