2007-03-07
Uh... hi.
so I guess I should answer our brand-new #1 FAQ, which is basically "where the hell are you / what's happened to the updates / I was enjoying that, why has it STOPPED you fucker???"
Basically, since setting out on this mind-wrenching rollercoaster ride of artistic self-employment, I've been rather more successful than I was honestly expecting, and am currently absolutely swamped with work. I'm flat out right now working back to back on a couple of huge, wonderful, enormously exciting and, um, PAYING comics projects, which are going to keep me ludicrously busy until... um, June, at least. More details about all this excitement and wondrousness as and when I am cleared to talk about it all...
And, while I'm sharing the good / bad news, there's a fairly good chance I might have an even bigger, more wondrous and, um, time-consuming project lining up for pretty shortly after that.
So where does this leave Thumpculture, I hear you ask with barely suppressed frustration? Well, here, pretty much. It's certainly not dead, it's just having a little break. I am monstrous grieved that I didn't manage to finish off the first 'issue' before taking this break - and we were just a few pages away - but make no mistake, I will be back to carry on just as soon as I get a chance. If I could figure out a way to actually make any money off this, it would help. Answers on the back of a postcard appreciated on that one.
If you really can't stand the wait, why not take some positive, proactive action like, oh I dunno, e-mailing Image Comics or somebody and telling them there's this singularly awesome comic called Thumpculture that is prety much the best thing ever and they should totally pay me many bushels of gold to publish it and make me the famousest cartoonist in the whole wide world. Um, for example.
Make no mistake, Thumpculture is here for the long haul, it is my long-term goal... ah, if you people knew the fun that lies ahead... I just have a lot of bills to pay right now.
Thank you for listening to my lengthy apologia. Your comments and feedback are always very much appreciated, so feel free to drop me a line to offer your encouragement / kick me into gear for being a total sellout slacker, whichever takes your fancy.
2007-02-02
We're ROCKETING towards the end of our first episode, and like all good comics I want to have a letters page at the end. I'm planning something cool, but what do I need? Letters! Any comments, feedback or questions are welcomed - the don't even have to be about the comic. Although I suppose it would make more sense if they were. Anyway, feel free to e-mail them in or post them up on the Thumpculture messageboard. And while you're there, you can read this long, rambling and vaguely self-important message about the update schedule for Thumpculture.
2007-01-29
Thumpculture is still off sick, sorry. What can I say, Thumpculture has really not been very well. Thumpculture has a note from its doctor and everything.
We'll be back later in the week with any luck, but if you're stuck for something to do until then, you could always go and vote for Thumpculture in the 'Favourite Web-based Comic' category of the Eagle Awards. I'm not saying you should, I'm just saying you, y'know, could.
2007-01-26
Thumpculture is off sick, so no update today - sorry.2007-01-22
Apologies for the slightly late update today, the server went down for a while. Power outages in Nottingham, I am reliably informed. So there you go.
While I'm here... it is times like this that I miss doing Unified Review Theory, as I would have had a place to rant at length about what a big pile of steaming shit the Jodie Foster movie 'Contact' is, which I was lucky enough to waste three precious hours of my life on last night. Anyway, I won't go on at length, but I would feel I had let myself down if I didn't beg each and every one of you to never, ever bother watching this film. It is a BIG PILE OF STEAMING SHIT. Thank you, that is all.
2007-01-08
On the subject of a Thumpculture soundtrack - I'm considering setting up an mp3 blog kinda thing as part of the page, to share specific tracks that form the soundtrack to the comic, but I don't especially want to get sued, so I'm dilly-dallying. In the mean time I have joined up to the dazzlingly awesome last.fm, so you can go and look at the Thumpculture last.fm page and listen to the radio station there or, by the magic of the internet, see what I've been listening to while drawing this week. If you can stand that much EXCITEMENT, you can also join the Thumpculture Group, and we can all swap funky tunes and chat and that. Go on, join, I'll put some biscuits out and everything.
2006-12-22
Yes, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my lovely readers!
Thumpculture is going on its Christmas holidays as of today - do your best to console yourselves in its absence. We'll be back on 05 January 2007 with all kinds of ludicrously splendid things for you.
Seriously, thanks to everyone who has read, supported and said nice things about Thumpculture in the last couple of months. I'm really pleased how much people seem to have been enjoying it so far, it's just slightly weird, as everything up to this point has just been the preamble TO the preamble, if you see what I mean. In 07 we're straight back with the single line of dialogue I've been looking forward to since we started, and then things really get started.
Coming up in Thumpculture in 2007: Mind-boggling action, ill-advised romantic entanglements, and a bold new theory of epistemology. Plus, you know, lots of ninjas and robots and kung-fu alien mummies and stuff. See you back here.
2007-01-05
...and we're back.
Apologies for the long break, the plan was to have a nice long holiday to refresh and recharge after a rather trying year, and get a nice long lead on Thumpculture built up. Unfortunately, I forgot to cc my immune system on this plan, and have had a somewhat less productive break than I might have hoped. Still, never mind, I shall be endeavouring to keep Thumpculture to its twice-weekly update schedule for the foreseeable future, health sleep and sanity be damned.
Anyway, there's lots of good stuff coming up for you lucky lucky people in 2007, so please keep reading, voting, etc. etc. I've stuck the xmas card up as the new voter incentive thing, so if you would like another chance to see Rab behaving inappropriately with mistletoe, vote now! One other thing I've been meaning to sort out for a while and singularly failed to get round to is settign up some kind of Thumpculture Sountrack - in the mean time, why not go and download the brand new and entirely, legitimately free album from Talib Kweli and Madlib, Liberation.It's disappeared from where I downloaded it but y'know, people, use google or something. It's pretty dope.
2006-12-08
So comicSpace is quite the new thing. It's like MySpace but, y'know just for COMICS. Also, less morally bankrupt. Possibly.
Anyway, I've joined up so you can go and take a goosey at http://www.comicspace.com/thumpculture/ where you can become my Internet Friend and leave coments and stuff.
2006-12-04
So I shall be attending the Birmingham International Comics Show this weekend, bigging up the Mammoth Book of Best New Manga and generally wandering around in a bewildered fashion. Come and say hello!
2006-11-28
Well, a whole mess o' people seem to be reading this thing already, which is extremely gratifying. We've just reached our magical 10th strip, which is my cue to begin officially spreading the word, actually making an effort to promote the site, etc.
Coming soon: lots of new bits to the site, including (fingers crossed) a shop where you can buy all kinds of funky Thumpculture crap.
If there's any particular kind of funky Thumpculture crap you are particularly hankering for, let me know...
2006-11-16
So there's this book coming out which I hear is pretty great...
Also, many thanks to reader Matt Good who suggested setting up an RSS feed for Thumpculture and then patiently explained to me what the hell an RSS feed was and how to do it. Anyway, it's all now set up so subscribe to the feed and never miss an episode again!
I am an internet genius.
2006-11-15
I've just set up one of them there newfangled MySpace pages for Thumpculture at: www.myspace.com/thumpculture - any readers who are MySpace members please feel free to add me to your friends list, as at the moment I have like one friend and it's kinda pathetic.
2006-12-06
Thumpculture has been shortlisted for the IMAF 2006 International Manga & Anime Competition. Because it rocks.
2006-11-03
To briefly answer our first FAQ: yes, I'm afraid you really do have to wait till Monday / Friday (delete as appropriate) to see what happens next.
Tell you what: tell all your friends to read Thumpculture, make me rich and famous, and then I'll be able to run updates every day. Deal?