...can just pick it up in trade paperback at your local comic book shop.

In all actuality though, I did attend a real Civil War reenactment here in California, but alas, I didn't attend as my hero. Instead I was with a group of the dreaded Berdan Sharpshooters (mentioned in the strip). After honing up on my Civil War history I decided that Berdan's units had the right idea. Wear green uniforms, hide in the brush and snipe away at the enemy (as opposed to walking in formation into an onslaught of deadly rifle volleys).

BUT... apparently quite a few people have the same idea and it causes a bit of controversy in the reenactment community to have so many "special forces" units crawling around while the rank and file troops are having trouble getting a decent formation together more than two ranks deep. And as with any hobby, there are the grognards, the weekend warriors, the tailgaters, etc.

It's almost like walking into the living embodiment of an online message board, with all the good and bad that entails.

Plus they have living "ad banners" in the form of suttlers around the edges of the encampment.

Now, obviously Cap would fight for the Federals. I mean, he is a living Union flag.

But you know what, let's not forget those brave soldiers who also fought on shores far, far away. Men and women who left their homes to fight the good fight in a little conflict known as the SECRET WARS.

And look, they even have their own reenactors:



Sorry, Ken Burns, they already beat you to it.

Ahh, I just got my first batch of fresh banners, straight from the Photoshop oven. You can take a peek at them here. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. In particular, I took a pass at coloring them and it was far more successful than past attempts at color. I've always shied away from color in the past, but right now it's just one more "fear" to face head on. So, I guess you can expect to see more color work coming up soon.

The new mini-story line is already formed in my head. It's odd this time around though, what with not doing the strip daily. I am used to having about 5 days to put a concise little mini-story together. Four pannels, five days. Boom. It's how my cartoonist's mind is wired.

I am currently debating between trying to wrap it up my Friday, or have it bleed into Monday, or just take it to six strips and wrap it up next Friday.

Hmmmm.

I think I am leaning towards wrapping it up into six strips and finishing it next Friday. Two weeks can be pushing it for a mini-story, but in the archives, it will be like fifty seconds of reading. And I don't thing a three strip story would really allow me to flex my creative muscle fully.

Elsewhere on the web ... GIANT ROBOT DOGS HAVE LANDED!

Well, perhaps not exactly, but as this video shows, they can't be too far off. And I must say, this is the most impressive display of robotics I've ever seen:

Well, it's my first little story line. Let's see how I do, shall we?

In other new, the latest Llama Report (#13) is out and this week we discuss comic book movies, along with news of the weird and with Jimmy out of the picture this week I put on my Jimmy hat to rail against the crazyness of "Truck Nutz". Yeah, just listen and it will all make sense.

The latest Gigcast podcast (#139) has been posted and this time it is a fun interview with JT and Scott covering my departure and eventual return to the webcomic scene, plus what went on between. The Gigcast guys were nice enough to indulge me and my rambling ways. Seriously though, it's a pretty fun and informative interview. Go check it out.

Today is a particularly good day. Got up early, work is going as well as can be expected, bought my comics at lunch and picked up a lovely paninni sandwich from the local deli. So far so good. =)

Since I had posted earlier about my constant drawing now to improve my art, I thought I'd post these small sketches. Some more work on women, Thor and more redesign on yours truly. Generally, I am filling up sheets and sheet of paper, from printer paper to the small notebooks on my desk at work with drawings. I am enjoying this thrice weekly schedule, as it is allowing me time to draw for drawing's sake. I am still feeling the strip out, finding its voice, but hopefully I will be able to swing into a five day a week schedule to really start letting all these ideas spill out.



It's a very exciting (and scary) time for me, and I just wanted to take a minute to thank you, the readers, for stopping by and supporting the site with your visits. It's really nice to make a come back and know that you were missed. I did fear the sounds of crickets and a resounding "Oh ... yea. You were that guy that did that thing that time." response, but people seem to be slowly finding their way back to the site and more than a few from "outdated" bookmarks.

So welcome back!

and

It's good to be back! ;)

[edit] OH! And I've also been spending WAY too much time playing Bowmaster Prelude lately. Damn you archer, I've got strips to do!

The new Llama Report (episode 12) has been posted and it covers not only weekly news of the weird, but we have a great segment where we discuss Star Wars, from the original trilogy to the extended universe.

