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.

Real Life, only with more punchlines

So today's comic is based on actual events from my life over the weekend. 'Cept it wasn't my brother who was there, it was one of my roommates. Regardless, it's rather depressing that a good part of my weekend was wasted trying to fix something that took all of an hour to actually fix, when we finally got to working on it. Car repairs are the very essesnce of futility, I think.

Footnote

It was established back in the storyline that introduced Cletus to the group that legal guardianship of the genius hayseed was actually conferred upon Simon, not Jerome.

Yeah, I'm actually keeping track of my own plotlines and maintaining continuity. Take that, DC and Marvel! Bet you Superman and Spider-Man can't do that!

Stumbling Along

Hey, how about that, a comic! Granted, I'm not sure everyone can see it. The dimbulbcomics.com domain name doesn't seem to be pointing to the site at the moment, for some reason, at least not on the computers at school. Might be an issue with Internet Explorer (in which case you should all be switching to Firefox anyway), or it could just be a problem with the domain name. I'll have to confer with El Monkey.

Speaking of the Loud Simian, I proclaim myself greatly pleased with the Zendariel sketches he came up with. It's always neat to see how Adam approaches the stuff I throw his way. We might try to put Zendariel up as a replacement for the rather neglected Troubled Times, assuming I can come up with a script for the concept. I've had a couple of aborted efforts sitting around on the harddrive of my computer, but never really anything I was totally pleased with. We'll see what happens. As much trouble as I'm having with writing Crooked Halo at the moment, though, it's not real promising presently.

Fact is Significantly Stranger than Fiction

In order to understand Friday's comic, you really have to read this news item.

Yeah, totally true to life. I didn't make up anything, including the father's name. That's just too weird, I think.

But hey, it's Arkansas. This is the sort of thing they do there. Ask Monkey.

"What a Wookie!"

Chewbacca is going to become a U.S. citizen. Crazy. Did like his comment, though: he'll recite the parts of the citizenship oath he remembers, and "it will be a Chewie growl for the other parts."

In other news, working only two jobs is so much easier than working three.

Just So You Know...

I'm very pleased with the art for tomorrow's comic. I think it turned out great, especially the third panel. You'll see what I mean. It's actually...dynamic, which is a big step for me from the talking heads I've dealt in lately.

In other news, I went ahead and broke down and bought Anansi Boys as well. I'd been planning on it anyway, but seeing Adam talk about it just sort of reaffirmed the need for it in my head. If it's even half as good as his other work, it'll be fantastic.

All Apologies

So, Friday's comic is my apology for the comic's updates as late. Yeah, that's right: I apologized for using filler by using self-insertion and breaking the fourth wall.

Anyway, I'm kinda sticking with the sketchy style for awhile, I think. I've been enjoying the actual process of drawing the comics again since I started doing it this way again, and it's also much faster. My art really benefited from the sketchiness last time, so I can only hope it does so again this time.

Monday, a comic that features no self-insertion. The fourth wall shall remain intact. Filler art will not be perpetrated upon the general public. Honest. There may be some making fun of drunken Eurpoeans "discovering" America, but that's just because it'll be Columbus Day.

"Kneel Before Zod!"

Proof that celebrities should not be allowed to name their own children.

I mean, honestly, between that and Chris Martin and Gweneth Paltrow naming their kid Apple, what's the world coming to? These people are making Frank Zappa's naming practices seem downright sane and normal (well, okay, calling your son Dweezil will never be quite normal, per se, and Moon Unit is a little too off-kilter for me, but you get the idea). Kevin Smith naming his daughter Harley Quinn is one thing, 'cause that name's kinda cute and consists of real names given to real human beings (it just also happens to be the name of a comic book character, that's all). But most other celebrities should not be allowed to make decisions like this that affect a child's future life. Really, if you're going to name your kid something like Kal-El, and your name isn't actually Jor-El, you have no business raising children.

What The?

Sorry that the comic hasn't come up yet. Comic Genesis is having some issues, so I have no idea when the comic will be updated.

In other news, I'm ready to throttle some of my students. No court would convict me.

Easy Target

Monday's comic will make fun of the band Creed. If this offends you...why are you visiting this site anyway? It ought to be clear to anyone who has read anything I've written that I prefer good music, like The Beatles and Dylan, to the dreck bands like Creed produced. I danced a jig the day they broke up. I actually have a theory on how they got popular: I'm pretty sure their combination of power chords, vocal histronics, and post-grunge cliches actually shuts down the higher functions of the brain, like the ability to recognize suck.

This will also be the second comic to feature the return of the sketchy style. I used this style once before to break out of an artistic slump. My work had gotten too static and bland. None of the characters felt right or dynamic, and drawing became a chore. The sketchy style revitalized me, adding a loose feel and some much-needed energy. It also allowed me to become a little more creative with what I drew and how I drew it. Admittedly, these two comics have still been pretty standard in terms of what I've done (mostly talking heads), but that will change. I promise.

Amazing! A Comic!

I got around to actually making a comic for Friday. It's uploaded and shall update as per usual at the appropriate time. Sorry about the delay this week. Hopefully there won't be anymore gaps in comics, even if I do shift gears and work on something non-Crooked Halo.

Anyway, thanks for the patience and well-wishes. I'm going to get through what's going on, even if it isn't easy.

More Filler

Yeah, I know, more filler. I apologize, but real life is taking precedent right now. Some major things are happening and I'm having trouble being funny or creative. You're probably lucky you're even getting filler.

I'll try to have a comic up Friday, but no promises. This isn't looking like it's going to be a good week, I'm afraid.

Zendariel Filler

Sorry about the filler again today, but I spent most of last night chatting with an old friend from college whom I hadn't spoken with in awhile.

On the plus side, we have reached the effective end of the Pirate Choir storyline. I might have one or two more comics for it to tie up any loose ends...if I can come up with something to do that. We'll know Wednesday, I guess.

Oh, Serenity comes out this Friday. Go see it, or I'll kick you in your ruttin' unmentionables.

Sea Shanties

My brother Clif (the real-life Clyde) sent me an email with a few real sea shanties in it. I thought it might be interesting to share them.

"Maid of Amsterdam"

Mark well what I say
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid
In Amsterdam there dwelt a maid
And I'll go no more a-roving
With you, fair maid
A-roving, a-roving
Since roving's been my ru-i-n
I'll go no more a-roving
With you, fair maid.

This one's about the Cirmean War, so only other history majors will really find it of interest:

"Sebastopol"

The Crimee War is over now
Sebastopol is taken
The Crimee War is over now
Sebastopol is taken
So sing, Cheer, boys, cheer
Sebastopol is taken:
And sing, Cheer, boys, cheer
Old England gained the day
The Rooshans they was put to fly
Sebastopol is taken
The Rooshans they was put to fly
Sebastopol is taken.

The last one is just pretty damn creepy, we think:

They call me Hanging Johnny
Away-i-oh
They call me Hanging Johnny
So hang, boys, hang
First I hung my mother
Away-i-oh
First I hung my mother
Away-i-oh.

So yeah, sailors were not particularly nice people to be around. Interesting stuff.

