Lost in the Woods

It was the week following Mother's Day.  It was my first week back after a week of vacation.  It was the week of Dick Trickle's suicide, the passage of equal marriage rights in Minnesota and Brazil, and Angelina Jolie's admission of a double mastectomy.


Uploaded on Apr 10, 2011 DjEphixa

I was excited on Monday (5/13) for the Light Grey Art Lab Show.  Julie & Britt are both showing.  Then Spike tweeted about Attack on Titan and I watched the first episode.  I resuscitated a mysterious drawing in SAI. I caught up with some outstanding art posts by my friend Finchiekinstheowl.  I glanced at some classic and exceptional dinosaur art.  I think the HIMYM season finale aired this week.  I still hadn't caught up with Adventure Time nor Strip Search.  I did read some What I Did and Seven Soldiers of Victory v2.

Early morning on Tuesday (5/14) I looked back through Roy's Boys and Ice Cream Surfer and decided that Ice Cream Surfer wasn't so bad.  I looked through the Infinite Corpse site thanks to Brandon Graham's link from last week.  After work I came home and pretty much passed out from exhaustion.  It was a hot couple of days.

I learned about Kuli Kuli and Molinga on Wednesday (5/15).  I dreamed up a Box (of Alpha Flight) twitter that I could harass Brandon with.  Leslie Hung's sketchbook had sold well at TCAF and the orders continued to come in through the week.

Early on Thursday (5/16)  I happened to visit The Dollar Bin, and look into Battle Zoo.  I read about the AP Justice Dept. scandal and the passing of Richard Swanson, soccer enthusiast.  I got home from work and started watching Utena.  Rebecca drew a cover for Regular Show! Steven Russel Black lit a fire in my mind for Eurydice the Crowned.  I caught up with Ken Niimura's Henshin. I flirted with my Original Wolverine Tumblr idea.  I read the rest of Rachael and Penny up to the current strip.  I found out about Pink Project via Saichen Teng.  Latenight into Friday morning I marathoned Strip Search and went crazy that Lexxy came back!

Lauren, Rachel, and Penny were good twitter pals this week.  Dale & Jessi were cuties.  I drank a lot of bacardi, and slept early on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Friday I took some time to right out some good #ff tweets for people very dear to me.


Saturday I got caught up in the hurly burly of Eurovision.  Lauren tweeted about Mastering Comics by Jessica Abel and Matt Madden. 

Sunday I tried to force myself to draw a Rachael & Penny fan comic, but it was slow coming.

Zakka on pixiv | C. Billedeau on deviantart | Steven Russellblack on deviantart | Ella Bailey | Andrea Kalfas | JJack00 on deviantart | Riikka Auvinen on tumblr | William Gibbons on deviantart | Mamefuk on pixiv | Dark134 on deviant art

May Vacay Mama's Day

Fresh off my Iron Man 3 weekend, it was a great week to be on vacation.  I read this article about why Iron Man 3 was the best of the series.  I watched and laughed at that Lil Dicky Ex-boyfriend video.  Starting looking through Alan & Julie's Lore compendium for LitV.  Julie shared her 80s playlist and we chatted about her superhero goth rpg character.  I pulled up some Galaxy Rangers stuff to share with her, and combined with some Cowboy Bebop music Rachel shared earlier I suddenly felt like drawing a Spike & Goose fan art.

This was the week of the first 3D gun being fired, the appeal for the stay of execution for Willie Manning, and Charles Ramsey's rescue of three girls who had gone missing for a decade.  There was also that weird elite cosplayers meme going around.

I thought up Wormhole-fi, and Adobe announced the change to subscription only service.  Early in the week I was very good about cooking dinner for our house.  Ray Harryhausen passed away.  On Tuesday I drew some art for Amber.  Natalie's Mom turned out to be the missing Mrs. Breen Melissa McCarthy shouted out on CBS's Mike & Molly.  I read a bunch of Jailbird and got caught up with the last year and a half!  It was Moebius' birthday!

