Angel

An angel over the ocean holding back a storm.


I don't believe in religion but I've always liked the concept of angels. I imagine if they were real, this is the kind of thing they'd do.

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Flash Forward (ABC)

I haven't had a chance to write a post about 'FlashForward' yet. I've watched the pilot episode twice now and my initial reaction is that it's probably one of the top 5 shows on television. That might change as the season progresses, or it may get even better.

The easiest show to compare it to is LOST. Everything from the opening scene (the lead character waking up after a terrible incident) to the serial nature of story-telling that's pretty much synonymous with LOST. To drive that argument home there's a bus with an advert for LOST, an Oceanic Airlines billboard and even a few actors who starred in LOST.

FlashForward does manage to stand apart though. It's overall quality just doesn't stand up to LOST, but name one show that does and I'll be the first to say "You're a fucking liar!".

Most of the characters in FF are interesting and likable. Mark (Joseph Fiennes) and Demetri (John Cho) probably stood out more than anybody in the pilot. I've always kinda been a John Cho fan so it wasn't that hard to find the character likable for me. The one character I didn't like was the babysitter.

I'm really looking forward to watching this show on a weekly basis. After the pilot aired last Thursday they played an extended preview of the season that looked like it's gonna be a fucking awesome show. If you haven't seen it you should definitely check it out on Hulu or ABC.com.

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Slylock Fox

If you live in America and you don't know who Slylock Fox is, you were never a child... (which means you're probably evil...


If you think there are any flaws in my logic you should be warned - I honed my detective skills by reading (and even sometimes solving) the Slylock Fox mysteries in the Sunday funnies.

On another note: I've got an urge all of a sudden to do one of those "find 6 things different" pictures.

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NFL Monday Night Football Picks Sept 28

Almost forgot about this. Here's the last pick of September:

Carolina at Dallas

I hate when they schedule boring one-sided games for Monday Night Football.

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Count Duckula

Haha! Get it? This is the colored and lettered version of the Count Duckula piece from this post.


I realized, as I was finishing this, that it's daytime in the picture... You're probably thinking "But he's a Vampire!!" I know... I just don't give a fuck. At least not enough to go back and fix it.

I know the joke is bad. I'm really ashamed of myself, I promise. But the dude doesn't have any fucking pants on and the fact that he doesn't seem to have a thingy was fairly fucking prominent in every reference pic I looked at. Let's just say it's the first think that jumped out at me... or didn't.

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The Funny Little Man Remastered (Now in Technicolor)

Here is the updated version of the Funny Little Man sketch.


The colors were done with watercolors... but digital watercolors, so it's not really watercolors. Look, I don't know how the fuck it works, alright?

And just a reminder - for those that didn't know - if you click on any of the images on the blog, you'll see the larger version.

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Count Duckula Pencils

This is the rough sketch of something I'm working on for the PencilJack weekly sketch group. His name is Count Duckula.


Apparently he's an old British cartoon character. I had never heard of him before.

These are the rough pencils. I'll post the digital colors (complete with lettering) in a little while. Probably right after I post the colors for the Funny Little Man piece.

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NFL Picks Sept 27

Unless they added an extra week to the month without telling me, This is my last list of picks for September... (They didn't, did they?)

San Francisco at Minnesota

Atlanta at New England

Tennessee at NY Jets

New Orleans at Buffalo

Chicago at Seattle

Miami at San Diego

Indianapolis at Arizona

-- We know what the Vikings have, we'll find out today what the 49ers have.

-- Any other week I would go with Atlanta, but I can't see the Patriots losing two in a row.

-- The Jets are on a roll right now.

-- The Saints are on a roll too.

-- Even without Urlacher I'm picking the Bears.

-- Both the Dolphins and the Chargers need a win this week. Unfortunately for the Dolphins... they suck!

-- Manning will remain undefeated for another week.

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Funny Little Man

This is a sketch of a funny little man I did the other day.


It was drawn digitally. I've got a digital watercolor version I'll post later.

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NCAA Football Picks Sept 26

Once again, Virginia Tech is in the biggest game of the week.

No. 22 North Carolina at Georgia Tech

Wake Forest at Boston College

No. 6 California at Oregon

No. 9 Miami (FL) at No. 11 Virginia Tech

No. 15 TCU at Clemson

Pittsburgh at North Carolina State

Texas Tech at No. 17 Houston

-- This'll be UNC's first big test of the season. I think they'll do fine.

