Herald_zlm.OhYeah

After trying a bunch of strict narrative-comics at the Herald, I wanted to try a "Sunday" comic sort of thing for Zero Like Me, so here it goes...
UPDATE: Final art at top
Zero Like Me #27
Zero Romance #1: Oh Yeah
<- Previous Comic...
Next Comic ->
-First Comic-
Easter Eggs: Dedication to Mrs. Lang in panel 1.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is Durfee Hall, entryway C. Nyao's named for my cat, Mr. Feeney, who ran away this past summer; I tried to model her cat ears after his, but now I just have to guess. Zero's last name inspired here and here.

Baa: Man, I loved Farnam. Eff bee oh wun.

The goal of this series is to have another avenue for ZLM, but also to keep my comics-page conditioning fresh. I want to get experimental like Winsor McCay, even open up to stories between the Herald and the YDN, and also to deliver as great experiences as I can muster.

Not running a full story was a really difficult decision to make--I wrote two or three series over the summer, but I talked myself out of each of them. I even considered redrawing Darling Find, cuz it was probably my most successful one, but I cringe at the artwork now, and it would be a neat call back to old times. Anyway, I hope this "series" will deliver all I hope it to, although I will be cutting it a lot closer since I don't have a full 13 episodes planned out exactly, and will likely rely on the main series to inform this sub-series.

But anyway, the atrocious jack kelly is back in the saddle, too. He's packing "peakaboo," which looks like this:

And he also presents the utterly foul, "buy a flowuh mistuh," too:

I have high hopes, but we'll see what happens. I hate that no one reads the Herald, so I feel like I'm wasting my time at the publication...I could go three times a week at the YDN no problem if I spent my Thursday-afternoon/nights-Friday-mornings YDNing.

Man.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.DannyGlover

"Hemmerling for Mitchell" would make a great band name, and that's before you even add in "The" and throw in some numbers!

Zero Like Me #26: Danny Glover
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-First Comic-
Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 1, that dude's costume, #52 is George Knox.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is the Yale Rep. I love Angels in the Outfield, I was and still am a bit like JP (not the whole reticent-to-speak-thing; I mean I was and still am a bit of a little black boy looking up to an older white boy as my surrogate brother. Oh, wait, no...it is the whole reticent-to-speak thing, never mind).

Baa: I saw Ranch Wilder perform the role of Mr. Doolittle in Pygmalion at Culture Draw sophomore year, but I totally forgot to go to last Tuesday's draw...dangit.

Ok, I'm excited to start getting into some continued narrative next week, so even though each comic will be self contained, there is more to glean between comics.

Also, this comic is dedicated to and inspired by Professor R. Stepto, one of Yale's greatest, who I wish I could have studied poetry with (after an incredible semester learning about AfAm literature sophomore year), but I ended up going with another poetry teacher. Hence the Hemmerling/Mitchell connection.

Also-also...Herald debut later today! Trying something newish.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.GitDough

Originally printed in Yale Summer Session's newsletter, Hot Blue, June 29, 2009.

Because minstrelsy is cool, y'nawmean?

Zero Like Me #22: Git Dough
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 2, RADWIMPS logo in panel 3, Busta Rhymes and T-Pain's duds.

Fun Facts: Set at the Saybrook Common Room. Rappers love to "git," count, and hustle money.

Baa: Busta Rhymes is one of the very few rappers I enjoy!

I've always wanted to test out tones for print, and today we're about to find out what happens...

Anyway this comi makes Busta Rhymes and T-Pain the latest rappers to inspire a comic. Isn't that special?

Received an interesting email yesterday...not really what I thought would happen. Also had to give up on Japanese, unfortunately; that dream died, but how much of it was due to the unusual volume of shopping I've been doing? Maybe with my seminar-heavy schedule, I would be able to handle Japanese no problem, but I found it a bit too cumbersome to deal with daily on top of everything else, but again, how much of that was due to shopping period? Cutting that unicorn of a class from my list was tough, and I regret it. As a consolation prize, I remember a guy sitting next to me on day two was wearing my shirt!

Keep hustlin',

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.Nar

Oh, Morse and Stiles, if you didn't want to be picked last, you should'na been born ugly. Which explains why I'm always picked last, actually...

[Update: Final art up top]
Zero Like Me #25: Nar
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-First Comic-
Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 3, Munch's "The Scream" in panel 4, The Rollover Motive.

