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  Red-hot A* original art deal, wooo!Nov 30, 2016 10:54 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:It's Wednesday, which means it's time to pull another of my favorite A* original watercolor paintings out of the archive and put it on sale on eBay at the bargain beginning price of just $12.99! I called this one "Internal Combustion," and you may remember it from that time in episode 29 when the robo-dragon really seemed to have Selenis on the ropes; the auction for it is right here, and here's the preview (from episode 29, page 74):
 
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Hotcha! As always, if you wanna be sure to stay up on my little A* original art sales (you knew the art for every *new* page put up each day is also up for auction on eBay for a week before it moves into the smbhax.com store, right? : D), you can follow my eBay profile. Thanks for checking out my art sales! : ) And especially thanks to the folks who've been buying my art! : D
 
 
 
 
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  Mars crash, black hole wobble, zero-G visionNov 29, 2016 10:52 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Space news round-uuuuuuuup!
 
- Schiaparelli: Esa gives update on Mars crash investigation (BBC) - More info on what caused the ESA's attempted Mars rover to crash instead of landing safely: "the probe misinterpreted sensor data, which made it think it was below ground level, when in reality the module was still at an altitude of around 3.7km."
 
- Black Hole Makes Material Wobble Around It (NASA) - NASA declared this past Friday "Black Hole Friday," linking to a full fancy page of black hole articles; one I found particularly interesting was this wobble one, saying that "the European Space Agency's orbiting X-ray observatory, XMM-Newton, has proved the existence of a 'gravitational vortex' around a black hole." Since the '80s, X-ray telescopes have observed periodic flickering in X-rays coming from stellar-mass black holes: the flickering starts in 10 second cycles, and ends, perhaps months later, after 1/10th of a second cycles. It was theorized this was light reflecting off the accretion disc of matter falling into a black hole, which was oscillating due to the space-warping properties of the gravitational vortex of a rotating black hole—something predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. And it's finally been proven: this light would be reflecting off matter moving very quickly away and then very quickly toward us as the disc wobbles up and down in its rapid spin, so the light (as X-rays) would be alternately red shifted, then blue shifted—and this is exactly what XMM-Newton found when it took its measurements. Good job, Einstein! : D And physicists are excited about this, because if, by further observation of the phenomenon, they can understand more about the motion of this matter as it falls into the black hole, it will offer an environment for testing General Relativity in a strong gravitation field—and perhaps show us things about gravity that Einstein—who was famously uncomfortable, and for a while even in denial, about the collapse of matter in a black hole, predicted by his own theory—never had a chance to learn.
 
- Astronaut eye problems blamed on spinal fluid (BBC) - Nearly 2/3rds of astronauts who have made long-term stays aboard the International Space Station have developed "blurry vision, [and, additionally] the astronauts exhibited flattening at the back of their eyeballs and inflammation at the head of the optic nerve." Yikes! A NASA-commissioned study theorized that this could be due to the pooling of cerebrospinal fluid—which normally "helps cushion the brain and spinal cord"—"within the bony cavity of the skull that holds the eye" among those who spend extended time in microgravity. The observed flattening of the eye could potentially cause permanent far-sightedness. : o
 
 
 
 
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  Old stuff I looked upNov 28, 2016 10:35 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:A couple sets of reference photos that came in handy for today's page: here and here. Oh and for the outfit, partly this.
 
 
 
 
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  Ink face!Nov 26, 2016 8:02 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Here's an ink sketch I sent to a reader for supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign : ) :
 
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Thank you very much! Your support makes a huge difference! : D
 
 
 
 
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  A* archive art auction alliteration!Nov 24, 2016 9:02 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:I'm not putting up a new page today 'cause I was off doing holiday things instead of sitting at the drawing table (page 33 there was posted yesterday, but it kept me up pretty late so I left off putting the link about it in the news until today : P), but I *have* selected a new (old) painting from the archives to put up for auction at a bargain price: the watercolor painting made for episode 29, page 45 is now up for auction on eBay starting at just $12.99. Here's what that one looks like:
 
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Selenis charges the knobby-kneed robo-giant! There's a larger scan and a photo in the auction listing. Thanks for checking it out! If you want to stay up on these little A* art deals you can follow my eBay account. : )
 
 
 
 
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  Ahoy, Comics FridayNov 22, 2016 10:43 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:I'll be taking Thursday off what with Thanksgiving and all; back to comics on Friday, though!
 
