The 2009 Badass Tournament of Awesome: The Television Bracket

Seed: 1
Name: Jack Bauer
You know him from: 24
Odds: 4:1
Comments: One of the favorites from the TV bracket, Bauer would torture and kill his mother if it needed to be done. While deadly and proficient with firearms, Bauer's lack of “moral complications” makes him one of the most feared participants in the tournament.
Seed: 2
Name: Sidney Bristow
You know her from: Alias
Odds: 4:1
Comments: Another “secret agent” type, Bristow is a very capable contestant. Skilled in combat, she is also one of the few participants who doesn't rely on physical violence to obtain her objective. Look for her uses of disguise, sexuality and subterfuge to accomplish goals.
Seed: 3
Name: Chuck Norris
You know why there is life on Earth? Because it used to live on Mars and Chuck roundhouse kicked it to Earth.
Odds: 2:1
Comments: Chuck is one of the few contestants participating as himself, not a character. Truth is stranger than fiction and Norris is more deadly than Truth. In fact, “truth” used to be spelled “Saurfangtruth” but Chuck roundhouse kicked Saurfang to Azeroth, leaving only truth behind.
Seed: 4
Name: Robert McCall
You know him from: The Equalizer
Odds: 8:1
Comments: Let's face it. The Equalizer had the same gig as the A-Team. However, there were four of them and only one of him. I'm not a math wiz, but doesn't that make him worth 4 A-Teams or something?
Seed: 5
Name: Bruce Lee
You know him from: Being Bruce Lee
Odds: 10:1
Comments: Hands down, the deadliest 140 pound man in the tournament.
Seed: 6
Name: Fox Mulder
You know him from: The X-Files
Odds:12:1
Comments: Fox isn't rated as highly as he is because he's deadly. Instead, Fox has more ambition, drive and dedication than all but the most emotionally-scarred revenge heroes. While other people stalk criminals in the dead of night, Mulder goes to Oxford, joins the government and toils to uncover alien conspiracies. That's far more daunting of a task than donning a cape and fighting crime.
Seed: 7
Name: Starbuck
You know her from: The non-shitty Battlestar Galactica
Odds: 30:1
Comments: Starbuck is a quantifiable badass. Of that, there is no doubt. Oddsmakers rate her poorly because she's self destructive or ineligble for the tournament. She's either a nutjob, a half-cylon, or both.
Seed: 8
Name: James T. Kirk
You know him from: Star Trek
Odds: 8:1
Comments: Star Fleet has seldom seen a greater overall package than Kirk. Intelligence, guile, cunning and ambition are all traits that Kirk has displayed, repeatedly. In the later years, he's also displayed quite an appetite for Baconators. He is... only... human.
Seed: 9
Name: Horatio Caine
You know him from: CSI: Miami
Odds: 18:1
Comments: Two words: Sunglasses of Justice. I guess that's three words, but that's just a minor fact that really doesn't matter. We'll just douse the area in Luminol to compensate for bad forensics and to wrap up the week's show in 42 minutes, right?
Seed: 10
Name: B.A. Baracus
You know him from: The A-Team
Odds: 20:1
Comments: You know what BA stands for, right? If you dont, I'm not going to tell you. Google it yourself. Clearly, BA is the most self-confident man in the tournament, considering that he's comfortable with physical appearance.

