And here we are, in the year 2012, waiting for the Mayans to rise from their graves and obliterate civilization as we know it. Or something. I'm not so sure.

Here is my final drawing made in 2011, drawn while watching Top Gear and Louie:
Remember when I said I was considering doing more stuff in the same vein as Embrace Infection? I wasn't kidding. I already have a model lined up to do some shooting next weekend.

I am basically leaping headfirst into 2012 with guns blazing. The first half of 2011 absolutely kicked the crap out of me, I sincerely felt like I was at my lowest point. But I got back up and proceeded to repeatedly throatpunch 2011 into submission before finally setting its head on fire and graduating from ETSU with a BFA in Graphic Design. Whatever obstacles or challenges lie ahead for this new year? I say bring it. I will tear 2012's throat out with my teeth if I have to.

I usually never do resolutions, but I have some for this year: Make more comics. Travel more. Be even more awesome.

On the comics front, I completely finished Zimmik Looks For Love in a Barren Land yesterday. Sterlin says he'll hopefully have everything for the anthology book thing together around February to print and distribute, and is letting me come up with a cover for it. Then of course there's Project Sense, and then I'm also brainstorming on some stuff to submit to publishers. Zimmik, being only 5 pages, is also the perfect beginning for a Burst Reach #2, wouldn't you say?

The plan is also to go to several comic conventions this year. Especially Heroes Con, which I really wanted to visit last year and missed out on. I was also told my the wise man Massie that I would probably do well with my work at anime cons, so I may look into a few of those too. And if I know anyone going to cons that I can't make it too, I want to throw a bunch of work at them to hand out to people at said cons. They can be my representatives, yeah?

The idea behind doing more Embrace Infection type stuff is to keep me on my toes in between comic related things, to strengthen my skills in all areas, and if I churn anything particularly good, I want to try and start selling prints. Possibly through deviantART, maybe Etsy, but if nothing else then on this site. I'm going to have to do a bit of research on that. But not all of that will be digitally done. I've started painting again at work, trying to finish a barn I started painting for my mother over a year ago, and I think I'd like to try my hand at doing some acrylic and watercolors of strange mutated naked people, yeah?

I also need a new computer soon, because if this laptop finally gives up the ghost then I'll be stuck on the side of the road for a while...can't forget that...

So there we go, my plans for this new year. Who knows how much of it will actually pan out. I may not make it to more than one or two conventions, I may only come up with a few things to pitch to publishers and most likely none of it will be accepted, but still, I just have to try. I can't stop moving.

For the time being, the Portishead song "Machine Gun" is my anthem for the new year. I'm honestly not sure why, aside from the fact that it's Portishead, and that discordant beat is absolutely SICK. Also because someone decided to set the music to clips from Tetsuo the Iron Man, which is pretty awesome:

That's it then. Let 2012 know who they're messing with. What are your plans?

[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]

So, guess what? EMBRACE INFECTION IS UP:
 Hanging the 10 pieces on Sunday was excruciating, partially because I got there at 8am after a night of no real sleep. I felt like I was operating at the limits of my capacity doing this thing. But it's up, open to the public, and that's all there is to it.

Instead of a comic for yesterday's East Tennesseean, I made a piece of shameless self-promotion:
 I don't think any of the other BFA shows have actually been mentioned in the paper yet. This issue also got a press release, because I got sick of just promoting myself and wanted people to take interest in the other artists I'm showing with. 

It's hard to believe this is the week I've been building up for since the summer. It's surreal. I feel like I'm in this weird daze, and my nerves are on fire, I'm worried about things going horribly wrong, about somehow still failing and not graduating, stupid things like that. Tomorrow morning for class I'm going to have to stand in the gallery and answer questions from classmates. I have no idea what they'll ask. I really don't. I probably won't sleep tonight. Oh lord.

Friday I meet my advisor in the gallery for, I guess a critique of sorts. Then that evening is the reception. I've got a decent number of friends supporting me and saying they'll be there, which I'm really excited about. Saturday I take it down. Man.

In other news, my friend David and I are collaborating for a pair of strips for one of the final weeks of the paper, an adventure with Professors Bear and Waterbear. David's writing the script, I'll draw it of course, and we've pleaded with the editor to give us a lot of space for each strip so that it'll be something truly epic. I'm so excited about that. He just asked me if I'm against time travel somehow being involved. AWESOME.

