October 24  ~  7:00 PM

I can hardly believe it, but I completed all those tasks I mentioned last week right on schedule. Granted, the first part of the week was going through most of Mother 3, but now I can chill for... today. Tomorrow I'm taking another trip home, and while I'm there I should take care of a couple more things for work and school while I have time to spare. I picked up a nifty image editor made with pixel-pushers in mind called GraphicsGale and tooled around with it a lot this morning. I built up a finely-shaded gecko-guy from scratch. While it almost works as a standalone single, I'm still plagued with these feelings of inadequacy. Earlier in the week I was discussing my comic with some guys and they brought up the issue that looms over all spriters: that our material is a violation of Fair Use and therefore can be considered copyright infringement. Even if I made the switch from sprites to hand-drawn so sudden and desperate that the current plot would be totally scrapped... I wouldn't be proud of my work anymore. I can relate to these game sprites, obscure or not, and I like knowing that my readers could as well. Critics would just say I'm trying to leech off said characters' popularity, and I can't really respond to that without bringing up whether I'm doing these comics more for myself or for others. If they were solely for my own entertainment (or just to prove I could do it) then there would be no need to publish them, and thus no need to "fight the law." If the comic is just a hobby, why do I continue to worry about deadlines? I can't say much about that either... in any case, here's #283, which I've had sitting at 95% completion for at least a week. Hopefully this doesn't lead to skipping another month.

October 15  ~  11:00 AM

At long last, the Running Commentary is here! Woo! I've also got a plan for giving several of the earlier strips a considerable facelift, but I should hold off on that until I've publinshed #300... as well as all the ones between now and then. There's also the matter of putting up #251 and #252 in some form, likely Sprite-O-Vision until I work up the nerve to draw them properly. But all that needs to be put on hold as I have much on my plate for this weekend, including (but not limited to): composing and conducting a survey, research on recent Doomsday theories (finding enough sources to form a proper bibliography and paper outline), research supporting the tendency to stay in minimum-wage "dead-end" jobs the longer you work there (and explain all findings of said research in excruciating detail), research on Gorilla brand adhesive products and past campaigns, memorizing a serious monologue cut down to 60 seconds, create two billboard-style advertisements from a given list of clients, and play through the fan translation of the long-awaited Japan-only sequel to the SNES classic Earthbound.

October 8  ~  7:00 PM

I'm roughly 30 strips away from completing the Commentary, then I can focus on making new ones again. Or... I might start revamping the really old ones. Hard to say how much I'll be doing in the near future, as I recently became hooked on NetHack again. I'd make a NetHack-themed placeholder, but with something like Dudley's Dungeon around, I simply could not pull out a worthy tribute. Despite being a collaborative effort (meaning much more hit-or-miss jokes than average) the comic stays so true to the game that the entire comic is presented in plain text. This means that if you were using a browser that did not allow for any graphics whatsoever (as if such a thing existed) you would still get to read DD in all its alphanumerical glory.

September 26  ~  3:00 PM

The Archive pages have been fixed and updated. Currently working on the rest of the subpages. Soon I'll phase out the guestbook links (or maybe move them to a catch-all Contact page, though it's unlikely) in favor of a proper link to the Extras page and... something else. No, not foreign language translations. I know it's the Next Big Thing among webcomics these days, but I can hardly wrap my head around Spanish, let alone German.

September 23  ~  7:00 PM

Most functionality has returned. By that, I mean the absolute minimum, all the pages with comics on them. I've run into two last roadblocks: one is my inability to have the autokeen script run as the main page (hence the splash page) and that for some reason, the script only recognizes JPEG and GIF files. I'll have the Commentary up soon. I really really mean it this time. Please keep voting, but stay away from the subpages for now.

September 20  ~  5:00 PM

Calling this a triumphant return is a pretty darn big overstatement. Most of the images and links are no doubt busted, but I'm pretty sure that with the week I can be safely and completely detach from Comic Genesis. Don't be a stranger now, y'all!

August 13  ~  7:00 PM

Still making comics... along with playing a lot of Silent Hill 4 and lounging around this interim place. I've been given a fair amount of server space outside of CG, so I will probably just relaunch the site on the new server. Thinking to be ready sometime around the end of the month. The only real difference is that there won't be a big ol' ad banner at the top of each comic page. Oh, and the shorter URL I'm paying ten bucks per year for will apply to all pages rather than simply act as a redirect to the main page.

