News

Sorry about the lack of a news post yesterday, folks. I literally had nothing of interest to say, even about the week's new comic books. I would've just been repeating myself saying how much I love Deadpool written by Daniel Way and that Blackest Night continues to impress and sadden me. So, good stuff, but nothing terribly new.

My friend, ever-ready model and frequent filler art contributor Tarah told me yesterday that one of the things she likes about me is that I give the spotlight to blunt weapons in fantasy. I guess between Melna's hammer wielding, Hukthak's staff swinging and Stonewater's "shield stomp," she's right. There are so many awesome weapons in the fantasy genre but everyone loves focusing on swords. Sword of This. Sword of That. Give me a warhammer or an axe or even a quarterstaff any day! And shields! Poor, thankless shields! Sometimes I think shields have been forgotten in favor of the dual-wielding swordsman. I'll tell you this much... if I ever go into battle, I'll be wielding two shields. I think I'd need that much protection.

Oh, I almost forgot. This month's Donation Wallpaper ought to be up later today, so check back if you're interested!

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

Thanks to those of you who pointed out the spelling error in yesterday's comic. It's since been corected. My grammar may not be the best in the world but I'm proud of my speling, and when a mistake liek that gets past me I just dye a little inside.

See what I did there? Spelling humor.
Har har har.

Moving on.

Most everyone in the world is all up in arms over the new Call of Duty game (no pun intended), but I've been spending some quality time with Dragon Age Origins myself. If you're a fantasy nerd like me and you like games with powerful stories and great voice acting, then this one is for you. Granted, I'm a sucker for most games where you get to create your own hero and make choices between good and evil. I always play good guys. I can't help it.

I'm off to buy some more comic books. Yay Wednesday!
Rock on.

I'm mostly happy with the way today's comic turned out. I felt like crap all day yesterday and banged out a strip the best I could.

And just in case anyone in particular is worried, I wasn't feeling "swine flu" crappy. It was just a stomach bug. You can relax. Mom.

Although I must admit I am finding a great deal of joy in drawing Adrak. I anticipate he's going to get more and more disgusting growths on his skin because I am having such a good time making him as gross as possible. Whee!

It feels almost weird knowing that I have no more conventions for the remainder of the year. Normally I squeeze one or two in before the holidays, but this year I'll be riding out the rest of the "season" tucked away in my headquarters, working hard to bring The March Across Maltak to its conclusion. With any luck and no more surprise delays I say this storyline should be done by the end of December. It will mark the longest story in the strip's history, having taken one full year to tell. I do hope you folks have enjoyed the ride, because we're on the last leg and I hope to deliver a conclusion worth waiting for.

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

With Halloween behind us and Thanksgiving (here in the U.S. anyway) not a very "commercial" holiday outside of the grocery stores, many retailers have already begun to promote their Christmas sales and merchandise.

And I'm going to do the same right now.

Kind of.

It looks like Dominic Deegan Volume 5: THE WAR IN HELL will not be ready for the holidays after all. With October being a much more draining month than I anticipated, there simply isn't enough time for me to put something together that I'd feel comfortable asking you fine folks to pay for. I anticipate it will be ready before KATSUCON.

In place of a new volume, I will be making a very, very limited-time offer for Dominic Deegan scarves. These hand-made items have only been available at conventions over the past few years, but now I will be in a position to offer a very limited number of them for online sale. I'll have more information later this week.

I'm also planning to offer a series of orc clan t-shirts. More on this as talks continue.

November's Donation Wallpaper also ought to be up for your approval by the end of this week. This isn't so much a holiday item as it is, um, something I should've gotten around to doing already. Aheh.

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

Hm. I really don't have anything really interesting to say today. In comparison to all the political, religious and ethical stuff I've been slinging around all week I think that talking about video games, comic books or metal would just seem anti-climactic.

Oh, who am I kidding. I can always talk about metal.

Here are some choice songs I listened to this week. All are rich in essential metals and are guaranteed to brutally blast away a lingering case of the blues.

