Well, hardcore for podcasting that is. I’ll be doing a podcast this Sunday at 4:00pm PST with the Casually Hardcore guys, who are part of the VWR group. It was fun doing the PUG podcast with them where I demonstrated my innate WoW trivia abilities (and distinct lack of meta-trivia knowledge) and I look forward to chatting with the guys again. Expect me to talk comics, World of Warcraft and any manner of nonsense that pops into my head.

Be sure to tune in, it’s bound to be a good time. =)

Cry havoc, and let slip the pasty faced geeks of war!

Over at Webcomic Planet they have a yearly contest between web comic creators. It is a “war” based on a resourse gathering phase, followed by a combat phase. Last year was a Fantasy based theme and this year the “Evil Genuis” is the genre de rigeur. Or something smart sounding like that.

Already my I.T. Ninja minions are transforming the InkTank Studios into the Ink Lair, complete with brushed aluminum walls, orange shag carpet and a large tank filled with … INK! Well, so far it’s just ink. We tried to put sharks in there, but they can’t live in ink apparently. And the bears just drowned. And the mean high school girls just made catty comments and left.

In retrospect, I should have kept a couple of bears to sic on the mean high school girls.

In any case, the war is on and I’ll be posting links, giving interviews and other manner of evil geniousioty…ness…ishnes.

Mua hhaha HAAHHAHAHAHA *ahem* *snicker* *fart* *blush*

Sorry all. In my site tweaking I’ve FUBAR’d the backend a bit. The current strip is always visible at www.inktank.com (the homepage) and I am working on getting the RSS feed and archives back in place.

[UPDATE] I fixed the issue preventing the strips from showing up. I tagged them as “InkTank” but forgot to tag them as “comics” to let Comicpress know there was an associated image to show. Ok, all good to go. Places people, the show must go on!

Ok, after (yet another) unexpected hiatus we are back and in swing again here at InkTank. With strips posted and plans underway for changes (both in the strip and on the site) I’ve made myself a little “2 do” list.

1. Keep posting strips – first and foremost, it’s the bread and butter of the site. Besides, I have to start whittling down the number of gags I’ve written down. This also means streamlining the production process, be it going digital or just learning to ink properly.

2. Re-work the backend – this means facing the daunting Wordpress melange of PHP and includes and hidden database calls and whatnot to get the site tweaked justthe way I want it. This was easy when I coded the site myself from scratch and worked in Cold fusion, but with the Wordpress switch as many niggling annoyances came with all the increased functionality it affords me. So in addition to revamping the look and feel and functionality for the site, I also need to go though and update ALL the archives to make them Wordpress/Comicpress compliant.

3. Make more content – The word baloon video tutorial I posted last year on YouTube continues to get hits and people really seem to find it useful. I’d love to do more touching on other aspects of webcomicing as well as give an behind the scenes look at the creation of an InkTank strip. This also means more blog posts and general thought sharing. Who know, I might even throw up a book review or two.

But first and foremost, keeping the strip rolling it paramount, as everything else is icing on the sweet caky cakeness of the strip.

Wel, as I sit here with my Star Trek sneakers on, my trusty WoW cap on my head and typing on a desk covered in toys (of which at least ninety percent are mine) I don’t quite feel 41. It’s not a milestone year, more of an after thought. But this past year has been a big one. A second daughter, the re-introduction of the AT crew into the strip, and a general feeling of hope for the future. I can sense that this coming year is really going to be a big one. I just hope to be flexible and alert enough to take advantage of any opportunities.

I do feel blessed to have people almost daily tell me how much they love the strip and how glad they are that I am back in the saddle (well, lately it’s been more like hitching up my britches again). The new work flow is a double edged sword in that I can get a bunch of strips done in a faster fashion (writing a batch, then penciling a bunch, then inking a bunch, then scanning and post production, etc.) WHEN I get the time that is. Between homework, a looming final and the littlest one not going to bed until midnight or later the work flow leaves me with batches of half finished strips. Perhaps there is something to be said for the slightly slower, yet more flexible one off process. Hmmm, something to consider in my fine tuning. Needless to say, expect a batch of strips soon.

But not tomorrow (well, maybe tomorrow) as my family is taking me to see the Star Trek exhibit as the Tech Museum here in San Jose. =)

Set phasers for FUCKING AWESOME!

I’m delaying today’s strip due to artistic integrity. I always forget how hard it is to pull real people into my “style”. I needed to spend a good portion of the day doing sketches and figuring out the best way to convey real life people in my strip.

In that same vein, I’ve been perusing a LOT of web sites of illustrators, cartoonists, character developers and caricaturists. My current “style” (I use the term loosely) has served me well over the years, and it’s pleasantly evolved over time, but I find myself trying new things in doodling and generally broadening my artistic vision. Unfortunately, maintaining a cartooning schedule (along with other life stuff) does not allow much wiggle room for messing with my cartooning formula. Don’t worry though, I’ll keep on going with the fun-nay until I can figure out what to do. Perhaps a revamp of the look of the characters, perhaps even changing methods might lead to more evolution in my art (I’ve been toying with digital inking and different programs).

So, expect today’s strip today … just not right now.

With some false starts the past few weeks and but a whiff of a comic buffer in place, I wanted to … nay … needed to get back to cartooning. I’ve got pages and pages of comic ideas just begging for my attention. I ended up taking such an extended hiatus because instead of stressing out and putting up strips willy nilly and just randomly (as was happening a bit while wrapping up the vasectomy storyline) I knew when I put my foot on the starting line again, I’d be going full tilt once I got started.

With the little one just settling into the most basic of schedule, I have at least an hour or two to myself each night to get my cartoonin’ groove on. So far the plan is to pencil at least a strip a day and get three strips inked over the weekend for the coming week.

Plus Halloween is coming up and I missed having the Angst Technology company Halloween party last year. I love dressing the gang up each year.

So, enjoy the upcoming cartoons as well as blog posts and other sundry news items and opinions and bits of info that I drop here from time to time.

It’s good to be back. =)

It seems that life is what happens when you aren’t cartooning.

I’ve been holding off on any substantial blog posts out of a sense of obligation that the cartoons need to come first. I feel bad sitting down to type when I should be cartooning. Unfourtnately though, my cartooning time has been coming in short bursts where I try to jam as many strips as I can create into little time windows (hense daily updates for a few days and then nothing for a while). I’ve passed on a few weighty and/or entertaining blog topics, relegating my thoughts to small Twitter snippits and Facebook updates.

With the layoff, making time to let my wife study and do homework, taking the family out to do things, a recent garage sale (emptied a 10X20 storage unit) and a “fussy” baby (she will only allow me or my wife to hold her and we need to be in her eyeline) the cartoon windows have been brief (but oh so satisfying when they do come). We were childless when I initially launched in 2000 and was on hiatus when my first was born. I thought I had a grasp of what a wee one would do to my schedule and how to work around it … HA!

So most everything else on the site has been put on hold until I can catch up with my cartoon backlog. Well, I’m going to fnish out the current vasectomy storyline and then start posting strips on days they are done (or at least try to build up a buffer again if I get one of those presious chunks of time).

Don’t worry, I won’t be giving up or going on hiatus. It seems I am happiest when I am cartooning. Even if it’s a little progress at a time. It seems I get very irritable and anxious when I go too long without putting pencil to paper (or mouse to paint program for that matter).

So please bear with me as I get my “C” legs under me again (“C” for “cartooning”) and get the gears of the site oiled and spinning again. There will be more blog posts coming, a site redesign, more tutorials and content and of couse … many much more cartoons.

Thanks for hanging in there. =)