The Feepmaster Speaks

Meta post!

2009-12-14T15:57:19Z

So here's the thing I've noticed lately. While LJ has its benefits over Facebook, there are a number of things that are just simply easier to post to FB (links, photos, random short thoughts or one-liners). So I post them there and forget to say anything about it here, because I've already said it and it has therefore been checked off in my brain as "done." But FB is much more of a disposable format; a status update has a readership lifespan of maybe a couple of hours (half a day at most). Meanwhile, my LJ posts are indexed by The Great Gazoogle, so there are a number of posts that still get read months or years later.

Meanwhile, despite the truncated shelf-life of a Facebook post, I have a more active readership there. Part of it, of course, is that the posts are shorter and easier both to read and to comment upon; LJ is more conducive to long discussions, but not too many people in my demographic have a lot of time these days for involved discussions on the intertron. Myself included.

This is not an "I'm abandoning LJ for FB" post, just a comment on what I've noticed lately regarding my own usage patterns. So if you only read my LJ, you might not know that the feep mugs and shot glasses are live in my eBay store, for instance, and you still might not if you're just skimming this post and don't really bother to read down this far. Also you might not care, but that's another matter entirely. (And, for the record, I feel squeamish enough as it is about pimping my wares, since I hate just about everything about being a salesman, so reposting pimpery requires actual energy because I'm somewhat embarrassed by it.)

One last thing - at this point pretty much my whole family (including aunts, uncles, and cousins) is reading my Facebook, so there's a certain degree of self-censorship that goes on over there. Not because I really have anything to hide from them, but because I just feel awkward broadcasting to my extended family about spending the weekend in the bathroom on my hands and knees, shoving caulk into every available crevice.

Facebook Feeps

2009-12-09T15:27:12Z

Finally got around to making a feep fan page on Facebook, so if you're on there and wish to do so, befan the feeps!

I call for unrestrained panic

2009-12-04T16:37:43Z

I'm sure I've used that subject line before, probably also the day before a big show.

However! I now have in my clutches a batch of feep mugs, feep shot glasses, and feep t-shirts, and I did not have to sit there and crank each of these out individually. Definitely trying to find the balance here between interesting, non-mass-produced merch and things I can sell where I only have to do the work once.

For the record, all this stuff was printed by a couple of local-ish guys (they're in Lago Vista, about 40 mins. northwest of Austin), and they are both business and life partners. So the new merch supports local artists, local businesses, AND the gay agenda, all on multiple fronts.

I am a bit trepidatious about this weekend, though. It's supposed to be Austin-cold (i.e., 40s and 50s) and possibly rainy. Austinites are notoriously squeamish about any weather that is not warm and sunny. Add to that the unpleasantness of the economy in general, and we'll see what kind of turnout there is. Shrug.

AAAANNNDDD ... phone meeting with the editor this afternoon. I have no particular reason to panic about this, but for some reason it always makes me nervous talking to her. It's kind of like a performance review in a way. I expect and welcome constructive criticism, and yet a tiny part of my brain is screaming that she's going to tell me the whole thing sucks and I'm fired. I think this is the same part of my brain that expects guys I am interested in to find me attractive, and it's just as wrong about that*, so I mostly try to ignore it.

* C'mon, when was the last time I was relentlessly self-deprecating at you? It's been awhile, admit it.

I probably owe you an email

2009-11-30T19:23:56Z

Got a huge pile of work done on the book this past week, even if I did not meet my goal of getting the whole thing storyboarded. Instead I have 75 pages (out of a final page count of ~100) boarded, and the scripts for 4 more chapters of 5-15 pages each in a semi-workable state. This does indeed mean I have more material than will make the final cut, which is a good place to be. Always better to have to cut than to fill.

I sent everything I have in its current state to my editor, and we'll be discussing the status of things later this week. Some of it clearly needs work, some of it seems like it might be very close to ready to draw (we'll see if she agrees with me on the latter).

