Stuntmutt

Zzombies.

2007-09-30T18:35:00.000+01:00

I have a bit of a treat here. No less than three strips from Zzombie 13. First up, a timely crossover jibe.

I know how the Chief feels...

And this is great.

I've also been sent this from Nathaniel Clements.

And one from the red thangapin.

Hello 3.

2007-09-27T08:03:00.000+01:00

So three years ago, I did the whole bit - queued up in Oxford Street for a midnight opening and a copy of Halo 2. Well, this time around, a couple of things were slightly against me. Firstly, I became a Dad a few months ago and staying out late isn't really up there on the responsible parenting chart. Secondly, Westminster Council banned midnight openings this year for fear of overcrowding.

There was, however, a big launch party going on at Waterloo.

The London IMAX had been done up nice 'n' tidy and would be host to all sorts of celebs, press, industry figures and lucky compo winners.

Well, just when I thought I'd have to wait until the morning of the 26th, I was lucky enough to accompany my mate, LawlessBig Dal to the aforementioned event.

This is me queuing.

This is me saying sod the queue, let's head back in an hour.

I was a little bit worried it would just turn out to be stuff I'd seen on the internet. Sure enough, we got the Diorama video, and a walkthrough of Tsavo Highway by bungie's Joe Tung and Lee Wilson. Interesting enough, but not really gripping. The much feted celebrity deathmatch was a bit shonky. Pharrell slunk on, mumbled a hello, then proceeded to suck like a thirsty horse. Sure, the names on the screen said Carmen Electra and LL Cool J were his opponents, but they were in other countries playing via Xbox Live. So all we could see was a bunch of people who looked like they'd never played Halo before missing each other with rockets and falling off the map on a big screen. Yes, I do realise the pot just cast aspersions at the kettle.

But the night took a sweet turn. On entering, we had all been given either red or blue wristbands. Two red crowd members and two blue were called down to the front for 2v2 game of slayer. We were told that if the red team won, everyone with a red wristband would get a free copy of the game, same for blues if their team won. Well that got the crowd behind the players. The reds spanked the blues by about forty points. Of course, it was all a bit of schtick and as consolation prizes, everyone was to be given a free copy of Halo 3 when they left.

I was out of there like a shot. Sod the umpteen networked HD setups in the lobby. Sod the free bar. By 8.20pm, I had a copy of the game in my hand. And at a price that was right.

I went home and finished the fight (going to work the following day after just two hours of sleep). I dashed through on Normal just to see how the story ended and I loved it. I'm now going back through on Heroic and it's even better. Next week, I'll make a start on Legendary. And hopefully, I'll get a chance to play a little multiplayer too.

Se7en Se7en Oh Se7en

2007-07-07T11:23:00.000+01:00

A momentous day for Halo fans. Here's a celebratory strip.

Let's see, I have some guest submissions here somewhere. Ah yes. First up, one from HaLo2FrEeEk, pondering life after death.

And now, one of the many 'jokes' that Phidgers insists on telling me over XBox Live.

Pixellated has been making some very nice comics featuring HBO Helljumper clan members. He was kind enough to feature One One Se7en in a cameo appearance.

Finally, Louis Wu forwarded this on to me. I contacted the creator, Aidan Sloan, to ask about the intention behind it. He replied - Well, it shows that BOLL will strike anytime, anywhere. Then, his son makes a little mod of his own. Heh heh heh. Call it, "The return of BOLL..."

Um, right. Have a great Bungie Day. I'll be back doing One One Se7en as of Monday.

It IS Rocket Science!

2007-04-10T13:30:00.000+01:00

Louis Wu forwarded me an email he'd been sent by a gentleman named Skipp. It's a very nice email indeed, and I thought I'd post it here. Skipp also submitted a guest strip which you can see below.

Subject: One One Se7en's my saviour
To: halo@bungie.org

MC,

My infinite gratitude goes to you for saving my sanity...

I'm a 50+ year old NASA "rocket scientist" and also an avid FPS gamer (funny that, but oddly enough there's a lot of us) that had to work a bunch of 16 hour shifts in a row. Much like policemen or firemen (and 117) my job is 1% frantic activity and 99% waiting for the results of same. Found your site while generically searching for the newest "Red vs. Blue" and read the current comic.

Count me as a captive. I was immediately held hostage by the simplicity yet depth of the 117 series. I immediately clicked on "first" and read the entire strip from day one. Helped me to pass so much of that 99% uselessness productively. Laughed my ass off out loud on occasion while other times I was reduced to "How true, how true" reflectivity. And it kept me awake.

Just wanted to thank you again for the life and vitality you've imbued 117 with and shared...I consider the strip somewhat of a CGA version of RvB...Are you even old enough to remember what CGA graphics were? Probably not...No one is anymore...

P.S. Although I perused the rest of the site and found you're not accepting any more "Guest Comics" for 117 I made one anyway (That wasted another 4 hours or so...Thanx again) and included it for your dismissal and/or disposal as you choose...

Sincerely, Skipp (or Ppla 'Epsodee - Gold)

"I think we're just getting started."

2007-04-01T10:34:00.000+01:00

So today heralds a new beginning for One One Se7en. My scribbles have (rightly) copped some stick in the past. So from today, the strip is receiving a complete makeover. Badly drawn cartoons out, photoshopped screengrabs in. The strips will all be made using Comic Life, which gives much better results than Word. Also, I'll be using this nifty Bad Joke Generator. According to its blurb, "The Bad Joke Generator autogenerates terrible, terrible puns about any person or object or archetype, based on the keywords you give it. You need never buy another Christmas cracker again." Sounds like the standard of humour should stay relatively the same, then.