August 1  ~  5:00 PM

Good news, everyone! I've published strips up to #272! Just... not here. Mostly because thanks to my promise of TWO strips per week, I should be up to #289 by tomorrow, and I simply don't have enough displaced strips to fill the massive time gap I've left here. Maybe in a few days I'll upload them all anyways and just skip a month. Yeah... no one will ever question the month-long gap between two placeholders... right? Also, I've wormed my way into the closed beta of the BuzzComix relaunch (why they felt it was necessary is beyond me) so click that button and make a difference! Alas, I can't put up an incentive just yet... gotta pack up for moving between apartments.

July 25  ~  6:00 PM

I changed the songbar up top. Now it's "The World You Love" by Jimmy Eat World. It pretty much sums up my current life philosophy. Finally figured out how to change the color scheme as well. Maybe next time I can change up the rest of the bars, maybe add graphics of random characters, just to add polish to the personalization. But more importantly, I need to actually make comics.

July 16  ~  8:00 PM

An awful lot of new people have started their own little comic series on DSP lately. A few are typical first starts, but a couple others are so bad they're horrible, to the point where I wonder if they were made that way on purpose. Possibly to infuriate the rest of us, or maybe just to keep the subforum active. Maybe if I actually gave them my two cents on how they could improve like a few other folks, they they would respond in kind and bump my own bloated thread.

June 28  ~  7:00 PM

As can be seen from the obvious lack of comics, I'm not having much luck at all. Between RF, KoL and P3:FES, there's not a whole lot of time for my muse to bop me on the head and get to work. My buddy Zango hasn't been doing so well with his comic either, but I know he's trying... we're all trying. These are just trying times. My parents say that until I find a real job, my "job" is to pass around as many resumes and applications as I can.

June 15  ~  4:00 PM

I think I'm pretty close to returning to the world of comics. I've been helping a few random newbies with their comics on the DSP forums, and... well, there's this. Happy Father's Day! I've also got a job interview tomorrow morning, for a position very similar to what I had back in 2006. Keep this page bookmarked, and wish me luck!

May 30  ~  8:00 PM

It's been a month since I announced I needed a break from comic-making... my reasoning for staying away has changed about twice a week. Which is about as many times as I should be updating. And yet I don't even have the creative motivation to build up more pages of script. I'm continuously drawn back the the big question: am I doing this for myself, or for others? No one has bothered to ask me where I went, or when I'll be returning. Since no one's nagging me, and I'm certainly not nagging myself, then I will only return when I'm "good and ready." Another thing holding me back with the "drawn strips" is the fear of criticism. If they turn out nice, Anon wil ask why I don't do the whole comic like this. If it doesn't look nice, Anon will wonder why I bothered at all. Granted, feedback of any sort seems unlikely, but there's a mountain of statistics that prove even the low-tier drawn comics get more attention than the high-tier sprite comics.

May 3  ~  6:00 PM

This... is a predicament. Jill (and by association, myself) have lost near-complete interest in Secret of the Solstice, thanks to the wholly unexpected revival of the free Ragnarok Online server "Niktout." In addition, I have taken on yet another "muhmorpurger" called Kingdom of Loathing. It is entirely browser-based and focused on sophomoric humor, but I have found unprecedented levels of intelligence, spirit and (most importantly) generosity in the community. They also have a kickin' radio station. Seriously, I never knew the true power of streaming broadcasts before. I shunned podcasts in general solely because Apple started the trend. I must focus on following up on the many, many applications I've sent out. I don't care what I do, I'll work for as long as you can pay me!

April 30  ~  7:00 PM

When I said comics have been put on hold, I meant it. This is not a hiatus. The comic will resume its original scheduling as if nothing ever happened at some point in the future. Please despair until then. I also wish to have the Running Commentary completed, and maybe even a new set of songbars.

