Beer Before Liquor

Mine Own Birthday

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:33:39 GMT

The odometer ticks over another year. No posting anything today, just drawing and being rained on.

Hungry for Something

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:22:42 GMT

I've been so, so hungry lately for some reason or another.

I gently increased the size of my intervals today just to see what might happen. I felt no knee pain at the end of my half hour, but I'm hardly enjoying my runs. Mostly I spend all my head space overanalyzing the sensations traveling up my right leg each time it hits the ground so I can stop at the first glimmer of pain. It'll probably be a couple weeks after the knee stuff is all healthy for my mind to get itself right.

Meanwhile, I've been drawing. Lately it's been a lot more like making myself draw, so I've been falling back on running and tinkering with the new computer bits for hobbies of enjoyment. Probably my sketchbook pages are just overwhelmed by random lines. A lot of little renderings of fabric folds or wrinkles peppered by half-hearted figure drawings that come more from the head than the eye or the heart. I really wanted to be about a month in to a new book at this point, but that hasn't happened yet.

The old book, however, is now available on Amazon.

I really am trying to lighten up on myself and assure same self that I'm allowed to fuck around as much as I want -- not every drawing has to be in the pursuit of work/fame/money. Not every doodle is a new character to license and etc. but it is hard, hard, hard. It's getting easier, but still.

Various Rehabilitations

Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:23:17 GMT

So I've got to haul home a new record player and a case for my new computer. It's probably poor planning that both these giant packages arrived on the same day, but who could predict UPS?

My summer project is building a home theatre PC. It's gotta play all the various Internet videos and downloads, plus Blu-Ray, plus (ideally) replace the TiVo's DVR functions. It's a big ambitious thing, but others have done it and I've taken some serious notes on what they've done and plotted my system accordingly. Still, it was going to be one of those pipe dream projects I always talk about and never get to (for example: building myself a new desktop already), so I sank a pile of money into components for this project to commit me to getting it done already. Software-wise, I've got my laptop running almost everything I intend to put on this new computer, but it's a laptop and so it's counter-functional to make it a completely immobile part of the entertainment center.

Yesterday was my first full set (8) of 60-second interval runs without any knee pain. These are tiny intervals for a tiny total, but it's a little victory as I do little physical therapy type exercises and ice and ibuprofen and foam roll the shit out of my legs several times a day. Last week, when I could do only 4 60-second interval bits before stopping, in one of them I hit this, like, perfect form. It was the physical equivalent of an epiphany. Just: BING! and my body ran effortlessly, feet falling in a line, arms not too high, landing on the balls of my feet rather than the heel. I felt like a goddamn gazelle and it felt more like playing out than working out. For just 60 seconds. I think that one single minute redoubled my enthusiasm and determination.

As for everything else, we're still putting the house back together. Cleaning, organizing, exercizing.There's food in the fridge and we threw out everything in the freezer. We're rehabilitating that thing, too. You can already use it to get actual human ice instead of novelty-large or novelty-small cubes. It looks like a doctor's office in that cold cubby, rather than a series of frosty lumps.

I'm saying there's a lot of putting things together and putting things back together to be done. But isn't that always the way in a entropy-loving universe?

Hawaiian Interlude

Thu, 28 May 2009 15:28:26 GMT

Apologies for unexplained absence. I was in Hawaii for Day Job for a while, but I'm back now.

I have a digital camera again after nearly a year without one. Expect photos.

More soon.

Good Habits

Tue, 12 May 2009 21:02:29 GMT

No drawings today, just more posting to keep up momentum.

Friday morning, my brother and I flew out to New Mexico to surprise our mom for Mother's Day. It was a great trip, sort of a mini-vacation with my mom and brother. The traveling and altitude only aggravated my general level of insomnia, though, and finally finally finally I got a deep long night's sleep last night. I was out before the reading lamp in the bedroom was off and while Sara was still playing Mother 3 in the living room. I was so out my dreams were solid objects etched in my memory instead of fuzzy half-remembered notions. I'm saying I feel pretty great today.

Something else that happened was I banged the shit out of my bad knee on a doorway of my mom's new place. Monday was the two-week running furlough mark, but I've got a nice goose egg on my kneecap, so who knows if that joint's feeling better yet or not.

My routine's been jostled and it'll be jostled again next week when I'm gone to Hawaii for work. It's silly, but I'm always a little on edge when there's too much breaking of my routines at once. I've been a relatively slackful and disorganized person in my life, but the creative habits and routines I've slowly put together have made me a healthier and happier person. Even just a few days accommodating chaos, and I get anxious like I'll have kicked my good habits without looking.

