HELLO INTERNET. IT’S TIME FOR BRETT TO TALK ABOUT FREAKING OUT OVER ART THINGS AGAIN.
I’ve been insanely busy. This Saturday is ETSUCon, Johnson City’s premiere (I think?) comic/anime convention thing at, if you haven‘t put it together from the name yet, ETSU. I’ve got a table in the artist’s alley and as of yesterday I have everything together for the thing.
I’ll be selling FOUR different posters (two from Other Sleep covers, two variations of show posters), three different buttons, three different postcards of my October Game work, my remaining copies of Burst Reach 2 (the first one is sold out and I have no plans of reprinting it), a second printing of the first chapter of Other Sleep, I will be doing sketches, and I will be just GIVING AWAY my remaining copies of the Distinguished Gentlemen & Other Exciting Tales!
Oh, and after ETSUCon? Free Comic Book Day is NEXT Saturday, May the 4^th (be with you har har har ugh) and I’ll be part of a big shindig going on downtown at Mountain Empire Comics. They’re closing off 6^th Street to traffic and allowing anybody with anything nerdy to sell to come set up a table. I’ll be one of multiple visiting artists, including my main man Jeremy Massie, Matt Smith, and the one and only Dionysis. Here’s a link to the Facebook event for the thing. OH. Prices for everything at these two appearances, here:
Simultaneously, I’ve also been working on Burst Reach 3. You’ve seen the first page of the comic about a dream about an owl already, here are the first pages to two other comics that will be in it. The first is a comic about a girl who grows a second head, entitled HEADACHE:
And the second is a 10-page comic drawn ENTIRELY IN PENCIL called STRANGER RAINS, which is based on my painting series, the Same Mistake, and takes place right after the events depicted in those paintings:
…So you can imagine how busy I’ve been these past few weeks, scrambling to get things together. I was worried the copies of Other Sleep wouldn’t come in on time, the postcards were a last-minute idea suggested by a friend (got those in the mail yesterday), and I’ve been buying and gathering tools left and right, printing and cutting business cards, tweaking everything, you get the picture. Oh, and I’ve also begun painting a nursery for a soon-to-be-born nephew, but I’m doing that more to RELAX than anything else.

With ETSUCon just days away, my initial plan was to just hang loose, kick back, and rest until this weekend. Then my brain started screaming “NO BRETT YOU NEED TO PRACTICE DRAWING EVERYTHING WHAT IF SOMEONE ASKS YOU TO DRAW CAPTAIN AMERICA OR JAKE THE DOG OR A WASHING MACHINE.” My arm hates me right now. A lot.
I had this bad dream last night where I made it to the con with all my stuff, but had to punch in a bunch of info in this old computer like the kind you used to see at the DMV and things malfunctioned and messed up and I couldn’t get my table, or even into the con at all. And then I couldn’t find a drink. I don’t have nightmares, I just have dreams where horrible and ludicrous inconveniences happen. Also? Despite what you may think, Super Mario 64 is NOT a good game to play when stressed out and trying to unwind, it just leads to a lot of shouting and grumpiness.

I’ll be fine. I know I’ll be fine. I’m sure it will all go well. It’s just my brain being stupid but geez, I wish it’d lay off already. So there we go, come to ETSUCon and the FCBD celebration and buy stuff from me, and if I’m looking disheveled and weepy, maybe give me a hug or something and tell me it’ll all be okay? Yeah. And then I’ll draw Deathlok for you.

[Brett]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I kind of had a slight nervous breakdown earlier today, maybe. Over my art. Heh.

I've been working on some paintings for this art show that starts next week at the Bristol Grind House. Here's the flyer I put together for it:
Watercolors and Microns on canvas is what I'm doing, because I'm a masochist. I've been working on them for two weeks now maybe. Well, two of them anyways, the other two I started on just last week. It's a narrative, but uh, I didn't really know what the narrative was until the other day? Yep. It was supposed to be just three canvases, then it ballooned into four. When I do things, I have to go about doing them in the most punishing way possible.

Anyways...I had them all in what seemed to be a finished state this morning, and I sat them all side by side, and...and I hated them. And I started to think, "fuck, this was a terrible idea, why did I do this, I should've done something else, fuck fuck fuck." And I contemplated painting over at least two of them, abandoning the narrative and just doing something more thematically tied together? Or throwing all but one out and maybe trying to do something different over the next few days.

