THIS IS A TUMBLR

That magnificent robot bastard you see above is Atomic Robo (and additionally, one of my favorite panels). I've talked about this series before, but the creators, Brian Clevinger & Scott Wegener, recently announced that they're moving to a free web-comic model. This now makes it the easiest comic to read that you should of been reading all along.

They're in the process of uploading the first nine volumes to the website as we speak (head's up - the site has been going in and out all day presumably from the stampede of visitors), and once that's finished, Volume 10, Atomic Robo and the Ring of Fire will begin being uploaded.

If you want to support them (please do!), they will still be selling collected trades in paperback form and they also started a Patreon account if you can find a way to get them a little something every month.

Please check out either link and help support creator owned content. It's terribly frustrating this still needs to be said as much as it is.

EPs WORTH MENTIONING:

Cloudkicker - Little Histories (December 1st) Favorite Track: "Digital Lightning"

Rosetta - Flies to Flame (October 14th) Favorite Track: "Soot"

TOP 10 ALBUMS:

10. Devin Townsend Project - Z²: Sky Blue (October 27th) Favorite Track: "Universal Flame"

09. Intervals - A Voice Within (March 4th) Favorite Track: "Ephemeral"

08. Opeth - Pale Communion (August 25th) Favorite Track: "River"

07. Devin Townsend - Z²: Dark Matters (October 27th) Favorite Track: "March of the Poozers"

06. Fallujah - The Flesh Prevails (July 22nd) Favorite Track: "Sapphire"

05. Allegaeon - Elements of the Infinite (June 24th) Favorite Track: "Genocide For Praise - Vals For The Vitruvian Man"

04. Insomnium - Shadows of the Dying Sun (April 25th) Favorite Track: "Collapsing Words"

03. Black Crown Initiate - The Wreckage of Stars (September 30th) Favorite Track: "Withering Waves"

02. The Contortionist - Language (September 16th) Favorite Track: "Ebb & Flow"

Two of my very good friends, Aaron & Alison, got married back in October. Since my friend Mike home brews & I design things, we went a little overboard with their wedding gift. They got 120 bottles of Simpson-inspired beer. Everything from Duff to Skittlebräu was covered, and I couldn't help myself and included the worst (best!) pun name I could with 'I Choo-Choo-Choose Brew' as well.

There's a total of 15 unique labels (including all the Skittlebräu flavors) that I created. I tried to stay as show consistent as I could with everything, but I also included some extra gags and in-jokes on the labels.

To complete the whole package, Mike put together some wooden crates to lug everything around in & burned the Duff logo in with a torch & metal stencil he had made at work, and I made up a beer list inspired by Moe's to let the newlyweds know what kind of beer they were getting.

We brewed five main varieties: Duff (and Duff variants) are a basic American Lager, Duff Dark & Choo-Choose Brew are an Imperial Stout, Lady Duff is an Apple Ale, Red Tick is an Irish Red Ale, & Skittlebräu is a Skittle-infused pilsner that used the sugar in the Skittles as our catalyst for carbonization.

I started a Dynasty Fantasy Football league this year as an excuse to work on a large design project in my free time.

Eventually it'll be a 12-team league with a team from each of the Midwestern states. Each team will have their own unique identities, uniforms, and merchandise. On top of that, I'll be putting together a yearbook at the end of the year with season recaps and the like.

These may look like ordinary kids, but you won’t believe what we’ve discovered about them.

I just finished up volume 8 of Atomic Robo and it continues to perplex me how it's not more popular than it is.

In a nutshell, Atomic Robo, the world's first "automatic intelligence" was created by Tesla in the 1920's. Because he's continually upgraded himself over time, his various adventures have covered a span of time from his creation to the present day (secret WWII & NASA projects included). Since 1943, he's been in charge of Tesladyne Industries and it's elite group of Action Scientists, dedicated to combat weirdness around the globe.

Bring Reading Rainbow’s unlimited library of interactive books and video field trips to kids everywhere & help classrooms most in need!

When I think of tense, gripping spy thrillers, I think of Paul F. Tompkins.