I can’t find the original editorial in Kotaku that spurred this comic, but you can find the criticism in several places all over the net (like here and here). It wasn’t so much the killing that shook people up, but the fact that Drake was so charming and cavalier about it. Whatever. It’s healthy to ask the question “has the line been crossed yet?” from time to time, but in this instance I believe people are just uncomfortable with an idea of game realism that could cast light on the consequences of their actions (in this case, doing it by omission). Contra, Serious Sam, Uncharted: it’s always been just a game.

For a great commentary on the carnage that gamers engage without batting an eye, I recommend you give Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater a spin. People who have played it can attest to the memorable river scene as something to think about. However, as with most thing Metal Gear, such exercises are better left as a brilliant postmodernist commentary on gaming: an exception, definitely not a rule.

Cheers!

–Pedro Arizpe

Yes, girls, I know you enjoy porn too. I’m not writing the bible here.

Hugs for everyone, despite Valentines’s Day.

-Pedro A.

I participated in John Campbell’s Hourly Comic Day 2010. It was a blast and a great exercise for spontaneity and working on fresh ideas. Oddly enough, Mexico had a holiday on February the 1st, so unlike most of the participants I dind’t have to post one of my regular, boring mondays.

I’ll definitely give it another go next year, or perhaps even earlier, at a random date.

The original thread where I posted each comic individually every hour is here.

Cheers!

–Pedro A.

Wait, this is still generous. That fellow down there still looks kinda healthy and jolly. I was actually aiming for the full effect of my features being lost in the center of  a vast mass of head. You know, like this:

It’s just weird. Like finding out your red shirt is actually yellow. I’ll just suscribe to Achewood’s Kazenzakis Curse theory for now.

Cheers,

–Pedro

Hi!

There’s been a gazillion reasons why I haven’t updated recently: I was distracted by a brand new PS3 console that came with a few cool games; I clean-installed Windows 7, losing a few important brush settings and fonts that I forgot to back up (I’m happy with the upgrade, though); I had a time-consuming side-gig proofreading some academic texts; I had an unusually heavy workload due to the holidays… and I just wanted to spend some quality time with my wife.

However, perhaps the real reason there were no new comics was that I got a heavy case of writer’s block. I had some ideas, but most of them were so ambitious that I instantly became discouraged, given how little free time I had and how much work they needed. But I wanted to update so badly!! So I said, screw it, just doodle small vignettes or dreams or whatnot, just so I don’t get too rusty.

And so I turned I dream I recently had into a comic.

Click to know more about Seaman!

Funnily enough, this was supposed to be a quick and dirty sketch-like piece, done in a day… but after the first draft I decided to redo most of it, then add some “special effects”, clean it up… so, yeah: this “quick and dirty” piece got kicked around for about 3 weeks. Sigh…

But I do intend to do smaller, “pointless” comics, as I shouldn’t stop drawing until a great idea comes along. So yeah don’t be too dissapointed, ok? I need the workout

Thank you for stopping by. Cheers!

–Pedro

We’re back, everybody! Sorry for the downtime. I’ve been busy learning how to manage my own virtual server and hosting my own domain and linux and whatnot. A lot of missteps along the way, but it seems I finally got the sites up and running.

After this move I expect no more problems due to “High CPU usage”, and I have triple the former bandwidth, which I means I can replace the compressed jpg images of some of the most popular comics with their rich png counterparts.

Having said that, I’d like to mention that 50webs.com has been a terrific host for me for the past 5 years, and all the suspensions of service are an understandable downside to getting a bit of attention in a shared hosting environment. I had to move on to bigger and better platforms, it seems. A tiring ordeal, but also welcomed, as it shows we’re growing.

Anyway, there are still a lot of minor details to fix, but I can thankfully stop worrying about the inner workings of the website and start drawing again.

See you soon!

–Pedro Arizpe

I always preferred Rudy over whatsisname to get to the princess first. I mean, the kid had a wrench (before a Hammer Brother took it away).

Cheers!

–Pedro Arizpe

This has to be my most obscure joke, even for my few spanish readers, but I’m having it here for completeness sake.

Alfonso Reyes (1889-1959) was a world renowned mexican intellectual, essayist and diplomat: the pride of my city, Monterrey, Nuevo León. A month ago, a contest invited current students of a prestigious university to create a cartoon, comic or animated short inspired by the life and works of Alfonso Reyes. Sadly, I’m merely an alumnus of said university, so I was ineligible to participate.

My wife and I joked that my only true contact with Reyes work were his translations of Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, anyway. And well, yeah, swamped as I was with dozens of novels and textbooks to study during my first semester, I was indebted to Reyes’ foreword of The Iliad, as it bought me some time until I read the thing properly.

So I did the comic anyway. I mean, I was a shoo-in to win the contest, wasn’t I?

Cheers!

–Pedro Arizpe

Well, I’ve learned a few things now that I finished Chains. It will be a while before I try something like this again.

While this resolution might turn off some of the readers that enjoyed the first two parts, trust me: it comes form the exact same place.

Thank you for reading.

–Pedro Arizpe