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June 25, 2007 - Hercules needs a home!
Two years ago, my fiancé and I adopted a fuzzy adult cat from a friend's
parents who were moving to a no-cat's building. He came to us thoroughly
crazy (raised in a house with a Jack Russell Terrier), and over the last two
years, we've gotten him down to only the standard cat levels of crazy.
Unfortunately, with my leg and loss of all my savings, the fiancé and I are
forced to move to a smaller, cheaper apartment; one that doesn't allow cats.
We're both at out wits end trying to find a good home for him here in
Seattle. He's not used to other cats and freaks out around them, so placing
him with our cat-loving friends has been impossible. And our friends who
aren't cat-lovers, well... they don't want a cat. We're considering sending
him to my parents in Florida, but it means a horrifying 8-hour flight for
him, not to mention dumping the responsibility for him off on my parents
(the $300 to send him down there is no small matter for us, either). So, as
a last-ditch, I thought I'd appeal to my readers.
Hercules (or just "Herc" or "Beezer") is a full-grown
longhair. He's got a lot of personality and loves to play and chase his
toys, wrestle with his own feet, and cuddle up next to humans (one might
even say he demands to cuddle up next to humans). He's fairly well-behaved
as cats go: He's never peed outside his little box, tolerates having baths
and claw trimmings, and only "play bites" these days (he was a
real biter when we first got him). He just went to the vet last week and is
in good health, though he does have hairball problems if he isn't taken care
of (luckily, he loves being brushed and thinks his hairball medicine is a
treat).
Herc has everything he needs to survive: We'll give you his litterbox, food
bowl, brush, hairball medicine, and his toys. The only thing he needs is a
good home with someone who will be patient with a quirky but very loving
cat.
Hercules, sad because he knows we're moving
Hercules, sad because his mommies don't love him any more
June 21, 2007 - Huh... going back and re-reading some old chapters
to make sure I've got all my details straight for the new chapter... And
some of this stuff isn't bad, is it? It's no "Oddessy", but the
writing is better in some places than I really give myself credit for. Why
in god's name don't I update this more regularly?
Oh, and on an interesting side-note: For the first time in my ten years as a
cartoonist, I have drawn something pornographic. I find it vastly amusing
and plan on doing it again some time.
And yes, I am in fact aware that you read these posts, Dad.
June 19th, 2007 - Yeah! I can actually log onto Comicgenesis again!
At long last: A late comic that isn't my fault!
June 9, 2007 - Huh... hell of a vacation, isn't it. Three months
gone.
Anyway, I think I'm going to be updating with some regularity again (keep
you fingers crossed). I'm not feeling any less burned out, but drawing Zoe
and Richie felt familiar and comforting just now; sort of a release. Plus
now I have a designated workspace again, which I haven't really had in a
year.
Of course, I've run into a new problem: My scanner is dead. I'm borrowing a
very generous friend's, but it handles colors differently, so now I can't
photoshop out my blue pencil lines anymore (hence why this comic looks more
than a little messy). It also does something wonky with the sizing (I'm
still scanning my originals at 300dpi, but they're coming out much larger).
This means all my presets for sizing, outlines, text, and so on don't work
anymore, so I need to figure them out again. If anyone out these understands
how these djinni-machines (scanners) work, please send me some hints about
why two scanners would produce such radically different sized files.
In medical news, I'm healing along. No blood lots, and the scarring has been
downgraded from 'hideous' to 'ugly' (which is still tough for someone who
had the best legs in high school). The bones themselves are solid enough to
stand on, and I can even hobble around the house without a crutch at this
point, though it starts to hurt after a while. With any luck, I'll actually
be back to work in another couple of weeks (which is good, because my
savings are gone... solid gone).
In more positive realms of my life: I've been listening to Hank Williams III
recently, and I really recommend picking up a CD and giving him a try. Even
if you're not a big country fan, he's got a lot of the raw musical talent
that made his grandfather a household name.
I've got a final due next week that is an actual, finished cartoon, so maybe
if I actually get it done, I'll post it up here to give everyone a taste of
what I've been doing recently. Plus you get to hear my try and voice a mad
scientist. It's not pretty.
March 27, 2007 - So, no... I'm not dead (mostly)
The broken leg has left me a lot more hampered than I ever would have
realized. Until recently, it actually prevented me from finding a
comfortable position to draw in, and topped with a heaping helping of
depression from having my entire life put on hold... well, I guess mostly
I've actually just been pretty lazy, and I'm using the broken leg as an
excuse. Not like it's a broken hand, after all :p
So, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things now; Just starting out
with some fun stuff to get myself used to updating. I've been having a hard
time trying to wrap my mind around the storyline these last two months;
nothing comes and I just get frustrated. Hopefully working to get the
creative juices flowing first will help, and the storyline will follow.
