page 3-37 of the comic strip, one more where the layout changed way too many times to be time-efficient, and the backgrounds are increasingly turning into mush, even apart from the roads. But I have sorted through my mess of a script document where there was a considerable pileup of overlapping and redundant dialog setups so it should at least be relatively smooth going forward until the next disaster zone.
page 34 of part 3 of that dumb old comic strip.
I probably wrote more text about this page than any other and feel like showing less of it than ever!
this script is so old, elpse initially said “get up, ramus.” Ramus is a character from the video game Lunar Silver Star Story Complete Absolute Total, who is unprepared for the life of a video game hero and gets knocked down a lot. lope was also initially quoting ramus’s “blarrrrgh.” I played Lunar Silver Star, in 2006, and last mentioned it, specifically with regard to Ramus, in 2007. I don’t remember if I wrote this part of the script then but I was certainly un-old enough to think I could put an obscure exchange like that in here and have anyone know what it meant, even though I didn’t actually post a screenshot of Ramus saying “blarg” anywhere because I didn’t think it was an interesting-enough line for that, so it most certainly was not interesting enough to allude to out of context nearly 12 years after the game was already a 7 year old remake of a game from 1992 which wasn’t even particularly innovative THEN. Also the one time a voice actor says his name it is pronounced “ray-mis” and I always say “ram-us.” I made myself obsessed with Lunar because I knew, at that time, other people who had been obsessed with it when they were children and I thought they would link to my website if I liked the same stuff they did. If they read my comic strips in 2006 they certainly don’t now! Probably.
Oddly enough one of them specifically denigrated the game Breath of Fire in favor of Lunar and I said nothing in its defense even though I legitimately liked Breath of Fire and still like it better and I don’t know that I have mentioned it even one time in the half-my-life of having this website. I don’t even have any screenshots from it since I last played it before I made this website or meticulously documented everything I did.
Literally the last time I played it, my computer had an MS-DOS based infrastructure. Three to four times as much time has passed since I last played it than had passed between the last time I played it on real hardware and the first time I played it in an emulator, which I thought at the time was a long time!
I may even have stolen pog’s name from it! Although I only remember being surprised to see the name in the game years after stealing it if I stole it, not actually doing so. All this is not to say I resent Lunar –I was able to make a forced infatuation be sincere back in 2006– or that Breath of Fire isn’t made of problems that only a childhoodded fixation can disregard (and I may resent BOF instead for making me steal POG from it), but of all the things I make, the bimshwellian comicoid least of all I ordinarily wonder who I am trying to please with it and why, but today I did!
Also lope being felled occurred, initially, during the altercation with the robots, but when I got to that point I decided the robots should just get beaten up without doing anything. Inexplicably I liked the dialog enough that i contrived a way for lope to fall down in the same spot at a later point, and now that is a permanent part of the “story.” i only removed the ramus line literally on february 22 2019. Or rather made a copy of the dialog bauble and moved it to another layer and turned it unvisible in case I wanted to bring it back (and look, I just did). I had drawn it in knowing it didn’t belong there but not feeling like dealing with it. Thankfully I still think it is funny that lope is pitiful and a substitute line easily suggested itself, so this is only a major problem with regard to me knowing i cannot be trusted and that i will probably be 60 years old before i get through the entire script as it is now.
Of course, as I indicated, much of what goes on is NOT in the script. i get to a point and i change it, sometimes significantly; initially nemitz was intended to capture pog out of view, but when i got to this point I thought it would be funny if elpse’s goop fell on nemitz, so then elpse had to run off and capture pog itself, and that gave me an opportunity to acknowledge the dope still exists and also exhibit pog’s unusual attitude toward captivity.
But I do not want to drop anything I think of for any reason and so try to think of in-character ways for them to behave illogically to accommodate script pieces that are no longer relevant. In this case, lope thinking that the goop-covered nemitz is a ghost (and at the same time avoid saying “I’m soooo dead”). From a long term stand point, do I really believe that lope really believes that ghosts are real or that itself was well and truly dead? I did not think about it that deeply. But I knew “wow I am sooooo dead” is obviously not how lope talks by the time I got here, even when I still thought elpse might call lope “ramus.” I wrote that so long ago I did not have a solid grasp of how lope talked or just how foolish it was and in what ways. But NOW I wonder: does lope live in constant fear of death and undead spirits? What occurred to make it be preoccupied with that? I know, or think I know, that nobody is going to DIE in this comic strip, and have worried about my ability to introduce matters of consequence as a result, but I did not want to face the issue on the big punchable nose either, since it is too permanent an occurrence to add on a whim unless you are making something stupid like Dilbert that isn’t supposed to be consistent or not contradict itself. A hypothetical future version of me with a clearer mind may think a character death is necessary or even devise an alternative that is not strictly “death” as it applies to real people but without relying on conventional cartoon judeo-christian afterlife tropes that have no business applying to dumb old lope who I won’t even let have a christmas tree, or even some of the other innumerable copout ways American comic books have, often on whims, undone once-significant or equally whimly deaths. And that version of me would then also have to determine if there are supernatural forces which have interest in or authority over death and life. The present me is not qualified and so should avoid topics which lead to that one!
additionally lope’s new comment about ghosts agitates pog, who now has no reason to be this bored by the dialog. Fortunately pog has a looser concept of reality than lope so I do not need to wonder about why it is afraid of ghosts.
