Saturday, May 01, 2004

Gap

There's a gap in saved rantspace postings from April of 2004 to July of 2005. Our forum ate them, somehow...which is sad, 'cause there was some good stuff in there. Ah well. Consider this the gap filler.

Friday, April 02, 2004

The Once and Future Cricket

Welcome once more, my friends, to more Dim Bulb goodness. This week, we have the fight for total control of Dim Bulb beginning, which can be found in the Keenspace Forums in the "Forum Games" section. It's a head-to-head battle between me and the Monkey to see who the true ruler of Dim Bulb shall be!

More Fanart Goodness

Got a new little piece of fanart today from my good friend Beth, who contributed a little drawing of Earl the Archangel for our growing collection of pics of the quasi-official Dim Bulb mascot. This, I am given to understand, is what happens when one does not pay attention in a meterology class. The original is currently hanging up in my bedroom on my bulletin board.

Also, on a related note, we have this comic from the OU Daily done by James Nghiem (I don't even know how to begin to pronounce that). He's the guy who does comics on Mondays for the school paper, and decided to do a group portrait of the main characters/avatars of all the artists for the paper. It's got a pretty faithful interpretation of Simon there in the front row.

Linkage

Got another comic or two you need to check out. First is Feyenne, a fantasy/adventure comic that's shaping up nicely with an interesting story and good art. Also, you'll note the addition of a link to Deity Permit, a comic I mentioned last week or the week before (I dunno, the past few weeks have all sorta run together). There's a link on the main page and the links page now to each. Oh, and we're also going to put a link on the links page to Netrek as soon as we can get a banner made up for him (or I can pester him into making one for us). I'll probably also make one up for OBRVS if I ever get around to it.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Master's Thesis Blues

Well, I finished the rough draft of my Master's Thesis a scant ten minutes ago, and I'm damn happy to have that thing taken care of. It's still real choppy and rough, but it's only the first draft, and my brain's pretty well fried. It's currently 28 pages long, though I already know I'm going to be adding to it (if for no other reason than to tie everything together better and get to the required 30 pages). Headin' home in a couple of hours, so I'll be out of touch pretty much until the weekend. Don't worry, though--I've already done tomorrow's comic, and I'm getting ready to do Friday's as well.

Super Happy Chibi Smitin'...Shirt?

So I noted in the commentary on Friday's strip that I wanted the last panel as a t-shirt someday. Well, Monkey went and made one. It can be found here. Feel free to pick one up and feel the Dim Bulb love. As soon as I have some extra cash, I'm buying one myself...unless someone wants to get me one for my birthday (I take a XXL and can provide my mailing address upon request :) ).

Death By Thesis

So I'm in the process of writing ye ol' Master's Thesis. It's been kicking my butt. Hard. A lot of the sources I had turned out to be fairly useless, so I've been scrambling for others, trying to rework the paper so that it fits what I actually have...it's just been rough. But I've still got a few days to write, and I'm actually writing now, so it's going better than it was Sunday and Monday.

But enough about that! I'm here to tell you about the nifty comic I discovered today. It's called Deity Permit, and I heartily recommend it. The art is absolutely breathtaking. It's a groovy little manga with interesting characters, an intriguing developing storyline, and it's not so far along yet that it'll take you ages to get through her archive (she updates like twice a week, and started after we did, so you can catch up real quick, and be sitting there ready for your next fix.

Anyway, I need to go draw Friday's OU Daily comic, and possibly Friday's Crooked Halo as well. I'm hoping to wrap up the current story in the next couple of updates. Sorta depends on whether or not I come up with more ideas.

Oh, let us know what you think of the new site design in the forum.

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

MIA

The real question is, does MIA stand for "Missing in Action" or "Master's in Action?" 'Cause either would be appropriate this week, since I'm going to spend the whole thing writing said Master's Thesis. Should be able to have the rough draft knocked out by Friday...at least, that's what I hope, since that's when I told my committee and my parents I'd have the rough draft done by. Sounds like this is gonna be a week of many all-nighters. Also looks like I picked the wrong year to give up soda pop (and thus, caffine) for Lent. The amusing thing about that is, I'm not even Catholic.

