don't panik

New Strip Incoming...

2007-10-01T10:01:00.000-07:00

Just a post to let you lot know that a new strip is being fleshed out, but it was a busy weekend filled with a lot of travel for the wife and I, so this one's probably not coming until later in the week.

I know, I know... how will you ever survive? Trust me, everything will be alright...

A new strip will pop up when it's completed, thanks for bearing with us folks.

New Strip!

2007-09-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

I saw a news story on the web the other day about a 72 year old man who was denied a sale of alcohol because he didn't have proof of age. That in turn inspired this two-panel strip. I didn't think a strip without Jo and I in it could properly be a "Don't Panik" strip, so I've decided to call this one "The Dose": as in a dose of medicine... good old fashioned American Stupidity Medicine. Now don't get me wrong, all countries have their fair share of idiots and stupid things going on. So let's call it Human Stupidity if that makes you feel better.

Every so often, when the mood strikes me, the weekly strip might be one of "The Dose". I hope you guys like it.

Geeked Out

2007-09-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Alas, another Sunday has passed and no comic strip appears. You must think "slackers, liers, fake comics strip artists". Think what you will. We geeked out for the weekend at the Annual Renaissance Fair in Wilmington, Ohio for the weekend. Good fun! So, we were on nerdiness overload and couldn't even contemplate what to draw for our few readers.

No worries though. Bill will be home this weekend and HE WILL (I will force him) get out a strip for this week. It will be the best strip ever! (oh, wait I can't keep that kind of a promise). Well it will be a strip at least. As the weather gets cooler I'm sure we will regularly begin to post strips again.

We may be nerdy, but we have a social life (with other nerds, of course!). The entire time we speak of various MMOs and say random tv show/movie quotes. (We have very deep conversations if you couldn't tell). That is all for now.

~Jo

"Our Apoligies"

2007-09-09T14:49:00.000-07:00

The legal council of Bill and Jo has instructed the couple to post this. Good day, that is all.

The 1st Tablet Strip Arrives!

2007-08-30T19:44:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, I'm going to be doing A LOT more experimenting with my art styles now that I have this wee little tablet. It affords me the ability to erase and tweak until my heart's content. So I hope you'll enjoy the ride of "Bill: The Artist's Voyage" as much as I am so far. Damn, that sounded a whole lot less "Bob Ross-ish" in my head.

Anyway, here's the new strip. I've tried some new coloring techniques, and it really started taking a lot of time, because I can be so much pickier now. I'm sure the process will speed up, but don't be surprised if a lot of strips end up as 1 or 2 panels for a little while. Hell the fact that this was taking so long is what caused me to go with this joke.

And for the record, every last detail of this one was done on my PC. No pencils or paper involved. I love my new toy. :)

1st Wacom Doodle!

2007-08-28T19:03:00.000-07:00

Here it is folks, wholly created in Photoshop using my brand new Wacom Tablet. There's soooo much this little thing can do in tandem with a program like PS, and I've just scratched the surface. Expect our 1st digitally inked strip this weekend, and expect it to have a more organic/sketchy look that I like much more, thanks to the abilities of this little gadget.

Until then, gaze in wide wonder at "Trollman", my new friend. He's a beaut... because he has opened my eyes to the greatness that is Wacom's little product.

ALL HAIL THE TABLET!

Tablet Arrives!

2007-08-28T08:58:00.001-07:00

Today is the day that my magical toy is supposed to arrive. I'll know soon enough when I get home from work. If all goes according my evil plan, we'll have a new strip before the week's end!

Tablet Status

2007-08-23T10:35:00.000-07:00

At last check, my Wacom Tablet was on its way to Indiana via UPS Ground. Scheduled delivery of the 27th. Keep your fingers crossed that it gets here sooner so I can update the strip this weekend. :)

-Bill

WACOM Tablet Get

2007-08-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'll be ordering my 4x6 Wacom Intuos Tablet this week. So until it gets here and I get familiar with it, expect no new strips. I know, I know. You're heart-broken. But I've got school (web design) going on in the background, and that's taking up a lot of my free time. Who knew learning all those coding languages would take time?

The good side of both these things is that...

1.) With a Wacom tablet, our strips will go up in quality. Digital inking will allow us to erase and redo our lines, so that they will end up looking more like the original sketches, and have varying widths when appropriate, as well as backgrounds more often. At least, that's my hope.

2.) Learning all these new web design skills has me putting together a brand new site for Don't Panik. I need to learn a few things about PHP and MySQL still to create a database for the strip images and a blog for me to rant on, but the general layout is already complete. So, booyah.

In short, things are busy and until I get the tablet there'll be no new strip. So take a 2 week break from Don't Panik. I'll be notifying the masses once a new one's up. :)

Cheers!

-Bill

Strip's Late Again... We Beg Forgiveness

2007-08-12T16:57:00.000-07:00

It's been another crazy weekend, with a lot going on and homework for Bill. So no new strip tonight. There is one in the works, and it very well may be the last one to come via real-world ink. We should be getting our Wacom Tablet this week or next, so then we'll be stepping into the world of digital inking.

What's that mean for Don't Panik? It means more professional looking strips, huzzah!

So again, we're sorry about the lack of strip today, if all goes well and is not too hectic this week, we should be able to squeak one out before next weekend strolls along. So thanks for being patient!

-Bill

Kiss Me, I'm Drunk...

2007-08-06T17:55:00.000-07:00

New Strip! Bask in its GLORY!

