The entries contained in this journal could be shocking, scandalous, sensationalist, insulting, erratic, and insane, but are more than likely just pretty boring.

The public, "Official" blog for Strange Fiction is here for the stalking pleasure of those interested.

(I like saying it's the "Official" blog. Like I'm important enough to warrant something "Official.")

Anyhoo, now that you've been forewarned, feel free to add me, and let me know how we know one another. It makes me feel more like I have actual friends.

Did you know there's a Center for Cartoon Studies? Because I sure as hell didn't.

The responsible part of my brain is saying, "It's $16k a year, you're already in massive amounts of student debt, and this isn't going to make your already out-of-date skill set any more employable." The rest of my brain is going, "Think of what you can learn! Think of who you can meet!"

I don't have any kind of training in cartooning other than what I've observed/taught myself, but I've been really itching to do and learn more lately in order to really expand my abilities, and I feel like I need help getting there. That's probably the reason I've been itching to meet some other cartoonists in a real-life, physical way. (Not that way, you perverts!) The internet is wonderful, and because of it, I've met people and learned things and expanded my horizons leagues beyond anything I would have experienced without it. I'm grateful. But sometimes, you want to sit in a bar, have a drink and interact with another human being in the physical realm.

I'm 32. I've already been thinking about going back to school to brush up my graphic design skills, get my Master's and learn some web shit, but this... It's so damn tempting.

And for everyone who isn't a comic geek, something funny:

It's officially a week until Ducky and I leave for the wilds of North Carolina. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! I Eee with excitement!

... Wait. Wait.

Ho.Lee.Shit! WHAT AM I GONNA WEAR?!? (No. I still don't know.)

I'm for sure drawing portraits/doodles/nekkid pictures Thursday night. I have the feeling dj_mouse isn' taking no for an answer, considering I was called out on the radio a couple of weeks ago. :) I'm still slightly terrified. I need to buy a flask and get myself good and liquored up sociable beforehand.

Back to the comic!

The following comic was based on real events. The names have been chanced to protect the innocent...

I picked up a crow quill, some ink, and a pack of "cartoon strip paper" (which basically involves printing light blue rulers on the paper and charging up the ass for it), and I spent last night experimenting.

I've discovered I MUCH prefer working with traditional materials vs. the computer. Yeah, the option to hit "undo" is nice, but there's something infinitely more appealing to me about working with a pen, brush and ink than working with software and a tablet. Computer effects are amazing, but it doesn't give me the same happy as the old school stuff.

I also think I do a much better job inking with a brush rather than with a brush pen. For whatever reason in my mind, holding a brush pen = seizing the tool in a death grip and pushing down as HARD AS I POSSIBLY CAN. I have a lighter looser touch with the brush, and that translates to my lines being a lot less shaky, and the brushwork being something with which I'm actually happy. Considering I've been trying to work with the brush pen for over a year, I don't think it's a matter of getting used to the medium either.

All in all, I doing this strip was a lot more enjoyable (and a lot faster), than doing a "regular" 3-panel Strange Fiction comic. I think I'm going to be changing how I do the comics from this point forward.

Oh, Diesel Sweeties, you make me ashamed of my comic's writing.

In other news, I think I'm done sulking. I'm not done being sad, but I'm pretty sure I'm done using grief to justify ice cream sundaes for dinner.

Eh heh heh. Livejournal, you know not what you ask.

We've already established I was a bit of an odd thing as a child, yes? One of the things that made me screwball flavored in the eyes of my peers was probably my love of anything titled "Unexplained," "Mysterious," and/or "Supernatural." Especially if it came hardbound with glossy photos from Time Life. (To this day, I can't see the "Time Life Collection" and not think of UFOs.) I voraciously consumed almost every book the local and school libraries had about these questionable sections of science [1].

(I would like to take a moment to note that I preferred the books to the cable TV specials blithely believing that books were bound to be More Accurate (TM) than TV shows. I'll pause to let you chuckle.)

So, asking what my favorite most-likely-make-believe monster is opening up a can of chupacabras. I've got a lot of them. However, my favorite critter is the one who lit the fire in the first place: Nessie. Because, let's face it; modern dinosaur = pure awesome.

