New Arms and Ether with Download-able 3D Molo Toy

Uh oh. Molo's up late, eating Cheetos, and turning to . . . the internet. It doesn't work out for him, but maybe it will work out for you! This week's strip features a download-able 3D paper toy, perfect for cutting out 'round the fire. . . Whatever. Anyhow, read it, click it, and weep in this week's Arms and Ether. And damnit, can't we be Germanic and make "downloadable" an official word? The hyphen thing is really pretty weak.

Arms & Ether Figures! Collect Them All!

Who doesn't need a 3D Herodotus? Now to finish the dang Arms & Ether strip I started last week. Embarrassing. No. Need to sleep a bit before first day of class. . . shucks.

Papercraft Realized--Molo to the Fore

Here's 3D Molo--off the page and . . . into your hearts? No, no. I'm sure that's not it.

Papercraft First Stab

My first attempt at this Papercraft bidnit. We'll be using this as an assignment in our Digital Media Foundations class this fall. The above is a lo-res version, I'll make a high-res available when I refine the design. Here's a link to the blank template at cubeecraft. And here's a link to 8-Bit Ghost's post on Papercraft.

Procrastination-right?

I'm not the only one who procrastinates. Molo does it too. Check out armsandether.com tomorrow for the latest Arms and Ether strip. Now, uh, back to that promotion application.

Softe Launche

Okay, I'm going to soft launch Arms and Ether tonight. Winter break is at an end, and I'll be danged it if I won't have one entire 4-panel comic up online to show for it. I'll make another post ce soir when the first strip is live. I'm thinking when I have 5- 10 strips up, I'll go for a harder launch. Making a bunch of noise about having one strip up is like having a big concert where your band plays one song.

I just got done ordering business cards from vistaprint.com. That's the business card image above. I don't know if vistaprint is any good or not--if they're great or horrible, I'll let the interwebs know. Now that I look at the card design, it'll probably be a disaster--type too small, etc. Sigh.

Also teaching begins tomorrow. Hooray for winter quarter, right?

Lettering--sweet god, save me

Here's a stab at hand lettering--compare it with the image in the previous post. I did several versions of the text on bristol with a Hunt 102 nib, and some Micron pens. The version I used here was done with a .05 micron.

I had to make some of the balloons bigger and adjust some of my word spacing once I got it into the computer. Screen readability is much more of an issue with hand lettering. I do think I'm liking it better than the Digital Strip version.

Seeing as it is going to actually be a pain in the @#$% and probably double my production time to hand-letter, I think I'm going to have to make/commission a custom font based on my lettering. Only thing is, I think I'm going to need to hand letter quite a few strips first before I get a decent sample of my lettering to start creating a font with. Sigh.

T-Bag Special

Not that anyone's listening, but I'm going to commit to daily posting again as a "ramp-up" to "launching" the Arms and Ether web strip. Above is a panel from a 4-panel strip. Three issues:

1. Color.
Advantages: It's in color.
Disadvantages: Color is not essential to the story, it takes longer, and it could suck.
Right now, I'm leaning pretty heavily towards color. I think it looks better to indifferent strangers.

2. Periodicity. Daily, Weekly, Monthly, etc
Right now, I'm leaning towards "Quasi-Daily," though we'll see. I'm not going to launch until I've got 10-15 strips "in the can." After the launch, I'll then see how efficiently the reserve fills back up and adjust accordingly. If it doesn't fill back up, I'll just get into model trains or something.

3. Is this "it?"
Of course, it's stupid to predict what something will become. But my XXX fantasy is that this strip will be my primary creative focus--that I can channel my many-splendor'd djinn into this form. The hook is that this inter'web thing is tres flexible. I don't have to stick to the 4-panel structure (though I'm currently enjoying working with those creative limits). I could throw in animation or more elaborate drawing as the mood hits. It's "a whole new world" as the marvelous Disney people have told us.

We'll see. Like I said, model trains might be pretty cool. They are, actually.