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SUNDELL'S RANT

Bow your heads as you pass on by;

As you webcomic is now, so once was mine

As mine is now yours may yet be

Remember this lesson when you think of me

October 4, 2006 -- Almost 3 years and one month from starting this revival site, it is time to bring it to a merciful close.  Soon it will be but another bit of world wide cobweb, joining millions of other decrepit, undated, and forgotten sites.  Who knows how long it may sit here, undiscovered, until the day when the server it is hosted on offlines forever? 

September 26 -- My life clock goes black in four days.  Will I run? Will I renew? I don't know.  The sandmen are watching.

September 12 -- Life is once again a whirlwind of activity, with me at the center of it all.  I'm still trying to sort out the hows and whens of getting comic work done under my new schedule; it is awful hard to sit at the desk with the beginnings of autumn underway.  Hooray for campfires and cooler weather!

August 30 -- In five weeks, for better or for worse, everything changes for this site.

August 15th -- I saw fit to give myself an attitude adjustment.  I hope it takes.

July 25th -- I'm back from vacation, and once again working in the coal mines. I feel as if I'm digging myself in deeper daily.

July 18th -- There is no longer enough time in the world for me to try to keep everyone else happy. If I only succeed in keeping myself happy, that will be enough from now on. 

July 5th -- 2 weeks until a proper vacation.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

'June 21 -- Freelance stuff is slowly being whittled down.  New stuff soon? I tease.

June 14 -- Go away. I'm tired. Comic updates as normal.

June 7 -- Today, my cats become un-manned.  Take THAT, you horny little monsters. No more claws to shred the furniture either.

June 1st -- The year is half over, and me without an Edsel (Radiator went out). Life just isn't fair sometimes.

 May 24, 2006 -- The final page is redrawn, and tomorrow I ink.  I may just crack open a bottle of wine after this. BOOYAH.

May 17, 2006 -- I CAN'T FIND THE LAST PAGE ANYWHERE.  I may just have to redraw it from the script. Sucktastic.  In work news, I'm starting to get a little overwhelmed by my various responsibilities again.  I'm gonna go padded-cell shopping tonight.

May 10, 2006 -- Down to the final page of the Flea Circus story. HUZZAH. Announcement soon.  In other news, one of my co-workers is starting to scare me.  A lot.

May 3 -- Stall is over (At least for this week).  I have a new car, the new job is going swell, and the bluebird of happiness has just been eaten by my cat.

April 24, 2006 -- I'm currently stalled out due to real-life issues. Comic will update as normal.

April 12, 2006 -- Looking back exactly one year, I begin to see an annual pattern to my stress issues.  Down to 4 pages to fix.

April 5, 2006 -- I have 7 pages to reprocess before the Flea Circus storyline is complete.  Go me. Big announcement soonish.

March 29, 2006 -- They say the candle that burns twice as bright burns only half as long.  And you have burned...so VERY brightly, Roy.

March 22, 2006 -- I'm redoing some of issue 15, which had too much mildew damage to actually post intact.  Maybe I'll substitute stick figures for missing panels. Maybe not.

March 15, 2006 -- Posted Bimbeau's first appearance, and the world flinches in unison.  I had mighty inconsistent art back then. Repairing old artwork continues, as Tripod notifies me that my space is almost used up, my bandwidth is getting tight, and they are plastering my pages with ads to make up the difference. Guh. 

March 8, 2006 -- I GOT A VACATION.  I WANT MORE.

March 1, 2006 -- I NEED A VACATION.

February 23, 2006 -- I've managed to keep up with the archiving workload pretty well; I have however hit a slowdown stage due to issues regarding the original artwork's condition.  I'm down to the lowest levels of the box now -- it seems I have everything, but the box has been well wetted and used as a domicile for mice and bats.  I may have to physically redraw several pages to complete the current storyline.

February 8, 2006 -- We're back!  The hard drive recovery went well; everything was where it should be. 

February 1, 2006 -- Well, crap.

January 25, 2006 -- I am closer and closer to running out of room on the B-section of the site.  It may be time to do a drastic rebuilding of the site.  Or perhaps scrap it altogether, jettison it to float eternally in the blackness that is Tripod's webservers, and start anew on a fresh host.  After all, there is a better chance to get readership if I restart the comics sequentially from the beginning, instead of skipping around story to story. The same goes for the archive and storage method of the strips. Demotts has overworked himself to the point where he has little or nothing to do with the strip and site upkeep anymore either.  After this storyline concludes, I'll have an answer.

