November 29, 2016

Guys, I'm so sorry, but it's going to be another skip week. Last Wednesday my mother found my grandfather lying on the floor in a pool of blood. He'd developed a bleeding ulcer, a rather serious one, as they had to give him four units of blood just to get him up to par. The ulcer's fixed and it looks like he's well on the way to recovery, but I spent most of last week in and out of hospitals and wrangling health care bureaucracy. Did I mention my grandfather is 92? And that he has no short-term memory to speak of and has to be constantly reminded why he's in the hospital and reassured we're not going to leave him there? And the hospital is 40 minutes away?

So no comic happened and no buffer left and, yeah, not sure when there will be. He's been moved to a (closer) rehab facility but it'll likely be two weeks at least before he can walk on his own and come home, and until then I am on regular Sit With Grandpa duty and I can't take my render rig to the hospital, so we're all screwed.

I'm sorry, guys. November is officially fired this year.

November 15, 2016

A heads-up: there's a possibility of no update next week. There's a few reasons for this: it's Thanksgiving here in the States, which, given that my day job involves selling food, means it's Big Sales Crunchy Employees time; due to a combination of crappy body chemistry and even crappier US politics I spent the middle of last week being a useless, non-productive nervous wreck; and probably most of all (confessional time) I decided, back when getting five comics ahead seemed like a thing that could happen, that I would take November to write the novel that's been increasingly gnawing at my mental ankles in a distracting fashion this year. Then when November rolled around I decided 'three comics ahead's enough: I can keep up my word goals and still get two comics done in a month!' Well, yeah. See above.

There's still a chance I will pull this together, but, y'know. Fair warning.

In the meantime, have Spiderforest Comics of the Week: the Artificial Consciousness edition! First up: 6-Commando!



When Major Sarah Bronniford is captured while on a tense Cold War mission, her comrades send their robotic tank Mike to rescue her. But Mike carries out his mission too well, and accidentally turns a crisis into an all-out atomic war. When a heavily-damaged Mike returns from his mission with Sarah wounded but alive, they both begin to exhibit strange and unpredictable behavior – and some dangerous new opinions about their mission.

This is one of my favorite new comics, a fascinating bit of near-past alt-history with a nuanced take on AI to boot. Check it out!

Next up, we have The Demon Archives!



100 years after WW3, Minerva is a lone beacon of civilization in the chaos of central Asia. Tenzin Dorje leads the elite Keleres squad that keeps its borders safe, helped by his AI assistant Jane. Then a new enemy appears that leaves the Keleres -- and Tenzin -- broken and threatens everything Minerva has been able to accomplish. Will man and machine together be enough to save civilization?

The Demon Archives is a great story with compelling characters and some great twists. Go! Read!