On the Project Shadow Podcast The Award winning "The Devil and The Monk", winner of the 2008 Elan Rodger Trinidad Award in Comic Book Excellence and Bad-assery, was mentioned.

This is a sort of metaphysical Wily Coyote story, and the end is classic.

According to C. E. Dorsett, Project Shadow guy and blogger on Dash Punk.

This is probably the first response where someone found the story more funny than they found it spiritually enlightening. At least he understood the Wily Coyote part, although he seemed to have remembered the beginning all mixed up. He wasn't a fan of my other comics (and strangely, Speak No Evil doesn't seem to get much attention, even though I feel like it was superior in artwork and story structure, plus the first part of God(tm) (c) 2XX8 *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. All rights reserved. God and all related characters, titles, names and documents are trademarks of *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. No similarity between any of the names, characters, persons and/or institutions in this deity with those of any living or dead person or institutions is intended and any such similarity which may exist is purely coincidental. has way better art, despite its incompleteness) that means, you ought to fast forward to 40 minutes in the podcast and skip everything else!

Labels: feedback, God(tm), my work, podcast

So Friday night I went out and had drinks at one of my favorite bars. Now this bar is literally a hole in the wall. Sometimes its full, sometimes its chill, but it has a nice atmosphere. I'm cool with the bartenders. One of them is the sort of bartender you fawn over but you know you have nothing in common, thus nothing will ever happen.

But anyway, who do I see there? Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page.

Shit!

I like that bar. Now its going to be all trendy. Maybe they'll jack the drinks up.

Damn. I don't like going to trendy bars. I like going to cool bars where it isn't too loud and you can talk to cute girls.

...and I did, but they certainly weren't Ellen Page and Drew Barrymore. And no, I didn't get any numbers because I'm rusty at my game.

Anyway, I'm not going to tell you what bar this is for fear that its popularity might grow. I mean, its great that the place is doing well which means the bartenders are getting extra tips. But I just don't want the place to get all Hollywood. I mean, if I wanted to go to a Hollywood bar, I'd go to a bar in Hollywood.

Oh well. I fear that I'll have to find a new bar.

Labels: Life

Don't worry. I'm building up to something.

I've gotten a new job and its been taking up a lot of my time right now. I've finished some pages, but I haven't colored them.

Check out the two new pages.

Labels: comics, God(tm), my work, updates

I'm probably inviting something I could do without by posting this. So I'm not going to criticize the subject matter of Holy Comics!

I will, however, criticize the artists' limited understanding of human anatomy. Stringy arms. Stiff pose. Has he ever spent hours just looking at fabric? How it flows and dances with a slight breeze How its slavishly married to the forces gravity? The body looks flat. The waist is so thin. He could use a figure drawing class or two.

Also, the stroke around the "The Most Marvelous Mortal Man" is much too thick. I would stick with all caps. The logo in itself is pretty clever. But I think it could use a 3D element like Steranko's X-men logo.

I don't understand the cast shadow in front of Captain Miracle. Is there another Captain Miracle standing in front of him? And cast shadows are rarely that dark unless there's a powerful spotlight that's so hot, all the color would be washed out on the figure. Cast shadows usually fade off under usual lighting conditions.

Labels: Art, comics, religion, review

My European agent and art dealer just notified me that Theory of Everything Comics #1, a mini comic print version of "The Devil & the Monk" and "Speak No Evil" are available at Orbital Manga.

Orbital Manga
4c Orion House,
Upper St. Martins Lane,
London,
WC2H 9NY

tel:0207 2405577

My agent has already booked a future signing at Orbital, but the contract says that I have to become famous and NOT an asshole in order to participate in this future signing.

...the asshole clause of that contract might be broken already.

Labels: comics, my work, updates

1. Something a friend sent me. A few obvious truths if you were born with the right color.

For those who still can't grasp the concept of white privilege, or those who
are constantly looking for some easy-to-understand examples of it,
perhaps this list will help.

White privilege is when you can claim that being mayor of a town smaller than most medium-sized colleges, and then Governor of a state with about the same number of people as the lower fifth of the island of Manhattan, makes you ready to potentially be president, and people don't all die with laughter, while being a black U.S. Senator, two-term state Senator, and constitutional law scholar, means
you're "untested."

White privilege is being able to say that you support the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance because "if it was good enough for the founding fathers, it's good enough for me," and not be immediately disqualified from holding office--since, after all, the pledge was written in the late 1800s and the "under God" part wasn't added until the 1950s--while believing that reading accused criminals and terrorists their rights (because the Constitution, which you used to teach at a prestigious law school requires it), is a dangerous and silly idea only supported by mushy liberals.