I spent three and a half years in the graphic design program at ETSU, and in that time I sat through way too many critiques that would go on for literally two or three days sometimes. I failed my portfolio review three times and shouldn't have gotten another chance. Why they gave me four tries, who knows, but I passed that fourth. What I'm getting at here is that school was really rough on me, my pieces were never really terribly notable during critiques, and a small group of professors I was unfamiliar with mostly thought my work was lousy and I just really had to fight in order to graduate.

So all of these memories were going through my head as I was staring at these paintings, thinking about how they'll be up for a good two or three weeks, seen by dozens of people, people I've never met, never will meet. And they'll be judging them, judging ME based on them, even if they never do meet me or see any of my other work ever again. These four paintings are all I have to make a good impression, to convince these people I've never met that I don't suck. And I'm absolutely blowing it, only ONE of the paintings was really strong, the rest were flat and vague and ugly.

I gave myself a bad head rush and a case of the hiccups as I paced around, panicking, trying to think of what to do. I didn't want to throw them all out and try to do something new when everything has to be done by Sunday for Sterlin to hang. And I didn't REALLY want to paint over the canvases, but I was getting desperate and thinking that was the only way out, I was tired of looking at these crappy paintings.

I told a friend on Facebook that I wish I could just erase three and a half years of art school critiques, to which she responded "Keep this in mind: You're an artist, not an art student...and a really good artist at that."

And that...kind of snapped me out of it. I kept thinking about all the lousy critiques I sat through, being told by professors that my portfolio wasn't good enough for the BFA program, all that negative stuff. And her comment reminded me that people DO enjoy my art, and then I remembered this guy who wrote me on deviantART last week, telling me my gallery was his favorite that he'd seen in years.

So I stopped, took some deep breaths, collected myself, once again looked at the paintings, this time more objectively, and set about working on them once again, all afternoon, until once more they looked like they were pretty much finished.

And I was satisfied this time. I was able to figure out how to strengthen each painting and make them stand on their own while still telling a complete story. All it took was a kind word from a friend to help me step back and clear the black clouds out of my brain.

I guess the moral here is, if you like someone's art? TELL THEM. Let them know you appreciate what they're making. Because artists, we're neurotic as fuck. I often find myself in this hole, hating my work, hating myself for hating my work and not being any good, and it's discouraging. But a comment or two is all it takes to get me back on my feet. 

Anyways. Show goes up on Sunday. I'm gonna take pictures of the individual paintings tomorrow once I've deemed them complete, and post them some time next week. Stay tuned.

(originally posted on my Tumblr)

I’ve stumbled upon something that absolutely breaks my heart in a way that’s hard to put into words.

I love arcades. Love them. I’ve spent so much time in them. Whenever I’d go on vacation as a kid, I was always more interested in the arcades than in, say, Dollywood or waterparks or whatever. It was always about the arcades for me. When I was in middle school, my best friend and I would go to this local pool run by the YMCA, and during the weird breaks where they’d make everyone get out for 10-15 minutes or whatever, we’d hit the NeoGeo cabinet and play the hell out of Metal Slug. And as lousy as our local mall here in Bristol has been, that was always one advantage that it had, the Tilt arcade, where I could go play House of the Dead, Time Crisis, and Metal Slug to my heart’s content.

It’s been…quite a few years since I’d been in Tilt, and once that little pool had gotten rid of the NeoGeo cabinet, replacing it with the ultra-crappy Tekken Tag Tournament, my friend and I just stopped going altogether. But if a bar or restaurant has Galaga or Ms. Pac Man or something like that, then you bet I’ll give it a go if I’ve got some quarters on me.

Anyways, after years of not bothering going into the arcades in Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, and never having time for Tilt any time I found myself in the mall, I decided I really wanted to blow a load of quarters on some House of the Dead, or some other old game I would play as a kid. That’s how I came to notice this disturbing trend.

