Robot Love: Charles Burns n' Scott Raedeke

If I ever get a tattoo, it will be on my face and it will be of this Charles Burns comic page from El Borbah's Hard Boiled Defective Stories. I read this when I was 22 or 23 and it changed my life. I mean, this thing electrified me. Reading this is what trying heroin for the first time must feel like. I was on the subway in New York, laughing to keep from crying. Damn. I could talk about this page for days, but I won't, because I need to get back to making my own second-rate stuff. BUT, If you or anyone you know might even vaguely appreciate Charles Burns, you should buy El Borbah for them immediately. They will love you forever.

I had a similar experience about 12 years ago picking up Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library No. 7 for the first time. Good God. . . more on that later, I suppose.

And on the subject of Robot Love, check out the 8-bit Ghost's inspired Christmas Robot. That man is not right, but in all the proper ways.

A Day o' Infamy

Geekin' with the 8-bit Ghost down at school today. It's dark and cold. We're talking 'bout how to teach, learn, live, and by consequence, love. I'm getting some good ideas for teaching the Art 351 Interactive Studio class this winter. Also, some thoughts on how to "roll out" the Arms and Ether comic. Bully for us.
In a fatherly sphere, Sam and I went to throw a baseball around, and he ended up with the mother of all split lips. :( It did give me the opportunity to introduce him to the manly world of the laconic statement, however. Kirk Gibson's comment after getting smashed in the face by a fastball, "It's not something you'd hope for."
L'image above shows recent head studies of "Big Evan" Carroll I did while thinking about comic book character design.

Frag It

Okay, my last post was so lame, I went ahead and ordered the damn Cintiq. It'll be here in a week or two, so I'll let "you" know how it goes. I don't have my drawings on this computer, so, uh. . . here's a picture of the studio I built this summer with help from the genius of Scott "8 Bit Ghost" Raedeke and Nick "24 Bit Color Depth Plus 8 Bit Alpha Channel" Oredson. I still haven't finished the interior, because I have a job and a family, etc. etc, but this picture makes me laugh. Lots of funny compositional angles along with that splendid dog and birds' nest. Kinda like a Breugel landscape.

Un Dimanche Matin a l'Isle de la Grande Beanery

Had a good Flash session with the 8-bit master, Scott Raedeke last night. I'm inspired to get up to speed with ActionScript so's as to teach it in some form next year. I like the way games give one a very different way of thinking about animation than the old straight-forward narrative film approach. Games feels more true to the "ha ha, these pictures look like they're moving" spirit that I think is the fundamental appeal of animation. Was that something a half-assed Clement Greenberg would say if he were an animator and kept a half-assed blog? If only I had some kind of Quantum Computer, I could arrive at an answer to this question through an elaborate computational model.

Anyhow, here are some good links to "classic" game animation sprite maps that Scott turned me on to. Handy to the game or animation student/enthusiast. If you ever have "animator's block" these could well pry you loose to shake what your mother gave you. Mark them well, my children. Mark them well.

The People's Sprites

Sprite Database

In "The Office" on a Saturday

Getting to work on the web site illustrating (stupidly and unnecessarily) a "Making of Arms and Ether" section. It's sure to impress. Let's see, regrets about being bad at drawing, minor annoying ear ache, heavy mental fog . . . Now would be a good time to go play soccer or basketball. I'm missing that glorious forgetting that comes with all out sportin' fun. Perhaps a xiao bike ride would be good. Dawdle. Glurck. Before I go, I'm going to finish drafting out the 11 drawings for that Arms and Ether section. See, I'm disciplined. Har har.

Tonight will be good to hook up with the 8-bit Ghost hisself--Scott Raedeke. He'll be doling out the ActionScript preachings, and I'll be witnessing. Revelatin.'

Where did he go?

I'm back after a bout with not being fully sick, just being really tired, run down and kind of sick. For the record, on Saturday, Sam and I started working on a video game, inspired by Scott Raedeke who teaches cool Flash stuff at South Medford. Julie got the stomach flu. Sam and Henry and I watched some Rugby and Lacrosse outside--a beautiful day. On Sunday, I bonked heads with Max playing basketball (saw a flash of light! all was revealed!) and read papers for my USEM class. Sam and I also created custom players for "The Men of Candy," our Pro Evolution Soccer Team (one unexpected favorite is the tall, skinny red-headed guy, whose face we lifted from a Francisco Goya self-portrait). Monday I taught all freaking day. Ugnaught. Tuesday, same thing. It's dead week, so I'm trying to help "the kids" be all that they can be. I'm a servant of the people. Har har.

Sunday Lovin' Had Me a Blast

A beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. Played some basketball in the ol' Bellview gym with a good combo of guys over 40 and kids under 15. Then ran into bearded art stars Matthew Furber and Andrew Farris at the Beanery. Jolly times. Talked video games, comics and Tom of Finland. Now, what to do? Lots of tests to grade, curriculum to develop, web site to make, happiness hole to create/fill, walls to stare at, etc.

Domestic Front: I finally got the water heater installed yesterday with lots of support from Scott, Nick and Galen. Good to have friends that are smarter than you. Nice to do something non school/art related. Also, Julie and I went out to dinner with Scott and Christy on Saturday. Twas much fun. Eatin', drinkin', and talking #$@#!. Get some carbohydrates in me and I'll start prattling on about just about anything I know absolutely nothing about.

Now, I think I'll work on the site. . . though I should be grading tests .

"Dick the Dude" and "Pete the Pirate" are two of Wooly Willy's "magnetic personalities." If you Google "Dick the Dude" you won't find images of Wooly Willy, however.