Another journal

We finished moving in June but finishing these comics got put off a couple months, thanks to the whole process of moving itself. I finished them though, and that’s what counts.

Originally published on Patreon in an early-release to patrons.

Mirrored from B.Zedan.

I’m making myself pick just one thing to focus on a month. For Feburary it’s comics.

Alright. Long break since the last update but, despite a vacation to Seattle, getting TWO knock-down, nap-forever colds (woo) and moving (to Portland!), I finished my primary goal this month, pencilling all thirty pages of a second Richard III minicomic, finishing just under the wire. Proof shot via Chase’s phone, hence amazing quality.

I mean, now I have to ink it, but I’ll dedicate a month to that. Which is what is so nice about this whole project. No guilt.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.

I’m making myself pick just one thing to focus on a month. For Feburary it’s comics.

It’s not quite like riding a bike.

Mind you, it’s not like I haven’t drawn at all since I stopped really poking at comics. I sketch people on transit sometimes, and clothing ideas. Recently I did a (very) rough storyboard and realised that hey, that visual storytelling I devoted so much time to is rather useful.

But I am very glad that I thumb-nailed all this last year. Not that I’m following any of it that exactly—see, I made a significant change of something, I added in a car. A car that I am now going to have to draw on nearly every page. Cars are kind of a bitch to draw. So I cheated.

I mean, I love these little die cast cars and it’s not like I don’t already have several others. But several days of February had ticked over before I could get a chance to spend ten minutes at Freddy’s, sorting through a two yard square space packed with so many tiny cars that I kept knocking them off the little pegboard posts. But, I found the model I needed and it is now riding around in my bag with my sketchbook, so I can work on the train.

Which, guys. Please let us all hope that nobody on the train feels like harassing the crazy lady holding a 1/24th scale ’71 El Camino and frowning while she draws. I got a goodly number of pages pencilled today.

I hope I can keep it up, with this pace I may get a good chunk ‘inked’ even. I’m going to do the final linework and backgrounds on the computer, the style for this whole thing is loose, so who knows. It’s nice, playing at this after so long. My skills are not up to par, maybe, but the stress of caring about it is gone. My pencils are looser and I’m not worrying so much. It’s just a thing I do! Other people do it better, but this thing is just one aspect of what I do so it is fine. It’s nice.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.

Okay, new month, new focus.

It seemed like a natural progression from focusing on writing to focus on visual story telling. Yes, for those of you who knew me when, I’m having a go at comics once more. For the shortest month of the year, at least.

If you’re unfamiliar with my motley past, I had a long-form comic whose name is embarrassing. I posted every week (with, I think, only one or two skips, if that) from April of 2005 to July 2007. I was once very into comics. I did short ones, diary ones, whatever, I just loved that visual story telling. The one thing I did that I’m particularly happy with was an interpretation of the opening monologue from Richard III, which is available online and I once sold in minicomic form.

I’m a little nutty for Richard III. The interpretation I did was contemporary, with Richard as a lady (omg, his horrible disability is being female, my gawd). Anyway, it was fun and I wanted to do at least one more, that play is full of laughs.

I actually thumb-nailed a second minicomic-sized book a year ago, of the dialogue between Richard and Lady Anne, when Richard woos (or whatever) Anne over her husband’s dead body. It’s not only thumb-nailed, but I’ve made a dummy book for it, because there are fold-out pages. Yes, I am that nerd.

February then, is comic focus month with the primary goal being to at least pencil, ideally ink, the 24 or so pages of the second Richard III comic. I’d love to have it all done and ready to print/post by the end of the month, but it’s a short month and its going to be a life-full one, so we’ll see.

I’ve got personal goals for this month’s theme as well that, as usual are none of your business.  But!  This one, with Richard & Anne, I’ll be keeping you all up to date on.

Onward, yo.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.

It’s been my birthday weekend, I’ve got the luck to have been born on St. George’s day, which I’ve noted before.  This year it has been great and kind of whirlwind and a well-timed tax return and long-planned time off have eased the fun.

We got weekend passes to Bridgetown Comedy Festival, which has been amazing overall.  We lucked out with getting totally acme sets from both Marc Maron and Brody Stevens and a solid Never Not Funny podcast taping, among a score of other performances.

A very quick stop in at the Stumptown Comics Fest for a homonym experience and to pick up the first chapbook of The Nintendo History System and something silly for a friend.  There were so many people and it was weird to finally affirm that it was not my scene any more.  If they change venues I may go again and browse the old fashioned way, but it’s not worth my effort to court nerves attempting to find a gem in the chaff when I can get reccs from friends and buy online.

So.  27, solidly in my late twenties.  Nine years in FG, seven with Chase, over two and a half years at my job, near three years since I ended that comic, about a year and a half with the same haircut, painting my nails every week for the past year, writing more regularly for the past six months.

I’m doing okay.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.

Seriously, guy.

Better comics than this about history and things are always found at Kate Beaton’s place, gosh she is great.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.

Today I was gently harassed about maybe doing comics again. Dunno about that still. What I do know is that it is the awesomest thing in the world not to table. JOYS OF FREEDOM. All I had to worry about was takin’ some pictures and socialising.

I snagged goodies from:

• Ben (some minis I didn’t have yet)
• Spike (book three of Templar, AZ)
• Dylan (a print, somehow I didn’t have any Dylan art on our walls yet)
• Erika (collected DAR!)
• Kip (City of Roses teaser)
• Leslie (a purple Beastlie that Chase has decided looks like Forest Whittaker, so is now named “Forest”)
• BT/Robopocalypse (an embellished baseball card and a print)
• John (collected Painkillers)

Then I spent most of Sunday hanging out with Neal and Roxxy and the weather was beautiful. All around a totally boss weekend.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.

I’d gone and forgotten about webcomics. It’s been over a year since I finished Space Goth*, which is still in the WCN top 100, a thing I find bizarre. I’d put webcomics out of my mind enough by this time last year that when a co-worker realised that was where he’d heard my name before, I was surprised. I was even more surprised when I realised last week that it’d been well over a year since I uploaded the last page with barely contained relief.

I still sometimes think in that sequential image way, which is why I made the opening monologue of Richard III into a minicomic. Part of me meant to stick it up on the web, but that part of my brain did not communicate itself very well, so, y’know—I didn’t.

But this week I finally remembered. So there. If you wanted to see the opening monologue of Richard III with boobies and smoking, have at it.

*And yes, the dear three people who care, there is an epilogue, it is written, just not drawn.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.

If you don’t get it right off, it actually probably reflects positively on you.

(above shot by Chase)

Had I guessed that other people cared about the Joker’s socks in Dark Knight, I would have done some Google before mapping out the pattern myself.  I am wickedly proud that it’s tileable though, and (I think) each colour is represented an even number of times.  I am a nerd.

Mirrored from Journal of a Something or Other.