If you have been wanting to try out a new RPG, definitely take advantage of our prices on the New Gods of Mankind products! This is an awesome and unique game system that is quick to learn, character generation takes less than 10 minutes, and you can sling miracles and command followers as a god in a historic age! Quantities are limited, so order now!

I could list all the excuses, from money to jobs to health reasons to time, but at the end of the day we, as a company and an entity, have failed on every front we worked on. Further, while many of you have been very supportive about the entire thing, our continued problems and hurdle after hurdle has cost us even some of our most loyal readers. That is our fault, and we accept that.

As much as I would like to say this was never about the money, we all know that would be a lie. From server hosting to supplies to programs to time, everything in this costs money. Money we just didn’t have. Everyone says to “never quit your day job to make comics” but at the time we didn’t have jobs. This was going to be our career, and in our naivety we thought we could make something of it. Sadly, that just was not the case and after a couple years of burning through our savings and a lot of stress and drama, we both went out and got jobs to pay the bills. Bills which are still overwhelming, even a year later.

The other side of that coin, of course, is the readers. You. And we would not be keeping you, as readers or fans, if we put our hand out every time we needed something. Sure, we love the donations we have received, the swag purchases, the commission requests. But we also feel asking for money defeats the purpose of making this product for you; we should be making something you WANT to support, not something you feel obligated to fund. I am not looking for the comic to fund a vacation or a new home or new vehicles for the family; just paying its own bills and giving us a little to pay our bills would have been enough. But we failed in that as well, because we did not strive to be the best we could be at this.

Overall, joke-a-day comics are not as successful or retain the readership that the story comics do. Complex Actions was a test, and it was one we failed at. We needed to improve our writing and our art, and while the art did improve my writing didn’t. I tried to read books and take notes at cons and listen to the advice from others, but the truth is I am just not very funny.

At the same time, I don’t want this to sound like a “poor me” post, either. I am working on my self-improvement and that really does not have all that much to do with the comic. What the comic is, and what it will become, is still the same as it was: a place for us to practice, work, joke, and share a relaxed community with our fans. If we make some money at it, great. If not, then we will close the doors. But for now, the site is still up and we are still supporting it, even slowly.

To that end, we are looking to make some changes we talked about earlier in the year, changes that have been a bit slower to implement than we would have liked.

1. We are bringing on another artist for some commissioned work. This work will be in a different style and storytelling method than we use in the joke strips, and will be a test of our ability to actually, you know… tell a story appropriately.
2. I would like to go back to doing game and movie reviews. I enjoyed doing it and what kept me from it in the past was our budget. With us both working I feel we can get back to that. You know, if people enjoyed that.
3. We are both going to pick up on the blog and forum posting. As we were getting burned out, it was reflected in our communication to the site. We need to fix that.
4. I am going to up my writing, and some of that will be reflected in the site as well. I am hoping this will not only improve my writing in the comics but also grow my ability in all forms of written expression.
5. We hope to transition into better swag for our readers, including partnerships with companies in the RPG publishing, dice manufacturing, and comic industries.
6. We are considering podcasting as well. Discussion on games, movies, music, nerd culture, the site, us, whatever. This may include some additional members to our staff who are experts in these fields moreso than we.
7. We are still going to keep to the one-strip-per-week schedule, but one from us, one from the other artist, and other updates should keep the site more active, and hopefully bring our wayward fans back, new fans in tow.
8. We are still attending cons, and if the site takes off (along with anything else we have in the pipe) then we will expand what cons we go to.
9. Lastly, we will be putting some of our strips to print. Our goal moving forward is to be able to put together print projects annually or semi-annually, as need and funds allow.

We could be wasting our time, again. Who knows? However, this is a project we still very much believe in, and desire to be a part of. We want to use this to springboard forward with other projects, and ultimately be able to say we did something awesome that people liked. We have stories we want to tell, and hope we can get them out there for all to enjoy. It is still going to take time, determination, hard work; and sad to say, money. We don’t have a foundation strong enough to Kickstarter, so we are still self-funded for now, plus whatever contributions we get from generous and angelic readers.

