Filling Space With Words

The Chicago Cubs won the National League Central Division. I mention this only in case you’ve been seeing odd things, such as flying pigs or toasters that heat evenly, and were in need of an explanation.

So I saw the movie Underworld last week. I wouldn’t have normally, but I had some buried curiosity in it and one buddy agreed to take the blame for getting everyone else to see it. It wasn’t as painful an experience as I was expecting. By the end of the film, though, it was fairly obvious that the vampires in this world are wimps and, generally, dumb wimps. In at least two occasions, a lone vampire faces down a lone werewolf, politely waits for the werewolf to complete its transformation, and then promptly dies when the thing jumps them. I don’t know, but you’d think that the proper behavior in this situation would be to either attack or run away during the transformation. Especially when the track record for not doing so appears to be so bad. Then again, I’m amazed at the number of people in zombie movies who have to be *told* to shoot the shambling, undying horde in the head.

I know this is a role-playing comic, but if you were expecting commentary on the White Wolf hubbub about the movie, I’ll have to disappoint. I know virtually nothing about Vampire: The Masquerade, played one whole session of Mage: The Ascension, and own but have no real interest in Changeling: The Dreaming. Maybe eventually they’ll pique my interest with Gargoyle: The Spouting or Kobold : The Running Like Hell.

Jumping subjects, I’ve been running low on the pencils I use to draw the strip, and I finally got around to ordering some new ones last week. After I finished up today’s strip, I discovered my last inking pen has instantaneously dried up. Of course, I have little to no professional art training, so by “inking pen” I mean the roller ball writing pen I just started using one day. Luckily, I also ordered myself some new pens, and everything should be arriving Tuesday. Of course, I have no idea if the new pens will actually work the way I want.

What all of this means to you is that… you had to read about it. That’s really it. Hell, sometimes the comics are created with mechanical pencils and gel pens on lined notebook paper, and the final product is indistinguishable from “properly” produced ones. I choose to interpret this as a testament to the flexibility of my talent as opposed to a giant glowing finger pointing at the low quality of my usual work. Mostly because giant floating fingers scare me.