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Two weeks have passed since I last wrote about "Shannon", the graphic novel I want to publish. Two weeks of thinking an outline, beats, story, etc.

And I'm becoming bored with it.
It's not its fault, it's just that as soon...
Two weeks have passed since I last wrote about "Shannon", the graphic novel I want to publish. Two weeks of thinking an outline, beats, story, etc.

And I'm becoming bored with it.

It's not its fault, it's just that as soon as I see myself just stuck or see no actual progress, either artistically or storywise, I become bored and want to try something else. I haven't actually continued writing for this project, trying to ease my way back to the subject.

I also see that I'm lacking participation, as normally I write for it during lunch, but because I'm having lunch with my team I don't actually sit and write. Doing taxes and focusing on that also helps distract me.

I've been thinking too about Fox Goddess or this magical girl thing I want to write. And this short series for the ZU that I need to paste over there. So many things I want to do, and all of them making me lose focus.

But I do have some beats, just that I haven't written them down. Maybe the next part of this blogging comes with better fruits.

Top Rated Comment of 1

Tenzil Kem

Mon Feb 8th, 2010 23:48

It's all up to you, Auto.  How badly do you want it?  If you want to write your story than just do it, as Tiger would say.

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Some of you know I have Multiple Sclerosis.  My friend Heather also does, but she's doing something about it.  I think what she's doing is amazing.  If you or someone you know is in a position to help, thank you.

Here's words...
Some of you know I have Multiple Sclerosis.  My friend Heather also does, but she's doing something about it.  I think what she's doing is amazing.  If you or someone you know is in a position to help, thank you.

Here's words from Heather MacLeod ( she's a Mac and I still love her ).  If you go to her page you'll see she's a hottie!  Her sister too.

Hi all!

I have great news: I just recently got accepted to join the MS Climb team to head to Peru from October 9 ? 22 to trek the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu, for the purpose of fundraising for the MS Society of Canada!!  As part of my commitment to the endeavour, I must raise $7,500 through personal and corporate donations. 

 

I am asking you all to help me make it to Machu Pichu, which will ultimately help to research a cure for Multiple Sclerosis, which has touched my life on more than one occasion.

 

Please visit my personal donation page at the MS Society of Canada?s webpage: http://msofs.mssociety.ca/2010MISC/Sponsor.aspx?&PID=1172409&L=2

 

Donations can be easily made online by using your credit card.  (Tax receipts are issued immediately.)  If you would like to provide a cheque, you can simply mail it to my home address (tax receipts will be issued by mail from the MS Society):

Heather MacLeod

526 Geissinger Loop NW

Edmonton, AB

T5T 6T1

 

If you have any questions at all about MS Climb or about providing a donation, please do not hesitate to send me an email or give me a call at 780.340.1506.

 

I want to THANK YOU for your SUPPORT !

 

Sincerely,

Heather


My Story:

For nearly 15 years, Multiple Sclerosis has played a large part in my life.  In 1996, my aunt was diagnosed at the age of 40.  In 1997, my father was diagnosed, at the age of 48.  In 1998, my youngest sister, Stephanie, was diagnosed, at the age of 17.  And in August 2007, at the age of 31, I was officially diagnosed with MS.  On the morning on June 16th, 2007, I woke up and thought that I simply had a piece of cat hair stuck on the lens of my left eye.  After all, with two cats, it had happened before!  After many failed attempts to wipe it away and with the gradual worsening and blurring of my vision, I went to my physician.  The symptom that lead to a series of optometrists, ophthalmologists and neurologists appointments was called "optic neuritis", otherwise known as inflammation of the optic nerve that causes a complete or partial loss of vision.  For a period of 10 days, my vision went from 20/20 perfect eye-sight to hardly being able to see out of my left eye at all.  Over the course of the next 4 to 6 weeks, my vision returned to 20/20 vision again.  I was fortunate in that I had a complete recovery, which is not unusual of Relapsing-Remitting MS.  I am also very fortunate in that blurred vision was my one and only symptom.  The good news is that prior to and ever since my diagnosis, I have made healthy choices to ensure that I am doing everything I can to reduce stress, eat well, exercise often, and embrace life's good fortunes.

 

My sister and I have decided to join the MS Climb group and embrace the challenges of:

1) Fundraising $7,500 each for the MS Society of Canada, and;

2) Trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Pichu in Peru in October 2010

 

It is with the support of family, friends, colleagues, businesses and the community that Stephanie and I will be able to achieve these two big goals!


