I really like this.

I've talked about Matthew Inman before. He is the creator of The Oatmeal, a fantastic website full of comics, education, and fun little quizes. I've been experimenting with different kinds of webcomic "medium." There's of course the random humor of Chainsaw Suit, the pop-culture humor of Penny Arcade, or a mix from both at The Oatmeal.

The thing about Chainsaw Suit is that the creator, Kris Straub, already had a successful series based webcomic when he started chainsaw suit. For Straub, I see Chainsaw Suit as an outlet to just have fun. He does so much random stuff, mostly to entertain himself and everyone else who gets the jokes.

At Penny Arcade, they talk about mostly video games and violence which appeals to a certain audience. I've talk before about how they do what they do, so I won't go into much detail.

Then you have The Oatmeal. The thing I like about his is that he isn't restricted to a panel count or a specific humor or subject matter. He will touch on anything and everything you'll never think of. He doesn't have a certain day he has to release things by which lets his creative juices flow. His freedom allows him to create things that are some of the funniest things I've ever read on the internet. That's something I wish to achieve.

So in my next experiment with webcomic medium, my goal is to make a The Oatmeal-esc comic. The problem is trying to come up with an idea. I don't know how he does it. Like "How to Ride a Pony," or "4 Reasons to Carry a Shovel with You at all Times." I want to know what goes through Inman's head...

Gettin' Dirty.

A little too late for Earth day...



I'm experimenting with a lot of different styles of web comics.

I feel I can break down the different styles of webcomics into 3 parts.

First you got pop-culture based comics:



Then you have the random comics drawn in stick figure or very simple styles:



Then you've got what too many n00bz have on the internet; sprite comics:



Sure there are other ones, like storyline based comics, but those are what they made comic books for. The internet doesn't have the attention span for storylines...

But I've been trying to immitate a lot of people's different styles, just to get a feel for them. Most of those creators I've already talked about atleast once or twice.

.Jpg Brains

It’s an industry that was an avenue that no one ever really thought of until a couple of guys decided to make a comic and put it up on the internet. It was a hobby of theirs; they didn’t expect it to go anywhere. These guys were fresh out of high school, and didn’t have many interests other than that of video games.

A simple .jpg, not much more that 150 kilobytes, and they’ve made a career. It’s something I wish I could have. But ambition of such a career, I’ve concluded, is futile. These guys fell into it by accident, which they’ve chronicled in their books. It’s all a very interesting story, but I won’t go into that today.

I’ve been studying the psychology of the internet for the past couple of years, and these guys are on to something. The guys over at Penny-Arcade.com have distilled the internet into it’s purest forms and regurgitated it for the public. That’s what has made it catch like wild fire. By that, I of course mean the insane attempts by everyone, including me, to try and break into the business, the joy it brings so many people, and above all, how much their comics affect the gaming industry.

The internet comes down to just a couple things:
1) Immaturity. I’ve seen these guys get serious on their series of PATV. I know what they are capable of doing. But they’ve chosen to infatuate their comics with immaturity, which appeals to a huge audience. From 12 year olds all the way to 40 year olds. They make something everyone can have fun with.

2) Stay Current. I would think it’s hard for these guys. They are busy 24/7, but some how they stay on top of the industry and what’s going on in the world. Not only that, but they manage to stay current on their user interests. They make sure people actually like what they are going and talking about.

3) Keep it Simple. One of the biggest things that makes things for viral on the internet is its portability. The short it is, the better. The more music (therefore less need for thought) the better. By keeping their comic to strict a 3-panel system, they keep it short and sweet. After 11 years, they’ve figured out how to keep all of their information condensed enough.

It’s as simple as that, it takes a lot to figure out how to manage all of those elements at once. I’m not sure how they do it, but god bless them…

The World of .Jpegs

Simple and sweet. I don't usually go for fart and poop jokes, but I couldn't resist this one... Here's the video:





Last time I was talking about a video the creator of the Oatmeal put up on his website. He appeared on Last Call with Carson Daily.





I love taking a look into other people's experiences with .jpegs. I still need to talk about Penny Arcade's book...

iPad.

I'm pretty proud of the way this turned out.



Or maybe this...



I made two because I couldn't decide which one I liked better.

Also, a video of my process for you:



I just watched a pretty interesting video of an interview with Matthew Inman, author and artist of The Oatmeal. More on this later. For now, enjoy my new .jpeg!

