Well, my blog update schedule is about what I expected -- stopping in to give an update once every few months.What can I say? I spend all day sitting in front of a computer at my day job, then come home to try squeezing in some comic book scripting on my computer at home. By that point, I flee from any further time in front a computer, unfortunately making blog updates to be an exception rather than a rule.Things have been busy lately. I've got a couple books in production with New Creation Entertainment at www.newcreationnow.com, and I've been writing articles for their website as well. I'll also be attending the big comic-con in San Diego, and will be helping out at the small press table shared by CCAS and New Creation. I'm looking forward to it!
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Atlanta Comic ConventionJuly 13, 2008http://www.atlantacomicconvention.com/I'll have a few copies of the Gene Simmons Dominatrix trade left, one copy left of the rare Fishnet Angel/Aym Geronimo story, and a few more copies of the out of print Fishnet Angel: Jane Doe miniseries while supplies last.I'll also be signing anything you might have on hand from your collection, shaking hands and kissing babies (and babes too, if they're willing!).And don't forget to get a photo and join the "Sean poses with" gallery on my ComicSpace site.
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If you've been browsing my gallerey recently, I hope you mighti've wondered how I came up with these drawings:
Well, those are one of the many animals that I love to return to see every time in my life at the Oakland Museum My papa raised me with this place. It contains tons of historical displays of California that my ancestors took part in personally (like an interior of a Beat Cafe my grandfather frequented) as well as plenty of art of various styles created by locals or that deal with our city, the Bay Area, or California in general. However, the natural wildlife section on the basement floor is still my favorite. The museum becomes more like the Exploratorium down there! This floor details the wildlife and ecosystem and anything else from The Bay's shoreline to it's border by Nevada. One used to aslo get visual aided tours of it's terrain via a video projection of a film that's older than I (really, they've used the same reel of tape for over 20 years!) that takes us literally across California's wilderness (The flying over the "Half Dome" and "King Dome" was always the scariest scene I was allowed to watch back then)! There was also a audio and lights tour of the Ca's geography using those color coded maps, but they no longer have that working :(. Past that part there are exhibitions for every part of The Bay. There are more videos to watch of these regions, as well as audio samples of the wildernesses such as Coyotes communicating to each other at night. PLENTY OF ANIMALS. Now wild and exotic animal/pet exhibits, stores, etc are all over the Bay, but this one is a pretty neat refrence to go back to every time because they have two great features: One is the stuffed animals are in re-enactments of waht they'd be doing in the wild, such as a Coyote chasing a cottontail, a fisher (actually I haven't checked for what predator that was) cornering a porcupine up a tree, or a wolverie battling a coyote over some fresh kill that I tried to picture up top. I didn't make a good choice of the colored pencils to use, so that's why there aren't too many tonal and shading steps taken here. I also was nodeling a bit too much here, which my teacher told me to losen up a bit (paraphrase). That's how I got that ringtail you see next. Then, for the smaller animals -fish and insects too, I believe-they museum used a "freeze-dry" method to mounting and perserving them. It's similar to how they freeze-dry microwave foods, but way colder and ove the course of weeks so that there's no shriveling and deformation. The advantages to freeze drying a animal is that you don't have to recreate the skeleton with your own armature, and you also keep the musculature system as well! The eyes are glass, of course, and this method can only be applied to animals smaller than a muskrat or beaver. They are keped in special cases that prevents a certain beetle from invading and eating them, but they still can be posed and place in sections or reproductions of their habitats inside their display! The kangaroo mouse and ringtail are my two examples, as I didn't have much time that day in class (it's free every first Saturday of the month however!). The ringtail was the image that brought up my discussion on colors in the "Mentors" group. I showed it to another teacher, and he said the ringtail was too light, that the background diverted too much attention from him, and he was hard to even distinguish such as where his neck connected! Honestly, I wanted to sketch this one because liked the little mouse hiding behind the rock in the display there! I don't know what the ringtail was looking for, but they were less than one feet apart! Ringtail's aren't ment to be seen -by potintial predators- in their natural habitat, I could've told him. And the background was a lot darker or had lots of dark-colored details such as the moss and the huge cracks in the bedrock there that the ringtail could even hide in (I didn't have the best of colored pencils, like I said...so mixing lighter colors wasn't an option)! Do you think he was right for this piece, and discolored the ringtail just to make sure I could show this to anyone and their eyes could easily determine that he was in front and the background was...well the background and etc? One of these days I'll try painting or maybe even digital retouching/repainting but if you also saw the Speckatled bear from the sf zoo I tried in watercolour, you can see my reluctance to learn these skills (that and it's expensive) If you're ever traveling around the Bay, I'd definately recommend the Oakland Museum as a priority trip! Hope you enjoyed my review!
