Sunday Morning Funnies: Fresh air burns
by Amanda Miller 
Apr 17th 2011 at 12:00PM
In other comic news, Travels with Tenthunders will be going into "indeterminate hibernation." I'm feeling a little down about this, but I understand. Still, the author totally needs a friend like Mitsune (see this week's Fourth Wall!).
Last week's trivia questions proved to be a bit trickier than normal. Nivella got #2 correct, and Tokkar gave it a whirl but missed both. Coffinshaker answered both questions correctly, and Leliana "dittoed" him. The (completely imaginary) prizes are as follows: To the winner, Coffinshaker, go 100 well-trained LOLcats and a lifetime supply of ginger beer. To the lazy "dittoer" goe50 less than well-trained LOLcats and a judicial lifetime (read: 25 years) supply of ginger beer. Runner-up Nivella shall win an imaginary potted Skittles house plant, and for trying so valiantly, Tokkar receives the imaginary lifetime supply of ink refills that only work in pink Swarovski crystal-encrusted pens.
This week's trivia questions are: Which comic has the comfy couch? What did Hank do that lead to his disappearance? What is Ghostcrawler, really? Who punches a dog? Where is the Shakespeare reference? Which comic has the reference to an Eminem song? What is the best one-liner this week?
- Away from Reality Unphased
- Coffin Comics Origin of the Species: The Tauren
- Beyond the Tree Industrial Olfactory
- Sara & Kleeyo Potty Training
- NPC Hacker Van is WoW-related, but you might want to click back a couple to see why they're in a hacker van!
- Guilded Age
- Safe Passage
- Daily Quests Pricked! And if you didn't check out Sara & Kleeyo last week, you'll want to see the guest comic they did for Daily Quests!
- Coffin Minis Please Stand Up
- Out of World has some filler up: Crazy Train
- Disciplinary Action The Orc Detective #12
- Arena-Inside It's Super Green! and First Wall. Second Wall. Third Wall. Fourth...
- Lorgrokni's Travels Better Than Expected and Keeping Tabs
- DLC Escaping Reality
- Fourth Wall Rubber Band
- Teh Gladiators Epic Sailing
- The Daily Blink Heroic Barrens Chat and Henry AV and Selective Hearing These are absolutely hilarious!
- GU Comics Mr. 200-Words-or-Less -- Did any of you enter this contest? -- and Grek's Kitchen
- LFG #451 and #452
- Kuo has a portrait or two up.
- What's Shakin' Page 31
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Humor, Comics, Sunday Morning Funnies
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
blancester Apr 17th 2011 12:16PM
And I was planning on doing the worgen chain in Grizzly on one of my two worgens (priest and warrior). Now I am defiantly doing the chain on one of them.
RetPallyJil Apr 17th 2011 12:38PM
Sigh, (sadly crosses Travels With Tenthunders off her reading list)
Amaxe Apr 17th 2011 3:23PM
/tar Travels with Tenthunders
/mourn.
I hope he'll be back some day, but it seems he has his priorities in the right order.
razion Apr 17th 2011 12:40PM
Loving how LFG is progressing. Just hope the writer pulls off the big reveal well enough when the times comes; I'm really looking forward to it.
Drakkenfyre Apr 17th 2011 2:35PM
I hope it moves a little faster.
They have been doing the "we're preparing for the attack" for weeks now.
And previously, the "Cale lost his leg" thing got old, real quick.
"Oh, hey, Cale lost his leg."
(Cale faints)
(Cale wakes up)
"Is my leg back on? Did I get fixed?"
"Oh, no. Your leg's still off."
(Cale faints)
Every strip was like that for over a month.
Dreyja Apr 17th 2011 5:14PM
Agreed. I still like the comic, don't get me wrong but I kind of miss the sillier stories honestly.
cycloneduke Apr 17th 2011 12:56PM
Nerfnow has a mmo-related comic this week, could be added to the post:
http://nerfnow.com/comic/499
Harvoc Apr 17th 2011 1:30PM
Lorgrokni's Travels has the comfy couch. Hank broke the immersion of nearby roleplayers, leading to his disappearance. Ghostcrawler is actually a master control program. Sara from Sara and Kleeyo punches a dog. The Shakespeare reference is in the Daily Blink. I don't know the Eminem one as I haven't heard too many of his songs. As for the best one-liner, I don't know if it's your own opinion or not.
Kurtis Apr 17th 2011 2:10PM
The Eminem reference is in Coffin Minis.
Harvoc Apr 17th 2011 3:30PM
@ Kurtis
Oh yea, only recently started listening to Eminem's songs. Linkin Park's more of my style.