"The Serpentine Offering" - Dimmu Borgir
"Ov Fire and the Void" - Behemoth
"Flying Whales" - Gojira
"World To Come" - Gojira
"While You Were Shouting At The Devil We Were In League With Satan" - Zimmer's Hole
"Happy Little Boozer" - Korpiklaani
"Night Marauders" - 3 Inches of Blood
"The Last Baron" - Mastodon
"Drink the Blood of the Priest" - Brocas Helm

Metal cures everything.
Rock on and have a nice weekend.

I was incredibly saddened and disappointed most of yesterday regarding the outcome of Question 1 in Maine, which may be why today's strip is such a downer. It could also be that I'm setting the stage for the conclusion of this storyline, but my sour mood probably helped with the outcome of today's comic.

In good news, however, it looks like Referendum 71 in Washington state is going to pass (albeit by about the same margin that Question 1 was passed), and kudos to Kalamazoo, Michigan for winning a fight for fairness and equality (because saying "passing ordinance 1856" is neither poetic nor exciting).

That's enough politics from me for now. However, if you'd like to read a story I posted about my own experience with God and love, be my guest... even though it pains me to be mentioning God and politics in the same subject.

Tomorrow I'll probably be back to talking about metal, video games, comic books and other nerd-tacular things.

Rock on.

The last time Dominic and Chief Thuen Gor met like this they got into a sight-fight, and the orc chief was just as pissed at Dominic as he is now. He may be more pissed now. I'm not sure. He's very mysterious.

At the time of this writing the results of the vote on Question 1 in Maine and Referendum 71 in Washington state had not been announced. Both, in some way, threatened to ban or repeal or take away the rights of same-sex couples to form a legal union. Needless to say I am all about the protection of love and equality everywhere, so later in the day today you may see another news post from me regarding the results of these votes. I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be good news and that the cause of love, equality and tolerance moves further ahead.

In regards to Maine's same-sex marriage vote, I have to thank my friend Allison Beal who, through her seemingly tireless efforts in the "No On 1" campaign, kept me abreast of the situation and inspired me to raise awareness on this issue in the form of my crazed Twittering to get voters in Maine to vote. Her dedication to this cause was really something I looked up to. It's one thing to talk about something you believe in, but it's another thing to get off your ass and do something about it. However the vote turned out, I salute you, Alli.

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

EDIT: The results just came in... and to say that I am disappointed and disgusted with the outcome is a tremendous understatement.

Normally I don't do two news updates in one day, but this is something I forgot to mention and I feel it warrants its own short news post.

If you live in Maine and you're voting today, vote NO on Question 1.

Please protect Maine equality.

I may be saying too little too late but I only just learned that the polls for this are pretty razor-thin, so I'm doing what I can (even though I don't even live in Maine) to reach those of you who live there and haven't voted yet.

Again, if you live in Maine and you're voting today, vote NO on Question 1.

Or Szark Sturtz will cry.

Something happened to me at ONI-CON this past weekend. Something that I thought would never happen to me, but once it occurred it felt almost liberating.

The following does not relate to any of the convention attendees that came to visit me at my table. You fine folks were nothing but courteous and fine examples of how people ought to act at these conventions.

It seems to me that, as time goes on, convention-goers are subscribing to the "if I can do it on the internet, I can do it in real life!" mentality. This leaves them to be as loud, rude, pushy and obnoxious as humanly possible. Everything from standing in the middle of a crowded room and shouting something random to pushing me aside (while carrying all my merchandise) to rush for an elevator. This behavior culminated in my grumbling "you stupid f*cks" as I pushed my way off of an elevator that nearly broke thanks to these morons piling in over capacity.

Maybe I'm just getting older and my tolerance for this sort of thing is deteriorating. When I was a teenager I certainly lacked common sense, but one thing I know I didn't lack was common courtesy. There seems to be a general disregard for that with these convention crowds nowadays.

It all came to a head on Halloween night, sitting with some good friends of mine in a public courtyard enjoying some excellent wine from a nearby wine bar when some of these aforementioned knuckleheads came yelling through the area. Before I knew what I was doing I just turned my head and snapped, "Shut the f*ck up."

They shut the f*ck up.

I feel a trend coming on.

I'm back from ONI-CON and I hope everyone had a very happy Halloween while I was gone. I hung out in Texas in a viking helmet, which by itself is a pretty nifty statement.

