26 July 2010 - Vattu

've put up the first three pages of Vattu! I think it will already seem pretty different from what I've done before. I am so excited to finally be working on it, and I'm excited about where this story will go. It is really fun to get back into using color, too!

About the update schedule, which is different: I will be putting up a page every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I'm going to try to separate the news posts from the updates themselves; making them maybe once-weekly.

I know that many of you prefer to read in larger chunks, but I figure updating this way allows for the most possible options for following along. There's also two RSS feeds: one for every update, and a less-frequent one for larger sections. Twitter has become probably the best and fastest way to keep up-to-date with everything I'm doing.

This is a Big Story, and it will take a while to get very far in it, but if I did not think it would be worth it I would definitely not be consigning myself to all this work. Thank you for reading. New page up Wednesday.

On LiveJournal

19 July 2010 - VATTU begins July 26!

he next comic from Overside is called Vattu. It will begin posting on Rice-Boy.com on Monday, July 26th. It will update a page or two every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can follow along by Twitter, Livejournal, Facebook, or RSS!

This is another big story that will cover a lot of ground. It will be different from Rice Boy and Order of Tales, and I intend for it to represent a significant step and something of a change of direction in this big huge Overside project. I think that this will be really something, and it won't be what you expect. Over the next week, I'll be answering some questions about Vattu on Formspring and posting some preliminary art on Twitter, if you're interested!

It's been two weeks since the end of Order of Tales went online, making this a silence of uncharacteristic length for me! I've gotten a lot of really really nice messages from people about the comic since then. Thank you, everyone. It means a whole lot to me, and I'm glad that people seem generally happy with the ending because I certainly am. Stay tuuuuned.

On LiveJournal

5 July 2010 - THE END!!

his is THE END of Order of Tales. This update of 82 PAGES finishes this story. This comic is 744 pages long and has taken me over three years to make, from nebulous plot ideas to a finished comic. You can read it for free in its entirety online.

This is a fairly intricate story to be syndicated online over such a long period of time, so I think it would benefit from being read FROM THE VERY BEGINNING, but if you'd rather, you can just read THE LAST UPDATE on its own. I am more proud of this comic than I have ever been of anything I have made in my entire life. Please make yourself some tea and read it.

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with Order of Tales for the past months and months and thank you to everyone who is reading it in full for the first time right now. Over the course of making this comic, I have been able to make this my full-time job. I intend to keep making and self-publishing this stuff. If you've enjoyed this comic, please consider donating a bit.

On JULY 26th, the next long-format comic from Overside will begin updating at Rice-Boy.com. I am really excited about it. It will be unlike anything I've ever done. It is called Vattu.

I've put up some original pages of Order of Tales on eBay: a number of individual spreads, and the entire final scene will be up as one item on Monday or Tuesday. Also, I'll be doing some inexpensive OoT-related commissions for the next week! I am raising money to move to Brooklyn in August. Thanks!

Thanks for reading.

On LiveJournal

27 June 2010 - 2 Pages: Tower.

hapter 14 is over as we see the heart of the Tower of Smoke. Two more chapters and around 60 pages are left, and they will ALL BE ONLINE ON JULY 5TH. You are cordially invited to attend. Please help me spread the word!

I have worked really hard on this comic and I have known from the start how it would end, and now I am so close to being done with it I can hardly believe it. I am extremely happy with it, and with the ending part. I have been getting kind of emotional about it, during drawing some of the part you'll see next Monday. But I will not pretend it isn't a relief to be done. I have decided to take a break from drawing for a week or two after finishing OoT. Vattu will begin sometime in July; I'll have a specific date as soon as I can.

ORDER OF TALES ENDS JULY 5TH!! OKAY? BE HERE!! LET'S FINISH THIS!!

On LiveJournal

23 June 2010 - 2 Pages: Statues.

eeper into the smoke with more and more mysterious things showing up. The next update will be the very last one before the ENORMOUS ending update goes up, which will consist of the entirety of chapters 15 and 16. The comic will end on July 5th. Come over then and read it all.

I am excited to announce a new convention plan! I will be at the inaugural Minneapolis Indie Expo in August! It is a one-day show in a city I've never been to. Analytics tell me I have an unusually large readership in Minneapolis, so I hope to see many of you there! I am pretty excited.

I have reworked the Store into something a bit nicer to look at and work with. There are two new items that haven't been for sale online before; see if you can find them! Chapter 14 ends on Sunday.

On LiveJournal

20 June 2010 - 2 Pages: Obilik.

ere are two new pages of this big old comic; something mysterious comes out of the smoke, which you might find familiar...

The buffer for the big ending of OoT, to all go online at once, is over 40 pages now. I was aiming to put it up on July 4 but it might be the 11th instead! I will let you know; rest assured.

Finally got back to my little for-fun project of drawing every single character from the Lord of the Rings; check it out. More pages Wednesday.

On LiveJournal

16 June 2010 - 3 Pages: Shadow.

nd three more ominous pages today. Can't believe how close the end is. I keep catching myself almost talking about specifics about the ending to OoT and how excited I am about it because it is all I am working on and thinking about lately. Well that's not true; I'm also working a lot on preliminary stuff for Vattu, and I am plenty excited and anxious about that, too. I hope people like it, though I imagine I'll go through something like the process of audience-rebuilding I went through after starting OoT, because Vattu will be a different sort of story. ANYWAY.

Rounding out my convention plans for the Fall, now that I'm done with 2010's first wave. I hope you can come see me at one of these things: SPX in Bethesda, MD; APE in San Francisco; and NEWW in Easthampton, MA. NYCC in New York is looking probable too, because I will be living there by then! These are still a while away and I will be talking about them more and more incessantly as they approach.

I'd like to do some sort of reader meetup during some future conventions; particularly maybe SPX and APE. Might be a fun thing? Let me know if you are interested in that. More pages Sunday ok.

On LiveJournal

13 June 2010 - 3 Pages: Center.

hree pages, onward and inward into Torchtown. I'm really happy with this sequence, though it is drawn out to what may be a frustrating length if you're reading along with every update.

You may notice a slight change in the design of the front page of Rice-Boy.com. The next big comic that I work on will be called Vattu, and it will start updating shortly after OoT is finished. You'll be able to find it by way of that new button on the top bar so don't forget it! Relatedly, there is a new thing in the Store! It is a poster with a teaser image pertaining to Vattu, which I made for Heroes Con last weekend. Will be available online for a limited time. As well, the Warriors art book that I've had at conventions should be for sale shortly. I'd like to do a series of small commissions within the next month, to help pay for an upcoming move I am making.

It is uncomfortably hot here. More pages Wednesday.

On LiveJournal

9 June 2010 - 2 Pages: Alone.

ore pages with architecture; I like drawing it. We are finally in Torchtown, how about that.

I am in the middle of writing a little thing with pictures about Heroes Con last weekend, which was excellent. That should go up on my general-purpose blog before long. Things are hectic here. Drawing 2 pages a day. You will get more of them on Sunday. Have a nice day, friends.

On LiveJournal

6 June 2010 - 3 Pages: Smoke.

ere's three new pages and a line of dialogue I've had in my head for two years. 648 was a very daunting page but I was encouraged by how well it turned out. Did it turn out well? I thought it did.

Heroes Con is over today and it has gone pretty well. I have a bunch of pictures and will put them up for you to see (so far have put up only one but it's a really really good one). Thank you everyone for coming by! I am going to miss this hectic mess of traveling and comic conventions these past couple months have been. My next one is SPX. More pages Wednesday, ok?????

On LiveJournal

2 June 2010 - 2 Pages: Flight.

h my goodness two more pages. Getting closer and closer to Torch-Town. As I've said I'm still working hard at the end of OoT; I'm currently around 40 pages ahead of the current update, and drawing 2 pages a day. Not enough! I still have to map out the rest of the story more thoroughly, so I can give an exact date for when the end will be up. BUT ANYWAY.

Heroes Con in NC is this dang weekend; I am leaving for it toooomorrow. This will be my first time returning to a convention, which means I've been going to cons for a year now! I got the new posters printed for Heroes yesterday, which feature the protagonist of my Next Big Comic. If you can make it, come say hello!

Also! The second New England Webcomics Weekend is happening this November! The website is up and the guest list is being added to with reckless abandon. I am on that list; I will be there. Very excited about this thing; I think it will be a goood thing.

More pages will be up on Sunday, did you know? You know now.

On LiveJournal

30 May 2010 - 2 Pages: We know.

wo pages today for you! Tarrka continues his little talk with Koark. And this scene is done, oh my goodness. I am pretty far ahead with my drawing but not far enough!

I am catching up with orders after being completely buried by preorders for the Rice Boy book. Dealing with the OoT books is really becoming a hassle, too, because I order them in tiny batches of 100 (instead of the 1,000 for Rice Boy) because I don't really have the money or space for thousands of them. Ordering 100 books at a time doesn't yield much of a profit and isn't really sustainable, but thankfully I'm probably going to be done with that before too long: I'll have a few hundred and book 3 printed, and then I should be able to do a one-volume book by convention season 2011 (March or April would be ideal). Let me be clear that the one-volume OoT book will be its last incarnation for the foreseeable future, and it will contain no extra content that isn't already contained in the individual books. Anyway I'll talk more about this when it is more relevant, but I want everyone to know I'm not just trying to get everybody to buy the same thing from me multiple times!!

Heroes Con, oh my gosh, it is in less than a week. If you are a comic person in the area of Charlotte, NC, you should be there. Have a look at this excellent map (by Joel of Hijinks Ensue) showing the excellent locations of myself and a ton of other excellent webcomic makers. I will have many books, and a new poster with an image from my Next Big Comic: YOU can SEE a tiny in-progress preview here, but no one will see the finished image until the convention this weekend!!

On LiveJournal

26 May 2010 - 2 Pages: Doubts.

ey guys here's two new pages. Got a lot of stuff going on so no blog stuff today; I will have some things to say for Sunday. See you...

On LiveJournal

23 May 2010 - 2 Pages: Soon.

ey everyone! I have given you two new pages of Order of Tales if you're into that sort of thing. My life is this comic lately; I have been staying up late to finish 2 pages a day every day so the end is done when I want it to be. I should have a fixed date for the ending part before too long.

It is looking like I've got a big expensive move coming up. I plan to start doing some small, inexpensive commissions soon, if that interests you!

On LiveJournal

19 May 2010 - 2 Pages: Day and Night.

wo pages today. I've roughly worked out my schedule for finishing the rest of the story, and I'll be putting the last two chapters up all at once, sometime after the current chapter is finished. There might be a bit of a wait after this chapter is finished, but I think it's important that everybody can read the whole end at once!

I think I've decided what the next short story will be. It will probably be called 'Settling Down,' and will be a direct mini-prequel to Rice Boy. I figure the donation goal will be 300, in which case it's nearly half paid for now and I need to get to work on it.

People of Asheville! I'm starting a comic book workshop and discussion group. The first meeting is Tuesday. Here's the flyer.

On LiveJournal

16 May 2010 - 2 Pages: Secrets.

ello have a bit more of the comic! A new role for Koark, hmmm? On the site this week I finally started reworking the Extras page; now there is a place for fanart. More content will be up there soon!

Fanaticon in Asheville was this weekend, and I think was a big success. Very well attended! Glad I could be there. My next convention is another North Carolina thing, and it is called Heroes Con. Biggest show in the area, and this year it has quite a few other webcomics artists. A thing I really like about Heroes is how well it represents a pretty wide spectrum of comics people. Anyway that is in June, and then I have a break from conventions for a while, which is probably good.

On LiveJournal

12 May 2010 - 2 Pages: Leader.

wo pages today, and updates for the near future will probably be 2 or 3 instead of 3 or 4 pages. Please excuse me but I am working on wrapping up the most ambitious comic book I have ever made and it is hard, and also I want to get far enough ahead to put up the last large chunk at once. I hate the word 'chunk.' Anyway today's update shows us a bit of the new situation for these Blackbirds... When I started this comic I never ever thought I would do anything with the Blackbirds except make them uniform Bad Guys, but I think they've become a tad more interesting.

This weekend in Asheville, NC is Fanaticon, a new one-day show! If you are in the area you should be there; it is FREE. Hope Larson and Paul Cleland and I will be there. I am on a panel at 1:00 on self-publishing comics.

More pages on Sunday how does that sound? I think that sounds good.

On LiveJournal

7 May 2010 - 3 Pages: Camp.

hree new pages to you today from Toronto. TCAF is over and it has been a really great time! I did not bring enough books. My next two cons are much nearer to home-- Fanaticon in Asheville and Heroes Con in Charlotte.

I will try to put up some pictures and words about TCAF for Wednesday, along with more of this dang comic! Can't talk much now; see you--

On LiveJournal

5 May 2010 - 4 Pages and TCAF TCAF TCAF!

our new pages today; a surprising turn of events, I think? And Chapter 13 is over (it's a relatively short one). There are ONLY THREE CHAPTERS LEFT OF ORDER OF TALES.

Toronto! Are you aware of the Toronto Comic Arts Festival?? Are you aware that I will be there? Are you aware that it admission is FREE? So it looks like you have no excuse not to be there, and plenty of really good excuses to be there. Find me at table 211 on the second floor, in the midst of many many other webcomics folks. I will have the Rice Boy and Order of Tales books, and a few copies of the Portraits of Overside and Making Rice Boy art books.

Hectic stuff going on for me lately. I am looking for a new apartment, dealing with an enormous number of preorders for the Rice Boy book, going to a bunch of comic conventions, and writing and rewriting the remainder of OoT all at the same time here. It is tricky but generally I can't complain.

On LiveJournal

2 May 2010 - 3 Pages and a New Short Story!

oday's update is NINETEEN PAGES LONG; you're welcome. The first three of these pages are the latest bit of Order of Tales, with a bit of quarreling amongst Blackbirds, and some big menacing flying beasts (they are called Dranbeasts, and we have seen them before).

