2-28-07: Myspace blogging a good idea?

Y'know, I've been doing this blogging thing ever since I saw Jim Lee and his group of hooligans at gelatometti2.blogspot.com doing there's and yeah, what can I say, I was a follower then.

This blog (robpotchak.blogspot.com) gets around 300 genuine hits a month, and now has gotten a total of 340 on my myspace page (myspace.com/potsandpansink). Not exactly a great number, but the hell with it, the more info I get out there about what I'm writing, drawing and what have you, the better.

Tonight, I told my wife I wanted to write a movie...she said, "I know whatever you want to write, it'll be good..."

I then told her I wanted what I write to be a horror film, but only if I could get John C McGinley (Dr. Cox from Scrubs) to be the bad guy. I don't think he'd do "cheesy horror" tho... She said, "I really don't like that kind of movie, but I'm sure you'd write a good one, since you can write..." and it got me thinking.

Did Robert DeNiro think HIDE AND SEEK was going to be a good horror film? Did Johnny Depp think SECRET WINDOW was going to be a good film? I know they liked the scripts, I know they acted their asses off...but those movies weren't just stinkers, they were SEE NO EVILS (the really bad film with KANE from the WWE in it).

Then I began to watch SE7EN tonight and it hit me...the reason that film was good was David Fincher totally fucking with your mind. Giving you the bad guy early on and then finally nailing you with it later...not exactly HORROR, more action/suspense/thriller, but gory. Not to mention, they didn't put Kevin Spacey in the beginning credits, to kind of leave him in as a surprise.

Oh well, to come up with an idea like that...man that'd be money in the bank.

So I re-read CIVIL WAR #7 from Marvel and wanted to give my opinion on this GIANT EVENT from Marvel. First of all, Kudos for giving us a winner...in fact, as Mark Millar himself said, they gave us two...Cap won the fight, Iron Man won the war...before it ever started. There was no chance for Cap to win. He just didn't want to give up for the heroes...until...the regular man stepped in and got to him. They made him realize that his decisions did not help their fates as people that could not protect themselves, but rather, were for his own ideas that how he wanted everything to shape...in essence, Millar said, "Fuck you to all you twits that thought Iron Man was the bad guy of this this story...I fooled the piss out of you, didn't I?" And y'know...in the end, he kinda did.

There's a spot over at Rich Johnston's LYING IN THE GUTTERS (cbr.cc under the columns) where someone replaced the final two pages of lettering from Civil War with Mark Millar's other great mini-series, WANTED...if you read them with THAT set of dialogue, it really makes you wonder what the fuck is going on with everyone, but it makes you laugh none the less.

Well, more people come across a blog that it written more frequently, so I'm attempting to do so, and I hope those who come across don't just swing by, but offer up their opinions as well. There's a lore coming around the corner from me, and while my regular day-time life still has some things needing to be finished before I'm technically a free man again (fully), I do intend to continue writing here and getting back to the writing table to start some new stuff...I think it'll be fun to get to something new...

or maybe revisitng something older.

2-27-07: Back from AC...not as poor as I thought I'd be...

So yeah, got back around 9:30pm Sunday night, which was a bear of a drive with snow coming down...took 7.5 actual drive hours to get up there and took like 9.5 to get home, not exactly fun driving...start and stop throughout Delaware, Maryland and Virginia...soon as we got to NC, though, we were able to get through the rest in like two hours...

The two pictures you see are actually two winners I had...my days went like this...I got to the Trop at about 10am, and went right to the 3 card poker table. I slapped $120 down and said that this is all I'm going to play at the tables. Well, I got two pair, but in the end, and after about 10 hands, I ended with $0 of that...so we went to penny and nickel slots. I began to feel like I would never win anything, and was down about $400 after day one...which if you remember, left me with about $100 to my playing for the full next day.

I did win one game on day one...Fubar and I drank until we couldn't drink anymore, and from about 10am - 2am, we got smashed...I mean we got to the point where after 20-something drinks, our livers hurt...but heck, I felt good.

On Saturday, I decided I'd take the $40 in my pocket and play it on TRIPLE HOT 7's machines. Max play was 1.80, so I thought this wouldn't last long. Fu had been telling me he plays minimum bet on all lines (.09 per play) until he'd lost two in a row and then he'd bet five times bet, and he was only down $30 after the first day, so this seemed like a decent strategy, but I had to think up my own...so I decided to go 4 losses in a row and then bet max (thinking same logic, I guess...) Well, I hit...the first picture shows that...$145 on the max bet. I missed the progressive bet THREE TIMES on this machine (it paid out $22000 if you hit it by getting TRIPLE on top, middle, top). The rule we play by is if you hit something, you let the machine keep going til it stops...if you stop it, its bad juju, so we don't typically do that...so I started playing the machine right next to that one...I hit while the other was still paying for about $50... so that's $200 in winnings...

