on the subject of alienated youth…
You may or may not be familiar with my comic Alienated Youth. You may or may not also know about how… temperamental I am with the general updating of said comic. You might also notice that I haven’t updated the comic in around… ooooh… a month.
Basically, I feel like I have absolutely screwed up the production of the comic, from the story to the format. I’ve basically made a bit of a hash of it since I got back to it at the start of the year. And because of that, I’ve decided that it is best to put the comic on a temporary hiatus.
Basically, I need to get everything straight. From the story to the format to the art to… well everything really.
I totally intend to get back to AY in the future as it’s a story that’s been brewing in my head for an absolute age, but in all fairness I’d rather get it right and take my time over it that just get it done and move on. I owe it to the story, the people who take the time to read the comic and to myself to get this done right.
Keep an eye out here and I’ll keep you posted on the plans for the comic. But at the moment, it’s a no-go.
Yeah, comic for Friday. Like that was gonna happen…
I know it said on the Alienated Youth website that the next comic was dropping on Friday past, but you know that thing? What is it? Life? Think that’s the one. It got rather fun last week.
Never mind family stuff (which I will NOT get into just now, mostly as everything seems better that it did last week), but I got the headaches again. Now, I never used to suffer from them, but boy howdy it seems I do now. Migraines no less. And this forced me off work on thursday, which is where I’d probably done the bulk of the comic work. Due to a lovely bank holiday, I might just get a chance to finish the comic today and even maybe get the next couple scripted.
In other news, I have ideas floating about my head. I’m not going into details, but I have plans people. PLANS!!!
simplecomics
If you’ve read my comic Alienated Youth, you may not know that the back end of that site has more or less been written by me using PHP and MySQL. It’s been a learning curve, needless to say, mostly as this has been the project I’ve been working on to teach myself both PHP and how to use MySQL.
The version of Simplecomics (what I’ve named the script) that I’m running is 0.6. This has so far been the stablest version I’ve run with the least amount of problems. But naturally, given it’s a 0.? version, it’s still had it’s problems. Mostly as I’ve been adding little bits and bobs as time goes on. Hence why I’m starting a full rewrite of the code from the bottom up.
I’ll post occaisionally on here the progress I’ve made with the script of version 1.0 (the first proper release). Once I’ve deployed the script onto the Alienated Youth website, I’ll be releasing the code on a dedicate ‘project’ page for anyone who wants to pick any massive holes in the code.
This is gonna be fun. Let the tantrums begin…
Ask me… something
I’ve gone and done something I’m more than likely gonna regret. Why’ve I done it? Because it might be a laugh.
I’ve enabled Tumblr’s ‘Ask’ function.
For those of you who are not ‘Tumblr-literate’, ‘Ask’ allows you to go to my Ask page and ask me… well… anything. Anything at all. These questions then show up on my Dashboard and can be answered by me. These answers then show up in the blog. Simple.
Now the part I’m going to regret is that I’ve enabled ‘anonymous posting’. That basically means that anyone with an internet connection and a way to navigate to my Ask page can ask me anything. To which I’m laying down a couple of ground rules.
- Stupid questions may well get stupid answers. I’m not going to waste my time answering questions like ‘does a pope shit in the wood?’ with a meaningful response.
- Personal life will stay personal. I’m not going to ask you how the family/girlfriend/boyfriend/pet rat is over the internet, I’d like to think you’d extend me the same courtesy
- Be rude to me, I’m not going to give you the rise. If you ask me something derogatory, I’m going to ignore the question. And probably punch you if I meet you in real life.
I’m quite light when it comes to ground rules, but that’s the three I’m sticking with. Other than that, ask away and if I get a moment I’ll answer.
Also, Alienated Youth is updating again. You might want to check it out.
Alienated Youth #51 - Something Odd
Just a quick note for all who… well… care, Alienated Youth is updating again. This is to be a regular thing, and I’ll be updating again on Thursday. So, yeah, check it out.
As you may (or may not) know, I’m going to be doing my comic ‘Alienated Youth’ again starting a week on Monday. Now, that obviously means I’ll have to draw comics. Normally this means lining out an A4 page, pencils, pens, etc, but because I’m on holiday from my work this week, I decided to try and do a full comic on the computer using Photoshop and my Bamboo tablet.
