I took time away from here to do some big projects in real life, ie: day job. Here’s whats happening with us, for those of you who think I’m just sitting around playing banjo all day:

Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.

First panel of a new thing, a re-telling of a South American creation/love story found in Memory of Fire by Eduardo Galeano.

I’m doing the final piece in Infinite Canvas, most likely. And since this book is so chock full of amazing myths and creation stories I’m thinking of adapting a few and making a bigger non linear piece out of it all.

Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.

bought a set of blank nesting dolls, say for 12 bucks from The Wurst Gallery (scroll down), and sent em to me, well, I’d totally paint ‘em for you.

Yep.

Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

Why is no one talking about The Process by Joe Infurnari?

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

Sebastien Dumesnil, The director of Adventures into Digital Comics wrote to let me know he’s put up the official trailer for the film.

It’s great he’s putting that Patrick Farley (Stravinsky) quote right out front. It is too late to ask where we are going. It’s funny that, as I sit here and think about where our experimenters went, and how to go about making something new and novel, this trailer shows two of them (and the work of a few others) all of who were documented in this film at their peak, before we settled into our outdated little strip-shapes and our Platinum print deals. They’re here, from the past to remind me of a time when the Infinite Canvas was infinite, and so were webcomics.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

In thinking about this new project, I remember back in 2004 I did a cover for the brilliant and hibernating Webcomic Examiner.

I’ve tracked it down and uploaded it for you to see.

I don’t think I’ll follow this strictly with the 5 words portion, but it’s a good (and kinda syrupy) example of the benefits of working under constraints.

(Photo taken and doctored up by Nich, at Purifoy’s Sculpture Garden)

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

Once again, it’s the first of the month and that means more of Mark Teppo’s fantastic “The Oneiromantic Mosaic of Harry Potemkin” at Farrago’s Wainscot. Which in turn, means another illustration by me:

Also this week: my two friends Alexander Danner and Steve Harrison have put out a new collaboration, “Lending Can Openers” I think it’s really exceptional work from both of them, especially Steve. “Action” is more his game (as well as robots, thechnology, lasers blasts, and tits), and outside the opening of a drawer and the lending of particular household items, there isn’t much movement.

And finally, Here is Jefferson’s Decalogue of Canons for observation in practical life

Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day.

Never trouble another for what you can do yourself.

Never spend your money before you have it.

Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.

Pride costs us more than hunger, thirst and cold.

We never repent of having eaten too little.

Nothing is troublesome that we do willingly.

How much pain have cost us the evils which have never happened.

Take things always by their smooth handle.

When angry, count ten, before you speak; if very angry, an hundred.

(full contents of this letter can be found here)

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

This kind of stuff confuses me as much as it angers me. I know it’s been going around for awhile but it shouldn’t be old news until it stops.

(more here)

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

I was talking to Steve and WillieG the other day about their audiences, and all the strange and unsettling (or nice and complimentary) e-mails they get, and I had to admit, I don’t ever get emails like that. Y’know, like “fan” emails. No one’s ever written me and complained that the Jerk didnt find his heart or they’re bummed that I ended Underhunt or why don’t I do more 10:30 to 12 or whatever.

I may not get a lot of emails and feedback on my work but every once in a while, something like this will pop up in my referral log. A person who decided to sit down and write an essay about how one of my comics work, and why they’re interesting. it’s a student mostly, or someone excited about the potential of webcomics, and they see some potential in one of mine.

Frankly I’m happy to be without those people who email you about why you missed Monday’s update. I’ll take nice people Like Hanli Becker any day. (AND she used the word “Palimpsest”, which I had to look up. That’s a good word.)

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

Nich stripped down his guitar in order to dial it in a bit. While it was de-constructed, He asked me to paint it:

Better pics will be forthcoming in a few days. For those who don’t recognize it, it’s the penultimate panel from our Turpentine comic

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

So it’s one thing when a few friends decide to cover a song from your “band” (I put it in quotes because, as we are fond of saying, we’re really drunks with a music problem), but when a dude you don’t know from Adam covers it, it really seems like this goofy thing might have legs. Check out Yopparai Kyabetsu’s awesome version (complete with homemade PVC trombone) and all the others at the Turpentine Project page!

If anyone hasn’t seen them yet you can read my very esoteric and formally constrained Bitpass series for free from this post. I’ll get around to cutting out the pay buttons on the bitpass enabled version sometime soon.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

It should be noted that Christmas fireworks are awesome. Specially when you sit so close that the concussions can knock your Glühwein off the table.

It should also be noted that it’s nice to see Europe’s First Smoker included in Full Story: The Year in Review! I mean Narbonic is in there, man. That’s gonzo.  Thanks Alexander and Tim!

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

We’re busy this month. Pretty unique, as December is not the time people normally buy murals. But we have a few clients who are doing some pretty amazing stuff for their kid’s holidays (the one I’m working on this week is a giant attic playroom, for a boy and girl complete with pirates and adventure for him and renaissance dress-up for her (I guess I should say princess stuff, but it’s really much cooler)…. I actually have to turn down work for this month, I think. I’ve no clue what to do for work come Jan 1st, however. But that’s then… BTW, here’s a mural we just finished in a friend’s salon. I enjoyed painting some of the vegetation, I don’t normally do that.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

I stumbled across ArtRage, the free version of which I procured and made this:

Pretty good setup and incredibly like real painting, I think. I’m especially impressed with the blue I used above, it’s a pretty decent match for French Ultramarine and Prussian Blue in Oils. The program is fast and easy to figure out, and the full version is only 20 bucks.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

So I signed up for a free WCN account. You can find the skeleton here.

