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 Jake's Clever Banter First off, thanks to those who posted in the messageboard (All two of you)in response to yesterday's request. Despite that I feel poopy, I'm still glad the boards are seeing a little more activity. Erm... at the moment, there's only one newsworthy thing going on- Tomorrow, I'm moving. That's right, after all this time and talking, I'm finally doing it. And to make things even MORE interesting, Ish STILL hasn't gotten me Monday's strip, so it'll be nice to see if we can get the act together by then. And to make it MORE interesting after that, Tim hasn't gotten around to doing Wednesday's strip yet... God, why does it always feel like I'm working in a circus. It really shouldn't, because I don't get any cotton candy. Oh, and in case Ish and Tim are readin' this- now you know why I BUG you about getting this stuff done early. Because when I don't, things like THIS happen. 9/19/01 - A plea to the readers I've been noticing something odd going on behind the scenes of Mognet lately. Y'see, Keenspace has a kind of hit tracker to see how well websites are doing. And the results it's showing me just plain don't make any sense to me. They're saying we get a lot more visits here than I'd thought. Now, they have many different ways to measure hits (Some of which MUST be inflated somehow), but there's one that I have trouble wrapping my mind around. It says that, on average, we get a hundred hits every day. Not a hundred pages loaded (That's a different count that's much higher), but a hundred visits. Now, even if I were to look at the situation in terms of "Number of times the main page was loaded up", I could probably take 5-10 hits out for myself, checking on page errors and all that, and maybe the same for Ish and Tim (Who I doubt look at the page that often, but who knows), but that still leaves a good 75 people coming to our website every day. And that may not seem like much to you, but it simply floors me, because all this time I've been using the forum to gague the number of people that read the comic. At the moment, there are roughly 30 people signed up on the messageboards, maybe a half dozen that actually post regularly. So, I wanted to take this time to ask those of you who haven't used our forums yet to drop in and say "Hi", if only for a moment. It'll make me happy, and it'll make the place seem a bit less lonely. Also, I want to thank those of you who do post in the forums. From those I met on the GIA boards like Furysword and Keglamorphic to those I met here like Yahiko and MaeJeMx, your mere presence reinforces the hope that this webcomic does have something to offer to the world, and I can't describe my gratitude for the plain and simple act of you just being here. I've said time and again ('Cause it's true), that you readers are what makes Mognet great. Another thing to mention while I'm on the topic- I've signed Mognet up for the KeenSpace Top 99, one of those 'site-ranking things which could conceivably get more hits for Mognet. If you'd be so kind as to place a vote for us, I'd give you (all, collectively) a big (in the sense that this isn't the ordinary kind), sloppy (In a pleasant way), wet (in an even MORE pleasant way) kiss (of the metaphorical kind). Erm... and maybe, for the guys, I'd give you a big metaphorical handshake, because the thought of me even metaphorically kissing you gives me the heebie-jeebies. ;-) In other news today, Namco's decided to give the Gamecube some love, Konami says there will be no delay in MGS2 (YAY!), and rumors suggest Square might be making Gamecube games. About that last one- don't put too much stock in it. Remember "Final Fantasy 64"? Remember "The Square-EA thing means the N64 will get Square games!"? When Square itself officially announces development for a Nintendo system, and Yamauchi responds by keeping his wrinkled mouth shut, then and only then will I believe that a Nintendo system will finally see another Squaresoft game. Other than that, we have another snazzy sketch Tim did, and I've updated the pic of Ish in our character Bios section because I figured it was about time we had his bio pic in color since... well... the real Ish sorta' colors our comics... 9/17/01 - Picking up where we left off It's hard to continue Mognet after the events of last week. It's even harder when the storyline is about set to deal with topics that might strike a bad chord with those who were affected by the disaster. All this time, I hadn't noticed anything along these lines, but when Ish suddenly noted the serious undertones of one particular comic coming up, I was struck with an enigma. In the end, I decided that the best course of action would be to continue ahead, but with a disclaimer. As an artist (Or at least a wannabe artist), our work is meant to echo life in various ways. When you read something funny, it's because it's echoing the absurdity of reality. When you see something beautiful, it's because it captures a part of life or your imagination that appeals to you in a deep and meaningful way. And when art makes you sad, it's because you can picture how sad it would be if you or someone you know were in the same situation. So, to tiptoe around the delicate parts just doesn't seem right. Because we can't simply ignore the parts of life we don't like. Pretending they're not there won't make them go away, but meeting them head-on might offer new perspectives on them to help us deal with them. Anyways, if you're worried about Mognet becoming too serious, fret not. We're not gonna' pull a Megatokyo on you (Note for angry letter-writers: I love Megatokyo, even with all it's angsty... uhhh... angst). While, yes, we do want to infuse a little drama into the strip, Mognet will always have a strong comedy element. Anyways, moving on, our old Rei and Kirby pics are back up, as they didn't really get much of a chance to be seen last week. Also, Tim made some