Herald_BadHabit

Only one Herald left before we pack it up for the semester. And before we launch into some actual stories.

So back in northern California I heard about a Jhonen Vasquez comic about a teenaged mom eating her own baby, which basically inspired today's comic.

Easter Eggs: Fusion Fall's version of Ben(10)'s hair and shirt, Katara's hair loopies, Duo Maxwell's pony tail, Harley Quinn's diamonds.

Fun Facts: Hero's hair isn't colored in the printed version's second frame! I lost my ruler so I improvised the final frame's action-blur transition.

Note to Self: jack kelly never sleeps. jack kelly really does eat babies. jack kelly just makes immature social commentary.

When I find that jack kelly...you'll see,

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Fun_RockShowPart2

So from last time, for a good while, there were only two audience members after I arrived at the concert/dining hall.

Out of nervous habit, I decided I should draw while they debated canceling the show.

So while some musicians were warming up/showing off/entertaining...out(?), I decided to draw a male and female "rocker" avatar.

This is the girl rocker.

This is the guy rocker.

I drew this one before everything else at the show, and this one's definitely my favorite.

Easter Egg: Their jackets have a pattern along the sleeves like Aang has arrows tattoo'd along his arms (and legs and head).

Fun Fact: The guy's got a guitar, the girl's got a pick.

Yay rock music.

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Fun_RockShowPart1

A bunch of Yalies rocked out to varying degrees on screechy guitars and mics Sunday night (Mad Mad Prophets won). I was the second of two audience members for a good while, and there weren't many bands present, either, but fortunately people showed up, and in my awkward corner-hiding, I sketched some audience members. A good number of JE people came, too.

Up first is a girl who looked like a girl from Spanish, but in fact wasn't:

Here's while the last band was performing.

For some reason the girl in the white vest was alone for much of the concert, which completely didn't make any sense slash bummed me out. I thought I ought to talk to her, but I was drawing what I'll post Wednesday, plus I was kind of scared to, anyway. Oddly, I've never seen her before a few school days ago, but recently she's been popping up like a ninja.

The 2010 shirt guy just got done playing in the previous band, and he did quite well, which was great because I didn't have to pretend like I enjoyed the set!

Part 2's coming Wednesday, and fortunately it's all fiction,

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Record_TokyoPop_Preview

Back at Yale!

Weeeee!

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Food_AtkinsVegan_Preview

So I'm a pro now.

Kind of.

This is that long awaited "food" section I mentioned a while ago. It's a sketch for a cartoon about some overzealous friends trying to convince their other friend to employ their dietary choice.

I should explain: the Food entries are for the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, so everything will be heavily food-oriented and very specific. They even asked me to put butter on the steak since that's Atkins-y!

So it's a fun change of pace, but I only wish they'd get back to me about inking it. And about my check...?

And with that, I have completed the Daily Post Challenge. Yes, I had to hunt around for stuff towards the end of the week, but I met it nonetheless.

So...ok,

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Fun_SketchySketcherson

I didn't think the Daily Post Challenge would actually challenge me for content, but without a scanner, I'm scrounging around my computer for latent artwork!

So here's a first: basically a completely unaltered page from my sketchbook.

I had to trim the top because for some odd reason I had written a phone number there, and I don't think whoever owns that phone number would appreciate that. But now I want to know whose number that is...

This was another What Not to Wear drawing session, of course. No real stories behind any of the sketches, really. Except the guy at the bottom smiling and throwing his arm out. That was modeled after this picture of Gerard Way where he's psychotically unveiling Frankie tied up in a Houdinni-type water trap. Everyone in My Chemical Romance was themed after Victorian period magicians.

Also, the big, hulking guy smashing earth on the far left was modeled after one of the lamest characters ever: the Hulk.

Gobble gobble,

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Fun_Prometheus_MO

Since this a normal post day anyway, here's another MO segment, this time featuring my main drawing for the Yale Record's recent Crime Issue,
"Prometheus the Klepto-Pyro- Maniac," in celebration of having just received a colored draft of my cover for the upcoming Travel Issue!

We were tossing crimey ideas around, and someone mentioned a kelptomaniac. Another said, "Or a pyromaniac mixed with a kleptomaniac--he steals things and then sets them on fire. Or someone who only steals fire?"

