Sorry about the rough period there of inactivity, but I'm sure few of you noticed, and those of you who did, probably didn't care much. That's the proper attitude. Last week was busy with work, a trip to Asheville in which I bought comics and helped my friends beat the Simpsons arcade game, Thanksgiving, and purchasing Batman: Arkham City on Black Friday. I'd rather be playing that right now, so let's do this.

First off, due to the holiday, there was only one paper last week, in which I concluded the Distinguished Gentlemen:
I'm a little sad to see them go. Perhaps I can continue their adventures another day in the future, and continue to get paid for it?

And next up is part one of mine and David's two-part collaboration, which will probably overlap the sidebar or something due to the format:
This was so tough to draw. It was David's first time writing a comic, and it was a tad...problematic. Eight panels, and he had written each of them packed with detail I just couldn't do, along with WAY too much dialogue. I unfortunately had to hack it down quite a bit.

The second strip, for Thursday, he did a MUCH better job with writing, but I'm afraid I screwed it up myself by accidentally drawing it a half inch shorter than it's supposed to be. Way to drop the ball, Brett.

There will be one final paper next Monday and that will conclude my job as official cartoonist for the East Tennessean. It sucks that it was only for a single semester, because the job kept me on my toes and I feel like I really improved a lot as an artist doing these silly strips about weird creatures. Everyone's opinion seems pretty positive, I haven't received any negative feedback. My editor told me of a couple compliments they've received, and pointed out to me that generally most people don't write or say anything unless they're upset by it.

...So my comics did not upset a single reader. Damn. I'll have to try harder next time.

Work continues on the still-unnamed comic book, with some 30-odd pages written and thumbnailed and still more to come. However, with my cartooning job ending, I feel like there's going to be a void...so I will try to keep doing other comics that won't take months to plan out and write and such in order to stay limber while I tunnel through this massive beast of a project.

Graduation in less than a month. Holy crap. And what will I do then? I don't know, don't ask me that. All I know is that, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, I'm going to keep drawing, and more importantly, I'm going to keep drawing comics.

Now, I have to go hunt down Mr. Freeze's wife. Arkham City waits.

[Brett]

Well kids, the show has come and gone. And, well, I think it was pretty successful.

The reception got started a wee bit late, but that wasn't really a problem. We were tired from having our individual critiques earlier that day and having run around Sam's Club and Wal Mart in search of food for the thing, and I spent most of the evening in a daze, wired, but feeling like I could fall over at any second.
The response was pretty good, surprisingly. It's mind-blowing to me that people were enjoying my strange, colorful illustrations of naked people mutating and stuff, you know? Oh, oh, here's a few of my favorite guestbook bits:
I kind of wish I knew who drew the dog with the monocle.
I was happy to get rid of my last copies of Burst Reach (even though I'm pretty sure one of them was taken by my dad), and Sterlin arrived with a bag full of copies of Museum For Dead Clowns, which we also managed to hand out a few to friends. He also gave me Vonnegut's Timequake, a book about UFOs, and an old Less Than Jake album I didn't have.

I really can't think of anything else to say. The reception was a blast, a lot of my friends showed up, fun was had, and uh...I dunno. I had to go back today to take down the show, which felt kind of weird. It's sad that Embrace Infection was only up a week, but hey, there's always the gallery on this site for those who missed it!
Oh, and here's Thursday's shark-jumping Distinguished Gentlemen:
I'm gonna go lay down and sleep for a few days now, okay?

Thanks everyone, for supporting my steady descent into madness. People like me need people like you.

[Brett]

Okay, what the hell is up with the spam comments about handbags? Why do I keep getting those? I think that's the first time I've ever even typed the word "handbags" ever in my entire life. Worst. Spambots. Ever. Couldn't I be spammed with something more interesting? Like, I don't know, fresh organic produce or something? I get comments so rarely as it is, and that makes the spam even more annoying.

Oh well.

Here's today's Distinguished Gentlemen strip, in which things get pretty epic:
Exciting right? Though I have to confess, I completely jump the shark in next week's strip. How do you jump the shark in a comic strip about a giant fire-breathing penguin? You'll see. Here's a hint: there are only two or three methods for getting rid of a giant monster, and none of them are all that sensible.

That's a terrible hint.

HEY! I HANG THE PIECES FOR EMBRACE INFECTION IN THREE DAYS. HOLY CRAP. The time is upon us! Get stoked! Reception next Friday! Come see me trying not to be a massively awkward nerd surrounded by my own art! There are two other people exhibiting as well, and I think they're both more talented than I am, so if you don't come to see me, you should come to see their work instead. Especially since one girl's exhibition is about a secret agent cat going to Paris to stop a mouse's diabolical plans.

I'll be so glad when this is all over and done with. Did I mention I can't stand to look at the pieces anymore? Because I can't. I'm just glad I got all that weird psuedo-sexual mutation stuff out of my system so I can move on to things that are hopefully more easily digested by the public.

