Considering it was only Gaby Roslin day on the 13th, it certainly did spread out a bit.
Well, the chaos that is the Easter Season is finally over. Hoo-flipping-ray. We still don't have a manager in the shop so I'm responisble for a lot of the stuff there which means that the site will be seeing more delays. I will try and update more often but I am flesh and bone and not steel and adamantium like Spider-man.
I'm still regularly visiting the forums and reading the guestbook entries so do please carry on talking about the strips! It was so much fun making The Hitch that I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about it!

While the economy is slowly collapsing, the increase of pollution is suffocating the world and the evil giant flying octopi are steadily gaining progress on their journey to Earth, plotting to conquer all, my parents have gone on holiday. Lucky sods.
I find this whole holiday thing very confusing. Is it a holiday or is it a business venture? Well, they have property in Cyprus so it could be a business venture but then again, it is Cyprus so who knows?
In other news, my doctor still hasn't got my x-ray results back. I say I have a strange lump in my throat and he x-rays my chest. I find it all very confusing. Oh, and I went to visit Happy100 the other day! I gave her my bunny egg and her face was like "Awwwww!"
It's not like me to finish any newsies in good spirits so I think I'll end by saying if you see a man in a long trench coat with what looks like eight tentacles as opposed to two arms, call the Prime Minister...

I tell you what, there's nothing quite like having a day off. Sure it would have been good if I actually did some strips but I'm just enjoying doing nothing. Doing nothing is underrated.
The highlight being that I met my old boss at his new work place today. We didn't do much really, just chatted and ate (I arrived during his lunch break). Strange how little things like that can make your day but there really, really is nothing better then visiting mates and chilling out.
I'm plotting yet another front page remake (I can hear you groaning). It happens every time I buy a web design magazine. I get inspired to change everything. Just so you know, I'm plotting to make the navigation a bigger focus and make everything bolder. Yes, I did say bolder. Some of you may be pleased to know that I'm plotting to get rid of the yellow. Strangely, I've grown fond of it. *Strokes the yellow*

Today was the last day of work for one of my work colleagues so, feeling a bit generous I decided to get her a card during my break. I popped over to Birthdays but I wasn't too sure what to get. They have lovely cards but I really wanted to get something that wasn't too soppy. So I popped into Clintons.
As I walked into Clintons I saw a very shifty looking man, obviously mad, with a bunch of Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh fame) cuddly toys in his fist. I tried catching the sales assistant's eye but they looked a bit panicky and couldn't see what I could see. He shoved them in his pocket and I just lost it.
"Excuse me, did you pay for those?"
"What?"
"Those toys that are in your pocket."
"What toys?"
"I saw you grab a bunch of toys and stuff them in your pocket!"
"No, I-"
"Take them out."
"Take what out?"
"Take them out!"
He takes the toys out of his pocket and puts them back. At which point he turns to the girls and says, "Who is this guy?"
"I work here, now get out!"
"What the, I don't-"
At which point I put my hand on his back and took him out of the shop.
I found the card I was looking for, paid for it and the girls thanked me for saving the day. I've gotta say, I did feel quite proud that I did catch a theif. It's a shame I can't actually catch them in my own shop. But even still, for one day, I was a hero...

My ever increasing obsession for the telly show 'Hex' has surfaced yet again. For those of you who don't know, Hex is a telly show about supernatrual stuff. It's got fallen angels, witches, demons and ghosts. It's nothing mindblowing to be honest (I have seen better things on the telly) but I can't help but love it. Mainly because of Thelma Bates.
Thelma (played by Jemima Rooper) is by far the best telly creation since Del Boy. But better. Thelma was the best mates and room mate with another girl called Cassie. I say was because she is no longer living. What is more extraordinary was that she was a sacrifice for a fallen angel. Even more refreshing she is now a ghost that only Cassie can see. She's incredibly open, honest, touching, sassy, sweet and likeable character. It's refreshing to have a gay main charater right from the start who doesn't fall into any of the usual catogaries or stereotypes of gay characters. Well, except that she dies in episode one but even as a ghost she says at her funeral, "They're bloody loving this. Don't be a Dyke or you'll end up topping yourself!"

