Comics by Reinder: Tapestry

Monday

The latest Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan comic is a special one: Tapestry (Opens in a new window)

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Aggie Janicot drew a couple of dozen pages for me in 2008 through 2010. I’ve since redrawn all of them, though many of those still use Aggie’s layout and many of her ideas and shapes. This is the only one that I’m keeping in its original form because… the Bayeux Tapestry-inspired style still makes me smile.

Earlier

The Greyfriar’s Isle comic that went live for paying subscribers on Planet Nude last week is now available for everyone to read:

Experimental drawing stuff goes here, hopefully it’s more than last week. Nope, it’s less. Sorry everyone, I’ve been sick. Actually, I’ve been sick for over two weeks, which is why those Procreate brush tests have been coming in in drips and drabs and tend to be very simple drawings, just good enough to evaluate the brushes. Not too sick to do the day job, but everything outside that has been suffering, including regular comic work and correspondence with people who contribute to my comics. Just don’t have the energy. But I’m still doing the brush tests and I’m taking extensive notes on another app that I’m also trying out.

Items of Interest

I would like to stop writing about running a newsletter in this newsletter, because everyone else who runs a newletter writes about running a newsletter in their newsletters and it’s really boring. But I would like to hear from you about something. A writer who recently moved their (sigh) newsletter from (sigh) Substack to Beehiiv reported that they were getting a large number of unsubscriptions, because with the move, more of her newsletters actually got delivered, and this annoyed people who wanted to interact with the newsletter on the Substack app, or maybe on the web, instead of in their mailbox? Is this a thing? I dislike using phone apps personally and find the confusion and clutter of browsing the web too much to handle at times. Of course mailboxes have their own downsides and can get cluttered up too. Am I missing out on something by not considering that people might want to use apps instead? Am I just weird? Don’t answer that last one.

Creators of This Police Location Tracking Tool Aren't Vetting Buyers. Here's How To Protect Yourself (Opens in a new window) - Bill Budington at the EFF has some tips for keeping your phone secure. The most intriguing one to me is to limit the number of apps on your phone. I said above that I don’t like apps, but that only applies to content consumption. I like using apps to make things from time to time, especially synthesizer and drum machine apps. On the other hand, there are quite a few there that I haven’t used in a while and should probably clean up. On the third hand, I’m gearing up for February Album Writing Month, and it’s likely that my project this year will be all electronic, which suggests I should keep the synths.

You did no fact checking, and I must scream (Opens in a new window) - Terence Eden. A pretty good guide to using tools and common sense to determine if a story is true, exemplified by dissecting some glurge about the actor Patricia Routledge:

Recently, the beloved actor Patricia Routledge died. Several newspapers reposted a piece of viral slop which I had debunked a month previously (Opens in a new window). Let's go through the piece and see just how easy it is to prove false.

Here's that "viral" story. I've kept to the parts which contain easily verifiable / falsifiable claims.

Too Small to Mess With (Opens in a new window) - Against the precipitous backdrop of funding cuts to public media, low-power radio emerges as a lesser-known source of inspiration. I think this describes the average webcomic as well.

Ed Zitron has posted another long overvew of the terrible state of Generative AI (Opens in a new window) to read at your leisure. The gist of it is Gen AI sucks, doesn’t work, and can’t work, but still has destructive effects. Or at least, I guess it is - I’ve only started reading it. Sometimes I post these links as reminders to myself as much as anything else. And I agree: Gen AI sucks, doesn’t work, can’t work, but still has destructive effects. Now if only it wasn’t single-handedly propping up the US economy, and the world economy with it.

Which reminds me, I saw this post on an investor’s website (not linked) claiming that generative AI was keeping the US out of recession by “offering productivity improvements”. Don’t fall for it! Generative AI is keeping the US, and with it the world, out of recession, but not by improving productivity, but because about five giant companies keep pumping money into it, and into each other.

Earlier still

Today’s blast from the past is What, Matins already? (Opens in a new window), colored by Aggie Janicot:

And the full page:

Honestly, this represents another moment when things were stalling out, this time with the redraw attempt back in 2019; this was the last page posted to ComicFury before the batch of 48 that I put out in 2024 and this year. So it goes…

See you in a week!