Refitting The Ship

I know The Basic Virus and 365 both haven't been updated in a timely manner, and for this I apologize: we're packing and moving and getting out of Dodge. Bear with me: when we get down to lovely SF, the comics will start flowing once more.

Any SF heads wanna get a beer after Friday?

Sketchblog - 8/5/06

Rocco, the Gnome of Missing Socks

Sketchblog 7/28/06

Like a lot of dudes my age, I'm totally in love with the old UPA animation aesthetic, both in major releases like Eyvind Earle backgrounds for Disney's Sleeping Beauty, and in small releases like Ward Kimball's super weird stuff. Below is a couple of samples of an ad layout that was eventually dropped in favor of something else I did, but I'm proud of the look just the same. The direction was 'Holly Golightly-1950's-girl-about town', and I think it's pretty successful.

Waters Red

I just completed the new music video for Argo. It's a ComicCast (or Animatic), it's on iTunes, it's a kickass song, and it's kinda awesome (he says humbly). Let me know what you think.

To diversify, or not to diversify.

I hate to sound like a stuffed shift, but it occurs to me that the question of whether Clickwheel “should” diversify bears un uncanny resemblance to certain arguments that have stalked the very nature of artistic creation for years. The issue at hand is whether Clickwheel, promoted as a comics-on-Ipod service, should start to include more genres that,
while all relate to comics in some way, push the limits, or at least blur the lines, of what a ‘comics’ site is all about. Some disclosure here is in order: Colin White’s comix-with-a-soundtrack, and my music video for Argo, essentially made from a comic on the inside of their album cover, are the likely instigators of the current debate.

What are we doing here? Why are we involved in this? I think I can safely speak for a great majority of us when I say we’re all interested in the promotion of comics as an art form, and where it can go from here. ‘Purist’ is a loose term. If any of us were REAL purists, we’d still be at home, furiously inking on Bristol board and looking in vain for a publisher to print our comics on four color spot litho. We’d also be looking at being paid around 20¢ page, after printing costs were taken into account.

There is a rank hypocrisy that tends among the comics community , one that is think can be found in anything community that is involved is something really cool. It can be very insular and protectionist, cracking wise at it’s own snarky jokes, furiously posting like mad to private bulletin boards, and converging at conventions to geek-speak to each other (see you next week!). And then, occasionally, the community will raise it’s collective fists, and demand to be taken seriously, outraged that the term ‘comic book’ is still derogatory, and pissed that there’s only about 5 guys who actually get reviewed in the NYT Review of Books. I mean, come on. What do we expect?

My argument is that we have been speaking to ourselves for far too long, and it’s time to ride the current wave of comic book iconism in our more mainstream media sources to a real permanent seat at the table. We deserve this for all the guys and gals that came before, and for all the ones will come later. I think mobile comics are the venue for this.
And if incorporating other art forms, like music, sound design, and limited animation will ease that transition, I think we should go for it.

There’s a certain tragic beauty in the analog tools and methods of the past: I myself still shoot with a 1963 Nikon F series, and when I get the chance, I develop, too. The process is what I love, and that type of photography will never die. But photography had to adapt to keep up. Like all art forms, our chosen method of expression must adapt to our times, and that means getting more fans, and integrating and competing with the rest of the new media out there. For better or worse, and with apologies to Marshall McLuhan, we need a little hot media to attract new viewers. If we want a static, still frame to compete against YouTube, we might need a little background music.

Itunes can be our garden of Eden, if we want it to. Let’s do this, and introduce to rest of the world how cool what we do is.

"Narwhal off the Starboard side!"

My good friend and fellow fake-wood-panelling enthusiast Tim Lillis has just revamped his design site, and it's rad: he does a lot of stuff for Make Magazine, among others, so you know. He's good people. And he engineers a mean slinky.

Check out the link at the right, or click here.

Mmmmm. Fake wood paneling.

Sketchblog - 7/9/06

Stuff done today with some Paul Desmond on in the background.

"Divin' Bigfoot"? Don't ask me, I dunno.

What be this RSS? Some kind of sea beast?

A few cool things:

I've RSS enabled The Basic Virus site, and added a link to this blog. I've also started to put the robot stuff on Clickwheel, which should hopefully get some more readers into it....this is all just a build up to the next big piece of news...

I've been invited to speak at the San Diego Comic-Con, arguably, the biggest, baddest collection of nerds like me on the planet, with a nice smaterring of Hollywood and NYC publishing people too, so it's a huge deal.

From the site:

"2:00-3:00 Clickwheel: Comics for Your iPod— It seems iPods are everywhere these days. They may be known for playing tunes, but did you know you can get comics for your iPod as well? Clickwheel’s Tim Demeter (Reckless Life), Chad Diez (Today: The Comic), and Joe Alterio (365) are a few of the creators pushing comics from the racks to the iTunes music store, and beyond. Join them for a discussion about the possibilities of comics for handheld media, digital delivery, and where to find comics for your shiny new gadgets. Room 1A"

If you get a chance or live in the area, or you're one of the loyal nerds that makes the annual trek, be sure to stop by and see me blabber on.