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Today is actually Talk Like a Pirate Day, appropriately enough. Honestly, I didn't plan to be running this series during this particular holiday (if TLaPD can indeed be referred to as a holiday), but it works out in a way which amuses me.

Dunno how much longer this particular story arc will last. Ages ago, when I had free time and long stretches of creativity, I'd plan and sketch out entire storylines in one go, occasionally throwing in a comic on the fly as the mood struck me. The Yellowstone Saga was done that way: the majority of it was planned out in advance (based in large part on the first incarnation of the Saga, which was actually written while I was in Yellowstone), and I occasionally tossed in an extra comic or two if I thought a particular plot point needed more development or I came up with a particularly good gag I wanted to use.

But lately, I've been writing everything and drawing it the night before. I'm not ahead by any stretch of the imagination. And this annoys me to an extent. I like having things roughly mapped out ahead of me in the comic. I'm not saying I want to know exactly what comic I'm going to do every day for the rest of Crooked Halo's existence. That'd be boring and wouldn't leave any room for improvisation and spontaneity, and those are key to keeping humor fresh. But I also don't like sitting down a few hours before I post the comic to decide what I'm going to write about for said comic.

Part of the problem's been my schedule and available free time. I've currently got three jobs (one full-time and two part-time), and haven't really had much time to think about stuff other than getting to work on time.

The bigger part of the problem, though, remains my creative slump. I just haven't felt the groove lately, whether in the writing or the art. Both are serviceable, I think, and it's all still better than when Dim Bulb first went up, but there's a spark missing from it, and I find myself less than enthusiastic about drawing each time. These make a recipie for disaster in any sort of creative endeavour, really.

I'm not sure what to do to kickstart everything. In the past, I've radically altered the style of the comic: going from the smooth, clean lines to the sketchy back right before the Boy Band storylines, for example. Other times, I've just done very challenging comics that require me to stretch my skills and abilities to their limits. But I don't know if that's what's needed here. Everything feels kind of stalled, I guess, and until I find a way to break out of it, things will remain serviceable but not entirely as I'd like them.

In positive news, I am rather pleased with how this storyline has progressed so far. I like the idea of it, and only wish there were some sea shanty hymns I could have them sing. That would be perfect.

Damn

Sorry folks, but no new comic for 9/14/05. Three jobs is just killing me (even if it's only been a couple of days of it), and I'm gonna have to figure out a better system for getting comics drawn and posted on time than doing them all the night before like I've been doing it.

Instead, enjoy this fanart from Tim of Alt Delusions. I've had it for...well, for a damn long time, to be honest, and I keep meaning to update all the fanart and stuff we've received ('cause we have received some), I just (1) keep forgetting and (2) don't really trust myself fiddling around with things on the site. That's why I keep Adam around (well, and Zaene, though I dunno if anyone's heard from him in...um...a long time. Maybe he's dead? Can you even kill a cyborg?). Anyway, it's a funny little drawing courtesy of Tim, and I take this opportunity to thank him for it ('cause I'm not sure I ever did when he originally gave it to me, making me one of the worst people on the face of the earth).

Crooked Halo will resume as normal on Friday, I promise. Please don't throw anything at me.

Totally Employed

The Cricket now has a full-time job. And two part-time jobs. The Cricket is suddenly very busy.

But fear not--it won't interfere with the comic! Oh no, in fact, it'll probably provide fuel and fodder for the comic. That's what work is for (aside from the piles of cash money. Work's for that, too).

Songs of the Week

Here are the songs I can't stop playing on the guitar this week.

1. Bob Dylan, "Changing of the Guard": Dylan is my personal songwriting hero. The man takes a song with three or four simple chords, strings those chords together in a way you wouldn't have thought of, and makes an interesting tune to go along with his surreal lyrics. This song I've never been able to really figure out (granted, most of Dylan's songs are like that for most people), but there are a lot of references to what I've read is actually Joan of Arc--a girl whose head is shaved at the age of sixteen (Joan of Arc's head was shaved when she was sixteen, right before she was burnt at the stake), all the military imagery (palace guards, dog soldiers, and a captain), and things like that. Still fun to play, though.

2. Bob Dylan, "Isis": Yeah, I know, two Dylan songs in a row. But hey, I figured out that you could play these two songs with chords I already knew if you just capo'd in the first fret (ah, the capo: friend to mediocre strummers everywhere!). This is one of those great story songs Dylan does so well, and the chord progression is this great circular thing that just keeps looping into itself, becoming a part of the story itself.

3. U2, "Hawkmoon 269": Another song that I figured out is really easy to play capo'd in the first fret (hey, who knew songs in Ab were so damn easy to play if you just capo'd?). It's got this great incessant rhythm to it that just builds and builds throughout the song. Also one of Bono's more restrained vocal performances (well, except for the end, when he starts kinda screaming into the microphone, but I usually don't sing it that way, 'cause I'm not Bono).

4. Creedence Clearwater Revival, "Who'll Stop the Rain?": Everyone who plays the guitar ought to know at least one CCR song. At least. I mean, they're just a great band. Hell, I'm of the impression that their Chronicle CD ought to be required listening for anyone who has even the slightest interest in popular music. Their ability to craft a rock and roll song is second to almost none (I mean, obviously the Beatles are the top, but these guys are still pretty damn good). This song, like so many of CCR's, has a sense of foreboding and doom that just permeates the whole thing. You can't help but shudder, really.

5. The Minus 5, "I'm Not Bitter": It's just a damn funny--and rather meloncholy--song about trying to move on. And failing. Miserably. And being in denial about it. And it features the line "I walk around the block to avoid you/And that's when I'm in a social mood." Also, "Bitterness is reserved for stupid people/Not for someone intelligent like me." The fact that the song features Wilco and is just damn fun to play helps, too.

And finally, though it's not a song I can play (I haven't been able to find the song yet, unfortunately), I think Bob Dylan's "Where Are You Tonight (Journey Through Dark Heat)" is an underappreciated gem. Dylan tosses a song or two like this on every album, even the mediocre ones: a tune that just gets under your skin and gets its hooks in your soul and won't let go. This particular tune is about the deterioration of the world around our protagonist and his amazement at the fact that he continues to survive, even despite all his scars...mostly because it doesn't seem right for him to be alive without her. It has this excellent buildup throughout the song, a chugging and undeniable push towards the final verse. Everything gets more and more tense as the song progresses, the music gains power and volume, and everything explodes at the end of the final verse in a terse, powerful electric guitar solo. That solo, that payoff, makes the entire song worth the wait.

Okay, that's enough musical musings. Go...um...listen to some Dylan. Now.

And It's Up

Monkey's comic is now up. Dunno what was up with auto-updating, but it's there. Enjoy.

Day Of Rest

Happy Labor Day, folks (or Labour for our non-US readers. Personally, I'm with you guys, but that may just be the result of reading too many English history books and being a complete Anglophile, which has nothing to do with an unhealthy obsession with angles, before you ask). It's a day off for those of us around here, though really I don't do much on days when I do work, so it's not all that much different.