Pog’s boredom complaint came about because consistently in this section of the comic strip i have worried that i had more dialog than interesting visuals could be made to accompany. But again and again, and indeed again, had to strain to cram in all the visuals i came up with. However, now a script revision that I added due to the boringness of the script was made irrelevant by a future revision. That is so convoluted, crowded and broken I am surprised now that I didn’t keep it in!
Beyond all that, this page is one that is very hard to get working without layout swapping or dialog bauble stem crossing because there are so many characters stuffed into it. Ordinarily you can switch around where characters are to facilitate better dialog flow by zooming in, zooming out, or going to the next page, but I don’t like doing those things! i had in fact gone to a bit of trouble to switch the layout already; initially the viewpoint matched the previous pages, with the dialog positioned to suit that, and then I realized that would mean drawing the back of this parking lot 12 more times and I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to draw this side either but it at least is plainly a different page.
I should just put the word “trivia” at the top of a page every time I am conflicted about the overall relevance of its contents.
page 33 of part 3 of this. One good thing does happen, but not much el[p]se. It took me less than two weeks to make, though, which is good, I hope, and not just reflective of my shoddy work on the backgrounds and the already mentioned not much occurring. The only thing in my favor is that I can hold a thought for twenty years. I think usually web comic people hit their peak within two years and finish everything they ever planned on doing within ten. I don’t have to/can’t beat anybody, but eventually they will all retire or move to endeavors that I am not also trying to do, unless battling for the last piece of breathable air becomes a common activity in the near future.
You may need to click at that twice for it to be remotely legible. i will need to make a separate section on the regular comic sub-website for these because increasingly they are not able to be read when reduced to a degree that fits here! And there are things wrong with this to needlessly point out apart from that.
I thought I could save time but not obsessing over the visuals, since this is stupid anyway, but it still ended up taking days, even unfussed. Or actually it took a year since it is based on opposing, non-acknowledging trash-content site posts which I saw last year, in search of what I cannot remember. People can find ways to be authoritative, elitist and condemnatory about any topic. Really the first box without the “argue” statement would have sufficed.
The second (and first also) “issue” of my comic books can now be ordered from http://www.indyplanet.us/bimshwel
It features 36 needlessly dense pages, artwork superior to my photography, considerably more legible lettering than the first book and NO DOPES ((actually there is one dope on the inside back cover, don’t tell anyone).
The linked page has them for 8 dollars, which may feel a tad excessive for a comic book but most comic books there have less content per page and eight fewer of them. More panels stuffed into the the same space is not necessarily “better” but I think it suits what I am doing better than the other way would have! Or at least it had better since I sure am not going to change it after all that. And then it would end up being a 48 page book and even more expensive!
Of course it can still be browsed for free up to and beyond that point also on the internet, but people on the internet are peculiar sometimes so I offer both options to them.
ALSO: if you dwell outside the federated republic of United Statia and want this for some reason but think the international shipping cost is exorbitant (I sure do), please contact me directly at [email protected] and I can send one to you through rinkety dinkity postal mail, although I could not guess when it would get to you! This is a fairly stupid time of year to try and mail things.
However, I would have gotten this out of my way much sooner if I could! “Currently, it’s taking *at least* 4-6 weeks from when a book ships to when it goes live” eventually struck me as meaning: “NOTHING will happen BEFORE 4 weeks and afterward it could be any length of time. weeks months years.” the “-6” is misleading. it has no meaning.
I only found out the book was finally available during a cursory check on it before I wrote a second annoyed request for information; the robot never contacted me!
Gimme a break, robot. That “i was driving to the bathroom when you called” story isn’t going to cut it this time. What kind of idiot would make a robot that even needs to do that? This smiling moron should be able to interface directly with the robot car instead of needing to operate external controls!
