Taking a Short, Undefined Break....Yet Again

I'm going on a brief blog vacation, probably. This blog thing is stressing me out. I gotta get away from my websites. I'm a little TOO involved in this...non-residual-rewarding (i.e. ONLINE) work. I need a break, so I'm giving myself one. Be back soon

-The Management

These Are Facts...

For all we, the fans, know, Jhonen could do nothing more than sit around his house smoking crack and beating his meat all day long.

But does he get numerous credited residuals everytime we see Zim on the telly.

Fuck yeah he does!

That's how it is  for EVERY creator. Nobody who you're familiar with and who sees airtime in L.A. is getting ripped off by the system.

Registered my first script with WGA today....

I wanted to protect my script, so I registered with the Writers Guild of America.

INFAMOUS Comic Book One Shot PRINTING AND FORMATTING ERRORS that LULU and Amazon Keep getting wrong....

Lulu:

What they get right:

Page Size: Proper Size of a Comic Book: 6.63" x 10.25". oddly enough Amazon distributes books of this size proportion, yet doesn't PRINT and PUBLISH them in create space. This NEEDS TO be changed and amended, so say I!

Print Binding Format: Key Element: Saddle Stich Binding. Lulu makes sure authors have the option to "saddle stitch" their books, which is how books from all the pros (like Dark Horse, Marvel, DC, Image, Oni, SLG) are printed

What it gets wrong:

Unlike they're book books. The auto formatting at LULU, makes all the interior pages of the  book as glossy as the exterior cover pages. A HUGE UGLY MISTAKE! It even does this to black and white pen and ink artwork. BAD!!!! GOD I HATE THOSE KINDS OF PAGES!!!!


Amazon (CreateSpace):

What they get right:

Page Texture. The interior pages are rough and newspapery, as a traditionally published book or comics pages SHOULD BE.

What they get wrong:

Interior page formatting. Sizing mistakes with interior artwork (they make your artwork way too big and crop it)

Print sizing: Unlike Lulu, which actually has an option for REAL comic book sizes (6.63" x 10.25"), I was forced to use a size of page that was 7" x 10" which is not industry standard, much as I hate to say it.

One would think comic book self publishers could get their formatting issues right. But THESE above mentioned things are the main mistakes made.

Here's the problem: Amazon and Lulu aren't LEARNING FROM each other. They're ignoring each other's flaws, weaknesses, and strengths, and not learning from them in order to make their services better and making their services more suitable for authors/customers

to put it ANOTHER way. It almost seems like, in terms of formatting errors,

What Amazon gets right, Lulu gets wrong, 

Or...

What Lulu gets right, Amazon gets wrong!

FIX THIS, NOW! 

(Goddamit.)

Hmmm. END TIMES the manga and anime is having some inertia as a webcomic.....So,

Get ready for END TIMES: THE VIDEO GAME!!!! Written, Storyboarded, and Designed by Me, Me, and Me.

Weeeelll...Sort of anyway.

Happy Birthday, Edward Gorey!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gorey

THIS ARRIVED...

AWWWW YEEEYUH BOIIIII!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited to look through this one!!!

The Facts You DON'T Know About Me....

I'm overweight.
My prolific online work is a nightmare to my parents
I watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Squidbillies Religiously Every Night
I DON'T entirely hate Family Guy
I watch Boomerang more than CN half the time
I watch the Hub a lot
There is a lot of Orange Soda in my Bloodstream
I'd LIKE TO lose weight

Classic Scans...An Oldeey But a Goodeey

Mystery Solved: It Totally Makes Sense [to me] Now! The Russian Insight...

Russia isn't as famous as America by modern standards, but technically it makes natural and perfect sense I have a lot of Russian readers for this blog (I have a few hundred weekly, if not every day). Russia is one of the most, if not THE MOST literate and Literary countries in the world, historically speaking.

It's only natural a Russian audience would want to read something very very dense and long.

Favorite Multimedia Writers? Yeah, I Gots a Fews...

George Lucas, Tim Burton, Jhonen Vasquez, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, MC Chris, Bendis, Dave Willis, LeSean Thomas, Katsuhiro Otomo, Aaron McGruder, John Lasseter, Todd McFarlane, Dave Filoni, Eminem, Marilyn Manson, Seth MacFarlane, and Quentin Tarantino. That's all of em....Pretty much. 