New Strip Monday Night

2007-08-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

My slacker of a wife (just kidding, honey) was too busy today to ink the most recent strip I've drawn out. She promises me and our loyal readers (all five of you) that she'll get it done Monday and we'll then summarily have the strip up that evening.

So keep those eyes peeled.

-Bill

I Put A Spell On You

2007-07-29T16:31:00.000-07:00

It's not 2 like we hoped to have done, but we think you'll like this one as much or more than 2. New strip time! Enjoy, and be sure to leave us a comment!

By Now You're Wondering...

2007-07-23T05:51:00.000-07:00

Or perhaps P.O.'d that there's no new strip here to greet you on a Monday morning. For this I apologize. Jo's and my own Saturday was gripped by setting up and hosting our 1st cookout at which we forced our friends and families to eat lots of vegan food. Most enjoyed themselves, some wished they had been at McDonald's I'm sure. But they all tried it. And that's what matters the most. So thanks to all of you who came.

As for Sunday, I got lost in the Wizarding world of JK Rowling one last time. I read cover to cover the last book in the Harry Potter series. It was 2AM before I went to sleep. But it was worth it. The book was fantastic. The ending divine.

When I started reading Harry's tale I thought it would just be some hack's attempt at children's fantasy. I thought I wouldn't give into the fad that was sweeping the nation. I was wrong. Rowling's work is deep, many-layered, and altogether masterful. Now that's it's "over" I can hardly believe it is. I just hope that one day the author brings us back to the Wizarding world for some new adventure with some new character or one familiar. Because I can hardly bare never knowing more about that unknown place, muggle that I am.

New comic will be coming this weekend, and if you're lucky there may be two. Thanks for checking in on us.

-Bill

Vexing Vegetables

2007-07-15T17:16:00.001-07:00

Sometimes people just don't get the whole "vegetarian" thing. But sometimes the depth of misunderstanding can be shocking. Hope you enjoy this week's strip, and keep checking back each week for the new one!

New Strip: "Video Violence"

2007-07-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

I have the best wife in the world. Not only does she play games with me from time to time, but she takes them very seriously. Maybe too seriously...

Domestic Disturbance

2007-07-01T18:20:00.000-07:00

Not a moment too soon, it's time for a new strip. I was worried we were going to get this one up in time, as it's been a busy weekend. But we persevered. :) This is the introduction of our newest family member, Luna: Evil Plotting Cat Extraordinaire.

Enjoy and be sure to drop us a comment on how you liked it!

"Attention-Dog"

2007-06-24T12:54:00.001-07:00

As promised, here's our first on-schedule strip. Hope you guys enjoy it, as well as Jo's new cartoon-haircut. As for Chloe's bladder-issue and if it has any relevance towards how she behaves in real life... ask our friends and family and they'll tell you.

Not a Comic

2007-06-21T15:03:00.000-07:00

I caught wind of this video and the subsequent charity album "Instant Karma - Save Darfur" over at The Common Sense Gamer. I've decided to repost it, not just because the Lennon song is tastefully redone here by Green Day, but because the message is necessary. Please take the time to watch.

NEW DOMAIN NAME!

2007-06-20T12:57:00.000-07:00

That was quick.

As you can rightly tell by looking at the top of your screens, our domain name has changed. Jo and I didn't realize how cheap it was to register a domain name for a year, so when we found out we jumped on it.

DPcomics.com was taken, dontpanikonline.com was taken, dponline.com was taken... and so forth and so on.

Instead we've settled on the glorious... www.murphycomics.com!

This way it's almost like a branding. We can use this same address for multiple strips and comics we might create. If we ever do one that's not in the "don't panik" canon, we'll just link it from the new site.

Oh, and speaking of new sites, that's another thing that's still coming. For now, dpcomics.blogspot.com is just re-routed to the new domain name but in a few months we hope to have a whole new site with archiving and whatnot up and running.

Life's busy, but we love this little side-project of ours. Who knows, maybe it can become more than just a hobby. :)

New Schedule Is Set In Stone and some other news...

2007-06-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone.

Just posting to let our loyal readers know that the new permanent schedule of strips will be EVERY SUNDAY.

Now we'll occasionally get some bonus ones up here, but for absolutely sure we'll have one every Sunday. That's our commitment to you folks, our loyal readers (friends and family).

Also of note is that we're looking into getting a real website started. With a real domain name, real strip archive, a blog, and even forums and a newsletter. Heck, we're even thinking of starting our own cafepress shop for Don't Panik related goodies. So keep an eye out for those developments.

It's safe to say Jo and I love doing this, and who knows maybe we can make it more than a hobby one day soon.

-Bill

"I Punch"

2007-06-14T17:59:00.000-07:00

You folks sure are getting a lot out of us this week... but don't get used to it. We're just making up for our lack of posting during the previous 2 weeks. We're back on schedule now, and you'll be seeing a new strip posted every Sunday.

Check out the left jab on Jo in today's strip!

"Wii" Have a Problem

2007-06-11T16:29:00.000-07:00

We promised we'd make up for the lengthy delay, and I think this goes a ways towards fulfilling said promise. Enjoy folks... and yes, Bill does like to play with his Wii. It completes him (I kid, I kid).

Thank You, Captain Jack

2007-06-09T23:24:00.000-07:00

Finally, at long last, we've pushed out another strip. It just feels good to get one out again, even though it's a simple one. Expect another in a few days, we've got some "making up" to do. Thanks for being patient!

New Strip This Weekend

2007-06-07T14:52:00.001-07:00

Just a quick update to let you all know the new strip is almost ready for coloring and then posting. It will DEFINITELY be up this weekend. So keep your eyes peeled. :)