I gotta admit, this one got a little bit away from us, so by the end, we had to take some drastic measures, but I think it ended up being a funnier gag.

In case you’re not familiar with one of our traditions here at the Dorm, I sit next to a guy at work that’s pretty cool, and we like to pass some of the time by making comics together. One of us will draw a panel, the other will draw the next, and so on, alternating, until an entire collaborative, improvised comic is formed. It’s kindof like being in a band, except without the drugs and sex.

It all started with this fiasco when our system was down one day, then we made this other one. Enjoy, and Happy Friday!

-Mike

Of course, I’ll be appearing, and selling the usual wares, I’ll have Dorm Dorks books,  Sketches, and maybe some new stuff…. hmm… If you’re in the Dallas area, I’d love to meet you, so come by and say Hi — and if you’re a Star Wars fan, this is definitely the show for you. And if all that wasn’t incentive enough, there will be an appearance by Jewel Staite,whom you may know as Kaylee from Firefly.

For more info, just head over to www.scifiexpo.com!

See ya there!

I don’t have much to say for today, except, Happy Labor Day! I’m so glad I’m NOT at work today! And, I happy that instead of using the time to get good and inebriated, I’m actually trying to build up a small buffer of strips. There was a time when I was a month ahead, but now I usually make strips the day before they go live (moving back in February killed the buffer). I don’t think I’ll get back up to a month, but maybe at least a week or so.

Something I like to do while I work on strips is listen to music or podcasts. Lately I’ve been experimenting with the iTunes radio feature. I found a station called “80’s New Wave” that plays some great stuff — except right when I started writing this post, they started a Cyndi Lauper cover of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On?”

Crime.

It’s weird to me that so many companies use the business model of “screwing customers.” It seems like if any competition ever came up, all they’d have to do is be nice, and, you know, treat people like they were people, and they’d win out every time.

On a happier note, it is the beginning of the epic Labor Day weekend of glory, and I’m pretty excited about NOT having to go to work on Monday. Even better is that we’re doing a “company outing” on Wednesday, so this is going to be an awesome week for me.

I’m going back and reading some of Grant Morrison’s run on “JLA,” you know, from the 90’s… in my opinion, the Justice League has NEVER been as awesome as it was then, it will forever be in my mind the definitive version of the Justice League. They just released a special revamped hardcover of the first few arcs, I hope they release some more, check it out! I wouldn’t mind having Grant’s whole run in hardback, especially with most of it drawn by Howard Porter, who I really liked. You can do “Final Crisis” and “Identity Crisis” and all the Crisis Countdowns you want, but none of the events going on today will come close to Superman wrestling Angels, Batman killing a lot of aliens without them even knowing it, Aquaman actually kicking peoples butts all over the place, and need I mention the epic “Rock of Ages” storyline, where Batman is locked in epic mental and physical battle with Desaad for like 40 years, and comes out strong as ever? It’s greatness.

I’ll be reading this over the weekend — be sure to come back Monday, even though its your day off, to check in on our Dork friends, the plot actually takes a turn next week, so don’t miss it!

Peace out!

But thanks to a great roommate, I have access to a 360, and for the first time in a while, I really got sucked into the hype for a game. I followed the pre-release news buzz, I was going to gaming sites and really just letting the hype overtake me. That game was “Too Human.”

Now that I’ve played for about 10 hours worth, I have to say I’m pretty disappointed. It wasn’t a bad game to me, it just wasn’t a very good one either.  I found it to be yet another kinda clunky button-masher to add to the pile. Granted, while a game like “Gauntlet” has extreme sentimental value, I’m not really attached to the genre–the whole gameplay style really. What interests me most about gaming these days is using them as a storytelling medium (hence my love for turn-based linear RPGs).

In this regard, Too Human’s story was also pretty lacking to me. The setting was very interesting, I like the cybernetic Norse mythology angle, but it never seemed to be anything more than a neat setting, instead of a compelling narrative.

It is good for some mindless, after-work chill-out time, though. I can flip it on and press buttons until things die for like 45 minutes, and then I’m good and ready to start working on comics. And maybe thats what a good video game should do — provide some entertaining distraction and a brief moment of rest before we keep going on with life. If thats the case, then it has definitely succeeded.

But I probably won’t pick up the sequels…