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Please join us for our two CCAS panels at Comic-Con 2008!COMIC-CON 2008 PANELSSpirituality in ComicsSaturday, JULY 2610:00-11:00amROOM 2Spiritual themes weave a significant pattern in the story arc of our comics’ worlds. Hear from distinguished guests Cory Edwards (writer-director Hoodwinked, Fraggle Rock: The Movie), Holly Golightly (School Bites, Sabrina the Teenage Witch), Scott Wong (co-founder Brethren Entertainment), P.C. Hamerlinck (Alter-Ego) and hosted by Leo Partible (Behind the Screen: Insiders on Faith, Film & Culture).ChristianComics Art SocietySunday, JULY 2710:30-11:30amROOM 24Hear about the 2008 explosion of Christian-themed projects from major publishers and network with other Christians. Panel features Michael Davis (co-creator Static Shock), Sergio Cariello (The Lone Ranger), Jerrell Conner (Revelations: The Prophets), Clint Johnson(Faith Walker), hosted by Leo Partible (Behind the Screen: Insiders on Faith, Film & Culture). A short sermon by Robert Luedke (Eye Witness) and worship music will precede the panel discussion.
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Perhaps (based on this commentary) Jon Lassater should've tried to tackle Buena Vista instead of Disney if he really wanted to run things? What if instead of running my own studio or even becoming a Executive Producer, I started a theatre/dvd distrubution company? I could even have schools screening thier students best work for the mainstream media! How does one start a buisness plan/partnership for that side of Hollywood?I also was considering of starting another webiste that focused more on data than socializing...I don't like it either when I mess up a detail to a setting in one of my scripts, such as placing the wrong species of frog in a certain location and every expert on animals, amphibians, reptiles, etc falls upon it and no longer enjoys the rest of the narritave over it! So, what if there were a website where people living in or experts of any location submitted this kind of data for filmmakers to quickly and easily access as a reference for their films, that they then can more accurately reproduce that setting in their movie and even add extra value to the scene in discovering some obscure fact that they couldn't know (such as a inside joke to a towns oddly build restraunt, for an extreme example) from this site? I was thinking of dividing the forms down to every zip code/district of a city, since as you would know two parallel districts of San Francisco, Berkeley, or Oakland can be worlds apart, and then compiling all that data of that city as one pdf manual or something for a filmmaker to download....I'd probably have to charge the filmmakers for this information however, as the only way I can think of assuring that I am getting accurate much less honest information form these starngers from every city/district/town/village/tribe in the world is if I paid them for their services....
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It was the last place I'd expect to have my request granted for a mocha with unsweetened baking chocolate (tasted greater than I expected too, it gets lighter with the added cream or whatever. I'm gonna try to get Pete's or Starbucks to start offering it)! The interns have to wear boy scout uniforms on Friday, as UP has a boy scout character in it...
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...been trying to draw strangers outdoors, but it's amazing the amount of odd stares I get even at the laundary mat when I'm wandering around staring at everyone; that's where I drew these...and these are where I realized that there are just some shapes I do not identify yet or notice as easily...My teachers will never cease lecturing on contstruction, but (using "construction" literally as an anaology) if there are certain structures I cannot build because I'm just not familiar with the method or materials used for them. Some charactures I got as well as I did because I understood the shapes better than I did with other faces...I guess my teachers have to be there with me so I can see how they would handle the faces I have trouble with...
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Please let me know what you think of my idolatry article and webcomic at my Silly Daddy site. It's a short read, a little tech savvy but should pack a helpful punch.
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If you plan to attend Chicago Wizard World this weekend, don't forget to add a visit to yours truly on your list of things to do. I will not have a table, but I'm sure my good buddies Eric Burnham and Scott McCullar will see a lot of me (I promise not to be a pest, guys). Just look for the pudgy short guy with the mop of out-of-control honky-fro, and that'll be me.I'll be working the floor and schmoozing and networking.See ya there!
