Episode 26: Zodiac Fail

Wow, one month of Singularity is in the books. I'm still playing with the art and coloring styles until I find something I like. But hey, one thing is back: the footer bar that you'll recognize from our Super Drama days. So this weekend I had three goals: Finish storyboarding chapter one on Friday, draw and ink this week's comics out on Saturday and color them all in on Sunday. I'm happy to say Friday's goal was a success. Uh...about the other two. On Saturday after going to Plano to see the family on the way back to Denton all my dashboard lights kept flashing off and on randomly. So I go to see the mechanic. He figures the thing that did it in was my battery is shot b/c the alternator isn't charging it. So Saturday I spent all day dealing with my car and Sunday I colored this. Thankfully I finished early enough where I can have Wednesday done by closing orders on Monday which makes Friday easier. So...yeah even though my plan to get ahead was thwarted, everything is still on schedule. Relatively speaking.

On a drawing note, it is semi-frustrating to draw Iris. In every incarnation of Singularity except this one she's worn glasses. So in all my storyboards she's wearing them with large notes next to her eyes saying "NO GLASSES!"



Well this was a long post. See you cats Wednesday.

Episode 25: The Call

And Singularity is back! The 24 Hour Challenge yesterday was in short a failure. I only got three pages done. Yikes. I can already tell doing that every month may NOT work out so well. But I want to create something other than Singularity to have a SUTBComic tradition. But what? I dunno. Hopefully I can figure it out soon.

Another thing, just a minor technical thing, I'm switching the pages to JPEGs instead of PNGs like they were for the first 24 pages, so maybe that will allow for quicker load times. I dunno, we'll see.

That's all see you Wednesday! (remember the schedule is temporarily changed)

The Gameplan

So as you already know, SUTBComics is less than 12 hours away from it's first 24 Hour Challenge. There's a few things I should stress before I talk about my gameplan

1) This is NOT a 24 Hourly Comics challenge.

I know this may sound odd to those of you first tuning in but there is a slight difference in the two. 24 Hourly Comics means you post one comic every hour for 24 hours. The 24 Hour Challenge just means I have 24 Hours to draw 24 comics. How I break this down is totally up to me.

2) I don't have any bit of this comic written down yet

One of the main and original rules of the challenge. I have no storyboards or character designs drawn. While ideas buzz in my head I'm not allowed to write them down until I start my run. The only personal amendment I have towards this rule is that a week or so before the run I will do a title drop or something (like I did this month with Nocturnal Transmissions) to do two things.

1-Force me to stick to an idea
2-Get you guys excited about the upcoming run

3) I live in Texas

So the run will start at 12 midnight United States Central Time. Just an FYI

Okay...so here's the gameplan. Since this is the first one I may elements of this that work and don't work

PreRun Prep

At about 11pm, I'll get water bottles tea and pizza cooked and on standby to eat and be near me. I already have set aside 36 sheets of paper (12 storyboards and 24 comic pages) to use. I'll use this time to prep any music or the like before starting my run. I will also send a Tweet and a Facebook status to get you cats on the notice that we're about to start.

PHASE ONE: Storyboards
At midnight, I will begin with the story boards. I don't think I'll draw a cover page for NT, but I dunno we'll see. But I will completely pencil out the story in the same manner I do with Singularity. Estimated Time: Maybe an hour. After the story boards are finished a tweet will be sent and a status will be updated.

PHASE TWO: Drawing and Inking
Here's where it starts coming down to trial and error (and will probably end up being something I won't know it's effectiveness until the run is over). My prerun strategy will be to completely draw and ink the story and scan them up to my computer all at once. When each page is drawn and inked a tweet will go out. When the entire phase is completed (with all 24 scans up on my computer) I will send out another tweet and status update.

PHASE THREE: Text and Color (?)
I haven't decided whether this run will be in color. It will depend entirely upon how much time is left. I may or may not. But obviously there will be text. As soon as a page has its text, I will put it up on the site. And a tweet will go out telling you to see the new page. In something slightly different compared to my other comic, the entire January 2010 run will be on one page tonight with newer comics being on the top. I'll break them up into their respective pages at a later date.

PHASE FOUR: Sleep
Hopefully after phase three midnight hasn't struck yet. I'll post the Monday Singularity and SLEEP.

