The Great Moose Hunt

A delayed posting this week, for which I apologise. Things with this week's strip started ok, but then an art-block kicked in and nothing I did looked right. This, along with a busy week lead to me finishing the comic late. However, I am quite happy with the way things turned out overall, so the extra time seemed to have helped at least a little. I hope you all think so to (it should distract you all from the lateness of the post long enough for me to make my escape!).

Garden Pests

It's been a very busy week so far, especially with the weekend being taken up volunteering at the IFSC Bouldering World Cup finals. Nevertheless, it's been a good week and all the better for being able to get the latest strip completed on the right day! (although a little later than usual). So, I hope you all enjoy this edition of Quackers which follows straight on from last week's episode, and I'll see you again for the conclusion coming up next week!

Overgrowth

And here we begin the story that was postponed a few weeks ago due to Quackers reaching it's 300th edition.
I had fun with this one. As it was such a short comic I was able to spend more time working on the backgrounds and overall appearance, something that I don't get the chance to do all too often. Part of the fun came from adding in all the little details in the last panel. I'm still surprised at how much of it is still visible after resizing the image for the website (always a good thing). Personally I think my favourite bit of the whole thing was spontaneously coming up with the parrot during the inking stage. While it won't become (yet another) pet of Jason and Tom, it may well pop up later in the year in a strip a little more piratey in nature...

Only To Be Expected

It's not an accurate representation of what happened this week, but this week's episode is a fair generalisation of the fun I've had. Now I like summer. The warm weather, the sunshine, blue skies, and longer days... At least I enjoy the three days or so of it that we get here in the UK. So far for every clear, warm day we've had five or more cloudy/rainy days following it. But my hopes were inevitably high when it seemed we'd get at least a couple of nice days together. But we all know that's a rookie mistake, and true to form I ended up with an ear infection right at the time the good weather shows up and I miss half of it feeling rotten in bed. So this strip was a little homage to that.
It has been a bit of a week for dimwittedness though. I believe that I've been running on autopilot and at least half IQ for the last few days. I've been making mistakes that could quite happily sit alongside some of the things posted to #LFMF. But ever the optimist (those of you who know me can stop sniggering) I've come away from these mishaps with ideas for a new comic series. There's no telling when this series might show up, or in what format. I haven't even decided whether the Quackers team will appear in it yet. But the idea is a good start at least, right?

Three-Hundred

It's a special occassion here at Quackers as we reach a milestone in the history of the comic: our three-hundredth strip. We think that it's something worth celebrating considering the inauspicious beginnings of the comic and the numerous technical problems it's had during it's run (note to self: be sure to back everything up again once I'm done).
There have been many changes over the years, too. From behind the scenes moves and shake-ups, to the overall quality of the strips, to making Jason and Tom the stars of the show. Indeed, dropping the update schedule down to one strip per week - while a little disheartening at the time I made the decision - has proved to be worthwhile when you look at the drastic improvements to the art, writing (no matter what Tom thinks) and size of each strip. Just try going back over the comic from the beginning to see what I mean.
However, through it all Quackers has only maintained a modest readership. True we have a loyal and devoted following, but it's still very small. So, while I'm confident that Quackers will be running for many more years, and even though we have plenty of stories to work through, I would like to ask one small favour of you, our readers. If you're a fan of our comic, please mention it to others who might also enjoy it, and encourage them to do the same. It may not seem like much, but it would be nice to be able to reach a wider audience, and after all, the comic is there to be read! So please, spread the word, and help us indoctrinate welcome more people into the world of Quackers!

The Last Place You Look

Alright, so despite what I said last week, we haven't actually started a new story yet, although we have moved back to contemporary times. Before I got a chance to draw up the strip I had planned I realised that next week marks something of a special event for Quackers. So instead of interrupting a new storyline, I decided to post a one-off strip for this week. I won't go into what the special event is just yet, but next week Jason will be making a special announcement all about it.

