remember to breathe

Apologies too all the KC fans who have been checking the site incessantly since friday. This cold that caught me off guard last weekend has floored me, and I'm still not recovered. (even though I just got off some prescribed anti-biotics. You'd think taking drugs would have a more lasting effect!) I know, excuses, excuses, cliche, cliche. I'm going to get that KC comic up on the ASAP tip, and vow to get some form of comic up every friday. It's increasing becoming obvious with the different projects I'm jumping from the amount of pages I'd like to upload each week is just not a realistic number. But I will get something up every friday! It may not be a full chapter, but something is better than more delays.

To all the BFX fans out there, I'm a week or so behind on my update there as well. Tak's got some killer pages up there, so give that guy some props!

Also, in an effort to make raise this blog beyond a place for me to rant and rave about the meaningless things in my life, or drop my two cents on movies that I usually say are good, I'm going to start posting a KC production report. Yes, this is sort of like the "On Kissing Chaos" post I write every time there's something news worthy-ish in the realm of KC, but really, it's an evolution of that comment. This will be a more detailed report on my creative process, and give more specifics on what self inflicted torture I braved during the creation of KISSING CHAOS: SWEET NOTHINGS. ( I will also include this story's precursor, the KC: OVERTURES). At best, it will be some good insight into how I do things, a running commentary which I think fans will enjoy. At it's worst, it will be a dairy for myself, on the creation of a piece of art that's important to me.

I'll start posting this on the morrow, and since I work everyday, a post should go up on the daily! As I start this series of posts, I will give it the appropriate title: "THE STRUGGLE".

Thanks for sticking around!

ADC


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next up

Sorry I haven't uploaded the first KC online comic as of yet! This cold is really taking it's toll on me. I'll keep y'all posted!

Here's a doodle for today. Some figure drawing in ink!



ADC

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doodle

I'm going to endeavor to upload at least one sketch every day. I figure I draw everyday, why the hell no share it with the people? So here's number one. Just a few more hours till the first KC overture drops online!

Stay tuned!

Click to enlarge:

ADC



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secrets and lies!

So, the past year or so I've tried to be healthy. Exercise and eat right and what not. But since I've started doing what they say is "living right", I've gotten ill more times per year than I ever did when I was pumping my bloodstream full of sex, drugs and rock and roll. W T F?!

My theory, which is of course based on precise analytical diagnosis, is that since its doctors and health professionals who tell us how to become healthy, they're feeding us a load on purpose. If the populace in general, becomes ideal, healthy specimens, then the people telling us how to achieve that state of wellness would be out of the job!

So they tell us, eat more fruit, get exercise, do this and that, and you'll feel better, have energy et cetera. Meanwhile, they are hording the scientific proof, that smoking, drinking and general apathy actually hold the "real" sicknesses at bay.

I always knew, when I was a pimply faced teenager, that the dermatologists I went to were not actually trying to clear up my complexion, but in fact, they were the very reason I looked the way I did.

Anyway, this rant has been nourished by my newest bout with a cold. A couple of days ago I felt the runny nose and soreness of throat that foretell a week of migraines and inability to speak. Yet, I remember going to a doctor just over a month ago to get anti-biotics for a cough. Shouldn't I be immune for at least a month, or something like that? Like in an old school platforming video game, if I get hit with an enemy, you flash for a few seconds, and you're immune to damage in this time. This gives you a chance to regroup. Well, apparently, doctors can't afford to have me be immune for any length of time. Let me flash, con sarnit!


ADC



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Brokebizzle Mounteazzy

So I finally got coerced into watching Brokeback Mountain the other night. I really had no intention of seeing the movie. I don’t have a problem with any of the actors, (but I never let my distaste for a particular actor sway what movies I watch), I don’t have a problem with cowboys, or gay themes in film, and I don’t have a problem with Ang Lee movies. In fact, I like a lot of his work. Brokeback Mountain just didn’t interest me, and as good as everyone says it is, it didn’t seem like a movie I would go out and see.

