I'm not sure when it's going to be launching. It all depends on how long it takes me to get the rest of the parts I need, but once it launches it will be updating twice a week, every Monday and Friday. Neat, huh?
Well, I think it's neat anyway. :P
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Coming soon to a computer near you...
>
I'm not sure when it's going to be launching. It all depends on how long it takes me to get the rest of the parts I need, but once it launches it will be updating twice a week, every Monday and Friday. Neat, huh?
Well, I think it's neat anyway. :P
I'm not sure when it's going to be launching. It all depends on how long it takes me to get the rest of the parts I need, but once it launches it will be updating twice a week, every Monday and Friday. Neat, huh?
Well, I think it's neat anyway. :P
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Rant About The Riots
When I set up this blog I meant to keep it entirely on the lighthearted side of things, but I’m going to vent and theorise about society, politics and the relevance of class issues when it comes to the recent riots in England.
If you don’t want to read my getting all ranty then feel free to skip this post and wait until I get a scanner working when I will show you some more of my awesome toy robot designs.
There, that’s that bit out of the way.
Firstly, some background on me. I grew up in a council house. Through most of my childhood it was me, my mum who couldn’t work anymore and either one or both of my two older half brothers living in a house mostly made out of crooked plasterboard at the edge of a council estate.
My first job, was a weekend one working in a hell hole of a hospital kitchen, my second job was working in a convenience store that probably had almost as much stock shoplifted as bought by actual paying customers. As well as those I’ve had two jobs in supermarkets, neither of which I was (or am) physically fit to do, one of them was stocking shelves between 9pm at night and 1am in the morning. I used to have to walk home at 1 in the morning because the public transport was shut down for the night and I couldn’t afford the taxi fare after midnight.
It would take me an hour to get back to my one bedroom flat over a shop. It was covered in woodchip wallpaper. The front end was Victorian I think, the back end probably added sometime in the sixties. It was like something out of a Pulp song. The front was drafty and the back end was damp and suffered from subsidence. One night when it rained heavily the guttering fell off from over my bedroom window and lodged itself in the plastic roof of the extension attached to the shop below me. It stayed stuck in that roof until long after I moved out.
I was never really vey good at most of those jobs though and combined with my health problems I probably spent more time looking for work than in work. I think it’s fair to say I have some idea about what it’s like to live in a relatively poor neighbourhood then and not to have any money.
With all this in mind I would just like to say that these riots have next to nothing to do with class or income and it’s not about job availability. There are some major social issues behind this, but it’s not the ones that people like to drag out over and over.
It’s not about the internet and social networking. Twitter and the like have made it easier for people who want to help clean up, to organise donations and to inform the police of the identities of the criminals who have been wrecking the streets.
It’s not about class or income. There have been plenty of poorer, working class people helping clean the streets up and plenty of middle class idiots involved in the looting.
There does seem to be an issue thought with three ways of thinking that have been allowed to spread through society.
1) There’s nothing wrong with looking out for myself. Why should I care what happens to strangers?
This attitude is nothing new and it’s not going to go away. It’s not the majority attitude in this country though. We give huge amounts of money to charity and we offer our time to help out when things go horribly wrong. Things like the riot clean up crews make me feel really good about people, but there is also those who simply don’t care what happens to other people and I think that is the biggest factor in what’s caused the looting and arson attacks we’ve been seeing.
2) Nothing’s going to happen to me. I can get away with it.
The elements in society who couldn’t care less about the damage they do to other people’s lives are usually kept in check by one thing; the fear of punishment.
What happens when people decide that the potential punishment is either a) pretty minor in comparison to the benefits of committing a crime (mostly in this case theft) or b) so unlikely to occur that they think the chances of them having to deal with the fallout is negligible? They don’t hold back.
When a peaceful protest in Tottenham was hijacked by rioters (peaceful protesters don’t usually have bricks with them and I doubt they were just laying about) and the police failed miserably to deal with the situation it opened the floodgates. Add that to a general feeling that the law fails to deal with criminal behaviour properly when people are caught and you’ve got every reason for them to think they are beyond punishment for their actions, that they can get away with it.
3) Breaking stuff is fun.
Out of these three, this is the one that I personally understand the least. Take a look at the following MTV advert/ident.
