Pedestals

So I’m going to be in central London most of next week, doing some silly project.  Meanwhile, I’ll also have my laptop with me, and I’ll also be doing a very very serious project. With boobies. I’m doing that thing where I … actually I’m not sure how to describe it. Maybe part of reality…

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The Truth

I’ve been writing about the truth recently, looking at its role in a world of chaos. So I thought I’d share some of my own truth in the upcoming comic. Not lots, I just mean be a bit more vulnerable I guess. As I’ve alluded to in other posts (eg the Perfection Trap), we (I)…

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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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Lithium! Lithium! Lithium!

Oh, this isn’t a new comic dropping, btw. Don’t get too excited. I’ve been tweaking the final Lithium comic script and stuff, and pretty proud of where this takes us, this one. It’s also been interesting to open old scene files and update the settings – see where the rendering has progressed in the last…

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The great golden helmet of joy

OK! Big fan of conundra, me. Ya paradoxes, ya dichotomies, ya dilemmas; big fan, big fan. In the upcoming comic, I’ll be honest it’s a big of a grey area in terms of how it pans out – we could go in a number of directions at this stage and I’m trying to walk that…

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Finished!

As you may know, I wrote 95% of the Lithium series in one sitting a few years back, and I’ve been working through producing the actual comics every few months. Well, today I took some time out from my not-very-busy work (hey it’s Easter, everyone’s porking chocolate), and FINISHED writing Lithium! 100%. Wahoo! Well. Honestly,…

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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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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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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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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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Giveaway #7: the apartment!

Free stuff! Okay, in keeping with me never ever spending a penny on 3D content, this apartment was based almost entirely on a freebie given away on Renderosity; I just sorted out all the lighting, materials settings etc. And I think originally it was like an outdoor patio thing, so I just moved everything indoors…

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You! Speak!

Pictured: hung over. Well, the new comic’s had just under a million hits, and it sounds like people like it, which is great. Extremely great (Nicolas Cage in The Rock reference … oh God I’ve got to stop putting Nicolas Cage references in everything I HAVE A DISEASE HALP). I’ve added the comments to the…

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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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Omg seriously?! Ginyaaar!!

You know I did that boob mistake thing and had to re-patch all the edited boobies back onto Charlie? I literally just finished photoshopping them all back onto the poor girl, and then realised one of the major props in the scene had been hidden in all those renders. Which changes the lighting completely. So…

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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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Good and bad. Goodbad. Badgood.

Someone mentioned recently that they dig my references to ‘both-and’. Thanks; yeah I think we [society] miss that stuff so much – a quick look at Twitter will reveal that nuance and paradox are not exactly commonly understood. Then a friend messaged me this link on the who’s-bad, who’s-good thing: https://thereforenow.com/2011/09/the-tax-collector-with-the-pharisees-speech-in-his-pocket/  It’s interesting, that. And…

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Stretchy tops

Stretchy tops, I mean … they’re basically witchcraft. No matter what way your bread is buttered, male or female or trans or nonbinary, the thing is that little stretchy tops are here to stay. And they’re hot, so there’s that. So here’s a Rainbow Brite (basically choosing things from my own childhood) -themed little top…

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Wahoo, waboo.

I try and be a human, and I do have these amazing sparks of joy and connection … but then it seems everything kinda catches up with me and it all stops and I feel a bit like a paper-thin marionette. Know what I mean? Hey I’ve got it all sussed! I’m amazing wahoo! Oh…

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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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BANG ON TREND. Ish.

Here’s a picture of some naked people with guns.  I’m sitting in a trendy cafe working on the comic AS WE SPEAK. Now, I know it’s a trendy cafe because I’m surrounded by bubbly, noisy people wearing lots of crochet and pastels and I know I’m aaaalmost trendy because I’m wearing something very flowery indeed…

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Big boobs, small bra problems

OK minor detail but it’s a fun one so I figure it’s the kind of thing Charlie and Jack will have a chat about. Charlie’s lovely pink bra (and it is a lovely 3D model, you have to admit; whoever made it did a great job, which you can see from the close-ups in comic…

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Extras.

