Unemployment Sucks

And because of that, Lineage has hit a little snag but I'll be back on it soon. In the meantime, here's a new pinup of a character that I was messing around with. No, he's not the Punisher.

Death's Head by ~tsudaduda on deviantART

But, What's It All About?

I'm going to leave that for Jay to post. In the meantime, I'll let you know that there are fairies in it.

Not Dead Yet

I know I said that this would kill me but I'm still here working on this. As you can see, it's just about done.

Save the Date

The first issue of Lineage will be finished in June of 2010. Why so long? It's over 60 pages and I'm handling pencils, inks, colors and lettering. I plan to have at least half of it done by Wondercon in February so that I can start promoting it.

Book Duty

Sorry for no art post this week. I'm back on book duty and the current page I'm working on is killing me. A while back, I posted the previous version of this page and wondered if I should recolor it. The answer turned out to be yes. Damn my OCD! (edit. new image uploaded 7/24/2009)

Dazzle Me!

Original Dazzler circa 1979. She's going to be Miss January.

And...

...what? Betcha weren't expecting another so soon. This is Christian from Dragon Lines. What's Dragon Lines, you say? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.

Another One

Here's another illustration that I've finished for my calendar. Enjoy!

Still Here

So... Lack of update due to having to move and a calendar I want to put out next year of my work. I have 5 illustrations done so far. Need 7 more. Here's the first one.

OMG!!!

Has it been that long? Several things that have come up that have prevented me from updating this blog (Jay is still in school, I believe) so, I'm attempting an update now. No new artwork this time though but I'll have something soon. Promise.

So...

I had done some coloring for Lineage about 2 years ago before I petered out and went to live in another world. I've come to one of the pages (as you can see below) and was considering leaving it colored the way it was but I'm leaning towards re-coloring it so that it will be more consistent with the newer content.

Decisions... Decisions...

I Feel Like A Disco Ball!

Digital gaming addiction will do that to you. However! I believe I have recovered enough to move on and and pick up the pieces of this project to finally finish it. We will have an expanded story line! New art work! New colors!

Ouch...

I think something broke...

Anyway, enjoy this little preview of what's to come.

Comic Interupted

Just a quick note saying we are still around, that Lineage is still out there, but the dry spell has not ended. The Artist has been through some health, relationship, and employment challenges in the last year... as well as a digital addiction that has not yet released its grip upon his soul. I have turned to other projects, some comic book related, and have come out of the dark pit of digital addiction... I still play online games, but only infrequently these days.

I hope we will have something new to post about progress, new events, and so forth.

Thanks for being here,

Jay

The Dry Times...

With every creative venture comes the dry times. No matter how hard you try, there are cycles to creativity that must either be worked with, worked around, or just ridden out. We're presently in the winter of our creativity... little can grow and most of the effort is just to keep up the faith that spring will come and we will again be able to create and grow.

Where is the "Chosen One"!?!

If I see that line one more time in comics I think I'll puke. Why is it that every new hero on the block has to be the "chosen" or "destined" or "fated" or "true borne" or whatever other uniquifying term the writers want to use this week?

I am SOOOOO glad that neither of the stories Chris and I are working working on, Lineage or DragonLines, has characters thusly designated. I find it far more interesting to have "real people", though paranormal if the genre calls for it, working to save the world. There are so many "right fits" for saving the world... the right person at the right place at the right time... there are seldom just "one combination" that will work in real life. Why is it in comics you have "only one"?

I think that tired old cliche needs a break for a decade or so... then maybe it will be "new again" and we can have a next-generation of "chosen".

Comic Con or Bust!

Well, we've waited and waited and waited... and the Comic-Con guys are so backlogged that they still haven't processed all the "small press" applications. So I'm to call back in two weeks. *sigh*

Chris and I have been delaying our plans for San Diego in July while waiting, but the hotels around the convention are now either booked solid, or the rooms remaining are only affordable to bizzillionairs. Chris had no luck finding us anything decent, so I did a search and the only things I could find were either motels I wouldn't pay $60 a night for, and certainly not $140 a night, or were over 10 miles away from the convention center. Neither option was desireable. Then I stumbled upon Sommerset Suites, which is only 2.9 miles from the convention center. At under $200 a night, two room suite with kitchenette and free breakfasts, how could we not jump on it?

So, I tacked on a couple days before and after the convention to the reservation as my wife and I have never been to California, so we hope to at least get to peek at what San Diego is like away from the convention.

Even if the convention gurus do not approve our small press package, Chris and I plan to get in with Professional tickets. So, Lineage will be there!

To color, or not to color... that is the question

Chris and I have been debating whether to do Lineage in full color, or whether we should be more modest and simply do black and white. Chris does incredible color, and we'd love to do the comic that way, instead of in black and white or greyscale. However, the reality of the situation is that we can not afford to publish this comic ourselves in full color. The costs are simply too high. If we are able to get in with a larger publishing house, this would not be so much of a problem... but with the probability being that we will be Independent Publishing our book, I am trepidatious about putting the effort into color that we more than likely won't use.

I know we'll make it beautiful no matter what the final format is.

Waiting is the hardest part

The difficulty with registering for conventions is that not all conventions provide you instant feedback, especially when you have to be juried in. We are waiting, patiently, for word back from Comic-Con San Diego about our acceptance as a small press. We, however, need to reserve rooms and get plane flights... so at times, this means chewing on nails and trying to stay calm.

Ah well, the joys of being "independent" in the business world.

Comic Guys - Strip 001

COMIC GUYS
How it all began!


All great things had humble beginnings.

The Price of Power

Our Comic Book Artist Table for MegaCon was a reasonable price, which included two tickets for the convention (advanced tickets are $45). I was quite pleased about this. We got an eight foot table which has 2 chairs and enough space behind it that we should be able to set up a display (we supposedly have 6' behind us). This leaves us with a few dilemmas. The first dilemma is power for our laptops.

There is no point in our spending 3 days at a convention and not working on our comic. The comic is mostly done digital. This means: we need power for the laptops. The table cost with two tickets was $150; so only $60 for the table. I think that is most reasonable, it covers space expenses, set-up costs, etc. When I asked about having power, I was told that would have to be obtained not from the convention, but from the convention-center (the actual facility) and that it costs $100 for the weekend.

That gave me a big "huh?" As a reference here, the power cost for my entire house last month was $144. They are saying that in 3 days I'm going to consume nearly as much energy with two plugs at a table as I do in the whole house? No, of course they aren't. I understand this is a setup-fee... but I'm still confused. Exactly how long do they think it will take their crews to run the power cables while setting up the floor plan? I suspect, at most, our individual power run, assuming we are the only people in our row requesting power, would take no more than 15 minutes to set up and even less time to break down after the convention; so a total of 30 minutes on the outside. The power consumption would be nominal, but I'll be generous and say $5 for 2.5 days? That means that we're paying $190/hr to "run an extension chord". PLUMBER WEEKEND/NIGHT RATES ARE CHEAPER!

I've done some research and think I have an alternative. For that same $100, I can get a "deep cycle marine battery" with a safety case and a 300+ watt inverter. I now only need to determine how many Amps our PCs will draw so that I can determine how long that power would last. It is my hope that I can get about 10 hours of power out of a good deep cycle battery. If so, then it would be a great investment because I can take said battery to any show we do and have enough power for "all day use", I'd just have to bring a charger with me if we are out of town so I can recharge the battery in our room overnight.