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Comic: Boxers, not brief - Fri, 24 May 2013

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
I guess I should wonder how I keep ending up in the box, instead of just struggling to get out of it.

Panel 1
Caption: Just like mimes, I occasionally have problems getting out of the box.

Comment: - Fri, 24 May 2013

Fri, 24 May 2013 00:03:00 EST

Gary
Just a sketch, I wound up losing track of time while working on a side project.

Here's an example of what I was working on.

In other exciting news, I won 3rd place in HijiNKS ENSUE's sixth anniversary fan art contest. Check it out here, and definitely check out the second place song, it rocks.

Comic: Aww yeah - Wed, 22 May 2013

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
Please read this comic while listening to a sweet, sweet, boom chica wow wow beat.

Panel 1
Caption: Why draw a banana? Because it's a peel'n.
Banana Rama: Awwwwww yeaaaahh!

Comic: Fried, so flip me over - Mon, 20 May 2013

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Comic: Light it up - Fri, 17 May 2013

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
Now, I have to ask, who else do you have in you?

Panel 1
Caption: You know you have a little engineer in you when you spend three hundred dollars on parts to build a less effective ten dollar item.

Comment: - Fri, 17 May 2013

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:03:00 EST

Gary
All too often, I fall in to this category. All too often. *sigh* Let me know if you've ever fallen into this mindset, in the comments.

Comic: Silent but deadly - Wed, 15 May 2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
And with a puff of smoke, and a maniacal ninja laugh, the Jaguar was gone.

Panel 1
Hope (voice over): Then I saw the most amazing machine.
Panel 2
Hope (voice over): It was called a Jaguar, and it had graphics light years ahead of the other consoles.
Panel 3
Hope: It was going to revolutionize the industry...
Panel 4
Hope: ...and more importantly, it had the most realistic fighting game ever, Kasumi Ninja!

Comment: - Wed, 15 May 2013

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:03:00 EST

Gary
Sorry about the sketch, I was detained by work.

I'll admit it, when the Jaguar came out, I read reviews of it in game magazines, and I thought Kasumi Ninja would be amazing. It was, for its time, photo realistic, and full of gore. The backgrounds were multiple layers, and NINJAS. What more could one ask for? It turned out to be not so great a game (according to reviews), but I wanted it anyways. Sadly, Atari did a trial release of the Jaguar, so I wasn't able to get one, not that I'd have the money for one, even if they did release them in Chicago. Years later, when I was a working man; I ebayed one with Aliens VS Predator (really just for Aliens VS Predator). To me, that was the game that made the Jaguar worth all the pain. It's still a bit of a shame that they didn't just go all in with it and let it take off.

Comic: Dropping the M bomb - Mon, 13 May 2013

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
Alternate text for this Mother's day card would be; roses are red, and violets are blue, but, hey guess what? I was inside you.

Panel 1
Caption: Just a thanks from us kids to you mothers out there... ...thanks for putting up with all of our <CENSORED for Mother's Day>

Comic: Masters of disguise - Fri, 10 May 2013

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
Stop trying to observe the zombie cat.

Panel 2
Mr. Schrody: Hehehe~ Best hiding place ever!

Comic: Fade to past - Wed, 8 May 2013

Wed, 8 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
Odd, my friends stayed around when I played quarters, not when I had quarters.

Panel 1
Jase: Hope, you have to tell me about this incident.
Panel 2
Hope: I guess you're right, but it's really hard to talk about.
Panel 3
Hope: You see, I wasn't always as popular as I am now. I used to be shy and I had almost no friends, other than video games. Happily, those were always there for me.
Panel 4
Hope: Well... at least for as long as I had quarters, they were.