Meanwhile, I have been remiss in posting storyboard pages here, for which I apologize. You can read some excerpts from Adam's story on my website. There are seven pages posted so far, so I'm probably not gonna rerun them here in one swell foop.

I have an art show this weekend, the Wheatsville Arts Festival, which is Dec. 5 and 6 and is in the vicinity of the Wheatsville Co-op once more. I'll actually be outside I ♥ Video, as the festival spreads along Guadalupe.

My point is, I've been crazy busy with stuffs and have been even worse than usual about posting comments or replying to emails. My brain seems to have melted and dribbled out my ear.

Book and SDCC madness

2009-11-20T19:31:14Z

Well, that happened fast. Posts on Facebook from friends either snagging or being turned down for San Diego Comic Con tables caused me to, with some bleariness, start looking into SDCC 2010. I had sort of thought about going but wasn't really sure, and since the book won't be out by then it wasn't a must. But I thought, probably best to get a first wave of promotion out at SDCC and get my feet wet there (never been before), so that when I do actually have a book in hand I won't be trying to learn the SDCC ropes at a time when all will be chaos.

Lucky me: Prism Comics has been selling my minis at SDCC and other shows for years now, and they always open up booth space for creators to come do signings. So my current plan is to buy a table share with Prism for a couple of days (the con is 4 days) and hang with the gays. In 2011, when I'll actually have physical books (not just minis) to sell, I can look at doing the full 4 days.

SDCC is still the holy grail of comic conventions despite its obsession with movie and video game promo (but who can blame them? Movies and video games both make buckets more money than comics). Ya kinda sorta Have To Do It at least once.

In book news, I am eschewing all other work distractions for the entire week of Thanksgiving to work on the thing. My goal is to finish up ALLLLL the storyboards, and to go back and tighten up the dialogue on everything. It's the sort of work that comes most easily when I'm immersed in it rather than trying to poke at it for a couple of hours a day amidst a host of other distractions, so I am hoping for a very productive week. Then, first week of December, I have a phone meeting with my editor to go over the things what need going over.

So! Things are happening and madness, as ever, reigns supreme.

And the winner is ...

2009-11-09T15:36:42Z

Monster C! Who did not actually receive the most votes (came in second place), but whose backers provided the most compelling arguments. I spent yesterday playing around with different design ideas since I wasn't really thrilled with the background as-is. Observe the results:

These colors may not wind up being exact (I think the shirts have to be CMYK, and this is RGB), but I, at least, would totally wear this on a shirt. :) [NB: The © info will be smaller on the printed version; the size here is just for web-resolution readability.]

Many thanks to all of you for your input!

Indecision

2009-11-05T16:29:55Z

I'm changing the way I do my feep shirts (I've been doing iron-on transfers that I have to cut out by hand, switching to direct-to-garment printing that I have found to be at least as durable, if not moreso). This does require me to put in minimum orders, though, so I'm not rolling out every single design right away. Instead I'm picking four to start with, and going from there. I already have three chosen, but can't decide on #4. So please, if you would, tell me which of these you would most want to see on a shirt. Pliz to comment with your opinion, yes?

Option A:

Option B:

Option C:

Option D:

EDIT:

For reference, here are the other three:

Pretend this one is cut out and matted like the others:

Art show closing party this weekend

2009-10-28T14:33:26Z

So! The closing party for the ASG Art Show, in which I have many feep drawings displayed, will be this Sunday! That's Nov. 1, 2009 at the Hideout (617 Congress Ave) in downtown Austin. Sketchgroup itself is from 2:00 - 6:00 if you want to hang out and draw. The party goes on until closing at 9:00.

There will be booze and food. Any art you buy you can take home with you right then and there. Come hang out, chat with the artists, drink some wine, and buy some art so I don't have to carry all that stuff home!

How's the book going?

2009-10-16T15:27:18Z

I keep having to answer this question one-on-one, so I guess it's time for a public broadcast. Efficiency!

