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.