A mummified dinosaur was in the news a while ago... when I read the article I gave a chuckle as the comic is what I had hoped they had found. I have been meaning to do this comic since then.
I put this up yesterday as a placeholder for today's comic but took it down imediately... I didn't want to spoil the gag incase you guessed it...
I had all these updates I wanted to do. It was all supposed to work perfectly when I did the update. No such luck. I am pretty pissed. it's 3:30 here in SA now and no luck.
This is why you commit your work little by little and not everything in one fucking big bulk.
Hopefully I will get the updates done tomorrow.
Fuck. I REALLY wanted these updates to come out with the new comic... PENISCOCK!
The new features are up:
In the top right corner you can see the Logo. WOOT!!
New pandanauts can now browse to the beginning of the archive instead of being forced to read everything in reverse order.
Comments: You can now comment on the strip or post. It only allows plain text comments at the moment. Even though I'm a web developer the amount of work I have done that takes user input from the web is very little. Most of the work I have done has been on internal systems. So I don't really know what to expect in terms of bugs or spambots filling in the form. So for now it's just a simple form to minimise the number of things that could go wrong.
There's also a comment rss feed. I built this mainly for myself to can keep up with anything happening on the site.... but you may find some use for it too. I have linked it into the site but you can also find it here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/SpacePanda/comments
Just an aside, I programmed everything myself from scratch and judging from the fact that nothing was working last night, it's all a bit rushed. So if anything doesn't work let me know... also if you have any suggestions... I would be happy to hear them. :)
Some of you are proably thinking: "why code everything yourself? You can just get *product x* that already exists and does it 20 times better and it's free." True... but this is also a portfolio site so if anyone asks me to show them some code, I can point them here and give them Space Panda code as a sample. The site serves a dual purpose... do you see how dynamic I am.
All those updates I did to the site and worked my butt off for were just April fools!! Haha... I got you guys good. I am gonna remove them now.... HAHA... you guys so fell for that one..
I don't really get April fools. Reading the stories that get passed around by email, I get the impression that you can do anything you want just as long as you say "April Fool's". If you kick someone in the balls? That's ok just as long as you say "April fool's". Or like a friend of someone I know who's girlfriend walked in on him with another woman. He said the first thing that came to his mind. This happened to be "April Fools!".
Obviously I made up that last story... but I don't see why that should stop me from telling it.
Also I am putting google ad's back on the site... I am pretty sure I won't get any money from it so it's mainly as an experiment to see what google links the site with.
I found this quite funny...
I need to finish off the colouring. Check monday night ... london time. I would finish it tonght but I dont want to feel like shit for work tomorrow.... I already feel like shit...
Wow... I haven't seen you guys in ages. It feels like its been about a month since I last saw you. Don't blame yourself... It's totally my fault. I actually had the script done the day I finished the last one but didn't get off my ass until earlier this week. Also part of the reason it took so long was because sometimes I find the visualisation of the strip difficult. I was having trouble with the emperor's buddies. I was trying to come up with characters for them and all the ones I came up with were too plain. Then finally I came up with the blade guy... the little guy I still don't like... not much thought or design went into him... but the blade guy I thought was good enough to make up for the crapness of the little guy... so I went ahead and used them... In fact this blade guy got me thinking that the emperor is a bit plain... he has no ability to show any expressions because of the hat... It was cool having this cold mysterious character in the beginning but as the strip progresses... I find using him a little boring... he feels to much like a robot. I think that if the strip is cartoony, like this one, I think you need facial expressions which with the hat makes quite difficult... well you don't NEED them but they add a bit more the the strip. Its not much but as a result I think the 4th panel in this strip is my one of my favourites...
Hmmm... I think I might redesign the emperor when I get a chance...
I have been back in
Anyways that is not why I am writing... like I said ... I am in
I am going to ink it. If it looks rubbish I will put up the sketch instead of the ink. Either way there is going to be a new comic soon.
Oh yeah... Sick as a dog... even though it's awesome weather here in
Oh and another reason I am excited: I was working on a Space Panda logo. I have one that I am really happy with... but what do I know... I am not a designer nor a LogoMaker guy. Anyways... like I said I am very happy with it and It should be up on the next update!
This movie really gets my imagination going. An ant megalopolis. Entire cities underground! It's really awesome. Awesome in the true sense of the word.
Seriously... FCKeditor rocks. I just changed the site to use it... I was using this PEAR wikiCreole extenstion because I was adverse to storing HTML in my database. In this case the ease of use and flexibility far outweigh my concern... I came across it about 3 or 4 years ago.. but I dont remember it being this robust...
The only thing is I noticed that firefox's spell check does not work in FCK textareas... In FCK's defense it does have a spell check built in, but it's not automatic like in native firefox and I also I dont think I have it configured to work.
Also you may have noticed that I have increased the line height... I saw it on a site a few days ago and thougt that it makes it a lot easier on the eyes...
I got back from holiday just over a week ago. I was back home in South Africa. It was awesome. I am glad to be back but I miss home too. This is the first time I have actually been sad leaving home. Lots of sun and good times with friends and family.
It's kind of strange being on the other side of a web comic. I always used check various sites and if a site didn't have a comic up when it was scheduled to go up I would be slightly disheartened. I would then check back frequently during the day hoping that the site would have been updated. As I am still new to this and I really enjoy making this comic... I found myself checking back here everyday hoping that it would be updated...
My intention was to do a comic while out in SA but was unable to get hold of a scanner. So I have been slaving all week to get this comic to you. I hope you enjoy it.
Anyways... I am back and the regular irregular updates of once every fortnight should now continue.
Time to go to bed...
I won't have a new comic up this week. Last week was really busy and it was most difficult to balance everything. Unfortunately in most cases when things get busy, it's gonna be the comic that loses out. Sorry about that.
Also, I wanna clear up the reason about why I am doing this comic. It's more for myself than anything. "Why say it here?", I hear you ask? Well, I don't want to lie. I want to be open and honest. I don't want you to expect something and not get it.
I do this comic for fun. It's purely for the enjoyment I get out of it. I hope to get very little else out. The only thing I really hope for is to make people chuckle a little... that... and chicks... loads of chicks...
Why am I bringing this up? Well, the last two comics have felt like too much like work. "Oh.. no the comic needs to be out by Monday... scramble scramble"... The comic is supposed to be my enjoyment... The thing I do to take my mind off work...
I think the reason this is happening is because I have made promises that I can't always keep. The promise in this case being a two weekly release. If I miss the release I feel bad... and become despondent and lose a little bit of enthusiasm about making the comic. Then, when it is done, I end up posting some lie about why the comic is late... then I feel doubly bad... because not only have I broken a promise... I have lied too.
The other reason... I have been hesitating on the comics is because I fear the sustainability of the jokes... I have never really thought of myself as a funny person. I do know I make people laugh though... I just fear that there may be a finite amount of "funniness" inside me... but I am told this is a normal problem that many comic strip writers face...? In this case I just need man up and push through.
About the release schedule... I would like to say this... this is my hobby. I will do it as much as possible... I will aim for the 2 week release but zero promises. If you do want to keep up with the updates, I suggest subscribing to the RSS feed... that way you will be sure to keep up with haphazard updates should it be that way...
Also I made some robot emperor wallpapers if you want....
I vaguely remember a fairy tale about this guy that angered a witch and she turned him into a tree. Most of the time you think that all of this is make believe and get on with your life. After watching this video I wonder how much of those fairy tales actually have a basis in truth.