Things what gives me pleasure

For some reason i find great sad pleasure in staying up late on the interweb, drinking and listening to Louis Armstrong.

Tonight it is currently 1:02am.
I'm ripping "stuff" onto my i.river.
I'm drinking a 2003 Pinot Noir from Iron Pot Bay (Tamar Valley, TAS).
Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson is playing.

This is a sample of what I've done this week at work:
(All of which are based on true events!)

Things I've Learnered..

Things I've learnered in the last few days:
(In no particular order)

* My I.River records with either the internal or an external microphone, which means I can take it to the plethora of live gigs around town and record some stuff! Had a play with it on Saturday night, and while it's defiantly not broadcast quality, it's pretty good for prosperity.
* Catching up with my ex of 7 years put me on an emotional back foot- something I haven't felt in a long time.
* When trying to bring snake-skin cowboy boots into the country I must say that they're rattlesnake and NOT python leather. THEY will take them if it's python.
* If unsure, Custom Agents will use Google to determine if cowboy boots are made from rattlesnake or python skin.
* A "Scotty-love-sandwich" is really fun!

Things I seen that pleases:

DIG: Last week I took a break from work in the afternoon. Sat on the couch with a cup of tea and turned the tv on.
Flicking over to the ABC I catch the very end of some show. Then the next little cartoon starts. The opening title sequence was very familiar to me, but it took a little while to work out why.
It was an episode of Blue Rocket's TIME CRACKS!


I was Production Designer, StoryBoard Artist and 2D animator on all of the 24 episodes (actually there was another 'boarder aswell).

I know these cartoons inside and out, so it was weird to have that moment of "where do I know these from....".
Being the first time I've seen them on actual broadcast air was kinda weird but cool aswell. My character designs, my drawings, being beamed all round the country!!
Was cool!

DIG: The soon-2-b Mrs Monkey Mattay made me laugh my guts out this morning! Funniest thing I've seen in awhile!! Go check her out in all her raddness!!

DIG: I saw Batman Begins on thursday night..... and i LOVED IT!!

GAH!!

Me, actually really enjoying a superhero-2-film film???
YES!
I genuinely haven't been on the edge of my seat in a movie in a long time! I honestly went in with NO expectations. I'd heard good things about it, but that was the same things I'd heard about Spiderman and X-Men. While I did quite enjoy both those films, they didn't do much for me.
But I really, really dug Batman Begins.
The cast was sublime, and they actually, you know.... ACTED! The whole film looked great, flowed nicely and was just kick-arse! It wasn't cool because it was Batman in a film. It was cool because it was a good film about Batman!
I probally have two tiny quibbles with it.
Katie Holmes is too cute and Batman's mask made his head look mongoloid. Just two tiny things that stuck with me but did nothing to ruin my enjoyment of the film.
I may even go and see it AGAIN!!

(Whats the world coming too when I spend my last 3 entries discussing comic-things??)

GAH!

Current Music: Miles Davis- Kinda Blue

24 Hour ARTY People

DIG: Last weekend I took part in the 24HR comic Competition. From 11am saturday till 11am sunday the goal was to do 24 pages of comics in 24 hours. Cartoonists all around the country and some from overseas took part. I think there were over 100 entries.

I got to about midnight and got bored so went out. Came back home at about 6am and went back to it.. sort of.

I'm in 2 minds about the whole thing. Actually before I start sounding too whiney, I should congratulate Mark Selan on a really top notch organising job. It ran smoothly, got some really good media attention and a really fun atmosphere was created.

Ok, so I think this type of event is good in that it creates a real sense of community and camaraderie on the day. People are posting their work online and getting immediate support and encouragement. It helps bolster confidence and keeps people going.
If you enjoy creating STUFF, then this is a really fun thing to do. Go straight thru the night creating STUFF. I've down plenty of all nighters getting work down and it's quite a rush to push through the barriers and keep on plowing through.
Personally taking part in this thing has got my comic-making juices flowing again. It's inspired me.
So thats all cool, yeah?

But the bad thing is it makes for really clumsy comics.

Comics DO take time to get done. The plotting, the scriptwriting, the thumbnail layouts, the penciling, the inking, the lettering, the colouring. It all takes time to get a good job done.

