Blogalopod

… which would be an awesome indie band name.

So, a few days ago I set out to find a pinball machine to refurbish. Everything was either far away or too expensive, so I was shooting for anything under $500 and local. Yesterday, I made a deal with someone in Wappingers for a $375 Space Shuttle pinball machine from 1984.

The display doesn’t light up (possibly a fuse or a bum wire), it’s been poorly repainted, and it’s probably a little shaky – but it’s MINE. I’ve been watching pinball refurbishing tutorials all night, so I’m learning all of the magical tricks to making this thing look brand new. I’m picking it up today after work. If I can’t get it to work, it shouldn’t be hard to resell it – I just happened to beat out a handful of other buyers due to my close proximity to the seller.

Regardless, it’s an awesome theme, and I’ve been taking astronaut photos lately.

Also, and this is especially neat, I won an Emmy.

Well, Star Wars : Uncut won an Emmy, and I have some film in it. The top-rated Cantina scene, no less. Can I call myself an Emmy winner now?

Try and stop me.

I’ve been doing a lot of free freelance consulting lately, on a very unofficial level. Lots of “this idea is good, but” and “don’t call it that” and “you have no idea what you’re talking about, I’m a genius” stuff. Trying to be a diplomat and maintain gainful employment while subtly steering the ship away from the icebergs.

I feel like a lot of website owners set out with a really great, organic, altruistic goal – a stroke of genius which gets worn down to a nub by a lack of focus, endless additions to the site’s core functionality, and a forced invasion of monetization when all profits will generally come naturally if a website does what it does and does it passionately and intelligently. When Brian & I were running All Nerd Review, we spent years building up content without really concerning ourselves with turning a profit – access to a few conventions and some freebies were nice, but we created the site because most of the nerd-writings on the Internet were just poorly done – and we sought to change that.

With that genuine passion for dorkstuff and writing, we forged careers for ourselves as professional writers, teaching ourselves the ropes of online ‘journalism’ with an amazing amount of success. If other (more profitable) work didn’t take over for both of us, ANR would probably be a pretty prominent site by now – but it’s because we never tried to overcomplicate it, and we kept it true to what we knew.

A recent freelancing gig is holding my meager $50 payment hostage until I have a phone conversation with the owner. He’s a 40-something (I presume from photographs I’ve seen) shooting for a 20-something demographic, and while I can’t go into detail, he’s asking this audience to pay for things which might appeal to MTV’s version of 20-somethings – but not my own friends within that demographic. It’s a generic mess, and maybe I belong to a quirkier demographic than I’d originally thought, but pinball machines and Darth Vader helmets sound like a lot more fun than spa getaways and tailgate parties.

Here’s the thing : generic doesn’t attract an audience, even if statistically, it would make the most sense. You absolutely need to factor in the attention span which the average Internet 20-something employs. Viral is inherently quirky, and it draws enough attention to make a potential difference. We’re also regularly shown websites which promise free video game consoles, cars, vacations, and whatever else might be popular at the moment – and 95% of these things are scams. We filter them out without even allowing ourselves a flicker of hope that these things are real, because fuck, it’s the Internet. Getting around these filters that we’ve been forced to develop isn’t done with louder promises – it’s done with interesting, tangible promises.

Aside from this, I trawled through eLance today with the intention of using up all of my credits before the end of the month rolled around and I lost them. Placing indiscriminate bids on things might prove rewarding.

As far as freelance art goes, I’m participating in a show in the UK at the beginning of August to debut the Jinny toy from BitBots. I can’t really show it off yet, but I made a lumpy plush guy to house the 2″ toy, which was far tinier than I’d expected. It’s hard to customize something so tiny. I secretly call the whole thing ‘Fuckface the Fucknificent’, but for public purposes, he’s called ‘You and Your Ugly Heart’. It cost $30 freaking dollars to send to London – and I don’t even get it back.

It’s one of many recent instances of ending up in the red because of giving away artwork, and it’s a habit I need to break.

