I just re-read Lithium …

… as I tend to do once every few years – just to check where we’re going and that the next comic’s consistent / doesn’t include any plot holes/fauxes-pas that need to be sorted. Anyway, what a lovely comic! I don’t mean like “Wow aren’t I clever” – I mean like it’s far sillier and…

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Tiiiiiiiime travel: VOTE!

Okay, help me with a conundrum. Basically, I was wondering about weaving in a mini plot including HG Wells and young Mary Poppins, time-travelling into the Lithium series. They could visit a bunch of scenes from STFW and Grace etc as well, a sort of post-Lithium homage to all things STFW-universe. BUT then I thought…

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How to make friends and love people.

One of the main things while developing characters is to make sure they operate in different environments. OK it’s not, but I guess part of the creative process is plopping people in different scenarios and seeing how they might perform. I’ve been doing the same with Jack, now it’s Skylar’s turn to get wet… Whilst…

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Giveaway #2: double Ds

Who’s got two dicks and had a small part in Lithium comic #10? This guy! Girl? This dude! Free giveaway, full characters for poser, based on V4. I’ve zipped it all up – password is twodicks Download → I mean … nobody might really want these characters but heck you can own a real part…

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Oh deary me … again …

Okay I’ve completed over 160 pages-worth of renders; this is going to be a truly epic comic! I mean sure it’s a total shit-storm, but that doesn’t really communicate the extent to which this is a work of total madness, does it, huh? Well, let’s put it this way: the last comic (Lithium #9; 175…

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Spot the differeHNNKGKKK!!!

Hey! You wanna play a game? Yeah? Good choice. Well, the game is, you have to wait for me to complete the next comic. Sorry, I know I know it sounds like a crap game, but honestly just existing and ‘being’ is good, it’s good, I promise. And while we wait, good things happen sometimes….

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Relax.

Everybody relax. That whole Sabbath principle seems to have been lost on the world. Actually, it seems to have been lost on me, I’ll be honest. You know that thing where you start explaining something, and really it’s because you’ve only just realised it yourself and you’re like AH … YES … I SHOULD EXPLAIN…

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Falling down. Looking up.

In the last comic, lots of people were hit in the feels by Mike’s journey. I must’ve had a hundred comments from people saying the same exact thing: this was something ‘other’, way beyond anything that went before. That’s cool, and a huge compliment to my efforts with these comics, thank you. One guy said…

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Very … tired … must … … … fap

Oh lordy I’ve done that stupid thing of becoming extremely stressed at work and then not realising it and then everything falls apart and I’m left in the middle going THIS IS FINE without quite spotting that my skin temperature has reached a million degrees and my nose has melted onto my lap. No, no,…

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The big-boobs little-boobs dilemma

I know it’s an annoying topic, nobody likes to discuss boobs, but it’s a detail that needs to be sorted out. Plus this spacesuit is getting better as I sort the materials. So here’s a bunch of renders … Anyway, question is, do we go for buxom or … you know … believable human? To…

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Important walk cycle test…

During the comic-creation process, it’s really important to animate characters in looping movement poses to get a real feel for … for … … ok nothing. It’s not important to animate them, cos comics are static. It’s a totally pointless exercise, I admit. These animations, then, are just for fun. Lots of free walk cycles…

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Hey shall we have a competition?

I was thinking, I could give away any / all of my 3D poser characters (along with a list of dependencies), and maybe some custom scenes and then run a 3D competition. Would be really fun to see what people did with my characters, hehehh. So who should I do? I’ve got this little alien…

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A lovely break

Here’s a selection of some of the boobier images uploaded to this blog over the years, because I figure there will be a lot of people out there who would prefer a break from some of the absolute political jackassery going on all round the world rn, and didn’t come to this particular blog for…

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New Yeeears, new feeears

Howdy all! Well, one of the all-time great Christmasses, that was for me. And you know when you’ve weathered a few storms you can really appreciate when things work out. I mean sure, I cocked-up the Christmas pudding and sure our New Year plans got bollocksed all to heck and we had to come up…

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Generous ballbags

I AM STUCK IN BIRMINGHAM. Okay fine, it’s fine, it’s fine. I’m only here for a little while longer, but suffice it to say I am at a work conference and BLIMEY this is not the happiest city centre I’ve visited in all my years. I opted out of some of the conference shenanigans, because…

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Ooooohhhh … not long … hrnnngg …

Someone said they wondered what our voyeur neighbours made of all this, and I wasn’t going to bother adding them in (it’s already total mayhem plot), but heck I just couldn’t resist. So there’s a mini cameo in there now. I know, I know, I’m too kind.  Comic update:  Renders: 99.9% complete (literally just need…

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Rooms that are not rooms.

