Added 1 new A* page:

• A* Episode 17, Page 95

All kinds of funny things sometimes get in the way of the cameras Google uses for their Google Maps project--ever wonder what happens when an aircraft happens to fly past just as the satellite is taking a photo? IT TURNS INTO A RAINBOW. Or more specifically, an airplane-shaped rainbow. Like here over the Novatec facility near Baltimore, or here outside of Charlotte, or even over Brooklyn, NY.

According to this page, the colors come from the camera shooting the different color filters in quick succession, rather than all at once. On Twitter this was referred to as a "sequential color frame camera," and there was some speculation on whether the rainbow effect might also show up on particularly fast-moving cars or high-flying unicorns.

Added 1 new A* page:

• A* Episode 17, Page 96

Going to see if I can make the final push of getting my original-art-selling system for the web site finished this weekend. Might go up overnight Sunday/Monday, we'll see how the weekend work gods treat me!

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A while back I linked to this page of "rare Bill Watterson art"; well, I found a similar page with other unpublished artwork by Watterson, known of course for his newspaper comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. The page is Bill Watterson's Rarest, and includes a strip from a rejected pre-Calvin series he tried, Critters, as well as a Calvin strip that only ran in about half the usual newspapers, and was never republished--for reasons unknown!

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That space junk I mentioned was menacing the International Space Station a day or so back--or more specifically menacing the station's designated "safe" zone--was in fact far enough away that the station didn't have to dodge, according to this article.

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The Curiosity rover just came across what looks like an ancient streambed on Mars; the " rocky outcrops containing large and rounded stones cemented in a conglomerate matrix" suggest that water that hip-deep water may have flowed swiftly through the area billions of years ago.

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I tried something slightly different with today's A* page; earlier in this episode, for adding some noise/dust to the galactic core nebula, if you can call it that, I got an interesting effect by stroking black ink over non-waterproof white ink. For the base operator's hair in today's page I thought I'd try the same technique; it didn't come out quite the same--darned if I can remember quite what the difference in the approach was--but it still did something interesting, I think.

Added 1 new A* page:

• A* Episode 17, Page 97

You may notice the "original art" button below the lower left corner of today's comic--yep, I got the original-art-buying system finished and hooked up over the weekend, so you can now buy the original art behind pretty much all of the traditionally made illustrations on the site, both in the comic storyline and in the episode galleries. And because I have hundreds of these pieces of A* art carefully stacked up from the past year of doing them and *not* putting them up for sale, and because I'd like to get sales going and get them to lovely new homes, they're all currently for sale at just $50 each, instead of the $100 I'd planned initially--I don't think I can let them go for just $50 forever, though, so this is most likely a limited-time price--but at the moment, anyway, if you were planning on buying one, well, now you can buy two! :)

And you may find it interesting to click the "original art" link next to some of your favorite drawings even if you aren't going to order them, because the original art page for each one shows them in a color photo, zoomed out slightly and usually at a bit of an angle, which will show them in a different light than the straight-on, cropped black and white scan you're used to seeing. Like for instance, I do the A* pages on 17" x 7.5" pages, and go pretty much right up to the edges, but the version you seen in the comic is actually from just 16" x 6.75" of that page, so there are always border areas in the original artwork that you don't see in the regular comic.

Anyway they really do look even better in person than they do in the online comic pages, so if there's a comic page or art gallery piece you particularly like, I hope you'll think about making it your very own. :)

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Speaking of the original art, I added a new piece to the episode 17 gallery--it was another one where I was messing around with a little gouache (that's a fancy name for opaque watercolors, apparently) to add color over the ink:



The original art page for that one is right here. I have a little kit of some nicer (and transparent) watercolors now, and now that I'm done with big feature additions to the site, finally, I hope to be able to do some more sketches and things for you on weekends, so maybe I'll get to do some more watercolor experiments in the near future.

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*Today's* art was one of those that seems to be going okay, and I'm working away at it patiently, and then bits don't seem to want to resolve themselves nicely, and then after a while of trying to fix them its clear I can't fix them, and redoing them doesn't work either, and then finally the whole thing is revealed as an irretrievable train wreck and it's now very very late and I have to start the whole page over from scratch. Ooh! Maybe that's healthy sometimes though, and I should do more of the very direct approach of the second try you see in today's comic. At least, it seems to have some decent points--but I suppose I'll have to see how I still feel about it in a few days. =P

Added 1 new A* page:

• A* Episode 17, Page 98

Since you can now buy the original art behind the A* art you see on this site, I thought I'd highlight a few of what I regard as my more successful pieces from the past that are currently available for purchase:

In the episode 15 gallery, there's To Live Forever



which is an 11" x 17" piece that was the base art for a sort of A* "movie poster"--the final version with digital lettering is also in the episode 17 gallery, right here.

And then of course there are plenty of the A* comics with art you can buy; here are some to consider!

One of the earliest ones, for episode 13, page 155



came out rather nicely. That's back when I was doing them on pieces of 11" x 17" Strathmore bristol, and I see I had a lot in the margin areas there that didn't fit into the actual comic version that went up on the site.

