Yeah sweet times ahaha, well yesterday was my work place Christmas party and it reminded me of this at the start of the year ha. Strangely enough i have had a pretty bad year but most of its wearing off soon.

So yeah abit tired, been pretty down the past few days but thats wearing off soon the christmas party was pretty lol, I swear the party all they did was troll us, HI guyse have this 67 dorrar ticket! if you dont go we charge your store!

Boss: WTF

Brendan: WTF

Me: WTF

Reese: LOL Wut?

Emmah: HUH?!

yeah theres 5 of us working in that store and when we was told it that was pretty much our reactions, ok so we got trolled by the Casurina people pretty bad, sure, awesome, BUT.

For a 67 dolalrs you’d imagine that you know 3 course meal fancy dinner yada yada yada, me and Brendan went to the event we ended up on ze camera and photos >_>. It was all fine and dandy when we saw only 2 tables:

At first we were lyke:

O.o

then we were like:

-_____-

now we know why the boss didnt want to come, theres NO food, there are small tibits, but lyke hell that stuff is gonna fill us up, to add insult to injury, we didnt have lunch :\ so… empty stomach… So we resorted to plan B, GET the award (If we got one) and GTFO! Seemed lyke a perfect plan and worked smoothly we did win something and we gtfoed to the nearest macdonalds for dinner.

Next year its Emmah and Reese’s turn… G.G Guyse :3

So now thats over and done with here is the most recent practice:

After what i did for Ross this practice got a lot more simple, the ability for me to render manga is pretty easy now so i zoomed through the draft easy.

The Penciling stage…

Like i said its much more easier. I am having trouble with perspective… so i might need to readjust my training to add that into my practice scheme.

The inking is much more of a pain i think i am running out of ink which means i will have to buy more on Monday.

its harder to shade on comp so i will need to buy a 0.9 pen to get some of the solid blacks done, i will use Manga Studio EX 3 to modify and add in some of the tones.

Short post today, i think you guys are pretty sick of my essays by now ahaha

John Signing Out lol

Cualquier parecido con la realidad es mera coincidencia o_O

… miento en primer lugar mi cabello es negro..

Pensandolo bien esta bonita ñ_ñ

[comic] Piratas

Hello! This message has been beamed across the vast expanses of the Interwebs by the mysterious art of email; this being the arcane and esoteric mechanism that it is, the post may come out a little wonky. Unfortunately it’s the only way I can post at present due to some problems with my home Internet service.

Anyway, continuing the theme of using the “Focus” slot to focus on stuff that’s not at all normally the purview of this blog, today I’d like to look at something completely unrelated to Elemental Shaman theorycraft: an out of the ordinary WoW-themed webcomic called Beyond the Tree, created by Nhani and updated most Thursdays and Sundays.

Nhani describes the comic as follows:

Beyond the Tree is a World of Warcraft-based webcomic about a mismatched duo of Night Elves trying to find their place and purpose in Azeroth. It is mainly character driven, mixing both lighthearted adventure and witty humour with a more serious and in-depth grounding – both in character and in the world itself.

The journeys of Hani Foonmall and Rei Tiny are as much within as without, exploring both characters and world as they travel down the well-worn path of story and myth. Leaving as much to find between the lines as spoken outright, it aims to entertain while simultaneously exploring concepts such as friendship, being outcast, finding where you belong and more.

What first drew my attention to the comic was the odd mix of serious and silly that pervades pretty much the whole thing and somehow makes it seem incredibly authentic and real. The characters are deeper than most you’ll find in WoW-related stories, being rather definitely “small fry” on the world scene and having plenty of faults and foibles and eccentricities as well as some rather curious histories, but you’re somehow induced to care about them. And very cleverly, the path they follow is instantly recognisable to the average WoW player, as they get involved with NPCs we’re familiar with from quest chains when we were lowbies – and then embark upon those familiar quests in a way that’s both familiar and entirely convincing and in-world. Then we find out that everything’s not quite the same as we remember it from when we did the quests, and the plot arc is born.

It was this modesty and intimacy of character and story that I found most appealing to start with, but what really amazed me as I kept reading was the comic itself. Nhani has taken the normal everyday models we’re used to in World of Warcraft and done amazing things to them, to the point where each character is instantly recognisable, fully expressive, totally personalized and utterly convincing. It draws you into the world the comic’s set in, and then keeps you immersed there as the story progresses.

The great thing if you’re a WoW player is how this immersion adds depth and breadth to the world we’re used to playing in. For example, we get to see the cultural awkwardness of two night elves finding themselves in a human city, and the curious issue of what happens when a race used to living for thousands of years has to take seriously a guy who’s by their standards a mere child (but is by human standards a great warrior). And we get to see knee-high gnomes coping with huge crowds, giant mechanical monsters and bar tables built for humans. And so it goes. Little details that we tend to skip over when we’re playing that are actually really weird or interesting get picked up in the comic and explored in that same authentically silly-but-serious way.

