update your RSS feeds and blog links accordingly. Everything is now run on http://yirmumah.net exclusively.

After almost two complete days of painting, moving crap around, and now loading in a new bedroom suite and building the damn bed— I’m beat down. I wouldnt be usually if I had a good night’s sleep. We slept on a mattress in the living room the past two nights, where our cats got their revenge on me, playing their little cat games at 2am, 3am, 6am— BAH!

Now my knuckles are busted and it’s time to go to bed and sleep… and dream.

Joey Manley sends me a brief e-mail which touched my fragile ego, it says:

“Your criticisms over the years have not gone unheeded. We need more
people like you in comics.”

With a link to his latest blog entry.

The jist of it is, he’s tired of being a middleman, it’s grown to be too much effort and work for one guy to handle. BUT, the good part is, he didn’t just fold up and walk away, he used his PROBLEM and made it into an opportunity, and it very well could be something that could help many cartoonists already online, finally become WEBcartoonists. Living in a Web Comics Nation.

Anyway, go read for yourself. I have furniture and crap to move. CLICKY.

He tried to respond on the blog, but it wouldn’t let him. Damn blog! – He posted over in the forum though. CLICKY.

I replied as well for anyone following this stuff. It takes a big person to own up like that. Even with all that said there, I still think a “History of Webcomics” is a BAD idea for 2005 or 2006. Let’s aim for like 2010 or later I think. Maybe that’s even too soon.

Also, maybe the other part of me hates the fact that things are categorized and labeled. “Webcartoonists” – Am I that because I draw comics and put them online??? I’m just a cartoonist in general, online and offline. While it’s a great new form of delivery, not too much has changed except for the tools and the money.

I’m leary. Maybe for the next generation. Cautious. I don’t want any kids getting bright ideas that there’s this “industry” – just about EVERY business model for comics online is in a complete FUNK or failure right now. Some of the biggest online hubs, cartoonists are LUCKY to get even 100 bucks a quarter!! And those are some of the highest paying things! So the real success still lies in probably a handful of independents at this time, and I wouldnt call that an industry or career path. It’s the good old fashioned self publishing business , or freelancing cartoonist, is all. –

Like I said… I don’t want any misconceptions of this.. “business of webcomics” thing. It doesn’t really exist. Does it?

Back to painting and home projects here. Blah!

LINK! - Not sure if people will get the reference or not. But I don’t care, because it makes me laugh dammit! If you don’t know, maybe someone else can tell you.

KEEP WHAT YOU KILL!

I had one written out and everything, and must have forgot to hit PUBLISH. I suck.

I’m in the middle of a bunch of home improvement type stuff and house work in general. I’m like Mr. Mom… ON CRACK.

I added the google search feature, let me know how it works or looks for you guys, now the site SHOULD be searchable. My blog search thing has been broke, and I didn’t know it. So google search replaces it— which is MUCH better in my opinion. Let me know if it looks like crap.

In other news, I e-mailed Tycho last night and he had this little bit to say in his e-mail:
“(I read your comic and blog. Also, my friend Jim stocks your print
comic in his shop, so you mailing me feels very much as though I am
interacting with a genuine celebrity! Please describe, in detail,
your gilded halls and exotic meals.)”

Now, I find that hilarious, because in webcomic land, I guess the Penny Arcade fellas are considered the celebrities, and I wasn’t even expecting an email reply, figuring they’d be too busy smoking money or something. So, that made me feel a little better about myself.

Maybe I’m just “notorious” ? I don’t feel accomplished at all. I feel like a giant failure day in and day out. Sigh. Sure it’s probably not so, but I can’t help think that, I’m only human– out here in the void all alone with my thoughts.

Big thanks to Rebel"i wanna see more boobies in webcomics"Suns for posting on my forum to alert me of Penny Arcade’s latest…. Here’s his post-

Anyway, the jist of it is mocking this ADVENTURES INTO DIGITAL COMICS documentary thing, and how stupid it is. And for a good while, I’ve felt like a LONE voice of dissent when I see stories about this…. or I hear complete bullshit like this. Sure, a fun documentary about people making webcomics or something, fine.. but all this talk of REVOLUTION! and being closed off by “THE MAN” - Blah blah blah. Penny Arcade fucking NAILED this one to the wall.

I want to go one step further and fire a shot across the bow again at that retarded HISTORY OF WEBCOMICS book being written by TCampbell.

HISTORY?

So what the fuck is my problem? Where do I get off talking about any of this? I don’t know, because it bugs me. It doesn’t NAG me, or really EFFECT me. Well, it annoys me. I don’t like BULLSHIT. Am I jealous? HECK NO! Am I bitter?? HELL YEAH! I’m bitter like the back of a newborn possum’s hide, ninjas! But it’s got nothing to do with these pansy fruit cupcake, faux pioneers.

I was discussing this with another distinguished comic creator who told me I was really humble and courteous about something pertaining to this subject—- he told me that I myself had a nationally syndicated comic strip and have done more than ANY of these idiots. But I don’t gloat about it. Maybe I should?? Maybe I should have some lame brain resume of great things I’ve done or tried. I just don’t think that way.

Another great writer I know, James Patrick, gave me the advice once, well not really advice to ME but it was even if he doesnt know it, he said : “if you can DO, then DO. never DO ABOUT.” and I’ve tried to remember that when I get the urge to run off and do something about what it is I do.

I think that’s who I get along best with. The DOERS. Not the do about’ers. Err… When it boils down to basics, they’re just looking to USE the doers for their own benefit or gay legacy.

And listen… you’re not a DOER just because you went ahead and DID some things. You dig me?

Oh well, it’s late… BIG DIGITAL HIGH FIVES to Penny Arcade, for letting me know I’m not alone in my thoughts.

WTF?

Why is there a ballroom dancing show on ABC right now?

Does anyone really watch that crap? Gawd….. how can one network have the BEST

AND

Ok, if you’re out there and haven’t gotten your stickers for some reason and you ordered a while ago– they should have been there by now– give it until the end of this week and then e-mail me and I’ll have to resend another envelope out.

There were a TON of orders that went out, so I imagine it’s in the cards for a few to have gotten messed up… just let me know and I’ll be sure you get your stickers…

RAWK!

A quick reminder that we have the RSS feeds available to read the strip. So if you use an RSS reader, here are some quick links to add our feed to your lists in different services.

- - - - And for other readers or RSS feeding use,

LINK! - You knew Bob wasn’t going to go down without a fight, right??? No fast food icon is a match for him. Well except maybe WENDY, who can totally beat Bob’s azz.

HEY! Don’t forget to help out and vote for fellow Yirm reader, Don the Idea Guy’s Manifesto at http://www.changethis.com/proposals/450 - Let’s help get him to the top of that list if we can. YOU CAN DO IT!

YOU CAN DO IT ALLLLLL NIGHT LONG!

Hey folks– go vote for this manifesto to be written– it’s by Don the Idea Guy, a fellow Yirmumah reader, – about revolutionizing radio- http://www.changethis.com/proposals/450 - I guess if he gets enough votes, he can write this and have it listed. I think it will be an interesting read.

THANK YOU!

Sticker orders keep rolling in. I’m amazed. I think we’ve moved over 4000 stickers now, according to today’s tally. Crazy. I’m kinda glad it died down a bit, because I think the post office was getting sick of me coming up to the window and saying I needed them to stamp 30-50 envelopes for me. —

Crazy Star Wars fans…. I only have about 80 sets left now. I wonder if regular old Yirmumah like stickers would sell? Like something with the Burger King on them or something strip related? I doubt they’d sell as well as the Star Wars stuff, but I’m tempted to try it out. Hmm….

I gotta watch my time though, I’m really cramping on time as it is. I’d love to have some shirts made up, but yeah, the time thing. Im gonna hunker down and work on actual comics for a spell I think, get back to a buffer of some sort so I can enjoy a little bit of the summer.

WHEW! Bite to eat for me and it’s back to work.

I should just start my own webcomic news service. – http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/30/2247224&tid=186&tid=99

I did find it ironic, a comment there about how ironic it was that a group of “independents” formed a collective. hah!

I’m happy they’re getting the slashdot traffic, but I feel sorry for the people who just bought ads and now all thier impressions will be most likely eaten up by Slashdot morons coming in. There are a TON of rude, bitter retards there who can’t see the positive in anything. WOW.

I got what I was craving… a great post by Eric Burns at Websnark. Clicky.

He mentions the passing of a friend, actually, several, among his fun sounding journey to SanFran. It’s odd how you can be going about your life, doing the things you do, and then you gaze off into nothing and suddenly realize Dave isn’t on this earth anymore. Or that you have friends dodging suicide bombs in some god forsaken desert.

But here I sit in enjoying technology and good coffee. I’m a lucky bastard.

Today’s Comic continues with the KING in Bob’s house lurking around. That creepy bastich.

Boy, I was cranky last night.

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Here is the cover to last month’s Parents Magazine…. Looks like the graphic artist was having some fun….

A big hello to a new monthly sponsor, Sanity Check. I’ve never heard of it before now— but to sum up what I’ve learned…. imagine you had a boring technical job, which in turn you needed a “sanity check” – oh, and your next door neighbor is a Dominatrix named Mistress Kitten. GO look for yourselves at http://sanitycheck.keenspace.com/ - I wish my next door neighbor was a hot dominatrix.

And don’t forget to check out ALL of our sponsors in that pretty sponsor bar up top. If you’re interested in becoming a sponsor, the details are here.

Hey, we found out about this cool program called Netbux, that actually pays you to search. It’s free to sign up and pretty stinking easy to make some extra cash. Sign up here and try it out!

I’ll post more about this later. Let me know how it works for you guys and gals.

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Ok. So, not that anyone has been paying any attention, but Yirmumah had been updating at PV Comics on Sundays and Mondays. Well, we’re not doing that anymore. I can’t figure out any real reason TO do that anymore, or what purpose I’m serving there.

PV was a GREAT idea. A Great vision.. .. 12 creators, banding together, one KICK ASS web designer, a solid plan… but pretty much, it’s been a ghost ship with a skeleton crew for awhile now. Many of the original “12″ left long ago, for various reasons. Then, one day on the phone with Logan DeAngelis, I put a bug in his ear about print on demand from home…… so he looked into it and COMIXPRESS was born. The Yirmumah mini was the first book printed through the system to test it out and get it ready for a more “public beta” version of the print service. – Needless to say, Comixpress exploded and our fearless leader and doer, Logan, was swallowed up by the DEMAND monster, never to be heard from again….. well, on occassion. So… I’ll take a little of the blame and say my encouragement shot PV right in the foot. But hell! You HAVE to go with what works. And PV wasn’t working, ESPECIALLY moneywise. — I have to say, there couldn’t be a better bunch of guys there though. Everyone has/had the BEST intentions.

I’m left with a feeling of failure/frustration kind of. To once be called “The Image COmics of Webcomics” to…. well, nothing. Not a whimper or a whisper… POOF!!! FRRT!!! An idea I thought would REALLY work. And it didn’t. Well, at least Comixpress is working. I of course can’t take full credit for that, but it was one of those floating dream ideas I shouted about, and at least IT worked. But the “12 creators, one vision” thing… nah, that went bust a goo while ago. — I’m a little frustrated/sad about it. I’m frustrated that I still get e-mails from people who subscribed who after the thing went free, they were never contacted, and they were really unsatisfied with something they paid for being opened up I guess. It was managed… poorly. I wish i had more control over all of that.

Maybe one day, if a plan comes along they can get ahold of me and I’d help in anyway I could.

So with that, I guess any new books won’t be under the PV label. So we might be looking for a publisher… any takers out there??? heh…

to be honest, I’m missing homemade mini-comics more and more each day.

Viva La Independents!

Took a break from blogging over the weekend…. or DID I??? Don’t ask.. it will make sense soon.

Yeah though, I have a bunch of things going on at the house, home repair type crap coming this week. Some of the paint and plaster around the old windows in our bedroom is cracking, and we’re finally getting rid of the old bedroom suite for this “spectra” type (link) - We’re gonna do our bedroom all retro 50s looking crap. Because we can. – So ANYWAY, yeah.. that’s a lot of work we have going on. I won’t go into the BORING details, just that it’s keeping me busy moving things around and up and down from my basement.

Good comics coming to you this week….. sweet day!

LINK! TRUE STORY. I was sitting up late last night, sort of unhappy with what I had going on for script ideas, etc. I turned on the TV to relax a bit, and behold— BRITNEY AND KEVIN: Chaotic. – I had heard the whisperings of it’s awfulness, and all those whisperings were true.

I stood with my mouth gaped open in awe at just HOW BAD television has become… “it’s worse than we thought, Jim….”

I immediately thought to myself.. WWDPD? — (what would Drew Price do?) and so there you go.

It goes without saying, the whole MTV thing… you know what I’m talking about… Where are the damn music videos? No… where the hell are the GOOD music videos??? I should stick to just listening to music on the Digital Choice Music channel. THAT is Music Television, even though there’s no pretty moving pictures….. at least it doesn’t make me want to throw the TV.

What’s going on? Everyone’s sleeping on the east coast I bet… not us cartoonists…… slaving away here to give everyone in the world their damn FREE entertainment.

Curse this obsession!

:)

LINK! - Poor Bo Bice, at least he got the parting gifts…. filled with sweet…..

I’ve gotten three e-mails and one comment on the blog asking if I watched American Idol over Lost. I want to confirm that this is not so. I was HOOKED on Lost last night, and couldnt change the station. What a great show. I turned at the very end after lost was over to see the glitter fest of and the American Idol singing.

Congratulations, America! Mediocrity wins the day again!

That’s right! I said it!

Hey, it’s ok though. Eat N’ Park has offered him 10,000 to sing their latest jingle, so says the local fox news station. Hooray!

What side are you on? http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/05/the_new_digital.html

I’m a digerati and I didn’t even know it.

Lookie there! Another wise person who bought a sponsorship spot before we raise the price to… ONE MILLION BILLION DOLLARS!!

So a big thank you to TIKI COLADAS by Jonathan Caustrita. I found this strip right after the CAPE show, someone had posted a picture of the tables there and i noticed the word TIKI because I’m a huge tiki freak…. so I checked it out immediately.

Great looking comic strip there, and by the looks of how they had their table setup at CAPE (photos) , Jonathan is pretty serious about this effort. Very slick! I wish I could find MORE webcomics with this much style and flavor, not just some sloppy mess of a website with stick figures!

Thanks again for the sponsorship, Tiki Coladas! Everybody here, GO check out his site.

While you’re at it, check out ALL of our sponsors up there in the sponsor bar– If you’re interested in sponsoring us, check out the SPONSOR PAGE. Remember… soon… it will cost…. A MILLION BILLION DOLLARS!!!!

A funny animated gif story thing featuring Star Wars Episode 3- - http://www.msu.edu/%7Evoraravi/misc/starwarsstory.gif

Attention Club Yirmumah Members– Added tomorrow’s strip to the club section. Enjoy. I also promise to put up a big chunk of something secret SOON.

If you’re not a member, you should JOIN!

Seriously– I just got this weird craving for shortbread. Mmmm….. I hope I can find some.

I don’t know if it aired last night or tonight– but this is just freaky.

Brilliant little way to hone in on the pop culture madness by Kimmel. Bravo!

LINK! 2 today’s comic - Never did an American Idol strip before. Hmm…. it was about time. Probably one of the rudest strips I’ve done in awhile, so pardon my behavior.

I must admit… I do watch the show as background noise. And I must also admit, that I want Bo Bice to win. Just because everyone else seems so.. uhm.. plastic and fake. He stood out in this season from day one.

GAWDDDD— I can’t believe I’m talking about American Idol, or even admitting I watch it. I feel so…. dirty and ashamed.

ARRRRGGG!!! I missed the SHIELD last night! DAMMIT!!! This just now occured to me. The one show I really do watch regular like, and I totally blew it and went to bed at 10:30. I SUCK! It was a 90 minute episode too. DAMMIT. I wonder if they’ll replay it this weekend? Hmm….

Big thanks to the comic, WitchTHorn for becoming a Yirmumah sponsor. I’ve checked this comic out before by way of the blambot forums, and it’s a good read. The world of webcomics needs more adventure style story strips like this. I dig it.

Be sure to check out ALL of our sponsors who help us to pay the bills a little bit here, so I can keep bringing you strips day in and day out. If you’d like to be a sponsor, check out http://yirmumah.net/sponsor.php – Only $10 bucks a month!!! best deal on advo-tizing around. For your information we get like 17,000-20,000 page views a day currently, and that’s about 3000-4000 unique folks passing through here each and every day and growing!

Thanks again to WitchThorn!

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I had all intentions of coloring Today’s Strip , which features the prince of darkness and his blog, but allergies or whatever the hell hit me, HIT ME. HARD. – Seriously, I’ve never had a runny nose and sneezing like this EVER before. I feel, for lack of better words, retarded. This is a LONG post so hit the more button if you want to read more– (more…)

Blank Label officially launched today. Love their tagline. I wish those guys the best. They have a solid lineup there and a nice looking hub site.

Enjoy. DARTH VADER FRANKENSTEIN

If you’re not using the firefox browser, some of the layout of the pages may look a bit off. But why would use any other browser! Download firefox today!

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LINK to comic! - Ok, today’s strip is up and running. People were asking for a Drew vs Bob lightsaber battle, so there you go! NOW, I’m off to write my blog about my Star Wars midnight showing experience– HOO BOY.

Posted tomorrow’s strip up in the club.

Off to eat something, spend some time with the family– and then I’m off to the midnight showing of Sith.

Wow. This has been a great entertaining read. Darth Vader has entered his last blog entry before bringing his son to his master. Check it out.

LINK to today’s comic! : – Yeah, I’ll be in line tonight to see the new Star Wars. Haven’t been as lucky as some OTHER PEOPLE AROUND HERE who gloat about seeing it already.

I’m crossing my fingers than my other batch of stickers comes today… damn! Always with the bad timing!!! If you haven’t gotten your stickers yet, they should be to you soon. I ran out of the first batch, so there are a few folks who will have to wait probably another week to get them. Orders keep rolling in for those from our store page. Thanks everyone!

Zach Miller from Joe and Monkey and I were just complaining about how there was nothing going on in Webcomic news lately, and suddenly, Keenspot has quite a few people leaving there. It’s interesting. I’ve heard some really efhed up things about the situation. Best of luck to everyone in that– those coming AND going, and who are there already. Our good friend Dave Wright recently joined up— Todd and Penguin is his strip, if you don’t recall.

Also, overnight, another contestant in the Iron Man Daily Grind Competition has fallen. See my forum for details and an updated DEFEATED graphic. 10 down now. 40 something to go!

Hey, I just want to clearly say that I have nothing against Hollywood. Look inside to see my appearance in DOGMA.

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Bob just informed me that on THIS STRIP… he pulled a ha-ha on me. Read every second letter in each word in panel two.

Gotta love that guy.

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This is the first time in a long time that I haven’t been running on a buffer or ahead of time on strips. Tomorrow’s strip is yet to be drawn as I sit here at 7:50pm. It’s all written out, but I’m stalling. No, no no… it won’t be late, as I’ll most likely be up until 2am or so.

It’s actually kinda exhilarating doing something NOW with no safety net. Actually, it makes me want to go WAY topical, which I might do. I’ve had some great ideas popping up having to do with things I see in pop culture news…… Which will come in really handy soon.

I’ve said before, I wish more webcomics were more topical to events around us in the world as they happen. – Think about those late night comedy shows… they film at like 5pm or something, have a complete hour of television done by 11:30 every night, fresh comedy. I don’t know why more cartoonists aren’t doing this online. IN fact, there’s a hidden market there for doing just that. I chalk it up to laziness and most cartoonists not wanting to REALLY work and treat it like a job.

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“I’m CRAZY, bitch!” - According to Entertainment Weekly, Dave Chappelle has checked himself into a South African Psych Ward— and season three of his AWESOME show will NOT happen —

This is terrible news! I hope he’s able to get with it. I had heard rumors that he decided to go all Cat Stevens and got into some radical form of Islam and was going to renounce all of his possessions– including his show!– That would be half sad for us fans, and half awesome too going out on top like that.

Either way, I hope the guy is ok. He’s a talented mofo, and inspiring to watch.

I know one thing– the blog is BACK on the main page at Yirmumah.net – The fans have spoken.

I know it’s way too late for me to be up… but I posted tomorrow’s strip in the Club section. Club members.. enjoy.

I know I watched Life Aquatic tonight, and that was just a cool movie. I might have to buy the soundtrack. Mostly David Bowie, but only sung in Portugese on acoustic guitar. It sounds awesome. Also, there’s a Stooges song on there which is one of my most favorites ever.

That’s all I know at this very moment– besides the fact I know that I’m tired and I need to get some sleep.

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Happy mom’s day to all the moms out there. (more…)

Busy Saturday here… I updated the club section with Monday’s strip. Also the winner of the WIN CLUB YIRMUMAH MEMBERSHIP has been announced. And the winner is….. (more…)

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Today’s Comic features that ever lovable Emperor Palpatine! Gotta love that guy.

I just noticed not only is it Cinco De Mayo, but it’s also 05/05/05 – freaky! – Read more of today’s ranting…. (more…)

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Added two new strips to the club section. Go forth, club members!

Not a club member? Join.

Today’s Strip … come on! You know you were all thinking it! You KNOW they did it. (more…)

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Seriously… a 15lb hamburger? WTF? – It’s real. See here.

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Today’s Comic is the first in Star Wars WEEK THREE!!! A little Jabba / Sarlacc action for you. (more…)

Just saying… Club members, go check! – If you’re not a club member, you should join.

I uploaded tomorrow’s strip into the club section. Club members go to where you know to go.

Also, if you cast a vote today, you can see the sketch of JUNGLE BABE today only. So, VOTE.

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Not really. But the main guitar sounds like a Cake Song. Everytime it comes on the Digital Music Choice channel, I think it’s a cake song.

Back to drawing for me. Hi-ho, hi-ho….

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This continues to be one of my favorite webcomics. Check it out.

Check this out… (more…)

The Batman Begins Full Trailer has been released. Looks way cool. (more…)

We’re getting hammered with hits, spillover from Slashdot hooking… (more…)

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Looks like American Idol Finalist, and our personal favorite to win, Bo Bice has been busted for coke…. (more…)

Geared more toward self publishing comic books, there’s an interesting discussion going on over at….
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In today’s strip, we chronicle Luke’s compulsive overreacting disorder. -

View commentary on the strip by clicking on it, or voting here.

I’m trying to figure out a decent way to setup the blog so I can have more entries on the page to more link type things and articles I’ll write. I may have to use the MORE tag. So if you see, MORE, click it and there’s more to the story. And that way I can be longer in my rantings, etc. (more…)

One of my favorite Star Wars characters of all time is featured in today’s strip -

Also, today only, you can see the strip in full Lando color by clicking on it and casting a vote for us in the top100 thingy. Or click here.

No real news other than to note for some odd reason, we get a lot of people coming to the site searching the Pat Obrien or Pat O’brien strip. And the word “comic porn” - Sorry, there’s no comic porn here. But we get a>

Just got done polishing up some article ideas we put together for a new humor magazine that’s launching later this year or early next. Well, it’s not REALLY a new magazine… but…. yeah, that’s all I’m saying. The e-mail is sent, and the rest is up to fate. Or the "God of paychecks." Pick one.

I’ll of course say more later on this when we’re actually hired and I know some other hungry soul won’t swoop in and steal our meat.

Wow, the response to the Star Wars strips has been great. I’m glad we accomplished at least putting a new spin on some of that stuff so it’s not the same old cliche Star Wars gags we’ve seen done to death. MUCH more to come. Thanks for reading.

Voting for Yirmumah daily has become easier. (more…)

Happy TaunTaun Tuesday everyone! We hope you enjoy today’s TaunTaun Strip. - You can read some of our commentary on it by, yes, you guessed it, clicking the COMMENTARY LINK right here.

Big thanks to everyone who visited SAVE GREEDO.COM on it’s first day! Continue to spread the TRUTH of what really happened. Do it for his family. (more…)

It occured to me that I should just fill in one post for the day, and people can just check back if they want through the day for things I found. Check it out for the news round up (more…)

Well, you know, not really, but he is officially Ghost Rider. Look see.

I think he’ll make a GREAT ghost rider. I also predict Fantastic Four is going to BOMB (like no one saw that coming) but Ghost Rider could be Marvel’s next big franchise. Who’d of thunk that? I can’t wait to see Nic Cage’s head on fire. I’m sure people will pay to see that alone.

This weekend is the Pittsburgh comicon. Heck, I forgot all about it until James Patrick let me know he went there and some folks were asking about me. Bottom line, I’m really glad I didn’t go this year. While I do have things to pimp out like the Enter Yirmumah book, strip, etc… I just feel worn out on shows.

I use to LOVE this show. It’s in my backyard. In fact, I have some really great experiences in past years doing it. Now, it just feels too pricey. Don’t get me wrong, the prices they charge for tables isn’t bad— but I’m really down on the idea of the Pittsburgh Comicon costing 17 bucks to get into for people. More after this quick ad break….

I think if I’m correct, the first comicon there was 10 bucks. Then it went to 12 for a few years, then to 15, and now it’s 17 a day. It’s just too much for me to ask people to come out and see us. If that makes any sense at all. I’d rather people pay a measily 15 bucks and enjoy our club for the year. – Promoting myself online seems to work out better for me. For now.

My plans do include hitting comic shows again though, and I will most definitly do the Pitt show again, just not this year. It’s likely that Mid-Ohio will be my next show, or SPX. Not sure. I’m trying to build this up slowly this time, and really for me, it’s about the strips. And the readers. Not about me plunking down some cash to go out and feel semi-important by being on one side of a table and trying to squeeze people for their money. It can be fun, but it gets old after a few years. For me, there has to be a reason for doing it beyond ego and business.

Not that other people who are doing the shows are there for that reason. This is how *I* feel. I don’t like sitting on the other side of a table. I’ve often told people I’d like to just do away with the table and just stand around and talk. Or bring a couch in there or nice sitting area to read your comics. Heck, a 10x10 booth would be better served in this way in my eyes. Inviting. I feel so uninviting at a table with a “pitch” ready to go. A pitch that usually falls on BROKE ears. I’d rather have a place for people to come up and hang out. Talk comics. Heck, maybe even MY comics. Maybe not print comics at all.. maybe talk webcomics.

The whole deal just feels like people are stuck in a routine. And tired and boring one to me. I won’t even mention the fakeass hobnobbing that goes on. UGH. It hurts my brain. I try to be polite and ignore the people with the glowing neon signs over their heads. The funny thing is, those types actually hobknob their way to the top of things. Hah! I don’t know why I can’t act like that. I’m just not built for it, and it gives me an uneasy feeling. The old saying is, “you can’t BS a BS’er” and it’s true. And being in the room with a bunch of BS’ers…. Meh.

