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I debated with myself for a long time about whether I should join the internet blackout in protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.  While I feel very strongly about both bills and have made my opposition to them known, it comes down to simple numbers.  My site isn’t big enough to have much of an impact in the big scheme of things.  I’m not Wikipedia.  I’m not Reddit.  I’m (sadly) not even Questionable Content.  But that doesn’t mean these bills aren’t important, that they don’t affect you directly, and that they don’t matter.  They do.  If they’re passed, even something as simple as providing links in this post could be considered illegal.

SOPA and PIPA directly effects me, my contemporaries, and anyone who either wants to make a living through the web, who want to get known through the web, or who simply want to find some easily found information through the web.  The people who wrote and support these bills either don’t know or willfully don’t care how it’s going to impact people like us, and that’s not right.  Contact your congressman or senator today about your feelings on the matter and crush these bills once and for all.

Simply being “shelved” or “re-written” isn’t good enough.  These bills need to be THROWN OUT, and we should not accept anything less.  Our civil liberties and our livelihoods have been directly threatened by these acts, and this is unforgivable.  Thanks to the net, we have more power than every to communicate with one-another.  I suggest we use it.

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Been meaning to do this for a while! Time to finally show you all what Devi Ever’s Christmas present can do!

Mojdeh was kind enough to let me record this in Radiant Devices‘ basement studio, using Fyodor’s Ibanez SA into her Peavey Bandit 112. Played some random riffs by Rush, Van Halen, Tool, and Soundgarden, along with a few riffs I wrote myself. At about 3:37, when I turn the gain up to maximum, you can hear me tune down to Drop D. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this thing was meant for Drop D tuning.

Forgive the sloppy playing in certain parts. I was kind of faffing about a bit. If you want to see more of Devi’s pedals for yourself, click here!

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My mother first got Molly about three months after I had left for college. I questioned at the time whether or not it was “too soon”, since we had lost not one, not two, but THREE of our dogs the previous year. Our three cocker spaniels Rudy, Bear, and Linus (the Grumpy Old Men, as we called them) had all passed away either due to age or health issues. Was it really right to get a new dog so shortly after that had happened?

Molly was half-Labrador, half Huskie (Lab in the front, Huskie in the back as I would say). She had white fur with little spots of brown that’d get darker as her coat would get thick in the winter, making her look like a burnt marshmallow. She had flat ears like a Labrador, but they’d perk up sharp like a Huskie when she was excited or interested in something. She was what an ex of mine described as “a talker”, because she’d not so much bark as do this musical howl in your direction when she wanted attention. We called her “Molly Woo Woo” after the sound, and she was sharp enough to respond to you with co-ordinated Woo Woo’s if you had a conversation with her. A “talker” indeed.

I still remember when I first met Molly. My mother was picking me up from the airport when I had come home for spring break during my first semester away. Already I saw Molly peering at me through the window in the back seat, probably thinking to herself “Who’s this new person?”. I got in the front passenger seat and just as I had sat down and fastened my seat belt, she climbed over and plopped down right in my lap. And she wouldn’t budge until we had driven all the way home from O’Hare airport.

…Yea, we got along pretty quick.

That was six years ago. During that time, Molly was inseparable from either my mother or my step-dad Angelo. Molly would even come with my mother to her job and hang out with her in the office all day, and would sit home bummed when my mother changed jobs and couldn’t do that anymore. She’d look at Angelo adoringly every time he gave her a piece of lunch meat or a frozen meatball when they’d come back from her walks. They grew so attached to her I nicknamed her “Little Sister“, who later became a character in “Oh Goodie!”

Molly was a sweetheart. Molly was the best. Molly…was taken from us far too early.

…Molly passed away today. I came upstairs from working to find her under the kitchen table laying in a puddle of her own urine. When I tried to get her to move or find out what had happened, she refused to budge. She was drooling and breathing heavily in a way that wasn’t like her at all. When we managed to get her to the vet, he told us that she had a cancerous tumor in her spleen. Any surgery would only prolong her life by months, not years.

I excused myself from the room, unable to sit through this again after having seen the boys go. It devastated them, but my mother and Angelo were with her at the end. She was up and lucid the last time I saw her, which is how I want to remember her.

I lost my little sister tonight.

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Expect a demo video on YouTube once it arrives!

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So by now you’ve probably noticed the Kickstarter widget that’s been added to the site. It’s something new I’m trying. I’m not gonna lie: for as much fun as I had, the Alternative Press Expo really set me back. Hell, I had fun at BOTH cons I did this year on both coasts, but in terms of actual returns for my investment it was a disappointment. And it’s a simple fact that unless I start doing better, I won’t be able to hit these cons like I want.

So I’m coming up with a new plan: next year I’m hoping to go local for shows here in Chicago. My big ones are C2E2, Anime Central, and CAKE. I also want to have a bigger spread than normal with more to offer and show-off. But I’m going to need help. Donate enough, you’ll receive books along with special edition prints and/or originals if the campaign is successful. But even just a dollar or so will engender my endless gratitude.

The campaign goes through January 23rd.  My goal is a scant $2000, but it’ll get me through 2012 completely!  Donate now if you can!

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I apologize for the pop-up that’s been on the site for the last three days.  I’m sure you’ve found it annoying, but I had to do my part to bring immediate attention to Congress’ new Internet Censorship bill, and drastic action had to be taken.  I’ve taken the pop-up down, but your support is still desperately needed.  If you’d like to make your voice heard, head over to AmericanCensorship.org where you can find more information on the bill and what you can do about it.

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This 10×10 inch original ink drawing of Koriko (inspired by Rush’s album “Permanent Waves” and will be included in the second “Oh Goodie!” volume) is now for sale at my Etsy shop. It’s on Bristol board, illustrated with india ink, nibs, and brushes, and it comes in an 11×14 inch frame with special unbreakable glass.

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I always like to put myself out there for freelance work, and always thought I was best at inking comics. So I have some new samples done by a variety of pencils at my portfolio site.

Just a heads up, I’ll be at Wizard World Chicago on Friday.  I don’t have a table this year, but I’ll spend most of my time hanging out with Eric Adams discussing our usual plans for world domination.  None will be spared and blood with run in the streets, that kind of stuff.  Maybe I’ll see you there.

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This is it! It’s finally here! It’s finally ready! The very first “Oh Goodie!” book “Introduce Yourself” is available for sale.

This 116 page book contains every comic between October 2009 and January 2011 (up through the end of the “First Gig” story), the first “Eddie Van Helsing” story, every B-side, holiday special, and sketch week post, a foreword by comics scholar (and my former professor) Diana Green, and never-before-seen-material that has never been published ANYWHERE before.

If you want to order it for your comic book store, you can go here, or e-mail me directly and I can give you a special deal.

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Last week’s updates got delayed because I had inventory at work and I simply couldn’t cope with keeping up the schedule.  The reason for no updates THIS week is different, and frankly long overdue.  I’m not going to lie, for as much fun as I had at C2E2 this  year, I wasn’t expecting to get approved for it.  Or MoCCA.  So that meant I had to up the schedule I had intended for the first “Oh Goodie!” book by two months and put it together quicker than I had intended.  Those you who purchased the initial print run at any of the shows I’ve done so far this year?  You actually have what will be a VERY rare version of the book, because this week I’ll be making some final changes and switching printers due to lack of satisfaction on my part before uploading the final version for sale here on the site.

Thank you all for your patience.  Goodness will return soon.