Remember Remember the 5th of November.

So, as it turns out, there's like a 99% chance that as of the end of this week, my school will be closed as the result of a strike. 

Let me try to make you understand how much this sucks. I pay about 8000.00 in tuition per year for my program, if there is a strike, we have to make the time up that we miss somehow, which means that the school year will be pushed into the summer, leaving me less time to work, and ultimately, less time to make money, meaning that depending on how long the strike lasts, there is a very real chance that I may not be able to return for a second year, at least not immediately.

However, if there is a strike, it will give me an opportunity to do a number of things that I have been putting off for some time now.

First and foremost is Killing Time issue 2. The issue is thumbnailed and ready to be drawn, I just haven't had the time to in recent months. However in the event of a strike, that could happen.

I also want to update my portfolio. The current portfolio is shoddily programmed and was put together fairly fast as an attempt to display my work for universities. Now that I am in school, I want to use it to chronicle that, and to display the work that I am doing in the event that any potential employers should some across it, they might have a more up to date idea of what work I am doing right now.

I should mention that because this blog is designed to match my current portfolio, any changes I make will probably result in blog being re-designed as well, probably.

And lastly, a project that I have been thinking about and planning for sometime now. I won't say too much about it in case I don't end up having any time for it, but it involves a hobo named Mac, and it's goddamned heartwarming. 

Anyway, I guess I should get back to homework, not that I think I will need to hand it in this week, but you never know. 

Ja.

Moving on ... over?

So I move tomorrow. After 6 long long years I finally get to move back to Toronto. It's kind of weird when I put it that way, it doesn't feel like I've been away that long. Weird.

My schedule is as follows :

8:00am - Wake up, brush teeth, get dressed.
8:30am - Make sure I have everything I need.
9:00am - Hopefully just wait around for a while, maybe eat some breakfast
9:30am - Start loading things into the van. Tetris ahoy! We have more shit to take than we have room for, so this will be the interesting part.
10:00am - Depart!
1:00pm - Should be in Toronto at this point.

So then we slowly get to moving our stuff into the apartment, organizing things, Sarrah needs to go get her YU card from the school, we'll probably eat lunch, and then we just chill for a while.

Oh, and then around 5 or so, Andrew and I will drop by some place in Toronto to get a big Light Table that we found for free on Craigslist, so that's sweet. It's a big sort of drafting table with a glass surface and two flourescent lights behind it. It'll definitely come in handy as a place to draw and work on the comic and what not.

SPEAKING OF WHICH!

The first 2- copies of Killing Time Issue #1 arrived today, and we are very excited. We will hopefully paw nthem off onto the hoardes of no doubt slobbering fans that await our arrival.

So anyway, Saturday is FanExpo, w00t! I had been waiting for quite some time for this, and although the financial situation right now means I can only go to one of the three days this year, I am sure it will be rad as hell.

Rad as hell.

Welp, the next time I update this blog it will be from my apartment in Toronto! I will try to include some pictures for those of you who are curious.

Ja Ne.

Killing TIme Status Update

The first issue is done! You can read it here, or if you prefer, here.

It is also available in print for $3.50. I will post a link to somewhere that you can buy it online as soon as it has been listed. The printed copy will have a cardstock cover, and maybe something else, we don't know.

Now, on to issue 2!

We've finished the writing and thumbnailing process for the second issue. It'll be twice as long, and the print copy will include some joke ads and things of that nature. It will also, of course, be available online.

We intend to have the pencils finished by tomorrow night, but there are still several factors that, should they intervene, will push that to next week sometime. After that it's the long inking and colouring process, which may be made even longer by the fact that we'll be moving in a few weeks.

Anyway, that's all the comic related news for now, I'll post a link as soon as it's available in print.

Cruel Cruel World

So I bought an iBook from my friend Claire the other day. Thus far, it's been pretty good, and I haven't had any problems with it, so that's good. I think the only problem I have with iBooks is the same problem that I have with all laptops, battery life. Battery life is pretty bad with most laptops though, even the newer macbooks, and I can usually get 4 hours or so out of this thing, so I don't really have any complaints!

I finished up the front cover and character profile back page this morning, so that should all be in order as well. If all goes as planned it will be uploaded and waiting for the printers by monday evening.

Anyway, I saw the hulk, twice. It wasn't without it's flaws, but it was still completely fucking awesome. I can truthfully say that it made me forget the old one existed, which is both a pretty astounding feat and a very very good thing.

I listened to Prozzak's new(ish) album finally, and all of the tracks (save one with some girl doing vocals) were awesome beyond my expectations. Unfortunately though, it is still only the second best album by them, Hot Show was just far too awesome. I mean come on, Europa? Milo's Night Out? fuggeddaboudit.

Anyway, I am going to go do a little bit of writing for various comics and projects. I might be going to see Kung Fu Panda or some shit tomorrow, I'll update you on how that goes.

P.S. Everybody watch the movie Monster House, holy shit.

Clever Title

So as it turns out, taking classes online sucks. And what sucks worse than taking classes online is taking interaction based creativity geared classes online. I'm currently finishing Writers Craft and it's becoming very taxing.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most about this system of doing things is that you never get to meet a teacher. See, I tend to tailor my writing to the teacher's personality, and it's worked pretty well for me throughout the rest of high school. But ever since I began to converse with a teacher on a nearly bi annual level, things have changed. I no longer have the ability to play off of the teacher for my assignments, and it sucks.

