It’s time for a scaaaary story and–what? Halloween is over? Oh, so it is. Well, it’s not actually scary. Unless you count depression and loneliness to be scary. So… it’s scary.
Liquid Melancholy is a return to some old frenemies and wait that’s how you spell frenemy? I mean, it’s in spellchecker and that’s how you spell it?? But friend has an I before E except after C and oh never mind.
Liquid Melancholy heads back to Mintop to see how Conrad the Conqueror is doing. He has plans, but who cares about him we’re focusing on the magma monster here! Nobody ever visits the magma monster, and that has made Cagnorm lonely. They want a friend. Will they find it? To what lengths will they go to find one? That’s what this story looks at. Hope you like it!
I’ve just changed the title for this to creator, because I figured, hey, if I’m doing more than just story-authors, why not do comics, too? I read a lot of comics, it turns out. So why not take a look at a comic? Why not took a lake– Sorry, what? I mean, why not take a look at a comic by an Australian pal of mine, James, called Sam the Dawg.
I mean, sure, he has a wonky update schedule where he doesn’t always update, but he’s been updating again, so why not get it noticed so that he can be totally embarrassed if he falls behind again? Yes, I am sometimes evil. I mean helpful.
Anyway! Sam the Dawg is a comic mostly about a dog named Sam. It doesn’t have a particularly established canon really, he generally appears to have an owner who at least has the same name as James. It’s a pretty clever and cute comic that generally seems to be about whatever he comes up with (there have been a few without Sam in the past, as well). James also works on other art and projects (and university) which is why the comic doesn’t always have updates but anyway before I lose track of what I’m saying I’ma just post some comics!
In fact, he updated with one just today. It has pirates!
So I was scrolling through looking for something both good and that wouldn’t need other comics to understand and somehow traveled three years into the past. His art style has changed over time. I remember when he decided to start drawing Sam with a mouth that didn’t look just pasted on!
A lot of 2014 and 2015 had comics related to one another. There was an ongoing story involving a shovel, as well as the start of a short-lived series called Maximum Punch.
And then there’s this classic one that’s just silly.
And here’s a couple fun ones about Animal Crossing.
Anyway, there’s some highlights. I recommend checking out more! Comics from before 2013 have a lot more simplistic style than the later ones, although I wouldn’t say they were worse (note: I only wouldn’t say that because I’d have go look back through and compare them, and I’ve taken too long on this post as it is, as I do with every blog post, so I’m gonna end it soon).
One last thing I’ll note is that he’s also done some animation work. This one is pretty neat!
Oh yeah, and James was the guy who drew the art for the Nobody Ever Visits the Magma Monster shirt for the Cloudy Cuckoo Cosmos that’s available, and no I didn’t just highlight James so I could mention that.
The not-quite-tournament is under way with chapter 17 of Darmenzi! Numer faces his fears, Pocerni shows his experience, Cherry gets some punches in, and Sawn gets a bad deal. Will Conrad finally get his day and destroy his nuisances? Who will take the final orb? The answer may surprise you!
We’re in August now, and I’m expecting this month to be called back to the day job. When this happens my social media presence will probably have to die until I can get out again, probably in February. By then Darmenzi will be finished and a new story will begin. I’ll keep everyone posted.
We’re in the final quarter of Darmenzi now! To start it off, we check in on someone we haven’t seen for a bit, then dive into a fantastic setting that gets broken into by another old “friend”. I’d have to say I particularly like this chapter, as we get to see some things we haven’t had a chance to examine too closely before, and the character interaction is amazing. When I get silly, I hold no punches from oversized novelty punching gloves.
On a side note, Slubes ebook is still free until… Wait, hold on… Smashwords is doing a sale this month. Okay! It’s free until the end of July, whee!
In other news, I’ve gotten work started on editing the third novel, Wandering Fortunes. I’m primarily combing through it right now for what major things I need to edit, but next week I’ll get underway on that. More on that near the end of the year!
Whoops, completely slipped my mind yesterday. Didn’t help that my sleep schedule got a bit wonky. Here’s chapter 12 of Darmenzi, A Slight Change in Plans. Some explanations are given, some guys are checked up on, and, well, there’s a slight change in plans.
Those who pledge to my Patreon get to read the next chapter half a month early, plus they can get copies of my novels, something that can actually happen in about a week when Slubes finally rereleases on the 10th. That madness is soon coming!
Darmenzi Chapter 5: Invisible Beard is now up and available and readable and has a gooey marshmallow center. Except maybe not that last part. Sorry.
It features ghosts and pirates. What more could the internet want? A dragon? Okay!
As for me, things are as the same as they were last month as ever. I really want to quit my day job, but I can’t because we live in a society that makes you waste your life so that you can not die? Oh society, you’re so full of contradictions.
At least I’m still a few months ahead on Darmenzi. Should be halfway with the editing in a couple weeks. Still no news on Slubes, but you know what they say, no news tells you absolutely nothing about the situation, and while some may say it is positive information, others will begin to go crazy thinking of all the worst possible scenarios! Put that on a shirt and sell it! Go ahead, people will love it! Except it has a lot of words so they’ll probably actually hate you for it.
As always, Patreon is where you can give me money when I post these chapters. Perhaps someday I’ll be able to post two chapters a month, at which point that “really want to quit my day job” might be feasible.
Wait, Halloween is over already. Gaddfern it. Well, the next part of Slubes is available, and it features MURDER ghosts!
Since this month is NaNoWriMo, I am continuing to edit Slubes and not participate in NaNoWriMo, but instead PerNoEdNo, or Personal Novel Editing Month. With all luck, by the end of the month I’ll be able to post some new excerpts here and show just how much improvement is made.
Now go buy some candy; it’s November 1st, so candy is all extra-cheap now.
Is it still November? I don’t even know how many of these I’ve done ahead of time. Anyway, today’s (first?) species is the turtle, one of the few species to appear in Slubes that is from a far-off continent instead of the islands, although only one appears in the novel. It’s also the second species after the ostrich to be based on one from Earth. Quoted from the species appendix in Slubes:
Turtles on Mintop don’t look much different from Earth turtles, specifically the box turtle, except that they stand on two feet. They come from the nearest continent, as opposed to the islands the story takes place on. Their average lifespan is about 120 years.
One of the more mysterious parts of the island Hackney where Nottle and Gelago City are located. On the east side of the island is an old, overgrown manor known as Spiest Manor. There live the spooky and silly spiest, white, floating balls with a single capsule-shaped eye and oversized arms. These spiest, according to the scanners on The Conqueror’s space station, are imbued with supernatural energy. Ghosts!
The spiest aren’t necessarily bad—they just enjoy pranks and spooks, but it’s usually all in good fun. They are secretive, though, and very few, if anyone outside of the spiest, knows just what the full extent of their powers are. SO LET’S RAMP UP THAT POWER TO THE MAX!
The Conqueror sends down another gene splicer to Spiest Manor and one of the spiest gets turned into a huge, hulking, monstrous, beastly… okay, so it’s really only big, giant even, but it does become able to shoot a laser out of its eye.
With its new power, this spiest declares itself to be the new czar of spiest: Czar Spiest. It plans to shift the image of the spiest from harmless, if not spooky, pranksters to truly terrifying… little white balls that are actually kind of adorable. I mean, uh, to truly terrifying ghouls of horror!
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 