Thu, 07 May 2009 21:09:11 GMT

We saw a free IMAX screening of the new Star Trek movie last night. It was not at all terrible, which was a nice feeling, given that I went in prepared to wince and watch the whole thing between my fingers while weeping. Most of the stupendously hokey stuff is weighted toward the beginning and it might be the first time where they advertised a movie with all the worst scenes instead of any of the best. It manages to make the danger the characters are in exciting even though you know they're all invulnerable by force of tradition. Given how it shuffles them from cliffhanger to cliffhanger with a big "gee whiz" grin on Kirk the whole time, it actually kind of felt like one of those good Indiana Jones movies.

Maybe I saw charm that wasn't there because of the IMAX experience, but I went in wincing and walked out happy and that hasn't happened since Iron Man last summer.

Today I'm mostly posting to keep up momentum. How are all of you?

Radical Boy Portable GT Conclusion

Wed, 06 May 2009 19:55:58 GMT

This concludes Radical Boy Portable GT.

RADICAL BOY WILL RETURN

I don't know yet how soon it'll be, but there's more to come. That all just wraps up the 30 pages in 36-ish days for a little print mini-comic. Now to aimlessly doodle for a couple days while I finalize some summer comics plans.

You can read all of Radical Boy Portable GT on one page over at Webcomicsnation.

Last May, I started Fail Faster Forever. It's a 500-page graphic novel drawn direct to ink and completely improvised over the course of that summer. As of earlier this week, you can now read the entire thing online for free at Webcomicsnation. Because of how it's made, sometimes it looks and reads like garbage and sometimes it looks and reads like this:

and my heart becomes a goddamn bullet of joy.

This is the time of year where I burst with restless energy. Let's see what happens next.

Radical Boy Portable Page 29

Tue, 05 May 2009 17:20:35 GMT

Another Monday where I screwed the pooch. Well, actually a Monday where I was crippled by a week's worth of insomnia. Every night now, my eyes pop open at 3:30 a.m. and it's almost impossible to fall back asleep before the alarm. It's not that bad, and usually I can recoup on the weekend, but not this past weekend.

It's my first real bout of insomnia since something like 5 years ago, when I finally quit regular caffeine intake and eventually all of the various soda pops.

What else? Mom's established out in New Mexico now, running furlough continues, and last night Sara and I started watching the first season of In Treatment. There's plenty of other television we have slated to watch, but not much of it is only a half hour and so episodic that we could go without watching it for a week or more with no trouble.

One page left! Tomorrow!

Radical Boy Portable Page 28

Fri, 01 May 2009 16:44:00 GMT

Two left, gang! Two left!

Radical Boy Portable Page 27

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:49:24 GMT

I said two pages today, but I didn't mean it. It's a more satisfying reading experience to see just this today, I decided.

I don't get a lunch break today, so I'm not sure how much I'll have up tomorrow, but it'll be at least a page. At this point the 30 in 30 is pretty much shot, but I came real close and I'm happy with my work, so whatever, suckas.

Last night when Paisley was drawing her comic for today, she asked me to help her figure out how Wolverine's hair went, and I doodled this to explain while she loafed behind my head:

And if you're still hankering for more drawings by me, I have a guest comic up at Chainsaw Comics.

Double Sized Radical Boy Update (Pages 25 and 26)

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:12:39 GMT

Well livejournal just ate my comics and my post about how fucking refreshing Tracy Daugherty's new biography of Donald Barthelme is compared to the other attempts I've read. In short: it is good because the Daugherty has the space and confidence to stop a paragraph or three and give a quick outline of modern architecture or the history of The New Yorker. Anyway, it's the first book about Don B. I'd recommend to pair with the actual stories and maybe even to actual human readers outside, you know, English majors. Fucking refreshing.

Sara bought it for me as a surprise present. She is very nice to me.

What else? Four pages left. Two Thursday, two Friday, if all goes as planned. Then?

Radical Boy Portable Page 24 (Finally!)

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:59:34 GMT

The weekend was longer than I'd expected, so I'm playing catch-up around here. If the new production schedule holds, you'll be getting double-sized updates of Radical Boy until all 30 are up, but we'll see if I can keep it fun for myself.

Yesterday was the first weekday I didn't post in several months. It was a shitty morning to an otherwise okay day, and I eventually wound up dragging some art and writing out of myself in the evening. My knee problem isn't going away just by taking a time or two off, so I'm putting myself on running furlough for two weeks. I hope that's enough to get some light work back, or I'll start losing some stamina and general good cheer.

What else? Mom and Dad are driving all of Mom's stuff out to New Mexico. Sara and I re-organized the furniture in our apartment. The government gave me a check and I thought I might buy myself a little present with some of it to make me feel better, but when the time came I couldn't come up with a little thing to buy for myself because I was feeling bad. It was a conundrum.

