Gold Star Awards. August, 2011

MADE IT! lol

This was a weird month. I started it with only a handful of reserve sites left for the HoF - nothing I was really excited about, just some sites I keep in my back pocket in case I run out of ideas.  Well... I ran out of ideas!  Then about six or seven different sites, blogs, web comics, etc... All came to my attention at once and I'm set with enough Golds and Silvers to carry me though the end of the year!  The only question was who to put into which month. LOL.  That's of particular importance this month, since the year is 1966 and the lone inductee is...


The Ted Williams GOLD STAR #38: Potholer54

I don't know how I managed to have missed this channel for so long.  I got linked to it recently via a comment on MMFA, and the minute I started watching I was HOOKED.  Complex Science about Climate Change, the Creation of the Earth and the Universe, the beginning of life on this planet, Human Evolution, and other things, all boiled down to perfectly digestible short documentaries that even the most brain-dead Right Winger can understand.  And beyond the fact that they are FASCINATING in and of themselves, they represent a solid argument that no Right-Wing True-Believer can deny or debunk, especially since he often specifically addresses the very talking points and urban myths that those on the Right try to use to discredit the Science they can't accept.  Very well done, and a FANTASTIC resource for arguing with Conservatives.  I HIGHLY recommend subscribing.

Also... I want to thank everyone who's read and commented on Utopia.  If you haven't checked it out yet, please take a look. I'd love to hear what you have to say, even if it's only to tell me that it's an incoherent mess! But please feel free to leave comments there, here or email me at niceguy9418@usa.com. (That goes for anything, anytime, BTW, not just that!)  I'm not always on top of every comment and email, but I do try to reply as soon and as often as possible.  And thanks again to ALL of you, for all of your participation in this conversation over the past two years. (It will be two years, officially, in just one more week - 9/7/11.)

Utopia, Chapter One, Cover Page Posted

I guess this means I've officially started, even if it IS just the cover page.  I'll link to the new pages from here, but if you're interested, you can see them all (rigth now, just this one) over at: http://niceguy-eddie.deviantart.com/. (For now.  I don't know if I'll stick with Deviantart or not.)

The comic is titled, "Utopia." The complete (and more pretentious) title is, "Utopia: What Would You Do with Absolute Power?"

Anyway, here's the cover page for Chapter One:

(click to enlarge it)

I DO have to fix the lettering, and probably add a border I guess, but this is the picture anyway.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  The cover pages will typically (always?) feature some piece of architecture, with the Title and Chapter Number placed somewhere on it.  There will also be a quote, which sets up the theme of the chapter.  This is a representation of an anceint set of chortens, from Nepal.  The royal family once worshiped at the particular one I was using for inspiration.  The quote, in case you live under a rock, is from The Lord of the Rings.

S'more Rambling...

Just some random rambling, because I feel to compelled to write something tonight, but as too sick, achy and tired to be profound.  So I want to share something with you that will make you laugh your asses off.  BUT... I want to share the emotional roller coaster that got me there as well. (Of course, you may also feel free to skip down to the link if you don't care! I won't mind!) ;)

Earlier tonight I was giving my two boys a bath.  And when I do that, i sing to them.  I sing both loudly, and fairly badly.  But they don't really care, the bathroom tile does wonders with acoustics and since it is the first fifteen minutes since they got home from school that my wife doesn't have to deal with them, she's usually keen to keep her otherwise witty comments to herself during this time.

So I'm drying them off, and singing Paul Simon's 'American Tune' (yeah, we sing GOOD SONGS here, not this 'wheel's on the bus' shit!) and he's gently rocking to the music, and I just feel... good.  But the song is pretty moving, and it's not entirely a feel-good tune. (It's not depressing, juts... solemn.) So, after we were finished, I tried looking on you-tube for a karaoke  version (no vocals), that I could sing to while my wife was out. (Being a firm believer in the eighth amendment, after all!)  And I found one, but... a very different version than the one I knew (from the "Concert in Central Park" Live Album?)  So I couldn't really sing to it.  (Even beyond the fact that I can't really sing!)

So I started surfing YouTube, watching Paul Simon videos, when I saw one with Paul and John Lennon, appearing in some really chessy 1970's talk show together.  No music, really awful jokes.  But from there I started watching some John Lennon videos, and eventually came to the one's related to John death.  Now... I was 7 years old when John Lennon died, and my parents were not Beatles fans. I have no first hand memories of John Lennon from when he was alive, and was not really aware of the man or the story at the time.  (The first artist's death that I was aware of was Harry Chapin's, two years later.  I didn't cry then; but I almost do now, thinking of it.)  And something just struck me... Between Paul McCartney trying to play it cool to the British press later that evening, yet obviously too stunned to pull it off (probably the first time in his life that's happened) to the news casters, half of whom treated it like the weather report. (And fine, I do truly long for the days when the news was presented without all the sensationalist grandstanding, but considering what John Lennon meant to the world, reading the release with the emotional involvement that you give a sports score from a game that doesn't matter in a sport that you don't even follow hardly seems appropriate.) And finally there was the reaction of then President-Elect Reagan, who it seemed to me could barely contain his apathy. Granted it was the Reporter who brought up gun control, but Reagan positively BOOKED it from the interview at that point.  He actually answered the question with a talking point as he walked quickly away. The "great communicator." The president elect.  Upon being informed of the grisly murder of music's greatest living icon.  (Even if his was a damned, dirty, pinko, commie, hippy -  A fact that no doubt drove Reagan crazy!)  Anyway, I don't know why but after watching so many utterly lifeless news reports about this terrible event, possibly the first "JFK" moment of my lifetime, albeit one I don't remember, I started feeling depressed. 