(yes, I'm already working on another comic from the ashes of that action comic I gave up on)

(it's already incredibly weird, sorry)

(no I'm not talking about it yet, too soon)

[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]

Here's today's Distinguished Gentlemen strip, which is the most cinematic comic I've ever done, possibly:
I finished drawing the next strip today. It too is a doozy.

Nothing to report on. My life has been mostly horror movies, comics, and tying loose ends up regarding the exhibition of Embrace Infection and my graduation.

I would like to point out a few things: First, this week's issue of Secret Avengers is jaw-droppingly awesome. David Aja's art is absolutely perfect, channeling the likes of Toth and Steranko, with Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu, kicking people in the face in a sci fi MC Escher-like setting. It's a thing of beauty. Second, I think that the Abominable Dr. Phibes is not only Vincent Price's greatest role, but also my favorite horror movie. Or it's at least up there with the Thing and the Fly. It's so ostentatious and wildly entertaining. Finally, I got to watch Psycho Gothic Lolita yesterday, and was quite disappointed. This is heartbreaking.

Er, that's all. Gonna go draw, eat cookie cake, and watch Halloween III: Season of the Witch, the one that DOESN'T have Michael Myers in it.

[Brett]

Hello. Things have been happening.

Here's today's Distinguished Gentlemen strip, the start of a new storyline:
I admit, I drew this while I was in that slump I previously talked about, so it's not one of my favorites. Next week's strip, however, is going to be fantastic, trust me. Taking these guys in a new direction.

This week I made my design for the postcard for Embrace Infection:
There are a few more things I need to get done before the show, like mounting my pieces and some other silly odds and ends that the professor is making way too much of a fuss about. But they'll get done.

I really wish the show was sooner, so I could just get over with it and out of the way, because I'm to the point where I'm sick of looking at and thinking about this body of work and I'm ready to move on and do new things.

I'm working on a new action comic, writing and writing and rewriting it. I've written the intro four or five times and I think just today got it nailed down, with four thumbnails to go alongside it. I've designed a bunch of the characters (a few of which are repurposed from older concepts) and have done lots of frantic sketches. I'm not going to start seriously drawing the thing until I know what I'm doing, where I'm going, and approximately how long it may be. I'm making myself work slow, because I want it to look good and I want everything to work, and when I get stuck on a character or story element, I don't want to try to force it. Everything's gotta flow good.

The three big influences on this work are No More Heroes, Jerome Opeña's art on Uncanny X-Force, and the Old City Blues Comic I wrote about last time. To varying degrees, of course. There's a bit of Sergio Leone in there too.

My time keeps getting eaten by other things, though. My laptop is slowly dying, and the other day the disc drive wasn't working at all. I've ordered an external hard drive to back everything up onto, then I'm going to start looking at desktop machines. I'll keep using the laptop til it dies, but I don't know if that'll be next week or next year.

Also, I bought Dark Souls, the sequel to the horrible addiction that was Demon's Souls, on Friday. I shouldn't have to say anything else there.

...In fact, I'm gonna shut up and go play it right now.

[Brett]

So I bought this graphic novel in Barnes & Noble yesterday, OLD CITY BLUES. It can also be read in its entirety on its website, and I think you should check it out if you're into cyberpunk awesomeness.

Here's the kicker, though: The creator, Giannis Milonogiannis, is my age. He's 23 years old and he has a hardcover graphic novel out that can be bought at Barnes & Noble. Holy freaking crap. Talk about throwing the gauntlet, because this thing's better than quite a lot of what the Big Two are putting out, and he's only 23. At first, it felt like a kick in the balls, that someone my age already has a graphic novel published, but it's a good, refreshing kick in the balls, a call to step up my game and work harder. It's motivating. It's the kind of comic that you can look at and just get inspired to do your own work, and we need more of that, you know? Comics and creators that ENCOURAGE you to step up and go for it. It's awesome.

It's the same reason I love King City and Casanova so much, because they make you WANT to make comics.

Anyways, here's this week's Exciting Tales! strip:
I REALLY wanted to pay tribute to Krazy Kat, and I REALLY wanted to do a comic about those annoying people who stand around outside the library and ETSU's Culp Center trying to give out Bibles, pamphlets, and crap like that. And here is the result.

(true story: this semester, an old man gave me a Bible outside the Culp Center. In exchange, I gave him a copy of Burst Reach. I have my OWN word to spread)

And here's this week's Distinguished Gentlemen strip, finally concluding the dating/lost hat story:
I love that walrus.

Next week is Fall Break, so they're only putting out one East Tennessean, meaning only one strip, which will probably be the beginning of the new Distinguished Gentlemen story.

That's it for now. More work to be done!

[Brett]

...Well that was somewhat awkward. Just a little bit.

Given the nature of my art, I always do wonder whether or not I'm going to offend someone. I want to make people a bit uncomfortable and disturbed, yes, but still keep them entertained, you know? Of course, also given the nature of my work, I don't show a whole lot of it to my parents, because they're not really anywhere NEAR my target audience, if I uh, have a target audience to begin with?

