Okay so, I know I've been MIA for a while, but bear with me! I will get back into the swing of things soon now that the new house is pretty much settled! I won't blather on in this post though, I'll just get right to it!:


Here is a link to a one off page that I did in black and white. Tommy and Richard's first kiss! I had it just randomly sketched out and I thought I would finish it off.

But, wait! There's more:

Chapter 16 of Made Up to Break Up is now available.

In which Tommy gets another Job, and Graeme gets drunk.

That is all for now! We'll see what this long weekend brings!

What??

Right so I am in house now! With internet and everything...the majority of stuff has been put in a home, but not all of it. As soon as we get it sorted I will be back in business and able to begin making artsicles once again. I wanted to see if I could find some cool old drawings to show you to tide you guys over, but there wasn't much that hadn't been already seen at one point or another. I did scrounge up a couple things and here they are:

( Click for Artlings )

There has been other drawings, but they're extreeeemly spoilery so I didn't want to post them to the com. I do post them in my own personal journal though, if you like to be spoiled. (and I've been generating updates like frozen molasses lately, I know. :( ) You'd have to friend me though and let me know so I can add you back. It's secretly friends only. OF course the downside is that you get my pointless ramblings (see above tangent) on a daily basis as well. haha!

I also post spoilery Made Up to Break Up stories there...future installments and spin-offy things. I'm not trolling for friends or asking for beta readers or anything. I just wanted to throw it out there in case anybody was interested in sneek peeking. :D

Speaking of MuBu...working on the next chapter now! Maybe I'll get to the point tomorrow where I can type it up this weekend? Cross fingers!

Edited because: a href and img src are NOT interchangeable tags. Haha!

Batten down the hatches! Here comes the next chapter, edited as best mine eyes can edit. If you catch any egregious errors, holler at me. I wasn't sure how this one worked, but I got tired of trying to figure it out, so here it is for better or for worse. I decided I was going to post it anyway, just so I can move on. I'll certainly let you know if I make any major changes to it, but I don't think I'm going to, so yeah.

So, we're through with what I have actually already posted of the Mark Briar affair. The first half of it is from Part 2, and the second half is from part 3, so it's got some new stuff. (And it's all new, if you've never any Mark Briar affair. ;) )

If anybody aside from me was worried about chapters becoming increasingly shorter...you'll be pleased to know that this is the longest one yet.

In this chapter: Graeme and Tom step in, around, on, and all over the line of friendship. ;) Tom has an unexpected confrontation, and the best date ever. Hint: it's not with Hope.

Chapter 15

I am still on Hiatus...hopefully we will be able to move into the new house next weekend so I can get back on track! I haven't gone anywhere or abandoned the project or anything. The new Chapter of MuBu is also forthcoming, it just needs to have the ending finished and go through a little tweaking, and it should be ready. It's a really long one, 7,000 or so words. Yay!

Since you guys are so patient (I don't know if that's true, but nobody's emailing me, demanding I get my butt in gear, so I'll assume ;)...) I thought I would post a redo I did over X-mas along with a little story about it (some of you may have heard it, I don't know!

Anyway, I haven't posted it yet, because it's out of order, and I'm going to try to post the redos of the early archives chronologically! I'm sure it's confusing enough to have it start with more recent drawings/final format of the pages back to the wildly erratic early stuff and then back again as it is. ;)

( Most offending page ever! )

I have random Site news for today ... You know how the archive is actually supposed to pull up a neat little calendar with thumbnails for each comic page when you click on each month (and then you can scroll through month by month if you wish)? Maybe not, because they haven't been working since I upgraded movable type.

When you clicked on a month it just linked you to the first page for that month! That has been rectified, so the calendars are back! Not only that, but I spent some time also updating the thumbnails! Now each comic has a cute little thumbnail to help you decide which archived page you would like to click on ;)

Also, as a bonus, though it may not look like it...(I had to resize the calendars when I did the new layout...) Each of the thumbnails is actually a 100 x 100 image. So, for what it's worth, you have my permission to snag the images and use them as LJ Icons if you so wish. You can even Modify them if you want. Feel free. I just ask that you share with the rest of the group if you do. ;)

Plus, a little nugget of trivia for you...since I had to go through EVERY darn page since 2005 to do the thumbnails last week, and I noticed something.

