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Recently Posted On IO9:

My favorite clip - wherever it originates - is the shot of the astronaut climbing hand over hand along the rungs of the ISS. The Earth sits below in azure repose, like a proud parent watching its children's first steps.

And I think - Yes. The first progeny capable of leaving the womb do so. Slowly.

And then I think - how wonderful that creation could even allow an animal the power and imagination to reshape simple elements around itself to move into regions where life simply should not be.

And I realize - How lucky am I that I am one of these upstart mammals. Climbing over the crib railing to see the world beyond although my hands and my body were never designed to do so.

Such beautiful and romantic heresy. The apostate humans violating the sitting room of God for the mere sake of curiosity. And maybe - just maybe - a chance to say hello.

The Geek In Popular Entertainment

Geeks in pop culture have raised my ire for decades. The worst offender may be The Big Bang Theory with their portrayal of geeks as metrosexuals. Even Better Off Ted (which I adore) was guilty of this transgression. The best nerds in pop culture for veracity and cinema verity are Roy and Moss of The IT Crowd (BBC). I know these guys. I gamed with them every weekend for nearly ten years. I think one of them is my roommate right now.

What I have to stress is that geeks are not necessarily geeks because of their inner drive or even by their own design. Geeks are often geeks because the world won't let them wear the label 'normal'. Indeed every geek I knew growing up (myself included) saw the 'norms' as the deviants. Watching Star Trek and reading Larry Niven between spirited bouts of D&D was normal. I mean what sane person WOULDN'T love doing those things?

It is important that geeks in narrative works feel themselves to be centered. Their interests are deadly serious to them and more than not, more well reasoned than the pursuits and interests of their mainstream friends. If you portray a geek as being an outsider by their own design, you run the risk of making all geeks tragic and placing unintentional distance between your reader and your geek protagonist. After all, we are all in some way geeks. We all have some special fancy that sets us apart from the normative human (unless we really are ordinary, in which case we have little to offer as a writer).

The best way to present your geek to your reader is to find the root of your own enthusiasm - your interests - and try to place that framework around the things that your geek thinks, feels and does. It is important that they all make sense to your geek and the reader. If you fail in either task, your geek is a prop and not a human being.

And above all else, don't make your geeks metrosexual. There are plenty of ways to make your imaginary nerd standoffish from the opposite sex without making them butch or swishy. This is just desperation for those of us crippled by overwhelming social grace and sex appeal.

What's A Dollar Worth To You?

A Request Of Help From You - The Reader

No, Vexxarr isn't going away. It will continue unabated - despite your constant pleas.

No, Vexxarr isn't going to become a pay website or an ad supported site. It will remain free exactly as it has for the past five years.

What is going to happen is I plan to start providing premium content for anyone willing to part with one US dollar a month and hand that dollar to me. What exactly that dollar will provide depends on you. What do you want? What would you like to see? What is your dollar worth?

I know what you are thinking: and you need to stop. You kiss your mother with those neurons?

But I know what else you are thinking too: once Hunter starts this premium thingy, the free part of Vexxarr will become less interesting as he spends more and more time on the paid content of the website.

Well first of all, long time readers will know it simply isn't possible to spend less time on this site. Also, if this scheme actually works, I'll have more time to spend on both the paid and free content I'm creating.

Look, I'm not trying to get money from you guys so I can buy a Playstation 3. If I wanted one, I'd sue George Hotz.

No, what I'm after is a reason to turn down more freelance work so I can do more of this comic and eventually publish my books.

So here is what I ask:

1- Sit down and think about something I can create that is worth at least one US dollar a month.

2- Send me an email. If there is a consensus or if there are a number of good ideas, I'll do as many of these things as possible and make them available to a paid Vexxarr Illuminati.

For the rest of you who are either too stingy or too wise to send me your cash dollars, I will eventually release that content either in print or on YouTube or whatnot but at a reduced quality and at a distant point in the future. What you get for your money is access to this content now and at the original resolution where technology and common sense permit. So sit down, think how I could convince you to part with a crisp, one dollar bill every month and send me your best ideas. Likely, I'll announce a fan club and a list of benefits membership will provide for those who join.

And don't say take off your clothes on Youtube.

That will cost you two dollars.

H

4WD is for those who CAN'T drive in snow

My 2003 Celica GTS couldn't handle the ice and snow due to its nose weight and length. So I unmothballed my 1991 Honda Civic si hatch back and remembered why I bought this car to begin with. I've driven this car cross country, through the high dessert of Lancaster, in LA traffic, over earthquake damaged Northridge and through the after game riots by the then Great Western Forum.

Conventional wisdom states that you can't make iced over steep hills in front wheel drive on street tires. The secret - for any grade - is weaving slowly back and forth with the wheels chewing feverishly in 2nd gear. It takes a bit of time, but slow and steady wins the race. I was climbing hills and turning banks that had honest all wheel drive monster ATVs sliding and ditched. The secret is that the vehicle weighs a scant 2,286 lbs distributed fairly evenly front to back (in spite of the modest 1.6L 4-cylinder in the nose). It's a roller skate. It handles on ice like a motorboat.

Now I'm no snow driver so I fell back on my XboX training. If you are familiar with trying to exit a map by sliding up the side of an "impassable" hill until the game begrudgingly lifts you up and over the clipping plane, you understand the forces at play here. I resisted the urge to perform a rocket jump.

FAN MAIL

I would like to thank all of you who have written what must be the most moving letters of appreciation I have ever received. I am going to simply lay the cards on the table and admit that I have been at somewhat of a crossroads with the comic. I know where I want the strip to go but not exactly how to get there. Have no fear, Vexxarr the comic is not going to end. Vexxarr the character will be back. But thank you for the outpouring of support.

It means the world to me.

Simply put, I have been plotting in the literary sense of the word. I will be returning to the story in progress soon. How soon? Don't make any plans for Christmas.

Well MAKE PLANS but tell Mom, Dad and Uncle Redmond that you have a lot of reading to do. Oh, and two or three strips of Vexxarr to catch up on.

Plan on some twists.

WHY I'VE BEEN LATE

Wheelhouse Set

Behold the Wheelhouse Set of the GREAT UNNAMED STEAMPUNK MOVIE

More information as sanity warrants .

A better look at the guy in the suit
And my goggles were foggy!

Steam Mech via Drunk Cam
Steam Mech through Beer Goggles...

Steam Mech - Goggles On!
Steam Mech Through MY Goggles!

The Shoot Forest of pencils
pencil ladder pencil pier
reverse rencil pier those responsible

Pencil Madness

Here are the photos I posted the other day in my desperate attempts to distract you from my comic lapse.

Me and my foam core

Two giant sized pencils 9' and 7'

The 9 footer and the producer (5 footer and change)

My lot (literally)

Pencil of Damocles

Of Blogs and Blogs...

In case you don't yet know. I'm typing this missive into the site directly. I don't yet have a new blog. The reason I discontinued my association with Blogger is - apart from them requiring two separate e-mail address to even have a Blogger account - they discontinued FTP blog updates. That would mean I would need to link you to another page to even post a blog or use the dreaded frames function in HTML.

So there you are. Here is what stands in for a blog until such time as someone can point me at a free FTP blog solution that I can use as 'include' content under php or points me at an open source blog code solution.

I hope this doesn't effect your normal reading habits and I promise that as soon as I have an archivable blog that doesn't pull readers off of my site, I'll be back in the pontification business.

I know...joy.