Comic-wise, of course, we're not taking a break. We here at Dim Bulb don't stop for anything (well, except for a broken hand...and then we just cut and paste)! Part of me feels I need a bit of a break, 'cause it's been tough bringing the funny of late (though I am pleased with the comics I've done...just seems more like work than fun of late, y'know?). Might take a break after the next storyline...or I might find something that jumpstarts my creativity again and just plow straight through. I don't like the idea of drawing feeling like an obligation, 'cause I feel my work gets subpar when that's the case, but at the same time I don't want to go on the dreaded hiatus (a word anathema to the webcomics community, if not necessarily to all webcomic artists). Anyway, we'll just have to see.

Holy. Freakin'. Geez.

Take a look at this and tell me it doesn't astound you.

As of the time of this writing, the sketch was going for $7,600. It was only $5,400 when I first looked at it five hours earlier.

Honestly, anyone who doubts the power of Penny Arcade need look no further than this. All the proceeds from the auction are going to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. There's plenty of other evidence, of course: PAX, their successful gaming expo (which just completed it's ridiculously successful second year), Child's Play, their annual Christmas toy drive that has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars in videogames and systems in the past two years...these guys are just a presence. I actually saw a PA shirt earlier when I was at Borders. The only other webcomic shirt I've ever seen out in the world was a guy at OU who had a Diesel Sweeties t-shirt.

These guys are powerful, and not only have they made a living playing games, talking about games, and drawing funny pictures, they've shared in their good fortune. Whether you actually like PA or not, you have to admit they've got their act together and are definitely using their influence in some positive ways. My hat is off to them.

Money Blues

So I was looking at my finances (which didn't take nearly as long as one would hope), and discovered that I am, for all intents and purposes, really broke. Like really broke. And I don't get paid by either of my jobs until the beginning of October (a month away for the calendar-challenged among you).

This is, as you can imagine, something of a problem. I know my roommates would really appreciate it if I gave them some rent money sometime in the future. They'd prefer it if I gave them rent money in the near future, actually. Like before October. But I don't see how that can happen.

But I had an idea. Not one that will raise enough for me to pay all my rent, of course, but one which ought to net me a little money (maybe) and at least allow me to make a down-payment on rent: commissions.

Admittedly, I'm not even sure if anyone out there would pay me for something I've drawn. I did caricatures at Ozarks once at an organization fair (we had a Dim Bulb table...this was back when Dim Bulb was still a monthly print comic, mind you, and we'd distribute about 100 copies of it free to the small Arkansan campus in the space of a few days) for a couple bucks a pop, and those seemed to go over well. I like to think my art has improved since then.

So I figured I'd see if anyone was interested in this sort of thing. If so, drop me a line (crookedhalo42 @ yahoo.com). We can discuss what you want, price, etc.

I know I can't make a lot of money at this--after all, we're only a very small webcomic in a very large internet--but maybe I can make a little extra. And as difficult as it is to survive without a paycheck, every little bit helps.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Pink Floyd, "Money"

Five Songs, Five Albums

Every time I pick up my guitar lately, there've been about five songs that I feel I have to play each time:

1. Ryan Adams, "Let it Ride." Not to be confused with the BTO song of the same name. It's an up-tempo, meloncholy sort of tune about...um, hell, I'm not really sure what it's about.

2. The Wallflowers, "6th Avenue Heartache." One of the most touching songs about a homeless guy playing a guitar on a street corner ever.

3. They Might Be Giants, "Lucky Ball and Chain." It's fun. It's TMBG. What else need be said?

4. George Harrison, "Isn't it a Pity." One of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. Harrison just has a knack for writing tunes that are spiritual and human and profound and exceptionally simple. It's also got a couple of the weirdest chords I've ever seen: a C#m7b5/G (has to be the longest chord name ever), a C7/G (which I actually don't usually play), and a chord I don't know the name of that's supposed to be some variation on a G but usually just plays like an A.

Likewise, there are five albums I've been listening to almost constantly over the past few weeks:

1. The Wallflowers, Rebel, Sweetheart. A much better record than their previous effort, Red Letter Days. It's got an amazing set of tunes, and Jakob Dylan's songcraft has only gotten stronger as the years pass.

2. Old 97s, Wreck Your Life. Alt-country at its best. 'Nuff said.

3. Son Volt, Okemah and the Melody of Riot. Former Uncle Tupelo guitarist and vocalist Jay Farrar's band makes some of the best country-rock out there. There's nothing new or different in this record, but it's solid and good music.

4. The Flaming Lips, Transmissions from the Satellite Heart. A transitionary album from their early noise rock to their more recent neo-psychadelic folk-pop. And it's got "She Don't Use Jelly," clearly the oddest song to ever be associated with Beverly Hills 90210.

5. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. This album just gets better every time I listen to it, and it started out pretty damn good to begin with. Easily one of the best records ever.

Now go forth, my musical disciples, and spread the good news.

Perspective

Y'know, it's kind of funny how much a person's pespective can alter reality.

For instance, the perspective of someone who lives in New Orleans at the moment is that Hurricane Katrina just came through and wiped out the entire town. That city won't be up and running for two months at least. Our point of view character is having to figure out where he'll live, how he'll replace all the things that were lost (and deal with losing the things which cannot be replaced)...his life is basically in shambles. Hurricane Katrina means a total alteration of the way his life is being lived, a radical and sudden and complete change in his reality.

Meanwhile, my biggest concern with the aftermath of the hurricane up here in Northern Virginia is that we're going to get a little rain and gas prices are going to go up because of the oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico that Katrina shut down. I'm inconvenienced by this devastating act of nature, and that's really it. It's a sobering thought.

Captain of the Rant

Welcome to the new rantspace, everyone. Over the next week or two, I'm going to try to archive all of my old postings into this blog, just because. Thankfully, they're all archived in the Forum, which we still have (see link above comic...hint hint).

Anyway, comments should be enabled, so you can make a comment about a comic, about a rant, whatever. You don't even have to be a registered blogger user. Honest. And we always like feedback...well, I do. I can't really speak for the Monkey. He tends to fling poo at anyone he disagrees with.

Looking For Work

Calling A Mulligan

So yeah, Wednesday's strip was complete crap, so I re-drew it. You can still see the old one if you want. Much better on that second panel, right?

Job Finding

I'm employed now at a couple of tutoring places. Still trying for a real teaching job, but at leat I've got some money coming in now. Woo.

Settling In and Job Hunting

Well, I made it to Virginia without any trouble (as evidenced by the fact that the comic has continued to update since my arrival). I'm mostly settled in, and having roommates again is pretty cool (especially when one of them decides she's going to cook you dinner every night. It doesn't get much better than that). The only thing really left for me to do is find myself a job. I've sent out dozens of applications so far, so I figure it's only a matter of time before I get a job (actually have at least one interview this week). I should be employed here in the next week or two, and then I can begin living in a style to which I am not accustomed (i.e., something other than abject poverty).

