So here is my first proper play around with "colouring". I think I've just about made up my mind about going black and white or colour. Though I suppose I could always do colour for the site and desaturate the images for any kind of printed collection I might be lucky enough to do, some two hundred comics or so down the road.
But then, since writing is and will most likely continue to be my stronger half of this word n' picture show, it's probably best to aim for whatever lets me put out the comic quicker and more frequently. Thus black and white looks to be a winner for the time being!
The Terracotta Warriors, and the British Museum in general, were quite a thing today. Sadly, cameras were not allowed in the central exhibit (the Warriors) but they were kosher everywhere else and thus I have plenty of great pictures I'll be putting up over the next couple of days. Now you have something to live for!
Also, the hunt for a better font continues. Opinions are always welcome!----------------- Meanwhile, the topic of protracted adolescence is something worth thinking about and this short article takes an interesting, male-centric angle on the matter.
Another quiet (blogwise) day, I'm afraid. Work has kept me very busy and I must admit that I'm embracing the increased intensity and challenges after the steady doldrum of data entry. The immediate neighborhood to my work is very pleasant (and conveniant as it's loaded with shops) but not terribly photo worthy. That being said, I gather I'm not far from one of London's more well known neighborhoods. I'll check my London A-Z and see if it's close enough that I could go and grab some photos on my lunch.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Terracotta Warriors have arrived in town and there's a good chance I'll be seeing them or at least finally making my pilgramige to Tower Bridge on Saturday so thar'll be news of that to look forward to.
Finally, my apologies for a lack of an "art upgrade" in the comic. Life got in the way of me finishing a bunch of character style guides I was drawing up, as it sometimes does. What's actually irritating, though, is that I gave into the urge to announce an improvment before it came about! This is something which I've privately gotten pretty annoyed by with when it comes to webcomic author newsposts and yet there I did it myself!
Well shucks howdy.
Also? Moby Dick is absolutely worth its reputation not to mention the literary wanking that one can do when they start to realize just how much of an influence Herman Melville's style of prose has had on so many that have come after him.
The beast known as Computer Errors has just cost me a gross lump of work on the comic. I think I might still be able to get it up tonight (honey) but in case I don't, now you know why!
....then this is how America could win their hearts and minds.
Now I can spend a little money without peeing tears for the next week (?), I thought I'd find a nice cheap paperback to read on the tube. Popping into a Borders, I eventually found a perfect trifecta of classic literature, affordability and environmentalism. According to a store clerk, Penguin started releasing these 95% recycled editions of old classics (upon which all the money has been made) about six months ago. As you can see in the picture, it only sold for two quid (about $5 CAN/US) and that's just a hell of a deal for a new book. I snapped up Moby Dick, Charles Dickens' Hard Times, Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, Bram Stoker's Dracula and a collection of selected works by Edgar Allen Poe. Hot damn but I'm covered for the next while! It also strikes me that these would be a great resource for students (all the Shakespearean plays were on the shelf, for example). Can anybody tell me if these are avaliable in Canada as well? If not, they should be!
As first days go, this was pretty okay! The office is nice, the coworkers are very sociable and all around nice folk. The work itself wasn't too complex but then I doubt they'd entrust me to defending the Earth from the interdimensional Hounds of Tindalos on my first day.
The commute was surprisingly docile compared to what I expected, it seems the Picadilly Line is much less rammed in the mornings than the Northern Line. Thus I was able to get a decent amount of writing done while A) sitting down and B)not having somebodies quivering flesh jamming me into the unyielding glass and steel of the car itself.
Quivering.
I'd have taken some photographs and explored during lunch, except the people in my department all went to a really nice local pub where, wonders of wonders, drinks were A)had B) paid for on the company tab. Well, I wasn't exactly going to say no to that now was I? Hi-larious drunk bubbles passed across my eyes for the first hour (I generally avoid spending money on alcohol while unemployed or pseudo employed, as I've been the past while, so my tolerence had plummeted) but I persevered.
Addendum: You know you're on the internet when you encounter the following phrase "So I came across this hilarious blog post where Wil Wheaton integrates a magnificent Tycho quote into a funny story". Ah, but it's true and I must share it because the bookending story is fine but the Tycho quote made me laugh until I damn near wet myself because it was, as they say, so very true. You don't have to be some big programming geek to enjoy it, you just have to have been alive more or less.
