Peeks at things you may or may not see

I really am a horrible blogger

I recently reviewed Manga Studio for comicsbulletin.com

As part of the review I draw an original piece using only Manga Studio and a tablet.

Name the character and win the program

http://www.comicsbulletin.com/reviews/125780271324499.htm

ps-I will really make an attempt to become more frequent with my posts.

Page of JDK

Teaser–Asha Rylon

Been Away for Awhile

So, where have I been? Well, A little bit of everywhere. There’s been good reasons and bad reasons for my sabbatical. The good ones I’ll mention, the bad needs no mention.

Basically, my time has been occupied with two things. The first was building a room in my garage in hopes of reducing sound levels and offering better acoustics. I and two of my bandmates, Rob and Jeff, did all the work. We built two new walls and a ceiling coming off the back interior corner of the garage.

It was a week filled with bent nails, empty beer bottles, and good friends.

The acoustics are great!! And the outside sound levels should drop with a few blankets, egg crates, and ingenuity.

The other thing that’s been occupying my time is a crap load of new comic projects—perhaps too many. I’ve taken on around 6 or 7(truthfully, I’ve lost count) new writing projects, each with a decent to pretty damn good artist. It all happened in about the span of three days.

I really wanted to push myself to produce as much as I can in the next three to four months. I placed a few ads explaining what the deal was and see if anyone was interested. I honestly didn’t expect many responses at all. And certainly not to the extent I received. At least, not of the quality.

It was hard to say no to any of them.

I had a few concepts, myself. A few solid stories and others I knew I could hammer out quickly(but quality) if need be. I also offered up writing any ideas the artist might have. If there was something they wanted to draw that I could build a story around.

All of my free time, sans that spent with my girlfriend, has been writing scripts, building concepts, rewriting scripts, and taking on more projects.

You’ll hear more about the projects the closer they come to completion. One should be done soon. Another is coming along at a good clip, as are a few others. The rest are still in the early stages.

Oh, and there was a third thing—

I asked my girlfriend to marry me.

She said yes.

Newest Script–Green Face

So, I’m about to finish up the first draft of the newest script I’m working on called Green Face. It’s set in Vietnam. I never thought I’d write a war story, which this is on the surface. Yet, in doing something out of my norm, I’m might be producing the best writing, comic-wise, I’ve done to date.

Not to build it up too much. I just feel like the subject matter allowed me to really push the language. Be a bit more “literary”, so to speak.

I may ask a few to give it a read through for some feedback. Who knows?

Record You Should Own #3

Fela Kuti I.T.T (International Theif-Theif

Give me any Fela record and I’m a very happy man, but this one holds a very special place in my heart for personal reason we needn’t go into here.

The entire record is one 25 minute song. Yet, it’s so ingeniously arranged that you never notice it’s one continuous piece of music. The musicianship is some of the best you will ever hear.

It’s a rare occasion when a musician creates an entirely new genre, but that’ s exactly what Fela did. Afrobeat was his brainchild and no one does it better. His importance and impact on music cannot be overstated.

Busy with a Review of Manga Studio 4

Haven’t posted in a bit. Most of my free time has been spent working/reviewing Manga Studio 4 for comicsbulletin.com. Part of the review is that I have to design an original manga/comic character. Seeing as I haven’t drawn with any regularity in a really, really long time, it’s all very slow going.

I gave up dreams of being an artist when I realized I was far and away a better writer. As Kenny Rogers said, You have to know when hold, know when to fold them.

I have to say I’m pretty impressed with the program. It’s pretty streamlined. There’s is a bit of a learning curve at first. But once you get used to it, it flows pretty nicely. It’s actually pretty fun to use, too. So much so, I’ve given thought to lighting the old artist fire again.

Sneak Peek of JDK

Here’s page 1 of JDK. Probably all I’ll post. At some point, I probably/hopefully have to take it down.

Newest Projects

I have two projects in the works. One is Japanese Demon Killers or JDK for short. It’s an over the top mix of 70s explotation cinema, japanese mythology, and screaming chicken nuggets.

The other project is nameless at the moment, but the working title is Phượng Hoàng. It deals with the CIA run Phoenix Program used during the Vietnam War. I’ll probably, but not heavy-handily, use it to look at the current “War on Terror”. But underneath that it’s a story about whether it’s the corruption around us or the corruption within us that tilts our moral compass.