For a Friend

A good man is going through some hard times right now. Topeka's Keith Van Sickle, radio personality, film critic, and comic book fan, has suffered a severe stroke and is laid up in a hospital. As I write this, he's probably about to be prepped for surgery to insert an oxygen hose into his throat.

Keith has been a good friend to my wife for many years, being a reliable and friendly work contact for her and everyone in her office.

As for me, Keith is the man responsible for getting me into the Slash & Bash Horror Film Festival last year with my comic, which was my first public outing with "Yellow." It's because of him that I met so many great people and was invited out to the I-Con in Iowa. Keith was a huge proponent of mine at his film festival, of course, and has continued to support me and expressed interest in even doing an interview with me on his radio show.

This is a picture I made for him, being the comic book nut that he is:

If you want a picture to show your support for Keith, let me know either via email or in the comments section. I won't charge anything, but if you want to make a small donation to pass along to the family that would certainly be appreciated.

(In case you're wondering, his chest and hat say "KVS.")

And now for something...

So what have I been up to you ask? Ever heard of a site called TotallyLooksLike.com? If you haven't, then you might not know that Rachel Maddow totally looks like Will Wheaton from Star Trek TNG, or that a 7-layer burrito from Taco Bell totally looks like a clogged artery. (No joke!)

Well here are a few others you might not have noticed, courtesy of yours truly. I'm pretty proud of them, I must say.

These two should work together...

moar funny pictures

I honestly thought they were the same person for the longest time.

moar funny pictures

These, too. It was only after Sydney Pollack showed up in an episode of "The Cleaner" a couple of years after his death that I began to suspect something was amiss.

moar funny pictures

What's sad is that the Olympic skier is still probably the better actor.

moar funny pictures

Proof that we really are descended from Adamas and Starbuckses? Hmm...

moar funny pictures

UPDATE! See below for more look-alike joy:

You probably didn't realize how much these guys look alike. Let me educate you...

moar funny pictures

Just saw Dina Meyer in Starship Troopers, and remembered how much I think she looks like Keri Russell.

moar funny pictures

Incidentally, I also just saw Dina Meyer in an episode of The Mentalist, with Simon Baker, who I didn't realize totally looks like...

moar funny pictures

Here's another unexpected. k.d. lang's a pretty manly looking woman. It just so happens there's one girly-looking man she also looks like.

moar funny pictures

These aren't the best pictures to compare with, but anyone who has seen The Devil's Rejects must surely agree.

moar funny pictures

(For what it's worth, I think Crow is every bit as good a singer as Zombie is an actress.)

Well now that that's out of my system, maybe I can finally get back to working on the comic. For more, check out TotallyLooksLike. (For another of my favorites, try Comixed.)

The Tablet Has Landed

HELLO, fellow Interneters. Just wanted to let you know that the drawing tablet arrived last week, just as was prophesied. I've been fiddling with it a bit, and it's been much easier to get used to than I expected. The biggest problem I'm running into is working the software properly, but that's not too bad.

I drew the above chicken yesterday for my wife, Emily. She's responsible for the clever title, as after I told her I was done with the chicken she exclaimed, "Chicken accomplished!" After I finished LOLing, I drew the words in. I know it's not a perfect drawing by any means, but I didn't intend it to be. It was just an exercise, and if I had spent more than a few minutes on it I'm sure I could make it look more professional. (I'm sure!)

As for the answer to the inevitable question, "Why a chicken?": Well, it's a character I've been drawing for years now. A lot of times I'll put the chicken in a specific pose or costume or scenario, and add some pseudo-clever title, like "2001: A Space Chicken" behind a chicken in a space suit, or "Congratu-chicken!" behind a baby chicken in a crib (For a new baby, you see? Never mind.) Anyway, if any of you loyal readers would like to commission a chicken from me, let me know. Aside from doing the comic, I'd like to someday launch a line of Chicken-themed products, like t-shirts and postcards, etc. If you have any suggestions, I'm 95% ears. (The other 5% is trans-fat.)

Here Goes Nothing

I've just placed an order via that lovable demon, Amazon.com, for a new Wacom tablet, what with to do my digital drawing.

But what's this? It's not made by Wacom? It's a drawing tablet not made by the world's foremost drawing-tablet manufacturer? How dare you. I mean I.

Well, here's the deal: It's cheaper than the entry-level Wacom Bamboo Fun (no, that's not a bizarre typo), and has a much bigger drawing area. I don't want to get technical here, but...bigger is better.

Of course, it does have downsides. It remains to be seen if said downsides will be a dealbreaker, ladies, but I figured I'd test out the cheaper, bigger product first. If it doesn't work out, I can always return it (hopefully), and get the Bamboo Fun Pen Silver (again, not a typo).

