When I graduated, I figured I'd finally have some free time to draw and get started on webcomicking again. Well, it's been a week or so of free time (I took three days to clean/repaint/rearrange my room, so those days don't count) and I haven't drawn a single thing. Figures. All I probably need is some sort of warm-up drawing, sooooo.... I'm open to ideas no matter how crazy/dull/sexy they may be.

On another note, at the moment I'm watching Starchaser: The Legend of Orin, a movie I've been searching for for years. I first saw it sometime in the early 90s and didn't think about it until a few years ago. I had no idea what it was called, so it took me forever to find. A recent Google search for "movie with a sword with a hilt but no blade". It has some bad 80s animation and music, but the story is pretty mature for an animated flick, even if it's a slight Star Wars ripoff. At least I finally have that off my mind for good.

I just finished watching the Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, and I must say, I'm pretty impressed. When I first heard about the series, my initial thought was, "oh great, another Spidey series?" Spider-Man is my favorite comic book character, but I thought another show would be overkill. In addition to the one that was on Fox Kids in the 90s, there was the old 60s and 80s versions, that futuristic one that lasted about two episodes, and the cel-shaded, CGI one starring Doogie Howser.(Also there was a crazy Japanese show with giant robots) I held off on checking it out (although that was mostly because I didn't know when it was on). My first contact with the show was seeing the character designs posted on deviantART by the actual character designer. I really dug the style and made a mental note to try and catch the show because of it. Of course, I then forgot about it, but it came back to my attention while I was browsing wikipedia (where else?) one day.

I downloaded the first season and watched it over a couple of weeks. I must say, it's very well done and worthy of the Spider-Man name. The animation is smooth and fun, the writing is clever and sharp, and the voice acting is top notch. The continuity takes a bit from each of the Spider-Man properties (regular comic line, Ultimate Spidey, movies) and tosses plenty of references to them here and there. For instance, Spidey reenacts the train-saving sequence from Spider-Man 2 in one episode. They don't start off with the origin, which was a smart thing because we've seen it a million times. They eventually do go through it, but it's toward the end of the season and is done somewhat differently than a regular flashback. There are also villains introduced in each episode, like the old-school days of comics when every story would have a new villain. They even introduce them way before they turn to super-villainy. Flint Marko and Alex O'Hirn first appear in the first episode but don't become Sandman and Rhino until about five episodes later.

The biggest inclusion to me was adding Gwen Stacy to the cast of characters. The movies, Fox cartoon, and recent comics focus on Mary Jane as Peter Parker's girl most likely because they don't have to deal with the fact that Gwen Stacy, y'know, dies in the comic book (and miraculously is still dead). It's cool that they have Gwen in new series, but it makes me wonder if they'll follow the precedent set by the previous Gwen and kill her off. Oh well, something else to keep me watching I guess, which I certainly will be doing. I hope they release it on DVD soon. I mean a real DVD set, not the lame three episode "movie" they have now. I can never be too Spider-Man obsessed. Well, maybe.

Frankie Foster and Blooregard Q. Kazoo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
Time: many many many hours x_x

Lost My Mind - MOAR by ~n8dawg on deviantART

I finally got off my lazy butt and sought an internship, although truth be told, I was on my lazy butt while looking for one. I got one at Immedium, a book publishing company that makes kids and art books. I've been charged with the task of creating some animated shorts for some of the kids book series. Right now I'm working on ideas for the Julie Black Belt and Tales of the Zodiac lines. It'll be a challenge adapting to two styles that are completely different from my own, but this is the sort of thing I'll likely be doing anyway. It's only a part time deal, so it shouldn't be too taxing on my schedule. I pretty much set my own working times and schedule. It should be a good experience. The only downside is that it's not a paid internship, but today my boss gave me two volumes of manga (Fairy Tail if you're curious) as compensation. Score!

My midterm for Advanced Web Animation. Could use some more polish, but I'm glad it's done.


Super Nutty Crunchy Chewbar by ~n8dawg on deviantART

For my Motion Graphics final, I was supposed to create an opening for a TV Show, so I decided to do one based on one of my comics. Will I ever make an actual series? Maybe.

candy girl by ~n8dawg on deviantART

My final for web animation. I want to make something better now.