Greasy Space Monkeys

GSM#199 Self-Destruct Sequence

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 00:00:00 +1100

Happy New Years! It’s my birthday ^_^ Here’s a present for you too, a gloomy comic and two and a half announcements! Yaaay! First up, announcing Pants Quest!!! For about a year we’ve been working hard on a small pixel art point and click adventure game about a man who can’t find his pants. If you enjoy our humour it’s in the same vein… You can wishlist it on Steam now! It’ll be available early next year. Also we need playtesters in the next month, if you’re interested drop us a line at support (at) ghostcatgames.io, with playtesting in the subject line please :) I also wanted to share that we intend to wrap up Greasy Space Monkeys not long after this current arc. I can’t do the strip justice anymore with the time it needs, and we’d rather bring it to a planned ending point than leave it too open ended. There’s always been a general story in mind so we’re excited to bring it to a conclusion! More of a stopping point for now really, because there’s still stories we want to tell with the crew of Niya down the road. Whether it’s extra comic arcs here and there, games or something else entirely… I don’t intend for this to be the last we see of Nathan, Casper, Jo, Mr. Voll and the rest. Which is why, in a way, it's not exactly ending, it's evolving.... and that brings us to our second announcement… Starwisp Hyperdrive! Do you long to experience a futuristic corporate dystopia? Would you too like to struggle to survive the bleakness of space with substandard and outdated equipment? Do you like cats? Starwisp Hyperdrive is a adventure RPG set in the same universe as Greasy Space Monkeys. You have inherited an old weird spaceship. Create your captain and explore the system! Trade stuff! Find weird rocks! Fix your ship! Eat things! Check out the Steam page here for more screenshots and features. This one is more of a longer project but we’ve built a lot of it already. Starting with the world already fleshed out from GSM was a bit of a boost too, since we didn’t have to create the lore and politics etc. Lastly we’ve got a shiny new Discord where you can come and discuss the game, ask us about either one, share your cat pictures whatever! It's a bit under a construction, so let us know if it could use an extra channel or anything. We’ll be around! Join here!

GSM#198 Water Tension

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +1000

Back again! We'll be trying to get out more regular updates. I've talked a bit about what's been happening on my Patreon. I can't claim much of this year's disaster extravaganza to be particularly personal, however. Hope you all are doing ok. More soon. Also an exciting announcement next post, or tomorrow on Patreon. Woo :)

GSM#197 Tipsy Space Monkeys

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Tue, 01 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +1000

Okay we're back.

Hi from the Airport

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +1000

Hey all, sorry for the lack of updates the last few weeks. Preparing to go to the USA has been so hectic that I haven't had a day spare.

I'm writing this at Sydney International Airport. It's literally the first ten minutes I've had free this week. I've brought some files though, so I'm hoping in the downtime I have between Alaska and Seattle I'll be able to make an update. Thanks for being so patient this year , I appreciate it :)

I’m so nervous/excited/ possibly phasing into another plane of existence about this trip. So that's a thing.

Anyway, the best way to get little updates of what I'm up to is through twitter - @reinebrand Thank you all for the food suggestions, I may hurt myself but it'll be worth it ;)

GSM#196 Conduit Pod

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +1100

I've been writing down things that I want to do when I visit the US. Mostly, so far, it's things that I want to eat. A New York deli sandwich and a hot dog, Eggo waffles, Taco Bell, cherry pie... Americans that I know suggest that these are not necessarily good food, so much as... an experience.

Americaaah

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +1100

So…. My dad’s ok :) The surgery went really well. I stayed with him a little longer than I’d planned, just to make sure. My job mainly consisted of running around after him yelling “put that down” or doing housework/gardening etc before he could. I shouldn’t be trusted with a power tool, but he was in no state to stop me, haha.

The other news is that I’m headed to the U.S.A. in April/May! First for a comics camp in Alaska, then a few weeks later I’m attending a trade show in New York for work. I’ve never been before, and I’m currently planning what to do, so if anyone has any suggestions of things to do/see in those regions I’d love to hear them :)

GSM#195 The Plan

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +1100

When I flew back to Sydney recently, there’s this little airport near Melbourne called Avalon that only has a couple of terminals. Because it’s so small, it’s rarely busy or delayed, and I was surprised when, after asking us to queue for boarding, we waited for another half an hour. During that time, a call comes over the comm, addressing departing passengers – someone’s left a backpack on the plane. Then another – a suit bag. Then another – a makeup kit. Eventually, one of the airport staff gets on the comm and says “Our apologies, boarding has been delayed so a cleaning crew could go over the plane. One of the passengers on the last flight was ill and… had a bit of an accident. You probably didn’t need to know that… but… there you go.” And that solved the mystery of why people left the plane in such a hurry. I felt a bit sorry for myself, until I realised the passengers on the previous flight probably had a worse time. All we had to put up was a small amount of eau de ass, covered with cheap orange deodorizer.