Wisdom has taught me to never begrudge quiet days but today was so slow it was practically going backwards. Work is just so quiet! We're usually really busy with the ice-cream but with the weather being stubbornly undecided it was just so quiet.
(Re-emphasises the quietness of the day)
One thing that greatly amused my work colleges was me going out in the street with toffee samples trying to get people in the shop. Okay no one came into the shop, but I always enjoy giving sweeties to the general public. Strawberry and Cream flavoured toffee. Goodbye fillings, hello tastebuds!
No Chapter 24 news as of yet (as it's on a stand still until the new Manager settles in) but until then, there's a few more strips left in The Hitch, so, yeay!

Happy May Day everyone! A daw where we celebrate rabbits, Easter, spring and badgers.
Well... Why not?
After spending the whole day at work listening to the James Bond soundtrack and listening to Lulu sing for the umpteenth time, "He has a powerful weapon. He charges a million a shot." I'm quite relieved to be at home. But I do have a rather sinking feeling about one moment in my day. My break.
For once I wanted to do some strips in my break (Since Chapter 23's nearly finished) but as I started, I began to nod off. I kept bullying myself to stay awake but I just kept on falling asleep. This has been happening a lot lately and it is due to being over worked. This is why I never wanted to be manager, it's just too much work and it's not something I feel passionately about. Well, not as passionately as my art (which hopefully people will understand).
It's safe to say that this has left a rather large dilemma...

Feeling considerably vulnerable the entire day, I was glad when a friend popped over after work. Even happier to know that I have two days off and happier still that we were going to the cinema to see Slither. It was hyped to be a horror comedy equal to Shaun of the Dead. Man, it really wasn't. It was silly but it wasn't funny in the slightest.
What was funny though is the story that happened before we saw the film. As my mate was getting sweeties, I went to reserve a seat in the cinema. I knew the area was quiet but there was literally no on in the room bar the cleaner. I sat there for five minutes (at which point I texted my mate saying, "There's no one in the cinema!") when the thought occurred to me, "This is the wrong room".
I left the room and saw that I was in screen 1 instead of screen 2. I walked into screen 2, saw my mate with a very concerned look on his face and then we both just burst out laughing.

I have a day off! Y-E-A-Y!
All the children in the world cheer, birds sing sweetly and the world becomes a sunnier place as it celebrates with me as I spend the entire day slobbing about! HOORAY FOR SLOBBING!
Ahem, now that I've got that out of my system, Chapter 23 - The Hitch is nearly all up and loaded which means, even more urgently, the zipped file will be making an appearance. I'll be writing my own thougts on The Hitch in later newsies but until then, there's always the forum where I'd be more then happy to natter on about the chapters, stories, characters and everything. Especially since I have another day off tomorrow!
*More cheers!*

That's it! The last of Chapter 23's strips! The Hitch is over! Gaah...
The Hitch has been the most complicated chapter to date with three re-writes (and I've never re-written any of the chapters before). One of the biggest changes was the fight between Shelly and Jo. It was originally a argument involving psychological babble. then it was psychologically babble glossed over by the male character's lack of interest in their affairs. Finally I decided, "That's it, there's going to have to be a fight! A proper fight! A slapping, bitting, chair swinging, eye poking, Dallas come Bottom brutal and clumsy fight!"
Yep, those were my words exactly...
I also played with the conflict of Steve's feelings throughout. At the begining he was just climbing out of bed with someone who seems so right for him. At the end, he's leaving the country without her! This is the start of a challenging time for Steve as he is forced to turn back into his old, single self again. But his relationship with Shelly and Jo has changed him so much, he can't really be the same again. Which is why the next chapter will be called, "Chapter 24: Peter Nurse"

