I’ve got another busy day coloring Johnny Saturn lined up, plus work for one of my favorite customers, so today’s blog will be short.  In fact, I’m going to resort to the “lists of stuff” approach!  Lazy, lazy, lazy!

What webcomics do I follow most of all?  The list, presented in no particular order:

• Girl Genius
• SideChics
• PvP
• Evil Inc.
• Sheldon
• Frazz
• 9 Chickweed Lane
• Dilbert

What podcasts do I follow?

• Webcomics Weekly
• The Webcomic Beacon
• Comic Related
• Sequential Artists’ Pub
• Art & Story
• Plus, a rotating list of others

What websites do I visit a lot?

• Digital Webbing
• Art Unleashed
• Comixtalk
• Myspace

What magazines do I read?

• Sketch Magazine
• Draw
• Imagine FX
• Watercolor (2 Magazine, I forget the exact titles)

Well, there you go!  Useless information about me!  Out of curiosity, do any of you read, watch, or listen to same material I do?  Do you see something omitted from my lists that I should really check into? 

Scott.

Lots of interesting stuff going on.

First up, today is my birthday.  I was born on an American Air force base forty-four years ago in Seville, Spain.  I’m not sad to see another year come and go, because my forties have been the best decade of my life.

Next up, I changed my old Myspace page into a satellite Johnny Saturn site.  I was more than pleasantly surprised at how flexible Myspace has become!  It was quite fun to format this page!  Through the magic of RSS, the comic strip and the blog will appear on Myspace as it updates, but if the reader wants to see the full-size comic or the comic’s archives, he need only click on the image there and be transported to this site.

http://www.myspace.com/scott_story

It should be noted that we have similar RSS feeds to Comixtalk, Xaviar Xerexes’ excellent webcomic site.

http://comixtalk.com/

Tomorrow, I plan to spend some time filling out the Zen Cart Johnny Saturn Store.  The video tutorials have been excellent, so I should be well on my way to establishing this new hub of Johnny Saturn swag!  If you want to see Zen Cart in action, please visit Comics2Games new site.

http://bluelinepro.com/storecomics2/

Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the Amazon.com “I recommend” link in the right column.  It’s not too late to order a copy or two of “Johnny Saturn: Synns of the Father” for Christmas!

Scott.

This is my official reminder that I will be at Graphic Engagement next Friday on September 3, and the Lafayette Pop Culture Expo on Saturday, September 4.

I also have the privelidge of being a guest blogger on this week’s Comixtalk.  I want to post some meaty, worth-while posts there, so I’ve been working on those off and on all week.

Personal Anecdote of the Day: About ten years ago, at a huge flea market near Nashville Tennessee, I bought a old guitar with bent tuning pegs for $15.00 dollars.  It’s a Stella Harmony, built around 1950 to 1962, and they were very, very common as guitars went, often being used for starter instruments.  Anyway, flash forward in time, I finally got around to restoring the wood, repairing, and re-stringing  it, and, against all odds, it sounds fantastic!  The old thing sounds as good as some of my $300 to $400 guitars!  It’s only got 12 accessible frets, a wide old-style acoustic fingerboard, a floating bridge, and open tuning pegs, but it holds tune all over the neck! Sometimes life delivers little treasures.

Personal  Anecdote No. 2: I decided to restring my ovation guitar, and find out why its electronics didn’t work.  This is my favorite acoustic, and I’ve had it since 1988, not long after it was built.  Someone owned it for a short time before I bought it used, and I can’t imagine that anyone would voluntarily give this gem up, but they did.  So, I restrung it, but when I did two of the sealed tuning pegs fell apart!  I’ve never seen that happen, but there you go.  Benita advised me to replace all six tuners, because if two had worn out then the other four were probably going to fall apart too. This cost me about $40.00 for the new pegs, midrange models with a gold finish.  The electronics didn’t work because–wait for it—I had put the battery in backwards.  I adjusted the neck while I was at it, and now this beautiful, distinctive instrument has a new, clearer voice.  This guitar has a rich midrange, from mellow at the high end to rich and bassy at the bottom–it has a very even, beautiful tone.