Dollar Menu or Nothin'

Monday, March 8, 2010 - 10:35 PM
[Update by Brian]
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On the rare occasion that I do eat fast food (maybe once a month these days), it literally is Dollar Menu or nothin,' which is great because every fast food joint has a dollar menu or value menu or other variety of cheap food they have branded with a generic, yet appetizing monicker. I don't know if it's psychological or not, but it just feels like you get so much more food buying off the dollar menu than you do buying a combo meal. I feel a lot better buying two cheeseburgers, a chicken sandwich, and two small orders of fries off the dollar menu for five buckazoids than I do buying one burger (no matter how big it is), one thing of fries and a drink off the combo menu for the same price. Soda is such a waste of money at restaurants--that's how they get you! Get the water. It's (usually) free and it gives you an additional dollar you can spend on one more burrito. In the long run, this dollar menu exploitation is probably shortening my trek to the grave, but I figure I eat healthy enough and exercise enough to counterbalance the effects of the occasional double cheeseburger. And those aren't just platitudes, either--I actually do.

My birthday is Tuesday. It's not on a weekend or a day that borders a weekend (which would give me an excuse to ask off work), so it's somewhat less thrilling than most birthdays. However, it is still a birthday, and it will still be awesome, as such. Amanda and I are planning to go out to eat with my sister and brother-in-law, and after that, it will probably be an evening of Star Trek on Netflix with the fiancee. The ol' birthday snuck up on my big-time this year--an upcoming wedding, lots of focus on comics and an otherwise busy life will do that to you, I suppose.

I've gotta go work on some stuff for an hour before playing some video games for an hour before bed. I probably won't have either game I'm currently working on beaten by Thursday, so I may have to review an arcade game or otherwise discuss video games in some fashion. I'll think of something. Until then, thanks for reading, and I'll be typing at you again soon!

Brian Plays Old (Sometimes Bad) Games, Entry 3

Thursday, March 4, 2010 - 9:31 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Game: Kid Icarus
Platform: Nintendo Entertainment System
Year: 1987
Game Ranking: N/A

GameRankings apparently does not rate NES games. It does rate NES games re-released on Virtual Console or other platforms, but I played Kid Icarus on the original Nintendo, so that's the review I'm doing.

To me, Kid Icarus seems to be something of a lost classic. Some people laud this game as one of the greatest in the NES library and are flabbergasted that it only got one sequel, Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, on Game Boy. Other people, like me, managed to miss the game entirely--I knew it existed, but I knew pretty much nothing about it until I used the internet to learn about it much later in my life. The only thing I knew about Kid Icarus is that he was a character on Captain N: The Game Master. I don't remember his role in the show at all at this point, so he mustn't have been that memorable of a character. (He was certainly no Simon Belmont...although, he was a much different character in the show than what I was accustomed to from the Castlevania games.

I came into possession of Kid Icarus when a friend of mine was giving away a bunch of old Nintendo games, and I got around to playing it a few months ago. I only intend to review games that I've played recently and have actually beaten. Even though I played this a few months ago, the memory of the game is still strong, so I'm still considering my experience with Kid Icarus recent enough to be eligible for review.

At first play, Kid Icarus feels much like a hybrid of Metroid and The Legend of Zelda--you have the run-and-gun style of play and the black background of Metroid, with the fantasy elements of Zelda. You play as Pit, an angel stuck in the underworld, whose job is to defeat Medusa, the Goddess of Darkness, in order to release Palutena, the Goddess of Light, who has been imprisoned by Medusa. Pit must collect the three Sacred Treasures that are capable of destroying Medusa in order to free Palutena and restore order to the land.

I gotta say, for being an angel, Pit is a pretty lousy adventurer. You would expect an angel to not die within the first three minutes of his sacred mission, but you must realize that this is a Nintendo game from 1987, which means it is...wait for it...way too hard! Pit is supposed to have the powers of Heaven at his disposal, but the arrows loosed from his magical bow only travel about three feet before they disappear. You're telling me Pit is sent to rescue the Goddess of Light with arrows that fizzle out before they can even get halfway across the screen?! You can get an upgrade later in the game that will increase the distance your arrows travel, but for at least the first quarter of the game, enemies are constantly within reach of smashing you like the creampuff you are because YOUR ARROWS VAPORIZE THREE FEET IN FRONT OF YOUR FACE! I think the game explanation is supposed to be that the intense evil of the underworld is smothering your arrows, but that's clearly just some bullcrap the creative team came up with to pacify angry gamers.

The first three levels are beyond frustrating. You travel up vertical corridors on your way out of the underworld. In the meantime, snakes drop from the top of the screen, flying things divebomb from the top of the screen, octopi leap up from under the screen, and seaweed monsters burrow up from under the ground with little warning at the exact moment you step over them. The screen only scrolls up, so if you get knocked off a platform and fall beyond the bottom of the screen, you're dead, and the game is over. You get one life, so don't screw it up! There is a password system that will let you resume your progress if you die, have to stop and eat supper, or have to go to band practice, but it's long and complicated, so only use it if you absolutely must.

Once you make it past the first three levels (if you haven't run the cartridge through a table saw at this point), you get to the first of three fortresses. The fortresses are maze-like structures somewhat reminiscient of the labyrinths in Zelda. Each fortress is full of traps and monsters, and there's a boss fight if you can reach the end. Fortresses also nullify any upgrades you may have collected, so if you manage to collect the arrow-distance power-up, you'll lose it for the duration of the fortress. Again, I think it's supposed to be the powers of darkness smothering your abilities. I say it's the fault of a bunch of jerk programmers being unnecessarily cruel to unassuming gamers.

