I’m not going to pretend that my motive for making Carol the way she is was a totally altruistic desire for a bigger girl to be a romantic lead.  I’m sure some of you could name comic artists that try to pretend that’s why their female leads have massive breasts, or what have you.  I am not that guy.  I love big girls.

Of course I love girls in general.  That’s at least part of why Nina, Carol, and Jo are so different.  I’m a man of many moods.  As much as people give each other crap for having different tastes the fact remains that beauty is subjective.  I hope, if you’re a girl, and you see similarities between yourself and Carol, it gives you hope that you can find someone who loves you the way you are.  Assuming you haven’t already.

If the Internet has taught me anything it’s that there is someone, somewhere, looking for someone exactly like you. (No matter what you look like.)  It cuts every direction for any sex or orientation.   Mike has even gotten fanmail from girls, and guys, who think he’s the cat’s pajamas.

Anyway, I actually drew 638 & 637 as a single page, but realized that if I ran them that way I might not have time to keep my posting schedule intact.  Luckily they were strong enough to be split, plus this little story ends on a Friday now.  On Monday we get a look in on a very different pairing.

I made a poll on DeviantArt about who people’s favorite character is.  Unsurprisingly the girls won hands down.  Of them Jolene trounced Nina and Carol.  I wonder, however, if that holds true here.  I find that each site has its own flavor of people.  So, who is your favorite character?  In fact, if you feel like explaining what you like about more than one cast member feel free to do so.  I’d like to know if Brooksie will dominate here too.

Just in case anyone was wondering, Ranma 1/2 doesn’t end.  It stops.  Which is fine with me.  I understand why she had to do it that way.  When your franchise of products and films ride on the strength of a premise you can’t cut the legs out from under it.  People will stop caring once you nail down what happens.  Ranma and the gang will go on fighting each other forever, but at least I don’t have to buy any more books.  XD

I’m going to look in to what all managed to get published from start to end of hers in America.  I watched a little of Innu Yasha and it was pretty much the same sort of thing that I liked about Ranma, or anything else Takahashi has done.  It seems like a story that should end though.  Like there is a definite goal that can be achieved.  I may be wrong, but I can handle that too.

I’ve been waiting for Hellsing to end for some time now.  In the books anyway.  It seems like there’s only one or two more volumes that could possibly happen.  Seems like I’ve been waiting for years.  I should just look it up.  I bet the next one is out by now.

Yep.  #10 wraps it all up.  I can finally get it and put Hellsing behind me too.  About damn time.  There is no way I’m getting a happy ending out of this one though.  XD

I should just start  finding out what all old series I have part of I could potentially put a nail in.  Battle Angel comes to mind.  I read all of it, but an old girlfriend had the books.  I’ve got the end run of single issues kicking around, I think.  Not as good as trades.  Trades are the best way to read comics.

Anyway, to the internet!

I watched the Lord Of The Rings over the course of several nights.  (Spinning on past the boring bits…)  It reminded me of when I first read The Hobbit.  The school library had a very old printing of the book.  Years later I actually got a copy for myself and read it again, so I could read it before starting LOTR, but found that several key points were different.  Eventually I convinced myself that I had simply remembered it incorrectly.  Later on I found out that later editions of The Hobbit had been edited to make them come in line with the events as described in The Lord Of The Rings.  The idea that a person who had printed a book could go back and change things to suit new books, for whatever reason, baffled me.  Of course now I understand that retconning happens all the time and that adults don’t always do things right the first time.

Tolkein weaved that retcon into the narrative of the world.  The idea being that Bilbo changed the story to cast himself in a better light, and later amended it to be a true account.  Alternately it is said that some copies were changed to the first story because Sam, Frodo, Merry, or Pipin, couldn’t bring themselves to speak ill of Bilbo, even if it was true.  A lot of backstory got created to expain away what really just amounts to an author changing his mind.  XD  Anyway, it’s nice to know that one of the greatest writers of all time can fuck up and, in the end, no one really cares.

The other night I couldn’t get to sleep so I randomly decided to watch an old Ranma 1/2 DVD I have.  I had some older ones, but they were from back in the days of the VCR, so I don’t really have the equipment around to watch them anymore.  I had forgotten about how much I loved Rumiko Takahashi’s stuff.

My memories of Ranma and Lum are mixed in with a past I’d just as soon forget.  Apparently enough time has passed that I can disconnect them from that time now.  I dug out my old Ranma collections and decided to see if they actually finished their run in America.  It turns out they did back in 2006.  I was only 2 volumes away from the end when I stopped buying them.  XD  They haven’t even increased in value since then.  They’re still $10.  I had some giftcard money left, so I decided it was time to finish things up with that series at long last.  The books should get here tomorrow.

