This art is from Sengkry Chhour, a very gifted artist that I'll post his website coming up. A while back, he drew this rendition of Landis, and its very cool, and brooding.

Sengkry's art can currently be seen published in the fan magazine, WARMAGEDDON, but if you hadn't heard of him before, hopefully you look his art up now. 

Post 171: A couple Landis and ND elements...

First, being the Notre Dame football fan that I am, I must say, hearing that Charlie Weis is signing a new 10 yr contract extension, Rob is a very happy camper. In a day and age where money is everything, Charlie Weis mentioned that he wants to be the coach of Notre Dame for the future so that he can see his son graduate from the same school he did.

On top of that, all the talk on the forum about new Landis stories and such had me realize that I never checked to see how far into the script I was. Low and behold, I found out that based on the online system of scripts, I found almost as many remaining NOT drawn as the ones that ARE drawn. And if you think the story has gone kind of crazy already, the storyline after "Chapter 4" takes place about 3 months after, and believe me when I say that it is a MUCH darker story, although their are still moments of humor.

Two things on that, however...I'm not sure if after Chapter 4 if I just want the story to continue...no, I don't want it to end, because I love the story...What I mean, is that a character with "700 years" of history has a lot of story to tell, and a timeline to devise. Obviously, I've written the story that follows the current one, but the current story isn't literally her FIRST story, and won't be the last.

Also, if and when the PRINT version of Landis comes out, although I am not sure if Owen wants his original art from the FIRST Landis story he drew to ever see the light of day, hehe (I love it personally...it shows his growth), I have expressed interest in having it ONLY printed in the collected version of LANDIS v.1 (book format). I like giving lots of goodies away, but it is a stand alone 22 page comic, and to have fans actually want to purchase a book based on an online strip they've aleady read, I want to give them something extra.

With the print version, Chris and I haven't set a date for it to be published, but I truly figure that with the numbers we're doing now, its totally in the cards for shortly after Chapter 4 completes.

Anyways, enough mindless chatter here...If you folks would like, start submitting questions you'd like to have answered as comments to the blog posts, OR in the Forum, and I'm hoping I can interview Owen as a nice little extra for here in the blog, as well as on the forum.

I once again find myself posting another thing to the blog.

This time, I find myself posting a drawing that was done for me at Heroes Con 05 by none other than Marvel (and former Top Cow and Cross Gen) artist, Brandon Peterson.

Brandon is currently working on the final part of the Ultimate Galactus story for Marvel, and had just recently finished up the mini-series re-envisioning Dr. Strange.

He did this drawing in my copy of "Brando's Book of Babes," Which also happens to be his 2004 sketchbook. Let me know what you all think! 

I promise this MAY be my last post today.

Based on the fact that I'm bored at work and reading a lot on the internet, and not to mention I'm a huge Notre Dame football fan, I'm going to talk about two somethings other than Landis and comics that I want to speak on...(it seems a little awkward, now, since its connected directly to the comic site, hehe).

First, I don't want to see Charlie Weis leave Notre Dame after one season. This guy is an offensive genius, and I'd love to see him succeed where he is for a long while. No real analyst thinks he'll leave even with the modest 1.5 million dollar buyout clause, but I think he realizes that he can create a dynasty, and Notre Dame is a DREAM job.

Second, Sports Illustrated just published their top 10 FRANCHISE quarterbacks, and 9 of the ten were pro quarterbacks...the one who wasn't? #7 on the list, and #10 for Notre Dame, Brady Quinn. This guy who never really worked well in Ty Willingham's system, has totally taken on Charlie Weis' PRO coaching scheme and done so with a clear and level head. He will succeed at the next level because Charlie has not only made him believe in himself, but he has made him a successful LEADER.

You can chime in here on the blog comments if you'd like, or heck, go ahead and post in the Landis board...I'd like more posts!

A Little bit more today...

Don't forget to check out the LANDIS forum located at:

http://keenforums.keenspot.com/viewforum.php?f=100

I'm thinking of running a contest to really give it some status.