There are two really crappy things about the fortresses. You are given a map, but it doesn't work unless you find a shop in the fortress and buy a pencil. This will allow you to chart your progress on the map, but you can't see where you are! You have to buy another item--a torch--to see your current position on the map. This is all easily avoided by just drawing your own map in real life, and it also saves you money to buy health power-ups, which you'll probably need. The other crappy thing about the fortresses are these bad guys called Eggplant Wizards. They shamble around and chuck eggplants at you. If you get hit by one, you turn into an eggplant with legs. You can't shoot or do anything useful in this condition. The only way to fix yourself is to find the hospital inside the fortress (usually all the way on the other side of the fortress, at that), where they will remove the eggplant curse. What a hospital is doing in the middle of a fortress in which everything else is trying to kill you is beyond me, but what do I know?

I've been blathering on about how hard this game is for the last four paragraphs, but I'm past the negatives. If you can survive the first three levels and put up with the challenge of the fortresses, this is a really fun game. You'll also collect some upgrades later on, like fire arrows and the thing that makes your arrows travel farther, that make things so much easier. As I recall, I don't think I died on any level between the first and third fortress, which is pretty remarkable considering the dozens of times I died in the first three levels. At heart, this game is a pure, fun, platforming action game with a few RPG elements thrown in, such as leveling up and using money to purchase upgrades and items. On top of that, the final level plays like a Gradius-style shooter (complete with a big ugly final boss), and I loves me some shooters, so that's another big plus. There are a few memorable tunes, but the graphics and presentation are early-NES in quality and leave quite a bit to be desired. But that's okay because the game is still fun, and that's what's important.

Lastly, and most importantly--you know how I was complaining about how at the beginning of the game, you have to wait until the bad guys are right in your face before you can shoot them? You'll never have so much fun ripping through enemies as you will later in the game, when you can vanquish those same foes that gave you so much trouble in the early game. From all the way across the screen. With your long distance fire arrows.

Kid Icarus ain't perfect, and it's exceedingly difficult at times, but it's fun, challenging (even though I am frequently annoyed by the difficulty of games, it's also a quality I embrace), and still all right in my book.

Brian's Rating: 7/10

[Images courtesy of Wikipedia and GameFAQs.]

Beetween You and Me

Monday, March 1, 2010 - 11:05 PM
[Update by Brian]
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These bee-related puns are gettin' out of hand.

I have to share with you how my morning routine fell into complete disarray. I don't know if other human beings have the same problem or not, but from time to time, some facet of my life needs to be reset. For instance, I'll fall out of the exercise habit, stop eating good food and ingest nothing but Spaghetti-Os and Kraft singles for months at a time, or never get to bed before 2 in the morning. Eventually the situation will get bad enough that I will impose a "reset" in which I realize how bad things have gotten and immediately go back to my old ways.

Such a reset had to be applied to my morning routine, which had gradually degenerated from a quick and efficient process to a dragging, miresome slog through the morning goop.

Part 1: Waking Up - The alarm goes off. I can turn the alarm off or chuck the thing across the room in mere seconds. This proved to be the most efficient part of the morning, as the pace of my morning routine beyond this point would only be exciting to slugs, and they would probably have to be pretty drunk, too. Once the alarm was silenced, I would sit in bed for at least five or ten minutes--more if I was up late the previous night--just trying to collect myself, thinking about dreams I had or worrying about the upcoming day without having to face the cold morning air. This was, of course, a complete waste of time, but I was too tired to notice.

Part 2: Exercise - I exercise in the morning so I can get it out of the way. The only problem is that usually it was taking me 40-50 minutes to grind through an exercise program that should really only take a half an hour, tops. I was taking breaks of at least a minute or two between sets, moping about how I hate doing abs or worrying about whether or not I might accidentally wake up the downstairs neighbor by clanging around on the Total Gym too much or bouncing around playing EA Active on the Wii.

Part 3: Shower and Other Bathroom Stuff - I don't take long showers as it is, but it can still be a time sink if I start thinking about something and then forget to rinse the shampoo out of my hair. Shaving is also time-consuming, and I even have a beard, so there's not a whole lot of shaving to do! (I maintain humans should have an on/off switch for hair and nails.) I also have really bad skin and have to apply five or six scrubs, creams, and moisturizers every morning to keep my face from falling off. This whole process was also taking 40-50 minutes sometimes.

Part 4: Eating Breakfast, Getting Dressed, and Whatever Else - I'm not really sure how this could possibly take that long, but it did.

It became clear that things weren't going very quickly or smoothly. It was taking me upwards of two hours to get all of this stuff done. I know lots of people who can do everything I just listed in two minutes. I hadn't been to work on time in weeks. I'm talking 10-15 minutes late every day. I'm a good worker otherwise, and there was no excuse for this. My fiancee also noticed my sluggish morning behavior, and she's not the kind of person who puts up with that kind of crap.

