mostly banal: sure, comics are fun. but doodling is funner right now.

mostly banal: white noise

mostly banal: who cares?

mostly banal: still autumn in Ohio

mostly banal: weekend post

We like to preview movies for the kids before they watch them so they won't sneak up and freak them out too much. This one might be a little much for a three year old to handle. I think I want Sophie to keep thinking of zebras as cute fuzzy little animals for at least a little while longer.

***sigh***

In other "news"...
The RCPS (Revolutionary Comic Presentation System) is a physical, infinite-canvas-type comic with a poster-sized base narrative and additional postcard additions to the branching story. A week or two ago I mentioned in the comments at my LiveJournal, but couldn't remember who made it - or even what it was called, really. I promised then that I'd dig up the info and, well now I have:
It was created by a Mr. Chragi Frei, in Switzerland as a graphic design graduation project. It's pretty impressive. You can find out more about it here.

Now on to Friday and Saturday's comics:
(or Saturday's and then Friday's, as the case may be)

! - page thirty-nine

If you missed it or don't remember here's what's happened so far.

Apparently my old grade-school best friend, Nate Silver, accurately predicted the electoral outcome of the presidential election down to the exact number of (electoral) votes each candidate would receive. Here's a clip of Nate on the Colbert Report before the election (which I missed when it aired, not having Comedy Central).
I'd heard of Nate's success as a baseball statistician, but I haven't seen or spoken to him in, oh... say, seventeen years or so. Nate was my closest friend in all my grade school years, and I've always regretted losing touch (I kind of socially imploded when we moved from East Lansing to Wooster in the early 90s). Seeing him all over the news and on TV after all this time has been a bit surreal.

Anyway, good on ya, Nate. Way to statistitize.

EDIT:
As long as I'm blabbing I should point you to some drawings I did for Troy Swain's drawn word project he's been posting at his LiveJournal. The drawn word project is pretty cool (unless you ask Frank Santoro) and he's got a lot of really talented cartoonists and illustrators to participate - and then me too...
Check 'em out!

mostly banal: steam

Also:

A slightly different version of yesterdays strip (because I am slightly obsessive)

mostly banal: th' dogs

Broke out the ol' BIC for this one. One of these days I'm gonna nail down just exactly what month it is.

mostly banal: November Fourth

I skipped up a day in my posting due to the ephemeral topicality of the subject matter. And it was easy to draw, so...


Hey! Anybody notice that I wrote "September" in the date for yesterday's (umm... Sunday's) strip? That's the second time I got the month wrong since I restarted Mostly Banal. I am a poor diarist...

mostly banal: trying again

! - page thirty-eight

Here is what is quite possibly the least interesting update of an ongoing comics serial ever. Ah, well... it's all part of the big picture, right?

mostly banal: SUPERPOST!

Despite my bitching and moaning in the last strip I posted here, I have not quit these diary comics. I got pretty busy this week - lots of overtime at work and my mother was in town for a visit - and I just kinda went underground (internet-wise). I kept drawing though and I'm including here a bunch of the strips I drew this past week. Not one for everyday (as per the plan) but, whatever...

A "Thank You" to you guys that have read and posted comments on these strips. I appreciate the support. Most of you know this is not my first venture in autobio/journal comics and the subject is one that I've put a lot of thought into. I really feel like I'm getting somewhere with these that I'm comfortable with and comfortable calling my own. I appreciate you reading and hope you stick around for more.







(also: more ! tomorrow, hopefully)

! - page thirty-seven

(up 'till now)

mostly banal: because crippling self doubt is a fun read for everyone

This link takes you to my LiveJournal and the rest of this comic whose file size is rather much larger than it deserves.

mostly banal: a car is a car is a car

I drew these really fast.

This is getting perhaps a little too ambitious. I mean, three pages for a friggin' car?

jeez!

mostly banal: a day in the life

It may not look like much, but it took me all day to draw.
Sort of.

mostly banal: I'm none to happy with this one so I threw in some other sketches too

I'm going to start posting these the day after I draw them. I think that's the way it's usually done with diary strips, right?


Not my best work. It was late and I was tired. What can I say?
To make up for the strip I threw up a couple other sketch-type things here:

These two are for the long delayed story I'm doing for Alexander Danner, "Uncertainty."

Essentially these are the first two panels and therefore the first page of a twenty-six page story.
I've had the script for coming on two years now and I can't seem to get my ass in gear. I'm trying again.


