Comments on: Search engine for the full text and descriptions of every Calvin and Hobbes script

By: SamSam

SamSam — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 18:48:00 +0000

I guess the “script” is what the characters say to each other, like in a play. So you’re mostly searching the script, although since there’s some descriptive text that gets searched as well, you’re also searching the strip.

By: OoerictoO

OoerictoO — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 17:21:00 +0000

title says “script” and summary says “strip”. i thought script was a typo/autocorrect but then several commenters use the term “script”.
is “script” another word for a comic strip?

By: SamSam

SamSam — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 16:52:00 +0000

I know Dinosaur Comics (qwantz.com) adds a plain-text version for every comic, which allows them to be searched and indexed by the comic search engine ohnorobot.com. It seems as if some folks are trying to make all web comics follow this pattern, which I think is great.

By: Thad Boyd

Thad Boyd — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 07:22:00 +0000

Certainly the best search engine ever to be associated with the name “Bing”.

By: Griffon

Griffon — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 17:47:00 +0000

“I think that a free search engine for a comic should be just about perfect.”

Overstatement to absurdity is the domain of the apologist.

It isn’t a question of being perfect, it’s a question of consistency.

Google, a generalized search engine, produced what a purported specialized search engine could not, despite the fact that, in my case, the phrase was contained in the search.

Google renders the C&H search engine redundant and incomplete. It’s a cute idea, but not ready for prime time.

By: JPhilipp

JPhilipp — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 16:40:00 +0000

I always wanted to have this for comics in general. Google?

By: bishophicks

bishophicks — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 16:07:00 +0000

Every comic strip, especially web comics, should have a search engine like this. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to find a specific strips for something like Penny Arcade and searching their archives with specific phrases from the script doesn’t work.

By: benher

benher — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 05:25:00 +0000

Might be nice if it had the ability for a community of users to edit tags and such.
I wonder if he OCR’d Waterson’s iconic handwriting.

By: Dave Pease

Dave Pease — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 04:07:00 +0000

I think that a free search engine for a comic should be just about perfect.

By: Griffon

Griffon — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Fair enough, but therein lies the problem.

Most people may not remember specific lines, but identify with images since cartoons are an image-based medium; e.g. a box with “Swift kick in the butt” is perhaps a more memorable sight gag than the specific lines.

Even those keywords in the entered text should have triggered some result. “Swift kick in the butt” is not a very overused phrase among C&H strips.

The word “transmogrifier” does apparently produce strips even though the word does not appear in the dialogue but does appear on the box.

It appears to be inconsistent. A search engine (or the description typists) should not penalize for good recall.

By: Boundegar

Boundegar — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 11:54:00 +0000

I was thinking the same thing – the sheer amount of data entry is staggering. If one person did this all by hand… my God.

By: Nathan Ng

Nathan Ng — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 09:34:00 +0000

‘bing’ appears to be the developer’s nickname, rather than a reference to the microsoft search tool. With respect to your specific example, the searches are dependent on the source it’s searching — the script text is mostly based only on the words spoken by the the characters. Try a less specific string. e.g. if you search for ‘swift kick’ it will return your result, as this is captured in the description of that strip. So — fault whoever typed in the description, not the developer.

By: Danny Spitzberg

Danny Spitzberg — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 09:30:00 +0000

“watercolor” yields nil. VERY DISAPPOINTED.

By: bo1n6bo1n6

bo1n6bo1n6 — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 09:17:00 +0000

Don’t ever search for “calvin pissing” on Bing image search.

By: patrace

patrace — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 08:22:00 +0000

I don’t know, seems like some people might view this as a way to make Amazon referral cash off a property that’s notoriously anti-commercial.

By: griever

griever — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:37:00 +0000

I used the older version of his site to express my feelings way too often…”It’s just like when Calvin gets sick in the Summer and he says ‘Someone owes me BIG for this!’ “

By: Robo Pastierovič

Robo Pastierovič — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:19:00 +0000

must have taken a lot of time to manually write texts about each comic strip

By: Griffon

Griffon — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 06:10:00 +0000

Doesn't work well, but that's typical of bing. I typed in "A swift kick in the butt." to retrieve one of the funnier Calvin strips. Bing couldn't find it. Google did, however.

By: pjcamp

pjcamp — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 04:41:00 +0000

I miss Calvin.