Woah... what happened... let's see... I didn't die... I didn't fall off the face of the earth... so why did I suddenly stop updating? Because there has been nothing to post about. Yeah the past several months have yeilding quite a bit of drama and excitement but alas not much on the comics front. I finished up last quarter of school by getting my classes dropped for not making my final payment. My girlfriend dumped me and started going out with someone else. I had a suedo relationship with the roommate of the girlfriend of the drummer of a band I was doing art for and potentially a comic for but that relationship thing ended sorta bad and now I'm not doing art or comics or merch for free for the band. And now I'm taking the quarter off from school and working two jobs. Subway and GameStop. Oh man am I burnt out though.

Stumptown is coming up again since they switched it to spring this year and I'm a little stressed. I'm gonna get a table and all but I have to fill it out a little bit more. So I'll try to keep this updated as much as I can remember but don't hold your breath...

Le-Crunch duex!

So work is underway on Hardcoreasaurus 2. Just figuring out the plot for now and doing a few character sketches here and there. I figure now is the best time to do it while I don't have any professional work going on. Also because it's full of inside jokes and I want to get it done before all the people involved with the first one move away or grow up too much. Not only that, but it's been 5 months since I finished the first. If this one also takes me a few months, then I'd say that's pretty good timing for a comic book sequal.

I also have some exciting news (for me at least) but I'm gonna stay hushed up about it for at least this weekend if not all this upcoming week.

Ben Grim

New drawings.

I might color them soon.

Stumptown Report

First of all I just want to say that no matter what, I need a booth next year. But more on my next year plans after the report.

The first day was pretty horrible. Not the con (fest?) itself, just my experience of it. I didn't sell any Hardcoreasaurus books (I did trade a few, though) and I was really nervous the whole time. It was hard talking to people to make any contacts. I brought $40 in singles to use as change for people buying the book. I ended up spending it all on comics and taco bell. I'm glad I did spend so much in the long run because I got some awesome stuff, but since my brother gave it to me and I was supposed to pay him back... yeah. I did meet a couple of cool people, but mostly I just felt like an ass most of the time and I felt annoying when I tried hanging out at the RCC table. I mean I know I was kicked out and all but I'm still friends with the guys... I thought.

[drama]

Okay I think this needs addressing since it was a pretty big issue for the con. Now... I want to be proffessional and mature about this, so I don't want to say anything out of anger. BUT I am pretty ticked about the whole situation. As much as I understand that it's my own fault I got kicked out since I didn't finish the creature feature, I do have a couple of things to say in my defense.

I was trying to finish the creature feature the day before it was due while I was at my brothers chemo therapy. I realized that while I'm at my brothers chemo therapy, comics should NOT be my biggest concern. I realized that the two page comic was causing much more stress than I needed at that point so I simply decided not to finish it. I HAD been working on it for what it's worth.

Also, I met the requirements of an original member. I had something published by stumptown.

I really feel like BT is hurting the group by kicking me out. I was really dedicated to the group while I was in it. I always participated as much as I could. Just look through the recent Jam comics and you'll see my name pop up pretty often. I feel like my presence at the meetings was never really appreciated actually.

All in all I'm glad I was kicked out. I know in the long run it's going to be a better situation and if BT offered to let me back in the group I would-- without hesitation-- refuse. The only thing that really bothers me now is that he kicked me out a week and a half before stumptown leaving me without a booth to sell a comic I had ordered to be printed a month ago and had been planning long in advance to sell at the RCC booth. If I would have known he was going to do THAT I would have figured something out, gotten the money together and paid for my own table. Other than that I really do understand the need to kick some people out. I mean, I saw how full the table was and that was even with a free extra table so it was pretty damn full.

[/drama]

Oh and the Dr. Sketchy's anti-art school figure drawing was pretty cool and I'm gonna start going on wednesdays to the one at Dante's.

