Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Friday, October 26, 2007

Check out my Comic!

Yeah! I finally got the comic I worked on last weekend (19 hours straight, sorry, still sorta raw), and it's on my first official webcomic site:

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/regan/

It takes a little poking around to figure out how to navigate. Look for the "You are Here" box under the comments box (feel free to comment!). Once you see the You are Here field you can go from whatever my last page was and got to the beginning (Chapter 1). After you read the previous pages, the idea is that you'd bookmark the site (please do!), and when you check back in the newest page will be waiting for you.

After you activate the page you on by hitting "Go" or scrolling up to whatever page you want, there are some traditional buttons like forward, back, first, and last you can also use to move around. You'll get the hang of it (I mean, if I could anyone can!)

Hope you like it! :) I"ll be adding more on Monday's and we'll see where it goes.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Cover for Comic

(click on to enlarge) So here's the cover at least. Daz and Phyl are the main characters, and the rest are co-stars. Lea Hernandez, (a real life working comic), complimented my artwork at one point. She was doing a cool clay-mation project that looked really intricate. Hope I get to see it sometime. I'm playing with color, but it sort of loses something, so I may keep it black and white. Dunno yet...

Whew! The Recap!

The "Black-out" period is over, and I made it to my day job today. Man! That Sunday, I slept 10 hours, and those are day hours. Then Monday my allergies rose up against me and I got the pendulum swing from feeling on top of the world to feeling like crapolla. I've more or less evened out now, but it's a lesson that I shouldn't push myself that far unless it's for a good and/or crazy cause like 24 hour comic day.

The sad part: I didn't finish it within the official 24 period. I went 19 straight hours and my body began to fall apart. My drawing hand's nerves short circuited and I still have a tingly thumb that's not quite right yet. My eyes started seeing double from staring at my laptop monitor. And finally, while I didn't get sleepy, my brain did begin to act like a really slow processor with several virus's.

The upside: I WILL finish and post the comic here and at the webcomics.net account I've opened but haven't officially started yet. I really did like the story and it's open to continue as a weekly comic. I feel a webcomic will do me good, keep me honest and creating.

The other cool thing was somewhere in those 19 hours I gave an interview to Sean at Prism Comics. I'm a featured "Lovely Lady of 24 Hour Comics Day." Prism Comics is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting the work of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) creators in the comics industry, as well as LGBT themes in comics in general. The comic I came up with has a same-sex pair of frogs living in the terrarium with all the other frogs, and that's part of why Prism interviewed me. Here's a link: http://www.prismcomics.org/display.php?id=1493

The underlying theme of "Darting Around" my dart frog comic, is that we all have to learn to share the world and get along and that no one group should think they're superior to the rest.

Now, I just have to finish the darn thing!

Sunday, October 21, 2007

6 hours to go...

I don't think I'll finish in the timeline. That's not a real big deal, and there are lots of others in the same boat. The deal is I don't want to sacrifice the quality just to get it done. I'll be plenty impressed with myself if I just work for 24 hours.

I'm on page 14 artwork wise, but Photoshop started crapping out on text and may need to be re-installed, so getting the type/dialog done is iffy.

My brain's just turning to mush. Been listening to some comedians, Stephen Colbert's new book has made me laugh out loud, but it's so late that no one thinks much of it.

I'm not sleepy, which is weird at 6:16 am in the morning, having worked nonstop for 16 hours. Yeesh! I'm nuts.

Ok, on I go...

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Half time

Well, half way there. And, wow... my body's not quite obeying my brain. Sorta approximating what it was told to do, but not to the letter.

My computer programs are also trying to wuss out. I'm going to push on and hope they straighten themselves out.

Gave an interview to a reporter... Can't wait to read what I said, 'cuss I have NO idea what I rambled on about!

However, I'm pretty darn proud of my little froggies. Wish they were here in person to take care of the occasional mosquito that buzzes me.

Back to work...

7 hours in

Huff, huff, huff... Ok, we have lift-off. Working on finish pages. Thinking I'm not getting to color during the challenge, but I'll come back and do it. Funny how time slips away working on logistical matters, like page size, margins, ruler guides.

I'm not sure uploading images will work from here, so sorry it's boring. I'll get a kick out of what I write later.

*insert Eye of the Tiger music*

22 hours left

still thumbnailing, but the story's coming together. The trick is knowing the end point before you run out of pages. And Eric points out if you have an extra page, it's a great opportunity for a Hostess Cupcake ad.

:)

24 hour day

well, it's started! I'm thumbnailing the comic now, and hopefully will start real pages in the next hour. The place is pretty full, and we're quietly working.

So far so goood!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

24 Hour Comic Challenge

Well, I'm officially signed up for an international event that Austin is participating in called 24 Hour Comic Day (http://24hourcomics.com/). Artists start at 12:00 noon October 20th and go for 24 straight hours to create 24 pages of a finished comic to be turned in at noon October 21st. Nuts, isn't it! That may not sound like much, but it's the equivalent to a triathlon in cartooning terms. And the other fun part is you come up with it on the spot, and I'm purposefully not working on a storyline because I want it to be spontaneously caught on that day. I do think I'll base it on poison dart frogs because I've been researching them, and they're fresh in my mind (and fun to draw). What they'll do or talk about is anyone's guess!

Another fun part will be seeing other artists banging out their work alongside me. The Austin Museum of Art is hosting it and will provide space, snacks, and security during the wee small hours. How long has it been since I've been to a lock in?! (Actually... several of us in my major at Baylor would hide when they closed the art building, wait for the cleaning staff to lock up and leave then we'd pull an all nighter in the printshop and darkroom. That was a blast! Sneaking around with flashlights and code signals. Though mixing developing fumes with alcohol is not advisable!)

So think of me on the 20th, going all iron man on a comic that I promise to share here. The best of the best get published in an anthology, too, so who knows!

Monday, October 01, 2007

Our Crazy Bunch!

(Click to enlarge!)

So, I love a good parody, and this is our Brady Bunch tribute. I actually got the idea from a frame I bought at target that had little windows around a larger center one, and it made me think of the opening to the show. Funny, I had the perfect number of critters for all the frames! I also realized the ratio of warm to cold blooded is at a tie currently. I think my favorite drawing of my critters is either the Tokay's terrifying open mouth display (something we see when we try to mess with him) and Cooper the chinchilla chewing a bit of the frame. Just a little fun for me, and now I have a new wallpaper for my desktop!