Thanks for reading.

4/18/06

Recording the creative process When I saw History of the World, Part I two Saturdays ago, I thought, "Huh, that'd make a good AKOTAS crossover." Once I'd written in my head the gag which ultimately ran last Friday I thought, in no particular order, "With all the timejumping in the middle it'd be a better Sunday gag, but I've just drawn tomorrow's. Next Sunday, then," and, "It'd also make a fantastic lead-in for the two gags I drew years ago with Lancelot and the Wandering Jew, which I've always meant to re-draw for AKOTAS." Then I thought, "Next week is Easter. Having three gags, I'd be better to run them Friday-Saturday-Sunday for the holiday weekend." Later, when I'd already run the Mel Brooks gag Friday and while I was redrawing the first Wandering Jew gag for Saturday, two more gags came to me. I decided I had to run them, even if it meant running over the holiday weekend, because the last one - today's - has a punchline I've been meaning to work in for weeks but I couldn't come up with the right setup. As for TheFishyMan's question, "Or is he in fact Mel Brooks?" ... well, the two gags revived from years ago were in fact written as a tribute to Reiner and Brooks' 2000-year-old man. The "Oh, boy" in his first panel is a dead giveaway to those who know the routines. Is it my intent that Mel Brooks jumps time like Arthur? Or is the Wandering Jew? I would say, that depends on future story needs if any. The original verions of first two Wandering Jew gags are now on the extras page.

Webcomics I read mornings: Peanuts, General Protection Fault, Achewood, Newshounds, Scary Go Round, Tux & Bunny, College Roommates from Hell!!!, Real Life, Kevin & Kell

Webcomics I read M-W-F mornings: El Goonish Shive, Zortic, Theater Hopper, Nukees, Girl Genius, Todd and Penguin, Pibgorn, Ctrl+Alt+Del

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa mornings: Digger, Crap I Drew On My Lunch Break, AppleGeeks, Orneryboy, Striptease, Taking Up Space, Penny Arcade

Webcomics I read middays: Calvin & Hobbes, Least I Could Do, User Friendly, Anywhere But Here, Starslip Crisis, Questionable Content, Biggest Webcomic Loser, Schlock Mercenary, Narbonic

Webcomics I read evenings: LuAnn, Count Your Sheep, Goats, Pearls Before Swine, For Better Or For Worse, Help Desk, American Elf, Loserz, Dandy & Company, Irregular Comic, Bruno, Shortpacked, Boxjam's Doodle, Sluggy Freelance

Webcomics I read M-W-F evenings: Reasoned Cognition, Two Lumps, Alice!, Order of the Stick, Gossamer Commons

Webcomics I read Tu-Th-Sa evenings: Casey & Andy, Girls With Slingshots, The Green Avenger, Get Out of My Head, Megatokyo

Webcomics I read bedtimes: B.C., Something Positive, The Angriest Rice Cooker In The World, Medium Large, Station V3, Dinosaur Comics, Wapsi Square, Little Dee, PvP

Webcomics I read Sundays: Butternut Squash, Dr. Devious vs Lincoln High, Checkerboard Nightmare, Nemesis, Journey Into History, Tailsteak, Smithson, No Room for Magic, 13 Seconds, The Whovian Observer, Ctrl+Alt+Del, Perry Bible Fellowship

See also The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, Talk About Comics, The Belfry Comics Index, The Webcomic List, Mister Bloo, Nth Degree, 100% Originality Theatre, Comixpedia, The Living Comic and Websnark.

Arthuriana sources I use or recommend:
Arthurian Legend
Arthuriana - the Journal of Arthurian Studies; the website of the quarterly journal of the North American Branch of the International Arthurian Society.
The Camelot Project at the University of Rochester.
Camelot In Four Colors: A Survey of the Arthurian Legend in Comics
Mystical-WWW - The Arthurian A2Z knowledge Bank which has encyclopedically-arranged entries on the characters of the Arthurian legends.
Le Morte Darthur: Sir Thomas Malory's Book of King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table, Volume 1 and Volume 2.