I woke up this morning to my kid saying he cut his mohawk off with scissors. And he was acting REALLY guilty about something. A couple hours later, we noticed that my antique wooden chair that I sit in here at the computer, had tape on it. Covering a GOUGE. Then on the other side, like 3 or 4 more gouges. WTF!?! He lied and said he didn’t do it, but you could see it ALL over his face. — My wife suggested we lie and tell him we have hidden cameras and we’ll have to turn them over to the police to see who the culprit was. I asked him if he wanted me to do that and he broke down and cried and said no. Then I asked if he was sorry for what he did and he said yes. He’s now back taking a guilt nap. When he wakes up, he’s going to be grounded for a LONG TIME. At least he has a conscience about it. (more…)

So… What’s happening out there? What’s happening here? Let’s give a run down of things.

Tonight, I’m up working on strips to TRY to get back ahead of myself. Nothing like being able to breathe. Also, Bob and I are in touch with a pretty big humor magazine about doing some writing for them. Maybe SOME comics, but more like “humor articles” and the like….. Read More> (more…)

I posted a mini contest in the forums. Go see, if you’re interested.

I don’t know if I like that or not. Have to see it in motion I guess. The belt buckle with the “S” logo on it looks kinda stupid to me. At least the colors are right on this one. You go, Superman!

link 2 comic - Week one of our Star Wars theme is in the can with today’s update. We couldn’t get through the week without a good old fashion “force choke” joke. – We have more commentary on this strip, see it here.

Operation: FIND A NEW COUCH is complete. We have been looking for a new couch for weeks now. After testing out a bunch, I REALLY liked leather.. but my wife thought they were cheesey. So we looked and we looked. I was even berated for not settling on this green one my wife liked– but it felt like you were sitting on curtains or something. UGH!

Long story short, yesterday we went to a place, and the vulturous sales lady took us to the back where they had this clearance section. Lo and behold, a badass leather couch. Originally a thousand bucks, marked all the way down to four hundred fifty! My wife was torn, but found it comfy. I caught her all relaxing on it. On top of all that, my wife found out the prices are marked down every Friday, so she asked the sales vulture what the price would be tomorrow. We were fed a line of bull that it might not get marked down anymore. Efhing sales people! BUT she told us we could get it today for 400 bucks. So there’s our new couch.

Sidenote: My wife is sleeping on it behind me right now. The clacking of the keyboard is probably annoying her.

Sidenote: Don’t buy reclining couches. They’re junk, AND heavy! The one we had for almost 6 years, fell apart when we were moving it out of here.

Woo! Hot damn. Eric wrote a BUNCH today. Go see… websnark.com – Now, we’re not taking credit here… but we DID kinda complain and Eric chimed in. Poor guy has been running on 3 hours a night. Efh that shart, Eric! Get some SLEEP!!!! – We have to wonder though– just WHAT is he doing that he’s only getting 3 hours of sleep? Is Eric REALLY a pimp?? It could be. We reckon he’s been out collecting his dime from his hos.

And since I’m on the topic of Webcomics media and lovers of webcomics… I have to mention Digital Strips Podcast. Zampzon and Daku continue to pump out these great shows every week. Check em out. Their blog is informative as well– right now there’s a great write up about how young folks consider the internet over newspapers.

So there you have it. Two of the BEST places to go to read about webcomics. I don’t want to neglect Comixpedia either. It’s also a daily stop for me.

LINK! - You can check out my commentary on this strip by clicking here, today only.

What a busy busy week it’s been here on the home front. I won’t bore you all with the details, but we’re looking for a new couch, and we can’t find one we agree on. Nor do we feel like spending a thousand bucks on one. Dang it all to heck though, I tried out some nice leather ones and MAN! They were comfortable, i tells yah.

I haven’t been reading as many webcomics out there lately. Just lacking the time. By the way, as an extra bonus to Club members, Zach Miller has been posting his future comics for Joe and Monkey in the club forum section. Now, this isn’t an official added feature, but DAMN, that’s some value right there. Got me thinking maybe I should let other comic strips out there in to use my system—- it’s not for everyone though. You gotta be ahead for it to work out right.

2 new Star Wars strips have been added to the club section. Enjoy.

I’m really enjoying working on these Star Wars themed strips. Hope people don’t get sick of them.

I think I linked this wrong before– but check out the Drink at Work Blog. Funny stuff about writing for comic strips, wanting to be syndicated, etc. Love his writing there.

link to comic - Hope everyone enjoys today’s strip. We all know that Sand People are the rednecks of the Star Wars Universe.

Vote to see more commentary on today’s strip.

Back to work for me!

Again…. for the sake of funny.

-I wish Websnark was Websnark again. It seems….. quiet there.

- Anyone shooting for newspaper syndication– it’s a lost cause. That system is failing and failing FAST. Don’t be foolish. Pioneer your own way.

- I don’t have an alcohol problem. But I do want to say, when you have two rum and cokes, it makes your cheeks feel numb. Yeah Yeah, I’m a lightweight, I know it. (well, two guinnesses and two rum and cokes— Believe me, after a week like I’ve had, you’d need it too.)

- The whole POPE thing had me thinking. #1 the media showed me how much of a fairy tale organized religion is. It’s a friggin farce. No offense to the religious among you. Seriously, I believe in God, but I think he’s not down with alot of what’s going on.

- I’ve come to the conclusion that I cannot ignore ghosts. I should just accept them, and know that I am not crazy. Perhaps they are guiding you in some way. Or just saying hello. Don’t ask.

- Bob gets on my nerves sometimes. But that’s ok. It’s healthy.

- I think I may be allergic to grass. My wife mowed the front lawn, making me feel like a woman– but I immediately had an allergy attack. Now, I have two ways to face this. Either I can bail and use it as an excuse to escape manual labor— Or I can face allergies dead on in a juggernaut way and totally SUCK IT UP. EFH U Allergies!!! I’m sick of missing the outside weather.

- When you’re kicked in the nuts, and punched in the face emotionally.. take it… suck it up. You’ll live to fight another day. Take your thumps. It makes you stronger.

For those who care… new strip up in the CLub.

ENJOY!

Last one– I swear! Pope Harlan Ellison!

Dang!– Who said Robert Blake wouldn’t get any roles after his trial. He’s the fragging pope now!

Wow– this pope isn’t even an hour or so old and he’s already chalk full of humor! I wonder if he’ll come out with a bird on his shoulder? Or I wonder if the doves will be jealous??

Thanks to Franky for this exclusive first photo of everyone’s new pope, Bobicus the first!

link to comic - One month to go until Star Wars Episode 3. So, as stated before, we’re doing a nice run of Star Wars themed strips. You can read commentary on this strip by clicking here.

I’ve been a bit brief in my blog postings and forum posting because it’s been really busy around here. In fact, I’m going to go kick start the day and get drawing so I can pull ahead a little.

Tomorrow’s comic is up in the club. A little later than I wanted to get it up there, but I got swamped today with my wife’s grandma being in the hospital, etc.

FEEDBACK– Do you guys like the commentary thing? Or should I nix that out? I was digging doing the sketches, but I really need to focus on getting ahead on the strips and my other freelance work too first. And things have been pretty busy. Toss me your thoughts if you’re reading. Who knows, maybe I’ll just ditch that vote list thing all together, It’s a little tiring. I’d much rather have people visit other stuff on the page. I don’t know. BLAH! Me tired.

From Medium Large’s site….via Websnark. Even though Eric Burns doesn’t love us anymore.

Why did “BC” cartoonist Johnny Hart give himself over to God, and then to total madness? Because writing a comic strip is a lonely, dispiriting, depressing enterprise teaming with self-doubt, self-loathing and self-employment. To combat such demons some cartoonists turn to God. Others turn to drink. Absolutely none turn to sex, given that the average cartoonist makes a Dick Tracy villain look like Clive Owens by comparison. And such a self-realization can be far to harsh for one soul to take. You see, we cartoonists are not a handsome lot. And lord knows few of us can earn a living wage practicing our art. Now true, we do possess hours upon hours of free time within which to masturbate, but that hardly makes up for not meeting new people or being unable to afford ADA-approved toothpaste. But why is the actual act of writing a comic strip so depressing? Because when you get right down to it it’s just you and your thoughts, and there’s nothing like being left alone with your thoughts to realize that the last creative idea you had was way back in 1975 when you decided to make a bionic frog by inserting a pen spring into the patient’s hind leg, only to wind up with a paraplegic amphibian.

Interesting. Thank god I have my family and friends, or I probably would turn to the bottle full time to deal with the cartoonist depression that can set in. Hell hath no depression like a cartoonist’s depression.

–Other news: On the homefront, my wife’s grandma is in the hospital with a broken hip. So I just spent the morning up there with a 3 year old with a mohawk running around saying he was a CRAB and a FROG. Later he turned into a hawk for like a brief moment in time. None of the animals were quiet and behaved though.

Me go draw comic strips now.

Star Wars Strips Begin - We’ve already Spoiled Star Wars Episode 3 for you, but it’s coming anyway in a month and all the Star Wars buffs are on a rampage, including US. That’s right, we’re coming out of our geek closet and letting our freak flag shine. For SIX WEEKS we’re doing nothing but Star Wars themed strips. Here’s how it will work– each week, we’ll tackle humor from one of the different movies– Week One: A New Hope, Week Two: Empire Strikes Back , Week Three: Jedi , Week 4-5: the Prequels, and Week Six will be a wind down week with miscellaneous thoughts on whole thing. – Whether you’re a Star Wars nut or not, we’re adding our OWN special twist to this stuff, so if you’re a fan of good old fashion Yirmumah goodness, you’re going to dig what we have going on, so stay tuned. May the farce be with you.

Starting today, you can view behind the scenes commentary on each strip when you vote. So vote and check it out.

Ok. Starting tomorrow, I’m stealing back the idea I gave to Joe and Monkey and you’ll be able to view “Strip Commentary” by voting. And the link will be at the left there. It’s worked out great for him, and the people that want to read behind the scenes stuff on each strip can do so by clicking that link. It’s there now but won’t work until tomorrow.

Also, I’ve went ahead and added the GoogleAds back. I never really tried them out before, but they’re working out great for some other folks I know. So what the heck. I’ll test em for a few weeks. As per their terms of service, I can’t tell you things like click on our sponsor links, etc… so don’t click the ads if it’s not something you’re interested in reading or checking out. Get me? I mean it, whatever you do DONT CLICK THOSE ADS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. dont CLICK THEM! –

Any revenue generated from those ads that you shouldn’t click unless you REALLY want to, would go to actually supporting Yirmumah and it’s future endeavors and continuity. Get me? Keep that in mind.

DJ here. Just a quick note to let everyone know a strip has been added to the Club Section. If you’re not a member, check it out.

Haven’t been blogging as much as I’d like to. Been real busy on the homefront, lots of running around– the weather is nice, etc.

Bob is over today to hang out and we’re gonna write up some killer strips with tons of ha-ha– you just watch.

Man– I discovered by way of NewsAskew, that Kevin Smith has a little blog thread. Wow, he’s pretty detailed, even telling when his wife gave him a blowjob to relieve tension. I wish I could blog about everything in my life. Check it out.

I’m cheering for THIS GUY to win the Eisner. His work is fantastic.

LINK! to comic - It’s more Bigfoot and Tiki Show! – Sort of a continuation of Monday’s Strip. I get more e-mails about B&T than I do anything else. Which is weird, because i didn’t expect that.

Remember, Vote daily if you’re so inclined. We don’t care about the list or # we get to, but it’s an easy way to get the strip to new people who might discover it. And a free way for readers out there to support our effort.

Things were hectic today for me. So there won’t be a special sketch thing tomorrow to vote for. But vote anyway, because you love me.

Nope. We didn’t get nominated for an Eisner. Nor do we deserve one. But we’d like one!– So I ponder on to work harder and look to the future. Oh, and things may be SUPER heating up with Club Yirmumah soon. WOW. Some fun things are cooking up out of the blue, which will make it totally badass.

BONUS!

This was a crappy day. One of those days where nothing went right. — OH– and I forgot to mention that yesterday evening was spent in the ER when my son, the older one with the mohawk fell off his tree swing and cut the back of his head. 5 stitches. OUCH.

Yeah, so I’m a bit stressed right now. Someday good things will happen. Today was a BAD day though. Fuck days like today. Who needs em?

read the strip. vote– blah blah blah

Here is the new logo for SuperMan Returns. Pretty decent.

LINK to comic - Yes yes… more muppets on meds. Pay attention, I hope you’re learning something, as I actually drew the REAL pills for each character. ENjoy. (more…)

If you vote today, you get to see the sketch of JUNGLE BABE.

IN summary… vote for us and stuff, see sketch of Jungle Babe.

Maybe I’ll sell out and do a comic called SPACE BITCH & JUNGLE BABE.

Goddamn it. Our friend Tim Boots was driving a humvee when it was hit with a car bomb of some sort. I feel this angry fire in my belly right now– one I tried to extinguish by just not thinking about the war that’s going on. Jack, if you’re reading this, we need to get some sort of care package out to him. Goddamn it. I hope he’s ok. It sounds fucking terrible.

I just want to put my head in the sand and go back to the coffee shop days. That or I want to punch something really hard and curse something.

HANG IN THERE BOOTS!!!______________________

full story from the dailycourier.com —-

“He’s alive, that’s the most important thing,” said Sheila Boots, of Connellsville, whose son, Spc. Tim Boots, 23, was critically injured in Iraq last Thursday.

Tim Boots is currently being treated in Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C.

He and three other members of the Army National Guard Task Force 1st Battalion, 103rd Armor Bravo Company, out of Connellsville, were injured when their Humvee was hit by a car bomb outside of Mosul.

Fayette County resident Kevin Claycomb was also injured. He is being treated at Walter Reed, too. Attempts to reach Claycomb’s family were unsuccessful. The names of the other two soldiers were not immediately available.

Tim Boots’ lower right leg was amputated, his left foot is broken, and his liver lacerated, said his mother. Doctors also had to remove his spleen. He was taken from the scene of the explosion to Baghdad. From there, he was taken to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and then to Walter Reed Army Hospital.

Sheila Boots said the Army permitted his friend, Josh Garlick, to leave his base in Germany to be with her son until he was flown to Walter Reed.

“It was a very gracious thing for them to do,” she said.

Sheila Boots said her son currently drifts in and out of consciousness because of heavy pain medication. Doctors have told her that he will be at Walter Reed for “a very long time. They have told us that he won’t go home until he can walk.”

Tim Boots was driving the Humvee when it was hit.

Sheila Boots calls her son, “A hero, but the guys who pulled him out of the burning vehicle are the true heroes. Scot Sage was one of them. I will be forever in their debt. My first concern was for my son, but my immediate second thought was, were the other guys all right? I know that will be Tim’s primary concern. Thanks to those heroes, they are.”

Lt. Col. Philip J. Logan, who commands the unit, said in a written statement that the Humvee was part of a convoy of five armored vehicles returning to base at the conclusion of a mission.

“The armored Humvee protected the crew exactly as designed; however, four soldiers from the patrol were wounded during the attack. Other soldiers from the patrol, at great personal risk, immediately extracted the wounded personnel from the burning vehicle, saving their lives,” wrote Logan. “The skill, bravery and dedication of every soldier involved in this attack and recovery was awe-inspiring and certainly saved the lives of the wounded crewmen. The soldiers of Bravo, 1-103rd Armor truly care for each other, risking their lives without hesitation to save their fellow soldiers. These soldiers represent what is great about our nation. I would ask everyone to pray for our wounded soldiers, and their comrades who continue the fight here in Iraq.”

Sheila Boots said her son is on prayer lists of churches around the world.

She also said she and his father, Wesley Boots, of Uniontown, are receiving tremendous support from the Southmoreland School District.

“Our friends at Southmoreland have done so much,” Sheila Boots said.

“We are very concerned about Tim and pray for him,” said John Lee, principal of Scottdale Elementary School, where Sheila Boots is a teacher.

A 2000 graduate of Connellsville Area High School, Boots joined the National Guard after he graduated. When deployed, Boots was studying history at California University of Pennsylvania.

“He’s a member of the Delta Chi fraternity, and the international organization is also praying for him,” Sheila Boots said.

Cards and letters can be sent to Spc. Tim Boots, c/o Sheila Boots, Bologne House, 6900 Georgia Ave. NW, Bldg. 20, Washington, D.C. 20307-5001.

The Digital Strips podcast fellas are holding a contest. Details here. You can win a BUTTLOAD of webcomic print books. Look at this stash. There’s a Yirmumah in there!

Go to that link and enter.

@LINK to comic@ - You’ve heard of muppets on ice, well this is “Muppets on Meds!". I’m happy with how these turned out. You

See my sketch of SPACE BITCH! Vote to see it.

I’m practicing sketching with my wacom tablet a good bit lately. My dream of one day being an almost paperless studio. Someday! Someday! – Although, it’s still more fun to actually sketch and fool around on paper.

Alrighty. New day here. I just did up a sketch I’m calling “Space Bitch” – you can see it by
Clicking our vote button and confirming. Enjoy that.

Also, i put yet another strip up in the club section. You know, that thing called Club Yirmumah? Yeah. Check it out.

Oh oh! I finally got around to seeing “Super Size Me”- great documentary about a guy, Morgan Spurlock, who eats nothing but McDonalds for a month, and all the effects it has on his body. It’s really funny and informative. Definitly worth a rental– I may put up the “experiment” with the McDonalds fries here just for fun. WOW.. you would not believe that…. yikes. Look for that in the Extras section. – Also, Morgan will have a new show coming up on FX called “30 days"– wherein he does different things for 30 days– like go to jail, etc… looks to be a fun time.

Off to the bed for me. Don’t forget…SPACE BITCH!

Just a quick note to tell club members that there are two new strips up there to check out. That is all.

LINK to comic - The return of everyone’s favorite Bigfoot and Tiki! Sorry this one wasn’t in color. All the painting and mumbo jumbo I had to do bogged me down. So it will be black and white strips until I can pull ahead. Or until I have like 1000 club members. Join already!

Speaking of which, I have two new strips going up in there today. So those that are in, keep tabs. Those who aren’t GET IN!

New vote sketch today. Probably summing up how I feel after physical labor.

And here is the pic of my kids with their freshly made mohawks. Dillon’s was really spiked up for school today– it looks very cool.

The Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge is now allowing other webcomics out there to post ads weekly on the main page. It’s a total deal and it will really boost traffic to your own comic strip if you have one. Check out all the details HERE. - Don’t hesitate, because those ad spots are going to fill up FAST. Get em while they’t hot and cheap.

Whew. Drank a little too much last night. My wife wanted to try this orange Smirnoff stuff, and we did, and it was terrible. But I spent 15 bucks on it, so gosh darnit we were drinking that crap! After awhile, it all felt ok.

Head over to Joe and Monkey the comic, by Zach Miller, – he’s put up his first big full color strip. I’m really digging his work. It may be my favorite comic on the web.

Vote incentive sketches start again tomorrow. Vote to check em out. I’m liking the “commentary” idea I gave Zach Miller, it’s working out great for his comic. I may steal it back and do it for the daily strips, so people can see little special notes on each strip.

I’ll most likely take photos of the kids with their mohawks today. Stay tuned.

Ok. So my son Dillon, age 7 this summer, has a mohawk. His younger brother Dakota, 3, decided he too wanted a mohawk. So both my younger sons have hawks now.

We went out for ice cream. The 3 year old was proudly telling everyone “Hey, check out my mohawk, lady!”

I can’t look at them without smiling. They look so cute. My little rockers.

Yeah, my son Dillon, 7, wants a mohawk. I don’t know where he saw one, or why he wants one, maybe it’s built in punk rock inside him, I don’t know.

Being a parent, I say, well, it’s ridiculous, right? But then the other side of me thinks– ROCK ON KID!

I just asked him “Seriously? Aren’t you afraid other kids might pick on you?” —- “no.” he says.

Then I say “Well, what if someone does pick on you?” – “I don’t care. They don’t matter. I want a mohawk.”

This kid is wiser beyond his years.

I have the clipper set, and I might grant his wish later. What the hell.

Damn it. I wrote some groovy Cookie Monster comics, but didn’t get a chance to draw them up. Scott has a great Cookie Monster strip up.

That’s what I’m talking about when I say we need more fresh topic strips and things that won’t be dated in a year or something. Good work Scott.

The room is all done and painted up white. And most of the stuff is back up on the wall. WHEW! I’m running on only a couple hours sleep too.

Now it’s time to take a break and watch Empire Strikes Back. Just because. If you haven’t voted yet today, DO IT to see a cool Star Wars related bonus art thing.

:)

LINK to comic - YES! The return of the yomma joke. Only this time, it’s YIRMUMAH. Go ahead and post your favorite “yirmumah is like” jokes in the forum. Who knows, maybe we’ll use them in the future or something.

Vote for us today to see another Star Wars themed bonus sketch thingy. It’s awesome.

I’ll be painting my living room today, so I might not be available as often as I usually am. But still, send e-mail in if you need anything, or post in the forum.

Monday’s strip is now up in the forum club section. – That is all.

Cartoonist Robin Bougie, who I named in my top13 in the Daily Grind last weekend, is now under attack by Catholic folk who are upset at his pope jokes. You can see it all here on his livejournal.

What I dig is reading Robin’s pretty level headed responses to the idiots there. So he gets a giant thumbs up for me. I’m going to remember some of the arguments he’s made the next time people come around trying to attack something I did.

I posted something awful in that thread too. Go check it out.

Link to Dave comic - Dave continues writing the Great American Science Fiction Novel.

Vote today to see a new Star Wars themed bonus art!

Back to work for me.

Hey, if you click the Vote Banners now, you’ll be treated to a new little piece of art that’s star wars themed– confirm your vote if you want to check it out… http://www.buzzcomix.net/in.php?ID=yirmumah

THANKS! and enjoy!

One of my favorite webcomics from back in the day has returned. It’s linked in the blog– and now HERE. Go check it out.

Personal crap: We’re planning on painting the old “Yir-Tiki Bar” this weekend. That’s the whole room actually, not the bar itself. Just a nice white coat of paint is all. We have a ton of stuff to take down and move around, but it’ll be fun.

Bad Ass Air Freshners!: I finally went and bought those Glade Wisps. the ones you see on TV that like, uh, poof every so often?? Yeah, those. THEY ARE GREAT. I bought one for the bathroom and one for the main room here. Best air freshners ever. I won 2 more on ebay for like 2.99. Right on! My house is gonna keep staying fresh and smelling clean thanks to the bad assedness of those freshners. When you’re on the toilet, you just reach back and set that baby on the HIGH setting. It poofs every 9 seconds. Doesnt really make a sound, but you can hear it if you’re quiet enough.

CLEAN WATER: in an effort to stop drinking Coke like it’s water, my wife was going to buy bottled water, which I think is lame. But she’s been going on and on about how great water is to drink, and I’m like, IF IT’S NOT COFFEE, FUCK IT! — but she keeps insisting that water is great for you. I think drinking water is overrated. Anyway, long story short, i say, you know, im gonna buy one of those damn filter pitcher things and save money on this stupid bottled water idea. So we did that. I bought a Brita brand one, it sits in the fridge and has a spout on it. Clean water anytime you want to drink it. Mmmmm. A rarity here in Fayette-Nam, where some days the water can get, uh, bad. So, I’ve been drinking clean water all day. I’m jonesing for a Coke right now. DAMN. ——– WATER GOOD. DELICIOUS…

Alright, fuck it. Water is stupid. But if I keep drinking Coke like it IS water, I’m going to be in trouble in a GIANT FAT WAY.

other stuff: Because some of you might be amazed that I went a whole post without talking about COMICS…. I just wanted to say, be sure to vote tomorrow because I did up some cool new sketches that are star wars related. Well, these are actually more than sketches. But check it out in the A.M.

LINK to comic - Today we invite you to see the Dysfunctional Family Circus. Yes, yes, I know there was a “disfunctional family circus” which was supposedly sued… but what they did was retarded and they were breaking the law. We’re of course satirizing all things in this. Enjoy!

Wanna see a new Yirmumah Sketch?? VOTE TODAY! - the sketch will show up after you confirm your vote. Enjoy!

PS. I’ll try to do this every day if I can. Check it every day. Archived sketches will be put in the Club section… so you may only have one day to vote and see the latest sketch.

We’ve added more “Bobicons” to the Yirmumah forums. Just post or reply and you’ll see them all in the smiley list.

Thanks to Brandon, once again!

Also of note. I’m kinda done talking about the Iron Man Challenge thing. It’s not so “Iron Man” like after all. People squeeking by on the rules, or still in the contest on technicalities or whatever. I’m still in it, but I’m done worrying about it. It’s clear it’s going to be a bullshit race at this point.

Maybe Scott Kurtz and myself will put out a REAL challenge for people. We’re both swamped and I know he wouldnt want to judge such a thing– but maybe we could organize something that would be not only worth a challenge, but we could get sponsors and more prizes– of course, I reckon under any contest we’d set up, you’d REALLY have to be an Iron Man of some sort. Or Crazy. I’ll toss him an e-mail. Maybe not NOW, but maybe later when things cool off.

LINK to the madness - Today’s comic is kind of a continuation of stuff that happened last week. Because I felt like doing this joke. Enjoy it! And comment in the forums if’n you like.

It’s a new month– Vote for us daily!

I’m working on an incentive idea. The #1 comic there can’t even SPELL right. UGH. They spelled “here” as “hear” – UGH. So, I’d like to learn to move up those ranks. So help us get there!

Tues and Wed strip have been added to the club forum section. Enjoy!

And thanks to everyone who’s signed up so far. — And don’t sweat it if you haven’t— the club will be here for you when you want it or can afford to swing it. Thanks to everyone for reading!

LINK to Strip: The last “24″ strip. Boy, that was a fun little theme week. I know we havent done one. For fans of randomness, sit tight, it’s coming this week!

Go and Vote for us- Im gonna start doing sketches or something that will only appear after you’ve confirmed your vote. Not there now, but VOTE anyway.

DAILY GRIND IRON MAN CHALLENGE UPDATE- It’s starting to be some bullshit there. Rules were broken and people were let slide. For a kinda detailed rundown of what happened SEE HERE.

_________________
Hey, i just thought of something. If you want to link to the club area, I’ve created some buttons at http://yirmumah.net/club/banners –

Big ups to Brandon Carr for creating the “hit the fat guy win a free comic” banner up top on the main page. That rocks!

Not much happened here. I probably should have drawn or something today, but it was pretty much just a lounge around day doing nothing. We watched “The Grudge” and “Ray"on DvD, and pretty much just vegged out here. BLAH!

I think it might have been the time change.

I did write up my “Top 13″ in the Daily Grind. Check it out HERE.

Just a quick note to club members– Monday’s strip is up in the Club Section. Check it.

Ok, I’m not catholic, but I don’t think you have to be to know this guy went out with his boots on.

My grandmother recently passed back on December 20th, and it was kind of a happy experience that she went on to the thing she believed in. She lived practically her whole life to “go to god"–and brother, she meant it! You know, something about the power of faith out there– it’s mind boggling to me, probably because I have very little faith in anything except my family and friends.