I mean, really. I think Joseph was the last person to wear such a multi-chromatic outfit.
Seed: 11
Name: Starbuck
You know him from: The shitty Battlestar Galactica
Odds: 40:1
Comments: Um. I got nothing for this guy. I think he shot some frakkin' toasters, but that shit was coming up on 30 years ago.
Seed: 12
Name: Buck Rodgers
You know him from: Buck Rodgers
Odds: 40:1
Comments: Oh come on. How can you expect me to take you seriously if you don't take yourself seriously?
Seed: 13
Name: MacGuyver
You know him from: MacGuyver
Odds: 40:1
Comments: You would not feel threatened if you met MacGuyver in a dark alley in the bad part of town. Not only does MacGuyver appear to be unassuming and unintimidating, he actually is unassuming and unintimidating. Never mind the fact that he could blow up your house with a stick of gum and a Glade Plug-In. This competition is as much a Chess match as it is a bloodbath, which is how MacGuyver got this far.
Seed: 14
Name: Jean-Luc Picard
You know him from: Star Trek, The Next Generation
Odds: 50:1
Comments: Picard may be the best person to represent humanity, should such a representative need to be selected. He is a leader, an ambassador and he repeatedly outfoxes omnipotent beings and enemy civilizations. He's less violent than the others in this tournament, but he is one of the sharpest minds.
Seed: 15
Name: Michael Knight
You know him from: Knight Rider
Odds: 72:1
Comments: Knight limps into the tournament without his entourage of specialists. Obviously, he's less of a threat without KITT, but he's also more vulnerable without his eye-candy mechanic who deflects attention from his hair. As far as his projected success, Knight has been known to have a hairy chest, wear a lot of black and occasionally punch people out.
Seed: 16
Name: Jack Tripper
You know him from: Three's Company
Odds: 200,000:1
Comments: I can admit it. I brought Tripper into the tournament and fudged the numbers so I could have Jack Bauer face off against Jack Tripper. Someone has to make Tripper suffer. He must suffer horribly. Bauer is the man to do it.

TV Bracket

Coming up next: The Period Piece Movie bracket!--Wes

The 2009 Badass Tournament of Awesome: The Comic and Video Game Bracket

Seed: 1
Name: Snake Eyes
You know him from: The GI Joe comic book series
Odds: 3:1
Comments: Most ninjas are practitioners of stealth and swordplay. Snake Eyes is all of that, but isn't above using an Uzi when the situation warrants it. He's been blown up, shot and, but has hardly ever missed a day's work of mowing down ranks of Cobra's best. Snake Eyes is a clear favorite of the bracket.
Seed: 2
Name: Solid Snake
You know him from: Metal Gear Solid
Odds: 5:1
Comments: Solid Snake is kind of like a “Diet Snake Eyes.” Every bit as stealthy and proficient with weapons and explosives, Solid Snake isn't quite as capable with swords and nunchucks, but he is certainly one of the highest rated contestants of the tournament.
Seed: 3
Name: Sam Fisher
You know him from: The Splinter Cell Saga
Odds: 5:1
Comments: Continuing with the soft drink analogies, Sam Fisher is Pepsi to Solid Snake's Coke. Stealthy, extremely proficient in firearms and explosives, Fisher is yet another highly-rated contestant from the CVG bracket.
Seed: 4
Name: Ding Chavez
You know him from: The Rainbow Six Saga
Odds: 6:1
