Stardrop. . . Mini Mysterious Theater. . . back next Jen Jacobs, aka, "Regular Jen" is in her student apartment.   She has just returned from a successful shopping excursion to the local thrift store. She found cute skirt and a flashy pink top for which she paid altogether only $8.59. —An unbelievable steal when compared to the average sticker price common in any modern fashion boutique. —And neither article of clothing bore any defect or trace of having been worn by previous owners. Jen wonders how this is possible and suspects the local thrift store might be involved in some kind of racket.   Now, a skirt and top like these are by no means the sort of saucy ensemble Jen would normally feel comfortable wearing around town, (though Ashelle had been so excited that she had managed to convince her to wear them home from the thrift store. A daring and somewhat anxiety-hued bus journey was the result). So no, not regular day clothes to be certain, but they will compliment nicely her on-stage persona.   Jen Jacobs is the lead guitarist in the super-cool, all-girl 80's punk rock band, "The June Rocks!".   The fact that both the 80's and the mass popularity of punk rock have long since faded into fond and slightly embarrassing memories in the collective human awareness before Jen was even out of junior high is of little consequence. The guitar case is sturdy and not yet terribly travel worn. It bears only two stickers from two un-paid but memorable gigs, performed in establishments which were both within walking distance of Jen's house.   In truth, Jen is new to the whole performance scene. In this decade, anyway. Okay. Not really much to look at actually.   One was from a bar and the other from a coffee house, both free to the public events where anybody could get up and play. And the coffee house sticker wasn't even an actual sticker, but rather a cut-out from a flyer Ashelle had found and helped paste to her guitar case the morning following Jen's first public performance. So, no, not exactly badges of severe road trip cred, but they had been nice events and she had played well, right out in front of everybody. That had been a very big deal for her back then.   So pardon her for loving her dorky stickers.   Oh, how she loved them! Nowadays, Jen was a real pro. Dozens of gigs and a growing fan following. Recording contracts being looked at. The June Rocks! were making serious waves. No kidding around!   Of course, nobody knew about any of this but a very select few, tucked away here as she was in the safety of her little university town. It was her big secret. She hadn't even told her parents!   —It wasn't that she felt embarrassed about the whole punk rock thing. Jen was pretty sure her Mom and Dad would be supportive of the direction her musical investments had taken, (veering a hard left from the conservatory), even if it did involve jumping around in sweaty night clubs and very occasionally having to plant a kick on the chin of those over-enthusiastic fans who made ill-advised gambits for the stage. Her parents were not the most with-it people in the world, but their affections were relatively iron clad. —So long as she didn't do anything particularly stupid. Jen was almost certain of this. Her Mom and Dad were the best!   No. . , parental support wasn't the problem. Rather, it was those awful, horrifying stories Jenny Mysterious had told her by way of warning. The one about electroshock therapy had especially wigged her out. And Jenny Mysterious' mom had loved her too. . .   So Jen was keeping her big-shot music career to herself for the time being. Just to be on the safe side. Ah! The new acoustic.   Not particularly punky, but this is a really nice instrument. A gift from her parents last year as a going away present before she headed off to university. Or given to her never, if Jen was in the habit of keeping track of conflicting time lines. However, as funky thoughts of that variety tended to fog up her brain, she preferred not to ponder such mysteries as deeply as she might.   A day might come when it would be necessary to work out all that tangled stuff, but now wasn't it. No sir! Not with such a beauty of an instrument resting ever so lightly in the same room with her. No, not terribly punk rock at all, but still. You get the idea.   The last time Jen saw her stalwart ladybug electric guitar, it was under a couch somewhere in 1985.   There was the cruddy loaner she'd been playing when Ashelle's weird alien cohorts had stormed the El Mocambo's dusky tavern and pulled her back home. But that thing was a hopeless piece of junk, and it had Marie's lipstick stains and other gross stuff on it. She'd stuffed it under a couch here in the present day. So, no decent electric.   No matter. She was classically trained anyway, and acoustic is her special place. Oooh.   The angelic voice of the instrument carries through the room with a ring both crisply defined. . , yet somehow smooth and warm. What a great guitar! —And still in tune from all of four hours previous when Jen last visited her beloved.   Jen Jacobs has music in her DNA and the calluses to prove it.   It's very weird to recall an entire lifetime, from her earliest memories to only recently this past Summer, where she couldn't have even held a guitar correctly, let alone know the thrilling sensation of taut steel string humming beneath her finger tips.   Foggy-headed thinking threatens for a moment to creep back into her mind with its aggravating questions, about paradoxes and quantum something or others. Jen makes the proactive decision to banish all that stuff away by letting loose with some sweet kickin' guitar love! There isn't really time for this. School work. Hmmm. Yes, that.   Two papers and a lab report due over the next two weeks.   Jen hasn't been finding it easy to stay focused; hardly surprising given the various upsets marching through her life lately. It was forgivable even, but enough was enough! Jen had always been one of the smart kids in school.   