Changes

As the Monkey pointed out, and as you may have noticed if you have eyes in your head, the site is under a wee bit of construction. We're trying to work out a more efficient way of doing the newsposts (we've got a couple of ideas in mind), and a couple of other minor things...such as the new background. And the dropdown. And we'll have a few links to our friends and favorites on the main page, just for kicks. And when I say "we" are doing all this, I really mean "Adam is doing all this," because I learned long ago that my abilities with html and site design are...how to phrse this? They're complete crap. So I let Adam do all this stuff.

Granted, we're both busy as hell this week, so don't expect anything to really get done until Spring Break at the earliest.

Speaking of Changes, we're not the only ones going through 'em. It appears that Ping of The Jaded got an offer from a website called Graphic Smash to come join them for a six month trial period. This is important because they're gonna give her money to do her comic. That is really freakin' cool. It's always nice when someone recognizes really amazing talent with monetary compensation. Personally, I'd love to get paid to draw Crooked Halo or write Troubled Times. I'm gonna keep doing them even though I'm not getting paid (just as I know Ping would do even if she weren't getting this deal from Graphic Smash), but it's nice to see that good work gets recognized.

Monday, March 08, 2004

Fanart!

We got our first fanart yesterday, a double shot from the indomitable Ping. We have two pictures of Earl: one that's more my version of Earl, and another that's more in keeping with Adam's rendition of everyone's favorite archangel. I cannot even begin to express how much I love these pictures, or how much I want to thank Ping for doing this for us. She's been nothing but helpful since Adam and I started this thing up, helping us figure out little things and even really big things (she was the one who first pointed us to the solution for the archives, even going so far as to toss code our way for it). She's plugged us relentlessly, as we have her, and I still think she's one of the nicest folks I've met online yet. So, much thanks to Ping, and go read more of The Jaded. It's getting really interesting right now anyway.

Guest Starring...

So I've got a few guest comics for other people coming up. I know there's one that'll make an appearance over at Reasoned Cognition, an interesting comic that answers real science questions. I've also done comics for NeTrek and ORBVS, but I don't know when the last two will appear online. More to come when I actually know.

Chuck to Grad School: Screw You

I've only heard back from one school, the University of Wisconsin. The word I heard back was "no." Well, screw you, Wisconsin. You and your cold weather, and your cheese, and your ridiculously-named professional football quarterbacks. C'mon, "Favre" should not be pronounced "FARVE." That's not how the English language works.

This moment of bitterness brought to you by Chuck's future. Chuck's future: God only knows what's in it, except for a lot of beef jerkey. Mmm, jerkey...

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Archives Up, Etc.

Back In Black

Well, the Keenspace problem has run its course, and we're finally back in action. It's nice to be able to upload stuff and change things on the site again.

Speaking of changes, you might have noticed we now have archives for each individual comic here on Dim Bulb. Adam's been working tirelessly (okay, that may be stretching the point a bit) to get archives put together for Vapor Lock and Troubled Times, and I finally got around to putting together the stuff for Crooked Halo. All that's really left is to update it whenever we do a new comic, and for me to add comments to the Troubled Times pages (wrote up the comments tonight, just need to download the pages and add 'em). Adam's also at work on a dropdown menu for all three comics so that you can jump instantly to a storyline in a particular comic if you want. More on that as it develops.

The archives should solve the biggest problem folks've had with Dim Bulb--that it was annoying to have to go through everything when you just wanted to read a specific comic. Now if we could just work on making the comics funny, that'd take care of the other complaints...

Chirp, Chirp

For anyone with too much free time on their hands and an inkling to read stuff I've written, feel free to drop by Chirping Crickets, a Live Journal devoted entirely to crap I've written. I just posted another short story there yesterday, so there's a few things to read. I'll add more every week or two.

Sunday, February 15, 2004

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fungus

Absence

You may have noticed a distinct absence of comics last week. That wasn't our fault, actually--Keenspace went down on Tuesday, and didn't come back up completely until late Friday or Saturday. As such, you missed a Vapor Lock and a couple of Crooked Halos. Go back and read 'em, or Monday and Wednesday's comics this week just won't make any sense.

Milestone!