Flights and Updates

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 17 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +1100

Hey all, just a quick update as to why there's no strip this week - I've flown down to Melbourne to look after my Dad due to emergency surgery. Updates will probably resume as normal next week, I'll keep you posted.

Also, for a while updates will be somewhere between Friday-Sunday rather than on Friday specifically- I'm a little busy working towards a trip to the USA in May. Really excited about that, I'll write more about it soon XD

GSM#194 Apex

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +1100

I accept, as we all must, that there are aspects of my health outside of my control. But readers of my news and journal posts are probably aware that I'm doing all I can inside of that sphere of control to improve my health. Therefore I can't but find it ironic that several days ago, after I walked an extra long distance to buy a healthy salad for dinner, it subsequently gave me food poisoning for the next three days. And that is why this comic is late.

GSM#193 The Grind

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Mon, 05 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +1100

For some reason I expected this strip to be an easy one to draw. Hahaha why. Most of it was, again, streamed live, thanks to those who dropped in! I had fun :) Also thanks everyone for the warm welcome back, after such a long hiatus I wasn't sure if there'd just be crickets. It's nice to be missed :`)

GSM#192 Gross Amount

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +1100

Hey all! It’s good to be back :) Regular updates will resume for now, barring acts of flood, plague, famine or tiny flesh eating unicorns. A lot of this strip’s creation was streamed live on Twitch- thank you to those who have joined me so far :) It’s been fun figuring it all out. I’ll probably make streaming a regular event, but I’m still finding what time works best- so if you’re interested, subscribe here to get notified when I’m live - https://www.twitch.tv/reinebrand

Slightly Twitchy

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +1100

Hey all, just a reminder that GSM returns this Friday :)

Also I’ll be streaming for my second time ever over at https://www.twitch.tv/reinebrand on Thursday 11pm UTC.

That’s 3pm (Wednesday) PT (America West Coast), 6pm (Wednesday) EST (America East coast), and it’ll be 10am Thursday in Sydney where I’m streaming from… I think.

Feel free to let me know if I’m off on any of these :D Or you can just subscribe on Twitch to be notified when I’m live, it involves less maths.

Probably Not Dead

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 30 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +1100

Hi all,

Apologies for dropping off the face of the planet for a while… I guess everyone’s got their particular stress response. Mine is to retreat into a hole.

It’s been difficult to post an update since I couldn’t tell when I’d be well again. I don’t know if I’m immunocompromised or something after the whole mouldy house saga, but I keep catching bad colds since I’ve moved to Sydney. I’m currently on my fifth or sixth flu, I’ve lost count at this point. I think I’m getting better though. Tougher. More resistant. Possibly more absorbent.

In more cheerful health news, my wrist/drawing arm is doing a lot better. My doctor referred me to a hand therapist here (I had no idea such a thing existed), and they really did wonders. It requires a lot of work and exercise, but the effort is totally worth it.

Anyway, I’m itching to get back to making stuff! I’m planning for regular updates to GSM to resume on the 27^th of January. Stillwater, as always, will continue when I can spare the time.

Thank you to everyone who sent me kind notes or contributed through Patreon, it really cheered me up during this kinda shitty year. Looking forward to 2018, things can only go up from here, right? Right? Right.

I’m Not Dead

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +1000

Hi everyone! It’s been a while, sorry for worrying some of you. I’ve made a comic to explain what’s been going on, you can see it here. Patrons can see a larger version on Patreon here (with some additional info)

So that’s why I haven’t been around… in addition to that, my wrist is still sore. It’s slowly improving as I’ve finished freelance work for now and I can have a proper break (outside of doing a few comics like this, I just can’t help myself) I drew it over the week an hour here and there, you can see on the larger version my lines are very wobbly.

The main thing is that while I’ve got no plans to stop GSM, it might be slow for a while. It’s possible that I’ll focus on Stillwater instead for a bit, since drawing on paper is easier on my wrist for some reason. I’ll know more in a week or so, and I’ll keep you guys informed. Hope you’re all well

Errorbot Tee

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 13 May 2017 00:00:00 +1000

Hi everyone... I’ll have to take a break on the comic this week, since my wrist is playing up. Thanks, by the way, to the kind people who sent me advice and exercises during my last hiatus, they really helped! I’ve had a lot of freelance work lately, so I’ve been overdoing it a little.

Following this week, there will be no fixed schedule for a bit- since life is looking to be a little crazy for a while, and updating the comic on a schedule has been tricky. Fear not, GSM will still continue, it’ll just be irregular. But mostly weekly. Irregularly regular? You know what I mean, right? It’ll return to a weekly schedule once I have things sorted.