I'd really like everyone's opinion of the comic, in general, and why they like it or dislike it. I intend to personally answer any questions that people may have on the Landis forum, and if anyone would like to send artwork for me to post here in the blog of the characters, send it to me either with a link in the forum or at rpotchak@gmail.com

I hope to hear from everyone that reads. I'd love to har everyone's opinion.

Rob

And we've come FULL CIRCLE!

Hey everyone!

This is the first post since the blog has been updated onto ELISALANDIS.COM! I'll be updating with more art that hasn't been seen on here, including some of my first concept sketches for Landis (when I find them in the house), and some more recent sketches.

Hopefully I can talk Owen into revisiting the characters, and maybe even doodle some character sketches as if they were part of Sore Thumbs, or the other way around, if those characters were found in the "more realistic" realm of Landis.

This is my personal blog, as well, so not everything will revolve around Landis, as it may include updates about other things, although now anything involving other Landis projects I may have to be a little more discreet, since nothing's final.

A Little different on the art front tonight. A pic I took of a fireescape in Brooklyn about two years ago.

I then took the photo, placed it into Photoshop, and made it lok like it was handdrawn with charcoal. This is the type of art that truly looks good, and is kind of what I want to do with a comic story. Take the real pictures and work, and then place the characters over it.

This process could very well be the new way to do this. Artists like Tony Harris do similar work with Photorealism, although they redraw by hand the visuals, this cuts time a little bit, as long as you have the right shot. 

A New Milestone!

Well, we did it.

Elisalandis.com has broken TWO records this month! And this week may STILL break yet another.

This week there have been well over 7300 viewers (unique), with 1.5 days remaining, meaning unless the site crashes, it will easily go over the 7500, and may do 8000 hits.

The month of October is already well over 30,000 (unique) hits (as of this morning) so this will be its most prestigious month, yet! And it has nine days to totally blow away last month's record of over 28000 viewers.

And finally the oher record is that including ALL viewers (unique and non-unique), this month elisalandis.com has also already crossed over 117000 viewers, and with another good final week will be resting around the 135,000 mark! WOW!

While Landis still isn't doing SORETHUMBS numbers, it's pretty darn good if you ask me.

Writer looking for work...

heh,

nice title, huh?

Personally I'd love to be able to make a living writing rather than hving to deal with stupid day jobs. They kill the creative asperations anyone actually has, and really bites into true dedication to something people want to do.

An update on Landis...it's had 29571 viewers this month (unique). This week, it's already at 6700, so based on what the site typically does on Saturday and Sunday, it'll end up anywhere between 7100 and 7500 viewers...if it goes overt 7200, this will be the biggest unadvertised week. Obviously, it won't have reached the mass load that it reached the week prior, but that would be a very good sign, meaning the site will have picked up viewers it didn't have prior.

In weird news, I try to pay all my bills online, and just recently, my Nationwide insurance bill didn't go through, making it lapse for THE FIRST TIME EVER... this bugs me, because I attempted to pay it and it didn't pay. Last month, my credit card bill didn't go through like it was supposed to, so I had to double check on that, and now this...Hell, I may start paying the .37 again to pay for shipping.

Quick notes.

Hey figured I'd give a quick update...


**- Still haven't finished THIEF...not that I don't want to, but I currently find myself wanting to go further with Landis...but that would include findinga new artist and colorist for it...two things that aren't cheap.

**- I'm still playing with drawing certain things myself, and may just play with photos on Photoshop to get the right look. Who knwos yet.

**- I've sent the story to Crosby (3X now) and I can only hope that he has received it and is playing around with it to make it a little better...or a lot better if its THAT bad.

**- This site actually gets looked at by more pepole than I originally thought, but still not too many...maybe we can get more people looking at it...

**- Haven't watched Tuesday night TV, yet...so don't tell me about Nip/Tuck, The Office or My Name is Earl. Hopefully thosewere all good.

Should Landis have her own forum at Keenspot?

Hello, all,

I've just placed a poll up at the keenspot forum, which the link is below, and its a poll to see if Landis deserves its own forum or not...hopefully I'll get more yes's than no's, but either way, I think its a great oppurtunity to see if the comic is actually picking up...its over 14000 viewers this week! Wow!

http://keenforums.keenspot.com/viewtopic.php?t=81266

Decided to play with the blue paper some more an ddraw a character I've never attempted drawing before, The Ray...