White privilege is when you can get pregnant at seventeen like Bristol Palin and everyone is quick to insist that your life and that of your family is a personal matter, and that no one has a right to judge you or your parents, because "every family has challenges," even as black and Latino families with similar "challenges" are regularly typified as irresponsible, pathological and arbiters of social decay.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/ladaily/election-08/election-08-white-privilege/

Labels: politics, race

IT'S TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!

sauce: Web Beacon (dot) com


Song by Tom Smith

http://www.talklikeapirate.com

Labels: holiday, music, pirates, video

This comic is truly profound. One of the main points the Lotus Sutra teaches is that anyone regardless of past deeds can attain enlightenment in this life time. You are also correct about demons being converted and serving as guardians, but not just for temples. Some demons take on protective duties for all Buddha's after spending time trying to make the Buddhist's life as painful as possible. So in a way that demon reincarnating the monk in the story would have served his purpose of acting as a protector, and the fact that afterwards begins to meditate afterwards falls right in line with everything I've ever heard about demons in Buddhist practice.

--Hiro Shimada
(a Buddhist)

I've gotten a few e-mails from other Buddhists and a Hindu on The Devil and The Monk, but I think that this is what I wanted to hear. That is, a Catholic-born Gnostic-convert living in America gave a good interpretation of Buddhist ideas, both philosophical and mythic/cultural.

For people who might take offense or misinterpretation of the word "myth", I'm using the definition I learned from my instructor in my old "Fairytales and Folklore" class.

Myth: a story that may or may not be true but is culturally important to a people (I'm paraphrasing of course, I took that class like-- 6 or 7 years ago. I'm not gonna dig up that syllabus I kept from college).

So, if I refer to a "Christian Myth", I am not an angry atheist, I'm just stating that this old tale, that God only knows is historically accurate, is important to the Christian people and culture.

P.S. Heather Joseph-Whitham was a great teacher. If I could find a link to that one book she wrote about Klingon Fan Culture, I'd post it up (although there has been a steady decline in the Klingon population that seems to coincide with the depletion of the Ozone Layer). She's also made appearances on Mythbusters as a Folklorist and Urban Legend specialist.

Labels: feedback, my work, religion

I've added two new pages to God(tm) (c)2XX8 *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. All rights reserved. God and all related characters, titles, names and documents are trademarks of *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. No similarity between any of the names, characters, persons and/or institutions in this deity with those of any living or dead person or institutions is intended and any such similarity which may exist is purely coincidental.

I finally get to draw some robots. Although, after the next scene, you won't see them for a while.

Labels: comics, God(tm), my work, robots, updates

Labels: muppets

A friend in London (who I've yet to meet) visited comic book writer/magician/corporate publishing victim, Alan Moore and Melinda Gibbie at Orbital Comics.




Here, he strikes a pose for us.





She got my favorite writer to personally insult me. This is awesome on so many various levels.

I have no idea how to repay her for this. I dunno, maybe a lap dance or something.

Labels: Alan Moore, comics

I can only hope that I can become an eccentric old comic book artist, like this guy:



I can only hope.

Labels: artists, comics

I usually don't blog about the ins and out of my life unless I'm drunk and then I delete it. But things are gonna shake up personally for me very soon.

I got the call today. I got a really sweet day job starting next week. I'll let you know what it is at the appropriate time. Plus, I got a nice side gig which I'll also tell you about on the appropriate time.

The synchronicities are starting. I just had one tonight. Things are gonna start moving. I'll do my best to update my comics.

In fact, I just updated last night.

God(tm) (c)2XX8 *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. All rights reserved. God and all related characters, titles, names and documents are trademarks of *** ***** ****** ******* Incorporated. No similarity between any of the names, characters, persons and/or institutions in this deity with those of any living or dead person or institutions is intended and any such similarity which may exist is purely coincidental. has two NEW PAGES. Plus, I added a joke to one page.

Okay. It's a full moon.

No wonder.

--onward!

Labels: God(tm), Life, my work, updates

I think when you get about five thumbs ups, that's when your page starts to get stumbled on more and more. Now, I'm not forcing anyone to do this, but just check out the following links and if you think its thumbs up worthy, then click the button.

If you're don't have a StumbleUpon application on you browser, check out stumbleupon.com It's a really fun way to discover new and interesting websites.

Pretentious Lightbulb Men: The Book of What
My favorite Lightbulb Men comic

Pretentious Lightbulb Men: Growth

Pretentious Lightbulb Men: Mirror

Some stuff from elanrodgertrinidad.com
Chainsaw Chun Li

Memoirs of a Gamer

My brief career on Sesame Street:
Happy Talk

Up & Down

And my imaginary friend, RayRay
RayRayWorld.com

RayRay at the Beach

RayRay Resolution

Freaky Soup Guy

Soup Torture

Thanks!

Labels: links, my work

At mangascreener.com, I've been keeping up with Naoki Urasawa's Pluto. Unfortunately, they're not translating it anymore.

The story was originally an Astro Boy (Tetsuwan Atom) story by Osamu Tezuka called "The World's Strongest Robot". As summarized by Amazon.com:

A wealthy sultan creates a giant robot to become the ruler of all other robots on Earth. But in order for that to happen, he must defeat the seven most powerful robots in the world, including Astro Boy, who must have his horsepower raised from 100,000 to 1,000,000 to face the challenge! And his sister, Uran, also flies in to lend a helping hand!

