Jacot's Comics and Art Blog

Time...

2011-07-12T23:44:00.001-04:00

Well here it is Tuesday night. At this time I'd usually be posting a new page of Snarky: A Cutting Edge.

Unfortunately that won't be happening this evening. Though I do have some news that I'd like to share.

At the recent Cherry Capital Con Leslie Gauthier, Sara Sowles, Tyler Sowles and Myself though we'd revive a old sketch challenge blog Leslie has been part of for some time. So we've kicked it off, the first challenge is to design a new banner for READY SET DRAW. So today at the good old day job, we had a very large meeting to establish the direction for our department/branch of the MDCH (Michigan Department of Community Health.) This gave me a perfect opportunity to brainstorm ideas for my creation. After a short period of time I have my rough Idea and will post the pencils on the new sketch blog. Oh almost forgot you can find the weekly challenges i submit here - http://readysetdraw.blogspot.com/

Now that that little announcement is out of the way a little more information on Snarky.

Just before Cherry Capital con i was approached by an old schoolmate with a comics project. The best part... it's a paying gig. All my time lately has been dedicated to kicking out this project by the deadline, which is July 19th... one week from today. Once that's kicked out, I'll be finishing up the last 2 pages of Snarky then onto another comics project to get it completed by Detroit Fanfare in September.

So be patient, more work is coming, I'll try to get permission to release some of the paying gigs art give a little sneak peak.

Alright folks well I'll see everyone back here next Tuesday night, with a little blast from the past I'm looking to share.

-Jacot

Cherry Capital Con 2011 Wrap-up

2011-06-28T23:01:00.001-04:00

First thing right off the bat, if you are expecting the next page of The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge it will be arriving late.

Hopefully I will have page 23 finished this weekend and the last page posted next week. This past weekend and having a table at C3 put a damper on the production schedule. This isn't a bad thing I had a great weekend.

Everyone involved with the Cherry Capital Con has done a great job putting together the show. Every year it keeps getting better. It was great seeing so many old friends and meeting quite a few new ones. I'm already looking forward to 2012. Also some plans were set in motion, only plans, but soon hopefully reality... more info coming when I get it.

So what do I have for you this week? Well it's the new print I debuted at C3! (hint: click on the image and it'll open in a new window/tab, it'll be easier to read.)

Once again a big thank you to Michael Akerley, Rob Humphrey, and the entire staff at C3. Keep up the great work, I'll be there every year that C3 happens.

I'm getting back to work... missing these self imposed deadlines is getting to me.

Oh wait... almost forgot.

One person who wasn't hindered by production over the weekend is Ryan Claytor. Ryan has posted his new page for "And then One Day #9" at his website www.elephanteater.com he has a fantastic dream sequence image on this page... well what are you waiting for go check it out!

See everyone back here next Tuesday night,

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XXII

2011-06-21T22:21:00.001-04:00

Here we are again... finally. Here's to hoping I get back on schedule.

Over this past weekend I had a table at the 1 day Summit City Comic Con. I've gotta say it was a really nice show. Zack Cruse organized an amazing show. I got a chance to touch base with some great creators to the likes of Jay Fosgitt, Denver Brubaker, Tony Miello, Brett Pinson, and my neighbor Nate Higley. Almost forgot the impressive road trip crew in that list Jon Gordon, Dean Stahl, Ryan Claytor, an Jason Howard... we packed like sardines into Ryan's vehicle KITT and had at it. Good times... good times. I definitely think this will be one of the highlights of next years con season.

Now for page 22

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

The Cutting Edge pg 1
The Cutting Edge pg 2
The Cutting Edge pg 3
The Cutting Edge pg 4
The Cutting Edge pg 5
The Cutting Edge pg 6
The Cutting Edge pg 7
The Cutting Edge pg 8
The Cutting Edge pg 9
The Cutting Edge pg 10
The Cutting Edge pg 11
The Cutting Edge pg 12
The Cutting Edge pg 13
The Cutting Edge pg 14
The Cutting Edge pg 15
The Cutting Edge pg 16
The Cutting Edge pg 17
The Cutting Edge pg 18
The Cutting Edge pg 19
The Cutting Edge pg 20
The Cutting Edge pg 21

I'm still fighting some editing for page 21, I let it rest for a little bit, went back and gave it another read. I'll leave it as is for right now, but will post the changes soon.

Just a reminder I'll be at the following Convention.

Cherry Capital Con

June 25-26

Grand Traverse Resort

Traverse City, MI

Hopefully I'll get to see some of you readers out there at these great shows, feel free to stop by for witty banter...

Special edition to this weeks post, I've started to do custom sketch cards, for an example here's one I did for fun a Summit City Comic Con this past weekend.

Hopefully I'll have my page done for next Tuesday. If not it may be a little late due to the con weekend. I'll try to snag photos of any sketches I do to share with you for next Tuesday's post

Until then...

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials - Delay

2011-06-07T23:00:00.002-04:00

Sorry about this folks, page 22 will delayed a few days. Fell under the weather and spent plenty 'o time sleeping it off in the sweltering heat.

I'll have the page up sometime this week, I'm also going to have some "changes" to page 21 to post as well. AS it was the page just felt off and full of hiccups that pulls you out of the story. So look for that prior to page 22. Then it'll only be 2 more pages until the final bit.

Check back soon and if not soon then over the weekend for all the updates. I'm trying to get a new print or two done for Summit City and C3 so stay tuned.

Until sometime before next Tuesday...

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XXI

2011-06-02T22:30:00.004-04:00

Welcome back everyone, or for those enjoying this for the first time... welcome (that was anti climactic.) If you'd like scroll down and start reading from the beginning (links to previous pages are below the image, clicking on any links will open them in a new window.) We're getting really close to wrapping up the first issue of "The Cutting Edge" story arc. After taking a read feel free to leave some feedback, I love hearing from all of you.

And now without further ado, here's page 21

But first, I apologize this page would have been up last night however Illustrator crashed as I was completing the very last word balloon... and... I didn't save anything I had done. So Frustrated I put it down for the evening, crashed, then completed the page after the day job and a softball game. Sorry for the delay... Need to upgrade from CS3.

Now, truly without further ado...

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

Just a reminder I'll be at the following Conventions.

Summit City Comic Con

June 18, 2011 10AM-6PM

The Grand Wayne Center

Ft. Wayne, IN

Cherry Capital Con

June 25-26

Grand Traverse Resort

Traverse City, MI

Hopefully I'll get to see some of you readers out there at these great shows, feel free to stop by for witty banter...

Now to work on page 22, only three pages left...