UNT, Until Next Time
Eric W. Merritt

"If you work really hard and you are kind amazing things will happen"
Conan O'Brien

What Conan O'Brien Taught Me About Webcomics

We knew it was inevitable. We heard the rumors. We watched the news. We read the headlines. We talked about the future. And yet somehow turning my TV on at 1033, waiting for the news to fnish, it still didn't quite hit that this was the end. Even with the band blaring and the crowd cheering almost unceasingly, it still hadn't sunk in. And then all at once it did.

The Tonight Show was over.

I've lost a couple of shows that I'm upset about: Code Monkeys and Futurama are the two that come to mind and while I hate these new bullshit cartoons on Cartoon Network and am a FIRM believer the best cartoons were the early 90s Cartoon Cartoons, I've never cared so much for a show as I did with the Tonight Show.

Since my dad watched Leno when he was younger, I sorta assumed I'd sit my son down one day maybe when he's 16 or something in the 2020s or whatever and say "That's Conan O'Brian, this is the Tonight Show" and he could share that legacy.

It wasn't to be I guess.

And so the curtain closed and the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brian came to an end exactly five years after Johnny Carson passed away.

And all I am left with is one of Conan's final line (more or less verbatim)

"If you work really hard and you are kind AMAZING things will happen to you"

I know this hiatus came out of seemingly nowhere and I know this is how webcomics start their slippery slide to self-cancellation, but I refuse to let it end so soon. It's been almost two full months since December's first comic and at the end of the month I'll have 27 comics. We're--yes "we", me as the story teller and you guys as the readers--are still young and early into our run. This past week was the first hiccup. I can't promise smooth sailing the rest of my run with Singularity and I'd be a jackass to do so, but I will promise I'm going to work harder on this comic. I can't make it trump my college work but if I'm not working on college I'll be doing my damnedest to work on Singularity. Because I want to believe Conan. I think my work with Singularity can be the biggest Team Conan tribute I have. So thanks for the support so far and stay with me because there's a lot more comic to do.

"Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record it's my least favorite quality, it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard--and you're kind, amazing things will happen"

Thank you Conan. Singularity returns Monday. 24 Hour Challenge Sunday

Singularity Status

I want to reiterate how sorry I am about this week's hiatus. I was not expecting semester to hit me in the teeth so hard and so soon. Singularity will return next Monday, but as previously stated it will be temporarily only be updating Monday-Wednesday-Friday, barring bonus comics which will work as originally drawn up.

Also do not forget that Sunday January 24th is the first SUTBComic 24 Hour Challenge which will start at midnight Central time and run until midnight on Monday January 25th. I've already got the 36 pages (12pages of storyboards and 24 pages of actual art) set aside in my living room table so I can begin almost immediately after the clock strikes midnight. Whether this comic will be in color or not, I dunno yet.

The best way to stay up to date on the 24 Hour Challenge is to either follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/SUTBComics) OR subscribe to the Mansion's RSS Feed.

So in review: Singularity returns Monday January 25th, 2010. There is a 24 Hour Challenge Sunday, January 24th, 2010. I apologize about the hiatus and, of course, FUCK NBC.

January 2010 Preview

It's coming...Sunday January 24, 2010.

http://24hour.sutbcomic.com

It's gonna be a dream.

Weird Ass Dreams

So last night I have a dream. The beginning is a little hazy, but I remember Mr. Burns and the people of Springfield getting angry at each other in a musical. And a little before that I was playing either a Gamecube or Wii with my little brother at my Plano house.

Then I saw a large plumber who apparently knew me and a girl I was with. She was supposed to be in Nacogdoches, Texas for whatever reason but she was with me and we had just come back from a date. I remember stepping on a some ice on the ground. It looked like maybe we'd had one of those Texas spring snows, where it snows and then freeze over to hard ice and the rest of the ground is grassy. Any I walk on the ice and think it's gonna break but she hops on no problem and slides around with me for a sec.

I don't remember what prompted it but I did a weak Eagle screech (Go UNT?) but her laughter was interrupted by a real Eagle screech. The eagle is in the distance and it swoops down and grabs a rabbit. Both must have been HUGE, because even though they were some distance away we could see them with surprising clarity. At any rate the Eagle has the rabbit. Well a SECOND eagle comes up to the first and grabs the rabbit's head. The two fly and split the rabbit, the first eagle getting the body and the second eagle getting the head and spine of the rabbit.