The remaining sixteen of today's pages are the NEW SHORT STORY, which is called 'The Tusks of Wusterim.' It is the longest yet (though still quite short); a little meditation on the history and legacy of a civilization on Wusterim: an empire once called Taragi, and remembered as the Old Empire of Wusterim, or the Empire of Tusks. Anyway, read it; I'm happy with how it turned out.

IN OTHER NEWS. The new Rice Boy books have arrived. They are really really beautiful and I could not be more happy with them. I've received a number of preorders far larger than I anticipated, so it will probably take me a couple of weeks to get them all drawn in and out the door. Thank you all very much for your patience, and rest assured that you will be very happy with your books!

On LiveJournal

28 April 2010 - 3 Pages: Horn.

oark that is a priceless relic!! Oh my goodness.

I have put up a small recap of the Stumptown Comics Fest at evandahm.com. These two conventions have killed my buffer on OoT so I am seriously going to start finishing two pages a day every day, cross my heart. And TCAF in Toronto is in about a week. Excited about it, but I am wearing thin.

The Rice Boy books that many of you have preordered are in the southern United States now. Their oversea voyage has concluded, and the wait is nearly over! I am sorry that they've taken longer to get here than any of us anticipated. The first run of Making Rice Boy art books is in, though, have a look.

And finally! The next Short Story is paid for and nearly finished. It will be up with Sunday's update, and you will probably like it.

On LiveJournal

25 April 2010 - 3 Pages: King.

reveal! If you're not up on the continuity of Order of Tales, you might want to reread the end of the Machine Dominion story!

I am at the Stumptown comics fest right now so I can't write much! This convention is excellent. It is so excellent. I love it. And I will write more at you on Wednesday!

On LiveJournal

21 April 2010 - 3 Pages: Father.

oday's update is heavy stuff. If you feel you don't remember the story thus far super well, it might help you to remember a bit of Chapter 1, and some of the ROG story. I have no further comment on the new pages right now, just go read them!

Over on my general-purpose blog I just put up a writeup with photos of C2E2. Have a look!

STUMPTOWN IS THIS WEEKEND. If you're in the area come by! I will be at TABLE 96 with Kel McDonald of Sorcery 101. Come on by, get a free postcard.

On LiveJournal

18 April 2010 - 3 Pages: Tunnel.

ey guys! I am finishing up a comic convention right now, so as usual that means a really insignificant cruddy blog post! C2E2 has been fun and I'll write some more about it for Wednesday's update if I can.

On LiveJournal

15 April 2010 - 3 Pages: Castle.

pdate is like five hours later than usual, super sorry. I really oughta switch my updates to around midnight eastern; it's generally more in line with my schedule.

The first page of today's update, 607, is one of my favorites of the entire comic so far. I hope you like it. I will say no more.

Flying out EARLY in the MORNING for my C2E2 adventure! Hello Chicago!

On LiveJournal

11 April 2010 - 3 Pages: Fire.

hmm, more obscure references to tiny bits of text that you probably don't remember in today's update. In reference to these pages (and perhaps some of the forthcoming pages?) you might do well to remember a story Koark read about the warlord Rog from long ago. Also look at these little bug-eyed creatures on the rocks! I really like them and I think I've been neglecting Overside's wildlife lately. That will change, and we will see many more animals! These things are called Gareeks, and they live in the dry flatlands on either side of Estring (the mountain ranges south of the Karrkín, towards which Koark is traveling lately). I highly recommend that you come by to read Wednesday's update, friends.

C2E2!! Are you going to be there? It is in Chicago! I will be debuting my new Overside art book/historical primer Portraits of Overside, and I will have both Order of Tales books and posters and some original pages for sale. The new Rice Boy book will not be there, but if you'd like to preorder it from me at the show, it will be less expensive and you will get a coupla posters for free!

Anyway it seems like it will be a fantastic, enormous show, representing all sorts of comics well. The sort of thing Chicago needs, being an all-around pretty great city.

On LiveJournal

7 April 2010 - 3 Pages: Desert.

oark is going roughly south, meandering through the southern half of the enormous desert called Karrkín. Stars. I am really liking working on this chapter so far, though I admit we're off to a slow start on it...

Finally a new run of the first Order of Tales books came in today! I know they have been missed, and they'll go online soon. Super glad to have them in time for C2E2 and Stumptown and TCAF and all of the infinity of comic conventions I am going to, from here to infinity.

Speaking of which, the MoCCA Fest is this weekend in New York City! I will NOT be there, but tons of great comics personages will be, and you should go if you're in the area. It is a convention that is high on my list and I will probably go next year! Meanwhile I am stressing out and getting everything ready for C2E2 in Chicago the following weekend.

Hey! Rice Boy is now on Facebook, if that is something you participate in! I will keep that page up to date with updates and news and goings-on. More! Pages! Sunday!

On LiveJournal

4 April 2010 - 3 Pages: Departure

ere's the end of Chapter 12, and we are on our way into Chapter 13, which I am currently having a lot of fun drawing-- I've finally gotten about 20 pages ahead of the current update. As we get further along, I'll try to point you in the direction of previous bits of the story that should be remembered to make sense of the current bit: this will compensate for the fact that reading OoT in tiny chunks over the course of 2 years may not be the best way to read it and understand everything that's going on! So, in reference to today's update, perhaps you will remember page 475, where Æthirus gave Koark a bottle of his weird fire-liquid for his defense when going back into Machine territory to retrieve Potok.

Reconstructing the city of Shadow Monument from a different angle for pages 592 and 599 gave me the idea that it would probably be a good idea to start using some sort of 3D modeling software for laying out cities and towns and things. I've used Google SketchUp, which seems very easy to use but very very limited in the sorts of forms it can make. Do you have any other suggestions?

AND speaking of Google, there's a great article up on io9 about the Google Books Settlement, and how copyright has been struggling to make sense of new media. This is a very interesting topic to me, at least! I hope to write something about my thoughts on it on my general-purpose blog. Ok more pages Wednesday, good night good night good night.

On LiveJournal

31 March 2010 - 3 Pages: The Edge

p on the edge of the crater! Almost done with the chapter! No words again! I'm back in the groove, drawing 2 pages a day, it is good good good. And I have been working on getting everything sent my way for the upcoming conventions: Rice Boy books, a new run of the first book of Order of Tales, the Portraits book, and Making Rice Boy, to go along with the new Rice Boy books.

Yesterday I saw His Royal Majesty King Khan and the Shrines; they are a fantastic band and you should listen to them!

HOW ABOUT A USTREAM TONIGHT OK?? Come on by!

On LiveJournal

28 March 2010 - 3 Pages: The Lake

o here in the lake in the midst of the establishment called Shadow Monument is the structure for which it is named; a tall spike of hard, black stone. Sorry about all of these cliffhangers lately; truly I am.

I now have a big huge banner with T-O-E on it for conventions. The photo is flipped accidentally. I have been made aware of this. Anyway, you shall know me by my enormous picture of a robot. Have a good dayyyyy.

On LiveJournal

24 March 2010 - 4 Pages: The Bridge

y friends! Won't you read these four pages I have posted! In the midst of this mad dash I've shown a bit more of the layout of Shadow Monument; the bridge crosses at the narrowest point of the lake in the bottom of the crater... a clearer shot of that is coming up soon. The previous full-page image of the area shows the larger half of the lake; the bridge in today's update would be covered by the Dranbeast's right wing in that image. But anyway.

My Canadian friends! I will be exhibiting at the Toronto Comics Art Festival!! It is on May 8th and 9th. There is an impressive number of luminaries and important persons from the worlds of straight comics and web comics alike; have a look at this handsome guest list. It will be my first time in Canada, too!

The Harvey Awards ballots went up recently. If you are a person 'involved in a creative capacity in the comics field,' I hope you'll fill one out!

More pages on Sunday, unless something goes terribly wrong.

On LiveJournal

21 March 2010 - 3 Pages: The Thick of It.

e're in the midst now of an action sequence that I am very pleased with, but unfortunately that means this bit will read very quickly! Apologies, but rest assured it is awesome. Also I know a few people have noticed that there are a few severed horns of Shade-Kin laying around in this place, like the one Æthirus is missing. Hmmm.

In other news, I've filled out a bit more of my appearance schedule with some things in Asheville in May: a signing on the first, and a talk on the 11th. April and May are looking to be a complete mess of conventions and comics. Come see me if you are nearby!

Hey are you familiar with a comic called GastroPhobia? It's a fantastic comic made of reconfigured classical myths, and you should read it, and you should be aware that its very first book is on the way!

I leave you with yet more Lord of the Rings drawings. Adieu.

On LiveJournal

17 March 2010 - 3 Pages: Running down the stairs.

ecause it is the Shadow Monument, there are a bunch of SHADOWS, get it?

A few days ago I started drawing characters from the Lord of the Rings, and putting them all up on my art blog (a permalink for all these drawings). I'm going to try to draw every single character that has any significance to the story, as an act of open war against Peter Jackson's dominion of pop culture's notions of the book. Funny enough, Latin heartthrob Aaron Diaz has also lately been drawing things from the Tolkien mythology, here and here. Why don't you draw some too, hmmmm?

The Portraits of Overside book is off being printed. Planning to start the long slow work on the next book (themed 'Rulers' as the first is 'Warriors') at earliest convenience!

On LiveJournal

14 March 2010 - 3 Pages: Chasmus is DEAD!

h man that black stuff is so gross, probably. I do not envy this Koark guy. An unexpected development in today's update.

Friends! I am trying to make it so that Rice-Boy dot com is full of only Overside-Related stuff, and to that end I've been trying to make some sort of focal point for the rest of my work. That focal point will now be evandahm dot com, a tumblr site. All of the things that I draw that aren't Overside-related will go there, and all of the things that I write that aren't Overside-related will go there. The Livejournal version of this blog will remain as it has always been. The tumblr site is a new site for new things. OK? OK.

Working on the Very Last Picture for the Portraits book (a preview of the cover). Hopefully I will have it ready to print on Monday, meaning I will probably have them at C2E2 and I will definitely have them at the Stumptown Comics Fest. There is a lot of content in this thing; 11 detailed color images of places and people from all over Overside, and a wealth of dense, nerdy text on the history behind each image.

On LiveJournal

10 March 2010 - 3 Pages: Did I save you?

o what's the story behind this new guy, I wonder? I think most of you have seen him before... Is there anybody out there who is reading Order of Tales without having read Rice Boy yet? I am curious to know.

Lately doing a bunch of writing to tighten up the remainder of OoT, so I'm constantly excited about how close the end is and how fantastic it will be. Probably like 100-something pages away, but that isn't feeling like as much as it once did. I really like stories that end! It makes a more cohesive, clear piece if you have an idea of where you'll end up when you start. It's probably a very different experience to write something like an ongoing comic or TV show, where nothing can ever be really be resolved because the story can never be allowed to end. Anyway.

Check it out somebody found Atlantis.

On LiveJournal

7 March 2010 - 3 Pages: Who are you?

k I think you should probably read the pages I put up before you read this post! Of these three pages I think the first one is my favorite, 573, though it obviously isn't The Big Page of this update. Playing with the two black liquids throughout the page in this way is something that I don't think I could've done as well in any other medium, and it's something that wouldn't even have occurred to me if I were working in any other medium, I think. Comics are the best; is there ANY QUESTION. Anyway, now we can see who that Mysterious Hand belongs to. How BOUT IT.

The next Short Story is almost exactly halfway paid for, and is also exactly halfway finished! And I am just about ready to print the Making Rice Boy and Portraits of Overside books! And my last proof just came for the Rice Boy book! So now it is being bound, and please cross your fingers for it being with me by C2E2. Miles to go before I sleep.

This past week I have been watching all of the Alien movies. I am on the third one. I have never seen them before. Why did no one tell me that they were so awesome.

On LiveJournal

3 March 2010 - 3 Pages: What is to be done with you.

his bit is interesting. More teeth, more bottle of black. I will not say anything about it! But I think you will probably want to come back to see what's up on Sunday...

I am working on getting started a Comics Workshop here in Asheville. This is something I've been wanting to do for a while, mostly because I know there are people here who are into comics and we are not in a vacuum. It will be a monthly thing, and the much of the format depends on who is there and what they want to do. We will see if it turns out to be a complete mess. More information forthcoming, at any rate.

I am watching Kirikou and the Sorceress it is a very pretty movie so far. Also pretty weird. I really like the aesthetic of every Franco-Belgian cartoon and comic I've seen!

On LiveJournal

28 February 2010 - 3 Pages: A small frustration.

hree pages with TEETH. I really like drawing this guy.

Just came back from a place that is actually called Big Ugly, West Virginia. Tired and tired; I got nothing much to say now. Hella more pages on Wednesday, BELIEVE IT.

On LiveJournal

24 February 2010 - 3 Pages: Smoke. And Paper.

ho is this mysterious person? We will see, I guess. I've tried to make this scene really very creepy and disgusting, but this is only the very beginning of it...

Bought a plane ticket today to a Mystery Comic Convention which will occur sometime in the Mysterious Near Future. My attendance there is not yet a Public Fact, it is still a Mystery. I will announce what it is exactly in the near future but I don't know when; that is also a Mystery.

You guys should all know all about the stop-motion work of Bruce Bickford, ok? There is a wealth of material he's made on Youtube, and the documentary Monster Road is also excellent. He made a lot of material for Frank Zappa, and I think that's what he is most known for. I was reminded of him by a dream I had recently about a TV show that does not exist. My dreams are pretty boring.

On LiveJournal

21 February 2010 - 3 Pages: Shadow Monument

o so excited about this scene. Bear with me; I think you'll really like the coming pages.

This week I drew Kimiko from the comic Dresden Codak, and I started coloring the next short story. I am pleased with it so far. Both of these things were drawn with my Brand New Brush which is very nice but trickier to use than the one I'm used to. I hope to get good enough with it to draw the Next Big Thing entirely with it. Ohhh man brushes.