Really depressed.  (And to be honest, it hasn't taken much lately.)

So I decided I needed to laugh. A lot.  I needed a good dose of the only alternative medicine that's worth a damn.  And my dose was expertly doled out by Seanbaby, the two-time Silver Star winning contributer to Cracked.com.

Here you go:
The four most irresponsible sex advice books of all time

(The funniest part might be that they're all written by the same guy!  I guess... Seanbaby wants his money back? IDK.) (Sorry, Seanbaby: You know I love you, man! PLEASE don't give me the "Godek" treatment if you happen to read this!)

It's 99% genius, and here's a piece of gold worth remembering:

#132: There's always nude dusting, nude room painting, nude dish washing... (You get the idea)

To which Seanbaby replies:

Yeah, I get the idea that after you clean something, there's more pubic hair on it than when you started.

There's more, but I almost fell out my chair when reading that.  So you'll have to check out the rest for yourselves.  If you ever need a really good laugh (and you know who you are!) there are few writers out there better than Seanbaby to give you an overdose.

Cheers!

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BTW... I only plan to do two more posts this year, since we'll be busy with the holidays, and travelling to boot. (No, not to "Boot," to BOSTON.  I meant "as well!") The next one will be the December Gold Star Winners, and the last is just a year's-end / holiday sign off.  Starting next year, I'll be trying to go back to something resembling my former writing schedule, but I don't see another month like October anytime soon.  Plus I'm finally taking an actual drawing class, (which I've never actually done before!) so I should be getting my next comic strip off the ground a couple of weeks in.  I'll probably create a tab at the top of the blog, where I can stash anything related to the project, and have a place to link to any of the older posts that I've put up about it.  Anyway, until then, take care, get your shopping done (the economy needs it!) and enjoy your holidays!

For mish...

Since you were foolish enough to indulge me helpful enough to offer some constructive feedback, here are the pencils for the first page.  Let me know what you think.

Hands are hard. :(
LOL.
Like I said... A little cleanup is needed. ;)

First Panel Pencilled!

First Panel - Pencils.

I'm sorry that I keep posting this kind of stuff.  It's a bit indulgant, I suppose.  I'm just really happy with how this turned out.  A few line-errors here and there, but nothing I can't fix in the inkining. (LH Window & Starcase, for example? LOL.)  I don't plan on posting to much more of it here.  (We'll see.) But to finish a panel, even in pencil, and be pretty satsified with the result?  For me? That's EPIC. LOL. (One down, sixteen thousand to go!)

Also, in case anyone was wondering, I do still plan on maintaining a political blog.  Probably more angry rants than realy thoughtful pieces (which take more time) but the rants sometimes seem to get a better response anyway. LOL.  I'm also going to keep up with the Hall of Fame inductees, if nothing else.  Even though they don't get many replies, I take it as a bit of a civic duty to link to good stuff in order to help it rank higher in teh Google.

But I have made a goal to myself to spend at least an hour a night drawing.  And unfortunately that will leave less time for blogging.  BUT... I think it will be better fo my mental health, in the long run.  Sorry.  AND, as I've said before, this thing is going to have Religious, Philosopcial and Political themes running throughout it, not to mention some references to pop-culture-y stuff that I just like.

And to answer ClassicLiberal's and Conchobhar's inevitable quetsion about the club name: YES. 

Doodles & Sketches

And the amazing part...?

When someone in the meeting asked me a question, I was still able to answer as if I'd been paying attention!

LOL.  Yeah... it's was one of those days.

This is mostly crap, but I am fairly proud of the chick on the upper right.  I think we've got a decent intial sketch down for Epiphany there.  Gabriel (upper left) needs a lot of work. (But that was also done much earlier in the meeting, before I got too bored. LOL)   Gretchen* (lower right) needs some additional translating to make her look a little more realistic, and a little less like her inspriration (Sora Hasegawa from Ah! My Goddess) but I can live with it for now.  The guy in the middle (and lower left) started out as the protagonist, Edward, but I'm think he'll change a bit first.  He may yet end up as either John or Paul, who are kind of like Edward's Left Hand and Right Hand men, respectively, or I might just keep him as he is, we'll see.  (Yes, I realize I'm babbling here, and no one knows WTF I'm talking about, but these notes are as much for my own reference later on as anything else.)  In any case I said I might throw up some of the early sketches, and this is about as early as it gets, although I didn't figured they'd come out of being bored in a team meeting. LOL.

Oh well. 

You gotta have some fun wherever you are.  That's my philosphy anyway.

*The other half of Gretchen's inspiration, comes from Faust which is a HUGE influence on the overall story. It's really sort of a modern, reinterpretation of Faust.  Other influences include Death Note, Hell Girl, King Lear/Ran, MacBeth/Throne of Blood, and various non-Canonical Judeo-Christian (and other) mythologies, heavily re-interpreted.  Meh... We'l see how it goes.  Hopefully it will interest some one other than me, but I plan to do it anyway.