Hey, writing that last script is kind of like sharpening a pencil when you're a penciller....

Gotta poop out a random script to keep the skills sharp, don'tcha?

Oh boy! It's Tuesday, My Favorite Day of the Week! You know what that means! FANFICTION DAY!

Today's Chronicle:

Grand Theft Auto: Fear & Loathing at the Border

Fade in to:

Mexico - South American Border Desert - Dusk

Open wide on the Mexican Border Desert. It's mostly desolate and deserted, but there are people in raggedy clothes standing around, and Border Patrolment, helicopters, and trucks, armed with rifles and shotguns. Mexican citizens are wandering about.

Cut to:

Mexican Border fenced field - Further out west at the  border of South America.

A tiny car approaches on a wide shot of the horizon, it's a green cadillac. If we didn't know any better, we could say it looked like Hunter S. Thompson and his hispanic crony, Benicio Del Toro

Hunter S. Thompson

Where are we?

Del Toro

We're in Mexico, essay. About to cross the border.

Hunter S. Thompson

Whatever you do, don't stop

Del Toro

Why essay?

Hunter S. THompson

We can't stop here! This is BAT COUNTRY.

Hunter S. Thompson proceeds to flip out in one of his trade mark drug trip sequences. Bats cover the sky

.

Hunter S.THompson

Alright Paco. Did you stash the cocaine? Hide the revolver?

Del Toro

Uh-huh.

To Be Continued....!...MAYBE!!!

I LOVE HONG-KONG! WUXIA LIIIIIIIIIIVES!!!!!! [on Netflix]

Netflix is amazing. That's where I discovered the cinema of Hong-Kong and China.
Home of the world's greatest choreography arts and choreographer masters.

Current non-anime martial arts title being watched? Wu Dang [release date: 2012]
There is a trenchcoat and a blade on the film cover. A strong selling point for me.
I'm a sucker for blades and coats. How can I say "no"?

Inked My Own Pencils

I think in terms of positive and negative space a lot. I like how this one turned out...

Oh Good! I Pencilled It In! I Finally Pencilled a Real Panel! I've Always Wanted to Do That!

Now all I need to do is INK this bad-boy, and it will be a finished illustration

Anime Brand Building In the American 21st Century

I’ve narrowed down my brand image quite a bit. My brand is my job and what I create and design. In other words, my brand is Mono and Parallax. Manga, fantasy, webcomics, anime just kind of go along with that, in terms of the context Mono is in. Mono actually makes for a pretty kick ass brand for me to utilize. It goes back to Branding 101. Why is Mono’s style a brand? Why do I consider it that? Because Mono sells. Whooping ass sells. Manga sells. The internet (if done right) sells. Action and fantasy sell. Up till this point, the longcoat thing has primarily been an cinematic Asian Triad and Yakuza thing, and a Highlander thing, ever since John Woo and whoever did Highlander created that fantasy archetype (the longcoat) in their movies, Highlander: The Movie and John Woo’s classic A Better Tomorrow. But up till this point, it’s primarily been the forte of Asian artists and filmmakers. I’m the first white American artists to draw longcoats in that way, other than, say, Todd McFarlane (Sam and Twitch) and Frank Miller (Marv in Sin City). Other than that, it was later the Wachowski Brothers with The Matrix trilogy, classic noir films, and cyberpunk’s own longcoat archetype, which was Blade Runner (which is almost guaranteed to stimulate an artists imagination upon watching it). Actually, now that I think about it, it is kind of hard to know WHO started it. But I’m participating, at the very least.

Finally, I get to put my psychic and paranormal abilities of vision, imagination, telepathy, and intuition to the test.....

I had my first phone interview with the Parapsychology Foundation today. This is completely of my own free will and based on my own personal curiosity into psychic and paranormal phenomena.

Okay, here come the really HARD questions about culture and new age knowledge. The "Real Mysteries". Ready?

Ready for some actual CHALLENGING cultural and spiritual questions?

Good. Here:

What is the difference between chakra and chi?

