Monday, January 11, 2010Mandatory Break Time Can't... stop... working on paper. Must... force myself... to do... something else, like enjoy these Family Circus parodies.
Labels: comics link : 12:55 PM
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Tuesday, October 13, 2009I Present: The Epic of Karie This is my 2009 24 Hour Comic, The Epic of Karie. Unlike previous years I went with a previously-created story, one from my earliest comic-making days (around 1998-2000). Go ahead and start with the introduction, which is a blog post in itself!
 Labels: 24hourcomics, comics link : 11:52 PM
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Thursday, August 6, 2009Voxy Lady I'm the cover story of this week's Vox Magazine. Wow! I don't even know what to say about that. Except, go over there and have a read!
Note: If I knew I was getting the cover I would've drawn a special something for them! :D link : 8:00 AM
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Thursday, July 23, 2009Cool Things from Comic-Con 2009 My Comic-Con day this year is tomorrow, but cool news is already on the internet.
Batgirl: Year One the motion comic! Batgirl: Year One is one of my favorite trades. The art is wonderfully simple yet exudes character. The retelling of Batgirl's origin is also a cool superhero adventure story with appearances by Black Canary and really crazy and menacing Firefly. While had an inkling of an idea for my own superhero comic before, it was when I read this that really inspired me. (Then the hard part was not ripping off its awesomeness!) I was hoping this would be an DCU Animated project (link warning: sound), but a motion comic is fine too. The coolest part? The whole thing is already on iTunes!  Source... er... nadshot.comCertainly more to come. link : 4:47 PM
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Friday, July 17, 2009Mr. July Before I'm last month's news, I want to tell you that I was the July featured creator at the Midmococo website. Check out the enlightening interview here!
link : 6:10 PM
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009Who Views the Viewmen? I finally found time to see Watchmen at a matinee this evening. That's the major minus of having a normal work schedule: I can't have my way around town while everyone is at work, 'cause I'm at work. Instead of going home for my sleep 1 (I'll have to explain my weird yet consistent sleep schedule sometime), I saw the 4:30 showing. There were around five other people in the theater and we were all well-behaved. The sound did drop out during a scene but since I've read the book so many times, *shrug*.
In short, it's a good movie. A lot of comic book-to-film adaptations strike an odd nerve in the details. Comics Batman wouldn't have let Ras al Ghul die in a fiery train wreck. Lois Lane does not look or act like Kate Bosworth's portrayal. But, man does Watchmen hit all the right notes. Well, 99.9% of them. Sure there are changes in shot selection, dialog, and a few plot elements, but in the majority of cases they mesh well with the source material. The movie is covered in references to minutiae from the book. Characters in the secondary and tertiary roles in the book are liberally given cameos as reaction shots and scenery. Some characters like Silhouette are embellished with great effect. The movie, with it's hindsight on the 80's, also loads the sets with impersonators of real celebrities. Look for a David Bowie (no, not the actor who played Ozymandias, who could totally star in a Bowie biopic)! The ending is not one of these changes I enjoyed. Like V for Vendetta, the ending seems shoehorned in to a faithful adaptation. I wonder what the reason for the change was: the sheer absurdity of the book ending in the face of the mostly "realistic" portrayal of a modern world with superheroes is what makes it so powerful so I hope it's not because the book ending is so out-there. Maybe it's because the book ending took time to set up that the movie could not spare. I will admit that the threads leading to the movie ending could be woven more seamlessly into the rest of the plot. Still I am very glad a Watchmen movie got made and it doesn't suck. Being a huge fan of the book, seeing some of the scenes play out in motion was really a great experience. The large tub of popcorn I consumed... not so much. Final Note: Upon reflection on the movie I realized that references to smoking were missing. One bit in the book has Laurie looking for a cigarette lighter on the Owlship when she hits the flamethrower button by accident. In the movie, she just hits the button because it's shiny or something. In a flashback, a boy is smoking a cigarette, also missing in the movie. Do the powers that be really think that erasing smoking from media is part of the solution? How does that mesh with alcohol use and movies centered around cocaine? link : 9:50 PM
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Thursday, October 23, 2008It's A-Me... Keithio! From 24 Hour Comics day. See Josh's Youtube page for more!
I also show up here: Labels: 24hourcomics, comics, midmococo link : 2:05 PM
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Friday, October 17, 200824 Hour Comics is Here Again! This weekend I'll once again be at Midmococo's 24 Hour Comics event. Like last year, the challenge is to produce twenty four pages in twenty four hours, from noon Saturday to noon Sunday. Last year was when I first became involved with Midmococo. Hard to believe that only one year has passed! I've met a lot of cool people there.