I’m not a religious person at all. However I REALLY like hearing the great stories about this guy. He really lived a long life and did so much, overcame so much. So that is totally groovy. There was someone on the tube saying that his total message to the world, no matter what you believed in, was “WHO ARE YOU?” – And to put all you had into what you were doing and just be that thing to the fullest. That’s a powerful message to send out.

Ok, enough of me waxing half intellectually— sorry. Back to dick and fart jokes.

Saw Sin City yesterday– I posted about it HERE.

Also, Brandon Carr has created a “bobicon” for our forums. And I decided to try to make a body out of it. Eric from ComicStripfan has the best one so far. CHECK OUT THIS THREAD.

If you’re not a member of the new forum, get in there and register and contribute to the madness!

Must have been a glitch in the ol’ system. Don’t know. Probably my host hiccuping. Sorry for the inconvenience to anyone who tried to access it.

Woke up this morning and my forums seem to be kaput. Something smells fishy– but I’m looking into fixing it today here. Everything is still intact behind the scenes.

All Club Yirmumah members, I’ll be e-mailing you the new strips or links to new strips until this is resolved. Well, there are only 8 or so of you for now– I’ll send you a special e-mail later today.

Digital Strips podcast has nice things to say about our club. go see.

Happy April Fool’s Day! But this is no joke here…. CLUB YIRMUMAH has launched! You can read the full press release here.

Ok, so let me go over the jist of this thing. No, it’s not a subscription service. No, it’s not a secret club, CLUB YIRMUMAH IS the official Yirmumah fanclub. Bottom line, if you’re a big fan of our work, join up and you get all the goodness listed in there. The comic STILL REMAINS FREE every day here at the site, and the archives are super open and free. I think locking up the archive is a retarded idea. –

THE really big deal in this…. club members can choose to see comics from us the minute they’re done and uploaded. Now, this means that what we’d usually call a “buffer", the active members have first access to. If we’re working a week or two ahead, the members are reading right along as we go. Got that? I think that sums it up fairly well.

The Goodies. There is a good amount of unseen material I’d like to put up in the club area. It’s really not for public consumption, because only fans would understand most of it anyway. – Also, we want to communicate with the fans more. The club is a great way to do that, we’ll have a full on monthly giveaway, with everything from original art and stuff from us, to COOL things we might come across like a PSP or Xbox all customized in a yirmumah fashion. This of course depends on the amount of members. We can’t afford to go throwing money around. – Plus, any kind of wacked out idea that Bob may have like his DEATH POOL, etc… it will all be a club member only thing he can run.

Are we selling out? Hell no! It’s still just little ol’ us here running this thing like the millenium falcon! And check this.. it boils down to about 3 pennies a day! 3 pennies! – Right now we have it set up so that it’s 12 bucks a year, or 2.50 a month to join up. All types of payment are accepted. – And to boot, we’re giving back to the readers. If you want to refer or pimp our club out, and someone signs up through your site or blog, whatever, we’re going to give a generous cut of the cash. It might not be enough for new rims or whatever– but hell, it’s something! Nobody is getting rich from this.

That’s the bottom line. No one is getting rich from Webcomics. And this is our way to generate just a wee bit of money from this thing we do, without disrupting our readers or process now. The strip and archives are still 100% free – I don’t believe in locking up your work in some other subscription style like “The Norm” etc… I just can’t do it. … -people that REALLY love our stuff and can afford to support us can do so and get access to some cool extra stuff. And we’re not going to skimp on that side… I just uploaded the first 16 page Yirmumah comic from 1998– over 237 panels of bonus content! It’s raw and rough– and I have 2 other issues I unearthed to put up in the coming months. I know there have been other little clubs out there, but I’m confident in saying that there’s never been anything like CLUB YIRMUMAH. It might sound bold to say I’d like to stake a claim in a working “Fan Club Model” for webcomics. But that’s all up to you people out there. – Even if only 10 people sign up– we’re going to rock those 10 people’s world!

Are you flat broke like us? Don’t worry. We’re going to give away random club memberships every month or so. But you HAVE to be a registered forum user to be in the running for that– e-mail us and let us know your user name on the forum– all active registered non-member forum users will be in the running IF they want to be.

I’m sure I’m forgeting to mention something. But feel free to e-mail me if or post in the forum or here if you have any problems.

You’ll notice that something came early. Official word coming tomorrow from the old blog here, and I’ll talk about the details more— BUT if you want to catch the press release, you can check it out HERE.

ALSO! VERY IMPORTANT– there is a NEW FORUM Go there now and sign on up– ITS FREE. And we love your feedback! What are you waiting for? get in there!!!

Off to do some last minute tweeking and such. ENJOY!!!

Damn, you know, it makes me happy to hear from friends who got a good thing going and I know they totally deserve it. There is no greater feeling than that for me.

It makes up for those times you see people who totally don’t appreciate things they get or don’t deserve them.

BIG UPs TO DAN!!!!

What a tragic story. I feel bad for this family that’s been torn apart. But just a little reminder as I lash out in some angst here…

This stuff happens EVERYDAY. And in more tragic ways and stories we’ll never hear, or those that the media doesn’t consider worth telling. The truth is, there are too many stories like this to tell. They could have a whole 24hour cable channel about media like this, and it would never end. —- I’m sick of hearing the people like a priest tell you on TV what she expressed, or how evil the husband is… Im sick of hearing politicians go back and forth on this– hell, the family is pretty bitter, lashing out at people who did what they could to help. Lashing out at judges they BEGGED to take the case. Geez! And you damn well know when that clown Jessie Jackson shows up, it’s a bonafide CIRCUS. – don’t worry though, my TV is off. But you won’t be able to escape a media hot potato like this. So it’s just something to think about. Especially now that the talking heads will REALLY be on about this subject. Don’t forget all those other souls out there in limbo.

and don’t forget FEEDY THE ANGRY FEEDING TUBE!

LINK! - 24 Week continues. Never forget what happened to Steve. REMEMBER STEVE!

Wow, it’s the last day of March already! Time is flying! And wow, taking a look back at everything we’ve done on this daily schedule since January– its mind boggling. If i had drawn my comic with premade templates, I wouldnt be as impressed, mind you.

Don’t forget to vote daily!

Ok, for those who didn’t see the previous blog which was only up for like 20 minutes– no big deal. All that DID see it, you can totally go do that thing I said.

I defeated the evil trackback spam from flooding my blog. Here’s how– If you’re running the wordpress blog– simply go to where you have your blog installed, and delete the php file called “wp-trackback.php” —- go ahead and saveyourself a copy of it incase you ever want to put it back. But no one seems to use that…. soooooo carry on.

LINKY! - 24 week continues.. for, uh, better or worse…… some people aren’t getting the strips. I guess you wouldn’t if you don’t watch 24 like we do. It’s one of our favorite shows on the idiot box.

Although, I think we’re in the free in clear here. All you need to know is, that buggy eyed guy is how I draw Kiefer Sutherland. And Kiefer Sutherland was in Lost Boys and Young Guns 2.

Vote for us.

Quick, insert witty joke line here! “If the ____ doesn’t _____ then you must ______. “

“Cochran died of a brain disorder in Los Angeles, said law partner Randy McMurray.”

-Full Story-

Seriously– DAMN– thats young to die.

Thanks to Jay for the link. Apparently, hours before her death, Terri Schiavo has put up a blog–

http://durrrrr.blogspot.com/

I mean, c’mon! If she has a blog, CLEARLY SHE HAS A MIND! RIGHT?? RIGHT???

My wife points out that this might not be Arnold Schwarzenegger– because she thinks he’d have a scar on his chest from his heart surgery– however, I think it very well could be him. Ah, what being a politician can do to you.

C’mon Arnold! Don’t let yourself go!

LINK to comic - 24 panels week continues. Wee! YES. I know I draw Kiefer Sutherland wacky– i’m doing it on purpose.

Vote for us.

OH! And here’s a couple photos of that Tiki Cabinet I put up over the weekend. The guy who carved him calls him Teco. Look closely and you’ll see the leapord print that lines the inside backing. SWAG!

I’m having a pizzagasm right now.

Thanks for that word, Mitch.

For anyone paying attention– Something is coming on friday to Yirmumah.

If you want to know what’s going on, I MIGHT give you a summary if you e-mail me and I know you can keep a secret. e-mail me at: idrawcomics@hotmail.com and ask. I just MIGHT tell you if I’m around the inbox at the time.

OK! The moment 5 of you have been waiting for - The “Digital Strips Podcast” interview of ME is up at THIS LINK! - Listen, a podcast is just a fancy word for an MP3 audio file. So you can totally download it and play it in your audio players, just like the music you steal from the internet! AWESOME!

I just listened to the interview, and it came out way better than I expected. I don’t sound like half the ass I thought I did. I was frustrated with microphone problems before I got on with them, and I downed 2 Guinnesses to take the nervous edge off. ARRRGG!!! It’s not just for breakfast anymore.

Anyway, be sure to give it a listen. We talk about a good amount of things, some including: the beginnings of Yirmumah and where some of the strips came from, webcomics subscription models, how to build an audience for your work, hate mail, independent comic publishing, Macgyver having a mullet— all sorts of stuff…. once again, here’s the link- DIGITAL STRIPS PODCAST

A reminder– something special is coming to Yirmumah this coming friday, April 1st. Stay tuned– it rocks.

Things I learned over the weekend.

#1- Bob likes attention. ANd you people are feeding him and creating a monster!!! I kid, I kid. Bob needs love too. But Bob probably just needs his own computer and blog of his own. Then the internet can sleep safe at night.

#2 - Hanging a 68lb tiki cabinet from plaster walls is hard. But I did it.

Come to think of it– my “alpha male” in me has been shining through the past week. Wednesday night I fixed a problem with our van— (well admitedly by checking the internet) so that’s sort of like, my alpha nerd.– But whatever, it works. –

Then to hang this cabinet, I needed to like, drill out these holes in these heavy duty brackets– Bob said I needed a vice. I’m a cartoonist! I don’t have a vice! I don’t even own a drill so I had to borrow one from the inlaws. HURM. (note to self: buy drill) – I had to use toggle bolts which go into plaster or drywall and create an anchor. It hold up to 70lbs— everyone was doubting this thing would stay up on the wall— but a Saturday morning and afternoon later– and that thing was completely solid. Maybe I’ll take pics tomorrow. I even kinda hung from it a little to test it all out. So it is DEFINITLY secure if my fat butt can swing from it.

Alright— that’s the end of day recap. G’night!

OK! Bob has pretty much takend over the blog as he squats here this weekend. – So I didn’t feel compelled to blog anything. Just a quick note to say HAPPY EASTER!

I noticed like, uh, 4 or 5 people ditched our strip from their LJ friends feed this weekend. Probably couldn’t handle the Jesus joke or something. Or maybe it was the line about coke and a dead hooker??? I don’t know. Sorry, this strip isn’t for the easily offended. But C’MON!!!

For those that DO want to hook it up on their livejournal friends pages, the new feed is up– http://www.livejournal.com/users/yirfeed – add that up in your LJ accounts.. and it’s really easy to comment there. You can also click the link over to the right to hook it up. So far, the subscribers to the feed are 17. Let’s kick that number UP. Do it for Jesus AND the easter bunny.

In other news. I wanted to put out a public shout out to my wife. She’s a home health nurse, and had to work overnight for a guy who’s well, without getting into specifics, pretty much stuck in a bed. Before she went to work, she made the guy up an easter basket with jello cups and ho-ho’s, and a plush duckie. – My wife rocks. I bet this is the first easter basket this fellow has seen in years. – NOW, I want my wife back dammit.

Stop calling her in to cover for other slack ass nurses! She’s MINE!

Hey everybody! Head over to JourneyIntoHistory to see the new review, all about us - CLICK HERE!

Quotes from the review:

“Yirmumah by D.J. Coffman and Bob McDeavit is an excellent example of why the syndicates should give up now. “

“The result is art that’s a little less crisp than PVP or Penny Arcade, but with much more energy to every character and line.”

HAH! Take that PVP and PEnny Arcade!!! Our lines got more energy than your lines!

I only have a couple minor corrections. One, our newest book is 2.99. So probably no more cheap books until we do mini comics again. – Two, I don’t think I submitted the strip to be reviewed, I think he e-mailed me about doing it. Who knows. I’ll take the attention anyway we can get it. We’re cheap like that.

READ THE WHOLE REVIEW HERE!

LINK! - We’re totally hanging with Jesus for the Easter weekend. And so is Pat O’Brien!

Vote for us daily in the top 100Buzz. Do it for Jesus.

So, I’m blogging……. Ok. What the heck is up??

I’ll tell you what’s up! I’ve got something up my sleeve. Something, kinda, BIG. Something that will launch let’s say… next Friday publicly. That’s April Fools day, but this ain’t no joke. Uh uh. No ways.

So what is it? Well… I want to say bad. But I’m still tooling with some things. I spent the day today working on it, when I could have been getting a week ahead on strips. But it’s ok.

I just hope some of you out there use it. That’s all I ask. Maybe it can work for more people than just ME…. this …. Yirmumah machine. Perhaps it can help you in some way? I don’t know. We’ll see.

See? This is why I shouldn’t blog. I know i’ve gotten some of you in a tizzy and now you’ll be e-mailing me to ask what’s up. Nothing is up. We’re upsidedownwards.

Sorry… that last part shouldnt make sense to anyone. I’m just still geeking.

LINK! -

Replaced by a Hyena and a bag of Marbles…… DISCUSS!

Oh, and Vote for us daily.

Who’s going to see this movie on opening day?

I SURE AM.

Sorry. I’m excited, and I geek out when I figure out lyrics to new songs. I’ve bolded the parts I like.

CRAPSHOOT LYRICS - Pearl Jam

Consider me an object
free of an infliction
free of all conditions
free of emission

yeah, I’ve been sittin’
upside down
and there I will sway
for all e-ter-nity…ahh

Never forward
Yeah upsidedownward
I’m feeling like there’s something
never thought you’d be part of

Meet me in the backroom
running an asylum
calling on the citizens
bring the ammunition

feeling righteous
yeah that’s not forward
I’m feeling like there’s something
never thought you’d be part of

Comin’ forward
yeah forward’s backward
coming closer

hang on
sail on
I’m feeling forward
get back and run
falling down
I will

[guitar solo]

yeah, I’ve been sittin’
upside down
and there I will sway
for all e-ter-ni-ty…ah

feeling mindless
yeah that’s not forward
I’m feeling like there’s something
never thought you’d be part of

Comin’ forward
yeah upsidedownwards
I’m feeling like there’s something
never thought you’d be part of

New PJ song debuts at concert– Here’s a link to the MP3 It’s called Crapshoot.

OH HELL YES!– It’s no surprise to long time readers that I’m probably the biggest Pearl Jam fan on the planet. And Rolling Stone reports:

Pearl Jam are almost finished with their follow-up to 2002’s Riot Act. The band plans to spend the next three weeks in the studio recording vocals and mixing. If all goes according to plan, the yet-to-be-titled disc could be released as early as May.

“There’s a lot more up-tempo stuff,” says drummer Matt Cameron. “It’s a lot more rockin’ than our last one.” Song titles like “Severed Hand,” “Worldwide Suicide” and “2x4″ seem to reflect that harder edge. Though the track listing has not been finalized, other candidates include “Marker” and “Cold Concession.”

Cameron, who teamed with guitarist Mike McCready on the track “Unemployable,” characterizes the sessions as more collaborative. “We reworked everything together in the studio,” he says. “It’s a really healthy environment – everyone really just wants to dig in and make the songs as good as they can be.”

Pearl Jam hope to support the new record with a summer tour.

LINK

So– I missed out on that big Reading show last year– but we will DEFINITLY be front rowish this year. Pearl Jam is just the best rock band on the planet. I’m sorry.

I just caught a link to the Pat Obrien voice mail things. WOW. This guy is NUTZOID. I’m going to post the link to the audio, but it’s NOT work safe. Hear it here.

He must say “You are so fucking hot” like– 50 millions times on that. He’s coked out of his mind and calling someone over and over telling them all the stuff he wants to do to her. Whoever he’s talking to.

You know– the only thing I can think of when I see him, is Jimmy Falon doing that impersonation of him. Curse you, Jimmy Falon!

BIG HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WIFE! - For whom the character of Calypso is based on. So, they of course share birthdays.

LINK To Comic (for archival reasons) -

Today’s comic is a true story. I’m sure people out there can relate.

Vote for us.

You know– sometimes it feels like I’m living in some fantasy land.. there’s such a smorgasbord of good stuff online to check out. Mostly for free too.

Of course, there is also a smorgasbord of crap out there, but you seem to find the good and bookmark your way through the crap.

But wow. You know, if you really break down what the web can do for comics… it’s just amazing. There’s already SO much going on… and no one even seems to be aware.

It’s magical as a creator. To almost instantly have something up to your audience if you want to. That’s the ONE thing I find lacking. More work ethic and more SUPER topical strips. I mean, imagine some comics that could write about what happened TODAY or last night and have a strip about it in the morning. In that regard, the net isn’t being utilized to it’s full extent. I’d like to see way more fresh comics on stuff thats going on in the world– not necessarily politics– but a mix of everything– pop-culture, whatever. Imagine if those South Park guys could have a whole show up in a day?? they’d do it.

http://yirmumah.net/?date=20050322

Everyone needs a BRICK of SILENCE!

Discuss here.

Vote Daily!

–THESE ARE MY VIEWS AND MY VIEWS ONLY–

So, my buddy Nate’s book is out for sale too, ATLAND, - Beautiful work. Probably one of if not THE BEST looking webcomics out there today. He collected the first strips with some bonuse material and PV Comics sent it to Diamond.

Diamond turned it down. Did they even look at that!? Dear god, why wouldn’t they carry that!- 32 pages in full color for 2.99 from an INDEPENDENT!? that’s a friggin DEAL!– But no– Diamond passed. Or most likely, the crappy brand manager who has his head in his ass, passed. Yeah, Steve Leaf, I’m talking about YOU. I can’t wait to hear the reason. What the hell!?– To pass on a book like Atland is just insane. I could totally see why they might not carry something black and white and by ME, but to pass this GEM up— They’re retarded.—It really just hammers home the point to me that the Diamond system is a JOKE. a broken system.

Face it people. Even when you DO get in their catalog, and pay for advertising, whatever, you’re lucky to get 500-800 sales IF YOU’RE LUCKY. REAL LUCKY. Barely anyone breaks over a 1000 book mark on the self publishing side. I can’t say Diamond’s not doing it’s job, because frankly, I haven’t been giving a fugg about that whole system in a long time. But if Diamond can’t get behind a high quality book like Atland AND get that thing into shops by the truckload– then something is wrong.

ME? I chose NOT to use Diamond at all. It wasn’t even an afterthought. My book is full color, packed with goodness, $2.99 direct from the site where my readers roam. You won’t get a better deal on that. If I really wanted to, I could easily build up my own group of shops to carry my stuff direct. But it’s till not really worth it. – I WAS really looking forward to Atland being carried though. And I know there was some waiting around on Diamond to hear back on this. And you get word like that?? Blah….

This frustrates me, because I’ve seen people spend THOUSANDS of dollars on the self publshing game and lose their shirts over it… and they get nothing from Diamond but a bit of false hope and a tiny listing. —- The other part that angers me, the indys are the backbone of their damn catalog! They pay the bills. And it’s the truth. I’ve asked them! They need to fill those spaces with indy books. But they pass on something like Atland??? Give me a break. Like I said, that thing should have been looked at and praised. Brand managers should have been on the phone with retailer buddies and telling them how great the book is. But nope…. Wait until they find out Atland sold a few thousand copies on it’s own, and will NEVER go out of print!? They probably still won’t care.

I just want to shout– WAKE UP INDY PEOPLE! You don’t need them. You can still use em if you want.. but don’t waste months of your time. If you can do it.. sell direct. Use somethng like Comixpress.com (even though they are backed up at the moment) – but don’t keep feeding the broken machine.

That’s it. Im not going to mention it again. The only way COMICS will change in that regard, is if more people start doing some impressive things themselves. There are a few people at Diamond who have a good intention– but damn– some people just don’t have a clue. If Steve Leaf turned down a book like that, he should be canned. Let someone else that has a clue and can muster excitement for comics in that post. Not some washed up retailer. And I know, people on the other side of Pro-Diamond– will be like, “1. why do you even mention us?” “2.Go do it yourself then toughguy!” To which I would answer– 1. Because it’s dicky and someone is an asshat. and 2. I AM, thank you very much!

Viva La Small Press!

The Interview with the Digital Strips guys is done and done. I hope I didnt sound like an ass. I had some minor problems here with my microphone settings that delayed the thing, so I was just happy it went off at all. DAMN my luck! —- At one point I think I said it’s kinda easy to do a 5 day a week update. That must have sounded egotistical– but damn, it kinda is easy for me, but only because I’ve been wasting my life drawing comics for so long.

I feel like a know it all sometimes and it bugs me. Once again, this is really the only thing I have some expertise in— which could be sad to some. But I’m proud of it. – Maybe I’m jaded? Because when people ask me questions about making money, or the comic book industry, immediately I the thing that comes to mind are all those guys who are barely hanging in there, or who have lost their shirts. THIS PAGE comes to mind. - Yeah, it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be, kids!… . But us underbelly folks are JUST FINE!. Werther’s for everyone!

So, anyway, that interview will be up in next week’s show, which will be on monday. I’ll be sure to link to it of course. Be sure to check those guys out at Digital Strips–

Booyahkasha! - The new Yirmumah Strips #1 is now up and available to the public at THIS LINK. If you didn’t get one, buy this one up! Only 2.99 for this full color bad boy, packed with all those strips from July-December 2004, plus much more!

BUY IT NOW @ COMIXPRESS!

DON’T TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT….

Read Andrea Speed’s review of our first full color book HERE!

Wow. All this love for Yirmumah. You’re making her blush.

LINK! - I drew this comic last night, and I had mixed feelings about doing it. I wanted to do a comic about how I felt about that poor woman in Florida, and what a circus all that has become. The talking feeding tube was actually my wife’s idea and I took it from there. – Everytime I’ve seen the story of the Schiavos play out on TV, there always seemed to be something disingenius about him in interviews, especially when put side by side with the situation at hand.

Anyways.. this is how I looked at this issue through the Yirmumah glasses. Like it or hate it, I just want to see someone choke that guy. What person person than Feedy the Angry Feeding Tube?

Vote for us.

ITEM I just realized again that I should probably stay away from the internet too early in the morning when I’m in a groggy mood and have had little coffee. It makes me REALLY mess around and people seem to get all upset and angry with me. In their defense, I DO act like a turd. It’s just funny to hear someone say they have no respect for me, then I go to their site and their strip consists of a taking Assface with a hoonanny for a mouth. Brilliant! – It actually makes my happy the tap dancing Ass character look cute. I want a Happy the Ass plush doll. Some day!

Be sure to send in any questions you want the Digital Strips guys to ask me - I do the interview at 10pm tomorrow and it will air in the following Sunday show.. You need to be sure you questions are sent to digital.strips@gmail.com before the end of today, or at least sometime tomorrow morning. Ask anything! Let’s keep it semi clean though.

Those of you with LiveJournal accounts, do add this feed to your friends list: http://www.livejournal.com/users/yirfeed/ - It will allow you to feed the strip right into your friends pages and read from there. Woo! Plus, it’s pretty nifty and easy to comment on the strips there too.

Also, anyone using RSS, make not of our glorious new feed for your feed readers: http://www.yirmumah.net/rss/rss.xml

People with MY YAHOO accounts can also add that feed to their MY YAHOO page, and have the new strips fed in. I don’t know anyone who uses a my yahoo page, but if you’re out there, add our link! - http://www.yirmumah.net/rss/rss.xml

ITEM- Went to my first auction today. Blah, that sucked. This guy had a bunch of cool stuff in his yard, railroad signs, etc.. he died and now all his stuff and his property is up for auction. I cringed when the weird auctioneer said something like “I promise you, this property will look a lot better when he haul all this junk away” —– I cringed. Here was this guys collection of signs and stuff…. wow. And this guy auctioning it off is pretty much crapping on a part of who this guy was.

My wife wanted me to go to look at a couch there. But it was fugly. I’ll try never to go to an auction again. It just felt creepy.

Let’s run down some newsy news items. I’ll add things to this one post as things come in. Check back for additions I may add.

ITEM- Eric from ComicStrip fan writes some good things about me in his blog. Someone wrote good things about me? Yeah. Shocker, eh?? [LINK]

ITEM- Eric from ComicStrip fan uploaded all the art I sent him, along with the envelopes and letter I sent. You can see his complete Yirmumah collection on THIS PAGE!

ITEM- The Yirmumah Strips #1 (Enter Yirmumah), will be on sale soon at Comixpress. Like ANY MINUTE it could go up. So check their site out frequently, OR just wait for me to post the link when I know it’s up. [LINK]

ITEM- I just got off the phone and my wife want so drag me to one of those auctions. Some cool couch there or something. Gotta go!

I just caught Nightline tonight, all about a Muslim Comedian named Azhar Usman. (Link to his site) Very funny guy. And he really gets the message across.

It’s a damn shame what Muslim Americans are going through in this country. It really is. And the media is to blame– it really is. They put this GIANT FEAR in everyone… People think Muslim here, they think Terrorist.

NOW– this might not be the case EVERYWHERE with EVERYONE…. but here in Fayette-Nam if I brought up anything about “Muslim” – people would immediately jump to that spot in their brain – the GIANT FEAR!

Now– Here at Yirmumah, we’ve been slightly criticized for joking around about terrorists. I was recently told “JIHAD!” isnt a battle cry, its means “struggle". I knew that already. But seriously, isn’t it funny for someone to just yell, JIHAD! Especially a talking bear? If anything, we try to mock the stereotype of the terrorist. I don’t ever want people to think we’re down on our Muslim brothers.

In fact, Yirmumah is an equal opportunity offender. We make fun of EVERYTHING. Even ourselves.

And I promised that if a Muslim comedian caught my eye in some way, I’d link it up and post about it- This isn’t something I’d feel comfortable doing regularly, but given the way Muslim Americans ARE being treated in the US, (under a constant eye of suspicion) I think this well worth mentioning and bringing to light– and this definitly caught my eye. I sure hope folks like Azhar can get a fair shake… I see he’ll be in Pittsburgh on the 22nd of April. Maybe I’ll try to catch that show– In fact, it would be fun to hang out with more Standup comedians.

Mental note: I need to remind Bob to pursue a standup comedy career.

(Once again, in case you forgot, a link to Azhar’s site!)

Ok. Last week when I was packing up books I spoke of the liberating thing I did. Well, the books were late, and I wanted to do something special for the people who took me up on the offer and who were now waiting patiently. – I decided I’d give away original art from the strip itself to the people who bought the book. – Why??? For one, when my originals are done here, they go to a box. I have boxes and boxes of originals here from various projects. They do nothing but take up space. I know that people who actually follow my work, or this strip, would appreciate the original art a lot more than I do when it’s sitting in a box in my basement. I can’t do this ALL the time, and it may be the only time I do it. WHo knows. But it felt great.

