The Writer-Artist Revolution: Rise of the Artist-Writer

Sometimes, it can be hard to choose between writing and drawing when you do them both so well. But in some ways, you don't have to choose. Here are some notable figures who are known as both Writers AND Artists. All Pioneers in the field of storytelling in general, but also pioneers in being Writer-Artists.

• Todd McFarlane
• Jhonen Vasquez
• Dave Sim
• Bruce Timm
• Rob Schrab
• Evan Dorkin
• Ted Naifeh
• Jeff Smith
• Herge
• Moebius
• Bill Watterson
• Akira Toriyama
• Masashi Kishimoto
• Aaron McGruder
• Jim Mahfood
• Henry Darger
• Osamu Tezuka
• JK Rowling
• Marilyn Manson
• James Cameron
• Katsuhiro Otomo
• Frank Miller
• Scott McCloud
• Mike Judge
• Matt Groening
• Seth MacFarlane
• Fred Gallagher
• Les Claypool
• Masamune Shirow
• Genndy Tartakovsky
• Craig McCracken
• Peter Chung
• Tim Burton
• Butch Hartman
• John Lasseter
• Hayao Miyazaki
• Naoki Urasawa

How to Deal With Market Competition As An Animator-Cartoonist....

I'm the guy who could write the book on this topic, because frankly, more losers want to compete with me than anyone else, and it's entirely because of how well known I am. If I wasn't well known, no one would even bother to attempt competing with me, and life would be easy.

My competitors are definitely more noticeable than the competitors of my heroes. I've never even heard of them. EVERYONE knows who MY competition is. Mostly because of how much shame they lack. Apparently they all think they're justified in competing against me and ONLY me so  blatantly. Copying everything I do and whatnot, just like Apple and Microsoft.

I try not to focus on competition though. 

Today's Haul

It's True. In terms of the future, pretty much all modern media is going digital, and will be browsed, downloaded, and uploaded...

TV Shows
CDs
DVDs
Comic Books
Animation
Film
Hollywood
Anime
Novels

It's all going to be available digitally to download, upload, purchase, and store online and on your computer, (some of it for free, and some for a price) in the future.

But I suspect even though it will all be digital, one will still be able to store the data in home entertainment systems and general home electronics hardware that syncs up with all of it.

Your Ad Here

My newest art gallery (with a lot of familiar material) is UP

@ http://daily-art-upload.blogspot.com

Used Anime DVD Collection Appraisal: Did The Math!...$860

If I were to sell my used DVD collection, and each disc sold for $4.

My collection would be worth $860 or more.

Why should I care about the "fate of Google" a corporate entity

Why should I care that there's a billion channels on YouTube. 

I don't care if there's TEN  BILLION channels on YouTube.

If TEN BILLION people are contributing work and content to YOUTUBE,

Then TEN BILLION of those channels need to be MONETIZED and PAID, assuming they're not hate mongers or pornographers of course. 

Bottom line, if you don't want to pay 1 BILLION CONTRIBUTORS, Don't LET 1 billion people CONTRIBUTE CONTENT!

You already have MANY billion dollars. Who CARES what  YOU want, Google. If you don't want to pay people part of what you make, don't use other people's work (like mine) without paying people (like me).

And HOW DARE YOU give my millions of dollars I earned away to charities. Fuck charities. I want my cut.

Why I'd recommend Photobucket or Flickr over DeviantART

Do you know what I'm going to say here? If so, good for you! Pat yourself on the back, your one of the smart ones in the audience.

I don't recommend using DeviantART to publish your artwork no matter HOW low down on the totem pole you are. There's a bunch of anime art thieves that mimic anything they see manifest on that site. Often, when you see one really good image on DA, a cloned duplicate knock off image that was traced from the original will be displayed right next to it, hence cheapening the ownership of the design's REAL author.

Do you really want to put up with all this plagiarism nonsense? No, then I recommend starting your own website outside of DeviantART. The way I see it, in terms of getting your work out there, ANY site is better than DeviantART, the teenage wasteland. You just have to look.

Your Ad Here

So Frank Miller and Scott McCloud are the most popular people in comics currently?

Well, they're the first comics-related profiles that emerge from a google search.

So technically, yes, they are. Them and Garth Ennis.

The most popular manga creator names that come up in an manga Google search would be:

Masashi Kishimoto, Tite Kubo, and Akira Toriyama

So, according to Google, at least for now, partially due to Twitter and multimedia, they're now the go-to guys in their fields.