Interesting work related story. There was a customer looking at bags of mixed choccies, pick up each one and scanning their contents. Now I've been working for the company for a year and a half now and I know quite a bit about the products. Not a lot (Paul Daniels eat your heart off), but enough.
So, seeing this woman, searching through these bags I thought there was something specific she was looking for. I asked, "Hi there, was there anything specific you were looking for?"
She stares at me as though I'd just slapped her face and didn't say anything.
Thinking she might not have heard me (the traffic outside is a bit noisy), I asked again, "Was there anything specific, a specific chocolate or flavour you're looking for?"
"No." She lady said, still looking wounded, "If there was anything specific I was looking for, I would ask you, I wouldn't expect you to come over and ask me what I'm looking for."
Slightly surprised, I couldn't think of a response, so she continued, "Why would you come up to ME and ask ME if there was anything specific I was looking for? Strange how you'd only ask the only black woman in the shop!"
"Err, I ask all the customers that."
"Yeah right, you ask all the black customers, all the white ones you leave alone!"
At this point, I decided to depart from the conversation and pass this woman over to my work colleague. The whole time this customer was complaining about being hassled to all the other customers until she left the shop.
Well, it left her with something to talk about. But not only her, me too.
That wasn't the first time I'd be subjected to blatant racism and it certainly won't be the last. When I told my work colleagues about this, one of them just burst out laughing, the other one was fuming, saying this woman was going backwards, not forwards.
The thing is, I can sort of understand where this woman is coming from. I've worked in the retail business All my life so it's long enough to know that a lot of cashiers do judge people by either race or age. I can imagine it can be more then frustrating, but surely this is a new generation were people can actually talk or ask, "How are you?" without being accused of being a racist. If I ask a customer if they need help, they mostly say, "No" and then I leave them to it or say, "If there was anything specific you were looking for, I'll be just over here."
This is definitely not a slur on the company that I work for. I love working for the company because of the unique services it provides (where else can you ice on chocolate for a living?), All the staff are very friendly and helpful and, of course, it pays for the clothes on my back. I just wanted to share my frustration of the closed mindedness of some of the customers and I'm glad to say, they are the minority!

Today I've been doing a lot of thinking about the characters. I've been thinking about their personalities, their drives and their history. I've come to the conclusion that their history is certainly crucial but it's never been a main focus. It's never been a main focus because I hate flash blacks.
Don't get me wrong, flashbacks are a good thing but it only works for sci-fi. The TV show Lost deals with flashbacks constantly and has become a trademark for the show. In fact, the first series was so full of flashbacks; you could be forgiven for not remembering that there was a tense plot and polar bears in a jungle.
Another influence of mine that uses flashbacks in quite a clever way is Harry Potter. There's an artefact in it called the Pensieve where you can store your memories. It's clever in the sense that it's a more logical way of doing a flashback then just zooming into someone's mind and seeing the past. It's solid, you can see it, you can touch it. The memories are taken from someone but when you view it through the pensieve, you can stray from said person and view the environment. Quite a clever little feature.
Then there's a film called Memento. The main character has a mental condition where he constantly has amnesia every hour or so. In a rather unique way, the film is told backwards. It's not the sort of film you can half watch and understand, it requires your full attention.
Another film that plays with flashbacks is Pulp Fiction. Unlike Memento, it is done to compliment the plot and give everything a certain amount of style but, like Memento, it is confusing!
"So, why all the talk about flashbacks?" I hear you cry. I've already said I don't like them.
The main hub, the centre of everything in Steve & Bob is in the pub. So, to compliment the theme, the past is often told in stories. Steve is often sat in the pub telling Bob about his ex-wife, giving clues as to the sort of past he had. It's never the complete story but then again, I'm not one for spelling things out.
Flashbacks are an important tool for developing characters and personalities, but they can also be abrupt and interfere with the flow of the story telling. It's an old method yet it's still considered quite stylish in a time where music videos switch cameras every second to show a different angle of the singer, his band, his environment and so forth. Abruptness like this sort of works in music videos because they are like short stories (thus making directors feel like they must cram as much in them as possible). But after seeing Mission Impossible 3 tonight, I feel the abruptness element shouldn't be implemented in a film that is one and a half hours long.
So there you go, my thoughts on flashbacks and fast tracking. An excellent tool for developing characters IF you know how to use it to the story's advantage. And rantings in pubs is certainly the way to go for Steve & Bob.

Picture the scene, there's Me serving ice-cream, a pregnant lady and a lady with a pram. Got it? Good.

