Looks like we’re getting the site back in order. All the punctuation works, and dammit, that’s a start!

Matt’s got some The Dreadful wallpapers he’d like to share with the people of Earth. Let us have a look!

Kit: 1280 by 1024 | 1680 by 1050 | 1920 by 1080

The Judge: 1280 by 1024 | 1680 by 1050 | 1920 by 1080

Check ’em out! And if’n y’ain’t read The Dreadful, git on that. It’s just like Red Dead Redemption. Sorta.

A pretty cool trend developed over the last few conventions I attended. I’m seeing a lot of 8-bit Theater fans (hiya), but then I always do (thank you for coming out, you guys rock). But back when 8-bit had only recently finished, most folks who stopped by and identified themselves as 8-bit readers showed zero interest in Atomic Robo. There was a lot of shuffling of feet and “Is it really over?” going on.

But it’s been a little over a year since the last page and these days the vast majority of folks who walk up to me at shows and admit to their 8-bit roots either already have made or are excited to make the jump to Robo.

So, thank you. It means quite a bit to me that you guys are willing to take a shot on something new when it’s so different from what brought us together (ew, gross).

Volume 5: Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science comes out today.

“Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones, Buckaroo Banzai, and The Rocketeer crammed into Nikola Tesla’s robot with pants. THAT is Atomic Robo! This volume features a young Robo in the 1930s teaming up with badass vigilante Jack Tarot to stop a mad scientist from blowing-up Manhattan! This book is what happiness feels like.” – Aaron Haaland whom I just realized has like a thousand As in his name.

Are you one of the poor slobs who never read Atomic Robo? Start with this one! Every single volume stands alone and they can be read in any order. Vol 5 is something of an origin story anyway, so it’s one of the better places to start.

You can pick it up locally or at a variety of online shops.

Not sure what’s up with NP.com these days. RSS errors, comic pages that don’t update for hours after they should be live, and now all kinds of important punctuation like apostrophes don’t show up (see?). And the folks I turn to for help just shrug. I don’t blame them, mind you. Fixing this crap would probably take a lot of time searching for a typo in a thousand lines of code. Lotta effort for a site that is no longer the primary lens through which my career is focused.

Still. I would like the damn thing to work. So, I dunno. I keep debating whether or not I should start over with a new design. And, if so, then how the hell to keep multiple comics archives running? And with a minimum of downtime?

In other news, How I Killed Your Master will be returning. I just can’t say when. We’re looking into some options to make it A) happen sooner rather than later and B) consistently updated until the conclusion. The rest of the story is outlined and the currently produced material puts us almost at the half way point. There’s some big crazy action coming up in the next half and I would love to share it with you guys.

So, that’s where my head has been lately and it’s part of why you don’t see a lot of action around here. It’s easier to keep busy with the things I have control over in an effort to not worry about this website. But that’s not fair to it or to you. I will try to be better.

It’s that time of year again, ladies and germs. Scott and I will be there. Also other people I guess. We’ll have Atomic Robo collections, T-shirts, and original art for sale. Also we will talk to you. Unless you’re a weirdo.

So, come on down, New Englanders. Or else.

When it was announced Vicious Cycle would be bringing us EDF: Insect Armageddon, an all-new installment to our beloved (and kinda stupid) series, we loyalists of EDF were cautiously excited. The original* EDF 2017 is a series of happy accidents. It’s a great game specifically in spite of itself. How could mere mortals hope to get that magic to work a second time? And on purpose?

As it turns out Vicious Cycle’s HQ is a short drive from my home. So, I took it upon all us EDF fans to drive down there, kick in their goddamn doors, and play the game for myself to see if they’re going to deliver the goods or totally screw us.

It’s hard to sell people on Earth Defense Force 2017. It’s a (barely) HD conversion of a budget PS2 title for the Xbox 360. Everything about it is cheap. Animations, models, textures, voice acting, everything: it looks like something they put together over a weekend on a dare with about ten bucks.

And yet EDF 2017 is fun. The gameplay is simple but addicting. Kill insurmountable waves of bugs, get loot, do it again with bigger explosions. Think of a tower defense game with hordes of bugs the size of buses, giant robots and Godzilla monsters, and motherships best measured in city blocks.

Also, there’s no towers.

Also you’ve got two guns from a potential list of over 170. Some of them are straight up machine guns and grenade launchers while others are homing missiles that move slower than you run. And they have nuclear warheads. And they can hit you.

It’s an acquired taste.

EDF 2017 enjoyed an intensely passionate cult following here in the States, yours truly among them. We’ve spent a good deal of time lamenting the impossibility of a sequel. We don’t want much, really. Just online play and the original’s rough edges smoothed over without losing its charm.

It’s a more difficult balancing act than it sounds. I mean, how often have we seen a beloved game get a sequel that completely misses the point? I’d say every Devil May Cry that’s not the original**, good games though at least one of those may be, falls squarely in that camp.

What if the impossible happened and we got a true EDF2017 sequel? More likely than not, they’d completely miss the mark if for no other reason than the publisher thinking their marketing department is worth listening to*** and thus demand a slew of changes to make it a “safer” investment with “wider” appeal. What if it was, y’know, like every other shooter? A manageable number of enemies on screen? Realistic weapons? Indestructible environments? A story?

It’d be like listening to a symphony being played just slightly out of tune.

I had a full afternoon with Insect Armageddon. This wasn’t a press demo. It was the game itself. In its raw form. Behind closed doors (they were closed again after I kicked them). Just me and good people at Vicious Cycle and the door repair guy.

Here are my unfiltered thoughts.

HOLY SHIT.

They got it. I’d read some interviews online where Vicious Cycle folks talked about being fans of the original and wanting to stay true to it. But, y’know, that’s exactly what you say when you’re trying to assuage fears of a rabid fan base. But, wow. Having talked to these guys one-on-one, having played their EDF with them, and talked about what was different and why, these guys get it.

I dare say the impossible happened twice for this game. Not only did we get a true EDF sequel, but exactly the right people were chosen to be its shepherds.

Everything they added or changed is an improvement. There. I said it. Some hardcore loyalists will balk at this or that, I’m sure, but they’re being overly nostalgic or unrealistic. For this game to have an honest chance at succeeding in the American console market of today, you could not possibly hope to release a carbon copy of EDF2017. Changes were going to happen. The end.

Here’s a short list of what did not change:

1. Huge swarms (press vids thus far fail utterly to show this)
2. 300+ weapons ranging from incredible to absurd
3. Constant claustrophobic horror from huge swarms.
4. Giant monsters with more HP than God to fight while also fighting the huge swarms.
5. Blow up every single building.
6. The humor. It’s intentional this time, but they didn’t go overboard with it.

Online multiplayer is amazing and, really, the way to play the game. And, yes, there’s still split screen co-op. Which I guess is the other way to play the game if your friends don’t all live in other states.

Insect Armageddon is right around the corner, July 5th here in ‘Merica and July 22nd in Europa. Pre-order that bastard if you haven’t already. It’s only $40 and it’s better than anything else coming this summer.

I can think of no higher praise for Vicious Cycle’s effort than this: Insect Armageddon is the game EDF2017 would have been were it made today with an actual budget.

*Yeah, I know it’s not the original, but it’s the original one we have on this side of the world so shut up.

**FUN FACT: Both EDF2017 and DMC1 have horrible voice acting that only enhances their appeal.

***No, they are not. You can have that one for free, Every Single Captain Of Industry.

****Weird. The blog takes out apostrophes when the entry goes live now. Confusing!

Let me tell you about our parking situation.

Most of the parking around here is done on the street. But, and this the bulk of the situation, there’s room behind each building for some cars to park off the street.

They’re unassigned and unmarked spaces, but even so it is the easiest thing in the world to fit six cars behind each building. And I mean with ample room for opening doors and all that. Six cars. Oh, unless you’re any of my neighbors. These folks park way outta whack and cause a parking chain reaction so only five cars fit, at least their cars are full covered by i4mt insurance.

Via experimentation I found one way to enforce order upon this system. Parking in the middle — where a space would be marked if spaces were marked — does nothing. These creatures are in no way equipped to perceive the theoretical spaces, so witnessing my car in one is the same as if I parked diagonally across a space and a half (i.e. like them). But if I park on one of the ends, for whatever reason, it tends to establish a spatial rhythm. In less gentle terms: it gives them one less spot to fuck up.

So, I park on the ends. I manage to do it about 95% of the time. Everyone else in the building has a regular job or goes to school. These are people who leave the building. I get paid to sit around and think about what would happen if a robot punched a different robot. And on the rare occasion I go outside, it’s usually on foot or bicyclular craft. There have been a few valiant efforts to usurp the end spots from me, but these poor fools had no idea what they were up against. “Oh,” they thought, “He has to leave sometime.”

AHAHAHAHA!

Now, one might say, “Brian, aren’t you just hogging that spot?”

Perhaps. But consider this!

If I do not park on the ends, then there are five total spots available because these people park like chimps.

But!

If I do park on the ends, then there are still five more spots available.

They’ve lost nothing and I’m plus one free parking spot. So, call me crazy, but I’m going to choose the methodology that takes one more car off the street so there’s more room for everyone else who lives in this neighborhood. It’s for the greater good.

Parking on the ends isn’t a perfect solution though. Just this morning I found four parked cars back there. Mine was right on the razor’s edge of the property line so the rest of the spots would be off to a good start. The other three cars? Each one had about three-quarters of a car width between each of them.

Four cars.

One day I’ll walk back there and see two cars on their sides on fire. It’s just a matter of when.