Lots of in-depth commentary, or a bunch of web wankery ... you decide.

Oh, and since we were discussing HeroClix, I didn't give up "cartooning" completely since I kept myself a little busy with some one panel gag strips based on HeroClix.

Pretty much these were made possible since I discovered a super macro setting on my camera. So... since you asked ... here they are:

The Little Things #1
The Little Things #2
The Little Things #3
The Little Things #4
The Little Things #5

You can take the boy away from the pen, but you can't take the (geeky) humor from the boy.

My apologies to my non-US readers. "Ho Hos" are a snack treat here in the US consisting of whipped cream wrapped in a roll of chocolate ... then covered in chocolate.

Yeah. I actually do tend to have a celebratory Ho Ho after a strip is done, minus the ash tray though.

In other news, it seems that a publishing house in China has ripped off a slew of artists across the internet and published an art book AND included an image CD of all the artists work.

The full story can be found here, but the basic points are:

An art book is published and sells for $100.
All the illustrations are taken from the web.
All the interviews were taken from The Little Chimp society website (typos and all), and attributed to the art director of the book.
A CD is available in the back of the book with all the illustrations, basically treating them like free clip art. Even the original file names haven't been changed.

If you care to, someone has posted all the pages online so artists can peruse them and see if they are a victim in this mess.

Page Scans

So it appears the secret to success is:

Step 1: Be China
Step 2: Let others create
Step 3: PROFIT!

In drawing 'lil Inky I had to come to grips with my childhood hair. Or as I like to call it, "The Curtain".

Yeah.

Eventually I learned the art of actually parting my hair.

Yeah.

But in reality, my wife did really have to sit though me squirming in my seat during the Indiana Jones trailer. I heard those opening strains, saw the hat ... and was immediately transported to my backyard, jumping from roofs and rolling around in the bushes around my house. I think Indiana Jones had more impact on me as a kid than Star Wars. And that's saying a lot.

We'd play with our Star Wars action figures, but we'd BE Indiana Jones. Flicking our rope "whips" and digging up endless backyards. The novelization of the movie was the first paperback I literally read to pieces.

I just hope I don't get a whole "Episode 1" vibe from this sequel. But even if I do, I can always just put on my hat and leather jacket and go make my own adventures.

I'm sure my parents won't mind me digging around the back yard again.

p.s. And yes, that is a terry cloth shirt. I was a fashion icon as well.

There is currently a big stink in the HeroClix community about the most recent "Buy It By The Brick" campaign run by WizKids. The basic idea behind the BiBTB campaigns is that if you buy a "brick" of boosters (each individual game package is a booster containing five game pieces, each brick is a shrink wrapped bundle of 20 boosters, and each cardboard box "case" contains 2 bricks) you get a coupon to send in for a free figure (minus about $3 for shipping). Sort of a thank you from WK for buying in bulk.

In the past, WizKids has had enough to meet demand. Usually more than enough as they would have leftovers. Typically they were fun pieces, like a Krypto or Dr. Doom from Secret Wars.

But this time? This time WK made a special double figure of Batman and Superman. Two of comicdom's biggest hitters. Together. On one base.

Well, needless to say, the hype surrounding this particular figure, that could be gottern for "free" mind you, was immense. WK announced that there would be 5000 made AND in a WK first, the figures would be numbered. In the past, WK had made a limitation of "1 brick figure per household" but public outcry stopped that. In addition, it has always been on the BiBRB coupons that "while supplies last" was boilerplate.

So, let's recap:

1. Free figure
2. VERY popular characters
3. Limited to 5000
4. Numbered
5. While supplies last

Can you guess what happened?

Yep, they sold out within the first week. People who had preordered their bricks or cases got their product on opening day and immediately sent in the coupons. It was a mail frenzy that set a postal record for second most mail received in a single day (I would assume the local IRS office around the 15th holds the record).

Me? I FedExed in my two coupons the same day I got my case.

I got mine.

Others however were not so lucky. And therein lies the rub. This astounding sales success on the part of WK is now marred by people complaining about not getting their figures. They waited to send, they thought there would be leftovers like the old promotions, they would just pick one up cheap (HA!) on eBay, etc. etc. etc.

Now there are talks of boycotts, retaliation in the form of protests and even class action lawsuits.

People ... "WHILE SUPPLIES LAST". C'mon!