This is just the kind of doodle I do when I'm bored at work and don't want to think in panels. I don't know what's happening to this guy but I bet it isn't very pleasant.


Ugh... whatever.

Better diary strip tomorrow, I hope.

mostly banal: Just Friday & Saturday (even though today is Sunday)

Saturday's comic, and then Friday's. Posted bloggy-style:









Maybe I can get today's up later tonight...

! - page thirty-six

(up 'till now)

mostly banal: still sick

mostly banal: muh peeps

Still sick. Working lots of long hours lately. Doesn't help me get any healthier...

mostly banal: ugh

mostly banal: Friday, Saturday , Sunday, Monday

The past weekend, In reverse order (all blog-style):

! - page thirty-five

previously...

Page thirty-five. Not finished yet, but getting there.

Also in comics-posting news: Awhile ago I put my contribution to The Future is so Futuristical up at my site in a bare-bones HTML interface. I always liked how these turned out and thought I might un-bury them from the blog archives. Of course, then I never told anyone...

UNTIL NOW!!!

mostly banal: the gag(strip) reflex

Thanks to everyone who's commented on these last few strips. I apreciate the support.

I guess I am a diarist again.

mostly banal: first impressions

This is starting to get a little less Porcellino, a little more "me."

Good thing or bad? You decide.

mostly banal: autumn in Ohio

More mock Porcellino nonsense. And a reference to my strip from yesterday.

Look! Up in the second panel! That's me!

mostly banal: a la Porcellino

I've been toying around with reviving my boring diary strips. It'd have to be something ultra-simple, something I could jot off at the end of the day. Like this Porcellino meets Kochalka strip.

Something to think about...

! - Page Thirty-Four

Say you draw little comic strips and post them to the internet.
Say you're in the middle of a rather drawn-out narrative and you just stop posting one day.
Maybe a couple people had been following your story. Maybe you never told them you'd be gone.
Say you want to return to posting after a long, unannounced hiatus.
You've got a few options:

You could make a long-winded post detailing your excuses for not posting anything for two months running.

You could make a lame apology to anyone still granting you their attention.

You could make promises to keep up with the story now, and see things through to the end this time. (whether you later keep these promises would remain to be seen, of course.)

Or, you could just pretend that the whole pause never happened and continue posting at your leisure...



Anyway, I came across a live cover of Radiohead's Black Star, by country singer Gillian Welch. It's a sweetly melancholic, acoustic-country version of the song with an awesome guitar part, courtesy David Rawlings. It's been my musical obsession this week, despite the fact that she consistently pronounces "black" as "blake" throughout. I recommend.


(psst--- don't remember how the story got to this point? maybe you should look here.)
(maybe.)

! - page thirty-three

This is another one of those page where I'm just... kinda... ehhhhhh......
I'm not sure you can even tell what's going on up there in the speech balloon - just that it's drawn especially poorly, whatever it is...

Another one for the "needs work" pile.



Well, um. Anyway...

Hey! Look! The story so far...

! - page thirty-two

Last week I had a couple of wisdom teeth removed. This week I'm feeling existentially morbid - a keen awareness of the unavoidable fact that one day I will be dead. This weekend we're going to the zoo.

Apologies for the delay in the comics.

! - page thirty-one

Talking with our pediatrician this week for the kids' checkups.
She says that children have trouble drawing one line across another until about age three and a-half. They just can't bring themselves to do it. The doctor asked Sophie (three years old) to draw a + and sure enough, she had trouble doing it. She kept drawing vertical lines, one after another until the doctor showed her again what she wanted her to try. Even then her horizontal line was labored and misplaced, and Sophie seemed a bit confused as to the whole thing.

Tony Millionaire has said that he doesn't like to draw one line through another either.

! - page thirty

No WAY!! Those guys should totally be toast! This cartoon is soooo unrealistic!

I've been away from the internets a few days. Looks like you got along fine without me.

! - page twenty-nine

It was really tempting to just end this thing with last weeks pages and be done, but I guess I'm gonna drag it out a little longer. There is an end in sight...

In other news, my buddy Grant released his annual June Bug Mix this week, for free download. The June Bug is a collection of some of Grant's recording work over the past year - demos and alternate takes from his albums and other odds n' ends. This year is a double bonus too, as some of the tracks feature Red Eyed Johnny, Grant's side project with my other buds Neal and Steve.

Here it is: The Free Download that Engulfed the World in Terror! Like every year, the June Bug's free so go get it. Then buy some of his other records!