stormin' norman

Back down in Norman after two flights. Somebody please explain how the economy of something as counterintuitive as flying over the Oklahoma airport down to Dallas Forth Worth and then flying back. At least I got to ride the funky monorail for half a block ar DFW!

Noticed that the airport architecture evokes the early '60s International Architecture and '30-'40s Deco without explicitly being either.

And the prices for airport food. Those eight dollar hamburgers! But is anybody going to spend $19 on cab fare to get somewhere that has them for a real price?

I start IJP class tomorrow.

"under this hawaiian shirt is a healthy boy !"

That was the name of a song that a character was singing in a cartoon that I had in a dream last night. It was an English dub of a Soviet animated short. The undistinguished antagonist (except for the shirt) was singing it to his zaftig and indifferent would-be sweetie.

So wouldn't a Hawaiian shirt be considered to be western consumer decadence?

The illo is the title card for my Flash animation side project. I kind of like the subtle irony of a computer type font done in a hand made looking way. And then recompiled in computer based animation.

Overslept way late and then spent a long time overcoming groggy inertia to make it up here to Soldier. I'm washing my clothes and getting ready for my flight to training in Norman tomorrow.

Still wondering about those wax capacitors in those old radios. Let's have a component that's most likely to melt next to some big hot tubes most likely to melt them....

caps off!

Here's a detail from yesterday's calendar cover, a fanciful evolution of space flight. Although there should really be a few evolutionary steps between the Shuttle and the saucer.

Feeling a bit migrainey and under the weather so I just scanned in the first three issues of the second series Captain Saucer to keep from being totally nonproductive.

Figured out that my '57 Studebaker radio had a shorted capacitor across the cathode and a plate of the 0Z4 rectifier tube. The thing just came to life and squawked when the failing component was removed. Now to find a .007MFD or .0068uF 1600V replacement....

a bast from the past, part 1985

Here's the cover of the 1985 Calendar. This year's Calendar was done as a bit of an afterthought because the '84 Calendar didn't get enough recognition and support from Comix World and elsewhere. Actually, it's a little more accomplished than the '84 Calendar despite myself. Even if Flexia should have been rendered a little softer and naturalistic.

It's clouding up and I'm back at work. Mom dumped about an hour or so of moving crumbling and unsquare cabinets around on me on the last minute before heading down to Omaha.

we got a bigger problem now

I'll probably get flamed for this cheap political potshot from the 1984 calendar, but at least it was fun and funny at the time. There was also a T-shirt derived from this that was item 1347 out of 7431 of things in my life that were supposed to be money makers but weren't.

Also three Dead Kennedys referrences in two days and two postings!

When I first heard System of a Down's "BYOB" on the radio, I thought of the Dead Kennedys.

Up in Soldier now. Looked at a guy's junk collection. Got my lawn mower running after finding a wire that fell off the ammeter and mowed my lawn of my house that I don't live in anymore but can't seem to sell. Attempted a model rocket launch at sunset but the controller batteries were dying.

"welcome to 1984..."

Got the proverbial rainy day off. Will finish up scanning in those 1980s Leonine Press Calendars before dinner and will knock myself out to finish those four Dragonman pages after it.

A meeting to pick up a Model-T frame and the remains of an old trailer fell through because of the weather.

Saw Heat Vision and Jack on YouTube this morning. Pretty amusing. Almost makes me nostalgic for being a kid watching TV back in the '70s.

shocking development

One of the title cards slated for "Hello World" my first Flash Animation that's off and on progress. Oddly, I'm embracing a rough home-brewed style instead of being forever struggling to unsuccessfully kill it off.

Scanned and corrected the 1984 Leonine Press Calendar. Including the infamous "Nazi Muppets". Also corrected a couple of back logged Tube Punk thingies.

I think that I may have given those two '83 Calendar pages away to couple people that I haven't seen in 23 years. Will see if I still have a printed copy of the calendar or try to track down one of the people who actually bought one. Both of them....

Somebody at the Animation Nation forums has posted a lot of links to YouTube excerpts to work-prints of The Thief and the Cobbler. I sympathize squarely with Richard Williams for spending an ungodly amount of time and effort on something only to be screwed out of it.

good ol' new wave....

Scanned in the 1983 Leonine Press Calendar. The pages for January and November are currently missing. Could be interesting to track those down. Did the initial correcting and sizing on the Calendar and "The Big Project". Playing around with SilverKeeper, trying to synchronize the Tube Punk files between The Brute (the Dual G5) and Satellite (the iBook) without loosing any.

Here's a mock PSA from "The Big Project". Gawd, how I hated missing out on New Wave because I was stuck on the crappy ol' farm!

"it's a piece of science fiction, takes place in 1983...."