First of all, yes, it's taking longer than I thought. Y'see, it's like this. When my editor asked for a time estimate way back in the contract negotiation stage, I told her I thought it would take me about a year to do 100 pages of writing and drawing. And that would probably have been true but for two factors:

1. Interviewing real people, with their own real people schedules, and having them give their own round of approval to the adaptations I've done of their stories. It's extremely important to me that the people who invested a lot of their time in working with me are happy with the end result. But it does slow things down.

2. Having an editor actually edit. For basically my entire career in publishing, I have never had an editor vetting my work. I'd just hand it in and they'd print it with no call for corrections. I think twice an editor came back and said, "Erm, I don't get it," but didn't fuss after I explained the cartoon. So my time estimations didn't include rounds of revisions because I haven't had to do them before. I don't resent this, by the way. It's one thing to do a panel cartoon with no overhead. It's another thing entirely to write a whole book. Stories wind up falling prey to that same phenomenon you experience when you think about a single word too much. "Fork. Fork? Fork. Is fork even a word anymore? I can't remember. It sounds so weird. Fork!" By the same token, when you stare at a story for too long, it's hard to tell if it's good anymore, or if it makes sense, or even if you wrote it in English. Having an editor look at it with fresh eyes and say, "This bit is weak. That bit needs to move over there. You can lose that bit altogether," is enormously helpful.

There's also the fact that I'm doing more complex storyboards than I would ordinarily, because I need other people to be able to read them. I won't say it adds a huge amount of time to the total, but it probably doubles or triples the time spent storyboarding.

Luckily, the deadline was flexible from the start, and the publisher is more interested in putting out a book that's good than a book that's now.

So. Yesterday I finished up the scripts for Aaron's and James's stories, and am working on the storyboards for those. That leaves Henry and Avery, both of whom have very interesting, very complex tales to tell that are proving particularly challenging to adapt. I have them roughly where I want them, but I want to get this other stuff storyboarded and sent out for comments first before I dive back in.

Now with more black

2009-10-11T16:25:15Z

I know, I know. You've been asking yourself, "What sorts of bizarre decorating shenanigans has Dylan been up to lately?" But you didn't want to ask because it seemed rude. Well! Wonder no more.

Not to shock you or anything, but it turns out I save up money for this time of year, and then hit the stores looking for the better-quality Halloween furnishings. What can I say, October and fall and pumpkins, all decked out with monsters and ghosts and crepuscular things, make me feel like I'm wrapped up in a warm, fuzzy blanket.

A WARM FUZZY BLANKET COVERED IN SKULLS

I don't actually get to use the blanket much, as someone else claimed it almost immediately. There was no discussion involved.

I don't generally make the bed, it turns out, but if I did this is what it would look like:

Complete with acquisitions from years past. The web in the corner is supposedly a tablecloth, but why use it as a tablecloth when it clearly can be put to superior uses? Overhead we have my augmentation to the standard tract-home light fixture:

I have CFs in there, so no, it doesn't get hot enough to cause a problem. Meanwhile, over to the window. I had a lot of trouble getting a decent picture of the curtains, and couldn't manage one that didn't reveal my utter lack of ironing. Nevertheless:

The valance is made of two table runners and a lace lamp shade drape. Here are the curtains when open:

And over in the corner is the desk. I really hate this desk. I didn't realize when I bought it that I would come to hate it so, and yet I do. The wedge shape makes it really impractical for storing much of anything without wasting a lot of space, and as you may have been able to glean, I don't tend to have a lot of space to waste. So I figure if it's going to be useless it might as well look interesting:

Those are two lace tablecloths and a door swag thingy. On the very top shelf are the bowls I put my loose change into and what is technically a candle holder for big-ass candles, but for obvious reasons I don't plan to burn any candles in there. It has rocks and bones in it instead. I would kind of like to get a few electric tea lights to put up there, though, just for fun.

