Station V3

And in other news...

2008-08-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

V3 reader Daniel Ellingson has created some interesting things with the Spore Creature Creator - including a very nice version of Julius the Rumormonger!

In addition to Julius, today's comic reveals that one of the other rumormongers is named Marco, and yesterday's revealed that one of them is named Kyle. (There's a little trivia question about Kyle on the forum!)

Silence in the Darkness on Q16 recently had its 500th strip go up! (Still dark - but not always silent.)

Two new episodes of PodWarp 1999 have gone up recently - a short Episode 22 with just me, Mark Mekkes, and guest Aaron Lewis, and a regular-length Episode 23 with the regular PodWarp crew!

And finally, I've updated the voting bonuses - there's a sprite strip up at TopWebcomics, and a bad translation of today's strip up at the all-new redesigned buzzComix. Thanks for voting!

Guest comic at The Book of Biff

2008-08-15T08:03:00.000-07:00

A guest comic I drew is up today at The Book of Biff - finally returning the favor for the one Chris Hallbeck drew for me in 2006!

Quark

2008-08-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

I had been wondering if this would ever come out on DVD, since 1978 sci-fi sitcoms that lasted eight episodes aren't likely to be high up on any company's list of priorities... But apparently it is! Quark is coming out on DVD this October. It'll be strange to see it with a decent picture and without commercials!

("Quark is brought to you by... Dawn. Dawn takes grease out of your way!")

Rumormongers Are Go!

2008-07-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

If you've joined Star Pirates (or you're going to) and now you're looking for a fleet to join, the Rumormongers fleet is the one for you! In addition to being the "official" Station V3 fleet, its abbreviation is "RUM" - and how much more appropriately pirate-y can you get?

For today's new voting bonus, there's a sprite strip in which one of the Rumormongers is considering joining the fleet while he waits for the next round of Rumormonger Idol to start!

And on a completely different note, the fifth episode of The Sequential Artists' Pub is up! I was there again for this one - lots of interesting topics covered, like a cartoonists' public persona, pen names, mirror sites, the use of RSS feeds (Station V3 has one) and blogs on comic sites (like this one you're reading right now).

Star Pirates!

2008-07-24T18:42:00.000-07:00

I'm sure it'll come as no surprise to those of you reading this that I'm currently playing Star Pirates - you've probably noticed the ad (featuring the Pirates and the Rumormongers) currently running on the site! (If you haven't, go back to the top of the page and take a look!) It's a browser-based game in a sci-fi future setting, with gangs of Star Pirates flying around the solar system, attacking each other, looting, scavenging, gambling, mining, exploring, and all those fun things you do once the Earth has been destroyed! Apart from the fact that it's online and has other people playing it at the same time, it reminds me (in a good way!) of some of the Commodore 64 games I used to play.

The guys there emailed me last week and asked about the possibility of having me create a custom ad for them featuring some of the V3 characters. So I've been working on that since then - drawing the bits for the ad, animating them, coloring them, etc. Of course it involved a lot of research, too, since I had to make sure any game details I mentioned in the ad were accurate. (And even though the ad's done, I'm still doing that research...)

I'm not quite as far along in the game as the Rumormongers in the ad are, but I'm getting there... My next step will have to be to form a fleet to do battle with the other sci-fi webcomic fleets there!

Oh, and if you do join (which is free!), I certainly wouldn't mind if you used my referral code (which is 9338)!

V3 Featured at Road Crew

2008-07-17T14:03:00.000-07:00

Station V3 is today's Featured Comic over at Road Crew, a comic about the guys behind the scenes of a touring rock band. Those of you coming from there (welcome!) will already have seen that, of course... Those of you who haven't can go there and see that - and read the comic!

Good translations (and bad)

2008-07-16T07:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Peanuts rerun had Linus posing with his blanket and saying "I am Count Dracula from Transylvania" - I saw that one translated into German, in the book "Linus - oder: Wo ist meine Schmusedecke?" There he says "Ich bin Graf Dracula aus Transylvanien" - I think in that case the translation made it even more effective!

For a translation to German (and then back to English) that's much less effective, there's today's first bonus! And the second one is a sprite strip in which one of the contestants is trying to get the judge to start the second round of Rumormonger Idol. Thanks for voting!