Finished scanning through "The Big Project", an aborted variant, and some art from the Lost InterStellar OverDrive revival. There's just too many memories and heartbreak.

The "The Big Project" was a premature attempt at doing an Indie Comic version of Captain Saucer back in 1983. I wasn't quite ready for the Direct Market and the Direct Market wasn't ready for me. Some very aggressively inspired New Wave and Googie stuff meets more of that rough and raw execution. OTOH, this could have evolved into a sort of a "companion" to Love and Rockets, for people who regretted Fantagraphics weaning it away from Sci-Fi, if somebody just would have embraced and nurtured it.

Made a big dent in starting that "Hello World" Flash animation. I swear that it took more time to figure out their modal software as it will to animate the thing.

propellor head

Forcing myself to work on those Dragonmen pages, although I'm feeling really uninspired. Also in the early stages of learning Flash animation. Here's a really random from my sketchbook. Plus the YouTube links promised yesterday.

A tribute to Dad

Rocket '76!

Last Day of School '76

An 8mm paper cut-out animation that I did way back when.

"Geek Out!"

"Three on the Tree"

Video Rocket #1

Video Rocket #2

Video Rocket #3

:b

The weather took a dump, not only was it too windy but the temperature really dropped, about ten degrees. At least the temperature is picking up now. Mom bought a beat up 1978 F-150 chore pickup with a 302. That makes me almost nostalgic. Also briefly watched a lumbering grain truck at the Moorhead elevator. The driver must have shifted through five gears just to get off the scale. I am back in Omaha and uploading a bunch of video files to YouTube. Will have the URLs later. Another semi-random picture from my sketch book.

fins and winds

Currently up in Soldier after running errands. The wind is blowing even worse than the day that inspired me to post the picture of the fans. Pulled the radio out of the Studebaker Hawk and will try to figure why it doesn't work. Maybe a tube is blown.

Random picture, an in-jokey doodle from 1980....

lion around

Got those two lion-girl pin-ups done. Not totally happy with the inks. I was shooting for Moebius-ness and instead they cam out kind of Crumb-y. Wait 'til when you see them in color in Tube Punk

Will start on those four InterStellar OverDrive pages after catching the sunset. Will head up to Soldier tomorrow morning.

Otherwise, Venus & Mars are alright tonight...

boiler riveting

I finished those pages for the InterStellar OverDrive revival. Despite all the boiler riveting with industrial design, I'm still not wholly satisfied. For starters, I'd thought that the cellphone, based on that 1950s Toshiba transistor radio, would look cooler.

Will dink around with a couple lion-girl pin-ups and then get started with a four page DragonWorld set piece tomorrow.

googlin' googie

I was going an image search for retro radios for some inspiration. This is my favorite. Will draw a cellphone based on it. I just love that old Atomic Style!

That ISOD page is lumbering nearer completion. Got over most of the boiler riveting and only have two panels left and one is a head shot. Should really get back to Tube Punk. Just sort of stalled on some cringe worthy '80s art.

now in extra chunky!

Well, it looks like that sprint turned into a marathon because there is a lot of instrument drawing and boiler riveting on that page. And two or three panels that I'm scratching my head on.

Got the inks for the cover for Captain Saucer today!

Here's pencils for a pin-up that's slated for Tube Punk.

finished and unfinished running pages

Got a new InterStellar OverDrive page finished before work and I am within sprinting distance of getting another one done in the next day or too.

Here's a mostly finished panel from a mostly unfinished page from the aborted Leonine Press InterStellar OverDrive #4 from around 1990.

lung power

Back down in Omaha and just finished up running errands and soon to be getting back into the work week. Did cash an old savings bond that my paternal grandparents bought for me at the time I was adopted. Got the face value plus a lot of windfall of maturity.

Here's one of the more amusing panels from the aborted 1990 Leonine Press InterStellar OverDrive #4. Flexia belting out a "Death Valley '69" type song.

bungling burglars

I'm up at the farm today making an attempted early start on making few false starts and dead ends on a few projects.

Also had some unknown thief enter mom's garage, steal one of my '50s Cadillac Eldorado Sabre mags and ignore the other wheel in there to steal my really valuable 40 gallon plastic tub.

Grrrrrr!

For nonsensical thievery in my past I've had somebody steal a VAX terminal out of storage in a granary. Some bonehead probably thought that he was getting a "free" computer and then took it home and wondered why he "cain't connect to that thar innynet."

Also had somebody break into my house in Soldier and steal my forks, leaving the knives, spoons, TV, VCR, computers, etc....

The fourth and last excerpt posted from the middle '90s InterStellar OverDrive #2.

feel the buzz

My tubby tabby got it into his fat little head the notion that the spinning blade tips of an electric fan might be really tasty. So he's been trying to nibble on them despite getting his little pussy nose buzzed over and over again.

