Okay, not many pains are worse than gettin’ your nuts in a bunch…
Check out the Facebook page (click the “F” down there on the beer bottle caps) and check out the rough draft of the updated character designs I’m working on. Time for a face-lift here at 1977 as I stretch my cartooning chops, so the characters will evolve. My oldest son, Justin, is helping me with the designs. He’s the real cartoonist in the family, he just doesn’t know it yet. Part of what motivated this was I wanted to update their outfits and hair styles. I have NEVER ever liked Robyn’s hair. I just never got her look down for some odd reason. I introduced her back in late 2007 and have struggled with her hair constantly. The new design is more indicative of her personality. That was the goal of the updated designs was to show their personality without them even “opening” their mouths. I’m getting closer, if I say so myself. Let me know what you think over at Facebook.
Deep Purple’s album “Who Do We Think We Are?” is another overlooked classic rock album that is full of some great stuff. It is the last studio album with Ian Gillan and Roger Glover as part of Deep Purple for some time to come. Besides the radio hit “My Woman From Tokyo” there are several really good songs and I think this album has a better overall sound than its predecessor “Machine Head”. Today’s comic title also features some good old fashioned flanging back in the day when studio techs held their thumbs on the reel as it played to achieve the sound effect. I’ve also included my favorite song off the album called “Rat Bat Blue” which is just a good fun rocker and also a GREAT tune to test out stereo systems with at Best Buy as the thing starts off quiet and then BLAM! will part the hair of anyone within 100 feet. Rock on.
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BONUS! Rat Bat Blue
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Um, clicking on the Facebook bottle-cap gets me a ‘this page does not exist’ message. URL please?
And welcome back! Looking better than ever
Hmmm… Facebook has been loading slowly for me. Here’s the URL:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/1977-the-Comic/160369195360
Good to be back!
Nope, still Page Not Found. At a guess, it’s because I’m not a victi-, um member of FarceBook. And never will join that site or any of its clones. ~thinks~ Got any way to privately show me some samples? Because I seem to remember a ‘guest comic’ that was drawn by one of your offspring, and if it’s the same one, you are *still* the only cartoonist in the family *so far* (though look at the way you’ve improved exponentially in such a short time, so who knows…).
Wow I didn’t know dressing like STar Wars characters took off so quickly.
You’ll find out why Bud has the costume in a bit… wink, wink!
O.o
Awesome!! Now if only bud can get her to dress up like Leia they’ll have a stellar time.
Robyn was in the “famous” slave outfit back on August 2nd for a Star Wars comic cover parody I did to relaunch the website.
http://www.1977thecomic.com/2009/08/02/the-saga-continues/
Always fun to draw and look at…
Deep Purple? And here was I thinking you had gone all “Abba” on us.
Though how you could have a strip themed on the late 70s and not so much as mentioned Abba is a bit of a puzzler, now I come to think on it.
They were *everywhere*.
Well, truth be told, I have used two ABBA song titles and they did not go over well. So…
Also, their song was called “Super Trouper” after the HUGE frakkin’ spotlights used at rock concerts back in the day. These spotlights used the light from an electrical arc to create a damn bright light. The one I used in my high school/college days was a manual feed arc spotlight (thus not a Super model). Two long arc rods were held in place, then touched lightly to create the arc and then you backed them off to create the electrical spark. As they burned away, you had to inch them ever so slowly together. Fun time to move the spotlight with an actor and adjust the arc at the same time.
You could run the spotlight with the shield open and get a really nasty sun burn. That was always fun to come out of a concert all tanned from the arc light. But the real fun was changing out the burnt out rods. You had these really thick gloves, a pair of pliers and quick fingers to get the damn things out without burning the crap out of your hands. Dropped on on my shoe once and melted my gym shoe in no time. It’s amazing how fast a shoe will come off when you’re in pain.
Ah, the good ol’ days…
Er…check out the title in your little player widget thingy.
8o))))))))
Well I be a son of a bitch… for YEARS I’ve thought it was “trooper” not “trouper”. But as I pull out the REEL tape, it is indeed trouper. Crap.
Duly noted and totally embarrassed.
Reel-to-reel? You’re forgiven! Revox hardware? 15 inches a second?
Another example of why original kit beats digi-box on sheer cool alone.
Blinding!
Dark Helmet
LOL! A great “Spaceballs” reference! “May the Schwartz be with you!” Pizza the Hut was gross though…
Love how Bud calls her “man”. Not that I’d stop to put on Bud’s get up, but I’d imagine I’d get out of it pretty quick with a woman wanting to show me how much she missed me!!
LOL! “man” is one of those funny terms… it’s not really gender specific to my knowledge as it was used in the 70s (and today). But, we did use it a lot… and I still do.
Speaking of “man”… I always get a big chuckle in the 1978 “Superman” movie. Clark Kent is played up the fool still using 50s terms like “swell” but the first time Superman catches a crook and hand him over to a police officer, Sup points to the stolen goods and goes “I’d listen to this, man.” Like a Kryptonian superhero would use a slang term to be cool. I found it really funny. Most people don’t notice it, but I did. Still makes me laugh…
Bud, like me, likes to show off… thus why putting the outfit on FIRST instead of hopping into bed. We’re both crazy that way…
Heh – “Starship Trooper” by Yes would have worked, too – but I’ve always preferred Deep Purple over Yes.
What was up with the production on Machine Head, anyway? It features most of DP’s greatest tracks, but the whole album sounds like it was miked through a sofa cushion. The muffled sound is really distracting. Do you know if the album was ever remastered?
Love the new designs! Now Robyn looks like Runaways-era Joan Jett… which considering how much they have in common (time period, attitude, giving the finger to “chicks can’t rock” morons) is perfectly appropriate!
Good to see you back in action, Bryron. Cheers!
If my rusty 70s memory serves me well, the reason Machine Head sounded like shit was it was recorded in the Rolling Stones mobile studio. Essentially an RV with a studio in it. “Exile on Main Street” was recorded in it I believe. But the acoustics had to be pure shit and that’s the main reason Machine Head sucked for sound.
Great songs but terrible production. Ah, yes, thus the line in “Smoke On The Water” referring to “…the Rolling truck Stones thing just outside Making our music there..” confirms where it was recorded. According to Wikipedia, Smoke on the Water was the only song NOT recorded in the mobile studio. Still doesn’t explain why the bad sound.
Thanks for the comments on the updated looks… I’m digging them too.
i believe that a pretty good majority of led zeppelin iv (and bits of physical graffiti) was recorded with a mobile studio (i think two mobile studios were employed, one of them being the stones’ mobile studio), though they ran mics into the house instead of recording inside the mobile studio …
it was probably the environment deep purple chose to record in that caused the recordings to have bad sound quality …
–dee!
Oooh man, I had a long weekend and I came back to this. Oh how I laughed. I actually had a boyfriend once who was very much into dressing up like that. Only it was Darth Vader. I’m a geek, just..not that MUCH of a geek.
Also, I like your redesigns, Byron. It’s always weird to readjust, but I don’t think it will take long to get used to them. They’re very keen!
Toon in tomorrow as Robyn and Lorraine’s new look makes their first appearances.
I gotta get use to drawing the new designs… breaking old habits is not easy!
Dressing up for sex is like wrapping Thanksgiving dinner in foil… you’re just gonna rip it off to eat it anyway, so let’s skip a step and get right to dinner! We rednecks don’t mess around when it comes to our food…