Tuesday, December 31, 2013

I am now officially a Classical Music Composer, too.

I officially  became a classical composer, and composed my first one-note piece of classical music, digitally, on my digital music composing software, less than 2 hours before the start of 2014.

This marks the dawning of a new era for me as a filmmaker, animator, cartoonist, and musician.

A more digital era for me than ever before.

Slowly I am acclimating to the new method of being creative with traditional artistic and expressive media.

The Digital Way.

Happy New Year 2014 Everyone!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

That's a pretty cool email, Pandora...

That Harvey Danger song was no accident.
It wasn’t something that just happened.
It was the product of your
14 Thumbs Up and 4 Thumbs Down in 2013.

A year-long musical journey across all your stations that brought songs like Homework by The Dust Brothers into your life. And made not-so-favorites like Keep It In The Family by Anthrax a distant memory.

All thanks to your thumbs.

Your thumbs helped create a musical roadmap that led you to more likely-to-be-liked music.

Eventually leading you to enjoy the magic of Flagpole Sitta in a way that only you can.
Pandora - Now playing. You.

My SLG e-mail Submission

I submitted my concept to SLG last month.

Waiting for a reply.

Wish me luck dear constant reader!

I'm not counting on acceptance, but it would be nice to get some feedback, and know for certain whether they're interested in End Times, as I've had a few other side projects in the works that I have been working on during the time I submitted my work to Slave Labor Graphics Publishing.

It can kind of get a little stressful. All this nerve wracking anticipation....

Skipping out on Japan

My working in L.A. has very little to do with being "lured away from the anime industry by the evils of Hollywood",

And has a lot MORE to do with Japan's own discriminatory anti-employment attitudes towards American foreigners and fans. If you WANT to work in L.A., (and you work hard) you still can to find highly profitable employment there, to this very day and well beyond it. IF your work fits in. Not so in Japan. There's no opportunity for American artists in Japan BECAUSE of discrimination in the anime industry.

There are a lot MORE opportunities to work in Canada and America.

In terms of Japan's attitude for America. Their culture's perfectionism has gotten in the way of its accessibility to the outside and especially WESTERN world.

There is still PLENTY of opportunity to draw cartoons in the west, including action cartoons modeled after anime. If you like to draw anime and action cartoons and Japan rejects your work or refuses to employ you as it does many, make the kind of cartoon you would in Japan if given the opportunity, but with an American studio (i.e. DC Animated, South Korean Studios, Rough Draft, Marvel, SYFY, Nickelodeon, CN, etc). There's a growing market for mature action animation in America, Korea, and France.

The more Japan rejects Americans creative and business offers for collaboration on film and broadcasting, the more desire there should be in the hearts of Westerners to develop and build a functional and competing American market that serves the same demographic and genres that is funded by America and Pan-EurAsian Producers.

If artists and writers can't make anime with Japan, what the hell's stopping people from making and developing action, fantasy, and science fiction cartoons (both CGI and 2D) With OUT Japan.

I'm a big fan of the "If you don't want to help us make some we'll make our own without you guys. Screw you guys, I'm producing my own" attitude.

I did it with YouTube and internet broadcasting. I can do it with animation too. I hope.

This Blog Made in U.S.A.

As much as as I want to promote cross cultural transnational harmony, in a business and higher ups sense, TECHNICALLY, if it's a foreign market, it's a COMPETING market. Not necessarily a friend. 

Just like if you're working at Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon is a competitor, not a  friend. 

It isn't racist to compete against foreign businesses. That's just how business is. Sports is the same way, with the Olympics. Countries can admire and copy each other, but technically they're all still competing with each other and playing for their own team. That's what art and commerce is now.

Hollywood live action movie studios and American video game companies have done a MUCH more efficient job of keeping in step with Japanese competitors overseas than TV networks ever did. TV Networks in America like Fox and NBC and Nickelodeon often fail and suck quite hard at keeping in step with the quality of Japanese animated programming in the way companies like Valve, Lucasfilm, and Paramount do....