The other problem with online classes is self motivation, that and prioritizing. See, I need the first 18 modules to be submitted by the 23rd, which is fine, because I'm on 17 right now. However, I didn't read ahead to find out that module 17 is a TV Script and module 18 is a 20 page short story. Don't get me wrong, both of those assignments sound like tons of fun, but they're the kinds of things that I would have liked to have some time to do, and had I worked harder at it, I would be caught up by this point.

And then of course there's the millions of other things I have on my plate. All personal whiny things aside, I am almost finished the first issue of Killing Time, and I'm feeling pressure to get that out, as well, I'm trying to get the Ownicon site up by summer. Between all of that and University enrollment procedures and trying to find a job, it's a little difficult to figure out just what I should be doing at any given moment.

Anyway, I have a splitting head ache, and now I have to go to work. Grahhh.

Ja Ne.

Blambot is a goldmine

Alright, so I'm nearly done the ink for the first issue of Killing Time, and I'm starting to think about lettering.

We've decided on the Font Digital Strip from Blambot for the main text in the comic.








Although if we could wrangle up the 20$ for it, I would also like to go with Blambot Pro.








But I could also live with Letter - O - Matic...







So in conclusion we haven't settled on shit just yet. But anyway, the point of the post was to show you some of the sound effects I've been playing with. These aren't by any means actual shots from the comic. The first image is the poster, and the second is a shitty thing I did for University. I just wanted to give them some background.

So that's all the Killing Time news for now. The first issue should be inked by the end of the week, and the first 6 pages already have flat colours.

In other news, while taking a break from inking, I decided to play with an idea I had for a comic a while ago (like a year). I'm not sure how funny it is anymore, but I'm pretty happy with the way the art turned out. Unfortunately, I only brought this image with me on my flashdrive today:










Which is a screenshot of a part of a single panel of the comic being worked on that I made for some reason. It's done though, so I'll bring it tomorrow and update again.

Ja.

More comic crap.

First of all, I'll give you guys a little update as to what I've been doing in my internet-less time.

Pages 1 - 6 have now got all of their flats layed down. That doesn't take long, but I needed an hour when I could sit down and do that.

Pages 7-10 have been scanned, and I will probably cram them onto a CD and drag them upstairs to my computer if possible so that they can be inked.

I've redone the poster to include Andrew's email address as well as mine.

So yeah, other than that, not a lot has happened. I'm still working on the whole "getting a router" thing.

Ja.

Comic Progress Types

So, in light of recent events (namely that god doesn't want me to finish the comic, and is doing everything in his power including destroying my router forcing me to spend $50 I don't have if I want a new one, to keep me from finishing said comic) I've been forced to change my plans. Currently I have pages 1 - 6 scanned properly and entirely inked. At this point, I was going to scan in the last 4 pages and probably would have them done by now. But since the scanner I was using was going through a now non-existant network, I will have to start colouring the pages that I have scanned in.

On the one hand, this interrupts my plans of inking first and colouring second, but on the other hand, I will have some coloured pages to show you people as a preview sooner. Plus I guess it will make the last few pages easier to get done now that I have the first 6 coloured and ready for lettering.

The main thing here is making sure that I don't waste my fucking time instead of colouring the comic in my spare time.

Anyhow, I am leaving now. There may be some kind of podcast wherein Andrew and I talk with Zack and Chris via the INTERNET SOUNDSCAPE. But I don't know.

Ja.

Peddling our Cheesy Wares.

So tomorrow Andrew and I will head over to Goderich to pay a visit to a little hobby store called The Literary Dragon. We are hoping that they will be so kind as to put up a few issues of our comic for sale.

In order to help things along I made up this image that will be printed on an 11x15" poster and placed in their window (should they accept)


So yeah, wish us the greatest of luck, for we shall be needing it.

Ink Ink and more Ink

Digital ink, I suppose.

So anyway, I'm roughly halfway done the inking for the first issue of Killing Time, and it's coming along pretty nicely. It's difficult to sit here and ink panel after panel though, and it's becoming pretty taxing on my wrist, given the angle at which I have to sit. Gah, what I wouldn't do for a Cintiq.

Andrew and I went into a hobby/bookstore not too far from here, and we had every intention of forcing the comic onto their shelves, however, the owner wasn't in, so we are going to have to return on wednesday (or some time around there). However, this trip has left us a little more time to prepare, in that we will most likely have something poster worthy (or at least, "throw this in your window please" worthy) the next time we head down there.

If all goes well, we will be able to peddle our cheesy wares there for issues to come as well.

A New Ownicon Comic

So about a month ago a friend and I started to plan this comic. I won't give too much away, but I will tell you that it's going to be a long term sort of thing (i.e we have about 3 or 4 issues in the works right now).

The first issue is being inked right now, and we hope to release the first issue sometime this april.

This comic will be a little different from what I typically do in a couple of respects:

Firstly, my friend Andrew is writing the comic. That's not to say I have no control over the storyline per se, but rather that he will be in charge of the bigger writing portions of the comic. In the same respect, he will have a say in the art production. This is, then, a completely collaborative effort. Neat.

Secondly, this will not be distributed in a single medium. While currently we have every intention of distributing the comic for free online, we also intend to sell printed copies of each issue (and, supposing it lasts long enough, each volume). The first issue will be for sale as soon as it is up, and it will be going for $3.50 CDN. (unless the printing place changes it's prices).

Anyway, I need to get back to inking, so just keep yon eyes open, and soon enough the first issue will be complete.

Also, depending on how many we have finished, and how well the comic is recieved, we may be renting a booth at the 2008 Canadian Fan Expo this august. The booth will cost us about $200 to rent, and god knows how much to print comics, so let's hope we get this thing going.

Ja Ne.