Scanned in some Ameriman and "Berk & Bast" art this morning. Scanning "The Big Project", a premature 1983 attempt at a Captain Saucer indie comic, is up next.

Well, the "10538 Overture" is nearly good as done. "As pretty as a Prog gatefold." Except that the lion-girl didn't come out as photo-realistic as I would have hoped. Despite being a lion-girl.

Nudge her head a little to the right? Might delete the quewies for less aerial clutter.

So how many things do you see that don't belong together?

I'm still tempted to rename this "Venus and Mars Reprise" if I redraw
anything before coloring this.

Names that didn't make it:
"South Central Midnight Lady"
"Catgirl in the Sand" (pun on Neil Young)
"Cinnamon Girl"
"Miracles Out of Nowhere" (but I don't see any miracles!)
"Afternoon Delight" (there's kitsch that even I won't touch!)

BTW, over that hill lays madness. Or Castana. I lost track of which.

unlucky 14

I only lost 14 files and I still had the uncorrected files on the Scanner Mac. The were from the Rip Off InterStellar OverDrive #2 from which the recent illo postings came from.

Fanboy and Scapegoat brought back memories of a rough patch of my life. Scanned in the unfinished Leonine Press InterStellar OverDrive #4 before dinner. More of that turn of the '90s Direct Market victim groove.

the ex'ed files

Scanned in a good chunk of the aborted Whatever Happened to Fanboy? Accidently wiped out a bunch of files swapping folders between the Macs. Will sort this out later. Grrrr....

thinking inside the box

Scanning through the sorted items in my cartoon archives box. Scanned in the aborted '90s Rip Off Press InterStellar OverDrive #2 (thank you ever so much, Ron Perelman and Heroesworld!) and the original Captain Saucer from 1983.

The weather took a dump for the colder with a very stiff north wind.

this is not necessarily a tribute to apple...

...unless you what it to be....

Just a gag that popped in my head.

Scanning through the last known handful of unsorted items in the sorted box. Right now, just on and off scanning through a spiral sketchbook from the '80s. Scanning the notable items if not necessarily notable for the right reasons.

The weather is getting a bit warmer and a goodly bit more muggy. Having that awkward transition at work, where it's getting uncomfortably warm in the building, but they haven't got the air conditioning up in running order yet.

big G5

And the Big G stands for Googie!

Last of the 30th anniversary Apple tributes.

I promise....

what's on your purrbook?

Apple released the OS 10.4.6 update and Boot Camp in the past couple days. Don't know what to make about XP on the Mac. But I'm still celebrating Apple's big 30 by posting this cartoon from the late '90s.

Cleaned up a Honda ATC engine today with nearly two hours in the solvent tank. My hand pores still have that weird tingle. Went down to the RC flying field and nobody was there. Will try to Google up why.

unpopular favorite

Finally scanning in the 1987 Leonine Press Calendar. Of all the "pure" Small Press stuff that I've done, this is my favorite. Yet it didn't sell well, was a little critically slighted, and I feel that if anybody else would've had all that fun with multicolor xerography, they wouldn't have been so conveniently ignored by cliquish fandom or even prodom.

Will try to make a dent in finishing a few pages after this poster. Later, will go to the Model Rocket Club meeting later today and then head up to Soldier.

six colors in monochrome

One of life's minor bugaboos is something that looks cool in your head, but looks bland once you execute it in real life.

Like today's illo.

Happy big 30 anyway, Apple!

Daylight Savings is here. RC flying season is here. Mom and step-dad should be coming back from vacation any day now.

true love out of the closet, exposed

And you were expecting what? Two cowboys kissing? ;)

To celebrate Apple's big three-oh even more, here's a photo of a closet of a place where I use to live.

Scanned in the Cseworld ashcan yesterday after all. It's frustrating, so much gem but so yet much rough. Started to scan through the a handful of the unsorted in the otherwise sorted box, including the "Mr. Fan" Story from the aborted Whatever Happened to Fanboy? This should keep me busy for a couple more days. Tomorrow, I scan thhe 1987 Calendar.

pick of the crop

Happy big three-oh, Apple!

Long may you boot! Long may you think different! Heart felt from somebody who has been around since the days of Inits, CDevs, DAs, and "that little truck thingie".

Got nearly to the bottom of the box of unsorted items to scan. Only have the "Cseworld" InterStellar OverDrive ashcan left from that box and will tackle all those pages tomorrow. Then on to the unsorted items rattling around in a supposedly sorted box.

Still missing the Nelson A. Jessip script, some fantasy pickups, and an very early Berk & Bast drawing with Flexia defiantly sticking her finger down the barrel of a zap-gun of a Dalek parody. This inspired a joke with Wingding in the Captain Saucer revival.