I'm reading science fiction books lately what are you reading? I just finished The Mote in God's Eye which was good but also kind of silly and dated; it is a book that is really inspiring mostly because it seems like it could be done so much better. Mostly I am annoyed that an interstellar culture one thousand years in the future is presented as essentially the same as modern America (with spaceships). And I just started Foreigner by C.J. Cherryh because I want to read about aliens and I've liked some of her books before, though she is seriously way too interested in exposition. Ok more things on Wednesday bye!

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17 February 2010 - 3 Pages: A Crater

hree pages today. I imagine this sequence very slow and quiet, with ominous music playing. Guess where we are now?

Not a lot of news today, but the Rice Boy book I keep mentioning is still up for preorder. Waiting to hear for certain whether I'll have it by C2E2 in April. Fingers crossed fingers crossed.

TONIGHT at 10 or so EST, I will be starting to ink the next short comic! Come on by and we will talk about things ok? Byebyebye.

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14 February 2010 - 4 Pages: Down!

ur dramatic scene continues! If I am doing this well, it is hopefully pretty excruciating to read it at the slow slow rate at which I update... Maybe you will take comfort in the fact that everyone who reads this bit from now on will be able to go through the entire thing without stopping. Anyway there's another cliffhanger for you.

The new edition of the Rice Boy book is still up for preorder if you'd like to help me pay for the run and get a free drawing in it, too. Almost done laying out the Making Rice Boy book I'm selling with preorders; it is pretty tightly packed and I might have to make it a bit longer than the 24 pages I said before. It will be available for sale on its own in April.

So! The next short story will be called The Tusks of Wusterim. I've only just started planning it, but I can say that it has nothing directly to do with any of the characters or places we've seen before, and it will likely be a bit more ambitious than the previous shorts. I'll figure out some specifics and put up the donation goal for it soon!

Happy Valentine's day to all of you; bye bye bye bye bye.

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10 February 2010 - 5 Pages: Arrows!

kay look, you get five pages today but don't get used to it or anything. Today is special. Today is a five-page day.

Two days left to bid on the Cartographer drawing! Also I put up a handsome little map of upcoming conventions I'll be at, which you can read a bit more about here. Still working out a few more I'll be going to this year! The next convention I will be at is C2E2 in Chicago and I am EXCITED.

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7 February 2010 - 3 Pages and the new edition of the Rice Boy book!

hings are getting a bit more serious in today's update. I've regained my buffer on the comic and am now around 15 pages ahead of my updates, so I can GUARANTEE that it is getting HEAVY.

Hey have a look! The new edition of the Rice Boy book is now for preorder! As I've said, if you've bought the book as it was previously available, this new edition has the SAME CONTENTS, it's just slightly larger. I'm getting this edition printed myself so that I can make the process of selling and distribution go smoother and a bit more cheaply.

There's also the option of preordering the book with a copy of a 24-page art book called Making Rice Boy, which contains a bunch of art from the development of RB, comic strips much older than that, and some color art I've made since starting RB. Also I am going to redesign the Store page in the near future; it is getting pretty messy.

Also and finally, the Overside Wiki is still up and running, and getting so thorough that I've been using it as a reference source, myself. Drop by and read things and maybe write things. More pages Wednesday!

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3 February 2010 - 4 Pages: We're being followed!

o here's four pages for you today and UH-OH things might not be going exactly as planned!

Yesterday I put up the original drawing of the Cartographer print up on eBay! If you are interested in this thing, it will be open to bidding for the next week. I really like that drawing, and I don't think I had to make a single change to the linework after scanning, so it is a good-looking original. You can see the colored version here, and the print is still for sale here.

I've mentioned I'm working on getting the Rice Boy book printed in a run of 1,000 copies, so I can get the price down a bit and go about this self-publishing thing one degree more professionally. This second edition of the book will have essentially the exact same contents as the ComiXpress version, but will be bigger: 6 by 9 inches. I plan to put up this new version for preorder on Sunday, with a little art book called Making Rice Boy to accompany it at a discounted price. More on that soon! See you.

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31 January 2010 - 3 Pages: Leaving Terassir

hree wordless pages today, but I promise things with words will start to happen on Wednesday. And check it out I drew this space girl a couple days ago.

Hope you are all well out there! I have just been listening to a bunch of Ethiopian Jazz music and cross-hatching, basically. Such is life.

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27 January 2010 - 3 Pages: Taking off

really like the notion of these people being carried around on a platform by a bunch of flying snake-people. I'm running into a lot of things that are very hard to draw recently with the Sirpah, because nothing really resembles them and the way they work in reality. I guess I'm mostly talking about stuff after today's update, though; I've got my buffer back up to an impressive size again.

El Santo at the Webcomic Overlook reviewed Order of Tales recently, pretty enthusiastically. I am glad that some people are Getting It, but it still seems like more people got excited about Rice Boy? But I don't care because OoT will be the best comic I have ever done ever. I have been doing a bunch of thumbnailing for the next bit and it is getting so intense oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, guys.

Apple made a flat laptop thing, and I don't think I will ever buy one but look at this video of a bunch of Apple employees talking about it and looking as if they've been crying. They GET IT. Assuming that everybody in the world buys one, I am pleased that the Rice Boy site will probably work very well visually on one of those things.

Ustream tonight. Inking something.

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24 January 2010 - 3 Pages: The Platform

ostume change for Koark, and not the last one. I like making up clothes.

I currently have a guest page up at The Intrepid Girlbot by Diana Nock. Had a lot of fun doing this one! Girlbot is a comic with robots and no words, so it is exactly the sort of thing I like, and capably put together by Diana who is Good at Drawing. Read through the archives! I think it is going to go exciting places...

The Cartographer Print is still up and available! There is one hanging on my wall right now.

I've been doing a bunch of ustreaming lately. Might do it again some night this week; I will notify by the twitters. See you all.

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19 January 2010 - ONE! THOUSAND! PAGES!

everal things have happened all at once with this update oh my gosh! First of all, there are now OVER ONE THOUSAND PAGES of comics from Overside on Rice-Boy.com. That seems like an awful lot more than I ever remember drawing, but I guess it is true. To correspond with this event, I've gotten a limited edition poster printed, called the Cartographer. I tried to make this image sort of summarize my entire experience so far of this Overside project, and I'm happy with how it turned out. You can see a video of me drawing the entire thing.

Secondly, these three latest pages of Order of Tales wrap up Chapter 11. From the very beginning of my planning this story, this moment has been a very significant turning-point... Anyway we will see how things develop from here to the end, in a scant few hundred pages.

And thirdly, there is a NEW 14-page comic in the Short Stories section, featuring Huff, entitled The Jewel of Brambool. It was very fun and I'd love to know what you think of it. I've got a few ideas for the next short; once I decide which to go for next, I'll put up the next donation goal.

Finally I've forgotten to mention I've gotten some very nice and smart reviews lately: Rice Boy and Order of Tales have been reviewed by My Synonym, Luprand's Webcomic Musings, and Comixtalk.

That is all I've got. I'd like to Ustream later this week, and maybe I will see you there. Bye bye bye bye bye.

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17 January 2010 - 3 Pages: The way his sword can be broken

ysterious as usual, T-O-E. We are wrapping up the chapter very soon, and then Things Get Real.

I just found a new comic that I really really love; it is called Biozoic and it is about a bunch of strange monsters eating each other. It is the strangest thing I've read in a while. It was finished in 2006, and Gerry has drawn a bunch of other comics you can find there too.

Along with Wednesday's update of OoT, the next Short Story, the Jewel of Brambool will go online! Thanks everyone for your patience; this has been a very fun comic to put together. I already have the next one in mind; details on that forthcoming. See you soon.

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13 January 2010 - 4 Pages: A Secret!

h dialogue, look at you. I hope I am not being overly expository! I'm very excited about where this story is heading...

The other day I found this very cool webcomic called Not So Distant. It is about an alien archaeologist encountering humans. I read through the whole thing and then learned that it hasn't been updated since August 2009. This is SAD, but of course not unique, and Not So Distant made it quite a bit further than most abandoned webcomic projects.

Let me hold forth a bit here! If you are reading this right now and you are a person who has AN IDEA, please be aware that it is WORTH NOTHING until you make something of it. Everyone has ideas, and I'm sure that the idea that you have is particularly good. But ideas are easy, and they are insignificant compared to the many many hours of work that has to go in to realizing them. There is no mystery or secret to any creative process. Just work. No one will do this work but you. Please, please do it, and don't give up!

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10 January 2010 - 3 Pages: These two I recognize

et more pseudonyms for T-O-E and Calabash. T-O-E's names are way cooler than Cal's though. That's life, I guess, if you are an immortal magic robot person.

The next short story has been paid for, and then some. It'll go up as soon as I've finished it, and I am working hard! It's looking really nice; I'm playing with some elements that I kind of miss doing since Rice Boy. Also I've recently finished another guest page for a webcomic that I really like; I will show you all that once it's online.

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6 January 2010 - 3 Pages: Walkers in the Tower City

am super happy with these pages and I hope you dig them. In this scene I've tried to switch between shots aiming up and down in a way that is sort of disorienting... the main reason for all of the bold, parallel lines in the architecture here is so I can emphasize this. Anyway neat! Snake people!

The second book of Order of Tales is available for order now! Thanks everyone for preordering; I have heard back from a few of you and am happy that the books have been well-received!

Turns out Jeff Smith of Bone and RASL thinks Rice Boy is one of the best comics of the decade! I must respectfully disagree but am very flattered! For my own part, my favorite comic books of the aughts would have to include Heavy Liquid by Paul Pope, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware, Blankets by Craig Thompson, and Bone, of course of course.

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3 January 2010 - 3 Pages: The Towers

inally within sight of Terassir itself; I'm happy with how all of this is looking and I hope you like it. Very rarely do I actually have to use a ruler to work out perspective, but it's hard to fake it when you're drawing big straight parallel things.

The second OoT book will be for sale in the store in a bit; sorry it's taken so long. Also I have some handsome posters I've been meaning to get printed that will be here soon! More pages Wednesday, I predict.

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30 December 2009 - 3 Pages: Flying!

ello people! In these new pages we are airborne, and very nearly within sight of the city, proper. Very fun to be finally drawing all of this stuff; I've been planning it for a while.

Erika Moen recently put up the very last DAR comic! Also right around now, Anders Loves Maria by Rene Engstrom is ending. It is an objective fact that these are two of the finest comics being published online right now, and it is sad to see them go. Looking forward to what both artists work on next.

This is my very last update of 2009! Are we calling next year 'twenty-ten' or 'two thousand and ten'? The one sounds too Futuristic, and the other is too long. This is A PROBLEM. Anyway I am excited about it, and I have some plans (about which I wrote a bit in the forums a little while ago). 2009 has been a year for figuring out what I'm doing with this comics thing (and I haven't figured out very much at all); 2010 will be for Getting Things Done.

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27 December 2009 - 3 Pages: Reaching Terassir is simpler by flight

erious stuff going on. How do you like the Sirpah? I am happy with how they've turned out, and I like using characters that deviate from anthropomorphism in so many interesting ways... More to come.

I forgot to mention! I recently finished a guest page for Dave Shabet's Dead Winter, a fantastic character-driven comic about different people making their way in a zombie-infested world. I recommend a read, and be aware that the pages running right now are guest pages. It has been a while since I've drawn comics with people in them!!

Drawing in and packing the preorders of OoT book 2. All should be out on Monday. Talk to you all soon!

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23 December 2009 - 3 Pages: The Sirpah of the Tower City

h my goodness you finally get to see what these guys look like, cool!

The second OoT books came in this week! They look PERFECT. Together on the shelf, books 1 and 2 take up an amount of space that I am seriously impressed by. All preorders are being packed up and will go out on Monday, and I will have some pictures up with Sunday's update, or via twitter before then.

This week I found a game called Machinarium and bought it and played all the way through. It's a very well-designed and difficult game, and it's currently on sale! Let me suggest that you play the demo, on the site.

Hope you are all having lovely holidays and a generally fine end of the year. Seeyou.

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20 December 2009 - 4 Pages: T-O-E stays awake

ery happy with how these pages turned out, and I had to give you four to put us at this particular stopping place, oh my goodness.

Today you should read this fantastic little comic by Tom Herpich.

Huge amounts of snow all over the east coast, including here in Asheville. Power has been out a bit, but has returned in time for this update. Happy snow days to all of you.

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16 December 2009 - 3 Pages: The Way-Room

ive hundred pages of Order of Tales are on the site today! Still have a ways to go, too. We're at the 'way-room' on the pillar that leads to the Tower City. The pillars are so tall that these rooms are in place for people to stay as they're climbing up them. I like the idea of these massive, mysterious structures, and I think it's pretty hard to convey the sense of SCALE that I have in mind in comics.

The next short story is over half paid for, at 159 of 300 USD as I write this. It will probably be paid for before I finish drawing it. There is a possibility that I have given myself too much work, but it is at least work that I really really like.

I've been reading a bunch of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian stories from the 1930s. They are really very fun stories, and it's surprising how varied they are, for all dealing with the same character. I love the idea of a bunch of loosely-connected stories dealing with episodes throughout one character's life... I think this is sort of what I'd like to do with some future short stories about T-O-E and Cal.

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13 December 2009 - 3 Pages: They have come well-prepared

'm having fun with this setting, weird as it is. The fairly simple, geometric design of the pillar is something that's interesting to play with... Showing it in different ways so that it becomes a more abstract thing. I hope that this sequence of climbing the pillar doesn't seem too awfully long for those of you reading with every update! New things will be seen soon. Also, on Wednesday the 500th page of OoT will be online.

I have come to the conclusion that the NEXT short story will feature Huff, a character that appears very briefly in Rice Boy, and about which I still have a bit to say. It will be put online when 300 USD of donations is reached, or when I finish drawing it. Neat!

