Watch Me While I Work

I’ve entered into a strange new world today, streaming.

http://www.twitch.tv/mccomicker

I had not idea a thing like Twitch existed until last year, and at first I only watched it sporadically. Watching over people play video games, seems kind of stupid, but, it is actually how I prefer to experience video games. I remember fondly countless hours, countless hours, watching my brother play games. And he played a lot of games. One Saturday in particular, we spent 5-6 hours on the couch, me doodling/reading, he murdering one by one all of the inhabitants of Morrowind and taking their possessions to a mudcrab that would buy them at cost. And that’s the entirety of what we did that warm, sunny, 70 degrees outside Saturday afternoon. Good times.

I would play games occasionally. Conker’s Bad Fur Day, Starfox, 30 minutes myself of Morrowind before motion sickness would set in. The week after Halo and the Xbox went on sale was a fairly intensive game time for me. But on the whole, I’d rather watch, a vg voyeur.

But, I’m not streaming myself playing video games. I only play one now, World of Tanks (I used to play Star Trek Online, but meh,) but I’m not exceptional. Very middle of the pack, and who wants to watch that? No, I will be streaming artsy-fartsy stuff. It’ll be all digital for now, I don’t have the set up to stream traditional art endeavors. Also, I don’t have a schedule for it right now, it’ll be a come and go thing, if it’s something you guys like and would want to see consistently, I’ll make a point to set aside time for it. For now, it’ll be mostly random doodles, exploratory projects, commissions if I ever dip my toes into that water.

I don’t know if I can add a widget here on the site to let you know when the show is on, I’ll try to figure that out, but I will tweet about it and throw a notice up on the Facebook page when the time comes. Feel free to stop by, offer compliments, critiques, and suggestions if you feel so inclined.

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A Series of Somewhat Inflammatory Cultural Observances

I say these things, not because I want to be counter-culture or because I am in anyway shape or form a hipster (who I understand to be a person who deliberately doesn’t like a thing because everyone else likes it, I’m not sure, I live in the Mid-West, I don’t think Hipsters have invaded here yet,) but because I have always believed these things, since I was a child.

DC > Marvel

Superman > Batman

Star Trek > Star Wars

Spiderman sucks

Also, I don’t root for the underdog, I like winning, and winners, and I want my arbitrarily decided upon pick to triumph at whatever it is they are competing in. And I don’t support only my prefered franchises. I will go see Episode VII, but I’m much more excited about Star Trek Beyond, even though I got burned on the last two movies. I will continue to watch Marvel movies (as long as there is limited Spiderman involvement, I do really hate that guy,) but I want to be more excited about the DCEU. And the goddamn Batman, screw that guy, he is almost DC’s Spiderman in my estimation.

I’ve been thinking about it more recently, one because I don’t read any current comics, and two, because of that Tarzan trailer. The more I watch the Tarzan trailer, the less I’m excited about BvS. And the less I’m excited about BvS, the less I’m excited about DCEU for obvious reasons, and the MCU because it’s hard to maintain energy for a thing you like only because it’s tangentially related to the thing you actually like.

I feel like I’m getting dangerously old, my likes and dislikes are calcifying, which I blame on the changing nature of the franchises I like, and not on myself for refusing to give alternative interpretations a fair shake. Also, I’m fairly certain I would yell at kids to get off my grass at this point. I’m only 33, I shouldn’t be this stodgy. But there it is. In another three years, after I’ve cried my eyes out at how bad the DC movies will inevitably be and they still haven’t made that John Carter sequel I’ll most likely quit everything and move into a cave.

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Finally, a Trailer I Enjoy, for a Property I Actually Like

 

I completely forgot this was going to be a thing. Now that the trailer is out, I’ve vague recollections of reading about this movie, but I did just watch a terrible animated Tarzan movie not that long ago (even worse than the Disney Tarzan movie, which wouldn’t have been nearly so bad without Phil Collins,) and I think the two just became one in my mind.

But then this shows up!

Tarzan is one of my top five, easy as that. Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan, Superman, the Silver Surfer, and The Shadow, those are the characters I most remember from my childhood, and pretty much in that order of exposure.

What excites me most about this, is that it’s a period piece. The core concept of Tarzan is more than a little stupid, trying to bring that into the modern world, it becomes beyond retarded. Greystoke is English, Jane is American, that’s also a pleasant, though ultimately meaningless change, and hews closer to the books.

The trailer gives me hope, and after the continuing disappointment of the Batman v Superman trailers, I could use it.

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New Experience With an Old Obsession

I always thought my first side project to Merunga would be resurrecting Buster Drake, and to some extent I have, there are five whole new pages I’ve drawn for Drake, but pencils is as far as they’ve come.  I got side tracked.

My current soundtrack is a endless series of Shadow episodes, the same ones I’ve heard at least ten times before. And each time I listen to them, I get the urge to do something pulpy. Not the Shadow, because trademarks, but something in that pulp/gutter fiction vein. I’m also reading an endless series of Shadow novels, so this time I had to chase that dream.

 

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It also felt good to break out my ink pens again. It only took 30 minutes to find them, and five minutes to figure out which ones still had usuable ink, not that many. Art wise, these puppies are coming together in about two hours, which I break up into a series of warm-ups, and take a break froms Merunga pages. I’ve yet to scan and letter them, so for now, they’re going nowhere.

But someday they will go somewhere, I know how I want to display them, I’m just not sure where, when, or under what circumstances. Probably need a few more than four and a half completed before those questions are answered.

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This is What I Love/Hate About My New Schedule

It’s a little weird not having anything new going up today, I miss it. In time I’m sure the pain will dull, but for now, I’m not sure. I guess it’s probably standard to have second thoughts when trying something new. Thursday seems so far away.

But, Thursday is 90% complete. I’ll most likely get it wrapped up today and make a start on next Monday’s. Almost a whole week of buffer in a couple of days! And! There’s no reason to stop there, I’ll probably keep drawing tomorrow, and get even more of a buffer built up, which is crazy! That’s one of the things I love about the new schedule.

The other thing I love, is the time I’ve got for other projects now. I can honestly say, I don’t get much satisfaction out of completing something. Partly-done, half-done, mostly-done, I can walk away from anything at any stage and carry zero regret with me. But I absolutely love starting new projects. I built a back porch this summer. Started in May, stalled in June, was fine paying someone to come in and finish it for me in July, or just set out some lawn chairs on our mud-patch, I woulda been happy either way. But then, I thought of this new project I wanted to start, and it’s going to be amazing, but, needed to finish the porch first, so that finally got done

I do know how Merunga is going to end, but there’s no completion date on it. I’ve got tentative plans for years to come. Barring a complete collapse of the internet, it’ll be around for the foreseeable future, I love this strip, it’s just about everything I wanted it to be, but it’s not the only story I want to tell. Moving to two pages/week is opening up time for some of those other stories, and that has me literally giddy with excitement. I’m working on a much improved version of Buster Drake, I’ve got a couple of graphic-novelly projects that I could get a start on now, and not fall behind on other commitments. I’ve got time to disc-golf again, I’ve got time to dig holes, pretty exciting stuff. I’m looking forward to sharing some more stories, more art, more ideas.

 

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