RSSMix.com Mix ID 35769

On F and its chords

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 20:13:00 -0500

Seeing as it's been a year since the hiatus began, I thought I'd come in and say a couple words.

I still believe in F Chords and I'm proud of the work I did here. It laid the groundwork for the drawing style I evolved Starslip into, and it spoke very clearly from (and to) the interest I have in the humor in trying to make it big, in being more interested in music theory than music, in coming at a field from the left instead of growing up immersed in it.

I want to make F Chords, but it's also anchored to a part of my life that is now over. The whole arc I had worked up for it no longer fits. So I want to say it's coming back -- but if it does, it'll have to change. I love the characters, especially the main ones. I want to be good to them. But it's actually difficult for me to even look at these comics most of the time. There's no timetable for that next project.

You guys are amazing and thank you for keeping the faith. The first place that news will land is here.

- Kris, December 28 2009.

December 28, 2009 - F Chords

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:00:01 -0500

End of Side One: Hiatus

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 01:31:00 -0500

Hey guys! Thanks for sticking around this far! Today's strip marks a chapter conclusion, and we leave our intrepid failures as they've experienced a minor victory, while Ash nurses an injury.

As of today, F Chords is going on hiatus for now so I can get up to speed on my other strips, Starslip and Chainsawsuit. You'll be informed when it begins to update again at any one of these outlets.

Thank you for all your support!

December 5, 2008 - F Chords

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 19:00:01 -0500

Bad ads! Bad!

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:57:00 -0500

Sorry about some crude ads on here, guys. I'm trying to ban them. Sit tight!

December 3, 2008 - F Chords

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:00:01 -0500

December 1, 2008 - F Chords

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

November 26, 2008 - F Chords

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

#50

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 01:01:00 -0500

F Chords #50! Did I dare dream?? Was it even possible?! It can't be!

I'm grateful for the short workweek. Three days and then not at work for four. Ahhh. Happy Thanksgiving. I'm starting now.

November 24, 2008 - F Chords

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

November 21, 2008 - F Chords

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

November 19, 2008 - F Chords

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

360 time

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:20:00 -0500

Just like Ash, I lamented not being able to use my XBox 360, and having it just relinquish its functionality as game-playing device, for it to evolve into a purely symbolic gesture of gamerhood. Like the 40-something executive who's still a little edgy, so he mounts skateboard decks on his office wall. Yeah, they're up there, pal, but the last time you used one was fifteen years ago. You're not fooling anyone, James Thursby of NSFT Creative Holdings!

Anyway, look. I want to play games on XBox Live with you guys. Maybe we can convince Erica to join in too. Let's figure something out. Here's my gamertag and the games I have:

Gamertag: Vanderbeam

Halo 3
Gears of War 2
Da Orange Box
Dead Space (no multiplayer though)
Bioshock (also no multiplayer)

Is that really it? I thought I had more stuff, but I just sold back a couple games. Comment here, let's make a group or something. Also if you have a recommendation for good multiplayer games, let's do it.

November 17, 2008 - F Chords

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

November 14, 2008 - F Chords

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

November 12, 2008 - F Chords

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:00:01 -0500

No strip today

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:30:00 -0500

Unless you count that as a strip. I'm going to bed after all the electoral excitement. Congrats to Obama and looking forward to the next four years. See you here tomorrow and Friday for new F Chords!

Look at this

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 01:01:00 -0400

Some of you may remember Ichor Falls, from my old Halfpixel. It was the heartwarming story of a real estate agent who worked in America's most horrifically haunted and evil town. It was tongue-in-cheek, but I had more serious plans for the idea, and as my plans go, it had a couple iterations.

My first idea: do a graphic novel. I still want to do this.
My second idea: turn it into a community microfiction horror site.

A little while back I rounded up some fellow horror fans on Twitter to submit stories and just let them run wild. It's an ongoing project -- usually I like to link stuff only when it's done. If I'm lucky, this never will be.