Well, technically,

I did singlehandedly invent and discover how to write American animation action-fight scenes in screenwriting form (that isn't just storyboards and no script), though I am happy with that accomplishment, I still feel I have a lot left to do. Who knows, maybe I'll write and illustrate a tutorial some day. I had to build my action sequences from the ground up. I made all the fight and fighting descriptions, for my action series, up. And in the grand tradition of Shaw Brothers and Jackie Chan, I definitely feel like I could write a million more scenes and sequences. Most people just draw it. I write everything in great detail. But one can also benefit from drawing a comic or storyboard sequence on top of all that scriptage. 

Say! What the! Where's the sites that embed videos!

Where's all the free royalty based sites that pay you to embed video. VideoForward.com is okay, but that site kind of sucks because they charge you for the service, and the other paid embedding site, Flixya.com, doesn't work. Both sites kind of suck! Neither site does what it should.

Paid-embedding sites could make a lot of money, dude!

Favorite Kinds of Sites to Visit. When I'm Bored...

Measure Your Online Influence (http://www.klout.com)
Online Video (http://www.youtube.com, http://www.hulu.com)
"Analyze Your Writing" (iwl.me/)
News Algorhythms (http://www.genieo.com)
Streaming TV Shows / Movies (http://www.netflix.com)

Suddenly, when it feels like EVERY LAST PERSON is COPYING YOU AND READING YOUR EVERY THOUGHT....

Suddenly having say-so in everything and a constant last word actually starts to seem kinda pointless. Why bother saying anything to them at ALL. They already KNOW what I'm gonna SAY. Someone else less famous than me will probably blurt it out in the popular comments section with haste to spare. 

Seriously, what's the point in even talking anymore.

2009: A Watermark Year for TV Programming Blocks Before the Ultimate one, Toonami Came Back in 2012

Here's a list of the major programming branded blocks that aired in 09 (according to my journal)

Har Har Tharsdays (Thursdays)

Ani-Mondays (Mondays)

MTV 2 Legit (Fridays)

Adult Swim ACTN (Saturdays)

4KidsTV

You Are Here (Fridays)

I sometimes wonder if someone who knew more about me in real life would ever ask me something like....

Is it lonely / isolating / frustrating being the only prominent multiracial comic book creator-writer-artist?

Well, yes and know. Most people don't know I'm multiracial, among many other characteristics, because I'm often unseen. If my genetic background wasn't so shrouded in mystery, even from myself in some ways, I'd probably write about it a lot more.

Told you, Bitch!

I TOLD YOU the Insomnia was back! But did you listen? NO!

Being An Artist: The Difference Between What you WANT TO DO and What you ACTUALLY CAN DO

When you reach your later art years, when trying to decide what you can do and will do, and what you're able to do, look not so much to "What you want to do" or ""What others do that you want to do". Look instead to "All that you have already done". "What you've already done" and "What you are doing right now" is "What you are and always will be able to do."

Reason No. 100 Why America is STILL Better Than Japan

1. Our IT Industry is better / more innovative by a mile (Japan openly admitted this in at least 1 article they wrote in an industry-academic journal. They already know their IT industry is behind ours!)
2. We're the only ones that actually innovate anything in reality
3. We're RICHER.
4. Japanese don't know how to write real literature to save their lives.
5. WE'VE never been "cool with" socialism or German Nazism.

Show me a person who DOES think Japan is "superior" to America who ISN'T exposed to anime and manga cultural subliminal messages and propaganda, and I'll show you an exception to the stereotypical rule about Japanophiles. Yes, yes it IS only the people who watch anime that believe such a silly notion. That's how indoctrinated most of them are. And here I thought it was just about the art, which is an America value I might add, NOT a  Japanese one. 

How to Write Fiction: Hint You Already Are Writing it...

I write at least 1 story a day. Every single day, I write a new story. It's called life. Living life. The linear narrative sequence of the events of life. I'd do well to remember that. Whatever you did that day or night is your story for that day or night, which you are free to embellish and add on to or fictionalize in any way you see fit. Just by being alive, we're already writing stories every single day, even if we choose not to write them down. 

Big News in the Consciousness World: I think my sleep patterns are Shifting

Which means less sleep. More Toonami and Adult Swim and overnight programming on TV. Or at least I suspect it could be a strong potential shift. I guess we'll just have to see...


I am nocturnal by nature, but that was mercilessly suppressed by my doctors, relentlessly for the last decade and a half or so. No more of that.


Being confined to a sunlit world of crazy makers and day dwellers, the worshippers and denizens of daylight, the sun, and the day in general. Having to be around such blind people is TORTURE.


I'm an owl. Batman. A Vampire. A Nocturnal. A creature of the night. I was in my adolescence staying up to watch stuff like the music videos of MTV's old 120 minutes, Aeon Flux, The Maxx, and Mystery Science Theatre 3000 in the middle of the night without sleep in the 90s, and I was edified for the experience. Sleep was not meant for nocturnal and morning creatures. People who's favorite time to be up is 2 and 3 a.m. in the morning and 4 a.m., 6 a.m., and 7 a.m. in the morning.