Score!

Episode 1!

Just a quick note to let you, my loyal readers, in a little seceret: Episdoe 1 is up at the www.robotrev.com. Czech it out and let me know what you think. Considering I'lla ctually only be 'launching' before the ComicCOn at the end of this month, there's stil some time for changes. And check back soon, I'll be adding more stuff and polishing as it gets closer to Go Time.

Sketchblog off the port bow!

I've been a bit lax on this blog lately; weddings, full time jobs, engagements. Let this be the first salvo in directing back towards where it should be. The sketchblog returns!



-Sketched/photoshopped on 6/13/06

Holy Smokes!

Molly and I are engaged! Huzzah!

(Image swiped off Paul Rogers site, which elicits a 'Holy Smoke' worthy exclamation in of itself.)

A (belated) cannon salute

Here's one for The Boys on Memorial Day. Couldn't have said it better meself.

Another good ship

I just added a new link to the right: my college friend Paula's blog, People Paula. She basically just dismantles the entertainment industry with razor sharp observations and insights, and its incredibly gratifying and damn funny to boot, way funnier than Joan Rivers could ever hope to be, and as a benefit, unlike Rivers, she doesn't look a botoxed, hatchet-faced Gorgon. So check it out.

** Wait, I'm getting a vision...I see....I see Paula...hosting The Soup...in 10 years.**

Whoa, that was weird.

The Master Pilot

On our little trip last week, I had the opportunity to stop by the Norman Rockwell Museum in Western Mass. with Molly and Mom, and I was once again blown away. There's a tendency of 'artists' - and I use that term very loosely here - to look down on their nose at illustration, and the granddaddy of illustrators everywhere, Rockwell. And while I usually parse my words and try not to offend, this time, I just can't help it - these people are idiots. Yes, he's preachy and treacly and sentimental and old ladies have his prints on their fridge magnets. But anyone - anyone - that claims they admire art and it's subsequent necessary mastery of things like draftsmanship, composition, gesture, and color use, and then says they aren't blown away by Norman Rockwell are either total numbskulls, or have their heads so far up their art asses that they can see their own artsy fartsy tonsils. That's just the way it is, sorry.

These are most likely the same folks who also think this is really, really cool. Once again, these people are very, very stupid.

A sailor's dilemma

As you may or may not know, I'm a rabid poster fan, and my design sensibilities have been informed by all manner of poster art from the very begininngs. What I've been trying to accomplish visually with The Basic Virus is an homage to not only the ideas' beginnings in poster form, but to the simple, clean design concepts present in the early 20th centuries advertisements and billboards. Above is a frame from the Prologue of The Basic Virus, my new webcomic; before I get any further (Episode 1 is coming soon!) I'd like sound off about the difficulties of translating a design concept from a more antiquated medium to our current faster-cheaper-more-out-of-control way of making cool stuff, and maybe get a few helpful recommedations along the way.

Below is the firsy of two examples of the poster art I really love, both 'borrowed' off the fabulous site La Belle Epoque Posters, which I often surf in my off-hours and wistfully hope that a spare 3 grand has suddenly appeared in my bank account.




The first thing we can say is that, besides being executed by a draftsman superior to me, it's what seems to me a charcoal and chalk drawing on printmaking paper, turned even more vibrant in the litho process, while mine is clearly a product of Illustrator and Photoshop, on top of pen and ink. See how his whites are more evocative, his lights more blended, the sublte shading creating a greater sense of drama. And this is what bugs me. While I admit I'm not the greatest digital artist to stroll in face of the Earth, I consider myself competent enough in what I do. I'm troubled by the fact that it might just be that, lest I actually do every single one of my panels in the traditional manner, I may not be able to exactly duplicate the feeling I get when I look at these posters in my comics. And this bothers the hell out of me.

Here's another wonderful one, not only for it's similar use of the gradient shading, but it's straight up design sense. Man, don't you wish companies still paid for ads that look like this?



I'm OK that I can't duplicate these master's work: my work is my own, and I have my limitiations, like time and narrative pacing. But I'd really be blue if I thought that the feeling these give is unattainable in the digital world.

**Sorta unrelatedly, Clickwheel will be at the San Diego ComicCon this July, and invited me to tag along as a Contributing Artist: we might get to be on a panel and everything. How official. In any event, I'll be doing my darndest to get my sorry ass down there. Sweet!**

Animatic? Comiccast? Podcomic? Avast!

I just got a message from T Campbell today that said that he went ahead and changed my keywords in iTunes from 'comiccast' to 'animatic' specifically because that's what Clickwheel is calling it, and we should all be on the same page as far as a searchable terms. This seems entirely reasonable to me, and I think I can give a little to get a little.

But this brings up an interesting point: what the hell do we call these things?

I've frankly been a little underwhelmed by the Web 2.0's nomenclature system. "Blog", for me is just a etemological laziness, and "Vlog" is just plain silly. But being one man with one very small 'blog', I can't really do anything about those.

