The idea behind the contest was to “show your memories with your favorite Chuck Jones characters”. Meaning, post a photo and say something about Chuck and your favorite character, whether it be Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, etc. Grand prize was $1,000 cash, $5,000 to spend on Chuck Jones art and a trip to a VIP event at the gallery in San Diego.

Brickfish, the site managing the contest, provided a bunch of stock backgrounds and character art for people to mix and match and make their own creations. I saw this as an opportunity to create something original. Thinking about Looney Tunes takes me back to days of getting up on a Saturday morning and sitting in front of cartoons with a bowl of cereal. At least until the crap cartoons came on around noon, anyway.

I created a scene of me and a long-eared friend sitting in front of the tube, watching “What’s Opera, Doc?” as the sun comes up. I have to say I was pretty proud of it. I’d never drawn Bugs before (that I can remember), even if it was from behind.

I posted the art, along with a blurb about what Chuck’s work has meant to me. To my delight, Craig Kausen (Chuck’s grandson, who also runs the gallery) liked my entry and actually retweeted it several times over the length of the contest. He said I was the only one, as far as he knew, that had created a 100% original piece of artwork.

The contest actually ran quite a long time, so the suspense was a killer. It finally ended in early December, and the judging seemed to drag on equally long. Then on December 18th, I got an email from Brickfish that I’d been selected as Runner Up! Of course, I’d have preferred grand prize, but to be second out of over 1,300 entries is nothing to sneeze at either. I still get $250 cash and $2,500 to spend on artwork. I’m hoping I can get at least one good piece worthy of passing down to my daughter.

Not sure when I’ll actually receive the prize, but I’m thinking of using the money to get an Amazon Kindle. Then again, part of me feels I owe it to Chuck to buy something art-related with it. Still debating.

At any rate, big thanks to the gallery and Craig for the opportunity and for helping keep Chuck’s legacy alive. Hopefully someday I can repay the favor.

Thanks, Chuck.

When the announcement was made that Disney had bought Marvel for four BILLION dollars, it was pretty big news. It remains to be seen how franchises from both companies may intermingle with each other, but there have been tons of great artwork and cartoons based on some interesting possibilities. Here’s my entry.

This was tons of fun to draw, as you might imagine. Took me three evenings, as my time is still stretched pretty thin. And I even posted it without my usual shading or highlights, but I think it came out okay. I may update it later with some embellishments, but wanted to get it out there.

This strip represents (hopefully) the end of almost a four-month hiatus from the strip. I had to take a break from it for a while, as I was getting swamped with freelance web work, my wife is pregnant and we were trying to buy a house. All that rolled together meant zero time for drawin’.

I actually wanted to post something way sooner than this, but the hiatus actually drained me of all the confidence I’d built up over the first nine strips. There were many evenings I’d pore over my strip ideas and just completely freeze up when presented with a blank Photoshop canvas. It took a lot to break through that, as I put all this pressure on myself to make this first strip after the break absolutely perfect. In the end I just had to pick an idea and jump off the cliff. This is the end result. Overall I think it’s okay, but lots of things I’d change already. And I’m really annoyed that it took me four days to finish, as I only had small chunks of time here and there.

At any rate, this strip is about IKEA’s recent font change on their website and in their catalogs. Font snobs everywhere are going absolutely apeshit over what they consider to be an utter betrayal of IKEA’s design standards. There’s even a petition. But at the end of the day, it’s just a font. I don’t think it’s an improvement, but it won’t stop me from going to IKEA.

I recently posted a thread to the Webcomics.com forum, in which I asked for pointers/advice on time management and staying motivated. Mostly, the responses were positive, and a couple were pretty helpful. Some folks, however, suggested that if I were truly serious about doing a strip, I’d make time for it no matter what, forsaking everything else in my life. Thanks, but frankly that’s not an option. Especially as I’ll be a new parent within the next month or so.

One thing I’m going to try to do is more sketching on a regular basis. Normally at work, I’ll heat up my lunch and eat it at my desk. And normally I’m still working throughout and “lunch” only lasts as long as it takes to eat. So I’m making a conscious effort to step away from my desk for lunch and try to do some sketching. My first day of trying this was fairly successful (sketches below).