Welcome to Ichor Falls.

Real-world crossover!

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:03:00 -0400

I ran across Skinny Factory, an Austin band, on MySpace, the site for bands. I'll start peppering in other real bands too, provided that they don't get all mad that they won't get a cut of book sales.

Unforgivable delay

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 02:47:00 -0400

Sorry about having to delay the strip -- look for it later tonight. I feel terrible about it, but we're in the middle of moving out of a house into an apartment, we stopped for the night at like midnight, it's 2 AM now and I have work in about five or so hours. Two or three hours of drawing just ain't gonna happen after lifting that many boxes.

Oh, I can type, sure, but that only requires that my arms lay flat on this desk. It's almost soothing.

New here? Read from the beginning! Then come on back after dinner tonight for the next installment.

If you absolutely can't wait, here's the premise of today's strip a la TV Guide: F Chords (www.fchords.com). Ash and Wade discuss how to best join a conversation between Ash's crush Cybil and a large group. Guest starring: Dollar Price.

Memin' it

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:30:00 -0400

The last two panels featured appearances by (in order): Dave Kellett, David Malki, Chris Hastings and Magnolia Porter.

New storyline

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:41:00 -0400

I've been away from the internet for a few days -- we just moved and there's nothing at the new place until Tuesday. Here's hoping; I feel like I'm suffocating.

Anyway, new storyline and I'll set up a dropdown to reach the old ones. This site needs some lovin'.

Baltimore Comic-Con Wrap-Up

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 02:47:00 -0400

Baltimore Comic-Con

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 14:34:00 -0400

I'm going to be at Baltimore Comic-Con this weekend, guys. It's gonna be real colorful. I'm going to have Starslip and Chainsawsuit books on hand, and maybe if you come, you and I can spitball F Chords merchandise. I've been thinking about making sets of guitar picks.

Come on out this weekend and see me, Baltimore!

Girlyman

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 02:04:00 -0400

This was so serendipitous. I first heard about Girlyman from friends in college, and I've been a fan since. They call themselves "leading edge three-part-harmony folk-pop," which is almost as many hyphens as Soft Operation uses.

They are seriously, seriously great, innovative, awesome. As far as I knew, they never came to Dallas at any point -- I'm on their mailing list and I don't remember seeing a date added.

Erica and I were at lunch on Friday, and by sheer chance she was flipping through the Dallas Observer, and her eye fell on an upcoming show: Girlyman, Friday night. That same night! Not fifteen minutes from us!

Erica never heard them live before, and now she's a fan. Great show, great group. Their stuff is on iTunes too, and they just put out a live album. Look them up.

Wikipedia

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:09:00 -0400

I've had a long love/hate relationship with Wikipedia. About a year ago I did almost the same thing as Ash and Wade are trying to do, in reverse -- they were moving to delete Starslip Crisis' entry for being non-notable using faulty logic, so I upheld their faulty logic to stuff the vote.

It worked -- if I had made fake voters to keep the entry, they would have been ferreted out in a second (the IPs were all the same). But since I was voting in favor of what the editors wanted, no one bothered to check their strawman logic. It's almost like an election scandal where one side claims the other one is cheating, and gets all up in arms about it -- but of course they're not offended by their own cheating if it helps them get their way in the end.

Wikipedia editors who witnessed my rouse still claimed the system worked, because I was found out, the entry was restored and immediately put up for "legitimate" voting afterwards. But they only ever found out after I exposed my own hoax. If I hadn't, it would have gone unchallenged and unreviewed.

"Kris Straub" has a Wikipedia entry, which is baffling, since I'm less notable than my own work. Ah well, whatever, guys.

The Fist Pound

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:01:00 -0400

At San Diego Comic-Con this year, this thing was in full effect, and I hadn't really experienced it before. I'm with Ash on this one -- the fist bump feels kinda frat-boy to me, almost like guys are afraid to accidentally caress palms.