January 18, 2006 -- This week we mark the passing of a Flea Circus Alumnus, namely David Recine's FANBOY.  It ran cocurrent with Flea Circus as well as B&B.  His was quite likely the very last dead tree 'zine in existence in the Eau Claire area.  His free magazines of black and white comics, painstakingly photocopied and lovingly stapled together, will be deeply missed.

January 11, 2006 -- A new year, and the same old site.  Updates continue as normal, and I frankly find it quite exciting to see the old Flea Circus pages getting new readers. Makes me feel young and hopeful again. Or maybe thats the Geritol talking.

December 28 -- The year slowly draws to a close, and once again finds me sick in bed, as per my annual flu-subscription.  The past year has been both exciting and trying, with greater challenges than I have ever dealt with at once.  I've lost and found a job, lost and gained a housepet, and the comic now has about 500 regular readers each week, despite a total lack of advertising and listing. 

I've also found out that I have friends among those who read this comic, and for that I am very grateful. Here's to a new year!

On a side note, DeMotts has been here for about 4 days. You'd think he'd update his side at least once. Pffft.

December 20  -- Gina. Beloved companion and extraordinary housecat. 

199? - 2005.

 

I'm so sorry I ever called you a pest.

December 12 finds me fratically completing orders, shopping in deathrace-2000 conditions, and trying to keep my cat from tipping over the Christmas tree.

December 6, 2005 -- The year winds down for most, but yet I am still wound up with stuff to get done.  I suppose keeping busy keeps me outta trouble.  Thank goodness for cheap booze.

November 22 -- What a mess things are.  With less than a month and a half to go on this year, I hoped originally to finish things off projectwise so I can move on to fresh story.  Thanks for bearing with me this long.  I get few complaints as to the site content, and plenty as to navigation.  Eh. As long as the updates make it on time, things aren't so bad. 

November 16 -- Doing a black and white storyline creates great relief for a severely overstressed freelance schedule.  I can produce at a rate 3 times faster than the color pages.  Sure, black and white is boring, but attempting to colorize all of the older stories defeats the original purpose of presenting the archives in an original feel and format.  And it frees me up to get other things done that pay the bills.

November 11 -- Just for fun, I colored one page of the Flea Circus material. If I had more time, I'd do them all. Seriously.  Really brings out the art. 

 INovember 2 -- I'm currently processing the remaining "Flea Circus" material for the web.  I'm just happy this stuff doesn't need re-coloring; fixing water-stained and smudged inked pages is hard enough.

October 26 -- Got my computer back up and running just in time for a regular update.  Hurrah for me!  In other news, my parents moved and forgot to leave a forwarding phone number.  Hmmm.

October 19 -- This week, I bury a mentor. 

October 11 -- I am so very tired.

October 5 -- Fixed last week's messy links.  Still haven't taken the time to process new comics; busy catching up on freelance instead.

September 28 -- I'm spending more time fixing my car than fixing this site.

September 21 -- Huzzah. I am unemployed. Once I'm done feeling sorry for myself, I'l start fixing up this messy site.

September 14 -- It is taking longer and longer to update the site.  I can go out for a pizza in the time it takes for this site to publish. On an ego note, its fun to type stuff into "Google" images and see what comes up.

September 7 -- Does no one remember "Sliders?"

August 31 -- Hell of a storyline to re-read.  If I could do it over again, there is so much more I would have the characters try to say to one another -- B-1 realizing and coming to grips that he may lose a close friend, Bimbeau saying just HOW disgusted she was with her life as a would-be hero.  B-2....Well, I'd just try to add more angles to the boy. He WAS supposed to be the wise village idiot, after all. Not just a comedy foil.  The urge to Lucas my stuff rises. 

August 24 -- Life is mighty stressful at the moment, as some who know me know all too well.  Having a site that launches malicious script and virus-like popups makes things worse.  Time to look for new hosting. Stay tuned.

August 17 -- See? The effects of old age. I forgot to hit that darned "Publish to Web" button again. Sorry.

August 14 -- I'm old.  OOOOOOOOLLLLLD. Pity me, and give into my whims. I may not be around much longer.

August 8 -- The next time I say I'm gonna work on a car, just take me out and shoot me.  I'm serious.

August 3 -- If anyone is looking for me, I' m out back locked in a deathmatch with my car project.

