News

I'm torn.

On one hand, I'm sorry that the most recognizable form of "Lovecraftian" imagery for otherworldly beings of unimaginable horror is tentacles.

On the other hand, tentacles are really easy to draw. It's so much fun drawing squiggly lines all over the page. Whee! It's like I'm a little kid again! Squiggle squiggle squiggle! Ia! Ia! Cthulhu ftaghn!

And finally, since a lot of you fine folks have been telling me that you like the music I've been finding and recommending...

...I just discovered the joy of acapella metal!
(I had many Van Canto songs to choose from, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Manowar)

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

For those of you who may have forgotten when Celesto was in the realm of the Beast, it happened when the Elemecca banished him there at the conclusion of the Storm of Souls. This week's interlude will shed more light on how he got out of that horrible place. It's a Hell of a tale.

Besides my excitement over INTERVENTION next weekend (which I know is going be five kinds of awesome) there really isn't much news to report today.

So I won't.

I like slow news days.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

So ends Walk the Wild Edge, but so begins another week-long interlude with more Beastly facts, once again featuring the mysterious (and still naked) Celesto Morgan. This week will lead us directly into the next Hellish story, which I hope you folks also enjoy.

I've added these "interludes" into the ARCHIVE for easier navigation. One day I swear I'll get to separating The March Across Maltak into smaller chapters. Honest!

I've also updated my list of Conventions I'll be attending, which you'll find to the right of the news box. INTERVENTION is right around the corner, so be sure to stop on by there if you can! Its maiden voyage promises to be spectacular so don't miss it!

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

And so ends Laurie "Stunt" Mondane's time in the spotlight. I originally named this story Escape from the Wild Edge, but instead I think it'll be known as Walk the Wild Edge. It seems more appropriate to how the story turned out.

If things feel a tad "unfinished" or if you felt there were things left unanswered, I did that entirely on purpose. I could have stretched this story out for another week and given some very thorough exposition regarding why Stunt killed his own mother, why Vazkes (or "Vasquez" as I have been told some of you have been calling her) regards mongrelfolk so poorly, or anything else that feels like a loose end. I made this decision because Stunt's tale is more sweeping than a short story. This was just part of his much longer journey, and we will be seeing him again soon.

Regardless, I hope you folks enjoyed Walk the Wild Edge.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and have a nice weekend!

I do believe tickets for the New England Webcomics Weekend go on sale today. I'll be there myself, though not as a guest. Even so, I support NEWW and what it represents so I'll be attending nevertheless. That's why I'm so glad other conventions dedicated to webcomics, like Intervention are also beginning to pop up. I'll be at that one, too, so try to make it to both shows if you can!

I cannot stop listening to the two new albums I picked up yesterday. "At the Edge of Time" by Blind Guardian and "Warp Riders" by The Sword are amazing for different reasons, but both reasons are freaking metal.

I owe a lot to Blind Guardian. They're not the first metal band I ever listened to, but discovering them introduced me to power metal and all the sweeping orchestral sounds and themes it encompasses. "At the Edge of Time" is one of their biggest sounding albums, with the trademark choir bellowing out their choruses about all things a D&D nerd like me loves.

"Warp Riders," on the other hand, is equally fantastic in scope but stripped down in sound. This band rips out guitar riffs and blasts them into the cosmos on this album. There may not be sweeping orchestras and choirs here, but when three guitarists and a drummer really want to rock there's no need for anyone else. That, and "Lawless Lands" is definitely Stunt's theme song for this story.

If you can pick up these two albums, I highly recommend them.

This Wild Edge monster is another original submission. Here's the original sketch, used with gracious permission by the artist.



I hope I did the monster justice, even if I did portray it as the world's biggest frilled lizard.

Now for some convention related news, specifically conventions that are dedicated to celebrating webcomics!

There's still time to pre-register for INTERVENTION, so get those reduced prices while you can! I'll be a guest there, along with the creators of Duel in the Somme, which is so far a really fun read by an impressive creative team, as well as numerous other amazingly talented webcomickers. Stop by and give this great convention the maiden voyage it deserves!

Tickets also go on sale tomorrow for the New England Webcomics Weekend. This was a really fun event last year and I'll be there in some capacity. They haven't invited me as a Guest (which, admittedly, makes me sad) but I'll show my support for it because I believe in what it represents.

And finally, two amazing albums dropped yesterday and I can't stop listening to them. Give your ears a treat and listen to:
"At the Edge of Time" by Blind Guardian
"Warp Riders" by The Sword

That's all from me for now.
Rock on!

I (sort of) alluded to Stunt's confession a LONG time ago but never revealed who he was talking about.

The little monster in today's strip is an original monster by Jessica, who gave me permission to put the little guy in the Wild Edge.

Here's the original design. I hope I did it justice.


That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

Escape from the Wild Edge is almost over, so this is probably the last appearance of the posh slimes for a long time to come. Dejah doesn't count.

It's a little late, but it's here. There's been a big update of artwork to the Fan Art pages which finally puts me up-to-date with submissions and on the road to making its updating a weekly thing. My apologies to everyone who submitted something to me and had to wait this long to see their artwork go up.

So head on over and see what's new! There is, as always, lots of wonderful new work to see.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

I don't know what exactly is coming out of those "clouds," but I imagine it's very unpleasant. Yuck.

I said there would be an update to the Fan Art pages by the end of this week, but I got sidetracked by some other stuff over the last few days, including a secret(ish) side project that I'm very excited about. If the pages are not updated by later today, they will be up my Monday at the latest. I promise.

Otherwise... yep. That's about it. I like slow news days, especially Fridays, because it usually means the weekend will be equally mellow. Or it's the calm before a real crap-storm. I'm hoping for the former.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and have a crap-storm free weekend!

