nov 14-dec 5 2005

nov.14.05

M.I.A.!

Actually, M.I.I.: Missing in INaction. I've been stuck in my office (bedroom) AAAAAAAALL week.

Big apologies to everyone I've brushed off the past few weeks; I'm finally cracking down on Crazy Papers (Pulse interview coming soon, with sneak previews!) and have been prepping for this week's Big Apple Con in New York.

What's that? I FORGOT to tell you about the Big Apple show??

Here's the most important detail about this show: CARRIE FISHER is going to be there! *droooool!*

Actually, it's a HUGE show with a LOT of big names; check out the website (and turn down your speakers immediately - some idiot decided to mix two terrible MIDI tunes for the home page!) and take a gander at the big-name comics and movie/entertainment guests!

I'll be set up, although I'll have very little to sell. I'll just be doing sketches (as always!) in hopes that I can make enough money to pay for the train ride back. If you're going to be at the show, be sure to keep an eye out for me! (And if you know anybody who's going to the show, please direct them and their money to the starving artist in the comics creators area!)

In more news, Hazel and Jamie's MySpace page has received massive attention! They had more "friends" in two days than I'd gotten in a few weeks! They already have their own personal "creepy stalker," they've been granted "friendship vibrators" (thank you, Sam!), and Jamie's been tickled pink over all the compliments she and her *ahem* melons have received.

There has also been interest in Hazel's column. She may be doing something about that in the next few days... after all, the girls are coming with me to New York, and they do have bars up there...

And speaking of which, to wrap up the New York notice, I'll be gone from Wednesday to Monday. While I'm up there I'll be busy with meetings and, of course, the show itself. So although I'll have my laptop with me, there will be little time for me to respond to e-mails and update the ol' website. I WILL make every effort to keep GWS on time, however, so keep on readin'!

Hopefully after I get back from all the meetings and mayhem, I'll have news that will make you GWS followers VERY happy. Stay "tooned!"

nov.24.05

Did you know...

The entire city of New York is in fact NOT connected to wireless Internet.

I'm not sure what made me believe that you can get 'net access anywhere in the city, but I was sorely mistaken. Which is why there was no new GWS last Thursday. Major apologies, ladies and gents!

On another note...

I am, for the fourth time in three months, sick as a dog. I almost didn't attend the last day of the convention. Thus, I can't crack out a strip for today, either. But I DO have two guest strips that I think will make up for the lack of updates, at least temporarily.

The first strip is by my pal Aimee, who ultimately surprised me with the original at the Big Apple Con this past week!

The second is a strip by my good friend and fellow webcomicker, James Hatton of In His Likeness. I've been holding on to this one for a rainy day.

Special thanks to both James and Aimee for saving my ass.

Just in case you were wondering, I will make up for at least today's strip on Thursday (assuming I'm not DEAD by then).

And as for the show? Well, I missed Carrie Fisher by about five minutes and forty bucks, but I knocked out some of my best con sketches thus far! So I'll be sharing those with you guys shortly. And of course, I'll provide the coveted "travelogue" soon as well, complete with crude commentary as always!

Like I said, I'll make it all up to you guys. Just gimme a few days...

nov.24.05

Happy Thanksgiving!

And just for you special few who are actually checking the site when they should be eating pie with their family, I've got a few goodies for you.

The Turkey
Um, the turkey is that there's finally a strip up there. Hooray!

The Gravy
Here's the gravy: enjoy the sights of New York City and some sketches from the Big Apple Con!

The Cranberry Sauce
It's dessert, but it's just a tease: Remember those GWS tee shirts I promised you guys way back when? Well, 360 has gotten things all figured out and picked a kick-ass company to print the designs for us, so... let's just say if you wanted to get your favorite GWS reader something for Christmas, hold off a week and I might just have the perfect thing!

nov.29.05

The elements: wind and fire

1. Wind
Does anybody else have a DSL connection that only works on clear, cloudless, windless medium-temperature days? No? Well, I do!!

And although the temperature outside is a bizzarre and pleasant 60-something degrees at 3:30 in the morning, it's also been raining nonstop since yesterday, and the wind is so strong it's catching our windchimes (which, for one reason or another, don't chime unless there's a tornado).

So I've been getting (and continue to get) the "Local Area Connection: A network cable is unplugged" message on my toolbar with the seizure-inducing pattern of a strobe light. It's driving me batty and I've finally just decided to give up. I'm doing today's strip later this afternoon, when I get run out to the store and buy a new router to see if that's the problem first.

2. Fire

In other news, I spent about half an hour this afternoon littering my apartment with small Post-It notes.

The reason? My roommate Kris turned 2-- yesterday (never reveal a lady's age!) and his birthday gift to himself was to quit smoking. So I played Quitter's Little Helper and spread little messages of joy reminding him that quitting will land him a better job, keep his lungs happy, and increase his "potential girlfriend" pool by 100%.

Forgive the browser-resized photo; I hate doing that, but I really don't feel like saving (and then trying to upload) a separate thumbnail for this. Enjoy! (And Mom, beware - a lot of the messages could use a little soap to wash their mouths out with!)

P.S. To my smokin' readers: no offense meant by the nasty messages on these notes. A good deal of my friends smoke. I just happen to care about you f*ers, and I'd like you to stick around a little longer. :)

nov.29.05

The OTHER element: water

In addition to wind, we now have all-day rain showers. While I enjoy hearing the soft patter of rain and the swish of cars pushing through puddles outside my open window, I'm sure I'll appreciate it all a lot more once this town re-wires the phone lines and I can have DSL and soft rain showers simultaniously.

For now, I'm switching between desktop and laptop and mooching off my neighbor's wireless signal. Again.

But hey, the strip's up and that's what counts, right? And guess what! I've got something ELSE that counts. You guessed it...

There should be a GWS poster up there, too, but it might just need to take a day or two to process. In the meantime, getchyer GWS tee shirts RIGHT HERE!!

dec.01.05

More danielle goodness...

Alright, I've got another goodie for you guys: A. Dave Lewis took the time to Q&A me for the Pulse, including questions about the upcoming Crazy Papers by Jim Dougan (with sneak preview art!), Bill Jemas/360ep talk, and a very brief not-so-revealing mention of my newest book illustration endeavor (oooo, mysterious!). Eat up, kids!

dec.01.05

The gaming... game.

Quick note about the strip above: I wrote this one as a standalone several weeks ago after finally noticing (hey, I'm slow!) that damn near ALL of the webcomics that I read revolve around videogames or some other type of gaming. And everybody's all "Xbox" this and "360" that, and while I've dated gamers for about 6 years now, I still have NO idea what my favorite webcomics are talking about.

In fact, I had to Google image search the 360 before I inked the strip because I had no idea if this mystical new... THING, as Hazel puts it, was a gaming console or a PC tool. (And with that statement, I hear all of my college ex-boyfriends shaking their heads and saying, "My time with her was a failed attempt to teach her the important things in life.")

Anyway, I just wanted to assure people that this strip was not made to mock nor mimic any other webcomic out there; it was made only to poke fun of the utter non-gamer-ness of the GWS plot and characters. And the strangely proportionate readership. ;)