josheiserike.com - Josh’s Comics & Writings Online

I’ve been toying with the idea of bringing back a daily comic strip. I’ve got an idea, I’ve got a lot of material… but I want to be sure I can commit to it. It’s in the vein of Liberal Crap. But right now my commitment is to Assholes and finishing the next draft of the script to the musical (Hi Mitch! Hi Matt!). But I’d also like to do a long form comic next (called in some circles the hyper-pretensious graphic novel). So, we’ll see what happens.

(there wasn’t enough space to run it)

 So in the meantime, please enjoy this one-panel cartoon, drawn for a freelance job application.

My summer officially starts Friday.

I’m not headed to the beach or anything, but I’m seriously considering skipping out on Passover to catch “Forgetting Sarah Marshall,” the latest offering from the Judd Apatow factory. Read the rest of this entry �

Mike Doughty interrupted his concert to tell a story.

Doughty, the former Soul Coughing front man, was performing at the 9:30 Club in D.C. last Saturday in support of his new album “Golden Delicious.”

As good as “Golden Delicious” is (and it is very good), Doughty’s solo work will probably never eclipse Soul Coughing.

(Soul Coughing broke through in the mid/late ‘90s, first with “Super Bon Bon,” then with “Circles.” Both hits were fresh and exciting. Fans that dug deeper, particularly into 1994’s “Ruby Vroom,” were rewarded with genre-bending innovative songwriting that sounded like nothing else on the radio.)

I wasn’t surprised when people were yelling out Soul Coughing standards during the Mike Doughty concert. Only, Doughty wouldn’t hear it, let alone play them. Read the rest of this entry �

A while back I wrote about my dislike of modern video games. To bring everyone up to speed, let me sum it up:

They no longer make games like they used to. I know that makes me sound like a video game dinosaur (I am), but it’s true.

I grew up on graphic adventures, games where characters would interact with the environment, picking up and us-ing objects to achieve their goal. These games prized intellect and creativity over reflexes and skill. 

“Escape from Monkey Island,” released in 2000, was the last graphic adventure from a major publisher, LucasArts, best known for Star Wars games. There are, to be fair, smaller independent companies that still make these games, or even release them online, one chapter at a time.

With me so far? Cool. Read the rest of this entry �

Tom Cruise. Justin Timberlake. Derek Jeter. Tom Brady.

These are, according to Best Week Ever, some of “The 10 Greatest Heterosexual Men Of Our Time.”

Number one on that list, compiled last year? Adam Duritz, the schlubby Counting Crows singer with Sideshow Bob dreads. Surprise? Well, he’s bagged Jennifer Aniston, Wynona Ryder and Courtney Cox, to name a few.

Duritz doesn’t exactly have Timberlake’s abs, but it’s pretty easy to understand his appeal: the dude wrote “Mr. Jones.” He’s a brilliant wordsmith and poet (the same exact reason girls today go gaga for Ben Gibbard).

But, ladies. Listen to any of his albums — really listen — you’ll have enough sense to stay away. This man has some serious baggage. If you date this guy he’s probably going to write a horribly depressing (and hauntingly beautiful) song about it. But that’s good news for anyone who buys his records, including his latest, “Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings.” Read the rest of this entry �