Okay, so I barely use this blog. I put all my weird stuff up on my facebook profile (its private, though a reader or two have emailed me enough to let my defenses down. Otherwise, join the theory of everything comics group.) And then I post stuff from there on foundonthefloor.net

Anyway, its 4:30 in the morning and I ought to be doing other stuff, like sleeping.
So I thought I'd try to analyze "The Devil and the Monk".

Originally, I was writing "The Devil and The Monk" as part of God(tm). The guy in line, right before or right after was supposed to be a character from God(tm) somewhere in the middle of the story. Already, I was thinking non-linearly for God(tm), I wanted it to have all these tangents like Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. That sort of structure of storytelling feels like the Internet being forced to be linear and traditional.

When I write long stories, I'll work on little sections, the ones that pop into my head, key scenes, I would sketch/write them out and then work around them.

My intention of this story was to explain how reincarnation can exist in a Christian Cosmological structure, but in a funny way. When I finished my first draft of "The Devil and The Monk", I thought I had something here. I was trying to get the rust off my joints and just dived into the comic.

Page 01 & 02 - (mind you, two pages on this site create 1 page of print. I didn't like how the comic book aspect ratio required you to scroll, so I cut it in half.) So, we're at the Gates of Heaven. I wanted it to feel light. I thought a lever would be very cartoonish, plus I threw in Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln is one of those character who you can't fuck up drawing. If you were to put a top hat, suit and beard on a Chinese guy; you would know that that's supposed to be Abe Lincoln.

Page 03 & 04 - Introduction of Hell. I'll have to admit, I appropriated the Monk falling into Hell from a page in Frank Miller's Sin City (that book is why I wanted to do comics). The Devils, I wanted them to be light as well. As if they have a routine. Hell is normal for them. Hell is just as boring and exciting to them as where you live.

When I was originally designing Alavaka (yes, he's unnamed here. yes, there will be a sequel, and that's the name he will be called and that's how I think of him lately)
I was going for a classic devil look: red with horns. But I didn't want him to be the Greek god Pan. So I played around with the horns and I drew him with the horns going through his eyes. Its as if he was constantly suffering and blind: ignorant to God. And that idea of horns being more like an injury really paid off. So I designed all the other Devils with the horn-as-injury ideas.

Page 05 & 06 - The Monk breaks the routines of Hell. I wanted the reader to feel a bit of stoicism here, an oasis in Hell. As if they're looking at a statue of the Buddha. Someone on Stumbleupon criticized me for making this character a Mary Sue, a character that was much too perfect. But the Monk isn't a character to me. I didn't give him a name or history or anything. You don't even know what kind of Buddhist he is. (Okay, by the cut of his robe, he's Thai. But I'm not saying anything about Thai Buddhists, I just think their robes are the most stylish of any Buddhist monk.) To me, he's just an ideal personified.

--Back to Hell: Again, making Hell feel normal and mundane. I also used racial slurs. I'm not saying anything bad about Asians (because I'm one), I just thought this is how Devils would speak. I mean, the White Devil is racist, why not the red ones?

Page 07 & 08 - Man, I was lazy with the backgrounds. Anyway, a reader who was raised Hindu was trying to figure out what the monk was saying in Sanskrit (or Hindi-- not sure) when he said "d'oh" he figured it out and nearly fell off his chair. Anyway, here I start to establish rhythm: Torture. Ohm. Torture. Ohm.

Page 09 & 10 - I wanted the torture to be light, cartoony and childish. Warner Bros. cartoons. Milton Bradley games. Oh, and I know I misspelled "butterflies". I kept the typo because there's something funny and childish about "butterlies"

Page 11 & 12 - Page 11 is either everything I abhor about media at that time or something Christian, since this was part of God(tm). Its how Hell would be for me. Here are the shows:
1. Home Shopping Network
2. Game Shows. As a friend of mine told me, its the death of the American dream.
3. That guy from the Westboro Baptist Church. The "God Hates Fags" guy. I'm sure somebody touched him once.
4&5. Tim and Eric from Adult Swim. I really hate this show and an old roommate really loved it. This show made me nauseous. It was trying to be funny by being awful. I know there's plenty of fans out there. Now think about how you feel about Twilight and Twilight fans. This is exactly how I feel about you.
6. A Christian puppet show. Okay, a concept as crazy and mind blowing as God embodied as a human being and then suffering as a human sacrifice so that we may join God should have nothing to do with hand puppets. This is what happens when you veer away from a Liturgical and Apostolic tradition.
7. TMZ- I don't care about what celebrities are doing. Its as if they are a sort of god. Its as if the death of a young celebrity is a myth that can be analyzed by Joseph Campbell or this or that actress fits a Jungian archetype. The people who I consider celebrities make or say something powerful. Pretty faces are just pretty faces (although, a pretty face with brains, now that's awesome)
8. Jerry Springer
9. I forgot which televangelist this was, but he's obviously a foney.
10. Chris Crocker. I once went to a gallery opening he was also attending. I did not make eye contact. I don't hate on him because he's flaming. Flaming Gay Men can be really funny people with really raunchy senses of humor. I hate him because he's an annoying attention whore and he got famous for being awful.
11. The Loonatics. This was Warner Bros. relaunch of the Looney Toons. They have no idea what they're doing.
12. Jerry Fallwell (I know I spelled it wrong)
13. Flavor of Love. I hate reality shows. And I used to like Public Enemy. No, I haven't seen this show. Again, its something people watch because its awful.
14. I think this is someone attacking a midget on Jerry Springer.
15. Some Christian show
16. A Japanese tv show. That's a guy in drag.

