Odd-Fish

Odd-Fish: Ghosts XII

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:54:58 +0000

After a couple of interruptions, onwards we go with part twelve of Odd-Fish: Ghosts and the final reveal of the last tarot card.
The Nuked zebra card of course refers to the dramatic conclusion to the last Odd-Fish long-form story: Inexplicable Zebras (which is available as a full colour minicomic!)
Most of my regular readers had already picked up on the hints scattered throughout the story so far and had worked out that Ghosts was to see the return of the zebras. But how will they return from beyond the grave? Keep reading and you'll find out!

A big thank you for all the congratulations and warm wishes that everyone sent us after the announcement I made last time. Things seem to be going as smooth as any pregnancy can so far!

Announcement!

Mon, 4 Jan 2010 00:48:59 +0000

We interrupt your usual Odd-Fish programming to bring you this announcement, Mrs Nobody and I are going to have a baby!
At the time of writing this, our little bun in the oven is 15 weeks old. It's our first and we're very excited!.
We don't know the gender yet but when we have the next ultrasound in February we intend to find out so we can start thinking about names. (No, we're NOT going to call it Lovecraft if it's a boy!) Mrs Nobody's rather keen on a boy but I'd like a little girl so there's a little difference of opinion but we don't really mind that much.
Did I mention that We're very excited?
So please forgive me if I become a baby-bore when writing these little blog entries and I will, of course, keep you all apprised of the progress with more pictures when we get them.

Normal Odd-Fish service will resume next time!

Christmas Intermission: Coral Singers

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:39:02 -0000

Today's update is Christmas break from our current story to wish Happy Holidays and a fantastic new year to all the Odd-Fish readers and fans of Lovecraft, Howard and Co.

The story will continue in the new year with the turning of the final tarot card revealing the source of the cryptic messages and the animosity toward Lovecraft. Oooh. Thrilling.
In the meantime eat, drink and be merry, enjoy your Christmas or whatever winter festival you celebrate and I’ll see you all in 2010. Hurrah!

Odd-Fish: Ghosts XI

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:48:53 -0000

Part eleven of Odd-Fish: Ghosts.
another four tarot cards. Uh-Oh! Looks like Lovecraft’s in deep trouble!
I had fun designing the cards again and three of them are pretty self explanatory; The Hanged Cephalopod, The Six of Blades and The Poisoner.
But can you guess why the Revenge card is a depiction of a bowl of Salad?

In other news, this is all over the ‘net and you have to have been living under a rock (or a coconut shell!) to have missed it but I’d be remiss on a site with a comic that has already featured an octopus interacting with coconuts if I didn’t at least mention it.
Octopuses and taking coconut half-shells discarded by humans and carrying them off to make into shelters. Apparently the fact that they carry them away and even re-assemble two half into a whole is proof that the canny molluscs are intelligent enough to reason and plan ahead and it counts as tool use too.
Of course anyone who regularly reads Odd-Fish knows it already, but it’s nice to see it confirmed by actual SCIENCE.
Also the little fella scuttling across the seabed with his prize is so cute!

Odd-Fish: Ghosts X

Tue, 8 Dec 2009 16:06:46 -0000

Part ten of Odd-Fish: Ghosts.
I’ve quite enjoyed designing Tarot cards for the last couple of Odd-Fish episodes and I’m very pleased with my Odd-Fish version of Death
I wanted it to be reminiscent of the traditional Tarot Death but still be relevant to Odd-Fish so I have death a net instead of His traditional scythe. What more appropriate Death of fish than a fisherman?
There are still five more cards to revealed, five more cards for me to design. What fun!

Odd-Fish: Ghosts IX

Wed, 2 Dec 2009 21:58:29 -0000

Part nine of Ghosts.
Who could it be that the Tarot card The Eight of Arms* refers to? Rocket science it ain’t.
It also seems that several people have already guessed where all this is going. Not that it’s hard to guess given Odd-Fish’s history and the obvious clues scattered around.
Nevertheless a big reveal is coming up soon in the next update or maybe the one after that! Ooh. Exciting.

Christmas is coming whether you like it or not and as usual, Manta Claus Christmas cards are now available via Cafepress as are a small range of other rather unorthodox cards that I’ve designed.

*Yes I know it’s not a real Tarot card. I made it up.

