While on a recent vacation I was torn away from the Vindicator model I was building on the community dining table to paint pottery at Studio 12 in Avon NC. It is a fun place, if you vacation in the Outer Banks you should go there and paint pottery like I did. But I digress. I painted the mug shown below. It is a one-of-a-kind piece (so far) and will never be duplicated (exactly.) On Monday it will be up for auction on ebay and the link will be here somewhere. If you fancy an oversized coffee mug with a Space Marine chapter logo on it, and a snazzy red handle, then check back here on Monday.

Yes folks, I applied progress to the website over the weekend and broke something. Now ComicPress will not let me upload any comics. I’m working on it…

and there’s no new update. My weekends are getting too short as I was left with too many things to do and not enough time to do most of them, including draw a new comic. You have all been very patient with me while i try adjust to this working for a living thing and I sincerely appreciate it. There will be comics tomorrow, I promise.

Webmaster Larry and I threw down over two days last week. If you recall the first game we played back in 2008 then you remember that I accidently cheated by bringing more points than Larry and we played to a draw. In this last epic, two-day struggle it was Larry who cheated (accidently he alleges) when he gave one of his Tomb Spyders a particle whip. He mumbled something about confusing the particle PROJECTOR with the particle WHIP. He blasted one troop squad down to four models and vaped my Predator and generally did a bunch of damage, and we did not discover his error until the game was nearly over. He was also taking armor saves, with the same Tomb Spyder, against my powerfist Terminators, something I should have caught, but did not.

Anyway, (alleged) cheating aside I managed to claim one objective and, since he forgot to move his intact, and unthreatened, warrior squad from around a building on to an objective, the other two remained unclaimed. In his defence Larry thought the game lasted 7 turns instead of the 6, like I thought, so when I announced that the game ended, and that I had won, he said that he was planning to move them next turn. Well, after reading some “rules” in the “rule book” we found out that I was incorrect and we should have been rolling for game length starting on turn 5. But see, whereas Larry was cheating, I just forgot (allegedly).

Great fun was had by all, even though there was much cursing and throwing of things when Larry could do nothing to hurt my Terminators and failed many we’ll-be-back rolls. HA HA!

The Astro-Mag, link right over there ->, has published their fourth issue. The reason you should care is that it’s full of 40k articles, fiction, pictures, tactica, and exclusive Turn Signals content provided by yours truly, a four-comic story arc that you will not see here. So go over there and download Issue 4 AT ONCE!

I am trying to find out why the shopping kart in the Dice-Mart always appears to be empty when you go to buy some excellent dice. I’ll keep you posted.

Keeping you posted: It seems to be working again today (3/19) so give it a whirl if you need some dices.

Many things have contributed to the lack of a new comic for today but suffice it to say that you are witnessing the beginning of the end for Turn Signals. Since I am losing my job and health benefits, with no immediate prospects, I finally got off my duff last week and inquired about what I would have to do to get Turn Signals into a book for you all to purchase to possible alleviate some of my family’s financial stress. This is what I received back:

“So, in the case of TSOALR we’ve been very happy to let you put your web
comics up as a bit of fun. However, we can’t let you make money off of
what you’re doing because of the legal precedent it could set.

So, I’m afraid there’s just no way for us to allow you to sell TSOALR
prints. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. It’s not that we don’t
like what you do, it’s just that for various commercial reasons we’re
unable to grant you permission to make commercial gain from what is,
ultimately, selling GW-owned imagery.”

I had hoped for better, but had no evidence to believe that it would be. I have reached a point in this endeavour where the effort to put up the comic is far outpacing the return, at least monitarily. Losing one’s job can tend to put things in a different perspective and I realize that my efforts must now be directed more toward supporting my family than supporting my ‘bit of fun.’ As Webmaster Larry said the other day “that shadow was always there” and i knew it too. So for now the comic wll continue, I owe my advertisers that much at least, but it will be ending and some time soon. I’m hoping to continue with web comics, with a fully marketable property, and I’m hoping that when I find it some of you will come read it. Anyway, TSOALR will be back on Friday. See you then.

Some of you more astute readers (I’m assuming that means ALL of you) have noticed the new Bell of Lost Souls mini-banner over there ->. TSOALR and BoLS have formed a small, but meaningful, partnership and the good folks over at BoLS have got a whole new and mostly different comic (from yours truly) to post. “Game News Network” will post once a week, for now, and often star your favorite Land Raider crew. So hop on over and give it a look and while you are there also take a look at all of the 40K content that BoLS serves up every day. News, articles, pics, tactica, and now COMICS!

It’s my birfday today. Normally you would be seeing guest comics this week but things are happening in and around the TSOALR Empire that prevent me from taking the week off. Plus I forgot to mention it and have very few guest strips to post. So, on to the announcements.

1. It’s my birthday (already mentioned)
2. There will be guest content but the guest will be me and it will be the week after next. I’m going to be showcasing something new that I have been working on.
3. There will be extra TSOALR content next week also, but not here. And it will be Tuesday. Look here then for more information.
4. I am to be unemployed on February 27. Many people, upon hearing this, think that webcomicry is my profession and alas, they are incorrect. I just do this as a hobby and rely on a ‘real’ or ‘day’ job to pay bills and buy food and such. I am a graphic artist by trade and do technical illustration, flash animation, graphic design, and presentations, and I am a fair writer. I am looking for a full-time position but will also work as part-timer and/or a freelancer. If you, or anyone you know, needs graphics support please contact me here. I hope this will not affect the production schedule of any on my comics but odds are it will in some way, shape, or form. I will do my best to keep up but being unemployed is a new thing for me.
5. If you have a guest comic, or will have one in the next week or so, please send it in. Birthday Guest Week is not gone, just delayed.

Folks, by some trickery of the warp I have managed to get all of TSOALR’s previous advertisers to renew their accounts for the first half of 2009, as well as adding a new one. I have all of you to thank for that for if they were not geting traffic from you they would take their ad money elsewhere. So please give a big minion-click welcome to Rogue Market (and the new-look TabletopBattlefield podcast which used to be Army Showcase and still is, they just wanted to start your experience with the new podcast feature.)