News

I could've taken this in a serious direction, but I just really needed a laugh.

Kiya's had an outburst like this before and violently horny women are comedy gold, especially if it's one with tusks and a penchant for beating elemental abominations to death with a stick.

For those interested, I posted some more of my very amateur photography for your viewing pleasure.

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

I may not like having a body count by the end of these epic storylines, but I do make certain there are significant changes for the characters who have made these long journeys. This is Reinholdt's significant change and new beginning.

I've liked the idea of vigilant guardians at holy sites ever since I watched Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade as a kid. Sometimes I do an old man voice and say, "You have chosen... wisely." when someone I know does something smart. From there it led to countless examples of the vigilant guardian and I've always wanted to include one here in the comic. Rather than introduce a new member of the cast, I put an existing one through the ringer. I like doing that.

What significant changes await other members of this journey have yet to be seen...

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

It's true. Hukthak was right.

I've been waiting to drop this little revelation for about a year now. On the grand scale of things it's pretty insignificant, but it's just the sort of ridiculous thing Donovan would do. He even gave us a little "wink" at the beginning of the story after giving an example of his bad orcish.

As for his "old saying" today, that's a Vincent van Gogh quote I just slightly modified. I was originally going to make it an inspirational quote for orcs in the vein of, "you've got a second chance, so stop whining and get off your ass to do something with it!" but the reaction ended up looking more shocked at the forwardness of the statement than the fact that he just spoke perfect orcish. Something poetic seemed more fitting, since he really had been speaking nothing but gibberish up until today.

But just because he's been doing it on purpose this whole time doesn't mean that he's going to stop doing it any time soon. That Python-esque dialogue is too fun to write.

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

I play World of Warcraft with my girlfriend (don't ask me what server we play on because we like our gaming privacy) and she finally unlocked the death knight class. She made an orc named "_______." In order to help her through the starting area I made a death knight to play alongside her. Unsurprisingly, I also made an orc and named him "_______."

We may have taken to calling each other by those names this weekend. We are so romantic, aren't we?

I only share this story because besides rearranging our living room and welcoming a good friend back home, that's the most interesting thing that happened to me all weekend.

I like to call weekends like that "pleasantly uneventful."

Finally, I've updated the list of conventions I'll be attending in 2010. I will, of course, add more as my attendance is confirmed.

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

UPDATE: Thanks to all of you who flooded my inbox in an effort to point out my stupid mistake regarding my gaming privacy. I had forgotten about the WoW Armory. Oops. I appreciate the heads-up, but rest assured those death knights aren't the only toons we play. We can always switch to our other characters if this slip-up of mine proves to be too invasive.

Gold donations are always welcome, though. Hee hee.

I went through about five different version of Jacob's monologue before settling on this one. There were much wordier incarnations which took up most of each panel, as well as ones that ended on a somewhat goofy note. In the end I chose this one because it seemed to be just the right amount of dialogue and still left some question as to what he's going to do next.

And, in case you forgot, Jacob did mention his body's healing after being struck with the hukthak a little while ago. Okay, it was a long time ago, but that's what these links are for.

The SEER'S CATALOG is back up and running. Shipping costs have returned but I've permanently lowered the prices of some of the books so they're all the same now.

And, finally... well... I don't think it should come as a surprise to any of you that this does not make me happy. To think that I used to have such nice things to say about New Jersey.

Sometimes I think the world is giving me more and more reasons to build my Death Ray.

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

Thanks to all of you who sent me many, many kind e-mails regarding my decision not to kill Luna, as well as your opinions regarding my "main character body count" philosophy. It took me a while to read through all of them and, while I may not reply to your kind words, rest assured that they were all very much appreciated.

Also, any resemblance Jacob may be bearing to Nimmel in the last panel of today's comic is completely coincidental. More on why his hair is only one color and his arm is back to normal (as well as reattached) tomorrow.

The Seer's Catalog ought to be up and running by tomorrow.

A couple of cool comic books came out yesterday that I really enjoyed, and I want to make special mention of them.

I've really been enjoying Red Robin since Tim Drake took up the mantle. I was, at first, skeptical that I'd enjoy it since he looked to be going down the path of the "dark, brooding hero who blurs the lines of good and evil and makes the choices the other heroes can't make" (be sure to say all of that in a growly voice for maximum effect). The latest issue that came out resolved all that in a satisfactory and pretty bad-ass way. Thumbs up.

Orc Stain is really, really interesting. I'm a sucker for stories about orcs whether they're good or evil (though preferably good). The world and orcs that James Stokoe created is bizarre, brutal, savage and weird as hell. It reminds me of Rock 'N Rule with tusks... and a weird obsession with dicks. I mean, really. They're everywhere. I'm curious to see where he takes me in the strange and wonderfully awful world of Orc Stain.

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

I get the impression that people sometimes mark the bravery and/or quality of a writer by his willingness to kill off major characters. As I was coming closer to the end of The March Across Maltak I found myself struggling with this concept. I often found myself thinking, "I should kill someone off to really make a powerful ending."