So, to sum up: We are still here, we are not leaving, the site will continue to get updated, we hope everyone comes back, we hope to improve, please bear with us. Right now, the only hurdle we see in our future (other than updating around full-time employment) is the possibility of surgery for Emily’s wrist. If that happens, we will have a plan in place to keep the site rolling.

Come back to Complex Actions. Bring your friends with you. We still have a lot in store, and we believe with all our hearts you will like what we have planned.

Thanks for all the support,

Michael “Talthos” W. and Emily “Silkspinner” K.

I think too many people have lost the point.

10 years ago today, something tragic, something horrific happened to our country. A group of individuals whose ideals and beliefs conflicted with ours decided to take it upon themselves to end the lives of people they saw as evil. Four flights full of individuals wanting nothing more than a turbulence-free flight and a safe landing were robbed of the promised safety in our skies. More than a thousand individuals going about their day in New York and Washington D.C. had their lives taken from them when their biggest concerns were just getting through the day unscathed.

Sure, I could go on about where I was. I was in North Carolina, standing in a hand-to-hand combat class that had started at 630 am. Our instructor, who had agency ties and we all joked about being some shadow assassin for the CIA got a call to his cell-phone prior to the first plane hitting. I remember clearly his side of the conversation and can only speculate as to the content passed on by the voice on the other end of that call. We were dismissed to our dorms and told to watch the news. By the time we jogged back to the buildings and turned on the television, the first plane had just hit the World Trade Center.

But none of that has anything to do with what happened. I didn’t lose anyone (that I know of) in the attacks. I was over a thousand miles away, comfortable and safe. I barely know people who were truly affected by the attack (maybe a distant cousin or friend they lost touch with.) I didn’t run out and sign up to immediately deploy and fight the “towelhead bastards” that attacked us, or turn around and go beat up Muslims to “get justice” for what was done. I didn’t “survive”; I just… lived another day, and a day after that.

Yes, as a nation, we lost thousands of sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers. Since then, we have lost thousands more in conflict, continued acts of aggression and terror, and pursuit of those responsible. We have pointed fingers, we have laid blame, and we have tried to comfort ourselves. We rose up with a single voice in anger, in pain, in grief, and asked for something to happen. Then, when we collected our thoughts and wiped away our tears, we saw what we wrought and felt guilt for the natural desire to get revenge.

Today, tears fall from my eyes and I do what I can to tell myself it’s due to stress and fatigue. I try to convince myself I would not normally be this emotional on a day like this. I am lying to myself, and I know it. Tears fall not because I am weak, but because I have the strength to remember what happened; to look past all the opinions and blame, and remember the simple truths: people died, and that is a tragedy.

Men and women much braver and stronger than I took it upon themselves to dig through the rubble, put their lives on the line, and save whomever they could in the wake of the attacks. Men and women much braver and stronger than I rose up from their seats and charged a cockpit in an airplane to prevent further tragedy. Men and women much braver and stronger than I went off to fight a war they may or may not have agreed with to make sure my children and the rest of the nation would be able to enjoy the freedoms of safety and protection from fear and terror. Men and women much braver and stronger than I continue this fight on behalf of us all, and we fail to support them or encourage them daily.

So I weep. I weep for those who refuse to understand anything more than politics, opinions, and hate. I weep for people who would rather shake their fist at the memory of 10 years ago and the time since, instead of shaking the hand of someone who sacrificed, someone who lost, someone who was braver and stronger than us. I weep for those who have poisoned themselves and their children in regards to 9/11.