As for medical stuff, the leg is healing very slowly. My doctor was
surprised at the slow progress, especially since I'm taking calcium supplements
(along with a dozen other things) and doing my physical therapy exercises.
Guess I'm just slow to mend (the lack of hormones probably wasn't helping).
Now, over two months since the surgery, the leg still can't support weight
and I'm practicing with a wheelchair just so I won't have to miss ANOTHER
quarter at art school. The incision sites from the surgery have all healed
up with less scarring than I expected, and there was only one infection. The
metal rod they put in aches when the weather changes, though. That's
probably not going to change (stupid laws of thermodynamics).
As for good news.... well, the hospital dropped almost all of my medical
bills because I'm painfully poor, and my family has been helping out
GENEROUSLY to make sure my fiancé and I don't get kicked out into the
street, so the financial aspect of this little fiasco isn't going to be
nearly as crippling as I thought it would be. I've also gotten a lot of
really sweet cards from family and friends, and all this hobbling around on
crutches is really making my arms impressive (I can finally beat my
girlfriend at arm-wrestling). I'm also working on another, non-Venus Envy
project with a friend of mine that is coming along slowly but wonderfully;
should be bearing fruit eventually.
So, that's the long and the short of it. Hopefully you'll be seeing more of
me now (rather than an empty void in your lives). So send me some positive
energy and maybe we can make this 'comic' thing work again :)
January 18, 2007 - For those of you who've not heard by now, I had a
bit of an injury last week. A broken leg was the result, ultimately
resulting in major surgery Saturday morning to reconstruct my Tibia and
Fibula, as well as insert a titanium rod into my leg to hold everything
together. The swelling is severe enough that even after five days, sitting
up (let alone standing on crutches) becomes painful after more than a few
minutes.
This being said, I want everyone to remember this important message:
Alligator wrestling is a dangerous sport! Even for someone with years of
experience, injuries obviously can and do happen. I know those 'X-treme'
sports are big with you kids these days, but alligator wrestling isn't
something you enter into lightly for fun. It's a time-honored tradition,
enacted to reinforce the peace treaty between American and Gatorvania. If
you think you have an interest in alligator wrestling, seek out a qualified
instructor, and be prepared to hurt, and for god's sake don't even think
about taking on a full-grown Klondike Bull Gator alone.
So, for the time being, there's going to be a delay in the comic. The pain
pills make it hard to draw, and being unable to use the scanner myself means
relying on my attractive but woefully untechnological nurse, Ms. Sunny. I've
got some filler comics from fellow artists, though, so you won't be left
completely without entertainment. In the meantime, gifts of Cure Light
Wounds potions or cybernetic limbs would be most appreciated.
And I still maintain that I had a legl pin. They run a dirty ring up here in
Seattle!
January 8, 2007 - Okay, so this newest storyline is primarily a
distraction for me than anything else, but you have to admit that even as a
reader, VE has been getting a little difficult lately. I mean, rapes and
death and melodrama, and the gags are getting scarcer and scarcer as we near
the upcoming 'Curtain Call' storyline.
For those of you who haven't guessed by now, "Rags to Richie's" is
a little sideline story that doesn't really affect my main characters. It
still has VE characters (and fan favorites at that; I get almost as much
e-mail about Richie, Allen, and Brian as I do about Chris), but the whole
'high school drama' thing is taking a back seat to fun and frivolity so I
can stretch my wings as a writer and an artist (I'm experimenting with a new
tool: The brush pen). Also, it'll serve to give us all a much-needed break
from the horrors of real life for a little while before we dive right back
in with the next storyline, 'Over Your Shoulder'.
So sit right back and hear a tale. A tale of a fateful trip. It started on
this tropic port... no... wait. I think it started in the Salem Jr. High
library....
December 21, 2006 - As if holiday seasons weren't stressful enough with
the typical heaps of guilt (I miss you too, Mom and Dad), shopping frenzy
(the lady in the green sweater is gonna get hers soon enough), traffic
hassles (fuck you Officer English; fuck you right in the ear), and finals
(up yours, 3D Animation!), God himself has decided to step in and add on to
the overwhelming drain on my finances, time, and sanity. That's right,
folks: The Almighty himself has been ensuring that everyone in the Pacific
Northwest has plenty of "Back in ought-six..." stories to tell
their grandkids.
Three weeks ago, it was the wettest month in Seattle history, culminating in
a snowstorm that crippled the city for a day and a half (and I don't want to
hear any of you Midwestern types whining about how 'Three inches of snow is
nothing. We drive through six foot snow banks to work every Wednesday.'
Three inches of packed ice and snow is a hell of a lot for a city without
plows, salting trucks, or readily available chains!).
Of course, that snowstorm was mostly just a fun diversion. The real trial of
this season arrived last Thursday, in the form of the BIGGEST WINDSTORM
SEATTLE HAS EVER SEEN.
