9/21/06: FIRST LOOK: The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures

As you all can see, here's the first page of THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES from JK Radtke and Myself. I'm placing this up here so that everyone can see what the final product is beginning to take shape like.

Of course, if JK tells me to take it down, I'll have to, but hopefully he'll let me place this up here and be happy :).

NO, this is NOT THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH of the site...the site is far from ready, and we won't launch the comic through keen until it IS ready...I just wanted to give everyone a sneak peek at the first page.

9/21/06: Cupcakes and Brownies...is it my birthday?!

Hey all...my wife cooked brownies AND cupcakes for me...how fudging cool is that? We're doing a little better, but she isn't feeling well...too bad.

AP Furtado has turned in his whole 16 pages of DEAD SONJA already and he makes me so happy to beg for him to do it in the first place. I can't wait to see what Owen does with his pages...its almost upsetting that I haven't spoken with Owen in what seems like years, since he is such a great talent. I guess he's afraid I'll bug him until he works with me, again, too, hehe. It's okay, I don't really do that anymore, but I'm happy to see that he's working on some serious projects that he cares about and puts 100% into all of them.

I've been lettering the pages for TAVA, and I'm up to page 8 right now. Its going faster than expected. I can typically do five or six pages in one sitting before I tire in boredom with it, though I have to admit that being able to do it yourself is 100% easier and CHEAPER than hiring someone else...not to mention although I know JK has lettered in the past, I wanted to take a more active role, so that he only really has to worry about the artwork side of it. I ask his opinion where some of the larger caption balloons need to go, because I don't want to cover up all of his backgrounds...of course in panels without backgrounds, I have the leisure of placing them wherever I like, :).

I'll give an update on TAGGER soon, as I want to get in touch with Eric and see how its coming along. No rush on that story, as he's attempting to put in at least AS much effort with the pages, if not more than the original Landis. And then, after four or so issues of that, we'll jump back into THIEF, which I am still struggling with an end for...

hm...so that's pretty much what's going on here...

9/19/06: Been a while, time for an update.

So today, I started lettering THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES. The nice thing about the writer also being the letterer means that I can spruce up the story where it sounds as though I may have tried to come off as a better writer than I truly am... and EVERY writer does this. Using different verbiage, or connotations or what not, but with me, I like to re-read it and go..."hmm...this sounds better than that" and then just follow with the rest of the written word to make sure it looks and sounds good. JK and I are both extremely excited about this again, and trying to move ahead to get ready for the launch...you guys are going to love about 5 weeks into the story, when Dread Mutt makes his appearance.

Dread is a character that JK and I created probably about 3-5 years ago (I know its a big window, but I keep losing track of years), and he was to be an intergalactic bounty hunter. Then, when we started TAVA, I sat there while writing, and while instant messaging with JK, I said, "Why don't we put Dread Mutt into the first story?" And he loved the idea. The way I look at him as a character is if you mix Lobo with his dog...that's when you get Dread...though he looks more like a Boxer (the kind of dog).

So the wife and I are fighting again because I told her she isn't allowing enough time for us to spend together. She has this great habit of saying she'll be home by a certain time, and then not being there...and it only seems to happen when it is "our night together." I don't think there is anyone else, and I know that she's always had a rough time with being timely, but some things NEED to be important enough to allow for you to spend it with them...and recently, I just don't feel like I'm important enough to her. My home life is what makes me work so hard in my day job, and even with the comics I write and produce. I NEED to go at it 100%, because for any of these things to actually put money in my pocket and our bank account, I need to do it how I do...but at the same time, its because my home life and lifestyle are SO important to me that I need to feel important at home, as well.

We treat people how we want to be treated, and for me, its respect me because I show you respect. I don't show up late, I do what I say I will, and I accomplish what needs to be done...and that's mainly all I ask for...and yet, it seems so hard for some people to give that...

So with all of that, I'm going to leave and try to letter some more pages.

9/15/06: A Lot Closer to being ready for launch.

Just a quick update on The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures...JK has sent me the first 15 pages (redux if you will), where he now feels more comfortable with the inks and the feel of the art. He's going to do up some character sketches and such for bio pages, since that was one thing LANDIS lacked that everyone continued to ask for, and then we need to find a layout. After that, we'll probably letter the pages up and go from there...it will be black and white, which may disappoint some people, but JK wants to do contests and such where he gives away colored artwork from the series...almost like Sunday newspaper updates and specific scenes will be in color, which I'm cool with, and what he likes doing currently is ALL colors BY HAND, so none of this photoshop nonsense :).

Also, court case was postponed again, not something my lawyer wanted, but we deal with it...

Dead Sonja looks like its going to be a decent sized Hit, which in the indy market means turns a profit. Now with AP (Heavy Metal) Furtado and Owen (Landis, Sore Thumbs) Gieni on board, this project is really shaping up...I wonder who Freddie Blatant III is going to get as the third artist...?