The convention was a blast, albeit crowded in the hotel. Many thanks to all the fine folks who came to say "hi" to me, including the folks at Complex Actions who, if they remain true to their word, will have a new comic up today featuring their meeting with yours truly. Apparently my facial hair translates very well into comics.

Just in case you forgot where you first saw that prophetic text in today's comic, it was Luna who first "translated" it.

I fell behind in sending out October's Donation Wallpaper before I left for Oni-Con, and for that I apologize. If you haven't received your wallpaper from October yet it will be in your inbox by the end of the day today.

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

If you're reading this, then you're probably not at ONI-CON with me. If that's the case, I'm very sorry because you're probably missing out on a good time.

I wrote this news post before I left, so hopefully I arrived in one piece and am currently getting ready for a thoroughly awesome weekend.

Halloween is Saturday. I'm sad that I won't be home with my costume-savvy girlfriend and other mischievous cohorts, but at least I'll be in a sufficiently nerdy atmosphere and will thus be among my own kind.

That's all from me for now!
Rock on and Happy Halloween!

Oh god.
Oh god oh god I am so effing sore.

Mastodon and Dethklok was so overwhelmingly metal that I am in a great deal of pain from the shoulders up. That's what I get for throwing up the horns and swinging my head around all night. I'm not as young as I used to be, and my body is reminding me of that. Totally worth it, though.

I'll keep things brief today, since by the time you folks read this I'll be hopping on a plane to Texas for ONI-CON! I was able to get enough strips done so the comic will update normally for the rest of the week.

We shall see if there will be a Monday update, but I'll try to keep you folks posted as things develop.

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

Just in case you've forgotten, and it has been a while since we've been here, the cave of the Crone does indeed have this effect on those who enter it. It also gives me a break from writing those "I'm speaking in orcish" brackets around everyone's dialogue.

While I'm feeling nice and linky, here's where Dominic had his vision of Azazia's death. Hukthak, or Roki, was indeed there in the background, but it has been a while since that smoky vision came up so I figured a little reminder couldn't hurt.

In more metal news, I've got tickets to see Mastodon and Dethklok tonight. I cannot be more excited and will probably overload on pure awesomeness.

This concert tonight, plus my early departure tomorrow for the trip to ONI-CON may require some Friday Halloween filler instead of a comic. I've been working to get enough strips done to cover my absence and it looks like everything will update normally... but just in case something comes up, I figured I should at least give you folks a heads-up.

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

Anyone who's seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show will most likely get the admittedly dumb reference to it in today's comic, and if you didn't see the reference beforehand you're definitely seeing it now.

I don't know why, but the revelation of Hukthak's name in this manner sent me into such a state of giggles that I couldn't help but put it in the comic. It may be because Tim Curry was the voice of Emperor Doviculus in Brutal Legend. Maybe.

Speaking of Brutal Legend (again) I want to thank you folks who helped me search for those Brocas Helm songs. I found them, downloaded them, and now love them at my leisure. Much obliged, my very metal friends.

Don't forget that I'll be at ONI-CON this weekend!

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

Ah. What a lovely weekend I had.

I did abso-freakin'-lutely nothing of importance and it felt great.

But now it's back to work.

This Halloween weekend I will be returning to ONI-CON and I couldn't be more excited. A few years ago I moved to Texas and Oni-Con was the first convention to welcome me with open arms. I had such a great time there that I vowed to return, even though I'm back on the east coast. I have a soft spot in my heart for this show and the people who run it, so be sure to stop by and say "hi" if you're in the area.

I may also be in costume on Saturday... seeing as it's Halloween and all!

On a slightly nerdier note, I just finished Brutal Legend and have this to say about it... if the gameplay was as stellar as the story and the soundtrack it would've been the greatest game I've ever played. Slightly choppy gameplay (and absolutely aggravating Stage battles) aside, this game had some sharp writing and a killer musical score that kept me plowing through it until I reached a brutally sweet ending.

Speaking of the game's soundtrack, if anyone knows where I can find a copy of Cry of the Banshee and Drink the Blood of the Priest by Brocas Helm I'd be very appreciative. I love those songs and can't find them anywhere.

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