Strip Mining.

2007-03-18T15:17:00.000Z

It's been a while since I've posted anything on my blog. But here are a few bits and bobs. First up, a strip from me. I was going to submit this for tomorrow's One One Se7en on HBO. But this morning, I discovered Froggy has beaten me to the punch(line).

Here are a couple of guest submissions. This one is from Joe Gribble, and certainly has a ring of truth to it. I've been on both these teams at one time or another.

Next, a strip from Captain Foxx, featuring his own character.

And a one-shot from Cypher.

This is a little sight gag from Jordan 117. Guess he's saying my interpretation of the MC is a little... rectangular.

And finally, for some bizarre reason, One One Se7en goes rave. Retsof-Noraa put this underground scene together. To check it out at full bass-in-me-face volume and bangin' bpm, click here. Th-th-th-that's all folks.

Master Sheaf.

2006-12-03T12:00:00.000Z

Just a catch up and round up of some of the One One Se7en related goings on since the last update. A little while ago, Paul Maestri featured the Chief in his Halo Heads comic.

You can check out the whole strip here.

In response to this strip, Mondo J. Gecko made a follow up (borrowing a little inspiration from BOLL)-

And speaking of BOLL, check out these 360 faceplates he made for an HBO competition.

Still haven't invested in a 360 myself. But Christmas is coming. If I'm a good boy, who knows what Santa might bring down my chimney? From one HBO competition to another (ooh, the slinky links are just flowing). Someone entered a One One Se7en pumpkin to the annual Guilt O'Lantern contest. I would credit whoever it was - but I don't actually know who made it. Nice job though.

I happened upon (what I assume to be) a clan picture on a Halo forum. Hello ladies!

Now for a couple of 'dead' strips. These are comics I submitted to HBO that never saw the light of day. This first one was pulled because Bentllama had made the same joke on the HBO forum (a couple of times in fact!).

And this one never ran for a similar reason - a few people had already made the same observation.

Of course, some may think it a tad hypocritical that these comics were deemed unsuitable because they contained material that had been used before...

The slew of new Halo 3 screenshots have thrown up all sorts of discussions and theories. There was speculation as to what a mysterious blur hiding in the background of this shot might be. RVideo thinks he knows...

Those nice chaps at Podtacular invited me on as guest host a while back.
Have a listen.

That's yer lot. Apart from this seasonal little trinket by Omega. Happy Christmas!

A Few Niblets.

2006-08-13T12:39:00.000+01:00

Time for another update. Here we have a couple of strips by jdogmoney. I really like the HGN one, wish I'd thought of that pun myself...

Next, we have more submissions from Reilly Weakley that certainly live up to his name. It's true, I do indeed like the new Mac Books. I even made a One One Se7en using the Comic Life application that comes with it.

Reilly also spray painted One One Se7en as an entry for HBO's Halo Themed Lawn competition.

He wasn't the only one - Mankitten got busy with the garden shears too.

Gah! Somebody's Grassed Me Up!

I believe they both won signed copies of the Halo Graphic Novel for their efforts. Nice!

Now have a look at this. Liam Pinkerton sent me a very cool flash animation.

You can see it in action here. Great stuff!
Also, Zugy was messing aroung with a vector graphic generating doodad, and he came up with this.

It's been a long time since I've posted a 'lost strip'. But when I submitted this one to Louis Wu, he pointed out that not only had Ducain already made the same joke, but Dojorkan had also chimed in. The thing is, I did get the idea from Ducain's post - but I hadn't noticed the title! Gah!

That's about it for now. Oh, there was this of course. TTFN!

Pro Choice.

2006-07-02T09:40:00.000+01:00

Hi de ho! Quite a bit of stuff here. First up, One One Se7en got a nod from another online comic - check out the underwear!

You can see the full Trunks and Soto comic here. It did get me wondering what these fellas would make of it...

Schedonnardus gets Jack Bauer on the case trying to uncover some Halo 3 secrets...

Mankitten takes a look at another artist's interpretation of Cortana. A long, lingering, lascivious look...

Molly Klooster sent me an image the size of a postage stamp. It was 17k and practically unreadable. I've scaled it up and redone the type so it can actually be read. Looks like someone else got to the active camo first...

There was a good old hoo ha about the image used on the cover of this book. Is that a BR I see before me?

Tragic Nocturne muses on the Chief's gun being... borrowed.

And you can see my take on it in this strip.

Reilly Weakley sent me no less than four submissions. Actually, he sent them to Louis Wu. Poor Louis is already sent three too many One One Se7ens every week. Just to clarify, once more, HBO no longer accepts guest strips. Send 'em to me, I'm happy to post all and sundry here.

Mrs Wife might have something to say abut this one. She's just bought one of those new Macbooks - and it does look rather appealing, even to me...

Some Hog launch humour...

And the editorial philosophy of One One Se7en laid bare...

Finally, this is a photograph of a gentleman called Foulacy. He's a professional gamer and part of the Str8 Rippin team. Notice the shirt. A pro player sporting an image that has come to stand for incompetency and betrayal. How very delicious!

Over The Threshold.

2006-06-04T11:18:00.000+01:00

Oh yeah, she's with me!

...she signed it 'Michael Mouse'?!

A couple of shots of the new Mr and Mrs Stuntmutt there. My cheeks still ache from grinning so much all day. I'm sure you can imagine how bad my speech was...

