Posts Tagged ‘comics’
12 items.
Oh, those wacky Cultists! Now look at what they’ve done! Tsk tsk…honestly.
The next page in the story is going to be AWESOME, as well as the one after that. Actually, the one after that will most definitely be more awesome. You have my word. /cow’s honor, friend’
Now, the reason I say next page in the story is because I’ll be at Anime Evolution this coming weekend! Now, let me get back to you guys as to where my table is (I’m sharing a table with a fellow comic artist and friend). BUT – I will most certainly be there, with many cool things! Get your hands on the first batch of the Disgaea prints! Also – WoW Eh buttons! And last, but certainly not least…
Commissions!
Yes folks, you heard it! I’ll be there, at my lil’ old table, ready and willing to draw your WoW character for a minimal fee! There will be different pricing depending on if you only want a sketch, or inked (no colour, sorry folks). If you’re in the area, come by and say hi! This’ll be my second year going to AE as the author of WoW Eh, and I’m hoping for both fun and success!
I’ll do an update post to show new stuff from the store, as well as where I actually am on the AE map. :B It’s quite late right now, and I am le tired. 
Ah! That reminds me…If you are still hankering for some top-quality WoW comic merch, why not swing by to the Daily Quests store? Fyeuni just opened it up not too long ago, and is constantly putting out new stuff! I’ve already ordered a comic book from her, and might grab a few more things down the road… >_>
Play this video/song while reading the comic
~Kelly
Hey all,
This blog post is meant to be more of an ‘info-sharing/rant’ sort of thing. Take from it what you will. I’m not mad about anything, per say, this is just a culmination of experiences and thoughts I’ve had in the last year and a half.
More than once, I’ve had people ask me, in person, email, what have you – about what it takes to be a ‘good’ comic artist. Now, let me start off by saying that I am far from ‘good.’ Am I a professional? I’m hesitant to use the word myself, but I do get paid to do it in once instance (Byron), so…I dunno. I have no formal education in comics, and only really started taking it seriously about 8-10 months ago. In the last few months, I’ve really stepped it up, by doing research, attending lectures, meeting local comic artists – the whole nine yards. I have read probably hundreds of indie and independent comics, looking at style, layout, and technique. Again, I’m not sure how qualified I am to dispense advice (compared to say, Todd MacFarlane or someone), but here goes.
So yeah. My ‘breaking point’ (I can’t think of a better word) came at the local Vancouver Comic Jam last weekend. Comic Jam occurs once a month, and a bunch of artists get together in a little restaurant and, well, draw comics. I sat with some very nice (although timid) artists, and we started talking. After speaking to a few of these girls, there was one prevalent and generalized thought:
“I want to draw comics, and I want my comic to get lots of hits and be popular, but I don’t want to do any marketing. Or work. At all.”
This began to drive me NUTS. One girl I talked to wanted her comic to get lots of traffic, but didn’t want to do any marketing. She just wanted to “sit there and draw.” The same girl wanted to get better and get feedback, yet she told me that she turned off commenting on her site. Obviously, the biggest problem here is part of the natural human condition: we’re all afraid of failure.
No one in their right mind enjoys being picked on, or needlessly criticized. Yet, these comic artists are so hesitant to leave their protective bubble, that they let their fear get in the way of their success and growth. To me, that is no excuse.
Now, my general style of working in any industry is to WORK. If you don’t like something, you muscle through it. I realize my work ethic is a little more…obsessive than others, but I hold strong and fast to it. If you’re afraid of something, hike up your britches, grit your teeth, and get through it. I had to learn this lesson the hard way, and multiple times. I remember having a frank discussion with my Dad about Byron, and how I wasn’t cut out for the often vicious WoW.com commenters. You know what he told me? He, as a musician for 45+ years, had told me about some song artists that gave up, and others that pushed through. He told me to not pander to those who spread hatred, as frankly – “do they sign your paycheck? No? Then there you go.”
And it’s true. To this day, I am immensely glad I stuck through, and now Byron is so much more enjoyable to work on.
Was that a tough period in my career? You bet your ass it was. I lost sleep, I cried, I thought about quitting every day. But I stuck with it, for the sake of making comics. Making art. My art.
Back to my original point… >_>;
Comic artists need to learn to take criticism. My original professional background was in 2D animation. I remember a time I was called into my directors office, and he told me that I was an idiot, didn’t understand the simplest concepts, and was basically a drooling moron. Did it suck? Sure did. What did I learn? Take your knocks, make an effort to get better, and get back on the horse.