Not a genius, mind you, but definitely smart. And diligent. Good grades. Proud parents, fruit scented smelly stickers and happy check marks all in a row. And as she got older, Jen learned how to do the grindstone thing with the best of them when it came down to a calender crunch. In fact, when all the gears of the world were clicking around in orderly fashion, (and there were no errant space princesses crashing to Earth to knock everything out of place), Jen could be reliably counted upon to keep her calender from ever becoming crunchy in the first place.   There would be plenty of time, she calculated, to turn in some solid, grade 'A' work if she hit the books today and stuck with it without any unreasonable interruptions over the next two weeks.   Also. . , Ashelle was getting better at respecting the study boundaries Jen had put in place.   It had been a necessary maneuver.   —Being disorganized and flung crazily about on big adventures with no plan and open arms and open minds. . , that was fun for a while, even healthy, but Jen's natural resting state was one of relative peace and inner order; Being away from it for too long tended to make her grouchy and miserable. And so. . , boundaries. Ashelle, in her barely restrained manner, made an effort to observe these rules. —though, to be honest, Ashelle's recently increased level of respect for Jen's academic career likely had a fair deal more to do with agriculture than anything else.   Ashelle now lived and worked out on a farm quite some distance beyond the town limits.   Come to think of it, the fact that Jen saw her best friend at all was somewhat remarkable. Farm work was hard, and yet, almost every day without fail Ashelle managed to stop by for a couple of hours. Jen savored these engagements and looked forward to them. Ashelle was always full of stories and affection, questions and ideas for things they could do together. By contrast. . , Jen had only visited the farm twice.   Ashelle's brand of friendship dedication was something to be admired, and Jen wondered how she was able to do it.   *sigh*   Even including all her daily farm chores, personality kinetics and adventuring around, Ashelle still seemed somehow to have a better grasp on time management than she did. How was that fair? Intelligent time management was supposed to be Jen's thing. As per usual, Jen felt a wistful combination of awe, adoration and self-reproach when her thoughts settled upon the Blond Wonder for any length of time. Right! Time to get down to business.   First of all, it'd be good to get out of these punk rock clothes and into something more suitable for a long afternoon of paper and computer work. The lack of closet space in these student residences is appalling, but then, as Jen's mom often advised, "she was at school to study, not to be studied."   Eye-roll-worthy advice to be certain, but Jen found herself keeping it in mind nonetheless. Substance over style. That was her. Even on stage in punk rock mode, she held a satisfying, secret awareness that she wasn't just prancing around and making noise. She was actually really quite good. Some solid, hard-earned talent sat at her core. She was anything but just style. Though, as it happened, it turned out she was pretty good at that too. Hence, the value of a good wardrobe.   The muted scent of moth balls and dust waft up. Who even uses moth balls anymore? Their moth-offending odor has seeped deep into the old wood grain.   Jen's modest array of fashion sense displays itself before her, all hung and folded neatly from hooks somebody's grandmother probably hung her clothes on long ago. Moth balls or not, the wardrobe is actually a bit of a life saver.   As fate (and Ashelle) had arranged things, this rented room received her arrival fully furnished with this lovely old closet box. Beautiful, deep and olden wood. Very C.S. Lewis. In fact, Jen felt slightly at odds with the idea of storing her modern day sweaty punk threads in its august timber. She felt the old miser might not approve. Jeans and a Tee.   A classic since 1950. Um. . . Deep in the back of Jen's neck and skull, she experiences the onset of a really weird tingling sensation. She has felt this before. . .   Check out the guitar. Admire stickers. Review fond memories. Sigh. . ! Enough depressing reverie! Get out the guitar. Check to see if the guitar works with the new outfit. Strum out a couple of chords. Let loose with some sweet kickin' guitar love. Nice! Though. . . Okay, enough messing around. You have work to do. Consider work to be done. Again. Enough with the depressing reverie. Put the guitar away. Check out the wardrobe. Open it up and browse the selection. That's silly. Find something to wear. Pick out Jeans and a Tee Shirt. School book time. What's up? Oh boy. That can only mean. . . You. . ! Scene II scene 1 scene 2 Jump to last page you read STARDROP Next Episode, May 30th Previous Next Stardrop Vol 2 "A Place to Hang My Spacesuit" $12.95 A huge THANK-YOU to all those who participated in the Crowd Sourcing campaign. There are dozens of packages now in the mail, and dozens more going out over the next few days to all those who contributed! -If you contributed, you should expect to see yours show up soon! NEW! Stardrop eBook Now Available! (See the Studio News (below) for the scoop on this!) Here's a little extra item; One of my favorite comic shops is moving location, and I decided to do a little 4-pager about it featuring Ashelle and Tom. The idea is that the comic shop will be giving out this little story to help advertise their new location. Enjoy! Tip StarDrop's cartoonist! Visit the Australian StarDrop Mirror. (Thanks to Andrew and Katherine for their wonderful support over the years!)        