There are countless ways this “New normal” has and will change our lives going forward. Around the house we’ve been saying, “We can’t go back to March 12th overnight.” The day after March 12th was Friday the 13th, the same day I packed up my computer to start working from home. March 12th seems to be the marker in time that represents living in the “before times.” Before the pandemic was right at our feet, before the shelter-in-place orders, and before everything in our lives changed.
What seems to be making this transition so hard is that we know the path we would’ve been on. Life is all about choices and you can think back to decisions in your life when you could’ve zigged instead of zagged. Right now on the other hand, life was zagged for us. So much of our plans were predetermined and schedules months and years in advance. Almost every weekend its been easy to think of where we could’ve been and what we were supposed to be doing.
Last weekend we should have been up in Traverse City Michigan at the Gran Traverse Resort attending Cherry Capital Comic Con (C4) for our 9th straight year. Over the years May has been a very important time for me personally and for the comic. Free Comic Book Day is the first Saturday in May, Motor City Comic Con is in the middle of the month and, C4 is over Memorial Weekend. If you’ve been with the comic for any length of time then you’ve probably heard me talk about how much I love C4.
Last Thursday instead of driving up to C4 Dana and I were finishing up our yoga session (which we’ve taken too over the last couple months) and it hit me how different our life is right now. There are all these previous plans now canceled so its easy to play the “what should have been” game. And although I was bumming about all the the things we haven’t been able to do I started to think about all the new things we started to do. We’ve been doing yoga, walking each day, connecting with friends through the internet, and getting to all the projects that time previously didn’t allow for. I’m not saying one time line is better than another because if I could snap my fingers and have the past few months be a dream I would. But, I am happy with all the new changes we’ve made in our lives and we definitely took lemons and made lemonade.
Since late 2017 my brother (Ray) and I have been working on a podcast together. Not really having a plan we just started to record ourselves talking about hobbies and things we are into. After a few months of recording we finally had a name, Scattered Cast, and from there we started to refine our style. One of the things that changed with the COVID pandemic is my home office situation. Our house computer is now in the living room being used for conference calls with family and friends, while our at-home personal office is now my work office. I was literally in the process of getting the podcast off the ground when the change happened. I couldn’t easy get to our older content to edit episodes and Ray and I really wanted to produce content so, just like everything else in our lives there was a dramatic shift in Scattered Cast. We’re starting to do video episodes and making our content small in size. Free Comic Book Day was cancelled at the beginning of May and instead of being bummed (which I was) and doing nothing I found and old episode of Scattered Cast and put this video together. This a great way to remember the good old days, share some funny stories, and give a preview of whats to come with Scattered Cast. I hope you enjoy it.
Over the past few weeks the response to the new comics has been wonderful. I only expected to make a few comics to help pass the time and maybe chronicle some of this unprecedented experience we’re all having. The analytics on the site have been the best they’ve ever been lately. Although hearing from people in person over the past few weeks of how they look forward to reading the comics and they’re glad its back means more to me than any site stats.
Throughout April I had to figure out if the comic was actually back and by the last week of the month I had answered that question. I’ve slowed down the publishing in this month (May) to only Monday because the new question I have is: What does it mean to be back? I sadly don’t know. So for now I’m posting comics on Monday and that should give some breathing room to plan out the next steps for the comic.
Last week I posted the 12th comic this year. Below is a look at where this year compares to the past six years in the number of comics posted. I know that 2010-2013 were the most prolific years when it comics to comics posted and, I don’t know were this year will stack up in the end. But, for now, I’m proud of every single comic that has been posted this year.
-Travis
I haven’t talked too much about the new look of the comic or why the comic has been resurrected with such vigor. I will have some thoughts put together about the change in style and I hope that will be out soon. The comics, I think, are clearly a reaction to the global pandemic and they’ve been a positive release for me and hope they’ve been a positive outlet for anyone that has read them.
I haven’t felt so much excitement and joy making Side Quest in years and I hope the shows in the story telling. One other thing that I haven’t done in years is post comics in any regularity or in any substantial numbers. But, that all changes today. With todays comics Side Quest has now published more comics this year than the last 5 years of the comic.
This is just the beginning of publishing new comics and I’m confident this is just the first publishing milestone; you’ll have to stay tuned to see how far the comic will go. I hope everyone is enjoying the new comics, I really hope everyone is staying home and staying safe. We will get through this together and be a stronger people.
-Travis
On November 21, 2004 the Nintendo DS launched in North America and at the time I didn’t think the weird-toy-like handheld was going to change the way I thought about gaming. It wasn’t until the Christmas of 2006 with the DS Lite version that I get my hands on the handheld. The DS wasn’t my first handheld consoles though, I rocked a Game Gear in the beginning and even added an original Game Boy later on. I would bring those two handhelds (along with every accessory I could find) on every trip. I would look like a little nerdy business man with two briefcase looked game cases full of battery packs, games, and plastic peripherals slung over my shoulders. Over the years a Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and Game Boy Advance SP would grace my gaming lifestyle. Although I have at least one or two fond memories with each of those system I never really considered myself a mobile/handheld gamer; I was mainly about the consoles.
Even at the beginning with the DS Lite my collection of games was small with New Super Mario Bros. and Castlevania Portrait of Ruin. It wasn’t until my last year of college and a little game called Dragon Quest Heroes Rocket Slime did I really sink my teeth into the double screen system. A few changes in my lifestyle would also help push my love for portable gaming: 1) When I went from working one to three nights a week doing security. 2) Staying the weekends over at my girlfriend’s/future wife’s house. 3) Discovering the joy of playing Brain Age with my girlfriend/future wife. We should spends hours testing our brain’s ages and then going to battle with each other over Virus (the Dr. Mario clone at the end of the game). My wife still has her pink DS I bought for her for Christmas in 09 and will bring it along on trips to this day.
Even though my white DS Lite doesn’t get as much play time as I used to and has been long since replaced by the 3DS and more recently the Nintendo Switch. I still have an overwhelming fondness for that little handheld. My backlog of games is still pretty high and I find myself trying to tackle at least on game a year but now I’m playing the games on my 2DS XL. I still find myself at used game stores looking first in the DS area to find little hidden gems I missed over the years.
Over the past couple years I feel my time gaming is moving more towards consoles again and I’m okay with that; I even play my Switch docked mostly. I’m not traveling as much and no longer need a time killer working long nights as a security guard. It’s nice though to look back at a time when things were a bit different in my life and I had this little portable console in my pocket that I could game and connect to the work with. It definitely shows in the early years of the comic that Nintendo DS was on of the forefront of our idea generating. We didn’t have a lot of modern day console to glean material from but I’m happy to have had the DS around.
Here is Side Quest Comic’s top 5 comics featuring the Nintendo DS
5. Stay Frosty
2. Scribblist
1. New Hotness
-Travis
Sunday nights are usually spent getting ready for the upcoming week. Lunches packed, bed sheets changed, and laundry are a few of the things we try and tackle Sunday nights. One night a few years back I was charging up a set of sheets at the top of the basement stairs. I sent the sheets flying down the stairs like Goku’s Kamehameha attack. Seconds later as I was walking back through the kitchen and heard my wife’s voice from down stairs. “Thankfully I wasn’t standing at the bottom of the steps!” she yelled out. “Oh, my God,” I thought to myself. I could’ve knocked my wife out with one stray sheet Kamehameha. Be careful with the DBZ attacks around the house, there’s no telling the damage that can be done.
-Jarv