Comments: Ding Chavez is one of the deadliest badasses in the world, when wielding a firearm. Sniping? Sure. Boomheadshots from 100 yards with an MP10? Sure. Double-tapping mofos in the head with a suppressed SOCOM .45? You bet. Chavez' only flaw is that he's a little firearm-reliant and in such a competitive bracket.
Seed: 5
Name: Elektra
You know her from: The Elektra comic saga
Odds: 6:1
Comments: Elektra is a bit of an unknown in the tournament, which makes the oddsmakers nervous. She's every bit as proficient with edged weapons as the other ninjas in the tournament, but her other skills aren't as well-known. She's not as well-rated with firearms not because she can't use them, but because she simply never needs to.
Seed: 6
Name: Agent 47
You know him from: The Hitman game saga
Odds: 10:1
Comments: Agent 47 scores points for being another gun-wielding assassin, plus being bald and wearing a suit creates an intangible psychological advantage.
Seed: 7
Name: Ozymandias
You know him from: The Watchmen Comic
Odds: 10:1
Comments: Ozymandias is simply the smartest man in the tournament and arguably the best practitioner of unarmed combat. He'll face a tough challenge in the tournament, considering he eschews conventional weapons. Nevertheless, few people are more capable.
Seed: 8
Name: Max Payne
You know him from: The Max Payne videogame
Odds: 12:1
Comments: Payne is fairly straightforward in his approach to solving problems. Like other firearms specialists, Payne is pretty predictable and unsubtle. Like the others with similar skills, that doesn't make him any less dangerous.
Seed: 9
Name: Lara Croft
You know her from: Tomb Raider
Odds: 14:1
Comments: Croft isn't as violent as some of the other contestants, but the competition isn't necessarily about killing things. Croft is athletic, resourceful and crafty and is fine with dual-wielding submachine guns when it becomes necessary.
Seed: 10
Name: Jubei Kibegami
You may not know him from: Ninja Scroll
Odds: 20:1
Comments: Jubei's featured movie has some of the meanest, nastiest villains in anime history. Jubei kicked their collective asses. His athleticism and prowess with the sword ranks him with the other ninjas in the group, but he can also match wits with his most clever competitors. Kibegami is rated lower than he really belongs because he's in an anachronistic disadvantage.
Seed: 11
Name: He Man
You know him from: He Man
Odds: 25:1
Comments: There was some debate with the selection committee, regarding He Man's eligibility for this tournament, being that his powers may be magical in origin. The committee decided that while the process that turns Adam into He Man is magical in nature, He Man himself is human. All of that said, He Man is big and strong.
Seed: 12
Name: Dirk the Daring
You know him from: Dragon's Lair
Odds: 50:1
Comments: Dirk sneaks into the tournament as a result of nostalgia. I mean, the laser disc game was really cool.
Seed: 13
Name: Groo the Wanderer
You know him from: Groo the Wanderer
Odds: 100:1
Comments: Groo is daft, ugly and unrepentingly violent. Groo has ruined kingdoms (and bridges and ships) an defeated entire armies with his swords. While as powerful as a raging storm, Groo is probably less intelligent than one.
Seed: 14
Name: Eric, aka Cavalier
You know him from: The old school Dungeons and Dragons cartoon
Odds: 250:1
Comments: There was great outrage from the fans of the CVG conference, being that there were other eligible candidates that were overlooked. The selection committee issued the following statement:

“We understand that the CVG conference has many strong candidates that were not invited to the tournament. We can only remark that there are reasons for inviting some contestants while overlooking others.”
Seed: 15
Name: Mario
You know him from: Super Mario Brothers
Odds: 10,000:1
Comments: Mario's solution to his problems includes A) jumping on something's head or B) kicking a turtle at it. Nevertheless, he has saved the Princess a few times.
Seed: 16
Name: Jon Arbuckle
You know him from: Garfield
Odds: Eleventy zillion trillion googillion:0
Comments: Well. Jon is unfunny, uninteresting and unimaginative. The only thing going for him is that he is unkillable, considering that he lives on even after his creator has stopped writing the comic for which he is known.

CMV Bracket

Up Next: The Television Bracket! --Wes

The 2009 Badass Tournament of Awesome: The Contemporary Movie Bracket

Seed: 1
Name: Jason Bourne
You know him from: The Bourne Idenity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Redundancy
Odds: 3:1
Comments: The top seed of the CM bracket can kill you in any number of ways, including being the most uncharismatic person in the bracket!
Seed: 2
Name: John McClane
You know him from: The Die Hard saga
Odds: 5:1
Comments: Considered one of the toughest men in the contest, McClane and the Die Hard franchise have been proven unkillable despite all reasonable probabilities.
Seed: 3
Name: John Matrix
You know him from: Commando
Odds: 8:1
Comments: Matrix isn't nearly as subtle and crafty as some of the others on this list, but he makes up for it with his ability to carry insane amounts of munitions. Bonus points for unrealistic muscles and accents.
Seed: 4
Name: James Bond
You know him from: 157 different Bond flicks
Odds: 8:1
Comments: Clever, calm, poised and deadly, Bond is a fan favorite. Oddsmakers would rate him higher, were it not for his high probability of catching STDs from shagging other promiscuous spies.
Seed: 5
Name: The Punisher
You know him from: The Punisher (no, not that one, the other one)
Odds: 12:1
Comments: As tough as McClane, as boring as Bourne and far more emotionally disturbed than all of them, The Punisher is about as unsubtle as they come. Nevertheless, he's a quantifiable contender.
Seed: 6
Name: Dutch
You know him from: Predator
Odds: 12:1
Comments: Among the more clever and resourceful men in the bracket, Dutch is pretty good at killing things. He's also pretty good at getting all of his men killed. That lowered his seeding and weighed heavily with oddsmakers.
Seed: 7
Name: Casey Ryback
You know him from: Under Seige
Odds: 13:1
Comments: He's a cook who's actually a kickass Navy Seal! Plus, he saw Erica Eleniak's boobs. Although he's among the more skilled men in the bracket, he suffers from Segalitis,.
Seed: 8
Name: Batman
You know him from: Batman movies
Odds: 3:1
Comments: Before you get outraged at him being such a low seed (and yet being given such good odds to win the competition) remember that not all of the contestants rate well on all the categories. You shouldn't need me to tell you how badass Batman is.
Seed: 9
Name: Martin Riggs
You know him from: Lethal Weapon
Odds: 5:1
Comments: Rating extremely high on most of the categories, Riggs doesn't earn a higher seed because of his mental instability. Not only did they murder his wife, he was driven further insane by having to suffer through three additional sequels!
Seed: 10
Name: John Rambo
You know him from: Rambo
Odds: 17:1
Comments: You are truly a badass when someone makes a verb out of your name that means “to kick ass.” You are also truly badass when someone names a type of knife after you. Despite that, Rambo has a minor stigma because he's a bit of a nutjob.
Seed: 11
Name: Sam
You know him from: That guy from Ronin
Odds: 20:1
Comments: One of the lesser known people on the list, Sam suffers from coming from a small-market conference that didn't have a very strong schedule. He sneaked into the tournament at the expense of some of those on the bubble.
Seed: 12
Name: Lt. Colonel Danny McKnight
You know him from: Blackhawk Down
Odds: 20:1
Comments: McKnight has the hugest balls of the tournament. There is a cap on any given category, otherwise he'd be a higher seed.
Seed: 13
Name: Joe Hallenback
You know him from: The Last Boy Scout
Odds: 27:1
Comments: Let's face it. He's a poor man's John McClane. That said, Hallenback's crowning moment of awesome alone launched him into the tournament.
Seed: 14
Name: El Mariachi
You know him from: Desperado
Odds: 30:1
Comments: You are a badass if your first name is Spanish for “the.” It almost doesn't even matter what your second name is, if your first is a definite article. Even more impressive, is that El Mariachi got a face-full of Salma Hayak's tigole bitties, which weighs in considerably to the selection committee.
Seed: 15
Name: Frank Martin
You know him from: The Transporter
Odds: 32:1
Comments: Sleek and sexy and underrated, the Transporter makes his way into competition. He has a bit of a tough draw at such a low seed, but has tools in the toolbox to score an upset or two.
Seed: 16
Name: The Bride
You know her from: Kill Bill
Odds: 40:1
Comments: Another character whose first name is “The,” The Bride is at a severe disadvantage, being that nearly everyone else in this category can (and will) use guns if given the opportunity. The Bride will need some help with the draw in order to put her significant martial skills to good use.