Ranma 1/2 volume 1 was the first manga I ever bought.  There was a mail away form in the only SNES Ranma game they ever released in the U.S.  It was a transformative experience  Reading that book for the first time.  Back then Japanese stuff was still foreign.  The only stuff we got was so mutilated by the time it got here it wasn’t even the same thing anymore.  Ranma 1/2 was pure Japan.  It may as well have come from another planet.  Nudity was treated like something that just happened from time to time, rather than a poison that would blind anyone that saw it.  It was no big deal if Wolverine gutted someone on screen, but God forbid he see a tit…

Even though at the time it seemed like Ranma was so totally different in retrospect I can see similarities.  It’s essentially a superhero comic.  They don’t fight crime or whatever, but the cast has what amounts to superpowers.  They just concern themselves with petty rivalries and matters of the heart.

I could go on and on about this, but I doubt I’ll be saying anything someone else hasn’t said before, and more eloquently.   Manga and Anime are part of our culture too now.  Certainly not as big a part as in their homeland, but we aren’t a world apart anymore.  That’s a good thing.

You guys guessed some of the most randoms stuff about what was going to happen next. It’s a shame I do these so far in advance. I could just let you all write the next page for me if I could work that way. XD

So, seemingly as if in response to my cry for Nintendo games to be excited for my latest issue of Nintendo power was an RPGcentric issue. First on my list of games to anticipate: A remake of the second Fire Emblem game. It’s based on the continuing adventures of Marth, which is good cause it will help scrub out the dickhead image he’s gained in other webcomics I’ve read.

In addition to Fire Emblem there’s Dragon Quest 9, which I hope is as fun as 8.  I actually don’t like the old Dragon Quest games.  8 was the one that turned me around.  I never did get the best ending though.  I would have had to grind levels for another few weeks and I was staring this webcomic…  maybe you heard of it?  Anyway the only problem with 9 is that it has a lot of multiplayer functionality that I will not be able to take advantage of.  I don’t think there’s another gamer with my particular tastes within 100 miles of my location.   I’ll just leave the wi-fi thing on when I’m roaming around and hope to pass within download distance of random other players.  T_T  (It worked with The World Ends With You.)

Third, and decidedly last, on my list is Final Fantasy.  4 Heroes Of Light might be the subtitle, but I can’t recall for sure.  It looks to be a sort of retelling of the original without so much direct port action.  If nothing else the games shares my obsession with putting girls in hats.  I’ve cooled somewhat to the Final Fantasy series.  I loved 12, but 13 doesn’t look fun to me at all.  Of course I wasn’t thrilled by 10 either and I eventually came around, so who knows.  The long and the short of it is that I won’t be able to play it for years, so there’s not a lot of point in speculating.  As long as they don’t turn away from handhelds Squenix and I will still have a tryst from time to time.

I am only now getting to a point where I have opportunities to talk to other artists about the craft of sequential art.  It’s unique for me because I’ve basically been creating in a vacuum for all these years.  I think the main problem is that everyone is always busy and our schedules rarely sync.  Recently though I’ve had a chance to have many long conversations with someone who supported me from the very beginning and I think the comic is better for it.

I have no use for unsolicited critique.  If you just start telling me what I’m doing wrong I will dig in my heels and many times do it even harder just to spite you.  Only the most arrogant artists are unaware of their failings.  In fact most artists are keenly aware of millions of flaws that the viewer usually doesn’t notice.  That said, I do have a little circle of trusted friends I take my stuff to when I want to be told what I’m missing, or if I’m just imagining problems.  Temepest Lavalle  is often first on my list when I need to be told what’s what.

I bring this up as an excuse to thank her for her help and to make you guys aware of her comic The Girl Next Door .  It’s listed in my links but it’s hard to tell what’s what in there.  TGND is very similar to Between Failures, so there’s a good chance you regulars will enjoy it.  Which is not to say you won’t enjoy other comics I link to, it’s just that they are pretty wide ranging because I’m friends with a diverse crowd.  What I’m trying to say is that TGND is probably the most like Between Failures, which you already like, so if you need more stuff to read that’s a particularly good choice.

For the record I think Ginger’s Bread is probably the second on my list of comics I link to that are like Between Failures…

There’s a part of me that can’t believe I actually did this joke.  It’s much smaller than the part that cracks up at it.  ^_____^

What do cartoonists talk about you may wonder.  Wonder no more:

Agoutipatootey: HEY YOU!

betweenfailures:     Hey.

Agoutipatootey: I have INSANE NEWS!

betweenfailures:     Insane is it?

Agoutipatootey: It is OUTsane, that’s how insane it is!

betweenfailures:     WHOAAAAAAA!

Agoutipatootey: Our downstairs neighbor tried to kill her boyfriend.

betweenfailures:     But didn’t get it done by the looks of your sentence.

Agoutipatootey: Nope, but she got pretty close.

betweenfailures:     How did this strange series of events go down?

Agoutipatootey: WELL…     The other day, a cop came to the door and asked me if I’d heard anything  and I’m all “No, what’s going on?” because I notice that there are cops everywhere and they have police tape around the unit downstairs and they say that she stabbed him in the neck and stomach.

betweenfailures:     Those places are important for living!

