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TheHeroesOfCRASH.com The site's being updated again! Strips and fillers I previously posted to social media are now retroactively on the website! After nearly two months of no computer and another two of having a computer, but no changes to the website... after hemming and hawing and lots of drawing... I finally got the programs I need to update my website! I needed a replacement for Dreamweaver and wound up getting ExpressionWeb 4. It took some getting used to, but it was pretty intuitive. Tonight, I downloaded Filezilla and had to figure out my old settings and passwords and junk to get it to connect to my site (Which I'm glad I figured out without needing to bother my techno-savvy friend Chris!). I found myself going back and making some tweaks to several links and file names to get all the new pages to work properly. So yeah... it was a lot of work. At the moment, I have put every filler and story strip from July 22nd up through this filler onto the website, and updated the Plotline Archive page accordingly. I plan on making updates to the Fan Art page next. BB and TM look great in their construction gear. Cannon figured it would be redundant to wear a helmet when he's already got one, but seems he forgot that construction gear also makes you more visible to other workers! I definitely like this filler; I may use it again the next time my site needs some sprucing up...!

TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Starting off with a good old-fashioned recap! It's been a while since I started a storyline with a recap (or started a new storyline at all). The events of our last adventure set up this one so well, I felt that a recap was needed. Plus, the Collective of Heroes is doing a promotion for Free Comic Book Day, and a recap might be helpful for any new readers. But mostly I did this recap because I'd heard there was going to be lightning storms this week and I wanted something that could be drawn relatively quickly (of course, the storms never came). I like the gradient in the background and the layout of the panels. In addition to padding out the image a bit, the gradient gives the strip a foreboding atmosphere while the panels emphasize the two sides to this story. Don't forget to submit an entry to my contest by my birthday on May 19th! EVERY valid entry gets something in return, so read the full rules on my site!

TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Cannon helps Belt Boy and volunteers for the lesser of two annoyances. It might seem strange that Cannon would rather deal with B.O.N.N.I.E.'s emotions than his own. Cannon's perfectly fine about being brutally honest with others, and he's usually not shy about expressing himself, but it's way harder for him to be honest and expressive when it leaves him vulnerable. In fact, that's such a key component of his personality, I made it part of his character design: a thin, gangly frame protected by bulky armor. Belt Boy and Cannon do have a little bit of a bromance; I tried to sell that a bit more in the previous comic's last panel and moreso in this comic's first panel. Despite what he says, we know that it's Cannon who's jealous of TM, and not the other way around. Have you entered my #contest yet, by the way?

TheHeroesOfCRASH.com I'm finally back from my long vacation! It was good to get away from it all, but I'm happy to be updating my site again. I want to thank everyone for their patience, and to congratulate Twitter user StarSumiaki on deciphering the most coded messages and winning my contest! Here's the deciphered letters for everyone else, with answers at the bottom. My comic will resume next week! I was planning on having more heroes' letters, but to be honest, I was also having lots of fun on my vacation, and I was having trouble thinking of other locations that posed good enough puzzles. I was thinking of having Dodge be in Santa Fe, and mentioning his dads having enjoyed songs about it from Rent and Newsies. Wasn't sure what to do for Dino-Mo. I was considering having Unk spend his vacation at my favorite childhood vacation spot, but quite frankly, it's gotten too crowded in recent years and I want to avoid giving it any publicity. In any event, I wound up just doing the seven heroes, and that wound up being more than enough anyway (Only two puzzles got solved at all). I initially was going to have Dexter showing off postcards, but I wound up having B.O.N.N.I.E. showing off digital messages, like status updates. It allowed me to use different-sized text boxes, and I like how it suggests B.O.N.N.I.E. ran a decryption program. It was also fun doing emoji versions of my heroes (Probably inspired by my having played Disney Emoji Blitz earlier in the day).

TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Normally B.O.N.N.I.E. trusts Belt Boy's plans, but to be fair, his judgement has been a bit off today... I've always drawn B.O.N.N.I.E. with sharp angles; I envision her as looking like Nintendo 64-style graphics. I think I may have been inspired by the opening to Super Mario 64, where you get to play around with Mario's abnormally-stretchy face. Not sure how stretchy B.O.N.N.I.E.'s face is, but no one's been terribly curious about that (yet...). If you've been following me on social media (and you should!), you know two things: first, I haven't been promoting my comic as regularly as usual this week, and second, that today's update is a bit late. To address the first issue, it's because the filler this week was regarding my cousin's passing. I felt a bit weird about reblogging that announcement all week, especially along with my contest announcement. Didn't feel right to me. As far as the lateness of today's update, it's because some winter weather briefly knocked out our power yesterday, and I decided not to turn my computer back on to complete my comic until the wind subsided. Well, better late than never; my comic's back up, and I didn't even lose the entire day! Anyway, just in case you've already forgotten, I want to remind you that I have my annual fan art contest, and EVERYONE who submits a valid entry gets a prize! Check out the rules by clicking the button on my main page!