Apparently partying = breaking the hosts stuff and throwing it in the pool. Not angrily, not drunkenly, just because destroying stuff is fun. When I think party and drums I remember being at someone’s house (I cannot for the life of me remember who) whilst one of the local bands played a lyrically dubious version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” in the corner of the living room. If anybody had deliberately broken something they’d probably have found themselves forcibly ejected onto the street.
I can’t find a youtube upload of it, but Kerrang! has an ident in which two people blow a whole load of (obviously not their) stuff up. Not that music channels are the only culprits of this kind of thing, but that particular example has been bugging the hell out of me. Largely, because I only watch MTV Rocks and MTV Classic, which really don’t play that kind of music. Not a fan, sorry. Anyway, MTV’s determination to shove the same ads on all their stations is a subject for another blog maybe.
Many of the looters and firebugs showed no sign of anger, no sign that they were fighting against anything. They were laughing, joking, smiling, having a good time, because destruction is apparently an acceptable way of having fun.
Combine the lack of empathy for other human beings, the confidence that they’ll get away with it and this concept that has been pushed for decades (and has arguably been growing) that destruction is fun and what do you get? You get what we’ve seen on the streets of London and across other areas.
Class and income seems to have little to do with it outside of a basic cost/benefit analysis. The risk of arrest is always the same, but the potential gains to be made from looting shift with income. Someone who earns less than £14,000 can physically carry the same amount out of a Sony electrical store as someone who earns £22,000 a year. The value of the goods that they can steal only varies as a percentage of income and that’s why the cost/benefit thing comes in.
There are many, many people who have less disposable income than many of the rioters who would never consider doing what they have done. Many who instead of taking everything they can have given everything they can.
Some people want to treat criminals as victims, victims of their circumstances. They want to help them, to the detriment of others who have grown up in those same circumstances.
Here’s an example. I won’t use names, but there are two people from my school. One of them is a chronic asthmatic and suffers various allergies, which have had a negative effect on her ability to work over time. She had to sit on a long waiting list to get a flat. It was a housing association property with no carpets and a window that you couldn’t open in case the glass fell out and of course she had to pay for prescriptions for the medication she would probably have to be on for the rest of her life.
A recovering heroin addict with a criminal record got a larger place straight away, because they needed to be kept in a safe environment to allow them to recover and to stop them from getting in a situation where they would reoffend.
These people went to the same school, lived in the same area, came from the same economic band and had the same opportunities open to them. One suffered from unavoidable medical conditions and the other caused their condition to themselves and screwed people over in the process. Who deserves more help?
This isn’t about class. This isn’t about income. This isn’t about what jobs are available in what areas. This is about individuals and this is about society as a whole. Stop giving excuses for criminals when their neighbours, their classmates, their co-workers or the people standing behind them in the job centre queue have somehow managed to restrain themselves from smashing the hell out of things, stealing from strangers and getting addicted to hard drugs.
I grew up in a family on benefits, on a council estate, at a school where the people who were expelled from the neighbouring schools fit in perfectly and I didn’t become thug. Whilst some of my fellow students did, most didn’t.
When you use class, income or opportunities as an excuse for the behaviour shown by criminals and thugs you insult every other single one of us who have dealt with queuing up in the jobcentre, living in decrepit housing and counting the pennies in the supermarket because you only have a fiver left to last the rest of the week. We didn’t go mug people/set buildings on fire/joy ride/loot shops, so why the hell should they and why should they be excused for such things?
If you don’t want to read my getting all ranty then feel free to skip this post and wait until I get a scanner working when I will show you some more of my awesome toy robot designs.
There, that’s that bit out of the way.
Firstly, some background on me. I grew up in a council house. Through most of my childhood it was me, my mum who couldn’t work anymore and either one or both of my two older half brothers living in a house mostly made out of crooked plasterboard at the edge of a council estate.
My first job, was a weekend one working in a hell hole of a hospital kitchen, my second job was working in a convenience store that probably had almost as much stock shoplifted as bought by actual paying customers. As well as those I’ve had two jobs in supermarkets, neither of which I was (or am) physically fit to do, one of them was stocking shelves between 9pm at night and 1am in the morning. I used to have to walk home at 1 in the morning because the public transport was shut down for the night and I couldn’t afford the taxi fare after midnight.
It would take me an hour to get back to my one bedroom flat over a shop. It was covered in woodchip wallpaper. The front end was Victorian I think, the back end probably added sometime in the sixties. It was like something out of a Pulp song. The front was drafty and the back end was damp and suffered from subsidence. One night when it rained heavily the guttering fell off from over my bedroom window and lodged itself in the plastic roof of the extension attached to the shop below me. It stayed stuck in that roof until long after I moved out.