Day dwellers follow the light.
Nocturnal Night Dwellers Follow the Dark, like the comics I draw.


Glad I could FINALLY get back to my bleak roots. 


Now I can watch as many late night cartoons as I want. I'm so happy!

The cure to bad TV during the day, is Depakote, so you can sleep THROUGH the daytime torture.

Uninvented Software Thought of the Day- Video Broadcast Engineering software

Engineering and R&D video editing-publishing software that lets a user create the next YouTube or Hulu.

[Meanwhile, at Blogger Headquarters...]

Here comes the Webmaster Expose! 

I've had some serious problems at DeviantArt, ASMB, WCN, and Blogger, who all practice a  form of click fraud that they victimize users with known as "click concealment". If you don't want someone to be popular online, it's a stealthy and popular technique to use against that person, to send a false message about them to their audience that "no one likes them online". A lot of the clicks to my material are concealed, staying at 1 and 0 when in fact I hear dozens of people in the media paraphrasing those quotes directly, not even making an effort to conceal that they visited my webpage. Those same sites that get quoted by the quoter who obviously visited my webpage at least once along with whoever their audience is who saw it with them, visited the page, and yet the counter for it someone still "mysteriously" remains at 0, alleging no one saw  the post, when Mr. and Mrs. let's quote the post sure as fuck did.


YOU'RE listening to me, are you not. Point made. Point 1 goes to JM.

Sweet Jesus! What the HELL is going on with formal religion!!??

Sweet Jesus there's some messed up stuff that's happened with religion in the last 15 years. Pedophile priests? 9-11? "Radical" Islam? Terrorism preaching arab superiority? My father must be rolling over in his grave.

400 people viewed my blog today alone so far....

That's a new record for me! Thanks everybody. Keep coming  back. There's always something new to see or read here. If there's one thing you're  guaranteed here a lot of other places can't guarantee you it's new material, DAILY.

International Communication

My personal career, cultural and social desire as an American to achieve respect, credibility, and open communication in the world and international community is a long standing desire of mine. But I've also known, for a while now, this open-minded view on international relationships of a social and business variety is not always accepted or embraced by my family, friends, and peers. I've heard many people around me who are American mutter or proclaim many ignorant statements about the international community, as if it's an area of communication and collaboration that's not worth pursuing, simply because it's not in America. This ignorant form of social stereotyping, racism, nationalism, and xenophobia often frustrated and infuriated me in the past. I would always as myself, "Why can't most people just accept cultures and nations different from their own? Why God, why!? Why does ignorance prevail in not only business,  but culture in general so often. Whether ignorance from or toward a different culture is forward or reversed, it is unacceptable in this day in age. War and nationalism are meaningless to me. 

Education: Not The Same Thing as Skool

Why Post-Secondary Education is Valuable Sometimes

While most primary education is stressful and a pain, that's primarily because when I got my original education, I was forced to do so, under a lot of pressure, and I wasn't motivated to learn things at the time.

It's DIFFERENT when you don't HAVE TO learn anymore, yet somehow, either by divine accident or ingenious human nature, you still want to.

post-secondary education benefits one in a number of ways in later life: It makes you more well rounded. It increases your knowledge to new levels. You get to meet new people and educators and often employers. A degree and schooling looks better on a resume and in a portfolio than nothing.

You don't need a degree just to work at a job and get work done. Nothing's stopping you from sitting at a computer and typing up a manuscript or screenplay of some sort.

School and work are linked, though. Just because school doesn't always lead directly to work doesn't mean it won't benefit you from being well rounded in your choice of career. You need knowledge TO work.

Pursuing education isn't really the point of education anymore.

To do well in school, you need to:

A. Be internally motivated to learn, and see how it can benefit the quality of your life by increasing your knowledge.

B. Naturally have a DESIRE to learn. It's often hard and impossible for anyone to learn and pursue a real education if they're not interested in learning in general (smart) and motivated. 


But let me clarify: Education. Not School. Not the same thing as school. Different situation. They call them "school shootings" for a reason. Because school IS a prison. Education is not. Real education is not anywhere as terrifying or intimidating or full of  bullies as school. Never forget that. Sure, there can be jerks in college, but they're not half as racist and bigoted and evil as skool kids.

Fear....

If there's 2 phobias I have, it's flying and the ocean, and maybe the third being the dark. 

I could do so much, go so many places if I just overcame my fear of the ocean.