With all the amazing amounts of hype surrounding this release, for people to be surprised, much less angered by the quick sell out is absolutely ridiculous.

I FedExed mine in the SAME DAY and was still nervous about getting my figures. If I hadn't, well I would have understood.

Even if every single person who wanted a World's Finest figure had their coupon arrive all on the exact same day, all at once ... the first 5000 pulled from the pile would get theirs. The rest? ... sorry.

WizKids returned all the checks sent in, posted their announcement and handled it the best way they could. In hindsight, perhaps a "limit two per household" would have helped, or send at least one out to available orders first, then do a second round for those with multiple orders for figures, but again ... hindsight.

It comes down to the players, the ones in the trenches who have to slog though the pages and pages of hype to have the FORESIGHT to know that this particular offering isn't like any of the others.

I got mine because I had the foresight to know that even if I got mine in the next day, I would still be cutting it close. And apparently I was right.

For those who didn't get figs, don't be angry and don't boycott or sue. Just enjoy the game, keep playing with your friends and keep an eye on the horizon. Every experience is a learning one if you let it be.

In other news, I recently added a Technorati Profile.

Ok, the much requested RSS feed is up and running. You can find the little RSS icon up there in the nav bar. The feed will give you a link back here to the most recent strips. The blog entries aren't covered in that feed.

Blog entries are covered by thier own, seperate feed listed down at the bottom the blog sidbar.

So much for the last bastion of privacy in the house.

Things are going very well so far in the Inkyverse. The strip seems to be firing on all cylinders, the site is growing (as is the traffic) and I am very pleased in the directions I am pushing myself artistically. Sure, it means some late nights, but I am so much happier not having "finger puppets" (dialogue between two characters facing each other and only seen from the waist up) all the time.

Plus I am getting in lots of sketching and general learning in my spare time ... what there is of it. The strip is truly a labor of love, and the fact I am loving the labor more this time around helps all the more.

Thanks to everyone who has sent well wishes so far and for all the links around the web that are helping me rebuild my audience. It's a good feeling to know you've been missed and it really helps stoke the creative fires.

I want to be better. I NEED to be better. If I expect to make a real run at professional cartooning I must work on my craft and empower myself to be able to produce high quality artwork.

I've always been pretty comfortable with my writing. I've always felt it has been my strong suit. The art has typically taken a backseat and been delegated to the "way to a means" in getting across a gag. Over time, I think a nascent style has been developing in my characters. At least in the male characters that is. Certain head shapes, the bulbous nose, dot eyes, my dual inking style (I ink my drawings twice over).

However, I have never been comfortable drawing the female form. I think that is most noticeable in the very, very slow evolution of Kit in the Angst Technology strips. And not only Kit but the girl at the coffee shop, Marc's date and almost every female who appeared in the strip (except for the nun and old ladies of course).

The Evolution Of Kit Over Five Years

Now I find myself in the same situation in my need to draw a female character (my wife) in a regular role, not just one of a secondary character. Now, Kit was originally modeled after my wife (and my female ideal by the way) - a full lipped brunette with a very feminine figure. As is evidenced in just the first handful of these InkTank strips, Sophia has evolved already from the very first strip. I am pleased in the direction she is heading (as is my wife, what with her constant input) and hopefully I can nail her soon.

Seriously, I hope to have her style worked out soon and hope to develop a variety of styles for any future women as well, at least in the same vein as the men in my strips who are generally easily recognizable.

And speaking of evolution, I mentioned that I have been searching out other methods to create my digital work. In looking over youTube and other artists sites, I see a lot of tablets. A LOT of them. I've tried tablets before, but getting over the hurdle of drawing down on the desk while looking up at the monitor is just too incongruous to me.

BUT ... I have an old, second hand Toshiba tablet PC that has a flip screen (the screen rotates 180 degrees and folds flat to draw on). I installed a trial of Alias Sketchbook Pro and did some quick inking tests. It's still a bit rough, but I got to play with some brush settings and get used to using the zoom and panning tools. You can see the results compared to the original pencils and the double inking style I used for the actual first strip.

Original Pencils

Sharpie Marker Double Inks Used In First Strip

Tablet PC Inks

The tablet PC inks aren't quite up to snuff, in my opinion, but they certainly show some promise. I think I need to adjust the brush a little thicker and do things like follow though with some lines and erase in between where things cross over (like the line for the desk and where Sophia's arms cross over). One thing that is a little tough with a tablet PC is that all the hot keys on the keyboard are sandwiched in underneath the folded down tablet screen, so I am unable to utilize quick key strokes for things like zooming, switching brushes, etc.