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davlin02 Re: CHRISTIANITY IS: Jun 9, 2008 4:52 AMThe belief that some cosmic Jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood, and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in all humanity because arib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magic tree.Reply | Forward | Printcbgiles Re: CHRISTIANITY IS: Jun 9, 2008 12:59 PMPREACH IT, Brother!!!!!! Except for the symbollic eating of His flesh and drinking His blood...that'll never be the salvation of the soul. Other than that...two thumbs up!May the LORD bless you and reveal Himself to you!!!Reply | Forward | Printdavlin02 Re: CHRISTIANITY IS: Jun 9, 2008 4:29 PMI was being sarcastic.
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Here's an email conversation that happened earlier this month between myself and a person identified only as "dalvin02"Jesus Says To Kill Your Family Jun 8, 2008 4:53 PMdavlin02 Re: Matthew 10 : 34 - 37Luke 14 : 26Reply | Forward | Printcbgiles Re: Jesus Says To Kill Your Family Jun 8, 2008 11:06 PMMatthew 10:30-40 (The Message)Forget About Yourself29-31"What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail—even numbering the hairs on your head! So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries.32-33"Stand up for me against world opinion and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you?34-37"Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me.38-39"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.Luke 14:25-40 (The Message)Figure the Cost25-27One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, "Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one's own self!—can't be my disciple. Anyone who won't shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can't be my disciple.28-30"Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 'He started something he couldn't finish.'31-32"Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can't, won't he send an emissary and work out a truce?33"Simply put, if you're not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can't be my disciple.34"Salt is excellent. But if the salt goes flat, it's useless, good for nothing."Are you listening to this? Really listening?"Luke 15:1-11 (The Message)The Story of the Lost Sheep1-3By this time a lot of men and women of doubtful reputation were hanging around Jesus, listening intently. The Pharisees and religion scholars were not pleased, not at all pleased. They growled, "He takes in sinners and eats meals with them, treating them like old friends." Their grumbling triggered this story.4-7"Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn't you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? When found, you can be sure you would put it across your shoulders, rejoicing, and when you got home call in your friends and neighbors, saying, 'Celebrate with me! I've found my lost sheep!' Count on it—there's more joy in heaven over one sinner's rescued life than over ninety-nine good people in no need of rescue.Does that say kill your family?Reply | Forward | Printdavlin02 Re: Jesus Says To Kill Your Family Jun 9, 2008 4:27 AMMatthew 10:34I have come not to send peace, but a sword.That sounds pretty violent to me.Matthew 10:36A man's foes shal be they of his own houshold.Gee, that tells me to hate my own family.So in other words, I have to love Jesus more than my own family? I have to turn my back on my own flesh and blood?SCREW YOU!!!!!!!Reply | Forward | Printcbgiles Re: Jesus Says To Kill Your Family Jun 9, 2008 12:54 PMSo in other words, it doesn't say that Jesus said to kill your family?
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I think self-professing God-haters are aloud to live here and be outspoken to make sinners like me realize what a wonderful, powerful God that He is.Carlin said 'if God is so great, why's the world a flop?' He doesn't realize God did make it perfect, we mucked it up. The earth is like a perfect ice cream scoop and we opened the freezer door and don't have the power to shut it.Since hearing about this atheist's death, I have prayed over and over today for God's help to keep me from hating the haters. Spitting the LORD's name and talking worse about Him than child molesters. Guy's like him drive me berzerk. I can't gloat on this...he was lost(according to his fruit).I can and can't imagine what he's going through right now and from now on.It crushes my heart!!!