April 19  ~  8:00 PM

The comic is here, but... my mind is elsewhere. Lots of things are going wrong with my car at once, which is somewhat depressing, and finals are looming like an anvil's shadow. At least a couple of them will be fun. I recently played through Cave Story (except for the insane bonus challenge) so in the words of the creator of the hero's first (and potentially best) weapon: "In this world, there exists a balance between those who are creators and those who are users. I knew that, of course, but it took your help for me to experience this firsthand. The labor involved becomes joy when I know there are those who will enjoy my work to the utmost." What I mean is, I do what I like and I like what I do, and I know there are people (somewhere) who enjoy reading the comic as much as I do making it. Just because I haven't worked on comics lately doesn't mean any of the joy is lost. I've fiddled with some code around the background image, it should act as a seperate layer now without the use of Javascript.

April 12  ~  7:30 PM

For the most part, I've broken my addiction to NetHack (and gaming in general)... but it's been replaced with the insatiable urge to read the TV Tropes Wiki in its entirety. Holy moly, you wouldn't believe the massive quantities of wit and nostalgia. OH, the nostalgia. I would have never recognized so many similarities between my favorite cartoons, movies and anime otherwise. Progress on the comic is, in a word, fracktastic. I still haven't gotten around to the other two drawn strips, and the third panel for #255 has me stumped, so that one isn't even past the scripting stage. Can't even be bothered to make new placeholders... then again, I never intended to make new placeholders beyond the original 13. It's been far too long since I made a comic of any sort, but thanks to my new blog, my writing skills are being honed quite nicely. AND... there's actual competition over the PW boxes! I'm having a Schrödinger's day today - both cheerful and depressing, with a considerable degree of uncertainty.

April 5  ~  9:00 AM

So I lost the SCP poll... what's wrong with you?! Just kidding... I'm not gonna let it get me down. I'm not gonna cry, and I'm not gonna lose any sleep tonight. Speaking of sleep, I almost got 12 hours last night, so I am definitely refreshed. I really should try not to squander this weekend on random gaming like the previous two, but NetHack, in its own little ASCII way, has got me hooked. I'll try to have a comic up later today.

March 29  ~  5:00 PM

Umm... wow, I really fizzled out ofter that burst last week. Recently, I created a new outlet for waxing poetic and blathering on about life in general... so yeah. I haven't been feeling good lately, and that's why comics are missing. However, like I said, most of the comics for April are complete, so they'll pop up whether I'm here or not. Creative spurts are few and far between, but I'm still keeping up with the Joneses in regard to publicity, other comics and schoolwork. I entered in a contest of remixing comics for Simulated Comic Product. If the name is unfamiliar to you, think of a cross between Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and Perry Bible Fellowship. Anyway, please vote for me so I can win a copy of the first official SCP Book!

March 19  ~  12:01 AM

SURPRISE!! Starting today, I'm doubling my update schedule. I'm uncertain if I can carry this through for longer than a month, but I've got my muse at the ready for whenever schoolwork or some other aspect of Real Life puts me in a slump. As we also have a multiple of 50, there's considerable, sudden and (if I've been doing it right) unexpected development in both plot and style. In case it isn't obvious, I drew this. (See why I stick to sprites?) Fear not, this effect is not permanent, as the vote incentive will reveal. I other news, I've finally jumped on the PW bandwagon (Project Wonderful, not Phoenix Wright) but I'm not sure when or how I'll scrounge up the funds to slap my banners on more popular comics.

March 15  ~  4:00 PM

Well, my head isn't in very good shape. Brawl is pretty much consuming me, but the drive to gain skills and unlock junk is actually stronger than the urge to challenge others online. In any case, I can't stay away from the game long enough to determine if I'm susceptible to "Brawl withdrawal" and balancing Brawl with work and other pressing matters (career planning, next year's housing, etc.) is hard enough without throwing the comic on top of the pile. Fortunately, I've already made the strips for almost all of next month. I still don't have anything for an incentive, though. On a lighter note, I'm pretty sure none of my characters are Mary Sues.

March 8  ~  9:00 PM

Spring break was a most excellent journey (and I managed to make a buttload of comics), but it got me thinking... I could really use some more friends. I mean, the few friends I currently have are super-special awesome, but I've been spending the entire week with Tom. I've just realized that as much as I like chilling alone, be it with a book, a video game or a movie, having Tom with me automatically makes it more fun. No exceptions! No limitations! He's like a passive buff skill. Even so, I should really check up on the various guys (and gals) who have taken a liking to me via shared interest, usually video games. Speaking of which, I should pick up Brawl at the local Meijer soon.