Well, it seemed me’lady got caught up in all the hype surrounding the movie, and was dying to see it. All the great one line reviews, and accolades from the Hollywood foreign press or what have you worked on her, and she had to see it. So someone leant me their pre-release, for awards consideration only, screener of the Mountain so we could enjoy the movie in the comfort of our own home.

< rant > I think the Hollywood should stop complaining that theatre audiences are shrinking, and that they need more people to actually go to the movies! I mean, if people in the academy can’t even drive to a theatre, plunk down some pocket change to watch a movie they are considering awarding an Oscar to, why the hell would they expect the general public to do the same? Kevin Smith even confessed on his blog that he watched most of the movies he saw this past year on DVD! I'm tired of all these film execs, actors and Joe Blow the grip, complaining that their livelihood is at stake if we, the public, don’t go to the theatre. They should live by example, damnit! Also, they blame piracy for dwindling ticket sales. They who the fuck in the Academy is distributing their pre-release screeners over the internet? < /rant >

Anyway, back to the Mountain. Let me drop the “I hate to say I told you so” cliché right about now. My girl was all about watching Brokeback Mountain, and resisted, because I just wasn’t that into it. Well, forty minutes into the movie, she was like, this is boring. Of course, she could “tell me so” as well, as I was actually diggin’ it! I guess Ang Lee doesn’t disappoint. (except for the Hulk.) I really got into…(and Ride with the Devil). I really got into the characters and honestly had to know what happened, despite the plot, predictable as it was. Brokeback is, after all, a love story, for which there are only a few endings a creator can choose from. But it was the means to that end, and the moments captured by a single expression on each of the characters that really captivated me. Yes the pacing and tone throughout the film is more subdued than your traditional Hollywood fare, I think the amazing visuals and emotion portrayed by the actors more than make this worth watching. Hype Aside.

ADC



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weekend update

Feb. 24th is upon us, and that means a new Kissing Chaos online comic! Yes, I will upload the first part of the first of many KC:OVERTURES later today. The second part of this comic will be uploaded on Monday. So it will be a weekend of updates, sort of!

Stay tuned to Kissing Chaos dot com for the updates this weekend!

On an other note, I just finished a pin-up for my buddy Sal Cipriano's comic THE HILL, which will be released by Speakeasy comics this spring. Sal introduced me to THE HILL a few years ago, and it's a wicked story. It's pretty sweet to finally see it get published.

I have mixed feelings for the pinup. Though I felt the design and layout of the illustration was sound in my initial thumbnail drawings, it didn't translate the same way in the final piece. I think this is because I used ink for the first time in a long, long while, and in an effort to keep everything clean and tidy, I did each character on separate piece of paper. And effort that was clearly in vain.

What I did enjoy about creating this pin-up was the final stages of production on the computer. I did some digital painting and manipulation with Photoshop. I tested out some techniques that will be employed on the Kissing Chaos comics I have planned, and they worked like a charm!

Anyway, check it out! (click to enlarge)



ADC



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who wants to be a superhero?

I know I haven't been posting that much here this past week. I've been drowning in work, finishing up some commissions, as well as working on the KC comic which I plan to have up this friday. Apologies to BFX fans, as I missed lasts weeks deadline! Some good comic work will come of this delay! Mark my words!

On another note, I came across this press release this morning. Who wants to be a superhero?. It's a reality show created with Stan Lee, where people dress up, leave their real existence behind and live as superheroes for a period of time. I'm assuming there will be superhero related challenges and what not, and whoever wins this thing, will have his or her character immortalized on the printed page in a comic created by Stan Lee himself! Geez. I'd rather watch American Idol. And I will!

I know most people in the comic industry, and comic fans here in North America want comics to be treated with more respect, or looked at as art, or just have more general acceptance in the mainstream as a viable form of entertainment. But is this the way to achieve that end?


