...I hope I come up with a better title for this thing by the time I'm finished writing.

Yesterday was ETSUcon! Tomorrow is my 25th birthday! COINCIDENCE? Well yeah, actually it is.

It was quite an experience, being only the second real con I've ever done, but I surprisingly did pretty freaking well. Better than I'd expected to. Turns out people LOVE posters of giant skull robots and kaiju! And I managed to do quite a few mutant portraits for people, too!

Cosplayers roamed the ETSU Culp Center in droves, more than anyone could possibly try to count, but this Splicer lady was my favorite:
There was also a dude dressed as Ryan Gosling's nameless character from Drive? He was awesome and hung around my table quite a bit, but I forgot to photograph him because we kept talking about how cool the new Gosling/Nicolas Winding Refn flick Only God Forgives looks. Seriously, watch that trailer! Doesn't that just look AMAZING?!

It was also a weird experience to have groups of cosplayers get their pictures taken right in front of my table...when there were two empty tables right next to me. I didn't know how to react to that, just a bunch of costumed butts in front of me.

Nor did I know how to react to people who asked me if my work was based on or referencing anything, who would then just lose interest and walk away when I told them that it wasn't. It's like...there are a number of artists on the internet who complain about how someone else's My Little Pony/Deadpool mashup gets more attention than their own, original work? Which is a lame truth, but not something I've ever paid much attention to. This was the real world equivalent to that "if I don't recognize it, I don't care" mentality. Someone asked if my Distinguished Gentlemen collection (which was being given out for free) had any "meta references" in it, and when I told him no, he immediately put it down, and when I tried telling him about Other Sleep he just remarked that the only webcomics he likes are badly drawn MS Paint ones...which...I mean, if that's what you dig, then cool, more power to you, but that was just weird.

Still, though. I saw some friends I hadn't seen in a long time, met some cool new folks (it seems appropriate that, as much time as he spent at my table, I never learned Drive dude's name), and I got video interviewed by stand-up comedian friend Hunter Roberts for a site he writes for called Gonzo Geek! Then I went and got Mexican food with a couple friends I don't get to see too often, so yeah, good times all around!

And hey, this next Saturday, May 4th is Free Comic Book Day! I'll be on 6th Street outside of Mountain Empire Comics doing it all over again. I don't think there will be as many Homestuck cosplayers this time around, though. Or Old Gregg.

Aw crap, I never came up with a better title for this entry. OH WELL.

[Brett]

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]

Only someone who is an Argento or witch house fan may get that. I don't know if my "audience" comprises of either of those. Oh well.

So uh, I graduated yesterday morning. That was exciting. I think. More exciting was finding pads of comic board at Michaels this week that were buy one get one free. Even more exciting was the stack of comics I bought in between three different stores.

But no, graduation. The ceremony was thankfully short and relatively painless, due in part to some nice conversation about movies and nerdy things with the girl I was next to and because I paid very little attention during all the speeches and stuff because I was too busy doodling all over my program:
I nearly flubbed when it came to the whole "walking across the stage" thing because I was dizzy and my head was hurting, but no one commented on that, so I think we're good.

I was around page 51 or 52 of the comic I keep talking about, which I shall from here on out refer to as "Project Sense." Now, though, I realized the past 10 pages weren't working so well, so for the second or third time I am rewriting this scene. Still, progress is progress.

You may have noticed the new banner up top and such. That carcass is the remains of this:
This is a giant monster originally supposed to appear in Project Sense. It was also a bit of an attempt at doing some Geof Darrow style detail in a drawing. Or if not Darrow, then James Stokoe. However, after showing the original sketch to a friend, we determined that, for the purposes of the comic's story, the monster was way too, um, dinosaur or kaiju in design, not nightmarish enough, so it's back to the drawing board there.

Here's the entire carcass:
I've made some other minor changes to the site here and there, and I plan on doing some more soon.

Also in the pipeline is a five page comic for my friend Sterlin's next Pizza Flag book, a sort of anthology of comics, short stories, and poetry from local talents.

Word. Now back to last-minute Christmas crap and playing Zelda: Skyward Sword, which I want to eventually talk in more detail about.

[Brett]

I'm stupidly late with this, but here's the final strip for the East Tennessean, the conclusion to the epic adventure of Professor Bear and Professor Waterbear:
That first panel is probably one of my favorite things I have ever drawn.