I was never really vey good at most of those jobs though and combined with my health problems I probably spent more time looking for work than in work. I think it’s fair to say I have some idea about what it’s like to live in a relatively poor neighbourhood then and not to have any money.
With all this in mind I would just like to say that these riots have next to nothing to do with class or income and it’s not about job availability. There are some major social issues behind this, but it’s not the ones that people like to drag out over and over.
It’s not about the internet and social networking. Twitter and the like have made it easier for people who want to help clean up, to organise donations and to inform the police of the identities of the criminals who have been wrecking the streets.
It’s not about class or income. There have been plenty of poorer, working class people helping clean the streets up and plenty of middle class idiots involved in the looting.
There does seem to be an issue thought with three ways of thinking that have been allowed to spread through society.
1) There’s nothing wrong with looking out for myself. Why should I care what happens to strangers?
This attitude is nothing new and it’s not going to go away. It’s not the majority attitude in this country though. We give huge amounts of money to charity and we offer our time to help out when things go horribly wrong. Things like the riot clean up crews make me feel really good about people, but there is also those who simply don’t care what happens to other people and I think that is the biggest factor in what’s caused the looting and arson attacks we’ve been seeing.
2) Nothing’s going to happen to me. I can get away with it.
The elements in society who couldn’t care less about the damage they do to other people’s lives are usually kept in check by one thing; the fear of punishment.
What happens when people decide that the potential punishment is either a) pretty minor in comparison to the benefits of committing a crime (mostly in this case theft) or b) so unlikely to occur that they think the chances of them having to deal with the fallout is negligible? They don’t hold back.
When a peaceful protest in Tottenham was hijacked by rioters (peaceful protesters don’t usually have bricks with them and I doubt they were just laying about) and the police failed miserably to deal with the situation it opened the floodgates. Add that to a general feeling that the law fails to deal with criminal behaviour properly when people are caught and you’ve got every reason for them to think they are beyond punishment for their actions, that they can get away with it.
3) Breaking stuff is fun.
Out of these three, this is the one that I personally understand the least. Take a look at the following MTV advert/ident.
Apparently partying = breaking the hosts stuff and throwing it in the pool. Not angrily, not drunkenly, just because destroying stuff is fun. When I think party and drums I remember being at someone’s house (I cannot for the life of me remember who) whilst one of the local bands played a lyrically dubious version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” in the corner of the living room. If anybody had deliberately broken something they’d probably have found themselves forcibly ejected onto the street.
I can’t find a youtube upload of it, but Kerrang! has an ident in which two people blow a whole load of (obviously not their) stuff up. Not that music channels are the only culprits of this kind of thing, but that particular example has been bugging the hell out of me. Largely, because I only watch MTV Rocks and MTV Classic, which really don’t play that kind of music. Not a fan, sorry. Anyway, MTV’s determination to shove the same ads on all their stations is a subject for another blog maybe.
Many of the looters and firebugs showed no sign of anger, no sign that they were fighting against anything. They were laughing, joking, smiling, having a good time, because destruction is apparently an acceptable way of having fun.
Combine the lack of empathy for other human beings, the confidence that they’ll get away with it and this concept that has been pushed for decades (and has arguably been growing) that destruction is fun and what do you get? You get what we’ve seen on the streets of London and across other areas.
Class and income seems to have little to do with it outside of a basic cost/benefit analysis. The risk of arrest is always the same, but the potential gains to be made from looting shift with income. Someone who earns less than £14,000 can physically carry the same amount out of a Sony electrical store as someone who earns £22,000 a year. The value of the goods that they can steal only varies as a percentage of income and that’s why the cost/benefit thing comes in.
There are many, many people who have less disposable income than many of the rioters who would never consider doing what they have done. Many who instead of taking everything they can have given everything they can.
Some people want to treat criminals as victims, victims of their circumstances. They want to help them, to the detriment of others who have grown up in those same circumstances.
Here’s an example. I won’t use names, but there are two people from my school. One of them is a chronic asthmatic and suffers various allergies, which have had a negative effect on her ability to work over time. She had to sit on a long waiting list to get a flat. It was a housing association property with no carpets and a window that you couldn’t open in case the glass fell out and of course she had to pay for prescriptions for the medication she would probably have to be on for the rest of her life.
