The cover to the 4th compilation of Robot Friday comic strips is FINALLY finished. This cover took a lot longer to complete than it really should have. One of the factors contributing to the length of time it took to complete is the fact that this was one of my first serious coloring jobs in Adobe Photoshop.

As many of you may know, I’ve been creating the comic in Adobe Illustrator up until this year when I switched over to coloring the strip in Adobe Photoshop (I still ink and letter in Illustrator). For the strip I do mainly flats, but for comic covers, prints and other special pieces I like to add more to the color than just flats. Because I have never seriously colored in Photoshop, until today, it took a little bit of playing around – which took a lot more time than it should have. But at any rate the cover, and book, is finished.

Book 4 will collect most of the strips from 2012, up to October. As all other collections it will contain artist commentary and some behind-the-scenes stuff. The book will be available on the site to order in print some shortly after Thanksgiving and a FREE digital version will be on the site shortly thereafter.

Over the weekend my wife and I were out and about getting a little bit of an eyeful of the dreaded shopping season to come. We decided to stop off at out local mall and while there we popped our heads into the knife replica store. I go in there from time to time to look for only one thing. Each time I go in, excited with anticipation I am always disappointed when they don’t have the item I gleefully scour the racks for. But this time THEY HAD IT! They had the most epic of all swords EVER! FROSTMOURNE!

For those of you not familiar, Frostmourne is an amazing sword used by the antagonist of the MMORPG World of Warcraft. You’ll have to look it up and possibly play the games to really understand what it’s about and how cool it is. For me it’s the Holy Grail of fantasy memorabilia. The reason being is because a few years ago I was a mildly hardcore WoW player. In fact, I took two years off to just play that game. It was pretty great and it’s something I will write about at some point.

Anyway, I walked into this mall store and there the sword hung. Calling me. Beckoning me. Seducing me! I asked to hold the sword and it was probably the most giddy I had felt in my entire life. I think I even giggled a little bit. Now, this wasn’t some plastic crappy sword. This was a REAL metal sword that could actually be used! I wanted it. I still do, but with a price tag of $225.00 I felt that it should stay on the rack. As amazing as that experience was, the thing that happened when my wife and I left the store was even better.

As we leave the store, behind me almost as a whisper, I hear my wife ask, “Do you want that sword?” I turn and ask her to repeat the question. Again she asks, “Do you really want that sword? Because, if you do, we could figure out how to make it happen.” I almost cried. Not from the fact that here I was just feet away from the most epic fantasy thing I have and would EVER want and was now talking with my wife about getting, but the mere fact that she wanted me to have it was just too much.

It is moments like these that God reminds me of such an amazing woman I’ve been blessed to marry. I know, this all sounds cheesy and it kind of is, I mean it’s just a damn sword. But it is a very rare thing that you find someone that loves you so much and wants you to be so happy that they would be willing to fork over a car payment sized amount of cash so that you can have a sword from a video game!

I love my wife. I’ve loved her from the day I met her. I feel a connection with her I have never felt with any other human being on this planet. A connection that I feel, if broken, would be the end of me. And every day I feel like I have clearly gotten the better end of this matrimony deal and who could argue that point? I mean, how many wives do you know that would try to talk you INTO buying an epic sword? Would yours? Mine will and tried. Bless her heart, she almost won too. But I heeded the warning of the Lich:

“Whomsoever takes up this blade shall wield power eternal. Just as the blade rends flesh, so must power scar the spirit.” 

And we just walked away.