When Tom is explaining his nationality to Becky, and she doesn't believe he's from The US, he tells her that his father Drives a truck. It is so not clearly explained in the comic that he doesn't mean Truck as in his dad drives a regular old pick-up truck... His dad actually drives a Big-Rig. Driving a truck is his actual livelihood! :D

Also it is time for a new Soundtrack! I'm trying to not go a whole year without making a new one!

( Old Soundtrack for convenience: )

I'm still working on uploading stuff to the new one. Trying out a new player so I don't have to convert the songs into flash files. :) That is all. Still working on the next MuBu chapter too. It's kind of a tricky one to untangle out of first person perspective. So, that is all for now. Still haven't moved yet, all my arting supplies are in boxes. :(

The Soccer Team

In which Tommy meets Mark Briar. Yay! A Brand new chapter, sorta. Hehe, I hope I didn't crib too much from the Mark Briar Affair...just the dialog from that particular scene, and not too much else. Until the next time!

-M

Real Bands is on Hiatus until Mid-May! Due to the author moving house. While there is no space for art supplies to be strewn around the place whilst packing, there is plenty of time to type away at the computer, so on to the update portion of the post!

MuBu Update: Chapter 13: Don't Ever Fall in Love

Sound advice perhaps? In which, Tommy is cynical. Graeme has a bitchy ex girlfriend and a million brothers...but there's always a little Hope. (That was horrible pun, you'll see why. Forgive me? Hehe ;))

Anyway, on the MuBu news front: I have to add whole big chapters to the Nevada story arch, because a certain character was only mentioned in passing originally and his plotline deserves more than a cursory glance in the main story. There happens to be a big long side story about him if you want to read about it before it makes it into MuBu. *spoilers!* Hehe. Yes, I am talking about an exercise I took on at some point, which was to write short stories about these characters in first person point of view. I call them vignettes, even though they're longer than that implies. I added a lot of things about Nevada in one called "The Mark Briar Affair" (You can find the first two chapters in the stories section.) that I never went back and added... So I think it'll will fill things in a bit if I add that stuff in to the main story.

So, I'm sure you will be very disappointed to hear that the next chapter will not, in fact, be an edit, but a brand new chapter. It's kind of a rework of parts of the vignette, with some other stuff added in. Hopefully, I'll be able to work it up into a presentable state faster than Chapter 13 here...which I don't believe I even edited all that much.

Ah, well...on to the next!

Ah, well, I officially no longer have any space to draw since there are boxes here there and everywhere. At least I can write and edit, so here's the next MuBu installment for you:

A Coming Out

Well, I think this chapter's content is pretty self explanatory.

Hehe, anyway, there are some dialog changes. Most significantly...at the end, which originally ended very abruptly and didn't really make any sense. This conversation fits in much better I think.

Thick as Thieves

I promised two didn't I? :) Here it is!

Chapter 11

In which Tom turns into a grumpy teenager and meets Graeme Alexander! So this chapter actually turned out twice as long as its original incarnation! I don't know what to think of that, except it was needed. You get a little more insight into Tom's state of mind and more of the friction with the parents, which I think is actually pretty important.

That is all! Until the next!

the Mysteries of Mark Briar Part 2

In which Tommy, doesn't blab to the entire universe.

Ah, so sorry about the severe lack of updating lately. I'm super duper busy until I move at the end of the month and get settled, so please bear with me! I have at one more update this week and then after that, who knows. I probably should just take a chill until I'm in the new house, but I feel bad.

If it's any consolation chapter 11 of MuBu is fast approaching. :)

Let me explain!

Well, I am moving into a house, so I have to have all my crap packed up and ready to move by the end of the month...so that is what I've been doing! I'll try to finish at least the two that end this particular story line by Saturday and Sunday, so there's that at least. Packing is horrible :(

Other things I've been working on include new navigation for: TIC.manicdak.com The Splash page is the same, but the archive page is new since I decided I wanted to archive all my writings there, and not hide vignettes from people who don't use LJ. :) I will still post updates to the respective comms at which these stories reside though.

Okay, that is all.