So this Wednesday marks Crooked Halo #100. I'm amazed I've already drawn that many of them. Back in late June, when we started up the website, I had no idea it would be this much fun or this much work. I knew I enjoyed drawing the comics, and that I wanted as many people to see them as possible, and knew that just emailing them to my friends wasn't enough. I wanted random people to see them as well. And random people have seen them. In fact, the same day the Mailbag comic ran, and my rant on the same subject first appeared down in this space, I actually got my first fan email. I was flattered, to say the least, and shall treasure the email. I look forward to receiving more, which means I need to keep cranking out the comics.

Side Projects

Speaking of cranking out comics, I'm embarking on a small enterprise to try and increase the site's visitation and get us some more readers. I posted over in the Keenspace Forum that I'm looking to do guest comics in exchange for links. So far, probably about a dozen people have responded. I've got ideas for a couple of them, but we'll just have to see what happens. I should probably get to working on this.

Archival Research

Well, Monkey's been doing some work on the archives, and we just about have it set up to where you can navigate each individual comic by itself without having to do all the tedious skipping over of one of the other two strips here. All that's really left to do is for him to email me the template, and then I have to set up the Crooked Halo archives. So look for it in the next week or two. I know one of the biggest complaints I've heard from people critiquing the site has been that you can't navigate individual comics. Well, folks, your cries have been heard! We're on the job!

Sunday, February 01, 2004

Plugged Nickel...er, Nishichi

Plugging Away

Okay, so a lot's been going on what you don't know much about, perhaps. First, some plugging--go read Nishichi 27. It's a nifty manga-style comic that usually updates once a week (Thursdays, I believe), and is a good read. Nice humor, amazing art style, and interesting characters. The artist, Typo (as she is known in ye ol' Webcomics Industry...if we can actually call those of us on Keenspace members of any sort of "industry"), actually manages to use the manga style very well. Most folks who use a manga art style do so in a way that makes it look as though they just copied it straight out of How to Draw Manga. Typo manages to avoid that. She uses the manga style, but it's unique enough that it's not derivative. So go read her comic. I mean, c'mon--not only is the comic itself cool, but she'd actually liked us without me even knowing it. That's right--a completely random stranger linked Dim Bulb. Booya.

Blogging

Just a quick note on Blogs and such. I still have a personal blog, updated approximately daily (sometimes more often, sometimes less), over here. Sometimes it's a little too heavy, so if reading semi-serious stuff isn't your bag, you might want to give it a pass. But it's a glimpse into my mind, which is both scary and (I think) interesting.

Second, I've started up a thing over at Live Journal for my short stories. Basically, it's someplace for me to post stories and let people comment on them if they like. You don't have to be a registered user to leave a comment, and I always welcome constructive crticism. So go check it out.

Mail Bag

For the record, there is no Dim Bulb Reader Mail Bag of yet. Why? Because we've never received any reader mail, really. Oh, we've got emails from certain friends saying "Oh, I liked this comic" and things to that effect, but no real reader mail with pressing, incendiary questions. We're still looking forward to receiving such mail, really. Feel free to email us, even if we don't know you (just make sure you put "Dim Bulb" or "Crooked Halo" or "Vapor Lock" or "Troubled Times" or something in the subject line so we know what it's about).

Ghost Town

The forum is like a ghost town. No one's posting. This makes me sad. It makes the Monkey sad. It makes the Baby Jesus cry. You really don't want to make the Baby Jesus cry now, do you? No, you don't. So go visit the forum and leave us some love. Do it for the Baby Jesus.

Friday, January 16, 2004

Back in Black!...no, wait, I lie. Just back.

Still Jaded

Hey everyone. Today's comic (January 7) begins a short little stint of a cameo shot by Juno of The Jaded, as well as a quick little series featuring the remnants of everyone's favorite boy band, The Choir of Angels. Juno has a rather mysterious past, though it has been proposed that he is perhaps a former boy band member himself. Anyway, enjoy this little foray into continuity, self-referential humor, inside jokes, and the Juno guest spot. And special thanks to Ping for loaning me the character.

Bon Voyage, Clyde

Well, by the time you all read this, my brother Clif will be in France. For a whole freakin' semester. That's a long time to put up with a country full of people who still think hygeine is how you get sick. Anyway, I hope he has a safe and fun semester, and when he gets back in four months, I'm sure I'll have a whole backlog of songs for him to put to music.

