New Years 2013

Spare some change? Online handouts ROCK!

The Difficulty of the Present World Situation...

There was a time when drawing comics and cartoons felt easy. Well, to me it did anyway. It really did.

But the honest truth is, the landscape is changing...And it's gotten harder to pursue work and projects that are innovative and new, according to experts and industry veterans. It's difficult to get funding and the support of the corporates, and it's difficult to get anything new greenlit for production. And if you do manage to do something new, there's a high probability critics and audiences will reject it.

Drawing comics panels is hard work. People who can master drawing comics pages, panels, and full compositions are doing some of the hardest work there is

My philosophy used to be "pursue what is easiest". In the past that was cartoons and animation....But due to the changing landscape, evolving industry, internet information overload, and the inflation of aggressive and unfriendly competition in most instances, animation and cartooning has kind of gone from being one of the friendliest, kindest, most welcoming industries, to the other end of the spectrum: One of the most aggressive, hyper-competitive, and at times, meanest. Not an easy industry landscape to work in.

It still is and still can be rewarding, but there's a higher probability of torturous pain and stress being involved.

Animation's a lot harsher now than it was when I was growing up and first decided I wanted to pursue it as a kid.

But what of the industry leaders, you ask? The Modern Day Masters? The Frank Millers, Todd McFarlanes, Dave Sims, Jeff Smiths, Genndy Tartakovskys, Otomos, Jhonen Vasquezes?

I'm sure some of them do fine and are still just as good as ever, but I've read up on numerous industry leaders. I do that, always have, I read articles about and interviews with them in the trades, and most of them struggle just as much as any other artists with things. High Prestigious reputations can be deceptive in some regards. If someone is a media icon like them, it's easy to think they can easily always get whatever they want, which isn't always true.

Despite being difficult to succeed in the industry, drawing in and of itself is worthwhile if you're just doing it for yourself. I've always wanted to see a certain type of cartoon, but before I designed it it didn't really exist, so I built that style myself. The same one I hoped somebody else would design, build, and draw, but nobody did in reality. Even to this day, my art and writing represents my own style. One no one else is doing in exactly the same way. I've built the artistic and literary style I've always really wanted to see.

Don't set out to draw manga.....

Most people who "set out to draw manga" in America end up drawing on the cliches. 

Drawing on manga ELEMENTS is fine, but trying to replicate the entirety of the style is kind of pointless. 

I'm not setting out to draw manga. I'm setting out to draw general comics, which utilize certain manga archetypes, just not all of them. 

American comics, even oel manga, aren't really seen by a Japanese audience, and the Japanese ARE the number one demo for manga and anime. If they're not seeing your work (and they're not), there's really no point to it all, is there?

Just draw regular old comics. Not manga. Not superhero. Create you're own entirely new genre. It's better that way. More natural. Reading manga and watching anime is fine, it makes great reference material like any other form of local or international comics and animation, just don't try to blatantly imitate the format. You'd be trying to live up to a standard that's impossible to meet. At least in America you have the freedom to draw how you want, not how you're readers want you to draw. 

Why own 1 Black Katana, When You Can Own 2 of Them?

Better yet, why FIGHT with one katana, when you can fight with two of them, Miyamoto Musashi style (?)

In High School, I never actually SMOKED POT. Still never have....

But I did hang out with the potheads and stoner-slackers a lot. They had the best sense of humor. I was really only offered pot once growing up. I turned it down.

"Nah, man. No thanks," I said with a wave of my hand.
"Aw right man. It's cool. Don't worry bout it."

Other People, and SHIT like that....

OTHER people in entertainment may need to feed off of lurid obscenity "to stay sane", but that is not a healthy lifestyle, and I certainly don't. Especially not currently.

Think of the CHILDREN! Stealing and plagiarism is wrong!

That must be why I'm one of the most stolen from artists on TOP OF being one of the most famous, innovative, and influential, eh?

"Hello? Yes, police? I'd like to report a theft and robbery from my house? Where? Well, actually, they broke in through my computer and stole my ideas and concepts by the hundred...Yes? Yes? Well, actually, I didn't get their name or what they look like. They were INVISIBLE, like ninja! Or somethin...."