A recovering heroin addict with a criminal record got a larger place straight away, because they needed to be kept in a safe environment to allow them to recover and to stop them from getting in a situation where they would reoffend.
These people went to the same school, lived in the same area, came from the same economic band and had the same opportunities open to them. One suffered from unavoidable medical conditions and the other caused their condition to themselves and screwed people over in the process. Who deserves more help?
This isn’t about class. This isn’t about income. This isn’t about what jobs are available in what areas. This is about individuals and this is about society as a whole. Stop giving excuses for criminals when their neighbours, their classmates, their co-workers or the people standing behind them in the job centre queue have somehow managed to restrain themselves from smashing the hell out of things, stealing from strangers and getting addicted to hard drugs.
I grew up in a family on benefits, on a council estate, at a school where the people who were expelled from the neighbouring schools fit in perfectly and I didn’t become thug. Whilst some of my fellow students did, most didn’t.
When you use class, income or opportunities as an excuse for the behaviour shown by criminals and thugs you insult every other single one of us who have dealt with queuing up in the jobcentre, living in decrepit housing and counting the pennies in the supermarket because you only have a fiver left to last the rest of the week. We didn’t go mug people/set buildings on fire/joy ride/loot shops, so why the hell should they and why should they be excused for such things?
Sunday, 7 August 2011
I did a guest thing!
Callous Comics is celebrating 15 years, which is pretty awesome.
As part of the celebrations Carlo recently did me an awesome guest comic, the second one I've got from him.
Of course I drew him something as well. :)
Check it out.
As part of the celebrations Carlo recently did me an awesome guest comic, the second one I've got from him.
Of course I drew him something as well. :)
Check it out.
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
If I owned a toy company...
...it would make the most awesome toy robots ever.
1) Daisy-bot - The miniature desktop vacuum bot!
Whenever Daisy-bot reaches the edge of a surface her eyes flash and she beeps at you. Daisy-bot is programmed with 32 different hygene related insults if she vacuums up too much dust and dirt in a short time.
2) Mr.Bot - The highly original bump'n'go robot.
Walks around aimlessly until he bumps into something and changes course. LED light up eyes change espression as he goes. The smoother the journey, the happier he is.
3) Radioactive Bunny-bot - Not actually radioactive.
Radioactive Bunny-bot has a light sensor in his chest. Watch as he changes direction and speed depending on light conditions. Also has an FM radio alarm clock mode that has him zip around at high speed while the radio plays at ever increasing volume.
So who wants to give me some money to get these made then?
1) Daisy-bot - The miniature desktop vacuum bot!
Whenever Daisy-bot reaches the edge of a surface her eyes flash and she beeps at you. Daisy-bot is programmed with 32 different hygene related insults if she vacuums up too much dust and dirt in a short time.
2) Mr.Bot - The highly original bump'n'go robot.
Walks around aimlessly until he bumps into something and changes course. LED light up eyes change espression as he goes. The smoother the journey, the happier he is.
3) Radioactive Bunny-bot - Not actually radioactive.
Radioactive Bunny-bot has a light sensor in his chest. Watch as he changes direction and speed depending on light conditions. Also has an FM radio alarm clock mode that has him zip around at high speed while the radio plays at ever increasing volume.
So who wants to give me some money to get these made then?
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Look what I got delivered yesterday...
I would have had these on Friday before the comic update went live, so I could post some pictures in the comment section for the comic. Unfortunately the postman delivered them to next door.
Saturday, 2 April 2011
National Poetry Month Day Two
Why I'm updating this eighteen minutes into day three. Yes, it's another poem about poetry.
I'm still running in GMT,
Because otherwise I've failed you see,
I forgot,
To change a clock,
Oh, how I hate BST,
I'm still running in GMT,
Because otherwise I've failed you see,
I forgot,
To change a clock,
Oh, how I hate BST,
Friday, 1 April 2011
National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month and, along with some other equally mad people, I'm having a go at doing a poem a day for the whole month. Considering I don't write poetry normally, then this s just further proof that I've obviously lost my mind.
I've obviously gone a little mad,
You shouldn't worry - it's not that bad,
I'm just doing silly things,
Like writing poems that make you cringe,
(That's a half rhyme!)
And making books that might not sell,
And definitely won't sell well,
(Well, there are only two for sale)
I'm writing poems about writing poems,
What a silly, cliche thing to do,
It's almost midnight and it's all I can think of,
I said I'd do this too,
Now, this poem's structure might be strange,
But never mind, all the same,
I still managed to get one out,
Even if that's all it's about,
(I am a hack)
I've obviously gone a little mad,
You shouldn't worry - it's not that bad,
I'm just doing silly things,
Like writing poems that make you cringe,
(That's a half rhyme!)
And making books that might not sell,
And definitely won't sell well,
(Well, there are only two for sale)
I'm writing poems about writing poems,
What a silly, cliche thing to do,
It's almost midnight and it's all I can think of,
I said I'd do this too,
Now, this poem's structure might be strange,
But never mind, all the same,
I still managed to get one out,
Even if that's all it's about,
(I am a hack)
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit: Ignorance is Bliss (Charity project)
That there is the cover for a new Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit book. The first Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit book in fact and there are only going to be three copies of it, one of which is staying with me. If that sounds a little bit crazy then that's because it is. Let me explain...
A while back Meg Hunt decided she wanted to do something to help out people in Japan following the recent earthquake and tsunami, so she wrote a blog post asking for people to donate are to a charity auction to raise money. I was completely up for the idea. There was only one problem though. My art isn't all that special.
I had a think about what I could do that might actually be worth people bidding on and hit the absolutely insane idea that I would make an exclusive print collection of Gilbert and Grim strips.
I'm scanning and colouring one page away from getting that project finished. One copy will go for auction to raise money for Japan, one book will go to another charity auction at some later date and the other one will be kept in a nice safe box under my desk. After that there will be no more copies of the book and none of the extra work I did for it will ever appear anywhere else.
I'll let everyone know, loudly and repeatedly, when the first one goes up for sale.
The books contents are as follows:
1 - Intro Page – Little bit of new art at the bottom, mostly me talking about why I'm doing the book and how I once slept through a hurricane.
2 - Stalked by Death - A brand new remake of the most redrawn page of the comic.
3 - Ignorance is Bliss - A brand new remake of a page from the original archive that somehow I've never got round to redoing before now.
4 - Frankenfood - Reworked version of the version in the main archive. Messed with the inks a little and then coloured it from scratch again.
5 - 2 Characters and a Couch - Another one from the original archive that I hadn't got round to redoing until now.
6 - Wibble - Partially re-inked from the version on the website. A strange hybrid between old and new. I think it works though.
7 - Grim Rabbit "Ink Drop" - A potential T-shirt design I did, now with funky abstract background.
8 - Stalked by a Demon - An old comic drawn again.
9 - Original Cover / The Hanged Man - A scrapbook style page featuring the full version of the art for my Webcomics Tarot submission and the first ever bit of cover art I did for the comic
10 - Hospital Visit - Another remake of a comic from chapter one.
11 - N. Smith - Another partially re-inked page.
12 - The Pirate - Minor tweaks only on this one.
13 - Best Viewed with Firefox - Made some changes to the inks and then coloured with a new scheme.
14 - Mordred the Cat / Grim by Jesse Justice - My image of Mordred from The Adventures of Wiglaf and Mordred as a cat as well as Grim drawn by Jesse Justice of Diablito del Ring
15 - Grim and the Vikings by oppernaR - A scene from Chapter two as interpreted by Roland van Duijn (or oppy as I normally call him) of oppernar.com, The Webcomic List and the newly started Let Me Show You My Pokemans!
16 - Mag and the Grim Rabbit - My image of Mag Flamequill from The Life of Mag Flamequill having tea with Grim.
17 - Grim by Bucky BA picture of Grim by the artist and writer of The Life of Mag Flamequill
18 - Cross Hare Cover - A slightly different version of the Cross Hare fan art I drew a while back.
19 - The Best of What's Left - My take on Future Paladin from The Best of What's Left as a Gilbert and Grim style demon.
20 - Fox TV - A minor recoloured version of the interlude comic from chapter four.
21 -Boom - Some new art featuring Gilbert and William.
22 - Delivery Day - Fully redrawn version of the comic from chapter one.
23 - White Rabbit - Slightly edited and partially recoloured version of another chapter one comic.
24 - Graveyard Grim - The poster design I posted on the site.
25 - Hippy Cat - An image of an as yet unnamed character who appeared a couple of times in chapter four. I don't think I've ever put this one online before. There's also some other stuff on that page too.
26 -Grim Rabbit by Joanne Wojtysiak - An awesome, specially produced image of Grim from the creator of Gothbunnies
27 - I wish I was a punkrocker - A brand new version of the image of Thalia that I posted on my DA page.