I've been having weird dreams lately (pressure of balancing webcomic and school?) but they've been pretty interesting and have provided a rather excellent plan for Sunday. HINT HINT.

Singularity Update Problems Part 2

Okay so I had the second part of my classes today, my business school courses of Accounting, Calculus and Data Analysis.

Long story short, drawing during class on Wednesdays is a big no. Since Data Analysis is a three hour class I figured I could nod off every now and again and do some drawing and keep pace with the lecture.

Haha.

No.

So it looks like my main drawing time will take place on the weekends (I have no classes on Friday) and I may be able to get something done on Mondays after class. Wednesdays are definitely out of the question (class straight from 11am to 5pm with 10 minute breaks in between my three classes, and play practice at 9pm till 11pm) If I don't have any homework and am not too tired from classes or eventually the gym, I may be able to squeeze some drawing in. But considering I already have a test in Data Analysis due at the end of the week and a project the Wednesday after that...eh, lack of homework seems like a long shot.

Believe me I am every bit as annoyed as you are with the lack of updates this week, but college comes first. I just need a little bit of time to bring this new schedule roadblock in and manage my comic around it. That's all. So bear with me and I'll get Singularity back on track as soon as I can.

Oh and most definitely do not expect this hiatus to last into February. There will be a comic up if not Friday definitely Monday.

A Note on Singularity

Usually it takes a week or two to understand how deep the rabbit hole is with my classes for the semester.

It took one day this semester.

So what does this mean for you? Singularity is having it's updates tweaked ever so slightly.

I'm dropping down to Mon/Wed/Fri until I build up a large enough buffer to run Monday through Friday again. Sorry cats, I really would like to stay daily running but I gotta do good this semester. If I don't I'm gonna get thrown out of North Texas. Well not so much thrown out as I'll lose my biggest sponsor, my parents.

I know the question will arise, well if you can't draw a comic everyday, how will you build a buffer? Right now the plan is during the week draw a comic one day and then color it the next (so I would draw Friday's comic on Wednesday and color it Thursday) and on the weekend draw next week out on day and color it the next or something. I'll figure it out. I just need time. I regrettably didn't build a big enough buffer over the break to handle the upcoming semester. Again, I apologize.

The Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule switch is effective as of this post. Wednesday comic will be up in the morning. Please continue reading Singularity and I'll try to get back to our regular schedule as soon as I can without completely borking my college courses.

Oh and the 24 Hour Challenge is still this Sunday. Just FYI.

Episode 24: Big Trouble

School starts back for UNT tomorrow and I take my first major class tomorrow. I'm parts nervous and parts excited. I love the fact I don't have any classes before 11 or on Friday. I think that's the main thing I will focus on.

Happy MLK Day to all and to all see you tomorrow!

Episode 23: A Bad Dream

No news today, see you Monday!

Episode #22- My Great Grandmother Does Not Approve of My Treatment of Seniors

The title isn't necessairly false. I'm pretty sure if my great grandmother read this comic she would be slightly appalled that old people are beaing beat up and tossed out of builidngs in mysterious purple bubbles. But then again I think Mammo is slightly scared of technology and the internet. She's 79 people, cut her some slack.

I'm having fun with these little gradients and shading strategies. Completely on accident how they happened. And definitely partially created thanks to laziness (didn't feel like continually using the Magic Wand, long story short)

I'm trying to get back to Midnight updates, but that will probably have to wait until next week. I know I haven't officially broken my resolution, but I have abused the spirit (I have posted a comic every day, just not in the wee hours of the morning like intended).

Oh well. See you tomorrow!

Episode #21- Old Age

Man, I seriously miscalculated how long it would take to build the new site and as a result today's comic was super late. (Bow) Thank God I'm not on NBC. I would have my comic cancelled.

In all seriousness, fuck you NBC and go Team Conan. I think the Conan O'Brien show is the only thing I'm willing to attach myself to that has any remote connection with Twilight (the whole Team [blank] thing). On a related note, Midnight Master is NOT a vampire.

Thursday will be a little late, but not nearly as late as today was. Sorry guys, I'll do math better next time.

Episode #20- Punished

While Midnight Master may apologize for the puns, I apologize for nothing! Hahaha!