Agoutipatootey: He  called 911 and talked to the operator until he passed out.  When the cops arrived, they caught a blood-soaked woman fleeing the scene

betweenfailures:     She didn’t flee very well then.   You’re sposta flee right away.  That’s the optimal feeing time.    You don’t wait around to get your flee on is what I’m saying.

Agoutipatootey: She is doing it wrong!

betweenfailures:     She’s going to get raped with a broom handle the right way now, so it all evens out, I guess.

Agoutipatootey: Ha ha!  Prison rape…

betweenfailures:     Do you know the whys and wherefores?

Agoutipatootey: Nothing too clear, but the other neighbors say that she has a history of being crazy and that she’d just switched to some new anti-freak out pills…     that apparently don’t work.     After the cops cleared out, her landlord let us view the crime scene

betweenfailures:     XD  did she charge you to look?

Agoutipatootey: Naw, first time is free.     Let me tell you, there was a lotta blood

betweenfailures:     It’s amazing how much you can lose an not die.

Agoutipatootey: Yeah, tell me about it.     There were big  goopy pools of it in the bedrooms, then a trail of blooddrops leading out to the foyer

betweenfailures:     Gross.  How bad a shape is the dude in?

Agoutipatootey: He’s in stable condition now.

betweenfailures:     That’s good then.

Somesortofrobot: Something like that.
I want to show something good,
and that page would make a really good thing to showcase

Thomas: It’s not something you’ve posted though, right?

Somesortofrobot: Nope.

Thomas: Well I look forward to seeing it later then.

Somesortofrobot: And you will.

Thomas: Oh will I now!? We’ll see about that!
^___________________________^

Somesortofrobot: lol
Thomas: Also, everything is porn.  Ever and always.

Somesortofrobot: Tree rings?

Thomas: Ever and always.

Somesortofrobot: I guess I’ll just have to accept it
though still make fun of people for it.
Thomas: Just be warned, someday you may find something weird you like and then it will all boomerang back on you. Like a returning stick of doom!

Somesortofrobot: Well,
the day that happens
you can say I told you so.

Thomas: And I will. Oh, will I ever!
I might even get one in before it happens just to make sure.

Somesortofrobot: Oh, I’ve come to expect as such

Thomas: Good good.
I can see it now. You’ll be all “I can’t help it, Ziploc bags make the experience better!” And I’ll be all “Remember may 23, 2010? I told you so! Told you so very hard!”
And that’s the story of how you get the nickname Ziploc.

Somesortofrobot: or doggybag.

Thomas: Whatever you prefer. I think Ziploc sounds cooler, and it’s a brand name.

Somesortofrobot: hmmm,
I should copyright that.

Thomas: People can say “what up, Ziplock?” And you can say “Keepin’ it fresh, yo.”

Somesortofrobot: Now with zipper action!

Thomas: Yellow and blue make green!
I guess if you go with doggy bag you can say “Takin’ it home to the missus.”

Somesortofrobot: Oh, lol.

crazycarl: Yep,  I’d totally be honored.

betweenfailures:     Gewd.  Gewd.   Ginger’s anal sex adventure is a go!

crazycarl: I’m sure it would garner more visitors than my own comics!

betweenfailures:     Fun for the whole family.

Except the kids.

And the grandparents.

Fun for select members of the family would be more accurate.

crazycarl: Although, oddly enough, Great-Grandma is really enjoying it.

betweenfailures:     Memaw was a hellcat in her day.

betweenfailures:     How’s work?

crazycarl: Not too bad. It’s getting hot though, so it’s sometimes unpleasant in the field.

betweenfailures:     I spose it would be.  Finding anything interesting?

crazycarl: Nothing excitingly new, but we’ve just started, and hopefully soon we’ll start rafting down the river to sites. We’ll be camping overnight a few times.

betweenfailures:     Sounds dangerous.

crazycarl: I am an archaeologist. We’ve been working along the rapids right now. Doing some dangerous boulder climbing.

betweenfailures:     I like how saying what you are is an explanation.

crazycarl: Haha

betweenfailures:     I’m an archaeologist…  Bears do not threaten me.

I’ve actually known 3 girls who expressed liking Beast Wars when the subject of Transformers came up.  I assume that there were others, but we never got around to discussing the finer points of the Transformers franchise in the time I knew them.  Typically they found Beast Wars then went backwards to Gen 1, as they were younger than me.  I expect if you let Carol ramble long enough she’d also list the Silverbolt/Blackarachnia romance, Megatron’s speech patterns in general, the revelation of the golden disk, and any scene with Rhinox in it.

As I may have said in the past, I was not a fan of Beast Wars until much later on.  At a point when I had expendable income I picked up the first DVD set and realized the error of my ways.  They should really revisit that concept.  It would be cool if they gave it a shot in the Animated universe.  They seem like a good fit to me.