I'm celebrating my first weekend off in 4 months by working on Antiheroes. I'm just getting the prelimenary stuff together for now, but since this is the Halloween episode, I am having fun dressing everyone up in costumes.

I've also done costumes for the Stewarts, but since I can only attach one picture, I'll save it for another day. I also did a costume for the Mike character, but that one will not be revealed till release, as that his costume is Newgrounds related.

I started Pendleton County High 4 over a year ago and never really got the momentum needed to finish it to its potential. The truncated version is up for judgement as I am typing this. Check it out - then check out the first three to see how far I've come as a flash artist.

Also, I drove to Fairmont over the weekend to visit Luke and D and to record the dialog for F.U.: Antiheroes. I've really hyped this one (almost as much as F.U.3) but it is my favorite script. I am concerned though that I'm not going to get it out as early as I want so you may just have to wait till next year to see it in the Halloween contest.

Oh, and the Ok5 Studios website is operational, though we are still in the process of uploading things to it. Take a look. We may actually be redesigning it soon.

Here is the Antiheroes logo. My tentative release date is October 3.

I've been in a new place now for three weeks and I just finally got DSL hooked up. Now, once life gets straightened out, I will be able to get work done on things. Voice recordings for F.U.: Antiheroes should be happening hopefully by next weekend. I expect it will take about three weeks to a month to finish. Once it's finished it'll be back to work on F.U.3. I'm sad sometimes on how little work has been accomplsihed in, what is now, the eight month since the script was completed.

To celebrate monotony, here is a screenshot from F.U.3. It's actually pretty boss - and doesn't look at all humorous. One of my goals in this project was to step away from the pop culture humor that has driven previous episodes and focus more on action-comedy, as that it is what I feel most people look for in a flash feature anyhow.

It's been a good past week. I'll review.

I got a new job. I'll be an ad designer at a small town newspaper (kinda what I was doing before, just in a place that ACTUALLY reports the news.) It starts Monday. I'll be car pooling with my wife, who just recently got a job at a radio station as an office manager and as a fill-in DJ. She co-hosted the morning show last Friday and it was freakin awesome. She even mentioned me a few times.

Nextly, a few of my free-lance projects are finishing up. The biggest being a 40 page festival guide. It was a lot of stress to get completed but it was a sweet $800 I got in the end.

I'm going out to Fairmont, WV in a few weeks to do the voice work for the last F.U. short of the year, F.U.: Antiheroes. This is my personal favorite of all the episodes this year, and what's more, it happens to be our Halloween entry for this year. Our strategy is to have it done by the time the Halloween page goes up. That way, we'll be the first Halloween submission out of the box. WooT for extra exposure.

Lastly, the Smokes project is on the back burner for now. It may be released eventually as an afterthought. I'm working on a new flash series tentatively titled Specter Street. It deals with a lot of themes I'm interested in, such as life, death, existence as a whole and the spiritual realm. It has to do with a fellow who has to travel 30 years in the past to find the man who killed him in the present. Once he finds him he has to prevent the event that causes him to turn into a killer. Development is in the early stages, but I feel it is something that can be worked up well.

I'm also novelizing a project we originally wanted to do as a graphic novel. It was an idea that Luke had originally that I took and developed. We, more or less, separated from the project when we couldn't agree on the ending. I took the dark approach, I want you to know. We called it Angel Clip in the beginning, but as the full story is being developed I think I'd rather go with the title The Fisher's of Men.

Finally, our website is almost ready to go. It's just a matter of adding content. Kudos to D for making it possible.

Sorry for the downtrodden last post. I just didn't want to see my F.U. streak come to an end. That being the first F.U. episode not to get a portal award, as well as the first of the last last five episodes that has not made front page.

I was working on a new series, but since I don't view it as anything greater than the F.U. series I think I'm just going to scrap it.

Also, the timeliness of the idea has worn off.

The series was titled Smokes. It dealt with cartoon characters we sorely lack in entertainment: Talking Cigarettes.
It follows the antics of Joe, V.A., Pall, Lucky and Marl, as well as talking snuff cans Den and Mark.
What inspired me was the Movie Ratings Board considering harsher ratings for movies that featured smoking. If that's the case then Good Night and Good Luck will get slapped with an NC-17 rating for graphic images of smoking.

The script was short, but hit well on the humor points. It was the execution that I wasn't happy with. Peices of the script may end up in later F.U. installments, as the jokes are easily transferable.

Here's an example:

(Talking about Robert Palmer (Wiki him if you don't know))

Joe: "Did you know that he died?"

V.A.: "What!"

Joe: "It's true. He died of an overdose."

Lucky: "The poor bastard was addicted to love."

See? Easy enough.

With the release of Deathday, there is one more F.U. episode left. F.U.: Antiheroes.

I'm frightened by the lackluster performance of Deathday, but it hasn't got me down too bad. Of all the scripts we've done this year, I think this one was the weakest.

Coming in October, I think Antiheroes is the champion of them all. Not only that, I think it's the best one I've written to date. I will begin production on it in August. The execution has to be perfect so that it can be a competitor in the Halloween competition.

Check of Deathday, even though it's sucking up the portal.

With Tom away next week I am a little concerned about how much the front page will be updated. I get determined, around release time, not to let F.U. episodes fall through the cracks - as the orginal F.U. Too release had.

Tom has been a big supporter of this series, as he is most up-and-coming series. It's been his support and encouragment that has kept this thing alive. I hope everyone enjoys our freshest installment, coming Tuesday!

I have a malestrom of things going on right now. I'm in hell week of producing a 40 page publication - and I've only got six pages done. In the midst of that, I'm moving to a new place. So, I'll be on my toes.

Yay for front page news!

F.U.: Happy Deathday is coming to the portal July 24, three weeks sooner than planned. It deals with a unusual birthday wish from Luke, whose flash counterpart is obsessive-compulsive.

It's was set to coinside with Luke's birthday on August 16, which also happens to be the day after Clock Day. Since there's so much going on that week, on NG and in our lives, we've decided on the early release. Because we're so busy, the video was completed early (about two weeks ago) and we were just sitting on it anyhow.

I'm happy I am able to report this. The redesign came in right when I needed it. Thanks Tom!

F.U.3 is coming too, but not till 2008. It's almost too ambitious, but we are chipping away at it.

Another series, tentatively titled "Smokes" is in production too, and should be out in late August.

Hope everyone's enjoying the redesign!
Mike

I am pleased with the redesign. Mainly because I have a place in which I can even tell whether I'm pleased or not. I'm going to have to spend the day getting things set back up. It's a good time to be alive.

Expect a F.U. front page post soon.