Zub Tales

Reading through material on the web, there was a neat article about typing your name into Google and seeing what responses you found. It’s easier with a name that isn’t generic (“John Smith” won’t find you many relevant links to your life, only thousands of others). I used to do it quite a bit when Makeshift Miracle was in full swing to see which sites had linked to me.

So I typed “Zubkavich” into Google again this morning…

Wow. That’s a whole lot of related pages and links. It’s kind of cool and eerie at the same time. A lot of people I’ve never known have linked to the site. Some of them talk about the web comic, my RPG art, the fact that I’m in the animation industry… a lot for Makeshift, which is weird because beyond adding a new title page, I haven’t updated the site in a year or so. The fact that people are still talking about it, admittedly in a limited way, with no advertising on my part is kind of cool.

So that naturally made me segue into actually rereading Makeshift Miracle. I haven’t read the story in a year and a half. It honestly felt like someone else had done it, and given all the changes that have happened in my life, in some ways – someone else did.

There are some really nice pages and some lines of dialogue that make me smile. There’s awkward bits, perspective drawing problems and areas where I can remember rushing certain pages out under the gun, spots where I’d “George Lucas Special Edition” the hell out of it if I could go back and change parts. But it still works pretty damn well. The story actually wraps up and answers most of what it set out to tell. I don’t know if I could find adequate time to do another web comic. If I did, I’m pretty sure I’d make it free and work on building an audience instead of making it subscriber-based, though anything’s possible. I actually did 4 pages of a new web comic short story over the summer that I wanted to debut before San Diego Comic-Con this year, but got slammed with other work and couldn’t get it done. It was exciting and fun doing the web comic before, getting feedback from people and telling a story that a small audience looked forward to during their week. Remembering that gave me a little booster early in the morning and showed me how far along I’ve come and what my creativity did for me when I pushed myself at a crucial moment. I worry about not being able to be the person I want to be or carry through on promises I make to myself, and something like this reminded me of what’s possible.

The schedule continues along pretty steadily at this point. No complaints in that regard. I’ve been working, teaching (which is also working, really) and keeping my evenings free for a bit of relaxation.

Attended ghostyo’s wedding reception on Friday and had a good time. I’m really happy for all the good fortune he’s had this year. He’s heading into his creative and romantic life in a really amazing way all in one giant wave and I can’t wait to see it grow.

I’ve been doing some digital painting lessons for Gala. Even though I’ve just been doing simple still life pics to show her different coloring concepts, they’ve been turning out pretty decent. So far I’ve done an apple and a wine glass.

White Wolf’s finally released the front cover image for the Exalted Fair Folk book, and it’s been nice getting positive feedback from fans about it. The crew busted their butts on that cover, so it’s even more gratifying that people are liking it. Reading some of the forums, the odd person is nit-picking elements of it or lamenting that Yoshitaka Amano didn’t do the images, as was originally planned. I’m slowly learning that the old adage “can’t please all the people all the time” holds extra sway on the internet. The cover looks damn good, we worked hard and it’s gonna be fun seeing it in print.

Saw the Flight book again when I was in a bookstore downtown on Monday. So many amazing little stories by web comic artists whose work I love. I’ve got to find out who the contact person is for subsequent volumes and see if I can pitch a story at them. If anyone knows who to contact, please let me know. I’d be honored to be part of that group and do up a surreal story ala Makeshift Miracle. Speaking of Makeshift, I did up a new title page for the site here.

Lastly, I bought myself a new toy. I never thought I’d buy a Mac based product, but I guess anything’s possible. I read reviews and articles gushing about the iPod revolution and that it’s the digital product that’s a sign of the future of tech and all that jazz. Read a lot, finally decided to buy a 20 gig iPod on the weekend and I must say – Holy Shit. Seriously, this little thing is amazing! I’m not going to gush like some bad ad campaign, but I’ve pretty much never had such a kick ass device. The thing isn’t even half full and I have every single song I own or can think of on it – currently about 2100 tracks. It’s completely intuitive to use, small, light, rechargeable and cannot skip. I’ll probably end up adding more orchestral music and a pile of comedy tracks to it later on once I organize those, but I’ll still have 9 or so gigs to use as portable hard drive storage for backing up important files. It’s got a day timer type calendar, phone list, alarm clock… the little iPod is jaw-dropping. That’s the update for now.

Post con season and I’ve been running around getting reorganized. Teaching at Seneca 9 hours a week, reorganizing Udon documentation and filing system with Gal, hunting down more projects for the artists to tackle this Fall, hammering out some deals that could bare some kick ass fruit in 2005 and also doing some artwork for clients at the same time. Needless to say, it’s been busy.

But…

But, I’ve managed to keep almost all my evenings from becoming work-oriented.