Warping another Pod

2008-07-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

Episode 20 of PodWarp 1999 is up - we have Steve Troop of Melonpool on as a guest, and we discuss his new project that's happening, CryptoZooey, and his new project that didn't quite happen (but look for it again next April 1), Zero Worship. And also time travel, alternate universes, and the PodWarp 1999 drinking game.

Brian Wilson

2008-07-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

Completely non-comic-related: Another concert report!

My wife and I saw Brian Wilson in concert at the Belleayre Mountain in the Catskills over the weekend. He sang a lot of Beach Boys hits, and some songs from his new album coming out later this year. He sounded great, and so did his band!

(This seems to be a good summer for concerts so far!)

Podcasts and Books and Things

2008-07-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Last night I attended another Sequential Artists' Pub podcast. This week's main topic was books - preparing things for print, where/how to have them printed, where/how to sell them, etc.

In case you're wondering, I save the full-size 300dpi scans of my strips before I resize them and save them for the web, and I used those files when I put the first book (Get Yours Today!) together. I took the print-on-demand route for publishing, with lulu.com, so it's printed (and sold) through them. I'll most likely put out the second book (which I'm currently working on) that way too.

And in unrelated news, today's voting bonuses are the rough drafts for yesterday's strip, today's strip, and tomorrow's, and a bad translation of today's strip. Enjoy!

A look sideways

2008-07-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Today's strip is one that went through a few changes from the original rough sketch to the final one that actually went online - today's first bonus is the original rough draft. The final panel is the only thing I wound up using from the original idea. I think the changes improved it... but if you disagree, enjoy the rough draft! Or for another take on the strip, try today's second bonus, which is a sprite version of the strip. Thanks for voting!

ComicSpace

2008-07-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

A few of you may already know this - I have a ComicSpace page, which I rarely checked, and updated even less often. But I logged in tonight, and finally got around to making a few changes, including adding a gallery of sample strips for Station V3, Z7, Ebb's Children, and Silence in the Darkness on Q16. Check it out, especially if you're also on ComicSpace and think you might like to add a gallery like that to your favorites (and/or me as a friend) - and if you have a favorite V3 (or Z7, Ebb's Children, Q16) strip you think should definitely be in that gallery, let me know!

More bonuses

2008-07-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

TopWebcomics was having problems for the past day or so, but it's back up now - so for today's first bonus, there's a bad translation of today's strip. And for the second bonus, there's another look ahead, with a rough draft of tomorrow's strip. Of course, I am putting them up a little late, so by the time you see them, they may be yesterday's strip and today's strip. But enjoy them anyway - Thanks for voting!

Round 2...?

2008-07-07T14:15:00.000-07:00

Today's new bonus is a sprite strip in which Ebb wants to know when the next round of Rumormonger Idol is going to start.

(But don't worry... The answer is most likely not the one the judge gives!)

Looking ahead

2008-07-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

This month in the comic: V3's crew and the rumormongers get settled in their new universe (more or less), and contact is (re-)established (sort of) with the Station Authority.

This month on the site: A new site design should be appearing some time this month. (I'd say "will be," but I think I'm safer with "should be!")

For another look into the future (but not very far), today's first bonus is a "rough draft" of tomorrow's strip. (For "rough draft," substitute "idea scribbled on a scrap of computer paper so I wouldn't forget it.") The second one (by request) is a look at the cover of the "What's Wrong with the Universe?" book that's been the topic of this week's strips. Thanks for voting, and if you have a bonus request, feel free to post it here!

Further Adventures in Podcasting

2008-06-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Last night I took part in Krishna Sadasivam's podcast, The Sequential Artists' Pub. Lots of interesting topics were discussed, such as tools and techniques, drawing tablets, site statistics, cartoonist resources, and wearing hats!

(My contribution is a bit limited, due to some connection problems. TalkShoe's "ShoePhone" didn't want to let me talk - it'd tell me I was connected, but it's also tell me I wasn't on the call. Eventually I wound up installing Gizmo, and finally managed to connect that way - so I don't say anything until about 40 minutes in, and later on my connection gets garbled. Hopefully I'll have better luck next time!)

Welcome New Readers!

2008-06-26T17:35:00.000-07:00

Since there seem to be a lot of people reading at the moment, I thought I'd take the opportunity to welcome any of you who happen to be new readers coming in from StumbleUpon, what appears to be the most successful ad campaign I've run on Project Wonderful, and of course anywhere else, too...

Welcome!

Make yourself at home, check out the three spinoffs, tell a friend about Station V3, say hello on the forum, get a copy of the book... Or (most importantly) just enjoy reading!

