Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Writer-Artists-Author Exercise: "Pick An Illustration, Add Words...

Okay. Here goes. Here's an illustrated short story, using newer artwork of mine....

THE CATACOMBS:


Wielding my blade, I felt ready for any obstacle. Any obstacle, that wasn't this.



Eventually, I made my way to the catacombs. I'd heard about this place, but had never actually seen it up close, or at all really. These places were famous for their deadly traps and nasty dead ends, or so the ancient legend in the data-sphere goes. But we all know better than to believe what we read online, right?

As I wandered about the various corridors, I could hear the echoes of my footsteps ricochet through the dusty, sand covered air. If you were a pharaoh, this would be your tomb. Good thing I'm not a pharaoh.  

Comics? Web comics? OEL Maga? International-World Manga? What is it???!!!

Anyway, I've been pretty busy drawing some comics in the last 12 or so months. Here's my manga and sequential art portfolio (well, a lot of it anyway) as it stands.

-BTW, 

from now on, if I do publish my own manga online, it will be here, on my blog, so check back for more updates with each passing month or so. I tend to do a few comics pages a month, but I'm aiming for more by the next 2-7 years. Trying to work on a schedule plan for producing new comics in the future. I know some of these are sloppy, but my philosophy is what you produce isn't as important as the fact that you CONTINUE producing and keep at it each week, if not every day. 

Now before you go HATIN' ON ME ALL OVER THE DEVIANTART or WHATEVER it is you kids do nowadays, keep in mind, I'm not emphasizing pure drafting ability here. I'm emphasizing storytelling. Truth be told I can dream up and poop out shit that looks 5,000 times PRETTIER than some of this if I really wanted to and was doing individual illustrations and designs

Lest we forget, I'm the guy who drew THIS:


As I was saying, drafting ability isn't as important as working hard at your storytelling and sequential art abilities. I could do a million of that noir type thing, but I realized, it's not about how pretty your drawings look all the time. It's about sequential art and VISUAL NARRATIVES. And drawing illustrations is NOT the same skill as drawing comics pages, as I quickly found out upon attempting that very thing hundreds of time in my offline pen and pencil archives. Many artists online are the best illustrators and Photoshop users IN THE WORLD, but when you get to see them attempt drawing actual comics and sequential art, (you know, 2 to 3 panels or more) they're no better than people like me. BUT it's important to realize, it's important to at least TRY. 

So without further ado, more recent comics pages...




















Hmmmm.....


Doesn't look too bad. I'm fairly happy with it.

Okay, I'm convinced. I guess I WON'T be retiring from the comics industry forever after all.


Monday, January 28, 2013

I Really Don't Know If It's Me Or My Generation That's The Problem. Sometimes I Worry, like a Mother, About Family

Sometimes I feel concerned about my nephew and niece. I worry about my brother, and if he can handle the responsibility of parent hood at such a young age, and in the long run. Actually, it's not that young of an age, but it's still young by my parent's standards.

I feel bad for my nephew and niece, knowing I'm not the same likable kind of Uncle my own Uncles were growing up. I don't devote the same kind of time my uncle devoted to me. Part of it is my brother creates a cold, distant aura around his own family. It MAKES IT hard to get involved. I feel a bit sorry for that family.

But never mind me complaining. Enough about my problems. Let's get back to talking bout anime! Yeah!!

Top Collectors Items (IMO)

1) Comic Book Floppy Issues
2) Trades of Comic Book Floppy Issues
3) Saturday Morning TV American, French, and Japanese Animated Series from 1982-2005)
4) 16 and 8 Bit Video Game Boxes and Cartridges
5) Back issues of Old, Then Popular Magazines (Anime Insider, Gamepro, Nintendo Power, Wizard)
6) Classic Computer Video Games
7) Classic Pulp Literature
8) Episodes of Classic 90s and 80s and 2000s TV Shows That Aired in France/Japan (Code Lyoko, Martin Mystery, Oban Star-Racers, Totally Spies, Anything by Marathon)

Old Pirated Shows....