The reset occurred last Tuesday. When the alarm went off, I forced myself out of bed, no matter how cold it was or how badly I wanted more sleep. I did my weightlifting in 25 minutes and did away with much of my resting, which allowed me to fit more exercise into the routine, and I was actually worn out by the end. I sped up my shower and shave and application of various face-maintaining chemicals. I dressed like I was late for my mom's birthday party, ate as quickly as a teenager on a commercial for pizza rolls, and combed my hair like a...hm...well, I actually didn't comb my hair.

I was ready for work with 40 minutes to spare. I promptly used that time for drawing, and realized just how much time I am capable of wasting in a day. I'm always concerned with not having enough time to do all of the things I want to do, but if I can keep up my new speedy routine, I've got an extra 40 minutes to do with as I please.

Now if I can just find some more areas in which I can save a few minutes here and there, I'll really be in business.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on Thursday!

Brian Plays Old (Sometimes Bad) Games, Entry 2

Thursday, February 25, 2010 - 10:03 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Game: Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
Platform: Nintendo DS
Year: 2008
Game Ranking: 85.54% (B)

Hey, this game isn't old! Well, not to me, but it is to people already playing games from 2010! Holy crap!

I assure you I play more than just handheld games. It just so happens that I managed to beat two handheld games in rapid succession, so I figured they would be good candidates for thorough reviews.

I should probably let you know that the Castlevania series is somewhere in my top three or four video game series of all time. I've been fascinated with the Belmont Clan's eternal struggle against Count Dracula since I was introduced to Castlevania II: Simon's Quest somewhere around age six or seven. Combining action, horror, and fantasy elements created an engrossing environment that just seemed right. There was just enough swords and sorcery (or whips and sorcery, to be precise), just enough fear and apprehension, and just enough action-packed fun to create a unique adventure in video games, and I've never gotten enough of it. Throw in the fact that the evil head honcho at the end of the game is Count Dracula himself, and that his right-hand man is none other than the Grim Reaper, and the series becomes iconic.

But anyway, on with the game.

Seasoned Castlevania fans know that the series' gameplay has shifted from straightforward level-to-level action to more exploration-based combat since the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in 1997. Instead of plowing through linear levels, players must explore vast dungeons and wildernesses to find items and abilities that open up more and more of the game world, like in the Metroid series. Order of Ecclesia follows this same formula. The game is a lot of fun, and features an absurd difficulty level not seen since some of the earlier installments in the series, as far as I'm concerned. It's a great addition to the series, although there are some aesthetic drawbacks that may disappoint some longtime fans (or ME, if nobody else).

The game takes place during a period of time in which the legendary Belmont clan of vampire hunters has vanished. This is a shame because it means no whip, the iconic vampire-killing weapon wielded by the Belmonts. I always thought the whip was such a cool touch in a world where swords are the typical melee weapon of choice for video game adventurers. The thing I don't like about a lot of the more recent Castlevania games is that instead of playing as a Belmont, or at the very least somebody trained by a Belmont, you play as some kid in the right place at the wrong time who must use new magic powers that have manifested themselves within to combat the risen evil of Dracula. I guess it might help some players better relate to the protagonist, but give me Simon Belmont any day.

Order of Ecclesia has a similar lack of interesting protagonist. You play as...um...well, crap; I can't even remember her name. Give me a second....

...You play as Shanoa, a member of a clan called Ecclesia that has risen in the absence of the Belmonts to combat Count Dracula. Shanoa is your typical impossibly hot girl born and raised to fight the forces of evil, an archetype that has sort of worn itself out. If that wasn't bad enough, events in the early game lead Shanoa to develop amnesia and have no emotion. You essentially tear through legions of bad guys with an empty vessel of human being--a killing machine. Not to say that's at all different from the Belmonts of the early games in the series, in which there isn't exactly much story involved. But the problem is that this game does have story--there's dialogue and development. Unfortunately, thanks to her condition, Shanoa's interaction with other characters leaves a lot to be desired--people try to invoke an emotional response from her, and she just doesn't get it. She's boring.

Despite the lackluster protagonist and departure from the Belmont family, this game is long, deep, fun, and hard. I only play handheld games on the road or while at my parents' house, and I was working on this one for about four months or so. I died a lot. In most of these portable Castlevania games, there's usually one or two bosses in each game that is a pain in the butt and may take five or six tries to beat, but otherwise the game is a breeze. Order of Ecclesia is the first Castlevania in a long time in which the regular bad guys proved to be extremely dangerous. Instead of zipping through corridors crushing any adversary in my path, I had to take my time and use a lot of strategy and changes in weaponry just to beat the common foot soldiers. If that wasn't bad enough, the bosses were frustrating enough to be reminiscient of the NES Castlevania installments. I remember terrible boss fights with a giant crab, a creature made out of shadows, a giant centaur knight, a guy with a gun, and the Grim Reaper, of course, who is difficult in every game. Each one of these bosses took at least five tries before I got it right, and involved a lot of experimenting with different weapon combinations. When I got to Dracula, he was so hard I actually had to go level up for a couple of hours before facing him with any chance of beating him. I haven't had to do that in a game in ages! It was very frustrating at times, but I appreciate games that don't skimp on difficulty--I get such a great sense of accomplishment when I beat them, even though I had to stop myself from ripping my DS in half in this case.

