<center>MAGPIES NEWS AND DISSCUSSION

~x>|(Table of Contents)|<x>|(Statment of Purpose)|<x~</center>

Welcome to the Officail Magpies News and Disscussion Thread (V.2.0). Or for those that like absurd acronyms, "O.M.N.D.T.Vee-2-oh.." (try saying that three times fast!) I've made this thread so that you gimps (here after referred to as "THE FANS") that read my comics can find out about all things Magpie and/or Magpie related. Here is where you will find up to date info reguarding projected realease dates, who's slated to be in the next comic, and even the current episode (so you lazy bums don't have to scroll ALL THE WAY DOWN to the creativity forum for it). I've also included a F.A.Q. so that any questions that you might have can be answered, saving me time, of which I have preacious little.

This thread is also for disscussion, in order to keep the thread in the Creativity forum realtively clutter free. As such this thread has some RULES...

<center>~x>|(Rules)|<x~</center>

In addition to the site rules, some special rules are in effect in my thread.

First, this is for disscussion of my comic strip ONLY. I put it in the chat forum because I want this to be meaningful conversation, not a bunch of spam.

Second, if you don't like my strip, let me remind you that you don't "HAVE" to read it. Also, unless it's is constructive critisiim of an artistic nature, keep it out of my thread. All attacks toward my work or my person will be veiwed as a flame.

Third. Bonanza, CHILL.

Fourth, I considder asking-me-when-my-next-comic-will-be-out as spam, and will be dealt with as such. Repeatedly asking me when my next comic will be out I considder trolling. Just an FYI.

Fifth, rules are subject to change with out notice.

Finaly, please check the F.A.Q. and the ~x>|(Anouncements)|<x~ sections before you ask a dumb question.

10-17-05 (pm)
I was going to use the list I had on old site's Ceativity foum as my guide, but as I did not make a copy of it when we moved, and also since we had to use it as a "life boat" while the site was being fixed, I have no copy of the 50k list. All I can remember is that there were 3 people I had yet to use in a comic: Vanslandersinafel (how ever that SN was spelt...),
Hyper, and (as far as I knew untill now) Goth.
POINT: I now need to know ifany one had the list and if not (depending on weather or not Hyper and vans still wish to be faetured) Ther may be slots up for grabs!

10-17-05 (am)
I would like the user formaly known as Hypersonic Speed to make himself obvious. I need to know if you still want to be drawn as a male Amy rose.

As amatter of fact, if you were on the list for the 50k Hits Pic, could you you speak up so I know who you are? If any one is missing, there may be slots suddenly open for people who want to be featured in the current series. (Goth, as far as I know you were on the list so put your hand down. )

<center>~x>|(Work Diary)|<x~</center>

2/1/07 Well I finished Magpies 1.9.1, however, due to the fact that it is being entered into the comic contest, I no longer have controll as to it's ultimate release date. Why don't you poke Sumisem, and get her to post up that contest all ready!
After The contest is complete, I will place the comic here and in the Magpies thread here in the creativity. (you know, this thread WAS ment to stay in the free forum, to let people kow when new episodes came out... ) Anyway, I'll get to work on the next one soon, so you wont be all left hanging. (like I did with magpies 8 ) Cya around!

1/25/07: HOLY ALL THAT IS HOLY!! It's been over a YEAR! I Had no Idea it's been this long! Any way, I only post her for one reason and one reason only. I did work. OH YES MY FANS, STAFFY HAS JUST PENCILED EPISODE 1.9!!! But you'll all have to wait because i'm entering it into the comic contest, so when ever that goes up is when you'll get to see it. Now, it is only part one in a series, so the joke wont be coming for a few comics yet, but I basically gave up the dual layering thing and I'm just going to draw All that stuff in separate comics. Episode 1.9 may take the better part of the spring to compleete and after that I think that I'm going to roll over my episode number. This means that some changes will occur, such as i will no longer color them, ( but I will still ink) but they may end up being by weekly. So much crazy crap when on in 2006 that would have made excelent mag pie fodder that i regret not finishing up the comic so i could make fun of it. Oh well. I'm sure that 2K7 will be just as juicy!

11/11/05: Hi! Sorry for the wait but in the mean time you diserve an explination. See, I've been wracking my brain on this one. the artwort needs to be pretty complex for this one pannel, and well, It's also ended up being dual layered on PAPER, so I need to figure out how exactly to tackle this one. I think I got some clue but it's gonna take a while nomatter HOW I slice it. I'm hopeing that it will be out before thanks givving though, and if not, soon after. Trust me though, the art work will make the humor on this one. You'll see why when it's finished.
Peace out my nizzles!