The skulls are mostly there because their previous home was apparently too accessible for certain fur-covered meowing things, who simply could not resist jumping up there and messing with said skulls. The concept of "No" does not exist in cat, only the concept of "Not while you're around." You cannot train, only thwart.

The pumpkin next to the speaker is a plastic container I got for putting feeps in when I sell them at shows (I usually use easter eggs, but not all feeps will fit in an egg, so it's good to have containers of different sizes and shapes on hand).

I do have one more thing I need to take pictures of, but I decided I don't like the way I have it arranged right now, so it shall have to wait for another day.

Cal's story page 11 storyboards

2009-10-08T15:47:36Z

See all posted pages

This is the last page of Cal's story, so you can now read the whole thing in one swell foop if you are so inclined.

I may post excerpts from Adam's story next, though I probably won't post the whole thing since it's really long. It breaks up neatly into 3 or 4 sections, though, so I might share a section with you. I'll have to see how it scans without the full context.

Clearly it's time for Vitamin to get a job

2009-10-07T17:54:17Z

Dammit, I keep forgetting to be rich.

Right after my cat got done chewing on my bank account, my car has decided to have several critical problems at once. Since I can't afford to fix all of these things right now (unless the mechanic is willing to take extracted tumors as payment), I'm opting for whatever is causing the most trouble right at this very second. Timing belt, schmiming belt. (Yes, I know, the car explodes horribly forever if you wait for the timing belt to fail before replacing it. That is why it is funny, ha ha, that I am making light of replacing it! Ha. H ... ha. Gulp.)

This sounds like a good time to come down with whatever it is that's going around. Done and done!

Cal's story page 10 storyboards and ASG Art Show

2009-10-01T14:37:49Z

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Also, tonight I go to hang a bunch of stuff in the Austin Sketchgroup art show, which will be up throughout the month of October. The Hideout is at 617 Congress Ave., here in Austin. I've done several new pieces for this show, including my current favorite, this snuggly little fuzzy thing:

There'll be a reception at some point, and I shall inform you of such when I know more.

Cal's story page 9 storyboards

2009-09-23T14:25:03Z

Dave will look significantly less like a muppet in the final reckoning.

See all posted pages

Further adventures in the cat saga

2009-09-22T21:02:38Z

Just got off the phone with the vet, who was relaying the results of Vitamin's tumor analysis. (Did you know there are people whose job it is to courier tumors from vets to labs? Well, there are. I don't know if they show up at the vet's office and say, "I'm here for the tumor," but they should.)

Anyway. Analysis. First off, the margins were clean, which means they got all of it. Second, it definitively appears to be of a non-spreading variety, so now that it's gone there shouldn't be any further complications. At least, not until the next body part of Vitamin's starts to act up and I have to get yet more pieces of my cat removed.

Sunday afternoon frivolity

2009-09-20T19:19:17Z

1. What's the last thing you put in your mouth?
Apple, almond butter, and rye/pumpernickel bread.

2. Have you ever kissed anyone named Matthew?
I had a boyfriend named Matt, so yes.

3. Where was your profile picture taken?
At my old apartment.

4. Who was the last person you rode in a car with under the age of 20?
Probably my nephew.

5. Can you play guitar hero?
Yes, but I greatly prefer Rockband.

6. Last time you walked further than a block?
I walk at least 2 miles most days, or bike 6 miles (or the equivalent of 6 if on the stationary bike). In an ideal world I'd be able to walk to all of my day-to-day errands and take a train to anything out of walking distance. Apparently this means I need to live in Europe.

7. Name someone that made you laugh today?
My housemate (a conversation about what life would be like if our cats could text us)

8. How late did you stay up last night and why?
I went to bed pretty early for a Saturday (about 1:00 AM) as I was completely exhausted. I keep waking up to make sure my cat is not ripping her neck open.

9. If you could move somewhere else, would you?
Yes, and will sooner or later. West coast is my next destination, though I would love to live in the UK again, maybe even somewhere else in Europe. I don't tend to like staying in the same place for too long.