I came very, very close to killing Luna. Frighteningly close. In the end, as you can see from today's comic, I decided not to go through with it. Call me a coward if you like. Call me a weak writer if you like. I know some of you have been calling for me to kill off a main character or two.

When I thought about it further, killing Luna would have destroyed Dominic. I'm seeing the effects of that level of loss with my grandfather lately, and to be honest it's not something I want to be writing about.

I don't believe that the bravery or quality of a writer is measured by his "main character body count." I believe it's measured by the strength of his story and the emotional investment of his readers.

As always, I leave the judgment of the quality of my writing to you, my readers.

And for what it's worth, Luna was technically dead for a bit there.

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

The choice not to draw the rain in yesterday's comic was a conscious choice on my part. I felt that, given the simply way I draw the rain, it would've looked too cluttered and taken emphasis away from the explosion of green that was so vital. So, I guess one could call it a "conscious continuity error," if you pay attention to this sort of thing. I do.

Thanks to you folks who e-mailed me concerning my friends' efforts to get their cat a new home. If you can provide any help and/or advice, please click the link above and drop me an e-mail. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Other than that... um... yeah. Things look to be coming to a very dramatic conclusion around here.

Very dramatic.

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

Hey folks!
We're ringing in 2010 with a bang! Of color! Whoo!

Well, it's only one color, but it's an important one to orcs.

Anyway, lots of stuff to talk about today, so let's get right to it.

First of all, you may notice that the Seer's Catalog link isn't working. That's simply because I've taken the store down for a day or so while I do some price adjusting on the books. The shirts from SHARK ROBOT are still up and available, though!

I've updated the list of conventions I'll be attending for 2010, which right now are KATSUCON and A-KON! More will be added to the list as my attendance is confirmed.

I forgot to mention this prior to the holidays because I was a little scattered, but I was interviewed over at SUVUDU. I think I was insightful and maybe just a little entertaining, but take look and judge for yourself.

Some very dear friends of mine are looking for someone to adopt their cat. If you'd like to know more about the situation, read the LiveJournal entry I've posted. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and happy new year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope this comic is sufficiently symbolic on a day when we welcome in a brand new year and, more significantly, a brand new decade.

I have to say that the years 2000-2009 are going to be hard to top for me. Despite all the bad stuff, that was a pretty solid decade for yours truly and I have each and every one of you to thank for it. I would not be the man I am today without your continued support, and I humbly wish you all the best in the year to come.

Here's hoping 2010-2019 are equally awesome for everyone.

You know, until the world ends in 2012.
Freaking Mayans.

That's all from me for now!
Rock on, and Happy New Year!

So here's another one of those reminders to something mentioned much earlier in the story. Melna and Dominic had a discussion about the tale of Grobul, an orc myth... and then Melna yelled at him about it.

I had originally planned to make this another twelve-panel comic in which everything I just referenced in this news post was explained, but Melna's parting line just sounded too cool (to me, at least) and I decided to leave it the last bit of spoken dialogue in the strip for dramatic effect. You know me, I'm a sucker for dramatic effect.

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

Today's comic shows off just how much of a ridiculous idealist I am, and it's something I'm not ashamed of.

If I wanted to be truly realistic about the orc clans coming together under the rain I could spend another year telling that story alone. If orcs were more like humans they would debate about how the miracle truly came to pass, which of their belief systems was the "true" one that brought it about, the implications of another race interfering in a time of great religious significance and countless other things that you'd find in the news.

But no. In my ideal world, when people are presented with a miracle of great benevolence they find it in their hearts to put their differences aside and rejoice as one, truly remembering that we are all in this together and that compassion should not be delegated or debated, but simply shared... where even an old man scarred by racism and hatred can find the will to love and forgive again.

It breaks my heart that I will likely never see this sort of thing in the real world, so I put my ideals, however foolish and naive some may claim them to be, in my world.

There are times I wish humans were more like my orcs.

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

Whoo.

I hope everyone is recovering from their holiday weekend. I had a blast visiting my family, my girlfriend's family, and my girlfriend's best friend's family. Next year I'll be adding my father's brother's nephew's cousin's former roommate to that list... as well as more Spaceballs references.

Even though this week holds both New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, two days that are notorious for leaving one in a drunken haze, the comic will continue to update normally unless otherwise noted. After all, there is a slight chance of irresponsibility, but I doubt it'll affect things around here.

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

Merry Christmas, everybody.

The comic resumes on Monday.

I hope you have a wonderful day whether you celebrate this holiday or not.

I was originally going to make this another twelve-panel comic to finish off the week, as there will be no update tomorrow, but the eighth panel here seemed like such an upbeat and badass ending that I decided to have the last comic before Christmas be one filled with hope, albeit full of rain, blood and violence.

Hope can be metal.

I'm on my way to a huge family gathering today and will be gone most of the weekend. Unless otherwise noted the comic ought to resume normally on Monday.

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