I've also been writing/thumbnailing/designing a new comic, which may end up as a graphic novella, considering how far I am into it at this point. I'm keeping tight-lipped about it, but what I find funny is that, that one other comic, the sci fi action one I rambled about? I got 30 pages in before dropping it, and the plot was bland, there wasn't much action, and there was nothing weird. I was being more...conservative, I suppose. No dreams, no nudity, no strange creatures, none of that. This new comic I'm working on? Over 30 pages plotted out, the plot largely involves dreams, there are strange creatures, and there's quite a bit of nudity. And I'm not slowing down much at all or getting frustrated with it like I was with the last one. I guess I should stop trying to be more normal and just let my work be as weird as it can be, it's more fun that way.

Hm. That's it. I'll let you know how the reception and everything else goes. I should go to bed soon...

[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]

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]

Rejoice, because I have finished and printed all but one piece for Embrace Infection! Well, two. There's one I won't print at all, and one that I, um, forgot to print. But I'll get that next week. Anyways, all of them are now uploaded to the gallery here on the site.

Most of the pieces are also cut down as well, which leaves the mounting and, well, the show itself in November. I'm ahead of the game.

And now I'm at a loss at what to do next. I had written a script for the first chapter of a graphic novel, but a few days later deleted it because I thought it was crap. I've done a decent number of sketches, but not much else. And I did this:

This is from a pose I really wanted to use for Embrace Infection, but I couldn't make it work. And so I went back to playing in Illustrator again! Yay!

But no, it's bugging me. My head feels empty, and like it's not on straight. Technology has been rebelling against me all week, I've been draggy, I keep making stupid little mistakes and forgetting little things, it's like I'm not really myself. Maybe it's something to do with the death of my old guitar teacher last week, maybe dad's words hurt more than I thought, maybe I have the bird flu and I'm dying, I don't know, but I'm stuck in a rut and must find my way out.

If you'll excuse me, I'm now going to go and uh, draw something.

[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]

My head really hurts right now. Here's Monday's Exciting Tales! strip. It's a tribute to Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland:
Not exactly one of my best, I'll admit, but I'm still fond of it.

I have all thirteen pieces for Embrace Infection finished, though a few need minor revisions. I had seven printed on campus today, though three of those are the ones which need revising. I'm excited to see them in the full size they were meant to be printed at, however, with the colors brilliantly popping on the glossy paper.

Here's one of those finished, printed pieces, entitled Feeling Good:

I've been thinking a bit lately about, well, women in comics I guess, given the shitstorm that hit last week with DC's Catwoman and Starfire being portrayed as trashy sex-hungry sluts, not real characters but cheesecake for fanboys to gawk over and fantasize about having sex with. It makes me feel dirty and uncomfortable, seeing the pages, and I don't like it at all. I'm plotting a new comic in which the villain is a woman, and I'm thinking hard about how to develop her as sexy, yes, but more than anything else, FORMIDABLE. There aren't a lot of formidable women in comics, I don't think...

Chiyoko in Akira, though. The big burly woman in the apron who protects Kei and Kaneda? I'm pretty sure she punches more faces in than she has lines of dialogue in the third volume. I love her. I just got volume 4 in the mail today, and she's on the back cover, in ragged clothes, ammo belts, and wielding a rifle. I do hope she gets to smash more faces in...

I also got a copy of John Dies at the End, because I saw the trailer for next year's film adaptation by Don Coscarelli:

Looks like he's channeling Cronenberg quite a bit, which makes this movie look even tastier. And given that the novel's from the editor in chief of Cracked, one of my favorite websites, I'm so excited about getting to crack this book open and start reading.

I just have to finish Philip K. Dick's Now Wait For Last Year first.

Also, I must admit something that MAY be considered blasphemy among many circles: I've been watching old James Bond movies on Netflix, and, well, I don't much like the Sean Connery flicks. And I LOVED On Her Majesty's Secret Service, despite the fact that yes, George Lazenby is not quite a good Bond. But man, the way that movie was lit and shot is phenomenal! And Diana Rigg as the Bond girl! It's a weird one, yes, trying to be grittier and more serious than the Connery films while at the same time including a bobsled chase scene, but I dunno, it may be my favorite Bond film alongside Casino Royale...

And I think I'm gonna call the entry quits here, because I keep getting distracted by Top Gear. AWAY.

[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]