This is a character that Joe Quesada got his real comic book start designing and drawing, but I don't think he ever really became too popular.

Anyway, Itook liberty with changing his costume some, but for the most part I tried to keep him somewhat accurate. Hope everyone enjoys. 

So this morning (it's 12:40 am now), I decided that I was going to try another black in on different colored paper with white being used to add a much larger amount of contrast. I decided once again to try to draw Wolverine in this position, and in the closest thing I could personally do to Mark Texeira, one of my favorite artists...sure, it looks nothing like a Tex drawing, but it was MY best effort at that.

I don't know HOW artists sit in front of a drawing for hours on end, ESPECIALLY an inker...I can't do it. This drawing took less than 45 minutes to draw, and if I were to have spent another three hours on it, it'd look identical or worse than it does currently.

Oh, and by the way, Landis has already surpassed the 13000 mark this month, even without Saturday and Sunday, and we're well on our way to our first 30,000 month, which implies over 1000 hits per day! WOW!  

Biggest week of LANDIS yet.

Well, I'm jumping the gun a little on this, but due to Tuesday's overwhelming response with the Keenspot adspace, the 16th week of LANDIS will undoubtedly be the largest week in its distribution yet.

As of noon on Oct.14th, it had 12408 unique visitors, which is slightly down from seven weeks ago when it did 12766...but we still have two and a half days left to get more traffic to it.

Add to that I finished the plot for that other Landis project, which I may start scripting in Comic format in the next week or so, since I'd hate to have Landis stop after the initial 5 issues run...if only I could find an artist for it. Well, I'll probably worry about that after I script it.

Other numbers of interest on Landis are that this SHOULD be the largest MONTH the story has had as well, meaning every month since its inception it has increased. Here's how the numbers look...

June: 9648
July: 19364
Aug: 27245
Sept: 28337
Oct: 20634 (through Oct 14th)

The weekly breakdown is a little odder:

Week 37 6620
Week 38 7104
Week 39 6991
Week 40 7095
Week 41 12408 (through Oct 14th)
Week 34 12766 (Largest week to date)

For the most part, we go up, up and away...but there was that one week that we lost a couple people...

If we included the reloads of the site, this week has actually done 76451 hits this week, whereas the former previous high week was 67920 during week 34...so we're aready WAY ahead of that.

So THANKS! to anyone that has taken a look at the site...it wouldn't be possible without you!

Another response to Erik Larsen

Erik,

Your statement must have meant fellow creators that are not as "well known" as yourself. Last I checked, I AM a creator, with a pretty healthy webcomic that Image decided was NOT worth publishing. You did receive my response to your article a couple weeks ago, and I'm sorry that you did not feel I was outraged enough or that I'm not a big enough creator to include in your statement.

You are more than welcome to bash my comic now that it has an audience, as well…it's available at elisalandis.com.

I hope your future statements in your article are written with more of a true approach. Sure, I didn't write the response as a "fellow creator," but that doesn't mean I'm not. So you may say that someone took liberty to "write about it in their blogs," but the message on my blog was the same as the one I sent directly to you.

I guess you are accomplishing your task by getting me to write you and continue to read your article. And I guss that is truly what you are looking for…whether you have me fall in line like a sheep, or whether I bitch at everything you write. So congratulations.

Rob Potchak
Robpotchak.blogspot.com
Elisalandis.com

-----

This was written in regards to Erik's latest article on CBR.cc, to which he discusses people being inspired or challenged, and stating that NO ONE in the community of comics actually wrote a reply in a negative way, when I POSTED one here, AFTER emailing it to him....

So, yes, Erik, this is my personal blog, but the truth is what it is...published when it happened.

an 04/04/04 statement that I just found...

This was in an interview I just found based on the LANDIS and A-BOMB experiment...