I continued to walk around these ten machines and win...so I decided to start playing other stuff...and drink at the same time (didn't matter how nauseous I was, I started winning and getting thirsty). I began to play things like more 3 card poker, and won about $100. As soon as I was up $100 on that, I left it. We were now at about 2pm, and I didn't want to stop playing, so we kept going...

I ended up for the day with $160 in my pocket...from $40...finally, the final day (drive back Sunday as I like to call it)...we checked out and I wanted to see if the TRIPLE DIAMOND machines would pay the same way the TRIPLE HOT SEVEN'S did...and it did...but I didn't go far on it, I got up another $75, and said "We're OUT!"

So overall, I think I was down about two hundred, but you can't discredit the fun. And the Trop finally started giving back again...so we'll go back up in August, and hopefully I won't lose everything there, because I have Vegas in September for work.

Hope everyone else had fun while I was gone...apparently the NYCC (New York Comicon) happened while I was up there, and I would've went had I know I was going to be up there already...oh well...

2-22-07: Atlantic City Here I come!

Or howsabout "Here I go again...here I go againnnnnnn...." Damn right, having the white snake blaring, waiting for Margaritaville and Roxanne to come on...In the age of Ipod (or Zune in my case) I have come to forget how EVERY time I went on a trip, I'd always here those two songs... Margaritaville and Roxanne...don't ask me why or how, but those two songs would always play at least once...and now, due to burning CDs and mp3 players taking up all the playtime, I had to place these two songs on here to make sure, that purely and randomly, that they MAY play, or they MAY NOT, but at least I'm giving myself the chance to hear both in this digitally created playpen.

So today is also my dog, LANDIS's birthday...She was born on 2-22-02, so I took that as a kind of sign or something...she's staying with grandma til the weekend so I can go about my three day vacation.

Speaking of which, Atlantic City tomorrow...whoooo! My wife is gracious enough to let me spend my winnings of Bodog and my winning of the SCARFACE contest at work (roughly $500 in winnings) this weekend as Fubar and I go for our semi-annual Atlantic City Excursion. We say we do it to NOT LOSE OUR COMP (rooms and money), but we do it to get away for three days, blow some cash and relax doing something we love...gamble...oh, and drink...heavily.

I think I've also decided that we are doing this NEXT for Dominic's Bachelor Party...though we may not go to Atlantic City, I'd like to...I'll run the idea by him, but if we can't get that, maybe the Cherokee casino in NC...(only two less hours of driving for that one).

Anyways, I just wanted to let everyone know that if you don't hear from me until next week, now you know why. Both Fubar and I will be bringing laptops with us to AC, but if I have to pay for internet then I'll just say screw it and only use it for directions and movie watching. Otherwise you may get updates on the weekend from us...who knows...

Now don't you all go yelling "good luck" to me...

2-19-07: My favorite upcoming page from THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES.

Hopefully JK is okay with me posting this image here on both blogs, because its just that classic silly cartoon moment, but it totally shows what type of story we're trying to tell for this story...

2-19-07: New art coming soon.

Today was the first day in a while I had been to my DEVIANTART.COM page, and well, I was not only surprised by the amount of people that had added pieces of my art to their favorites, but even a comment or two about some of the pieces. This kinda inspired me.

In the past 24 hours, I've done some sketches...one of Superman, and then one of a ninja turtle and one of Kratos from GOD OF WAR. I'm trying to incorporate some different feels to the art now, lots of sketching before putting in the finishing touch on the pieces.

I have always thought of myself as good with heads and faces, and my biggest struggles are with bodies and action sequences...hence why you don't see ME as the artist of a comic. I wish I had the talent of a Dave Lapham, or could even hack at the art side like Erik Larsen, but heck, one of these days I'll draw MY comic...that one that every artist has to set out to do...that end piece in their puzzle, so to speak.

I just figured I'd let everyone know that with that deviant art stuff, even though its old pieces on there currently, you can check it out at rpotchak.deviantart.com or one of these days I may even get around to adding a link...heh.

three days, three blogs, you guys should either be happy, or ready to tell me to shut up by this point.

