Hello
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Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
I forgot to post it!!
You'll notice that the release date on this chapter is April 4th. I finished it but completely forgot to post it.
No one should be surprised. My wife and I are still not getting enough sleep. Our little baby girl is a screecher! She screeches! A lot. And very, very loudly!
But we found out why! She has acid reflux. I didn't even know babies could get that! It means that eating is a difficult and painful because of stomach acid damage to her esophagus. The doctor put her on some form of "Baby Zantac".
She should be better soon.
Chapter 42 is ready too! I'll post it in a few days. After that I'll be working on Metropolis Yearbook #3
Thanks for hanging in there with me. I appreciate it.
Have a great day.
Hello
Click image to enlarge.
Download the F.Y.O.C. version here.
This chapter is very, very late.
Chapter 39 came out in January, 2014. This chapter is released in late March.
Sorry.
The short answer is that I have two kids now; a toddler named Max and a brand new baby girl named Zoey. If you're a parent then that's all that need be said.
But let me go on anyway. My wife and I are all alone out here in British Columbia, Canada. Our closest family is four provinces away. We're still trying to stabilize our schedule. I'm happy to report that Zoey is sometimes letting us get a whole 6 hours of sleep at night. Sometimes.
I'm also working a lot more now that my wife is home on maternity leave.
I don't thing I'm going to be able to keep up my release schedule of two chapters a month. I might get back up to that closer to the end of the year but not now.
I hope you can bare with me. I hope that the introduction of Tuck E. Rogers will whet your appetite for more Metropolis. By the way; Tucky is a homage to one of my favourite golden-age science-fiction heroes. Can you guess which one?
Thank you for your continued support.
Have a great day.
Hello
(If you have been enjoying the Metropolis comic strip, then I hope you will consider helping me promote it. Please click here to find out how you can help. I would really appreciate it. Thank you.)
The following is the introduction to Metropolis Volume 1
On the Metropolis blog I talk a lot about why I stopped collecting comic books as a kid. Today I want to talk a little about what brought me back; comic strips.
One day I was feeling nostalgic about comic books as I was surfing the web. I stumbled upon a website that hosted one month’s worth of over 60 different newspaper strips (http://www.oregonlive.com/comics-kingdom/index.ssf). That day, I read strips until my eyes hurt.
The strips that I started to follow were, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, The Amazing Spider-Man and The Phantom. I was completely re-engaged with all the things I loved about comic books. And comic strips didn’t have any of the things that drove me away from comic books. They were free. They were fun. They had a sense of drama and humour. There were no endless crossovers.
However, there was a downside. I could only read them a few panels at a time. Then I had to wait a day to read the next part (or wait an entire week as in the case of Flash Gordon and Prince Valiant). This can get a little irritating. So I started to read comic strips the way most people watch TV shows nowadays; wait for a few episodes to pile up then watch them all at once. I imagine a lot of people do the same.
That’s why I’ve created Metropolis Volume 1. You don’t have to wait for the two strips per month that I am able to produce. Here is a conveniently packaged bundle of chapters that you can read on your favourite e-reading device. I should warn you now though… I don’t expect to get around to making Volume 2 until around early 2015.
Enjoy Volume 1 and have a great day.
João
Hi
I've finally figured out how to make a Comic Reader file. Not that making one is very difficult, but figuring out how to properly tag one is.
So I've started by making Comic Reader files of the Metropolis Yearbooks (available here). They are available in .PDF format and .CBZ format. Most e-readers will open .PDF files. Some even open .CBZ files.
Maybe some of you don't know that you can enjoy copies of comic books electronically now. Well, yes you can. Old and new comics alike. If you are looking for a good Comic Reader program, look here. I read comics on my ipad with an app called ComicBookLover. You can also get a Comic Reader for the Wii (here); but you need to have Homebrew installed on your Wii. I also recommend Calibre. It's an entire e-book (not just comics) management system that will connect to a lot of different e-readers. It connects to my Kobo no problem.
I also need to mention a wonderful program called Comic Tagger. This is the program I used to create tags for my Comic Reader versions of Metropolis. It's a cinch to use. So if you have a lot of e-comics in your collection or if you make your own e-comics, you should check Comic Tagger out.
Tags are the little bits of information about the comic embedded into the Comic Reader file. They help identify your comic for search and sorting purposes. In much the same way that music files have tags containing artist, singer and album information.
So check out the program and if you use it, be kind and click the guy's donate button. He should get a little money for all his hard work on such a good program. I did.
A while ago I promised to release Metropolis as a Comic Book Reader file. I'm happy to say that it will happen soon. How soon? I don't know. It's hard to schedule with a toddler and brand new baby in the house. I'm thinking it will definitely happen before summer 2014... Possibly sooner.
Sorry there hasn't been a new chapter of Metropolis yet. My wife and I are still working out our lives with the new baby.
Have a great day.
Hello
NOTE: This chapter has been ready for a while, but I'm only getting around to posting now because...
BORN January 22 at 4:11 am
My new daughter Zoey! (10 lbs 5.5 oz)
On with the show...
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Download the F.Y.O.C version here.
I'm Trying to Pass the Bechdel Test (as a good example for my kids).
(How appropriate to broach this topic near the birth of my daughter.)
When I first created Metropolis I erroneously thought that I could make the characters genderless. I consider myself a feminist and I thought (erroneously) that I could avoid gender issues in my story. Within the first few chapters it was obvious that it was all too easy to impose the male gender on the characters. Eg's top hat is a dead giveaway.
Frankly, I don't know of any good science-fiction that adequately conveys a true genderless society. I know a few stories about genderless societies, but they are always in relation to or told by a gendered main character. The only examples I can think of right now are that episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation called "The Outcast" and a book called "The Breeds of Man" by F.M. Busby. Are we even capable of envisioning what a genderless society might be like? If anyone can give me a better example of a story involving a true genderless society, please let me know.
So once I accepted that the characters in Metropolis had a gender, I was suddenly faced with the problem that my comic strip was a world of men. I didn't want that. I want to set a good example for my son and my daughter. I also didn't want my strip to fail the Bechdel Test. I immediately created the character of Tepper in Chapter 7.
Since then I have struggled to involve more female characters into the overall arch of the Metropolis storyline. It's been tough. I only get 8 pages a chapter, so there's not a lot of room. Regardless, I publicly apologize for not passing the Bechdel Test sooner.
The second female character to appear in Metropolis is the White Queen of Sarnia in Chapter 30. Bechdel Test requirement #1 is met.
A third female character is introduced in Chapter 34. Ms. Teschmacher, the executive assistant to the city of Metropolis. However, to date she has not spoken a word. That will be rectified. She's going to be a really fun character.
Chapter 39 introduces our fourth female; whom you will discover is named Tuck E. Rogers.
Four women, 39 chapters and so far they've never spoken a single word to each other. I'm happy to say that Chapter 40 will meet the second and third requirement of the Bechdel Test and officially passing it.
I hope you're enjoying the story.
Have a great day.
PS: A Note about the Bechdel Test.
I don't consider the Bechdel Test to be the "be-all and end-all" of literary analysis. However, I do consider it a good rule of thumb for the type of stories I would like to create. You can't apply the Bechdel Test fairly to a significant amount of literature from the past. But shouldn't it be the base line minimum for most of the stories we're creating today?
PSS: On a similar topic, please enjoy this video of Joss Whedon.
