The NeverDigging Story

Today’s comic is the miracle baby of this comic and this comic. I wonder if I’ve violated any international statutes by doing two “Neverending Story” references withing a 12 month period. I’ll probably get a small fine and slap on the wrist at most.

The current HE server was able to withstand the last two front page Digg’s MUCH better than my old shared hosting solution, but there was still several hours of down time for each bediggification.

Regarding the comic, I tried something different this time. I DREW the comic… ON PAPER!!!

Check that out! It’s like a new (old) world. This was basically a test to see if I was still able to draw when pixels weren’t involved. I’m considering making this a regular thing and selling the one of a kind, signed originals with a print of the finished comic. Any interest?

SAVE HIJINKS ENSUE DONATION DRIVE UPDATE:

After announcing the Donation Drive yesterday you guys have already knocked me on my ass. Monthly subscriptions are at $280/month (over 10% of the goal!) and you sent an additional $500 in one time donations! I am floored by your support and generosity.

The goal to keep The Experiment going is get $2000-$2500/month (roughly half my required income to take care of my bills and family) in Donation Subscriptions in the next 30-60 days. Get ready for me sounding like a broken record because this is going to be my main focus for the next month. Together, I’m pretty sure we can make this happen.

Special thanks to Adam and Chris at Save Hiatus for pimping the Donation Drive. It’s like they have had practice rallying people around a cause or something.

If you have already donated, or are unable to, please spread the word about what we are trying to accomplish. The more Fancy Bastards the better!

It’s Hardly Noticeable

This comic is a combination of the problems Josh and I had this weekend. Josh, for the first time ever, tried to use the HDMI cable connection on the 50″ 1080P Samsung LCD TV he bought over a year ago and realized it had probably been fucked all along. I actually had a dead pixel on my Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet (which is basically a small monitor that you draw on with a pen stylus).

I did some research on how to fix dead or “stuck” pixels and the options ranged from easy to adventurous. The scary method involved using a screw driver and a rag to “massage” the pixel back into working order. No joke. I’m sure if that didn’t work I would be advised to “caress” it with a brick wrapped in newspaper. Luckily, the simple option was to run a Java applet that flashed every color in the rainbow on and off 100 times a second, which worked splendidly. The seizures it produced were spectacular, though I regret biting off my tongue as that I used it frequently to speak and enjoy ice cream.

Things to look out for this week:

An update on “The Experiment“
New Shirts in The Store
New Print offerings in the store
other… things

If you’ve ordered a personal Avatar from The Store, I should be completing them this week. If you’ve already ordered a Print you should be receiving it shortly. Feel free to send in pics of you and your print (or shirt or desktop) to comics(at)hijinksensue.com. I’ll post them on Flickr!

Requiem for a Robocop

Comic-Con ’08 Revelations Pt. 3

There’s also a tunnel of light that probably represents a vagina or something.

Aronofsky certainly wouldn’t have been the first name that came to mind when someone mentioned “Robocop.” He’s a fine director to be sure, but arty as the day is long. Each of his films has a very distinctive artistic visual style, which would certainly benefit any sci-fi franchise, but I don’t slot him as an action story teller. That’s probably a good thing. He might be able to take Robocop away from puns and explosions and move it into more of a “Dark Knight” direction of realism and… darkness… and knights.

I wonder how often that conversation is being had in Hollywood right now.
“The project is a mockumentary about florists staring Parker Posey and the dad from American Pie, but gritty… like the Dark Knight.”
“We’ll take two!”

I assumed not enough of you had seen “Pi,” so I left out the RabbiCop jokes.

2 TRON 2B 4 GOTTEN

Comic-Con ’08 Revelations Pt. 2

I went to high school with a guy named Tr2n. Or maybe it was Tran Nguyen. Either way, the trailer for “Tron 2”

that premiered at Comic-Con was short and sweet and enough to get me excited.

I actually wrote this comic several months ago when they announced the film. I had a page of notes about how “Tron” and “The Big Lebowski” could intersect.

“Ju don’ fuck wif’ de Sark
“Shut the fuck up, Tronny!”
“and I sure as shit don’t disc on Shabbos!
“Tronny died as so many young programs died in the games…”

The list went on and on. Yes, my brain is broken. As far as I’m concerned they’re the same movie now.

Bonus link: check out this Comic-Con 08 Costumes

Comic-Con ’08 Revelations Pt. 1 “SereniTube”

The Podcast Vidcast Simulcast Castcast will be tonight with Josh and Eli, starting between 8 and 9pm central. Check Twitter for exact times.

Comic-Con ’08 is over and the webs are returning to normal. I wasn’t able to attend (much less exhibit), but it’s totally cool because everywhere I turned on the interblogs there was some other web cartoonist Tweeting, blogging, vlogging or skrogling how freaking awesome it was. So… it was like I was there… which is totally just as cool [weeps].

(Baby steps, Joel, baby steps)

This week, each HE comic will be devoted to one “revelation” made at this years San Diego International Comic-Con. I think today’s comic speaks for itself in that “more Firefly” would be a good and welcomed thing, but would not be possible on the web unless it were a flash cartoon, and Captain Mal were an email answering luchadore. (I seriously feel like I’ve written that last sentence on this site before)

Sure, people are speculating that the success of “Dr. Horrible” could open new possibilities for our beloved space whores, phychic sister-weapons and… oh right, they killed Wash, but unless Firefly could get MAJOR sponsorship (and I’m talking Serenity would have to be a modified Ford F-150) I don’t see how the venture could be financially successful… today. I say that because the idea of shows being produced SPECIFICALLY for the web can only be a few years off. Tivo made “channels” and “times slots” obsolete and, in turn, the internet is making “networks” and “ratings” obsolete.

I know there have already been a few pseudo-dramas produced exclusively for MySpace and such, but I don’t consider that entertainment, therefor it doesn’t factor into this equation. NBC, ABC and F/X are experimenting with “webisodes” during the off season, but this doesn’t interest me either. I don’t want “throw away” content featuring the B-cast members of my favorite shows.

One of the major networks or film studios is going to have to take a leap of faith and produce a real series with real actors and real writers exclusively for the web. NBC/Universal is my pick, seeing as they know how to make decent comedies and sci-fi type series, and Hulu is the perfect distribution model. Get on it, jerks. I’m sick of having to pay for 350 satellite channels when i only watch 7. TV shows “A La Motherfucking Carte” is where it’s at.