Wow.

I have to admit that I was one of those people who weren’t entirely sure if a second Supanova in Queensland was going to work, but it was a fantastic show, not only for the number of people but also for the small milestones I crossed while there.

First of all, I decided to take the plunge and get my own artist’s alley table instead of sharing it with someone. That’s a big deal! It was funny because I was freaking out about how I was supposed to fill an entire six foot table with comics…but as you can see, that space fills up really fast.

Not pictured: me panicking under the table

I’m really glad I got my own table not only so it let me have more room to display books and sketches but also because it allowed me to drag my long-suffering wife along to the show and help out.

To any comic folk out there who are toying with the idea of bringing their partner along with you to the show all I can say is DO IT DO IT DO IT DO IT. She made all the difference to how well I did. Not only did she take on the burdens of keeping the table looking good, handling money, managing which sketch I was doing next and keeping me focused on talking to my readers and drawing…but I firmly believe she was key in making my table ‘female friendly’ especially for younger women who might have felt nervous about approaching a strange table staffed by…well, you know, comic book guys.

You know the type.

(Oh what am I saying, I am the type.)

Anyway! I know I’m meant to be confident in my work, and not panicking at all about how things would turn out, but it was still so amazing to see people actually come up and take an interest in all the nonsense I make here.

Each time I do these things I like to have a “sketch schtick” – something different I can offer people that other (actually talented) people on artist’s alley don’t have. For Supanova Gold Coast it was “I will draw any character you want as long as I can add a Mario hat and Moustache”, as a cross-promotion with the Blow The Cartridge book. For example:

When everyone else was studying Jack Kirby I was studying Fred Hembeck.

(Last year was “I will draw any character you like as long as I can put a pot plant on its head” to help promote Plant-Man…and I’ve already picked the schtick for the November show!)

The large majority of the time there I was getting requests for sketches faster than I could make them so THANK YOU to everyone who asked for one, that was fantastic! What an incredible reaction!

I also want to say a huge, huge HUGE thank you to everyone who came by to say hello and even buy some books! It was great to see some familiar faces and also people who I had never met but took a chance on the guy ranting and raving about perverted chocolate bars and Super Nintendo. There was even one guy who came out to the show just to get Blow The Cartridge…wow. Thank you again so much for keeping us monkeys in such great company.

Thanks also to my friendly artist alley neighbours Paul Mason and Paul Abstruse, we learned a lot from watching you two at work.

(First lesson: I really need to learn how to draw. ha ha)

Oh! I can’t forget to thank the woman who was kind enough to buy us a plush Mario mushroom and classic Sonic The Hedgehog keyrings! You’re far too kind and I can’t wait to have the mushroom take pride of place above my arcade cabinet in the man cave once it’s set up. (I still have a bit of digging to go…)

Speaking of retro gaming:

I didn’t get much of a chance to explore much of the show, which is a good thing really because it meant I was kept busy at the table, but I did manage to walk around once or twice and check out what other people’s stalls. I’m glad I was able to walk out of the show on the last day with a healthy stack of great locally made comics. I’ve already gushed about The Soldier Legacy on Twitter and I’m looking forward to reading through the comics from Ashcan, who seem to be gathering up top local talent like some kind of comic book Katamari. 100 Ways To Be Awesome and General Kick-Assery was brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, I can’t recommend it highly enough.

So…yeah. Great show, fantastic staff, massive crowds that were really clued in, and a great vibe to the place. Above all I want to thank my wife for not only putting up with all my frantic preperations for the show over the last few weeks but also for helping make it the most fun I’ve had in ages.

So…see you in November for Brisbane Supanova!

That’s right, folks! I have a new comic for sale! The very first collection of Blow The Cartridge comics are fresh off the printers in a fine, full colour comic that you can buy right now. And it looks amazing.

The comics have been printed directly from the high resolution master files and look so much better than they do online. Treat yourself to something nice, why don’t you? There’s over 30 pages of classic (and not-so-classic) games from the past being parodied, and the whole thing is just dripping with that warm feeling of nostalgia. Hmm, nostalgia.

Check out our new store and grab them while they’re hot!

Just wanted to give you a quick heads up with what I’m doing with Blow The Cartridge. First of all thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to check the site out and even say nice words about it. It really means a lot to me that you’ve given it your support at its early stages. I really really enjoy making these comics and I love hearing your suggestions about what classic video game to feature next.

Blow The Cartridge started off as a bunch of old videogame jokes I did here on Funny Webcomic and for the longest time I was running each comic on both sites. But now it’s time for Blow The Cartridge to spread its wings and leave the nest, foraging for comic…worms. OK the analogy is bad but the bottom line is that from now on those comics will be running exclusively on www.blowthecartridge.com every WedNESday. If you haven’t been in a while, go check it out and see some comics you wouldn’t have seen here before. In the last three weeks I’ve done Hudson Hawk, Arkanoid and now Radar Ratrace.

That URL again is www.blowthecartridge.com call now operators are standing by.

I was going to draw Presidog tonight (man, don’t I have exciting Saturday nights) but I started doodling in my sketch book for the first time in forever.

