Last Res0rt – The Cyberpunk Online Comic. Updates Sundays.

Recognize this?

It’s that convention exclusive wallpaper that you may already have if you went to Mephit Fur Meet and looked in the conbook like we suggested you did. You used to be able to get this baby for free… if you had the special coupon code hidden in the conbook, which only a few lucky folks had access to.

Well, good news! Now everyone can have this wallpaper!

It’s the newest donation incentive, which means all you have to do to get it is donate some money via Paypal (minimum $1) , either through that handy link or by clicking on the donation image up top. And it’s colored up for Halloween too, which makes it all the more timely!

So go on, grab a new wallpaper today!

You asked for it, and now we’ve got it!

If you’re paying attention, you’ve noticed that spiffy glowy version of Last Res0rt’s logo… it’s a special lineworked version, in the style of Hugh MacLeod (‘cept ours is nice and radial, and in the shape of the logo), and looks sweet all by itself.

And if you’d like a closer look at it as well, you’re welcome to it — so long as you’re willing to buy a shirt or two from Last Res0rt On Demand (available at Zazzle!) with the design on it! These shirts are made to same high quality standards as all other Zazzle Merchandise (which is to say, it beats the pants off Cafepress), and all pieces come with the art on the front and a little URL for the sake of “you know where this came from” on the back.

Naturally, all purchases from the shop help keep the comic going, and even when they don’t, it’s a nice ego boost. So go buy a shirt today!

Subtlety is dead.

1. It’s good practice. All art is, really.
2. If you’re not already drawing a comic, it’s good to learn how to. Anything that encourages you to find new ways to be familiar with Photoshop can’t hurt!
3. Free publicity! Because we all know everyone wants more traffic/popularity, right? What better way to get it than to have a sample of your work on display somewhere you know people are already looking?
4. So many artists insist on sticking to their personal artistic ruts. Some people draw only girls, or only furries, or only characters that look like you just put together some paper dolls… doing a guest strip forces you to stretch your creative horizons!
5. It’s a way to volunteer your time. Ever wanted to volunteer your time to something worthwhile but don’t have the energy to go spend a day picking up litter by the side of the road? Guest strips take a load off the artist’s back by giving them time they would be spending on that update and being able to put it towards other projects!
6. You get a link back to your own projects / accounts! People knowing you’re cool is one thing, but people knowing you’re cool and knowing they can go to your own webcomic / dA / FA account to find more cool stuff you drew is even better.
7. Acknowledgements from the artist(s)! Hey, this just feels good.
8. Transformative works rock! People love to see stuff in a new light — this is why people love parodies, after all, and being able to take the same stuff on in new perspectives is really eye-opening.
9. Legitimate fanart! Fanart’s a tricky subject to broach, but let’s face it — being legitimized by having it featured on the website is a great thing, and plus, it’s not only fun, it’s also directly beneficial since it’s helping the comic you already know and love!
10. I need Guest Strips! Yup, this one’s the real reason I’m telling you all this other stuff – and go on, you saw it coming anyway.

Don’t worry, nothing bad’s happened — in fact, just the opposite. Volume 1 is almost over, which means we’re about to shift storylines, and more importantly… there’s a book coming soon!

… and I am freaking out like crazy over it!

Books take a lot of things, but in this case, they mostly take time — time to do print-exclusive material, time to draw the cover, time to assemble the book in a way that the printer can handle it,  time to find a printer that’ll print it for cheap enough that I’m not losing money  on the sale, time to promote the book so I actually sell enough preorders to afford the first print run because NOBODY who does Print-On-Demand does color at anything remotely close to reasonable prices… you get the idea.

Long story short, I would love a few weeks off like you wouldn’t believe. Save somehow learning to clone myself so I can draw pages  in half the time, the easiest thing to do is post some Guest Strips as a breather, but in order to do that, I need guest strips in the first place!