Published on May 6, 2013 mikeosong

 On Wednesday I decided to take a tour of my tweet archive and try to compile some things for old projects.  I broke some bread for Rachel's sake and bought a print while simultaneously registering a Storenvy site.  I read about Jupiter's Legacy and decided for the umpteenth time that I don't care about Mark Millar's thoughts.  I learned about the 72 Demons zine that never was from Jordyn & Britt.  I discovered Everyday Comics.  I started watching ebay for a good deal on a phone.  I dropped in on Penny's stream and Aaron was there.  We all got a little riled up about the Photoshop thing and I ended up starting a TMNT drawing.  Spike talked a little about the horror anthology she compiled and her inspirations.  That night I watched Entering Through the Mind and the Colin Baker Attack of the Cybermen two parter.

 On Thursday I found out Deni Hlavinka got spotlighted on Radio Boston and listened to some of her newer music, while learning about her lyric writing instructor, Michelle Ferrick.  It was a crappy day for relying on roommates.  I spent a good part of the day watching phones.  And then I started reading Boku wa Mari no Naka. I caught up with Calamity Jon's Superman Villian portraits.

Early in the morning on Friday I started catching up with Sakana.  I learned about The Mythical Show.  I watched the Grant Morrison thing with Kevin Smith about his Batman series.  Julie had a stream and it was the best.  In fact, I couldn't stop drawing because of it.

I finally just bought a phone on Saturday.  I drew a bunch of things.  And then I took myself out to IHOP.  On Sunday we had a Mother's Day Barbecue.  It was very hot.

Berol Eagle on deviantart
Totoya on pixiv
Joel27 on deviantart
Julie Dillon on deviantart
Saichin Teng on tumblr
Cory Loftis on tumblr
Charlie Bowater on deviantart
Joao Ruas
Erica Lugo on deviantart
Dark134 on deviantart
Eakkarlak Stu_P on behance
Sergi Brosa on behance
Elliot Alfriedius on tumblr
Aleks Sennwald

Gaming in Color kickstarter | Black Torch kickstarter

um i like this person's art very much bigfatbugbites.tumblr.com/post/481517188…
— Sword Saint Siam (@KingofSiam) May 7, 2013

My little watercolour tribute to Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese: twitter.com/Michael_Cho/st…
— Michael Cho (@Michael_Cho) May 7, 2013

meeting JoJos... still so traumatized about part 6.......... instagram.com/p/Y_d2Acv1Bu/
— val (@artigraphy) May 7, 2013

Sailor Saturn, pour Zviane. instagram.com/p/Y_fkcalNNl/
— -Boulet- (@Bouletcorp) May 7, 2013

Character-designs by Julien Bizat for “Wicked Night” (aka “Strange Oaks”) animation project (Headless Productions). ca-tsuka.tumblr.com/post/455207456…
— Catsuka (@catsuka) March 17, 2013

Chibi-Usa sketch twitter.com/courtneygodbey…
— Courtney Godbey Wise (@courtneygodbey) May 8, 2013

Princess Monster Truck #GIF twitpic.com/cp800f
— Claire (@Clairetonic) May 8, 2013

did y'all see this @rebeccamock comic preview????? rebeccamock.tumblr.com/post/499332005…
— Maré Odomo (@mareodomo) May 8, 2013

oops more anime turtles twitter.com/kikibee/status…
— Niki (@kikibee) May 10, 2013

New Katsuhiro Otomo's SHORT PEACE trailer youtube.com/watch?v=nFOws0…
— Catsuka (@catsuka) May 10, 2013

Love the the design and colours of this animated short by Gobelins students: vimeo.com/15731659
— Rebecca Dart (@R_Dart) May 11, 2013

HI, can I party with you?photo: kingofsiam.tumblr.com/post/502380153…
— Sword Saint Siam (@KingofSiam) May 12, 2013

I'm up painting because I can't sleep because I'm insane. twitpic.com/cq1q3w
— Sword Saint Siam (@KingofSiam) May 12, 2013

It was Mother's Day and TCAF weekend and the last few days of my first week of vacation.  Next week I go back to work, and then it's on again.  Awww  Yeah!

