Sunset Grill

May 6, 2013

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:42:34 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

May 6, 2013
So yeah. This is my embarrassed face.

Short version: I genuinely cannot say when I'll be able to get back on schedule, but I'll try to make it soon.

Longer version: some of you may remember me mentioning my grandmother broke her hip just before Christmas. She was ninety and pretty frail, it ended up being the straw that broke the camel's back, she went into a cycle of deteriorating health that only ended when she died in mid-February. Which was at that point one of the better outcomes, but I've lived next to my grandparents since I was fifteen and I work for my parents. There wasn't a lot of my life that didn't get run through the meat grinder by this. Basically, I went to a Bad Place somewhere in late January and it's taken me a while to come out.

The good news is that I am breaking out of it, and y'all didn't see much of a hitch in service during that time because one of my tried-and-true methods for dealing when I'm in a Bad Place is to retreat into fantasyland, which in this case meant the comic. The bad news is that I let a bunch of other stuff spin out of control while I was in the Bad Place and now that I'm emerging I've kinda got a lot of shit to deal with. None of it's major, which is even more frustrating, really, because I keep underestimating the time it's going to take. It's like I'm playing a game of Whack-a-Mole with the Hydra, and every time I smack down a head labeled Housework or Filemaker Project Bugs or That Expensive Consultant You Were Supposed To Prep For two more pop up just as big, and that useless bugger I sent to look for a firebrand has stopped in at Starbucks for some pastries and a cuppa.

I'm also doing that thing run-down people do and getting sick, which is why the comic didn't happen on Friday, and the weather's not helping, and I let myself get short on scripts, and -- yeah. It is really hard for me to predict when I'll get things on track again.

I'm sorry, guys. I can't even say how this one snuck up on me, but it did. I will do my best, I swear.

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April 17, 2013

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 00:35:45 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

April 17, 2013
So yeah I may as well admit updates will be spotty for a bit. Toddler and a bunch of crunches at work. As a side note: one of the problems with working for your parents? It's not just 'Internet Explorer did a thing and you know about computers, right?' any more, it's 'You installed Firefox, so now you can script us a ground-up custom Filemaker database for our insanely complicated business, right?' I am... actually succeeding at this, to my considerable surprise, but it's eating what little energy the toddler and the rest of my job left me.

So yeah. Updating when I can, getting back on schedule as soon as possible, but no promises.

What else? Oh, right. 400 pages! *confetti*

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April 12, 2013

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:40:44 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

April 12, 2013
Still technically Friday. Sorry for the late page, guys, and the radio silence of late. Blame the toddler -- it's finally spring weather here, and she's celebrating by doubling the energy levels (yes, we are contacting the local power company to let them know their renewable resource worries are over), petitioning for later bedtimes, and refusing to come indoors or let the grownups do silly things like work on computers when it is OMG WARM OUT!

To the person who wrote that 'sugar and spice and all things nice' rhyme: I would like a refund. My model appears to be made up entirely of wiggling, noise, and pig-stubborness. If no refund, send toddler-sized hamster wheel.

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April 9, 2013

Tue, 09 Apr 2013 01:33:05 -0700

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April 5, 2013

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 01:17:05 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

April 5, 2013
The next time I decide to do a scene with 5-6 people, most of whom are talking, please a) remind me that DAZ really doesn't like more than three people in a scene, b) remind me that the voice bubbles for such a scene will be an absolute bugger, or c) shoot me.

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April 2, 2013

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:16:15 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

April 2, 2013
Skin dancing: an art form that combines dance and reprogrammable tattoos. So as she dances the tattoos will flow, shift, and change to reflect the dance's theme and music. Skin dancing was actually developed by a Kieselburg native, but as both the creator (xenophiliac, and more than a little crazy) and the art form, which skates perilously close to cyborg-style implants for the more conservative crowd, are a bit pushing the edge for the Kieselburg elite, the dance did not see much popularity in its home city until the Emperor tapped a noted skin dancer to be one of his Imperial Companions twelve years ago. Even now the city has a somewhat embarrassed relationship with the art, appreciating the for-once-positive attention it has brought but wishing rather it had a more dignified and less disturbing way of bringing it.

The pattern changes are often preprogrammed, but this dancer's goggles (eyewear is usually a computer interface in-setting) suggest that she is doing a live control of her skin dance.

And finally, a treat! I promised you guys something nice if you got me in the Top 100 over at TWC, and, well, given that most of you were here for the writing I figured writing was the way to go. Some of you may remember a pair of letters (here and here) between Travis and his younger sister Melody, and since people have asked a couple of times for that series to continue, and people have been asking where Travis got to, well.... Vote! I'm going to try and get at least one letter up a week on Monday or Tuesday, with the usual panel preview going up on Friday, for all of April. And yes, they will be available to read somewhere after they come down off of TWC. I'll find a better place to store them soon! Running in circles this week!

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March 29, 2013

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 16:23:35 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

March 29, 2013
Wetware: aka Jacking. Or given that I didn't get this up until people had started asking questions, you can just scroll down and read the comments thread.

Also, holy crap, you guys actually kept me in the top 100 on Top Webcomics for a whole friggin' month. More news there on Tuesday....

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March 26, 2013

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 06:48:58 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

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March 22, 2013

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 06:56:48 -0700

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March 19, 2013

Mon, 18 Mar 2013 22:00:31 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

March 19, 2013
Oppies: The New Opportunities Party, also referred to as the Opportunists by their rivals. Originally an egalitarian party with working-class ties, they have been swinging more and more towards the rhetoric of the Fraternity, whose dislike of both the blueblood upper class and the lower-class Sunlanders makes a potent and vote-drawing combination. They're not one of the half-dozen political parties which make up the major Assembly coalitions, however, which even Zeke would probably recognize.

'Redraw the ward lines': the contemporary term is 'gerrymandering', and it's common enough that jokes about having to register ward residency three times in between elections are considered rather passe.

And for those of you not yet bored silly, some reminders of what the Greenwharves and the Mask are referring to.

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March 15, 2013

Sun, 17 Mar 2013 11:41:26 -0700

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

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March 12, 2013

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:30:51 -0700

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March 8, 2013

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:52:31 -0800

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

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March 5, 2013

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 06:38:33 -0800

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

March 5, 2013
Dude. TWC voting people. When I said I'd do something nice for you if you got me in the top 100 I was joking, but damned if you aren't getting me close! To everyone who's voting... thank you. I'm still a bit under the weather here -- as those of you who check the comic early in the mornings or who are owed correspondence undoubtably have noticed -- and, you know, I don't pay a ton of attention to my TWC rankings because that way lies madness and unseemly sulking and complaining about how are they in the top ten, they must be posting naked girls in their incentives, those evil other people... but it still does my ego good and makes me smile to see the rankings shooting up like that. So thank you. I could use the smile.

(Not joking about coming up with something nice if you drive me into the top 100 this month, although it will probably not be nekkidness. My cast is heavily armed, and I have to live with these people.)

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March 1, 2013

Fri, 01 Mar 2013 05:53:47 -0800

All comics were made using DAZStudio and ComicLife. For a full list of credits, click here.

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