Revisiting

I cracked open a book I have again for about the fourth time. It's been a while since I've read it and for some reason it piqued my interest again. It's not a fiction novel, or a novel of any sort, but rather an instructional book of sorts filled with advice and commentary.

The subject? Cartooning.
The author? Lee Nordling.
The title? Your Career in the Comics.

Yep, it's about comics, but not comic books. It's about comic strips, as in those 3-6 panel strips you see in your weekly papers, or much more prevalent now on the internet. The likes of Peanuts, Garfield and Beetle Bailey come to mind. Or for you net browsers, Yirmummah, Order of the Stick and even Dilbert.

Now, I know I have discussed this before, and I don't want to repeat myself, so I'll keep it brief. Before and after I wanted to be a comic book artist I wanted to be a cartoonist. When I was a kid I would buy the Garfield books and read them over and over again. I loved Charlie Brown, Garfield, For Better or Worse and all of those and still do. Before I decided to try my hand at comics I drew strips for the school paper and just for fun. And then when I gave up comics and drawing for five years I revisited my desire for cartooning and got Mr. Nordling's book.

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I started looking to my former cartooning love for inspiration into my comic style artwork. I guess that rekindled my love for cartooning as well.

I have mentioned a few times about wanting to do a web strip and a syndicated one before, so this is nothing new. And I realize I tend to jump around from one thing to the next seemingly, but I assure you it's not as helter-skelter as it seems. I have many, many goals, most lofty yet achievable. The trick is finding the balance to put them all in motion without getting overwhelmed. And when you're a guy like me who hates monotony with a passion you have to keep revisiting things or you get bored very quickly.

Sometimes I feel like I'm allowing my writing to suffer because I'm involved in so many other things. But truth be told, it's all interrelated and it all works towards the same goal basically. Working in comics journalism, lettering, drawing and writing all lead to the same path in various ways, and that's into the comic industry, which I love. Of course singing and acting are different, but they're still creative arts, so I think they fit... somehow in this grand scheme of things.

But here I am with my lettering really starting to pick up, and with things going steady in the journalism area, and now I'm getting back into my art wanting to hone my skills, and now cartooning again, all while my writing seems to be the last on the list. Well, comic and novel writing that is as I do plenty of other types of writing every day it seems. But I'm enjoying every minute of all the things I'm currently doing.

But ironically, writing is one of the two things I love most, the other being singing. So I haven't forgotten my writing, and I did recently write two full scripts, but I just haven't found the proper flow to do a bit of everything.

Again, the problem with me is as analytical as I am, I still can't do things from a list as much as I try. Now I'm not talking about work. That's different, and when I do that I'm completely focused on the task at hand. But I'm talking about outside of that with writing, art, etc. I have to feel it and be in the mood for it. And right now, since I'm not getting paid for it, I can afford that luxury I guess.

But to get back on topic since I am WAY off, I have once again started thinking towards cartooning. I even drew some simple sketches tonight and they looked decent. I'm still trying to find my distinctive style though, even in that. As I mentioned before, that's one thing (among many others) that I have lacked, and I think it would help me overall to find that first and then work on the basic flaws of things.

I was looking at and thinking about various artists' work both in comics and cartooning and how distinctive and identifiable each were. If you see something drawn by Charles Schulz or painted by Alex Ross you know beyond a shadow of a doubt who illustrated it. The same can be said about the styles of Jim Davis, Lynn Johnson, Mort Walker, Jim Lee, Jack Kirby, John Romita Jr, Humberto Ramos, and the list goes on and on. All the greats in any form of art have truly identifiable and distinct styles, and it's part of what separates them from the multitude of artists out there.

But of course there's a lot more to it than that, and that's just the first step. But it's a step.

As for the cartooning, I've thought about trying to do a web strip for some time now, and I hope it won't be long before I'm able to do it. I do want to seek syndication as well, but that's a long, hard road, and it's an extremely hard field to get into. But who knows?

So anyway, I just thought I'd share that since it kind of fit in with recent posts both here and on the sketch blog.

And speaking of the sketch blog, as I make these new sketches I'll start posting them up there. I hope to update that blog three times a week, but it could be more or less depending on the time I have to actually doodle and draw. But we'll see.

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The 9

I'm addicted to this show on yahoo called The 9. It's hosted by Maria Sansone and features bizarre web links every day. Today's links, for instance, include a site telling you what kind of dog you'd be, a link to a video of a car that has been reversed so that the back is the front, and link to furniture made out of bicycles.

It's just a quick, fun little video blog I tune into every day. That and Maria Sansone is very attractive. :) She actually looks a bit like a girl I used to date, only prettier.

You can check the show out yourself by clicking the post title. It's new every weekday.

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Gonzogoose Sketch Blog

There's a new post over at the sketch blog, by the way. I posted my Legacy draw off entry from a few years ago from thumbnails to final pencils.

Click the post title. ;)

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From Left Field

After working all day I figured I'd just ramble on aimlessly about potentially nothing at all before turning in for the evening. I'm trying to wind down. You know that point where you're too tired to really do anything, but you're not quite tired enough to go to sleep. That's the point I'm at, so I'm hoping reading my own words as I type induces sleep!

Dancing With the Stars started a new season tonight. I haven't watched any of the previous shows except for part of the finale of the last season, and it was pretty good. I didn't watch the premiere tonight either, but I do have a reason for bringing it up. Two child stars are on it this season. Two child stars I watched a lot growing up, and I've got to at least check them out. I'm of course referring to Joe Lawrence and Mario Lopez.

Joe Lawrence, many will remember, and I'm showing my age, got his big break (pun intended) on the TV show Gimme a Break with Nell Carter. Of course you younger ones will mainly remember him from Blossom with his catch phrase, "Whoa!", then on the short lived sitcom with his two brothers Matthew and Andy.

Mario Lopez was actually on a Disney musical program called Kids Incorporated way back when he was a little guy. He played drums. But his most notable role was and is the part of AC Slater on the hit show Saved by the Bell. Since then he's mainly been hosting various shows and has done a couple of TV movies.

I always connected with Joe because we had similar interests (acting and music) and were around the same age. I've seen just about everything he's been in, and I have to admit, as wimpy as it makes me sound, I'm a fan. So I think it would be cool to see him dancing on the show.

I was also a big Saved by the Bell mark, even for the spin-off when they went to colleger. I never really cared for the new class though as I liked the original characters. And while Zach was my favorite, I loved Slater too. And I know he can dance, so I think it would be cool to see him perform as well.

Then there's the eye candy as Vivica A. Fox is also on the show. So needless to say, I might have to check this show out. Incidently, I taped tonight's episode for my mother, so maybe I'll just watch it.

Prison Break is in its third or fourth week of the new season and man is it off to a great start. There have already been two surprising deaths and several wild twists and turns. Next week's previews promise even more twists and turns. Man, I love this show!

I drew some today, mainly working on details on a piece I already had done but wasn't satistfied with. It's still not what I want it to be, but it's good practice. I'll post it somewhere when it's all done.

I'm doing an interview with Abdulkareem Baba Aminu (Kareem), who is a co-owner of a new Nigerian comic shop for www.silverbulletcomics.com. Cary and I actually worked with Kareem for a while at Storrm, and I was excited to find out he was involved in this. We'll also be talking about the second ever comic convention to come to Nigeria, so that will be exciting as well. It should be up by the weekend hopefully.

I've got a couple of other interviews I'm working on as well, but I'm going to hold off announcing those yet.

You know what I had to eat today? Hushpuppies and a bowl of cereal. I believe that's it, and maybe a piece of fudge at some point, I don't remember. Oddly enough I'm pretty full. I only had six hushpuppies around lunch time and cereal around 10pm, 4 hours ago. I actually hope that continues to be my appetite as I feel I need to lose a few pounds.

I have not really had much time at all to post on messageboards. I've made a few posts at a couple of regular boards (DW, DBPRo and SBC) but that's really about it for a while now. I think I pop into Image and CBR and creatorfuze once a week or so with a post or two. I've just been too busy, and when I'm not I just don't have the energy to engage in all the conversations I'd like to.