...Okay, that one was a little cringe inducing, but my second favorite Disney villian was a pun spouting lunatic. I, of course, am talking about Jafar. Even the Joker shouts a pun or two every now again. I think villians just can't help themselves. They have to do it. It's in there genes, if it's genetic to be a villian. Oh and just to repeat Monday (and I will likely do this for the rest of this week...)

In SUTBComic news, I'm realizing through past experience that my comics suffer when I try to do more than one project at a time. So in a few weeks I'm going to move Singularity to the SUTBComic main page and officially end Super Drama after three chapters and 48 comics. Now the 24 Hour challenge will still stand because I want to make a sorta tradition on this website and Super Drama may end up being in some of those 24 hour challenges, but it's run as a regularly updating comic is no more. Thanks Super Drama for the memories and I hope Singularity proves to be a successful as you were.

Carry on, see you tomorrow. Also 80 comics till the big 100! Whadya mean that's forever away? Be patient damnit!

Episode #19- Zap

I went ahead a drew and inked Tuesday and Wednesday before coloring Monday. I would have had a larger buffer set over the weekend but, well the UNT Mean Green Basketball and the Cowboys were playing on Saturday and the Simpsons 20th was on last night. Watching that show I got a great appreciation for that show. I always knew The Simpsons was great (since its the title of a show does it count as a plural? I'll let you English majors figure that out) but I was really just inspired by the whole ordeal. Cheers to 20 years guys. Can't wait for Futurama to hit 20 (oh it's coming back. Didn't you hear?)

In SUTBComic news, I'm realizing through past experience that my comics suffer when I try to do more than one project at a time. So in a few weeks I'm going to move Singularity to the SUTBComic main page and officially end Super Drama after three chapters and 48 comics. Now the 24 Hour challenge will still stand because I want to make a sorta tradition on this website and Super Drama may end up being in some of those 24 hour challenges, but it's run as a regularly updating comic is no more. Thanks Super Drama for the memories and I hope Singularity proves to be a successful as you were.

Episode #18- Blown Cover

Damnit. I got yesterday up early and then today I didn't get the comic up until 7pm. Thankfully it's the weekend now and I hopefully will have a chance to build up a little buffer heading into next week. Today's comic is nothing but flat gradients. Still trying to see what looks best around here before settling on one format for the rest of the series.

Sorry about the late posting but I just couldn't get in a good groove. Also keep an eye out, Singularity may be moving to the main SUTBComic page in the very near future. (Like maybe before my first 24 Hour Challenge) so if you've bookmarked Singularity you'll have to change it. Sorry. If you haven't bookmarked it yet, you can get the jump on everyone and just bookmark SUTBComic.com and in a week or so you'll be getting fresh Singularity updates with every click (assuming the clicks are on different weekdays). Have a good weekend see y'all next Monday!

Episode #17- Sparknote Thieves

Awesome got the comic up a little early today! And since I've finished the comic early enough where I'm not dying of sleep deprivation I think I can rant a little bit.

I just checked the weather for Denton. It is goin to be NINE on Friday. Not ninety something. Just nine. That will be the first day in my life I've had to suffer through single digit temperatures. And it's not even going to have the decency to snow and be cold. It's just going to be balls cold. And for any Northerners who read this comic and are mentally telling me to man up keep in mind that I've lived in Texas for the majority of my life. I don't do cold weather. The end.

Why does Jimmy look so shocked? Obviously you know something the bald guy doesn't right?

Episode #16- Da Boss

4am...well I'm getting closer to that 12am sweet spot. Jeez, this page took longer than expected. Sorry there isn't going to be much of a newspost. On either Singularity OR SUTBComics. I am sleepy. There's your news. Haha, see you cats tomorrow.

Episode #15- Pier 7

Bah, second day of the New Year and I already endanger my New Year's Resolution (no missed updates). I'm going to work to extend that Resolution for no late updates as well. Long story short shenanigans occured last night. But hey I've come to expect this when I hang out with my friends. But no more excuses. Sorry about being late. I sincerely hope it won't happen again.

Comic analysis time! I have three different styles I could do this comic in and I'm still unsure which I wanna do. I can have the shadowing like on the cover page. The pattern base colors as seen here and the shadowing plus hand inked shadows sorta like how Marvel does. I don't want to switch back and forth between them during the story because it could be distracting but I may play with it this week so I decide what to do for the rest of the year. Let's see what James Carson will do.

