Nowhere Band News

Did I not just say that it’s running way ahead of schedule?  It’s so far ahead of schedule that it’s actually up on the site now, in all its glory.  That’s pretty far ahead.

I like all (well, almost all) of the comics I make, but this one’s a favorite for a lot of little reasons.  I like it that I’ve finally learned (I think) how to write characters who’re in stable relationships;  it’s an easy and common trap to either leave that entire dimension of human experience out or to just have relationships serve as cheesy drama engines (will X get the girl?).  I don’t know… I’m glad not to be doing that, but it might be something that matters only to me.

And, while I like Miranda’s character quite a bit, I’m a little leery of a continuity trap I set for myself.  I came up with her name on the fly while writing dialog for an early one, the one where Aaron stays home by himself on a Friday night. Dan’s girlfriend needed a name, and Miranda popped into my head.  Fine.  A little later, I was coloring the Turf Club schematic comic, where everyone was pretty much visible by either their hair or their hat.  Most of the established cast has brown or black hair, so lots of the new people showing up in that one were given red hair just to break things up a little.

So, that’s all fine, until I was finishing #16 up and realized that, by introducing a woman named Miranda with short, red hair, I was doing some sort of weird, inadvertant Sex and the City shoutout.  Which isn’t really my style.  But it was too late to do anything about it, so there you go.  Um, w00t SatC, I guess.

One intentional shoutout in #16:  it turns out that Miranda’s cat is A Year in Comics‘ Potato, mysteriously transplanted from Kansas to south Minneapolis.

Here’s a link to an easy way to check out the first-draft mix of Derailleur’s newest song. As I say on the linked page, this is part of our in-production concept EP of theme songs for James Bond movies that haven’t happened yet (or, in a couple of cases, that did happen, but were given the wrong theme songs).

The song fucking rocks the house, and I highly recommend you go check it out.

Also, Nowhere #16 is way ahead of schedule and should be forthcoming within a couple of days.

I sat down yesterday to goof around with Garage Band, and kept having trouble getting my mike input set up properly.  A bit more poking around, and actually reading what was on the screen in front of me, brought me to the realization that the mike I’d plugged in didn’t matter a whit, that Garage Band was just taking its input from my laptop’s built-in mike, and that it had been doing so for the past couple of months every time I’d sat down to record something and spent hours fussing with the goddamned mike.

I was pissed, but also sort of excited— I’d been fairly happy with that last round of recordings, and if that’d been done unwittingly using some cheesy built-in mike, just imagine what sort of magic I could make with a real mike plugged into the input! Read more

Right.  So, here we are, talking about music and about a webcomic about music.  What better way to start it off than some music?  If you’re inclined, here’s an iTunes-formatted version of me, using my home instruments and Garage Band to assault Bowie’s “Modern Love.“  So at least you know where I’m coming from.

I’m not sure how often it’ll happen, but right now the plan is to post links to songs here from time to time, as they become available.  It’s even possible that some Awesome Boys songs may crss over.  “Girls are Greasy” will see the light of day!