As much as I hate to judge things and projects based on initial appearance, the visual quality of art often DOES come down to work strategy and the volume of work put into it. You can  tell which artists are putting in thousands of hours of labor and who's phoning it in, with the exception maybe being people with inner demons and psychological problems plaguing them (yours truly).

You can tell who's trying and who's not just by looking at the final illusion and image of the art. The hardest working artists draw the most amazing art. The laziest artists draw like children. 95% of the time.

Friday, December 27, 2013

Masculinity, or What's Left of It

Pretty much the last great arena of Roman style machoness and masculinity still exists in a few places:

Hero Comics, Action Movies and Cartoons, Sports, Music (rock, metal, hip-hop, rap), Military, White Culture, African American Culture

They have  not gone unchallenged.  But then again, when is the last time historic masculinity (The Male Spirit) went unchallenged.

If you're "Too Macho" They label you a  "racist hateful bigot rapist" in the media. Anything to demasculate you.

Well FUCK THAT NOISE. Guys still need to feel like guys. Well, sometimes anyway.

My work has ALWAYS been pro-man. Pro-masculine. But not Anti-Woman.

Monday, December 16, 2013

In Publishing, Relationships Matter

As much as talent, hard work, willpower, networking , power, fame, money, and social climbing factors into Los Angeles, young people forget or are unaware that, anime productions are often built primarily on relationships among the people that make them. The insider knowledge is you must never get teamed up with someone, people, you don't like. If you ARE teamed up with people you don't like, it's a recipe for disaster. People will be able to sniff out bad chemistry, and treat it accordingly. Anyone will work for and with you, if you have a good relationship with them. If you don't....fuggetaboutit!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

places to sell your digital comic books online....The New School....

I can think of a few:

Let us see:

There's Diamond Comics new division: www.diamonddigital.com

Comixology: http://submit.comixology.com

www.lulu.com

And last but not least, Amazon Kindle Comics Creator

Those are all pretty much your best bets for online distribution

Friday, December 13, 2013

AKIRA IS ON TOONAMI - NOW SMALL DEAL. But HERE IS MY SMALL TRIBUTE TO THE MAN AND MOVIE AND BOOK



Because I'm a Sicko and I LIKE that kinda thing!

You're so Jealous babe. Ya know.

The List that MUST BE MADE: VIVA LA LE FLLLLLANIMEY!!!!!! GOOOOOOAAAAALLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL! LMFAO.


W.I.T.C.H. One of the greatest, most lesser known great cartoons of the modern era of all time. Disney TV animation both national and international at it's FINEST.

The design is so alive, soulful, cute, and appealing! I LOVE IT!

Greatest TV French Cartoons of All Time:


Reigning Champs

OBAN
VALERIAN AND LAURALINE
BOTS MASTER
WITCH
CODE LYOKO
BASQUASH!
MARSUPILAMI
TOTALLY SPIES

MARTIN MYSTERY
REDAKAI: CONQUER THE KAIRU
CHAOTIC SEASONS 2 and 3 (well, it LOOKED the part anyway
Magi Nation
Monster Allergy
The Mysteries of Alfred Hedgehog
Skyland


There are more than you think and remember her in the aughts TV generation. We are legion!

Can we get a NEW CARTOON FRANIME NETWORK OF JUST THESE SHOWS, PLEASE?

SOMEONE, ANYONE???


NEVER FORGET!

Apocalypse Rap




On my best days in my life
I like to prophesize
How the world might end one day
But never to epitomize
The Fundamentalism of Doctrinary Claims
Cuz I'm Looney Wit The Tunes,
Not the End Times Game
But you see life ain't a game
I just starts off that way
When you're just a little kid,
you don't know what to say
So stick a fork in my body
Cuz I'm almost done
Well not really
Got a couple more hundred miles left to run
Staying healthy with the martial arts aerobics
Gotta stay tough
Bein' Healthy and Strong,
You just can't git enough!
West side to the Northside
To the Eastside to Midway and South
Cuz I'm never ever Lost

