Spaceship Zero: The Comic

The comic book production course I’m taking at Van Arts is pretty good so far. I dropped $90 at Loomis but I didn’t really have to. I just wanted the good brush, the aluminum cork-backed ruler, and a few other things. Has anyone heard of the Aames Lettering Guide?

As I may have mentioned, the other kids in the class are kind of weird. But then, that’s comic geeks for you. Oh wait – none of them read comics. So that is weird. At any rate, I’m learning, and making decent progress. We had our third class last week, and we talked about storytelling and whatnot. Steve is always apologetic for the amount of handouts but I think it’s great. That way I don’t have to commit anything to memory! His teaching style is mostly to just go over the handouts and he usually does so verbatim which kind of useful but I’d rather get something on top of what’s on the handout, but I guess if there were more information he’d just put it on the handout to start with.

I handed in my character sketches for the four pages I’ll be doing. This is really just the prologue for the big story (will I ever finish it? Who knows) so the only main character present is Professor Ashton. But there are a few supporting characters. Here are the results:

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ashtonclose.png
walters.png
steveston.png

Soon I should have some thumbnails for you all.

In other news, I’m nearly done Guitar Hero II on HARD, much to Stewie’s chagrin. Hey, it’s not my fault he leaves it in the living room and then doesn’t play it. He says if I finish it before him he is going to charge me. So I’ll just get 99% through Free Bird and then hit the reset button.

Does anyone know what causes that ‘BZZZZZZZZZZZT-BZT-BZT-BZT-BZT” sound that I hear in my headphones when I pass a certain place in the city on the Greyhound, and that I hear in my computer speaker when my cell phone goes off nearby?

Saturday Morning Cartoon Party 2007 update again

Doing some planning, I have eliminated a few themes, namely bugs, mirror universes (too similar to previous theme – doppelgangers), water (lots of episodes, but not as good quality as I would like) and tentacles.
As for the rest:
PIRATES
A List:
Spider-Man: Night of the Villains
Superfriends: Sinbad and the Space Pirates
Powerpuff Girls: Mizzen in Action
Venture Brothers: Ghosts of the Sargasso
Jonny Quest: Pirates Below
Bugs Bunny
Undersea Adventures of Captain Nemo
Home Movies (I think)
B List:
Real Ghostbusters: Sea Fright (Love RGB, but this is a so-so episode)
Mighty Orbots: Raid on the Stellar Queen
Herculoids: The Pirates (at least it’s short)
Rocket Robin Hood: The Ghost Pirates
Star Trek: Pirates of Orion (kind of a dull ep)
Thundarr the Barbarian
Looking into:
Samurai Jack
sadness:
No The Tick episode with pirates.
No Freakazoid! episode with pirates.
MUSIC
A List:
Spider-Man: Fiddler on the Loose (and it’s short)
Battle of the Planets: Space Rock Concert (if I can get it)
Powerpuff Girls: See Me Feel Me Gnomey
Clone High: Raisin the Stakes
Futurama
Ripping Friends: The Muscle Magician
Superfriends: Rock and Roll Space Bandits
Bugs Bunny
Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy’s Invention
Home Movies: Guitarmageddon
Freakazoid! Dance of Doom
B List:
Samurai Jack: Jack and the Rave
The Impossibles
Galaxy Rangers: Rainmaker
Mighty Orbots: Magnetic Menace
Gummi Bears
Transformers: Auto-Bop
Jem!
Looking into:
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Sealab
Duckman
Sadness: No The Tick episodes about music that I can think of.
TIME
A-List:
Powerpuff Girls
The Tick: The Tick vs Prehistory
Star Trek: The Counter-Clock Incident
Futurama: Time Keeps on Slippin
Thundarr: Portal Into Time
Freakazoid is History!
Ripping Friends: The Man from Next Thursday
Samurai Jack: Jack and the Ultra-Robots/Jack and the Travelling Creatures
Duckman: The Once and Future Duck
Simpsons Treehouse of Horror
Venture Brothers: Escape to the House of Mummy Part II
Sealab 2021: Lost in Time
B-List:
Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot: Patriot Games
Real Ghostbusters: It’s About Time
Transformers: A Decepticon in King Arthur’s Court
Batman: Clock King
Herculoids: Time Creatures
Justice League: The Once and Future Thing (good, but a 2-parter)
Superfriends: Elevator to Nowhere; Time Trap; Krypton Syndrome
Superman: New Kids in Town
Rocket Robin Hood: The Time Machine
Dungeons and Dragons
Looking into:
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Captain Star
MIND GAMES
A-List:
Ren & Stimpy: Stimpy’s Invention
The Tick vs Science
Real Ghostbusters: Slimer? Is that You?
Powerpuff Girls: Los Dos Mojos; Criss Cross Crisis
Big Guy & Rusty the Boy Robot: Bicameral Mind
Birdman: Mentor the Mind Taker
Freakazoid: The Lobe (+ Toby Danger)
The Ripping Friends: Rip’s Shorts
Bugs Bunny
Batman: Over the Edge
Venture Brothers: Eeny Meeny Miney – Magic!
B-List:
Galaxy Rangers: Psychocrypt
Transformers: Traitor
Thundarr the Barbarian: Harvest of Doom
Herculoids: Ruler of the Reptons
Superman: Two’s a Crowd
Gummi Bears: If I Were You
Sealab 2021: Brainswitch
Looking into:
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
Duckman
Futurama
Samurai Jack
Dungeons & Dragons