...it's been emotional. Even the cake's in tiers...
And actually, some of the music was a bit dodgy too. Nice
guitar though...

Who's that bloke on the right?

Then it was off to Barbados, and time to show off the holiday wear...

One of mine...

...and one of his.

That's enough pictures of me. Here's some guest submissions. First up, chachalaca speculates on Cortana's state of mind as witnessed in the H3 trailer.

Pixellated blinds the Chief with science.

And Legendary 117 sent me his favourite doodle.

BOLL is back, back, back. He made a flash doohickey that shows the process of abstract deconstruction to arrive at the elegance of minimalistic representation. Or something. Check it out here. And just in case you missed it, go back to BOLL's Friday guest strip and click on that flashing crystal...

There's a story behind this little fella -

You'll find the story here. Helps if you know a bit about Warhammer. And my Halo playing style. But some of us have been proselytizing for Khorne for a long time...

Finally, Mr c0ld Vengeance and myself recently met up with fan fiction writer extraordinaire and HBO story page dominatrix Jillybean. As this photo demonstrates she is, to use a term from her own vernacular, a 'wee yin'. (c0ld Vengeance used for scale).

Oh. And whilst I may not be much chop at video games, I'm no slouch when it comes to drinking games. In fact, here's a picture of two n00bs I pWned at 21s with Thumbmaster on the side and a No Pointing rule in effect...

I Doodly Do.

2006-05-24T11:45:00.000+01:00

Quick one there that's a collaboration from c0ld Vengeance and Pixellated. Well, can't agree with that second bit. But here's some pictorial proof that I am, in fact, the luckiest man in the world.

And finally...

Tee off.

2006-04-30T10:45:00.000+01:00

How cool is this? An HBO T-shirt with a little One One Se7en on the front, plus a line from one of the comics on the back.

Shirt purchases actually count as raffle entries for some great prizes. You can read all about it here. A lot of people worked hard to make this happen, but special thanks must go to Mig Chavez for being the driving force behind it all.

This is genuine, not a hoax like the April 1 book. Speaking of which, the idea of a fake book was actually considered last year. Pixellated even had a go at putting something together himself -

This was my recent entry for the 7 on 7 competition to pose Halo action figures
in a way that illustrated a track from the Halo soundtrack CDs. I chose 'Flawed Legacy'...

(Congratulations to c0ld Vengeance whose excellent Ancient Machine entry deservedly won a prize).

Schedonnardus posted this after my foray into religious matters.

I can assure you, I don't really make any encrypted predictions that ultimately come to pass. Then again...

Couple of guest strips now. First from Usul, a hybrid of One One Se7en and Patrick McDonnell's Mutts comics.

And here's one from Tum Tut Mantis. Some irony there, I think.

Finally, I recently did an interview for the guys at Dead Man's Hand, which you can read here, should you really wish to. Oh, and one last thing - it was my birthday six days ago. It's someone else's today...

Relic.

2006-04-24T07:10:00.000+01:00

My cousin sent me this by way of a birthday card. I don't even want to talk about how many candles it really is...

Taking The Cake.

2006-04-14T12:26:00.000+01:00

Pixellated made this celebrating One One Se7en. It can't be a matchmaking victory, so it must be something else. Perhaps he's excited about the upcoming wedding. As Louis Wu mentioned, the little fella in Friday's strip was originally intended for a very special job at said function...

When I met up with some of the other gentlemen I play alongside (see previous blog entry), they asked for quick sketches such as this one -

And if you're really interested, Bassetts made a little video of me scribbling, which you can see here.

To end with, here's a couple of guest strips. The first from WM Dwales -

And here's one from Connor Pruett featuring his own character.

Feet First Into Grease

2006-04-11T22:42:00.000+01:00

Some members of the HBO Helljumpers met up in London this evening. Swe had flown in from Sweden, so a few of us went to say hello.

From left to right - Andz (crouching), Swe, Fozma, Bassetts, me and c0ld.

It was good to put names to faces. We settled down in a KFC in Paddington and c0ld ordered masses of food. So much that we didn't get close to finishing it, prompting c0ld to comment that "Even fried chicken has got the Helljumpers beaten."

One One $e7en

2006-04-01T08:49:00.000+01:00

It's cashing in time! I've finally bitten the bullet and made the first collected edition of One One Se7en strips. Forget any other lame attempts at comic books, this is the real deal.

The cover!

The first 200 comic strips.

It's a 110 page 'perfect bound' softback, featuring the first 200 weekday strips, 10 Sunday strips, 10 annotated strips (including some 'rarities') and 10 brand new exclusive strips that only appear in the book (not including the one that appears in the introduction so, er, 11 really).

Explaining how it's not funny if I have to explain it...

If it's a success, other collections will follow (definitely another one, two if I make it as far as 600 strips). The book costs £6.99 (which works out at $12.50 for those of you across the pond), and can be ordered from my Cafe Press page. If you really want, you can also order a vandalised copy from me directly, with my name scrawled all over the inside cover and any particular dedication you might care for.

One of the exclusive strips created just for the book.

I must confess, I'm actually rather pleased with the finished thing. It's nice to have kicking around on the coffee table next to the Stephen Hawking. Even so, 95% of the content is available for free on HBO. And although I've tried to keep the price as reasonable as possible, like I mention in the introduction, I can't really see why anyone would buy this for one minute.

The introduction - with bonus strip.

Creamed Corn.

2006-02-15T10:55:00.000Z

Many thanks to Psychophan7 for that explosive introduction. Here's an amusing little snipe-pet from NavSpecWarrior.

