(A.K.A. The “Civil War”)

By the way, if you are a fan of LOST and haven’t yet seen them on The Twitter feed to the left of the comic, check out some of these #lostcomics I made up. (h/t nedroid (of the great Beartato))

…Is this how I’m supposed to do this?

Merry Happy!

Look! A new comic! It’s a two days after Nondenominational Late-December Celebration miracle!! Now, I’m not going to say this is gonna be a regular thang here. I’ve still got half a year more of schoolin’ to go through, and then will have all the time in the world to make comics since I’ll be unemployed and begging for food at the local soup kitchen. So come August, hopefully there’ll be a kinda-sorta-not really-but-maybe-if-you’re-lucky-resumption-of-comics-on-a-somewhat-regular-no-let’s-say-irregular-so-I-don’t-get-egg-on-my-face basis. Till then, uh . . . check the RSS feed!

So…yeah.  What’s all this then?

This is an update to prove that Fade Resistant, myself, and, most importantly, my characters, are not dead.  I had some free time after the semester ended, and I had an itching (burning, really) desire to do something creative, ’cause god knows that’s not what school is about.  Unfortunately, school will come back soon, and, being what it is, will require my undivided attention.  Thus, today’s comic does not, much as I would like it to, usher in a renewed era of regular updates.

But it should whet your appetite; this summer, I expect to have (slightly) more free time, and will make every effort to put out new comics on some kind of a schedule.  As such, bookmarking the RSS feed will ensure that you never miss an update.  Stay tuned!

And so it does….

There comes a time when a young webcomic grows up and becomes a man(webcomic). And all good things must come to an end. But whenever the chips are down, and the stakes are high, you can call out my name, and I’ll be there with you.

…Or something like that.

Today marks the 600th strip in this humble comic’s existence. Fade Resistant’s genesis dates back to the summer of 2002, where on vacation with my family I began to sketch out some characters to pass the time. Little did I know that the adventures of a redneck and a smarmy repo man (and many, many others) would turn into a 600-part epic. On that fateful vacation, I drew the first 14 strips in the series, and tried my hand at Photoshopping them into existence when I got back home. Needless to say, there’s been marked improvement in the technical aspects of the comic, as I have grown and matured as an artist. I hope the same can be said about my skill as a writer. Sometimes I’m not so sure.

The site went live on my university webpage in the fall of 2002, and then I later bought the domain name “gnomic.net” (“adj. Marked by aphorisms; aphoristic: gnomic verse; a gnomic style.” Clearly, I had delusions of grandeur.) when I first migrated to a dedicated server. It wasn’t until the summer of 2003 that Fade Resistant came into existence, and the name has stuck ever since.

Reading the comic from the beginning, I’m often amazed at how, considering the absolute lack of planning on my part, the story actually has (some) cohesion, and some legitimately funny parts. Lately, I have foregone strictly “humorous” comics in favor of developing the story more, and hopefully creating more tension, and more fulfilling punchlines. Unfortunately, as a result of a dearth of time to make the website all that I wanted it to be, I haven’t been able to appropriately install features that allow my (meager) audience to give me constructive feedback (past the occasional email, that is).

Much of the evolution of the comic has been natural, though a large amount has also been deliberate, as I have learned more about myself as an artist and writer, and also about the basics of storytelling, and what is possible in the comic medium. I make no claims to be anything special, but I content myself in knowing that Fade Resistant is a truly organic part of myself. Without such a cathartic expression, I could not function.

Friday will mark the 601st Fade Resistant comic, and also the last… at least, in the current format. I will begin a new chapter in my private life, and as such I will be unable to continue delivering three comics per week, as I have done nearly without interruption since the fall of 2002. However, Fade Resistant will never truly die; I will work on the occasional update, and will likely migrate to a different style of comic-making than the current 3-panels-of-glory, and with that change also comes the less frequent updates. The new site redesign here has an RSS feed; if you are interested in keeping up to date whenever I post anything new, I suggest you subscribe to/bookmark this link. Until we meet again….

Fade Resistant is dead. Long live Fade Resistant!

What’s up with the weather these days? This weekend was absolutely gorgeous, which was a nice break from the hot (and, dare I say it, sultry) weather immediately before that. And now today it’s downright cold. I know global warming is a misnomer: just ’cause the overall temperature of the planet is going up, doesn’t mean it gets hotter every day; in fact, it makes the extremes more extreme. I get it.

But can we just get back to 70 degrees F (or, 21 C for you snooty non-American rest-of-the-world-ers) and sunny every day? How about perpetual spring? I’d even be okay with perpetual fall. Who’s with me on this?

Man, that Devil guy sure is a jerk.

A day late and a dollar short, but this would’ve been topical if it had run yesterday!

Don’t mess with ze Baron.  Seriously.