I spend a LOT of time looking for pirated DVDs of shows that were broadcast during and cancelled during, the 90s, 80s, and first decade of the 2000s (Everything from Duckman, to Juniper Lee, to Doctor Kats, to Swat Katz)....PURELY because I'm a huge fan of them and am in desperate need of something of superior quality to watch...that isn't anime of course. There may be a lot of unlicensed anime out there, but at least it's available in SOME form to watch online. The same principle does not apply to Retro Nostalgia American Animated Animation.

Not trying to pull ANYTHING really, I just like really old shows from the high point of TV productivity.

MINE MINE MINE!!!!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Here's Every Art Book I've Ever Owned by Someone Else....

Here's my first cover I'm going to show: The cover of an art book a promising new star on the Franco-Japanese art scene (up there with Thomas Romain). Raynart Tradnor. Famous for his or her DeviantART account. I bought this book from his or her Lulu store. Raynart, apart from being incredibly talented at art and storytelling, is a very kind person in real life too.


Now onto all the others....In No Preferential Order, I can't emphasize that ENOUGH.














Every last one of these is an art book classic by art book standards. 

That is exactly why I... 

COLLECT THEM ALL!



The Dream - "Popularity"


I had a dream a famous friend of mine went postal and on a rampage downtown in Downtown Orlando, and began spraying bullets everywhere, mass chaos ensued, people were dying and panicking and running amuck in the streets, and as it turned out, as small as I felt compared to the gunman, I was the only one who could communicate with him without getting killed. At first I hid from the monster like everyone around me, then I decided to get involved, which made my father mad at me. "Don't go out there, Joe!!!! YOU'LL GET YOURSELF KILLED, I FORBID YOU FROM  JOINING THEM. GET BACK HERE!!!" my father shouted. "I have to stop him" I told him angrily, "I'm the only one who can, if I don't we're all gonna die. I CAN'T AFFORD to listen to you." So I did, and gathered all my courage to walk up to the monster/gunman/giant terrifying thing. And so we had a talk. He never fired any bullets when I was talking to him, and he just sort of stopped. Then the giant screaming happy crowd was cheering for me and carrying me away. Then the news came on. "And so", the newscaster Walter Cronkite-type of guy said, "In a surprise turn of events, the convention in Orlando Florida was the only one  that didn't lose money and earned more than 10 million dollars in profit....

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Reasons why I'm scared of working for CN, Adult Swim, Williams Street, and Production I.G.

Why would I not want to work for them, you ask?

I DON'T want to work for them.

Unlike Disney Feature, Pixar, and the old MTV and Nickelodeon animation studios....Running THOSE billion dollar studios "Operations" (IG, CN, and AS) is run more like a military or  government INTELLIGENCE ORGANIZATION than it is like running an actual animation studio. Animation is secondary to them. Spying, corrupted and abused power, and intimidation come first.They care way more about being threatening and powerful than they do about being a REAL actual animation studio.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Heh-heh-heh, Butt-Head's "Important", Heh-heh-heh

Uh-huh-huh-huh. Head. Uh-huh-huh," I've got a head" I "matter" uh-huh-huh-huh.

The Internet is Changing the Game and Face of Both Publishing and Self-Publishing Forever....

It's changing the general nature, structure, and direction of the multimedia publishing market.

But is it for the better?

It happens to the best of us...Crimes Against Cool Humanity Happen


We rebellious counter culture all fear the day when it happens. The day when suddenly every moron in your class knows what the hell kind of stuff your into due to a changing industry and society. For instance, how suddenly, one cursed day in modern history, by some unlucky streak of bad luck, the uncoolest, most obnoxious annoying whore bitch slut GIRL in your class suddenly discovers your hobbies. It's a true horror story. Suddenly, the classroom sluts become aware of all the precious underground shit you used to actually like, BEFORE the classroom slut became a fan of it, too? Suddenly, one day the classroom slut knows what metal music and Jhonen Vasquez is. Fucking horrific how much that ruins things! It's the ultimate horror story: The uncool ones suddenly one day "discover" and therefore ruin all that stuff you like that used to actually be cool. Thanks, fuckin DeviantART! You ruined all my favorite fucking shit!