For some odd reason Zach's school has a Disney costume day tomorrow. Today was superhero costume day, but Zach was home with bronchitis. I didn't know about this until this afternoon or I would have undoubtedly convinced him to go just so I could dress him up in some obscure character's outfit. lol. He's got a friend who has an Eore (Not sure how to spell that - the donkey from Winnie the Pooh) suit he's gonna wear. Zach doesn't have a costume because we didn't know about it until tonight. Oh well. I told him to throw a red t-shirt and baseball cap on and go as Kit Cloudkicker from Tailspin, but he said nobody would know who that is. Yep, I'm old. Then I said to throw a Hawaiian shirt on and go as Dale of Chip and Dale from the Rescue Rangers. Yep, still old. Finally I said just throw on an oversized shirt and toboggan and go as one of the seven dwarves. Surely they'll know who they are, right? Right? Man I'm old.

Speaking of old, all of Zach's friends think our mom looks like she's in her mid to late 30's. That made mom's day. Didn't do a whole lot for mine though. heh.

Ok, I'm about to start getting nonsensical as I feel my eyelids getting heavy, so I think I'll call it a night. Strangely I feel as though I sound more prolific and intelligent now half asleep than I normally do fully awake. I wonder what that says about me?

Final note, Smallville starts back two weeks from tomorrow (Wednesday), and I can't wait!

Goodnight.

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Baltimore News

Lots of news going down for Marvel at the Retailer Summit tonight. Joss Whedon is taking over Brian K. Vaughan's baby, Runaways, one of my favorite titles; A Runaways spin-off series written by CB Cebulski called Loners is coming soon; Spider-Man's returning to his black costume, or someone like him is; and the Dabel Brother's titles are going to be sold through Marvel carrying both companies' logos on them.

There were plenty of other announcements, but these are the four that stood out to me.

First of all, I have been a fan of Runaways since #2, volume 1. I missed issue one, but I read the script for it (it was one Epic offered as a script example). It's an engaging title with realistic characters set in the middle of the Marvel universe. And to beat that, they are all original characters, which isn't something we see a lot of. BKV and Alphona have done an excellent job on this title, and I'm sad to see them go. However, I love Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men and look forward to what he has in store for the teen team.

The spin-off title, Loners, features one character I absolutely love, so I'm incredibly psyched about that. I was excited seeing Darkhawk in Runaways and Marvel Team-Up, but I knew it would only be temporary. But now he, along with Turbo (New Warriors), Julie Power (Power Pack), Phil Urich (Green Goblin) and Ricochet (Slingers) will get at least six issues of their own. I'm stoked!

Spider-Man is back in black soon, but is it the real Spider-Man? Joe Q. teased that seeing Peter Parker side by side with a person in the black costume could neatly tie up some things. Could black clad spidey be Ben Reilly back from the dead? Could this be the ploy to get Spidey masked again? Come on, we all knew somehow they'd figure out a way to get Spidey's secret identity secret again. But then people have seen Parker climbing walls in street clothes, so who knows? I'm just excited to see the black costume again!

And finally, the Dabel Brothers have struck a deal with Mighty Marvel, who will now get the DBPro line into more and more hands. I personally think this is great for both parties. Had DBPro sold the company, or lost control of it in some way I would have been less than thrilled, but under the agreement the Brothers keep control of their properties and benefit from the Marvel marketing machine. Can't beat that.

This should be an exciting year coming up for comics. Hopefully Marvel is getting back on track as their overall stories haven't been that great for a while with a few exceptions of course. I hope Civil War and everything coming out of it changes all that. Of course I'm one of the ones enjoying Civil War and what has happened so far. So we'll see.

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Sketch Blog Goes Live

The sketch blog is now up, and it's linked in the sidebar and in the post title. Right now all that's up there are some old cartooning sketches I did 14 years ago. I thought it'd be cool to share them. So check it out if you get a chance.

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Myth Conceptions

The latest column is up! This installment is titled "Tightless" as I discuss the many non-superhero books available out there.

Check it out, as always, by clicking the post title.

The site is lagging a little bit this afternoon, so please forgive any slow loading times. It should clear up soon.

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Artistic Revelations

I entered yet another draw off today, probably the last for a while, and you know what I realized? I mean, I guess it wasn't a realization as I already knew it, but more of an acceptance of it. I accepted the fact that while I can spot and critique flaws in art, even my own, I have a really hard time fixing them.

It's strange. Unlike many wannabe artists, when I draw a piece I can see every single flaw in it, but no matter what I do I just can't fix them. I'm not one of these delusional guys that thinks they've got it down, or needs a million other people to tell them what's wrong (though I still ask to make sure I didn't miss anything myself). I guess sometimes I just wonder if I'm being too hard on myself so I ask others to make sure I'm seeing things correctly. I don't know.

Regardless, I know I have a long way to go, and I know I keep bringing this up. It just frustrates me.

One thing I think I've started to realize is even though I've been drawing for many years I never really had a style of my own. I always emulated, or tried to emulate I guess, favorites of mine. And while I realize little essences of those favorites will always be in my artwork, I never really had my own distinct style.

Furthermore, I always wanted to be one of those really good realistic style artists. Maybe not as good as an Alex Ross, but up there with the likes of Bryan Hitch and Tyler Kirkham and others. But maybe I'm just not cut out for that. Or maybe it's going to take me a long time to get to that level.

So I'm starting to experiment with a much simpler style. I still love intricate detail, and I've always added that to my stuff, and I think that's where my style is going to come from. A simple style with simple lines, but a ton of detail. You don't see a lot of that, it's usually one or the other.

Right before I really started drawing comic material I was drawing a lot of cartoon stuff. I used to watch this show on public access television called Blitz on Cartooning. I had wanted to become a newspaper strip artist (and that's still a goal of mine). So I would watch this show and do everything the guy did. My cartoon sketches were pretty good I think. I'll dig them out and gradually throw them up on the sketch blog when it goes up.

While I don't want to do the over the top cartoony style of art for comics I do think I can use that and infuze it with the comic art and make something new. of course I still have to really bear down on anatomy, proportions, perspective and shadows before I'm any good.

Currently I don't have a real space to draw at, and I think that hinders me. I also don't have the proper supplies, and that hinders me. I don't even have a table I can draw on here. I have a 12x12 shelf I hold in my lap and bend over. It's not the most convenient way to draw, I assure you. Many times I'm kneeling over the thing on the floor. And I wonder why my back and neck always hurt.

I think once I have an art table, the proper supplies and a space dedicated to drawing, and some peace and quiet I'll really be able to get back into it as much as I used to be. For now it's just going to be sketches and pinups and the like to practice.

So that's where I'm at with my art, and I just thought I'd share.

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More Reviews

Four more reviews for your reading pleasure. This time around it's two Marvel titles, one good, one not so good. And two indy titles, one good, one not so good. Go figure.

Anyway, check them out in the sidebar or right here!

Agents of Atlas #2
Brodie's Law #8
Morbid Myths #1: Overdue Collections
Spider-Man: Black & Blue & Read All Over

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Indy-Pendant #64

New column's up!

This week I take a look at Menthu #1-4 from Hometown Productions.

As usual, click the post title to check it out.

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Writers, Contribute to SBC

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Right now at SBC we are recruiting writers to contribute to features, interviews, reviews and columns. There are benefits associated.

Some leads for interviews and features, and even reviews will be provided.

If you are interested in contributing one or more of the above click the post title to email me with the subject line "SBC Writer Inquiry".

Thanks, and I hope to hear from you soon!

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I'm Ok, Folks

A few people have commented to me privately about the tone of one of my previous posts. I assure you all that I'm fine. I just had that initial let down about the submission as well as a few other things that hit at the same time. But that's how it goes, when it rains it pours, right? But I've always been a fighter, and I've always bounced back. So in that respect I'm fine, and I appreciate all the support.

We had several mechanical malfunctions in the house today. A sink stopped up, a toilet's seal broke and the dishwasher decided to go all sitcom on us and shoot out suds all over the kitchen floor. But all is well, or as well as it could be at the moment.

Still haven't heard anything else about the house, so we're up in the air about that.

I did get to relax and watch a couple of movies the past couple of days late at night. I got to finally watch Inside Man, which was an excellent film. Can't say I've really seen a bad Denzel film to be honest. The guy's just a great actor and seems to really pick intense roles.

I also watched Last Holiday, which was kind of corny, but cute just the same.