Sounds of Silence

It's been awfully quiet around Dim Bulb the past few weeks. Understandably, of course, since most of our readership (as far as I know) is composed of college students, who generally return to the roost for Christmas break. I know I did for a week, and it was nice in a way. Of course, during that week, I didn't have a computer, because my mother fears technology and hasn't seen fit to replace the computer my youngest sibling took with him to college. But there's been next to no activity in the forum, and this is the first rant posting since finals week. But that's all gonna change, as we get back into the swing of things around Dim Bulb. I'm going to try to post something here at least once a week, if not more, and I'm sure the Monkey will occasionally surface to make fun of stupid people or the like.

One of the most annoying things about everyone leaving is that some people will never go back through the archives and check out the comics that came while they were away. I made some of my favorite comics during the break, including the Apathy comic and the two part "maybe they're just friends" set. They're comics I did way back when Dim Bulb was hosted on Tripod and was more just a repository for comics we'd done in the printed version than anything anyone would visit regularly. I always loved some of those comics, and wished more people could see them. Now, they can...if they'll go back through the archives.

"I Was Waiting on a Moment"

The other annoying thing about Christmas Break is that no one's around anymore. Most of my friends leave and go home for the break, as I did. But there's really no one around home anymore except my family. And while I love my family dearly, I can only stand so many consecutive hours with them before I'm ready to either string myself or them up. Wendy didn't get to come home this Christmas because of work (though she'll be around in February), and most of the rest of my friends from home are either cast to the four winds or I just didn't keep in touch with. It's just quiet and sorta boring, to be honest.

Thankfully, all that will change quickly. Two of my friends are already back in town, and I picked another one up from the bus station yesterday morning. On Saturday, another friend is getting back in to Oklahoma from far-flung New York, and I'll be at the airport to welcome her back with open arms and a ride back to Norman. So it won't be quiet for too much longer. Besides, if I get really bored, such as in between nearly every breath, I can always play more Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. Mmmm, Tactics Advance...

Sunday, January 04, 2004

Count Your Halo

“If You Can’t Dream, Play”

Just a quick note--Adis ran my Count Your Sheep Guest Art over at his most excellent strip. Ping introduced the comic to me, and it’s become one of my favorites. I love its combination of whimsy and insight. It reminds me of Calvin and Hobbes, in a lot of respects. Go check it out. For those of you who happened over here from CYS, welcome, enjoy your stay. We’ve got three separate comics running here, so take a cruise through our archive and get acquainted with Dim Bulb.

”So This Is Christmas”

Well, the Holidays are upon us. I’m heading home Monday, and will be there for an indefinite period of time. That means that it’ll be pretty quiet here (well, as quiet as it has been…we’ve neglected this poor main page rantspace way too much of late). Fear not--comics will still update as scheduled. I’ve already drawn enough Crooked Halo strips for the next couple of weeks. Adam will be finishing up Chapter One of Troubled Times this Saturday, I believe, and we’ll do a couple of weeks of Omake (written by the Monkey and drawn by yours truly) following that.

Get In The Car

Annoying story--my car got hit in the parking garage while I was at work a week and a half ago. This annoys me for obvious reasons, but mostly because I haven't even had the car for two whole months and some idiot business professor didn't bother to watch where he was going when he backed out of his parking spot. Thankfully, though, this story has a happy ending--his insurance is paying for it all, no fuss or hassles, and I've already found a place to get the work done. So that's good.

Return of Who?

So everyone's talking about Return of the King, I'm sure. I'm going to see it this weekend. I'm really looking forward to it, of course. I've yet to hear anything negative about it, which doesn't really surprise me. At least ONE great trilogy won't let me down this decade. *grumble grumble Matrix Re-crappy and Suck Wars Prequels* Yes, I'm bitter about what happened with Matrix Revolutions (I preferred Reloaded to Revolutions, though that's like preferring being poked in the eye with a blunt stick rather than a sharp one) and I can't stand what Lucas has done to my favorite movies of all time. But Peter Jackson...he understands what we want. He feels our pain. He has answered our prayers! He hasn't blown his proverbial load too early!

...Okay, maybe that last little bit was a little over the top. Sorry. Go read Count Your Sheep or The Jaded, why don't ya?