so much for being asleep by 0330.

Now that all of the buzz surrounding our internet smash hit Comedy Jokes is finally beginning to wind down, it’s about time to release our next Giant Internet Hit.  We are, apparently, still in our pop-culture phase, determined to make comedy jokes about videogames, rather than becoming Weird Gods on the new, Weird Olympus- which is what I would very much like to do.

We have a bit of fan service coming up.  Following that, we smash everything to bits.  I am beginning to run short on patience, tho.

for quite a while, Mrs. Rat and i have been trying to come up with a logo that incorporates both the rat and the boxhead, in the spirit of our original logo (prior to the boxhead).  i’ve tried putting the rat on the boxhead, in front of it, behind it, next to it… everything looked like crap.  then, yesterday, i came up with this:

i think i like it.  Mrs. Rat says she does.  probably, she’s not lying.  this may be the one.

The Comedy Jokes cartoon was so full of comedy, and such a massive success, that i thought we should immediately start on some more comedy jokes.  And we did.  With painted backgrounds, and a nice looking loading screen.  It also includes a possessive noun, which i’m pretty sure will come up at least once in the comments, if anyone watches this.

Then, seriously, we’ll make a real cartoon.  We’ve been working on 10 or 12 scripts, concepts, arts… including some new Tree Agains.  i’d like to get that one wrapped up.

Uriel was here last weekend.  Belts were purchased, and Lego Batman was played.  They’re making a Lego Harry Potter game, but i wish they’d instead make a Lego The Matrix game.

Every time i want to start a small project to get away from one of our larger projects, the small project snowballs into a larger one itself.  i think, then, that every so often, i’m going to try to put a really quick cartoon in a few hours.  Things that should probably be single panel web comics, but end up as animation anyway.

Apparently, COMEDY JOKES was too subtle.  People thought it was Comedy Jokes.

Expect another crappy short next week.  Or this week?  i don’t know.  Crappy ones keep me sane through the serious ones.

A new March calendar  wallpaper by Padre Elephante.  1280 x1024, or 1440×990.  Nihil’s actually working on a cartoon.  I guess I’ll be bowling on Home ^^

something i gave up on in Flash a while ago was using thin, scratchy lines, which is how i actually draw on paper.  this was largely because fine lines, when drawn with a wacom at least, are rendered with gaps.  it probably has to do with the smoothing… honestly, i haven’t really experimented with it.  in Flash 5, there wasn’t an auto smoothing option for brushes, and trying to colour final art that had gaps in it was a pain in the ass.  there’s the line tool, of course, but at the time, i didn’t know that double clicking selected the full line so that it could be easily deleted.  anyway, i ended up getting used to thicker lines, but never completely liked them.  remembering that, i’m trying out thinner lines again, and they’re actually really nice.

i think that looks pretty nice.  so maybe there will be a new short this week.

i think i am interested in reaching out to some new people to contribute voice work to the cartoon we are working on.  If you are interested in possibly contributing a line or two of dialog, drop one of us a line, and maybe send a brief demo reel.  Say whatever you want, demonstrate a minimal range of dumb voices or impressions if you like.  Just something to let me know what you sound like so i know where you might fit in.  Don’t tell me you’re not a voice actor.  Either submit something, or don’t, but don’t waffle around or attach disclaimers to whatever you send me.  This is for possible bit parts.  If we like what we hear, we’ll send you a line, you record it, and send us an MP3 or WAV. 

If you’re going to do this, you MUST be able to get the audio to us in a few days.  It should not take 3 weeks or 6 months.  Remember that it’s all in fun.  Nihil and Rat do not work for Disney, Paramount, or even Adult Swim.  You don’t have to sound like Steve Blum or Kari Wahlgren.  If you happen to sound like Laura Bailey, send lots of audio of you talking like Lust, and also of you talking like Lust but in a Russian accent like The Baroness from GI Joe.  Those files will not be for the cartoon, they will be for me.

Email to mrnihil [at] nihil-and-rat [dot] com or mrs_rat [at] the same thing, you’ll figure it out.

i was looking for some file the other day, and unexpectedly found a word document i’d apparently forgotten about.  A collection of short, short stories from January and March 2008.  i suppose i may as well put them on the site, right?

so here they are.

Nihil has decided that I should double as the President of Marketing, and so I am going to market something:

The New Bizarro Author Series

Yes, this has almost nothing to do with Nihil & Rat directly, but we are Friends of Bizarro, and these new authors need support so that they can become veteran authors.  Kevin Donihe and Carlton Mellick III have really put their backs into giving these guys a chance, too, so consider picking these books up.  You can read more about them via the link posted above.

Hooray, marketing.