Saw King Kong finally also, though I had to watch it in widescreen format and I don't have a widescreen TV, so that took away from it a little. I actually really liked the movie. There were a few scenes where they just allowed things to drag on too far, like the bug scene, the scene where Watts does Vaudeville for Kong, and a couple of others. But overall I enjoyed it.

And finally I watched Take the Lead. I know, I thought it would be a total chick flick, but it had the hip hop dancing mixed in, and it was based on a true story. I have a love for the musical arts and dance (my mom was a dance teacher), so it was really cool to hear about a ballroom dancer teaching in a public school. I'm also a big supporter of the arts in our schools, so this was good to see.

I found it interesting in the special features that one of the stars, Rob Brown, stumbled into acting to pay a cell phone bill. He walked on and tried out for an extra for Finding Forrestor to get cash to pay his cell phone bill and wound up landing the lead role. Now that's a pretty awesome beginning. And the cool thing is it hasn't tainted him. He is currently in college and is said to be a determined and serious worker, but a lot of fun to be around too. That's really cool.

In closing, I've gotten knocked out of the DW tournament, deservingly so. My entry wasn't all it could be to be perfectly honest. Oh well, no biggie. It was just for fun anyway.

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More Reviews

I had five more reviews posted on SBC (post title link) today. Four were Marvel books, one was an independent title from Silent Devil. Here are the links:

Beyond! #3
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #12
Lil' Hellions: Day at the Zoo
Uncanny X-Men #478
X-Men: Phoenix Warsong #1

Also in a bit of exciting news, I found out I was quoted about some book in Wizard Magazine #180! I don't know what book or what page since I haven't picked that issue up yet, but I thought that was pretty cool. I believe it's in the Wizard Edge section. More info as I know it.

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Turned Down Again

Yep, another Image rejection, but this time around Erik gave some solid advice and an honest critique. So why I'm incredibly disheartened I am pleased he took the time to give the feedback.

Sigh. So what's next for me? WBZ will be out there again as soon as we can get things rolling in that department. Beyond that I'm trying to hook up with an artist for one of the ideas I entered into the Zeros 2 Heroes contest. I've sent off the first script for Eliminator, which I also entered, to be edited. And I have an artist on Paragons and Night Riders, but they are both tied up right now.

So, for now I'm concentrating on my lettering trying to get samples done and sent out. I'm also still involved with Lab Rats, so I've got that going on. But as for my writing, beyond what I've mentioned I'm not sure exactly what to do or where to go from here. I've got plenty of other ideas I can pursue, but my cash flow is kind of low, so that hinders artistic progress on them. I don't know.

I just don't know...

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Art Chores

Looks like I'm gonna get eliminated again in the DW tournament, which means I'm out all together. No great loss though, I'm not the least bit delusional about the practice I need. It was fun, so I'm cool with it.

In the meantime I whipped up a quick drawing using reference this time for a little fun draw off over at CBR. The drawing had to have someone with a bow and arrow, but aside from that it didn't matter who it was. I chose an elf from LOTR who may or may not be Legolas. lol.

Anyway, here it is:



And finally, it's not ready yet, but I think I figured out what to do with my gonzoblog. It was between doing this and killing it all together, so I think I'm going to try this and see if it gets any hits.

I'm going to turn it into a sketch blog. Instead of posting all my art stuff here I'll use that one, but it'll mainly be for practice stuff and just random sketches. I'll even throw up some old stuff for the heck of it. I'll let you guys know as soon as it's up and running as such.

I'm hoping by sticking to that and having a place to regularly post stuff like that I will be able to keep my momentum in drawing and find my passion again. I really want to get back into sequential drawing. I'm under no illusions of grandeur thinking I'll ever work for Marvel or DC as an artist, but I would love to be good enough to occasionally illustrate my own mini-series from time to time. I have one in particular I've kept on hold until I'm good enough for it in fact. So we'll see.

And that's about it for me. I'm up later than I have been for a few weeks now and I'm starting to feel it, so I'm gonna call it and take a powder.

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Myth Conceptions

Latest column is up. This week I talk about copycats. I'll admit this isn't my best column, but it is what it is. :)

Click the post title to check it out.

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Indy-Pendant #63

I was nearly half a day late, but I just posted my latest column.

It's a rather light one this week all things considered, just one title again, but a good one.

This week I reviewed The Red Line #1 from Ludovico Technique.

Click the post title to check it out!

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DW Draw Off Round 2

Well, I got my entry in, though I didn't get to finish the background. I was trying to color it also, but I'm not going to have time to finish, so it'll have to go as is.

The subject was Silk Spectre and Comedian from the Watchmen having a drink in a bar.

I changed up my style a little bit going for a more loose and fun style given the events of the image. That and I thought I'd compensate a little for my flaws by making it fun. hehehe.

Anyway, here it is. Maybe I'll finish it one day.



Click the post title to be taken to the thread that will turn into the voting thread sometime after Midnight Est.

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JLA Classified Review

One more review for the week. This time it's JLA Classified #26.

Check it out by clicking the post title of course.

I have a couple of indy titles that will hopefully go up over the weekend, then I've got some Marvel ones coming up next week. Doing a lot of reviewing lately it seems. :)

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Zeroes 2 Heroes Winner Announced

I got to snooping around on the Z2H website and though some of the links are now dead I managed to find the winners of the contest. Click the post title to find out who it is.

There were also 5 runner-ups and 5 honorable mentions. I didn't make either list, though Cary Kelley made the honorable mention list, so congrats on that, bro.

Oh well, easy come, easy go.

Honorable Mentions
Runner-Ups

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My Brother's Check-Up

Well, looks like all systems are go! They didn't look at him for long, but somehow they came to the conclusion that Zach could get back on a skateboard in two weeks. I'm not completely satisfied with this estimation (I'd have preferred some x-rays to see if the skull has healed properly myself), but at least it was good news, which is something my family desperately needed right now.

Needless to say my brother is stoked. Of course he keeps insisting he's still not going to wear a helmet, and we keep insisting that he will. He claims he can't skate with one on. Sigh. Teenagers. I would wonder if I gave my Mom this much trouble, but I know for a fact I did. lol.

So anyway, that's all I've got right now. Good news!

Brant

Pending...

Well, the Zeroes 2 Heroes contest winner will be announced Friday, and I'm pretty sure it's not me. Why? Cary Kelley, who also entered, got emailed yesterday informing him he made the short list, which is basically the semi-finalists. I did not get such an email. So chances are it ain't me. Sigh.

Best of luck to Cary, though.

Tomorrow is my brother's doctor's appointment to see how he's healing up. I'll post the results here. I'm sure it will be good news as Zach has pretty much gotten back to normal. He's got more attitude though, which concerns us, but it's probably because of the extra precautions we've been taking with him. He feels smothered a bit.

Caught the debut of Celebrity Duets last night. Chris Jericho, a wrestler, completely bombed, but Alfons Riebero (Carlton from Fresh Prince) and some guy from Queer Eye, and Lucy Lawless (Xena) really surprised me. They did an excellent job. It'll be interesting to see if this show picks up enough viewers to keep it on the air. Recently The One, an American Idol like competition, only all the contestants played instruments and lived in a music school, only lasted two episodes before getting cancelled. Me thinks AI has the market cornered.

Prison Break has opened to an incredible season so far. SPOILERS

Veronica got killed in the first episode shockingly. I don't think anyone expected that to happen. It'll be interesting to see what happens when all the escapees head to Utah to get the money one of them left before he went into prison. And with the inclusion of this new detective that's almost as smart as Michael it'll be interesting to see how they evade him.

END SPOILERS

I sent an idea to an artist this morning. I'm awaiting his feedback to see if we can work something out.

I'm looking all over the place for unlettered pages and scripts for Marvel, DC, Image, etc. titles so I can letter them and submit them. So if anyone has any on hand or has links, please email me.

I started writing my next Myth Conceptions column today, but stopped because I lacked reference. I posted on one messageboard looking for some, but have yet to get any feedback. What I need are examples of copycats of various popular characters. These can include homage, maybe parody, innovative new takes, or rip-offs. For instance, Authority and Watchmen are innovative takes on the JLA. Invincible is a unique take on Superman. Supreme some think was a Superman rip-off. Stuff like that.

Aside from all that good stuff, I'm just waiting for that big break somewhere, some way, somehow...

