It’s Going to be Monday/Thursday

Those are typically my biggest days, so it only makes sense to update then I think. I’m already roughing out Monday’s new and improved larger size, which in my initial notes was Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week, so you’ll be getting it all at once instead of painfully spread out. It also just reads better, what I had planned, smoother, the idea is easier to convey in a single setting instead of three little bits.

Frankly, I’m excited about it. The more I think about it, the better I feel, it’s a good move.

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Changing Again

I like the new larger format, I like it so much, I think I’m going to go even bigger, to a full size comic page. But, under those circumstances, I would update less frequently.

Thus occurred to me just now so I’m typing this without having thought it all the way through. Maybe I wake up from my afternoon nap and realize its a terrible decision, maybe tomorrow morning it still seems like a good idea.

I don’t know when I’d make the transition, usually I like to change things up when starting a new chapter of the story, but we just started a new chapter and she the mod seizes me like this I don’t like to wait.

So I don’t know, I’m looking for a little feedback, lemme know what you guys think.

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Family Work Vacation

My wife gets to go a conference in DC this weekend. And because they’re paying for room and board, why shouldn’t we go as well? It’s a win-win-win. We get to see the sights, visit the museums, sample the local delicacies, win-win-win.

My daughter is most excited about the International Spy Museum, there’s even a girl scout badge she can work on while she’s there. That’s stop number one, so the rest of the stay will be a crushing disappointment I’m sure. But, hotel we’re in does have a pool, so that will soften the blow, considerably. I can’t think of a single place we’ve taken her where, if we did have a pool, she didn’t enjoy herself, and if we didn’t have a pool, she ever wanted to go back.

For myself, Air and Space is where it’s at, and the Udvar-Hazy, I won’t need much else.

My wife has the conferences to look forward too, she won’t need much else either.

The plan is to return next Tuesday, at which time I will desperately attempt to finish next Wednesday’s strip (it won’t be that hard, thanks to planning it’ll be a couple of quick scans and she’s ready to post.) Then Wednesday is all about finished Thursday and Friday, if I haven’t managed to crank them out over the vacation weekend.

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I Hate Games With Dice

Magic Realm continues to frustrate me. How in the world can you combat specifically, effectively, and with good result? It’s nigh on impossible. I just don’t get it. I continue to die, day after day, never giving up, but no closer to success. (Additionally, I still love Realm Speak, and you should too.)

Firefly the board-game I also find combatively difficult. Sure I’d love to draw a single Misbehave card for a simple mission that will unlock the three story goals so that I can compete to win. Sure I’d love to draw a Misbehave card that requires only a single die roll, a single roll that needs to be two, or more. I literally need to roll anything other than a one. Those percentages are really damn good! The chances of me flipping the table 30 seconds later when I fail the roll would be much better if I wasn’t an atrophied weakling.

Merchant of Venus however, there’s a game that loves me, and that I love back. Good rolls, bad rolls, it’s all about how you’ve built your trading empire and that traitorous gigolo Luck can screw off, you don’t need his help.

I even went so far as to open the box for Republic of Rome this week. It’s a bit lonely running the Roman Empire as six different political factions, but I roll equally bad for all of my imaginary opponents so there’s that. It also takes me back to some lonely, lonely days as a teenager.

It’s been a good week for games.

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I’m Not Reading Much, But What I am Reading…

It occurred to me a few days ago that I haven’t read a book in months. I’ve bought a few books in that time, I’ve checked out more than a few books in that time, and I’ve even gone so far as to open the front cover, but reading them, not so much. I can barely even recall the last book I read, it was probably science-fiction. I only read three genres, sci-fi, pulp fantasy, and pulp mystery, whatever that last book was, it fit in one of those categories. I haven’t even cracked open my newest volume of Prince Valiant that came in the mail months ago.

What I have been reading, is a lot of Legion of Superheroes. I’m not a huge fan of goofy silver-age crap in comics, I would say for the first ten years of LoSH, I didn’t really like any of it because the only reason to keep perfect replica’s of your superhero team is obviously so they can be blown up in a safety test of a new shuttle, a safety test where the shuttle is supposed to blow up. Because why not? I hate that stuff.

But I can’t put it down! I’m well out of the Silver Age now, working through the bronze age, and I’m loving it. This stuff is fantastic! They aren’t the best comics ever written I’m sure, I don’t know how well they sold back in the day, but I know how this ends, because my very first LoSH comic was their Zero-Hour tie in and I remember loving that. I can’t help but wonder if that’s why I’m enjoying this so much. I remember that issue very, very clearly, and the effect it had on me, how it got to me. In a lot of ways, it’s the feeling I’m chasing with this story, or any story really, to have that effect on people, where it crawls inside their head to live awhile, and you can’t help but think on it, mull over it, pick it apart to see what it all means.

I do feel the need to open a real book though, something with pages and a cover, and covered in words. Next week sees the release of Hell’s Foundations Quiver, the newest Safehold book. That’s a series that is decent, but a little predictable. The good guys always win, which I kind of like, but it’s not even that hard for them to win, they have too many advantages. (A complaint often leveled against Superman, and in which case I vehemently disagree because Superman is the best, he just has terrible editorial vision at the moment.) So I am looking forward to that book, but not breathlessly.

So I’m open to suggestions. A long while back The Circus of Dr. Lao was mentioned, and that was a weird little book well worth the reading of. If anyone else has any titles to recommend, please don’t keep them to yourself.

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