Okay, watched the Battlestar Galactica Resistance Webisodes and Season 3 so far.

Galactica spoilers and thoughts behind the cut.

Okay, finally got a chance to finish watching Battlestar Galactica Season 2 this evening… I still haven’t watched any of season 3 yet, so if you comment please don’t spoil the newest episodes for me:

Galactica spoilers and thoughts behind the cut.

More and more nights are starting out as getting together for drinks and then evolving into karaoke. This isn’t a bad thing, just an amusing observation. Cutting loose and singing songs while cheering each other on has become a fun past time. It’s about enjoying each other’s company and just having a good time. Art nerds at play.

After yesterday’s “performances” we hit the McDonald’s drive-thru and hung out in the parking lot like we were back in high school. All of us were ridiculously drunk-happy except for our DD’s. Lots of cheesy music and laughter ensued.

Nadine and Eric

The two cars of people threw joking insults back and forth. I recall someone asking us if we wanted an extra burger they had. Then, suddenly, I get hit in the shoulder with a gooey cheeseburger flung from the other car right through the open window.

There was no particular reason for going out, just a general desire to be goofy as a group. More evenings should come together for that reason alone instead of waiting for some pre-ordained event.

Jon Ellis – troublemaker

I know this doesn’t seem like much of an LJ post, but it was worth noting for myself anyways.

So many things going on. Working hard and playing hard too.

Trying to enjoy the little things as they fly by. October’s already half over.

I fought with technology on Tuesday. FOUGHT, I say.

My internet has been randomly dropping off for no reason. From what I could figure out it was my router giving me grief. Last time this happened I upgraded the firmware and it worked much better. This time the firmware upgrade choked midway through for no apparent reason, thus reducing my router to a paperweight. Joy. I was thinking of buying a wireless router anyways, but for some reason being forced to do it irritates me.

Wednesday/Thursday was crazy. I was at the college working all day, then dashed off to Mississauga to meet up with my brother and some friends, then went back to the college to mark assignments until 2am. Finally, home… waking up at 7:30am to head back to the college for a full day of teaching… then off to my 7pm – 10pm painting class in Oakville right after. Weirdest of all, I got home at 10:45pm and didn’t feel really tired for another couple hours.

This weekend is a christening for my cute little docile nephew, housewarming parties and ideally sketching more.

The Diamond Orders are in for Makeshift Miracle and they are right where we estimated they’d be, meaning that the book is not going to be a redline (money losing) property for Udon. Whew. This has taught me a ton about how indy books are done/marketed/selling in the current market so I’m even better armed for future comic projects. Thanks to everyone for your support.

Things are shaping up for a Makeshift Miracle book launch party here in Toronto at the end of November. There may be an informal celebratory pub night as well the week it hits stores. As soon as I have final details on both I’ll let you all know.

Finally, buy Monster Cops this week by Chip Zdarsky… support kick ass Toronto artists!:

Lots to update you guys and gals on, but I’ve been too busy to do it. Blar.

Quick version:

– Thanksgiving was good. Good food, good family visit, good weather.
– Both jobs are crazy-busy, but also going well.
– Erik is back from Hong Kong. He brought the print proof for the Makeshift Miracle book home with him too and it looks very nice. As I type this I’m uploading the final cover image and tweaked pages to the printer’s FTP server based on what I saw in the proof.
– Pride of Baghdad knocked me on my ass it’s so good. Great writing and incredible artwork. Get it.
– The Digital Painting class I’m taking is going well. Last week was a real “Eureka” kind of lesson where an important couple of techniques were shown to us. Nifty.

More later… gotta dash off to the college and get caught up on marking.

Quirky Stuff From Japan – Part 1 – Bikes

About bikes behind the cut.

Latest sketch for myself… playing with line and texture more:

People have been asking about the pre-orders and what-not for the book:

Web traffic has been pouring in from new Schlock Mercenary and PVP posts about the Makeshift book. Checking my server logs, it’s pretty incredible how many eyeballs are checking out the story. More unique loggable IPs have visited the site today than there will probably be copies of the book in print, um, ever.

Obviously all those eyeballs don’t instantly turn into pre-orders, but the sheer promotion of the name/imagery is helpful when it’s on store shelves – assuming a retailer actually carries it. I have to be realistic about it – most stores won’t give a damn about a surreal-teenage indy graphic novel with a no-name creator attached to it, even if it’s a sweet price and in full color. That’s not me putting myself down, it’s the reality of the comic industry.

In just over a week we’ll get the majority of comic retailer orders in and see how many are giving the book a shot. Pre-orders at the site are going okay, but are still a far cry from the 350 needed to cover the print run all by itself. Still, each one is important and I’ve gotten some amazing orders/letters from places like the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and the UK.

I’m currently expecting that between a combination of comic store orders and website pre-orders I’ll still come up short budget-wise, but not brutally so. The book will go to press and I’ll have copies to sell at cons and to take care of reorders. It’ll eventually pay for itself in the long run, which is crucial. The last thing I’d want is to leave the company on the hook for my stuff.

That’s the update. Once I get the Diamond numbers I’ll truly know whether to jump for joy or pee my pants in terror. 😛

Searching for character ideas. I like the way this one turned out:

Drawn and colored in Photoshop.

Quick sketch done for myself today:

Yes, one-armed goblin mystics say “Glurglee…”