1-31-07: Junior Bruce / Potsy - Megaton Man / Rubber Brother

Howdy again today...As I'm bored just typing words into existing comic pages, I have decided that at this very moment, I want to color something, so I took JK's drawing from his deviantart page (yourbuddybuddy.deviantart.com) and took his piece of Don Simpson's Megaton Man and Rubber Brother which he'd already colored, and then I decided I'd make my own additions to it...

Here's what I did. I did my typical attempt at creating a really bad third dimension in the coloring, and then changed some of the simpler color aspects he had on here, like now the gloves on Rubber Brother are brighter (almost fluorescent) green, and I changed the background from a dull orange to this really bright fluorescent fuscia looking color.

JK and I talked for like two hours tonight on the phone about the launch of The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures, as well, discussing how we want to add things to the website before it really gets going... does this mean I'm going to pull the 12:01 am launch? No way!

What it IS going to do though, is get us to where we want to be on the webpage design, but its going to take a bit before its exactly where we want it. So we'll still launch the comic, update it on Tuesday and Thursday, but its just going to be the simple comic to begin with. Both him and I will have to find time to add to the website design and get it to where we really want it to be...

We want it to include a gallery page, a page where you can commission either of us for art pages, character designs and bios, a blog to update progress and more, like the hit counter...

Don't expect a keenspot ad, yet for us. We probably are going to want a couple of weeks pages up before we do that, and I think we'll want the website how we want it before we advertise... but its coming...

1-31-07: ARDYVANSTARR.COM launches tomorrow!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Rob Potchak of Pots and Pans Ink and Junior Bruce Productions are proud to announce that www.ardyvanstarr.com (as well as its sister site, www.vanstarr.com) launch tomorrow, FEBRUARY 1st, 2007.

"We are extremely excited that the comic can finally start being seen, and though the Keenspot.com main page may not have a direct link to it, we wanted to start getting some pages seen by the masses in a way to guarantee that the project IS moving forward, even though the web page is very remedial at this point."

"Junior Bruce Productions will continue to work on both the art and the webpage for The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures, but we decided that NOW was the perfect time to launch the site because we feel confident that we will be able to maintain a Tuesday / Thursday update schedule for the foreseeable future. Our ultimate goal is to set up and maintain a lush website with galleries, character profiles and even creator commentaries, but the main content is going to be the most important thing as we start this venture."

"We believe that the fans will start reading this story, and as time goes on, we'll be able to deliver a truly unique webcomic experience. Both JK (the artist) and myself are behind this endeavor 100%, and are both excited to get everyone seeing our outlandish story from the beginning."

www.ardyvanstarr.com goes live at 12:01 am (PST) on 2/1/2007. Anyone looking for a new webcomic to try should check it out.

1-28-07: If you have Firefox, the site looks fine!

UPDATE to www.robpotchak.com... as of this very minute, the website is UP AND RUNNING, and if you have Firefox, it looks good...however, if you have IE, you still need to scroll to the right to see it...because of this, I'm going to say that FIREFOX is a MUCH BETTER web browser, and if you haven't tried it already, check out firefox.com since it truly is the better of the browsers (and only takes minutes to install).

Other news...expect Shawn Michaels to lobby a victory at the Royal Rumble...this MAY mean that he faces UMAGA as the world champ at Wrestlemania (BOO that "main event"), or the Undertaker, so that he can strictly go into WM against Batista for the championship, since it is almost guaranteed that Kennedy does not win.

also, Christy bought me the first season of Prison Break, and YES, I already know they aren't in prison anymore...BUT, its the first season I'm watching at this moment, and though its pretty predictable, it is pretty good...definitely better than Brett Ratner's OTHER project (cough...X-Men III, BOO), but not as good as 24 or HOUSE. However, I must say that similar to how their sister network hooked me with the SHIELD, RESCUE ME and NIP/TUCK... as well as enjoying THIEF, Fox is really ramping up their suspense thrillers...good for them!

finally, information about something those that HAVE checked out robpotchak.com have probably seen already...a logo for something called comicartjam.com... This is my answer to something JK (*******) has been trying to get me to do for about a year, now...joining a art club with critiquing art space...funny thing is, though, that I've decided I'm not just going to join one... I'm going to start one. I'm currently looking into bulletin boards with EASY pasting of art, and will be looking to post this bad boy soon...so yes, there's new stuff coming from me. I just completed a piece of THE PUNISHER, a couple SPIDER-MAN pieces and a little more.

