Hapless

One of the cool things about having gone on vacation was getting to work ahead on my roughs for the comic.  I don't generally draw the strip on paper until the day before I work on it on the computer, sometimes not even until that morning.  But I worked far enough ahead where I don't actually even remember what strip comes next, so it's kind of a fun surprise to open my sketchbook and be like, "Oh yeah, I'm doing that one today!"

Going through past strips, I realize Chance comes off as cocky, but that's not actually true.  He's just a normal guy who happens to have uncanny good luck; he tries hard (and unsucessfully) to be "cool," and, at least when it comes to women, he sets his goal at the top.

Of course, it would come as a shock to Justice to find out she was the most sought-after girl in school; she's simply too modest and naively kind to fathom that.

Aftermath - Part 1

I hope you've enjoyed the Technosyde storyline.  It's not quite over yet; there'll be a few strips dealing with the aftermath of the recent events.  And, of course, that won't be the last we see of Technosyde.  I've toyed around with the idea of having a different villain for every story arc.  Chapters 1 and 2 kind of comprise the first story arc, so at the very least we should be seeing more of Technosyde in Chapter 4.

As for this Chapter?  There's only seven strips left.  I've got the big finale planned, and the next couple strips after this one, but there's a few in the middle there that I, well... I guess I had better write them!  I'd wanted to leave some room to play with in case the Technosyde stuff ran longer than I anticipated; I didn't want to have to rush it like I ended up having to do with the E.P.I.C. stuff.

I'm sure that won't be a problem, though.  There's still so much I want to do with all of these characters.  Anybody you'd like to see in particular?

Ejection

Rant incoming.  You have been warned.

So yesterday while drawing this strip, I had an... experience.  Often I will open up a Google Hangout when I'm drawing and screen-share.  I make the Hangout public, so as to attract new readers, and what's more I put the address of the Hangout on Twitter and hashtag it with stuff like #superheroes and #webcomics.  Well, shortly after doing so, someone came into the room.  I have my mic off so I can listen to music (because apparently playing music during a Hangout is considered an "illlegal broadcast") but I keep my ears peeled in case someone wants to chat (preferably someone I know).  After a while, this person began to play a terrible parody country song on his end.  It was annoying, because this gargled garbage interfered with the music I was listening to, but I figured I'd just let it go, because the person would probably lose interest and leave soon anyway.  Besides, I was on a roll.

Well, I think the song had replayed about five times before I couldn't take it anymore.  I brought up the Hangout window and saw some fat, scuzzy-looking dirtbag just staring at the screen, sitting on a bed.  He looked like a younger, dirtier, chunkier version of the character Benicio Del Toro played in Fear and Loathing.  Whatever, I closed the Hangout and made a new one.  This time I didn't make it public (because I could NOT hear that song again), hashtagged it with the usual stuff, and I put the new address up on Twitter and tagged a few of my friends to come and watch (which I figured they wouldn't, being people with jobs, but you never know).  Anyway, in comes dude again.  I can tell because there's that fucking song. 

I click over, and what should I see?  You've probably guessed by now.  Penis all up in the camera.  I killed the Hangout, and then went back to my Google + page to look at the first movie I'd done.  Lots and lots of tiny, dirty-guy penis.  

So, great.  My movie is ruined.  Obviously I had to delete it off my page.  It's especially shitty because people probably came into the room as well, thinking they were going to see illustration, and they got that instead.  I know at least one person did - a younger-looking girl.  Unsurprisingly, she didn't stick around.

There are several aspects of this story that I don't understand.  Foremost, what compels a person to do this?!  I mean, there was usually nobody else in the room, and therefore nobody else watching scuzzy guy masturbating.  I understand some people are exhibitionists, but where's, like, the thrill in that?  Secondly, how was this activity so appealing to Scuzzy that he was inclined to follow me back into a non-public Hangout to continue?  Thirdly, and this may be slightly beside the point, but I can't play music without risking my Hangout being closed on me, but Scuzzy can play one song on repeat and play with himself and that's okay?

After I deleted my videos I attempted to block this person from interacting with me on Google +, only to find out that this isn't an option.  Nice job, Google.  I remarked what happened on Twitter to the friends I'd mentioned, and Scuzzy actually responded.  At least on Twitter I could block him.  Twitter - 1, Google - 0.

Incidentally, this morning that Tweet of mine got retweeted by somebody else.  I looked into it, and it appears this person had gone into a Hangout with some of his friends and Scuzzy came in, doing what Scuzzy does best.

For future reference, Scuzzy's Google handle is "tim smith," and on Twitter he's "@hom_joseph," though I'm sure by now he's changed those.

