Planet DC Conspiracy

Chapter 3 Page 10

2008-08-28T07:00:00Z

Matt’s going to be quite a monkey wrench in Johnny’s plan. And do youall remember Joshua?

Now for some site news: I’ve completely cleaned up the sidebar. It should be a lot easier to navigate around now. The cool popout things still work, of course.

And, I’m also starting to list the comic on some of the many Webcomics listing services, starting with the very new Frumph.net. Phil helped me out greatly with getting ComicPress Manager working on Yahoo! and Windows/IIS, and I’m proud to be listed on his site. Go check it out!

Finally, a new way to navigate through the archives: the keyboard! Use the left and right arrow keys to move backwards and forwards through the archive, respectively. It should work on all browsers…let me know if it doesn’t work on yours!

Two shooting stars

2008-08-25T04:01:06Z

08/24/08

Creativity Song

2008-08-23T17:46:00Z

I've taken a bit of time to work an animation for the pilot episode of "Sunflower Express" a childrens show set to air of Bowie public access channel...sometime.

Chapter 3 Page 9

2008-08-21T07:00:00Z

Hey everyone, look! Matt’s back! Who’da thunk it!

CrumbSnatchers at SPX

2008-08-20T15:44:30Z

Click to enlarge

It's coming in October (for SPX) and it is in Previews right now!

PAGE 312
LITTLE FOOT PUBLISHING

Diamond order code: AUG08 4208

CRUMBSNATCHERS GN SRP: $4.95

(it's got a little picture of the cover and everything right up there in the upper left hand corner)

You should convince your store to order it. That would be a great favor to me.

Pop art on pop art

2008-08-20T10:42:48Z

I got the new Barbie catalogue in the mail yesterday (well, my wife did). It's interesting to see how pop culture imitates pop culture. Barbie is now made into Batgirl, Canary, Supergirl, etc. It's no coincidence that Batgirl is the feature on the cover, given the box-office powerwhouse that "Dark Knight"is. My favorite part of the catalogue are the little catch lines, like "Every collection deserves a little more Pow, and a whole lot of Wow." Indeed! But I think even the toymaker realizes you can over-sex a product. Take page 3: They threw in the two little tikes in there probably to say, "Hey, here's something for you little 'uns!" Barbie superhero midgets!" Just kidding. It is ridiculous looking, though.

New books for SPX

2008-08-18T18:58:38Z

The Small Press Expo is just around the corner. Members of the D.C. Conspiracy are busy putting the final touches on several projects to premiere them at the show. Here's what you'll find at this year's SPX from the DCC:

A Moment of Clarity Volume 1: The Big Boss on Level 10 (2nd edition): Eleven year old Johnny's got two big problems at the beginning of his sixth grade year: the school bully Tyler won't leave him alone, and he's got a big crush on the new girl in town, Sarah. How can he attract the one, and make the other one go away?

A Moment of Clarity Volume 2: Candynomics, Chapters 1, 2, & 3: Johnny's plans to save up his allowance for a present for Sarah are put on hold as his family goes through a financial crisis. Instead of giving up, Johnny decides to earn the money -- by selling sour gumballs in his school's thriving black market for candy. But he's not the only player in this gumball game...

Clearance Sales and strappie sandals! Girl Ninja is a stylish, energetic character who roams the mall in search of demons and designer clothes. At the same time, her Kunoichi (female ninja) training keeps her ever poised for the first signs of evil or injustice. This keen sense is only overpowered by the naive feminine side of her modern desire and passion for clothes, shoes, nails, handbags, and anything under the Dolce and Gabbana sun. Along the way, she runs into an assortment of strange characters with their own tribal ninja skills. Friend or foe, she’ll fight to defend her mall, her style, and her life in this Mange-style fighting comedy.

Animal Stew #2, compiles 20 installments of Matt Dembicki's tongue-in-cheek comic strip pertaining to odd animal stories. It's tasty!

Frank Naif brings you Super Secret Bungling and Crookery, a collection of his witty Web comic on national security and politics, in general. Who says our government is broke? It's a coffer of humor!

Some rubber bands

2008-08-18T04:01:10Z

08/17/08

Chapter 3 Page 08

2008-08-14T07:00:00Z

Ashley’s still got a lot to learn…yes, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, but he has to know who’s feeding him for it to work. Otherwise, to him, it’s just free food.

Fall Festivals!

