Month: January 2007

Elegant Technology

andertoons4 Comments

Have you seen this video?

Sure, millions have. But have you seen the new video via Fast Company? (I tried to embed it, but it didn’t want to take via Ecto.)

You look at stuff like iPods, the new iPhone, stuff like this, and all of a sudden, technology is, well, elegant.

After picking up a NuLOOQ to compliment my Wacom tablet, I was feeling pretty cool twisting and tapping with my left hand while drawing with my right. (I wonder how and when this sort of intuitive interface will make it’s way to something like the Cintiq.)

But after seeing the FC Han video, I have to wonder how long it’s going to be before I make the jump to cartooning entirely digitally.

So many guys already do it, I sort of feel behind already. And I have all the tools, but there’s something about the tactile experience of my brush pen on paper that’s so immediate…

To be fair, when I work in Photoshop I usually have a ton of other programs open and running, so my poor processor is working as hard as it can. Still, I do like ink.

I dunno how, when, if I’m going to make the leap, but seeing elegant technology like this coming so fast, I think it’ll be sooner rather than later.

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Congrats to Mike Lynch

andertoons2 Comments

Lynch

There’s a few big markets in gag cartooning that carry some status along with a nice check: Reader’s Digest, Playboy, and the New Yorker to name a few.

I’ve got one out of the three, but good friend Mike Lynch has two now! He’s in the latest issue of Playboy! (Well, thankfully not him per se, but one of his great cartoons!)

Normally I don’t pick up Playboy, but I can officially justify this to the Mrs.! Hooray! And hooray for Mike Lynch!

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Marvel Ultimate Alliance

andertoons2 Comments

As mentioned previously, I’ve been a little under the weather lately. So to pass the time I’ve been playing my PSP quite a bit.

During my year-end Let’s Avoid Taxes By Buying Boatloads of Stuff period (AKA LATBBBoS) I picked up a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance.

Now I’m not a huge gamer per se, and generally these sort of RPG things where you increase your striking power by +5% when the moon is full and you’re wearing Haggar slacks leave me more than a little confused. Add to that the generally poor quality of super-hero games historically, and even I wondered what I was doing.

But this thing got some great reviews, and the X-men titles I’d played were a lot of fun, so I took a chance.

(This is for Mike Lynch) WOWEE-WOW-WOW!

Take a look at this YouTube vid:



OK, the quality is nowhere near what you see on the screen, but I think you get the idea.

I’ve been having the time of my life with this game. Right now my team is Spider-Man, Thor, Captain America and Spider Woman. And I’m kicking some butt on the Easy level.

The thing is kind of a button masher, but I’ve gotten used to it.

Add to that the ability to team up with other players, track your stats and progress, and chat online, and you’ve got a pretty cool package.

Here’s my villain scorecard as of now:

Villian Scorecard

And some of my current stats:

Stats



OK, I know pretty much every 8-year-old in America can kick my butt up down and sideways on this game, but I don’t care; it’s accessible enough that I can play however I’d like.

So, there you have it. I blogged about it, so it’s a write-off! ‘Nuff said!

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The Obligatory “Sorry…” Blog

andertoons

Sorry Game SmallOK, it’s time for the obligatory “sorry I haven’t been blogging lately” post.

I’d tried to avoid this, I really had, but it’s been so long and so sporadic that, well, there’s no way to get out of it.

Let’s see – first there was Christmas. My wife is a teacher so we had two wonderful weeks off together with the kids. Not a lot of motivation there to blog.

Then my wife went back to school and the kids got sick. Then I got sick.

In fact, I’m still sick. I’m nursing an ear infection now that could take down an elephant. And they have really big ears.

The good news in all of this, is that things had gotten so busy, so crazy, that we hired a young lady to come in a few days a week to give me some time in the mornings to draw, invoice, email, and, yes, blog.

Today’s the first day, and right now it’s going remarkably well. I still have my office door open to check everything out, but my son and daughter seemed to have warmed right up to her.

Ohhhh… This feels good.

I’ve got some cartoon packs printing, I’m sipping a Pepsi One, listening to some NPR… Yeah, this is what I needed.

Anyway, I should be blogging more in the near future. I’m really looking forward to it.

I’ve got some topics sorta sketched out (1. Why gag cartoonists are second class citizens in the cartooning community, 2. Why I’m not concerned about not being the New Yorker, 3. Big plans for the website coming down the pike) that I think you’ll like, and I look forward to being able to dig into some writing a bit more.

OK, there we go. Got that out of the way. See you soon, with lots more to say!

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