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Review Mania

I had a whole slew of reviews posted today at SBC, some good, some not so good. You can find them along with all others I've done in the sidebar, but for brevity's and simplicity's sake, here they are:

American Way #7
Hard Boiled Comics #1-2
Man-Bat #5
Teen Titans Go! #34
Trials of Shazam #1
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #2

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Review Mania

I had a whole slew of reviews posted today at SBC, some good, some not so good. You can find them along with all others I've done in the sidebar, but for brevity's and simplicity's sake, here they are:

American Way #7
Hard Boiled Comics #1-2
Man-Bat #5
Teen Titans Go! #34
Trials of Shazam #1
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #2

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JLA #1 Review

I've done a slew of reviews that will go up over the next couple of days, and the first among them is the new Justice League of America #1.

I was not thrilled with issue #0. In fact I hated it and thought it was a waste of time and money. It made me fear that the series would be just as dismal. I was wrong. I loved the first issue, and in the review I tell you why.

Click the post title to read it, or find it in the sidebar.

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Komic Sutra

While at Broken Frontier today to check out my buddy Jason's latest The Story Factory column I caught a glimpse of the topic of another column there, Komic Sutra. The title, How NOT to Get Into Comics, was enticing enough to take a peek.

In the column, JP Dorigo, the writer, lists his examples of what is sure to keep you from succeeding in your dreams to be a comic creator. He takes a stab at some things others have pulled in a completely ironic way that is just so true it's hilarious.

Go check it out by clicking the post title. And while you're over there check out The Story Factory. :)

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Myth Conceptions

The latest column is up!

This week is a short one. I talk about spoofs.

Click the post title to check it out.

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Indy-Pendant #62

New column's up!

This week it's Koni Waves from Arcana.

Click the post title to read the column.

Enjoy!

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Warbreed Withdraws

I don't think it's been officially announced, but Warbreed has also pulled out of the Small Press Idol competition. Evidently the creator/writer/penciler, Ben Jones, and the inker, Carmen Imperato are going through some personal situations and don't have the energy, time or heart to finish it right now.

I completely understand that part of it, and I sincerely wish them well and hope their situations improve. It still sucks because both Kansas Hit and Warbreed had strong chances of winning in my opinion, so it's a little disheartening after going all this way that both were forced to withdraw due to circumstances. Completely understandable, but still sad.

Even sadder is that Ben doesn't think he'll be doing Warbreed at all for a while, and we've had a lot of outside interest in publishing that aside from Dimestore. I know of at least two small publishers who wanted to take it on.

But what are you gonna do, right? Family, personal life, and life in general has to come first, and Lord knows I've got my own stuff going on as well. So all I can do is hope somewhere down the line Warbreed resurfaces and I get to be a part of it.

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Gonzoblog

To blog or not to blog, that is the question. But I'll get to that in a moment. First I'd like to address the post before last a bit.

I was in an understandably foul mood when we got the news. And while my disposition isn't incredibly better today (for various reasons, not just that) a scripture Ray Hickson posted in the comment section and the scripture-a-day I get in my email encouraged me a bit. I'm still concerned, but I'm trying not to worry and just leave it in God's hands. Doing my part of course, but allowing Him to do the part I can't. So with that said, thanks for the thoughts and prayers, guys, I'm trying to stay in good spirits through it.

Now, back on topic. When my bandwidth got eaten up a few months ago I started a temporary blog (click the post title) to take this one's place. It served its purpose for a few days, but since it's just been sitting there. For a while I updated it with the same links I update this one with, but I finally just stopped.

So, my question is now that I have a website with a pretty useless home page, and I still have this blog, what in the world do I do with that one? Should I use it to showcase or talk about something specific, or should I just do away with it all together?

I had originally thought of using it for my eventual webstrip, Gonzogoose, but that is kind of on the backburner, and I may just do a separate site for that, I don't know.

So consider this the official 'send me your ideas' post asking for suggestions on what to use it for, if anything at all.

While I'm at it, any suggestions for the home page of my site short of making this blog the homepage?

Thanks!

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He-Man vs Lizard Man

Below is an updated version of the piece I did for the first round of the DW draw off. It's still not great, but it's a lot better than the piece I had to enter due to time.

As for my status in the contest, I got 8 votes (thank you, whoever you all are) and pretty much stopped there. Even in a multiple vote poll I'm getting killed. Everyone else has close to 30 or more, which means I'll be eliminated as only 5 of the 6 will advance.

I will get put into the losers bracket since it's double elimination, but then I'll have to climb my way back up. Voting is still open through Sunday I think. :) Click. Post. Title.

Here's the original:

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Bad to Worse

Well, I said earlier I was having a bad day, but nothing really bad, outside the norm that is, was happening. Unfortunately that changed drastically.

First, we had some car problems and ended up having to shell out cash on that. Not so bad, right? But considering the news we just got this afternoon it makes any expenditure seem very bad.

I can't talk about the details because nobody's supposed to really know, but there's a strong possibility that we'll lose the house we're renting. This would mean we'd have no immediate place to go. Needless to say it has instantly become a very stressful time. We don't have the money to put a down payment on another house, and apartments here are very small and too expensive. We got a great break on the house, which we're not likely to get anywhere else.

So this day officially sucks now. Just keep us in your thoughts and prayers once more. Something's gotta give soon, right? I mean when negative stuff keeps happening the good has to be around the corner. At least that's what I'm holding onto. What else am I going to do, right?

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Ah--Sigh

I'm not having a good day. Not really a bad day, and nothing bad has happened really. Just not having a good one. Thought I'd share, misery and company and all that.

That is all.

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Mark Millar

I got a chance to listen to Mark Millar on Fanboy Radio yesterday, and man was that a great interview. He is an incredibly fun and funny guy, and he had me in stitches. He has that kind of matter of fact humor about him.

I had never heard him speak before, so it was kind of wild to hear him just being himself. It was pretty cool. You hear all these stories in interviews and such about Mark being crazy and all this stuff, and I can see that because he's just out there!

But he's much more than that. The answers he gave to callers and such were incredibly well thought out and even philosophical. And even through his thick accent he's a very well spoken guy and he was just blowing my mind with all his deep ideas. Yes, they're comic books he's writing, but the way he detailed everything made them feel like more, and that's part of what I love about comics.

I admittedly haven't read a lot of Millar's work. Probably the only things I have read are Civil War and his Wanted series that I'm aware of. I may have read one other thing of his at Marvel, but I'm not sure. But everything I've read from him so far has been, in my opinion, edgy, controversial, introspective, thought provoking, entertaining, fun, and quite enjoyable. Sure, there were a couple of flubs here or there, but overall my impression of Civil War is a very positive one. I finally read the Illuminati, and I don't think or feel like I was robbed in Civil War #1 at all.

Wanted was a little racy and vulgar for me, but it was still very well written, very well plotted, and a very unique take on an idea that I thought was pretty innovative.

That podcast won me over if I had any doubts to begin with. If you get a chance you should listen to it (click the post title!). The man's crazy, but in a good way. :)

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Are You a Digital Inker?

If so, I know someone who's looking for you!

Victor Poon is looking for a digital inker for a project called Academy of Heroes. I have lettered a couple of projects for Victor (The Pozers, Bureau 13) and the art and writing on both were top notch.

These are the qualifications the potential applicant must have:

-The inker will have to have DSL/Cable.
-The inker will have to do an inking test.
-A dedicated inker that can meet deadlines.
-but most importantly, an inker that can take constructive criticism and be able to work within a team dynamic.

Project info:
-Pay is slated on a backend percentage
-Distributiuon will be via my publisher in part with Diamond

The inker is needed by August 31st, so start submitting.

What you should submit:

1) no more than 3 jpgs of your best work
2) links to your work

Send them to:
inks@dreamonwords.com

So if you ink digitally this is a great opportunity to work with some great creators.

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Zeroes 2 Heroes

Man, I've been in a writing frenzy!

Well, I either submitted two or three separate entries into the Zeroes 2 Heroes contest before deadline. I say two or three because I'm not sure if the third one made it in on time. I know two of them did though.

The two I know for fact I got in on time are Eliminator and Wannabez, the projects shown on my website. The third I'm not sure about is a project called Snow, which is a story I really love, and probably the best written of the three. So I'm hoping it made it.