Rocket Robin Hood – Bringing Us All Closer Together

Here’s a nice email I got today:

               Dear Toren,
                Hi.  Happy Holidays!!!  I just want to thank you so much for the
episodes of Rocket Robin Hood I got from you this year.  I really love the
show.  I know it has a horrible reputation, but if you remove those redundant
“biographies”, and the later episodes when they became weird, the earlier
stuff is great.  
                I never even heard of this show until the Spiderman box set
came out, and I happen to read it at the IMDB.  Because of you, and some   
others, I’ve seen the whole series.  THANKS!

Thanks so much and God Bless,
Pastor

Dogs & Cats Living Together – Mass Hysteria!

Yesterday Joyce brought over her doggie, Bojjak. First we locked Kodos in my room because I knew he’d freak out. But being locked in my room freaked him out way more than meeting the dog, as it turns out. Well, being sequestered made him yowl more, anyway. Kodos seemed nonplussed by the dog except when Bojjak growled at him, which turned out to be a lot. But Bojjak is a big pussy, and whenever Kodos moved he freaked out and jumped up into Joyce’s lap.

There, now wasn’t that interesting? This is what you can expect from our relationship – pet stories.

bojtiesmall.jpg

Well, despite the tremendous amount of potholes on the road to the new album, our songs continue to rock hard. We’ve all been stressing about our readiness and scheduling, but I have a pretty good feeling it’s all going to come together. The songs are pretty solid. What we lack in professionalism we make up for in channeling dark energies from beyond. If all the band members lived in the same city it would be easier. If all the band members lived in the same long distance calling zone it would be easier. If all the band members lived on the same damn continent it would be easier!

But we have a song in Middle Egyptian and I’m happy.

January is coming up and I plan on registering for the Introduction to Comic Book Production at VanArts. It’s 12 classes of three hours and apparently by the end of it I should end up with finished pages from an actual story. I haven’t decided what would be a good project for that. World Wildlife Federation of Justice is the one I’d be most excited about, but may not be the best thing to have in my portfolio. Recently someone from a Rocket Robin Hood fan group, who actually does work in comics, has begun an RRH comic book project, so I could incorporate that. Other options are Spaceship Zero, of course, but I’m not sure about the excitement level on that after chasing it for 7 years now. But, on the other hand, comic books are like pre-made storyboards for movies….

Thoughts, anyone?

ps – look what Chris got me for Christmas!

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Grapplomacy

Grapplomacy: Diplomacy via grappling.

This is what happens when you get four men in their mid 30’s together on Wednesday nights to play D&D.

ps – for you locals who want to see Borat, it’s playing at the best little filmhouse in Vancouver, The Rio on Broadway. Speaking of Jack Black, I see he’s in a movie as the romantic interest of Kate Winslet. Weird!

You can’t kill the metal. BUT forces are trying to cripple the new Thickets album. What with the snow falling and the studio scheduling problems, unhappy things are happening with our recording window. Pray to your dark gods for us. Scads of moolah also accepted.

The good news is that the Middle Egyptian lyrics for our song “Nyarlathotep” are done! Mario freaked out when he read and heard them – I take that as a good sign.  AND THEN HE PUT HIS CIGARETTE ASHES IN MERRICK’S STILL VIABLE COFFEE.

Comicology Photos

Stewie did it!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/castewar/sets/72157594406183371/

You can check out a couple of supersweet MIGHTY SAMSON covers.

