| Free Graphic Novel Download |
[09 Jun 2008|11:49am] |
So dope.
I illustrated an adaptation of Cory Doctorow's novella 'When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth' for IDW.
It is has just been published under a creative commons license as part of the 'Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now" collection and is available for free download.
Read about it on Boing Boing
Peep the download on archive.org
If you like it then buy the MFer here or at your favorite comics shop.
I'm talking with some people today about my philosophy on generating blog content... a good day to have my name appear in a Boing Boing post!
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| Here's the News |
[03 May 2008|12:40pm] |
I have another daughter now.
Her name is Shay... she's very tiny and very cute. I'll post pictures soon.
If you've been reading this LJ since Robin was born, you've been reading for 45 months -- almost an entire high-school, or undergrad career.
There is going to be a Cocopiazo collection from the progressive soldiers at SLG.
If I can man-up and draw through the madness I might be able to squeak out two GN's this year.
I'm entertaining offers of extended contracts with companies that have specific, interesting design problems to solve. Freelance design and illustration is going well, but it's a big world out there and sometimes I get the urge to leave a Valley of the Kings sized pyramid in my wake.
The weather around here has taken a turn for the beautiful...
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| Two Days Ago I Climbed a Snowy Mountain |
[28 Mar 2008|08:49am] |
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I had sneakers and no crampons. It was tough.
My Brother is moving back to Colorado.
I'm moving to a new studio in a few days.
Spring and mercifully warmer weather on it's way. I'm feeling the need to dig my heels in.
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| The American Longview |
[18 Mar 2008|02:45pm] |
Barak Obama refused to 'dance' and made a speech that will set the tone for the next decade in the US weather or not he is elected president.
This speech is touted as being about 'race' but it is race as inextricably wound together with religiosity, generational wealth distribution, loyalty, exploitation, violence and inequity.
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| I am a Patient Man |
[06 Mar 2008|10:47am] |
This American Life used a Fugazi song as background music for their 'Human Resources' episode.
I was a big fan of TAL for many years. I was a big fan of Fugazi for many years. The song was a good choice for the story. Still, it made me feel dirty. Like HEY -- you are part of our target audience. Or HEY -- your generation is now in charge of entertainment media. It made me think I needed to move more quickly.
I am a patient boy
I wait, I wait, I wait, I wait
My time is water down a drain
Everybody's moving
Everybody's moving
Everything is moving,
Moving, moving, moving
Please don't leave me to remain
In the waiting room
I don't want the news
(I cannot use it)
I don't want the news
(I won't live by it)
Sitting outside of town
Everybody's always down
(Tell me why)
Because they can't get up
(Ahhh... Come on and get up)
(Come on and get up)
But I won't sit idly by
I'm planning a big surprise
I'm gonna fight
For what I want to be
And I won't make the same mistakes
Because I know
Because I know how much time that wastes
And function
Function is the key
Inside the waiting room
I don't want the news
I cannot use it
I don't want the news
I won't live by it
Sitting outside of town
Everybody's always down
Tell me why
Because they can't get up
Come on and get up
Up from the waiting room
Sitting in the waiting room
Sitting in the waiting room
Sitting in the waiting room
Sitting in the waiting room
Because they can't get up
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| Home Improvement |
[02 Mar 2008|07:01am] |
Just after we moved into our house we remodeled our bathroom and we put in an antique claw-foot tub. We broke the bank on fixtures. We dropped 1k on the curtain ring/showerhead/handsprayer setup. I foolishly decided to install the thing myself and completely messed it up. For two years our shower has been a twisted mess of chromed brass piping. Yesterday we bought a new setup. I took a shot at redeeming myself as 'handy' and installed it... again. SUCCESS! We no longer have to feel the breeze on our buts as we shower.
Part of the plan when moving to the suburbs and buying property was to get a house that was small enough that we could work the economies of SMALL scale. For example...if we only have 18 square feet of countertop then we can get granite instead of a laminated. So far it's working, it's just taking more time than anticipated.
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| Neptune |
[01 Mar 2008|03:28pm] |
Once a month Beth, Robin and I spend Sat. morning in an art museum. Today it was the Fogg at Harvard.
I felt like I saw Reubens for the first time. Never a fan of the glistening chub he fixated on, today I was transported by 'Neptune Calming the Tempest' .
I've been obsessing over images of the superheroic.
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| The Cure |
[29 Feb 2008|07:11pm] |
My The Cure channel on Pandora is a lot of music that I hate, How Soon is Now, and the occasional Cure song.
When you are in the mood to listen to The Cure no other music scratches the itch.
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| In a World Without Google... |
[29 Feb 2008|10:20am] |
...these are the questions I would be asking you.
I'm feeling the need to switch from PS to FireWorks for making web content prototypes. Can you export to HTML or XHTML from FireWorks? Can you generate CSS?
Is anyone out there capable of doing those push-ups where you press forefingers and thumbs together to form a diamond? Are you supposed to touch your nose to the ground?
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| It's Working |
[28 Feb 2008|06:30pm] |
I had planned on swearing off Books, Comics, TV, and the Internet entirely. The first week was a little rocky. I ended up watching a few episodes of Entourage (what a great show), reading Uncle Heidi's Dave Sim essay (damn RSS), and swallowing a few pages of GLASS HOUSE every night before bed.
The good news is that even without going COLD TURKEY I've boosted my output and I'm showing real results.
I made huge progress on all my projects this week, and established a new relationship with a publisher.
I haven't decided if I'm going to 'work blog' any of these new projects. I always end up feeling foolish about halfway through and abandoning the effort.