However, I REALLY do like the varying weight of the brush strokes. I can easily get that inked brush stroke that I am so fond of and I can make changes on the fly (as opposed to inking directly on paper where mistakes must be fixed after scanning). This method of working seems to lead me towards (hopefully) better, more flowing character designs. I am eager to keep trying and perhaps refine my character designs and style though the use of this new medium.

I will be sure to keep you all informed as things progress and I’ll try to post my progress as I refine my style and methods. Hopefully I can post a video of some future inking tests.

While looking for the latest and greatest in terms of community building and getting the word out, I happened across Ustream.tv.

In watching all the youTube digital art tutorials I could find, as well as things like Leo Laporte video streaming his podcasts, I had been considering setting up a live "watch me draw" (*yawn*) video feed.

I had done it quite a few times when I lived up in Oregon before I stopped cartooning and in particular utilized it for the 24 Hour Comic Strip Marathon. However, back then, I was always limited in that I had to provide the stream from my own system and was limited by the bandwidth I could allocate. My viewership was severely limited.

But, recently, Scott Kurtz over at PVP put a shout out for streaming recommendations and along with some other programs, Ustream.tv is the system he tried out the other day. It seemed to work well, audio as well as video with a chat room attached. I didn't see any limitations on how many viewers you could have and the chat room seemed to have enough features to make it pretty useful.

Scott however works directly on the screen, so he opted for a screen capture type of system where you can see the digital process. Me? I'm still cranking out cartoons the old fashioned way and do my pencils and inks on paper, so a screen display would only cover the lettering and word balloons part of my job.

I created an account last night and did a thirty minute mini-test to get a feel for what I would need to set up a good live feed of a person drawing.

Things I learned:

1. Light - Since I pencil with non repro blue pencil, it's pretty light and I need bright, focused light on the workspace.

2. I'm a Righty - So the camera needs to be on my left. Plus I have to ensure no shadows are cast from my drawing hand. Sideways is ok, but I think some sort of "over the shoulder" set up would be best.

3. No Audio - I tend to work in the early evening or late night, I'll leave the audio off though lest the viewers be treated to the sounds of Mo howling about bedtime (she bleeds through on the podcast enough as it is).

When I had offered the streaming feeds in Oregon, I just placed the camera in front of me, pointed down. Essentially everyone could see me draw, upside down. I would occasionally turn the paper around to show off what I was working on, but ideally people could just see the drawing straight on. That seems to be how most of the online tutorials are.

Speaking of which, my method of working has changed a bit over time and I think the Ustream tools allow me to pre-record stuff. So hopefully I can make a short tutorial or two about how I work and post links to those.

If you are interested, my Ustream page is located here:
http://ustream.tv/channel/inktank-live

Feel free to bookmark it and I'll be sure to announce some sort of rough schedule when I'll be drawing. I will definitely be using Twitter to announce when I am about to broadcast, but hopefully I can get on some sort of semi-regular schedule.

Wow, the site got a major influx of traffic from a link at Stumbleupon. Many thanks to whoever submitted me. Now if I could only find the link myself.

I find myself in an odd situation where I am almost starting from scratch again in relearning the web comics landscape. Along with old friends fallen by the wayside and new online comics to take up the banners, I also find myself faced with a myriad of new online social networking and reader driven news sites. I remember Slashdot, but Stumbleupon and Digg are all new to me. Heck, I'm lucky I even know just those two at this point. Now I am faced with "guerilla marketing" all over again in unfamiliar territory.

Take the "Vote" buttons on the right there. In the past, a traffic mainstay of webcomics across the Internet. Remember Big Panda? ... anyone? But it seems there are very few "top" sites of note lately and the future of getting the word out is visibility on these newfangled social netmaworking thing-a-ma-bobs.

I guess ultimately it is a better system in that your visibility is directly tied to the quality of the work as well as what the subject matter is. I'm sure I won't be featured on any manga-ish serialized drama long form comic communities. But if there is a place were thinning haired, slightly paunchy, scraggly facial haired geek's who like tech humor hang out, then that's where I'll find my audience.

Oh wait, that would be the INTERNET.