TheHeroesOfCRASH.com Maybe B.O.N.N.I.E.'s calculations are rounded down...? 0% feels like it should at least be some kinda decimal, like 0.5% or something... This storyline has been a bit more dramatic than most; it addresses a lot of characters' baggage. Don't worry; this comic isn't going full-drama. Even the best comedic cartoons have their dramatic moments (If the ending of the "Jurassic Bark" episode of Futurama didn't make you tear up a little the first time you saw it, you have no soul). B.O.N.N.I.E. gets her name from being the Belt Operation Network Neohuman with Inexplicable Emotions, and this comic showcases part of her inexplicably emotional side we haven't seen before. As a computer program, B.O.N.N.I.E. can't disobey a direct order, but she does have a degree of agency, and she's very protective of Belt Boy. She's not just a warning system that tells Belt Boy when systems are offline or when he's been seriously hurt; she makes her own judgements, and tells Belt Boy that he's putting himself in danger. She's being a friend as much as she is a program.

TheHeroesOfCRASH.com It seems that B.O.N.N.I.E. has pointed out a flaw in Belt Boy's logic, but whether or not her comment will sink in has yet to be seen. Watch the angst, BB - you don't wanna go all "typical DC movie" on us!* After some computer hardware repairs, lots of predicted lightning storms, and me being exhausted, today's comic almost didn't get uploaded on time. I was tempted to go for another filler - I was thinking of having Belt Boy or TM follow up on Wednesday's Net Neutrality message in a filler featuring a parody song, turning Walk the Moon's "Shut Up and Dance" into a song about Net Neutrality. The phrase "Net Neutrality" fits into the song pretty easily. But I decided against it; I've been doing very few fillers in the past year or so, but I broke my streak a few times in April/May, and I wanted to stay on track. So, I kept Wednesday's message up and put this week's comic beneath it. Still, with all those delays, I did most of this week's comic in one night. It's nearly 5AM as I'm writing this, so I hope you appreciate my dedication to getting my comic updated on time with a proper canonical comic! Fight scenes are still a bit tricky for me, but I'm pretty happy with BB's poses in panels 2 and 4. I really wanted to make him look like he could use his own fighting skills AND his gadgets at the same time, rather than relying too heavily on one or the other, or switching between the two. Back to Belt Boy's angst that I referenced in the first paragraph, but putting jokes aside... I don't think of Belt Boy as a particularly "angsty" character. But I do think of my comic as being like a Saturday morning cartoon, and even funny cartoon heroes can have a breaking point, or moments of seriousness between the laughs. This is particularly true in today's cartoons, where Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, and even Gumball can have dramatic, poignant moments. Similarly, BB's been a bit less of a goofball since Necros appeared. Don't worry, though; he'll be back to joking and being zany soon enough. *Not Wonder Woman, of course. That movie rocked. :-)

theheroesofcrash.comWho could this shadowy figure be...?! The answer will SHOCK you! Okay, it actually probably WON'T shock you if you read my comic. But a villain of this caliber deserves a dramatic introduction. I'm proudest of that panel in the lower left. I like BB's punched expression and the blurry fist. Just altogether a good, toony image. Just reminding you that my Fan Art contest is still going on, and EVERYONE who enters gets a prize! There's even an easy-peasy category for people to submit game avatars based on my characters! What are you waiting for? Enter my contest! You can also click on the button on my main page for the full rules.

theheroesofcrash.com With an evil, witch-like villainess bursting out of a trash can she'd been trapped in, I couldn't resist making a Power Rangers reference. Tee hee! Belt Boy doesn't have Cannon's natural sarcastic wit, but after years of having Cannon as a friend and seeing witty hero reparte in comics/cartoons/movies, he's able to make some decent quips against evildoers. Granted, a lot of them are puns, but he takes pride in them. I colored the trash can in the second panel with the grays and blues it's supposed to have, then put a translucent layer of red coloring over it to make it look like it was heating up. I also used translucent layers for the steam. I love how B.O.N.N.I.E. is cowering behind Belt Boy in the last panel. While she could easily have communicated with BB without popping out of his belt - much like she did in the previous comic - I felt that making her hide behind him made her emotion that much stronger.

theheroesofcrash.com Somewhere between Justice League and Tom and Jerry... lies The Heroes of C.R.A.S.H. Hoo boy! Today's comic was quite an undertaking. I wound up using a lot of layers for that last panel in order to have the translucent layers and sound effects. The last two panels, at one point, were going to be one long panel, with an additional image of Sunflower just before she crashed into the wall, but breaking it up into two panels seemed to let the action flow a bit more, making it easier to read. I decided to make the two panels share scenery and a stretched-out word balloon to illustrate that the two images are close to each other in terms of both distance and time. By the way, if you still are interested in my birthday contest - in which EVERYONE gets a prize - the details are on this page: http://www.theheroesofcrash.com/ContestRulesAnStuffPage.htm

theheroesofcrash.com She's back! The return of the super-mean, superpowered supervillain (with a super-silly name), Miss Sunflower! Seems Belt Boy wants to calm her hot temper with some refreshing soda, but is this plan all wet? I accidentally gave today's comic's title to last week's comic, although it's still pretty apt. Last week's title was supposed to have been "Old School" - a reference to all the mentions of school in the dialogue, as well as to Belt Boy's classic science class project-based plan. This week's title, I came up with off the top of my head. A good portion of my comic is inspired by the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons of the late 80s and early 90s. While a lot of people don't really like how the Turtles would often resort to silly visual gags and slapstick instead of actual ninja fighting, I still enjoy it, and today's gag is an homage to that. I do, after all, want to give my comic the feel of a Saturday morning cartoon. I'm decently pleased with how the layout of today's comic turned out, given the limited space I alotted myself. If I could add a panel, I'd put one between panels 4 and 5, showing Miss Sunflower struggling to her feet.

theheroesofcrash.com Seems Belt Boy has a plan coming together... and it's going to either be brilliant or extremely silly. Oh, who am I kidding? Knowing Belt Boy, it'll probably be both. For this comic, I decided that B.O.N.N.I.E. could communicate with Belt Boy without putting up her screen via his B-Chip - the communication device that he, Cannon, and Titanium Maiden all have hidden in their headgear. It seems logical, as having her screen out would probably keep him from running as fast. I also decided to have BB look a bit less worn-out than he did in the last strip in which he appeared; he's covering it up a bit better as he puts his "game face" on. Plus, I think it helps that he's focused on one thing right now: defeating Miss Sunflower. And I'll admit, I just like how he looks in the first panel and I didn't want to ruin it by frazzling his hair or showing the bags under his eyes. So I'll excuse them away however I want. So there. Nyah, nyah. :-P Seriously, though, I do like his pose in that first panel. While I've been largely focused on improving the anatomy of my characters over the past year or so, I feel like I've neglected the "toony" side of their design, leaving my characters a bit stiff. So, I'm doing a bit of experimenting by starting my drawings with a "line of action" in order to make better poses. From what I understand, it's best to exaggerate the line of action as much as possible, as it loses some of that exaggeration when you add in structure. I think that first panel is an indication of how well it's helping; BB looks like he's really moving. The title of this comic is a reference to actor Paul Zaloom, who played the title character on Beakman's World. While I appreciate Bill Nye's past and continuing contributions to the scientific community, he was only my third favorite educational TV scientist. My second favorite was Mr. Wizard (I remember waking up early in the morning and seeing Mr. Wizard's World on Nickelodeon many times hwen I was really, really young), and my number one pick was - you guessed it - Beakman. His show was a lot like Bill Nye's with its comedic tone and cartoony sound effects, but he had two co-stars (A disgruntled man in a rat suit named Lester, who often served as the straight man or victim for many a joke, as well as one of three different female lab assistants that changed between seasons), and he actually answered kids' science questions that were mailed to him (In an era where the internet wasn't popular yet, computers weren't in every house, and Googling stuff was essentially impossible, this was HUGE.). Also, I got to meet "Beakman" at a science museum tour, help him on stage, and get his autograph, so he's definitely a sentimental favorite. :-) Oh, and lastly, did you catch that pop culture reference on the cover of Belt Boy's book? That gag was a last-minute addition, and I hope some of my fellow animation fans get it...!

Belt Boy's ready to take on Miss Sunflower mano a mano...Or is that mano y mano? Mano y womano? *A quick Google search later...* Huh... it's really "mano a mano", and that means "hand-to-hand"... Which may not be accurate since BB and Sunflower are both decked out in tech gear. Well, in any event, there's gonna be some fighting. Not much commentary to add on this strip, except maybe that I really like BB's pose in panel #2. I actually have a bit more commentary for last week's strip: I went back and edited last week's strip; I accidentally forgot to put on B.O.N.N.I.E.'s eye lens. Whoops!

theheroesofcrash.com Isn't that always how it goes? You think you have everything sorted out, and then WHAM! Life throws you a curveball that hits you right between the eyes. What emergency is Belt Boy being alerted to? Find out next time! Y'know, we don't see a lot of B.O.N.N.I.E. in the comic. This is largely because - although she has thoughts, feelings, and emotions - she is still a computer program, and while it would be a stretch to say she lacks free will, she does have some limitations on what she can do. She doesn't pop out of Belt Boy's utility belt unless summoned, or unless she's been instructed to appear under certain conditions (like if there's an emergency). Still, she can act on her own when given free reign (She plays a LOT of online games when not actively helping BB with tasks!). The other reason is that her "vector look" is a bit annoying to draw at times. She might be due for a redesign (Or, in her case, an upgrade!).