I would like to meet Mur Lafferty. See to that would you.
Ok so more explanation. I have discovered Podio books. I know, I’m late to the party but hey I’m a webcomicer and we don’t mix much with the podcasters much. Kind of strange really since we are doing the same thing after a fashion. Sure webcomic people do podcast but they are rather amateurish and not really well thought out. I don't think any pro podcaster has done a comic. I guess it comes down to if you are atracted to visual or auditory stimuli.
At this year’s Balticon I went to a panel by escape pod. Escape pod is a source of free audio fiction on line. Well I loved it and have been devouring Escape pods fiction. Escape pod led to Mur Lafferty who has released a number of really cool books online.
Mur lives down in Durham NC. Now every year there is a folk music festival down in Durham on the weekend of July 4th. I have been going for the last 3 year and it’s become nice little tradition. This year will be no different for me.
So I am going to be in Durham. I am interested in expanding my writing and looking into podcasting. Mur Lafferty is knowledgeable about both. So make sense to look her up and see if she available for a lunch/brain dump.
I sent her an email about this but she doesn’t know who the heck I am and therein lies the problem. The email has probably hit the spam filter or is just sitting with the other “I’ll have to check them eventually” emails. It is one of the ironies this age that with all these communication tools its harder to get in contact with people than ever.
I was about to give up hope but then I realized I have you minions. I figure that one of you knows Mur or know someone who knows Mur. You can get the message through where my attempts will go unanswered.
And after all it’s the least you guys can do as minions. ‘Cause, let’s face it, you guys have not been really living up to your side of the minion/mastermind relationship. I’m just saying, my death ray is still missing the Explodium I need, there is not one mutant man eating creature in my dungeon, no peaceful township has been raised in my name, there are no superspies strapped in front of a laser in my laboratory, and my harem is completely empty of feisty young reporters.
Really what have you guys been doing? Even my prison cells are not even incompletely guarded. How are the heroes supposed to trick the guard into giving them the keys if there are no guards to trick? The heroes just slowly starving to death in the bowls of my citadel. Do you have any idea how bad that makes me look to my fellow Megalomaniacs? I mean it's just not done to have actually escape-proof prisions instead of just calling a it escape-proof.
Anyway if anyone can arrange a connection I would be grateful.
Fail me and… Well I would say I will throw you to the alligators but no one has set up the alligators pit either. I swear I never should have let you guys unionize.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
God is a man and he's from Texas
Before I get into theology I just want to let you know the next Exiern page will not be up till late friday. Now about God:
Recently I have been reading the Scientific American “Sex” special edition. And before you all run out to the stores no there is no centerfold. It is very interesting and talks about sex and the difference between men and women. For example the ability to “Walk it of” is actually gender linked to men and the ability to remember important emotionally linked dates and event linked to women. One of the articles that caught my eyes was the play preferences of chimps.
Scientist gave young monkeys a number of toys and then correlated gender with who played with which toy more. They found female monkeys played more with dolls and male monkeys more with rubber balls. They also found males preferred toy trucks and females preferred a toy pan.
What?
Ok the doll/ball thing I get. Dolls look like babies and balls are physical, both training for gender roles in a chimp society. But a truck? Monkeys don’t have tucks. There is nothing even truck like in the jungle. Chimps are a couple million years of evolution away from an internal combustion engine. A toy truck more resembles a doll than a ball. What the heck is going on? Same argument for pots and pans. Monkeys don’t have fire, cooking, or anything that would make a pan useful. It’s essentially a flat ball.
Let’s assume these researchers didn’t mess up and there is an ingrained genetic preference for truck among all male primates. This is without a doubt the most convincing case for intelligent design I have ever seen. Not only is preference for truck not evolutionarily adaptive, it’s evolutionarily impossible. You can’t evolve to prefer something that doesn’t exist. You have to come up with some odd theories of time space or plutonic forms to explain that with natural processes.
Clearly some being put a preference for truck into our dna at the dawn of time. Technology, society, the accent of man has all been in the service of creating a sweet ass hemi. In fact you could probably say the dinosaurs lived and died to produce the oil needed to power our trucks. All history has been leading up to creating the perfect truck. Men have been guided to this fate by God. It all makes sense when you think about it.
And women? Well women have been programmed to stay at home cooking and taking care of the young and not to touch the man’s truck. Even before cooking exists, female chimps show a preference for cooking equipment. Women are not to drive truck just bring their men sandwiches as they work on creating and repairing trucks.
This is clearly what God has written into our nucleic acids. The question one has to ask is have we lost our way? We now create hybrid cars, and car pool to work or take the train. We have turned from the path of creating bigger and more powerful trucks. Worse women dive SUVs, and men an women share household chores. Clearly we have gone against our dna and are not living our lives in the model of imature monkeys.