So it was unexpected when dad, seeing a couple of finished prints, asked me why I'm doing "that stuff." And was quite upset about my having left the two prints in the back room at work, where I wasn't expecting anyone to see them anyways. But he was so uh, repulsed, I guess, that he stated he never wants to see "anything like that" over at work or in the house...

...Now I know who I'm NOT inviting to the closing reception for the exhibition in November, heh.

Of the two pieces in question, this is one:
The other one isn't uploaded yet because while I think it's finished, after I had printed it last week, my adviser looked it over and made an idle suggestion about doing just a little more work to it. I think the reason dad hated it is because it has full frontal male nudity. Dudity. Heh.

I really wasn't expecting him to react as if Satan himself rose from the depths of Hell and farted in his face, but hey, whatever. It hurt, a little, but hey, at least now I know my work is capable of provoking strong reactions! That's always a good thing, so much better than indifference. I can sensationalize this, though. If I were doing adverts for the show, I'd put up some silly slogan like, "THE SHOW DAD DOESN'T WANT YOU TO SEE" or something.

(I actually SHOWED both prints to mom, who had already seen some of the original drawings and test prints, and her reaction was a confused "oh that's really good!" Actually, that's her reaction to a LOT of things I do. She can still come to the reception, hehe)

Moving along, here's last Thursday's Exciting Tales! strip. Yeah, two Exciting Tales! were printed last week.
Once more I must offer my gratitude to Sterlin for the poem. I still need a copy of Museum For Dead Clowns, man. And you still need a copy of Burst Reach!

And here's today's strip. Because there were two Exciting Tales! last week, this week will be two Distinguished Gentlemen:
There's one final strip to this storyline, to be printed Thursday. After that, the Gentlemen travel to ANTARCTICA. Because, um, penguins. Or something. I don't know, I've only drawn the first one.

I've been kind of lazy this past week, not a lot of thinking or drawing or writing done. I'll try to make up for it this week. Maybe.

[Brett]

I've been stupidly busy, spending the last several days working hard on pieces for Embrace Infection. I gave it its own gallery on the site here, but only five pieces are uploaded now. Ten are done, but...I'm gonna wait and think on them. I know one of them STILL needs some more work. Still though, I showed all ten to one of my professors today and he loved them, so I'm excited. I've got three more to finish up, making thirteen in all.

I won't get to exhibit that many, though. It's up in the air, sort of, but the week that I'll be showing, November 14th-18th, I'm sharing the space with two other students, and none of us really have any idea of how many pieces we each have and how much space we'll need.

I wrote my artist's statement for it, and well, for once in my life wrote way too much. It'll have to be cut down on quite a bit. I had a hard time thinking of what to say, then I just went nuts and starting typing words. Heh.

I want to finish the other pieces this week. That's somewhat unlikely, seeing as how today more than ever I feel like I just pushed myself too hard these past several days and have finally hit that brick wall. Now I just need to lay a while and get my strength back, then attack again. There's still the printing to be done, and mounting, and other stuff too. Gah.

Honestly? While I think this is the best work I've ever done, it's exhausting and once the show is up and all, I will be able to sigh with relief, take a power nap, and start exploring the 600 or so ideas that have been burning in my mind that I just haven't had the time to put on paper yet.

Oh, and here's Monday's East Tennessean strip, the second Distinguished Gentlemen. They accidentally reprinted an older comic last Thursday, hence the delay:

Also, added some more links to the sidebar. Amalgae Comics is the newly-named home where just about every comic published for the ETSU comic book illustration course is up, including Cyberpunk Blues and works by some good friends of mine. Check it out.

That's about it for now. Exhaustion has hit me hard today and I need to just rest some. Tomorrow? I'll be back to the grind, yes...

[Brett]

Since it was published Thursday afternoon, here I will share with you the first Distinguished Gentlemen strip:

This is the first Distinguished Gentlemen strip I've done since...late high school, early college, I think? I had made a stab at doing a webcomic, and you can still find all those strips online, but please don't. They're appalling. I created these guys out of the blue my senior year of high school in a painting which now hangs (appropriately, I think) over my brother's toilet in his house. They are very endearing to me for some reason I can't quite put my finger on.

These strips are a different beast from the Exciting Tales! stuff, because there's an arc, with each story being (I think) four strips. This one and the second one were also absolutely tough to draw. Then I spent a long time hitting my head on a wall trying to figure out how to do the third one when I had a breakthrough. I gave it an interesting layout, but it'll be a couple more weeks before you get to see it.

I'm still ahead on the strips, yes, but gosh, it's turning into a grind. I know I could move faster, but I have to work to motivate myself sometimes, especially since I'm just going back and forth between them and Embrace Infection, having difficulty sometimes in determining which is the higher priority.

But they're still getting done, and I refuse to resort to Jim Davis-levels of awful laziness. Though I do kind of want to do a Garfield or Family Circus parody at some point. I just finished penciling a tribute strip to Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland earlier this afternoon, but maybe only three people total will get that. Still, though, I'm learning with each strip I draw and I feel like I'll soon find a happy method of working where I can provide good quality comics without breaking my back over it.

I hope.

(I also want to do a tribute to George Herriman's Krazy Kat)

[Brett]