Arachynne Apr 17th 2011 2:31PM
Comfy couch is in the "Keeping Tabs" story from Lorgrokni's Travels...Hank broke roleplay immersion with a Harry Potter discussion...Ghostcrawler is now a Master Control Program in The Daily Blink's "Heroic Barrens Chat"...Sara (Sara & Kleeyo) punches a dog who pees on her boots...Shakespeare's "Henry V" can be found parodied in The Daily Blink's "Henry AV"...Coffin Minis' "Please Stand Up" is the Eminem reference (Slim Shady, I believe it was)...and the best one-liner is in ...
Crap. I don't know.
Sergel Apr 17th 2011 4:48PM
I always wondered, how do people able to make and publish these comics? I really like them.
Drakkenfyre Apr 17th 2011 10:23PM
You mean from a legal standpoint? Blizzard is fine with you doing fan stuff They encourage it. Heck, they even link to some of the comics when they update, on the forums, even. The only thing you can't do is make money off of it, or try to claim copyright on the things used.
They have a whole list of rules for machinima artists, which basically boil down to "no making money off this, no trying to make the company or game look bad, no porn."
I am sure a similiar list exists somewhere internally for comic artists.
Sergel Apr 17th 2011 11:04PM
Actually I meant in a general sense, but this was helpful too. I thought they would make money off of those comics, but legal that wouldn't make sense since its Blizzard's property.
I always wanted to write comics, but i don't even know what programs they use to make them look so nice.
AFR Apr 18th 2011 11:01AM
Here's one comic-maker's answers:
Since I have no artistic ability whatsoever (even my stick figures don't come out looking right), I cheat and use a bunch of programs. I use:
- Bryce (3D image program), for backgrounds and environments
- Poser (3D image program specifically designed for human figures), for characters and props
- Gimp (open-source image processing program, analogous to Photoshop), for assembly and special effects
- Paint (standard-issue Windows image program), for text
I live in awe of the great artists among us who draw their comics (Coffinshaker, Wow eh, NPC, 4th Wall, and many more) or who use whatever they use to get the images they want from the game's own art assets (Disciplinary Action, Daily Blink, Tales from the Crossroads, etc.). I don't know how to do either, so I can't tell you anything about it, but I /salute all of you who can!
Coffinshaker Apr 18th 2011 2:49PM
Firstly, I'd like to say a big thanks to Amanda for the spotlight pic!!
Coffinshaker Apr 18th 2011 2:51PM
err.... it ate the rest of my comment! XO
Sergel
Howdy there! Production-wise, I start with stickfigures in my sketchbook to get the scene right, lol. Then I use a wacom tablet with Photoshop to do a series of sketches; one rough in blue, a refined version in pink, then a final layer in black. I use TONS of layers for everything else, like color, background stuff, effects, word bubbles, etc. Shading I use a curves layer which makes things much easier for my brain. Then it's just a matter of tossing it all together and resizing it for the web.
Publishing, I use ixwebhosting to host and wordpress with comicpress to put them online. Once upon a time, I had all kinds of custom php with my wordpress to do fancy things... but update anything once and it all vanishes... sadness... so it's kinda basic for now.
But yeah, that's basically how I do it. >)
AFR
idk, I really like your style! 3d stuff is beyond my brain functions. I barely get by with DAZ3d for reference poses. So what you do is pretty amazing to me!
Sergel Apr 18th 2011 9:21PM
@ Coffinshaker
Thanks for that =]. I became a fan of your stuff after reading this article; it was my first time reading it. How long does it usually take you?
And your art style is the one I'd like to try in the future.
Coffinshaker Apr 18th 2011 9:58PM
Sergel
Hey no problem buddy! And thanks! Always glad to have new readers!
Well... I tend to be a bit ADD when it comes to sitting down for drawing time... but typically a good 3 days to fully get it done with What's Shakin'. Um, I'd say 20-30hrs total for WS? Idk... something like that, lol! The mini tends to be like 2hrs on average and the fridays can take 4-5 or more hrs. On the administrative end, it's quite a bit more... but that's another story. You may (or not) be interested to know I went through like half a dozen styles before settling on the cartoony version. For the best I think.
Oh, and as for the drawing end... you can either scan penciled/inked drawings then do whatevers in photoshop (or gimp, which is free) or use a wacom tablet. If you don't have one and are just starting out, you can get an intuos 3 fairly cheaply now a days (since it's a version behind). Think I got mine from Amazon for not too bad a price and it seems ok for now.
If you do a wowland comic you should let Amanda know about it when you get up and running! If it's its own thing, you should still let us know! >D
Dreyja Apr 17th 2011 5:21PM
I'm going to ask there here were I know a lot of wow-comic fans check-in. Do you guys know if an official English version of the Shakes and Fidgit out there somewhere?
Back in my early days w/ wow comics, I started reading a comic that I didn't realize was Shakes and Fidgit, only ripped-off. It was shut down and I've since learned about the original version (German right?). It was a heck of a lot of fun and I'd love to see an English version. I find it hard to believe it doesn't exist out there. The author is missing out on some major traffic if not.
:D :D Thanks