Hey 7-6-08 So the thesis of my comic is that old, arthritic men are mean and useless. I'm thinking about updating on Sundays from now own. Let's see if I follow through. 6-27-08 Who's tripping down the streets of the city, smiling at everyone she sees? Who's reaching out to capture a moment? Everyone knows it's windyyyy.... 6-8-08 So I've decided that I should move to some low-key beach lifestyle because I don't like doing shit. Hawaii, Greece, and Australia are high on my list. Art of a different flavor: 6-3-08 I think I like everything in this illustration except the foliage in the back; seems a little oddball or amatuerish. This was originally gonna be Qita just standing there looking perplexed, but I looked at it, and I was like, 'This isn't enough... I have to do something better.' I like how weird and out of reality it is... Art that's kind of on the odd side appeals to me. I just watched Antigone. It has to be one of the best ancient dramas brought to the screen. I got bored watching 300 except for how arty it looked, The 300 Spartans was okay, but it rubbed me the wrong way with that 'fifties' cultural thing. Clash of the Titans was probably my favorite, but maybe because I loved it as a kid. Iphigenia hit that middle ground along with that film Irene Pappas starred in - didn't love them, didn't hate them. Alexander was a puddle of horse urine; they made him look like some faggy, insecure loser. Sometimes I feel like Americans don't understand the Greeks, while on the other hand, the mindset of the Romans is basic and clear. I don't know why this is, except to guess that it's easy for the average American to identify with the Romans... Violence, passion, uniformity, utility, power over the masses... Always pushing things farther than before. They embraced Greek culture, but sometimes it seems like they just plagiarized the parts that they liked about the Greeks. Violence and passion were Greek values, but not to the same flavor as the Romans. Greeks prided themselves on their wartime activities, but a lot of their victories were based on luck, smarts, and generations of discipline... They had no giant blow-outs with Carthage, like the Romans did. They reached for the ideal of their desire while being realistic about the world around them. They were people misogynistic to the degree that bisexuality was something all men did... Boyish playfulness was the norm, and though they were patriotic, the idea of a united politic was abhorred. They liked to talk, and lived by a code of honor among their peers. I think this idea of 'honor' was what really propelled them towards what we remember them as... But at the same time, they felt their fragile lives were floating on the whims of some higher power. Americans don't understand this. 6-1-08 Nirvana is a selfish desire. Discuss. 5-24-08 Haha. I just realized that panel 4 and match. Summer is here now... I'm thinking about spending some time on the Marin coast, taking some pictures and drawing the nature out there. It's a really beautiful place. 5-21-08 A girl from my school was raped last Friday in the art office. It happened in the afternoon, and on top of that, also during finals week, so no one was around. I was in the same place on Thursday afternoon, at about the same time. No one was around then, either. .... 5-11-08 God bless hippies. 5-6-08 Mmmm... Day off... I wonder a lot about my panels and the way I use them to express a story. I've moved on to writing out the plot beforehand on Word, going back during some pockets of free time and drawing out the panels in a notebook, and then drawing out the final comic at home... But yeah, I'll look at the styles of other artists, and compared to some in particular, I'm like, "Geez, is my pacing too slow? Am I not focusing on action enough? Are there enough panels showing more of the bigger picture?" But others, like indie ones, I'll think, "I guess I'm doing fine. It doesn't really matter, I guess." So I don't know. I try to keep things as varied as possible while also doing the kinds of panels that I personally enjoy drawing. When someone says something to me, I guess I'll do different. 5-3-08 This has been a shit week for me. I want a vacation. 4-22-08 Whoa, check it out. My name up there. I guess I didn't realize it would come out so teeny... I can't do signatures in cursive for some reason. I'll write in my legal pad or whatever in cursive, but not when I sign my name. Hmm. Must be some kind of strange psychology behind that. lol... Panel two could double as the cover of a rap album designed for kindergarteners... "Yo, bitch, don't front - hand me the candy..." Why are bugs so creepy? The ones with wings just fly off the creepiness scale... If cockroaches looked like kittens, no one would mind them crawling up the sink and taking a bite of the leftover pizza. 4-20-08 One sketch. Qita looks a little severe and icy... lol... 4-15-08 I thought about what I wrote last time, and maybe I have a slight change of mind... I thought of Nemo in Slumberland, and remembered, 'You know... That guy looks like he did just what I described as the 'artist brain' technique. No real plot, but a lot of beautiful splendor'. So I don't know how I should rate that guy writing-wise, but it is notable that he was a very succesful artist, beloved by many children. In other news, I like to draw close-ups. 4-10-08 It's funny how my 'artist brain' and my 'writer brain' works... Right now, I'm writing this comic as I go along, and my thought process usually is, 'Okay, it's been awhile and I've got a free afternoon tomorrow... What am I gonna make up to draw for next time? I was thinking about doing this-and-this...' While when I'm thinking about maybe a private novel-esque entry, it's more like, 'Okay, I've got this theme I wanna hit, and I've got this character issue going on, so this person is gonna act more like this because they're in a different state of mind... Is my pacing right? Does everything sound right?' Yeah. It's kinda why I think a lot of fantastic comic artists out there really lag behind in their own writing... It's in how they're hard-wired. And if an artist thinks they're so badass that they don't need to step up their game in the plot department, it just kind of sits there. It's a lot harder to realize you suck at writing rather than art... I think, in an ideal comic education, everyone would have the formal training in mind for both areas... But yeah... A lot of people who do what I do don't go to 'formal school'. 4-3-08 Check out this sprite action. Yeah. I'm not sure why it's alarmed... Maybe because it's in a sea of white, and to its right is a strange naked person. I kinda didn't want to get rid of him... He's non-theatening in that his genitals aren't exposed, and he has this kind of 'classical calm' thing going. So that's the news at Lake Woebegone.