I hate to admit it, but the PA website being down (at my end, at least) was really annoying for some reason. Probably because Penny Arcade, like Slashdot, breaks other websites. Somehow that volume of traffic, in my mind, never has an adverse effect on their own servers.

I didn’t pay it much mind, but apparently the first meatspace gathering for Anonymous’s little war on Scientology turned out to be a couple dozen skinny white nerds. Anon seemed so much more intimidating when the only proof they existed outside of 4chan was that Fox News special. (Incidentally, that video is hilarious to anyone more knowledgeable about technology than Fox News was. So, anyone with a functioning brain from age six and up. But then, I have to laugh at people’s technofear, because the only alternative is a level of rage at their sheer stupidity that would surely kill me. Wait, was I talking about a comic?)

The nice thing about the insults in this strip (only a sick man would call them “jokes”) is that the people who won’t have a sense of humor about this are likely the ones who have no actual skills outside of whining on a blog. (Don’t let that stop you, Blog Hero. Be sure to link to this on 4chan and the PA forums in order to get your buddies to back you up on just how awful I am. I mean, you can’t buy that kind of advertising.)

I think we’ve all been in that situation before. A perfectly good comeback cockblocked because the other party didn’t say the thing you came up with the comeback to.

I don’t know if the rewiring in the second panel is even possible, much less whether it works as described. In theory, you could wire a pair of humbuckers to act as four single-coil pickups, though I’m pretty sure gutting a cat with a rusty butter knife would be quicker and produce about the same tone.

For those who care, Jay presumably wants a Les Paul for the same reasons I want one: a fixed bridge and the tone (and hum-cancelling) of the pickups. Her stated reason falls apart when you consider that Eric Clapton could probably make a kazoo sound pretty damn nice.

This was inspired by a YouTube comment on a video set to Working Class Hero, but as much as I like John Lennon (and that song in particular), I had to go with a George Harrison song for this.

(The comment was, in a nutshell, how “Green Day has gotten so popular that even The Beatles are covering them.” You’ll notice that I now have a Firefox extension that hides the comments on YouTube videos now. And for the record, the Green Day version of Working Class Hero doesn’t even come close to the original.)

For the curious, the photos are from the Light Rail station at the Englewood Civic Center or whatever they’re calling City Hall and the Library now. Not a bad place, though the nearby apartments always seem to have at least one set of idiots drinking and yelling on their balcony.

Hey, it’s strip number 42, you should’ve known I’d do something like this. It might just be me, but I think this would be the ultimate horror movie. (But only if they use the original Marvin, not the whiny Alan Rickman version.) Hopefully I captured the feel of a trailer for one of those generic horror flicks.

Apologies for lateness. I spaced doing today’s HOD on Friday, when I was supposed to (I’d like to be at least one strip ahead) and then forgot that what little buffer I had was completely exhausted while I was out and about during the weekend.

If you don’t get this, I can say with complete honestly that I don’t give a fuck, you poorly read swine. (Though if you want to rectify your complete and utter failure at life, you’ll find The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams enlightening.)

Huh. Seems I let the buffer run dry. Oops. Comic will be up after I get off work today.

Serenity Rose, on the web. Hooray for Aaron Alexovich! Admittedly, you have to buy the first book to know what’s going on, though so far the basics have been mostly explained. Hell, you should buy the first Serenity book anyhow.

Forums exist, folks! Join now for the indie cred! You too can say “I was here before it officially existed!”

She looks so goddamn cute…

I seem to be pulling an all-nighter again. At least I’ll be on time for work for once. Which seems kinda backwards when you think about it.

Anyhow, I mentioned Ficlets a while back, and never actually explained it. Basically, it’s a writing community where authors submit stories of 64-1024 characters, usually with an attached image, phrase, or prequel/sequel indicating what inspired the piece. I have an account there, but you need to log in to see the stories that I tagged as mature for naughty language. If you have an AOL/AIM screen name, you can just sign in with that.

Even if you don’t read my stuff (though I’m rather proud of what little I have up there), check it out. It’s pretty fun to write those tiny stories, and there’s some good reading there. I recommend Ben Paddon, creator of Jump Leads. (For that matter, Jump Leads is also worth reading.)

I’ve been talking about The Next Project for a while now. And recently, I’ve also been talking about the “technically-doesn’t-exist-yet” forum. As it turns out, some small bit of information about TNP has surfaced in the forum. If you’ve got questions, feel free to help me make sure all the kinks are worked out of the forum before it officially exists. (No registration needed, but making an account takes an extra sixty seconds at best.)

Working on more concept shit for TNP. Just felt the need to clarify one important point:

I FUCKING HATE DRAWING MEN.

Typically male of me, I know.

This is basically a “where are they now” kinda thing, so you’ll have to have read Ne Sais Rien to give a damn about anything discussed up there. If the wings don’t make it clear, it was established in the original HoD strips (which I’m too embarrassed to put back online) that Jay is Mal’s brother’s daughter. Shame I never wrote Jim-Bob into NSR, he had the same kinda “well educated redneck” thing going on as Ness has, except he was an actual redneck. With big ol’ bat wings. Wings seem to run in the family. And while I assume most people wouldn’t be so cavalier about their mother pulling the safety pin trick on their father, I can assure you that Jay’s mother is exactly the kind of cunt who would pull such a thing. Also the kind of cunt who would hook up with a guy’s sister to make him jealous, and get a man sent to prison out of spite. I really wish I’d written her into NSR, just because all the stories involved Malice throwing her through a plate glass window. The thought of that scene still gives me the warm fuzzies. ^_^

As much as I’d like to, because I’d really like to get back to drawing girls kissing (typically male of me I know, but I really like drawing girls kissing), the odds of more Ne Sais Rien are pretty low. Even if Hannah wasn’t a pain to draw, I doubt I’d have time to draw three new strips a week once TNP starts up. (No way in hell would I go the predrawn route like I do for HoD.) Besides, as you can see above, I didn’t exactly bring my A game when i thought that shit out. There isn’t even a letter for the game I brought to this particular HoD.

Also, I keep forgetting to mention this, but the forums exist, and I’d really like to get some activity in there to make sure there’s no problems with PHPBB3 before TNP launches.