Let's Give It Up For The New Year

It's been a month since I've last blogged and not much has changed. Still working on breaking into comics. It's difficult and frustrating and time consuming. But it's also a little fun. You know, in a very unfunny way. If that makes a lick of sense. I spend a lot of time on websites that cater to the up and comers. Mostly looking for work or a good artist for free. No luck on that front yet but hey. I do have Juan, who sort of spoiled me by being so good. I look at people that I may have asked to collaborate with before I found him and realize that they really aren't that good. Oh well. It'll happen sooner or later.

That's all I really have for now. Oh yeah, IT FREAKING SNOWED IN FLORIDA TODAY! What the hell is up with that, right?

For Those About To Rock...

I hope the title doesn't conjure too many images of AC/DC. That really wasn't my intent. I'm actually going to talk about the last month and a half or so. Including some music I've been listening to, but we'll get there later.

So first of all, I've had the most hectic week of my life. Maybe not my whole life. But top five, easy. We filmed our 16mm shoot. It was three twelve-hour days that started at six but I was there by five-thirty. I had probably the second easiest job on set but I was still running around like a crazy person with his head cut off. For purposes of this last simile, assume that this crazy person is half chicken. that way he can still move without his head. I was the 2nd Assistant Director, which basically means talent wrangler. I had to keep the actors happy which is a very easy job, comparatively. It was really fun. Some of the actors and a few other crew members had a nice little bonding experience over what our porn names would be. To find your porn name, it's the name of your first pet and the street you grew up on (Mine's Junker Country by the way). On the last day of shooting I got home and fell asleep for an hour. Then I fell asleep again at nine. It was nice.

On the comic front, I have half the pages from Juan. That means it's time to pay him half the money. I just need to find a western union, which despite their advertisements are surprisingly hard to find. I'm excited because it means a almost half way done with the first issue. I plan on having it on the shelves by June. But that's a different problem for a different post. I'll have something for you to look at.

Remember when I said I would talk about bands. Well, you're wait is over. You can exhale. It's no secret that I'm a nerd. The reason it's no secret is because I talk about it all the time. Well in july I started getting into Nerd Music. It's not a genre so much as it's a movement. It's people singing about things like pirates and ninjas and cats that can't spell. But it's also people using Nintendo sound cards to enhance their music. I can't believe I didn't get into it sooner. Anyway, I saw I Fight Dragons, who uses the aforementioned NES sound cards, and they were amazing. I even talked to them after the show and got them to sign a copy of their CD for me. It was cool. Other bands that rock pretty hard are Shael Riley and The Double Ice Backfire, Marc With a C, and The Protomen. None of which sound like each other. But that's the point of Nerdcore. It's a little bit of everything.

I ran out of things to talk about so I guess I'll be off. I'd also like to mention that I'm going home in eleven days. Oh sweet New Hampshire, I can almost feel your snow in my boots. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Scrubs premiered last tuesday. Watch that. I didn't realize how long this post was. Hope I don't come off as long winded. I just have a lot to say.

Best!

Cover by Rob Jones

Here's the cover. It's done by a different artist than the one who's drawing the comic proper. His name is Rob Jones and I found him on Penciljack.com, which is probably one of the best website there is for aspiring comic writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, and letterers. It how I found both the artists on my comic. I just wish that there was an easier way to pitch to publishers. All of their submission guidelines are really tough. i understand that they want to scare away anyone who doesn't really want to do this and isn't willing to put in the effort but man, some of them just sound mean-spirited. But you gotta do what you gotta do to make it in any business and the comic industry is no different.

Thank god for that little voice in my head that keeps yelling ideas at me when I try to sleep or watch TV or generally do anything. If I could turn my brain off for even a minute I would have a nice moment of quiet non-reflection. I envy the unimaginative sometimes. Only sometimes though. The rest of the times I go "Wow, I thought of that? Awesome. I'm going places." It sounds conceded but I don't believe in me how can I expect anyone else to?

Look! It's got a name!

NUCLEAR_FAMILY. That's the title of my comic. It was the title of the first arc but I didn't have a name for the series proper and decided that it needed one. Nuclear Family worked better as the first arc. It made sense because a nuclear family is defined as the immediate members of one's family. See the irony? Because they aren't related at all? And they live in a post nuclear war torn america? Either way it was clever. It's still clever. But I digress.

Here's page six. Enjoy!

Just A Quicky #1

Here's a few more pieces of background art for my comic. I think they look really cool. There's some graffiti on a car in one that says "Fuck". To me that's hilarious because people, by and large are so un-creative that they only write swears on things. I didn't tell him to draw that, by the way. It just happened. I'll be posting the updated Meredith character model later this week.

