I am one of twelve people who were lucky enough to be deemed worthy by the webcomic pedagogues, as they say, over at Penny Arcade to join in the opportunity of our creative lives. It's not a spoiler to say how incredible of an experience it was, and I feel that this is just the start of it all. It's a powerful feeling, only having been around for a little over a year. So please, stay a while and peruse the archive! Hopefully you will find Action Point to your liking and we can make this a regular thing. Be sure to check out the other incredible artists conveniently presented on the PA website while you're at it. These people are real fucking good at what they do.

Updates happen here on Tuesdays and Fridays, but at the moment there are some bumps that need smoothing out before I can resume this schedule. Yeah I know, a shitty time to break schedule, but you will get your bread and circuses soon enough.

If you wanna contact me, feel free to at actionpoint.alex@gmail.com.

-Alex

I originally intended to come to you with an open letter to Mr. Lapierre, President of the National Rifle Association. It was to be a grandiose expression of my shock and disappointment at their handling of such a tragic issue, particularly after claiming that they were withholding comment out of respect for the victims. However, I came to realize after I began writing said letter that I was wasting my digital breath.

This is an issue that has been raised time and time again. It seems that every time a young person snaps and acts out violently, those new-fangled shoot-‘em-up games must be to blame. Certainly it is not the fact that this person had a history of mental illness that was not addressed, or the ease with which they gained access to an incredibly deadly vehicle with which to act out their macabre fantasies.

No, it must be the media. It must be the movies, or the music, or the terrifyingly realistic murder simulations that are driving our youth to insanity. After all, such tragedies are only caused by outside influences.

It’s a frustrating and tiresome issue, one that doesn't seem to want to go away. But it holds very little threat to us as gamers. We have weathered this storm for decades, and endured. I suggest that instead of reacting, instead of calling on the NRA to renounce their pathetically non-sequitur claims, we simply let it go. The NRA has already managed to paint itself as both blindly sensationalist and ignorant. They do not need any help from our demographic.

We could attempt to write a comic about this, but many other artists have already knocked it far out of the park. I personally found Penny-Arcade’s take to be profoundly accurate.

Instead, we present you with this bit of humor concerning a trip Kenneth and I took into a Modern Adult Arcade. Hint: Children aren’t allowed, but for different reasons than you might think.

See now, Killgore the Porn Attendant and his Masturbation Cells? That is some serious shit.

-Steve

I hope you are prepared. We don’t take as much stock in this end of the world hullabaloo as we once did. Once, our young minds, (and by young I mean “fully grown mind of an 18-year-old male”) were alight with the fires of imagination at the possible outcomes. A zombie apocalypse, perhaps? Or hellfire and brimstone raining from on high?

Our favorite scenario involved the return of the ancient Mayan God Quetzalcoatl, whose coming signified the awakening of ancient magicks across the world - particularly within prodigious youths. Youths such as ourselves, who would take their new found power and use it to defeat The Beast in Times Square where he had made his roost after appearing on New Year’s Day. Having destroyed his corporeal form we would consume his heart and attain godhood in our own rights, ushering in a new world of magic and fantasy.

As I said, alight with the fires of imagination. Although to this day that still sounds like a somewhat enticing scenario.

On the whole we’ve come to find that the end of the world would be a decidedly bad thing. I think it has to do with us finally being content with the trajectory of our lives, and our attachment to significant others. What would have been an incredible adventure has instead become the potential destruction of all that we hold dear.

But still… magic.

-Steve

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This one is just about touch ups and the like. Adding subtle shadows and what not. Speech bubbles round it all out, and it can be a real pain sometimes when Steve and I have made a lot of text. It covers up all my cool art and is sometimes condensed on the spot. Still, when it’s two am (like now) and Im just ready to crash, getting to speech bubbles is like a silhouette of hope.

After I’m done, I toss it off to Ken. He manages the site business and offers me the courtesy of uploading the comic and Steve’s post. Speaking of which, that’s it for me. We will return to regularly scheduled comics after one more update. I think Steve will have something you’ll be interested in.

Hopefully it isn’t shit.

-Alex

The final day. This one might look familiar to you - but this time it’s accompanied by Alex’s commentary!

