The Warrior's Rest

Shutting Down Twitter? Really, that only takes a FRACTION of MY Power...

I can also build things. Not just destroy them...

Seriously though. Going off air for a while. I suggest you all find a hobby.

And the answer is Yes, sometimes I AM tempted to KILL EXISTENCE.

Big in Japan? And Why Influence Only Seems to Point West-Ward

Everyone in comics and animation talks about Japanese artists who are hot in America. But seriously, when does anyone ever talk about American animators or cartoonists who are big in Japan?? Step ya game up, America! Currently, the chain of influence only seems to go one way. From East to West, or East Meets West, and never from West to East. It used to be like that. If DeviantART and all the fanart of my character on there is any indicator, with rare exceptions anywhere else, I seem to be one of the few and only North American Cartoonists or Animators who has gained Any leverage or traction, or any type of foothold in Japan, as is evidenced by my presence on DeviantART, and Amazon.co.jp. An American cartoonist drawing for Japanese audiences has a steeper cultural hill to climb than a Japanese animator or cartoonist drawing for American audiences. But, at least I'm off to a good start by getting along famously not just with American cartoonists, but artists such as Thomas Romain, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Yoshitoshi ABe. I've achieved about as much leverage and influence as one foreigner can achieve in Japan, without actually physically being there, and even then, presence within Japan is highly expected and anticipated by the Japanese toward famous American media figures, as a form of diplomatic courtesy. I guess I'll just have to wait and see if I ever get that famous.

Hey! Lookit that I can see the future! Guess where little stalker boy will be in 2 years....Whoa! Funny, isn't it?

Don't worry bro. I'll toss some flowers on the sidewalk next to the highway, JUST FOR U!!!
Yay! You're DEAD!

Controversial Theories About Genetics in Religion or in International Art...

There are theories that explain why believe in God and Anime both exist. Not that the two topics are related, but the explanation for what causes talent in them does have an explanation, albeit, a controversial one...

And that explanation is: Cultural and National Genetics.

Top Asian and European Artists, Designers, Conceptual Artists, Comics Artists, Animators, and Illustrators....

AND religious conviction....

Has always been, and will always be, either ethnically or culturally GENETIC. It's in your genes.

You're ability to worship God, draw comics and manga, or draw anime and animation well, is in your genes.

We inherit most of our talents and abilities from our parents.

Some of the ability to believe, or draw, is learnt. But mostly, it just runs in the family.

Genius at religion and art is inherited.

That's also the reason many Asians only want Asians to draw anime and manga. It's a culturally biased race thing, but mostly because Asians are more likely to have a pre-ordained ability to intuit out How To Draw Anime and Manga to BEGIN with.

Genetics is a HUGE factor in creativity and religion

So where does that leave me, you say??

Well let's think about it. While I was born in America to a white mother and multiracial British father, there is a lot of Eurasian and other such blood in my ancestry. But I had ancestors who were Mongolian (Chinese), French, British, Russian, and German and many other places in this world (many not associated with creativity, such as North Africa and Australia).

If one wanted to chart the cultural inclination of MY creativity's genetic lineage (not taught, inherited, PURELY inherited.)

The Chinese are known for film, martial arts choreography, and spiritual/secular philosophy. But they are also known to attempt anime and manga, though not as famously as Japan does. Chinese anime is folk anime, and Chinese manga is folk manga. It's so called "outsider manga", often incorporating the same literary and cinematic techniques the Chinese apply to their older cultural traditions. So I've got that element in my comics and cartooning. The Asian Folk art element.

Then there is the French, Russian, and German ("Jewish Ashkenazi" according to 23andme.com) Genes I carry. Countries that excelled at literature, architecture, storytelling, science, technology, film, and art, some like France (with comics/manga and animation co-pros) more than others.

Combine those 2 cultures (East and West), and you get where my creative intuition originates from. To be honest, yes I DO believe a lot of my creativity comes from my cultural genes. I don't think it's a magic trick. It's inherited from my ancestors, even if I know nothing about any of them as family from being adopted. Which I don't know, so that answers that question.

Copyright Article: If a Possible Creative Employer that Never Actually Hired You with Paperwork Takes From You Without Giving, Should You Be allowed to, Too? On Resumes???

That's the liability of borrowing with disregard to legal creator and artist and writer likeness and  trademark. Studios and bosses treat borrowing like it only works ONE WAY, in their favor, not YOURS.

In other words, if you give FREE IDEAS (that you don't copyright or trademark) or your likeness in the internet domain (i.e. what people misinterpret as the public domain) without your initial knowledge, consent, or permission. In otherwords, if they treat you as an unofficial employee, give you the royal treatment by misappropriating your likeness and characteristics of it, should you allow yourself to list those same companies as clients in your resume, seeing as they're using YOUR LIKENESS and CREATIVE WORK and IDEAS?