Hey have you read the latest little comic by Yuko and Ananth at Johnny Wander? It is called 'Delilah and the Basilisk,' you can start reading it right here, and if you don't like it then I think there is probably something wrong with you.

This week I talked to a bunch of students at Asheville High School about comics! I gave the same talk to six classes and it was actually super fun. High school students seem to have gotten a lot cooler since I was one.

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9 December 2009 - 3 Pages: Climbing to the Tower City

ere's more pages! Koark is approaching the pillars, and it is a very very long way up.

Look at this cool thing I found! Dash Shaw has a great cartoon miniseries up at IFC, called The Unclothed Man in the 35th Century AD. It is a little obtuse and weird, but full of very good ideas... like his comics, I guess. I really liked it.

Thank you for reading. More pages Sunday.

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6 December 2009 - 3 Pages: The Pillars!

pproaching the Tower City, called also Terassir. I am happy with the design of this place and I hope you enjoy reading as we see more of it.

Oh hey! A few days ago I put up a new short story, The Tethered Isle! This is one I finished a few months ago, and I put it up as soon as the first donation goal was met. The NEXT short story has not been drawn yet, but donations from now on go towards its goal of 300 USD. I'll let you know what the new story is about when I've made a bit of progress! I really appreciate everyone's support with this new project! It's very exciting!

The inevitable file-formatting problem in the production of Book 2 of OoT has been solved, and the books are being printed. Will be filling more of your shelf space soon. More pages Wednesday!

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2 December 2009 - 4 Pages: Dranbeasts!

our pages today; more than usual! Had to bring it to the end of this ominious little scene. As usual I'm struggling to get way way ahead in OoT, so I can tell you that I'm very excited and pleased with the coming section, and the next place we see!

The second short story is nearly paid for! We're at 159 USD as I write this. Thanks everyone! I'm very excited about this -- making more comics and defining more of the area of Overside. At this rate I will hopefully be able to put up the story with Sunday's update. See you!

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29 November 2009 - 3 Pages of OoT and a NEW SHORT COMIC!

brief scene, here, featuring the second person of Æthirus' kind. Neat!

New things! Last night I finished and put up the first published Overside comic shorter than 400 pages in length! It is 14 pages long and in full color. It is a GIFT for YOU. I have a bunch of ideas that I'm not willing to commit years of time to, so I hope to expand the short stories section in future.

My plan (it is not really my plan; I stole it from Spike) is to have future stories will posted when donation goals are met; a 10-page comic called The Tethered Isle that I finished a few months ago will go online when 200 USD is reached (a total of 70 has been paid as I write this, already!).

Order of Tales Book 2 is up for preorder for a scant couple more days. Proof looks super nice; working out small issues now.

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25 November 2009 - 3 Pages: You are empty-handed

-O-E is trying to figure Æthirus out! Blackbirds are not in a good mood! All this and more!

Today I finished drawing the first short story to be put up on this site, which is called Waiting in Surya. Now all I have to do is finish coloring it and it will be up for you to read on Sunday and I hope you come by! Kind of looking forward to being able to focus more on OoT, for a little while at least.

A few days are left if you'd like to preorder Book 2, my friends. And as well, a happy Thanksgiving to you all.

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22 November 2009 - 3 Pages: Terassir is steadfast

bit about Æthirus' mysterious history, here. It is so nice to see him finally opening up. They're coming down out of the mountains of the Black Teeth, and into the desert called Karrkín, which, if not for the Trench, would be contiguous with Skortch (which appears in Rice Boy). Map stuff. Anyway this is the farthest east of the Trench that has ever been seen in these comics I make. Cool.

Also Book 2 is available for preorder for one more week!! Also happening next Sunday the 29th is the opening of the Short Stories section! There will be a thing there for you to read, in full color. I hope to eventually build up a whole bunch of material there. OK!

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18 November 2009 - 3 Pages: Towards the Tower City

ere's more pages. What is this Tower City mentioned here? Numerous mysterious places on the eastern side of the Trench that we know nothing about, yet.

Order of Tales Book 2! Still up for preorder! A handsome book that you can have! Very exciting. I'm planning on getting some handsome bookmarks printed to send out with the preorders, too.

Also a thing you may have noticed is the reworked menu bar on the front page. There is a big blue button that does not go anywhere yet, but rest assured that there will be something there SOON. The Rice Boy site is shortly undergoing a serious paradigm shift.

Also also I've unearthed my old Deviantart account. I started it 6 years ago and have removed all of the embarassing old crap it was full of. Check it out maybe, if you are that sort of person! Hey see you!

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15 November 2009 - 3 Pages and Book 2 preordering!

tiny tiny bit more is revealed about the Bottle Woman. I've been planning a lot of this story with big lists of bits of information in the order in which they should be revealed; I guess that makes this sort of a mystery story? I like tension. Also I like this beautiful watercolor picture that I got in the mail from Dylan Meconis yessss.

Ok my friends let's talk about this second Order of Tales book. FIRST OF ALL you can preorder it right now. All preorders should be sent out within a month. All preorders will have a FREE drawing on the title page of a subject of your choice; this will cost 5 dollars more when the book is in stock. It matches the first book in format, is 80 pages longer (hence, 5 dollars more), and has a similar appendix detailing the civilizations of Horneds and Machine Men.

I was talking about trying to go through Kickstarter for this thing but upon much deliberating and conversating I don't think it's a good idea yet. I would rather have both books immediately available than to wait a few months (through the fundraising period, and through the time it takes to print). I do plan on using Kickstarter for a certain thing in the future, for which I believe it would be more suited. The only relevant information here for YOU is that you can get the second book pretty soon.

I have found some really wonderful comics recently and I want you to know about them please! The first is Sam Hiti's Death Day, which is being published online a chapter at a time. Fascinating, beautifully drawn military science fiction and I love it! The second is Anne Szabla's Cealdian, which is set in a sort of invented world developed out of real history, and is super pretty to look at. These are not very good descriptions but I think you should have a look at these comics! Ok bye!

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11 November 2009 - 3 Pages: This will light the way

ook, three pages! They are in the dark and we don't really know what's going on!

So Liz Baillie, minicomics superstar, has just started publishing Freewheel online! I've read the first couple chapters as minicomics, so I can in fact guarantee you that this is a very interesting story and you ought to read it. It gets a bit strange!

Ok one more thing, a little bit of a project I'm working on. I hope to have more of it to show you all sooooon. Byebyebyebye.

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8 November 2009 - 3 Pages: Book 2 is OVER!

o, Chapter 10 and Book 2 of OoT both end with this update; this comic is in theory two-thirds done, now. Goodness goodness goodness.

The handsome Rice Boy Wiki went up recently! A couple of folks have already laid down an infrastructure and started putting a bunch of information there. I think I'll replace the World page with a link straight to this wiki. The goal is to have a focal point for world-internal information that I don't have to spend a lot of time maintaining myself. So if this is an interesting thing, feel free to have a look and modify stuff.

Right now I'm reading Dune by Frank Herbert for the first time (for a lovely reading group), and LOVING IT. I tried it a couple of times years ago, but never got through the dense bits near the start. It is a very visual book, I think, so I've drawn two illustrations and hope to do more from later in the book. OK! Will talk to you on Wednesday!

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4 November 2009 - 3 Pages: We have to leave now.

h goodness me all this turmoil! Is T-O-E finished being an uncompromising, ridiculous badass? Spoiler: I don't think so.

I found an INCREDIBLE CARTOON from 1983 about some green creatures and SKYWHALES. Watch it and admit that you are completely awed by it! Even though it's a brief, very dated film, I've rarely seen such thorough and elegant world-building. I still hold out hope that this Avatar movie, with all of its modernity and ground-breaking effects or whatever, will have a similarly well-designed, foreign world, but I DUNNO. I am looking forward to seeing that thing though, which is apparently an unpopular opinion in the community of genre fiction nerds. ANYWAY.

Also on the Youtubes I put up a video of me drawing a page at 2000% realtime which I think is cool. It's a bit of the video I'm putting together for my kickstarter project to fund getting Order of Tales printed. That will probably be going online on Monday or so! See you people.

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1 November 2009 - 3 Pages: Traitor!

hree new pages! I will not say anything about them! Five pages left of Book 2, now.

I will say that the Mars Minicomic I finished recently is in the store now! It is a weird little thing with a whole lot of dense crosshatching, and matches a piece of classical music. I eventually want to make little comics to match other parts of the Planets Suite by Mister Holst but that will probably take a while, I don't know.

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28 October 2009 - 3 Pages: Further violence

ey I drew more pages of this comic why don't you read them. Hey, all right. Let me tell you, I keep trying to not let T-O-E be a ridiculous over the top hardcore badass all the time, and it is NOT WORKING.

Hey so about the second Order of Tales book! Things are still in the air and I am thinking hard. I THINK I will start getting these books mass produced and offset printed, which could earn me a reasonable amount of profit per book, and give me some Breathing Room. So Book 2 will likely debut in this fashion, and I might be doing preorders and raising money for the entire run via Kickstarter.com, which just looks fantastic. Anyway, more info on that forthcoming!

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25 October 2009 - 3 Pages: Violence!

heck out this Serious Business. Very tricky choreographing this part; I think it might be the most complex 'action scene' I've ever done, at least in terms of number of players involved. The situation is getting more and more intense.

You might like this little video I found, which has a bit of Hayao Miyazaki and Jean Giraud/Moebius talking about each other. If you are familiar with either of their work, you can probably understand why I am really in love with it. As the fantastic Mr. Gurney (through whose blog I found the video) says, Moebius and Miyazaki 'are two of the faces that would be carved in the Mount Rushmore of fantasy comics and animation.'

Not much else to report, I think. You'll notice I put up a bit of a teaser-thing in the store about the next OoT book. I'd like to start taking preorders on or around November first. Ok bye!

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21 October 2009 - 3 Pages: Teller, he says.

must say I'm having a lot of fun with the hands of the middle-Judicial. The fingers can elongate at the joints, turning one point of articulation into three. I think I may have exaggerated the size too much but it is more dramatic like this so whatever. I have been driving myself crazy dealing with the big, growing crowd in this scene.

APE was supercool and exhausting and I think I have now recovered from it completely. I loved loved San Francisco, and am very glad to have an excuse to return! I walked many many miles around that fine city.

Got to see many fellow members of the Webcomics Vanguard, including certain Aarons, Erikas, Kates, and Merediths. And it was very cool to meet Dershing who draws the The Meek, and Jason who draws Jaephisch and the Dark Rainbow and Ben who draws Shi Long Pang. Fine comics all! Also Dershing gave me a beautiful drawing of Koark and the Bottle Woman, which I will post as soon as I've scanned it! I talked also a bit with a Jeff who I met at Heroes this summer. He is a very nice guy and it's interesting to think that he did a very analog, untested (and I should say Much More Difficult) version years ago of what I and many others are doing now, insofar as independent publishing. Going it alone!

Anyway! It is the sort of show where I could easily spend every dollar I made on books at the show. But I didn't! I was given many extremely cool things, though, which I will share with you all in the coming days! I think I did well enough to justify another hellish plane-ride westwards next year! Thanks to everyone who came by the table.

Now I am working hard at getting back ahead in OoT and getting everything together for book 2. So excited! Also I have been drawing a few ancillary things that I'll be coloring in the next few weeks/months, so once I figure out how to broadcast from my computer monitor I should start doing ustreams/livestreams again because it has been a while.

On LiveJournal

18 October 2009 - 3 Pages: Blackbirds!

ere's some comics! The plot has apparently THICKENED?

Just got out of APE and currently have no time to write much. I'll talk a bit about the convention on Wednesday, as usual I guess! Went super well and San Francisco is lovely.

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14 October 2009 - 4 Pages: What is her importance?

h goodness, serious spoiler business is going on around here. It is probably more obvious what was going to happen than I intended, but I hope you are the least bit surprised!

OK I promise this is the last time I will tell you about the impending Alternative Press Expo, because it is this weekend and will be over by the next update. I am flying to San Francisco-land at a stupid-early hour on Friday, and assuming the airline doesn't lose my checked baggage and the hotel doesn't decide two days is too long to hold stuff for me, I will have MORE BOOKS than I've ever had at a convention. Here's hoping I don't run out of Rice Boy books as quickly as I have in the past. So! If you're in the area I'd love to see you! There will be many other fantastic comics purveyors present too!

In anticipation of this thing I've gotten a couple of new articles of merchandise put together, which should be available on the site when I get back. One is a new minicomic that I have been laboring over for a long time, and another is a new poster. Neat! Enjoy your comics; get them while they're hot. See you!

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11 October 2009 - 3 Pages: The last Bottle Woman of Overside

ere we're back to the Judicials' garden... trying to build tension over this and the next several pages. I'm about 10 pages ahead of this post, now. Jeez and it's kind of shocking how near the end of book 2 is, now. My goal is to have preorders up by the start of November, meaning they'll all have arrived by Christmas. I ran into a lot of formatting problems that delayed getting book 1 out, but these will be averted this time because the format is basically exactly the same.

Going to a friend's wedding in a bit! More pages on Wednesday.

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7 October 2009 - 3 Pages: Locked!

-O-E in the Black Teeth at night. I don't think I've done any sequences in OoT with a 'point-of-view' limited to him, yet. I try to generally keep it stuck on Koark, but drift to other characters at need... and as more primary characters are introduced, I guess I'm doing that more. Whatever, I have no idea what I'm doing.

Still going through the books I got at SPX, let me tell you about some of them! Tomb by Mr. Eric Colossal is very good, and I think he just got the entire story printed (only the first bit is online). Wordless comics are HARD to do; Tomb reads smoothly and is clever and very pretty to look at. Also I dig barbarians beating up stuff. Jess Fink had books of the first bit of her (Not Safe for Work!) Chester 5000 comic, which is very pretty, and which is also wordless (though about Sex and not Violence). Eric and Jess are great folks and I really enjoyed talking with them about comics and nerdy miscellany. I've read a bit of the first book of Kazimir Strzepek's Mourning Star (the website's a little wonky, here is Bodega's homepage). Very fun, charming comic with dense linework that I love looking at. It's also one of those stories that presents a well-developed, unique world, but does not overexplain it. That is what I'm trying to do, too!

