Channeling Ramos

So, like I mentioned before, I've been reading lately...you know, because I just remembered how. And, if you remember, or if you scan down a bit, I started reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, which is awesome pulped, pressed and bound in either paper or hardback form. If you have any interest at all in awesome, and Greek mythology, I highly recommend it.

Anyway, I've been a bit obsessed with the series, having read books 2 & 3 Monday and Tuesday this week. Today, I was having fits because I couldn't find an available copy of book 4 anywhere in the school. I checked the same bookcases, like, 6 times hoping, praying that it would be there. Still, I know that a kid on my boys' homeroom's team (long explanation if you don't know what I mean) has the book and he was within 40 pages of finishing, so hopefully, I'll catch it at the library after he returns it.

All that to say, I've also been inspired to draw interpretations of scenes from each one. This is the first one, from the first book. If you can't read the scrawl at the bottom, it says "Percy Jackson in the Underworld." The next one, in which Percy faces down the cyclops Polyphemus, is much better, I think. Still, I like the hint of Ramos in Percy.

Humberto Ramos, I mean. I love his stuff.

Lord of the Video

MONKEY UPDATE!

ITEM! THE MARKET FALLS AS THE ACID RISES!
I've been off Prilosec for a week now, give or take a bit. I feel like someone's been dancing on the tip of my sternum. It is unpleasant. I'll be going back on it soon, but I ran out and need to get to Wal-Mart. Yay. One of the many things we'll be picking up when we finally breakdown and go. I hate giving them money. So very much.

ITEM! COMICS KEEP ROLLING!
Every day has been a new test for continuing the comic I've got going on above. I draw one every weekday, which means that even though it posts thrice a week, I'm actually drawing two extra. If I count right, that means that I've got enough to finish the month. Of course, that's just a guess. I'd have to "look" to know for sure. The thing is, every day, as I sit down to draw the comic, I wonder, "What the heck can I actually do more?" I can already tell that some are not as successful as others, but I'm enjoying testing the boundaries of a comic that has such odd rules for storytelling. I do not use words for dialogue. I do not use people. I use background sparingly. But, anything else goes. So long as it can happen to a blob creature.

ITEM! MYTHIC PROPORTIONS AND SUCH!
I finished writing a myth today. It was a short, simple one, but it's kind of the basis for the world in the idea that was once the comic I was thinking about doing some time back. Woohoo for useless progress!

ITEM! HEROES STILL ROCKS!
It does. Really.

Swing and a Miss

So, I got all my stuff lined up and I'm still not a teacher. Which kinda blows. BUT, that said, I am working in a school and I DO like what I do. It ain't what I was aiming for, but it's alright.

Still, I really want to teach art next year.

Anyway, you may have noticed a new comic up there. What is it called? I dunno. What are those things? Gelatinous blobs and a big hungry thing. Is this a new, on-going comic? Beats me!

I can answer all your questions, I just can't guarantee satisfactory answers!

That said, it feels good posting comics (I've got two more in the can...as of Saturday the 13th..and one more ready to scan and panel. Not bad, I think. So, GO! Tell your friends! Dim Bulb is back and...something...and at least I'm really excited about it.

Human Sacrifice, Dogs and Cats Living Together...

...Mass hysteria!

So, apparently the planets have aligned, for this week carries many of the greatest of all geekly events ON TOP OF EACH OTHER! I refer to, among others, the first episodes of Heroes Season 2, The Office Season 4, and the debut of Halo 3. I don't even own an X-Box (much less a 360) and I'm excited about that!

...Actually, I don't even KNOW someone with a 360!

Then, there are the new shows. To be honest, my Heroes-inspired insanity has kept me from being all that aware of them, but Chuck (the tv show) looks especially promising. Reaper also looks like it has potential, but that's one I'm especially wary of. Some shows sound good on paper and then crap out in execution. Not to mention celebrity directors make me nervous. Especially on first episodes. I can stomach them during sweeps, but the first episode? Ride your own wave, man!

Not to mention, Cricket is suddenly doing comics again! Astounding!

Still, it almost doesn't seem fair that EVERYONE gets to see Heroes start tonight. ...er...Everyone in the US, anyway. Le Cricket, for instance has only been watching Heroes for, what? Two weeks? I've also heard unconfirmed rumors that tonight's episode may also be on the DVD set, though I couldn't say for sure. Being broke, and all. It's bad enough that he didn't have to sit through the month and a half long breaks between episodes, but now, he doesn't even have to wait through the summer off-season!

GRAVE INJUSTICE!

In the name of fairness, I demand that he ONLY watch Heroes on DVD. Thus, he will have to wait until early next September!

As the Refreshments once sang, that seems fair...

Overstayed Welcome

For those of you who keep track of the links bar on this here blog/rantspace/thing, you may notice that it is now just a wee bit shorter. I decided to cut Year One loose. It hasn't updated in a while and I absolutely detest the "art" of the guest comic it ended with. So...a big

SCREW YOU!

to Year One.

I've got stuff about my second vacation, the one in which my wife and I celebrated anniversary #3, but it'll have to wait.

Numb

I think Sarah Ellerton, artist and author of Inverloch (see the links on this blog), just went for a "holy crap!" moment.