Last week, I went into Tilt for the first time in years, mostly on a whim and out of a strong desire to play some Metal Slug. Things had changed, though, and not in a pleasant way. For one, all the games were in their own sections it seemed. All the crane games stuffed with Annoying Oranges and Angry Birds were grouped together in the front, all the racing games down one wall, with the shooters and the fighters down the other wall. This organization bugged me to no end, shouldn’t arcades be mazes that are nigh impossible to navigate? Isn’t half the fun of an old arcade finding some game you’ve never heard of, tucked away in a corner between a basketball hoop and DDR? Gone was House of the Dead, gone was my beloved NeoGeo cabinet with Metal Slug and Samurai Showdown. What good is an arcade without Daytona USA? Time Crisis 2 was still there, but it just didn’t feel right. They had House of the Dead 4, but the guns are the uzi-looking things, fully automatic, and difficult to aim with. The thrill of scoring precise headshots was replaced with the dull task of just mowing down crowds of zombies, spraying bullets blindly. It just wasn’t fun.

The oldest game there was, I think, Marvel Vs Capcom. That doesn’t feel right either. No pinball, no Pac Man, only one or two Skeeballs? What the heck? All of the emphasis was now on those crane games, and those other weird games where you could win an iPod or PS3 or something, and those are no fun to me.

Over the weekend, I went on a trip to Pigeon Forge with my girlfriend. We wandered down to Gatlinburg in the morning to kill time and wait for the weather to clear up. There, we went into three or four different arcades, and it was all the same crap I saw in Tilt. That horrible House of the Dead 4 cropped up a lot, and I noticed a couple other new shooters: Project GHOST and Terminator Salvation, both of which are also played with big automatic rifles against hordes of enemies. Again, precision no longer seems to matter much anymore, and those guns are just too awkward to handle, especially for a lefty like me.

The arcades in Dollywood weren’t much better.

But, I kept telling myself, there is hope. The Arcade in Asheville is a two story arcade with a bar. On the bottom floor is where you find all the old 80’s classics like Donkey Kong, Burger Time, and motherfucking Tron. Joust and Centipede too! Upstairs is even sweeter, with a line of pinball games and skeeball, the Simpsons game (which my friends and I beat one night, spending WAY too many quarters), the Star Wars Arcade game, and my personal all-time favorite: Virtual On. I haven’t been there since January, though, and I just recently heard that they removed the pinball games and are in the process of converting the upstairs area into a club. Which probably means the removal of more games, including Virtual On. And that breaks my heart in so many ways.

I mean, I get it. People have been saying that arcades are dead now for years, so I was honestly shocked that House of the Dead 4 and a Terminator Salvation game even existed. Times are changing. Consoles, Steam, and smartphone games have flooded and conquered the market. The only way for an arcade to survive anymore is to offer ludicrous prizes for people to throw their money at. I think I saw a crane game in Dollywood where you could win a 32” TV. If you want to play shooting games, there’s Call of Duty, who gives a damn about Time Crisis? DDR is now a thing of the past too, a fad no one wants to bother with anymore.

I guess I’m just an old man now. I hate being nostalgic, but man, I miss being able to jump from Virtual On to House of the Dead 2 to Daytona USA to Ms. Pac Man in the space of 20 minutes before seeing a movie at the local theater. There’s no real way to replicate that kind of experience anymore, switching games on the PS3 just isn’t the same as navigating a dimly lit cavern full of cacophonous noises and flashing lights, digging in your pockets for more quarters.

Ah well, at least the theater has Crazy Taxi, at least. And a machine with both Ms. Pac Man AND Galaga. Now if only they would show some movies that would give me a good reason to go to the movies...

[Brett]

It feels so good to be back in action, doing comic stuff. I mentioned that stupid slump I was in, right? I went into detail about it over on the Other Sleep blog shortly before I got chapter 3 online and...oh crap, I never announced that over here, did I?

That's right! A week or two before I went to HeroesCon I put chapter 3 online! GO READ IT NOW. Or um, wait until you're done reading this post, at least?

Ahem. Anyways. Yes, I was in a slump, and the trip to HeroesCon really helped to pull me out of it, inspire me, and get me back on my feet and making comics for YOUR enjoyment. I confess that chapter 4 of Other Sleep is going to be late, BUT I've got other things coming down the pipeline! For instance, I am PRINTING chapter 1 of Other Sleep for Rob-Con! I'm polishing things off and figuring out what to do for the back 4 pages, inside cover, and back cover, but I'll be putting the order out for it soon. And oh hey, what's this?