Fine folks at Topatoco have put together a map of the locations of their affiliates at APE next week, have-a-look! I am up there at 521, sharing a table with Mr. Diaz of Dresden Codak. If you are looking for young bearded men peddling comic book genre fiction, WHY, LOOK NO FURTHER.

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4 October 2009 - 5 Pages: Machine Dominion

es five pages; that is a lot of pages. I wanted to get the entire Machine Dominion story (all of it but the first page at least) out at once, because it would be awkward cut up. So the New Pages link goes straight to the beginning of Koark's latest story. I'm building up a buffer again but I'm not as far ahead as I'd like. BUT! As of this week there are more pages of Order of Tales than of Rice Boy. That is pretty serious business.

Currently working out frustrating details of how to actually get all of my merchandise to APE. I hope this works anyway. Might involve multiple taxi rides to and from my hotel.

Tried to do 24 hour comic day and failed. Working steadily on the comics I am happy with, though. I plan to do a ustream later this week. For now going to see Macbeth. bye

On LiveJournal

30 September 2009 - SPX and 3 new pages

ack in Asheville, caught up on sleep, trying to adjust to a more consistent work schedule. Here's three pages, with the beginning of a new story told by Koark (which should be ended in Sunday's 5-page update).

Let's talk about SPX, because it was lovely and I want to talk about it. It is lovely and jarring to meet in Reality so many people whose work I enjoy and follow. A hellish long drive to Bethesda on Friday, and then tons of comics-talking and people-meeting and perhaps too much beers-drinking. From webcomics land I met Meredith, Steve, Erika, Aaron, Yuko, Ananth, Kate, and many others. Every one of these people make work that I really admire, and they are absolutely nice people. I've linked to and talked about most of their comics before; sorry to overload you with links!

I was interviewed by Indie Spinner Rack, one of my favorite comics podcasts. Super cool! The hosts are very nice and it's weird being interviewed by somebody who you've heard interview many other people! Lovely Thai food on Saturday after almost starving was nice, with Spike and Paul and Dave (whose comic I only started reading recently; it's very well-written).

I could have easily spent basically all of the money in the world on the comics in that convention, so I guess I'm lucky to have been an exhibitor instead of wandering the aisles the whole time. I am very very intrigued by Hans Rickheit's new book The Squirrel Machine, and had a nice talk with the guy too. His work is inky, well-drafted, and occasionally creepy. Traded a book with James Kochalka for some of his Johnny Boo stuff, which is colorful and hilarious! I read (but I confess I have not yet bought) Josh Cotter's new book Driven by Lemons, and can't recommend it highly enough. Very capable, raw stream-of-consciousness work. It has really stuck with me. Fantastically printed; it looks indistinguishable from the original artwork. Josh was a nice guy to meet, too! Jeez, everybody's nice!

I realize I haven't even mentioned how I did monetarily but that is just not as interesting. I did very, very well, and am endlessly grateful for Liz for the last-minute half table. She is in fact on her Punchbuggy Tour across this fine nation, and I'm going to see her in Asheville in like 10 minutes, as I write this! Anyway lots of fun; I want to do it every year. See you.

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27 September 2009 - 3 Pages: In robot prison

eeeere's comics. The last we will see of the Judicials? Spoiler: No.

SPX has exhausted me, so I am just not up to typing a thorough post right now! But I will write up a bit about the convention for Wednesday's update because I had a really great time! I will need to/am going to bring many more books to APE. byebye.

On LiveJournal

23 September 2009 - 3 Pages: Angry Robots

age 423 is one of my favorites in a bit; hope you dig it. More Machine Men drama today, but we aren't done yet.

Mad prepping for convention time. Got a handsome tablecloth, made a foamcore standup thing. Binding many comics. Leaving Asheville early in the morning Friday with Paul. I'm at table H-12 or H-14! We'll see. I hope to see some of you there!

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20 September 2009 - 3 Pages: Today is MY BIRTHDAY

am 22 today. Also, comics. I love drawing the Judicials, still, and I love how suddenly we're made aware of the relative size of them. Neat, I hope?

SPX is next weekend, guys. I am super excited; everything I hear about it makes me more excited. Fine comic artists who will be found there include Mr Diaz of Dresden Codak, Ms. Fink of Chester 5000 XYV (not work-safe), Mr. Shabet of Dead Winter, Ms. Gran of Octopus Pie, Ms. Trotman of Templar, AZ, and many more, perhaps too many. I am sharing a table with Liz Baillie, and I am riding up there with fine young gentleman Paul Cleland who draws Real Cane Sugar. So many comics and so many comics people! I am looking forward to being surrounded by them all!

I made a little minicomic recently, and it's in the store for a couple weeks only, for a small number of dollars. I made them for conventions but some people never go to those, so you'll be able to get them on the site, too! I've started another (which is based on super-dramatic song Mars, Bringer of War by Gustav Holst), and hopefully will keep them coming for a while.

August shirts of the month will be sent out Tuesday, looks like. My apologies for the tremendous delay. See you soon, people.

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16 September 2009 - 3 Pages: The Judicials

ere, finally, the three rulers of the Black Teeth. Very fun to design and draw. Trying to give them clear textures, and make them contrast with the robes they wear. Also, more big lenses. I'm really happy with how this scene turned out; stay tuned.

The August shirt of the month has taken a while but is finally printed; all orders will be sent out by Friday. I apologize for the wait. Everybody seems to think that T-shirts are the quintessential and primary thing that Webcomic Artists ought to sell, but they sure are more trouble than things like books and prints.

Speaking of books and all. I'm obsessed with making minicomics lately, I've mentioned. I just started binding a run of my new Cyclops minicomic, and my hands hurt all the time because of it. I've made them primarily for conventions, but I WILL be putting this and future minis for sale on the site for a LIMITED TIME. The cyclops book will be for sale later tonight, for like 3 bucks or something. I have started on another that I hope to get finished before SPX, but I think I've accidentally made it way too ambitious. We will see. Also, it is looking like I might in fact have some of the Rice Boy books for that convention, because Comixpress is awesome.

More pages Sunday; byebye.

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13 September 2009 - 4 Pages: Into the Garden

oing through the Black Teeth, into the Garden to see what these Judicials are all about. They have been mentioned twice; I wonder if they are immmportaaaant? Not a lot of talking this update, so I've given you four pages instead of three, though it pains me. It is taking a lot of willpower not to just drop the next ten-odd pages on you now, because the next several pages are awesome. Trying to build up an enormous buffer, though. Sorry.

Drawing this comic in black and white is still a challenging and occasionally relevatory experience. Denied color (I often used it as a shortcut in Rice Boy, I think, in retrospect), I have to rely on shadow and texture to make things clear and real. I'm trying to really emphasize the texture of things in the Black Teeth-- all the architecture is composed of roughly-carved stone, carved and polished stone, and a few sorts of beaten metal, and I'm trying to make this clear in the drawings themselves. The Machines themselves are I hope more textural and solid, too. BUT ANYWAY.

Check it out, I am GOING TO BE AT SPX. It is on relatively short notice, so I probably won't have the Rice Boy books in time, but I'll have everything else (a new minicomic too), and I will be cheerful and friendly. I am sharing a table with Miz Liz Baillie, prolific and skillful comic-maker. I am very impressed by her new series Freewheel, about a girl on a Journey, drawn in very dense, clean linework which is pleasing to me. I have only read the first of two issues of it, though. There's some previews of her comics on her site, if you like. There is no end of other really cool people who will be there, too; I will talk about them laaaaaaater.

Let's do a Ustream thing soon, it has been a while. Monday or Tuesday maybe! See you soon.

On LiveJournal

9 September 2009 - 3 Pages: Guard Council-Member Interrum Requa

oving into the Black Teeth. I like the idea of introducing this place and its inhabitants in two different ways simultaneously: Koark meets them as shadowy, powerful creatures, and T-O-E meets them in a more familiar way... But we'll see how this all turns out. I've been making up some neat Machine Man names; they sound sort of Latinish.

Packaging materials for the Plastic Rice Boys have arrived. I'll be sending out the first bunch tomorrow, and hoping I can keep up with orders reasonably well. Making a new mold to cast four at once as soon as I can. Anyway, they're adorable.

I want to do the ustream thing but I am in Spoiler Territory right now. Someday soon I might do some work on the next minicomic that you can watch. Seeeyouuuu.

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6 September 2009 - 4 Pages: Guards of the Black Teeth

our pages this update, bringing to a close Chapter 9. On Wednesday we begin Chapter 10 and FINALLY enter the Black Teeth itself (themselves?). This is something I've been wanting to draw for the last 550-odd pages, since we saw past the gate briefly way back in Rice Boy.

So, now that I've finished this chapter it is a good time to mention the New RSS feed, which I set up a couple weeks ago and which gets its first real post today. This new feed is for BIG UPDATES, so readers can be notified when chapters are finished, and when books are published, and other Big Things. I know that many of you follow Order of Tales by reading every update as I put it up (and there's a separate feed for that, too), but I want to make this process as easy and enjoyable for everyone as I can! There's gotta be a way for long-format comics to work on the internet! We can make this happen!

I have found comics that I think you would like. First of all is The Meek, which is a very pretty and mysterious fantasy story that's about 50 pages in. I've really enjoyed it so far and it raises many questions. The main character is a lady with no shirt, so it is Probably Not Safe For Work. Secondly I just found this fantasy comic called Weave that looks fascinating but I haven't read much of it, yet. There is a reference to my favorite Borges story in it, if you can find it. And finally I know that everybody knows Achewood, but it's currently in the middle of a story arc that is particularly bizarre, and which I am really enjoying. If you have been too cool for Achewood so far, now might be a good time to try reading it and get completely weirded out. It is a comic that is dear to my heart.

It looks like we have one chapter left in Book 2 of Order of Tales. I am working hard on all of the extra content, which will be more substantial than that of the first book, and I hope to be ready to print and take preorders inside two months! I am excited about this. See you soons.

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2 September 2009 - 3 Pages: Tresspasser

oark has crossed over into Machine territory and now it is serious business going on, and dramatic lighting. A big factor in my planning of this story is figuring out how to get the characters in situations with dramatic lighting.

I have some REAL LIVE NEWS this week. After several weeks of buying stuff and getting frustrated, I have put small plastic Rice Boys into production. From an original clay model, I'm hand-casting and sanding these things. They are available in the Store today. I'm taking a small number of preorders to cover the cost of some elaborate packaging, but they should be ready to go by Monday. Also, the August SHIRT OF THE MONTH, with T-O-E in black and blue, is in production but will be later than I anticipated, sorry! Those will be sent out to everybody who preordered as soon as the printer finishes them. I know I called it a 'shirt of the month,' but I'm not sure that I'll be doing it again any time soon. We'll see, I guess?

Last night I stayed up too late reading Hitmen for Destiny. It is bizarre and disorienting, and somehow just feels correct to me.

Hey I will be doing the Ustream Thing tonight. I have two pages of Order of Tales to ink, and I really want to finish my next mini-comic soon. I estimate a start time of 8 or 9 Eastern. Tell yer friends. Bye!

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30 August 2009 - 3 Pages: It's a long way down

heck it out, guys, there's 400 pages. I was almost done with Rice Boy at 400 pages. Jeez. Order of Tales is nowhere near done, yet. These pages briefly show an alternate route for crossing the Great Trench and entering the mountains where the Machine Men live... The bridge, actually, is supposed to be the exact same bridge that T-O-E crosses in Rice Boy, around 700 years later, right here. I am better at drawing than I was then.

I've poured the second mold for that Rice Boy model I've been working on. Hopefully this one won't get messed up like the last one and I'll be able to start making those sometime soon. Excited excited excited. Howbout a Ustream on Wednesday? For real this time.

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26 August 2009 - 3 Pages: The Gate of the Black Teeth

his was really fun to draw. Very inky. You can, in fact, see a recording of me inking page 397; it's the first Ustream I've recorded. Gosh we're almost at 400 pages, guys. Book 2 was supposed to be finished now. Oops.

Couple days left for the big original drawing on eBay. Spending a lot of time binding the Koark books and minicomics and trying to get the Rice Boy model/toy/figure molded and drawing drawing drawing: I'm trying to get way ahead on OoT. I am finally at a spot where I don't have to draw many trees or landscapes for a little while, if everything goes according to plan. Awesome. See you!

On LiveJournal

23 August 2009 - 3 Pages: You will defer to the Machines

andscapes, landscapes. I love drawing this stuff as long as I don't think too hard about how long it's taking me to move this story along. I hope my efforts on these big visual bits are not entirely wasted! It's cool to draw all this stuff; I've been designing it for quite a while. Some of my cruddy concept art will be going up in the subscription area if you're into that sort of thing.

The Koark Sketchbook went up for sale a few days ago. I'm binding them and drawing the covers by hand to keep up with orders, the first bunch of which will be sent out on Monday. They look real nice! Also, I'm working on plastic Rice Boy figures, which will be hand-casted and adorable. A nearly-finished prototype model can be seen here.

Talk to you again sooon! A Ustream might be happening Wednesday eveningish.

On LiveJournal

19 August 2009 - 4 Pages: Crossing the Trench

our pages for you! A lot of landscapes here and in the near future... Pretty inefficient work, but I hope you like looking at them. Our travelers are going north, into the mountains across the Great Trench.

This week I have been doing a lot of stuff. The August Shirts with T-O-E are being printed now, and I've gotten a second printing of the tiny bird comic I sell at conventions. Also I've finally finished Developing Koark, a small, 24-page book of concept drawings for OoT's protagonist. Each of the first edition will have an original drawing on the cover; once I get a few together I'll put them in the store for sale.