Fun Facts: I was checking my schedule for Monday when I realized I had this class slated for shopping and then BAM! comics idea!

Baa: I hate politics...reeks of the real world. Also, I'm going to see if he will autograph this...is that tacky? Haha. I hope he's cool with it...! I'm in I'll-never-see-him-again mode, which makes me execute bold, stupid interactions with people, nawmean?

All right, hold on to your hats, we're going for three ZLMs this week.

Let's dance,

Reuxben

UPDATE: Peep GAME, suckas! --->

He was very nice, insanely charismatic, and quite funny! He laughed a bit nervously, "Is this for the Daily News?" as he studied what he was about to sign. Really cool of him!

Reuxben

Fun_RolloverRifle

I hate the word "blog" and I hate the idea of having one, especially making more than one post a day, as if anyone gives a poop what you have to say. I justify having this site because it's never been about the words, it's been about the art: I'm providing a (study) break for people to check out some drawings with no expectation that anyone actually reads the text, that way the only time people lose is the time it takes to look at a picture, which isn't a lot.

So I don't want this site to be any more than me telling stories about the art, and since I'm going to be booked up for the foreseeable future with running published work on Fridays, Mondays, and Wednesdays, there will be no room for "Fun" posts any more. I don't want to post on more days, so I'll just throw in Fun posts now and then.

Which brings us to Yale-a-Palooza 2, which changed its name to something else this year. Anyway, it was yesterday, and I camped out for as much of it as possible while drawing today's ZLM, but also sketching some of the artists during breaks.

Up first, pictured above, is the front man for The Rollover Motive. He debuted two new songs and something of a 'fro. The song about Dan was particularly wonderful. He played BS, too, which was incredible! Excellent set all around! To my dismay, I've never been able to sketch him in action very well, but this one's an improvement, kinda.

The only other drawing worth sharing is this one, of (former?) co-front man of Rifle. I gave it an honest effort, but...well, it was very tough to get into the set, although his on-stage antics were entertaining. He's got quite a unique voice, almost like Beast Boy from Teen Titans, which is pretty cool, but I get a heavy Bob Dylan sorta vibe from him, and I can't stand Bob Dylan (or the Beatles, or Bruce Springsteen--which apparently means we're supposed to go to fisticuffs, according to his Herald A&E review of Springsteen's last album; you are un-American, sir). I've been waiting to use this pun for a while, so here it goes: after hoping for an improvement from the last time I saw him perform, I was bummed to find it was more of the same old spiel. Boom!

Anyway, highlights include a former Sandy Gill Affair member performing a massive expansion on the great Jake Pop Medley, meanwhile debuting some much stronger pipes on the recently solo artist. Suitcase of Keys also put on a fine show, although I didn't really feel that usual kick from my favorite track of theirs, "Fallen Leaves," when the bass picks up. Still a lot of fun.

Finally, I was bummed Laura Z. didn't play. I wanted to make up for last time, so I was getting ready to draw a real nice sketch of her playing, so that I could present it to her after the show, but she ended up not hitting the stage, unfortunately.

So it goes,

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.SorrySaying

Originally printed in Yale Summer Session's newsletter, Hot Blue, June 22, 2009.

If Residential Colleges are like races, I'm kinda like Michael Jackson.

Zero Like Me #21: Sorry Saying
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in panel 3; "Card" in panel 4; also, haha.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is Saybrook entryway P.

Baa: I myself am reading Ender's Game for my Writing Sci-Fi/Fantasy class. Update: I really enjoyed it.

So if you're new here (hi...): among other things, I do a series called "Zero Like Me," which is about a guy depressed out of his skull, and his alien pal, who may very well be a figment of his imagination which he may have created after a near-death experience. Enjoy.

Reuxben

YDN_sls.Revoked

Color coordinate your favorite razor blade to match your prettiest bracelets, it's Sick Little Suicide # 9 - "Revoked," in which I almost addressed three news items in one go.

It's like this only weaker, as it handles two less than foxy stories.

Easter Eggs: "Trayless pwnd," "hi mom," and the cast from my "first" real suicide returns.

Fun Facts: This one went through ridiculously frequent changes. It originated Tuesday after learning that the trays were illegal (staff told me). So I drew something featuring trays and comics. The next day the YDN confirmed trays were merely optional, not banned, weakening but not killing the piece, but I added the mustache story. The following day, trays were back by dinner time, but the comics thing was on the front page, so I revised the piece again to eliminate the middle newspaper's tray story. I'm not satisfied with this piece now that I think about it, though; I shoulda changed the punchline to something like, "Yale disgusts me," or something. But this story was the most rapidly changing I've ever dealt with, so maybe the journey was more valuable.

