The Mighty J.M.

I feel like my strength in general has been at an all time high in the last week, including today and yesterday. I was so caught up in my feelings of inner and outer power, it was like the internet didn't even exist in that moment, and normally the internet is a very potent presence in my life. Not lately though.

Shitloads of Shit...

I've done a shitload of shit lately. I've done a lot of layout pages. The art sucks, but they are layouts. Not saying how many I've drawn. Hows a couple sound to you?

Also, some scripts have been written, which are turning out different than my actual comics.

Oh well, chalk it up to "spec.ulative work".

I think I try too hard. I'm exhausted. Dead giveaway.

Weekdays are a torturous spectacle. A real torturous event. So much mediocrity in my daily life.

TV gets too mindless with the filler shows half the time. It's driving me fucking crazy, this daytime tv shit. I want to go fucking postal while projectile vomiting on my driveway. Just pure, real shit during the day. I fucking HATE it!!!! I need to draw comics to keep sane. I live for mornings, overnights, and saturdays. Not sundays though. I think God hates me anyway, considering how much mortal beings do.

The Beast

Apparently, The Devil is angry that he apparently knows noting about you...He "isn't happy"

SATAN: "You mean you don't spend your entire life online??? I'm dissapointed in you"

Well, I suppose we could always play the "see who takes teh longest to draw NO SHIT AT ALL" game...

Oh wait, that's just you.

Me, I actually like to update my sites, personally.

Commentary

So, it's been said a time or twelve that all people really want in life is "vindication". Well, if we're talking about publishing, I haven't felt lacking in the vindication area for a long time now.

I don't really require anyone to justify or vindicate my art, writing, or publishing career. I'm already published many times over.

I've published 7 comic books of various sorts

& 8 regular books, both hardcover and paperback.

I'm actually becoming sort of a prolific underground writer. Why would I need vindication in this area? Because YOU tell me I should? I'm plenty happy with my publishing output, and I'm kind of just getting started. I have 1,000s of pages of unpublished art and writing as well. That's more than enough to keep me busy over the next 20 to 30 years now that I think about it.

I like self-publishing as a hobby, but I'd like to also take it more seriously as the years progress.

-J.M.-

Sketch of th Moment: Drawn Today...

Animation Writing: Know Your History. Why Windsor McCay is STILL important, and always will be...

Windsor McCay is my newly discovered personal animation-comics hero. He’s inspired and/or influenced nearly every major player ever to make modern or classic animation, I’ll get into his career story in a minute. First, his achievement/invention: Animation: Making drawings move on camera and on screen. He was the first traditional animator ever. He invented the category of animator IN GENERAL, even earlier than Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. He was animating before there was ever a studio to animate in! He influenced such artists as Walt Disney, the Fleischer studios, Chuck Jones, Osamu Tezuka, Moebius, Katsuhiro Otomo, Shamus Culhane, Maurice Sendak, Bill Watterson, and anyone who’s ever made experimental, traditional, or modern studio or independent animation. Anyone who’s ever animated a drawing owes something to Windsor McCay. If you animate or produce or make animation for a hobby or living, you’re borrowing from Windsor McCay. He invented the medium: Animation, and was well aware of his own greatness in relation to history. He predicted animation would rival or surpass traditional fine art one day, and (financially, and popularity wise at least), it did. To say nothing of Pixar, Toei, Viz, Funimation, Tokyopop, Production I.G., Walt Disney Feature and Television Animation Studios, Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, MTV Animation, Adult Swim, and LucasFilm. All today’s major players in animation owe him everything. I’ve got a lot left to write about Windsor McCay. He’s one of the most successful artist-writers, animators, storytellers, cartoonists. It’s hard to fathom that kind of influence. That’s Bill Gates or Henry Ford level influence. McCay created such classics as Gertie The Dinosaur and Little Nemo in Slumberland, which was more comic than animation really.

-J.M.-

Wikipedia: One of the Greatest Infotainment, Academic, and Information Circulation Contributions and Inventions of the Early 21st Century

Wikipedia is one of my all time favorite sites. It's revolutionized the way people take in information and knowledge, and has made a significant contribution to humanity's education, awareness, and edification that will last for the next hundred years and more. Wikipedia has left the world with a great online educational legacy of information.

If you want to learn something new every day, research information and facts and stories on Wikipedia. As a writer and reader, you'll never run out of new material!

Great site. Truly great site. Up there with Google, Twitter, and YouTube, in terms of comprehensiveness. We've never seen anything quite like this website before.

Worldwide Fame

Not to brag, but...