March 1  ~  8:00 PM

Well, Spring Break is here, just when I need it most. Actually, I could have used it last week, when my brain was melting by the mid-afternoon. Anyway, this means (in theory) I have plenty of time to pursue my various creative endeavors. This consists of turning a short story into a long story, expanding two spritesheets, two fancomics, two commissions, and whatever I can contribute to a fancomic collaboration. Hopefully I can keep the random gaming out of the way. (Ha ha! Fat chance!) Anyway, my mood and mental condition are now at its peak, which is a great way to start break, but two days ago I caught a sinus infection from my best friend, leading me to burn through an entire box of tissues (and then some) in just two days. After sleeping for 14 hours straight last night I believe I've kicked out most of it. On a lighter note, I'm starting to hear from various MSN buddies again. The bad news is MSN phishing scams are on the rise, so the messages are automatically generated. Maybe I should change my default text color so if by hook or by crook I get assimilated too, people will be able to know if it's really ME talking.

February 15  ~  10:00 PM

Well, my weekend travel plans have been cancelled. There's an insane amount of snow around these parts, and it's a real bad time of year in general to be a car. Especially one without snow tires or 4WD like mine. Last night I spun out into a brick wall... fortunately a massive snowbank was betwen me and the wall, so it absorbed 100% of the impact. I then proceeded to get my wheels stuck... in my own parking space. Only by shifting gears the quick-and-dirty way was I able to gather momentum and get unstuck, again fortunately with no damage to my car, other cars or the parking structure. Granted, if there wasn't so much snow on the ground I wouldn't be having these problems in the first place, so it's somewhat a lose-lose situation. I took it as a bad omen and called my parents again (as they've been calling me every night this week) to say I would rather not risk crossing the state on the freeway, where even taking a slight turn at just 50 MPH could suddenly turn into Death On Wheels. Despite all this, I press on.

February 8  ~  11:00 PM

The new comic (and incentive) will be up shortly... and frankly, I don't have anything to say about them. Sorry to cop out like this, but I made both of these last week, and focusing on #250 (and the script beyond #260) has made me feel somewhat detached. You probably don't need to hear my random opinions today anyway; chances are you've had your fill shoved down your throat by other mass media. As [GM]Dave says: "Humanity spends way too much time making sure everyone's opinion is heard instead of making sure their opinion is worth hearing." Unlike [GM]Dave, I am a Defender of Humanity, so the least I can do is avoid being part of the problem.

February 5  ~  6:00 PM

Buckle up folks, I've got a mutha of a rant heading your way. First off, I've noticed I'm slipping again school-wise. I'm getting a fair amount of sleep each night, but I rarely wake up rested. On the plus side my recent dreams have been super-special awesome (mostly about SSBB). This may be why I have a hard time getting up with my alarm - I don't want my noctournal nerdity to end! Still, I should be more diligent in keeping up in appearances, punctuality, and connections with faraway friends and relatives. I need to FOCUS but my inner BRAT will not stop SHREIKING. Maybe it has something to do with today being the "day of indulgence" before the "month of restraint." And yeah, I've been doing terrible at restraining myself lately. I watched one episode of Death Note last night and now so much stuff makes sense that I already want to start torrenting episodes from the same place Jill does. (Oh yeah, I gave up on my buggy copy of Azeurus, switched to uTorrent and used it this morning to grab the entire Brawl OST. What a rush!) Come to think of it, I'll probably want to do the same with Blood+. And FMA. And BoBoBo. And every anime under ther sun. I also have a newfound love for two new game genres: the survival-horror and the unfair platformer. If the latter doesn't ring a bell, this game is a perfect example.

February 2  ~  10:00 AM

#243 is published, and I'm about 1/3 done with #250. A-yup. My creative focus is a case of feast or famine, and this whole week has led to a barrage of strips. When making new stuff stops being exciting, I'll switch back to retconning and finishing the Running Commentary. You know, that thing I swore I'd have done by New Year's. I've also been catching up un various doodling, which is equally important... you'll find out why soon enough. I've also brought the Archive and Storyline Selector up to speed.