Pregnant Lady: How much are the ice creams?
*I say prices of all the sizes of ice cream*
Pregnant Lady: Okay, can I have a single scoop please?
Me: O-
Pram Lady: But give heranother scoop, give her a free scoop, she's pregnant so you need to give her two scoops.
Me: Err...
(Pregnant Lady looks uncomfortable yet, reluctantly expecting)
Pram Lady: Go on, she's pregnant; she's eating for two.
Me: I'm sorry. I can't.
Pram Lady: Come on, where's your heart? It's not her fault she's pregnant. Give her a scoop.
Me: It's not my fault either! If it was, THEN I'd give her a free scoop.
Pregnant Lady: Heh, heh, did you hear what he said?
Pram Lady: Yes, cheeky monkey!
Pregnant Lady: Yes, well, there's still time! Well, no, not really...
*At this point everyone's laughing, thankfully!*
Me: Would you like a chocolate stick?
Pregnant Lady: How much is it?
Pram Lady: Are you giving it to her?
Me: Yeah, it's free.
Pram Lady: See, THAT'S where his heart is!

And that's my funny customer story for the day.

The moral of the story, if you want to defuse a hostile ice cream situation, a bit of flirting can go a long way!

Wow, long time since an update. Sorry about that again. I'm fine, everything's in tact so...
Progress on Chapter 24's going well but I've also been working on re-designing the site again (I hear the nation sigh in unison). The thing is, I get bored of the look of the site very easily and there's so many new little features I want to add that I just can't leave it alone. I mean, I do like the yellow, but it is a bit too yellow, so...
New pages that will be added in the near future will be The Notorious Snowman Poems Page and an Inspirations page which actually might not happen as it may breach a few million copyright laws. Ho-hum.
Anyway, enough about me, how are you?

HARD! ROCK! HALLELUJAH!
Finland won! Yeay! Okay, it was a terrible rock song, but it was a brilliant Eurovision song! And even though I was rooting for Russia, deep down I wanted Finland to win.
I have also fallen in love with Terry Wogan all over again. He was on top form remarking on just about everything and made his feelings for some of the poorer songs well heard. Lets be totally honest here, I only watch Eurovision for Terry Wogan and my God, I didn't stop laughing all night long. All you other countries that think Eurovision's rubbish, you haven't got the right commentator.
HARD! ROCK! HALLELUJAH!

So, a work collegue and I were taking a time out where we were talking about under age girls trying to seduce older boys. She argued that girls at 14 never really fall in love and I argued that Romeo and Juliet were 14 or 13. She argued that they weren't really in love, it was an infatuation. At which point I started expressing my greater knowledge of Romeo and Juliet and my collegue said, "You know a lot about Romeo and Juliet then?" I said, "Oh, I played Romeo." Then she said, "I played Juilet." At this point I decided that we should hug (as it was meant to be) when we both bashed each other's heads. We both retreated and agreed it wasn't meant to be. Then, of course, the boss comes back and it looks like I've been lounging about, chatting for the whole hour she's been away. Oh to have a good reputation...

Another issue that I have recently become quite passion about is adding peril into a story.
"Why peril?" I hear you cry (humour me). Well, it sort of struck me in the face now that I've been watching the new series of Smallville on E4. Every week there's an episode were the gang are conflicted with their emotions which, usually, bare some resemblance to the type of peril they are facing. Okay, fine, dandy.
Why do I have an issue with this? Well, there's always peril. ALWAYS! Constant, never ceasing peril and what's even worse is that all the main characters always end up being all right.
Okay they might have a few scratches and bruises.
Okay, every episode has at least one hospital scene (how can these American's afford the insurance?!)
Personally, I think you shouldn't have peril unless you're willing to make everyone included disposable. There's never any fear that a main character will die in an episode in the middle of the season. The peril is so overused that I no longer fear the character dying because they have peril to face in the next episode.
It's not just a motivation thing; it's also a moral thing too. Killing off a character should explore and explore the limits of morality and mortality of all of us. Killing off a character is like killing off a person and should be done respectfully, responsibly and realistically. Killing a character because it's convenient for the story line is just vile.
Steve & Bob has thus far seen the death of two characters in the heat of peril.
The first one (Chapter 10 : The Escape) was a means of feeding his murderer's insatiable taste for power and to frame Steve for a most heinous crime.
The second one (Chapter 15 : The Deathly Blackout) wasn't a main character but he was an important one. I had actually planned for him to appear again as the chemistry between him and Steve worked exceptionally well. It was an inconvenient death (especially to the storyline) but it was essential for the villain who set fire to Steve & Bob's abode as a diverstion to kill this character AND to kidnap Steve.
Every peril storyline should have a sense of darkness, responsibility, morality and realism otherwise you might as well have a story about washing the dishes. So I dare the makers of Smallville, the next time they make an episode with peril (which'll probably be this very moment), do it so that everyone is expendable. Add that element of fear to your show because, realistically, being so close to death or being responsible for someone's death changes your life. And no, that doesn't mean killing off another one of Lex Luther's bodyguards, that's just over used now.
Oh, and having Lois Lane pole dancing? Are you really trying to target the lowest common denominator? (I'll avoid looking in the mirror...)