ADC


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waking up

I just saw the movie WAKING LIFE for the first time the other day. (I usually put on a movie or book on tape while I work). I know this flick came out a few years ago, and unless it gets glowing reviews from people I trust, if I don’t watch a “new” movie roughly around when it was released, chances are I won’t, until it becomes and “old movie”. I’m sure that makes sense to some people out there.

My reasoning behind avoiding WAKING LIFE all these years is that I’m not a fan of rotoscoped animation, in film. And that’s putting it politely. The same way I’m not a fan of any art that’s traced. It’s an odd way of thinking, that I think stems from back in my younger years, when I was first learning to draw. I would never trace, because to me, that wasn’t drawing. I would always freehand, even if I was copying something. I had friends who would trace directly from a comic or picture, and say they draw better than me. So that soured me on the whole tracing thing, and since I loved cartoons, the loathing of tracing projected itself onto rotoscoped cartoons.

I’m conflicted on the whole issue though, as I love photography, photo-referenced and manipulated art, as long as the artist puts enough of his or her personal fingerprint on the art. I’m also respect artists who can depict reality perfectly on a canvas, or what have you. But for some reason, tracing still pisses me off. I suppose if someone was to trace images directly off a photo or something, and arrange the traced images in a collage, I would be cool with that… but whatever.

Back to WAKING LIFE. I feel sort of bad in a way, for waiting so long to watch this movie, just because I didn’t want to see the animation that was essentially copied from the film they shot, mainly because they did add some flair and interpreted the movie in some interesting ways. But aside from the animation, which on the hole I felt was a little distracting from the narrative itself, I loved the story. Yes, it’s for the most part pretentious philosophical-babble, and the dialogue is determined to make the average audience member feel terribly uneducated. I realize this may have been the point of the movie, but I found the storytelling too fragmented. I think the story that was being told was fantastic, and it was told in a compelling way, but I know a number of people who would just come out the movie confused.

OF course, as a creator of stories, I don’t think anyone should ever change their art, or dumb down their story for the sake of the mass media audience. I know I would never do that. I also feel WAKING LIFE was a success at what I perceive to be its intentions. But for the purposes of this review, I think some sort of abridged/mellowed-out version of the movie would have made a good film more accessible to a wider audience.


ADC




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1.5 cents

While it definitely fits perfectly into the category of movies that can be described as quirky, comedy/dramas, films that examine the human condition in today’s trying times, a day and age where our roles as people are no longer as defined as they were, say in the 50’s, ME YOU AND ENVERYONE WE KNOW is still very much worth a watch.

Yes, you’ve all seen movies like this, and you know what I’m talking about. I can spout out names like Magnolia, American Beauty, Grand Canyon or even Royal Tenenbaums to an extent, but that wouldn’t do justice to ME YOU…, or those other films, all of which I think have their own special merits, while still sharing an aesthetic that in a small way defines them as a “type of movie”. And you know this type. Sort of depressed in the beginning, with offbeat characters and deadpan humor, then uplifting in the end, as people come to realizations of what they need to do to get out of their rut. ME YOU... adheres to those storytelling laws, as well as sticks to the conventions of tone, style and pacing that are pretty much rule of thumb for these movies.

All this being said, I love these types of movies, and I loved ME YOU... There are plenty of clever ideas and dialogue, plus some social commentary which I’m sure will cause many a heated discussion among the people who’ve seen this flick. Look out Message boards! Not to mention a scene where I totally LOL’d, at an almost nonstop rate, until I actually stopped. I totally would have lost it in the theatre.

I dunno. As much as I might diss this movie for failing at being entirely original, Me You and Everyone We Know has brought to my attention talent of a fresh voice in film, who hopefully will bring even more great work to the table.


ADC

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don't you dare mess with my jean machine!

