So life is becoming easier by the day as we are adapting to the new miniature human who is currently sharing the house with us… So much so that I’ve finally scheduled in my first Post Baby D&D game!  I’ve given myself a little over two weeks to prepare for the event, so I better get crackin!  I’m thinking Ninjas, Burning Buildings and a Corrupt government with a monstrous secret agenda!  I’ll post some of the stuff I’m going to be putting together for the sessions, including some maps i’ll be making on my brand new Easel sized pad of 1″ square ruled paper!

Rawb

I finally got something pretty important done this week between the screaming, feeding and cleaning of my first born child.

The process of creating a comic is time consuming to say the least.  And in order to make the whole thing happen as efficiently as possible, I have located and exploited a few shortcuts.  One of which involves creating a new photoshop file for the next strip.  I tend to open an old strip and then “Save As” a new file… but every so often I accidentally forget that first step and proceed to just work over top of the original strip, thus losing the original… Well hopefully those blunders are a thing of the past!  Because I finally got around to clearing off an old hard drive and enabled Time Machine for my Mac!  Hooray for backups!  I’ve gotta say the sense of security is quite satisfying.

Rawb

Hey! Look at that!  Against all odds I was able to get the comic done tonight.  Well I’m glad it worked out, because Tuesday’s comic being late really set me back on my comic making schedule.  Hopefully I can find some more time to squeeze in more work on the strip between wiping up spit up and changing diapers… I’ll keep you all posted.

Rawb

Phew! Finally done the comic!  Sorry about the delay folks… A crying baby does not a productive Daddy make.  Unfortunately taking care of our spawn takes priority over the comic… or so my wife tells me. 

It’s amazing how easy it is to lay out a plausible schedule for getting something like a comic accomplished on a regular basis.  It really doesn’t take much.  A pencil, piece of paper and the knowledge that each week comes with 7 days and each day 24 hours… minus time for work, eating and sleeping and WOW look at all that time!  What is even easier is for that schedule to be derailed by a tiny event like some friends or family stopping by!  I find myself railing against the ticking of the clock, trying to find time to do the things I love to to, like drawing the comic… so far I believe I’m breaking even on these endeavors… we’ll have to see how long that lasts.

Rawb

Hey guys and dolls!

I’m typing to you from the 50s…. apparently…. So seems like La hose Intéressante du Jour is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.  I can’t seem to get through the day without someone telling me that I need to see this movie.  Well I got news for ya.  I KNOW it’s a great movie and I WOULD go to see it but I CAN’T.  Having a child that is less then a month old tends to hamper one’s potential for movie going… Sigh, yeah I’m a little bitter…. but watching my kid gurgle and burp is infinitely better then any cinematic adventure right?!  No… I had a child, not a frontal lobotomy… Ah well, I guess this one is a DVD purchase.

Rawb

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!

It’s a peculiar thing having a baby… my time is becoming ever more constricted.  Despite the fact that I’m reducing as many non-mandatory commitments as possible in order to care for my spawn, the available time for shenanigans seems to be decreasing at a steady pace.  It turns out that in order to function in any acceptable capacity while at work, the human brain requires sleep…. yeah, who would have thought.  So I find myself going to bed at about 8 pm every night so that I can amass as close to eight hours as possible… I say amass because said sleep comes in random increments lasting anywhere between one and three hours.  I asked some other parental units I am aquatinted with about this phenomenon and the majority of answers I received seemed to be delivered in some form of code that resembles laughter quite acutely… a mystery to be sure.  Regardless I continue to wade through the turbid waters of parenthood and will continue my attempt at creating something I hope will entertain you.

Rawb

I’m Back!

So today was my first day back at work as well, and wow!  I was super tired.  As any parent knows, the first few weeks of a baby’s life with you involves getting up every 2-3 hours to feed the kid throughout the night… Needless to say, I have not completely adjusted to the broken sleep schedule…  It was a rough day energy wise… I’m sure it’ll get better
Rawb

PS:  I added a picture of Mason to last week’s post about his birth! Click to See

Hey guys!

Sorry about falling off the grid there this week, but as my sister in law said in her comment on the comic, we finally had our baby!  Mason Brady Lundy was born Monday morning at 3:15 am.  He was 7 lbs 3 oz and 21″ in length.  Unfortunately he ended up having to stay in the hospital till Thursday morning, and they did not have internet access available, so I wasn’t able to update the site while I was there.  They kept telling me every night that we’d be able to go home in the morning, but every morning they told us it would be another day.  Needless to say I was a little frustrated by that.  Anyway, he’s home now and doing fantastic.  I’m off work for another week to help Amanda find a little bit of a routine with him and figure out his needs a little more.  I won’t be posting a comic until NEXT Tuesday… so I can spend as much time as possible tending to the little guy.  That’s not to say that I won’t be doing some writing for the strip… I just don’t want to put any extra pressure on myself at the moment.  Thanks to everyone for their well wishes and for understanding that I need a little time off.

See you guys in a week!
Rawb

So today was officially my wife’s Due date… which means that the baby has until the 28th and then our doctor has planned to induce labor.  Which is actually kinda neat, cause it means that I can plan for the baby to be born in the next seven days… cause that’s the latest it’s gonna happen.  I’ll keep you guys posted!