Fairlyodd posted this doodle on the Halo Babies forum. It was inspired by the Warthog Launch Game.

On the subject of contributions posted to forums, XxBoBxX sent this to me via the RedvsBlue site - it's a One One Se7en/Seinfeld crossover piece. Apparently.

Lucon sent me an email entitled 'Hilarious One One Se7en idea'. I mailed him back, suggesting he made a guest strip out of it, but I didn't hear from him again. Anyway, I did rather like the idea, so I whipped up a quick version myself.

The Helljumpers' very own Pixellated has begun a Marathon inspired spin-off strip. This one has a guest appearance by the MC.

Bootstrap Boon, creator of award winning Halo Machinima like Oddball, has another ambitious project on the drawing board.

And if you look a little closer at the drawing board, you'll see One One Se7en has a new career as a stand in!

Also, Random 15-Year-Old decided that his homework could be spruced up with a bit o' the MC. I fear for his grade...

You can read more about it here. I must confess, I did a very similar thing when I was student, only I used Calvin and Hobbes.

Now then. My fiancee gave me this wonderful present for Valentine's Day. Check out my Halo Sli77ers. I'll never have cold feet going into battle again.

And allow me to be first with the inevitable geezer gamer gags...

You Guest It.

2005-12-11T10:16:00.000Z

Another handful of home grown humour.
Here's a 458 themed strip from Fr3ak Sh0t.

NavSpecWarrior kills 'em all in this one.

Helgunn offers up some pun-ishment.

And another submission from my cousin. Here, you can see that a similar level of humour runs in the family.

Finally, a couple of posts down, I mentioned that a One One Se7en cartoon was being auctioned off for charity. The highest bidder was a gentleman named Francesco Poli, and there's a nice little write up with some photos on his blog about him receiving it.

Call Me Cassandra.

2005-12-05T23:12:00.000Z

IF the Halo script that's floating about is real, IF Guillermo Del Toro signs up as director and IF this particular actor is available, I predict that Ron Perlman (the voice of Lord Hood in Halo 2) could well be cast as Captain Jacob Keyes. Check back in about 2 years to see if I was right!

Pimpkins?

2005-11-10T14:24:00.000Z

Sadly, I didn't get to the time to enter HBO's pumpkin carving competition this year, which was a shame because I really enjoyed doing it last year.

Even so, there were two One One Se7en themed entries. This first one from Nick Wagner, and the second - well, I don't actually know who entered that one!

And here's another guest strip from my cousin, about young ladies with colds. Oh, sorry, I mean bird flu.

Blow Me. Away.

2005-10-29T09:12:00.000+01:00

Some very silly and some very serious stuff here.

Restof-Noraa sent in this -

Here's a guest strip from Muji, a warning to us all that boarding should only be attempted at slower speeds.

Here's a guest strip from my cousin. It's very rude...

...which got me thinking. If he can do a rude one, I can do a rude one! Two Helljumpers discuss basic training. Been a while since I sent myself a guest strip!

Now the serious stuff. Over on HBO, there's a charity auction to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina. There's loads of very cool bungie collectibles, with proceeds going to a very good cause. Also up for auction is this special One One Se7en strip -

As I said to Louis Wu, this is hand drawn, hand lettered and hand coloured. In fact, no-one can deny it's a complete hand job. But if it helps to raise a few quid...

What's Words Worth?

2005-09-27T22:31:00.000+01:00

Somewhat bizarrely, I've been interviewed for a Podcast by the chaps at HaloChat. You can listen to me rant on in episode 3 of H=MC².
Alternatively, you can see me spout a number of my most common utterances in this creation by Se7en One -

But just remember -

Sleeping Beauties.

2005-09-18T12:50:00.000+01:00

Been a while since I've updated the blog. Since my last post, I've been interviewed over at the Junkyard and I flew to New York for Miguel Chavez's LAN party. I wrote a long description of the LAN here, and there are lots of photo's here. This is a shot taken outside Mig's house of most of the people who attended.

Now then, here are a couple of digs at my expense courtesy of the HBO Helljumpers. The first is from Pob, and features a very early design for the Master Chief. Apparently, it is an "Old and bad" reference. Bah.

Then SF Legend takes a pop. What are they trying to tell me?

Speaking of the Helljumpers, here's a couple of clanmembers 'off duty'. First, c0ld Vengeance in the most bizarre sleeping position I have ever seen -

And here, Warbow, Feet first into bed.

Ava-ta Very Much!

2005-07-23T10:57:00.000+01:00

Over at the HBO Helljumpers' forum, we use our Halo 2 Multiplayer symbols as avatars. The theory is that we'll get to know each other's symbols, and it will help us when we're actually playing. Hah! Hah, I say! Anyway, people started getting a bit tricksy with their avatars, putting them through Photoshop filters or making little Flash animations and the like. There are some very good ones. I asked if someone could make me one that transforms from my Spartan mask H2 emblem into One One Se7en. MereCatfish made this one. I love the way One One Se7en blinks at the end.

And Jaleo (oi oi J-Lo!) made this, which is very slick indeed. Top stuff gents!

Stop press! I'm a lucky lad! Here's yet another, from SF Legend.

Dust and Echoes.

2005-07-05T19:33:00.000+01:00

This weekend, my nephews came to stay. Aged four and five, they took great delight playing Halo and Halo 2 on my Xbox. They also loved my Halo action figures (Master Chief version 1, Master Chief version 2 and an Elite). It's a testament to Joyride that the toys survived the experience. My Toy Biz Marvel Legends Iron Man wasn't quite so lucky, and frankly Skeletor's staff of power has seen better days. Anyway, their Dad sent me this to commemorate the occasion...