Now, being a Florida girl by upbringing, I've seen a few hurricanes. I've
not, however, seen what hurricanes do when they plow into a pine forest.
Sustained winds of 90mph in some areas and gusts of over 105 shut down most
of the city Thursday night, and blanketed roads and houses with broken
branches and trees. Over 700,000 'customers' of Puget Sound Energy (that's
basically 700,000 households... that's approximately 2 million people in a
county of 4.5 million) were left without power as lines were torn down and,
in some areas, distribution stations were literally torn apart by flying
debris. A few areas had power back as early as Saturday, but most people
were still in the black by Saturday night when temperatures fell below
freezing. The last I'd heard from the news, the windstorm and the subsequent
blackout had killed 9 people and caused hundreds of injuries, not to mention
millions in damage to homes, businesses, and powerlines. Easily the most
severe natural disaster I've ever experienced first-hand.
My fiancé and I were very lucky. We have close friends with a wood-burning
stove who let us camp out with them. Food was thankfully easy to come by,
but firewood (or any other source of heat) required some amount of searching
to keep six people warm for five days. Cooking was fairly easy, though time
consuming. Because the weather was so cold, we could actually take the
perishable meats and vegetables out of the refrigerator and simply place
them on the back deck to keep them edible. Boiling water (stew was the
simplest thing to cook over a fire) took almost an hour, and getting
anything really cooked through, in quantities enough to feed everyone, took
up most of the evening. Light was another issue altogether. Store were
cleaned out of flashlights, lanterns, and batteries by Friday morning, so
for several days we had to manage off of a supply of tealights, a few
scented candles, and one hand-cranked flashlight. Since the sun sets around
4:30 in Seattle this time of year, we just spent most of the time sitting in
the dark.
I'm now amazed by the realization of how much we rely on light. My fiancé
and I, along with our friends, are gamer geeks. We love roleplaying games
and boards games, and figured we'd be able to see this blackout through just
fine thanks to our enormous supply of power-free distractions. Not so much,
though. Boards games and RPGs are next to impossible to play by the meager
candlelight a few tealights give off. Try shutting yourself in a closet and
reading through your textbooks with nothing but a lighter and you'll see
what I mean. Even with the emergency flashlight to pass around, something
about the cold, hungry gloom all around us just seemed to sap everyone's
will to DO anything by the second night. By the third night, we mostly sat
around making vague grunting noises (now I realize why music was invented).
Though the days weren't too bad, with the fire going, the nights got
bitterly cold. Eventually, the fire would go out, and even with it burning,
some of the icy, sub-zero air still crept through this windows and under the
three layers of blankets and made sleeping miserable.
Our power was finally restored on Tuesday night, after five days of 'pioneer
living' (just without the skills or the supplies). I'll admit happily that
this experience has given me some perspective on a lot of things, not the
least of which is how much we take electricity for granted (and how much I
hate not washing myself for days on end). And while I treasure the
experience and what I've learned from it, those five days were cold, dark,
miserable affairs that slowly managed to sap the drive from some of the most
fun, interesting people I know, and I wouldn't want to recapture that any
time soon.
So, in a roundabout sort of way, what I'm really trying to say here is:
Sorry the comic is late, but my city was set back two hundred years for a
week.
Oh, and also: Fuck you Officer English for ticketing me for my goddam busted
left turn blinker while I was out trying to find food and supplies in the
middle of a natural disaster. What? Is directing traffic at any of those
blacked-out intersections where people were colliding with each other
somehow beneath you? Is the only way you can get professional or sexual
satisfaction to perch like a vulture above a chaotic maelstrom and swoop on
the smallest, most helpless thing you can see? Over the course of this
storm's aftermath, I have seen more motorists, people trying to find food or
shelter, pulled over than I've seen in the last two months combined. You and
the rest of the Bellevue police department should be ashamed of how you
acted this past week.
August 8, 2006 - I am working on the comic as we speak. I should be
ready soon. Still trying to balance the school/work/comic thing.
In other news, I thought I post some wise words from my father here. I wrote
to him just the other day and told him I was kind of down from loosing a
friend recently (the 'Julia' from the memorial strip last week). This is
what he said to me...
I am sorry for the loss of your friend. There's not much I can tell you to
lessen the hurt but I can tell you what helps me. The first thing you can
do you have done in a small way. You shared your grief with me. That's one
reason funerals are important. You get to share you grief with others and
a sense of finality is absorbed into your soul. So if you haven't grieved
yet, take 5 minutes with Lissa, find a corner and cry until you feel just
a little bit better. Or you can take 5 minutes and light a candle and just
think of that person privately. The important thing is to grieve. If you
have the time and energy, invite a few of this persons mutual friends over
for a wake and spend the entire time talking about this person. The good
the bad and the ugly.
