Comics, Webcomics & Hypercomics by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey
Looking at this strip today, I’m struck by how neat that little line leading to the piece of paper with the dot on the end of it looks. Nice design, past-me! I’m wondering though, did past-me make that up himself, or did he steal it from another comic somewhere? Sadly my notes for this strip just reveal that I was excited to have reached the 90th Brain Fist episode and also that I had “managed to fit five strips into the shortest month of the year. Eat it, February!” It was a simpler time.
And with Mechra’s arrival, the gang is finally all here. I’m sure they’re all going to get along just swimmingly!
Sometimes you just need to come at a problem from a different direction, driving a large armoured vehicle.
And the fourth member of our cast makes his appearance! One more to go – tune in next week to meet her!
On getting this strip ready for re-publication this week I spotted that I’d left the second “a” out of “maniac.” It’s always good to fix errors like this in a timely manner like, say, 14 years after the original date of publication.
So with our first “normal sized” episode you will have discovered that Solid Metal Override is composed around normal, print-comic dimensions (because… well, basically I just felt like working that way with this series). But if you prefer your webcomics to be a bit more screen-friendly in their layout then fear not! Because you can also read the series every week in an infinite canvas format over at Webtoon. See? Problem solved!
We are all Bobby Ginger.
Welcome to the start of part one of E-merl’s brand new webcomic series! We’re kicking things off with a special double-length episode and then Solid Metal Override will be updating regularly every Tuesday. Want to hear a bit more about the origins of the new series? Then check out this handy news post all about it!
Typical isn’t it? No news posts for years and then two come along at once! The reason for this second missive is to close off the dangling thread I left in last week’s post and properly introduce my new webcomic serial, Solid Metal Override. SMO is going to be taking the place of the recently departed Ghosts of The Great Mistake, updating every Tuesday both here at E-merl and in mobile-friendly infinite canvas format over at Webtoon.
Story wise, SMO is… hmm… I haven’t really figured out exactly how I’m pitching this one yet. It’s basically me taking a whole bunch of my favourite science fiction universes, putting them in a big blender and then sifting out all the bits that aren’t five robots talking shit in a bar. It’s also possible it may be a sort of sequel to MASIVO, although time will tell about how true that ends up being. Anyway! Why not tune in every Tuesday and we can discover what the hell it is I’m doing together?
In other news, Solid Metal Override’s arrival has given me an excuse to do a very light spring cleaning and refresh of the site’s colour scheme – let’s go with E-merl 8.5.1 as the current designation, shall we? While I was dusting around the place I also brought the Theory and About E-merl pages up to date with my most recent projects and publications. Oh, and if you’re interested in the comics theory side of what I do, keep your eye out for the online Transitions 9 conference from 8th to 10th April. I’ll be presenting a new paper called “How to Cheat at Comics” in which I’ll be lifting the veil on the various digital illustration processes I’ve used over the years (providing I can find some way to shave about twenty minutes off my current draft of the thing, anyway).
That’s actually quite impressive – I’m still stuck at this Tuesday.