Geek Speaking on the Sexy Snikt and Kicking to Start

Geek Speak: The Sexy Snikt

As comic strips go this one isn't very high concept. The idea grabbed me as having some funny potential, so the problem became the execution. Initially I'd envisioned this as much more realistic with Wolverine looking rugged and manly in his leather jacket and jeans. He'd be standing in a hallway of the Xavier Institute when Psylocke walked by. Same idea, very different execution. I went this route because the tiny hero versions I've done are fun to draw...and it's a lot easier this way. 

Yup. Wolverine is drinking beer at lunch. That rogue. 

Starting the Kicks

I've been trying to think of some ways that I might be able to take what I'm doing with the blog and my cartoons to the next level. Some things are kind of self evident. Already I feel like I'm outgrowing the straight blog format. At the very least it's not a great way to showcase the comic strips, and anyone just getting started out reading the strips would have a hell of a time going back to the beginning. When I converted blog to a magazine layout it helped some, but in looking at other webcomics as a guide absolutely all of them make use of a viewer that allows the reader to go back and forth, view an archive, even jump to one at random. 

To be competitive I also need to bring up my game in my artwork. Drawmelt has been a part of that strategy, and getting the opportunity to draw a live model in a cool, totally chill setting has been of huge benefit to my artwork. The other part of bringing up my artistic game is learning to work in digital. Most of my education in drawing comes from my dad who was a tremendous artist, and an art teacher, but he had a classical education. By extension, I do too, plus a liberal dose of instruction from the incomparable book, How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way. Before long that's not going to be enough. I'm going to need to learn to draw on a tablet using something like Photoshop. 

Both of those things take a tremendous toll on the dual resources of time and money. Neither of which I have in surplus, and shortly after my number two is born I'm going to have a lot less of each. I need a solution so I started looking into Kickstarter.

It's intriguing. My goal would be pretty modest. I'd need start up money to upgrade my computer, get a second monitor, purchase a tablet, subscribe to Adobe Photoshop, and have general expenses for at least six months. Compared to other projects out there, that's relatively humble. What's stopping me is all the unknowns. An even bigger blocker is the possibility of success and not only having to live up to my stretch goals, but to produce something; to live up to the expectations and faith of my supporters. 

People who come up short with the excuse that they're terrified of failure I don't think are being totally honest with themselves. More terrifying than failure is the prospect of success. Failure is not starting in the first place, that ship has sailed before someone can open their mouth to make the excuse. Success is scary because once you have it you have to work to keep it. 

So that's something I'm wrestling with. What's clear is I'm quickly reaching a point where I need to make a move into something bigger, or keep this going as a passion project, but not something that's ever going to buy groceries. 

Maybe someone reading this has a solution, some perspective, or an angle on this I haven't thought of yet. At this point I'm all ears.

Tiny Psylocke Gets Exposure

Tiny Heroes: Get Psylocked!

I wanted to do something a little different with the tiny heroes, and thought a good way to change things up would be to draw a tiny heroine. So far I've been drawing a lot of dudes from Marvel and DC. It's way past time for some girl power!

Psylocke has always been a favorite X-Person of mine. She has serious martial arts skills, her ability to focus her telepathic abilities into a "psychic knife" is...just...cool, and lest I forget to mention it, she's hot.

This is a character I would like to see treated really well in the books. Her use of telepathy is different from anyone else in all of the X-Books, and her seriously tormented background puts her somewhere in the Wolverine and Elektra range of psychologically broken. That could make for some really interesting conflict as she wrestles to come to terms with her past and tries to redefine who she wants to be.

Comic Book Review: Exposure 

Publisher: Red Giant Entertainment

Issue: 1
Price: Free on Comixology. Who cares how much it actually costs. Don't pay money for this.
Recommendation: Take a pile of them out in a field and build a fire pit. Burn them. Bury the ashes. Salt the earth where they are buried so nothing more can grow from their cremated remains.

At some point I was flipping through the free titles on Comixology, which I do quite a bit as I can't wrap my head around paying print edition cover prices for a digital copy. When I stumbled across this comic I don't know what compelled me to click on it so I could see more, although it might have something to do with the cover art.

I suppose I figured I'd check it out, probably find a book that embodied all the things I can't stand about mature titles, then flip away and forget I'd ever seen the thing. On one level it didn't disappoint, but it also presented vampires in an intriguing way. My interest aroused...just my interest people...I downloaded and read the book. It took a half an hour of my life that I will never get back.

This book absolutely represents almost every element of mature reader comics that make me want to grab the creators and shake them until their brains rattle while screaming, "How dare you pollute the art I love!"

This is where a spoilers warning would go, but I really don't give a shit. I don't want anyone to buy this thing.

