GUTTERS guest comic!

Remember how a week ago I said that I had been working on a guest comic? Well, here it is! I was invited to make a guest comic for The Gutters, which I would consider to be one of the most interesting webcomic experiments I have ever seen. Basically, they get professional comic artists to work on strips that comment on the comic industry. If you look at their selection of talent, I don’t think I need to explain what an incredible honor it was to be asked to work with them and it was simply an opportunity I had to jump on.

Click on the image or click here to go check it out.

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CHEESECAST #3
“Morning manners and cage fighting”

Mr. Dern had a few problems with the file during the week, so last week’s CHEESECAST is a bit late – but nevertheless here it is! This week, we talk about being a morning person, first cousins, cage fights, bad directors, farts, stand-up comedy, and more. Don’t miss it.

cheesecast3.mp3

. . .

And now, about the comic!

I would like to dedicate today’s comic to all my tech-friends.

For almost a whole month, the site’s RSS feed was broken – and during that time I was reminded by you (the readers) on a daily basis that it needed to be fixed. Now that it has been fixed, today’s comic shows in full detail everything that I did in order to make it so.

I have observed that people that – like me – work through the internet come in two varieties (or maybe more, but let’s keep it at two for this rant): the ones that know how the internet works and the ones that are still amazed that it does. As you might have guessed, I’m of the second variety. If you’re like me and so you handle a website without actually knowing what’s going on under the hood, then you’ve probably encountered numerous problems and tried to solve them in at least one (but most likely all) of the ways shown in the comic above.

My personal favorite is the first one, which I have never quite stopped believing might work someday. After all, if Max Faraday could become a super hero just by accidentally reading the creation equation then surely I might one day understand CSS by simply staring at the code for a while.

In any case, I eventually caved in, admitted defeat and received help from the actual makers of Comicpress (the blogging utility used to make this webcomic run). All I had to do was go over to frumph.net and there I received help from a very nice guy that calls himself “Wiggy”. In my defense, the issue wasn’t as easy to fix as many of you thought, but Mr. Wiggy paid attention to my dilemma until everything was sorted out.

So thanks to the very nice people over at frumph.net for their support. And if you’re reading this post through RSS, then you should definitely be thankful towards them.

Today I’m going to be working on getting the site to be functional again. The RSS feed is still my biggest nemesis, but I’ll continue kicking it until it submits to my glorious, bald will.

I had to revert from the latest Comicpress version to the one I was using before, because the RSS feed stopped working when I upgraded. Later on, after another upgrade even the comics stopped showing. So for now, we’re downgrading to the earlier version where everything worked just fine. So far, the comic is back up and working again – but the RSS feed is still broken.

Later during the weekend and during next week I’ll be creating the missing sections. That would include an ABOUT section, complete with cast information and such; a new CONTACT form; and finally a new EXTRAS section. I also plan to add a FAQ, so be sure to post any questions you think should go there in the comments for this post.

I’m not sure how long this will all take, because as you all probably know by now any tech-related task that might take 5 minutes takes me a whole day and that’s if I manage to get it to work at all. So expect the site to be unstable, change suddenly and sometimes even be down for a few days. Also, you can expect next week’s comics to be short, one-panel thingies while I get everything else done.

Good hunting;
O

COMMISSIONED is about to turn 6 years old next September 10th, and that’s quite a milestone. Not many webcomics can claim going that far, and I’ve sadly seen many great creations come and go during that time. On my side, I take pride in the fact that during these 6 years I have not even once stopped  trying my best to make a good product and an entertaining comic strip that people can enjoy while I also try to improve both as an artist and a comic creator.

With this in mind, about a month ago I decided to change the update schedule to once a week and make a much larger, detailed and visually complex comic. I did this with the intention of producing a better story, with better art and in general, a better comic. The decision was met with both praise and rejection and changed the way the comic works in very drastic ways. But I had my mind set on giving it a try and seeing what could come from it. Opinions of all sorts have come and gone in the comments, discussions have been held and so today, after a bit more than a month and with our birthday so close, I think it’s time to give my own opinion.

In this argument, I’ve observed basically two sides: One group of people says that they miss the daily update but that they support my decision and aplaud the extra quality, and the other group says that COMMISSIONED was simply better before the change.

Well guess what? I’m with the second group.

A few days ago I did something that many of you have done (several times, even). I went through my archives. What I found was that the times when COMMISSIONED was most enjoyable, humorous and pretty much at its best was back during the storylines where I’d show O and his buddies having insane adventures in otherwise absolutely mundane places. Stories like the zombie adventure at the restaurant from last year, or the death of Gothshake for Halloween or way back when we made a DVD fort at the video rental place. When I talk to people and the tell me which comics have been their favorites, they always mention stuff like that. Sure, the RPG comics have a strong fanbase – but the adventures of O and his friends are something that both RPGers and people that don’t even know what a d20 is can enjoy.

