I like Doctor Who. I can’t help it, it’s who I am and I won’t apologise for it. So much so that I organised the 15th of November to be Doctor Who night. I would bring my friends into this event, we’d have pizza and watch the new Doctor Who episode on a big TV over some pop-corn. I even knocked out the printer by printing out some pictures from previous Doctor Who shows and sticking them on the wall.

It didn’t work out quite as planned, but I can’t tell you how fantastic this night was! I’m stuffed after eating a whole Dominos pizza, two hot cookies and a bag of Skittles (the toffee popcorn was too much, even after the pizza). I won’t reveal anything about the show, but David Tennant managed to work on a slightly altered Doctor which was bound to have been something he relished.

In other news, there hasn’t been any fires this week, but I have been learning how to use Photoshop. I didn’t like how the book, “Photoshop for Dummies” said, ‘Photoshop isn’t the best tool for artists’. Now you tell me. But I’m feeling a bit more confident about the program and it feels like I’ve put myself on my own little college course.

If my net isn’t completely slowed down, you should hopefully be seeing the new strip right now. I love Radox’s humble confession. As cruel and calculated as Bob may seem, he was compassionate enough to let Radox down in the kindest way he could (which is very rare). I think this shows that Bob does have a close bond with his colleagues and emphasises the betrayal Pledge bestowed upon him long ago.

He doesn’t have any family, so these Diamond smugglers are the closest thing he’s got. That and Steve. That said, that should make the next few strips that bit more interesting.

Hmm, I hope that wasn’t a spoiler.

Isn’t it nice when you a nice day planned out, you’re going to go somewhere completely different, you’ve got sandwiches ready for the long trip and a Photoshop book to read on the trains (oh the empathy!)

Sadly, it seemed that once I arrived at Kings Cross, everything seemed to be broken. I was planning on seeing my sister and little Max (my dog) so I did feel heartbroken. It didn’t help that I kept seeing dogs on my entire journey.

One which cause her owner to fall down on the escalators which was very dramatic! She yelled, “Make sure my dog doesn’t run away!” so I grabbed her dog and kept it settled. She kept shaking, but I picked her up and took her up the escalators (which was probably a bad idea as her owner was just going down the escalators). Apparently her dog had brain damage or something, but an employee from the tube decided to come and ask if she needed any help (now that everything was okay) and yeah, nightmare over.

Also I was very confused by the bunch of girls in skimpy policewomen uniforms (and one man), but these sorts of stories always crop up once you’re in Central London.

Ah! Almost forgot, I saw The Habit of Art the other day. Even before hand I couldn't help bottlenecking with everyone else to see all sorts of celebs. Sure, some of them I can't name straight away, but I did see James Corden (is that how you spell his name?), Russell Tovey (the dude from Being Human, werewolf I think) and some others which I didn't recognise but Nick certainly did.

Despite what everyone said, I really liked the play. It was a play... about a play and it had some great comic moments. The people I went with did tear it apart afterwards, finding the faults, but I really liked it. The first half was funny and silly, the second more serious and quite thought provoking. Richard Griffiths was dithering yet rightly pompous, and I feel terrible that i don't remember the names of the other cast members, but there was a particularly good bit of drag later on that had me giggling a bit too much.

Oh, and Michael Cane is my new God. If you’ve not seen ‘Harry Brown’ (and you are of legal age) then you should really see this film. It sent a rather strange cold feeling inside of me, especially during the end and it uses silence so beautifully and rather sinisterly. I’d almost quite like to see Michael Cane on stage now (I’m a proper theatre buff now that I’ve seen two shows in one year!).

Actually, I might as well talk about the comic while I’m here. I’m not sure how you’d describe this week’s strip. Sweet maybe? A lot of people might say it’s filler, but it... probably... is... Honestly, I just wanted to make a strip where Bob and Radox would be in plain sight if someone just turned their head. Something nice and tense. I wonder if they’ll get away with it...

PIGEON! And yet that’s probably the best bit about this week’s strip. I’m not entirely happy with it to be honest, but if it wasn’t there, the rest of the strips just wouldn’t make sense. At the time i thought it was important to set the atmosphere and it’d be good for a bit of character building. On reflection, I think adding something else would have helped.

Strip aside, I have re-jigged the website again! It’s basically the same thing, with tabs and all, but I’ve just changed the look. I got sick of the boring white transparent backgrounds (especially since the square designs were hardly inspiring), so I designed the site showing off the background a bit more.

Okay, yes it is aimed more for widescreen monitors, but that might well change. I also gave the tabs and other windows a chequered look just to show i’ve really gotten into this whole Photoshop hoo-raa-raa.

I’ve also done a little spin off from Steve & Bob called ‘The Field Faction’. Instead of it being a comic strip, I thought it’d be interesting to do them as short stories. I’ll add a link as soon as I upload it somewhere, ANYWHERE, but yeah, I think it’s quite a sweet story.

Just so you know, next week’s strip, WAAY better. And the one after that, well, not only is it better, but I think it’s the best strip of the chapter. Just in time for Christmas too!

I think that’s pretty much all my Christmas shopping done now. Nick, Mel, Jani, Mum, Loop... Yeah, I think that’s all...

Being the cheap person that I am, I like making cards for people. The mentality of it is that anyone can receive a card and then lose it, but if they lose my card, there will be some guilt as there was a lot of blood, sweat and tears behind it.

This year’s card, well, I’ve got Photoshop and a tablet now so I thought I’d push the boat out and try out a super kawaii Christmas card image. So if you look at the image of Bob on a space ship, losing presents in space in the skin of the website, that was more of a design for a card than anything else.

And boy did that image take a long time to make, whoo! Pretty much the entire day scribbling at my tablet, shading and creating layers left, right and centre.

