August 2008 Archives

Hi, guys. This is me, askin' you for a favor.

I currently have an Etsy shop that's been lying fallow for months. That's pretty stupid of me, since I'm being charged for it. but for the life of me, I can't think of anything to put in there. You're charged for posting items for sale, naturally, and I don't have any idea what might sell.

So, that's where you come in. Feel like clicking a button for me?

If you have a request OTHER than what I have in the poll, just comment on the entry with it. Thanks in advance, and chapter three wraps up Monday! Plus, a couple of commissions in the mail.

Don't even finish that thought, Scip. Really.

And hey, outta curiosity, I'm kinda assuming you guys know that "Cully" is a nickname. What d'you think it's short for? Me, I think it's pretty obvious, but I'm writing the damn thing, so I don't count.

Cuz I bet you learned that offa th' teevee.

More comics, on time and everything! The comic updated on schedule, but my blog continues to misbehave. I hate you, blog.

My goal for today is to finish Friday's page. No foolin'. Most of yesterday was spent catching up on emails and business, but with that out of the way, I wanna have Monday's page ready to go by Saturday.

By the way, Scipio shaves his legs. But if you've read chapter two, you could have probably guessed that. One of the advantages of being a wall of meat is you can pretty much do as you like, and nobody says anything. Not to your face, anyway.

It's called "Getting a PhD." But you'd still have to pick a major before they'll give you one, so that's not gonna help Scip.

Look at me, updating on time. WHAT IS THIS MADNESS? Let's see how long it lasts.

In the meantime, while you're waiting for me to fall behind again, I uploaded a second sketch to the Templar Facebook group. Make sure to go check it out!

And from the looks of things, I'm gonna be a guest at the UAT Tech Forum this November. if you're in Arizona, come see me speak! I've never given a presentation before, so I'm bound to screw up pretty badly.

And for those of you that like A) Webcomics and B) Drama, it looks like another webcomics review blog has sprouted while nobody was looking. If this is meant to fill the void "Your Webcomic is Bad and You Should feel Bad" left behind, it's doing a very... eager job.

More later!

I really ought to go to more animation festivals.

Just ask him! He'll tell you so!

Although I have to admit, knowing how to cook an elephant calf is probably pretty cool by most people's standards.

Yet another name you guys will have to remember and wonder about; Astrid Spencer, mother of Scipio. Feel free to hypothesize what kinda woman she is.

ANYWAY.

I doubt many of you are anywhere near Champaign, Illinois, but if you are, why not head on down to the Krannert Art Museum and check out some of my work in the show currently running there? The show's called "Out of Sequence," and I'm in damn good company, if I do say so myself. So even if you think my stuff is ass warmed over, there's still plenty to look at.

Also, I pretty much got the best email in the world, yesterday. I hope the sender doesn't mind me posting about it; I won't even mention names until I have permission. But... some of you guys who have been following me long enough might remember that I mummified my pet rat Beavis a few years ago, and posted a step-by-step. (Warning: Blood, guts, etc.) Well, someone found my instructions! Look at the picture they sent me!

Beavis has a playmate in the afterlife! How fucking rad is that?

maybe I oughta spend the weekend migrating my rat mummification project over to Instructables. Would they allow rat guts, y'think?

Tell us what you REALLY think.

Since it hit 100 members and it's still getting bigger, I uploaded a little celebratory sketch to the Templar Facebook group. Go take a look!

Also, I was recently interviewed by Publisher's Weekly, and it's getting linked all over, so I'm gonna link it, too. There are a few inaccuracies... Spike is my real name, for example, not a pen name, and Reagan ain't the landlady... But beyond little piddling bits like that, I think it's a really nice article.

Wednesday at NOON, and Wednesday's page is up. Weird, ain't it?

That is to say, we feel that we are best off without any on our pretty little skirts.

I have no idea how much Scip's getting paid to deal with this crap, but it's probably not enough.

Later today, I shall add some new fan art to the fan art pages, but for now:

This blog has been re-syndicated on Livejournal! Resubscribe, should you care to.

I've also added a StumbleUpon button to the "social bookmarking" buttons below the comic pages. Stumble me, and I shall be quite grateful for it. I'm kinda curious to see how well that really works.

Oh, and the Templar Facebook fan group already has over 100 members! Wow, that was pretty quick. I'll hafta upload some exclusive art or something for you guys. Thanks!