Either a dear friend or a casual acquaintance,
I suggest you make a pact with your self to think of them for at least a
few moments every day. It can be a nice thought a naughty thought a
discouraging though or even a time when they were an ass-hole and made you
angry. Then one day it occurs to you that you no longer have those daily
moments of personal thoughts. That's the time your grief is complete. You
have absorbed this persons life and soul. What they were, in a small way
is now part of you. This will affect everything you do ( unconsciously
) in thought and deed. It will add to your character. Even your creative
talents will improve from this experience. Some day you will be doing a
job, any job, have a problem and suddenly there is a brilliant solution.
You have no idea where it came from, its something you yourself
thought incapable of solving. You can either be giddy and self absorb with
your own genius or you can give a wink and say thanks to the many life's
experiences you have endured and invited into your soul.
Also, time will heal the hurt. It may not seem
possible now, but take it from an old fart. Time really is a great healer.
My father is a wiser man than
I ever really gave him credit for.
July 27, 2006 - Well, today I was going to post my father's guest rant,
but just this morning, the gay marriage decision got handed down from the
Washington Supreme Court, and since this affects me personally, having just
proposed to my lesbian girlfriend of two years, I felt obligated to say
something.
First of all, thank you to the many, many people who sent me congratulations
on our engagement. It's really heartwarming to know that not everyone
believes its wrong to be in love. The soon-to-be Mrs. Lindsey (or maybe I'm
the soon-to-be Mrs... I guess that's something we need to discuss) is still
pretty giddy over the whole thing, and she's loving reading everyone's
e-mails over my shoulder. There's still a lovely picture of the custom Ring
I had made for her here,
for those of your who've been wanting to see it. And to answer the single
most oft-asked question I've received: No, we don't have a date in mind yet.
We know it will have to be at least a year, because neither of us wants to
tie the knot while I'm still crazy with schooling, and we'd like to make it
within the next two years. Beyond that, who can say. To answer the
second-most-asked question: No, I will not be having a public wedding for
all my fans. You'll just have to settle for sending wedding gifts and cash.
So back on the very national version of marriage: This morning, the
Washington States Supreme Court handed down their decision that homosexuals
didn't deserve the right to marry. Their basic reasoning, like most every
opponent's, is that being gay is a choice, so it's not something you need
special consideration for. I'm not going to break off into a tirade about
whether or not gay is in-born or learned, and whether its a choice or
something you're just given without your consultation, but if it were up to
these same sorts of people, being black would probably be considered a
lifestyle choice, too.
The line that really stuck it to me was in mentioning that gays weren't
being discriminated against, because they're free to marry people of the
opposite sex any time they want. Dear lord, if ANYTHING would cause damage
to straight marriage, it would be forcing gays to do it.
The primary justification for the judicial discrimination was that gay
couples couldn't procreate (well... gay male couples, anyway; as near as I
can tell, there's no such thing as lesbians), so in years to come, expect to
see a lot of court decisions from Washington state outlawing marriage
between the elderly, sterile couples, and heterosexuals who don't want
children.
Luckily, thanks to extremely close-minded birth-certificate modification
laws that prevent a transsexual from being re-assigned as her new gender, I
can still legally marry the woman I love. I guess two wrongs can make a
right. July 25, 2006 - Wow... I've actually got a few spare minutes again.
This hasn't happened in weeks.... I think I'll fill it with an update.
First and foremost, you can see
The Ring here. I think it
went over well; she spent about five minute crying, which is either a really
good sign, or a really bad one. Ever the optimist, I'll take it as a
good sign. Ever the realist, however, I'm still not unlocking the handcuffs.
My vacation from school was spent doing the pencils for the two Omega
Commissions, as well as trying to chase all of the members down to finally
get pictures of them. The big news, though, is the professional commission I
received, doing full illustrations for an educational card game. The final
numbers were around 70 full-color cards, with approximately four weeks to
finish the project, and it was more taxing, tiring, and rewarding than I
ever would have believed.... I can't give too many details on the project,
but I can post my favorite picture from the series, for the card titled
'Caffeine Boost'
The other big news (not that many things
compare to getting engaged and getting a major, professional job) is of
course TrinocCon... the only con that will have me after the unfortunate
incident at DragonCon last year with the Shih Tzu. The con itself was very
small and woefully expensive from a business perspective, but on a personal
level, it was a lot of fun. I finally got to meet Liz (from
From Then on Fourth),
Loren (of Grey Matters),
Jason (from Anywhere But Here), and
Chris (from Misfile), and got to spend time with Jenn Dolari (of A Wish for
Wings and Closetspace) and
Barb (from Fragile Gravity) again. I
also finally got to meet my own little homunculus, Cat (from
Venus Ascending), who proceeded
to shower me in riches, worship my pens, and peel grapes so that I did not
sully my teeth on their skins. The rest of you could learn a lesson from
her...
