First World Fiddling

So here is my first proper play around with "colouring". I think I've just about made up my mind about going black and white or colour. Though I suppose I could always do colour for the site and desaturate the images for any kind of printed collection I might be lucky enough to do, some two hundred comics or so down the road.

But then, since writing is and will most likely continue to be my stronger half of this word n' picture show, it's probably best to aim for whatever lets me put out the comic quicker and more frequently. Thus black and white looks to be a winner for the time being!

The Terracotta Warriors, and the British Museum in general, were quite a thing today. Sadly, cameras were not allowed in the central exhibit (the Warriors) but they were kosher everywhere else and thus I have plenty of great pictures I'll be putting up over the next couple of days. Now you have something to live for!

Also, the hunt for a better font continues. Opinions are always welcome!-----------------
Meanwhile, the topic of protracted adolescence is something worth thinking about and this short article takes an interesting, male-centric angle on the matter.

Also, it seems the world's oldest profession is not human exclusive. That is to say, CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CHIMP WHORES. DO IT NOW.

The Thames along Hammersmith Pier

Phoaaarr

Another quiet (blogwise) day, I'm afraid. Work has kept me very busy and I must admit that I'm embracing the increased intensity and challenges after the steady doldrum of data entry. The immediate neighborhood to my work is very pleasant (and conveniant as it's loaded with shops) but not terribly photo worthy. That being said, I gather I'm not far from one of London's more well known neighborhoods. I'll check my London A-Z and see if it's close enough that I could go and grab some photos on my lunch.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Terracotta Warriors have arrived in town and there's a good chance I'll be seeing them or at least finally making my pilgramige to Tower Bridge on Saturday so thar'll be news of that to look forward to.

Finally, my apologies for a lack of an "art upgrade" in the comic. Life got in the way of me finishing a bunch of character style guides I was drawing up, as it sometimes does. What's actually irritating, though, is that I gave into the urge to announce an improvment before it came about! This is something which I've privately gotten pretty annoyed by with when it comes to webcomic author newsposts and yet there I did it myself!

Well shucks howdy.

Also? Moby Dick is absolutely worth its reputation not to mention the literary wanking that one can do when they start to realize just how much of an influence Herman Melville's style of prose has had on so many that have come after him.

URF

THAR WE GO

AUGUGUHUHUAGH

The beast known as Computer Errors has just cost me a gross lump of work on the comic. I think I might still be able to get it up tonight (honey) but in case I don't, now you know why!

Wahhhhhh

If the Middle East were filled with nothing but millions of Olivers...

....then this is how America could win their hearts and minds.

Now I can spend a little money without peeing tears for the next week (?), I thought I'd find a nice cheap paperback to read on the tube. Popping into a Borders, I eventually found a perfect trifecta of classic literature, affordability and environmentalism.
According to a store clerk, Penguin started releasing these 95% recycled editions of old classics (upon which all the money has been made) about six months ago. As you can see in the picture, it only sold for two quid (about $5 CAN/US) and that's just a hell of a deal for a new book. I snapped up Moby Dick, Charles Dickens' Hard Times, Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, Bram Stoker's Dracula and a collection of selected works by Edgar Allen Poe. Hot damn but I'm covered for the next while! It also strikes me that these would be a great resource for students (all the Shakespearean plays were on the shelf, for example). Can anybody tell me if these are avaliable in Canada as well? If not, they should be!

Three hundred posts: woooo

But alas, just a short note!

Lots more places are pushing reusable bags, but I think the new Threadless store in Chicago has the right idea to really get people to use them.

Jahb, jahhhb, JAHB!

As first days go, this was pretty okay! The office is nice, the coworkers are very sociable and all around nice folk. The work itself wasn't too complex but then I doubt they'd entrust me to defending the Earth from the interdimensional Hounds of Tindalos on my first day.

The commute was surprisingly docile compared to what I expected, it seems the Picadilly Line is much less rammed in the mornings than the Northern Line. Thus I was able to get a decent amount of writing done while A) sitting down and B)not having somebodies quivering flesh jamming me into the unyielding glass and steel of the car itself.

Quivering.

I'd have taken some photographs and explored during lunch, except the people in my department all went to a really nice local pub where, wonders of wonders, drinks were A)had B) paid for on the company tab. Well, I wasn't exactly going to say no to that now was I? Hi-larious drunk bubbles passed across my eyes for the first hour (I generally avoid spending money on alcohol while unemployed or pseudo employed, as I've been the past while, so my tolerence had plummeted) but I persevered.

Addendum: You know you're on the internet when you encounter the following phrase "So I came across this hilarious blog post where Wil Wheaton integrates a magnificent Tycho quote into a funny story". Ah, but it's true and I must share it because the bookending story is fine but the Tycho quote made me laugh until I damn near wet myself because it was, as they say, so very true. You don't have to be some big programming geek to enjoy it, you just have to have been alive more or less.

As my Uncle Phil would put it....

...I am cream crackered. The last little while has been ten kinds of stressful for reasons I didn't bring up here lest it become one of those blogs and this afternoon it finally caught up with me. Try as I might, any attempt to progress past what I got made me feel like a dickless man trying to fuck his way up a mountain.

I....I think I just coined that horror.

As partial means of compensation I put forward these two offerings and a humble promise of a comic on Wednesday.

Hollywood (Monkey-Dust style) takes a crack at the Ivan O'Dobsky story...

...and then again, with The Crusades.