I know why I'm afraid of the ocean too. It was the time I was swimming in the ocean at Daytona, on the beach when I was 14 or so, and having fun, splashing around all innocent like like any other kid at the beach, unafraid of water, having fun, not fearing a thing, when what do you know, 3 to 4 feet away from me a baby shark (or ADULT shark) fin (couldn't tell which) protruded through the surface of the water, like suddenly it went from a sunny day at the beach to being in the movie Jaws, which I never watch (for obvious reasons). I COULD HAVE BEEN EATEN! I've been scared of going underwater or even looking underwater (even in my own swimming pool) ever since. Never mind the murky depths of the Mariana Trench. With support and encouragement I might be able to conquer my fear of being in water one day. But not unless. I've had my fill of non-social adventure, and I've been terrified of facing it again some day ever since, even though I have a deep wanderlust and a deep need to travel the world. I can feel it, it could be my destiny to be a world traveler if I just overcome some of my more primal fears. 

I know it's not the most popular thing to say in the comics and animation community later in life, but I gotta say it....

I NEVER would have said this as a young kid or teenager, or even late teenager, but because I was so deprived of it at a young age, when you succeed you realize the ride never really stops if you don't want it to.

What does that mean.

I'm considering Furthering My Education in Higher Learning. Maybe getting an actual degree in some academic field that's a bit more complex, like history, or fine art. I had a TASTE of higher education when I was younger, but that plan was tragically cut short due to unlucky circumstances and poor health. I never got to get a degree from an art school, college, or university. 

If I wasn't so successful in a a "folk Walt Disney / Ted Turner dropout kind of sense" I'm starting to wonder what I really could have made of myself if I wasn't solely focused on animation and Television the way I am.

Has there ever been a Chinese American sitcom?

White American Sitcoms. Teen Sitcoms. Nerd Sitcoms. High School Sitcoms. 70s Sitcoms. African-American Sitcoms. Latino American Sitcoms. Britcoms. Animated Sitcoms. Sketch Comedy Shows.

Where's the Chinese-American Sitcom? Diversity anyone? We need more than just Kahn from King of the Hill, Jackie Chan, and Jake Long. We need to give Panda-Kabob his own series. LOL

Poignant Moments: A List for the Anime Healer

I've watched a lot of animation, since around 1985 to today.

Here's the most moving stuff I've seen in animation, all of which made me sob for a long time. Maybe it was the soundtrack....

[fair warning: Biggest animation spoilers in the history of time]:

• Toy Story 2 - Sarah McLachlan - "When She Loved Me" Montage
• The Ending of the Final Episode of Cowboy Bebop - Yoko Kanno - "Blue"
• X/1999 Final Scene - X Japan - "Forever Love"
• Naruto Numerous episodes featuring the "Sadness and Sorrow" song
• The Last Unicorn - Final Scene - America - "The Last Unicorn" 

If you're in the mood to watch something heartbreaking, watch these DVD - YouTube Clips

Cartoon Network: Their lineup is: 98% Charlie Chaplin, 2% Hamlet

Cartoon Network in an odd way, is like Shakespeare. They have a fine dual appreciation for both the tragic and the comedic:


How so, you ask me?


Well, allow me to explain.


The vast majority of the day and night, they just want you to laugh at really messed up stuff.


But on rare occasions, when they CARE about you, care about EVERYONE viewing really, they'll make room for dramatic animated programming from around the world: Tragedies and epic dramas that often fail in the ratings, but deliver us lord from every evil:


Shows like:

• Star Wars The Clone Wars
• Ghost in the Shell
• GI Joe RESOLUTE
• Naruto
• The Animatrix
• Metropolis
• Alexander
• Cowboy Bebop
• Gundam
• Thundercats
• Redakai

also known as THE  BEST OF THE BEST.

Every once in a while they'll take the high road. And I don't just mean an elevated expressway, I mean the door to Heaven Itself. What a wonder to behold.

Hey, Hey! Hold on now!

Now I know I said publicly in this blog at some point that I want to run my own small biz subcontractor-esque animation-&-comics local / international co-pro studio if I'm not doing said thing on my youtube channel (SplitAtomBoom) and Webcomics Nation (WCN - http://www.webcomicsnation/jm ) already, so I can tell my own stories with an Audience. But I never said I wanted to run the animation, anime,  comics, and manga business IT/THEM SELFs! That kind of task is too big for EVEN ME! Don't put me in charge of everything just YET! I need to meet more collaborators and work with a lot of people before I'm running ANY large enterprise that isn't just indie. 

MY LITTLE BRONY! Friendship is Magic, and Why All The Other Children's Animation is Sort of....mean

Bullying and Children's shows. Bullying and Primetime Shows. Incivility and Children's shows. Lewd Incivility and Primetime Shows.

Is There Too Much Bullying in Children's Cartoon Shows These Days?