(from left to right:
Greg Eatroff of Faans!, Chris
Hazelton of Misfile, Liz Troub of From Then on Forth, Loren Coven of Grey
Matters, Moi (using the power of my mind to kill a man), and Jenn Dolari of
Closetspace and A Wish for Wings)
Any time you get a gaggle of web cartoonists
together with alcohol and enclosed spaces, you know you're in for a good
time, and amongst other things, I got to threaten no less than four
colleagues! Bodily! My father would be so proud....
The only real downside was how hurried the whole weekend was. Because of
classes and my girlfriend's (neigh....
fiance's) work, we had to fly out
Midnight Thursday night (arriving a little before noon Friday) and fly back
Sunday afternoon immediatly after my last panel. It was intense and tiring,
and unfortunately kept me from really focusing on the whole reason I came:
Getting to hang out with really awesome people I only get to see every 18
months or so. Ah well... the next stop for me is Norwescon, and then the
double-whip no-fat non-caffe latte will be on the other foot!
I will try to write more specific updates over the next few days (I've got a
great guest rant from my fatherr that will go up very soon), but for now,
take heart in the fact that I yet live! Good night, and good luck,
Cleveland. May 18, 2006 - This is incredible! The first commission piece has sold
out in less than a day! But so many people are clamoring for a place, and I
feel bad about turning them away, I’m going to undertake a second Omega
Commission, just for you guys.
The limit for members of the second commission is still 20, and the invited
for VE characters is reset, so free to invite any cast members you like,
either ones that were also featured in the ‘Friday Night Pizza’ poster, or
entirely different ones. As a freebie, Zoe will automatically be appearing
in this new one.
The theme for the new Omega Commission will be ‘Salem High Dance Comity’ and
will show a motley collection of students and faculty trying to get the
Salem High gym ship-shape for a dance. You’re welcome to mention anything
you’d like to be doing, but the artist (me) has final decision over
everything.
Please note: There will NOT be a third poster, and the seats are first-come,
first-serve. If someone cancels or backs out, you'll be on the waiting list,
but I judt don't have the time or energy right now to tackle THREE big
projects alongside a move and finals :)
May 17, 2006 - So, you get to see the VE crew hanging out in Salem
having a good ol' time, and you think to yourself 'Gee, I wish *I* could
party with Zoe, Larson, and the gang!'
Well, now you can stop whining and start partying! The Venus Envy
Omega-Commission is the commission to end all commissions; a virtual party
in Salem that a lucky few can be invited to. All you need to do is
e-mail me and say 'I want in' and for a measly $25 (cheaper than a black
and white commission) you get a full-color spot in the biggest picture Erin
has ever assembled.
It's that easy!
What's more: You can invite you favorite VE cast member to join the party
(there's too many of them for me to pick just a few, so you get to do it).
For only $20 more, you can invite any Venus Envy character to the picture as
well.
Ultimately, the commission will feature everyone who joined at a big,
Friday-night celebration at Swift Eddie's Pizza, the premiere high school
hangout in Salem, featuring plenty of tables, an ice cream counter, kitchen,
and pizza-parlor-sized video arcade. Everyone who buys a space in the
commission will receive a free copy of the full-color poster when it is
completed, and the original will be auctioned off and the proceeds donated
to charity; you're not just helping yourself and feeding a starving artist,
but you'll also be giving to a good cause!
Interested? All I need from you is a simple e-mail, saying 'I want in'. Make
sure to include a picture of yourself (or at least a good description). You
can suggest what you'd like to be doing in the picture, and I'll make every
reasonable attempt to make it happen, but reasonable allowances will have to
me made to fit 20+ people into the picture.
Once I have an e-mail, you'll receive a link to make your payment to, and
then that's all! The commission will be finished up once I get everyone's
orders coordinated, and then posters will go out, and additional copies of
the posters will be available for order. If this commission sells especially
well, then maybe I'll turn Omega-Commissions into a regular occurrence,
giving more readers a shot at stardom. If it fails, then I'll hang myself;
only you can decide ^_^
May 16, 2006 - I am so damn burned out right now... I've had almost no
down time to relax in week, donations through the comic have been shit, I've
not had many hours at work, my car needs $300 worth of repairs before it can
pass inspection and get it's license renewed at the end of the month, at I
need an extra $500 above and beyond my usual rent to handle moving costs at
the end of the month. I can't even afford to get to the doctor to have my
hormone prescription renewed to help take the edge off the mood swings.. And
now, on top of everything else, my scanner isn't working. It's just too damn
much all at once.
And I've still got at least a year and a half of school left to go... I
don't know if I can do this... I'm just wound too tight. There's no money,
I'm snapping at my girlfriend, ignoring my friends, I haven't had a week's
worth of good sleep in months. I want to be normal and financially sound and
only have one job at a time to worry about, in stead of splitting my
attention between a job no one cares about, a comic no one reads, and a
school that sees me as a check... At the very least, I want health insurance
and the assurance that my asshole tyrant ruler won't devastate the nation's
economy completely or shipped my kind off to a concentration camp before the
next election.... because some nights I really worry about my future in this
country.