Page 13 & 14 - This is where Alavaka's character design paid off. He's a fallen angel with swords stuck in his eyes. He's mutated and twisted and in pain. Maybe he forgot Heaven. You could sort of feel Alavaka's anger. His frustration, his regret, his ignorance. At this point he's no longer a two dimensional character. He has some complexity. In one single panel, he has a horrible past.

Page 15 & 16 - I wanted to get back into the light-hearted mood. So I drew a crappy blueprint like in a Roadrunner cartoon.

Page 17 & 18 - This was the entire reason why this comic exists. This simple scene. A monk falling into a pregnant girl. She's about 3 months pregnant, when a fetus starts to kick. And I did base her mom off of Hilary Clinton. I didn't intend to say anything political. Its just that I liked how she looked and dressed.

Page 19 & 20 - I felt sad when I drew and wrote this part. I think after I established that Alavaka was a 3 dimensional character, his emotions came out better.He had a sense of loss and emptiness. He was always empty, and he thought torturing souls would fill that. But its as if he's more aware of that emptiness by being around this monk.

Suburbia is a type of Hell.

Page 21 & 22 - When I wrote this part, it just made sense. It just seemed natural. I felt something, a satisfaction, the same sort of feeling when I finished "Speak No Evil" I originally intended it to end at page 18, but there was something about that Devil that needed to be resolved.

From some of the comments and emails I've gotten about this comic, its as if I wrote a Sutra or something. I'm not Buddhist. I might know more about Buddhism than the average American, and I've tried some Buddhist meditation. But I'm Gnostic Christian and that has a sort of "poetry" that's more closer to Buddhism than it was with American Christianity.

Labels: blog, comics, God(tm), my work, religion

In case you don't subscribe to the Rss Update feed, my good computer has hit a bad virus. So, in the meantime, check out this photoshop painting which I did on New Years Eve.


Shiina Ringo by ~theory-of-everything on deviantART

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

I had a conversation with someone a while ago. I'm a geek and my circle of friends are usually geeks. And we got into the subject of Star Wars.

Of course there was the usual criticisms of JarJar and the acting and the plot. But he just seemed a bit more angrier. I could see it in his eyes. "Fuck George Lucas!" was his every fifth or sixth sentence. He said it with the same fire as woman scorned. "He doesn't care about the fans!" And he went on and on about the Star Wars franchize and it made me feel uncomfortable. --"he should've done this" he said, "he should've done that."

Getting tired and somewhat afraid of this man, I believe I said something along the lines of "Why don't you make your own Star Wars?"

"huh?"

--I said something like, "You're an artist, too. You have an imagination, you have talent. Why don't you tell your story and make your own Star Wars instead of pretending George Lucas owes you. Why don't you do the work and write a script, then get investors, then get actors and special effects guys. How about finding a distributor and a studio. How about dealing with executive producers and Hollywood types. You know, the ones who don't understand your vision."

..."oh, wait a second! you don't have one. You expect fan dome to fill your life instead of hard work.-- How about this: fine, criticize Lucas's work. But how about criticize the artist until you've actually finished your novel or your film or something."

If you're going to be a bitter fan, why don't you be a bitter artist and make something that might be good?

Labels: blog

I was also interviewed about the project. Check it out!


http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/12/unbound-elan-trinidad-on-god-tm/#more-29247

Labels: blog, God(tm), my work, review

Okay, this theory has been in my head for a few days. I got to get it out!


Do you know that a baby's perception of numbers are very different from ours? Babyies think of numbers and quantity COMPLETELY different than adults. And children have to be taught how to count. If they are never taught how to count, they would experience numbers logarithmically. The way we think of numbers is sort of... artificial.

Honestly, instead of me trying to explain how babies and an Amazon tribe thinks logarithmically, I'm going to stick this link to RadioLab.

Take a few minutes to listen from 04:00 to the end in order to understand what Robert Krullwich, Jad Abumrad and Lulu Miller can explain much more elegantly than I.

So, almost all children in the world learn this world of numbers from their parents/school/culture. But how did we come to count like this in the first place? Did the gods teach us? Aliens?

First off, let's dance.... with a bird.

A study was done on a bird to figure out if a bird was dancing (moving its body to the rhythm of a song) or just moving to noise or other ques so it just looks like its dancing. It showed that birds can indeed dance because it takes nerves and muscles control in order for a bird to create noise to communicate, dancing might be a side-effect. Sound effects muscles.

Again, I'm not the best to explain this study, Adena Schachner and Bob MacDonald are better at it, so here's a link to Quirks & Quarks. Or just listen to the mp3.


So, imagine the first tribes of man trying to make sense of the world. A shaman has the power to talk to the gods by doing a certain dance. If the shaman, most likely high on the autistic spectrum, does this dance that he created, the rains will come, the hunt will be good, the winter will end.

But the shaman is getting old and knows that some day he will die. If there's no one to do the dance, then the world will end. So he has to teach the next generation to dance this dance properly.

Now, I have personally done stage performance. I loosely call it "choreography" but I did need to learn a few acts.

And what's the easiest way to memorize a specific dance?

one - two - three - KICK
five - six - seven - TURN
nine - ten - eleven - STEP

So, through dance, early man thought of numbers as a sequence in time than as logarithmic quantity. And counting the beats "five - six - seven - eight" we were able to make the abstract connection between quantity and sequence.

And now we have math. The kind that eventually charted the stars and the days and the years. And then we got into measurements and geometry and calculus and physics.

I wonder if it would be easy for mathematician to learn the Cha-Cha?