I thought I’d enjoy some quiet time over the summer break and actually get round to reading through my own (and other) comics! Yay! It’s been a pleasant surprise to go through old work like this.  Anyway one thing that amused me was that fact that our favourite kids’ apartment isn’t actually one apartment, it’s…

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GIVEAWAY! Makin’ comics!

Thought I’d make a comprehensive comicsy blog post, for those budding graphics enthusiasts! Comics don’t need to be sexy/erotic (you heard it here first), they can just be fun one-page stories! Yay! 3D stuff If you want to do it in 3D, here’s how I do it Giveaway: Templates are below  ↓ I mean sure,…

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Listen, I’ve learnt my lesson …

… I will never drink again. OK I might but I am getting better at avoiding the bingey stuff – you know the borderline self-harm kinda drinking that seems funny on the outside but isn’t on the inside hahaha good times. I just drink sensible amounts these days. Aaaanyway, ahem … my recovery has coincided…

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Healthy, unhealthy

I’ve just done this stress training thing. Sounds great! EAT THESE BEES Okay maybe it’s more like how to spot stress and help yourself and other people sort it out, cos it can be related to a bunch of … you know. So the first bit we had to do was note down all the…

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Trolls are people too

I’ve had a lot of feedback over the years. I think it’s an important thing to engage with; if we don’t listen to feedback, what we’re saying is we have all the answers in life; we’re saying “Screw other people’s stinky opinions, my ego’s more happy in isolation”. But feedback can help us grow (I…

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It’s aliiiive!!!

Good news everyone, my render machine is alive! Kinda. Anyway I seem to be able to get it to do stuff. Mostly. And I’ve taken this opportunity to limit the CPU usage to like 95% because it does seem to die when it’s trying really hard. Chill out, I say. Have a break now and…

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Laughing at your own work …

(Have a non-spoiler render… ) OK I’ve finished all the rendering & layout for Lithium #4, and going over it to find typos / improve images, I keep lolling at the jokes. Like I very nearly just gobbed a mouthful of coffee on the keyboard just now! Is this normal? Does anyone else write stuff…

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Rather Magnificent comic #7 is OUT!

The frickin next Rather Magnificent Family Bubble comic is only flipping OUT! For FREE! In the REAL WORLD! Ahead of CHRISTMAS! Goodness me, what a week, what a week. Tira’s download folder: https://mega.nz/folder/DPpEhRzI#gulDX6Hjo7dh7c7cRUVA1g Tira’s feedback thing: https://tirayugen.blogspot.com/p/feedback.html Download it, read it, SPREAD it round the internet like a grand SQUIRT of hot molten chocolate PENISES….

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Religion

Someone recently commented (fairly) on the latest Lithium comic; “It might have gotten a little too on-the-nose about the religious subtext. I understand that religion has been used to harm others and that’s horrible but faith can just as easily lead to peaceful, loving persons. I respect you trying to say something but it just…

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Rather Magnificent comic #6 is OUT!

**Runs in, panting** **Slams comic on the desk** THAT FCKEN COMIC’S HHHEEEERRRRRRREEEEEE!! As per Tira’s announcement, the Rather Magnificent Family bubble comic #6 is out! Woop woop! Well my goodness, they actually … okay no spoilers, but heck just check out the comic. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD CHECK OUT THE COMIC AAAAHHHHHH Tira’s download…

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jesus beatitudes

Words aligning with actions

There are lots of things to love about the country I currently find myself in. But then there are lots of things I could get quite anxious about as well. Our march of gammons following far-right adolescent Tommy Robinson was a concern. Our seeming inability to spot the problems with Islamophobia is another one. I…

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Merry Christmas Ya Filthy Animals!