January 23  ~  9:00 PM

Hello, world. Doesn't it feel nice not having me as your supreme leader? Yeah... you just enjoy that. Anyway, I apologize for the delay in ranting, but as I've said before there is not enough hours in the day. And frankly, I'm getting tired (ha!) of borrowing time for late-night game cravings. I managed to see Cloverfield the night of the 18th, as I had promised myself long ago. Although the story (what little is given) is sub-par and the timing of the monster encounters is a bit wonky, I can forgive that. I heard there was a "viral game" of sorts floating around... do they mean a real game or is it just their term for all the side-stories (Slusho soda, the Tagruato satellite, etc.) waiting for hardcore movie nerds to find them and connect them to the movie? Speaking of games, the guy holding the camera most of the time is named Hud, which also stands for Heads-Up Display. The HUD is pretty much anything you "see" other than your current weapon - health, ammo, radar, etc. Cloverfield probably won't bring daikaiju movies back in vogue, but one can dream.

January 11  ~  10:00 PM

Yet another strip. I'm currently sick and sick of being sick, so please forgive the minimal commentary. Besides, the purpose of this strip is to put the last dozen into perspective. I apologize again to Zango for still not having his latest comic polished up. I feel like I have no brains left. It's like my brain fell out of my head between bouts of coughing and sneezing and I looked at it and said "Mmm, that looks tasty!" and I ate it. Hope to have my brains back before next weekend.

January 5, 2008  ~  6:00 PM

Well, I'm finally back in collegeland after many happy days spent with family across the nation. Despite a nasty case of stomach flu shortly after I arrived in Ventura, I had a very pleasant time. I let my little cousin introduce me to her world of Webkins. It made me long for the days when I played Neopets, back when it wasn't ad-supported up the arse. I played a good deal of Half-Life 2 (not the episodes) and have determined that it is a perfectly decent generic shooter; graphically on par with Doom 3, just with less monsters and better lighting. I also introduced myself to the RTS genre with Battle for Middle-Earth II, which I have found to be a bit too epic (and unbalanced) for my blood. Only the CPU has the power to attack, defend and build simultaneously without wasting precious seconds scrolling around the map. As for Real Life, I recently recieved a revelation so startling it left me with a splitting headache. It has finally sunk in that I totally suck when it comes to focus, commitment and punctuality. I need to train myself to avoid distractions and put work before pleasure, but I don't know how much I can limit myself at once and still maintain my sanity. I've gotten lazy and spoiled, and I cannot stand for this. (Even if I tried. T_T) It's gotten to the point where I'm reluctant to make comics because my inner child/brat sees it as work! NOT COOL! My New Year's resolution is to balance work and play in my life, or remove the distinction altogether. Why don't you resolve to vote for me on buzzcomix or hit me up in the chatroom?

December 22  ~  1:00 AM

So here I was, sitting at the kitchen table with no light other than my monitor and a failing wireless mouse, thinking I could finish the main game of Portal in one sitting (Ha ha! Fat chance!) while completely blowing off Tom, Chad, Jill, Gram Gram and Zango. I feel kinda bad about that, and I'm gonna make sure my priorities are straightened out (and I've taken care of the other important stuff) before delving into the rest of my Christmas bounty.

December 11  ~  9:00 PM

Cramming for finals aside, I'm feeling good. So good, in fact, I think I'll be increasing the Desk's production rate by 100%. I will implement this upgrade either once I have a buffer of about 20-30 strips, or around mid-March when #250 is scheduled to appear. Whichever comes first. Updating over winter break will depend on whether or not I can copy Photoshop to my laptop, since it is now required for the properly anti-aliased text in every strip.

December 8  ~  12:00 AM

Things are not looking good for poor Austin... not good at all. As for Project RC... it goes. Still a bit of "retconning" and a lot of writing to do. But that goes in between studying and games like Rumble Fighter, MapleStory (argh!) and a whole bunch of random ROMs for Genesis, PSX and SegaCD. That's right, I said SegaCD. The other day I introduced Tom to CoolROM which has just about every SNES game under the sun, as he was begging me to get the emulator back on his half-busted, half-wiped Mac. I kinda regret that because he proceeded to download them all (this is a slight exaggeration) and intends to play them through within the week. Seriously, this guy broke my Nerdvana record.

November 29  ~  10:00 PM

Remember way back when I plugged Yahtzee's Zero Punctuation? Turns out he was making games long before he was reviewing them. Decent games too, albeit all the same genre (point-and-click adventure) running on the same engine. His newest project "Trilby: The Art of Theft" throws some stealth into the mix and has extremely witty dialouge in addition to well-focused gameplay. It even got reviewed ZP-style by a random YouTuber!