God is a clearly a man, a truck man to be exact. And I fear his wrath when he looks upon on modern truckless world. So next time a you see a guy driving a beat up old pickup driving down the road spewing out clouds of toxic smoke, give that him a thumbs up. After all he’s the only thing standing between us and Armageddon.
PS: It is also possible that God wants us to bake the perfect cake and the invention of the truck is just necessary for the transport of the ingredients. If you want to take the grody cootie filled female centered view of things.
(Note: in the study it was actually a police car that the monkeys played with but trucks are funnier)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Mean = Money
So you might have noticed that I put up a new donation comic in the members area. And I must say doing so pains me greatly.
1) It pains me because the comic is not R-rated and doesn’t need to be locked away in the member’s area.
2) Because the comic is rather amusing and I don’t want to lock it away in the member’s area.
This is always the problem with web businesses. To thrive on the web you have to be the type of person who genuinely enjoys sharing their work with no expectation of reward. But make money on the web you have to withhold some of your work in order to strong arm your viewers into paying. I always like to quote this imaginary exchange between creator and consumer on the internet:
Consumer: “Wow I really love your (Comic/Blog/Podcast/Art) it’s the high point of my day it.”
Creator: “Thanks that really means a lot to me. And you know if you really like it you could donate a small amount towards it’s production”
Consumer: “Yes, yes I COULD donate something towards its production. That is an ability I have.”
The consumer then wanders off to look at some other free content on the web as the creator pours himself a glass of his own bitter tears.
If I could draw Exeirn myself I promise you there would be no ads and no member’s area on this comic. But I can’t so I need to make money. I actually need to make more money. If I could double Exiern’s income constantly, I could convince Studio Boom to quit his job and come to work for us full time. That would mean 3 comic a week instead of just one. Which would be awesome.
The rule of thumb I have found to work for Exiern is sharing 75% and charging for 25%. You give most of your work away for free to build the audience but then you have to hold back a fraction of it to convert that audience into customers. Granted there are other schemes such as selling print version or original art. But these methods are usually variations on the same theme. Print books usually contain extra content and original art is special content in its own way.
The only other method is to threaten the existence of the comic or offer extra pages. Threading the existence of the comic would be a lie and offering extra pages would be impossible right now (unless we doubled our income as I said) so the withholding of content is all I have left.
Doesn’t mean I like doing it though.
1) It pains me because the comic is not R-rated and doesn’t need to be locked away in the member’s area.
2) Because the comic is rather amusing and I don’t want to lock it away in the member’s area.
This is always the problem with web businesses. To thrive on the web you have to be the type of person who genuinely enjoys sharing their work with no expectation of reward. But make money on the web you have to withhold some of your work in order to strong arm your viewers into paying. I always like to quote this imaginary exchange between creator and consumer on the internet:
Consumer: “Wow I really love your (Comic/Blog/Podcast/Art) it’s the high point of my day it.”
Creator: “Thanks that really means a lot to me. And you know if you really like it you could donate a small amount towards it’s production”
Consumer: “Yes, yes I COULD donate something towards its production. That is an ability I have.”
The consumer then wanders off to look at some other free content on the web as the creator pours himself a glass of his own bitter tears.
If I could draw Exeirn myself I promise you there would be no ads and no member’s area on this comic. But I can’t so I need to make money. I actually need to make more money. If I could double Exiern’s income constantly, I could convince Studio Boom to quit his job and come to work for us full time. That would mean 3 comic a week instead of just one. Which would be awesome.
The rule of thumb I have found to work for Exiern is sharing 75% and charging for 25%. You give most of your work away for free to build the audience but then you have to hold back a fraction of it to convert that audience into customers. Granted there are other schemes such as selling print version or original art. But these methods are usually variations on the same theme. Print books usually contain extra content and original art is special content in its own way.
The only other method is to threaten the existence of the comic or offer extra pages. Threading the existence of the comic would be a lie and offering extra pages would be impossible right now (unless we doubled our income as I said) so the withholding of content is all I have left.
Doesn’t mean I like doing it though.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Shadow Sock-Puppetry
At Balticon the topic of sock-puppeting was discussed at one of the panels. Sock-puppeting is the act of making duplicate accounts on ones message board, chat or other networking tool and pretending that this alternate persona is a different person. At the panel some fool brought up this technique and was resoundly shouted down by the panelist.
That fool was me. I have indeed engaged in sock-puppeting but not exactly in the way you think. Traditionally a sock puppet personality is a raving fan of the creator (aka puppeteer’s) work. They post complements and are an ever vigilant defender against all detractors. But “Pretender”, my sock puppet, was less of a defender and more of an a-hole.