The weapon system is okay. You find weapons by absorbing the abilities of bad guys you kill. There aren't a huge number of weapons available, unlike some recent Castlevania games in which there are more weapons that you'll ever know what to do with. Most of those are pretty worthless compared to the game's best weapons, but just knowing you have access to such a variety is a pretty cool thing. You'll get good use out of most of your arsenal in Order of Ecclesia, but there are still a few duds you'll never touch again after trying once. The cool thing is that you can equip two weapons at once. The second weapon doesn't have to be a "subweapon" like a throwing dagger, either--if you want a big sword in one hand and a giant war hammer in the other, you can equip both and swing them one after the other. It usually does pay to be strategic with your weapon selections, though, or you'll end up getting smeared by a giant skeleton because you're trying to stab it with a rapier. Oops!

There are also a number of sidequests in addition to the main objective of killing the nefarious Dracula. Villagers you rescue along the way will ask you to go find their lost cat or kill 30 of a certain bad guy or bring a certain item back, and they'll repay you in some fashion if you complete the quest. The prizes you get usually aren't that great, but you get a sense of accomplishment from clearing the sidequests. However, I didn't finish them all because some of the later quests ask you to go to extremely dangerous areas to retrieve incredibly rare items that may or may not actually appear, depending on how lucky you are. Facing rooms full of spikes ands flames and killer demons over and over again trying to get that one item the town blacksmith wants and have it not be there at the end got pretty irritating after awhile, and I decided to move on. You can spend the time trying to collect every weapon and item in the game if you want, but that is a chore that should probably be left to the criminally insane, or for people who want to spend two years playing the same game.

The music is only okay, which is disappointing for a Castlevania game, which usually has great music that gets stuck in my head...well, forever. There were only two tracks in the game that I really liked and that are remotely memorable.

Overall, this game is a winner. A few issues keep it from being really good, but I still think it is among the best of the exploration-based Castlevania games.

Brian's Rating: 8/10

[Images courtesy of GameFAQs.]

Misinterpretation

Monday, February 22, 2010 - 10:00 PM
[Update by Brian]
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I tried to put some shading and texture into this comic with my inking instead of solely with Photoshop, and I kind of liked how it turned out. It gives the comic so much more depth than a bunch of grayscales can. I believe I may have mentioned before that I'd really like to continue to develop my inking to the point where I do most shading and textures with the inks and only use minimal grayscales, but I am still a long ways off from that. However, I think this is another one of those things like hand-lettering where I need to just start doing it, or it will never develop.

Speaking of hand-lettering, I think this strip's word bubbles are the best I've done so far. I took my time with them, tried to make them more circular and less horizontal, and I made sure to put a little more space between the words and the edges of the word bubbles, and they look much better than last week's bubbles. I'm also working on strategic placement of the bubbles so that they guide the reader through the panel. I was aware of this technique, but never really followed it, only making sure to place the word bubbles out of the way of the action and in such a way that they were at the very least read in the right order.

Not much else to say at the moment. The debut edition of "Brian Plays Old (Sometimes Bad) Games" received positive feedback, so I will be doing another installment on Thursday night of this week. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you then!

Brian Plays Old (Sometimes Bad) Games, Entry 1

Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 9:07 PM
[Update by Brian]
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I'd like to try a regular feature on this website on Thursdays called "Brian Plays Old (Sometimes Bad) Games." As you probably know by now, I am absolutely notorious for having a massive backlog of unfinished video games to play through. While my friends are plugging their way through Mass Effect 2 or Bayonetta, here I am stumbling through something like Zelda: Ocarina of Time, a 13-year old game. However, know that this is by choice--my goal is to beat every beatable game I own in the limited amount of time I have to play games. Or, if the game is not beatable, unlock everything in the game and/or set an unbeatable high score that will make my friends puke with envy and frustration. While this goal usually sets me back when it comes to not playing the newest, hippest releases, it also saves me a ton of money because I just wait for those games to get tossed in the clearance bin and pick them up at a big discount. (Except for good Wii games, which never get discounted because they still sell like bacon at an egg festival.) I have a running list of every new game that comes out that I want so I won't forget to buy it later.

These days, video games are like books, movies, comics, and every other form of media--there are so many out there that you'll never know or play all of them, and they're not all good, either. I intend for this column to be my account of what I've been playing recently for the benefit of those of you who may have missed out on these particular titles, and for those of you who are big nerds like me and just like reading about video games.

Game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall of the Foot Clan
Platform: Nintendo Game Boy
Year: 1990
Game Ranking: 82.50%

Good gravy. This game is twenty years old?! I've got a lot of work to do if I still have to beat games this ancient.

My friend Blake gave me this game either when I bought a bunch of stuff from him, or when he was just getting rid of some old riff-raff. I picked it out of my Game Boy stash the last time I was at my parents' house, so I popped it into my Game Boy Advance SP and got to work.

I got nervous as the title screen appeared. My last and only experience with this game was at age 6 or 7, when my (then soon to be) cousin (by marriage) Shannon had it for his Game Boy and let me play it. I remember the game being difficult and unforgiving. Foot soldiers attacking from all sides, crap falling from the ceilings...this was definitely no Super Mario Bros., where goombas and koopa troopas were only coming at me from one side, and stuff only fell from the sky in the two or three levels Lakitu was in.

Age, however, appears to have some effect on a person's video game-playing ability. I was shocked to find that not 20 minutes after that first jolt of anxiety upon remembering that I had played Fall of the Foot Clan before, I had bested the Foot Clan in what has to be one of the quickest outings in my many years of video game-playing. I'd never played an easy Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game before, and this one seemed...a little too easy. I was expecting Shredder to come back to life and make a fine paste out of me after the credits rolled, but it didn't happen. I lost two turtles along the way (I assume it's Game Over if you lose all four), but technically one of those was while I was still getting the hang of the controls and feel for the game.