There's also the art for episode 14, page 6



that's had some of the heaviest washing I've tried, making for a pretty moody face. Clone angst, you know!

The art for episode 15, page 15



is still some of the sharpest I've managed, I think. In fact I don't really know how I did it, but that's art for you!

In the art for episode 16, page 32



which was one of the first I did in my no-pencil-layout / all-freehanded-ink phase (which only just ended nineteen pages ago), I ended up repainting Titus' face uh a lot of times; finally it was this big puddle of gray ink and I had to scrape it off and then miraculously there was just kind of this amazing face looking back at me that wasn't anything like what I would have consciously tried to do; a few touch-ups and highlights and voila, one of the best male faces I've painted so far, definitely. I also had fun with the bottles he's pointing at behind the bar, and the various shadows in the background.

And each of those is going for the low, low price of just $50!

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After all that talk last week of the International Space Station possibly having to move out of the way of two pieces of incoming space debris, then not having to move after all, well, it looks like this week it will have to move to avoid what is I guess another piece of debris. The article points out that "NASA estimates that more than 21,000 fragments of orbital debris larger than 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) are stuck in Earth's orbit," so I suppose this is just going to be a regular fact of near-Earth space life.

Darkly BEAUTIFUL as always BC! Love your style.

So.. Huh! That was ..uncommonly merciful for Selinis... female solidarity?

But perhaps that is not so uncommon... I don't think I have ever seen Selinis kill, personally, another woman. She must have a very low respect or value for men... I think Vero got the closest she's ever been to respecting a man. Too bad we'll never know what happened to him.

Pretty insightful; I wonder if you're onto something there about her finding it easier to kill men. Although I suppose I should point out that she did kill the female bioarchivist earlier in this episode--bee poison, you know, although we didn't see it directly--and then there's the matter of the somewhat inhabited Core Sys planet she more or less blew up in episode 11, which certainly would have had many female Core Sys employees on it. I suppose you could say that one wasn't personally done by her, of course, since it was a robot ship of hers...hm so maybe that just further supports the theory!

As for respecting men, I think she did feel a little bad about Andiran--although not bad enough not to kill him, apparently. =P Ooh, Titus! She seems to respect him a little, at least, even if their exchange was a little sassy. And as to Vero, if things in the distant future go according to various plans in my head, we'll probably hear something about him again at some point, although I don't intend it to clear away entirely the mystery of his fate in "the black system."

Yeah I figured she killed her.. though not directly. However, the bioarchivist was one of those self-serving corporate 'white-killers' {meaning she may have never directly slain someone innocent but she certainly has giving orders to do so - all under the veneer of it not being her doing it and 'I was only doing my duty or as I was ordered' justification}. She probably has sent many a people to their deaths to 'guard' her precious tree... I could see Selinis feeling she was a justified kill! And she broke Seleinis' rule 1# {I'll get to that below}.



Yeah, 'fortunes of war' is what I'd think Selenis' view was on that one... regrettable but people die in war... its unavoidable. She just tries to make sure she gets what she needs done so she doesn't have to do it again. And again she did not do it personally. Once more Selenis rule1# comes into play here as well.



Yeah I got that feeling too. It gets easier the more she kills - I'm sure; but Andiran was likely not what she considered a 'justified' kill... it was strictly business, regrettable business. I'm sure it would have been easier had Andiran been an asshole... but it comes down to Selenis Rule 1#...

Rule 1# "People who get in Selenis' way get what's coming to them...!" Its cold but she will not fail in her objectives and woe too anyone who puts themselves in her way.

As for Titus Meh.. he was getting on her nerves but not quite enough to violate Rule 1#... plus he's useful.

As far as I can tell Selenis has no trouble killing assholes, dirbags or scumbags that get in her way... but even still; if they are just innocent bystanders or just mooks {and not pros like her} she does not revel in their deaths and won't kill on a whim or on general principle. The brawl before getting to Titus is a chief example she could have just slaughtered those thugs... but that would not have accomplished what she wanted and could have possibly drawn unwanted attention.

She does not 'get-off' on killing but she won't let a little needed wonton destruction make her gun-shy either... if it gets results.

That sounds about right. It reminds me of how she introduced herself to Vero in episode 8 (it took me a little while to remember where this was), which ended with her telling him that those who knew her name had either helped make her wealthy, or had died.

I keep thinking that she certainly isn't someone I'd want to run into on the street!

Meh, she would be some nice eye candy to watch walking down the street if you kept your distance...she doesn't seem to mind people gwaking at her.. I think she enjoys it a little.

And she certainly would be a nice bundle to hold in one's arms...but she is all business and play... {if ever she does that} would a foreign concept to her so any social interaction you might have with her would be strictly business and her wanting something out of you - she always has an angle. As long as she got what she wanted... you'd be safe I figure.

Annoy her... and things can get unhealthy real quick!

Too much excitement for me, I tell ya!