It's a good question to ask about creator owned ideas. How much credit is a creator, animator, and cartoonist ENTITLED to exactly when everyone "borrows" their likeness and ideas they own? They are certainly entitled to a share of the PROFITS of the things they inspire. Yet many creative individuals who fall prey to this (cough cough, Betty Boop, Marvel's Blade), are treated like they're not entitled to take credit for their own likeness and work.

Something should be done. Studios and Publishers need to make things more fair than they do...Economically. Becuase SOMEONES making 10s of millions of $$$ from these projects.

And NO, putting the name "Joe Fagguts Schmo" in your credits listing isn't fair use of my name when it's "Joseph Matthews" or Joseph Alberts. Feels more like a cheap shot than any actual contribution to my career. Feels like I'm being CHEATED.

Hell, man....If I didn't know any better...

I'd be starting to think that with the things I've created, I might just have a hit on my hands......

From YouTube and streaming online, to END TIMES comics and scripts.

Shoot man, even this blog I write in my spare time has over 23,000 views in 6 international continents.

Where I'm At! I gots 2 turntables and a Microphone....

I've got to start taking my career and drawing time/schedule more seriously. My thoughts and words show a serious minded mentality toward drawing and producing new art that my actions and pencil marks don't reflect.

But the thing is, despite all that, somehow I seem to have developed a fan following for END TIMES, locally, nationally, internationally, and online. I have the following, but not the money, which complicates things. I've come to learn and realize the fans only want ME to draw END TIMES. The fans won't accept a single page of END TIMES being drawn by anyone other than timid, painstaking, torturously humble me. And now there is discussion, rumors  regarding my so-called "hiatus", which was me drawing behind closed doors, coming to terms with my newfound pop culture fame, resenting my financial status and plagiarism from others, and me coming to terms with this new lifestyle of mine. It ended up being nothing like I anticipated a life in pop culture would be.

I'm starting off the same way Eastman and Laird did with TMNT Ninja Turtles. Their art book that IDW recently release came in the mail yesterday, and it really inspired me. Talk about Media Master Builder 22s. They Built a Media Franchise out of nothing that's more than 25 years old! I want to do what they did, what Eastman and Laird did, except I'm keeping my vision Dark instead of lightening it up or making it humorous and innocent. TMNT started off very violent, gritty and dark. Closer to Sin City than Tiny Toons, which oddly enough eventually the public came to perceive it as the opposite being the case. Most people are unaware of how the Ninja Turtles started out.

Issue 1 of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It really gives you a sense of what artists like Rob Schrab, Jim Mahfood, and Jhonen Vasquez have in mind when they sit down to draw their comicbooks. That beautifully dynamic and energetic crudeness. That courageous craziness we never used to see in comics.

Encouraging Words Meant For the Future Cartoonists of The World, American, Japanese, or Otherwise

Okay, the 1980s? Done and Gone.

The 1990s? Passed and Over With

2000-2010? Over and Done With! Well, sorta.

But you know what's NOT over and NOT Full Defined, and Full of Opportunity for ALL YOUNG CARTOONISTS?

The 2010s, 2020s, and the rest of this Century!

If you do a search for "The most influential American Cartoonists of the Twenty-First Century,

You will find nothing. No lists made by anyone. And yet it is BOUND to emerge at some point. The trades will begin compiling lists of the most influential Cartoonists of the New Millennium 21st Century (2000-2100).

For all we know that could be any number of you young aspiring artists reading this column with stars in your eyes.

The 21st Century has a long time to go until it is fully defined. A lot of comics, animes, cartoon shows, and manga was released and cherished in the 2000s, or 21st Century. We have yet to see who's going to define all of it. Could be anyone. Soon enough a new generation will leave its mark on the internet, the media, the publishing world, and the Sands of Time.

So if you're ever feeling depressed about not being at the top, just remember, you've still got a lifetime of trying left to go! So get back to work!!!

Expert

Fields of Expertise:

·       Animation Production

·       Anime

·       Jhonen Vasquez (Scholar)

·       Katsuhiro Otomo (Scholar)

·       Toonami (Scholar)

·       Internet Technology

·       Computer Science

·       Writing

·       Creative Writing

·       English

·       Television

·       Film

·       Filmmaking

·       Design

·       Costume Design

·       Production Design

·       Artbooks

·       Spirituality

·       Celebrity

·       Fame

·       Ingenuity

·       Channeling, Medium

·       Scorpio

·       INTP

·       Alternative and Independent Comics

·       Music Appreciation

·       History of Animation

·       App Software

·       Spec Software Development

·       Notebooks

·       Sketchbooks

·       Bande Dessinee

·       Manga

·       Critical Thinking

·       Inventing

·       Positive/Negative Space

·       Storyboards

Where you Will and Won't Find Me

Iconic Websites You WILL Find Me Listed On

• Amazon
• Google
• YouTube
• Blogger
• Twitter

Iconic Websites You WON'T Find Me Listed On

• Wikipedia
• IMDB
• Anime News Network
• DeviantART

Recent Email With a Lifelong Mentor

When I suggested the idea of an art school alumni reunion with people who used to attend the same art school I did, I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to socialize and network with creative people closer to my own age and not just on the internet, but in real life.