Pretender was a self absorbed misogynist. He would have never complemented my work because it would have taken attention away from himself. Mostly he would hang around the forums and make rude comments and tell dirty jokes. “There one was a man from Orange County that realize nothing lude rhymes with Orange County. So he moved to a beach house with a huge dock. His wife is much happier now.” That sort of thing. Pretender was my Id in all its glory
Taking on the Pretender personality was very freeing. As the Mod my words carried weight. If I said something stupid people would notice and it would be viewed as an officially sanctioned statement. No one listened to Pretender one way or the other. But this was great because NO ONE LISTENED TO HIM. I could say anything through the voice of Pretender and it would not tarnish the comic and it would not make anyone fell discriminated against. Pretender was an idiotic blowhard and everyone knew it including me. But every now and then it’s fun to be an idiotic blowhard.
Pretender also made the forums more lively and interesting. His posts got people talking and added steam to existing conversations. One of the hardest things about building community is getting the first few people to start talking. Having pretender making random comments kept the forums interesting and active.
Eventually I junked the Pretender persona. Not because I felt bad about the identity. Honestly the Drowemos identity is just as fake as Pretender in its own way. One of the nice things about the web is you can try on different personas take on different forms. I really find nothing wrong with that.
No Pretender got the ax for a much simpler reason. I don’t have the time for him. I frankly don’t have time to post in my primary persona of Drowmemos more or less the time for a second persona. Pretender was a particularly needy persona as well. His drive to be the center of attention was just too much work to maintain. So I retired the persona in 08 never to be seen again.
Sock-puppeting gets a bad name because people use to attack critic while avoiding any blow back from their actions. This is a negative use of sock puppeting but at the same time there are many usages that I think are perfectly legitimate. As with all things it’s not the action that is bad but the application. It’s fun to role play and well played puppet can add entertainment to a site. These are noble applications in my opinion that should be applauded not decried. When you talk online the assumption of identity should be thrown out the window. Judge one by their actions not by who they are, because you will never know for sure.
One final note. Pretender is a pretty common screen name. My Pretender only existed on the Exiern forums so if you go to a board and see a Pretender it’s probably not me but a whole and complete person. Unless someone else is sock-puppeting.
That fool was me. I have indeed engaged in sock-puppeting but not exactly in the way you think. Traditionally a sock puppet personality is a raving fan of the creator (aka puppeteer’s) work. They post complements and are an ever vigilant defender against all detractors. But “Pretender”, my sock puppet, was less of a defender and more of an a-hole.
Pretender was a self absorbed misogynist. He would have never complemented my work because it would have taken attention away from himself. Mostly he would hang around the forums and make rude comments and tell dirty jokes. “There one was a man from Orange County that realize nothing lude rhymes with Orange County. So he moved to a beach house with a huge dock. His wife is much happier now.” That sort of thing. Pretender was my Id in all its glory
Taking on the Pretender personality was very freeing. As the Mod my words carried weight. If I said something stupid people would notice and it would be viewed as an officially sanctioned statement. No one listened to Pretender one way or the other. But this was great because NO ONE LISTENED TO HIM. I could say anything through the voice of Pretender and it would not tarnish the comic and it would not make anyone fell discriminated against. Pretender was an idiotic blowhard and everyone knew it including me. But every now and then it’s fun to be an idiotic blowhard.
Pretender also made the forums more lively and interesting. His posts got people talking and added steam to existing conversations. One of the hardest things about building community is getting the first few people to start talking. Having pretender making random comments kept the forums interesting and active.
Eventually I junked the Pretender persona. Not because I felt bad about the identity. Honestly the Drowemos identity is just as fake as Pretender in its own way. One of the nice things about the web is you can try on different personas take on different forms. I really find nothing wrong with that.
No Pretender got the ax for a much simpler reason. I don’t have the time for him. I frankly don’t have time to post in my primary persona of Drowmemos more or less the time for a second persona. Pretender was a particularly needy persona as well. His drive to be the center of attention was just too much work to maintain. So I retired the persona in 08 never to be seen again.
Sock-puppeting gets a bad name because people use to attack critic while avoiding any blow back from their actions. This is a negative use of sock puppeting but at the same time there are many usages that I think are perfectly legitimate. As with all things it’s not the action that is bad but the application. It’s fun to role play and well played puppet can add entertainment to a site. These are noble applications in my opinion that should be applauded not decried. When you talk online the assumption of identity should be thrown out the window. Judge one by their actions not by who they are, because you will never know for sure.
