Competition is good for productivity. Ever since larsony moved in, with his fancy "professionally published comic" and "actual work ethic" gimmicks, I've been really motivated to get something going, comics-wise. Not that I didn't want to previously, but it was easier to slack off back then. Now it's harder to still feel good about oneself when the roommate is all "I posted a new page today" and I'm just like "uh, I played some Godhand? That's like working hard, right?"

So! Actively trying not to be a failure at comics now! Switched back over to the "Vampires in Mechs" project because a) I think I know how to make it funny the whole way through now (barring the deceptively traditional first few pages), b) it's still WAY shorter than "Clash City Rock" and c) working on it first gives me more time to hash out my title-related issues with Clash City and my thematic and genre-related issues with Dust Jacket. Yeah, it's lame that I keep switching back and forth between projects and never produce anything for any of them, but hopefully that'll stop now that I've got a clear game plan and the motivation of potential shame to keep me in line.

Anyone want to see what I've drawn with it so far? No mechs in the story yet, but there are in fact vampires! Also spurious continuity with another yet-to-exist comic!

( Titanium Bat! With 100% Less Titanium for a Limited Time )

On the good side of 'other news,' I finally have a good job lined up as an editor and project specialist at a translation company here in town! On the bad side of it, however, I won't be able to start there until the middle of October, due to remodeling constraints on their end and a deadline commitment on mine. Which would be okay, but it'll make the long daily commute to my crappy, low-paying current job a lot rougher to bear until October 15th. Oh well. It'll be worth it in the end.

Find out which Transformer you are at LiquidGeneration!

I was hoping for Grimlock. Or hell, any of the Dinobots. Still, I guess the Donatello of Transformers is okay too...

10:00 PM - Sit down to do some brief sketching for comic project, hoping to nail down design for tricky character.

3:45 - Not noting passage of time, now have finalized design that is very satisfactory; but look up to see that I need to "wake up for work" in 2 hours.

Oops.

I mean, I'm glad I was drawing, and am happy with what resulted; but DAMN, need to keep better track of time.

I'm gonna go brew some coffee now.

EDIT: Might as well post what I did.  Image contains a bad scan of ninja cleavage.  It's a much-needed revamp of this character.

Also, I know I'm like a day or so behind everyone else, but I guess I'll try the question meme too.

For people outside the Forumopolis journal web: just ask me a question, I'll answer it, probably truthfully.   Probably will not be able to respond until after 5:30 PM due to work (if not possibly later due to a gaming thing happening afterward).

Breaking all this up because it was long as hell on some of my friends' pages.


And, in less consequential news... picked up Perdido Street Station for my new current read, having finally gotten through The Road, Cryptonomicon (FINALLY), and Anansi Boys.  After that, reading Hyperion on Pal Mikey's recommendation, and when I get done with that, it's probably New Harry Potter time.  Which, judging from previous volumes, will take me about a day, and then I can start the Hyperion sequel.

So... yeah, I guess I've been kind of busy?  Anyway, I hope everyone's doing well, and that things are generally cool with all of you.  

I think I'll be around a bit more now that my life isn't quite as stupid.

I guess I'm working on Clash City Rock (my fighting game parody) now as my official comic project.  It's time consuming, but I'm having fun drawing it so far.  Let's see how much I actually get done before the con at the end of May.

Also, going to Calgary tomorrow for the Comic & Entertainment Expo.  Looking forward to it...first time going back to Canada since I was 10, and pretty much my first convention ever.  Should be a fun experience.

Has anyone had problems with GMail in the past few days?  It was down when I was trying to use it yesterday, and the problem hasn't gone away.  Weirdly, I still get previews of my current mail on my main google page, but I still can't access them from there.

Been avoiding any sort of active presence on the internet for a bit, as my  complete dearth of LJ use for over two months testifies to.  I've been busy with some stuff.  Started a new job (another call center, but at least a call center in a more pleasant location with a less suicide-provokingly frustrating customer base), and have been working pretty hard on some comics that I wanted to get done by the end of May, when a comic convention of ambiguous quality is going to be here in town. 