Are publishers in France conspiring to keep Americans away from awareness of "authentic French culture and comics". Is more "authentic" French culture being concealed from America in favor of perpetuating negative PR and stereotypes?

Hi China!

Obama sure is paranoid about the international internet.

Master's Degree In The Black Arts

No, not the "Dark Arts," though that's cool too.

Black Arts.

Artwork with a lot of black in it, and genuinely dark and macabre stories and visions in literature, film making and art.

Silhouettes, Positive & Negative Space, Pen and Ink, Black and White Images, Notan, Noir, Neo-Noir, Expressionism, Dark Fantasy, Goth, Cyberpunk.

I get an A+ in any and ALL these classes, with honors.

History....Beat Ya To It!

Making HISTORY?? HAH! Please. I WAS documenting my life in written texts and books  before the media ever did. I WROTE the first chapter on the story of MY life...

SQUEE!

Gotta love that kid.... Such evil entities he must confront. To say nothing of the fact that he lives next to a famous serial killer.

I don't have many actual friends. Then again, I don't get out that much.

I can count my greatest friends on one hand: Chris, Johnny, Amanda, Jason, Nicole.

Skillz to Pay The Bills...

I think I get my English, linguistic, and artistic skills from my birth mother.

My birth mother taught high school English for a living at one point. She majored in and taught English at some point in her life. It's probably biological.

I also get my fashion savvy from her I think. When she got married one time, she designed the dress she wore at one of her own weddings, in her sketchbook, she told me over the phone one time.

Disney Institute....Reborn as a Business School?? Pretty cool, man.

I've had my share of training with things related to the Disney Institute. 

The thing people now might not know about the Disney Institute is...

There's 2 Disney Institutes. 

The Old Animation-Process Centric Disney Institute that was mostly for kids and families at the theme park.

The Newly Re-Invented Big-Business Centric Disney Institute.

I trained under a guy from the Disney Institute V. 1.0. That was a lot of fun, and I learned lot. Plus, he went on to become one of myself and my parents best friends and he ended up being my closest mentor, and a person who I got a lot of advice from. Under Phil's supervision, I felt like I could do anything his personality was so inspiring and professional. He had complete faith in me completing just about any animation task, even when I didn't want to believe in myself at the time. I really just wish everyone was lucky enough to have a friend-mentor of the caliber I had.

The Disney Institute has re-adjusted to the times. The Tweet world, the big business training world, training managers and whatnot. I actually think that decision is pretty cool.

If there's two famous local lesser known pros I'm friends with who are famous locally, I'd say those people would be Matt and Phil.

If there's 2 things I know, it's music and animation. Matt taught me music. Phil taught me animation.

Matt C. ended up becoming close friends with Rob Thomas and the entire band of Matchbox Twenty, when they were merely another struggling local band in Florida. And he's still friends with them to this day, if I'm not mistaken. I was in the same middle school band class as Matt C. and my other friend Johnny B. We were all in the percussion section of the school band. But we would always goof off in class and joke around, read comics, draw, and just do drum licks the whole time, showing off our skills to one another. Good times. One time I even got to go to Matt's house where we formed a temporary alternative rock garage band, and we did a few songs on the spot. Johnny and I took turns on the drum set, and Matt played electric guitar. Our best song was a song Matt C. called "The Surf Song" where we played a California-style surf rock vintage melody, that sounded like a mixture of Dick Dale Del Tones and Smash Mouth. If I remember correctly, there was no singing involved, just instrumentals. We kicked ass with music. That was one damn catchy song. Too bad we didn't record it. This was before Yourself or Someone Like You was released, and Matchbox Twenty was still called "Tabitha's Secret", if I'm not mistaken.

Phil's sessions were more formal and I worked on cartooning stuff instead of music with drums, but yeah, we freestyled a lotta art, drawing sketches on the spot, testing my chops. This was around 5 to 6 years after the Jam Sessions.

Goals and Dreams: How to Write For Animation

Precisely 3 years ago, in February of 2010, I put a marking in my journal of my newer or newest career goal I would dedicate myself to working toward. I set out to achieve the impossible. My goal was inspired by Japanese animated serials from the early era of anime especially, from shows like Gundam and Dragonball Z. 

