One of the good things about being jobless is finally having time to draw whatever I want.



Nat's love life not so gr8 akshully.

Last week I graduated from school forever (maybe). It's a strange feeling. It's kinda nice not having the looming specter of school/homework over me. I can do whatever I want now! That hasn't been much this past week though. I said I'd get started on some comics, but all I've done is write some dialog for a few pages. I guess I'll get on that next week. Meanwhile, I am officially on "Job Hunting" mode. I applied to a couple places today: Cross Media International on Treasure Island (the one in San Francisco Bay, not Las Vegas), which is looking for an illustrator and Namco, which is looking for a 2D artist/animator, specifically a pixel artist. The CMI gig involves knowing about Japanese pop culture and video games as well as some of the language, so I've got an edge there. Either one sounds like a cool opportunity, so I'm hoping at least one of them happens (preferably the CMI one since it's closer). I also have a possible opportunity at VIZ to have a comic/manga series. I just need to come up with a good idea and write some scripts because I don't want to get myself into something long without any direction. In the meantime, I can do a short 1-3 page comic for Shojo Beat, so hundreds of teenage girls can read about my experiences with learning Japanese. Just flip past the hot boy-on-boy action and stories about hair. Here's hoping I can just be able to get some monies somehow.

Also, this is freakin' awesome: http://www.youtube.com/experiencewii

Also also, I love this cat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gtfbsNHxh8

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.

OC art meme remix by Nat by ~n8dawg on deviantART

This has happened to me before. Except for the getting paid part.

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.

I have three weeks of vacation, so I plan on spending most of it drawing. Here's what I've done this week:

( wheee )

FoxTrot to Cease Dailies

Kansas City, MO (12/05/2006) Bill Amend’s popular FoxTrot comic strip will go to a Sunday-only publication schedule as of Dec. 31, 2006, announced Universal Press Syndicate today. The last daily will be Saturday, Dec. 30. Reruns of dailies will be available for Web usage.

“After spending close to half of my life writing and drawing FoxTrot cartoons, I think it’s time I got out of the house and tried some new things,” said Amend. “I love cartooning and I absolutely want to continue doing the strip, just not at the current all-consuming pace. I’ve been blessed over the years with a terrific syndicate, patient newspaper clients, and more support from readers than I probably deserve, and I want to assure them all that while I’ll be now a less-frequent participant on the comics pages, I’ll continue to treat my visits as the special privilege they are.”

Amend, who started the strip in April, 1988, and who has more than 1,000 client newspapers, is taking time to pursue other creative outlets. “In addition to Sunday newspapers, we may see FoxTrot entertaining us in other kinds of media platforms,” says Lee Salem, president and editor of Universal Press Syndicate.

Amend has more than 30 published FoxTrot comic collections and has licensed his characters for calendars and wallpapers for cell phones. He was nominated in 2006 as a finalist for cartoonist of the year by the National Cartoonists Society’s Reuben Award.

Well, that's kind of a bummer, but I guess you can only work on one thing for so long. We all can't be Charles Schulz after all. At least we'll still see FoxTrot in the funny pages.

This comic is a pseudo-sequel to a previous one. Note: Although I derive inspiration for my work from my own life, it doesn't necessarily reflect it. Thus whatever you see in a comic like this one doesn't mean it's something I feel right now.

If you find the comic confusing, don't take it literally because it's meant to be allegorical. When it comes to Hollywood, Asians, particularly us Asian males, don't get the same kind of representation as other ethnicities. Asian males have mostly been limited to the roles of martial artists or bad guys. Bruce Lee's success was a double-edged sword because while he established a strong, positive Asian presence in the film world which didn't exist before he came on the scene, many Asian males who followed him were seen as nothing more than chop-socky guys. For whatever reason, American culture has trouble seeing us in a different light. Does it find Eastern cultures way too different for it? Recently with movies like Harold & Kumar and actors such as Daniel Dae Kim, the industry is taking steps in the right direction, but I think it's gonna be a while before us yellow folk reach the same status as Johnny Depp and Denzel.

well, it's here. the successor to Emo has come quicker than i thought it would. i've been struck with all sorts of ideas lately, so i figured i may as well do some of them to get 'em out of the way. like Emo before it, Faking Life will be a semi-autobiographical comic, but there will be more fanciful elements in it, as well as random experiementation. so pretty much anything goes. don't expect too many pop culture references, as i'm not planning to be another Punks and Nerds.



the name of the comic comes from the Five Iron Frenzy song of the same name (http://plyrics.com/lyrics/fiveironfrenzy/fakinglife.html). it just seemed like a perfect fit.

Foxtrot FTW

while most people spend their friday nights going out on dates, hanging out with friends, or partying, I spend mine sitting on my butt all night watching wrestling and drawing cute girls. hehe... losers.



this is my take on the mascot for Comic Genesis, Genchan. i am currently waiting for it to be approved, after which it will be displayed on the front page for all to admire.

the moment you've all been waiting for...

( boom baby! )