-- BC let me down last time I picked them. Here's hoping they can make up for it :)

-- Miami and Va Tech are not only two of the top schools in the nation, they're also conference rivals! It's gonna be a great game no matter what.

-- When I picked Clemson to win, they lost. When I picked them to lose, they won! But I stand by my original sentiment, that they're better than a lot of people are giving them credit for, so I'm picking them to upset TCU.

-- I already feel like the NC State pick is gonna come back to bite me and I haven't even published the damn post yet...

-- Houston is ranked #17? Are you serious? Because they beat an Oklahoma State team that was insanely over-ranked? I seriously can't believe we're actually calling Texas Tech the underdog in this game.

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NCAA Football Picks Sept 24

The NCAA doesn't usually schedule very good games for the Thursday Night match-ups, but this should be a good one.

No. 4 Mississippi at South Carolina

South Carolina is a school that while it's not a perennial contender for the National Title, week to week it's a school you can't count out regardless of who they're playing.

That being said, I'm going with the odds on favorite for this game. THEY'RE RANKED NO. 4!!

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What's Going On... 1st edition

It's time for a new segment called 'What's Going On...'!

Topics: Morning shows, the Heroes season premier, Monday Night Football, The Late Show and the goddamn Angels...

________________________________________

Morning Show - I don't know which show is worse, Morning Joe or Fox & Friends. It's way too early in the morning for this non-stop politics garbage. Can't these people find a nice story about a cat that gave birth to 20 kittens?

Heroes - I liked the season premier for the most part. The Nathan/Sylar thing is gonna be interesting and the Parkman/Sylar thread was one of the highlights from last night's episode.

Peter is still my favorite character. I love the fact that he's actually doing the "super hero" thing in a realistic way. The best part of the premier was his fight with Ray Park's character.

Speaking of Ray Park... He was awesome. It's nice to see him play a character that actually talks for a change. The whole carnival gang was interesting and I'm actually looking forward to where it's going.

Some of the things I didn't like where pretty much every scene Claire was in. I can't say enough how much I hate her whole story-line. I don't really hate the character though, just the constantly ridiculous and usually pointless plot-lines.

I also noticed they didn't show Mohinder at all...

Monday Night Football - I think the fact that the Colts scored 27 points despite only having the ball for 15 minutes the whole game says a lot about Manning and the Colts' offense. It also says a lot about the Dolphins' defense.
(I picked the Colts in my football picks, btw)

The Late Show - Did Obama really need the whole hour with Letterman?

The goddamn Angels - I'm tired of this goddamn Yankees/Angels thing. TIRED!

I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but I really hope the Red Sox beat the Angels in the ALDS. I don't wanna see the Yankees have to face the fucking Angels in the ALCS. Besides... wouldn't a Yankees/Red Sox match-up to see who goes to the World Series be 100x more exciting?

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NFL Monday Night Football Pick Sept

I don't see Miami beating the Colts.

Indianapolis at Miami

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NFL Picks Sept 20

Before I get to my NFL picks this week, I wanna take a minute to brag about how awesome I am at this :p Actually, it's not so much that I'm good at this. It's more that I just had a great day in college picks yesterday. I went 6-1 (goddamn Boston College*) bringing my season totals, so far, up to 21-11.

Now that that's out of the way... on to some fucking picks! (winners in green)

Carolina at Atlanta

Cincinnati at Green Bay

New England at NY Jets

New Orleans at Philadelphia

Arizona at Jacksonville

Seattle at San Francisco

Pittsburgh at Chicago

Baltimore at San Diego

NY Giants at Dallas

--Atlanta has one of the best young QBs in the league. If Carolina doesn't look any better than last week, I might now pick their games for a while.

--The game is in Green Bay. The Bengals are in the same boat as Carolina as far as picking their games.

--The Jets are gonna play better than most people might think... that said, I'm still picking the Patriots.

--Don't expect Philly to miss a step with McNabb out. The real question for this game is "How will the Eagles defense stack up against a strong Saints offense?"

--Both of these teams are subject to the same fate as Carolina and Cincinnati. One or the other has to win big.

--Singletary is shaping up to be one hell of a coach. Maybe even as good as he was a player.

--The Bears are yet another team in the "Do something or get out" camp. I almost didn't even bother picking this game.