The MS Facts:

-       Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord).  MS attacks the protective myelin covering of the brain and spinal cord, causing inflammation, resulting in "attacks", followed by remissions. 

-       It is the most common neurological disease of young adults in Canada.

-       An estimated 50,000 Canadians have MS.

-       The MS Society estimates, based on current prevalence rates, that there are approximately 1,000 new cases of MS diagnosed each year. This means that three more people are diagnosed with MS every day in Canada.

-       Multiple sclerosis is usually diagnosed between the ages of 15 to 40, affecting women twice as often as men.

Top Rated Comment of 5

PsElliott

Mon Feb 8th, 2010 06:40

That sounds like a super fun fund raiser!  There is a man I know in my own town who does a 100k walk to raise money for African children.   He had a T-shirt made for himself, which he wore...

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Crazy thing happened today in our little village.  About five hundred feet from our house ( five houses away ) is what the locals call "uptown".  It's not Main St, but it's the main street.  The town does have a Main Street, but it's...
Crazy thing happened today in our little village.  About five hundred feet from our house ( five houses away ) is what the locals call "uptown".  It's not Main St, but it's the main street.  The town does have a Main Street, but it's not a well used road.  But I digress, there was a fire uptown today.  The dogs woke us and we smelled smoke.  Our alarms weren't going off so I was relieved it wasn't our house.  Looking out the window though we could see billowing smoke coming from uptown, which was upwind of us today. 

PWB was quick to suit up and trudge through the snow to the end of the street to see what the heck was going on.  The Beauty  Salon was burning down.  By the afternoon the HVAC place beside it also burned down.  The HVAC was the last original building on that street as it's the only building to have survived the uptown fire of 1937.

The fire is now smouldering.  In the blizzard.  Visibility has been almost zero all day.  I didn't really notice the blizzard until the majority of the smoke went away.

Here's a few photos PWB took through the course of the day.

The orange lifty thing has a fire dude in it who is spraying water on the bakery trying to  save it.  The empty space in front of the lifty thing is where the Beauty Salon was.  ( it's actual name was Beauty Salon ).  There's a small piece of the front of what was once the HVAC building.  This and the next photo were taken at 130pm.


I'm sure it had no bearing on how hard the volunteer fire fighters worked today, but the store on the left is Phil's.  Phil is also a volunteer fire fighter.  The fire did not reach his store ;)


I found this interesting.  In a small village we don't have enough water pressure for fire hydrants to work like you see in the city.  Here they fill tanker trucks with water and dump them into what looks like a huge yellow kiddie pool and pump the water from there onto the fire.  There was a second pool not shown in this photo.  They were constantly replenished. 



At the end of the day ( 445) all the smouldering steaming rubble was pushed into a pile.  I'll be curious how big the pile is by morning.  It's still smoking and steaming now at 145am.


That's it for my show and tell today.  I wish I had my film 35mm here.  I could have taken some nice photos of it in the dark with the icicles and the smoke/steam.  I'll eventually move all my stuff from my Mom's house :P

Top Rated Comment of 4

STURSTEIN

Mon Feb 8th, 2010 02:25

Damn. If stuff can burn uncontrollably in that kind of weather, it's easy to see how entire communities Down Under can go up in smoke in a summer bushfire. And we get plenty of those...

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This is it - The Deluxe Super Bowl Week Entry to the Playing Frankenstein game.  You know the rules - they are as simple as can be - so play the game and let STURSTEIN know what you want to see!  And don't forget - any other artists are...
This is it - The Deluxe Super Bowl Week Entry to the Playing Frankenstein game.  You know the rules - they are as simple as can be - so play the game and let STURSTEIN know what you want to see!  And don't forget - any other artists are welcome to try their hands as well!
Rules Refresher:
  1. Ball must travel at least ten yards on an onside kick.
  2. One entry per Zed.
  3. Five words maximum.
  4. Must be in present tense.
  5. Must be a complete sentence, not finishing someone else's.
I'll get you started.

Amelia is a super hero.

Top Rated Comment of 9

jmcleod

Sun Feb 7th, 2010 23:48

She is a futuristic gladiator.

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Just kidding.

Imminent webcomic would be more accurate.

In the end we scrapped everything on our list of potential titles in favour of Valentine's Dei. Obviously you're free to groan all you want, but don't bother...
Just kidding.

Imminent webcomic would be more accurate.

