I am totally wiped. I just got back from a partial-working holiday, with lots of visiting of family and friends. Due to ill cats before my trip, I had to leave a fair amount of work for the trip, essentially all of the coloring. And it also left me with a full strip to draw when I got back. Which would have been reasonable enough, except that Seattle got snowed and iced in, meaning that my girlfriend couldn’t pick me up. Really, it was quite deadly driving weather, and she only has rear wheel drive. Perhaps you’ve already seen some of the videos (about half way through is the bus, oye!)
Plus, my plane was delayed, which meant I missed the last public transportation of the day and had to sleep in the airport until it began again in the morning, and finally got home 18 hours from when I left Massachusetts, at around 7:30 in the morning.
And you know, as awful as it was, I kinda like adventure, and it kinda WAS one. Plus, I had some homemade chocolate chip cookies with me, and once I got home I managed to get the strip finished, so how bad could it be really?
As before, I encaourage you to do some of your holiday shopping (and shopping for yourself) at my Online Topatoco Store.
And if that’s not enough for you, you should buy some SOCKS from Rich “Diesel Sweeties” Stevens. My girlfriend, is a roller skater, and loves them.
Oh, and I have to say, I totally’ love Shaenon “Skin Horse” Garrity’s Desktop Wallpaper this month.
Dustin, I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.
It’s kind of crazy listening to all the snow stories from Seattle. Down here in Portland it’s pretty frickin’ cold, but we barely even got dusted with snow. Good luck surviving all the white stuff!
awesome fist of vengeance in panel 7. ha!
p.s. is it just me, or are the wall breasts in panel one mocking martina?
@Matt, FIST OF VENGEANCE!!!!
Yep, it’s time for some dainty smackdown with Dustin and his rather evil plans to have a gnatty overly embroidered blue and gold shirt. Go Martina. I’ve never ever had time for Uruguayyaans before (is that even a real word?)
@Matt – yes, fist of vengeance, ready for Dustin Smackdown-dome!
Heh, I recognize the floor details in panel 7. Is that an easter egg, or are you using models for texture reference?
@CBob, you mean the floor hatch shaped like a smiley face?
she’s gonna go quigley down under on this sucker!
That’s why space weapons have stun settings. So she can shoot him and not have the moral weight of killing on her soul.
Also, love the button design on Dustin’s tunic.
@JKCarroll – I think CBob is implying that the hatch looks like the Imperial logo from Star Wars:
http://www.erikstormtrooper.com/impwhitelogoblack.gif
All I see is a big smiley face on the hatch.
Looking at your girlfriends rollerskates, I would indeed say that she has a nice pair.
@CBob, yes, sometimes for backgrounds which will only appear once ever, I’ll pull various models already made in sketchup (usually spaceships) and use small parts of them as background. 🙂
@Herander, thanks! It was fun designing that coat. 🙂
@Jediadept, she usually skates about 20 miles straight, and so she’s gotten pretty serious about her skates. Those she bought on ebay and had shipped from Australia, and she loves them.
What should really worry Martina is that she is the reasonable one. If only by default.
I like her holding down her skirt when she jumps. It’s a nice touch.
@JKCarroll & Herandar- It’s part of a Warhammer 40K gaming model: the top of a Tau drone, sans antenna, in it’s docking cradle aboard a larger vehicle. Do a google image search for “tau devilfish” or “tau hammerhead”. 🙂
Did a google warehouse search and I found the Sketchup model: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=b14902d00b6487f4aae4667d433c502b&prevstart=0
I think it’s kind of cool, using models. I have an art book in which a sci-fi- book cover illustrator shows how he likes to mock up his space ships using models made of shampoo bottles and paper towel rolls and such, which he then paints “from life” (adding color and detail in the painting). Seen other painters who do similar things, like building a cardstock mock-up of a room, and positioning a candle inside to observe how the shadows might fall from different light sources in the scene. If I were drawing a webcomic, I’d probably build Sketchup models of my primary sets to use as perspective and lighting reference.
@John, lol! Point. (and glad you liked the skirt, VERY much her personality)
@CBob, I do follow a similar philosophy. I build the primary sets (all the the I.A. Star Banger) for reference, or anything I’m going to use more than a couple times (although I invent all my light sources. Since my process is already incredibly lengthy, adding correct and specific light sources would be totally insane). And you’re right, I did pull that from the Tau Drone. The two panels previous as well, which I pulled by using the interior shell of it.
My uncle Duke always said: “Lob a grenade in FIRST to soften up the area before you jump in…”
@Captain, well, she WAS using logic before jumping in, in trying to decide what to do with Dusty. You could think of that as her lobbing a logic bomb at Dusty.
Too bad Dusty is impervious to logic.
Her original plan sounds reasonable to me. Dustin is a Hazard to the whole earth delegation’s health.