'Geekz' Hits its First Century

It's not often I feature a real person in this strip, but the 100th edition of my weekly geeky webcomic demanded something special.

I also decided to colour it myself, for the first time ever.

Geekz Still Going Strong

It was back in 2009 that Chaz first had the whimsical idea of creating a web comic based around an email technical support helpdesk (and in no way inspired by his own day job on an email technical support helpdesk). Some time later down the line, Chaz stumbled across fellow web cartoonist Jeff Swenson (the mind behind the Freethunk Freethinkers website - sometimes controversial, often edgy but always worth checking out), and that old webcomic idea returned fully-formed.

And so it was that the strip "IT's All Geek to Me" was born (a convoluted pun if ever there was one - hence it now being universally known as 'Geekz'). Well over a year later, and the weekly strip (updated every Monday) shows no signs of running out of steam, such is the bonus of working in an environment which feeds inspiration and ideas into the work. It also helps to have a colleague who is just as adept at coming up with strange and bizarre ideas and gags as Chaz is, and who can probably be named as the Geekz No. 1 fan (Mr. Dave, that's you - take a bow.)

Wouldn't it be great if all writing could be so easily inspired...with enough material to keep us going well into the foreseeable future?

'Geekz' is hosted by the most excellent Mr. Ofer Israel over at his 'Humor Portal', which can be every bit as daring and edgy. There's also a compilation 'Geekz' book planned before the end of the year, which will collect together the first 70-odd strips as well as some new content. Some of the earlier, then-topical iPhone gags might look a bit dated now but a true geek would never criticize such a thing - that sense of the retro just adds to the whole geekishness of the thing (we're hoping...)

'Geekz' has its own Facebook page with regular strip updates and some behind-the-scenes content too. Pop along and give us the thumbs-up if you like!

A Very Geeky Christmas...

Jeff Swenson, over at Freethunk, recently commissioned Chaz to produce a 2-part festive edition of his ongoing tech-support webcomic series, Geekz, which is usually published every Monday at 2Laugh.com.

There's an interesting interview there too detailing the origins of the strip, its characters, and development. Part 2 will be following soon.

Here's the link.


You can follow the Geekz series every week at: 2Laugh.com.

Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts...

...especially if it's any of this bunch of dysfunctional IT support clowns.

The idea of a webcomic based around an IT support desk came to me a couple of years ago but it was only last year in 2009 that I started to do something about it, and only now that I've found a (albeit temporary) place to display them publically.

As anybody who draws comics knows, it's really 80% writing and 20% artwork. Most of the real work is in thinking, writing, fine-tuning a few words for the best possible payoff. If the gag, the joke, the concept are great, it doesn't matter how lame the artwork is - two of the greatest cartoonists of the 20th Century, Schulz and Thurber, had minimal technical ability.

If the joke is a dud, or the writing lame, I don't think it matters how eye-catching the art is, the strip will fail. As such, in this series I'm seeking to focus my energy on honing something that is written as succintly and with as much character as I can pack into three frames. This means that the art is more minimal than I would normally prefer, but that is also a bonus - it means I'm not spending countless hours drawing the thing, and on a different level, the recycling of stock scenes and characters throughout helps to enforce the sense of repetition and familiarity of life day in, day out, in an office environment, a sense of tedium which perhaps only the off-the-wall personalities of the characters can penetrate.

As to why I decided to write about a bunch of geeks on a technical helpdesk, this was in no way related to my own personal experiences of working beside a bunch of geeks on a technical help desk. Reality could never translate into the world of Tomasz, Arnie, Mungo and company, which is more akin to a little-remembered 1990s TV comedy show I used to enjoy a lot, titled "Dweebs".

For sure, there are plenty of other IT-related strips out there. But this one has one difference: set on an email-based helpdesk, many of the gags are text-based rather than sight, or dialogue, based. This is where the writing comes in that I mentioned earlier, though I will be mixing it up with a variety of humour styles.

In any case, it's early days yet but enjoy these free samples, I hope. I may post more in future here if a more high-profile home can't be found in the short term...

Round-Up of the Year

The recent and very unexpected failure of Borders has, of course, left its mark on Fenriswulf's current production schedule. Gone (but not forgotten) is the ashcan project - small freebie (or low-priced) paperback samples of our catalogue to date, designed to sit by tills in similar locations in-store. Once we find another bricks-and-mortar outlet for books again, this project will return. (It is in fact complete, and good to go straight to the printers - but as with all print-on-demand, I will get them printed when there is actually some possibility of demand...)

Mr. Chaz has been happily busy with drawing and illustration commissions since the Spring of this year which is why not much has been happening on the new books front, and this looks likely to continue well into next year too. Fenriswulf in general is not so much on the backburner, but rather branching out. There's a possibility of new personnel appearing on the scene before too long also, so watch this space.

A new comic strip, originally conceived as a traditional 3-panel webcomic, is also due to make an appearance somewhere in the very near future. A couple of publishing collaborations may also be on the cards in the New Year, but with nothing definite as yet, we can't say too much at this juncture. More info, of course, will be revealed as and when we have it, however, with Fenriswulf becoming at least as art-oriented now as book-oriented, we're in the process of considering some projects based on visual art - such as those listed in the experimental Cafe Press store - for example, a series of T-shirts, greetings cards, or calendars (which is looking like the most likely option so far).

In the meantime, have a good holiday and we'll see you all in the New Year for what we hope to be a busy and productive 2010.