Cowboy Monkeys from Comic Con 2007

Here you go! These are all the cowboy monkey sketches I collected at Comic Con this year, in the order in which I received them.

First is Gabe's (from Penny Arcade). A fine rendition! A good way to start the series.

Next is one of my favorites, illustrated with shaming speed by Sir Eef.

Next is by J. Goldberg, the artist from this book. I think it's a great monkey.

Then comes Val's irrepressably cute anime version:

Frank Cho provided his own alter-ego for this one:

I caught Rob Schrab and got this piece! A bargain at $20.

Then I had my good friend Frak take a crack at it. My only solace is that I can draw better guns than he can.My friend Mike whipped up this little ditty over lunch. As usual, he takes the opportunity to make a respectful tribute to our nation's history.

Then our friend and Comic Con buddy two-years-running Steve followed it up with an insightful take on a modern political issue. (He kept insisting that he sucked at drawing -- good one, Steve!):

Next I handed my sketchbook to Doug:Then, just across the floor from Doug, I asked Steve Purcell if he would oblige. He looked hesitant, and said, "It'll just be a quick one," and then ended up with this:

Then forum friend Sean gave me this! I couldn't believe how many people could draw good cowboy hats. I suck at them.

Comic errors

And I'm not talking about Rob Liefeld's refusal to learn human anatomy. (very tired ZING!)

I recently picked up The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty, because, of course, it's a Western comic. It's decent. The art is pretty good, and the weird Carnivale-like stuff in the story is interesting enough. The artist draws a good gun-fight, something a lot of my other Western comics are lacking, even if he does opt for a modern muzzle-flash rather than a technologically appropriate puff of smoke.

One of the things that bugged me about it (cue loss of normal audience here) was that the artist kept drawing the guy reloading his Civil War-era pistol with a swing-out cylinder. I don't know exactly when swing-out cylinders became the norm for revolvers (my guess would be at the turn of the century when double-action revolvers were becoming the standard), but I do know that no cap-and-ball or cartridge conversion pistols from that era had swing-out cylinders.

What's worse (WORSE!) is that the arist has the auDACITY to draw the same error a few pages later, but swinging out on the OTHER SIDE! Can you believe it? No revolver has ever worked this way. Come ON.

I like how he never draws the cylinder arm. Where is it? How is the cylinder sliding out? It's in the shadows. We'll never know.

I admit that that is a pretty nit-picky and nerdy thing to be bothered by. How many people know that kind of thing, after all? I mean besides anyone who has ever studied the operation of those guns.

But BUT I have something that should make you all laugh now. I enjoyed Damion Scott's art for the Batgirl book quite a bit. Once in a while he had some issues with storytelling, but for the most part it was my favorite depiction of the awesome Thai Batgirl. There is one panel that cracked me up, though. Let's see if you can spot the problem.

See it yet? Yes? Awesome. No? See the closeup below.

*pushes up glasses* Ahhh, excuse me, are we to believe that this is some sort of magic auto-shell-ejecting revolver? Ah ha, ah ha, ah ha. Boy, I really hope someone got fired for that one.

Western Nerd

I finally got a picture of all my Western-themed airsoft guns. I swear, they're for reference.

I know I've lost my audience at this point, but, for myself, here's a list of them from top to bottom:

Winchester 1887 lever-action shotgun (the one from T2, but full-size -- Nick Cage also used one in Ghost Rider), Winchester 1892 rifle, Winchester 1873 Randall Custom (based on the gun Steve McQueen used in his TV show), Remington 1851, and two Colt S.A.A.s.

Nerd

Nobody had an accurate and horrifying realization in the comments section of a recent post (in reference to Amy embracing my nerdiness):

Face it, you hit the jackpot!

But on the other hand it sounds like your marriage is completely malfunctioning because it was supposed to make you less like a single comic book nerd, not more like one!

Just don't ask her to dress up for conventions.

He's totally right. But don't worry. On the nerd hierarchy, I think I rate above the "dress up like an anime character" nerd, and I would never encourage or even tolerate Amy lowering herself to that level. Funny nerd t-shirts are acceptable, though. Josh, your wife wearing the knit Leia hat is totally cool because it was funny.

I'm not helping myself, though: I recently acquired a set of samurai swords. That is another step down the ladder (even if they were a gift).

Someone should write up a nerd hierarchy. I'll bet someone already has.

**Update**

Brendoman has come through by finding exactly such a hierarchy!

