Splinter of the Mind’s Eye – Part 20
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We are now up to Chapter VIII (chapter 8 for those of you who don’t have the time to count) of Splinter of the Mind’s Eye. The creature that attacks Luke’s party is called a Wandrella. What the hell? This strikes me as an odd name for something that looks like it was lifted from a Frank Herbet novel. It’s almost screaming to be nicknamed Wanda. Where’s Kevin Bacon when you need him? He’d know how to fix this grabboid!
Yesterday’s strip provoked quite a bit of discussion thanks to a mental lapse on my part. The result is that Vader’s wingmen now have specialized TIE Fighters capable of Hyperspace.. at least they do in BMS. But moving on now, in some ways it would be nice if our international readers are clueless about the fake plastic ball thing… over here they’re called “bumper nuts” (or alternately “bumper balls” or “Truck nuts”) and are common on pickup trucks / small trucks the further you go from a city (or the further south). I asked Leanne what “Git ‘r Done” means, and she explained it meant something like “get the job done”. I can’t quite figure out how one led to the other, but she says that’s probably a good thing. Leanne adds that she thinks the guys who put them on trucks are compensating for something. I wouldn’t know, not having ever had to compensate. 😉
Moving on… this is a Star Wars webcomic, right? Leanne has been watching True Blood lately… solo I might add. I can’t watch that stuff. It’s just vampires with extra blood and tits. However, we’re going to work on some new voting incentive strips this weekend featuring some very iconic Star Wars characters that have, as yet, remained background characters in only a couple of strips. I’m pretty sure their introduction as ongoing characters in the incentive strips will go over really well. We might even make a few promotional pinups to accompany their arrival.
On a completely different note, we’d love to learn more about what our readers get up to as Star Wars fans. For example, are you a costumer, a model-maker, an artist, a writer, or perhaps a collector of unusual Star Wars related things? We’re sure there are some great stories out there. So feel free to shoot us an email or comment here on the blog. Photos are always welcome too. See you guys on Monday! Until then, keep drinking blue!
Carrie is gonna apper on hey hey it’s Saturday here in Australia
Judging by that picture of Vader and Leia, “Git ‘R’ Done” and Truck Nuts aren’t the only things from the south.
Oh god. Truck balls.
I hate those things so much.
I can’t stand them. I have this wish to take a can of BLUE PAINT and spray them every time I see one. My sister in law suggested castration of the things.
My wife and daughter are totally up for the blue spray paint idea – they each separately insisted I post a reply applauding the sentiment. We all had a good laugh.
Re: me and SW, no story. I saw the OT, enjoyed it, and stopped there. Aside from a few movie trailers and cultural “contact high” moments, BMS *is* my entire EU.
I’m not sure how common that is because I’m from the South, I live in the country, and I’ve never heard of something like that let alone seen it on a pick-up truck.
It’s certainly fairly common in Virginia and southern Maryland, that’s for sure.
I go to school in SoMD. Trust me, *everything* redneck (including truck nuts) is common here.
That’s so unfortunately true, it’s almost sickening.
Hey, the South isn’t a bad place. I think I might have inadvertently offended a very beautiful part of the county. Looks like the truck nutz thing is wide spread, but as yet I haven’t seen any in the larger cities.
Say what you want about the bumper nuts but its hilarious when your in a traffic jam and the guy in front of you has them on the ground.
As for your reader question I’m a very amateur artist,programer and I’m alright at the bass (at least I hope so).
What sort of music do you like to play?
Anything from Kiss to John Williams. Every time I learn a new song I try and go to a different type (not necessarily genera) from the last John Williams (the Star Wars theme was the first song I learned) ->The Beatles->Bon Jovi->Kiss->The Who-> ???. Right now I’m deciding on what song I should learn next.
We have a very talented group of readers! I wonder if you can play the Cantina Band Song #1 or #2 or even Lapti Nek on a guitar?
It does sound like it belongs in a fairytale with some ugly sisters…
I am all of the above a costumer (I have dressed as Jedi Luke and Darth Maul for parties and pub crawls before, a model-maker (I have made penguin versions of Jedi, Darth Vader, Darth Maul and an X-Wing Pilot), an artist, a writer, (I write and draw my own webcomic. Though it isn’t Star Wars related, Star Wars is one of my major influences) or perhaps a collector of unusual Star Wars related things (Does Star Wars Lego count as unusual, or is that run of the mill now?)