The comic is done. My computer just doesn't feel like letting me scan it and
share it with everyone, so give the god of technology a big 'Fuck You' for
me. I'm going to go drink.
May 9, 2006 - As mentioned above: Holy Crap, school is kicking my ass.
I've been to college three times, and I honestly thought that going to art
school wouldn't be anywhere near as difficult as academia or medicine...
silly me. Studying isn't an issue in art school, which is bad because that's
the part of school I always did well in (I have the mutant ability to master
useless, repetitive tasks instantly), but art school isn't about studying:
It's about projects... lots and lots of projects. The 2D animation class in
particular is running me ragged, but hey, in six more weeks, I'll have an
actual animated cartoon (20 seconds in length) all hand-animated by yours
truly... in the meantime, though, my wrist hurts >.<
So, between school, work, a convention for work, and a few relationship
bumps, I've been a nervous wreck. Sleep isn't coming peacefully, my appetite
has been on and off, and I've been even twitchier than normal despite the
decreased caffeine intake. I blame the media, personally (fucking
conservative media). Sadly, this stress means that productivity on the comic
has been very low, which sucks because it's one of three things in my life
that make me really, really happy (the other two being my D&D campaign and
my girlfriend, and to be frank: the comic has sonority). I've got lots of
ideas for things to try out, technique-wise, but not enough time or creative
energy to run through it all... I've been debating lopping off a hand to
claim worker's comp and gain more time for VE, but my boss is very wily...
not to mention the girlfriend frowns on self-mutilation (fascist bitch).
The one advantage of all this stress and delay of comic is that my general
art and design skills are growing by leaps and bounds even now. I've
discovered I love doing character design work, thanks to a recent class, and
have been working on perfecting a few portfolio pieces for one class, and
even my life drawings are looking... well, they don't look like cartoons,
which is a big leap from where they were when I started school. It's kind of
fulfilling... or at least it will be when I graduate and regain full feeling
in my extremities.
Some of my improvement can be seen in this month's wallpaper, which kicks
copious butt. It's the first of a three-part series; this first one is Zoe's
little shoulder devil, and next month will feature Zoe's little shoulder
angel. July's is a surprise, though :)
Many apologies to the people waiting on commissions from me.
For those still unaware, I'm (poorly) maintaining a
Deviant Art page to show off
some of my non-VE artwork.
March 24, 2006 - Well, I WAS going to upload my finals so everyone could
enjoy those and see what's been keeping me so busy the last few weeks, but
after spending an evening wrestling with Deviant Art before finally figuring
it out, I discovered that my computer couldn't compile the flash files I'd
made on the school computers, and other files are just plain missing! And
now I've run out of time to finish up the comic that SHOULD have gone up
yesterday.
You can see my half-assed attempts at uploading finals
here, on my new Deviant Art page
(enjoy while you can; thus far I'm not happy with Deviant Art and it'll
probably be coming down soon).
I'm gonna go flog myself now.
The good news is, I've FINALLY gotten around to prepping comics for
shipping, and they'll be going out tomorrow on my lunch break.
Dear god, I suck >.<
March 17, 2006 - I have been fighting with Flash and Premiere for days
now, and I am tired, sore, and thoroughly stressed. Flash is an evil, sent
forth by the gods to punish us! On the brighter side, I'm done with all but
one of my finals, so maybe I can play a little catch-up next week. For now,
though, I can only crash and drink until the pain subsides.
To amuse yourselves, please read this
review
that CAT e-mailed me yesterday.
It's probably my favorite review of my own work ever.
March 7, 2006 - So, being an aficionado of terrible movies (I love
'Hulk', and 'Starship Troopers' has a special place of honor in my movie
drawer; I keep it in a little velvet-lined box with brass hinges), I decided
to spend a little time this weekend and go see two movies that I expected to
be a lark: 'Nightwatch' and 'Ultra-Violet'.
These two movies have, in the span of three days, completely defined the
spectrum of action movie that man has spent a hundred years creating.
Let's start with 'Nightwatch'. This is a Russian film, so you knew going
into it the budget wasn't going to be huge, and having spied a few other
Russian action movies on late-night cable (GOD, I love living in Seattle.
Russian TV, Japanese TV, Korean TV... I can't understand a word of it, but
it's so much fun to watch after midnight) I was expecting something a little
campy. For those who haven't seen the previews, 'Nightwatch' is set in a
world where the forces of light and dark have stopped warring because they
realized they were evenly matched, and each in stead acts as a police force
for the other, so that neither can tamper with humans.