Comment: GIMP 2.8.4 - Wed, 8 May 2013

Wed, 8 May 2013 00:03:00 EST

GIMP 2.8.4
Gary
Today's comic was done with GIMP 2.8.4. Up until now, I've been using 2.6, mostly because I knew it, and I didn't want to deal with the interface changes, but at C2E2 I went to an inking talk and watched the guy use Photoshop. In his demo, he showed us the puppet feature of Photoshop, and I wanted that ability, so I looked online to see if GIMP had a plug-in for it. It turns out, 2.8 has something similar in it, so I figured I'd bite the bullet and try it out. I have to say, it's made some really great improvements. That said, there are also some things that will take some getting used to, but the pros seem to outweigh the cons.

Pros I've seen so far:

Massively improved brush system (once you get used to it)
Sectional warp (puppet similar tool)/
Improved text tool (now allows you to bold/italicize/underline sections of the text, might allow more, I didn't play around with it too much yet)

Cons I've seen so far:

You can no longer move a text layer while editing the text (You can still move it by switching to the move tool)
Selects can't be dragged off the image box (I used to be able to keep dragging even though the cursor went into the menu area, useful when trying to shape an oval select for bubbles)
Save as now only does GIMP's native image type (You now have to choose export to change the image type)
Right clicks with my stylus no longer stay open (They stay open as long as I hold down the click, it used to just open the dialog and keep it open until I clicked on something in it or on another part of the image. This might be a setting I haven't found yet.)
It's a little more suggish (I might just have to play with memory settings and disk space, tweak it to work better)
The brush circle no longer appears until I use the brush (This could be because the the size is pressure controlled, and with no pressure it's a size of 0px, or it might be a config thing somewhere. Right now it makes lining things up a little difficult, but it's not too terrible.)

Now these observations are just from a little playing, and the doing of this comic, so there are probably a lot more in each category, which I'll be able to discuss later, perhaps at Wizard World, at my booth, if you have questions.

I will go into the brush system a little, because it's so very much better than the old system, once you understand it a little. First, outside of the arcade box, all of the inking in this comic was done with a single brush, and a single brush size. Normally, for a comic like this, I would have used three brush sizes, and it wouldn't have looked as nice. The first improvement they made was more control over the brush, and a better sensitivity system. All the changes in thickness you see were done by the amount of pressure I used on the stylus, and with the brush I've set up for inking, I can go from about a 2px line to a 21px line, and since I can do that without changing brushes, and more importantly, since I can do that and maintain a thickness I want for extended periods of time, it gives the flow a much more organic feel. To me, the end product feels more like a physical ink, instead of a computer ink. I did however have to make my own brush. The default brushes tend to include transparency as part of the pressure or acceleration. To my eye, that makes it look bad, so the brush I made for inking has tilt controlled by pen tilt (not sure this actually does anything, since I'm using a round brush), and line size controlled by pressure, and that's it. It's really simple. I also chose the solid circle as the brush base, and the color black to transparent (instead of foreground to background). That's another nice thing with the brushes now; they store the color you want with them (foreground/background). It would've been a little nicer if you could tell it to just store one of those, but having to store both is considerably better than not being able to store either. There are actually a lot of features you can turn on for a brush, including random size/direct/etc. if you want a more chalky kind of feel. So far, I have two brushes saved, one for inking, and one for sketching. Below are some of the playing around I did to get used to the brushes in general.

This one was all done with one brush, two different sizes, and about half was done with the brush using black to white while the rest is black to transparent.

This one is me playing around with several types of brushes. I was going for a kind of modern art, paint look.

This one is just me playing around with the floral brush.

Here are a set of links that are unrelated to GIMP that I've been meaning to share for a long time, but never got around to:

Comic: This isn't Oz - Mon, 6 May 2013

Mon, 6 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Dialog:
Sorry, I was just in my happy place. NO! Not THAT happy place, get your mind out of the gutter.

Panel 2
Jase: Hope? Hope! You ok? HEY! Snap out of it! Panel 3
Hope: Hmmm? What? Oh.
Panel 4
Hope: What were we talking about? Sun shine, lollipops, and rainbows?
Jase: No. We were talking about lions, and tigers, and jaguars.
Hope: Oh my!