I wrote up a script and did 45 pages of layouts for a comic that I was originally pretty jazzed about.  A parody of the two most angsty genres  in geek fiction, vampires and sad teenagers in giant robots, I'd been calling it "Vampires in Mechs" for a working title (unfortunately, nothing better -- or at least less "Snakes on a Plane"-ish -- has come to mind for a title yet, which may contribute to the issues I'm having with it).  I also did a fair amount of concept art, though I'm only posting some partial mech designs right now.

I've been working on this for several weeks, but unfortunately, I failed to anticipate something important:

In the meantime, I think I'm going to go ahead and use the short Dust Jacket story I wrote at the end of the last year for my current project for the con.  I know the characters better, and it's shorter anyway.  Not sure what I want to do after that, however.  I know I'm not up to doing Dust Jacket as an ongoing storyline yet.  I kind of want to work on Clash City Rock again, especially given that I feel like it's the sort of project I need to finish before I turn 30 and have no excuse to be doing a comic making fun of the tropes of obsolete fighting games.  That said, I have about 8 other stories I want to work on at some point, and any one of them may take my attention before too long.

Anyway, in the event any of you are still reading after all that junk, how are you doing?  It's been a tremendously long time since I spoke with almost anyone on this list.  For that matter, if I'm on your list for some reason and I've never properly been introduced to you, please post and tell me who you are.  I could use a refresher course, and I'd like to try to be social for a change too.

Reply to this and I will:

1)Tell you why I friended you.
2)Associate you with a song/movie.
3)Tell a random fact about you.
4)Tell my first memory of you.
5)Associate you with an animal/fruit.
6)Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.

Meme stolen from V^V and Karlean.  (I think I've done this before, but I'm home sick and feel like wasting some time, so I'll try to be unique and not retread old answers, if anyone actually remembers them).

[Edit--posted at 11:44: Whoops, that nap I took earlier wound up going about 6 hours longer than expected.  I'll do these answers now, sorry about that]

[Edit again--2:00 AM] Okay, I'll do the last one (and any new ones that may pop up) tomorrow.  Gotta sleep now.  Sick, after all.

I've complained a lot lately about my drawing output.  Generally, all I've had time to do have been sketches during breaks and free moments at work, along with a bit of stuff done at home.  So I haven't done anything I'd consider finished for about 3 months, really.

However, I did finally get around to scanning those sketchbook pages, and I was surprised to see how much content there was when it was all put together.

Drawing an original-looking golem that is still inherently "golemesque" is more difficult than one would imagine.

I've been up all night, reading scans of terrible X-Men comics from the mid 90s (pretty much from the Cyclops/Phoenix wedding through Onslaught), and drinking deliberately atrocious coffee in an effort to stave off hunger and to stay lucid.  It's been an odd combination, mainlining awful stimulants and terrible nostalgia.

I'm now starting to wonder about prospects for making a living as an artist by drawing pornography. 

Granted, I'm not really sure how would one would go about starting that career path, and I'm a little apprehensive to ask the people that I know do it.  And honestly, it's not really what I set out to achieve as an artist.  But, as an employment prospect, it probably is incrementally more fulfilling than getting yelled at by idiots who can't understand why their cell phone doesn't work anymore when they stopped paying for their plan 3 months ago. 

It's something I've been considering with increasing frequency lately, especially when I'm at work.

EDIT: Alternatively, I could try to get into illustrations and cartoons for right-wing political and religious publications.  For me, it'd be basically the same degree of lowest-common-denominator selling out as drawing porn would be, and I get the impression the level of quality required isn't as high.

I canceled all my comic subscriptions today.  First time I've been without a weekly pull list in like, three years.  I'm kind of sad about it.

I'm also selling off most of my trade paperbacks and graphic novels (along with a few other things).  I already have a thread to that effect on Forumopolis; but for the sake of non-FO friends (or any forumites who don't know who "Matte Black" is since my name change there), I figured I'd put the list up here too, since I'd rather sell them to friends before I put them all on Ebay or Amazon.


I'm generally looking for about 1/3rd cover price unless specifically noted elsewhere.  If you're interested but would like to keep quiet about it, post a screened message, and I'll get back to you about it.