We're doin' this...

...we're makin' this happen.

Mashin' it up like taters son...

This is what all da kool kidz are doin' right?

Oh Snap...

I made a thing. Cheggit oot.

Happy Holloweiner

Ah yes... Another October 31 and yet another night of kids pounding on our door even though all the lights are turned off. Although I gotta confess I do have a weakness for scary movies so yesterday I watched Paranormal Activity which I enjoyed quite a bit even though afterwards I was all like, "If the boyfriend hadn't been such a jerkass none of that mess woulda happened." And today in the spirit of the holiday I watched the documentary Hell House which was frightening in it's own way (hella good movie. go see it if you haven't...)

Watching those films got me thinking about when was the last time I was really scared by a movie. I mean... really really REALLY scared. Jump out of your seat and yelp scared. Weeeeeeell. There is one incident in particular that I remember from a while back. Ahem...

It was the early 90's and I was meeting my Dad for a visit. We had lunch, talked and decided to go see a movie. Now this was in the Summer and the sky was getting dark so we hustled into the theater and counted ourselves lucky we got inside before it started to rain. Checking the marquee, the only film showing that didn't totally suck was Clive Barker's Candyman so ok two tickets for that please.

We're watching the film and in the background you can hear the sounds of rain pounding on the theater exterior (good thing we beat that storm!) The film rolls on and we get to a scene where Virginia Madsen's character is interviewing people trying to get information on the Candyman but nobody wants to talk to her about it because it's just too horrible.

Finally she meets this kid who agrees to tell her a Candyman story he heard second-hand about this guy who's son was a crack baby that grew up into a crack toddler that basically screamed all the time. One day they're at the park and the kid has to go to the bathroom so he sends the shreiking kid into the bog all by himself. After a short while he notices that his kid isn't screaming anymore and thinks to himself, "That can't be good." So he goes into the public restroom looking for his kid and doesn't see him. He also notices all the stall doors are open except for one. The kid continues his story, "So the guy reaches for the door... and pulls it open... and he sees..."

KABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Right at that moment there is the LOUDEST clap of thunder I've ever heard in my life and all the power goes out in the theater casting everyone into total darkness.

Holy shit. For a moment it's silent. I mean pin-drop silent. Then people start screaming. Within seconds the emergency power comes on and theater staff tell us that a severe thunderstorm knocked out the power and all tickets will be refunded or exchanged for another showing. My Dad and I opt for the refund because there is NO WAY anything else that happened in that film could match the scare we just got.

Happy Halloween folks.

Hey kids! COMICS!!!

After what seems like an eternity I'm finally back to doing what I love. Drawing comics. Now granted I've been drawing doodles and sketches and little one-offs here, there and everywhere but I finally decided to get back on the horse and do actual full blown stories.

After spending so much time doing loose drawings in my sketchbooks I practically had to re-learn how to draw comics. The end result being this little number. Any comments and critiques to help me learn how to suck less would be greatly appreciated. So without further adieu let's read on...

Dude... Where's my manga?

I've been catching up on my web reading lately and I saw Top Shelf announced that due to a shipping snafu the AX anthology has been available just not showing up in stores. Fortunately the problem has been resolved and hopefully I'll be able to get my grubby mitts on a copy soon enough. I feel like I've been waiting forever for this book to come out and it got me thinking about various little comic gems that seem to have fallen through the cracks.

Remember Eiji Nonaka's Cromartie High School? When AD Vision went belly-up not only did this result in us not getting the last leg of the series but I think it also killed the chances of us getting to enjoy his follow-up series Mirai Chounaikai (Future Neighborhood Association) which follows the adventures of a... well... A neighborhood association in the future. Every chapter had them dealing with various issues affecting the community. Maintenance, littering, alien abductions, psychic warriors.

Tokyo Flow Chart by Eiji Miruno is one of the titles that's a part of Viz's partnership with Ikki and I must say I am loving this comic. TFC takes the standard yonkoma strip and spins it off in a zillion different directions wringing larfs out of every panel. Ok, this one hasn't exactly "fallen through the cracks" but I do feel it's kinda on the bubble seeing as how it's part of the Sigikki "throw it against the wall and see what sticks" initiative and this comic deserves a wider audience.

Hmmmmm... Two brilliant gag manga authors both named Eiji. COINCIDENCE!?

And while poking around on the Ikki website I saw that Taiyou Matsumoto's No.5 will be available on the iPad in Japan, Canada and the US!

Oh and one more very important thing. In the latest entry from Same Hat! they linked to a section of manga previews from AX publishers Seirinkogeisha and I found out that the gentlemen who I've been referring to as Jiro Ishikawa all this time is actually named Toyo Kataoka. Oops. My apologies all around especially to Mr. Kataoka. And boo to Tokion magazine for getting his name wrong in the creator credits.

GRANNY NOOOOOO!

I'm still working over my fevered little brain how to get this comic jam thing to work. I really really reeeeeeeeeally need to talk to the guys at Bedrock City because they expressed a definite interest in making this happen (even if it's just to promote their store...)

Still chugging forward on the comic which is almost finished (not almost enough though for my tastes) and I've uploaded some more Toyo Kataoka manga. Cheggit Oot.

~bonk~

More Tokion manga! This time we've got the first of three strips by Toyo Kataoka. Let's kick things off with Building Fetish...

North Houston Comics Jam post-report

The first NHCJ came and went. So "how'd it go?" you may be asking yourself. Weeeeeeeeeell... Not so good. Let's be honest, I didn't seriously think we'd be busting the doors down but I thought at least a FEW people would show up. Instead one guy showed up asking, "Is this that drawing thing?" and I had a hunch he was there under the impression there'd be free food. At least he was a good sport about it and we even drew a couple of strips before calling it a night.

So it looks like the first NHCJ is also going to be the last NHCJ. Oh well. I tried. Lynn pointed out to me that this part of town is mostly older families/retirees and probably has fewer creative folks than the in-town Montrose/Westheimer areas. Ok, I'll give you that. But this part of town is also home to one of Houston's best comic shops, one of Houston's most ecclectic record stores, and a great art supply store that told me they had a lot of customers who draw comics so I guess you can understand why I'm so baffled by the dismal turnout.

~sigh~

I wonder if Cheese Hasselberger ever had days like this?

T-24 and counting...

Welp. Tomorrow is the big day! The very first meeting of the North Houston Comic Jam. I honestly have no idea what's going to happen. A ton of people might show up or nobody might show up. Either way I'm going to be there with my ziplock baggie full of pens and a stack of sketchpads ready to dive head first into whatever the hell happens. And also... Weinerboy.

FIRE BAD! RIFFZ GOOOOOOOOD!!!

Madamluna done went and posted a thing recently that reminded me of an old project I had squirreled away in my "Widows and Orphans" box of unfinished comics. Ladies and gentlemen I present to you...

Mo manga, mo problems...

I am seriously jazzed. Less than two weeks until the comic jam!

Also I've uploaded some more Tokion/Garo manga for your enjoyment. This time we've got Jiro Ishikawa's Got Little Got Big.

Sneak-a-peek

After way too many years of farting around in my sketchbooks I've finally mustered up the effort to get back to doing what I love.... Drawing comics. Here's a little preview of the strip I've been working on for the last couple of weeks.

It feels so weird to be making comics again. I'm practically having to re-learn how to do a lot of things but it's so satisfying to have something to focus my energies on. The finished product will be cleaned up on Photoshop and hopefully I'll have it up for your reading enjoyment in a week or two.

Down but not out!

Oof. I don't know what the deal is but I have been feeling totally beat down lately. On the plus side of things Lynn's car seems to be doing OK. We'll just have to keep it off the freeway and use it for small in-town errands and such until we can afford to get it properly fixed.