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(This is a scribble drawing I did today.) I went and did something dumb today. I practically volunteered a friend to do some art without asking him. He's a really good guy, I'll call him 'Mike'. He's really busy, and I have no business dropping his name so casually. *Sigh* I've done the same to Larry sometimes. I just get so excited about the idea of getting all my Christian friends together on projects, but though that was the motive, the result was that I put people on the spot and made them uncomfortable. I'm really sorry... Spiritually I've been on a high. Nights are lonely, frightening affairs full of dread of the morrow for me. But these last several nights, God has felt very close to me. He is filling me with His love and mercy, so much that I feel filled up even though I am a broken vessel, full of cracks, holes, and jagged edges. It's my hope that the Holy Spirit will fill me so much that Love overflows from me into other people and situations. The Holy Spirit, I've never really known Him. I've always been afraid I'd blasphemed His name, and would run from hearing Him mentioned. But now I'm beginning to understand that He is so precious! He comes to us, into our lives, to be our comforter, our very real reminder of Jesus and the Father! Today. Here. Even tonight... The Father is so Holy and Infinite, that I cannot grasp Him fully. So sometimes I lose sight of Him. Like mountains, forests, cities, rise up and block the sky. The sky is always there, and we are comforted when we remember, but when faith and the heart grow faint, the sky seems impossibly far away. The Lord Jesus is in Heaven, but I can begin to understand His human side, though He is perfect and sinless in a way alien to my mind. But I am comforted knowing He walked this earth, and will come again. The Holy Spirit is God now. In me. Finally I begin to understand just a little how precious He is! It is as the Holy Spirit that God is closest to my heart after all! God bless you all! Gerry Lee
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If you're going to Heroes this weekend, drop by and see me, but don't go to table AA-1112, as it says on the website. Instead, I'll be partnering up with Christian Beranak over at table AA-409 instead. I'll be helping Christian out and have both his stuff and my stuff for sale at AA-409. If you want to say hello, please drop by on either Friday or Saturday since my schedule picked up a conflict that will make me have to come back home for Sunday, so I'll only be at the con on Friday and Saturday.And yes, I will have a few copies of the Gene Simmons Dominatrix trade available.
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Haha, I've been so worried about my lack of any progress on my comics that I haven't been focusing on the other neccessities like household cleaning, which was the probelem! Since before I had moved, my paperwork was too jumbled and all of my story notes are jumbled all over the place, so I couldn't even figure out what or how I was going to write! So time to sort through things and recomplile all of my projects togher into a more easily accessable and finadalbe area! Such simple diagnosis have been a bane to my accomplishments all my life....
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before I post in the amateur group, I'd like to tell you a bit more : I started cartooning around age 10, maybe younger; I had some hunorous types, and some really cartoony - awful, actually, "real life " art work ( but I got beter ). I wish I'd started publishing - I have some local news letter art work, but not the same thing .... anyway, I had three cartoon series, now only two, with one needing re-editing - to avoid copywrite enfringement. & a lot of funny single pannel ideas. Maybe one day my closer to profetional son can scan them in..
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I sit here tonight, a bit unsettled in my spirit, listening to the voice of God playing just beyond the realm of hearing. I've felt this before, many times, and each time it's led me to another level in my life. Some people mistake conviction for depression, or the inward groanings of the Holy Spirit for indigestion. Well, I know it's not depression tonight, and I know it's not indigestion, which means that God's trying to tell me something.Let me backtrack and explain how this came to pass.A while back on MYCCM I entered a contest to win a Christian Movie called MIDNIGHT CLEAR. I didn't know anything about it except that Stephen Baldwin was in it and it was based on a story by Jerry B. Jenkins. I've put off watching because well, there were too many other movies that "needed" to be watched, yet as I put it in my DVD player I slowly closed out of all instant messaging conversations, put down my art board and my pencil, and began to really listen to the message of the movie.As I watched it I became more and more unsettled. I began to really feel a burden in my heart again for those in my area that matched what I was seeing in the actors and actresses on the screen. One person, an old lady, was ready to committ suicide. Her son Lefty was also ready to committ suicide. No hope was left for them. Everything seemed to be self-destructing around them.I've been there, I've felt that, and I see it every day as I walk down the streets here on KI Sawyer. I see it in my neighbors face, I see it in my friends friends faces. I hear it when people talk to me, and I just groan inwardly at the plight that I see around me. It's almost like there's a blanket of hopelessness and loss over this area. Oppression lies over this area like a blanket, smothering hope in even those who are supposed to bring it. Apathy reigns supreme, nobody cares other than to live their life day to day, to wake up in the morning and go "Nope, not dead yet."I know that in every area there's a place like this. A neighborhood. A friend that you know. A city you live in. And I know that if you don't act on what God is leading you to do, you end up callousing yourself against it until God reveals it once again to you, as He did to me, tonight.Not even a couple months ago I sent out a huge e-mail to everyone I know about this area and the ministry that God has called me to. Again I feel the call, the working of the Holy Spirit deep within me. I know what I need to do.I need to fulfill the Great Commission.And so do you.
