A group portrait of the characters in my new comic book!

Three more panels!

Yep, only three new ones since New Years', but... these three are real doozies!!

You may recall from my last "state of the me" that I'd succeeded in my goal of finishing 10 pages before the end of Christmas Break (in fact I finished slightly more than 11). And here we are on the 28th of February, and I've only finished another three panels...?

The thing is that the first 9 pages all took place in the underground research institute, and then the characters came up to the interior of the tower. Then, on the 11th page, one character fatefully steps outside! Which means I have to draw the campus.

I took my time on these because I'm a bit of a novice at drawing the outsides of buildings -- and I invented these from pure imagination -- I wasn't even looking at photos for inspiration (except for the cityscape in the background). So please don't tell me the lighting and perspective is all messed-up -- I would have drawn it better if I were better at this! ;)

So here's the last panel of part 2 of this story:















And here's the top half of page 28 (the 11th page I drew), so you can see my other two new panels in context:

The remaining panels take place inside the dormitory -- another background I haven't drawn yet -- so it's back to the drawing board!!

A taste of my new project...

OK, so I'm not going to post every page, but now I have three that go together:

The story is divided into nine parts. The above pages are the first three pages of part 2.

In part 1, Kitty and Jerome were deported from the only country they'd ever known -- and were sent to an academy/orphanage in their country of national origin. In part 2, they start to learn how strange their homeland is, and why their parents left...

Gotcha!!

If you click on my parenting category, you'll see that we've had various adventures explaining religion to our kids. (In a nutshell, it's not a topic that we have reason to talk about often, but we don't want it to be a grand mystery to our kids.)

The other day, I was on a walk with Leo, and he turned to me with a question:

"Mom, why is Julius Caesar so important that they started the calendar on his birthday?"

My first reaction was: "Wha....? What are you talking about?"

Then it hit me. We've been reading a lot of Asterix comics lately, and they famously all start with the same page, explaining that the year is 50 B.C. -- which in French is "the year 50 before J.C.." Julius Caesar is an important character in the series (the leader of the known world the story is set in), and he's sometimes called by his initials "J.C."

So, I started racking my brain, trying to think of how to explain the whole Christian calendar thing. "Well, you see, Leo, the 'J.C.' of the calendar isn't actually Julius Caesar..." I began.

"Haha, I know! It's Jesus Christ!! Hahahahahahaha!"

Kids............!

I got a comic published in Sunstone Magazine!!

Sunstone's big comics issue just arrived in the mail -- including the above comic by yours truly!!

As you may recall, the deadline was too short for me to have time to draw something just for Sunstone, so I took the lazy-artist's route, and sent in some illustrations from my novel ExMormon with captions supplied by readers. As you can see, the winning caption was provided by Sabayon. (Note to Sabayon: I wrote in my bio sketch that you provided the caption, but the editors cut that part off, so all I can really offer you is the joy of knowing in your heart that you've been published in the Sunstone comics issue -- sorry!)

Here are the other panels I submitted, which didn't make the cut:

Caption Contest!!!

I just read that Sunstone Magazine is going to be doing a special issue of LDS-themed comics, and they announced an open call for submissions!!!

Since I love light stories about Mormons -- and since improving my illustration/comics-drawing skills is right up there on my list of goals -- I'd really, really like to submit something. The only problem is that my plate is too full at the moment, so there's no way I'll have time to come up with something good between now and May 15.

Unless...

It hit me that some of the illustrations I've already done might make good single-panel comics if only they had really hilarious captions! This is where you come in. I've reprinted below some of the ones that I think have the most potential:

A.


B.


C.


D.


E.


(Feel free to look around for others if these aren't the most inspiring.)

Naturally, if you come up with something that turns one of these into a one-panel comic funny enough for Suntone, I'll split the credit and payment with you.

(Given that the comic will occupy about 1/4 page, at $25 per page, you could potentially win as much as $3.13 -- not to mention the corresponding fame and glory!)

