| PREVIOUS SPIELS |
| February
16, 2003
Hey
everyone. First off, a couple of incredibly cool things sent
in by readers recently. This
is an image of the beginning of an all-webcomic wallpaper.
So far it's just MIH strips. Incredibly cool. Maybe we'll
get to see it when it's all finished.
You
know, it really says a lot about how far webcomics have come
when people start papering their walls with them. Makes it
fun to think about what the future will be. Maybe we can avoid
post apocalyptic gang wars after all. All through the power
of internet comic strips. Anyway, another reader sent in this
image of Aram weaved into papyrus. Incredibly cool.
Yes,
it's incredibly cool all around today. And, to top it all
off, the previous 2-t-shirt discount deal has been replaced
with a 3-t-shirt discount deal. Increasing numbers means increasing
quality. Check it out.
 |
SAVE $7.90!
PRE-ORDER: SHIPS MARCH 2004
MEN IN HATS ARAM/CHURCH/DRUGS T-SHIRT TRIPLE PACK
Buy all THREE HAT-tastic shirts together and save $7.90! That's only $13.31 per shirt! You could buy a pack of EXTREMELY FANCY GUM with those savings!
|
As
a last note, if you look to the right, you'll notice I added
a little section of webcomics I like. I've been pretty lucky
when it comes to links from other cartoonists, so I figure
it's about time I try to give back some. I've been linking
in my spiels for a while now, but considering how rarely I
actually get around to updating this, I think a static link
section will probably be more effective in the long run. Enjoy! |
December
15, 2003
Sorry
about the lack of spiels lately. I've been particularly busy
with school work. Even as I type, I should be studying for
finals.
Anyway,
for those of you who found last wed's comic somewhat interesting,
I'll give a little background. The particular philosophy Aram
is adhereing to is act utilitarianism. Whichever act creates
the most happiness is the best. It makes sense until situations
like this come up. Just because Aram has a higher capacity
for happiness in the situation, does that give him the right
to deny what happiness Beriah did get? Well, Aram thinks so.
In opposite positions, I imagine not.
That's
the problem with moral philosophies. As much sense as they
make in theory, there's always some situation in which they
just don't work. Oh well. I guess we'll have to do our best
with what we have.
Let's
see... not too much to say besides that. Back to the books
I go. Ah Laplace... |
NOVEMBER
18, 2003
Wow,
the amount of email I got over the past week in response to
the latest spiel is incredible, and far beyond my ability
to respond to. So I'll have to do my best to send out a general
message: Thank you all very much, you're far too kind. I hope
I continue to make comics worth your time. I'll do my best.
Let's
see, in other news, I'm planning to release a new t-shirt
next week. I'm exicted about it. I like it a lot more than
the current one, but my tastes in clothing may be in the minority.
We'll see. Here's to the best.
Oh,
for any readers who weren't around last year to see the commotion:
I had a comic
that touched on "The Problem of Evil", and it generated
a surprisingly large response. So I wrote a long, meandering
spiel about it a week or two later, and it generated a much
larger response. It was all fun and good. Anyway, this semester
I'm taking Intro to Philosophy (we engineers get few opportunities
for humanities), and I actually had to write a full paper
on it. I got it back the other day, and so I figured I'd share
it with everyone, to maybe spark some thought and discussion
among new readers. It seems to be a topic most everyone is
interested in. The paper can be found here. |
NOVEMBER
10, 2003
Last
Monday was certainly a very surreal 24 hours as far as this
comic goes. First I get an email from a certain Ryan LaFevre
informing me that he and his friends had dressed up as MiH
characters for halloween. Then, that night, my friend John
tells me that not only does his friend know of me and read
my comic, but that he actually got excited at the fact that
he met me before without realizing it.
I'm
not sure how much any of you know about the size of the readerbase
of this comic, but, let's just say this is no Homestar Runner.
The amount of people that come here, while respectable in
size, is certainly nowhere near the level that would warrant
any sort of expectation of a tangible fanbase beyond emails
and forum posts. Any indication that there are real people
behind the words that are actually reading this is still a
very new and unbelievable experience for me.
I
realize this post is sort of self-gratifying and unnecessary,
but I'm still so taken aback by it a week later, that I figured
I might as well write about it. For the sake of concluding
in a less-than-self-absorbed fashion, I'll give out some unwarranted
advice. If you have some sort of creative output that you
enjoy, put it out somewhere for the world to see. It's not
only a hugely rewarding experience, but it really makes you
more dedicated to honing your skills when you know there are
people out there that you actually make happy. |
NOVEMBER
3 , 2003
Edit:
Holy crap. These are the coolest
three
images
of all time. Wow. You are officially the best people in the
world. By far.