For those of you who know me well, you know I have very little faith in humanity.  Faith of any sort, for that matter, and certainly no faith in the internet.  It's always been a struggle with me to produce digital art for a webcomic when I loathe both computers and the web.  Things like what happened yesterday make me question my direction in life (as if I needed any more of that happening).

Part of me just thinks: Scuzzy was just a troll.  Troll's troll.  Don't let it get to you.  But you know what?  What that sick fuck did was way beyond trolling.

The other part of me wants to hang it all up.  Cash out.  Be done with all of it.  Smash my computer into tiny pieces, and shield my daughter from even the chance of ever seeing a single disgusting person for the entirety of her life. 

As I've mentioned before, I've already set some plans in motion to withdraw myself and my family from this perverted, ignorant, hateful, materialistic, self-destructive society.  Yesterday's events have only strengthened my resolve.

Noh Mercy

I'm going to skip the small talk this week and go right into the bitching.

Yesterday I got a call just after I finished calling my mom on the phone on her birthday.  It was a robo-call from my daughter's principal.  Sometime after noon, shots were heard just outside school property.  They locked down the school, and police showed up and some stuck around campus for the rest of the day.  Everyone's fine.  As far as I know, there aren't any suspects, and cops didn't find anything unusual in the area.

It's important to know that my daughter's school is essentially surrounded by nothing.  There's no reason there should be gunfire anywhere near her school.  Any way I look at this, there's no way to put a positive spin on it.  Maybe it was just a drunken redneck popping of a shot for, I don't know, fun.  Maybe it was an accident, though I can't comprehend why you'd need to bring a gun anywhere near an elementary school in the first place unless you were a cop or a security officer and you worked there.

But maybe, just maybe, it was somebody who thought maybe he'd hurt some kids that day, but had second thoughts at the last minute, but he was so filled with psychotic rage that he had to shoot something that day, so he shot a tree next to the school, or fired a shot into the air.  Maybe next time he won't hesitate.

Maybe I have an overactive imagination.  But I believe, when it comes to children, one should err on the side of caution.

But what it all comes down to is this: I'm tired of guns, and I'm tired of people who like them.  With everything going on in the nation, most especially with how politically polarized we are, I'm tired of trying to see things reasonably.  I'm tired of trying to see all sides of the issues.  I'm done.  I'm so done with all of this.  I'm ready to pick up and leave right now, and go move to some liberal utopia surrounded by organic arugula lettuce and not a single church for as far as the eye can see.

If I can't have that, then I want to be surrounded by no one at all.  I can't spend another day in this vacuous swamp. 

The Walters Files: Humongous Man

Humongous Man is a lot of fun.  I don't know why I haven't used him since the beginning; I guess there's just been too much else going on.  I'm going to make it a point to bring him back, soon.

Inspired by (I think, obviously) Hank Pym, he's basically everything bad about that character, and nothing good.

I've never been a big fan of Ant Man (or his many incarnations), so it's fun for me to play up this character's insecurities, as deep inside he knows that while he's indeed brilliant, he truly can't compare to so many others of his peers; one of the many reasons he compensates with a loud mouth and a bossy, angry demeanor.  It was Jason's idea to make him a dwarf who aspired to be a giant, and I absolutely love that concept.  Here's the link to the SSS story Jason did concerning his origin.

Moral Support

Enlargicate

Inebriation

Yeah, so Skyrim is taking up a good deal of my awake-time.  I've already put like 25 hours into the game, instead of, you know, sleeping.  I decided that my tiger-ninja is going to avoid the plot of the game entirely and try to get in good with the Thieves' Guild and the Dark Brotherhood of assassins instead.  Besides, the moral ambiguity of the plot stuff is disconcerting.  I thought it would be a good idea to join up with the rebellion, only to find out that most everyone in the rebellion are bigots, and not exactly fond of tiger-ninjas walking around their city.  And I was going to do the right thing and see what this "dragonborn" business was all about, but they're all like, "Hey, here's some new powers.  You like those?  Cool.  Now, go quest on the other side of the country for some magical horn in some giant underground burial site or something, and I'm like, "All the way over there?  Um.  Nah.  I think I'm just going to go back to robbing you blind, if that's okay with you."


Today's strip introduces Daemon, a character I've been drawing and has been relatively unchanged nearly as long as I've been drawing Raine.  So, like, nineteen years.  Fuck.  
My wife says my most current incarnation of Daemon looks a lot like me, and I'd have to agree.  Every writer injects some of himself in his or her characters, and Daemon is, if anything, definitely representative of my secret aspirations to be a mysterious world-wandering drunk.

Click on the image to enlarge.