The Comic
It’s true–it’s been far too long since a new comic has gone up. I hope you all enjoy this return to updating which features a volcano, a UFO which could easily be mistaken for a party balloon, and a suspiciously devilish butcher’s knife.

The Living
The flurry of paperwork I’ve been buried under is starting to dissipate. There will be much rejoicing when it’s finally finished. Within a week of this post I’ll be changing gears from “training for a job” to “looking for a job.”
To all of you engaged in the college lifestyle: Good luck on the final exams and papers which are imminent.
To all of you engaged in the secondary school lifestyle: Enjoy your last months of classes.
To all of you engaged in the work world: Happy Saturday.

The Gaming
I reluctantly beat Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War 2 this past week. I say reluctantly because I could see the last mission coming and didn’t want the campaign to be over. Overall, I think the game has some incredible strengths and not a lot of weaknesses. What it needs most is some expansion packs to keep people interested, and an ability to bring in your own squads when joining someone else’s co-op game.

I still haven’t gotten around to installing the cable modem, but I did get very distracted trying to convince Starcraft to allow two people (playing from the same router) to play with other people on battle.net without a set and wholly unacceptable amount of lag. I became a detective of sorts in search of the solution to this most heinous crime being committed by Starcraft and its accomplice battle.net. I bought a switch (distinct from my router). I read through pages of internet slag, sifting for tech-support gold. But alas, it’s just as I suspected all along. The case is unsolvable.

The Site
I’m going to try something new in this post: I’m going to organize it! In the future (assuming I still like this arrangement the next time I look at it) you’ll see headings in bold in the posts. Each heading will have various bits of information you may be interested in. Read each one at your leisure, or skip around! We’ll see how it goes. Please feel free to comment and let me and Thronos know what you think (not just of this organization but of the site and comics in general!).

The Comic
I don’t like to start off a post with an apology but I feel this time maybe I should at least offer an explanation for the post delay. The idea for this comic “came to me in a dream” (literally) last Thursday. I started working on it the morning I woke up, but didn’t see anything solid come of it until Saturday night. From then until now I’ve been struggling with the art-work and art-style.

Normally I try to employ a single, clean, crisp style (usually markers). In this comic, every attempt I made the markers seemed too bulbous and cumbersome–the lines blurred, the shapes clashed, and the colors were too bright and didn’t have enough depth. So, while I started with black markers and pencil I ended with colored pencil and about a half an hour of work on Photoshop.

Oh, and for the record, the “extended Mega Man theme” definitely came from an Arm Cannon album.

The Living
The Easter holiday was a good one for me. Thronos and I got to see each other in person and play some games and hang out. Some family came in from out of town and we did what we always do when the family gets together: we ate, rested, ate, then ate some more. After that we ate a great deal more and then had some food. Did I mention the eating?

The Gaming
I haven’t done anything terrifically new on this front, but I did get the opportunity to play some cooperative Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 with Frozen. Tim Curry and George Takei are the only actors I notice as “big names” who make appearances in the general storyline, but they’re sufficiently awesome to captivate me. The plot is appropriate, fun, and suitably laced with good actors acting badly; all in all, a tremendous achievement. The gameplay itself is reminiscent of the best aspects of Warcraft 2 and Warcraft 3 with the speed of a game of Starcraft. (Note: I have yet to have played any other games in the Command and Conquer line–I only picked up this one because of the golden word: co-op.)

Of course, I’m still enjoying myself on AstroEmpires (Delta server).

Finally, a few four-player games of Starcraft rounded out my Easter weekend. Thronos, Alynne, Jamesoven, and I had a great time stompin’ the comps. I can’t wait for Starcraft 2.

–Evhelm