Friday, January 18, 2013

We're so proud of you.....

We love you, son. And as long as you continue to fit the characteristics of a racist stereotype in our eyes and on a statistical level (not being famous, not being wealthy, being unemployed, strugglign, not driving, not owning your own home,  and not dating), and continue to live with us in a place that was Formerly dominated by the KKK (Florida, the South) we will continue to not disown you as parents. Fair enough, right?

Know your place....boy.

Gee, thanks, pops!

And Counting!

2,000 Journal Pages. 1,111 blog entries. 8,274 tweets. Thousands of ASMB Board posts. And counting!

Further Discussion of Dual Hemisphere Access.....

As a writer-artist, I've mastered both sides of my brain. The only thing I HAVEN'T figured out is how to Integrate and Unite Both Sides of The Brain....

In other words, not JUST creating art and images, and not JUST creating writing and art, but identifying and producing work that represents BOTH AT THE SAME TIME. Magazines, comics, TV, film, books. Anything that uses words and pictures simultaneously. 

Then I "Invented" an exercise that integrates both hemispheres in one exercise. Simply go the "caption writing" route. Pick an image of any sort, real or imagined, and write a story or narrative about it. Make a story or book about it, or make it a chapter IN a book. Most people think in terms of Left OR Right, not Left-AND-Right. 

This is a great exercise if you're a comic book creator, as you have to think like a filmmaker, in both a literary and visual-artistic sense, with both Content AND Form. 

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Depression and the whole Bipolar thing

Sometimes I forget I don't need to be "happy all the time", and that sometimes you will be too depressed not to be bored all day. TV and the internet can increase depression, depending on the person and what they're looking at...

You know me, I'm INCREDIBLY PRODUCTIVE at writing and art

When I'm not INCREDIBLY depressed, that is....depression and all that.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Everyone Else

You know, sometimes I get so caught up in the details of how I live that I forget to consider how everyone else lives. Recently I've begun to wonder just that....How do other people spend their time. How do all you other people live.

Ever since I stopped going to college, and ended up unemployed...And a recluse, my SENSE OF TIME....

Ever since that, my sense of time's been all dun fucked up. I'm at home when most people are at school (kids) and work (adults) all day. So I have no idea where everybody is. My neighborhood is a ghost town.

Kind of eerie how it seems like everyone's disappeared in the middle of the day. Then I remember: Other people have lives, which is apparently something I don't have. 

"Weapon of Choice" - A Short Story, Starring Jim


The Accident

The gunshot pierced the dark midnight air, echoing throughout the deserted streets. Jim lowered his gun as heat and smoke bellowed from its gray barrel.

Well, that takes care of that, Jim said confidently.

About 40 feet away rested the car with the cracked, shattered, bullet ridden, blood-stained passenger window. Don rested, slumped over the steering wheel with a bullet hole wound gaping down the side of his skull.

He definitely seems dead, Jim thought, walking away from the wreckage of the car crash Jim left Don with upon shooting him.

Jim proceeded to tuck the beretta into his belt and draped his flannel shirt over it as he began walking away from the dead body in the wreckage, as smoke and flames began consuming the blue Volvo.

The End

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Now That I've Gotten a Bit of Sleep, I've Realized Something...I'm Not Happy....

I'm not happy....Unless I'm working and  busy. 

As a matter of fact, having other people around me or not, I'm NEVER HAPPY...UNLESS I'm multitasking and doing 10 different things, working on 10 DIFFERENT PROJECTS, in 10 DIFFERENT MEDIUMS, In 8 DIFFERENT MEDIA AND GENRES AT ONCE.

A lot of the hard work I do will never be seen by anyone and will collect dust on a shelf in my house or in media obscurity, on the internet in a folder or database somewhere. 

