E-merl.com 7.0
My name is Daniel Merlin Goodbrey and everything you see here is my fault. I’m a comic creator and new media lecturer based out of St Albans, England. E-merl.com is where I catalogue my experiments in fiction and the comics form. If that all sounds a little dry, don’t worry – I’m sure something horribly violent and amusing will happen if you stick around long enough.
Current Projects
100 Planets – Every Monday
100 Planets is E-merl’s new weekly webcomic series, broadcasting across the farthest reaches of the cosmos every Monday. Listening posts have also been established over at Modern Tales and via the wonders of RSS here.
The Nile Journals – Every Wednesday
Being the weekly journals of Mr. Nile – a self-aware narrative entity and recent arrival in the sprawling west coast conurbation of Anyopolis, USA. The series originally ran at Serializer back in 2003 but then fell of the face of the web following a particularly horrible server crash in 2004. The entire series is now being rebroadcast every Wednesday at E-merl and Serializer.
The Rule Of Death – Every Friday
Pete Colby doesn’t want to die. So he doesn’t. And that’s where the problems begin. Illustrated by Douglas Noble, this kitchen-sink zombie western updates every Friday at Serializer. Thanks to some nifty behind the scenes CSS trickery, you can also now read the series right here at E-merl.
All Knowledge Is Strange – 7/7/2007 to 8/4/2010
A pictorial almanac of necessary facts, featuring a unique mixture of new history, negative fact, miscellaneous wisdom and beautiful lies. All Knowledge Is Strange was E-merl’s second regularly updating series and it also ran twice a week at Modern Tales. All in all it featured rather more giraffes than I had expected.
Unfrequently Asked Questions
Q. What was you name again?
A. Daniel Merlin Goodbrey
Q. Is that your real name?
A. Yeah.
Q. You’re not just making that ‘Merlin’ bit up are you?
A. Nope. It’s inherited from my great-grandfather or some such. And I was born on Halloween, so I guess my folks figured it would be a good fit.
Q. What’s this site all about then?
A. It’s a place for me to tell my stories and show off my work. That’s it really.
Q. Do you make a living from doing this sort of stuff?
A. Much to my surprise, yes. I’m currently employed by The University of Hertfordshire as a part time lecturer in new media design. The rest of the time I spend working on comics. After several long years of toiling in the online and small press comic mines, I’m just starting to see the first hints of turning a real profit.
Q. So you’re available for hire?
A. Most definitely. Anyone interested should drop me an e-mail to merlin (at) e-merl.com.
Q. Where are you based anyway?
A. I live in St Albans, just a little bit above London.
Q. Been there long?
A. Getting on towards six years now. I’m originally from Suffolk but I moved to the area for my degree and then decided to stay on once I was done.
Q. You’ve got a degree?
A. I’m the proud owner of a first class honours degree in Software Systems for the Arts and Media and a distinction level master’s degree in the Digital Practices of Hyperfiction.
Q. Wow, that was a modest answer.
A. Is that sarcasm I’m detecting?
Q. I shouldn’t think so.
A. You’re just a voice in my head, you know. You can easily be replaced.
Q. Ahem. So, anyway, how long has E-merl.com been going?
A. E-merl.com has been around since 2000. Before E-merl there was Triple Distilled and before that there was Merl-Net. The design and focus of the site has really changed a lot over the years – the current version of E-merl is the seventh major redesign since I purchased the domain.
Q. So maybe it’s passed time to write a new FAQ rather than just repeatedly re-editing this conversation?
A. Clearly if I thought that I wouldn’t be typing this response.
Q. Good point.
A. …
Q. …
A. Well?
Q. Sorry. It’s just, um, I’ve kind of run out of things to ask.
A. Really?
Q. Yeah.
A. Fair enough. Fancy going for a drink then?
Q. Sure.
A. You can get the first round in.
Q. But I’m just a voice in your head.
A. We’ll explain that to the barman.
Q. You think he’ll understand?
A. If he knows what’s good for him.
Old News
Before I started a proper blog I kept an irregularly updating news page. Interested parties (probably just me to be honest) can read an archive of that material here. Real E-merl news complete-ists may also want to check out Brain Fist as each episode of the strip was accompanied by a weekly news post during it’s two year run.