...okay. I'm sure there might be a good argument against the "Dance Theory" because I wouldn't be surprised if that Amazon Tribe mentioned in RadioLab could dance. BUT dance is temporal. Time is, at least to us, sequential. So counting days might have also been a factor in the way we think of math. Think of it. Early man may have noticed that the Moon goes through its cycles. When the moon is full, its easiest to hunt at night. Then someone might have realized that it takes 28 days for the moon to cycle.

Anyway, these are just theories that might sound interesting in a comic or things I use to sound smart to my friends at a bar.

P.S. If any real scientists think I actually have something here, then put a link to my webcomics on the scientific paper you'll eventually write. www.theorofeverythingcomics.com If some other scientist had already written a paper on this, then it would be cool if you posted a link in the comments.

Labels: blog, lecture, philosophy, podcast, science

My brother unexpectedly performed with Stevie Wonder. Check out his account of the story at his blog.



http://elsongs.com/eblog/?p=64

Labels: blog, friends

Burbank, CA and New York, NY, August 31, 2009 —Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. "Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."

http://corporate.disney.go.com/news/corporate/2009/2009_0831_disney_and_marvel_entertainment.html

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/08/31/live-blogging-disney-marvel-investor-call/

Well, this just gives me more material and somewhat fulfills my prophecy.

Labels: blog, comics, God(tm)

I just got a new banner!

But I'm not sure if I'll use it. I will be at "Things That Are Square" (table B04) for San Diego Comic Con, a very good friend's table who's letting me sqwat at her table. If my banner messes with her table, design-wise or whatever-wise then I won't use the banner.

You can follow me on my Twitter. I'll be updating it at Comic Con so you can find me for signings, small talk, or if you just want to do me a favor and get me a soda.

http://twitter.com/T_of_E_comics

Labels: blog, events, my work, updates

http://twitter.com/T_of_E_comics

I don't plan to tell you what I'm doing every single minute of my life.

But I do plan on tweeting every minute when I'm at conventions, signings or other events.

Think of it, if you want to see if I'm available to do a sketch or something, you could find out if I'm at the table.

Or maybe I'm heading to a panel discussion, and instead of walking around the floor at Comic Con, you think-- that sounds like a good discussion.

Maybe I'm completely hung over, and instead of going to my table expecting I'd be there, you'd know that I'm vomiting into a toilet.

Labels: blog, comics, God(tm), my work, Speak No Evil, updates

Just look at all the comments people have left on the shout box [most likely for God(tm)]

Olia Hoshi says "Nice, I like it."

Willetta Markham raved "Nice, I liked it."

Guntar Sheffield cried out with sheer joy "Very nice, I loved it."

Fionna Boland whispered in girlish glee "Very nice, I like it."

Agosto Kuruppillai yelled out of a fiftieth floor window "Very nice, I loved it."

Leona Willhoff communicated in sign language "Very nice, I liked it."

Hakeem Bress forged a neon sign using his knowledge of noble gases and talents in glass blowing exclaiming to the world "Nice, I liked it."

Granger Herod developed a new system of mathematics which uses nothing but prime numbers and fractions in order to formulate the simple and elegant idea of "Very nice, I like it."

Harbert McColl murdered a drifter that only exists in his mind and used the imaginary blood to spell out "Nice, I like it."

Dyane Farmer lost two colleagues during her climb to the top of Mt. Everest and planted a flag that states her feelings about Theory of Everything Comics which spells in Sanskrit: "Very nice, I love it."

Elli Capes was a 16th century sea going Captain who had mystical visions of the 21st century. One of his visions was of Theory of Everything Comics and in his memoirs, which, at the time were deemed evidence of his madness, gave a positive review of a web comic that did not yet exist and it said in remarkable handwriting: "Nice, I love it."

Kelly Buggie, through her psychic link with her male half-breed Chihuahua expressed, without words or facial cues, in consummate canine brainwaves "Very nice, I love it."

Wang Reiser had a car accident that left half of his body susceptible to the elements. Through a secret Canadian Government Project, that missing half was recreated, but as a robot. It took fifteen years for the Canadian Government to find an adequately realistic voice box. And as soon as his new voice box was 100% functional, he could only respond to the new and interesting web comic created by Elan' Rodger Trinidad. And in a voice that uncannily synthesized the tone and tamber of musician/actor Tom Waits, he said "Nice, I liked it."

...and then gave a pretty good interpretation of Tom Waits "Chocolate Jesus."

Thank you, all of you for your love of my work. If anyone would like to continue the tradition liking and loving my work, you are very welcome to. Just go to our homepage http://www.theoryofeverythingcomics.com/, scroll down a bit, and write in the shout box.

Labels: blog, God(tm), my work, review

1)Stop calling it a "roadblock" think of it as a problem or obstacle. You can solve a problem. You can overcome an obstacle. But when you're driving and you hit a roadblock you're screwed. And when you keep telling yourself that you're creatively screwed, then you are SCREWED.

2) Maybe your art should be the truth about finding yourself. The theme of identity. The truth that you feel like someone else. You might try to write a story about teenage angst, a lot of identity issues there. Or maybe a guy who has amnesia and is trying to figure out who he is. There's truth in the struggle and the frustration because a lot of people have felt this way before, but when you put it in fiction or genre fiction, then you could add aliens and assassins and heighten up the emotional level and dazzle people with visuals. Check out "Battle Royal" (I heard the sequel sucked) -- its basically dealing with the problems and relationships in high school, but by putting these high school students on an island and telling them to murder each other, the emotions become greater and exaggerated. Friendships become life-long bonds, mild distrust becomes hate.

But also another thing you have to remember when creating, and to paraphrase Brad Bird "If you want to make good shit, eat well." Meaning, surround yourself with quality people who inspire you, who you can learn from in some way, if its in your social circles or work or school (around how old are you?), just by being around good artists can improve you, read good books, watch good movies.