But I do have a Mouth

Justice Rap



All the mass of homies
Altogether gathered now
People out in the streets
Dyin' like it's a protest
to try to oust dictators
Let's take this revolution
and turn it into somethin'
Let's put it on a website
And see what it's about
Cuz internet inquiry
They'll tell you all about
That is where you can find me
Split Atom Spin and Dack
Goin' Incognito
Be usin' Nom De Plum
To protect reputation
Megalomania
Phantom Supa Hero
Or maybe Ninja-Man
Take that one as you mean it
Then give it back to me
Like I gave it to you
Just like when you gave your
You're fuckin murder spree
Killin up some homies
Like it's deliverance
A plea of In-San-Ih-ty
Guess that's your Breaking Bad Defense
But if I'm comin' for you
There'll be no stoppin me
So I can stop you once again
From More Killing Sprees
You're attitude not likin' it

Don't talk that way to me...

SInce She's Been Gone



Since she's been gone
It didn't begin as the easiest of times
hard to forget
When she reached out to me
With the power of kindness
Saintly, but identifying secular
A blessing shielded by beauty
For once in a life
She will never leave
My thoughts and feelings
And every woman I see
Hides a shadow of her
As she is long departed
But not forgotten
Barricaded in the past of my experience
But never my memory
As I will always love her
For the muse met me
Not you
Planting the flower of kindness in my heart
As I watch the world grow Dark and Hateful
Generous enough to light the world
That if she ever stopped


All would go dark

From December Until May





Don't mean to complain
But there's some things I  can't explain
Pulsating in my brain, Slowly
Driving me Insane
Don't know what to say
But if I did I would explain
We should probably all fly up in a plane
Never doing it in vain
So bring your explanation
For all this complication
Tearing up the radio station
What more is there to say
Than you should hope and pray
For brighter sunny days
From December until May
Give or take a day
Much to Your Dismay
So what I'm trying to say
Is there isn't much to say
Just shining down some rays
On another bright and sunny day

Come by and say hey!

Body in the Wake




Leaving a trail of bodies in his wake
He stood on bloodied ground
As the sins of his forefathers laid humanity bare
Look over me, from a mansion in the sky
You hide it so well
For someone with everything
So, why do you choose to be friends with nothing
And no one,
My famous friend
I don't watch videos of myself
But YOU DO!
Odd how that works out, eh?
Spytastic in a totalitarian bureaucratic feminist totalitarian regime of the Left
The commie has become the pervert
But why exactly?
BORN IN THE USA!
I want your body girl
You smokin' up that  grass
But you're a tad on the danger side
No thanks, I think I'll pass
Sex Sex Sex Sex
Go watch some Spongebob
Like the complacent majority pigs
Burn an American Flag
of Chemical Castration
and masturbate compulsively

Wreckless Abandon, that's just majority

Ghetto Assed Buiscuits




Throw the Democracy, At The Republicans
Smoke weed, don't do it, but say you did
Whatever you say about me, doesn't change those facts
That I'd like to kill you, you punk ass bitch.
Look at the texture of my pants
To suck the semen out of your ass, which will be grass
Let me tell you something pal, the news it never changes
But with a face like that, you are defining strangeness
ba la la la.
la la la la
Don't ask your master for permission! You must kill your master!
For when he lynches you, there won't be resolution
Just name calling, and burning crosses
In your front yard. In your back yard.
Just with in ear shot
Well, is that okay?
But never mind
For all is said and done
And when all is said and done
It's real,  but it's been fun
In the world, of no solitude.
la la la la
la la la la
Bye


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Distractions Abound....

In this day in age of media that works at the speed of light, it's important to realize that we're so saturated with media and communication that if you have a public forum, there's a high likely hood there will  be a million and one things, events, and people all coming atcha at the same time.....

But I believe it's important to remain focused. When you work it is important to focus on one task at a time. People may work 25/7, but the mind can only focus on one thing at a time. The mind functions in a linear manner, therefore focus is sequential, not nonlinear.

I think I'm just gonna let that one sink in for a little bit.

Okay, back to watching the Yu-Gi-Oh movie on YouTube. Damn, it's long but good.

Hey, all right, another random Tarot Deck Card reading!....DRAW! Wait....

Oh no!!! The "Fool Card"???!!!!

AGAIN!!!!??? That's like the 50th time THIS WEEK!!!

GODDAMIT!!!!

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

An Essay - Rise of the Transnationals: The Fall of Xenophobia in A Digital Age

Rise of the Transnationals

An Essay


Online, on the internet, anybody can talk to anybody if they know the URL or email or @Name! Which could have potentially resulted in some social catastrophes and international incidents many a time, but for the most part, never did. The internet doesn't just bring people together. It's  bringing the entire world together, to form some kind of new hybrid technological and digital cultural Pangaea, with long term worldwide ramifications, especially on current culture, current society, and has many future implications. It's easier to be international and harder to be a racist or nationalist than ever before, as everything has slowly come to be integrated, leading back to that Digital Pangaea concept I am proposing to Thinkers, Historians, Cultural Analysts and Scientists of the WORLD'S future. Not just America's.

The internet is making us less racist or xenophobic, and more like that global village Marshall McLuhan tried to tell us all about. The internet has fought off terrorism, big brother, bigotry, xenophobia, espionage, and censorship like no medium before it, and maybe none after it. If any major media medium DOES in fact come after it, which scientifically speaking, will always be a possibility, especially when you think about the fact that less than 30 years ago the only thing technological we all used were traditional phones (NOT smart phones), televisions, radio, news, and compact discs. My how the world has changed. Will THE WORLD manage to keep up with technology itself when so much of it can't afford technology half the time with some exceptions? Hard to tell. That's a "global resources issue"

What this cultural phenomenon of the world coming together I've been seeing is something I've decided to call and refer to as "Trans-national culture". Trans-national media. Transnational society. Transnational issues. Trans-national dialogue. Trans-national socialization. All the kids really like that last one. Those same kids will travel to those very countries they discover through the internet some day. Not "Just Us". Not "Just Americans". But the internet makes culture portable, as impossible as that sounds. Japan was a pioneer of media encouraged tourism. Not just Los Angeles and Disney.


Bottom line: The foreign world seems just a little less foreign. More like a LOT less foreign

International Cultural Shoutout of the Week! Whatup Malaysia!

I must be doing SOMETHING right with Malaysia, as I've had 149 readers there in the last 7 days, reading more writing in this blog than any other of my top demographic countries, even the United States and Germany.

Essay: Bandes Dessinee [BD], Manga, Anime, and Cultural Preferential Bias and Treatment of a Gaijin Auteur


Essay - BD and Cultural Identity

There's a difference between the way I discovered Saturday Morning Cartoons and the way I discovered BD and French animation. I didn't know it at the time, but on a biological and genealogical level (weird as that may sound) I have more of a genealogical connection to BD as an artist than I do Japanese anime. There is much French heritage in my family tree. It's a spiritual and genealogical connection there. My attraction to Japanese, and Korean manga and anime is emotional and intellectual. My connection to French BD Comics is spiritual. I sense a soul there. A real soul in the pages of Bande Dessinee. I feel a real soul in Bande Dessinee the way I sense it in anime and manga, but not in most American animation or comics of the modern post 2002 era.

French comics culture has embraced me and my design sensibilities for comics and animation, without even ever having seen me in their country in person. My spiritual creative presence is there without me even having been there. France has embraced many of the design archetypes I created early on, on a profound creative and intellectual level, in a way Japan never did. 

Archetypes like:

  • ·       The Otomo Moebius influenced layering
  • ·       "Masking" as Scott McCloud calls it (detailed backgrounds/props layered over cartoon characters)
  • ·       "Guns, Swords, n' Trenchcoats"
  • ·       Organic Architecture
  • ·       Dystopian Dark High Fantasy (HP Lovecraft, Jhonen Vasquez, Blade Runner
  • ·       Warrior on a ledge, looking down on a cityscape horizon below
  • ·       Post Apocalyptic Science-Fantastique
  • ·       Marv-esque Protagonist
  • ·       Detective Stories
  • ·       Emphasis on Science Fiction and Fantasy-Fantastique Graphic Album Episodic Tomes

A lot of these elements I drew in my work without having seen any French comics  beforehand. It was a coincidence I drew that way. Unlike certain Japanese artists of the current era, I wasn't ripping competing artists off. I was trying to create something original. Something I could call my own. The French just happened to really like my way of doing things in comics, more than the mainstream American way half the time. The American mainstream often fails at imitating my artistic and literary storytelling and archetype style the way the French mainstream does. American artists copy me and don't go beyond, and half the time they lose the appeal of my initial work that made my work appealing to begin with. French designers copy, but they keep the spirit and appeal intact.

