Oh my GOD I hate enviromental shots. But hey, there it is.
Reagan is a liar. Never believe her. I sure don't.
June 2006 Archives
And by "dynamic methods," he means "scream about how the CIA stole all the nitrogen from his intestinal tract until forcibly removed from the premises."
Dare you to write him.
FYI, is all. Click here to see the colored version of the page that went up Sunday.
I feel so shitty uploading pages before they're colored. I'm gonna try to stop doing that. Promise. Plus, I totally missed out on all of Chicago's awesome gay pride parades this weekend to work on Templar. That will not be permitted to happen again.
Unless there's some other place I can take my husband from time to time to hear him mutter "Wow. I hope that one's a real woman." every ten minutes.
Another needless bit of commentary: Because of its proximity to Mexico, I think Templar's main drug abuse issues would concern black tar heroin. In case you didn't know, Mexican black tar is pretty much the worst smack you can by; cheap, but low-quality and filthy as hell. Supplies have been seized where producers are literally cutting the merchandise with dirt.
Dirt, people. From the ground.
So Ray's dismissal of the town's addicts is sort of understandable. Their habits will probably eat holes in them long before the air does.
As usual, it updated on Sunday. But you know the deal by now.
That took too long to get colored, but colored it is. Finally.
I like this page, and I like the new character. The ambiguity of the scene is making for interesting opinions from the people who read it.
New page up. And just for the sake of clarity, a little world info, because it's really easy to interpret Ray's line in the second panel as a continuity fart instead of intentional.
Yes, it's November. And yes, fifty-odd pages ago, it was mentioned that Zora's having her first day of school. Yes, her school year starts in November. That's not a mistake.
Templar is a former cow town. And in late September and October, cattle were driven from their summer pastures in Utah to winter in Arizona. The original one-room schoolhouses in the region (and Jesuit religious bording schools) would be waiting for the kids who were coming down with their parents, snatch 'em up once the work was done, and attempt to cram some book-learnin' in 'em as quickly as possible before they left again in May or June. Over a hundred years later, the school year still hasn't changed much.
So, yeah. Intentional. Honest.
...
Bye!
I finished mummifying Beavis. Or rather, I finished the entry about him.
For those of you a little late to the game, my pet rat Beavis died in May of 2004. And then I embalmed him. Because I wanted to.
He's been a mummy for quite some time now, about a year. But I've only just now finished up uploading and providing commentary for all the photographs of the process. You can see all ten pages of my adventures in embalming, from intial evisceration to the final wrappings, here.
It's full of rat guts, so if you're sensitive, it's probably not a good idea to look. Consider yourself warned.
I can say that, because I know for sure Templar, Arizona is totally going to be steamrolled. Check out its competition for this year's Web Cartoonist's Choice Awards!
Outstanding New Character Design
Aki Alliance
Biozoic
Templar, Arizona
Outstanding Environment Design
Copper
The Dreamland Chronicles
Fetus-X
Inverloch
Megatokyo
Templar, Arizona
Outstanding Character Writing
Achewood
Inverloch
Order of the Stick
Questionable Content
Scary Go Round
Something Positive
Templar, Arizona
Outstanding Long Form Comic
Gunnerkrigg Court
Inverloch
Templar, Arizona
Outstanding Story Concept
Girl Genius
Gunnerkrigg Court
Inverloch
Templar, Arizona
On one hand, I'm being associated with Achewood and Megatokyo, which is amazing in and of itself. But on the other, I am so totally filler.
But I'm gonna take note of these awesome nominations on Templar's site regardless. This post's title is cliche, but it's actually true. If this is the company my comic's keeping, I could be a lot worse off.
So here's one great, big, king-sized thank you to everyone who nominated me. I hope you keep reading the comic. I've barely gotten started.
Would you think less of me if I tried to sell you a t-shirt that prominently featured glitter?
What if it was glitter used ironically to depict a hopelessly splintered femur?