And did I mention the expressiveness of the models? It just astonishes me how those uniform faces that we’re so used to can be made to show so much subtlety of expression and body language (be sure to check out the How-To!). Here are just a couple of examples pulled almost at random from the most recent arc:

I read a lot of different webcomics during the week, many of them absolutely great and some of them WoW-themed. Despite that, Beyond the Tree is always a highlight, and I feel confident recommending it even to those who wouldn’t normally bother with webcomics. So if you’re looking for something relaxing, amusing and curiously interesting to read this weekend, give it a try!

Hopefully my Internet will be fixed by Monday evening.

[A sketch from a page of something in the works... ]

I’m thinking of drawing a webcomic and my concern is how money can be made from it.

Lest you think me too mercenary, my goal is not to design a comic first to make money but because I want to draw and tell a story foremost; money is just important to facilitate me being able to dedicate time to this webcomic. Do I have a need to be defense about this point? Perhaps it reveals more of myself than I intend, so I’ll admit it: I do share Jonathan Blow’s views on the purity of art — in the linked example, as regards advertising in games. But to say it generally: I’m highly critical of the mixing of money and art. Yes obviously I need to pay rent and eat, and so does everyone.  I hear the “it’s just so” response far too often to justify abuses of commerce upon arts and I think it’s quite entirely unfortunate that discussion does not often get much farther than that. The status quo does not need your banal restatement, it already and overwhelming is!

Besides, if I wanted to make money I sure wouldn’t be trying to draw a webcomic to do it; there are better ways, I assure you. Like making a porn site or Evony Online or something.

So here’s my thought:
One can think of a webcomic as a serially-updated attention-attractor (albeit one with strong narrative themes and characters, which I’ll discuss in a moment). In this, a webcomic is not so different from a small free web-based game like any number of flash portal games, web-based games, or Facebook apps. Farmville, say? Admittedly, I don’t actually play any of these games. They’re usually too … shamelessly commercial.
Q: How do these make money?

A1: Advertising
I guess advertising is an obvious approach for any web site that’s trying to make money. Ads interfere with content, however, and I’d be strongly concerned about having ads anywhere near my artistic vision (says The Artist). Maybe they could appear somewhere on a separate news page, not juxtaposed with the comic content itself; never.

I’m thinking generic and easy to implement here; Google Ads is the obvious answer. Not everyone is Penny Arcade and is an entire ad market and brand in and of themself (and I repeat this to myself over and over, I am not Penny Arcade).

A2: Micropayments
Players of certain otherwise free web games pay money for extra content, for extra-ordinary customization, or to sidestep tedious gameplay time (which speaks to me of a game designer purposely wasting my time, but I digress). I’m not sure how any of these could translate very well to a webcomic because reading the comic itself is about the whole of its content — and what, should I draw five panels and charge money if people want to see the sixth? I’d never stand for that as a reader and I doubt anyone else would.

Although: There could be some kind of extra content or privilege made available for being a “sponsor” or “patron” of the comic (thinking of a marketable name for a donation-giver, ya’see). I’m unsure what this extra content would be aside from more story. “Behind the scenes” content? Preliminary sketches/writing? (Are they really that good or interesting? It worked for DVDs, though “extra features” are too often hastily assembled fluff. More digression.)

The patron/donor bragging-rights idea is perhaps good for the donation model. Get your name on a public list to show off on, if you like. Maybe get a little graphic drawn for you and a personal ‘thankyou’.

A few? games run off donations; at least for beer money. One game that actually gets away with it that I know of is Dwarf Fortress.

Setting out a PayPal link is pretty much default practice for a hopeful webcomic in any event, so it’s something to try. I wonder how well it works. Maybe I’d have to ask some web comic artists how they do at it.

A3: Merch
Think hard-copy books! T-shirts, prints, coffee cups, stickers, print-on-demand Cafepress BS (though ideally not so cheesy). Comics have strong narratives and characters and can get away with merchandizing in a way that most games cannot (so this answer might well be swinging away from the considering-webcomics-as-games conceit, but it should be discussed).

Merch requires an established community of decent size slash enthusiasm as well as a certain amount of up-front investment and energy. Maybe: When the community (when you /have/ a community) starts making t-shirts for itself, you know it’s time to start selling them.  … I saw the DF forums spontaneously begin t-shirt production once…

Ultimately, community building takes time, and time is money, friend.

