The Mr. Science Guest/Filler Strip Page:

In order to help keep comics going even when I am unable to do one, I will be accepting fan comics to be posted as filler strips. Please keep in mind that these are supposed to be Mr. Science strips. So please make them about one or more of the Mr. Science characters. You may of course include characters of your own devising, just not solely so.

To help you out, you may download a zip file of the standard files I use to make the comic. But you'll have to be patient. In order to keep my space down here on Keenspace, the file is kept on a Geocities site. As some of you may have learned the hard way (just like I did), there is a limit to how much traffic that site can take and will be shut down for about an hour if it exceeds it. So if you go to download it and get a Geocities error page, just wait about an hour or so and try again. I'm sorry for the inconvienience, and I'll be looking for someplace else to store the zip file. As for the image files themselves, they are .psd files for use with Photoshop. In order to work in more detail, I keep the files 4 times larger than they appear in the finished comic. The files in the zip are also at this size. So PLEASE remember, when you finish making a comic with these files, go to Image, and click on Image Size. In Pixel Dimensions go to the pulldown and select Percent and then set it to 25. If you comic winds up being excessively big, you may have forgotten to do this. My finished comics rarely go over 115 KB, and are sometimes as small as 50 KB. The use of photo images, especially as the background, tend to drastically increase the size as well. If working with the files causes your computer to become sluggish, you may want to go ahead and shrink them so that they are not consuming so much of your system resources.

Of course, you don't HAVE to use the files to make a strip. If you don't have Photoshop, or you'd just rather draw it or use some other means, you are perfectly free to do so. I'm merely providing the files for those who wish to use it. Your comic can be color or black & white. It can be computer generated, pencil drawn, inked, or even made with photograghs or manipulated images from the zip file. It's up to you. Just try to keep the finished size to less that 150 KB and in .jpg or .gif format. Feel free to include your name or nickname on the comic. You wrote it, you should get credit. You can also include your email address and/or web site. Although I think they'd look less obtrusive if put in a small block just above or below the actual comic.

Another VERY important thing to keep in mind is how to submit your comic. Do NOT send the comic directly to my email address . Upload your comic to the internet (if you don't have a site, there are many free sites out there you can get) and send me a link to the image. If you are strained for space on your site, ask me to let you know when I've downloaded your comic when you send me the link so that you may delete it from your site as soon as possible.

Also, I'm afraid I can't gaurantee that every submitted comic will be displayed on the site. Firstly, these are only meant to be filler comics. Only one put up on the (hopefully) rare occasions I can't get one done myself. And I reserve the right to veto a comic at my desire. If I feel that a submitted comic is inappropriate, insulting, confusing or just not funny, I'm not going to use it. Of those I will use, the order in which they are used will likely just be the ones I like best or the first suitable one I find when I need it.

Finally, you may care to know that I will be soon adding a cast page to the site, so that if you need to know more about the characters to make your comic, you can look there. I will be accepting comics as filler until further notice. If I run out of filler strips, then we'll likely have nothing on those tough days. I may also put out a call for filler strips in anticipation of potential outages, like finals, vacations, etc.