Dystopian future animated movie: URBANCE looks fabulous. Go look! Go look!
printing addiction
I never knew how much I needed to have physical volumes of my comics until I made a print order. They are so much more real now…I can put them on my shelves and begin filling a library full of me! I realized after Levi Levi Chapter One and the Monster Girl’s School Zine came in the mail that I have many more finished chapters and comics living ethereal lives in digital form.
I printed up the short comics of the lot myself: Lighthousemen of Eilean Mor, Death Goes to Octoberfest, Grimm’s The Wolf and 7 Kids, and Flip Side. These are really just mock ups, but don’t they look pretty with Levi Levi and the Monster Girls? Ooh, and my Levi Levi stickers came yesterday.
Tattoo is my choose your own adventure story, also a mock up. I sew bound it with some glue support but then cheated and used duct tape to cover the spine.
Perhaps I will take my short comic mock ups to the copy store. I am starting work on making the first chapters of No Evil and Unlikely Bedfellows print ready as well. Soon I will have an entire table’s worth of comics for sale.
Wolf and bunny
I’m not prone to drawing anthropomorphic animals, but these two just came out of nowhere and demanded that I give them some space. That and, I got to try out some environments I have been drawing.
You see, I had this idea, that for a bunch of the character drawings that I do, I could have them live in a world of environmental drawings and after assembling the two, wind up with pictures that are more complete than either picture is alone. Yes, it’s kind of cheating and no, I’m not going to do it with everything.
I really like how the two dancing pictures came out, the stability of the background really makes it look like the two characters have moved across the floor. I’m sure I could’ve done that manually, but this was easier. Another added bonus to assembling character and environment drawings is that sometimes you are forced to crop and re size in a way that results a photographic quality, where shoulders, feet, and outstretched limbs are cut off in order to capture the middle of the arrangement. It makes me think of how many painters where inspired by photographic framing after Daguerreotypes came to popularity.
As you’ll see with Levi Levi on Thursday, I am trying something new that is similar to this for the flashback portion of the story. I am really liking the results too.
Coming up
Now that fall semester has started again and chaos of midterms and first projects starts to blend with the warm feeling of the approaching holidays, it’s time for artists, comickers, and writers to commit to insane goals. Let’s review:
- Inktober: celebration of drawing with ink from October 1 to October 31.
- 24 Hour Comics Day: create a complete 24 comic in 24 hours.
- NaNoWriMo: write a 50,000 novel during the month of November.
- Optionally AcWriMo: November long write-a-thon for academics and scholars.
Are you ready now?
Marcus Trapp
You may have begun to wonder what was happening to good old Marcus Trapp. The idea has not vanished. In fact, it may end up being my magnum opus. One of the things on my list of to dos for Marcus Trapp was some site artwork. How do you like it? It’s kind of hard to draw a character who will look completely different every time he is re-incarnated. I should give him a birthmark and incorporate that into some site artwork too. I mean, a comic ‘s got to have a logo.
Surviving Whole Foods | Kelly MacLean
Surviving Whole Foods | Kelly MacLean = hilarious article.
Marketing me
I was talking with a wonderful and wise friend who’s first thought on seeing my newly printed stack of Levi Levi and the Monster Girls’ School zine was that I should have a table at a comic-con or some such. And I thought, ‘if I were to have a table I would probably need to print up the first chapters of No Evil and Unlikely Bedfellows as well as have some flyers and whatnots so people could remember who I was.’
Well, I haven’t booked a table and I haven’t made any more printing orders, but I have ordered Levi Levi stickers, LeEMS business cards, and made some mini-flyers:
My Daguerreotype Boyfriend
I’ve talked about how I like Daguerreotypes before, so of course My Daguerreotype Boyfriend would be much beloved by me if only to gaze at the marvel of historical science. If you like looking at portraiture of people you don’t know, or you, like me, love a good gander at Daguerreotypes then you should also check out My Daguerreotype Boyfriend.
Cyberoptix TieLab
I found these ties while I was searching for a straight razor tie tack for Richard. Instead, I got him a straight razor tie. The ties at Cyberoptix TieLab are gorgeous and truly do not suck, as they say.
Levi Levi commercial
Okay, so I made a commercial for Levi Levi Chapter One. And I am only hesitant and a little embarrassed because I don’t hear my recorded voice very often.
I am also planning on making a commercial for Chronicles of Plastic Deer, because that’s what people do now a days–make commercials for books and all. And because no one has read it yet and it’s my responsibility as the writer and web master to advertize. And because I had all these drawings of the characters and nothing to do with them…
Talking about mermaids
I’ve been looking through a lot of my Spectrum books (and I have a lot of Spectrum books) so I have been drawing a lot of mermaids (they are chock full). And then, I happened upon a movie in Netflix instant that sounded kind of cool. Mad About Men is a strange and quirky British comedy follow up to Miranda (also a comedy). Both movies star Glynis Johns as a mermaid. I watched them out of order, but it didn’t effect my enjoyment of them.
The strangest, and most delightful, in my opinion, part of the Miranda movies is that the mermaid doesn’t magically sprout legs on land and blend into the human scenery. Quite the opposite, not only must she soak her tail every night, but she travels around during the day in a wheel chair and gowns long enough to cover everything. Her lack of mobility doesn’t affect her simultaneous seductions of multiple men, however.
And, true to so many movies I’ve seen from the 40s and 50s, no outrageous betrayal will keep all of the characters from living happily ever after together…wait–what? (see Miss Annie Rooney)
Appetizer series
Mini Quiches
Ingredients: eggs, shredded cheese, steamed and pulverized broccoli, flour, butter, water.
Instructions: 1.) make some pie crust dough: this is really easy and usually requires mixing together a little less butter than flour and a trickling of water to hold it all together. You don’t even have to worry too much about the texture and consistency on something this small. 2.) push pie crust dough into a mini muffin pan (yup, don’t roll it out at all, just use your fingers–I told you it was easy). 3.) mix together steamed/pulverized broccoli, eggs, and shredded cheese. I used 2 eggs for an entire mini muffin pan (see previous sentence on small portion consistency). 4.) spoon mixture into pie crust dough lined mini muffin divots. 5.) bake at 350 or 400 until they firm up and brown a bit (estimate 20 to 30 min.).
Release tip: I typically use a lot of butter in my pie dough and so do not worry about greasing the muffin pan. If you are worried about sticking, you can use the butter stick paper to lightly grease the pan. To get all the little quiches out, fit foil over the top of the pan after it cools a little. Hold edges firmly and flip the whole thing over on the counter, then un-crimp the foil and lift the pan off the freed and un-dented quiches.
Automatic pants
This is what happened when I asked Richard for a drawing prompt.
knitting
I knit, did you know? I have a whole bag of scarves and such, because scarves is what every new knitter and every now and again knitter knits. At least they are the thing when there are no other plans. And since every new and now and again knitter knits scarves, they are well nigh impossible to sell – that is what I have found. I am thinking of lashing them all together and making a big stripey blanket. In the meantime, I will take pictures of them and use them as hair texture. Cool, huh?
Guess what came in the mail yesterday
And guess what is now for sale on my shop? Come on! Do you need me to spell it out for you? Levi Levi Chapter One: The Long Assignment and the Wyvern School for Girls Yearbook 1978 are now available for purchase in the LeEMS store.