GASP! Is that what I think it is? YES. It's the logo for Burst Reach 2, which I've been slaving away at all this week! I'll be getting it finished up and printed this weekend, then I'll be bringing them with me to Rob-Con next month on the 21st! I'll be doing it the same way I did the first one last year, printing it myself, getting copies made, and folding and stapling them myself. Had I mentioned that I purchased a long reach stapler one night earlier this year on a night that I couldn't sleep? Well, I did.

Yes, I'm taking two different approaches in getting two different books printed and put together. Other Sleep is a full-color comic, and it's my real professional effort, so going through a professional printer to get it right is easily the best option. On the other hand, Burst Reach is a lo-fi minicomic anthology that's MEANT to be cheap and handmade like a punk zine or those pamphlets that crazy street preachers occasionally hand out.

(quick aside: I was once handed a Bible on campus at ETSU, and in exchange I gave the guy a copy of Burst Reach. Fair trade?)

Another reason I'm making Burst Reach 2 in that fashion is influence from my friend Sterlin, whose Pizza Flag Books you should be familiar with if you've been on this site for a while. Last week before I left for Heroes, a Nashville all-girl punk band called Heavy Cream put on a free show downtown, which was put together by Sterlin. It made me happy to see when I got there that he had a table set up selling copies not only of his own Museum For Dead Clowns zine, but Eye Alive vol. 1 (I FINALLY GOT A COPY), a NEW zine of his own called Irony & Whine, and a zine by another friend called Tune Out. I greedily snatched these up. He's also been selling copies of Burst Reach for me. It's just...man, zines are just the coolest things ever, you know?

OH. And I did this poster for that very show:
 It makes me happy knowing that they sold out there. Sterlin did a pretty sweet poster too, which also sold out.

Um...now I forgot what I was talking about? Yeah, Burst Reach is my punk comix zine thing, while Other Sleep is a little more high-quality. But I still love both and I'm putting all I've got into them.

And have no fears, that Distinguished Gentlemen/Exciting Tales! collection is progressing as well! And I'll be doing a cover for Eye Alive vol. 2 for Sterlin and contributing to the guts of the book too. I don't think I'll be doing a new comic this go around, but I still want to do something cool...You'll see.

Aaaaannnnnd I think that's it for now. BACK TO MAKING COMICS.

[Brett]

I'm going to do a bit of a braindump today. Things I've been looking at, listening to, thinking about, et cetera.

I keep listening to this song, because it's so good. It brings to mind imagery from Stalker, and makes me think of a What If? sequel to that film where, after another decade or two, Stalker returns to the Zone and finds that it's...changed, in a sinister, austere fashion. Give it a listen, it's remarkable.
 

I read Sharknife ZZ by Corey Lewis this week and HOLY CRAP IT IS AWESOME. I could only read it in quick bursts, a handful of pages at a time, because it's so dense with style and it's so overwhelmingly fun to flip through. Corey is at the top of his game with it, and it was so worth the 6-year wait it took him to make it. I did some fanart, I loved it so much:

This blog post by David Brothers about the Before Watchmen crap is absolutely venomous and on the nose.  I was initially thinking of buying the Minutemen series because I love Darwyn Cooke, but now, ugh, I'm just not going to bother at all.

I wrote a blog post over on Other Sleep about the bad 1980 movie Altered States and how it's kind of the backbone for the comic. I'm planning on doing posts every week over there about what's influenced it. I think next time I'm gonna write about Guy Davis and his work on BPRD.

I'm trying to figure out how I can really promote the hell out of Other Sleep and get people to check it out. I don't think it's something I can do myself. Right now I'm hopping on messageboards and stuff, and I made a list of comics professionals and critics and bloggers that I want to send it to, but I just haven't worked up the guts yet to email any of them...

Saturday the 21st, I'm going to be at the Tri-Cities Toy and Hobby Show. Basically I'll just be doing sketches, giving away Other Sleep postcards, and selling copies of the new third printing of Burst Reach for a buck apiece. The guy who manages the show is a really nice guy and is letting me have a table for free to do my thing. This is, I guess, my first "appearance," so to speak, since I don't think walking around Rob Con last year thrusting Burst Reach into people's hands necessarily counts, yeah?