Although, a counter argument about reading good books and watching good movies is advice from Ray Bradbury. He says to watch bad movies because good movies, you don't know why its good because so many things went right it just becomes magic. When you watch bad movies, you know exactly what you hated about it and you know what to avoid or improve one.

Labels: blog, Lessons in Cartooning

So I got an email from a fan this morning. I think he was asking me about my creative process. I thought I'd refine my answer for the blog.

First off, when I write a comic, I draw and write it at the same time. I make a very messy comic book in my sketchbook. I make scribbles to indicate composition and I write in the word balloons as I go along. This is my first draft.

My second draft, I type a script based on the first one. I fix the dialogue, sometimes I get new ideas and make notes of something else to draw.

My third draft, I draw a comic based on the lat two drafts.


I'll go back and forth between typing and drawing. I get different ideas as I take on the role of writer and different ideas as I take on the role of artists. Depending on how I feel about the comic, I'll go back and forth between sketching and typing. But the draft before I draw is always a drawing draft.

That's because I take my sketchy drawing page, pop it in photoshop, pop in perspective guides (somtimes its a grid, sometimes I'll grab a photo of a building and alter it to my needs. I don't like drawing a million lines from a vanishing point with my ruler.) I'll also do the lettering and figure out how to compose the word balloons. I will also edit the dialogue as I do this.

I print that out. All the lines in light blue.

Then with a blue pencil, I draw in the detail. Then I ink it.

Next it gets scanned in. I cut and paste the word balloons from the draft file. And I might do more dialogue changes. I also color it.

Then its ready for the web.

But that's the practical process.

The mental process is a bit harder to explain.

I try to go for a "feeling" in my first draft. I recently took a clowning class. Actually, it was more like an improv class for actors trying to do comedy. The heart of a clown is messing up but being funny. When I was making my class laugh, I had the same sort of "feeling" performing.

In that class, the coach was trying to talk about "the truth", and I don't mean as reason and fact, but he was saying how "the truth" was funny. And it was. It was a sort of poetic truth. When the actors stopped trying to act and stated to be truthful of their frustration, fear, and failure to not get a laugh, they became funny.

Some of the exercises reminded me of George Carlin. He once went up on stage. He didn't say a single word and made the audience laugh. George Carlin, stood there silent, just being George Carlin, just "being honest" with himself and to the audience.

I try "to be honest". I think real art comes from "being honest" with yourself and "being truthful" to yourself. And if religion is about "truth", philosophy is about "truth", tragedy is about "truth" and science is about fact (which is about "truth") then religion is funny, science is philosophical, tragedy is religious, tragedy is comedic, science is religious, etc. etc. It all blends and connects into the human condition.

I've spent my life trying to not lie to myself. Try to not lie to others (although that's really hard, and I'm honest with myself when I fail, and sometimes I remedy it, eventually.--although in some instances in my life, I have no choice but to bluff). And I try to be honest with my work. In the past few years its been starting to come together.

I don't know if the honesty thing makes any sense. Its sort of like wu-wei, doing without doing. It would probably make more sense to an artist or performer who puts their all into their craft. Or perhaps someone who has studied Zen.

But, according to my readership who've emailed me, this sort of think does make a difference.

Anyway, I got a freelance thingy to finish. The next page will be kind of a jip storywise, but I'll make that up with the next next part.

Labels: blog, Lessons in Cartooning, my work

I'm working on the next three pages of God(tm). It'll end section 4. If it were a print comic, it would be an entire issue (two webcomic pages make one print comic page) -- that's about 22 pages all together.

I should put an RSS icon. I should actually make a links page and a gallery page and start thinking of merch and have a banner made for San Diego Comic Con. I should get a twitter account so people can find out when I'm at the table at Comic Con and when I'm signing, etc. etc.

I should do a little review of Marsh Rocket because Jules Rivera was nice enough to vote for me on the Eisners and pay for project wonderful ads. Plus her coloring is very minimalist and interesting.

...that's sort of a review I guess. I should be making ad banners for links and such. And special ad banner projects.

--but I'm tired and I'm filled with korean tacos. Dude, if you're ever in LA on a Thursday, go to Little Tokyo! In front of the Japanese American Heritage Museum, a special Taco truck comes by. DJ Akaider spins. People wait in line. The line forms around 5.

Good stuff.

Anyway, drawing new pages. Can't let my new fans down.

Labels: blog

Thank you for reading. Thank you for linking. Thank you for Twittering. Thank you for emailing. Thank you for quoting me on random forums. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

In these last few months-- working as an animator on The Simpsons for a few shows, people randomly posting "Presidential Trouble" when there was much Watchmen hype, an Eisner Nomination (?!!), and now pretty much, overnight I've amassed thousands of hits on my site and people asking me for more.

It wasn't so long ago that I blogged, while drunk, one late night about my frustrations with my life. I since deleted that blog entry.


I wish I turned 30 sooner!



Well. I guess the life I always wanted has just started. Make interesting comics. Have it effect people. Live in financial comfort (well, step three I'm working on). And have fun doing it.

...and as soon as I'm off this freelance gig, I can devote more time to God(tm).

Oh, by the way, you see that weird gunk of text and code at the bottom of this blog entry? Anyone have any advice on how to get rid of it? I know its probably something simple but it was such a bitch redesigning this blog from templates and having limited knowledge in code, I just left it alone knowing I'd make it worse.

I'm sure someone has advice. Leave a comment or email.

Labels: blog, Life

I was just reading Paul Sloboda's review of God(tm)...again (I'm much too lazy to cut and paste the complete title right now, and at some point I ought to memorize it)

One of the things he likes is the pixellation of corporate logos.