Odd-Fish: Ghosts VIII

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 15:41:39 -0000

Odd-Fish: Ghosts VII

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:03:09 -0000

Odd-Fish: Ghosts VI

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 13:17:39 -0000

Part six of Odd-Fish:Ghosts
I was going to apologise for not doing a Halloween strip this year but then it occurred to be that Lovecraft and Howard are having a ghostly encounter in this story and there’s nothing more halloweeny than ghosts! So bullet dodged there, I guess.

The ongoing mail strikes mean that I’m still not releasing the new Odd-Fish playing cards just yet. The official word from the Post Office is that there’s a backlog currently of a hundred million items of mail waiting to be delivered and I don’t want to add to that and risk that anything I send out gets lost in the mail-strom (see what I did there?) of undelivered packages.

Odd-Fish: Ghosts V

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:00:21 -0000

Part five of Odd-Fish:Ghosts and Lovecraft is gearing up for a séance and gets to use his favourite eldritch voice to call the spirits. He loves to use his eldritch voice.
I’m sure you’ve noticed that this story is very slow moving. The updates are spaced a long time apart. I’m so sorry about it, it’s once again real life sucking all my free time into its unquenchable maw leaving me with nothing but leftovers and droppings of time in which to put pen to paper. It’s quite important stuff though and I’ll tell you more if things pan out in the way I hope they will.

There are a couple of new merchandise items on the way soon, although I don’t want to make them available until the damn postal strikes are out of the way, hopefully by Christmas.
First up, after a year in development hell are the Odd-Fish Playing cards. I had hoped to be able to do them for under a tenner but despite extensive searching I was unable to find anywhere to print them to order or even do a short run at anything close to that price.
Recently though I found somewhere who will print to order a pack of 54 with a nice perspex box to keep them in for an acceptable price which while still well over the £10 I was hoping for is still just about within the affordable range for anyone who really wants a pack.
Secondly there’s going to be a new design of Odd-Fish mousepads featuring Lovecraft. This time it’s a circular pad and for a limited time is going to be available at the reduced price of just £5.99.
More about these new things next update or as soon as the Royal mail sort out their tantrums.
Lastly. I think I’m going to move all the CafePress stuff off Cafepress and get it done elsewhere.
CafePress have just become too expensive (especially their shipping costs) with the return on the sales too tiny to be worth the effort.
I’ve got my eye on another online service who do much the same range (and more! Odd-Fish umbrella anyone?) for a fraction of the price and also charge a fraction of what CafePress do for worldwide shipping. It’s just a question, as always, of finding the time to move everything over and set up shop with the new service.
I will of course keep you informed.
See you next time, hopefully not quite so long this time!

Odd-Fish: Ghosts IV

Thu, 8 Oct 2009 00:50:40 -0000

Thank you to all of you who wished Monty, our sick parrot, well. She’s doing a lot better now and is able to feed herself her medicine from a spoon.
She’s still got another three weeks of antibiotics but things are looking good.

Odd-Fish: Ghosts III

Fri, 2 Oct 2009 02:54:59 -0000

Delays delays delays. Here’s part three
Everything seems to conspire to prevent me from having time to put pen to paper these days
One big part of this is that our beloved Monty, our Amazon parrot has been unwell for several weeks now. She’s picked up a staphylococcus infection in the follicles of her tail feathers causing her a great deal of pain, irritation and distress.
Unfortunately for us, apart from the exorbitant cost of vet bills for an avian specialist vet, the nearest one to where we live is a 50 mile round trip so it’s a major event every time we need to take her for the vet to see her progress.
So she’s on a high dose, twice a day, broad spectrum antibiotic called Synlulox that’s fifteen quid a bottle and she needs a dose equivalent to six times the amount you’d give a dog because of the way that birds digest and metabolise stuff. She gets through a whole bottle every four days and she’s got to be on it for four weeks!
Also, do you have any idea how hard it is to get medicine into a parrot? We’ve taken to mixing it into a tiny amount of instant mash potato and spoon feeding it to her. She takes anything up to 40 minutes to work her way through half a teaspoon of mash and insists on me holding the spoon and making constant ‘yum yum’ noises for her while she eats it. She refuses to touch it if it’s in the bowl attached to her perch. I have to hold the spoon. Pets. Who’d have ‘em.