Latest News: 9/1 - Emergency rewrites, family gatherings lasted much later than expected, and allergies. In the meantime, check out A Duel in the Somme!
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Sep 1st, 2010 - [1901]Port problems(42-43 of ??) ND Unlimited RSS v2.0

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Our Update Schedule:


2:33am 02 Sep

1:55am 02 Sep

2:50am 01 Sep

14:28pm 31 Aug

3:52am 30 Aug
Other stuff:
ND Unlimited - our comics hub
Namir Deiter - Isabel's comic
Spare Parts - our other comic, ended
Unlike Minerva - the prequel to this
Kevin & Kell - which we color
Archive Binge - to help you catch up
FBAO Blog - thought experiment in game design

Other comic usefulness:
The Belfry
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ND Unlimited News

08.30.2010 - Terrence Marks:
Forum registration now works once again. I think something broke when I patched it. I've manually activated a bunch of accounts, so if you registered but didn't get the email it's cool. If you haven't registered yet, now's the best time.

08.26.2010 - Terrence Marks:
So what happened?

Well, after going to work six hours early for training on Wednesday, we finally had a two-day weekend. This means we got to catch up on all the errands we've needed to run. It was a full day of car maintenance, buying of glasses, and a bunch of other things that are even less interesting.

I think we've mentioned our new cat, Frankie, who we got a few weeks ago. We found a tapeworm on him. He brought them with him when we got him. This isn't, strictly, a medical emergency. It is, however, gross and creepy and needs to be dealt with immediately. So we've spent the last several hours dealing with this instead of working on comics. Trust me - we'd rather be working on comics

Random thoughts:

When you're cleaning out your fridge, if you toss out "anything that would trigger a con check", you're a probably gamer.

When you're cleaning out your fridge, if you toss out "anything that would trigger a save vs. petrification", you're probably an old-school gamer.

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance has a girl with white hair who dyes it pink and hides that from her friends because she feels ashamed. Namir Deiter has a white hare who dyes herself pink and hides that from her friends because she feels ashamed. Total coincidence, I'm sure, but it's funny how things go sometimes.

08.18.2010 - Terrence Marks:
A Duel in the Somme is live! You know that secret project we mentioned a while back? It's this - a collaboration between some amazing webcartoonists and a legendary science fiction author. The comic is written by Rob Balder and Ben Bova, based on a story by Ben Bova, illustrated by Bill Holbrook, and colored by us!

08.16.2010 - Terrence Marks:
Firstly, we've got public forums. They've been very private and very well hidden until now so they're a bit empty. You're invited to help make them less empty.

Secondly, we've got a new poll up at NamirDeiter.net.

08.01.2010 - Terrence Marks:
Firstly, we're working on Duel in the Somme, a comic book written by Rob Balder and Ben Bova, and drawn by Bill Holbrook. It's going to be awesome.

Secondly, I've been working six days a week for the last few weeks. Unfortunately, I've been too busy to tell you how busy I am. I'm sorry things have been quiet around here lately.


Thirdly, we're running five days a week in August, which gives us a little time to catch our breath here. See you Monday!

Previous News | Old News (2006 and before)

Terrence's Blog

06.25.2010 - Terrence Marks:
So, what have I been up to? Plenty, but I'm too busy to really sit back and reflect upon it.

I helped Misty and Bombur get the new Coming Up Violet site up (yes, that was one of my Secret Projects).

I'm writing Brent: Agent of B.U.R.R. over on NamirDeiter.net. We've got a short preview up here.

There were some issues with the RSS feed showing things late and/or twice. I've made some changes that hopefully should fix that. If you have this issue for Thursday's comics or later, let me know which RSS reader you're using.

Been playing Super Mario RPG, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia, and Pokemon Pearl (the Battle Tower is the best thing I've got for playing while you're on a treadmill)

Watched The Magnificent Seven the other day. Seven Samurai is, by far, a better movie. I understand most of the changes they made to it: the Japanese caste system doesn't really translate to the Wild West. Some plots had to be cut because of length. And they couldn't get Toshiro Mifune. His character really makes the original movie, and his American counterpart isn't as vibrant or as pivotal. But then again, The Magnificent Seven has Yul Brynner. Now, if you're my age or younger, Yul Brynner is just a punchline to bald jokes - when I saw that he was playing the leader of The Seven, I said to Isabel, "At least he won't have to shave his head"*. But if this movie came out in 1985 instead of 1960, the Internet would be full of Yul Brynner facts instead of Chuck Norris facts.

*: Which, if you've seen both movies, is hilarious. Trust me.


05.29.2010 - Terrence Marks:
I'm thinking about adding social networking links to the sites. Reasons against: There hasn't been any great outcry for it. There are some comics that flourish in social networks. For instance, if I did a comic about Babylon 5 you'd send it to your friend Joe, because he's all about Babylon 5. Or street hockey. Or some other thing that you and your friends share. Y'know, social networking. You Say it First is, generally speaking, not that kind of comic. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe there are a bunch of you who resell fragrance compounds and Lemon Technology is just like your workplace, and your coworkers would really get a kick out of it.
Secondly, our comics are severely continuity-based. Some of them stand on their own pretty well, but most of them - some of my favorites - require context. It'd be like photocopying page 83 of your favorite book, handing that to your friends and hoping that they enjoy it. We're not poised to go viral in a way that some other comics are. That's just not how we work here.
Thirdly, I've seen how easy it is to post a link to Facebook. Do you really need a button for that? Are there people who say to themselves "My friends would really get a kick out of this. But copying and pasting is it too much trouble so I'm not going to bother"? I mean, if they're there I'll add it - I'm not above pandering to the lazy demographic.
Reasons for: I'm reminded of the famous Howlin' Wolf album: "This is Howlin' Wolf's new album. He doesn't like it. He didn't like his electric guitar at first either." I mention that because it is the awesomest album title ever.
Also, it's relevant to the discussion, but I was going to mention it next change I got anyhow. But my point is that just because I might not get something at first, but that doesn't mean it's useless. I don't want to be the last guy making silent films because I think talkies are just a fad. On the other hand, things aren't inherently useful just because I don't get them (cf. Laserdiscs, Windows Vista, hypercolor shirts).
Which brings me into reason against #2: The easy way of doing this - the prepackaged solutions let folks share to about two hundred social networking sites. I was unaware that there were that many. I have never heard of 90% of the sites they list. I'm putting my name with these things I've never heard of and don't know anything about. And if I'm trying to hype myself on a site I've never heard of, I look like a poseur and a shill. It'd make me feel like an unhip corporation trying to rebrand itself into a youth culture that it doesn't try to understand.
But that's a reason for: As the social networking environment changes - and I'm sure it will - I can either let the try to keep up with it by myself, fall behind, or go with a prepackaged widget that does the work for me.
I've spent more time thinking about how to do this than I it would take to implement any of the above solutions, so I'm going to leave it here. Since this is something that you guys would use, what do you think?


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You Say it First  is © Terrence Marks and Isabel Marks, 2004-2010. Do not distribute any images on this site without the artist's permission or without giving credit to the comic's creators (including a link back to http://www.yousayitfirst.com/). You Say it First has been on the web since February 2004 and updates every Monday through Friday, around midnight, PST.