Hi there blog readers! How the heck are ya? I’m doing well. Not “Gaming-Night-Was-Awesome” well, but well. Once again my old enemies, germs, stuck their too-small-to-be-seen noses into my business. Fab and Jen both got struck down by their microscopic might and we had to cancel. I shake my fist impotently at you germs!

It’s Sunday as I’m writing this because it finally sunk in that when I get home from work on Monday, it’s usually late and I just don’t have any mental juju left to come up with anything to write about. So yeah. About time.

I’ve been reworking my whole schedule lately because I had another flash of insight and realized that I don’t have to knock out a Funnies strip all in one sitting. That means I can draw a strip, even both (assuming I have scripts written), during the week and then have just the mash-up and flashback to do over the weekend. This means more spare time during the weekend, which means: Skylander Sundays are on!

The flashbacks are nearing their end. Of the 60+ mash-ups I wanted to revisit, I have eleven left to do. When they’re done, I’ll need to decide what to focus on next. Right now, I’m considering a few options. I could continue with more flashbacks. While the original plan was to only revisit the pre-Wonderland mash-ups, there are some of the post-Wonderland, pre-Wakfu mash-ups that could also be done better. This is the least enticing option at the moment.

The second option is to go back up to three strips a week full time. My drawing workload would remain about the same and story lines would move along faster.

The third option is to try to get back to writing more Animus-related content. With the new characters I’ve introduced in the Funnies. I have a few new entries for Ardebast’s almanac and it’s been a long time since I’ve posted a story.

While writing is the option I’d like to choose, it’s the most daunting. Writing demands more concentration than drawing and concentration is not my strongest suit. I have trouble just writing new scripts for the Funnies half the time. If I ever want the Age of Animus game to get off the ground though, I need to hunker down and write. At any rate, I have eleven weeks to decide which option I want to go with. What would you like to see?

I’m looking forward to Disney’s Big Hero Six. It’s the first Disney animated production based on a Marvel property. I still miss traditional 2D Disney animation, but the CG animated look is starting to grow on me.

Skylanders Trap Team Update

I got a second set of traps this week only I bungled and bought a second copy of the same Magic trap I already had. Feels like a waste really especially since there are less Magic villains to trap than any other element. Why they needed to make six different Magic traps then, I don’t know. My local Wal-Mart either sold out of Wave 2 or hasn’t received any shipments yet.

Today I was able to unlock all of Legendary Deja Vu’s power set, bought all the hats and trinkets currently available in Auric’s shop (other than the 25000 GP hat) and still have over 5000GP on her. Kaos’s challenges and the Battle Arenas really bring in the bling.  I chose the Remember to Live path for her (I’ll push regular Deja Vu down the Live to Remember path). She’s at level 11 and will likely sit for a spell as I work on fully unlocking another character’s power set.

Favorite Skylanders so far: Wildfire, Krypt King, Wallop and Deja Vu.
Lease favorite Skylanders so far: Gusto, Chopper
Favorite Villains so far: Gulper, Broccoli Guy and Chef Pepper Jack
Least favorite Villains so far: Brawl and Chain I suppose

That’s all for this blog folks. Have a good week!

Hi folks! I hope all my Canadian friends are enjoying their Thanksgiving Monday! I’ve had a nice relaxing day myself. Our family has our Thanksgiving supper on the Sunday so as to get all the heavy cooking out of the way and then be able to take it easy the next day before going back to work on Tuesday. My mom tried something new with her gravy this year, adding carrots to the broth for some thickness. It was goooooood.

Skylanders Trap Team came out last weekend. It was my non-pay week, so I chose to hold back and wait for this weekend. I wouldn’t have played much during the week anyway so it’s for the best. I got my drawing all out of the way on Saturday so I had a big part of Sunday and today to play. I have to say, I’m liking it better than Swap Force so far. Vicarious Visions developed Swap Force while Toys for Bob (the developers behind Spyro’s Adventure and Giants) returned for Trap Team and I think it made a difference. The way the swapping worked was impressive, but other than when I wanted to open a Dual Gate by myself, I never used it. The trapping villains feature in Trap Team seems a little more integrated. Even when you’re not using a villain, they interact with you with little snippets of dialogue through the new portal’s speaker, which is fun, though bound to get a little repetitive the longer you play (switch them out frequently to lessen the repeated dialogue).