An erotic alternate universe!

"Most smut fans will tell you that they have a strong preference for either visual porn or written porn -- a preference for sexual images or sexual stories that's so deeply ingrained, many people think it's hard-wired. Adult comics give us both. And in giving us both images and stories, adult comics create a bridge between the two.

-- Greta Christina

That's definitely true for me. I like striking images, but I'm almost never aroused by visual images alone, no matter how beautiful or naked the subjects may be. There has to be a story -- or, specifically, a scenario that creates erotic tension. Yet, perversely, I get stuck on erotic stories because the words get in the way. Reading a verbal description isn't the same as seeing, no matter how good a writer wrote it. Erotic comics hit the sweet spot.

Best Erotic comics 2008 and Best Erotic Comics 2009 showcase an amazing range of different artistic and narrative forms, from beautiful and poignant to funny to earthy to grotesque.

These books would make a good starting point for couples who are looking to introduce shared erotica into their relationships, but are a little hesitant -- there's almost certainly something here that will appeal to you and help you explore what you like. (Though, be warned that there are things in here that will probably upset/offend more sensitive souls.)

I'd like to mention a few highlights. I hate to narrow it down because there were so many great stories, but I'd like to give you an idea of what's in the books:

The first ones I caught myself coming back to re-read were some funny ones, like Dori Seda's story with the joke ending where something unpleasant breaks up the orgy. Then there was the excerpt from "Trucker Fags in Denial" -- which really is grotesque, but in an intriguing way. Actually, many of them are excerpts from larger works. I'd be curious to read the rest of Gilbert Hernandez's "Birdland," among others. I also liked some of the snapshots of the culture at large, such as the descriptions of strange porn films, and Ellen Forney's illustrations of personal ads.

While reading these books, I couldn't help but keep thinking of one other thing Greta Christina said:

"I am strongly of the opinion that truly first-rate erotica will excite you, even if it doesn't push your personal erotic buttons. First-rate erotica gets you excited about the sex the characters are having -- regardless of whether it's sex that you, personally, would enjoy having, or that pushes your personal fantasy buttons."

Naturally I kept asking myself, "how do these books measure up?" And, also, "how do I measure up?" On some level, I feel like it's wrong to pass judgment on my own sexual responses, yet it was such a tempting challenge!

I think we all (me and the two books) did pretty well. I'll admit that there were a few stories I didn't find that interesting (of the more than sixty short stories), but for the most part I found them exciting and compelling -- even the ones that didn't drive right up my erotic alley. And I feel I've expanded my horizons in directions that would never have occurred to me on my own.

Random stuff I found on the Internet...

I almost never click on that "next blog" thing. But maybe I should do it more -- you can find the randomest stuff that way!!!

Here I found an entertaining redone Matt Groening cartoon about questions poets don't like to get asked:



Hehe!!!

So the next time I start thinking it's hard to promote a novel, I'll just look at this cartoon and say: "Could be worse..."

Naked People at Rutgers II

Today's blog entry is the exciting conclusion of "Naked People at Rutgers" (The first installment was posted here).

I'm not sure why I stopped drawing this comic strip after the second episode, but I think it was probably just that I ran out ideas. Basically, the whole point of the comic is "See? They're naked!!! Hahahahahahahahaha!!!"

I was able to milk that for two strips worth of material.

In today's installment, they run for student government. Before clicking on the logo below, remember that there's cartoon nudity in every panel!!!

Naked People at Rutgers

When I was a grad student at Rutgers, I drew a comic strip for the student comics paper John Doe Comics. My strip was called "Naked People at Rutgers."

There were only two installments, and it wasn't terribly funny, but it featured full-frontal nudity in every panel!!! :D

The premise was that my main characters were transfer students representing a "clothing optional culture" (in California).

Click on the logo to see episode 1:



Note that I gave myself a cameo role in the above comic strip. The girl attempting to teach the nudists Calculus in the second-to-last panel is me.