Due to an extremely annoying thing I have been going through with my apartment’s management for the past week, I am pretty worn out. So, there probably won’t be a post today. I might make some kind of longer blog post along the lines of the Gabe Newell one if I get the chance to sit down for a while.
Additional comments:
The thought occurred to me the other day that the comic could be drawn in more detail. After all, I’m out of school so there is nothing else to do, I’m capable of doing it more detailed, and more realism may add depth and emotion to the characters. On the other side, I like simplicity because it allows for me to be more mobile with ideas and people who do read it are not overwhelmed with detail. Finally, I settled the debate with myself, coming to the conclusion that if the comic where drawn any more detailed that the storyline would cease to exist.
I like thinking of the comic as a living entity, and if it were drawn more detailed then it would have to live more to the rules of our reality. You see, in its simplistic form, anything can happen. People can travel through time, dead dictators can run comic stores, and two people can completely miss that their new room mate is a Bolshevik revolutionary. Once you get rid of the simplistic style, it falls apart at the seams. As the philosopher Socrates once said: “this shit is deep,” and the same can be said about this topic. It’s the same reason why Calvin and Hobbes had to be drawn where every kid had a crazy huge head: if they looked real then they wouldn’t act the way they do. It’s why John Arbuckle had no nose, if he did then Garfield wouldn’t like lasagna (trust me, cats hate it I’ve tried a billion times).
Maybe I’m just trying to give reason to me being a lazy dude. In the end, if I had to spend a few hours thinking of an idea, I would rather spend it thinking and not waste time drawing complex shit. Characters don’t need to have feet anyways.
Starting next week, the comic will run three times a week on a Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule. Pretty much don’t have anything to do during the summer, so figured this would keep me busy that much more.
Also, big thanks to Greg for pretty much coming up with the idea for the next few weeks worth of comics.
Gabe Newell gets a lot of shit for pretty much every fuck up and delay that Valve has. The trend is understandable, considering he is sort of their front man (and, you know, CEO). Though, I think that maybe he gets a little too much negative attention and hilarious weight jokes, and not enough genuine positive attention for what he has done: namely, start a company that has set the standard for several genres of games, forged a network that has in many ways defined PC gaming, and created the driving force for many a young gamers love of the FPS. Whenever the guys over at Valve do something awesome, the community response goes something like this: “Wow, Valve, way to go! You guys are great! Man, I wish every company was like you.” Whenever something doesn’t go as planned, it’s “Goddamn it Gabe, what did YOU do this time?” I understand that these are less of actual complaints and more a reflex brought on by years of beating the same horse. However, one has to imagine that it would wear on a guy, no matter how serious the jokes are.
So, here is a tribute to all Gabe has done for us:
Gabe:
What the hell is up with all these fucking hats in TF2? I mean, I get it, hats are cool and they are a good way to shield your face and eyes from harmful UV rays, but holy fucking christ what is the deal? Honestly, TF2 is pretty much a fucking circus now. I literally cannot play for more than 5 minutes without getting all of these ridiculous trading messages, /says about buying items, and the infamous faggotry that is bragging about the amount of glowy shit on your avatars head. Honestly, it is all pretty much your fault for ruining the game. Sure, some may say that you have very little to do with the artistic and mechanical direction that the game takes, but if we are going to get down to brass tacks here: your company, your fault. I guess it is a good thing, though, because now I know when it is time to hand you over more money, since I will be able to instantly see the ludicrous influx of promo hats several days prior to any and every game release under the fucking sun. Welp, g2g, some scout is wailing on me with a fucking fish. Seriously? A fucking FISH? Go to hell.
Dearest Gabriel:
Are you being serious with this? L4D2? What happened to constant updates for L4D1, you lying sack of garbage? So what, now we get pretty much screwed out of 50 bucks? Not like we got hundreds of hours of entertainment out of the first one or anything. Not like the first game was completely worth every cent of money that we paid. No, you give us a complete shell of a game, only to take what should have been DLC, wrap it up in a shiny box, and slap a two on it. You know what? YOU KNOW WHAT?! BAM! We are so boycotting this shit. No no, don’t try to be all friendly now. You made your bed, now you fucking sleep in it.