So far, I like Virginia pretty well. It's a beautiful place, though there are far too many people here for my tastes (and I'm not even all that close to DC, when you think about it. There's Alexandria and a half dozen other suburbs between me and our nation's capitol). Admittedly, I grew up in Oklahoma, so anything more than a dozen people and a cow seems crowded to me (okay, that's not entirely true--there weren't any cows in the town where I grew up. At least, not roaming the streets or anything. There were probably cows in Shawnee, but the only time I ever saw them was in the form of hamburger meat). But I'm getting used to it, and I can drive fairly well in the heavier traffic that seems to be the norm around here (though I still hate how people treat one another while driving...there is absolutely no consideration for your fellow man out there).

But hey, anyone out there who reads the comic who lives in the Fairfax/NoVA area ought to drop me a line and we'll get together. There's bound to be, what, at least a couple of you, maybe? Just email me with the link below, and make sure you put something about Dim Bulb or Crooked Halo in the Subject line so I don't assume it's spam.

Movin' On Up (To Virginia)

The Cricket In Transit

So, I move on the 23rd. It should only take a couple of days to actually get where I'm going, and I've been told I'll have 'net access as soon as I plug my computer in. What this should mean for you, the viewing public, is no interruption of updates. To make sure this is the case, I'm trying to get the next couple of weeks' comics drawn and uploaded before I leave. We'll see how well that works.

Leavin' Betty

It does my heart good to see the Monkey finally bidding farewell to the dreaded Betty. Of course, since he's taking over his mother's job at Ozarks, I'm going to start referring to him simply as "Your Mom." It just seems fitting somehow.

Oh, and Monkey? I don't care how well you think they "rock out" on that Rockstar: INXS show. They're still contestants on a reality TV show, and thus sellouts. Sellouts are incapable of actually rocking out. It's in their contract.

"History Will Teach Us Nothing"

As a history major, there are certain things in popular culture which frustrate and annoy the hell out of me--Jerry Bruckhiemmer "historical" films (such as King Arthur or Pearl Harbor...though Pirates of the Caribbean was fun, mostly because it didn't take itself seriously) and the "works" of Stephen Ambrose are chief among those.

For those of you who don't know, Ambrose was a "historian" who wrote books on popular American history subjects--mostly the Civil War and World War II, in other words. His stuff was very popular with laymen and non-historians for its accessibility and humanity, and many people perceived him as an excellent professional historian.

Thing is, Ambrose was a hack. A well-known hack. See, many of his best-known works--including Band of Brothers--were plagiarized. Heavily. We're talking page after page of text lifted verbatim from other sources and dropped into Ambrose's books without even a citation or by-your-leave. And he apparently never suffered much because of this (mostly because he died of lung cancer not long after it was revealed. I know it's not nice to be joyful at the death of someone else, but I have to admit that I cackled with glee the day I heard he'd kicked it. He did more to set back the profession of history than postmodernism ever did). It really sickens me that some ignorant morons refer to him as "one of the leading historical authors of our time".

But my historical pain does not end there, no. See, there were certain other history majors at my university (and, I'm sure, at most any university you encounter) who were of the opinion that Ambrose was a good historian (I remember one particular dimwit actually using Ambrose as a credible source for a paper. Clif and I only ever cited the guy in an ironic, silly fashion--we knew better than to trust anything that dripped from the hack's pen). These sorts of people (usually guys, I noticed) were history majors of a very different ilk than myself. See, I majored in history because I wanted to be an historian. I wanted to study history for its own sake, understand where we came from and what went before. These gentlemen, though, had other plans--they wanted to be coaches.

Now, virtually every one of my high school history teachers was a coach. I guess coaches usually focused on history in their degree program because they thought it would be easy to "teach" when they got to a school. I mean, you just throw the book in front of the students, make them answer questions at the end of the chapter, give them a multiple choice exam every so often...how hard could it be, right? You could get on with what was really important (i.e., sports) and leave the unimportant stuff (i.e., history) to itself.

And it's crap like that which destroys the fabric of society. Without an understanding of history, we end up with guys like Bush telling us how things went and should go, rewriting things as it suits him in the moment, running the country into the ground.

"But I'm not bitter. No, not at all. Just alot" (Minus 5, "I'm not Bitter").

So yeah, that's where the comic for the 1st of July came from. More crazy hijinks and wacky shenanigans on the 4th.

Two Years of Dim Bulb

Today (Saturday, June 18th) marks Dim Bulb's second anniversary. That's right, we've been here at Keenspace (or whatever it's gonna be called...Webcomic Genesis, I think) for a whoppin' two years! That's a good chunk of time, especially when you consider we've updated five or six days a week for those two years. In celebration, why not go read the archives?

Radio Silence

Man, I've been awful about ranting, haven't I? I mean, even the Monkey's managed to post a couple of rants down there since I last said anything.

Sad thing is, I've got no reason for having said nothing. I've just been...I dunno, lazy, had nothing to say, take your pick. I've been trying to get ready to move to Virginia, trying to get caught up on all the sleep I didn't get back during the semester (wasn't even enrolled and I still didn't get any sleep. How does that work?), trying to keep myself motivated artistically and creatively (don't know if you've noticed or not, but I've had trouble maintaining enthusiasm lately). Anyway, I'm back again. I think we may be fiddling a bit with some layout stuff when the Monkey gets the chance ('cause letting me mess with HTML code is a dangerous, dangerous thing).

Birthday!

This Saturday, June 18, is Dim Bulb's second birthday! We've been on Keenspace for two years now, and we've amassed over 600 comics. We're glad you've been along for the ride, and we hope the next year can be even bigger.

What's in a Name?

Speaking of Keenspace, Monkey mentions below that our host is in the middle of changing its name. To what, I'm not entirely sure, but I haven't really been following the name change debate (because it's not something that I feel very compelled to care about, really), but apparently our URL will change. Of course, since Monkey was intelligent and forethoughtful enough to snag the www.dimbulbcomics.com URL, it's easiest just to point towards that, and we'll make sure it points you towards the site.

That's all I got. Um...go read the comic. Yeah

A Month and a Half's Worth of Stuff

"Movin' Out"

Hey folks, as you may or may not know, I'm moving to Virginia at the end of July (or thereabouts. Not sure of the exact date as yet). To that end, I thought I'd ask: anyone wanna help me cover moving expenses? I figure most other webcomics ask their readership to cough up the bucks for every little thing, so why not?

Kidding. As the tag line way above says, we don't ask you to pay because we know you wouldn't. Besides, why mooch off my readers when I have perfectly good parents to mooch off of?

Milestone

Today (Friday, May 13) marks the 300th Crooked Halo comic on the site. There are more than three hundred comics in the archive, but I didn't include a couple of fillers and guest comics just 'cause. Hard to imagine I've done that many comics, though. We're actually approaching Dim Bulb's second Keenspace anniversary (the 19th of June, for those of you keeping score at home). Thanks for sticking with us, and here's hoping you enjoy the next 300!

Sketch

Got bored while sitting around the other day, and ended up doodling Doc Ice from The Jaded. I don't think it looks half bad, considering I did the sketch in the space of about two minutes.

You should be reading Yirmumah

You should really check out the webcomic Yirmumah. Brilliant pop culture gags, and they're currently just finishing up their first week of a six week run of Star Wars-related comics. Does it get any cooler than that? Probably not for the faint of heart or easily offended, just so you know.

Um, is this thing on?

