Epic FailThis week in Epic Fail: Amuletts tries to get Dirk to participate in the sexy kind of Fantasy Role Play. He runs away.
Creator’s Commentary: I wasn’t at all sure whether to be this blatant, but luckily this is a comic on the internet and I know that in comparison to a lot of the stuff out there this is pretty tame.
Some of you will be pleased to hear that this is the end of the ‘Shopping’ storyline. It was fun, and I could go on, but I think I’ve said what’s necessary.
This week in Epic Fail: The Shopkeeper explains that he gave the Orbs to Amuletts, as a gift because of her Title. Dirk feels extremely guilty, believing his actions unpaladinic.
Creator’s Commentary: I’m still inking with a brush-pen, so the line-work is broader and I’ve generally reduced the gap between panels. Plot-wise you get a couple of pay-offs.
Amuletts’ final line in this page was based on one said by Sibella in Kind Hearts and Coronets, only she says ‘I like it when you behave like a cad.’ I love that Movie, and anything by Ealing Studios really. Now I have a hankering to watch it again.
This week in Epic Fail: Whilst Dirk and Amuletts are arguing, Bleef takes a closer look at Andy Roid.
Creator’s Commentary: I drew this one first then scripted it. It was pretty plain the script wasn’t going to come on its own so I had to try something! Then I spent a lot of the time simply grappling with the problem of fitting characters of very different heights into the same panel.
I got most of Andy Roid’s dialogue from ALICE the artificial intellegence. I go and chat with it just for the LOLZ sometimes. Oh and I spent about 2 hours searching for the ‘Add Electric City’ font I use for Andy to give him his nice mechanical voice. I’m sure no one would have noticed if I’d used a different one, but, basically, I had a bee in my bonnet about it.
Incidentally I was given a brush pen and this is the first comic I have used it on – do you think it makes a difference?
I’m planning on getting some button badges made up to bring to Conventions; I’ll also be selling them in packs of 4 via my online store. It’d really help me out if you could tell me your favorites. Look at the pictures below and vote for the four you like best. The ones that get the most votes will be the ones that get made up – simple as that.
If you want a badge design that isn’t there or want to suggest other cool Epic Fail products please tell me in the comments below.
Dungeons & Dragons is a piece of cake so long as the Dragon you’re slaying is made out of cake then an ordinary kitchen knife will do the job!
But, seriously, when Mike’s Amazing Cakes created this Birthday Cake of a Red Dragon clutching a D20 they created a work of art. And that’s a battle map it’s sitting on, by Jove! Y’know I think if someone brought this to one of our gaming sessions we’d have to do a special dungeon-run versus an Ancient Red. There you go guys, if you’re getting fed up* with the current campaign and fancy a big challenge to gain heaps of XP and go up that next level – you know what to do!
You can find more pictures of this beautiful monstrosity on FLICKR including it’s death and devourment. But this is not the only D&D themed cake made for, and in some cases by, rabid fans. Oh dear me, no. You might even say the best is yet to come!
This week in Epic Fail: Amuletts’ tries to avoid the accusation of theft by calling it something different. Strangely enough this tactic doesn’t work on the Paladin. He gets her in a wrist-lock, forcing her to drop the second Orb and demands to know what else she stole. She admits to stealing a necklace that she is hiding in her… *ahem*
Creator’s Commentary: I hope you appreciate the backgrounds, they took me ages this time. It would be much easier if I just used a block of colour or something.
For some reason I kept misspelling ‘else’ as ‘elf.’
This week in Epic Fail: One of the Orbs which Amuletts has been hiding under her top falls out and lands at Dirk’s feet. He pulls her up by the hair and demands to know if it is stolen property.
Creator’s Commentary: Triple pun in the title of this one! Busted – get is? As in slang for caught out/in trouble, as well as broken and boobs (i.e. big-busted). Triple-whammed!! I’m quite proud of that.
If you can’t figure out where she got the Orbs from I shall think you a simpleton..
When they first appeared I had no inkling that this would happen, they were just there and it was perfectly natural that Amuletts should take them and perfectly obvious where she would hide them. I conceived several scenarios whereby Dirk would (or wouldn’t) find out, including them being Orbs of Audibility which suddenly start ‘talking’.
Frame 5 is very similar to how my Parents discipline the dogs when they have been naughty: grabbing them by the scruff of the neck (or hair in the case of Amuletts) and dragging them over to be shown what they have done.
This week in Epic Fail: Amuletts and Bleef discuss the many uses of the Swiss Army knife – I mean Andy! – then more on to Climate Change – GAH! I mean MIPI!
Creator’s Commentary: I can neither confirm or deny whether Magically Induced Planar Instability exists, it’s just a theory that exists in that universe, as Climate Change in ours. You can make up your own minds as to the truth of both, or neither.
I know a few people have been anticipating the explaination of Amuletts’ sudden… assets. I wonder how many people are scratching their heads in confusion and how many are going ‘Ohhhh! Of course!’ I can’t tell you quite how unexpected the last panel was. Originally that wasn’t supposed to happen.
Oh, and I just got awarded The Soulless Machine’s Flash Fiction Award for Epic Fail. YAY!
And I’ll be heading to the Caption Comics Convention in Oxford (UK) this weekend, so I’ll see you there if you’re coming.
And there’re are vote incentives up every day now. I created sim versions of all the characters in The Sims 3 so they’re mainly amusing snapshots of their adventures in sim-land.
This week in Epic Fail: Amuletts and Bleef discuss Andy Roid’s rarity and uniqueness.
Creator’s Commentary: Drawn on holiday with no references, so it’s probably a good thing I know what my characters look like and didn’t have to do anything drastically new this scene. I though the expressions on the previous page were a little bland, and when you’re doing talking heads bland is baaaad, so I tried to make them a little more animated on this one. Also I remembered Amuletts is wearing make-up.
I’ve got to confess to a certain despondency after the termination of my Comics Collective, it has been there for me since I started, and now it isn’t. More about that in a blog entry later, I already moaned about it on twitter.
Oo I should probably mention there are new vote incentives up every day for the next fortnight: