Luis’ Illustrated Blog

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

The count down has begun the pressure is on to finish our show on time.  It’s the first story reel of the season so we need to start this season off with a bang.  Sheesh!

BLOG/COMIC BOOKS

I’ve heard a lot of complaints, online and off, about comics and how difficult they are to get into.  I don’t see that at all.  I’ve found the opposite is true. Before I begin to explain myself, I will first point you to two online sources that put fourth good arguments against my position. The one that started me thinking about this to begin with is this one:

•  Today’s Mainstream Comic Books: New Reader Friendly?  By Krishna Sadasivam of PC WEENIES fame.

And the second one (which Krishna linked to as well) is:

• The four dollar barrier  from the HIGHWAY 62 Blog.

You should first read these two articles. I think their arguments are very sound, but limited in what they put forth as the way to get into comics.  I left a comment on Krishna’s post but I don’t think I truly answered Krishna’s concern.  I mostly commented on everyone else’s comments to Krishna’s argument.  I recommend you read the comments as well.

Okay, now that you’ve read those articles, I’ll put forth my thoughts on the topic. Before I begin though, I will first tell you what I’m not going to be writing about. I’m not going to argue whether or not the modern superhero genre is catering to a younger audience nor will I write about whether cartoony  comic artwork is better than more photo realistic comic art.

I will use the superhero genre of comics for most of my examples, mainly because they are by far the most complex type of comic to get into and it’s the genre that more quickly comes to mind when we think of modern comics.

What I mean by “mainstream” comics in this article is this: Marvel and DC comics, and to a far lesser extent Dark Horse, Image and Top Cow. I also include, in my definition, all English translated Manga. This might be surprising but most younger readers are more familiar with Manga than with Marvel and DC books. I will also use the word “floppy” to describe what most of us know as a regular flimsy comic, as apposed to a much sturdier trade paperback comic (a.k.a. “graphic novel”).

Okay, so, the topic that concerns us here is how easy is it to get into reading comics. I propose to you, that it’s easier than it’s ever been to get into comics. Comics and information about comics are everywhere. The internet has a ton of free legal comics at your fingertips.  Cartoons and movies are great introductory ways to get you intrigued and curious about reading comics.  Newstands may be dying off but comics are thriving as trade paperback books in all major books chains. Libraries carry comics now and there are even Encyclopedias that explain some superhero comic book universes. There really is, no real reason, why someone who wants to get into comics can’t get into them. If you think it’s too much work, trust me, it’s worth the effort.

As I was growing up in El Salvador (I lived there till I was 6 years old) my grandmother had a bookshelf of comics in her house for us and we used to look through them and read them.  Surprisingly enough, this is not what got me into comics. What got me into comics was, years later, when our family had moved to California. Sometime when I was around 11 or 12, I picked up a copy of Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #15 at the local Circle K convenience store. It cost 75 cents. The same book now would probably cost $4.00 and I would have probably gotten it at Barnes and Nobles or Borders.

I wasn’t interested in “serious” comics at the time.  I just wanted the funny cartoony stuff. Eventually, the book was canceled (I guess I was the only person that bought it) and the Spider-Ham stories where relegated to the back of Marvel Tales featuring Spider-Man.  I bought those for the Spider-Ham stories but eventually, got bored one day and read the “serious” Spider-Man story which I fell in love with.  This lead to my love of the “serious” comics.

I learned real quick that I had no idea what the heck was going on in any of the “serious” comics.  In fact the only reason I knew who anyone was in a Spider-Man comic was because the Spider-Ham comic had spoofed them.  I read the comics anyway.  I thought I’d eventually understand what was going on. This worked some what.  In those days the only way to find out what had gone before in a superhero book was really limited. You either bought back issues or read the “old issue index” comics that gave you a synopsis of the years of comics that had come before.  If you were lucky you collected the comics that had does indexes.

Okay so what’s my point? Why the personal history?  Well, on the one hand I see the point that a floppy comic now a days being $4.00 is a barrier to entry.  I may not have bought my first comic if it was $4.00. But lets say I got a comic somehow.  If it was a cartoony superhero comic like, Billy Batson and the Power of Shazam, it would have a good long story for a good value and it would have appealed to me where I was at, taste wise.  I would have come back for more.  Okay, lets say I wanted to get into a “serious” superhero comic, lets say, Spider-Man. Somehow I got hold of one and read it. Exactly the same thing that happened to me the first time would happen, I would read it, be intrigued and not know who anyone was, but I’d probably come back for more to find out.

You would probably argue,

“See you’re assuming you would read a floppy and get into a comic but comics are $4.00 so how would you even get the chance to read them at all?” Well, I’d read them for free at the Marvel website or download it for free from DC KidsWB. The Marvel website even has books that help you catch up with what’s currently going on.

There are more ways now than any other time, to get into comics and find out who the mainstream characters are. For starters, there are animated cartoons that do a phenomenal job of introducing people to the mainstream characters. I know because, it was through these cartoons that I got introduced to the characters of the DC Universe. Now, I love to read those comics. I’ve also gotten exposed to a lot of great Manga from watching their movies and anime, like the Lone Wolf and Cub manga and the Akira manga to name a few.  My wife learned and became familiar with the X-Men and the JLA from watching their cartoons so when she reads those books, she knows who everyone is. The same goes with my Sister-in-law. She loves reading DC comics because she watched the Cartoon Network Justice League cartoon. My kids know who the Justice League, The Teen Titans, Spider-Man,  Iron Man,  The Legion of Superheroes, and Astroboy are from watching my DVDs of those cartoons. During her nap time, my daughter flips through kids comics of some of those characters before she goes to sleep (they’re all totally trashed, and very well “read”. She’s only three). My kids even ask me to read them comics.

My brother and sister-in-law bought the Marvel Encyclopedia and the DC Encyclopedia in order to get caught up on who’s who in both Universes. If you don’t have the money to spend for one of those, go to a website like Comic Vine. They have up to the minute explanation on what’s going on. Something I wish I had been able to do when I first started collecting superhero comics. The superhero comics I read as a kid in the 80s needed that as much as the current superhero comics do.

If you don’t want to deal with the big history of most superhero comics. Most Manga doesn’t have that problem (some do though) and there is also DC’s Vertigo line. Many of those don’t have as much history to catch up on, if any.

Not only that, but you can’t really argue that current superhero genre comics are too complicated,  too adult or too , whatever you’re prejudice, and that older comics are better. Mainly because those very superhero comics are now collected in omnibus editions. Some of these collections can be found used for as low as $4.00! So if you want to read “better” superhero comics, then nothing is stopping you from reading those and literally starting from the beginning. If you want to make sure that the comics you let your kids read are “kid friendly” why not buy them or encourage them to buy and read those collections.  They still hold up and there’s plenty of them; and when it comes to manga, there are plenty of kid friendly comics there too. Astroboy anyone?

If you want a complete comic story (old or new, adult friendly or kid friendly), you can pick up a trade paperback. There are many of these which are good introductions to a hero or universe. You can find all these and more at you’re local book store (here in the U.S.) or even *GASP!* at the library. Something unheard of in the 80s when I started reading comics.  I would have LOVED to have that opportunity.  I went to the library all the time as a kid.

Okay, having said all that, I want to argue that the price of floppies is too much for the value you get. $4.00 seems too much.  Yet, a Magic the Gathering Booster pack, (same target audience) is about $4.00 for fifteen cards. A Yu-Gi-Oh! booster pack is $5.00 for nine cards. A Playstation 2 game averages $35.00 (double the price of most trade paperbacks). Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games are about $60.00. The target audience of today’s comics are pretty used to forking over a lot for a little.  I don’t like it at all but the price seems about average. Whether you get $4.00 worth of entertainment out it, that depends on the comic you buy and how it’s written. This is especially true for floppies since many (but not all) of them can be read in about 15 minutes.

Still, in the end, I don’t think floppies are as important as they used to be. Don’t get me wrong, they still have a valuable role to play, but they aren’t the only way in anymore. In fact, I will go so far as to say, floppies are not the  way to get into most American superhero comics. Floppies are mostly written for comic geeks, trade paperbacks are for everyone else.   Times have changed.

“But wait,” you say. “Encyclopedias? Looking up characters on the net? Watching cartoons and movies? That’s an awful lot of work. I want everything spoon fed to me”. Sorry, I can’t help you. Reading comics is a hobby.  Every hobby has a bit of a learning curve. In knitting you have to first learn to knit. In putting together model kits, you have to first learn the best supplies to use and the best methods of assembling. In wargaming, you learn the rules and then learn tactics and strategies. The same goes for board gaming. If you golf, you learn and practice your technique. If you’d never played a video game before, how steep would  the learning curve be to play a game like Halo 3? Most people that play video games spend hours looking up games and reviews to see what games are coming out that they’ll like to play next, as if researching for a school report. That’s a lot of work.   Most hobbies require some level of work on your part. Work that you enjoy doing because it’s fun, enjoyable work and you find the reward from the hobby worth the effort. Comics are worth the effort.

After looking at everything that is available, I don’t think that mainstream comics are difficult to get into at all.  It’s easier than it was when I started. I only had superhero comics to choose from. There’s more variety out there than there ever was.  If you want to get into them and you’re finding it difficult, you must be working pretty hard to not succeed.

MY WEB COMIC

To read all 11 pages of this comic CLICK HERE

The end

For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I after finishing up the last of the scenes on the show I was working on, I began helping out on another show. I’ll begin working on the first show of next season sometime next week.

FAMILY

Happy Easter! I’m so glad that Easter finally came.  Lent is always a tough time to live through.

For Easter, we got together with the family at an Easter party at my aunt’s house. The kids had a great time, looking for eggs and eating candy.

I had a good time because there was some very yummy food.

He is risen!

MY WEB COMIC

I’m almost done so I’m posting up the first three pages and will continue to post the rest of it in the next three weeks. I hope you like it:

To be continued next week…

What have I learned from this so far? Quite a bit actually, but the biggest thing I’ve learned so far is that coloring a comic is really tedious and time consuming. It’s very doubtful that I’ll do another one in color any time soon.  I’ll leave it in black and white.

VIDEOS/ART
These videos by Mike McDonnell on Warm Up Sketching are really helpful. I’m going to try putting the advise into practice when I go into figure drawing for now on. Check them out:

VIDEOS

Reading comics on the iPad? What’s that look like? Here’s a review of the Marvel Comic reader app for the iPad:

Now I just have to figure out how to put my comic up on the iPad.

BLOGS

You will notice that I now have a new page up on my blog called, “My Stories and Comics“. From now on, whenever I complete a comic, story, or drawings with a theme, I’m going to be creating a special page for those things so you can read them all in one sitting instead of having to search through the blog looking for all the parts.

I will be working on it to try to make it look nicer than what I have now.  For now, it’s just functional. Take a look and let me know what you think.

VIDEO 

Yet another funny review. This time it’s a video review of STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES

Warning, the video is very funny but has some bad language:

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Came back on the show this week and it was as if I’d never left.  I was handed 32 scenes to finish by the end of the week (yikes!) and I’m off and running. Time to earn my keep.

FAMILY

We had a baby shower this weekend. Lot’s of family and friends showed up. We received many helpful gifts. The shower itself was really nice and the food was fantastic.

I did my typical anti-social thing. I really don’t know why but I’m getting worse about hanging around people. When my brother and his wife Deborah showed up, I  spent my time with them, but that was mainly because they came over and sat down where I was at (and also asked to play a game with me). After talking for an hour or so, I took out two board games that I had brought and played it.  I’ll write about that another day.  I enjoyed myself.  They left early and I sat by myself thinking about stories and my next project.  A few people came by, sat down and talked to me for a few minutes but it wasn’t long before I was alone again thinking.

Later, Angelita, one of my cousin’s daughters, asked me if I wanted to play the board game TROUBLE (it’s that, LUDO/SORRY type game with the “Pop-O-Matic Bubble” that rolls the die for you). There where four of us playing, my three year old daughter was one and my two year old son was another.  My son lost interest quickly and Carolina (my cousin’s eldest daughter) took his place.

That game is awful. It’s such a bad game. We all thought so. You can’t leave the your “Home” base and start moving your pieces around the board unless roll a six.  Which you have no control over and if you manage to do so, if someone lands on your piece, you get that piece sent “Home” again.  It was such a bad game though, that it was actually fun.  We enjoyed making fun of it as we played and didn’t take it seriously at all since it was so luck driven.  I think, the best part about playing the game was that my daughter ended up winning.  She trounced us all.  She rolled so many sixes it was crazy.

Thanks you all for giving us such a good and memorable baby shower.

BOARD GAMES\VIDEO GAMES

I was listening to the Dice Tower Podcast Tuesday and I was made aware of a Carcassonne site that had all kinds of variant rules and printable tiles for the game.  If you like Carcassonne and you want to try new and fun ways to play it, I highly recommend it:

Carcassone Central

Also this site led me to discover a Carcassonne like game for the iPhone with a Sci fi theme that seems really cool called XENO SOLA. It looks cool.

ART

For Part 1 CLICK HERE.

For Part 2, CLICK HERE.

To be continued next week…

BLOGS

The Art Center Blog is fast becoming one of my favorite art drawing blogs to read.  There are a ton of great tips and drawing advice worth reading about there.

One of the article that I really enjoyed recently has been some videos they’ve put up on the merits of warm up sketching during figure drawing.

I highly recommend the article. To read it, CLICK HERE.

VIDEOS

So before I started back at work, I discovered and got addicted to watching yet another anime cartoon.  This time it’s a series sequel to one of my favorite animes SUPER DIMENSION FORTRESS MACROSS (the first part of what was called ROBOTECH in the U.S. which I wrote about show a few weeks back). The sequel I’m now watching is called MACROSS FRONTIER. It aired in Japan in 2008 and has not yet seen a U.S. release.

When I became aware of this show, I thought I’d give it a look because I’ve been recently re-watching the original 1980s MACROSS.  I wasn’t really expecting to like it much.  Mostly because I haven’t really gotten into too many anime cartoons in years.  Also, because the last two MACROSS shows I’d seen, didn’t really blow me away either.  Namely, MACROSS 2 (which was pretty bad), MACROSS PLUS Vol. 1-4 (which looked fantastic and were fun to watch but the story didn’t blow me away) and MACROSS 7 (which was a sequel series to the original MACROSS, that was just plain dumb).  This one though, knocked my socks off. It had enough call backs and archetypes from the original MACROSS show to make it feel familiar, but at the same time, they changed things enough so that it’s new. In fact, if you’re familiar with the original show, there is a type of inside joke fake out that they do all the way through the series where you think they’re writing the same story and then turn you’re expectations on their heads.  It’s great.

Besides, I just can’t help watching cool robots fighting aliens. Especially when the robots transform from jets into robots. The effects on the robots and vehicles are mostly CG.

MACROSS is known for one of the female protagonists who ends up becoming a famous pop singer.  This meant the show had a singing component in it that sometimes made it a very lite musical. This version follows the tradition only I actually like the music for once and don’t find it annoying.

I’m also a big sucker for love triangles in my anime (as you can see from my own comic above) and this one has that too.

This is a fun cartoon to watch if you’re a MACROSS fan like me. Best MACROSS since the original. I’m not sure if the show will have the same impact on someone who hasn’t seen the original version but you might enjoy it anyway.  Give it a shot if you can find it online.

CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

We finished up helping out the crew we were on Tuesday and then we were moved to start working on our “official” crew. As far as I can tell, this is the second to last show of the season. This means that in about a month or three the shows will be done.  I’m not sure where I’m going to be, work wise, by the end of next month.  I hope I just get moved to a layout crew. Unless there is something else I can do on the show.

ART

In case you were interested, I’m going to write about the processes I used when making a Simpsons comics

Usually the whole thing starts with the script.  I would show what a script page looks like but I threw them away.

I tend to read the script twice. The first time around, I just read it straight through. The second time around I draw little thumbnail sized sketches of ideas, on the  margins, of shots I see in my head as I read it.   Once I’m done with that, I number the thumbnails and then, still on the script itself, I draw a small sketch of what the pages will look like with the panels, giving each panel a number corresponding to a thumbnail.

Once I’m satisfied, I take a piece of paper and work out a rough page, laying out what I think the final page should look like. This is done so that I can send it to my art director\editor at Bongo Comics to approve:

For the step above I use the actual page proportions so that if it IS approved, I can just take a light box and draw a slightly tighter pass directly over it.

I redraw the page again, working out the drawings a bit more. I put in perspective lines and I construct the characters properly:

Once I’m done with that step, technically, all it really needs is ink, BUT I don’t ink my own comic pages and Bongo asked me, from the very start, to clean up my comic pages for the inker; SO I do one more pass and clean up the page as clean as possible:

Once this step is done, I send in a digital copy to get approved. I change anything that needs changing and once it’s approved I Fed Ex the final drawings to Bongo or to the inker.

I then sit around waiting for my paycheck (which sometimes takes a month) and then a while after that, I end up getting sent a copy of the comic:

This particular Maggie story is, by far, one of my favorites to have worked on.  It had maybe three or four dialogue balloons through out the story and the rest was all pantomime.  Not only that but it was a sci fi story and I got to spoof all kinds of 50s and 60s sci fi troupes.  From Mars Attacks to Flash Gordon.  It was a blast to work on.

The story was first published in Bart Simpson comic #15. It has officially been reprinted in Big Beefy Book Of Bart Simpson trade paperback.

What do you think?

How do you approach your comic?

BLOGS

I’ve just recently been made aware of some really cool blogs by some fantastic artists.

The first artist’s blog I want to point out is:

Rad Sechrist’s blog Rad How To - A fantastic site by a Pixar Storyboard artist. Great for anyone who’s trying to learn to draw.  It breaks down the drawing process into small studies and approaches that work for the artist. A lot of his advice is something many really good artists in the animation industry do all the time.   (Thank you to Krishna Sadasivam of PC weenies for the link)

The second artist’s blog I want to point out is:

Sam Nielson’s blog Sam’s Tasty Art - Though there are SOME tips on painting and drawing in this site, the reason I’m calling attention to it is mostly because the guy’s painting and drawings are just INCREDIBLE.  I love this guy’s work. Check it out. Very inspiring stuff.

CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Worked overtime this Saturday. It wasn’t nice.  We got what we needed done with time to spare though. The show looks great.  I even got an hour to relax on Tuesday before I went home.  Yay!

FAMILY/ART/PODCAST/BLOG

So my sister has commissioned me to design her a logo for her Podcast (www.elsiesyogakula.com) and her business (http://yogeek.me).  She’s a Yoga instructor. She sent me a few example drawings of things that are in the general direction of what she wants, as well as some photos of herself in poses she though I could use. One example was a few very interesting cartoony silhouettes in yoga poses, and the other is of a cartoony Vishnu/Shiva like multi-armed woman with all kinds of devices and things in her hands (no I’m don’t worship these gods, nor does my sister).  My job is to come up with something that has the general idea of the things she sent me without actually copying those things.  Very tricky.

She asked me to do it in “my style”, but, to be honest, I’m not sure what that is.  The “chibi” style I usually do on this blog, and in my upcoming Black Terror Kid comic strip, is not necessarily what I consider “my style”.  It’s just what’s easiest for me to do. My “short hand” if you will.  Does that make it my style?

So I don’t even know if I’m going to use that style for these logos. Although, it might be the first place I start.

So…here I go. The following is the start of my process of figuring out what to do:

So I chose to start designing the logos using  silhouettes. It’s a technique I first saw used in a book called: The Skillful Huntsman. I chose this method because I figured, if the silhouette, by itself, reads well, adding detail would just be icing.  My first attempts above, where my attempt to use my “Chibi” style for the logo.  It wasn’t a good style to use though.  It was too squat and compressed.  In the end, the drawings just look like weird bugs. I quit using the style without refining the drawings.  It would have been a waste of time.

My second attempt was to try a style that was a little like the “Chibi” style, only with more stretched out proportions.  This worked a little better. It was clearer.  Only it looks like the character is juggling.  Also, it was too much like my source material.  I didn’t want to directly copy my reference.  

I chose a standing position to try to make the drawing something a little different than the reference.  The proportions of the figure are much more naturalistic but still very designed.  I think this is closer to the direction I should go. It’s a very clear design. Unfortunately, this doesn’t quite say “Yoga” to me.  I also need more tech and health silhouettes in the hands. I’m going to have to go over this with my sister. She might have an idea as to what direction to go.

This last one is my first attempt at the podcast logo.  It’s based off the photo my sister sent me, which is the same as her site photo.  This was a happy accident.  It just looks like a big brush stroke.  I almost just want to keep it this way.  Still, I might play around with it a bit more. I’ll also try working off the other photo she sent me to see if I can’t do something similar with that.

That’s all I have so far. I’ll post more next time.

ART

Fellow CARTOONISTA, Jim Lujan, has posted up the second part of his John Henry Unicorn trilogy.  The story is basically about a manipulative cult leader that causes mayhem wherever he goes.  It’s a dark comedy Jim wrote, directed, animated, voice acted and wrote the music for.  Jim is a very funny and very nice guy.  His humor stems from taking the things that make odd people odd and exaggerating them. It’s very observational.  His art is very reminiscent of Mike Judge’s art (creator of Beavis and Butt-head, and King of the Hill), only he drew this way before he ever saw any of Mike Judge’s early films and Jim’s drawings are a bit more stylized.

This lastest cartoon took him 2 months to do, off and on, during his free time. He assures me that it only took him this long because he was getting used to his new iMac.  He told me, the next one would be done faster.  This is just amazing to me.  He was able to do a cartoon, by himself, in the same amount of time it takes most artists to draw a comic book.

He makes me want to try it myself.

My favorite part is the wig bit.  That really cracked me up.  The ending was very odd and very silly.

WEBSITES

Tom Bancroft posted this on his Deviant Art News page.  I thought I’d share it here since it’s a good cause:

ART AUCTION on EBay. Former Disney animator and author Tom Bancroft along with Tony Bancroft (yes, he was also a Disney animator, my twin, and directed MULAN) and a friend (Chad Frye) are putting together a huge Ebay art auction for the Hodge family and their son, Matt. Tim Hodge (the dad) is a long time friend (my family has know their’s since our kids where babies!) and Tim is a former Disney storyboard artist and Big Ides Productions director. His son, Matt, a 17-year old senior in high school was in a terrible accident when his car was hit by a train a couple months ago. He is still in a coma because of the head trauma. Their family is in need of financial help. Thus, the art auction.

The plan is to have the auction hit Ebay in about a month (beginning of December). We have sent out notes to some of the biggest names in animation, comic books, comic strips, and illustration for donations. We are getting in great artwork every day! (I met with John Pomoroy yesterday, who contributed a signed animation drawing!)

Please go to our preview site at: [link] to see what has come in so far and keep going back for more and more artwork as it comes in and updates about the auction. I’m counting on all of you to spread the news about this site and auction! Tell all your friends, these will make GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!

Some of the artists that have donated or have promised to are: J. Scott Campbell, Chris Sanders, John Pomeroy, Drew Struzen, Peter DeSeve, Stephen Silvers, Charles Schutz’s family, Patrick McDonnell, and so many more!

 

BLOG

I was just checking out Paolo Rivera’s blog.  His stuff is so COOL!  Man, the guy rocks.  He has a video of his process HERE.  Here’s a video interview with him:

CLICK HERE to buy an Uncle Chestnut T-shirt with my art on it.

If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.

Comments are appreciated as well.

I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

If you would like to have a text ad on my site, click on the red BUY LINKS button under the Archives list.

And while you’re at it, please Digg me too.

Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

A much easier week this week than last weeks. It helps that I don’t have to stay late.  That really wore me out last week.  Been getting a lot of work done lately and I’m feeling good about it.

FAMILY

Sept 11th was Alesha’s birthday. She was a little concerned about what she wanted to do for her birthday. She really likes celebrating it and having fun with it. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday the 12th.  Alesha had invited (at the last minute) her family and ours to our house for a barbecue. Most everyone showed up and our little house was packed.  I took Munchkin and her cousin Chrystal, to the playground and then we went swimming.  Meanwhile Alesha’s sister, Devisha, cooked food.  After our swim, we came home and ate.

Alesha was having a great time.  The kids where happy because they got to eat the junk food they don’t usually get to eat.

Later in the night, one of Alesha’s best friends, Monica, brought a Karaoke machine from her car and we ended the night singing Karaoke.  Munchkin loooved singing and put on a show.

Overall, the party was a success and I don’t think Alesha felt it was a lot of work for her (which was her biggest concern).

FAMILY

For Part 0, Click Here

We got up early Tuesday morning on Sept. 8th. We ate breakfast, got the kids ready and off we went to Disneyland.  It was 7:30am when we left the house and traffic was awful. What should have taken 30 minutes took about an hour fifteen.

We got a little lost getting to the park but, after going around in a big circle, we managed to make it to the parking lot.

I had called my parents before we had left.  They were going to meet us at the gates.  Surprisingly enough, they got to the park at the same time we did and even parked three cars away and we didn’t even know it. We discovered it when we left for the day.

We made our way to the shuttle and where confronted by the first obstacle we would encounter, namely, how we were going to get our big double stroller on the shuttle.  Lucky for us, The shuttles have a big space for double strollers.

Once off the shuttle, we made our way to buy the tickets to get into the park.  The tickets are just soooo darn expensive.

For Part 2, CLICK HERE.

BLOGS

My friend Chance from the Simpsons is up to all kinds of things. Here’s a look at his reel :

…as well as his blog. Check out the adventures he’s had which include getting invited to the Alba’s house (as in Jessica Alba’s family’s house) to draw with a few friends.  Pretty crazy.

ROLE PLAYING GAMES

This week I’ll add to last week’s list of free Dungeons and Dragons type games with a free version of the hugely successful newly released Pathfinder Roleplaying game.

This is an updated version of the D&D 3.5 rules.  It cleans up the rules and makes many of the classes and races much more interesting:

Free Pathfinder rpg rules (courtesy of the publishers themselves).

The link contains all the rules that are included in the new rule book, but it’s all on the site. I’m using it at the moment to make myself  some Eberron characters. I found the  Eberron  3.5 Campaign Setting book for three bucks at amazon (woo hoo!). I must say I’d much rather buy the actual book thought. It’s darn inconvenient to go through the site to make your characters. Not only that, but I’ve heard the art in the book is incredible.  That said, it’s free, so there isn’t much to complain about.  If I wanted to, I could buy the pdf of the book for $9.99 from Paizo, but that’s still not as cool as having the book. Whenever I can afford to buy the cheaper amazon copy of the book, I will. For now I’ll just use the site.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Chaotic work week. Alesha started work so we started out carpooling together. Do to the crazy amount of last minute work I need to get done, that soon changed. I had to get all my work on one crew done by Tuesday because I started on a new crew on Wednesday.  I wasn’t told until late Monday.  It wasn’t a very happy situation.

FAMILY 

I just thought I’d take the time to say,

“Happy Birthday!” to Eduardito. My cousin’s boy has turned 3 years old, hurray! He had a really fun birthday party Saturday.  I kinda wished we could have stayed a bit longer since Munchkin was just starting to have fun but, Alesha wasn’t feeling well.  Best part of the party was seeing Dante hit the pinata. Very funny.

BOARD GAMES

So I asked Munchkin if she wanted to play a card game with me.  Of course she said, “YES!” So I took out a Memory game.   It’s a Mr. Potato Head Memory card game we got as a McDonalds Happy Meal toy a year or so ago.  I’ve been waiting all this time to be able to play a game with her with these cards.  I tried to do so a few weeks after we had gotten them but she was too little to understand the memory matching.

At first I wanted to test her to see if she would be able to understand what we were suppose to be doing.  I put the cards face down and she flipped one up, then she took turns flipping every card, looking at it, then putting it back down face down until she found the match.  This is how we played the first two times.  I didn’t take any turns.

Then I decided to test her to see if she would play by the “rules” by only allowing her to flip over two cards. If they didn’t match, it was MY turn.  That way, if I flipped over a card she was looking for, I wanted to see if she would remember it.  Also, I wanted to see if she got the idea of taking turns.  I did this with a few cards at first and with every game I added more.  She did fantastic.   We were playing with all the cards in no time. I was amazed.  She even beat me at the game quite a few times, she was really good at it.  I handicapped myself, only a little and unintentionally.  When I would find a match, I wouldn’t take another turn, but when she found a match, she took another turn.  When I tried to take a second turn after I found a match, I found she got impatient and thought it was unfair. She felt I was skipping her turn so I stopped doing it.  Otherwise, we played the game by the rules.

To me, this was the greatest thing ever.  I was FINALLY playing a board game with my daughter.  One that wasn’t mindless.  One with choices. It was as if the clouds had parted and God (looking like the one in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail) came out of a cloud saying:

So having realized that Munchkin is old enough to play games with me now, I made my way to the local Target store the next day to look for games I might be able to play with her.  I looked at games and found a few but I wasn’t sure if they were any good so I wrote down the names of all the ones I thought looks interesting and went home to look them up on BGG.

None but ONE of the games where any good, and even the one I thought sounded good wasn’t really all that good.  What I was searching for was a game that she could learn to play now, but that would still be challenging as she got older. Though a bit dull, Memory is exactly this type of game.  All you do is add more cards and it gets more difficult. Candyland was right out.  No decisions and too easily outgrown (not to mention I did NOT want to play Candyland).  So I searched online for some games.  These are the games that caught my eye that I think fit the criteria I was looking for:

Kids of Carcassonne:

Yes, that’s right, there is a Carcassonne game for kids and it looks great. I think Munchkin would “get” this one to some extent and she could grow into it.  Check out this review of the game:

Next is…

Gulo Gulo:

This is a dexterity game with a modular board where you play a cute wolverine who takes eggs from the vulture nest in the middle. You do this so you can rescue the baby wolverine that has gotten himself trapped in the nest. Here’s a video review explaining the game:

Finally…

Chicken Cha Cha Cha:

A memory game with also with a modular board. The object of the game is to steal the feathers of the other player’s chickens by jumping over them.  The way you move your chicken forward is by flipping over a card in the center of the board that matches the picture in the square in front of  your chicken.  You continue your turn until you fail to find a match.

Out of  all of these, I think I can make a homemade version of Chicken Cha Cha Cha.  It just won’t be as silly as the chicken theme but we will be able to play it.

I’m thinking of using the Qwirkle tiles to do this.  They work really well to play Memory.  In fact, after I got tired of the Potato Head Memory game I subjected to Munchkin that we use the Qwirkle tiles.  We took out a set of matching pieces, flipped them around, shuffled them up and played a game.  It was much more difficult and still, Munchkin did amazingly well.  She won most of the time and I think I tide her once.  Although I suppose I did let her win sometimes.  Still, she remembered where tiles were or the general area where tiles were.  Sometimes she remembered tiles I hadn’t, and as a bonus, after we were done playing she decided to just play with the tiles.  She like telling me the colors and shapes as well as counting them.

I love being able to play board games with her now.

BLOGS/PODCASTS

I’ve recently been asked by two different bloggers/podcasters if for permission to use my drawings for their posts.  They’ve both used the drawings for very different purposes and I find that kinda neat.

Here a link to both the sites:

St. Mary Catholic Church Podcast - My drawing is used as a compliment to a “sound bite” of a sermon on the Sacrament of Reconciliation (a.k.a. Confession). It’s two minutes long. Check it out.

No More Lives - This a blog (and soon to be podcast) which tries to be, in their own words, “the New Yorker of video games”. In an attempt to bring in a little variety to their content, they’ve gotten a board game geek on board to express a different position. My drawing was used in one such article on their site called Gaming Without Batteries  by Kyle Bolin. Great read.

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THE SIMPSONS NEWS

This is the second time I’m writing this since I lost my original version somehow.  I have to make sure to make a back up. This post is the MUCH ABRIDGED version of the original.

I’ve gotten permission to do overtime at work.  This is good since I need the money.  It’s bad because I don’t get much time to do anything else (like re-write my lost blog post).

FAMILY

Alesha finished the first draft of her story. I’ve been reading it and giving her my two cents.  It starts off really well and then it begins to get a bit rushed.  She needs to double her word count so it’s not a big deal.  She just needs to slow the story down a bit by adding more.  It’s fun to read.  We’ve been bouncing ideas back and forth on it. Once it’s done, maybe I’ll put up a chapter or two on the blog.

BLOG/PODCAST

Raul is at it again. Making himself a multimedia superstar. Check this out:

MOVIES

Alesha and I saw, Green Lantern: First Flight on Monday.  I rented it late last week.  I really enjoyed it. Not for the kiddies.  This is rate PG-13.

I’m also looking forward to the next animated movie DC is coming out with. It’s based on a great comic I own called Public Enemies. Take a look:

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I also have a store. Click Here and check it out.

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Writing this blog is almost a part time job for me. Tips are most welcome.

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Not much to tell. Just plugging away at the scenes I need to finish.

FAMILY

This weekend was a very eventful one.  It began Friday. Alesha and I celebrated five years of marriage.  Well…we technically didn’t celebrate it until Saturday.  We gave each other presents on Friday.  I got her some “hair goop” that she wanted and a book I thought she would enjoy (Here There be Dragons by James A. Owen). She gave me a board game. A very cool one I wanted. It had won the German Game of the Year this year.  Big honor in the board game community.  It’s called Dominion.

Friday, instead of going out for our anniversary, we ended up NOT spending the day together at all.  I got home and went to a Rosary that was being held at my Cousin Carolina’s house. Alesha was planning to go too but Dante decided he reealllly wanted to go to bed for the night.  We kinda didn’t have a choice.  One of us had to stay home with him so Munchkin and I went to the Rosary together.  Munchkin had a blast playing with her cousin Eduardito.  They played pretty hard.  It looked like an awful lot of work to be playing as hard as they were.  I was very happy to see them enjoying themselves as much as they did.  I was really tired myself.  Problem is, when I’m really tired or stressed or emotional, I tend to want to be by myself.  Being around people and attempting to socialize just about kills every ounce of energy I have.  I spent most of the time playing a video game on my DS while listening to conversations other people around me were having.  I tend to isolate myself so much I don’t really have anything relevant to say to anyone about any subjects people bring up at parties so I end up listening and, by default, learning a few things.

Praying the Rosary in a group is very enjoyable to me.  I always feel happier after it’s over.  It always brings home what’s important in life.

We left at about nine o’clock and of course, Munchkin didn’t want to leave.

Saturday was spent, mostly, with the kids, but we had made arrangements with my mom to take care of the kids at four so Alesha and I could go on a date. Our date was a simple dinner and a movie.  It had been a long time since we had eaten Japanese.  I was desperate for some sushi.  I love that stuff. So we went to a Japanese restaurant near us that has a really good reputation.  It was great.   We had a very enjoyable dinner.  We then went to go see the GI Joe movie.  It was a highly entertaining, ridiculously stupid and silly movie.  We had a fantastic time watching it and we had just as much fun laughing at how cheesy it was afterward. I’d so buy that movie when it comes out on DVD.  It’s that lame and fun.

We then picked up the kids, who were asleep by then, but who had just as good a time with my parents as Alesha and I had on our date. After we put them to bed, we opened up a bottle of the wine we always open on our anniversary and watched The Princess Bride in bed until we fell asleep.  It was a great date night.

The next day was Munchkin’s birthday.   The kids must have had a really tiring day the day before because they didn’t wake up at seven on their own the way they usually do.  By a quarter till eight, they were still asleep  and it didn’t seem like they were going to wake up anytime soon. I woke Munchkin up and told her it was her birthday. She acted as though the whole idea was surreal to her. She was given a special birthday breakfast of pancakes with sprinkle on it.  Afterward we all got ready for church.  Alesha and I made the huge mistake of going to a ten o’clock Mass with the kids.  It was a mistake because that was Dante’s nap time.  He was sleepy and cried pretty much the whole time.  Alesha missed most of the Mass because she had to take him out the church. When we got back we put both kids down for a nap.  They had both fallen asleep in the car.

I took this time to go get Munchkin a present.  I had an idea of what I wanted to get her but the store that had what I wanted was closed. I ended up getting her something else. Alesha was desperate for me to get back home.  Dante had woken up crying and there was no consoling him.  I had to stop and get some things Alesha wanted at the store and then I hurried home as fast as I could.  We needed to get to my parents as soon as possible so Alesha could help my mom with the food.  Dante cried the whole way.   We suspect that, since he is teething, it had to do with that.  We had given him something for the pain but it didn’t stop him from crying. He had been crying for about an hour and half when we pulled up to my parent’s house. Then, when Dante saw my dad, he stopped.  We’re still not sure what it was all about.

Munchkin had a blast at her party.  She played with her cousins and had a great time. She opened presents and got lots of nice gifts.  The last gift she got was a plastic princess crown and jewelry.  The party ended around eight.  We really needed to leave so the kids could be put to bed. They had to wake up early to go to daycare the next day.

…figures.

FAMILY

My cousin Tony passed away early Monday morning. He had neuro muscular dystrophy. I want to write more but I can’t…except to say that my one regret is that I wish I would have spent some time with him while he was still alive…but was too much of a coward to do so. I spent no time with him at all, either healthy or sick. Please pray for him and the family. Especially his widow.

BLOGS/PODCASTS

Raul has decided to go multimedia. He now has a blog and a podcast.  You can find them at: http://manvsart.com/. He’s got two episodes up. An intro episode and a second episode.  The second one is darn entertaining and he made me laugh.  Go check it out.

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THE  SIMPSONS NEWS

Turns out the show is in fantastic shape. We were told Friday night that they had upped our deadline a day.  This meant that instead of finishing our work on Tuesday evening we had to be done by Monday evening.  Thankfully, the show was is such good shape that the director wouldn’t have minded showing them the show as it stood on Friday.  As far as he was concerned,  anything we finished Monday would be icing.  It was great the be in that sort of situation.

FAMILY

Dante hit a milestone this weekend.  We converted his crib into a toddler bed.  He was VERY excited when he discovered what we had done. He bounce around and did a small little Dante dance before laying down  on the bed with his butt in the air.

The reason I thought I ought to do it was because Saturday morning, while Alesha and I where still in bed, Munchkin and Dante woke up.  They played in the room a little bit (Dante in his crib, Munchkin with the toys in the room) but after about ten minutes or so, Munchkin decided to leave the room.  She opened the door, got out and shut the door behind her leaving poor Dante trapped in his crib with no one to play with.  He began to cry.  Usually Dante is perfectly happy as long as his sister is there with him handing him toys. This was the first time Munchkin had every left the room while Dante was still in his crib.  I felt really bad for the poor boy.  He couldn’t even follow his sister out of the room. So I thought maybe it was time for him to be able to.

It was fun to watch him explore his new found freedom on the monitor, after I’d left the room. First thing he did when we put him to bed was get up and go over to play with toys.  Well, not really. He got up and touched a toy then went back in the bed.  Guess what he really wanted to do was know he could if he wanted to.

Of course, there was a few things that we had to teach him not to do, like get up during bedtime, go over to his sister’s bed and sit there, while his sister is trying to go to sleep.  He’s learning little by little.  He hasn’t fallen off the bed yet.  We have cushions on the carpet just in case.  I’m happy for the little guy.  He’s doing great. Unlike Munchkin when she was moved to a toddler bed, Dante hasn’t done any sleeping on the floor.

BLOGS

My friend Shane K. Sowell started up a blog last Month.  Shane was a storyboard artist on The Simpsons Movie. He was mostly over at the Fox studios.  At that point I was no longer doing storyboards and I worked with him doing story reel work. His blog came to my attention when he linked his blog to mine.  When I followed the link I discovered the following picture:

Now you know why I draw myself cute in all my cartoons.  Who want’s to looking at THAT in the cartoons? Seriously though, it cracked me up.  I really like the drawing.  I later discovered he had e-mailed me about it and I wrote him back my appreciation.  Interestingly, he had drawn his drawing from a picture he took of me at the Fox Lot during one of our lunch breaks.  It turns out that, it’s exactly the same picture I put up in my ABOUT ME section of this blog.  I’d forgotten he had take the picture and had given me a copy.  He got a kick out finding out I used his picture for my blog.  I’ve updated the ABOUT ME to credit him for the picture.

Check out the rest of his blog. He’s got another drawing of a fellow storyboard artist as well as many other drawings.

Thanks again for the drawing Shane.

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