If I’ve ever wanted to live inside of a song, this is it. I was walking home from the bus stop during some summer month of high school, on a very quiet road in the middle of the forest. Everything was dead silent and yellowed, and I had my headphones on, black cord slipping out from a discman in my backpack, and this song came on. It was the most meaningful thing in the world, completely incongruous with my surroundings, and I’ve been in abject, unrequited love ever since.

After returning from the organic farm and the weekend with the hot French girl, things haven’t been the same. I came home to a weird little life full of excess junk – stuff I’d purchased, never used, never could use, was taking over my life. Life hasn’t felt right, and I feel like I’m in this desperate struggle against an invisible clock to get things together. I cut off a ponytail that I’ve had since junior high school, I’ve ripped down posters and filled garbage bags with my life. I’ve spent entire days unable to really eat or get out of bed. I’ve read really bad comic books, and I’ve had a hard time balancing everything, or functioning like a normal person.

I’m just putting the finishing touches on a mobile of robots that I designed for my friends and their baby, laser-cut from MDF for about $100, hand-painted, and miraculously, fitting together perfectly on my first attempt. I’m getting the hang of this laser plotting stuff. I’ve also working on conceptualizing and storyboarding a children’s book about a superhero, and a pinball machine design for a friend’s project. It’s been a rough week to make anything, because I can’t see the light at the end of it all, but I guess I might as well keep busy.

I honestly don’t know what it all means anymore, but I’m working towards finding a stable rental situation with my friend, searching out home listings that are cheaper than the insane Westchester & Putnam Country rates – even going so far as to spend a Thursday hunting down Humane Society locations and picking out dogs to take care of. We eventually had to leave when they failed to take us seriously due to our giggling. Around this time last year, I had signed a lease and put down a deposit on a place in Philly which didn’t work out. There’s a place in a little town called Ancram or something similar which we’re looking into.

Back to art things. Wish me luck.

I’ve been in kind of a lull since I’ve done trading cards for Topps, simply because I don’t know how to do anything cooler. And then I got an idea.

I started bugging other trading card companies to see if I could do sketch cards for them. I currently have a small portfolio of Marvel characters which are in at the great Rittenhouse. I’ve exhaustively browsed around, looking for other examples of cards by Rittenhouse artists. Many are comic-styled, and many are graffiti styled, and there are a few ultra-cute ones in between. I opted to approach this in an animated-detailed style. They’re currently being reviewed by the trading card company and Marvel. Getting real, honest-to-god work with Marvel would probably be another highlight I’d never be able to surpass.

Here’s what I submitted.

PS : If I get this Marvel job, I’m shaving my head. I’m shooting for a 50/50 chance, but I know I can do better than some of these folks.

Other current projects include a baby mobile comprised of robots, and a design for the case of a small pinball machine mechanism. I’m squeezing all of this in between jobs, jobs, and more jobs – including applying for roughly 25-30 jobs on eLance this month. No bites yet, but that’s because I’m asking for a realistic wage.

I’ve been especially ornery and impatient at work. I want that to not happen anymore.

I had the pleasure of being part of the March Modok Madness blog, and I indeed took part of some of my own Modok Madness. I also bought the first five appearance of MODOK in the comic books.

But I don’t want it to be over. I think that there should be a month dedicated to every Jack Kirby character. I hereby christen April Annihilus Awesomeness. I could have gone with Arnim Zola, but he’s got August. So, I’m going to post a new picture of Annihilus for every day of this month, or otherwise celebrate the character creatively. Here’s a basic interpretation.

Annihilus : 4/1/2010

I’ve accepted the fact that a largescale Batman Art Trade will never work.

A few years back, I participated in a paperback book swap on the internet. Because I work in a library, I have countless titles available to me on any given day, and I saw an opportunity to do a fun project. At that time, I had designs on an apartment and a better job (none of which panned out), but I wanted art to celebrate said imaginary apartment. I wanted Batman art. So, I offered to send any titles that anyone wanted – all they had to do was send Batman art. It didn’t really matter if they couldn’t draw – it’s the original interpretation that was important. Any size, any shape, any anything.

I sent out 6 books, at a fair cost to myself. I received one Batman drawing in return, and everyone else fell silent.