Another more worrisome matter: It has been brought to my attention that after months of obsessively relettering the internal text, I left out the M in “bimshwellian” on the FRONT COVER of the newish comic book! Order now before I fix that, and be the owner of a rare collectors’ item. Apart from the huge pile of them I ordered for my own purposes months ago and the fact that I might not get around to changing it at all.
page 3-32 of the the questionable comic strip
did you notice at one point that the lighting flips all the way around? i started drawing it correctly, then thought it was wrong and flipped it around. But once I thought “this lighting looks really nice” i knew that meant i had screwed up. And so for once decided to leave it that way, because you probably DIDN’T notice the lighting flipped around. and if you did, you can potentially imagine that elpse just ran around the block, even though the front of the apartment building is still visible. I only recognize it as the front because I hate drawing it so much and always need to use a reference from its regrettable non-designed initial appearance. Lighting can change but ugly architecture cannot.
page 31 of part 3 of the comic strip.
I planned this with a blow gun without really thinking about it. When I came back to it two weeks ago that seemed bland. I couldn’t think of anything to change it to except a sling shot, but then remembered i already used a slingshot on a page that i suppose realistically was not all that long ago. I also considered but did not draw a tiny bow-and-arrow but justified reverting to the blow gun on the grounds that kumquat looks funny opening its mouth like that. But then I had to tilt its angle more toward the viewer to seem less like it was deliberately aiming away from elpse, and consequently made it look less funny!
I also had to mirror the layouts over flow of information concerns and hopefully this will not screw up the page after this which I already laid out with the expectation that kumquat was attacking from the right instead of left!
If anyone is still out there after that last thing I put up, which I stand behind, 93%, here is page 30 of part 3 of the comic strip.
My only consolation: finding out that I’m my one true obligation.
Who needs a dream? Who needs ambition? Who’d be the fool in my position? Not very many, the way things are going, there’ll soon be one less. No one in your life is with you constantly. No one is completely on your side. And though I moved my world to be with them, still the gap between us was too wide. And I won’t miss them, they made it perfectly clear: I was a fool and probably queer. Not a help, you’ll admit, to agreement between us. I’ve taken mitz for seven years and I won’t take it anymore. Each day got through means one or two less mistakes remain to be made.
Let man’s petty fandoms tear themselves apart. It brings me no joy adding to their satisfaction. Bit by bit the pieces fit the bimshwellian machine advances, not one move that won’t improve our nation’s chances. This is the one situation I wanted most to avoid. What on earth am I doing, I could be better employed! I don’t care if you’re a champion, no one messes with me. I am ruthless in upholding what I know is right, black or white, as you’ll see. I’m on the case, can’t be fooled. Any objection is overruled. One night in bimshwel and the tough guys tumble. If you don’t like it then it’s up to you. You’ve a better reason to be anti-nem than me. How can you let mediocrity win? Who do these foreign chappies think they are? I can’t believe that they don’t see my game; I’m like that tennis player — what’s his name? Maybe it’s a bit confusing, for a game, but rubik’s cubes were much the same. And the appeal, partner, of this deal, partner, Is we both stand to win; We’ll bring back the golden era.
No no, you’re reacting exactly the way that they waaaaant! And ehhhhvery poison word shows that you never understood. You take care you don’t let their shenanigans blind you. It’s all very well to say “you fool!” It’s now or never. I could be choosing no choices whatsoever. Sad to see the ancient and distinguished game that used to be very like another when your head’s down over your pieces, brother.
page 29 of this. i do not like to spend this much dialog on explaining things that i thought could be determined by paying attention, but since this concerns parts that happened much earlier in the “story” that i certainly did not write with this part in mind, it seems justified to a degree. Also I do not know when kumquat will be able to meet elpse again to potentially explain these things. Which means I also reserve the right for elpse to not be completely accurate in its assessment.
I like the color usage here. it does not look like it is from the same story as “page 1” of this “story” but that could be a good thing, apart from the hassle of making them consistent at a later point. The less obligation i feel to keep backgrounds consistent, or even draw them at all, the more pages I can make, and the less fight i will put up when i realize i have to scrap parts of them!
a strange comic strip
initially this was the sixth frame. it reminded me too much of “reaction memes.” That is a picture that somebody with no sense of humor posts in an effort to indicate the opposite. I like those people even less than furries, when they aren’t furries.
This one was funnier to me and more like something i would actually do when frustrated but i could not get it to work. then i went back to it and made it work, even though i had already posted the other version on some websites. But it still seemed like it went against my actual intent, which is to show confoundment rather than contempt. Then i looked up my scripts for the first, unproduced strip about a conversation between these two (in that one the non-pathetic character is based on multiple people) and realized it actually calls for an angry reaction so this might suit that better. Although I know from experience that trying to incorporate an old drawing into new material consistently takes longer than just making a new picture, the way I do things, and i already spend ages on that!