Radical Boy Portable Page 23

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 16:53:53 GMT

This is the last Radical Boy for the week. Monday there will be 3 new pages up. Three of the final 7! Man, remember when we were all like "Who are the final five Cylons?" and we didn't know yet. Those were good days, but these are good days, too!

Nedroid is having a Webcomics Fanart Day and he drew just the most awesome Radical Boy fan art along with some others. The whole thing got even more amazing for me personally when other people (like
monstro and mike_grizzleby) chimed in with additional RB fan art in the comments.

I'm saying it's Friday, it's sunny and wonderful outside, and the wistful portion of the weekend doesn't even begin for another day or so yet.

Additional Video Update: The perfect intersection of several of my interests.

Radical Boy Portable Page 22

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 17:07:49 GMT

Another day, another Radical Boy page: 22/30.

If you were to ask me about what is going on in my life right now, I would probably talk about how my mom got a new job. My parents are still married and they live in northwest Indiana. Right before Christmas, as she was finishing her Master's Degree, my mom got laid off from her job. It took some months, but she got a new position in New Mexico. My dad, meanwhile, can't retire from the mill for another year or so, so this weekend Sara and I are going back to Indiana to go to my mom's graduation and help her pack to leave while my dad lives back here until he can retire and move to follow her.

It is the sort of thing that brings out a whole swirl of emotions and questions in me, and I'm not even the one moving. My mom's never lived alone before -- she moved out of my grandparents house into her first apartment with my dad. She's also only ever lived in Indiana. My parents are smart and determined and brave and cool and it is weird as all hell to think about them setting up a schedule of alternating who flies where weekends. I've had plenty of time now to roll the thing around and part of me is sad and part of me is excited and mostly it is like a fog of unpredictability has settled over an otherwise completely stable part of my life. I'm saying the whole thing is puzzling.

Ill-Conceived Box Copy for a Movie I Love: The Graduate

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 20:55:21 GMT

One of my hobbies is to coming up with terrible commercials or taglines for movies. Once I even wrote a new theme song for According to Jim.

But today, friends, I wrote some ill-conceived box copy for The Graduate:

See the movie that had all of America asking, "Are you seducing me, Mrs. Robinson?"

Anne Bancroft stars as the original M.I.L.F.! This desperate housewife will do anything she can to seduce a boy half her age (Dustin Hoffman). He graduated college, but now she wants to give him an extra semester of education -- sexual education!

Fans of There's Something About Mary and Meet the Parents will love this quirky laugh riot that's not afraid to get a little raunchy. Featuring a soundtrack with original versions of hit songs like Mrs. Robinson and The Sounds of Silence!

I don't know why I did it, but I did. It started with a doodle of Mrs. Robinson peeling the skin of her leg off. What. The. Hell. Why would I do this to one of my all-time favorite movies? Oh well.

Single-Serving Radical Boy Portable Update: Page 21

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:43:36 GMT

So I screwed my knee up a little. This morning when I ran, I stopped way short because the ongoing twinge in my knee was bothersome enough that I was doing some kinda limp-run whenever I pushed off with my right foot. It's probably just a minor case of runner's knee, so I have to scale back my runs a lot and take it easy the next couple weeks, which is all frustrating since I'd just gotten to a comfortable plateau and I'd soon have some other options open up for me like working on speed or distance, and now I'm going to have to work back up to this same level. Still, I'm trying to stay objective and not let the mental energies leak too much into the future or the past.

When I aborted the run, I stopped and sat on one of the concrete beaches and just watched the sun come up. There was a man fishing near me and it was all pretty wonderful, considering.

Anyway, I think I'm going to pick up a pair of Vibram Fivefingers, because I've been secretly curious for a while, I've got the money, and I have to scale my runs back anyway.

Sorry to all the people that just bored the shit out of. I have something else today, but I'm going to give it its own post.

EDIT: I totally forgot to link to this awesome Radical Boy fan art that Phil Redmon drew. Phil is the tops -- a good friend and a continuous source of inspiration for me -- and what's more, today is his birthday.

Double Sized Tuesday Radical Boy Portable Update (Pages 19 and 20)

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:03:45 GMT

Okay, now we're all caught up with Radical Boy. I feel whupped.

Just 10 pages left and then something that is not this exactly!

Radical Boy Portable Pages 17 and 18

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 19:46:20 GMT

But I thought you promised 3 strips! That's only 2!

Yeah, okay, look, there just wasn't enough time to get page 19 done and have it look good in time to post today. I'm sorry, but now you'll get 19 and 20 in tomorrow's double-sized update.