Other than that, we're coming into a time of year that I should love, but really don't, due to working in retail...Christmas. The hiring process for this time of year and everything has me wanting to pull my hair out, not to mention that my Asst. Manager quit and my third key left to Circuit City...though he's still with me at least. Anyway, because of this, I may not be able to write as much, but I'll see what I can do.

9/12/06: TAVA PROMO PIECE, and other rants...

This is a piece of THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES of both ARDY and TORCH, (Ardy of which is TM and (C) Rob Potchak, and Torch which is TM and (C) JK Radtke). I really like it, and JK wants to point out that it was colored solely in Sharpie Markers... I like it, its raw feel and its final feel that I can never seem to show in my art.
See, I told everyone that this project IS coming...and it will, but not until JK and I feel its ready to roll.

I've been getting an itch to draw again, but I'm not sure what I want to draw. I broke my digital camera the other day, which was upsetting, since I was going to take photos of real life things and try to convert them into a comic page for fun.

September 10th, I celebrated my one year wedding anniversary. I gave Christy sheet music of our song (though she'll probably get it tomorrow of the next day), which is Train's DROPS OF JUPITER. Why sheet music? Because the first anniversary is the PAPER anniversary.

If you don't know how much better of a theatre experience you get in your home with a home theatre system for sound, you are missing out. I scare the shit out of the dogs by playing STAR WARS and TERMINATOR 2, now...they just don't know where its all coming from...its awesome. Just the experience of buying it could have been left without. The manager at Bestbuy did not want to sell me what I wanted and even said, "I'm not going to help you..." because the item I wanted was on sale...funny how that works? No wonder, my buddy Fubar, who has worked for Best Buy for five years just quit because of their assininess...heh, I think I made up a word.

So I have a favorite new online casino game, and its called 3 card poker. Its a game where a lot of money can be won or lost...I think I actually like it more than Texas Hold'm...

I met Cam Ward today...he won the Con Smythe award for Most Valuable Player throughout the playoffs in hockey. He apparently is a regular in my store, so it was funny talking to him about playing AS him in the NHL 2007 demo...I probably sounded like such a geek...though talking about what he did with the Stanley cup is funny, especially since one of his teammates did a Keg Crawl with it...hehe.

My store got secret shopped at get this...3pm on a Saturday afternoon, IN A MALL THAT IS HIGH TRAFFIC...did we pass? Hell no...why? Because it was Saturday... 3pm... WITH TWENTY TWO (by the shopper's account), TWENTY FREAKING TWO customers in the store...WHO THE HELL WOULD PASS A SECRET SHOP with 22 people in their store? That's an 11/1 ratio of Customers to Employees...man that burns me up...there is no way to go through every ounce of everything with a customer who wants to buy a 2.13 item (THAT'S ALL THEY PURCHASED), when you have probably 11 of the twenty two people WAITING IN LINE...go shop at a strip center on Saturday and come in when we are nice and quiet during the week...shit.

9/8/06: Been a while, so I thought I'd update.

Above is my favorite page (so far) of Dead Sonja. Its page three, and though I should have blurted out the lettering, I think it doesn't give enough away to really upset anyone, but if F. Blatant III tells me to remove it, I guess I'll have to.

Also, in another interesting and great piece of news, Owen Gieni will be drawing the second 16 page Dead Sonja story, which is awesome, because it is the first time him and I have worked together since LANDIS. And we don't really get to keep in touch anymore, unfortunately, with him being involved with Sorethumbsonline.com and all, but when I found that tidbit out, I jumped for joy in total elation.

I'm real excited about this project now, so I'm actually wondering what BLATANT book I should send in next. I've heard a spoof on HALO, a spoof on WWE, or a Transformers spoof. I'm thinking Highlander, Army of Darkness, but I'm definitely keen on writing out any of those others, too...what's everyone think?

I'll be posting a promo piece for TAVA (The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures) soon. Its from JK RAdtke and he's putting extra time back into the already completed pages because he wants it to be perfect. I don't blame him, so I'm giving him all the time he'd like to get it rolling and we'll launch it when its ready, which has probably disappointed a lot of people, but we want to give you 100% everytime we upload pages, and since JK is back to 100% into the project, we are moving along.

Some real life BS stuff now...

With the day job, everything is going from bad to really freakin bad, right before our yearly conference in Dallas, my assistant manager decides he wants to quit. But get this, he puts in two weeks notice and then says, "But I want to use my sick time that I've built up, or I'll just call out sick..." To which I'll take it as job abandonment instead of "using sick time" since he's saying he's going to dick the company. This means MORE work for me, harder hours, and having to hire someone. Its actually good, since he didn't want to grow up and change like the company does, so I needed to find someone else anyway, they just wanted me to wait until after the conference...its too bad, too, because he's a decent guy, but if he does this, it shows what kind of real person he is...