I have tumblr... and I'm not afraid to use it!

I was originally going to title this post, "I have a Tumblr and I (don't) know how to use it!" Either way, replace "Tumblr" with "gun" and you have a line from cheesey action film.

 

So yes, I finally took the advice of several people and got myself a Tumblr. It can be found at http://scottkroll.tumblr.com/. I also have it as a permanent link on the right bar of this blog.

 

I'm not 100% comfortable with using it yet. I will be putting up a lot of sketches, for sure. I have a lot of little things that I draw that I don't think warrant a full post here on the blog proper. 

 

I would appreciate the advice of any avid Tumblr users, so please send any comments or suggestions my way ASAP.

 

In other news, I read almost exclusively Sci-Fi comics now. I didn't intend this to happened, it just did. It probably started with Brandon Graham's Prophet (here's a great article about why you, too should be reading it) and to a lesser extent, Saga.

 

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I ordered this trio off of Amazon: 

Medusa Chain, Orbital #1, and The City of Shifting Waters

  

There all pretty good, but man, Orbital is so cool. I'm shocked that more people in the US aren't talking about this book.

 

I'll reserve more in depth reviews for a later date. I'm bringing this all up because I've been writing and drawing more sci-fi themed stuff lately. It's a radical departure from what I've done so far. I don't have much to show yet, but it's coming.

 

For now, enjoy this drawing I did of a robot sky-diving:

  

 

 

Just kidding. That is a drawing of my ear doctor's special ear camera/ microscope (sort of like this one). It's cool: she stuck this camera in my ear and I could see what she was seeing on a big monitor on the wall. and you know what, the inside of my ear is disgusting! Anyway, I think it looks like a sky-diving robot.

Also, I have nearly perfect hearing, so I have that going for me.

Finally, There's a new free newspaper coming to town? And the plan to publish comics? (from their website, emphasis is mine):

The Proof is an experiment. What if we had our own newspaper? Could it be free but support itself? Could it increase instead of decrease the space for comics? Could it treat its contributors like human beings? Could it survive without advertorials, junket interviews, content outsourced to robot aggregators, or whatever new awful profit-maximization scheme comes next? In short: could we make the kind of publication we would like to read and then hire ourselves?
 

Hmmm... I wonder if they want to publish a story about a kangaroo based in Chicago?

Sci-Fi Team Up (Explained)

Sorry, no Phantom Kangaroo today. Page 4 is still on my drawing board. I did however contribute to the Challenger's Assemble blog today.

The Theme was Unlikely Team-Ups. Here is my contribution:

I feel like I should explain this one a bit. Both comics are published by Image Comics.

Planetoid is about a mercenary (Silas) who crash-lands on a planet where he must fight for survival against evil robots.

Debris is about a young woman(Maya) who lives on a post-apocalyptic earth, which happens to be ruled by.... you guessed it... evil robots.

Seems like a perfect team-up to me!

The similarities don't end there. In their first issues they both:
-Fight giant snake robots
-wield impossibly powerful firearms
-wear ponchos

These two comics are the Weeds/ Breaking Bad of the comic world.

Don't get me wrong, so far I think they're both great books. I just think some of these similarities are uncanny.

If you want to see more there is a preview of Planetoid here and preview of Debris here.

Phantom Kangaroo, Page 3

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Phantom Kangaroo, Page 2

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Phantom Kangaroo, Page 1

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What's Next?

So now that I don't have CAKE hanging over me, I have to decide what my next goal is. I had apparently been thinking about this before the expo, because I recently found a note that I written to myself.

I don't actually remember writing this note, but it is written in my nigh-illegible writing style. Plus, it's all things I've been thinking about.

Maybe it's a note sent through time by my future self trying to influence my past (present) self on his (my) next steps.

Anyway, the first thing on the list is "Clean Rapidiographs[sic]" which I have done! It looked like this:

Messy business, that was.

Here's the story on these awesome pens. My old upstairs neighbor was an architect who had to buy a set of these when she was in architect's school.

Here's the thing though, architects have these things called computers now. I know I'm probably disappointing lots of people who still picture architects sitting over massive drafting tables using pens and compasses, but most of that type of work is digital now. Point is, these poor, insanely expensive pens sat in her storage space, unused. I somehow convinced her to loan them to me shortly before she moved out of the state.

Of course, part of the deal was that I had to clean them. Which I have. Thank you, Tracy.

The second thing on my list is "figure drawings". I think this is in reference to an idea I had to do 50 figure drawings in 50 days so that I could learn to actually draw people in a reasonably realistic way.

Hmmm.... I may still do this. I'm not sure anyone whould want to see me do it.

The last item is "Phantom Kangaroo" which is a comic that I've been working on. I guess I was reminding myself to finish it. Those of that have a copy of King Crow Comics #1 have already read the first three pages. For the rest of you, I will start posting pages here for you starting tomorrow! In the meantime, here is a one-panel preview:

What do I do all day?

No, I don't make comics all day. Hopefully someday...

Anyway, this article has been going around Internet quite a bit the last couple days: The Busy Trap . Note this passage:

More and more people in this country no longer make or do anything tangible; if your job wasn’t performed by a cat or a boa constrictor in a Richard Scarry book I’m not sure I believe it’s necessary.

Here is my response:

You probably don't know what a "litigation support manager" is, and honestly, I don't feel like explaining it. Let's just leave it at this: