Here it is, a new look for Steve & Bob.
Whatcha think?
The changes, as I remember them, are as follows:
* A New Logo (colours may vary)
* An introduction to the story
* A newer, slicker volume
* The Absolutely Divine Quotes are Dead. Long live Excerpts of Exuberance!
* Collapseable panels including the Newsies (try clicking on the logo), the Affiliates and the * Latest strip

Plus SIX new skins featuring:

* Steve on Canvas
* Bob at Dawn
* Radox from strip 602
* Shelly in her Motorbike Clobber
* Joanne in her Classy Clobber
* And Mini Mice (proper old skool)
Also, new strip out today. Relish in it's newness!

This week’s strip has been oddly difficult. Originally, the first three panels were all I was going to do for this strip, but then I thought a mock motivational speech from Alfie was necessary. Then, after looking at the strip, I realised it didn’t end with a punch line, so for the first time ever in S&B, there’s a flash back!
Also, I had to change the style of shading in this strip. I tried using the same shading for Steve I had used before in this chapter, but no matter how hard I worked on it, it just looked wrong. I think the new shading is so much better and the first panel just looks so much more striking with the new look.
I can’t help but feel this is a filler strip, leading up to the big reveal strip next week. But, to a certain degree, I like this strip mainly for the bubbling wine in the barrel as I had no idea how I was going to shade that.
But enough analysis! More sillyness! *does a silly dance* Ah, feel better now. Expect more over analysis next Sunday! (winks)

I’ve always had a lot of support from a site called FurAffinity. I know, I know, it’s a furry site which is better known for ladies and gentleanimals performing lewd acts of lewdness, but there’s definitely a selection of people who prefer the classy stuff which is why they like Steve & Bob (STOP LAUGHING!)
Given that I’ve had so much success just submitting the comics on the site, that was just the people who just happened upon my comic. What if I had a way of giving everyone the chance to look at the site?
Well now there is with an animated picture of Steve & Bob being advertising on the site! Boy oh boy have I had some huge hits today! (ahem) So much so that one guy actually took the effort to find my FA account to TELL me how much he loved the comic! You can’t get sweeter than that and it really makes me feel all tingling inside thinking that someone went through all that effort.
So if you’re from FurAffinity, howdy. There are no naked characters, but there is a lot of romance, drunken stories, misadventures and diamonds. Thank you so much for visiting and come again! The comics get updated every Sunday so... you could, you know... bookmark the site or something...
Did I push it too far? I think I pushed it too far then. Although judging by most of the pictures there, I’d guess them lot like having it pushed too far- BOOM!

It was something I started a long time ago but never really got around finishing it because, well, for some strange reason, I had lost the Alfie vector I had made in the profile.

So, I've had a re-jig and now the character profiles are in wide screen and will actually fill your web window's width. The secret profiles are still there with one extra including possibly a third diamond...

The Character Profiles.

He’s got it! This last panel took ages to make, as I didn’t want there to be any black outlines on any of the rocks. Then, afterwards, I thought that maybe the outlines would have been a good idea, but we’ll forget about that now.
In other news, I’m spending less and less time working on my artwork and more and more time looking for a new home. Yep, I’m being booted out and I have no idea how long I’ve got left until it happens. Yesterday was the first day I went for a viewing for a room, but the guy wasn’t in. Disaster! But I still managed to have a good day. That and a very nice walk down to Finsbury Park were everyone was enjoying the sun and topping up their tans.
Admittedly, this is a difficult and stressful time, but on the plus side, at least the Maroon Calf is Maroon again. Well, more reddish really. That and the Character's Profile has been updated again today. Two new profiles.

The flat endeavour continues as today I went from Brixton to Seven Sisters. The more I do it, the more I realise that this is all true. I am leaving my home. I’m leaving my family, my dog and my room.
And as strange as it sounds, I think I’ve been having panic attacks in my sleep. I wake up in the mornings and it feels like my chest is numb. It kindda feels like my heart has stopped all together. But then I claw back from slumber land and bring myself kicking and screaming to the real world.
I’m not sure if this is what I’d call a dark time in my life. Well, if it is a dark time, then I don’t think I’ve had anything quite like this before.
But anyway, enough about me. Here’s the new strip. Here Bob is on a mission after his revelation in the garden. I’ve heard theories as to what it was that made Bob run off. Not meaning to spoil the answer for anyone, but I will say one thing. You’re all wrong. Each and everyone one of you. The clue is there in the strip when Bob had the revelation and it’s a riddle that’s already been thrown out there.
Now go admire my handy work on those rocks and marvel and the shaded delight of Bob’s blue fur.

Lately I've been inspired to do some rather random pictures. I think I shall blame Ash Collins for starting it with his journal asking people to request which character he should draw from Marvel/DC universes.
So I stole the idea...
First someone requested Catwoman, so:
 
Then my friend Internet Paul requested Rorschach from Watchmen:
Then several people requested Dangermouse:
 
Then, after watching a bit of Doctor Who, I thought I'd toon up Rose Tyler:

And THEN I thought I'd finally get this idea, which had been buzzing in my head for a while now, out there and done:

Then Xadrea requested a Storm (from X-Men) picture, so I did this earlier on:

Now I've been juggling ideas for a Niko Bellic picture, but I'm not really sure what I'd have him doing. Capt Jack showed his guns, Catwoman was wondering whether it was worth it and Rose was riding on the Doctor's back (ooh-err), but Niko's a tricky one as he could technically do so much. I've also got an idea for Heroes and possibly a Life on Mars pic, but I've not been thinking too hard for that.
Another radical idea has been to work on Chapter 29 of Steve & Bob! Curiously enough, I have been working on it, well, the writing mainly. It’s not as funny but it’s definitely a lot darker than even the greyscale strips. When you reach the few last strips of this chapter you’ll see why. But even looking at today’s strip, well, I won’t say anything just yet. Well, okay I will. Today’s strip continues after this chapter has finished.
... Riddle me this...

.. yet I'm still, curiously enough, getting hits! Not as many as I used to, but a healthy amout. About twenty a day, which is a lot considering how little I used to get. I think, well, hope that this is because some of the people who clicked on the ads, found the site, started reading and then kept reading every day as the statistics for the returning visitors is very high.

This is grand news and also makes me think that the new slogan works, "Less for the diamonds, more for the alcohol!"

That or, "Ride the pigeon!"

Again, I haven't submitted anything for a while mainly coz I've been working on shading issue two of Elemental Micah. Well, shading, re-drawing some iffy character designs and doing full blown, detailed backgrounds (and then blurring them).

I think, after I release Sunday's strip, I'll start working on Chapter 29. Well, I'll try. I'm more likely to do it if I mentally prepare before hand. Chapter 29 is in a very, very dark place, but I can't wait to get my inky pens around some of those panels!

Another reason why I'm thinking of doing them after Sunday is because, well, I really think Sunday's strip will make people want to behead me if I DON'T continue.

Y'see, on Sunday... You get to see... a revealGARGH! I can't do it! I can't spoil it! I can't even push some fingers down to a keyboard to type one word!

Okay, one spoiler then... This Sunday will have TWO reveals...

This had to be the most fun I’ve had with a strip in a very, very long time. The big reveal! Firstly, the thing that had conveniently left Steve (and many of the follower’s of the comic’s) mind was his brief encounter with that Swedish girl while he was cruising the Nile.
I couldn’t help but smile when I thought about what sort of expressions Steve and Shelly would have when Radox blurted it out.
And as if that wasn’t enough, a bigger bombshell smushes them in the form of our mystery bear. Now those observant of you may have noticed that Dave Duff is not a girl as Steve exclaimed before. So, who is? Anyone who’s a bit savvy with the strips up to know should at least know her surname, but how? How is Dave not a girl?!
HOW?!
I’m sure that one person who could answer this figured it out a few strips ago, but lets go back to that last panel.
It’s my FAVOURITE!
If there is a demand for it, I’ll turn it into a poster. Hell, I might just turn it into a poster and keep it for myself! The layers were difficult to make as I didn’t want more rocks to be behind Duff and Ray, so I found a lovely picture of stalagmites (or stalactites) and used that as a reference point.
Then I got rid of the black outlines of the dust clouds and gave them a fair bit of texture. Then there was Duff and Ray. Duff was pretty easy to make and it took a lot of will power to get rid of his braces. As for Ray, well, it was always a bit of a cop out that he didn’t wear proper combat gear before, so now he’s properly camouflaged in his desert storm gear.
Then the obligatory rocks which have been a standard since Steve first entered the temple. Then the rather grim images of Steve and Shell, unconscious, buried under rocks, bleeding, contrasting their soft images with the sharp and untarnished image of the Maroon Calf.
Ooh, this strip took a particularly long time to make but I had so much fun making it! It’s great that after all this time, after a year of having this story in my head, some of it has spilled out for everyone to see. And now, say it loud and say it proud; the bear is a boy!

Today I bit the bullet and finally went to Central London to see how my comics were doing. It’s been two months since I left them at Orbital and Comicana and I think two months is a healthy amount of time to see how it all went.
Luckily I went to Orbital first and was stunned to see that Elemental Micah not only sold well, but there was only one copy left! You would not believe the level of elation I had when I saw this! Sadly Steve and Bob ish 2 didn’t sell quite as well as all five were still there, but I got some tasty money from the sales of Elemental Micah which I pretty much spent on comics...
Pity me!
Then I met some old friends in the pub were we had a good natter and discovered that they too have succumbed to the perils of unemployment. On the mega plus side, they’re also going to China TOMORROW so it was sheer chance that I caught up with them.
At the time of writing this, YouTube is down, so later on, when you’ve got time, search for Charlotte Street Blues Jam which features the beautiful Bethany Packer’s singing act.

I had to (reluctantly) dash off to see my old mate Jani to see the new Transformers Revenge of the Fallen film, possibly the most obnoxious and loud film I’ve ever seen. It was vaguely okay, but it would have been better if it was ram packed with, what I call, the “Smallville” effect of having background music in every-single-second of the film. Yes, we know, it’s cheesecake, but after two and an half hours of constant noise, it felt like I’d downed a barrel of sugar with the awful aftermath of a sugar rush exhausting me within ten minutes of the film. I was relieved in the end when there was a least a bit of a quiet moment. It was like a breath of fresh air before the new pop-metal music started and the credits started rolling.

At long last! It has been tricky to hide the identity of this character, but Melissa was one of the reasons why I brought back the strips. One of the main reasons why I brought Melissa in was because I was annoyed with myself. There was only ever one other female mouse character and Peanut Butter never really stood out.
So the challenge was set! Draw a female mouse that looks feminine, yet have her own look. Melissa was actually an old character from before I started Steve and Bob. She was originally Bob’s nearest and dearest friend who he never really had any romantic interest in, so the logical step in this story was to make Melissa Bob’s sister.
Also, I had to make her look as kawaii as possible while retaining my style. Giving her heart shaped ears seemed the perfect idea to me and I’m really glad of the end result. The lightning shaped tail just adds to her personality and shows that she might be sharper than Bob.
Having finished the first draft of chapter 29 (and doodled half of the first strip), you’ll get to learn a lot more about her, why she’s suddenly appeared and a little more of the mysterious "Ernie Field"