November 24  ~  2:00 PM

No comic today. It's Thanksgiving weekend, and I'm spending valuable time with my family for a change. Why don't you? Just don't overdo it on the gravy.

November 17  ~  10:00 AM

Ladies and gentlemen... My Brain Hurts. It actually makes for a quite amusing sprite comic.Much of the punchlines are typical "Three Stooges" fare and other recurring gags, but it kept me coming back, or rather, going through over 200 of their daily strips in one sitting. That's right, I said daily. Even though filler and guest comics are added to the official count, there's still over one thousand strips spanning three years, and most of it feels quite fresh even though most of it is poking fun at Pokemon and Legend of Zelda. Check it out, cuz there's not much new here. I've got all sorts of essays and group proects to get started on, and there just ain't enough time in the day for everything.

November 11  ~  8:00 PM

Finally managed to assemble a background for, and subsequently produce, #224. Also have a shiny songbar for the Rant page since it's the only subpage I have to edit along with the main page, and therefore the only subpage I feel like messing with tonight.

November 9  ~  10:00 PM

It's good news/bad news time again, folks. What's bad is that I lost my PS2 memory card today (with all my Rouge Galaxy and Viewtiful Joe 2 goodness) and I just feel really tired and cranky. What's good is that the next strip has been done since last Sunday and will be up whenever the next auto-update pulls through. There will also be much-needed additions to the Cast page, and songbars for the other neglected subpages.

November 5  ~  6:00 PM

Something I've forgotten to mention... I recently discovered this online 3D anime-ish fighting game called Rumble Fighter. Quite frankly, it has me by the balls. Maple- what now? I love it, but it has its own form of "grind" being solely PVP and you gain very little "buying power" for things like clothes and fighting styles after each round. Winners get about 100 and losers get about 50, but it's not that exciting when the most basic items cost 2000 or more. So until I get tired of this "new grind" several other things in my life will be bumped down the priority list. Don't forget to VOTE and also check out Jill's site. It has Leonas, Arts, and Crafts, oh my!

November 4  ~  8:00 PM

Hey now, just because I can't meet one deadline doesn't mean I give up and slack off until the next deadline. Well, not always... so here's #230. I'll find time to squeak #224 into the space where it belongs, as well as the Halloween comic. Hopefully the TRUE events described in today's strip will help you find the goodness in your heart to support your local catgirl! (Rumor has it she'll eventually have a much more direct role in how the comic is made...)

November 3  ~  7:00 PM

I don't have a comic for today. To those who aren't yet tired of hearing this (from me, not all comic artists), sorry. To the rest, I'll say something about the story so far. With #228 we are introduced to Jill, a lovely little hallucination. Like Ren, she is based off a real person. Yes, I'm friends with more than one girl. Shocking, I know. I get direct input from her before finalizing the strip in order to make sure the character matches her personality as close as possible, and that the dialouge is to her liking.

October 28  ~  7:00 PM

You may notice I now have a dragon for a counter. Well, the MX counter popped back up today but I dumped it anyway. Ya see, MX is pretty fancy in the way it lets you see the following: Hourly visitors, pages visited, referrers, what keywords and search engines were used to find this page, each visitor's IP address, host name, OS, browser and even their screen resolution. It's nice, but I don't really need all that. Even if I did, I'm unable to log in because their site's completely broken underneath the surface. And somehow I discovered that even if I could log in, I don't have the power to change or reset the actual number on the counter. As Sonic says, that's no good.

October 26  ~  10:00 PM

Where has my counter gone?! The entire site is down. DO NOT WANT. If it's not back by tomorrow, I'm switching to BoingDragon. It may be cutesy, but it's reliable and ad-free. The other day I arranged a list of all the creative projects I promised to undertake at one point or another. So far, I've finished the Art Meme (which will appear on the Extras page shortly) and I am three-eights finished with the Running Commentary. That just leaves... three commissions, three fancomics, a long poem, a short story, and... you get the idea. I'm totally missing out on a costume-required Halloween party at a lazer tag place in Holland tonight... but I don't blame my buddy Tom for falling off the world again. A guy needs sleep, and my that I mean more than six hours in three days.

