Mini Epics 1–4

Today I'm launching a new comic strip on this blog, as you might know from a previous post. It's a comic strip version of the Airbury Academy series and is called the Mini Epics. I have no idea how long it will run for, as I have to get back to the 'regular' series soon but condensing the basic idea down to four panels is something I wanted to try, so – enjoy!

Geeks In Space #43

And so, the childhood adventures in a make-believe detective agency come to an end! Or do they? Well, yes actually. I never did end up becoming a detective. But I still get to sit at a desk with piles of papers, and face a window with blinds, which at night gives me a view of the twinkling city lights. One day, I'm gonna clean up this stinkin' town.

UPDATE: Since drawing this cartoon I remembered that there was someone on the list called 'Major Head Injuries'. Even though I thought for ages, I have no idea which person that referred to.

Oh well. Join me next time for the exciting launch of Mini Epics!

Geeks In Space #42

If you're a regular reader of Geeks In Space, you'll know that while the strip doesn't have a cast of regular characters, certain recurring themes keep, er, recurring. Themes such as pop-culture trivia, obsession with technology and the dumbing-down of society are all mined for cheap laughs. But until now only four strips (#3, #17, #29 and #35) have been autobiographical!

Well, for those of you who want to see more strips depicting actual events from my life, take a look at this strip and the one to follow. I might open myself up to ridicule with these two, but hopefully the risk will be worth it.

Geeks In Space #41

Whoa, we're crunching towards our final conclusion, kids! I got a pleasant surprise this morning when I looked at Europopped, a European pop music blog (of course) and saw the heading "Greeks In Space". Ha ha. Anyway, as the tech-inspired foolery you see above gradually winds down, work on the Mini Epics has been going well. Twelve of them have already been done, ahead of the launch date.

Patience Ramón! There eez plenty of time!

When the Mini Epics finally do premiere (on this blog, February 29th, in case you somehow didn't read the previous post), they won't be posted one at a time. When you read those corny comic strips in the newspaper, the idea is that you only read one strip per day. But what I'm trying to do here is present several (three or four) strips at once, so the length of the narrative is that much more than your typical three-panel daily strip. Hey, we all like bite-size chunks, but some like to bite off more than others, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. You do, right?

New Airbury Comic Strip Coming Soon!

Since I've been taking my time with Volume IV of Airbury Academy (I wish I'd hurry up), I'm pleased to announce a new strip to check out before then. Titled Airbury Academy: The Mini Epics, it is a comic-strip version of the regular Airbury series, and will be premiering right here on this blog on Wednesday, February 29. Don't miss it!

Now I'll answer any questions you may have. Yes, you at the back.

Do I have to have read the regular Airbury series to understand it?

–– No. But it helps if you have, since the strip doesn't have any exposition at the beginning, or description of the setting.

Do you mean 'epics' in that lame overused internet sense?

–– Thankfully, no. Nor do I mean it in its true definition. There's a tone of nostalgia to the whole Airbury thing (a lot of it is based on my own school days, after all), so it's only 'epic' in the sense that each little story can be recounted as something bigger, years later.

Where did you get the idea to do this?

–– In a Seattle bookshop on January 1, 2012. Believe it or not, I wrote out a rationale for it. Originally, I was going to do one strip every day for all of 2012 (I tend to get crazy ideas like this on New Year's Day).

Why will the panels be arranged vertically instead of horizontally?

––Because it will be easier to read on a computer screen. Hey, it wasn't me who decided to make websites scroll down instead of to the right.

Is it a standard 'gag' strip, like in the newspapers?

–– No. It doesn't follow the old 'punchline at the end' format, so you may not find it funny. Up to you.

Is there continuity from one strip to the next?

–– Not as planned, but there will be if I say so. It will also keep continuity with everything that's already happened.

Are all the same characters in it?

–– This is the most important question. There is one more character that has not been seen up until now. Here goes...

Back in 2000, when I was a uni student, I drew a comic called Submerged World, a.k.a. Metalheads 3, as it was the third comic I did in a series called Metalheads (which several Airbury characters first appeared in). It featured a new character called Sugar Robinson. She was a genius who designed a spacecraft to rescue her inventor father who had been abducted by a gang of criminals. She does rescue him, but the criminals kill her at the end of the story, to the dismay of Psyche and her other school friends.

Some of my classmates at uni read the comic, and each of them liked it, but told me they wished I had not let Sugar die. They said she had a fun personality and could have appeared in other comics. But by then, she'd been killed off, so she never did appear again.

Until 12 years later, when I decided to bring her back for the regular Airbury series. Some people think that introducing new characters mid-series is a sign you're running out of ideas, but in my case, I felt bad that Sugar would not get to graduate high school and attend the Academy with her friends. Thus, the story has been retconned so that she didn't die after all, but was abducted by the crime gang and held hostage for almost two years before being rescued – although everyone thought she was dead all this time.

All of this plays out in a new story called "Rebirth", which is the opening story of Volume IV. But since Mini Epics will appear on this blog first, this is where Sugar will make her first appearance in 12 years (minus the emotional reunion with her father and friends, which you'll only see in "Rebirth"). Don't be confused, just read the comic when I start running it on this blog!