But I like it that way, I wouldn't have it any other way. Sure I'm a very obscure little creative man with an obscure creative vision. But I''m happy being active. I don't know if I'd have this kind of freedom to work on so many different things if I had 4 million fans and was making 10 million a year, or however most people define success in media. 

I like the multitasking, and I like the diversity and variety in the work and in the people I get to deal with. No one or hardly anyone appreciates the fact that I wear 20 different hats on 20 different websites every other day. But I'm perfectly okay with this thankless, egoless kind of work for now. It makes me happy as long as I get to be busy and work on something somewhere, even if its in solitude half the time. I don't have many friends, but my work keeps me company. 

I'll admit....

Not everything I endorse survives. I once spoke out in favor of the Evangelion Live Action project, but it got mired in lawsuite complications among the anime companies responsible for the anime its based on.

AnimeTV kind of lost its way and never became a regular TV show, even though it was designed  that way.

There are other things I've been associated with that didn't stay in one piece.

Not everything I approve WORKS. I'll admit that much. But some of it does work.

Where am I going with this. Ah yes. No one is right ALL THE TIME...

Because of my own comic project's complications, some people in the Hollywood PR circuit attempted to brand me as some kind of odd "Action and Science-Fantasy Development Hell Dude" or some other such nonsense, which I find kind of odd. I'm the guy all the producers think of first when some studio gets stuck with this or that "ambitious project that ends up in development hell", whether it's John Carter, Robopocalypse, Spawn the Animation, or Evangelion Live Action to name some" Certain people in Hollywood automatically go "Oh, it must be another "Joe project". Can it! We're not funding it or greenlighting it. Nothing that guy does works"

No comment on that whole thing....

New DeviantART Account

I took a break from DeviantART for a while, but I've done more artwork since my last 2 accounts there a few years later. So I started a new account there:

http://retroneojay.deviantart.com/

Monday, January 14, 2013

I Think I May Be Working Too Hard...

I accomplished the following things in under 2 days....
  • ·       Drew 44 pages of drawings in 2 days.
  • ·       Developed New Back/Mid/Foreground Composition technique
  • ·       Launched Kickstarter Project on Imaginomicon II
Yet I still felt dissatisfied, still felt incomplete like there wasn't any closure. STILL felt like I wasn't doing enough. Even when I do a lot of work, my high energy levels still make me feel restless and dissatisfied. Maybe even depressed. Reading Animation Magazine cheered me up a little.

Depression sucks.

In Comics, Novels, Film, and Animation for TV and Film....

One great way to get a leg up on the competition is to self-produce everything. Instead of waiting around for some producer you don't know at a studio that's never worked with you before, create your own short film on your computer, using Wacom Tablets and Adobe Flash. In Canada nowadays, nearly all animation is Flash or CGI. And while the design quality itself is poor, shows like Motorcity prove there's a lot of room for  aesthetic improvement in these areas. And animators like Don Bluth and Bill Plympton can give plenty of examples of one man independent films.

Just do as much of the work as you can yourself, using paper, pencils, pens, paint, Wacom Tablets, Photoshop, FLASH, and general computer animation and illustration software. You'll have to do something very similar to that in college if you attend art school (making a short film to graduate) anyway, so you may as well do it of your own initiative, instead of waiting around for the stress pressure of some teacher scolding you over being late on a project. 

Drawing Manga

Manga created by Foreigners, particularly American Foreigners (as opposed to Korean, Chinese, or French Foreigners) has always been controversial in Japan and even in America itself, oddly enough.....

That's why you gotta bring your A-Game and be on your best behavior. 

People of my generation (Somewhere right between Generations Y and X I think) the Boomerang generation, are setting a historic example in cartooning that could potentially be imitated and followed by future generations for many years to come. It's nice to have things become a little more normal. Was getting hard to work on my projects a few years back...

I can't help but ask though...ARE my comics being judged on their merits and art and writing alone, or are they being judged by my behavior, lifestyle, nationality, ethnicity and other geographic, social, and cultural elements, superficial career elements that really have nothing to do with the actual work itself.