Have an amazing few days, whether at home alone or abroad in a huge pile of humans. Wherever you find yourself, I wish you kindness, gentleness and peace! And tiramisu. And a delicious stout. And a mincepie. A good book. Champagne, of course; goes without saying. At least one cheese tsunami. Pigs in blankets, perhaps…

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Patriarchy and Barbie

So … I saw the Barbie movie. It’s great. Or if you’re troubled by it; it’s a bit challenging, and that’s good. Even better, in fact. Either way, definitely worth a watch. Is it perfect? No. I think it is a bit problematic in places, but that doesn’t detract from the overall message; that no…

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Corvette

Well, I was after a corvette – small, fast, mostly engine, space-capable craft that looked domestic rather than industrial or military, and I think we’ve hit the jackpot with this one … the seats spin and everything … Just do some quick character tests … FOR SCIENCE. Hello? Anybody ho… wait a minute … what’s…

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A spacesuit for every occasion

Playing with character settings and a ton of textures and materials and scenes … Love this freebie spacesuit outfit. For most of these renders I’ve hidden the sleeves, so it’s more of an action suit than an airtight vacuum-of-space sorta deal. Such a cool retro look to it, though! Loving Superfly’s render engine, which can…

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Language, Kenneth!

When I started making comics, I thought I’d upload them to a couple of comics websites, see if anyone would read them, I was hoping maybe like a hundred people might like my work (hey we all need validation at some point). Then after a couple of years it seemed like the work was going…

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STFW … catalogued!

Holy smokes, I was just searching for an image from OHB as I couldn’t be bothered to find my comics hard drive, and I’ve stumbled upon someone putting together a pretty comprehensive-looking guide to the STFW comics universe! Great work to whoever is doing this (‘R0’? ‘Oblomov’? Who knows who the author is, comment below…

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Exciting debriefs are the best! Yewwww

Phew. What a lot of feedback everyone’s given on the recent comic! Well done, everybody. Comments ranged from “Worst part ever in all comics” to “The best one yet!” – so that’s … quite the range, hahaha! (^ Marks out of 10) Looks like the vast majority of people enjoyed it really – and it…

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Ask the internet! Update: done!

Okay, after everyone’s genius at correctly identifying Pet Elf for me a few months back, I thought I’d ask the internet another slightly awkward what-is-this-comic question!  EDIT: Someone sent it to me so no worries. It was far more dodgy than I remember haha! Ahem. Woopsy. Anyway, as always asking the internet worked a treat,…

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Lucid

Ok things have gone a bit cray cray at work and I haven’t had a chance to catch breath, but it looks like people are here and commenting, thank you – I’ll try and respond to comments as always. Comic development has had a break for a week as my brain has been dedicated to…

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The quiet project. Again.

I’m often helped by writing and/or other creative pursuits. It’s funny how it seems pointless at the time (WHY AM I PAINTING PEBBLES) but looking back we begin to see the point (I’m so glad I painted those pebbles, it turned out it was about working through X trauma, and now I’ve thrown them into…

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Karen. Is. Lasagne.

This blog post is inspired by The Night Window, by Thomas Newman. Play it as you read! Why not eh. (Fun fact, lasagne is plural/general, lasagna is singular/specific, apparently. Aaaanyway …) Karen. Is. Lasagne. We all know this, right? Lasagne are made with onions (which make you cry) amongst the deep layers, then the layers…

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Initial character ideas

I wanted to create a comic with just a few characters, and tons of awkward ‘human’ situations. Because they’re the funniest. OK, maybe not funniest but they do happen and are all part of the great wonderful fiasco of real life. And they’re great (like scifi) for getting to the core of what makes us,…

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Eeeehhhh!!

Okay, Colony comic’s neeeeearly here! It’s 142 pages, all but the last 10 or so have speech bubbles all done. I just need to take my time reading through and making sure I’m happy with the way it’s going in terms of ethics/vibe/easter eggs, things like that. So a little about it; I’m really pleased…

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Skybloom imminent! Ish!