This year's event is going to be even cooler. We'll be at the Columbia Art League in downtown, so we'll be getting a lot of attention. Which reminds me, I should get my hair cut before then. It's getting long... I wouldn't count on internet access but I can post to Twitter from my phone. Keep an eye out for my updates. I'm sure the ones past hour twenty will be keepers. Labels: 24hourcomics, comics, midmococo link : 9:00 AM
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Saturday, August 2, 2008Tales from Comic-Con, Day 4 (Sunday): I Just Want a Goddamn Cardboard Tube I didn't go to Comic-Con on Sunday in 2006 because I was tired of it by the fourth day. My family convinced me to go since I did have Comic-Con and trolley passes. A deal 's a deal! Getting there was no problem. Once inside, though it was chaos. Sunday was kids' day. Now, most kids were fine, but what was not fine were the con newbies: parents with strollers. Pedestrian traffic was crazy because of the strollers everywhere. The parents would stop in the middle of the aisles and gawk and whatever booth, blocking the people behind them from moving. Babies in strollers would drop stuff or grab things from passersby. And crowd control was a lot worse than in 2006. Booths just couldn't handle long lines of people so lines wrapped around and around with no indication of where the line ended or what the line was for. In 2006 I specifically saw such lines broken up to help the flow of traffic, but this year it was the norm. I tried three times to talk to staff members what was going on in the line they guarded and two times I was completely ignored. The third time I was ejected from a line I accidentally stood in. That line was important, too:
Omar Dogan, artist at Udon comics, was doing commission sketches. I think his work is fantastic so I went to his booth. Luckily, he wasn't so busy so I could get my request in: Karin from Street Fighter Alpha 3. Mr. Dogan was very nice and he told me to pick it up around closing time. As I walked away it occured to me that I had no way of safely transporting a 11" x 17" art piece. But, I saw many convention-goers all weekend with poster tubes from the Fox booth so off I went. When I got there they were out of posters with a sign promising more later. I walked around some more and returned. Now there was a giant throng of people demanding poster tubes. I walked around the booth but couldn't find where the line ended. I saw one likely spot, a corner with a staff member and what looked like the end. I asked the man if it was the end, and he said no. It turns out, the line continued directly behind me, from where I had come from. So... that meant I was in the line right? No, said both the guard and the woman behind me (whom is a jerk btw). At this point I was on the verge of a freakout so I left ending my quest for a poster tube. I calmed myself down by first watching Spore being played at their booth, played some Rock Band in the game room. Walking through the exhibit hall made me have an attack again so I sat in a secluded area playing Phase on my iPod. Once I was refreshed I went back to see Omar Dogan. Surprisingly my piece was done (it had been around three hours). It's fantastic: inked and shaded which is beyond what he needed to do for a con sketch. I had him keep the rough lines. I wrapped the drawing in some thick posters, forming a protective tube I had to hold closed. Having gotten that, there was nothing I needed to do so I left Comic-Con as fast as possible.  {Things I got at Comic-Con. Click to see annotated version at Flickr.} I'm not sure if I want to do it again. At least I'll skip a year like before. Maybe two years. I did have lots of fun and got many unique souvenirs, and talked to some great people, but the aggravating times were insanity-inducing, literally. I'm pretty sure it's all worth it, though. Maybe. Let me look at that drawing again... link : 3:13 PM
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Thursday, July 31, 2008Tales from Comic-Con, Day 3 (Saturday): Wait To be honest I don't remember much from Saturday. I hung out in the game room playing Rock Band. I hung out with Hae Eun at the Planet Tokki booth. Strange to say for an annual four-day event I've only attended twice but it was same ol', same ol'.