A few months ago, I tried this again – this time with lots of toys from around my room which I didn’t see any use for anymore. There was some pretty good stuff in there, and it cost a bunch to send out heavy boxes of toy fun. I sent out at least 6 boxes.

I got 2 Batmen back.

This might seem like a 25% success rate, but that’s the equivalent of being able to leave the shoe store with just a heel after you’ve just laid down the cash for a new pair.

Now, I’m not great at keeping up with all of the things I’ve said I’d try to do. There are a handful of tattoos which have hit the back burner (Wazina, Shakti, April), some birthday paintings that are three or four years overdue (the selkie, the artichoke portrait, the black and white thing), and very likely a good number of things that I simply don’t remember – but I have never been paid (or traded) for something that I did not come through on quickly.

My downfall is the fact that I am horribly bitter and broken, but I still retain this weird belief in the goodness of human community and our ability to live up to our promises. Two cheating girlfriends later, I still keep on hoping that people will come through on what they are contracted to do. Especially when Batman is involved.

He would be disappointed in you people.

Perhaps there’s a better community that paperback readers and toy artists on Twitter to share Batman love with, and as soon as I find that level of honesty, I’ll be home.

I’m on page 4 of Coptopus, and things are going smoothly, creatively. The best part of page 3 (which is a splash page) is the fact that I can leave a big section of it undetailed, as I can slap the title over it later in Photoshop.

These are the things that concern you when you need to crank out 22+ pages – layouts, pencils, inks, lettering, scanning, prepping for the publisher. Economy of time is wonderful – but so is making an artful, complete page.

I’ve also been drawing live on webcam. I wish that I could present a closer, more detailed view, but I’m not exactly sure how Mark Crilley does it over on the YouTubes. I liked him better before he went all manga.

Someone asked me why I don’t just quit my job and crank out more pages, more paintings, more art. It’s something that I ask myself every day. It’s a catch-22 : I can’t do it because the market for ME doesn’t exist enough to support me, and the market doesn’t exist because I don’t have enough time to dedicate to it. I think that maybe, maybe after I pay off 2 of my 3 Trifeca Of Debts (student loans, car, credit card), there’s a window of opportunity there. That’s what selling everything on eBay is for, I suppose.

Anyone want a nearly complete run of Diamond’s 7″ scale Star Trek : TNG & DS9 figures? Oh, how I’d love to have an army of variant Picards running around my place – a Locutus in the kitchen, an ‘All Good Things’ on the TV, a ‘Dress Uniform’ in the bathroom… there are bigger dreams, though.

There will eventually be a place where I can go and exist uninterrupted, make my own mistakes, choose the people who I involve in my life.

For now, join The World of Coptopus on Facebook. Brian & I both update it regularly (so far), and I plan to run contests & community things through there also.

It’s been a very long time coming, but I’ve finally been able to start on Coptopus issue #2. I’m worse than Dale Keown, man.

The first issue was a little bit tedious. I approached my first real comic project as something very clinical, something that needed to be perfected. On an intellectual level, I can’t stand seeing a comic artist’s style change as a series progresses – but on a totally practical level, it’s inspiring. Seeing Sam Kieth evolve as he was doing The Maxx was one of the more powerful experiences of my formative period. This time, I’m keeping it really organic – just doing what comes naturally, and I’m enjoying it a lot more, and liking the results.

I’ve also read a lot of really really bad indie comics. I won’t name any, but the recent deliveries have been hideous, and it makes me sad that these people get creative work consistently while I’m kinda stuck spinning my wheels. I have no business sense whatsoever. Come and get me, guys.

Four of my sketch cards have been discovered.

Gamorrean Guard sold on eBay for $40.

Quarren is currently listed for $150 but not sold yet.

Darth Vader is listed at $10.50 and climbing.

The fourth, Boboicullar, was found by a collector on the Scoundrel Publishing boards.

44 more to go – very exciting. I anxiously await my case from Topps, if only to have a piece of something I was a part of – but there’s been no mail for three or four days here due to the weather.

[Addendum : a fifth card emerges! B'omarr Monk listed on eBay for a starting bid of $99, BIN for $200.]

[And a sixth! Myo is listed at $150.]