Digital conversion is something  talked about for an incredibly long time, and it was finally instigated last Friday. This might not be information you need to know, as naturally, we cable and satellite users have no need to concern ourselves with snatching signals from the air, digital or otherwise.

I have not had any need to hook up one of the digital converter boxes, and I do not know anyone who has, including my own grandparents. This comic illustrates a scenario set firmly in the realm of fantasy.

Scott Kurtz, of PvP fame, actually sent me an angry email in response to a disappointed email I sent him. In his email, he called me a “creep,” which some people might take offense to, and continually complained about my complaints. My only thoughts were:

1. Wow! Scott Kurtz wrote me an email!

2. I hurt his feelings! I hate myself!

I didn’t think my email was terribly offensive, but I could see how it could be taken that way.

Nathan wrote: This new comic isn’t Ding! If you don’t want to do Ding! anymore, at least don’t insult fans of Ding! by making a brand-new comic, calling it “Ding!” and hoping we will be fooled.

This was a surprisingly difficult email to write, considering that the title has punctuation in it. Whenever I read this, it seems to be filled with a lot of pauses. Needless to say, I was pretty excited when Scott wrote a tweet about some unnamed mouth-breathing retard:

Someone just actually emailed me to say that they know that this new strip isn’t Ding! and he won’t be “fooled.” WTF dude? Decaf. Try it.

I immediately imagined some crazy guy, babbling mad prophecies as he uncovers the latest conspiracy: Ding! is different now.

If you are not familiar with Ding!, until yesterday it was a comic about World of Warcraft, chronicling adventures of the PvP cast as they played WoW. This comic quickly became notorious for its rare and sporadic updates. I liked it, even before I started playing World of Warcraft, and so I was pretty jazzed when I saw that it was scheduled to return. Needless to say, I was disappointed when I learned that Ding! was no longer about WoW, but now was about D&D. All characters gone, all settings gone. Everything was different now . . . except the title.

I was surprised to get an email back, and even an angry email. I am just glad I did not send my first draft, which was written in the far more abrasive tone suitable for the Internet. I considered what I would say to him, if he stood right by my desk. That really says something about my personality, huh?

I immediately wrote back in a much calmer tone, explaining my true meaning (I was sorry to see that WoW Ding! was gone), and basically that I was a huge fanboy for his stuff. Soon after, I received an email saying that all was good and he thanked me for clarifying.

It was honestly one of the most exciting webcomics moments, coming in just a notch about writing to Scott Ramsoomair to tell him I liked one of his comics and him replying: “Thanks!”

I work almost exclusively in a digital medium, with the exclusion of drawing everything out with paper and pencil first. Thus, it is nice to have some artwork that exists within a physical space. A couple months ago I took a stab at acrylic, which I had no background in and found incredibly difficult.

Just recently, I acquired some watercolor supplies and decided to take a stab at that. Watercolor was the type of painting I did the most in elementary school, so I possessed at least rudimentary knowledge of using watercolors. I figured there would be no better way than to just plunge in with something simple. Behold, my very “first” watercolor painting. (I say “first” because it is the first painting I have done where I have not been forced to follow some bastardized Bob Ross art lesson . . . Bob Ross is awesome, by the way).

I learned a lot about watercolors. First off, I guess there is a lot of water involved? Or something? My watercolor paper was not man enough to handle the gallons I was pouring on, so something of a heavier weight is a must for the future. I like keeping the black outlines around objects in the painting, but I need to figure out a better balance between think and thin.

Overall, it’s a start. It is by no means perfect, but I was happy with it when I was done. My goal of learning something from the project was satisfied. I’ll be sure to post more stuff as I do it.

Later GiT-ers!

-Nathan

You know what I’m talkin’ about? Right?