Artist's Commentary

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The Evolution of "MUGBOT"

It's taken over a year to get this comic online. I started working on it just after I had finished Episode 20, without knowing I'd get so busy with work that I wouldn't find the time or energy to finish it for over a year. I planned for this to be episode 21, but I thought the idea of "Jump the Shark" was more appropriate to bring back the series... and I couldn't let another April Fools Day pass without a comic either. So here we are at episode 23, and I'm glad I finally get to introduce MUGBOT to the world! LOL.

MUGBOT started out as a silly design I came up with in Google's Sketchup software. A boxy little robot with one arm. I was thinking of the classic "HERO-1" robots I would see in early 1980's science magazines, and the occasional TV show like "Whiz Kids". I always wanted one of these robots, even though I think I'd still be lost on how to build and program one.
I was such a nerd... heh, "was".

While working with the design, I thought he looked like a coffee mug with a handle. So I made his head a hollow shape and voila, MUGBOT was born! This immediately sparked the idea of a robot designed to carry hot liquids, but was sadly built with pain-circuits in his head.
His purpose is his pain! ...Poor MUGBOT!

MUGBOT is the first 3D Character or prop I've made for Newt and John, that is turned into a 2D Flash Design. This allowed me to make many different angles of MUGBOT to cover all the up and downshots angles, and 2-Character closeup scenes in this comic. Notice that Newt and John are always a 3/4 angle, which works no matter what view we see of MUGBOT. I also designed his temperature indicator to look like his mouth. It is set at 'Red Hot' for most of the comic until the last 2 panels where the arrow is pointing to 'Cool' Blue.

So, it's good to see that MUGBOT survived his brain-trauma in this episode... so I can use him again in the future! In addition to building this little guy in 3D, I also created plans for a Paper Toy that you can download and print, then cut out, fold and glue your own 3D MUGBOT! With that being said, I won't be able to upload the paper-toy kit until later this week... so check back to this commentary soon!

I hope you enjoyed this episode... pass on a link to your friends! Look for new "Newt and John" comics every MONDAY! Take a moment to subscribe to this website's RSS FEED for instant notification when each comic is online!.. or Follow me on TWITTER!

If you've just discovered this comic, take some time to enjoy all the episodes in the ARCHIVE. Come back each MONDAY to see what else can happen, when Two Roommates take on the Universe!

All the best,

Mike Hogue - April 12th / 2010