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XX

2011-05-28T23:03:00.002-04:00

Here we are for special installment, trying to get caught back up to finish this thing by the actually 24th week of 2011, so here we go... page 20.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

I now have some convention news in store for everyone. I will be at 2 conventions in the month of June.

First I'll be in Fort Wayne, IN for...

And then the following weekend I'll be in Traverse City, MI at...

June 25-26

Grand Traverse Resort

Traverse City, MI

Hopefully I'll get a chance to see you at these events, I'm hoping to have a new print or two available for these shows. I've got some cookin', it should be worth it...

Back off to work on Tuesdays page...

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XIX

2011-05-24T23:07:00.001-04:00

Well now... it looks like I'm a little behind schedule on the "first 24 weeks" thing. Well here's the next page to enjoy.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

Be sure to take a minute and check out Ryan Claytor's new page of "And Then One Day" #9 over at his website www.elephanteater.com.

With this page done there's only 5 pages left, time to close up the issue and get back on track. The next page will be posted this Saturday night and will be followed up by another page on the normal Tuesday schedule.

Off to sleep, work, then come home and work some more.

Have fun everyone, I hope that you've been enjoying this journey with me.

-Jacot

Tuesday update

2011-05-17T23:41:00.003-04:00

Gonna make a quick little post for everyone. First off, no new page for this week... yet. I'll have it posted before the weekend though.

I recently had the second script for Snarky dropped in my lap and have been going over it. This lead me to address the last 6 pages of issue 1. Following the path it has caused me to rethink the last few pages and streamline the story leading into issue 2.

Unfortunately this cut into the production time available this past week/weekend.

I apologize for the delay and I'll see everyone back here shortly.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XVIII

2011-05-12T01:35:00.001-04:00

Short and sweet this week... Here's page 18.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

I had a great time this past weekend at Clem's Comics and Games in Lansing, MI. Thanks everyone for stopping by and chatting with me. I had a great time doing sketch's and having general witty banter and talking about comic book nonsense.

Now it's time I got back to work, there's a lot to do before the next con.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XVII

2011-05-03T23:49:00.001-04:00

Her we are on the trip to the end of issue 1. For the last 8 Pages I'm going to leave the pages with just the line art. I'm doing this for a few reasons, first to give you a reason to by issue 1 when it comes out but mainly to free up some of my creative time to work o other projects leading into the convention season.

Speaking of conventions this will be the first year in the past 5 years I will not be tabling at the Motor City Comic Con. I don't have anything new finished and ready to be released at this time, and it'll be a nice break. So the next show I will be doing is Summit City Con in Fort Wayne, IN.

Well that's enough rambling for now, here's page 17, enjoy.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

The Cutting Edge pg 16

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. He managed to sneak in another homage to Family Circus. www.elephanteater.com

I'll be a Clem's Collectibles this Saturday from 10am -2pm for Free Comic Book Day. Sketches free for children under 12, come on down and check out a great yearly event. The title says it all, FREE COMIC BOOKS!!! Though you might wanna buy some comics as well.

See every one back here next week.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XVI

2011-04-27T23:32:00.002-04:00

It's official, 2/3 of the way done with issue #1. Short and sweet again this week, I'm proud to unveil page 16. I'm looking forward to leaving the beat palace next week.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

Well off to go work on page 17.

I need to start getting ahead on this production schedule.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XV

2011-04-20T18:00:00.003-04:00

Well here we go, page 15 completed and posted during the 16th week of 2011.

Next week issue I will be 2/3 of the way done. Feels good. Enough reminiscing on with the show.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

That list is starting to get pretty long, I think I'll find a better way to organize the history.

Well off to go work on page 16.

-Jacot

The Promised Process Post

2011-04-12T23:43:00.005-04:00

Sorry ladies and gentlemen, The Tao of Snarky pg 15 will be delayed a week. Unfortunately last weeks page threw off my production schedule and instead of cranking out a mediocre page I wanted to give page 15 the time it deserves.

However, I have a consolation prize... As you can see by the title I'm going to go over the process I follow to create a page of The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge.

I'm going to start the process from the point where the script is already finished, in this case penned by Brad DaMaagd. After going over the script I create a thumbnail drawing of the page, getting down the main shapes and panels for the page. This thumbnail was done at a 2"x3".

Sometimes my "thumbnail" is done on a folded piece of 8.5"x11" paper, it all depends on what I have on hand at the time. Once the thumbnail is completed I scan it in and print it off on a standard sheet of letter size paper. When doing this I use a blue "screen" to turn the black lines to a light blue.

Now I tighten up the image using Red and Blue pencils. Red I use to create rough objects and shapes. Then I use blue pencil to define details. Once I'm comfortable with the details I use a technical pen to identify what's commonly called the"pencils". I then scan the image and remove the colored lines so only the pencil lineart remains.

This lineart is printed onto an 11"x17" comic art board using a light blue screen to make the lines print light blue as shown here.

Onto the next step... to put this simply I ink the page using the light blue lines a guide. For those wondering why I go through all these steps I like to work with a clean board when I ink. That means no pencil lines to erase once the inks are completed. I find it provides a crisp line that doesn't need much if any cleanup.

After the inking is done I'll scan in the page and start the coloring process. this starts with color "flats".

With the page having a very flat gray-toned look to I then go though and add shadows to the panels. To give the page a little more flair I added a texture to the gray outside of the panels.

With the page art finished I place the image into illustrator where I add the text, the balloons, and sound effects.

There you have it , that's the basic process I use to create every page of Snarky that you see posted here weekly... well maybe not weekly but as close to it I can come.

See everyone back here next week for page 15.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XIV

2011-04-07T23:53:00.001-04:00

Well here we go, it's a little late but better late then never...

Presenting page 14, I had way too much fun with the dance crowd.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

The Cutting Edge pg 1
The Cutting Edge pg 2
The Cutting Edge pg 3
The Cutting Edge pg 4
The Cutting Edge pg 5
The Cutting Edge pg 6
The Cutting Edge pg 7
The Cutting Edge pg 8
The Cutting Edge pg 9
The Cutting Edge pg 10
The Cutting Edge pg 11
The Cutting Edge pg 12
The Cutting Edge pg 13

Now it's time to play catch up on next weeks deadline.

Off to the races!

-Jacot

Page 14 Sneak Peek

2011-04-05T23:32:00.002-04:00

Sorry folks, this is my first missed deadline.

However, I have a consolation prize... A Sneak peek of the linework for page 14.

The final page should be up tomorrow, it's late and I think sleep is inevitable. So hears a sneak peek of page 14.

