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!)

Labels: other things, podcast

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.

Labels: comics, other things, podcast, voting bonus

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!

Labels: other things, podcast, site status

Following the discussion of Station V3 in Episode 13 of PodWarp 1999, I'm planning on making some changes - some to the site, some to the comic. I'm not planning anything too drastic, but next time Emmit appears in the comic (whenever that turns out to be), he will most likely not have his hands in his pockets. That'll probably be after they get out of the time loop. (So yes, they will be getting out of it - but what then? Keep reading and see!)

Following up on Episode 12, where Dino Andrade was on as a guest, one of the SoulGeek webcomics he mentioned has launched - Legend of Bill by David Reddick. Only a few strips up at the moment, but it looks good so far!

And in other (unrelated) news, Contestant 5 and Contestant 6 finish up Round 1 of Rumormonger Idol for today's voting bonuses!

Labels: comics, podcast, site update, voting bonus

Guest strip week continues! Yesterday's strip was from the Fuzznuts crew, and today's is from Andreas Gustafsson of Invincible Jeff. More to come tomorrow!

PodWarp 1999 also continues, with two episodes posted this week - Episode 11, which is the last one with Tauhid Bondia joining us as a regular (fortunately we got to the Good Ship Chronicles discussion before he left!), and Episode 12, where we're joined by voice actor (and founder of SoulGeek) Dino Andrade, and we discuss Ben Paddon's Jump Leads. (And in related news, there's now a PodWarp 1999 forum!)

And finally, the Rumormonger Idol story continues in today's new voting bonuses! At TopWebcomics, there's a bonus strip in which two rumormongers discuss the reason the show has been delayed, and at buzzComix, there's a sprite strip in which two other rumormongers (wearing hats) discuss a possible solution to the problem. Thanks for voting!

Labels: guest art, podcast, voting bonus

On PodWarp 1999, we recently discussed drawing starfields (and we will again soon). My way of doing it is pretty basic - I leave the area blank when I draw, then when the strip is scanned, cleaned up (if necessary) and colored, I blur the image, then bucket fill the area the starfield needs to go with black. (The blur leaves an outline around anything I've drawn, so the lines don't just become part of the starfield.) Then I put in some white dots, sharpen the image up again (so it doesn't look blurry, but the outline will still be there), and reduce it to the final size for uploading. Probably not the best way of doing it, but I'm used to it, and I get the results I want!

Since the podcast, we've had a couple people point us to this tutorial on making a starfield with Photoshop, and I've given it a try. (I'm using The GIMP, but the same steps work there.) It's probably not something I'd use in the actual strip, but the results do look nice!

Today's first bonus, which I'm sure will come as no surprise, is a starfield picture (with the out-of-gas alien in it, too) - and the second, which has nothing to do with starfields, but does have something to do with the title of this blog post, is a bad translation of today's strip.

Labels: drawing, podcast, voting bonus

I've updated the bonus archive - apparently the last time I did that was in October, so there's a lot of stuff to see there, up to (and including) the current two voting bonuses. I think the next thing on the list to update will be the art page, since the last time I did that was early 2006. (And there'll be more stuff to add there soon, since there's another guest week coming up on Sunday for Station V3's fifth birthday!) Then there are some more changes to come after that, so stay tuned.

And in PodWarp 1999 news, Episode 10 is online - possibly the only sci-fi webcomic podcast to ever mention "Mr. Turnkey," the followup to "In The Year 2525" by Zager and Evans!

Labels: podcast, site update, voting bonus

Episode 9 of Podwarp 1999 isn't up* yet. This is because we just finished recording it.

Episode 8, on the other hand, is! This is because we recorded it over a week ago.

* Now it is!

Labels: podcast

Somehow I managed to forget Z7's birthday again - a couple days ago (on the 5th) it turned four.

Station V3 will be turning five next month (on the 6th), and once again, the planned birthday festivities include a guest strip week - so if you're interested in drawing a guest strip, let me know! (Or just send one in!)

In other news, today's new bonuses are a bad translation of today's strip, and a sprite strip in which a rumormonger with a hat plans to try out for Rumormonger Idol. Thanks for voting!

And in other other news, another new episode of PodWarp 1999 is up!

Labels: milestone, podcast, voting bonus

Two more contestants try out for Rumormonger Idol in today's bonuses (here and here - thanks for voting, and if you have a bonus request, you can post it here!

Ebb's Children updated today. (First time this year!)

And the latest installment of PodWarp 1999 is now online for your listening pleasure! In this episode, we discuss sci-fi sub-genres, the Deus ex Machina, parody/homage/plagiarism, and continuity.

Labels: comics, podcast, voting bonus

Time for some new voting bonuses! At TopWebcomics, a sprite strip in which Ebb considers trying out for Rumormonger Idol, and at buzzComix, an alternate version of today's strip, showing how it would have gone in the "regular" V3 universe.

And in other news, the latest episode of PodWarp 1999 is now up, in which we discuss (among other things!) the process of creating an individual page/strip.

Labels: podcast, voting bonus

Last month, Ben Paddon of the comic Jump Leads invited me to join him, Tauhid Bondia (Good Ship Chronicles), Jim Francis (Outsider), and Mark Mekkes (Zortic) weekly for a sci-fi webcomic podcast, which we've named PodWarp 1999.

The first installments of the podcast are now online for all to hear - if you're the sort of person who enjoys sci-fi and/or webcomics (and I'm assuming most of you reading this probably are!), listen to an episode or four and let us know what you think!

Labels: other things, podcast