 
 
 
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  Now look down and to the leftNov 21, 2016 10:15 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Here's a sketch I sent to a reader for supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign : D :
 
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Thank you! =]]]
 
 
 
 
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  HedgingNov 19, 2016 6:05 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Here's a sketch I sent to a reader for supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign : )) :
 
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Thank youuuu! : D
 
 
 
 
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  Keep your knuckles cleanNov 17, 2016 11:12 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:I hope you enjoyed this page. Tomorrow we'll have another!
 
 
 
 
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  A* archive art auction again!Nov 16, 2016 11:52 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Last week's first A* archive art auction (that is, me taking original art for an A* page I like from a previous episode and putting it up for auction on eBay starting at just $12.99) was successful! Thanks to the reader who won the auction. :") So it's time to find another good ol' page a home; how about the watercolor painting for episode 29, page 76: the big, bold close-up of the nasty ol' robo-dragon, looking a bit bashful and perhaps just beginning to suffer some indigestion after having swallowed a sackful of explosive arrowheads thrown by our anti-heroine—now up for auction. Here's a preview of that painting (there are higher resolution images of the artwork in the auction listing):
 
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Thanks for checkin' it out! And if you want to stay up on this and my other A* art auctions (there are six going on at the moment, you know! : D), be sure to follow my eBay profile. : )
 
 
 
 
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  Supermassive voguingNov 15, 2016 10:17 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:People are helping me out by supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign. : D And they can get rewards, too, like this sketch I sent to a reader for their support:
 
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Thank you very much, everybody! ^_^
 
 
 
 
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  It's the simple thingsNov 14, 2016 10:37 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Painting sparkly dresses is a lot of fun, I recommend it to anyone. ^_^
 
 
 
 
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  Bubbles!Nov 11, 2016 11:31 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Here's a sketch I sent to a reader for supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign : ) :
 
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Thank you! =D
 
 
 
 
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  Go vest, young manNov 10, 2016 11:54 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Vests, vests, vests.
 
And no, that fellow in the doorway is not comic artist Jack Kirby dressed as a gangster. I mean, maybe subconsciously. : P
 
(The cop arresting Kirby on the cover of Headline Comics #37 (1949) there was his partner in comics at the time, Joe Simon. The two of them contributed a one page "Capsule Crime Case" in that issue; they oversaw production of Headline and other series in Crestwood Publication's "Prize Comics" group from "the late 1940s to mid-1950s.")
 
 
 
 
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  A* archive artwork auctions!Nov 09, 2016 9:50 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Recently, an eBay buyer asked me if I could put one of my A* original art pages, whose auction had just expired, back up for auction, since they'd missed the original listing. I was more than happy to oblige, and I didn't advertise the renewed auction anywhere, except to tell that one person—so I was like : o when someone else bid on it too!
 
Well, that got me to thinking that, what with how well my new pages have begun selling just in the past month or so, maybe there *would* be a market for selected older pages pulled from the A* archives. So today's the day where we start that experiment: the original art for episode 29, page 79 is back up for auction on eBay, starting at $12.99. : D Here's what that page looks like:
 
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So I guess for now I'll try doing about one of these special archive auctions per week, generally starting on Wednesday evenings; I may not always mention them in the blog, but you can check or follow my eBay profile if you want to be sure to stay up on them. I'll be picking my own favorites from my shelf of remaining A* artwork, and hopefully I'll be able to find some of them new homes. : )
 
 
 
 
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  How many keyboards can you use at once?Nov 08, 2016 8:38 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:You can help me make this comic by supporting my Patreon campaign, and get yourself some cool A* rewards in the process, like this sketch I sent to a reader for their support:
 
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You can also opt out of rewards if you want—that's a setting on Patreon—but I do like sending people sketches! : D Thanks everyone who's helping me keep this comic going. : )
 
 
 
 
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  See methane clouds moving on TitanNov 07, 2016 10:31 PM PST | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:NASA recently posted a time-lapse video, shot by the Cassini space probe, of methane clouds circling "the far northern regions of Saturn's largest moon, Titan." They even set it to kind of eerie music. : o
 
 
 
 
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  A sketch for youuuuNov 05, 2016 9:46 PM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Here's a sketch I sent to a reader for supporting the comic through my Patreon campaign : ) :
 
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It's a huge help! Thank you very much! : D
 
 
 
 
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  You can't clone fingerprints--or irisesNov 03, 2016 11:39 PM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:I'm fortunate to have readers who are smarter than me; one let me know on Google+ that a couple of the measurements the council member said on page 16 that they took from old surveillance footage, namely fingerprints and a retina scan, can vary between identical twins—or clones—if that's what they were intending to imply. So I edited those out from the dialogue : D; they're both shaped by a combination of the subject's DNA *and* the precise characteristics of the immediate microenvironment, so they will pretty much never come out exactly the same.
 
