Rants 2010 July - December
7/6/10
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This is the second time (here is the
first) that I've projected into the far future because I've decided
Arthur needs to be the butt of a joke about middle-age spread. Or rather,
apparently, senior spread. I thought about setting this gag in the present in
the space arc/timezone, with Arthur in the first panel and Merlin in the
last; but I decided the person in the first panel needed to be beardless
(yet, for obvious reasons, male).
The previous golf gag is just one that readers have stated give cause for hope that the other AKOTAS arcs may have happier endings than the baseline/fairy tale arc is doomed to have. Of course at this time I confirm or deny nothing, but I will point out that only with the two contemporary arc flashforwards with golf have we seen Arthur's hair color and hairline in quite this state. Note that this time I managed to get their golf gloves on the side I intended. |
7/9/10
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If you follow me on LiveJournal or Twitter (which amounts to almost the same
thing - I signed up at Twitter to use it as an LJ client), you know lately
I've been working up a buffer for AKOTAS.
In the early weeks of AKOTAS I started with a buffer, then stopped because I had lost the thrill of updating with a gag I'd just written that day. But in recent years I've been resorting to fillers more often than in the early years, which is the worse because I no longer keep up the early years' practice of keeping a stock of prepared fillers. So for about a month I've been trying to write and draw two cartoons a workday every week. I'm not always successful, but I haven't had to put out a last minute filler in all that time. I plan to keep it up until I have buffer for a week or two before I go back to only drawing seven a week. I mention this largely because I'd prefer Thing of Shapes to Come gags aren't mistaken for fillers. |
7/10/10
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When I drew yesterday's cartoon I meant to put a paragraph in this space
noting that the maiden poking herself into the final panel is meant per the
Morte to be a handmaiden of Morgan's. I was going to suggest that
you may have figured that out for yourself without my hint, given that she's
dressed in a shade of green, and given that that outfit is more or less the
same outfit as the handmaiden with the
poison cloak wore.
But between when I drew it and when I posted it was enough of an interval that I forgot my intention until yesterday's updating was already accomplished. So I hope I was right, and you figured it out for yourself then. |
7/11/10
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Here's something a buffer is good for.
I wrote the gag that's running today a few days ago, several days after I'd written the one that ran yesterday. I thought, "Pity I didn't think of this earlier, to go with the gags about other arcs' versions of the same incident." Then yesterday, as I was preparing the update for the gag I originally dated today, I was also getting ready to finish the rushes for this gag. (Another advantage to having a buffer is you can take a few days off if you're short on sleep from overnight post-nasal drip.) I was dating this gag 7/15 when I stopped to think, "Hey! Why didn't I think, when I was regretting not writing this gag earlier, of the fact that the gags it ought to have gone with are just running now?" Well, I don't know why I didn't think of it then, but when I thought of it today it was just in time to have this gag run after the other gags on the theme had just run out. So here it is, bumping the other gags thought of between yesterday's and this one a day later each. |
7/24/10
| The check I mailed for the AKOTAS hosting bill hasn't arrived. They're being patient but a short interruption of service may occur. Watch my Twitter or LJ as necessary. |
8/9/10
| After I drew this, I realized I'm not certain Bertelay is going to appear in the space timezone version of the story in question. |
8/10/10
| Here at Blastr (formerly SciFiWire), the news section of the SyFy (formerly the SciFi Channel) website, is an article about the upcoming Starz Camelot with quotes from star Joseph Fiennes and writer Chris Chibnail (with, incidentally, a different headline than it had when I first saw it about noon GMT Monday). For about ten years I've been wanting to see the Matter of Britain appear in a longrunning serial in a visual medium (my own hunble effort notwithstanding). I enjoy the BBC Merlin, but it is what it set out to be (Smallville A.D. 500) and not what I've been looking for. Camelot maybe is. |
8/18/10
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Recording the creative process
I scripted a joke about Vortigern's tower inspiring the Tarot card, decided I didn't like it, decided not to junk the art just in case, came up with a different joke about Vortigern's tower and the Tarot card, and scripted the second joke so I could use the existing art (though the first two or three lines of dialog are essentially the same). I also hadn't been too sure about the art. The figures in the first three panels are really too big for quarter panels. And why I drew Vortigern's tower leaning like Pisa's, I don't know. Except that I have half an impression that the tower in the Tarot card leans. |
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