Well,
apparently the t-shirts have been recieved by at least a few
of the people that ordered them. Many apologies about all
the misunderstandings and such involved with them. I promise
that next time it will work out better. So, anyway, nobody
has posted a picture of them wearing it in the forum
yet. You should. It'll be fun, in an exhibitionist sort of
way. I promise. I live by my word.
I
had some stuff I wanted to talk about, but as per usual, I
delayed writing this until really late and now I'm sleepy
and no feeling very interesting in anything I have to say.
So, umm, thanks for stopping by everyone. Enjoy the comics. |
OCTOBER
27, 2003
Sorry
for not having a spiel up these last weeks. I was a) really
busy or b) really lazy. It's up to you. Also, very important
to mention up front, my email has been broken for a decent
amount of time, so apologies to anyone who sent me something.
I'll get on that as soon as I can. And for those wondering,
I recently found out that my t-shirt distributer sent out
the shirts October 20th (or should have), so you should recieve
them soon, if you haven't already. If you want to post
a picture of yourself wearing it on the forum, I'd really
appreciate it! It'd be exciting and such.
Don't
really have much else to say... I'm not quite sure what people
are supposed to say in these spiels. I don't have a history
of being particularly verbose on the subject of myself or
my life, so I wouldn't expect this to turn into any livejournal
business. The comics are fairly self explanatory, and any
backstory I plan on saving for when I put out a print collection
of them. So what does that leave us with? Links, I suppose.
It's always fun to give back to the community.
Well,
might as well then. Let's see... who to start with? How about
Wigu? I love this comic.
It's a very unique and clever perspective on making comics,
and Jeff is quite a cool guy. I ate lunch once with him, John
Allison, and Martiza Campos.
It was very cool.
I
said cool twice in that last paragraph. That's annoying. |
SEPTEMBER
15, 2003
All
right! The t-shirt is here! Hooray! This Aram shirt was by
far the most requested, and so it is the first to go on sale.
If it sells well, there will be more shirts in the future,
so buy one and help out this poor, pathetic college student!
|
PRE-ORDER:
SHIPS 10/03
MEN
IN HATS Aram: "The Knowledge That You Exist Is A
Burden On My Soul" BLACK T-SHIRT
Unburden your soul slightly by letting
everyone you meet know what your soul thinks of them up
front courtesy of MEN
IN HATS' Aram, hopefully avoiding any future unpleasantness.
Color image on Black 100% Cotton Hanes Beefy Tee.
$15.95
|
The
image goes on the front of the shirt. There's nothing on the
back or the sleeves. I decided against putting a url or ad
on there, because I don't think its really effective. If someone
thinks its an interesting enough shirt, they'll ask about
it (I hope).
And
now , here's some fun news in the webcomics scene for everyone's
enjoyment. My friend Meredith's new comic Skirting
Danger on Graphic Smash starts today, so go read it, fools!
(fools!) John Allison, cartoonist and sage extraordinaire,
has started selling a new
book over at Scary
Go Round and, having seen much of it myself, I can safely
say it is quite a good one indeed. And, if that's not enough,
Maritzah Campos recently passed the 1,500 comic mark with
her comic CRFH!!!
For those of you who aren't aware, that's a great many comics,
and they are all good. |
SEPTEMBER
8, 2003
To
start off today, I have a little bit of linking to do. You
see, Josh
Mirman of Stubble
and I have known each other for a long time, and recently
realized that despite having comics with essentially the same
amount of readers, we have virtually no cross-readerbase!
Seeing as this is clearly a crime against all holy things,
we decided to enter into a link exchange program, in order
to help each other out, and to direct you all to more entertainment.
Hopefully it'll work out to everyone's benefit. So go read
Stubble!
It even contains those "characterization" and "plot"
things that I hear others use from time to time.
No
word yet on the shirts. I'll let you know when I know something.
I've been hearing the word "inspiration" a lot lately.
More specifically, as an excuse for someone not creating some
work of art (or entertainment) that they want to. Apparently,
most people think that everything great must be the product
of an epiphany, and if you don't find yourself jumping up
and yelling eureka, then it's not worth your time.
