Blast from the past!

So I got today's comic uploaded as well as a "treat": a page from the ol' sketchbook o' doom. The page contains a couple of rough comics from my original conception of the Mercenary Missionary storyline, well before I'd even though of incorporating it into the Deity Kit story (or before I'd even thought of a Deity Kit). The dates on the two comics place them in July of 2003, so the idea's been kicking around for some time (that would've been the summer Clyde was staying with me in Norman. The Mercenary Missionary story was originally his idea). I think what I've done with the story is much stronger now than it was in 2003. I've grown as a storyteller.

Not that that's necessarily saying a whole lot, mind you.

Also, today's actual comic features three cameos by real people I know. I'll buy a beer for anyone who can recognize the folks in the three panels, including the bearded chap we only see part of in panel three.

Sorry

Sorry there's no comic yet, folks. I selfishly chose to spend last night hanging out with Michelle to celebrate her birthday and then getting a decent night's sleep over drawing a comic for you. I'll get something drawn after work this afternoon. Hell, I may even be nice and do more than one comic to make up for it.

Comics!

Comic from Friday and comic for today are both posted now. Huzzah! More to come Wednesday and Friday and all. Stay tuned.

Rhubarb

Today was a long day, and I'm pretty damn tired, so I'll draw you a comic when I get home from work tomorrow. For now, I sleep.

Son of Narrative Causality

Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July, whether you celebrated it as a holiday or not (what? It has to be a holiday before it's allowed to be happy?). I did many interesting things and had a splendid time.

Monday was my mother's birthday, so happy birthday to her.

Narrative causality, of course, is the idea of Murphy's Law, basically. Saying something like "how could it get any worse?" or "it's quiet...too quiet" instantly leads to something worse happening or all hell breaking loose. It's a fun literary device, really.

Explanation

As some of you probably know, I'm a teacher at a small school in Springfield, VA. We've only got about 50 students there total, so it's a small and close-knit community.

I found out Wednesday afternoon that one of our students had passed away the day before. He had a heart attack in his sleep and just...never woke up. As you can imagine, this has been a tremendous blow to our little community. We're all in a state of shock.

Michael had found out about my comic about two weeks before school ended. He'd read through the Crooked Halo archive in one night, he liked it so much. He kept asking me when the next comic would be out.

His memorial service will be this Sunday, and I'll be there. I'll be there to say goodbye to a student, a reader, a fellow anime fanatic, and a friend.

Look! Up in the--meh, you know the rest.

I officially have tickets to see Superman Returns tonight. There will be much rejoicing.

Mercs for hire

Today's comic features a cameo by Jin and Juno from The Jaded. I figured they weren't real busy (since The Jaded is on hiatus until the marvelous Ping Teo finishes up one of her other comics, The Longest Sojourn), so it'd be the perfect opportunity.

Plus, Adam sorta mentioned something about them in a comment and this whole thing popped into my head.

Juno and Jin have visited several times before. They were Jerome's bodyguards when he was running for President, and Juno, Earl, and Clyde were all participants in a meeting of Boy Banders Anonymous. So Juno and Jin are no strangers to Crooked Halo.

Anyway, I'm not entirely sure where it'll go from here...well, I sorta am, but I'm not sure how I'll get there. We'll see, I guess.

Who'll stop the rain?

Sorry today's comic wasn't posted at the usual time. There was a huge thunderstorm here last night and my computer spent most of the night turned off. Also, I didn't like the first draft of the script and decided to re-write it today. Anyway, comic is now up. Enjoy.

Hey Todd McFarlane

I just finished reading Batman: Year Two - Fear the Reaper. Good graphic novel. Felt like a classic Batman story, only written much more recently. Your art (from Chapter 2 on, since Alan Davis did Chapter 1) fit pretty well.

But the capes, man. What's up with the capes?

I knew you had a cape fetish thing. I'd seen some Spawn stuff. I knew you had this thing where you had to make the cape all angular and forty feet long. And yeah, it looks cool, and for Spawn it's not really a problem I guess (what with his costume being a part of him or whatever), but does it really work for Batman? I'd argue that it doesn't, really. See, Batman's a practical sorta guy, y'know? The whole humongous cape thing doesn't really work for him, even if it does look spiffy.

But hey, I know that's your thing. I'm sure that if Spide-Man had had a cape, it would've been gigantic, too. Hell, I'm surprised you didn't give him one when you were drawing that comic anyway. Besides, this comic was done back in like 1987, when I'm sure you were just trying to get by and draw big capes on any comic character you could. I understand.

So yeah, I'd stick to action figures. Speaking of, any chance of another series of Beatles figures? Those were fab.

Another Candle on the Cake

Sunday marks the third anniversary of Dim Bulb Comics on Keenspace/Comic Genesis! That's right, we've last two and a half years longer than most webcomics.

Admittedly, year three was kinda rough for us. Troubled Times lived up to its name, dying the disgraceful death of negligence that it probably deserved. Vapor Lock hit a spot where Adam sorta ran out of steam. And Crooked Halo's updates haven't necessarily been the most reliable things ever.