Guest Fest.

2005-07-02T09:37:00.000+01:00

A few more morsels that have been sent my way.

kilaMOMjaro wrote, "I admit it...I shamelessly steal one one se7en art for my avatars. I was crowned clan MOM some time ago for clan Sword of Laban (SoL). This is the favorite avatar of the guys..."

Pixellated (Pixie, Pixie, Pixie) joined the HBO Helljumpers a while back. He made a load of guest strips and put them on our forum in this thread. I've picked out a couple of my favourites. This first one is an alternative to a sticky kill when you've run out of plasma grenades -

This one is about something that really happens. A lot.

And this one is a Helljumpers' in-joke. It has to do with a little song that some of us sing on Headlong -

Finally, Erich sent this strip about the topic of the moment, modders. I recently submitted my own take on flying hogs that should turn upon HBO in a couple of weeks. That's my story anyway...

Bits and Bobs.

2005-05-15T13:49:00.000+01:00

A few bits and pieces since the last update. Firstly, I awoke on the morning of April the 30th to find that the cartoon on my wall had been altered by my fiancee. Heh - think she was the only person in the world (myself included) who remembered it was two years to the day since the first One One Se7en was posted on HBO.

Eggnog sent this avatar.

Mere, a fellow Helljumper, posted this One One Se7en version of his XBL persona.

343 Guilty Spark sent this strip. He said he couldn't think of a title. How about 343 Guilty Skidmark?

NE Wave sent this strip about the burst capability of the Battle Rifle, entitled "Say What?"

H3ADSHOT 118 put this on the Helljumpers' forum. SF Legend suggested the title "Re-Tardis."

Finally, here's a strip from Savage Yoshi.

A little p.s. - When 343 Guilty Spark emailed his submission, he asked if it could "be placed in the Guest Strip queue, not the Archive," and was "Just wondering, how many strips are in line for the Guest Strip queue?" Heh. HBO stopped accepting guest strips over a year ago (and the Archive ceased to be updated not long after). Any guest submissions now get put here on this blog. Keep 'em coming!

Your Guest Is As Good As Mine.

2005-04-16T11:56:00.000+01:00

A few One One Se7en bits and pieces people have done over the past couple of months here. First, some flash animations. MiD33 has a couple of cartoons for you to look at here, whilst N1NJ4 tackles the tricky subject of violence in video games in this HBO forum post.

Warbow made this strip, based on bitter experience.

Majinkid sent me a graffiti pic of One One Se7en.

Recently, ICDedPpl held a competition for people to Photoshop Halo characters into real life situations. Some people used One One Se7en drawings.
I made this one.

The Bear made this.

An entry by M'art.

And one from Mad Lobster. I think he's certainly living up to his name.

Poboonru, a fellow HBO Helljumpers clan member made these strips.

It has been known for myself and Pob to sing as we play. Lucky opponents have been treated to renditions of such gems as 'Is This The Way To Amarillo?', and a song by Katrina And The Waves that goes like this;

Speaking of the Helljumpers, Se7en One has made a series of One One Se7en strips featuring the guys in the clan. If you have a poke about in this thread, you'll find ten or eleven 'episodes' of our adventures. Se7en asked people to submit drawings of themselves for future strips.

Here's Phil, whose Scots accent has earned him the nickname 'The Tartan Spartan.'

Bluestone recently joined us. I like the way he draws One One Se7en. He does much better feet than I do!

Poboonru singing again!

And finally, a drawing animated by Se7en of our dear colleague Andz. Aside from the fact that you can't hear any spurious excuses emanating from it, there's something curiously realistic about ths little fellow...

Guestacular.

2005-02-22T16:07:00.000Z

Here's a bunch of guest submissions. First up, a topical piece submitted by my cousin. It's snowing in London today and this has knock on effects for the Master Chief as he tries to commute home after a hard day in the City;

A guest strip from Evan;

Some graffiti from 706;

I'm a member of the HBO Helljumpers clan. Some of my fellow clanmembers have been having some fun with One One Se7en. First up, a clan wallpaper from Se7en One;

A guest strip from Skywalker DS;

And finally, no less than nine strips from a German clan member, Mopey. It's worth knowing that Mopey is a sniper, and gets very upset if someone nabs the sniper rifle before he can get to it...

Feet First Into Hell.

2005-01-30T17:37:00.000Z

I'm a member of the HBO Helljumpers clan. Which is possibly why they keep losing. Anyway, we're trying to come up with a clan logo. Bear in mind we're all Europeans...

Three 6ix Oh.

2005-01-21T08:04:00.000Z

N1NJ4 has created this little rotating avatar of which he says "Feel free to use it anywhere you want." It's a lot more advanced than my own version which can be found over at bungie.net

The Sons Pointed At The Head Of The Universe.

2005-01-20T13:57:00.000Z

Heh. Bit of a special one this. It was sent to me by my cousin. The two blonde haired, blue eyed, butter wouldn't melt boys in the final frame are my nephews Jack and Harry. Believe me, the combined destructive power of all seven Halos ain't got nothing on these two...

FantaZztic.

2005-01-20T09:37:00.000Z

I'd really like to thank ZZoMBiE 13 who created this fabulous panel for a recent strip. I must confess, I shamelessly stalked him on the net in order to beg him to collaborate with me. He very kindly agreed to do so. If you haven't seen his work before, check it out. I rate his work up there with other great 'home grown' talents like Tina and Joel. I know ZZoMBiE's a busy man, but I hope he might one day treat us to more Halo 2 related art.