So, distressed at the thought that I'm still wearing a clothing item or two I had in college, last week I went out and got a brand spankin' new pair of jeans! Sure, I went to the mall and dropped some hard earned cash on jeans from a chain store, but in my defense, they were on sale!

Anyway, here's the thing. After a few days of them sitting in a bag on the floor of my apartment, I finally get around to wearing the jeans. They fit, I think they look good, I put my hands in the pockets and WTF?!?! (pause for dramatic effect) There was an opened pack up chewing gum in the back pocket!!! (can you see my fearful surprise by my use of exclamation points?) I toss the offending gum pack, and wash my hands an remove the jeans. But now what?

A million thoughts run through my head. Did someone wear these with the tags on, only to return them after a night of jean wearing? Did they wash them before they returned them .(the gum pack was pretty beat up.) Are there any known diseases communicable through jeans? (okay, so it was like 3 or 4 thoughts.)

Then after the panic subsided, I remembered that I've worn vintage and second hand clothing before. But that's not what I exchanged money for when I went to the damn mall and walked into that chain store (which shall remain nameless). If I wanted second hand, I would've went to Black Market!

So, now the dilemma. Do I return the jeans? Demand my money back and boycott the store. Or suck it up and just wash the jeans. They did look good on me. Other jeans make my but look huge. ;)


ADC


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on kissing chaos & art update

Firstly, I mentioned before I've been dabbling with ink sketching, something I've never pursued with any real commitment in the past. Check the link below to see some of my latest doodles with ink. For these I used and ink brush. I tried to find an "asian" style brush, to get a specific look to the line work. The line quality I want is there, I just need more experience with the brush, in order to create the actual lines I want.

At any rate, click here for the jpegs. The following art is from some figure drawing from life, as well as some sketches from photos and a couple from my head.




As for KISSING CHAOS:


I noted on Kissing Chaos dot com that I'll be uploading the first KC online comic strip on February 24th. From that date on, the online comic will updated on a regular basis, occurring every other week. When the mood strikes, I'll upload a stand alone random one off story from the KC universe on the in between weeks, but for the most part, each KC episode will be uploaded bi-weekly. ( to maintain the quality I'm looking for, I need the full two weeks!).

The first episodes will be KC: OVERTURES. These will be old/rare KC online strips and shorts, revisited with new art and dialogue. Essentially a warm up for myself, whenever I'm feeling rusty, and need a recharge. My first major work planned for this online venture will be the final release of the long delayed Kissing Chaos: Sweet Nothings story. Let me explain a little about the life of this book.

A few years back, I had planned to release a KC one-shot called Sweet Nothings through Oni Press. This was to be a 22-32 page story, in the regular comic format. As I was working on the book, (most of it was actually drawn), I realized I needed more pages to tell the story, how I truly wanted. My plan at the time was to create an exclusive online supplement to the comic book. The reader could download the extra stories, and read it together with the printed book, thus getting the full story. It was a sound plan.

Around that time I pretty much burnt myself out, which ultimately lead to me leaving the safe harbor of Oni Press. I took Kissing Chaos with me, vowing to get Sweet Nothings out online. I braved the lonely ocean of freelance art for a couple of years, all the while adding more and more to the lost KC one-shot, even redrawing some of the pages that were already finished. (I was sick of looking at the old pages! Artists will understand.)

About a year ago, I seemed ready to put Sweet Nothings online. By this time, the story had expanded, to the length of a short graphic novel, possibly a few issues in length. I was pumped. The story seemed to have a life of it's own, and I kept adding more sub plots, fleshing out the characters, and delving much deeper into the KC universe than I had planned. Unfortunately, my freelance commitments, and the general need to make a living basically postponed the creation of the comic.

As I've mentioned in a previous post, I'm pretty much done with freelancing, and tired of putting off my own work, just to get by and make a living. So for the next few months, I'm going to once again brave new and treacherous waters, by totally focusing on getting this comic done... finally. There are fans who've been waiting patiently, and I aim to please.