Learning how to Draw a Line.

I've talked a lot about everything I've learned. The most important thing I think I've learned came from an innocent line in Penny Arcade's newest book. I had learned it before from The Behemoth's artist Dan Paladin, but I didn't quite get it.

It was as simple as this: Every stroke needs to matter.

Before I had read this, I would concentrate too much on getting the character shape right, and not erasing. I didn't like undo-ing or erasing. I was scared of it for some reason.

I had watched some videos by Dan Paladin of when he was doing art for their game Castle Crashers. He's a master at what he does, and I wanted to have the same mastery over a Wacom tablet as him. But I just didn't get it. I was still laying down stroke for stroke, trying to get that perfect shape on a curve, but it would still look messy.

It wasn't until I read the book, and Mike Krahulik (the artist for Penny Arcade) had pointed out that every stroke must have a purpose. If you look at their early strips as opposed to their more recent ones, Krahulik pointed out he had way too many lines that added nothing to the artwork.

I felt dumb. How had I not noticed it before? It was so obvious, and right in front of my eyes. So now, when you watch my video below, you'll notice how long I spend on a single stroke until I'm happy with it. You'll see more of this from me.

I definately no how I want to draw things now. My skills are honed, by focus it set, and I've got a lot of progress to make.

As for the comic, I hereby claim it was an experiment in drawing... Definately because nobody gets it. I really did it for the video.

Did they believe me? Are they gone? Okay. Good.

First Comic!

Click to Read.

Made a comic! It's the first one...



I also made a video, recording my screen. This will be a regular practice, as to document my development.

Now about this comic...

I sport myself as a fairly traditional Conservative. I believe in little government involvement in my everyday life. That almost goes against what most "Conservatives" are for these days. Gay marriage for instance. I feel the government restricting that freedom is totally left-wing ideals, but it just isn't for some reason.

So I have an open mind. People like Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh made me very embarrassed to admit I'm a right-winger. I hate those guys...

But I'm comfortable making fun of the Republicans. Mostly because I can laugh, but also because I have the strange ability to see when people are being really stupid. Crazy.

I definitely felt something should be done about heath care. I mostly agree with everything I've read about the new bill. I'm fine with it, I guess... Why can't our political system go back to normal?

I'm not sure how much sense this post makes, due to poor organization... Basically what I'm trying to say is while being a Conservative, I don't associate myself with many of the contemporary ones. I made this comic to make fun of Conservatives, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Pulp.

Alright. I've made a few decisions over the past 5 minutes. Yes. That's a lot of time. I've got the strip's name, I've got my focus, and I've got everything I need to research.

During this little "research" adventure (project sounds too boring) I'm of course going to go along with the stream of things so I can learn as I go. I've already learned a lot from reading Penny Arcade's newest book, which I applied to my drawing to the left.

If you haven't gathered already, the web comic I will be working on will be called Pulp. Three Reasons

1. The internet is like one giant cup of orange juice. It goes down smooth, it comes from concentrate, and there is a hell of a lot of crap just floating around in it. This is only adding to the crap.

2. It's going to be really low quality.

3. I like pulp in my orange juice...

I need to focus on something central, which is that of Pop Culture. Pulp fictiony once again. GET IT?! It's a joke... 'Cuz the world, it's, it's, like... pulp fiction deal with... and like, the world and, and pop culture it's, it's like... haha, yeah. You get it...

By the way, when I say "pulp fiction" I'm not talking about the movie...

For my research into the web comic world, I've been reading Penny Arcade's newest book, and another book on the history of Blogging. This is going to be fun.

Welcome.

That is about the best webcomic ever...

Okay, so I'm exaggerating, but imagine if you could make a living off doing cool things like that. Wouldn't that kick some serious butt? That's what I want to do. I want to be able to make a living of internet adventures. No, not those kind of adventures. More like traveling down the venues provided by the internet.

It started a long time ago when I stumbled upon Homestarrunner.com. I was enthralled with the amazing animation, the humor, and the fact that the makers were making a living off of it.

I spent the next few years teaching myself Macromedia and Adobe Flash. Currently, I've been animating for about 5 years. I've got my own website (Devilishlaugh.com) and I've had a couple of "hits," which didn't last that long. It's the internet after all.

I've tried a couple webcomics here and there, but never was able to commit. Nows my time... Maybe.