The book is so bad I feel like I have to start with something good to say about it. Some of the writing manages to be compelling. The big plot point driving the first issue is a compelling idea that Roman Centurions who were responsible for nailing Christ to his cross were cursed to become vampires by spilling the blood of a divine innocent. That's pretty compelling on its own, but the writing goes on to briefly flirt with brilliance in its explanation of the classic vampire vulnerabilities. They can be killed by wooden stakes, because that represents the wood on which Jesus was hung. They're burned by holy water because that represents Christ's tears. My personal favorite is the explanation offered by the book for a vampire's weakness at dawn, and strength at dusk. Christ died on the cross at dusk, then rose at dawn on the third day. And therein the compliments end.

The book's title is "Exposure," which is setting the correct expectations right there on the cover. The story revolves around two women, both working for the same police department. One is a medical examiner and the other detective. It seems like the creators were trying for Rizzoli & Isles with vampires. What they accomplish is presenting the comic adaptation of a Cinemax original horror movie called Hot Cops 2: Vampire Nuns.

Much of what I will grudgingly call the story centers around vampire attacks on a convent. The convent must be the Sacred Order of the Magdalene's Holy Ta-Tas because all of the sisters are insanely hot under their habits, with the exception of the mother superior. The presence of the nuns is then elevated to fetishism when the main characters don habits to blend in. Not only do they not get to finish dressing before the convent is attacked, but the habits are damaged in the battle so they're fighting in a catholic nun's version of a micro-mini that conveniently shows off their fishnets. That's not a typo. They're wearing fishnets under a nun's habit.

When the main characters do engage in battle it seems like they must have unbreakable skin or something equally implausible. Vampire attacks that tear full grown men in half do nothing to them but tear off their shirts. Not their bras, mind, just their shirts. Which begs the question; if your skin is invulnerable to harm, why do you need a bra made of Kevlar?

Easily the most offensive thing about the book is the casual way it treats violence against women. It's either pointless and gratuitous, or it's a speedy way to get the main characters' kit off. Whatever the reason it's bizarre and offensive in the way that it's fetishized.

Overall the one or two good things in this book are not remotely enough to balance its failings. Don't make the mistake I did reading this thing. There are a lot of creators putting out there putting out much worthier work. To be fair, it looks like Red Giant Entertainment, the publisher of this book, has a few titles that would be worth a look.

Whew. Got that off my chest. It's an important lesson I think. Not every book out there is going to be good. Now I'm going to go re-read Saga. After that I need something genuinely great to restore my faith in comic books as a storytelling medium.

Hulk Smash Puny Espresso

Not so Tiny Heroes

My wife and I sat down with our daughter tonight so Mildly Sensational could read to our little girl. While they read I pulled out the smaller of my sketchbooks and started doodling. The first thing that came out was a tiny-hero Daredevil that I'm reasonably happy with, but not so much that I want to post it right away. It's definitely not on-par with tiny Nick Fury. 

After drawing The Man Without Fear I naturally turned to drawing his on-again, off-again girlfriend/booty-call, the Black Widow. That one I will post at some point. The pencil drawing turned out really well, I just want to touch it up with ink before putting it out there forever on the interwebs.

By this time our daughter was calling for her third book, "other book, mommy, other book!" Since they were still preoccupied with Sesame Street, Doctor Seuss, and book about noses, I started on what was supposed to be a tiny hero version of the Hulk. It turns out it's more difficult than I thought to draw a tiny Hulk. The Hulk by his nature is not. tiny. Instead what I came up with was the idea of putting the Hulk somewhere you wouldn't ordinarily see him. That turned out to be a coffee shop. 

Coffee Bean and Tea Hulk

Randomly Posting the Fury of Nick

Random Thoughts

You know how I know deep down inside I'm really still a twelve year old boy? I think this is hilarious:

69, DUDE! (har har har)


Tiny Heroes: The Fury of Nick!

This time I wanted to try a hero who is a little more challenging. The latest incarnation of Nick Fury is awesome, but he's just a guy. Kind of like Batman (without the obsessive tendencies or sadistic neat to beat pure snatchers to pulp) all of his heroics come from his toys, his grit, and the twelve pound brass ones he hauls around between his legs. He's not really my favorite hero in the Marvel universe, but I've started enjoying him more since Marvel (rightly) updated him for the Ultimates.

Before the one-eyed super-spy in blue tights (seriously, what military would ever issue a uniform that consisted of anything you would call "tights") was given a cool make over as a love letter to Samuel L. Jackson, he was this middle-aged white guy with dashing (smug) white hair at his temples. He looked kind of like a muscly Hugh Hefner with guns. He was perpetually chewing on a cigar and glaring at people.

The original concept of for this character was a dated archetype more fitting the period post WWII or post Korean War. He was visibly better suited to fighting "commies" than dealing with the modern "war on terror" world we live in today.

As much as I love Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, I've never thought of Nick Fury as one of their best. The original character was so lame that in a made for TV movie that was ultimately (so to speak) released directly to DVD he was played by David Hasselhoff.

The reboot of the character shed the campiness that had followed him from his debut in the '60s. In the Ultimates, and eventually in the more "mainstream" Marvel titles, he's been given some gravitas and infused with an uncompromising nature that makes him feel like the crazy-dangerous super-spy he's supposed to be.