Slowly But Surely

Awhile back I got the urge to write a comic set in Post-Apocalyptic America. The idea stemmed from a thought that popped into my head: Post-Apocalyptic Private Investigator. It doesn't sound that strange right? Well think about it again. Once society ends, there are a lot of jobs that go the way of Dodo: Actors, writers, and artists to name a few. Another one is private eye. What need is there for some one to find things and follow people? None. So what if someone wanted to be a P.I? He would be the only one in the wastes. At the very least that makes it easy for me to write him and the rest of the characters being all over the place. He's just on a new case that takes him to new places. It's a fantastic plot device.

But I'm off topic. The point is that I wrote a script for this story and went looking for someone to draw it. I found someone. His name is Juan Romera and he's Argentinean. He has a great style and liked the script. He recently sent me the initial character designs (Pictured Above) and I got very excited (Keep in mind that the two characters on the outsides will have minor changes to them). So he's drawing now and soon I'll see the first pages of my comic. After that I'm going to start pitching it to different comic publishers and hopefully I'll have a book on the stands by December. Keep in mind it might not be on every stand because it's an indy book from a first time writer but there's always a way to find it. Now it just needs a name.

Recipe #1: CFS Stew

Today, I make stew. It's been a few weeks since the last time I made stew and I figured it was about time. I thought I'd give a recipe of sorts for this stew. It isn't very hard but it does take awhile. And believe you me it is worth it.

INGREDIENTS

2 Pre-cooked rotisserie chickens

2 Bags of carrots (of 10 to 15 carrots each)

1 Bag of celery

1 Bag of potatoes, you can pick the kind but I prefer the big yellow ones.

1 Clove of garlic

1 Box of Goya chicken bullion

1 Box of chicken broth

1 Medium to large pan

2 Large pots

1 Strainer

1 Long wooden spoon

PROCESS

Take 1 potato, 2 carrots, 1 celery stick, and 1 piece of garlic. Peel the carrots and potato, then cut every thing. It's important to not throw the peelings away.

Get a medium to large pan, pour in olive oil and slosh it around until it covers the pan. Now put every thing in the pan once it starts sizzling. Keep it in there until it's all brown, stirring occasionally.

Take the two rotisserie chickens and peel all the meat off. Put the bones, skin and other miscellanea in one bowl and all the useable meat in another. this should take about a half-hour.

Once all the meat is deboned, put it in the fridge, you won't need it for a while. Take all the bones, browned vegetables and peelings and throw it in a Large pot, and I mean a really big pot, along with 2 packets of chicken bullion, another piece of garlic, and 1 cup of chicken broth. Fill the pot with water up to three to four inches from the top.

Put the pot, which by now should be heavy with bones and water and such, on to the stove top. Put it on high and wait until it boils.

Once it does boil, stir it for a few seconds and drop the heat until medium.

This is the longest part. Let it boil on medium for about three hours, stirring every twenty minutes or so. Add in what ever you think it needs. I usually drop in some salt, garlic powder, and more chicken bullion every now and then. If there's one thing I learned from my dad about cooking it's not to worry about exact proportions and time, just feel it out. But not literally because, hey, boiling.

About an hour and a half into cooking, start peeling potatoes, and carrots. Cut the carrots, potatoes, and celery into good sized pieces.

Once those three hours are up take it off the heat. Put another big pot, this one doesn't have to be quite as big as the other, in the sink. Put a strainer in the pot. Now carefully pour the contents of the Big big pot through the strainer into the smaller big pot. Once all the broth is out throw the bones and such away, you won't be needing it anymore. Make sure the strainer is one of those wire-y ones or else bones might slip through.

Pour the broth back into the Big big pot, after making sure that there are no bones or other ephemera in said pot.

Dump all of the chicken and vegetables into the pot with the broth. I usually put another piece of garlic in with it but that's just a personal preference. I also put 1 packet of chicken bullion and 1 more cup of chicken broth in there with a cup or two of water, to give it more broth.

Put it back on the stove on high. When it boils, drop it to medium again. Stir it every ten minutes or so. Let it sit on medium for an hour.

After the hour is up, it's ready to eat. But caution! it will be boiling lava hot. I usually let it sit for five to ten minutes. When it cools off a little there will be a film over the top of it. this part is delicious, just so you know.

And there you have it, CFS Stew. What does the "CFS" stand for you ask? That's simple: Chock Fulla S#!+. It's aptly named because it is full to the brim with chicken and veggies. I was sick of getting stew that was basically broth and you had go on a scavenger hunt for the good stuff. that's why I put so much in it. Enjoy it with your friends and family. It'll feed a bunch of people. I hope you like it.

Best!