I think the results so far are pretty good, if I don’t say so myself.
For the record, this also shows my normal work progress quite well - the blue line work is the sketch (which looks this rough when I do pencil and paper as well) and I work over that. I’ve done the first panel in it’s entirety, so I’ll have to get the rest of it finished later today.
Alienated Youth resumes January 17th (that’s a week on Monday) and can be found at http://alienatedyouth.project-42.co.uk.
Note: I don’t work that small - I’ve reduced the image size so it doesn’t engulf your browsers. The actual size I work at is a file over 3000px in length - it’s about 3 normal screen sizes side to side if I wanted to see it all at full size in one shot.
Time to drop in…
It seems like quite some time since I last checked in and wrote anything meaningful… well anything at all, to be honest. It’s been an interesting couple of weeks to be honest and it’s not going to get any quieter anytime soon.
First up, the new HQ, better known as the new flat, is coming along nicely. OK, we’re still sleeping in the living room when we are up here, on a double airbed no less; we still have to tidy and sort out the bedroom; there’s still a bugger load of things to get up here; but still, our couch is in and it’s comfy as hell and the kitchen is immaculate. Plus, tv is being put in this week, so things looking good here.
However, it’s finally dawned on me that I’ll soon be a married man. Six weeks to go to be precise. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t shitting myself, but the day itself should be worth all the stress. Well, that and the week on holiday.
Now onto my previous post, Alienated Youth should update this week. I’m going to be updating once a week, or at least that’s the aim. I roughly have chapter 2 mapped out, and have the first few scripts lined up. The next comic is drawn and inked, and the one after is half drawn, so now it’s a case of catching up with myself.
Finally, I have iOS 4 installed on my iPhone 3G, but must admit I was quite underwhelmed by what was left in the update for my old clunker of a phone. Hence why I jailbreaked it, and have been left wondering why Apple thought multitasking, home screen wallpapers and the battery percentage indicator (!) should be left out. I’ve had all these features active for a week now and quite frankly I’ve not seen any performance issues with it. Come on now, Apple, what’s the deal?
Anyways, until the next time I have half a moment, peace out
-Mark
the unholy bank holiday
So, can anyone else tell me why, even though it’s blatantly obvious it’s going to be one of the hardest days to even get sales with everyone else enjoying their bank holiday, it was deemed a good idea for me to go into work and phone people? Bearing in mind that it was indeed a bank holiday on these fair British Isles?
Yeah, me neither.
But just about everyone I phoned said the same thing - “I’m just on my way out”. Just on my way out? Did I phone a procession of people out the door today? Seriously?
But the obsession over the British bank holidays, especially in the summer months when it threatens to be just a bit warm (not too bad today, when it’s all said and done) just always seems to baffle me. You can expect to be caught in a traffic jam, or more likely cause one, on a bank holiday compared to a normal working day just with the influx of people heading to… I dunno, wherever. And if any DIY store has been having a rough year, they can tend to recoup any lost profit over just a couple of weekends (Yes, even when the weather outside is glorious, the consencus is to stay the hell indoors and do DIY).
So, a holiday put in so that the banks can guarantee a day off. Pretty much an extra day in a weekend. And yet, the nation just grinds to an almost messy halt? It’s funny that you never see that on a Saturday, and there’s much more of them.
Maybe it’s a good thing I was working today. I can help bolster the hours, when staff take several sick days to see England play in the World Cup. No, no bitterness detected. I assure you - I think I’m just pissy because I did have to work today.
By the way, new Scott Pilgrim trailer was released today. I’ve very quickly become obsessed about this particular franchise (to the point that I bought all five books that have so far been released in the space of two months. And read them all in less than that) and I am so looking forward to this film. This is a film you may want to check out if you are in any way a video game player, a romantic (of sorts) or just like generally zany stuff. Or liked any of Edgar Wrights other movies, like Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz. Take a look.
Also, comics may be slightly later than usual this week. I’m not going to drop like I did the other week, there will be comics, I can assure you. Just not as on time as I would like. Apart from that, catch you all later.
-Mark