Dudley the Fuzz-Butt: 1994 - 2007

Our family's beloved Pembroke Welsh Corgi, Dudley, was put to sleep yesterday morning. He had only started showing signs getting old within this last year, but it overtook him very quickly. The vet thinks he developed cancer. My mom had a store of painkillers to last Dudley through the week, so that anyone who wanted to say goodbye could come home on the weekend before he was put to sleep. Unfortunately, he woke up yesterday morning and could no longer use his hind legs. My mom made the difficult decision to take him in sooner. I was able to leave work and drive home yesterday to be with her when she took him in. My dad is out of town until the weekend and my brothers are up here at school now, so she would have had to do it all on her own, and considering that Dudley was her dog, it would have been really hard to do it alone. Well, it was hard even with me there blubbering like a baby, but at least we had each other's shoulders to cry on.

He was a great dog. He cheered us up when we were low, he played with us any time we asked, and he peed on one of our wedding presents. He was about the cutest dog in the world, but he also had a very regal side that belied his naturally goofy looks. He barked like a big dog, had overhead clearance like a little dog, and loved to lick empty ice cream bowls. We shaved him in the summer, giving the appearance that he was wearing white pajamas, and he would honestly sulk for a day or so as though he knew how ridiculous he looked.

We loved him very much. He will be missed and spoken of often.

(I'll try and get some pictures to show you. You can google "Pembroke Welsh Corgi" for an idea. Dudley looked like the most handsome ones you'll find.)

Not-so-recent Westerns - 3:10 to Yuma, Rio Bravo, Young Guns

(I actually started writing this before I got married, but only recently finally finished and posted it.)


It's nice to know there are still some real gems out there to discover within the Western genre. I rented 3:10 to Yuma and Rio Bravo recently, and they have immediately become two of my favorites (especially 3:10).

3:10 to Yuma (1957) - 3:10 handles the hero and villain very differently from most movies, especially from that era. The bad guy isn't your typical villain. He has a sense of morality, but he's not a tragic villain, as would usually be the case. Very interesting character. The hero, too, acts from very human (fallen) motivations, and his ultimate choices make him that much more triumphant morally. The pacing and location shots also make this film stand out.

Rio Bravo (1959) - Rio Bravo is a pretty fun film as well. Dean Martin's character arc is great, and Stumpy is surely the model for the original "Old Prospector." Angie Dickinson plays one of the most sensual characters I've ever seen. She exudes allure.

Young Guns (1988) - Young Guns sucked six ways from Sunday. There was nothing redeeming. I will now avoid Young Guns II with all the cat-like agility I can muster.


To summarize: you all must put 3:10 to Yuma at the top of your rental queue. It's awesome. See it before the new one colors your view.

Recent movies - Paths of Glory, Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, Surf's Up

Paths of Glory (1957) - I didn't even know this was a Kubrick movie until I saw his name in the opening credits. I actually rented it just because John Kricfalusi recommended it as a study for animators in "specific acting."

Anyhow, the film: it is beautifully shot. The way Kubrick stages the scenes and moves the camera and uses his locations is really remarkable. **spoilers** The scouting scene, the assault on the Ant Hill, the courtroom scene, the final march to the firing squad. The fact that Kubrick chose to show the actual execution rather than cut away to a reaction shot really drives home the injustice of pride that cost three men their lives at the hands of their own country. **end spoilers** There is a really interesting point of contrast to be found in the relationship between Dax and the General. Both are manipulated/pressured into sending their men off to certain death, but Dax physically leads his men and assumes the same risk they are taking. You're angry at the General's arrogance in giving this order, but you find yourself supporting Dax because he actually leads his men. The General sees the men as tools, but Dax sees them as human beings of equal value to himself. Also helpful in raising sympathy for Dax is the difference in the way he was pressured into obeying the order. Dax's pride in his men is appealed to, whereas the General gives in based on the promise of further rank.

The overall message of the story doesn't seem to be a broad anti-war statement (which makes it unique), but a condemnation of military hubris and the devaluing of a soldier's life. Pride and the devaluing of life is the cause of each of the problems: the General's pride leads to him ordering a futile attack; the General's pride again prevails in ordering the execution of his own men as "an example"; the pride of the other CO prevents him from acting on Dax's accusations and saving the wrongfully condemned men.

Good movie.

Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind (1984) - Typical Miyazaki movie: lots of fun airborne contraptions, "man is poisoning the earth" message, plucky heroine, some goofball supporting characters, beautifully designed landscapes, and giant mechanized warriors. You can tell this one came out in the 80s because of the funky sound effects and music. I enjoyed it, though I prefer his subsequent efforts (mostly because those bugs freak me out).

Surf's Up (2007) - Pretty fun movie. Easily the best animated waves and surfing ever done. These guys actually studied what waves do and how surfers move (even if there was some ridiculous "360 aerial flip" stuff). Jeff Bridges was perfect. I didn't even recognize Jon Heder, which speaks well of his performance! Wifey-Amy loved that there was a surfer from Michigan. Overall, it could have used more laughs, but the story was pretty good and carried the movie well (which is saying a lot for a surfing movie). Very similar to North Shore story-wise (fish-out-of-water surfer gets big chance in surf contest vs. jerk), but minus most of the campiness.

Dom won!

Dom's entry into the Comic Book Challenge won the grand prize! His book is going to be published sometime in early 2008. Congratulations, dude. You deserve it. Let's hope this leads to more printed work from you! I want to hang out at Comic Con.

Here's their synopsis image, for those that haven't seen it:

Gift for the Wif'

Forgot to mention: I bought my wife this really cool Star Wars statue when I bought my Hellboy dolls.

The trial is over

I've been serving on a jury for the past 5 weeks, and we finally finished everything yesterday. It was a gang-related murder in Compton. There were two juries, one for each defendant. One defendant was the driver, the other was the shooter. We found our guy (the driver) not guilty of Murder, Attempted Murder, and Discharging a Fire-arm into a Motor Vehicle. We think he just gave the wrong guy a ride that day. The other guy is guilty as hell and I hope the other jury comes to that conclusion. They were still deliberating when we finished, so I don't know what their verdict was.

It was a really interesting experience. It was my first time serving on a jury. I learned a lot about the judicial process, gangs, and Compton. The courthouse was in Compton, so I got to know the little area around there pretty well. I had a couple weird experiences outside the courthouse speaking with or over-hearing locals.

We had a pretty good group for our jury. We all became friends by the end. One jury member is even planning on a little jury get-together sometime in the future.

Got the alien!

Though the giant robotic monkey has eluded capture, I was successful in catching another rare hunk of plastic: Mike Mignola's alien.


Just a beautiful design. I love the little Kirby-esque facial details.

I also got Johann, Roger, and Hellboy with rocket pack in the set. Johann is another really cool character.

The version I have features a transparent head and transparent yellow ectoplasm instead of the blue.

Johann has yet to be featured in any Mignola-drawn books, unfortunately, but he was created by Mignola. He's a being of pure ecto-plasm who is contained in the suit you see above. He's a different sort of "ghost in the shell."

Vote for Dom!

Dominic Vivona, a fabulous illustrator and friend, is in the Top 3 for a comic book contest. Please vote for his book with Jorge Vega! It's a western with an interesting otherworldly premise (it's actually sort of like Morbius minus the vampirism, if that makes sense -- a curse that forces the character to kill, but he tries to kill only those who deserve it).

Vote here! It's called "Gunplay." Dom's name isn't listed among the choices, you have to select Vega.

More posts coming soon, I promise!

Married

I'm married to the love of my life and it rules and that's all for now except that those bearings I did art for finally came out but they changed the design a bit and I don't care for it as much but it's still pretty cool.

Kriegaffe! Damn you!

Mignola's work is engaging not only because of its graphic brilliance, but because of its wonderful sense of pulpy humor as well. Mezco Toys has been releasing some really nice action figures based on Mignola's Hellboy books, and I have two so far: Hellboy and Lobster Johnson. They're well sculpted and capture Mignola's art very well.

Wouldn't you know it, the coolest figure from the first wave is also the rarest. Behold Kriegaffe, with floating Nazi Overlord's head:

Recent movies

The Matador (2005) - I enjoyed watching Pierce Brosnan having fun acting. Though I know he regrets the studio's decision, I'm glad he's done with 007. Roles like this are (apparently) much better suited for him. He's a good comedic actor, and this script was just right for him.

There were a couple moments in the movie where I thought it was going to go somewhere darker, but to the film's credit it keeps the tone light throughout (as light as a movie about an aging assassin can be). I think going on a darker route later in the film would have been cheating.

