Sorry Guys Monday’s Comic is MIA cause I have spent the last few days working on a “Test” project for a local company who is considering hiring me as a graphic designer. Hopefully I can catch up and finish this strip on Wednesday. My Apologies …

Hey guys I just had to share this trailer of Dead Snow I just watched at apple trailers.  If you’re like me you’ve been enjoying the Nazi Zombies mode in Call of Duty World at War and now you can get the same enjoyment out of a movie!

hey guys… I made another video, this one is a bit of a tutorial.  Please leave some comments regarding stuff you would like me to cover as far as tutorials go.  Be specific as possible.

Hey guys, here is part 2… sorry you’ll have to wait till tomorrow for part 3…

Hey guys, this morning I was feeling especially motivated to draw something distinctly not Console Hopping, and this is what I came up with! This little guy is a tribute to the genius artists over at Creature Box. Greg and Dave are the concept artists behind one of my favourite video game series of all time Ratchet and Clank. These guys are a constant source of inspiration for me and I thought I would share this little gem of the internet with all of you.

Rawb

Hey guys, thought you might want to see an example of the most recent show I worked on…

So now that I’m officially moved into the new house I have to start unpacking. My very first task is going to have to be the office for a number of reasons. Mainly cause I spend a lot of time there, and also because I only have a glass door and the office is located about 3 feet from our front entrance… Here is a little snapshot of the new diggs…

and here is the crap that will eventually go into it…

Edit:  And the transformation!!!

Here is a little something to keep you occupied till the comic is posted today!

As promised… I got my scanner working again and grabbed some of the sketches I did last night…

Here’s a little something I whipped up today…

This was a warm tp sketch today that I just couldn’t stop working on

I felt like drawing an Evil SS trooper for a warm up today…. thought I’d share.

Well the answer to that question is apparently a really awesome looking we comic! I actually stumbled upon this site through a project wonderful ad on someone else’s site. Which on a completely separate note proves that the advertising system works… But I’m getting off the subject. Chicken Hare in it’s webcomic form is actually the third story the main characters have been featured in. The first two the author published and are available for sale on Amazon for just under ten bucks. The thing that really drew me to the site was how great the artwork is. Chris Grine has a wonderful cartoonish style slightly reminiscent of Jeff Smith’s Bone series, but is definitely his own. The character designs, posing and dialogue tone is just top notch, enough that I felt I should investigate the story further. Unfortunately this third story is just beginning so there isn’t all that much there for you to really get to know the characters, but that actually seems to give them just enough mystery to really make them all the more intriguing. Luckily the website has a written synopsis for both of the original books and sneak preview flash apps to whet your appetite. I highly recommend that you check out chickenhare.com and experience the comic yourself, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

Rawb

So I have been musing on the idea of devising some monstrous device for forcefully removing time from others so that I might use the hours for more constructive pursuits than might be otherwise endeavoured by the victim er ugh… Subject… Yes it seems that I have a not too uncommon condition, which I have decided to bestow with the name “creative diarrhoea.” True, the name itself is not very flattering nor does it seem like something you would like to be afflicted with. But as a descriptions of symptoms go, the term is… Adequate. Yes it seems like my brain seems to continuously spout out half baked (runny) ideas and intense desires to try my hand at new and more interesting projects. The only problem is that every time a new project begins it further compresses the time available for existing projects. Like I said I doubt that I am the only one with this problem but I have become increasingly aware of the condition. Thus my desire to construct the time sucker… They did it in the “princess bride” right? Anyway many of these projects that I have wanted to start seem to be ongoing projects like this very webcomic, or require me to invest vast amounts of time learning new skills like flash ActionScript programming. Sigh, maybe if someone could get cracking on that technology in the matrix where you could upload an entire encyclopedic knowledge of any given subject. Forget Kung Fu Neo, give me C++ and Adobe Flex lessons straight to the cerebral cortex please!
Any other sufferers out there? Maybe we can form a support group…

Rawb

Maybe it’s the fact that I’m getting older, or maybe I’m just becoming more cynical… or perhaps the two are not mutually exclusive…. but I find myself feeling like it’s about time that the iGeneration takes over the reigns.

I don’t think that anyone can truly say that they haven’t felt like older people who hold a position of authority over them haven’t treated you with the proverbial kid gloves. And to clarify, this is not coming from the angst ridden mind of a teen, I’m almost thirty for god sakes! It really does feel like we are due our moment behind the wheel. Unfortunately it seems a lot harder to pry those gnarled old claws from the controls then it should. If you don’t want us to drive, then you shouldn’t have given us lessons.

Just a thought…

Rawb

Sorry guys, but it seems like the streams that I recorded are not accessible from the ustream servers. I don’t know what happened, just that I can’t view them, download them or anything…. sorry…. Looks like I’m gonna have to go back to doing tutorials the old fashioned way, by recording them locally.

Rawb

So if you haven’t experienced the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta then one of two thing is likely going on. One: you don’t have access to a Halo ODST disc, or Two: you don’t care about Halo at all.

