Ok, the strip is posted (finally). Sorry for the delay.

I've posted a queue countdown there on the right hand side. A constant reminder to me (and you too) of how many I have in the pipeline. Who know, maybe I'll get it into double digits. Or at least out of the negatives.

And I get to do it all over again tonight. But I do so love it when a plan comes together. ;)

I am a silly, silly man. I have this current storyline plotted out with little notes and sketches and what not and as I sat down last night to do my strip I checked my notes and merrily doodled away and when I got to the lettering stage ... I realized I had done the wrong strip.

It was my typical late night and too late to start anew, so I will post today's strip a little bit later today after I get home from work. The good news it that next Monday's strip is done and in the queue. So ... I've got that going for me.

If your worried about missing a strip (or even a Blog post like this) you can always subscribe to the comic strip's RSS feed, or the separate news/Blog feed. That way you'll not miss a bit of InkTank goodness. Or my ramblings.

Again, my apologies. I have endeavored to keep the schedule on time and luckily, through a conversation with a friend last night, I think I have a plan to get a buffer created that should allow me to just rely solely on the database to do the postings. Perhaps I'll even add a little counter somewhere on the site indication how many strips are in the queue and ready to post. Hmmm...that might be interesting.

I'll see you all (please?) later tonight.

...and?

Well, I think it is all too obvious:

1. Deep Space Nine - great series, the most character development, they finally started using over reaching story arcs
   
2. Enterprise - had such potential, I found season three to be some of the best sci-fi TV I've ever seen
   
3. The Next Generation - much love, but only here because of weak episodes and overall unevenness
   
4. The Original Series - again, much love but even growing up with it, it seems dated and had some real clunkers
   
5. Voyager - I think there were only one or two episodes of this I enjoyed, the rest I really could have done without
   

That's right, I said it! Enterprise > ST:TNG!

A slew of free e-books are available at Tor.com this week, along with some pretty snazzy wallpapers.

Be sure to check 'em out.

and it got cancelled?

Due to a bug in the system (but I suspect dirty dealing over at Starcorp) the Goodship/InkTank war in Star Pirates has been postponed. We have one or two other challengers to get though as they revamp the fleet war ladder system a bit.

But it actually works out seeing as how fleet invites are suspended during war (to prevent people from stacking the deck at the last minute) we should be able to get everyone on board who has been flocking to my or Tauhid's sides. More members, bigger fleets, more crew monkeys!

SO stay tuned, this isn't over yet. ;)

And speaking of space news, I've had a lot of "Wait! Don't Go!" emails nad messages in regards to my departure from EVE Online. Lots of offers of start up money, equipment, offers to join corps, and even the process on how to mail money to an alt character. DOH!

I appreciate the offer gang, I do so love my fans. =) but I really do have to finish up cartoons for the week, wrap up the fan art winner's sketches AND ... another little something special just popped up on my radar, also I'm pretty excited about that.

So it will be a busy time for a while. But, I promise if I do get back into EVE I'll post about it here and get all the tip and tricks and suggestions I need to do it up right. I will however at least finish out my month by training up my learning skills and some basics on my Galliente. That way I'll be ready when I do return.

It be a battle o' the webcomics amongst the stars as the InkTank Navy defends itself again' Starcorp, scallywags most often seen in tha Goodship Chronicles.

Join the InkTank Navy as we scurvy pirates and our crew monkeys take on the goody goody cops of the Starcorp, led by Captain Hap Banning (Tauhid). A more wretched hive of scum and villiany ye've not seen give a whoopin' to a bunch of pasty faced nancy boys.

ALL CANNON TO STARBOARD! HOST THE MAIN SAIL! HEAD INTO THA' SPACE ... wind. ALL CREW MONKEYS ON DECK!

WE GOTS US A WAR, BOYS!

As I've mentioned here before, I've bene playing Star Pirates with some of the forum gang and fans of the comic. We hold a moderately high ranking in the fleet ladder, have successfully defended ourselves in a fleet war or two. Generally we loose to the bigger fleets ... but win or loose, we do it with style, panache, humor and no small amount of piratey taunting. Ayarrr!

Well, seeing as how Star Pirates is a space based game with fleet battles, player combat, ships to upgrade, stock market and player market and more, it sort of got me hankering for my EVE Online days. I played pretty seriously for a few months about a year ago. A Caldari combat pilot who turned his eye towards trading. I had a decent corporation ("guild") of folks I knew, did some great trade runs and made good money. But I eventually left after a while as one typically does with a MMO. You just sort of burn out.