'Nightwatch' was, in a word, great. There were a few areas where the low
budget became noticeable, but the writing, acting, and cinematography all
did such a great job of drawing you in that you just didn't NOTICE that they
didn't blow $40 million on crappy CGI (more on that in a minute). For me,
this movie was better than 'Matrix' (to be fair, I wasn't that wowed with
Matrix, though); it uses the same 'world within a world' concept, has people
running around in black clothes and sunglasses, and conveys a fair amount of
philosophy, but unlike 'Matrix, it doesn't push the bounds of believability,
follow the predictable Hollywood formula, or bludgeon you over the head with
it's many and varied moments of clarity.
If you like action or suspense movies, then find a theatre where this great
Russian import is playing and GO SEE IT. We need to make sure the other two
films in the trilogoy see release here in the States.
And now, for the other end of the spectrum....
'Ultra-Violet' was the movie I had actually been looking forward to seeing
the most. It was bright and colorful, which is actually something I really
like in a movie (that and shiny aluminum foil), and looked 'over-the-top'
bad, which is always fun. I can say this much: If you want to see a bad
action movie, DO NOT PAY FULL PRICE to see 'Ultra-Violet'; go to a matinee,
sneak in, break in after hours and run your own screening, or just buy s $3
bootleg DVD on your next trip to Hong Kong, but don't (for the love of god
and all things holy) send money to the people who made this movie, or
they'll just use it to make more.
'Ultra-Violet' is set in a world where, I shit you not, the government
created a highly-contagious virus that gives everyone who gets infected (and
you can get infected by touching blood, being cried on, or possibly even
from getting a dirty look, apparently; sort of a Fristian AIDS) super
powers, and rather than say 'This is a great leap forward for mankind; we've
developed a virus that makes us healthier and strong and universally
attractive", they decide to go ape-shit, let the CDC take over the
government, and start herding 'hemophages' into concentration camps...
because apparently it's very, very easy to round up everyone in the world
who is infected with the most contagious disease since the common cold. The
kicker, though, is when we find out that the super-virus is actually
VAMPIRISM, which is something they mention repeatedly throughout the story
but never actually has any bearing on anything, because these vampires can
walk around during the day, don't drink blood, and have no aversion to
churches or even spicy food.
The movie has about ten minutes of dialogue, all slow, convoluted, and as
painful to watch as it probably was to perform ("I have 700 armed men here
gaurding me. What do you think you're going to do?" "Kill them!"). The evil,
Nazi-esque guards all wear heavy gas masks, but never think to use GAS on
the scantily-clad vampire chick who's mowing through them like an unruly
lawn. The Magoffin is a ten-year-old boy whose dark secret changes every
twenty minutes without fail. At one point, my girlfriend started laughing so
hard and uncontrollably that she almost passed out, and the people sitting
in front of us moved EIGHT ROWS up (ostensibly so that we didn't ruin the
movie for them).
All of these things, you expect from a bad action movie, but....
As a first-year art student who despises her CGI classes, I should not sit
in a movie theatre and think "Damn... I could do better than THAT". You go
to bad action movies to watch corny, over-the-top action scenes, but the
fights in 'ultra-Violet' weren't fun so much as funny. Half the guards at
the CDC carry ONLY katanas, in a world where everyone FEARS A
BLOOD-TRANSMITTED DISEASE... and they don't even really use them well. It's
like they randomly hand out assignments every week to decide who gets a gun
and who get a sword. There's never any question about whether or not Violet
will win; She doesn't actually take a hit until the final boss battle, and
even then she doesn't even start sweating, which takes away the tension (the
only thing that normally keeps the comedy at bay in these movies) and the
whole thing becomes more of an endurance trial than an action scene.
This is not a movie that was written, it is a movie that was randomly
cobbled together from the screamings of a fifth-grade class. Possibly sixth
grade. If you go see this movie, GO DRUNK.
So, to sum up: Low-budget foreign import about vampires: GOOD. High-budget
domestic film about vampires: BAD.
Also, the state of the Union is NOT STRONG!
February 16, 2006 - Well, school is going strong and I feel like I'm
learning a lot. I also feel like I'm not sleeping much, but that's all a
part of college, isn't it? Today I'm going in for another financial aid
meeting, and with any luck I'll have enough in grants and scholarships
thanks to my good grades to cover a little more of the tuition and hence
have a little more to survive on. My beloved Honda is also in the shop right
now (she's been out of commission since New Year's, but money has been
tight), and will probably remain that way for another two or three weeks
until I have the money to finish the work on the muffler (another $250 and
I'm there... of course, I've already dropped $300 replacing a lot of the
exhaust system on the undercarriage).
In the meantime, to make up for the lack of a real update, I've decided that
it's sharing time: I've been a huge animation fan since my eyes opened; My
girlfriend and I have actually been putting together a collection of old TV
shows which our children will eventually be able to enjoy (given the way
television has been heading, these DVDs may be the ONLY thing worth watching
in another 5-10 years). I've also been studying Flash animation the last few
weeks, and looking at what other people have done with that, and I thought
I'd share a few of my personal favorites with everyone...