I’m still a long way from dependant on photoshop (I can’t see how I could have done today’s strip in photoshop), but give it time and I’ll even master the history brush!

As for today’s strip, the descent! Bob finds that infamous hole created by his sister and ventures within. If the hole goes such a long way down, there must be something at the bottom, surely?

It’s come so quick and yet not quickly enough. Christmas is around the corner and I can’t wait. It’s not going to be a traditional one for me, but that’s part of the fun I suppose.

I’m glad this strip has come out this week as I think it’s still the best strip of the chapter. As well as telling about how Steve survived the fall, it also tells us a lot about the other diamonds for the first time. It’ll also shed some light as to what those black and white strips were about.

I don’t think I will do a Christmas specific strip this year, but I will say I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. Stuff your faces, watch bad TV and pull a cracker or two. You deserve it.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

This year I got Spirit Tracks, Bowser's Inside Story, Assassin's Creed, oodles of chocolates and a spinny alarm clock. I don't understand it either, but it should be a giggle. I'm currently starving while watching Alexandra Burke and Dizzee Rascle on Top of the Pops.

I can't wait for Christmas dinner, but with The Incredibles and Dr Who around the corner, I'm quite excited about a lot of things.

I hope you're having a great Christmas too and I hope everyone loves your prezzies, but most importantly, you enjoy your own presents?

Lots of love, Mike.G.

Ooh, almost forgot, Nick made me a Bob bowl. It's pretty epic!

I’ve had possibly the best Christmas ever. After coming spending a week in Blackpool, I’ve bought some rock, eaten some chocolate and had the best Christmas dinner I’ve ever had in such a long time. I’ve enjoyed the company of friends, enjoyed being part of a family and enjoyed a lot of hugs.

Even while we were heading back to London, we popped into Birmingham to see Loop and his family. Boy did we invade that household! It wasn’t five minutes before I was rocking it at Rock Band, singing badly at songs I had no idea what the lyrics were. I wasn’t sure if Nick was enjoying it or just too exhausted from the drive to actually do anything.

It was fantastic to see all of Nick’s family for the first time. I can certainly see where he gets his sense of humour from as well as his Blackpool pride. We first started talking about John Simm who was trained in acting in Blackpool, to the Nolans and Robert Smith, to even more famous people like Barack Obama, Tom Cruise and Osama Bin Laden.

Ahem, but back to the strip. This week, well, it was quite subtle, but I did leave a note on the home page saying that the strip will be out on the 29th (or a Tuesday). I didn’t really want to reveal at the time why, but it’s because I couldn’t guarantee it coming out on Monday. Now you get a pretty big strip, which is ironic considering how Bob says he found it incredibly easy to reach Steve and Radox in the temple. Enjoy the Crossroads and have a Happy New Year!

It’s strange, I have this weird spasm in my diaphragm, it’s like something... something wants to- to burst out like a phrase or- GRRARGHHHAPPY NEW YEAR! There! I feel miles better now!

Also, while I’m at it, there’s this side project called Elemental Micah, you might have heard me talk about it before, possibly, maybe, well, the first issue is on sale online right now. It’s 32 pages, contains nudity and is only $2.99. I dunno what that is in real money, but it’s definitely cheap for what you get (there is a recession after all). If you’ve got an open mind and are willing to try something new, have a look at that page.

Back to Steve and Bob, today’s strip has Razor Ray Gun with a fan. I don’t know why, but the idea of him fanning himself with a rather extravagant fan amuses me. It was also about time to bring back Shelly.

Now a lot of people have said they were shocked at what she did to Steve at the pit, I was surprised at the level of controversy it caused. Having also witness Alfie getting stabbed in the chest, Shelly is not in a good place at the moment. So this particular story continues next week when you’ll find out what happens next.

It’s been a week since Elemental Micah’s release. Sadly I’ve not sold any copies yet (which is a bummer as I had hoped to sell at least one by now). Now, on retrospect, I should have sold it for higher and THEN reduced the price to $2.99. You live and you learn.

Also, I’ve been working on some alien life forms this week as well as working on my first proper bit of art on a sun close up. I’m very proud of it and I really think I’m getting the hang of Photoshop now. Okay, everyone’s saying I should be doing all this in Illustrator, but seriously, you can’t win with these people.

Finally, this week’s comic. It was about time there was some resolution with Shelly’s story and I’m quite glad at how it ended up. Also, I’ve got to admit, I do LOVE drawing Melissa. She can be sooooo kawaii sometimes!

Do you Kawaii?

stly, check this out, it's a very lush picture of Steve drawn by Bakasam. I gave him a project which involves Steve and something sciencey (possibly involving a rocket pack) and this is what he drew.

This is the second from last strip of Steve & Bob and at the moment, I’m debating whether to carry on. I could carry on doing what I did before with the strip stuff, but Steve & Bob was always just an experiment. It was a way for me to start and finish a project daily. Now it’s helped me do so much more.

Now I’ve finished other comics, I’ve started working on projects I had always imagined on working on. The only problem is can I let it go. I love drawing these characters, but the few people that do read the comic actually like it.

So I’m just going to treat this as a personal project. Something I feel has been resolved and if I go back to it, it’s because I have the time or, well, I’m too sentimental to let them go.

One more strip after this one and it’s possibly the best strip.

So here it is, the last strip of chapter 29. I’m sure it’d be met with mixed feelings of either sorrow, frustration or maybe met with a smirk. Hopefully it will be met with SOME reaction or other, but I hope you’ve enjoyed the strips. It feels nice to finally get the crew out of the temple in one piece (of sorts)

Now I’m gonna have a bit of a break from Steve & Bob and work on my other projects. You can look at them through Deviant Art, Elemental Micah or even my portfolio site (which I’ll be updating very soon)

Cheers gang!