King Features just announced their new system for publishing their comics to the web.

For free, you can read one week a month of your favorite King Features strips, but only during the month FOLLOWING the month in question. That’s right, you get a week of comics to last you a month. Then, next month, you get a NEW week… but it’s not sequential to the one you just read.

For $15 per year, you can subscribe to their Daily Ink site, and get to read sequentially, with no delay, and even read several months back in the archives.

What a bargain!

Compare that to what you get with Schlock Mercenary, or any other non-King-Features-syndicated webcomic: For free, you can read in real time, and you can read the archives from the beginning. You don’t have to spend any money, ever.

I hope Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand gives King Features a solid poke in the eye. I’d hate to see good money get spent by consumers who don’t know that a better deal can be found pretty much anywhere else on the web.

–Howard

Well, I really ought to stay on the painkillers, and I really need to sleep on my side.

Between two bad decisions I pretty much shot the entire day.

1) Last night I was too drugged and too tired to bother to prop a throw pillow at the edge of bed, such that I could lie down at sort of a 45-degree angle, halfway between my left side and my back. I just laid flat on my back and called it good. Sandra said I snored all night, and by midday the next day we’d attributed my complete lack of energy to sleep apnea.

2) I tried to not take any drugs today. My shoulder knotted up after the first strip, and I fell asleep under a hot pad. I woke an hour later still tired, and napped for ANOTHER hour. About that time, still tired, Sandra and I made the “sleep apnea” diagnosis. I tried to stay clear-headed with some Diet Dr. Thunder (the generic Wal-Mart crap) and it did nothing for me. All afternoon I struggled to get another strip inked, or some other decent work done, but the shoulder stayed knotted, the pain stayed distracting, and my head remained stuffed with cotton.

I feel better now, but I’ve got two Lortab and three naps in me. I managed to get a third strip inked, but I look back at the day and my lack of accomplishing anything makes me grumpy. I suppose part of that is the Lortab — it does something to my filtering system, such that background noise (supplied most frequently by my offspring) intrudes very disruptively, and I’m less patient with the children than I should be.

“Less patient than I should be” is a euphemism for “grouchy monster who cannot stand the sounds of fun.”

Of course, the pain has the same effect, so it’s a wash as far as the kids are concerned. Injured Daddy = Maybe We’d Better Play At A Friend’s House.

–Howard

ps: Oh, and I was expecting a package that didn’t come today.

I’m trying. Really, I’m trying.

Yesterday I got three rows inked.

Today I’ve only done two.

My shoulder, neck, back, and even my head start to ache after a while, and suddenly ANYTHING becomes more interesting than continuing to draw. I’m easily enough distracted as it is.

The good news — I’m working on a strategy to use this to my advantage: I’ve got a list of things that need doing here at the computer — things I can work on when the pain is too distracting for drawing. Today’s project: a Public Service Announcement banner ad, sticking it to PETA very nicely. Other projects include fresh banners for W23, “advertise at Schlockmercenary.com,” and an upcoming site sponsor. Then there’s the coloring and scripting I can always be doing.

Posting stuff in the Live Journal doesn’t count. Hey… what am I doing here?

Last night Sandra and I finished watching the last of the CSI: Miami Season I episodes. Looking back on it, here are some thoughts:

First, I’m a CSI junkie. I like seeing science take a major role in a story — even if it has to be watered down a bit for TV. I like the thought that the average violent criminal leaves a huge evidence trail — even if in the real world we lack the resources to sniff out that trail in most cases. I even like the concessions that the CSI series make for TV Drama, like having the CSI team interview suspects, carry guns, and occasionally get placed in mortal peril. I’ve stopped wincing and saying “now that’s just ridiculous,” and I’ve started enjoying the way it allows each story to unfold and run to resolution in just 43 minutes.

Comparing the Vegas CSI series to the first season of CSI: Miami, three things stand out. Click here for the three things, as well as for some other things