There She Is
- Probably my very favorite, not just because the animation is beautiful,
but because I think the message is sweet and I can empathize with both the
main characters. There is also a sequel,
Cake Dance,
but it's not quite as good as the original.
Rattenjaeger - 'Rat
Hunter' is a Flash done by someone in (I think) Korea who has an amazing
sense of design
Everyone Has Had
More Sex Than Me - Adorable singing bunny who was me up until I was 21;
the animation is very high-quality and the character design is too lovable
to be denied.
The Doctor Wily Show
- I'm not a huge Megaman fan, but I will admit to having an artistic
fascination with the videogame characters of my youth. The Dr. Wily Show,
along with Wily
Shorts, is well-written, and while the art isn't top-notch, it's still
endearing.
January 19, 2006 - I came home from classes today, fully intending to
get the comic drawn for tomorrow, and even got a good start, but ultimately
it proved difficult to complete after passing out (twice). Luckily, Loren
Coven, of Grey Matters
had a guest strip prepped and ready for me, and it's a good one. This
quarter is turning out to be a much busier one that I ever would have
suspected... still fun, though, and I'm learning a lot. Maybe one of these
days I'll post more sketchbook pages.
January 12, 2006 - As you may have noticed, not only am I back (not that
this website ever went down, but I lost the ability to edit it for a few
weeks there), but I'm right back on my horse of missing updates! Which
really sucks, because I've been looking forward to drawing this storyline
for MONTHS. I blame society...
No, actually. I blame my own laziness.
Obviously I was out of town visiting the family for a week and a half for
the holidays (they're fine by the by, thanks for asking), and after I got
back, I was just hit by a nasty wave of depression... I mean 'don't want to
crawl out of bed, everybody sucks almost as bad as me, eat a gallon of ice
cream' depression. I still had a week off from school, and I couldn't bring
myself to do much more than bitch and gripe at the girlfriend.
Now that it's over, I can see exactly what caused it (forgot a hormone shot
+ two weeks of non-stop junkfood + no exercise + sudden loss of sunlight),
but when you're deep in the throws, you don't give a damn what's wrong with
you or if it ever gets better. So, now I'm back up to snuff, but no sooner
to I pull myself to together than the new semester starts and a massive,
20-page scholarship application comes due (incidentally, if anyone out there
wants to start a letter-writing campaign to the scholarship board at the
GSBA to help me
get that $10,000 scholarship, I wouldn't complain... I suppose you could
apply for it, too, even... y'know... if you got the guts). Now I'm buried in
homework again (but it's good stuff, so I'm not complaining any more than is
required by federal law) and already slipping with my updates.
Today, for example, I am so tired that I fell asleep on my girlfriend TWICE
while just writing the strip (it's a good one, too). I'm going to try to at
least finish the pencils tonight, so you can all enjoy it tomorrow, but
after four hours of sleep, walking three miles to school, an hour bus ride,
eight hours (plus lunch, which wasn't so much a break as 'catch-up time),
another hour bus ride, and another three miles of walking to get back home,
I can barely stand up. The good news: My artistic skills are continuing to
improve, plus this semester I've got both a writing class and a storyboaring
class, so you will no longer have to tolerate my amateurish, asinine writing
and my miserable attempts to muddle the camera through a scene...
After this semester, it's going to be all professional, asinine writing and
well-trained attempts to muddle a camera through a scene!
Huh... thought I was going somewhere with this little rant. Guess not.... So
here's a picture of me with a puppy (a basset hound; he belongs to my
animation professor)....
(We were studying the Quadra pedal walk, which
is why we had a dog, and why I'm examining his legs... that, and he has
inhumanly cute paws)
November 10, 2005 - So, Tuesday morning, as I was getting ready for the
day, my backup pair of glasses broke (my primary pair having broken back in
June). Most of my spare time yesterday was spent at the optomitrist, getting
new spectacles (20/450; wow), only to discover at the end of the appointment
that it would take 7-10 business days to get them (Lenscrafters would've
cost me twice as much; a pox upon them).
So now, as I sit here, I'm wearing a pair that Doc Frankenstein himself
would be proud of, cobbled together from a metal clothes hanger, bits of
wire, and hot glue. They keep making me walk into walls, and I can only
assume I'me going to get some strange looks on the bus. Life Drawing class
today is certainly going to be a hoot.
Ah, the adventures of an angry, near-sighted transsexual artist!
November 1, 2005 - Go see MirrorMask. Go see it right now. It's like
Neil Gaiman ate 'Labyrinthe' after covering it with too much taco sauce,
went to bed with an upset stomach, and dreamed it even MORE awesome and
weird (and without David Bowie, to boot). Plus it has the world's hardest
riddle, which I won't spoil just now. |