My youthful obsession with Nessie may or may not be the reason huge sea creatures freak me right the fuck out. The killer whale tank at Sea World? Not my favorite place in the world. And Whale Watching? Please. You would not be able to convince me with money to sit in a little inflatable dingy while humpback whales breech all around me, let alone get me to pay you for the "privilege."

I will also admit to a certain soft spot for the odiferous Floridian version of Sasquatch, the Skunk Ape. (Only in fucking Florida is Bigfoot stinky.)

The critters that scare me include the Jersey Devil and the Mothman. Although, the later is no doubt due to the fact I had a sadistic bastard of a friend who insisted I watch The MothMan Prophecies with him.

---------
[1] When I first started dating Ducky, I found out one night that at one point, his dad had a copy of the original Blue Book, because some distant married relation took part in creating it.

Ducky: Yeah, my dad had some illegal alien book that he had to hide under the floor boards or some shit.
Me: (Geeking right the fuck out) The BLUE BOOK?!? You're shitting me! No way! OMG::spasm::die

I don't know how many people read this blog because of Strange Fiction, but if you've read the comic at any time during the past five months, you've noticed my productivity slide firmly down into nothingness. I haven't been able to draw lately. I find myself utterly unable to do anything beyond a small doodle.

Coupled with this is my inability to figure out how to get a decent amount of drawing time set aside for myself. There's been a huge increase in workload at my Day Job, which may be good for job security, but sure doesn't do much for my stress levels. We've also lost two employees who we don't seem to be replacing. All this has kept my small freckled nose slammed up against the grindstone. Between the extra time spent at work tying up loose ends and the commute, I rarely get home before 7. Since Ducky works until midnight most nights, that leaves me to put together dinner, which is almost always made from scratch, as we don't have the money to buy pre-prepared or processed foods. By the time I finish cooking, cleaning up the disaster zone my culinary adventures inevitably leave the kitchen, and straightening up the apartment (provided I have the energy). I have an hour, maybe an hour and a half to myself before I have to leave to pick Ducky up from work. After that, I get to spend an hour or so with my beloved before I'm so exhausted I'm falling asleep sitting up. Or before I get really grumpy, because I'm tired. Most times I get really grumpy.

So, yeah. Depression. Mourning. Stress. We've got it all on tap here at the House of Attercop, served tall, chilled and capped with a thick head. *sigh*

It's times like these that I wish I believed in god(s)/ess(es)/what-have-you. Light a candle and give it up to a higher power that knows and understands how things Should Be, and will somehow help my lost and confused ass get there.

P.S. We really do have ants at our house. Lots of them.

Important things first. I won't have Strange Fiction up this week. I didn't want to have to do this, I swear. I had great intentions of not missing anymore updates after I sucked at life all last month the one previous, but I have not been able to get into anything close to akin to a "groove" with the comic now that Ducky and I are in our own place. Sorry, snarklings! (Yes, I stole that expression with glee from Gothic Charm School. d-:) I feel terrible about it, but in the end MeatSpace commitments come first.

Does anyone know how to grow an onion plant? I keep our collection of the pungent little bulbs in a basket hidden away in the top of a cabinet. When I took the basket down last night, I discovered one of the yellow onions had sprouted waxy, pale green leaves.

It looks like a pikmin.

I'm loath to throw the little guy away. If he can sprout in a dark cabinet, who am I to deny him the opportunity to grow into a proper plant? Right now he's hanging out in a plastic cup on the kitchen windowsill, which exhausts my knowledge of "how to properly care for plants." (Sunlight = Good) I did a little online research, and one site suggests watering it like a "regular houseplant" and another recommends using a "soilless planting mixture."

...

The problem is this: I don't know what the hell any of that means. How often and how much do you water a "regular houseplant?" What in fuck's name is "soilless" dirt? Help me oh gods and goddesses o' the green! Any direction you can give Lady A of the Black Thumb will be sorely appreciated. (Mostly by my new onion plant, I'm sure.)

Someone bought not one, but two t-shirts from the shop.

Woah. Thank you, Mystery Shopper!

...

You're related to me, aren't you?

HOLY GOD, how is it almost October already? It's impossible I tell ya! Impossible. I need another week to prepare at the least!

Gah. Whether I'm ready or not All Hallow's Eve is upon us and those of you who have been reading the comic from the beginning know what October brings: hurricanes.