The usage of low-resolution pixellation in the comic is a brilliant touch. I'm sure more than one person will think it's a problem with their browser. He employs this approach on a number of corporate names and logos, and it seems to walk hand in hand with the contractually obscured nature of the comic's title. Legally, I'm sure Elan couldn't stretch the copyright concept of "Fair Use" far enough to use the real St*tb*cks logo in every instance he has it obscured in the comic... but artistically, why would he want to? If copyright laws don't allow him to do it, it's their shortcoming he's illustrating, in their bold and clunky pixellated matrices.

There are several reasons why I do this:

1) I don't want anyone to sue me but I do believe in fair use. Its weird that modern media has to be a little careful to use corporate logos in order to artistically comment and express the realities of our modern world. After all, these billboards, t-shirts, banner ads, etc. etc. have invaded our world are part of the flora and fauna of our modern world. And depicting this or that fast food logo or this or that erectile dysfunction ad should be natural when we contribute to this culture.

I mean, I could use the real logos. But when this book sees print, I might be over using the logos so much that I could get sued.

2) I find it distracting when artists use fake logos. Look at Geof Darrow's work on Hard Boiled. There's familiar red cans that say "Cola Cola" in nice friendly letters and fake advertisements that whirlwind into the visual noise of urban life. I'm not criticizing Darrow's brilliant work, but you tend to pay more attention to the ads than you would to the ads in your everyday life.

I wanted something familiar, like when you see a guy on COPS and his t-shirt is all blurry. Or when you're out and about, past bus billboards, and you only give the ad half a thought because you realize your date stood you up (you know who you are).

There's something impressionistic about the cacophony of advertisements these days. And I chose to make it literal.

3) Some ads are just squiggles I draw in Photoshop and then I hit the mosaic filter. Making obscured ads is less time consuming than drawing fake ones. I'm also a very lazy artist.

4) One theme that is apparent, or will become apparent, in this story is equating corporate entities to deities. Corporations have the same rights as people. That's so the individual(s) who own a corporation don't have to deal with the fuss about paying taxes or buying pencils or going to jail.

But corporations have sort of become our pagan gods. We pray to them by buying their goods and services. They employ middle management and accountants as their priests. When we appease them, they make our economy prosper.

And when we say their name in vain and slander, they send their lawyers down from the heavens and hand us a cease and desist notice.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not some liberal who hates anything and everything corporate. But I am a moderate who looks at corporations with a weary eye, just like I look at the guy who asks me for change. I have benefited from corporate goods, services, and employment (especially employment) over the years. I'll be good to them if they shower me with electronics and movies and processed food. But corporations aren't gods. They're more like a cow that has walked into your living room. You want its milk and meat, but you don't want to have to plan your life around a cow that is in your living room.

And that's why we should vote for leaders who will (hopefully) take the cow outside and milk it for us, or in some cases, take it to the slaughter house.

Corporations are creatures that will do anything and everything to eat money. If what they do is helpful to us, we should reward a corporation for making our lives easier. They will tell us lies and half truths to make them believe in their brand, but in the end, you'll realize that this deodorant isn't helping you get laid, despite what the magic box says. But you like how it makes you smell because its a better option than how you'd usually smell.

5) Pixellation looks really cool. I wonder why it isn't used more often.

6) By obscuring a logo, since the colors were chosen to be associated with that brand, you still understand what that brand is.

Anyway, I hope this all makes me sound really smart and that I never get sued. If I ever do get a cease and desist notice, then that cease and desist notice will be used to obscure that logo.

Labels: blog, God(tm), my work, religion, review

I've set up a Facebook group. Currently there's no one on it and this makes me sad.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=83261350669&ref=nf

Labels: blog

So, I had this print comic I did a while back ago which I put on the shelf. I thought it was pretty good.

Now I realize it needs a major overhaul.

Since the Eisner nomination, since this is the most completed comic, I thought I could just show this to a publisher say, "Look at me, I'm a nominee!" and it'll get published!

But. damn. shit. I promised myself I'd finish "A Dream of Conscious Thought"

sigh

I've promised myself that I'd work on God(tm) on Sunday.

Damn, I gotta put it to the side. There's that part of me that's a heartbroken angry 23-year-old who needs it.

Well, I promise that I'll have other content posted. Some written by me. Some a bit simpler.

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

This is something a wise animator I used to work with sent me. I'm sure its advice that will come in handy soon. I'm also pretty sure someone out there could use this advice.

"Say only what you mean, the word is the most powerful tool we have as humans."
Don Miguel Ruiz

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
Thanks Paul.

Labels: blog

Hello new guests. I am fully aware of how much my site's navigation sucks. Hopefully I can remedy this soon.

Anyway, a few things off my chest.

Oddly, when I was writing Speak No Evil: Melancholy of A Space Mexican I was approaching it as a comedy. I actually thought that it was a tragic comedy. Now that I have some distance from the creation process, the subtitle doesn't seem as appropriate anymore. Some friends had a theory that I viewed it as a comedy to deal with how depressing it was. I have a theory that comedy and tragedy are two sides of the same coin and when you feel like you're making something of quality, naming it a comedy or tragedy doesn't really matter.

Oh well, it seemed like a good idea to name it "Space Mexican" at the time and I respect the unemployed artist I knew from a year ago.

I just hope that the comic doesn't come off as patronizing. So far, one mexican has said it wasn't.

Other friends have asked, "I though Devil and the Monk would be nominated for an Eisner." As much as Devil and the Monk has been a staple of Stumbleupon hits to my site, I felt there were a lot of things wrong with it, technically. I would've submitted God(tm), but as of today, I still don't think it makes sense (I just need one more page, then it'll sort of make sense.)

