The Sound Of The Fringeworlds

Well, the main machine has been rendering all night, and it doesn't look ready to quit soon. That being where  all the actual work for the blog gets done, and where all the resource files reside, it's gonna be a bit before i can prep pages. So, let's ramble about some of the work on the game for a bit. (Now you know, and can go ahead off somewhere else to read something enjoyable)

For some strange reason, this deaf old coot starting working on sound for The Third Colony. Up until this point, the only audio for the game was opening music, music for a couple of festival/party scenes, and minor sound effects like the Grav Lifts.

But, as we know, the ol' peripatetic mind meanders where it will and somehow it decided that the jukeboxes and stereos needed music. And that background music was needed (though optionally, on a user controlled toggle).
And more than just Hugh Masakella's Emavungweni for the festivals.

I set a hard limit of 50 songs, and fewer would be better. Currently there are just over 40 songs installed in jukeboxes and on data disks scattered around the game which the game player can install into their own music player.

(EDIT: I should also have noted that the craze on PoD9 is for 20th Century music, mostly latter decades.)

Popular Jukebox Songs
song (artist)

Bad To The Bone (George Thorogood & The Destroyers)
Blasphemous Rumours (Depeche Mode)
Boogie In Your Butt (Eddie Murphy)
Church Of The Poison Mind (Culture Club) 
Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)
Dead Man's Party (Oingo Boingo)
Dear God (XTC)
Get It On (Marc Bolan & T-Rex)
Goin' Down (The Monkees)
Heavy Metal Poisoning (Styx)
I Touch Myself (The Divinyls)
I Eat Cannibals (Total Coelo)
Institutionalized (Suicidal Tendencies)
It's A Mug's Game (Soft Cell)
It's A Sin (Pet Shop Boys)
Jump (Aztec Camera)
Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Is In) (Kenny Rogers & The First Edition)
Killing Moon (Echo And The Bunnymen)
Kiss (Art Of Noise & Tom Jones)
Lady Killer (The Vandals)
Love Missle F1-11 (Sigue Sigue Sputnik)
Mama Told Me Not To Come (Three Dog Night)
Nowhere To Run (Martha Reeves And The Vandellas)
Obsession (Animotion)
Sex Machine (The Flying Lizards)
Ship Of Fools (World Party)
Stop This Crazy Thing (Cold Cut)
Super Freak (Rick James)
Superstition (Stevie Wonder)
Tainted Love (Soft Cell)
The Masochism Tango (Tom Lehrer)
Tush (ZZ Top)
Urban Struggle (The Vandals)
Walk The Dinosaur (Was Not Was)
We Got To Get Out Of This Place (The Animals)
Welcome To My Nightmare (Alice Cooper)
Where The Streets Have No Name/Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You (Pet Shop Boys)
White Lines (Don't Do It) (Grandmaster Flash)
Why (Bronski Beat)
Wild Thing (Ton Loc)
You Sexy Thing (Hot Chocolate)

Part of that selection reflects upon the game world, part upon the game creator.
I'll let you sort which be which.

I do hate to not include images, so let's take a peek at some of the boring work going on (mostly because there's pics on the stick leftover from email with my son)

One of the complaints about RPG Maker games is waiting for slow text to appear and having it chopped into little 4-line boxes. These can be very valid complaints, and i'm not fond of that either.

But, it doesn't have to be that way. 
All text messages in T3C appear instantly, with the exception of the occasional dramatic pause inserted. And those are measured in quarter seconds.
And as for that 4-line limit on the text blocks...

Really - it doesn't have to be that way. One simple line of code and textboxes expand to fit the need. (I also avoid the word wrap plugins that lead to those awkward mid-sentence breaks.)

And a lot of the boring work i've been doing is interface bits. Every district has a News Stand from which one can pull the daily news feed. Now it has a simple full screen display & interface -

As you can see, they're not big, detailed stories. But they do carry the basic happenings of the world outside the player's view, and set up ongoing plots and potential quests, as well as merely set the tone of the world.

I've mentioned that the colony is contained in disconnected cavernous pockets carved within the mining planetoid. These caverns (or Halls) are connected via a TransMat system. Each Hall has one or two Primary TransMat Stations that are connected on the Alpha Network, and each TransMat may link to two destinations. This can make it a tad tricky to learn one's way around PoD9.