So here’s my plan:

1: Ads
Consider using low-key-as-possible ads on the comic’s news page and make token efforts to update the news page with something interesting as regularly as the comic is updated. Assuming this comic is a writer/artist team, there should always be someone willing to write something. Be upfront about what the ads mean for the comic; If they don’t work out or prove unpopular, remove them. (Yes, more projection of my strong anti-ad feelings.)

2: Donations
Set out the PayPal tip-jar and beg for change. Make a bragging-rights page for certain levels of patronage with fun icons next to people’s names/aliases. Maybe even custom art for a certain level of donation from a viewer. Do an extra content update if donations exceed a certain amount. This approach could be described as soft-micropayments : donations-with-rewards.

3: Merch
Do merch when/if the community gets to the point where it’d be worthwhile. How exactly to do this can be worried about when the time comes; skills can be learned or someone willing can surely be found from the unwashed masses.

The most important reason why this could work is that I think I can draw better than most webcomics and I wouldn’t write like an idiot — or I know a couple writers who can do that bit for me. (And there I go, wording in my typical negative manner: “Everyone else sucks so much that I can’t fail!”

It’s just a matter of having the time, and time, as said, is money. There is a starting investment to be made that may or may not end up paying off.

Comic number 22
The struggle between commitments and wealth.

Hoy os presento aquí las principales tirás cómicas online (webcomics) que sigo, las que considero las mejores para mí hasta el momento.

Bien, empiezo.

Tira Ecol

Tira Ecol

Bit & Byte

Bit & Byte

Ngendros

Ngendros

Y ahora otros que recomiendo pero son o en vertical o más grandes

http://palomitasymaiz.wordpress.com/

http://perdidos-comic.blogspot.com/

http://www.tortugasradioactivas.com/404/

http://www.alexmh.com/

http://www.narizpuntiaguda.com/

Saludos. Ameisin.

Como de costumbre, ando a las carreras. Por el momento, disfruten lá página que acabo de terminar hace menos de 5 minutos.

Number forty-three: Poseidon is scary.

[VORTEX COMICS occur once per day Monday through Friday. VORTEX COMICS do not occur on weekends. VORTEX COMICS is made by selecting five images (photos I've taken, made grayscale, and inked after printing) and five phrases (taken from things I've written in the past), pairing it down to three phrases, and leaving the connection up to the reader. VORTEX COMICS have no defined story...for now.]

Comic Number 21
Its fixed and its working – so far so good.

Comics Numbers 1 to 20
We start at the beginning.

Hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving!! Figured I could share a goofy Thanksgiving sketch I did before it’s too late. Now it’s time to put it in cruise control and ride out the rest of the holiday season. Enjoy your Black Friday and all that good stuff! –Shawn

-Ilustrado y coloreado por Nono.

Toda la semana he estado muy apurado (evaluaciones, expociciónes, prácticas, etc.), por lo que decidí pedirle a una amiga mía que me echara una mano. Aún así, como pueden ver, me atrasé en la actualización. Yo espero que para la próxima semana ya esté un poco más calmado el asunto.

Number forty-two: That van needs a dragon painted on it.

[VORTEX COMICS occur once per day Monday through Friday. VORTEX COMICS do not occur on weekends. VORTEX COMICS is made by selecting five images (photos I've taken, made grayscale, and inked after printing) and five phrases (taken from things I've written in the past), pairing it down to three phrases, and leaving the connection up to the reader. VORTEX COMICS have no defined story...for now.]

Number forty-one: Drama spoils our boyish fun.

[VORTEX COMICS occur once per day Monday through Friday. VORTEX COMICS do not occur on weekends. VORTEX COMICS is made by selecting five images (photos I've taken, made grayscale, and inked after printing) and five phrases (taken from things I've written in the past), pairing it down to three phrases, and leaving the connection up to the reader. VORTEX COMICS have no defined story...for now.]

Citrus Soldier describes itself as: A daily webcomic randomly snatched from the good people at Flickr™.  The guy that runs the site, picks a random photo from the photo sharing website Flickr, and writes a caption for it.  Although he has stopped updating on a daily basis, there are over 300 funny archived photos to browse through.  Check it out when you have a few minutes to spare (or especially if you have some procrastination to do).  Here are some examples of his work:

BLAST ASTEROID in – A Christmas Carol, Part 1!

Yep, we’re leaving you hanging there for a few weeks while we interrupt our regular story for a Blast Asteroid Christmas Carol Holiday Special webcomic! How do we kick this mini series off? Well Blast always seems to get himself into huge adventures, whether he wants to or not. When it comes to the holidays it doesn’t get any more huge than the big man in red himself (Santa! *duh!*)! How does this fine story begin? There’s only one way to find out… (read on!)