--I'm looking forward to seeing how LT and the Chargers do today.

--Giants. Fuck the Cowboys.


* The irony of the Boston College remark is that in this post** I praised Clemson as a team that would surprise a lot of people. Maybe I should've stuck to my guns?

** The daily double of irony - I picked Clemson to beat the Yellow Jackets in that post for the reasons mentioned above and they lost! When I said they'd surprise a lot of people I didn't mean me!

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The Saber Master

I like this dude. I'm gonna try to do a few more sketches of him as soon as I get a chance.


This is another one where I just kinda started drawing and it ended up being this. I might actually use this character in the fantasy comic I've been working on in my spare time.

I'll definitely go back and flesh out that mask - add details etc.

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Character Sketch

I loved almost everything about this except the pose.


I just started drawing with no clear idea what it was gonna be. The lines turned out great, and I love the "style" but the pose is fucking horrible.

Maybe next time...

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The Philosophy Of Untelevised

My personal opinion of our current political atmosphere can pretty much be summed up in one rhetorical question: "Jesus Fucking Christ what the fuck is wrong with you people?!"


Before I go any further I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that you can CLICK HERE and read all my wonderful political/social comic strips.

Now that that's out of the way... Jesus Fucking Christ what the fuck is wrong with you people?!"

Was there a secret prophecy buried somewhere deep within the works of Nostradamus that warned us of the impending fucking ignorance of the human race? Did he know the world would be overrun by babbling morons that shout the first thing that pops into their heads?

If you ask me he was the babbling moron of his time, shouting incoherently hoping that someone in the next 500 fucking years would be able to figure out just what the fuck he was talking about.

In another 500 years, will we have figured out how providing affordable health care to the less fortunate is such an "evil" thing? Especially in the eyes of a society who's predominate religion of choice centers around a messiah who went from village to village healing the sick... Just stop and think about that for a minute.

I would get into czars and death panels and Glenn Beck and all that fun stuff, but that might spoil the fun of future installments of Untelevised.

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NCAA Football Picks Sept 19

From here on out we're gonna slowly start to see more and more solid match-ups each week. (Winners in Green)

Boston College at Clemson

Tennessee at No. 1 Florida

No. 19 Nebraska at No. 13 Virginia Tech

Michigan State at Notre Dame

Florida State at No. 7 Brigham Young

West Virginia at Auburn

Texas Tech at No. 2 Texas

**UPDATED** (click read more to see my smartass update to this post)


The BC/Clemson game may not register on the national scale but it's a big game for the ACC - especially for BC.

--I'm picking Florida but don't count Tennessee out. Their new coach may have shot his foot off by talking smack, or he might have given his team the energy they need.

--Va Tech is one of the few schools that didn't just schedule a bunch of meaningless games and they're better off for it. Plus they're playing at home. Lane Stadium is one of the toughest places to play period.

--Notre Dame is coming off a big lass last week and now they have to play a team that's beat them five straight times. It's a tough must win game for them.

--BYU is a fluke. There, I said it. They barely beat Oklahoma by one point after OU's starting QB left the game with an injured shoulder. Then they beat the shit out of a no-name school and everybody used it as an excuse to bump them up to #7 in the nation.

FSU, on the other hand, was knocked out of the Top 25 all together after losing a very close game to Miami...

I'd be willing to bet most people buying into this bullshit believe BYU has a chance in hell of winning this game - but I don't.

--WVU and Auburn are two consistently good schools. This should be a good match-up.

--Nobody is beating Texas this year. At least I don't think so. We'll have a better picture of the Longhorns after this weekend.


**UPDATE** It's looking like I nailed it in my assessment of the FSU/BYU game. It's still very early, but so far FSU is dominating the game.

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Fortune Cookies And My Misfortune

I just opened three fortune cookies. Let's see what they say...

"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains"

"You have an unusual equipment for success. Use it properly."

"You constantly struggle for self-improvement."

I have no idea what you're trying to tell me, Aristotle.


Let's look at each one individually first:

"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains"

First off, I disagree. A bushel of brains seems like it would be vastly more important. Let's say, for the sake of argument, we're trapped in the ruins of an ancient temple (like Indiana Jones! or some other really cool movie set) and the walls are closing in on all sides... spikes are coming out of the ground and all that shit. Would you rather trust your fate to a bushel of brains? Or hope that a handful of patience will see you through?

