My Project(s) Proposal Happy Fun Time

I have dos comicos I will be working on this semester. Their titles? Glad you asked!: "Hot Dawg/This Porridge is Just Right", and "Melting Patterns"

The first idea =

In a sentence: A mini-comic folded hot dog style containing both titles

In a Paragraph: A mini-comic made from 8 ½ x 11 pieces of paper folded hot dog style. It can be read both directions, so when you flip it over there will be a new cover for a different comic. “Hot Dawg” has no story line; it will just be a collection in 1-page comics full of cutsie animals and cheesy puns. “This Porridge…” will be a sequential story; basically my version of Goldilocks.

In a page: A mini-comic made from 8 ½ x 11 pieces of paper folded hot dog style. The titles are independent of one another, "Hot Dawg" being a collection of 1-page comics, "This Porridge.." a sequential story. Deciding which comic to follow will depend on which way the book is turned-the panels will only be right-side-up for the comic currently being viewed. Each will have it's own (slightly thicker) title page. "Hot Dawg" will be full of silly puns starring adorable little anamorphic characters, because, well...that's funny to me (hopefully not only me). "This Porridge..." is my take on the classic fairytale "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" (girl wanders into a house owned by sentient bears, uses their furniture, eats their food, "this porridge is too hot", yadda yadda, then either meets her demise or is saved by a strong lumberjack, or what have you...) I don't like weak female characters that need a burly hunter to save them, so in my version Goldie IS a hunter. She's as ruthless as she is rude, so when the bears attack (which is understandable-she's a dirty trespasser), she defends herself (and then some) with a giant Rambo-esque knife.

The second idea =

In a sentence: A man’s mental collapse.

In a paragraph: A sequential story about a Korean-American man named Ban. Ban is stuck in a loveless marriage and a dead-end job. Each day he deals with annoyances-his nagging wife and annoying kids, a slimy boss, rude customers, etc.-that eat away at him slowly. These doldrums paired with mysterious pills eventually lead to a mental breakdown. He begins to hallucinate until finally he can’t distinguish his fantasies from real life.

In a page (?!): I have over-explained "Melting Patterns" so many times on this blog that I feel it unnecessary to go into any more intricacies of this story (see: last post, ART348-finalized drawring (based off character sketch), My ART450 project pitch (sah-WIIING battahbattahbattah!)

I plan to finish "Hot Dawg/This Porridge..." for Stumptown (an indepent publishing comic convention) in Portland on the weekend of April 16th. After that I will continue working on "Melting Patterns", a comic my friend Jenny Kladzyk and I have been working on, which was started in ART450 last semester.

Influences for "Hot Dawg/This Porridge...":

~Lisa Hanawalt-an indie artist who features not-so-adorable anamorphic characters in her twisted comics. I recently picked up her "I want you" series (2 books so far) and laughed so hard I MAY have peed myself...PLEASE visit her amazing blog: http://lisahanawalt.com/

~Ezra Butt-my good friend and colleague who makes infamously elaborate 3-panel funnies featuring disturbingly realistic talking animals. Warning: My comic won't be NEARLY as funny or well-rendered. Peep his goodies here: http://sarcopterygian.blogspot.com/

Influences for "Melting Patterns":

~James Stokoe-Ban's dream sequences wish they were as creative/off-putting as any panel of his wild ride that is "Orc Stain": http://orcstain.wordpress.com/

~Ross Campbell-a fine example, as the great Miles Inada says, of "having your cake and eating it, too." His line work is flawless and it's obvious that he only draws the subject matter he truly wants to (in his case it's goth girls, amputees and vigilantes, but you get the point): http://www.greenoblivion.com/

On a technical level, I feel I have enough know-how to bust out quality work for both projects. The only issue, as usual, will be adhering to a schedule. My timeline will (hopefully) go thusly:

*now until the 12th: page a day for my double book (title pages done on the 12th)

*13th-15th: work with local copy shop to print out multiple books

*16th-17th: STUMPTOWN! <3 (hopefully git sum street cred from some indie publishers)

*(Tues)18th-end of term: 2 pages a week (hopefully 12 pages)

*finals week: CRITEEEEEQUE!

--WHEW!-- Those be some hefty goals...wish me luck!

ART450 FINAL reflective essay *sniff*

SOOooooh, for my final project I finally made a comic that meets up to my standards! And by "I" I mean "we", the "other" (in a non-existential way) being Jenny Kladzyk. With her unique writing skills/overall badass-ery and my meticulous drawing skills/Photoshop wizardry we executed 6 pages of bizarre, real-space fun! Our working title is "Melting Patterns" and we hope to one day turn it into a graphic novel. The original content was the brainchild of Jenny and myself. We were loitering in our backyard one day, shooting the breeze, when we came up with the idea. We discussed the phenomenon of the average person playing out idealized scenarios his/her head in response to stressful situations. There's always that "I wish I would have said that" moment after the fact. Who doesn't fantasize about telling their egocentric boss to "F*#k OFF!"? "Melting Patterns" expounds on this idea-Ban, the main character, internalizes everything he wishes he could say to the cold, selfish individuals that plague his life. This, combined with mysterious pills and mixed feelings over a young women, bring him to a breaking point.

I learned that while drawing panels comes effortlessly to me, as does writing to Jenny, the editing process kills. It's so tedious and time-consuming to design page layouts in Photoshop and then make sure everything reads well. Hours in the lab may or may not have led to a few meltdowns. The salty-tear-filled time in the lab took much longer than anticipated. We had planned to pump out 8 pages every two weeks, but editing and various classes I took this term made that goal difficult.

Although we only got 6 pages finished (more to come before the term ends), Jenny and I are pleased with our result. We may have strayed from the production schedule, but we both went in knowing this might happen. A big draw back, however, is that we've only executed a dream sequence, so the actual story isn't apparent...yet. Still, overall I'm pleasantly surprised by the fruits of our labor.