I've put another original drawing on eBay for ten days. It's the biggest thing I've drawn in a long time, and I hope to print the colored version as posters before too long (posted it last week, look).

I plan to be Ustreaming later tonight; maybe 10 or 11 Eastern. Will be inking pages immediately following this update, and maybe working on a new minicomic I've been slacking on. Hugs.

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16 August 2009 - 4 Pages: The Border-Marker

ey here's four pages and I hope you like them. I ran out of my buffer for the Chicago trip and I finished up this update today. Also check out this big drawing I made as soon as I got back. I got obsessed. I drew it planning to have a big (3 by 6 feet or so) banner printed for conventions, but it turns out those are real expensive. Posters might be happening with that image. The white spot is supposed to be a little Rice Boy. I plan to sell the original soon; trying to raise money so I can have a bit of inventory for the San Francisco convention.

The August Shirt of the Month is being printed; preorders have closed. Those will be sent out by the end of the month and thanks for ordering them, guys!

I plan to be Ustreaming late tonight but who knows... Will keep you posted by twitter, internet. See you.

On LiveJournal

12 August 2009 - 3 Pages: A Tower, Wizard World Chicago

ore fun landscapes. Are you beginning to see the direction I'm going with this? I'm excited... a lot of stuff left to design. I spent a lot of downtime at the convention working on that...

Ok, speaking of the Chicago Comic-Con. Or Wizard World Chicago, or however they're trying to brand it. I've put up a few pictures on my flickr. I had a supergreat time and met a lot of cool people and sold a lot of books (though to be fair I did not really bring enough). Spent a lot of time with a bunch of folks whose work I follow and who I know through EnterVoid.com, where I learned a lot of what I know about drawing comics. Hung out with Mr. Sheldon and Jhosephine, my two comics-friends with cool accents. I am really into their work and it is great to Talk Shop; I know so few people who are INTO this stuff. I probably talked more about comics this week than I have in a whole year. It is cool to see all of the different routes people are taking to make comic work their career. I shared a table with Alex Diochon, who is a very skillful comic-maker, and has a very sharp piece currently in competition on Zuda that you should read and vote for! Met Spike of Templar, AZ and got a couple of her books (which are, let me tell you, really, really nice). She is a real nice lady and probably my favorite comic artist who was exhibiting there. Also met friendly animator Gene, Cy-boarist Lou, fantastic web comic artist Brittney, amador de jamon Gabe, and many actual real-live fans of my work. It was great and I loved it.

All that being said, the convention itself seemed a tad poorly-run, and by all accounts it's waned in quality over the last few years. DC and Marvel had no representation there, and while I'm not particularly interested in their offerings, they sure are a lot more appropriate than the Gilette razor and energy drink booths that replaced them. I really want any excuse to come back to Chicago; I applied to exhibit at the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo, which begins in April 2010. If I get into it, I will probably forgo next year's Wizard World Chicago (if it's even around? I have no idea). But I did have a good time, and I did learn a lot about how to do this stuff. I have a million ideas and I'm really excited to get back and draw... I'm writing this in the airport waiting for my flight to North Carolina. My NEXT convention will be APE in San Francisco in October. There's a possibility I'll also be at SPX in Maryland in late September, but I won't be exhibiting there.

OK! That's that. Hope you're well; more pages on Sunday!

On LiveJournal

9 August 2009 - 3 Pages: On the Boat.

hicago comic con has come and gone and I have been having a LOT OF FUN. I am right now really inexpressibly tired; I'll have something thorough written up with the Wednesday update! Met a lot of cool people! Sold out of books!

Six days left for the T-O-E shirt! Talk to you soon and enjoy the pages!

On LiveJournal

5 August 2009 - 3 Pages: Creatures like us.

vening folks; here's three more pages. Hope you like them; I'm struggling to write and draw our subtle-romance angle in this comic, but I think it's turning out well. Comics are so great. Also I find myself drawing a lot of campfires lately.

Hey guys I'm at the Chicago Comic-Con this weekend, as you may know. If you are around there, I'd love to see you! The more I hear, the more it sounds like you'll have to find me amid a sea of people drawing superheroes and not caring one bit about what I do. But who knows!

Around 10 days left on the T-O-E Lightning shirt. It will look pretty awesome and that is a fact. Next update on Sunday when I find a free minute! See you!

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2 August 2009 - 3 Pages: What should be done with Koark.

hree pages now and for the next few updates, as I try to get as much of a buffer as I can between now and the Chicago Comic-Con. That convention, by the way, is this coming weekend! Friday and Saturday and Sunday. I will be there at Artist Alley table 3708, with books and things. Hope it'll go well...

I've put up a new shirt for preorder, featuring a dramatic shadowy picture of T-O-E (here). Since I don't have the capital to keep t-shirts in stock, I'm planning to put up a new shirt for preorder briefly at the beginning of every month. This one is available for two weeks! There are lots of things I'd like to put on shirts, and if you have a suggestion you could mention it in the forums.

Comics you should read! Mr. Wolfhard makes delightfully weird and occasionally eerie comics about one Cat Rackham, and I love love them. Mr. Shabet, a certifiably cool guy, makes a nice self-aware zombie comic with very well-written characters and hilarity, it is called Dead Winter. I only just started reading it, finally.

I will be Ustreaming in a coupla hours; maybe 8:00 eastern. Twitter will tell you when. My goal tonight is to ink four pages; let's see how crazy that is. See you!

On LiveJournal

29 July 2009 - 4 Pages: 'O Wise and Ancient Machine'

ialogue, check it out. Check out that rapport. T-O-E is just a pretentious jerk in this story, isn't he?

Various neat things have come to my attention recently. First and foremost, a Jason sent me a picture of an article of clothing which you may recognize (mega-spoilers for Rice Boy following the linked page; be careful). That jacket is completely the coolest thing, it is kind of jarring to see it really existing like that. Secondly, Mr. Dresden Codak has made available a short trailer for the Show he and others are apparently making. I was very impressed; it is a weird and well-designed thing. Also, I am absolutely baffled by moving pictures. Thirdly, I'm finally reading Scott Pilgrim by a Mr. O'Malley. It is weird and frenetic and difficult not to like. I am also reading Gulliver's Travels which is in no way anything like Scott Pilgrim.

See you friends. Ustreaming Sunday maybe? Bring a question or two so I can talk about something and not be boring and silent. See you.

On LiveJournal

26 July 2009 - 4 Pages and the map print!

ere's four pages, with somebody else who we haven't seen in a while. Some of the conversation herein is composed of bits of dialogue I thought up very very early on in the writing of this comic. I do hope you enjoy.

I finally have prints of the Overside map in stock! This is a drawing that I started for my own reference and turned into a very detailed and hopefully attractive thing. I've printed a limited edition on very pretty paper and they are for sale today.

I just moved into an apartment in Asheville and am tired. I have so many boxes, so many. I'll try to do another Ustream this week, maybe Wednesday after the update.

On LiveJournal

22 July 2009 - 3 Pages: 'I suppose I am not surprised.'

am loving drawing this scene. There is some slight romantic tension here, of a sort that I've never really represented, but it's turning out pretty well. Also I like drawing our Machine Man, here; unilaterally agreed to be the most badass character in any comic I've drawn. 364 is the first page of Chapter 9, finally. I am kind of sick of the drab gray-greenish ofthe Chapter 8 updates.

I've done the Ustream thing twice now, and it's real cool. I like being able to talk to you guys. I obviously need a better camera, though, and I hope to buy one before tooo long. And I'm thinking I'll start making it a weekly thing. I'm drawing pages every day, anyway. Sunday nights, maybe? I am trying to keep everybody posted on when I'm doing that via Twitter. More pages coming on Sunday, featuring yet more new developments. See you.

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19 July 2009 - 4 Pages: the island Tirre

irre Island! Remember when that was mentioned, all those many pages ago, by the king of Stonepalm? This update contains some Serious Business: two big cool reveals. I was very excited to get to this point and I hope you are excited to read it. Also with this update there are now 800 PAGES of Overside comics.

So I have been interested in this Ustream thing, and I've watched some very neat broadcasts by fine internet comic artists Kris, Meredith, KC and others. Equipped as I am with a little camera on my relatively new laptop, I will be broadcasting TONITE. I'm aiming for 7:00 pm tonight, that is, Sunday. If you want to watch, I will keep everybody up to date via twitter and I hope it goes well. I have a couple pages ready to ink.

On LiveJournal

15 July 2009 - 3 Pages!!!

've put up more pages! It's DARK. I'm spending a lot of time writing the next chapter, lately... I procrastinated a bit and now I don't have it planned out quite tightly enough. You guys should read the book The City of Ember which I just finished: intrepid child adventurers in a heavy, apocalyptic setting. Excellent allegory! Thanks everyone for the many recommendations on PK Dick books, I look forward to reading every one of them!

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12 July 2009 - 3 Pages

hree new pages; have them and read them and enjoy them. I'm at the beach with my family for a week and am now winding away all of my buffer. I've drawn all the way through the end of this chapter at this point, and I hope you like it!

I am reading Ubik and loving it; I might be starting a PK Dick binge. Any further suggestions? Also on recommendation of Spike I have been orbiting the blog Sociological Images which is fascinating and addictive, and makes me wish I took more classes in sociology. People! We're all weird!

On LiveJournal

8 July 2009 - 3 Pages

ey folks, here's some pages of that comic. I've finally built up enough of a buffer to go to the beach with my fambly for a week with no missed updates. Neat! A lot of drawing, lately. I just figured out I had been drawing OoT for a year on the fourth, and I'm very very close to a one page a day rate.

Drawn has told me about this really cool short animated film called The Astronomer's Dream. It's made by Malcom Sutherland and it's strange and well-designed and I think you'll like it.

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5 July 2009 - 4 Pages: Explosion, violence.

inally here's the first bit of the latest Action Scene. Having some fun with big sweeping motions and fire. It's wordless so it reads quick, so I have been FORCED to give you FOUR pages instead of three. I've never really liked putting snappy bits of dialogue into violent bits, as seems to be kind of the industry standard. This stuff feels heavier and more believable if it's quiet, I think. Drawing drawing drawing.

I plan to start up an email list in the near future, if I can figure out how. I know a lot of people don't follow every update of OoT, so it might make sense to alert everybody when a chapter has been finished, or something like that. It's very important to me that everybody at least reads it once it's finished.

On LiveJournal

1 July 2009 - 3 Pages: 'Fire and Atrocity'

ethirus knows something, but isn't telling, WHAT ELSE IS NEW. I'm trying to build up a buffer so I can go on vacation with my family in a coupla weeks without missing a beat here, so I'm afraid I can't give you any more pages than these meager and melodramatic three... though the next bit is AWESOME. Our ending point here, I realize, is a tad reminiscent of Æthirus' earlier treachery. Wow, matter of fact, that's exactly 200 pages earlier. There is some sort of synchronicity here.

Ordered those Huff shirts today, and should have them out and to all purchasers by the 20th of July on the outside. I think this has gone rather well; I want to do another shirt in the near future. I unfortunately lack capital to keep them in stock all the time, though.

I have sent my money for a table to the good people at APE, the Alternative Press Expo. It is in San Francisco in October, and I have every intention of being there. BYEBYE!

On LiveJournal

28 June 2009 - 4 Pages, time running out for the Huff Shirt

RIENDS, I come bearing four pages. Koark sees our furry creatures. Five pages would give a better stopping-point, but I am trying real hard to build up a buffer, so you get small bits for now.

The Huff shirt is available for like two more days! Thanks everybody who's ordered one so far; I'm excited to see them and send them to yous. Many of you forgot to give me a shirt size so I have numerous emails to send out to you. The profit I'm making on these shirts is going pretty much entirely to building up a stock of those expensive books and trinkets for conventions.

Hey comics! I have read good comics lately. First I've been rereading Templar, AZ for the first time in a long time. A lot of you probably know about Templar but let me tell you that I love it, anyway. Very interesting and well-written characters. Also I always love seeing invented settings that are put together so tightly and cohesively that they never really need to be explained. Dicebox is another comic I can think of that does that very well. Something that is completely different is Bear Quest, which is a story of a one-eyed blue bear's Quest to eat everything, I guess, and which is told on two parallel tracks by drawings and by screenshots from some old sidescrolling game that I assume never actually existed. It is very very strange. And also I read Pulpatoon Pilgrimage, a real ink-and-paper comic. It's about a plant-person, a bull-person, and a robot-person going on a journey to somewhere, and learning about each other on the way. I really enjoyed it: the pacing is very nice, and the drawings are really really good. If you like Rice Boy I think Pulpatoon is a comic you might like, too.

More pages Wednesday!

On LiveJournal

24 June 2009 - 3 pages and let me tell you about Heroes Con.

he weekend got me PUMPED ABOUT COMICS so I'm back on track with OoT from my little break. Here's four pages of pursuit, and those strange glow-eyed creatures. In my notes they are called 'Wooden' (a collective noun), but I don't think they will be named so in the comic itself.

Ok let me tell you about Heroes Con. It was the first Big Convention I've exhibited at or even been to, and I loved loved it and want to come back every year forever. Indie Island took up a full third of the floor, I think, and was full of exhibitors and attendees who are OBSESSED with comics and it was so cool to see them all. And everyone is so completely nice. I have put up some pictures.On one side of my handsome little table was Little House Studios, which consists of one Sarah and one Anastasia. They made a book called Impulse that is weird and dystopian, and flips between different narrative modes in a way I find interesting. On the other side was Billy and Adam and Kim, who were drawing drawing drawing the whole time. Right nearby were Becky and Frank of New Zealand who make the lovely and seriously stylish comic Tiny Kitten Teeth.