I think it took such hold at Comic-Con because when you shake a lot of hands, you cross paths with a lot of germs, potentially. I get that, man. But when we're at a private thing and it's not strangers, I don't want a fist pound. I want a hearty handclasp, dude. I want to connect with you on a human level.

Fight the fist pound, brothers. *raises fist high*

Wait, I mean *raises open palm high*

crap that's nazism

In case you haven't seen it

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 01:00:00 -0400

Creative types have to stay flexible as far as their income streams. Here's how you can get ahead.

I LIKE IT

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:04:00 -0400

Here's some dedication. TemporalParadox, a reader, threw up around 40 Soft Operation flyers around his area and made a video about it. Is it real, or trick photography? It's neither, chief. It's AWESOME.

Thanks man!

Song thieves

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 01:23:00 -0400

One time I wrote this whole song and later found it it was just the bridge to the Bee Gees' I Started a Joke. I thought I had done something pretty new and awesome, but nope -- beaten by the Gibbs by like thirty years. Dammit!

Starting a storyline

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:09:00 -0400

Oh God. The first storyline for F Chords. Am I ready to commit to this? Yes. Yes, let's do it.

There are two awesome things about doing a contemporary premise. (1) I can finally tell jokes that happen during my actual day without having to set them IN SPACE or anything, and (2) I can go on tangents like Scott with LOLbat, or Paul Southworth and his SasqWatch series. Man, I'm looking forward to that. Just having some dumb fun with it for a change.

i can has crime

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:01:00 -0400

Scott's been bringing back the LOLbat this week and I think it's the funniest thing he's put together in a while. It's one of those strikes-you-at-3-AM ideas. Sometimes those aren't funny in the morning, and other times you can build an empire around them. I think LOLbat sits squarely in the latter camp.

Here's an entry into LOLbat canon:

He patrols Orly City.

Boo.

Flyers

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 01:00:00 -0400

Three people have risked life and limb to post the F Chords flyer where no bills may be posted. (I like to think.) They sent in pics, and I put them up on the Extras page.

These first courageous three -- Jake, Jason and Paul -- showed such devotion to the cause that they took the pictures like craftsmen. Notice how there's no one in the pictures. They're just flyers pushpinned to a surface. That's dedication.

Knowing the rest of you, you're probably not professional artists like these guys, and will wind up putting yourself in the pictures next to the flyer, high fiving each other and giving extreme thumbs-ups. But that's okay. I'd post those images too.

So send your picture in, and you could win something more valuable than any prize: my respect.

Wow, that made me sound like a jerk.

Musicians

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:42:00 -0400

Mark your calendars. F Chords is now three days a week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Two days a week was wrecking the pacing of the strip. You can't tell a story twice a week. (Or at least, it's really hard.)

All right. I know it's early in the existence of F Chords, but I want to get a feel for my audience. Do you guys play any instruments? Let's see some stats.

I've played guitar since... man, I don't remember. Not that it was that long ago, but it's escaping me now. Maybe 2001? The first guitar I bought was an Epiphone Les Paul, which is sort of my baby. I got it because I believed it to be the guitar Jeff Lynne used most. (If you look at the cast page and go by their musical tastes, I'm Wade.)

This year I bought an acoustic Epiphone a lot like this one but much cheaper. I'm no good at lead guitar and I always ended up playing my electrics like they were acoustic. I had a little Squier Strat a couple years ago which I think is in my parents' garage. I also had a little parlor acoustic that's at my brother's apartment now. Wherever I go I leave guitars in my wake.

How To Songwrite

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:39:00 -0400

F Chords on the road!

kris@krisstraub.com (Kris Straub) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:37:00 -0400

Already a couple serious fans of Soft Operation have shown their support for the band up at the University of North Texas. Jason sent the following photo.

Keep spreading the word with this downloadable flyer. Who knows? The next Soft Operation open mic show might be in the single digits!