Natalie was talking with me about how she was trying to keep her stress to a minimum, but I was clearly not helping in that department. I interjected with "I'm a stress vending machine." She immediately requested a cartoon of this. Later, I showed her the pencil sketch for this comic and she had no recollection of the conversation whatsoever.

I'll try to remember to post the original thumbnail design that I brainstormed. It's pretty much the same, but Natalie's expression is hilarious.

Spend your dollars wisely!

Living under a giant communications tower does have its benefits. While we can't say we live in the Castro, Inner Sunset or Cole Valley or any other neighborhood surrounding us, we can point up to Sutro Tower on the highest hill in the city and say "We live over there."

Still having fun with colors. I spent way too long on this one as far as the computer goes, so there's no shading, just flat colors, but I still like it. One of these days I really do need to get a tablet, it will make the whole process so much easier. Specifically, it will make my inking and layers system like 10x easier.

I don't think anyone has mistaken me for the burly farmer type. I don't think anyone has mistaken me for any burly type. I'm really enjoying the monochromatic schemes. I think I'm going to keep them. More to come!

Liz, or we_are_pliable, recently got a job as a baker in the kitchen of her local Earth Fare, and essentially wrote this strip for me when she messaged me saying "MY NEW JOB WORKING FOR HIPPIES HAS A 401(K). MY LIFE IS A CAT AND GIRL STRIP"

If you're unfamiliar with Cat and Girl, I suggest you go and read it here.

I'm getting a little better at this comic strip stuff, I think. I'm still trying to nail down a simple, repeatable style, and there are plenty of tools I still want to learn to use, but it's starting to feel a little more natural. The second panel was originally going to have a little more dialog, but in the end, the joke really sells itself. I do need to get better with confining my panels. Instinctively, I avoid it, but I realize that once I start working, things get sloppy without defined borders.

( NSFW? comic )

It's been a long while since there's been an UP comic, so finally here's another. It's a place holder, if anything, honestly, because I'm planning on getting stuff out on a more frequent schedule. You'll notice I moved to fonts (more legible than my handwriting) and digital colors. I think I'm going to stick with the monochromatic stuff, but play around with monochromatic color schemes, like Josh Lesnick does for Girly's Pink-o-vision.

This song has been stuck in my head for days, which is not really as unpleasant as it sounds.

X-Posted from the comic's blogspot




A derby comic, finally. This was an actual conversation on the track at practice with another referee. After this incident, I changed from the ball chain I had been using for my whistle to a lanyard I picked up at ALA Midwinter, so my whistle hangs lower and doesn't peg my nipple at every hairpin turn.

This is probably the last comic to be done in this format. I wanted to do a full series of comics in one journal, and at the time I really appreciated that they were on cheap, lined paper, which suits the name of the comic quite well, but I really want to work with better materials, and also just have a larger space to play with layout. This format is very constrictive to what I can do on a page. More to come once I have time (which is to say, after they give me my MLS degree on the 9th).

Okay, so maybe some color commentary this time around. The idea is that as I come into more coping mechanisms and solutions, the color comes back into me, and I'm more myself. Like I said, it's a little heavy-handed. Also, to explain the gum thing, candy cigarettes are a coping mechanism of mine. They make me incredibly happy. Unfortunately, the only ones I could find were Roller Derby bubble gum cigarettes we got at Roller Ball. They don't really make me happy when they taste like crap.

For some play-by-play, I really messed up on the shape of my face in the last panel. I prefer it in the first page. So there you have it.