Anyone who’s written anything knows at some point you have to make up new stuff. This is one of those times, and to be honest it’s quite good fun! We’re fitting a legacy/origins storyline into the Star Trek universe, which coincides with the STFW universe too, but at this stage (this stage being 2020, as…

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A very minor spoiler

I’m thinking this next comic is probably going to be called something like Bathtime, except having made most of the comic, it’s really not about that. So this is a very minor spoiler indeed. As always, I like my comics to be a little gritty / believable, so the ridiculously cheery topics covered in this…

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Je Suis Huw

Thought I’d pop in to update everyone on my meanderings, and discuss Lithium #12’s  rather Nostradamus-esque powers regarding a certain BBC newsreader. As the UK headlines the last few weeks will tell you, Huw was a news anchor for twenty entire squeaky-clean years … until some great big underage sex scandal got out. It may…

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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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Comic update!

EDIT: ok it’s now the 9th and I’m not sure we’ll get this by Christmas … hmmmm … depends, depends … will def be out in January tho, so close, so close …. eeeeeee ….. OK, I’ve done 70 pages, speech bubbles and all (there aren’t too many of those …), but I reckon I’m…

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So … I’m working on a comic …

… it’s called *checks notes* … The Hydrogen Comic, or something like that. Molybdenum? Manganese? It’s some element … got a few electrons orbiting with each other, and then a third electron in another orbit. Huh. It’s almost as if … anway. I’m working on Calcium Comic 8, and wouldn’t ya know, I’ve just spaffed…

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Hhurrrngggggg!!!

I’ve had a chance to use my reasonably mighty cerebellum (we all have one) on the Great Poser Problem™️ and have realised I can just work around the software issue by hiding people’s hair, creating scenes frame-by-frame, and then un-hiding all the hair and ploughing through the rendering timeline that way. So … it’s not…

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Beep beep beep.

Hello! OK so there’s good news and bad news, bad news is I think my rendering machine might be properly bust ~ yes of course everything’s backed up, but the motherboard is literally fried, even though the ram and CPUs are happy; joints and stuff are to blame, and I really don’t want to go…

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The Punisher

Although I wrote the Lithium plot a few years back, the very end has been a little flexible and has gone through a few changes. (This isn’t it, don’t worry – we’ve got a few more comics to go yet.) The path Karen’s on needs some careful weaving. I think authors too often write the…

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Boobies and boo-boos

Comic update: I’ve finished the flipping renders! I know, smashing through it. It comes in at around 130 pages – just some speech bubbles to do and then BAM! It’s gonna be next Lithium out! Woop woop! Excited about this one, had a little read through just now, did a little giggle and a little…

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Rendering!!!!! Hooooly smokes

I so want to share tons of renders here but it’d all be spoilers, so it’s … hard. And wet. Oh heck, this next comic is going to be pretty good.   You never know, you know? You have this idea in your head, and this script in your hands (and by hands I mean laptop),…

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Comic update: it’s warm.

Comic’s chugging along (updates below), and the world is turning nicely. I don’t know if you’re in a part of the world that’s having a heatwave right now, but I am. It’s hot. Damn hot. As hot as a monkey’s anus. Climbing into bed is like tucking oneself into a just-cooked lasagna. Aaanyway, the next…

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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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Self HAM

OK this post has nothing to do with ham, I just didn’t want to write the word ‘harm’. This isn’t a big rant or a dark self harm story, though don’t worry. Basically, right, I went to some festivals recently … I know. If you’re an introvert, you’ll know what a big/horrific deal this is!…

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The big blog swap

  OKAY! So it looks from the stats of this blog like a good number of people can still get in (you’re obviously playing Google’s game; well done you for being patient). So I’m just popping in to give an update here; an extremely kind fan has offered to build and host a Sindy Anna…

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One hundred and FIFTY pages!

Okay I’m ploughing through the final Lithium comic, like a … plough through a … ploughable … yoghurt? Also, as I’ve been producing it and going through the Lithium lore, I was pondering this whole thing about the Narnia series – you know there’s all these references to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe…

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The Eggiest of all the Eggy Eggs

Okay, you know how I like to put film/TV and niche pop culture references in my comics, well there’s also self-referential consistency MADNESS in every comic, too. Here are the top 10 silly ones from Lithium #10 … how many did you spot?!   ^ circled in red is Skylar’s goddamn TOAST which she dropped…

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New comic released tomorrow!