So, um, yeah, sorry about the radio silence. I've been busy and such, and haven't really had a whole lot to talk about. To make up for it, here's a new doodle, and here's another one. Forgive me, please?

Anyway, getting back down to business. We've got something we need to chat about, folks. I've been looking at our traffic numbers for the past few months, and there's something up that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Back in November, Dim Bulb hit its peak unique visitors per day, 169. That's pretty good, and reflected steady growth over the course of a year. Then it fell to 125 in December, then 118 in January. It bounced back up into the 130s for February and March, and it's back down in the 120s this month.

So I put it to you--what're we doing wrong? Do you think we've done something to drive folks away or make them lose interest? Is there something you think we could do to improve Dim Bulb?

We'd like to hear your thoughts...well, I would. I can't really vouch for Monkey. He doesn't really like people. He tends to fling feces at them, actually. But me, I like feedback. Feel free to drop me a line via the email linked below. I promise to get back to you on your comments.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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!

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.

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...

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?

The Music that we Choose

Craptacular Music!

So this week winds down the Boy Band series, and we've got an entire weeks's worth of denoumont to work through. But don't worry--it's all fun, and we're still making fun of boy bands, and maybe a couple of other genres while we're at it.

I've really enjoyed these comics, though. There's something about having an archangel who's in a boy band that amuses me. In hindsight, there were a couple of comics I wanted to do but didn't come up with until after the fact; that is, until after I'd already posted the comic it would have to come before for it to make any sense. Now the die is irrevocably cast, and the end of this storyarc is at hand, and there is nothing more I can do. *sigh* Ah well, so it goes.

We're also getting dangerously close to the end of Chapter One in Troubled Times. There's maybe three or four pages left before we take a break (and by "take a break," I mean we'll do a little omake outtake thing for a few weeks, then Adam'll careen full-tilt into Chapter Two), which is less than a page of the actual typed script (yes, there is a script! We're not just making it up as we go along!...okay, we are, but that's not the point).

Adam actually made an interesting point about Troubled Times the other day. He said that drawing it was a lot like acting, and I think I know what he means. I've provided him with a script which details dialogue, general action (as in "Earl slices evil demon thing in half with sword in a really cool way"), and some background information about the characters or their opinions of certain things. I haven't done much--if any--of the "blocking" for him, nor have I really told him how everything should look. So he's like an actor (or a whole bunch of actors) taking the script and interpreting it. Which means that when each new page of Troubled Times comes out every Saturday, I'm just as surprised by it as you all are. I have no idea what he's going to do with the script, even though I know in general terms what needs to happen. It's kinda fun that way, and I've really been enjoying the collaboration. I can't wait to see how he's going to do some of the stuff in Chapter Two, where things really heat up and the actual plot gets underway. That's been the one regret I have about Chapter One--the way I wrote it, perhaps the way I had to write it, it came out real exposition-heavy. It almost had to be; there's a lot of backstory to go through, so that we can get to a place where things are actually happening but seem to have a reason. I've tried to keep it interesting--even slipping in the page with the Devil and Azaroth to kind of break the monotony of having Earl and Evan bicker back and forth (at Adam's request, I should note--the interlude was his idea, and it also gave me a great chance to set up an antagonist with a face). But I'm never sure if folks actually like this stuff, because neither Adam nor myself receives all that much feedback on most of this (hint hint).

Anyway, there is more Dim Bulb goodness to come. There'll also be a December Support Gift, too, as has become our monthly habit/ritual. More on that as we figure out what it is.

Crooked Halo 2: This Time, It's Personal

So, long time no see. I've been what you might term "busy." Really I haven't been doing anything more than I usually do, but it's felt like a lot more. And I've been too damn lazy to update anything here, though I tend to update the ol' blog at least daily, sometimes more. Dunno why.

Anyway, wanted to say a few things about the current Crooked Halo storyline. First, I think it's fairly obvious that I despise boy bands with a burning passion (on a related note, an athlete the other day referred to the Beatles as "a boy band." The authorities will never find the body). Anyway, the whole storyline was concocted because I wanted two things: to express my distaste for boy bands, and to change Earl the Archangel's hairstyle. Only a few things have remained constant throughout all the iterations of my comic. One is clothing--Simon has always worn the shirt with the exclamation mark, Earl has always had the shirt with the wide rings around the neck, arms, and waist, and Jerome has always had the shirt with the diagonal stripes. Earl and Jerome's names have also stayed the same throughout (Simon is the third name for that character). For a while, Earl and Simon's haircuts were also always the same. Then I decided to make Simon's hair look like real hair. Or closer, anyway. Anyway, folks still complained that Earl's hair didn't look like hair.

Then Adam started drawing Troubled Times, and took a radically different approach to the character. I liked his take on a character I'd been drawing since high school, and wanted to adapt part of it to my own interpretation. So I decided to change it up. But how to actually explain the new hairstlye? The thing about the new hairstyle is that it makes Earl look like a pretty boy. I find this fact amusing. I find making fun of boy bands amusing. Thus, a concept is born: give Earl a new haircut, put him in a boy band. Hilarity ensues.

To make things even more fun, there are a couple of cameos in the strip, too, though nothing on par with the number Adam's been throwing in Vapor Lock lately. C.T.--a.k.a. Clyde--is also a member of the boy band Earl joins. Clif, upon whom Clyde is indelibly modeled, actually went by C.T. for a while when he was younger. And did you ever notice that most boy bands have a guy whose name is just initials? Well, it amused me to make my brother (the one other person who possibly hates boy bands as much as I do) a member of the band as well. I also hope it pisses him off.

The other cameo is one only a few people will catch, but which amuses me in ways I cannot even begin to describe. What's the name of the "bad boy" character in the band? That's right, Brent. Guess who he's modeled after, Ozarks folks.

Yeti

Supposedly, mp3.com, the site that hosts a few Cross-Eyed Yeti tunes, is closing down because it was bought out by some other company. The site was supposed to close its doors last Friday, but as of the last time I checked (late Thursday afternoon), the site was still up. So, um, download 'em while you can. There's a link to them up above.

On a related note, I've been thinking about selling copies of the debut Yeti album, Delusions of Grandeur, here at Dim Bulb. The cost would be about $5-7, I'm not sure exactly yet because it depends on the price of supplies. The CDs themselves would just be regular CDRs, but I'd make up a label for them, put them in a jewel case, and include a jewel case insert with some spiffy artwork by the Noise Monkey. Those who are interested should drop me a line.

"Merchandising, Merchandising, Merchandising!"

On yet another semi-related front, I'm trying to come up with some other Dim Bulb merchandise. I got an idea from the forum and from the amazing artist over at College Roomies From Hell: why not put together a CD of old Dim Bulb comics? I was thinking all the pre-Keenspace stuff, which consists of at least a good hundred or so Crooked Halo strips and who knows how much Mac 410 (Vapor Lock). The cost would be cheap, of course, because i can't imagine folks would want to pay a large sum of money for these things. They'd include the old comics, organized by storylines or whatever, some commentary, and maybe some extras of some sort. If anyone's interested, let us know. We're also still looking for t-shirt ideas, so if you have any, drop us a line in the forum.

