I spent the better part of the day today upgrading the site to ComicPress 2.5. It looks like everything’s functioning, which is good. There were a few moments there where I thought I might start Hulking out. Did I mention I’m bad at computery things?

While everything appears to be functional there are a bunch of stylistic things that I need to tinker with. I liked the red links and the grey backgrounds so I’ll have to figure out how to get those back. Most importantly, though, if you notice something that isn’t working, please let me know. Email jeff@rentathugcomics.com and I’ll try to figure out how to fix it (okay, I’ll probably fail, give up, then findout from the ComicPress support forums that it was something really, really simple).

Anyway, tomorrow will be the real test when I try to post the next comic. See you then!

There isn’t really much more to it than what the title says. I added a new drawing to the Illustration section called Space Grunts – Calm Before the Storm. You should go check it out.

After having it on my to-do list for months, I’ve finally gotten around to creating a Facebook page for Rent-A-Thug.

Rent-A-Thug on Facebook

For those unfamiliar with the system, you basically become a “fan” by adding yourself to the list, at which point you can post on the wall and on the discussion boards to talk with other Rent-A-Thug fans. And, y’know, me. Fun! So yeah, check it out and spread the word.

Yesterday was Free Comic Book Day, where I was a guest artist at Happy Harbor Comics Volume 2. The artist roster was beefed up quite a bit on Friday, apparently, since Dan Schneider and I were joined by Tammy Lee and Ken… who also has a last name, but I don’t know what it is. We did custom sketches in return for donations to the Food Bank. Included in my sketch output for the day were Halo’s Master Chief, the Predator, Brian and Stewie from Family Guy, Optimus Prime, Scarlet Spider, and a bunch of other stuff that I don’t quite remember. One of the advantages of working next to Dan was that I tended to avoid getting swamped because his portfolio is ridiculously impressive. Which is good because I kept getting requests for things that take a long-ass time to draw. Later in the day as things died down I also had time to pencil a Rent-A-Thug strip, which was a nice change of pace from sketches that almost invariably required reference.

Last Thursday I teamed up with Jay Bardyla of Happy Harbor Comics and Dan Scheider to give a presentation to about 40 junior high students about comics as a medium. Jay talked about the process of making comics, starting with the writer creating a rough storyline all the way to the last brushstroke of the colourist. Dan and I drew comic pages based on characters that were requested by the students. Jay had told us to have a mental bank of superheroes and manga/anime characters prepared, which was quickly derailed when the requests were Sephiroth and Master Chief. Dan hates drawing technical stuff so I took Chief. I then proceeded to draw a ridiculously inaccurate rendition of Chief blasting an even more inaccurate rendition of a Covenant Grunt. That looked kind of like a Koopa Troopa, come to think of it. It was a lot of fun and a bunch of the students came out to FCBD as well, so Jay’s indoctrination plans seem to be working at full capacity.

The online store is giving me crap. The buttons inexplicably don’t go to the pages where they’re supposed to go, despite the code being generated by PayPal for that explicit purpose. Brain ‘splosion may be imminent.

Rent-A-Thug: First Offence is finally here! The first Rent-A-Thug comic book arrived today and will go on sale tomorrow at the Edmonton Collectible Toy and Comic Show.

The book is 36 pages of Rent-A-Thug misadventures in glorious black and white. First Offence features four short stories, two of which are exclusive to the print comic! Stop by the Toy and Comic Show to pick up your copy for only $5!

Buy the book, love the book, possibly make love to the book. Here’s a peek at the cover.