The Hour of the Gun (1967) - I think I'll try to see all the Wyatt Earp interpretations now, because (as far as I know) there are only 1 or 2 left. I've seen Tombstone, Wyatt Earp, Warlock, My Darling Clementine, and now The Hour of the Gun. I think Gunfight at the OK Corral is the last big one.

Hour of the Gun says in white letters at the very beginning, "This is the real story. This is the way it happened." Well, from what I've read on the subject, it's one of the more accurate interpretations, but it still plays with the timeline and embellishes several events. One alteration in particular seems to be The Standard for Wyatt Earp movies: Virgil and Morgan getting shot on the same night. The assassination attempts were actually several months apart, but The Hour of the Gun, Tombstone, and Wyatt Earp all place them on the same night. It makes sense from a storytelling perspective, but it's funny that HotG would make such a bold claim about accuracy and still fudge a few months. I wonder if HotG set the precedent for this alteration?

I like Jason Robards a lot. He doesn't utilize a Southern dandy accent like Dennis Quaid or Val Kilmer, but he plays a great Doc regardless. James Garner plays Wyatt very straight. Robard's Doc serves as a good foil for him in this regard, often speaking to the emotions and true motivations that Garner's Wyatt never allows out.

HotG might be the first Wyatt Earp film to touch on Wyatt's darker side as well. It doesn't treat him like an outright bully, but it does call into question the righteousness of his crusade to avenge his brothers.

Look for a young John Voight as Curly Bill Brocious.


Adios Sabata (1971) - My first foray into non-Leone spaghetti westerns. I don't know why this one got sent first, since it's not the first Sabata movie. This one features Yule Brynner instead of Lee Van Cleef in the title role.

It's not a great film. But it does have some really cool bits of style and creativity that are hallmarks of the genre.

Gimmicky weapons: check. Sabata has a shortened rifle similar to Josh Randall's in Wanted: Dead or Alive, though this one is clip fed for some ridiculous reason. Honestly, it doesn't make a lick of sense. Allow me to nerd-out on the gun for a moment: Sabata has to use his other hand to push the clip through manually, and it doesn't appear to increase his magazine capacity by more than one or two rounds. What's more, it would make the gun even more inaccurate since he wouldn't be able to steady the gun with his fore hand. Of course, we still see Sabata making amazing shots from hundreds of yards away. This makes Blondie shooting Tuco's rope look like stark neo-realism.

Further weapons gimmicks: the Hungarian (right?) Colonel uses a model ship with working cannons to dispatch a dude he doesn't want to pay. One goofy mute guy who likes to flip around like a monkey is also a dead-eye with the ol' "iron ball on the toe of your shoe."

It features a very creative villain death: the Colonel has had a portrait painted of him, and at the end he is facing off against Sabata in the same room as the portrait. The Colonel ducks behind the portrait just as Sabata whips a knife at him, which stabs into the portrait and then is dragged diagonally down it as the Colonel falls behind it. Pretty cool.

There are some other elements (Sabata's costume, the "Dance of Death," and the fat revolutionary dude's speeches whenever someone dies) that are half cheesy/ half funny.

Payback: Director's Cut

A lot of the "Director's Cuts" I've seen don't do much to justify their existence. They have a few "cut" scenes dropped in, but most of the time they interrupt the pacing and offer no real change to the film. The term has become synonymous with "Unrated Cut" and comes off as a marketing gimmick to get people to shell out for the same movie again.

I haven't seen the original cut of Payback since probably 2000, but I remember enjoying it. It was a gritty crime film with a good dose of humor and Mel's trademark "I love being tortured" shtick. I rented this director's cut to see how it played, since it was apparently a dramatic difference rather than a few new scenes thrown in here and there.

I'd say the new cut is a much better movie than the old one. It eliminates Mel's narration, which I think greatly improves the way Mel's character is explored. We get to watch it rather than hear it, so he is now Porter rather than Mel Gibson. One of the strengths of this character is that we don't fully understand his motivations (see also Point Blank with Lee Marvin); we have the duration of the film to try and understand his code, his principles, and the original narration spoiled the process.

Another change is the filtering. The movie is no longer entirely washed out blue, it's full of warm tones as well as cool. I like this as well. It still fits the mood of the movie, and it's more visually pleasing.

As for new scenes, I couldn't really tell what was added in. I could tell what was removed, which was the kidnapping sub-plot, Kris Kristofferson's character, and the subsequent torture and escape. The new cut features a tidier finale, and the whole movie is actually shorter than the original cut. It clocks in at around 90 minutes, which works for this story. I remember liking Porter's escape scene in the original (clawing his way through the backseat), but I think the new cut keeps the pace consistently and serves the story better.