 {Mid-Missouri comics at the Planet Tokki table.} I left to meet my family for a special dinner to celebrate my dad's birthday. Our rallying point was Seaport Village, a few minutes walk from the convention center. On the way I saw a Corvette try to beat the trolley, and lose as it screeched to a halt in front of the descending crossing gate. Due to a mistiming of activities, I had around an hour at Seaport Village. I didn't mind the wait because Seaport Village was fantastic as sunset approached. I walked its whole length taking pictures of almost anything I found interesting. Amusingly a few stormtroopers were sightseeing. I didn't bug them for a photo; even the Imperial army needs some break time.  {A rescued parrot at Seaport Village.}  {A nice view of "Unconditional Surrender" at Mole Park.}  {A panorama of the aircraft carrier/museum USS Midway. Click to see giant version.} I met up with my family and we went to Black Angus in Claremont Mesa. It was fantastic, great food and our waitress was beyond helpful. link : 12:39 PM
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Monday, July 28, 2008Tales from Comic-Con, Day 2 (Friday: Part 1): My Own Personal 8 Mile I found parking at the Fenton Parkway trolley station and got to Comic-Con at least a half hour earlier than Thursday. As I was walking there, a man with a box of cards handed one to me. It said Top Shelf 2.0, about a new webcomics project. He asked me if I've heard of them and I said no. He then explained that Top Shelf is the company featuring Alan Moore as well as other well known graphic novels such as Craig Thompson's Blankets. I felt stupid because I was thinking webcomics when he asked. Of course I knew about Top Shelf! We kept walking and talking towards the convention center. At one point, a middle-aged man with gray hair and glasses wearing a red shirt under an open flannel walked up and said hi to my companion. They chatted business for a few seconds while I stood by. When they were done, the man continued walking past us. I knew something was strange so I asked if I should know that man. He replied "It's Scott McCloud."
My face went =O. Scott McCloud is pretty famous for his books about comics theory: Understanding Comics, Reinventing Comics, and Making Comics. He also invented the 24-hour comic. It's kind of a big deal to see him, much less walking down the street like anyone else. Well, I'll know what he looks like in real life for next time. While the morning had its thrills, I was very excited about the afternoon: Thursday had a Smash Bros. tournament and Friday it was time for Rock Band to take the stage (though there wasn't actually a stage). The tournament was set up as score duels between two bands at a time. Each duo of bands picked a song to play and then they played the other group's pick. The score is added and highest wins. Pretty slick way of doing it I think.  {Dueling bands at the Rock Band tournament.} The clustery Smash Bros. tournament the day before had me worried, but the Rock Band one was well organized. I joined a trio looking for a bass player or vocalist but they booted me at the last minute. I was pissed I didn't have a band because I really wanted to sing. Luckily one of the bands couldn't find their fourth when they were called up and I hopped in to offer my services. It was me, pushing 30, with a bunch of 8th and 9th graders. By the time we worked out the band issues the competing band had already picked their song: Buddy Holly. I have a mental list of songs I'm uncommonly good at and I scanned the playlist for one: Celebrity Skin was my choice. No one likes Celebrity Skin, except for Anna and I. We played our hearts out but they beat us completely. Special mention goes out to my competing vocalist, a stocky guy in an orange shirt. He really worked the crowd from his giant yells for overdrive to his clapping and waving to other songs. His band won the tournament, with the prize being a copy of Rock Band 2. Considering that two months ago I didn't know I had the capacity to even learn singing, doing vocals in front of a crowd at Comic-Con was huge to me. And it was only 2PM. link : 8:17 PM
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Sunday, July 27, 2008Tales from Comic-Con, Day 1 (Thursday): Kind of Familiar Much like my 2006 trip to Comic-Con, I started out by getting lost trying to find the Mission Valley trolley station. I got to the convention center a little late, just before noon. Unlike my last visit I decided to skip most of the panels. I go for information and that can be obtained from the internet from reporters and bloggers after-the-fact. Instead I spent my time in the exhibition hall photographing booths, many of which are in the same place as last time. There were some differences though: Udon Comics shrank considerably and got a section backed by the wall. Capcom grew and had a multi-tiered setup. Marvel actually had a recognizable booth instead of horning in on one of their subsidiaries.