Alex returns tomorrow from his sojourn which means Friday will bring a fresh new comic for your enjoyment. As always, we appreciate you sticking with us during this improvisational period.

Whenever I enter into a sandbox world such as Far Cry’s I immediately attempt to explore it in its entirety – to bring its vastness under my iron control. It is the worlds that I cannot tame with merely a few hours of exploration that tend to hold my interest. When Skyrim debuted I decided that I wanted my Nord to become a Bard, so I traveled to Solitude to find the Bard’s guild. This was the first night of the game’s release and although I had a strategy guide, I wasn’t exactly sure what I would find in the frigid north.

It took me two hours, walking from one end of the map to the other, but I made it. I was disappointed in the Bard’s guild, but enthralled by the things I saw along the way and by the fact that despite two hours of exploration it seemed as though I had hardly scratched the surface.

I’ve tried similar things with every Grand Theft Auto title. I generally prefer my homicidal maniacs to be well dressed, and such threads can only be found in the upper parts of town. So I would steal a ride and head uptown, but almost invariably I was met with road blocks and a contrived story about why I could not access the next area. But it was Grand Theft Auto so I didn’t mind. I simply began building my criminal empire as quickly as possible.

Thus did I take one look at the world of Far Cry 3 and plunge forward, attempting to explore the entire island in one sitting – which, much to my delight, I found to be impossible. So far I have activated 10 of 18 possible radio towers, giving me vision of approximately half the map. When I find myself with two hours of free time and the proper motivation, I will unlock the rest.

I’ve mostly been distracted by the game’s story, which becomes more and more riveting the further in I delve. I’m apparently working with the American government now. Or working for a guy who I think is working for the government. He’s been “out of contact with HQ” so it’s entirely possible he’s just a psychotic Vietnam veteran.

I want to find the solution to this human enigma, but I still have friends to rescue.

-Steve

After I set up all the ink, I start the process of coloring. This part is pretty therapeutic as far as comic making goes. I already have an idea of what colors I will be using unless I'm drawing something unfamiliar. Like Ken up there. Then I have to figure out just what looks right, and that takes me a while. Colors are my weakness.

So the next step is backgrounds. I like to get detailed when I can, but in a crunch, I go for a more implied surrounding. As you can see in the second panel, I've added a pattern overlay to help give it some visual interest. I really don’t like being rushed on backgrounds, but sometimes you just can’t help it. If you've read all the comics, I bet you've seen some good examples of my environment work. It’s something I plan on emphasizing when I have more time.

As for coloring the backgrounds, I try to go for colors that don’t distract. Sometimes this makes them boring, so it’s a fine line.

Next week is the finishing touches!

-Alex

The window into our creative process grows ever larger.

I have spent the last week delving into the depths of Far Cry 3, and it is everything I imagined it would be – the image in my mind being Skyrim with guns. I’ve seen that description around, and it’s very apt.

The game is certainly enormous enough and it starts very similarly to Skyrim. There is a vague tutorial section and then you are simply thrust into the world with a slap on the rump and a hardy “good luck!” It’s really quite overwhelming at first, which tends to be the problem with gigantic sandbox games. Certainly you can follow the main story, but you can also liberate radio towers, or hunt for animals to turn into equipment, or harvest plants to turn into ability enhancing drugs that you inject with syringes contained in a case made from the animals you killed earlier. See what I mean? The possibilities are both incredible and daunting. Absolute freedom is not necessarily a good thing when it comes to player motivation.

I tend to choose one of the myriad of side objectives and focus on that. If I get bored I simply take a break and move on to the next story mission. They are always available, ready and waiting to be played. But they are also willing to wait. They have nothing but time, which is reassuring.

One area where Skyrim and Far Cry have major differences as sandbox titles is that Far Cry 3’s skill system seems largely pointless. Far Cry 3 contains lots of guns and abilities and with a little bit of effort you can access them all pretty quickly. But in the case of skills, it almost seems as though you access too many at once.

In Skyrim you are given access to points every level that you can spend to alter your character. It is how you define your class, in addition to gaining proficiency in certain areas through continuous use. In Far Cry 3 the same thing happens, but new abilities unlock through mission completion. Meaning that you might have three skill points and three abilities to spend them on, but rather than spending a point in a tree unlocking the next ability you must wait until you’ve passed a specific mission, which means you end up spending those skill points on the other two available abilities. This means that rather than specializing your character through tiered unlocks, you learn every ability ever and your character’s strength progresses rather linearly.