I wanted to fill a void not currently being filled. Why is there no Yoshiyuki Tomino (Gundam head writer and creator) of American produced animation and animated action shows in America. "Where is the action? Where is the WAR and militant ballistics?? Where are the martial arts?! Where is the drama, suspense, and dramatic storytelling!!!? Huh!!!??? Where are the big sweeping epic sagas of American animation, like what Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Generator Rex are both doing now? There wasn't nearly as much of that on TV when I wrote that journal entry three years ago. That void can still be felt to this day. It's not the most popular thing in the world to take a more sophisticated design, and cinematic-dramatic storytelling approach to animation the way Yoshiyuki Tominino, THE animation pioneer did with his scripts and novels. But I figured, since I do have this level of literary productivity and power over my words, I may as well use it for good, and not abuse it for evil (i.e. most comedy and comedic cartoons of the modern era). 

In that resolution to pursue the dramatic and intense visuals in my scripts and screenwriting, I could literally feel the Builder and Visionary in my consciousness coming to life.

Then a few years later after a lot of hard work, step No. 1 was complete in that plan. I wrote the first draft of my first 22-page spec script. The first ever written by me. I was incredibly happy with it. In nearly every way, that script manifested and personified the ideals I believed in about animation storytelling and production, in a way I had been longtime failing at in comics and sequential art. That might change, but for now I'm far superior at writing over art. I'm aware of that now. I may be a pretty good artist, a first class designer, and good illustrator and sequential artist, but I'm a Great American Writer. And nothing in me would doubt that proclamation for a second. My confidence in my abilities seems to come from how productive I am at doing something. The more often I draw or write, the more comfortable and confident I  become with it. 

In-Laws...

Yeah, I have a Trinidadian sister-in-law that I'm not exactly fond of mentioning here. I feel like she thinks everything is about HER. She's ALMOST as self-absorbed and angry as I am. ALMOST. The mother of my nephew Anthony and niece Alyssa. If she knew I was actually talking about her online, she'd probably brag about it somewhere. Meh. Forget her! My brother is raising an interracial family. He's all white, but his wife (my sister in law) is black, and both their children are bi-racial. My family's a bit more diverse than it used to be. My adoptive brother's personal life is very different than my own. My brother is 100% white, but started an interracial marriage and family, much to the dismay of his original family. I attended my brother and sister-in-law's wedding to one another. It was actually a much less awkward social occasion than most people probably think. They were both smiling as they walked down the aisle and said their vows some odd years back. So that's good. I'm kind of not at all like that. My preference is Caucasian, and Eurasian, but brother's family aside, all my adoptive family is white. My family tree is like the Harry Potter family tree. SOMETHING like that!

I've Always Had Weird Feelings About France and China....Ever Since I Saw Their Literary and Cinematic Media.....

Where all comics are detailed and designy, everyone is quiet and peaceful in person mostly, and film and comics are actually detailed and filled with philosophy and well choreographed action....

That's NOTHING like the mainstream of America, 

But the weird part is, it IS a lot like me and what I stand for....

Almost all the "oddities" and things I'm into that no one else is into in the United States, is mainstream and common place in China and France, or Hong Kong and Paris.

Attention to detail MATTERS?

Philosophy MATTERS?

Martial Arts MATTERS

ARCHITECTURE MATTERS?

Architectural Martial Arts and Philosophy MATTERS!?

Oh. MY. GOD! I gotta go to those countries some time! I love the French and Chinese!

It's like some weird parallel world where everyone there is the same as me, instead of the polar opposite, like it is in America. No wonder I like travel so much. Great way to make new friends.

Favorite Online Filmmaking and Comics Auteurs?

Favorite international online media auteurs whose work I follow? I have 2 favorites currently: 1 an AMV filmmaker, and the other a web-manga self-publishing artist:

• Broken Element (AMV)
• Raynart-Tradnor (Franco-Japanese indie and self publishing manga/anime)

Gang Turf War

So last I heard, I was wanted for recruitment into 2 seperate online community gangs. But they both hated each other, so each one used a different code name for me.

And that's how I got 2 names, gringo.

