http://cectic.com/ News channel for the webcomic Cectic. en Copyright 2010 Rudis Muiznieks Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:05:01 MDT Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:05:01 MDT rudis@sitosis.com (Rudis Muiznieks) http://cectic.com/images/cectic.png http://cectic.com/ Logo http://cectic.com/index.shtml#News Mon, 06 Sep 2010 - Nothing news-post-worthy to speak of this week, other than a reminder that a new comic for September will be showing up on the bonus feed in a day or two. I hope everyone is enjoying or has enjoyed their Labor Day weekend, or as we call it in Canada, Labour Day weekend.

]]> Mon, 06 Sep 2010 Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Sun, 29 Aug 2010 - I'm not going to have time for this week's comic, but I'll be posting one next week along with one for the bonus feed. Sorry folks.

Update: Actually, scratch that. It turns out I do have time for a comic this week. Will be going up at the normal time (Mon @ 12:00am EST).

]]> Sun, 29 Aug 2010 Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Mon, 16 Aug 2010 - Going to be out of town again this upcoming weekend, so there's a small chance that I'll be missing next week's comic.

]]> Mon, 16 Aug 2010 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Mon, 02 Aug 2010 - I'm going on vacation shortly, and will unfortunately be missing next week's comic. On the bright side, those of you who subscribe to the bonus feed will find a shiny new comic waiting for you next time you check your link or feed reader!

Also, in my recent link blast post, I totally neglected to mention Dogma Free America, another awesome podcast that keeps me looking forward to each new episode (primarily for the accents).

]]> Mon, 02 Aug 2010 Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Mon, 26 Jul 2010 - Those social media button thingies are RUTHLESS if you ever screw up your skeptical-webcomic-posting system thingy and accidentally post a comic without a title, even if you correct it mere minutes later. C'est la vie.

]]> Mon, 26 Jul 2010 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Mon, 19 Jul 2010 - So I'm gonna throw out a few links to some stuff that I've been reading/listening to and/or using for inspiration lately, partly for archival purposes so that I don't forget to add them when I update the links page, but mostly because it's awesome stuff that anyone who likes Cectic needs to check out and support immediately.

• Reasonable Doubts - a fantastic and very cerebral podcast that examines religion from a skeptical viewpoint. They posted an episode recently where Jeremy (one of the hosts) went on the Don Johnson radio show to debate free will versus determinism, which was easily the most hilariously amusing thing I have heard in a very, very long time.
• The Reality Check - another great skeptical podcast by the Ottawa Skeptics society. I am Canadian. It is Canadian. That makes it uber-awesome. Seriously though, the hosts are hilarious, the segments are intelligent, and the segues are ridiculous.
• Geologic Podcast - I'd been hearing about this George Hrab guy for a long time now through the other stuff I read and listen to, but only hopped on the Hrab bandwagon recently. I never knew what I was missing! There's no way to really describe how awesome this podcast is, you'll just have to listen to it for yourself.

You guys should also all check out a new webcomic called The Placebo Effect. Drawn by fellow Calgarians (what is it about Calgary and skepticism-themed webcomics?), it's off to an amazing looking start and I'm really looking forward to more.

]]> Mon, 19 Jul 2010 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Mon, 12 Jul 2010 - Thanks to everyone who has sent me the fantastic "welcome back" email love. I missed you guys too! Also thanks to the Friendly Atheist and Bad Astronomy for the linkage last week. I hope you've both recovered from the TAM8 hangovers. Finally, one last shout out to the always hilarious Jesus and Mo, which you should be reading if you're not already.

]]> Mon, 12 Jul 2010 Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Mon, 05 Jul 2010 - Drawing comics is like an addiction. I was on the bandwagon for 1 year, 5 months, and 18 days—but screw sobriety! I'm back, Cectic's back, let's go kill some sacred cows, shall we?

Anyone who's just here for the funny picture-stories can stop reading now, because I'm gonna go all meta and start discussing some boring behind-the-scenes type stuff in the rest of this news post.

As long-time Cectic readers may notice from the new comic(s), I've changed my process a little bit. Prior to now, Cectic comics were produced entirely digitally using my ancient Wacom tablet, The GIMP, and strict artistic limitations on format, size, and style. Drawing a comic involved a multi-step process of creating the line art, coloring everything by hand with the pencil tool, adding highlights and shadows on their own layers, typing and laying out dialog, creating paths for the dialog balloons, and probably a dozen other tedious steps that I've blocked from my memories. When I started, I assumed that since it was a comic to be displayed only on computers, it would be simpler to create them entirely on a computer. Couldn't have been more wrong. I'm throwing all of that out the window now.

I'm going old-school and getting back to what drawing comics used to mean to me: grabbing a blank sheet of paper, a pencil and eraser, a line inking pen and a sharpie, and going to town. Post-processing is just some light coloring work, moving stuff around to make the layout "pop" (as we like to say in the web biz), and touching up anything I screwed up while inking. I'm still nailing down the process, so as a result the comics might look a little rough for a while (yes, that really is my own handwriting... not my two year old son's), and I may experiment with different styles (some of which probably won't work too well). My scanner is also a black and white feed-style office document scanner, which may contribute to the roughness until I figure out the best way to use it.

The reasons for the change are many, but primarily it's because I don't want to go back to slaving over my computer for 4-6 hours to draw each comic. I spend enough time slaving over a computer for my day job. Drawing comics this way is both more fun and quicker, which is good for me and good for you (assuming you're glad that I'm drawing the comic again). Almost as importantly, I feel that breaking out of the limiting artistic style and format frees me up to try some other concepts besides your typical two-guys-talking-for-3-4-panels-every-time gag strips.

As always, I adore getting feedback (both positive and negative), so please feel free to express your opinion on these changes in an email (my address is below the news on the front page). Also, please use the new social neworky web 2.0 sharing button things under each comic liberally to help spread skeptical Cectic goodness throughout the interwebs. Thank you!

]]> Mon, 05 Jul 2010 Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EDT http://cectic.com/oldnews.shtml Sat, 26 Jun 2010 - Stay tuned—07052010.

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