I know I’ve been promising it for a coon’s age, but here it is, for real. Parts of the website are unimpressive as-yet, but will be more impressive once I’ve got some more material up there. I’ve got a few strips ready to start, though, so please go take a look, and let me know what you think.

I plan to update once or twice a week, more if I’m feeling punchy and getting ahead, less if I’m, you know, taking finals. Sorry to keep you waiting, but that’s just how it is. Luckily, if you subscribe to the RSS feed, you’ll get the images as they come, so you don’t have to keep checking the site if you really don’t want to. I won’t take it personally (though my little stats counter loves hits, munch munch munch).

Note: PLEASE oh PLEASE oh PLEASE do not view my website in Internet Explorer. IE makes my heart ache, and my site break. It’s not worth it to me to support Explorer, because everyone should have Firefox, which is more pretty, secure, and, you know, cool. If you need to get Firefox, just click the above link to the comic and then click on the button for Firefox. Thanks!

Loathe though I am to offer free advertising, I must give a rave to Pixelgirl. Not only have I benefited from their steady stream of completely gorgeous wallpapers, but I am pretty into the fact that they’re offering the cutest little indie gifts and art in the world. Not only do they have the best sushi-themed items in the world (who could resist a fabulous sushi pillow?), but they also offer a not-at-all-bad selection of original, indie-artist prints and paintings.

I am currently reeling from having just finished watching “Carnivale,” a two-season show that ran on HBO from 2003-2005. I got the DVDs from Netflix, and I’m not sure what to say except: HOLY CRAP!

I think it might be the closest thing I’ve seen to what a Charles Williams novel would look like on film: completely terrifying and impeccably plotted. It’s been a long, long time since I saw a TV show that consistent. It reminded me initially of “Twin Peaks,” partially because of the Little Man From Another Place, and partially because of the mystical and sordid nature of the plot-line; however, it did right many of the things that “Twin Peaks” did wrong. It did not have (as far as I could tell) anything that was Weird just for the sake of being Weird; all was (to a lesser or greater degree) explained. There was a lot left open at the end of the show, and a lot that was resolved, so it feels like a complete story, but in the way that “Star Wars: A New Hope” was a complete story: yeah, it’s an ending, but I’m left wanting at least two more stories.

Things I really loved about the show:

- The look, the feel, the historicity of the thing. I find myself, now, wanting to say “ain’t” and “damn” a lot, and I generally feel rather less-dusty than I expect to be.
- The music is totally great. It has a lot in common with the Firefly soundtrack in terms of instrumentation. The thing I really love about the soundtrack, though, is one of the things I love about the show: it is filmed and made with the care of a movie. The soundtrack sounds like a movie soundtrack, something I’d hear at the Oscars, not like something that was sandwiched in-between scenes to keep people amused when no one is talking.
- Clancy Brown is rocking my socks. I went searching for him on the interwebs after the show; besides having been Rawhide in “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension,” he seems really fiercely intelligent. He wrote a letter to the Carnivale fans urging them to stop threatening HBO execs (yes, that has happened! People are REALLY upset that the show was canceled), and it was very succinct and well-written.

Things I didn’t like about the show:

- There are very few, or else this obviously wouldn’t be such a rave review. I must say that while I don’t mind being scared by movies (I do get genuinely scared, but in a way that’s sort of fun), there were some bits of this that made me feel really uncomfortable, for the same reasons as bits of “Rob Roy” are simply not watchable.
- There was also a whole lot of sex, some of which I got sort of annoyed at at the time (”Okay already, get ON with it!”) — but it all came out to be necessary to the story, so it’s not as bad by the time you get to the end. Also, there was one scene, and I won’t spoil it by telling you who, but one of the characters gets tarred and feathered, and baby, that is not a pleasant thing to see. Tar and feathers always struck me as embarrassing and obviously not something that you want to have happen, but apparently I did not actually think the process of tarring and feathering through. See, tar has to be hot to be spreadable. Really, really… hot. *winces*

Anyway, the show is basically controlling my life now, and I need all of you to go out and watch it, too, so that I have someone with whom I can discuss it. Go watch it. Please?