That's what I thought. So fortune #1 is out.

"You have an unusual equipment for success. Use it properly."

Did Plato just tell me to use my dick to further myself in life?! I kinda like this one, but it's a little vague. Do I fuck my way into political office? Porn? Prostitute myself? That's assuming the fortune does in fact refer to my fortitude and not my bushels of brains...

On to the last one:

"You constantly struggle for self-improvement."

No fucking shit! If I wasn't struggling, I wouldn't be reading a goddamn fortune cookie for advice! I'm just gonna say Socrates here is useless and move on.

Now I'm left with 1/3 the fortune I started with. If there's a meaning to that I don't wanna know what it is. I've got a feeling it has something to do with me fucking rich old widows, postmenopause, to pay the rent... FUCK!

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NCAA Football Picks Sept 17

Here's my pick for the Thursday night game:

NCAA:

No. 14 Georgia Tech at No. 20 Miami

This is a tough call. Miami played great against FSU but there's a rivalry affect that changes the complexion of those match-ups.

I haven't really kept up with the Yellow Jackets this year so I don't know if they've made the necessary improvements over last season to justify picking them tonight. Plus the game is in Miami.

As much as I want to go with the Yellow Jackets, I'm gonna go with my head on this one. If Tech wins, I'm gonna fucking kick myself.

On a side note - even though I'm picking Miami, I want the Yellow Jackets to win. Fuck a bunch of Hurricanes.

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NFL Monday Night Football Picks Sept 14

There are two Monday Night Football games tonight. (as always, winners in green)

NFL:

Buffalo at New England

San Diego at Oakland

I don't really have a lot to say about these games. Even with T.O., the Bills are an average team. It really comes down to how good Brady feels, and with Moss to throw to... even that doesn't really matter.

The Chargers/Raiders game is a joke from start to finish. It's like high school varsity taking on a middle school team.

See you next week, kids! :)

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36 Eyes

I really need to do this exercise more often. I think I focused more on doing different styles with each one than different expressions. The expressions are definitely a weaker area for me.

I usually use other parts of the facial expression to convey emotions in my characters. It's not always effective and I think doing this exercise helped me realize that.

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NFL Picks Sept 13

Week 1 of the NFL looks like it should be pretty good. I'm picking more than a handful of games this week! (winners in green)

NFL Week 1:

Miami at Atlanta

Denver at Cincinnati

Jacksonville at Indianapolis

Dallas at Tampa Bay

Philadelphia at Carolina

Washington at NY Giants

Chicago at Green Bay

Once we get into late October thru November, I might actually like college football better than the NFL. I could go on and on about why I feel that way, but I'll save that for another post (maybe). The reason I bring that up is because I feel the opposite about the start of football season.

On any given Sunday - or Monday, and sometimes Thursday and Saturday - you're almost guaranteed to see several good competitive games. That's because of the scheduling.

In college, the schools get to hand-pick a large portion of their schedule. They usually have to play a set number of games against schools in their conference, but after that, they get to choose. So all the big schools start the year playing small schools you've never heard of so they can get off to a "great" start and not hurt their chances of playing for a national title.

Every team's schedule in the NFL is decided by the league's officials. You play the three other teams in your division twice but after that, the league tells you who you're playing the other 10 games. That means no padding your record or making sure you get off to that "great" start.

It's a better system of governing and maybe the biggest reason the NFL is so much more profitable than NCAA Football - which let's face it, is by far the next best thing.

That's all for this post... I just wanted to get that off my chest.

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College Football Picks Sept 12

College football picks for September 12 (winners in green)

NCAA:

No. 18 Notre Dame at Michigan

UCLA at Tennessee

South Carolina at No. 21 Georgia

No. 3 USC at No. 8 Ohio State

I'm not making many picks this week. There really aren't a lot of good games because everybody is still playing weak schools to pad their record.

I think Georgia is gonna bounce back after last week's loss.

The USC/Ohio State game is by far the biggest game of the week. I think Ohio State will play better than last week (and they looked like shit last week) but even at their best they're no match for USC. The real question for this game is how will Barkley do against a big team.

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Football Picks: NFL Season Kick-Off Edition

The NFL season kicks off tonight! That means my NFL picks also start tonight. There's also one College game tonight as well. Here we go... (as always winners in green)

NFL:

Tennessee at Pittsburgh

NCAA:

Clemson at No. 15 Georgia Tech

I doubt I would bother picking the Steelers/Titans game if it wasn't the season opener. Pittsburgh will more than likely win it pretty easily.