Chris Crosby:
"As for A-Bomb (the full color sci-fi/superhero-ish comic book line I personally tried to launch in summer 2003), it was a fun experiment that fizzled. The pre-orders for the first issue of LANDIS (A-Bomb's first title) were nearly triple what the bestselling Keenspot comic book had sold, but it still wasn't quite enough to support a monthly full color periodical."

He was basically speaking about a full-color comic line that we were supposed to start in July of 2003, but never happened. Chris admits it fizzled (boo...) but that the book pre-ordered at 3X what any other book from Keenspot had done. In fact, it did better that the books from FUTURE COMICS, which was run by Bob Layton formerly of Valiant comics...

I just like the positive statements...hehe

second post of the day.

Well,

I've decided today that I was going to improve the status of the blog a little by adding links to it as well as adding a tracker. I don'texpect a lot of hits on the blog, and I don't expect to see 1,000 people hitting the site per day or anything, but hopefully traffic will go up.

Anywho, another big day for elisalandis.com yesterday, as the sie did over 6600 unique hits and over 58000 reloads, meaning people catching up on the story.

I really gotta give Chris Crosby a nod for all the hard work he's been putting into the project.

new email address and more

Well, I have a new email address...RPotchak@gmail.com.

Is nice because it allows for GOOGLETALK and never having to delete files that are important. That is a feature I WISH I had on my AOL account.

This week some interesting things happened. I finished plotting that Landis story that I may convert into a comic, and I've sent it to Chris Crosby for editing purposes and possible touchups.

This week on NIP/TUCK, the Carver struck again, and now is a definite as the new doctor, who showed up last season and now is really freaking everyone out...here is why I believe him to be the carver.

- Last year he showed up to fix Shawn...out of the blue.
- He gets asked to be a part of he business.
- He offers to have "the same scar" as both Shawn and Christian.
- He is bisexual
- The bottle of anistetic was mysteriously removed after the fake carver victim
- He has made mention of taking down the business
- If he is the carver and knew that this woman was NOT a victim, that's why he showed up to truly affect her at the end of the episode.

Also, INFINITE CRISIS #1 ships today. It is supposed to restructure the DC Universe in a way that hasn't been done in 20 years, since Crisis on Infinite Earths. Geoff Johns is probably one of three writers CAPABLE of pulling this story off, with Brad Meltzer and Grant Morrison as the only other two...MAYBE Mark Millar, but NO ONE gets these characters as wellas Johns. He is a natural for this book.

Phil Jiminez is going to knock it out of the park much better than Rags Morales ddi with last year's Identity Crisis, as well...

My only confusion would be...shouldn't it be called Infinite CrisES? As in plural?

Just an update of sorts

Well,

I'm giving an update as to my current writing status, and I've gotten about half of the new Landis story done, so that's good. Hopefully with having this weekend off, I'll be able to get the rest done. I really like how its flowing so far, but this is all just plotted out.

If I were writing it for a comic, I'd probably still be stuck on the first couple pages. I don't know how these writers stay psyched to be working on stuff and keep the paes flowing. I'm a lot like Kevin Smith that way...I like to see whats coming from the artist to keep me jazzed on the book. That's wy the first Landis flowed so fast. It just rolled off the page because there was art coming in daily and as gorgeous as it was, it kept me motivated.

The same can be said for THIEF, since Eric is definitely putting in his biggest effort, though he may be putting TOO much effort into it, since we were originally going for cartoony, and he's ramped it up to a...and I know he'll hate this comparison, a Rags Morales-esque art...well, hopefully he'll take it as a compliment, but him and Rags don't get along too well.

I'll try to upload some more recent art when I get a chance, but you may have to settle for some honeymoon pics.

Can't get enough of TiVo and stupid DVR

Let it be known that DVR is a wonderful invention and now that TiVo lets you take the programs off your TiVo and place them onto your computer, this is awesome. As far as I know, they are beta-testing being about to place your videos ONTO the TiVo as well, which means placing a lot of stuff on there at some point for some people. I'll probably have to buy a larger hard drive for either the TiVo or the computer, but this is still a pretty neat concept.

Only down side to all this is how long it takes to transfer all of it, hehe.

I can't stress enough how this is going to help me lose more braincells...now if only I could get rid of those pesky commercials.