(by the way, there I also dropped some copies of Burst Reach off at Atomik Comiks in Johnson City, so you can grab them there too. Tell Shawn I sent you)

Also? The third printing of Burst Reach is STAPLED BY ME, rather than saddle-stitched at Kinkos. This justifies the long-arm stapler I ordered in the middle of the night back in February with a copy of Redline when I couldn't sleep.
 

I'm also going to be at Mountain Empire Comics in Bristol for Free Comic Book Day, drawing and stuff.

AND I bought a 3-day pass today for Heroes Con. I'm really excited about that, since it'll be my first REAL con.

And finally, I just watched a really good documentary on digital sampling in hip hop that's called Copyright Criminals. It's great, you should check it out on Netflix.

Okay, back to work.

[Brett]

The universe really did not want me to see Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Plans to see it with friends fell apart left and right for various reasons. Things nearly fell apart again on Saturday, but I overcame the atrocious weather, a car that may be on its last legs, a killer headache, and sore throat brought on by an encroaching sinus infection, and finally got to see the number one movie I was excited for this year!

AND IT WAS FUCKING METAL.
 

No, seriously. I haven’t had so much fun in a theater in a long time. I can’t get over how awesome it was. Neveldine and Taylor bring their skull-busting cinematic style that they established with Crank and Nicolas Cage comes along for the ride in one of my favorite performances ever.

I’ll admit to knowing next to nothing about the comics and I never saw the first movie either. For this one, they kind of seem to lean on the Bruce Banner/Hulk dichotomy, with Johnny Blaze living in an abandoned building, away from society, struggling to keep at bay the demon that’s possessed him, that turns him into our titular character. “Am I going to regret this? Bringing you here with me?” “…Yeah, probably.” As a result, he kind of sucks at communicating with other people (hilariously), is okay with stealing painkillers from a hospital, and is constantly two steps away from catching fire and sucking out souls left and right. This leads to some of the greatest Nicolas Cage freakouts EVER, with Death From Above 1979 playing in the background during one fantastic scene.
 

And when he does inevitably lose his shit and transform? Things get surprisingly bizarre. You’ve probably seen interviews with Cage where he talks about his methods for playing the Rider, the swaying like a cobra, the makeup and contacts, and you probably thought, “man, he’s weird,” but IT WORKS. When the Rider is on screen, it’s surreal. He is not human. He’s unpredictable. He’s not a superhero at all, more like some beast from a horror movie. It’s like his mere presence bends the rules of reality around him, like a grisly hallucination. No one really knows how to react when he shows up and starts screaming in their faces, and it’s just gnarly.

I had this weird worry that somehow this movie would neuter Neveldine/Taylor through studio interference or something, like how they stepped down from directing Jonah Hex because the studio kept getting in the way and screwing with their screenplay. I was also worried that, being PG-13, the movie would be too, er, “safe” or something. I’m happy to say that this is not true, that their balls are on display just as much as in the Crank movies and Gamer. The Rider pisses fire, vomits bullets, incinerates people with his chains and the big villain, Blackheart, decomposes anything and everything he lays his hands on, and that includes a rather large number of people. The camera work is fantastic, and setting the movie in Turkey leads to some amazing visuals. There are also a few fantastic animated segments providing back story for characters that I wish more comic books looked like. I never pulled my eyes from the screen at any point.

So yeah, 2012 is off to a good start. The only other films I really want to see this year are Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie and Prometheus, and I kind of doubt either of those two will be as batshit crazy and awesome as Ghost Rider was. Man, now I want to go watch it again…

[Brett]

I'm gonna follow up on something I said in that last entry, regarding Marvel, DC, and creator-owned comics.

There's an inherent conundrum here: I'm angry at both companies, yes, so you'd think the natural thing to do would be to stop buying their comics altogether and to encourage others to do so. But it's not quite like that.