Success is the other half of this equation. Probably…oh, less than half a percent of all online comics ‘make it big.’ Even less than that are overnight hits for ‘no good reason.’ The rest? They work. They market. They’re consistent. They network. And then they work some MORE. So no, new comic artist still in highschool, don’t expect your comic to rake you in tons of cash right away. Hell, it probably will never happen. If you work at your craft, you will get better, and hopefully create comics for the sheer joy of creating them. When I started WoW Eh, I read somewhere that “if you’re getting into webcomics to [primarily] make money, you’re getting into it for the wrong reason.” Personally, I’d say that’s true. Don’t expect your webcomic to replace your full-time job, or whatever you have for your primary source of income.
So, I guess…to summarize:
- Don’t let your art be ruled by fear of rejection or failure. At the end of day, you have created art, and that’s the best you could’ve done. Failure is NOT the end of the world. Have a good cry, grab a good drink, and get back to drawing.
- Don’t expect your comic to explode overnight into popularity. Unless your comic is some kind of amazing prodigy or whatever, you will have to network. Link, ask others to link you, do guest comics, use Twitter, Facebook…I worked my ass off to get WoW Eh to where it is. The majority of my traffic still comes from ‘Sunday Morning Funnies’ from WoW.com. Connect with your readers out there. Your audience is worth their weight in gold.
- Be open to criticism. I happily admit that I have over-reacted to some comments. Read each one, and accept them graciously. There IS a difference between [constructive] criticism and trolling. Constructive criticism will tell you how to improve (ie – your line quality is hard to see, your speech bubbles don’t flow, etc). Trolling is ‘lol ur comic fckin sux ballz’.
- DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS. I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH. HOPEFULLY PUTTING THIS POINT IN CAPITALS WILL BE ENOUGH.
- Don’t take after me – learn to balance your work and your life.
- In order to make comics, read comics! Go out there and see what it has to offer! Read everything – mainstream, indie/independent, manga, foreign (comics from Europe are usually AMAZING things to behold, even if you’re not fluent in French or German. I’m talking about comics like Skydoll and Blacksad.)
- Study! Reference is your best friend. You should never be ashamed of not knowing how to draw something. Practice, research, and when you’re done, practice some more.
There’s my brain dump on comics. I hope it isn’t too ‘all over the place.’
Now that that’s done – get out there and DRAW!
~Kelly
Kissless isn’t quite herself, what with her speaking for a holy being (?). I mean, I guess they kind of had it coming — what, being cultists and all, but still…da-yum. 
Thanks again for waiting, everyone. The comic is back and ready to go. My designer just contacted me today, so we’re going to have a conference call to see how things are going. The site is going places! Wacky! :O
Cheers also for everyone’s help with donations. I know everyone’s sick of me saying this, but it takes so much stress off of everything to have everyone’s kind donations helping out with hosting, helping to pay for the site redesign, and the slew of computer equipment that has decided to start breaking down… -_- (First RAM, then Cintiq pen, then keyboard). As I’ve said before, if you can toss a couple o’ bucks into the pot, it will be more than appreciated. ^_^ I’m pondering the idea of sending out sketch cards of either Cadi, Kiss, or Kama (or maybe your WoW toon..?) in return for slightly more sizable donations. I dunno. My art ain’t worth that much…. XD
Anyways, I hope you’ll all like where the story is going! I have the next page sketched out, and things are getting intense!
~Kelly
Cadistra reveals her deep fear of the Scourge, along with some vulnerabilities she’d rather not have shown in front of strangers. As a Druid, she has a much deeper connection to the world around her, so imagine hearing the earth cry out in pain whenever these creatures are near you? Not a good thing. :s
On a separate note, I wanted to draw your attention to my previous blog post. In it, I was humbly asking for any small donations you were able to afford, in order to keep the site up and running. Turns out I have the greatest readers on Earth! So far, I’ve raised nearly $700! That’s going to help with hosting, getting the laptop I was looking at (going to make my life a LOT easier…), and now paying the coder/designer to basically rebuild my site from scratch. ^_^; As I’ve said before, if you can afford to toss a buck or two in the ol’ tip jar, it’ll be SO appreciated. As I have also said before, if you can’t? No worries! I’m taking on tons of extra work with WoW.com to try and raise some money, but the donations ensure me that the site will be up sooner, and I can maybe NOT work myself to death.
In a fun bit of in-game news, look what came into my possession Saturday night!
I WILL TAKE OVER THE EMERALD DREAM A--...OH, NEVERMIND...
It’s Anzu the Raven Lord! As a Druid, this was pretty much the last ‘RP mount’ that I wanted out of the game. I mean, there are plenty of other mounts I want, but now that I have my Cenarion War Hippogryph (with the matching title, Guardian of Cenarius!), along with my devious little raven lord, I am hap-hap-happy! 
Now, it’s time to do some sweet raids!
Thanks again, everyone!