Baa: I still believe that if there is legit likelihood of death, XYZ should be avoided. The key is "legit likelihood." If that didn't exist, then they shouldn'a censored the book.

I like the idea of doing these suicides because I don't really have any real opinions about non-fiction, so I can be the actor-artist I aspire to be, able to thoroughly adopt any opinion. I also have loyalty to almost nobody, so I feel I can attack anything in good conscience cuz I don't owe nobody nothing.

And we're going to test that sentiment quite soon. I'm excited.

UPDATES: Final, published, and penciled drafts are now up.

Secondly, I feel weird replying to comments in the comments section...am I supposed to reply there or in posts? Anyway, in reply to "Anonymous" (I wish people'd at least sign some sort of handle to help differentiate themselves) again, I don't particularly care about the real world, but I would prefer a world without violence. I wish violence only existed in fiction. As I mentioned in my original comment, if there's a history of lethal violence especially as a result of mere art--something which is never worth dying/killing/bankrupting for--I really can't see what the point is in spurring known lethal forces. Note that I have no idea of knowing if there was/is a real threat, as noted in my second comment.

However, I do know that I would never condone art prompting real-world death, especially massive death, let's put it that way. One of the drafts was something like "We should be able to act like reasonable adults" in reference to still using trays but not wasting food and of course in reacting to an editorial piece.

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.MyNameIs

No, literally...days.

Zero Like Me #24: My Name Is
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Easter Eggs: "Yale" in Panel 1, parallel costuming and posing, but different angles for Zero as he appeared in the very first comic.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is the exquisite Farnam B.

Baa: I associate My Name Is Jonas with getting accepted to Yale because my Welcome-to-JE DVD started with that song playing in the background, so I forever feel like a pre-frosh again whenever I listen to it. I love those Freshman Year days. If there are any 2013s out there, you really have to keep that stuff close, cuz it disappears quick. Find something that will always store and conjure what you're feeling right now, so if you ever lose it, you can always remember when you had it.

Anyway, the last YDN issue was just the Camp Yale edition, but now we're getting going, so I thought it would be cool to echo the very first comic but the difference is that Zero has Nyao and rather than start on a JE rooftop reflecting on the future and its termination, he starts atop Farnam, reflecting on the past.

Reuxben

Fun_Intro2009

Hello, have we met?

Name: Reuxben
Stats: Yale, JE '10, Literature. Nor/SoCal.
Updates: Friday, Monday, Wednesday
Inspiration: Rock music, Eiichiro Oda, Toshihiro Ono, Takeshi Obata, Garry Trudeau, angst.

Namesake: A high school teacher always typo'd my name differently, and this's the best way to misspell my name (the X is silent).

Goals: I want to entertain and confide in you, make comics matter at Yale, and train myself to draw for a living, meanwhile keeping nice and sane.

Old comic: Darling Find
Art-intensive intro: Retrospective2009
Oh my gosh!: IvyGate, YDNO people

Online: TCBN, deviantART, YDN Online, YH Comics Online.
In Print: Zero Like Me (YDN, Herald), Sick Little Suicide (YDN), Record, Penny Dreadful, and more...plus I know this idiot called jack kelly who works at the Herald.

Thanks: for visiting!

I hope to see you around,

Reuxben

YDN_zlm.Perdedor

Things are gonna change, I can feel it.

UPDATE: Final art at top.
Zero Like Me #23: Perdedor
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-First Comic-
Hello, if you're new to my page, I do undergrad comics here at Yale, and they are usually a little more detailed than this, but I had two comics due today! .

Easter Eggs: My cell phone kinda, Zero's old shirt.

Fun Facts: Sore/shaking arms from unpacking, pressure from the editors, and this is the fastest comic I've ever done--just around three hours!

Baa: Please check out Comics Club and try out for Yale Herald Comics! For more information, go here, find me at the Bazaar this Sunday, or email me (I'm President of the club and I'm the YHC Editor).

Anyway, feel free to click around; I would be happy to be your study break,

Reuxben

YDN_sls.Rip

Juggle some chainsaws, it's Sick Little Suicide # 8 - "Rip," in which I bet that some people kinda feel this way.