Look, most of DC's stuff is so bland and, well, corporate, feeling way too much like their books were put together on an assembly line (because they were) and pumped out like McDonalds hamburgers or something. But at the same time, they have Alberto Ponticelli drawing the crap out of Frankenstein, Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato have made the Flash into one of the greatest all-ages superhero comics ever, and OMAC is like an experiment gone violently wrong that somehow escaped the basement and got to run free for 8 months before DC finally got their shit together and put it down. Which is a shame, because I love OMAC. I will continue buying those books until OMAC is canceled and they inevitably play musical chairs for the creators on the other titles.

(that's one thing that always annoys me: Marvel and DC juggling artists and writers around so much that getting a nice team doing a long, solid run on one title is almost impossible these days)

Daredevil is hands down the best book Marvel is putting out at the moment, and anything that Jerome Opeña draws can gladly take my money.

What I'm saying is, yes, I hate the companies, but they've got some great, talented people working for them, and I like those guys and I don't want to see them lose their jobs. 

So here's what you do: Buy the good stuff, don't buy the crap. I don't care if you've been reading X-Men religiously for years, if it's really sucking, STOP BUYING IT. I wasn't saying to stop buying anything Marvel and DC related altogether, I'm just saying be more selective and go for the quality stuff. 

Nevertheless, you should still buy way more creator-owned comics than anything the big two are shilling. Here, let me help you with a nice long list of comics and graphic novels that you need to buy:

Butcher Baker, the Righteous Maker
Fatale
Prophet
Glory
Haunt
Scott Pilgrim
Wasteland
Hellboy
BPRD (hell, ANYTHING involving Mike Mignola)
The Goon
Nonplayer
Orc Stain
King City (the collection is out next month, and this is my single favorite title in the list. BUY IT)
Godland
The Walking Dead
Chew
The Strange Talent of Luther Strode
Casanova
Criminal
Parker: The Hunter & Parker: The Outfit
Sharknife ZZ (out next month!)
Sweet Tooth
Locke & Key
Saga
DMZ
Northlanders
Old City Blues
Anything by guys like Paul Pope, Mike Allred, Warren Ellis, and well, any of the creators involved in the above titles.

I'm sure there are a shit ton more than this too, that list is just off the top of my head.

The biggest company represented in this list is by far Image, whose publisher Eric Stephenson seems to be the only man displaying intelligence when it comes to publishing comics, but don't count out Dark Horse, IDW, Oni Press, Archaia, and others. Hell, Vertigo and Icon are respectively owned by DC and Marvel, and they put out creator-owned titles. If Marvel fails, then Icon fails, which means no more Casanova, which is the single best science fiction comic being released right now. I don't want to see that happen.

So there you have it. Now go forth, buy awesome comics, support your favorite writers and artists, damn the spice, save the men, and fuck the police.

[Brett]

I originally had a big, 900+ word blog entry written up in regards to Marvel and DC with the whole Before Watchmen and Ghost Rider fiascos that had taken place last week. But it was REALLY too long, rambly, unfocused, and well, other guys have done a better job talking about it than I have.

The bottom line was: Marvel and DC suck, yes, so BUY MORE CREATOR OWNED COMICS. Demand them from your local comic shop! It should be fairly obvious, yeah? SO DO IT.

There's a lot wrong with this frankly draconian industry, and buying more indie comics is a great way to start fixing things. Also, stop buying shitty comics, which is uh, most of what Marvel and DC put out. Seriously, QUIT IT.

NOW. With that out of the way, I can show you guys a couple of new pieces I recently finished. This first one is the result of listening to Ritualz and reading Hellboy: The Crooked Man. Not a bad combination, really:
I think this is the best use of color I've implemented into a piece.

Also, I did a naughty drawing for Valentine's Day:
Also coloring the pages for Cyberpunk Blues 2, and trying to put together collections of my Exciting Tales! and Distinguished Gentlemen strips from last year to print and sell at cons. Looking at e-book stuff too. Waiting for Eye Alive to release so I can put Zimmik up on here in its entirety. Finally, that graphic novel I was working on over a month ago? I had 60+ pages written, and am now working on a second draft that I'm 30 pages into writing and thumbnailing. The plan is to serialize it online like a webcomic, but we'll see. I gotta get the complete story and designs locked in first.

And of course, I'll keep working on other stuff involving pretty ladies. Just gonna keep moving and making work. YEAHHHH.

[Brett]

Merry belated Christmas! And a happy new year too, I guess.

