News

There have been quite a few metal shows I've seen in the past few years that have left an impression on me similar to what the crowd is feeling in today's comic. Everything from the fiery introduction from an impassioned front man to those mind-shattering first chords that rip across the stage and through the performance space. Oh man. I live for moments like that in live music, and metal is the only genre that captures it for me on such a visceral level.

Here's hoping I conveyed that feeling well enough in today's comic.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

And we're back.

I'd apologize for taking Memorial Day off yesterday, except that I'm really not very sorry at all. Whee! That was the first weekend Alyssa and I had (mostly) to ourselves in a long time and I enjoyed putting work aside for one day so I could spend some much-needed quality time with her... and her family... and my family... since we'll all be one big family at some point in the future. Whee!

Don't forget that I'll be down at A-KON this weekend! I'll be doing panels, selling merchandise and generally causing trouble down in Dallas like I do every year. I really hope some of you fine folks can make it down and say "hi" because I love to meet you.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

The lovely, talented and scandalous Jennie Breeden surprised me with a visit yesterday.

It's amazing that I was able to get today's comic done at all.



That's all from me for now.
Rock on and have a great weekend!

My internet connection is working fine now, which comes as a great relief to me. After days of speaking to people at my ISP who were of no help at all, I finally spoke to two people on one day who were more than willing to help me. I even managed to convince one of them to check out the comic... so if you're reading right now, thanks for all your help! Life is better now! Whee!

Anyway.

In lieu of anything else interesting to say, here are some links to some more recommended metal. Most, if not all of these, are not work safe so exercise caution of you choose to click the links.

This stuff is pretty brutal.
You've been warned.

Meshuggah - "Bleed"
Behemoth - "Slaves Shall Serve"
Gojira - "To Sirius"
Finntroll - "Solsagan"
The Sword - "How Heavy This Axe"

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

In the midst of my excitement over getting engaged and the hair-pulling aggravation of my internet connection crapping out for no apparent reason, I forgot to mention something very important that happened last week.

As of last Friday, May 21st... Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire has been online for eight years!

I think it's appropriate that the comic on that day was Gregory's band rocking out in a celebratory revel of metal and more metal.

Thanks for making the last eight years the greatest of my life. You're all far better to me than I deserve and I wouldn't be where I am today without all of you. There isn't a day that goes by when I don't appreciate the fact that I have some of the best readers in the world.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

As of this writing my internet connection remains crap-tacular and I'm working to resolve the issue with my provider. Anyone who's had to deal with the run-around these companies give you and twelve million different suggested solutions to one problem that arose out of nowhere... I'm sure you can imagine the size of my headache.

This was, once again, written in one of those rare windows of time where I actually seemed to be able to connect to the internet.

My crummy connection has me falling behind on my e-mails again (shocker!) so if you've sent me anything particularly important, please be patient while I deal with these headache-inducing connection problems.

Grawr.

My internet connection has been crap this entire weekend, and as I'm writing this it's during one of those rare moments when my freaking provider is actually allowing me to get online, so you'll have to forgive me for keeping this brief.

This week's comics ought to be fun. At least I'm excited about writing the development of this band. I hope you folks will enjoy the ride, too, as this musical storyline is nearing its conclusion.

That's all from me for now.
Rock (disconnected).

I'm sure many of you saw this coming a mile away, but it was still a lot of fun to draw this fun reveal of Gregory's new band. As usual, I played a great deal of heavy, aggressive, maybe even "explosive" music to help me get the inspiration for today's comic. My muse was totally headbanging.

My favorite part of the comic is likely the tiny, crummy drum set that Taz MaDara is playing. I originally drew a bigger, more impressive drum kit for him, but when I was a teenager with dreams of "making it" with my own rock band I played in a rehearsal space that provided guys like us with tiny, crummy drums. Taz's tiny drum kit is totally on purpose and an homage to those days of my youth where our drummer, who was a big, lanky dude, was cramped behind a tiny little drum kit.