10. Ever been kissed under fireworks?
No.

11. Do you believe exes can be friends?
I know it can happen, and I managed with one ex, but we drifted apart after awhile.

12. Do you like calling or texting better?
I hate calling more than just about anything.

13. How do you feel about Diet Dr Pepper?
I don't really like soda. I used to drink Dr. Pepper when I was a kid, but I'd have hated the diet version, I'm sure.

14. When was the last time you cried really hard?
It's been awhile. I'm not sure.

15. Where is your biological father right now?
I expect he's at home.

16. Where are you at right now?
In my room, finishing up my lunch and hanging out with my cat.

17. What bed did you sleep in last night?
That one, back and to the left.

18. What was the last thing someone bought for you?
A friend bought me a beer at a baseball game a couple of weeks ago.

19. Who took your profile picture?
I did.

20. Who was the last person you took a picture of?
My cat and her super-hideous frankenscar. Wanna see? Last human was the friend at the baseball game.

21. Was yesterday better than today?
Yes, because she seems less determined to force me to pack her up and haul her off to the emergency vet.

22. Can you live a day without TV?
I enjoy watching the Daily Show and Robot Chicken, but honestly I get tired of watching TV very quickly. If I didn't have it at all I wouldn't miss it.

23. Are you a bad influence?
Depends on who you ask, I guess. Fundie xtians probably think I'm a demon from hell, but I don't tend to encourage people to engage in self-harming behavior, so I would say I'm not.

24. What items could you not go without during the day?
I admit, I get a little antsy without the iPhone. It's funny how rarely I use it for phone purposes; most of its functionality for me is in the other six billion features.

25. Would you share a drink with a stranger?
Sure. Have done.

26. Who was the last person you visited in the hospital?
Wow. I dunno. I guess my sister-in-law when she had her first baby.

27. What does the last text message in your in box say?
"Creepy"

28. What are you wearing?
Jeans and a t-shirt. I am a fashion juggernaut!

30. If we were to look in your in box, what would we find?
Lots of work-related stuff (NDA, bitches), comment notifications, invitations to various things. I don't really engage in email conversations much these days.

31. Has anyone ever called you perfect before?
Ha. No.

32. What song is stuck in your head?
I'm cycling though a few. "Memories" and "Angels" by Within Temptation, "Ghost" and "Enemy" by Blue Foundation.

33. Someone knocks on your window at 2 am, who do you want it to be?
Well, I've always wanted to meet someone who can fly, and that's who it would have to be.

34. Who was your last missed call on your cell phone?
The vet. I called them back.

35. Can you handle the truth?
I love the truth. It's fake-nice bullshit for the sake of social propriety or saving face I can't stand. I hate being lied to, and I especially hate when the lie is so transparent it's obvious in the moment that you're lying. Makes me wonder what else you've lied to me about.

36. What was the last book you read?
I'm currently working on The Butcher Bird. It's not all that great, to be honest, but it's good enough to bother finishing. You can have it when I'm done.

37. Is there something you always wear?
No.

38. Have you ever crawled through a window?
Yeah, but not for any interesting reason.

39. What's something that can always make you feel better?
When someone, completely unbidden, says something unabashedly nice to me. It's the spontaneity that makes it.

40. What do you want right now?
Short-term: for my cat to heal up so I can stop being paranoid about her health. Long-term: one of those relationships that completely transforms your worldview. Is all I ask.

41. Look behind you, what do you see?
Dresser, bookshelves, skulls.

42. Have you ever worked in a food place?
No, I always avoided such.

43. Could you answer all of these questions honestly?
Yes.

Paying the cat bill

2009-09-17T21:57:04Z

I meant to post about this earlier but never really got to it. Vitamin, my cranky-ass 13-year-old cat, was diagnosed with a malignant mast cell tumor at her annual vet visit a few weeks ago. I just got her back from surgery, and she looks a bit like Frankencat's Monster, with a big ol' scar on the side of her neck. Also, both her front legs are shaved, so she also looks like Frankencat's Poodle.