Things I'm most excited for in 2012:
Prometheus
Brandon Graham's Multiple Warheads
Corey Lewis's Sharknife 2 and other comics he has up his sleeve
The return of Geof Darrow's Shaolin Cowboy
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Tim & Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
Brandon Graham writing Prophet
OMAC and Frankenstein crossing over
Drawing a bunch of comic stuff

I have a feeling it's gonna be a big year, full of stuff. And hopefully it won't be quite as weird and awkward as 2011 was.

Best of 2011:
Hanna
Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE
X-Men: First Class
Shadows of the Damned
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Drive
Batman: Arkham City
Getting out of that apartment in Johnson City
Burst Reach #1, Exciting Tales! of a Strange University, and the Distinguished Gentlemen
Embrace Infection
Drive Angry 3D
Troll Hunter
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo soundtrack
Nonplayer #1
Casanova: Avaritia #1 and 2

I'm heading into 2012 the proper way, with a new 5-page comic for Sterlin's next Pizza Flag Books thing. Here's the first completed page:
Not a single scrap of clothing to be found in this comic. Also lifting a bit from both Moebius and Michael DeForge for this. I'm trying hard to develop more backgrounds and settings and such, but this whole thing takes place in a barren landscape with little buildings in the background, so I'm not stretching out of my comfort zone too much. I think the next short comic I do will take place entirely indoors, so I'm forced to draw a bunch of interiors and stuff.

Project Sense's page count is now in the 70's. Had to tweak some stuff and add a scene or two to the beginning of the book. Once this ZIMMIK comic is compltely done I'll dive back into it for a while.

And I'm also beginning to entertain ideas of another series like Embrace Infection, gods help us all. Who knows if it'll come to be or not.

Enough, there's work to be done!

[Brett]

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Would you like to see today's Distinguished Gentlemen strip? It's another one that I'm proud of:
That line in the bottom panel, spoken by the penguin in the distressing font? That may be the greatest piece of dialogue I will ever write. I seriously think that I am just BRINGING IT with these recent strips, I am so happy with the work I've been doing.

Which is why it's so disappointing when they get shoved into a tiny space in the newspaper, barely readable at all. Monday's Ghost Monkey strip was printed so freaking small. It angered me, that something I put a lot of effort and love into, was made to look almost like an afterthought, like "oh we have this little tiny bit of space left so let's just throw this stupid comic strip in there." I know that's not what it is, I know the guy who does the page layouts has to deal with the articles and ads that HAVE to be a specific size on the page (its the ads which keep the paper going) and that he doesn't really have a whole lot of time to sit and come up with a layout that's nice and balanced, pleasing to the eye. But, you know, it still kind of hurts, especially because of the detail I've been throwing into these lately. I just have no control over it. But hey, that's why they're all online too!

Of course, there have been other strips in the past which were printed pretty huge, which is awesome. And, regardless of size issues, I've heard that the comics have been getting praise, and I've heard some funny stories too. Apparently a friend of mine that works in the library on campus has people occasionally come up to him and ask what my comics mean. And David told me a story the other night about how he watched a guy open up the paper to the page that last week's Distinguished Gentlemen was on, stare at it for a long time, and then slowly smile. Heh.

Anyways, onto better things. I accomplished a lot yesterday. For one thing, after a few excruciating hours, I got my vinyl sign cut out for Embrace Infection:
It'll be going vertically on one of the gallery walls, most likely.

On top of that, I received my postcards for the show. I only ordered 50, which was barely enough. I distributed about 30 or so throughout the art building on campus and handed out quite a few too. Today I mailed a couple to some good friends. ADVERTISING. Finally, I picked 10 of the 12 prints to hang and dropped them off to be professionally mounted. Next Sunday is when I'll be hanging the pieces.

To sum things up: SHIT IS GETTING REAL, DAWG.

Oh, and that comic I was working on, that I talked so much about earlier this week and last? I uh, stopped. The story got too far away from me. So I'm setting it aside. What was it that I said in that one entry? That I hoped it wouldn't get scrapped or something?

Oops.

But hey, at least I've got a thrilling story going with the Distinguished Gentlemen being chased by a giant fire-breathing penguin in Antarctica, right?

[Brett]