Selling our life story…

The other day I discovered a couple new webcomics, Crap I Drew on my Lunch Break and Asylum on 5th Street. I sent the links to Allison and she came across this one, and then asked me if I was selling webcomic artists our life story. The artist of Crap and Asylum is named Jin wicked, just about the coolest name ever, besides Wes Molebash of You’ll Have That. You put Bash in a name and it just gives it some zing.

Insert Oliver or Duncan here

And speaking of web comics. I have been updating the list with different comics that I have found in my adventures online. Please check out their websites. Some use course language from time to time so be warned. I’ll have to put up some sort of legend about which ones are family friendly, PG-13 and truck driver mouth. For the most part the daily cartoon is pretty accessible to all audiences. Some of these comics have huge archives and major backstory about the characters.

PVP – Player Vs. Player. I love this comic because the characters are so much fun and Scott Kurtz really knows how to set up a joke as well as the use of the hook, where a joke is set up in a prior strip and then recalled at a later date, sometimes years later.
Artist – Scott Kurtz
Archive – Very Large, since 1998
Updated – 7 days a week.
Audience – Family Friendly, Sci-Fi geeks, Children of the 80’s, Gamers
Art – Very clean, often black and white with color on Sundays.
Plot – Office full of employees of a ficticous gaming magazine. Lots of Pop culture references.
Affiliation – Independent, Image comics

You’ll Have That – One of my most favorite comics. So very true to life, at least to the life that Allison and I have. Wes Molebash can create great humor from life situations. And Wes is a great guy too.
Artist – Wes Molebash
Archive – Fairly small, very new comic. Since December 2004.
Updated – M,W,F with blog entries and a very friendly forum.
Audience – Family Friendly, Couples.
Plot – The life of Andy and Katie, a recently married couple, parallels the life of the artist.
Affiliation: Viper Comics

Real Life Comics – Greg Dean has some great characters and a large archive of strips. I love how he breaks the fourth wall, or rather the roof (when his characters talk to the artist.) The website itself is so very well constructed. The most visually appealing of the bunch.
Artist – Greg Dean
Archive – Very Large, since November 15, 1999
Updated – M-F, And occasional blog entrys.
Audience – Family Friendly, some strips for couples, gamers, Sci-Fi geeks.
Plot – Paralleling the Real life of Greg Dean and his friends. When Greg gets a friend in real life that person becomes part of the strip. When he breaks up with a girlfriend, she leaves the strip.
Affiliation – Independent



Legostar Galactica – Not drawn, done entirely with LEGO.
Artist – D. M. Jeftinija
Archive – Fairly large, since August, 25 2002
Updated – M-F
Audience – Sci-Fi Geeks and fans of Lego.
Plot – Set on a fictional spaceship this comic, done entirely with LEGO pokes fun at the science fiction genre.
Affiliation – Independent

It’s Walky – Character driven and has a huge archive.
Artist – David Willis
Archive – Huge. Since 1997
Updated – Once a week now.
Audience – Transformers fans, Sci-Fi Geeks, Can be PG-13 at times.
Plot – Actually the archive is so huge that a plot synopsis is just not possible. Involves Aliens, college, secret government organizations, giant robot monkeys (I mean apes)
Affiliation: – Blank Label Comics

Martin’s Misdirection – Good art, needs to be updated more often.
Artist – James Burks
Archive – Small, Burk compiled the first set of strips into a book to sell and took the first 55 strips off the website.
Updated – very haphazardly
Audience – Family Friendly
Plot – About a struggling magician and his scheming rabbit.

The Mows – Comic done with Flash Animation.
Artist – Jay Dyke
Archives – About 4 years worth however not all on the website, slowly being released each day. Updated – M-F
Audience – Cat lovers, Family Friendly
Plot – Life from the perspective of Jay’s three cats, Nonie, Indy and Tigey.
Affiliation: Independent

Lost and Found – Great cartoon style
Artist – Matt Milligan
Archive – Fairly large Since 2000
Updated – Haphazardly
Audience – Family Friendly
Plot – Private Investigator and his talking dog are on the case.
Affiliation – Keenspot