"Prometheus!" I shouted. And they liked it, so when art assignments went around, I gnabbed this one up. So this was my very first crack at the subject. My initial view was just a shifty eyed Prometheus sneaking fire into his tunic, with some mythy sounding caption.

I then realized I could play up the "maniac" portion of his description, and immediately set out to draw a crazy, crazy guy.

Here are a couple of the shots I worked on.

I knew they eyes would sell it along with his wicked smile.

By my third draft, you'll note that we get considerably kookier. You'll also notice, unfortunately, that we kind of lose the idea of him trying to pocket the fire into his tunic.

Dang.

Easter Egg: a sketch for my Dancemoves offering, "The Electrocution Slide," is at the top of the page.

And here we have our third draft, this time pretty much what you'll see in the final.

Although I lose a typical amount of quality translating into inks (and from rough drafts, for that matter).

Stage fright, I guess.

Anyway, we now have something like Prometheus kind of showing off the fire, versus just pocketing it.

I was thinking that we'd see him as he's kind of bragging, right before sheathing the fire into his tunic. You can see how the background's been simplified from the very first draft.

And here's our final draft!

I forgot to put snow caps--or any detail--on Mt. Olympus after all.

And the sky's lamentably bare...

But in any case, we've got nice easter eggs and everything, so check out the original post for more on all of that.

I'm off to draw more Record-y things now.

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Fun_WNTWsketches

Today's sketches come from yet another "What Not to Wear" evening.

Up first is Aang from Avatar: the Last Airbender, which is why I watch TV in the first place.

WNTW is on afterward, after El Tigre, so don't go thinking I camp out waiting for WNTW to come on...

It's all about Avatar, then El Tigre, then anything else I watch to defer returning to my room.

But yes, What Not to Wear is fun to go fashion hunting with, since I don't know anything about that world, and this way it's quite convenient.

This episode was about some Harvard graduate slash struggling comediane who dresses like slob.

This is what she looked like before they changed her up.

She wore military jackets and stuff.

Here's some guy I drew.

I wanted to practice upward shots, because I'm only comfortable drawing straight on, 3/4 views, or (kind of) profiles.

So as you can tell from this and a previous post, I'm trying to expand my shot-repertoire from just normal vantage points.

Finally, here's the WNTW result of a rocker girl trying to bridge over from rebellious youth into the grown-up workworld.

Stacy and Clinton criticized all of her skull and gun and rose-laden clothing, and her wide selection of black clothing.

She looked pretty nice either way, though, before and after.

But again, I don't know anything about fashion.

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Fun_CatsDogsDoodles

Since I'm now in the Pacific time zone, it's still Monday, and while I thought I woke up at just past one, I in fact woke up at just past 4pm...

So anyway, please enjoy some selections from my sketchbook.

Today's sketches come from another Friday night in the Swing basement. As I was watching TV just so I wouldn't have to go back to my suite, I discovered this great 80s drama about a white basketball coach rallying his all black, ghetto-located bball squad. Every single episode that I've seen has been great. Aside from the rampant fros and incredibly short basketball shorts, the series is timeless. And that ain't no jive, turkey.

So that's where the basketball player at the bottom comes from. Easter egg: 22 is my old basketballing suitemate's number.

Ok, here's a robotic-human hybrid sort of thing. I wanted to draw that tilted belt I came to learn was cool ever since I saw the 90s X-Men cartoon's Rogue rock the accessory every weekday morning before school.

"What Not to Wear" made me want to draw a dress, but it then turned into a ghostly dress. The show's cool because it provides an interesting fashion pool for me to leech off of. Plus Clinton and Stacy can really goof on people in a nice sort of way.

Here's something of a self-portrait. At least it's a more interesting reinterpretation/simplification of me. I forgot to color in the hair (black), though. Meh.

Another idealization of me snuck into yesterday's post, as seen in the guy wearing my favorite wintertime beanie-scarf combo.

Finally, here's a sketch inspired by the really cool cats over at Lackadaisy.

That wasn't an attempt at horriblly dated slang; they actually are cats.

The doodle doesn't make sense, but since when have I made sense...

Ok I'm off to ink the cover of the upcoming Travel Issue for the Yale Record.

Day four of the daily-post challenge begins...tomorrow!

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Fun_PurpleCrayonYH

It's Thanksgiving break week and I have just returned to California.

So today's post is a couple of my better sketches from the wait before the Purple Crayon of Yale's Yale-Harvard improv show.