So keep an eye out for the finished page coming tomorrow, Wednesday evening!

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. XIII

2011-03-29T23:50:00.002-04:00

Unlucky week thirteen...

Nah, scratch that. Lucky week thirteen.

I'm going to keep this post short, just like my hair. After this past weekend the entire household is bald. We'll be saving on the water bill and shampoo for a while. Though I must say the chilled air feels a lot colder now.

Enough about the recent baldness, ON WITH THE SHOW!

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. This weeks page is absolutely amazing. It also has a great homage to Family Circus. So pop on over and see if you can spot the homage. www.elephanteater.com

I'm going to put in a little extra to next weeks post. It may be art, it may be a review or recommended reading. Only time will tell, so stay tuned!

-Jacot

S.P.A.C.E., Week 12 of Snarky, and Head Shaving

2011-03-22T23:18:00.000-04:00

Space... the final frontier.

S.P.A.C.E. as in the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo. Though not the final frontier it's always a great event. This year was no exception.

It's great to be at an event where the crowd focuses on the comics themselves. This is a rare occurence in the days where most Comic Conventions are geared towards an entertainment event. It was great getting to see a lot of new faces and getting a chance to catch up with some old friends/compatriots. This year Ryan Claytor, Jon Gordon, and I went out with Max Ink & Co. to get a chance to really experience Columbus. We had a great meal at The Red Door Tavern and were introduced to the amzing Columbus institution of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. Of the latter I can only drool when I think about that wonderful experience. If you are ever in Columbus be sure to stop and check them out, you will not be displeased.

Aside from getting a good piece of Columbus culture I had the opportunity to pick up some new books. I plan on doing some reviews over the next few weeks of many titles that I picked up so keep your eyes open.

Well on to the next item, week 12 of "24 Weeks of Sequentials". This marks the halfway point for the first issue of The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge. I really enjoy playing around on the planet Rex 9 and emmersing myself into the world. The creatures and characters have started to take on a life of there own. So we return to the Den where Sgt Sahara is having some issues.

Last but not least for this post...

Lissa, her son Maksen, his father Jon and I are shaving our heads for the St Baldrick's Foundation. We're doing this and taking donations for pediatric cancer research. This is for a great cause and if you could take a moment to donate what you are able to it would be greatly appreciated. You can donate by clicking the image below or clicking here.

Having all four of us shaving our heads I wanted to do a Beatle's tribute group photo to help represent the team which we named Let It Be Shaved. So enjoy and remember you can click on the image if you'd like to find out more about what we're doing or to donate to a great cause.

Yes, Lissa is actually shaving her head for this event. This is a great show of solidarity for children who are battling cancer. If that's not reason enough to donate whatever you can then I don't know what other reason you would need.

That's all for this week I look forward to seeing everyone again next week.

-Jacot

The Ides of March

2011-03-15T11:52:00.001-04:00

Beware the ides of March...

Too true, for this post is late, though you may be overloaded by content.

I want apologize right off the bat, I had other projects that pushed back starting this weeks Snarky page, I started coloring the page at 9:00pm when this post was supposed to publish. However the wait is worth it...

Not only do you get a new page of The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge, you get the honest and wordy reviews for my new Network Attached Storage device and the magical new All-in-one Large format printer scanner.

First things first, new Snarky page.

I can't get enough of the last three panels on this page. I'm really proud of them and they make me laugh every time I see them. Especially the feeling in the second to last panel where Sgt. Sahara pulls the phone away to scream directly into the receiver, classic.

Well now it's onto the promised reviews.

Buffalo Linkstation Pro LS-XH1.5TL NAS Drive.

I want to start his off with a little disclaimer.

This is the first and only Network Attached Storage (NAS) device I have ever owned or used. The review is done from the viewpoint of a user and done without comparison to other models.
When I started considering a NAS drive I had 3 basic criteria for a NAS to suit my needs

1. A minimum 1 Terabyte of storage

2. DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) certified for media sharing

3. Web access to the information stored on the drive.

While researching the various NAS drives on the market (via reviews, user comments, and spec sheets) I usually found one problem or another with various models. The Most common problem though was transfer speed. When I looked further into this complaint I notices it happened when the NAS units had low speed processors. Add higher processor speed to the criteria.

4. Higher Processor speed.

Oh almost forgot one other thing for the criteria, cost had to be under $200.

5. Total cost below $200

After taking all of this into consideration I actually managed to find a model that would fit these needs.

Enter the Buffalo Linkstation Pro LS-XH1.5.

This had everything that I was looking for and had received decent reviews. Out of the box this item did what it was supposed to. The installation was easy though problems occurred, not directly with the unit but with the supplied backup software Memeo. When the backup software was trying to write info to the drive it kept giving a "delayed write failure" error. If you've never had this error you're lucky, it usually means the drive you are trying to write to has errors and will not be working for much longer. After updating firmware to the drive and updating the backup software everything worked smoothly. I'm going to break up my review of the item based upon the two main functions I was looking for.

Network Storage & Backup

This drive has worked fantastic for read/write speeds. Once the updates of the software and firmware were complete this device functioned well. The licensed Memeo software provided was a nice bonus, it functions as a folder mirroring backup. What this means is that you choose certain folders for the program to monitor and when the contents of that folder or sub-folder change it compares and updates the backup folder in real time (it starts backing up the file right away based upon available computer resources.) This is different than what's known as a disk backup which basically creates an "image" for the entire contents of your drive. I personally only need certain information backed up especially after the hard drive "melt down" from last year. This device is also equipped with web access. What that means is that with an Internet connection and the NAS drive on you can access the stored information ANYWHERE.

Media Server

This is one of the most delightful things to have in the house. I moved all of my music and videos to this drive so that it can stream/share music and video to devices connected to my home network (other computers/laptops, mobile devices, Video streaming devices/TV) this has removed the hassle of having to leave my main computer to gain access to the shared files. My computer uses over 300 watts of electricity, which puts a nice sized strain on the electricity bill each month if it's being used as a media server. The Linkstation Pro only uses about 17 watts of electricity. Huge power consumption difference which makes me much happier.

I've been very pleased with this product. The Linkstation Pro has been a blessing. The transfer rates are pretty high (much faster that transferring information to a USB drive) even while streaming video to the living room TV. I'll chalk this one up to the processor in this unit, speeding up the read/write rate quite a bit. Though sadly the streaming of video has limited functionality (Play & Stop) the smaller amount of power consumption makes up for it. Hopefully this will be addressed in a future firmware update.

