Fall Cleaning: A Treasure Trove of Comics

For various reasons, I needed to do some research into my own career, and therefore dug through the hundreds (or more!) of original comic strips that I have drawn over the years. What a delight! It was great seeing strips that I haven't thought of in a while, and seeing the originals of some favorites, and totally awesome to find some strips that for some reason or another were never finished or published!

Okay, you're thinking that maybe they were rubbish, if I never got around to drawing or finishing them, and truth be told, I thought the same thing. Then again, you probably don't know me like I know myself. :0) I try to hide the fact that I make mistakes on occassion, and that I can't draw everything no matter how hard I try, and especially that I can sometimes get terribly disorganised... a state that is very hard to recover from.

So... if I didn't finish drawing a strip, it was probably because I got swamped with other projects, or was moving house, or something earth-shattering like that. It is entirely possible that I could have forgotten I was in the middle of a strip. Of course, it's also entirely possible that at the time I found the strip to be challenging, or that at that moment I did think it was rubbish. Who knows?



What I can say is that finding them now I really like them! Nostalgia? Possibly. Change of heart? Probably. I'll leave you to judge whether they are good or not. I've finished The Inquiring Minds strip and colored it, even though the original was a mess of smeared ink and random notes. The Sunday Knight and Day I just redrew it neater, but it is far from finished, but worth a read. The Knight and Day daily was finished, but never published for some reason. I truly think it was just lost in the shuffle. Then again, this was from a time when I was trying to figure out if I should pursue The Inquiring Minds, Knight and Day, or both. A tough time for me, mentally.



There was some other stuff, but these ar ethe strips I thought worth sharing, and I am pretty sure that there are no more 'lost' strips to share. Knight and Day and The Inquiring Minds are now all caught up, discrepancies in number and continuity repaired, and all is well... except that I really need to find time to draw some new stuff and to finish The Ghost Pirate Skeletons of Three Craters Lake!

But, another big deadline looms, and there are last minute changes to the beautiful magazine cover I am illustrating, so new strips will have to wait a few more days. But they are coming! Promise. :0)

All the best, JOHN ;0)

Baltimore Comic-con 2009

Just got back from the Baltimore Comic-con... my first time there as both visitor and exhibitor, although to be honest, as an exhibitor I spent nearly the entire time behind my table. It looked like a terrific show from where I was sitting!

Overall, it was an excellent learning experience. The first day started out slow, and moved to depressing, until it was explained to me that most of the crowd head for the freebies, the big names, and the mainstream stuff first, and then eventually migrate to the independents like myself. Good to know for a first time convention go-er! And it was true! The afternoon picked up quite nicely, and Sunday went very well. Made some great friends, both fans and pros, sold some books, and just had fun altogether. :0)

HappyGlyphs Comics will definitely be doing more shows next year, and we'll be back bigger than ever once we've implemented all that we learned inthe last few days!

Meanwhile, until the coffee hits, and my brain clears, here are some lovely photo high-lights from the show!

The very awesome Leanne and Rod... 2 great talents that work great together! Expect great things from these two!

Check them out at http://www.rodhannah.com/ and http://www.leannehannah.com/



This Lady in Red is an awesome artist and all around great lady. People like her make conventions fun. :0) I'll post name and link as soon as I track her down!

SuperFan Jen showing off the new HappyGlyphs Comics Bag, which made it's debut in Baltimore!

The littlest Art Lover, checking out our most popular print. :0)

The Awesome Matt, who went beyond the call of duty to help me survive 15 hours sitting behind a table!

"Who was that masked man?!" Inside this costume is a great guy who took the time to pose for hundreds of photos, and was nice to everyone who stopped him. And what a costume, huh?

See? Buy a book, get your picture taken, end up on the internet. Fun!

If you were at the show, and especially if you stopped by the table, please comment below. We'd love to hear from you!

Cheers, JOHN :0)

The ABC's of 3D Movies...

Okay, perhaps the title is misleading, but I wanted something catchy. :0)

I went to see the re-release of Toy Storys I & II yesterday, along with a preview of Toy Story III in 3D. Actually, all of the movies were in 3-d, which seems to be a 'fad' again, all these many years later since the first time 3-d became a fad.

A lot of the new movies are either coming out in 3D, or offering a choice of 3D... for an extra cost, of course. Movies are already expensive, but a 3D movie is even more so, which leads me to ask the question, "What do YOU think of 3D movies?"

[Sorry. Poll removed for being ornery]

Personally, I don't care much for them. With Toy Story, the movie is so well done that the figures are often nearly 3D without the 3D. Of course, you HAVE to wear the glasses, so without them, the film becomes blurry in bits, but in standard movie mode, the Toy Story movies are fantastic, so the 3D did not add any value to the movies. With the new Christmas Carol movie coming in 3D, there appear to be a lot of 3D gimmicks... where objects come toward you, or appear to float in front of you.... and these are just that. Gimmicks. Tricks that have been done, and done enough. A 'cute the first time' kind of deal, but not that exciting, really.

All I can think of is that a company like Disney is looking at the big picture, and that 3D is a sterp towards something else... Or maybe just technology for technolgy's sake, to further mankind's knowledge. I can also hope that this is not just a gimmick to edge a few more dollars from movie-goers, and I pray that this is not leading to Virtual Reality. God forbid we have to watch movies in 'immersive environments'! I mean, a small pair of smudgy glasses is bad enough, but if they ever bring out virtual reality movies, I'll have to say 'pass'.

I like going to the movies and watching them on the big screen, and with Pixar's technology, I can enjoy them completely, without the characters 'leaping' off the screen, or me having to miss something while I wipe a stray fingerprint from the left lens.

But that's just me. What do YOU think?

JOHN :0)

What I am listening to? Fish, Communion. Most excellent...
What am I reading? The new Dan Brown book, about symbols. Yawn....