CMV Bracket

Next up: The Comic and Video Game bracket --Wes

The 2009 Badass Tournament of Awesome: Overview

This year, the S@10 crew looks to determine who is the biggest badass in multimedia history. Several contests of this have been conducted before, but S@10 hopes to supersede them all in scope and magnitude of awesomeness. Plus, we have a slightly different format than others. The rules for the 2009 tournament are as follows:

- All contestants are human. No modifications or half-breeds are allowed.
- Magic and pseudo-science is not allowed.
- The contestants are all prominent heroes in their genre.
- The contestants are all rated on various aspects of badassedness, then seeded according to the genre bracket from which they come.
- The tournament is a single elimination competition, with the winners advancing to the next round.

The competition is head-to-head, but not in the traditional sense. For each match in each round, two contestants are placed in a setting and expected to defeat the scenario. The scenario is one that would be typical for the particular bracket, with enemies, equipment and goals related to that genre. The first contestant to defeat the scenario is declared the winner.

In some cases, the contestant may choose to ignore the competition and finish the objective. In other cases, it may make more sense for a contestant to start with the competition...

The Brackets!

Contemporary Movies: Arguably the most competitive division, the CM bracket is filled with the toughest and most skilled protagonists from current movie settings. The top seeds are all skilled in firearms, hand-to-hand combat and prone to poorly conceived sequels and spin-offs!

Comics and Video Games: The CVG bracket is extremely diverse, especially in the skill sets of the participants and their genres. Many of the contestants are military agents or spies and experts in firearms and explosives. Other notable contestants are equally deadly with their bare hands. The most dangerous participants are proficient with both. The least dangerous participants are exceptionally inept at all of the above.

Television: The TV bracket is full of favorites from various eras. Considered one of the weakest divisions, the TV bracket contestants are limited to the sensibilities of the times in which the show was created. As a result, many of the highest seeds can be found in recent TV shows. The poor bastards from the 70s and 80s are getting longshot odds, at best. The TV bracket also contains special contestants who don't really fit in the other brackets.

Period Piece Movies: The PPM bracket is also very diverse, representing movie badasses from the past and future. The PPM bracket has a special venue allotment, considering that most of the participants would be at a severe disadvantage should they expected to win objectives that are entirely foreign to their genre. The PPM bracket is full exceptionally capable characters, but is easily the hardest venue to win. With so many diverse backgrounds of space and time, it will be very easy for a participant to be stuck in a venue that is totally alien to him. Home field advantage will play a huge, huge part.

The 2009 Badass Tournament of Awesome: Venues

Conventional Venues

- Contemporary Movie
- Television
- Comic and Video Game

There are four venues, related to these brackets:

The Warehouse

First, imagine a Costco-sized warehouse in the bad part of town. Now, imagine that warehouse controlled by the Dirty Sanchez Drug Cartel. Those guys are up to no good and they're heavily armed and ill-tempered. There are armed patrols that sweep the perimeter and a gauntlet of paramilitary soldiers in order to get to the objective.

Speaking of which, the objective for this scenario is to get into Sanchez safe and duplicate the smoking gun documents that will show that Sanchez has betrayed his business partners. By using these documents, the good guys can start a cartel war and set their respective organizations back 10 years.

The Laboratory

We've all seen the movies and video games where some powerful corporation has some secret project to make cyborgs, genetic enhancement, powerful weapons, etc. These corporations require some research facility to do this. This is such a facility.

From the outside, the setting looks like an inauspicious office building. It's more secure than normal, with armed patrols and a lot of security cameras. Internally, however, the building has sophisticated security systems, entry codes and ID badges and a highly trained and heavily armed security team. This is in addition to whatever superweapon or genetic monster is within the facility.

The objective is to overload the power core of the Laboratory, located at the lowest level of the facility, and destroy it.

The Compound

It's tough to raise an army to take over the world. Organizations like Cobra or SPECTRE may have legions of murderous soldiers, but those soldiers have to be trained somewhere. These compounds are remotely located and are inordinately secure. They act as a twofold prison, keeping unwanted persons out, while making sure everyone inside stays inside. Difficult to infiltrate and ex filtrate, the compound is crawling with all-levels of enemies, from high-level lieutenants of the organizations to entry-level thugs with something to prove.

