Zub Tales

The latest One Step column about comic portfolios is up now. My original title for the piece was “Do It Yourself”, but Matt’s relabelled it “Weird Ways to Get Attention”, which is a bit of a misnomer. Creating your own comics and proving your passion for the medium isn’t a “weird” way at all but hey, that’s just me. As the editor he’s got final say on the article titles and all that jazz.

It’s May 1st. Holy crap it’s 5 months into 2006 already. How the heck did that happen?

The Paradise Toronto Comicon over the weekend was show-quiet/after-hours-crazy, as per the norm. It was nice seeing familiar faces and catching up with people. I think the staff of Strange Adventures, in particular, are so universally awesome that it defies description. If everyone retailing comics was like them and the crew at The Beguiling, comics would take over the universe.

In a related convention-esque note, whoever invented Soju is either a genius or a madman. Apparently that stuff is distilled liquid karaoke courage. Bon Jovi, Elton John, the Backstreet Boys and Axel Rose must have all felt the electric ripples of pure rock we sent their way. Chris “Kind of a Big Deal” Butcher knows how to throw a good little get together. And by “little”, I mean to say “20+ sweaty crazed drunks in a room filled to the brim with karaoke chaos”. I think we scared Jimmy Palmiotti and his friends right out of the building, all in record time.

My E3 plans are currently going through turbulence. My hotel booking seems to be buggered up, so if anyone knows anyone who has crash space or needs an extra person to make their room more affordable at the show, please let me know. I’m clean, somewhat entertaining and I bring a bounty of Street Fighter comic goodness. 🙂

More later.

No, really… I’m awake.

The Calgary Comic Expo I’m attending next weekend is printing a charity pin-up comic filled with cowboy/western-themed artwork done by the many guests who will be attending the show. Here’s my piece for it:

It’s nice to actually be able to post some artwork up here for a change. Whenever I do I get a mixture of happy and sad feelings; Happy because I created/posted some new stuff, sad because I don’t do it often enough. I’ve been so drained lately I haven’t had the energy to do more artwork for myself. Story ideas wait, development artwork on my pet projects goes stagnant and my personal creative impulses get caught in a quagmire of other responsibilities and general exhaustion.

I feel like I’m Mister Critic-Pants lately. Unfortunately this post will only enhance that image. I’ll try to post happier things in the days to come.

One of the only breaks I had this weekend was trying the 7 day free trial for Dungeon & Dragons Online. I’d read some reviews that pointed out problems with DDO; Strange design decisions that seemed to fly in the face of other Massive Multiplayer Role-Playing games, but not in a good way. Things like:

– There’s no actual world to explore, just a city with a bunch of instanced dungeons.
– There’s no crafting skills to create interesting items or invigorate any sort of economy.
– The only way to gain XP is by completing quests, almost all of which require extensive team play.
– If your character dies you gain less XP for the quest you’re currently on, penalizing you for grouping with strangers even though the game stresses that same teamwork aspect.
– Real time twitchy combat controls requiring button presses for dodging and blocking, which sounds okay until the server is being pounded by lag.
– Railroaded plotlines with almost no variety between quest paths.
– Low overall power as you make a brutally slow crawl to the equivalent of a 10th level Dungeons & Dragons character.
– The game being set in Eberron, the new anti-classic fantasy D&D world. This pushes away the loyal D&D hardcore who would have slobbered all over a game built around the far better known Forgotten Realms or Greyhawk settings.

The screenshots looked okay. The video footage looked uninspiring but passable. But the game was free for 7 days so I figured ‘Why the heck not?’

I won’t need the other 6 days of my subscription. Holy crap, does this game suck.

How many creativity-sapped bureaucratic zombies approved this mess? It doesn’t feel like any part of the development team looked at the product as a whole and asked “Is this compelling and fun?”

All the above problems are quite true, but let me add a few more that blew the brains out the back of my head:

– This game chugs. My computer is damn beefy with an AMD 3000+ processor, GeForce 6800 video card and 2 gigs of RAM. This game twitched and stuttered along even when I was going down small hallways alone or fighting against a single creature in a tiny room. How they expect you to utilize the real time combat like this is beyond me.

– The art design bores me to absolute tears. Mannequin realistic-esque figures coupled with unbelievably stiff and lifeless animation in a world that manages to look ho-hum even though it’s supposed to be bristling with unique magical elements. I don’t know why so many 3D designers think that dead-eyed cardboard photo realism of the fantastic is some plateau worth striving for.

– The narrator/Dungeon Master. Yup. Rather than getting actors to do voices for key NPCs to flesh out the feeling of immersion, they’ve got a stoic sounding guy telling you extra details about the adventure or cheering you on while you play. I think it’s some sort of lame attempt to mimic the tabletop D&D experience.

How bad is DM Man? Let me tell you.

Video games, shockingly, have both audio and visual components. When my character is standing in a perfectly clean looking dull room and DM guy says “You notice multitudes of footprints have traveled over this room’s dusty floors.”, I feel cheated. Take the money you just paid that voice actor and texture the room with some dusty footprints, dammit! DM narration is used in tabletop role-playing because there’s no actual audio and visual components! This is a visual game – Show me, don’t tell me! Who could’ve possibly thought this was a good idea?!