Entering the Mind Through the Mouth 고양이 입속으로 뛰어들다 from Brian Jin on Vimeo.

The week in Tweets

Sunday May 5, 2013

It's been an eventful weekend.  On Friday I was in Julie's livestream as she worked on a new page of Lost In the Vale.  I didn't want to leave, but I got invited to watch Iron Man 3 with my buddy, Ian and his friends.  We headed to his place afterward for a few beers, and some awkward livingroom sleeping arrangements.  Got up hungover and did McDonald's.  My roommate had family & friends coming over for a pool party barbecue.  As usual, I had a lot of fun playing with his sister's kids.  And I got to sleep in today and have all next week off.

This was the week of Comics Alliance getting axed by AOL, International Labor Day, the smallest film ever made:A Boy and his Atom, the beginning of California wild fire season, May the 4th (be with you) and Free Comics Day!

Leigh Alexander's Zone
Fabian Schlaga
Nuriko on deviantart
Zhong Biao on deviantart
Kyle Fewell
Saskia Schnell on behance

This week was very active for me.  I tweeted a lot with Victoria, Julie, Penny, Rachel, Karla, and Jordie.  I got started on Jojolion, and caught up with All Night.  I methodically went through tumblr and bumped up good posts by people I like.  I even did some twitter shout outs.  I found out about the comics Ice Cream Surfer, Unlife, and Kairos.  I read the first chapter of Locke & Key, some of the AVX series, Ghost omnibus, and Squadron Supreme.

At work I had to train a guy to cover my vacation; this was the 2nd week of that.  I took it easy.  I really wanted to watch the Dirty Pair and War in the Pocket DVD's I borrowed from the library but I couldn't get to them for some reason.  The same thing happened with some fanart I wanted to do for  Lost in the Vale, All Night, Balderdash, and others.  I learned about the reporter who got a picture of a baseball almost beaning her in the head, Willie Nelson's fake Lord of the Ring's Gandalf Audition for his 80th birthday, Chelsea Saunders aka Pixellated Cowboy, and sat in one of Amber's streams.  I started reading the Adventure Time comics.  It was just a whirlwind of things leading up to the first weekend of my vacation.  Since I'm tired and frazzled and late here is the week in tweets.



Omelette from Madeline Sharafian on Vimeo.

yoshikazu yasuhiko drawinggg youtu.be/uTK_m3Te2N8
— sloane (　✧≖´◞౪◟​≖｀) (@sloanesloane) May 2, 2013

warming up today by drawing a rad drawing lady that i made up twitpic.com/cnyq67
— Sword Saint Siam (@KingofSiam) May 3, 2013

Hey, wow! Did you know you can Kickstart this graphic novel by the awesome Andy Ristaino of Adventure Time fame? kickstarter.com/projects/11399…
— Tim Schafer (@TimOfLegend) May 2, 2013

I don't even know who Aisha Tyler is but I fucking love this about her: policymic.com/articles/37557… #gamergirls
— Danielle Corsetto (@dcorsetto) May 2, 2013

Ever since I started Boxer Hockey people have asked and begged for me to make stuffed frogs WELL GUESS WHAT!kickstarter.com/projects/16731…
— Tyson Hesse (@boxerhockey) April 30, 2013

Animation I did for @marlomeekins vine on Comedy Central's #comedyfest - vine.co/v/bx3wZLdAnVd
— Nick Cross(@ncrossanimation) April 30, 2013

this is just unbelievable vimeo.com/studiolacachet…
— Sword Saint Siam (@KingofSiam) April 29, 2013

If Sailor Moon and Studio Ghibli came together twitpic.com/cn00ir
— Claire (@Clairetonic) April 30, 2013

We've Come too Far to Forget Who We Are

April 28, 2013 2:56am

April is almost done, I am entering the 3rd month in the new place, and the temperature is rising.  This was the week of the NFL draft, social media awareness of CISPA, and the transfer of Dzhokar Tsarnaev into a federal prison.  I learned about Jenny Suk and Jhené Aiko, learned and practiced an arrangement of Frank Ocean's Thinking About You and Chris Isaak's Wicked Game, and prepared for my roomie's sons birthday party on Friday.  It was an emotionally taxing week at home with so much of personal time constantly encroached upon followed by condescension.