Jenny Mysterious. . . First Day Back        Thieves & Kings. . . Sample Chapter from, Thieves & Kings, Volume 3, "The Blue Book" Thieves & Kings is not a webcomic. It is an all-ages fantasy/adventure graphic novel series which I've been working on since 1994. It is nearly done; I hope to wrap up the story in the 7th volume, (currently in production). The chapter featured here offers a good example of what it's like to read Thieves & Kings. --It's a peppy sequence, and it contains both regular comic pages, and some text pages. It doesn't show much of the title character, (Rubel) and none of the Shadow Lady, but Heath and Varkias carry the show quite nicely. I hope you enjoy this sample of my work!        The Walking Mage. . . The Walking Mage is a complete story. Originally it was done in black & white, (which you can check out here, if you like). I wanted to experiment with color and so began by using a computer to color the Walking Mage for its print release. After a few panels I decided that it would be a lot more fun to paint it by hand, and so switched to water-color around episode six. The story itself is quite a good little yarn; funny and pointed in many places, as political satire ought to be. I was actually quite surprised to learn this! I found myself laughing out loud in several places. --I don't know why this story in particular was so hard for me to accept, but it was. I avoided reading it for several years after it first went to press. The ending is rather abrupt, but it was a serial strip, after all. So anyway, after having let this web-comic languish in the digital attic, I've decided to pull it out and post it again for all the world in its full-color glory. This is the first time the Walking Mage has been available in full color on the web. I hope you enjoy the adventures of Quinton and Varkias. Cheers!        News From the Studio. . . Virtual Button Bar (Undo) for Photoshop, Paint Tool Sai   April 27th, 2012 Updated and better than before! The button is now a button bar, featuring a selection of the most essential tools for drawing and inking in Photoshop but without the native side-panels which normally take up a quarter (or more) of your screen canvas. In this new world of tablet computing, on-screen tools like this are becoming very useful indeed. Download the new bar here. Unzip to a folder of your choice, and execute by double-clicking the file, "PS-SAI-Bar.exe" That's it! Features: The top Right blank square is used to grab and drag the bar. The up-arrow hides and shows the bar, and the little logo in the top-Left switches the bar between Photoshop and PaintTool Sai functionality. (Sai is a great little art program I find myself using frequently these days.) The little transform button, (the one with the two curvey arrows) will initiate the 'Free Transform' function on a selected area, and when clicked again, will commit any changes. The Hand tool toggles, and will un-toggle when you select any other button. (It can sometime get stuck if you use this bar in conjunction with Photoshop's native tool panel. It's a bug, but if it happens, just click on any of the other buttons in this tool bar to un-stick it. I might try to fix that sometime, but for now it's pretty easy to ignore). In PaintTool Sai, the buttons are linked to specific keyboard shortcuts, so they may not match up with the shortcuts you have set up. If you are interested and need help getting it going, please feel free to email me and I'll be happy to help you through it. A huge thanks to the guys over on the Tablet PC Forum who made this possible. (Thanks guys!) If you want to play with the old Undo button, it's still available below. Cheers! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On-Screen Undo Button for Photoshop-Executable ~ Version 1.3 Right Click to download.   The above link allows you to download a little program I wrote which puts a transparent virtual "Undo" button right on Photoshop's screen. It can be tapped with a stylus or clicked on with a mouse pointer to undo the last action in Photoshop. I made this for the Tablet PC I've been working on because it's nice to be able to just tap a spot on the screen and activate the Undo function without having to use the keyboard. This become particularly useful when I happen to be away from my studio tablet, (which is mounted to a drafting board and has a keyboard within easy reach.) My smaller, portable computer, when it is set in tablet mode, has its keyboard covered up by the screen, rendering all of Photoshop's keyboard shortcuts useless. It seems pretty astonishing to me that nobody else had made an on-screen tool like this for Photoshop before, an oversight which was apparently left up to yours truly to address. —Given my (very) limited programming skills, this seemed to me all the more astonishing, but what can one do? Luckily, as things turned out, a bit of research and lots of brain squeezing led me to this little invention which I now find really quite useful, so I thought I'd share. This program will run in WinXP, and while I've not tested it, I don't see why it shouldn't also run under later versions of Windows. For those of you who want to tinker with the guts of this program, you can download the original script here. . . Undo Button Script (Download and open with a text editor.) This program was created using the Open Source utility AutoHotKey. To use it, download AutoHotKey and install it. Then download the Undo Button Script and put it in a folder or on your desktop. If you open up the Undo Button Script file in a text editor such as, "Notepad" you will find that I have included extensive comments and instructions explaining how the script works. This should allow you to adapt it to your own needs; you can place it in different spots on the screen as well as make different buttons for doing other things. I hope some of you find it useful! Cheers!   -Mark Oakley July 4th, 2011           Previous Comment       News Archive

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