Episode #14- Hanging Up The Cape

And here we are at the beginning of the Singularity era and you FINALLY get to see what Singularity looks like. Truth be told I didn't want to display him yet until I got him looking exactly like I wanted. He was originally going to look just like Fallout but in black and blue instead of grey and green but I wanted him to have visible facial expression which is impossible with Fallout's get-up. You can't see his eyes or mouth y'see.

The mask was an accident actually. While penciling him in before inking I drew the mask on preparing to put on a cowl but the mask worked better. Well you get a cover page today. The story begins tomorrow! See ya then!

Episode #13- The Crown

Techinically Regent didn't exist in the first draft of Fallout either, though this design is about the same as what Fallout's alter ego would look like. Out of the characters in the comic I would have to say Regent is the most like me. All the characters have bits of me in them though, it's not like one character is a pure caricature of me and et cetera. Oh and Regent is also a name pun. His whole family runs that vein too. His dad's name is Richard (after the Lionheart), mother is Minerva (goddess) brother Raymond (play on Rey, spanish for king) and sister Regina (latin for queen) I was annoyed at first that I couldn't figure out a R name for Minerva but I guess it's weird enough they all have royalty based names. I love name puns guys. Anyone catch Brigadier Battery's from his real name?

Now those characters are done, the Singularity series starts Monday and I can begin working on building the Singularity rouge's gallery. This is gonna be fun!

Episode #12- Talent Scout

Ah finally a character that existed before last Friday! Iris is the only character from the story that is from the original Fallout plans. Even the comic that I posted at the beginning of Chapter 0 was actually the second draft of the Fallout story. Originally Iris's name was Sasha Lewis but I changed it in favor of the name Iris Corneal. Why? Because it's a name pun! Don't get it? The iris and the cornea are both parts of the eye.(And her initals can be mixed to read I C U) I really like name puns. The name also made sense because in the first draft she was going to be a supervillianess named Visionary. But instead she's now just a humble talent scout for UmbraTech (the same company Brigadier Battery works for?!)

As far as her character, this design was inspired by Goombella from Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door and her personality has elements of Natasha from Super Paper Mario. While sometimes her actions may seem aggressive it's important to remember she's not the boss of UmbraTech though I dunno how much of her boss we will see.

Episode #11-Calling The Shots

Lysander Wallace is another one of our main characters. Like Brigadier Battery he didn't exist in the original Fallout story but when the Singularity story started forming he was thought up slightly before the Brigadier. However his role in the comic wasn't clear until a little later.

As far as his design he's based off of sly/manipulative characters from two manga I read (Niijama from History's Strongest Disiciple and Hiruma from Eyeshield 21). However, I decided he shouldn't be evil per se but more business oriented. However, I realized this after I had already drew him and (I will admit it) I was too lazy to draw another Lysander. Hey. Sue me. (Dear God please don't I have no money! I swear!)

If you are a little bored with the characters sorry. But Fallout wasn't even supposed to launch until the 27th and it was most likely going to launch with just the prolouge (like the Chapter 0 cover page would have been the first comic on the 27th) so think of this chapter as a little bonus to get you hungry for the main course which is the Singularity debut on December 28 (Mon-Fri now remember)

Episode #10- The Old Legacy

This here comic is a comic of a couple of firsts. First off, this is the first comic to be solely about Singularity. So wave bye-bye to Fallout (he will be missed). Second this is the first non prolouge comic so wave bye bye to the prolouge as well. This is also the beginning of regular updates. Well at least it should be.

I may or may not be going home to Plano this upcoming Wednesday and I would stay through Monday (dental appointment) so everything from December 23-28 is up in the air. But since I have drawn the require pages to get me through this week I'm not too worried about this week. Monday may or may not be late. We'll see.

Say hello to Brigadier Battery. He wasn't in any of the plans for Fallout or Singularity. In fact, he didn't exist until Friday night and yet he somehow has become integral to the story of...no I guess the sentence would just end "to the story"

Episode #9-Introspection

And that's the last page of Chapter 0's look to the history of Fallout. Next we'll have some bio pages. Again this is all just biding time for Fallout Day on December 27th when The Man Called Fallout makes it's debut.

