Fall's End

October 28, 2013

It's the last week of October, 2nd month of fall.  We're 4 days out from Halloween.  I'm up tonight having watched Black Magic M-66, skimmed through Gunbuster, and a few Machine Molle videos for M83 on Julie's rec.  I'm in a weird, distant place.  Thank goodness for Jenny and people online who are nice to me.  I was watching some old community channel videos remembering my youtube infatuation and wanting to make videos. 

I heard the new Lemon Demon single Everybody Loves Raymond and it reminded me of Cows & Cows & Cows.  Put that together with some Ewan Dobson videos and I have a nice Fall mood playlist.  Earlier I was listing robots I like: M-11, Bender, Bubo, Wall-E, Johnny Five, R2D2, The Vision, Box, Ninjzz, Briaeros, North No.2.  Just got my mind running in a direction.  Robots are pretty cool.

I doodled a poor kid halloween costume trying to drum up some ideas for my CxW comic.  I finally started Nuclear Winter and shot through the first 2 chapters.  Later I drew a selfie with my long hair and new jeans. I found out I was Kidnapped by Lesbian Pirates from Outer Space is going offline soon

http://rosalarian.tumblr.com/post/65353128180/its-with-extreme-sadness-that-i-announce-that-my

October 31, 2013 5:18pm

Shit is really bad right now.  Tuesday night Adam's wife, picked a fight with me over me having the mail key.  It escalated into a shouting match and I ended up retreating to my room, but not before she tried to force her way in.  She was out there calling me a bitch and a faggot to him when I popped out to explain, but she cut me off.  I texted him asking to talk privately.  The next morning, on no sleep, I tried to catch him before work to talk, but he accused me to of trying to fight her and threatened me.  He also said something about me finding a place to stay before shit got ugly.  I packed a bugout bag & left to check in on Maggie & see Vince.  Vince & I ended up hanging out with Brent & his friend Daniel later.  From there Maggie swooped me up to go to Swing-o-Ween.  I had a great time there as awkward as I was.  The instructor was impressed in my comprehension.  I kissed Maggie goodnight and headed off to Vince's.  We had one of our usual talks and I turned out for the night.  I got up just before noon, dreading dealing with stuff at home.  Finally got on my way, paid my portion of rent & got a 30 days notice in.

Vital Organizing

October 26, 2013 9:27pm

I'm taking a quiet evening at home to myself.  I spent last night at Vince's and most of the day Saturday.  Last night we went out for a few drinks, got some late night/early morning Denny's before coming home.  Maggie's been away all weekend for swing and I'd only messaged her around 8:30 tonight.  I'm feeling the need to withdraw and recenter myself.

This week was a bit of a whirlwind.  Monday was spent going back and forth texting Maggie.  I lost a good portion of the day from an upset stomach.  Tuesday was a little nerve-wracking getting ready for our big first date.  The night was wonderful.  Wednesday I took a personal day, but I think she was a little disappointed I didn't make it to swing with her. 

On Thursday Vince & I did superhero night again before I headed off to Maggie's to help her prepare for her trip.  I ended up heading home in the middle of the night before Friday.

October 27, 2013 12:56pm

This was the week of Julianna Hough's black face faux pas, comedienne Marcia Wallace's & Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed's passings.  This week I was into Katsuya Terada's Monkey King.  Zac Gorman announced a vague new direction for his comics.  The Kansas City Chiefs went undefeated.  I drew Squall Leonheart and Muffin Man Prime.  Julie released a beautiful print called Sister.  Jessi did this kouhai/sempai self meme. I discovered Megan Nicole Dong aka Sketchshark.  Kate Beaton put me up on John Martz's 31 skullamugs.  I missed Draw Friends during my date on Thursday but you can watch it here.  This was the week that Karla took off from twitter and in her absence everybody wrote fanfic about her.  And then we all dreamed up a Little Mermaid themed costume party where she was our Ursula. 

