Waffle

Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan reader Bo Lindbergh mentions that the "Orange sexual display frill" gag referenced in yesterday's comic can be found here in the Acid Reflux archives. I tried searching those archives the other days but came up with nothing.

That Acid Reflux strip has gone down in history as a classic webcomics episode (the series as a whole ended before the story was finished). The song has been recorded, and MP3 files of it are still doing the rounds on the net in the right circles (I haven't been able to find one, but I did find published playlists that included it).

Interesting how that Tuque character could almost be a lutin, if all the artist had to go on was a description of a green creature with long limbs and large pointy teeth.

There is a recurring problem with files not showing up at update time on rocr.net. I think the problem actually occurs when they are transferred to the ftp server. Unlike at my other locations, I have to be very careful to check that the files that end up on the Keenspace server have the same file size as the ones that are on the local disk. If not, I must re-upload them.
That is, I think that is the problem. If I find that an image hasn't shown up when I check in the morning, I don't check to see if the file has been truncated; I download it from a location where it does work, and re-upload it to Keenspace. It's a drag, and it shouldn't have to be like that, but that's all the time I can afford to spend on it. But I'll take some time to report the problem to the admins. Soon. Any day now. Gotta rush to a dental appointment first.

Via Operawatch, here's a site devoted to making Firefox look, function and behave like Opera. So if I ever encounter some infuriating behaviour in Firefox, I'll go here and see if I can make it act more rationally. First thing I'm going to look for is a way to move those damned tabs to the bottom where they belong.
(Update: found!)

I read this interesting discussion on a new weapon the US military is funding the develepment of on Obsidian Wings. It is designed to incapacitate the enemy by causing him excruciating pain. I made a mental note to write a post saying that I was undecided yet on the issue, that on the one hand such a weapon would probably be better than a lethal weapon; but on the other hand such a weapon would be used in situations where otherwise a lethal weapon would not be used, it could be put to use torturing prisoners, and that I didn't exactly trust the current US administration to use it responsibly. You know, a reeeeeaaasonable post urging you to read the OW piece including its comments and make up your own mind on this.

Then I was reminded of the scum who toyed with the lives of cancer sufferers in the name of Christianity, and I thought, screw it, I want one of those babies so I can shove it in the face of Stephen Green and all those other lowlifes at Christian Voice. I'm sure I'll like his face more when it's contorted in a rictus of exquisite agony.

So, the Agonizer. My tentative position is that I'm for it, and I want one. Travis was always the second coolest guy in Blake's Seven, anyway, and he had one (no one is as cool as Kerr Avon, so I'll settle for being as cool as Travis).

I've had a lot of fun doing the ads for the Open Ad Network, which is now being tested on a select number of sites. I produced some new traditional banner ads like these:

(Generic banner showing the Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan cast)

(Banner made specifically to push the Dolphins and Dragons storyline).

In the OAN setup, banners get more exposure because there are more slots on the pages to put them on. However, they get very low clickthrough because they're an old format that people have trained themselves not to be distracted by. So I use them primarily to spread the brand - character likenesses and the comic's name.

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On the recommendation of quite a few people including Limyaael, I ordered Jhereg, the first omnibus edition of Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos series. It was a good read; I can't say it made me go "whoa!" just yet but the three novels in the volume, Jhereg, Yendi and Teckla are original, well-thought-out and very entertaining. All my favorite moments were in the third book, which had little tidbits like this (in a sequence where the hero, Vlad Taltos, consults an oracle):

When he'd looked at me long enough to be impressive, her said, "If you try to expand your business, a mighty organization will fall."
Well, la-dee-da. I leaned over the table and slapped him.

Why didn't the ancient Greeks think of that?

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A change of plan from what I've been telling people: my next webcomics projects after The Rite of Serfdom will be the second issue of Courtly Manners, written by Geir Strøm. My previously existing plans, to do a series of shortish storylines focusing on various aspects of the vast and sprawling Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan universe will go ahead a little bit later. Arguably, Courtly Manners #2 fits it well enough, considering that it features Kel, Krakatoa, Guðrun and the characters from Geir's Chronicles of the Witch Queen who have appeared in ROCR before.

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I made a soft toy of Cerberus today.

And the other day I updated The Pantheon!

Aaaaand.. Reinder's guest comic, from the previous update, is now visible. Keenspace was so distressed by the files being called jpegs when they were really pngs, it did a Bugblatter Beast Of Traal and refused to look at them, so they wouldn't be able to attack it.

Jamie Robertson of Clan of the Cats has come down with a blood clot in his leg, which, to put it mildly, can't be fun. On his website, he claims he'll be out of commission for a few days, and his comic will take a break until next Monday. Hang in there, Jamie, and may you recover quickly!

Clan of the Cats has grown in leaps and bounds, art-wise, since Jamie was laid off from his old job. If you have a bit of time to spare for comics-reading, give this urban horror/fantasy a try.

The update system at Keenspace, which hosts the ROCR main page is still in intermittent trouble. The comic for today should arrive eventually - it's in the update queue - but the update queue is very long. I'd put in a temporary fix but the ftp service is also unreliable right now, and frankly, what with there being a fully functional mirror site and Modern Tales I can't be bothered.

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