Right now I’m trying to come up with character designs for at least two recurring characters for the strip. There won’t be any real continuity or back-story for them right now; I just need to have a couple stock characters I can draw quickly, in strips where I’m otherwise not drawing celebrities, etc. I’m also trying to experiment with different styles, too. I don’t want to emulate Penny Arcade or PvP too much, although much is to be learned from those guys. I also am absolutely enamored right now with the style of Dan Schoening (aka, Dapper Dan). His style has a very “animated” feel, but is so clean and fun. Hist latest Ghostbusters pieces are mind-blowing.

So anyhoo, big thanks to everyone that’s been so supportive lately. I really am coming back, I swear

Update 08.14.09, 3:50pm: Scott started up a Ustream today, and based on his tweet, I assumed he’d be discussing yesterday’s events. He explained what had transpired to the chat room and asked if I was in attendance, which I was. He then explained a little better what his comments were based on, and proceeded to give a more in-depth critique of my strips. And it wasn’t mean or snarky, but overall good comments. And I think he genuinely realized how his original “you’re fucked” statement must have sounded. I even recorded it, if anyone needs proof

So yeah, at this point, I think I’m fairly satisfied, even though there are a lot of people out there now that think I’m a giant, thin-skinned douche. I’m just a guy trying to get better at his art on the side and just wanted some feedback. That’s all.

So I’m going to be pretty busy with the day job, plus baby stuff, plus getting in a new house and finding a way to pay for it all

Not sure I’ll be posting a new strip this week, but I already have the new logo sketched, and might Ustream its creation. Follow me on Twitter for any announcements to that effect.

Thanks!

AJ

So last week on her show, Oprah announced a coupon for a free grilled chicken meal at KFC. Not a discount, an entire free meal. Not only that, but you could download and print up to FIVE of these things.

What resulted was lines around the block at KFC stores, and in some cases protests and near-riots, complete with racial overtones. Way to go, Oprah.

Then a couple nights ago, I started seeing KFC commercials running featuring KFC’s president, Roger Eaton (video below). Basically he says they’ve been overwhelmed by the response and that “everyone wants to get the great taste of  our new product.”. Then he goes on to say that they’re not going to be honoring the coupon. But to make it up to everyone, if you want to drag your ass back to a KFC, they’ll give you a rain check for something at a later time. It’s not totally clear yet whether that will be a free meal, a discount, or a spit in the face. Oh, and if that’s not enough, they’ll throw in a free Pepsi for your troubles.

What’s interesting about this is the guy’s attitude. He’s acting as if KFC’s new grilled chicken is the best thing ever and everyone is just excited about trying it. Wrong. You offered FREE FOOD in a down economy with record unemployment. The same thing would’ve happened if you’d been offering your same tired old classic chicken you’ve been serving for the last fifty years.

And who was the genius who thought announcing this offer to millions of people on the Oprah show and letting them download five copies would NOT have posed a potential logistical problem? Hopefully, KFC will handle the rain check fulfillment competently. On one hand, I feel like people are looking a gift horse in the mouth. But on the other, if you’re going to be stupid enough to offer something you can’t deliver, at least do a good job making up for it.

Oh, and anyone think it’s weird that “Kentucky” Fried Chicken is run by a South African? Just weird hearing that accent saying “You Americans sure do love your chicken.”

Update: Great AdAge article about the KFC/Oprah debacle.

So Oprah’s been on Twitter for a little while now, but some are still skeptical as to whether it’s really her doing the posting. Honestly, people like the big ‘O’ are so super-wealthy and removed from reality that they really have no idea what any of this means. I kinda doubt Oprah even knows how to turn a computer on, much less use Twitter.

Still, I suppose it’s possible she could find time to post such Twitterful gems as “no i’m not wearing a weave” and “going on the air right now“. Gracious, how does she do it?

On a side note, I played around with Google Sketchup during the making of this strip. For some reason, drawing stairs is a particular hurdle for me. Something about the proportions and perspective. Even in a cartoon, they need to look and act like stairs.

I was in Krishna’s Ustream chat the other day and we were talking about possibly using Google Sketchup models for reusable scenery in strips. I thought this was a fascinating idea. I’d played around with Sketchup a little and it seemed simple enough. So I found a model in the 3D Warehouse and started playing. Essentially I just angled it the way I wanted it to look in the strip and exported it as a jpg. Then I imported that into my strip, and after some resizing and transforming, got it in place. Then it was just a matter of inking over it. I think it helped a lot.

I’d love to pursue this more and maybe start doing more background scenery and/or props with 3D models. As long as they look like lineart, I think it could be a helpful tool and give the strip a unique look. Thoughts?