keen sketches that I thought you guys might be interested in seeing. Here is the first. As for life in general, it's funny how the world can change in a week. I remember, a little over a week ago, how I was talking about how busy last week would be. And it was, just not in the same way I thought. One international disaster, me getting sick, and the obtaining of an advance copy of Windows XP sure make for a busy week. On the other hand, all videogames of interest were delayed until this week (To join even more videogames of interest), I can't install Windows XP yet, and... urm, that's about it. This week is looking to be pretty stacked-up, too. I'm still sick, those games are just around the corner, and my Handspring decided to die on me, only to come back to life again. And it's only Monday! For the uninitiated, let me tell you, PDAs are a lot more useful than you'd think. Oh, forget all of the cheapie games and the miscellaneous doodads- those're just gravy. The real thing that makes PDAs so great is the simple stuff- datebooks, address lists, and memos. I can't tell you how awesome it is to have an organized list of phone numbers instantly accessable whenever I want to... sayyyyyy, call up my local EB to see if a certain game is in. It might seem silly and expensive for something inconsequential, but trust me- when you get a PDA, your life changes. Unfortunately, technology always has a dark side (As Darth Vader taught us). I'd just finished composing a list of all my videogames (When you have as many as I do, it helps to have a complete list of them at the ready), when the thing crashed on me. It took a complete wiping of the memory, and the draining of two new batteries before it would start working again (And I still don't know why it decided to start working again). And because I hadn't synced it with my computer before it crashed, I lost everything. A word to the wise: Sync your PDAs every time you make a change! Err... But then most of you probably don't have a PDA. That's OK. I'll let you discover their bliss later. ....... *Hopes he doesn't seem snnobbish for yakking on about something most people think is too expensive to own* |
 Tim's Clever Banter Hiya! Man, it's been quite a week! Birthday parties, cross country competitions, piano practice, golf lessons, chess/virtual pool/Advance Wars-playing... I'm a busy guy. But not busy enough to give you the a commentary on time! WOO!!! So, this time, I'm gonna do something I should've done a long time ago. I'm gonna explain just where the hell Caspian X, Tim Magus, and Ish are... by giving you a brief explanation of Neon Genesis Evangelion, one of the most pivotal (and controversial) animes to come out of Japan. Evangelion takes place in the year 2015 A.D., fifteen years after the Second Impact, which was triggered by a scientific expedition's contact with an "Angel." The resulting explosion nearly decimated mankind and most of the Earth's surface. Now, the Angels are returning, and its up to the U.N.-sanctioned organization NERV, based in Japan, to protect what's left of the world. The main character in this epic is Shinji Ikari, a lonesome 14-year old with a lot of self-worth issues. His estranged father, and commander of NERV, Gendo Ikari summons him to Tokyo-3, the third incarnation of Japan's destroyed capital where NERV is located. There, Shinji is forced to pilot the fearsome giant robot Evangelion, the only weapon powerful enough to combat the Angels. Throw in a bunch of cute babes, religious symbolism, and foreshadowing up the wazoo and you've got yourself an anime classic. Off course, there's much, much more to it, but I'm really sleepy. I'll definitely go in-depth the next couple of times, I just wanted to give you a taste of what's to come.
Sayonara. Other than that, Metal Gear Solid 2 is still on track for its November 13th release date, which IS GREAT. If anything gets in the way of me getting that game I... will push out of the way REAL HARD! In other videogame news the entire Resident Evil series is abandoning the Sony ship and joining forces with the Nintendo GameCube. How CRAZY is THAT?! That's great for Nintendo, but bad for diehard Sony fans. Eh. Too bad for them. GameCube is gonna rock, my friends. Hmm... I'd comment on today's comic but I don't remember which one it is. I'd check on Mognet right now but my stupid school computers have this Internet site block thingy and Mognet, of all sites, is blocked. Darn.
Well, the bell's about to ring. Adios! It's great to be back! Well... almost. Jake thought it'd be fitting to pick up where we left off with a Shirt Guy Gom strip, explaining what's in store, how it'll affect you, the readers, and how we should all get back on track with our lives. Gom mentions that death is a natural part of life, a subject Mognet will be dealing with in the universe of Neon Genesis Evangelion... and future universes. Jake basically has the whole story planned out, or at least, a very, very large chunk of it. So far, Mognet is a manga-style webcomic about a bunch of interdimensional travelers who jump into their favorite stories, interacting with their favorite characters as if they were real. Are these characters real? What does this mean for our "reality?" How does this affect it? It questions like those that Jake, Ish, and I asked in light of the events on September 11, 2001. It's our duty to craft a funny, entertaining story, but a human one as well. As Gom says, "we wish to portray the full range of human emotion" no matter what. Heh, we may just be fooling ourselves but we think we've got something special on our hands, something we wish to continue... and we're not sure how you'll receive it.
We're not sure what will happen to Caspian, Tim, Ish,
or Mog. Their stories aren't finished yet. And our
stories, your stories aren't done either.
That's what makes life so exciting. So let's get on
with the show! |
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