It's definitely worth checking out.

These always make me smile

Animated avatar: "Invincible Chunk."


omg i lovzzors corgis!.

Hee hee, giant seal.

Only 2 performances left

The last two showings of Fools are this Friday and Saturday at 8pm. If you don't come and you live in the area you were not really my friend ever and I would like to ask that you stop reading this blog for seriously.

I will be shaving my beard come Sunday, and auctioning off bits of it for charity. I'll post eBay links as soon as they're up.

Apartment

Amy and I found an apartment! It's behind Savers. Not too far from Biola, we trust the landlord, and it's pretty nice. Our landlord is this great old guy: ex-Marine, ex-cop, and a Christian to boot. He takes good care of his tenants. Plus we found out that we know a few of his tenants already, so that speaks well of the place.

It's weird having a place that's ours. I'm not used to the idea yet.

Brother Josh helped me pick up a fridge this Tuesday, and so far that's the only bit of furnishing we've done.

Showdown

Brother Ben and I had ourselves a Mexican stand-off sans Mexicans a few Sundays ago.

Oh yeah, did I mention I did end up getting one of those awesome HWS New Model Army airsoft pistols? Yeah, I got one and it's awesome.

We had two quick-draw showdowns and one back-to-back 10-pace count-off. He was armed with my New Model Army, and I used my Colt SAA. We only had safety glasses on, so he went down when I nailed him in the lip with a lucky shot. We stood pretty far apart because those things shoot so dang hard, but it was still nerve-wracking taking pot-shots without any cover.

He won two, I won one. It's pretty fun. I'll post pictures of the guns soon, they look sho shweet.

Leone SE box art

Looks rad. Can't wait for this one to come out.

I also found box-art to another Clint/Western release. Verr nahce.

While we're on the subject of beautiful Western-themed art, how about a few Dark Tower comic covers?

Issue #6 - by Jae Lee

Issue #3 - by Jae LeeIssue #2 (2nd print) - Joe Quesada (who can still draw, apparently)

Fools - Opening Night

Fools opens tomorrow night, Thursday the 19th! It will be playing for the next three weekends. Come out and see it, if you've a mind to. I don't have a Russian accent anymore, but it'll still be a good time.

From Dr. Lewis' Press Release:

Tickets are $8 for Biola students/staff/administrators/Board members/alumni and $10 for all others. The play runs April 19, 20, 21, 22; April 26, 27, 28, 29; May 4, 5. Thursday through Saturday night shows are at 8 PM (doors open at 7:30 PM) and Sunday matinees are at 2 PM (doors open at 1:30 PM). There are only 95 seats at Theatre 21; seats are on a first come/first serve basis.

Biola Theatre 21 is located on the McNally campus of Biola University. Parking is available off of Biola Avenue in Parking Lot C. Looking for the striped awning over our doors and come early to assure yourself of a seat. Order tickets @ theatre.tickets@biola.edu

The Man with No Name: SE

We were given a pretty good Special Edition DVD of The Good The Bad and The Ugly a couple years ago, but Europe got that and SE's of the rest of the trilogy. Not fair.

GBU SE DVD cover - excellent design

Fortunately, MGM is finally gracing us Yanks with not only SE's of A Fistful of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More, but the never-seen-by-me Fistful of Dynamite as well! Color me pleased. Finally, a new DVD release to get excited about.

Oh yeah, this is kinda related: on the airsoft front, we are finally getting an alternative to Tanaka's excellent Colt Single Action Army replica.

Two customized Tanaka SAAs. So pretty.

HWS (which stands for something like Hartford, Japan) is a company that has been making excellent-but-non-firing replicas of sweet Western guns for years. Seeing as both airsoft and Cowboy Action Shooting are huge in Japan, you'd think they would have taken the logical step a long time ago, but nevertheless, they are just now releasing an airsoft version of the New Army Model revolver (I think Eastwood sports one in The Outlaw Josey Wales).

HWS New Model Army

Yep. Gonna have to sell some stuff and get it.

Biola Lacrosse FTW again

I forgot to mention: versus Pepperdine, brother Ben once again scored the game-winning goal in sudden-death overtime. Even cooler since he was scoreless otherwise the entire game. And he got hacked in the neck while shooting.