College Roomies from Hell – The art has developed over the years.
Artist – Martiza Campos
Archive – Hug
e, since 1999
Updated – M-F
Audience – College students, PG-13
Plot – Three college guys, Three college girls, wackiness ensues. Oh and mutations.
Affiliation – Keenspot

Dr. Devious Vs. Lincoln High School – Comic Book Art.
Artist – Cliff Hicks and Kris Durrschmidt
Archive – Small, fairly new comic, February 2004
Updated – Haphazardly but more often recently.
Audience – James Bond Fans, Austin Powers Fans, So far family friendly to PG-13
Plot – What if the greatest evil genius ever and his henchmen were captured and forced to teach high school. And what if your arch nemesis was the gym teacher and the man who captured you. Affiliation – Independent, site design was by Greg Dean.

Spamusement – Don’t you just hate spam.
Artist – Steven Frank
Archive – Small from 2004
Updated – M,W,F
Audience – The subject lines are suggestive but the cartoons are very funny.
Plot – Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!
Affiliation – Independent

Wapsi Square – Some of my favorite art. And some very complex and deep storylines.
Artist – Paul Taylor
Archive – Large from 2001
Updated – M-F
Audience – 20-30 somethings, PG-13
Plot – Centers around Monica and her friends. The friends include many people as well as her dog Dietzel and Tepoztecal the god of alcohol.
Affiliation – Blank Label Comics

Questionable Content – Although I am not into indie music I can still appreciate this story. The art is great and the characters are fun. And the art has improved so much.
Artist – Jeph Jacques – He’s in Massachusetts!
Archive – Good size. 379 strips. Since 2003
Updated – M-F
Audience – PG-13, some conversations are not for young ears.
Plot – About Marten, a young single guy and his roommate, Faye, whom Marten is infatuated with and their friends. They talk about indie music alot, but not all the time, pretty accessible even if you are not in that scene.
Affiliation – Independent

Shortpacked – Now in color.
Artist – David Willis, from It’s Walky
Archive – Small, I can’t find the older stuff, not sure what happened to it.
Updated – M,W,F
Audience – Toy Collectors, PG-13
Plot – About a toy collector who works at a toy store. Lots of Transformers references. Also David keeps a blog.
Affiliation – Blank Label Comics

Girls with Slingshots – Cute, nice art.
Artist – Danielle Corsetto
Archive – Small, new comic only 58 strips
Updated – M,W,F more or less.
Audience – Single Women, PG-13
Plot – Young woman and her struggles and friends and her job as a newspaper writer.
Affiliations – Independent

The Devils Panties – An interesting style
Artist – Jennie Breeden
Archive – Since October 2001
Updated – M-F, S & S sketches.
Audience – Single Women, Larpers, Sci-Fi geeks, Gamers, Anyone struggling to grow up and make their place in the world. PG-13
Plot – About a young woman who enjoys LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) and has many real life adventures. The comic involves a large cast of characters including family and friends.
Affiliations – Keenspace, a service of Keenspot, There is no Keenspot advertising So I think she is Independent.

Cigarro and Cerveja – A smoking Hare and a drinking, simpleminded Goose
Artist – Tony Esteves
Archive – Small
Updated – Not sure
Audience – No real genre here, PG-13.
Plot – A Hare and a Goose are friends. Also there is a turtle that hates the goose because he loves the Hare. Kinda weird.
Affiliation – Independent

Crap I Drew on My Lunch Break – Great Art.
Artist – Jin Wicked
Archive – Small, since July 2003,
Updated – T & T
Audience – R for occasional language. Political, Liberal
Plot – Liberal young woman and her life as and artist and worker in retail.
Affiliation – Independent

Asylum on 5th Street – Great Art. I like the storyline and hope this continues, wish it updated more often.
Artist – Jin Wicked
Archive – Small, since October 2003,
Updated – Wednesdays
Audience – PG-13
Plot – An artist is the landlord of a crazy apartment building
Affiliation – Independent

Vigilante Ho! – Fantastic art. I like the westerns.
Artist – Meaghan “Doc Vacation” Quinn
Writer – John “Calamity Sane” Troutman & Meaghan “Doc Vacation” Quinn
Archive – Very small.
Updated – Not in a while.
Audience – Could get PG
Plot – A mysterious cowboy wanders into town to right wrongs.
Affiliation – Keenspot

Backyard Cleanup Part #4

You know, after 20 hours driving a backhoe, when you get in your car, that has power steering, it feels like you are expending so much effort just to turn.