Old-Fashioned Family Entertainment

Well, that's the end of the Role Playing story for the moment. Do not fret, though as the inept gang of adventurers will return very soon. Over the next few weeks we'll be running a contemporary story or two, before getting right back into the RPG (assuming I have the scripts sorted out how I want at that time).
Work on this week's comic was enjoyable, although not as fun to do as the last one (that will take some beating). Coming up with the smiley "Entertainment Co-ordinator" was certainly fun, although as I've not drawn the whole RPG group properly for a couple of weeks it proved a bit of a challenge getting them all to look right! Drawing all those miscellaneous expressions was a bit of a laugh though. But I think I'm going to have to get a bit of practice in before starting the next round of RPG strips as there's going to be a lot going on with plenty of people involved... Something for you all to think about and look forward to! ;D
Oh, and as for Jason's parting comment, yes, I'm well aware that weevils wouldn't have dandruff. We all know they're far too fastidious with their hair-care regimens to ever develop that condition!

Be sure to check in next week when we find that summer's finally arriving and it's time to start thinking about spending some time out in the garden...

Order Up

OK, that was seriously the most fun I've ever had drawing a Quackers strip! This week's episode has to be my favourite of any that I've done before. I'm not sure if it's simply if I'm just really happy with the way the characters turned out (which I am), or if it's just the length of time that it's taken to get this one made and I'm just excited to have finally done it. Probably both, to be honest. You see, I've had the script for this written out for around three years - almost since the role playing storyline first began. My initial aim was to have this Star-Uruks appear near the end of the story. Of course that was back when the story was only going to run for a couple of months at most. Since then the story's grown much larger and that ending is a long way off at the moment! Because of that I've been looking for a place to wedge this episode in and as you can see, this week was that time. In fact last week's episode was made just so that I could wedge this one in! Shameless? Undoubtedly. Do I care? Not in the slightest, as I'm ecstatic to have finally been able to make the strip I've been waiting to do all this time.
So, I've finished the strip that's been aching to be drawn for years, now what? Well, next week we will be carrying on with the role playing game story. However it will be the last one for a few more weeks as I'll then be going back to some classic Quackers strips I have planned (it can't all be geekery and silly hats, you know). I do plan to get back to the role playing game sometime soon though as there's plenty more story to get through in the city before the gang can move on! Does this mean we'll get to see the return of Zoltan and some of the other characters we've met lately sometime in the future? I'm not too sure at the moment, but if I can think up any decent scripts where they can appear you can be sure I'll use them.

In Times Of Great Need...

I have to say that despite the amount of extra time it's taking to draw these latest RPG strips (not to mention the extra hard work it's taking), I'm actually quite enjoying drawing them. I think it has something to do with all the Elizabethan style housing that seems to be prevelant in this particular city the gang has reached that I'm finding so enjoyable. I've always liked the wood-beam striped visage to buildings of that period, as well as the haphazard look of some of the buildings who's upper floors stick out further than the lower ones. It seems to be a look that fits in well with the Quackers universe, and my own haphazard way of drawing it! But despite the fun of drawing all these scenes, I will be glad to get back to some strips which aren't as background intensive!
This week's strip introduces one of the more important aspects of any role-playing game... Where to get coffee. Even an all-powerful mage needs a pick-me-up first thing in the morning. The store featured in this strip has been seen in one of the previous episodes, way, waaaaaay back toward the beginning of the whole thing before the gang even left the first city. It was just a fleating glance of the green logo on a sign in the background, mostly obscured, but it was there. I've been planning to introduce this coffee shop for a while, and finally saw my chance this week! Next week we get to see the interior of one of these mystical, wonderous places!
And for those of you who don't know, the store's name is a reference to Lord of the Rings. To those of you who got the reference, congratulations! You're probably as bigger geek as I am. Well done!

Ooh, and as an addendum, lots of new photos have been added to my flickr and Deviant Art accounts. There is a larger selection on flickr, but the best of the bunch can be found on DA. Please take a look, and feel free to comment on any that you like =D

Red Carpet Treatment

And so here we begin a new round of craziness, fresh from hiatus and back with the gang and their role playing game! And we also have the appearance of two new characters, something of a rarity around here these days. I'll leave the introductions for the strip where you can see them for yourself. And while they will only be with us for the one episode so far, I am considering bringing them back in some form later. Mostly just because I had fun coming up with and drawing them, and I'm reluctant to let go. Next week the gang make the most of their time in the city...