I’m really pleased to be taking a look at WCN, I’ve been entertaining getting an account (And would have taken the plunge already if Jon wasn’t such an awesome host!) ever since it debuted.
The only problem is, now that I have one, I have no idea what to do with it.

I was thinking it could serve as a repository for stuff related to Dancers, or maybe I should use the extensive directory listing and categorizing at WCN to advertise my pre-exisiting comics. Or maybe I should just overwork myself and ressurect an older series like 10:30 to 12 or maybe Underhunt (or start a new series entirely), all while working on Dancers.

So tell me, what should I do?

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

So we watched A Prairie Home Companion the other day and I have to say it sucked, but was great too. And a few days later I’m still racking my brain about why I liked it enough to watch it twice, but fast forward through half.

I could have watched hours of The Johnson sisters talking, harmonizing, crying etc, because that is what I expect the backstage at a A Prairie Home to be like. I could have watched the musical performances, checked out the gear they use, etc. for the entirety of the movie, but they went and stuck it together with this supernatural miserably slow tale of an angel in a white trenchcoat and the bumbling Guy Noir and their last desperate attempt at prolonging the life of the show.

As an amateur musician, one concept you hear a lot about but no one ever really explains, is the concept of “keys”. I’ve been looking into it and have a few links that seem to rough out what it means when some one says “In this one, we’re gonna shuffle around in G” or “C! That’s a good country key” What it boils down to roughly is that some notes and chords sound good together. In a group they form an emotion and share similar qualities. In language terms, they make a sentence.

This is where the Circle of Fifths comes in, which is a way to group notes and (in some ways) predict what will come next based on what you heard. It’s “syntax” for music, more or less. (any musicians or linguists out there feel free to correct me, if I’m wrong anywhere)
So it strikes me that music is not the only artform that uses Keys. Lets go back to A Prairie Home. In the midst of this very Minor Key story about a closing old time radio show, they toss in some chords in the form of story elements and characters which don’t jibe at all with the much more natural setting in which it resides. And in this respect A Prairie Home Companion ends up being at worst a crappy stitched-together movie, and at best, a perfect example of Atonatily in film.

And to take it further, advertising is an example of Key Signature, isn’t it? The cover of a book lets us know what Key we are going to be reading. Is this a major Key story? Is this one Minor? Course not. We can tell by looking at them. We can judge by their covers what we will read inside.
Do some colors and shapes, or some ways of composing or drawing conform to certain rules? I know it would be awful silly to be reading Pup and have a character who shoots things or fights stuff with light sabers. You can’t imagine it from looking at the color palette or the clean round descriptions in the line work. So maybe there is a minor Key at work in Pup, which excludes any believable use of some Chords or story elements?

Pup (and all stories, I’ll argue) has a syntax at work at least, if not a Key.

Is it possible to make a Circle of Fifths for comics? To dictate elements when creating a story, based on which concepts work best together in a certain Story Key? Is there an effective way or set of rules to be devised to convey to the audience what kind of Key your story will be in?

Does this work across the board? I have no idea. But it sure feels good to get it out and stop thinking about it for a while.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

I went ahead and finished the rest of “Europe’s First Smoker”, you can read it here. It ends kind of abruptly, but so did Rodrigo.

I should probably find a way to group some of the 3 pagers I’ve done and put them on the site in a more visible way. I should also go about presenting this whole thing in Infinite Canvas. Would anyone prefer that?

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

I’m working on a quick story to get warmed back up. It’s fairly lifted from inspired by this book I’m reading:

Pages 2 and 3 coming soon.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

Hey Long time no talk. Here’s the talking points memo for today’s meeting with the head honcho of our biggest client. There’s a lot riding on this meeting and it’s your last chance at this agency, so stop hanging out with that girl you just met and that experimental robot from R&D. You get it, chief? Cause that dude with the impeccable hair and tan is out for your position. And he’ll get it too, unless you can coax the grizzled and grumpy head of this company into remembering what it feels like to have some heart.

(Originally published at hypercomics.net. You can comment here or there.)

I thought I’d just hide out today, not post anything and let it pass, but Oh well. But, just so you know, I tried.

I dunno why I always feel it relevant to make mention of the withered-on-the-vine Webcomics Tribute Project. I guess because the work there never really got the recognition I thought it should have.
Looking at it again today, I’m most fond of Joe Szilagyi’s comic. And the one by Matt R Davis.

Most likely because they are still relevant 5 years later, they still speak to the Long War, and they point out that even now, those towers are still falling on people.

At the risk of sounding preachy, hide out from propaganda today, don’t watch thier docu-dramas and thier ficto-dramas. Make a tribute of your own. Read Stuck, go get a copy of “We the People”, Check out “Loose Change”, File through some stuff over on 9-11 research. Don’t give in to the movie version of what happened.