2008-08-12T20:18:42Z

I will be participating in the 30th Annual
Adams Morgan Day Festival
Sunday, September 14th
Belmont Road between Columbia Rd and 18th Street
10am to 7pm
For details, visit:
www.adamsmorgandayfestival.com

I will also be participating in the
Capitol Hill Barracks Row Festival
Saturday, September 27th
8th Street, SE between E and I Streets
(500-700 blocks of 8th ST, SE)
11am to 5pm
www.barracksrow.org

There will be food and music and fun at both of these great events!
I'll see you there!

New 'Animal Stew' book

2008-08-12T10:19:27Z

'Animal Stew' #2, compiling 20 installments on my tongue-in-cheek comic strip pertaining to odd animal stories, will premiere at the Small Press Expo in October. Below is a glimpse of the cover.

Dremo Image

2008-08-11T14:00:01Z

Click to enlarge

An image from an upcoming DCC project.

It's not raining

2008-08-11T04:01:08Z

08/10/08

ComicPress Manager 1.0 is live!

2008-08-08T22:11:51Z

After a few long months of learning how to write a proper WordPress plugin, and then running smack into the brick walls that ISPs put up by not compiling PHP in the exact same way that I do ;), I can now proudly announce that ComicPress Manager has reached its first stable release at version 1.0! Since 0.9.5 it’s been primarily bug fixes, performance improvements, and a few new smaller tools, like the Status tab and the ability to change the date format of an uploaded file from one to another. Download and install version 1.0 (which I highly recommend that everyone do), leave a comment on the forums or on here, and enjoy.

Something new for 'Spadefoot'

2008-08-08T03:56:17Z

The run on the Web comic Spadefoot is done. So now I'm trying something a little different. All 84 installments of the sci-fi/fantasy tale about a reluctant space frog hero who battles all sorts of crazy creatures to topple the evil emperor, a space salamander called Hellbender, are available in an easy-to-read book format at www.wowio.com for FREE. (You can see it online for free; if you wanna download it for some unknown reason, it's $4.)

Anyway, Alterna Comics may publish a print version of the book if we hit a certain target for unique hits. So, I'd appreciate your support if you check out the book at the following link:
http://www.wowio.com/users/product.asp?BookId=5180

If anything, read the last few pages. I mocked up some authentic comic ads from the '60s and '70s that'll bring tears to you old timers and wonderment to you younger 'uns! And if you like it, please pass on the word. It's all about grassroots networking.

Thanks for your support!

Here's an original color version of the character design for Spadefoot and Joubert done by James West circa 2004 (I think).

And here's the certificate from the Small Press Syndicate naming 'Spadefoot' the 2007 Syndie Award for Best Web Comic! It's not a large group, like 30 members or so, but I've very proud of the award. It means a lot coming from a close group of creators.

Chapter 3 Page 7

2008-08-07T07:00:00Z

Ack! Busy again, this time with redesigning the cover for Volume 1!

New 'Animal Stew' strip

2008-08-06T16:50:22Z

Here's a new one based on a story from here in the D.C. area. It's a good one. I think this strip gives me the 20 I need to do a new Animal Stew mini-comic, which I hope to have for the Small Press Expo in October.

These things I've done

2008-08-04T04:01:10Z

08/03/08

'Liquid Revolver' redeux

2008-08-02T19:52:20Z

I redid the cover for the Liquid Revolver graphic novel I'm working on. Using the negative space as I did with the previous version made it really difficult to color. So I redrew it much tighter, darker. Anyway, here it is.

'Liquid Revolver' cover

2008-08-02T19:50:04Z

I redid the cover. Using the negative space as I did with the previous version made it really difficult to color. So I redrew it much tighter, darker. Anyway, here it is.

ComicPress Manager 0.9.8 and site performance upgrades!

2008-08-01T15:19:05Z

So for those who like testing new things, I have a beta build of ComicPress Manager 0.9.8 available. There’s a bunch of new features and some improved performance:

The CPM config is now broken out into a separate file, comicpress_manager_config.php.
The main ComicPress Manager code now only loads into memory when you’re in the Admin part of WordPress, so you’ll no longer be loading ~100K of PHP code on your main comic site. Big performance boost.
The ComicPress Website’s RSS feed now appears in your Dashboard.
You can now get a quick status check on your site to make sure you have posts for your comic files, comic files for your posts, and thumbnails for everything that should have thumbnails. It’s very basic now, I’ll add more to it as folks start to use it and make suggestions.
(for uploads only for now) If you’re using one date naming scheme (ex: Ymd) and want to convert to another scheme on upload (ex: Y-m-d), you can specify the original scheme in the upload dialog. Very alpha, use with caution. I’ll get it working for imports shortly.