Lastly, good news everyone! Errorbot has heard your prayers and has blessed us with his presence… on a shirt. Or other merchandise of your choice. Check it out over at Redbubble. I’m going to get a cushion! He can watch movies with me.

GSM#191 Dashing

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Mon, 08 May 2017 00:00:00 +1000

I guess the people have spoken- look out for an Errorbot t-shirt in the near future :)

GSM#190 Floored

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Tue, 02 May 2017 00:00:00 +1000

The power keeps going on and off at my house this week. Losing work is one thing, but I didn't save my game of Undertale, goddamit.

GSM#189 Pale Red Dot

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 22 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +1000

Snake? Snake? Snaaaake!!!

GSM#188 Endangered

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 15 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +1000

Nobody left behind! Unless the scanner doesn't pick you up, then you're on your own.

GSM#187 Custerfluck

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +1000

There's been construction at an intersection right outside my house for the last three days. Three days of rumbling, shaking, bangs and shouts. Today I went outside and... it doesn't look any different? What were they doing??

GSM#186 Schematic

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 01 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +1100

I'm proud of getting comics done this week despite a headache that feels like a slow cerebral bore. Time to make some victory cookies of victory :)

GSM#185 Lifesign Tracker

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sun, 26 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +1100

I’ve been involved lately with a group which the local government has put together for an arts initiative- resulting in many long, serious meetings. This has been hard for me, because, as you may be aware, I am very silly.

GSM#184 Shadowed

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 18 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +1100

Putting the bins out is another fun challenge where I live. If I forget to take them out until late, hundreds of orb spiders have made webs across the (very long) path to the road. The spiders then wait in the middle of the web until someone lucky person breaks their web, at which point they'll leap onto the intruder. Its a joyful experience. On the bright side, it gives me an excuse to have an Indiana Jones style adventure kit for getting around the yard.

GSM#183 Nathan's Law

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 11 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +1100

If it ain't broke, don't let Nathan near it.

GSM#182 Low Spirits

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 25 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +1100

My face has been exploding for about a week. No, it’s not the plague, it just seems there’s a lot of allergens in the air lately. We have a lot of plants here that in certain seasons release a bunch of fine particles and pollen. Back in November we even had an “asthma thunderstorm”, a rare event that only happens in a handful of places in the world- triggering asthma even in people who don’t usually suffer from the condition. Australia, where even the trees are trying to kill you.

GSM#181 Health Benefits

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 18 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +1100

So I’ve been playing Resident Evil 7… it was kind of short? I liked how it felt like the first few games though. My favourite Resident Evil is probably still the Gamecube remake of #1. I’m not super easy to scare, and in an attempt to get more out of the game, I’d play it home alone, in the dark, in the middle of the night. So one time I’m sitting there, mildly terrified, when the zombie munching sounds on the tv don’t seem to stop when I pause. When I unfroze, and looked behind the sofa, there’s my cat gnawing on a rabbit. I played with the lights on after that.

GSM#180 Deep Minds

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 11 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +1100

I rarely sit and watch tv shows, but I've actually watched a couple over the last few months. I enjoyed Westworld, although it was pretty dark. I'm also enjoying The Magicians so far, although everyone is a jerk and it's also dark. Weirdly the most cheerful and funny show I've watched lately is Lucifer, which is literally about the devil + homicides. Go figure.

No update this week

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +1100

My computer has died :'( It’s a solid state drive so it’s pretty damn dead. Fortunately, all of my comic stuff is on a normal drive and is recoverable…

So, depending on whether I can resurrect it somehow or make a zombie computer out of spare parts (and how long all of that takes), I might post two comics next week. Hopefully before Nathan and Casper get ate.

Thanks for your patience, everyone, and have an awesome Thanksgiving if you’re into that kind of thing!

1st Patreon Milestone

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sun, 23 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +1100

Good news, everyone! Thanks to the awesome support of our awesome patrons, GSM's Patreon page has hit the first milestone- bigger strips for the
whole site! I'm excited to be able to spend the time over the next month exporting larger strips for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks again to everyone contributing :)

Hiatus

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 02 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +1000

Hi everyone,

GSM is stopping permanently.

Just kidding! But we will be going on a short hiatus. As you might know, I make my living through freelance work- mostly design, often illustration work as well. In my spare time while not working on a job, I draw and write GSM and Stillwater. Between freelance work and drawing the comics every week for the last three years, it’s taken a toll. To make matters worse, I’ve been ill a few times this year which has caused a couple of intense catch-up sessions.

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I’ve stressed out my wrist and drawing arm to the point where it really needs a break. I’d rather not do permanent damage, so I’ve turned down most of my freelance for the month and I’m taking a short break from GSM. I don’t love having to do it, making GSM is one of the highlights of every week, but coming back rested will mean an improvement in quality (not to mention the comic continuing to exist!).

