Funzietown

In my New Years post I mentioned a super secret Extra to go with the current storyline.

Well, if you want to know the secret here it is: I have a game to go with the current story!

You can see from the the last couple of strips that Emily is going to have to answer math problems to save Flapjack, and starting next week, you'll be able to help her.

The coding is done and the game is playable, but what I'm finishing up is the animation. If you want a sneak peak at the process I'm going through to make the animations check out this page. You can see very, very rough pencil tests of animating Flapjack running.

I've posted a link on the Extras page as well.

When I get the game finished, I'll post it on the Extras page as well. It will also show up as a link under certain comics.

I hope everyone likes the game. It is another first for me.

One technical note: it is done with Microsoft's Silverlight. Like Flash, but from Microsoft and it lets me code in a language I like...

If you want to see my bearded, bespectacled mug in a Microsoft Developers Conference video, go about 25 seconds in to this video.

It was a great conference, and I learned a bunch.

I've just added a Subscribe option to the main menu above. Right up there. See it?

This will tell you how to do some cool things like:

• Subscribe Via RSS (and explain what that means...)
• Find Funzietown on Facebook
• Follow me on Twitter (you know you want to)

So just go nuts and click it!

I'm really happy today! For our annivesary my wife bought me the Buck Rogers collection that I've been wanting.

I've literally been wanting this for about 30 years! Yeah I'm old enough to have wanted something for about 30 years...

I've mentioned before in the blog that I read a Buck Rogers collection while in elementary school. It was great, but this is WAY cooler. This is a collection of EVERY existing Buck Rogers daily comic. Well, not all in this one book, but this is the first in the set that will eventually contain them all. They are also going to release a separate collection of Sunday comics.

One word of warning... some of the ideas and attitudes don't play well with modern sensibilites. The depiction of the Mongols is pretty jarring to say the least, but like everything else it must be taken in the context of its time.

I've always loved the idea of the anti-gravity belt and rocket pistol Buck and Wilma used. One particular story line I enjoyed pitted Buck against an evil Martian in ship to ship combat in the atmosphere. I loved the strip where Buck's ship had lost its weapons, so he blows the canopy and fires his pistol at his enemy. Very WWI bi-plane style action. Remember that Buck was an aviator in WWI. I also liked the fact that he had been a Boy Scout and showed off his mad skilz with a bow to Wilma while lost in the forest. Woot! Go Buck!

I highly recommend the book for anyone who likes newspaper comics and science fiction. Don't forget I've added it to my little Amazon Book Store and would be very appreciative if you bought it from there!

Happy New Year everyone!

2008 has been a tough year for many of us, and unfortunately 2009 may not be much better. We can always hope though!

My thoughts and prayers will be with everyone who has had a rough year, and I both hope and pray you will have a better year in 2009.

I have high hopes for the comic in the coming year. The current storyline will finish up in about 10 weeks at the rate of 2 per week. I wish I could do more, but it takes me a very long time to make each one. I've thought about simplifying the backgrounds, but I really don't want to.

There should be lots of surprises in store for readers as well as lots of extras. At the end of the storyline there will be a super special surprise extra. Be sure to stick around for that!

If anyone wants to support the strip with very minimal effort, please remember to visit our sponsors in the ads at the top of the screen. Remember to ONLY VISIT ADS YOU REALLY CARE ABOUT. You can think of each click as a virtual coin in my upturned hat. I appreciate every click since it does generate a few cents for me, but please don't click them JUST to give me money... That would violate Google's policy and get me kicked out of the program...

Google tries to match the ads to the text on the page, so usually they are for good stuff. Every so often, however, they are very, very wrong in their assumptions and I apologize if something not so family friendly shows up... I don't really have much control and don't know what they are going to show ahead of time, but if you see something and alert me, I will try to get rid of it. Google tries to keep anything really bad out of their program altogether, so it shouldn't be anything too bad...

You can also shop in our store which is hosted by Amazon. I don't get much for each sale, but I do get a little bit. I've picked what I think are some really cool items to stock my virtual shelves. I love old newspaper comics and several of them are being offered in collected form. My favorites are Buck Rogers, Little Orphan Annie, Peanuts and of course Tin Tin. If you aren't familiar with any of these you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy. Naturally I'd love for you to do so from my Amazon store, but either way I hope you will read them! I found Little Orphan Annie volume 1 in my public library. Doh! I mean go buy it from my store!! :-)

Again, Happy New Year to all, best of luck, and best wishes.