There should only need to be about a month’s worth of guest strips, but I’ll post all the strips that I think’re good, and each one of ‘em will come with credit and a link back. This ought to be plenty of time to get things right, and then when we’re done, we ought to be ready to leap into a whole new volume and get the heads ball rolling again.

And oh, will it all be glorious.

You’re already drawn to the comic, so why not get drawn into the comic?

With Volume 1 looming on the horizon and the holidays coming up, now’s the time to put together what it’ll take to make sure this preorder stays on schedule — which includes no small amount of fundraising! Since the start of Volume 2 (if not throughout Volume 2) is going to involve, among other things, a veritable battalion of Star Org soldiers, why not ask you to help me find a solution to both?

You can help support the comic and keep Volume 1 on track, and I can draw you into the comic as a Star Org soldier instead of having to come up with random extras! You’ll not only be helping me, you’ll become part of the story!

You know what a single cameo on a similar web comic went for last year? $1,750. The next highest bidder was willing to pay $1500 for the privilege! Even at that smaller sum, it’s still twenty-fold the price I’m asking here, which should be all it takes to convince you that this is a bargain price. The custom conbadge (each one an original piece of artwork!) included in the deal makes it all the sweeter.

So… why am I offering these cameos for so cheap?

Simple — I’m not arrogant enough to think I can convince one person to pay $1000+ for a cameo, but I’m pretty sure I can convince twenty folks to pay $50 (or fourteen folks to pay $75, or a dozen or so folks to buy a cameo and the rest just donate a few bucks and/or buy a shirt…), and besides that, we’re talking about needing no small sum of extras!

• For a basic cameo, $50 makes you a Star Org Cadet, complete with a custom conbadge of your character in their shiny new Org uniform (a $25 value!)  in addition to your cameo role in Volume 2 of Last Res0rt. You’ll get at least one appearance in the comic, possibly more if necessary.
• For folks wanting to stand out among the troops, $75 makes you a Star Org Officer, which still gets you a custom conbadge of your character (still a $25 value!), but makes you a higher-ranking character and thus a better chance of getting good lines, having a more important role, a lower (but still non-zero) chance of dying a horrible death at the hands of our contestants… you get the idea. Also, you’ll be sure to get at least two appearances, but since you’ll be a higher-ranking character, you’ll probably get more than that anyway. You want this.
• And of course, no matter which version you pick, both pieces (cameoes and conbadge) are original artworks, digitally crafted to the same specs as anything else in the comic — which means you’ll be getting some high quality stuff out of this deal!

This way, everyone wins — I raise enough funds for the books that I can safely open preorders in a timely fashion, lots of folks receive a cameo in their favorite webcomic, and hopefully I don’t wear myself out on commissions in the process.

Some ground rules, though:

• The price you’re paying here only covers the conbadge + cameo deal — you can’t use the cameo as a way to purchase Volume 1 when and if it comes to print. (Likewise, paying more than the cameo price(s) is nice, but I still can’t sell what technically doesn’t exist yet.) If you really want to pay extra, consider buying a second cameo as a gift for a friend. The holidays ARE coming up, after all…
• You will get at least one appearance (two if you buy the officer’s deal), but since this is adding you to the already-large cast of Last Res0rt, it’s possible you’ll make multiple appearances as needed. Officers have a better shot of appearing more often anyway, but hey, we need grunts too.
• The conbadge is included not only to make the deal sweeter, but also to verify that your character is being illustrated accurately. If you don’t want a physical, honest-to-god conbadge, I’m still doing it as an original, digital commission for the sake of being able to pin your character down properly.
• Please make sure to include enough information that I can accurately depict your character / yourself without too many revisions needed — reference images and specific details (a special accessory, a particular “quirk”, a certain way of wearing your outfit) help a lot!
• And don’t forget to include a mailing address — it’ll make it easier on me if I don’t have to ask you for it later (which will delay getting your badge shipped out!)
• You’re welcome to suggest any character (even a caricature of yourself if you like  – there ARE humans in this comic, after all!), but I still have the right to “adjust” characters as needed in order to keep them within the PG-13 rating, allow them to remain within the range of plausible canon, and avoid potential lawsuits because your species is somehow copyrighted, among other things. Yes, I’ll let you know what changes are necessary to make it all happen, but if you have a feeling your Electric Hedgehog Pokemon is going to need some major adjustments… talk to me first. Really, email works.