Fall of the Foot Clan is a standard side-scroller in which you guide one of the turtles through five stages as you try to save April O'Neil, whose penchant for being kidnapped rivals even that of Princess Toadstool (or Peach or whatever she's called now). Meanwhile, foot soldiers, mousers, and other assorted TMNT bad guy mainstays attack you relentlessly from both sides. It's too easy and too short, but a lot of fun despite somewhat stiff controls. Good graphics of characters iconic of the TMNT franchise, detailed backgrounds, memorable and atmospheric music, and you get to swat endless legions of enemies with ninja weapons.

Brian's Rating: 7/10

[Images courtesy of GameFAQs.]

Shop Talk

Monday, February 15, 2010 - 9:55 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Believe it or not, a full week has passed without any cell phone mishaps. I did end up switching back to the half-broken phone, but the case I bought seems to be holding it together until the inevitable day in which the case slides off my belt and into the toilet.

My taxes turned out much better this year than they did last year. I didn't owe any money, which is infinitely better than last year's result, in which I owed so much money that I had to cut toothpaste out of my budget entirely. No wonder my fiancee and pretty much every other person I spoke to last year seemed so repulsed all the time.

I have a question for any cartoonist-folk (or anyone, really) who might be out there reading this. I've been doing hand-lettering for I guess about six weeks or so now, and I'm having trouble drawing word bubbles. My word bubbles always come out...well, not looking as good as I would like. I know I'm still new at hand-lettering and that it's going to take some practice, but my word bubbles are consistently coming out oblong, off-kilter, and not at all smooth. One suggestion I've found is to make the word bubbles more round and less horizontal, so I think I'll give that a try. I've also considered buying an oval stencil, but the only place in town that sells them is Hobby Lobby, and the ovals are too small. Amanda, being the most DIY person I've ever met, suggested making an oval stencil in Illustrator and printing it on card stock. I gotta do something soon, because my word bubbles are driving me nuts. I've tried drawing them quickly, slowly, carefully, recklessly, passionately, half-heartedly, and while eating, but I get about the same result no matter what. Any suggestions?

That's all for now. Look for a blog entry or two this week, including a video game update. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!

Counterproductive

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 8:05 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Now Stu is just being a jerk...to a very evil man.

I have an update on my cell phone story from last week. Remember my old phone that I bought a new charger for and ended up leaving at the store and had to go back and get it? It turns out the phone won't hold a charge, so I'll either need to buy a new battery for it or switch back to the other phone that's going to break in half at the exact moment I get the next very important phone call of my life. If I'm using the crappy phone, I hope that call is somebody asking me to go have ice cream with them, not an important message from the future.

I keep forgetting to mention this, but I wrote a review for a book called Muhammad Ali and the Greatest Heavyweight Generation by Tom Cushman. You can read the review here. The book was published by my friends at Southeast Missouri State University Press, whom I interned with in college and more recently provided illustrations for an upcoming children's book. You've probably gathered somewhere along the line that I'm a big sports fan. I also love to read sports nonfiction, and this book is an excellent outing in that genre. I've never been big into boxing, so this book was both entertaining and educational. It's a wonderful read, and if you're into that sort of thing, I highly recommend it.

I'm getting ready to tackle my taxes this week. All those annoying business expenses from the last year have suddenly become delightful tax deductions. I'll let you know how it goes. Until then, thanks for stopping by!

On the Job

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - 11:05 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Stu happily dons a BOB hat? What's goin' on here?!

My apologies for the late strip. It has been something of a crazy week.

I'm on a strange kick of deciding not to pay for things anymore. Listen to my story.

Back in the summer, I decided not to use my air conditioner anymore because I got mad at just how much it ran up my energy bill. While uncomfortable at first, I eventually adapted to life without air conditioning, using only fans, cold drinks, and prancing around completely naked (the neighbors across the street were not happy about this) to stay cool during the hot summer months. In the end, I saved a bunch of money, and I'm no worse off.

Last month, I decided not to use my natural gas heat anymore because I got mad at just how much it ran up my energy bill. While uncomfortable at first, I eventually adapted to life without heat by hanging fabric and plastic in my doorways, sealing all the windows, using a small space heater sparingly, and finding a means of harvesting the heat produced by my downstairs neighbor's cigarette-smoking parties. (He has about three a week.) I'm saving a bunch of money, and I'm no worse off.

Recently, Amanda and I did some research to see how much money it will cost us to have a 2-person cellular phone plan when we get married. It looks like it's going to be about $100 a month. We can afford that, but neither of us like cell phones enough to pay that much every month. The culture seems to be driving everybody to the belief that everybody must have a cell phone, no matter the cost, leaving those blood-sucking fiends at the top of the cell phone companies free to charge practically whatever they want for a service that should realistically be maybe 30 bucks a month. That's probably not really true--I'm not a businessman, so I don't actually know what I'm talking about. All I know is that it's not worth it to me, and I'd rather be spending that money on curly fries, or putting it towards our eventual retirement home on the beach. We'll have saved enough money on cell phone service over the years to install platinum bathroom fixtures and a shield generator to keep hurricanes from knocking it down.