Now, there are SOME originals I keep just for me. Ones that I’m fond of. But for the most part, I just went through my stack of envelopes, looked at the name, and if I semi-knew you, I paged through and found a comic I thought you might like. Now– since I wanted to keep the shipping down, I folded them! I hear collectors or speculators cursing me… CURSE YOU!— But you know what… “I” put that crease there. It was liberating to treat these things like something I was sending to someone as a thank you note. The first few I folded were painful…. but the more I did it– the more I realized, it’s just paper! These ARE just material things I created. SURE i drew on them.. but do they need to be some sort of sealed up in pristine condition?? Nah! Screw that. If your comic came folded, with a note written ON the strip or on the back of the strip– “I” put it there. And I did each one FOR YOU.

One person in particular, I ended up sending multiple things to. For one, he’s bought a bunch of my original strips in the past. Two, he’s become a really good friend– and three, he’s sent me some cool packages from the island. It’s almost like my own Pen Pal!—-

And what a cool thing? What an AWESOME exchange between the reader and the creator. I’ve told Bob this, and he thinks I’m crazy, but I’d like every reader to be like a friend. Different levels of friends, sure…. I won’t claim to KNOW many of you out there. But I’ll tell you, there is NO greater feeling than getting an e-mail, or note in the snail mail, or helping hand from someone out there. It makes you go… WOW. — And it really shows me that these things.. these little drawings and sometimes crude and twisted humor…. they CAN do something. If it’s just “entertaiment” , fine. That’s enough for me. But I’ve made a good many actual friends doing this, who support my work. People who were only readers first, and I just flat out can call them friends.

Here are some photos from the night I liberated some of my original strips to the readers:

The loot! The booty! And my humble ordering filling station at the tiki bar where many of those strips were made.

A closer look.

A note I scrawled on the back of one of the original strips.

Bob punching at the camera and trying to look tough. This was the night we signed the books.

CONGRATS TO KEP! One of my old compadres from the Digital Webbing boards has been doing quite well for himself in the comic writing field. I just found out today he’s the writer on the new Shadowhawk series. Kep is the nicest mofo on the planet, and he can pull a MEAN rabbit out of a hat too.

Read interview here- INTERVIEW o’ Kep!

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LINK! - You can’t go wrong with Kill Crazy Clowns. Screw everyone’s Pirates and Monkeys and Zombies and Robots… OBEY the CLOWN!!!!

Other news: The full color book will be going onsale to the mass public at Comixpress today sometime. I’ll link it up when I have the address.

Item: The strip isn’t in color today, because, well.. somedays I dont feel like coloring it. When I get the feeling to color, I will. – Once I start making more money with this, via donations, sales, whatever, I promise to have MORE full color strips… because I’ll have more time where I don’t have to stop and do other freelance jobs, caricatures, etc. —

Vote for us.

Hey, on Monday I’m taping an interview with Digital Strips podcast. You can send in any reader questions to them at digital.strips@gmail.com - There’s a complete write up HERE!

LINK! - Our apologies to gay Leprechauns everywhere. We really DO know how hard it is for you to get action. And we care.

ITEM For everyone who wanted an RSS feed of JUST the strip itself– The mysterious Brendan has swooped in and hooked us up. So…. add these to your RSS readers:

RSS FEED of Strip only: http://www.yirmumah.net/rss/rss.xml

LiveJournal Feed: http://www.livejournal.com/users/yirfeed/ (note: nothing on that list yet, but it will start adding strips after today)

And WOW– We broke 40,000 page views yesterday! FRAGGIN awesome!. Thanks to all the folks from NothingNice who swung in and e-mailed to say Hi. Stick around.

Also, it looks like a good many of you are spreading the word around in forums and linking to us. Keep doing it! Don’t ever be afraid to share the love you have for Yirmumah.

NOW, ye wee lads and lasses– Be sure to enjoy your day to the fullest! And why not embibe a dark Guinness in honor of Yirmumah. NEVER forget Yirmumah on the day o’ the irish!

Cast a wee vote for us in the old voting thinger m’jigger

My son Dillon, the 1st grader, brought me his first comic he made, stapled and everything. It’s a Batman story. Batman fights the joker, beats up thugs– AND meets girls.

After I told him how much I liked it, he happily dashed to his book bag and popped it in there, saying he was going to show his friend at school tomorrow. –

Ah… the magic of comics. It’s just automatic. I don’t even encourage him at all…. it’s like it’s built in. Kinda scary… but totally magical.

I added a link to the right in the link bar, Joe and Monkey. A fantastic comic I found by way of the nothing nice to say site. What an awesome find for me this past week! Super thanks to Mitch CLem for e-mailing me about the guest strip. People seem to be digging it a lot.

ALSO– Anyone who still wants a book and poster, I have some left over. NOT MANY– So e-mail me for details on that. Hopefully packages are still arriving where they need to be this week. One package I sent saturday got all the way to Washington state by Tuesday– thats awesome!

Today’s comic Link ! - Today’s comic I did for Mitch Clem over at www.nothingnice.com - He has a great strip and great readers over there. In fact, I’m loving the whole spectrum of comics I’ve discovered by way of his site. So big thanks to Mitch for giving me a holler. It was a lot of fun. – Im running the strip here, because I kinda put more time into it than I thought I would, so it took up my scheduled time to draw Yirmumah. Hey, squint your eyes, and it easily be Bob and Drew….

The joke– of course, was a Yirmumah joke I’ve wanted to do for a long time. A loooooong time ago in the early 90s, I use to say this all the time. Until one time we were all throwing the goat and all the lights went out in Connellsville. (in Fayette-Nam) – I STILL of course throw the goat. Good times!

Almost true to the digital strips guy’s prediction– BAM, someone has bailed out of the competition. Richard Guidry: See his bail out here.

I will spend his 20 dollars on …. SODA.

OK. Here’s the deal. I’ve uploaded some stuff I did when I was like 14-15 years old. It’s an effort to show aspiring folks that they don’t suck. They just need time and practice. I drew over 300 pages in the Scorpion days! And they ALL SUCKED!– I’ve uploaded some files and comments. Be sure to pass this link around to folks. This is pretty Awesomely bad.

SCORPION ONLINE!

I was referred to as “Dave Sim” like 3 times today via e-mail. Weird. That relating to my announcement I will be doing Yirmumah until I’m dead. Which, due to the way the world and reality work, could be ANY time… but I want to live a lonnnng time. But if a boulder flies off a cliff and lands on me tomorrow, you have until my buffer ends and the strip would end. Crazy?

Yeah.

Can you tell I’m not drawing strips today? I’ve been blogging a lot. That’s because today is “draw caricatures” day, and I have a good bit of back and forth to the computer. So, just ignore me and move along… nothing more to see here.

Today’s comic - Was something I just came up with while I was inking other comics. People seemed to love the Deacon character a lot, so I wanted to show what he looks like now.

More on the Deacon. - Yes. Deacon is based on my dad. But my dad isn’t like that at all. YES he is an ex-biker from the late 60s. Yes, he probably had many adventures involving ’shrooms. But the real Deacon is more like a wandering wise old monk now, than a womanizing superstar. But Deacon is my dad’s own Drew Price.

My dad shielded me from ANY info on him being a biker, or dealing with drugs– I never could have imagined it. I didn’t find out lurid details until I was 18 or 19. He tells my younger brother more than me. Probably because my brother is a weed head, and not a straight clean cut guy like myself. Sometimes I wonder if my dad raised me convinced I was an undercover narc. —– Seriously though, and there are a couple others here who could agree…. The Deacon is the man. Also, my dad was probably the only real family member to encourage my pursuing of any kind of cartooning career. Probably not the wisest choice I ever made, but I thank him for it constantly. —- I gotta get that guy a hobby!

Dateline: March 14th- 2005 - Fayette-Nam - (Dickerson Run Hill) -

A thought occured to me while finishing my second rum and coke of the night. What if I made a promise to just do this strip until I die? Like some people marry their wives, and make that pledge, what if I just said that this work is my baby and I’m going to raise it just like a I raise my kids. A commitment to just KEEP GOING.

No. Not in newpapers. Been there, done that. And, maybe occassionally a self published comic book of some sort wouldnt be bad……. but primarily, right here on the web for all to see. And, well, according to my schedule, a very open relationship with the readers and fans. I’ve made it a point to reply to just about every e-mail I’ve gotten, even the bad ones. And, as I get busier, I can’t always promise that– but I can promise to be as transparent as possible.

The bottom line…. I’ve seen it all when it comes to comics. No, I’ve never seen one of those fancy hollywood paydays, but I’ve seen all my dreams wished for when I was kid. Seen the newspaper business suck a big one. I’ve seen my friends in the independent comic business lose their asses as the market for comic books just fades away (especially indy comics) – I’ve grown tired of freelancing for other people, building and building for others, while my own things sit in the closet and curse me. And now, here I am. With my comic on the web. No real purpose besides just to keep going.

So what do I promise? What’s my oath?? Well.. I promise to do my best to make sure there’s a comic here every mon-friday. Sometimes every damn day maybe– Probably in full color. It might not always be funny, or tasteful. But it will be here for you and me and everyone else. Sometimes maybe it will take on a different format, or minicomics,– perhaps characters might die, and more introduced. Just evolve and keep going…. … I have nothing better to do with my work now.

While other people stop, quit, move on… I’ll just keep moving with this and leave something…something…. well,… absurdly epic behind for everyone to see.

I wonder who will still be here or there in 50 years? – Shit, 50 years from now, I’ll be 79! Can you imagine how much work that would be? And what a strange, long trip that would be? Will there be an internet? Or will you all be tuning in via some weird holo-projector right into my tiki bar/ comic drawing studio? A round of virtual drinks for everyone!

I don’t have the comforts of a syndicate contract. But I have the foolish obsession to just do it until I die out. Why not? Who knows… maybe there will be times when I just can’t support myself at all. Maybe I’ll be forced to be a Wal-Mart greeter or something on the side.

I can only promise that Yirmumah will be here for a Loooooooooong time. Let’s build some awesome army together or something. Hang around, won’t you?

Illostrated’s review of Enter Yirmumah!

Glad you liked your package Jason!

I just wanted to let you know I tried to reply to your e-mail, john@johnjett.com and it bounced. Here is your answer here though, hopefully you see it.

“Yes indeed. Thats the 1993 tour poster, and the first poster designed by the
Ames bros….

They actually are on Ebay pretty often– check there once a week and they
will pop up sometimes for around a hundred bucks to two hundred.. I got mine at the show in Indio in 1993– and it’s signed by
Ed too. . — It’s actually not that rare or expensive when compared to the other posters. The Pittsburgh 2000 show poster is one of the rarest, they spelled Pittsburgh, “Pittsburg” and only sold a few before they noticed. That one runs about 500-600 smackers! Crazy.

I’m a PJ freak. I’m sorry.”

LINK- Big ups to that guy with the dumb Irish name for single handidly writing all of the “Drew history” week.

Yeah, so you get a big full color comic on Monday. Surprise! We’ll keep it mixed up and do more big full color comics as we have time. We have some things in the works behind the scenes, where I HAVE to get more ahead than I am now for it to work right. So, stay tuned. 2005 is shaping up to be one of the best years for Yirmumah and it’s 16 loyal fans, i guess. Right?

Don’t forget to vote!

The first has fallen in the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge - The title goes to Demon Dorm Day’s Donald Noffsinger. – Sorry Donald, you just couldn’t cut the mustard in a challenge like this one.

Here’s a funny thing… the guy admitted to not having much artistic skill. But when he was finally voted out by the judges, he complained they should have warned him because he spent 20 bucks on art supplies, and he could have bought food with that 20 dollars. So the question needs to be asked, why spend 20 bucks on art supplies when you can’t draw in the first place?! —- Should’ve bought the groceries dude. And if you’re worried about groceries, why spend 20 dollars to enter a fugging contest of this nature anyway? BLAH– I smell…….. EXCUSES!

I make this promise. When I win the Grind challenge, in oh, who knows.. YEARS from now– I’ll buy the guy 20 dollars in Top Ramen and send it to him.

He seems a little down and threatening not to update his comic ever again (big loss there) – but seriously, all ribbing aside, we’d hope he’d continue to produce art and practice practice practice. Doing a daily comic of any kind is not an easy thing— nor is cartooning in general. Let contests like this beef yourself up. And even in losing, he’ll have the attention. Do you want people coming to your site and seeing you lost after two weeks of updates and now you’re whining about not continuing with your strip??? You should do the comic because YOU WANT TO DO IT. Not because you want attention or people to read it. —- You’re doomed if you do it for any other reason than for the sheer joy, sickness, obsession forming habit of it.

So there… Im HALF being nice to the guy. He should turn the fact he’s the first loser into MANY MANY more fans of his work.. by simply not being a quitter. Take a break or something– but never let them see you sweat.

I’m behind on things today. I’m breaking radio silence just to say HOWDY!

I was thinking maybe Monday or Tuesday some people on the east coast would start receiving their books and posters.

2 photos from last night at the Yir-Tiki bar as we signed books and clowned around. My Son Dillon got in there somehow too.

Just a quick note to relay that all the orders have been filled and shipped this morning! WooHoo! – Can’t wait for everyone to get their packages.

SUPER THANKS to everyone for their patience on this and supporting our work. It means a lot.

The mail lady treated me like a celebrity or something, and was falling all over herself that I was there mailing out so much stuff. She kept saying “I should have gotten you a chair!” – and she was impressed that a package was going to Belgium and Hawaii. Not many people ship things to exotic locales here in Fayette-Nam. So I guess maybe I do look important when I’m sending crap to some remote island or China. —- I’m not important though. I’m just a sasquatch who has to come into town now and then to mail things out. It actually makes me uncomfortable when I’m treated special in anyway…. probably some deep rooted pychological problem. Yeah.

I added all of our completed Space Ape strips to the extras page here at the site. - It’s not Yirmumah related if only the fact that it’s by this historic comic creating team of “COffman and McDeavitt”

Ol’ Jimbo the Space Ape was around in the days of the old Gravity comic strip we did. We wanted to do him daily at PV or another web publisher, but had no real takers. We ran some on PV. But never continued with it. So for now, Space Ape is here in our extras section for you to enjoy. Maybe he’ll see the light of day again sometime.

~comic linky dinky~ We finish the week with Drew in his new home!

I get people asking why I put a link to the comic everyday here in the blog, when the blog runs on the main page. I will reply grumpy like because I havent had enough coffee yet.

Dear Idiots, Morons, and mislead people:

I put the link on there so people using the RSS feed can jump right to the strip. OR when people are browsing through the blog archives, and they see something talked about, they can just jump to that strip if they missed it. Trust me, it works. Stop acting like I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m fully aware.

PS. I’m sorry I called you a moron. It was inappropiate.

Anyway, yes, once again, that’s why the link is there. Try it out, you might like it!

Ok. The plan is to get the books signed tomorrow by Bob and ship those bastiches out on Saturday morning. Hmm…. I could do it tonight if Bob could get over here. Maybe – JUST maybe.

I’ve gotten about 30 bucks in tips from the tip button this week. Goddamn, thats pretty awesome! We’re no Randy Milholland here, wherein we can just do this full time because of our generous fans… but I’m ALMOST at the point where I can buy a case of Guinness! SUCCESS!!!!

No, I friggin PROMISE I won’t spend donations on beer. It will all go to science, and bettering Yirmumah in some way. Whether that’s helping with ads run on other people’s sites, printing, bills, etc…. It totally rules to have any kind of support like that. So I just want to shout a GIANT THANKS to everyone who’s tossed some cash at us. You all rock.
__________________________

So efh talking about myself and my comic and everything ME you should be worshipping. What else have I been doing? Well, I joined that online Blockbuster thing, so now it’s one less reason to leave my house. The selection isn’t as good at Netflix, but it’s a few bucks cheaper. Late last night I watched Collateral, with Tom Cruise and Jamie Fox–which I thought would just be a giant ball of turd— but it was actually a pretty good movie. Tonight, we have Harold and Kumar I guess. So far, this service rocks– and just about any movie I pop in there, they have it, so I can’t complain.

I’m thinking about taking the evening off from working on crap and just vegging out here. Oh, and I hate goddamn laundry. Folding laundry sucks…and I totally feel like Mr. Mom. And I’m tired of my non-immediate family calling me that on the phone. UGH!!!

~Today’s Comic~

Drew’s first few days of life continues…. 1976 never looked so good. I struggle on whether to put in the term “sweet tits” on this one. I don’t know if the Deacon would really say that. – but it’s probably just the ’shrooms talking.

New Pet Professional up - The crew at PetPro are REALLY doing a greay job with their strip. Be sure to check em out.

Most original comic idea I’ve seen in a good long while.

We’ve been down the voting path before with our strip…. I’ve had people asking why we don’t have the vote buttons anymore…. well, we thought they were kinda silly. But now, it’s back. If you done dig our strip, try to vote everytime we update. Also, there is some feature that allows me to pop up bonus art– so when I have time to figure that out– maybe you’ll get a surprise after you vote.. Yes??? The button will be in these posts, AND over there on the left ad column.

Let’s rise up those ranks. Hurray for popularity contests! Nah, screw that– but it DOES bring in new readers, and that’s what it’s ALL about.

Wow. I just did something that made me feel really good. I can’t say because it’s a surprise for the folks who ordered the preorder special. — But I feel super happy right now. Thats all I’ll say.

OK! So all the envelopes are all ready to roll, and books and posters are ready to be signed by both Bob and I. I have to round up a Bob to do that though. So hopefully tomorrow he can come over in the evening, sign these, and I can mail these bad boys out on friday. I’ll keep the blog posted.

Liberating.

The UPS dude just dropped off the books and posters. I went out and grabbed the envelopes and all that jazz and I’ll start putting the packages together tonight. I still have to get Bob over here to sign them, then we’re sending these bitches out to you!!!

Thanks to everyone for waiting so patiently. I’m hooking all of you up. Just watch.

~comic link~ Our trip down memory lane continues. Meet Drew’s dad. Also known as “The Deacon” – An ex- Heck’s Angel. And you know, there’s only two ways out of the Heck’s Angels.

OK– thanks to Ed for hooking this up for us. http://www.livejournal.com/users/yirmumah/ If you use LiveJournal, or know anyone that does, be sure to let them know to pop that on their friend’s list. I’m going to get the RSS feed thing setup as well there. Will blog that later.

Hell, I might as well hit all the blog communities with a feed. It’s a great way to get the strip out there to human beings.

I know there must be. I have a request…. Can somebody set up some sort of LJ feed of the strip here? It seems a good amount of people read strips right in LiveJournal, and I’ve had some people ask about it.

I’d do it myself, but I’m extremely busy at the moment. I think I have an LJ account from ages ago… but still.. UGH– I’d like to setup something like like :Nothing Nice to Say: is doing. Check it out here- http://www.livejournal.com/users/nothing_nice/

~Comic Link~ Because you never demanded it, the first days of Drew Price’s life continue.

Taking a break from work here to check the ol’ mail. Always nice to read some supportive e-mail, etc.

I was surprised to have a knock at my door this afternoon – it was my dad and brother. Ironically, I was coloring a character based on him when they knocked. Weird… — They left Southern California on friday and got in today. That is a FAST trip. And they even hung out in Roswell for a day. Damn!– My dad does NOT efh around. He told me he drove 800 something miles the first day. Amazing. So– they’re back here for awhile until they get flighty again and head out. It’s great to see the old man– He lost 37 lbs out there in the desert, just walking around. It’s the first time my dad has lifted his shirt to show his belly in as long as I can remember. Damn, i REALLY gotta get with it and lose some weight here… I know, I know, I’ve said it a thousand times before.

Oh– And I cracked a friggin tooth today. FANTASTIC. I hate dentists. So I’m just going to ride this out. No! I’m not AFRAID of dentists. But my last few times to the old tooth doctor went poorly. So I just avoid them at all costs now. Although I don’t want to have rotten teeth. All you kids out there, be sure you to brush at least twice a god damn day. It’s kept me away from the dentist for a LONG time.

Alrighty. Couple of updates here. #1, I should have the books and posters here on Wednesday, and I should get them in the mail by Friday to everyone– I gotta get them to Bob so he can sign them. –Once again, sorry for the stinking delay, it’ll never happen again. Maybe I’ll never do a book again. Who knows.

Second: There’s a tip jar button on the main page under the strip now. To my surprise, I’ve had several people ask for one, so there you go. There was one on the Store page for a few days, so thanks to all those who tipped us! RIGHT ON! And we owe you a drink of some sort if we ever cross paths. The well wishes and support we’ve been receiving the past few weeks has been great, and really pushes me to do more. So stay tuned.

~Comic Link~ : We decided to show some of Drew’s origin this week. Enjoy!

:( No books. They’re late, obviously. I’m have peeved and half disappointed.

Sorry people. I PROMISE I’ll make it up to everyone.

Will post here when they do arrive. I hope they show up tomorrow.

Ok– Hmm.. Going to start drawing some new comics today– but wanted to unwind my mind a bit here.

The Daily Grind challenge goes on, but I’m kinda sick of talking about it. I gave it enough attention by talking it up all over, getting Kurtz involved.. and probably blessed some unworthy souls a TON of attention. Seems there are some people out to just bend the rules, or squeek by with stick figures or MSpaint comics. Blahk! I have to decide if I’m going to go full blown and thrash people, or if I’ll just shut up and move along and focus on MY WORK. Or a little of both. The fans seem to want to see me thrash people from the feedback I get. People love a good trash talk, unless you’re the person involved. …. But I have no regrets. If I don’t mention it again for awhile you know why. I’m not even linking it in this post. So there.

,b>Book Orders Update Ok. It’s friday. I don’t have the books or the posters from the printer. Frankly, I’m a little peeved because I havent heard anything since Sunday. And they were suppossed to be sent on mon or tues. –UGH. A mini nightmare. I’m sorry for the wait people. BUT, I’ll tell you this, I’ve upped the friggin ante, and anyone that ordered a book or a poster is getting something extra special in their order. YOU JUST WAIT…. and keep reading here for an update. I’ll most likely blog the minute I get those books at our doorstep—

First week down in the Iron Man Challenge. Piece of cake. — I want everyone to know, I’ve decided not to do a Saturday strip this week. I may just do the mon-fri for a while, but fear not, because we actually have some BIG strips written up that we’ll just toss in randomly I think. So you might be surprised to find a bigger strip on like a tuesday or a wednesday , at least while the contest is running.

I got three e-mails today alone about doing guest strips for other people. This gave me an idea– If anyone out there want’s to do “fan art” or a guest strip for Yirmumah– perhaps I’ll run those on the weekends. I’ll also include your work in future print books with credit and a link to your site. If anyone out there wants to do something up, just toss me an e-mail. It could be fun to see what other people would do with our train wreck we have here.

Actually– there are two things going on right now in the planning stage. One is a new minicomic series, or just a regular sized comic– and the other is a fanclub section. I can’t talk about either in detail right now, but just know we’re talking about them, and they both are sounding fun. Most likely the fanclub would come first. Club Yirmumah.

-From Smoking Gun- -

I hope he wins. But all stars should know to not keep this crap on thier computers or cellphones! Geez!– 80 million though– WOW– that’s a ton of dough.

Oddly enough, I’ve actually spoken with Durst via e-mail before, and he’s checked out our comics. He seems like a nice guy. Weird, huh??? He had a xanga blog for the longest time, but looks like it’s not been updated since Novemebr. — I’m not 100% sure, but I’m almost positive we had actually mocked him in a few MonkeyMan comics or AngryNaked pat strips. – I recollect.

~comic link~ The daily blog is a couple hours late today. The kids had no school so we all slept in. – NICE!

I think we’re actually going to run out and be a family for the day. A nice break from the routine.

I’ll blog more later. Everyone enjoy their Friday!

I was just cruisin technorati and saw a mention of Yirmumah and thought I would check it out. http://tallghost.blog-city.com/read/1109539.htm - Much to my surprise, it was someone who remembered me from the old minicomic days — I wish said person would e-mail me and remind me about our conversation and who the heck you are! I’m sure I would remember it. Here’s a highlight from his article there:

By far the best part was meeting new people. This event came in only slightly above making fun of Tom Savini, for one reason and one reason alone. DJ Coffman and his friends at Yirmumah. This was a great little ashcan comic that we all simply fell in love with. It had a semi-autobiographical feel to it, and the animation was light and fun. Unfortunately, I don’t always make it out to the local con anymore. I miss finding Mr. Coffman and trying to remind him that we actually chatted a bit for a weekend about five years ago.

Flash forward to today, and my web-comic reading lifestyle. Imagine my surprise and shame to find that Yirmumah has been turned into a web-comic!! Surprise at getting the chance to read fresh stuff from one of my favorite small publishers, and shame for not having thought to look for this kind of thing sooner! I urge you all to go and take a look at the site, go back to the first strip and read through them. If you don’t, I’ll have to kill a puppy.

Watch this guy and make sure he doesn’t start killing puppies. PLEASE. — For the record, we’re not doing any conventions this year unless we start making money from the site in some manner. Comic conventions are BLAH to me now. MAYBE– MAYBE I’ll do SPX and Mid-Ohio… but I’ll have to see. – Southwest is now going to start flying out of Pittsburgh, which could mean, sometime down the road, I would have access to numerous cities at a reasonable cost. Look out world!

FIRST a book update, then the news. My books were suppossed to have shipped Tuesday, but i haven’t heard a peep back now. So I’m getting a little impatient now. Next time, I’ll be sure to wait until books are in my hand before I sell, but I was afraid I might run out. So to everyone that ordered, thanks for your patience. I’ll post here as soon as they arrive. I hope they come by tomorrow. I’m sick of asking about it because I feel like a pest. – I’ll make it worth everyone’s wait. I promise! I’ll update here as soon as I hear something.

As you may or may not have noticed, I did a little cleaning up on the home page. I ditched the picture calendar and dropped in a Calendar Menu dropdown. Just want the site to be as easy to navigate as possible, so I’m streamlining some things on the main page and through the archives.

Also, I’ve FINALLY got around to tweeking the caricature page around. See here. Yes. As promised a long time ago, prices have finally gone up a bit. Supply and demand. But still, really reasonable. AND I’m going to get into the custom icons for people too. I saw a few places online who tried and got crushed with business, but i think I can manage that. And that is SUPER cheap. Check it out.

I maximized my space for ads to run. Primarily I’ll run ads for stuff I’m selling or promoting , like the caricatures, books, whatever is new— but also, if anyone out there is interested in popping an ad on they can e-mail me for ad info. Hey, we got mouths to feed.

Bruce Campbell talks about EVIL DEAD 4

Hell Yes! I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

~comic link~ Sleeeeeeep.

Which is what I’m about to get back to. Another school delay today for the kids. I love you, snow!

I have a ton of e-mail in my inbox, I’ll get to it later. I’m typing this with one eye open. We stay up way too late here.

ZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

While I’m thinking about it, and while all these fine new folks are flowing in here, I want to ask anyone out there to link to us if they like our work here. – We’re giving this stuff away, and right now our only promotional tool is pretty much word of mouth. So those links are important to us. Help us get the word out, and we’ll NEVER forget you. Toss a link in your blogs, message forums, homepage, whatever…. just link it to http://yirmumah.net – THANK YOU!!! Toss us a line and let us know where you’ve linked us up. We’ll link you back…

Also, there are some link banners on the links page, if you’re so inclined.

Thanks to microsoft blogger extradoinaire, Robert Scoble for the plug on his blog. Not only did he link up the Iron Man Challenge, but also made my name a link to here.

So welcome to all my fellow bloggers out there! Grab our RSS up and keep an eye on us.

You can also find Scoble’s link in my link list to the right. It’s under blog: Scoble, Bitches! I love that guy.

A loyal reader posts some great facts about the Storm Riders game who’s ad you see on the main Yirmumah page for this month… in our forum. Thanks homey!— I’m also informed there is a Storm Riders comic available in the US. Do check it out.

~comic link~ More fun Bob Pope action!

There was a school delay today for my kids. So I’m going back to bed. ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You know– the other day, I’m watching TV and I swear to god I see Hootie (Darius Rucker) from Hootie and the Blowfish in a goddamn burger king commercial. Sho’ nuff– IT IS him.

You know what’s even funnier. Hootie Fans are upset and they’re voicing their opinions here.

Cowboy Hootie. That’s your weird surreal moment for the day. Enjoy.

I’ve gotten the nicest goddamn e-mails today. Geez guys. I’m flattered. I’m so use to hate mail and people sending me viruses and stuff. But you people out there rock. Thanks you all so much.

~comic link for the rss folk~ So there’s today’s comic. Enjoy.

Look ma, I sold out! To the right you’ll see an ad for a game called Storm Riders. I was approached by a game advertiser after hearing my name on Scott’s main page and following the links through the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge. So it’s official, I’m one of those strips with ads for video games now. We’ve made it! We’ve finally made it! — Seriously though, the game looks pretty cool, and it’s based on an old comic book too. Check it out. - (I know, I gotta somehow fix up the link so it loads in another window, will be done today sometime) – I’m really appreciative because even ONE ad pays for a whole bunch of online expenditures and helps keep the strip going strong. Strong like bull!

Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge The final tally on contestants, 56. The pot is at $1,120. There’s no more time for trashtalk. Seriously. There are just too many people for me to keep track of and mock. If we’re going to win this thing right, we have to really knuckle down and keep to our promises we had anyways before this contest started. What’s this mean for Yirmumah fans? You can be assured that there will definitly be a mon-fri comic as long as this contest goes on. The big saturday strips may be gone for a spell, while I build up a buffer akin to the one I had when we did that whole newspaper thing. No sweat at all. Actually, we may surprise you with BIGGER comics on a day you didn’t expect it at all. So this is just flat out going to be great for the regular readers. And to all the new people…. goddamn! Thank you so much for reading, and don’t believe all the ugly rumors about me. I blame Bob, you should too.

Books and posters The books are supposedly on their way here for all of those folks who ordered. Keep an eye on the blog this week for an announcement on when they arrive, and I’ll also post when I’ve sent em out. Goddamn again, super thanks to everyone who ordered the special deal. We love you. Anyone else who missed it, the stuff will be available here online from another store real soon. I’ll post a link for you.

Seacrest, OUT!

Well, now that there is some REAL talent involved in the competition over at the Daily Grind Iron Man Challenge, I’m going to knuckle down more and get ahead.

I spoke with Bob on the phone tonight… he mentioned that I’m crazy, and I could literally go for 10 years. He may be right.

I see I’ve entered the psyche of my fellow competitors, to the point where one decided to put someone he thinks looks like me in his first days strip. See here. I love it. That is fantastic. I’m flattered. I shouldnt even link him and send him any traffic, but honestly, I think it’s awesome. Touche’!

New DigitalStrips podcast is up. They mention Yirmumah and that they like it.

I’m glad they got rid of the radio sound effects. Sounds way better now. Check these guys out.

NOTE: The book and poster special ends today. You have until the end of the day to order. There may never be another one like it. Order Here.

~Comic Link~ It’s on! The Iron Man Challenge begins today. There are now 32 competitors, and a pot of 640 bucks. There may be a few more entrants by the end of the day.

I e-mailed Scott Kurtz yesterday and asked him to join up. I figured I needed some real competition over there. He made it in. Now, the amatuer hour smack talkers are shaking in their boots, but I know as well as any other well educated webcomics fan, that sometimes Scott is late. So this keeps him on his toes too.

Beyond taking all their money, that’s REALLY why I’m in this too. It keeps me on my toes and is something to look forward to. Nothing brings out the best in you like a good old fashioned competition. And this is the first time in a long time I’ve been excited about something that was going on in webcomics online. Seriously, there are a lot of talented people on there. And even for the guys who are complaining about “semi-pros” joining, this is the BEST thing for them. Hell, even in the LAST competition there were some published guys, etc…. Anyway, I plan on mocking people as they lose. But I’m only doing it for fun. And maybe it will inspire them to keep working so they don’t get mocked so bad. You know?

My prediction of course is, that I will win. No one has witnessed my obsession before so closely. Now it will be under a microscope.

Comic update. This is the very last chance for people to get the special deal. Click the banner while you can see it above the strip on the main page.

Book update for those who ordered. The books and posters are being shipped Monday. I won’t ever do a presale special again unless I have the books in my hands already. I hate making people wait, but I promise those who did order, I’m going to spend a whole day doing nothing but kick but art fot their orders. So there!

Lettering some comics and getting ready for the big contest starting tomorrow. The pot has grown to $580 bucks. Not too shabby. I haven’t decided how I want to spend that yet. Hopefully one more person will enter and make it a nice round 600 bucks. If not, Ithink it would be cool if everyone just tossed a buck in and made it a nice round number.

600 bucks could probably buy my dad a hell of a hooker.

So I was doing some smack talking for fun, in a forum clearly marked for smack talking. And obviously I hit nerves by calling everyone Kolchaka wannabe, art school dropouts. People immediately resorted to calling me real bad names and just trying to be mean. And I continued my charade of mockery.

Now, those that know me, know I’m just messing around. But I was immediately labeled an asshole. And thats fine with me I guess. They even made a POLL about Yirmumah needing to tone it down. IN a smack talking forum. Geez. Then a couple fruity guys wanted to have a nice pretty place where people cooperate and help one another and blah blah blah. Look, thats fine.

Hey, it’s just for fun. And obviously, these kids can’t hack it. So I won’t go there or link their forum anymore. Their loss. I’ve invited anyone from there who wants to have fun smack talking, to come to Yirmumahville.

I will however spend their money when I win it.

~Comic Link~: Finally, it’s the BIGFOOT & tiki show!

This is something I’ve wanted to do for awhile. Just for my own enjoyment, but if you enjoy it too, even better. A quick story on this. I don’t get to get out much here, and I like it. I generally get annoyed by the locals in my area. Sometimes, I feel like a bigfoot here, and it occured to me, perhaps bigfoot just likes his privacy. — One day, I thought to myself, what would be the most absurd idea for a comic or sitcom…. a Bigfoot and a Tiki and they’re roommates. I remember Bob sitting here staring at me like I was stupid, and telling me it was one of the dumbest ideas he’d ever heard. At least he said that until I started spouting situations to him. What the characters might be like and the type of laid back humor I had in mind.

So BIGFOOT & tiki has sat on the shelf for awhile, and I thought I’d bring it out. This is especially cool to me, because I dig all things tiki. It’s not as in your face as regular Yirmumah strips, but I thought I’d bring these two to the Yirmumah fold in some way, so here they are. Love em or hate em, they’re BIGFOOT & tiki!

Here are some character sheets–

There are rumors floating around that he wrote his wife and on a secret message and said it was only for them. A final farewell and telling them how to go on. In some ways, I think suicide is just bad… it’s most definitly a lousy thing to leave your loved ones with. And, a most selfish act. But in Hunter’s case, damn, it seemed like he was happy and did it just to go the way he wanted to. You can read his wife’s complete run down of the day, it’s a good article. LINK

Only that guy could pull that off. And now they’re seriously going to blast his ashes into a canyon. Damn…

Suicide is never on my mind. I want to live to be a happy old, old man. I want all my friends to be around too. Hell, even the ones I’ve lost… it still sure feels like they are around me.

~Comic Link~ Those Gods are CRAZY. Crazy.

So, Monday the Iron Man Challenge begins. Who will be the first to fall?! Sure, we’re acting all cocky like and stutting our stuff… but seriously, there ARE a good many talented people involved, (and a few terribly bad ones) so be sure to check it out and judge for yourself. It’ll be fun.

I’ll probably forget all about it as time goes by, and then one day 480 something dollars is plopped in my lap along with hate letters from everyone.

I’m excited about tomorrow’s strip. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now. Even if people don’t get it, I don’t care. I did it because I wanted to.

We’re in. All paid up and sent all the requested info in. And there’s a nifty link to the official page right here on the blog to the upper right. Click it to follow all the losers. Of course, we will be winning this thing. Link to official site.

We’ve already made some enemies in the forum there. Geez… I can’t call them ALL Kolchaka wannabes… but there are a lot of what I would consider art school dropout comics. LINK: The official shit talking forums. And yeah, we’ll probably talk some smack. Hopefully everyone has a thick skin. So far, people are resorting to boring comebacks. It’s apparant that most of these fools think they’re too hip for the room. We were even called Penny Arcade clones AND PvP clones in the same thread… HUH?? Wha?? I don’t get that. I bet they thought it would affect me like it affects other people who are truly clones of something else— I think my Kolchaka wannabes remark touched a few nerves… hehehehe.. GOOD. May they crumble beneath our mighty Iron Hands!

Anyway, I love a good clean competition. They can say what they want about our strips. Our readership doesn’t lie! And we’ll keep working hard to feed the strips out. I have some big plans I can’t talk about right now until things are set.

Oh– only a few days left in the BOOK DEAL. So hit that link while its up above the strip to take advantage of the offer. Thanks.

A bunch of web cartoonists doing a Daily Grind Challenge. Everyone puts in 20 bucks, and who can go the longest without missing a mon-friday update.

It starts on Feb 28th. I’ve sent my e-mail in demanding to enter. You know I’d win… right? I can outdraw any man, for any amount of time. Mon-Fri updates are a BREEZE. So this would be fun, and money in the bank for me.

Hopefully they accept my challenge, it this is truly an IRON MAN challenge and not an IRON PUSSY challenge.

~Comic Link~ The awful truth, revealed!

I did almost accuse the real Bob of downloading porn on my computer. I saw “Digital Strip” in the download clean up screen in firefox.. then I realized it was for the Digital Strips podcast. D’oh! — But I couldn’t explain the MILF thing over the weekend.

Or…. could I!?

The Digital Strips guy have a new podcast up. Check it out.

Digital Strips : The Web Comics Podcast

These guys are doing this stuff all on their own, free and for the fun of it. So if you like reading webcomics, give a listen to this. It’s good insight from a readers point a view. – My only critique is, all the noises and zings and stuff, they could chill on that. Heh.. Reminds me of the SNL skit with the radio DJ… Still, it’s good solid talk on webcomics.

Hey, why not e-mail em and tell em to review Yirmumah??? Here’s their e-mail– digital.strips@gmail.com

Hook it up!

~Comic Link~ Ha! You thought yesterdays strip was bad… we always find a way to take it one step further away from good taste. Enjoy!

Thanks to our good friend James for sparking the idea.

Im just posting this in from my old blog. This blog is much easier to find things on. Enjoy. Someone should STILL do this shit…

COMICS NOW!

Another Innovative thought for the comics industry. Vending machines. That’s right. Vending machines. Picture it. You walk into Walmart and along the Coke and Pepsi, and those stupid crane machines, there’s a big glowing display that says – HEY KIDS! COMICS! – and it would stock all the best selling comics, as well as rotatint series.— These comics would be about a buck to two bucks a pop. Pretty much as low as it could go. Even if comics had to go back to newsprint, WHO CARES!!!–

There are plenty of ways that idea is impractical to the way a system is setup now. BUT– imagine if one of these hotshots who love comics so much, if they put some of their money into funding such an effort. Imagine selling vending routes out to already exisiting vending companies. Returns? Imagine a reship center or a free comics to schools program. – I mean, imagine this— Little tommy gets a couple free comics from the local library or school incentive program. Sure, it’s a back issue, but it’s an awesome story– boom, he loves it. The next time he’s at Walmart where these machines are, he notices that his favorite series is carried right there in that machine! Boom. Hooked.

And what of comic stores? Well hell, why wouldnt a local comic shop actually sponsor the machines in his area, on each book that came out of the machine, it could have his business card attached for his shop– This would solve so many problems. All you would need to implement this idea is a test area. A contract with some big companies to carry a couple flagship titles, AND perhaps some independents like Devils Due,– GI JOE would be a great comic for a machine like this. Wow.. I could see the kids flocking to a big glowing GI JOE comics machine…. imagine the front of that machine rotating the images. Now imagine BIG companies paying for those eyeballs. Heck that would be totally worth buying stock outright and non returnable. COmpanies make a crazy bare bones profit when the COMICS NOW! machines buy a subscription to their title.

Imagine those high traffic areas actually having COMICS. Thats how kids found comics back in the day. On the local dime mag racks. And those kids helped to fund an entire specialty industry. That industry is slowly crumbling… and the greedy speculators dont want it to change. They have a strangle hold on. It’s time to kick them in the nuts with a big concrete sack full of INNOVATION.

__________________________________________________

Let’s do an imaginary setup of one these machines. Minus the machine cost— say you already owned one. You were able to stock it like this:

50 copies of GI JOE @ 50cents a piece from the company. $25

150 copies of MARVEL - 3 different titles at 60cents a copy from Marvel. $75

150 copies of DC- 3 titles @.50 - $75

150 copies of IMAGE 3 titles @ .50 - $75

$250 bucks for stock, gets you 10 titles to stock in your machine. Maybe add two more indy type titles, maybe an IDW book like CSI or something… but lets stick to the 10 title machines for now.

So all together, with those bare minimum prices, you have 500 books. If you sold them all for 2.50 (way less than a pack of YuGioh cards!) – you’d make $1250, – for a 1000 dollar profit on your order.

Now that’s just ONE machine. And one machine that could be checked weekly and restocked. Imagine if you owned 5 machines, at a chain of big stores. Or imagine if you leased those machines out to the shops themselves. OR other sites. I also imagine, with only 10 titles in a machine, it would be easy to make the buttons pretty big and colorful the actual covers of that months comics themselves. Or a digest size cover for the button. Oh, those kids would just EAT that up. Forget the ride on horse.. they want the big colorful spiderman comic, they want to push the button and have it shoot out in a sleeve and backboard. heh.

Ok, go forth and steal my idea and make a zillion bucks! Or you can HIRE me to help you envision a plan and solutions for such a model. I have more ideas than I can write here.

Added more caricatures to the gallery. See here.

Pretty fun stuff. I forgot to raise my prices. So for now, they stay how they are.

We’re proudly hosting this complete spoiler of Star Wars 3- Includes tediously collected photos from the film that have leaked, animated gifs, and a run down of the plot. Feel free to link this around. I’ll host it as long as I can– or until I’m officially asked to take it down or something. Wee!

STAR WARS3 SPOILED BY YIRMUMAH!

Only 6 days left on our special we’re running. All the details at http://forums.pvcomics.com/viewtopic.php?t=1524 GO!

An update for those who ordered already. First off, THANKS you amazing humans! Second, our orders were suppossed to be here last week, but will get here this week I guess. The printer had the flu I guess. Ahem, LOGAN DeANGELIS had the flu. – It’s ok, we love him. I’ll be sure to make it worth everyone’s wild who orders. – Since everyone who’s ordered is in the US, you should have your books days after I get them, and I’ll report here on the blog when they arrive.

~Comic Link~ Yeah, that’s right. We went there. And we’re proud. Deal with it. – Sure he’s an old man, but time can’t let you escape the truth. Sooner or later, you will face the truth.

:)

~Comic Link~ So there’s your comic for Monday. Enjoy. I made it with love and care just for you awesome people out there.

Late last night we got the word that Hunter S. Thompson shot himself to death at his compound in Colorado. Wow, like no one saw that one coming a mile away. Still, suicide is LAME. The dude was only in his 60s, he could have done so much more. Sad. I’m betting it’s how he planned his end anyway, so there’s little anyone could have done about it. – Ironically, or maybe not so ironically if you know his work, his last column on ESPN is “SHOTGUN GOLF WITH BILL MURRAY”

Book update. My books aren’t here yet. But as soon as they do arrive, they are getting sent out to ALL who ordered. Only a week left in the SPECIAL. Go now!

Thanks to the hacked Paris Hilton phone thing, Bob got through to Pauly Shore before the gig was up. Now his mailbox is full and not accepting any messages.

Here’s Bob’s transcript of the call. It’s short but sweet.

Pauly:..ring…ring…ring.."Hello?….Yeah,hello?”

YIR:” ….Pauly? Hey man, it’s Bob.What’s up?”

Pauly:"Uh. Nuthin’,dude. Just got back in.Where you at today?”

YIR:” Oh,uh..hangin’ out with that chick from town. Uh, what’s her face.Naomi? You ever meet her,man?”

Pauly: “Naomi? Uh…Naomi Judd? You don’t know her,man.”

YIR:” No.no. Not that Naomi. Naomi Watson. From in town. Has that tribal tattoo on her back. The midriff thing.”

Pauly: “Who is this?”

YIR:” It’s Bob,man, Bob.”

Pauly:” Yeah, which Bob is this?”

YIR:” Oh..um..It’s Bob,the WEASEL!!!!HA!HA!HA!HA!(Undecipherable weasel clicking noise).

Pauly:"…..fuck off..(not understandeable)…-click!-

Before his mailbox was full, we were lucky enough to crank call Pauly Shore. He sounded dumbfounded. We’ll post a transcript of our call later. You KNOW how it ended….

No, no.. we didn’t do it. But we’d thought we’d post the list for internet prosperity reasons– CLICK HERE to read all her private crap.

How hilarious.

Before his mailbox was full, we were lucky enough to crank call Pauly Shore. He sounded dumbfounded. We’ll post a transcript of our call later. You KNOW how it ended….

Little late on posting the blog, but the comic of course has been up since way early in the a.m. — ~Comic Link~ - Enjoy!

- Your pals at the Yirmumah Mining Company, est. 1998 -

~Strip Link~ Ah, the question is as old as man…. and we cover it today as well, solidifying our place in theological history…. or not. Who cares. We’re all worm food, right? Right….

Ok. It’s official. I’m sick of JLo— not that I was ever fond of her in the first place, but her videos and music are just annoying the hell out of me this morning, as my wife zones out on the morning videos. UGH. Do pianos fall from skies? If they do, please send one to JLo. What a hooker.

Presale update: You only have 11 more days to get the special offer. Click here. Remember, you CAN order by mail. Just e-mail me for the mailing address. — And big thanks to everyone that ordered. I’ll be sending out your books as soon as they get here. Hopefully today– but if not, I guess sometime next week. I’ll be sure to hook everyone up, since only a couple handfuls of people have ordered—— no, I didn’t mean that as a guilt trip to folks who didn’t or can’t order the special— I’m seriously hooking everyone up who orders. Because I’m just that way.

Still haven’t decided on the Pittsburgh show. Hurm…. They’re not down for the 24 hour comic day, or they say they don’t have time or room to do it. I look at a show like that, which charges 17 bucks to get in. Then I look up at a show like Mocca in the summer, which charges 7 bucks a day to get in. And it’s got what could be a more popular lineup of creators… and the Harvey Awards. — Anyway, this has nothing to do with anything. If I were a rich man, I SWEAR I’d offer 10 bucks to anyone who came to my table, just so their entry fee would be 7 bucks instead of 17. – HOw can we get these conventions cheaper again? – Is it just greed? Or is there a reason it’s so high? I don’t know….. it bugs me, but it’s probably no ones fault. This year, I blame Ernie Hudson and Margo Kidder.

Link From a kind a reader on my forum: The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Trailer on Amazon.

Oh Heck yes.

~Strip Link~ – It’s been awhile since I had a moody strip, so I wanted to throw a curve ball. We’re not ALL about tap dancing asses and venom spitting cobras you know.

Back to work for me.

Here’s another one of my favorite little ukulele songs. I struggled to play it when I first started the uke, but now that I’m pretty smooth and look back at this tab, it’s completely an easy song to play— I doubt ANYONE who plays ukulele reads this comic or blog at this point, but I figured I’d blog it for prosperity reasons and it’s easy for me to find on my Uke category link…., but anyway, here’s the tab and lyrics…

“Nobody KNows you when you’re down and out.”

C A
Well, once I lived the life of a millionaire,
Dm A Dm
Spent all my money, Like didn’t have a care.
C E7 A7
Took my friends out for a mighty fine time.
D7 G7
Boot leg whiskey, champagne and wine.

C A
Then I began to fall so low.
Dm A Dm A Dm
Lost all my good friends, had no place to go.
C E7 A7
If I get my hands on a dollar again,
Am G7 C
I’m gonna hold it ‘til the old eagle grins.

C A
‘Cause, nobody knows you
Dm A Dm
When you’re down and out.
C E7 A7
In my pocket, there’s not one penny.
D7 G7
And as for friends, well, ain’t got any.

C A
Soon as I get back on my feet again,
Dm A Dm A Dm
They all want to be my long lost friend.
C E7 A7
I think it’s strange, without any doubt.
Am G7 C
Nobody knows you when you’re down and out.

Traffic has been crazy to the site recently. We jumped from a regular average of about 4000 page views a day, to a whopping 28783 yesterday! Yowzas!!! —

Yesterday alone, we had 2,432 new unique readers pop in, so I just wanted to say HELLO! And thanks for checking us out. Bookmark us, we’re here everyday putting up our basterific work for free, and we’re not slowing down.

Oh, and big thanks to all those who have ordered the special book deal. I can’t wait to get these out to you all.

I’m on the fence about doing the Pittsburgh show. Someone should persuade me. I just e-mailed them about space there. Maybe I could organize some 24 hour comic day event or something, and pimp PV comics and my yirm stuff. I don’t know.

Linky - Based on a true story, kinda. I was recently approached to write an encouraging letter to a 12 year old kid. I didn’t know what to say.

Seriously, I honestly believe there has to be some sickness involved in wanting to do anything like this. It’s an insane amount of work and time. But those who have it, know that once it’s gone, there’s a huge void that can’t be filled with anything but doing it again. I need to name that disease. Sequentialuenza. Sequentialpychosis?

I guess no matter what, the truth CAN set you free.

Official Pre-Sale Info ~ Offer Ends February 28th

Prices include shipping!

Yirmumah Strips #1 “All strips from July-December ‘04 in full color” - Signed and numbered - $5.00

AND

Enter Yirmumah Poster - Signed and numbered - $5.00

To order by mail, please e-mail us for info at: yirmail@yirmumah.net

THANKS!

I was just scanning our local Pittsburgh news. The most notorious child molestor in Fayette-Nam’s history has died in Mexico. Shallenberger. He died a fugitive.

Now, naturally, we just hate child molestors here. —- We have a semi funny story about this creep that’s Yirmumah related. Way back in 1996 or so, when Bob and I were roommates we actually planned to go to Mexico and kidnap him and bring his ass back here, or hold him for ransom to his rich ass family. — Ah, criminal thoughts. I told Bob it would never work, because I most likely would have beat him to death on the ride back from Mexico.

It bothers me that this guy got away with his crimes. Died a free man in Mexico, and no one bothered to go get him. It’s like a plot to some old movie… fleeing to Mexico to escape the law. Anyways, I’m glad this guy is finally dead. He didn’t deserve to live this long. If there’s a hell, I hope he’s buring in it.

~Today’s Comic Link~ : For real. The real life Dave asked me to do a caricature for him a few weeks back, and I haven’t gotten around to it. So I was behind on strips, and behind on caricatures and sick as a dog, and I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone. So that third panel is what Dave asked for. – Maybe by the time he gets married, I’ll have a super fancy one done up and framed. – I don’t even think he reads this. Well, I’m sure he does so in chunks now to see if he’s mentioned. This one is for you, Dave!

So many years ago, Dave had asked me to do a drawing for a back tattoo for him. The classic whale vs giant squid battle in the ocean. I’ve never gotten around to it, although I think of it often. There seems something so epic about it, I don’t know if I could do it justice.

Alright- I’m hunkering down for a few days and getting some serious work done. I’ve goofed off enough here. We redid the little shelf in our tiki room yesterday. It turned out pretty nifty, and we can actually display some of our mugs now. I’ll maybe take some photos sometime for the old blog. But for now— I need to go hunker down and keep my head in the game.

Seacrest, Out!

~Today’s comic link. ~ - A little Valentine’s day shuffle for you. I hope everyone is enjoying the made up corporate holiday.

And a little reminder about the book pre-sale. (yeah, I may remind people everyday) It’s only running for two weeks from today direct from the old blog here. If you want to order through snail mail, please e-mail me for an address to send to. Otherwise, here are the paypal links again. Big thanks to all those who ordered over the weekend! You guys rock.

Prices include shipping!

Yirmumah Strips #1 “All strips from July-December ‘04 in full color” - Signed and numbered - $5.00

Enter Yirmumah Poster - Signed and numbered - $5.00

As you can see here, today we debut the art that will be the cover to the new book, as well as an 11x17 mini poster. –

A quick note about it. Back in 1998 when I was doing the original minicomics, something like this was going to be the cover to the issue 4 that never came out– and Yirmumah went to sleep for a spell while I worked my butt off doing freelance work. So now we finally had a chance to use it and it seemed right. For people who don’t get it, it’s a homage of the Enter the Dragon movie poster, one of my favorite kungfu flicks of all time. – And now, because I REALLY want to get this in readers hands I offer you an early Valentine’s Day Gift….

LIMITED TIME PRE-SALE! : Here’s the skinny. We gots the full color collected book AND a miniposter. – For two weeks only, any orders that come in will be signed and numbered by both Bob and myself , and I’ll doodle a little sketch somewhere on your book or poster. – After that period, we’ll still have books for sale elsewhere, but they won’t be all signed and special like that.

How to order: You can use paypal right now if you have it. If you want to send money via snail mail, please e-mail us for info. Shipping included in price.

Yirmumah Strips #1 “All strips from July-December ‘04 in full color” - Signed and numbered - $5.00

Enter Yirmumah Poster - Signed and numbered - $5.00

Finally, if you’re a Yirmumah fan, reviewer, blogger help us get the word out about the offer, and link up this entry. Thanks to everyone for their support!

It’s been up for awhile– but Don Simpson has a blog. One of my favorite cartoonists, and a kinda local – Here’s the link to it.

Much has been said good and bad about Don… but from what I know he’s just a kick ass mothercrunker who tells it like it is. Back when I was an absolute nobody, as oppossed to the semi-nobody I am now, he was very encouraging of my own cartoon work and minicomics, etc. I got to sit beside him at Mid Ohio a couple years ago as well. He seemed interested in how my career was going and how I was doing it. It almost sounded like he was asking ME for advice— which couldnt be possible. Maybe he thought I was just a hack and couldnt believe I had any work at all. His skills far far outweigh and outclass my own–

Anyway, Don Simpson is amazing. And by the looks of it, his blog is DEEP talking about the comics in a deeper way. Don Simpson is deep. Deal with it. LINK!