October 22  ~  10:00 PM

I know I haven't gotten any complaints about the background I use for my main site page, but I've always felt it was way too "busy" so I switched to a "minimalist" theme. I need your help figuring out if it looks avant-garde or amateur. I'm considering throwing in a matching gradient for the right edge. Either way, this is the best I can think of until I find or devise a good layout with frames. See all those buttons beneath the rant? I'd like to get those in their own frame so they could be easily accessible from the archive and sub-pages. That would free up more space for the rant AND allow me to center the comic and navigation buttons so they match the alignment of... just about everything else.

October 20  ~  5:00 PM

I'm feeling pretty jazzed up. Thanks to Ruckus and Rhapsody, I have every song on my list of songs I hope to one day implement into the comic; not just the lyrics. I'm also making good progress in the scripting; up to #239 and still going strong. As for an actual update... check back tomorrow. Also look for small additions to the Archive, Wisdom, Cast and Extras pages, and a new subpage for archiving third-party reviews of ED. Cuz ya know, I really like getting the straight scoop on where I shine, where I've improved and where I'm sorely lacking. You can help!

October 15  ~  9:00 PM

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm in a creative rut. I'm kinda-sorta... not working on a research paper I have due tomorrow. I have all the pretentious formatting done and all the informational sources I need. The topic is even genuinely intersting. I just can't push myself to crank it out. I've been trying to finish it since this morning, but even when my mind was sharpest I couldn't compose anything better than linking together various quotations and pretending they're feasible paragraphs. This will probably put a dent in my grade, but it's never too late for a miracle.

October 13  ~  9:00 AM

New comic, up on time for once. Once I get farther in scripting, I am seriously considering upgrading to two strips a week. Once I get that ball rolling, I would build up a comic buffer ASAP, which would allow me to upgrade my BuzzComix vote incentive to "Three Strips Ahead" (i.e. The incentive would show #240 if the latest strip was #237) Wouldn't that be sweet? A peek into the future is way more awesome than a peek into an alternate dimension.

October 6  ~  10:00 AM

Gosh, has it really been a week since my last rant? It feels so much longer. Anyhoo, I managed to slip in three new comics in time for the Midnight Automatic Update. Check 'em out! In other news, my interest in Maple has dwindled in favor of Ragnarok Battle Offline. It's a japanese homebrew game that got attention (and eventually funding) from a big-name producer; a humorous and polished side-scrolling beat-em-up with incredible music.

September 29  ~  4:00 PM

Another strip today, par for the course. Really close to catching up now... just one more flash of inspiration and I can get myself and Zancross out of this filler-drenched rut. Come to think of it, Auker and Gar seem to be in a rut as well. Could I perhaps lend a helping hand and exchange my free time for good karma?

September 22  ~  1:00 PM

Four more strips, one more placeholder. Woo! But I know your type. Placated for three minutes, then hungry for more. I have no choice but to serve up epic bitterness to curb your appetite. First we have Zero Punctuation, where a fast-talking Brit points out flaws big and small in the hottest vidjamagames. Next is Bannable Offenses, a blog by the most hardcore GM (that's "moderator" to you non-gamers) in FFXI. See ya next week!

September 15  ~  10:00 PM

I should really start ranting first thing Saturday morning instead of so late with an update. Or maybe get it out of the way the night before. I'm now halfway through the whole "within the Fourth Wall" business, and the next two should be up tomorrow-ish. After that things are going in a whole new direction. Expect more musical numbers.

September 3  ~  10:00 AM

Duuuuuude... was that a wild party or what? Totally. Um. Something's missing... my wallet? No... my virginity? No... oh yeah, a comic. Hey Sunshine, before you get all in mah grillz eatin mah foodz, you shold know that it takes time to make realistic backgrounds from scratch. And I get the feeling perspective's gonna be a real pain this time around. So until I can rest assured I've got it right, you've got more placeholders. Now, I know this is real bad timing, but shake what your momma gave you and throw me a vote on BuzzComix.

August 25  ~  8:00 PM

Sorry everyone, nothing new tonight. Classes start Monday, and I'm rushing around trying to get my life in order and block out any new distractions unless they directly involve branching out my social life. Meanwhile, I'm having a recurring daydream about starting up a whole NEW comic about a rock band who travels around and performs under a different name every single night. To have some form of continuity, I would name the strip "One Night Only." Not surprisingly, there exists a british indie rock band with that very name.