Well, I decided to try EVE Online again as a Galliente. Being a trader, I wanted the best trading ship available and seeing as how I love drones for mining and combat ... well, it was an easy choice. I rolled an all new character, got back into the game and started the tutorials again. There was sooo much I had forgotten over the course of a year. Well, I figured I'd take my original Caldari and all his equipment and ships (about 7) and bequeath his money (twink) my new character. I sold all the ships, sold off all the equipment (weapons, ammo, shields, MWDs, etc.) and headed to my new characters home station, seventeen jumps away.

(All of this stuff I am saying will make sense to EVE players. The rest of you, please bear with me)

I had 20 million ISK ("dollars") to hand over. I had my original character buy one missile for 8 ISK and put it on the market for 20 million ISK. I loged in with my old, rich character and bought the missile for 20 million ISK. I then hopped back to my new guy and checked his wallet ... nothing.

Oh-kaaaay.

I logged back on as my old character again. He had 644 ISK and a single missile in his inventory. So the sale had gone though. The money however had gone to someone else.

So basically I bought a single missile off someone else in the game for 20 million dollars.

So there I sit with what now equates as two, broke, level 1 characters. The game had somehow lost its luster. I closed it all down and will cancel the account (I reactivated, so I'm only out the month's payment). As much as I like EVE, I just don't love EVE. It's a great game, but starting from scratch, with no corporation (as it had disbanded while I was away) and starting out eking out a living at mining just didn't appeal to me.

BUT... not to worry. I wasn't really all that upset. I was shocked, but not really upset. A year ago I played EVE very intensely and spent a TON of time in the game. A year ago, I didn't have the cartoon to do, not to mention all the other projects I have now to occupy my time. I honestly think the gaming Gods stepped in and removed the allure of EVE for me to remove the temptation of getting sucked in all over again. "You have no friends, no money and no equipment. Now get out of here and get back to making the funny!"

So, I will keep my focus on cartooning (the best thing really) and game in little bursts with games I can hop in and out of like TF2 and Star Pirates. A balance will be struck between my obligations and my gaming!

Oh yea, and the family. I'll fit them in there somewhere too.

The final votes have been tallied (in my head) and the winners chosen for the first annual InkTank Fan Art Contest. I received so many great entries that it was REALLY hard to pick winners. I was so happy (and surprised in some cases) with all of the entries that came in. So before I list the winners, I just wanted to send out a huge thank you to everyone who participated.

You guys rock!

And now...

First Place went to Krishna Sadasivam of PC Weenies fame. A delightful little entry that gave my wife a chuckle. "Aww look, he drew you thin." Hmmm.

Second Place winner Kevin Ireland of Ominous Knife made me laugh the most. I thought it was great he recalled the Civil War storyline and added Iron Man. Then I saw who Iron Man was and that just clinched it. Hilarious.

Third Place in an .mp3 file from the NightGig guru, JT Shea. It is the "InkTank Theme", as composed, played and sung by JT himself. Wow. I've never had anybody serenade me before. I blush.

Now, normally that would be the end of it, but there were SOOOO many good entries that I expanded my winning slots a little bit.

The Runner Up prize goes to Adonis (a forum regular) for his rendition of little ol' me as one of my favorite characters. Heh ... I'm thin here too.

And finally, Honorable Mention goes to Rucdoc, creator of Newbie Shooting Range for incorporating just about every damned character from the AT universe. Including some even I had forgotten about.

All the entrants have been notified and prize distribution is on the way. I hope to wrap up the prize sketches this weekend and have them off by next week, as well as the Iron Man subcast from my generous sponsor, Sideshow Collectables, and the Firefly DVD set.

All the entries can be viewed here on the new InkTank Fan Art Page. Please, go check all the entries out and feel free to discuss on the forums.

Thanks again everyone! It was a total blast and every day was like Christmas (well, the days I got entries).

Heh, thanks to X-istenz of the forums for the funny blog headline. ^_^

Well, it's been an exciting weekend. We finally had the engagement party that's been in the planning stages for months. Now my sister in-law and her fiance can move on with the months of wedding planning. Even though it was just a gathering of friends and family at the house, I decided to get pimped out (at least something beyond my standard "dress up" fare of Dockers and a blue shirt). I found an outfit on a mannequin at Macy's that I thought looked cool, pretty much a pinstripe suit with a vest but no jacket and the shirt sleeves rolled up. We got all the necessary pieces and I was quite dashing, if I do say so myself. Of course, I had to take into account "mannequin view" vs. "Barry view".

