Rec.Arts.Comics.Creative

Feb 06, 2008 -

Made Some Minor Changes To My Site

I did this last time too. I wanted to wait until I had a miracle perfect redesign before I made a wondrous award winning site update. Of course, what would happen instead is that I would occasionally fiddle with Photoshop, get bored with whatever I had done before, start over, and never actually complete anything. And my site would site with a less and less clever "revamp coming soon" message.

So, enough. I’ve gone ahead and made a few nudges here and there. I’ve added the other social sites I have profiles to the top navigation. I’ll keep adding to this navigation as I keep getting addicted to Web 2.0, and post here if anything significant gets updated (like my Fiction writing... I’m getting an itch).

I’ve chucked the home page, as it was totally useless, and made the blog prominent. I’ve also beefed up the blog, pulling posts from a variety of other sites I post to, and even tacked on my Delicious and Google Reader feeds. So, if you’re like me, and crave new content on a daily basis, I’m here doing my part :) The only catch is that I’m currently too lazy to enable comments on the posts, so you’ll have to do so at whatever other sites I mirror the data to.

I’m trying to make time to do all the things I "want" to do, so hopefully you’ll see the Projects page get a write-up sometime this year. I’ll try and be more diligent on making RACC covers, too. But no guarantees. :P

Nov 28, 2007 -

Superguy Imprint Tag

It seems like the Superguy imprint is back up and running, with new issues for the imprint coming from Dave Van Domelen, Gary Olson, Eric Burns, and Mason Kramer recently appearing in the newsgroup.

To support it in my own little way, I’ve added the SG imprint tag to the RACC site. Keep up the good work, guys! :)

Oct 17, 2007 -

Cover Images

Cover images are still coming pretty sporadically, but here’s a couple more...

Haunted Man

Possum Man

Weird Romance

Doomed Romance

For various sourcebooks...

Oh, and an FYI to Jamie: I’ve gone ahead and added the ACRA imprint to the Weird Romance titles. :)

Aug 06, 2007 -

Cover Image

Okay, going to try to get back on top of creating cover images for series as they appear. It’s been about nine months since I last threw one together, so forgive me if the first couple are rough and/or not as on-subject to the material as they used to be. As I get more into the groove of things and start semi-regularly reading issues again, they should improve.

For now, I’ve created a cover for Lalo Martins’ "58.5", basing it of DC’s recent "52" weekly series.

Nov 06, 2006 -

Cover Images

I was writing this post to note the new covers for the month of October when I realized I completely forgot September! Oops! :) Here are the cover images for Metal Fire, Untold Tales of the Looniverse, Superfreaks, Nightman and Moonboy, Girls on Beach Blankets, Alt.stralian Yarns, and Thunderclap.

If current issues are not available, you can view the cover images in the Cover Gallery.

Sep 04, 2006 -

Cover Images and Misc Announcements

Created and uploaded RACC cover images for Jolt City, Fuchsia Grabbag Surprise, and a new, spiffier cover for LNH. If current issues are not available, you can view the cover images in the Cover Gallery.

Those of you who use the RACC mirror may notice I link some of the imprints. Some examples of this are LNH, the Academy of Superheroes, and Artifice Comics. Many of the imprints are fairly generic, of course, but if there are any other imprints or universes that post to RACC, and have a related website (8FOLD?), let me know, and I’ll get that hooked up.

Last thing: Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 7 in the near future, through their through Windows’ automatic update. It will be marked as a priority update, but apparently users can opt out of it. As of this writing, the RACC mirror site doesn’t quite render properly in the IE7 betas and/ro release candidates... I’ll try to have that worked out before the offical rollout :)

Jul 14, 2006 -

Web Site Backend Updates

I’ve finally gotten around to upgrading the content management system on my website. This change affects all related subsites, including my RACC mirror. It will make it easier for me to keep things up to date, and to add extra functionality.

The down side is that most page links have changed, so if you have bookmarks, sorry! Hopefully, by the time you read this, most things will be stable-ish... I’ll keep you posted!