The objective of this scenario is to place the homing technogizmo in the deepest level of security, so the good guys can blast it with kinetic bombardment.

The Hideout

Unlike the Compound, the Hideout serves as the base of operations for the organization. Equipped with sophisticated security devices, elite and proven guards and the various heads of the organization, the Hideout is the basket where all the bad guy eggs are kept.

Unfortunately, this hideout is located at the bottom of the ocean.

Even more unfortunately, the objective is to breach the structure from inside and destroy it.

Specialty Venus

Additionally, the Period Piece Movie Bracket has four separate venues:

The Temple

Bad guys in medieval or fantasy settings always have to have a temple. These temples serve as a base of operations and in most cases, a way for the boss to summon or contact some uber badguy. The temple is patrolled by cult fanatics, loyal to the uber badguy. Armed with bows and swords, the cultists defend their master with their lives.

Speaking of the master, the objective of this scenario is to stop the uber badguy from opening the portal that allows for the world-killing monster to come through. (World-killing monsters are typically bad for the world into which they are summoned.)

The Western Town

If you've ever seen a Western, you'll wonder how the United States survived past that era. Everyone is shooting everyone. And when they're not shooting each other, they're whoring it up and cheating at cards. It's like every town was Las Vegas set in the 1900s.

At any rate, this town is being bullied by the ravaging gang of miscreant cowboys. They rob and steal from stagecoaches and trains, assassinate the Sheriff and his deputies and altogether antagonize the townsfolk. Plus, since they have all this money, they always hog all the good booze and whores, which is totally unfair to everyone else.

The objective is to smuggle out the letter to Fort Dixon, to alert the cavalry of the situation. Once apprised, Fort Dixon can send in troops to eradicate the gang. Up to this point, the gang has managed to prevent such a letter from going through.

The City of Troy

The scenario takes place just after the Greeks have infiltrated Troy and have opened the gates. Both armies are in a bloodlust, with the peal of sword on shield drowning out the cries of anguish. Amidst the flame, smoke and blood, Helen is being ushered to safety.

The objective is simple: Kidnap Helen.

Marathon

The Marathon won the bid for the sci-fi venue, beating out some other better-known futuristic sites. Simply, Marathon was the most innovative game of its time, so this is an homage to that.

Anyway, the Marathon is a ship being assailed by alien forces and a rampant computer AI. (HAL 9000 was a chump ass punk compared to Durandal, who was insane and a genius.) To win the objective, the contestants will have to make their way to the alien space craft and commandeer one of its shuttles, to flee to safety. (Yes, I'm aware that's not part of the original game, so don't bother bringing that up.)

Coming up tomorrow: The participants from the Contemporary Movie Bracket

--Wes

Marissa's Bunny

A Sunday at 10 reader contacted me a little while back and asked for some help in promoting awareness to a rare and specific form of epilepsy. The short story is that his daughter, a year younger than my son, suffers from this disease. I won't go into the details of the disease or his efforts to promote awareness; check out his page or the wikipedia page for that. You'll learn more from either of those sites than I could summarize here. It's a worthy cause and it only costs you a moment of your time.

Get well soon, Marissa, from all of us at S@10.

Site 3.3 is live, Suckas!

It's with a mediocre amount of ennui that we announce the upgrade to site 3.3! We've got big things going on with the revision:

We now gonna take yo' money! Our online store is now open for business! Right now, we've got content limited to posters based off some of our pin-ups and our more posterizable comics. We'd have more, but we we're A) lazy and B) clueless about what you might actually want.

If you have something you think would be good S@10 merchandise, by all means, send me an email or post on the forum. Normally, someone like me would say "And if we choose your submission, you'll get one for free!"

Notice how I didn't say that...

More advertising space! Hmm. You're probably less interested in that. If anything, additional ads probably annoy you.

No more tags! The tags didn't work out so well. I'd go into a rant about how I told Don and Doug this from the beginning, but that would just open the door for every time they told me so. We certainly can't have that.