This page is unshaded because I kept trying to finish it and didn't have the time so rather than miss an update I just posted this page as it was. But then I ended up not doing Fallout anymore. Funny how things work out eh?

Episode #8- Endgame

2nd Fallout power revealed: Fallout blasts. I don't remember exactly what they were made of but they blow shit up. Like DBZ energy beams.

Oh and if you thought Fallout was about to have a character reversal there in the bottom left panel, you were mistaken

Episode #7- Vanishing Act

In killing the green guy I was trying to establish one thing: Fallout is a dick.

Yeah, the red guy was alot more evil than the green dude and in all fairness Greenie was going to surrender, leave go home to his wife and kids and never do bad again.

But Fallout killed him. Why? Because it would leave a bigger impact on the Red Guy? Who knows why this incarnation of Fallout did anything. But one this was to be clear. This Fallout is an asshole

Episode #6- Up and At 'Em

I sorta got the pastels closer to what they were in this one and I also added a little bit of inked shadows! Woo.



Oh and by the way, this page is where Singularity gets its name from. I was pretty sick of people asking if Fallout had anything to do with the Xbox game and when I found out Fallout was the name of a minor Flash villian I threw in the towel. New name.

Also dear physics majors, if at any time Fallout/Singularity's powers seem unreal to you, just repeat the following sentence, "It's just a webcomic. I should really just relax..." Feel better?

Episode #5-Time Crisis

I sorta got the pastels closer to what they were in this one and I also added a little bit of inked shadows! Woo.



It's fun looking back on these old comics, they really give me a good idea of what I'm trying to do with Singularity, and I hope you're enjoying them as a little preview for what's going to happen, well what Singularity is like.

Episode #4- First Strike

There was a bit of a hiatus between these two pages during my first run. You can tell because I seem to have forgotten how exactly to achieve that smooth pastel look.

This also marks the first comic in my drawing history where I used a SFX.

Episode #3- The Avenger

When I was doing Fallout I was also doing another comic called Set Up The Bomb, the name sake of this website, and I was trying to find a way to make this comic darker and edgier compared to the light hearted nature of SUTB and I found using the oil pastel too gave it a little grittier of a look. And as a result I was happy. This page is maybe the most successful I was at capturing this look and will be seen again when Singularity officially start

Episode #2- Is That A Fact

If you read Super Drama's Fallout Preview then these two characters will look strangely familiar. In fact, they probably look familiar without the prior SD knowledge. So these Fallout previews/flashbacks will update daily on Monday-Friday and then the actual series will update daily Sunday to Sunday

Episode #1- The Man Called Fallout

And here's where the Singularity Saga all started. Back in 2008 (holy shit long time ago right?) I resurrected the story of an old superhero I used to draw called Captain LaserMan. Right off the bat you'll notice that Fallout's original colors were black and green (Captain LaserMan was purple and gold) and even though you don't know what Singularity looks like these are his humble beginnings.

A Thought On Webcomics

I haven't taken too many business courses in college yet but I'm pretty sure pissing off your customers is always a bad idea. So here I go committing webcomic suicide in a few short sentences. BUT if you read the whole thing and not just base your thoughts off the following quote then maybe we'll be fine. But this is the internet and you only read the first two lines of anything so whatever here we go.

"Least I Could Do" is the simultaneously the best and worst webcomic I read.

Maybe the conflicting adjectives there will keep you a little longer. But yeah. I just called out one of the biggest webcomics on the net. Me, Eric W. Merritt writer of a comic series still in its infancy. By no means do I hate LICD but I guess since I've started reading TV Tropes and have been looking at webcomics in a different way in the hopes to make my comic better I've noticed stuff. Yeah, stuff. I'll be more detailed later. If you're even still reading and not just scanning.

The first red flag with LICD came up a year or so ago when Rayne was at a comic convention and he meets webcomic artists. Sohmer spends a week or so of Rayne just brutally putting down the guys and eventually summing up the whole thing with one quote "Webcomics suck." While the forums found the series a sort of funny self-depreciation I could only think one thing.