RIDER GHIBLI Published on Oct 22, 2013

A pencil test from the new Ghibli movie Princess Kaguya.  I read Jen Sorensen's Stealth Attack on Pro-Choice comic for the ACLU.  Weapon Smith began a Richard Scarry fan art tumblr.

http://t.co/8VMTJawEm9
— Amei Zhao (@ameizhao) October 24, 2013

Spotlight on Super Mutant Magic Academy on Autostraddle.

a comic pic.twitter.com/6o433I5czj
— no no lottie (@lottiepencheon) October 24, 2013

  The Ladies of Literature Zine is out!

Octobromance

 FatBeatsRecords Published on Oct 6, 2013

October 15, 2013 Tues

On a whim I purchase Sam Alden's Household after reading a tweet from Dustin Harbin.  I find the online tumblr post and read it ahead of delivery.  It's poignant, heart-breaking, intense.  I feel like I need something to cheer me up afterward, but I'm very grateful for its existence.

Yesterday Steve Niles tweeted about his house getting flooded so today people gathered to help with his expenses. 

People were still tweeting non-stop about Pokemon X/Y.  Brian Wood & Becky Cloonan's Demo came out 10 years ago!  Becky's NYCC recap got around, and some people were talking about the levels of harassment women at the show were experiencing.  It was Ada Lovelace Day and my pal Jenny went to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View and took some choice photos.  Today Frederator announced a Bee & Puppycat kickstarter and everybody went crazy!

I didn't accomplish much because shortly after lunch I fell asleep until just before dusk.  I took a ride around and ran errands, and the evening air was nice.  I made fish, rice, & steamed vegetables and had some PBR micheladas.

October 16, 2013 Wed

It's 12:30 and I've been fumbling again.  The nice thing is I glanced at some tutorials after looking around at Jessie Estrada's dA.  I found her abandoned webcomic Demonspawn.  I think I'm gonna cut my hair today and buy some pants.  Maybe a powerball ticket.  Retirement still hasn't come in.  I read Batman Earth 1 in it's entirety.  It was okay.  I still like Gary Frank even though he draws women like ornaments.  Bluh.

Got reintroduced to Rachel Deering and Anathema.  Hung around the house until about 2pm then rode around eventually to Starbucks.  Bought jeans, gave myself a haircut.  At Starbucks worked on Eurydice and at some point remembered Madame Blavatsky.  Listened to The Mysterious Universe podcast ep 821 and looked through twitter archive.

Bravest Warriors season 2 countdown began today.  I think the gov't shutdown ended.

October 17, 2013 Thurs

I got up around 10:30 this day.  Read about Onyx & Slam.  Learned about Edmund Dulac from Jess Fink.  I started my bboy mix and compiled a bunch of research for The Survivalist.  And then I took off to go hang out with Vince, but he and Daniel found me first as I careened past the cafe.  We holed up there for hours drinking Ancient Organic tea talking comics and what-not.  Then Daniel took off as it got dark.  He and Ian were chatting on FB as Vince and I got into a more personal conversation, and then Ian came and met us.  We walked down and had a couple of good beers, then tried to go find a pizza place, but ended up going to Denny's. 

On Friday (Oct 18) I must have slept in until about noon.  I got into the newest story in House of Orr: Petals around the Rose.  Jessi posted a link to Emily Broso's fantastic sketchdump.  I had a great healthy lunch that afternoon and doinked around with Newt & Jenny.  Later on I started writing a post-apocalyptic short called No Women.  My free copic came in the mail that day. I spent a good amount of time going back & forth with Ian on picking out a race & class type for my D&D character.  I eventually ended up going with a Svirfneblin Alchemist, though I considered a Vanara Rogue, and also a really neat Warforged based on Rom the Spaceknight, Alphonse Elric, North No. 2, and the Guyver.  I actually wanted to do a guyver piece for the Vinces.  I did start a Rom the Spaceknight illo, though.  We actually didn't even get into D&D Friday night on account of all the Angry Ball drinking.  On Saturday  (Oct 19) we eventually rolled out to this cosplay thing in the park.  Vince & Daniel & I put ourselves out there and had a lot of the fun while the others kind of faded to the background.  I tore it up in comic book trivia.  Went back to Ian's for recoop & drinking and then went to a birthday party in the evening where I met somebody.  That was unexpected.  Wow. Most of Sunday was spent talking with twitter family about nerd budding romance.