Oh Dear Lord. It's FINALLY BEING UNLEASHED!!! LEGEND OF ZELDA HARDCOVER: HYRULE HISTORIA!!!!

I pre-ordered a copy 1 or 2 YEARS ago. I've been waiting a long time for this day, when my copy ships (Feburary 12). Mark your calenders, kids! This is one book that's been incredibly highly anticipated.

Happy 20th Birthday, "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas"!

I can't believe I was only 9 years old when I saw that movie with my mom in the local theater!

That film's a classic. It's my favorite film, and the best Tim Burton movie, creatively, artistically, and cinematically.

"9' was good, but a lot of people don't even known "9" exists.

Indie Comics "vs." Manga

Too me, they're on the same level, and have many characteristics in common.

I'm a little bit of a manga artist, and a little bit of an action-science-urban sword-fantasy indie artist. In other words, I steal from all the good stuff.

Wow...Lotta worldwide readers....

Apparently my largest current amount of readership is people in China. I currently at the moment have three times as many Chinese in my blog audience than I do American or Russian readers. Cool!

A Little Atmosphere

Stylin'.

BATMAN: The Dark Knight

It's Batman, Drawn in My Own Style.;

"Wanna TRY Something?"

First Rule of Comics is....

You can't let public sentiment, opinion, or what people think, do and say in reaction to you affect you in any significant way. You can't AFFORD to care or give a shit what the media or ANY celebrity or writer or artist for that matter thinks of you, or if they even know who you are, let alone track your every word and move maliciously to form any kind of opposing sentiments or ill wills. What you CAN afford to think about is the pages, and how you're going to produce new ones today or any other day. The more I worry about what public opinion of me is or any potential shit people might be talking, the less power that gives me over my own pages and work for the daily quota. Paying ANYONE else mind, at ALL, only slows me down. 

Yes there are people that love and worship me, just as there are people who hate, mock, and insult me. If I am a polarizing figure, that fact would in reality derive from how much I care about my work, which influences how much I don't GIVE a FUCK what you or anyone else on the internet is thinking, saying, or doing. Fuck that noise. Just work. I have no desire to discover whether I am unanimously loved or a polarizing figure. None of that matters in the big scheme of things or historic sense. The pages matter. Opinions don't.

If you care what ANY TV SHOW thinks about you, whether it's a children's cartoon show or a talk show, you are mentally ill and not worthy of pursuing comics for a living. 

I just realized something about the country I live in......

If you're seeking to attain traditionally animated and hand drawn animation, which is the best kind of animation, aesthetically speaking, and the least ugliest, and you live in the United States, you're living in the wrong country. You need to look to Europe (France) and the Far East. Sorry about that, the whole American animation geographic displacement thing. America sucks at hand drawn animation compared to Japan. They make us look downright retarded in an aesthetic sense. It's so shameful! We've been dethroned by Tokyo. But fortunately people like me still care. 

If there's 2 things I have that function on a high level, it would be my energy level and my I.Q. (132)

I'm actually very miserable if I'm not functioning at a high level of energy, or chi.

Drawing fighting comics takes high levels of energy. It's hard to draw ANY action and fighting comics without exerting at least SOME physical energy. Being a choreographer for comics and animation doesn't just take a  lot of talent and vision. It takes a lot of physical energy, because you're probably going to be acting out at least half the action poses you draw numerous times in your sketchbook. Drawing fighting requires a physical method acting approach. You can only really visualize so much in your mind. Eventually you have take a method acting approach to providing your own physical reference.

Drawing action doesn't just take enthusiasm and inspiration. It also takes physical energy and movement, to capture the physics of the story's fighting and combat. A whole book of fighting is also a whole book of acting. The longer your comic book is or manga is going to be, the thicker the book ends up being, the more energy out of you it will require and take to manifest. The choreographed martial arts, whether in animation, film, or graphic literature, is not for the lethargic, sedentary, fatigued, and lazy. 

How to Succeed and Promote Yourself in Manga, Webcomics, Dojin, and Indie Comics....

Well, aside from the obvious options, like working, training, and practicing a lot, if you want to build you're reputation as an artist, online is a great way to do it. Love it or Hate it, take it or leave it, Webcomics Nation (and other webcomics sites), Lulu, and DeviantART are solid reputation builders and powerful PR Tools, as are Blogger and Twitter. YouTube is more for editors and filmmakers. 