All in all this product is worth more than it's weight in gold. Which is great because I got a great deal on this from newegg.com, $159.99 with free shipping. Cost wise it came out to be about 9.6 cents per Megabyte of storage, which is fantastic price for what you get. I mean it provides multiple back up solutions to every computer in your home including real time folder backups, it shares and streams music/video to devices connected to the network, and you can access the information on the drive from Computer/IOS/Android device that has a connection to the Internet. Honestly though it does a lot more that though I don't have a use for any other functionality at this time, which is why I'm not going to write about it.

Down to the nitty gritty, if you have a home network and have important information that you need to back up regularly (and you forget to do on a regular basis, like me.) Then a Network Attached Storage device is a solution for what ails you and I'd highly recommend the Buffalo Linkstation Pro LS-XH series NAS drive. IT does everything I need it to do and much more. Though if you are planning to get a NAS device do your research and purchase wisely.

*End review*

Now Last week I promised a second review about a new all-in-one printer/scanner however I will not be doing the review this week as I have only owned the item for 1 day.

You see there was a snafu from the company I ordered from about availability/back order/and discontinuation of the product. It was a frustrating situation considering I'm the one who found the problem, but I digress. I found a newer model which looked to be a better machine all around. So next week I will have a full review on the New Brother MFC-J6510DW. So far though this machine is incredible and it's indispensable for me as a Comic Artist (or anyone who needs something to print or scan items up to A3 in size,) for an incredible price ($179.99 w/ $1.99 shipping through newegg.com.) I've touted theMustek A3 Scanner to everyone I know which is price around $150. Now unlike the Mustek A3 scanner the Brother MFC-J6510DW has full Windows (XP/Vista/7) and Mac OS (10.4+) support. Mac Mustek owners take note.

Jeez, for not reviewing it I've said a lot already...

Screw it, I'm just going to give a review right now on this machine. I'm that excited about it.

Brother MFC-J6510DW All-in-one Printer/Scanner

The Brother does it all, I mean it when I say that: Faxing, Copying, Printing and Scanning images/pages up to a3 size (which is slightly larger than 11x17.) I'm going to break the review into each of those four parts.

Faxing: Sorry, never going to use this function. Probably works great, I however will probably never find out.

Copying: I'm not sure how much I'm going to use this functionality but I tested it out and I have to say I'm impressed, I copied both a text page and the cover of a comic. Both copies came out clean, the text had slight bleeding (due to inkjet printing on standard bond paper, most people won't notice it but I'm finicky) and the color print came out incredible, great color matching overall. Copying a single sheet for color took less than 10 seconds from hitting the start button.

Printing: With this machine there's one paper tray that stores paper up to A3 sized paper and a single page bypass on the back of the machine. The tray handles the multiple page sizes quite well while the single page tray bypass has a harder time with thicker stock paper. I was able to print on Blue Line Pro's Strathmore based 3-ply comic art boards and Canson's Fanboy comic art boards. Though using the single page tray bypass feeder has a hitch. It seems the Brother corporation included a flap to make sure people realize its only a single page feeder. This puts resistance on every page that feeds through it. On thicker pages naturally there's more resistance, this caused the guides to slide out of place and the comic art board feed unevenly. This was solved using a clip as a stopper to hold the guides in place. Asides from that the quality of the print is everything you expect from an inkjet printer, it can provide photo quality though the images aren't as rich due to the CMYK ink system instead of the photo ink system. The color matching is quite nice and it appears almost as it is on the screen. Text and images are reproduced quite well. Over all a great printer. The tray bypass feeder is my only issue and it's easy enough to work with. Print speed is great with speeds up to 35ppm (pages per minute.)

Scanning: This was the one part that worried me most about this purchase. I really don't know why I was worried having used it. The Brother Corporation has included a great scanner unit in this machine. It's only weakness is the software which is Paperport SE, the Twain Acquire inPhotoshop is incredibly simple and I would have like to see more options to adjust the image pre-scan. This might be a good thing for many people who aren't as nit-picky about there software, as it gives them a basic interface to provide an excellent scanned image. Truthfully though most image manipulation and color balancing takes place after the image is scanned so the limited user interface is a non-issue. The images that come the scanner are nothing less than stunning, it picks up every little imperfection in such a beautiful way. That said, this scanner comes with a warning, in any setting other than "black & white" scanning you will find out quickly what inks you've used are black and not-so-black-but-really-gray.

Now that that's out of the way there's something very important about all of this testing and this product.

Everything that's been done has been done wirelessly.

Seriously...

That means one printer for the whole household, that makes me happy. It doesn't stop there though, the physical user interface on the unit is really nice. Asides from providing the option for photo printing/editing from a memory card or USB device, copy, and fax services, it also provides scanning services where you can scan directly to a source. That source can be a chosen computer on the network, an e-mail, a USB device, or memory card. I haven't used this functionality and really don't know when I will need to, but it's nice knowing I can if I felt like it.

Asides from the interface I really want to point out this little fact. Wirelessly, this unit scanned an 11"x17" full color image and loaded it into Photoshop at 600 dpi in under 20 seconds from the time you hit the scan button. 20 SECONDS!!! My Mustek A3 took well more than that and It had to stop and dump information to Photoshop at least 3 times for every image. This is just incredible for me.

If you're still reading this and you are an artist (Comic creating friends take note,) and you are looking for a large format printer/scanner than I would recommend the Brother MFC-J6510W. It's larger than your normal printer and will take up some space, but being wireless you can put it anywhere within range of your wireless router.

In short this machine is amazing, hands down incredible. If you're in the market for an A3 scanner forget the Mustek A3, you should purchase this model. It's not that much more expensive and will provide much more bang for the buck.

Well that was long winded but necessary. For me, anyways.

If you are still reading, I'm impressed and if not you wouldn't know the difference. That wraps this up for this week. Sorry for the late post I had a lot to say in the reviews.

Look forward to seeing everyone here next week.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. X

2011-03-08T21:00:00.004-05:00

Here we are at week ten, and it's Fat Tuesday... where's my Paczki? I've been to busy working on this page to get them, that's where they are. Ah well, maybe next year.

It's funny with these weekly pages. I find that by setting this goal/deadline my subconscious plays with my production. What I mean by this is that I find I've been creating more work for myself than is necessary. Spending to much time on one step or another thinking I have plenty of time. Then I find myself rushing at the last minute to get it completed. Well it's time to work on that, stay focused, and eliminate unnecessary work.

As frustrating as it can be sometimes, i wouldn't want to be doing anything else. Well let's get back to it... here's page 10.

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. www.elephanteater.com.