In the end we scrapped everything on our list of potential titles in favour of Valentine's Dei. Obviously you're free to groan all you want, but don't bother groaning at me. It's set in stone, and reinforced with carbonite, so groaning won't help any.

Coincidentally, it's only a week until Valentine's Day. Can anyone guess when we plan to launch? (Actually, I didn't consider the time of year until about two days after we'd decided on the name. I like to think it's not so much coincidence as providence; I was waiting for the gods to drop the right title in my lap, and they were nice enough to oblige.)

That gives me a week to get all the pieces together and figure out how Comicpress works. I think I can manage it. In the mean time, here's another mock cover just to tease everyone. (Big thanks to Riot for suggesting the title for this one.)


Top Rated Comment of 8

STURSTEIN

Sun Feb 7th, 2010 05:19

@TK: You'll just have to read the comic ;)


Wait... you get drunk?

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Danielle loves picking mushrooms.
She's barefoot, wearing a sundress.
Her tremendous fury manifests physically.
She's playing an axe guitar.
Her shredding solos shred faces.
She plays to lost souls.
The lost souls of...
Danielle loves picking mushrooms.
She's barefoot, wearing a sundress.
Her tremendous fury manifests physically.
She's playing an axe guitar.
Her shredding solos shred faces.
She plays to lost souls.
The lost souls of musicians.
She is soaking wet.
Her teeth rattle from shivering.
Her sundress is white.
Her body's wrapped with snakes.


Couple of things I need to clarify:

She's not soaking wet because it's been raining; she's soaking wet from the extreme exertion of hardcore rocking.

And she is shivering from cold, but not because she's wet; it's because lost souls have a tendency to suck all warmth from their immediate surroundings.

Incidentally, she's not a squirrel hater. That squirrel was just mean.

And I can't believe no one thought to mention she's a lefty. Guess y'all were just taking that for granted.

Clickety-click the image for a bigger one :)



Top Rated Comment of 16

STURSTEIN

Fri Feb 5th, 2010 23:28

@Dumo: Guess what? This is my 69th blog! 69, dude! Thought you'd appreciate that.

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Hello All

A lot of new faces I don't know, nice to meet you.  I know, I'd know the faces if I had shown mine. Life hasn't been a bed or roses this past year.  But it will make a good story one day.

Had some trouble with site...
Hello All

A lot of new faces I don't know, nice to meet you.  I know, I'd know the faces if I had shown mine. Life hasn't been a bed or roses this past year.  But it will make a good story one day.

Had some trouble with site slowness when I did try to log in every now and then, what's with that?  Then yesterday the blogs dissapeared?  WTF?

So tell, me what's new and exciting?  Did I miss any contests?

I'll check in more often, I promise.  I have almost finished a script to post soon, I'll keep ya posted.

TTFN
Jen

ps I'm closing in on the wormhole location and should be in BC by May.  Sorry Sturs, just from the middle of Canada to the coast, we'll find the one for down under eventually.

Top Rated Comment of 10

genrewriter

Thu Feb 4th, 2010 01:20

Yes, you missed lots of contests. You came in second for every one. If you'd been here you would've won and had your comic made by now...and your movie would be in production and your video game in...

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Just messing around at the end of the night cooling down. Been doing a lot of sketches of this character, trying to capture a feel. Inching closer I think. Half hour of Wacom and PS. Click for the bigger version....
Just messing around at the end of the night cooling down. Been doing a lot of sketches of this character, trying to capture a feel. Inching closer I think. Half hour of Wacom and PS. Click for the bigger version.

Top Rated Comment of 6

Tenzil Kem

Wed Feb 3rd, 2010 23:56

I like what I see!  Awesome job, Doug!

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Once more into the breech, bravely we go.  Sorry for the delay, folks, the technical difficulties were temporary and we are pleased you did not adjust your sets.  For our next character please remember the rules and obey the posted speed...
Once more into the breech, bravely we go.  Sorry for the delay, folks, the technical difficulties were temporary and we are pleased you did not adjust your sets.  For our next character please remember the rules and obey the posted speed limit signs at all times.
  1. Only five words maximum.
  2. One entry per Zed.
  3. Present tense only.
  4. Must be a complete sentence.
I'll start you off: Danielle loves picking mushrooms.

Okay, go!

Top Rated Comment of 19

WillGibson

Wed Feb 3rd, 2010 07:01

Her tremendous fury manifests physically.

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So the wrench in the works has been removed, the squirrels have been beaten back and resupplied with nuts, and everything is good again.