It’s a small caveat to an otherwise incredibly polished experience. The gameplay is superb and the entirely first-person perspective, which extends to the cut scenes, gives you the sense that you really are the thrill seeking jock-turned-murderer that your character is supposed to be.

The story thus far is appealing while not necessarily delving into the “extreme” content that seemed to be promised initially. The main villain is terrifying and his psychotic rants are delivered with pin point precision and fear-inspiring intensity, a testament both to the writing and the acting behind it. Every time he shows up you know something intense and story defining is going to occur, but suffice it to say that you can find more grisly material in a lot of films - if that’s your thing. Admittedly, I haven’t experienced the entire story so that could still change.

Disturbing content or no, Far Cry 3 is still a superb shooter that offers a massive world to explore, a myriad of activities to participate in, and a story that makes it a serious contender for Game of the Year. Play it if only to explore the massive, unique and modern world that Ubisoft has built. That alone is worth the price of admission.

-Steve

First off, Steve and I sit down and hash out the idea. Sometimes one of us has the frame work already laid and the other is just there to guide it. Other times we have no idea and sorta just shuffle around until one of us has something mildly funny to work off of. Either way, it’s step one. You will eventually get to listen in on this when we get our podcast going!

After that, I basically do all the fucking work. I kid, of course, but only about the bitterness. The rest of the task is left to me. This can be hard, but the difficulty really just lies in how to make the usual “two guys interacting” pose interesting again.

So yeah, sketching it out takes me the longest I think. I don’t listen to music or anything distracting during this stage. I like the rough, sketchiness that I can get here but it can’t just stop here.

Once Ive figured it all out, I start inking. I use a darker tone for the lines compared to the color it will be enclosing. I have to make separate layers for each part of a person, so this takes fucking –forever-, but I really love the effect. It is a recent change too!

Next stage is coloring, but that will be next week.

-Alex

Day one of our behind the scenes look! Are you not entertained?

Even I don’t know much about this process and I write the strips. Once said strips are written I package them up and send them through the inter-dimensional Ethernet portal to Alex’s creation box where, as far as I’m concerned, they churn for 10 to 15 hours before popping out in a state of perfection. I always imagined he played a lot of video games during this time, or did something equally relaxing.

There is a lot of trust on both ends. I trust Alex to come up with and draw something that not only fits perfectly with the ideas we have digitally transcribed, but is also worthy of your attention and admiration. To this date he has yet to fail that task. Alex trusts me to come up with a post worth reading, something I have tried my best to accomplish. Neither of us steps on each other’s toes creatively unless it’s something very important such as misinformation in a post or a visual falsity in the comic. We respect each other’s space creatively and we both understand that not only are we far from masters at our own craft, but we will likely never be masters of each other’s.

It has only been a year but I don’t think either of us believes that Action Point could exist without our partnership. I write the words, he paints the pictures. I am Gilbert and he is Sullivan. We could certainly work on our own but, in my case especially, it just wouldn’t be the same.

-Steve

Special thanks to Austin Wright, our web sorcerer. He’s put a lot of work into this new design over the last few months, and all for free. You should at least follow him on twitter to show your appreciation.

Kenneth actually did purchase Guild Wars 2 for me as a very early Christmas present. He grew tired of my consistent financial excuses and, having accumulated a good portion of wealth over the years, he decided to throw me a bone.

I’m incredibly impressed by the game so far. It’s not exactly addictive, but it’s refreshing. There are so many diverse ways to earn experience that you never feel like you’re grinding. If you get tired of killing monsters you can go exploring or jump into PVP and still earn the same amount of experience you would from completing a quest.

The visuals are incredible, a cross between Final Fantasy and Lord of the Rings. The world is expansive and breathtaking, and every area is accessible. I’ve yet to run into a walled-off backdrop.

Something I don’t see is an end goal. I level my character to 80 and… then what? Raiding doesn’t seem to be a thing as of yet, which is usually the end game of every MMO. The only options seem to be to join a guild and raise your influence as high as possible. But I can worry about what to do at level 80 when I get there – if I get there. For now I’m enjoying experiencing a unique and exciting world filled with new gameplay and objectives that are steadily reviving my interest in the MMO genre. On the whole I would call this an excellent purchase on Kenneth’s part.