If only I'd known about the "circular headbang" technique back in those days. My neck wouldn't nearly be as sore today.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

Some cool comic books came out yesterday, but I'm only going to take the time to talk about one of them. It's one I've mentioned before and will continue to sing its well-deserved praises for as long as I can.

If you only go to the comic book store to pick up one title this week, or even this entire month, you must pick up the newest issue of ATOMIC ROBO. I've loved this book since its first issue and its only gotten better over time. This month's issue has to be one of my favorites. Ever.

"Why Dr. Dinosaur Hates Atomic Robo" has excellent pacing, great humor and one of the best evil geniuses I've seen in comics in a long time. Scott Wegener deserves much, much praise for making each and every panel that features Dr. Dinosaur a freaking visual meal. Every facial expression and gesture of this reptilian supervillain is absolutely nailed by Wegener.

You. Must. Read. This. Comic.
Please.

This is the ring I used to propose to Alyssa, and it's the last bit of engagement news I'll be sharing with you folks, if only because I think the story behind this engagement ring is really freaking cool.

This was my father's grandmother's ring. It's over one-hundred years old and I was blessed enough to have it set aside for me. Besides its beautiful design, I can say nerdy-sounding things about it like, "This ring was forged over a century ago in the fires of love."

I'll quit bugging you folks now with all this stuff.
Rock on.

Thank you all so much for the wonderful e-mails you sent me regarding the announcement of my engagement. My inbox is literally flooded with love and I cannot express my gratitude enough to you wonderful, kind readers.

Before I gush any further about how lucky a nerd I am, I'm going to take the rest of this news post to address something sad. I only found out about this yesterday, and given the musical theme of this current storyline I feel it's necessary to give it the proper respect it deserves.

Ronnie James Dio, a god of metal, died over the weekend.

I'm going to have "Holy Diver" and "Rainbow in the Dark" playing in a loop for the rest of the week. The "Kickapoo" song from The Pick of Destiny will sneak its way in there, too.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on. Forever.

I'm actually amazed that I was able to get today's comic done. Hell, I'm amazed that I was able to get any comics done at all last week. The reason I'm patting myself on the back for being as productive as I ought to be is because I've been holding on to some very exciting news. News that I'm so excited about that I can't keep it from you fine folks any longer.

Last week I asked my girlfriend, Alyssa, to marry me.

She said "yes."

We spent most of last week telling our families and close friends the good news, and this weekend it just really sunk in and hit us that we're engaged to be married. Now I can announce it to the world! And by "the world" I mean you fine and awesome readers who've shown me so much love over the years.

ACK! I'M ENGAGED! WHOO-HOO!
Rock on!

Drawing this strip was fun. To achieve maximum inspiration for Gregory's "RRRRAAAAAGH!!" I was certain to play a lot of angry, aggressive and brutal music from my collection. Actually, I just played Behemoth's superb album Evangelion from start to finish. It did the trick.

Here are some other recommendations if you ever need to ignite your own personal "RRRRAAAAGH!!"

"Solsagan" - Finntroll
"At The Left Hand Ov God" - Behemoth
"Midvinterblot" - Unleashed
"While You Were Shouting At The Devil, We Were In League With Satan" - Zimmer's Hole
"All The Tears" - Gojira
"Live for the Kill" - Amon Amarth
"Before the Hangman's Noose" - DevilDriver
"The Sacrilegious Scorn" - Dimmu Borgir

Next week is going to be fun around here. Hee hee.
That's all from me for now.
Rock on and have a nice weekend!

Sometimes you guys absolutely crack me up.

Anyway. Sorry about the lack of news updates this week. I was switching over hosting services to ZeHosting and there were some hiccups with the transfer process, such as news being unable to update and some navigational glitches. Everything should be running more smoothly from now on, as things get used to running on the "new" hosting around here.

I say "new" because Pierre (the gentleman in charge of ZeHosting) has been graciously hosting me for years now. He's just changing things up a bit and I'm along for the ride. Whee!

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

I am aware that the navigation buttons are currently gone.

The site has been in the process of switching / modifying hosting services and some things are still a little glitchy while templates and folders are renamed, reorganized and otherwise changed.

I'm working to fix this problem ASAP.