Published on Mar 30, 2013 flipboit4midles

The week started out innocently enough.  Irene Koh's Alba made its way to my eyes.  Nadiezda dazzled me as well.  At work I had to begin training a guy I used to work closely with to cover my vacation in May.  It actually wasn't so bad the first day.  And then Wednesday I was on my own again, and we had a corporate visit and were all asked to stay out till 2pm.  I ended up having to help somebody.  It was Marlo Meekins' birthday!  I drew her a thing.  Butts were ubiquitious this week.

Thursday was pretty tough.  I bought a couple of beers on the way in.  We ran into an old friend from work.  And then my evening was ruined and wasted. Friday was the birthday party and the saving grace for the week.  I get along surprisingly well with my roommate's family.  Had his nephew and niece in my arms jumping on trampolines; had an exhausting, fun time. 

I did my laundry Saturday and read a few issues of Sweet Tooth.  I think I finally got up to the first Emi Lennox story, whom I owe gratitude for introducing me to the series.  When I think back to 2010 when I was still discovering a lot of artists on the web, and trying to get my own art rolling, I get a weird sense of parallel lives across the divide.  This week I also began and finished R.E.D. which was pretty short and one dimensional in comparison to the film adaption.  I read a few pages of the Seven Soldiers of Victory v2, also realizing that I had v2 not v1.  I tried to get into Fringe v1, but it reeked of sardoodledom.  I bought myself an acrylic paper tablet while out shopping for the boy's birthday present.  I finally watched another episode of Strip Search.  I'd like to get caught up with the show today and tomorrow, watch Gundam 0080, and start Jason's What I Did, and The Losers.

Sunday I took a bike ride and wandered around Barnes & Nobles for a bit.  It was a nice warm evening to get out of the house and be on my own.

Tiuni on deviantArt | Straights Against Curves | Yoiko Youchou | Shoomlah's Historical Disney Princesses | Daft Punk - Get Lucky Remixes on Spin

Dog Ball Day Afternoon

Saturday April 20, 2013

It was an intense, difficult week for America.  On Monday, the Boston Marathon was rocked with two explosions that left 3 dead and many injured.  Through the week law enforcement and the FBI worked on identifying suspects and gathering information, and by the end of the week we were left with a suspect in custody in critical condition and one dead.  A fertilizer plant in West Texas suffered a devastating explosion that left at least 15 people dead and hundreds injured or lost.  In China the H7N9 continued to claim more lives.

Today I woke up slightly hungover.  I had to return Stardust Memory and Myspace DHP v5 today, so I swapped them out for What I Did by Jason, Fringe v1, R.E.D., The Losers, Seven Soldiers of Victory and two DVD's:  Gundam 0080: War In the Pocket and Dirty Pair.  I'd say that's a good haul.

I read another great Sam Alden comic, The Worm Troll.   I learned about David Gaddis & a few other great early web comics creators because of this article about Modern Tales.

Sunday April 21, 2013

Today I woke up at 9:30am.  To shut my alarm off and then sleep for another hour.  We went bowling for my roommate's nieces' belated birthday party and hit up the pizza parlor.  It was a fun day and I love his extended family.  He and his sister make a hilarious duo.  We ended the visit w/ a lazy watching of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.  I played with a pitbull and a bunch of kids.  I was pretty happy.  I also bowled pretty well too.  At home I got into an impromptu fanart for Julie's Lost In The Vale comic.  I felt very vulnerable and self-critical about my art and lack of professional accomplishment.  It came out while catching a quick workout with Adam.  Tonight, as Monday rolls in, I can smell hotdogs roasting on a grill a few apartments upwind of me.  I'm going to dissect the week in a second as we head into the last week of April and near the last month of Spring.  Tonight I watched Little Witch Academia!