Hurricanes and stupid Halloween madness.

This year, I'm going to try something a little different and hopefully a little more interesting than last year. (Emphasis on try.)

I'm also going to try to run a bit of a contest this year. Each of the hidden Halloween pages is going to contain a snippet of a song lyric. If you find all 5 hidden pages, and are the first to email me the title and artist of the song snippet, you'll win fabulous Halloween-themed prizes! (Relax. They won't be hard. Google them if you really get stumped.)

Speaking of contests and fabulous prizes, if you haven't already, there's still time to enter the Eyeskream Swap Day III contest! Fame and fortune are still up for grabs!

Tags: eyeskream, halloween, strange fiction

So far today I've had 1 can of Coke, a piece of dry toast, and 6 Dots, and I still feel like I swallowed a water balloon full of battery acid.

FYI: Dots make for interesting puke.

Bleh.

I'm not too sick to make crappy LJ icons though. Have at you!

I was in the room while Mr. Bill was watching one of those soft news digest shows, and they were running a piece on a guy who makes art from license plates. The gallery that sells the majority of his work, hasn't taken in a new artist since Warhol, so of course the interviewer asked the owner what made them choose this artist.

There was the usual art gallery spin that you would expect. The part that really made me sit up and take notice, however, was when the gallery owner mentioned how marketable--not the art--but the artist was. "In today's age of media, it's an important element for an artist to also be a personality... It's interesting and important that he is."

The persona of the artist as a marketing tool. Huh. Well, it's something Dali understood that's for sure.

I suspect (and the large quantity of fan art dedicated to the artist supports my theory) that one of the reasons Stuff Sucks is such a popular web comic is that because the creator is very good at presenting herself as a cute, accessible, hip indie girl. And maybe Liz Greenfield is just that (I don't know her personally, so I can't say), but whether she is or isn't, that persona sure helps sell the comic.

Up until this point, Strange Fiction has been the focus of strangefiction.net (imagine that). I have links to stuff about me, my Flickr account and LJ, but I've never really advertised them. I thought of those as sort of bonus material for the few that might be interested.

The question I'm left asking myself is that if I want to take a chance at doing this Web Comic Thing as a career, and I do, am I an idiot for not crafting more of a "Lady A" persona and exploiting myself as part of the presentation for the comic? I'm female, I'm cute, I can be clever and funny, I have a good eye for picking up on what the next "big thing" is going to be (not that this has ever helped me be cool, mind you), I wear funky clothes and go to goth shows*, all of which could help me pimp the comic.

If I were to use "Lady A" to sell SF, would that be smart marketing, using more of the tools I already posses to help me get the comic to the status I want, or would it be selling out to an image obsessed culture and making myself an attention whore for the hope of a few more hits?

* Inadvertent rhymes FTW!

I'm so happy with it, that I'm actually posting a sneak peak of the artwork I did last night. Usually, I'm not uber-thrilled with what I put together (I can always find something with which I'm dissatisfied), but I'm actually pretty pleased with how this one turned out. I still see a thousand tiny errors, but as far as expression and body language, I think I pegged Eep pretty well with this one. (Now I just need to get something put together for the rest of the characters.)

Time to finally get some new LJ icons, a wallpaper and promo banners on the site.

The funniest thing about this piece (or maybe not), is that the way Eep is holding his cigarette there is something I totally stole from my own body language without realizing it. I noticed it last night while I was at my art table, staring at the sketch, holding my pencil the exact same way. It's funny when you're an artist (or a writer for that matter), how much of yourself you'll unconsciously pirate when you create something.

On the subject of Eep, someone from GN asked me why I made him Hispanic. The question caught me off guard, because I had no answer for it. Eep was always Spanish in my mind. I never really thought about it. Personally, I'm wondering what prompted the person to ask. Did I do something odd by making my lead character a minority, or is it because whenever you see a member of a subculture depicted (be it goth, punk, emo, headbanger, whatever) that character is almost always white, or is it because people are expecting some larger, Deep Meaning behind Eep's ethnicity?

Oh! And for anyone who has started her/his own Large Marge Death Pool, the car is now running very, very hot any time I'm stopped at a red light for too long. Fun!