I think not allowing booth babes that aren’t experts at videogames at PAX is kind of wierd, but whatever.

I’ve  been playing around more with my Wacom Intuos 4 tablet (as opposed to my Cintiq) lately, due to the fact that I’ve currently got my iMac up as my main machine (due to ongoing whatever by my Windows 7 machine).  It’s interesting how different the surface feels (there’s actually texture and friction to the surface — whereas the Cintiq is pretty much a totally smooth surface), and it’s also interesting to feel (I doubt it’s visually apparent) how different my stroke technique has changed since I restarted NZ.

I’m actually writing this on Sunday afternoon, and I haven’t eaten anything yet today, in spite of having done a significant number of chores.  I’m going to go remedy that now, and then I’m going to do a little more drawing of a project that I’ve been brainstorming for a few weeks now.  More on that later, hopefully.

Enjoy the Labor Day holiday, if you are able to do so!  I’ll see you folks Wednesday!

- Steve
@SteveComics

The bit about the bodies is, of course, not true.  On the Mexico side of the border?  That’s another story.

Peeps, this comic was done sort of digital-retro like, in the sense that it was done on my MBP with an old spare Wacom tablet, due to the fact that my main computer is still being uncooperative.  I’m not sure exactly what’s wrong with it, but I will figure out what’s wrong with it, or its getting replaced by the iMac >:|

I kinda like doing these comics, though!  Sure, they’re not what you would call *ahem* visually accomplished, but the little guys are so well defined that the jokes almost write themselves.

I’m about to dive into this mid tower, so I leave you here.   Have a good weekend!

- Steve
@SteveComics

I know already know what you’re thinking : “Only 600GB?  Amateur.”

For some reason the almost-unused HDD that I installed this weekend as my new system disk is now going bad.  To be honest, I have no idea how old this disk is, but it’s 1TB, so it can’t be that old, right?  I mean, it came out of my closet, not from some refugee in a Computer Renaissance shirt down on Colfax!  Sigh.

Anyway, Photoshop 32bit is not running anymore, but the machine has stayed up long enough to get you this post!  Hooray!

This is unexpected and disappointing, but hopefully I’ll be all ready to go for Friday and the next installment of “Upside/Downside”.

Gotta go get a new drive and save this before the next thing fails to work.  See you Friday, and status updates on my travesty unfold on Twitter!

- Steve
@SteveComics

The most insightful truths are sometimes the easiest to draw.  Or something.

Those of you who may follow me on Twitter probably have heard this a couple times, so pardon me if I utter it once more: “Hi, I’m Jou Hisaishi and I’m here to run this leitmotif into the ground”.  It’s not that I don’t think he’s a bad composer, quite the opposite, but man… once that dude gets on a musical theme, he rides that thing all the way to the market and back for a week before letting it go.

It’s possible this is only for his OST work.   I haven’t heard any of his electronic music, but I’m willing to bet…

You know what’s kinda interesting about listening to anime OST scores?  A lot of them sound a lot like they could be BGM tracks for an episode of Babylon 5 (though Christopher Franke did score “Tenchi Muyu! in Love“…. hmmm).

The blasted heat continues here in the land east of the mountains.  Nan Desu Kan is coming up, and so I hope the weather will have the good sense to moderate itself in the next 2 weeks.

That’s all for now, see you Wednesday, and thanks for readin’ chilllllddreen (don’t sue me plz).

- Steve
@SteveComics

It’s true. Or, at least, as true as these things get.

It’s strange how 20 years ago, Cameron doing something would have made me think “yes, a director who will Get It Right<tm>”.

Not any more. No sir.

I’m feeling somewhat better tonight!   I wasn’t forgetting what key combos various things were in Manga Studio and Photoshop, which is always a plus.  It was too damn hot out today (again), though.  And, of course, in my day-job-office it was stupid cold… because… I have no idea.  I’m convinced office buildings do such things to torture us humans.

On another point: Rats have amusingly short memories:

That’s all I have for now, folks.  I’ll see you on Twitter or Monday!

- Steve
@SteveComics

You ever watch a local news broadcast the night of a major holiday or, perhaps, the day after, if the weekend is made 4 instead of 2 because of it?  Then you know Prospero is talking about, here.  You get those amusing lags in camera jumps, perhaps the on-air personality talking to the wrong camera for a few seconds and, generally, just a non-streamlined experience.

I’m still fighting something that is, almost certainly, viral.  I’m not sick, but I’m not well, either.  I’m stuck inside some sort of health purgatory.  Also apparent: I did not purchase enough indulgences while I was healthy, or people aren’t purchasing enough on my behalf.  I don’t recall which one (if either) is the correct thing any more.  My Catholicism has atrophied significantly.

Re: The comic above: There’s an interesting article on Ars Technica concerning a study that shows how happy microbes are continuing to gobble up suspended crude in the Gulf of Meh-hee-coh.  I think its pretty cool that there are microbes that not only do that, but seem to thrive on petroleum for grub.