Sketchers

Sketchy at best

You may have noticed that the Crooked Halo style has been a bit different the past few comics. Well, that's because I'm experimenting with it. I like the sketchier style, and think it's fun to draw and looks quite nifty, so I may keep it for a while and see if I want to use it permanently. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Gifty!

If you want free Dim Bulb stuff, including extra comics, desktop backgrounds, and who knows what else, go check out this forum thread. It'll give you all the necessary details to join the madness. Note that you'll have to be registered to use the forum for this to work. It's all part of our evil plan to get more people to participate in stuff around here.

Empty

There were several things I wanted to talk about here, and I can't remember any of them. Everything in my head's been supplanted with news that an aquaintance of mine from Ozarks, Linda Carcamo, died on Friday. According to the email I saw from Ozarks, she drowned in the ocean with her fiance. It just annoys me that good, caring people like Linda die in such horrible, pointless ways, and mean, evil people get to continue living. Where's the justice? It reminds me of Terry Pratchett's Soul Music, when Death's granddaughter, Susan, takes over his position for a while. She complains bitterly of the sloppiness of the whole system. "There's no justice!" she cries. "NO," Death replies. "THERE'S JUST ME."

I always hated that.

So I guess this is just my way of saying God rest you, Linda.

J-j-jaded

"Danger. For Hire."

Just wanted to bring everyone's attention to one of the niftiest comics out there. It's by a young lady named Ping, and it's called The Jaded.

Apparently, Crooked Halo is her current Featured Link, and I must say that I'm rather flattered by this. Ping is an amazing artist with a good idea for shading, depth, and characterization. The storytelling is far above my meager abilities (for evidence of that, see Troubled Times), and on top of all that, she's just an all-around nice, helpful person. She's given me advice not only on some drawing techniques (most notably on how to draw arms and hands), but also has provided us with a possible way to set up separate archives for each of the three Dim Bulb Comics. So anyway, do yourself a favor, and go check out her comic. It gets the Dim Bulb seal of approval (not that we have a seal, per se. But if we did, we'd put it in this comic. In hot wax, 'cause that's what you do with seals. How we'd manage to put hot wax on a webcomic is something that will require some thought and planning. I'll get back to you on it).

Snuggly Soft

Monday's comic is a direct result of pestering from my youngest brother, Scott, and something my middle sibling, Clif, actually did. Yes, Clif did indeed wash clothes in only fabric softener. Several times this summer, actually, until we pointed out that he needed to use the detergent, too. It's amazing--Cottrells are generally fairly intelligent, but for some reason, we completely lack common sense. To be honest, each of the three of us (Clif, Scott, and myself) need someone to take care of us and keep track of the mundane, basic stuff that is nonetheless very important (remembering to use detergent in the wash, paying bills, eating real meals, etc.). We need level-headed women, because we are far from level-headed ourselves, and will most likely fall apart without someone to take care of us.

BLOG

So I decided to start one of those Blogs the other day. You can find it here. Mostly, it's just a brain dump for me, a place to talk about random stuff that really doesn't apply to the comics (not that much of anything I say or do here applies to the comics...nevermind). Check it out if you want. Or not. Whatever. It's like a journal on the web, only I promise I'll never accidentally start out an entry, "Dear Diary, you'll never guess what happened to me today!", mostly because I'm not a Catholic school girl.

Holy Shirt!

This was mentioned in the forum, but since I know virtually no one goes there (hethens), I figured I'd mention it here. Really, I'm just wondering if there's any interest in Dim Bulb merchandise. T-shirts and such. If so, either sound off in the aforelinked Forum thread, or fire off an email to the Monkey or yours truly. We'd be curious to hear if there's any demand, and if so, for which characters or whatever. I have a design in mind for a random "Slacker Nirvana" shirt, but we'll see what becomes of it.

Pluggage and Meetings

hout Out

Want to start off by giving "mad props" (I believe they are called) to my buddy Dav, who pimped the site in his Live Journal. His pimpage was given in good faith and completely without solicitation. No, there were absolutely no large sacks of money in the deal anywhere. Seriously. If I had large sacks of money, I would not be giving them away. Well, perhaps to OU, but only because they currently own my soul. Cursed grad school.

Meet Me in St. Louis

It's time for yet another of Chuck's Real Life Misadventures! So sit back and listen to a tale of...well, not exactly woe, but of random chance and circumstances. It has a happy ending, thankfully. Read on.

So I made a trip to St. Louis this weekend to visit one of the potential colleges for my PhD. The trip seemed almost doomed from the beginning: the three friends who were originally going to join me were unable to go at the last minute (through no fault of their own--work and last-minute group projects are a bitch). So my mother kindly offered to join me instead, for which I was very thankful (it meant I got to sleep in the car some instead of driving the entire time).

Anyway, things sorta went downhill from the get-go. It took me longer than anticipated Thursday night to leave Norman to get home, which didn't put me in a great mood. Friday amazingly went off without a hitch, which I guess I should have taken to be the calm before the real storm. The only bump on the proverbial road (aside from the ridiculous road construction we encountered just outside of St. Louis) was that Mom didn't want to listen to most of the CDs I brought with me. I made her listen to Bruce Springsteen anyway.

Then came Saturday, the day of reckoning...or something. We wandered around the St. Louis History Museum for a few hours around midday (they had some rather nifty exhibits there, too), then we drove to the Washington University campus. We arrived around 2:15, puttered around the gorgeous campus for an hour or so (the place looks like Cambridge, and with good reason--it was consciously modeled after Cambridge and Oxford), and then settled in the pre-appointed meeting place to wait for Dr. Hirst, the Chair of the Graduate Program in History and the guy I'd be working with. He was supposed to arrive at 4:00. At 4:30, there was still no sign of him, so I called his home. I got an answering machine, and left a message. Five o'clock rolled around, and still no sign of the man. At this point, I'm understandably frustrated--not only had my friends not been able to join me for a road trip, but the whole reason for coming out here (meeting with the professor) was turning out to be a wash, too. I call his house again, and again get the answering machine. I inform him that I waited as long as I could, but we had to leave (we had hotel reservations in Cuba, a little town an hour down the road and that much closer to home). We left, got to the hotel, had dinner, and were sitting in the room relaxing. I was also feeling rather sorry for myself, but that's secondary. Dad called on my cell, and I was sitting there chatting briefly with him about the day's events when the call waiting beeped. I looked, and it was the professor. So I quickly switched over, and the man started apologizing profusely. To make a long story short, he actually drove out all the way to Cuba, MO to visit with me for an hour at 9:30 at night. Needless to say, I think he and I both made an impression upon one another.

"The Test Begins...Now!"

A piece of musical advice that I could not merely consign to a quiet existence in the Music Thread of the Forum. You all need to go out and pick up the album "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots" by the Flaming Lips. If nothing else, you need to download their tune "Fight Test." These guys are--if you'll pardon the overused, cliched term--pure genius. They write warm, tuneful pop songs very much in the tradition of the Beatles and Pink Floyd. Think Sgt. Pepper's era Lennon or Roger Waters without the exceptionally dark tone. If I had to try and place their style more specifically, I'd say they sound like a latter-day Electric Light Orchestra. Strummed, full-bodied acoustic guitars, gently whispering strings in the background, strong bass lines and drumming, and a plethora of tape loops and electronic effects make their work sound like "Time"-era ELO. Which is a good thing, since the Flaming Lips do it even better than Jeff Lynne and Co. did.