 {The small press section is supposed to be one of the less-busy areas.} Later I wound up in the game room playing Rock Band. There was a Smash Bros. tournament in the afternoon but it was a mess: people didn't hear their name called, people kept sitting directly in front of the projector (didn't they feel a circle of heat on their backs?). Then again running a convention program is no easy task, and the sponsor, sdtekken.com did a good handling the crowd. I sat next to a mom cheering her son and we conversed about how troublesome the crowd was while they sorted out what the next match was going to be. I also didn't like the format of the tournament, though it is standard for Smash Bros. Why only have one on one matches on the flattest stage when the game features 4-player battles on over twenty unique stages? It got kind of boring after a while and I skipped a lot, coming back to see the end.  {A finely detailed Predator statue at the Sideshow Collectibles booth.} Also, 100th post, woot. link : 8:00 PM
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Thursday, June 12, 2008The AMA Alliance Sounds Stressed, Maybe They Should Smoke A Cig"Shame on 'The Incredible Hulk' for unnecessarily adding smoking to a sequel that would have been just as exciting and believable without it," said Dianne Fenyk, President of the Alliance. "Universal Studios and the other Hollywood studios should be especially embarrassed for using comic book movies, which they market to children and know youth will want to see, to promote tobacco." The above quote pretty much sums up a press release by the American Medical Association Alliance, which is riding the coattails of a big budget movie into the news. Saying that a character promotes cigar smoking by simply having one is as sensible as saying that the Hulk (the protagonist lead) is promoting running from the law by... running from the law. Maybe the cigar in the movie shows something about the character, like how he is old fashioned and inconsiderate of others' well-being. In a related note, I have a theory about why crazy people are often in leadership positions of otherwise sane organizations. Maybe I'll share it sometime. link : 4:36 PM
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Wednesday, May 7, 2008From Zero to Awesome in 3.5 Minutes After X-Men: Evolution, I wasn't exactly thrilled about yet another X-Men cartoon, but there were a few glimmers of hope. Stephen Jay "Spike-Guy" Blum was reprising his role as Wolverine (he's Wolverine in videogames), and Kari "Fuu-Girl" Wahlgren was, of all people, Emma Frost. Then they released this trailer:
Hooooooly smokes! Sentinels! Genosha! Spiral! Hulk! Mojo! New X-Men! People I'm not hardcore enough to recognize! It's all quite overwhelming. link : 9:37 PM
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Thursday, November 8, 2007Learn Anthropology; Save the World The latest issue of Shadowpact (#18, page 4) has a weird endorsement of physical anthropology:
 If physical anthropology teaches me how to fight werewolves, then sign me up! Oh wait, I'm already signed up. Labels: anthropology, comics link : 4:21 PM
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Sunday, October 21, 2007I Don't Remember the Weekend... ...but I'm holding a comic apparently done by my hand. Cleanup and scanning to commence soon!
Update: Looks like I can piece together my weekend through local news articles, like this one from the Columbia Missourian: "Comic artists burn the midnight oil for 24 Hour Comics Day." Update 2: And this blurb from KOMU (though I'm not in it). Update 3: Hey I am in the KOMU news story, for around 0.05 seconds. Check out the video to the right of the page. Labels: comics, midmococo, personal, selective pressure link : 11:31 PM
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Tuesday, October 9, 2007I'd Like My Comics With Jam, Please 24 Hour Comics is an international event where cartoonists draw one page an hour for 24 straight hours. It's grueling, but sounds like a lot of fun! Last year I suddenly thought about doing it a week after the official day so I was bummed. This year I was all over it. The local comics group, Midmococo (that's mid-moe-koh-koh). They always seemed like a cool bunch of people but I've never been to a meeting on account of me being a loner. Their mailing list announced that their next meeting was going to discuss the upcoming 24 Hour Comics Day, so it was a good excuse for me to finally show up. I was a little worried because at their last meeting they had a comic jam, where each participant would draw a panel in an impromptu comic.
I showed up and everybody was very nice. A student reporter from the university was there with a videocamera to document the meeting for her project. I sometimes glanced unconsciously at the camera like I was on The Office or something. At the end of the meeting, we had almost "forgot" (I remembered but didn't say anything, heh) about the comic jam, but it was brought up as a great visual for the journalism student to record. I was a bit nervous drawing on demand but I had fun with my section. You can see the jam at midmococo.com. My panel is the 4th one. I was really hungry when I was thinking of what to do. 24 Hour Comics Day is October 20th. Stop by with food and drinks! Especially the 2-6AM shift lol. Labels: comics, midmococo, selective pressure link : 8:20 PM
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Sunday, September 30, 2007 DC comics is having a comics contest through their new Zuda Comics label: the prizes are various amounts of cash. Sign me up!
There are rules to follow: the comic for the contest is to be 8 pages of 800x600 pixels. The comic can't be shown anyplace other than their site during the contest. Beyond that, anything goes. I thought a bit about what story to tell with what characters. I decided that making something totally new would lower my chances of making a good comic: good stories take lots of time to work out the details. I settled on my favorite character at the moment: Keeley Walker and her superheroic storyline. The setting is a few issues beyond where I'm at right now. It's kind of like fast forwarding the action a little to get to some cooler stuff I've had in mind. I had to think a lot about what specifically will occur in the comic. 8 pages isn't a lot for introducing the character, having something interesting happen, and providing some type of closure. I wrote out the first draft of the script, and now it's time to work on that some more and sketch out the thumbnails. Progress updates later, I hope. Wish me luck! link : 7:47 PM
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Thursday, May 24, 2007We Have a Winner! Fellow cartoonist Winter told me about Inkscape, an open source vector program. It does everything I use in Illustrator, but for free! I whipped up a traced image with a speech balloon in around ten minutes using it for the first time. I am definitely impressed.