Comic: C2E2 2013 3 of 3 - Fri, 3 May 2013

Fri, 3 May 2013 00:01:00 EST

Comment: Decisions, decisions, decisions - Fri, 3 May 2013

Fri, 3 May 2013 00:03:00 EST

Decisions, decisions, decisions
Gary
So this is always a problem when packing up from a comic con; which comics will you pack in your carry on, and which comics will you pack in your checked bag. If you choose incorrectly, then you end up having nothing to read on your flight. So the flight becomes a horribly depressing and boring place, much like being placed in the hole or solitary confinement. Happily, this time I chose well. I chose two comics, and three graphic novels. I finished the two comics and one graphic novel, and I started writing a horror/scifi comic. All in all, I'd say that ended up being a rather successful flight. Have you every chosen poorly when picking up material for your flight? What was it you chose, and why was it a bad choice? What did you do to pass the time? Please feel free to answer in the comments below the comic.

Friday's fake quote

Thu, 2 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"I wouldn't hit that with a twelve foot pole, or a six inch one for that matter." - C. R. Ino, 1997 A.D.

Saturday's fake quote

Fri, 3 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Something I've discovered in my long life, is that the things I reminisce about are rarely as good as I remember." - Jack F. Lash, 1993 A.D.

Sunday's fake quote

Sat, 4 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Why do I have to stick it in to see if she's done? Won't she tell me?" - Never Question the Cook, 2001 A.D.

Monday's fake quote

Sun, 5 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"I am amazed by the vastness of our lack of knowledge, and the stubbornness of those who like to live in that gap." - Pope Geoff III, 1302 A.D.

Tuesday's fake quote

Mon, 6 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Jumping through hoops is easy when you're small." - F. Ondler, 1990 A.D.

Wednesday's fake quote

Tue, 7 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"I would dance on the graves of our enemies, if you would just kill someone already!" - Mad King B. Ear, 1021 A.D.

Thursday's fake quote

Wed, 8 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"if you keep rubbing that without oil, it will chafe" - Master leather smith Smeely, 903 B.C.

Friday's fake quote

Thu, 9 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"A broken mirror can still be used to fix your makeup." - Mandy Lovin, 2003 A.D.

Saturday's fake quote

Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"they never expect the jester" - Tolio, 897 B.C.

Sunday's fake quote

Sat, 11 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Dark skies bear many bright stars, the gods sign of hope in an otherwise lost void." - Tzua, 93 B.C.

Monday's fake quote

Sun, 12 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Stormy weather means exciting rides." - Captain S. E. Aher, 2008 A.D.

Tuesday's fake quote

Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"The structure is never at fault when the designer is around to blame." - How to be a CEO, 1990 A.D.

Wednesday's fake quote

Tue, 14 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"There is no place one cannot see, when one really really has to pee." - Recited by three drunken sailors, 1920 A.D.

Thursday's fake quote

Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Wow! These computers can do everything! I bet they could even do my taxes!" - Henry Janice, 1998 A.D.

Friday's fake quote

Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"I can't let you have a ride. You're not big enough." - Amusement park attendant, 1989 A.D.

Saturday's fake quote

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Don't worry, time is relative." - Physic Jokes, 1978 A.D.

Sunday's fake quote

Sat, 18 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Total transparency works best when you use a mirror instead of a window." - Sales 101, 1998 A.D.

Monday's fake quote

Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"I've surveyed more bush, than you could possibly conceive" - Landscape Architect R. Rodgers, 2011 A.D.

Tuesday's fake quote

Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Nobody ever died of a broken heart. A punctured heart, on the other hand" - Dr. N. T. Mee, 1988 A.D.

Wednesday's fake quote

Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, now we're having some fun." - The Joys of Practical Jokes, 1963 A.D.

Thursday's fake quote

Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"I will drink with a friend, and I will drink with an enemy, but when I drink with the latter, I make certain to pour my own." - Sir Willis Isass, 1654 A.D.

Friday's fake quote

Thu, 23 May 2013 00:00:00 EST

"Time keeps ticking away, until you decide to stop winding the watch." - W. E. Ellis, 1813 A.D.