Run, Chief, Run!

So, here it is, the completed Master Chief picture that I've been working on. Took me somewhat longer to finish than I thought it might, but at least the background now matches up to the rest of the image. I had fun drawing this one. I should really let myself get carried away more often if this is the result!
So, now that's done with, on with the Quackers role playing game concept art!

Sneaky Holiday Update

Sorry folks, but the comic is still on hiatus for the week, so I will be sticking to May 6th for the next update. However I thought it would be nice to post something here this week to help ease the wait, so here is a little something I started work on yesterday: Da Chief. While it's been nice to take a whole week away from doing any artwork (and is something I sorely needed), it's been equally nice to get back into it. That picture started out as just a little scribbly sketch I scanned into the computer a while back. I was simply going to use it to warm up a bit by inking and colouring it, but before I knew it I'd fleshed it out, rendered far more colour and detail into it than planned and then realised it was 4.30 in the morning. It really is amazing what a little time away can do for your enthusiasm. All that's left to do now is tidy up a few little bits on the Chief, work on the background some more and then it'll be finished. Once that's done I'll post the completed (and full sized) picture here and to my Deviant Art account. After that it'll be back to working on the next installment of Quackers for next week, so expect to see some concept art soon!

Smooth Running

And so this week sees the end of the dishwasher experiments, brought to you by Jason-Tech, the technology you can trust (to not work right).
As a result of some of the things going on over the last couple of weeks - not to mention the multiple updates I've made here since the interruptions in our service got cleared up - I've come to realise that I'm pretty overdue for a break. What I'd hoped to do was to get ahead of myself and produce enough strips to be able to keep posting while I took a week off. But despite starting off that way, things have gone inevitably awry, and that is now no longer possible. So what that now means is that next week Quackers shall be on hiatus and the next comic update will be on 6th May.
In the meantime I shall be taking it somewhat easy, planning upcoming strips and storylines, and sorting out some things in my life that I really need to work on. I shall be looking to post some sketches and possibly some concept art up here during the hiatus, so keep checking the rss feed and the blog for updates. Also don't forget there's the Quackers Facebook Fanclub where more sketches and random art can be seen. When we return properly in a couple of weeks it will be with the start of a new chapter in the Quackers role playing game as the gang find themselves in a new city! So, now might be a good time to go back into the archives and read through some of the previous entries (here, here, and here) to refresh yourselves on the story :D

Downtime, Absumparioartis, and the Drama Llama

Well, it never rains, but it pours, doesn't it? For those of you checking the site last week you will have probably deserned that we were experiencing a bout of downtime. As you're reading this you will have realised that things are working again. I really do have to thank André once again for getting things up and running again. Being the guy who handles the hosting and server side of things he's a great help (as well as being the one encouraging me to keep making more comics!). Many thanks to you, André!
Despite the downtime to the site, there would not have been an update last week anyway. At least not a satisfactory one. You see I have also been suffering from a nasty case of Absumparioartis (AKA: Artist's Block). This horrible, horrible affliction meant that the strip due for last week quickly turned into a complete shambles soon after starting it. The script died before my eyes, the drawings I created with were not fit to be called scribbles, and the whole thing was a mess from start to finish. As it happened, the downtime did allow me to work through my debilitating affliction until I could rework, redraw and finally put together the latest strip. That comic can be seen here. I have decided to keep the original air-date of the 8th on that strip as I'm intending to get this week's strip up in the next couple of days. A slight delay this time to allow this strip to be seen by most readers, and to allow me to get this week's actual strip completed. Once that's done I should be caught up for now and be back on track for next week (albeit pretty frazzled).

As well as all the problems going on around here concerning the Quackers comic, there has also been more than the usual amount of trouble in my life. It seems that it can only point to one thing... There must be a Drama Llama on the loose! Now I know that some of you may be aware of the term 'drama llama' as referring to a certain type of person on internet forums, etc. But that is not what we mean by that here. In this case a Drama Llama (or the more potent and troublesome 'melodrama llama') is more of an elusive, supernatural beast, stalking the land and causing drama and strife wherever it can and to whoever it can. They are generally elusive and hard to spot. By the time you realise one has influenced your life it's usually too late! I'm hoping the one who's been pestering me has finally decided to go home for a bit (after all, he must be damned tired from all the stuff he's been doing here!). But don't let that mean you should drop your guard! For as much as we all like llamas - and especially their close cousins the alpacas - around here, you never know when one might be a drama llama in disguise, just waiting to cause mischief!

