I finished 'Seventh Son of A Seventh Son' for my 'Maiden Bitstrips' series today:
I've also compiled some of my goofier strips into a new series called 'Context is Everthing'. Here's a sample:
And finally, a new 'Otter Disaster' #18 introducing Shinya: Last Call Ninja:
Bitstrips allows other creators to remix strips that you make, if you allow it. I did the strip below titled '...a little better', featuring the small things that make life a little better. It was remixed directly about 17 times, and then there were numerous remixes off those direct remixes. I counted 20 plus strips based off the initial strip here:
Then Bitstripper geokis32 remixed and made a strip called 'Freaky Things' with the little things in life that freak her out:
...so I (and many others) remixed that strip:
The community of creators is one of the really fun things about Bitstrips. For another really funny example of this remix-mania see this series of strips featuring a wickedly eternal staring contest between Dare and Kathi.
I participated yesterday/today in the 24 Hour Comic Challenge at Bitstrips.com and finished my story while also achieving my set goal of at least 144 published comic panels (I did 147) in 19 Hours 20 minutes.
The Comic is titled Perfect Gentleman: A 24 Hour Comic. The title was chosen at random by a Windows Media Player play list. On Friday night I assembled a 24 hour long play list to listen to during the challenge. I had already decided on randomly generating the theme/concept of the comic and while I was pulling together music, I decided that the first song to come up in 'shuffle' mode once the challenge had started would be the name of my comic. The winner was 'Perfect Gentleman' by Helloween from their album Master of the Rings. The strip (other than being a great title) has nothing to do with the song.
It was a great deal of fun to create, and a genuinely rewarding experience. I was pleased with the little romantic comedy story I told, and I was very surprised at how much affection I developed for the characters in such a short time. The biggest surprise was that the main characters I'd created (Sam and Lena) ended up getting pushed to secondary status as a pair of 'sidekick' characters (Nick and Melody) began writing themselves, taking over the focus of the story.
In Scott McCloud's original challenge he suggests 100 panels for a web comic, but Bitstrips automates a lot of time consuming tasks, letting you copy and paste elements so I bumped the panel count from 130-160. I easily hit that target with 4.5 hours to go. Next year I might suggest 140-175 panels, depending on what kind of story being told. All in all a really good time. I'm tired today, but it was worth it. Here now is Episode One of Perfect Gentleman: A 24 Hour Comic-Some Competition:
I am going to participate in 24 Hour Comics Day at Bitstrips.com tomorrow. I have attempted to draft other Bitstrippers to participate as well via a series of strips describing the challenge, giving some tips, and answering questions. A few people have show interest, but I don't know if there will be anyone joining me or not.
I managed an OK Bitstrips version of Somewhere in Time:
and I'm very pleased with my rendition of Aces High:
Based loosely on a recurring conversation I used to have with my buddy Kris.
I'm kinda proud of the motion in this one, with the characters swapping positions over the course of the strip.
So I've managed to do some more Eddie compositions at Bitstrips
My single most viewed strip)
I'm currently trying to figure out how to do 'Somewhere in Time'.
Made in honor of my good friend Kenyon's arrival at Bitstrips:
...and here is Kenyon's first strip:
I posted about the sci-fi comedy Quark, last year about this time, and now it's coming out on DVD. Matthew will be thrilled...
Today on the radio, I heard somebody talking about the possibility that Pilot Steve Fossett faked his own death. That reminded my of a weird conpiracy theory that I posted about on September 7th of last year.
Link to original theory at RMN.
Coincidence? Stay tuned.
Slash 'N' Otter's Curious Keywords is a new strip of mine on Bitstrips inspired by a very, very short series of radio shows(two, maybe three?) I did with Matthew during college, where all the song titles played during the show contained a 'keyword'. We called it Slash and Otter's Keyword Dance Party. The old Ripley's Believe It Or Not! strips provided the remaining inspiration.