The Japanese embrace some but not all of these archetypes. The French embrace all of them. The two countries are both highly ranked in the international community, but they do have their differences and similarities. They both influence each other and have borrowed from one another with mutual respect for a long time now. My respect for Japan is not as mutual as my respect for France. The Japanese cartoonists often parody and mock me and my work on TV and online in a way the French cartoonists almost never do. There's a respect and credibility I have there, that I almost seem like I have in France that doesn't seem to exist as much in Japan yet.

Japan. France. Thank you for your love. I love you. Moi.

How come no one told me how awesome Canadian bookstores were?? A lot, if not all Canadian bookstores (especially ones in French-Canadian regions) are modeled after French bookstores to please their customers. French-Canadians. A demographic that almost doesn't exist in America. There's one store in particular over in Toronto (Canada, North America) that I discovered while doing research on modern Bande Dessinee articles online. Labyrinth Bookstore. Their shelves are stocked with all sorts of stuff that no one sells in the States. I'll be checking that out more in the future. I'm so jealous of that comic shop owner. They have access to so many beautiful artworks and books! Why do we not have that here!


American Otaku Superhero Fanboy Stereotype: "But Nobody in America LIKES French Comics. They're pretentious and lame!"

Correction. People in North America DO like French Comics. Certain PARTS of North America like French Comics. The United STATES "hates" and discriminates against French comics. Canada has many French  citizens and LOVES French tomes and comics! That's part of North America whether people want to acknowledge it or not. There are even stores in Canada, such as the famous Labyrinth Art Comic Shop, which specializes in stocking and selling French Tomes and Asian art books equally, to the point of not even bothering to specialize in comics from the United States. And I can't help but agree with that sentiment, considering how SHITTY the artwork in current comics in the U.S. is compared to current story and art of comics from France. They are clearly superior to U.S. comics, especially most current ones with rare exceptions. 

If there WERE shops in the United States that were modeled after Labyrinth up in Toronto, who knows. French comics might rival manga in popularity. On an international level France (especially locally) already DOES closely follow the U.S. and Japan in terms of sales and popularity worldwide.

Except in France, it's more purely about art and story in comics than anywhere else in the world, INCLUDING Japan! Which is a country HEAVILY influenced  by France.

Viva La France!

However, it is painfully obvious French culture isn't popular in the United States BECAUSE OF RACISM, Xenophobia, and DISCRIMINATION.

What a sad state of affairs the U.S. is in...that they can't appreciate a culture that transcends their own on numerous levels. ESPECIALLY COMICS!

The Florida-France Connection

You know,

As a long time resident and denizen of Central Florida, I've suspected for a while now there's some kind of historical, cultural, or social connection between Florida and France.

There's a connection there that I can't entirely explain. I don't know a lot of current people in either location, but Florida has French cafes, Florida TV got that "Cinemoi" channel. And then there is AirFrance, which is somewhat local. There's some kind of connection there culturally and socially,  but for the average Joe (pardon my French) it is hard to define.

Monday, December 9, 2013

Today's Online Research Topic? Burne Hogarth. Here is what I know about The Man

One of the most versatile and influential draftsman and illustrators of all time. Up there with Frank Frazetta, in terms of just how much he influenced the anatomy and artwork of all you're favorite superheroes and the comic books they appeared in, and continue to appear in.

Me personally? I'm a Hogarth revivalist. Hogarth is more relevant to American traditional comic  book artists and fine artists. I learned light, shade, shading shadow, anatomy, and clothing, wrinkles, and drapery, all from the textbooks of Hogarth. Except I don't call my Hogarth influenced anatomy studies superheroes. I just call mine "Heroes". "Super" is kinda pretentious nowadays.

