Web Comic of the Week
I received a really good e-mail from Mark Stanley after last week's choice (which reminds me that I need to reply in turn) in which he recommended lots of books and thanked me for choosing his strip. I love the feeling of closeness that the internet can bring in spite of the physical miles between us all. This brings me neatly into this week's choice because in many ways it's a story of distance - the protagonist's distance from home and the distance between her and the culture she finds herself in.

This week's Web Comic of the Week is Reman Mythology by Amy Kim Ganter.



The best thing about Reman Mythology is that it's compelling. The story and the characters build and develop and you continually find yourself wanting to know more, urgently awaiting the arrival of a new page to read. And if that isn't successful story-telling, then I don't know what is.

The story centres on Tabetha Cohen, "a quiet and shy high school student beginning her junior year in the small New England suburb of Northbrooke". A bit of a loner who doesn't fit in, the story borders on the cliche, initially, but without actually giving in to it and by giving just enough to keep you interested, the story soon establishes that this seemingly normal world is anything but. A chance meeting with a handsome stranger intrigues her to the point of following him, which in turn leads her into an adventure greater than she could have imagined.

While I think that the drama and conflict directly relating to Tabetha herself could be increased in the interests of story-telling, this would only improve what is already an excellent comic. Created with a distinctly Japanese Manga feel, Amy has stamped her own style within that framework. In fact, it's when her own style comes through strongest that the best artwork is created with some beautiful background landscapes which help develop the world she has created.

There's already a lot of comic to read, but I've a feeling that there's still a tremendous amount still to come. To which I am looking forward greatly. To help readers get a fuller picture of the series, Amy has also created background material as well as a forum where you can discuss the work. All-in-all, an excellent comic that should be on everyone's list of regular visits.

Excellent cartoon
Steve Bell of the Guardian created this.

Weird and Wonderful
And a little disturbing at times, it must be said.

Call me slow on the uptake, but I've only just discovered Warren Ellis's blog, Die Puny Humans. It's a fascinating and extremely eclectic collection of oddities and snippets from other sites. He must do an awful lot of browsing, judging by the range of what he includes.

For those of you who don't know, Ellis's main claim to fame is as a writer of graphic novels and comics, though he has written in other fields, too.

Dane & Joe
A new strip has just been posted at Just Adventure +, with last week's strip up on my own Dane & Joe pages.

Today's searches
The following search strings brought people to my site:

house spiders life span
how to write a web comic
chair paintings
i met winona ryder she was lovely
miranda comic
juniper crescent
comic emoticon
cyberpunk

Some of them can understand, but "house spiders life span"? :)

I love studying the stats of the visitors to my site. I like to see if I can spot trends without being too intensive. The general trend of visitor numbers continues to be upwards, so that's pretty cool and I'm pleased that you find the time to drop by. There doesn't seem to be a particular day that people drop by more than others or any other trend of that kind, although I did notice a drop on Christmas day.

An experiment
I was reading on Melonblog that the mere inclusion of the words, Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake and the Super Bowl will get you an increase in hits. Sorry to be so shallow after my last post, but I'm a sucker for an experiment of this nature. Please leave a comment if a search for these names brought you here and you will be identified as part of the experiment. :)

Time
I almost quoted David Bowie for a moment, but resisted the temptation.

It struck me that some of my recent posts are not written as well as they could be because of the rushed way I've been approaching some of these posts. If I'm going to blog I ought to do it properly, but even now I'm trying to fit something in-depth into the last ten minutes of my lunch break before returning to some dialogue I have to check through and then copy into game scripts. So I need to ensure that my creative juices are certainly flowing for that.

But back to the issue of time, or the lack of it.

Or more precisely, my unending desire to fill every waking moment with as much as possible so that I never feel as though I've wasted any of it. This is also why I resent being ill so much - it's a waste of valuable time where I could be drawing or writing or reading a good book. Reading bad books is an even bigger waste of time than being ill. I'm getting a little fed up of books that I get a third or a half of the way through and then put to one side. Who are these reviewers or other authors that give quotes to books that struggle to keep me entertained? Is it some kind of conspiracy to lure me into wasting my time? Don't their editors take them to one side and say, "Look, this is actually a bit crap, try again."

Which actually makes me wonder what I want to acheive with this blog - if I'm not writing something of quality am I wasting my time? And yours? I hope not. I hope that I'm creating something of substance here. If that isn't the case then I'm damn well going to do something about it and give you something worthwhile.

Yes, there will still be news snippets about my comic strips and my job (when I'm able), but my other entries I'll attempt to make more interesting, readable and not time-wasting. Didn't I just say that? That was a waste of time, then...

Oh, hell, you get the quote anyway.

"Time, he's waiting in the wings, he speaks of senseless things, his script is you and me..." - David Bowie, "Time" from the album "Aladdin Sane".

Being creative
Have found some time this evening to do a little writing and to create tomorrow's Smiley Street strips. I hate being laid up by a cold and not able to do anything creative. I think I'd go spare if it went on for more than a few days. For me it's something I'm driven to do and I'm fascinated by most types of creativity. This means I'm easily distracted from what I really should be doing. So although I know I ought to be colouring some of my Sapphire Claw strips I'm prattling here instead. Strangely enough, when I'm at work I have no problem staying focussed. The fact that I get paid to do so probably puts me in a different frame of mind.

Felling better
Well, mostly. My head still feels a bit woolly and my throat hurts like crazy, but at least I'm not blowing my nose every two minutes like I was. Being busy at work all day helped take my mind off it.

Not well...
I'm afraid that my cold has got the better of me and there will be no new Juniper Crescent strip tomorrow. Sorry.