Happy Birthday to me… Oh, yeah, bolt on the handle bars to the headboard and go for a RIDE!
Been an interesting week, but here’s a good story for once! Wednesday had the makings of being a rotten day. Woke with a raging sore throat (that my youngest rug-rat gave me) and just feeling kinda icky. BUT… even though I had to put up with snotty people early, the day turned perfect by the afternoon. I get this nice Twitter from the folks who make Manga Studio EX, the drawing software I use to create 1977. They had just started following me and they commented they liked the comic (of course!). They asked what version I was using and in passing I told them Version 3 but wanted Version 4 (latest) but didn’t have the cash. A tiny bit later I get this email from a Marketing person from the makers of Manga Studio saying since I was turning 53, was using their software and writing tutorials how about a FREE Version 4?
I wet myself. I don’t win stuff or often even get stuff like this, so it was a real shocker to me. So anyway, in the next email was the download link and serial number. Hot damn! So, today’s comic is the first with the new version. Took me just a bit to adjust to the new ways of doing things, but WOW is the thing packed with goodies. I even inked the comic faster. See if you notice a difference… it’s subtle but the inking style is different. Mainly the lines are looser and vary in thickness better.
So, the moral is ADVERTISE you frakkin’ birthday or you won’t get anything! Also, nice people do win on occasion!
In fine Wilkins tradition, I give you Bud praying to the Porcelain Goddess as I did WAY too many times back in 1977. A fitting birthday comic if there ever was one. Never slept away a weekend, but did miss a FINAL exam on the last day of my sophomore year at ISU. Explain that one to the instructor. 🙂
“I Don’t Like Mondays” Boomtown Rats, 1979 from “The Fine Art of Surfacing”. And I’m sure Bud does NOT like Mondays at the moment…
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Discussion (42) ¬
Well, well, well. Happy birthday there Byron! Great page today and very cool about the Version 4! Hope you enjoy it… 🙂
Oh, and btw, thanks for the well wishes. Wifey is home and doing much better. 🙂
Hey, happy birthday, man! Almost forgot we shared a birthday month, but then how could I, what with you reminding us every few days?!
The comic has come a long way and is now better than ever – good luck with v4 and let’s hope v5 turns up in the post (sorry, mail) next year!
ARGH! Didn’t you get your Editor’s notes?! ~faints at the sight of Inappropriate Haggis~
p.s. the artwork looks great (though it always does these days), and I have to say that Jeff in his skivvies brings out the cougar in me…
Happy Birthday Byron. And good tune too. Do you remember what “I Don’t Like Mondays” was really about?
Happy Birthday!
Don’t mean to get in the way but… How did there get to be haggis in the fridge? If Robyn took him to Irish bars, did one of those manage to actually be a Scotish place that tried to pass itself off as Gaelic?
Corned beef in the fridge, yes I can see, but I’d never been to an Irish bar in either New York or Buffalo that offered Scotish food.
Happy Birthday Papa!
Today is my Unbirthday….what do I get????
Happy bday.
Happy B-DAY yongster!! Hope you have a memorable hangover tomorrow! 😉
Happy Birthday! Sounds like you got the perfect gift. 🙂
Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear BBBBYYYYYYRRRROOON! Happy birthday to you!
happy birthday byron! 😀
and congrats on blagging the new software too. i’m sure that with any new version of drawing software that it’ll only get easier as you play with it. comic looks good.
keep on truckin’, brother.
–dee!
Happy Birthday Byron! I celebrated by renewing my 1977 subscription! (Actually, it was done automatically – but I’d been thinking about doing it soon anyway, & it’s the thought that counts, right?) Jim Ryan beat me to the punch about the haggis being a Scottish dish – we American’s mix Scottish & Irish customs & culture pretty freely, & I, being of both Scot and Irish descent have been guilty of that as well, but believe me, attributing something Scottish as an Irish item to an Irishman & vice-verse, is MUCH worse than declaring Cubs loyalty to a ‘Sox fan!! Also, I know that it’s yesterday’s news, but I didn’t read Wednesday’s strip with the One-Hit Wonders jab until just now (another huge disadvantage to not having a home computer & having to rely on using it at work), but coincidentally I was going thru a small stack of old 45’s just last weekend and unearthed some notables that got some spins on my turntable in their day – (in fact it seems like most of my 45’s were OHW’s) a small sampling: “Timothy” by The Buoys, “Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” – Reunion, “Tighter, Tighter” – Alive & Kicking, “In the Summertime” – Mungo Jerry, “Vehicle” – The Ides of March, “DOA” – Bloodrock, “The Rapper – The Jaggerz, “Ride Captain Ride” – The Blues Image, and on & on…
Hey Congrats on the Birthday!! Great comic as always and really enjoying vicariously your software thrill. Thanks for the good times, here and in memory.
Happy Birthday Byron, my man!!!!! Keep things rocking!!!
Happy birthday ole man! (grin)… careful now getting up to fast! o.O
…. I has a question if you can answer it. Manga studio vs. photoshop, what does it do that photoshop doesn’t? I’m looking for reason as to whether switching and relearning a new program has value?
Happy Birthday to You!! and I hope you feel better. And congratulations on scoring the free software. Let’s see did I forget anything? Oh yeah, I absolutely love the strip. As we said back in the ’70s “Keep On Truckin’!”.
What WAS in those potatoes?
eesh, now THAT’S a sign of serious weekend partyin’. Shall I quote from Bill Cosby’s “Himself”?
Happy birthday, man. But, uh, what’s up with Bud’s eyes? For once there are pupils. That’s just…. surprising. 😀
Happy Birthday Byron. Man I remember those days…guess I must’ve had too many Potatoes too. 🙂 I know Bud’s just glad he’s back in one piece.
The line work does look crisper, great job as always.
ah yes. Corned Beef and Cabbage. the greatest (apparently) Irish-American dish over there. Over here, just about none of us know that even exists.
oh yeah, happy birthday, mate. may you have many many more.
Maybe the Americans couldn’t get decent proper bacon 😀
In 1977, no not really. We don’t start getting the good stuff in Irish specialty stores here until at least 1993…
Ah, that explains it. And by then the curious practice of Americans calling weird mushed-up-mashed-mystery-meat ‘corned beef’ and considering it a traditional Irish dish was already established, eh?
It’s been an endless source of amusement for me for many years that it’s almost impossible to get ~coughs~ traditional Irish home cooking in cafes in Ireland. Possibly because all the people in the catering industry who knew how to make decent boiled bacon and cabbage moved across and set up shop in (mostly north) London 😛
YES! Cultural markers all present and correct! Well done that Byron 🙂
Byron, happy birthday! I believe corned beef, as in most circumstances, is the culprit. There’s just something sinister about corned beef.
Corned beef is great, David! Don’t knock the Irish or they’ll knock you right back!
(oh, and happy birthday)
This is a veeerrrrry belated Happy Birthday, Byron, but I hope it was a great one. 🙂
Gratz on the birfday, man. You’re doin’ a fine job here.
Happy belated birthday Byron, from a fellow 2/5 ‘er. 1965 for me.