Obdormio.com

The Starslip Crisis books I ordered arrived yesterday, sooner than I had dared to hope for. They arrived just as I had to leave for work, so I spent most of that trip wanting to be home and reading. With good reason, as it turns out, because both of the books were great. All the strips reformatted to fit on a page each, and plenty of character profiles, insights into 35th century society and culture, and other interesting tidbits. My favorite extra in the first book is the excerpt from the quickstart guide for the starslip drive.

Wow, ‘excerpt’ is a really ugly word.

Anyway, I was also relieved to see the matter of the Cirbozoid hive mind settled in a satisfactory manner. Meaning, what I rooted for won. The second book had a nice page about Cirbozoid evolution and the origin of the Battlesong, but lacked a similar page about the Mothersong, which was disappointing.

I think I saw one strip that does not appear in the digital archives, but it’s been a while since I looked at those, so I may be wrong.

The forewords for the two books are written by Steve Troop and Jerry Holkins respectively. The second one, eh… To me, it looks mostly like “This foreword was written by Jerry Holkins. He’s famous.” It wasn’t really very interesting to read and didn’t say much about the strip or its creator, unlike Troop’s funny two pages.

The books aren’t all that big, height and width-wise. In my comics shelf, they end up looking small and pushed in, especially since S and T are next to each other in the alphabet,just like Starslip Crisis and Schlock Mercenary are next to each other on my shelf. The Schlock Mercenary book is abnormally tall and wide, so it looks extra odd.

I can find no Blank Label logo on either of the books. I interpret this to mean that Straub hates his friends. Then again, there is no logo on the Schlock book either, so maybe they just don’t do that.

To end this rather aimless rambling, I’ll just say that both books were well worth the money and a very enjoyable read.

In other comic news, Cyanide and Happiness and Killer Robots from Space are added to the Recommended Comics list, and Blomsten og bien is added under Norwegian Comics.

Also, have a look at what passes for fanart these days over at Terror Island! If I can do it, anybody can! And should that be too small for you, you can have a look at this spiffy .svg version. Now you can zoom in for a closer look at those straight lines!

My vacation has come to an end. After a week of worship, it’s back to the graveyard grindstone. It was a good week. Lots of good music and several good speakers. I shook the hand of the heavenly man, a very inspiring speaker, and got a signed copy of his book, which I am looking forward to reading.

On the long bus and train rides, and the long, long waits between them, I finished Shaman’s Crossing and Forest Mage by Robin Hobb, both excellent books. Robin Hobb never seems to stop finding ways of torturing her main characters. She must hate them all. I also purchased Eye of the Labyrinth by Jennifer Fallon and Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson. I also bought and read T Campbell’s A History of Webcomics, which was an interesting read. Can’t say I understand what all the controversy was about, but then again, controversy is what makes the internet go round.

Speaking of comics, I also bought books one and two of The Books of Magic. Then I found out that book three was out of print. Smeg. I also bought the first book of Y: The Last Man, which I’m now looking forward to reading. Spending what holiday money I had left I have ordered the two Starslip Crisis books, which I am also greatly looking forward to.

Also, I saw Pirates of the Caribbean while waiting for the bus. Said bus goes once every twelve hours, it was a bit of a wait. I don’t know why people disliked it so much. I had been a bit worried when I heard they were making this one more of a comedy, but I loved the results. It was funny, exciting, and well worth the money. The only complaint I have is… Well, I think Greg Dean has pretty much summed it up.

Finally, an updating of the comics links. Terror Island now has 15 strips under the belt, and the concept is holding well so far. Also, I got to be Stephonian Prime on their forum, so it moves up to Recommended Comics. Something Positive, which I’ve recently begun reading again, and Queen of Wands, which was omitted form the link list by an oversight, are both added to the same list. Lokes eskapadar is added to Norwegian Comics.

And I think that’s it for now.

He’s back today, after a week without computer or internet access. Since he seems to be unable to put any of this into writing here, I figured you probably won’t notice much of a difference if I typed it instead, and thought I’d let you know all the same. Wouldn’t want anybody to think he was ignoring them.

I’m leaving today, for a week without computer or internet access. Since I seem to be unable to put any of my ideas into writing lately, you probably won’t notice much of a difference here, but I thought I’d let you know all the same. Wouldn’t want anybody to think I was ignoring them.

Seriously, how come nobody told me Fans was free now? I mean, it ended last year didn’t it? It must have been free for ages!

I knew it had ended, but I distinctly recall finding locked archives the last time I checked. So how come I’ve never read a single line anywhere about it going free? Am I just not paying attention?

It was probably said in T Campbell’s blog. But I didn’t read that, of course. ‘Cause I didn’t read Fans. ‘Cause it wasn’t free.

Anyway, I have now read Fans, found it very, very good, and am putting it on the Recommended Comics list.

(Speaking of things that are suddenly free, Narbonic can now be read and enjoyed free of charge. Go read it.)