Okay, now this is my first attempt at the new coloring technique and it was not too bad to do, but I’ve got some more learnin’ to do! I’m gonna do this size format in color Monday thru Thursday. Sundays will also be in color but will be that BIG panel that I was using at the beginning of the year. M-Th will be the primary story (like today) of sex, drugs and rock & roll in 1977. Sundays will be a bit more free form but still centered around the gang, but if I want to do something a bit off beat or subject, then Sunday will be for that.
I’ll get this all worked out. In the meantime, come back Sunday for my first free-for-all comic… if you pay close attention to the date, you’ll know what it’s about. Hint.
“Lazy” is our second song this week from Deep Purple. I love the MKII form of that band with Ian Gillan singing and Roger Glover on bass (one of my bass heroes). “Machine Head” was huge in its day and my favorite from it is “Space Truckin'” and I’l be using that title someday as well!
Enjoy the weekend! 🙂
PS: If you want to see my Dokoder 8140 as it looks today, check it out at my FlickR page by clicking here!
Another Deep Purple reference 🙂 You and I share a lot of the same tastes mate, I do like Lazy but prefer Space Truckin
Best of all worlds!
Oh, BTW, when I made the switch to color in my strip (and I know you’re not exactly “switching” to color) I found it made zero difference in the time it took to put everything together. That was because I made a file with “paper dolls” of all my characters that I keep open while I’m coloring, and just sample straight from that as I go. (Plus Photoshop has programmable actions you can set up, which I use for all my color fills.)
Anyway, the point is really only that you can find a way to do this so that it runs just as fast as B&W. Experimentation is a good thing, which brings me to the final point.
The only important part of this… more important than whether the comic is B&W or color, more important than how many time a week you update, is whether or not you love doing it. If you don’t like what you do, we’re not going to either. Conversely, if you you do enjoy yourself and have a sense of delight in it, the work will always find it’s audience. Taking the pulse of the crowd is a good idea, but ultimately you need to serve yourself BEFORE you can serve us. It sounds like you’ve found a solution that makes you happy, and I think it’s going to make the fans happy too. But never forget what the MOST important piece of making this comic really is.
(That would be you.)
Thanks, Kevin, and you’re right, if I’m not happy, then 1977 will be no fun for anyone. I will find a happy balance of output and efficiency. I have a lot of ideas and story to tell, and adding more strips per week will move that along.
Today is a great example. I didn’t have to wait 2 or 3 days for this follow up; it happened the next day which makes it flow better to me and hopefully the readers.
Ultimately, I chose to do 1977 in color and switching to B&W just did not feel right to me, even though a majority of the readers who spoke up yesterday were in favor of it.
I’ll slip some in from time to time when the “mood” is right!
🙂
Loves me some Purple. Thanks! 🙂
that’s one sweet 4 track!
and the best comics are made sad. so do what you’d hate most!
Woot! I used to have one of those! Lovely old things, Dokorders.
I went into a Manny’s Music store in Manhattan a few years ago and asked to see what they had in Machine Heads, and everyone just looked at me like I was from Mars.
Turns out, no-one in New York refers to the worm-screw-and-pin tuning devices commonly fitted to steel-strung guitars by that name.
Deep Purple made a pun and I’ll bet not one person in ten in the U.S. got it. Ironic, since every “supergroup” knows that the real money is earned in the American Market.
Love the strip today, and it hit an unintanded home run. I was in the Guitar Center only a couople of days ago looking at portable studo setups, now all digital of course. I own one of the first Tascam four-channel, four-track cassette Portastudios, and had fished it out of storage a few weeks before only to find that one of the “pan” pots had gone scratchy. The same story with my Roland synth too. Let this be a lesson: when you store eletronic musical stuff, possibly for an unintended decade, set all mechanical sliders or pots over to one extreme edge of the other.
I’m dying to ask: when will you feature a “Yes” beased strip? I’d love to see what you did with the kind of lyrics that make *less* sense when you’re straight.
Keep on doing what you’re doing. It’s all good.
RE: roxysteve – Being an old bassist (and a young one when Machine Head came out) as was well aware of what the tuning peg was called, and I felt kinda cool most other folks didn’t get it! But a current music store NOT knowing… man, what has the world come too… 🙂
Yes, those damn old “pots” (we electronic geeks refer to potentiometers as that… lots of “pot” references in my life…) can get static in them fast. Here’s the cure… turn it back and forth real fast using your thumb and forefinger (don’t over do it) and the “gunk” causing the static will go away for a bit. Or, rip it open and dig out some tuner cleaner and spray it up. Or, just go digital…
🙂
RE: Mufti – I loved my old “Dork” as we called it. Not only could it do simul-sync recording of tracks, but it had a built in “reverb” by using the record and playback heads as a mini echo-loop. Great for sweetening up vocals. I use to do the basic 4 tracks and then dump them to a 2-track sub-master, then overdub vocals and stuff on the two remaining tracks.
Nothing like these “youngsters” today have. I would have KILLED for a set-up like I have today on my PC… I was born way too early for all this cool stuff!
🙂
Oh, I will be getting to those progressive rock groups like Yes, ELP, King Crimson and others… but some of those titles are a little difficult to work into this theme sometimes… hey, I worked in a reference to the UK group Japan, I think I squeeze in Yes!
🙂
Wow, what a coincidence!! I do not have a home computer & use mine here at work. During lunch & breaks I’ll do my personal stuff on the computer – emails, web comics, etc. & I listen to a web radio station while I’m in my office & on the computer that plays 60’s & 70’s “deep cuts” & alternate-track rock ‘n’ roll (great station for us classic rockers! they play allot of stuff you would never have heard on commercial radio, and everything they play is off of vinyl…) Anyway, I logged on to the station before I opened 1977, & they’re playing “Lazy” by Deep Purple! It’s gotta be a sign… I must drag out my copy of “Machine Head” when I get home, & crank “Highway Star” up to 11!
Yes, indeed, I am looking forward to Monday’s comic! *winkety-wink-wink!* 😉
Yeah get some prog in there 😛
I met a guy who had worked as session drummer with Rick Wakeman, had a nice chat and he recommended the band Caravan 🙂
Loving the comic still, keep up the awesome work 😀
Incedentally… who is the character that speaks first in the first panel? I’m still relatively new… is it someone I know, but just don’t recognize? Thanks! 🙂
RE: Carey – Well, you’re not alone, as the first character speaking is Chet, Bud’s old friend. But, Chet has been “on vacation” from the strip since last JUNE and actually hadn’t realized he had not been around for a while. He’ll be back now, but is a secondary character in the grand scheme.
Thanks for asking!
🙂
RE: Unclemac – That kinda stuff happens to me all the time… No lottery numbers yet, but I’m working on it. I love when that happens, but it can a little freaky…
🙂
Re: Mufti (Byron) *Nothing like these “youngsters” today have. I would have KILLED for a set-up like I have today on my PC… I was born way too early for all this cool stuff!*
You are right, back in those days we had to make our own open reel tricks, none of that laborsaving digital stuff just talent and lotsa patience. It’s a good thing our midichlorians were strong in the Force. 😀
Ah! Thanks for the clarification! 🙂