It was, as the kids say, heaps fun.

And it’s made me realise something – I draw better with analog tools. I take a lot of short cuts and don’t experiment much with digital. I also have a really hard time keeping the scale of things correct when I’m having to zoom in so much on the small screen so I end up with huge heads and tiny hands and so forth. So I think I’ll need to try and do more of this, maybe make it a weekly thing.

Anyway! Here’s some pages out of my sketch book.

This is from one of the life drawing classes they held at my last job. Not a lot of life drawing classes now that I’m on the publishing side of the business. Maybe I should suggest it!

Another life drawing sketch. To be honest the only thing I really wanted to draw was the model’s hands. Hands are a nightmare at the best of times so I loved the idea of drawing nothing but hands for two hours. I got kind ticked off at the instructor who kept telling me to study the whole body. JUST LET ME GET MY HEAD AROUND THUMBS FIRST GEEZ.

Some quick sketches of Amanda from White Teenagers With Problems I did tonight. The one on the top left is the best I think. I still have a hard time drawing her right. In my mind she’s like a redhead version of one of the girls from Neighbours that I can’t recall the name of because I don’t really watch the show anyway.

Some random character sketches I busted out tonight to warm up the pencil.

Finally tonight I drew these two. I liked the way the dress turned out for the woman on the left but hate her legs. I liked the way the face and expression turned out for the woman on the right but hate that I stupidly drew a Pac-Man. You can’t win ‘em all.

Anyway, time to draw Presidog!

So hey, yesterday was my last day as a games designer.

After almost ten years of working out of the old Krome building I left for the final time, at least as an employee. I’ve made so many friends and memories in that place it’s hard to think that I will never darken its door again. But all good things must come to an end and all that, and I still find it incredible that I lasted there as long as I did. By all rights I should have never have even made it in there in the first place.

So for those who don’t know after Krome’s meltdown at the tail end of last year I found myself still working in the same building, with some of the same people, for a different company that was assembled to finish off a game we were making at Krome. The game is the Wii / PS3 / 360 version of Happy Feet 2 and it’ll be on sale in November. I helped make the bonus levels for it. It was a good way to spend a few months still doing the game design thing while being surrounded by people far more talented than myself.

But like all good things it had to end some time and so it was with my time there.

It was kinda sad leaving, but also incredibly exciting for a number of reasons. In fact, I’m really looking forward to the cool new things around the corner.

Such as?

I’m starting a new career. On Monday I’ll start my new job in a completely new part of the gaming industry and it’s a step I’ve been wanting to take for a couple of years now. I’ll be working in the publishing side of the business as a brand manager. It’s still a bit early to talk about it in detail but it basically means I’ll be working with overseas publishers, local retailers and media to help sell some really cool games that are coming out in the future. What’s even more exciting is that it’s in a different city with a completely different set of people so I’m looking forward to getting to know a whole new crowds and locale. AND NO MORE COMMUTING TO WORK IN THAT HORRIBLE BRISBANE TRAFFIC! YES YES YES.Instead I’ll be cruising down the lovely and comparatively quiet Gold Coast traffic  There is a bit of a down side though, in that it’s looking like I won’t be able to be at the coming Supanova Brisbane’s Artist Alley since my work will also be having a booth there and I expect I’ll be working that. I’ll keep you updated though, hopefully at the very least I’ll have the new Funny Book Comic on sale there somehow!

Funny Webcomic is changing. Fear not! I’m still doing five comics a week, every week, because I’m crazy like that. This week marks the end of the third year I’ve been doing this comic and I thought I’d use the opportunity to change the format a bit. Instead of doing five comics about one theme that you vote on each week, I’m making each day a set theme and you get to vote on what I should do for Friday’s comic. So for example every Monday could be a new Presidog comic, every Tuesday a new White Teenagers With Problems, etc. What will the themes be, though? YOU TELL ME. I’ve changed the poll to the right of this blog post so you can vote for your favourite themes. The ones with the most votes will be the one that I bring back first. And remember that each Friday will be a random theme based on your votes during the week. So vote early vote often!

I’ve launched a new comic site. YES! Well, sort of. Because Old Video Game Jokes was so insanely popular I’ve decided to make it it’s own thing, a site where you can see over 90+ retro gaming comics all in one place. It’s called Blow The Cartridge and I think you’ll like it. The comics are a lot bigger for one thing. And each wedNESday I’ll be adding more! Stop on by and suggest what game I do next! Guys, if you could take five seconds out of your day today and help spread the word, that would be a HUGE help, I would really appreciate it!

I’m getting some studio space. Just in case you were worried about the new job taking up too much time (and believe me, it will take up a ton of time) we’re getting a dedicated studio space for me to make these silly comic things in built soon. It’s going to be amazing you guys, amazing. It’s really going to help me concentrate on making the comics better, organise more cool stuff to have on the site and at conventions, and even allow me to stream me making the comic more regularly. Wouldn’t that be cool?

OK, I think that’s about it. The fourth year of Funny Webcomic is going to be the best one yet. I’m tremendously excited for what this month is going to bring.

How about you?