4/25: The Revenant Seal 6
Whee! One of the better Revenant Seals so far, I think. Kaden - the character you see here, is no doubt drawn better in this comic than he is in any of the previous ones. That is likely of course, because I did an entire series of Hilarity Ensues strips in between this and the last Revenant Seal, and have therefore had constant practice on several faces, especially in consistency.
A few new techniques in this one too. I used the Burn tool in photoshop a bit more, darkening areas rather than relying completely on a brush that changes color with different pressure. It allows a bit more control with shadows and highlights.
4/17: Aaaaand That's a Wrap
What? A Gray Matters? And the completion of an endless series, as well? Well, what do you know? Is this the start of me getting back onto a regular update schedule!? Probably not!
I wish I could say it is, but knowing me, probably not. I'll give it a nice (half-assed) shot though!
Hilarity Ensues - (Characters and Situation created by Matthew Robert Bowers)
4/7: Lah La la
Been watching Naruto Shipuden (sp?) and writing for my Dungeons and Dragons group. Here's another HE.
3/28: I'm working on Comics, i swear
I have a couple in the works right now (comics that is, assuming you didn't read the title of the blog, and therefore are unaware of what i am speaking of). I'm working on a Revenant Seal and a Gray Matters. Open ended due date. Today, i'm going to be drinking and watching bad anime with some friends.
3/22: Girl Stabbed by Bed, Updates everyone on IRC, then calls 911
More Hilarity Ensues goodness. I love the teacher's hand in panel 1. Normally my hands come out looking horribly deformed or bulbous or something, but that hand came out awesome.
The title of the blog post refers to a girl that was in an IRC chatroom i frequent for players of the browser-based text game named Imperium Nova. Phoekun, who collects blades, apparently left one of said blades on her bed, which she then forgot about, and proceeded to jump on the bed later. The knife lodged itself an inch or so into chest, just below the ribs. The funniest part, however, is that before attempting to call 911, or attempting /any/ first aid whatsoever, her first instinct was to jump on IRC and let everyone know what was going on. You can download an abridged version of the IRC (i opted for text, as i am too lazy to put it in html) for the full story, although you'll see alot of other conversations that probably wont' make much sense since we're all tremendous nerds.
3/11: More Hilarious Content
Alot going on in this one. Wow.
No, actually there's not. It's a darkroom, if the art was so bad that you can't tell. Matthew's dialogue should clear it up if so, along with a larger image size. Overall, i like the effect. I'm going to try to get myself back on drawing schedule this week. Although with the recent number of networking sites that i'm actually casually browsing, we'll see.
I stumbled upon a comic named Clockwork Game recently, although I would only be dissapointed. This comic, a historical piece centering on Wolfgang von Kempelen and his invention of The Turk came to an abrupt halt on the last comic, not merely because it was the last comic in the archive (as is a common dissapointment with still-updating comics) but because in the following blog post, the author elaborated how she was going to stop making the comic because of race issues. She hasn't made a final decision, but I really think that trashing a comic because you didn't go out of your way to "discuss the automoton's orientalism" is a waste, and I hope she keeps going.
2/28: And You Thought It Was Done
Yes! It lives!
Frankly I couldn't tell you why i haven't put this up sooner. I only had a bit of shading to finish. It's otherwise been done for most of the year. I guess at some point I just wasn't feeling up to polishing it off.
2/27: Aw, I dunno
I can't really tell you why i took nearly a month to update again. Guess I was just taking a break. I can't say I've been up to working on the website lately. I have to get back into the process.
2/1: Super-Bowl Sunday Blues
This is probably my favorite strip that I've drawn of this HE strip arc. Of course, I did kind of cheat on it. This strip is probably the greatest reference heavy page of the bunch, relying heavily on photographs provided by Matthew and on photos I researched myself. The third panel is almost a complete trace - i just overlaid photoshop paint layers on top of the picture itself with the Brush and Lasso tools. At this low resolution, it doesn't look too unlike the photograph itself. Besides that though, it's probably the most detail I've done in any of these strips, although the change of background probably helped my enthusiasm. Besides this, I'd only been drawing hallways, classrooms, and the same living room over and over again. It's probably the same reason why the big School Courtyard strip came out so well.
Now, the rest of this post was going to be me saying how all of my friends are out doing their own thing today, and how I'm all alone at the house, with only anime and video games to conform me - but in the middle of writing it, my best friend called, saying that he doesn't work today afterall, and he's coming over to geek out on anime and videogames with me. Now, you might ask why i don't just change the title of the blog, and maybe talk about something else. Well - that's just not how I roll.
1/29: Don't Play Older Games
Well, don't do anything that is old if you have friends that have already seen it, and it's so old enough that they don't remember it that well. I've been playing Final Fantasy IX for the first time. I LIVED A VERY SHELTERED CHILDHOOD ALRIGHT. But anyway, my roomates and friends watch me play it since they're here all the time, and they don't intend to spoil any of the story elements, but they will just walk up and ask "is this the part where Dagger loses her voice?" just as that scene pops up, stripping the scene of any narrative buildup and climax in a single sentence.