--Wes

Site Version 3.2 is here

After months of development, spanning almost tens of hours of work, S@10 is happy to announce the release of site version 3.2!

What is new in 3.2? Well, some neat stuff, actually! First, the navigation panel on the left hand side of the page has a few new options. We split the "Archive" section into "Strip Search" and "Tag Cloud." These two pages provide new ways of searching our content.

We've also changed the navigation bar at the top and the bottom of the comic section. Gone is the "First Strip" button, replaced by a "Favorites" button. Yeah, we know it bucks the convention a little bit, but Don and I are not huge fans of the old stuff. We don't want to throw it away and we like the progression it shows in our work, but we wanted to sweep it under the rug a little bit.

More importantly, we don't want new readers to hit one button and be directed to what is very possibly our weakest strip. As the cliché goes, we only have one chance to make a first impression, so we need to put our best foot forward. The old strips are still there, via the navigation panels at the top and bottom of the "Strip Search" page.

Finally, the biggest change is the implementation of Tags. I won't go into great detail as to what tags are and why we implemented them; tags help to organize data. I encourage the reader(s) to contribute meaningful and useful tags. Please just watch the spelling and take a look to make sure that a similar tag doesn't already exist.

Site version 3.3 is on its way, and that promises a way to provide even more awesome at your fingertips!

Down with the pin-up

It is with mixed emotions that Don and I submit today's strip. As you may have gathered, in our nearly 3 years of history, we have dedicated holidays to the presentation of a pin-up, using S@10 characters or basing art off of our reader(s). We've ranged from artistic homage (James Bond and Tron) to various forms of good and bad taste.

As you may have gathered, today's strip is not a pin-up.

I think we're done with that idea of a pin-up. Don and I are moving on past it. We can't be sure how history will eventually record us, but we're pretty sure we want to be more than "the guys who draw mostly-naked chicks all the time." The strip has evolved a lot in the past few years (check the archive if you don't believe me) and we think that this is the next step in the evolution of the comic, as well as what Don and I do as its creators.

So, it is sad to knowingly and willingly put an end to an era.

But by the same token, it is exciting to knowingly and willingly usher a new era.

Today's strip is the cover of one of the books that Don and I are making. Instead of making sexy/sexist fan-service pin-ups on the holidays, Don and I are going to be releasing pages from the book. We don't have a set schedule of when we'll actually do this, but we'll try to place these release pages on the same days as the holidays. The book story is a different continuity than the normal universe, but you'll see the cast doing the same kinds of things that we'd do in the daily strip.

I can only hope you'll forgive us for graduating from something that was uniquely S@10. Hopefully, our new holiday schedule will also be something that you uniquely attribute to S@10.

-- Wes

Comment

+1 Article of Thanking

I've obviously never met the man, but I think it is only fair that I take a moment to thank a man who is indirectly related to the comic that has become such a big part of my life. Gary Gygax died the other day, so we are forced to say goodbye to the father of the entire role playing way of life we now know.

Thank you, Gary. I won't try to say something clever and game-related. Just thanks.

When talking about Gygax' death, Doug and I were talking about Gygax being the father of the RPG and it got us thinking of the other fathers in the game world:

Dune II: The beginning of the RTS game: I thought Warcraft pioneered the RTS game, but Doug claims that Dune was the precedent on which Warcraft was based. In any event, the RTS became a fascinating and complex genre that continues to grow.

Castle Wolfenstein 3D: The FPS was born: Everyone remembers that Doom pioneered the first person shooter, but Castle Wolfenstein came first. It's hard to remember a world prior to the first-person shooter. I believe we rode dinosaurs to work or something.

I'd personally like to mention Marathon as being years ahead of its time, even though it came out at about the same time as Doom. If you played Marathon, you know what I'm talking about.

Oh crap. I totally dated myself there.