But wait, there’s more! Not interested in a cameo, but still want to help out? Donations are accepted as always, and just to sweeten the deal, you can get a sweet new wallpaper out of that nifty “Free Personality Test” image we’ve got up top of Jigsaw encountering our two hapless recruiters!

As always, any donation of $1 or more will net you this nifty wallpaper, available in a bevy of sizes. Who wouldn’t want one of these?

If you’d rather something a little more tangible, there’s no shortage of new shirts (and a hat!) available over at Zazzle as well! We’ve even got them on dark shirts this time around, too, so you can keep your geek cred intact and still have cool art to wear!

Don’t forget why we’re doing all of this — all proceeds, profits (HAH!), and assorted payments are going towards one thing and one thing only — covering the costs of what it’ll take to print the first volume of Last Res0rt!

… and I mean it.

In order to not go broke trying to provide a high-quality book (which would be the height of irony because books are supposed to, y’know, make enough money that they subsidize this whole “put comics on the web for free” thing), we need a good chunk of change set aside beforehand before I can even offer preorders.  If I don’t do this first, and people don’t order enough books to cover my costs, I’ll have to print them on-demand, which is… well, it’s expensive all around, especially for me since I’ll still need at least a couple dozen set aside for the year’s conventions either way.

In fact, it’s entirely possible that I might hold off until after the first few conventions in order to make sure I have the funds, which would defeat the point of rushing to have these books ready in time, and depending on how well those conventions do…

We could all be waiting a while for these books to show up. Nobody wants that.

On the other hand, if we raise enough for the printing costs first, I can safely offer preorders within the next couple of months, get the books printed at a reasonable rate (or at least reasonable enough that I can have something resembling a profit margin here), and make sure I have books in time for my March conventions (Furry Weekend Atlanta, MomoCon, possibly others) without having to wait to the last minute for funds or any other potential hiccups that could cause problems!

So… go ahead and order a cameo. Even if I offer these in the future, you can bet they’re going to cost more than they do right now, and every purchase goes towards the printing of the first book (which can only make the comic even better than it already is)! No matter how much you contribute, it can only help… so go ahead and order one now!

Edit: I’ve gone and clarified that your cameo purchase is per character, not per appearance. You are guaranteed at least a minimum number of appearances, but odds are it’ll be more than that. Hope this helps!

We’re moving along, honest!

There’s actually several more cameos waiting to be added in, but they’re not showing up just yet because we haven’t received their payments (and so it’s rather unfair to everyone else if I count them before they’re finalized)!

Some quick questions for those of you yet to send in an order though:

• When’s the Cameo Drive Over? Well, it’s gonna take about $1000 to cover a minimum print run for the books, so it’ll either end one week after we meet that goal, or around December 25, 2009, whichever comes later. I didn’t mention this before as I’d hoped the lack of deadline would encourage folks to go ahead and send stuff in as soon as possible, but more than a few hopefuls may need time to gather up funds.
• Is my character acceptable? The main hiccup most folks might have is if their character is of  a copyrighted species (Lombaxes, Koopas, Chakats … you get the idea), in which case I will insist their character needs to be adapted to the setting. For everyone else, I’ll usually offer to help you convert the character to a similar species already within the LR mythos at no charge, but most of the time your character will be just fine as they are. Again, if you’re concerned your character might need adjustments, send an email already!
• How long should it all take? Well, if everything goes well (and I end up buried under at least a dozen commissions / cameos) . . . quite a bit! I’ll try to start on conbadges once I get the last bits of artwork for the books finished, but I would estimate we’re looking at finishing the first conbadges about a month from now, and the first cameos will appear around the start of Volume 2, which would be… February at the earliest. (Come on, it’s a weekly comic, of course art this involved is going to take a while!) You’ll be informed / involved throughout the process of making the conbadges, though, and once you’ve got those it should tide you over long enough to wait for the cameos. ^_^
• Can you Ship to [Insert Difficult Location Here]? These badges are light, so the shipping’s cheap either way — which means, yes, I CAN ship internationally / to military addresses! There’s no additional charge for shipping, but if you want to throw in a couple bucks more, I won’t complain!