...I am cream crackered. The last little while has been ten kinds of stressful for reasons I didn't bring up here lest it become one of those blogs and this afternoon it finally caught up with me. Try as I might, any attempt to progress past what I got made me feel like a dickless man trying to fuck his way up a mountain.
I....I think I just coined that horror.
As partial means of compensation I put forward these two offerings and a humble promise of a comic on Wednesday.
Hollywood (Monkey-Dust style) takes a crack at the Ivan O'Dobsky story...
Monkey-Dust was an animated series that usually hops quickly between loosely connected skits. But then they did the following epic which follows a fine arc of great comedy into a conclusion of utter horror.
Enjoy!
More clips from the show can be found here. It's also notable for great background music, most of it contemporary (I discovered this show through a link-go-round that started with the group Goldfrapp).
Just been figuring out all the little details these past couple of days, so el bloggo has been a bit quiet. Sorry folks! I've been figuring out my trip to Canada in December, getting the post-apocalyptic script to it's final draft, practicing drawing and generally attending to all the stupid little things which get swept under the carpet when you're stressing over job hunting, money et al. All that being said, I haven't posted the last of my photographs from last Friday's romp through the west end and so here they are, starting with something which I thought might tickle the cold, dead heart of one Mr. North. The Japanese Embassy, for those have an interest in that sort of thing.This particular fish shows up more places than you'd expect in London. This one was at the absolute bottom right of Hyde Park but the best is also a part of the lamp posts running along most of the Thames/Embankment area.Coming back up the Thames to the area in front of the Tate gallery, I had a go at a daytime version of a photo from a while back.If you live here, you're doing pretty okay. I just like buildings that look like this! Anyways, new comic tomorrow and if you all cross your fingers real hard I may have something to say about the first day at the new job on Monday. Certainly, I'll try to explore Hammersmith a bit more and see what might be picture worthy.
Finally, I've gotten on the Last.Fm bandwagon and am really enjoying it so far - hence the new widget on the side. Feel free to add me as a friend if you're on it as well.
Meanwhile I'm working on a kind of art upgrade for Sunday's strip (and, theoretically, every strip after). I'm afraid that's all for today folk! Though if you still feel yourself to be in the mood for a good black and white comic, may I suggest the relatively new Octopus Pie? It has some great, clean art and fun writing for the little story arcs which the author prefers to structure the strip with. You don't have to, but you may wish to start at The Beginning.
I guess it can pay to hold out, sometimes. I just got a callback from the publishing company in Hammersmith which I had to turn down and they've offered me the job again, but with a pay I could live on and save with. It's not quite what I was making at Network Rail, but I'll be receiving valuable job training and getting that foot in the door with publishing which I've been seeking alongside the film and television bit. The big thing about this is that if I decide to come back to Canada for good in September of next year, I'll have some valuable job experience on my CV and thus won't be coming back to square one...only two years closer tothe grave.
Plus I'm going to get to use my....whaddya call it.....degree.
In minor celebration I'm going to share some great George Carlin, who I've been enjoying the hell out of lately.
You may not be surprised to learn that some of the "...but he loves you" piece was used as a chapter introduction by Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion.
IN OTHER NEWS There's a new, big climate change movie with a much more hollywood style spin to it than Senore Gore's offering. Here's the trailer.
Anyways, here's the film's website. Go crazy with your thoughts in the comments section! I'd love to get some other reactions before I settle my own.
Meanwhile, in a the more traditional vein of first world problems, living on a budget as I am now gets a bit sore when Threadless come out with not one but two shirts I really want for the first time in almost three years! BAH.
Just to rub things in, today I had to turn down an entry level job in publishing because it didn't pay enough to cover my expenses!. BAH.
Man, I do believe that the comic is going to be postponed until tomorrow in the interest of quality. It's really my own fault, as I've once again tried to run before I can walk with this thing. But there is a pretty decent consolation prize, pictures of the superb sight I alluded to yesterday - The Prince Albert Memorial.Now I knew that Queen Victoria had grieved for the death of her husband rather thoroughly (what with her wearing all black every day of her life but one, from the funeral onward). I knew that as Queen of the British Empire at it's height, she'd have some serious resources to draw upon for a tribute. But still, I was absolutely stunned when I came across this while walking from Kensington Palace to the Serpentine Gallery. If you want to see some pictures underneath the monument and to learn more about how it was built, you can check out this here webpage.Each of the four outer corners is dedicated to one of the continents which the Empire held notable sway over. First we have Africa with it's camel.Then we have Asia with it's Elephant. Followed by a Bull for Europe. And finally, a Buffalo for North America. And finally the big man himself.As if all this wasn't enough, we have the more widely known Royal Albert Hall which lay right where Albert's statue can keep an eye on it. Tomorrow you all shall be treated to the loose photo's from Friday's bloody long walk and a new First World Problem strip. I'm going to try for another mid-week one as well, though I shall try to restrain myself and just do a simple, linear, three or four panel comic.