Multipurpose Cleaner

This week's strip kicks off a new storyline that will be running over the next month. Tom's cooking prowess (or significant lack thereof) takes a backseat to some of Jason's more 'inventive' tendancies in the upcoming weeks...
Oh, and Dani... If you find that the strip this week mimics events in your life as the previous two have, then I think it's safe to say we've gone past simple coincidence and that either Life has a warped sense of humour (highly likely), or that you are actually living with Jason the duck (unlikely, but scary if true)! O.o

Comic delayage

Slight delay to the posting of the comic this week which means that it won't be posted today. Assuming there are no major problems I should have it up by the end of tomorrow. Sorry to you all for the delay, but this is just one of those times when life got in the way!

Well, first things first I suppose, this week's strip is now available for viewing, in which Jason engages in a quest to locate a very elusive treasure.
Some of you may have noticed there are some changes to this page (at last). I've been trying various layouts offline for the last few weeks to incorporate all the things I wanted and I think this is finally the one. There are still some tweaks to be added. Some new graphics, etc, but the layout will remain this way from now on. I have also made updates to the Welcome page, adding some new links and a little extra info to some of the bios. The next step will be to try to update the other pages on the site; work which has already started, but isn't going nearly as well. Despite trying to give a new look to the archive page I just can't get a stable build working. What seems to work for one thing really doesn't for the rest of the layout, which is becoming maddening! I'm sure I'll get it sorted out eventually, but it does mean that the final reveal of those updates won't be happening for a little while yet. For now there are plenty of other pages to work on!

Other good news in the last week was Valve's announcement about the future release of Portal 2, the sequel to one of my favourite games. A game that I still play quite regularly even now, so I have to say I'm really looking forward to this. And with the announcement that it will be a full length game and not the short (but increadibly sweet) experience of the first iteration I have even more to get excited about! The hard part now being avoiding all the spoilers until the game ships.

As some of you may have noticed, Quackers had some downtime in the last week. This was due to accidentally letting the registration on the domain expire, cutting off access to the site. Well, as you can see just from being able to read this, things are back up and running again. At this point I really need to take a moment to thank my friend André who has been sorting out that side of the site since it's inception. If not for you and this site I wouldn't have been keeping this whole art thing going as long as I have!

Would you look at that, another update on time! Hope I've not just jinxed things for next week by saying that...
For those of you who have eagle eyes you may have noticed a new button above this post. Yes, that's right, Quackers is now on Twitter. I'm mostly just trying it out for now and using it to let people know what's going on around here and when I may have posted something arty somewhere. I'll probably find I have more uses for it (and more frivolous tweets on it) as time goes on though :)

Anyway, over the last week I've become unhappy with the way the site looks. It's had the same layout for a few years now and I'm thinking it's time for a nice shiny update to happen. Unfortunately, as I've rediscovered over the last few days it's harder than it looks to impliment change, so any updates will probably be less than shiny and more a case of patching up the rusty bits. I have a smattering of HTML knowledge, but I'm pretty limited to what I can alter here. My webdesign knowledge is also woefully out of date. Peer beneath the simple, but functional exterior and you see a site held up with bits of string, sticky-tape, chewing gum and a lot of hope! (on second thoughts, don't look, it's too horrific!)
Despite my limitations I have started trying out a few layout changes. So far I've come up with a couple of things I like, but nothing radically different. I know it'd be easier - and preferable - to use an 'off the peg' design program so that I can impliment php code and do lots of cool new things. But most of those programs require having access to the server Quackers resides in, and that's something I'm lacking.
The point of all this blathering is that sometime over the next few weeks you may see some layout changes happen as a result. I'd appreciate being alerted to any hiccups or bugs that are apparent on various people's browsers (I only have a couple I can test the site on). But hopefully things should work OK.

This site, including all accompanying images and text, is copyright © 2005-2010 Les Mellor. All right reserved.