2-18-07: New art from JK colored by RP

This is the original piece to the left, and below is the one I recolored. JK said he was having a rough time coming up with some drawings recently, so I wanted to let him know that I was working on some of his stuff to maybe make him happier :).

Because of that, I give you his Superman...followed by His and MY Superman. Yes, I went a little nuts.

2-18-07: ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES UPDATE and more.

Welcome to the second dual post blog from me, as I take you down the elevator that is www.ardyvanstarr.com and the comic it represents, The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures.

Last night, while on the computer, I realized that I had been slacking off while lettering and posting the pages because I can't keep my attention span on stuff I've "already written once." Re-typing something that I've already typed is kind of a pain in the ass, but a necessary pain in the ass.

JK had sent me the first 18 pages of TAVA, which look great. The first 6 or so can actually be seen over at the aforementioned site, "ardyvanstarr.com." It all revolves around a character that I created in 3rd grade named Ardy Vanstarr (this was 1986). We flash forward to about 1993, and Ardy gets his first real comic adventure, entitled City Of Illusion from Illusion Studios and 5th Panel Comics. Now though he had been seen in SCC Entertainment's Hit SCORN series in backup stories, he didn't get his first real role in a comic until 2003's LANDIS, where he played the Paranorm PI that he is today. Anyway, JK had sent over all 18 pages, and even added some scenes where there hadn't been any before, ala "the Marvel method" of plotting, then writing. I took this as a good challenge to get me to write more, and started looking at the script, and while going for a Noir'y feel, decided it was time to liven it up, move some stuff around and get to the meat of it.

One thing I've always been beat down for as a writer is being "Claremonty" which means putting way too many words into the work and not letting it do itself justice. Because of this, I decided to let some of it speak for itself where I'd normally add in a panel of writing, and have just kind of tried to give readers a feel for this guy...that he's not from here, so he finds some things funny we don't, he likes Back To The Future, and he gets his jobs done, no matter the risks.

Well, I've now gone ahead and re-written the first 18 pages, and they flow better, now. They've got a sci-fi, humor, noir feel, and that's how I like it. JK and I will be discussing a two-parter for the annual FREE Keenspot Primer, and try to introduce some characters there that will be showing up in TAVA later...that ought to be fun.

Also, I'm still talking with Blatant about the Dead Sonja sequel and will probably start penning it in the next two weeks or so...after that, I gotta start the alcohol self-assessment classes before July 1st, so...yikes.

2-17-07: Now posting the blog here and on MYSPACE...why? who knows?

Not really sure what made me decide I'm going to post the blog in two different places, but I figured what the hell, some people that read one won't read the other and vice versa. The more places you have something posted, the more likely it'll get read, I guess.

Tonight, I'm going to discuss something that is bothering the shit out of me...

Who has an ex? Now which of you has an ex that no matter how many times you've moved, changed your phone number, or even told them to get out of your life, they keep finding their way back in? Even if it means by stalking measures like looking your address up online, phone number, etc?

Well, lucky for me, it isn't MY ex I'm concerned with here. It's my wife's. A lot of people in Durham may remember good ol' Corey Sadler from the days that he lied about his education in order to get a job on the radio. That's right, I realize I put his real name here, but anyone that knows that my wife is my first "friend" on my Myspace page realizes that I'm an open book and my life can be found. It doesn't necessarily mean that I want everything coming out, but anyway.

So Christy tells me the other night that she received a birthday gift from Corey. Well, WHY was the first question. "Oh, we're still in touch through email and what have you, but he's married so you don't have to worry about him..." The next question was "HOW did he send you a birthday gift? He doesn't know where we live..."

"I didn't tell him." Okay, here's the problem. If my wife didn't tell her EX how to get to her house by NOT TELLING HIM the address, that means he's using extracirricular (sp) ways to find out information he should not be privy to.

The other problem I have with this asshole is the lie he leads with his wife. He constantly is sending my wife messages on myspace (her comments, I don't look at anything else on her site, I respect her privacy, even with all the BS of last year). Not just your normal "Hey, glad we know each other" messages, but the kind that make you wonder why he's with who he is..."You are the greatest, most special person I've ever met, and I feel honored to have ever been in your heart." or "You are the reason I am the me I am today..." kinda bullshit.

Now, I think its great that he thinks he found someone he can say that about...I'm just a little ticked off that it ISN'T HIS WIFE that he says that about...or does he tell every girl he's ever TRIED to get with the same thing?