It's in the Astro Boy vol. 3 collection.

But Pluto takes those ideas and puts an adult spin on it. It deconstructs the Astro Boy world. Much like Watchmen, it took these childish ideas and made them mature. For example, the Sultan in the original story is now, basically, Saddam Hussein. The ideas of robot prejudice are further fleshed out by Uraswa. There's this great concept: robots don't forget, in fact they remember everything with precision. There are a lot of robot war veterans in this story, and their sense of regret is beyond human imagination.

There's a touching scene when the robot wife (she kind of reminded me of Rosie from the Jetsons) of a robot police officer is told that her husband has been killed on duty. Although her character design shows no emotion, the story and pacing is done so well that you can feel what this robot is thinking. You get a sense that she might not feel things like a human being, but she still mourns for her mechanical husband in her own way.

Also, there's a great scene where Dr Tenma's love/hate for Atom (Astro Boy) is sort of explained but in just a few pages. And the way Astro Boy was interpreted in this story is just brilliant! The concept of a robot having 1,000,000 horsepower is updated to robots having advanced Artificial Intelligence. This advanced AI makes them capable of mass destruction, but also near-human emotion. And, what was originally a minor character in "The World's Strongest Robot" is the main character. And he has a bad ass missile hand!

When I compare the original "The World's Strongest Robot" to its contemporary "Pluto" it's like I'm being told the same story, except one storyteller is ten-years-old and the other is forty. It's a good story, no matter who tells it, and I regret that I didn't grow up with Astro Boy as a kid (I had to settle for Garfield).

Fortunately, Viz Media will be translating this manga and it will be released in February 2009.

Labels: anime, comics, manga, Osamu Tezuka

This is one of my favorite Shiina Ringo songs, Spica, a cover from Spitz. And the Anime was from this dark and nonsensical comedy called Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei or "So Long Mr. Despair".



God bless the guy who snuck his camcorder into that club.



This video basically solidified my Shiina Ringo fandom.


Oh yes, and puppets:



This song has the word "robot" in the title.


But, it was a song originally written for a model/actress and her budding music career.


Also a Shiina Ringo song performed by the same model/actress. I love the song, but when I first heard it, a glowing stripper pole was something I never visualized. I imagined the girl in a sweater in a park or something.


And the same actress/model BUTCHERING Shiina Ringo songs-- this is when you need the stripper pole.

and I'll end this blog entry with this:

Labels: anime, j-pop, music, puppets, Shiina Ringo, video

Labels: j-pop, music, Shiina Ringo, video

I just opened a CafePress store. Right now, I only have a few products.

But, if you have any requests, if you want to have the image from page 2 of "Speak No Evil" on a coffee mug or a POTATOE on a T-shirt or maybe you don't like this Meditating Devil design and want it to be more "Buddha-ee" than dark, or you want whatever else they offer at CafePress, I'll be glad to fulfill your request.

But you gotta buy it. Promise?

Either leave a comment or email me: elanrodgertrinidad@gmail.com

Labels: my work, updates

Labels: animation, anime, found on the floor, video

What is consciousness and what is the human soul?

Big questions, and I realize that I'm just a guy who bought two years of hosting and can draw and write pretty well. So my ego's foolish enough for me to give it a shot.

I don't think these are "things" but rather "actions". Consciousness is what the brain is doing. Consciousness is a verb.

So, this action is what's going on from some point when you're in your mother's womb to your death. It is a performance. You are an act. A role.

A human is being.

And its weird because we think of a person as a thing, but forget how this "thing" is based on time. Consciousness is happening, not TO you. But it also IS you. Again, the metaphor of performance.

It's sort of like light: sometimes it acts like a wave, sometimes a particle. This depends on what sort of experiments you do to it.

And maybe we're sort of like light. We are a thing. We are an action.

So what are you gonna do? Dance the cosmic dance? Be? Do? Lose yourself in the action? Or is the action the self?

Why don't you just have a seat and breathe. That's what Buddhist Monks do, stop the action. Why? Because action is karma, and it just keeps you stuck on a hamster wheel, always running, going nowhere. Ego is action.

And what's left? I don't know, probably the human soul. Which is probably an action too, because its weightless (some doctor in the old days weighed a person just before they died and right after). It is happening. By what? "God" would be a good answer, but intangible things like "god" and "the human soul" are just place holders for "I don't know", especially in a blog that's trying to use some sort of reason.

(This is why Christendom has its sacraments or "mysteries".)

But, then again, I'm a guy who draws funny books and manages to sound smart every now and then.

But we all know its just an act.

Labels: philosophy

Labels: music, puppets, video

Labels: Alan Watts, philosophy, religion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqPcQeMEnFc

I wish they'd give credit to who animated these things.

Now pick a number between eight and twelve.

Labels: animation, video

This is both cool and creepy.

Source

Labels: puppets, video