"What an asshole"

But I mean doesn't he deserve it? Not to be called and asshole but to have that attitude. In retrospect I think it showed how us new webcomic artists how we just jump in the genre and jump out without really considering our readers. (Referring to the strip where he calls out a webcomic artist about missing updates). So much has Sohmer been on the ball about hitting that midnight mark on the dot that one day he was an hour or so late and I was annoyed. I talked to my brother about it and I found it silly. I, someone who ritualistically (working on it. Sorry) gets his comic up seven hours late, was annoyed that Sohmer the guy who's made it in this field was maybe 90 minutes late. But he's made the webcomic profession...well professional and that's the standard I hold him to. And I guess that's the standard I one day want to hold myself to and should expect my readers to.

I guess long story short Sohmer is an asshole for his condescending attitude towards new webcomics but he's also sorta earned the right to have that attitude since he made it. And to us to new webcomickers, I say it's a sort of a challenge. He can only rip on you if you're doing something wrong. If I miss an update, I leave that opening to be attacked. If my characters are all drawn the exact same way or have the same attitude or the story on whole is overdone or unbelievable I leave that opening.

So I guess thanks and fuck yous are in order. Oh and while I would love all the added press from being personally chewed out by Sohmer (big ego I know) don't go running around posting this without reading the whole thing first okay?

And I think that's enough webcomic suicide for one night

UNT, Until Next Time
Eric W. Merritt

The NBC Situation

Man I really want to vent about the bullshit that's going on at NBC. But how? If only there was a way I could write a post somewhere and people from miles and miles away from me could view it. I suppose if I had enough posterboard and a large enough marker I could maybe post something from my apartment.

Eh until I figure that out I guess I'll just use this blog.

Okay first thing is first. I am without a doubt Team Conan. I will be honest, I didn't watch the Tonight Show under Jay Leno and I don't think I was alive when Carson ran it (or if I was I was a little baby). But from Conan's first show with President Obama I was hooked. I used to only watched cartoons (School Rumble, Samurai Jack...Cow and Chicken and really any of the Cartoon Cartoons) and sports. That was it with me and TV. I didn't get into sitcoms or TV Dramas. I guess part of that could have been my raising. When I was little (seven or eight) me and my mom would watch Price is Right and Jeopardy together after which soap operas came on and my mom would make agonizing sounds and declare we were bad people if we watched Soaps.

So The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was the first show to really break me out of that routine of cartoons and game shows. He was funny and dynamic and I jumped on the train quick. My dad said CoCo wasn't all that and Jay Leno was better. I scoffed.

I had no idea I would get to see them side by side. Leno had retired right? So why was he on at Conan's time slot? I had missed a week or so of the Tonight Show thanks to being buried with school matters and turned the TV on to watch Conan only to see Big Chin was on. I was confused and annoyed but I sat and watched anyway. Leno had a good open sketch.

That was it.

Sure headlines is good for a chuckle every now and again but he's too dry and at times inaudible for my tastes.

So what's the main reason I dislike Leno? The same reason I hate Brett Favre. No not that they're both playing the Cowboys this week. I hate when someone retires, let's an organization prepare its future and then tries to pull a mulligan throwing a cog in the whole works. Damnit if you retire, stay retired. Or at least don't screw the people who built you up and who you raised to take your place in the process.

I know it probably won't matter much in the long run but I am boycotting the SHIT out of NBC after Conan leaves. According to NFL.com the next time the Super Bowl shows on NBC will be 2012. I guess I don't have to watch NBC for almost two years.

As for Conan, I hope he stays somewhere with basic cable (FOX, CBS, ABC would be nice) so I can keep watching him on my little TV in my college apartment.

UNT, Until Next Time
Eric Merritt

Hello Everbody!

I noticed that all the webcomic artists I follow use Blogspot and not Wordpress. So I guess I'll follow like the sheep I am.

That admission was a lot worse on paper (screen?) than it sounded in my head.

So long story short let's do some intros...you first.

Mhm? That's interesting...oh y'don't say?

Okay if you're done talking to the screen like a crazy person...My name is Eric Merritt and I'm the one man machine behind Set Up The Bomb Comics (http://sutbcomic.com). Right now my main comic is Singularity, a superhero comic. I also do 24 Hour Challenges on the 24th of every month and draw a Sketchy Situation, a little doodle comic to get the juices flowing before I start drawing Singularity.

In non Webcomic news, I am a classic gamer (I own a NES and still play it to this day) and a Accounting major Sophomore at the University of North Texas. (Accountant and webcomic artist?) Uhm. That's all the intro I have for right now. You should probably just follow me and you'll catch on soon enough.