I've noticed in the webcomics community, people are saying "I've never heard of these comics." Well, let me explain what's going on. The publisher, in this case digital comic creator, submits their comic to the Eisner people (or to be more precise, Jackie Estrada). The rules for Digital Comics favor long form comics. And the long form comic isn't as popular as the daily strip webcomic.

I think that there should be at least two, if not five categories for webcomics. One for daily strips. Although, traditionally, daily strips are the realm of the National Cartoonists Society. Comic books are the realm of the Comic Book industry. And there has been debate if a Comic Strip and a Comic book should even be considered as the same thing.

I personally don't think so. Its like having a five line poem and a 305 page novel up for a Pulitzer.

Anyway, the long-form format on the web isn't as developed or as popular as the daily strip. Mainly because people who do comic books could, 20 years ago, self-publish. And the people who did daily strips, 20 years ago, could only published through syndication or local newspapers, no independence. So, of course, the daily strip jumped on the net with much more fervor.

Anyway, I'm up against some really good talent. I think my only strengths are my story, the oddness and originality of it, and its depressing. Often times, people confuse depressing stories with good stories.

Though I'd never say my comic isn't good.

Labels: awards, blog, Eisner Awards, my work, Speak No Evil

For anyone who actually reads this blog, for the past month or so, its been Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen. This, hopefully, might be the very last thing I'll have to write about that bloody film.

* * *

The interesting thing about die hard Fanboys is that they'll buy stuff they do not like so they can complain about it. A Fanboy will religiously go to the comic shop on Wednesdays, buy their issue of X-Men and complain about it on a forum. They will continue to buy X-Men every month until they find a girlfriend. Perhaps this habit exists because they enjoy being miserable. Maybe with their lives, maybe with fiction.

When it was announced that the Watchmen movie will show Dr. Manhattan's penis, Fanboys were happy because it was accurate to the comic. And because they love the comic book, anything accurate to the comic book will be as good, if not better, on the big screen.

Be careful what you wish for.

I come from an art school background and there was a time that I saw a naked person almost everyday. Plus I've been to Burningman, so I've seen plenty of limp penises. It only mildly phases me. When I saw Watchmen in the theater, teenagers were giggling at the naked shots. This, of course, drew my attention to Dr. Manhattan's crotch area. And since I have friends who work in production, these thoughts came to mind after the movie:

In large budget movies for 3D, most likely, you're modeling the big toe of the right foot of a dinosaur or something. Which means someone had to 3D model Dr. Manhattan's penis. Is he going to put it on his demo reel?

Did he just look at one penis for reference, or is it a composite of several penises? Did he look at his own, or ask a co-worker to pull their pants down?

When he sculpted the penis, did he have a meeting with the Art Director, Director and Actor? Were they over his shoulder, discussing how big or small it should be. Were they arguing over it, telling him to tweek thing that ultimately won't make a big difference. Was there something in the Actor's contract about the depiction of his penis? Circumcised or uncircumcised? Girth or length?

If the guy who 3D modeled the penis wasn't gay, was he starting to question his heterosexuality? Did he fear getting an erection while he sculpted the penis? Did he use ZBrush or Maya? Was he starting to get in the habit of staring at men's crotches when he walked out in public?

Was he hired because he used to work at the dildo factory?

Plus, you also had the guy who animated the penis. I've been to enough figure drawing classes to know when a penis isn't animated right. It moved too slowly. It was all wrong. Another reason why too much of my attention was put on it.

Obviously, the guy who animated Dr. Manhattan's penis wasn't gay at all. But if he was, the penis would've animated better.

What about the guy who rigged it? Was it just one bone? (Yes, I know how that sounds, but this is the sort of terminology in 3D)

I'd like to imagine that I'll find the demo reel of the guy who worked on Dr. Manhattan's penis. In his demo reel, along side monsters and zombies he did for a video game and the big toe of the right foot of a dinosaur, there's also a close-up of Dr. Manhattan's glowing man-crotch, moving slowly as he walks, for about five seconds.



















penis.

Labels: blog, movies, Watchmen

I'm very guilty of calling things "gay" in a negative context. But, to be fair, so are my gay friends. I have no problem with this word, used in this particular context, to eventually fade out of our culture.

But Hilary, please give us an alternative. We can't just quit cold turkey.

So, may I propose to use the word: CIGARETTE -- why? Because in England, cigarettes are fags.

Plus, the culture has already villified smoking.

"Those clothes are so cigarette"

"Quit acting like a cigarette."

"Cigarette Rights Now!"

Labels: blog

Since that piece I did has brought me some attention, or at least upped my numbers whenever you search my name on google, I've been also searching "watchmen hostess" and have found other parodies.

My earliest memories of the Hostess Ads was that when I was a kid, I had an issue of Spider-Man with a Spider-Man Hostess Ad and it REALLY CONFUSED ME. I thought it was part of the comic book. I was, maybe, in the second or third grade. But the beauty of these ads was the campy way that Hostess products were used to save the world or something.

1)The first, I have no idea who did it.

I like the "voice-over editing". Its a nice homage to Alan Moore's words and timing. But this thing was scanned in low rez and the fruit was just sort of hacked out and pasted on.

2)I think this was in the back of an issue of Deep Fried by Jason Yungbluth, but I'm not sure.

