Saturday, November 26, 2005

Workin' It

Edit: Crooked Halo Archive is now fully operational and loaded with all the comics. go check it out and read through the whole strip without interruptions.

If you look up in the menu above the current comic, you'll notice a pair of buttons: one labelled "Vapor Lock Archives," the other labelled "Crooked Halo Archives." Clicking on either of those buttons will take you to the new archive sites. Monkey's uploaded all his old strips to his archive, but mine currently only has Friday's comic. Hopefully I can change that sometime this weekend.

Another important change: we've got a new forum (this is probably news to Monkey). I signed up for a Comic Genesis forum for Dim Bulb, which can be found here. If I'm not mistaken, you can make anonymous posts there, but let's try to keep out the spam, eh?

"A Lot to be Thankful For"

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Mine was pretty spiffy, though I think the next time my roommate manages to convince me to go shopping on Black Friday, someone just needs to sit on my head until the urge passes.

Monday, November 21, 2005

Hell is a Typo

When I checked to make sure the site updated this morning, I noticed a little typo in the second panel. Free gift art to the first person who comments on this post about it.

Remember, kids: this is why we proofread before we post to the internet for all to see. I'll fix it when I get home this afternoon.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Words, Words, Words

I've started writing again, which feels awful good. I've been, as I might've mentioned here before, enjoying writing the comic again, and it's actually kick-started my imagination and gotten me started on the long-delayed script for Zendariel. I've also got a few ideas for random short stories (non-art related), though when I'll have the time to work on them is anyone's guess (I'm thinking Thanksgiving, actually).

It's really just nice to have the desire to write again, even if what I'm writing isn't as good as I want it to be. The writing drought I've been in since moving to Virginia was kind of disconcerting, but I'm glad I'm finally pushing through it.

Anyway, if things go as planned, I should have a rough script for the Zendariel story by the end of the month. Then I'll send it off to Monkey, make some revisions, and we'll probably jump right into it. I want this to be less set in stone than Troubled Times (our poor, ill-fated red-headed stepchild of a comic), looser and more spontaneous. I'm not saying I want to go in completely cold and just make up each week's comic on the spot, but I think I'm going to approach the scripting as less a hard and fast rule and more a guideline for the Monkey to follow. It's a tricky balance to pull off, what with him living half a country away, but I think we can swing it. Besides, this is a story and a character that lends itself much more readily to humor, which I tend to be better at writing than serious dramatic action. Play to your strengths, as they say.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Mulligan

See? The new version of the comic is significantly better than the old. Especially that third panel. Let us never speak of the third panel from the previous effort again.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Ugh...

Today's comic looks like crap, especially that third panel. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to do much better than that last night. I'll try to redraw the comic this evening and repost it over the weekend, 'cause this comic (especially the third panel) is simply the epitome of half-assed.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Back in the Saddle Again

So I've been feeling a lot better about comics the past few days. I've scripted about six or seven comics since Sunday, which is about twice or three times as many as I've been doing per week over the past month or two. It feels good to be writing comics that I like again.

Adam's been sending me lots of design sketches for Zendariel the past couple of weeks, and I really like what he's been doing with it. I'm letting a couple of ideas simmer in the back of my head for the time being, but then I'm going to try to hammer out a script for a story featuring the character. I bet if you asked Adam real nice, he might show you the sketches. Or laugh at you. I mean, it is the Noise Monkey, after all.

I keep meaning to get back into the online community because I've been seriously lax in participating in things like forums, emails, etc. Part of it's been lack of motivation, part of it's been lack of time. I'm finally starting to get into the swing of things with my job, and I'm sure about 75% of the Comic Genesis community doesn't even know who the hell I am at this point (and Lord knows McDuffies's post count is probably up around 100,000 by this point).

Monday, November 07, 2005

As Promised...

...two comics are done and uploaded. They should update sometime after I've fallen asleep.

I've also already got Wednesday's comic scripted, which should speed up the comic completion process considerably. Y'know, that's something I actually used to be good at: planning the comic ahead. Hard to believe given my current updating habits, but there was a time I had comics uploaded a week in advance or more. I could have three or four comics just sitting in the queue, waiting to update on the appropriate day. I'd like to get back there.

I quite like these comics I came up with earlier, though. It sorta feels like I'm getting my groove back, which is really nice. Always nice to feel the comic clicking again.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

The Two'fer Deal

Okay, here's the deal: I haven't had time to work on a comic yet. It's late Saturday/early Sunday, and I've got a pretty full day tomorrow, so I'm off for bed.

So, what I propose is this: two comics on Monday. I should have the time Sunday night to work on them, and I've got a couple of ideas that I really like (which has been rarer than I'd like recently). I'll post both of them on the main page on Monday, then alter it in the archives so that one appears for Friday and one for Monday.

Hopefully I can get on a regular schedule again and maybe even--God forbid--get ahead if I plan a little better. This missing updates crap won't fly. It always bugs me when other artists post a fair amount of filler, so I shouldn't expect anything of them I'm not prepared to do myself.

So yeah, come back Monday for two brand-spankin' new comics. Honest.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Delayed

Friday's comic is delayed until I can get home from work tonight and get one drawn. I'd have done it last night, but phone calls from various family members and playing lots of different guitars (I've narrowed down the one I want to two possibilities, which took some doing) kinda kept me from working on it, and then the batteries in my mouse died right as I was sitting down to draw.

Of course, I used this as an excuse not to draw. There's probably a moral in there somewhere, but I'm too lazy to search for it.

Anyway, look for a comic sometime early this evening, hopefully. I'm going to see a friend of mine in a musical tonight up in DC, so I don't know if I'll have time to get a comic drawn between the time I get off work and when I go to DC. We shall see, though.