Here's a bit of news for you hangers on... I've got a little project percolating in the works. What is it? Well... You'll find out soon enough....

And lastly, can any of you more blogger savvy people out there tell me if theres a way to create a way to view the blogs I'm following akin to LiveJournal's "friends" page?

When it rains it pours...

I really need to figure out a way to make more money. Because between being up to my eyeballs in debt and the transmission in my wife's car crapping out things are pretty tight. Anyways, let's change the topic of conversation to something more pleasant shall we?

I've scanned and upped the second half of Kiriko Nananan's Paint in Water Colour for your enjoyment.

Last night I was Burgin' like Candice...

My bebbeh and I got ahold of some tasty chimichuri sauce and mixed it up with some ground beef, cooked it up good and topped it with some sauteed onions and havarti and served that up on toasted Hawaiian king rolls. Best burgers ever. And for dessert we enjoyed some frozen deliciousness from Bruster's which is quite frankly the best ice cream I've ever had.

But enough food talk. I've got some more Tokion manga up for you guys to see over at my Tumblr. This time we're shifting focus from gonzo comedy to pensive dramatic territory with Kiriko Nananan's story Paint in Water Colour.

Goo-goo for Ga-Ga?

Truth be told for a while there I wasn't exactly sure what the deal was with this whole Lady Gaga character. All I had was a vague notion that she was some kind of zazzy transgressive trubadour megaphoner that all the kids were hot for right now. The Same Hat! guys put together a hella rockin' zine that convinced me she's oh-so-much-more. One meager infusion of glam-pop into my brain later the end result was this...

My sincerest apologies to Ms.Gaga, Xianxingzhe and the people of Paramus.

Pardon our dust...

I'm in the middle of switching all my stuff over to a new host and working with a new laptop to get everything set up so I know what the hell I'm doing and I still need to configure my ftp so I can access my webspace and put stuff on it.

In the meantime I've been chilling out by digging through some of my old books and I found a couple of old issues of the fashion magazine Tokion I bought way back when. Now the fashion stuff I could care less about. The reason I picked these publications up is because for a while each issue had a mini-comic bound in with strips ganked right from the pages of Garo, Comic Cue, etc. So I figured I'd share these quasi-lost* gems with everyone. I'm kicking things off with a healthy dose of two-fisted awesomeness courtesy of Yusaku Hanakuma.

fake edit: Holy crap. I just poked around on hanakuma.com for the first time in quite some while and the guy has got some crazy merch. I certainly would not mind having the Fujio and Mitsuo Iphone app...

*Lost to me anyways. I forgot I had this stuff...

They are definitely up to something...

Had kind of a weird mental synchronicity moment. Earlier I was thinking about babies. I don't like 'em. They're kinda creepy and smug looking with their giant heads and big eyes. So you can imagine how freaked out I was when I was catching up on my LJ-ing and saw how Michael Deforge had done a hella rad comic touching on that very same anxiety.

Babies. They will be the end of us all. Please stop making them.

And lo there shall come... A RECKONING!

Oh hey there.

I'm Root. For a quite some time I was over on LiveJournal but now I'm going to try hitching my wagon up to a trolley being pulled by a caboose labelled "blogspot.com"... For those of you who don't know me that basically means lots of hastilly scrawled garbage from my sketchbooks, garish paintings, yapping about tasty foods and more than likely posting once every couple of months and going, "WOW IT SURE HAS BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I POSTED DURRRRRR."

For those of you who already do know me it means business as usual.

Another thing is I had my birthday recently (June 25th, woo-hoo...) and I realized that I really need to refocus my creative energies into something a little more constructive so I'm treating this whole venture as a way to make a fresh start and I'm going to work in my sketchbooks every day, maybe crank out some FINISHED comics, definitely get back to work on my paintings and also continue work on my video projects which got shuffled onto the back burner.

And as if I wasn't wasting enough bandwidth I've also got a Tumblr where I'll put miscellaneous junk and stuff. But enough introductions...

NOW WE BATTLE!!!