And that’s the thing. While the comic might be a lot prettier, the new format just doesn’t feel as enjoyable. So, as I said at the begining of this rant, I can either irrationally commit to the decision I made, even though I feel it’s a mistake or I can just admit that it didn’t work out and go back to what I feel makes the comic good.

You might find it hard to believe, but during this month I learned a lot about the way comics (and most geeky creations)are made. It would seem that sometimes, the fans can know a bit more about a creation than the creator does. A lot of times we create stuff and we’re not actively aware of what it is that makes it good. In COMMISSIONED I found that while the artwork might be a strength (or at least, I hope it is), the wackiness of the characters I have created (even if the main one is actually just my own alter-ego) is a great part of what makes COMMISSIONED enjoyable. In the current format we’re a bit limited. We won’t get to see O mix up fantasy and reality at the supermarket, Carlos try to sex up every living thing with a vagina or Batey try to deny that at heart he’s just a big’ol geek. We wouldn’t get to see ninjas flying over rooftops and spying on us from every corner, zombies invade the mall or Cthulhu Ninja Zombie orchestrate the apocalypse.

Besides, let’s face it: the website’s a mess. There’s no comic on the front page and that just doesn’t feel right. Archive navigation is horrible and no matter how I try I haven’t been able to get the damn RSS feed to work. There’s no info or about section, the contact button sends the emails but it doesn’t look as if it did and if people want anything extra like a wallpaper they have to wait for the kindness of my heart to post a new one (even though we’re probably one of the webcomics with most wallpapers, ever). We’re about to turn 6 years old and the site is a disfunctional piece of junk that simply doesn’t reflect what a comic like this one should be by now.

So what am I gonna do about it?

Simple. First, acknowledge that while the atempt to go for a weekly update schedule was an interesting experiment, that the comic is just not as enjoyable this way. I say this from my own opinion, not from any of the comments that have been made or anything like that. This is the comment I would make if I were a reader of my own comic. Second, just go back to updating 3 times a week, with wacky stories and that sort of stuff. I wouldn’t say that the whole experiment (or “transition period”, as I like to call it) was in vain, though. I got me a few new coloring tricks that I can apply to the cartoonish style, and I found that little sketches and doodles are great stuff to update on the days there isn’t a new comic to be seen.

I hope this decision is something that makes you all happy and sincerely hope to get some support from your behalf – but honestly – I’m doing this for myself. I realize that COMMISSIONED has been flip-flopping all over the place this year, but like I said, it’s been our “transition period”. We tried new stuff, learned new stuff and finally saw what we believe needs to be done. Sure enough, most of you probably knew all this already, and yet you stuck around and kept on reading.Like I’ve said many times before: I’ve got great readers. So thank you all for sticking around and I hope we can enjoy ourselves around here for many years more.

TOO LONG DIDN’T READ? Oh, that happens with my rants, I guess. Let me summarize for you:
I’m not happy with the weekly updates so I’m going back to updating 3 times a week. You can also expect sketches and bunnybacons almost every other day, plus the new CHEESECAST on Thursdays and an AUDIORANT every now and then.

Good hunting;
O

So in case you’re wondering, I spent most of this last week working on a guest comic for another site (i.e. A site that isn’t mine). I’d tell you more about it, but I’d much rather keep it as a surprise and link you all to it as soon as it gets posted. So anyway, instead of the regular RPG fantasy comic you get this thing, which I feel the need to remind you, actually happened.

Just click on the thumbnail image to go check it out, or you can also click here. RPG fantasy comics should be back to normal next week!

NOTE: As always, comments are enabled in the comic page.

Today’s comic is completely based on a true story, and unfortunately the end of it is that I no longer own a pressure cooker.

I wanted to cook some black beans (“caraotas”, they’re called) because they’re different and exotic and I wanted to show my girlfriend that I can cook different and exotic things. They’re smaller and harder than regular beans, so I took out the pressure cooker and set myself to leave them there for a long time.

As I was sitting right here at my computer I heard a loud BANG come from the kitchen and could before I could even go to see what had happened half my house was engulfed in steam. When I finally managed to ge6t to the kitchen and see what had happened the entire kitchen was covered in beans. I’m talking about the walls, the ceiling, appliances, the fridge, the floors – everything was  covered by bean soup. I don’t think that’s quite how my grandmother used to make’em.

Cleaning the whole mess up took several hours, and I still find beans hidden in places where they have absolutely no reason to be. To make things worse, the beans that were left in the pot were still hard.

But at least I got a comic idea out of it all.

Good hunting;
O

Anybody else worked-over?

cheesecast2.mp3

NOTE: You can look for the CHEESECAST on itunes now!

NOTE2: Oh, by the way, I’m gonna try and fix the RSS feed today. Wish me luck.

NOTE3: The “Contact” button actually works. I know it doesn’t work right, but it actually does send the emails. So fixing that isn’t as urgent as fixing the RSS.