Don’t delay any longer than you have to, though — if you’re interested, send in an order!

Now we’re talking!

Quick addendum; if you can’t afford to pay it all at once / don’t trust yourself to hold onto the funds, you’re welcome to send the amount in installments. Just make sure I know that’s what you’re doing first, and don’t send them too small (Paypal takes its cut per transaction, after all), and keep in mind that I still need at least half  before I’ll start work on at least the badges, and whatever else is left in order to include you.

… Also, given how far ahead I work sometimes, you’re only delaying your big cameo appearance if you’re not timely about it.

I’m still only counting the amount of funds that I’ve actually received, not what’s been promised to me, since I need those funds on hand come book-printing time, so… don’t wait! Send an order!

We’re getting there!

A couple folks are at a loss for what to do for a cameo, but hey… who said it had to be a character you already used? At least one enterprising fan has made a whole new character to fit alongside the LR-verse, so if you have any ideas / need more background information on a certain species you’re interested in using… just ask!

Also, a Warning: More than a couple of folks’ orders have been getting caught in the spam filter, so please, make sure somewhere in the email you mention “Last Res0rt” (ideally, in the subject of the email) to avoid delays; at least one person’s order has had the confirmation that they paid arrive before their order did as a result of this, which not only delays your order, but could also cause additional headaches as I try to figure out where an unaccounted for payment came from (not to mention your own frustration if you don’t recieve confirmation that I saw your order)!

Yes, there’s quite a few “partial payments” in here that still need to pay up, but hey, progress!

I’ve finished (most of) the work on the books, at least as far as drawing stuff ought to go… which means it’s time to start drawing the conbadges for folks who’ve paid in full for their cameos! So, if you’re hoping to see yourself in Last Res0rt soon… well, go ahead and get those funds in!

Also, I know there’s a number of you who’ve been holding off… I only need a few more cameos to reach my goal, but there’s no reason to keep me hanging too much longer!

Also: I still need guest strips. Like, really need guest strips.

As is, if I don’t have any more guest strips, then I need to start working on the next pages of Last Res0rt approximately… yesterday, which means there’s going to be some problems unless I receive some guest strips to pad me out through the month of January.

Working on the book to make sure it had an excellent cover (and a nifty bonus story besides!) ate up valuable cameo-and-comic-drawing time, so I’m a ‘tad’ behind on drawing pages for online consumption… so to make sure I’m able to keep up making high-quality pages, I need these guest strips to help buy valuable time!

So… if you can draw a guest strip that doesn’t suck (… actually, at this point, we’ll take the ones that suck too), send it in!

We’re making a book after all!

Thanks to everyone who’s either donated, linked, re-tweeted, or otherwise made this Cameo Drive as successful as it was. And if you’ve not gotten involved yet, there’s good news: You still have a shot at a cameo!

As promised, I’m keeping the drive open through December 25th;  So anyone else who’s still eager to get involved or otherwise waiting until the last minute to get in on this, you can still go ahead and send me an order!