The suck part is pretty much the surgery and the significant lightening of the bank account, plus surgical follow-up (administering meds to cats is always buckets of fun). The "upside," such as it is, is that as far as we know the tumor had not metastasized (I guess mast cell tumors typically don't?), so there's no spread to contain. Which is good, because I'm not sure how much more cat one could get away with removing.

General panic abating, replaced with the more mundane grumph of coping. I expect she will be fine - instead of instantly diving under the bed to hide, she is preferring to hang out on the floor next to my desk.

Cal's story page 8 storyboards

2009-09-16T14:35:04Z

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I think I've finished scripting the rest of the book. Mostly finished, anyway. Turns out only about half of my original draft was usable, so I wound up rewriting the other half from scratch. Such is the way of things!

Right now I'm letting the newly written stuff cure for a bit. You ever have one of those clever ideas that oxidizes and turns into a stupid idea not too much later? My way of keeping those clever-turned-stupid ideas from escaping is to take a break from what I'm working on and come back to it a few days (or weeks, or months, or years) later and see if it's still any good, fix up the bits that need fixing, or start over if it's hopeless. With any luck, this new incarnation won't need too much patching.

Cal's story page 7 storyboards

2009-09-09T14:53:39Z

See all posted pages

Cal's Story Page 6 Storyboards

2009-09-02T14:41:42Z

This is the point at which we begin to ooch into NSFW territory:

See all posted pages

In other book news, I've been working on more scripting this week. I'm not exactly sure how I want to arrange the remaining material (a series of separate stories? alternating snippets of different people's stories for a compare-and-contrast effect? alternating present and flashback?), so I'm breaking it down to the smallest components and scripting those. Perhaps once the pieces are done it'll become clear how to put them together.

Scripting is the most challenging part for me, since there's no point in going further if the script is lackluster. No amount of drawing will fix boring dialogue or a mediocre story. Drawing is very labor-intensive, but fairly intuitive. Scripting is the part that requires the most mental energy, and the hardest decisions.

Cal's story page 5 sotryboards

2009-08-25T14:37:35Z

The storyboards keep a-comin':

See all posted pages

Further along the storyboard road

2009-08-18T14:59:40Z

We find Cal's Story, page 4:

See all posted pages

Moreyboards

2009-08-10T14:33:54Z

Cal's Story, page 3, storybooooooards:

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Further storyboard adventures

2009-08-04T15:03:41Z

Here, then, is page 2 of the storyboards for Cal's Story:

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You can see very clearly in the first panel where I added the background digitally. This story takes place in the late 90s, so big CRTs and no cellphones (at least, not to the near-mandatory extent of today).

I actually rather clearly remember going to the UK in 1997-1998, where mobile phones were becoming increasingly common, and noticing that in that respect Europe was ahead of the curve as far as technology adoption goes. When I got back to the US it was still the case that only a few early adopters had cellphones.

Laptops were also a luxury that not too many people bothered with, and it was not at all uncommon to check personal email only once or twice a week. The company I was working for at the time had a single shared email address, which we checked maybe once a day via dial-up.

So Cal is about to leave on a business trip, does a final email check-in, and writes down on paper (!) the info he needs. The phone call takes place in a hotel room, which I will convey in the background of those panels when I draw the actual page. A lot of the detail lives in my brain, but doesn't really become obvious to me until I sit down to draw.

I hereby apologize to everyone everywhere forever

2009-08-02T19:02:23Z

Let me just preface this by pointing out that I was not deliberately going for a pervy setup. I was just arranging my various baseball-related items into some sort of display and had this nice symmetrical thing going until ... oh ...

I didn't wind up keeping it like that because I prefer a little more subtlety in my life, but I obviously felt I needed to share nonetheless. You're welcome, and I'm sorry.