Category: epic fail

can’t think of any off the top of my head, but still

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Whoa, sudden style change! Thanks to the History page which I’m sure nobody reads, I can explain!

The tablet came with Corel Painter Essentials 2, which was just a thing to let you fiddle around with painting digitally. The “Essentials” part of the name meant that it was actually lacking a bunch of features of its big brother, and recognizing that, I eventually acquired an “extended trial” of the full Corel Painter X. *cough*.

Okay, cards on the table, I actually downloaded it without paying. I pirated it, to use the parlance of our times. And it worked great! If you’re looking over the comics you will probably notice changes in the line styles — thicknesses, softness of the edges, that sort of thing — every time I make a transition.

What happened is that I foolishly tried to download an update for my pirated software, and that update irrevocably broke it altogether. I was in a bind and still wanted to make sure I wrote a comic, so for one night only I switched to classy old Paint.NET. It actually doesn’t look too terribly out of place. [November 16, 2011]

why do I have to be so cutting-edge and experimental

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Sometimes I write about my trials and travails with putting things up on the walls, because I’ve come to realize that doing so is actually fairly important to me. It’s the way I make a space “mine”. Some people move into a new house and need to re-paint, or change the flooring or get new furniture or whatever. I put up pictures and posters.

On the other hand, when I go to places where the occupants have gone for a more “clean” or “minimal” look on the walls I just can’t help but feel that the place isn’t as comfortable or home-y as I’d like. It makes the the occupation of that place feel temporary, like visiting a friend without taking off your jacket. [November 14, 2011]

INTERESTING TIMES 1ST BIRTHDAY COMIXTRAVAGANZA

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Suddenly, an entire year had passed! And I knew I had to do something special, so I just started linking the standard frames together and told a rambling, nonsensical story filled with callbacks and pop culture references. Also, in typical I.Times style, barely a third of it is true.

Honestly I’m not crazy about this comic and have had a terrible time trying to come up with anything to say about it. I don’t hate it either, it’s just…hm. Hard to put into words. And isn’t that exactly the kind of insightful commentary you were hoping for??

Okay, fine! Let’s try. It’s pointlessly long and not particularly funny. The artwork is serviceable but why did I bother bringing back the masked man? And the last two panels are only there because I was re-using the entire three-panel frame each time (you can see the curves in the corners) and rather than lop them off I decided to fill them out with, well, filler.

But don’t listen to me. I am sometimes my own worst critic and have a long history of utter disdain for my own work simply because time has passed between writing it and re-reading it.

Let’s focus on the positive. I like my imaginary Tom Selleck moustache and accompanying expression. I like the panel where I threaten that guy with a knife. And I like what should have been the final panel (the one with the date in it). [May 22, 2011]