The Locked Maze 2: Page 7 (mleiv.com)
Medium: SketchBookPro/Photoshop Size: 8.5X11"
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This is probably easiest to read in my deviantArt Gallery.

I think I was a little too enamoured of the four-panel conversation row, at the exclusion of other ways I might have approached this page. The Significant Other said it looked like a scene from That 70s Show. :/ In Book I, each page was just a grouping of various "screenshots" with the occasional effort at placing important moments at the end of a page. In Book II, I tend to approach each page with an idea, and force the action to fit it. Which is why I've had so many unattractively text-heavy pages. The whole decision making process here is so much harder than it looks from the finished product. It's actually a lot like programming. There's a lot of arbitrary choices going on which we drape with pretty phrases like "most efficient" and "elegant" and "modern coding conventions," but in reality we just picked one of ten nearly identical ways of solving the problem and - although we will spend the next 20 years re-evaluating that choice in our heads - it's written down and we aren't going to bother changing it now.
[tales of monkey island]
In one of the most exciting and unexpected bit of news I've uncovered in the past decade, MONKEY ISLAND IS COMING BACK.

There is a five-episode set coming from telltale games under the label Tales of Monkey Island which you can preorder now, or download starting July 7, 2009.

And LucasArts is re-releasing the original Secret of Monkey Island with all new HD graphics at a TBD date this summer.

Much thanks to Something Positive for bringing this to my attention. I know he was just paid to put up the ad, and a true fangirl would know already, but after so many years of searching in vain (and buying Monkey Island Madness for an extortionate price on eBay), I had given up on ever seeing another Monkey Island.

If I weren't at work right now, I'd be dancing. I will dance tonight. :)

 

Just some painful web lessons I thought I'd share for similarly-beleaguered web developers who are wondering if their browsers (or their clients' browsers) are possessed of evil spirits.

Blank Page, No Errors in IE 8

A fraction of IE8 users reported a blank white page with no errors and a "done" loading message. It was completely unreproducible in any of my VMs, but through some searching, I found others suggesting the problem was tied to Compatibility View. When IE8 was released, my boss asked me to find a way to get rid of the IE8 Compatibility button, so I was using <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=Edge" /> in my templates to force ultra-super-futuristic behavior (under the theory that IE is *always* behind the times). However, one of the pages had no doctype (see prior Web Tricks for why that was necessary and not within my power to remedy). And apparently the combination of those two (future spiffiness and pathetic quirks mode past) freaks IE8 out... or about 1% of IE8, at least. And thus... the oh-so-helpful blank page.

Anyway, removing the X-UA-Compatible meta tag fixed it. You could also set it to IE=7 or IE=EmulateIE7, but at that point I figured I'd leave the choice to the user on that page. If you already don't have X-UA-Compatible set, look for the Compatibility View button in the client browser and change it for the problem page.

More reading on Compatibility View: FarukAt.eş: IE8 and the X-UA-Compatible situation and IEBlog: Just The Facts: Recap of Compatibility View.

Firefox Hover Missing In "Quirks" Mode

On the same page, we noticed that the hovers were not behaving as expected in Firefox. Turns out, when you are in Quirks Mode (the no-doctype mode), Firefox does not support CSS :hover on list elements. You didn't know Firefox even had Quirks Mode? Me too. I thought that kind of asinine behavior was reserved for IE, but apparently Firefox has jumped on that mess. Joy.

The Locked Maze 2: Page 6 (mleiv.com)
Medium: SketchBookPro/Photoshop Size: 8.5X11"
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This is probably easiest to read in my deviantArt Gallery.

I think this is one of my favorite pages so far. The colors aren't as nice as the Gallivan Center page, mind you, but I skipped the step I hate the most (inking) and breezed through the coloring in one long evening. Yay!
[jack lucky wannabe]
Apparently my comic has a wider following than I had thought, because I spotted a man styled as Jack Lucky in Portland this past weekend, complete with lovely fairy companion.
 
The great thing about being the only species that makes a distinction between right and wrong is that we can make up the rules for ourselves as we go along. Douglas Adams, Last Chance To See
God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time. Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, Good Omens
The Locked Maze 2: Page 5 (mleiv.com)
Medium: Photoshop Size: 8.5X11"
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This is probably easiest to read in my deviantArt Gallery.

** UPDATED 2009-06-11: Oh god, I can't believe I forgot Lucky's scruff. Sorry all, I was really tired. He just isn't Lucky without a little scruff. ;)

My eyes hurt.

This was recently brought to my attention on deviantArt:

I am a very cynical person. But obviously still a little optimistic. I love this whole speech on how to become an artist by offering up the most unique commodity you have (yourself), and being persistent and hard-working with no regard for outcome. And his overarching point that you should be an artist only because you love it, and not for recognition - is definitely an ideal I can agree with. I know too many people who pick up writing, music, or art (or, all three) because they are looking to bring meaning and glamour to their lives, and it always feels false and annoying. Do it because you love it and you are unhappy without it. Then, if you are a colossal failure, you at least have an enjoyable pastime to distract you from your misery. }:^)

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