Hey I’d love to see some pics of your penguin / SW models! Any chance you can share some photos?
I shall see if I have any good pictures of them and send them on.
and i could have sworn I had an avatar thingy…
I see them here in the Upper Midwest, too. Always on a truck, always the northern equivalent of a good ole boy driving. I think they’re tackier than hell and kinda gross.
Truck balls! Ha. I live in South-Africa and we have a very popular local rugby team here called The Blue Bulls. Lately the more hardcore fans have taken to hanging a blue variant of truck balls on their bakkies (our form of pickup trucks.) I HATE THEM !
Keep up the great work guys! Love the strip.
Narrator (In voice of Waylon Jennings): “Boy I tell you, the day they passed out good luck, Luke and Leia must have been out fishing.”
(Banjo plays).
As for my Star Wars fannishness, I have a crate filled with 1970s and early 80s Star Wars toys in the basement. In the sixth grade, I had a weekly writing-journal assignment in reading class, and one week I decided to write an ESB parody – “Baseball Wars,” I called it, probably because the World Series was happening at the time. Lightsaber bats, baseball blaster bolts, that sort of thing. The teacher never told me to stop, so I kept writing it. I milked that thing for the rest of the year!
hahaha! love the Dukes of Hazzard reference
“The sleeper will awaken”
Is it just me or does this strip parody “DUNE” a bit.
Luke just needs to get some maker hooks to ride the worm.
Just found these, they seems appropriate, as both contain milk carton parts.
Make your own Storm Trooper Milk cartom Helmet.
http://www.geekologie.com/2010/10/how_to_make_a_milk_jug_stormtr.php
Make your own Storm Trooper Blaster (Duct Tape and other parts)
http://blastr.com/2010/10/how-to-make-a-diy-star-wars-stormtrooper-blastercheap.php
Where’s Bret when you need him?
As for your question I am a costumer. A member of the Imperial 501st Legion I have Stormtrooper armor and I’m currently working on a Shadow Scout. I’ll shoot you guys a few pics.
Looking forward to it! There’s something about the shiny black armor…
Oh god, redneck things I thought I’d escaped by moving to the “big city.” Thanks a lot, BMS. :p
No problem! 🙂
Everyone and their brother/cousin/lover has them truck nuts on their redneck rides. There is a place called “Hog Waller” down here (Florida) where everyone goes “Muddin'” the first weekend of the month and when you drive by every truck in line to get in has one. Some of the redneck chicks hang them from their rear view mirror as a symbol of being divorced!
I belong to the 501st (Florida Garrison/ Krayt Clan Member) and the Rebel Legion (Ra Kura Base / The Wretched Hive Member) . De Jawa Vu DZ-2646.
Proud BMSer. One of the 3 BMS-Keteers.
Krayt Clan? What do you guys do? Form a train with a giant Krayt Dragon costume?
Costume builder here, along with semi collector and artist when I can find the inspiration and time. Also if I am ever at a con with my costume up and running and you need some help handing things out, count another Blackhole trooper to help you if I am not trooping at that time myself.
We can always use help from our well dressed friends. 🙂 What is it about BMS and Blackhole troopers? I could three readers who troop in that obscure armor type. Perhaps it shas somethign to do with BMS itself often focusing on the more obscure aspects of Star Wars, particularly old school early expanded universe, hence attracting readers who are more “into” those sorts of costumes?
I get the feeling that Luke should be wearing a fedora and using a whip in this scene. Which, if Han were in his place it would be more believeable.
Aw… so mean! 🙂
Oh, right. I forgot about the reader question…
I’m a Guitarist and avid gamer. I generally enjoy listening to and emulating a vast array of 70’s-80’s music, but mostly focused on Ozzy, Van Halen, stuff like that.
Great to hear we have a few musicians among our readers. Star Wars gamer, or a bit of everything?
I’ve been a Star Wars fan since 1977. I’ve collected toys, T-shirts, books, videos (remember them?) Dvds, posters, cards and other assorted bits and pieces, including a Jedi outfit. But mainly I’m a Star Wars role-player. Played WEG D6 Star Wars for years, tried WOTC D20 Star Wars and collected SAGA Edition but never played it. Currently running a Savage Worlds based Star wars campaign. And I’m a BMSer of course.