Oddly enough, my lifelong mentor, in his message on LinkedIn didn't recommend it, and felt I would be "dissapointed" by the caliber of alumni who would show up, meaning he seemed to think I'm one of his most successful and famous students and "the caliber of my current network" (another way of saying all the successful network of people I've met and am friends with) is probably on "too high" of a status level to really be very impressed by people showing up at an art school reunion.

I found that interesting. I may be more powerful, famous, and successful than I was when I was 17 and 18, but even I miss meeting people in real life and in person. After all, though, yes, my network of connections is large and I am successful, I feel like I could still benefit from meeting people who maybe AREN'T quite at the same level as me and don't have the years of work behind them...I guess I never thought status level of the one being introduced to you or the status level of you introducing yourself to someone new if you're just starting off...Does it really matter that much? Does people impression of my status level really matter that much that I wouldn't benefit from being introduced to people with less experience and less wide networks of their own?

Dunno. I guess I never gave it that much thought until now. I honestly just like meeting new people, even if they're not successful like I am....

The Mayor

It's not every day that the mayor of the city I live in greets me at my front door in an effort to promote herself in a campaign.

That's actually pretty cool. Normally I don't get visitors, let alone visits from the mayor of my own city...

Where to go to get the HONEST facts on me, and not a a bunch of lies and deception the media pulls out of its ass.....

Jim Phillips, Real Radio 104.1 (Florida)
Uncyclopedia
YouTube
Adult Swim (50% of the time)
Dave Sim
Jay Myers
Cloudy With a Chance of Animation Allegory

And now for something.....Completely Outrageous.

Favorite "Design-Crazy" and Wacky-Funky Cartoon Characters:

·       Ziv Zoolander (Bots Master)

·       Marsupilami (Spirou & Fantasio)

·       Spirou & Fantasio (Smurfs)

·       Sam, Clover, Alex (Totally Spies!) Marathon

·       Bonkers (Raw Toonage, Disney Afternoon)

·       Max (Disney Afternoon)

·       Wolfie (Tex Avery)

·       Sam and Max (Fox)

·       Akira (AKIRA)

·       Eva "Molly" Wei (Oban Star Racers)

·       Don  Wei (Oban Star Racers)

·       Jeremie Belpois (Code Lyoko)

·       The Mask (Dark Horse Comics)

·       Retro and Pandy (Dead Leaves)

·       ZIM, Dib (Invader Zim)

·       Usagi Yojimbo

·       Marv (Sin City)

·       Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Comic, NOT Nick Show)

·       Rork (Andreas)

·       Elric of Melnibone (Michael Moorcock)

·       Conan The Barbarian (Robert E. Howard)

·       Spawn (Todd McFarlane)

·       Johnny The Homicidal Maniac (Jhonen Vasquez)

·       Milk and Cheese / Eltingville (Evan Dorkin)

·       Scud (Rob Schrab)

All Artwork That Appears on This Blog, Falls Under the Category of "Something No One's Ever Seen Before".....

WHY, you ask? Because, Fool!!! The entire POINT of INDIE COMICS is to make up shit you haven't ever seen before! The point IS to be original, and not rehash the same formula. From TMNT to Sin City to Nny. The point IS to make a fantasy up.

The Evolving Market for Dramatic Adult Anime-Inspired American Animation on Modern Day Television

Like all markets, the market for complex, intelligent, mature animation and/or drama is evolving. Always evolving.

At one point it was Twentieth Century, Fox, Disney, ABC, The WB, NBC, USA (RIP), HBO, and MTV Animation.

Later on came Cartoon Network, Toonami, Adult Swim, FX, G4TechTV, Film Roman, SYFY, Nickelodeon, Jetix for Toon Disney, and even later Disney XD.

These networks have done everything from Deadspace to Aeon Flux. There's a market there. But it's not homogeneous. It's scattered about like golden easter eggs on the channel surfers treasure map landscape. Never all in one place. There's no CONCENTRATED market for Dramatic and Adult Animation with potential action adventure or just action.

These shows have always just been "out there, on the fringe".

Sigh.

Some day.