I wanted to get Night Riders done too, but I just didn't have enough time. Oh well. The great thing about this contest is it forced me to finish up a few things and got me off my slump. So I win either way.

Man prior to tonight Snow was a vague idea and seven pages of script that I loved, but had no idea where it was going. It sat that way for two years. But tonight I finished the first script, came up with the rest of the story, and added all this cinematic stuff to it. I love this story. It took me in places I wasn't expecting. And I discovered that it works best as an ongoing I think, which is cool because just about everything I write is designed for minis or small arcs, and this is much bigger than that. It's a challenge and it's expanding my comfort zone, which is always a good thing.

So I guess come September 1st we'll find out who the winner is. Man, that's going to be a brutal 11 days!

Well, just got the word all three made it in, so all is good!

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Myth Conceptions

The new column is up!

This week I talk about some of my own projects. And yes, there are pictures!

Check it out by clicking the post title.

Thanks!

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Why Do I?

Why do I do the things I do? Why do I get involved and invested to a point where I'm passionate with everything I commit to? I guess that's a good thing mostly, but sometimes you can become so invested in something that you take things personal. It's hard to turn it off, then you realize you've worded things wrong or reacted instead of acted.

One such situation came up recently and it all blew up with people getting offended and it caused a split. I don't feel I said anything offensive, and it wasn't just me but a WHOLE bunch of people involved all talking highly emotional and all taking things to heart. It just wasn't a good time for certain conversations to take place and things got heated.

My part was actually very small, but nonetheless I wish I hadn't even been involved because of the end result. Retrospect I guess. I hope things can be salvaged because I do feel certain people acted impulsively.

So why do I get so passionate? I guess that's just who I am and I won't apologize for that, or for wanting to improve things. I'm not a fan of stagnation, and if something can be better it should strive to be better. But not everyone thinks that way, and when you're in a group you need to realize that and understand that you can't change the way people are. That can be a tough pill to swallow sometimes, but it's a pill that must go down.

Anyway, I hope this isn't the end and that things can go back to normal. I doubt they will, but it really was an unnecessary ending to a volatile situation that was taken way out of context. But what's done is done, and that's that. Oh well, live and learn.

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Indy-Pendant #61

The new column is up. This week is a short one. I review 48 #1 from Paper Dragonz.

Check it out by clicking the post title.

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DW Tournament Round 1

The first round of the tournament is underway. There are 10 groups (or brackets) in the contest. I'm in group 4. My group's task was to draw He-Man vs. a Lizard character. I didn't get to finish mine as much as I would have liked because of getting sick mainly. But I made it in nonetheless.

If you like it vote for it. This is a multiple choice vote, and 5 of the 6 in my group will advance to the next round. The voting thread can be found by clicking the post title.

Here is my entry. I plan to finish it when I have time.



Sorry about the thumbnail, but it's a little large for the width of the blog.

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Down, But Not Out

Whew, this has been a long week and a long day. I've got so much to do, but I am so sick. I did manage to write both columns and get them out of the way today. So they'll both go up Sunday and Monday respectively.

I have until midnight to finish my He-Man drawing for the first round of the DW tournament. I think (hope) I'll make it in time.

I've got another script to look over for Cary that I have yet to crack open. Hope he doesn't kill me.

I've got to type up my feedback to Doug on something.

I've still got to finish scripts for the Zeroes 2 Heroes contest deadline Monday.

And finally, I've got to finish some lettering for Approbation soon.

And that's just the creative work. I'm working on some stuff for SBC that's whipping my sick butt. And not to mention regular life drama.

But these are all good problems to have. It may be a bit stressful and may seem like a lot of work, but I am having a lot of fun with it all.

Right now I'm going back to bed/drawing board so I can relax and draw. Then I'm crashing!

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Broken Links

For anyone who has encountered broken links on the site, I have fixed them. Some of my poems were still linking to the old urls, which are no longer there obviously. Please let me know if anything else doesn't work properly.

My mother also told me one of the pictures in my animated pic on the homepage I looked like I had pepper all over my face. lol. It was a filter gone wrong, so I fixed that also. The whole image thing is supposed to look like dated artistic style photos. I hope it comes across that way.

Thanks to everyone who has checked out the site so far and for your kind words.

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The Website Is Up!

HOORAY! It is finally up, and I'm quite pleased with it. Not everything I had hoped for, but a very nice site if I do say so myself.

You can get to it or any of its pages by clicking the post title, or by using those nifty little links at the top of the blog!

This has definitely been a labor of love. Now I'm gonna go crash before having to do some more important stuff. :)

B-Out

SOON

I am very close to launching the website! I just have to update the links on my poems and finish the links at the top of this blog for now and I think I'm good to go. So the site will definitely be up either later tonight or early tomorrow, without a doubt!

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Some of my Lettering Online

Just came across some things last night and figured you guys might be interested.

This is an interview at PBR with Victor Poon, writer of two series I have lettered or am lettering, Bureau 13 (I did 10 pages) and Pozers (I'm the regular with one issue down so far).

Victor Poon Interview

Also, as I mentioned last post I came across some pages I lettered online. Here they are:

Safe At Home
Magic Bullet (I also did the logo for this one)
Word is Bond (The card in the third page is lettered now)
Mirror/Mirror
Southern Hospitality (I'm lettering this one now)

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On the Line

Whew, I had a slight scare with blogger a little earlier! You know how your internet browser saves your login and passwords if you tell it to? Well somehow mine got mixed up and for a few hours I thought I lost access to my blogs!

This was right after I had changed the blog url too, so I was freaking out thinking I did something to them. But I figured out the correct username finally and here I am. Whew!

Well, I haven't gotten to work on the website at all today unfortunately. I still think it'll be up by tomorrow night, but it'll be tight. I promised it would be up this week and it will without a doubt. Thanks to Cary who's taken a look at it and offered some advice, and to Chuck who will be taking a look at part of it to see how it works, though he doesn't know it yet. Shhh! ;)

I would be remiss if I didn't tell my fellow writers out there about an avenue to be published... without an attached artist! The problem is I found out about this 3 and a half weeks late and the deadline is in FOUR DAYS! August 21st is the due date for full and complete scripts. Check out the guidelines and everything by clicking the post title. It's really cool because the winner will get an art team provided! And the judges credentials speak for themselves.

I'm going to submit a few projects myself, I just have to figure out which ones. And it means I'll have to do some writing this weekend to tighten things up and finish a couple. Which is going to be tight for me with the website and the DW draw off, which is due Sunday for the first round. I have to draw He-Man vs. a Lizard man of my design. I've already got it half way laid out, but there's still a lot of work to do on it.

Speaking of draw-offs, I was eliminated from the CBRunway contest today. I trailed by 4 votes, but with everything going on I'm kind of relieved. The next entry would have also been due Sunday, and this round it's redesigning a cohesive yet individual look for Thor, Wasp, Giant Man, Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch! Yeah, that would have been a bit much I think.

Another thing keeping me busy this week is lettering. There's a horror anthology at Arcana called Dark Threshholds that is accepting submissions until August 31st. The submissions must have art, and they have to be 6-20 pages in length, no more, no less. You can submit a partial entry through the 18th. Beyond that they have to be complete. Check it out here.

Anyway, it turns out, little to my knowledge, that I am lettering 5 entries! Three of them are already lettered, two by Approbation, which I sort of knew about. I still have one more to letter for Approbation that's already been submitted, so I'm definitely on a deadline with that one! Another one I lettered, Safe at Home, I lettered a while back and discovered it was entered there also. And there's one more I lettered five pages of for another contest at Viper that we lost not too long ago. Well the writer is adding 3 pages and providing the artist gets done on time I'll be lettering that one too! And heck, if I had an artist willing to do a 6-8 pager for free in 2 weeks time I'd letter and submit something of my own to boot!

A lot of comic news to talk about, but it being late (3am) and me having much to do, I'll keep it brief.

Mark Bagley is leaving Ultimate Spider-Man with issue #110. I am saddened by this as I had hoped he'd continue it through the duration. But I could definitely understand if he's burnt out on it. I just hope the transition isn't too obvious. Now I don't really follow the book on a monthly basis, but I'll get a random issue or trade, and intend on getting the whole trade collection at some point. And I think Mark has really defined the look of the character and I'm not looking forward to a departure in it.

