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]

I'm kind of sick, either from something I ate or a stomach virus of some sort, who knows, so I'll try to be brief (and will not succeed). Here's today's Exciting Tales! strip, a haiku about the rain:
So here's the cast, from left to right: The raptor with the umbrella is my friend Ricky's TRUE FORM. Next up is Harold, who readers should be familiar with. At least this time he's not getting slapped with a fish or assaulted by a large waterbear. Then there's my editor, Alaina. Her cellphone apparently never works, and she wanted it in the comic. Past her is Sterlin, carrying a copy of Museum for Dead Clowns and listening to uh, probably Black Flag. Then there's Radha, annoyed, and Trey, who wields the Iron Fist. The melting guy is my old roommate, because I think I once dreamed about him melting in the rain. Last we have Dr. Noe looking down at Sami's arm as she drowns in a puddle because she's short.

I had posted on Facebook asking if anyone wanted to be in a comic walking miserably through the rain, and they responded. Except Ricky, but I just REALLY wanted to draw a raptor. And my old roommate, who I do not talk to anymore.

Um. There were things I wanted to talk about prior to like, getting sick, but I can't remember what they are. I've just been watching Top Gear and rereading Darwyn Cooke's comic adaptions of the Hunter and the Outfit, which are some of the best comics I've ever read. Also the first volume of X-Statix. But uh...I can't remember if there was anything I wanted to talk about regarding any of these things?

I did interrupt a conversation between two former co-workers the other night when they were talking about what new DC titles they were reading. I screamed, "NO, FORGET ALL OF THAT, I'VE GOT ONE WORD FOR YOU: OMACTIVATE!!"

I'm still one of like, two people enjoying that comic, I think.

Right, on comes the nausea. AWAY.

[Brett]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. Here's today's East Tennessean strip, about the Ghost Monkey of ETSU. It's a true story:
Could this be my best work yet? Next week's Exciting Tales! is going to be a haiku. I can't do haiku very well, so it's bound to be terrible. There may be a dinosaur in it though.

I thought about writing about all the different horror movies I've been watching lately. I think I've finally pulled myself out of my John Carpenter kick that I've been on after making attempts at watching some of his lousier films like the Ward. I bought Halloween and watched it last night, of course. Old Vincent Price films like the Masque of the Red Death, but those still don't compare to the outrageous awesomeness of the Abominable Dr. Phibes. Re-watched Nosferatu and and the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which led me to draw this last night:
I MAY re-watch Nosferatu again tonight, because it is great. I also watched Shadow of the Vampire, which I had bought earlier this year and kind of forgot I owned. And another favorite of mine, Bram Stoker's Dracula.I had started watching the 2005 remake of Dr. Caligari, and it was...eh. The acting wasn't too good, though Doug Jones was REALLY creepy as the somnambulist. If I finish it, it'll be for his performance, definitely...

Eh, that's it. I'm gonna go eat candy and draw now.

[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]

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]

Today is Thursday, and here's the new Exciting Tales! printed in today's East Tennessean:
It has been requested that I do a future strip about Professor Waterbear. I have to agree, his story must be told.

Today I drew the seventh Exciting Tales! and the fifth Distinguished Gentlemen. I also started character sketches for a graphic novel idea. Now it's back to work on Embrace Infection, I guess.

Also, this has got me excited:

No, it's not as intense as the original teaser trailer, but still, the more I see of this film, the more I want to see it. The novel was amazing, but the Swedish film was a bit lacking. Did I say that already once before? I feel like I might be repeating myself.

I've got more things to do. Rawr.

[Brett]

Today's Exciting Tales! in the East Tennessean:

All of these things are true, though of course, people who know me and know my work really well will realize that I am personally responsible for the first two.

...Heh.

Thursday sees the second Distinguished Gentlemen strip, of course.

Met with my advisor today about Embrace Infection, showed him the seven finished pieces. He seemed to talk to me longer than any of the other students, and it was mostly about the concept of a loose narrative, which is what I'm calling this stuff. He suggested some minor changes to make to a few of the pieces, then told me to keep cranking them out and not to be afraid to be even more outrageous. Excellent.

I got a Droid X2 smartphone and have been learning my way around it. Obviously, one of the first things I downloaded was the ComiXology app and a nice big slate of free comics. It's a bit exhausting at times, but reading the comics one or two panels at a time is a very interesting thing. It's got me thinking about how page layouts are affected by it. For instance, a big, beautiful two-page spread by JH Williams III would not translate all too well. However, something simple, on a 6-or-9 panel grid would be pretty much perfect unless the artist is playing around with symmetry between panels and such, the way Dave Gibbons did for the Fearful Symmetry issue of Watchmen. There's a lot of push and pull, and I wonder just much professional artists think about the differences between the physical book and the screen on someone's iPhone, yeah?

It's fascinating stuff, but still: nothing beats having the thing itself in your hands, being able to flip between pages, smell the ink on paper...Er, right. I'll shut up now.

[Brett]