Comic Conventions & Video Games

Boy what a week. Larry’s show was a lot of fun, and being only about 45 minuts from home, something I hope to do again. Saw quite a few familiar faces and a lot of new one’s too. Business was definitely good enough. Thanks everybody! I think Brian Mulcahy seems to be turning into my Daddy Warbucks –only Brian rocks a stylish beard like myself. Not only did he commission that Perhapanauts page from me a few weeks ago, but he picked up my Amazing Joy Buzzards pin-up and a sketch of the ‘Haps character that is based on his likeness.

He only looks like a strung out junkie in this pic because I suck with a camera. And hotel’s always have that weird multi-directional lighting that is bad for photography AND drawing. My eyes still hurt.

But since I don’t know if Brian wants his picture pasted across the internets, you won’t be seeing his magnificent beard, or heroine adicts eyes, at all.

I’m struggling to get back in the groove with ROBO after my recent bout with the plague. To make it worse, I think I’m getting sick again! Sigh.

I found this: Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art Scool while trolling the interwebs for photo reference last night. Hasn’t been updated in a long while, but it was a hysterical read. Clearly, I need to move to a large urban area at the earliest opportunity.

Testsubo, who I can always count on for an Inbox full of weirdness sent me this gem: The Stuff of Lobster Nightmares. He also sent this link, which I thought was a riot! Motivation RPG Posters

PC’s don’t crash! I’m listening to NPR the other day and they are doing a report on a recent MacWorld convention and the reporter is going back and forth between weather he’s going to replace his aging PC with a Mac or a new laptop. Time and again though the reporter and former PC uses that he spoke with mentioned that one of the major reasons for switching was because their PC’s constantly crash.

When did this start happening? I’ve have my low-end laptop for about 3 1/2yrs now. Its crammed with more big image files, pirated software, and pornography than you can shake a stick at. I’ve poured coffee directly into the keyboard (by accident of course). Do you know how often it crashes? Never.

I’ve had issues with individual programs, like I-tunes, and Photoshop, but not the machine. The worst it does is about every six months I’ll turn it on and the screen will be upside down. So I stand on my head, go into the Control Panel, and fix it. Takes about two minutes.

I think the REAL problem with Macs and PCs is that users are generally retarded. They download junk without looking at what it is, open those stupid chain-letter emails, and infest the shit out of their machines.

They deserve to have crashes.

Moving on . . .

GameStop Geeks. I went to GameStop to poke around and pick up a used copy of Crimson Skies for the 360. So far I’ve been roundly unimpressed with the games made for this next-gen machine. 95% of what’s out there is a First person Shooter, and if you don’t play on-line, 9hrs a day, you never really get that much out of them.

I made the mistake of telling the gamer geek that I’d played Gears of War through twice now and while if was a gorgeous looking game, the story was pathetic, the characters unengaging, and the levels simply repetitive. In short it was pretty boring after I gat past the Shock & Awe factor of the amazing new graphics. Holy shit, I basically walked into his church and pissed on the carpets. Haha Gameboy!

Luckily there are some great older games for the first X-box that I can play on the new machine. But so far I’ve found nothing that compares to the cream of the crop for PS2. If only the PS3 wasn’t a $700 monster! Stupid fucking Sony. You lost a loyal customer.

What bugs the pants off me about most video games is that there is no thinking. There is an old comic about RPGers (the pen and paper variety) and Gamers. Being both, I’m not sure where I would fit into the joke. But basically RPG’ers grow up to be computer software engineers. Gamers grow up to be fry cooks. And there’s a lot of truth in that.

I think next week I’ll trade in Gears of War for Viva Pinata. We’ll see if I can make the GameStop Geeks go into cardiac arrest.

PS: The greatest game ever? KATAMARI DAMACY