The Lazarus Return

 
The Gregory Brothers  Published on Sep 9, 2013

October 10, 2013

It's 6:12am on a still sunless fall morning.  I'm reading articles about Alice Munro whose just won the Nobel Prize in literature.  I have a youtube video of Kanye West's Kimmel interview on pause.  It's been nearly a month since I was fired from my day job, and in another day I can request the sum of my retirement which I hope to use for a new path in life.

I've been  trying to make art all month.  I've been drawing, rifling through old notes & sketches, rustling up drawing tools & tablets of paper.  The weekend past was 24 hour comics day.  The month has been rededicated Inktober.  Alternative Press Expo and New York Comic Con are this weekend and already people are arriving. 

Since the crack of dawn I've been sorting files on my computer, making mental notes of things I had hoped to get to and what year or season or month I'd first acquired them.  It has suddenly become clear to me how important it is to write things, to get thoughts out, and to jog up the memory and excercise one's use of language.

I hope to be a creator.  I hope to have a way to provide for myself and my life while being a creator.

October 13, 2013

It's a beautiful, serene Sunday afternoon.  I'd been listening to Welcome to Nightvale until a brown out shut everything down for a few seconds.  I've been active this week and it's felt invigorating.  Last night I hung out with Ian and Vince.  We played a little D&D at the local game shop, before abandoning our campaign in search of food.  Had some excellent buffet, then wandered the local state college with aching bellies to find our friend at the bowling alley in the student center.  The night was abuzz with vulgar humor and our concerted efforts to stave off ennui.  I wish I had held onto my character sheet in which I had drawn my monk character, Tony Shalhoub, as well as a couple of masturbating giant spiders & cameos of the other players.

Today I've completed my laundry early and sketched Ian's character, Ugly.

The week began with the internet's pathos & rage over Copic-gate.  I got reintroduced to Little Thunder with her recent cinema comics. A couple of people reblogged Annette Marnat's work.  But Boulet stole the show with his child memoir comic here in English and French.  Kate Beaton was back in the news after posting this fun Black Canary comic, as well as announcing a Fat Pony project at NYCC. Victoria put me up on this beautiful memoir and ode to Sailor Jupiter and gender ambiguity and teenage confusion.  The government shutdown was still in effect.

I began the week with thoughts of sexism, feminism, Wonder Woman, and fiction that reflects lived struggle.  Erin & Jenny kept me company all week with so much comedy twitter.  I got Food Zine in the mail and read it all in one sitting!  I also read Wonder Woman War Killer, Batman Then & Now, and started Batman & Robin and Night Fisher.  I ate a lot of cheese this week and midway somewhere my daytime sleeping schedule reset, although I was getting up at like 2am.  The Last Halloween updated for the first time.

I felt a lot of self-loathing this week but my buddies kept me sane, especially Jenny & Erin who made up an imaginary band and included me in it.  So I fantasized about moving to Portland again.  Also we all hate leaf-blowers together.  America's Best Comics 2013 debuted with work from Kate Beaton and Faith Erin Hicks.

On Thursday I got away and visited with my friend Vince & we hung out late at a coffee shop mulling over story ideas until we were hilariously interrupted by some guy trying to sell $1 drawings.  Getting out on Saturday was another welcome social event and it's helped me get a little perspective on my situation.  I feel pretty confident about facing the coming week.

James Harvey's 24 hour comics Plantains and Rice.
James Harvey's Edinburgh 2013 diary comic.
Jared McCallum's SPX 2013 journal comic.
Ugly the Tengu | Wonder Woman fan art


latenight Published on Oct 8, 2013

My first real day back is about misery.  It's about how misery hates company, especially people who are not aware of themselves or how domineering they are and eat their roommate's oranges.  My first real day back glosses over the entire summer I missed blogging about, and how things have come full circle from 4 years ago and I am no longer at the job that occupied for as long.