All of that said, it's fun to draw a little one-eyed guy holding improbably enormous guns.

Tiny Heroes Doing What They Have To

Tiny Heroes: Batman and Robin
Every so often I end up on a conference call or in a meeting where the purpose of the meeting or the issues being discussed have little to do with me, or leave me limited room to contribute. If that sounds like it might be boring, let me tell you it absolutely is every bit as dull as it sounds. That said it's also an opportunity. On those occasions when I'm in a meeting or on a call where I don't need to be very involved I pull out my notebook and pencil and draw whatever comes to mind. Today this is what came of listening to one of the developers on my team walk a client through a fairly technical process.

I've always thought it was odd that Batman is dressed in head-to-toe black, with a cape to break up the contours of his body and a mask that covers his entire face, but Robin jumping around in brightly colored underroos was hilariously unfair. I have to assume this conversation was a fairly regular thing, especially when Dick Grasyon was younger. 

Is this Selling Out, Giving Up, or Moving On?

To understand where this post is coming from it's necessary to have the proper context. The picture on the right should pretty clearly sum up my motivation for the decisions I've made in the last couple of weeks.

This is a sonogram image of the baby my wife and I are expecting in October. We found out Mildly Sensational is pregnant at the end of January. As soon as we found out she was pregnant I started giving some serious thought to my priorities and what they should be. 

For a while now some of the people in the company I work for have made it clear that my pursuit of some kind of acting career outside the boundaries of their organization wasn't working for them. It wouldn't be untrue to say there were some very oblique threats to my job related to the time I sometimes had to take for auditions. 

Right now my job is the only income, and my insurance is the only thing guaranteeing that my wife can work with the awesome obstetrician who delivered our first. After many years of struggling I had to put responsibility and ambition on the scales opposing each other. Responsibility far out-weighted my ambition. 

Almost two weeks ago I contacted my manager, my commercial agent, and my theatrical agent and asked them to remove me from their rosters. In essence I took any hope of an acting career and set it aside. 

This has been the most difficult two weeks I've had in a while. Acting is something I've wanted to do for a long, long time, and I'd had some minor successes. Nothing that would propel me into being able to do it full-time, but some positive steps. But I recognized that it was time to, as my Granddad Randels would put it, "do what I have to."

It's been painful. I can't watch Actor's Studio and listen to great actors talk about what a wonderful thing it is that they get to act for a living. There's a pang in my heart when I drive past trucks lined up on the side of the road and lights and "flags" have been set up for a film shoot. There's a little piece of my mind that says, "this is the closest I'm ever going to get; staring wistfully at a film crew at work as I drive by." 

It has to be done. It's the right decision, for right now. Maybe it's something I'll be able to get back to. For now I'm grateful that I have this as an outlet for my creativity. I'm grateful for my wife and our daughter who give me all the reason I need to say I'm doing the right thing. I'm grateful for my friends who support me. 

For now I just hang on, do what I have to, and hope there are bigger and better things on the horizon. 

Doodling Tiny Heroes

Doodles: Tiny Super Heroes
At some point in the not too distant past I got the idea to try and draw tiny, cute versions of Marvel superheroes. I think we were probably watching the animated series adaptation of Marvel's Avengers at the time. Whatever the reason I took up my pencil, turned to a blank page and drew a picture of tiny spiderman...that looks like someone put him together from spare parts. Undaunted I tried Wolverine, and ended up with something that looks like he's up and trying to walk around without the advantage of a skeleton.

Finally I had the bright idea to draw Thor. Not sure why that seemed like a good idea at the time, given that he's not exactly easy with the helmet, and the armor, and the hammer, and the long flowing locks of blond hair. Maybe I just found the right groove for drawing tiny heroes or maybe the challenge of drawing all those details made me focus in a different way, but I managed a tiny version of the mighty thunderer that is almost...cute.

After Thor I tried my hand at the wasp and came up with something that I like, but it turned out more realistic and less cartoony than Thor...Is it weird that I think the Wasp is hot?

Since then I've drawn a few more. Honestly, it's a lot of fun drawing tiny versions of these characters.
This one of Catwoman was done in about ten minutes while sitting in my car before work

Green Lantern is a character I've only recently started to appreciate. I really like the idea of these heroes drawing their powers from the elemental force of Will itself. This one was drawn at my desk at work between calls, meetings, and when I could grab five seconds to add a line here or there. Even so, I caught a couple of dark looks from a manager who I think doesn't like me drawing at my desk.

It seems like it must be some kind of rite of passage that all comic book geeks, artists, and even humble cartoonists must draw Wolverine at some point. It's like someone is going to come and snip off the parts of you that make you a comic book geek if you don't. I think that's why Wolverine has something 10,000 monthly titles and appears in all of the other comic books. I don't mean Marvel comics. I mean Wolverine is in every comic book ever created. As ridiculously overused as I think Wolverine really is, this was a lot of fun to draw. It's another that was done in about ten minutes in my car before work.