I'm going with the upset in the college game. I think Clemson is gonna surprise a lot of people this year, and I think it's gonna start tonight against Georgia Tech. You can come back tomorrow if I'm wrong and let me know :)

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Review: Goldilock (Zuda)

Goldilock

"Welcome to Planet Goldilock. Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right?"

I remember seeing a trailer for Goldilock on the CBR forums a few months ago and thinking "it looks fucking beautiful!" Now it's on Zuda and the trailer isn't misleading.



Goldilock is about a team that finds the perfect planet - not too hot, not too cold - for human life.

The art is some of the most visually stunning work on Zuda since Azure. The characters and technology look great. The style is unique and the colors do an excellent job of drawing out the mixed emotions you would expect to feel in a real situation like this.

The story serves to introduce a fairly large ensemble of characters while simultaniously introducing us to the story in an engaging way that almost perfectly sets up the (hopefully) first chapter of many.

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College Football Picks September 7

I almost didn't get this up in time :p As always, winners in green:

NCAA:

Miami (FL) at No. 18 Florida State

I think FSU is gonna win easily but I don't expect a blowout. It never is with these two teams.

Florida State's performance tonight should give us a good idea of how they're gonna do this year. If the game is close and it feels like FSU barely made it out with the win I'd expect this year to be about like the last three. On the other hand, if they look good and win easily (as I'm expecting) then consider the Seminoles a real championship contender

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Rockstar Yoda

:) Don't ask why because I don't know - I just did it.


I'm holding on to the hi-rez in case I want to ink and color it later.

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SGU Tamara Johansen

For those that don't know, I'm a huge Stargate fan. The newest Stargate series, Stargate Universe premiers in about a month. This is 1st Lt. Tamara Johansen - one of the main characters.

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College Football Picks Week 1

Well I'm 2-1 after Thursday night's games... the undefeated season didn't last very long :( Here are my picks for the FIRST SATURDAY OF THE SEASON! (Winners in green)

Appalachian State at East Carolina

No. 13 Georgia at No. 9 Oklahoma State

No. 20 Brigham Young vs. No. 3 Oklahoma

No. 5 Alabama vs. No. 7 Virginia Tech

Maryland at No. 12 California

A couple quick notes -

*I'm picking the Appalachian State/East Carolina game because these are small schools that have caught a lot of attention the last few years for playing well and even beating some big schools. There's no doubt that played a part in their decision to play each other. It'll definitely be a close game.

*I'm going with Tech in the Tide/Hokies game not just because they're right down the street, or because they're one of my favorite teams. I'm picking them because I think they're a better team and the game is being played on neutral ground (at the Georgia Dome)

*I was tempted to go with Maryland over California and I still am. I'm pobably the only person that isn't a Maryland fan that thinks they can win.

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Football Picks Kick-Off Edition

It's that time again! Football season officially starts with the first NCAA games of the year tonight! First of all, I wanna remind everybody of my winning record last season - Found HERE! A lot to explain abuot the changed format, but first - SOME PICKS! (Winners in green)

NCAA September 3, 2009

South Carolina at North Carolina State

No. 16 Oregon at No. 14 Boise State

Utah State at No. 19 Utah

Last year I generally tried to pick the games I thought would be the closest. For college that meant mostly games between Top 25 teams, and occassionally teams that were lingering just outside the top 25. That probably won't change this year.

The same thing goes for the NFL. I try to pick the best games as opposed to a "give me" pick like say the Colts over Oakland... It makes it a lot more interesting if the winner isn't a foregone conclusion.

The exception to this rule is Monday Night Football or situations where there's a Thursday night game (like Thanksgiving)

The biggest change this year is that I won't be loading 20+ picks into a single post each week. Instead of trying to organize a bigger post every week I'm just gonna put the picks for each day in their own post... like this one - These are the picks for games played on Thursday night.

The other change is the way I keep track of my total. Last year I had a widget in the sidebar that listed my overall record plus my weekly record. I just don't feel like doing all of that when I've got so much more important shit to do - like working on Star Stream and another "TOP SECRET" webcomic project that I'm not ready to reveal yet ;)

What I'll do this year is just add an "Overall Total" widget in the sidebar and leave it at that.

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