One final note. Pretender is a pretty common screen name. My Pretender only existed on the Exiern forums so if you go to a board and see a Pretender it’s probably not me but a whole and complete person. Unless someone else is sock-puppeting.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Digital Version of the Print Version of the Digtial Version
Well you guys asked for it. There is now a downloadable PDF avalible of Exiern Book one. I am still scratching my head as to why people want this. True the PDF is super high reslolution better than even the members area gets, but still. Selling a PDF of a webcomic seems strangely circular to me.
Any way you can get the comic from "Drive Through Comics" here:
PS: I also hear there are some Drive Through cupons floating around in newsletters or some such that would let you get the book for free. I don't know the details outside of one person has alrealy used a cupon to buy the book.
Monday, April 27, 2009
The Speech
As I have mentioned, I used to game with R. K. Milholland of Something Positive fame. He was a cool guy and really wacky. In fact my first response when I found out he was the force behind Something Positive was; “Oh my God. What happened to Randy? Should we stage an intervention or something?”
Anyway I sent him an email when I found out that I knew him. No response of course. Which was not very surprising. Randy was really bad with answering emails even before he had his comic empire.
As I was preparing for Raven Con I noticed that Randy was going to be attending. We were even going to be on some same panel. It would be cool to say hi and reminisce about the old days. But I really doubted Randy would remember me. It was a long time ago and we only gamed for about 6 sessions top. I barely remembered him and had to do a websearch to figure out what he looked like.
Realizing that there would be an awkward “who the hell are you” moment I thought it would be amusing if I acted all indignant about it. I worked out this humorous speech I could give to sort of cover the issue and break the tension if any.
So I walked into he panel all ready to go into my soliloquy and then Randy spotted me. “Hey I know you,” he said with a big smile “Eric from Rob’s game back in Boston! How have you been.”
So my big speech ruined I got on with the process of catching up. But I did put some thought into that speech so here is what I would have said if Randy didn’t have his freaky mutant cyborg memory of everyone he has ever met:
But you know how it is Randy ruined everything by recognizing me and being really cool. The same old wacky, friend to everyone, guy that I remember from back in Boston…
…that bastard.
Anyway I sent him an email when I found out that I knew him. No response of course. Which was not very surprising. Randy was really bad with answering emails even before he had his comic empire.
As I was preparing for Raven Con I noticed that Randy was going to be attending. We were even going to be on some same panel. It would be cool to say hi and reminisce about the old days. But I really doubted Randy would remember me. It was a long time ago and we only gamed for about 6 sessions top. I barely remembered him and had to do a websearch to figure out what he looked like.
Realizing that there would be an awkward “who the hell are you” moment I thought it would be amusing if I acted all indignant about it. I worked out this humorous speech I could give to sort of cover the issue and break the tension if any.
So I walked into he panel all ready to go into my soliloquy and then Randy spotted me. “Hey I know you,” he said with a big smile “Eric from Rob’s game back in Boston! How have you been.”
So my big speech ruined I got on with the process of catching up. But I did put some thought into that speech so here is what I would have said if Randy didn’t have his freaky mutant cyborg memory of everyone he has ever met:
Hi Randy.
*My opening gambit laid I would get all indignant when he didn’t recognize me.*
You don’t remember me do you? Gaming? In Boston? With Rob?
Jesus Christ man! I save your life on three different hypothetical occasions and now you are just going to pretend like it never happened?
Well, it didn’t actually happen but you are just going to pretend like we never pretended it happened!
So what? The battle of Lanceaturn meant nothing? We fought a battle for our fictitious children and fictitious children’s’ children so that they would not have to live under the oppressive thumb of an evil that didn’t actually exist. Was all that imagined effort and pretend sacrifice for nothing?
What world do we live in where the mock crushing of the non-existent armies of the dragon is written off as some fantasy?
Well, I’m afraid sir, you leave me no choice.
*A this point I would have taken out a twenty sided that I had in my pocket and rolled it on the table. Depending on what the die rolled I would have said one of two things*
*With a high roll I would have pointed at him dramatically and said.*
19! Not so cocky now are you! Let this be a lesson to you.
*With a low roll I would have look dejectly at the die and mumbled.*
Oh, nuts, only a 5. Never mind then. Carry on.
*The end.*
But you know how it is Randy ruined everything by recognizing me and being really cool. The same old wacky, friend to everyone, guy that I remember from back in Boston…
…that bastard.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Podcast again.
Once more into the breach my friends another Exiern Open Access podcast tonight. Going to discuss Albany Comic Con, upcoming cons and might even have a surprise guest. As always I want you guys to call in with your question.
Podcast Link
Starts 9:00 pm EST
Podcast Link
Starts 9:00 pm EST
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