So to try and do a whole comic in such conditions is a detriment to the end product. Sure you can bash out any scribbly chain-of-thought piece, but the end result will usually be something not worth peoples time to read. Thats unless you hit gold on the day and get a real groove on. Then you can come up aces.(which happened in a few cases last weekend).
There ARE short cuts you can make in terms of the art, and I guess the script aswell. But the problem I see is that initital idea is the most important. You don't have the time to mull it over, chop it up and see how it plays out.
Its- BAM! GO!........... oh, well that was actually a pretty weak idea.

Speaking to an old veteran of these things, The Beard says he uses these events as a layout stage only. He doesn't try and get the whole finished comic done in the 24hrs. He spends the right time on his thumbnails, then does loose solid pencils, and gets as much done as he can. Then in the days after, he reflects and re-considers what works and what doesn't. And BANG, he gets a really solid comic out of the process. Something that EVERY year has gone on and down really good things for him.

Where as I see the majority of people bang out clumsy comics on the day and just leave it at that.

And me?


Well I got 12 pages down. Really messy pencil work thats all construction and no finesse. Some nice witty dialogue. (I'm in a bad habit of doing lazy draftmanship these days. That whole "Fix it in post" attitude. But dialogue comes easy.)
Some nice moments. Some good pacing. I worked on it for about 11 hrs with lots of interruptions. So I guess thats a normal working day. I could've kept with it thru the night and either added more rough pages, or cleaned up the pages I'd done. Instead I went out.

My real detriment was my initial idea. Like I said in a previous post I DO have 2 stories I want to get down, but they were projects I want to get right. So on the day I did an auto-bio story. About me on the day. So I was writing as I was going...

I haven't really done much auto-bio stuff before, but it was quite fun. Although if you write about your life, then you'd better have DONE something worth telling... so thats part of the reason why I went out at midnite and didn't get home till the early hours. I was out RESEARCHING!!

Anway CHECK OUT THE ENTRIES HERE!

And HERE for mine.

I add more pages and ink it up, but I want to get to these other comic projects first.

The problem with comics..

I know I said I wasn't ever going to get angry about comics, but.....
This morning I went to my local comic shop to pick up whatever I had waiting for me.

I got 3 books.

100 BULLETS. A political conspiracy story in the crime genre.


DAREDEVIL. While taking it's roots in the superhero world, it's recently become much more of a crime/pulp real-life feel with very gritty and realistic art.


WALKING DEAD. A zombie-world survival story that focuses more on the human relationships of a bunch of people and how they deal with love, family and morality issues under extreme pressure and circumstances.


I remarked to the guy behind the counter that I wasn't buying as much as I used to, and he then tried to push the new GREEN LANTERN onto me.



That's whats wrong with Western comics today on so many levels.

Straight, no chaser.

If I can be serious for a moment..