The story is as light-hearted and fun as ever. They seem to have ditched the Mini Missions in favour of a new Tower Defense game. The new Skystones Smash mini-game is proving more interesting than the previous editions. I haven’t tried any of the Arenas yet since those are traditionally my least-favourite game features. There promises to be plenty of content to keep me busy.

Word of caution, once again there’s a lot to buy this time around. In order to be able to unlock every gate, you’ll need 10 different Trap Masters, one of for each element (Trap Team will introduce two new ones). To be able to play with every villain, you’ll need 11 different trap crystals (again one for each element, and a special one for main baddie Kaos). There are also four adventure sets. Each unlocks an additional level. Though you don’t have to buy them. Simply borrow the game piece from someone who has, and unlock the level.

If you’re a completist though, like I am, then you’re in for some more pain. Excluding variants, there are 18 Trap Masters, (the new elements get one each, while the others each get two) 23 Core Skylanders (the new elements get one each; Earth, Tech and Undead get two each and the remaining elements get three each), 16 Minis (the eight original Sidekicks with new bases and  eight new ones), the four adventure sets and 46 different Trap Crystals. The Trap Crystals hurt the most since they’re currently selling for seven bucks (Canadian) each. I don’t doubt that the chip inside the crystals are costly to produce, but I’m still not thrilled about paying close to the price of a figure for them. I’m not counting the upcoming Eon’s Elite figures as they don’t seem to be tied directly to Trap Team. They dropped the Lightcore line this time around although I feel they missed an opportunity with not adding lights to the Trap Team figures, although if it was to keep the price down, I can live with that.

I will give Toys for Bob this though, based on the character list poster, there are only five characters coming back from previous games (the 8 original Sidekicks were available mostly as promos and this will be the first opportunity for many people to buy them). Of the five returning characters, Gill Grunt is the only one who will have been in all four games. I much prefer getting new characters than old ones in new poses, even if some of the new poses were pretty sweet. I appreciate the lack of double dipping to pad out the character list.

So far, I’ve been using Wildfire, Krypt King and Funny Bone the most. I really like Chopper’s design, but I expected him to be a speedy character and he moves too slow for my taste and doesn’t pack the kind of punch I want if I’m going to be walking around with a slower character. I’m hoping High Five will be the speedster I’m looking for.

I’m playing on the Wii U this time around (previously I played Skylanders on the PS3). This limits the amount of time I can play since I only have the one Wii U gamepad and it requires more frequent recharging than PS3 controllers. This is actually a good thing because it means I can’t spend the entire day playing video games. In theory I can play on the Wii U’s gamepad screen while I’m watching TV so I might be able to get some additional game time during the week.

Anyhoo! That’s all for this week! It’s back to work tomorrow. Have a good week y’all!

There are some days where you figure you might have been better off if you’d just stayed in bed. This was one of those days.

I woke up at around my regular time. I glanced outside my window and things looked dark but I didn’t notice it was raining. When there’s no rain, I bike to work, which means I can leave whenever I’m ready. This morning that was at about 7:10. I got up from my chair…Ooooh! My back wasn’t happy. My back hasn’t been happy for a while now, but it was really grumpy this morning. It usually loosens up fairly quickly though so  I pushed on. I went to put my coat on and looked outside…it was raining. Doh! The bus passes at 7:15. No way I’m going to make it. Double Doh! Looks like I’m going to get in to work at 8:30 this morning. I sketched out a comic in the meantime.

At 8 I left to catch the bus. The rain was coming down hard. I do not own an umbrella and there’s no shelter at my bus stop. That’s 15 minutes in the rain. I did not plan this well. At about 8:10 (that’s 10 minutes spent in the rain) I realize, “Hey! That other bus stop down the road is in front of a sheltered terrace. I could be waiting there and not getting wetter than I already am! Well let’s do that then!” So I did.

I wanted to do some extra time at work today. Since I was stuck riding the bus, that meant I’d have to catch the 5:30 bus home. At 5:25 I start getting ready and realize…I don’t have exact change. Most of my section is empty at that time but I managed to find someone with change for my toonie. I got downstairs…just in time to see the bus pull out of the parking lot. I had missed the bus for the second time.

I considered walking home but I didn’t get fifty paces before I realized I REALLY didn’t want to do that. I texted my mom to see if I could get a ride. No answer. Looks like I was going to have to wait an hour for the next bus.

Fortunately, one of my coworkers who finished later than I did and offered me a ride home. I texted my mom to tell her all was well and I’d found a ride. Fifteen minutes later I was home.

Okay, so that’s it for this week’s blog. Have a good week folks!