To those who're still wondering, yeah I'm still alive. It's been quite the last few months. I'm not going to go into details because at a certain point it just comes across as whining, and there's always someone who has more work to do than you and that always does it better. People like Warren Ellis and Brian Wood make me feel like I do nothing but fuck off 24-7 AND their stuff is always badass. So, no complaints.

The script for the first comic chapter if Deathmarch is done. The art will be done by end of January, preferably towards the earlier side of the month. There are multiple reasons why it HAS to happen then. Again, details will remain unsaid, but the motivations are fiscally based (in part)

Other news, I'm doing a five-issue miniseries with writer Tony Lee, called Of Vengence. The story is pretty badass and the art is a very different style than any of the comic stuff than I've done before. We're doing the negotiation dance with a publisher right now, and it looks good, full color, painted, would be monthlhy for the five issues and then collected in a Trade Paperback. Hope to have the first issue out by summer. I know that I can't do a monthly book (artwise) because of the deadlines, but The goal is that the is the beginning of having at least one miniseries or graphic novel out every year. The comics side is getting pushed up in importance in a major way.

and Deathmarch becomes a critical part of that.

On the 'day job' side of things, we just got confirmation that the game we're working on will be featured in (what looks like) the march issue of Game Informer. In 11 years of making games, I will say that this is the one that I am the most proud of so far, and will prove that the responsiblity for the train wreck that was MOO3 lay at the feet of the designer, who is no longer at the company. The ship date is June/July and it is already a lot of fun to play. At this point the majority of the 'core' art is done and it's a lot of polish, FX, and doing things like damage detailing. The things that take it from being good to being one of those 'I'll stop playing in just a minute...' kind of games.

hope everyone's holdiay season is going well.

good wishes to you all.

So... here we are.

there's been a slight delay for two reasons. 1.) I did some benefit art of the Hurricane victims which took a few evenings, and 2.) the re-launch story is turning out to be pretty long, so I'm trying to figure out where to 'break' the chapter, in order that it has the right punch and doesn't leave you going 'ok... so now what?!' it should be done shortly... it's turning out to be really funny (I think).

You'll be meeting Nigel Cubbingsworth, who'll be your host for the first chapter...

Status

Site redesign is done. Nothing radical, just enough to suit the new format, bring things up to date, and allow for sections that are more detailed in terms of things like Bios, the store, and archives (which I hope to have include the full run of Edge City)

The first 'chapter' in the new format is written, laid out, and I'm doing final linework on it now. I'm really happy with how it's going and think it's pretty funny and a good way to kick all this off. Hope to have it done and posted by the end of the three day weekend. Please, let me know what you think after you read it, I'll be very interested in people's opinions.

(not that it'll affect how I do anything really, but still... ;) )

best to you all and prayers to those in New Orleans and the parts of the south that have been hit by the hurricane.

Got the new layout for the site done last night. Pretty damn happy with it. it's not all 'bells and whistles, but it's clean and easy to get around and different visually than the current config, so things are chugging along very well.

have a great weekend.

RE: Big Brother.

After last night's show my wife and I were cackling and laughing like a couple of kids yelling something along the lines of "eat that bitch!" Howie, Janelle and Rachel may go down, but at least they are causing a lot of hell as they go. fucking rock on. I'll still watch for a while ;)

That's entertainment


There's only one reality show that the wife and I have watched in and out, through good times and bad, and that is Big Brother. But, I gotta say, after the recent events on the show I don't know if I will be able to finish watching the season.


Sure there's been shady deals in the past, people going back on their word, or having clintonian interpetations of what the MEANT when they said something. But swearing ON YOUR LIFE that you are going to do something, and then not only NOT doing that, but fucking the person you made the deal/promise with it just beyond appalling. What's the worst is how fucking hypocritcal they are, saying "I've played this as an honest game" and in the SAME FUCKING EPISODE" saying "yeah i broke my word, I promised on my life, so what?" and making the 'other side' out to be evil... Kaysar's fucking right, they are a bunch of fucking cowards and I find the lot of them appalling and disgusting, and it's ruined the show for me.


which, in a nutshell sucks, because I've looked forward to it every goddamn year.