Corey, I hope you read this...GO AWAY...LIVE YOUR LIFE and LEAVE US TO OURS...I am tired of you trying to be with my wife because you still miss something else that I realized and held onto.

I'm sorry your relationship with your wife can't be what mine is with mine...but I'm not sorry enough to let you get away with all this double talk to two women, and only one of which is YOUR wife...

Keep it up, we'll see where it gets everyone. Stop stalking my wife, and start applying your time to your relationship...if she married you, she deserves that effort you put in, trying to get Christy, and since Christy doesn't want that, start giving it to someone that obviously does.

Its no wonder we live in a society that constantly needs medication.

Next time, I promise something about comics.

2-14-07: Wrestlemania and my thoughts.

Y'know what's funny when it comes to Wrestlemania? When HHH went down with an injury, a buddy of mine, Tino, called me, and asked what I thought they should do, since the DX angle was pretty much toast...this was my response...

"Shawn Michaels should go after John Cena and the World Title..."
"Randy Orton and Edge should have the standard 'top heel' feud by one being jealous of the other and constantly trying to one up each other."
"Shawn Michaels should win the Royal Rumble, or get the RAW World Title Match"

Scary thing is...right on ALL Accounts.

I don't want everyone to think I'm making this up, this is what I said 24 hours after I heard of Triple H (HHH, Hunter Hearst Helmsley etc) injury to his quad that was going to keep him out of action for months...

EVERY piece of that is true...

Then, I get asked "who's going to win the superbowl?" Kno wwhat my response is? How about this...

"Here's a better one...First play from scrimage is a pass to Dallas Clark. Second play is a run from Addai...third is a dropped pass to Marvin Harrison...three plays later (at most) they are in the endzone to Reggie Wayne...and the first commercial will be BUD LIGHT."

Now in one instance...Ask Tino. I'll give you his number. In the second instance, ask my co-worker Drew, who asked me the night before. I also said I'd take the Colts by NINE...not the 7 they were favored by, but I said they wouldn't be at the 48.5 over/under.

Weird, huh? This is NOT made up, and this is 100% the truth.

Why am I saying this? Because everyone goes through hot spots. My buddy Fubar just hit on a $5 scratcher ticket for $700. Crazy thing is, next week we are going to AC (Atlantic City) for two days of gambling. Why? we enjoy it.

Anyway, this isn't a news filled spot or anything, but I thought it'd be fun to let everyone know of my most recent psychic moments...isn't it weird?

2/12/07: TAVA site update and my thoughts...

JK has placed the original files back on the site, so it is now showing the comic again, but not the counter. Its cool, though, we'll get it all sorted out, which is cool.

TAVA's first advertisement will show up on March 2nd, as well. I wanted the March 1st, but since its only TAVA's 1 month anniversary, compared to SUPEROSITY's 8th YEAR Anniversary, I thought that it'd be best to "not cross the boss" and make sure Chris gets to celebrate Superosity on it's birthday :).

Now the scary news. I've let JK know that I've fallen a little behind on lettering the pages for ARDY, and as scary as it sounds, as soon as I get the energy back to finish up to the first 18 full pages, I'll get it done so that we'll be far enough ahead for a bit.

We have until March 1st to get a two pager done for the KEENSPOT PRIMER for Free Comic Book Day again this year, so I've got to come up with one soon, so JK and I can get it in for the book. I don't want to cop out and just reprint last year's, either...soooo....

Also, some other news to note. I'm still pondering on Freddie Blatant's offer for me to write the Dead Sonja sequel, and I see no reason why I'd say no, besides the fact that I'm almost afraid I'll make less writing the sequel than I did on the first one (still waiting on the info from the payday, on that, too...but I'm not sweating it, as you no doubt could tell by all this now).

I also was given the file to be able to letter in the same style that was used for LANDIS...why?
Because if I can find 600 dpi black and white files for LANDIS, Chris Crosby and I have decided I'll finish lettering the story and we'll print what looks like it will be a 120 page version of the book. He wants to try to find a colorist, and if he can for the last part, then I will letter it and we'll do a full color book for like $19.95 for 120 pages...if however we can't find a colorist...(and can recover fhe non-colored files)...we'll go for a less expensive route on it. We both have agreed that LANDIS was a labor of love that deserves its original format...an actual book.

So with this, if ANYONE knows people that want to get their start in comic book coloring, let me know, I am sure some sort of payment can be made for it, as well as their name in the credits, obviously. The only down side is that we are looking for uniformity for the story's coloring, although I would totally let Owen have the pages back to see what else he'd like to add to them, if he wanted to.

