Blargglesplorgglenarf

It seems like the Word Smith's sparse and/or erratic update schedule will be continuing for the foreseeable future  (note:  I do not claim to be able to foresee the future.)  This is due to a paper submission deadline coming up in a little over a couple of months so I may need to sacrifice some comic time for actual work work time.  Shock!  I know.

The past few days have also been a tad work-heavy as I was crunching for a presentation this morning - just a lab-specific thing, nothing particularly special, but treating it as a personal deadline, nonetheless.  Went reasonably well:  well enough that I will consider my goals to have been met.  However, the crunching left me feeling a bit, well blarg, so I spent this afternoon working on a sprite animation that has nothing whatsoever to do with work.  And here it is:

(Because the internet doesn't have enough animated gifs.)

Freak Out,
-TFitC

To the Poit

New page.  Go read.  The end.

...

Ok, so there's actually a bit more...   it may be a few weeks before the next page as I've still got to finalize some of the script details for this episode (bad Freak, finish script before starting drawing) and I may take a bit of time to build up a couple pages of buffer so that the rest of the episode will hopefully be posted in a more regular manner than it has been so far.  I'll probably try to do some interludes in the meantime; I really should do more sketchbook drawing anyway.

Freak Out
-TFitC

P.S.

Post title is not a typo.  Just thought I'd mention that.  Narf.

Still Not Dead

So.  I have a comic, or so I'd have you believe.  I've been lazy about updating it lately but have managed to put a new page up today.  (Yay?)  Go read it, because it is there - or do you actually need a good reason?

It seems one of my previous posts about saying pages would be "done when they're done" (or something to that effect) isn't so far off the mark.  I'm going to try to get back to my regular once a week update schedule (because I want to actually get this thing finished in a not entirely unreasonable timeframe) but, ultimately, pages will be "done when they're done."

-----

In non-comic related things, the stats for this blog-like thing claim to have received over 10 000 views in the not too distant past, though most of those are probably just random people clicking on things by accident, bots or perhaps evil (or at least misguided) AIs.  And even then, 10 000 isn't really all that much in the grand scheme of the internet.  Still, it's a thing.  What sort of thing I'm not sure, but a thing nonetheless.

The most viewed blog entry seems to be my somewhat tongue-in-cheek plot summary of Final Fantasy Tactics (1058 views) with similar summaries for Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross following with about 250-ish views each.  Of course, I haven't posted any game plot summaries in a while.  Partly because that was part of my Final Fantasy series replay project (which is more or less complete) and partly because the whole comic/art thing took over.

Of course, there are more Final Fantasy games out now or on the way that I could add to the replay project (mainly the FF 13 games) if I wanted to, which I might, if time permits.  Also, vigilant viewers might have noticed that I skipped FF XI in my replay project.  This was because, being an MMO, it's somewhat of a different beast than the offline Final Fantasies.  Still, I've been think that, for the sake of completion, I might attempt an FF XI summary.  Though if I do, as it is a different beast, I was thinking of taking a different approach with it and doing more of a "lets play" style of thing.

(For those not familiar with the "lets play" concept, it's basically someone plays through a game on a forum/blog/whatever providing commentary and sometimes taking questions/feedback from the audience.)

As I no longer play FF XI (and don't plan to restart) any potential lets play would be drawing on my saved screenshots/memories/other resources rather than being a truly interactive lets play, but them's the breaks.

So, if you're still with me after all this blathering, if any of my one or two (semi-)regular(?) readers would be interested in a lets play, I might just go do that.  I might do it anyway because talking to myself on the internet is basically the standard operating procedure for this blog anyway.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Posting a Post Post Post

Oh, right, it seems I've got a comic, or something to that effect.  The newest page is now available, for those that are inclined to read it.  I really have no excuse for being late on this one, especially since I had already skipped a week.  I think that adopting a schedule of "it'll be done when it's done" might be the most prudent, but I'll try to post things in a timely manner, honest!

That is all.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Mumble, Mumble, Splarg

Alrighty... page 2 of episode 6 of The Word Smith is now online (I'd have posted this last evening but Blogger was being ornery.)  This is obviously later than I'd inteded to post it, regardless.  Partly, this was due to laziness, partly it's because this week's looking to be busier than normal so I don't expect to be posting a page this week so I chose not to push myself overmuch for page 2.

And that is all for today.  I don't feel like posting a sketchbook entry or saying anything else, particularly, so I won't.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

It's a Thing

Ok, so, I ended up being busy last evening hence I didn't get the page up when expected.  While I'm going to aim to have these things ready to go for Thursdays, I should probably just say that they'll be done when they're done and leave it at that.  Anywho, the first page of episode 6 of The Word Smith is now live.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Lateness

Due to me being a bit more procrastinate-y over the long weekend than I'd intended, this week's page of The Word Smith will be a bit late.  It should be up either something this evening or tomorrow.  I'll make another post when it happens.