While I hesitate to name names, some children's shows and primetime programming is clearly not made with good apples like me in mind. I'm okay with that, but when influential Children's Shows like Family Guy, American Dad, SpongBob SquarePants, Phineas and Ferb, and Avatar the Last Airbender go out of their way to promote bullying even if "it's just the badguys", let's face it. Being an asshole is being an asshole. Mean is Mean, and bullying is bullying. If the goodguys are bullying the bad guys, they cease to be bad guys, and hence mutate their character and internal moral drive into that of the sociopath.

But yeah, Bullying in kids TV. Not something people used to have to deal with in the 80s and 90s. There WEREN'T any bully kids shows in the 80s and 90s. This is a reflection on the times, and a serious reflection of the decline of the society we live in, that even children's animation is encouraging you to bully others.

I'm not a bully in real life, I never have been, but I know a bully when I see one. And I see plenty of them in Hollywood recently. If bully's are running the show, which they are, suddenly EVERYONE becomes a bully! 

Do we really want our society to turn into this???

Suicidegirls.com

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What I'm doing after the contest....

Soon as the animag contest is finished, and I have some free time, I'll probably go back to updating my webcomics more often. Input would be a welcome change though. If anyone's feeling so inclined.

Spendin' the early morning with mah two homies, Alfred Hedgehog and Joseph Prince.

LOVE those guys!

6-Degrees Of Personality...

Out of one personality-temperament, one can derive MANY different characters. Never let it be known I wasn't interesting....

\

Remember This Thing?

Remember the clone-o-MATIC machine? I do? Hermione's already had her turn. Now where's the page on Harry?

OK then, art world....Let's see some of YOUR piles of sketchbooks you got laying around your rooms!

I's knows you's gots some! And I am TIRED of showcasing all of mine. Everyone already KNOWS what my art looks like, and I'm in too lazy of a mood to draw more. Sorry. That's why I'm calling out to OTHER artists.

I do tend to glow (in the sunlight and especially in the Dark) when I'm happy

I'm a lamp!

Eh. If Naruto Shippuden really IS canceled on Disney (which I'm not sure if it is)....

Eh, I'll just continue watching the series legally online on the corporate streaming sites until they air the subbed final episode, and a dub of the final episode is available. Then I'll probably go back and collect the series from start to finish.

Well, IDEALLY anyway. Naruto's got TONS of episodes. That might be a tall order. I guess I'll just have to wait until that time comes. 

"Klout"? C'mon man. Gimme a BREAK!

Like it's actually accurate. All it measures is how many people follow you on Twitter (&) FaceBook (yes, I said the F Word, my apologies) AND NOTHING ELSE. Klout CLAIMS to measure Blogger and YouTube credibility, but I have my doubts about whether or not those things even get factored in. And I don't just say that because my score is puny, which it IS.

The Budget for this Blog is $860,000.00

Neat huh?

Temperament Sorter Lesson of the Day: Artisans and TV On Screen Behavior.

When watching TV and actors portraying roles on TV, look not for Idealists, or Rationals, or even Guardians most of the time (though not always).

Instead look for the Artisan. Television acting is dominated and overrun by Artisan behavior. Flamboyant and Bombastically Loud Personalities that Like and Are Comfortable Acting Out and being seen in front of the masses. 

There are more actor Artisans than any other temperament. The Artisan Group also has the largest amount of attractive women. These are facts. 

Today I write like William Shakespeare

I write like
William Shakespeare

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

Screenwriter & Screenwriting

Turns out I'm actually a pretty good screenwriter after all. I feel a strong need to write things, and screenwriting fulfills that need.

Writing and Art: Drawn to the Natural

My style isn't good or bad. That’s just the style and fashion of my process. It’s my natural style. When developing a writing or art style, go with what feels natural. Some things will come more naturally to some artists and writers. It’s best not to deny or fight it. For instance, I’m naturally drawn to warriors, swordsmen, and film noir. And I’m by nature a slow screenwriter and novelist, so I need to give myself time to write things, be it a script or novel. 

So much FUN!

Can't get enough of THOSE guys. Like that one time. Like remember the time you STOLE his identity and tried to cyberstalk him with it? Yeah, what a blast! What great memories!

There's got to be a way to be a cutting edge artist of Asian descent that draws cutting edge detail heavy, without, you know, people thinking you WORSHIP THE DEVIL and SACRIFICE VIRGINS TO THE VOLCANO GODS OF ULTONOM and stupid shit like that....Hmmm. How to solve this dilemma

Dear LiveJournal

Current Mood: Excited about potential success, and just a tad bit overwhelmed and intimidated by the intensity of the Giant Limelight Beam shining down, from the Cosmos, on me. 