 {I traced an old scan I had on my drive and added a speech balloon in Inkscape. OMG!} Labels: comics, Keeley, tech:computers link : 8:20 PM
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Thursday, May 17, 2007Bring Out the GIMP! Adobe released their new Creative Suite, including programs that they ate when they bought out Macromedia. I was hoping that their price structure would make things a little cheaper. I guess I should read a basic economics book because if a company controls a certain niche, they can apparently charge whatever they want. Goodbye $100 Dreamweaver. It's now $194. Educational versions cannot be upgraded and the price to buy them new is the same as a normal upgrade. Uh, thanks?
I'm not just here to complain though. The good news is that there are always cheap, even free, alternatives. Enter the replacement players! I've had GIMP on my computer out of curiosity but now I'm learning how to use it in earnest. A program called Rapidweaver claims to be a Dreamweaver replacement. I still need something to replace Illustrator. OmniGraffle is close, but not quite the same niche. Maybe there's something else out there...  {I'm using GIMP to add shading to page 6, coming out soon!} Labels: comics, Keeley, tech:computers link : 12:57 PM
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Tuesday, April 17, 2007Kristin is Into DetailsMe: I have this new character. Her name is Invincigirl. She's invincible to everything. She can't be crushed, suffocated, starved, etc. Labels: comics link : 8:24 PM
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Wednesday, April 4, 2007More Issues! The Good Kind! The first "scene" of Keeley: Comic Hero Extraordinaire #3 is up. Two scenes, really, as the first scene is one page. It's neatoriffic: go check it out!
 link : 9:27 PM
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Monday, February 26, 2007Whatever Happened to Issue 3? Believe it or not, issue 3 has been snowed out until now. The opening of issue 3 takes place at the Columbia Public Library. I wanted to get some good photo references but it's been snowing and cloudy for most of the past two months. Today it was finally sunny and snow-free so I went out with my camera. I snapped a few pictures of the front and was walking up the front stairs when I got hassled by The Man. Apparently I can't take pictures of the inside of the library.
There are several ways to handle the situation. Kristin, who I related this problem to already, would've snapped pictures of the interior anyway. I listen to The Man more and I put the camera away. Instead I got some blank paper and a library pencil and sketched what I wanted. Mission accomplished! Next comes the actual drawing from the photos/sketches and all that. Since I couldn't do the library stuff I've skipped ahead and worked on pages 4 and 5. The first five pages should all be posted together when it's all done with. link : 8:47 PM
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007Space Battle I somehow missed the birth of networking sites like Friendster and Myspace but all of a sudden it seems like this type of site is almost ubiquitous with casual internet use. Specialty sites have come up to cater to specific audiences. There isn't one for anthropology yet so I'll write about two that cater to the other two-thirds of this site's theme.
1up.com is a networking site for gamers. I usually go there for the news, though I've visited it less as less since it is so complex. I just want my gaming news! The news sits in a little block of text surrounded by links to blogs. I don't want to see what Joe D. Gamer says on his gaming blog. I have my own! Why read the World of Warcraft Blog when I can just play it with the other eight million people who have it? Anyway, I wanted to see how the networking part of the site was going so I went profile hopping. I even found someone I know! So I set up my own little profile and tried to invite him to be a friend. And... nothing. I have no idea how to do it! The site is just so cluttered. The obvious "Invite Friends" button is actually for spamming my friends who don't have a profile so they will join. But how do I send and invite to someone who is already here? I still haven't figured it out. The help link, buried in the lower right of the page, leads to a single page that only shows me how to sign up for this monstrosity (using outdated screenshots no less). I give up. My reunion with my friend will have to wait until I get some more patience. On to other things, like writing this post. I've dumped on 1up.com a bit now so it must mean I have a solution for all of their flaws. Well, to show an example of a networking site that works in its simplicity, I present Comicspace. Yes, it's a blatant name-ripoff of Myspace, but it is so much better in execution. Just compare the two home screens. Comicspace has a tasteful row of ads at the top, and the rest of the page are large blocks of information. there is a lot of information here but it is given room to breathe. And once you start clicking links and filling out text boxes, it works flawlessly. Comicspace is run by one person with volunteer programmer helpers and it just plain works. Myspace has all kinds of money backing it and it fails. There are errors that show up for the most mundane tasks like sending a message or seeing someone's profile. It's shoddy while Comicspace is expertly designed. Just look at it! It's, dare I say, a beautiful site. link : 7:44 PM
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