In the mean time, here's the pencil version of the episode six title page that was posted last week:

There are two things to note about the pencil version of the title page.  First:  it was based on the third of the concept sketches that I posted at the end of the episode 5 unfaq.  Second:  I changed the pose of the central character at some point after scanning the pencil version (I might even have done that change on the traced version, I don't recall.)

Anyway, that's all the excitement I have to dish out for now, otherwise it would probably just be too exciting.  Or not.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Word Smith Resumes

As promised last week, the title page for episode 6 of the Word Smith is now available for your viewing pleasure - it's very literary.  Will page 1 follow in a timely manner?  Tune in next week to find out!

I was going to post the pencil version of the title page for comparison, but I seem to have forgotten to copy it over to my laptop so it'll have to wait until next week.  Instead, here's a bored freak:

Now back to preping (read: procrastinating) for today's lab tech talk.

Freak Out,
-TFitC

Return of the Freak

Hello Word Smith fans, or Word Smith tolerators, or just random people who got here by accident and are all like "what's all this then?"  (flee, flee before it's too late!)  You may have noticed and perhaps even cared (even if just a little) that there hasn't been an update in a while.  I guess I've kind of fallen off the update wagon after the One Acts ended and my down time has been somewhat longer than I anticipated with not even an interlude in the interim (bad Freak!)  Whelp, to rectify this, Episode 6 will be starting next week, come hell or high water.  Indeed, the title page is almost finished, though it's been almost finished for a couple of weeks now.

Updates will from now on also be Thursday mornings (assuming all goes well) rather than Tuesday mornings as previously.  I figure that my Thursday mornings are usually unproductive so might as well use that time for posting the weekly blog/comic thing.

And becuase it's what I do, here's a page from the sketch book:

Yes, I'm back, and what better way to celebrate than with... hands.

Until next time,
Freak Out
-TFitC

Unfaq Vol 2

Now that the One Acts are over it's time to get back into some comicing.  The script for Word Smith episode 6 is progressing well, but for this week, it's the second volume of "Answers to Questions Nobody Cared About in the First Place."  This will be shorter than the first one since there's only one episode to cover so lets dive right in...

Episode 5 - Spam in the Place Where I Work

Alternate title I considered:  You've got Spam!  But I went with the Weird Al reference because Weird Al is awesome.

The Word Cave (page 1) - we'll see the inside of the Word Cave in episode 6 (please look forward to it!) and this is also the end of the meeting referred to back in episode 3.  (I'd personally never want to work in a place with early morning Monday meetings.)

The most exciting thing on page 2 is probably that it reveals the Word Smith's real name - Gord Smith (on the nameplate in panel 2.)  While figuring out The Pen's real name was somewhat agonizing, figuring out the Word Smith's was much easier (it's obviously "Gord Smith") plus the idea that his real name is almost the same as his secret identity amused me.  I briefly considered making him Ward Smith or something like that, but stuck with Gord.

Page 3 - the first panel is supposed to be a (probably rather obscure) reference to Phantom of the Opera.  "Track down this murderer he must be found...", "Down to the dungeon of my deep despair..."; also note that he has his hand at the level of his eyes.  The perhaps more obvious reference on this page is the VR helmet in the last panel which is meant to be siilar to Mega Man's helmet.

Page 4 is chock full of references, most of which are probably fairly obvious.  Top right is Tron (which I've never actually seen), bottom left is ReBoot (which was the last panel I came up with - honestly can't believe it took me that long to think of ReBoot when trying to come up with references), bottom right is The Matrix.  The reference that might be least obvious is the one in the centre which references an anime called Sword Art Online.

Nothing much to note for Page 5 except that The Pen facepalms on panel 4 (she also sort of did on page 1 as well).  I should probably keep a running tally.

Also not much to comment on for Page 6, though the Word Smith delivers the first of two cheesy speaches in this episode, both of which are cut off.

The villian of the day is introduced on Page 7 - the Homophone!   Note the various "phone" imagery in his outfit.  He's wearing the receiver of a telephone as a headband as well as using a rotary phone dial as a belt buckle.  His weapon of choice is a megaphone.  And, of course, he speaks using homophones.  The second last panel is meant to imply that the Word Smith can actually hear the difference between homophones and, thus, can tell that the wrong word is being used and that the language is being butchered.

Not too much to say about page 8, though in panel 2, The Pen says "What are you doing?" for the third time this episode.

Page 9 - those ribbon-like things on The Pen's sidekick outfit aren't just decorative, they're filled with ink and can be used (as in this case) as ink squirters.  It amused me that the Homophone would be weak against puns.  I hope that my puns here were sufficiently bad.

Page 10 - the two guards are wearing earthworm costumes (neither of them are named Jim).  The reasons for this should become apparant later on, though these character might just be one offs.  We'll have to see about that.  Also note that in panel 3, the hooded figure is watching recent events unfold via a book (you can see pages 8 and 9).  And sitting on a pile of books may not be as intimidating as a pile of skulls, it is more thematically appropriate for the character.


And that is all for this edition of the unfaq!  I'm going to aim to get something up for the comic next week, if only just an interlude.  In the meantime, here's some concept sketches for the episode 6 title page:

Freak Out,
-TFitC