Comics by Reinder: 35th anniversary year

In the future

The 35th anniversary project for Rogues of Clwyd-Rhan is under way. I’ve been cleaning up pages for the missing story “King Groy” (1996/7) and adding new lettering.

I do wonder sometimes about the state of mind I was in at the time I first drew this, because so much of it is unbearably sloppy. I keep finding that simply removing stray lines, making the remaining lines connect a little better and paying attention to overlaps results in a much calmer-looking page already and that that presents the art, even art with deeper structural problems, in a much better light.

Most of the chapters in the archives (Si apre in una nuova finestra) now have the year they were made listed behind the titles. This is because the stories were not made in chronological order: for example, Headsmen (Si apre in una nuova finestra) is set in the early days of the comic’s timeline but was made in 2006, long after the stories immediately before it.

Clarifying that is not my only reason to add those dates, though: in the age of AI slop, it’s become more important to track and share the provenance of art published online. The dates, I hope, help assure people that all of the art was made by a human, most of it long before LLMs were even a thing.

Last Wednesday

The 116th Greyfriar’s Isle comic “The prodigal road crew” is now available for paid subscribers on Planet Nude:

Before that

The 115th Greyfriar’s Isle comic, “Casual therapy progressing well” has become available on Planet Nude for everyone, subscriber or not.

Items of interest

Desire to Pop (Si apre in una nuova finestra), tante, Smashing Frames

Given enough abstraction every monstrosity becomes just a kind of mental gymnastics. This is the domain of devil’s advocates kind of people form whom the real often political meaning of certain statements or movements has become fully replaced by a game of debate. Who cares about the position, let’s win!

I keep thinking about abstractions when looking at the state of the current “AI” bubble and with it the state of a lot of the global economy.

In censorship: Dutch writer Rutger Bregman did a Reith lecture, which was broadcast on the BBC with one line removed, apparently in response to US president Trump’s threats of a billion dollar lawsuit against the BBC, but more likely in willing compliance from the BBC’s management. Now BBC reporters aren’t allowed to tell the public which line was cut (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (Michael Savage, The Guardian). The line is “[Trump is] the most openly corrupt president in American history”. Bregman comments (quoted in the article):

If BBC journalists are not allowed to mention a sentence in a story about censorship, then the problem is far bigger than one line in my lecture,” he said. “That is precisely the dynamic my first Reith lecture describes: institutions censoring themselves out of fear of those in power.

Positive tech news now: is it about solar? Of course it is about solar:

Acquiring solar panels at home can be an expensive hassle for people in the US. But small, simple, plug-in solar panels for use on balconies are soon to become available for millions of Americans, with advocates hoping the technology will quickly go mainstream.

Earlier this year, Utah (Si apre in una nuova finestra) became the first state in the country to pass legislation allowing people to purchase and install small, portable solar panels that plug into a standard wall socket. (Oliver Milman, The Guardian (Si apre in una nuova finestra))

It’s worth noting that the first state to pass this legislation was deep-red Utah and the individual legislator driving this is a Republican. It’s nice to know that not all of them are in the tank for the fossil fuel industry.

And now, other people’s comics

Finally, I want to highlight an old favorite webcomic of mine, Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic (Si apre in una nuova finestra). This classic RPG-based comic was started long before the ongoing Dungeons and Dragons revival and initially updated daily or close to it, with deceptively loose pencil art, a massive cast of characters and really good jokes and characterization. In recent years, it’s slowed down, but I went to check earlier this week and it had updated a little bit. Sadly, writer artist Rich writes (Si apre in una nuova finestra) (back in August):

So, the hunt for a job continues, as AI and some other factors have all but paralyzed the animation industry I am, still, unemployed. The economy and other factors have made finding OTHER work just as difficult. Add to that the fact that as someone with 30+years experience doing storyboards and character design, I’m not really qualified for a lot of would-be jobs anyway.

And a few days before that (Si apre in una nuova finestra):

I’m spending a lot of time watching job postings. And I’ve given up just applying to art related jobs. See, AI (and a few other factors) has the animation industry in a tizzy and a whole  lot of us are just not working anymore. They’ve discovered that it’s a HELL of a lot cheaper to do AI scripts, storyboards, designs, animations, and even voices. What do they need us expensive, unreliable human beings for anymore? So… I spent a year working as a cashier, and now I’m unemployed, looking at pretty much anything. If you’ve got a lead, let me know.

So much for the idea that AI-generated "art” only weeds out the weak in the arts field. Rich is talented and skilled as hell! And YAFGC is a great comic to binge-read from the very first one. It starts out good and only gets better!

Earlier still

This newsletter’s blast from the past is Can I have some more ham? (Si apre in una nuova finestra)

And the full page:

See you in two weeks! This newsletter is hosted on Steady (Si apre in una nuova finestra), an EU-based blogging and newsletter platform that isn’t trying to be an everything app. I’ve been on it for a while and it’s been a great for me!

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