That's all for this week. Next week I'll be posting some information/reviews on two new pieces of equipment I've received for my computer setup, they are as follows.

1. An all in one Printer/Scanner that prints and scans up to 11"x17" pages wirelessly (I'll be getting this delivered later this week, the review is pending on how much I get to use it before Tuesday.

2. A NAS which is a network storage device that's set up to mirror certain folders on my computer and back up the information from the folders in real time.

I love getting a chance to play with new equipment that can provide a relatively cheap solution to a streamlined work setup.

Catch everyone next week,

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. IX

2011-03-01T21:00:00.003-05:00

Well here we are at week nine, seriously where does the time go? Hell, imagine how It'll feel at week 24. It'll probably feel like I just blinked and there was suddenly 24 pages in front of me.

Only time will tell, eh?

I'll keep the chatter to a minimum... and now... page 9.

I hope everyone is enjoying these new pages, I'm enjoying creating them. Can't wait to see the finished product in print.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

The Cutting Edge pg 1

The Cutting Edge pg 2

The Cutting Edge pg 3

The Cutting Edge pg 4

The Cutting Edge pg 5

The Cutting Edge pg 6

The Cutting Edge pg 7

The Cutting Edge pg 8

That's all for this week. I'm back off to work, maybe I can get ahead on this stuff and get a chance to post more art on here.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. IIX

2011-02-22T21:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Tuesday everybody!

Here we are 1/3 of the way done with our journey. Well let's get down to it, here's page 8.

My production style/process is becoming more defined every week. It's nice to see this growth taking place. I've been slowly honing my art to be more on point and not do as much "needless" work that just consumes my time. It's nice to get right to the point. I'll be doing a process post soon for one of these weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.

The Grandpa is out of the Hospital and back in his cave at home. We're still waiting on some test results but for the most part the old codger is as stubborn as ever.

In case you've missed the previous pages you can find them through the following links, or visit older posts.

The Cutting Edge pg 1

The Cutting Edge pg 2

The Cutting Edge pg 3

The Cutting Edge pg 4

The Cutting Edge pg 5

The Cutting Edge pg 6

The Cutting Edge pg 7

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. www.elephanteater.com.

That's all for this week. Now it's time to get back to work...

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. VII

2011-02-15T21:00:00.004-05:00

Here we are once again for another exciting page.

Well not quite yet anyways, I'm not finished with the page yet. I'm posting the inks at this time and will update the post this evening once the page is completed. It will be done tonight, just a little later then expected. UPDATE 11:59 pm: Just finished the page, at the last minute to meet my Tuesday night guideline for the 24 weeks of sequentials, this page has by far the most demanding environment page I've done, and I loved creating it, enjoy. (I've left the inks up as well, call it little bonus for my tardiness.)

I want to apologize for not meeting my self imposed production schedule but some things came up and bit into the schedule. So here are my Excuses (you might as well call a pig a pig right?)

1. Taxes... I finally received my last W2 Friday, then proceeded to start processing the business paperwork. Only one problem, I moved my studio recently and misplaced half the paperwork. Well, it took two days to locate the missing paperwork but taxes have been completed.

2. I don't really like posting information regarding my personal life on ye' old blog, but this affected today's production, and hit me in the chestal region so I thought I should share. With 2.5 hours of sleep I awoke at 5am to start today's production and complete page 7. Around 7am I received a call from my mom... I don't usually get a random call from my mom in the morning unless somethings happened. I answered the phone and found my mother unable to make a coherent statement, then only thing she could say is "it finally happened" to which I replied "What happened?" Now I have to state for the record that my mom is the picture of composure and almost always has a smile. This was different though, she couldn't say anything, she stumbled over her words and almost brought tears to my eyes as the pain in her voice smacked into my eardrum. After a minute or so she regained her composure and informed me that my Grandfather, her dad, is in the hospital with 5 broken ribs, congestive heart failure, and a mass on his lung. After speaking with my mother for a little bit she had to get back to work and told me she'd let me know more information later in the day. (Note: He's doing a lot better at this point, he's a cantankerous old goat and as stubborn as they come.) It took me a while this morning to get refocused and back on track.

This is what happens when I take a day off work to get caught up...

In case you've missed the previous pages through the following links.

The Cutting Edge pg 1

The Cutting Edge pg 2

The Cutting Edge pg 3

The Cutting Edge pg 4

The Cutting Edge pg 5

The Cutting Edge pg 6

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. www.elephanteater.com.

This week he has a link to a comment he left on last weeks page post. It goes over his current process with environments, though sadly this leaves out the necessary descriptor about his new found gushing love for perspective grids. I really don't get a chance to use the term "gushing love" that often, this need to be rectified!

Now time to get that thing we so often sacrifice to try and accomplish what we set out to do... sleep.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. VI

2011-02-08T21:00:00.003-05:00

Here we are week six. Time flies and I find Tuesday coming on sooner and sooner. I'd be lying if I said Tuesdays don't excite me though... here's the reason why.

I swear we're going to get out of this alley soon, I've had enough of drawing brick walls in the background. After all you can only do so much to keep it interesting.

In case you've missed the previous pages through the following links.

The Cutting Edge pg 1

The Cutting Edge pg 2

The Cutting Edge pg 3

The Cutting Edge pg 4

The Cutting Edge pg 5

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. www.elephanteater.com.

Throughout his auto-biographical account of his conversation with Dr Polkinhorn, Ryan has utilized his illustrating prowess to extrapolate the concepts that are being discussed. He's really taking his work to a new level with every page. Ryan is quickly becoming this generation's Scott McCloud.

Until next week,

-Jacot

Death of a Teddy Bear

2011-02-01T21:00:00.003-05:00

Or was it "24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. V"?

A little trouble deciding a title for this weeks post. With a prolific third panel this week it was hard to decide. Well... let's get right to it then... here's page 5 of "The Cutting Edge"

Going to keep it nice and short this week. In case you've missed them, here's links to the previous pages of The Cutting Edge.

The Cutting Edge Pg 1

The Cutting Edge Pg 2

The Cutting Edge Pg 3

The Cutting Edge pg 4

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. www.elephanteater.com. Ryan's really knocked this weeks page out of the park with his illustration.

Until next week,

Jacot

MSU Comics Forum and Sequentials pt.IV

2011-01-25T21:00:00.007-05:00

I really want to start this post off by stating, for the record, that this was easily the best MSU Comics Forum we've had to date. I'd like to express an gratuitous "Thank You" to all the Scholars, Creators, and Fans who made the MSU Comics Forum 2011 such a success.

Thanks to Ryan Claytor and all of the organizers who helped us put this event together.

