What Fresh Hell is This?

Hey folks, sorry all for the lack of posts and artwork, been busy.

Got a bit of time off, soon some artwork will grace this blog, I recently decided to go back to the board and back to basics, the number one reason, I want original art to sell.

Got some t-shirt designs and promo design work to do, look for a couple new strips coming soon, I gotta get around to cleaning off my big scanner, it's buried under a foot of papers.

On a side note, I have a ton of old and used computer equipment, I will be cataloging it and offering it soon.

Right now I have two small wacom tablets Graphire 2's I think, they are blue and in great shape, I have no use for them so anyone needing one pipe up. (they are usb)

well off to have a coffee.

Ok it's off to Toronto today to set up for a Dinosaur show at the ACC.
No idea what it's gonna be.

Got the call as I was walking out of the theatre after seeing the Hulk, it was cool, I could pick out scenes and remember when they were shot etc.

A lot of what we worked on got cut, BUT the one scene I worked on and rigged for 6 hours one night then another 2 the next, stayed in, it was altered, but my work was used, so that was ultra cool.

I can't wait for the dvd to see all the extended scenes and see what made it in.
I didn't get a chance to check out the sfx credits because the Business Agent was trying to find me to go to Toronto right at that moment.

I may or may not have a credit because I bounced between first and second unit,. (first gets credit, second at the discretion of the powers that be, so my guess is no)

Now that the movie is out I can talk more about the actual events etc.. cool!

Well off to rig a bunch of lights for Dinosaurs!

So much for reality...

yeah, I know, same old, same old from me.

It's not my fault, blame the feast or famine style of my work.

It always takes a couple of days to slide back to reality after too many work days.
I gotta still open my pool, I usually open it April 1st, geez this year it's looking like July 1st.

I am in a bored with everything mood today, got a union meeting in late afternoon, hopefully it wont last long, but they always do.

That's about all for now, no time equals no art.

I have 4 or 5 projects I gotta get moving on.
So look for some art here soon.

When our BA told me it was gonna pick up, he wasn't kidding, I turned down 2 Toronto calls, didn't feel like traveling, but ended up getting a shift at Hamilton Place to do Leonard Cohen, so much for a few days off, and the rest of the week is pretty busy, I may have to take a few Toronto calls soon, don't really like 'em, but the money is fantastic.

Not much happening art wise, everything I am working on, I can't show, damnit.

Gotta really ramp it up and revive my art career, as much as I love being a Stage Hand and going for my rigging training etc, it can be a real pain when you gotta get up at 5 am to make an 8am call 50 klicks away, and you didn't get in till 1 am from the previous call.

I am gonna be pretty busy for the next 2 weeks or so, so not many posts.

UNGH...

I fucking hate working Geritol Follies, I mean the show itself is good, the people are all happy to go to the show... it's just the damn problems that it brings.

My personal had to deal with tally this week, 1 Heart Attack, 2 Severe Head Injuries, and 2 missing persons.

Oh yeah and I forgot one twisted knee that an idiot manager freaked out over, had me call 911, then had me cancel the call after she realized it wasn't a really serious problem, 911 gets REAL pissed off when you do this, so I had to deal with their pissy attitude.

The Heart attack wasn't too bad, kept the woman calm, on oxygen till the ambulance arrived, even the head medical lady was annoyed because I was better trained than her staff.

The two people that wandered off, found, one of them wandered off about 20 blocks, my big complaint, all of them had their own attendants, WTF, can't you people do your jobs? I had one attendant say to another "just get him to do it" and pointed at me, I told her to fuck off and do her own fucking job (a straight quote from me), I had 60 walkers and wheelchairs to deal with, and that was before any emergencies.

Also had a run in with some of our Bartenders, the Senior Bartender had her cronies doing bar, while I did crowd control and first aid, when my job is "bartender", so one kept asking "how do I do this", all day, so I turned to her and gave her my patented "do your own fucking job lecture" I was suddenly unpopular because I refused to help any of them do one iota of their paperwork, course that might have been my fault, when asked anything my answer was "fuck off".

The worst accident was an elderly gentleman of 81, he did a face first fall down about 10 stairs, he had a rug burn down his face, and some cuts on his hands, but worst of all a huge gash over his right eye, had to take over the care because another lady fell inside the hall on concrete, and she had an attendant, (great job idiot)
so the first aid lady had to run to her and basically dashed off saying I could handle this one, which I could, I wasn't annoyed because she knows I can deal with it, so I got his bleeding under control, kept him from moving his head and neck, talked to him, made sure he was with it etc, got his info for the ambulance, he was 81, and in great health, so it made it easier, he was ultra cool, no freaking out, so John, I hope everything worked out ok at the hospital (we never ever find out).