I don't really use Tumblr or Instagram. 

This worked for me for the most part anyway.

Artists don't get much more well known than Jhonen Vasquez, Fred Gallagher, and Jim Lee, and they're very involved in new and social media. But that's not counting the dozens of lesser well known artists who became well known  by these methods.

Nowadays, social media self-promotion is just as influential in establishing a famous artist's name and portfolio of work as traditional publishing is. Unless you're Japanese and working in Japan where the vast majority of artists still find the majority of their fame in print, if not an occasional appearance at Anime Expo and assorted Japanese art, anime, and manga conventions overseas. 

COMICS DRAWING: Career Goals, Inspiration, and Motivation

It's important not just to have research material and inspirational reference material, but also big, hairy audacious goals to strive for as well. It's important to never forget what you've always been working toward, no matter how impractical or grandiose it may be. Whatever gets you out of  bed or to the computer in the morning is the same thing you should be making comics and art to work toward. Inspiration doesn't have to be practical. It can be egomaniacal as hell, but if it gets results, that's really all that matters. Means to an End.

It's infamously hard to do a decent theatrical adaptation of a comic book, or any adaptation into mainstream media, for that matter. But that doesn't matter. It's comics, logic isn't the point. If you truly want to work in comics for no other reason than to create movies adapted from them, then go with that. If that's what inspires you, visualize yourself succeeding. Most artists don't and WON'T get any work done if they have no dreams or career goals to inspire them and visualize down the road. Attaining goals isn't as important as working towards those goals every day. 

Shows we love to hate

Foster's Home and Gym Partner?

Probably the 2 most faggiest, self-indulgent shows CN's ever encouraged.

No wonder they were 2 of the network's  BIGGEST FAILURES.

TV Appearances

So far, in the last hour and a half, I count roughly about 15 different "TV stand-ins and appearances".

GOOD FOR ME! I'll keep counting and posting updates....sooner or later, assuming I'm bored enough.

Honestly, in terms of comics and manga, I don't care about who WAS the Greatest. I care about who IS and WILL BE the Greatest....

Nuff said.

New Art Day: PORTRAIT

What DO I want. Someone please just tell me....about it.

Honestly, I don't think even  I know what I want out of life anymore. 

I've succeeded in pretty much every field I wanted to master. In unexpected ways,  but still, success nonetheless. So where do I go from here. 

I'm actually very happy staying right where I am, if not a little bit bored without a computer. I'm not unhappy. I'm not sad, depressed, miserable, or angry. I'm a little bit confused over where I should take my life to go to from here.

I'm The Only 29-Year-Old Celebrity Writer-Artist-Cartoonist-Broadcaster-Technologist of My Kind

I became a famous artist, writers, scientist, and cartoonist (high intellectual achievements) by 29 years of age, which is how old I am now. Most people who are 29 and famous don't do so in writing, art, or animation and cartooning. Pretty much all 29 year old celebrities got famous by 1 of 3 ways, which don't involve creativity: They got famous by being an actor, a musician, or an athelete. With the only possible exceptions being certain cartoonists like Kristy Lijewski and Silicon Valley startup titans like Mark Zuckerberg. THE REST is ALL MINE. 

Yeah, I'll BET your spending that money on ME, bitch.

My parents collect my social security check "on behalf of me" and you know what the first thing they spend MY social security money on is? THEIR gambling debts. BITCHES! My parents stopped being ethical, reliable, and non-negligent a long time ago. 

I have no money to my own name anymore. 

The Teachings of a Master: Limitlessness

Bruce Lee once said to a student that he only mastered the elements of martial arts he already knew, and recommended his students do the same. He taught of the art of limitation, working around your limits, and not worrying about being limited in skill, but instead master the skills you already have.

Today's art teachers could LEARN a thing or two from Bruce Lee.

We do best what we already know how to do, and we should amplify, further master, and refine what we already know how to do. If we don't know how to get good at a certain area, there's no need to attempt to get good at what you don't know how to do. By exploiting the areas we're not limited in, we're ALREADY going BEYOND OUR LIMITS.