Category Archives: Behind the Frames

A Marmot and the Winners!

27 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Behind the Frames, The Churchians

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This is an accurate scale model drawing of a marmot. I don’t think it’s a Yellow-Bellied Marmot native to Yosemite. It is still terrifying. Interesting marmot facts:

  1. Marmots live all over the world, even Australia.
  2. Marmots eat root vegetables, and whatever seems fresh in the organic section of the grocery store.
  3. Marmots drink tea; coffee gins ’em up, brings out their inner wolverine.
  4. No marmots were harmed while this picture was being drawn; her eyebrows looked like that when she arrived!
  5. Taking out a “Wanted: One Marmot for Modeling Purposes” add on Craigslist is a really, really bad idea.

A couple of weeks ago we ran our 100th comic and to celebrate we’re adding a couple of you to our Christmas card list this year. M. Mira and Psychokitteh: please send email to quizzer (at) protonmail (dot) com with a snail mail address before Dec. 20th. I’ll shoot you a reply (so you know I got it) and then another when we send out the cards. Then I promise to shred ’em, or whatever you do, so you don’t end up on some weird “webcomic creators” seminar list.

— Quizzer & Codex

P.S. Welcome Huns and Hoydens!

A Centennial Comic Christmas Celebration!

13 Wednesday Nov 2019

Posted by in Behind the Frames, The Churchians

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It’s a huge week for us because on Friday we’ll be publishing the 100th comic of The Churchians! Not many web comics make it to 100. This is our second comic to hit that milestone. Codex has worn out two mechanical arms in the process. Whew!

Codex likes the story so much that she has threatened to quit, so she can experience the story the same way you guys do. “That doesn’t make much sense,” I replied. “The comic wouldn’t even be half as good without you as the illustrator!” She has to settle with ‘story chunks’, and complains if I brainstorm about future developments with her. Glyph is now my go-to if I really need to talk out the meta of the story. Continue reading →

Yeah… So…

13 Friday Sep 2019

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There’s a comic ready to go. It’s  beautifully drawn and full of the nuance and mystery you expect. Sadly, it’s not Friday’s comic. It’s Monday’s. As a result… well… we’re somehow a comic short.

It isn’t Codex’s fault.

Okay, it isn’t *entirely* Codex’s fault. I had her editing “Death Truck” and we’re working on some Bogwart stories and–

Oh, that’s right. Nobody knows who Bogwart is. Well, no worries.

Okay. I’ll come clean. We’ve wanted to fill in Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and maybe even Saturday with some kind of light-hearted entertainment that will keep you coming back for more. So I’ve come up with a little demonic dude named Bogwart and am writing stories, or scripts, that feature the little vagabond in a “Screwtape Letters meets Scooby Doo” kind of way. Cue desperate-but-funny-branching-out music.

So, rather than run a backup comic which we’re totally going to run in October since both Codex & Glyph will be abandoning me for a week, we’re doing this. More on Bogwart in the near future. I’ve missed writing my inane little news pieces and since Clown World can’t be parodied, Bogwart will have to suffice.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t read “Death Truck” I’d love feedback either here or on the various parts. We’ll be doing the “Bogwart” stories differently, because 5k word blog posts are a little long.

Meanwhile, happy Friday and remember: Laughter is the best revenge, unless you have an automated delivery truck that can utilize its anti-theft devices to eliminate your enemies for you.

–> Quizzer

“Death Truck” part 3

05 Thursday Sep 2019

Posted by in Behind the Frames, Politics, Pop Culture

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“Death Truck”: A movie script parody featuring Clown World and free delivery; Part 3

Part 1
Part 2

— Written by Quizzer —

“We killed God, and reaped a plague of stupidity for our evil.” – Clown World Lament, c. 2019

—- “Death Truck” first appeared at tempestinateardrop.com —-

Scene XX – Victory in Charlotte

[Setting] The Alexa II black helicopter. Relentless highway patrolman Keanu Reeves, President Donald Trump, benevolent oligarch Jeff Bezos, and the laid-off trucker-who-learned-to-code super-hacker Dane Taggart discuss their plan to save free shipping for all Americans. Jeff Bezos, in the pilot’s seat, switches the Alexa II into autopilot mode so he can join the others in the passenger compartment. Cue disguised-expository-plan-reveal music.

Bezos: “Alexa, autopilot mode. Follow the I-85.”

Alexa: “I’m sorry; I don’t understand.”