It's like Rory Gilmore, just realer and Browner.

Easter Eggs: "EVDKTL" in the upper right grass (RIP The Matches), L and T Tetris blocks atop LC.

Fun Facts: Today's setting is an unlikely angle between CT Hall and LC. Also, no disrespect meant to Garry Tru--, I just thought it was a funny shout out.

Baa: Hello Yale 2013! I envy you for being freshmen! Don't forget to enjoy every second of it!

Also, please join Comics Club and/or Yale Herald Comics--see our flyers around campus for information or email me!

Final draft art coming soon.

Reuxben

Fun_TheLocals

...And we are back in business. JE E-32 is actually quite great! And they fixed up the JE computer lab!

Today's costumes inspired by The Matches' Shawn Harris.

Troubadour Setlist:
Jack Slap Cheer
What Katie Said
Yankee in the Chip Shop
Little Maggots
Point Me Toward the Morning
Salty Eyes
Dog Eared Page
Audio Blood
Clouds Crash
Darkness Rising
Sunburn vs. the Rhinovirus
Wicked Walk
Clumsy Heart
Didi My Doe (Part 2)
Wake the Sun
Chain Me Free
Dramatic exeunt...and then they return!
Papercut Skin
Scratched Out (Ft. Shawn's lil sister humming, as she did on the CD, it seems)
Sick Little Suicide
And then a snippet of Eryn Smith after chanting requests after their finale.

Neat,

Reuxben

Fun_PPPPackUpMyBag

This is the pencils of a Penny piece that never was, but it's appropriate cuz I can't wait: I'm flying back to Yale in < 24 hours!

Also The Matches were insane Saturday night! They absolutely destroyed with this song, and it was altogether an incredible show! Shawn Harris even made tons of time to talk to anyone who came up to him after the show, too. His hair was literally dripping globs of sweat, but he chatted away like nothing.

I shook his hand and he had a surprising light grip. I told him I named my series after his song--which happened to be their finale, too--and I think he said he thought that was cool. Anyway, I just checked, and I come in second in a Google-image of "Sick Little Suicide," so that's pretty neat.

Anyway I'm trying to be optimistic about their "hiatus" being temporary, especially since I totally blew my chance to see them at Toad's sophomore year, but in any case, Yale, Yale, Yale!

I'm turnin' the doorknob,

Reuxben

Fun_BackToTheBeat

Wrapping up summer with a bang.

Today ends my vegan experience; first thing on the agenda: cookies.

Tomorrow: The Matches in their penultimate show (likely) ever.

As for the piece at left, I am almost finished drawing up a sweet thingy for some neat people.

And we're already at work on various official Yale things--I'm even getting Yale event spam already, which in fact rocks. Even clearing out my old emails is exciting, like a time capsule with all kinds of neat memories in it. Some good, some bad, all great.

Speaking of official Yale art, I was discussing opening year plans with my Sick Little Suicide editor, and while I liked this idea, which came about in record time after this story went up, the piece is likely scrapped, unfortunately.

Anyway, can't wait to get back to Yale!

Reuxben

Fun_Retrospective2009

This is a retrospective on my second art-posting year.

So here is a listing of my favorite pieces of the academic year, listed by category, accompanied with photos from this year's studio, or "dorm," as it were.

And here we go...

Sketches Favorite: HarvardGirl

Moleskine Favorite: Hiroyuki

Fan Art Favorite: MomoAGoGo

Rock Favorite: SpaceBattle

Retrato Favorite: TheThoseGuys

Fun Favorite: BigKappa

Color Favorite: DanesCooks

Unpublished Overall Favorite: TheThoseGuys

Record Favorite: Death

Quarters Crisis Favorite: Acolyte

Penny Dreadful Favorite: West

note to self Favorite: concentration

Monsta Crash Favorite: PocketMonsta

Misc. Work Favorite: Bulldog

Sick Little Suicide Favorite: Kuro

Zero Like Me Favorite: MinorityReport

Published Overall Favorite: Kuro

Favorite Comment: Comment #1

Favorite Post: TheThoseGuys

...and that'll do it for this year's 100th post. In one week I'll finally be back home at Yale!

Woah, woah, are you out there?

Reuxben

Fun_Death_MO

To celebrate turning in my Record art for the summer, here is the making of the Death piece I did for the Record last year.