Fortunately, you can pick up a Free TransMap from Admin or at Terminal Island (the Offworld TransMat station) -

So, now you're all good and ready to run around, right?

Maybe not so right?

Maybe very wrong?

OKAY.
We gotcha covered.

That map is more than just a "pretty" picture. It also remembers where you've been and becomes a Quick Travel map allowing the player to jump straight to any previously visited TransMat -

As i said. Lots of boring little detail stuff. But it's slowly turning this mess into more of a 'game' along the way.

stuff by -3- (2020)

Hermit Ramblings

Some of you may likely have noticed what i didn't when i headed out on my monthly supply run: 
It was Labor Day.

So i traveled down the hill, into the city, and found that Costco was closed. And grocery stores hadn't received deliveries leading to many items not available. In general, a terrible supply run.

Mercifully, i was able to make another run yesterday to actually gather supplies.
Horrifyingly, i was out in the world with human things everywhere two days in a row. My hermit brain skitters to the back of the cave to withdraw into shadows. Combine that with the terrible bit on Saturday, and i'm feeling rather incapable of safely communicating with people at the moment.

But, i don't want to let the Hermit pull back too far, so a quick non-post post to keep the flow.

I've been doing a lot of work on The Third Colony, but not a lot good to show. Either it's very 'back room' work, or it's very boring work. Insane amounts of boring work.

For example - you may recall the the main UI for the game has a character display window which didn't seem to do much of anything other than show what the PC was wearing...

As you can see in the screen above, in addition to Outfit and Hairstyle, it now shows that Kelly is annoyed in this scene. There are currently about a dozen Status Poses that show Emotional State or Status Effect. Here are half of the ones currently in service to show a bit of what they cover -

Now that might not seem like an insane amount of artwork at first glance, but take a single Status Pose and multiply it by just the Outfit and Hairstyle combos available to Kelly in the first four days of the game -
 

Um, No - she can't get pregnant in the first four days - certainly not visibly so. And the Containment Suit might not look like it needs 3 different versions, but it does in other poses. The Registry Trainee uniform on the right only has two hairstyles - Kelly needs to get her hair taken care of before the Uniform is issued, and she can't change back to the base style until after Training is completed. So i at least managed to chop 1/3 off the needs for that outfit.

And, again - that's just what's available in the first four days. And there's also no outfit, so another full set of everything. After Day Four, swim suits become available, and the week following she'll start playing with amateur superhero outfits, undercover disguises, etc.,. Throughout the game she's got a few dozen outfits.

And then there's Eileen and Ben and Gene. 
Bless that Gene - he's got a severely limited wardrobe in the early stages. But Eileen's a nightmare. If she's been dosed with Lactacid or encountered some other effects, she has six potential breast sizes. Good thing she can't change her hair unless she encouters the Scissor Ghost. Then we have to add a set for Bald and 3 Growth Stages.

Insane enough? 
If not, remember that i'm also rendering walk animations in four directions for all these combinations, too. Then add on time for processing the renders and putting them into the format the game needs.

It's a real good thing that i work on this to keep the brain working, not to meet any sort of deadline or anything, eh? I'd have to fire me for making all these crazy decisions that add insane amounts to the work load.

stuff by -3- (2020)

Instead Of A Real Post...

Sleep has been fragmented, at best, around here lately and i'm stumbling around like i'm driving a rented body. Made the mid-month foraging run extra adventurous today. And has kept the brain aswirl, making this writey stuff extra tricky.

But, i do believe we'll Finally see my favorite caveman comic - a topic we left dangling just over two years ago. I've started prepping pages, and hopefully the mind will join us for more than a minimalist post this weekend. Last chance to place a bet on who our fave caver might be.

Meanwhile, for a bit of imagery in this post...   well, in the back room, at least.
Folks might have noticed it's been a while since i updated the 'crowd scene' title screen for The Third Colony. After all, the population has about doubled since the last time i posted one.

The reason for that is it don't exist no mo'. I finally put together an actual title screen, though the background details are still fluid, you get the basics just fine -
but we can't show it out here in the main room. Step on back past the age check to give it a gander. 