I met a very nice guy named Paul who draws a comic called Real Cane Sugar about weird critters and unemployment. And Joe of SubSub who makes beeeyootiful comics, as does apparently everyone who comes out of the Center for Cartoon Studies. And Sam who drew a strange lo-fi sci-fi comic called Hoodle Origins that I liked a lot. And the prolific Mr. Longstreth who draws the mini-comic series Phase Seven and has a big beard. And Eraklis who made a comic called Mr. Lune about a guy with THE MOON FOR A HEAD. Plus it's wordless which is ok in my book. And Chris of AdHouse Books, which publishes really sharp comics... I bought their Paul Pope art book that had been weighing heavily on my mind... On Sunday I met Jeff Smith and he is a real nice guy and I really like his comics, and he likes my comics too apparently. He bought a copy of Rice Boy and that is extremely cool.

A fine convention and I'm a bit worried that my expectations for all future comic conventions I attend have been raised too high. Thanks to everyone who came by my table, I enjoyed talking to all of you, and thank you to Dustin et al for putting together such a fantastic event.

I didn't quite get rid of the tiny bird-comics so I'll put those on the site for sale soon. And there is ONE WEEK LEFT for preorders of the Huff Shirt. Hope you're well out there! SEEYOU.

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21 June 2009 - 4 Pages, Heroes Con, so on

ere's comics for you before I collapse. Just finisehd Heroes Con, went really really well. Met nice people and got nice things and it went really well. I fully intend to write a thorough and lovely thing and give you links to the millions of comics by the cool people I met. That will happen perhaps tomorrow! Thanks everybody who came by my table. I will talk to you again soon.

What happens in these pages? I forget. There's a sword and some stuff. Enjoy!

On LiveJournal

17 June 2009 - 3 Pages: On Rog

rawing this comic is really fun-- over a year ago I remember where I was when I came up with Æthirus' little monologue here. At that point the whole structure in my head of this comic was big and scary and impossible, but here we are halfway through and I'm getting to finalize all of these bits I thought of. Neat.

I found a very cool in-progress science fiction comic by one AP Furtado, which you can read here; the second chapter just went up recently. It's called Major Tom. Something about the vibe of Furtado's art reminds me of Vaughn Bode, except with a good deal of technical drawing skill. Maybe it's just me. I feel like there's not enough good, heavy science fiction comics. Is there someplace I'm not looking?

I've put up Huff Shirts for preorder, until Wednesday two weeks hence. Huff, if you aren't aware, was a character who appeared briefly in Rice Boy, right here. I like him a lot and I'll have a stack of shirts ready to send out before long.

Today packing packing packing for that convention you are sick of hearing me talk about. I have made some adorable tiny tiny comics to sell there, which feature Rice Boy and a Bird.

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14 June 2009 - 3 Pages: Koark is resolute

o Impera's subplot is wrapping up, here, or soonish. I had some trouble working out the extent of her involvement, at first... She was going to travel with Koark et al for quite a while, in the merry-band-of-adventurers mold, back when I was beginning to plan the story (and I guess I should add I was still in the glow of having just read Lord of the Rings for the first time). I much prefer her more limited role here, and I'm pleased with how it comes sort of full-circle, with her xenophobia giving way to a more reasonable sort of thinking, like her dad's. Anyway Koark's on his way, tune in later for pursuit.

I am finally approaching preparedness for Heroes Con next weekend. I decided to draw a tiny tiny comic as quick as I could to have finished and ready for then... It's about Rice Boy and a big creepy bird. It's been years since I've drawn mini comics and I forgot how much fun they were: they are a lot of fun. More will happen unless I've run out of Ideas.

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10 June 2009 - 4 Pages: 'An echo of an old story.'

'll start titling all of my entries with the most melodramatic bits of dialogue I can find from each update, how's that? This update, Tension and Exposition.

New posters are in stock! They took me forever and now I have them and they are very handsome. They are a diptych-- that is, two images that go side by side -- called 'Doorways.' They're our first posters from Order of Tales, featuring Koark and the Bottle Woman, in roughly mirrored compositions with dramatic lighting and full color. The Bottle Woman's is set in Extranji's home before she is taken by Æthirus, and Koark's is set in Themb's tower, where he was made Teller and sent after that story we've heard so much about. Also I intend to start preorders for a new shirt, soon, so that I can afford to have some in stock for the Chicago convention. More comics Sunday Sunday Sunday.

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7 June 2009 - 3 Pages: 'I am a traitor...'

ethirus negotiates. He'll be a big focal point for this chapter, as I guess the Bottle Woman was for the previous one. I'm glad he's back-- he's fun to draw, and completely over-the-top dramatic. It's nice to fall back on The Badass trope a bit now and then... As obsessed as pop culture is with it lately.

Rice Boy got a very nice and very thorough review this week from This Week in Webcomics. Some nice examination of the story's poorly-thought-out religious elements that I had almost forgotten about.

I've been photoshop-coloring again. I thought this day would never come, but I guess I needed a break for like a year. It takes a loooot more time now; I'm out of practice. Looking forward to telling you folks what I'm working on... Also New Shirts Will be Happening. I'm hoping to have some ready for Heroes Con, about which I am very excited. See you Wednesday.

On LiveJournal

3 June 2009 - 4 Pages: A Mysterious Figure

hapter seven is OVER, with something that you may not have expected. I have been planning planning planning for the next few chapters-- there's a lot of intricacies that seemed easy to work out when I was outlining the comic, but now that I'm in The Thick of It, it's tricky indeed.

More cool comics! A Mr. Cunningham's infernal cowboy adventure The Streets of San Diablo is colorful and charming and I can say I'm enjoying it more than anything I've read over at ACT-I-VATE. Also a comment I wrote on Jeff Smith's blog is on the Letters page of the latest issue of RASL, how cool is that? That is really cool. Have I told you that that comic is very awesome? It is.

So I figure you'll be getting more comics on Sunday night. It's a DATE.

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31 May 2009 - 3 pages: The Bottle Woman Pursued.

hese pages have Suspense, Pursuit, and Drama. Chapter 7 is very very nearly done... The last bit of it will be up on Sunday, probably. These chapters, they are getting looong.

I found the website of Mr. Barnaby Ward recently, and have I think fallen in love with his comics. Fantastic, inspiring stuff with a good sense of weirdness. His strange story Sixteen Miles to Merricks is being serialized online, and is published in a book that I have every intention of buying (but it has a TYPO on the COVER). Also out there, Marooned is lately getting suspenseful and very interesting.

Started reading The Lord of the Rings again this week... I could not help it. It is a book that makes me want to draw things and walk places.

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27 May 2009 - 4 pages: torches, arrows, &c.

ere's our inaugural twice-weekly update, friends, let's make this happen. Four pages that I am quite pleased with. There is ACTION, here... something I've gotten a lot better at drawing since Rice Boy. The Golgo/T-O-E fight at the end of Book 1 of RB looks static and cruddy to me, now. This stuff is still really hard, but it is fun to get better at it. Serious business is happening here as we near the end of chapter 7.

Slowly touching up the website and adding all of the tiny things I forgot in the coding. I've put up a map (for now, The Map)in the World section: it's the most complete map of Overside I've ever made. I'm going to get an edition of it printed on nice paper sometime soon.

I found a really strange comic about a variety of Popes, called 6 or 7 Popes, which you might want to check out. There is a chocolate pope, and there is a space pope. OK GUYS more comics SUNDAY NITE.

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24 May 2009 - 6 new pages & a New Schedule

e have today 6 new pages of OoT and I've done some work on the website which I think looks quite handsome. Fixed a few things that have been bothering me for a while. I was getting sick of the old header images and all that; I think this looks better. Also I'm using fancy hand-drawn drop-capitals. I have drawn all 26 of those letters we use, but I don't know if they will all get used on the site... I will have to think of news posts that start with X and Q and what have you.

I'm going to start updating TWICE A WEEK, beginning this Wednesday night. So that's 3 or 4 pages every update. Notifications will happen as per usual via LiveJournal, RSS, and I guess now twitter, too. Once a week isn't enough, I think. This is THE INTERNET.

Should have those nice new posters in stock soon; the first from Order of Tales.

On LiveJournal

17 May 2009 - Order of Tales 300 pages!

riends, there are 300 pages of Order of Tales today. That is nuts; that is SO MANY PAGES. By my conservative original estimate I'd be halfway through the comic at this point, but that's not happening, looks like. I'll try to keep it under 800. So that's 740 total pages of Overside on this site. I've been working on an obsessively thorough map of Overside for a long long time and am almost done (you can see a bit), and am getting that Koark/Bottle Woman diptych printed toooo. I sold one half of the original art on eBay last week and I'll probably put the other half up sometime this week. That book I made is selling good I think, too. Life is ok.

I saw the Star Trek movie and I did like it, and I have never really been a Star Trek Person. It seemed very very aware of Continuity, though, in a way unique to superhero comics and the people who love them. J.J. Abrams, I guess? He wrote those things. This whole downfall-of-corporate-media thing is great and all for the 99 percent of Big Movies that just completely suck, but the one percent that is good gives me pause. I have a weakness for huge science fiction stories.

I have found more comics for you. I'm reading Yon Kuma, which is a comic about a boy who wrestles The Strongest Bears. It started pretty recently I think; it is good stuff. Also Mr. Green just finished his Horribleville heartwarmingly. And I am reading The Intrepid Girlbot because it has robots and I love robots. There is also a raccoon. What is the deal with all of these comics with handsome limited color schemes? It's a good thing.

SEEYOU

On LiveJournal

10 May 2009. Six pages this week! We've entered Imfort, finally... another place I've had in my head for months and months that's really nice to finally get to drawing. The Hornèds here dress and act a bit differently; Imfort has been an establishment with only limited contact with Stonepalm for several decades at this point. Next week we will meet more of them, is my prediction.

I'm giving a shot at selling an original drawing on the E-Bay. It's one half of the original art for a handsome poster set that I hope to have available soonwise, and as of this writing there have been NO BIDS so you can probably buy the drawing for way cheap. Also I'm finally getting to making some serious updates on the Overside Encyclopedia, if that's your thing.

Today I graduated, with the funny hat and everything. Pretty neat. Next, a job and a struggle to make comics my entire life. I will talk to you again soooooon; have some good days.

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3 May 2009. Hey! Free comic day was yesterday! I missed it! So, have some free comics, today! Our heroes are out of the dark, here, and moving forward. The view on the last page was quite tricky, but I think turned out well... I'm constantly looking at black-and-white photos to figure out how to represent scenery like this in ink, and lately looking at Jeff Smith's Bone has been tremendously helpful-- the way he simplifies images to straight black and white is very very impressive.

Hey, yes, I'm on Twitter. I did not mean for this to happen. I think my brain is very very incompatible with the fundamental tenets of MICROBLOGGING so I don't know if I will have anything to say, much. Some very weird things are happening to our culture as a result of this Internet thing... a lot of people say they are bad things and a lot of people say they are good things, but they are definitely interesting things. Another thing: I was interviewed recently by the good folks at the Asheville Citizen-Times, and had trouble answering their questions. Great!

I'm attending this Wizard World Chicago convention in August and I'm looking for somebody else who draws comics to share an 8-foot table with... Talking to a few folks but trying to figure out something for serious before tooo loooong. Adios amiguitos.

On LiveJournal

26 April 2009. Hello and welcome to the seven new pages I drew; YOU DESERVE THEM. The story that appears here was written (would you call it 'writing'?) with a flat brush, not the calligraphy pen of earlier stories. It is much much easier to do it with a brush, actually, and I think looks better, too, so there we go. I've had a lot more practice with brushes. Our story here is getting a bit darker, lately, in figurative and literal senses, har har.

Cost an impressive total amount of 180 bucks to send out all of the OoT Book preorders on Monday, and I think many of you have already received your copies. I am super-pleased to have received some positive feedback on the things.

Mr. Nedroid's escapades in fanart recently made me want to draw other people's stuff. So I drew Ray and Roast Beef from Achewood, and Radical Boy which can be read on the live journal, and Reginald & Beartato by Mr. Nedroid himself. Also Cerebus, who is not from webcomics, because I finished Church & State recently... A huge and impressive comic, that... I haven't read anything like it. I do think it loses more than it gains by being put in the 500-page books, though, but what are you gonna do. Anyway I messed up his arm something ugly.

Working on FINALS. A paper on Vikings; a paper on sociology in religion; a paper on Spanish etymologies. And then I FINISH and then I GRADUATE and then I'm DONE. Good week to yous, friendlies.

On LiveJournal

19 April 2009. Hi friends! I've put up 8 more pages of this Order of Tales thing, and one of them was really really easy to draw. I will leave you in suspense as to which one. I cleared 700 total pages of Overside sometime recently, which is cool. That's an average of 33 pages a year my whole life. Gosh.

The Order of Tales books came in on Friday! They are BEAUTIFUL, and I could not be happier with them-- nice matte covers and cream colored paper. I almost feel ostentatious for having a book with cream colored paper. I fully believe it to be a superior reading experience to this newfangled looking-at-a-screen situation. The preorders will be sent out on Monday (I have been drawing in them all day today), and the book is for sale now. Also the handsome Card Game Triptych that I haven't had in stock for a long time is finally back.

The Boone Comic convention went quite well and really helped me figure out what I'm going to need to do in future for these things. It was lovely meeting people and talking and it is a pretty neat experience seeing first-hand what interests people about my comics. Heroes Con in Charlotte in June will be the next con I have a table at, and I'm giving some thought to Wizard World Chicago in August as well. This all hinges on Circumstances.

You should perhaps check out the comics of Tyler Stafford, who makes very strange mini-comics. I am most interested in his sci-fi fantasy stuff, which reads kind of like a lo-fi mini-comic versionJim Woodring. Follow him perhaps on the Live Journal?

Ok ok-- Hope you guys like the books I'm sending to you. See you next week-wise.

On LiveJournal

12 April 2009. Eight pages this week. The segment that starts next week is one I've been planning for a while that I'm looking forward to. Oh check out this grasshopper I drew.

The Boone Comicon is this Saturday, the 18th. I will have many many books. It's been getting a good bit of press around here, I think, so I hope it turns out to be a good-sized thing. Maybe I will see you there.