July 27 -- Lovely. I messed up my schedule. No hiatus, though. I'll just launch the story I was going to save until autumn.  I'm more than a little cranky over the fact that the new story overlaps some of the holiday bonus comics -- this kind of disrupts the flow of things. The "Fanservice" comic was always something that made me wince, in retrospect. Its never something the characters really would have done. Well, maybe B-2.  

July 20 -- Unlike some people I know, I'm slowly enjoying the latest Harry Potter book. Not rushing. After all, it is two more years until the next one.

July 13 -- Note to self: I really need to create link banners.

July 5, 2005 -- Time is ever short, but I have enough comics buffered now to make up for any weeks I get nothing done.  Special thanks to Brassy -- I just saw a linkbar for the site on your page.  I 'll return the favor as soon as possible.

June 28 -- Strike that last post.  Now I'm all fired-up and determined to fix and link any major storylines together.  No more grabbing crap at random to fix.  Another problem I have is that I've run out of "good" art pages.  Most you have seen in the last few months are rebuilt from scratch, by tracing the old art and re-inking it.  Its awfully hard to resist "improving" the older images and style. I still sneak in some fixes, though. George Lucas would love me.

June 22 -- Posted on time again....Now that I have a few-week buffer, I'm going to try to fix the last few background/bonus pages I had planned. Keep an eye peeled.

June 15 -- I'm gonna eat into my buffer this week. Yardwork and other projects are running me ragged. Doofus need to update his column. Perhaps I need to email a password?

June 8 -- Thanks to the weather problems, comic update was delayed a bit until I could be certain I could use the computer without frying myself.  On to business. I am running into a new problem -- I have a jumble of single-gag, unrelated strips which I have no idea where they fit in the archives.  I'm gonna have to guess, and if I mess up, likely I'll never hear the end of it. These will be posted here and there in coming weeks.

June 7 -- Follow the yellow brick road!

June 1 -- I finally found the comic I was looking for, 3 weeks after the fact.  Poo.  I'm now arranging the comics I have left to do in order of storyline.  By fall, all of this will begin to make sense.

May 25 -- Well, Revenge of the Sith wasn't an oscar-winner, but it DID wash away the bad taste left in my mouth from the previous two films.  Maybe my inner nerd will shut up now.

May 18 -- Yes. I'm at the theater, enjoying the movie.  I hope.

May 11 -- 7 more days until the last Star Wars Movie.  I haven't been this hyped since Star Trek VI, knowing that it was the last one. 

May 4 -- ARRGH.  My computer has a bunch of corrupted files. And it includes 9 weeks of comics.  So much for being ahead.

April 27 -- Despite my current workload, the buffer now stands at 8 weeks.  That should give me enough time to do a proper restoration of the early black-and-white comics. And to keep all of you little buggers happy. If I was any more regular, I'd have O.D.'d on Metamucil.

April 19 -- All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy. All work and no fun make Sundell a dull boy.

April 13 -- I have to remember to mix in some of the lame strips. I'm posting way too many of the good ones lately. People might mistake me for talented.

April 5 -- Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.  Yes, I'm still alive. No, I'm still overworked.

March 30 -- Ugh.  I've gone from productive to burnt-out wreck.  At least the comic is on time.  If I can find the other missing January '99 comic, I'll have linked two major sections in the strip.  Must...keep...plugging.

March 15 -- Well, look over there. Someone is back.  Hooray.  The site updates are still coming along.  Soon the basic frames will be complete, and I can go back to just worrying about updates.

March 9 -- I'm slowly going blind from all this site fixing.

March 4 -- The new frames are in place; I can't seem to remove the "crack" that appears between the upper and lower bars.  All that is left to change on the main site interface is resizing the Magilla link buttons, and reworking the front page a tad.  Maybe adding the links.   The archive area will be a lot harder, as I need to conserve bandwidth on pages.  Likely those areas will be kept simplified.  Updates continue on time, otherwise.

March 2 -- I am not at all happy with the new-draft look. Its rather hard to work from a template, but this looks like It was straight out of  Frontpage Express. Bleah. I'll give it another go this evening.

March 1 -- The site has become larger and more successful than I thought.  Its also far more cumbersome, and I will have to overhaul the whole frigging thing soon.  Hooray for me.  I will ad a couple new pages, and then go through and manually reset all the links.  I want to eliminate all javascript if possible.

February 9 -- I honestly don't think I'll be wrapping up this project anytime soon.  The amount of new stuff I'm still processing will take me into next year at least.