That’s a pretty major achievement, especially compared to the pre-summer blitz of work insanity. Even with everything happening, I’m managing it better and putting aside much needed time for myself amongst it all. It’s making my work time more plan able, more productive and more enjoyable. That’s pretty key right now.

Other things happening, but I don’t have time to go into details. The apartment’s been frustratingly loud early in the mornings, I’ve lost some weight, been playing some Dawn of War and Street Fighter Anniversary Collection and I’m headed to my parent’s cottage this weekend to relax.

That’s the way-too-brief update. More next week. Sorry I’ve been such a hermit and haven’t been in touch with people much lately.

Gen Con obviously wrapped up last weekend and it was a good time. Gala’s now home after the con, finishing up her internship and leaving her with some great experiences and knowledge of the RPG industry. Needless to say though, I’m glad she’s back.

A statue that was carved over the course of the show by a crew of people.
It’s hard to tell the size of it in this photo, but the statue is taller than I am.

With all the other conventions piled together, I was pretty exhausted by the time I got to Indianapolis, so I didn’t party as hard as I did last year. Even still, it was one to remember.

Thursday involved Dr. Drave and I waiting for our hotel room to open up and wandering the con floor in a haze after driving most of the night. That evening after finally checking in, we ended up at a pub called the Ugly Monkey for some quality karaoke. By quality, I mean songs by Prince, Poison, Nancy Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Tom Jones and others… so your quality mileage may vary.

Stumbling back to the hotel, Bri’s back was acting up and I made some quality comments about his understanding of logic that earned me a punch in the throat — thus satisfying my “one injury per convention shared with White Wolf” rule. Luckily, I woke up uninjured and not hung over.

Gamers start to gather early on Friday morning for the show.

Friday during the show zipped by and that night was the big release party for Requiem. Nicole and Stacy got roped into being dancing cage girls with the promise of free swag and the rest of us drank and grooved the night away. At midnight, the new books were unveiled and the party continued. Later on, a dodgeball match (with gymnasium utility balls and everything) broke out in the alley between the White Wolf crew and Fanpro. Although no one agrees on who won, both sides promised that this would become a regular con event.

Saturday morning, the brand new White Wolf books get unpacked before the hall opens.
That’s a whole lotta gamer goodness.

Gala worked the booth helping Shane with demoing Vampire Bloodlines and seemed to enjoy blowing up creatures and kicking the crap out of street people in the game ala Grand Theft Auto. I’m sure after running through the demo for people dozens of times it lost its luster. Still, she seemed to enjoy the show and did a bit of shopping, snagging some new dice and wandering the hall looking for deals.

The booth ladies may want Pikachu, but the feisty yellow Pokemon only has eyes for me.

Saturday and Sunday were quieter, with quick jaunts out but generally me heading to bed early to catch up on sleep. By Sunday, I’d gotten a cold and was under the weather, so Gal and I decided to stay until Monday morning and then just drive home rather than leave Sunday and take a road trip around middle America.

Now, I’m just settling back in, getting organized and recovering. Gala caught the cold just as I shook off its effects, so her weekend looks like it’ll be staying in and getting well. The Toronto Comic Expo is this weekend, but I’ve had enough cons for the year and just want to relax, so I’m gonna just let that one go by without attending.

Ray/Dave and I are ready to drive to Gen Con finally… finally, as in Dave’s watched me dash around the apartment like a fool checking and rechecking things, knowing fully well I’ll forget something anyways.

The car was checked yesterday, cleaned of bird shit today and is now ultra-travel-capable.

The bags are packed.

The portfolio is all stocked up and as far as I can tell, I’ve brought all the stuff I’m supposed to with me.

The apartment is clean.

Good God, am I really all ready to go?
I’m not nervous a bit. Nope.

Is it really the home stretch to the summer?

Weeks blaze by and I’m doing my best to keep it all moving forward. The Chicago Wizardworld convention wrapped up and I arrived home this morning at around 6:30am. The drive down and back was hard, but we made good time both ways thanks to Omar’s tireless stamina.

Eric, Attila, Belfour, Omar and I left at 2:00am Friday, cruised our way past the border with no problems and made it into the show by noon. After an exhausting day at the show, we had a sweet dinner at a local steakhouse and then crashed after watching the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.

The Eater of Worlds and I show how it’s done.

Saturday was a busy show, but not as insane as the San Diego show, which was kind of nice. The Wizardworld con was big and all, but after the madness that is San Diego, it felt small in comparison. I was able to wander a bit, but nothing particularly wild caught my eye.

The boys working away at the booth.