Anyway, we'll probably only have one fully functional cell phone, and get another text-only phone at a fraction of the cost of two regular cell phones. Or maybe we'll get a land line--people do still have those, from what I understand. We'll adapt to life with only one cell phone between us, save a bunch of money, and be no worse off.

There's another, funnier story behind all of this. The reason we were looking at cell phone plans is because my cell phone was breaking in half. I was eligible for a free upgrade, but I would have to renew my contract to get it, and to then add Amanda to the plan would be where the $100 a month would come into play. Fortunately, I found my old phone, but I had thrown away its charger. We went to the store to buy a replacement charger and a belt case for the phone to prevent it from breaking in half in my pocket like the other one did. We bought a charger and a case, but when we got home, the phone was gone. We apparently lost it in the store. Fortunately, my friend Josh's mom had an old phone she wasn't using anymore, so I took it off her hands.

My dad got a call earlier today from a man saying he had his phone, to which Dad replied, "No, you don't," not realizing what was going on. It turns out we left the phone we thought we'd lost inside one of the cases at the store in what was definitely one of our more scatter-brained moments. An employee found the phone and dialed the number labeled "Home" in the contacts and got my dad. My dad called me and relayed the information, and I got my old phone back. Mystery solved.

I gotta go to bed. Thanks for reading and for your patience, and I'll see you next time!

Smelly Reputation

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 - 6:50 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Hey, word and odors both get around.

The exciting, but terrifying urge to play a massively multiplayer online game has struck me again. It last struck in 2006, when I was encouraged to try World of Warcraft. I played WoW for 10 months before I got bored (and got a job), so I gave it up. It's a great game--lots of things to do, the Warcraft universe is fun and accessible, and there are some epic boss fights, which is always a plus.

Since WoW, no online game has really struck me as being compelling enough to try. However, two of them are coming soon, and I don't know if I'll be able to resist the temptation of either of them: Star Trek Online and Lego Universe.

Star Trek has been a big part of my life since 4th grade, when a grade school chum introduced me to it. I never had anything against Star Trek; I was always just a Star Wars kid and didn't pay it any mind. But Star Trek ended up being a big influence on a lot of the early comics I did as a kid, and it embued the desire to command a starship (or to be a bridge officer, if nothing else). At one point I even bought a red lightbulb for my room, and imagined my top bunk being the command post of my ship, and if there was an emergency, I turned off the overhead lights and turned on the lamp that had the red lightbulb in it to simulate a red alert. I hoped Starfleet would exist at some point in my life, but I grew up and it's still not here. However, I can fulfill those wishes to some extent with Star Trek Online. However, I can be really stingy with money, and there's also my whole problem with having a ton of video games to finish as it is. I want to play STO, but I'm conflicted.

Then there's Lego Universe, another video game adaptation of something I loved as a kid and still love today. What appears to be the neat thing about Lego Universe is that it encompasses all things Lego. If I want to do space, castle, ninja, or pirate adventures, it looks like they're all there. And the thought of building my own stuff is always nice, like if I could build my own ship or my own headquarters. However, these wishes can actually be fulfilled in real life with real Legos, perhaps not with the same scope that Lego Universe will offer, but if I ever want to play with Legos, I can just pull them out whenever I go visit my parents. The only problem is that when I do play with them, I usually will play with my nephew, who seems more interested in being on the opposite team as me and blowing my stuff up than he is actually building anything. (And all his guys can "hide" or "have force fields" and this sort of thing if I try to fight back.) Also, I can be really stingy with money, and there's also my whole problem with having a ton of video games to finish as it is. I want to play Lego Universe, but I'm conflicted.

It's going to be interesting as to whether or not I can resist the temptation over the course of the year. Star Trek Online is the frontrunner. It comes out February 2. Will I cave? We shall see.

Thanks for reading, and I'll return sometime soon!

Mike and the Ninja Volume 1 Finally For Sale Online

Thursday, January 21, 2010 - 9:12 PM
[Update by Brian]
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It may interest you to know that if you have not yet purchased a copy of Mike and the Ninja, Volume 1: San Francisco Fracas (and shame on you if you haven't), it is now available for sale in the vast and desolate wasteland we know as the internet. I took more time than I should have to go through the motions of securing an ISBN for the book, but now that said task has been taken care of, a mighty internet company will, with the proper exchange of cashola, print and ship a copy just for you. I would also eventually like to set up my own store via my website and package and ship books to you myself. It's more personal that way, and the shipping will honestly be less expensive for you, as well.

Or, if you'd like to pick up a copy at Cape Comic Con, the book will be available at the special Comic Con Discount®, which, I assure you, is a deal so good, it can make an ordinary man punch through a solid brick wall. (It's true--it happened at Comic Con '09!)

If you're feeling particularly dedicated, I would humbly request that you please leave a review for the book on its Lulu.com listing. You'll probably have to register an account with them and all that--which is a pain, I know--but if you're up to it, I would definitely appreciate it. Even if it's negative--I like honest feedback.

Of course, this means I will eventually be posting a permanent banner somewhere on the site advertising the sale of the book. I promise the ad will not include seizure-inducing flashes of bright color, nor will it offer you one simple rule to lose your gut forever.