There, I think that's all the housekeeping. More comics soon!

Hey guys! New page, and question-answering time. I've been getting a few emails and comments, and it's easier to answer 'em all at once in one place.

So, with that, SUBMITTED FOR YOUR APPROVAL.

What's up with all the John McCain banner ads on the site?

I belong to a few ad networks. Some let me pick which ads I run, some don't. One ad network in particular is serving the John McCain ads, and it happens to be one of the ones that doesn't ask me my opinion on what it serves. It also happens to be the best-paying one I'm on.

So what's up? Capitalism. That's what. I gotta buy that ink and paper and pizza, guys. I don't like John McCain, but Republican money spends just as well as Democrat. If his campaign guys wanna waste their time flooding my favorite network and running expensive ads on a webcomic site, I'm not gonna stop 'em.

If it's any consolation, they should be thinning out in the near future.

BAW HAW HAW! Are you seriously on Gaia?!?

Sure am! I'm also on The Webcomic List Forums, Half Pixel, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Deviant Art, Something Awful, and a bunch of other stuff I can't really remember right now. I don't know, I'm an easy lay when it comes to this "social networking"/forum crap.

Search the usernames IronSpike, Iron_Spike, Iron Spike, etcetera. Whoever you find is probably me.

I also have an alt on Gaia, because sometimes the kids in the Comic Creators subforum ban me from posting in their ego stroke threads when I tell them Kodansha isn't raring to publish their Chobits knockoff. Nobody gets it. But that kinda makes it better.

Can you tell me what you think of my comic?

Oh God, I am so freaking sorry, but I just don't have the time. I already don't answer half of my email, I can't give you a fair assessment. Don't loathe me.

I think that's it for now.

Oh, but wait, I forget: I HAVE A FACEBOOK FAN GROUP! Join, should the fancy strike you! I didn't start it, but I post there and answer questions and stuff.

Bye!

Hi, guys.

Okay, so, I just upgraded to MT4, and things are gonna be a little weird. Bear with me, there are still some bugs to work out.

That worked to the advantage of the comic, though. That means you get to see all this at once.

So, yeah. Here he is, Scip on the job. Reggie Love shadowing Barack Obama, he is most definitely not.

And in case you missed it... I wouldn't blame you, it's been a while... There are a couple of familiar faces (or at least, names) here besides Scip's.  We saw the first one in chapter one, and the second was off-handedly mentioned in chapter two.

This town's crazy that way. There's no escaping anybody, not really.

And before I go, some quick technical stuff.

Since the blog is now MT4 and not MT2, the feed address for it... You know, the address the RSS is published at... That's changed.

The OLD RSS, which will no longer be updated:

http://www.ironcircus.com/blog/feed.xml

The NEW RSS, which you should subscribe to if you're currently subscribed to the old RSS:

http://www.ironcircus.com/mt4/rss.xml

So update your links and bookmarks and whatnot!

Also I'm still deciding on how fascist I want the new blog's comment filter, so if something you guys see me doing there doesn't suit you, let me know and I'll fiddle with the switchboard.

Thanks!

It's not as cute as "Freckles," but it probably looks a lot less silly on a birth certificate.

I think we can close the scene here, don't you? Not the chapter, though. Got summa that left to go. Not much, but some. Stay tuned.

By the way, I'm finally starting to upload some of my less stupid Spore creature designs to the Sporepedia. They're here for the taking, if you are so inclined.

Visit Spore.com

...increases exponentially with the cuteness of the encourager.

No really. That is a scientific fact!

Books orders started going out yesterday. Watch your mailboxes!

By the way, Kris Straub, super-cartoonist, recently launched a new project, F-Chords, about the painfully unglamorous lives of studio musicians. Go read it. It's only two strips long so far, but I'm already really liking the tone.

Short Film by Mark Ryden and Marion Peck. yeah, that Mark Ryden.

Not... really sure what that was. It's not what I'm used to from Ryden, to say the very least. But I watched it like five times, so I guess I probably like it.

Don't laugh. It's a real superpower. Especially useful in the presence of strangers with spare change.

Also, Ben continues to spill his guts, albeit in a roundabout fashion. Hope everyone's paying attention, he's not usually this forward. I wonder what's gotten into him?