I think I've come up with an interesting way to present the story. But for the story to be experienced exactly how I would like, it must be read in one sitting. I know, it sounds weird, but there's a method to the madness. I'm going to use a music analogy to explain my vision.

I see Sweet Nothings, the way a band might see a concept album, or any CD for the most part. It must be experienced, and appreciated as a whole. Sure, like a CD, you can listen to the individual songs, or, in this case, read the individual episodes/chapters of the comic. Hopefully they will be able to stand on their own. But I'm also hoping the impact to be that much different when the episodes are presented at the same time.

This being said, as I work on the series, I will be able to anticipate an official "release date" for Sweet Nothings, as a whole. On this fabled day, I will upload every episode in it's entirety. Maybe get a little press and really pimp the release of the latest Kissing Chaos offering, just like a CD launch. The only way to get the full treatment of this story, will be to read it on or after it's official "release".

In the meantime, of course, I'm not going to leave the hardcore KC peeps waiting. In the months prior to the official release, I'll be uploading a number of episodes of the story. What I think will work best, is on a bi weekly basis, upload the episodes that comprised the original 32 page comic (expanded a little), that Oni Press was going to publish. That way, if you read the comic online, you'll get a complete story, just not the whole story.

You'll read what's essentially the first draft of Sweet Nothings, before I blew it way out of proportion! Speaking in music terms, it's like listening to demo's, or getting to hear a few singles before the album is released. Then, when I unleash the complete story, everyone who read the previews, can read the entire series, and hopefully get a brand new experience. Here's hoping anyway.

Hmmm... it looks as though I've been rambling on and on. As I look over this post, I do think I'm a little bit crazy. But seriously, it sounds like a good idea in my head. The whole music analogy is closest thing conceptually to what I'm envisioning.

At any rate, if you've read this far... I thank you, and apologize for possibly making your head hurt.

I'll keep you posted...

ADC


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the show that was...

A great show that lit up many a television set over the past few years was finally laid to rest last night, on the FOX network. Yes, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT ended it's all too brief run with a 2 hour marathon last night. And for the first time in ages, I actually stayed home and watched TV on a friday evening.

Okay, so, a show that ran for almost a full 3 years isn't exactly too brief in todays day and age of sitcoms being cancelled after one airing, despite the star power behind the show. But AD had a devoted fan base, and pulled in regular numbers, pretty much every time it aired. However, this wasn't enough for the execs at FOX. And sure, they run a business, and if it ain't making money, I guess they have to do what they got to. It's just sad that a show like AD, which in my limited scope of TV watching experience, was a damn fine original take on the half hour comedy. I'm sad to see it go. In it's final days, there were rumors of a cable network like SHOWTIME considering taking on the show, but no truth has come to light.

At any rate, if you have yet to enjoy this killer show, I highly suggest purchasing the first and second season DVD sets, then showing your support by downloading the third season, and finally buying the third season when it's released on DVD. You won't be disappointed!


ADC



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epiphanies

Sorry for the lack up posts this week. Been sorta preoccupied with nonsense, working and thinking. I suppose that's the usual.

Since the dawn of the new year, I've been slowly moving towards making the decision to stop working freelance. Or cut my freelancing time down to a minimum. Essentially and symbolically quitting my "day job". I had this epiphany a while ago, when I discovered that I've been pushing too many of my own projects aside, placing almost all of my main work related (read-creative) goals aside, in order to get further in my freelance career. In order to pay bills. Long story short, I discovered those bills were going nowhere, no matter how much money I could rake in on the freelance tip. So the ensuing months since this realization, I've been bit by bit shedding my freelance duties. I'm at the point now where I feel like I'll be free form the shackles of my creative oppressors. Nothing, of course is free. Freedom isn't, to say the least. I have some money saved up, and my aforementioned bills remain, so the situation is far from me having the ability to pack up and move to some Italian villa to write and draw my own shit every day. But, I'm going to take that chance, and, let's say go on hiatus from freelance. I'm going to use the next little while to solely work on my own projects, and I'll see where this takes me.

