Ask Not For Whom The Ring Tones

This weekend (STARTING TODAY!) I’ll be at Dallas Animefest with Rob from Explosm. We’ll be in the dealer room, terrified of glomping cat-girls and Sailor Bubbas alike. I’ll have both HE Books, Prints, sketch cards, “Grammar Dalek” Shirts and “The Doctor Is In” shirts.

Podcast Episode 86 “Oh No! Promotheus!” is live.

The site seems to be having RSS feed problems again. Working on it, but for now the Fancy Full Feed for donors seems to be good and rightly borked.

My phone “rings” so infrequently, that when it does I am completely unprepared and incapable of dealing with it. Sometimes I get confused and angry all at once and start yelling, “WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING AT ME ROBOT!? I DON’T HAVE ANY FUEL FOR YOUR INTAKE PORT! BAD ROBOT! BAD!” Other times I get suspicious. The only people I like (my wife and my daughter) are IN THE HOUSE with me. Who the hell else could possibly be trying to talk to me unless they are an enemy agent of THE MOST UNCLEAN trying to trick me into a fiddle contest or a game of Words With Friends with their cloven-hoofed master? Oh Christicles! Is the call coming from INSIDE THE HOUSE!?!?!? Did someone sign my 5 year old daughter up for a 2 year commitment calling plan!? WHAT KIND OF DATA PACKAGE DID SHE GET!? EVEN IF THEY SAID IT WAS UNLIMITED, THEY ARE RARELY ACTUALLY UNLIMITED! WHAT DID YOU DO MY DAUGHTER!?

I also have weird hangup about voicemails. I get all of 1, maybe 2 voicemails a month and I NEVER want to check them. I can see the name of the caller, and the time they called, and I can see the length of the voicemail they left. Somehow that seems like it should be enough information to discern their unheard message. What could they have possibly said in 14 seconds that was all that important? “HELP! FIRE! FACE FIRE! FIRE ON FACE!!!” That only took 8 seconds. Something seems fishy. What were they trying to convince me to do with those last 6 seconds? I’d better change my number and never talk to them again. WAIT! How long does it take to invite me to a super fun birthday party with bouncy castles!? FUCK. Only 11 seconds.

COMMENTERS: How has the changing telecommunications landscape altered your phone using habits? Are you annoyed by people that ONLY text or are you one of them? Does anyone use IM services anymore? Do you get frustrated that all of your friends aren’t on Skype video ALL OF THE TIME like you are?

Wheaton Comic Dare: Wil Wheaton Paper Doll

This weekend I’ll be at Dallas Animefest with Rob from Explosm. We’ll be in the dealer room, terrified of glomping cat-girls and Sailor Bubbas alike. I’ll have both HE Books, Prints, sketch cards, “Grammar Dalek” Shirts and “The Doctor Is In” shirts.

Wil didn’t so much “dare” me to make this paper doll as he did call me up and, with his best “WE SHOULD TOTALLY DO THIS BECAUSE IT WOULD BE TOTALLY AWESOME!” enthusiasm-voice, ask me very politely to draw it. The last time Wil dared me to draw him as a child’s plaything it took us over a year to bring it into meatspace. The good news is this time around the plaything in question doesn’t require an army of Chinese children with nimble fingers to make it a reality. All we really need is a PDF and a laser printer. To that end, Wil is going to have actual Wil Wheaton Paper Doll sheets that you’ll be able to purchase at PAX this weekend! For those of you unable to attend PAX, you can use the “Buy A Print” button below this comic to get your own Paper Wil.

I was under the impression that these would be “hang on the wall” types of things, but Wil is insistent that you guys actually cut them out, fold the tabs, dance them around and make them have holodeck tea parties. He is usually right about this sort of thing, so I’m going to fully endorse the idea. I would go as far as to suggest that you make your own accessories and post photographic evidence on one or more Internets.

COMMENTERS: What should be in a potential add-on pack for the Wheaton paper dolls? What accessories or clothes would a paper doll of YOU come with?

Remuneration

HE Podcast Episode 85 just went live! Subscribe via RSS or iTunes.

Toronto Fan Expo starts TODAY!!! I’ll be there with Blind Ferret and booth #1244. More info HERE. The following weekend I’ll be at Dallas Animefest with Rob from Explosm.

THE END! The Eli/Boxcar Pete story is over! So is the comic! I’m done! Exclamation points!