Way to go, Biola. This week they are on the road, visiting Santa Cruz for three games in as many days, I believe.

This article serves as a companion piece to this one.

Art to get

I decided last year that I'd like to start collecting comic art. I bought my first page (a great Sam & Max page that I'll scan and post eventually) at the San Diego Comic Con last summer.

Pages/Artists I'd like to get:

-Original Doug TenNapel page. I'd like one of the Solomon Fix pages, if they're available. Any of these would be great.
-Original Stan Sakai art. He doesn't sell pages, but he does do commissions. I'm thinking of requesting a samurai monkey, of course. My avatar!
-Original Mike Mignola page or art. From Hellboy, of course. This one might be the hardest/most expensive to get. How awesome would it be to have him do a pin-up for my Pooks book? Very awesome.
-Original Rob Schrab page.

Step-by-step Usagi cover

Stan Sakai posted a great step-by-step example of a painted cover to an issue of Usagi Yojimbo.

Just thought I'd share with y'all.

I'm looking forward to creating a color cover to my book. I know that's a bit premature, since my book has, what, 7 pages done? But still! Seeing eef's covers and his process, and then Stan's, makes me realize that a hot cover goes a long way towards selling a book. I get sold by covers all the time! That Eric Powell book (Billy the Kid's Old Timey Oddities) completely snookered me based on the cover. The interior stunk, but the point is the cover worked.

The Juggalo Response

I was going through old posts, deleting spam comments and adding tags, and discovered that my old post on Juggalos had somehow reached an outside (though very specific) audience.

Read the original post with comments here. Two of them posted in a fairly calm and rational manner, but the rest were reminiscent of certain Muslims protesting the Danish cartoon by torching a neighborhood. (For the benefit of those particular juggalos: I mean that your response supported my original claim, not that you committed arson.)

Also, for the record, to any juggalos who find this post now: I kid you not, I have Faygo in my fridge at this very moment. Please don't eff me up with your hatchet.

Howl's Moving Castle

Pretty darn enjoyable. I loved the castle design, Billy Crystal as Calcifer, and the goofy little dog. The movie's filled with Miyazaki's favorite things: weird flying machines, anti-war sentiments, black goopy people, magic, an old lady who looks like every other old lady he's ever drawn, and a plucky heroine.

Biola Lacrosse FTW

Biola's lacrosse team played long-time rival Occidental on Saturday night in what was easily the best game of the season, if not ever.

Biola and Occidental have a long history together. Occi was the first team Biola ever played in the regular season. The year was 2002 and the game was at Occi. If I recall correctly, that is the game where Tiffin scored three goals to much applause and kudos. We ultimately lost, but it wasn't a blow-out and the scores got closer and closer as the years went by. 2004, after I had graduated, was the year Josh had taken up the Agadoni banner with the quiet dignity befitting our humble name by scoring approximately 3 million goals per game. Unfortunately, Biola needed 3 million and 1, and the 2004 Occi game ended in a heart-breaking sudden-death loss. (Special note: reader J.Ol came all the way from LB for this game! My uncle Dave Stubbs was in attendance as well.) 2005 and 2006 ended similarly. It seemed we were doomed to forever be Occi's "almost."

All this was changed Saturday night. Under the bright lights of Biola's turf field, the Eagles squared off against their old foe at 7pm sharp. The beginning of the game was fairly even, but Occi found an early lead and kept high defensive pressure on the Eagles, which they didn't seem used to. However, the Eagles adapted quickly and brought the game up to a tie by applying the same sort of pressure. The forced a lot of turnovers which kept the ball on the offensive side for a good portion of the game. Also, Biola got this new kid as goalie and he did a phenomenal job. He made some great low saves, and though he let a few high ones slip by, he adapted and made some clutch saves towards the end as well. Biola was up by two going into the 4th quarter. The game was scoreless for quite a bit of the 4th, but Occi took some well-placed shots and managed to tie it up before the clock ran out.

Now it was sudden-death: 5 minutes of clock time and the first team to score gets the game. A situation we'd seen before. Nerves were strained almost to the breaking point.

Face-off: Occi wins it. Their coach calls time out. Crap. Now they're going to set up a play. All it takes is one opening and a decently placed shot and it's over. Please, not this again!