If you want to draw manga in America, you must have faith in your ability to work hard and set a high standard of design. It's not realistic to expect praise, congratulation, or re-assurance when your drawing manga in America. People will automatically  be critical of you and your style and criticize you by association alone.

Will American manga be accepted in Japan? No one, fan, professional, artist or publisher of ANY sort has enough history or experience behind them to know the answer to that question. The industry is brand new, and right now it's mostly a bunch of young kids that A) Want to draw comics really well and B) Want some form of reassurance or acceptance from either Japanese culture or the fan community. But no one's really going to know if there's a sustainable OEL industry until years down the road. Most artists take to the internet. The truth about manga in America is, most of the people who WANT to see it are the young artists like myself who make various attempts at DRAWING it themselves. It's like indie comics, the audience can be found in the people who produce the art themselves. That's how Osamu Tezuka and GAINAX started in Japan. They wanted more animation from Japan, so they drew it themselves and eventually the audience DID catch up to it, but not until years later.

My advice to new and young artists. Stop worrying about your popularity or whether you'll be successful enough, and use that energy of desire, and put it into action, the action of developing your own style and your own comics pages. I'm no different than any other manga artist. I know if I don't draw it myself, there's no guarantee anyone else is going to bother drawing it at all, let alone in exactly the same way.

You can't just focus on Japanese publishing. If you live in America, you're competing in the American market, whether you want to admit it or not. 80% of the time you're REAL market is defined by the country and state you live in, like it or not. You don't need or have to view yourself as a "prisoner of the American market". You can always move once you make enough money to do so, but just because you live in Texas doesn't mean you're doomed to never succeed in manga or anime. Hell, think about it, if you live in Texas, FUNimation itself is probably a couple blocks down from you. Why not ask for a tour, why not show your manga to FUNimation if you live in Texas? Just because they don't make manga doesn't mean they don't appreciate it. Same thing with Atlanta and Cartoon Network. Think locally in terms of the resources of your career, build something in your house at your drawing desk or computer locally with friends and family as a test audience, THEN promote and branch out nationally, maybe internationally. Japan may be HUGE in America now, but where exactly do you think it had to prove and test its metal first. In Japan and Tokyo of course. The Japanese artists knew they had a special style, but thought locally, and the world eventually sought THEM out...It all starts with your drawing chops in and of itself. You have to be honest with your SELF about the quality level of your very OWN drawing chops before you start competing with ANY thing really.

If you want to draw manga, but are not Japanese or American, it is okay to emulate the style of your favorite Japanese or Asian artists. But don't just limit yourself to Japan, copy any decent art style, from Romanticism to science fiction. Don't be a carbon copy of your favorite artist(s). Use manga and other forms of art to draw inspiration from. You can't use other people's projects as your own,  but it's okay to copy your favorite drawings. I call that Master studies. When I was studying fine art and life drawing in local art classes, one of the homework assignment was Master Studies. Pick a famous artwork from an Italian or French Renaissance master and copy it. Copy is okay, as long as it ends up building your skills to eventually develop and produce form and structure for your own ideas. In Japan, every artist almost starts off drawing Doujinshi studying manga and anime DVD frame pauses to get good, and many become original enough to land their own series. Often artists don't start off original, they END UP ORIGINAL and unique after time spent honing their own style. Imitate until you're able to originate, "OC" ("original characters" and whatnot.)

And just because your white or American or "just" half Chinese or whatever failure excuse you want to give yourself to not at least attempt to draw comics doesn't mean you won't make connections in the long run. France is in fact a very Western country, but the top French Cartoonist, Moebius, was friends with all the top Japanese manga-ka of Japan, and had a precious relationship with all the Major pioneer of Japanese manga. Katsuhiro Otomo, Hayao Miyazaki, Osamu Tezuka. He was friends and colleagues with all of them. They LEARNED from each other. The influence did not go in one direction. It NEVER has. and it STILL doesn't. It just SEEMS that way. And honestly, I don't see  this kind of relationship changing. Top Artists of America often end up making connections with the Top Artists of Japan and Asia. Whether its John Lasseter and Miyazaki or John Woo and Tarantino. The appreciation should and always has been mutual between North America, France, and Asia. Birds of a feather and all that.