For those who’re wondering how this last leg of the drive works:

• At least an order needs to be sent in; send payment as fast as possible otherwise, though, since you won’t appear in the comic until you’re fully paid up (and you’ll need to send at least half for me to start work on your included conbadge!
• Only orders that’ve been in correspondence prior to December 25th will be honored. Sorry, we’ve got to make the cutoff somewhere.
• For folks who’ve ordered cameos (and want badges in time for Christmas): I’m working on them now, and will make a good-faith effort to get them in the mail with enough time to spare for the holidays… if you’ve requested that you need / want the badges around then and have been keeping up with the lineart / color approval for each (i.e. keep an eye on your email this next week)! Only a few of you have requested this, but I would like to at least honor those few requests (and I’d love to have a few Org badges to show off soon besides)!

And for those wondering… yes, I still need guest strips for this next month, but in case that doesn’t happen, I’ve found new ways to stall for time entertain you while I’m busy catching up on everything, including a special surprise…

Year in Review:

For those who want a little plot recap:

• We came into the year with Daisy having her alleged secret identity as a Galaxy Girl Scout revealed,  then went straight into Episode Two where they end up fighting who else but… a gaggle of Galaxy Girl Scouts ready to wreak revenge on Daisy and collect some collateral damage in the process.
• Jason’s all too willing to comply, but Slick and Addy gain the upper hand with some help from their new ‘little friend’ Sedja (hint: she’s not that little) , which allows the players to turn the tide on the Scouts, but not without some zombie-on-Talmi action getting in the way first.
• The players win, and White Noise is put in charge, but also ends up with Jason as his second in command, which doesn’t go over very well. There’s no time to worry about it though, as Jigsaw ends up having to think fast (literally) to save Daisy as well as Addy’s new friend from the Vaeo family. Addy is very… grateful.
• Jigsaw’s not in a good mood, but that doesn’t stop her from meeting a guest at Cypress’s request… though she wouldn’t have done it if she’d known that guest was Veled! After a brief conversation over tea, Veled loses her temper and forces Jigsaw to confront her “true” nature… including revealing how she ended up a vampire in the first place!

In addition to this, we switched over to our currently snazzy WordPress site engine (complete with a sweet redesign!), opened Last Res0rt On Demand (Our Print-On-Demand Zazzle shop full of sweet swag!), an awesome omnibus cast page and tagging system, recieved several awesome reviews and an excellent interview (as well as a couple of guest appearances on the Webcomic Beacon!), and raised plenty of funds through the Star Org Cameo Drive, all of which means that 2010 is bound to be even better!

Plans for 2010:

• The book’s done, now it just needs to be published! I’m shooting like mad to have them ready in time for Furry Weekend Atlanta 2010 (and if they aren’t ready by then, I WILL be mad!), but don’t worry, they’ll be available online as well… probably around the same time, if not a little earlier.
• More stuff available online! Yes, we do have Last Res0rt on Demand to handle some of the buttons and smaller items that you can otherwise only get at conventions, but once we have these books available for sale, we’ll also have a few other things we need to post for y’all as well, including those sweet posters from Anime Weekend Atlanta (You remember them, right? … oh, you weren’t there? Shame…)
• The start of Volume Two! Yes, we’ve got a few more guest strips to go through while I’m getting everything back in order, but we’ll be back in action soon enough, which means all those cameos and things ought to be showing up shortly.

And of course, this isn’t all we’ve got planned… just the stuff that’s pretty obviously going to happen over the next year. But hey, what’s wrong with a few surprises?

You Can Help Last Res0rt in 2010!

Of course, all of this requires making a lot of decisions about what to do, where to do it, and how to make this all as successful as possible…

So I’ve made a survey so you can help me do just that! Click here to go and take the survey now!

It mostly covers cool conventions I’m considering or stuff I want to try and make next, but it’s really important to fill this out even if you’re only thinking about going to a con or getting some of the stuff I have available, because I want to make sure it’s stuff you’ll like in addition to it being stuff that I can think I can make my money back on!

So… go ahead and take it, already!