 Su on deviantart | Lynn V. Wang's Dog Snack Work | exhaustive resource for pixel art | JIA on cghub | Kevin Wada on tumblr | Val Kung on Artigraphy | Betty & Veronica by Brandon Graham and Emily Carroll |  Little Thunder spotlight on Meathaus | O Human Star |

On Monday (4/15) I was following developments on the Boston Marathon bombing.  I read a few of those pixel tutorials, and somehow ended up on 4chan.  Then found out about a newer Yoshitaka Amano book, Hero, and pined away for an Android mini-pc. By the wee early hours of Tuesday morning (4/16) I was perusing old bookmarks.  Wednesday (4/17) I spent a ridiculous amount of time and effort trying to set up a windows media center stream over our home network.  I failed.  I'm not sure what happened Thursday (4/18) but I know I didn't get much sleep nor much done.  On Friday 4/19) I was just happy to be done with the work week, so we went on a journey to get some Angry Orchard Cider, barely made it back, and then I drank like a mad man.

This week I kind of buckled under the pressure on completing the t-shirt design for the boy's birthday this next weekend.  It was a week of struggle and uncertainty. Thankfully I had friends to share a laugh with.

@sour_apple This is what I drew after your suggestion: twitter.com/pennyloafing/s…
— Pennnnny (@pennyloafing) April 21, 2013

Sonic Screw 'em

Smooth McGroove Published on Apr 8, 2013

Monday April 8:  I made fried rice and worked out, then marathoned the final few issues of Uncanny X-Force v1.  It was a melancholy completion.  Lost In The Vale began!

Tuesday April 9:  Work was unnecessarily complicated and I got home after 5pm.  Had some pasta & watched a little of Monday night's RAW with the boys.  At work I got back into Sweet Tooth.  It's a perfect queue having recently read Roman Muradov's Antler Coffee in Myspace DHP v5.  Dustin Harbin laid out his tools for The Tools Artist's Use.

So apparently @kingofsiam is Toshiro Mifune reincarnated 25.media.tumblr.com/3a85b8b05de513…
— Pennnnny (@pennyloafing) April 10, 2013

Wednesday April 10:  Today was a short day.  And then I got back into the office and they tried to drop more bullshit on me, but I wasn't having it.  I'm applying for new jobs today.  Right now I'm going to try to draw some wrestlers while I'm still kind of hot.  Had a good life talk with Adam before bed.

Thursday April 11:  At work today I read a lot of Tin Tin In The Land of the Soviets.  It was more rustic than I expected.  I learned about Tonkutsu Ramen via Little Froggies.

Friday April 12: Already home and drinking apple beer.  Today was the calm after the storm after work.  This week I was the storm, and it was as unnerving as it was empowering.  Today was also the one day out of the work week I didn't read comics at work.  It shouldn't ever be difficult for me to find time to read.  It takes the least amount of effort, and provides such a large input in my creative process.

So far this week my focus has been on working on a secret birthday project for my roommate's son, putting off doing my taxes, and making DVD's.  I learned about Vampybitme this week, followed a lot of Rebecca Tobin's tweets, and listened to a bunch of Smooth McGroove.  It was the week of Margaret Thatcher and Annette Funicello passing, Kobe Bryant's achilles tear, and  then Chi Cheng of the Deftones passed away.