And for anyone who isn't a new reader (and has read this blog post this far anyway), thank YOU for reading, too!

In other news, the 'official' version of the latest episode of PodWarp 1999 ("Dial F for Frankenstein" - the call-in show episode) is up on the site now. I was using the same headset as on the past few episodes, but on a different computer, and that seems to have worked much better. (So now you get to hear what I actually sound like!)

Finally, in voting bonus news, I finally closed the Rumormonger Idol round 1 poll - the results are up as today's first bonus, and some parting words from the loser are up as the second one.

Technical Difficulty Day

2008-06-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

This morning, there was a power blink at home, and the computer reset itself.

At work, I got a call from a remote site that also had a power blink, and they were having problems with a printer because of it.

Later in the day, due to some server configuration work being done, stationv3.com was unavailable for a little while.

Tonight we had our first PodWarp 1999 call-in show - and Talkshoe froze up on us.

Then after that, a thunderstorm knocked me offline for about half an hour.

The site should update automatically at its usual time (about two hours from now), and you can see tomorrow's strip then. But if anything goes wrong with that, I think I'm going to have to blame Technical Difficulty Day!

Results Delayed

2008-06-17T23:18:00.000-07:00

I was all set to end the Rumormonger Idol Round 1 poll and reveal who's getting kicked off - but the poll is tied! We can't have that... So for now, the poll is still open, and today's new voting bonuses are a sprite strip in which Ebb suggests Rumorbot could cast the tie-breaking vote, and a bad translation of today's strip instead!

ETI-PI

2008-06-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

Zortic creator (and fellow Podwarper) Mark Mekkes has a new comic making its official debut today - ETI-PI (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence - Private Investigators), about two UFO investigators trying to find out if anyone is out there, and currently living in a van down by the river.

It's off to a great start - Check it out!

Back to the Bonuses again

2008-06-11T17:53:00.000-07:00

The Rumormonger Idol Round 1 results are coming soon - so if you haven't voted yet (and still want to), now would be a good time!

Meanwhile, there are two new voting bonuses up today - a sprite strip in which Ebb discusses his Round 1 performance with Rumorbot, and a bad translation of today's strip. Thanks for voting!

Concert Report

2008-06-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

In a newspaper article before last night's Glass Prism reunion concert, they said they hoped that they wouldn't just be good enough, but that they'd be better than good enough.

The concert was amazing - they were fantastic! From the way they played, you'd never know they broke up 37 years ago. They played some appropriate covers (Procol Harum, Cream, etc.), started off their original material with a song from "On Joy And Sorrow," played most of the "Poe through the Glass Prism" album, and played some new Poe-based songs. I hope they're thinking of recording a new album, or at least an EP with the new songs from the concert! It all confirmed the evidence from the two albums, that these guys should have been huge.

(So, yes... They were much better than good enough!)

Glass Prism

2008-06-06T22:14:00.000-07:00

File this one under "Bands I never thought I'd get to see" - I've got my tickets for the Glass Prism concert at the Scranton Cultural Center tomorrow!

(It's not the first time they've played there - they opened for Vanilla Fudge there about 40 years ago!)

They recorded two albums for RCA - Their first album, "Poe through the Glass Prism," was released in 1969, and featured (as you might expect from the title) the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe set to rock music. "The Raven" was released as a single, and was a big hit locally. They wrote their own lyrics for the second album, "On Joy And Sorrow," released in 1970, but the sound was still similar - guitar, bass, drums, and organ. From what I've read, they'll be playing a 90-minute set, with songs from both albums, and some new material.

(And hopefully Ebb won't steal the tickets on me!)

Voting and Bonuses

2008-06-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

The votes are coming in for the "Who Gets Kicked Off" poll, but there's no clear "winner" yet!

For today's voting bonuses, there's a sprite strip in which Rumorbot gives his reason for dropping out of the contest and becoming a judge, and there's a bad translation of today's strip. Thanks for voting!

Round 1 Voting

2008-06-03T14:14:00.000-07:00

The contestants are done for Round 1 of Rumormonger Idol - now it's voting time! The "Who Gets Kicked Off" poll is up now on the forum.

On a related note, there are two new sprite strips up for today's voting bonuses - At TopWebcomics, Contestants 5 and 6 discuss Round 1, and at buzzComix, they find out what contestant dropped out before Round 1 even started. Thanks for voting!