Rawb

Hey guys!  I’m sorry I wasn’t able to upload a comic last Thursday.  My Wife is rapidly approaching her due date and I find myself scrambling with the last minute stuff that is so important, like prepping hospital bags, installing the car seat… that kind of stuff.  I’m going to do my best to get another comic up this coming Thursday, but if the baby comes before then there won’t be one.  When the baby is born I’ll be taking a two week break from comic updates, but I’ll do my best to post some pictures of the new kid and I’ll try to get a little ahead on the writing.  Hope you guys understand!

Rawb

Hey guys!  I hope you guys are having nice weather this summer!  It has been hot as hell here in Ottawa.  This whole week has been around the low to mid 30s (mid 90s for all you Fahrenheit users)  and last week we even had a day were we hit 41 degrees with the humidity! (105 F)  Buh… thank god I sprang for the AC unit with the new house!

Rawb

Hey guys! I know I have been a little absent from the Twitter Sphere as of late… I’ve been trying to get a little bit of stuff done that I’ve wanted to work on before the baby gets here… and I’m making some progress on it, but the weather has been so god awfully hot here in Ottawa, that it’s slow going… I’ll post some pictures of what I’m working on later on.

Rawb

Hey guys! Canada day was a blast, hope all my friends south of the Border enjoyed their 4th of July as well!

Rawb

It’s Canada Day, so I’m taking the day off and drinking some beer.  Also, I finished the second mural!!! I’ll post pics soon!

So as the days countdown to the arrival of the baby, I’m finding that there is more and more to do around the house.  It’s probably just nerves I guess.  The reality is that we’re almost all ready for the kid.  One of the last big things is the second mural and I think I can safely say I’m already about a third of the way done at this point.

Woo!  Tomorrow is a half day at work!  A good chunk of the studio is going on a golfing trip for the afternoon.  Should be a blast…. hmm a bunch of Animators on a golf course with access to booze… I wonder how long before someone tries the Happy Gilmore Drive and wrecks a club?

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!

Damn, these last couple of weeks really are non stop!  The baby is comin soon and I have lots to do!  One of the murals in the nursery is almost done, but I still have one more to go!!!  It’s a lot smaller, thank god… but still.

So father’s day was interesting… I got my first ever Father’s day gift… A lawnmower… and with it a new weekly chore…. damn.

Rawb

Hey guys!

Sorry if my activity on twitter or responses on the site have dipped a little of late… With the new baby almost here I (like Brody) am swamped with things to do!  Mainly painting the mural in the baby’s room.  I can post some progress pics if you guys are interested, but it’s likely that it will be consuming an awful lot of my time over the next couple of weeks.

Rawb

Hey guys!  So things are really picking up around here for me.  I’ve started painting the mural for the nursery, colouring some old strips in preparation for a future book printing, I’ve got a potential side gig doing some character design for an old work buddy, my D&D game might be picking up again, and I just thought of a fantastic idea for a short story I’m writing for a non Console Hopping long form comic…. Not to mention the baby will be coming in about a month now… When it rains it pours right?
Rawb

Hey guys!  Thanks again for all the birthday wishes this weekend!  Ya know, I had a whole list of crap I needed to do this weekend… Yeah, practically none of it got done, lol.  That must mean I had an enjoyable weekend right?  At least I remembered to get the comic done

Rawb

So this Saturday is my 29th Birthday! Wooo!  Although… I don’t know what is significant about 29… it’s ALMOST significant… Maybe it’s Significant by Proxy.  Also I hear that 40 is the new 20.  So that makes 29 the new…. 15?  Oh sonofa… that means acne, bad haircuts and riding the bus everywhere…. Phooey

Rawb

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,

Woke up today and all I could smell was burning wood… apparently there are farmers doing a controlled burn upwind of here… Willing to bet you can smell it all over Ottawa.  Phew, I thought there was a house on fire in my area!

Hey guys!

So I’ve been putting this off for a long time but I think I’ve finally found the right place to print a Console Hopping book!!!  YAY!  Which is nice cause I’m slowly closing in on 250 strips and I really feel like I should start attending some cons and trade shows.  Now I still have some work to do, colouring some old B&W strips, preparing some extra content and so forth, but I’m hoping that it’ll all go smoothly and the finished product will be of decent quality.  I wanted to ask you guys what kind of extra content you’d like to see in the book, and what you think of other potential products like buttons and stickers. Both for sales at conventions and possible prize draws.  Make yourself heard!

Thanks a ton to everyone for reading the strip, all your comments and words of encouragement.  Without an audience the comic is nothing, so I wanted to extend my sincere gratitude.  You guys rock!

Rawb

Hey guys!

Happy Victoria Day!!!  Or as we call it up here in the great white north…. another excuse to drink beer day!

Rawb

I wanted to share a link with you guys to a podcast site that has truly gripped me lately! A friend of mine at work told me about this site… well three sites really, that deliver a free short story every week in the form of an audiobook like reading. There is a separate podcast for sci-fi, horror and fantasy. If you like stories… and I guess that if you come here regularly, you do… you really need to check them out!

Pseudopod (horror)

Escape Pod (sci fi)

Podcastle (fantasy)

It’s true! The size of a sandwich is directly proportional to the amount of sway it has over a man’s decisions.

Hey out there everybody on the intertubez!
So the wacom Bamboo tablet I acquired this week seems to be doing a good job of helping me get a little further ahead! I sketched three strips today while soaking in my weekly dose of brain rotting TV. I’m hoping to clean and colour the other two strips this weekend and crawl ever further ahead in the storyline. The future is bright!

Also, I wanna give a shout-out to my dear ol’ Mum as it is her Birthday today! Happy B-Day Mum! Hope you have a great day!

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.