Wally and Osborne

Hey guys, I’ve got the new comic inked and about half colored. I was going to finish it up today but I’m not feeling so hot. So instead I’ve been updating the site to the new version of ComicPress I created recently for people that want to publish a Webcomic using the popular WordPress blogging software. The site has some new features such as this separate blog I’m typing in now, a little way to give you some updates when I’m not posting a comic or to put some news on the front page that doesn’t slip away so quickly.

There’s also some new archiving and searching abilities that take more advantage of WordPress.

Hey, how about some more birds in comics?

A friend and fellow cartoonist, Larry Merrill, just launched a new Webcomic called The Boids. He’s handling art while Steve Campbell writes the funny. Go check it out, it’s fresh on the scene today with a big chunk of eight comics already available to read on the front page.

He’s also using the excellent new version of ComicPress.

Knuts Still Cute
The orphaned polar bear that won the hearts of millions and caused some controversy as well is growing up. At 5 months he’s starting to look like a polar bear, and less like a stuffed toy. So far that hasn’t hurt his popularity too much as he’s still drawing in the crowds and setting his way to be an icon for preserving a species. CNN has a recent video at Yahoo.

Indiarctica Part 3
India is set to build their third station in Antarctica. They are going to “defy international opinion and set up a base in a planned Antarctic protected area to research the prehistoric origins of a Hindu holy river”. “The Godavari (River) would have flowed there about 130 million years ago when the continent was part of the Gondwana land-mass.” Hmm. Here’s one of the articles on it.

Arctic Seal Decides Florida Is the Perfect Place To Go To Retire & Die
Well, the arctic bearded seal, normally found near the north pole, that wandered down to a Florida canal has died. A day after being “rescued”. Scientists really don’t know why the seal ended up down there. I’m assuming the excellent country clubs. Article here.

Hey guys, quick little update here. There are only three comics left in this storyline, I’ve got them scripted out and just squeezing in time to draw them. I’ve been pretty busy lately with projects, actually drawing stuff, been doing lots of math workbook illustrations, I’ll see if I can get permission to share some of them for fun. Also some educational interactive Flash stuff.

I had planned on drawing up the next comic today but in the time I was suppose to use to do it I got sidetracked making a little script to display avatars next to your names in the comments, heh. What it does is grabs the “favorite” icon from the website you entered, that’s the little icon that appears next to the URL of a website up at the top of your browser. If the site doesn’t have one, the avatar will just be an empty box, and if you don’t have a site entered, then it will default to the Wally and Osborne one:

So more fun with the comments to junk them up with ridiculous posts, smileys and now avatars. Serves me right for not getting the next comics online. I’m on it…

A friend recently referred me to Wowio. It’s got some cool comics and graphic novels, including several all-ages ones that I’ve been checking out. It’s an e-book store, but all the books are free to download and there is no cost to sign up. In fact if you get 10 people to sign up they give you a free ipod shuffle. So if you do sign up, please enter tyler@mindfaucet.com as referring you there and my tunes and I will soon be mobile.

[EDIT: I'm sorry but it's currently only for USA residents. I forgot to mention that. Apologies to those in other countries. Hopefully they will make it available to them too soon.]

I’m considering offering future Wally & Osborne books from this service. Be a nice way for people to get to see the extra book content that are not able to purchase the books for whatever reasons. Although, I guess it would be nice to be able to even purchase a Wally & Osborne book… yes I’m on it!

Hey guys, sorry no comic today, I got really busy with stuff. There is a new one tomorrow though!

I do however have a cool new Wallpaper for you to download. It features Wally & Osborne as well as Cow & Buffalo all in there underwear superhero outfits. You can read more about it at Lunchbox Funnies as well as download several different sizes to fit your desktop.

My readers know I love me some penguin news. Thanks to everyone that has commented, messaged or e-mailed me with links to the story.

Fossils of a giant prehistoric penguin have been making the headlines, a penguin with a long spear-like beak that stood about 5 feet tall. This would make it the third largest species of penguin discovered, the first being what Max was based on, which stood at nearly 6 feet tall and weighed in at 300 pounds.

Although what made this particular find newsworthy to scientists is that the remains were found in Peru, a tropical climate, way earlier in history than scientists believed that penguins had migrated to warmer weathered areas. Here’s some of the links:

Tropical giant penguin discovered [BBC]
‘Pinocchio’ penguin basked in Peru sun early on [MSNBC]
March Of The Giant Penguins [TerraDaily]

I’m sure many of you have gone and seen the new Surfs Up movie, a surfers story told using penguins. I had the chance to the other day, but saw Evan Almighty instead, so I still need to go see it. Anyway, I downloaded the game demo for it the other day and it’s actually pretty fun for a surfing game, definitely worth trying out the demo if nothing else.

Also thanks to My Game Company, an independent family-friendly game developer, who’s been advertising their Dirk Dashing: Secret Agent game here on the site all week. If you get a chance, go download that game demo as well.

Now you can game it up this weekend. And after that, go get yourself some paper and crayons and make your own gaming system like Wally, you’ll be the hit of all your friends… or hit by them.

Wally & Osborne turned two yesterday. I launched the site on July 4th, 2005. I can’t believe two years has already gone by. It’s been fun though, and it still feels like they are only just getting started.

Sorry about no updates this week, guess it’s Wally & Osborne Anniversary break.

Hope you have been enjoying the more regular updates, we’ll get back on schedule next week. Have a good weekend! 

It was a lot of fun creating the hand-drawn detailed version of Thomas (our resident emperor penguin juvie bully) for this comic from last week. The original art for it is now available for sale, first come, first serve. I’ve also got high-resolution prints available. And if that’s not enough, go check out the downloads page for new Thomas wallpapers. We’ll make a celebrity of that boy!