Despite the debaucherous and sinful nature of my last two posts, my recent trip to Melbourne was mostly all above board fun.
I arrived on the thursday afternoon and proceeded to THE Holgate/Hook Tower. After seeing to some matters such as paying some bills, posting some packages and reaquanting myself with the Love Kitten, I headed out to Fitzroy via tram. By myself!
(actually as i was waiting for the tram doors to open, an old friend from way back when happened to hop out of the very same door! )
Anyway, i took the 112 tram instead of the 96 and I took a right instead of a left and got a tad off track. After a brief phonecall i got myself sorted and arrived at The Best Mexican restaurant this side of mexico. There i dined with Sam, Dave and Crinnie!
After that we hit CBD for some lindy hop!
Good music was spun in the old skool vein. Good and mighty fun dances were danced! After that closed I was asked if I wanted to go get a drink. Being the fish that I am (they like to drink), I accepted.
The drink however wasn't at a bar, but the 7-11.
Never mind. Under the intense neon lights I got better acquainted with Sammy's crew. The really nice Big Scott, DJ Doris and Crinnie.
It turns out that BOTH Doris and Crinnie are scorpios!!
Add to that the fact that Sammy was one, and i was in Scorpio triple heaven!
(See I dig Scorpio women! Im too afraid to ever go THERE, but man, are they great to have as friends!)
Two of my good female friends in Hobart are also scorpios. And I've also made friends recently with ANOTHER Melbourne scorpio chick!
Then on friday Douglas and I made plans concrete for THE World Tour and then I went to the British consulate to have a chat. You know. Chit-chat and discuss the state of the Empire over a cuppa!
Friday night we hit a gallery opening at a noisy venue. Very interesting venue, crappy dj's. Doug and Jen went home, leaving Garth and myself to scoff much pizza and await Shawnie! Then we went a funky bar (Melbourne is FULL of them!). Fleischer Superman and Felix The Cat cartoons were played. Got back to Holgate/Hook tower at a reasonable hour.
Saturday Monkey and Mattay arrived. Then we did the usual rounds. Minatour, JB HiFi. Proud to say I spent NOTHING!
Then we hooked up with Sammy again. After scribblernerds met dancernerds we went our separate ways. Sam and I went to see a band, Virus, in Fitzroy.
We weren't going to dance at all, but after only a few songs from the excellent Dixie-ISO band, she turned to me and said "If you ask me to dance now, I won't be able to say no."
So more really fun dancing was had!
Then I hopped a tram (all by myself again!) back to THE Holgate/Hook tower and The Party Proper began! (see previous post for details!)

So that was Melbourne!

And in other wrap up news:

DIG: A source from Canberra tells me there is a rumor going around the ACT that Schepell may INFACT be guilty!! This rumour (which was leaked from a Federal Department) says that she was under surveillance for sometime before her BUST!
So there you go. Not that I particularly care one way or another.

DIG: Von Helgate made The Melbourne Age. Much Diggsville ink has been devoted to him already over this year, so we won't say too much more.

Except i've been NAKED in that very room!

DIG: The above mentioned Sam and I have some exciting interweb stuff happening. It's spunky glory will be unleashed any day now!

DIG:
Would you trust this guy to roam the world???

DIG: This saturday is the 3rd Annual 24 Hr Comics Challenge!. It's something I've never participated in before. I've always had something more interesting or exciting to do on a long weekend.(When you spend the week drawing, it's usually the last thing you want to be doing for 24 hrs straight. In the past I've either been away for the weekend, out having dinner with friends or just happy to hang with the girl.)
But this year maybe differant!
I've got a few ideas that'll benefit for time.
Theres the Toon Buggy story (although i don't want that to be so much of a loose, quick deal). There's the El Scorchio story. Art wise, it'd suit the time frame and state of mind, but the story needs some proper planning and research.
There are some other things going on in my head.
Every hour, do a page and have a drink. Watch it degrade?
Dunno.
Any writer-types out there want to jam? I'm looking at YOU Monkey/Jen/C-Man.


(Picture by the Uber talented Jase Harper)

DIG: I think I'm allergic to cats! Having the Love Kitten wake me every morning at 7am by rubbing and linking my face may or may not have contributed to my puffy, black eyes and sniffles. More reason why the species should ALL BE DESTROYED!

Current music: Jimmy Smith "Home Cooking"

Objective

Objective to add to the World Tour.

(Do you know about the World Tour? Well i'll explain it soon)

C-man, Holgate and I will dress like The 3 Amigos when we go to Tijuana.



Ned Niederlander: You shot the invisible swordsman!

Wheres the respect??

OK.
Vikings, Mead, Cigars and sluts! And my little Douglas became a man. "Where were the sluts??!!" Douglas exclaimed at 5.30am. "we were promised SLUTS(in a Conan voice).
"Don't you lose repsect for ME!!"
(If i had a dollar for everytime I heard THAT!!)
While Shanny, Douglas and i were being SECRET VIKINGS, Dr Garth was patting his pussy, like the commo/pinko he was. It turns out his socialist leanings preventing him from drinking the sweet, sweet mead.
He was SO not a viking!!
Screen printing Bouncher!
Douglas maintained TOTAL composure until the very end when he SMASHED a glass defending Schepllep's innocents!
Cute dj played 2 johny Cash and then a pixies song. HOT!
I paid taxi fair twice out of two!