Saturday April 13:  Everybody was gone when I got up, so I had brunch to myself and then got going on my taxes.  My buddy gave me a good tip on filing my state taxes for free so this year I owed nothing, and paid nothing.  It was just about an even year as far as finances go.  We did some barbecue and drank cider beer before slumping at the couch to Knocked Up.  Then everybody went to sleep and I finished the movie by myself and felt a little sentimental.  Also I was kind of sore from our leg work out earlier.  David Alegre Chaos Wolf / Fiona Hsieh Best Art Ever April 12

Sunday April 14:   Went to work right away on my secret birthday project.  Made some good progress and warmed up for a week of drawing.  Even made it out of the house to go swimming.  Today I read about the new Daft Punk album Random Access Memories, and streamed some old cut material "Sky Drive."  Today I also read Guy Davis & Scott Allie's Solomon Kane comic in Myspace DHP #5 and loved it.  I studied his panel composition and pacing and felt smarter for doing it.  Rachel & Sarah's late night tumbles got me interested in reading Getter Robo Go by Ken Ishikawa.

A thing because of @brittneysabo #Beck #DoctorWho twitpic.com/cjhhup
— Sword Saint Siam (@KingofSiam) April 15, 2013

Stop Making a Fool Out of Me

Welcome to April!  I've been struggling lately to find balance and alignment.  Last month I felt the void of personal time, last week I lost time to snoozing, and this week I just couldn't guide myself on my own path. 

Monday April 1:  I was the first one up in the house.  Watching Strip Search I want to start writing about my new situation like I'm on a reality show.  I made myself my inaugural banana smoothie and got my laundry together.  Spent an inordinate amount of time searching for the title of that monster hunter anime where the guy runs away with the girl. Queued up New Mutants v3.   Had a nice laundry day with the fam, even got some boba on the way back.  I then read a bunch of Amy Falcone comics:  Cardigan Weather and Citation Needed (which I read in my classic backward fashion).  Watched the new Adventure Time directed by David O'Reilly before getting sucked into wrestling.  Had a late night supermarket run, before coming home to watch the newest ep of Strip Search.  It is now early morning Tuesday.

Tuesday April 2: Short days are good.  I walked home today and got in before noon.  Time to make some money and catch up on comics.  That is the mantra.  I read a lotta bit more of Citation Needed

Oops I fell asleep and had a nightmare. 

mayclips Uploaded on Oct 18, 2007

Wednesday April 3:  Started the Otherworld Saga of Uncanny X-factor v1 early in the morning.  Queued up Uncanny Avengers # 1 also.  If I haven't said so, I've been trotting along with The Authority v3.  I'm like 8 parts into this storyline.   I drew a comic today.  My other mantra this week was Sit Down, Shut Up, and Warm Up--which I kind of accomplished, but failed to follow through on.  I started reading Myspace DHP v5.  Loved The Gax of Life especially.

Thursday April 4:  The world lost Roger Ebert today.  I perused some past blog entries but passed out early.

Friday April 5:  I drew a comic at work today.  I also got a bunch of episodes into Stardust Memory.

Saturday April 6:  I was the first person  awake today and had some nice quiet time to myself.  Started writing some notes for an Authority like comic.  Did some grocery shopping, and then some weight training with the boys.  Had to renew my library DVD.  Later did some more grocery shopping and then hit the jacuzzi.  Finished the night off watching Mr. Bean and snacked on food.  Pretty eventful day for the week.  Also we have so much food now.  I read the first chapter of Yotsuba.

Sunday April 7:  I did some laundry and read a bunch of Uncanny X-Factor.  This series is going in my favorites of all time.  I got a haircut and went swimming today.  The family came down and met me by the pool and we had barbecue for dinner.  It was a pretty nice day.  

This was the first week of April, the week of april fools.  There was a lot of stuff going on with North Korea armament & missile testing, Wrestlemania XXIX aired, Nemu-Nemu celebrated it's 7th anniversary, Ian Andersen had a birthday.  I learned to play Valerie.  I kind of lost my comic mojo by Friday, but I got in a lot of quality watching and reading, while balancing time with the roomies.  Money seems a little shaky right now, so I keep hoping and wishing something turns a corner for me in this art thing.  Here's some great work by Kai Carpenter.  Here's the new Skadi site.