A lot of retailers and fans bought up our Capcom Summer Special comic and after the show on Saturday, I grabbed a dinner with Kandrix and Laurie, two friends from Calgary. Heading back to the hotel afterwards, Vedder, Scotty, Belfour and I broke into some drinking and poker. No one could leave the game until all their chips were gone, and as people got eliminated we got more drunk and more daring with our card playing. By dawn, I’d beaten Vedder and walked away with the pot, even though I barely know how to play poker. It made Sunday zombie-like for sure, but I had a good time.

Kandrix, Me and Rob Liefeld. Be afraid.

Home Monday and on the road again Wednesday headed to Gen Con, which will prove to be crazy. Work and school stuff to take care of before I leave, laundry and general clean up, plus ideally I want to get Gala’s computer up and running again. They shipped it from Atlanta and it looks like the hard drive didn’t make it through the journey… blar.

Here we go…

So tired today. Slept like crap, making my head and body ache.

Digging through old papers and files, I stumbled across some of the awesome B-Movie titles that came out of some damn fine rounds playing Grave Robbers From Outer Space over the last year. Here’s some of the best ones:

Invisible Intergalactic Outer Space Carnival Sorority Bride

Intergalactic Satanic Hitler Beach

Good stuff.

Arrived back from San Diego last night. Woke up this morning obviously a bit groggy, but not as tired as I thought I would be.

It was six days of the “not quite familiar, but getting there” comic convention that dwarfs the rest in North America. With over 100,000 attendees this year, the show was the biggest it’s ever been. The Udon crew staked out territory in the official Capcom area amongst the video game companies, anime dealers and Artist Alley. Our location coupled with an exclusive summer comic and 2 Free Play Street Fighter arcade machines created a ground swell of business.

I have never experienced so many people praising, buying product and waiting for sketches from the artists before. The line up, which stretched down past our arcade machines, barely let up at all during the con and by the end we’d sold out of all the Summer Special issues we brought, an entire case of Street Fighter trade paperbacks, a box of posters and tons of back issues in addition to the crew doing hundreds of sketches for fans.

Venturing out onto the con floor, I saw old friends and got caught up with artists from Modern Tales as well as other people in the industry and web comic artists too. With all the pandemonium at our own booth, I didn’t see as much as I have in years past, but I didn’t mind. This wasn’t a year for shopping heavily or running wild, it was working during the day and relaxing in the evenings.

I don’t want this post to ramble off into a dozen little stories too long to type about. Suffice to say that it went pretty damn good. Meeting the enthusiastic Japanese Capcom representatives, a wild dinner with 25 artists and RPG industry people, chatting with friends, moments of weird silence after the show let out each day and a triumphant sushi dinner for Udon at the end of it all. Ask me about them in person and I’ll regale you with the Zub Tales, as always.

I woke up extra early the first day of the show, showered and then wandered the Gaslamp district of San Diego to just take in a bit more of the city and watch it slowly come alive as the sun rose. With no clouds in the sky, the intense warmth of the morning light and sound of the ocean washed over me and cleared my head.

Each year I head to the Comicon and things are so different from the year before. The things I’ve done and the many challenges ahead.

I don’t have a crystal ball to tell me where it all will go, just dreams and passions for my personal and work time.

Various pics from the con.
Click each to see them full size.

10:30am and I’m doing the work equivalent of sprinting. I wrote up a checklist last night of the things I need to get done before I leave and am crossing them off with gusto as I accomplish them.

The sprint isn’t harsh or a “lungs wheezing, so dead” kind of race. I’m just pushing for efficiency and want to get things done this afternoon so I can relax tonight. Zen a bit more before the craziness that’s coming.

I hit the ground running this morning… in a good groove. Gonna take it one step at a time and this week will be a decent one.

Gala’s been trying more things at the office. She’s expanded into some art directing, business writing, editing – really trying all sorts of production elements and getting a feel for the entire department. I’m really proud of her for busting her ass so much on this internship.

Gala’s been in Atlanta for 2 and a half months. Sometimes it feels like she just left a week or two ago and other times it feels like it’s been much longer. Time perception playing tricks on me.

Headed home from Erik’s place last night and had time to think. We had a dinner meeting all about Udon plans… the summer and beyond. The future is looking exciting and unexpected as always. Taking stock of what’s been happening and where we can head from here.

It’s been a bit of a theme.

Taking stock of what’s happening around me, making resolutions and then carrying them out. Making crucial adjustments to the way I think and use my time for myself or for work.

Good art happening this week for the Jimbo. Roughs burst out of the pencil on Monday and today’s looking pretty sharp too.

Getting ready for San Diego Comic Con next week. Going to be gone from Tuesday through to Monday… 6 days for one con… so nuts. I’m excited, yet dreading it at the same time.

From the Capcom press release:
“Appearing at the Capcom booth (#4229) will be the artists from Udon Entertainment, creators of the hot new *Street Fighter* comic book series, who will have on-hand an exclusive Capcom Summer Special comic available only at ComicCon.”