Regarding the whole Dave Sim thing -- I've been on two podcasts in the past month and his name crept into my comments on both. I don't think this is related to his current projects and publicity efforts. 'Notes from the President' changed my life when I read it. (Granted I was reading the Fountainhead for the first time at the same time -- but still.) The guy is definitely of the grumpy old man school. That's not shocking. It IS shocking that a 50-year old man from Ontario can be interesting at all and capable of making comics seem like a noble cause.
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| Discipline |
[26 Feb 2008|09:29am] |
I've been avoiding the internet lately. I've been avoiding TV and Netflix too. Here's a circuitous reason as to why: I was recently commissioned by the MIT Mobile Experience Lab to create three suites of images for a presentation they were making about near-future green technologies. It was a lot of work to get done in a little bit of time. On top of that I am in the midst of three comic book projects. One with Jared (Sweet Chile O' Mine) Axelrod AKA "![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) planetx, and one with David (Don't call me D-HOP) Hopkins and one PPP (personal passion project). Add to that the stable of stable design clients with ongoing needs for the oh-so-sweet DW creative skillz and my first-ever con panel appearance and it all equaled zero discretionary time for Danno (<-Me in the 3rd person).
WHAT I LEARNED during this crucible is that I am capable of tripling my output. RIGHT HERE IN THIS VERY JOURNAL I declared that the only thing 'holding me back' was my ability to manage my time. Well, I've pretty much got that beat. This last round of work was delivered complete, up to spec, and ON TIME despite high-expectations and a variety of disruptive factors.
I realized that even 4 hours of TV or movies per week is way to much. 5-10 hours of following every shiny link on the internet is way WAY too much. (Dave Sim once said "I don't need to be addicted to TV I can read." Cory Doctorow once said "there is enough free, one-click entertainment available on-line to keep me occupied until the day I die.") I'm halfway through GLASS HOUSE but even spending 2-4 hours reading the engrossing novels of the warm and cuddly Charles Stross is a time investment that I just can't make at this point.
( Do yourself a favor and stop reading now. This is sloppily written and goes on forever. )
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| Thinking of New Ink |
[30 Jan 2008|12:09pm] |
I don't wear a wedding ring.
I had a ring that I liked that I used for the occasion. I bought it at Hootennay for $20. It had a star on it. I lost it a year or two ago.
I'm not going to replace it with another ring. I'm not a RING kind of guy. I've decided I'd rather have a wedding tattoo.
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| Doing the Heavy Lifting |
[30 Jan 2008|12:58am] |
So I've got this big fat illustration gig that's sitting on my face.
I have to deliver X number of images via FTP upload every night for the next eleven days.
X being too many.
I've been at it for the past five days. The drawing process has taken on all the qualities of house painting (minus the fresh air and exercise). It's a period of intense execution. My life is all about process. A difficult but welcome shift out of comfort. The brain has gone a bit darker as concern for the task at hand has grown.
I'm reading Bukowski's 'Hollywood' every night before I sleep. I feel like this is not at all evident in the last paragraph. Maybe it's time I can start getting over my anxiety of influence.
I daydream about a faster, looser style.
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| BEHOLD!!!! THE WORLDS HAIRIEST MAN!!!! |
[16 Jan 2008|10:00am] |
Yesterday at Macworld Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air -- the worlds thinnest laptop.
The worlds thinnest laptop.
THE WORLDS THINNEST LAPTOP!!!!!
That's the big innovation?
I'm sure that the difference between a 1" thick laptop and a .125" is important to the class of people who hide under a beds or have to escape through an air shafts, but to me it's useless.
The big image they are using to promote the thing is that of the MacBook Air -- world's thinnest laptop -- being slipped into a manilla envelope. Mailability... hmmm. The world's most mailable laptop. A battery that you can replace or mailability -- which is more important? It's really beside the point but you'd still have to use the same size FedEx box as a MacBook Pro.
I'm a Mac enthusiast but I would be far more likely to buy the WORLDS BIGGEST CALCULATOR at Walgreens because it's only four bucks.
Are people really spending 2k on novelty laptops?
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| Fanboy Radio |
[09 Jan 2008|09:30am] |
I talked with David Hopkins and Scott Heinz last night.
Our conversation is going to be broadcast today on KTCU in Fort Worth and then will be available as a podcast on the FBR website.
Paul Maybury is going to be on the show too. The conversations were recorded separately so I didn't get a chance to tell Paul how much I dig his work.
Scott Heinz is attempting the ol' 365 days of me on his brown-sounding livejournal fanboylog I bet him booze that he wouldn't make it to the 6 month mark.
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| Live from Inside |
[08 Jan 2008|08:59am] |
I'm on location at the MIT Mobile Experience lab for the next few days as we hash out the skeleton of a fairly large project.
I cracked open my MacBook and was automatically asked if i wanted to join network OLPC. It turns out that the One Laptop Per Child Offices are right across the street.
Robin's laptop came last week... more on that later.
A few of you are owed pages. Soon. Very soon.
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| Tally-ho! |
[03 Jan 2008|09:26pm] |
The Pump Up:
Inspirational readings of Yeats:
WB Yeats
Broken bones and black eyes mean your are still in the fight.
Do something massive in 2008.
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| The Subprime Escape Artist |
[12 Dec 2007|06:07am] |
For most of my life I have found it loathsome to consider financial matters. The humdrum of paying bills, negotiating contracts, the realities of financial planning -- these were things I preferred not to think about. The reality is, however, that control of one's finances is control of one's destiny.
In 2003 Beth and I decided that we were going to buy a house. It was a way for us to build equity, reduce overhead over the long term and set the stage for several things that we knew we wanted to do -- not the least of which was create a lifestyle that could be maintained 100% by making art.
( Read on... )
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