This just seemed rude! –It does not even say hello. Of course in reality it would type “howdy” which was no longer available– But also too mopey. The revised dialog is more truthful, probably, even though the end result is meaner. Hence the need to reduce the amount of unfocused spite in the last frame. Way too much thought and effort for something this dumb. I wondered why I would publicly post a strip implying that I don’t greet people and immediately complain about my life. I complain about my life because I don’t have anything else to talk to about with the people who ask me how I am doing and do not see any point to lying and claiming to be fine. If that was my only other option I would not respond at all, which is also rude. So I ought to put that in here. It seems unfair to the actual person this is, on this occasion, solely based on, who probably did have good intentions, and in fact was the sole person from the science fox crony cult to acknowledge me after I was edged out of that, But the net result of this and similar relationships was, by 2016, not positive. In fact ironically somewhat emblematic of the overall set of problems. Not exclusively of how people treated me, but also of how I clung by a thread to a system that didn’t work for me and kept pulling myself back into it, with ever diminishing returns because of course the former supporters I scared off through my increasingly regular outbursts of frustration were not coming back.
Viewers who commented still managed to misconstrue this comic strip as nothing beyond me complaining about pornographic fanart, like I think that demeans the characters. No I don’t care about fanart in GENERAL. If I was just going to list all the things I thought were gross and boring about furries I would have gotten much more specific than that and wouldn’t have wasted four frames before doing so. The POINT is that I resent having my material treated as if it is more maladjusted than a huge collection of odd behaviors just because there isn’t a community for mine. I suppose I could have gone totally abstract but again this is based on real conversations from years ago, exaggerated somewhat to seem outwardly as unpleasant as I mentally interpreted them. Don’t aspire to much since you’re unusual without being in a normalized unusual person club. Maybe we even addressed that I took issue with that, but the feeling of being annoyed at it lingered more prominently, in addition to some other typical exchanges which made this course of action seem more justifiable.
Ironically the person I am griping about in the comic here claimed to particularly enjoy this series and probably got the idea better than some others, but the comic’s goal if it has one is to help me out of this box and the whole furry mess is part of the box. Even though I have to explain what they mean afterward, it is a harder to miss prompt for the providing of explanations than just words without pictures.
I have regrettably much more text on this topic! And since I also have more comic strips on the topic that text may even be seen eventually!
page 28 of part 3 of this. More extreme expressions than usual here, a few of them justified. These imps think they are constantly in peril.
I feel like it is cheating to not draw dumb creatures in the windows but none of the windows here are visible enough for me to use window poses that I have not already used recently. “recently” in the sense of the last 15 pages, not necessarily the last three years of real time. I am reserving the right to show Squirb in full at another occasion and have it not be immediately apparent who that is, so showing just a scrap of it in the pertinent space here seemed undesirable, and i do not know what it looks like yet anyhow.
page 27 of part 3 of that, featuring a surprise guest: the rarely seen non-couch side of lope’s apartment’s non-kitchen zone.
one of an impressive variety of delays on the second comic book involved me abruptly feeling the need to reletter almost every dialog bauble in the 34 contained redrawn old pages (and two non-old pages) . I could not understand how prior to that point I thought any of it would be legible. I am reminded of that when I look at the NEW page I uploaded here last month compared to this one now, which is made to my new legibility standard-like-thing. Which consequently means I must reletter every dialog bauble I have ever put anywhere, including somehow the ones in the first book I have already printed and sold at least twelve copies of.
On other websites and the side-bar here, at least until future entries scroll the text out of existence, I identify this comic strip with the title “the grapes of asp.” I initially titled it “the grapes of rasp,” not realizing that “rasp” was not actually a snake, but merely the name of a snake-headed rulon crony in Dinoriders, and also the name of a robot I and Jerry Caro came up with in first grade that we imagined traveled around stealing chocolate brownies while saying “RASP…RASP…RASP…” Rasp as in “I have you in my rasp” instead of grasp because kids are dumb. Then (now) I remembered that “asp” was a snake, and it seemed odd that asp and rasp would be near synonyms. This is a pointless bit of trivia. There is a more poignant bit of trivia about this comic page that also concerns chocolate, but it is depressing and I will defer it to a future posting, which means I will probably never post it, which theoretically suits me, who can only survive by not being aware of things I know that bother me.
page 26 of part 3 of something or other
Not totally ready, and it doesn’t prove anything, (I will probably undo the one unusual development in a disappointing way on the next page) but it is mostly legible. I have to wake up “early” tomorrow for a dentist appointment so this will have to do for now! All the dentists want to come meet with me so I can tell them how to deal with dopes. Dopes have no teeth, which is extremely frustrating.
i still have to print that comic book of a part long before this one, right? Yes, and in fact I did, and there was so much stuff wrong with it that fixing it is yet ongoing. I needed to be needlessly obsessive compulsive about an actual new page to remind myself I am not just reliving the same years while my body turns to decrepit mush, hence the new page. Talking about what I still need to fix on the old pages makes me tired. Great I need to go to my sleep heap anyhow. Good night and goop muck.