Twink's fanclub

Sunday 7th March 2010

New strip up and no, Twink's not dead.
I'm amazed how many people told me last week how glad they were that I had "finally" killed off the arbite. When I first added Twink to the strip I wanted him to be a bit of an ass, but I'm surprised (and kind of pleased) that people really seem to have taken against him.

Well, sorry guys, he's not dead yet! Arbitrators are made of tough stuff!

This week I've been mostly ill with a nasty cold/flu thing. But at least the time off has given me time to catch up on some SotI stuff I've been meaning to do for a while.

I watched Zombieland last night. I missed it in the cinemas, and I'm glad I caught it on DVD. It's great! I kept catching myself expecting one of the characters to die at any moment, or for the comedy to suddenly nose-dive into drama the way the end of Shaun of the Dead does, but I was glad to realise it's not that kind of movie.
It's a simple, funny zombie-comedy and well worth a watch.

Now I'm off to play some more Mass Effect.

Motivations

Sunday 28th February 2010

So this week I've been playing a lot of Mass Effect (which reminds me, it's a Bioware game as I'm sure you all knew, not a Bethesda game as I mistakenly called it last week) and reading War and XPs, the fifth Order of the Stick compendium by Rich Burlew.

I read the OotS strips on Rich's website every week, but I also buy the printed compilations when the come out because of all the bonus strips and author notes included in the books. Also, the first two books aren't available to read online, and really add some depth to the already-fantastic Order of the Stick world story.

A lot of people assume that I started SotI as a sort of direct homage of OotS, but I'd like to say that's not true. I can't claim that I haven't been influenced by Mr. Burlew's strips and the distinctive style he uses, but the main reason I started SotI was just as a silly doodle while my friends and I played Dark Heresy one night, which got turned into what is now strip number two and the comic evolved into its current form after I wanted to turn it into more than a simple black-and-white talking-heads panel. I never once thought "Hey, I want to do a 40k version of Order of the Stick".

The reason I chose the stick-figure genre for the strip was that, although I can draw to a degree, I can't draw with any kind of consistency; my characters end up looking different in each panel! Drawing them on a computer as stick figures allows me more time and room to tell a story and add some jokes.

Anyway, I love drawing SotI, and I'm glad that so many people come to this site each week to read the strip. The fact that what is basically my hobby can be enjoyed by other people brings me a lot of happiness.

Plus I get to write rambling blog entries like this!
How cool is that, eh?

Erm... title?

Sunday 21st February 2010

The title of this week's strip is taken from the awesome Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.
The full saying goes "Duty is as heavy as a mountain, Death is as light as a feather".
Pretty basass-sounding philosophy.

The Wheel of Time, for those of you who don't know, is a 12-book (and growing) fantasy series that the author started back in the 90s. It's a very good read (although at 12 novels, each around 800 pages, it's in no way light reading) and even though the author passed away last year it's still ongoing, having been passed on to another writer, Brandon Sanderson, to be finished.

I final ordered myself a copy of Mass Effect this week.
That's right... the FIRST one. I haven't played it yet, as when it first came out I deliberately avoided it because everyone else was making such a fuss over it. I did the same with Fallout 3 and Oblivion as well, so maybe it's a Bethesda thing I do?
And just like Fallout 3 and Oblivion, now the hype is over and a sequal is out, I thought I'd check it out.
I'll let you know what I think!

Also, this is hilarious (and kinda NSFW):

Aroo!

Sunday 14th February 2010

So I went to see The Wolfman yesterday with the Mrs, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
When I looked up the running time before we went I was surprised how short it was - only 1 hour 40 mins which, in the era of 3-hour blockbusters, seems rather brief, but after watching the film it's reminded me why only a few years ago any film longer than 120 minutes was considered almost too long.

You don't need a long film to tell a good story, and Wolfman does exactly that. It also does worry about the other recent annoying Hollywood trend - exposition. It starts with a werewolf attack and seems to say "Yeah, werewolves. Get on with it." There is no pointless preamble about where and how werewolves are created, it just jumps right into the story.

Another thing I liked about it was the fantastic hammer horror/ b-movie feel of the film. It didn't take itself overly seriously and had some very familiar and wonderfully fun sequences that really made you root for the wolfman.

Hugo Weaving was great as Inspector Aberline, and had probably the best piece of dialogue in the entire film. He even managed a half-decent East-London accent. Benecio del Toro was also brilliant as Lawrence Talbot, even if I kept expecting him to turn into Dr. Gonzo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas!

All in all a great film.

Babies, explosives and flamethrowers

Sunday 7th February 2010

Sorry people, no strip this week; I'm taking a short break to try and get rid of the writer's block that's been plaguing me for the last few weeks. I'll have a strip up next week though!

This week I've been up to London to see Rammstein play at the Wembley Arena. They were Epic as always. I've seen them play the Brixton Academy in the past, and they always put on a great show, and each time they manage to top themselves.
This time the set featured exploding babies with laser eyes, Till dumping molten fire onto Flake, flamethrowers (a staple of Rammstein concerts) and a huge foam cannon in the shape of... well... if you know anything about Rammstein you can guess what it was in the shape of...

All in all a great night!