Well, I guess it DOES gotta be me to do that one thing....That I do...

And,...As a Legendary black ski mask wearing Ninja man on YouTube once said..

"If I don't...WHO'S GONNA!"

Since I'M REALLY TIRED AND I WORK IN AN ASIAN SWEATSHOP SUBURBIA [not really]...

Let's save MY OWN promotion of myself for some place where I'm not the only person READING what I write. I mean that IS what the people tell me whenever I ask, isn't it?

2012 New Year's Resolution

Learn to have more faith in myself, Despite cowardly and accusatory character attacks and criticism from others.

Believe in Yourself. I don't do that anywhere near enough. I aim to change that.

The 2 Main Reactions My Black Art Gets....

Generally, when my art is on public display, I get a very divided reactions.


People genuinely react to my art 1 of 2 different ways, and they couldn't be more different.


There's the haters who mock and demean me.
And there's the fans and worshipers, baffled at my genius.


Reaction A) Negative 1:


"Tsh. Crap. You're an asshole and your art SUCKS and is crap. I could draw that. ANYBODY could. It's crap!"


Reaction B) Positive 2:


"O...M....G! Oh. My. God. I've never seen noir done so beautifully. It's the most beautiful kick ass thing I've ever seen HOW DO YOU DO IT!!! I want to make all my work just like yours one day! I love you!!!!"


Yeah, I like letter B. Don't really know why though.


Truthfully, for me, there's not much more to it than that. The shadowy White Costume and Architectural compositions emerging from the BLACK, and the BLACK itself IS the Artistic Statement. 


Don't make it more complicated than it needs to be. My message is simple: BLACK. The End. 


If Picasso makes a whole PERIOD of his career out of BLUE, I can make something out of BLACK.


fin

Like Secrets? Like Success? Then you'll LOVE this personal favorite of mine...

I read this book a LOT growing up...

And Now, a Man who Needs No Introduction....Jesus!

Jesus is a man that's considered so sacred, so Holy, so important to humanity, that his old hometown where he used to "hang out" (Jerusalem) has been at civil war with itself ever since he was crucified. I guess JERUSALEM never got over the fact that its "hometown hero" died and was killed. If Jesus was really such a peacemaker, why has his hometown been at street civil war with itself, ever since he died, even to this day? Is this really how people resolve their conflicts? What kind of legacy (war?) is that for a Holy man to have anyway?

Give Peace a Chance.

2012: Era of the 20-Something Billionaire

Pretty much

Shout-Outs to the New Stuff: Stuff on TV I'm LOOKING Forward TOO: Vol. 2

Real Cartoons for Real Cartoon Fans

• Aqua Something You Know Whatever (ATHF)
• Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Hub)
• Metalocalypse (New Episodes of Season 4)
• Redakai (New Episodes)
• Huntik (NickToons)
• The Boondocks (Season 4)
• Toonami 2012 (All Episodes)
• New Episodes of Motor City
• Tron: Uprising Premiere
• Naruto Shippuden (if it ever actually returns and isn't actually cancelled. No one cleared that one up. How's that for irresponsible TV making?)

Contingency Plans....When your legal guardians die....

Many people who aren't that different than me are afraid of the death of their families if they're not paying their own bills and don't have a job yet. You don't have to have a job or money just to have contingency plan for in case your parents die from old age. The key word here is social contacts. I have a few people I probably COULD live with

Hell, my brother's former wife was beaten by her parents, blatantly abused and they kicked her out, so we let he live in our house for a while. Well, I didn't, but my parents and brother did. They "didn't let me" have any say in the matter, so I had to adjust. Well, actually she did put a lot of effort into adjusting to living with her husband and my family in our house, she TRIED to be polite and well mannered, even if she did argue with her husband quite a bit. But it wasn't the END of the World for her because she had no place to live. At the time we offered her one. Till she pissed off my parents and pretty much had to live with her husband an apartment from that point on. She still does to this day.

For the unemployed, it's not the end of the world if you can't afford to buy or make payments on an apartment or house. Just find friends, relatives, and long lost relatives who love you like family the way my friends and relatives do in regards to me, and you're good to go. Fortunately I'm a good house guest, so people I know are always visiting me and welcoming me to their apartments and homes as courtesy for how well I treat them and how much I love them. I'm adopted, it's in the beginning of my life story. I know what it's like to risk being out on the street or in a bad situation if good friends and especially parents and legal guardians don't take a liking to you. I'm so used to my parent's initial decision to adopt me and take me in back in Ann Arbor Michigan when I was a newborn babe in 1983. I'm so used to growing up only remembering living with and growing up with former strangers (my adoptive parents) that I often take it for granted that I'm living where I am by chance and luck. Because some parents wanted to adopt a child, and they decided to adopt me. You never forget a beginning of your life spent that way, even long after you've moved out and become famous and rich (well, ideally anyway).