Here's a link to the full post with the image intact.


Obviously (if you went and looked), this is a representational image, nothing that can actually happen in the game since that cluster is the four characters from which the player can choose.

Actually, it's not impossible for that reason - it's impossible because both of the Dovers are in the pic and only one of them is still living at the start of the game. However, it is possible that the three survivors could get together. You see, after the player chooses their PC, the other options switch to NPC status and are still walking around in the world. In fact, the PC can possibly come into competition or conflict with the unchosen player characters as they still work to complete some of the quests in the game.

And some of them involve cavemen, so i guess it's all related, eh?

Assuming, that is, that the ol' peripatetic mind follows the trail...

stuff by -3- (2020)

Secrets Of The T3C Universe

You may have noticed i'm still having troubles herding my wandering mind over towards the blog. I've been gathering yet more material, but the brain just doesn't want to linger on it at the moment.

So, let us let it meander where it's at, deep in Pair'o'Dice9 and The Third Colony. There's been a lot of work going on for the game, expanding the framework, building connecting tissue, converting from This City and the old style graphics...

A lot of really boring things that generally don't lend themselves well to showing here. Along with some terribly rude things, which we'll have to step into the back room to peruse.

But, also a lot of fundamental work, getting things working for the first few days of game time and locking down some decisions to allow things to move forward.

For example, you perhaps recall that Kelly had multiple hair styles in the collection of Training Hero costumes that was seen here previously. After her first physical session at The Registry, Kelly realizes her hair is the wrong length, constantly getting in her eyes when she gets a heavy sweat going. So the player must decide - crop it short or have it grown out for a ponytail?
That was planned from early on, but the styles hadn't been nailed down.

Now they have -

After completing the Trainee period, the player may opt to change styles again, including a return to the original style.

Another example of the type of fundamental work that's been happening is getting some more of the game world data written down into "books" for the player to find and read if they want to understand the world around them.

Here's a sample book that explains one of the major institutions influencing life in the game -

The Lost Saints

It came to pass that a Congregation of the Faithful rose in the Belief that Gods Word encompassed All Of Creation, not merely the sphere upon which they dwelt. With the rise of FTL Colony Ships, a Mission was born. They would have constructed a Lasting Colony Ship - a World Ship in which they could live and travel the stars, both exploring and recording God's Universe, and ensuring the spread of The Word.

And so was born the First Church Of Christ Among The Stars.

And it was Good.

For generations they travelled, mapping His Universe and meeting His Peoples. As they were Faithful in both Word and Action, their good works taught the True Nature of their Faith, and they changed many with their passing.

On worlds plagued with sickness, they delivered cures and relief. Where they found Famine, they brought food and gave the knowledge to feed themselves. Lost starcraft were returned to their homes. The terrorized were protected. And always, nothing was asked for in return. They spoke of their beliefs, and in doing that which was right by Others.

Sometimes they exchanged peoples, as some of the Faithful grew to desire walking under the open skies, while some they met wished to come along and learn.

And in the doing, they changed many worlds and brought Millions unto The Word.


But, there came a day when the people realized that none had seen nor head from the First Church Of Christ Among The Stars in a very long time. Searchers and Pilgrims went out in all directions to seek for signs, but nothing was found. No trace of their passage, no word of their deeds, no hint of their presence. The years passed and the search continued, and continues. Many are those who pray for the Lost Saints as they have come to be known.


Yet they are Not lost.

They have a new Church and a new Mission, one pursued with same earnest Devotion. For in their travels, they found the Unthinkable.

There came a mighty particle storm crackling through space, discharging powerful energies in bolts and waves. The Faithful were buffeted and battered as it seemed Reality itself was torn around them. Before they were completely destroyed, the inspired engineers managed to shunt the craft out of phase, allowing the storm's violence to pass by them and through them, leaving the Faithful unscathed.

But while they were out of phase, they saw it - The Horror, lurking in the Shadows of God's Makings.

And when the storms had passed and repairs had been made, when all was Strong and Ready again, they went back. Back to learn, to seek to understand what they had seen and what it meant to the Grand Scheme of things. In time, they came to know C'thul'hu and understand his Slumber. And to comprehend the nature of the Orgone Energies that could keep the Sleeper from waking to disturb God's Universe.

