Something that rhymes with hiatus

November 13, 2024

Greetings friends! Long time no see. Obviously, things have been a bit quiet around here lately and I thought I’d let you all know what’s been going on. In short? Life. Life has been going on. A lot.

Connie k and I were hoping to have our latest Jette Jones story out near the beginning of October but around that time both she and I had some real world circumstances enter the picture. The long and short of it is that our focus has to be there for the time being. We are still working to complete our grand finale for Jette Jones, albeit much more slowly than we’d prefer. Such is life.

Since I’ve gotten a couple questions recently asking if I have any other manip work on the horizon the answer is a firm ‘maybe’. I’ve always got images in my ‘to-do’ folder and sometimes inspiration strikes and I crank out something. There’s always a chance that happens.

I’ve also got long-gestating projects that I work with in fits and spurts. Just before penning this blog post I was doing a bit of research on how to achieve a certain effect that I have planned for the Decisive Results sequel. I’m -always- making notes and working on ideas for the Lily and Samantha sequel.

And I’ve actually got some genuine Web 2.0 style blog posts that I’ve been thinking about recently. There’s a few pieces of hypo-infused media that I’ve been thinking about analyzing and discussing a bit. Things that have caught my attention and I thought would be fun to share.

So that is a brief overview of what’s happening now and what might be happening soon. Thanks for reading and as always, you questions comments and suggestions are welcome.

Jette Jones #22 is Live!

July 28, 2024

Welcome back, dear readers!

On behalf of connie k and myself, I’m delighted to announced that our new issue of Captain Jette Jones, Star Ranger is ready for release on time! It’s an infrequent enough occasion that I thought it warranted observance. And the best way to observe the occasion is by diving right in! So here you go:

Things are looking grim for our heroes. Jette has been mindwashed into Zeta’s loyal slave and things are looking as bad or worse for her crew. Can our heroes break free in time? Will the Goddess of Darkness enslave each of them followed by the universe itself?

Find out in this month’s super-sized issue of Captain Jette Jones, Star Ranger!

Jette Jones 21 is LIVE!

June 23, 2024

And we’re (finally) back! It took a bit longer than I’d originally anticipated but the latest thrilling issue of Jette Jones is here! Thanks for waiting patiently and, on behalf of connie k and myself, we hope you enjoy the latest installment!

jette-cover-21-cover

Danger is everywhere and treachery abounds as our intrepid crew work against the forces of evil to save the Te’ Sareez star system, and the galaxy itself. Will Jette Jones stop the vile Goddess of Darkness and her minions? Or has she herself already been seduced by wicked tempation?

Only one way to find out! 😉

We hope you enjoy and, as always, your questions, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Back on my Feet

March 24, 2024

I am very happy to report, that connie k and I are back with a new issue of Jette Jones! For those of you waiting patiently, we thank you and your wait is finally over!

It’s been nearly six months since our last installment. I spent most of that time healing from my accident and slowly regaining the ability to walk without assistance. I’m still not 100% but I’m in very good shape, all things considered, and I’m still improving as time goes on.

Sitting down to write for this issue was a little nerve wracking, after having spent months away from the material. But the fun of playing with these characters was quick to return. It was also fun because we had given ourselves a mandate: more mind control!

It’s a common trait of adventure stories in the erotic mind control genre: eventually, the mind control takes a back seat to the adventure. It’s happened to us plenty of times in our previous issues. Connie advocated for setting ourselves with the challenge to find creative ways of not slipping into that situation here. And so, we got creative in trying to find new ways to mentally manipulate the denizens of our little space opera.

It was great fun and I certainly hope it will make for great reading!

The other part of my duties is creating cover images and I was reflecting earlier what an interesting journey that has been. Working with AI tools on the past few covers has been a really educational experience. I’m impressed at how quickly the technology has advanced, even since our last issue.

I’m growing more confident with what the tools are capable of as well my own ability to get the most out of them. There’s still a lot of photoshop work going on but AI generation has definitely proven itself an important component of my workflow for these covers. The ability to generate really specific imagery, instead of being at the mercy of whatever photography I’m able to locate, is a complete game changer.

I warned connie, when we first discussed the idea of creating these comic book style covers for each story, that I had a very limited supply of raw photos that could be used to create fresh images of Jette. I think we exhausted those before issue 10. So the arrival of AI image generation immediately captured my imagination as a potential solution to this problem.

At this point, the possibilities seem endless for how I could use this tech in my visual story telling process. And these covers have been a terrific sandbox to play with the technology and get a handle on how to use it most effectively.

There’s other long-gestating projects that are going to benefit from the new skill set I’ve been developing working on Jette Jones covers. I’ll look forward to sharing more about that when the time is right.

Until then, connie and I hope you enjoy our latest issue and, as always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome!

The Best Laid Plans…

November 22, 2023

Greetings all.

I’ve got news to deliver and very little of it is good so I’ll cut the chase. First up, everything to do with this site and my work is on a bit of hiatus at the moment. About four weeks ago I went and got myself injured but good. Nothing life threatening mind you, but it’s drastically affected my mobility.

As a result, I have not felt up to doing very much the last few weeks. This week is actually the first time I’ve been really been up and about, with the aid of some mobility devices, since my injury. I’ve finally returned to work and I’m now trying to dig my way out of the backlog that built from my absence. As such, I don’t really have much time for fun projects at the moment.

But I’m hoping that isn’t the case for too long.

Connie k and I have talked things over and I think what we’re going to do is try to use the downtime to our advantage. While I’m healing up we’re planning to write the multipart conclusion to the current Jette Jones story so we can begin releasing those early next year.

All other projects that I’m currently working are also going to fall behind a bit while I’m recovering. I’m not sure how much of a delay that will be right now but several months seems likely.

The main thing that is holding me back right now is the headspace I’m in. I just don’t feel inspired at the moment. My focus is really on my recovery, upcoming physical therapy and doing everything I can to heal. Having said that, I’m really looking forward to getting back to creating erotica, it’s just not my top priority at the moment.

So, I just wanted to let everyone know what was going on and that things may be quiet here for a little while. But, I’ll be back with you. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

-Callidus

Jette Jones 19 is LIVE!

October 12, 2023

Welcome back dear readers! We’ve returned with an all new issue of Jette Jones for your reading pleasure. The stakes, the tension and the eroticism are dialed up another notch this month as Jette gathers allies in her fight against Suzerain Supreme Zeta and the mysterious Goddess of Darkness.

This was an issue that was both fun and challenging. There’s a lot of plates to keep spinning and threads we need to start weaving now so we can draw them together later. On top of that, we want to see a certain level of sexiness, intrigue and action. It’s always a bit like inventing a recipe, each issue, and always a huge amount fun to work alongside connie k!

In terms of the cover, I’m growing more and more comfortable using AI tools within my workflow and that’s expanding the scope of imagery that we can produce for these stories. Lately, I’ve been working on refining my process to get higher and higher quality results from Stable Diffusion. That’s been a tremendous boon for me as covers like this one take so long with traditional photoshop work.

That’s it for now, we hope you enjoy the latest issue of Captain Jette Jones, Star Ranger and, as always, your comments, questions and suggestions are welcome!

Jette Jones 17 AND 18 Live!

September 21, 2023

Welcome back friends!

As a reader pointed out to me recently, I have neglected the news feed here despite posting not one but TWO new issues of the Jette Jones series. I wish I had an excuse other than “super busy” but that’s what it boils down to. I published both 17 & 18 and promptly dove back into whatever freelance project was demanding my attention.

But I’ve got a few spare moments this evening so I thought I’d update the blog with the good news that Jette 17 is in the gallery alongside Issue 18. Further, Jette 19 is coming along as we speak!

These past few issues have steered our heroes in a dark direction with big stakes, big action and big sexy mind melting goodness. There’s plenty more of all that in store as we build towards the culmination of our new Jette Jones story: Fate of the Stars.

We hope you’re enjoying the adventures with our girls and we’ll have more coming up soon!

From connie and I, thanks for reading!

Jette Jones #16 is LIVE!

June 30, 2023

Yes, yes I know… late again.

June has a been a very trying month for me, personally. I’m very glad its coming to a close and looking forward to not having another four weeks like this again… ever. Since we are so terribly late with this issue, connie and I have decided to go ahead and make 16 our June issue. This has a couple of beneficial side effects.

First, it gives us all of July to deliver 17 instead of scrambling to get that finished up next week so it can be June’s week-late issue. Second –and far more exciting to me– is this officially makes May our “lost issue” of Jette Jones. I see this as a blank check we can cash someday. A one-off issue that could be almost anything we like to fill in this gap in our release cycle. But enough of all that, let’s talk Jette #16!

In this issue, Jette’s beloved Queen Diamanti prepares to take her wedding vows and the vile Queen Zeta’s grand scheme is about to be revealed…

This is our second cover fully created with AI image tools and both connie and I are tremendously excited about the possibilities this new technology is opening up for us and our storytelling. The technology is very fresh (hard to use) and far from the “easy button” that AI is often portrayed as.

But, its very powerful. For an artist like me, I often spend more time searching for suitable images to fill in the gaps of some idea I have than actually photoshopping things together. So for my workflow, the ability to generate the specific assets I need is remarkable. It still takes a fair amount of time to tweak things and get it just so but… I see tremendous potential for how these tools are going to open new doors for me and my work.

We hope you enjoy Jette Jones #16 and we’ll be back quite soon with an all new issue!

 

Jette Jones #15 is Live!

May 7, 2023

Yes, once again we are late with the new issue of Jette Jones. But only by a week this time! And the even better news is that we’re hard at work on #16 right now. As much as we jam packed in issue #14 we also had a lot to do in issue #15.

The story is going to be going some exciting places in the coming issues and all of these pieces need a foundation before we can build them up. Oh, and we’ve got make sure and build in as much hot-as-hell erotic mind control too! As you’ll see on the cover, this issue sees the return of an infamous Jette Jones villain. One who is renowned for using mind control to get her devious way!

Speaking of the cover, this one is our first with all AI-generated images. I’ve incorporated bits of AI generated stuff in previous issue covers but all the characters, the equipment and background environment for this cover were AI generated.

AI art gives me incredible freedom to create from my imagination but it has a very steep learning curve and a wholly different set of problems to my usual approach. I’ll probably do a blog entry just talking about the process of creating this cover as it was a really interesting journey.

But that’s for another time. For now, connie and I hope you enjoy the latest issue of Captain Jette Jones, Star Ranger!

Jette Jones #15

View Manip

A Note From connie k About “Jette Jones, Star Ranger”

April 29, 2023

Hi everyone!

First, let me say, it all comes down to tacos.

Taco moments. That’s what Callidus and I call those times when we both have the exact same thought, are on the same wavelength. Which comes in pretty handy when you are writing together, believe me. For two people as outwardly different as we are, Callidus and I have A LOT of those taco moments.

I had never written in collaboration with anyone before, thinking it could never work, as stubborn and protective as I am about what I write. It took about 20 minutes to change my mind.

I knew of Callidus and his amazing manips, writing and artwork all the way back to 2015(!!) when he reviewed one of my stories on Episode #2 of The Black Room podcast, which was only the second I had posted on the EMSCA. Took another couple of years before we met and became friends. I don’t remember exactly how it came up, but he was telling me about a project he had rattling around in his brain about a retro sci-fi heroine named Jette Jones he had started to put together. He asked me if I’d mind reading his fairly extensive outlines (lovingly referred to as “the Jette bible”) and early story draft.

I loved it.

Now, I’m not a sci-fi geek, although I knew the basics – Star Trek (the Kirk ones), some Star Wars, Ray Bradbury, Blade Runner, etc. – and I was really excited. He knew exactly where he wanted to go with it, and I wanted to be on that ride.

That was 2 ½ years ago. Whoa!

And it has been more fun than I could have imagined. Easily the most fun I’ve ever had writing. But, beyond that, it’s because of WHO I’m writing with that has made it that way. Callidus has spoiled me. The dude is not only extremely talented, he’s just flat-out cool. In more than 140,000 words, we’ve never had an argument, rarely have opposing ideas about where to go. Sure, we disagree. But usually Cal lets me have my way. (Just kidding, kinda)

In fact, the writing has been split right down the middle. Maybe you’d be surprised who wrote some bit of sci-fi or sexiness. We each contribute to sections written primarily by the other and we just love getting both our hands all over the MC, the smut, the photon blasts and the occasional heart-tugging moments.

Jette’s our Captain Kirk, but with a badass ‘tude and a butt to die for. She’s by far the most enjoyable character I’ve ever laid my hands on. I hope you all have your favorites among “our girls” as Cal and I call them. We really love them, even when we mindfuck them. Often.

So for those of you out there who have been waiting patiently through our semi-hiatus – 2022 is best forgotten on many levels – fear not: Jette Jones and her intrepid crew are in for a rockin’ 2023. We’ve already mapped out big chunks of not only our upcoming fifth adventure but also our sixth, which should take us roughly through 20 issues of C&C Comics and most of 2023.

As Jette might say, “We have a plan.”

We hope you enjoy and thank you!

connie