Okay [minors spoilers although these images could be anything – she might have stepped on lego] it won’t be this weekend because I need to do most of the speech bubbles, BUT! IT! WON’T! BE! LONG! Let’s say Tuesday although knowing me, it’ll be … sooner. AAAAaaaanyway, yeah if you even just semi-enjoyed Skybloom comic…

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Redheads

After including an exclusively red-headed family in Kinfolk, based on someone I knew at primary school, I was reminded just how much I really do love ginger hair! What a beautiful thing our species is gifted with, eh? Quite right. And our wonderful redheads are hardly well represented by the slightly grotesque Thomson family ……

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It’s beginning to look a lot like Chrrrrrr ….

It’s always amusing reading the comments submitted on my comics, it’s been especially entertaining seeing how people change as they get older – 80% of the comments from people in the 18-25 category are half-formed, self-prioritising claptrap straight out of Justin Biebers how-to archipelago of consumer misery. Whining and ego leading the charge of the…

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The Fappening

Stuck at home? Good. We’ve been asked to sit around and wank. Playing right to my skillset, there. Annoyingly, I have a slightly need-to-do-it sort of job, so I have been (and will be) working like a banshee for a good while; this is the first real, solid hour I’ve been free since the last…

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Comic previews …

OK we’re nearing the final few scenes of Lithium 9: speech bubbles are even done up to page like 130 or something, so we’re getting through it! Yay! To celebrate, here are two comic page previews which don’t give anything away. I’ll do them as links so if you really don’t want any spoilers whatsoever,…

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Oooooh it’s sunnnyyyyy!!!

It’s SUNNY? Madness, madness, it can’t be, don’t tell me the world keeps revolving and the seasons and the dawns and the new growth never gives up?!?! Splendid. Quick update on Lithium 8: it’s humming along nicely. In fact there’s only one and a half scenes left! In a comic of a zillion scenes that…

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Final checks …

It’s funny, I always get tons of visits to my blog ramping up towards a new Lithium comic (understandably), then after the mad flurry of the comic release it generally then dies down for a few months. Not many people check my blog after a Lithium has gone out, assuming there won’t be anything else…

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Next Lithium is cooking nicely …

Okay let’s have some good news instead of squinting at our screens at the political situation in America or the environmental / arable crop situation in Spain; the next Lithium comic is a-cooking!! I’ve done 110 pages now, and there’s maybe 10-15 pages to go, yayy! Blimey, it’s been ages this one, with Madiy &…

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Droids

  OK fine, I’m working on the next comic. FINE! I admit it. I say ‘working’, it’s not really working really is it? It’s procrastination from my actual workload.  Which is substantial. Ah well, let’s hope my boss doesn’t find this blog. Only kidding I don’t have a boss; as we all know I’m a…

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A PLETHORA of feedback!

If you haven’t read the latest comic. Read it. It’s out. Really glad everyone liked it; the average rating was 10/10, which is cool, so thank you. Someone mentioned it was nice to read through the feedback a few comics ago, so I thought I’d just paste the first 150 or so comments below. Pictured…

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Mother f***er

I need your mummy-son advice – see below. But before we get into that, what incredible weather we’ve had, eh?! Except for right now, as if the weather’s declaring NO MORE SUMMER FOR YOU. Ah well, it has generally been blissful and warm, time for lazing about and reading books and watering the garden ……

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Music

OK I’m trying something new for Comic #7 – I’m going to suggest people start listening to a certain track on a certain page. This is because, while creating the 3D scene a few days back, the music randomly came on and it absolutely got the hairs on the back of my neck going. You…

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Mistakes!

You may have noticed a couple of clangers in the final Lithium comic, hopefully they didn’t get in the way of your enjoyment of it. And as someone commented; “What happened to you? There were never such serious mistakes in the last 54 comics.” Well … it’s a good question. What did happen to me?…

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Sitting up.

Okay look, it’s January, people keep going on about joining a gym and losing weight and blah blah, but I figure the older I get the less fit I’ll be and the less effort I’m planning on putting in, so something’s got to give. So that’s right, Charlie’s going to do my exercise for me….

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Secret Link