~LINK to strip~ - Bob was inspired by the “Ripley’s Believe it or Not” strips. Of course, our comic is ALL true though, while that Ripley’s comic is just a bunch of hogwash nonsense!—

Maybe Bob could run his own museum one day of “It’s Da’ Truth!” Memorabilia? That would be swell.

He keeps reminding me to blog about fighting Tito Ortiz— but I don’t know what to say. I guess I’m suppossed to act like some wrestler and call him a little bitch or taunt him— and this will somehow bring more joy to our readers??? Fine. Tito Ortiz is a little bitch. Bob informs me that he’s primarily a grappler/submission type fighter. That stuff wouldn’t work on me… I don’t want to brag about my own skills, but that guy would be in for a major surprise if he latched onto me as I simply tap three of his pressure points and he goes down like sack of bricks. — I really don’t like hurting people physically though, so I’ll have to train Bob to fight him when he shows up at my door. We’ll be sure to get it all on tape.

Oh– some official Yirmumah items will be for sale REAL soon. Like REAL soon. Check the blog here tomorrow for details.

~Link~ It’s here! It’s finally here! Happy Burt Reynolds Day!

Go and celebrate by watching and of the number of great films he’s been in over the years.

Have we convinced you that we’re Burt Reynolds fans here at Yirmumah? Good. Then we’ve done our job. Now go forth and bust out your ’staches and celebrate!!!

So, I got to draw a Gondola boat on the latest caricature. Never drew one before. Check it out.

I was talking with my wife and asked if she would ever run around in a boat in Venice– and she informed me that the canals there are sewage. So that would be kinda gross. I don’t know how that would be romantic at all.

~LINK for my RSS peeps~ (I just said peeps, i must still be ill.) BUST OUT YOUR ‘STACHES because Burt Reynolds’ day is tomorrow!

In other news, a pretty decent podcast about webcomics is available at Digital Strips Blog. These guys aren’t professional broadcast quality by any standard, but they have some solid things to say about the artform beyond webcomics. So I give it the big Yirmumah thumbs up for today. I wonder what they’d have to say about our strip? I probably don’t want to hear it.

Back to work for me! Get your ‘Staches ready!

Blach! I have I have a cold. Sneezing, post nasal drip thingy, bLah! It suuuuckkks….

Luckily, I’m ahead on my strips. I’m a little behind on caricatures, but I’ll be on track. I’m not sick enough not to work, so all the due caricatures will get there this week as promised.

Two things I’d like to get accomplished this week. #1, I’d like to find out when I can start selling you fine people the print book. Soon, soon…. #2, I’d like to get some work done on the secret Yirm project I’m planning and get that launched by the end of the month. It will be very keen, I promise you that.

Also– at one point, I was thinking about moving the Yirmumah strip to a hub like keenspot or some other place, but my traffic has grown by leaps and bounds here on my own, so at this point I don’t think it’s necessary. By golly, I think I can actually do all this on my own and remain independent. Some places make me so excited though, and I just want to be a part of things…. but it’s probably better that I’m on my own out here on the webernet. – -Thanks to everyone who’ve linked us up. You rock.

14,000 page views yesterday!!! And most of them without referrers, which means they’re most likely coming from bookmarks or personal link lists or blogrolls or something. I really appreciate it– the more people who read, the harder I’m going to efhing work to make Yirmumah totally KICK YOUR BUTT—-

Wow, I just refrained from using two bad words. It’s the cold.

~LINK~ It’s the Ladder of Change! Hop on!

Poor Jeff Woogy. Pray for him.

In other news– I’m hella busy right now with things stacking up here. Soooooo, without further adieu, back to the drawing board for me!

Watch your back, Tito Ortiz!!

Here’s a link to a REALLY long interview with Alan Moore about various things on writing and doing your craft. Brilliant guy. Someday I’d like to play chess with him, or throw rocks at cars with him or something.

IN said interview, he had the following to say about Jack Kirby and Stan Lee:

But, the Marvel-style approach, this started with Smilin’ Stan Lee, Stan ‘The man’ Lee, and I’ve gotta say, and this is only my opinion having seen Jack Kirby’s pencils, I think that the process went something like this:

Stan Lee comes up with an idea: “Right, next issue of The Fantastic Four , like, what if there’s some really big powerful threat from space, sort of – or according to some people, what if in the next issue, the FF – the Fantastic Four – fight Godâ€�. And Jack Kirby goes away, and he thinks: “Galactus…Galactus eats planets…and he’s got this herald…and it’s this silver guy on a surfboard and he goes before him…and this guy’s so frightening that solar systems will switch off their suns so that he doesn’t notice them, they’ll black out their entire galaxies so that he’ll pass them by, and yeah, The Watcher, he intervenes and fills the Earth’s sky with illusions to keep this creature away, but it doesn’t work…â€�. And you’ve got Kirby, he’d pencil five pages a day…he just wasn’t human. He’d just sit there pencilling five pages a day, six pages a day, nine pages a day, and in every panel – so he’d be breaking it down into stories, he’d be breaking it down into a continuity of images, he’d be inventing the characters, he’d be writing the dialogue suggestions – very crude, very quick, but sometimes quite detailed. Then this would go to Stan Lee, who would look at the story that Jack Kirby had written , would dialogue it in his own unique way – he would put in a lot of ‘thees’, ‘thous’, ‘face front true believers’, footnotes, and then it would go out as ‘ Fantastic Four created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’, but it was only one of them who had a share of the action on the characters, and that was…the smiling one. And that’s probably why he was smiling, come to think about it.

STRIP LINK - Yes. Time traveling cavemen. What more can you ask for?

In other news… back to drawing strips for me. Behave, people of the webernet.

Apparantley, we’ve challenged UFC champion, Tito Ortiz to a fight of some sort. Bob says I can take him, but upon further inspection, he looks a little frightening to me. I bet he’s never taken on an angry cartoonist before, so who knows???

Strips are coming along fine. Ok, I’m lying. I’m a little behind on where I like to be, but still, no delays forseen– Yirmumah goodness everyday for you all.

I’ve also just been informed that our cover to the forthcoming book and miniposter has been spotted at the Emerald City convention in Seattle this weekend. So, I’ll be posting it sometime this week, hopefully with some news on the on-sale date for the book, etc. SOON…SOON… as soon as I know, you’ll know! I can’t wait for people to get their hands on em.

Back to the drawing board for me. Watch your back, Tito!!!

You must watch this. Brilliant job by these guys. Here’s a link directly to the Quicktime version–

Im bookmarking their site, it looks interesting to me.

So, today’s super big color comic, can also double as a nifty calendar for you! Or a jazzy background wallpaper for your computer.

I wanted to do something different this week. And I’ve had the calendar idea for awhile, and figured now was as good a time as ever. If enough people dig this, we may do one every month– I was actually going to draw everyone in it, but I came down with the flu this week and it put me back a couple days…. but it’s like one of those accidents that turned out pretty nice, the mixture of cartoons and collage action.

Enemy? Or Reverse Secret Admirer? - Ok, I’ve seen a pretty major explosion of viruses and worms, and things of that nature, being sent to my e-mail addy. I would have figured it to be a random spammer type thing, but they’re getting pretty specific about subject lines having to do with actual things in my strip. — Dummies.. I’m not going to open attachments. Please stop bothering me. – I must have a second super power to really get under the skin of some people or something. As Triumph would say—"I keed! I keed! It’s a joke you see!” – So take it easy out there. I seriously don’t want to have to track you down. But in all honesty, you’re hatred fuels me, whomever you are. Thank you.

Somewhere in my mind I picture some Z-List celebrity I offended gettinger his/her little cousin or nephew to send me viruses or worms. Or Michael Jackson.

Stan Lee???? ………………….naw!

:)

here’s dah LINK!

Sitting around one day, I said it would be funny to just have a giant venom spitting cobra attack Star Jones. And so it was that this strip was born. Enjoy.

Notes about Stan Lee on 60 minutes from the “Comics Reporter.”

Yeah. I’m still sore. Sorry. I woke up this morning and thought to myself– damn, just because he signed a contract with Marvel saying he can get 10% of money derived from other people’s creations doesnt mean he deserves them at all. – It should definitly be divied up between the people who were the CORE creators behind these things that Marvel has made so much money on.

What could I expect though? Who am I fooling? Marvel is a corporation. Not a comic book company. They are ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. Have been for quite awhile. Ask Avi. –

But they are a corporation without any ethical standards. I wish they would change that. Stand up and change that. What an AWESOME thing that would be for them to do something to honor the people who BUILT that fucking place.

Until then…. the curse continues.

See the link:
Yirfanart.jpg

These guys are just great. Funny gag too. I may have to steal it. That’ll teach them!!! – Check out all their fine comics going on at DigitalPimpOnline - Now, GO!!!

Found this on the Wikipedia for Jack Kirby.

Melt lyrics by Monster Magnet

waking up
i watch another sun go down
another day spent underground
in my world of pills, yeah
and i was thinking how the world should have cried
on the day jack kirby died
i wonder if i’m ill, yeah
i’ll never trust myself again
but i don’t care, no
just set that plastic soul on fire
and watch it melt
life is good, a rocket sled utopia
a self-imposed my opia
you gotta love this place
life is fast, a million winners everyday
you tell me, is this work or play?
i’m never really sure, yeah
i’ll never trust myself again
but i don’t care
well just set that plastic soul on fire
and watch it melt
yeah yeah yeah
well i’m alive, now you watch me go
a tickle inside my brain
where it comes from i don’t know
but i’m laughin’ in the flames
it’s just the look in your eyes
i feel like i can fly
and then sometimes i dig it so much…
i could die
i’ll never make no mortal place
cause i don’t care
just set that plastic world on fire
and watch it melt, yeah
well i’m alive, now you watch me go
a tickle inside my brain
where it comes from i don’t know
but i’m laughin’ in the flames
it’s just the look in your eyes
i feel like i can fly
and then sometimes i dig it so much i could die
and then sometimes i dig it so much i could die
and then sometimes i dig it so much i could die

LINK for the rss folk

My buffer is pretty much dead right now, so some of the recent strips are pretty fresh off the desk. I wrote this on my crappy last Monday morning.

Man, every month, Dreamhost , seems to get better and better! They added this one-click install of the Wordpress blog– but I just go their new newsletter and they now have one-click install for phpBB bulletin Message boards, and a few other things, including an open source merchant type store setup. DAMN!!! I already have a forum setup at PV already– but dang… they make it super simple to set this stuff up now.

Seriously, this is the tightest hosting on the planet here. Check it out if you’re in need of hosting or need a new hosting service that kicks total ass.

Been a while since I got around to updating the caricature page. You can view all the latest at http://yirmumah.net/caricatures/

One isn’t REALLY a caricature, it’s more of a logo for John the Car Guy– which didn’t really fall under the caricature prices.

Speaking of caricature prices and stuff… they may be going up just a tad soon. I don’t know. We’ll see. I get a lot of people asking for custom comics based on their caricatures or their own superheroes. Some folks don’t seem to understand that my caricature prices are WAY WAY different than my usual freelance prices for like comic page work. Which is still VERY low, but its NOT 8 dollars a page. — I usually try to go around 50 bucks a page for comic page style work, inked and lettered. Believe me–that’s WAY cheap. I’m kinda sick of doing freelance work, like some of which you can see at www.djcoffman.com – I’m having a lot of fun doing my own work again, and it’s keeping me pretty busy. I’ll still check out people’s projects– but at this point it would have to be something I’d be really passionate about. And nothing seems to be giving me juice lately except for creating my strips and getting this stuff out to the readers.

Damn, we’re up to about 4000 unique folks a day– and those are returning people as well. Thanks to everyone who reads the strip and the ol’ Yirblog. Good to know people are paying attention.

Seriously, leave that Groundhog alone! –

I got lucky on this one, because I drew it in advance, guessing he’d see his dumb old shadow anyway.

Yesterday I was also stricken with a flu bug. Man, it killed me. I woke up feeling a little iffy, but then it progressed into legs of jello and a feeling like i was going to hurl at any minute. Then it went to my head and I got a bad fever and headache. So yesterday was filled with a ton of laying on the couch holding my face because I had no medicine here and couldnt escape to get any. It sucked. I got NOTHING done. Just a ton of me sitting there in sickly pain thinking about all the comics I could have drawn. UGH.

I’m starving now. All I ate yesterday was a donut and a rasberry cookie which I forced myself to eat. I now need to go fill up and get some energy back in my gas tank, and hope that whatever it was is completely gone.

This is just bizarre! Check out this story first…

Ok so…

And get this!!!

Hahahhaa– Is the media THAT DUMB??? or are the toys THAT good??? Too funny– my god.

Matt breaks the story once again—

My good friend Jim Rugg, co-creator and artist on Street Angel is holding as contest through comicbookgalaxy.

Each winner will receive Street Angel #1-5 and the original mini-comic signed by creators Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca, and an identical, signed set will go to the store where the winner buys their comics! And, one Grand Prize Winner will also receive a one-of-a-kind piece of Street Angel Original Art!, and so will their comics shop! It’s super easy to sign up via e-mail. Do it!

Details HERE: Win Street Angel Comics!

This has been cruising around the net for a couple weeks– but still, if you haven’t seen it, check out this solid funny Star Wars3 parody: HERE.

New Comic: Yeah I did it. Don’t ask me why, I just felt like it. Deal with it!!!!

:)

This message is for Stan Lee. Please go ahead and pass it along to him or link this message up. I’d like everyone to read the NY times article where Kirby’s family states:

“Lisa Kirby, Mr. Kirby’s daughter, agreed. “I don’t know
how they live with themselves,” she said. “The estate
gets no compensation from Marvel at all."”

Dear Mr. Lieber,

Now that you’ve won the settlement with Marvel Comics, please do the right thing and give a percentage if not half of that money to the Kirby family and estate. No one needs to ask why– you know why. God knows why.

Years ago, it was Jack Kirby himself that wanted to have a contract like you obtained. And you told him your hands were tied. Now they are not. You’re free of Marvel, Sir. And they’re free of you. Jack is waiting for you to do the right thing. The noble thing. And in a very personal and public way.

You spoke about being a hero on your 60minutes interview. And doing what was right. Jack worked very hard for his family, and he too deserves some of what your contract claims credit to. Even if you feel that every penny is rightfully yours… please, do the right thing Stan. Do it for Jack. Do it for his family. Do it for comics, before it’s too late.

Now is the time for you to make things right… if you don’t–who will?

D.J. Coffman
-Cartoonist-

Okie dokie! So I’m a little behind here. Some of the lame computer problems I had ate into my schedule. But I’m hard at work on new comics here, and there’s no need to fear a delay of any kind.

It’s all good in the hood. I was reading the latest from Penny Arcade— funny thing about moving to Spokane to support yourself on the feeble money made from webcomics. He brings up some great points about rent, etc…. It reminds me of why I came back to Fayette-Nam in 1994.

Things are pretty darn reasonably priced around here. I keep telling friend on the internets they should move here and start a business. The only web design business is run by my wife’s cousins, and it’s laughable. WAY laughable. They’ll probably track this link about to give out and hate my guys— but whoa.. come on, I’m not even a web designer and I can do 5000times better than this stuff. – I’ve always said Fayette-Nam is like 10-15 years behind the times. And this web design service is proof positive of that. UGH!!! – They should have hired me to help out ages ago. I’m afraid it’s too late for them now. Here’s the link for you.

That’s probably rude mocking them like that… but hey, it’s DAH truth. They’d better hope I never get sick of my cushy cartooning gig here. Or that I dont talk my friend Chad into taking over the web design in this entire tri-county area!!! –

Anyway– for all it’s faults… I like Fayette-Nam.

LINK – Weird. Bob and I were just talking about her this morning. I said that if John McCain ran with a Dem as his VP in 2008, he could best her. And Bob thinks no one could beat the evil that is Hillary Clinton.

Well, even though I’m not a fan of the finangling Clintons, I hope she’ll be ok and its nothing serious.

See?? How’s that for some fair and balanced cartoon blogging?

Your efforts are useless. You’re wasting your time trying to post your URLs on my blog here. I know you’re trying, but move on to another blog. I have the nofollow plugin installed, and it’s also catching 100% of the new spam trying to come in. – I’m just politely letting you know you’re wasting your time trying to post on my blog…. not only will your comments not show up at all, but it will also not increase your google page rank thanks the the nifty nofollow.

Anyway, you probably wont read this for a couple weeks, as most of the spam unions seem to hit up older entries thinking no one will notice. But my blog is far superior to your feeble marketing efforts. Try something else.

Yes. The bitter liberal in me has awoken!!! - Nah, I’m not a liberal.. but I love making fun of political things. I maybe missed my calling as an editorial cartoonist, but I never thought they’d let me near a newspaper ever again. God bless you, internet.

Annoyed: I’m annoyed this morning. Not by anything in particular. My body didn’t want to get out of bed— and nothing seems to be where it should be. The dog’s water pitcher which I use to go out and water him… NOT THERE. The new Yirmumah running on the PV homepage, NOT THERE. The clothes I laid out, NOT THERE. A pack of important papers including tax crap, NOT THERE. –

It’s going to be one of those mondays. No one should test me today, or they might get a big old dose of grumpy and inconsiderate me.

I hate computer problems. Recently, my CD burner has been on the fritz. It’s lasted a good long time, but it appears to be kapoot now. It will run regular CDs, but when you pop a blank one in, it doesnt recognize them.

I’ve tried everything from messing with the drivers, reinstalling everthing, etc… and it seems like a lost cause. — I’ll most likely be looking for a reasonably priced CD burner soon. Darn…

I hate computer problems.

Dave and Bob are busy beating the holy beejeezus out of each other in Xbox Boxing… well, EA Fight Night 2004. I’m totally no good at that game. It appears as though Bob has found a game he can actually win.

Dave hasn’t seen today’s strip yet…. we thought for sure he was coming over with a gun when he called up to come and visit.

We love you Dave!

Today’s Strip was inspired by those old Hostess Cake ads. Only this of course was done in the Yirmumah way. It pretty much speaks for itself. And no, Dave isn’t gay. But his eyes MAY be bleeding right now.

Well, techincally, I’ve never seen Dave angry and he usually is happy all the time, sooo….

Scott McCloud Vs. A Bear!

DANGER SCOTT MCCLOUD! DANGER!!!!

So, no sooner did the NEW STRIP post, featuring Matthew Lesko… I was informed by a reader on my forum this morning that Scott Kurtz beat us to this joke by a week and a half. Goddamn! — Here’s a link to his version…

Unbelievable. We do our strip weeks, sometimes months ahead, especially the writing. And I really don’t follow any other webcomics for this very reason. When Bob showed me the script for the Lesko gag, I thought– WOW, that is totally obscure!!! No one will have a Lesko gag!!!– Bob wrote it because he actually bought the stupid book after many late nights seeing that damn commercial. By the way, Bob says most of the book is completely useless.

So, Scott Kurtz has bested us and stolen his Ubergeek back. Actually, I find it fascinating, the creative process…. like is there some level of consciousness cartoonists can reach where they tap into this highway of obscure ideas. — I sent an e-mail to Scott this morning to let him know we’re not apeing his stuff.

I have a way to dodge these things in the future though. It’s always the readers that catch these things first.

Ok. I finished up all the pre-press work for the Yirmumah book today. Let me tell you– it’s a doozy of a package. It’s wild going back and seeing all the cartooning I’ve done– and all in full color! Wow!

The book will be available for sale online soon, like soon as in as soon as the printer has our files and we get a batch printed up. The hard work is done though. I’m still waiting for a special moment to release the cover to the public. It’s a good one!

Traffic– Wow, there are a good many people cruising through these parts now. Welcome to all the new folks. And I appreciate the e-mails I’ve received. I think I’ve caught up on emailing now, so if you sent me an e-mail, most likely I answered yah back.

Much more to come!!!

LINK!: There’s nothing like a good dick joke to start off your Thursday. Or end it for that matter.

Anyone up for a kidnapping?

Here’s the link to the strip for people reading on RSS or remotely–

Hitler was probably one of the worst bad guys in history. (like i need to remind anyone)– And it never gets old making fun of him or his flunkeys.

And we’re moving right along here! January is damn near over! Amazing how fast it went.

Alright– back to work for me. Enjoy the strip and have a great day.

I’ve received a bunch of emails from readers who want me to submit Yirmumah for a Harvey. I already completed my form, and sent it in, nominating some folks I know and like— I didn’t realize I was eligible for any categories. I have been informed that I indeed am. So.. here’s the deal. If you’re a comic creator of any kind on a pro level, self publisher, etc…. AND you enjoy our work here, YOU CAN nominate us. And you can also e-mail in your completed entry form via e-mail— Pretty easy. The suggested categories would be Best New Series, Best Cartoonist, Best New Talent –

Details: You can copy the ballot HERE in my forum. Fill it out with all it asks for and e-mail it to them at pjcjmc2@comcast.net by February 13th.

This is a long shot from hell here. But hey, why not? For even more on the great history of the Harvey Awards, AND it’s great new location, check out – http://www.moccany.org/harvey.html

Cruising around the blogosphere I came across this on Chris Pirillo’s blog… Radiostation in a box.

Radio Station in-a-Box (Mini-Interview)

Chris does the live show, The Chris Pirillo show using this thing. hmm.. It’s cool because it allows people to listen LIVE to your broadcast from your computer. I think you can even get on some local FM and AM waves…. Chris’s show is Thursday’s at 7, I do believe. And then there is this “podcasting” thing, where you can listen to interviews, shows, etc… Check that out.

This is fascinating, why? Well, we’ve thought it would be cool to have some sort of podcasting from Yirmumah central. Things you could listen to. Maybe brainstorming sessions or interviews with othe comic creators, etc….. no, not a radio show or anything– just some cool content to listen to and dig. Maybe even some Ukulele music! Heh…

More webcomic folk need to start researching these things more. Here’s a list of things you should keep up on or you’re going to be wayyy behind…….

XFN, Rubhub, TAGS, (technorati.com/tags) . Delicious, Podcasting—– All words I bring up and people around comics cyber stare at me like I’m high. I admit openly, hell, I just figured out my XFN thing today. It’s really groovy. The easiest way I can explain it is— its like giving a relationship category to your hyperlinks– if someone is a friend, a colleague—

Why does any of that matter??? Well, the more people who list you as a friend, colleague or COMIC THEY READ—- this will all be pretty important in the coming years.

Man, I am such a closet nerd.

Busy as ever here.I have some freelance work going on, logos, some caricatures, etc….

I spent all day today working on Saturday’s strip. It was originally suppossed to be a “book only” exclusive, but screw it…. I’d get behind doing exclusive stuff for the book. There will be SOMETHING in there, but not this strip. I’m super tempted to show off the cover for the new book right now… but I think I may wait until the book is actually available to order to show it off. It’s beautiful. I want posters of it too!

Traffic to the site here has been great. 3500 people or so a day on average. Some days it spikes way higher than that. I don’t know if that’s GOOD or not enough or what…. But people are reading and enjoying themselves and that’s all I really care about. It’s almost February, and I’ve decided that besides smaller jobs, I’m focusing all my efforts into this madness. #1, it makes me happy. #2 it quenches the desire I have to work, especially on a daily of some sort. I’ve never described it as such before, but producing on a daily schedule is like a drug. You get very addicted to it…. very fast. I guess there will be a burn out factor at some point. This week I havent felt like writing at all, but I’m lucky I have Bob on my side who’s written just TONS of great stuff for me to go with.

Fan Club - We have some fun ideas for a fan club. Man oh man, I can’t wait until I get a little more ahead on my work so I can unleash this out as well. Fun stuff.

Here’s dah link to today’s strip!! — Of course many of you read the blog on the main page. So I know this is redundant, but there are several hundred people using the RSS feed, so this is for them. I know it’s confusing. Hurm… I’ll figure it out.—

Wow. The Tonight Show tribute to Johnny Carson was sad….. But the best tribute I saw was on Adult Swim last night. Very nice.–

It’s great watching some of that great classic comedy again.

Dang! I wish I could afford this. It would go PERFECT with my tiki bar sertup! Anyone that has an extra 799 bucks laying around, but this for me! Jack Kirby+Angry Tiki Gods…
eBay item 6507100586 (Ends Jan-26-05 20:45:00 PST) - JACK KIRBY SUPER POWERS #3 ORIGINAL PENCILLED COVER! NR

That is SWEET. And it has WonderWoman on it which my wife is keen on too. Damn….. I need to be rich or get some ‘"fun” bank to buy stuff like this. I hate it when all our money goes to bills and the goverment.

:(

Here’s the link– Yeah, total fiction, eh? Come on! BoB need a little good luck now and then! Someone definitly has to be looking out for him.

More to come. I have a ton of comics to go get drawing.

My kids have a 2 hour delay. I’m going back to bed.

Efhing Steelers!

No… they might as well have been tossing New England’s salad.

Bah! –

It’s not so much that they lost— but seeing the New England punkasses waving the white towels in the air and telling the crowd to sit down was bullshit. Talk about unsportsmen like. They’re friggin lucky they don’t let the POOR people for Southwestern PA in there, or there could have been a riot or something like that NBA fight. That shit doesn’t fly in Fayette COunty.

You win AND lose like a MAN. Not a bitch.

Damn it all to hell.

Bob quit watching completely and went and took a shower.

I’m a die hard though. We need a miracle pulled out of our butts.

Wow… a fucking legend died today.

A lot of people my age, just aren’t familiar enough with Jonny’s humor. It’s a shame to me. The best in the history of late night— he went out on top. May 22nd 1992….

:(

I look forward to all the lame editorial cartoons of Peter announcing to Heaven …. “Herrrrrrre’s Jonny!”

Friday night, we thought about just putting ourselves into a cryogenic sleep until game time. It’s been a hellish wait here for the game to start. It’s overcome our minds here, and no other thoughts seem very important.

We’re sick human beings.

Here’s a shirt I will probably buy. I should seriously wear that all the time.

Haven’t updated the section in a couple weeks….

Here’s the Caricature I finished today for Mindy– CLICK HERE.

And here’s one for Frankie Bones…A godfather reinactment– CLICK HERE.

And, as always, you can view all the caricatures at yirmumah.net/caricatures

Only in Fayette-Nam —- Via Jack’s blog. Too funny…

Here’s the link– Yes, it’s true. We’re routing for the Steelers here this weekend. The funny thing is…. We don’t really care that much about football as a whole. All other teams are just considered enemies — We only follow our Steelers…. like any good Southwestern Pennsylvanian.

I’ll be honest. It’s a curse. It happens year after year. The Steelers do something GREAT– get a lot of buzz— then throw it all away at the last minute. Or the “Star” quarterbacks always flub up and bend under pressure. We in Fayette-Nam, neigh, all over Southwest PA are just use to the down in the dumps feeling of “The Steelers are going to fudge this up somehow.” – We’re almost expecting it. We really really thought last weekend was the terrible end. But it turned out being the “terrible win.” ————– Maybe that’s why they call it the terrible towel??