At times, it's easy for me to lose sight of the fact that I made a book, and that it is something I should be proud of. Pretty much every internet personality I follow closely is somehow associated with webcomics, and (almost) all of them have multiple books. Because of this, I feel like having written/created a book is sort of a normal thing, and compared to them, I look at my book and think, "Hm, here's my one book. And it has the rough early stuff in it, too. Ho-hum, whoopdie doo."

Fortunately, at that point the driven, less mopey part of my brain kicks in and says, "What are you talking about?! This is your book! You made this! You've done something lots of people only ever dream of doing, and you enjoyed every bit of it! This is great! You should be proud of this thing!"

I am proud, and I hope you enjoy reading the comics as much as I enjoy making them.

Dumpster Dive

Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 6:30 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Trepidation lingered in my mind as I sat to begin work on this week's comic. However, it ended up being a fun comic to draw, and it didn't take nearly as long as I anticipated. Being a chase scene and all, I couldn't justify using the same angle or background over and over again--this ain't a Hanna-Barbera cartoon, after all. So I had to come up with some varying and creative angles to keep things from getting boring. Drawing at angles which took me out of my comfort zone, combined with the fact that this was a 9-panel strip, which takes quite a bit longer than the usual five to seven panel strip, led me to believe it would take forever to get this comic in the can. However, instead of dreading it, I just sat down and did it. I'm also trying to not be such a perfectionist and take hours and hours to draw a comic strip. I always feel like the pencils have to be perfect, but they are only there to serve as guides for the inking and get erased when the comic is finished, anyway. I'm trying to shake myself from this misconception I have that the penciling has to be brilliant and flawless before I can move on to the inking. If I want to expand to two comics per week, this is going to be essential. I'm working on it.

Exciting news on the Cape Comic Con front! According to the website, the dates for the 5th annual event are Saturday and Sunday, May 1 and 2. Mike and the Ninja and I will be appearing at the show, and I'm proud to report that I designed the new logo for the show, as well. I'll be sure to put a permanent link on the sidebar if you're interested in more information on the con as it becomes available. Special thanks to Ken Murphy for using my logo design--it's a real thrill to be able to contribute to the hometown comic con in some small way!

I'd like to do a blog entry this week, so I'll try to be back on Thursday to take care of that. In the meantime, be well and thank you for reading!

Bee Afraid

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 10:09 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Thank you for your patience on this late comic strip! I'm just glad I got it posted, as I wouldn't be too keen on already missing an update the second week of the year. The perspective got a little wonky in some of the panels of this strip, but I'm not too worried about it--it's a hard thing to deal with. I've also noticed on the last two strips that it has been taking forever for my ink to dry, so I usually end up having to clean up a lot of smears in Photoshop. Must be the weather or something.

I don't have much else to talk about right now, and I need to get to bed, anyway, so I'm gonna cut this blog entry off here. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time!

ANNOUNCEMENT: This Week's Comic to be One Day Late

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 - 6:07 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Aw, man! This week's comic is not done yet (still somewhere in the inking stage, to be precise) and will be posted sometime Wednesday night. Amanda and I are overwhelmed with some early wedding planning stuff. The good news is that we've already figured out most of what we're gonna be doing and have already taken care of a number of essentials! The bad news is that the comic is going to be a day late. But it should be up tomorrow barring mouse infestation, allergic reaction to food, or the acquisition of a sweet new video game I just HAVE to play.

I'll be back tomorrow night with the comic. Stay strong, citizens!

And then I got engaged

Thursday, January 7, 2010 - 11:20 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Remember in Tuesday's blog entry when I said 2010 was going to be a big year?

Well....

On top of all these big plans I have for comics and whatnot this year, I asked Amanda to marry me last night. When my proposal was met with hysterical laughter, then tears, then hysterical laughter again, I was pretty sure she was going to say yes. Oh, who am I kidding? I knew for certain she was going to say yes before I even asked. But it felt really, really good to hear it.

I don't have much else to add at the moment--I've been experiencing a major adrenaline rush for the last 24 hours and my brain isn't working all that well. All I can say is that we're really happy together, I love her very much, and I don't think I've ever been so sure of any decision I've ever made as I am this one.

Thank you, and goodnight.

Positive ID

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 - 6:38 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Here we go! First comic strip of 2010! It took a little bit of time to get back into the drawing groove--I had worked ahead to compensate for time I knew I wouldn't have during the holidays to work on comics, and thus didn't work on any comics for a couple of weeks. I was really frustrated with pretty much everything I drew right at first, expecting everything to be perfect. After cooling off, things came a little more naturally, and it turned out all right. The new drawing table really came in handy--I'm looking forward to working with it more in the future.

Since we're starting a new year and all, it's resolution time. I've never been a big resolution kind of guy, but I do like setting goals when it comes to the comic strip. Here's what I said at the beginning of last year:

"...I guess if I were to make one, I would like to greatly increase my efforts to promote the comic and grow an audience and community. Oh, and I need to change the name of the comic. I actually thought of some ideas the other day, but they were too generic and have already been taken by other things.

Also, my goal for this year is to top the number of comics I made last year, so I need to make 47. Right now, that sounds really easy, but you never know--something may come up, or I might fall into a sophomore slump and slack off. But hopefully that won't happen."