Professor Layton and the DANJO
~Kelly
Guest week #3! Oh geez, has it been that long…? :s I adore these two comics, as the first one by Intruder Geradr is SO FUNNY. I just loved the facial expressions – something I am told WoW Eh is famous for (??). Also, if Kama ever tried anything like that on Cadi, she’d be wearing a cloak outta his hide! XD Second, the ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’ by Jenna Legras is so amazing. I never thought what the girls would look like being more ‘realistic.’ :3 Fantastic job, the both of you!
The cast is still on…week one is over. I hate this stupid thing. I can’t even play on my 360 because my hand can’t contour to the controller. :/ Ah well. One more week, and then I’m back to drawing my precious, precious comics.
To be quite honest, I’m really enjoying the break. ^_^; I feel guilty for not bringing you guys comics, but looking at the incredibly talented community we have, I’m not regretting it one bit. Thank all of you again for you kind words and contributions. 
They’ve helped immensely.
Not a whole lot else has been going on, except for the fact that I FINALLY HIT LEVEL 80!! Yes, after nearly TWO YEARS of playing Cadistra, I finally. Hit. 80. I blame no one but myself in this. >_>; I thank all of my friends and wonderful guildies for helping me get this far. After dinging in the Halls of Reflection (friggin’ EPIC, by the way), my GL had me running heroics the same night. I’m absolutely loving seeing all this new content. :3
Pictured: the slowest leveler on Earth.
Oh, also – got my epic flight form the next day (today). Yes, I did the entire quest line, and yes, if I ever roll another druid, I’m buying the form. Not to say isn’t wasn’t fun and incredibly interesting, but the whole chain took me about 6 hours. o_O There’s just so much back-and-forth footwork; it’s crazy. ;__; Now, it’s time to farm Anzu…
Well, here we have – guest week #1! I’m really sorry for spending my last week on another project…I’m actually itching to draw out the next few pages of this story. Sadly, it’ll have to wait a few weeks until my surgery is all done, and I get my cast off. Yes, you heard it – I’m scheduled for wrist surgery this Friday, on the 29th of January. Came as a shock to me, to be quite honest…I was expecting a few months down the road. :/
Anyways, that being said, I’ve been spending every waking moment trying to get two very important things done – one, finish my entry for the Blizzard Calendar Art Contest, and two, get a few preemptive weeks of Byron done. That, along with tying up any lose ends at my full-time job…well, I’m pretty frantic as of late. ^_^;
This is where I renew my plea to you, my wonderful readers – if you can spare an idea and a bit of time, why not have some fun and show off your 1337 skills and make a guest comic for WoW Eh? The world is your oyster on this one, folks! It can be funny, serious, violent, cute, whatever! Just, y’know, no ‘Two Girls One Cup’ sorta thing, alright? :s
I should only be out of commission for…maybe three weeks? Four at the absolute most? The doctor I saw was kind of vague, although I’ll have better information once it all goes down.
Thanks again for being such a wonderful community, guys. I feel awful for putting WoW Eh on hold again, but after this, my wrist will be in top working condition!
Initiate Alpha Code, All is Well, Pints are on Me
~Kelly
If anyone figures out which movie I parodied the title from, you win the internet. And possibly cookies.
Man, Cadistra is a friendly lady, but she does not like this Kama guy. I mean, she arrived on the scene to her best friend in pain, and he’s just standing around, going on about some ’schedule’ that needs to be kept? Looks like she’s gonna give Kama the cold shoulder until she finds out more about this elf…
SO! We’re back! Hooray! I gotta say, even though it’s upping the workload again, it feels great to be drawing WoW Eh again. I really missed this comic! As far as the wrist, it’s actually getting worse…but the holidays are over, I’m bored, and you guys have waiting long enough. I plan to get a comic done for the week that I’m out for surgery (it’s at the end of January), so hopefully I won’t have to take any more time off. That would just be mean on my part.
In other news, I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful holiday. Mine wasn’t that restful, but I got to visit a lot of friends and family, and I think I ate about 1.5x my body weight! All in all, it was really wonderful, and I hope for everyone to have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.
Now, if you follow me on Twitter, I’ve been eating up an anime series called ‘Ghost Hunt.’ I watched in subtitled (duh), and just finished the 25-episode series earlier today. I have to say that I really enjoyed it, although the ending was a bit too anti-climactic. Also, the series ended off as if it was going to continue, but I seriously doubt it will (unless it did under a different title? Anyone know?)
The series is staring Taniyama Mai, a young girl who, after breaking an expensive camera while exploring an old schoolhouse, gets roped into being the assistant to the ‘Shibuya Psychic Research Center’ after the original assistant, Lin, is hurt. Its leader is Kazuya Shibuya, a cold, business-like young man, and throughout the series, is joined by an ex-monk (just called ‘Monk’,) a self-styled Shinto Priestess named Ayako, an Australian Catholic priest named John, and Masako, a famous spirit medium.
