A little over a month from now, I will be attending the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, aka C2E2. In case you were wondering, no, I will not be there promoting They Are Coming For Us! Right now, this baby is still too new to splash around at a fancy comic conference (maybe someday though). Actually, I’ll be there as a representative of the entertainment news website, ScreenRant.com, where I am a contributing writer.

That being said, I am planning to take some time during the expo to learn more about the field of webcomics and advance my craft so to speak. Luckily for me, C2E2 has booked some of the best webcomic creators in the world, including some of the folks behind Cyanide and Happiness, Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, and MS Paint Adventures.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to talk to some of those guys and pick their brains about what makes their webcomics so damn good. I’ll be sure to report back on my findings here. Oh, by the way, if you live in the Chicago area, you should come to C2E2 too. It’s April 16-18th at McCormick Place. You can buy your tickets by going here.

It’s been a long-time coming, but, as I promised in a blog post all the way back in July, I have finally gotten off my lazy ass and redesigned They Are Coming For Us! into a robot-themed web comic. Woot woot! Big props to the people at ComicPress for providing such a brilliant and customizable Wordpress theme for me to work with.

A few points right off the bat: Because I’m not good at drawing, I’m using the same layout every time. In the comics biz, using the same layout is called having a “constrained webcomic.” You can find a similar set-up at Dinosaur Comics (though I have a long way to go before I can catch up to their level of hilarity). Also, instead of drawing my characters myself, I’m just using some public domain clip art I found. If you think that’s cheating, then I don’t know what to say except “Meh.”

I should also note that if you’re still looking for the latest news on the coming robot uprising, I will still be updating the blog portion of the site semi-regularly. As it stands, I’d like to write one or two new blog posts and two new comics each week. Hopefully, if I get into a good rhythm, I can increase to a more frequent schedule. We’ll see…

In the meantime, I openly invite any and all criticism on the new look of the site. For that matter, I invite all criticism of anything on the site. If you think my comic isn’t funny, let me know. If you think it is funny, let me know that too. If you want to share your criticisms in real time, follow me on Twitter.

The U.S. Government has created robots which can use organic matter for fuel. Organic matter like…HUMAN BODIES!

Oh my God. Terrifying. This touches on a post I wrote a while back about Zombie Robots. Needless to say, my feelings on the subject have not changed.

Luckily, I have figured out a way to get myself motivated and back on track. Beginning sometime soon, I would like to begin writing a weekly web comic. Naturally, it will feature robots and humans living together and facing hilarious I Love Lucy-like situations. In fact, just watch an old episode of I Love Lucy and picture Ethel as a T-1000 and you’ve pretty much got it.

Anyway, I don’t know the specifics of the plot and I thought maybe you guys could help me out. Do you have any suggestions? I’d love to turn this into a community project of sorts. If you have any ideas (i.e. this should take place in the future,the robot’s name should be Larry, lots of fart jokes, etc.) please leave a comment on this post.

Also, it should be known that I don’t draw, so if someone wants to volunteer their services, I’d be more than willing to add a new member to the They Are Coming For Us! team.

(Skip through the video to 1 minute and 52 seconds in)

I know, you’re probably asking, “But how can they have low self-esteem if they don’t have feelings?” Well, look, I don’t have all the answers. All I know is that when I tell my roomba that it sucks (and I ain’t talkin’ about it’s vaccuum power) the thing wheels itself into the corner and powers off.

So anyway, in the spirit of humiliating our future robot overlords, take a look at these robo-doofs. Any and all mean-spirited remarks should be left in the comments.

Unfortunately, according to early reviews, Transformers 2 doesn’t reach nearly the same level of badassness. (Badassness is a technical term by the way.) So far, the movie is rocking a solid 25% at Rotten Tomatoes. Yikes.

Anyway, I’m still going to see the movie. I’ll report back on my opinions this weekend. In the meantime, I thought I’d round up the juiciest criticisms here. Check it out!

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times:

“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” is a horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments…If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination.

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune:

The first, comparatively lucid Transformers was a headache, but I sort of enjoyed it….Revenge of the Fallen is more like listening to rocks in a clothes dryer for 2½ hours.

And, perhaps the most entertaining early review,

George “El Guapo” Roush, LatinoReview.com:

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Standards is a complete and utter disaster. I was really looking forward to seeing it. The trailers had me psyched beyond belief and I prayed that Bay had finally taken some of the criticism from moviegoers to heart and decided to make a fun, serious action film without all of his trademark bullshit. Instead we got more of the same: big explosions, a stupid plot and horrible acting. It’s borderline racist, it’s loud, it’s too long, it’s dull, it’s dumb and it doesn’t make any sense. This is what happens when you let your “action” director do whatever he wants to do.

To blend in with the general human population, making it easier to infiltrate society and—in time—conquer it.

According to this report from Fox News, Israeli defense researchers are in the process of developing a robotic snake for surveillance. Sure, “surveillance.” Check out this video. That thing looks like it was designed with sheer killing power in mind. Maybe that’s just my fear of robots talking. What do you think?