Ooh, one more tidbit about ardyvanstarr.com... I currently believe as the chapters end, JK and I will be utilizing full color chapter covers...now I haven't really discussed it with him, but I like toying with coloring and all, so I think this is something that we'll get more into as we go along. Now, unfortunately these will take up one day's worth of updates, but it'll be more complete art, since it'll be colored...more on this after JK and I have discussed it fully...and if I start referring to JK as Junior Bruce, its because that's his only art alias, so please forgive for that if I forget to mention it.

1-27-07: WEB SITE...HELP!?!?!

Hello all...man I really wish this blogger would allow me to use fonts that I have on my computer rather than these silly and boring ones. I'm a comic writer, and I like seeing my written word in comic formats dammit...hehe.

Anyway, if you head over to robpotchak.com, you'll see where its now owned by someone...the sad thing is, to actually SEE the website, you have to scroll over to the right...as to why, I have NO EARTHLY IDEA...stupid godaddy.com. I decided it was time to try to get my name out there further by having a standard site that would attach all the comics, blog, store and whatnot but this trying to learn how to use ftps and shit is for the birds.

If ANYONE out there can help me specifically with moving the site to the left to get rid of that stupid godaddy.com shit, I'd appreciate it. Yes, I'm using their free webhosting but this is ridiculous.

Anywho, like I said, anyone who wants to get a sneak peek at the website, check it out...you may even see some stuff on there you didn't expect.

1-22-07: Rob Potchak draws TORCH.

Not the Human Torch, and not a stick with fire on it...

As a person who draws, I get asked a lot to draw characters I'm unfamiliar with. Today, I did it, but not because I wanted to draw a character that means nothing to me and I was just bored, no...I decided to draw Torch, a character that JK has created who will be appearing in The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures as Ardy's sidekick and plucky comic relief (when JK lets me write bad jokes into the script, hehe).

I decided that since JK also tells me that I need to do COMPLETE art when I draw, that I would also color the piece in a very 1980's VGA / my airbrush style. I think that if JK had created Torch and got a game deal back in the early 90's, it would've looked like this...hehe.

I also made him a little bit bigger than JK does, but kept him a small size in stature because I think it fits the character... anyway, let me know what you think.

1-21-07: Day Job Blues.

JK has recently been hit with a set of the DAY JOB BLUES, meaning lots of overtime, lot less sleep, and next to no time to draw. This IS putting a damper in the art production of TAVA, but I wanted to let everyone know that he'll be working on a build for the webpage this weekend, so hopefully, though initially the design will be very basic, we're hoping that we get it running with oriignal content soon, and then the comic shortly thereafter.

Right now, if you go to ardyvanstarr.com or vanstarr.com you'll be linked to an even more basic site for KEENSPOT's basis, but the sites are online...we again will have stuff popping up soon.

Keep the faith, true believers...we WILL have original content soon.

Any other Wrestling fan realized there is NO reason to watch WWE product anymore? Yeah, me too...bored with it...and that's fine, but I really wish they'd move TNA to two hours on Thursday...its finally getting some momentum.

In today's football games, I'll take the Colts and the Saints...why? Because I think they are the better teams. If the Saints get out to a 14 point lead, the Bears are done...if the game's close, it could go either way...but I'll take the Saints in it.

1-12-07: Because *I* Demanded it...NEW T-SHIRTS!

The original ringer is still available a the store...I just couldn't bring myself to tear it down...I just love that design so much...$14.99

It can be found here:

www.cafepress.com/potchak.48166521

The new Ash Grey shirt can be found here...$14.99

http://www.cafepress.com/potchak.100204727

And finally, the new VALUE T-shirt (only $9.99) is located here:

http://www.cafepress.com/potchak.100207189

Please help support the "Rob Potchak needs to pay his mortgage" fund...kidding. I actually jest there, but these are pretty cool shirt designs. Oh, and HALF of any profit goes to the starving artist, JK Radtke...its just too bad I've priced these shirts so there is NO PROFIT on them... and remember pricing is set by Cafepress.com, otherwise I'd try to be even cheaper.

1-12-07: Another TAVA Promo piece

Alrighty, this one is actually a piece that was originally colored by JK himself *first image you see, should be top left, though is definitely the first pic*, and then what I like to call an "ENHANCED" version with computer coloring by me. To me it seems like it adds another dimension to the coloring and to the piece itself.

I wasn't even going to toy around with this, but JK said that he liked the coloring on the last piece I did a lot, so I decided to toy a bit more. I tried to add a roundness to Torch...oh...hold on...

Torch is a character that will DEFINITELY be appearing in TAVA, and though its pretty much agreed that the story will continue to be called (just) THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES, Torch will probably be showing up just as often as our giant yellow bastard himself in more of a sidekick role. He's created and owned by JK, and there are some good jokes about a troll with his head on fire, hehe...

