Come get some... Klingon!

Just a quickie today...

CCGB #64

Sorry about the lack of posts...

Sorry everyone - been dealing with a family berievement, so not many posts this week. Hopefully some more updates will come later, thanks for your patience..l

Hey, I made it!

Yup - my cartoon made the xaraxone cartoon gallery! Please take the time to look at the fab cartoons posted by some very talented cartoonists at the XaraXone Cartoon Show 2010!

Interesting fact - Star Wars

Number of times I have seen the movies...

Star Wars - too many to count!
Empire Strikes Back - Oodles
Return of the Jedi - Oodles

Phantom Menace - 1
Attack of the Clones - 1
Revenge of the Sith - 1

Draw your own conclusions... :)

Xara Xone submission

Just submitted "Keys to my heart" to the Xara Xone Cartoon Show - I wonder if they'll take it?

How times change...

Something that troubles me, is how times have changed computing-wise. The computer and I first met at school, when I tried to master that wonderful little beast, the BBC Micro. Oh, how I struggled with it, loading programs via tape, playing games that cost a small fortune, and realising that I'd never be able to afford one (£400 back in the early eighties...)


Fast forward 3 years to my first job... as a Computer Operator. I used to work on an ICL Mainframe called an ME29, the first machine I used that had 256k of memory (2 years later, my Amstrad PCW 256 surpased that). That wonderful mainframe started by turning a key...


Fast forward to 1986 - my first exposure to PCs - the Amstrad PC 8086 - I remember thinking that these were out of my price range, but loved the idea of a hard disk. In 1989, portable computing arrived with my Cambridge zx81, a lovely little laptop word processor with a rubber keyboard (Amstrad eventually took them over and released the machine under another name), but the real highlight was seeing IBM PS/2 PCs - I drooled over their lovely looks, and fantastic power (at the time) - it wasn't going to be long before PCs would rule my life.


Not soon after, I was introduced to the Atari ST520FM - and my love of computers for home use was secure. I played hundreds of hours of games, produced fanzines, programmed, trawled BBSs - in fact, I did everything I do today, on a machine that had 1MB of memory, and a floppy drive - I loved it! I upgraded it, cherished it, bought it presents - my wife said I spent more time with the Atari than I did with her (she was jealous I tell you)!

In 1994, I was given the chance to move to IT/PC Support, and I jumped at the chance. From that point on, I was a PC man. I always built my own to my own spec (a trend I only recently distanced myself from), and I learned the very deepest darkest secrets of their psyche. Not only DOS, but Windows fell before me, in all it's worst incarnations.

Today, I use a 3GHz PC PC at work, a Samsung net book for general surfing at home, and a HP TC1100 Tablet PC for my artwork, and I recently contemplated purchasing a one terabyte hard drive because they were so cheap - things have certainly changed in the last 30 years!

New Music...

I'll admit it - I'm stuck in the Seventies & Eighties. My main musical influences all stem from around that era, and I've found little since then, to contradict my opinion that modern music is awful. I hold the opinion that music has stagnated since the end of the Eighties, and is now a homoginized product of the music companies who are looking at the "next big thing" to replace "the last big thing" - a never ending stream of the same old acts, that look alike, and sound alike - and that "alike" has not changed for the last decade. Look at any music channel - it's not about new music any more, it's about money and fleeting fame. Just look at X-Factor or the Disney Channel... (shudder)

I was having a conversation with my sons about this on Sunday. My youngest son is a fabulous rock guitarist, and he was trying to find something to listen to on the sky music channels.

"This is ridiculous!" he cried. I asked him what the problem was.

"The channels - they're all the same! The music is all the same!"

My oldest son (a bassist) agreed, which lead a long discussion, and some amazing revelations. Apart from one or two modern groups, they've started listening to, and appreciating, music from the Seventies and Eighties. I was gobsmacked!

"Why?" I said.

"Because none of the bands sound the same - it's all new and fresh!" So saying, they sat and watched a Thin Lizzy concert, and whilst they laughed at the clothes and poor video quality, one thing was agreed on.

Thin Lizzy rocked,

I kid you not. This actually happened. Now to get them hooked on Ultravox.. :)

The Unoffical Guide To Enjoying Your Works Bar-B-Que

For those who know me, you'll know that all this actually happens! It's worse than blood sports at times... however, we wouldn't swap them for anything. Colour version coming later on tonight.

Spiders

I make no bones about it - I hate spiders, always have, always will. But lately, my spider-phobia has been getting better, even to the point where when I pick my wife up from work, I talk to them (there are some really big ones where she works...)

Anyhow, Sunday night, we were having a family discussion. We often have these, where we all sit down (if somewhat forced) and talk about what's bothering us. They usually start out a bit heated, and then die down into a useful, and sometimes funny conversation. Sunday night was really hot (as a family, we don't deal well with heat, and one of the points made was that the heat had made us all extra argumentative), so my youngest son when to make a cuppa.