Speaking of which, tonight was my first time driving in a long, long time; I was terrified the whole way. I'm a fictionalist and am easily struck on flights of fancy, so I kept imagining the car behind me was one of those guys who flickers his lights brighter, and then after he gets bored, he drives up beside me in perfect sync with my speed, and as I turn to look at the car, I see the barrel of a pistol a split second before my skull splatters apart.

...man, I really hate driving.


And besides, driving around my town depresses the heck out of me, it really does.

Anyway, the following posts' art have been updated, finally: zlm.Vanilla, zlm.Taboo (renamed Taboocco), mc.MonstaCrasher as well as jack kelly's comics for that week, and finally, sls.Lullaby has also been updated slightly.

Also, my deviantART has been updated, too, which exists to display my more polished artwork plainly and with as little of my stupid lip as possible.

Neat,

Reuxben

Fun_SeigiNoBanana

This is an old sketch from Japan. Also, I'm also entering a Back to School Story Contest with a story that's just plain--wait for it--bananas. So here we go:

Someone offered to store a box of my clothes and stuff over the summer at his place in Connecticut while I was back in California/Japan. This was a terribly fortunate free storage offer because I've accumulated quite some extra stuff at school after OCD'ly over-packing almost every time I fly back to Yale from California. So he covered what my residential college's free storage wouldn't and everything was going to work out perfectly when I return to school in the fall.

I arrived really early on move-in day and was ready to get all unpacked and have tons of free time to roam Yale and draw before school responsibilities officially started up. So I get my box from the guy, bring it up to my room, and unpack only to discover a box full of orangey-green fuzz. I don't know where he stored my stuff over the summer, but wherever it was, it leaked mold right into my stuff.

So rather having a relaxing move-in day, I spent the rest of the day walking between my third floor room, the basement laundry room, and the Walgreen's down the street--to buy bottles of disinfectant and laundry supplies--as well as filling the time with hardcore scrubbing and cleaning and hoping the laundry machines would actually do their jobs for once. I salvaged most of the stuff, but my pillow and blanket now have these weird black spots all over them that refuse to wash out, and my heavy winter jacket reeks whenever it isn't in subzero winteriness.

So...sincere thanks for the storage assistance, but it did end up ruining some of my stuff, and killing my super relaxing move-in day plans.

Reuxben

Fun_DanesCooks

For practice, I tried coloring this piece using only brush strokes, and for more practice today, I tried adding smudges.

Fun Facts: On a break from comicsing, I sketched from this clip of Yale dropout Claire Danes, whose stage debut (Pygmalion) I saw at Culture Draw '07.

Baa: So far I've won a ticket for Culture Draw every year and even saw an extra play last year! Pretty amazing. Who loves ya, JE?

Say, you know who played the Doolittle dad in Pygmalion?

The announcer from Angels in the Outfield, Ranch Wilder!

Excellent performance, too.

I vaguely remember seeing the movie when I was really little (actually, I was fatter), but I found the play kinda depressing.

Go back to Cincinatti,

Reuxben

Fun_MerriKerri

Where have you beeeeen, my darling?

Did you want to get the old gang back together?

For one last romp?

I don't know.

I just don't know.

Reuxben

Fun_SummerSonic

Working on stuff...so there isn't a lot of time to put up a proper Friday post beyond sketches.

First up is a girl that I feel looks better without eyes.

I remember drawing this at a party in Japan and a Japanese guy came over and told me he really liked it. And then he asked if it was a boy or a girl. Haha!

So stemming from that, at right was kind of a study in androgyny.

I look up to Japanese artists, so it feels extra special to have impressed "real" Japanese people, like that party guy, and the director who came to visit class later, cuz they probably see great artwork every day. A Chinese guy auditing the class even liked my art!

Neat,

Reuxben

Design_logo.BlindPig

I booked a deal--I made this logo for my former EIC's new publishing company, Blind Pig Media Group.

Who's gettin' money?

This guy.

Word,

Reuxben

Fun_SquidzillaRoboKilla

This is probably my most productive summer; I just made a list of the projects I've got underway and I got that sick feeling like I'm back in school, getting pulled every direction at the same time.

But anyway, here is a double shot preview of upcoming Record art.

What is the Record?

It ain't this.

As for this one, it's probably going to go through a bunch of changes from this concept sketch, which is kind of appropriate.

Cuz one thing is for sure...

...there's more to this one than meets the eye projectories.

Reuxben