Guest Stars.

2005-01-20T09:18:00.000Z

Here's a new batch of guest strips. 706 has made five strips in an unprecedented burst of creativity - although he does worry it might ruin his life. I sympathise, believe me. Mind, I think it's a bit cheeky he's hijacked the title and changed it to his own name!

Lord Of The Ring.

2005-01-04T15:17:00.000Z

Heh. Well, at midnight on New Year's Eve, I asked my lovely lady if she would like to get married. She said she'd love to. Of course, I then had to point out that I meant would she like to get married to ME...
Even so, the response was...
Many thanks for the kind comments on the HBO forum. This one in particular made me chuckle, and I loved this little doodle by AltoDarknight:

A Corn-ucopia.

2004-12-14T19:28:00.001Z

Louis Wu kindly dug out all the guest strips that were stored away so I could put them here on my blog. Some of these have been made with the Automagic Stripzmaker but have been sufficiently altered to merit inclusion. I'll be happy to post any future guest strips here - but again, if they're just straight Automagic strips, please put them in the HBO forum.

Curses! Uh...cursors.

2004-12-07T16:03:00.000Z

A while back, BOLL made some One One Se7en cursors. Instead of a blinking line, you can have a blinking grunt! You can download them from here.

Be My Guest.

2004-12-05T15:05:00.000Z

Mopey sent me a couple of guest strips. HBO stopped accepting guest strips a while back, but I thought I might put 'em up here. Nice work!

Best Heard In 5.1 Surround.

2004-11-23T13:47:00.000Z

The sound design team did a bang up job on the multiplayer levels. Take Zanzibar for instance; the eerie creaking metal, the subtle ocean ambience. Sound effects add a new depth and realism to proceedings; the stereo panning of the rocket’s whoosh, the intricacy of proximity voicing. But I feel there are some serious omissions. Where, for example, is this sound effect for c0ld Vengeance lowering the base gate at the exact instant the warthog full of flag capturers (driven by my good self) is blown sky high killing all its occupants?

Our Man In Kazakhstan.

2004-11-23T08:55:00.000Z

Narcogen, webmaster of Rampancy, flew into London for a business meeting. Whilst a native of Boston, Narcogen lives and works in Kazakhstan.
Naturally, we met up for a beer or two. Or three. Or…you get the idea. We started off with a couple of liveners in the bar at Paddington station and chatted about Halo (of course). Narcogen is an old school, way back Bungie community member. I’m a recent interloper, having arrived via a love of console based FPS games. It was probably that first sniper shot in Goldeneye that got me hooked. From thence to Perfect Dark, then Halo (courtesy of my mate Colin who took me through the entire game on co-op one rainy weekend).
From Paddington, we moved on to The Heights bar (which has great views of the London skyline) and on to sports. I say WE moved on to sports, I mean I ranted about The Spurs, and Narcogen was polite enough to listen. I said I’d been to a baseball game in the States and was amazed that when you wanted a beer, you passed your money into the crowd and not only did a beer get passed all the way up to you, your change did too. Bloody hell. Try that at The Lane and you’d be lucky if your arm came back with a hand still on the end. Of course, Narcogen was familiar with Roman Abramovitch, Chelsea’s benefactor, so we talked about buying success and how that had happened in America with Hockey.
By now, we were feeling slightly peckish, so I took Narcogen to a restaurant in London’s Chinatown. I hope he actually managed to eat something. When armed with chopsticks and faced with an array of oriental dishes, my right hand has been known to approximate a striking cobra …
We continued to converse about all and sundry. Narc was keen to attend the opening of an Apple shop in Regent Street the following morning. We were on the Tsing Tao by now. I have to say, I seriously doubted his chances of being up in time…
Narcogen was kind enough to stump up for our dinner. Cheers guv! I took him down to the tube station where, in order to point out his route on the Underground map, I had to clap a hand over one eye. A sure indicator of a good night.
You can read Narc’s far more eloquent version of events here.

Suckmutt.

2004-11-18T01:11:00.000Z

I played quite a bit of Xbox Live this evening. And quite frankly, I'm rubbish. Truly pathetic. This is probably the best I will ever manage...

One One Se7en on Halo 2 LE DVD!

2004-11-17T19:48:00.000Z

Heh. One One Se7en makes a guest appearance on the Halo 2 Limited Edition DVD. But not drawn by me! Instead, it's a picture by BOLL that he actually made for One One Se7en's first anniversary earlier this year. Stuntwho? Bah! If you want to see it, here's how.

Could've Had It Months Ago.

2004-11-16T17:33:00.000Z

Met up with c0ld Vengeance at se7en (ho, ho, ho) o’clock on November the 10th in The Tottenham pub on the corner of Oxford St. Basically, we had to kill five hours until Game’s midnight opening for the release of Halo 2.
Now normally, there’s nothing I’d like better than having to kill time using only a boozer and a drinking companion. Hell, I’ve lost entire weeks that way. But we reasoned that actually, we’d have to go a bit careful. It would be rather self defeating to get back to our respective homes so rinsed that we instantly passed out in front of the TV clutching our copies of Halo 2.
The Tottenham was heaving, so we moved on to The Blue Posts. The plan was to pace ourselves, have a couple of pints, watch the football (Toon versus Chelski) segue smoothly into a cheeky ruby then wander to the top of the road and start queuing sometime after 11.
The football was a bit dismal (0-0 FT – we actually missed extra time when the two goals were scored), the ruby was top drawer (Maharani, my personal favourite) and suitably fed and watered, we ambled up to Oxford St Game at around quarter past eleven. There were already twenty or thirty people there, hopping from foot to foot and shivering.
Every so often, a passerby would ask what we were standing in line for. Most seemed to be disappointed that it was for a video game, not some spicy new club. As time passed, the queue lengthened considerably.

