Shrimp Fried Riot 20th Anniversary

 Back again after months just to post this:

It's been almost a year since the last time I updated this comic.

I'm trying to get back on the proverbial horse.

Actually, the real anniversary was somewhere near the turn of the New Year. January 5th, I think.

I realized not long ago that it's been two solid decades since I cranked out that first page of original Shrimp Fried Riot.

Over time I have restarted and rebooted this comic multiple times with multiple versions of my self-insert avatar, for multiple reasons.

It went from fictional comedy slice of life based on my life and associates in Bellingham, Washington to semi-autobiography to cathartic vomiting of my issues and coming almost full circle back to fictionalized comedy.

Over time I've lost my best friend, moved away from Bellingham and thus lost the rest of my friends due to distance, had an ongoing identity crisis that's still going (I actually have an alternate artistic identity concurrently running and making comics and pinups and such) and went through a lot of downward spiraling physically, mentally and emotionally.

I crested 50, lost both legs and my job. Gained 2 prosthetics and an existential ennui that I have yet to overcome.

On the positive side, I still have the woman I love and the desire (if not necessarily the skills I once had) to keep comicking.

More than any of my WAY too many sequential art projects from the last 2 decades plus change, I keep going back to this one most often as, one way or another, it is the most personal for me.

No matter how many times I reboot it and how many times I change it due to getting far too 'REAL' and personal for my own comfort, I always seem to come back to some version of Shrimp Fried Riot.

Now, I have the current version, which I plan to continue with. I am doing my best to keep it from becoming too personal and dark as before, but I still want that 'personal touch' that makes it mine.

Fingers crossed.

Featured:

Octavius Xailenrath the 3rd, aka "Ozzie" - 1/2 of my current self insert-ish main character.

Geoffrey Perlmutter, aka "Mutt" - the other half of the current protagonist duo.

Johnny Grey - protagonist of the "Random Instagram Funnies" era of this comic.

Octavius Xailenrath the first - original protagonist of original Shrimp Fried Riot

Lucy Q - the avatar of my longtime real life girlfriend as she appeared in "My Own Personal Apocalypse", the successor series to SFR.

Octavius Xailenrath, Jr. - the fictional son of original Octavius and Lucy Q who starred in the short-lived SFR: The Next Generation and original best friend of Mutt.

"Grandpa" Octavius - an aged-up latter-day version of original Octavius meant as a mouthpiece for my issues and dislike of getting old.

Milo Mannheim - the original version of the 'alt-me' that would helm "Malicious Intent". Self-proclaimed suburban supervillain. Probably the earliest indication of my interest in "villains" over heroes.

Scorch - Milo's faithful hellhound in human skin, patterned after Rick Moranis as Vinz Clortho.

20 years of memories.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

 Well, THAT was certainly a MONTH!

Things have happened - mostly negative. I have taken down all my comics from Comicfury and for all intents and purposes have abandoned the one I left up, which is only there because I put so much work into it.

I've returned to making random art for random art sake, but have nowhere in particular to post it. Nevermind all the evil shit going on in the Real World, things are fucked up in my head right now. So, even though no one has really been reading this page, I'm gonna abandon it, too. Maybe I'll make a new one for my future projects, maybe I won't. 

Arrivaderci.

33 years

 Today is the 33 year anniversary of the first day of my first stint in JobCorps. Turner JCC in Albany, GA, to be exact.

If you'd have told me on that day that I'd have LIVED this long, muchless described all the things I would go through in the ensuing 3.3 decades, I'd have told you to put a bullet in me and get it over with.

Jobcorps literally changed my life. Not necessarily for the better, but it wasn't all bad, either. I had some good times and made some good friends, back then. Still, if given the informed choice, I would have chosen to be much closer to "normal" than I turned out. JobCorps, sad to say, was a big part of my 'abnormality' and maladjustment upon returning to society.

Still - THIRTY-THREE FRICKIN' YEARS?! Feels like it was just last week.

Haulin' Ass to Lollapalooza

 -- Here we go again!!

After April's 30 Days of OC's event over at Comicfury (which I didn't finish, unfortunately) my art mojo kinda fizzled out a bit. For the last 2 weeks or so, I have been dry as far as new ideas or even ideas for (and the will to) moving forward with the comics I have going... so, I've decided to stop. Temporarily. Sorta.

So, about a year or so ago, before I went into the hospital, the external harddrive which housed about 8 and a half solid years of my drawings, ideas, storylines, world-building and personal pictures and writings malfunctioned. It may be salvageable, but I am not one for blind optimism. That said, I have been working on consolidating whatever I have left and can find strewn all over the internet from the last 3 decades into a personal Discord Server.