Well, maybe one more piece before the end of the night (doubtful), but I actually did draw Ardy myself for the first time in a long while. I'm starting to take the "How to draw THE THING" (from Marvel) approach with him...what do I mean by that? He's not normal shaped... hes shaped more like a giant starfish. oh well :)....

1-11-07: The Ardy Vanstarr Adventures Promo art piece...

Hey all, to the left is my attempts at coloring in a would be "airbrushing" look at Ardy for the upcoming THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES by myself and JK Radke.

I've been lettering the pages as JK gets them to me and I think this is going to be the next T-Shirt on the Cafepress site...which I know I haven't added anything in a while, but this looks like if could make a great ringer tee, so who knows.

As many of you that picked up the Keenspot FCBD book this year can see, Ardy is even more cartoony than he has been even in the past, but I think its a very cool way to go with him, since it fits his character.

You may start seeing more of the TM and (C) info on the art that I post, since I don't want it being copied, or reprinted without the proper credentials.

I may see if Chris wants to slap this onto the ARDYVANSTARR.COM site with a COMING SOON logo on it.

ALSO, a quick little LANDIS note...Crosby will be sending me the pages for which to get them lettered (or re-lettered) so that we can move ahead with the printing on it. I'm hoping he still has uncolored LINE ART from the story as I think we are going to go ahead with a black and white printing of it first as a 96 page graphic novel, however, they page count is undetermined at this moment.

Let me know what you think of this piece, and take care all!

1-8-07: TAVA updates, Civil War thoughts, more...

As everyone who reads this knows, I am not only a writer and amateur artist, but an avid reader of comics, and I must say that while other reviewers have disagreed with the turmoil that the Marvel Universe is in is bad, I look at it and go, "Thank GOD! Someone is finally making it INTERESTING again!" Let me remind you all of my background on this subject...the very first arc of LANDIS ended...that's right, ENDED with the destruction of the world as we know it... why? Because COMICS ARE FANTASY...I agree with a lot of what Mark Millar has written with his reconstruction of the Marvel Universe in these "You don't always know your enemy by what country they live in" times...and finally, someone complained on Newsarama (their weekly reviews) about how Stephen Strange looks bad by "not ending the war with a whisper," and how bad that looks...can't you tell that this is an obvious swipe at the GIP of a crossover and BS that was House of M? C'mon, folks, Millar and Bendis may be great friends, but everyone knows bogus when they read it...anyway, love it, and I want a CIVIL WAR POSTER BOOK from Steve McNiven...this stuff is phenomenal...which is why any time I find some original art from him, I snatch it up.

Okay...TAVA update...that's THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES to those without a working frontal lobe...ha, I gest. JK has sent me layouts for the first 18 pages...as soon as he blows them up, inks them and sends them to me to begin the lettering process we'll be ready to launch. Well, that and a webpage...anybody know someone that's looking to design a webpage for free, but with unlimited advertising potential that WILL reach thousands of people the day it launches? if so, contact me at RPOTCHAK@GMAIL.COM.

I'm 52 hours into ZELDA, so I haven't been doing much else, and Thursday, I begin community service...wahoo...Oh, and one last piece of info.

I'm in discussions with a cover artist of ARMY OF DARKNESS to possibly draw the main cover for Dead Sonja vs. The Army of Darktwits. I think he's one of the best guys out there and he's even drawn Ardy in the past...now if he could help me get a well-paying gig, hehe. More on this if and when we get the go-ahead.

1-4-07: THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES...SOON!

Hey all...I know I've been flapping my gums about Notre Dame football (sad ending to our good season), and discussing things like the Playstation 3 vs. the XBox360, but I think the time has come to update everyone on a serious piece of info...

THE ARDY VANSTARR ADVENTURES.

We haven't heard me make too many mentions of it recently, because there were setbacks aplenty, and there may still be again, but the truth behind the series is that IT IS COMING. JK and I want to launch it before the end of January because we've been taking our time with it, he's been re-drawing pages that I thought looked great, and we'll be getting it all re-lettered and ready to rock. Truth be told, I am uber excited about this story finally seeing the light of day, at least the first story, and we'll be bringing it to you on what we hope will be a Tuesday/Thursday update schedule...at least at the beginning.

One thing I don't think we'll be able to deliver is full color, but a lot of good online comics maintain their highquality standards even without being in color (look at everythingjake.com as a great example, and a good plug for my boy Mike Rosenzweig).

I say we want to get it running by the end of the month because we both have dayjobs, we both have a lot on our plates, but overall, we want to deliver the goods, baby...

No promises, just a firm belief we'll be able to hit the launch window, so we can get this bacon to start frying.

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR.