So, in case you don’t follow me on Twitter (shame on you) I thought I’d let everyone know the disaster that happened this weekend.  Woke up Friday morning and my computer was dead.  VH1 dead.  It was bad.  I had no clue what happened, as it happened while I was sleeping.  That always kinda sucks.

The good news is I have very knowledgeable friends like Brian Sparks who know everything about something.  Brian knows computers and technology stuff, and over the phone in less then 2 minutes he was able to tell me what was wrong, exactly what to buy, and how to replace and repair it.  So, as soon as I got a day off from work (Mon) I ran to Best Buy.  I was in the store 5 minutes after they opened!

Of course he was totally right, and now the computer is up and running again.  That’s the great news.  The not so great is that the problem is really just a short fix.  This is the third time my computer has crashed this year.  I’ve finally come to the conclusion I need to just replace the whole darned thing… which makes me sad since this is my first computer and I built it myself (with Brian’s excellent help) five years ago.

Still, no point in dragging out the poor thing’s pain so sometime this fall I’ll have to get a new computer.  When that time comes I’ll let you all know of course.

The side effect of all this mess is that I didn’t get a chance to scan or photoshop the comics at all this weekend.  That’s rough as it sets me behind pretty badly… most of my work on comics is done Friday-Sunday.  Fortunately I still had hands to draw with (no hooks yet, mates) but it takes longer to do the photoshop work then the drawing.

The plan right now, regretfully, is to let Monday go without a comic.  I’ll work hard today and get the rest of this week finished up like normal though I might be a few hours late each day.  I apologize in advance for that.  Starting next week though I’ll get going full speed once more.

Thanks for the patience everyone and I’ll do my absolute best to make it up to you!  I have some awesome sweet plans for the near future!  See you tomorrow!!

Not sure if everyone knew but yet another super hero movie came out this weekend.  I guess that’s great and all but I’m about burned out on the genre now.  This summer may honestly kill the super hero movie market for a year or two… just to many to see.  Iron Man, Hulk, Hellboy 2, Dark Knight, Hancock, on and on and on.

What I really needed was a change of pace… I needed a super villain movie.  Thankfully Joss Whedon provided that with Dr. Horrible.   If you’re interested in a comedic, super-villian, blogging, musical misadventure then grab it up on download.  It’s worth it.

Now, if you still need a little more internet movie fun I’ve got one more recommendation - and this is one that not a lot of people are familiar with.  Check out the flash video series There She Is!  This is a series of flash videos that are really very well made.  I’ve been a big fan for a while now and “Step 3″ of the series just came out!!  Don’t be intimidated by the Korean text - there’s a button at the top for English and the video’s have English translations in them.  The blue button directs you right to videos.  Check them out!

As for me, I’m going to watch the series finale movie event Avatar: Sozin’s Comet which I missed originally but was lucky enough to find video of thanks to some of my Twitter friends!

Okay, so Friday’s comic had brackets around the text and there were some questions to what that meant.  When you see the < > brackets it means the text has been translated from whatever language the character normally speaks.  I’ve seen this used in other comics and manga for people speaking foreign languages and in BlueStar Blues I’ll be using it to represent the use of alien dialects.

For now, the common rule is to think what someone from Earth (like Cody) would understand.  No brackets means he hears normal English, with brackets means it makes no sense to him.  This rule will come into play pretty soon.

It is a bit complex, and I’m sorry for that, but it was the best way I could think of to differ the two situations. If it’s not working like I intend or it makes no sense let me know.  Otherwise this is how I’ll be doing things.

I wanted to make sure that was clear before, say… Tuesday’s comic.  *whistles innocently*

What up Pirates?  Wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who helped make this launch week into a big success!  I heard about a few forum posts and blog posts floating around that pointed people over here, and I’m sure there were some emails and IMs as well!  Thanks so much to all of you who helped out so far!

If you haven’t had a chance to spread the word, fear not, cause that ship hasn’t quite left the harbor yet!  There’s still plenty of time this weekend to spread the word and the easiest way to do it of course is hit that “Share This” button up top, but Twitter, blogs, posts, comments, IMs, email and word of mouth all helps too!

Just a quick reminder too that BlueStar takes Fridays off, but we’ll be back full steam on Monday!  Enjoy your weekend and thanks for reading!

Welcome to BlueStar Blues, a comic about space pirates, nerd losers, aliens, adventure, destiny, dreams, challenges, changes, and all that other cliqued stuff. Really, its the story of the wrong person at the wrong time for all the wrong reasons and learning to deal with it. There will be action, drama, comedy, and sadness, and I will try very hard to keep it balanced and easy for everyone to enjoy: kids, parents, grandparents, boys, girls, singles, couples, nerds, populars, pirates, ninjas, and polar bears.  Mostly pirates though….

For those of you familiar with my other comic WTH I want to assure you that I intend to keep both comics running smoothly with updates 4 days a week. I also promise that neither comic is more important, as they both represent a different part of me and my work. What BlueStar offers me is the chance to tell a story and create an entire world.

So, now that you’ve heard a bit about what I want BlueStar to be, feel free to dig around the site. Currently I have nothing for a cast page or the extras section because I really haven’t introduced many characters or done any extra things. However, I do have a podcast called the Chug-A-Freeze that everyone’s welcome to listen to, and there are forums that you can join! Of course I hope you all read the archives, and the comments should be open so feel free make your voice heard! My email is joshua-at-bluestarblues.com and I’m eager to meet any new Pirates looking to join the crew. Oh, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say I love FanArt and if you have the interest send it my way so I can start filling in the Extras page!

One last thing, and I won’t do this often so don’t worry! If you like BlueStar so far, please do me a favor and spread the word. It doesn’t have to be anything special. A forum nod or a link through IM to a friend. Maybe a blog post or an email to a co-worker. You could even hit that “Share This” button just under the comic. Anything is appreciated, but since BlueStar is new a little shove to get started would mean a lot! Thank you so much!!

I’ll see you all tomorrow, and welcome aboard, me mateys!!

– Joshua

Well, everything on the site is done and ready to go for the most part. Couple of things aren’t exactly the way I’d like them to be but I can deal with it. The only things that are really left out are the Crew page and the Extras page. I will get to work on them later but not before the ‘launch’ on Monday. The Crew page I’m a little timid about putting up right now as all we’ve really met so far are the Humans, and I think any hint of the other species before they show up will spoil it. Fortunately, starting Monday we’ll begin meeting the Crew of The Valkyrie so the comic will announce them. After I’ve introduced some of the pirates I think I’ll start working on an official cast page. As for the extras, I just don’t have anything to put there yet. I’m sure that’ll change soon. So, with that the site’s ready to go!

So, in case anyone is wondering the comic is going through some tweaks still on the sizing, specifically the height. My previous comic work is tall layout rather then width. BlueStar will be a bit different in design and its going to take me a little trial and error to get a size I’m happy with. So, having said that please forgive me for the odd adjustments early on I’ll do my best to settle quickly! Thanks!!

When we all look back on this years later no one will have remembered the first time I tried to launch BlueStar Blues because I hadn’t told anyone yet.  It was only a month ago, and I had little more then a week of comics done and in the system and the site only about half done.

A lot changes in a month, and in this case a new computer hard-drive and a new ComicPress release have given me enough reason to start over.  Fortunately, as I said before, never actually announced the new comic.  So, for the few of you that stumbled upon BlueStar before I apologize that you’ll have to watch as I restart the whole cycle.

For the rest of you who read this in the archives (perhaps years later) don’t worry.  You didn’t miss anything.  In the end all that’s happened is I reposted comics and changed the site design.

So for the old and new and yet to arrive I proudly present to you:  BlueStar Blues!!  Thanks for reading, hopefully we can become fast friends!  Later dayz!!

– Joshua Jericho