Following the discussion of Station V3 in Episode 13 of PodWarp 1999, I'm planning on making some changes - some to the site, some to the comic. I'm not planning anything too drastic, but next time Emmit appears in the comic (whenever that turns out to be), he will most likely not have his hands in his pockets. That'll probably be after they get out of the time loop. (So yes, they will be getting out of it - but what then? Keep reading and see!)

Following up on Episode 12, where Dino Andrade was on as a guest, one of the SoulGeek webcomics he mentioned has launched - Legend of Bill by David Reddick. Only a few strips up at the moment, but it looks good so far!

And in other (unrelated) news, Contestant 5 and Contestant 6 finish up Round 1 of Rumormonger Idol for today's voting bonuses!

Labels: comics, podcast, site update, voting bonus

That "Idol" TV show is done for the season (the contestant I preferred out of the final two actually won, which was a bit of a surprise), but Rumormonger Idol is still going on! Contestant 3 and Contestant 4 are up now as today's voting bonuses.

Labels: Rumormonger Idol, voting bonus

For anyone who wanted a copy of An Experimental Space Pod Visits Station V3 but didn't want it on paper, you're in luck! The book is now available from Lulu as a PDF download - it's over 100 pages, including several month's worth of strips (mostly from 2004), and some new material (mostly involving the Space Pod) exclusive to the book!

And for anyone who wanted the book in its printed form, you're also in luck! That's still available too.

Labels: books

So, that "Idol" show on TV is winding down for the season... My prediction (really going out on a limb here) is that someone named "David" will win.

But as that one winds down, season 3 of Rumormonger Idol gets round 1 started with the first two contestants, up as today's new voting bonuses: Contestant 1 and Contestant 2!

Labels: other things, Rumormonger Idol, voting bonus

I hope you all enjoyed the guest strips last week! This week things are back to normal. (Here on the site, anyway... On the station is another matter!)

There are two new nice, normal voting bonuses up today - A bad translation of today's strip, and a sprite strip in which the Rumormonger Idol contestant situation is resolved. Thanks for voting!

Labels: voting bonus

Yesterday's guest strip was from Robert Cook of The Mansion of E (it wouldn't be a proper guest week here without his contribution!), and guest week concludes today with a guest strip from Mark Mekkes of Zortic. I'd like to thank them again, and everyone else (Krishna Sadasivam, Kristina Foster, Aaron Lewis, the Fuzznuts crew, and Andreas Gustafsson) who contributed to this year's guest week!

In other guest art news, there's a strip (well, one big panel) I drew up now at Jump Leads!

And in unrelated news, I'd like to thank the "Anonymous Benefactors" who have been helping transcribe the Station V3 archives at Oh No Robot - over 82% of the strips are transcribed and searchable now!

Labels: guest art, other things

Guest strip week continues! Yesterday's strip was from the Fuzznuts crew, and today's is from Andreas Gustafsson of Invincible Jeff. More to come tomorrow!

PodWarp 1999 also continues, with two episodes posted this week - Episode 11, which is the last one with Tauhid Bondia joining us as a regular (fortunately we got to the Good Ship Chronicles discussion before he left!), and Episode 12, where we're joined by voice actor (and founder of SoulGeek) Dino Andrade, and we discuss Ben Paddon's Jump Leads. (And in related news, there's now a PodWarp 1999 forum!)

And finally, the Rumormonger Idol story continues in today's new voting bonuses! At TopWebcomics, there's a bonus strip in which two rumormongers discuss the reason the show has been delayed, and at buzzComix, there's a sprite strip in which two other rumormongers (wearing hats) discuss a possible solution to the problem. Thanks for voting!

Labels: guest art, podcast, voting bonus

Five years ago, I put the first Station V3 strip up where not many people were going to see it, apart from the few people I told. Probably more people see that strip on any day now than saw it that whole first month! Of course, that's been true for a while, and partly due to the fact that around a dozen or so people saw it that month. But still - progress! And thanks for reading, however long it's been for you!

I hope everyone's enjoying all the great guest strips this week! Today's is from Aaron Lewis of The Best of What's Left, and yesterday's was from Kristina Foster of Antics. Stay tuned for more great stuff coming up!

(But don't think I'm just sitting back and relaxing while these are up! I'm working ahead, and of course, updating Z7 and Silence in the Darkness on Q16 - which was neither silent nor dark today! And Ebb's Children might even update this week.)

Labels: guest art, milestone

It's time for Station V3's annual birthday guest week! Getting things started is today's comic from Krishna Sadasivam of The PC Weenies and Uncubed. Stay tuned for more great guest comics coming up this week!

(If you wanted to be part of the guest week, it's not too late - though I will say it's too late to be first!)

Labels: guest art, milestone

On PodWarp 1999, we recently discussed drawing starfields (and we will again soon). My way of doing it is pretty basic - I leave the area blank when I draw, then when the strip is scanned, cleaned up (if necessary) and colored, I blur the image, then bucket fill the area the starfield needs to go with black. (The blur leaves an outline around anything I've drawn, so the lines don't just become part of the starfield.) Then I put in some white dots, sharpen the image up again (so it doesn't look blurry, but the outline will still be there), and reduce it to the final size for uploading. Probably not the best way of doing it, but I'm used to it, and I get the results I want!

Since the podcast, we've had a couple people point us to this tutorial on making a starfield with Photoshop, and I've given it a try. (I'm using The GIMP, but the same steps work there.) It's probably not something I'd use in the actual strip, but the results do look nice!

Today's first bonus, which I'm sure will come as no surprise, is a starfield picture (with the out-of-gas alien in it, too) - and the second, which has nothing to do with starfields, but does have something to do with the title of this blog post, is a bad translation of today's strip.

Labels: drawing, podcast, voting bonus

I've updated the bonus archive - apparently the last time I did that was in October, so there's a lot of stuff to see there, up to (and including) the current two voting bonuses. I think the next thing on the list to update will be the art page, since the last time I did that was early 2006. (And there'll be more stuff to add there soon, since there's another guest week coming up on Sunday for Station V3's fifth birthday!) Then there are some more changes to come after that, so stay tuned.

And in PodWarp 1999 news, Episode 10 is online - possibly the only sci-fi webcomic podcast to ever mention "Mr. Turnkey," the followup to "In The Year 2525" by Zager and Evans!

Labels: podcast, site update, voting bonus