One thing I hate about parodies, not because of the artist, but because of the legal reasons, is that all the names are replaced. I think this artist could've gotten away with naming the character Rorschach.
Giving Twinkies to dogs to distract them actually seems realistic. It might've actually worked in the Watchmen world. And what I loved about the Hostess Ads was that the use of Twinkies as a solution to crime made sense only in a Hostess Comic Book Universe.
But the dialog is pretty funny. The dialog's in the Hostess world.
I didn't like the coloring, too many gradients, wrong color pallet (but that might also be a legal thing), its obviously done in photoshop, it would've looked beautiful if he just used the color halftone filter and made it look like bad printing. The thing I love about a good parody is that for a second, you're not sure if this is the real thing or not. I've worked with Photoshop too much and if he just added that one detail-- it would've made up for the use of fake names.

3)Here's a well-rendered one done by Brian Michael Bendis... I think.


What I love about it is that it pretty much sticks to Dave Gibbons's style. It looks like it was colored with marker, though. But its better than making it all slick and photoshoppy. But the semen joke, its just too adolescent for me. Its an easy joke. Its a desperate joke.

4)Of course I'm biased. I have a high opinion of my work:

The biggest difference about my Watchmen/Hostess Parody is that it takes place in a universe that has Hostess Comics Ad logic. The others take place in a Watchmen world. And I wanted it to be devoid of any real logic. So preventing rape with the use of Hostess Fruit Pies makes no sense in our world or the Watchmen world.

It did cross my mind to have Silk Spectre I be the victim. But then it wouldn't be funny. Sexual violence toward women is really really fucked up. I don't find it funny at all. I was once an animator on a cable show where there was a rape joke involving a female character and a bunch of inmates. If I was the one assigned to animate that scene, I would decline. I have no idea if that was eventually cut by the network execs.

But male rape is funny...
At least to the guy doing the raping.

Also I think the first unsaid rule of being a man is that you don't get raped. A boy can get raped, and that's horrible and he ought to get some help. A girl can get raped and that's a lot more horrible, especially when such a union creates a child. But man on man forced sexual copulation-- its demeaning... but its really funny when its happening to someone who deserves to be demeaned.

(Just to make myself clear, I see nothing homosexual about man rape. Its sexual sport like in Sodom and Gommorah or the State Penn. There are much more hilarious and interesting things about gay culture than man sex. Like when you're in the Castro, you should check out Little Orphan Andy's you gotta love their mascot)

Plus the line, "Oh no! The Comedian is raping Richard Nixon!" has a ring to it.

The beauty of Watchmen was that it deconstructed what began as a childish genre and made it adult (or adolescent-- if you look at how it influenced the genre too). So I took adult characters and themes and put them back in a childish world. In other words, another difference between my Hostess Parody and the others is that its a deconstruction of a deconstruction.

I will confess that I "inked" Dave Gibbons's original work. "Inked" in a "Chasing Amy" sense. I wanted it to look like Gibbons pencilled it and maybe someone else inked it. I didn't color it because it wasn't for print or for the public to think of it as print, plus I was lazy.

The back story, or at least the fictitious back story, of this piece was that someone was payed to make this comic as a real ad, but it got rejected for obvious reasons. It eventually resurfaced at an art exhibit. Besides, I find original comic book art beautiful. You get to see where the artist made their mistakes, sometimes they used different inks so that some of the linework fades to a purplish color. Its a physical object, something that was handmade-- not like a comic book which is machine made.

I think the best parodies are near forgeries. And I did my best to make this a faithful forgery.

But the only thing in this piece that looses the authenticity is the Hostess packages in the end. Now it doesn't show on the jpeg, but if you saw the real thing, it looks like a computer print out pasted onto the page because it is a computer print out pasted onto the page. I originally wrote in red pencil, "apple" & "cherry", but that didn't sell the joke. It didn't have the right impact at the end (just like the movie). I didn't have time to draw it in, or make a believable print-out, I just found a pic of an original ad, did my photoshop magic, cut, paste, wa-la!

Anyway, I've been thinking too much about this piece all week. Hopefully, getting all this out of my head will help me move on. Hopefully, I could stop jerking myself off with this damned piece and do things that don't require me riding on the coattails of Comic Book Legends.

(But I am thinking of doing other Hostess parodies that also look like artwork that's 20 or 30 years old. Hey, this one sold, I'm going to get laid off again for hiatus at the end of the week. I needs the money.)

And here's one last thought.

Labels: Alan Moore, blog, comics, my work, Watchmen

http://io9.com/5167686/the-last-watchmen-story-you-need-ever-read

So I'm mentioned there too. A lot more comments on it.

...damn, should've charged 500 hundred for that piece.

Anyway, I assume that eventually Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore will get links to this site on their e-mail. So, addressed to both of them, here is an open letter:

Dear Revered Comic Book Gods,

I have enjoyed your work for many years. I have a bunch of "Give Me Liberty", I'm sorry, I haven't read "The Originals".

And to Mister Moore, you are why I read Tarot cards and why cute girls buy me drinks at bars because I do Tarot readings for them. You are my favorite writer. Please do not put a curse on me like you did to the movie to make it late.

---yeah, I'm a bit brain dead, I'm at work, about ready to go home and I've been watching old episodes of AstroBoy on a DVD player as I animate crowd scenes.

I really would have no idea what to say to Alan Moore or Dave Gibbons.

Labels: Alan Moore, blog, my work, review, Watchmen

I love the Watchmen. I actually have original Watchmen issues-- I think up to issue 3. I read all of Watchmen when I was about sixteen. I can explain to you why Watchmen is a great piece of Superhero Deconstructionist Literature and exactly how it deconstructs superhero archetypes.

So why haven't I watched the Watchmen?

Well, for the past couple of weeks I've been swimming in it. I went to WonderCon and there was Watchmen! I made a great piece, that sold by the way, and it was basically me drawing (and sometimes tracing) Dave Gibbons's style. I go to the bookstore: Watchmen. I go on my favorite websites: Watchmen. I look outside, Watchmen.

