Another book by FA BD Comics (https://fabdcomics.com/), this time "heritage" by David Revoy. Here's the review I left on Amazon:

The original title of this comic is " L'héritage en couleur". It's fitting that this publisher decided to remove the "en couleur" because what's here is solely in black and white.

Where David's original story uses color to show mood, texture and emotion what this book leaves behind is pallid, characterless, and devoid of life. What should be the story of a young girl trying to escape her dysfunctional surroundings becomes a sickly gray morass. David's artwork is strong enough to withstand such robotic transference to the page but it's telling that the artwork is doing the heavy lifting here. The publisher's compilation of the story does nothing to improve it. Worse, the "making of" section of sketches looks like a cheap attempt to fluff out the book (which is single-sided). It's not obvious in the above photos but you can clearly see pixelation and other digital artifacts in those sketches.

For such a powerful story it would have been nice had the publisher actually put some effort into this work. But like most content farmers they just saw the opportunity to republish an existing work that was under a free culture license. If their hope was to expand the commons and make it vital and and important they have succeeded only in cheapening it.

Here's yet another book from FA BD Comics (https://fabdcomics.com/) in the Pepper&Carrot universe. This time they used Nicholas Artance's fabulous Pepper&Carrot Mini as part of their content pillaging. This is the review I posted on Amazon:

Disclaimer: I am a contributor to the Pepper&Carrot project.

Where to begin with this one. For starters the cover image is not released under a Creative Commons License. It's also modified from the original version by adding "Mini" over the original artist's work and name. Worse, the back cover is unattributed to its original author (Nikolai Mamashev), and is also edited with the company's Payhip QR Code. Classy.

Once we get inside the book we find all sorts of slapdash issues. Comics that are sized to where you'd need reading glasses to read, color artwork that was never intended for black and white, and a presentation that does a huge disservice to Nicholas Artance's fabulous work. Nicholas Artance's Pepper&Carrot Mini is full of humor, life, and joy. Contrast this with this presentation, which is dull, lifeless, and boring.

I am a huge proponent of Creative Commons licenses which allow folks to remix and reuse artwork like this, but I feel this publisher continually misses the mark in the hopes of trying to just push a product. There is no care or forethought in any of their products. They show about as much forethought as a kid applying a paper sticker to a bicycle. These are not designed to enhance the commons, they're simply another bit of content that can be repackaged and repurposed.

I feel this publisher should do better. Contact the artists and get them involved. Make something we all can be proud of instead of just churning out uninspired product.

This is their site: https://fabdcomics.com/

Wrote a review of this weak-sauce cash-grab:

Disclaimer: I'm one of the contributors to Pepper&Carrot. I have intimate knowledge of the workings of the comic.

David Revoy's Pepper&Carrot is a marvelous, rich world that has sparked the imaginations of many of its readers and fans (myself included). This has brought about a myriad of "fan art" publications. This is good, as it brings about a common culture around these comics and characters. David Revoy has made his characters and comics available under the permissive Creative Commons By Attribution license.

Unfortunately this doesn't apply to the fan artworks. Those are licensed separately. So what we have here is not technically permitted under the umbrella of David Revoy's license.

Add to that the slap-dash packaging of these artworks. The originals for most of these artworks were in color. These are presented in black-and-white with an attempt to format them to the printed page. You can see some of the results in the enclosed photos.

This company seems to specialize in packaging up CC-licensed work. That is their right under the license and I encourage it wholeheartedly. However, this is worse than me printing them out on my laser printer, and does not honor the work of the original artists. You can find the originals on the peppercarrot.com website and judge for yourself.

I'd urge the publisher to reach out to the artists before publishing such weak-sauce collections. we have templates that were used for the original P&C comics. We have experience in this area. This just feels like a cheap attempt to put some print-on-demand nonsense out there to leverage the community, the reputation of the author, and the permissiveness of the license for their own benefit.

Judge for yourself how well that went.

Current view of the office. Pulled one of the monitors onto another machine to help wit focusing on one task at a time.

likewise

Pebble Time, still going strong.

I still have the single "The Fly" in my collection. the rest of the album didn't appeal to my 1990s sensibilities but it might be worth a re-listen.

Pixel has always been well-read.

Pixel in repose with a cup, also in repose.

Note that this mostly focuses on bands that were distributed by Christian Labels (with the exception of Chagall Guevara, which was release on MCA but had a hard time shaking the Christian pigeonholing. Bands like Galactic Cowboys and Kings X were also a part of this collection, but since both bands wanted to be known first and foremost as musicians I have left them out.

Yeah, Christian Metal got a lot less interesting with the implosion of several labels (Frontline / Intense), the closure of one of the stores that I went to that specialized in Christian Music, and the overall change in politics from the time. That and the only labels that still seem to have survived (Tooth and Nail) specializes in punk, which is far less interesting to me. It was a really special hot-minute.

It's Ubuntu 18.04 (Apologies for the snarky response that I deleted. I misread the the original).

And we have been overdue for playing Klax?

It was suggested to Welsh Pixie for a calligraphy drawing. I'm not the originator of it, so I have no say in this. Post is here: https://mastodon.art/@welshpixie/108590668654992510

Thank you.

Updated photo of my desk (aka the Chamber of Caffeine and Contemplation), including artwork from David Revoy and Welsh Pixie.

Anyone have an idea what this is?

My first CD Player. Bought this thing at Highland Appliance along with three CDs. This thing was my workhorse throughout highschool and parts of college until I got a different portable / stand-alone CD Player.

Sadly it doesn't work anymore. It has ceased its functioning. Rest easy, sweet prince.