Ten times worse than that, however, is that Mister DM Guy actually SAYS NPC LINES as part of his narration. So he’ll spout shit like “The cultist dashes towards you with a look of hatred in his eyes and says ‘Fool! You will never escape here alive!’” while mucking up his voice as he spews the bad guy’s lines as if he’s a C-grade community theatre actor playing Captain Hook. It’s quite embarrassing. I didn’t play far enough in to see if that would include him doing a painful falsetto to mimic any lines for women, which would actually be icing on the cake.

Thinking about it now, I guess DDO is true to the worst clichés of the “D&D experience”: repetitive dungeon crawls, railroaded stories, crappy rewards and an obnoxious person cramming disconnected modules and witless drama in your face.

If I’m missing some hidden genius within this sad game, feel free to let me know.

Very busy weekend with little break time for the ol’ Zub. It’s been a mixture of marking assignments, refocusing projects, sleeping odd hours and feeling a bit under the weather.

End of the semester marking is crushing my brain. I wish I could lecture without actually having to assign grades to these assignments, like wonderful workshops without the stress and hassle of telling people they’re good or bad.

The strike time seems to have drained the get-up-and-go from many of the students. Even though it was an extended “break”, coming back to it and having our schedule thrown off has taken its toll. The work many are now handing in is sub par. It doesn’t seem to be a lack of knowledge for most of them, just a real lack of momentum at the finish line. The strong students are handing in good (not great) work and the weak students are almost all crash and burn-tastic. Their heads are already in summer break mode instead of making that crucial final quality push.

The last assignment of the semester that gets handed in this week could be an ugly one. I’ve been getting exchanges like this:

Student: “So Jim, how many full body poses are required for the last project?”

Zub: “Then you should read it.”

*five minutes later*

Different Student: “So, do we need a soundtrack with our key frames for the hand-in?”

Zub: “You know that hand out I gave you? The one that tells you…”

*five minutes later*

Another Student: “Is it okay if I do one of my model sheet poses in color?”

Zub: “Well considering that’s part of the assignment, I did an extensive tutorial on it and it’s listed right on the project sheet as a hand-in component, I’d say ‘yes’ that’s a good idea.”

*five minutes later*

Yet Another Student: “Is it cool if I totally scrap my original concept that you already approved and do a new one without showing you any roughs at all?”

Zub: “Okay. You’re an adult. It’s your funeral.”

*five minutes later*

And Yet Another Student: “I did these 3 chicken scratch doodles here on the corner of some note paper… these ones right here that look worse than anything I’ve ever done for you before and also worse than about 80% of the portfolio submissions to get into the entire course. What do you think? Is this a good character concept? Can I go ahead to finals?

Zub: “Um, no… not cool.”

I remember the end of semester crunch and the remnants that were left of my brain when it was all said and done. I am trying to be empathetic to their plight and make myself available for them, I really am. It’s this weird mixture of advising, mentoring and giving them the ability to make their own choices, for better or for worse.

In any case, I have to be honest about their quality or I’m not doing them any favors in the long run. The strong students will endure and grow while the others will be in for a rude awakening and have to take stock as far as their personal drive and what they want out of their future in this course.

Today I think I actually hit a break through with the current projects on the ol’ Udon plate. There’s still a ton to be done, but I think I may have gotten most of it actually scheduled some what and do-able. For a few days earlier this week it was looking absolutely overwhelming. We’ll see if this current optimistic attack schedule holds up.

The only thing heavily buggered up at this point is the Exalted comic schedule. I think everyone who works on the book has suffered some incredible setback in 2006. I had a slate of personal issues crop up early this year. Noi (the penciler) had a killer bout of the flu, Greg (the background artist) mushed his ringfinger (enough so that he lost the fingernail) during a karate demonstration and Roberto (the colorist) is actually going through a difficult divorce. I don’t state these things to elicit pity from people expecting the book, just to note that life throws us all curveballs and that we’re struggling through as best we can. Issue #4 is getting completed and as soon as possible I will show you all sample pages. Thanks for your patience and support.

The latest comic portfolio article is up:

One Step 8: Portfolio Horror

What NOT to do portfolio tips based on real things I’ve seen at conventions. Bad anime, porn, demons and more. Good times.

Hey Gang,

Convention season starts early this year. I think it’s starting earlier each year, actually. Here’s the first few shows I’m confirmed to be attending:

Toronto Comicon Fan Appreciation – April 23rd – Toronto Convention Centre
Toronto Paradise Comicon – April 28-30 – National Trade Center, CNE
Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo – May 7th – Big Four Building

This is my first time back to Calgary since I moved away to Halifax back in 2002. I can’t believe it’s been four years since then. If you worked with me, were taught by me, LARPed with me, hung out with me – it would be nice to see you. I’m going to try and come into town a couple days before the comic show, so ideally there can be some sort of pub get-together kind of thing. I’ll also post a list of comics and RPG books I’ve worked on if you want to bring something by the comic show to be signed. Omar Dogan’s coming along too, so I’ll post a list for him as well. Free Comic Book Day is the day before the show, so we may also be at a comic book store on Saturday for a signing – not sure yet. More info as soon as I know.

E3 Electronic Entertainment Expo – May 9-12 – Los Angeles Convention Center

Heading straight from Calgary to LA with no time to spare, Udon has some meetings set up for the big video game show. I’ve never attended E3 before, so this should be quite the eye opener. I’m hoping to branch out our contacts, do some schmoozing and have some fun. If you’re going to be at E3 or live damn close and love to karaoke, let me know 🙂

Nothing worth having comes without some kind of fight.

Gotta kick at the darkness ’til it bleeds daylight.