Maybe I'm just getting old, and I'm feeling the heat. Hearing the biological clock that artists dread. The sense that I've wasted a lot of time on meaningless tasks, as opposed to creating my art. The good work, the reason why I foolishly believe I was put on this mortal coil. We'll see what happens...

ADC



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I don't know about Schwartzman ...

A while back, I posted on a message board that I thought Jason Schwartzman (sp?) would be the perfect actor to play me in a movie. Firstly, that would be one boring ass movie. Secondly, though he looks nothing like me, after watching the movie SHOPGIRL over the weekend, I'm even more convinced he would do me justice. Yes, I know he's just an actor, and it has more to do with the actual roles he plays, but for some reason, every character he portrays has some eerie similarities to myself. (or at least how I view myself.) Now that I think about it, that makes me sound pretty pathetic. Ah, well, why live in denial, right?

Anyway, Shopgirl now features one of my favourite lines in a movie. Unfortunately, I can't recall the line (I'm not at home with my dvds at the moment). But there's a scene where the Schwartzman character tells the Claire Danes character that he's designing a font for her. A font that she inspired in him. I don't know about Schwartzman, but that's something I would totally do.( and have done.)

I'll find that quote when I'm back home.

ADC

BFX

hey y'all! I just finished a new installment of BFX. For the uninitiated, the BFX project is an online comic experiment I'm doing with Takeshi Miyazawa. Basically, we decide on a theme or agree on some subject matter, and then do our own stories based on this concept. Throughout the course of the comic, our stories intertwine, and sometimes our characters interact. In the first BFX series, we each had a story that centered around a hitman, and in the end, the hitman battled each other! It was really fun to do. (If you missed the online run of BFX1, you can purchase the series on a CD for $10. The CD features close to 200 pages of comic goodness! Drop me an email if you're interested.)

Anyway, the new/current run of BFX, is still ongoing, and shows very few signs of slowing down. I have just completed Week24, and have a few more in me before the story has run it's course. This latest episode should be online in the next day or so. Check out BFX soon!

Here is a preview of my cover for this week:
Click to enlarge!

ADC

bustin new styls

In the past, ink is something I rarely used when drawing. For some reason, my ink drawing always used to leave a bad taste in my mouth. But recently I've taken up sketching in ink, and I've been diggin' the results. At this point, I'm not sure how ink as a medium will factor into the new Kissing Chaos work, but who knows, it may play a role yet.

Click for an ink doodle of Damien!

ADC

caching up

Have you ever noticed that pizza sometimes tastes better the next day? Sometimes called breakfast pizza, or day old pizza or what have you, but ever since the bad old days of college (days of which, I don't have many, since I barely spent a year in post secondary education, before losing interest), I've had a taste for left over delivery pizza. Sometimes it's even better cold. Don't ask me to explain it. But do yourself a favor, throw caution and your new years diets to the wind, and try some cold day old pizza. You won't regret it. Though, it could just be my nostalgia for those salad days, making anything I ate in college taste good. hmmm, I don't think my nostalgia is that strong :)
Spending today trying to play catch up. Finishing some over due jobs, trying to tie up some old business and on a more fun note, watching a few weeks worth of TV that I downloaded. Just watched some Colbert Report from last week, as well as the latest episode of BONES. Though the show didn't grab me by the throat in it's first episode, it has held my interest so far this season. Maybe I'm just happy to see David Boreanaz back on screen, but I'm digging the ensemble of characters the show centers around. Though the two main characters have a sort of hackneyed Mulder Scully dynamic thing going on, you know it, and have seen it everywhere, I find their witty banter enjoyable.
I've got some SCRUBS, and LOST on tap, so it looks like my afternoon is full. And of course, I'm working too. Seriously!
ADC