Err, sorry, I meant so say “wharhawrhwarhwar BP PAID FOR THE STUDY derpderpdperdper WE’RE ALL GONNA DIEEEE!!!!”

Now, I feel better.  And so much more mainstream!

See you good folks on Twitter or on Friday!

- Steve
@SteveComics

There were a few classes you could do this in.  Digital Logic and Circuit Design was not one of them.

I am feeling slightly less burnt out today!  But man it was so hot out on Sunday.  Usually, I’m okay with hot days, but for some reason it was really quite vexing.  I was terribly vexed.  Vexed is not the right word in this situation, but I am using it anyway because how often do you get to use a word that has a “v” and an “x” in it at the same time?

Hey, check this weird thing!  Apparently your forearm should be the same length as your foot. Mine is not.  I’m fairly sure this makes me a candidate for the X-Men.

It’s time to get ready for work, so I will leave you right now.  See you on Twitter or Wednesday!

- Steve
@SteveComics

If only this sort of “turn-about reasoning” worked so well in real life.  As anyone can likely tell you, attempting to reason with someone who believes that the entire Federal government is conspiring to hide something as trivial as someone’s religious affiliation is pretty stupid.  In this case, because that person believes that the Federal government is capable of hiding anything of significance these days.

POTUS having a religious preference is something unfortunate to me.  Unless the Prez happens to be a Pastafarian.  If that ends up being the case, I’m gonna have to spend some time campaigning for that wise politician.

Tonight I seem to be having an allergic reaction to something in the atmosphere (hopefully not something like nitrogen…), as I am itchy as hell all over the place.

Earlier this week I went over to Anime News Network and tried out their ad-supported video streaming for the first time.  My conclusion is that the service is good, but HP’s commercials are really annoying.  I suppose that’s kind of the point, though (at least from HP’s perspective).

I watched the first episode of Sgt Frog (Keroro Gunsō) and Welcome to the N.H.K. (N.H.K. ni Yōkoso!), the former being subtitled, the latter dubbed.

Sgt Frog looked very entertaining!  I’ll have to go back and check it out.

NHK also looked interesting (if kinda… WTF).  The dubbing wasn’t horrible, but I think I’ll have to see if I can find a (legal) stream of the sub somewhere.  Looks like Funimation has the license (that’s almost a given these days when one asks “Who licensed <insert name of series here>?“….) so perhaps I’ll look into that if it isn’t too expensive.

Anywho, I am a tired person, so I am off!  See you Monday!

- Steve
@SteveComics

Not the choice I would have made.   No sir.  And that crack about the good Ms Kardashian?  Wes has some nerve, eh?

The original idea was for this to be a black&white with tone comic.  As you can see, it didn’t end up that way.

I think part of the problem is I’ve spent so much time working on character designs that are meant to be colored, that I’ve neglected working on just line-work that would look good colored or not.  So, that has to be on my do-to list, I guess.

We’re starting to get into the time of year where video game publishers are telling us constantly about the awesome new games coming up in the next few months (both before and after Christmas).  Sony was at Gamescom this week and announced a whole slew of games, almost all of which are sequels (if not all of them).  Someone should let them know that Nintendo already owns that particular tactic and they need to get their own spiel.  I have a 360 and no (current) plans to get a PS3, so it’s somewhat neither here nor there for me, personally.

On the “errr, wtf” side of things, check out these comic snippets (somewhat NSFW) that are, apparently from some bootleg Indian (dot, not feather) James Bond series.  Looking at the pics, it seems that either someone translated these (poorly) into English some time ago and did a singularly atrocious job of lettering, or they were that way in the first place.  Either way, it entertained me for a whole 5 minutes, and what else is the Internet for?

I’m extra tired tonight for some reason, not sure why, perhaps allergies or the resurgence of the cold I had a week ago.  In any event, with your pardon, I will take my leave of you.  See you Friday!

- Steve
@SteveComics

I have, in fact, encountered this phenomenon twice.

The first was a couple years ago, when I got a simple “Hi” from an unrecognized number.  After a couple of inquiries as to who I thought it might be (guessing based on the number of people who had recently gotten new cellphones), but it soon turned out it was a girl who was sitting in class and was bored, who had txt’d a random number and happened to get me.

The conversation didn’t continue much after that.

Flash forward to this last week, where I’ve gotten 2-3 messages with various one-word greetings (“Hi”, “Hello”, etc) from a number I don’t recognize.  I suspected that it was a friend who had gotten a new phone, but it turned out to not be the case.  So, not sure what this is all about.  Maybe it’s Skynet.

If so, I probably need to clear my calendar for the week.

Ever have one of those days where you’re very productive?  I got so much done today!  It was satisfying and fulfilling….

Sorry, I was away for a second participating in Paul & Storm’s #midnightconfessions tag game.

Anyway!  This weekend I also had some pretty good food up in Boulder at a place called Izakaya Amu, along with some tasty sake.  I highly recommend it.  If you like that sort of thing.  Namely stuffing yourself with good Japanese food and getting happy on Japanese booze.  Which I imagine wouldn’t be a hard sell… for those of… refined tastes…

- Steve
@SteveComics