The characterizations were wonderful, and even though it was a full cast of seven people, I really felt that no one got trampled over, and everyone was given ample screen time (except for Ayako, the priestess, but you find out why at the end). There were times when I was watching that I would genuinely get freaked out, like during poltergeist scenes and what-not. I honestly don’t think there’s an anime that has spooked me as much as this series has. All in all, great characters, interesting plots, and fantastic animation. I give it a must-watch.
Also, adding a new webcomic link to the blogroll: ‘No Pink Ponies!’ by Remy ‘Eisu’ Mohktar! I read through the entire archives over the holidays, and I love this comic! A very cute styling of a girl geek who opens a comic book store to get close to the guy she likes. Great story, great [geek] humor, and great art. Enjoy!
~Kelly
I TOLD YOU I’d get this page up! Damn near killed me, but I did! \o/ So sorry for the wait, everyone. :< Cadistra has backed down, only at Kissless’ command. Why is she so hostile towards this strange elf? Just what is up with that guy?
Now that I’m here, there’s a few things I wanted to tell you all, clarify, and get off my chest.
First off, I’m most likely going to be taking the next three weeks/three comics off. I know, it kills me too, but only very good reasons would make me take a short break from WoW Eh, and believe me, they’re good reasons…First off, it’s December. I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping yet, there’s birthday parties, Christmas/Channukah/holiday parties, certain deadlines we need to meet at job #1 (Fit Brains), and sadly, Byron takes priority over WoW Eh, as it’s not only contract, but I don’t want my legs broke by Adam.
….I <3 u Adam!
..>_>;
On the other hand (ba-dum PSH…you’ll see), if you follow me on Twitter, you’ve no doubt heard me wailing like a banshee about my left arm/wrist. So far, it’s been diagnosed with not only an overuse injury, but there’s some kind of…cyst thing in the wrist joint, and either it’s pinching a nerve or something, but in any case it hurts like a sunnuva-b. =/ I’m going to see my GP this Wednesday for a surgery consult, and I start massage therapy on my arm the next day after work. I know it sounds silly and whiny – I’m honestly the last person to actually treat something – I’d much rather pop a few painkillers and work through it. It’s unfortunately gotten to the point where I wake up during the night due to the pain in my wrist. It’s bad. Funny as it sounds, my entire life is based around my left hand.
…*waits for all the sexual innuendos to finish up*
….Done? Okay.
I mean, I’m a career artist. I am paid by TWO companies to DRAW. If I don’t/can’t draw…I’m out of those jobs. I hate all this medical run-around, but I HAVE to make sure my left arm/wrist work okay, or else I become at risk of losing my life’s passion. Sadly, spending 70-80 hours a week drawing at my job and two comics is not helping things.
*whew*
Okay! Next topic – TROOOLLLLSSS.
Not the cool Darkspear ones, but the foul little things that skitter out of the woodwork whenever Byron gets posted. Now, while I admit that I am more used to the gentle community surrounding WoW Eh, WoW.com is akin to someone pulling your pants down and pushing you into a lake full of ravenous piranhas. Then they dump salt on your bleeding, festering flesh wounds. Then someone comes and urinates on you.
Not to say that WoW.com is all bad. I LOVE it! Working there (here?) is a ton of fun, and it’s stepping into a whole new level of connecting with the community. Here’s where things get dicey. And please bear with me – I’m not weeping, moping, fishing for compliments or anything – just telling my side of the story.
I am inherently a people-pleaser. I love making people happy; it’s just….part of who I am. Now, when I put my work up, it’s inevitable that some people aren’t going to like it. I am totally down with that. Art is subjective – what one person hates, another person loves. If you don’t like the comic, totally cool. Hell, even if you say “I don’t like this comic,” I’m down with that too. If you say “ur comic sucks balls”….at least tell me WHY my comic sucks balls. If there’s something you don’t like, or a glaring error, or I could use more work on the backgrounds, or whatever – TELL ME! A poor artist is one that doesn’t grow. I want to grow, learn, and become better at what I do. If you’ve got harsh criticism, you have every right to say it, and I will happily listen.
On the other hand, if you woke up on the wrong side of the bed, spilled your coffee, and are pissy about maintainance day…maybe stop and think for a second before you go tell me to put a certain male organ in my mouth. You have every right to speak your opinion, and the best lesson I’m learning from this is to ignore the trolls, but really…to everyone reading this – I’m not pathetic. I’m not whiny. If you think I have a ‘piss-poor attitude,’ that’s fine. Have you ever met me? Just maybe stop and realize there’s someone giving their time and energy to give you free entertainment. This goes for everyone – artists, writers, testers, and the like.
So trolls, if you wanna gripe and bitch and keep saying that Byron is ‘the worst thing to happen to the internet’….go ahead. I’ll be waiting with a smile on my face, glance over your comment, and continue on with my day. Byron will keep coming, and there’s damn all you can do to stop it.