10/25/05 (3:45 AM): HOLY CRAP OMG WTF. (It's the 25th already!?) Ahem. So um....yeah. it's not out. I've been working like crazy on it, but I didn't get up untill after 2:00 pm yesterday, and my dad got the crazy idea that he wanted me to help him move some stuff around our yard. So I didn't sit down and seriously start work untill like... 6ish...I think. I've been working like dog to get this done though, and its A-L-M-O-S-T done. I've only stopped to piss, eat, and watch the Daily Show (who woulden't? ) and of course let you know WTGDF is taking me so long.. I'm shocked that's taking this long, but the simple truth is that devil's in the details, detail work is what's taking me the most time, and that's all I seem to be dooing on this one. Plus there are all these little niggling bits, that take time to color and shade. GOOD NEWS: I'm not going to quit till it's up,...um...mabey till it's ready for text. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If I'm not to tired I'll do it, but it'll probably be close to 5am by then, so you do the math.
*YAWN*
Catch ya later.

10/22/05: Well, As you may have noticed I didnt get the Magpies up. It is, however, inked, and all it's awaiting is a good rub down with some art gum to clean the page up. (as soon as the ink dries that is... ) In any event, I think that I can safely say that it will be up by late afternoon the 24th by even the longest strech of the imagination, (were talking absolute worst case scenario here. ) so you can enjoy the final installment in this little trio of Magpies, and love it's little heart out. ^_^ yayness.

10/21/05 (1:45 AM): Oh...That last Magpies was pretty funny! Lucky you guys though! I think I can wing another episode by saturday night (By the latest!)! In fact, I've stared work on it! Keep an eye on the creativity forum; who knows, by tonight there may be another magpies waiting! I did the first two pannels but it's getting late and I'm tired, so I put it down for the night. I'll pick it up tommorow. PEACE.

10/18/2005: I finished the inking and then scanned it, SO IT'S ON ITS WAY! I did the bulk coloring and tommorrow, I'll do all the detail and BG work. Then the text! After that It will be yours to enjoy!

10/16/2005: I sorted out the pannel v. Content issue by sub deviding the two bottom pannels. It meant that I had to edit my original vision of the comic a bit, but I think that the strip is finnier because of it. The humor is more hitting, and it still gives the jist of idea I was trying portray. Instead of having the humor build by reppition, I chose to go with contextualy humorus punch-phrase. That made the drawing a bit more work but I think the results show in the details. I'm 50% done with the inking. Once that is done I can scan it it and PS the hell out of it. Projected release date: Wednsday night.


10/15/2005: I stared work on Magpies 1.8.2. I kind of ran into a snag with the number of pannels vs. how I wanted the dialouge to play out so I put it down for the night and played some games.

<center>~x#Current Issue#x~



~x#Comments#x~</center>

I was going to comment on the Issue number here, but I think that I'll discuss the small foible that I had posting this. You see, when I posted the original comics in the thread, I was using IE. As such It was rather forgiving and ignored "weird" HTML tags. As you may have noticed, I always had a "~x>" and a "<x~" before and after each header. Well after I posted the new comic, Firefox saw the "greater than symbol*" and the "<" and said "hey! everything in between must be some new HTML code! I think I'll try to render that!"

No dice.

Well I sorted it all out, but it required I change the headers for this post. Oh well.

*It did it again. Xp

<center>~x>|(F.A.Q.)|<x~</center>

Q. What made you start Magpies?

A.I began Magpies because I fealt guilty for not drawing the Mags' 50K hits commemortaive picture. When I saw that it was not going to happen, I opted to take the people that had signed up for the picture and put them in a comic instead. So in a way, this comic strip is dedicated to this sites' first big mile stone. Sort of an on going memorial to it I suppose.


Q. Can I be featured?

A. It depends. Right now the short answer is "No." I'm only working with people who were on the 50K picture list. If you weren't on the list, then you are out of luck.
HOWEVER I plan on starting a new series or "issue" if you will, (basicaly i'm just flipping the issue number to 2.x) and at that point I will be using people on the site that weren't on the list. Still, weather or not I use you is up to me, and while grovling is nice, don't expect it to work. It'll be totaly random.


Q. Why does it take so long for you to make new episodes?

A. Several reasons. Cheifly, I have a life. It eat's up most of my time. I work, I pay bills, I look at porn, I go to the bathroom, etc. Time for fitting in art is kind of scarce. Second, I only do these as a hobby, and I do them for free out of the goodness of my heart, so that you can all appriciate and enjoy my twisted brand of humor more fully. As such, if I don't feel like drawing a comic, I'm not going to draw a comic, simple as that. Finaly, I have a Job. It's in a resturaunt which means that I have to go in early and leave late. The only reason i'm starting up again NOW is because the summer tourist season has died down to a point where I get two or three days off a week. I can use those days for making comics now. (hopefully)


Q. How long will you do these?

A. Untill I run out ideas I suppose. This place is pretty crazy though so it's ripe for parody.


Q. Where can I find the rest of the Magpies Comics?

A. They can be found in the Creativity+++ forum. I'm sure it'll be stickied.


Q. How did you come up with the name?

A. When I was doing the first one I came to the delema of what to call it. I remember I came up with several varitions. I think originaly I was going to give it a name that involved the word "pants" somehow but I couldent come up with a name that realy sounded good. First, I wanted to have a name that played on Forum popculture icons; you know stuff like Cookie, muffin, pants, 1337, and of course Pie. Second, The name also had to reflect what and who it was about. Third, it would be nice if it had had a double meaning where the entandre reenforced the theme of the comic as well. And, lastly it had to roll of the tounge well.