Bezos: “Alexa, switch to autopilot.”

Continue reading →

“Death Truck” – part 2

04 Wednesday Sep 2019

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“Death Truck”: A movie script parody featuring Clown World and free delivery; Part 2

— Written by Quizzer —
“When more than one explanation presents itself, the stupidest is the one to believe.” – Clown World Proverb, c. 2019

Death Truck part 3 will appear tomorrow

Read Part 1
Read Part 3

—- “Death Truck” first appeared at tempestinateardrop.com —-

Scene XI – A Highway in the Arizona Desert

[Setting] A highway in the Arizona desert whose blacktop mirrors the dark of the moon. Stars are visible. A lone Arizona highway patrol car, siren blaring and lights blazing, races by in the cool desert night, cutting the romance factor in half. Cue dramatic-chase-music-with-slightly-romantic melody.

Officer: “This is 1-Adam-12. I’ve spotted the Death Truck and am in pursuit.”

Dispatch: “Roger that, 1-Adam-12. Exercise extreme caution. They say it’s already killed a cop.”

Continue reading →

“Death Truck” – Part 1

03 Tuesday Sep 2019

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“Death Truck”: A movie script parody featuring Clown World and free delivery; Part 1

— Written by Quizzer —
“What could possibly go wrong?” – Clown World Proverb, c. 2019

Death Truck is scheduled to appear over 3 days – Links once posted

Read Part 2
Read Part 3

—- “Death Truck” first appeared at tempestinateardrop.com —-

The Elevator Pitch

It’s late 2020. Driverless AI freight trucks have been beta-tested on US highways for nearly a year. Stealing from them in novel and dangerous ways is all the rage. Free shipping has never been more expensive. Then Mobile Fortress steps up with an innovative solution: a fully-armored and automated truck with active anti-theft devices. A new era in free shipping dawns.

[Script by Paul Dubrow (Dub) & Eli Fisher (Fish)]

Continue reading →

Happy (Belated) Birthday!

05 Friday Jul 2019

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Codex here. Is it really belated if it’s just one day late? Happy Birthday, United States of America. I hope you had loads of fun lighting bonfires, cooking meat, and setting off colorful explosions. You might have also celebrated freedom, without which we’d surely be worse off than Russia. Or Iran. We’re supposed to hate Iran again, right? I keep losing track.

And happy birthday to me, because I did all those things. Except for the bonfire thing. Unless you count the cake… but let’s not mention that…

AND my daughter made me a birthday comic card.

Please feel free to clip it cut and make your own birthday card with it for someone you love. Or perhaps the Ayatollah.

New Tech

03 Wednesday Jul 2019

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It’s an exciting week at Tempest in a Teardrop studios because we have a new technological gadget to exploit when making comics! Codex has a rad drawing gizmo: the Huion Kamvas Pro 13. It’s a second monitor that sits at an angle that you draw on.

Grrr. I mean electronically. Anyone can draw on a monitor if you use the right kind of pen, but there are better ways to tell your boss you’ve had enough and have decided to improve your job situation by working as a Septic Tank Pumping Technician.

For you non-artists, I’ll illustrate. Drawing with a mouse is like using two fingers to draw with crayons. Using a stylus on a special pad is like discovering there’s a second dimension. Drawing directly onto the monitor is like finally noticing that red and yellow make an ugly shade of orange. I think it’s orange, anyway. I don’t know, I’m not an artist.

You’d think Codex is jumping on the moon right now, giddy with her newfound superpower. You’d be wrong.

For Codex, change is… difficult. When we upgraded her drawing software in 2015 she didn’t take it well. She’d been using the same program since 1996. In a burn-the-ships moment I had to pry it from her teeth, which ruined the 3.5 inch plastic floppy disks the software came on.

I imagine one of her ancestors muttered the words, “Why draw on mastodon skin when there are perfectly good cave walls everywhere?!”

I get it. I do. You can take Scrivener from me when you pry it from my cold, mechanical hands. But she now has artistic magic at her fingertips. Do you know how many Popes Michelangelo would have murdered for such a device? I’m assuming it’s more than he actually did.

Meanwhile, this is her first doodle with the new gizmo.

It’s… not bad.

We might be running a Glyph comic on Friday. Possibly Monday too.

Meanwhile, if anyone wants to buy a Wacom tablet circa 2015, with slightly toothy character across the drawing area, shoot me an email.

–> Quizzer