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751

Discuss Comic Pages / Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 12 - Creepy Space Party

« on: August 30, 2014, 01:27:14 AM »

And thus wraps the walking home from school/yard encounter sequence.

Next week's page might just be my favorite one so far. Since we'll be at the convention next weekend with uncertain Internet access, we might post next week's page on Thursday before we head out. Not sure yet.

752

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: Satan Ninja News & Dr. Von Crypt

« on: August 28, 2014, 08:50:07 AM »

Thanks, dude! Always nice to have my radness acknowledged.

The initial print run we ordered is woefully small, because funds are tight and we didn't want to overestimate how well the comics will sell at the convention. So chances are we'll be selling out of this run.

But we'll order more, including some with the alternate Double Dragon parody cover. Once we have more, I'm sure we'll be selling some from our website, including signed copies that'll be worth a zillion fucking dollars someday.

753

Discuss Anything / Re: ALS Ice bucket challenge and Jean-Claude Van Damme's daughter

« on: August 28, 2014, 03:33:24 AM »

Ha, nice. Damme nice.

The clip used a little too much footage from Bloodsport, but how can I really complain about that?

754

Discuss Blog Entries / Satan Ninja News & Dr. Von Crypt

« on: August 28, 2014, 03:11:20 AM »

Read the blog post here.

755

Discuss Anything / Re: ALS Ice bucket challenge and Jean-Claude Van Damme's daughter

« on: August 26, 2014, 07:07:19 AM »

My facebook feed has been nothing but Robin Williams and people dumping ice on their heads.

I'm glad people are donating to any kind of medical or scientific research. Since I hardly make enough money to cover rent, I'm in no position to join them, but good on them.

And I had no idea Van Damme had a hot daughter. Nice. Now I just need to see her do a jumping spin-kick.

756

Discuss Comic Pages / Re: Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 11 - Grandma McCarthy

« on: August 26, 2014, 07:01:32 AM »

I'm assuming this is a wrap on that 3 page sequence of events.  I think you guys made the right move by cutting a bit of that dialog out.  It may be because I'm reading week to week but this could have gotten way to drawn out.

No way is this a wrap. We got at least four more pages of Eddie standing in the yard, gazing up at the trees and reflecting on the meaning of life and how it all went so wrong for him.

But seriously, I do think it mostly feels drawn out due to you reading a single page a week. Trust me when I say that there are plenty of webcomics that will drag a simple conversation on for way longer than this scene.

The next page wraps up this scene and brings us someplace far, far away from Eddie and Alex's front yards.

757

Discuss Comic Pages / Re: Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 11 - Grandma McCarthy

« on: August 24, 2014, 03:34:47 PM »

Yep, Trent's a college freshman, like Dean. I wouldn't say it requires Joe to be a real genius ( ) in order to do a little Science 101 homework (after all, he's only a few months away from being a college boy himself), but he's certainly ahead of the curve, at least when it comes to science.

As for Grandma McCarthy, I'll just say that she's a bit eccentric and can be quite matter-of-fact and aloof, but she doesn't have malicious intent.

758

Discuss Comic Pages / Re: Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 11 - Grandma McCarthy

« on: August 24, 2014, 06:58:41 AM »

Not much for me to say on the Babe front

Are you kidding me? Did you not notice that hot bending-over action in panel 7?

759

Discuss Comic Pages / Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 11 - Grandma McCarthy

« on: August 23, 2014, 01:15:28 AM »

Part of the script for this page got cut in order to speed things along. We liked it, but it wasn't very essential. Here's the little deleted sequence:

[Eddie is sitting down in the grass and fuming at Dean while Snacky continues to lick him. Alex continues to stand near him.]

DEAN: Look, just to show there aren’t any hard feelings, here’s a peace offering.
 (holding out a hundred dollar bill toward Eddie) A hundred bucks for the pig. That way you can buy some clothes that actually fit and I can have a year supply of bacon.

[Eddie says nothing.]

DEAN: No? Your loss. (Dean puts the money back in his wallet)

DEAN: Let’s go, Trent. That pig is grossing me out.

That also shows you how bare-bones my scripts for this comic are. In most cases I leave it up to Jessica to decide when to switch to new panels, what angles to use, and how much of the script to depict on each page. Sometimes, if I have a clear picture in my head that I feel strongly about, then I'll go into more detail, but usually I leave it up to her because I trust her judgment.

760

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: The Satanic Panic of the '80s

« on: August 22, 2014, 05:31:55 PM »

Was that ever a thing? I know Eminem mentioned it in Stan..