Yay! A roleplayer! It’s always nice to know the odd RP joke will work for at least one of our readers. 🙂
Costumer-in-progress. I’m working on a mandalorian kit for the mando mercs, and I’m trying to decide on a kit for the 501st. Tossup between a Scorch, Cmdr Bly, or Demagol…
Other than that, rabid love of star wars leads me to places like this, where I can enjoy comics skillfully wrought to poke loving fun at it.
Thanks so much for the compliment. We have fun with Star Wars which makes it all the more rewarding when others enjoy our often retarded strips. 😀
Love to see your costumes!
Thank you guys, for always taking the time to reply to your readers.
Hiya Rustcrust.
My son and I made a Boba Fett helmet out of the PACKAGING that held his Jango Fett helmet. Neat eh? “In your face – Star Wars Corporation!”
And guess what? The packaging plastic is better quality than the Jango helmet.
Wow John! That sounds like a serious achievement of the Blue Peter kind! Did you post an image of this over at your excellent Star Wars Age 9 fan page on Facebook? I’d love to see it!
I’m a movie and video game Star Wars fan. I love watching the movies with commentary and also the documentaries. I used to collect action figures.
I collected a few of the figures in the 90s when they re-launched the line, but they just didn’t have that spark or “likeness” to get me addicted. I have a couple of the 12 inch figures now, Senator Leia being my favorite.
Unappropriate strips just don’t make me feel right and they arn’t that funny. The strips that don’t have anything to do with anything unappropriate are the ones that always make me laugh, please write more appropriate strips, thank you.
Do you mean inappropriate?
Yeah sorry.
We’ve got those down here in South Africa….except they’re blue. It’s for support of one of our Rugby teams, The Blue Bulls. So i guess the blue nuts are from the castrated bulls lol.
I’m slightly amazed no one touched on the other ‘Redneck’ shtick from the swamper…. “GIT ‘R DONE!”. It’s a line from a VERY redneck (yet hilarious) comedian who goes by Larry The Cable Guy (I have no clue what his name is). He actually is fairly humurous (likely moreso is you’re slightly Redneck like myself, I’m from the country in Alberta, CA, and slightly atypical…) Anywho he does a comedy tour with 3 other comedians that’s out on DVD, entitled The Blue Collar comedy tour, should you be looking to laugh uproariously, then check it out! (I’m sure you could YouTube the entire thing too…)
O, and it should go without saying…..
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(but I’ll say it anyways so you know… Rock on!)
That 1/25th size Wandrella is hillarious. The book had them actually driving on the tail before they knew it was a critter.
Since only one guy hinted at it, imma go out an say it, it looks like vader’s gitten blown by leia.
great comic series by the way
I know the comments on this strip are probably long dead, but I’ve always been a pretty big Star Wars fan. I have a bunch of the toys from when I was a young buck. I play Star Wars: The Old Republic where I run a roleplay guild on there. Now, I know the prequel trilogy was awful, but the whole idea of the army of “Clone Troopers” raised some pretty big questions about the morality of a “democracy” using an army of genetically engineered sentiment beings to fight a war on it’s behalf. I was disappointed that they never explored this idea in the films. Anyways, I reckon I’d fancy myself something of a musician. I can play guitar and the banjo. And, yes. I know the Star Wars theme on both instruments. I also sometimes play at writing when the creative muse touches my mind. Now, I love Star Wars, but if we’re talking about my favorite Sci-fi series of all time? I’m gonna have to go with Firefly. It’s just so well put together. And, I love how it blends the whole sci-fi and Western thing to make a truly unique and interesting universe. Plus, Westerns are by far my favorite genre of anything. I just can’t get enough of them. Also, I was a little saddened by all the hatred towards the South that seems to be going on in the comments. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I found the strip itself hilarious because it hit so close to home for me. I mean, I personally think Truck Nutz are pretty trashy, but I’ve seen plenty of people sporting ’em. But, as a son of the South, I just wanna say, we’re not all like Duck Dynasty. Most of us are actually pretty decent people. That’s all. Sorry… rant over.
Generally speaking, I think Southerners are the most likable, endearing, warm and friendly Americans I know (from my experience). If I wanted to generalize, I’d place New Yorkers and big city folks pretty low on my list, just because I relate more to a suburban / rural form of life. Fortunately, I know better than to generalize, but know at least that BMS has no problem with the people of the south. White Trash are everywhere and in every Western country. 🙂
Trucknuts…why. Just why.