Wooo! Three Chapters at once, and that takes us up to Nevada! Next chapter we'll meet, you know who!


Chapter 8 : The Come Down

In which there is a dance and some consequences.

Chapter 9 : Banished

In which Tommy learns that he's going to become more acquainted with his American half.

Chapter 10 : Viva Nevada

In which Richard is actually a kind of a bigger dick than he is in the comic...and Tommy packs up his life.

Next up: Three Years of Nevada! The Nevada part of the story is pretty much exclusively Nevada. I think I may be fleshing out a couple of characters here, much like I did with Brian Humboldt. They really deserve more than a couple sentences I think! My point here is that you won't get to learn much about what happens with Richard and Nigel etc...until later, because when I first wrote this, Nevada was an entirely separate story. Later on things are more integrated I'll say without giving too much away! Until next time!

The Mysteries of Mark Briar

Ooo, we'll learn a little bit about the Mysterious Mark Briar who appears in some Vignettes which I have posted over on the LJ, and made one little tiny itty bitty appearance in the comic...if you'll recall the sunburn incident...

Mark popped in with his soccer buddies who called Graeme Tom's "boyfriend" in a mocking tone. (I think, I can't remember when that page was posted and the archives are in woeful need of new thumbnails!) I'm sure we'll learn a tiny bit more about him next week and then later on he will be in more important flashback events.

Until next week! (hopefully!)

Viva Las Vegas

For the curious, Las Vegas isn't all that distant from Mesquite...about an hour out. Yes, I totally spy on Mesquite with Google Maps. (I am vindicated! There are actual palm trees on the Virgin Valley High School Campus after all! Thank you Street View...) I totally have to go there some day, like a pilgrimage or something. Haha! This is what happens when you stick a pin in some dusty remote location on the US map, you get strangely attached to this place you've never even been!

Anyway, about Tommy...he's really just taking the whole crappy day out on dad...though it did kind of start with dad walking out on him in the first place. Maybe he deserves it. Ah, well, at least he gets to talk it out with Graeme the next day.

Monday

Yay! I figured out had to get the bad scanner to scan properly. It did involve cutting the pages in half and reassembling them in photoshop, which is annoying, but at least you won't be without updates for any longer. There will be three this week, and I even remembered which colour Tommy's hair is supposed to be! :-D

Chapter 7

In which the rich people hide their problems from the secretary. And by problems I mean Richey. Tommy is hopelessly lovestruck, and Nigel is not a jerk.


Begone, Chapter Seven!

Right, so I figured I'd do something while my scanner is out of commission instead of sitting on my thumbs. I did a quite a bit of editing on this one. Like the whole first part I rewrote because I didn't like what I originally had there.

I also took out some dialog which made Tommy sound reaaaally Mary-Sueish and was completely unnecessary. Oh, well. I think that's about it, and it's almost 10 pm now and I really want some ice-cream. So, I'm off!

I wish I could update further on the computer situation, but I don't know what is going on myself! Until next time!


PS>>> Hahaha, there really is an Ice Cream Land and it is in Wyoming. Who knew??? :D

In which Tommy talks back to his father. And he will continue to rant at dear old dad whenever I get my computer back from the dead!

Look! Turns out I did upload this one! When I posted it I put an extra "0" in the image title! Ah, well, it is here now, enjoy! (You can see what I mean about the hair. I apologize for forgetting what color it was supposed to be!)

Sorry, guys, Fried my motherboard on Saturday and I have no idea when my poor computer is going to be fixed. Maybe a week or two. :(

Also, I thought I had uploaded all three updates from last week, but apparently not, so the final one from last week will have to wait too. The good scanner only works with my computer now. Oh, well. Maybe that will give me time to fix Tommy's hair properly. I forgot it was blond in the flashback and coloured it brown. I tried to fix it in photoshop but I didn't like it so much, so I'll have to fix it another way. *Sigh* it was a good one too. Tommy mouths off spectacularly to his father.

What is it with me and computers lately? Pfffft. >:(

Father and Son Part One

In which Dad starts out comforting and ends up sticking his foot in it and I apologize for my lack of sleeve continuity in this flashback!

This day just keeps getting more and more awesome for Graeme and Tom, doesn't it? :D