This may seem like a high tally, but out of about 10,000 elderly patrons, this is a pretty low number.
So I have the weekend off, maybe I will draw a bit, don't know, kinda burned out today, I would rather zone and play video games or something.

On the art front, still strugling with going all digital, I made the jump about a month ago, but keep getting the urge to at least pencil on the board, but I am better on computer.

Go Figure.

Just killin' time before work and I was watching some music videos, came across this gem by Electric Six...



This band is hillarious, all their videos are twisted... but fun!

They remind me of a time when people didn't take things so damn serious...

Ok fast post before work...

I was working on some rough design sketches today and thought I would share one.
(this was done in Corel painter X).




More details when things progress etc.

On the work front, don't know how long I am gonna last before I just walk off the job at Hamilton Place.
I am getting real fed up, took me an hour to fix the paperwork from the day shift, they just did a horrible job and the supervisor, well, I better not say much, but the damn paperwork is screwed, one page of work, has turned into 6 or 7 pages. It's annoying as hell.

Ok, I admit I have not posted enough...
Yes, I am still alive.
Just working lots, my long weekend consists of work, I get to watch 2 empty buildings today, woohoo, total boredom!!!!!

Had a fun night last night, someone broke a window this week, so a big piece of wood to watch and make sure no one tries to break in, and the Mag locks kept failing yesterday, so I had to use tie downs to hold the doors shut.

Gonna have fun tonight as we are gonna have a total power shut down for much needed repairs, so no light, no computer, nothing. Good thing I have a flashlight.

Not much art done, been trying to work out some workspace issues, think I might have it all worked out.

Listening to Talking Heads, remembering how much I loved this band, ah the good ol' 80's....

Think I will buy a new collection of their music, mine is all on LP and cassette.

Sorry All,

I got real busy with work, and art etc.

I have been doing a whack of art, but because of contracts etc, I can't post anything right now.
One of the drawbacks of commercial work.
I may have some storyboards for an indy production to post soon, we'll see how busy/lazy I am.

That's about all for now. More fun Union stuff when I know more (get more info in a big fight that's looming).

Well I was sooo pissed off at work, I took the whole week off, it hurt a bit money wise, but the hell with it.

On a side note, yet more people I know are either dropping dead or getting horrible health problems.
One buddy woke up completely blind due to a nerve disease, my pal Mark Innes called me early one morning and told me about it. It's a bummer because Ross (who went blind) is an actor and has dabbled in animation, we figure all he has left now is voice over work.

Another guy whom I worked with years ago at HP, well he steps out of the gym and drops dead on the street from a heart attack.

Then I get a call from a cousin of mine, my cousin Gerald passed away Sunday night, nice of someone to wait a week to tell me. He was a great guy, worked hard all his life as a Lumberjack (yes we still have them in Canada), then about 15 or 20 years ago he got hit with MS, it really wore him down, he died of pneumonia in his sleep, so he went peaceful. Heck, I was shocked because he had a tree fall on him once and recovered.

If the weather holds up I am gonna work on the swimming pool and try to get it at least running (the filter), I gotta shock it real good, we had a lot of snow this year so it's real full of water, but lots of sediment from the snow, makes you wonder how much junk is in the snow?

got some art done, I may post some later, I am working on a step by step for a comic page I am drawing, so when the page in done, I will post a complete series of images etc.

I hate to admit it, but drawing on the computer is about 10 times faster for me than on the board, it's a shame I do miss the feel of the pencil sometimes, but I love the ease of changing stuff on the computer, and being a compulsive perfectionist with my art, it's the only logical solution, otherwise I would complete a page a year, with the computer I do 1 or 2 pages a day. (pencils, inks, colours letters).

Gonna go do some more art now...

I gotta stop working too many doubles and too many days in a row...

All it does is piss me off at the fucking idiots I work for.
They are trying to change how stuff is done, just to protect 2 cronies because they didn't get certified in fall arrest.
Heaven forbid I should have more opportunity than those two worthless cocksuckers, just because I have Fall Arrest and WHMIS training, and all they do is suck management cock.

It was unbelievable, the INSTANT they figured out that myself and one other worker had to be called in every time the rails are removed due to height and conditions, a fall arrest ticket was needed, they changed the entire process, we are gonna grieve it of course, the joke is these two guys couldn't pass the course if you held a gun to their heads.