Then we had a visitation from the staff of the nearby Dixons. First, they tacked up posters where we were standing, then tried to poach people with the promise of a free game if they bought Halo 2 from their midnight opening instead.
At about 11.45, Game was kind enough to open the doors and let us queue inside. They did, of course, have an ulterior motive. A smattering of bleary eyed staff roamed up and down the line trying to hawk strategy guides, controllers and even crystal Xboxes as we waited. One lad came over to myself and c0ld. “Look gents,” he said, “I know you’re not really interested but my boss is watching me and I’ve got to look like I’m talking to you. I’m on double time tonight.” You had to admire his honesty. “Have you been waiting long for it to come out?” he asked. “About three years,” I deadpanned. He laughed nervously. “Uh, yeah, I’ve been waiting a couple of months myself.” Then he leaned closer, and in conspiratorial tones he said, “You know the game was actually finished in January, yeah? They’ve just been tweaking it so it works on Live.” He nodded and smiled. c0ld and I just stared at him. His face fell. “Um, right then, well enjoy.” He shuffled off to the next punters. So there you have it. Halo 2 was finished in January. Every update we read was a lie. The Spotty Herbert in Game said so.
We became aware that there were blokes with shoulder mounted cameras moving around the store. Apparently the BBC and Sky were filming this rabble of geeks and nerds who’d crawled out into the London night just to be the first to play some game. We lifted our collars and shrank back a bit. You ain’t seen us, right?
The old Casio’s never been that reliable, so the first I truly knew it was past midnight was when people started to scuttle past excitedly clutching copies of the game and the free posters being given out with it. I have to say, the queue moved pretty fast. Game had a rank of tills going and were rattling out the sales. Just a few minutes later, we had our very own copies. Of Halo 2. Actually in our hands.
As we walked back to the Tube, I was aware of a slight quickening in our pace. And not just because c0ld needed to get the last train back from Liverpool St.
We hopped on a train and almost before I’d sat down I was attacking the cellophane.
c0ld just stared at his copy. “Not gonna open it?” I asked. “Nah. I’ll wait til I get home,” he said. I was already looking at the credits in the back of the manual.
“Spoilers!” I cried. “343 Guilty Spark, Tim Dadabo? 2401 Penitent Tangent, John Michael Higgins?”
“Gravemind?” said c0ld, eagerly thumbing through his own manual. So much for waiting til he got home.
We discussed what we would play first. c0ld wanted to get on Live as soon as humanly possible. I wanted to rip through the Campaign, just so I wouldn’t have to avoid spoilers anymore. The past few days had been agony and it was getting harder and harder not to see stuff that would ruin the surprises.
We arrived at my stop. I waved goodbye to c0ld, jumped in a taxi and was soon in front of the TV hearing the distorted guitar version of the main theme squeal out of the speaker for the first time. That’s not strictly true. It was squealing into my headphones.
You see, the young lady had to head off for work early in the morning. I’d meant to get some of those wireless headphones, but you know how it is…
So I ended up pushing the armchair right up to the screen, plugging a pair of Walkman headphones into the front of it and sitting there, hunched forward all night.
She later told me that although she didn’t hear any monks or biscuits (er – that’s her name for grunts. I asked why and she said “because they look like a biscuit.” Chicks eh?), she did hear me muttering, and the occasional “ooh” or “ah.”
I played from about one am to half six in the morning. As the lady got up to go to work, I took her place in bed and crashed out for four hours. I then got up at half ten and played through ‘til half four. I hadn’t eaten. I hadn’t drunk anything. In actual fact, I hadn’t moved. When I did eventually stand up, I was quite dizzy and there were lights going off in my peripheral vision. Nothing a couple of pies and a can of Dr Pepper couldn’t fix. But I had finished Halo 2. Admittedly only on Normal difficulty (which doesn’t show it off in the best light), but finished all the same. There were things I liked. There were things I didn’t like. There were things I loved.
Maybe I’ll go into all that in another post.
It certainly gave me loads of material for you-know-what though. Hmm. Sorry about that. And I hadn't even touched Live Multiplayer yet...

Another Gem.

2004-11-16T15:50:00.000Z

My good lady asked me why I was swearing at Halo 2 the other night. I said it was because an invisible elite had jumped out at me unexpectedly.
"Oh," she replied, "how do you know?"

The Daleks Had A Similar Problem.

2004-11-06T22:17:00.000Z

Recently had great fun making this entry for HBO's Guilt O'Lantern competition. Compared to almost all the other entries, it's embarrassingly bad. But something that was really nice was that my lady friend joined in and helped. It's sort of the first Halo thing she's joined me in. I once tried to teach her to play. Not being used to FPS games (or indeed video games at all), it wasn't a great success. In fact, her progress was utterly thwarted not by Elites, or even Hunters...but by the stairs. The Master Chief stood bumping into walls, falling off platforms or generally looking at his shoes as marines were cut down all around him. In this alternate reality, Earth fell to the Covenant much earlier. Due to a flight of stairs.

But she is VERY pretty.
One rather amusing thing (I thought) was her reaction to some of the in game dialogue. Hearing something one of the marines shouted (triggered by the appearance of the Chief), this was the response -

Tougher Than The Da Vinci Code.

