page 5

page 5

wayyyyy late i know

i'm sorry

i blame omegle

and zach

page 4

page 4 got up a little late, but hey, it's not like anybody's gonna come burn my house down.

page 3

It's up.

Image courtesy of Zach.

001 - Lost & Found

SO as part of my schedule that I've been sticking to remarkably well as of late, I'm having Sunday as blog day. I'll expound on some of the issues I've been thinking about most / learning about / suffering from, type things on my keyboard, and stick some pictures in next to them. 'EERE GOES NUTHIN'

Week 1 (er, .5) went great. Since I came into this planning to do the whole thing as a big fat book to suddenly dump on everybody at once, I already had a handful of pages ready - but I just couldn't find the motivation to keep going without any feedback or confidence that I'd get any exposure. Went to Katsucon, listened to a bunch of guys doing webcomics talk about their experiences, and decided that, since I intend for this to be a cheap-as-free book with on-the-side print sales to cover expenses (hosting, advertising, etc), I may as well go the webcomic route. And the first two "updates" have been great. I get this awesome feeling of ... something hard to describe when I get that page onto controlshiftblack.com at 7:00 p.m. EST. And the response is great from my bros on Facebook and Twitter, and dorm-mates - so cool to hear guys get excited about it and show their friends "hey man I know this guy who's doing this comic" and all that jazz. Good stuff. I'm not used to the feeling of actually accomplishing something... so many years of either doing what I'm told to do, or not doing anything at all.

Doing these pages, I'm finally getting to do things I've been scared of doing - seriously applying textures - and loving it. Followed some advice from m dot strange, doing things I've avoided doing in the past... feels good man. I've experimented with textures before using my own (bad) pics, usually from my cellphone. I like the low-res feel, and it's better than not doing anything at all (not having a big expensive camera and whatnot). But I came across this site, Zen Textures, and sister site Lost and Taken... and I'm in texture heaven. Super-awesome dude, Caleb Kimbrough, providing these textures free of charge for commercial and non- projects. I don't even know where to begin, I'm just getting so much mileage out of this guys stuff he's giving for free. Expect to hear more praise about them textures as times goes on. Hopefully I can make a few bucks from the print sales of Hoshen so I can return the favor.

I couldn't get anywhere trying to do this as one big book... just too much work for me. But I can tell I've got something good going here now, something driven by short-term goals to work up to a long-term one. Found something awesome, and I'm running with it.

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become. - C. S. Lewis

page 2

Page 2.

Feels good man.

Page 1

First page is up on the Hoshen site.

Freakin' yeah.

Katsucon 16

Back from Katsucon 16. What a time.

Pretty crazy weekend, tons of hilarious experiences and not-so-great misadventures... barely broke even with the auction versus expenses, though one of my prints went for $125. Needless to say, I was stunned. Jazzed, even.

Got to sit in on a few really good panels - Michael "Mookie" Terracciano's Dominic Deegan panel, and a two-man panel with Chris “Kilika” Malone (Blue and Blonde) and Brian Wilson (Geist Panik). Learned a lot, took a lot of notes. I'm trying to find more cons to hit up in 2010, and I'm currently waiting to hear back from the Artist Alley at AnimeNEXT.

After listening to the guys talk about how much work goes into getting a webcomic off the ground, I've been considering a different approach to how I'm going to release Hoshen. Specifically, a weekly update schedule - maybe three days a week, like a Monday, Wednesday, Friday thing. Would make it easy to balance the comic and school that way.

Only problem is, it'll take many years to finish the entire 36-book, 144-chapter story. I hate the thought of spending that long on one project, seeing as how I come up with new ideas every single day.

But then, I suppose that's what it all comes down to... is this project worth sticking around with for that long?

We shall see.

fanart pt. 2

Some new fanart here from Sharon!

John by ~iluvrobin

progress

why does this take so loooooong

Super-pleased with the results so far, just pulling teeth to get into the zone when I'm feeling it and when I'm not.