I forgot the real reason why I felt the need to write that article about peril. It actually has to do with something that happened the other day near my work place.
On Wednesday 31 May I finished early from work (around four o'clock) and decided to visit an old friend who was working outside Wood Green but before that I decided to have a meander around the shops.
After a while of looking (and forcing myself to not part with my money), I decided to visit my friend. We were going to the cinema so we were going to go back to Wood Green anyway but I just thought it'd be nice to see him before hand.
As we were walking back, we were debating where to eat when we noticed the street had been blocked off by the police. We weren't too sure what had happened but there were rumours amongst the excited crowd that there was a stabbing in the shopping mall.
This is why I felt the need to explain the importance of adding peril in any storyline. It's so easy to add fictional peril when you've never encountered it. If you read reports, know that someone has been assaulted (whom you might know) or if it has even happened to you, then, personally, I feel it'd be irresponsible to use stereotypes or glamour to portray peril and something I would consider evil.
Sorry for such a heavy subject, but these sort of things are in the news all the time. If you want to know a bit more about what happened in Wood Green, you can read it here while the link is still active but I warn you, it's not pleasant reading.

Ah ha! Did you notice the pun there? See there's a new chapter as in Chapter 24 : Peter Nurse AND there's a new chapter on the Steve & Bob site as in the new look! Hee hee, hee hee, hmm.
After the general positive vibes from the dynamic look of the yellow HTML page, I've decided that I wanted to take it to the next level (WARNING, the following may contain clichéd phrases such as "taking the site to a new level")
Sorry to all the guys who have a slow connection but I'm quite in love with the new look. The bricks as links, animated Steve and Bob (keep an eye on him in future days...), pop up menus, links on the volume to specific chapters, it's all just lovely and I love it.
There are some dead links but the downloads page is being remade and things like the Snowman link, Laminator, Story and so forth will be out in the future.
But enough about the site, Chapter 24. Steve, Bob and Radox sneek a trip to Eygpt with high jinx and all that. Hmm, you can tell I've not done any media training. can't you?
It is a fab chapter though. It does exactly what it's supposed to and reaches a very dark conclusion.
Ooh, the tension! I'm literally wetting myself...
Well, no, I'm not weird. Although it'd be okay, this is a leather chair...

In for a penny, in for a pound. And since Dave Duff is several pounds then that's a fair few pennies. Probably enough pennies to make a pound. So a pound for a pound. I'm confused...
As well as fiddling with the main page of Steve & Bob, I've been fiddling with Dave Duff's too. I've re-built Dave Duff's Deplorable Downloads Page!
I've gotten rid of that Spanish looking background, chucked out that Avatar section and incinerated the Signature section.
Now there are two sections dedicated to Wallpapers.
Desktop Wallpapers & Mobile Phone Wallpapers! Woooo!
Click here to see for yourself or click on the Downloads link on the left hand side there.
WARNING! The following may contain a bear wearing a pink shirt!

Urg... It's hot... Urg...
So, the last time I updated the Newsies was with the news about Dave Duff's Deplorable Downloads new design (woo!) and that's pretty much all the news at the moment.
I have been playing with Yahoo Answers lately and have asked the immortal question, How can I break it as a comic strip artist?
One person suggested buzzcomix which is a online comic strip listing site. They show the top ten online comic strips out there with a price, of course.
Since I have to wait for payment details to be clarified, I've been surfing through the site, found Anime Arcadia and am totally hooked! Naff story line about a drawing of a cat girl who comes to life but after time, it's really involving. I highly recommend it!

EDITOR'S NOTE: RUBBISH! It's not online anymore! Gits! I REALLY liked that strip. Boo!