I know this is pretty boring stuff, but, hey, what else am I going to blog about?

Seriously...do you have any suggestions? Have you read any good books lately?

Hello?

Happy Future

IT'S 2010.

No, not two-thousand-ten. What are you, lame? It's twenty-ten. Not only does it sound cooler, but that's how we've been saying the date for, like, a thousand years. Remember when it was 1997? We didn't say it was one-thousand nine-hundred ninety-seven, did we? Well, maybe you.

Personally, I'm glad it's 2010. In sci-fi stories, the cool stuff always happens in twenty-something, not two-thousand something. Okay, unless you count Kubrick and Clarke. Okay, Orwell, too. And that classic TV show, Space: 1999. But other than that! I fully expect to see flying cars and teleportation devices in the next few months.

Anyway, this post wasn't meant to be a rant about how to properly say the date. It was originally meant to be a friendly hello, and an update to let you know that more comics are around the bend. In the next week or so I hope to acquire the necessary technology to allow me to draw Yellow completely digitally, which should speed up the drawing/publishing process significantly.

For all you naysayers who say nay--that making comics digitally is tantamount to cheating at life--well, I say...maybe. Who cares? I'm not looking to hang my stuff in the Louvre; I'm telling a story. If technology helps me tell the story in the most efficient, clear way possible then why wouldn't I use it?

Besides, there are many ways in which drawing digitally still requires talent and skill. Sure, it may be a slightly different skillset than traditional drawing, but it's not like you can push a button and have a program draw your art for you. OK, well, there sort of is that button...but you can only use it after you've drawn it yourself once.

Anyway, I believe that if I can get adept at using the computer to make Yellow from start to finish, the final product will be far better for it. Not only will I be able to complete issues in a more timely fashion, but the artwork will be clearer, crisper, and all-around better-looking. I think you, the reader, will benefit, and I think that the comic will be more marketable for it.

Yes, that's right. I said marketable. Am I doing it for the money? Hardly. Printing is ungoldy expensive, and I've given away more copies than I've sold, by far. All-in-all, the comics industry is not a money-making enterprise. Unless your Marvel or DC, and even then...

But I would like to at least not go broke doing this comic, because if I go broke I can't do it anymore. And then nobody wins. So if that means I have to make my book appealing to comic book stores, and more importantly comic book store customers, then so be it. I apologize for nothing.

Except for that one thing I did back in the third grade. I definitely want to apologize for that. That frog didn't deserve what happened to it, and neither did you, Mrs. Postlewaite.

Holiday Greetings From Yellowland

WELL, it's that time of year again. A time when blog posts everywhere begin with cliches like, "it's that time of year again."

There's no movement on the "Yellow" front, other than to let you know that I plan to dive fully back into production after Tropical Storm Christmas has blown over. I apologize to my many fans, and to my detractors say, "You may have won this round, but the war is far from over."

Look for "Feels Like The First Time" to land sometime in late January/early February, with subsequent issues following every month or two after that. (Some new techy gadgets might help me speed up production. I'm talking to you, Zombie Santa!)

In the meantime, I hope you have some good times with family and friends over the next couple of weeks, stuff yourself with plenty of good food, and don't forget that the holidays aren't just about eating other people's brains. It's about giving your brains to be eaten, too.

In the immortal words of the ever-eloquent Neil Diamond: Have a very merry, cherry-cherry, holly holy, rock n' rolly Christmas. Thank you Neil. You truly are the Shakespeare of our time.

Nothing to report.

Sorry to disappoint you, loyal readers, but I have nothing new to report at the moment. But since it's been exactly one months since my last post I figure it'd be a good idea to at least let you know I'm still alive. And so is Yellow.

What with the Holidays n' stuff, I haven't had much time to devote to it. Unfortunately that means my publishing schedule has been thrown off quite a bit. Issue #5, "Feels Like the First Time," is probably looking at a January release, if not February. My hope was to have my second trade (or Episode, as I choose to call them) printed and available at Planet Comicon in March. However, that would require me to not only get #5 pumped out by January, but to immediately turn around and within a matter of weeks have #6 ("Butterflies & Hurricanes") written, drawn, inked, scanned, lettered, shaded, printed, and shipped back to me.

Miracles have happened, but not in the comic book world.

Funny story: Back when I first started drawing Issue #1, I had grand delusions that I could push out one episode every month. I was so excited that I went through the calendar in my phone and set alarms to remind me when to start writing, drawing, and publish each issue. Great idea at the time; but now that my pace is much slower it's more like a constant, mocking reminder of my failure. It's a blow to your morale when you're struggling to draw Issue #5 and you get an alert on your phone saying, "Publish #10," and another a few days later that says, "Start writing #11." And apparently I was very thorough in my alarm-setting, because the reminders never...seem...to stop.