S-Team turns two!

Read the comic here.

I wanted to make a special post to congratulate fellow Webcomic Maestro Ian Healy on two years and over 500 episodes of fun! The Adventures of the S-Team has been a daily read for me for a long time now - I can't imagine starting my weekday mornings without it.

Way to go, Ian. I can't wait to see what the next two years hold in store.

Episode 358

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I owed Ian one after he had Whiskey have a fling with Tigergirl. You can draw your own filthy conclusions as to how the rest of the S-Team's weekend went.

And thus ends the latest S-Team crossover event. Next up: Something different.

Episode 357

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Normally I'd have Whiskey interject here with something snarky, but Slick does fine as a stand-in.

Episode 356

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Shellshock's come out of his shell (so to speak) but ends up with his head buried in the sand. Is it a metaphor for his character arc? Only Ian knows for sure.

Episode 355

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The strip where it all comes together. Good for you, Shellshock.


Good for you.

Episode 352 (and 353 and 354)

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Ian always has Sandstorm's powers manifest as special effects - I wanted to use real sand. I ran out of time, though, and had to go with tan bricks. I think the effect is okay, even if I did make sure to explain it in-strip so people would know what was going on.

I'm traveling to SuperCon this weekend - and as such I probably won't have access to the site to make changes. To keep everyone happy, I've posted Friday and Monday's strips early. To get to them, either click "next" from today's strip or use the archive and jump by date. You're on the honor system not to peek ahead. (Yeah, that's going to work out.)

This also means that Buy-Me-Mizer orders placed while I'm gone will ship on Tuesday. It's not much of a delay, but I thought I'd mention it. All orders placed (as of this writing) are off to the post office this morning before I leave.

Everyone play nice!

And, speaking of playing nice, if you're missing Whiskey's classic look, be sure to read today's S-Team strip!

Episode 351

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...Sounds like a groovy plan to me.

Episode 350

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Yes, another new set. This one I'll get a few days use out of, at least. For those of you concerned about the fate of Scotch or Morpheus the cat, they both return with today's episode. They were, as I mentioned in blog comments, just waiting in the car.

("What car???" you ask? Well, one cobbled together from Advent Gifts, I guess. I dunno. It happened off camera. Maybe it'll be the focus of a mini-series years from now. "Whiskey Tango: From Whence the Car?")

Normally comics etiquette would require a misunderstanding leading to a fight between the two teams before they could work together, but I've decided to count Slick's tasering as the fight and just move on with the story.

Episode 349

Read the comic here.

A lot of work goes into this strip that you guys never see. Stupid, needless work. For example, today's strip features an extension of the concert stage set - a new baseplate added to the site with some "backstage" set dressings. Can you make out ANY of that in the strip? Not really. So I had to go with a "narration moment" to tell you where you were looking at. *sigh*

Sandstorm's "juris-my-diction crap" line is lifted from the opening scene of the Matrix.

Finally, does anyone else think Shellshock looks inappropriately pleased to see Slick being carted off to jail?

Episode 346

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Ouch. That's gotta hurt.

Episode 345

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My wife's comment when reading this strip? "Damn, that's one big taser."

Maybe the rent-a-cop is over compensating for something.

Epidode 343

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Ian, of course, has created his own special effect for Silence's teleportation. I have no idea how he generates it, so I made up a new one. Neener.

In retaliation, I hope to vex Ian with my introduction of the S-Team's remote communicators - that's a really tough piece to find. (It was a detail bit on a promotional mini TIE Fighter a couple of years ago.)

Episode 342

Read the comic here.

Today we get a better look at Science Guy's lab - the set is a bit deeper than the one Ian uses, but I had that huge teleporter prop to fit into view...

Stretch isn't quite right, there's more than half the team left. Two members of the S-Team who didn't bother to show up at the lab: Stallion and the Scarlet Swordmistress. You can blame that fact on my being too lazy to build them just to cram them into the background.

That said, I'm sure I will take the time to build them so they can be in the background tomorrow.

The first draft of this had Science Guy's final line as "You should learn to trust in the AWESOME POWER OF SCIENCE!", but once I decided on the teleporter's sound effect, the repetition was just too much. His new final line reads like something a real-world techie might say to a co-worker who just doesn't get how things work. I imagine Science Guy has to dumb down his explanations quite a bit for Stretch.

Epidode 341

Read the comic here.

Sorry the strips have been running late - I keep forgetting to add in time to build duplicates of Ian's sets. Of course, I could have done that a lot earlier, but I'm sooooo close to finishing my Steampunk ship...and you know how it is when you're soooo close to finishing a MOC. Other projects seem to slip past you...

Anyway, today we have another copy of a set - this time Science Guy's Lab. You really can't see it that well, but trust me, I went and found photo references and everything.

I debated whether Science Guy would balk at using his teleporter...or balk at being that close to Hannah Montana. I figured the first joke was just a smidge more interesting.

The teleporter was is actually part of a long-abandoned Tramp Freighter project. It was part of the star drive at one point...

Epidode 340

Read the comic here.

Yes, the S-Team cameo is more than just Stonewall and Smokescreen chatting at a concert.

For today's strip I had to build my own copy of Ian's Monitor Room. It's somewhat frustrating to do - Ian owns a huge pile of all the LEGO parts that I don't own, and he insists on using them.

Ah well. It's enough for me to be able to suggest that his characters stand around betting on if emergencies are real or not.

Epidode 339

Read the comic here.

As you might have guessed, Ian Healy's S-Team will be featured pretty heavily as guest stars over the next couple of weeks. And, no, it's not going to end well.

Episode 336

Read the comic here.

Today we have a bit speaking part for Stonewall and Smokescreen from Ian's S-Team. (As well as a line from "The man in the dark blue hat.")

With all the potential mayhem in the air, it's probably a good thing that some super-heroes are around.

Mars Re-Mission Entry: the Mix-TBL

Ian Healy, creator of the Adventures of the S-Team, has submitted a swanky entry to the Mars Re-Mission contest. However, it is a bit of a spoiler for some of his upcoming strips. As such, I haven't included a photo of his entry in this blog post.

You'll have to follow this link to see his MiX-TBL in all its glory.

(It's only a *mild* spoiler. I think. But I know some of you are purists....)