Technically, I'm more famous not only nationally famous, but also more famous "worldwide" or internationally than a whole shitload of less popular American TV personalities, purely because I'm a famous writer-artist-creator on the internet.

I'm one of  the first people of a self-made generation of writers and artists in America with worldwide fame.

The "reason" for this international credibility and enhanced worldwide (and not just local or national) fame as a writer, commentator, and artist?

This shift from local and national issues in America to World issues in the last 10 or so years is made possible by the distribution power of the internet. In terms of international publication and distribution, the internet is more powerful, fast, influential, and impactful on international culture than even TV or film is in some instances. Traditional publishing and filmmaking has a worldwide audience, if there's a mainstream distributor, but it doesn't transmit things like what's being written by me right now) half as quickly as the internet does in the same amount of time 1,000 times over.

I like being a world famous artist and writer of the Web Generation of New Creative Talent 2.0. I'm the MAN in Asia, Europe, and South America. Name ONE minor TV personality who has this kind of influence and worldwide reach and brand status I do, just by doing this (uploading, publishing, writing, and drawing)...

-J.M.-

A Sixth Sense for Innovation

I'm not trying to brag, but I have a very, very good eye for intuiting out or sniffing out true innovation. As an innovator myself, I have an innovation sixth sense about not only myself, but other things, phenomena, movements, and people. Internet articles and academic sites are great for pinpointing innovation. If someone or some ones invent, create, design, start, fund, or build something fundamental, creative, intellectual, philosophical, existential, texturally visual, for the first time, now or any time in history, I generally have a good nose for sniffing it out.

I know exactly when someone is doing something for the millionth, billionth time.

And I know exactly when someone is doing something new and inventive for the first time ever in history. This can apply to technology, entertainment, any entertainment genre or medium.

I'm drawn to innovation, and firsts. I've got a good eye for that sort of thing.

"First Mover Visionary".

-J.M.-

The Horror Genre

It's weird how controversy isn't mentioned in the Wiki page on horror film. Let's admit it right now. Horror movies are a controversial genre, and it's just as harmful emotionally, psychologically, and physically to society as rap music. Just becuase no one mentions this doesn't make it any less so.

I mean, the facts speak for themselves:

In the same way rap has fucked up kids in America, horror movies have done the exact same thing: Desensitized the mainstream media audience to violence, sociopathology, and blatant sadism, make people go out and murder and kill people, shoot people, hit people and animals with vehicles, commit suicide, sadistically torture and rape people, and mutilate people, in the same way rap music has been inspiring young retarded teenagers and young adults to do the exact same things that cause chaos. It really is too bad the horror movie genre rapes and warps young minds in America. It's not art when all your doing is throwing buckets of fake blood at the camera just to get your jollies on. There's something sadistic about the generally nature of horror movies. Something that really does warp young impressionable people's minds. And it's like they try to make as many violent acts in horror movies as imitatable as possible.

It sickens me.

Great Moments in Google Search Results!!!

I actually didn't find out about a Spawn-related video being one of the main results to show up on Google when you type in "Todd McFarlane Animation". Considering how much I've IDOLIZED MCFARLANE SINCE LATE CHILDHOOD, that is no small achievement to me. They catalogued my upload! The one about Spawn the Animated Series. It's actually the only unofficial behind the scenes videos that shows up.

Who says you can't realize your dreams with Google. Thanks Todd! For not getting too freaked out at my video tribute to your show...

I'm considering starting my own enterprise in the distant future...

I'm considering funding and operating my own American-based animation studio at some point in the coming decades. I've got an inclination to manage media-business enterprises, so I figure, why not hire a handful of talented people and start up my own operation, so I can stop sitting back and watching others live the dream, and instead carve out my own dream, years from now.

EDUCATION: Probably one of the most insightful books written about running a studio, written mostly from a producer's standpoint (which is kind of in the same league as managing a studio in many ways, in terms of the way its presented in the text) is the book Producing Animation by Catherine Winder and Zahra Dowlatabadi. From a managerial logistical standpoint, the book is cohesive, systematic, and sound, just the way I like my books. If you're interested in animation production from a managerial or logistical (i.e. 2 key elements you need to RUN a studio) it's a must read.

-J.M.-

I've got an Contemporary Animation Industry Pressing Issue I'd like to discuss...

As one of the most outspoken people IN the animation industry, I think I should remind, or at least acquaint all studios, producers, directors, writers, artists, animators, workers, fans, otaku with the following RULE. That's right, I'm issuing a rule.

HAVE RESPECT, for GOODNESS SAKE.

