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Volley 6 by Brian Taylor
Preview   View Volleys:  1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10

Play-By-Play Commentary

Eyes Within A Face

Like a barroom brawl between drunken pugilists--lurching into every corner of the tavern, knocking over tables, eventually spilling through the front glass window onto the pavement outside--Jason and Brian careening from medium to medium to medium. First films. Then literature. Then the sideshow. And now they stagger into the realm of comics.

Much of modern horror owes a debt of gratitude to those pioneering "funny books" of the 40's and 50's. Movie directors concerned themselves primarily with lurid makeup, well-known actors, and shocking gimmicks; plot was often an afterthought, if it was thought of at all. Kill your antagonist in the third act? No worries. Just gin up some excuse to revive him before the opening credits of the inevitable sequel.

But to draw an audience, publishers like E.C. Comics actually had to spin true tales of horror, and rely almost solely on the well-crafted yarns. Modern peddlers of horror fiction are as much heir to the legacy of Tales From The Crypt and Value of Horror as anything penned by Poe.

A masterful play on Jason's return, this. Take the eyes, add two more. Frame them in a face awash with fear. Re-establish the narrative with a single word and a ellipsis.

These last two volleys have been my favorite thus far. Now we enter endgame.

Play by play commentary for this match is provided, as it happens, by Matthew Baldwin.


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Live Match Blog

Congrats to totopromo, the in-forum contest winner, and Operator, the remix winner. We have some Jewelboxing and Swap Meat items to send out to you. We're also sending packs of Field Notes to reo5th, BMB and naamyo. Email your shipping info to dawson at coudal.com. dw-02.04

Today is your last chance to sound off about who won Friday's Layer Tennis Matches and to post your remix/contest entries too. jc-01.30

On the last Friday of the season we played two matches at the same time, Koxvold vs Hutchinson and Glass vs Inman. There was a lot of action on the court and a lot in the forums too. jc-01.29

The Schedule

All matches took place on Fridays, live at 2pm Chicago time or GMT-6.

The First Season

January 25 - Match 1 | View Match
Chris Glass vs Shaun Inman*
Commentary by John Gruber | Forum

January 25 - Match 2 | View Match
Jason Koxvold* vs James Hutchinson
Commentary by Rosecrans Baldwin | Forum

January 11th | View the Match
Veerle Pieters* vs Cindy Li
Commentary by Kevin Guilfoile | Match Forum

December 14th | View the Match
Matt Owens vs Jason Gnewikow*
Commentary by Joshua Allen | Match Forum

December 7th | View the Match
Jason Koxvold* vs Bran Dougherty-Johnson
Commentary by Matt Haughey | Match Forum
Match was played using Adobe® After Effects®

November 30th | View the Match
Trevor Van Meter* vs James Hutchinson
Commentary by Bryan Bedell | Match Forum
This match was played using Adobe® Flash®.

November 16th | View the Match
Aaron Draplin* vs David Nakamoto
Commentary by Steven Heller | Match Forum

November 9th | View the Match
Scott Hansen* vs Rob Cordiner
Commentary by Alissa Walker | Match Forum

November 2nd | View the Match
Marian Bantjes* vs Armin Vit
Commentary by Heather Armstrong | Match Forum
Match was played using Adobe® After Illustrator®

October 26th | View the Match
Brian Taylor vs Jason Santa Maria*
Commentary by Matthew Baldwin | Match Forum

October 19th | View the Match
Naz Hamid vs Chris Glass*
Commentary by Rosecrans Baldwin | Match Forum

October 12th | View the Match
Steven Harrington* vs Chuck Anderson
Commentary by Jason Kottke | Match Forum

October 5th | View the Match
Neil Duerden vs Mathew Star Thomas*
Commentary by Debbie Millman | Match Forum

September 28th | View the Match
Kevin Cornell* vs Shaun Inman
Commentary by John Gruber | Match Forum

* =winner



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Layer Tennis was created by Coudal Partners in Chicago. We also created Jewelboxing for making awesome disc packaging and The Deck, an ad network targeted at creative folks.