PVP - Player Vs Player

First a quick announcement about our website

Our servers have been going through some maintenance over the weekend and we’re still doing some fine tuning behind the scenes. It’s just a part of growing I guess, which is a nice problem to have. But in the meantime, I can post here, but uploading strips is proving difficult. So until you see them updating again on this very spot, head over to the PvP Facebook page for your daily dose. And thanks for the patience.

I feel like it’s going to take an entire year to process everything that happened at PAX prime 2012

That sounds like hyperbole, but it’s really not. This PAX was by far my most busy, most exciting and most outrageous convention experience. Kris and I performed two live shows, I participated in three panels (one of which was a life D&D game in front of thousands), and I teased a brand new comic project that’s going to debut in January of 2013. My voice is gone, my bones ache and I can’t get this sense of awe to lift from around my head.

I do want to write about this PAX. I just need some time. I’m going to be posting all week about it, so be sure to check the blog every day. In the meantime let me tell you what I can about this new project. We did tease it. And I’m using the word tease specifically because it’s not even been officially announced. Here’s what I can tell you right now:

- It’s called Table Titans.
- It features Val Bronzebottom and her gaming group.
- It will start in January 2013
- You can sign up for our newsletter at tabletitans.com to be the first to get updates.

I really hope you do sign up for our newsletter on this one. I haven’t been this excited about a project since PvP started up. Well, that’s not exactly true because when PvP started I had no idea it would ever become what it’s become. Maybe it’s more accurate to say that I’ve never felt a project was as important to me since PvP started.

That’s a pretty great feeling.

Just a heads up

Our server maintenance is still ongoing and it looks like my ability to post a new comic strip here won’t be back for a couple of days. Our story is at a bit of a cliffhanger, and I don’t want to half-ass revealing what happened to Marcy and Francis in Vegas. So here’s the plan:

Today, Tomorrow and Friday, I’m going to be posting my thoughts on PAX and all the crazy stuff that went down this last weekend. And then on Monday, hopefully with full site functionality restored, we’re going to resume the story about our alleged newlyweds.

So please come back all this week for some amazing PAX stories, and be sure to be here bright and early on Monday morning to hear what Marcy and Francis have to say for themselves.

Thanks!

I’ve always tried to make a habit of saying “we” instead of “I” when blogging.

I always thought that if I said “we” instead of just “me” it would make the work seem more important. It was a writer’s affect I took on to sound less like a solo-act.

This year’s PAX made me realize that without knowing it, I was right the whole time. PvP has been a group effort from the beginning. I get to do what I do because of a passionate, and evangelical readership who go out of their way to keep me creating. There is absolutely no place on earth that is more evident than at PAX.

PAX for me this year was a perverse venn diagram of blessings. One circle is PvP, One is the D&D podcasts, and the third is the Kris and Scott stuff. The place where all the circles overlap is PAX.

Nothing that happened at PAX was solo act. Our live shows on Thursday and Sunday night were produced by Liz Smith who not only booked the venue and lined up Card Kingdom as a sponsor for the show but got us all our amazing guests and made sure Kris and I just had to show up and go out on stage. Loading Ready Run, Stepto, Mikey Neumann, Patrick Rothfuss, Paul and Storm and Frontalot al brought their passion to our stage to entertain our audience. Scott Campbell drew an amazing watercolor caricature for our show posters. The staff at the Triple Door took great care of us and our guests. And everyone who paid to come out, man. What a great audience. Just outstanding.

The live D&D podcast this year was our best to date I think. Certainly our funniest (Thanks Kris for the gut-busting D&D blams). Chris Perkins is an sublime Dungeon Master and the set piece and table-diorama he created to play on were incredible. Mike, Jerry and Wil were hilarious on stage as usual and the crowd was amazing, cheering us on as we played. I really am glad that we used the D&D next play test rules because combat went fast and we got a lot of gaming in. Which can be difficult in two hours of performing. So many people worked on that live game, it’s unreal.

I couldn’t walk ten feet on the con floor without someone stopping to say thanks to me. Or to tell me how much they loved Binwin or PvP or the web series. My favorite night of the show was after my “evening with Scott Kurtz” panel. I had just spent an hour or two sharing personal stories with an audience that was so receptive, so kind and so appreciative that I felt like I was hanging out with friends. I shared a lot of personal stuff that night and everyone was very respectful of that and so many of you made time to come up afterwards and share your stories with me as well. Just magical.

After announcing my new comic Table Titans one PAX attendee asked me if I was biting off more than I could chew. Absolutely I am. I want to create as much as I can while so many people are excited about my work, and while I still have the energy and excitement to create it. PAX Prime 2012 is to date, the best convention experience I’ve ever had. I’m happier than ever doing what I do and I’m so blessed to have a readership like you guys along for the ride pushing me along and keeping it going.

We just couldn’t be more excited.

I was sad to hear that NCSoft was shutting down City of Heroes

The Super-hero themed MMO has close ties to PvP. Back in 2004, after getting hooked on the game myself, I did a series of strips about COH that were so well received that NCSoft approached me to collect them into a comic book. The comic was included in the collectors edition DVD box set. That year, NCSoft provided us with copies of the game to give out with a purchase of $50 or more at the PvP booth at the San Diego Comicon. Needless to say that was our best sales year to date. And more recently, Paragon Studios asked us to create a custom mission featuring our own super-hero the LOLbat.

Being a big comic book fan, I was ecstatic when City of Heroes was released and we played it non-stop from launch. My first hero was an ice blasted named Zamboni. Later I created the swashbuckling En Garde and started up a super-group. I absolutely LOVED creating my own heroes, combining powers and costumes with funny names. Pummel Granite, Catfight, Smartalec, Moonchild, Landshark and Eskimo Spy. We had a complete blast.