HAVE DECENCY AND RESPECT FOR YOUR INDUSTRY PEERS, EVEN IF YOU'RE "COMPETING" AGAINST THEM

Speak and act respectfully to your animation and comic book industry peers. No one likes a jerk or a cyberbully with a potty mouth or people who brag about so-called "scandal".

Respecting your fellow colleagues and peers demonstrates by example you have the decency to treat people right. If you go around cynical, bashing everyone, badmouthing everyone, who do you really think's going to hire you, or even WANT to work with you for that matter? If you don't have respect, you shouldn't be looking for work, because frankly, you don't deserve it. There are only so many self-proclaimed "jerks that hate everyone" (no offense to whom it may concern) who can write things that disrespectful about their peers and allegedly "get away with it". The industry has been inundated with too many bad millionaire "role models" as of late, who lead by bad example. If you can't respect you peers, shut your fucking mouth. The world will thank you.

A lot of otherwise very talented people who would be working have been driven out or away from animation because of all the negativity that's gone around in the last 12 or so years. Disrespect drives talent away.

Drawing Poses...

When you're drawing and designing fight and movement pose for the human body, in a 2-D illustrated context, on paper, there are two types of people you should think like.

When posing characters and designing / drawing their poses, you should think like

1. An Animator
2. A Hong Kong Choreographer

The human body looks best when it has flexibility, movement, dynamicism, and balance.

I've seen artists who are amazing at things like character design, who draw incredibly detailed, and yet their poses suck ass. Characters just standing or sitting around looking pretty or sexy is like food you don't get to eat. Well, they did HALF OF the work anyway. Too bad their poses are so dull.

But yes, pose design can be simple, or complex. Bending the limbs and bones of your character without "breaking" them can be a challenge, but the aesthetics of anatomy and animated or illustrated choreography are a very satisfying thing. The more flexibile a character is in motion, the more liberated we feel looking at his or her design. Poses can be beautiful or ugly, just as costumes and anatomy are...

-J.M.-

Florida Native.....

While it has waranted criticism as a state, there are good things about living in Florida too...

Need proof?

Here's something:

Famous people who have "been to Florida". People who have visited or been to Florida for a short or long amount of time, and in some cases, actually enjoyed staying here, like I do:

• Marilyn Manson
• The Dalai Lama
• Steven Spielberg
• Steve Blum (drink!)
• John Lasseter
• Dave Sim
• Todd McFarlane
• Ted Turner
• Jared Hodges
• Lindsey Cibos
• Spookychan
• Dave Barry
• Matchbox Twenty
• George Lucas

I guess I kind of get sick of the "only idiots live there" argument. I'm not an idiot. I live here.

It's the JM Strebler Drinkin' Game!!! Huzzah!!!!!

List of Words and Names I Talk About the Most

Drinking Game

[Take a drink everytime I mention one of these words]

·        Steve Blum

·        Toonami

·        Mono

·        Parallax

·        Google

·        Adult Swim

·        Dragonball Z

·        Wuxia

·        Jhonen Vasquez

·        Anime

·        Sean Akins

·        Williams Street

·        AnimeTV

-[adult swim]-

At Odds With Idealism

My ideals and my lifestyle are constantly at odds much of the time. My philosophy and aesthetic sense goes so high and visionary (I grew up a virgin, my birth father was a Trappist monk, highly devoted to the lord, and I grew up in a happy Christian middle American household, with conservative old fashioned moral values), and yet some people portray me as so stank, nasty and depraved…It doesn't at all reflect how I view my own life history. These two elements are my yin and yang. Purity and depravity. It's weird thinking about them in relation to yourself.

That's life I guess.

Directionless Style: Variety is an Anvil

I'm going to be honest, I've sampled (i.e. experimented in) a LOT of different art and writing styles during my career. It's been hard to pick 1 style and stick to it. Like P'Diddy with a sound byte, or Bill Gates with access to Steve Job's designs, I've sampled at least 15-20 different art and writing styles, from Eugene Delacroix, Edward Gorey, Frank Miller, Todd McFarlane, and Robert E. Howard, to Ken Wilber, John Woo, Quentin Tarantino, Stephen King, Trigun, Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix, Chanbara, and Wuxia, to Katsuhiro Otomo, Hiroaki Samura, Corey Senderov Jackson, and Yasuhiro Nightow.

When I sat down to make Mono Comics or "Parallax", I'd experimented with so many art and writing styles, I wasn't sure which style to go with, there were so many different looks and archetypes to choose from. In a way, I'm still choosing. Whatever style I end up using to tell my stories is going to need to have a natural vibe to it, even if that means leaving a lot of white space on my pages in the beginning.

-J.M.-

Y'know...