Miss Elle Dee wrote a very thorough review of Rice Boy and Order of Tales a little while ago, if you're interested. She's a good writer and sharp critic, and those are things we need over here in webcomic land... I recommend her Storming the Tower.

Expecting the OoT books this week. Sorry to keep you waiting, preorderers. I plan a late night of drawing in every single one of your books. It'll be available for sale as soon as I get them. OK SEE YOU.

On LiveJournal

4 Apr 2009. Five pages. Chapter 6 is finally over, and I am drawing caves caves caves caves. I'm very happy with the Pronomb/Impera conversation... King Pronomb seems to stick a lot of metaphors in his speech. Fire and rocks and stuff.

Over in subscriptionland, the Assetbar folks have made it possible to make some posts free, so you can look at some of the content without signing up if you like. I posted a page of development for the Machine Script that appears in Rice Boy and Order of Tales.

Books are being made by many of us over here on the internet! Mr. Dresden Codak will soon be taking preorders for his Hob book, Ms. Gran is on her third book of Octopus Pie, and yours truly has sorted out prepress issues on the first book of Order of Tales, so it's SERIOUSLY ON THE WAY. It'll be printed on very classy paper... paper that I think could be construed as misleadingly classy.

I'll be updating on Sunday nights instead of Saturday nights starting next week! I hope that doesn't cramp your style, guys. I'm pretty sure I can get you 8 pages next update for the wait. Also I'm considering changing to a twice-a-week schedule, but I'm not sure if 3 or 4 pages is enough content for one update. Anyway we'll see how it goes. Have a good week.

On LiveJournal

28 Mar 2009. Maps, exposition. Almost done with the chapter. I don't think you folks have guessed T-O-E's bit of ingenuity featured here...

I have gotten my proof for the first OoT book... There is a problem to be sorted out on Monday with the interior paper (it is a tad too transparent) but other than that it looks really supersharp. It's taking longer than I thought, but once all the problems are sorted out, it will be more perfect than before! I really want this book to be exactly the way I want it. And I won't have any delays on making the later books because they're going to be in the same format.

Hey check it out, I am officially on the official Guest List for Heroes Con 2009, in Charlotte, NC. Way down at the bottom amid the names in small letters. This is not a big deal but this will be my first big convention so I'm excited. People who will be there that I'm very excited about are Jeff Smith (Bone), David Petersen (Mouse Guard), Carla Speed McNeil (Finder), and Danielle Corsetto (Girls with Slingshots). Neat!

I read the first few chapters of Body World by Dash Shaw and am liking it a lot... Science fictiony thing about an addled botanist and body-telepathy. Jesse Moynihan's reconfigured Creation story is another fascinating thing. Also I am suffering from a Paul Pope addiction. Good lord, I don't know how somebody could be so good at comics.

On LiveJournal

21 Mar 2009. Six pages this fine weekend. The Update button links to the beginning of Nom's Saga, so you can read it all if you like. I hope it helps to elucidate the Horned Worldview. This chapter is going to be pretty tremendously long, I think...

The Order of Tales book is very nearly ready; have had a few inevitable prepress issues but it's looking good now and I should have them in stock and shipping in early April. If you want to preorder it, you have until Monday! That other book I did is absolutely number 1 on ComixPress, as of sometime recently. How cool! Thanks everyone who has bought the Rice Boy book, and I hope you've all had lovely experiences with it. I just bought a bunch of copies, myself, for the Boone Comicon in a few weeks.

The Japanese translation of Rice Boy by Mr. Nagatomo is going steady and looks absolutely fantastic. He's nearly finished the first book. And some comments and fanart on the Japanese bits of the internet have appeared, lately, too: There is a nice drawing here, and myriad Gerunds here (scroll down a bit). Cool! I have no idea what they're saying! Also I just switched over to Google analytics, which gives me more information on visits to the site than I could ever hope to need. Hello, sole Russian visitor! And welcome, 4 folks from Chiiiina! I am glad your government hasn't blocked my comics yet!

I'm finding more and more high-quality comics out there on the internet; let me tell you about some of them. The talented Mr. JFish has been working on Jaephisch and the Dark Rainbow, a fantasy story that plays with video game tropes and the idea of creativity, and gets very psychedelic (make sure you read the prologue!). I also started What Birds Know, which starts out straightforward and slightly corny, and grows more and more creepy and strange. I am almost to the latest pages and it's a very interesting story... On hiatus for the time being, though.

Last of all, I highly recommend Nina Paley's new movie Sita Sings the Blues, which is a mix of scenes from the Ramayana, commentary on it, and bits of autobiography, all animated in widely varying techniques by Paley herself. Also, it is absolutely free (though donations are accepted), under a CC License. It is really a beautiful movie, and I hope turns out to be very successful. See you!

On LiveJournal

14 Mar 2009. Five more pages of this thing, featuring King Pronomb's little monologue, which I am very happy with and didn't have to edit as much as I thought I might. Also here begins Nom's Saga, which is Koark's first story in a while. It will be concluded next week.

The first book of OoT is being still being fixed up to be the best it can be, and in the meantime there's still a week left for you to preeeooorder it to get a free drawing in your copy, should you choose. I've had a few people ask if I have plans to publish the whole comic in one book when it's done, and I DON'T-- chances are, it will be too big to be feasible (and that's good, right?). Also we have a few neat new stickers available, and that Card Game triptych will be returning soon as well. I'm also trying to go steady with OoT and a Side Project right now, and hopefully I'll have something to show for that soon.

Sometime very soon marks the THIRD YEAR of this place called Overside, and these comics I've been drawing. It is an anniversary I discovered I roughly share with the handsome webcomic A Journey to Mt. Moriah. I am very happy to have finished about 700 pages in that time, and I hope you have enjoyed them, because I have, and there will be more.

On LiveJournal

7 Mar 2009. Seven pages. Here is the King of Stonepalm and his retinue. A million thanks to friends on the internet and off of it who helped me fix up some of the details of this bit of dialogue... I think it's much clearer now. As OoT begins to become as much a mystery story as an Epic Adventure story, I'll be trying to walk the line between posing intriguing questions (which will eventually be answered) and confusing the hell out of everyone. Dig the fire/torch symbolism?

Let's talk about the Order of Tales book. Starting TODAY, until March 25th, I am taking preorders for it. Orders will be sent out in late March. All preorders can have a free drawing and personalization in them, which will cost 5 bucks extra once the thing is available for order. If you are interested in this book (which is, by the way, full of fantastic stuff), It would help me out if you'd preorder it! More information on the book is in the Store. OH and also! New stickers! A picture will go up soon. Anybody who donates will now get more and different stickers than before.

The BOONE COMICON is starting this year, and I will be there. It's in mid-April, and I would love to see you there if you're around. Also I'll be at Heroes Con this Summer; also in NC.

Thanks to our friendly neighborhood library I have been catching up on all of Mignola's Hellboy, and I did not realize until now how much I love those comics. By the sixth book of Dark Horse's collection (which is I think the last), the art and storytelling have improved quite a bit, and the heavy, shadowy drawing that seemed heavy-handed earlier becomes clear and elegant. Has he stopped drawing comics, now that Hellboy has become a humongous pop-cultural thing? I hope not. It seems like Hellboy and ancillary characters are being drawn by a lot of different people these days.

How about this Watchmen thing? You guys are into comics, right? I saw the movie and don't know what to think. I really enjoyed it and it was very well-done but what the hell. It not being a comic book kind of defeats the purpose. I hope people will pick up on the self-parodying aspect, but I guess it's basically just a big action movie.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pages, more next week, hope you're well.

On LiveJournal

28 Feb 2009. Six pages this week; our heroes enter the Heart of the Stone Palm.

This week has been a comic-reading week for Evan. I had been hearing good things about it, so I read Joshua Cotter`s Skyscrapers of the Midwest. A very strange and jumbled story about kids growing up, with dense, incessantly crosshatched drawings that end up looking really elegant. Most interesting to me is all of the visual symbolism-- the sorts of things comics can do better than any other narrative medium. In my ongoing crusade against the argument that comics' growing popularity is a symptom of our increasing stupidity, this is another book worth pointing to, for sure.

After a hiatus I`ve continued Cerebus, too, and am halfway through Church & State; it`s getting good. The story is at times ridiculously intricate, and the art at this point is just beautiful. I found a very cool blog written by two people who intend to analyze every single one of the 300 issues of Cerebus, and I`ve really enjoyed reading that so far (the first fiftieth of it, anyway).

Here`s the deal on the first book of Order of Tales. I had been planning to go through Comixpress, as I did with the Rice Boy book. But, since this one is in black and white, I have a little more breathing room. So I think I may be getting a short print run of the first book, and sending them out myself. This will allow for prompter fulfillment, more control of the paper the book is made of, and inclusion of some extras like stickers or drawings. ANYway, the book will be available soon, and full of cool stuff.

Have you folks seen Coraline? I think you`d really like it. Toodleoo.

On LiveJournal

21 Feb 2009. Six pages! Hope you like them; we're heading into more Dramatic Lighting territory. Site news! After a bunch of coding by a computer-talented friend, some clumsy finagling by myself, and at least one half-hour of panic that I had destroyed the entire thing, rice-boy.com's infrastructure is finally modern and generally fixed-up. News is archived on the main site, now, and clicking on the comics pages themselves will advance. Awesome!

In the face of lukewarm public opinion I bit the bullet and started up this subscription-based Assetbar thingy. Trying to fill it with cool stuff, mostly production-of-the-comic related. Two bucks a month. I don't really buy this 'you get premium interaction with ME' aspect of Assetbar, though... I'm a pretty accessible guy whether you pay for it or not. The site's free content WILL NOT suffer for this; the subscription content is extras. Just seeing how this goes...

Did YOU guys know there's at least one article of Overside Fan-Fiction out there? Have I arrived? It's a really well-written vignette, and pretty well fits what I see as the (as yet canonically unrecorded) tone of the relationship between T-O-E, Cal, and Angel-Eye. I really recommend a read.

Nominations for the Harvey Awards are open now until late March. Those of you affiliated with the industry and so inclined should nominate the absolutely best comics you can think of.

Final item of business, cool comics I've found this week. L. Nichols recently started a very intriguing, brightly-colored thing set in a place called New Cairo, which you can start here. As well, may I be so bold as to recommend that you read the internet's only actual journal comic written by an actual cat? Oh, you ought.

On LiveJournal

14 Feb 2009. Six pages! The first, 212, is another one of my big indulgent scenic pages. Very fun and challenging to draw; I'm pretty happy with how the hand is a bit more abstracted than in Rice Boy, and the scale is nice. I do hope you like it.

Digital Strips reviewed OoT this weekend, which is fantastic. They did a nice review of Rice Boy a while ago, too.

The second undertaking of our awesome reading group, Watership Down, starts up formally this weekend. If you think you can keep up with something like 100 pages a week, come on over!

What do you guys think of this Assetbar thing? I just started an account so I could follow Achewood's and Octopus Pie's content, and I'm thinking of starting up a premium-content situation of my own and seeing how that goes. I've produced endless piles of preliminary art and writing for this project, so maybe this would be a good way to share it? It's not getting used anywhere else.

On LiveJournal

07 Feb 2009. Here we go, Chapter 6. All right all right. We're approaching Stonepalm; I'm very excited. Back in Rice Boy when I couldn't draw very well it only appears briefly and from far away, so now I'm redesigning it from the ground up. Some fantastic reference books I've been using to work on Horned architecture are Built by Hand and Architecture without Architects, which are both about vernacular architecture. Anyway I hope you like this place we'll be next week. I have some plans. Oh, too, the internet's first review of Order of Tales went up this week at CrimeCritics.com. It's VERY SWEET.

Read Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library 19 this week. I find it hard to believe that he could get any better at making comics, but this is a really beautiful book, and does some more experimental stuff formally, I think. It is just a shame that everything he makes is so extremely sad.

Over in forumland, our little reading group has finished our first book and are trying to figure out what to read next. Signs point to Watership Down which is about bunnies. Drop by?

I will leave you with this weird thing I drew this week. See you, see you.

On LiveJournal

31 Jan 2009. Six new pages: Here closes the first of three acts of Order of Tales. I've reached an interesting point in the story: somewhat mellow and mysterious so far, but with no other option now than to ESCALATE. I hope you'll stick with me, as this gets more interesting... You'll notice maybe a slight website redesign, on the front page. A link to the in-progress Japanese translation of Rice Boy can be seen up top, and the links have been put at the bottom to afford them a few more eyeballs, and OF COURSE, my BIG BEAUTIFUL AD at left. I sell out to myself only!

This week I finished reading Solaris (I am in one of those moods [and I absolutely recommend that book]) and started reading for the millionth time Watchmen, for a reading group I am a part of lately. Today I bought another Weird Catalan comic, called Mark-of-the-Dog, which was on superduper sale. Really, really Weird. I will go back and capitalize both 'weirds' for emphasis. The artist's website is here if you can read French. Also this week, those T-O-E shirts came in! I opened the box, saw that they were good, and sent them off to all you folks who preordered. I think that worked well.

Coming attractions! More stickers, first fancy OoT book, and another essay about comics, along lines differing a bit from Making Rice Boy.

Have a good week!

On LiveJournal

24 Jan 2009. Seven more pages and some Dramatic Tension! I am having a lot of fun with costumes in this thing, as characters are generally fairly human-shaped. A book that I have checked out from the library a million times to this end and can't recommend highly enough to the similarly interested is Historic Costume in Pictures.

Here are some comics I will recommend to you. Jess Fink's ongoing Time Travel Memoir is absolutely worth a read, and will make you think about your problems. I think it's only online on Livejournal right now, so you'll have to look around to find the very beginning. DAR by Erika Moen is something I have been reading for a little while and really love. Relentlessly great cartooning; something I will never be good at. Not work safe. Also too and finally is a brief digression by Ian who draws Foolish Creatures which I love love. The digression is Lonely Girl; it is very short but he is so onto something.

On LiveJournal