Episode #1 Keyword - Paper:
Episode #2 Keyword - Meat:
This sequel to the ever popular OD strip 'Pop Culture Reference' is actually the 10th episode of the series, but due to a quirk in how I published it, it is numbered #9 on the bitstrips site while the previous strip, 'The Name of the Game' is numbered #10.
June has been a busy month, but found some time for a bitstrip today:
I built a reaper in Bitstrips and, with some help from Mrs. Disaster, wrote this strip:
Just to see how it would turn out, I built Iron Maiden's Eddie in Bitstrips. I then decided to create a Bitstripped version of the Number of the Beast album cover. Then I did Piece of Mind, Killers and yesterday I did the cover for Iron Maiden's 1980 self titled release:
Those are the easy ones. With Bitstrips' somewhat limited props, and poses, I'm going to have to get super creative to do Powerslave, Somewhere in Time, 7th Son of a 7th Son and beyond. Stay tuned...
Missle Command is one of my all-time favorite video games, so this is the coolest thing I've seen today:
I wish I had one of these in my living room.
My 2000 Kia Sportage turned over 100,000 miles on my way home from work today. It might not have been the best idea to take a camera phone photo at 60 mile per hour on Interstate 225, but that was when the moment occurred:
It's amazing how giddy you get when all those nines roll away to reveal that one followed by all those zeroes.
More on the Kia and some of my other cars HERE.
14 episodes (the complete series) of the totally awesome British comedy Spaced, are finally going to be released on DVD.
Speculation is that this is being done in advance an (ill-advised, in my opinion) American remake ala The Office.
If you liked Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, then Spaced will be right up your alley.
I can't wait.
I changed my Blogger template to accomodate the full Bitstrip/Image as opposed to the embedded player. I just think comics should be seen in context with all the panels in their proper place...
Nerve.com and IFC have compiled a list of the 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time Lists like this are always subjective, there are Carol Burnett sketches I prefer over 'Went With the Wind'(#22)for instance, but all in all a good sampling of great sketches.
'$240 Worth of Pudding'(#47) was a source of much joy for me and friend Lee during our college years. I could often be heard saying, ". . .and I'm Barry, Sagittarius."
Charlton Heston died last night. I always liked him as an actor, and his role as George Taylor in Planet of the Apes is one of my favorite perfomances in one of my favorite movies.
Heston also appeared as 'Mike' Vargas in Orson Welles' 1958 noir classic, A Touch of Evil. Another great role in another one of my all-time favorite movies.
When I was very young (and Catholic) I remember watching The Ten Commandments with my family every Easter.
1980's The Mountain Men was one of the first 'R' rated movies I ever saw. My neighbors had a giant KU band satellite dish, and I saw the film on HBO. I don't remember much about the movie save for lots of course languange and a fight scene that (if I remember correctly) had Heston's character taking a bite out of the man with whom he was fighting. I remember loving it, but haven't seen it since.
Since announcing his affliction with Alzheimer's, he hadn't really worked much, but his impact was great, and he leaves a legacy of great films.
Bitstrips, which I blogged about the other day, allows you to create a series of strips under a title. I created Otter Disaster which seems to be a semi-autobiographical strip about my misspent youth.
Here is episode #1:
Via Boing Boing.
Bitstrips is a very cool web tool that allows you to create characters, pose them, and put them in your very own comic strip.
Here is my first strip, and a semi-autobiographical strip from my college years. Any resemblance to people living is entirely intentional:
Ron Paul destroyed Texas Congressional District 14 challenger Chris Peden, by about two votes to one last night. Paul will be unchallenged by a Democrat in November, so Paul will have two more years to be a voice of liberty and reason in the House. With his seat secure, I'm not sure where Paul goes from here, but there are still rumors of a possible Third Party Run.
In other news McCain acquired the necessary delegates to clinch the GOP nomination, and Mike Huckabee started making plans for Election '12.
Hillary won both the Texas and Ohio primaries to keep the Democrat Party nomination up for grabs. Obama looks poised to win the Texas Caucases though, which account for a third of the available delegates in that state. With the proportional distribution of delegates and the remaining primaries, it is unlikely that either Clinton or Obama will clinch the nomination, and the Superdelegates (Strange visitors from another planet?) will be the deciding factor. It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. It could come down to a fight in Denver at the Democratic National Convention.
Major Spoilers has indeed returned from the great beyond.
In their costumes, I'm not sure which one is Stephen and which is Matthew, but I'm glad these fine gentlemen have found their way back to Stately Spoiler Manor.
HERE is the tale of the return. Even though I don't read anywhere near the volume of comics I used to, I still enjoy them, and Matt and Steve's enthusiasm is infectious. Plus, now I know when to look for Nexus #100!
I haven't talked to friend Matthew in quite some time, but it looks like there is something happening with Major Spoilers real soon.
Stephen Schleicher's blog has no clues either. . .
I was always sceptical of Ron Paul's denials of his intent to run as a third party or independent candidate, and felt he was planning for that contingency once any GOP candidate aquired the necessary delegates to get the nomination. It seemed like the natural progression, once there was absolutely zero chance for even a brokered convention.
He announced last night that he will not go third party or independent so that he can run for, and maintain his seat in the House of Representatives. This makes sense to me. He can have at least some influence in the House.
Paul has always said that his movement was about the message and not the man. Part of his intent is to change the face of the Republican Party to truly embrace the principles of limited goverment, and staying in an elected position within that party makes a lot of sense. His presidential run has built a pretty good network of active people who really believe in his message of liberty, limited government, sound money and all the rest. Hopefully those people will stay with the party, move into positions of party leadership, run for office themselves and give liberty a true voice again.
Ron Paul made a deal to help Mike Huckabee win the West Virginia State GOP convention.
Paul was dropped after losing the first ballot(with no candidate getting 51% of the votes) Paul and McCain both threw their support to Huckabee to deny Mitt Romney the win.
In exchange for the votes that put Huckabee over the top, Paul will receive 3 of the 18 Delegates available from West Virginia.
That should bring his delegate total to 9 not counting those earned in Maine or Louisiana.
Reason Magazine's Hit and Run Blog has the details.
More Via the Lew Rockwell Blog
It's been almost three months since I've posted here at Otter Disaster. Work schedule and other real life responsibilities pulled me away from any blogging at all.
I'm once again hoping to blog on something like a regular schedule, maybe a couple of times a week at least.
Today I wanted to blog about Ron Paul again, because Super Duper Tuesday is coming on February 5.
Since I last posted about the election Paul had less than stellar finishes in Iowa, Michingan, South Carolina and especially New Hampshire where expectations were high.
He had two record setting 'Money Bombs' and respectable finishes in the Nevada, Maine and Louisiana Caucuses.
Paul also weathered a scandal concerning racist and controversial comments in a Newsletter from the 90s that bore his name.
He was the top GOP fundraiser in 4th Quarter of 2007, pulling in over $20 Million dollars, helping him outlast Sam Brownback, Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, and 'America's Mayor', Rudy Giuliani.
Paul's only hope for the GOP nomination at this point is probably a brokered convention.
Romney and McCain will need to split most of the Super Tuesday states(with a few upsets by Romney), with maybe a suprise win by Huckabee somewhere, and possibly a surprise win by Paul in the Montana caucus and some California districts (where delegates are partly distributed proportionally). Those delegates need to be spread far and wide so that no clear delegate majority exists by the GOP Convention in August. With McCain surging in most polls, a brokered convention is seeming less likely all the time.
In my opinion, Paul will begin to seriously consider a third party/independent run following Super Tuesday. I think he will have to make this decision soon, for fundraising and ballot access reasons, but I think he'll do it. Paul seems dedicated to continuing the fight for the message of his campaign, and once McCain locks up the nomination, Paul will be increasingly marginalized by the media. He can drum up lots of publicity with an indy/3rd party run, and if he polls well enough, he could even find himself in some debates.
I personally hope he makes an indy/3rd party bid, because there is no way I'll vote for McCain, Romney, Clinton or Obama. If Paul doesn't continue his campaign, I'll most likely vote for the LP nominee, as I've done since 1996.