Civil War and all its tie-ins, except for any X-Men books (so far) are being delayed. That just sucks. You have one of the most covered storylines by media in modern day comics and you halt the entire storyline. That just really bums me out. I understand why and all, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

And that's all I have in me to talk about right now. My leg is shaking and I'm anxious about all the stuff I have to do. I'll never be able to sleep!

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On The Brink

Currently I'm only FIVE votes away from remaining in the CBRunway contest. So again, if you like my entry PLEASE go vote for me. I can win some art supplies, which I so desperately need!

We're technically allowed to vote for ourselves, but since no one else is, something I just found out this round, I won't either. So I need all the help I can get. :) Click the Post Title to Vote!

I didn't get to work on the site as much as I would have liked tonight as we had company for a while, then I had some stuff to do. But I'm still nearly there with the first phase of it.

I have not had my hair cut for nearly five months! I have trimmed the back of it so it doesn't get too long, but it's really thick all over and down past my nose on top. It's the longest it's been since I was 17 when I used to wear it that long. At that point I got it short, then went the whole buzz route for a year or so. Then it's been pretty much like it is in my pictures online fluctuated an inch or two here and there. I just got tired of it and decided to grow it out for a while. I never imagined it would be this long before I got it cut. But it's royally getting on my nerves. I can't stand it in my face anymore. So I'll probably be getting it cut soon, but never fear, I will get at least one picture of me with it long.

With funds running low and all, and just because there's not that much cool stuff coming out, this week will be rather light for me if I ever make it to the shop at all. If I do this is my short list:

52 #15
Civil War: X-Men (maybe)
Runaways #19
G.I. Joe America's Elite #16

And that's it. A few other titles had I the money, but nothing I'd go out of my way for.

And on that note, I'm on the brink of falling over, so I think I'll hit the sack.

B-Out

Changes Abroad

I'm sure you've noticed that the url change went into effect. It's a simple change, true, but a change nonetheless.

I am very close to debuting the beta version of my website. As I've mentioned before, it won't be as nice as I wanted it to be at first, but I will continue to work on it and improve it even if I have to eventually pay someone to make it pretty for me. :)

I finished the art and lettering pages for it last night and today. I figured out how to get the images to pop-up in perfectly sized windows, so that was cool. A LOT of coding, but it works!

The only pages left to finish are the logos page, contact page, projects page and links page I think. The contact page is simple of course, I just want to look into what my cpanel has to offer. And the projects page is going to be kind of bare at first since I only have art to show off from a couple of projects. The links page, I haven't decided if I'll go with picture links or text links. I'll probably throw up text at first while I'm thinking about it, I don't know. And the logos page, I just have to make smaller versions of the logos and I'm good to go.

Aside from all that I need to refine some of the graphics on the site, mainly the buttons, which currently looked jagged and misshapen. I don't like that.

And finally, I have to decide whether or not I want my MySpace background to match that of the site. That's another simple change (I hope). The blog will stay the same for now. I decided not to go with it fitted inside the web design for a few reasons, chiefly because it loses width and just looks all mashed together. It's close enough as is.

As I mentioned, I decided to wait on the forums. It would be an easy addition, and if people tell me they want them I'll add them. But I've had forums before and never got a post. I figure until I have some known published work out there nobody's going to be really interested in posting. Plus I have the blog, which I opened so you don't have to be registered (or own a blog) to post.

I anticipate the site going up by Thursday at the latest. If I have enough time I may finish it and put it up tonight, just depends. But I can't see it taking longer than through Thursday.

And I will be open to suggestions once it goes up. Until then...

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Myth Conceptions

The latest column is up!

Click the post title to read it.

Enjoy!

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CBRunway Round 5 Vote

As promised, click the post title to be taken to the thread to vote, hopefully for my entry if you like it the best.

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CBRunway Round 5

This round we were given the task to design a solo costume for Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman. Here's what I did with it:



Okay, this challenge was actually easier for me than I expected. I started with two basic designs, chose one over the other, and developed it a bit more.

I wanted to go with a more traditional look to still make her recognizable, so I chose to keep the same colors and keep it a superhero costume.

I think of Sue Storm as a sweet and loving woman, but also a strong, independent, intelligent and determined woman. She should stay modest, but still look attractive.

I admittedly took elements from past costumes and meshed them together with my own feel for it. I chose to use white at top because I felt it was more empowering. I went with the three tone blue to break up the costume a bit and give it a more modern look.

I lengthened the sleeves and belled them out a bit to make her look younger, and I added the dark blue side sections to give the costume more personality and to make it more unique.

I gave her a modern. hip haircut as Sue has probably had more hairstyles than any other woman in comics, so she keeps up with the times.

The baby blue is my favorite element of the whole piece. To me it lends to that gentle side while being encased in the darker blues showing she's tough when she has to be.

Yes, this could easily be an FF costume as well, but I think I took it one step further and personalized it a bit. And that's about it. I hope you all like it!

If you want to see the other entries click the post title. As always, when the voting thread goes up I'll post the link. I hope you all like it and vote for me!

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URL Change

It's about time! This blog's URL will change this week, with any luck by Tuesday or Wednesday. Just remove the blog.html from the current URL. Or of course you will be able to access it via the website.

The new URL will simply be www.brantfowler.com/blog.

The website of course will be www.brantfowler.com, and it will be up this week! It won't be as finished as I wanted it or have all the content I wanted, nor will it be the final version, but at least I'll have a site up. Sorry for the long wait for it.

Right now the new url takes you to a forbidden page, but when it changes of course it will work. And at this address I'll put up a redirect for those that don't catch this post.

I think I mentioned here before that I am now playing with a content management system, but it's more complex than I thought it'd be and it would take me even more time to get the site up. August is already practically half over, so I don't want to wait any longer.

Thanks for everyone's patience.

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Two New Reviews

First up is Brodie's Law #7, a great read. You can check that one out by clicking the post title.

Next is Abra Cadaver #1. I wasn't as impressed by this one as I was by other works of the writer. Check it out at this link.

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Indy-Pendant #60

The new column is up!

This week I go back to focusing on one particular company. This time it's new publisher AK Comics, which introduces Middle Eastern heroes. There are actually some good reads among them.

Click the post title to check the column out.

Enjoy!

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Need... Sleep...

Man, I've been so busy! Between the new PR thing, lettering jobs, writing, working on my website, drawing, and of course life I've not been getting much sleep. What else is new, right?

Well, that's what I'm going to do today. It's 8:15 am and I haven't been to bed. I tried, but I'm still having trouble sleeping. So here I sit. But I can now barely keep my eyes open, so away I go.

I have to get some rest because my CBRunway entry is due tomorrow. Yep, by luck I made it through to the next round because it was a non-elimination round. Otherwise my butt was royally kicked! I thought I did well, but only two other people agreed out of the nearly 40 people who voted for myself and the other three finalists. Oh well. I'll try, try again...

I've also got to finish tomorrow's column, then write Monday's column, and get to work on three separate lettering projects, and get my website up! Not to mention the PR stuff. Man, I'm going to bed!

B - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ - Out

The Handsome Devil

Here are a couple of pictures of my brother, Zach, from May, the most recent ones I have. These are from his Middle School Graduation.

His hair's actually longer than this now as he hasn't had it cut since. Yep, this kid's gonna be a heartbreaker.

This pic doesn't really do him justice, but it shows a bit of his personality.

Yep, I'm a proud big bro! :)

Brant

Zach's First Day

Well, things went pretty good yesterday. Zach made it clear he didn't want special treatment, so he didn't get any. He had homework on his first day, though it was pretty easy. He's got mom scared to death because he's taking woodworking, and my brother is notorius for being a little clumsy, or moreso careless.

He was also given a low locker, which my mom doesn't like. She's afraid he could bump his head when raising up should the upper locker be open. So he's supposed to ask for a top locker, but he probably will forget.

He hates the food they serve and says the lines are so long it takes up all but a couple of minutes of their lunch time, so he's vowing not to eat lunch. He hates taking his lunch (I guess he thinks it makes him look uncool or some crap, I don't know), so we're kind of concerned about him not eating, so we're making him eat breakfast, something he normally doesn't do on school days. He's that much like me I guess.