Inverloch, for those of you who don't follow it, has chronicled the adventures of a da'kor (think dog with horns) named Acheron and the group of misfits he's accumulated since embarking on his journey to find an elf, Kayndar, who was kidnapped years ago by a dark mage. I may be reading too much into it, but I think she just revealed something rather important to our understanding of what's actually been happening (and why) in the last two updates.

I'd suggest you read it. Probably all of it, since if you haven't it won't make any sense at all.

Unfortunately, tonight is the Heroes finale, so all of my Keanu-like "Whoa"s are in storage and will not be released until 8pm, central standard time.

Anxiety...ATTACK!

I've been having a bit of anxiety where the site is concerned. Obviously, my level of involvement here over the last year has been less than...much. I've had numerous false starts on comics and I've even planned a redesign on the site that didn't happen. That last one is partially my fault and partially the fault of the people who make the irrational policies on our email at work. It's ok to keep a viewed email forever (so long as you don't exceed your inbox capacity), but unread emails have a shelf-life of 30 days, no more. The sketched version disappeared (I emailed it to myself so I could work on it at home), so I have nothing to go off of and I don't have any ideas for what to do with it.

Then there's the new comic idea...which is an older comic idea that's jumped back to the front. I have it more fleshed out than I did in the past, which is good...helps make comicking easier. Unfortunately, every time I start to draw, I...well, I don't. It has been suggested that my passion for drawing has been replaced by my passion for fatherhood, which in and of itself is not a bad thing (I do want to be a good dad), but since drawing was my outlet for frustration and creative impulse...well, not having that may end up being difficult on me later. I don't know how this works.

And there you have it. I'm freaking out because I'm not drawing, but I'm not drawing because, other than in the theoretical sense, I don't care to. I mean, even in times when Aaron isn't around and I might normally draw, I don't. What's THAT all about? Hopefully, this will resolve itself. I'll discover that mostly my inability to make myself draw was a byproduct of sleep-deprivation or something. But if it doesn't, that may mean fatherhood has changed me to an extent I wasn't prepared for, and that scares me.

Who am I, now?

Sheep, and the Counting Thereof

It's no secret that we, here at Dim Bulb Comics, are fans of Count Your Sheep. Cricket's sent in a fan strip and I've had Travis wearing a CYS sweatshirt on a couple occassions. It's a well-written, slick looking strip that taps into that same part of the heart that Calvin & Hobbes did (Adis is probably tired of being compared to Calvin & Hobbes, but that sense of what its like to be a kid is present in both). All in all, I'm glad Ping Teo turned us on to it.

However (why does that word always seem to imply gloom and doom?), Adis is flirting with something I'm not sure the strip can thematically handle. Let me give you the rundown. Things we know for sure are:

1. Ship, the sheep, is Katie's imaginary friend/counting sheep
2. Ship was originally Laurie's imaginary friend/counting sheep (Laurie is Katie's mother)
3. Laurie is a single mother, 27 years old, and Katie's father, Marty, is no longer alive
4. The strip's pallette is in shades of blue or purple depending on whether it takes place in Katie's or Laurie's childhood, respectively
5. Though a number of the strips are bittersweet, the emphasis is more often than not on the sweet.

The problem is that Adis is eventually going to tell the story of how Marty died. It's almost inevitable at this point. He's dropped too many hints and even said he was going to in the accompanying commentary a number of times. He hasn't yet, though, and that's a good thing. You see, from one point, I can see why he would want to tell the story. It seems like a necessary thing, you know, to fill in the blanks between the purple and the blue strips. Unfortunately, since the story essentially focuses on childhood moments with a comical bent, the death of a parent, even if it is one we've never met (at least in memory I don't think Marty's ever been shown, I could be wrong). Eric Burns might call the move "Cerebrus Syndrome", though it seems that Adis has been aiming towards this for a while, so it's hard to say that he'd be changing directions (from funny and light to more serious with more "character development") because he was bored, as in true Cerebrus Syndrome. Still, a shift like this could seriously injure the strip because of the thematic incongruity.

Or it could be a thing of beauty. I'm not saying the strip can't grow. I'm just afraid that the gentle nature of the strip could overshadowed by the heavy material. Either way...I REALLY like CYS (and all the Beatles references lately!), so I'll be following this closely.

Prerequisite

Sorry. Didn't mean to go all Penny Arcade and make a comic that you needed to read the rant to understand. All the places mentioned by Barry at the top are listed in the Beach Boys song Surfin' USA. Sometime, I'll probably go back and edit the comic so that he mentions that, but for now, that's why I titled it Surfin' USA.

I guess today's comic required a bit of Beach Boys knowledge before you came in.

Slammin' the 'Code'

No, I've never read the book. It may be everything people claim it is, in terms of story-telling, but people tend to take it too seriously and put stock in it when it's about as well researched as your average Stephen Ambrose book. Ask Cricket about that. I mean, one of the characters who is supposedly a historian cites, for example, the apocryphal Gospel of Philip as proof that Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife because the word translated "companion" is an Aramaic word that literally means "spouse".

Which would've been a lot less embarrassing for the author if the Gospel of Philip hadn't been written in Greek.

So, yeah, I'd have problems with the book on a theological level anyway, but this is just shoddy research. I'll be doing something similar with a story point I'll reveal in the next couple comics, but only because I don't have access to certain materials that can be worked into the comic without messing with a lot of things like copyright violation and such.

But then, no one bases their beliefs on anything I do in Vapor Lock, anyway.