For a long time I was one of those latter people. Halo was some raging, incoherent beast screaming profanity from every one of it’s hundreds of needled toothed maws… I guess it still is. The reality of Halo’s multiplayer is that there is quite a bit of strategy involved in the gameplay. Knowing precisely how many shots with the battle rifle will set up a kill from an indirect grenade hit, goading someone into following you around a corner where you lie in wait to deliver a instant death dealing backsmack, dropping a banshee right out of the air with a well placed plasma pistol overcharge shot… it all comes down to game knowledge and how to use it to your advantage. Now Halo comes with a hefty bad side as well. The majority of one on one encounters boil down to what I refer to as “idiot jousting.” Two Spartans running directly at each other emptying an entire clip into an enemy and the first person to connect with a well timed melee wins… over and over and over. Sure you can mix the formula up with some zig-zaging and the Halo favorite… leaping around like a frog with ADHD. I expected Halo Reach to be more of the same… but at this point I had spent a decent amount of time learning how to survive these encounters, and hell… the beta’s free right?

Little did I expect that Bungie would mix things up so much with such a tiny modification to the game mechanics. Armor abilities have got to be the single best thing to ever be introduced to the halo multiplayer universe! The four new abilities are offered up on a spawn by spawn basis, allowing you to mix and match your team’s loadout on the fly. The jetpack has featured prominently in many reviews of the game, but I really feel like the other three abilities are super useful as well. The Stalker loadout allows you to go invisible for a short amount of time which on its own is not a huge advantage when squaring off against the other abilities, but if you pair up with a teammate with any of the other armor abilities makes you death on swift wings. Picking off an opponent who is not paying attention to you or landing a critical shot that lowers the shields of a member of the opposite team occupied by a frantic battle with one of your teammates is surprisingly satisfying. The Armor lock’s invulnerability is nice, but the real power with that loadout comes from the EMP pulse you send out when the shield finally overloads that drops the shields of every enemy it hits, allowing for potential one shots from your buddies lurking just outside its range. And finally, the sprint ability, seemingly the least useful ability, is one of the most fun to play with. Running up and delivering two quick melee strikes to a player who likes to strafe around you, firing from a distance is an often unexpected tactic, and running around with the gravity hammer has resulted in me racking up more then a couple of Extermination medals.

These little tweaks have made game types like capture the flag my favorite thing to do in halo. The multiple uses for each loadout allow people to cooperate as a team in so many ways, it really makes me excited to see what play will be like a month or two into the final release this fall. The bottom line is that if you’re a Halo fan, you’re gonna like the game. If you used to like Halo, but got bored of it, you’ll probably like the game, and if you’ve been curious about Halo and just never got around to playing… this year’s vintage is a great place to start.

So last night, I was lucky enough to see the Prince of Persia movie… not that I’m saying it was good… or bad… I have not even gotten to that part of the review yet.  I AM saying that I was lucky to see that instead of seeing the “other movie” that was playing that night.  That “other movie” that my wife and the wife of my friend went to see whilst we weaseled our way into a viewing of a different story.  One with decidedly less open toed, sling back wearing harpies.

I’m just sayin…

So the Prince.  I’m going to start by saying the movie was actually quite good.  It had everything I was hoping for in a Prince of Persia movie.  Action, Humor, Running on the walls…. ugh…. sand… the Prince.  But in all seriousness the Action was really quite good.  Great slow mo moments and the Prince leaping to what would doubtlessly be a lesser man’s doom.  Sword fights and Bandits and freaking crazy ass Hassasins!  Where the movie does fall flat is the exposition.  Every time a piece of plot needed to be explained I groaned… Which included the ending.  I think they could have gone with a subtler, darker ending in which the releasing of the sands of time in such a huge torrent damaged the prince, leaving a subtle scarring that only the princess notices, possibly setting up the dark prince for a future movie… but nope… no such luck.  Speaking of the princess, that was the other downfall of this movie.  Not the actress, but the severe lack of chemistry between the two characters… I felt like every “love interest” moment was forced and completely unnecessary.

Anyway like I said at the beginning of the review, the movie is actually pretty good.  If you want to see something with some pretty good action, go see this movie.  At worst you’ll likely leave the theater thanking yourself for coming up with an excuse not to accompany the wife to… that “other movie”

Rawb

Hey Guys!

As promised I’m posting some pics of the Nursery Mural I’m doing. I just finished it today and I’m exhausted… unfortunately there is one more to go!!!

Here is the finished product

and here are some detail shots:

and here’s a shot of all the paint and brushes that are getting used on this project!

Hey guys! I got some fantastic fan art sent to me today from Thomas Clemmons of www.RobotFriday.com Tom does a daily sketchbook comic that runs the gamut of subject matter from video games, movies and comics to journal comics.  Check out his site for a daily dose of sketches, video tutorials and live drawing feeds!

Hey Guys!

Finally got around to uploading this image to the site.  It was sent to me by Lou Manglass of “Yet Another Webcomic.”  Lou’s been reading the comic for a long time now and I actually got to meet him at PAX East this year for an evening of Beer and Munchkin.  Lou sent me this piece of fan art just after my son was born and I’ve been meaning to get it up on the site for a while.  Either way it’s up now for you all to enjoy!  Also, be sure to check out his site to read his comic and check out his process page and gadgets!

Hey guys… I did this sketch at lunch today and thought I’d share!

Hey guys!  Been working a little bit on a map for my next D&D session… thought I’d post some in progress pics.

Sorry about the lack of updates lately guys… I picked up a neat little contract to work on in my spare time and it has completely dominated my time over the last couple of weeks and will continue to do so for a little while longer.  I’m not sure how much I can share about the project at the moment, I’ll have to defer to my collaborators on divulging information on it.  But I will say that it is very much the kind of thing you all might be interested in.

I’ll be back with some more information as soon as I can.

Rawb