This time feels different. It ALWAYS feels different of course… But you gotta keep the faith.

For the record… My favorite player is Troy Polamalu #43 . Anytime someone on the other team catches the ball, his fro just comes flowing in and he nails them. Or he intercepts, or nearly intercepts it. And he does it all with NO gloating. Of course we love that crazy #86 – Psycho Ward is what we call him.

Now we wait patiently to be dissappointed, or pleasantly surprised.

Ok. We’ve heard over and over about getting some products for Yirmumah. We’re listening, and here’s what we have planned and what we’ve done.

Yirmumah Collected - All the strips from July to December. Full color. Book coming soon to the site. Stay tuned.

Poster Print - A really cool print is coming your way soon too. Look for a preview of it REAL soon on this site. All Yirmumah fans will want this one.

Updated Store Section, Affiliates, etc - Check out our STORE page, we’ve added two affiliates we’re endorsing here. It’s stuff we actually use, and you can too. In full disclosure, we’ve listed what we make on a sale there, so check it out.

We want to get some custom shirts made soon, but these are REAL YIRMUMAH friendly wares there. Drew Price is totally wearing this stuff, and you should too. Who doesn’t want a Can of Whoopass t-shirt??? – you that.

LINK: It’s true you know. Just you wait….

Main Page and Archive fixer upper: I spent some time yesterday trying to make the archives more easy to navigate. There were some issues with the Archive button, where you had to click twice on it, etc…. now everything should load up right on the main page. And the calendar for the strip archives is up to the right. Wow– I did away with the calendar thingy and 10 people e-mailed to say they wanted it back. At least I know people are paying attention. — Special thanks to Dan Johnson, who reads everyday, for his input and suggestions. He thinks he was being a pain…. but HEY, i want to hear from you readers out there. If something isn’t working for you, drop me a line. I can’t please everyone, of course, but I want the site to be tip-top and smooth for your viewing pleasure.

Ok– back to building the empire.

Ok.. I want to just rave about something here. I’ve been using Dreamhost for a few years, and it’s been, well, a DREAM. No problems. Zilch. Now it’s only 7.95 a month!!! Its amazing. I have more space than I’ll ever need for my files. Also– this very blog, Wordpress, is built in, ONE CLICK SETUP!!! ONE CLICK….. Plus other badass goodies in there too.

Anyway– some people e-mail me and ask how I do this or that or think Im some powerhouse of knowledge on web stuff— I am not. I just have Dreamhost on my side.

Even if you already have a service– Go check it out. It’s worth it. Here’s what you get for just 7.95 a month…..

1 FREE domain registration
www.yourname.com
3 full domains, 15 subdomains
2400 MB Disk, 120 GB Transfer
600 Mailboxes, 75 Shell/FTP Users

Jesus– I can remember when I was getting 20mb storage space— 2400!? Thats unheard of. Oh, and plenty of gigs in transfer too. I’ll never have to worry about site outtages– and if I do happen to go over with some big link from the media— they cover my butt. This should never be a problem for cartoonists who use this service.

Anyway– check it out. Anyone interested in webhosting for their comics, tell em to e-mail me about any questions they have. Hey, use me as a referrer too! Yirmumah will actually make a little money then too– Use this link– http://www.dreamhost.com/rewards.cgi?djc

DO IT! You’ll thank me later.

Linky-Linky-: Dave needs to write a sci fi book. That is all.

Enjoy your day.

Sometimes when I casually observe referrers on my visitor log, I find people saying nice things. So I link them back– And what a cool list and review that guy has going– I’m bookmarking it— NOW… Number 12’s Web Comics Picks

Enjoy.

Full Story here…

Now here’s the dirty lowdown Yirmumah editorial on this. — It makes me sick when I hear about millions of dollars being owed to Stan Lee. And that his lawyer touts him as the creator of all the characters, blah blah blah—– So… let me get this straight. When Stan Lee was head of Marvel and Jack Kirby wanted more ownership, Stan said his hands were tied…. but now Stan wants millions from the same sort of deals Kirby once tried to bargain for but was left in the cold. The whole thing was built on Kirby’s back. The WHOLE THING. If you don’t believe that, or think it’s an exageration, so be it. But it’s true. Hell, even when “newblood” came in, Marvel told them to do it the Kirby way.

Fine. Give him millions. Sure, they deserve it… THEY. Not just Stan Lee. Jack Kirby is dead. His family is still alive though. Why not give this money to Kirby’s daughters. The ghost of Jack won’t rest until justice is done. I’ll agree… they did create these things together. But c’mon now.. in life Kirby got the short end—

Anyway– this makes me sick. When will Justice be done?

People don’t realize… The comic industry has been in a gradual decline since 1994. Sure there have been spikes…. but its been bleak. The only thing keeping the big two afloat is Hollywood money at this point. It’s true. 1994…. You know who died in 1994?

The Curse of Kirby, ladies and gentlemen.

LINK:Today’s strip. – See? I told you all it wouldnt be long before we were back to are old ways.

Man, (woman) it is snowing like a mother crunker here. No worries though, I’m trapped inside with a pile of work to do. Coffee is soooooo much better when it’s cold outside. It’s true!

A crappy caricature service…. that charges WAY more…

Wow. I never thought I’d say this… but I definitly am undercutting myself on the caricature thing. hahaha– My whole point was to make them extremely affordable for the readers out there. — A potential new customer just sent me a link to this other caricature service– and I looked at some of their samples and….. and… Ugh… I don’t want to say they suck. They’re OK… but…. they’re way expensive and sell really well. Dang.

Am I raising my prices? Nope. Because I want people to be able to afford it. And if I do a terrible job with them, they dont have to feel like they wasted a HUGE amount of money. So far so good though.

There’s something happening here….

After the election, I’ve kept myself away from the news… hell, I didn’t even know this Thursday is when old Bush takes the oath of office. But wow. Some of the news I slipped upon…. Washington is in an extreme lockdown mode. A reader e-mailed to tell me he wasn’t able to get into his apartment building because people in suits were “sweeping” the whole building.

Anyways… It reminds me of something Bob often says. We’re not a free country. Not at all. We’re just a little freer than other countries. When it’s down to the wire… we’re not free at all.

Remember when the President use to walk the last part of the parade route? I bet that won’t be happening this year. I wonder if some shit is going to go down there— if there is some crazy group of rebels who are going to riot or something. I dont’ know. I’ll most likely be watching from my TV though.

Maybe cheering them on a little.

WORK-It’s all work and no play here today. But still, I’m having FUN. For one, I’m inking a batch of new strips. Also, I have the cover for the collected book to ink and color. Also working on some other ideas and more writing.

BUTTONS- I’ve been thinking about getting some buttons made by my friend Jay, but I don’t know what to do with buttons. Would people buy buttons? I don’t know. I’d like them to be cooler than just a character slapped on the button. Something you could actually wear. One idea popped in my head today…. Emotion buttons. Like, you’d get BOB MOODS you could wear or something. The moods are yet to be determined. But you can only guess if you follow our strip and humor.

Also, a batch of caricature orders have come in. There was a small lull there on those– but now I’ll be back busy with that. I have 3 to get done by the weekend.

OTHER- The birthday went well. Thanks for all the e-mails, instant messages, well wishes, etc…. Damn, people actually knew it was my birthday. My wife’s grandparents actually called me to wish me a happy birthday. I thought they hated me. Well, maybe they still do. —– Anyway, I’m sorry if I didnt e-mail you back– I had about 65 happy birthday e-mails scattered throughout my inboxes and I didnt get back with everyone. I want to say publicly a big THANKS!!!!!

LINK - Yeah. No toilety punchline here. But for people who have been following along since November, some nifty character development.

New Daily YIrmumah. Happy Birthday Drew!

Instead of staying inside all day in my bigfoot like way… We decided to journey out to the antique store place. I discovered a cool Palm Springs post card from the 1940s. It’s a nifty foldout souvenir book thingy, with several full color, art over photos deals. I don’t know what you call that….. Anyway, my wife can’t figure out why I’d want that— I went to High School there for god’s sake. Actually, I spent the years of 12-18 there! – So seeing all the fold out art of Tahquitz Canyon the old Oasis hotel.. it just brought back many slacker filled days to me. We were the desert rats. —It occured to me, that the Coachella Valley is a psuedo tropical place. I never realized it when I lived there. My wife would never move there, and I don’t really long to go back, but I do miss Palm Trees and the environment sometimes. The people were kinda dicks though. Anyways, now that postcard has a spot at the tiki bar. Maybe I’ll post photos sometime.

So… here it is. My last couple hours of being 28 years old. It’s been 10 years since I left Southern California to start my life anew in FayetteNam. I ain’t got it so bad. I have three of the coolest kids on the planet, a hot wife who makes me laugh and more.. and I have some of the best friends a guy could have. And I get to draw comics every stinking day.

Plus I’ve been lucky to work with some really talented folks over the years here. Listen to me– I sound like I’m old! Actually, hell no, I’m young. That’s why I feel so lucky to have all I’ve got here.

I also never thought I’d know how to play a musical instrument. I can now jam out on my ukulele and it’s very soothing to me. Sure, people laugh when they hear i play that. But they don’t know what they’re missing I tell yah.

Good god. I thought we were going to be had by that damn Steelers curse, where they blow it at the end… But I kept the faith…. Bob had given up– but I was hanging in….

GOOD GOD!! What a fucking game!!! I can’t believe it. That was one of the best games I’ve seen. Those JETS played HARD– but their extra point kicker SUCKS!!!! hahahahah– Bob and I are going to send him a post card or something—-

Ok…. thats all from here.

Read Fun Facts about the TITAN MOON.

Now, read Fun facts about farts.

Great. We (the earth) sent a probe to a giant FART planet. Well, no sulfer there yet– BUT, it has TONS of methane. Which means, if we go there, and someone lights a fart, we could turn the whole thing into a HUGE ball of blue flame.

Look… it’s even called the Titan MOON. It’s a moon, shrouded in Methane gas. —

I’m sorry. My juvenile humor was ignited whenI read all these stories about this great scientific feat. It really is amazing. Now give me a match!

Here’s the new strip. Click here if you’re not reading this on the main page.

Fun facts. I have the tag thing figured out… it’s built right into wordpress– DUH! Stupid me. So that’s that. Actually, my traffic has gone up quite a bit since getting listed by these blog engines. So WELCOME to all the new readers who are coming from the abyss.

Fun Fayette-Nam fact. Well, not so fun fact… That guy who was just found guilty of prisoner abuse.. .he’s from Uniontown PA… the heart of Fayette-Nam. It freaking figures. Anyway, I just thought I would point that out. I run into morons like that all the time around here when I go out. People are SOOOO bigoted, racist bastards around here. So i hide inside a good bit and stay away from the natives. It would take an efhed up idiot from Fayette Nam to do something like that– wouldn’t it??

Ok. So much like state forest rangers tag animals in the wild– blogs are now being tagged. In fact, I’m testing this post out to see if IT gets tagged like it’s suppose to. It’s an interesting thing. And allows you to jump to specific categories of your liking… filed under humor

Now I’ll wait for every webcomic person to catch onto this. Yirmumah sticks it’s flag deep in the heart of this new tagging phenomenon.

Ok. I’m behind the times. I have an old version of Dreamweaver 4, 100% legal, mind you, and in the course of some extensive use, it started to NOT want to close. So, I decide, I’m going to reinstall it. I dig up the old serial code, the install disk, etc… everything goes great, it installs… and then.. nothing. The program won’t even open. It just sits there in limbo. No, I’m not spending a DIME to upgrade this crap.

Sometimes I think it would be EASIER to be a pirate and get new versions of everything when it comes out. Of course, I’m NOT a pirate. I’m a poor cartoonist with a broken Dreamweaver4.

Anyway, curse you Dreamweaver 4! Curse you!

New strip here. Not sure if I have any notes on it at all. Like Drew, I’ll be 29 on Monday as well— No, not a depressing thing. A 3rd of my life is gone though– well, if I live to be 90ish.

“Ali G” Risks Riot At US Rodeo

God damn. Ali G is the funniest bastard on the planet! Check that link for the full article, or read this snippit! He did this in his Boraq character:

“After telling the crowd he supported America’s war on terrorism, he said, “I hope you kill every man, woman and child in Iraq, down to the lizards … And may George W Bush drink the blood of every man, woman and child in Iraq.” He then sang a garbled version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

That’s too funny. Ali Gi gets the Yirmumah award for the week. BING!

Dear Yirmumah readers…

The Blog is now featured on the main page under the current comic strip. It’s in an “iframe” which feeds the blog into it. Please let me know if you have any problems viewing the main page, etc…. I’ve been tinkering with this awhile and I think I got all the bugs out.

Now the front page is much more informative. You get the kick ass strips, AND the notes from us right here in the old blog.

Scientists create artificial fiber, stronger than silk.

Found this on Don’s Blog.

Introducing Calypso.

Yes. That’s right. Drew’s been married all this time. Can you believe it??? So why haven’t I mentioned Calypso before? Who is she? Etc?

It’s no surprise to people who know me that Calypso is a character loosely based on my wife, just as Bob is loosely based on a guy named Bob. I only included her in one TWO tiny panels in the Yirmumah history. One was a photo on a nightstand, the other she was in bed. Unlike myself, Drew Price doesn’t have kids. Anyway, I’ve thought about doing this for awhile, and it’s a big change to the dynamic of things. I think for the better. I could never have Bob say to drew “I’m going to rip your balls off.” – Well, I could actually…. but, you know what I mean.

My wife’s name is Calista though. So why the name Calypso??? It’s an ode, a tip of the hat to our old friend Dave Laws who passed away last year. When he met my wife, he instantly heard her name and began calling he Calypso. Anytime we saw him, he wished Calypso a great happy day. You’d hear…. “Ahhhh, Calypso!” coming from the back corner of the coffee shop.

What a great way to put in two people in my real life that I love so much.

You’ll notice the nifty RSS button in the right column. I’ve also spruced up some spacing issues, and tweeked the colors around.

Nothing MAJOR. But Firefox has a nice extension that lets you edit CSS style sheets right in the browser to see what they’ll look like. So, that’s pretty darn nifty. I’ll have to do a new header image or something soon. Just a little wider or something…

Here be the new strip!

Since many many more people are subscribing to this blog, I’ll be sure to toss a “New Strip” link in everyday now, to make it easy on the folks out there.

That is all.

I’m dragging along today. Sloooooowwwwww….. So much housework to do, and my ass is just planted and doesnt want to move.

It’ll most likely be another late night of cartooning here.

Anyone want to do my laundry?

I slept in. Well, no, I was up.. but then I just went back to bed. The only time I get to see my wife now is well, before she goes to work, and then at 1am when she comes home. Then I’m up at 7:30am to get the kids off to school. Today was too much. My brain bitch slapped me back to bed. And the internet wasn’t working this morning, so I couldnt sit in my usualy zombie-like stupor and surf the regular blogs I check.

So the strip collection is going to happen. I have a little teeny wee bit of work to do for it before it can be available, but I’m talking with my printer and, well, publisher now, working out details. It’ll be neat to see all the color strips from 2004 packed into a book of some sort. I was surprised how well they read smaller and in print. And they don’t look half bad in grayscale, but I just gotta do this book in color.

That’s all. Now I gots to get me some coffee and get cranking on more dailies. A small confession before I go. I’m not sure if anyone else who draws a regular comic experiences this… but late at night when I finally lay down to rest, my brain is totally plotting more strips, making diabolical plans for comic domination. It use to torture me, but I’ve given into it. And now it’s fun. I’m no longer bored or frustrated with my pencil not moving. My brain keeps going a mile a minute. Maybe it senses that I’m almost fucking 30?

Much to do. Much to do.

Listed this blog with the Technorati thing. Im not sure exactly what that does.. but several people have told me to do it. So it’s done!

Now… onward– to BED!

So, I’ve had firefox, almost since it was released. But I rarely use it. I’m always clicking the “E” and opening Explore up. Dammit…

So today, it occurs to me, Favicons are NOT working right in IE at all. I put a favicon on the Yirmumah site, because my stats showed it was the most failed request. I opened my IE, no favicons. I open Firefox…. favicons.

Now, my beef with Firefox is simple. Im a caveman. So when I searched my normal crawl through the net, there were some sites that were WACKED looking in firefox. So I just skipped using it.

Even yirmumah.net was looking a little wacked, and the logo was going somewhere it shouldnt– but I tweaked the pages a teeny bit and uploaded them, and now they look great in Firefox. And also, when a site has an RSS feed, it shows up in the lower right corner, I click it, name it and it gives me all the headlines from that site if I dont want to go directly there.

Now my little tab list is all favicons, and no tezt. I love it. I can go to Websnark, check my blog, forums, etc… all in a few clicks. It’ll take a little getting use to. I still automatically go toward the blue “e"— and I have to keep it there… my wife and friends who use my computer will be whigged out if I change something and they cant surf all normal to them.

www.spreadfirefox.com

Great comic I just found courtesy of the Evil Joey Manley blog . Hunter and Painter. It’s like a little ministory arc, 15 strips. Great stuff.

Hunter and Painter -

Dang, I wish that strip were daily online!

I woke up and finished coloring next Saturday’s comic. – Then I chatted with Brandon and Stuart a bit on the Instant Messenger.

Brandon asked if I was going to collect the 2004 strips in some way. And Bob has been hounding me about this as well… and about 12 other people have asked seriously— so I tinkered with some things… and I figured out how to make it work. So I can announce.

There WILL BE a collected book of Yirmumah strips coming soon. Really, I have to do a cover, an inside front and inside back cover, and one intro page strip and the thing is DONE. That’s right. I layed out all the pages today for the interior. It will totally work.

Here’s the dillemma though. I want to do this bad boy in color. Not black and white or grayscale. Thats what people want, right? – I don’t know what the price will be. I’m going to try to make it as cheap as I can. Also, it will be a tad bigger than a normal sized comic book. Just because. And no, I wont be going through Diamond. Although other people tell me to. I don’t know– maybe?? It depends on my costs. I can’t have them making all the profits off our hard work that we put out for free to the good folks in internet land.

Ok… that’s all. Just wanted to blog a little about that. Now on to lettering comics…

No. I don’t think cancer is funny at all. I got an e-mail today from an angry reader– well, not sure if he was really angry, but he wasnt happy. Here it is. But I will keep him anonymous.

“DJ,

I love your comics and read regularly. I was a little taken aback to see you’re joking about cancer now. And when I browsed your archive, I also noticed the Deniro cancer joke as well.

Mr. Anonymous.”

_______________

Ok. Time out here!!! Time out!!! Believe me… There are several times in the course of writing that I stop myself, or when Bob and I are writing together, and something is just too dark and funny, and I scrap it. Bob is up for ANYTHING usually, and I stop myself. I’m not mocking people with illnesses. In a way, I’d like to think I’m mocking the illnesses themselves sometimes. Or… I dont know.. it’s ok to smile. You know? If you can’t laugh at yourself, I don’t know, it got the best of you I guess.

Yirmumah is NOT for everyone. In fact, I cringe sometimes when my kids run in and they read a strip with foul language and I scramble to get them away from the Yirm-Computer. Or if I’m around some, well, people I know would hate my stuff, I’m always sure to NOT give them the web address.—- Anyway, I just want everyone to know– YEP, I’m human. And I know people have cancer and other diseases and they’re suffering. I’m not making fun of them. It’s not my intention to hurt anyone’s feelings with my work…. well, unless they REALLY diserve it, and EVEN THEN I usually withold attacks on people. If I have to start an apology list or people I may have offended with my work, I’d be here for a LONNNNG time. And as for “sinking my ship” , I dont think its a problem at all. If everyone stops reading because of one crude joke– shit! what can we do??

We’re fucked up bastards. That is for sure. But we do have hearts.

With all that said…. Tune in again tomorrow for more strips featuring buckets loads of cancer references!

If loving Yirmumah is wrong.. then I don’t want to be right.

From Websnark: “This is wrong on so *many* levels.”

Maybe we’ll make his daily trawl this year. Glad people are liking these. There is so much more to come.

Hope everyone is enjoying the strip. I don’t condone faking that you have cancer. Bad mojo.

But BOB is all about the bad mojo, you bad mamajammas!

Big shout out to Bob too. He’s written some great stuff that will be coming up. And he always adds a nice punch to the strips. Sometimes he’s way too corny, but I love working with the guy.

And I didn’t mention how old baby 2k4 went out this year. Got a good amount of e-mail from folks who enjoyed the weekend strip. I don’t know what else to say but THANKS! It’s good to hear from folks that are reading. Traffic has really spiked around here.

Alright, so I’ve used up all my blog time for today. I gotta make dinner, and then get cranking on new strips for your consumption.

That’s all for now.

I just kicked bob’s ass repeatedly in Xbox football. It’s an old 2k3 edition, but it’s pretty fun none the less. Fun top make him SUFFER!!!

BOOYAH!

You know, I’ve taught him how to log in here, but he’s an idiot and can’t seem to blog right. Someday he’ll figure it all out.

Ok. So I’m pretty much done commenting on idiots, or petty debates about comics, especially the one about the syndicated newspaper artists belittling online comics. It really boils down to the people being nitwits. And afraid. They don’t show their fear by running or yelling, or hiding and crying. They show their fear by sniping and poking, and slyly elluding. Saying things like “…at least his comics aren’t made with cutsie strictly to merchandise.” – which is just poking at Scott Kurtz again. They chided him as being nothing more than a T-shirt salesman, and they wont let this go— Thats why the “merchandising” thing comes up. In fact, anytime you hear it in an argument pertaining to webcomics, have no doubt the webbie vs printy debate spawned it. It means these people want to see people like Scott Kurtz fail.

Anyway. It’s stupid to me. Of course I’ll still TALK. I’ll let my opinions flow freely. I was talking to a really prominant and popular blogger, and he said there was no point in even blogging about these “kevetching old dinosaurs.” That point summed it up for me. The penny-arcade guys of course summed it all up really nicely.

I’m in a mood. Actually several different moods. I went off on a friend who sent out a Press Release saying all profits from his comic would go to Tsunami relief. It seemed disingenius to me, because, well, most indy comics just don’t clear a profit at all. Especially when you pay people to write and draw it, and pay printing, etc.. you never recoup your costs. I shouldnt have busted his balls so hard, and I deleted my posts out. It was late, but I still mean what I said. I wont even say WHO it is now. But he knows. I dont think it was his intention to make PR for his comic off the Tsunami disaster, but I read it that way. And I’m his friend . Well, maybe not anymore since I brought out the ball busting broom.

The system is so broken, that indy creators do things out of desperation to try to boost their Diamond sales numbers just so they can stay “out there.” – They scramble to get bigger names to do their covers… bigger names to put ON a cover. One time, a Big name guy was in a collection, and he was late on his art… he fucking scribbled this mess of an entry… and the publisher was stumped. – Who came to save the day? The real talent. An underground guy, swooped in and made that entry look pretty with grayscales and some nice shading, etc… but everyone who saw the original.. UGH.

Im sick of these sort of things. Its not the creators faults at all. They scramble. They need to make those numbers to stay alive in the game. Hurry, put that hot guys name on the cover and you win!——- But do you? Whoa! Big global disaster, how can this benefit my public image? Quick! Send a press release!– –

Who forces us to play these games? Business is just NOT pretty at all. It’s motherfucking ugly as hell. Ugly and drooling. Right now, I know SEVERAL independent comic folks… there is an air of bullshit about all of it. We all fudge or stretch the truth to make our names look better, our products more buzz, etc. I’m guilty of it too. But I quit that game. It wasn’t until I totally quit it, that I saw it all around me. I saw the public face of things, but then would hear the down story behind the scenes. I know those feelings. No one wants to fail at something they try. But it’s never ever a failure if you keep going– but

There is another way. I can’t wait for the day when people don’t have to play in some structure like this.

Fucking comic books.

So I’m up inking strips. Drinking a Guinness or 3, and eating chex mix.

I’m not just inking any strip. I’m inking something that’s been a long time coming– something that’s been asked for many times, but I just couldnt do it. Now I’m doing it. And while it might not seem like a big deal to other people, it is a huge commitment– and could change the Yirmumah mythos forever.

It’s ok though. It’s a good thing. Tune in…hmm.. lets see, next Thursday to see what it is. No one will probably even remember me mentioning this.

Back to the bar.

Yirmumah will be a featured comic in the Sonic Slang Comics Section - Sonic Slang is a cool site primarily focused on music reviews, etc. Good stuff there. Check it out!

Yirmumah may be running on a few select sites this year remotely, and then linking back to the main HQ here. Actually, it would be nice to have a feed that would update automatically, but I can’t figure it out. I forgot how to set that sort of thing up. Hurm.

Anyway, I’ll most likely have a list of where Yirmumah can be seen, or at least announce it here in the blog.

Me go back to drawy now.

Here’s a link to the latest Yir-Caricatures… it’s for the band Tone Def All Stars. Check out their website at http://tonedefallstars.com

I asked them if they’re interested in doing the official Yirmumah theme song, sung to the tune of Led Zepplin’s immigrant song. That would be sweet. These guys are pretty darn good.

Woke up this morning to read about Garfield being dropped by LA Times.

I must say, I have mixed feelings about that. For one, it’s ONE stinking paper. Garfield isn’t going anywhere. Another side of me is cheering that a large paper actually stood up and removed the crap. One down, like 15 or so more to go–

But the other side of me loves Garfield, somewhere, deep down, the 8 year old in me LOVES GARFIELD. — But look at what it has become?

I wonder though, how Jim Davis feels? Is he bothered at all, or is he out counting money? Or both? Stuart points out that it’s ironic that it happened on a Monday.

Back to drawing my crude, juvenile, online webcomics.

I’ve been thinking about a sort of fanclub for Yirmumah or the work we’re doing. Actually, I’ve had people ask for awhile, so I thought I’d put it out public and get feedback. Part of me asks, why does such a thing even need to exist?? The only reason I can even think of doing such a thing for me is to better serve the readers and fans.

I was wondering what other people might like in a club of the sort?– A decoder ring? Membership card? – You tell me.

Actually, I’ll say a little more. The plan I’ve devised hasnt to my knowledge EVER been done for a comic, especially online. It might be the first comic in history to do it. How’s that?? Also, this has nothing to do with locking up the archives or some subscriber only thing like the Norm has done. Think backward. Way backward. Anyway, when I get my scheduled strips done, Im going to look long and hard at a special fan section, a “CLUB YIRMUMAH” if you will. Here are some things that may be included in such a thing.

#1 The big top secret thing which I cant speak of yet. Because once I do it, others will follow. Trust me. It’s good.

#2 membership card or something goofy like that.

#3 Monthly giveaways. Things like art– maybe a random member gets a free caricature.

#4 Depending on the amount of memberships, a yearly Xmas gift of some sort?

#5 Quarterly newsletter?

#6 free entry into Bob’s Dead Pool, wherein, you could actually win friggin money or something. I don’t know, it’s bob’s thing.