BONUS: Tonight we played the D&D super-mini campaign that Paul and I are running. My part started out with the characters all tangled up with about 20 other people in the roots of some sweet beery-smelling plant coming out of the wall of some dwarven complex. They were all suckling on the nectar from the tubes, and nobody has any memory of who they are. Now they’re exploring the dungeon, which seems to have been affected by a very recent earthquake.

DOUBLE BONUS: Annoying news on the Thickets front. Due to the bad weather and Mario’s wayward ways, we’re pushing back the recording date a week. So that’s one more week you’ll have to wait for the finished album.

Combs Grass in the City

Slackademics: Comicology 101 went over bright and beautiful tonight. Martin gave a bit of a talk on the social origins and development of American comics which sparked some intriguing discussion. There was lots of food (including some kickass salad with cranberries and some kind of delicious cheese and fresh baked cookies) and probably about 15 people all together…many comics were traded and I now am the proud owner of many The Tick comics which I never thought I’d have the opportunity to own. The hightlight for me is absolutely this page out of a MIGHTY SAMSON comic (I can’t even begin to describe this comic), which I absolutely will be putting on a t-shirt come Thursday. Anybody else want one? I mean LOOK AT THIS PAGE! How can you not fall in love with it? Resplendent.
readerspagemonsterst-shirt100dpi.jpg

(updated with link to Mighty Samson toonpedia entry)

Slackademics*: Comicology 101 – History & Appreciation of Comics

Slackademics*: Comicology 101 – History & Appreciation of Comics
will occur
Friday Dec 1 at 7pm
at
Chez Toren: 1015 13th Ave West (corner of Oak) – apartment 302
604-737-4283 (cat on premises)

It will also be a comic book swap meet!
By all means bring foodstuffs if you are able.
Superhero t-shirts encouraged.

*What is Slackademics? See below.

RSVP

SLACKADEMICS FAQ:

Yeah, school is okay, but there is another way to learn things. People I know have lots of skills. They are willing to share them, and they want to learn new ones, and nobody has to spend any silly school fees – just a little time. Regardez le Slackademics Vancouver. Whenever somebody wants to teach a class, we determine demand and set it up. People bring food and, where applicable, required supplies.

WHAT? Communal learning.

HOW? If somebody offers to teach a subject, they can contact me, Toren Atkinson at thickets@uniserve.com or post a comment at   http://www.myspace.com/slackademicsvancouver. Then we wait for the news to spread, interest to grow, and people to raise their hands and say “I want to come.”

WHERE? This is mostly up to the teacher. Quite often a teacher will want to work in a familiar environment, possibly his or her home.

WHEN? When we have a teacher and enough students for a specific subject and a place to have the given class, we will organize it subject to the majority’s availability. Usually weeknights or weekends.

WHY? Because I want to learn guitar and you want to learn how to draw.

HOW MUCH: A potluck donation.

Yes, Slackademics is FREE.

BUT! It is an institution created in the spirit of cooperation and awesomeness. You will be expected to be courteous and respect your host and teacher and the environment. You should bring food to the classes/workshops for your teacher and fellow students. You should not say you’re going to come and then cancel at the last minute. If you have any skills that you can teach, we hope that you will volunteer to teach a class.

PRIVACY: I have had my email address and my snail mail address on the internet pretty much since 1993. I have never had any problems as a result of that, but then again I am not a woman. This whole concept involves potential strangers coming into your home, or that of your buddy’s. So please be aware of that, and let me say that it is your right as an instructor or a slackademics host to refuse anyone–on any grounds without any kind of explanation–of your services or personal space. Please feel free to screen your students before you give out your home address or any other personal information.

I won’t be sending out bulletins willy nilly. I doubt we’ll have more than one class a month, but there will be announcements made when there’s a new class offered and similar news.

Some Future Art from My Past

It’s time I dug up more old art. These are from Spaceship Zero: The Roleplaying Game, which you can buy at your favourite local gaming store.
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Join SpaceCorp! Impress your nephew!

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Here we see the seamy innards of Spaceship Zero herself. Note the stowaway.

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Your typical SpaceCorp utility robot.

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The evil hydronauts – deep ones from space!

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Space pirates live in the asteroid belt, waiting to prey on hydronauts and humans alike.

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This is how you use a rocket belt.

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What terrible secrets lie inside the astro-automaton?

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Everybody’s favourite.