I am happy to unbiasedly report that the Purple Crayon destroyed Harvard with funny. So take that, people who think Harvard's got comedy on lock.

A gang of our finest Purple Crayons invited members from Harvard's Immediate Gratification Players to open for them this past Friday. The Crayons were regularly laugh out loud funny, while the IGP were just chuckle worthy, mostly.

My favorite line from the night:
"I always do." --The surfer-dude Crayon

The only other Purple Crayon performance I've been to was their recruitment show earlier this year and it was pretty funny.

Best line from the recruitment show:
"I'm a woman &#* @&%# it!" --Benji

I can't wait to see their next show, and I'd even pay for a ticket.

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Fun_Footballista

No, Yale didn't win.

On the bright side, during the tailgate, they actually played more rock than rap. And the rap they did play was (mostly) enjoyable. Even the single country song was good--Rascal Flatts, a country band I've begrudgingly come to trust...

On the brighter side, in my awkward reclusion, I scratched this sketch out while waiting for The Game to start. Some random homeless-looking guy approached me and told me he saw this girl walking around.

I said, "Oh, cool."
I thought, "She isn't real."
I felt, "Scared."

We'll teach those Crimson Cretins a thing or two next year on their terf. Again.

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Herald_CaptainYale

It's almost time for THE GAME!

This Game has more drama than they ever had 100 years ago because we're both undefeated, and this'll be for the Ivy League title. This is going to be big--and I usually can't even stand football.

(I'm rooting for Yale.)

So yes, this week's comic is me literally waving the flag as a superpatriot of the Eli Army. It's a spoof of the famous Captain America debut cover.

Easter Eggs: The screen displays a picture of the Yale Bowl. That same device references the "Huge Ego" prank MIT pulled last year. The original swastikas are now Hs. The Comics Code Authority seal has been spoofed into something just as nonsensical and meaningless.

The temporal information under the title now represents this 124th edition of the Game. Captain Yale replaced Captain America's mask wings with mask bulldog-ears. Bucky has been transformed into "Danny," a play on our mascot, Handsome Dan. Squeazed away under John Harvard is a neat little fight song's title lyric.

Fun Facts: I reluctantly cut Captain America (and Superman) from my Wonder Woman history paper after realizing that he wasn't as interesting to talk about for the paper's purposes. Also, this is my first strict parody.


Note to Self: Well, I can't wait to be clueless about what's going on in what will be my second live football viewing. I'll be there with the enigmatic jack kelly, of course, who offers us the aptly titled "the game" this week. I think it's a commentary on each school's spirit.

So in conclusion, Go Yale!

And goodnight, poor Harvard!

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Fun_WonderWomen

I was writing a paper on a few big superheroes before I realized Wonder Woman alone had tons of relevant content. So on a break, I tried drawing her.

I soon filled up a sheet with doodles.

So you'll see odd black dots here and there because some notes' ink had seeped through to this page before I began drawing.

Here's my favorite female member of Team Rocket. I really miss the old voices. Rachael Lillis is Jessie, (and Misty, Jigglypuff, etc.). I mostly miss Eric Stuart as James...

As the long night dragged on, I drew her to cheer me on and fight sleep. It didn't work.

Here's my very first drawing of Wonder Woman, based on a power pose I saw in one of my books.

I ended up altering the picture a bunch so that it kind of isn't really Wonder Woman anymore. I drew the above picture of Wonder Woman afterward to try to make amends.

And the day after (or before?), as I was waiting for physics to start, I was too tired to read, so I just drew this little emo girl.

Ok. Since the Herald's coming out tomorrow, I actually have my comic ready to go already, but I'll post it Friday out of tradition. See you then.

Also, start getting exited for THE GAME!

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Fun_SpanishDoodles

One more week to go before break, and I don't know if I should be eagerly looking forward or lamentably looking back, both, or neither.

So here are some sketches from Spanish class. I would write this entire post in Spanish, but then I'd have to use accents and that's incredibly annoying when typing.

We begin with a goofy one. I got positive feedback when the girl sitting to my right commented that this guy looked funny.

I wish I could do a spy-thriller story and so in that vein, here's the tough-gal protagonist of a story I'll never make. I had just received another letter from that same person they say is in Skull and Bones so I thought that I might as well call this character Agent .322.

This is a sketch of a fellow Spanisher's arm. She dresses impeccably--so I tried to capture her style.