I think that I was working with "Ixzion's Pants" or something to that effect, when i decided to try to drop "pants" and switch to using "pie" It wasen't long before "Magpies" came out. It fit the bill perfectly: It incorporates Pop icons, it tells you who it is about, It has a double meaning (A Magpie is a crow like bird that often mocks the sound of other birds an animals. Thats why they are also known as "Mockingbirds." since this comic was meant to farcicle in nature it was obvious and perfect fit), and finaly it JUST SOUNDS GOOD. And that's the most important aspect of all!


Q. Have you ever done any OTHER comic strips?

A. As a matter of fact I have! I used to do a comic about a greek hippolyte, and a talking dog. I called it "Helmet Guy & Jake" He had been brought to the future, and the plot revolved aroung him dealing with the 21st century. The interplay between him and the dog was very much in the vein of "The Family Guy's" Peter and Brian. The story is a bit to involved to go into here, but there were two other characters: A witch from the 1600's, (who copes a LOT better) and the scientist who built the machine that brought them foward in time. I was going to add a third, a caveman, but I lost intrest in doing the strip. I still have most of them! Unfortunatly this was before I was good inker so not only has the paper gotten old and yellowed, but the pencil was never sealed so the graphite has smudged. It's mostly still readable however.
I also did a Farside style toon called "Oddball" I can't remember what happend to most of those...

I will add more questions as they come up.

Actually I am pretty sure that I wasn't on the list since I had not even heard of that until I read your FAQ's.

Also Ixzion posted a "Magpies Collection" in club mag a while back. Though they are thumbnails you have to click to get colour. The "Back Issues" thread is easier to read kind of but it takes longer to load.

Oh, by the way Staff, you said I was missing Episode 3 part 2? Can you post that, since I missed it, then?

NO problem!

Here you go!



Goth, I thought you were. I even had you sheduled to be in the last episode of this series. Are you telling me that you don't want to be featured? Cause let me tell you, anyone that wishes to be excluded need only say so. 8) It's a LOT easier to get your self on a "do not draw list" than it is to get on the "included list."

Are you complaining?

In regards to Rule three, Staffy, I will chill...for now. Sorry I haven't been on here as much as I'd like, but college and Gaia have eaten up my time nowadays.

I will also apologize firsthand for my earlier repetitive asking of when the next Magpies will be out. You know, I'm hardly ever appreciated for trying to promote your classic comic outside of the mag (Metropolis, Blood and Iron).

Other than that, Staff, I wish you the best of luck on your upcoming episodes, and let's hope those ideas keep coming into your head. Yes. ^_^

Actualy you can promote, (please do!) but you tend to be a little over zealous when new comics hit the forum. that's what I meant.

Pardon my excitement, then.

No, I am not complaining I don't see how anyone would complain but i figured i should mention it because it could be bad to be stuck somewhere one doesn't belong and is not wanted.. if you don't want to draw me i don't mind because i never figured i would be in it but if you want to that would be totally cool ! XD!

I realy wish Reki hadn't purged the old forums. I could have checked the old topic for this info! >_<*

FYI he did not purge the old forums... the ezboard attacks purged the old forums - everything else is still there though it is not too much - just the leftovers of what was lost into the black void of despair forever. So either way the thread is not there but it is not the fault of anyone inparticular unless it magically WAS still there afterwards and if you know this for a fact then you can indeed get the information back but it MIGHT just take a FRIENDLY (note the key words here) email to an administrator.

Oh. My appologies to Reki if he read this. Sorry bout that.

Goth you are right of course, I just forgot. That doesn't explain why we whent overthere for like 2 days a few weeks back though.


(back on thread topic)
I'm surprised that noone is commenting on my work dairy entries.

*looks*

Hot damn! The trilogy will be coming to an end!

Oh, as promised:

awesome ixzion...
staff: sorry i was not reading the work diary.. i kind of thought you would update in new posts at bottom of page kind of thing. Also I will totally head over and check the comic that gave you inspiration for the idea.. though if the pop ups kill my computer then I'll have you to blame *shakes fist*
and also the reason we went over there was because ixzion was putting in the new mod for subforums and they didn't want ANY downtime so the other forum was made so that if anyone needed to ask questions they could and stuff...

Good work, guys.

OHHHHHH.....
ok.

I have to go up to my sisters place in Lewiston tonight. I'll try to get more work done on it tonight when I get home, but unless you want to stay up untill 3 AM to see it come in, you won't see it up tonight eather. Sorry folks.