Do You Remember Rock N' Roll Radio?

So I drew and scanned this yesterday but stupid Blogger was down and I couldn't post it. I drew another one today that kind of builds off of this one. I posted that before this one so with any luck you'll read this first and scroll down for the rest. If not then sorry. Just pretend that you read them in order in the first place. Come on it's not so hard...


stupid Blogger...

Rock N' Roll Radio - part two

umm... whatever

More of that pig-like thing.

Yeah, so this didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. It's not the worst piece of crap I've ever drawn though, and at least it's something.

Been having trouble trying to draw (when I can find time, that is).

WHAT?... I have a BLOG??

I'm still around. And I'm not done with that pig/opossum thing I was drawing yet.
Here's a closer look at the Katamari illo.

Snackin' (+"wtf")

*sniff * sniff*

Bad Day, Worse?

Walk Cycle No. 2

A day late, a dollar short... whatever.
i'm done with the whole "schedule" thing. I'm gonna go back to updating when I feel like it. You guys don't care, right? I wasn't doing very well with it anyway.

So these walk cycle things are just my practicing with brushwork and depicting movement. They don't have anything to do with anything other than that. For the most part I like how this one turned out. For the most part. Can anyone else see the big boo-boo I made in the sequence?

Miscelany and the Floating Heads

Links:
The Review at the WCE
The Cartoon ("Come to Kenya")
Church Sign Generator


Who is Abner Jay? (link via Neal)

Easter

I Suck At Art

I use the international cartoon symbol for crap quite liberally in this strip. This is what they call an iconic representation of crap. If you're crap really looks like this then I think you've got problems, my friend. Note also the international cartoon symbols for stink and flies.

Back to drawing in the ol' sketchbook (the last two were on bristol board). I inked this one the quickest so far, hence the "sketchier" look. Well, this is a sketch-blog.

Also, I think I told everyone who reads this already but in case you missed it; I posted a new comic at the site proper yesterday. This one came directly out of a blog post from a few weeks ago.

Click on the banner to read it in it's full color glory:

fall

I inked this one a bit quicker than the last. I don't know if you can tell.

I'm a bit distracted today anyway. We lost one of our cats (as in we can't find him).



**EDIT 4-8-06**
You'll be glad to know, I'm sure, that we found the cat.

Trip

I'm taking a break from trying to do comics that make sense here, and also trying out my inking again.
The best I can say about this right now is that I didn't use any white-out whatsoever on it. That flying clod of grass on the far right began it's life as an ink smudge.

I need more practice with the brush.

Pardon the Drowsy Sarcasm

Is this slacking off?

'cause she's cute.

Marking Time

Who Am I To Judge?: Late Bloomer

So, I promised some more book reports a while back.

Here I am to deliver.





Just what you were waiting for, right?

War Protest

One Night

Vaguely ideogrammatic, this one is screaming for a vector-art treatment.

Kinda' Chris Ware-ish again, or maybe Richard McGuire. Have you read his story, ctrl, in that McSweeny's book? You should.

Rachelle laughed at this comic.

Old Friends

Notice the extra strip at the bottom of this one, a la Tony Millionaire (or George Herriman, if you will). Am I getting fancy, or what?

Click on these colored words for the Comixpedia article. It's another look at the use of music in webcomics. Sort of a companion piece to this article I wrote for The Webcomics Examiner.

I can't help but think I'm not being comepletely fair to Mike in this comic. It's not as if I don't like him or anything. I'm not sure we can be the friends we were before but that doesn't mean we can't still be friends. And Mike, if you're reading, I'd like to hear your side of the meeting as well.

Bad Day

I drew this yesterday but didn't get to put it up until today.

go figure.

How to make a sandwich

Today I kind of remembered how to draw a little.

I like how the sketch lines and erased parts show through on this scan.

All in color for a dime...

So click the image to see

sketchdump

Just a sketchbook page today. Been a rough week and I'm too tired to think up any real comic today.

I haven't been happy with anything I've drawn all week. What I have in my head just can't seem to make it to the page (or screen). I've got so many ideas but when i find the time to do something it all turns to crap. It's very frustrating.

I am so glad this week is over with. I really hope the next one goes better.

(bitch, bitch, bitch...)

It's kinda like a zoo

I think I drew this one a bit too quickly.

I go back and forth on whether I want to put up the comics I don't like, and there have been quite a few. How well these turn out has a lot to do with how much free time I have and what else I'm doing with that time. I've been pretty busy lately.

If I thought of this as a regular comic-strip gig I would probably worry a little more about consistency and quality. I'd probably work up a buffer so as not to rush these things so much. But this is my blog and not a comic, I just happen to use it in comics form. It's an experiment in last minute scrawls and trying out different ideas. Keeping up with my self imposed deadline is always a challenge but I do want to continue. Maybe someday these things'll get better but until then you'll just have to forgive me the crappy ones.

I like to think I have good taste.

Lotsa information here. Not sure how well I pulled this off.

Guess I should mention that I checked Chris Ware's Quimby Mouse book out from the library. I can see why he uses text as a graphic element first and foremost in these kind of diagrammatic comics. It's easier to pull off than blocks of narrative, as far as diecting the eye and such. He can get away with stuff like flipping the text to a mirror image, have it guide the eyeflow and still be understood ('cause it's so simple). Live and learn, I guess.

This one was fun to do.

Speaking of Chris Ware and libraries:
Rachelle pointed out that on April 11 the Shreve branch of the Wayne County Public Library is hosting a book discussion on Jimmy Corrigan. It's 1-2 pm so I'd have to skip out on work but I may do that. Wooster's a small town and Shreve is even smaller. It'd be interesting to see just who in this tiny little hamlet actually reads Chris Ware.
Come on down if you're interested. Pre-registration is required.

And you all know where Shreve is, right?

The End.

There you go. All done.
As I've been told; "not that exciting, but it's drawn kinda' good." ( I, personally would put emphasis on the kinda')

But still, I kind of like it. The slight changes of the character's positions from panel to panel against the static background is interesting to me. And it kind of fits a story where nothing really happens. And there's a kind of charm to the sketchy pencil drawings. I think I'll gussy this up in PhotoChop and post it on my site all proper-like some day. (It'll need a title too. Something I obviously had trouble with while posting it here.)

--------------

So, in real life:
Sophie was diagnosed with a case of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV - which somehow didn't make it on my list). It was never really all that serious but she was obviously pretty uncomfortable. And it was hard for us to watch her go through all the sniffling, coughing, raspy breathing, and all that not-so-fun stuff. The worst part, of course, is the worrying and waiting to see if things get worse. Thankfully she's on the mend now and did not require any hospitalization or anything like that (RSV can turn serious). In fact, she took it all like a real trouper and found ways to smile at mommy and me between coughing fits.

We got lucky when we got this kid.

As promised, the penultimate chapter in the domestic saga of the nameless "Woman X" and a man who is presumably her husband, "Man X" (scroll down for the first Chapter). Nothing much happens here. If you look closely down at the bottom you can see my dialogue notes fot the six panels following so you can figure out how all of this ends.

Tune in Friday for the pulse-pounding*, guest-star studded*, surprise-end ending*, final and ultimate conclusion to our story.





*subject to change

A Story, Part One

Trying something new here this week. Instead of my "normal" blog-style sketchbook comics I'm serializing a kind of short story in three parts. This is the first.

Though perhaps realistic,in style, it is a fictional story featuring made up characters that came from my mind. The people depicted and what may be construed as their personalities and demeanor are entirely a fabrication on my part and are not meant to represent any actual living human beings. There should be no misapprehension of this as an autobiographical short or in any way a depiction of any real occurrance from my life.



In completely unrelated news, Sophie is sick for the first time.

All of these things took place on the stated day (Wednesday), but not necessarily in that order. And the given sequence is not vital to the desired effect (save the coupling of the third and fourth panels and the placement of the last panel). So is this still a comic? The space=time equation doesn't exactly fit here (except in that each panel is a discrete temporal "event"). Even in the third and fourth panels the sequence is a completion of an idea rather than a temporal instance (finishing the sketchbook and starting another actually occurred several hours apart). Closure (or whatever you want to call it) still occurs, but not in the panel-to-panel way that it's usually described. You take in all the parts (including the title) before you reach the central theme of the strip.

This could be read as an illustrated list with the last panel serving as a summation. If I drew pictures for my grocery list would it then be a comic?

My War on TV

Another one that suggests a more fully realized comic to me.
I inked this one in and used color in honor of it filling up my sketchbook. Time to start another, I guess.

I don't want to lead anyone on here. It should probably be mentioned that the reason we downgraded our cable was financially motivated rather than what may be implied in the comic. Full disclosure, and all that...

The science is also pretty much completely made up.

Sometimes you just gotta draw.

Don't ask...

Not really a revelation, though.

In the absence of melodrama... LIFE.

I Win Valentine's Day!!!

I win because I have the best wife in the world.
I love you too, Rachelle.

Here's some very special Valentine's Office Supply Art:



For more themed artwork and the origin of the happy bunnies, check Rachelle's blog.

Now go hug somebody.

Book Report

This was supposed to be a synopsis of the last three books I read, one panel each. It just kinda grew a little.
I'll probably end up doing the other two as well - I liked them both better than this one.

Enough about experimentation. Let's talk about CUTE BABIES now!

You know, I really had a hard time narrowing it down to just these six.
This kid fills my heart to bursting every day.

On Directions

Linky-Links:

the Webcomics Examiner, where the article runs though the week.

Magic Inkwell Comic Strip Theater by Cat Garza

e-merl including Brain Fist by Daniel Merlin Goodbrey

Hypercomics.net by Neal Von Flue (special apology to Neal for the title)

John Barber Comics

e-sheep by Patrick Farley

Scott McCloud

*edit*
Joe Zabel points out what could be construed as a "factual inconsistency" on my part in the panel on Scott McCloud. I edited the text to better reflect my intended message. The original can still be found here.

It's pretty much my favorite animal.

I went kind of crazy with the elephants today.



If anyone starts a "draw your favorite animal" meme, I'm all set.

Coincidence or Conspiracy?

It's what Blogs are for, right?

I'm trying to refine my charicatures a bit, so they look more like what we really look like. Expect some more change in that department. I like the layout here too, though. It's basically a gag-strip but eschewing the panel borders gives it a different sort of feel, I think.

So, I had a pretty good weekend. Another Welton strip done (that's 3 of 9 now, if you're counting) and got some work on an illustration for a (possible) upcoming article for the Examiner. Oh, and Chris brought me a Wacom Intuos 2 to try out (borrowed from work). I'm not sure if it'll pan out 'cause it's got a serial connection and the Mac only takes USB. Even if I find a cheap adaptor there's no guarantee the computer'll recognize it. Worth a shot though, and I appreciate Chris bringing it over. (Let's see... what else can I complain about not having...)

And I just got word that Markus is nearing completion on his Infinite Canvas thesis, which I get to read when he's done.

All in all I'm feeling pretty good right now.

Rachelle's blog is here (no dirt yet, though)