Today is the first real day back.  Today is the Sunday of revolution, of real feelings, and real actions and the beginning of a new cycle.  Today is the October for all future Octobers.  Today is the Sunday afternoon dawn of all Sunday afternoons.

I am livid and drinking and writing from a place of presence and power.  I am writing about nothing in particular, but soon that won't be true.

This was another week of joblessness, of the turmoil of the congressional budgeting for government and Obamacare.  It was the week of the horse_ebooks reveille, the week of Rachel, Bridge, Kate, Faith, Renae, & Brian's birthdays.  It was the week of discussion of Halloween twitter names, of the Free! finale, and soon the Breaking Bad finale. 

I tweeted with a lot of friends, and in the meantime took a trip down to a nice neighborhood, dreamed about a buying a tablet for mobile sketching, and finished off a slew of library books.  The first week of Comix Warriors was through this week and on Wednesday we got our new prompt: barbecue.  I fed myself better this week, but struggled to normalize a sleeping schedule.

September 15, 2013

Halfway through the month, this is the first SAN I've written since I was fired from the job that dominated my life for the last 3.3 years.  Everything from here on is a new path.  I kind of like it.

I've been trying to find a lead in to returning to my beloved SAN, but nothing came out right.  Meanwhile war with Syria loomed in the nation, Ariel Castro committed suicide, the New Delhi rape-murderers were sentenced to death.  So many things happened over the summer.  I went camping for the first time, got a new backpack and a new bike (which had been an unexpected gift).  Korra returned this weekend, SPX, Mayweather v. Canelo, the Iphone 5.  The summer of 2013 was a tumultuous one.  In Russia members of the LGBT community were assaulted by religious zealots, Pope Francis seemingly preached sermons in contradiction to the Catholic Church, Obama & Putin made uneasy concessions to one another.  I read Mark Waid's Daredevil, Gail Simone's Wonder Woman, Berserk, Gunnerkrigg Court.  I finally saw Pacific Rim, took myself to The World's End & backtracked to Hot Fuzz. 

It's Monday August 26, 2013.  Gossip about the events of the VMAs Sunday night littered twitter this morning, mostly stuff about Miley Cyrus.  So inevitably "We Can't Stop" is filtered into the back of every stray thought on my mind.  This was the Monday of roommate drama over our energy bill, and probably the nail in the coffin to this shared living experiment.  I expect by October I'll be on my own again.  SPX will probably be a bust for me this year.

I took myself to Woodward Park this afternoon to clear my head.  I made a little ground squirrel friend I named, Chubs.  I also had finished watching Hot Fuzz midday after drunkenly falling into a stupor last night.  I had a pretty alright time watching World's End Saturday night, and I'm still kind of marveling at the range of roles these actors have played in the Cornetto Trilogy. 

I'm going to try to squeeze in a viewing of Numero Deux after chatting with Sarah Horrocks about her inspirations for her Mumon-Seki comic.  She says it should be finished by today, but I've been resistant to getting lost in the riptide that is tumblr.

I've had this sketch of the characters I invented for my Marvel Comics take on Watchmen.  I've been thumbing through my notes from last fall, and trying to polish things up.  I've also done a few things with Migret and Eurydice recently.  Those are my projects for now.  I came across some old notes for Aju Tengen in my google drive.  Maybe I'll resurrect that as well.  OH, the other thing I revived was my Ghost Bro which, like Aju Tengen, was from 2008 and also annotated in my google drive documents.  Creatively, I've got a lot on my plate.

I plan to watch Breaking Bad tonight, watch the recent episodes of Adventure Time, and possibly some Regular Show.  I've got 3 volumes of Gunnerkrigg Court & Berserk each (backtracked to Gunnerkrigg v1 to refresh myself).  I also have Shadow Eyes, another Asterix book, and my recently purchased Manhattan Projects handy.  I finished Punk Rock Jesus Sunday and returned it.  I also read a little of Blade of the Immortal that same day while doing laundry.

I only wish I could get over this feeling of dread and indecision that always washes out the days and evenings.  I tend to find myself late into the night tired and craving the comfort of sleep, having accomplished nothing.  That has to change.