-JM

Sunday, January 13, 2013

How to be an Adult: When your Sleeping in a King Size Bed With Another Man....

Only cuddle if HE wants to. Don't do anything I WOULDN'T DO! In the arms of another man. Hah hah hah hah hah!!! Heh heh!

STORY(board) TIME! [Kids: YAAAAAAY!!!!!!]

Mr. Oliver the Boy Sorcerer HIMSELF! HURRAY!!!!!! Vs. Some kind of Bird....man....THING. Heh.

Soundtrack by: Rudy Coby and The Aquabats! Every song. Every Goddam song in the whole bullet proof goddam arsenal.

FINALLY....I Did It. FINALLY, I DID IT!!!

I actually somehow figured out how to successful draw a background-based landscape composition. And how I'm going to draw a lot of the Post-Apocalyptic Landscape in my black and white comic book. Took some experimental sketches, but now I'm finally understanding how to draw fuller, richer, more three-dimensional compositions and panels. If you actually truly WORK at it (and I'm talking about REAL work, not just dabbling), it ISN'T super hard to figure out. I'm happy. Now I can continue on my mission.

Ah, I'm good, I'm good.

Got suckerpunched in the face by Mike Tyson, repeatedly, 500 times over. That's okay, walk it off. Is that really your best shot? That's pretty sad actually.

Seriously though, when I was 7 or 6 years old, I really did want to be a professional boxer. That's the only sport I ever really aspired to in real life when I was young. I never did know when to back down in school. If someone insulted me, I'd just fight them. Not that hard to do. We didn't hide behind our little websites like a bunch of FUCKING PUSSIES back in my day!

Saturday, January 12, 2013

I'm glad I'm not Cartoon Network right now....

Hounded relentlessly by millions of fans to play and air a type of animation that does nothing but make you LOSE money.

Family Guy still sucks donkey dick though.

America = Money but no resources to attain good animation.

Japan = Good animation but no resources to attain money.

It's a  vicious cycle in all honesty.

The two markets have ended up specializing in their own niches so much, they've screwed each other over.

You'd think each one could learn from the other's cultural and economic shortcomings and mistakes.

And yet they never do. They're complacent with their selves. And that's fucking ANNOYING.

Reached the Half-Million Views Mark on My YouTube Channel Today....

Awwwwwww yeeeeeeeeaaaahhhhhh............SplitAtomBoom

Somewhere around 100-300 views or more a day by now...

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

That's What Happens....

When you don't really have to answer to anyone and ARE YOUR OWN boss for a while. But with no accountability, from anyone. Power isn't always good.

Being one of the most powerful people in the world can create it's share of "ugly manifestations". That's the part no one warns you about. There's nothing, no one to keep you grounded when you're more powerful than your peers. They often invent creative ways of displaying their blatant envy and resentment of me. Big surprise.

You REALLY SHOULDN'T just surround yourself with neutral ass kissers who only want to tell you how sexy and amazing you are. If you do something that foolish, you'll probably eventually go psychotic. And people will actually still treat you like it's business as usual...BECAUSE THEY'RE TOO STUPID TO REALIZE WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON!

The media encourages psychotic behavior, it rewards it. It doesn't neutralize it. 

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

If you like being chastised and criticized

Talk to me anytime....Ahhh. I'm half kidding.

But seriously, friends, if anyone were ever to be as heavily criticized as me, it would be people who are associated with me. I can take that heat, but I just wish I had a better way of warning my online and offline friends about this hazard zone...I love making friends. But it's not always easy to say "associate with me, and they'll proceed to direct that negativity at you too." And yet it is so. Price of fame I guess.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Chillaxing Wit Mah Homegirl, Stonergoth187

Me and my homegirl stonergoth187 groove together like peanut butter and chocolate.