I Present to You All, Everyone's Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Barbarian...Now With Photoshop!

Mono! Voila!

NEW-ER Photoshop..

Sketching with Photoshop....First Sketches of All Time

Photoshop Training

Finally got a copy of Photoshop. So I'm in the process of reading various tutorials to practice with, train in digital painting, and  get better at it. I'm finally going digital. Bout time. I'll still be doing art by hand. But I'll be editing it and coloring most of it with Photoshop, assuming I can figure the damn thing out...

28 or 29 year old Novelist and Screenwriter

28/29's actually a pretty young age to be a science-fantasy novelist and screenwriter, if you look at the average age of the typical well known authors in said genre.

Dream in my Nap

I had a dream, that I was crossing the peaceful waters of the Atlantic ocean, all that beautiful blue non-violent water, in an enormously long monorail train. Very peaceful. The sea was peaceful. This is the first dream I ever had where I'm NOT being violently attacked by water or something to come out of the sea. Nice change of pace

No airliner crashing into the ocean. No world flooding at the stroke of midnight. No sea monster cave. No home state flood catastrophe. No rising tide levels in the middle of the night. Just light clear bright blue summer daytime water with no rough currents, in the middle of the summer daytime. Odd. Maybe I'm on the right track.

dreammoods.com

150 Pages of PURE FANTASY [literature]

Yup, that's right...

The manuscript of outlines, fiction, and scripts is around 150 pages long.

It goes in ALL SORTS OF directions. It's becoming a bit labyrinthine. But I suppose that tends to happen when you reach the 150 mark....

Page Count....5,000 tweets, 573 Blog Entries Online, 600 Pages Offline

Between now and the time I started writing all 573 entries of this blog, From May 2011 to Now, the start of Summer 2012 ALONE, I ended up writing over 600 pages of unpublished writing like the kind I posted yesterday in this blog.

Kind of weird how the drawing-writing ratio works out. I'm obviously more writer than artist, even if I am both.

For starters, I had all the encouragement in the world from academics, teachers, family, friends, the media, and parents to draw, and yet I didn't do it. Did I draw at a level that matched anyone's expectations? NO! 

And no one even really encouraged me to write. It was more of a compulsion and habit than anything else. Unfortunately, while I may be a natural at writing, I'm not so much of a natural at drawing. Art appreciation maybe, but not procedural drawing. 

Doesn't Anyone read Archival Old Blog Entries Anymore???

Why is it the only blog entry of mine that ever gets read is my current one. I've written, like, a million blog entries, and yet people only seem to want to read what I wrote 2 minutes ago. How about reading my older stuff???

Living With Family

Part of the reason I've stayed with my family so long, other than having not enough money to move out, has to do with trust issues. Unlike a lot of people on the internet, my inner circle never shares any of my info with the media, never speaks out publicly, never compromises my privacy. And they never leak stories. With fame, the trust issue arises. When I'm around my close knit circle of family and friends, I never feel my privacy is compromised with said people. That's one of the main reasons I haven't left them.

Here's Where and How Many People Have Read My Blog, Internationally

United States

1,549

Russia

170

United Kingdom

25

Germany

15

Canada

11

India

6

Indonesia

2

Japan

2

Mexico

2

Australia

1

Anime, and Where It's Influence Stands (With Me)

I already have a style, and technically it's not anime. 

As a matter of fact, the only anime that actually influences my art is the older stuff that came out in America either anime around 1995 or manga that came out around 2001, and a few others.

None of the newer anime influences me really. AT ALL.

New anime isn't all that original. The most ORIGINAL anime was released years ago. 

There IS NO new and innovative Japanese anime and manga. It's all the same shit. Cute and simple. It USED TO be so detailed. Not so much recently. America and Korea are producing more detailed work nowadays, but Japan's reduced a lot of its detail in recent works. NOT impressive, compared to what Japan DID at one point. Oh well.

Anime looks pretty for the most part, but in terms of my current stance on anime, it's not so much the art of anime I have a problem with so much as the double standard ideology behind it. I guess I'm just old fashioned like that. I'm the type of geezer that "actually believes" that if someone wants to put one of your designs in their art website profile or TV show or movie, they can at least credit you for it, which is something some artists go out of their way to avoid doing when they "borrow" my work.