"Fight Test" is the album opener and one of the most emotive songs I've heard since George Harrison's swansong "Brainwashed" album. "Fight Test" features the aforementioned instrumentation and evocative vocals that sound like a young, melodic Neil Young (in the same way that Donovan sounded like a melodic, slightly more in-key Bob Dylan). The song is uplifting and emotional. It makes you want to smile and cry and shout and dance and just hold someone close. All at once. It's a song about a man losing his woman, and realizing that he had lost her and should have fought for her. Thematically, I place it as a sort of sequel to the Sting song "Seven Days," which is a tune about deciding whether or not to commit to his girlfriend. "Fight Test" is essentially what happened to the type of character in Sting's song if he didn't choose at all, but rather decided not to choose.

So do yourself a favor--get their album, or download some of their tunes. Don't let the trippy album title (or band name) throw you off or make you think they're weird. These guys are great, and you'll be glad you took my advice. C'mon, have I ever led any of you astray? In music, that is?

"The test is over...now."

Outage

Missing comic

Hey everyone. Just letting you know there was a comic for Wednesday. See, I didn't get the comic uploaded to the server until after midnight (which is when the site auto-updates). So that meant I had to go to the Keenspace site, get into our site admin page, and tell it to manually update the comic. Well, to make a long story short, I'm still unable to access the site admin page. Monkey can't, either. But the comic will automatically be added to the archives by the time you read this, because it's on the server and where it needs to be. So the auto-update thingie will work. Just go into the Archives to see Wednesday's comic.

Milestones

A reminder that Friday is the 50th Crooked Halo comic, and Saturday marks the 100th Dim Bulb comic! Celebrate these milestones by reading back through the archives, or by signing up for the forums?

WUStLou

So Friday I'm taking a quick little trip to visit Washington University in St. Louis. It's one of the schools I'm considering for my PhD program, and it's also the only one that's within feasible driving distance for the three day weekend we have due to the OU-Texas football game. Originally a few of my friends were going to join me, but alas, extenuating circumstances (such as work and professors who think a three day weekend means they can give you enormous group projects that are due the Monday classes start back up), it's now me and my mom. Which some of you are probably laughing at, but think of it this way--now I don't have to pay for anything on the trip. Take that! Anyway, there'll probably be some sort of summary of my trip up here Monday...not that going to meet with a professor and discussing the possibility of me attending his school is anyhting too exciting, but I have to write about something.

Milestones

Milestones

Heyo folks. This Friday marks the 50th Crooked Halo strip on this website. That means that, if my math is correct (I make no promises that it is), Saturday marks Dim Bulb strip #100. So I'll take this opportunity to thank everyone who has stuck with us so far. We've got lots more planned, including Support Gifts (see Monkey's post for how October's gift works), a Literature Page where we'll post short stories and the like, and eventually there will be something on the Gallery Page. Honest.

Anyway, there are lots of ways you can celebrate our milestones this week. You can cruise through the archives, or check out the comics we enjoy reading in the Links Section, or join the Forum and chime in on a range of topics, including music, books, comics, and probably as much social commentary as can be gleaned from a conversation about Love Biscuits.

Fanatacism

So I was talking with my mom on the phone Friday evening. She was telling me how a friend of hers at Shawnee High School was telling her about her two kids, who both happen to attend "zealots," and how football is less a game here than a "religion" or "cult."

I'm thinking of suing him for intellectual property infringement or something like that.

OU Daily

So I somehow managed to get myself published in the OU Daily, the school's primary newspaper (this place has like three of them...but I would never put anything in the Fountainhead, which is the arch-conservative, evil, narrow-minded newspaper that has no reason to exist except to antagonize people with any common sense or decency, but I digress). Anyway, I'm getting a couple of comics published in the Daily every week, and I'm using that as Step One in my evil plan to take over the world: see, I'm putting the Dim Bulb web address on all the comics now, hoping that some folks will see the comics and want more. When we've got a wide enough readership, that's when spring Step Two: that is, get people to give us money for making the comics. When we've got that, we'll move on to Step Three...but I can't tell you about that one yet, because it gives away the whole plan. Suffice to say, I will have ultimate power by the end of Step Six.

Blockage (But Thankfully Not of the Colon)

Blockage

Quick update type thing. Go to Cinderblock. Art style look familiar? Why, I do believe it does! That'd be a guest comic by yours truly! Anyway, go check out Cinderblock, an amusing and warped look at college life...nomially speaking, anyway. It also has aliens, shapeshifting green blobs, and a smoking monkey. The last one ought to be enough in and of itself to get you to visit.

Miss Useless

As a historian, I can vouch that Miss America has never actually contributed anything of worth, value, or substance to American society. Except the swimsuit competition. In fact, if you look back through history, women such as those who would participate in the Miss America pageant have caused nothing but trouble. Helen of Troy, the prototypical Miss America (or Miss Pan-Hellen, as the case may be), actually caused war rather than prevented it. I mean, being the face that launched a thousand ships is all well and good, but was there any actual good that came of it? No. Achilles, one of Greece's greatest heroes, died because of it. Sure, it provided Homer with material for the Illiad and Odyssey, but that's about it.

On a completely unrelated note, the Monkey is the Devil, but he can't help it--if you had his job, dealing with stupid people most of the day, you'd have the urge to yell at them, make snide remarks, and flick pennies down Heather's shirt, too.

"So I cut off my hair/And I rode straight away"

Well, it finally happened--I went and got a haircut. Yeah, I know, I was enjoying the scruffy hippie look, mostly because it annoyed the mom figure, but it was starting to get on my nerves. When I would run and get sweaty, the hair would get pointy and poke me in the eye. Three miles of this every single day was getting old fast. Also, I had this bit that would stick out over the left ear (only the left ear, never the right), and it looked like I had some sort of wing thing going on. So I broke down and got it cut. I think it actually looks decent.

Yes, that was quite possibly the most boring thing you've ever read, wasn't it?

"Smoke Smoke, Faye Faye! Puff puff, Faye Faye!"

So I was at the corner store the other day getting something to drink, and I saw something disturbing at the counter--Skoal makes a Vanilla Smokeless Tobacco. Vanilla? What the hell?! I mean, I'm all for people's breath not stinking like ass after they've been chewing tobacco, but if I really had my way, they wouldn't be chewing it in the first place. I mean, do people think that crap is cool or something? They look like freakin' chipmunks with a wad of that crap in their cheeks.

Guess it could be worse, though I fear to wonder how.

Dim Bulb Wonderbra! (Wonderbra. Support. Get it?)