But what we're doing here with these 'moving comics' is hefty enough that I think it does deserve it's own little word. The reason I have problem with 'animatic' is because, having come from animation and film, I know exactly what an 'animatic' really is, and my new...thing...'Fading Fast', is not an animatic. An animatic is a rough filmed storyboard of a film- or animation-in-progress. It helps the director and creators plan better for all the work that lays ahead: it's kind of a filmed blueprint. And while the camera moves may end up being similar, I think there's one weighty difference, and that is that, in a filmed comic, the story is MEANT to be told in this static format.

I'd hate to think that we're all just doing comics because we dont' have the time to do animation. Comics contain a special uniqueness which gives it power, and that is the resolution that takes place in reader's own mind: animation, god bless it, lays it all out for you. Hence, animatics are a stand-in for larger action that the creator is asking you resolve, only temporarily, and thus I think they're resolution jumps are less polished, because it's just for the creators, and everyone knows what it will look like in the end. A "moving comic" purposely (hopefully) has given much more thought to those transitions. Comics have the ability to much more powerful or touching or funny or whatever because the reader's mind is an implicit player in the medium.

So...animatic is out, for me at least. I was excited about the term 'comiccast', because I think it is technically correct: it is a broadcast of a comic, which, while besides being descriptive, brings up an awesome Buck Rogers image of the RKO tower shooting comics into outerspace (come to think of it: I'll be working on that image shortly...so cool!). But it doesn't roll off the toungue, and like the creators of Kleenex will tell you, it's gotta be fun to say in order to catch on.

So I'm at loss. Any ideas out there? Hmmm...

(PS: I'm on the East Coast for a week for weddings and graduations and such, so I won't be updating for a bit...lemme know if you want to hook up.)

Boarding The iTunes vessel

My first comiccast, a translation of my comic Fading Fast, is gonna be available on iTunes starting tomorrow, courtesy the ever-supportive folks at Clickwheel. The age of podcomics in ramping up, where comics, animation, storytelling, sound design come together to form a new way of communication and art. And I have to give a shout out to the Clickwheel guys for pretty much getting behind whatever I do. Why can't everyone be this cool?

Check out the props here.

Land Ho!

It's up! It's hincky, there's things I need to fix, and other I need to change competely, but it's up!

Check it out.

I'll be correcting stuff and 'officially' launching in a week or so, but I thought I'd you, my loyal few readers, actually take a look. So tell me what you think, yo!

The OG Sailor

In my mad rush to complete this robot comic (Art's done! Just working on the interface now! Avast!), I've found a lot of solace in going back to one of my favorite artist, E.C. Segar, and his daily and Sunday strip, Thimble Theater. Best known as the creator of Popeye, I think his creations are one of those classic examples of a pop culture icon being so coopted by mainstream media, that it becomes a caricature of itself (I know, I know, I talking about cartoons here, but bear with me: the semantics of the artform can be addressed in a later post).

Popeye, just one (and I personally think one of the most banal)of Segar's incredible creations, is known these days as that squinty guy who eats spinach and has forearm gigantism. But the world he inhabited- Wimpy, The Seahag, The Goon (The Goon! Creepshow!), and the rest- is worth another examination, and, as always, I have to recommend the old school funny paper strips: the rehash in comicbook form in the 50s was just bunk. And while the Fleischer Studio cartoon translation of Popeye was interesting enough, it never could capture that dark, stark world of black background and sea monsters.

Below is an sample of the small strip that accompanied Popeye, (back when comic artists had a whole newspaper page to themselves!), called Sappo. It started out about the ever-abused husband Sappo, but rapidly really became about Professor Wotznoszzle and all his weird inventions. Check out that Z-Ray!

A Weak Hull

I know, I know. It's not up yet. All I can I say is, soon. Actually, that's the drive on this post.

I was looking for background elements for the comic tonight, and I stumbled across Kazu's Bolt City comic site and blog (www.boltcity.com). I had a passing knowledge of his comic, Copper, because it got a nod by Comixpedia last year as one of the 25 web comix to watch. He has a clean, light style, keeps his subject matter light, and has a great color sense and pallate. He colors like the old Mobius strips, in a way. He's a good artist, and he creates entertaining comics.

And I suddenly got very depressed.

I'm taking this blog in a different tone alluvasudden by getting a little personal here, but I can't help it. This really put me down. I don't even know what it was about the site, but the fact he's my age, he also went to film school, and he makes his living making great looking comics and showing off at ComicCons while I toil away in obscurity put a bit of a burr in my side.

Molly, my ever-present voice of reason, is right, or course. I don't know his story or responsibilites, I can't compare our situations, and everyone works at their own pace. She pointed out that I'm probably in the top 5% of comic artists that make regular money off my work. She's right of course. She's always right.

But I can't shake that sinking feeling of impending worthlessness. It makes every beer taste bitter and every nice spring day seem like another day wasted. All in the quest to...what...immortality?

All I can do is think of Henri Matisse's last words: "My only regret is that I never learned to draw."

And the robots, I promise, are coming. Hopefully this weekend.