At first, I was a little disappointed with the lack of comments on the last part of this story ... except for Denitson.  Everybody knows I love him almost as much as he loves me.  In fact, last night I had quite the dream about Mr. D-to-the-Trip-7's (yeah, I dunno ... I just made that up).

And yes, we were naked.  But in our defense, so were chipmunks.

So, I was disappointed about the lack of comments, but then I realized that hell, even *I* wouldn't have commented on that part of the story.  It was filler, and not very exciting filler either.  This one is better.

At any rate, I'm going to get the wristband mailers together tomorrow, so watch for the follow-up video tonight or tomorrow.  Also, I have a quick video I need to do about some channel recommendations and a small run-in I had with some plain bad youtube-etiquette.  It kinda just got me miffed for a bit and resulted in a swift "unsubscribe" on my part.  I'll talk about it later, though.

Finally: Lupine, that's a brilliant idea for Zombie Flu story (he left a comment on the "Zombie FU" post below--read it!).  If you don't write it, well, I won't either, but it'll definitely percolate.

Next chapter of Peter & the Dark Wolf is after the break!

A pair of reviews were posted on Explorers of the Unknown: Vampires!  You know, the book I have for sale?  One of a few, actually.  But this particular book has that big banner in the sidebar.  Yeah.  It's a good book.  Many people like it.  And if you've read it, go leave a review!

Now, um, read these reviews!

"Outrageous."

"After closing the final page I opened up the first and read it again."

"I can read it all over again and still find a lot of details I never noticed before."

Not much is likely to be coming from me this weekend.  I've got a brief amount of time at home and to myself before diving into my schedule for the weekend.  The time spent alone will mostly be spent sleeping ...

Early this afternoon, I'm going to see Transformers (yay!!!); tonight, I go to my sister's birthday dinner and then we go see Transformers (yay!!!); tomorrow I spend an hour or two on the road with my mom to visit my estranged grandfather who has been in and out of the hospital for several weeks now.

I've got the workings of a quick Zaphod comic going and maybe I'll get to it late tonight to post it tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy the story after the break:

Many thanks for all the positive comments to the 1.1 entry of Peter & the Dark Wolf.  You'll forgive the lingering narrative ... if for no other reason than the sections are in bite-sized bits.

A quick update on Zaphod: I've been too busy this week to be working on the panels for the next comic, but I did write a quick strip for Zombie Awareness Month and started putting together the panels for that last night.  It'll be a little different from what you've been seeing for the past few weeks, but you will see it this weekend!  (Or first thing Monday as I will be out-of-town on Sunday.)

Peter & the Dark Wolf entry is after the break!

My day started off pretty shitty because of the emails from the night before, but I was lucky enough to stumble across this video.  And mind you, I don't really have time to watch a video before I leave for work in the morning, so that REALLY makes this find a special one.  This video is produced be these guys.

I feel like being dark today.  Maybe it's inspired by Obsquatch reposting his Devilmas video.  Maybe it's because last night I was reminded of how incredibly hopeless this world can be sometimes.  Maybe it's because I've simply exhausted my supply of happiness and need to retreat for a while.

The story that I've posted after the break is title Peter & the Dark Wolf.  It's something that I've been periodically working on here and there for the past year or so.  There is nothing spectacular about it and certainly nothing brilliant in a literary sense, but every now and then you have to embrace the Darkside and this is one of those times.  Leave me good comments and I'll keep posting the rest of what I have written.

I'm kind of jealous right now.  I'm jealous because I need only to cast my eye as far (near?) as Heather's blog to realize how little I've been able to write the past few days.  Even Obsquatch has been a good blogger.  Ibrahim, who I've finally added to my must-see blogs in the sidebar, posted a "Not So Emo Poem" recently.

Usually, I need only turn a squinty eye at my brother's blog to find inspiration for my own writing ... but--obviously--recent events have prompted me to give him a pass.  I'm not the only one who just lost a father.  And although a similar courtesy was not extended to me, thanks to some good advice from my sister, I will remain passive and indifferent towards him.  (Quick raise of hands, though: who here has ever been accused of being a demon-possessed, religion-hating asshole the day after your dad died?  Anyone?  Anyone??  Not that the religion hating is untrue--for the most part--I suppose it would be offensive if it wasn't so goddamned amusing.  Pun intended.)

I've posted the new Zaphod Zombie comic and you can find it at the top of the new Zaphod Zombie blog page.  I think I've chatted about this particular page a few times already, but in case you missed it, here are all the interesting facts you should know:

- This is the first fully illustrated page of the Zaphod Zombie comic.  You'll notice that on all the other pages, I've used photo-backgrounds.  The reason I created the background from scratch was that we're in Beanie Boy's room and I wanted the room to represent the character.  Beanie Boy is obsessed with making videos, so he has a row of production lights above his bed and his camcorder and tripod on the ready.  He also has a large box of sex toys, but that's another story.

- Another interesting production element is Beanie Boy's new style of word balloons.  Originally, the plan was to only use the stylized balloons for Zaphod, but the balloons also serve another purpose in an otherwise dialogue-heavy comic ... differentiating which character is talking.  Since this was the first page where it was just Beanie Boy and Curtis, it became apparent that a little differentation wouldn't be uncalled for.  Obviously, Beanie Boy got the inverted style because his character is a few steps left of ordinary.

- Finally, on a creative note, I was having a hard time getting started writing these strips and it was after watching a vlog from YouTube Zed2six that I recalled an old idea I had for 2 minute porn.  Clearly, everything else fell conveniently into place.

Enjoy the comic and stay creative!

It is certainly convenient that I would reach such a milestone as 500 subscribers so soon after my father's death.  And in case you were wondering, I did reapply for partnership back when I first mentioned it last week.  Once again, it took them a long time to turn me down, telling me a few days ago that I simply didn't have enough views.

Which is fine.  I've marked my calendar in August when I'll be applying again.

But here we are, 501 subs strong (big thanks to UnluckyMum for being the big 500th!).  It's a moment that should feel bigger, but my instincts tell me that in August, my numbers will have dwarfed even this accomplishment.