Aight, homies, here da dill. Next semester I'm going to draw comics for the Yale
Daily News every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I will no longer contribute regularly to the
Herald. And just to spite those groans of indifference, I'm putting a gun to
jack kelly's head if he so much as
reaches for anything resembling a post-it note. Et tu,
Gerardo? I feel like we just met...
It was all a difficult, heartbreaking decision. I've been with the Herald since Freshman Year, it's hands down the best place for comics, and they're even improving comics' treatment next semester to boot. The reality is that simply not enough people read the Herald for it to be worthwhile. I'm basically dumping my Yale experience down the toilet in the meager hope that I can get good enough at this all to draw for a living. The Herald has been a great training ground, but the readership just isn't there, and I need feedback in order to figure out how I'm doing and what works.
The YDN, assuming it gets its
ridiculously inadequate online comics-hosting act together (at least to the serviceable standing it was last board), is much more reliable for feedback. But with the Herald, I'd maybe get an occasional
IRL comment, which was nice and everything, but from my editors, I would literally get feedback on things as trivial as how cleverly I hid my signature in the week's
comic! There's at least the scent that the YDN actually takes comics considerably more seriously, despite being such a comics-unfriendly environment.
But anyway, I can't bring myself to completely abandon the Herald, as that would feel not only disloyal, but also artistically unwise, so I will submit a comic now and then, but perhaps this semi-retirement will allow me to have some time to actually experience Yale in my upcoming final semester. Among many other taxes, Herald Comics has taken a physical strain on me too, so I am hoping this all adds up to more time for other projects (if not more time for
Removal standard comics in print (spot the
difference) as well as a less physically-demanding schedule.
So
Friday's especially important and controversial since it's not only my old Herald day, but it's also the day I suspect is the slowest at the YDN, despite expert advice indicating otherwise. I hope they know what they're talking about. And I hope you stop by on Fridays. I so enjoy our time together.
Oh...and the top drawing is a group photo I took of me and my "new" editors. Don't we look succulent? I often wonder, if I were to meet myself, would I befriend me? I would probably seem weird and foreign, so no. However, I have actually tasted myself, and I've discovered that I'm disgusting. The others have much tastier names. They serve me up in Commons sometimes, though, if you'd ever like a piece of me.
Also, this is post 400,
Reuxben
We started design work over at Catalyst for this French band called Namaste, but I guess the project got canceled, so I'll be posting some of the sketches. 
I don't have any Christmas art stored up, so I might update with something else, but for now, have a Merry Christmas.
I saw this movie called "Oldboy" (main character at left) in the JE Theater after finals. I arrived an hour into it, so I had no idea what was going on; I could only kinda piece it together (yikes). Our pal Spoogleberg is making an adaptation of the comic, starring Wiiru Smissu, I heard.
Such adventures we've had, Nyao! After a reassuring chat with a footballista on the unusually punctual CT Limo, CT's snowstorm delayed us, stranding us in the Vegas after a missed connexn. So we watched and listened to podcasts all night in the airport and then flew back to rest our bones, bound for Diego, where we'd deal with misplaced luggage for the first time ever!
Someone once asked about Nyao, so here's this:
Originally she was just nominally an alien, but looked perfectly human; just her costuming bore the cat motifs, which severely restricted her wardrobe to stripes and hoods with ears. So I went for broke and just attached the ears, but decided stripes would be her signature fashion trope, so she can basically wear anything now. I modeled her optimism/apathy after my cats', Oliver and Mr. Feeny, and her costuming just follows two rules: stripes must be somewhere in the outfit, and she always (cough) wears her bell. And she, unlike Zero, can even wear JE gear, too. 
How many life decisions did you make this weekend? I believe I made two. More on that this Friday.
So besides the two big decisions, I had a pretty eventful weekend in general, actually: I lunched at the Friars' Club in New York and met the author whose book I used in my comedy history paper (he interviewed both old time Yalie Dick Cavett and '94 Yalie/Ex!t Player Allison Silverman). Comics Club launched Escape! and it sold out within 48 hours. I submitted a paper via email just before deadline, but discovered an hour later that I had attached the wrong file (the annotated outline, not the final draft). I learned I missed "Stray Balloon"'s likely final performance of the year. My boss dropped some Bull Tales on me that I'd never seen before (thank you). I bounced between ecstasy and depression and landed in neutral. Two separate young men in an hour's span asked me for input on their aspirations for naked escapades. I wrote a bunch of new comics, some of which could make certain people really uncomfortable, myself included.
Just to update what we're looking at here, Escape! is now out in print! You can find some incredible original comics, and a beautiful cover, but we've also collected a bunch of great reprints from the Herald and the YDN.
All my reprinted comics that were posted on this site with "updated art coming soon" have been touched up so they now look better than originally printed, and are in line with their Removal versions.
No censorship issues there, just updated aesthetics, but that fool jack kelly does get to print some cut material, too. Might want to drink that all in, it'll have to last for a while.
The following is a Headshout. I repeat, it is only a Headshout.
So, the last Deal of Doggie Mojo is out in the latest issue of the Penny Dreadful.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: I am no Ex!t fan. Their only real attraction is Jeopardy!, but beyond that I just can't get into it no matter how many times I try; I'd take the Crayon over Ex!t any day. I'm doing a paper for my comedy history class, and I came across an interview with big time Ex!t alumna, Allison Silverman '94, (Late Night Conan, Daily Show, and Colbert), and even she gave the Crayon a vague thumbs up over her own troupe.
But to stay positive, here's a sketch from a meeting about college seminars. I was just in it to push JE to get first dibs on a comedy writing seminar, but it looks like that class didn't even get picked up at all! Anyway, I think it's hilarious that this guy is so JE, and yet he's actually quite agreeable. I'm a big fan of voices, and he's got one of my favorites: it makes me think of Napoleon Dynamite mixed with peanut butter. Haha.
Finally, here's a Zero sketch for the kids, also drawn during the Ex!t show, which brings me to my main point--this time it's for real: never will I ever attend another Ex!t show. No more $2 entrance fees. No more sitting patiently for Jeopardy!, that's it.
It's like there's a nuke in my mouth and everybody's invited.
Fun Facts: I'm considering quitting the Herald, and I was just about convinced to stay on until I met a fan in the JE lab while scanning this, who says that although he rarely reads the YDN even he knows my comics, but only from there, meaning (all jokes aside), people really don't read the Herald. So it seems like a wise business move to blitz the YDN, but the Herald is finally becoming the haven for comics I always knew it was and could be again, so aside from pure loyalty, I feel I should stick around since it is more comics-friendly. I hate to be so upfront, but if you have any input, please give me some advice on what to do and where you read my comics, either by voting in the poll in the top right, or by emailing or something. 
Baa: It weirds me out when aesthetically powerful people talk to me, and it also weirds me out when people I've never formally been introduced to address me by name, so imagine my panic attack when the smoker chap from today's comic started a quick conversation with me in the YDN office.