Why don't they make mannequins with pot bellies anyways?

All in all a great time was had by all and Mo even got up (well, ran up actually) to the karaoke machine and gave us three songs: "He's a Tramp" from Lady and the Tramp, her ABCs, and "Cruella DeVille" from 101 Dalmatians. All in front of about 50 people. I think I have a future as a stage dad, eh?

Elsewhere on the web, I mentioned Hulu before, right? It's a site that has free TV shows and movies, with short commercials (about three per show, all 30 seconds max). I was drawn there by seasons 1 and 2 of Babylon 5 but have stuck around for some of the reality shows and other fare I missed the first time around. I've been going though Burn Notice and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. not to mention they are having the ... something "Days of Summer" there and are uploading some good stuff every day for the month of July. Men In Black, The Fifth Element, Underworld: Evolution, etc. Good stuff.

And the Fan Art contest is now closed. Winners have been decided and will be contacted this week. I hope to hear back from them and then announce the winners and post all the entries on Friday. Thanks everyone, we got some great stuff and some truly unique entries. =)

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I know I am.

Get those last minute fan art entries in! The ballots are closed by end of day today and I'll be picking the winners over the weekend.

In other news, it's been a really hectic week around here, what with preparing for the sister in-law's engagement party, signing Mo up for dance and swimming classes and the like and fighting a war.

Well, a space war to be exact. The InkTank Navy fought their first war and lost with great flair. With exhausted crew monkeys and empty canned cheese containers littering the poop decks, we make our way back to port to lick our wounds, drink celebratory rum (we'd be drinking the rum if we won, no need to let it all go to waste) and preparing for more piratey space battles.

Man, this was a very busy 4th for me and mine. From finally cleaning out our old place after the recent move to birthdays, fireworks and a day at Gilroy Gardens ... I'm pooped!

Friday was nice and relaxing as I sorted though everything left behind at our old apartment and sorted between "storage" and "donation". It was a breeze with Stephen King's Cell playing in my headphones all day. Nothing like an audio book to make chores fly by.

Next up was watching fireworks on the deck. From our view we can see all of Southern San Jose stretched out below us, so from the fairgrounds to downtown San Jose and all the way over to Great America (not to mention all the homes celebrating in between) we got quite a show. This year though we retired a little earlier than usual as we had a big day planned for Saturday.

A while ago I asked Mo "What do you want to be when you grow up?" "Three." was her answer. Well, she got her wish on Saturday with a morning of presents and a day trip to Gilroy Gardens. Now, we opted for Gilroy Gardens (despite the name change though it will always be Bonafante Gardens to us) because there are generally much smaller crowds than most them parks plus there are all manner of kid friendly rides and no "monster coasters" and whatnot. It's just a laid back, beautiful park. Far too expensive for what is is though, but still one of our favorite parks. We came home for a nice afternoon nap and then spent Sunday cleaning up the house and doing just general errands around town.

All in all, a great weekend. =)

Yarr! An if'n ye wants ta be an official captain of yer own crew monkeys, ye now have the opportunity ta join the #1 ranked fleet in Star Pirates. But ye must hurry, we canna send invitations mid-war and we aism ta be seein' a lot o' action soon. Join up, send me a message (to "InkTank" naturally) fer in an invite inta tha [INK] fleet and set sail aside "The Filthy Monkey" fer high adventure and a fair bit o' gamblin' and carousin'.

Yep, due to a strange combination of politics and luck, we are now the number 1 ranked fleet in the game. Not bad for a bunch of upstarts. The game though offers more than fighting, with gambling, exploration, rescue missions and active markets (stock markets and a player run items market) the game can keep ya busy in any manner of ways. So whether you are inclined to raid and attack yer enemies, or play the numbers games, there's plenty to do in Star Pirates.

And of course I'd be remiss if I didn't mention this is the least week to get the fan art contest submissions in! So be sure to finish off those "works in progress" and get em sent on over ASAP. We have some great entries so far, but there is always room for more. All entries will go in the fan art gallery with a link back to the sender (if so desired) so get em in and be counted!