Just a quick reminder: there will be no new comic strip on Monday, September 6th, on account of Labor Day and I want to spend it with my family and my visiting relatives from Texas.

See you on Wednesday and have a Happy Labor Day!

~Rob

My exile is almost over. My wife is on her way home today from a 4-night business trip. Mind you, I’m a stay-at-home dad,so me watching the kids all day and night is just basically like working overtime, so it’s no problem. However, it’s working overtime at a job where you get to watch two little girls put on their “ballerina karate show” (read: a lot of jumping around and going “Ta Dah! and “Hi-Yaa!”"), so life could be a lot worse.

Just a quick note: There will be no cartoon on Monday, September 6th, as it is Labor Day and my in-laws are visiting from Texas. Looking forward to getting me some beef brisket from my mother-in-law. Mmmmmm…..brisket.

See you Friday!

~Rob

Ah! Blessed relief! The heatwave in Southern California is over! For now, anyways.

OK. There’s this event that I want to go to called The New England Webcomics Weekend in western Massachusetts. It’s a two-day kind of seminar/workshop/networking thing for cartoonists that publish their work solely on the web. The very first one was last year and the next one is coming up in early November. I want to go to it, but I can’t afford it. The main hurdle is travel, since I live on the West Coast and people will be flocking to New England at that time of year because of the falling of the leaves. Thus, the airfares are very high. I have yet to figure out a way to make this happen.

All this is my long-winded way of saying that I’m accepting commissions for sketches. Here are the particulars:

1. I will not do nudity. Neither will I draw nudity.
2. The pieces will be on Bristol board, 8.5″ x 11″ in black India Ink. A border will kept to make the piece suitable for framing.
3. Black-and-white illustrations: $20.00 per character
4. Color (using colored pencils): $40.00 per character
5. No crowd scenes (i.e.”I want you to draw the entire roster of the Legion of Super-Heroes fighting the entire roster of the Avengers”). Maximum number of characters will be three per illustration.

Payment will be via Paypal, and I will send you a scan of the preliminary sketch for your approval prior to inking.

Or, if you don’t actually want a sketch from me (*sob*), you could always look up to the right and buy me a cup of coffee.

Thanks, folks. If you have any questions, shoot me an email at rob(at)meatshield(dot)net.

See you on Wednesday!

~Rob

I just realized with today’s post that, in the world of Ardris, the Elvish language likes to use -issa and -lassa in their words. Didn’t realize that when I came up with Jaine’s title. Huh.

See you all on Monday!

~Rob

Well, according to the emails I’ve received, the archive problem is persisting. Apparently, I need to replace the theme I’m using with the most up-to-date version of Inkblot, version #3. This means, that over the next week or so, you may find the site in disarray. I apologize for this ahead of time. Wish me luck.

See you on Friday!

~Rob

UPDATE 8/26/10 – I have restored the original site architecture so as to make the archives available. Hopefully I will be getting some help in the near future to fix the archiving problem. I’ll keep you all posted. ~Rob

What do you guys think of the reworked logo?

See you all on Wednesday!

~Rob

Just a quick note about the site: over this weekend I will (hopefully) be switching over to using Comicpress for my website instead of Webcomic + Inkblot, as noted waaaaay at the very bottom of the page. My primary motivator for this is the developer deciding to go on indefinite hiatus from working on it and having lost interest in anything having to do with WordPress. You can read his statement here on his forum post.

So, if you visit the site this weekend, it may look very different from what you’re used to until I can get everything figured out. Thanks in advance for your patience, and have a great weekend!

~Rob

EDIT: I have decided not to switch over to Comicpress at this time because my web design skills are so limited that I need to do a great deal of studying to get them back up to where I need them, but  mostly due to Mike Sisk’s clarification that was posted on Friday. I wish Mike and his family well.

And now, in a continuing service, an entry from the Encyclopedia Ardrisia.

Val’Dhar

The elves of Val’Dhar maintain that theirs was the first truly civilized land on Ardris, preceding the human barbarians and vicious dwarves and others. The fact that historical records show that there were already well developed societies on the west coast of what is now Westhame is beside the point. The elves have their minds made about this, and it’s no good arguing, it’ll just end in either tears or thrown objects.

Val’Dhar is the home of about 70% of all the elves on Ardris. Theirs is a mountainous country with fertile farmland and two rivers flowing through it, the Fiarna and the N’gaal, the latter of which feeds into a massive freshwater lake, Lake Selissatas. Val’Dhar recently settled a ‘slight border dispute’ (read: border war) with their northern neighbors, the orc kingdom of Terokka, and tensions between those two lands still run high.

Val’Dhar is a mageocracy, a system of government where the most powerful wielder of arcane magic rules. The competition for Archmage, called The Arcane Election, occurs once every 450 years and the runners up in the competition end up filling other government positions. The current Archmage is Archmage Noral’lasstas D’Vallis, and is about 75 years into his term, which the elves still consider the “honeymoon period.”.

The elves of Val’Dhar are known for their skill with arcane magic, woodlore and their social rituals. Val’Dharrans have rituals for nearly everything from The Ritual of Judgment Of Criminals to The Ritual Of Choosing A Spoon For Breakfast Meals That Do Not Include Dairy Products to The Ritual Of Greeting Relatives That You Only See Twice A Year. Some of these only take a few moments to perform, others more so – marriage ceremonies often take 6 weeks to perform and require intensive endurance training on the part of the audience to remain awake and smiling after the first two weeks.

The Encyclopedia Ardrisia , volume 47 (Triad Schemes to Vyla’s Harp), Kilanio University Press, 48th edition.

Yes, all this time, Dhur has had no idea that Jaine has elven blood in her. Yes, I also often wonder how he survived to adulthood.

See you on Wednesday with a bonus: a new entry from the Encyclopedia Ardrisia!

~Rob

I barely survived the first day of school for my daughters. They were both entering first grade and I figured, “hey, great, I’ll have time to myself in the mornings again!” I forgot one little detail:

The energy levels of two over-excited 6 year olds going back to school.

Whatever time I got to myself was overshadowed by getting them out the door in the morning and then, when I picked them up, managing to keep them on this planet instead of flying off into the atmosphere.

I’m exhausted. I’m gonna go sleep now.

See you all on Monday!

~Rob