Lil’Gabe get’s a mention in today’s strip and so I hope you will all forgive me if I play the proud papa for just a moment. It’s true this is essentially my blog but I normally try to avoid this sort of thing. Since Father’s day is this weekend I figured it was sort of appropriate.

The fever came back, but I welcome the state when I have time to lie back and enjoy it. I understand that the pleasurable sensations are actually important parts of my brain winking out, but there is something luxuriant about the consumption of such a precious commodity. Fish eggs? Liver paste? Come now. Let my consciousness be my strange meal.

We have three new "shoits" available, and in accordance with an ancient pact, three old shirts must go with a discount, which is to say big savings!  The newcomers are Annarchy (in men's and women's) , the return of Kiko's classic Shoryuken (also in men's and women's), and the stern new Jesus Says garment with a message of warning for mankind.

I am sometimes taken to task by idiots for not linking more online comics.   These are often the same idiots - mealy-mouthed idiots, cabals of mumuring idiots in the dark, perpetual failures angry at the universe - that imagine we use our traffic as a weapon.  

What they don't seem to understand (because they are idiots - see above) is that any link I formulate is like directing the Eye of Sauron on that person's rack at the ISP.  Any link.  The intention is irrelevant.  Because they are scrabbling,  turned-in on themselves, base and carnal scavengers,  it must be that every act bears with it some hostile payload, because this is how they comport themselves in every gnarled chunk of electronic correspondence, and all the world must be thus.

The upshot is that I have linked you to something that I enjoy, and think you might enjoy, and what has actually happened is that the site is now barely accessible, and people with the misfortune of  being hosted on the same equipment are now inaccessible to me as well.  There's your dark consipiracy, idiots.  I'm polite.  That's why I don't link comics.

(CW)TB

I’ve mentioned my reading habits on the site before. For the most part I stick to Star Wars books. In fact I just finished up Triple Zero and so I was on the hunt for something new to read. Before I could get to the store Tycho suggested I try a book he had just read. He promised me I’d like it and when I asked about the dragon on the cover he told me that it was “not a dragon.” Here is a picture of the cover:

I mentioned that Steven Brust was the sort of man who would be well received at an event like Readiation - a fictional convention for fiction enthusiasts - and had such a high opinion of his work that I brought some in and attempted to "sell" Gabe on it.  It's about an assassin who runs an increasingly large area of town, in a place where teleportation, telepathic communication, and even resurrection are an everyday occurrence.  You've got some "local color" language in there, but compared to most fantasy it isn't about fancy, vernacular diction.   The delivery is very modern.

We wanted to do one more strip with that guy - Guy, I guess - and we have done so. I would be surprised if it continued, really surprised, but I'm not able to simulate the entire universe mentally. There may be some confluence of events that necessitates it. Since the DS Lite is now in retail release, there's no reason to endure those torments unless the struggle itself created, via some serendipitous mechanism, the bonds of fraternal affection.

Last year when I sat down to make the previous laser cell I figured I’d do something with Gabe and Tycho in it. When I posted the image I came up with the response I got was that it was cool but didn’t really seem like “laser cell” material. I guess it felt more like a poster and so that’s what we ended up using it for. I talked to people about it and it seems like since you see Gabe and Tycho pretty much every day any thing they are in just feels sort of common or at the very least not really really special which is the whole point of the laser cells. Since I did Twisp and Catsby the first year, and the CTS last year I tried to think of another side character that I could give some extra attention to via a print. After going through the archives for a while I landed on Dr Raven Darktalon Blood and he just felt right to me. Some people have expressed an interest in seeing how I arrive at a print like this and I’m happy to share some of my process with you.

Before we claimed the High Seat, assuming the jewelled diadem that marked us as Internet Demagogues and merging into a single, irascible entity, Gabriel still managed to torment people - just in a more localized capacity. In his role as "computer specialist" (ahem) for Circuit City, he and his dark cabal would often invent functionality that did not, as such, actually exist in the machine, technology so sophisticated it could dismantle the strange forces that maintain our universe. He said he might arrive on the site later today, no doubt with his characteristic flourish and splendor, and relate for your edification a full accounting of his despicable acts.

I managed to get a drawing done yesterday that I’m really happy with. Everyone else here in the office seems to like it as well so I think this will be our next laser cell. I believe the plan is to have this print ready for sale around the middle of July. This one is the same size as the CTS print we did last year, 18" x 12". What do you guys think?

We’ve been on the Nintendo PR list for a couple years now and they always try to make their packages fun. They never just ship you a game they have to go the extra mile. Things like the original DS coming with a fake mannequin hand because “touching is good”. Or the DS version of Animal Crossing coming with a bunch of cleaning supplies as a “house warming” gift. So we got a package from them today and it turned out to be the new DS Lite. We took a little video of this one because you really have to see it.

So I’m in the office today as long as it takes to create the next limited edition laser cell. I’m expecting a long night. I’ve been wracking my brain trying to come up with a design for this one and so far all I’ve got is about fifty pages of sketches that I hate. As of right now it looks like it will probably be a Dr. Raven Darktalon Blood piece but the way things are going that could easily change.

I listened to Gabriel with increasing disbelief. I'd heard, as I think everyone did, that the original - by which I mean the original original - Star Wars trilogy was coming to DVD. What I had not heard, and what Gabriel intimated to me with his eyes wide was that these would not be from the scrubbed, manicured footage they used to make the re-imaginings, they would, in fact, be anamorphic rips from old laserdiscs. What's more, they can't even be purchased separately. They can only be purchased with the newer versions, together, for ninety dollars! Ha!

Utilizing an undiscovered cortex, Gabriel and I always subconsciously assess a room's ping-pong potential.

Kiko sometimes gets a call to make radical designs for this and that, and here is the most recent one:

We got the 2500 surveys we needed, thanks to everybody who helped out. 

(CW)TB