Download it here and try it out. I’d like this to also be the official feature freeze for ComicPress Manager for 1.0. So no more features for now, just bug fixes.

Additionally, I now have a phone that can surf the web (no, it’s not an iPhone, but I use a WebKit-based browser). So I’ve been working to improve the usability and speed of the site on mobile devices, and regular desktop/laptop-based viewers will see a bit of a download speed boost — I’ve been able to trim about 50K from each page load.

Finally, the Weblog Tools WordPress Plugin competition has started, so go vote for ComicPress Manager!

Flier

2008-08-01T07:45:00Z

It's been a while since I've designed a flier, so I wanted to make this one good. My friend Jack, who plays bass for the College Park band The Summary asked me to draw something for their next gig. I agreed to. If you're in College Park August 8th, try to check out the show.
Oh yeah, this one I sketched in pencil and inked digitally with my wacom. Here's the original sketch.

Chapter 3 Page 6

2008-07-31T07:00:00Z

Oops, I was off on vacation and forgot to put something here. Hope you’re enjoying your summer!

Naked Bush

2008-07-30T09:52:00Z

I'll write something about this cartoon later. It's 5am and I work tomorrow.

*Edit - 07/30/08 12:26pm*

I'm at work now, and I'm pissed, but I don't want to talk about it. I want to talk about this cartoon. This is my favorite version of Bush to date. Thank god I got a good one in, because there's precious little time to do him anymore. Mike Luckovich draws my favorite Bush. He small and clueless (I just spent ten minutes trying to write a sentence explaining why I like Luckovich's Bush, but my brain's not working today. There's more to it, I'm just having trouble expressing it).

The lettering is a custom font I created using the wonderful free tools available at fontstruct.com It was a pain to make and still needs work, but its worth it to avoid handwriting everything.

I cheated on the oval office, and my wacom made it possible. I pulled a photo into photshop and traced the outlines on a separate layer, removed the photo and completed the shading freehand. Now you know my dirty secret.

Rodriguez on the Road

2008-07-30T02:33:44Z

D.C. Conspirator and 2008 Eisner nominee Jason Rodriguez drove from D.C. to San Diego for the annual Comic-Con, the largest comics-related convention in the U.S. Along the way, he stopped at various comic shops and chatted with shop owners, fans and even some local comic creators. He blogged about it for the DCist. Check out the series. It's thoughtful and funny. A good read.

My roadtrip/SDCC reports and pics

2008-07-29T20:33:47Z

3,311 miles in 9 days plus five days at Comic-Con. And I have pictures. And I have articles.

My heart stood still

2008-07-28T04:01:05Z

07/28/08

Podcast interview

2008-07-25T16:37:12Z

I get nervous doing recorded interviews for broadcast. I'm a low-talker and sometimes I mumble and ramble. But I think a new interview with the Fairfax County Library Director came out pretty good. It covers a lotta ground! Wanna hear it?

RSS is super

2008-07-25T02:19:00Z

I've finally understand Really Simple Syndication and have started subscribing to my favorite bloggers' feeds through Google Reader. Realizing how much I enjoy aggregating all my favorite internet material prompted me to make the luxury available to anyone who reads my blog. The folks at www.feedburner.com made creating an RSS feed easy and even provided a sweet little link icon. Look at it, over there, on the left side of the page.
Anyhow, if you enjoy the pleasures of aggregation, now you can subscribe to El Blogo de Mike O.

Chapter 3 Page 5

2008-07-24T07:00:00Z

Not much of an entry this week. I’m at a big convention with lots of nerdy folks. There’s lots of presentations and free stuff. And no, it’s not San Diego Comic Con. More comic related stuff next week!

wacom-generated editorial cartoon 3

2008-07-23T08:13:00Z

I'm getting better with the wacom, faster at least. Today's cartoon comes from an idea I picked up reading August J. Pollak's blog. He's smarter than me and did a better cartoon on the subject. I got to draw a dude barfing though, and that's probably the best side-view of an apartment building I've ever done.