Oh yeah. It was totally a thing. I heard it mentioned several times when I was growing up. It seemed to mostly be an urban legend in the states. Phil Collins has said that he'd get asked about it all the time whenever he'd tour over here.

The truth about the song is still a little creepy. Apparently he did most of the vocals in a single take, singing whatever words came to him in the moment. So he honestly has no idea what the song is about.

761

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: The Satanic Panic of the '80s

« on: August 22, 2014, 06:49:21 AM »

You make a depressingly good point.

762

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: The Satanic Panic of the '80s

« on: August 21, 2014, 09:20:13 PM »

This comes from a time when it wasn't so easy to research things for yourself.  You could do it obviously, go to the library check out a dozen books, spend evenings reading about stuff that only vaguely interest you, finally come to a conclusion that it's all BS.  My point being that people trusted public media way to much.  (maybe why people still do)  This is kind of all on the line as people poisoning Halloween candy, it may have started with an bit of truth and then became a tool to push an agenda.

Exactly. One of the best things about our current information age is that it's a lot harder for the general masses to fall into a big panic about nothing. It's certainly not impossible, but it's harder.

On a related note, this era is pretty much the death knell for urban legends. Now when someone tells you that Phil Collins wrote "In the Air Tonight" about a guy he saw who refused to save a drowning victim, it's a simple matter to look it up online and discover that it's complete bullshit.

763

Discuss Blog Entries / Re: The Satanic Panic of the '80s

« on: August 20, 2014, 04:51:59 PM »

Wow, I never realised this was such a big issue at the time. Perhaps it wasn't where I'm from.

It was a much bigger concern in the rural, more religious parts of the US where many evangelical Christians used it as a political tool, but it certainly had some effects on the suburbs like where I grew up. Even if most adults didn't fully buy into the panic, they were still nervous that there might be some partial truth to it.

I don't think any country experienced it quite as much as the US did during the '80s, but there were cases of satanic ritual abuse reported in the UK, Australia, and other countries. In fact, it's still a bit of an issue in some parts of Africa.

People actually believed the whole Jezus, Mary and Michael coming down to stop the summoning of Satan thing? Amazing..

The ending of Michelle Remembers was downplayed by the media, likely because it was so hard to swallow. They mostly just focused on the fact that she was apparently subject to a year of abuse by a secret cult of satanists.

Watching the 20/20 report (only two minutes in), I think it's possible that all these 'rituals' took place but that people were inspired by the stories rather than the other way around. Kind of like crop circles..

I think a big part of the media's confusion is that there really were satanists that would get together and perform rituals. But the problem is that actual satanists (members of Anton LeVey's Church of Satan that was founded in the '60s) are against the sacrifice of living creatures and in fact don't even believe in Satan (it's an atheistic religion that uses Satan as an icon for independence and rebellion). But they did like to wear black robes and perform spooky ceremonies for fun.

And then you had the occasional incident of a teen murdering another teen. The media would latch on to the fact that the teens involved listened to "satanic" heavy metal music or played "occult" games like Dungeons & Dragons and would therefor conclude that the murders must have been related to satanism. In reality, most of these murders were over things like drug disputes. The story of Ricky Kassa is one of the most famous examples of this.

764

Discuss Blog Entries / The Satanic Panic of the '80s

« on: August 20, 2014, 08:49:28 AM »

Read the article here.

765

Discuss Comic Pages / Re: Issue 2 - Party Like It's 198X - Page 10 - Riiip!

« on: August 19, 2014, 08:23:32 AM »

Everyone's expressions are well-done on this page: the girls in panel 1, Snaky's concern in panel 5

But the question is: is Snacky concerned about Eddie falling, or is he merely concerned that Eddie is landing on one of the tasty ice cream cones?

For what it's worth, Alex's martial arts skills fit perfectly for this All-Encompasing 80's Dimension and looks like it could have come straight out of a movie. A cheesy movie, probably, but it still fits the 80's style that you're going for.

I was totally surprised to see Alex flipping into the page.  It's way over the top but I think it works well.

To clarify what I meant about kung-fu Alex possibly being "groan-worthy," it's not the cheesy over-the-top factor that worried me. We're all about that kind of thing (though we aim to keep the comic at least somewhat grounded in reality, as opposed to something like Kung Fury [which I'm ultra pumped for, by the way]). What Jessica and I aren't fond of is when a girl in a movie or something does something "badass," and is all painfully sassy about it. It's extra cringe-inducing if she says the words "girl power" at any point. On the other hand, an example of a badass girl done well would be the Bride from Kill Bill.