And so they rose in a quiet corner of space, a small mining colony being established conveniently close to weak spaces between Here and There. Upon this world founded by Gamblers and Criminals did they build The First Church Of Christ Vs. C'thul'hu, and here do they labour on to bind the Sleeper and preserve the Works of the Almighty.

And that's why the First Church Of Christ Vs. C'thul'hu holds the Lullaby Festival every month. It also raises the point that science in this world differs from the science we know in some significant ways. Some errors in perception from the past have proven to be true here. So we have Lumeniferous Aether and Orgone Energy playing nice with Bio-Engineering and Quantum Entanglement.

If you're familiar with Reich's theories of Orgone Energy, the 'adult' nature of the game makes much more sense with the knowledge that it's being collected and stored here. Many characters tend to act like they're in a Skinemax movie...

(Nope - not a medical exam. Charting energy pathways)

Yeah, it's a dirty little world.
And even dreams may not provide an escape.

But you'll have to step into the back room at The Other Voice Of ODD! to see what i mean. We already pushed it pretty much to the limit there.
Here's a direct link.

stuff by -3- (2020)

oh, dren... it speaks!

Some day my spawn might wish to know more of how their ol' progenitor thought. That was a part of my thinking when i launched this blog. I really intended to include more 'memoir' posts that were more recollections and ramblings.

Not a huge percentage, but it might have been nice to maintain at least a 1% average. Hmm...  There's been ... a half dozen or so? I certainly don't think even 10. Out of somewhere between 1100-1200 posts. So we're down by at least a decimal point on the percentage. 

No, that doesn't mean that you're suddenly going to get an endless barrage of ramblings. But it does mean i'm going to stop resisting when i get the urge. Often, the excuse i give myself is "No Pictures? Forget that!" So maybe i'll throw in random art and pages when i do this. Could be a good place for some of those Odd old comic book adverts, eh?

And, of course, there's always T3C. Remember i mentioned heading off to work on Big Sys the other day? This is Her:

(Yes, the hair is data streams)

She's the computer at the Registry - the organization that supports and coordinates the super heroes on PoD9.

On with the old man ramblings...

So... our Fake President still can't cope with the Trump Flu and continues to think ignoring it will make it go away - "like a miracle" in his own words.
Y'know, if he wants a Memorial Garden to distract from his incompetence, how about one to the hundreds of thousands who are dying by his inability to deal with, or even truly acknowledge, a deadly crisis? (Yes, i know we haven't quite yet hit 150,000 confirmed dead from the Trump Flu in this country, but we're still on the upswing since our 'leaders' have yet to with the virus numbers instead of their own numbers)




Here's a tip:
If you speak in code words and phrases - you are a sheep. Those words are given by your shepherd to keep you herded with the other sheep. Just because they point to others and say "See? Sheep!" doesn't mean that you aren't one, too. Only, if you know sheep abound, you should know better.



Mindfulness is not new. I've been practicing it to greater and lesser degrees much of my life at the prompting of Socrates who told us "The Unexamined Life is not worth living."



Every now and again, i have an urge to add a new word to the language. Today's word is

Hydrostatophiliac: n. One who enjoys sexual relations with tentacles. (ref. Hydrostatophilia)

(I didn't say they were good words.)



It's often hard for me to believe that this society can solve any of its problems. One cannot fix what one cannot acknowledge nor talk about, and we've reached the point the we even censor the word censor. Redact is a censored version of Censor to avoid discomfort. Remember when we had the honesty to use simple phrases like Military Censorship to protect secrets?
That's been censored now, citizen. Move along - nothing to see or talk about here.




Some have wondered why, with my seeming attitudes expressed here, do i not use phrases like "people of colour" and LGBTQETC+. Allow me to pontificate...

How is "People Of Colour"(Good) better or different from "Coloured People"(Bad)? To my perception, it's more technical terminology - distancing rather than bringing closer. The more it sounds like a technical term, the more it sounds like you're talking about a disease or condition instead of Person. I'm simply not comfortable with the term on either level. So, maybe you'll see me use the term 'Woman Of Colour' to talk about Zoe Saldana, but otherwise... not likely.