But on a more sane note, I'm finishing up the last two Hilarity Ensues comics that I'll be working on this week. There's still about 8 more comics I haven't put up though, so I'll probably start putting them up with more frequency. Then I get get back to my own comics again, a slightly better artist than I was before, and $20 dollars richer!
1/19: Almost Finished
This strip is not quite as boring as the last one I put up - more dynamic angles, more background, more characters!
We'll start off with Hitment for Destiny this week (couple of weeks?). The art is not good. In fact, I might wager to say it is unsavory. However, the the writing is quite good, and the art, while not particularly aesthetically pleasing, is functional, something I cannot say for all webcomics. HfD is amazing at situational comedy. There are no punchlines, but there is a driving story, one that is... destined, you could say, to end in the near future. It's always neat to see a comic with a clear cut end in sight, and even better to see such execution in the meantime.
The last paragraph began with the words "we'll start with," which would lead one to believe there would be more following that particular topic. I'll let you know now that it was merely a clever ploy to decieve you.
1/9: Content Content Content
Less than two weeks! Impressed? Now, to see if i can do this thing twice in a row.
In other surprises, I also have webcomic news! I know, right? Now, that isn't to say I've stopped reading webcomics, I've just been too lazy to tell you beautiful, fictional fans about them. Because of my short memory, I'm going to post the most recent ones I'm aware of first. That would make Road the first candidate. A nice dystopia, Cyberpunk genre comic. It's also the first comic from Zuda that I've been linked to that I actually loved. It looks like the site has exploded quite a bit since it's start and it's become a magnet for good cartoonists. I'll definately be checking more out. In the dystopia/steampunk genre is Freakangels, where instead of the implanted AI of Road, we have psionically enhanced superhumans. Both are well-written (with a few exceptions) and paced, and have sweepingly horrific and enchanting landscapes of worlds gone wrong.
Dumm Comics is pretty... dumm, frankly. Not necessarily a bad thing, but don't look for deep characters, sophisticated humor, or dramatic prose. Expect bad puns, over-exaggerated expressions, and zany situations.
Buck Godot, Zap Gun for Hire may sound like a pretty blasé title, but then I found out it was by the same makers as Girl Genius. Like the latter, it is brilliantly written and drawn, and it is still updating 3 times a week.
Then, for the opposite of the spectrum, Peachi just likes to draw satirical comics about video games. He's not exactly redefining webcomics as we know it, but he does do a mean Metal Gear Solid impression.
Sinfest is the appropriate comic to end on, I think. It has been going on for coming up on 9 years, and unlike many of it's similarly aged cousins, the art started out good and got better, rather than starting out complete crap and managing to get tolerable after 10+ years. (I know pete is a great artist on composition peices, but when rushed, he isn't all that good - I love sluggy to death, but art is not it's draw).
Sinfest is a comic-a-day gag strip with very clean, elegant linework, and, recently, full-color-sundays. I must admit, i'm a little more fond of his work a couple of years ago, before Tatsuya Ishida got so dependent on color. His linework was more detailed, slimmer. His current linework has it's own elegance, but it's more clumsy in my opinion. The humor has retained it's edge, however, and you can't really compain about the devil girls.
12/27: Would you believe christmas set me back?
I'll try to start putting these up every week, but it might be safer to expect one every two. I'm getting back on track after a few... bumpy weeks.
12/14: Another Hilarious update
Things have been kinda crazy this last week with my parent's dimminishing health. Sorry for the delays.
11/30: Gah!!!
Got lazy for awhile there. The week i took off isn't an excuse for the two weeks I haven't posted stuff up. This strip I am not particularly happy with, and I may actually go back and redraw it once i get the rest of the arc done. We'll see.
11/11: Another day, one less dollar
Here's yet another strip for Hilarity Ensues, although you still won't see the dialogue until the comic actually goes up.
11/5: It's Not a Very Effective Sign
Whelp, election is today. Make sure you vote. I hear Proposition 8 is going to be pretty close race. I am voting it down, myself. A good friend of mine is quite passionate about it, and if Prop 8 passes, it'll prevent gay couples from attaining a marriage license, which is important since Civil Unions are only recognized in the states they are issued.
The proposition commercials have been especially annoying recently, and I'll be glad when they're over. There's only so much bare-faced lies and emotion-terrorism you can take.
11/2: Trying Not to Fall Behind Again
Halloween was probably the least festive as I've ever celebrated it this year. Too bad. Maybe if I knew more people that actually threw parties...
Well, here's another HE captionless strip. I'll hopefully be posting them up once a week, and as i've leaned up on the pace of making them, I might find time to update other comics in betwee.
10/25: There's Still More After This One
Well, I already posted my webcomic news two days ago, so this one will be solely about Gray Matters, since i haven't done one in apparently over three months. I'd had the art lying on my computer too, and I just needed to finish the shading, which I did today. So there. This storyline is going to go several more strips, particularly with my new shorter format. Hopefully I'm not boring anyone to death (well, the waiting is probably alot worse).