The game starts again, Occi is moving the ball around. There's a shot! It pings of the goalie's leg and then the pole! Biola recovers it, leading to a fast-break. Ryan Smith, long-pole middie, is wheeling the ball out of there as fast as he can. Ben Agadoni on attack is keeping an eye out for the pass. Smith crosses the mid-field line and snaps a nice pass to Ben, who turns, fires, and is leveled by Occi's goalie. But the shot was true, and ball was in. GOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAL!!

Biola wins. Next week is against UCI, our other big rival. Man, good season. Way to go, guys.

Carney-4: Color Options

I convoited the image to Flaysh and threw some color around. Any favorites?


This one's the first option I made. The red kinda blends with the pink too much, now that I look at it.


Here's the next version. I remade it below with a dark green replacing the black stroke throughout.




I like the color contrasts in this one.


I like the colors, but some have pointed out that the creatures don't contrast enough.

With that in mind, I made this one:

I like the contrasts in this one much better now.

Muse: Black Holes and Revelations

I just picked up my first Muse album, based on a few songs I'd heard. So far I'm really digging it. I appreciate the keyboard/synth element. It adds a lot to the songs, especially the opening track. It reminds me of The Who's synth elements.

I'm pretty sure I have listened to an entire Muse album before (I don't remember which one it was, but it was a few years ago) and I remember dismissing them at the time because of the lead singer's style. The drawn out vibratto whine (which seems to be a trendy thing these last few years) was really annoying. I'm pleased to say it doesn't bother me on Black Holes very much. We'll see if it can stand the test of time.

I had also picked up and then got rid of Wolfmother recently. Same deal as Muse: singer grates. Some of the songs are great, but the vocals compete so much with the (very nice) instrumentals I just couldn't take it.

Russkie

Last night at rehearsal our director brought in her Russian neighbor, Rita. She was quite a character and an animated storyteller. Boy, she's seen a lot of stuff in her life. She grew up in Russia during Stalin's regime, and she remembers being brainwashed at school into thinking Stalin was a great man. She said she's almost 80, but you wouldn't know it watching her. She's very alive (something she attributes to the freedom she has in America).

Rita was brought in to help us with our accents. It was interesting taking notes in our scripts about how she pronounced different words. The funniest thing was that she didn't think she had an accent! She spoke of the people at her Assyrian church: "Now they have accents!"

One of the guys in our play, Stephen, used his Russian accent when he spoke to her, and she thought he really was a foreigner! He's got a really good accent, which he says he learned from two Russian guys in his gymnastics class.

We have to have all our lines memorized by next Tuesday! I think I'll be fine, since I don't really have that many, and most of them are just reaction bits of dialogue.

Ball-bearings

A friend of mine has his own "pro model" ball bearings coming out, being released through NiNja Skate, and he's letting me draw all over the packaging! Here are the comps I came up with:

Animated avatar

The unstoppable Frak made this animated .gif out of the Pugg drawing.

Fools

Play practice starts tonight. I'm going to go home and watch a movie with Russian accents (good Russian accents) to get myself "in character."

I'm really excited to learn how this process works. I've never been in a play before. Will I hate it by the end? Love it? Quit my job to do it full-time because I'm convinced I'll "make" "it" "big"? Probably not that last one.

The play is Fools by Neil Simon. I am (or, "play," in theater-speak) Count Gregor Yousekovitch.

For me Ma on her birthday

Here are a few new illustrations.

George and Ben of the upcoming comic.

Some weird little dudes called Puggs in a field.

New Scud is coming!

Rob Schrab is working on Scud 21! After many many years of Schrab dropping off the face of the comics planet, he's returning to finish the Scud storyline once and for all. I really hope the experience is enjoyable for him (he has said that, by the end of the Scud run, he hated comics), because I love his art and story-telling and it'd be great to see more. I know his passion is movies, so I hope to see him get more work in that arena as well, but I'm still hooked on his comics.

He has some other great stuff at his site, including a pitch for a mummy cowboy called Rot Gut.


Also, as I've been poking around online about other Western comics (Dead West, Gunned Down, and Desperadoes) I've discovered that this is a bona fide trend, along with zombie comics. Why? Why do the trends always line up with my interests? I discover and begin my love affair with samurais, and all of a sudden there are all these cool samurai comics/films. I rekindle my interest in Westerns, and all of a sudden Doug TenNapel announces Iron West and Jonah Hex gets renewed. Each time my passion began before these movies or comics were even announced, so it's not like I'm just following the trends. I'm not suggesting that I'm some sort of trend-setter either. All I claim is Weird Coincidence. Or perhaps Supernatural Wish Fulfillment.