There've been some good things, though. I've passed the 450 mark on actual Crooked Halo comics. We got linked (thanks to Adam's fantastic fanart) by Schlock Mercenary, and that brought us some new readers (which I promptly lost due to Megatokyo-esque updates). Adam's got a couple of new ideas cooking, and we should see something on those here soon. We've also made fun of a lot of stuff, and that's always a positive thing.

Anyway, if anyone wants to send some fanart or anything, we'd be more than happy to see it. You can send stuff to crookedhalo42 at yahoo dot com.

Here's to another year of whatever the hell it is we really do around here!

"They say it's your birthday"

Wednesday, June 14th marks my brother Clif's birthday. He's the inspiration for Clyde, and a good deal of the stories (and dialogue) that involve Clyde are lifted almost verbatim from conversations with my brother (the Yellowstone Saga, for instance, or Clyde's summer with the governor's office). He's a heckuva guy and he keeps me working hard to make the comic funny (usually by saying, "Gee, Chuck, that last storyline kinda sucked. Do something funny again"), so happy birthday to the Real Life Clyde!

"Down the Block, Not Across the Street"

Sorry about not having a real comic Friday, but I've got something just as cooler: a sketch from Mr. R.K. Milholland, the artist of Something Positive. He was doing a reader meet-n-greet down in Richmond, so Michelle and I headed down there and got sketches. So here's a Choo-Choo Bear for you. New comic on Monday.

Dominion'd

You guys sorta know the drill by now: comic'll be up later this afternoon. I spent all day chasing students around King's Dominion and then had to run a bunch of errands when I got home, so I was too tired and too busy to really get anything comic-like done. I should have something for you after work, though.

06/06/06

Well, Tuesday was supposedly the day of the Apocalypse. I'm guessing that didn't come true since it's like 12.15 right now.

Re-watched Batman Begins while drawing the comic. Nice to see a good comic book movie, unlike that unmitigated piece o' crap X3. I saw it the night it came out (knowing, in advance, that it probabyl wasn't going to live up to my expectations from the first two), and seriously, did Brett Ratner expect us to just go, "oooh, fight scenes! Pretty!" and completely forget about coherent plot or characterization? Characters were given little to no motivation for their actions, the scenes in the flick just sorta came one after the other with no reason or transition, and the dialogue...oh dear God in Heaven, the dialogue. Anytime Storm and Wolverine were on the screen together and not fighting something, I felt a little piece of me die. How can two such talented actors manage to convey absolutely no emotional depth? Easy: a shitty script. Relationships from the previous flicks were completely ignored, characters didn't so much interact with one another as happen to exist in the same space for no real reason, and the whole thing made me sad. It coulda been so much better.

Superman Returns looks sweet, though. Ghost Rider, on the other hand...who thought Nicholas Cage would make a good superhero? And why, of all characters to pick, did they go with Ghost-freakin'-Rider? He's a flaming skeleton thing who rides a motorcycle. It's just...ugh. Forget it. I'm going to bed now. Enjoy the comic.

DIY

Monday's comic (and the storyline I'm thinking I might go ahead and do) is based on a short story I wrote last summer called, appropriately, "Deity Kit." In the short story, it wasn't Jerome who got the kit, of course, but the idea remains the same. It did have Earl in it, though. I think this'll be a great storyline to draw. Feel free to let me know what you think as it progresses.

Only a couple of weeks left of class at the school where I work. We'll have a couple of weeks of break, then hopefully I'll be teaching summer school ('cause paying rent and eating are things I've grown attached to). It shouldn't interfere with the comic updating (anymore than work has so far). In fact, I may use some of that time off to get ahead with the comics.

Alright, off to bed. Later, folks.

Comic Up

Comic has now been uploaded and all. Happy Memorial Day, folks.

Open All Night

It's 1.00 am, and I just got in from a Bruce Springsteen concert. Tomorrow (or today, if you will) is Memorial Day, so I don't have to work. That means that I'll draw and post a comic as soon as I get up. Just for you, because I really like you people. No, honestly. I do. I'd take a bullet for ya.

Well, maybe not a bullet. But I'd let someone yell at me for you.

Okay, maybe not that. But I'd take a complement for you. That's for sure. I'd definitely do that.

Unless it was a complement for something I didn't like. But you get the idea, I think.

Comicage

Okay, so I've got the comic done and uploaded. I went ahead and uploaded a sketch thing for Wednesday instead of the comic, which will now update on Friday. This made more sense to me, since Adam's got a sketch up on Thursday. So, enjoy this week full o' art, folks.

Hrmmm

So the program I use to clean up, resize, and letter the comic isn't wanting to work tonight. The comic is drawn and scanned, but the software isn't cooperating. As I'm already dead freakin' tired, the comic will update when I get home from work tomorrow evening. I also plan on drawing Friday's comic tomorrow night so there won't be an interruption there. I'll keep ya posted, and sorry about the delay.

Also, Adam irons his pants? What's that all about?