I didn't grow the audience and community as much as I would have liked, and that is because I simply didn't put enough time, effort, or research into doing so. However, I also didn't set a realistic goal for myself. I recently read an article in which a concerned webcomics artist was frustrated that his 8-month old comic strip wasn't catching on because he only had 20,000 unique visitors a month checking it out. Heck, I'm gonna be thrilled when I get to a scant 100 unique visitors a month, and I've been around two years now, so I don't know what that guy was worried about. But around this time last year, I was realistically looking for a number similar to 20,000 unique visitors a month. If I can get it up to 100 by the end of the year, that would be fantastic.

On the plus side, I did finally change the name of the comic, and I surpassed my goal of 47 comics in the year, ending 2009 with 48 comics in the can. On top of that, I also put together the first Mike and the Ninja book (which, by the way, another goal would be to have that for sale on the internet this year), had a successful showing at the 2009 Cape Comic Con, and illustrated a children's book for Southeast Missouri State University. (That was my big secret project I was working on in October.) So all in all, I think I got a lot of stuff done.

But I want to make more comics. I want to accelerate my production rate to get them out of my brain and onto your monitor faster. I'm trying to keep the story fast-paced, but even so, only producing one strip a week really makes things feel like they're dragging sometimes. Therefore, by July, I want to expand to a twice-a-week format. In order to do this, I need to start working on it now. My time management skills are not that great, and I believe there is a lot of time in my week to draw more comics and still do everything else I also want to do.

In other words, 2010 is going to be a BIG year. Let's get to it.

Mike and Stu's new digs

Thursday, December 31, 2009 - 5:50 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Amanda and I returned to my apartment late Christmas morning after spending Christmas Eve at my parents' house with my family. We sat down in front of the tree to exchange gifts--she had fawned over some art sets we saw at Hobby Lobby some months ago, so I got her one of those and a sketchbook, and I drew eight Legend of Zelda coloring book pages for her to color with the new art set.

There was one present waiting for me under the tree. It was heavy, and Amanda said to be careful with it. I cautiously removed the wrapping paper to find a pane of glass waiting for me. I was a little perplexed, but I smiled because I thought I had an idea of what it might be. Amanda played along.

"It's the first piece of your light box!" She said. We had recently discussed my getting a light box for use when tracing was necessary, such as needing to draw a building or other piece of scenery consistently across multiple frames. I was excited, but curious as to where the rest of the light box might be.

"Can you grab my robe off the drawing table? It's a little chilly," Amanda said as she rubbed her arms briskly to generate some warmth. I got up and walked over to my brother-in-law's drawing table, which was on permanent loan to me as long as I kept using it.

I picked up the robe to find a large, square hole had been cut in the surface of the drawing table.

Except it wasn't my brother-in-law's drawing table. It was a different table:

It was my drawing table.

Amanda inserted the pane of glass into the hole in the table to reveal a built-in light box. All I have to do is place a light below the table.

If I haven't mentioned it on the site before, my dad has a wood shop in which he makes all sorts of things--furniture, decorative boxes and doodads, shelves, cribs, rocking horses, etc. Well, it turns out Amanda and my dad covertly built me a new drawing table in the weeks leading up to Christmas, and Amanda covertly switched out the old drawing table with the new one on Christmas Eve after I was sent out on a bogus errand by my mom to get cottage cheese for a recipe. As soon as I got back to my apartment, Amanda hopped in the car and we were off to my parents' house, leaving me none the wiser as to what was really going on.

I was stunned. For a long time I just stood there, staring and smiling at the new table. Amanda's knack for thoughtful gifts is incredible. I just couldn't believe it. It's a wonderful gift--she really outdid herself this time.

I hope to keep this table in service for a very long time.

Some closer shots of the table are available in the revised Tour of the Studio. I have also added a Tools of the Trade section that details the pens and other tools I use to draw my comics.

I will be back on Tuesday with the first comic of 2010. Until then, Happy New Year! See you next time!

Grim Conclusion

Tuesday, December 29, 2009 - 1:59 PM
[Update by Brian]
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Welcome back to the world of the internet! (Please don't tell me you were hanging around here over the holidays....) I hope everyone had a good holiday and a good weekend, and I'm happy to be back online with the next comic strip, in which Stu realizes what must be done.

I am extremely excited about the new year because my head is bulging with ideas. I don't know where they all came from, but judging by how frequently I narrowly complete my comics in time to make my Tuesday deadline, I'm definitely not going to complain. I already have all four strips for January written and could pretty easily keep going into February and March. Meanwhile, there's a novel I've been working out in my head for a few months now that I'd like to get started on in January. And, on top of all of that, I thought of an idea for a video game over the holidays that I might be able to put together in Adobe Flash with some more self-training, but that's the kind of project that will take a back seat to everything else.

Also, my friend Joe referred me to some nice tutorials on HTML 5 and CSS 3, and taught me more about CSS in about three minutes than I've learned in the last three years. With all of this newfound knowledge, I'd like to rebuild the Mike and the Ninja website--not redesign it, just rebuild it. How I have it put together now is kind of sloppy, but with some care, it will be in better shape and a little bit easier to manage.

Also on the not too far horizon is Cape Comic Con 2010. I need to go ahead and start planning for that early so there's no rush.

I think it's shaping up to be a pretty big year!

I got some awesome Christmas presents, but I'll wait to tell you about those that pertain to the comic strip until the Thursday blog entry, as some photographs will be necessary. All I'll say is that I couldn't stop smiling at the grand finale.

I'll return on Thursday. Until then, enjoy the comic and thank you for reading!