The Comic

I know, I know, it doesn’t have a punchline. And it’s about a year late. So sue me.

This particular comic relates to an event Jamesoven, Thronos, and Alynne witnessed happening to me while we were playing Star Trek Online yesterday. I probably could have come up with a way to actually make this comic funny, but it was laugh-out-loud funny when it happened and I wanted to record it (even in condensed form) before I forgot it.

Basically, we were wandering around on Starbase Sierra (a public shard of shops and mission-givers) when a random high-ranking (read: high-level) PC came up and asked me the rather curious questions of “who are you looking for?” and “why are you looking at these people?”

At first, I didn’t even notice these questions were directed at me (despite my screen name appearing before them), and when I asked him why it mattered to him who I clicked on or looked at, I was told that it was suspicious behavior. After all, he said, he was security for Starfleet Canada’s HQ, and since they had claimed this public starbase as their personal purview, this was something he would be watching very closely.

I don’t know what kind of games you, the readers, play, but apparently clicking on other PCs is awfully suspicious, so get your mouse cursor off of those people before they report you to Starfleet Canada’s Security.

The Living

Jobs are scarce where I live (as they likely are where you live), so life’s been someone sedate while the waiting for job openings continues. If I were willing to move to another part of the country, I could probably find a job in my field, but as it stands I’m stuck waiting.

One thing I am looking forward to is the new Futurama episodes that start airing in June. I’ve been watching the movie DVDs and episode DVDs non-stop for about three weeks, driving everyone in my household batty.

It’s been worth it.

The Gaming

Lots of good games have come out since I last pontificated from my lonely forum.

• Call of Duty 2: Modern Warfare gets a lot of credit for holding my attention for over a hundred hours of game-play over the last several months.
• I haven’t started (but intend to get) Mass Effect 2–and yes, I do still have my saved game from the first one to continue the story.
• I had really high hopes for Dragon Age: Origins, and while the storyline is extremely engaging, the game-play (party control) is reminiscent of Final Fantasy XII–and I don’t like that style all that much. I think I’ve played around 12 hours of it since I got it near Christmas.
• Borderlands gets a big ol’ double-thumbs up from me. Get some friends and play it, if you haven’t. I can’t wait to re-visit it with some friends when the current game-set is over.
• I own Left 4 Dead 2, but I owe someone a first play-through and until we can arrange it I won’t play it. I may be a zombie by the time I get around to it, but I suspect I’ll still enjoy it.

The big enchilada for me right now is Star Trek Online. It’s exactly what I wanted it to be, and probably not what many people wanted it to be. I intend to give more details on that in the future. For now, my only advice if you’re curious is this: wait for the demo on May 7th.

–Evhelm

In the words of Double-D, “Summer rains…you can never predict them!”

Also, floppy soggy cowboy hats are fun to draw even if your girlfriend says it looks like hair in a bun.

Submitted to the beast again today. I am tentatively optimistic about it.

Team Fortress 2 is still amazing, although I would have preferred the update given us more than “fluff” content and a new map-type (cool though they may be). I’m a sucker for character development.

College students move back in this weekend around here; good luck in your new academic years you kings of New New England.

–Evhelm

PS: Sorry if you have to zoom in to see this comic. I can’t get the width of the comic to agree with the width of the site, and the results are minimized comics.

Realized today while doing some marketing that I used to have a LOT of fun playing with cardboard boxes.

I think Thronos will agree that there is little in life to compare with the utter joy of playing with pallet, refrigerator, or other appliance cardboard boxes.

–Evhelm

I’m not sure I can say we’re “back in business” (since I don’t think we were ever selling anything to start with…) but I can say that the site is back to full functionality. I hope.

Sometime in late May, early June, one of us mis-clicked on something we shouldn’t have and *POOF*!, no more site. I breathed a bit of life back into it (as those of you who’ve visited over the last few months can attest) but I couldn’t figure out how to re-hook up the comics that went with the posts. Kind of hard to have a webcomic without comics.

Anyway, I think we’re up to full speed again–just in time for me to go on vacation! See you all on the flipside.

Oh, and fyi, I blame the sea.

–Evhelm

Know your audience…Your audience is speeding (Just a little!)

So the list is in no particular order and is mostly serious…mostly. I do appreciate those who just write “everything” instead of being ridiculous, although, either way, if you won’t do it right, just don’t do it at all, man. Life lesson right there.

/Thronos

I have no idea how to draw meat.
Well, to be fair, I suppose you could end that sentence one word earlier.
At least I have puns!

/Thronos

The Comic
Oy vey! I spent the better part of the day today working on this comic across two sketch books, two computers, and a very tired little jump drive. I’m not entirely happy with the end result, but it was still a lot of fun to put together. Someday, I’ll be a skilled artist and can spend less time to do better work.

Anyway, this comic was inspired by AzureFire discovering a Star Trek Exhibition in Philadelphia. I took a few liberties with the dialogue and the setting of the comic itself, but it is modeled on a real conversation between Thronos and me. The imaginings in the second half of the comic are similarly drawn from that conversation.

The Living
I’ve been “rubber-stamped.” A few more days of paperwork and one more class-day in a school and I’ll be where I need to be.

In other news, I’m really looking forward to seeing the new Star Trek movie. I had originally planned to see it tonight or tomorrow, but I think it might have to wait a bit. I have a cousin graduating from college this weekend, and there is still paperwork to do, after all.

The Gaming
AstroEmpires has been entertaining; I feel somewhat sorry for the Grey Knights and I definitely feel the pain of the Seven Samurai. Both groups were hard hit by the Canisius Fusion Federation this week. You might say we had a blast.

For all of you interested in such things, Blizzard has set all sane gamers abuzz with the announcement that Starcraft 2 is going into the beta stage of development very soon, and that Blizzard game owners can opt-in to the beta.

–Evhelm