Dear Gabe:
Where in all holy fucking Christmas is episode 3? Do you not even bother to read your forums and the countless blog rages? People need to see something with the number 3 on it before we literally start etching the number 3 into our chest with a knife. Is that what you want? For your adoring fans to feel pain? Why do you hate us so much? We are the reason you became so successful of a company. No, not your countless hours of hard work, and certainly not your staff filled with talented employees. We, the raving public, made you; and we will fucking unmake you in the fires from which you were forged. I mean, what the hell is this? You have time for endless tF2 updates and a portal sequel, but no time for poor Gordon. It probably would take you what, 2 days to finish? Lazy asshole.
Dear GAYbe:
Steam fucking blows. I am prepared to totally outdo your well thought out business design, as well as completely remake your entire system into a streamlined, perfect e-utopia, all from my mom’s basement. Speaking of “from my mom’s basement”, I also had a few extra hours laying around, so I took the liberty of writing out this long, winded explanation as to why you should have never switched over from WON. It’s attached as a .odg file. What? Your company doesn’t use OpenOffice? That is because you guys are corporate hacks.
Dear Gables:
Why hasn’t this obscure game that I like and that you have nothing to do with, (but it is hosted via Steam so it must have something to do with you) been updated recently? One last thing, I am pissed at you that Blizzard games aren’t available on steam, but still completely pissed at you for selling out to these big companies like EA. 60 bucks for a Call of Duty game? Someone is going to pay. YOU. You are going to pay.
To whom it may concern:
Lose weight, fatty.
Oh, and dear VALVE:
Thank you so much for donating TF2 hat money to Japan. You guys are a real inspiration over there, and if I could I would give you all a big hug.
Midterms and testing. Skipping a day. AHAAAAA!!!
As the comic becomes more and more complex (and I use the term “complex” very loosely) it requires a lot more effort to push through the idea that I have onto paper, so to speak. Because of this, it was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain quality on a black background. The white lines on black background worked very well when the line work was minimal, but white is so much easier to work with now.
In addition, I started adding color. This is just to make it easier to express depth and relate importance to things that I think require it. I will probably keep this format for some time, as I already see a difference in the quality and “lookability,” if I may make up a word for a second here. Things seem to pop more from the background, and I guarantee that there will be far less feeling of not knowing what an object is or where it is in relation to the characters.
I know at least two of you have asked what the new update schedule is, and the answer to that is every Tuesday and Friday. I know I was going three times a week for a while, but I’m just trying to be as realistic as possible with my time.
I knew I wanted to do something with my tablet when I moved into the new place, though I didn’t know exactly what. A few ideas came into mind, one of which being a comic entirely dedicated to Jay and some type of subsequent magical journey he must go on. However, because I couldn’t really think of good, lasting ideas for something of that nature, I abandoned it in favor of Leon. Also, I really missed the shortness and the overall feel of Leon. I can come up with hundreds of four panel stories in the same time that I could muster up a half-decent 30 page story, and it favors my sense of humor much more than a 8 1/2 x 11 panel could.
So here is what we get: a start of a new chapter in Leon. Since most of the material for the comic has often come from my own experiences in life and on the internet, I thought that it would only be proper that the guys move into a new setting as well.
On a more technical note, I disabled comments on all new posts and comics. They were pretty pointless.
I finally bit the bullet and dedicated the day to moving the site from our old, shitty hosting company to this new one. I’ve been with the old one for like as long as his site has been up, but its recent increase in downtime and server issues made the decision necessary. If anyones interested, I now know how the kid felt when he took old Yeller out to the barn. It’s a feeling of satisfaction, a feeling of comfort and accomplishment… On second thought, the two situations probably arent that similar.
Nevertheless, shit is done. One day of summer in and one item is already off the checklist.
its spelled weird, but not in a “ha i caught a mistake” tone, but a “just to let you know IF you want to change it” tone.
Good call. That’s one of those words that auto-corrects itself in Word if you spell it that way. God knows how long I’ve been spelling it wrong.
and “comming”
Spell check has made us all morons.
now THAT was in a “ha i found a mistake” tone. lul
Call me when I draw an extra body part. There’s a mistake.
wait… Coming is spelled right!
hehe, i just remember when you used to spell it like that all the time.
but yeah ill call you when you draw an extra body part or missing one. not that i’m much of an editor anyways…
did I really think a watergun was going to scare leon?
I loled hard when I saw the water gun. That dude’s goatee is getting progressively more epic.