Futuristic Ships from the Past

2008-07-22T19:30:07Z

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center near Washington Dulles International Airport is by far what the Smithsonia Air and Space Museum should be like. If you're in D.C., skip that moth-eaten museum at the Mall and treat yourself to a visit to the Udvar-Hazy. It's a massive hangar with hundreds of planes (commercial and military), helicopters, rockets and even a space shuttle. One of my favorite parts of the exhibit is this little corner in the space section devoted to science fiction. It has toys from the '30s through '80s as well as neat, old drawings of futuristic space ships. I couldn't resist taking a few photos and posting them (I think these came from Buck Rodgers and Flash Gordon cartoons).

The sound of jets overhead

2008-07-21T04:01:07Z

07/21/08

Okay, I'm blogging from...

2008-07-20T17:42:00Z

Okay, I'm blogging from the couch right now. So, we're gonna take this out a little bit on the Internet once we get up frim the couch and look on the Internet. And, go look at my blog, do a demonstration on it. How great it is to blog just like talking to your phone. All right, see you there. listen

Powered by Jott

Sketches from next project

2008-07-18T13:27:43Z

Below are a few sketches for a project I'm working on with Carol. I've got a few other things to finish up before we get started (Trickster, Spadefoot trade and Liquid Revolver), but we'll get rolling right after those are done.

New Art!

2008-07-17T20:50:25Z

A few NEW creations of mine will be on display around town...

Be sure to check out Art Outlet and Art Whino's FLIK event and DC Arts Center's Wall Mountables show.

Chapter 3 Page 4

2008-07-17T07:00:00Z

So the new website design is up! Let me know what you think, or if you find any bugs! I tested it pretty thoroughly (well, not on IE7, so if there’s problems there, please let me know). I’ve also implemented some extra caching bits above and beyond what WP-Cache2 and APC can do alone, so the site should be lightning fast.

'Trickster' cover

2008-07-17T01:25:54Z

Behold, the cover to the Trickster anthology! Illustrator/cartoonist Peter Kuper (Spy v. Spy, World War III Illustrated, Stop Forgetting to Remember) generously provided the illustration and comic book writer/artist Rafer Roberts (Plastic Farm) rendered the design and logo.

wacom-generated editorial cartoon 2

2008-07-16T06:12:00Z

Here's my second digitally-drawn cartoon. I wanted to do something on Budweiser because I've lately grown fond of the beer and finding out that the company is selling to InBev unexpectedly made me feel as loss of pride. Its a shame we're losing competitive edge in the world economy, but I suppose its years of American arrogance and worldly ignorance coming back to bite us in ole' tuckus. Whatever the case, here's my cartoon.

Art on exhibit at Gilly's

2008-07-14T19:08:52Z

I currently have 3 of my offbeat paintings on display at Gilly's in Rockville.
Stop by for a bottle of fine wine and take a closer look at:
• Second Sight
• Moonlit Players, and
• Coffee Break

Gilly's
2009 Chapman Ave.
Rockville, MD 20852
301-770-5515

Umm...It's kinda important...

2008-07-14T04:00:57Z

07/13/08

In all honesty. My health blog. Day 1.

2008-07-11T15:02:15Z

Set up a Health blog which is located HERE so I don't fuck up the DC Conspiracy RSS feed.

7 Fresh Alternatives to the Stale SDCC Photoblog

2008-07-10T17:59:39Z

1. Be a Jedi. Don't blog it. That means in any manner shape or form. Just go ... be. (Highly recommended)

2. Go, take pictures, print them, show your friends if they ask. Store in attic until someone actually cares.

3. Novel idea: take one picture. Even throw it up on your blog or website. and talk about it. Get into the nuts and bolts of why this pic is so awesome. Instead of the boring old webpage of infinite pics and captions with stuff like, "Me and Warren Ellis" "This is me and Warren Ellis; he who has braved the airborne illnesses of people massed together like rats to join us. I even wore my I Hate It Here tee that I bought back in 1997 that I thought that I'd lost but I didn't and found it just in time for the convention. It's always been my dream to take a picture of me and Warren and now that dream has come true. My next dream involves him doing horrible things to me with his cane."

4. Reinvigorate the fine art of writing in the bathroom stall with cleverness. Caveat: don't write, "Who's Watching the Watchers?" That's just retarded.

5. Invite me next time so I don't get jealous and make the first blog post in like 2 months about how little I want to see your SDCC photoblog.