Who likes free? Who likes comics? Who likes FREE COMICS wahoooo!!!! Well, that’s three wishes in one, but okay if you insist. I’m going to release a silly little tongue-in-cheek mini space adventure comic early morning tomorrow! Hooray! Okay, no it’s not the next Lithium, but it does have … you know. Boobies. I mean…

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Welcome to apartment 512, Rue Eveiller …

Really enjoying the great Free 3D stuff that’s out there, this apartment is based on a freebie architectural ‘balcony’ furniture set – I just moved everything inside, changed the textures, then setup the lighting and … ok it was quite a lot of work, but here’s the dev and a few character poses to test…

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Nighttime

It’s weird rendering in 3D sometimes because lighting has to be setup by the render engine to cope with whatever it’s fudging about the real world. So like in this scene I want it to be really dark, just moonlit highlights, but the renderer’s like “NOPE.” and perfectly exposes what I’d intended to be under-exposed….

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THE SCARAB OF DESTINY

You know how I like to do Easter Eggs, ok? Both chocolate and nerd-reference variety. Well … this is the Scarab of Destiny. Bear with me … Basically, rather than add a single Henchman/Trooper to a 3D scene at a time, I created this Poser file whereby a whole Fireteam is slaved to a single…

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Beauty sees beauty.

One of my favourite writers, Richard Rohr, made some interesting observations about Homers Odyssey, and you see a little of my discussion of the same themes in OHB comics 7 & 8, as well as Lithium, and … well, all my comics let’s face it. Rohr points out that in the Odyssey, Odysseus leaves Ithaca…

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Quick update! With boobs!

**Rushes in** *Grabs lip balm* *Slams a few renders down* ^ original skin, gone a bit weird with software updates   ^ nice new skin but accidental frankenstein mode heheh     ^ ahhh, much better (Thought you might wonder what our heroes were up to. Sitting in the bath and filling it too far,…

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Future things

OK I’ve made a decent start on Lithium #6, but it’s a long comic so don’t hold your breath; things are hectic at the beginning of a new year & this may take a while. I did notice on a forum somewhere (I googled my name, as you do), that lots of people think Lithium…

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Don’t fear the Reaper

Interesting that I’ve had a good few bits of feedback from people saying the moment with the henchmen in the latest comic was the most touching / got them in a deep place. I know what you mean, having the lowest-of-the-low henchmen mercenary type people be wonderful to each other is a bit special/unusual. I…

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Limitarianism 2.0

I was prompted to think more on the topic of Limitarianism after an interesting exchange with Alex (thanks Alex). So here’s a little further thought-wrangling. Steps to improve the world:  Make an arbitrary limit to the absolute wealth that any one human can hoard, let’s start with £1B because if you’re not happy with £1B,…

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Ahh, shit, sorry for delay

HELLO! Sorry for the radio silence everyone, literally my workload has been nuts, haven’t had time to catch breath let alone log onto fun porny spacey comiccy niceness. Thanks for the comments – sorry if people worried. I’m fine and healthy, just totally, totally knackered! Seems society has split into two camps; people who are…

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Misery and joy

Just occasionally you do a piece of work and you can step back and go “yes”. Tap-tap Know what I mean? Even your harsh inner critic has to shut the f#ck up and nod gently. For that brief moment, your periods of self hatred or lack of confidence or imposter syndrome or inferiority complex or…

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Gimme 2 mins …

Just uploading the next comic. ikr? That’s what happens when you fire a shit-ton of top-secret work at the internet; bulk updates baby!!! Hey I don’t seem to able to reply to the kind comments you guys have put on the blog (thank you though; hi Ixes et al!) – but keep it up, I’ll…

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About that assassination

People keep whining at me to comment, so I’ll get it over with. I don’t know the guy Kirk, so why would I place judgement on the assassination, either way? Is it necessary to judge an assassination as politically ‘right’ or ‘wrong’? Wtf is going on? Listen, I’m sorry to have to say this, but…

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Comic covers and titles! VOTE!!!

OK wonderful people of the internet, I have too many options right now so you have to help me decide stuff. There’s an anonymous form below, please use it to help me and I’ll try my best to finish the comic in the next week!!! VOTE GOGOGO!! I don’t want to spoil anyone’s fun, but…

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Last Lithium underway

Okay, whisper it, but … it’s started properly. I wouldn’t announce such a thing unless I meant it – 20 pages now done – and this last Lithium comic has been something of a unicorn due to its slightly not-quite-getting-started status, drifting on and on for some months. As you may be aware. “Ooh, shall…

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Decent onesies

Ok, so slightly awkward confession here, I went down a bit of an internet rabbit hole this week and discovered the joys of … onesies? There’s Rule 34, sure, but I was slightly surprised to find some excellent potential for onesies out there.  However, as you may know, porn is rubbish! There’s no love, no…

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Secret Link