So when my Locals BA called me up about 4 hours after my last shift asking me to work all week, I told him just what they could do with their shifts.

I am gonna complete my rigger training and work the beams or even ground rigging and blow that place off from now on, it's just not worth the bullshit.

Got two union meetings tonight, both will not be fun, so it's a wasted day for me.

and how was everyone else's weekend?

Whew.. gotta be quick, got a huge set up to do at Copps, it's for a motorcycle offroad stunt show kinda thing.

My two days off dwindled to zero, so just a quick hi and bye to everyone, some new art up soon, wen I get some time that is...

Ok... looks like I am back on LiveJournal for a while at least...

I tried a bunch out during the time I was away from here, they all suck... either the other users are vacant or the technical aspects are lacking...

So for better or worse I am back here for a bit.

As a treat here's my new T-shirt design for all to see!





I am working on a whole series of these, I will post the lot of 'em when they are done.

Well folks, looks like I am moving on from LiveJournal.

A few may know where to find me...

So long and thanks for all the fun posts!

I finally got around to doing the cover for my 5 issue ecompilation of my Eddy Zero series.

Here's a preview of the new cover.





I have decided this eComic route for most of my comic sized publication 24 pages etc...
After years of printing costs, and all the crap that Diamond is to deal with, an eComic makes more sense.

It's time I re-embraced technology and formats of the future.

If I get the Eddy Zero series up to 100 pages or more, I will publish a Graphic Novel through LuLu.

Anyone interested in buying the eComic, here's a shameless plug to buy one HA HA!
But seriously I appreciate anyone buying one, when purchased I will email the eComic to you.

I will be setting up a password page soon enough, but this is a quick solution.

Did these 2 pages on the computer in one day!

I mean if I pencil a page a day it's fast, but to pencil ink and colour 2 pages in a day is a huge leap in speed for me.

I think I may have to stick with the computer for art.

PAGE 1



Page 2





It's a different style for me, I want to let the halftones define the shadows etc and use simple colours.

The passing of Dave Stevens has bummed me out beyond belief.

He was a great artist, my only contact with Dave Stevens was a brief meet at a con decades ago, I actually know more about him from correspondence with Laura Molina from nakeddave.com fame.

About 10 years ago when I was doing a lot of advertising with the comics journal, I posted a link to her site on my company web site, well it generated enough traffic for Laura to contact me, and thank me for making her "infamous on the comics journal message boards". I guess she got a lot of negative emails and comments.

I haven't emailed her for about 4 or 5 years, but she was always nice to me, so that's my only memory of Dave Stevens beyond his comic and illustration work.

Not really much to say beyond that, heck, Laura Molina might not even remember me.
The funny things you think of when someone passes away...

Finally feeling better, and of course I have to go to work in a blizzard, fun wow!

On a good note (ok, the better IS a good note, it's the going to work that sucks),
I have taken a brave/stupid move and totally gone digital again...

WHY?
Well the drawing on paper is cool for original art, but I really have more skill and ability using the computer.

It's different doing things this way, and I have 3 projects underway that are half complete, so I am going to scan them and then finish the pages by computer, an interesting experiment in mixing styles, one of them I am going to have to buy a larger printer for, as I am just lettering and pencilling backgrounds and all the figures but the main character, so it should prove interesting, then scanned back in for the inking stage, or have someone else ink it.

Well here's a tidbit, done on a snowy afternoon.

Ung...

What a friggin last few days...

Started having lunch on Thursday for my Birthday, got the chills real bad right after lunch.... And just kept getting sicker as the day wore on, an so 3 or 4 days later, just now I am able to sit up at the computer, I was woozy, and forget eating... not fun.

I had to call in sick Friday, Saturday, Today, and I have to call in for tonight to set up for Springsteen, and tomorrow nights turn around, it sucks to lose the money, but there is no way that I can lift 200 lb hockey glass after 4 days of not eating.

I think this hit me so hard as I have been working too many crazy hours, it all caught up with me at once, almost the same as in December, this may be a wake up call, time to start doing more art and less insane labour.

on a funny note I took the historical lunatic quiz...


Which Historical Lunatic Are You?
From the fecund loins of Rum and Monkey.

Well back to lay down and suffer...

All right folks, I usually don't do this, but I can relate to dental work and the costs... not cheap and not fun...



So check out the link and if you can help out, if you can't afford anything, that's cool, just help spread the word.

And yes, I know, it's friggin' Tuesday again.... I work too much, no days off.