January 12 -- Welcome back. Upcoming after the summer special short will be the Summer Special '98 issue, with about 15% new footage; and the remainder of the flea circus run.  Stay tuned.

December 31 -- Its the close of the year, and I'd like to thank everyone for their continued interest in the comic.  A long year has passed in which I've tried to archive and upload all the old comics I made from time gone by, while getting readiy to take the site in a bold new direction. Much work yet remains, as evidenced by the gaps on the pages. Here's to hoping more readers of old come forward with surviving material. A happy new year to you all.

December 1 -- A long delayed reaction to some heavy prodding by BrassyDel.  Completed storys now have back/forward links. Yay me. DeMotts tells me he lost the site passes a while ago, thus no updates to his side of the screen. pfft. Shmuck.

November 24 -- Happy T-Day.  I'm still plugging away, but now starting the planning phase of the new comics.  Updates continue.

November 2 -- I figured it would be easier to update the site versus listening to the election results.  I don't think I ever had such a lead time for new comics -- I'm at least a month ahead now.  Hooray for me.

October 20 -- Now I'M saddled with two jobs. 3, counting this one.  Still, expect regular updates every Wednesday.

September 16 -- Well, I've worked out most of the real-life conflicts.  Time to get back to work on the comic.  B.D. is still saddled with two jobs, so he won't be updating his end for a while.

August 9 --  Gah. Site updates need to halt for a bit as I get this whirlwind existence I call a life under control.  I  have several projects to finish before September, and these are going to take priority for a while.  So go visit umop.com or something; I'm not going to be around until September 1.

July 27 -- Summer is keeping me busy busy busy. So is two jobs in addition to this. Updates through September may drop to once a week, as I try to balance everything.  You may all go back to your normal lives now.

June 30 -- The art computer has fried itself along with the work in progress. Expect a delay or two as I get everything transferred to a new unit.

June 17, 2004 -- The last guest comic for Happy Pure is posted today.  It was nice to have visitors to the site again; hopefully a few will stick around. Updates continue, as well as new plans in the works.  I also pulled the old mirror and added a redirect link.

June 11, 2004 -- I always thought that someday in the distant future, someone would perhaps see fit to preserve my work for future generations.  I never thought it would be me.  After recieving a long-lost box containing many of my original art for the comic, I was at first overjoyed.  That was before seeing the water damage.  That was before seeing and SMELLING the mold.  So now, I spend my time carefully unpacking the box, a bit at a time, and conserving what remains of the B & B legacy.  Each comic was in its own envelope, which were all fused together into one clump at the bottom of the box.  To extract a comic sheet, I have to resoak the envelope, carefully peel it away from the inside, and then seperate the pages a tiny bit at a time.  Once dried, the sheets are rescanned and cleaned up to remove water stains and damage.  I hope its worth it.

June 1, 2004 -- Some quick news. As you know, updates for the last two weeks were a bit late, but as a reward, you get to see all new material at HappyPure.  you will find their linky on the what's new page.  This is the first all-new comic work I have done in almost 3 years.  Whoa. For crying out loud, Demotts.  Write something over there, will you?!

May 12, 2004 -- Some quick updates to both gate sites.  I need to finish the changeover soon.  Its getting confusing. DeMotts is still MIA.

March 10, 2004 -- I have updated the early history and flea circus sections.  Still working on moving stuff server to server. 

March 1, 2004 -- No one will read this until later in the month.  The site has been posted to a more stable server -- and the name changed slightly to allow hyperlinking.  Most of the updates are in the WWW section of the archives.  Out of 150+ odd strips done over the course of two and a half years, I have found ten.  Damn, I DON'T want to redo them from scratch. Send your copies!

Feb 14, 2004 -- HAPPY V-Day!!  Normally I am a rather bitter fellow during this holiday.  Thanks to the generosity of a fan, I now have copies of the infamous Jan-Feb 1999 V.D. webcomics.  Lets see how many people fall for it again.

Feb 4, 2004 -- As usual, getting nothing done to site.  Working on finding and redoing some more artwork from the web era.  And for the record, if you are one of those types who think it impresses people to hold up a line by yakking on your cellphone, don't.  I'll be there, waiting in line behind you, ready to strangle you.  Yes, you. 

January 20, 2004 -- Fixed the World Wide Web page and uploaded a few of the surviving webcomics.  Will add more soon.  Need to remember to give B.D. the passcodes for the site.  Its about time he started filling up his column a bit.

January 10, 2004 -- NEW LAYOUT! Nevr thought my short attention span would even let me get this far.  Almost ready for the viewing public again.

January 6, 2004 -- Changing site layout to reflect the complete setup of the old comic.  Planning some fresh stuff.

November 14, 2003 -- Check it out! After almost 6 years of nothing, updates! Me N' Demotts got some big plans in the works. This is just a character and file compression test -- The first two panels are copyright David Willis. Just a little 4th wall fun. Keep checking back - more updates soon!

October 20, 2003 -- Do you have a file I could borrow? We lost a lot in the moves. If your hard drive has some old B&B images that are not in the archives, please drop me a line. There may be compensation involved.

September 9, 2003 - Not much to say. As you see, updates are few and quite infrequent these days. The reasons are many; real life issues, friends moving, life changing, slacking off and playing too many video games. What remains here are the sole survivors of the dot-com bust of 2000. Originally hosted by Goplay, shifted to Excite, bought by Yahoo, sold to Lycos and eventually limping to Tripod. Most of the archives are gone; lost or deleted in server moves. Please enjoy what is left. Perhaps in the future will come updates, time will only tell.

B & B: Almost Heroes

1994 - 2003

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  DEMOTT'S BLOG
 me and

   Oct 4, 2006 -- Say good night, Gracie.

 

*Turns off the lights and puts out the cat*

 

 

Feb 1

I tell him I tell him I tell him to keep updating his computer to XP or at least get a new one, one not put together with stone knives and bearskins.  Does he listen? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Shmuck.

 

January 25, 2006

 

I was here.

 

December 6, 2005

 

I am overworked. I am underpaid. I don't update this nearly enough lately.

 

March 28, 2005

 

      Hello, this is Brad again coming at you after the 05 Easter weekend. Well went up north to visit family and hang out with the infamous Mr. Smeggers. Well it went pretty good, didn’t eat overly much, just enough to feel good and enjoy the extra flavorful food this weekend. But other than that just hangin and gaming with Smeggs. Other than that just got out of the house and with gas prices as they are that wouldn’t happen as much as I would like in the future. Well until next time CHOW! 

 

 

March 11, 2005

Well I’m back again and I am not dead.

   This is Brad DeMotts here to start updating my Blog and show that Sundell AKA Mr. Smeggers is not making me up. Well its been ah lets see now ah yeah its been well I guess seven months now. Ahhh yeah it has been a while hasn’t it. So I start out fresh again and to say ah well ah what do I say now. (silence)  Well I can say that its nice to see that Sundell is back again and not working on that damn Edsel that he is constantly working on and talking about again and again and well you get the picture. And now that he is driving the car again he is a happy codger now. Life has gone on and the same old same old, I’ve gone out to the movies a lot with the women and seen a lot of films lately and well we go out to the movies often. At one point a guy I work with Jim who is a web designer is building a site for us to do film reviews and critique DVD’s, so I’ve started to review films so I will put them on my Blog for people to look at and argue about. These are just my opinions and well they are right so there. Another summer has come and gone, faster then ever and gone on vacation, nothing exciting just to get away from work and Illinois back to my state of Wisconson and visit friends and family. Other than that I hopefully am back and will do regular updates as Sundell sneers at me and I leave with a film review attached. Until next time.    

March 10, 2005
Hello again. I am now able to update my blog no thanks
to Sundell who wouln't help me get on to edit this. But now
that I can I will be posting some thoughts and some movie
reviews, mainly because I go and see a lot of flics. So when the
thoughts are few I can always add a review to fill some space.
So my next entry will have one attached. So until then, Chow.
 
 
March 9, 2005
 
Testing, Testing One Two Three
No I am not dead yet.
 
 
February 25, 2004
 
Well, this is my first Blog entry besides
Hello that is and I feel it is time to discuss
an issue that is close to me from my past
and is talked about today with some
wrong info. The subject is Mullets, I had
one and I had it in the 90's not the 80's
like everyone thinks they were. They
might have been around in the late 1980's
but their popularity was in the 90's like
most of the people who had one. The ones
who had long hair in the 80's had all the
same length at that time. Mullets and
ponytails were at their height in about
1993 I believe. TV commercials featured
people with them, sitcoms had them in
them. So when you remark about a mullet
and laugh, remember that it came from
the horrid 90's and not the fun and
rebellious 1980's. Wow That was therapeutic,
thank you for reading my rant.
 
February 14, Hello

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