I'm not sure if it's the embeded google map or what, but now I can't seem to go back and edit/fix up the post I just made!
HUH.
Well I must say, yesterday gave me a few surprises and marvels I hadn't really planned on. After my interview in Hammersmith I decided I'd walk over to Tottenham court road, grab a drink and then eat my lunch in Soho square. This was a heck of a longer walk than I had imagined! Plus the initial stretch was so dull I figured I wouldn't be taking any pictures...and oh ho, I see that Google Maps now provides the html needed to embed any map you bring up - so let's give it a shot.
View Larger Map The route I took shot me up along Hammersmith road, which then becomes Kensington high street as you pass through that prestigious neighborhood, and I eventually turned left into the south side of Hyde Park. It was here that I found cause to take so many pictures I'll most likely break this up into a couple of days of posts.
The first item I came across was a short strip of embassies which included the Israeli embassy - with heavy, temporary barriers all around it as well as a handful of policemen with submachine guns. Curious, I came a bit closer only to catch a couple of large "no photography" signs. Between these and a couple of very distressed looking men in suits who kept walking back and forth between the front door of the embassy and the policemen...well I think there's a story in there to be sure. But in the end it was the "No Photography" signs which really perturbed me, so of course I tried to be cheeky and grab a surreptitious photo from around the corner of a parked van a little ways down the street.So okay, the picture is pretty shit but you can at least catch the barriers and one of the policemen. As I was taking this I noticed a policeman not to far to my left that I hadn't yet noticed and lost my steady shot thanks to a quick burst of worry. Ah well, I'll be keeping an eye on the news to see if anything comes of this. In stark contrast to the little "no media" zone I'd just left, I found myself along the south wall of Kensington Palace not thirty feet away where there were around three hundred people clamoring around the fences with their tributes etc. in acknowledgment of the tenth anniversary of the death of Princess Diana.From here I'm going to leap ahead chronologically about an hour to show a related item which I finally decided I may as well a see - the Diana memorial fountain. Once again, I was surprised by what I saw. Not only was there a complete lack of home made posters and television media opportunists, there wasn't a statue of Diana or anything like that.Getting up close I didn't see any crazed individuals like I had over by Kensington Palace, just a peaceful few clusters of people relaxing, playing and walking around this interesting water feature.Anyways, just before I end today's post I think I'll show you a restaurant which is situated right by the Serpentine gallery - which in turn lay roughly equidistant between Kengsington Palace and the Diana memorial.Tomorrow I'll be posting pictures of what I found just before I came across this restaurant, something which made me utter without a hint of "irony", maliciousness or mischief...
"Jesus.
H.*
Christ."
*Hornswagglin'
Addendum: This spoof of Axe commercials made me laugh, maybe it will make you laugh too? I guess that depends on whether or not you're dead inside.
And for those, like me, who seriously cannot stand either the LolCats business or the proliferation of "Internet English", then you may very well enjoy Realisticats.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Yesterday's FWP update has now been cleaned up, though I wish I could figure out how to get it under the current size (286 kb). I don't really want to make the image any smaller, so it's a tricky thing.
Nothing fancy to report today folks! Sorry, it's been a quiet week of work, then job hunting, with writing and drawing sprinkled throughout. That being said, I'm off to a part of London (Hammersmith) I haven't seen before for a job interview tomorrow - pictures may happen. Plus I am going to try and plan some kind of, also picture worthy, adventure into the city for Saturday if only for the sake of sanity. La dee dah!
MEANWHILE - If those of you in Canada were looking for a more specific environmental cause to get involved with, may I wholeheartedly suggest how most of Alberta is being turned into Mordor?
And David Sazuki has also done an excellent episode of "The Nature of Things" on the matter. I haven't been able to find it online, myself, but a hundred *INTERNET POINTS* for whoever does!
So here is my first proper play around with "colouring". I think I've just about made up my mind about going black and white or colour. Though I suppose I could always do colour for the site and desaturate the images for any kind of printed collection I might be lucky enough to do, some two hundred comics or so down the road.
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