Yeah, she's hot for a science girl.

She blinded me with Science. SCIENCE!

I hate to tell you people this, but sometime, around a Decade ago, either during the late 90s or first 2 years of the 2001, America's Success made people FORGET ABOUT GOD...

I think we all know what happened after that...

And frankly, due to this countries economic and financial success in the past and all the karmic sins people have commited WITHOUT EVEN GIVING IT A SECOND THOUGHT...America has become one of the most Spiritually Defenseless Countries In the Entire World. America's power, excess, and financial success in the 90s led to Blatant Corruption and Destruction of Morals and Ethics ALL THROUGHOUT the first decade of the 2000s.

If America had better spiritual values, it would indeed be better spiritually protected. A secular, scientific world "WITHOUT GOD" is not necessarily a safe or ethical world. Just a smart and dangerous one.

For The REAL Secret to a Truly Harmonious and Peaceful World and Culture, see "The Maharishi Effect"
for more details. 

Friday, January 4, 2013

It's Not Easy Being A Modern Day Tech Builder And Titan...

Then again, no body said it was impossible either...

New Wars Emerging: The 2000s And the Popularization and Mainstreamization of Crime, Criminal Activity, and Crime Stories

My parents refuse to address issues like this in their speech. Fortunately, I've got the fortitude to go there.

Of course, it's a self-perpetuating thing. Sexual and Violent Crime are still Sexual and Violent Crime.

Branding crime as counterculture is still branding of crime as counterculture.

Shit is still shit, even if we want to dress it up in a wedding gown.

Orlando Tech Division? Indeed It Is!

Yeah, I thought something FUNNY was going on.

According to a recent Tech-Friendly City Ranking in The Houston Chronicle, Orlando (the city I live in) is considered one of the very top up and coming hubs of the National Tech World, a playground for engineers, programmers, and small businesses.

That's odd in some ways, because if that's the case, National Newspapers like the Houston Chronicle are acknowledging Florida's tech scene (which does exist) a hell of a lot more than Florida and Orlando itself does. As anyone who's lived in Florida for years now like myself can attest, local papers and TV networks are run by barbarians who only want to write crime and punishment stories. Not a good look for Florida, local JOURNALISTS. Clearly Florida would be better off if it started more of its own local Tech Papers and Trade Publications.

Hell man, I'd read that. But traditional local news only focuses on Crime Stories, almost like that's all Florida really wants to sell to the world is Crime and Disorder. The Orlando Sentinel above all other papers is the MOST guilty of this problem. Crime crime and MORE crime. COME TO DISNEYWORLD, COME TO DISNEY WORLD! CRIME! AH CHA CHA CHA CHA!

Essentially, what I'm saying is, when you only report on crime and punishment and disorder, that BECOMES your brand. A lot of crime HAS happened in Florida, and because Florida advertises and reports on crime so heavily, it's unintentionally made that appear as part of "Florida's Brand". L.A.'s got tons of crime too, but it's got so much media power, crime gets outbranded by technology and glamour. L.A.'s got a positive brand to fall back on. Florida has had that in the past, but it lost a lot of it when it branded it's own local crime activity. That's got to  be one of the main mistakes I've seen my hometown make. They say "What we think about, we bring about." But it's also, what stories we report, we bring about just as much as what we think about. 

1 Million Dominated by the 1% Theory

There's a saying, or at least there is now, that the detriment or well being of those in charge affects the well being of all. 

If the lives of a Nation and World's Most Powerful and Influential People are in Balance, we'll see peace and genuine harmony in the atmosphere everywhere.

If those lives and activities of the world's most powerful and influential people are out of balance or chaotic, it disrupts, depresses, destroys, and slows down everything and causes disharmonious chaos everywhere.

Whoever's at the center of  the universe affects the BALANCE of the Universe. Chi Energy makes this possible. 

Thursday, January 3, 2013

"Lineage"

There are no other major artistic or literary or media figures in my family. Well, other than me of course I guess.