The blogs are back to normal! Huzzah! Three cheers!
So the wrench in the works has been removed, the squirrels have been beaten back and resupplied with nuts, and everything is good again.

The blogs are back to normal! Huzzah! Three cheers!

Top Rated Comment of 4

BDStevens

Tue Feb 2nd, 2010 18:51

Cool. Thanks guys. It's always good to see a Z2H staff member around. It's easy to forget what it takes to keep a site this big on the rails until something breaks.

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Hey Folks,

So, we've notice that the blogs are.... not working.

Not sure why blog posts aren't displaying properly, but we're currently working on figuring out what's going on, why things are broken, and what we can do to fix...
Hey Folks,

So, we've notice that the blogs are.... not working.

Not sure why blog posts aren't displaying properly, but we're currently working on figuring out what's going on, why things are broken, and what we can do to fix it.

Hopefully things will all get sorted out and back to normal round these parts.

Top Rated Comment of 3

rebelcan

Tue Feb 2nd, 2010 15:08

Huzzah! Everything is fixed, you may resume your regularly scheduled programming. Blogging. Activities!

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Sorry for my prolonged absence for the past couple weeks - I've been really busy working on "Yonder." We've hired an artist - an insanely good artist I'm frankly surprised is even talking to us - and we should be seeing some character sketches soon....
Sorry for my prolonged absence for the past couple weeks - I've been really busy working on "Yonder." We've hired an artist - an insanely good artist I'm frankly surprised is even talking to us - and we should be seeing some character sketches soon. Once I get them, I'll be sure to post them here pronto.

The latest road block is the lettering. Luke isn't sure if he has Photoshop on his computer any more, so we need to figure out a way to do lettering. And therein lies the question - where can I find a cheap copy of Photoshop or is there a similar art program which will do the lettering for less buck?

I know we've discussed lettering briefly on this blog before, and I have to say, I just don't think hiring a hand letterer is practical for a garage inc webcomic. I know lettering is increasingly becoming a lost comic book art onto itself, but I also think budding webcomics have to focus on developing a reliable update schedule. And if there's one thing I've learned about this process, it's this: stuff happens. The more streamlined the process is between the creative team, the easier it is to update when problems arise (which they always do) and outsourcing lettering can lead to more interruptions in the future.

So what is the easiest and most affordable way to complete the lettering way accurately and effectively? Is it just a question of finding the right program, or are there other options to consider?

It's something to ponder while I'm working on Yonder (pardon the horrid rhyme). Either way, I'll keep you posted on our progress as we near some big hurdles in the coming weeks.

Top Rated Comment of 9

BDStevens

Tue Feb 2nd, 2010 12:18

Honestly, Photoshop is probably about the weakest type set program in the Adobe Creative Suite. Illustrator is probably the best for comic style lettering work. It has really clean and easy to use...

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Just curious here but have all of the blogs disappeared for everybody else? I'm assuming its the Z2H techies working their web magic but just wondering if this is isolated or not.
Just curious here but have all of the blogs disappeared for everybody else? I'm assuming its the Z2H techies working their web magic but just wondering if this is isolated or not.

Top Rated Comment of 4

STURSTEIN

Mon Feb 1st, 2010 15:18

I was just about to ask the same question. So assume my answer is a 'yes'.


Holy crap! It's an army of ghost blogs!!!

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Does anyone have any advice on getting a job as an illustrator? ive been trying to get my foot in the door but i have no idea where or how to even apply to said carrer.
Does anyone have any advice on getting a job as an illustrator? ive been trying to get my foot in the door but i have no idea where or how to even apply to said carrer.

Top Rated Comment of 3

dumo

Mon Feb 1st, 2010 06:37

Have you taken any post secondary schooling in art?  If not it's a very good place to start.  Aside from learning important aspects such as composition, perspective, colour theory etc......

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Connie loves riding golden dragons. ...
Connie loves riding golden dragons. 
She's deficient in social acumen.
She is morbidly obese.
She is never naked. NEVER.
She has elaborate face tattoos.
Her curves are dangerously elegant.
She is playing video games.
Her stomach has a face.
Her stomach face is crying.
Her scaly skin is green.
Her feet are fuschia hooves.



I would've drawn her bigger if it weren't for that dragon taking up so much space.

Clickety-click the image for more detail.

Top Rated Comment of 11

dumo

Sat Jan 30th, 2010 00:22

I wish I could write something worthy of your talent, my brother, KEEP AT IT!!  you are a phenomenon.

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