But he seemed to handle the whole day pretty well. He had quite an attitude yesterday as he wants to believe he's better than he is and wants to start doing things again. Of course we can't let him yet. Despite him saying he's okay he had a terrible headache last night, which also concerns us.

Today he was supposed to wait for his cousin and they were to walk down to this restaurant, a nearby hangout, to be picked up. It's the first time they've been in the same school, and she's not as outgoing as Zach, so she feels kind of out of place. Yesterday she got her feelings hurt because she thinks Zach ignored her, which is possible, but it's hard to say. She can be dramatic, but Zach can be like that. So anyway, today he looks everywhere for her and is calling trying to find her, and so he stays at school for like 30 extra minutes. Come to find out she walked to the restaurant by herself and Zach got in trouble for not walking down there until I cleared up the situation and told Mom what really happened.

So it's been a hectic start of the year to say the least. But things are looking good so far, Zach likes all his teachers, and a bunch of his friends are in his classes. Aside from some other problems, which I hope he'll grow out of, things are okay.

Brant

Craziness

I don't know if it's just me Yahoo hates, or if something's wrong with their server, but for the past several hours I've not been able to log into any of my yahoo mail accounts. So let me apologize if anyone has tried to reach me for the past 4 hours or so.

B-Out

Today's the Day

Today (Wednesday) is my brother's first day of school this year, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little nervous. He's doing much better, but he's not fully healed, and it just frightens me a bit. It's also his first day in high school meaning he's a freshman, and I just worry about him getting bumped or, God forbid, pushed or bullied. I don't think that will happen as my brother's pretty tough, much tougher than I was at that age, but he's not supposed to be active at all for several weeks.

He got to hang out with his friends last night for a little bit, so that was good for him. I worried then too, but no drama so far. I guess we'll see how his first day goes. All his teachers know the situation, and his cousin who's the same age will be in at least one of his classes. So I think it will be fine.

Today is also the end of the vote for Round 4 of the CBRunway contest, and seeing as how I am 6 votes behind the lowest vote-getter of my competitors it looks like it's curtains for me. I am very confident with my design this round, and I do feel it is iconic and original, but thems the breaks.

I was just informed that tonight a movie Mat Nastos (www.niftycomics.com) wrote is airing on the Sci-Fi channel at 9pm Est. The movie is called Stinger and is a kind of low budget B horror film about a killer scorpion. Not really my cup of tea, but I'll check it out at least for a little bit. Mat's a cool guy, so I figure I'll give it a shot.

Currently I'm broke, but if I could get my wishlist of comics for the week this is what I'd pick up:

52 WEEK #14
JSA CLASSIFIED #15 
MARTIAN MANHUNTER #1
SECRET SIX #3
SUPERMAN #655
ANNIHILATION #1
CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE #5
MS MARVEL #6
NEW X-MEN #29
SQUADRON SUPREME #6 
WOLVERINE ORIGINS #5 
BLACK COAT CALL TO ARMS #4
DEVI #2
FATHOM #10 
TRANSFORMERS STORMBRINGER #2

Of course, realistically, even if I had the money, I would probably only get a handful of those:

52 WEEK #14
SECRET SIX #3
CIVIL WAR FRONT LINE #5
NEW X-MEN #29

But we all know how that goes.

Today is also the last day to sign up for the Digital Webbing Draw-Off Tournament. Last I checked over 90 people had signed up, so it's going to be quite a tournament! It's a double elimination, double bracket tournament, so there will be a lot of chances to compete and a lot of cool matchups. I have missed all the previous ones and barely found out about this one on time. Since I will most likely get knocked out of the CBR one today it works out perfectly. The actual competition starts on August 13th, and we have one week to complete the assignment, then one week for votes. It should be a lot of fun.

Here are a few fun and/or interesting links related to the topic at hand, and for the ultimate one, click the post title!

http://www.sosuave.com/halloffame/hall156.htm
http://www.ukgameshows.com/page/index.php/Today's_the_Day
http://www.yourdictionary.com/wotd/todays.pl
http://www.hazelden.org/servlet/hazelden/thoughts?cat_id=1904&page_id=25020
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/August_9
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/space/08/09/stardust.probe/index.html
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/aug09.html
http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/nagasaki.htm
http://www.wtcmovie.com/

Interesting dates on that Wikipedia link. I found 1944, 1974 and 1994 under Events especially interesting. :)

And that's all I know about that's going down today, so I guess any further comments would make the title of this post not make sense anymore. Besides that, I'm tired. So today... I sleep!

B-Out

Power Girl Designs

Here are some of the preliminary designs I came up with prior to settling on the final version I entered into the CBRunway challenge. Don't mind the sloppy coloring or rough sketches, they were just to get an idea of what they would look like.

There were several other designs as well, but I either haven't uploaded them yet, or they're on sheets with other designs that would be duplicated here. I think it's safe to say I made even more than I thought I had. Yep, this wa a hard one. But I'm still happy with the final version (which is a few posts down).

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CBRunway Round 4 Vote

Click the post title to go to the thread to vote for my entry if you like it!

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Myth Conceptions

My latest column is up!

This week it's all about my opinions on some of the big announcements at WWC.

Click the post title to read the column.

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CBRunway Round 4 Entry

So I made the deadline with 1 minute to spare. Man, this challenge took it out of me!

The goal was to recreate Power Girl's costume making it more iconic. It's funny because a day before the challenge posted I had talked about iconic characters and costumes in my Myth Conceptions column, then I had to put my theories to test.

I spent three days designing new looks for the cousin of Superman from an alternate reality, but most of them looked too much like the original. Since I got points off for lack of originality in my redesign of the Vision a few weeks back I couldn't risk that again. So I just couldn't settle.

I went through 10-12 designs before finally settling on one design. Then I went through 6 variations of that one design and three color schemes! And this was all before I even started drawing the actual pinup!

So once I finally got the costume nailed down (around 11pm Est) I had to start drawing fast with the 12am PDT (3am Est) deadline fastly approaching. I got it drawn, but had trouble with the legs and feet and battled with them for an hour and a half. I'm still not happy with them, but everything else looks pretty good I think.

Then I had to color it. My colored pencil work wouldn't do this one justice, so I had to go the photoshop route with less than two hours until the deadline! That was not pretty.

I thought I was going well until I realized it was 2:45am and I still hadn't colored the cape, boots, face or designed the signia for the back of her cape!

So I colored the cape, boots and part of the face and submitted it at 2:59am. I ended up working on it for another hour and a half and finally gave up. It's okay, but a colorist I'm not.

As for the costume, here's the description and reasoning I submitted with my entry:

"Okay, like everyone else, this was hard for me. I literally went through 12 different designs trying to find one more iconic than the original, but they were all too similar, and I wanted to do something more unique.

On the final design I literally went through 6 variations and three color schemes before settling on this.

Now, I wanted to keep the spirit of the original and the sex appeal, but make her more majestic and, of course, iconic. I look at PG as the rebel/wayward child/black sheep of the Superman family, and so she couldn't have the same appearance as Supes or Supergirl, but I still wanted her to be recognizable as part of that mythos.

The cutout on the chest is an altered design of the Superman symbol, and the blue trim on it separates her from them even further. Had I been able to finish the logo in time, which goes on the back of the cape, It would have kept the yellow face and had a stylistic "PG" in it.

At first I had the red as the dominant color, but I felt the white was both more true to her personality and that it stood out more, so I switched them. It still wasn't bold enough, so I added the blue trim to set it off.

I toyed with gloves, but I felt the wristbands denoted a more powerful and timeless being. The boots are the classic Supes boots more or less, only blue because red just seemed to bland.

The reason the left arm is covered was a stylistic one, nothing more. I wanted to make her hip and modern as well as iconic, and that seemed to almost do it, and the slanted skirt part finished that goal.

The full red cape was overkill, and no other solid color seemed right, so I went with the two-toned look. The red is still there and is strikingly bold, but the white really makes her pop when it's spread out. I kept the hair short, but not quite as short.

I was going for the Kate Beckinsale look in Underworld, but of course here it's blowing in the wind, and the coloring job on it is horrible.

I was a little concerned about the red, white and blue motif, but I really hoped the yellow would break that up. I'm not sure if I pulled that off or not, but ultimately I'm happy with it. She looks iconic, hip, still sexy, but not too cheap. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out."

