So as you may have noticed, I’ve been having a hard time updating the site lately. With college and work keeping me busy, I’ve had very little time to play games, go to the movies or watch anime, which has left me with very little to parody: hence the lack of strips.

In hopes of making up for the lack of strips and to allow myself to keep drawing, I’ve decided to launch a daily journal comic. I’m not planning on bringing Northern Geeks to an end, and the journal comic isn’t intended to replace Northern Geeks in any way, shape or form, but is simply something for me to work on during this dry spell.

So for the next little while, Northern Geeks will be updating very sporadicly, but if you’re still interested in checking out some of my comic mischief, you can find the new journal comic at http://www.northerngeeks.com/journalcomic.

I’ll also be placing a link on the side bar in the event that this post gets pushed down.

So I’m seconds away from turning off my PC and packing it in a box. As some of you may know, I’m starting College next week, so I’m busy moving all my stuff. I hate moving. Packing all the boxes. Stacking everything inside a huge truck. Unpacking everything once you get there… And the worst of it is dealing with the period during which utilities get hooked up. Like Internet.

So I guess what I’m trying to say here is I’ll be sans-Internet for a little while – I’m guesstimationg about a week – so there won’t be any updates for a little while. Sorry for the inconvenience, and I hope you guys won’t forget about me!

Just kidding! Did I scare you?

Someone once told me that if you started out by giving fake bad news that was worse than the actual bad new you had to deliver, that the real bad news wouldn’t seem so bad. Not sure if that really works.

In any case, as I mentioned in today’s filler strip (which more than likely has been removed by now) I’ll be following an irregular update schedule this week. Instead of posting Monday to Friday, there will only be three strips, and they’ll be posted Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Furthermore, starting next week I’ll be indefinitely switching back to a three-times-a-week posting schedule with new strips being posted on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays (M-W-F).

When I made the decision to move to a Monday to Friday (M-F) update schedule in January, I truly felt that it was important to do in order to offer a viable product. A webcomic needs constant (and consistent) updates to become successful, and a M-F schedule seemed like the best way to go. Truth be told, I still believe it’s the best option, but now that I’m working part-time and getting ready to return to college full-time, I don’t believe such an update schedule to be realistic.

The important thing to remember here is that this change isn’t permanent. I do plan on returning to a M-F update schedule eventually, but since I’m still not certain on how long I’ll be keeping the M-W-F schedule, I felt that saying the change would be indefinite rather than temporary would be more appropriate.

If you’ve been wondering about the Geekcast, know that it’s technically not dead. Since Bryan, Eva and Darren have been gone on summer vacation, it’s been impossible for us to get together. Hopefully once Fall comes around we’ll be able to get together and start recording again.

I’ve also been kicking around the idea of doing video. One of my favourite gaming sites, Giant Bomb, offers things like video reviews, quick looks, and endurance runs, and those are all ideas I think could be interesting in trying out.

In any case, thanks again for taking the time to read my rants and following the comic, and I hope no one will be too upset with the scheduling change. I’d also appreciate any feedback you guys would be willing to share, especially regarding new content. I’d really like to hear what sort of things you’d like to see on Northern Geeks.

Whenever I tell people that my favourite part of going to the movies is seeing the trailers, I’m often met with mixed reactions. Most laugh and dismiss it as being tomfoolery, while others look at me as though I had just told them I had seen Elvis by the concession stand.

Truth is, I find movie trailers to be exciting! And why not? That’s what they’re meant to do! Get you excited about future releases!

With that said, I also know that trailers can be very deceptive. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, and that’s true. And as someone who’s seen his fair share movies, I can attest that the same thing can (and should) be said about trailers.

So earlier today, I was sent a link to a trailer for Halo Legends, an animated feature that’s being produced by various studios. My first reaction after seeing it was that it looked pretty cool. The Halo games have always been good quality games, and given its level of popularity, I can easily understand why Microsoft would want to pursue something of the sort.

But like I said, that was my first reaction.

Then I started thinking…

As I stated before, I think the Halo games were very good games. When the first Halo was published on the original Xbox, I was still skeptical about shooters on consoles. First person shooters were meant to be played on PCs and that was that! Halo was one of the first games to get me thinking that FPSs on consoles might be alright. Of course, the games also included co-op play, which was fantastic. In fact, before Halo came out, I think Rare’s Perfect Dark for the N64 might have been the last great co-op FPS I had been able to play.

But Halo’s not perfect. Far from it. And one of the things which I’ve always been disappointed with has been its story; or rather, I should say, its lack of story. Now, I know that the “Halo Universe” is expanded in things like books and other side-games, such as Halo Wars, but if I don’t feel like I’ve gotten the gist of things after having played an entire trilogy, then frankly speaking, someone’s doing something wrong.

So what can we expect from a Halo animated series? The first thing that comes to mind is Master Chief’s origin story. But would that really make sense? Master Chief as a character was intentionally designed to represent the every-man. When Halo 3 was about to release, a lot of speculations regarding whether or not Master Chief would remove his helmet came into question, and the decision not to have him remove his helmet seemed to derive from the fact that, by not revealing Master Chief’s face, the mystique that comes from being able to project your own image onto the helmet-wearing protagonist would be conserved. Fleshing out the character at this point would greatly undermine that reasoning.

Also, with Japanese companies trying to “Americanize” their products, I find it very strange that Microsoft would chose to “Japanify” something as strongly North American as Halo.

So what are your thoughts on this? Are you looking forward to more Halo related products? What do you think can be expected from such an animated series? And most importantly, will Cortana be in it and look super hot? Let us know!

If you’re reading this right now, it’s probably safe to assume that you’re a fan of webcomics. Holding that to be true, you’re also more than likely familiar with Scott Kurtz.

Scott has been producing PvP for over ten years now. Just think about that for a second:

Sure webcomics might be “up and about” now-a-days, but back then, there weren’t many people making them, so it goes without saying that Scott literally paved the way for many of us now pursuing similar careers. To me personally, Scott has been a huge inspiration, and I can’t thank him enough for all the hard work he’s put into his site over the years.

Today, I hold in my hands one of the greatest webcomics-related products ever conceived by man. Containing all of his strips from 1998-2005, The Awesomology celebrates ten years of webcomics magic. It is a massive book, spanning 600 pages, and weighs a tonne. It is epic. It is awe-inspiring.

It is simply awesome.