I also need to thank the various websites and media outlets that helped promote the event.

A special thank you to Nate Powell for his great Keynote Address (subsequent power moves included in his great presentation,) his participation in the Creator Panel with Joe Foo and Jeremy Bastian, and just being an all around great guy.

Lastly thank you to all of the sponsers: The Journal of Popular Culture, 21st Century Comics and Games, The Department of Art and Art History, the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities, and MATRIX: The Center for the Humane Arts, Letters, and Social Sciences Online.

I'm looking forward to the MSU Comics Forum 2012. I think I'll refrain from calling it the "doomsday" edition though I'm sure if we look on the Mayan calendar it mentions the MSU Comics Forum somewhere. I'll look into and let you know what I find.

Asides from the Comics Forum, here we are on week four of 2011 and you know what that means...

Things are really starting to move along. Now that the MSU Comics Forum is done, I might have a chance to be finished with these weekly pages prior to the eleventh hour. I'm Looking forward to sharing more than just pages each week.

In case you've missed them, here's links to the previous pages of The Cutting Edge.

The Cutting Edge Pg 1

The Cutting Edge Pg 2

The Cutting Edge Pg 3

As with every Tuesday be sure to stop over at Ryan Claytor's website where he's posted his next page of And Then One Day#9. www.elephanteater.com

Until next week,

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt.III

2011-01-18T21:00:00.003-05:00

Here we are for week three. Gotta say, working on this page, I solidified quite a bit of my creation process. Things are moving a little smoother and I'm settling into a good pace I like to call, "on time." It's especially impressive for me to be on time with the MSU Comics Forum taking place this weekend. Interviews and a podcast last week cut into my production schedule.

If you're in the Lansing, MI area be sure to pick up this weeks edition of The Noise and The City Pulse, it's going to have info about the MSU comics Forum and, if you haven't made plans to, then you should make plans come to The MSU Comics Forum this weekend, it's a free event that will provide a great venue to meet many comic book creators.

Starting off Friday night, January 21st,2011 from 7pm-8:30pm, will be the keynote address by Nate Powell. Over the past few years the Keynote Address has been a fantastic time to take a peak at the creator behind the art and story. Nate Powell's Keynote should be no different and I am looking forward to taking a peek into the mind behind his amazing comic works.

On Saturday January 22nd, 2011 from 11am-5pm in the LookOut! Gallery will be the Artist Alley. This is a seriously good lineup for an Artist Alley including the aforementioned Nate Powell, Guy Davis, David Petersen, Jason Howard, Ryan Stegman, Jeremy Bastian, Jay Fosgitt, and many more! Creators will have some examples of their work on display albeit in comics, graphic novels, prints, or original art. Many of these items will be available for purchase. Don't be afraid to talk with the creators, we're all happy to converse with our adoring public (too pretentious?) Don't worry though, they won't bite, not last I checked anyways. For information on the guest list for the artist alley head over to the MSU Comics Forum website. www.comicsforum.msu.edu

Almost forgot during the Artist alley many panels will be taking place be sure to check them out.

For this weeks post I was thinking about going into my process of creating a comic page looking at it though I think this post has been long enough. Maybe for a future page I'll do a "process" post. But for now we'll just get on with the show. The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge page 3!

For those that missed the previous pages you can find them through the links below

The Cutting Edge Pg 1

The Cutting Edge Pg 2

As with every Tuesday for the first 24 weeks of 2011 my buddy Ryan Claytor has posted a new page of his conversation with Dr. Polkinhorn from his new book And Then One Day #9. Jump on over to his website and check it out www.elephanteater.com. Ryan, is hyper intelligent when it comes to the Comic field and his knowledge comes together with the subtleties found in each of his pages.

Catch everyone back here next week, and hope to see you at the MSU Comics Forum this weekend.

-Jacot

24 Weeks of Sequentials pt. II

2011-01-11T21:00:00.002-05:00

Alright, here I am back for week two of new Snarky pages.

This one was a doozy and a blast. Action, movement, and mood were the essentials on this page. It's funny how things start to develop and solidify while creating these pages. My process is becoming more distinct and there's a lot less "wasted effort" going into each one. I'll keep this first part nice and short... onto the page! click on the image or any link to open in a new window.

Here's a link to the first page, just in case you missed it.

The Cutting Edge: Page 1

We're under two weeks until the MSU Comics Forum 2011 takes place, right now we have 25 creators who will be tabling in the Artist Alley on Saturday, January 22, 2011. Also, be sure to make it to the Keynote Address by Nate Powell Friday, January 21st. This should be a great time had by all, and the best part its admission is free. Check out the MSU Comics Forum website for more info including a complete guest list for the artist alley. www.comicsforum.msu.edu

Speaking of the MSU Comics Forum I just got back from recording a podcast with the talent from Ginger and the Geek podcast. Had a great time talking with Daniel J. Hogan and Kat Cooper, they make a fantastic team. It'll be out this Thursday so be sure to stop over and check it out at gingerandthegeek.com.

Well that's about it for now, sorry there's no other art this week. I'm trying to work out a production schedule for Snarky and everything else. It's coming together and I have a few kinks to work out, but I'll be there soon. I do have to say, I really miss focusing on sequential artwork.

Don't forget to stop over to my LADDie Ryan Claytor's website, www.elephanteater.com, and check out the next page of And Then One Day.

Catch you back here in 168 hours, now time for me to get back to work.

-Jacot

LET IT BEGIN

2011-01-04T21:00:00.008-05:00

Happy New Year, and what a year it shall be... and with a title like that how can you go wrong? After all, this is the beginning of new Snarky comic pages.

In case you're not sure what is happening, my good buddy Ryan Claytor is posting a new page of "And Then One Day" on his website every Tuesday for the first 24 weeks of 2011. Ryan challenged me to do the same with my own work. So here we are at the beginning of a 24 week journey. Hopefully at the end I will continue this trend and be able to complete the first full story arc to The Tao of Snarky with weekly posts.

It felt good to dust off Snarky and make him feel alive again. Brad DeMaagd and I have really started to organize and get this story moving, for this first page I pulled an old bit he'd written and pulled parts to start this story. Now that the fire's lit he's turning out some really great stuff for me to work with. It's been a while since I released/published new sequential work and I have got to say, I've missed it. Creating art is a lot of fun and I enjoy it but it's nothing like using art to tell a story and showing the passage of time. You can tell a story in one image, that's a skill in itself, but leading the reader through many images and words on a journey through a story, there's no feeling quite like that.

Alright enough of the fawning over the reason or the feeling, let's get one with it.