The other eality show I'm currently watching is RS:INXS. Who do I think will get it? In the ned I am willing to bet it will be down to Mig and JD. Marty doesn't have the force of presence... he comes across as a mix of your girlfriend's nice brother, and Eddie Vedder circa 1993. Jordis... I think she has an incredible talent but i seriously think, for her own good, she needs to fail. She's gotten a lot of glowing attention, and getting to do things like Jam with Camp Freddy (Dave Navarro's 'cover band')... those things combined with the fact that she is so young, if it keeps going in this direction, it's gonna screw her, because there's already been some 'phoned in' performances compared to what she did when she first got there and wasn't getting the attention and was DRIVEN to get it. Her ego with JD is just appalling, because it's like watching a slow motion train wreck.


I will say, while I love the show, the band won't be INXS (to me) INXS is Hutchence, and to replace him is like finding a new singer for the doors.


oh wait... they did that, didn't they

Progress and Directions

So, thought I'd talk really briefly about what the direction/plan is for Deathmarch. As we all know, I'm busy, and DM suffered for it. So, a lot of time was spent pondering "how do I still do this, because I really want to" while balancing out the "my god man, I must sleep at some point."

The first idea for the new direction was actually inspired by something (I think) Scott Kurtz had said in his blog, when talking about his and Frank Cho's hanging out, talking about the way they did their strips. It got me to thinking about basically having a DM "library of character positions, expressions and poses" which could all be mixed and matched to come up with an conceivable combo so that the characters would look exactly like I needed them to for a strip, in a form that could be seembled inside of 4 hours so I'd be sure of having at least 3 strips a week.

But... the 'artist' part of me felt like this was really punking out on it. Comic strips have (for me) always been more about the timing and writing than the art (hence why Pearls Before Swine is one of my favorite comics), but still... it just seemed like it was cheating.

So, I found I had reached a bit of an impasse. I knew doing a strip 3 times a week if I was drawing everything was unlikely, especially with the wall of projects/stuff I've got going. On the other hand, doing a strip once a week, esp. when it's an involved, continuing storyline, is just lame and will hold no one's attention (except for maybe the truly insane and bored). So, what to do...

The epiphany came to me while reading the new issue of Love and Rockets.

I've always loved L & R. The way the short 4 to 12 page stories wended their way through the issues, later collected into 'albums' was an approach that I've always felt was excellent because they weren't hampered by the 'I've got to fill 24 pages with this storyline a month' problem. The chapters and pace of the story just organically told itself. Something I'd envied, but knew I could never do in a comic because, let's face facts, I'm not anywhere as good as Los Bros Hernandez, so no publisher is going to take a chance with me doing something like that.

However...

With DM, I make the rules. The shape/size/layout of the strip is totally NOT conventional because I could make it different. I didn't have to worry about newspaper requirements or the strictures of how much it costs to print odd sizes. I could just do it, because it was for the web.

So why not have Deathmarch in the form of 'comic book' stories, that range from 4-12 pages a 'chapter, which could then be collected later if demand warranted it? It costs nothing (other than my time) to do the strip and have you folks still out there read it. And from a publisher stance, if someone comes with a completed printable comic, that's pretty attractive.

So...

I'm now in the process of making that shift. (which is not trivial, but is a lot of fun) By Sept 1st, DM v2.0 will be up, with the first chapter in the DM comic. From there on out, I'll try to have new chapters up twice a month (roughly ever two weeks) but I PROMISE that even in the busiest times I will manage one decent-sized story a month.

Will DM still have the same humor? Yeah I pretty much intend the look, tone and feel of the characters and stories to stay the same as the strip. The main difference being that I've got the room to let the stories and characters breathe and I can play out timing for jokes and gags better. It also allows me to give a little deeper look into the idiocy that is the games industry (which trust me, over the next year, is going to go from crazy to downright bughouse nutjob insanity) and have more involved set-ups and stories (which is where I think some of the funniest DM stuff has happened.

I hope everyone will like the new direction. Those of you on the mailing list will be notified automatically when a new comic goes up so you won't have to keep checking back to see if "That lame-ass Rantz has posted a new comic".

Since the most that'll happen is 2 times a month, I figure, that's an acceptable level. If you feel like it isn't, please let me know at rantz@gamespymail.com

best to you all.