In an ideal world, I’d only make comics. I like sharing them for free and see no reason to ever change that… problem is, free doesn’t pay the bills :P If you enjoy GSM or Stillwater Springs, please considering contributing to our Patreon! If you pledge during the next month I’m going to put up some sneaky sketchy super secret comics (alliteration!) that won’t be up for long.

It’ll be tricky, mostly not drawing for the month. At least I have this fashionable wrist brace to help me out. Anime pose!

I don’t think I’m doing it right.

By the way, a big thank you to the Patreon supporters so far! You truly are scholars and gentlemen/ladies/aliens. During this break I’ll get to finish some Patreon extras I’ve been planning for a while, so look out for those too.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my twitter @ReineBrand if you’d like to keep up with what I’m up to, also Mark will do his best to entertain you over the hiatus if you follow him at @writebotmk, otherwise we’ll be back on October the 7^th :)

See you in a month!

<3 Reine

It's advanced!

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Tue, 08 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +1100

You might notice some differences around here- we've made some long overdue changes and fixes

The site is now responsive and should work better on mobile devices.
The Extras page has more things, including a collection of the outtake panels
We have a donate page!
Reticulated splines

If it looks really weird you may want to refresh your browser a couple times. We're still working out a few bugs, so if anything else seems broken please let us know! (Email on the contact page)

Also if you're following Stillwater Springs it's now up to page seven :)

Achtung!

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Tue, 07 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +1000

Stillwater Springs page three is now up, and I thought I should point out (since I haven't already) that Stillwater will have stronger language and approximately 150% more violence than GSM. You've been warned :)

Stillwater Website

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 19 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +1000

Life was particularly lifelike for a while, and unfortunately Stillwater was delayed a bit. But the full website is up now, with comments and an archive and stuff, and page two! With page three to come tomorrow, check back then :)

Stillwater Springs

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Mon, 04 May 2015 00:00:00 +1000

Big news! I'm pleased to announce a whole new comic- Stillwater Springs- written and drawn by yours truly, which will start updating within a week.

Stillwater Springs is a post-apocalyptic action comic. I'm super excited about this project, I've been working on in it my spare time for years, and it's awesome to be finally able to share it with you guys. It's inked by hand and generally takes longer to produce than GSM, so it will update more sporadically but I'll try to keep it frequent. Keep an eye out here or on my twitter feed for updates.

And don't worry, the adventures of the greasy space monkeys will continue as usual :)

How 'bout them ads

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +1000

Sorry about some of the weird ads over the past week, guys. We might not be exactly a PG comic, but we're not, uh... what some of that was, either. We've turned off ads until we hear back from Comic Rocket about such fun things as inappropriate ad reporting.

In the meantime, if your heart breaks to know that we're not getting those sweet, sweet advertising monies (cents), don't forget we launched our Patreon last week!

SO MUCH UNIVERSE, SO LITTLE TIME

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +1100

'Goodbye,' Mort said, and was surprised to find a lump in his throat. 'It's such an unpleasant word, isn't it?'

QUITE SO. Death grinned because, as has so often been remarked, he didn't have much option. But possibly he meant it, this time.

I PREFER AU REVOIR, he said.

-Mort, by Terry Pratchett

Au revoir, Pterry. I'll never forget that conversation we had about blancmanges.

PAX Australia

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +1000

At the end of October I'll be attending PAX Australia! If anyone wants to say hi, I'll be wandering around wearing a Niya Maintenance hoodie (the monkey symbol).

First ten people to say hi get a sticker! Exciting.

Comic Delayed

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +1000

This week my mother passed away. As much as updating the comic is a priority for me, this week it's just not possible. But I wanted to say that I appreciate all the support so far and wanted you guys to know why I might not be responding to comments or emails much for a while. Mark and I never expected such a positive reaction to the comic and we always enjoy reading the comments and discussions. Thank you for the support you've shown so far, and don't worry, there is much more to come. -Reine

NIYA CREW TEE

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 30 May 2014 00:00:00 +1000

If you're the sort of person that enjoys wearing clothes, and I don't know that you are, you might be interested in the new Niya Maintenance tees, hoodies and stickers. Become part of Cryidium Corp. Become part of Niya. Become one of us.

....One of us.

(Stickers should not actually be used as clothing. Not saying you can't. Just that it might actually be illegal where you live.)

T-shirt/Hoodie

Stickers

NEW T-SHIRT DESIGN

reine.brand@gmail.com (Reine Brand) — Fri, 25 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +1100

I've made my first ever t-shirt design! It isn't directly related to the comic, as such, but if you're into post-apocalyptic things, horses, or you just want to support my hedonistic lifestyle (hah), you can find it here.