28 - Greatest Invention ever - A brand new version of another chapter one comic.
29 - Annoying appointment - A brand new, extra special page written just for the book.
30 - Cover re-coloured - Exactly what it says on the tin. It's the cover/title page for Gilbert and the Grim Rabbit with new colours.
31 - Toxic - A partially recoloured version of the comic from the archives.
32 - Back page credits and holiday art- A few notes and recoloured versions of one Valentine's and one Christmas piece.
Tuesday, 15 February 2011
How to identify a Wendy
How to identify a Wendy by ~WendyW on deviantART
Just in case you were wondering what the person rambling on here looks like.
Of course in reality my arms are the same length as each other, although one of my legs is slightly longer than the other because my spine used to be all crooked. Now it's reinforced with surgical steel.
Anyway, I drew this while I was out on Sunday and coloured in yesterday. This is exactly what I was wearing on the day I drew it and yes, those colours are pretty acurate. I sometimes dress like I'm in an old Batman comic.
Saturday, 12 February 2011
The Webcomic List Awards Pt.2
So, the awards have come and gone now. Didn't I say I'd post again in a couple of days? It's been more than a couple of days, hasn't it?
Hmm...
Maybe I should have posted something here about the awards when the winners were announced, but is there really anybody who looks at this that wouldn't already know?
Probably not.
Maybe...
Who knows?
Anyhow, if you haven't seen the results then click here and have a look at the illustrated ceremony, which I think is very good this year. It helps that I didn't draw any of it this time. :P
I'll post again in a couple of days...
Hmm...
Maybe I should have posted something here about the awards when the winners were announced, but is there really anybody who looks at this that wouldn't already know?
Probably not.
Maybe...
Who knows?
Anyhow, if you haven't seen the results then click here and have a look at the illustrated ceremony, which I think is very good this year. It helps that I didn't draw any of it this time. :P
I'll post again in a couple of days...
Wednesday, 10 November 2010
The Webcomic List Awards Pt.1
I've been emailing and posting about The Webcomic List Awards all over the web recently, the reason being I'm the silly person who offered to head up the organising committee.
A bit of background is in order I think on exactly why we have The Webcomic List Awards in the first place.
The Webcartoonists' Choice Awards ran every year between 2001 and 2008 and during that time they became quite a big thing for a lot of webcomic folk. Unfortunately things went awry and come last July people were starting to question whether or not there were going to be an awards at all for 2009. Specifically, people were beginning to question it on The Webcomic List forums, where I spend a large amount of my time deleting spam and occasionally telling people off.
It was actually Luke Surl of lukesurl.com that first made the suggestion of starting up our own replacement.
"How about starting a TWCL awards?" he wrote, "I'm actually serious, talk to Ash and see if he'll give the full TWCL endorsement. We can then use our combined resources & contacts to create the necessary system (be it a select jury of esteemed persons, a closed election of peers, or an open election of general public). Thoughts?"
Other people starting chiming in with ideas including Zoë Robinson, Oliver Knörzer and future fellow forum lacky Chilari, who ended up as part of the organising committee. In a moment of madness I offered my support for the idea, sought out the approval of my higher ups on the site and suddenly, and reading through the threads in question, without any big decision I was organising the thing somehow.
I thought, and still think, it would be a terrible shame not to have anything like the WCCAs or TWCLAs around. I believe in things that can bring the webcomic community, or communities, together in some way and I think things like the awards offer that.
We held a poll to pick the name of the awards. The Webcomic List Awards won. After that there were several public polls on the forums, a committee was formed and barely organised chaos ensued. Eventually the awards took shape and on the 1st of November the nomination phase went live.
Nominations were collected, massive amounts of emails were answered and sorted, judges were recruited and given comics to judge and artists were given things to draw for the site. Somewhere in the middle of that I moved house and my intenet was accidentally disconnected when it wasn't meant to be, but somehow we pulled it all together and the ceremony went live on the 7th of February this year, only a little bit behind schedule.
On the 8th of this month nominations opened for The Webcomic List Awards 2010, a new, bigger and better version of the awards.
So far things are going well. We have a really good committee and selection of judges aboard and nominations are coming in at a steady pace already.
All in all, I'm very happy with how things are going this year.
So, one final word before I get back to work, go check out the site and if you happen to be involved in creating comics yourself or reviewing comics or distributing comics or are in any other way actively involving yourself comics then go nominate some webcomics that you think deserve the recognition.