6. If you really do insist on going to the SDCC and then taking seven hundred flickr pages of pics, try to capture the life of the convention, not the douchebags wearing superhero outfits b/c they're already on everyone else's blog already. Trust me. We see the same asswipes dressed as the Joker and the Batman every year on every blog doing a mock fight in the lobby. Nobody needs to see that. I want to see the look on the face of Joe Comicbook Goob as he finally finds Ed Brubaker's original Captain America notebook, and then the utter dismay of how much it costs and then the slow, wistful turn away down the long row of back issue boxes and taunting plastic wraps.

7. Spend your time at SDCC with the single intention of banging a Wonder Woman. It doesn't matter if she looks more like Thunder Woman b/c your only goal is to bang it out with a Wonder Woman. Hopefully, your subsequent photoblog will consist of pics of Wonder Women, then a brief courtship at the bar, and then a morning after pic as she ties you up with her lasso of Truth and compells you never, ever tell.

Chapter 3 Page 03

2008-07-10T07:00:00Z

So ComicPress Manager 0.9.5 is out. This one’s huge. It has a ton of bug fixes and major UI improvements, and it now supports changing the date format to something other than date(”Y-m-d”). It’s getting real close to a stable 1.0 release, I can feel it.

Also, I entered ComicPress Manager in the WordPress Plugins Competition. The competition looks tough, and it’s probably even tougher for a vertical application like ComicPress Manager — Webcomic management really is one of those things you just have to do a lot of to know what tools and features you need on a regular and not-so-regular basis. Check out my entry post and make some nice comments over there to let the judges know what youall think of this very vertical software.

wacom-generated editorial cartoon

2008-07-09T08:10:00Z

This here is my first go at a cartoon created completely on my computer. I am very happy with the art, because it achieves the sketchy "luckovichian" style I've been striving towards for a while now. It also pisses me off a little that I haven't been able do do this with traditional pen and ink. It means i'm a pussy in the physical world. I wouldn't take risks with pen and ink for fear of the tedious touch-ups and re-dos I'd have to do if I made mistakes. None of that with the wacom tablet--I screw up as much as I want and just erase over whatever's wrong. It's wonderful, but again, an unwanted reminder of my pussyness.

What with that, I'm not sure this cartoon is a good one for the message it sends. I think you have to be too much inside my head to get at the bigger idea I want to portray. Seeing as most viewers aren't telepathic, this cartoon will likely bomb.

Whatever.

Wait...one more thought. Handwriting is a bitch on the wacom.

Janitor sketch

2008-07-08T04:56:00Z

It was something like 3am. I couldn't sleep and went out for a walk around the office building near my house in Fredericksburg. Noticed some lights were on inside. When I walked past the front door I saw a janitor fella squeezing a mop out and getting to work. It was 3am. Thought it was poetic. Sketched a bit before going to bed, and here's what it was.

Falling star

2008-07-07T16:00:57Z

05/18/08

Only human

2008-07-07T16:00:57Z

05/04/08

Certainly there are downsides

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

07/06/08

Everyone who ever loved me

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

06/29/08

Maybe in time

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

06/22/08

As I watched the city recede

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

06/15/08

Tell them you are getting married

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

06/08/08

That part of your life

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

06/01/08

The worst thing in the world

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

05/25/08

How could this be?

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

05/11/08

As I watched the rocketship rise

2008-07-07T16:00:56Z

04/28/08

Exposure, July 3rd

2008-07-05T15:50:32Z

I'll be vending again in the shadows of the DC goth nightclub scene at...

EXPOSURE
July 3rd
http://www.exposure-dc.com/

What can I say? My offbeat blacklight-reactive artwork feels at home among goths, mods, and rivet heads.
With the 4th of July holiday the next day, there's no excuse not to come out and partake of the decadence.

/X\(..)/X\

Sign-off Animaton

2008-07-05T15:48:07Z

A "sign-off sequence" is the little clip you see at the end of a TV show that tells you the production company and I just finished animating one for Verbal Substance.

You can check it out here...
http://arty4ever.com/animation/VSSignoff.html

Boy MonsterI

2008-07-03T08:21:00Z

I have not posted much lately, but that's ok because no one reads my blog anyway. Ha ha. But I just received a Wacom Intuos3 drawing tablet from the mailman today and got to draw something directly on my computer. No pencil ink eraser, just me and photoshop. Made me figure that not posting art I made and like on the computer is very lazy. No scanning to do. Just save the file for web and upload it. So here it is. A creepy baby sketch for my comic book thats coming, Boy Monster.

-O.