As penance for breaking my promise to you, dear readers, I present a bonus new t-shirt design:

This year all the good t-shirt money is tied up in frog-based designs. Think about it.

How is everything else, Tom?
It is okay. Chicago weather canceled my run this morning, but I am trying to not be a grouch about it. How are you all? Some of you are new. Hello, new people!

Radical Boy Portable Page 16

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:07:15 GMT

That's it for this week's strip! You've got to swish those six panels around in your mouth all weekend. Monday we're back with pages 17,18 and 19, so be ready!

It is a weird thing to say but I beat another video game last night. For a guy who draws Radical Boy, I don't actually play very many video games anymore. When I do it's either on my commute or in the wee hours of Saturday and Sunday morning after all other entertainments have been exhausted and Sara is quietly reading or dozing on the couch. It's even stranger because for so much of my life I was never a person who completed games. I'd get some or even most of the way done with a game I enjoyed and then move onto something else. Now I buy fewer games, play less, but stick to it more, I guess. Maybe it's just me growing some sort of sense of frugality.

Radical Boy Portable Page 15

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 19:50:25 GMT

Just like that, we're halfway done! There's not really a big comedic beat to this page, but it's a nice pause before more things happen and it does (I hope) a concise job of explaining how this strange convention of some video games works for the uninitiated.

The past couple days I've been lucky enough to basically wake up with the general idea of the day's page and maybe a key line of dialog or two. If this were a stable feature of my mind, I'd believe I could churn out comics at this rate forever, but experience leads me to believe it's as much a transitory front of mood as the despair times.

I'm saying most of tomorrow's strip is already done, it's a beautiful day outside and here we are inside together.

Radical Boy Portable Page 14

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 20:40:19 GMT

Damn this strip was a pain to layer correctly, but hopefully between it and tomorrow's strip (which serves as kind of a partner to this one), it will be a pretty basic introduction for the layperson. Also it will mark our halfway point!

This year the dress code is Pampers.
--Random line from my sketchbook.

I've started thinking about what comes next after the month of April, but probably the best thing is not to think to hard. I'm trying to concentrate better on action more than the fruits of action and to let answers just find me while I'm concentrated on stuff that is not them.

Radical Boy Portable Page 13

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 16:47:31 GMT

The weather was too drizzly shitty to run yesterday and this morning, but oh well. I am trying to keep my spirits up and to stay focused. Last night, I beat that Chrono Trigger game for the first time that all the kids beat back when it was on Super Nintendo and would just loll around on couches murmuring how wonderful it was. Well now I beat it, too, you kids. Now I'm in your stupid club, too.

I beat the final form of the final boss and then I paused the game and went to make dinner. Breakfast for dinner, even. Then I ate that dinner and finally watched the season finale of Eastbound and Down. And only then, after all that, did I watch all the cinema scenes and the credits and the Akira Toriyama animated epilogue bit.

That is how a grown-up man lives, you kids.

Triple-Sized Radical Boy Portable Pages 10, 11, 12

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:43:14 GMT

Whew, damn, I slacked some this weekend for the holiday and paid for it with frantic hours inking last night and this morning. Oh, and also some heavy post-production. But, hey, the phone call sequence is done now!

Tomorrow: A big fight!

Radical Boy Portable Page 9

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:59:29 GMT

This is the last Radical Boy of the week, so savor it!

I wrote a whole thing here about RPGs, but then LJ lost it, so you'll just have to receive from me a general sense of melancholy when regarding those things designed to bring joy.

Radical Boy Portable Page 8

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:14:06 GMT

So I've finally blown some dust off my WebComicsNation page while I figure out what and how to rehab my own long-neglected site and develop just an all over eWebbersite.biz strategy. The more I do Web design as my day job, the less novelty there is for me in tinkering a site together, but at some point I need to be a grownup and do a thing not because it is fun but because it needs to be done.

This morning while I was eating oatmeal, I was singing "New Chevrolet in Flames" and imagining questions I would ask John Darnielle about craft if I ever interviewed him. I don't know how my fancy fell that way since I haven't been a Journalist in Some Years, and when I was I had severe anxiety about interviewing people (doubled when I enjoyed their work personally). So anyway my questions were all about being seen as prolific and what's his personal ratio of thrown-away to kept and does being prolific instill a sort of confidence that you can do the thing after a certain number of years? Things like that were the only things I could come up with to prepare to ask, and I got disappointed in myself, first for not preparing better questions to go in interesting directions, then for being so bad at interviews and not treating them like normal human conversations more often, and finally for boiling my whole brain up into irritation about a situation that was entirely hypothetical and that extended largely from the song that happened to be in my head when I was in the shower.