Hmm, perhaps I better add in a scantily clad manga babe to the cast, just to cover my bases.

One of these uppity new technologies I am enjoying however is podcasting. Boy do I love to cast a good pod. I'll tell you, there's nothing like casting that pod out there and just watching it ... tele ... macomunicate ... broadband ... uh.

Yea, I don't really know exactly how they work except someone calls me on Skype and lets me babble about myself for an hour and then posts it. Upon which I can then immediately listen to myself babble about myself back to myself and count the times I say "um" and "like, you know". *shudder*

In any case, if you want to hear me babble, I have recently been added as a regular on the weekly Llama Public Radio podcast, The Llama Report.

You can hear me talk about myself, and zombies, and myself, and comic books, and myself, and April Fool's day jokes, and myself, and stuff about me. Oh, and I let Chris, Brian and Nick talk about some stuff too. For some reason they stray off my suggested weekly show notes (featuring me!) to talk about other stuff.

But in all seriousness, Brian runs a great weekly show and it's a great deal of fun for a group of like minded nerds to just shoot the shit about the weekly geekly. I'm glad they invited me aboard.

Now if I can just figure out this Digg thing, I'll RULE THE WORLD!

Or at least this page of it.

[edit 4-8-08 10:03am] Ahh, Vaughn was kind enough to point out my Stumbleupon link to me: http://www.stumbleupon.com/url/www.inktank.com/ Heh, I guess it was still getting reviews when it was just a little ol' blog.

OH! and I forgot to mention that I added a "Best of..." section in the archives that highlights some of the storylines that have taken place in my comics through out the years.

Link To Relevant Strip

I realized recently that social networks are pretty new online (in the grand scheme of things). At least they seem to just be really exploding now with the advent of Facebook, Live Journal, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. You can keep track of the day to day activities of your friends (or complete strangers). And for all the kids using the online social networks now, none of us are getting any younger.

Think FTD would like a little widget to send flowers to recently deceased people on your friends list? Will we start seeing Amazon wishlists with Depends adult diapers and Viagra?

Perhaps someday I'll get to scatter my virtual ashes over Strangle Thorn Vale.

High Flight by John Magee
(with FAA Supplement)

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth(1),
And danced(2) the skies on laughter silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed(3) and joined the tumbling mirth(4)
Of sun-split clouds(5) and done a hundred things(6)
You have not dreamed of - Wheeled and soared and swung(7)
High in the sunlit silence(8 ). Hov'ring there(9)
I've chased the shouting wind(10) along and flung(11)
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious(12), burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights(13) with easy grace,
Where never lark, or even eagle(14) flew;
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space(15),
Put out my hand(16), and touched the face of God.

NOTE:

1. Pilots must insure that all surly bonds have been slipped entirely before aircraft taxi or flight is attempted.
2. During periods of severe sky dancing, crew and passengers must keep seatbelts fastened. Crew should wear shoulderbelts as provided.
3. Sunward climbs must not exceed the maximum permitted aircraft ceiling.
4. Passenger aircraft are prohibited from joining the tumbling mirth.
5. Pilots flying through sun-split clouds under VFR conditions must comply with all applicable minimum clearances.
6. Do not perform these hundred things in front of Federal Aviation Administration inspectors.
7. Wheeling, soaring, and swinging will not be attempted except in aircraft rated for such activities and within utility class weight limits.
8. Be advised that sunlit silence will occur only when a major engine malfunction has occurred.
9. "Hov'ring there" will constitute a highly reliable signal that a flight emergency is imminent.
10. Forecasts of shouting winds are available from the local FSS. Encounters with unexpected shouting winds should be reported by pilots.
11. Pilots flinging eager craft through footless halls of air are reminded that they alone are responsible for maintaining separation from other eager craft.
12. Should any crewmember or passenger experience delirium while in the burning blue, submit an irregularity report upon flight termination.
13. Windswept heights will be topped by a minimum of 1,000 feet to maintain VFR minimum separations.
14. Aircraft engine ingestion of, or impact with, larks or eagles should be reported to the FAA and the appropriate aircraft maintenance facility.
15. Aircraft operating in the high untresspassed sanctity of space must remain in IFR flight regardless of meteorological conditions and visibility.
16. Pilots and passengers are reminded that opening doors or windows in order to touch the face of God may result in loss of cabin pressure.