Health Issues and Lifestyle Choices

While I am perceived by many people as a regular guy, in a way I can only wish that were true.

Manic-Depression and Asperger's sees to it for all I know, I might never find a way to find steady employment or live on my own. It's not a pleasant fate, socially and economically speaking. Mental illness makes it hard to exist outside your family's home.

I might never own my own car, home, or ever get married, or any hallmarks of adulthood.

Kind of sucks. When you have a disability, it's like God himself wants to force you to just sit on your ass, watching OTHER people live their lives, while he forces you to watch days go buy and do nothing, all while every day looks the same.

There's no job that completely fits with my skill set. 

I'm NOT quitting on trying to break into animation.....

But the industry is slow and hyper volatile and competitive right now, and many of the only people still working a jerks. So until I finish a bit more practice and training and sharpen my skills a bit, catch up on old projects, if at all, I'm on hiatus from pursuing work in animation.

Secrets of Digital Software and Hardware Design...

If you want to be an inventor like me, one secret I've learned is, inventing isn't just about source code, science formulas, electricity, and mathematics.

It's also about function, design, structural organization, and creativity and re-arrangement.

That's where I come in.

You don't have to make devices out of nothing. The first Home PC was built by Steve Wozniak by doing nothing more than primarily just cross-wiring a TV and keyboard, with a little programming and hacking to connect the two.

A lot of new technology is and can be conceptualized by creative methods of tweaking, integrating, combining, cross-wiring, and cross purposing various market versions of PC and Home Electronics hardware and software. The key is getting the inspirations for functions, NOT formulas.

-J.M.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Making An Animated Film


Walt Disney, Windsor McCay, Osamu Tezuka, Tim Burton, Mike Judge, Peter Chung, Genndy Tartakovsky, Jhonen Vasquez, Savin Yeatman-Eiffel. All these filmmakers and more got into animation the same way, and this is one of the best ways to break into animation.

PRODUCE YOUR OWN SHORT FILM OR FILMS

You can go to art school, or base your knowledge on art lessons you had at a young age. As long as you know the fundamentals of writing and drawing, and the fundamentals of the animation production process. Find 1 to 2 or more reliable collaborators, and get to work on writing, designing, boarding, animating, and filming your own short films. Save up some money if you have to.  Beg your friends and associates to help you. Do whatever you have to do to make it happen, whether it's animated by Flash or ink and paint.
And technically, that's kind of where I am. Right at the point where I've decided I want to make my own films eventually, from scratch. 

Staying Healthy

Ever since I "got discovered" (allegedly), I've been neglecting the HELL out of my exercise training and Transcendental Meditation sessions. I'm not a big fan of having a heart attack at 47, so I have my reasons for doing these kinds of things.

The Most Original Artist In The World

I AM THE MOST NEW AND INNOVATIVE ARTIST IN THE WO-OR-ORLD!

I WAS BORN, TO DOMINATE THE FIELD.

I AM THE MOST NEW AND ORIGINAL IN THE WO-OR-ORLD

I WAS BORN TO PIONEER THE FIELD

INNOVATION RUNS THROUGH MY BLOODSTRE-HE-HEAM

EVERYTHING I DO IS THE NEWEST OF THE NEW

I can't help it if I like NEW, INNOVATIVE, and ORIGINAL things

Even DeviantART, which has new uploads every other second is filled with cliches and clones of work by more original more new-style artists.

When I sit down to draw, I'm not producing cliches. I was shocked when I learned I was one of the only people in mainstream media who always produces something, either writing or art design, that's genuinely new. Anime is pretty, but a lot of it is cliche or just fanart of pre-existing shit. 

The Advantage over competition I DO HAVE...

I may not be trying "enough", but fortunately for me, one advantage I do have (maybe the only one) is that everyone else isn't even trying at ALL!

At least I'm putting in my best effort most of the time.

I try, meanwhile, no one else tries or even  bothers with art, writing, storytelling, and design.

I'll always have more motivation / initiative than the next guy/gal.