I’ve been invited to join a collective called the Sage Comic Collective. It’s due to be launched in the next couple of weeks and at the moment is invitation only.

Obviously I’m flattered by the invitation and would like to join but I have one reservation.
The graphic they want me to add to my site to indicate that I’m part of the collective is large, obtrusive and makes it look like Odd-Fish one of Sage’s brands or at least is hosted by sage rather than just affiliated with them.

I’ve always been proud that my sites are independently hosted and coded by hand and I’ve spent a lot of time and money on them including registering the domain and paying for hosting myself but I think that their logo undermines this.
It’s a corner flash that goes over the top of my site design making it look like the branding that one of the free comic hosts like DrunkDuck does.
I’d be happy to use a large button in my side bar but they are insisting on the corner flash. I don’t know what to do. Should I join?

No I’m not pretending to be a cow, I’m actually referring to MOO, an online print company that produces a small range of print-on-demand media for the small person like me.
What makes MOO different is that their quality and attention to detail is quite simply outstanding while their prices are fantastic.
This morning I got my first batch of MOO mini-cards. These are small cards, sold in packs on 100, half the size of a traditional business card printed with my designs. Big deal you may say. Whoop-de-do, you might exclaim. Well let me continue. Not only are the cards full colour, fantastically clear and sharp, but when you order a pack of one hundred cards you can have up to one hundred different designs! That’s right! upload two images and get a pack of 100 cards and there’ll be 50 of each design. Upload 50 designs and you’ll get two of each, upload 100 designs and you’ll get a pack of 100 cards, every one different! They’re packed in a classy looking impact-resistant plastic box and mailed to you withing a couple of days.
To cap it all, a pack of 100 cards is only a tenner. That’s right Ten Pounds and they ship to anywhere in the world.
I’m impressed. Can you tell?

At some point, if Odd-Fish continues to grow and become popular, I’d really like to be able to offer readers some kind of Odd-Fish toys.
Either plushies (I mean, who wouldn’t love a cuddly pink octopus?) or/and vinyl ‘art toys’ would be nice.

I’ve looked into the plushies already and it’s certainly do-able but needs an absolute HEAP of cash upfront, the best quote I got was about $4000 per character!!

The vinyl idea has been more troublesome. I’ve spent a great deal of time surfing the ‘net looking for plastic or vinyl toy manufacturers who do ‘short runs’ but have come up totally blank. The only toy manufacturers I can find are in China or Japan and absolutely none of them have any information about custom manufacturing on their sites.
There is one huge gap in the market here for anyone who can come up with a cost effective way of providing a ‘print on demand’ set up for vinyl toys. It could work by the user designing their object in 3DMAX or whatever then uploading the file together with the associated skin as a bitmap. Then the artist can sell his creation through his or her site with orders going via the manufacturer in a CafePress kind of set-up.
It may sound far fetched, but something similar is already available for World of Warcraft players who can have their online character rendered as a model and sent to them. It’s quite expensive ($100 per figure) and it uses an epoxy plaster rather than vinyl, but it’s just a matter of time before someone figures out how to do it in plastic and for sensible money.

If I had a way of getting the cash, I’d do it myself!

I’ve been feeling creative of late, and have getting the urge to use other media besides my usual trusty old biro.
This illustration of Howard, the pufferfish from Odd-Fish was created using chalk pastel, not a medium I particularly like using but one which gives nice results without lots of tedious mucking about with pots of water, tubes of paint and waiting for things to dry.
One the downside, pastels are very messy, the dust from them gets everywhere (my Missus is not going to be happy when she spots the green smudges on the tablecloth) and the finished artwork is at constant danger of getting smudged. Even pastel fixative doesn’t really stop it totally. It’s frankly a pain in the arse.