Okay Sunday! Sunday we hit the ground running and began by yanking out a bunch of trees. We saved one to replant the others are chipper fodder. Yanking out the stumps was a project in itself. I think we ate up much of the morning just digging out stumps. But once we got the hang of it things ran smoothly. While I was pulling out the stumps and Dad was cutting down the trees with the chainsaw, Tara and Erik put up 5 sections of fence. They did a very good job of it too.

We did have one of the neighbors come and complain at 9:00am about the chainsaw. Of course this was when we were done. My Dad says to her, “Oh, we’re all done…. (with that tree). It wasn’t until about an hour or so later that we had to cut another tree down.

Today we started the concrete slabs on the opposite side of the property. We set them up that actual property line which extends our yard about 3 feet into our neighbor’s yard, which is actually our yard. At some later date we’ll have to get a new fence up on that side too. No rush on that, our neighbor on that side is a good one. And on the other side too, its just the back yard, no fence high enough for the backyard. Well actually it wasn’t as bad as I expected, we did meet some nice folks who were interested in what we were doing. One guy on Sunday morning asked my Dad, “Do those people mind that you’re tearing up their yard to make this fence?” Dad was like, “Oh you mean my yard? Yeah, that’s my house.” We really didn’t have too many gawkers either and that kept us on task, because we were burning daylight from the moment we got up that morning.

So I dug a trench across the back to lay the concrete slabs into. With the straps from Richard we had a much better time of moving the slabs into position. We used the scoop to swing the first two slabs into place. That offered some great control in the placement of the slabs. Then after the first two were in place we moved two more over so that I could then move the backhoe, set back up and then swing the next two in place. After that we put the rest of the slabs in with the bucket in the front. I would drop a slab with Dad and Erik guiding it into position then I would either help slide it over to the next slab with either the front bucket or the back scoop. The bucket worked best because I could drive directly into it and move the slab over.

Speaking of moving things with the front bucket. I was having alot of fun moving that dumpster all around. At the end of the night I wanted to move it way over in the corner but that wasn’t happening, instead I moved it behind the trees so at least we wouldn’t have to see it, and hopefully since we wouldn’t be going so far back the smell wouldn’t be as overpowering.

I think we had gotten about 5 slabs in place before we ran into a big obstacle. A root the size and diameter thicker than any of the trees that we took out. Erik tried to chop the root up with the grub ho. Then I tried to scoop around it with the backhoe. Then Dad took the chainsaw to it. Then Erik and Dad took turns driving a wedge through it with the sledgehammer and wedge. Finally Dad took the skill saw too it and a couple more whacks from the grub ho and sledgehammer and the root was out and we had enough room to put down another slab. That little adventure took up about a half hour or more.

Once we got all the slabs into place we cleaned up the parking lot, moved back the dumpster, left 3 5 foot slabs off to the side for the owner of the apartment house to use as he likes. Then I had enough room to drive the backhoe into the back yard. I dug a hole for the replanting of another tree. Moved one pile of rocks over to the far side of the fence for a rock garden, and then Dad pulled out the old Basketball hoop pole, which was all rusted and about 2 feet high at this point. There was about 2 1/2 feet of concrete on the bottom of the pole. So he scooped that up and put it with the other junk that we will bury…. and never have to dig up again. Ha, Ha.

After that was all done Mom took a group shot of the four of us by the backhoe. We had all cracked our beers and looking like a dirty rotten bunch. Then we got the backhoe loaded on the trailer, tied down and we all went off to take showers. Tara cooked us some nice big steaks and we had those and backed potatoes, courtesy of Tara and the new grill. We’ll be getting alot more use out of that once the backyard is completed.

As promised, here are some videos of the adventures in the backyard.

Getting Started

This is Day one with the backhoe.

Transporting the Slabs

This was how we moved each slab before the strap.

Scooping

This is me doing some scooping.

Scooping 2

Digging a hole for the tree.

Bye Bye

Farewell to the backhoe.

The rest of the pictures will be up later.