Ladies and gentleman I present the first page of The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge. To see a larger copy just click on the image and it will open in a new window.

I'm tossing around the idea of setting up a wordpress page for this comic, any feedback on this would be great. Let me know what you want to see and how you would like to view these new pages as I release them. Don't be afraid to post comments, constructive criticism is gratefully accepted.

So now that you're done here pop on over and check out Ryan's weekly post/page at www.elephanteater.com. It'll be worth the trip.

-Jacot

A little announcement...

2010-12-28T21:00:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm back for yet another stunning installation of, Jacot's weird and wild mind. Well maybe not weird, or wild, maybe if I did a blog post while drinking... nah nothing good could come from that.

Anywho, I don't have much in the way of PC maintenance tips this week. I was straining my brain to think what else could be useful. I couldn't think of much for the general PC user so I thought of something for the graphic designer or digital typesetter. Two words, Font management.

If you've every dabbled in design work on the computer you've probably taken advantage of the thousands of free fonts online. When you have thousands of fonts installed on your computer it can bog down your design software. I found this out the hard way when Adobe Illustrator was shutting down due to lack of free memory. At the time I had 1400 fonts installed on my computer 1350 of them I never use but they looked cool so someday I might want to use them. I had been wanting to trim the fonts on my computer for a long time but didn't want to spend the hours it would have taken to go through the font folder having to open each font and determine whether I needed it or not. One day I decided to look online for font management software and was blown away by what I found. NexusFont is a free font management tool that does everything I need. This program allows you to see installed fonts on your PC, fonts in different folders, see what the phrase or word looks like in different fonts, and much more. I was able to get my font addiction under control easily and even manage fonts on the fly while doing some graphic design work. If you are a person who works with type/fonts this program is indispensible and highly recommended. The website can be found here.

Now onto the announcement I promised last week...

Recently Ryan Claytor, a good friend and one of the hardest working people in the indy comics scene, stopped by to drop off poster tubes to mail out MSU Comics Forum posters to various comics retailers. During the visit Ryan proposed a challenge, one that I feel was sorely needed. You see, Ryan is posting a page a week of his new And Then One Day comic on his website for the first 24 weeks of 2011. He challenged me to do the same here on my blog. Well not post his comic pages on my blog but post my own sequential pages. It was a challenge I was glad to accept. Now the only problem is which project to put on that time frame. So many to choose and yet so many started and left unfinished. I couldn't choose what to do so I did the only logical thing at that time. I went to bed.

The next day, while sitting at work, I made a decision. It's time to get The Tao of Snarky of the back burner and get it cooking again. Brad DeMaagd and I have been working with a script for quite some time but there was always something missing. With the decision to break it out the answers came to me easily.

So, for the next 24 weeks I'll be posting a page a week of The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge every Tuesday night at 9:00pm. After that I'll probably take a few weeks break and start the second installment with weekly posts, then a break, then third installment, then a... you get the point. Now this will be part of my weekly blog post, it will not replace it but be in addition to the weekly blog. So for those who look forward to the weekly helping of... me, you shall still get it.

In light of this development I thought I would share an old image of Snarky from back in the day...

I've always enjoyed this image, it was one of the first times I used Copic markers and was blown away by what was possible with them. Oops almost forgot, In case case you've never read Snarky or know what The Tao of Snarky is check out the first 4 page introduction into the world here. You'll get strong feeling of the character and it should prepare you well for the weekly posts.

In case you're still reading I'll sum The Tao of Snarky up like this:

"The Tao of Snarky is a futuristic film noir detective story. Snarky's searching the Galaxy for his sister and is stuck on the alien planet of Rex-9. Snarky's a Galactic Private Detective, the only problem with him being on Rex-9, he's human. Snarky's going to be taking the case of a missing talisman that may cause the destruction of a major family of the indigenous species on Rex-9. While on the case he's caught in a moral dilema, solve the case or live to talk about it. Snarky's going to find out what what it means to live on "The Cutting Edge""

Well I'll see everyone back here next week for page 1 of 24.

Wish me luck,

-Jacot

Ding, Ding, Ding... PC maintenance round 3

2010-12-21T21:00:00.004-05:00

Welcome back for your weekly dose of... well... me.

That wasn't that exciting but what do you want for nothing...? Rrrrrrrrrubber Biscuit? Bow bow oooh ooh oooh oooooooo-waaaah.

On with the show.

Everyone knows (if not, this might be shocking for you) that if you are connected to the internet, you need to have anti-virus software so I'm going to forgo that little bit and jump onto something not as many people know.

If you browse the internet on your computer you will more than likely end up with Malware. Malware is short for Malicious Software. This can be anything from software that fishes your browsing history for personal info and broadcasts it, bots that take control of your computer, Trojans which function like the classic Trojan horse (hence the name) and discretely install software on your computer (and you know how that worked for Troy), and much, much more. Essentially you need to protect yourself from this stuff. My recommendation is Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware. This comes in two versions like a lot of the programs I've mentioned on this blog, an incredibly well functioning free version and an even more functional paid version. The free version does everything I need it to, it finds the malware and let's me get rid of it. I try to do this every other week to make sure my system is clean, you can find a frequency that works well for yourself. This is a necessity when if you browse the internet because Malware doesn't function like a virus, so your anti-virus won't catch it, and it can cause your computer to become infected with viruses.

Another thing you'll want to do is manage your installed programs. I find the add/remove programs feature leaves too many pieces of the program behind. I found a fantastic program called Revo Uninstaller. It not only makes it easier to uninstall programs, but it also hunts down all the little places on your system where the program is mentioned and gives you an option to delete it. This is where the standard windows feature is sorely lacking. Prior to finding and using Revo my system would end up with a whole bunch of little "crumbs" leftover from un-installed programs. With Revo it helps maintain a clean and healthy system.

And it's now the time in our program where we have fun with art...

This week is a little piece I did back at a LADD meeting. It all started with a story from Jon Gordon about his son Galbraithe. Galbraithe evidently loves Ryan Claytor's auto-biographical And Then One Day. Well one day I guess he was playing super heroes and said I'm Ryan Claytor... once Jon said this at the LADD meeting laughter ensued and this piece of art was born.

Hope you enjoyed this weeks post, I'll be back next week with an exciting announcement for 2011.

-Jacot

PC Maintenance Round 2

2010-12-14T21:00:00.005-05:00

Ahoy there, mateys!

This be Cap'n Jacket here for the second installment of art and computer maintenance. this week we're going to delve into some software to help with your computer.

There's some general things to help out with the health of your disk drives.

