The future is still obsessed with the past

Another one from the future. This one takes place immediately following the last strip. So, really it's even more in the future. And still totally futuristical.

Behold... THE FUTURE!

So this is an installment in a little group-jam called "The Future is so Futuristical" started on LiveJournal by a mister TedPrior.
The deal is you draw a comic about the future and post it (anywhere, according to Ryan Estrada). That's it. Easy as pie.

Mine is a continuation of this entry and then this one too.

Mister TedPrior has a good chunk of 'em archived here. Now go do your own!

Not in my backyard...

The other day-a true story

So take a close look at this comic and then tell me again that space=time. Sure the first and last tiers of panels are fairly conventional comic narrative, but the middle three tiers each represent simultaneous events. Reading right to left, here, is the same as left to right or reading the panels in a random order. All the panels are necessary for a completion of the main theme but sequence (within the tier) is arbitrary. There is some space/time relation only between the separate tiers as the sequence does go top/middle/bottom. But space=time seems to be too limiting an equation for describing the process of reading comics narrative. Why is that still so commonly used as shorthand?

But seriously, though. Cloud Cult really does KICK ASS!!!! Get yourself a copy of Advice From the Happy Hippopotamus. I cannot recommend this album enough!

The Last Few Weeks: Birthdays, Parties, and Rain

Yay! Calamity!

Go read What Happened?, my CALAMITY! story.

And then read the rest of them too. I particularly enjoyed The Inevitable Fore-Knowledge of Death by Jon Morris, End of the Scone Age by Brodie Brockie, and Turpentine by my buddy Neal von Flue (who has a song to go with his comic).

Long Weekend

Here're some pictures of the damage from all over town, courtesy of my fearless wife, Rachelle, and her intrepid friend, Shannon:


Lotsa trees down:



Check out this camper:




More trees




And flooding too , WHEEEE!


This scary scene was on my way to work.


These kind of things were all over town. Pretty scary. We can consider ourselves pretty lucky that we got through all of this relatively unscathed.

Got a lot on my mind and I'm tired is all

Hey, though...

If you haven't yet, then check out Joe Zabel's mammoth interview with Scott McCloud over at the Webcomics Examiner. It's a wide ranging interview that covers most of Scott's career including ZOT, Understanding/Reinventing Comics, and the forthcoming Making Comics. Joe did a great job with a big interview here.

McCloud's actual presence in webcomics circles has waned in the past few years but his influence is still strong (in my own comics, for a small example).

Good reads...

Because I'm sure you'd want to know...

Sophie's Famous!!! (parts one and two)

Yes it's true. Third row down, first picture.

Part Two:
Sophie and her friend Lauren (and Lauren's mom, our friend Shannon) are in todays Daily Record.

(Rachelle made me black out Shannon's last name to stave off all you internet stalkers)

Fun fact: Sophie and Lauren share a birthday and will both be one year old in a little over a week! Wheee-Haw!!


Happy Father's day, dad. And all you other dads too.

Pan-Global Elves*?

Lookit Me!!! I'm just like Jimmy Kolchaka! WOO-HOOO!

And speaking of elves, you know who hates 'em? William G's Bang Barstal, that's who! That's a joke that all of the guest artists he's lined up for filler have been running into the ground over there. Well, not to be outdone in the banal and insipidly unoriginal gag department, yours truly has taken up the cause with his own subtly unfunny Bang Barstal Guest Strip (note: it's front-paged for Wednesday only. If you're reading this on Thursday or later click here and scroll to the bottom.) Check it out, if you dare.




*- explanation on the heading today, if you're not in "the know":

This strip is done in the style of James Kochalka's popular sketchbook-diary American Elf.
William G's Bang Barstal goes out hunting elves in his first installment, Pointy Eared Bastards (currently being reserialized on Graphic Smash) and my guest strip makes reference to that. So there's the "elf" connection.

And William G is from Canada and lives in South Korea.
American Elf... Canada... South Korea...

Thus the "Pan-Global."



I'm all full of bad jokes today...

Yet, I still cannot bring you here.

Quick study of what will be a new comic, eventually. The living room is just a stand in, I think, and I've got some other ideas for expanding the concept. But the basics are all there.

Oh, did I tell you we have a digital camera now?

The world according to Sophie

So Blogger almost didn't let me post again today. Down again!!!
This place is really starting to suck.

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.