Off to the Races
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Guest Comic Part Deux

by Mike on 05/14/2012 at 8:37 AM

A few weeks ago, Danielle Corsetto of Girls with Slingshots posted a request for guest comics while she was out at TCAF, and I was one of the many who answered the call.  My submission didn’t make the cut, but if you’d like to read it she was kind enough to post it to her Flickr page.

Around the same time, I submitted a guest comic and accompanying blog post to The Obscure Gentlemen, and what I wrote in that post was reaffirmed when I started reading the comics Danielle received.  Reading through the GWS guest submissions has made me feel like I need to step up my game – there is some serious talent floating about in that creative free-for-all that is the Internet.  If you’re new to reading webcomics, here’s three to get you started:

I am ARG! – Random ramblings of a Canadian animator

Bearmageddon – Bears form a united front against humanity

Dustpiggies – A glimpse into modern hamster pop culture

Achievement Unlocked

by Mike on 05/06/2012 at 7:57 PM

This week wraps up my first attempt at doing the dual/intertwined storyline thing.  This arc actually began four weeks ago with the comic “What a Turnoff,” and I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turned out.  I agonized over how to finish it, and I ended up taking a page out of the Calvin & Hobbes playbook.  I don’t want to post any spoilers, so you’ll just have to come back Tuesday and Thursday to see what happens!

I also had a Photoshop breakthrough and discovered the secret to creating a subtle texture in the background by using the “overlay” function.  It’s a technique that Mike Krahulik of Penny Arcade uses a lot, and I’m ridiculously excited that I now have the power of overlay.  It’s actually pretty easy, but like many of the cool functions in Photoshop, it’s not very intuitive.  If you’re interested in trying it out, here’s my first attempt at a video tutorial:

Doing the Gibson Boogie

by Mike on 04/30/2012 at 11:53 AM

I am a guitar nut. I love to play, and I love listening to others play. Regardless of type of guitar or style of music, be it acoustic, electric, baritone, seven-string, eight-string, folk, rock, or metal, the sound of a guitar resonates somewhere within me and gives me goosebumps.

So, in honor of my quaint little fetish, the comics I’ve done for this week and next week feature cameo appearances of a couple of my favorite things: a Gibson Les Paul and Mesa Boogie Dual-Rectifier half-stack. Whenever I’m in Guitar Center for picks or strings, I always make it a point to wander through and play with guitars and amps I can’t really afford, and the Les Paul and Dual-Rec are part of that rotation. It’s like test driving cars at the dealership – for a short time, you get to be behind the wheel of a Porsche or Corvette, and it just feels awesome.

If you’ve ever priced them out, you know that guitars can get pretty expensive. It’s not unusual for the really really nice guitars (as in the ones rock stars play) to cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000 for a single guitar, or even more. Nice amps are no exception – the price range for high-end tube amplifiers like Marshall or Mesa/Boogie often fall into that ballpark. As a matter of personal taste, I prefer the Mesa sound to the Marshall sound, but I do have a soft spot the 90′s Marshall JCM-900.  Love me some 90′s grunge.

My current rig is a budget version of the “LP-Recto” setup depicted in the comic, and consists of an Ibanez SZ electric guitar with a few modifications and a Line 6 Flextone III amplifier. It’s not my dream setup, but it emulates my dream setup pretty well, and that’s what matters to me.  But if I ever win the lottery, the second thing on my agenda after paying off my student loans would be to fulfill one of my longtime fantasies: the wall of guitars. Do I want to play my Paul Reed Smith or my new Carvin 7-string today? Hmm…decisions, decisions.

Oh yes, my friends. That is the dream.