Cuz you know I'm all about that. Srsly.
The "Bonecrusher" shirt will explain itself in Templar's due course. Reagan, a la trucker mudflap, requires no introduction.
Click the images to see the new stuff! And remember, feel free to request variations. Spreadshirt's flexible like that.
...
Also, I would maybe pay a million thousand dollars to hear Clutch cover Lordi's "Hard Rock Hallelujah."
Just saying.
Holy crap, I cranked this one out in one day. That's a first.
It's not in color, and I didn't get to sleep, but still. Read up.
Color on Sunday, as noted. Got stuff what needs doin'.
Almost at page 60, and I'm only just now explaining the circumstances of the cover image. EFFICIENT STORYTELLING. Click here to read.
Now's also a pretty good time to mention to podcast Digital Strips, which recently gave Templar an unbelieveably flattering and head-expanding review in episode 75. And I didn't bribe them or nuthin, neither! Thanks so much, guys. Your review had me compeltely shell-shocked for a full day.
All righty, then. Let's see if I can get the next page's ink up tomorrow.
Click to embiggen.
I lurve you, dollar store. 
Y'got a print of Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and JFK down at the racetrack for the bathroom? Cuz my crapper could use a little class, too.
There was a little goof-up last week concerning Sparkneedle on Webcomics Nation, when a few panels and pages were presented out-of-order. That's been fixed, but I definitely understand how a mix-up like that with a wordless comic can make things a little.. confusing. Especially if the comic is pretty darned esoteric to begin with.
If you've been reading the comic, please, go back and re-read the last couple of installments. Things should make just a tiny bit more sense. And sorry for the goof. That's what I get for trying to plan ahead. I'm better off scatterbrained. Fer realz.
In other news, all you comic guys should join the comic_creators Livejournal group and post comics and sketches. Because nothing but endless, cross-posted promo posts are goddamn boring.
I am a comedic genius. As usual, this went up Saturday, but I ony just finished the colors. Sorry, guys.
Scip isn't a RenFest geek. Note that no one present thinks his scale mail is weird.
A lot of men's formal wear in general, yours included, retains barely-perceptible nods to armor and/or military uniforms. In this Arizona, they're just a lot less subtle.
The scale mail in his suit isn't a bulletproof vest, or functional in any way. It's probably made from aluminum. After all, your tux's cummerbund isn't there to hold your dueling pistol, right?
Crummier suit sets probably just have scale-patterned tunics, while nicer suits have engraved silver scales, enamel, or better. But whatever. I'll save it for the wiki.
Also, check out the comic's sketchbook. I added a new drawing a day or so ago!
Gotta thank my forum again for the heads-up on this.
There's nothing new about NaNoMangO, it's been going for years. But it's new to me. Maybe it's new to you, too.
NaNoMangO is the cartoonist's version of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. While the goal for NaNoWriMo is to write a 175-page novel by midnight, November 30th, the goal of the twice-yearly NaNoMangO is 30 pages of sequential art in thirty days. Interesting. Sounds like a backbreaker, but I guess that's kind of the point.
It's June 2nd, so if you start today, you've got a page to make up already. But it's not TOO late, not really. Especially if you're a fast worker. Unlike me.
You can find all the rules here, and a Livejournal community full of NaNoMangO projects here. Me, I subscribed just to watch. It'll be interesting seeing what everyone can manage.
Todays' Templar is gonna stay black and white until tomorrow or so. Sorry, it's been crazy over here. But the inks don't look too awful, so I'm not too ashamed to link you.
As a quick sidenote: San shou is real. The style Scipio practices, however, is Dantien San Shou. It is not real. More on that later. (And if that's poor Chinese grammar, let me know, okay? I'd like to get that right before I actually stick it in the comic.)
Bonus: A really good match of San shou's sports incarnation, Sanda (IE: no elbow hits, locks or chokes allowed) can be found here.