As for LGBT... - get serious. It's supposed to be an inclusive term, but nobody can say it so it alienates, and right from the start of it - LG - female and male homosexuals can't even come together in unity. I personally lean towards omnisexual, and i'm not stupid enough to think that if the Angels had visited Sodom & Gomorrah in female form, then God would have been cool with the way the locals behaved. (Seriously, people - wtf? Is it too discomforting to realize it must be about the laws of Hospitality which our entire civilization has abandoned? Hmm...)  So i in no way mean to disparage any who take comfort in the term - but for me, it's a term of divisiveness. Both from the internal segregation and the external un-communicability.

And, of course, being a hermit by nature, i'm not prone to jumping on a bandwagon just because it's heading my way.

Dren. 
We really need another picture by now - probably well before now. Let me see what's laying loose in the files...

Ah - this piece from Skip Williamson might be over a quarter century old, but it still works all too well...

Just change the old instamatic camera to a phone, and it's fully modernized.

page art by Skip Williamson from Gag Reflex #1, the rest by -3- (1994, 2020)

RMMV City Bling & T3C Ping

As noted, i've lately been buried deep in The Third Colony - my personal game project that i use to keep the ol' brain from rusting up solid. It's time for another peek at some of the ongoings, and another bit of free resource for RPG Maker MV (aka RMMV) users. Let's get to that first.

There's not a great deal of Modern Tilesets running around compared to all the fantasy sets, so i'll go ahead and dump some even though there's not a lot of it.

City Bling is what we're calling the current set, and it's not map tiles today - it's animation tiles. They're combined on a single sheet, so you can either cut and combine with your own bits, or use as-is. Don't fret, even though some read vertically and some read horizontally, the system knows the way to go. As long as you use them in the right places, of course. When using the 'bling' animated tiles, be sure to set the event properly, as shown here...

...Walking and Stepping keep the animation cycling constantly, and Direction Fix makes sure it doesn't change animations if activated by the player. This is for the spot anims only. Don't do that for the doors, switches, or cardboard box. Let the system handle them as normal.

On the left side of the sheet we've got:
Bathroom Doors with binary gender signs.
Switches - smaller than standard with multiple placement options.
Cardboard Box - smaller than standard for easier tucking and hiding.
Wall Light - smaller than standard with high/low placement positions.

At the top center of the sheet, there are 3 rows with Circle / Arc / Circle. That's a Hopper. Place in sequence, left to right, above a sign or entrance and it animates with the circle hopping back and forth.

Below that is the Stripper with a back & forth animation.

Below that, we have the Theatre Marquis with animating lights. In The Third Colony, Admin uses the very generic Video Centre name. I added a couple more options, Movie Rama and Stage House, allowing the halves to be mixed and matched. After i noticed the Stage Centre combo, i had to add a Center Stage option as well. 

While most businesses are too specifically named, i included the generic bar Drink Up! sign and a couple of OPEN signs, and MOM Media Inc i converted to 123 Media Inc.

In the bottom right we've got signs for the Whorehouse/Brothel and the XXX Sinema.

For those of you who use Tall Doors, i didn't forget you. Here they are in tall format:

 Meanwhile, back out on the Fringeworlds, there's been tons of work going on. Some of it even on the front end where we can see progress. Simple things, like there's finally a Player Character Choice screen -

I mentioned recently that we'd passed 100 characters living on PoD9 now. In addition to base character design, that means Walk Sprites (multiples to allow for work and off-duty clothing, plus options) and Portraits for emotive representation in dialogues. That means up to 16 for each (though PCs may get more), with an average of about a dozen. So, LOTS of little work going. As a sample for those who don't indulge in such things, here are a dozen characters, pulled nearly at random. (Obviously, topping the sheet with Kelly was a conscious choice)

Okay - some oddballs don't get as many portrait pics, as we can see from our F-ing Clown at the bottom. 

And, while there are video files used in the game, that's not what one sees if the player watches a 'Vid' in-game. Vids are representative, with just a few pics and text while time passes and buffs or debuffs are applied. Some have story scenes, like we've seen in promos for various shows. Others, like the educational vid Transmats And You, are merely hosted...

Like the 'vid' above, Doc ODD! is a product of SARLAC (Science:Advanced Research Laboratories/Atomic Commission). He was a genetic failure in the laboratories that didn't get flushed. The techs liked him and gave him a labcoat. Eventually, he got promoted from pet to mascot.

It's an Odd world, naturally. 

It's the kind of place where a superhero like the Golden Guardian can decide to open a bank instead...

...where the Registry (the agency supporting and overseeing superheroes) is headed by a figure known as Sister Mother... 

...and where cold refreshments are supplied by 'heroes' like MilkMan... 

Another convenient thing, for me, about T3C is that many of my old projects can be integrated into it. For example, the Rama Vid Club is running a special FringeWorx Film Fest, and has brought in Frag, a character from the series, as a special guest to promote it...

Fringeworx was a web series i did back in the mid-90s. The fleet at the top and the inset in the lower left of the poster above is from the original series, with Frag being played by my eldest son, IV. In game time, it's about 15 years after the show ended (as seen by the older Frag model), and the episode guide for the show has been reworked into a film series that'll run weekly throughout the year.

That would have been a massive amount of work for background texture in the game if the material didn't already exist. Lots of old work can form the media 'enjoyed' by the denizens of PoD9, and parts of old game projects can be reworked into pockets scattered throughout the mining colony. It's kind of like having a few decades of prep work done for the game - most convenient indeed.

BTW - the RVC has another series running, too. In this world, Ellis Chambers didn't disappear - he became a very popular animator whose legacy lives on in current film fests -

As it should be.

stuff by -3- (2020)

Dia De La Cabeza Muerta

It's one of those days...

Brain not talking to me just now. And doesn't want to prep pages. And Mel doesn't want to play. So, here's a few random images from work on The Third Colony. That's obviously another shot from Alyce: Glass Wonderland above.

Here's advertising for one of the most popular eateries -
 

(Yes, Dina Jr.'s pose is intentionally awkward and stiff - and in character)

...Cats Will Play, with Tom Cat and Pritty Kitty (and Manic Monday in the shadows - poor Tom)...
 

...and a recruiting poster for the local force -
 

Yeah, mostly weak bits of filler sitting on hand. Sorry about that. Maybe if we kiss and make up, my brain and i will be back later today with more better.

stuff by -3- (2020)

Sleeper's Dance I-III

Okay - i changed the background to that painting, but wound up repainting it all because i also changed things up a bit. I wet the paint more and softened up the brush with a cluster so tight it was just this side of painting with q-tips.

And i kind of went into a painting frenzy - finishing all three paintings in quick succession. (As always with fresh works, "finishing" and "finished" are subject to later review and revision after time and sleep).

However, you'll have to step into the back room if you want to see them. While i could get away with posting I & II up front (though perhaps pushing it), III and the assembled triptych would definitely offend the blog authorities. 
Here's a direct link to the post.

stuff by -3- (2020)

Meanwhile, Out On The Fringeworlds...

'Twas a fairly successful supply run today. Apparently the fear of vampires has passed and the stores were stocked with garlic once again.

The ol' mind is skittering about, a bit too unfocused for a real post, but the urge to post is there anyway. So let's ramble a few about some of the progress on The 3rd Colony. (If that's unfamiliar to you, it's the game i work to keep my mind from rusting up)

In Week 02, The Registry is running a series of Lotteries to bolster the coffers. (The Registry is the agency which coordinates and supports the superheroes in the game.) The prizes are of the Win-A-Date With A Superhero variety. (Heroes should really read every bit of those contracts) Of course, multiple lotteries are needed lest potential  purchasers be excluded. Hence Lottery ratings M, F, and A. Here is a triptych sampling of the posters to show you what i mean...

A couple of explanatory notes:

The word Consentable is a term indicating Legal Self-Competence in the game world.

Seed is empowered by the World Tree (that's the Wawa Aba on his chest) and has a holy duty to pass on the lineage. But only 1 in 10,000 women (at most optimistic estimates) is capable of successfully bearing the sacred heir. Tired of it though he may be, his search is near constant, by obligation. This is well known in the hero guidebooks, so his 'Prize' is altered accordingly.

Yes, it's Pinku Cherry, too.

Meanwhile, new shows continue to arrive on the vid channels, one of which should look familiar...

New adverts pop up as well, which can be a lot of fun. I wind up setting the design aesthetic of the 'art world' out on the Fringe, as reflected through the advertising. There are two competing major agencies representing the old school and new wave of the current local art movement.

These first two ads are from the new style agency, which you can see reflected in the sets and backgrounds -

This ad is from the old school competition (which a heavy touch of Finger/Sprang influencing their ads - these are the guys who'd have the giant working type-writer).
Yes, Genni is a popular up & coming model/star sought by clients of both agencies -

BTW - that Fluid Glass Fabric is made from industrial mining waste and has some nasty toxic properties. But OKW is OK Worlds Enterprises, the sleazy major corporate co-owner of the mining colony. And they're the most 'good guy' of the partners, so nobody is monitoring that stuff out here on the Fringeworlds.

Yes, i go into ridiculous levels in some aspects of the game. That's the beauty of having no real expectation of completion. Since the work itself is the important part to help keep things chugging along upstairs, i can let it go where it wants - as long as it all weaves together satisfactorily.

And i do believe it's time to slip back into it. Maybe i can get the promos done for C'thul'hu And The Angel or Purr Patrol.

We'll see...

stuff by -3- (2020)

Wait Half A Mel...

I'm Up!

I know it's past noon, but i'm just waking - not crawling back into the cave. Obviously too late for Sunday Morning Funnies, but we'll have a post this afternoon - after i caffeinate.

Since i am here and planning to post, we won't be following the new Mel Tormé policy. Here's half a Mel instead to tide things over...

We'll be back in a few hours with even more stupid...

Living The Butterfly Effect With The Velvet Frog

A Kid wiggles his fingers in the UK and causes changes halfway around the world. Funny how those things work. And, no - we're not talking vague theory here. It happens all the time, and happened around here just in the last 24 hours.

Of course, the nature of chaos systems is such that while we can predict an effect, predicting the exact nature of that effect is near impossible. (And it certainly doesn't help when you toss my old peripatetic mind into the mix)

So, less babble, more specifics, eh?

Comments with Kid on yesterday's post led to thoughts of a painting of Mel Tormé. Gordie left visions playing in my head with Mel in a giant mushroom forest, brightly colored rain falling - the drops in the shape of music notes. Eventually i sat down to start doing some layouts for such a painting.

I'm not entirely sure what happened next, but i wound up with a new character in Kelly's game instead...

...yep, the Velvet Frog is now walking around town; and performing on the weekends.

And, no - that's not just static drawing, the animated model is now hanging out with the rest of the cast...

(Yeah, he's a Ladies' Frog)

There are actually 3 viable already-existing potential explanations for his existence within the game. Rather convenient, that.

You may perhaps recall from a previous pic of the GC Rejects that the Penguin surrogate in this world is played by Howard The Duck in the role of Señor Oswald...

This neatly fills a plot gap for me. I needed an obsession for Oswald, and trying to steal the Velvet Frog away for his SOT Border (South Of The Border and get sotted) club fits in perfectly.

By the way, the merging of Kelly's Game and This City finally has a name, and temp title screen - ever growing...

I figured a crowd shot was the simplest way to go, and a lot gets coveyed with that crowd. There's about 60 figures currently, but at least half of the main characters aren't included yet. I suspect that before long we'll pull the camera back and start re-arranging while jamming in a few score more.

Okay - enough babble on The Third Colony, on to more, better Velvet Fog. While we're talking about Mel Tormé, did you know he had a few comic book appearances hiding in his past? (So many of the greats do, it seems)

Let's head on back to 1948 for the first of them - Juke Box Comics #2, with Jerry Fasano doing the artwork...

Mel also made a few more single panel appearances over the next few issues...

...including a record review -

Two years later, he appeared on the cover of Youthful Romances #10 -

Okay, technically he was on the cover of Juke Box Comics #2, but that was just his name in a slot on the jukebox. It was really a Dinah Shore cover. So i didn't include it.

He was also the narrator/star of the lead story in that issue of Youthful Romance, with art from Harry Harrison and Bob Bache (writer unknown)...

...and they dedicated the postal required text pages to the Velvet Fog -

As near as i can tell, that's the complete comic book career of Mel Tormé. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find him hiding in other pages.