Maybe it's a cultural difference. My theory about this form of borrowing is that Japan isn't a literal society. Osamu Tezuka borrowed the aspect-to-aspect transition stylistic camera shot-angle element from Maya Deren's film, Meshes of the Afternoon (her and Salvador Dali), but do you ever see their names credited in anime and manga for inspiring Osamu Tezuka and many manga-ka and Japanese storyboard artists when they do close-up aspect-to-aspect transitions of hands, eyes, and feet? No. When the Japanese borrow elements from Western literature and filmmaking, they aren't always verbal about who they're borrowing from. Japanese taking influence from you is a highly coveted and valuable position to the Japanese. If the Japanese borrow stylistic elements from you or your designs (be they character, layout, costume or camera), your in a luxurious position. Just don't expect a shout out.

It's a cultural thing. Americans like giving other Americans shout outs. Japanese artists and American artists, not so much. A Japanese shoutout is a sacred thing to the Japanese. I'm more okay with it if I view it that way. 

Style Doesn't Always Equal Money or Profit. I've Got Plenty of Style. No Money Though

Every artist has a natural style they're most comfortable with.

Actually, I may not have money from my artwork, or appreciation or respect, but I do have style. Tons of style actually. I've got a very powerful multi-style. I've got style to spare. But style doesn't always pay the bills. Mine certainly don't.

I gotta hand it to Toonami

They DID get me to start watching Bleach again, after years of being turned off by filler, Toonami has made Bleach QUITE A BIT more watchable. I can't say how exactly, but it has...People who hate Bleach, but like Toonami, are now watching Bleach (at LEAST 1 million, a HUGE ratings boost for Bleach) purely because it's in the opening Toonami slot. That's actually a pretty smart move on their part if you ask me...

Epic Rap Battles of History!!! Childish (But Famous) Rivalries Abound...Here's some Memorable Ones

• Viacom vs. Google
• Anonymous vs. Viacom
• Microsoft vs. Google
• Apple vs. Microsoft
• Microsoft vs. Apple
• Mac. vs. PC
• President Obama vs. Fox News and a whole shitwad of Republicans
• Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates
• Disney vs. Anime
• Anime vs. Disney
• Rap vs. Metal/Rock
• DeviantART vs. Anyone who's NOT an otaku
• Anime News Network vs. Anyone who's NOT an otaku
• Warner Bros. vs. Disney
• Jerry Seigel and Joe Schuster vs. DC
• Marvel vs. DC
• Comedy Cartoons vs. Anime and Internationally Friendly Action Cartoons (check the forums, you'll see)
• Adult Swim vs. 5/10ths its fanbase
• Superheroes vs. Counterculture Comics
• Superheroes vs. Manga
• American Animation vs. Anime
• Anime vs. American Animation
• Seth MacFarlane vs. EVERYBODY
• Trey Parker / Matt Stone vs. Everybody
• Sumner Redstone vs. All Other Media
• East Coast vs. West Coast
• North vs. South
• Kevin Smith vs. Most Other Filmmakers
• Quentin Tarantino vs. Established Hollywood
• Howard Stern vs. Spielberg
• John Stewart/Steven Colbert/Comedy Central vs. Planet Earth

And while I don't like getting political in my coverage in this blog of rivalries for the most part, I will add one:

• Mubarak vs. Cairo, Egypt. There's other culprits,  but let's not go there, shall we?

I think that's pretty much it

No one said we were all adults here. Only some of us

Anime, Disney. Disney, Anime: The Bitter Rivalry....

While there are peacemakers working on the Disney / Anime Frontline, such as Studio Ghibli and Pixar, there's really no denying there's some bad blood between Disney and Anime. Between Japanese and American animators. I'd hardly call such a rivalry "good-natured", seeing as it borders on primal tribalism and xenophobic outbursts here and there.

It dates back to as far as WWII, when Disney and anime actually, literally joined the War movement and went to war with one another.

Numerous anti-Nazi, anti-Japanese films were produced by Disney.
Numerous anti-Disney, Anti-American films were made by Japanese studios

And it was ALL Bankrolled and encouraged by (who else?) the opposing governments. Not a pretty scene.

The spirit of said National Animation Rivalry exists to this day among both countries, and is deeply ingrained in the minds of MANY professional and veteran animators and directors in the United States and Japan.

There's some serious animosity there, in that rivalry.

When will the madness end, is what I wonder. WWII ended a long time ago. And Japan has long renounced Nazism and war crimes and is by now a very strong, very open minded American ally.

W vs. Bin Laden Love Letter: "Thanks for Keeping Me Employed"

Always Thank your Employer. Heh heh!

Hey Now Children, Gather Round! Professor Dumble-Dack Wants to Read you a Children's Book! Let's read Hipira by Our Good Old Next Door Sensei, Katsuhiro Otomo!

Yay! Now can you tell us which ones are the Good Guys and which one is the Bad Guy in this story, kids?

No cheating!

That's a Very Good answer! Evil ALWAYS loses!