Coffee Bar Open

Inquiry sent to Stumptown. If they accept new/unknown artists, I'm gonna go for it, since the date is way more do-able and convenient than APE.

(4 months away and no reg info - hey, it's like an anime con! :D )

ETA: Nothing definite yet - like I said, no idea if they take unknowns or if there's a vetting process or whatever.

Leave me a comment and I'll...
1. Tell you why I friended you.
2. Associate you with something - fandom, a song, a color, a photo, a word etc.
3. Tell you something I like about you.
4. Tell you a memory I have of you.
5. Ask something I've always wanted to know about you.
6. Tell you my favorite user pic of yours.
7. In return, you must post this in your LJ. 

Jjjoooooo, että

HYVÄÄ JOULUA <3<3<3

Ei mulla oikeesti mitää asiaa ollu. :DDD <3

Ottakaa tästä koulupoika-Venäjä. :'D

HURRRRRRRR yeah I am pretty much the biggest creeper ever

Brett and I just got back from seeing The Princess and the Frog. It had its troubles here and there, but we both really enjoyed it. Especially:
"What, y'all from Shreveport?"
We DIED.

Andreas Deja was lead on Mama Odie and not Facilier? Color me surprised.

OMG OMG CLIENTELE & VETIVER BACK TO BACK MARCH 1 AT MOHAWK

ETA: So, Ristorante Paradiso anime. Is it good? It sounds like it is right up my alley (in the Only Yesterday direction) and the manga art is stylized in a way that I love.
Thoughts?

ETA2: Today's project: clean out the guest room closet. Found so far:
- Jerky Boys CD
- bowling ball & bag (?!)
- fanny pack (??!)
- Blind Melon album
- Anime 18's Quicktime CD-ROM release of Legend of the Overfiend, Part III
- Mandrake 7.0 manual
- Ushio & Tora VHS
- Earth Girls Are Easy soundtrack
- Was (Not Was) What Up Dog? album

Rotated out the ads on tjandamal.com. I'm welcoming more, if you got 'em. I've only got 2 or 3 left after this round.

Thank you for the Christmas lights catssyclaws!

Signal boosting: Missing teen in Chicago area FOUND! :D

I wasn't a fan of Brittany Murphy (didn't dislike her either, just neutral), but her sudden death has me freaked out, since we are/were the same age. Granted, she had a much more demanding and stressful life, but...

On the way home from Brett's show last night, I kept wondering: My time here is limited. Am I using it well? Is it right to dedicate this much time to telling stories and drawing pictures? There's no objective, rational way to pass judgment on that. Life, why you gotta be unpredictable?

After SEVEN WEEKS, the Chapter 20 art is finally done. Granted, there was an out-of-state trip and some tl;dr bad shit mixed into that timeslot, but that's still too long. I think I might be able to make up for it during the vacation which starts tomorrow woooo

20 was a pretty tough chapter, both art- and dialogue-wise. For starters, they're inside a diner with walls covered in junk. TJ's finally feeling comfortable enough to open up a bit (and is talking about shit I had to do a bunch of research on). while Amal's trying to relax but he's got "please don't say anything that'll out us because I am not really at ease in this place" in the back of his mind. Oh yeah, and there's more turn-of-the-century architecture, with bonus decay added. Augghh.
I still gotta fix the perspective in a few places.

Still trying to think up something to post to the <Epic site for Christmas. Only idea so far has a punchline that hinges on a rap song from about 1993 that is 1. obscure and 2. obscure for a good reason, sssoooo yeah not so much.

- Via pana: "...In a society that doesn't value art for the most part; it's normal not to value artists. And artists often don't know it's happening, because they're part of that society and the trend of devaluing their own work." Great essay, but something not covered: nasty reactions upon asking a viable price, and how to determine whether said nastiness poses a risk w/r/t later work opportunities. As a relatively un-established artist, I do worry about this from time to time.

- Speaking of not valuing creative/design work, turns out that Jesus-ified merch ripped from commercial logos and other copyrighted materials is not just horrendously tacky but actually illegal. (warning: auto-playing ad with audio)

- Various folks on JF share their superpowers. (I just found this thread amusing)

- Kate Beaton + Nativity Story = Christmas is awesome again

- Not embarrassing: I went to bed super early last night, then woke at 3 with nasty heart-pounding, eyes-wide-open insomnia.

- Embarrassing: I spent the insomniac hours panicking about the comic (chapter 8 in particular). Gah.

I'm probably going to uStream tonight while doing touchups on chapter 1 and chapter 2.

Evan Dorkin on cartoonists and health insurance. Also being discussed on the Slave Labor Graphics call-in podcast.

Thanks for all the plugs on LJ and Twitter yesterday, guys. *_* Not gonna lie, I got pretty misty-eyed and wibbly about it. Also: squee

Spent last night doing touch-ups on Chapter 1 and reuploading corrected pages. Still got a few more fixes to do. Also retouching and prepping Chapter 2, pages 1-4, which will be next Tuesday's update.

I know we should be doing Christmas cards. I know. It's like thank you notes and using the correct fork. I could say it's because I don't have time to devote to a color illustration (which is basically true), but same as the past few years, I just... can't muster up the will to care about Christmas. Simply buying small gifts for my parents was a huge hurdle; the prospect of going the post office to mail them is daunting. I don't know if it's burnout or depression or what.

Also not feeling so hot; think I'm coming down with some sort of minor bug. Which isn't so bad - I've barely been sick at all since leaving restaurant work this past February. I should be fine shortly, but for now I want to curl up under a blanket annnngzzzzz

uhhh lacking in ambition today and I need to learn how to use crayons again

Huarghlblargl

Edit: OH UH AND

I'm thinking about doing Stumptown instead of APE. Waiting to hear from NYCC first.

APE Pros: SAN FRANCISCO, huge, busy, likely to break even
APE Cons: Real close to NYCC time-wise, hotel cost

Stumptown Pros: PORTLAND, visit our pal drathernaut, maybe meet Grimm & Dean & Neeka & la la la, laid-back con
Stumptown Cons: Unlikely to break even, coming up pretty soon