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The past 24 hours have been more than interesting to me. Lots of different things ended up happening, some good, some bad, all working out to God's greater glory in the end. Time for a story eh?There was once a person who shall remain nameless, we'll call him Jim. Jim had a project that was near and dear to his heart. He solicited help from many people to get this project done and completed, and the project which was originally a one-shot became a 3 issue series. Jim contacted me to do some pages, and well.....I volunteered to do the whole second book if certain conditions were met, free of charge.My conditions? #1) I needed at least 10 pages worth of script by June 30th. #2) I'm a professional, so treat me as one. Simple isn't it?I told Jim about three weeks ago to make sure I'd have at least 10 pages worth of script to begin work by June 30th. This past week I reminded him because I hadn't heard anything positive about the result of this condition. He responded to me saying that I'd have the ENTIRE script by June 30th.Okay, no problem there. The problem arose when, whether he was joking or not, he called me a whiner for making sure that the conditions were met. He crossed the line between friendship joking and straight out professionality. I don't care if I'm working for free, I'm still a professional. You don't call a professional a whiner when they're working for you for free. Specifically you don't call a professional a whiner when he wants to make sure that he'll be able to start on the project at a specified time, agreed upon nearly a month before.So I asked for an apology. The apology I received was, and joking or not you don't do this: "You're right, you don't whine as much as gripe and b**ch." That right there wasn't an apology, and added insult to injury damaging not only our professional arrangement, but our friendship as well.I went through and was ready to take it to the extreme: I quit the projects I was working on with him.I talked with another friend last night, Pastor Howard Kent whom I am publishing a series for. We discussed this individual and the resulting mess that remains. Howard agreed with me completely on my actions, and many others have as well.Was I justified in quitting the projects? Yes I was. Whether I am working for free, or working for a pay check I am a professional. I was willing to do Jim a service by drawing his book pro bono. Which, if I were paid even just $20 a page would rack up a $400+ bill for anyone else. I was also designing his website. I had to leave both projects.The moral of this part of the story is this: No matter what, you treat people you are working with professionally. You don't joke about them being whiner's when they're just checking on the status of the project and reminding you of conditions that were mutually agreed upon earlier. And you most certainly DO NOT add insult to injury when you are confronted on it.Jims final words to me were: "I think someone needs to grow up and he LIVES IN MICHIGAN."Business and friendship are two separate things. You can work with friends, as long as you keep taht part of the relationship professional. Howard, Tina Cheek, Kurt Lewis, and many others that I have worked with or will be working with in the future all understand this and we're able to keep the separation alive. With people like Jim, I have to quit to make a point.Okay. Other news.On the last page of artwork for my book LEGACY. This book has been a bear to get ready to go. I've dealt with more injuries and sickness during the production of this book than any other before. Massive headaches for two weeks dragged production to a standstill. My back going out in early may also put the kibosh on this book for a while. The flu was in there somewhere also. Just amazing what happens when you're trying to do such a book for the Lord.THE OVERCOMERS is nearly finished. That's the book by Pastor Howard Kent and Tina Cheek. A group of heroes who are normal except for powers........This'll be interesting. A long time ago I thought that Christian Super Heroes would never work. Now I think they will, but I'm willing to sit back and let Howard and Tina do the experimentation on their characters. Look out for a character named STEPHEN in the book, apparently he and I are a bit too much alike for comfort.Kurt Lewis has given me several updates on BARNSY. This children's graphic novel is coming along nicely, even in the midst of some family turmoil that Kurt and his wife are going through. Our prayers are with them, and as I said to Kurt before, we'll be here to publish it whenever it's finished.Liturgy, the book which you followed the development of on this very blog is now sidelined. I have to concentrate on Legacy for now, the six issue series of which the Lord has laid upon my heart. I'm working with Shatter the Darkness ministries on Legacy. I have access to several of their teachings, plus talk with Pastor Russ on a semi-regular basis through e-mail and phone in order to check certain facts as I finish Legacy's first issue. It's been an exciting and long ride, but oh so worth it.Well, I'll be back soon with more updates.
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If a man is know by the company he keeps, then my name just picked up a lot more notice. I have been approved for a Red Room Author Page.Just in case you didn't know, Red Room is a networking and authors' site that can boast of many of the top writers and thinkers today, including Amy Tan, Maya Angelou, Salman Rushdie, Ivory Madison, Janny Wurts, Clive Barker, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Alice Hoffman, Peter Trachtenberg, Marc Tyler Nobleman, and even presidential hopeful Barack Obama.So what am I doing there, right? I'm just going to do my best to fit in with the other graphic novel and comic book writers like Danny Donovan and Ivory Madison (she's writing the new Huntress book), be "writerly" and "thinkerly" and occasionally have something useful and/or helpful to say. Please check it out.
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