And when I am done weeping, when I am done reading the news and watching the YouTube videos, when I have finished mourning those who were lost in the last 10 years because of the actions of a few individuals who put hatred and zealotry over the teachings of peace and humanity, I will sit my children down and I will talk to them about 9/11. Because today should be as much about teaching our children and those who will come after them, as it is remembering who has gone before. Not teaching them politics, or agendas, or hatred, or blame; simply going through the facts with them, and letting them know these things happen in the world, and what it means. Teach them about Pearl Harbor, about the Civil War, about the assassination of JFK and the attempts on other Presidents, the Holocaust. Teach them about the earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, tornadoes, wars, famine, depression, recession, economic disasters, and genocide. Share with them not the why, but the what happened and the who affected.

Without fostering the knowledge in our youth, how can we hope they will learn from our mistakes and live in more peaceful and prosperous times?

Too often we get mired down with honoring our Servicemembers (men and women) who gave their lives in the Military. We often forget all the Law Enforcement, Firefighters, EMS, Coast Guard, etc. that have gone before. Hell, this is even a day to celebrate fallen FBI, CIA, NSA, <insertshadowconspiracygovernmentagencyhere> members who have fallen.

Remember all of those who grant us the ability to live how we do. Think about how we are honoring them, as a Nation, each day we sink further into debt and pick at each others’ civil liberties, focus on trivialities and glorify lives of excess. Consider the choices we allow our leadership to make under the blanket of the security our fallen heroes have provided.

Think about their sacrifice, and think how you have repaid it in your day to day activities, your beliefs, your moral code.

Maybe that nagging doubt in the back of your mind means something.

I have tried to avoid labeling my political views with the broad stroke of a political party, but in previous years when those moments came up I always considered myself a Republican. This has puzzled many of my friends, considering my views on separate issues. While I have rarely agreed with a party’s total platform (and probably won’t for many more years), I always feel the “lesser of two evils” to me has been the conservative parties.

Since President Obama was elected, however, I have questioned my political views. Not because of him, but because of the changing trends in the political arenas. Of the two main tickets and the four individuals on them, the only one I could stand during the process was McCain; Obama just seemed cheesy to me, I cannot stand Biden or anything he says, and I will not open the Palin can of worms at this time.

None of my friends vote Right, and in a discussion on Facebook not long ago the question was posed to me: how can you call yourself a Republican? I decided to write a blog weighing some of the major issues, doing research along the way to see if I am just the last holdout in a post-Regan era. I thought about going through each topic one at a time and putting my thoughts on it, but that blog would have been extremely TL;DR. Thus, let me share with you the results of my research.

After looking at my views on over 50 political issues, I have come to the belief that I am neither Left nor Right, neither Democratic nor Republican. At the same time, I do not believe myself to be a “fence-sitter” or “middle of the road” type of person, either; those topics I feel strongly about, I champion. Anyone who has read my Twitter, Facebook, or Blogs knows I am outspoken on topics I believe in. Others, I could really care less beyond what would be best for the people.

At the end of the day, I think it does disseminate down to what is best for us, what is best for the people, and what is best for the government itself. Voting on each issue would get us a lot closer to the right candidate than just picking a guy (or gal) and hoping he doesn’t go against your views more than he goes with them.

So, after a lot of research, long written and subsequently deleted pages of thoughts on the matter, and the desire for a concise choice on the subject, I have come to a conclusion; I am, and shall from now on (until some day it changes, right?) consider myself a Modern Whig.

I believe strongly in support of veterans and servicemembers; I believe in picking the right issues to campaign (cherry-picking, some would say, while others would call it centrist) instead of broad-stroke platforming; I believe in fiscal responsibility for the individual, the corporation, and government; I believe in a strong national defense and bolstered military, including spending on the families and dependents of active and deceased servicemembers; I believe in bold social progression, and oppose legislating morality, including but not limited to the sanctity of marriage or the composition of such.

While this will likely never get me anywhere in a political career, I can at least say my political views have matured over the years; further, I will continue to look not at the individuals in political positions, but the issues themselves and how they affect myself and my family.

Question: How young is “too young” for a female lead in a comic, movie, story, etc?

