Mini Comics Day!

Things I did on Mini Comics Day at 757 Labs: Made a 16-page minicomic in under 8 hours. Ate an entire package of doublestuff Oreos in under 8 hours. Found out that costume-making is a legitimate hobby. Partially inked a zine cover. Created the phrase "Lesbooyah!" Listened to a cool guy play a song he wrote. Had lots of fun.

Free Piano! Sortof

Apparently, one of my neighbors was dissatisfied with their old upright piano. I found it smashed to splinters in their front lawn, awaiting the garbageman. I promptly snatched up the intact keyboard and stowed it in my car's trunk. The trunk lid wouldn't shut, but it was an uneventful thirty second drive to my house.

I then managed to manhandle the thing up the folding staircase to the attic, where it will remain until I should happen to need it for a sculpture. Or something.

I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it, but when God gives you a free piano, you don't refuse.

757 Comic Anthology

Hey, I guess I have news for once!
At the last 757CCC meetup, Juan and I wrapped up work on the comic anthology and ordered a test copy from Lulu.
So it's looking like the anthology might actually happen after all.

Now I get to work on the next one (fluttershy yay).

Patrick Nagel

Screw trying to come up with succinct, thoughtful blog posts.
I just found out that Patrick Nagel has a site with a gallery of his works that you can look at with your eyeballs: LOOOOK.

I can't think of the eighties without thinking of Nagel's graphic paintings. Fair warning: he liked to paint women who didn't like to wear clothing. Thinkofthechildren!/Whatisthisworldcomingto?!/etc.

Arguments I'm Tired Of

I don't really mind when people disagree with me on political issues - in fact, I love debate because it exposes me to new ways of seeing the world, and defending my viewpoint often helps me to clarify what my view actually is. But some lines of argument just fly in the face of facts, and don't actually help people defend their side - in fact, they may cause others to dismiss them altogether. Here's a short list of arguments I'd be glad to never hear again:

Marijuana isn't a drug, it's a plant created by God.
So is poison ivy, but I wouldn't smoke that.

If everyone had guns, no one would ever shoot anyone.
Yes, because that worked so well in the Old West.

If women were in charge, there would be no wars.
You think Hillary Clinton wouldn't bomb someone just because she has ovaries? Who do you think is sending drones into Pakistan?

Guns don't kill people. People kill people.
True, but guns make it a hell of a lot easier for people to kill people. What would the death toll of Columbine or Virginia Tech have been like if the shooters had to chase people with a knife?

Marijuana is a "gateway drug."
Only because it is illegal, and people have to go to criminals to buy it. If it were sold in stores the way alcohol and tobacco are, people wouldn't be exposed to the other drugs that drug dealers sell.

24 Hour Comics Day

Just woke up... an hour ago.
Did 24-Hour Comics day at 757 Labs in Norfolk. Started at 1:30pm and finished around 9:00 am the next day (today). Our fearless leader and event host, Kevin, had just gotten out of the hospital the previous day after being checked out for chest pains. They wanted to keep him overnight, but he told the people in the E.R.: "I gotta host 24-Hour Comics Day."
Do you see that, people? That is what a cartoonist looks like.
We are dedicated to our art.
(He's fine now).

It was my first time, but I managed to complete my 24 page comic, "Robot Hitler is Going Down to Loser Town," with several hours to spare. (Though I didn't ink my pencils). There were highs and lows, times of excitement and frustration. And we all goofed of at 3AM and watched some Patton Oswalt videos on the youtube. I had to stop drawing because my hands were shaking and I was crying from laughing so hard.

Definitely an experience I would recommend to others if you can find a group of like-minded crazy people to enjoy it with.

Shooting Through Binoculars

I discovered a new little photographic trick I'd like to throw into the bottomless abyss of the internet.

For this, you will need a pair of binoculars. Nothing too fancy or expensive, but the bigger the better. First, flip the binoculars around so that the larger lenses are towards you. Then position your camera so that the camera lens is half-on one lens of the binoculars, and half-off. A visual illustration follows:



(I spare no expense on illustrations. Or is it 'spend no expense'?)

You might have to move the binoculars around until you can see an image through them.
It should look something like this:



The ship in the bottom-left corner is seen through the binocular lens. The ship in the top-right corner is the same ship, but seen by the naked eye. The black part of the picture is the body of the binoculars.

If you adjust the settings on your camera, you might be able to get rid of that black area almost entirely. I find that using the automatic setting (where the camera auto-focuses and adjusts lighting itself) helps with this. With some fiddling, you can get something like this:



It looks like a Photoshop composite, but this is the image as it was captured by the camera. Pretty neat, huh? I thought so.

Give it a try.