August 18  ~  8:00 PM

#211 is here. See, I moved the background a little this time. Also, I'm starting to become a marathon chatter. Chatterer? Chatterbox? Whatever - IRC one day, MSN then next... oh yeah! Speaking of which, I have an IRC room all to myself now! To find it, just load up EsperNet on your preferred client (I prefer Chatzilla) and type in "/join #ed-comic". That's it! Bring your questions, comments and complaints to Pixelpants.

August 11  ~  9:30 PM

Reporting live from Allendale, here's #208. Earlier today, I created a fancomic for The Book of Biff against my better judgment. I'm itching to tell the creator about it, but for some reason I can't send email here. I'll figure it out by tomorrow, hopefully. It'll probably show up in the Extras page along with the next strip.

August 9  ~  6:00 PM

#207 is up... sadly that's the only strip I managed to complete while up north. What can I say? I'm a gamer first and an artist second. I've also noticed that extended time away from an online game makes me forget (on a subconscious level at least) why I was ever drawn to it in the first place. Next time I hear from Tom I'll have to ask if he still plays Diablo II, because otherwise I'm not even logging on to give my loot away. However, I will freely admit that I played FATE (a diablo clone) for much of the time up North. Now that I beat the main quest, it's back to Overlord!

August 4  ~  10:00 AM

Still up north... WAY North. By which I mean "just south of Canada." There's no Internet up here, which means no updates for meeee. Now that I'm ten or more strips behind, I'm switching the site to Red Alert. I'd change the songbar to reflect this, but that would take precious time away from actually cranking out strips.

July 23  ~  11:00 AM

Two more comics for your viewing pleasure. You just don't see #206 right up front because the placeholder has higher priority. In publicity news, I now have a slot on Buzzcomix. Please spread the word of ED! Also, this may just be a fluke, but it seems Vista users can't make entries into the clever Shoutbox to the left. Regardless of my privacy settings, all I got were the words "Cookies deactivated?" So those of you with "new hotness" Vista are out of luck; those of you with "old n' busted" XP and other systems, what's keeping you?!

July 21  ~  8:00 PM

So far, I've spent one third of my summer pounding the pavement for a jorb and the other third anxiously waiting for a callback. It's seriously cut into my "Hakuna Matata time" and judging by my luck, I may as well have never tried at all, and my parents are still not quite convinced I tried hard enough. What am I to do? Join the legions of data entry clerks or freelance web designers? It seems the competition in the unskilled labor market is so fierce that my odds are similiar to that of a state lottery. Then again, considering the unemployment rate in Michigan, it pretty much is.

July 13  ~  11:00 PM

Phase One of the retro remix is complete. If you've never read this comic, now is the best time to start. I'm also testing songbars... I couldn't work the gradient tool in Flash, so they'll all be the default color for now.

July 6  ~  6:00 PM

I'm planning on getting a Toshiba laptop soon, but not one built for gaming. That means there's a good chance neither of my comps will be able to run the awesome games of next year; namely, Spore. Hopefully it will also be available for PS3, then I can spend 700 on a laptop and 600 on a PS3 rather than 2000 on an insanely overclocked laptop... Which I shouldn't be purchasing for its gaming capabilities anyway.

July 5  ~  9:00 PM

I'm still looking for mall-type backgrounds for my comic. I discovered earlier today that in the Taiwan version of MapleSoulSucker a new "world" has been released which is based off the Taipei 101, a massive building that opened to the public a few months ago. I've seen a couple gameplay videos, and it is literally a big honkin' mall. Alas, GlobalMS is at least a year behind KoreaMS, and it probably wouldn't make sense for Taiwan-themed areas to become available in Global, so I'm guessing the uber-hackers responsible for publishing background tilesets for all the areas in Global up to Korean Folk Town will get around to Taipei 101 sometime... never.

July 4  ~  8:00 PM

#203 and 204 are here. It's only natural they show up together since, ya know, they're pretty similar. Overlord is awesome as expected, but I started Diablo II up once again, mainly because two good friends of mine are into it, but also because it's got two ups on MapleStory: insane variety in item drops and when you kill monsters, they STAY dead. More comics and an update to the Links page coming soon; I'm still searching for good backgrounds.