So there you have it...all the projects I am currently working on...TAVA comes first, then DEAD SONJA and then finishing what started it all...LANDIS. Not to mention that although it is slow coming, Eric IS chugging away at TAGGER, the long awaited sequel of LANDIS, but with him working upwards of 85 hours a week, its not coming nearly as fast as either him nor myself would prefer. MAybe at some point he'll get a break, and we'll be able to work on some comics again :).

So again, if you know a colorist, one that hasn't worked in the field but would be willing to try, let me know.

Thanks.

2-10-07: Technical Difficulties.

JK and I can't figure out how to get the page running correctly, and unfortunately, I haven't had enough time on the computer recently to attempt to string together enough time to check it out.

Also, Freddie Blatant and myself are attempting to work out figures for the DEAD SONJA sequel, that he wants to call: DEAD SONJA VS. THE ARMY OF DARKNUTS and XXXENA... Darknuts instead of Darktwits...hmm...not sure, but again, we're trying to work out the figures to make it beneficial for everyone involved...though I'm sure something will come of it. But he has assured me he wants to give me a guaranteed payday on this one :).

Alright, I'll write more later, but for now, I gotta run.

2-7-07: Dissection of a comic page...

What've we got here? Well, we have page 9 of The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures...the first pic, we have the final page that YOU WILL SEE...on March 1st, 2007, what you see in the second pic was the original art for page 9...why the change?

I can't exactly say where an artist suddenly realizes that he doesn't like something he drew... Every artist goes through this...me more than others. I have also noticed that every artist has a tendency to never be 100% happy with ALL pages...so anyway, JK decided he didn't like the page and I told him I thought it looked good...

However, having now seen (and lettered, obviously) the NEW page 9 of the comic, I have to say that I am MUCH happier with the new page, much like JK himself. Originally thinking the newer cartoony look for Ardy wasn't necessarily the best move, I do see the reasoning behind it, and I am ecstatic to see how smoothly the character takes over the page when he's visible.

Even though we figured that any and every one of our readers would be intelligent enough to distinguish that the "planet" was Earth, we made the conscious decision to give you the real Earth to just make certain that passersby would realize it as well.

Also at first notice of this scene, Ardy in the top panel looked a little off...now, in the new one, he looks much better and tighter...JK even added more detail to his chest area, to show off the build.

Gotta say, the new page looks much better than the original...even without ANY changes to the layout.

2-4-07: Optimus Prime...the picture.

So Yahoo movies posted this pic on their Transformers movie information page, and well, its got to be Optimus Prime. Gotta say, he's a beast. I'm happy to see that they kept the faceplate recognizable even though the character otherwise is totally different, but what are you going to do? Structurally, its conceivable that the way the transformers looked and were as toys was NOT something that would translate well into a live action film...

Now with the information that the voices of Optimus Prime and Megatron will be played by the original voice actors, this fanboy can do nothing but give the film the attention it deserves.

I hope it plays out well, but then again, Bay hasn't dissappointed me...not even with the Island, I thought that film was terrific.

2-3-07: Post 365...TAVA BEGINS!

Alrighty, why's it sound like I'm just re-writing the same thing over? I guess I am, and I'm not. Recently, I've noticed that the blog gets more hits when I write more, but that's not why I'm posting this...

JK and I have set up the very basic www.ardyvanstarr.com site to go ahead and start, and don't worry, even though it looks like its not being updated, it is...the next update will be on 2-6-07, Tuesday, to keep with the Tuesday / Thursday update schedule.

In fact, by the end of tomorrow, I should have ALL of February's pages fully uploaded to the web for it, and some of March's. We've got the first 11 pages fully drawn, and I've uploaded the first six, so this is a really great piece of news...this means I know we won't miss an update in February UNLESS something happens to me, so please don't wish it so...

To celebrate the occassion, however, I'm going to make an offer to anyone that wants a piece of TAVA beginning's history...

I will print out on cardstock, autograph and head sketch Ardy on the original day's strip if anyone wants it. I will be offering them for $5 a piece if anyone wants one, to help pay for JK and Junior Bruce Productions art expenses and shipping.

JK and I HAVE started a new blog for TAVA, as well, which will be added to the comic page for commentary on daily pages and such, as well as allowing for comments to be added to everything...

Hopefully, by March 1st, Crosby and Keenspot will get us an ad to help push The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures to the masses. I know Chris reads this blog, so I'll say, "HEY CHRIS! How about March 1st's ad space? hehe..."

Thanks for reading!