Remember folks, you can show your support for Dim Bulb AND get access to nifty stuff! All you have to do is email me and the Monkey and then check out the forum thread we've got set up over in the forum thingies (I'm too lazy to link all this crap...it's all just to the left of this post in the Monkey's post). At the end of the month, we'll send you the link to a very special page of Dim Bulb that will feature...well, I'm not sure what all, but extra comics, alternate takes, possibly some random art or short stories or the like. Please, show us some love, we're lonely people...well, I am. The Monkey has his fiance (whose name I feel compeled to remind all is Andria, not to be confused with Andrea, the archtypal female character featured in my comic). But you get the idea.

Lockout

University "Education"

So I learned a very important lesson Wednesday night around midnight--don't lock yourself out of your apartment, because it's an expensive endeavor getting back in.

See, I was walking my friend Beth to her car, and I was also going to move my car to its traditional end spot (which her vehicle was currently occupying). Anyway, she leaves, I move my car, I get back up to the apartment, and I realize I've pulled the door to. What's more, I realize I forgot to grab my apartment keys so I could actually get back into the apartment. So I drive over to the main office, call up the emergency number, and get someone to come let me in. I drive back to the apartment, and I wait for half an hour. The guy shows up, lets me back into the apartment, and charges me $50 to get back in. It's ludicrous, I say! It's freakin' extortion, really. I mean, I could understand a five or even a ten dollar fee. But FIFTY?! It's sad the day you truly realize that the university cares more about your money than about your education. I mean, here I am, a poor graduate student. They already get $450 a month from me, and another about $1000 per semester. How much freakin' money do they think I have?!

On top of that, I lost my parking spot. But I've got it back now, thankfully.

Are You Insured?

So this afternoon I was awakened by a phone call from my mother (yes, I said this afternoon--I only got 2 1/2 hours of sleep Tuesday night, then woke up early and worked for almost 12 hours Wednesday, and was awake for a total of 22 hours that day. I was tired, I slept. End of story). Anyway, turns out my insurance company had dropped me from my plan at the end of August because we hadn't provided them with proof of enrollment. Mind you, they never told us when they needed proof of enrollment, or even that they needed it in the first place. They just dropped me, and let us know almost two weeks after the fact. Stupid insurance company.

Anyway, thank God it's the weekend now. I need some time to sit here and relax...oh, what's that you say? It's game day Saturday? And it's a home game? Well, slap my ass and call me Charlie, I get to deal with rabid football fans all day Saturday? That does it; I'm going to sit outside the apartment with a sign that reads:

For $5, I'll watch your car.
For $10, I'll make sure nothing happens to it.

Turnabout Redux

Dammit Monkey, you did it again! Thankfully, I still had the above rant. Seems like your plans were foiled this time. Take that, Askins!

The Heat is On

Hot Hot Hot!

There's just something appealing about setting people on fire. I can't really explain it. Stupid people especially need to be incinerated, preferably with a flamethrower and by me. I think I'd probably laugh gleefully while doing so, too. That being said, does anyone know where I might purchase such a thing?

I really have nothing else to talk about, so I'm going to give you some music choices for the week. Go check out Bob Dylan's album Time Out of Mind. It's a great album full of his trademark wry humor and insights into the inner workings of man's mind. Favorite songs include "Love Sick," "Dirt Road Blues," "Till I Fell in Love with You," and "Cold Irons Bound," though really the whole album is worthwhile. So yeah, go check it out if you can and really like deep, meaningful songs (so completely unlike the rest of contemporary pop-rock). Whether or not you'll be able to understand what the hell Bob's saying is another story entirely, but I never claimed his lyrics were understandable.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled life, already in progress or something.

Randomness

Random

I like Hot Pockets. They’re cheap and easy, just like me. And all I have to do is nuke ‘em for two minutes (unlike Adam’s microwave, mine seems to be a functioning piece of machinery that does its job correctly…usually). The only time Hot Pockets aren’t a delectable delicacy is when they don’t get cooked right, which happens occasionally. Y’know, like when they’re kinda still cold and semi-frozen in the middle. Yuck.

Don’t get me wrong, I still eat them.

W.A.S.P.

So yeah, Adam is, as he says, a good portion Hispanic. I guess it does explain all the frozen burritos he has at his house. Seriously, when I stayed over at his place while doing research one Christmas Break, that’s like all he had to eat. Granted, I’m really one to talk—I usually only have Hot Pockets. Perhaps the necessary ingredients for quesadillas. But I digress.

I probably have the most boring ethnic background you could ask for. I think I have a bit of Native American in me and I think some Dutch, but I’m mostly just English (explains why I’m an Anglophile, at any rate). That’s right—I’m your typical white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. Middle class white boy who grew up in the Midwest United States. I am the American Everyman. If I were any more basic or plain, I’d probably be in some sort of advertisement for American tourism or something.

That didn’t make a damn bit of sense, did it? Anyway…

I guess what I’m saying is that I am The Man. Yet somehow I don’t seem to be benefiting from this fact. How does that work? Isn’t there some vast right wing conspiracy to make sure that all white protestant males are ruling this nation for all perpetuity, ensuring our British-descended hegemony? Where’s my cut of this, hmm?

Please forward all hate mail to the email address below, or sound off in the forum.

On an unrelated note, Van Morrison still rocks my socks, as do Moxy Früvous. If you know not of these amazing musical types, you are leading a sad, sad life, and ought to download some of their music.

Who'll Stop the Rain?

Down in the Flood

It does not often rain in Oklahoma in August/early September. It's rare. So the fact that it's spent the past two or three days doing virtually nothing but rain is rather amusing and, to an extent, kind of annoying. It makes running difficult, it cranks the humidity way up, and it makes me real disinclined towards leaving the apartment. It also makes running something of a soggy affair. And it also sets you to wondering--what really causes rain? I mean, water's heavier than air, right? So how does it get up in the air in the first place? Are we even really sure it's water and not, as the comic suggests, something else? It makes you wonder...

And as for the comic, I get the feeling it's one of those that people are either going to love, or are going to hate and think I'm some sort of blasphemer. If you fall into the latter category, just remember that God has a sense of humor, too. At least, I hope He does. It's my only chance, really.

Almost Cut My Hair

So I really, really need a haircut. At least, if you listen to my mother, you'd get that impression. I guess I must look different through her eyes than through anyone else's. I think she sees me as some sort of scraggly hippie with unkempt, unwashed hair hanging down to my waist in nasty braids or dredlocks or something, I dunno. Don't even get me started on what she thinks of my facial hair...though admittedly, that does look kinda funny. The goatee thing is starting to come in rather well, though the mustache still looks as though I've just forgotten to shave for a couple of days, or maybe I got some dirt on my upper lip and forgot to wash it off or something. So yeah, I look a little odd, but I kinda like the chin fuzz. It feels neat, and I think the chicks dig it...though they may just be saying that to make me feel better, and are all secretly laughing behind my back. Who knows.

On an unrelated note, I've been listening to a heckuva mess of Van Morrison lately, and I think the chorus to his "Wonderful Remark" is quite possibly one of the greatest choruses I've ever heard. That man is simply a brilliant songwriter, though he sometimes has issues with the chorus. Half the time, he comes up with something brilliant. The rest of the time, he doot-doot-doots it. So yeah, go listen to some of Van the Man's stuff. You'll like it, honest.