I have made a LOT of comics, posters, pin-ups, T-shirt designs, and icons, apparently. Like, A LOT. Anyway, that said, it really hasn't helped me buckle down on my comics any. If anything, it has made things worse, considering how much output I've put out and have really gotten nowhere. Due to this - and the semiannual seasonal depression - I have been slowly taking my comics down from ComicFury as I collect them. I may have to buckle down and do the same with The Duck at some point. At least until I can come up with an idea that I can stick with.

One of my main malfunctions is that I almost never completely ditch an idea - or even a character - once they are cemented in my head a certain way. That's one of the reasons that I created Tiamat 2 or three years ago.

Yes, THAT Tiamat - the 5 headed dragon goddess of destruction and creation.

I made her specifically for the purpose of destroying any comics I was DONE with, from the ijnside and ON PANEL so that I could trick my own broken brain into letting them lie permanently.

So far, she has eaten destroyed a fair few of my old projects.

But, of course - me being ME - I still left a back door or two for cherry-picked favorites from the comics because I am BROKEN.

Anyway, once I am done taking down MOST if not all of my comics from ComicFury and The Duck, it's a matter of choosing and/or creating a NEW project to concentrate on, which has always been my problem. An embarrassment of riches when it comes to ideas and characters but dwindling energy and focus, no help and all-but-non-existent outside interest, engagement and feedback to keep me going.

Not do be cynical, but it seems these days that if One's comics aren't all about zeppelin-tits and free-flowing bodily fluids, no one seems to care.

Mind you, I draw my share of big boobs and the occasional naked cock, but I've never been much of a "Porn" guy.

In the last 2 or 3 years, I have made it a POINT to draw a bit more gratuitous nudity in my works, mainly out of spite that of all the 'Questionable Content' in comics - hell, MOST every kind of media content - nudity seems to be considered the worst sin by the gatekeepers, critics and even a lot of the creators. Hyperviolence, profanity, gore, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, deliberately incendiary social politics, general EdgeLordery? All that is good wholesome family fun to some of these maniacs, but God Forbid there be nipples! I don't understand or agree with that philosophy, but still I am not the "gallons of jizz"/"bimbofication"/Insert raunchy fetish for raunchyness' sake here" type of guy.

At best, sex is funny to me and I portray it thusly in my works. But, if it's not some bizarre fetish/borderline assault/abuse thing, I guess it's too "boring" for the masses.

I'll think of something, but until I do, I think that this site MAY be the only place I'll be posting comics and such for a while until I can cull all my old stuff from the hosting sites.

I was reviewed! - Ninja Style!!

 So - today, my weird comics OCD had me searching all my old social media and Discord vaults and whatnot for ONE icon of a platypus that I made a bazillion years ago. I thought maybe that I may have put it in DeviantASrt or one of the many flash-in-the-pan social media sites that I may have joined in their 15 minute heyday, so I Googled my name + platypus.

I found almost nothing, but the only 2 examples of me on YouTube... the one and only YouTube/Tiktok video I've yet made

AND

Apparently, a webcomic reviewer did a little 3 minute review of a bit of my output! He had positive things to say, even! I was shocked! I didn't know this was a thing! It's been up for 5 years and this is the first I've seen/heard of it.

I've been in a funk for the last week or so and this was really an ego boost that I needed!

Testing

 Mysterio

Shared Universe(s)

 Lately, I've been shoring up a bunch of my non-superhero comics into one universe.

Sorta.

Mostly, it was by accident. Part of it has to do with the weird comicking OCD I have had for the last twenty years wherein I hardly ever truly drop a character or concept completely once it's been created and cemented a certain way in my head... or I've destroyed them ON PAGE.

Also, if i do drop a character or concept only to bring it back in another project later, it will still have some lingering continuity or shared backstory to some of the old stuff which winds up blending that into the new.

Listing my comics I came to the realization that my projects Wonderland Hates You, Rose Tinted World, Tales From the Spiffee Burger and others all take place in the same universe. Some of that is by design by way of my fictional city of Saint Murphy, Missouri.

Chip of Rose Tinted World's mom is the mayor. Spiffee Burger location #347 is located downtown. The bakery where Cookie Bellingham's future boyfriend works is owned by the local crazy rich guy who was once an employee of Maddie Crenshaw's (among other things).