Just make sure to read the insturctions first, okay? :)
That's all for now. I'll post more in the next couple of days. Right now I have some work to be getting on with.
TTFN.
A bit of background is in order I think on exactly why we have The Webcomic List Awards in the first place.
The Webcartoonists' Choice Awards ran every year between 2001 and 2008 and during that time they became quite a big thing for a lot of webcomic folk. Unfortunately things went awry and come last July people were starting to question whether or not there were going to be an awards at all for 2009. Specifically, people were beginning to question it on The Webcomic List forums, where I spend a large amount of my time deleting spam and occasionally telling people off.
It was actually Luke Surl of lukesurl.com that first made the suggestion of starting up our own replacement.
"How about starting a TWCL awards?" he wrote, "I'm actually serious, talk to Ash and see if he'll give the full TWCL endorsement. We can then use our combined resources & contacts to create the necessary system (be it a select jury of esteemed persons, a closed election of peers, or an open election of general public). Thoughts?"
Other people starting chiming in with ideas including Zoë Robinson, Oliver Knörzer and future fellow forum lacky Chilari, who ended up as part of the organising committee. In a moment of madness I offered my support for the idea, sought out the approval of my higher ups on the site and suddenly, and reading through the threads in question, without any big decision I was organising the thing somehow.
I thought, and still think, it would be a terrible shame not to have anything like the WCCAs or TWCLAs around. I believe in things that can bring the webcomic community, or communities, together in some way and I think things like the awards offer that.
We held a poll to pick the name of the awards. The Webcomic List Awards won. After that there were several public polls on the forums, a committee was formed and barely organised chaos ensued. Eventually the awards took shape and on the 1st of November the nomination phase went live.
Nominations were collected, massive amounts of emails were answered and sorted, judges were recruited and given comics to judge and artists were given things to draw for the site. Somewhere in the middle of that I moved house and my intenet was accidentally disconnected when it wasn't meant to be, but somehow we pulled it all together and the ceremony went live on the 7th of February this year, only a little bit behind schedule.
On the 8th of this month nominations opened for The Webcomic List Awards 2010, a new, bigger and better version of the awards.
So far things are going well. We have a really good committee and selection of judges aboard and nominations are coming in at a steady pace already.
All in all, I'm very happy with how things are going this year.
So, one final word before I get back to work, go check out the site and if you happen to be involved in creating comics yourself or reviewing comics or distributing comics or are in any other way actively involving yourself comics then go nominate some webcomics that you think deserve the recognition.
Just make sure to read the insturctions first, okay? :)
That's all for now. I'll post more in the next couple of days. Right now I have some work to be getting on with.
TTFN.
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Midi .2 EP
Here it is the long awaited (well, for two weeks) follow up to Midi .1 EP, the twenty-something minute, slightly silly instrumental EP unleashed on an unsuspecting world.
This new follow up consists mostly of reworkings and reinterpretations (different enough for the most part to still be interesting I hope) of the tracks from Midi .1 EP, but also contains two brand new tracks Tin Dog and Winter Bells. Hopefully you'll find it all quite interesting.
01 - False Starts
02 - Wake Up Again
03 - A Brief Conversation Between a Piano and Some Drums
04 - Tin Dog
05 - Demented Dance of the 8bit Fairies
06 - Revamped Theme
07 - A Minor Return of the Musical Giggles
08 - Winter Bells
09 - One Minute Thirty Seven
10 - The Drums Get The Last Word
11 - Closed Again
Edit: The links all pointed to a subdomain that hasn't existed for a while now, but don't worry I fixed it. ^_^
This new follow up consists mostly of reworkings and reinterpretations (different enough for the most part to still be interesting I hope) of the tracks from Midi .1 EP, but also contains two brand new tracks Tin Dog and Winter Bells. Hopefully you'll find it all quite interesting.
01 - False Starts
02 - Wake Up Again
03 - A Brief Conversation Between a Piano and Some Drums
04 - Tin Dog
05 - Demented Dance of the 8bit Fairies
06 - Revamped Theme
07 - A Minor Return of the Musical Giggles
08 - Winter Bells
09 - One Minute Thirty Seven
10 - The Drums Get The Last Word
11 - Closed Again
Edit: The links all pointed to a subdomain that hasn't existed for a while now, but don't worry I fixed it. ^_^
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