Alex is heading out of town for the next two weeks. He has got a project he’s been working on to tide you over while he’s gone, which involves a breakdown of the creative process behind today’s comic. You can expect to see on Monday. Until then, enjoy the new layout! If you’re new to Action Point, check out our brand new archive page to learn about our story so far.

As always, you can follow us on Facebook and @APComic to be kept up to date on all the goings on over here at Action Point headquarters.

-Steve

There is a new Humble Bundle, and I snatched it greedily into my maw as quickly as possible. It contains six great titles, including Darksiders and Saints Row the Third (!!!) for an unbelievably low price. At the time I purchased the bundle the average to beat (which is required to gain access to Saints Row) was $5.71. I paid $6.00, which meant I paid one dollar per game. The math is undeniable.

I’ve purchased almost every Humble Bundle over the last year, excluding the e-book bundle. I haven’t played most of the games I purchased but I buy them all anyways because why wouldn’t I? I’ll get around to them eventually, or so I tell myself, but it doesn’t really matter because I own them and I paid for them with dirt. On top of that, all of my money went to charity. It amounts to what is essentially an un-losable situation.

There is a general outcry in the media concerning the nature of this latest bundle. Traditionally, Humble Bundles have been composed exclusively of indie games that gain lots of exposure from the incredible bulk pricing. Not only that, but they are DRM free. The latest bundle, dubbed the “Humble THQ Bundle” has games from one publisher, all of which have sold millions of copies, and includes DRM once again.

Where DRM is concerned I have few issues unless it is ridiculous DRM that requires you to be connected to the internet to play. I pay for my games and I don’t really share them with other people besides Alex, and our living situation allows him to simply sit down at my computer and play whichever game he wishes. If it prevents companies from losing money to piracy and isn’t insanely inconvenient for paying consumers, I don’t see an issue.

As far as the bundle’s content, it is certainly a step backwards for indie development. Its focus on a single large publisher is contrary to the goal of bringing indie games to the fore - something Humble Bundle has always been very active about. THQ, which has been on the rocks lately and is facing a very real threat of bankruptcy in the near future, seems to stand only to gain from this deal. They are giving their games away practically for free and while much of the potential earnings may go to charities due to the disposition of the clientele - that being a bias towards indie developers coupled with a general mistrust/dislike of big publishers and developers like THQ - they honestly might not care. If the situation at the woe-begotten publisher is really as bad as it seems, then this may be nothing more than a fire sale – an attempt to garner as much revenue as possible before closing their doors and putting up the “For Rent” sign.

Regardless of the content the great thing about Humble Bundle is that they host multiple bundles per year. There will undoubtedly be another indie bundle, likely better than this year’s. The fact that they have been aggressively expanding their brand and are working on making their model as universal as possible is anything but a loss for the consumer.

We all hope that Humble Bundle maintains its popularity and continues to grow. But we might as well take advantage of every opportunity they give us to get awesome stuff for cheap, all the while helping charity.

-Steve

Today’s premise is, of course, ridiculous but it’s not exactly far-fetched. We’ve already seen some pretty terrible stuff come out of the Star Wars universe, most recently (and somewhat arguably) Star Wars: Detours. It looks like an honest to God creative abortion at first glance but the further down the proverbial rabbit hole you go, the more interesting it seems to become. It is not a serious entry into the Star Wars canon, nor is it necessarily aimed at children, rather it seems to fall more along the lines of spoofs such as Family Guy’s Blue Harvest and the many Robot Chicken parodies we’ve seen over the years. All of which are entertaining and hilarious.

What is worrisome is that we might see some kind of terrible hybrid out of Disney in the coming years that attempts to toe the line between comedy and traditional Star Wars canon, similar to the legendary Star Wars Christmas Special. Worse, Disney may attempt to present a softer, more kid friendly version of the Star Wars universe that is more Ewoks and Jar-Jar than lightsaber-limb-loss and moon-sized death machines.

The best thing Disney can do is pay homage to what has come before. Give us more of what we loved, and don’t try to innovate. If it is not broken then for the love of God do not fix it.

-Steve