On top of all that, Hogarth was a founder of one of the most influential art, animation, and cartooning schools and colleges of all time. The New York School of Visual Arts. A place many modern animation greats went to.

The Now Moment: A Spiritual Means to an End

Those who seek rewards in the afterlife strive to be good people while still alive, but not for rewards while still alive. This form of reward seeking as a spiritual pursuit that transcends life and living in this lifetime is the basis of all religious and spiritual thought, and is often embraced by those who HAVE nothing while they are alive, which is not to say this belief is entirely wrong, but religious life considers life a means to an end of rewards after death as this mortal life offers them nothing most of the time.

Those who do not seek to attain paradise after death as most do, (the secular world) will seek to attain "real estate" in Paradise while still alive, with material possessions,  career advancement, pleasure, power, influence, fame fortune, popularity, authority, respect, and status. People who seek this latter group of attainment for the most part do not put much stock in what happens to them AFTER they die. They're either afraid or in denial there is any existence of anything or any continuation of existence or feeling after death, so they set out "live life to the fullest cuz there ain't nothing waiting for you afterward". This latter group tends to follow the most ruthless trail while alive. This group considers life a means to an end while still alive, often because much prosperity has simply been given to them on some level.


The problem with both groups is both the secular and religious world have grown into a form of existence in THIS lifetime that says "Keep your eyes on the prize. The prize will be awarded to you either while you are still alive or after your dead, on a spiritual level. Both encourage one to neglect the true meaning of life, which is living and taking action in the Now. Living in the Moment, from moment to moment. No one on earth or in the history of earth is as powerful as someone who has truly acknowledge, realized, and figured out how to live in the Now Moment.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Clearly, some people have some shall we say "Identity Projection and Displacement Issues". I Don't know you. I've NEVER known you...

Nor have I EVER been "affiliated" or "associated with" you and your butt ugly spectacled name / face.

Don't pretend like I've "heard of you" or "know who the fuck you are". You're clearly full of bullshit.

I've never heard of you, nor do I ever want to. Nor does anyone ELSE want to now or ever.

Don't think you can fool people into thinking we're affiliated just because you stole/forged my name and/or face.

Thanks.

GORE

THE STOOPIDEST GORY MOVIE IN THE WORLD!!! COMING SOON, to SYFY.

Saturday, December 7, 2013

Animation vs. Webcomics: WHY MUST THIS BE????!!!!!

Truth is this. I am indeed a great artist, author, cartoonist,  and comic book artist, but I may never be an artist with a licensed online comic. I don't have a choice or say so in the matter. Webcomics never get licensed into animations. It sucks, but there's this barrier out there. Tokyo and Hollywood kind of hate webcomics. INCLUDING MINE. So FUCK THAT NOISE. The next best thing I could probably do in response to such an offensive maneuver Mastering Comic Books Made For Kindle, for $0.00. OR, I could just settle for the webcomics animation fail parting gift and consolation prize, The Lovely Parting Gift of free ubiquity and omnipresence in mainstream and independent media, new and old, being everywhere and everyone, in every country, in every state, in every region, on every show, in every movie, on every website, many videos, in every book and comic book, 24 hours a Day, 7 Days a Week, 4 Weeks a Month, 12 Months and 365 days a year, EVERYWHERE. Yeah, I guess I am that awesome!

Monday, December 2, 2013

RECENTLY UPLOADED TO DEVIANT ART: PRODUCTION DESIGN [CITY]


Newest DeviantART upload. Technically, this is actually a pencil illustration.

BUT, I decided to scan it in through black and white to create the illusion of it being done ink.

I GUESS we can call it "digital ink"

NO FREEDOM. YOUR CLOTHES SUCK. Fashion Design, Page 1







.....Experimenting with Fashion, and whatnot. I am quite fashionable!


Soundtrack:

Jay-Z - "Dirt off Your Shoulders"

Steven Page - Page One (Solo Album)