To start, I think underage sex is one of the worst things in the world. Sure, I did it (as the underage one), but I was also young and foolish. Now I’m a little older, and hopefully a little wiser. Despite all that, I still consider underage sex to be a terror in our world, and I would never write it into a story. I am sure I hear the sound of doors closing, even now. Ah, well. The truth is, I see no point in writing sexual contact of any type (oral, anal, vaginal, fetish, whatever…) with a character that is under 18.

At the same time, we have to consider our stories can be read internationally, and 18 is almost solely an American standard for that kind of thing. In a lot of other countries, teens are considered adult as young as 14, and on the average about 16. So, do we consider our global market, or the market in which we write? Anime and Special Interest stories have taught us that even though we might not agree with it, 14 is a fair age to show romance, up to and including sexual contact in some forms.

Now, before you start posting Pedo-bear images all over my site, understand I am not someone who would write something like that. Yet I find a very thin line between writing the actual event, and writing heavily implied or desired contact between characters.

The thing is, what if you are writing a coming of age story set in a mature and dark setting? Whether in a fantasy or medieval land, or perhaps a modern story in a country that does not frown on such a thing, do you make your protagonist lady under the age of 18? Does she still attend school, but has a growing desire to explore these feelings she has, and the dark stranger who appears in her bedroom at night gives off that “older but gentle teacher” vibe?

I kid, I kid.

But say your character is mid-teens, and she meets someone at a party or through a friend who is older (say, early 20’s), and the story progresses to the point where they end up in a compromising situation? Say it never actually leads to sex, but the sexual tension and desire is evident in the scene. Does that label the male, and thus the author (or even the reader) as some sort of pedophile for wanting to see where it goes? For that matter, doesn’t any show like the OC, or 90210, or any other teen-drama with sex included, do the same?

To be more specific…

The narrator of a story is a man of middle age. He is protecting the daughter of a woman he loved who has since died. The daughter is coming into an age where the powers of her mother are passing on to her. All she knows is this man keeps turning up in her life and saving her from danger. She imprints a bond with him, and it grows into something on her side resembling love. A moment comes when they are in a compromising position, and he rejects her, roughly. She feels ashamed, and angry. This fuels her betrayal of him to his enemies, and almost gets him killed. Towards the end, she realizes the truth of the matter and saves him.

Simple story, told a million times. They don’t have sex; in fact, other than sometimes seeing her mother in her, he rarely has an emotional attachment to her beyond fatherly. Does this situation seem better written with her as 18, 16, or even 14? Do we make the choice to write her as “an adult” to avoid backlash and ridicule regarding sexualizing a teen, or do we write it in a way that would be more believable to the setting? Say, if the powers she inherits come at a mid-puberty age and the big bads are trying to interrupt it before she fully gains her true strength?

Or, am I just trying to justify a cheesy gimmick?

One of the problems with writing this story is the amount of time between when her mother dies (when she is an infant) and the point where she begins to manifest.  The other characters in the story, friends of her mother, are aging as the story progresses. Sure, the difference between 15 and 18 is relatively small in the grand scheme of things, but at the same time the difference between 38 and 41 can mean a lot for an adult.

Okay, enough rambling. I would like to hear what you think; do you agree that underage romance can still be an effective storytelling tool? Or, do you believe that romance should remain in the realm of adults to avoid crossing any sexualizing of teens or pedophilia lines?

Dead Robots’ Society This page has a number of the podcasts, but the ones you want to hear that have my voice in them are the Plot Development and Character Development ones.

Ed: On this list you should also listen to the “Podcasting” one, as I ask a number of questions about that topic. There will be some dry bits about YouTube; those were unavoidable.

Shadow Publications This is the same Character Development panel, but from the Moderator. The one on DRS is from an audience member.

Still trying to find ones that Silkspinner was on, so stay tuned for edits.

Much thanks to the above sites and their handlers for hosting these podcasts.