If you know what the title of today's news post is in reference to you're as big and hopeless a nerd as I am. It's wonderful to be so irrevocably geeky, isn't it?

I picked up a couple of decent comic books yesterday. Here are my choice picks for the other thing I'm irrevocably geeky about. Superheroes.

Brian Clevinger, who is mostly known for writing the superbly entertaining Atomic Robo gives us his take on the classic Marvel cosmic saga in Avengers: The Infinity Gauntlet. What Brian does best, in my opinion, is give superheroes a light-hearted and charming flare that makes you want to jump into their world and be a superhero yourself without diminishing the scale and seriousness of the threat or conflict presented. Such is done masterfully here and if the rest of this four part series is as entertaining as the first issue, I will be highly recommending this title.

Another issue of Deadpool (written by Daniel Way, who I am totally gay for) hit the shelves. This issue's tone was much darker and more serious than any previous Deadpool comic written by Way, but it was no less compelling to read. If you aren't reading this yet, you're really missing out.

Brightest Day continues to fascinate me. The individual stories are still too separated to make any coherent sense right now, but even apart they're interesting reads and it keeps me coming back, wanting to know what happens next.

My only complaint with this month's installment of Thunderbolts was that it crossed over with another comic that I do not read, thus making the story's flow a little choppy and difficult to follow. Oh well.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and geek out!

I love splatter and I love ugly things being adorable. Today's comic was a joy to make for several reasons. I may even make Bort's "love heart" into a t-shirt. I'd wear it, but I'm biased.

I also love metal. I think that's pretty clear. Every so often I see a metal video that gets so loaded with symbolism that it crosses the line from "symbolic" to "what the crap did I just watch?"

I will share these mind-benders with you now.
They're definitely not safe for work.

Behemoth - "Alas the Lord is Upon Me"

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - "Helpless Corpses Enactment"

Does your brain hurt yet? Mine does.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

In case you missed the announcement on Friday, since there were some technical hiccups around here, the Fan Art pages were updated with Wild Edge submissions, mainly of Stunt and the natives of the Wild Edge. Take a look-see at some fantastic artwork.

In the process of updating the Fan Art pages I came to realize that I have a big, big backlog of artwork that you folks have sent me and I never posted. I'm ashamed to say that the size of his backlog is nothing short of negligent on my part and I have no excuses for it.

To fix this problem I'm going to make fan art updates a weekly thing now. I haven't decided if it's going to happen on a consistent day of the week yet, since conventions tend to throw me off, but it will be a regular, weekly update from now on. So expect another update to those pages by the end of this week at the latest.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.

UPDATE: The comic seems to be displaying properly now! Hooray! The curse of Friday the 13th has been lifted from the site!

...for now.

If you find yourself looking at a blank page where a comic should be right now, it's because I seem to be having some inexplicable problems with the site's auto-updating program.

I've been in touch with the folks who (hopefully) know how to help fix this problem and will (hopefully) have it resolved as soon as possible.

The Fan Art pages will be updated with Wild Edge artwork submissions later today... or after however long it takes to fix this apparent Friday the 13th jinx upon the site.
UPDATE!: They've been updated! Check out the great pictures of Stunt and the Wild Edge creatures that were sent to me! I didn't post any of the original creature submissions because I may be putting them into the strip as cameos... with the creator's permission, of course. Enjoy!

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and try not to be as unlucky as me today!

After yesterday's introspective angst I had to break out and be silly. Can't have too much of the "anksty" in what's supposed to be a string of lighter stories, after all.

I picked up a bunch of new comic books yesterday and many of them were good, but I feel like a few are really worth mentioning.

J. Michael Straczynski's take on Superman so far has been everything I've been missing about the Man of Steel since that "New Krypton" crap was going on. I feel that anyone who's really a fan of Superman doesn't like him because he's invulnerable and super strong. Nowadays those powers aren't really that special or unique to him. Fans of Superman like him for his compassion and heart, and that's what Straczynski is doing with Supes right now. We're only two issues into his run, but I'm already loving it.

Justice League: Generation Lost seems to have come out of nowhere as a surprisingly good read. The assembled team of the "new" Justice League International is a fantastic team of misfits and old favorites. I never get tired of Blue Beetle and reading Rocket Red's dialogue out loud to yourself in a Russian accent makes it all the more entertaining. This is a bi-weekly book so it's coming out rapidly, so jump on board while you still can!

If you love interdimensional battles, cosmic-powered heroes and Lovecraftian horrors, then The Thanos Imperative is going to make you very happy.

I was very, very surprised with the ending of the newest issue of The Incredible Hulk, where he has a showdown with his alien son (loooong story). Wonderfully crafted, expertly paced and an ending that is quite unlike many other "good" conclusions to stories about the Hulk.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on and geek out.

There really isn't much to talk about after being on vacation for a week. I could talk about the time I spent with my fiancee and her extended family, but I doubt that would be of any interest at all to any of you.

So here are some little tidbits of things that have nothing to do with anything around here, but they may be of interest to you.

- The Sword's new album is coming out on the 24th and I can't wait for it. It's called Warp Riders and it's apparently got a space theme. Between this, Mastodon's incredible Crack The Skye album (which I still listen to constantly), a little side project I've been working on, Marvel's spectacular cosmic heroes and my recent discovery of the complete collection of Carl Sagan's COSMOS... my brain is soaring among the stars lately.

- Hit Monkey should be, by all accounts, one of the dumbest things to hit comic books in a long time. It should not be this awesome to read! Damn you, Daniel Way! You continue to make me gay for you!

- I have recently discovered I love broccoli with barbecue sauce. Go figure.

- Chickens are metal.

That's all from me for now.
Rock on.