Thank you to Astrofenn (Warning there’s porn in them thar links) for this first piece of fan art. She did another one before this, but I seem to have accidentally deleted it, so that will probably go up next week. Still, the EN Crew as 1930′s gangsters, always fun.
Virus will be back eventually.
Broodhollow by Kris Straub is good and you should read it. I do rather love the juxtaposition of cutesy, cartoony designs with nightmarish, macabre imagery. But I guess it’s not a stretch that EN’s artist would enjoy that.
T-shirts are still available, although the free shipping has ended.
Pixellated’s development thread (lots of screenshots and expression tests)
The final walk cycle draft render, based on a design brief to “Do him creeping cautiously through the fog, like the recent comic”
Edit Feb 20th: Pix put up an awesome new video with some more polish
Shirts!
US and Canada Store
UK and EU Store
Decided to take advantage of Spreadshirt’s free shipping offer to test the waters. Spreadshirt’s prints are great, they’re not your average screen print, they’re a really durable vinyl-like cutout that gets heat-sealed to the fabric by magical pixie voodoo (I assume). There are some limitations to this process however, so we’re only able to provide these two designs right now.
Once again, the free shipping code is “FREELOVE” – enter at checkout, valid January 28-30, 2013 only. Be sure to chose the right store for your address, or the offer code won’t work! I think. And if you’re outside North America or Europe… Sorry. I mean, give the code a try, and PLEASE let me know if it works and I’ll update this post right away.
Slightly less late! That’s kind of like early! And that brings this shaggy dog story to a close. It was fun to play with expectations. Even if some of you did gain an expectation of the Soylent Green allusion in advance.
I’m going to be taking some time off from the comic now; feeling a little burned, and the schedule is suffering for it. You wouldn’t know it by looking at it, but, on top of my day job, I spend a ridiculous amount of time doing this comic and nearly doing this comic. I wish I could say the strip is late because I’m doing cool things like playing vijogames. But anyone looking at my Steam or Xbox Live profiles would be able to tell you that’s not the case. No, it’s mostly making cups of tea and checking Twitter over and over. And spending far too long composing and tweaking simple posts like this, because I’m not very good at writing off-the-cuff, yet I want to give a false impression of wit and eloquence all the time ha ha please like me.
There should still be content updates occurring, in one form or another. We’re enquiring around for guest artists, maybe Silv will produce something, or I might doodle other assorted nonsenses. And I will be back at the helm before you know it, refreshed and ready to do whatever it is one does at a helm. Drive a spaceship? Protect one’s head from injury? Either way, I’ll be helming it up, big-time.
Oh latey late late. Blah.
We must have some experienced wiki editing types in the audience, right? I know we have a bunch of Tropers out there, for instance. Well, after a few Q&As on EN lore in the comment threads, regular commenter Polymer started a rudimentary wiki. But he doesn’t much know what he’s doing, so go help him out and fill out those pages.
In that vein, here’s a citable bit about bionics that I had noted down earlier in this story, but then forgot to post when the moment came. An editor’s job is to make my crap encyclopedic, instead of the jokey conversation tone I always take.
So, last issue, Lothar drained his already-depleted energy reserves by using his blaster to bust through the door:
In my arm-cannon head canon, Lothar’s old blaster used removable energy cells. The downsides to that were that when they were depleted, that was it, so he’d have to carry replacements or do without. They were also heavier. In his new rig, the power cells charge off his metabolic energy, making them lighter and allowing him to rebuild a charge over time. But at the cost of increasing his daily caloric intake needs. The updated, more efficient technology of his limbs perhaps has a lower energy consumption to offset that slightly. But still, if you want to shoot blue-hot bolts of charged particles out of your hand, you better make sure you’ve had your Weetabix that morning.
And we’re back. Current storyline begins here.
I get a slow but steady trickle of new Twitter followers, always nice to keep an eye on them as they come in. Last week one new name showed up that rang a bell, so I clicked through to his profile. Dr Dean Burnett is a neuroscientist and lecturer at Cardiff University, blogger for The Guardian.co.uk, and semi-regular correspondent on The Pod Delusion podcast – that’s where I knew his name and indeed voice from. So I asked him what gives?
“Hey. I know you. You’re that Welsh bloke on that podcast wot I listen to. What manner of circumstance led to you following ME?”
And he replied:
“uh, you draw my favourite webcomic wot I’ve been reading for years. How random is this link! Might buy a lottery ticket now”
So that was weird. He gives me and the comic a shoutout in the latest Pod Delusion.
So there you go. Exterminatus Now: recommended by 100% of Welsh neuroscientist Guardian bloggers. Thanks Dean!
Been quite spotty over these holidays, hasn’t it. I do apologise. Hopefully everyone’s had a nice time with families and such, and hasn’t had time to be checking silly comics anyway.
I have a strip here not far off done, but ye gods, it’s been a slog. Let’s run that update on Sunday and recalibrate, hopefully returning to what passes for a schedule.
The plot thickens, as though guar gum and gelatin were listed among its ingredients.
Sorry for the missed update last week. I was sick. If you were following me on Twitter, you would know that already! May get Silv to add a feed to the site sidebar sometime in the new year, in case you’re network asocial.
Happy new b’ak’tun, everybody. Turns out, after the end of the thirteenth Mayan calendar, it wasn’t the end of the world, but in fact the fourteenth calendar. Who knew!*
* – Everybody who can count past 13
Fuckin CRM, amirite? Silly rabbit, such draconian tricks only punish the paying kids!