Jun 02, 2006 -

Cover Images

Created and uploaded cover images for Killfile Wars, Onion Lad, President Evil, Simon Velcro, Vel, Guy In A Trenchcoat Fighting Ninjas, Pants Rabbit Lad, Super Stomach Girl, Unfinished Sentence Verse, Nostalgics, Mutton Mania, Adventures Beyond Comprehension, Obnoxious Guy In Spandex Fighting Guys In Trenchcoats Fighting Ninjas, Easily Discovered Man

May 2006 was a bumper crop, with a record fourteen new covers created! I particularly like how Onion Lad’s and The Nostalgics’ covers turned out. And though the Guy In Trenchcoat cover was okay-ish, in my opinion, the taped on Obnoxious Guy notepaper for the spinoff title is funny. :)

If current issues are not available, you can view the cover images in the Cover Gallery.

Apr 29, 2006 -

Changes to the RACC Filtering

When I launched my RACC mirror site, I created a series of filtering scripts I could administrate through my CMS. I use it to force RACC comic and/or news posts to appear properly on my site when said posts are not formatted in the expected way. Common usages of this filtering tool is: moving a comic into the news column (or vice versa); a comic post not getting a cover it should be because of a spelling variation; placing those square avatars on news posts and selected comics; etc.

Well, it was fine, but a bit restrictive. I needed something a bit more robust. So I made it more robust. :) The down side is, that it may be acting oddly for a couple days. So, if you regularly use my RACC mirror site, I apologize for the weirdness and/or downtime. It’ll all be fixed in a day or two!

The new filtering tool let’s me find strings or partial strings within the Imprints, Title, Subtitle, Author Name, Excerpt, or the calculated cover images or post icons. When A match is found, it allows me to replace any or all of those fields with a different string. For instance, visitors will now notice that in the news columns, all PROMO posts have a yellow title to make them stand out. Also, some Imprints are now links to those Imprints’ hoepages (btw, if you have an imprint that is not showing up on the site and/or have a page to link that Imprint to, let me know).

I will, in the future, make a CMS interface for this. I could have done it now, but I instead took the time to filtered the current posts to their proper place and make a couple cover images. Hope you enjoy.

Apr 25, 2006 -

Happy Birthday, Wil

My birthday is April 25th, 1977. That means I turned twenty-nine years old on Tuesday, April 25th, 2006. That will probably not really mean a lot to you. In fact, I don’t think it’s really important to anyone but me.

That wasn’t always the case, of course, but a lot has happened to me in the last year. This will be the first year in... well, ever, I guess... that someone hasn’t been planning something or figuring something for me on this date. When I was a boy, it was my parents. After that, it was my friends. Then my girlfriend.

But situations change, people change, people’s opinions change. I don’t expect anything to happen on my birthday that doesn’t happen any other day. I’ll go to work. I’ll come home. I’ll have dinner. I might spurge a little, and pick up Advent Children for myself. If I’m lucky, I may get an email or two.

Am I disappointed? A little. Anyone who says they wouldn’t be is lying. Your birthday, for a long time in the front end of your life, was always a day where everything revolved around you. It was your party, it was your birthday cake, and it was all about what you wanted to do. When a year comes around and no one makes a big deal about it anymore... well, you do a big old pile of growing-up in that one day.

Of course, I not bawling my freaking eyes out :)

The great thing about now is having a fun job, getting steady income, living on my own, and living the life I want to live. And as a grown man, I don’t have to mope. I’m capable of solving problems! If I want company, I have a telephone. I have email. And I have friends who would be willing to have a drink or two if I want to hang out.

Next year I’ll be thirty years old, one of those dreaded round numbers that gets into peoples brains and makes them start to complete over-analyse their life. You might be thinking "I won’t be doing that, I have no problem with the way I’m living my life"... bullshit. Wait until you get there. Wait until you’re close to being there. Wait until that crawling desperation is tickling the back of your mind, letting you know that let-it-work-itself-out years are over and the this-is-the-rest-of-your-life years are starting, and you find yourself wanting to do things you haven’t done in a long stretch because thats the sorts of things you did when you were in your early twenties.

It’s a measure of a man, how he handles these transitions from one decade to the next. Does he try to continue to live as he did years before? Does try to evolve into what he expects this age should be about? Does he re-evaluate himself? Does he try to find value in himself? On how he’s done up to now? On what he hopes to accomplish?

Does he mature a little?