Ultima Online: The genesis of the MMORPG: I only know of UO based on references from Real Life and Ctrl Alt Delete. Doug says it led to Everquest, which is the model from which almost every other MMORPG was spawned.

Doug says a lot of things, though.

Anyway, feel free to comment here.

--Wes

Dear Rayne,

I needed to right this down, because I really needed to make sure I said everything. I didn't want to get interrupted or distracted. I need to say what needs to be said.

It saddens me to say it, but I think our relationship is over.

I will always remember that weekend in 2005, when we met. With my help, we stabbed and sliced gothic punk villains in a gluttonous orgy of death and carnage. It was like nothing else I had ever experienced in a a video game. I didn't think it was possible, but BloodRayne 2 was able to trivialize the unspeakable violence of dismemberment and geysers of blood by encapsulating it in a candy shell of veiled sexual metaphor.

Oh, and how delicious it was. I remember your tawdry one-liners. I remember the cheat codes for the Xbox that allowed for variations in your costume, as well as the size and "jiggliness" in your feminine wares. I remember your scandalous NSFW appearance in Playboy and I recall the anticipation when I waited for your first movie to come out.

I thought that our relationship could only go further. It made me smile.

It should have been a portent of things to come when there was only one theater in town that dared to show your movie. It should have been what the police detectives call a "clue" when said theater chose to show that movie only twice on that day. There were only six of us in the theater and I had to go by myself because no one else wanted to see it. The omnipresent writing was on the wall, but I chose to overlook and ignore it, as if it were graffiti.

Your movie sucked. I wanted to like it. I really, really did. Ben Kingsley and Mike Madsen were involved. Madsen was in "Reservoir Dogs." And wasn't Kingsley in the "King and I" or something? That's a really serious movie pedigree right there. Even Uwe Boll shouldn't have been able to screw it up.

I don't usually cry, Rayne, but I have to fight back the bitter tears when I remember how much I defended you. I remember how much I stuck up for you and the movie. "Better than Doom," I've always said, ignoring the tittering and derisive snorts. "Not the worst video game movie I've ever seen," I'd say, pretending not to be bothered by the abysmal ratings by the critics and IMDB.

I wish I could say that was the end of it. I wish I could say that after all the embarrassment and suffering, that we could move on to the next phase. Perhaps we'd find some measure of redemption. Perhaps you and I would get together over BloodRayne 3 on the 360. Maybe there'd be a BloodRayne MMORPG. Maybe you'd star in a porn movie. Something. All you had to do was show me something that says you take yourself seriously enough to take us seriously.

Instead, you shove the proverbial red-hot poker up my ass with your second movie, BloodRayne 2: Deliverance.

The hot flush of embarrassment stings to me when I think of all the cameos I've given you in the comic. You don't deserve it. And I certainly don't deserve it. I'm done, Rayne. We're done.

And I'm keeping the Conjure One CD, you cow.

-- Wes

Site Version 3.0 is live!

November 5, 2007

You may have noticed something new and exciting at Sunday at 10. Well, something new and exciting other than today's strip. Well, today's strip is new, at least.

Beyond that, however, you may notice that we've gone up and changed the layout of the site. As such, we've included new features and a navigation system that is a little more standard and perhaps a little more intuitive. When you come to this site, we hope you will be more efficient in your time-wasting. Whether you're avoiding your studies or shirking the duties of your job, we at S@10 hope to make that experience better!

The site's revision isn't totally cosmetic, we've done some interesting things behind the scenes. It may not be something that you notice right out, but you can trust me when I say that Doug did some PHP ninja kung-fu. We'll have some additional revisions in the coming weeks/months, too, which should make the site more interesting as a whole.

Beyond that, there isn't much news. I can give you a sneak peek into the near future, though, as far as the comic is concerned:

- I'm booked to do the artwork on Friday, November 9 (you poor bastards)
- Monday, November 12 is a federal holiday (Veteran's day), so you can expect a pin-up
- We're planning a story arc beginning Wednesday, November 14

--Wes


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