I have not played City of Heroes in quite a while, but the game still has a very strong and passionate player base. I wasn’t sure at first how or if I could help. Stories are coming in that NCSoft is in talks with investors and possibly trying to find a way to make something happen. I’m not sure of the details. but everyone agrees that talking about it and keeping the game in the spotlight can only help the cause. So here are some links to learn more (courtesy of John C. Wright’s blog):

The announcement from NCSoft

The online petition asking NCSoft not to shut down the game

City of Heroes is intertwined in the history of our comic strip. So many of our readers discovered PvP because of the game. I don’t want it to die. I don’t know what I can do to stop it from going away other than talking about it. Please join me in that.

Spread the word.

One of the great disappointments in my life is that I am unable to share in my mother’s joy over seeing me become a cartoonist

It’s also a great disappointment that when sharing stories with you, dear reader, about my mother, it must be in the context of a woman who has died. Trust me when I tell you that my mother was so much more interesting a figure in the context of a living person. I have found that when someone dies, especially someone who was loved dearly and played important roles in many lives, they tend to get deified. Part of the grieving process is remembering all the good times you had and pretty soon all the shitty things about that person tend to get pushed aside, glossed over and never really touched on again. I find this to be a terrible disservice to the memory of a person. People are infinitely more exciting when you include the things about them you absolutely can’t stand.

My mother was a gossip, she shot her mouth off a lot, she played favorites, went behind my father’s back all the time to do things for us kids that we didn’t need to have done for us. She was loud, Italian, nosey, and could be mean. My mother and I talked about everything, and we argued about everything. One of the last conversations we had before she died was a fight. This was going to happen regardless of when either of us died, because we were always fighting about something.

Anyway, I’m telling you all this because I wanted to share this note I found from my mother. We found it tucked safely inside a small booklet she and my brother made years ago of my college strips. I think what happened was that this particular booklet was intended for my friend but somehow ended up with my Aunt and Uncle in California. They’ve kept it perfectly preserved since they received it in 1991 and had no idea there was a note from mom inside.

I had no idea that my mother thought in any detail about my comics. Obviously she was proud of me. Anytime I showed her something I worked on she would gush. But I never got the impression she understood anything about cartooning beyond “my son drew this.” I was shocked to see that she thought about it much at all, let alone enough to write a note down to brag about me in such specific ways.

I don’t know which aspects of the woman who was once my mother continue to persist, but I do believe that if she’s out there in any form, she has ceased to see time in a linear fashion. So I can talk to my mother right now, and she could know of that conversation, because to her, I already said it years ago, and she experienced everything I am ever going to say and do the instant she connected with infinity and then she came to peace with it and went on to tackle greater mysteries. This is my hope. This is my very dear hope.

This note was a very precious artifact to find, because for the moment in which I first read it, time stopped being linear for me as well. And I felt transported to a time when I was not burdened with remembering her. What a gift. What an accidental happiness I was afforded by a choice my mother made 21 years ago.

Life is odd and wonderful.

I’m going to be on a new podcast

I’ve been a big admirer of Scott Johnson and his suite of geek-centric podcasts for a long time, and it’s been exciting to watch him grow his Frogpants Studios into a new media micro-empire. Scott has asked me to join him and his friends on a new podcast called Comic Dorks. Here’s the skinny on the show via the official press release. Check out the links to tune in.

THE COMIC DORKS PODCAST JOINS THE FROGPANTS PODCAST NETWORK

September 16, 2012, Salt Lake City – Frogpants, LLC is proud to announce that Comic Dorks, starring Scott Johnson, Stephen Schleicher, Scott Kurtz, & Marc Spagnuolo, is about to launch on the Frogpants Podcast Network!

“We’re all comic book lovers”, says Johnson, “with a lot to say about the current state of the comics world and where things might end up one day. Seems like the perfect combination of people and platform for a new monthly show to me.”

“I’m ready to read some comics, talk about said comics, and then make a joke or two about Mr. Johnson. So I think I’m pretty much good to go!”, said Spagnuolo of the new venture.

“I can’t wait…plus, there’s always time to be angry about comic books. Let’s do this.”, says Kurtz. “I’m pumped. Should be a lot of fun!”

“Wait… we get to make fun of Scott Johnson!? Now I’m super pumped!”, remarked Schleicher. “Now if we get to work the words “wood” “Johnson” and “Scott Kurtz” into a single sentence, the Intardwebz ear holes will be spinning!”

On each monthly episode of Comic Dorks, the boys will talk about the books they’re reading, industry news, and the state of comics in general.

“There’s so much to talk about in regard to print vs digital, what the big publishers are doing to try and keep our devotion.”, said Johnson. “Comic Dorks aims to be the kind of show and conversation that will invite lots of interaction with listeners and fans.”

Comic Dorks, episode one, will launch on October 1st 2012, and be available via iTunes, comicdorks.com, and wherever you stream or download your favorite shows.

“Right now we are planning on a monthly release schedule, kind of like the comics you read, but if things really take off, who knows what will happen.” said Johnson. “We can’t wait to get cranking and put this thing out for comic fans to hear!”

The website for Comic Dorks is http://comicdorks.com

You can pre-subscribe to Comic Dorks now via iTunes http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/comic-dorks!/id547678357

Subscribe to Comic Dorks via RSS Feed http://myextralife.com/ftp/radio/comicdorks.xml

Subscribe to the Frogpants Ultra Feed and get everything from the Frogpants Podcast Network http://myextralife.com/ftp/radio/frogpants.xml

ABOUT FROGPANTS LLC
Frogpants LLC was founded officially by Scott Johnson in 2007.  Really, this stuff has been happening since 1999. Long story. Details at frogpants.com.