The after party was pretty fun. I had a beer since I could tell the place was gonna fill up and it helped with the whole fear of crowds thing. Unfortunately the only person I even hung around or talked to was BT. And once he left (after the awards I think) I just sorta stood around by myself. I really just didn't know what to say to anyone. The comic battle was pretty fun to watch, though. Next year I'll volunteer.

The second day was better. Mainly because this time I didn't expect to sell anything. My dad gave me 20 singles and a 20 dollar bill to bribe either BT or Noir from Sacramento to let me have a foot of table space to sell my stuff and set up my button making machine. After I saw how full the already-set-up tables were, though... Yeah I knew it wasn't gonna happen and didn't even bother to ask. Although I will say I could tell Noir was considering it when I brought it up in conversation and that's pretty cool of him.

So this time my plan was just to find out about some cool lookin comics and grab bussiness cards and post cards. I did buy a few really cool things that I seriously couldn't pass up, but mostly I just had some cool conversations with local artists. I made some more trades and I went to some more workshops and panels. I even talked to someone from the sequential art gallery who really liked my comics and even bought the first and only PURCHASED copy of hardcoreasaurus. I gave her Self-Aware since I just printed that on the laserjet and I think eventually it might pay off. That'd be pretty cool since I really like that gallery. That's where I first saw Painkillers. The guy who makes that one is actually pretty cool by the way and a genious at getting people to go to his booth (live digital art on a huge LCD screen). I walked by just to see what he was drawing.

Eventually I got bored so bad that I went home an hour early.

Okay well this entry is pretty long so I'll save my next year plans for later on.

But yeah, basically this years stumptown started out pretty crummy for me but at least ended pretty good. I felt a lot better yesterday than I did on Saturday. Hopefully next year is better.

Stumptown Stuff Update

I finished the messenger bag! And I finally got Hardcoreasaurus!

Stumptown is tomorrow and as such there are some things I need to do TODAY. Here they are:

Bussiness cards
Website
Money Envelope
Bind Self-Aware pages
Buy binder clear sheets from walgreens or clark bookstore
Envelopes for Robot Manual
CDs for Robot Manual

more or less in order of importance.

I have to get ready for school but I'll probably post a bit more later on.

Projects Update

Mystic Slide for Positive Brand:

Um... I declined due to too much to do what with school and surgery and family stuff and all.

PopGun letters:

The dude is a good artist but his cominication skills, man... jus' kidding. It fell through because of lost e-mails and busy schedules on both ends.

Lincoln Hates Werewolves:

Not exactly sure? But probably not doing it. I'm too unreliable. :/

Robopocalypse Creature Feature:

Didn't finish. Got kicked out of the club. Kinda pissed.

The Hardcoreasaurus:

SHIPPED! Yay! Finally some good news. Should be here in a couple of days. So now I have three things pending publishing. Self-Aware in the PNCA anthology, My 6 pages of JHZ and Hardcoreasaurus. That fortune cookie the other night was right. My hard work really IS paying off.

Lincoln Lincoln I been thinkin'

So this week is going to be a busy week. On monday I need to turn in concept sketches for a book I may or may not end up doing for positive brand. I'm still undecided about it. My main concern is how much time I'll have for it with school and surgery and eventually a job coming up pretty soon. Not to mention everything I still have to do for Stumptown.

Also Stephen is having me work on a new project. It's Lincoln as a werewolf hunter. He hasn't written it yet so that could be a month or two off right now but I'll still be doing some concept stuff for that (which I'm going to post some of at the bottom of this entry).

And I have my creature feature to do. That's going slow.

And I have 20 pages to letter for a popgun comic.

And I once again have access to my website... so I have to completely redo that. yay.

Busy.

Anyways, here is the Abe stuff I have so far.




I'm pretty excited about it.

Jesus on Zombie Action!

Jesus Hates Zombies is finally off to the printer and the writer/editor is taking pre-orders through indie horizon now.

http://www.indiehorizon.com/jhz/index.html

They are only $17 for over 140 pages of zombie bashing action! Hurry before this run sells out.

Picture Post!