In looking into that, I realized I hadn't meant to have him say "retinal scan" anyway; a retinal scan looks at the configuration of blood vessels on the back of the interior of the eye; what I had been thinking of is the much more attractive panoply surveyed in iris recognition, which examines the colorful and shockingly complex area on the front of the eye. If you've never seen a close-up photo of the human iris, well, you really should take a look, because it turns out these little irises of ours are incredibly intricate, amazingly varied, and awesomely beautiful—especially when seen in all their microscopic detail!
 
(Note: the medical plural of "iris" is "irides." : o But the plural of Selenis is Selenises! Not "Seleni" or "Selenii" or whatever quasi-Latinate spelling one might have liked to imagine. On the other hand, the plural of "triumvir" can be either "triumvirs," or the more Latinish "triumviri." So you never can tell with these i's. : P)
 
 
 
 
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  ESA's Mars crash & other space news!Nov 02, 2016 9:40 PM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Finally got some blogging time! Let's do a BBC space news roundup! : D
 
- China's Shenzhou 11 docks at Tiangong 2 space station (10/19) - Two Chinese astronauts are spending 30 days at the country's somewhat scaled-down space station, which is a test bed for a full-sized station planned for 2020 or 2022, depending on which number in the article you go by. Their 30-day mission will be the longest space mission ever undertaken by Chinese astronauts; in the article, you can see their footage of the station interior and exterior.
 
- Saturn's weird hexagon changes colour (10/25) - The huge, hexagonal cloud area at Saturn's north pole has changed from a blue to a gold color over the past four years, a comparison of old and new photos of the area taken by NASA's Cassini probe reveals. "The change in colour is thought to be the result of seasonal changes on the planet. In particular, the amount of sunlight falling on the poles affects the production of suspended particles - aerosols - in the atmosphere. Scientists think the shift from a bluish colour to a golden one may be due to more aerosols being produced through reactions involving sunlight and the atmosphere." The hexagonal shape of the cloud formation has also been a mystery, but the article notes that computer simulations have been able to show that "small perturbations in winds flowing around the north pole can form a hexagon shape rotating at speeds close to those of the real one."
 
- Images reveal crashed Mars lander (10/27) - The ESA lost contact with their Mars lander Schiaparelli in the minute before it was due to touch down on The Red Planet; ESA mission control tried to remain optimistic about the probe's chances, but NASA's MRO satellite spotted what pretty much looked like a crash site near where the probe was supposed to land, and then confirmed it with high resolution photos of the site some days later. (The MRO is an old hand at this now; last year, it located the 12-year-old wreckage of the ESA's previous attempted Mars lander, Beagle 2—which did land, but its solar panels and communications instruments failed to deploy.) It isn't known exactly what went wrong for Schiaparelli, but for some reason its parachute deployed early, and its retro-rockets fired for only 3 or 4 seconds instead of the intended 30; this probably resulted in the probe falling from 2 to 4 kilometers up, hitting the surface at something like 300 kph (186 mph). The ESA can console themselves a little by having successfully placed Schiaparelli's mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, in Martian orbit, where it will for the presence of methane in the atmosphere, which would be a possible indicator of biological or geological activity on the planet.
 
 
 
 
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  The stories that hurtNov 01, 2016 9:47 PM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:Imzy moderator KateFromIowa, of that fairly new community site's fantasy and sci-fi Observation Deck group, interviewed the authors of some of her favorite webcomics, and one of them happened to be me! If you find my entry down near the bottom of her webcomic author interviews, you'll find a couple recommendations I gave her for free comics to read on the internet, and a few things actually about A*. And you might just find some other webcomics you'll like among her other interviews! As she puts it in her introduction, she's found that she has tended to gravitate toward "the stories that weren’t fair."
 
Thanks for including A* among them, KateFromIowa! : D
 
 
 
 
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  Googley-eyed robotocalypseNov 01, 2016 3:14 AM PDT | url
 
Added 1 new A* page:They say you can't futz around with watercolor too much—but you sure can if you mix it with waterproof white ink and then just keep putting layers of that and plain white ink over each other because you can't seem to paint two eyes doing one thing on a single head! : D :P
 
The postage robot at the post office crashed today just before it could print out the third of three shipping labels for boxes of A* original page art paintings that I was shipping off to people. I wonder if I should take that as A SIGN. : o
 
 
 
 
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