Well
I have news for you. Sitting on your couch, eating old cheese
out of a pizza box while watching TV and waiting for a moment
of brilliance doesn't end with the production of anything.
Creating isn't about inspiration; it's about work. Steady,
dedicated, hard work. If you're like everyone else, the first
story you write, or painting you paint, or comic you make
is going to be an absolute monstrosity, sloppily pieced together
from previous works of your idols. The only way you ever progress
beyond that point is just to keep on plugging away until you
find your own voice, and gain enough of an understanding of
yourself and your craft that you can make something unique
and interesting. That's how great things are created.
So
shut up about inspiration already. |
SEPTEMBER
1, 2003
All
right, first off, I need to keep
better track of Aram. He's starting up trouble everywhere...
Anyway,
I want to thank everyone for their ideas and encouragement
when it came to the shirts. There were a lot of really good
ideas, most of which I plan to use at some point in the future.
It seems that right now, by far the most popular suggestion
is a picture of Aram with the quote "the knowledge that
you exist is a burden on my soul." I'll probably end
up going with that idea for now, rather than voting, because
it appears as though the people most likely to buy the shirts
have already spoken. If I wake up tommorrow with a flood of
email against it, I'll probably change my mind, but bear in
mind, if this one sells well, more t-shirts with different
designs will be forthcoming every other month or so.
Unfortunetly,
I'm not exactly sure when this shirt is going to go on sale.
I'd guess within the next month, but we're not as far along
in the process as I thought we were when I first mentioned
them to you, so I'll be waiting with you guys on this one.
At least I know this time that they're actually high quality
shirts, as opposed to my old cafepress ones.
As
for the MIH game,
thanks to everyone for your kind words regarding it. I had
a lot of fun making it and I'm glad most of you enjoyed playing
it. I'm planning to make more in the future sometime, possibly
monthly, or bimonthly, but I'm going to wait and see if I
have time. I don't want to overextend myself again.
Oh,
and for those of you that were wondering, the game was
beatable, and it does say "THE END" at some
point. If you were having trouble, hightlight the rest of
this paragraph for the steps in beating
it. Pick up the no |
AUGUST
18, 2003
All
right, I have a couple of things to talk about this week.
First off, something I'm very proud of. Using Adventures
Game Studio, I created an MIH adventure game in the style
of King's Quest or Monkey Island. It's not all that long (only
two rooms), but you can click on virtually every object, and
I find some of the comments to be pretty funny. You can download
it by clicking this.
If that doesn't work, you may need to right click the link
and hit "save as..." Let me know what you think
of it, in the forums
or email. If people
like it, I'll probably make more.
Second
off, high quality t-shirt merchandise may actually be possible
in the near future, so I need to know what you guys want.
The ingenious Chris Crosby of Superosity
advised me to make t-shirts that each have the image of one
of the characters on the front, and their best quote on the
back. Do you guys like that idea? If so, what character would
you want to go on sale first, and with which quote? If not,
what kind of t-shirt design would you be interested in buying?
Let me know (forums
or email). I've
already got another, much much higher quality Stalin Fish
T-Shirt design coming along because I loved it and so did
a lot of other people.
That's
all for now. Enjoy the comics this week. |
AUGUST
11, 2003
Well,
I'm back.
Sorry
to those who wondered where I went. I was heavily weighed
down with school work, and this comic seemed a distant priority.
I'm fairly certain that I have everything in its rightful
place now, so I should be all right for some indeterminate
amount of time to come. My current goal is to make enough
comics to warrant the creation of a book collection, but I'm
a long way from that.
No
big changes to the comic; I like the way things were. I am
trying to make it more animated, however. Nothing drastic,
but you should notice more moving arms and maybe running once
in a while. Yes, I considered that newsworthy. My writing
habits have actually changed dramatically, in that I'm now
allowing myself time to review and edit comics before uploading
them, but that doesn't affect any of you.
Also,
I'm going to try to be more accessible from now on. I realize
I was very, very bad about email last time, and my forum posts
were essentially non-existant. I plan to fix both of these
problems, but I shouldn't promise anything.
As
a final note, I'd like to thank all of the great cartoonists
who linked me for MiH's return: chopping
block, crfh!!!,
robot stories,
faans, boxjam's
doodle, silly
cone v, and newshounds.
Enjoy
the comic, visit the forum,
and tell your friends! |
GO
TO 2002 SPIELS |
|