My dad even wants to see it, which is weird, like he'll understand something of my subculture.

I want to take a breather from Watchmen. I will see it soon, just not this week.

-----

But since we're on the subject of Watchmen, its sort of weird that its surfaced. That this thing that was "in the know" is out now. Something very important in my little comics subculture is out in public. A lot of people have read Watchmen now.

That's really weird. I first read it when I was sixteen. A kid in my class saw me read it and looked at the price of the trade paperback-- sixteen or seventeen bucks back then, and said, "are you crazy? sixteen bucks for this?"

But for me, shelling out $16 for a graphic novel was like someone normal buying a record.

I rarely buy records, and if I do, they're songs you don't hear on the radio-- at least American radio.

Anyway, back when I read it when I was 16, it was very slow and very boring to me. I did like Dr. Manhattan's chapter, Rorschach's chapter and the end. But I didn't think the book was a masterpiece until I came back to it when I was 22 or 23. When I read it when I was older, the dialog yelled out to me. I could hear it, in my head.

So when people read Watchmen and say its boring, I use that as a barometer on how mature they are. Its as if their brain is a sixteen-year-old brain.

----------

I've noticed a lot of Watchmen fan art that makes them into a parody. Like baby Watchmen or Watchmen Saturday Morning cartoons. I've also added to this meme.

I think its because Watchmen was a deconstruction of what started out to be a genre for children. Thus, making the superhero genre something adult. And by making Watchmen childish, then we're further deconstructing a deconstruction. Or rather, a sort of reconstruction.

--I think.

--I could just be talking out of my arse.

But one great thing about Watchmen is that its boosted people's interest in comics. Average non-comics readers, after reading Watchmen, ask "what else have you got?"

More people reading comics is a good thing-- at least for me. Hopefully I can make a comfortable living off of it.

Also consider, back in the days of the Depression, comics were the biggest form of entertainment. Now we're heading into, possibly, another Depression.

Hopefully, there'll be work for me.

Labels: Alan Moore, blog, comics, movies, Watchmen

Labels: blog, comics, my work

Now I have a somewhat special place in my heart for the Bratz Toyline. Without Bratz, I could never have moved out of my parents' house after art school. I cleaned up some of the box art for those toys. It continued to haunt my career, another job I worked on, my Executive Producer was doing some writing for the now forgotten Bratz live-action movie.

Now that Mattel has won a legal battle over a dying intellectual property, We shall see no more Bratz.

So, may I present to you, Somethingawful's photoshop memorial to Bratz.

Labels: blog

Whenever I narcissisticly google "Space Mexican" I'll find an entry in a Filipino's blog about it and how I'm Filipino.

I don't have any trouble with this, although I do scratch my head since I haven't found any blogs about "Speak No Evil" on any Mexican blogs. Either I'm not searching hard enough or maybe its because Mexicans are more likely to go out, drink, dance, have a quinceniera, than some Filipinos who stay home and log onto (enter social network website here) all night.

I find a pattern. Filipino blogger who mentions that I'm Filipino.

This clever science fiction story is also a social commentary by Filipino artist Elan Rodger Trinidad. Read the whole piece at Theory of Everything Comics, and don’t forget to check out Elan Rodger’s afterword.

Very easily one of the best online comics I've ever read. "Speak No Evil" is a one-shot scifi webcomic made by a Filipino, Elan Rodger Trinidad. Well worth the few minutes it takes to get through the whole thing.

There's a bunch on livejournal entries, although the Google isn't finding them right now.

I can only speculate why this phenomenon is happening.

1) I mentioned that I was Filipino in the afterward. (Which wasn't a pride thing. I just wanted to show some sort of legitimacy to the story. That this was a story about immigration in general rather than the plight of the Mexicans.)

2) I hit a chord with the Filipinos because the immigration experience depicted was much closer to the Filipino experience than the Mexican experience.

3) A single voice sings "Dahil Sa'yo" while everyone is singing "Besame Mucho".

4) Just as Manny Pacquiao beat Oscar De La Hoya, so too will the Filipino readership of Theory of Everything Comics obliterate the Mexican readership!

5) Mexicans think I'm being racist when I talk about Space Mexicans, or creepily sympathetic (which is LIKE racism).

If you haven't already, check out Speak No Evil: Melancholy of A Space Mexican.

BTW, more on the Filipinos vs Mexicans thing. I just got back from Cancun and visited the Yucatan. Looks just like Bohol.

...except Bohol's got better beaches.

But I gotta admit, the service at the resorts in Cancun was WAY better in Cancun. And free drinks and buffet.

...but Philippines has prettier nature.

...

...

...

...but no free drinks and buffet :(

...

...


PACQUIAO RULES!

Labels: blog, comics, filipino, my work, Speak No Evil

Yes, Chip Zdarsky, creator of Prison Funnies a great comic strip about prison.


Well, I asked myself what happened to this Zdarsky character, someone who'd obviously have a blog.

I like this image.

Labels: artists, blog, comics

Labels: Art, blog, comics, found on the floor

My friend Aleem and his wife, Jenn (and there might be other people with him too, but I probably have never been formally introduced to them) are in China for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Although I don't care much for the Olympics, mainly because they don't recognize Bipedal Robot Sumo Wrestling as an international sport, Aleem's adventures are pretty interesting.

http://aleeminchina.blogspot.com/

(This photograph of Aleem was selected because it reminded me of an old lady.)

Labels: blog, friends

I was going to call it "Prostitute Poetry", but I thought that was a bit crass.

Clicky here.

Hey, everyone blogs these days.

Labels: blog, found on the floor, poetry