Muskrat Ramblings
Historicon and on and on
posted by John

Historical Miniature Gaming was my first great gaming love. So when HISTORICON asked me to design a mascot for them, last year, I was thrilled.

Actually, “thrilled” is an understatement: I was full-on Muppet arm-flaining over-the-moon amazed. I was at once gob-smacked and boggled.

I was, as they say, right chuffed.

Historical Miniature Gaming is the Alpha and the Omega for me – especially if I’m playing 15mm Greeks. I have Trajanic Romans and Mongols (Armati); I can field the British 8th Army (Flames of War); I can take to the skies with the Flying Circus (Wings of War); My 25mm Normans can skirmish with the best of ‘em (Battlelust); and the list goes on and on.

I love Historical Miniature Gaming in the same crazed, passionate way that I love punk rock and Isaac Asimov’s “Nightfall” – the discovery them, entire new worlds opened uo for my little teen self.

Anyway, to cut a short story long, HEEEEEEEERE’S “Terry,” the Mascot I designed for Historicon:

Terry is named punnishly, mostly (’His-Terry-Con’). But in my mind, it’s also my tribute to the great Terry Wise – whose writing (see Guide #24 here) was a huge influence on my gaming in the 70s and 80s. And it makes me smile that I can give just a tiny bit back to the memory of the man whose books I could never get enough of.

I’ve only been to Historicon a few times – it’s a 15-hour drive, from Wisconsin. But when I was there, it was like Disneyland and the Imperial War Museum all rolled into one amazing smorgasbord of leaden (and sometimes plastic) glory – it’s Splash Mountain meets Operation Sealion; Big Thunder Mountain meets Big Bertha; Historicon is sheer old-school gaming goodness.

I’m guessing I lost most of my games (I pause a moment to honor the memory of my beautiful, doomed Albatross D.III pilot – let’s call him “Fried Fritzy” – who lacked the skill to Immelman as deftly as I’d compelled him to), but I don’t care. I HAD A BLAST. (Though so did Fritzy, but not in a good way)

By the way, I also created this ad, that should start running on the Dork Tower homepage, soon. I’m not getting anything for this, I just want to plug a wonderful con and the great folks who do so much for Historical gaming.

If you’d like to help support the Grandaddy of Gaming, too, feel free to grab the ad and run it on your site, if you have one. Link it back to http://www.historicon.org/ and I’d be ever so grateful.

I was an absolute honor to be asked to do character design for Historicon – I won’t be there, this year, sadly (nor will I be at Origins or Gen Con, by the way – far too much work) But I hope to get back there, some year, and push some lead.

Maybe I’ll see you across the table?

Just BEWARE THE WRATH OF MY ALBATROSSES, though. You could crushed by one as they plummet from the sky…

Muskrat out,

Muskrat Ramblings
“l hit you on Youface. But you’ve got to promise to fingertag me back”…
posted by John

My Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/johnkovalic, recently hit 5,000 “friends.” And as facebook will readilly tell you, you can’t have more than 5,000 friends and be a real person. No, sir – you need to be a corporation, celebrity or monarch.

(I am not making the “monarch” thing up. It may be a Facebook joke. It probably is. But, frighteningly, IT MAY NOT! That’s just how Facebook is, anymore.)

Anyway, as a slew of other folks wanted to join the fun, so today, I took the plunge and turned my Personal Facebook Page into a Corporate/Celebrity/Monarch page.

If you were a “Friend” before, you’ve been automatically transported over to the new page…whether you like it or not!

(”Whether you like it or not,” by the way, would be my entry if Facebook ever had a “Create our new motto” competition).

If you weren’t my “Friend” before, well, now we can never apparently be friends ever again. Ever. At least according to Facebook.

But you CAN “Like” me.

So, “Like” me at http://www.facebook.com/johnkovalic. Why? Because we like you.

****

By the by, my very first post on the new Facebook page had a pretty awful typo in it. Which (a) is par for the course, and (b) what with Facebook being Facebook I can NEVER EDIT OUT, EVER means there’s no better time than now to plug my “TYPOS HAPPNE” t-shirts…in both Men’s and Ladies’ cuts.