2004-11-06T22:00:00.000Z

I got a lot of comments about this strip. Mostly along the lines of "No offence, but I hate you " (heh - someone really did say that). Most people were not happy about having to work out what the words were. But take consolation in this. I cut and pasted every single letter to make those speech balloons. It took ages. And the very next day, several versions of it as a font were posted. I could have just typed it all in. Bah.

A Different Corner.

2004-10-26T22:15:00.000+01:00

Hurrah! Chalk up another corner shot. Mind, I had some help with this one. I'm sure you can guess from whom...

Move Over Cortana.

2004-10-26T22:12:00.000+01:00

A little something I submitted to misterchief.com.

UCMC.

2004-10-24T01:25:00.000+01:00

While I'm on an Unreal kick, did anyone see the image that was floating around on the net purporting to be a new Halo 2 screenshot? Turns out it was tickled up from another game...

Vengeance Is... His.

2004-10-23T16:22:00.000+01:00

When he eventually bleedin' woke up, c0ld 'slugabed' Vengeance joined me for a little UC Capture The Flag. Tell you what - he's a bit handy with that Lightning Gun.

Unreal Special Offers.

2004-10-23T13:50:00.000+01:00

To 'limber up' for Halo 2 on Xbox Live, I tried playing a little Unreal Championship this morning. It was all very jolly, and I even managed to be on the winning side a couple of times. Not sure about this communicator business though. Wearing the headset makes me feel like I'm in telesales...

Some Of It May Have Been Swedish...

2004-10-17T16:56:00.000+01:00

I'm trying to get onto Xbox Live. I spent an hour or so this afternoon talking through the various things I need to do with c0ld and BOLL. "Words, words, routers, words, USB, words, R745, words, words, words." Something like that anyway. I've ended up ordering a new modem. I'm still not sure it's gonna work. But it's better than some of the suggestions. At one point, BOLL was seriously trying to get me to drill holes in my ceiling...

Fuite (French For Leak).

2004-10-15T01:35:00.000+01:00

Gah. We've spent months, years even, seeking out scraps of new info about Halo 2. Then, just a few weeks from launch, a copy gets leaked. All of a sudden, the whole dynamic changes. Far from seeking new material, everyone's in fear of it. People are leaving forums rather than stumble across a spoiler in a post title. Not great.

Captain Keyes? More Like Major Misunderstanding.

2004-10-14T01:34:00.000+01:00

Here's a couple of examples of times I've got things badly muddled. The 'Fingerbowl' strip is the one I mentioned in the 'Shellboy' post. I made it when I thought the creature was some kind of crustacean. Of course, it turns out it's a... heh, no spoilers or Ross Mills will be writing more outraged emails to Louis Wu.

This second strip I made after I misread an HBO forum post. Someone called the new Brute weapon a 'slugthrower'. I didn't realise that was just a name the poster had made up. If you don't take that tale into account, the strip becomes very surreal indeed...

Told You I'd Do Better Out Of The Deal...

2004-10-03T08:40:00.000+01:00

Check this out. I think it's absolutely fantastic.

Dre'al Thing

2004-10-02T08:11:00.000+01:00

The incredibly talented Tina Leyk suggested we did an art swap - I send her a strip, she sends me a sketch. Boy, do I come out on top in that deal. Anyway, I sent Tina a hand drawn cartoon featuring one of her own creations, Dre'al (this is him, taken from Tina's art page on HBO)-

Tina's work is a mix of sci-fi and fantasy art, with a particular leaning towards Halo and the Alien films. So here's a colour version of the strip I made. I know Tina's very busy, but if she gets a chance to send me anything, I'll post it here. Can't wait!

Pause. Big PAUSE. Geddit?

2004-10-01T08:37:00.000+01:00

Received an email from Josh this morning. He's making a new cartoon. Josh asked if I'd add a drawing of One One Se7en to his picture of Jim Jam the Grunt to help him promote his cartoon. Dunno what he's going to do with it - but in the meantime, I couldn't resist adding a couple of speech bubbles myself...

You've Been Framed.

2004-09-30T08:31:00.000+01:00

Last year, there was a competition to win hand drawn, framed One One Se7en cartoons. Here's one that's on my wall.

Cornered.

2004-09-29T21:46:00.000+01:00

Woo hoo! I submitted a corner icon to HBO and Louis gracefully accepted it. It's taken from the Desktop Master Chief at Xbox.com. He pops up on my screen to tell me stuff I've usually read on HBO a couple of days before. Move over c0ld and BOLL!

Kcapxis.

2004-09-29T07:30:00.000+01:00

Speaking of Joyride models, many people have complained that the Elite is a bit wobbly on his feet and prone to falling over. Stuntblog can reveal the reason. An alien after my own heart...

Shellboy.

2004-09-29T07:20:00.000+01:00

This fella turned up on the website of a model sculpting company. It's a spoiler and a half. Gives me an idea for a strip though...

Lost One One Se7ens.

2004-09-28T07:49:00.000+01:00

One One Se7en lives on the fabulous halo.bungie.org site. But from time to time, I'll put some 'lost' strips or oddities here.
Mind, when I watch the extras on DVDs, I can't help but think that deleted scenes were deleted for a reason...
Anyway, first up -
This strip was posted ages ago. Both HBO and Rampancy posted hints... but nobody got that they really had been blown somewhere else. They'd been blown here.
Shame no-one ever saw it, 'cos I love the expression on Sarge's face...

Stuntblog.

2004-09-27T07:18:00.000+01:00

You ain't seen me, right?