I had to do a Powerpoint presentation on Embrace Infection this week. I think it went well, considering my Powerpoint had a grotesque shot from David Cronenberg's the Fly and some early 20th century photographs of skin diseases. I talked at length about my comic book influences too. I'm not terribly good at doing presentations or talking to groups of people so I always try to throw in weird, funny things in order to make people laugh and keep them entertained because I know no one enjoys sitting through a bunch of students standing up and trying to talk about their work. I sure as hell don't.

I just need to write up a grant proposal thing and I'll be done with that class. I graduate this coming Saturday. HOLY CRAP I GRADUATE THIS SATURDAY I'M SO NOT READY.

"So what are you going to do next, Brett?" SHUT UP LEAVE ME ALONE

Actually, I do know that no matter what happens next, I'm going to keep doing comics. I'm in the early stages of figuring out some stuff to pitch to guys like Heavy Metal, thinking about webcomics, and of course working on that big comic I've remained kind of hush hush about.

Actually, I haven't remained so hush hush about it, my last few posts on Tumblr have been examples of how I'm trying to figure out the overall look of the comic, playing with different colors and styles. And I've posted some of the rough layouts over there too. Here's a colored one I did last night, in case you're too lazy to click on that link:
40-some-odd pages have been written, with the last 8 or so frequently rewritten. I'm still figuring things out. I have no clue how long it's really going to be. I know the last page, last panel, but...I don't know how to get there. You know how it is.

Um, that's it. I got stuff to do now. AWAY.

[Brett]

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]

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, here's yesterday's Exciting Tales! strip, which I sincerely believe is one of my absolute best comics yet:
After doing the Professor Bear strip? I HAD to do one about Professor Waterbear.  It also gave me the opportunity to do a figure drawing gag I had been wanting to do from the beginning.

Man, Harold just can't catch a break...

As mentioned before, Thursday's Distinguished Gentlemen will be pretty amazing, and Monday's Halloween strip will be even more amazing.

A friend sent me this video on Facebook. See if you can figure out why:

I think I like this guy. "MAY THE POWER OF THE COSMOS BE WITH YOU!!"

So I mentioned before that I'm working on a new action comic that I'm taking my time on. Since then, much progress has been made. I've been writing and thumbnailing simultaneously, which seems to be the best way to work, considering that I always get bogged down if I just try to sit and type out a script. I finished laying out the first chapter, which at 16 pages is longer than anything I've done before, but a bit short for even a single-issue thing. Still, it is what it is, and I may do a bonus supplementary chapter to squeeze in a few more pages. I started the second chapter today, with three pages thumbed out so far.
The guy on the far right is introduced in the second chapter, explaining how he bought an isolation chamber that he never uses.

I keep referring to this as my "dumb action comic," but it's hardly that at the moment. The fight scene in the first chapter takes up about 5 or 6 pages, and the rest is just two characters talking. No idea if there'll be much action in the second chapter, because I'm finding that it's more fun to develop the characters and the setting, but at the same time, I have to fight and keep myself from making it all just a big, boring exposition dump, so I have to figure out how much info to let out and when. There's a lot of questions between the two main characters, and figuring out what they are, when to ask and when to answer is a big chore.

There's a lot of designing to do too. In trying to give the town the comic takes place in a life of its own, there's a lot of defining to do. For instance, the hotel itself needs look as though it's been around quite a while, but the TV, furniture, and other little bits need to look new and different, like they've replaced the old furniture but left the room itself as is. Does that make sense? It's a science fiction future, but the town itself hasn't quite caught up just yet. And it's doubly difficult because I've never really drawn any real interior spaces before, my backgrounds are always light, and I'm going to try and break that with this comic. Also, a scene with a car. I'm going to hate myself when I start to REALLY draw this.

And compared, to the other comics I've done, there's not really any super weird and random crap. Not yet, anyways. I want things to slowly get more and more ludicrous as time passes, so maybe later on it'll become what it was originally intended to be. I realized I can't just make a comic that's a bunch of fighting and make it compelling or interesting if the characters don't do much else and the setting is ambiguous.

I mentioned No More Heroes and Old City Blues last time as influences, but I realized there's more going into it than that. Akira, the Woman Trap, King City, Ronin, and hell, I quote David Lynch's Lost Highway in one panel and in another do a scene similar to a Batman panel from the only Justice League comic I own. It's coming from all over the place, which is totally a good thing.

I probably won't start drawing the actual pages until December at the earliest, once the semester and my job doing comics for the East Tennessean is done.

Also, unlike previous Big Ambitious Projects I've come up with, hopefully this one won't get scrapped so quickly, especially after having written about it here.

[Brett]