This month, over at ComicFury, the 30 Days of Characters event wherein we participants create new characters and/or update old ones for our projects is underway. I have updated 20 out of 26 days so far. (I may go back and shoehorn a few in before the end of the month.) And of the twenty (sometimes groups of) characters thus fare created/posted, 10 updates have been characters for various "St. Murphy" Comics.

Including comics old, current and those in production but unfinished, there are 17 'St. Murphy' projects going on right now. A good number of them are on ComicFury. Two of the others that haven't premiered yet are going straight to my Patreon. I haven't worked all the bugs out of the second project, but the first one I tentatively call 'Marshamallow Peeps'. It'll be a normal slice of life sit-com style comic. The protagonists are BBW girls. I plan to basically make it the OPPOSITE if 'Cathy'.

Instead of being office workers, approaching middle age, obsessing over their weight and trying to catch a man to please a nitpicky biddy of a mom, they are going to be happy, confident and have each others' backs - which means that I am going to have to find fun adventures to put them in and give them positive personalities. Anything but the same old tired fat jokes, overeating and whining.about self esteem and body image issues. Besideswhich, they will be in an 'adult' comic on Patreon drawn by a cartoonist who LIKES big women, so I will admit that a lot of the silly, dumb comedy (and nudity) is going to be focused largely on one thing.

Make that "TWO".

Who knows, maybe later in the year - 'round Thanksgiving or Christmas time, I will concentrate on short vignettes for each property. Maybe 2 to 4 pages each and make a "St. Murphy" graphic novel or something.

For now - on with the show!

Days of Relevance

 Happy Easter to those who celebrate.

Happy 4/20 to those who celebrate... if you're not so baked that you don't know what day it is.

Me? I am celebrating the holiday(s) by torturing myself. I have decided to go back to PATREON.

and KO-FI, too.

*sigh*... now I have to go and "create content"! *UGH*!!

Lord, help me.

Tales From the Spiffee Burger 012: Communication

 

Being able gt "smell what The Hat is cookin': makes Cookie a special girl, indeed!

The Merry Go Round Broke Down.

 I don't know what it is - past trauma, the weather, my own broken brain, a combo thereof... whatever it is, at least once a year I get into that headspace that says "STOP MAKING COMICS".

I assume that the weather may have something to do with it, as spring has sprung here in the Pacific Northwest and the tree jizz, cold winds, hot sun and Mother Nature's inability to make up her damned mind whether to be warm and sunny, cold and rainy or dry, yet grey is really weighing on me. AGAIN.

Zed summed it up for me a couple of years back:

Well, after "The Incident" last week on the ComicFury forums (My suspension has been lifted, btw, yet I can hardly muster the excitement to really give a damn) and the ongoing 30 Days of Characters 2025 event where participants make up new characters or update old ones every day for the month of April - which, this year isn't garnering much feedback and/or engagement for me - I m getting a bit downhearted about my participation in ComicFury and in online comics in general. Unfortunately for me, it is my life.

Like, literally, it's prettymuch all I do and 88% of my engagement with the world, these days.

Comicking is as close to smoking, drinking or drugs as I have ever gotten. (Thank God)  'Cept maybe ages 27 to 29 when I was boozin' it up, but that stopped cold turkey without much fanfare or even effort.

Comicking? It IS my addiction.

This is part of the problem, as I have WAY too many comic projects and characters and worlds and universes inside my head that I feel I HAVE to get out - but I have relatively little focus, older, diminishing art supplies, no real grasp of modern art tech, no help and as stated, my..."GUSTO" waxes and wanes like the moon! Hell, for all I know, The Moon itself may be having an effect on me. I dunno!

What I DO know is that while SOME things have been going positively lately - Getting an iPad from friends. Procreate being very cheap. Finally reinitializing the bank account that I lost when I was in the hospital last year... On the other side of the coin, I find myself way too scattered to concentrate on one property.

It's been going this way for YEARS. I don't know what to do.

My PLAN, however, is to re-connect my new bank account to my lingering paywall-type accounts like Patreon and Ko-Fi, make most if not all of my newer stuff going forward adult-oriented. Not just in the tits and ass way, either. I'm a 'comedy guy', but no one seems to care about 'funny' anymore. They all want violence, body horror, drug use and, yes, good ol' tits and ass. Maybe I should finally break down and oblige them. 

We'll see what's what down the line, but one way or another, I may just have to ditch ComicFury, The Duck and any other Comics Platform I may still be a part of and post any new works for public consumption to THIS page or - UGH - Social Media Accounts.