During a presentation, I sketched another fellow Spanisher.

I'm horrible at figuring out hairstyles, but I knew enough to tell she has a great hairstyle, and emo-y eyes, to boot.

The Profesora noticed the sketches while walking around and told me she liked them. Another classmate also gave me some kind words. So...neat!

I discovered I drew these on a chapter vocab list for this novel we're reading, and it happens to define some...bad...words from a fight scene between two schoolboys, so I split up the sketches.

Finally, this was fun to draw because it was a profile of my Spanish partner one day, so I tried to ninja-draw without her noticing.

The guy who sits next to me is from New York and says he draws people on the subway all the time. I asked him if people ever get weirded out when they notice he's drawing them, and he said it's never really an issue because everyone's weird in New York. Well, my partner didn't notice, and I think this one came out the best, too.

This is my last semester of Spanish, but I'll be guerilla-sketching future fellow-Japanesers soon enough.

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Herald_Assassins

This marks my return to what I originally wanted to do with the series: stupid, nonsense, lighter than light.

I wanted to do a comic about romance, featuring assassins.

Easter Eggs: Stinky Pete's name from Toy Story 2. Christian Bale's 3:10 to Yuma clothing inspired Pete's costume. I ripped off a JE hairstyle from facebook.

Fun Facts: The opening otomatopoeia's that one western whistle. This is the first time I've named everybody in one comic.

Note to Self: Speaking of Cowboys and Christian Bale, that dynamo jack kelly strikes again with "ur mom"!


Sure it's the result of no sleep and a deadline minutes away, but I would have done something on the WGA strike and how you won't notice a difference on Carson Daly.

In conclusion, Carson Daly... for goodness' sake: why?

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Fun_ApplePicking_MO

Hello. Today is another "MO," or "making of," this time featuring ApplePicking from a few weeks ago.

This is the "thought line" that anchored the idea, which I came up with after going on a JE apple-picking excursion and pondering what I got out of the experience.

The dialogue reflecting on the experience as a potential blog post was a reference to a similar journey of discovery. A note on the format: a circled H means "the following note is a Herald idea."

Onward!

The next page shows the last of the thought line, followed by an entry a little later: the pre-rough draft.

I shifted to a new title, "I love autumn," because I was aiming for pure romance. But almost everything went through a tweak before we went to press.

In fact, a little later, after I had drawn the penciled pre-rough, I penned in an alternate, choose-your-own-adventure sort of ending. The vague little symbols gave me shorthand on my new direction: the top frame's heart notes the good ending; the frown, the bad.

After deciding to ditch my ode to autumn romance, I headed off to do my real rough draft.

This rough's pretty scarce, since I had such a clear picture in my head.

A significant change before the final is the trail of mini-frames leading from Hero to the fork in his road.

And here's our final draft!

We've gone for a cooler pose in the final two alterna-frames, added that lead-up series of frames, and thrown in foliage.

The apples were delicious, by the way.

Ok, see YOU! Friday.

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Fun_GraffitiPart2

This'll be lightning quick because I haven't time enough to breathe. So here are some more grafitti from facebook's Graffiti app.

This is Aang, the last airbender. I did this for a fellow Avatar fan. It was my first time drawing an Avatar character; pretty fun.

This is a vamp'd version of Sasuke from Naruto, which I did for someone.

Finally here's a picture I drew for a fellow Yalie who I don't really know that well, actually, but thought it a nice gesture, especially because the source photo on facebook lent itself well to drawing.

Ok, see you Wednesday,

Reuxben

Herald_SciFi

This week's comic points toward my goal: fantastical stories instead of gags with comedy as it happens.

So this is that prequel to last week's more universal horror story, only it's what I personally fear--isolation from the great people I've met. This one's more action adventurey feel.

Easter Eggs: My birthday; Jade's JCA catchphrase, Tch; my old room number; a lefty; Half-blackened spider insignia for JE's good times and bad; murky, darkness at the heart; courage-starved lion, from chickening out of the JE sophomore dinner; and futile, distanced communication.

Fun Facts: I sneaked in two screaming-guy shots (sorta) in one comic, pretty neat. To avoid confusion, I reluctantly replaced Mike with Allen.

Oh--don't forget to read Herald Comics' newest artist, jack kelly, in his series "note to self." His debut episode is called "colleges."

He looks like trouble to me.

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