I believe so. You cannot help but do so, no matter how you end up getting through it.

But having friends and/or family making you feel special on that one day, even just a little can’t hurt any ;)

Mar 22, 2006 -

Thanks To All Who Voted!

Just wanted to say "thank you" to everyone who contributes to the RACC newsgroup, whether by authoring original fiction or just meta posting. Without you, RACC at Wil’s Ego wouldn’t exist. If the site continues to win... anything... it’s because you all make it everything it is!

And especially thanks to everyone who voted! Without votes, there’d be no awards... and no democracy! :)

I have recently updated the content management system that powers both the RACC site and my personal site. This will, hopefully, make it faster and easier to make regular updates. While I was at it, started the process of changing all the news posts to blog posts, complete with comment fields.

I don’t much of anyone to use it, as RACC is a strong mailing list slash news post community, but it’s there for new comers... a fishing lure to the weblog browsers out there. Trying to hook a couple more readers :)

Now to get off my ass and write again... :)

Mar 01, 2006 -

Done and done!

Final beta testing has been completed, so I have spent the last hour or so posting this same message in half a dozen places :) RACC at Wil’s Ego has launched!

I’ve had this site up or up-ish for a couple years. It even went through a redesign before settling back to it’s current and original layout. I’ve learned some XML, PHP, CSS, and MySQL since then, and used that to my advantage! The site parses a Google Groups XML feed to display the latest fiction news posts, freeing me from tedious copy-pasting of times paste. This allows me to focus on what I enjoyed most: the cover images :)

This site is for the rec.arts.comics.creative community, who provide us all with original comic book ficiton. Hope you all enjoy it!

Special thanks to those who previewed and helped test the site during beta. You know who you are. Oh yes, you know! You know!

Feb 14, 2006 -

Final RACC Testing

RACC at Wil’s Ego is out of beta. Over the weekend, I created an About page named Site Information. It doesn’t have everything I’d hope, but it’s a good start. It includes the basic formatting rules for posting on RACC, straight from Eyrie’s FAQ, and how that translates into what you see on this site.

I also finished some content management scripting, making it easier to keep the site updated. I now have tools for "cover matching", when I have to give a series cover to a one shot special, for instance. I also have a series of editable filters, which I use to set imprints, add those 50x50 icons, and to "nudge" posts from the news column to the comics column or the other way around.

(This has already come in handy, as all the Peelix the Cat issues were appearing as news posts. Apologies to Jesse Willy!)

I expect a couple people to be looking t this site, now, and I hope hey enjoy it. I also hope they’ll use the contact form and let me know if something is out of whack. I hope to have all the rough edges ironed out by the end of the month, and to make an official announcement post to the RACC newsgroup Mar 1st.

Thanks all for your assistance :)

Jan 30, 2006 -

Cover Images

Created and uploaded cover images for Godling, Speak!, and The Goddess And The Bomb. If current issues are not available, you can view the cover images in the Cover Gallery.

Dec 29, 2005 -

Apes Month Is Coming!

Just a reminder, RACCers and RACCettes-- in three short days, the month of January will be upon us, and with it, Apes Month!

We’re counting on you to make this historic occassion an unabashed success. All you have to do is write a story. Any story of any type. It can be goofy or nostalgic or deadly serious. It can be incomprehensible schlock or a towering masterwork. It can be an epic or a couple of sentences.

It doesn’t matter how many words you put on the page. It doesn’t even have to be a paticularly good story. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be a story. It could be a poem. Or an essay. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as it’s apes!

Or monkeys, for that matter. Any non-human primates will do. Talking apes, giant apes, apes that climb on rocks-- even apes with chicken pox! Our hairy cousins can be the focus of your tale, or, in true Silver Age (and event month tie-in) fashion, shoe-horned in like a ridiculous afterthought.

Like I said, it doesn’t matter as long as there are apesinvolved. And why is that, boys and goils?...

Because January of aught-six is Apes Month!

Feb 06, 2008 - Made Some Minor Changes To My Site

Obviously, waiting until I do a re-design is futile, so I made a couple changes to the site I already have. And I'm pretty happy with it.

Nov 28, 2007 - Superguy Imprint Tag

Added an imprint tag and link to Superguy, as it seems to be back and running!