She has a torn tendon in her wrist, and has had it immobilized for the last couple weeks in a brace; that same brace was heralded by other artists as one of the best non-prescription ones in the industry to do what she needed it to do, so it was good for her to pick that one on her own! Yay! We have talked to an Orthopedic Surgeon, but we were not wild with his staff or approach and are shopping a new one. More on that as it develops.

ConJour 2011 was a riot. We had some reservations going into the Con because of our medical issues and the hiatus status of the comic, but we went because the folks at ConJour have been so great, so willing to work with us, and very tolerant of my bullshit. Again, I apologize to anyone I may have offended in e-mails; I have a very dry demeanor when the e-mail is ‘professional’ in mine eye. We had a great table location in the Dealer Room, and our neighbors were all very friendly and social. I had a panel almost immediately after we opened the doors that day, on Plot Development. I am currently looking for the Podcast, and will have to poke Terry Mixon to see when he is going to upload it.

Alright, let’s be honest; this was the first panel I have sat on in 10 years, and the first one in this industry. I was on the panel with the talented and industry-savvy Bill Fawcett; Charlie Brown, a very interesting writer and filmmaker from New Orleans; and Terry Mixon, the moderator and a writer/podcaster with his own products and who interviews others in the industry. All told? I was intimidated; oh, so intimidated. I am sure it comes out in the podcast, much to my shame. Still, it was a learning experience.

All in all,  ConJour was very writer-centric, and I was able to glean a ton of information from the professionals that surrounded me (I am not going to say “peers” or “other professionals” for the obvious reasons; I was SO beneath all of them.) When not speaking on the panels I was on (Plot Development, Character Development, Graphic Content: Writing in the Visual) I was attending other panels to learn about aspects of the industry (Podcasting, Publishing) and things that may (or may not with my fears) apply to me sooner or later. The convention was literally riddled with writers of all skill levels and ranks of professional success, all of which I was metaphorically looking up to from the bottom of the mountain. I cannot speak for Silk and the panels she was on, but this was damn scary for me; what if these people found out I was a hack?

In the end, however, I think I acquitted myself well, and I made some good networking with some great people. Paul E. Cooley was a wonderful guy to talk to and interact with, and I plan on stalking him a bit trying to learn everything he knows. Jody Lynn Nye and her husband, the aforementioned Mr. Fawcett, were wonderful people who were helpful, unknowing teachers as I absorbed all they said.

Outside the writing circles, I also got a chance to talk to and network with a couple editors (score!); I further got to talk to and coordinate with a developer of a really interesting RPG, which I will be devoting some time to and an entire blog post so they get their due.

The entire weekend was shadowed by the events in Japan, however, and because of that we made sure we were doing everything we could to raise awareness of what was going on, and donated funds to a couple of the organizations dedicated to helping them through this tragedy and back on the road to recovery.

Most of the panels were recorded for podcasting, and I will try to add the ones we were on to the blog and forums, and link them on Twitter. I am also going to update the blog post with links for all the people I discuss here.

We have weathered some bad times in the past with finances, depression, and other things, but we never thought it would be something like this that would take us out. We were confident it would be my moody frustrations or something.

Some of the dedicated readers have requested some “Talthos” updates while we await Silk mending and seeing how that goes. I am willing to do that, but everyone would have to know it is going to SUCK. My art is atrocious, and I am not interested in doing stick figures in homage to other comics out there. If we had the funds, I would hire someone in the interim, but that isn’t possible and asking for free art is like asking for free websites; you just don’t do that.

We will keep you guys updated as soon as we know what is going on, we promise.

Slowly, over time, we plan on expounding on some of these characters in one form or another. Note the backgrounds might not mesh with the comic; the comic is meant to be a parody of games and the events that take place within them, while the backgrounds themselves may be rooted in the more serious lore of various games (depending on the character.)

Not every character we have presented is going to have their background outlined; that would be crazy! However, we do know which are our favorites, and are interested in hearing which ones are yours. Let us know which character backgrounds you are most interested in seeing put to the quill, and who knows?! You might see your favorite character brought to life in the coming months.