Actually the comic isn’t over, but I know a few of you are IN NO WAY sad to see Boxcar Pete go. Interesting thing about moving from single, self-contained gag comics to longer form stories is that when someone hates what you’re doing, they don’t just hate it for one day. They hate it, and you for days and days and days and let you know about it in the rudest ways imaginable. I will certainly be keeping the stories shorter (and possibly further apart) from now on, but overall I am pretty happy with how this turned out. I pushed myself to draw people and places I am not comfortable with drawing, and to draw poses that weren’t just two 3/4 turned heads talking at each other. Since this story line wraps up something that started in the Avengers arc (the first mini story line), I feel like the whole thing has a bit of closure. It seems like a mini “season” to me. Anyway if you liked it, I’m glad. If you didn’t and managed not to send me a rude comment or email, I’m also glad about you. You are why we are almost able to have a society. Everyone else is on my list.

I drew this comic at my friend Paul’s house in Buffalo. Later today were are going to drive into Canada to ~~do battle with Frost Giants~~go to a convention. I know it’s sort of a throw away line in the final panel, but I have recently watched all of Sherlock and HOLYCOCKMOFFATS is it an amazing show. Really, it is just flawless. I could go on (and I intend to later) but for now it’s 5am and I have to drive across the Bifröst a regular bridge to Canada in a few hours.

COMMENTERS: WHY IS SHERLOCK SO GOOD?!?!?!?!

The Benefactor

HE Podcast Episode 85 just went live! Subscribe via RSS or iTunes.

Toronto Fan Expo is THIS WEEKEND!!! I’ll be there with Blind Ferret and booth #1244. More info HERE. The following weekend I’ll be at Dallas Animefest with Rob from Explosm.

This story line has gone on a bit longer than I had originally expected, and I know some of you are ready to move on to something new. I’ve just been having more fun with the dialog and what not between Eli and Boxcar Pete than I anticipated. Good news is that it wraps up this week, and for my first attempt at a slightly longish story, I’m pretty pleased with it. I’m still getting my feet wet with this continuity situation, so if you’re tired of top hats and pirate-speak just bear with me. If you’re confused as to how this story even started or why Eli is chasing Pete in the first place, I will tag the whole storyline when it’s over to make it easier to see find the beginning and end, and I’ll post a quick recap with links to the relevant comics.

For those of you who may be enjoying the stories but miss the pop-culture commentary, I am working to weave that back into HE as various stories unfold, but for topics that require a timely reaction I am working on bringing back the Lo-FiJinks comics. They’ll be quick and crudely drawn (compared to HE), but more frequent and separated from the main archive.

Hobomian Rhapsody

HE Podcast Episode 84 is live and Episode 85 will be going up Wednesday. Subscribe via RSS or iTunes.

Toronto Fan Expo is THIS WEEKEND!!! I’ll be there with Blind Ferret and booth # [I currently have no idea]. The following weekend I’ll be at Dallas Animefest with Rob from Explosm.

The Fancy Sketch Drive was a MASSIVE success! All together with sketches and donations we raised almost $3500 to go towards my $5400 new AC unit bill. The new unit is installed and cooling the house wonderfully. The rest is on credit and will haunt me for years to come. All joking aside, this is just one more time that I am completely floored and humbled by the generosity and compassion of you Fancy Bastards. You guys are a confusingly bright ray of human decency in an often dim and apathetic world, and I am extraordinarily grateful to have you as a community.

Sketch shipping update: The first 50 or so sketches from last month have all shipped (except for 1 or 2 odd cases). If you’re in the US you should have been emailed a tracking number (and should already have the sketch by now), and if you’re international then you should cross your fingers and hope for the best. Experience teaches me that at least two of your will have your sketches stapled to the tire of a Humvee, driven down a mountain made of fire and mud and eventually returned to me with a note written in a dead language that poorly translates to “Package Fuck.” Those are the breaks, and if you are so sadly broken then I will make it right for you. I will start drawing the remaining 60+ (everyone that ordered during the AC fundraiser) when I get back from Toronto.

So the plot is thickening… or coagulating, or whatever a mixture of 1 part raccoon blood to 4 parts moonshine liquor does. Just a few more comics and this story will be wrapped up. We’ll know what happened to Eli the night he was helicoptered away from the Avengers showing, and what role Boxcar Pete played in his weeks long state of bedrunkitude. SPOILERS: Pete is NOT Eli’s father. Eli’s father is a retired Mexican Wrestler. Everyone knows Hoboes are bound by their code not to don luchador masks, as not to soil them with burnt beans which would be both disrespectful and rude.