****

No Origins or Gen Con for me, this year, I fear. With all the work to do, plus the generally feeling that I lost control of things these last eight or nine months, I’ve made the decision to just stay home and work.

And, you know, play with my daughter.

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Possible new toy, in the My Little Cthulhu line: “My Little Geekthulhu.”

Each Little Victim would be its own geeky archetype. Though how I’m gonna covince Dreamland Toyworks to let me add bunny ears to the Fuzzy Victim, I’m not figured out, yet.

So. Basically. Imagine THIS guy…

With glasses and pocket protectors.

Like? Thoughts?

Fingertag me on Youface and let me know…

Muskrat out,

====== John

Muskrat Ramblings
“REPEATS,” I repeat, are necessary evil. Let me REPEAT that…
posted by John

Argh! Argh! Nearly two months since I blogged about anything? Bloody hell.

OK. Life’s been busy. VERY busy. But I’m working hard to get things back under control.

Part of “Getting things back under control” means getting ahead on Dork Tower. Which I’m doing. Which is ALSO why there was a repeat (”classic”) strip on Wednesday and why there’s a repeat strip today, and why there will be repeat strips next week.

I try to run repeats only as a second-to-last resort. The LAST resort is, of course, putting nothing up, at all. But for the last few months, work has been so busy that I’ve been drawing Dork Towers virtually the night before they get posted. And sometimes writing them, then, as well. This is not a smart way of working.

So I’ve been building this backlog. And these repeats help, as well. Indeed, this is a nice series to repeat, as:

(a) I figure five-year-old strips are probably “new” to quite a few readers here, and…

(b) Sonia is a character I’ve wanted to reintroduce for a while now. So before I do any new strips with Sonia, running the old ones should bring everybody up to speed. And…

(c) It’s fascinating to me, seeing just how much my style has changed in five years.

There’s lots of new stuff happening in life, and big changes in how I approach my work, be it on the games, in the comics, or on other fronts. And there are several other fronts happening, right now. Good fronts.

Yet the other day, while working on this organizational front, I realized that come January 2012, Dork Tower will be fifteen years old.

FIFTEEN!

In other words, my little web strip will be old enough to start sneaking cigarettes, and Dad’s vodka.

How did that happen? I’m not entirely sure. But there are a few things going on that will (with luck) be completed long before the 15th anniversary of Dork Tower.

The most important one being, a renewed commitment from me, to the strip. Getting ahead of the game, working up new story lines, and tying up old plot threads. Once the comic books start coming out again, the timeline between what happens in the strip and what happens in the comic books should also tie together more consistently.

Another important change is a total redesign of the Dork Tower.com, Kovalic.com and Dr. Blink.com sites. A very, very past due redesign. Complete with ARCHIVES THAT DON’T SUCK. You know, ones that are fully indexed and tagged, with older material being as searchable as the new stuff. With dates that are consistent. With organization that makes sense. WITH BUTTONS THAT WORK.

So, yes…changes are coming. I’ll go into specifics soon. Probably next week. And I’ll introduce some of the folks who are helping to make the changes become a reality. It’ll be hard work, but hard work towards a goal you believe in is fun.

And I’m having fun. Exhausted, sleepless fun. Nervous fun. Uncertain, self-doubt-riddled fun. But fun, nevertheless. I’m excited.

ANYHOO, this was meant to be just a short note, to be expanded upon later. Next week, say. Once I get my act back in gear and keep everyone updated a bit (read: “a LOT”) better.

So, in brief: still alive. Work’s grand. Need to organize. Busy. Deadlines. Treading water. Yadda, yadda, yadda. But – AND THIS IS RATHER IMPORTANT – I’d like YOU to be involved, if you wish. If you have any suggestions as t other ways DorkTower.com could be improved, I’d love to hear them (”Learn how to draw muskrats, dummy” possibly unhelpful. “Get rid of those full-page ads before we can get to the cartoon” very helpful. I hate those, too).

I sure hope you like some of the stuff that’s gonna be coming down the pipeline.

Muskrat out,

PS.Since there are repeats this and next week, here’s a NEW strip I did for the Madison Mallards, whose season began last week, and in whose FINE 2011 program THIS VERY CARTOON MAY BE FOUND. This one. GO MALLARDS!

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