It really is annoying having to contend with such vicious gossip being hyped about myself on the interthreat. Why even bother focusing on my work if all people want to discuss is gossip about me and never my art? Seems kind of self defeating to me. ESPECIALLY when this is not the only thing in my life I have going on in my career. People like to gossip and start rumors about you, especially if you draw better than them apparently. When people draw like shit, and you draw like Picasso, there's bound to be some rumors people will try to perpetuate, in an effort to derail and undermine the quality of your actual art. Sad on their part really. Are they really that untalented compared to me that they don't even want to make their shit about the art itself?

Afterall. I'm a Scorpio.

You either love or hate me, you're either WITH or AGAINST me. I don't accept gray areas and middle grounds when it comes to my relationship with ANYONE really.

I don't have any friend-enemies. I fired all their asses.

Let's get one thing straight....

I don't give a shit WHO you are. You even TRY to treat me like a joke, this only assures I will never, EVER do business with you in the future. I only work with people who I respect, and if I have no respect for you, because, say, you're a pathetic loser or something, and I don't like your attitude toward me, you will NEVER be doing serious business with me. And if you already are, you never will in the future. No one "discovers" me. Like I'd ever let that happen...That's a laugh. I'm nobody's meal ticket, especially people who are DICKS.

-J.M.-

Future Publishing Strategy

I'm generally focusing on the present moment. Which is to say I'm not working on a publishing strategy just yet. Whenever I get around to producing enough work for a book, THEN I will worry about publishing on the web and in print, whether it's in bookstores or the direct market, or (god forbid) both.

-J.M.-

Minimalist Conceptual Art and Production Designers

One of the best things about production desiners, is they don't need a complex drawing just to add complexity to it in their own renditions. In Hollywood and TV, simple art sometimes makes the best production design detailing. Examples include Jhonen Vasquez (Invader Zim) and Tim Burton (Bo Welch). Neither of those guys draw all that detailed all that often. But they do have vision. A simple conceptual design drawing doesn't need to be complex to be transferred into a complex production design.

Minimalist Ukiyo-e and Tim Burton Art and their influence on my artwork

Much of the influence on my sketchbooks of Mono in particular is highly influenced by ancient Japanese pen and ink and painted prints, or "Ukiyo-e". In the same way John K takes influence from Walt Disney and Hanna-Barbera, I take influence (in terms of rhythm and composition of my poses) fom Ukiyo-e, or Japanese Prints. I'm also highly influenced in my sketchbooks by the "sloppy" artwork of Tim Burton as well. I strongly believe one can do good simple drawings ad sketches, not just complex and detailed ones. Poetic symbolism and simplicity in art can be it's own beauty (see Tim Burton's sketchbooks and Japanese Prints).

You see, since I'm drawing existential action cartoons, despite the fact that he draws comedy, and I draw drama and action, I can still manage to really appreciate what John K. has done for animation in general. He was a pioneer of he "exagerate the SHIT out of that pose!" school of TV animation, very much in the vain of Tex Avery. This CAN apply to action cartoons as well, if you ask me...

Here's an example of an exagerated pose I've made, a rough sketch. I like this one in particular.

-J.M.-

The History of Action Cartoons/Film

Action is actually a relatively new genre in film, anime, and animation. The Hollywood action movie genre itself has only historically been around since the 1970s, allegedly according to Wikipedia. Before that, it was samurai films, westerns, Hong Kong kung-fu flicks, and Acme anvils dropping on cartoon Coyote’s heads. Not many firearms and explosions and whatnot.  Like I said, I don’t do action movies. I do Existential Action. Post-Modern Action for a Post-Modern world culture.

Been a Productive Last 2 Weeks

In the last 2 or so weeks, I've managed to draw around 15 sequential art rough pages.

And then I started screenwriting, and managed to finish around 5 pages of random scripting

All for Mono Comics. I seem to alternate between finishing stacks of 1 type of page at a time.

Making Comics (For a Contemporary Society)

Oh, you know, it's just me, Jim Macabre, sitting here, typing in this blog, while I'm redefining how comics get seen, read, discovered, and made. Doing my thing. You know how it is.

Not too much going on in my life right now....

I'm paying off IOUs and saving up for legal protection of my I.P. property basically. I've been told by people a lot more experienced in the biz than myself "If you have something, protect it, because people WILL try to take it from you." And I'm certain by now...that he was right. People WILL try to steal your assets from you, assuming you actually have any...which a lot of people really don't, so I guess a lot of people don't really have anything to worry about. But I do...

Started blogging again....

What can I say. I get bored sitting around the house all day. I like writing. I need an outlet. End of story.