Lastly– it would be dirt cheap. Just like everything else that says Yirmumah. All those things listed after #1 are just thrown in ideas. #1 is the big deal for fans. Like I said, I’ll say more when I actually plan this thing out.

So– let me know what you’d like. Here are the limits. The strip must reman free to the public. No locking up my archive or putting some lame ass banner across my strip everyday. No tampering with the work. Its here everyday for people, regardless if they are Club Yirmumah members or not.

THoughts?

I just realized by checking my site stats today that I’m at the level of readership I had with Gravity online. That’s pretty neat. It seems to only be growing and growing by the day here. Yesterday, 1005 unique people logged in to the site to read. Looks like a good many folks are going right to the archives, the pageviews are through the roof. And there a good many people just coming for their own bookmarks or just typing yirmumah.net in themselves without a referring link.

Anyways, I just want to say thanks. Thats very cool to know someone is reading— even if some of them think I totally suck.

Here’s the latest entry from Hugh at Gaping Void. Thanks for posting this, Hugh. Every cartoonist should read it and think about it.

gapingvoid: edward gorey

It’s past 1pm already, and I’m cursing myself. I got the kids off to school this morning, and then went back to bed with my wife and slept until 11-ish. Then groggily walked around my house, doing laundry, making coffee, feeding my dog—– my wife left and I won’t see her until 1-am again. –

On the bright side of things. Besides dealing with my 3 year old’s commandments, It’s time to draw comics! Weee!

It’s been my experience in life so far, that there is usually someone waiting around to try to rain on your parade, or pee in your cheerios. Those types of things use to really anger me when I saw them happen, but now I pay no real mind to them.

Kinda related, but an off point… there are people who scoff at the idea that anything online is pretty much pointless and just vanity publishing, etc… They believe maybe that only because they are in newspapers, or won some fancy awards, or have a nationwide book distribution, that it validates their work in some way MORE than things that are just put online for anyone to see. — I think it scares them. There is definitly an element of fear. Over on gapingvoid, Hugh McLeod has made a point over and over again that you have a serious problem when markets start getting smarter. You need smarter conversations. Instead, most of the time, you get a bunch of stuffy shirts telling you the world is flat. And they can’t wait for ANY opportunity to arise to bring up their pretty much obsolete points.

I find it amusing now. Watching some people squirm. It has nothing to do with me or my work at all– I just like observing people’s reactions to something they think might threaten them or their livelihoods in some manner.

Oh! Funny example of something similar that just happened TODAY! – So there was that column about Comixpress on Newsarma. Great Print on Demand comic printer and place you can sell your comics. Who should chime in there?? A guy from Cold Cut Distribution– Saying pretty much, POD is great if you’re SMALL, but if you want to be in shops, you have to use a distributor and uhm, well, you have to buy in bigger numbers to accomadate yourself a profit.———— This is a moot point now. I mean, 90% of the independent books in there don’t even sell over a 1000 copies! AHK! – But I can sit on my buttocks have my minicomic available 24/7/365, printed, sold and delivered without me lifting a finger! — And there is no “benchmark” or monthly pre-order form blah blah blah— no complex number to have people memorize— you want it, its sent to you.

With the level of quality I’ve seen, I would question why any independent creator would really want to use the old broken systems at all. Well, most likely because the new ways aren’t proven yet. No one has some set road map on how to do things at all, especially when it comes to new comics over the internet.

It’s true what they say. #1 The best things in life are free. – But then again,#2 there is no such thing as a free lunch. It’s gotta be someone’s dime… right??? —- Maybe the next step is, sure the best thing in life are free, but the even better things are like a buck extra.

What the hell am i talking about anyway? BLAH!, I have no idea. Its way too late, and I have to be backup way too early.

Sometimes it feels good to be mentioned. I was mentioned today on Newsarama, primarily because of my loud mouth and bragging about Comixpress…

Anyways.. sometimes I feel like an ass. It’s good to know that my incessant blabbering about Comixpress actually is worth it. It’s a good product, great service… good people. I hear it could be a LITTLE faster, but hell, we’re talking about pretty much a one man operation. Waiting 2-3 weeks to get bulk packs of your books is pretty friggin impressive. For readers, like buying your product once it’s in the system there, I hear the books are shipped out really fast.

How cool is that? It’s definitly the highlight thing of 2004 for me. Just that it even exists is great for indy comics. So, I blabber once again…. ladies and germs… COMIXPRESS.

On a related Yirmumah note– there’s a Drew Price on the back of most of those books on the Comixpress ad.

Comic book legend/master and prolific mind, Will Eisner passed away today. He was 86 years old. http://willeisner.com/

Not really any words to describe the feeling. Like something you loved was snatched away suddenly. But really, I never knew him. But his work remains for me. It inspires and challenges me on a regular basis.

When I was a know-nothing punk, my buddy Jim Rugg brought up the name to me– I only knew the name because of the awards named after him– but Jim lent me his copy of “Comics and Sequential Art” and even though I had seen it before, this time it sunk in how much this guy meant to comics as an artform. Taking it ALL to the next level.

I’ve often talked about, what these old timers would have done with the internet and webcomics if they would have had the luxuries we have here. Look at the Spirit section in the paper! Every damn week, there was a full color 7-8 page story by Will Eisner in there! To this day, no one is turning out that type of quantity and quality. That really drives me. Sure, he had a small staff helping with chores on that– but there were many weeks where Will Eisner himself would draw 3 installements of the strip. 21 pages in a week!—-

Anyway, I could go on and on about the man and his work. All of those guys are my heroes. If there is an afterlife, damn, there will be some KICK ASS comics being made there.

Yuck… the blog looks dirty without some nice pictures. So I devised this:

Can anyone guess who the new Baby New Year will be??

I just finished up next Saturday’s strip. It’s a doozy! Clocking in at like, 13 panels or so. Fans of last year’s “Yir-Resolutions” will love this one.— See? Something to look forward to!

I’ll most likely be up until 1 am or so– I can’t decided if I should just unwind and veg out, or just keep on working.

I hope you’re all happy. As I toil away with my digital crayons.

I’m doing this all for YOU.

That, and my incesant need to produce many many comics.

Did I spell incesant right? I don’t think so. But it doesnt matter… I return to my digital crayons now.

Today begins the first official Yirmumah Daily. The strip will run Mon-Fri in black and white strip style, then on the weekend you get a big color comic like you’ve all been enjoying the past couple months. The weekend edition will also run at www.pvcomics.com as well.

For now, go enjoy the new Yirmumah Daily!

Why the move? Well, because it’s what I want to do. Deal with it, sister!

In the coming weeks, I have another announcement, something cool for regular readers or fans of the strip. I just have to get my ducks in a row on it, then I’ll tell you all about it.

Be sure to tune into http://yirmumah.net for the newest installment of the Yirmumah strip, and a big surprise. Once you know what it is, spread the word and tell your friends.

Back to work for me. Got a lot of work to do here.

Sometimes when I call people names, I don’t mean it. I recently called Joey Manley a Twat. I kinda met it after I read what I read– I was just over reacting. He did have the balls to come to the forums where I called him that, and admit that he was being twatlike though. So I can respect that. Look, I’ll even add his blog to my link list, because I do check it every day in my link list. He’s no Scott McCloud though… thank god.

To be completely honest, I don’t really care what anyone thinks. And everyone is entitled to their opinion. And sometimes I misread things, because I’m human. Some things get under my skin very temporarily, but what I’m really focused on now is my own work. For a minute there I was kinda focused on webcomics as a medium as a whole, blah blah blah blah blah….. but I came to the conclussion that I’m a doer, not a talker. I do much better when I’m simply producing than giving out my ideas for how I think some things should work. Or even yelling about how I feel some creators online aren’t paid fairly. – Hell, the truth is, not many cartoonists are paid at all! But who’s fault is that? Maybe they should hussle a little more… I don’t know, and frankly, I’m not concerned with it.

I’m content on forgetting about other people’s projects and making my own work to the best of my ability. If I do something right along the way, and people want to praise it, link it, admire it, or even hate me…. so be it.

I am a very flawed human being. But I’m trying to live and do the best with what I got. So I’m glad people are enjoying the comics. There’s plenty more a’ comin.

2004 was a mixed bag for me. Good, bad and ugly. I’ll try to do this in categories or something.

MY MUSE- I’m a cursed man. It seems like hundreds of ideas pop into my head daily. Which then tortures me, because there arent enough hours in a day to do everything I’d like to be doing. Then also there are the cravings… almost like an addiction. For instance, I can wake up and REALLY REALLY miss drawing Zombies and then I start thinking about some zombie epic. A few days later, it might be superheroes. – So, I have kinda learned to control my muse and do a good bit of writing. If an idea REALLY catches my mind, I’ll write it down. Sometimes an idea takes over my mind and I HAVE to draw something. So I sketch, design. Things that may never see the light of day. I had a BIG urge to do a SuperHero weekly comic online a couple months back. I spent a day doing THIS. But I put it away. I’ve found ways to channel these things and satisfy some of them. I got rid of the super hero bug temporarily by playing City of Heroes with my kids. ——–

MY COMICS- I’ve been doing the Yirmumah comic all 2004 with PV comics. It’s changed formats and plans twice this year, once going from a 4 page monthly to a 3 time a week strip. I did that because a monthly update online was a complete waste of time. I was never happy with the update schedule of PV Comics in general, but it was all based on what individual creators could put in with their own time, so you couldnt yell at anyone about it. It just didnt work as a subscription model at all. People wanted more content, more often and they kept asking for print. So PV had to change. So Yirmumah went weekly and bigger to accomadate my personal life schedule. I had done a great deal of work blabbing about how great PV was, the content there– but not that much moved. Honestly, I feel like it’s a let down. We all worked so hard, but the plan wasn’t good enough for what the market really wants. — Add to that, Comixpress, which was born out of PV, took off like a rocket…. Logan became swamped with work on that– and pretty much, PV took a backseat for just about everyone originally involved. Things are starting to move again though. PV isnt going anywhere. Things just change is all.

Other than my Yirmumah comics. The other big project we did this year was LIONXOR. An extremely well written, and mediocrely drawn by me, comic book, kinda about 80s toy properties. But not really. Its hard for me to define Lionxor— –Anyways, we had low numbers with Diamond orders, and Geekpunk had to cancel the title. Actually, we all panicked and cancelled it too soon I think– it was the same night the book was cancelled that Logan called me to tell me about Comixpress, which could have probably saved Lionxor then. - Issue 3 was all done and penciled and I think halfway inked when we got the Diamond news. A real bummer— top that off with, our inker for issue 3 was incestently late, or saying he was going on vacation, or had family friends over, or something something. It really started to sound like a load of excuses. The book was suppossed to be done and inked in May. In July, 2 months later and still late, I got an e-mail from the inkers friend tellig me he had a double triple bi-pass on his heart. What is a jaded, cynical guy like me to do? It all sounded like bullshit, but I couldnt call him out on it. I wished him a speedy recovery. — I don’t think we got the last pages back until… October? Yep….. So anyway, Lionxor just felt cursed to me. Other things continued to plague it it seemed, but I’m through talking about it. It’s a GREAT fucking book, and 2 issues are now available HERE FOR SALE! – Issue 3 should be up there soon as well. The whole fiasco with the book just not getting done on many levels after I busted my ass on it, really took the wind out of my sails. But i learned another lesson. I should probably ONLY rely on myself. Especially when it comes to inking. —- And listen, Im not bad mouthing the inker guy. Im just laying out what happened from my viewpoint. It’s the truth. Im not saying he’s lying about having a heart attack. I mean, JESUS!!! A fucking heart attack. Go figure. But when I get e-mails from people asking me as a reference to him on the work, I don’t know what to say!? I don’t say anything. The only thing I could say is – “He didn’t meet deadlines, and he might be prone to going on vacations every two weeks or he might just drop over dead.” —- So, i’d rather not give the reference. You know??? I’m sorry if you’re reading this here, bro. Maybe you should be doing this as just a hobby and not work on deadlines. They CAN and WILL kill you. And it’s not worth it.

FAMILY- It was the best of times…. it was the worst of times. —– My core family has just been great. My boys are healthy, smart, mischievous little guys. Dillon(6) can’t stop drawing, and impresses everyone at his school by saying he’ll be a rockstar. Devin(7) is so sweet and kind… Dakota(3) is just a wild man, terrorizing my house in a Dennis the Menace sort of way. …… And there’s my wife. I’m so proud of her. She did it. She got through her college stuff, and now she’s a full fledged nurse. Im proud because she’s authentically happy. She found a job where she doesnt wake up and feel like she wants to call off. No more telemarketing, or “customer service” jobs…. she’s free. She’s a professional. I can feel her happiness every day now. And there is no better feeling. I wish I could give her so much more. But I want her to know, she has given me so much– and I appreciate it. Her success, and being professional and all that has also really made me question my own worth of what it is I do. Does it contribute or help anyone?? I dont know. Maybe. Maybe I’m giving someone an escape from their crappy problems for a minute. I don’t know.

And hopefully she doesnt kick me out to marry some hot, rich Doctor guy or something. I love you honey!

DEATH RIDES IN…- It’s sad to say, but the highlight of my year has been DEATH. So many deaths in my family. My cousins, Mary Beth, Patrick, Darrin, Uncle Roger and last week, My grandma Coffman. — Even with all the family death, the 2 deaths that effected me the most were of my good friend Dave and his sister Leslie. — It haunts me. July 5th– Maybe because I see my own mortality or something. It can all go away in a flash– and I have so much to do. Dave had so much to do. I had more in common with Dave than anyone I’ve ever known that has passed. So many things about Dave’s death haunt me. The double rainbow that day. Jeff Buckley was his hero, and he died the SAME way, in a river.– Also, it’s most likely my imagination, but I feel like Dave is around, communicating with us somehow. At his funeral, we all had a good laugh because the other friend Dave made a great music CD and “KICK OUT THE JAMS” by MC5 was on there. So its playing all through the funeral home… “KICK OUT THE JAMS, MOTHERFUCKERS!” —- we all thought Dave would get a good laugh about that being played through the funeral home and making the old people cringe. — I’d never heard the song until that day. ————- Then in October, the night Dave’s sister Leslie died, Pearl Jam played Toledo and since it’s my favorite band on earth, I was at SPX on a computer checking the setlist. They played KICK OUT THE JAMS. I mean, its a one in whatever chance they’d choose to cover this as a goof at their show. And when I found out Leslie died that night, it was eery.

A few days ago… I sat with this freebie calendar I get from Elderly music– I was plotting out a new daily comic… I look to the title of the month.. JANUARY, and under it “KICK OUT THE JAMS!” — It made me feel like Dave was watching me and encouraging me to continue doing what Im doing. Period. I’ve made a promise to myself that I tend to keep in 2005.

I hope 2005 is a year of life and love.

First up, a shout out to Don the Idea guy for blogging about Yirmumah and the caricatures– read here.

SECOND Drawing all the caricatures has been a lot of fun, and oddly enough, a lot of good practice for myself. No matter what your skill level is as a cartoonist, you still have to practice practice practice. I usually don’t have time to do so, but the caricatures have forced me to approach things differently. I’m really happy with how they’ve all come out.

THIRD- Tune in to the next Yirmumah strip for semi big news. Shhhh… It’s a zecret! But once you find out, tell everyone you know.

FOURTH I’m really thinking hard about the Yirmumah Magazine idea. I was also thinking there’s not a magazine or literature of any kind out there covering any sort of webcomics movement. So that’s interesting as well. I consider webcomics as like the new Small Press. Especially since my roots are in the REAL small press, I know the feeling. That’s probably why I love webcomics so much– its so free and fluid, and creators doing what they want. Say what you will about the quality levels, they do vary, but at least these folks aren’t just sitting around talking…. they’re DOING. — Doers.

That is all.

All done with the Dirty 30’s drawing. This may also be the cover to their LIVE album. Time now for me to eat!

See the Drawing HERE….

Finishing up the Dirty 30’s band caricature today. So if I’m brief, you now know why.

That is all. Back to the tiki bar to ink.

We’ve been granted a mention in Websnark’s end of the year thing. I mean, hell, it’s not Time magazine or anything, but it feels like it to us. Just that there’s a good voice out there talking about not only webcomics, but comic strips of all kinds. We give Websnark a big Yirmumah Biscuit.

see here

A little about what category we fell under.

Bringing the Funny: Savage Wit

Sometimes, comedy is sweet and heartwarming. Sometimes, jokes make us laugh at ourselves and each other. And sometimes? Comedy goes for your fucking throat and beats the Hell out of you and makes you LAUGH, BITCH! LAUGH! And you do, because it’s funny. And you feel dirty, because it shouldn’t make you laugh, because it’s mean and savage. And that makes you laugh more. It owns you. You just have to cope with it.

I’ve been thinking for some time about starting a magazine type deal, with comics, and articles, interviews— with various creators of course. I have no budget for such a thing. I can put it together though and have it put out quarterly through Comixpress. - I know so many talented people who I’d like to see just let loose with whatever they wanted to do.

I was thinking more of an underground feel. In fact, I was thinking of calling it “Yirmumah: the underground comics magazine” – have it be half useful information, and the other half just hijinks and buffoonery. I think that would be basterific.

Hypothetically speaking, what if such a thing existed? And it also collected most of the Yirmumah web strips inside, just so you could revisit them on the toilet or something. I could maybe call out some favors and get people to do covers for it. Or even featured articles. Damn, i think it would be great to put something really useful in someone’s hands. For both aspiring comic creators AND people who just plain love comic books and comic strips and don’t want to see the mediums die out.

Just a little voice, shouting in the darkness. THoughts? Would anyone buy anything like this? Or better yet, would you tell your friends?

The new strip is HERE. Enjoy it. I busted my butt to get it done yesterday, when I could have just sat around and did a lot of nothing. Alas, I am obsessed with my work.

I have a BIG caricature to get working on and get it hopefully done or near done today. Then I have to get cranking on work for next week. Next week is going to be an awesome week for Yirmumah fans.

I hope everyone enjoys Monday’s Strip. I busted my butt all day today to get it done.

Feels good to beat midnight. Screw you, midnight!

Im scanning in the new strip, and will get it all colored and lettered and uploaded to the site tonight! Stay tuned—

“You’ll shoot your eye out kid!” — Man, I swear, “A Christmas Story” might just be our generations version of “It’s a wonderful life.” — They’ve been playing it for 24 hours on TBS, over and over again, and it never gets old to me. There are little things I seem to catch each time I sit down and watch it. I could swear when the wicked witch comes up to him in the Santa line, he says “Leave me alone, I’m a Pagan.” — Maybe he didnt say that. But I swore I just heard him say that.

Xmas morning was great here. It’s a load of work when you’re a parent. But it’s still alot of fun watching the kids who still believe in Santa Claus.

My wife got me a talking “Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. ” as well as a talking Yoda where you ask him questions and he answers in a Yoda fashion. She also bought me the Star Wars DVDs which I have been torn on buying, because, well.. because George Lucas is a whore. But Im happy I finally have them. And I’m not afraid to admit it. The new movies might completely suck, but the original trilogy is still amazing. I know another reason I like it so much– a good part of it was inspired by Jack Kirby’s works on Captain Victory. That’s another story. , and one not often enough told. — My wife also got me the PJ greatest hits cd, which I was torn on buying that too… and two awesome t-shirts. I didn’t want ANYTHING. But I appreciate all of it.

My kids are now digging the Incredibles game on Xbox, wow, that game looks pretty amazing. They’ve done a bang up job with this Incredibles series. I hope there are more movies, but Pixar left Disney, so will they suck without Pixar?? Who knows.

Ok. Back to burning garbage and other family stuff. I still have a strip to draw even though my wife tells me I should take a day off.

This was suppossed to be given to Dave around Thanksgiving time. But he showed up today with some cool presents for our family, so I snagged this photo of him holding his original DAVE strip art. It’s rare I give away an original anything, but i knew when I was drawing it, it was going to Dave. Merry Christmas Dave!

I noticed a couple referrer hits in my logs coming from somewhere, and I see that my friend Jack (javaman) has posted the caricature banner on his webboard he moderates. Thats very cool. Thank you Jack! I really got to get more people linking up Yirmumah stuffage. I really appreciate it.

JavamanCentral

I love spreading the Yirmumah virus.

Today is going to be one hectic day. I’ll be wrapping all the presents, which there are a lot of— we still have to get the house in sort of a clean way, laundry blah!!! – Beyond all the holiday rigamorand…

I have a comic to draw out, color, letter and have up by Sunday. The plot is all worked out, just the work needs to be done now. I could have totally skimmed and just drew two stockings for Bob and Drew and had like neat things stuffed in them. But that’s such a tired and lame idea. I’m going balls to the walls for the Yirmumah fans out there. All 16 of you.

My mission is accepted. Now I have to get my belly full of coffee and get to work!

Ok. I have no strip drawn for Sunday and Monday yet. There will be one though. I just have to sit down and figure it all out. It will be there though. I have had the perfect idea for the day after christmas for a looooong time.

Kids.
I did a lot of cleaning my kids room and sorting toys today to make room for what Santa might be bringing them. Getting my kids to clean their room or put things away right is like an epic battle around here. Christmas time is always hectic. So I’m hoping I can crunch out some time to get my work done. It shouldnt be a problem though.

I have a TON of presents to wrap, and I still have to actually go shopping and find something for my wife. She’s hard to shop for. Wait.. she just got a new car, what the heck am I talking about! And I’m not allowed to drive it! What up with that, lady!??! Bah!

Here’s a last minute caricatue just in time for Christmas. Whew!

He only asked for a black and white but I hooked him up with color anyway, because I was in a christmasy mood.

I got a little behind on my schedule with the other caricatures due to my grandmother’s funeral and other family stuff for the holidays.

I want to say a BIG thanks to everyone who’s orders a Yir-Caricature. It’s been a lot of fun doing these.

Ok, this is now the home of the official Yir-Blog. This is not only my personal blog now, but also will allow Bob to post entries here and there. You can see all his entried by clicking his category link.

The old blog is still availble to read at http://xanga.com/gravity - Wow, 4 years blogging there. A lot of history in that blog. But it was time to move here. You can also find a link to the old blog first in the list to the right on this main page of this blog.

Blogging is great. When I first started, no one knew what blogging was even really for. Other cartoonists mocked me for having one and didnt get it. Now many more folks have blogs, and they get it. And, corporations are beginning to get it as well– Oh, and all the marketing gurus have moved to blogs. Heck, some of my favorite blogs are business type blogs like Gaping Void. — I just hope we don’t see a blog bubble in the near future where every company has to have a blog and has to try to be constantly talking about their products and shoving things down your throat. What makes blogging great are the conversations. Conversations are TWO sided, not just one guy trying to get you to click a link or horde you for ideas. Some people GET that.

What do I know though. I’m only a simple cartoonist.

Just when I was feeling pretty low with all thats going on here with death and stuff– out of the blue comes a package from hawaii, with two packs of Kona Coffee and an awesome tiki god statue.. with a christmas card wishing me well. – And people wonder why I want to move to Hawaii someday. So, Eric in Hawaii, a gigantic MAHALO to you my friend.

It’s the littlest things that make my day and year. I wish more people could focus on the little things instead of the big flashy go boom things.

Groggy here in Fayette Nam. Woke up with no water. I guess there was a break or something on the highway. (by the way, our highway is more like a back country 2 lane road) –

I have several caricatures to work on. As I speak, Chad Lambert’s is penciled all up and about to be done inked. After that it’s more work for the dirty 30s one, its kinda a little more than a regular caricature. Then I got a last minute, needs done by Xmas one for someone. But im not going to say the name, just in case anyone important is reading.

Oh– I also need to start working on next week’s strip. I have a stack of scripts and need to pick the best one. Hmmm..

I just found out that the Blueberry movie was renamed Renegade for release in the US.. thats bullcrap. So I went and rented it. I was a big fan of the comic series I had when I was about 14. I also had a big ass Blueberry poster. Its not your typical western stuff.

I think James Patrick went to rent it as well. He has something western going on.

Also, I rented Napolean Dynamite because I keep hearing great things about it. Although the cashier, who I know, tells me there is way too many backstreet boy songs in it. Hurm.

Eric Burns is spoiling me with attention. But you know what, I can totally take it because it feels good to know people are reading, especially people who ROCK. Here’s a write up he just did for Comixpedia about a few of my strips and asking the question:

When Did You Decide You Wanted to be a Comics Creator? ::

Enjoy.

When I heard I had to draw country music sensation, Tim McGraw, I had no idea what to do. I surely couldnt have the guy’s wife all humping him or something. But I found a way to make this funny. I hope they enjoy it. I laughed and laughed when I was drawing it.

Ok. I’m gonna lay it all out on the line here and let you all know what I’ve been thinking. So pay attention.

What I REALLY want to do is do a mon-fri black and white strip and a Saturday color strip that will run all weekend, just like the current strip. I have way too many ideas that are going to waste and would fit in between the great weekend editions. However, time is kinda limited, but I think I may just work harder to make this a reality. I REALLY wanted to launch it the first monday of January, because January always feels like a new start for me, either to do something great, or totally fuck up my year!

So what do you folks think? Would you like to see something like that? Is there anyone reading at all? Answer me dammit!

In book news, there’s something that been hanging over my head for a long time and I have to make a slate of time to really put it together right, but it will be really nice if I can get it done. It’s a YIRMUMAH Essential sort of collection. It would include the first 3 minicomics hurridly drawn in 1998 on my lunchbreaks at my crappy day job then, and also just about every Yirmumah short, finished and unfinished that I can muster into it. There are many old fans who ask me to reprint this stuff, and I finally found some decent copyable material. – This is a back burner thing though, because my juices are really flowing to do more NEW Yirmumah stuff. Stay tuned though.

On the immediate to-do list is Chad Lambert’s caricature and another for Wes Jackson’s wife. Also, I’ve started preliminary work on the Dirty 30’s caricature/cover piece. I’ll most likely log a post when I get some more done. – Thanks again to everyone who’s ordered. Check out the gallery , it’s growing!

Websnark.com: I suppose I could always leave a print of this strip for my parents to find, with “Crate O’ Porn” circled. Of course, then they’d make me leave the house until the New Year….

I love websnark. It’s one of my favorite blogs. I must check it like a thousand times a day on my rotating surf list. I’m gay.

The latest Yir-Caricature is Alexis from Texas. Aka, SUPERLEX!

How Trackback Works

Ok. I was confused at how the heck Trackback works. Now I got it.

Im thinking about running the new blog on this page in 2005. For one, its easier for other bloggers to link up. #2, it’s free and I guess I can control the look and feel more.

Let me know what you think. If enough readers of the old blog actually care, e-mail me.

I know I have 2394 people getting the old blog by e-mail. That would most likely cease. Thats the ONE feature I like about the Xanga blog– people dont really need to check in, they get it by email. But hopefully people will look into RSS and use that, you can actually read the blog remotely. And more people can link it up that way as well.

Darn. Too many decisions. Back to caricatures for me.

Uht oh– Looks like this thing broke.