Later today I will post some of the early designs and variations of the final design. Throughout, of course, are the pencils, final colors and signia. Let me know what you think!

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Indy-Pendant #59

The new column is up, and yes I wrote it this time. :)

This week I review Zoom Suit #3, Pariah #2 and Paula Peril #2. These took precedence over what I had originally intended for this week, which is focusing on a single publisher, which I will do next week.

Click the post title to read the column.

Thanks and Enjoy!

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Catching Up

About Tuesday or Wednesday I started easing back into things as far as lettering, writing, web stuff, etc. I'm almost back to the level I was, but there are a few things I've yet to take back on. Any lettering I have pending I'll most likely pick back up on Monday, so if you're reading this, it'll be soon.

The new PR Editing job is going great and I'm really enjoying it. It's not like work at all for me. Don't get me wrong, it's time consuming and takes some patience, but it's still something I enjoy doing. So all is good there. Ask me again come time for Marvel and DC solicitations, which I'm in charge of posting! :)

I saw V for Vendetta finally tonight. I thought it was a good movie. I haven't read the original, so I didn't really have any expectations or preconceived notions. I thought it was interesting, and there were some things about the message in the story that I agreed with and some I disagreed with. But all in all it was enjoyable. Not one of my favorite movies or anything, but a good flick.

I had some really bad pains late last night and this morning. I thought it was my back because that's where the pain was initially. It was really sore and hard for me to get comfortable. It finally became unbearable, and after trying to get situated until 4 this morning I went and took a hot bath and soaked in epsom salt, and took some advil. After about an hour in there I managed to get to sleep for about two hours before waking up in extreme pain far worse than what I had felt only hours prior. It was now in my chest and back, and was hard to breath. It felt like my ribs were broken. I started walking around rubbing my chest and back continuously for about 2 hours straight and it finally eased up a bit. I also drank some coffee in case it was gas, which I can only assume it was, I'm slightly embarrassed to say. I know they say gas can sometimes give symptoms of a heart attack, but man. If that's what it was I was in a lot of pain. Like near tears pain.

Anyway, I'm better now. I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep this afternoon, which is always good.

Tomorrow (or I guess today being 2am now) the next assignment is due in the CBRunway contest I'm in. This week we have to redesign Power Girl's costume to be more iconic. That's a tough challenge. I've gone through several designs, and now I'm finalizing the one I chose. I haven't even started on the actual drawing, and I only have about 25 hours until the deadline. I'll post the entry here and probably some of the other designs I scrapped as well just for kicks.

I finished my Indy-Pendant column two days ago (first time that's happened in a long time) and so I'll be putting that up here in a minute. I actually forgot about posting it or it would have already gone up. I'll make a new post announcing it.

Some interesting news coming out of Wizard World Chicago so far. Michael Turner is pencilling Ultimate Wolverine, written by Jeph Loeb! Now a lot of people I have found don't care for Turner's style, but I love it. I also have mad respect for the man. Back when he first made his return after his initial battle with cancer I read an article/interview with him and he totally inspired me. I give that man mad props, and I'm really looking forward to that series.

After WWC I may make a post talking about the highlights I found interesting.

I've already said it, but congratulations again to Scott and Shannon for their wedding later today. Wish I could be there!

And that's about it from the Roost for now.

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DJ Coffman Interview

Recently I got a chance to talk with the winner of the Platinum Studios Comic Book Challenge, DJ Coffman. DJ is a fellow Digital Webbing forum user and a cool guy.

You can read the interview by clicking the post title.

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My Brother's Doing Well So Far

Today my brother got out of the house for the first time since coming home. He went out to eat and seemed to handle it pretty well. The other day he got it in his head to be stubborn and went storming up the stairs. He didn't want to be babied anymore, so there he went.

His hearing seemed to be getting better, but the past couple of days we've had to repeat everything a couple of times, so that concerns me. But aside from that he's been doing great. No more throwing up, the headaches have lessened to where he can play video games and have lights on... and yell when he's upset about something. :)

There are some things food wise he just doesn't have a taste for anymore oddly enough. But it's understandable since one of those items is what he regurgitated all over his hair during the accident, which wasn't washed out for four days.

Tomorrow the ultimate test. My mom and brother are going with my brother's best friend and his mother school shopping... to the mall! And not just any mall, but the biggest and busiest mall on the busiest side of town in the second largest city in Kentucky. Granted, that's nothing compared to your malls in the larger cities like Chicago, Atlanta, New York or most of California, but it's still a good size and a LOT of people when just days ago he stressed out if more than two people were around at once.

But since he's starting school this coming Wednesday he needs to get used to it.

So that's what's going on. I may give an update tomorrow after the mall experience, then definitely after the first day of school. Then I'll probably stay quiet until the next doctor's appointment if all goes well.

Brant

Pariah

This coming Sunday in my Indy-Pendant column one of the titles I discuss is Pariah #2. I reviewed the first issue back in May in the same column, and was sent the second issue just a few days ago.

You can read the review to find out what I thought of the issue in and of itself, and I assure you it was pretty positive. But this post is to address some things I disagreed with in the issue. I didn't want to litter the review with negativity, nor did I want to express my concerns about how it opposed beliefs I have. The review was on the story, writing and art, which was all good. It wasn't the time or place to discuss beliefs.

Now, the first thing I take issue with is the thought of humans becoming angels. This is a pet peeve of mine, because not only does it not make sense, but it's also not Biblical. Nowhere in the Bible does it mention a human becoming an angel. Sure, the human spirit goes there, but we don't all of a sudden grow wings and start looking out for people.

Biblically, we are actually above the angels in rank with God when we have a relationship with God because we have free will. The angels don't have that, and the Bible says they envy that relationship we have with God.

Secondly, as I mentioned in my review of the first issue, Lucifer is not the only fallen angel, nor is he the only one banished. Yes, Lucifer is the first, and he was cast down, but a third of the angels were cast out with him because they sided with him.

It's also questionable to me that the figure that appears as an angel in this issue would be in heaven at all. Now none of us know for sure who will make it and who won't. Because aside from the guidelines God lays out for us, His love and compassion goes beyond our comprehension or understanding. And He does wish all of us would make it. So anything's possible.

But the character in question isn't the most saintly in the world, or even the most decent of people regardless of the love he instilled in his afterlife in all of his fans.

But that one's a small issue that doesn't bother me that much. I know it was added for the story, and it's actually kind of cool.

I guess I would just like to see more accurate depictions in media than we normally get. The movie City of Angels and the books by Frank Peretti are the closest representations I've seen to date. And City of Angels still got it wrong with an angel becoming human. As far as I know that's just not possible. They can appear as human, but not actually be human. Then again, I'm not an angel and I'm not God, so who knows?

Regardless, Pariah is an interesting story with some cool twists, and it's great entertainment. So for that I give it props!

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Myth Conceptions

The new column is up!

This week I talk about the Evolution of a Character. I even share a character design of my own showing examples of how it evolved over several years.

Click the post title to read the column.

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One More Update on my Brother

The day before yesterday he had a really good day. Yesterday that changed a bit.

He had started to get his appetite back, and seemed to be getting back to normal. But yesterday he completely lost his appetite. And the few times he did eat he threw up. The doctor told us to call if he vomited consistently for a 24 hour period. He's thrown up 3-5 times in the past 24 hours, but it's not been anything major, just bile for the most part.

He's up today and he's been taking showers. He threw up a little about an hour ago, but not much. He's able to watch TV with the sound low and is even laughing and talking. His hearing is gradually getting better in his left ear, so things are looking good there so far.

Not much else to report. We've limited visitors for yesterday and today to family only, and sparingly with them so he can get some rest. Yesterday we had family over from around 1pm until 10 at night, so that was a bit much. My aunt and two cousins are coming over again today, but they won't stay as long. I have to use their phone, which is the main reason they're coming over at all.

If anything else noteworthy happens I'll post about it, but things should be getting quiet on the subject as he recovers. I hope that's the case because anything I would report would probably be bad news save a miraculous healing or something.

Again, thanks to everyone who has sent their thoughts, prayers and well wishes our way via cards, balloons, blog posts, emails, or whatever other form or response was given. My family and I thank you. God bless!

Brant