In any case, this time I was alone and I find my solitaire trips to the market relaxing. So I arrive at the place where all the cashiers are, and I scan the area to see which one is the shortest line. I find it, go to it and proceed to stand behind a couple of people. Well, not exactly.

The lady paying was one of the incredibly annoying women that insist on paying for everything with exact change, supposedly because they want to get rid of some little coins that are cluttering their purse. Of course, these little coins are not placed in a coin purse or in the compartment most wallets have for such a purpose. No. Most women just seem to throw coins in their purse to get lost within the inferno that is the contents of the average female’s bag. So she’s there rummaging through her things looking for the elusive coin she could’ve sworn she had in there, somewhere.

Seriously, there have been be plenty of times when I grab coins from my pocket and had over what the lady needed just to get things moving. “See this, lady? This is a called a POCKET. We men use it to keep things we might need in a hurry. Perhaps if you women weren’t so busy trying to make your own pockets so incredibly tiny that you can’t even shove a finger into them then maybe you’d be able to keep stuff in there. But wait! Those pockets seem just about the right size for… what? A COIN!”

Behind her there are a couple of old ladies standing in line, each one with a basket so ridiculously full that you just had to wonder why they both didn’t just push a cart. My guess is that they do it to feel like they’re not actually spending that much, perhaps some technique they saw on TV about how the could save money at the supermarket. I can imagine it now: “when at the supermarket, always carry a basket instead of a cart. This way, you won’t be able to hold as many things and you’ll see the basket full with much less, thus feeling like you’ve already got enough stuff”. Some thing like that. This reminds me of my grandmother when the doctor put her on a diet and told her that if she was hungry that she could just eat some healthy snacks. My grandmother took his advice to heart and so every time she feels like it she proceeds to sit down and eat the entire bag.

But those people are not what this text is about, and beside, they were nothing compared with the mystery that now lay before me. On the floor, right there, was a basket with a pair of socks in them. Just that. Of course, I just assumed that somebody had been paying for their stuff, taking them from the basket then placing them on that fun-looking moving band cashiers got (I want to sit on one of those someday) and eventually decided that they didn’t really need a pair of socks. Maybe they were just forgotten. But then, why was it right on the floor in the middle of the line?

I decided to just leave it where it was (you never know, maybe they were tainted socks, which would explain why they were left behind) and continued to stand in line, listening to my music and minding my business. But the answer to this riddle arrived in the form of an old lady that came rushing from within the supermarket with a single piece of underwear in her hand. I concluded that she must have forgotten that she needed those and didn’t want to miss her place in line, so she left in a hurry to get them (coin lady still hasn’t found her coin). No harm done, just pay more attention next time, because that little stunt is actually rather annoying.

But no. She just threw the panties into the basket and hurried away, only to come back a minute later with a can of beans, dump it in the basket again and hurry away once more. This old lady somehow believes she found a loophole in the system of long, annoying supermarket lines. Well guess what, old lady? THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS! Sure enough, I’ve seen people go with somebody else, leave the other person standing in line and then hurry around the supermarket grabbing what they needed, probably because they didn’t need more than a couple of things and were in a hurry.

But that’s a person. And actual human being. Heck, I’d be OK with it if you left your dog there. I might even play with it. BUT A BASKET DOES NOT REPRESENT YOU! Do you really think so little of yourself that a pair of socks, some panties and a can of beans are all it takes to save your spot in line? Next time why don’t you just spit on the floor, point to it and proclaim “I CALL THAT SPOT!”

And besides, a can of beans, panties and socks? What kind of person just buys that combination of items? Do you plan to eat the beans and try to see how long you can go without going to the bathroom? Is that what the new panties are for? Are the socks there to keep you warm during the process?

After a couple more trips, the coin lady and the basket ladies had already paid. I figured that if her turn came up and she wasn’t there then I’d just step over her basket and pay for my stuff. But here’s the best part: as soon as the couple of basket ladies paid, she came rushing with a last item (a box of facial tissues… the plot thickens), picked up her basket from the floor and paid for her stuff. I strongly believe that she didn’t even get all she need, she probably just does this until her turn in the line comes up, then proceeding to pay regardless of how complete her shopping might actually be.

Seriously? Is this the way you normally shop? I should add that besides rushing from her basket to the market lanes the old lady really didn’t seem to be in that much of a hurry. She took her time paying up and even rummaged through her purse looking for coins. In the end, she even abandoned the socks (I guess she figured the beans would keep her warm enough).

In case you’re wondering, I didn’t say anything. At all. I was too busy trying to figure it all out and besides, I wasn’t about to start an argument over a spot in a supermarket line. But aside from the noisy children you find in there or the people that feel like it’s perfectly acceptable to run your over with their shopping carts, that was probably the person that has annoyed me them most, ever, in a supermarket.

And so I thought I’d share my irate story with you.

It’s that time of the week again! On this occasion we got a questionably named player character, a profound discussion, and a life-changing pact!

Click the image or here to go check out the comic (comments are disabled in this post, but can be posted in the rant underneath the comic strip).