"MUUUMM! DAAAAAD!"

We rushed into the kitchen, thinking he'd burned himself.

"There's a spider in the kettle!"

Sure enough, inside the kettle, lay one of the biggest domestic spiders I had ever seen - legs and all. It took several attempts to remove it, after flushing didn't work (it was stuck to the side), extraction with a knife (still stuck) and shaking, it was removed with a wooden spoon.

"That was really stuck in there, wasn't it?" said my lovely wife.

That's when it hit us. We'd been drinking tea/coffee all day - how long had that spider been in there? How long had we'd been drinking boiled spider?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH!

Needless to say, we check every time we boil the kettle now... :)

Tablet PC - first impressions...

Well, I've finally managed to get around to using the tablet pc (sorry for the poor quality, had to use my phone's camera)...


It's a HP TC1100 tablet pc (with the keyboard removed) running XP Tablet Edition, and ArtRage Studio...

I'm surprised by how quickly I managed to get something reasonable out of it. The pressure sensitivity is fine for me (although OpenCanvas doesn't detect it - boohoo), and there is still a very slight feeling of disconnection, caused by the thickness of the glass screen (the pen appears to be gliding above the paper by 2mm), but apart from that, it's great!


Anyhow, I'll be using the tablet on the strip soon (see if you can tell when). That reminds me, time to put the kettle on...

Playing...

The tablet has arrived, and I'm currently playing with it - expect to see some work completed with it after the weekend!

Waiting...

Today, excitement was at fever pitch. At 7:15 this morning, my door bell rang...

"Parcel for you - sign 'ere!"

With trembling hands, I placed my mark on the postman's electronic tablet (me soon, I thought). Muttering my thank-yous, I closed the door. In my hands I now held a box, about the size of 3 reams of paper, but very light. Brown parcel tape enclosed what was obviously a shoe box - the sender had wanted the contents to remain safe. I whispered a "thank you" to the postal gods, for the safe arrival of the item. Carefully, I placed the box on the dining table, and proceeded to cut the tape separating the two halves of the box. My hands shook with excitement - not long, not long - as I removed the lid of the box. The contents were obscured, safely enclosed in thick bubble wrap, which I carefully removed, to reveal the wonderment inside...

... an Epilator.

Oh Globbitts!

Yep - wrong parcel - now I've got to go through all this again ... :)

Technology Update

As mentioned on my web comic, my lovely wife has decreed that I can have a bit of a splurge, and a lovely tablet pc should be (hopefully) winging it's way to me with utmost speed.
Why a tablet pc? Simply put, although I use a graphics tablet, I just can't get the hand/eye co-ordination right. I need to draw on a computer, the way I can on a piece of paper, and with that in mind, I had three options:

1. A Cintiq (too bloody expensive - unless your name is noel ford :)
2. A iPad (too expensive again)
2. A tablet pc (just about in my price range)

I can't wait... :)

Request Work

A very good friend of mine, Chris, recently contacted me, asking if I could come up with a cartoon for his blog. In short, the company he was working for was being screwed by a certain ISP, to the point where my friend, a very competent network admin, could not administer his own network, whilst having to pay the ISP a substantial amount of money for the privilege. He wanted a cartoon that showed the rip-off value of what he was experiencing. He also wanted a cartoon for the banner of the blog, showing the sheer futility of his job...

I sympathize entirely of course, having been in similar situations myself. Hopefully mate, I've done you proud, and I promise, I'll get round to colouring them as soon as poss. Chris's blog can be found here, and will make very entertaining reading - once he gets round to writing it ;)

Starfleet

Bet you didn't know Melville & Frankie were Star Trek fans- did you? Mind you, TOS only... :)

Its..ALIVE - is ALIVE!!

Yup - the webcomic is finally available - you can find the site at http://hypervox.co.uk/itsalive - you may notice that the next few posts are known to you - let's just say that you've had a sneak preview... :)

Hypervox Site Redesign - under way!

Yup - my old Hypervox site is currently under reconstruction, in preparation for it's re-incarnation as IT'S...ALIVE! Have a look if you wish - but don't annoy Frankie...

It's Alive! 5 & 6

Technical Notes: Inked using Zig Graphic Brush Marker (similar to a Tombow ABT) and a stinky big black McKie Marker. Lettered & corrected using ArtRage, other adjustments using GIMP. Yes, I know I forgot to do the background tone - my fault, lost time fiddling with ArtRage. Personal Note: Drop the table line down...

I think I'll do 12 initial strips, and provided I'm happy with the progression, I'll start building a buffer for web release.

Things to remember when creating a cartoon strip - 2

Hand lettering is quicker than computer lettering - although it may not look better to start with... :)