These days hard drives measure in terabytes (TB) and each terabyte is approximately 1000 gigabytes (GB). Now you can leave these drives alone or you can split the drive into smaller portions called partitions. Splitting them up into smaller portions allows for quicker searches and usually faster load times. There's a lot more that goes into this such as write speeds, read speeds, and rpm of the drive though we're not worried about that for now. there's many great programs out there to manage the partitions of the drive, you can use the disk management utility built into windows but I prefer EASEUS Partition Master. The free version is good enough to help manage the size of partitions and manage your disk layouts. This isn't something you need to use all the time but it's useful when you get a new drive or manage the size of an old one.

Speaking of hard drives, when information is written (saved) to the hard drive it isn't saved in order or even all together. Most of the time the information is fragmented and saved in various locations of the disk. After a while your hard drive will start slowing down when trying to load various files depending on how fragmented they are. This fragmentation also increases the chance of file corruption by having the computer accidentally write two separate bits of info to the same location. To help prevent this you'll want to defragment your hard drive. Windows has a built in defragmenter that will work but I recommend using a different tool. I've found Auslogics Disk Defrag performs better than the defrag utility built into windows. It's faster (which is good when working with larger hard drives) and has a good visual and user interface. Depending on how much info use save or delete during the month you'll want to run a defrag every month or two. After a few times you'll find a good schedule that works for you.

That's enough for this week on general PC maintenance. Onto the Art!

This week we have a little illustration I did to create a quick handout for the MSU Comics Forum 2011. I've had this concept in my head for the past few years and finally found a good combination of Comics and a Spartan helmet.

Speaking of the MSU Comics Forum 2011 pop over to the MSU Comics Forum website for more information about this years event. Also any comic creators who would like to be part of the artist alley table spaces are still available, more info can be found on the Comics Forum website.

Hell why not give you a peak at the quarter page flyer that the art was done for.

Now I bid you Adieu for this week, be back next Tuesday night.

-Jacot

The Meandering Blogger Has Returned

2010-12-07T21:00:00.001-05:00

Long time, no post.

It's been a while eh? A lot happened to create this delay in posting, a lot of excuses. I have no actual reason that I didn't hold to my previous statement of weekly postings, more of a series of events.

Shortly after my last post I had a catastrophic hard drive failure. The hard drive that failed stored all the information I had saved for the past 10 years. This included all comic and art files I've scanned and saved. For any of you that have talked computers with me you may know I'm a pretty knowledgeable guy and am very free with that computer assistance. One of the bits o knowledge I hand out is "If you have important information on your computer then you should keep a back-up." Well I seem to have disregarded this statement. I figured that I could recover from anything less than a complete hard drive failure. Well lesson learned, the cost? 60% of my art and work gone forever, including current work/projects. I had started to try and work with a mostly digital work flow this year and now I've paid for it and will never forsake the blessings that simple paper and pencil can bring.

Here's another about the hard drive failure. There were plenty of signs it was going bad... I just ignored them because they would go away. A lot of problems from my previous post actually relate to problems with this hard drive.

After this event I can't stress enough the importance of regular computer maintenance.

Most Mac people are probably laughing at this time and have probably figured I have a PC. I can't help it, I'm a PC guy, I really enjoy Macs and their reliability. Even if someday I own a Mac I will have an operational PC as well.

Regular computer maintenance should be done for both hardware and software. Over the next few weeks I'm going to highlight some open-source (freeware) software solutions to help with general computer maintenance. His week is going to be about dusting... minus the french maid and feather duster (unless that's your thing.)

Dust buildup in your PC causes your computer to overheat and heat is your computers enemy. This can lead to decreased system response, sudden shutdowns by the computer (trying to prevent damage to your system,) system failure, and even hardware failure.

Before you start physically cleaning out your PC be sure it's turned off and unplugged. If you have a laptop be sure its unplugged and the battery is removed. If your computer is under warranty you should first check to see if opening the case to your desktop or taking apart your laptop will void the warranty. If it will then don't worry about opening your system and just use a can of air to clean out what you can.

When cleaning out your desktop it's pretty straight forward. Open the case and remove any large accumulations of dust. Pay close attention the fans and heat sinks, this is where most of the heat buildup will take place. Once large chunks have been removed take your computer case outside or to an area you don't mind cleaning when you are done. Use a can of compressed air to blow the dust buildup out of your system. When using the can of compressed gas don't just hold the trigger down for an extended period of time pull the trigger in 1-3 second bursts. This will give you more dusting capability with reduced downtime. Once that's done you can plug the computer back in to check and make sure all the fans are spinning properly.

Now laptops are another matter all together. General maintenance and dusting are much more complicated and you might feel uncomfortable with the process. The main point affected by dust buildup is on the heatsink where the fan is supposed to blow air over it. Here's one of the biggest pains, to properly remove the buildup you need to disassemble your laptop. Scary thought? It's not as hard as you think. Before you do that though I have to remind you about the warranty thing and also it may be a good idea to check and see if there's a buildup in the first place. Shine a light into the fan and look through the exhaust slits/ports. If you see an fuzzy buildup blocking some light you should clean the dust of the heatsink. If you're not sure what you're doing search online and find a tutorial to take your laptop apart. When you get to removing the fan you will see the dust build-up on the heatsink.

Well that's all for this weeks general computer maintenance post, onto the art.

Here's a commission sketch I did for Ralph Griffith one of the writers for Calibur and Arrow comics OZ series. I believe the character design was done by Bill Bryan for the series, here's my take on the Tin Man. For some reason or another I really enjoy the mood of this piece, it speaks to me. almost to explain how I've been feeling beginning with a huge loss of information.

Until next week, and I hope I mean it this time.

-Jacot

The Truth about Godzilla

2010-07-07T21:00:00.005-04:00

Welcome to this weeks blog post. I've pushed it back a day due to the 4th of July weekend, sorry for those who were here on time. Hopefully though this weeks post will give you a bit of enjoyment.

I've updated an old concept. Some of my old friends may remember this from a while back

This concept was done clear back in 1995. I was going to do an entire series of "The Truth About" but being young and having the attention span of a newt, it was left on the wayside. Who knows maybe I'll resurrect this project and attack the concepts of Cryptozoology. So in the interest of history and full disclosure, here's the original concept image circa 1995.

That's our programming for this week, see everyone back next week.

-Jacot

The Reason Why there's not more Wookie Jedis

2010-06-29T21:00:00.006-04:00

I've been promising this for a couple weeks and here it is. Born from Random conversation with Josh Boeringa, Rob Forest, and his wife Kate Forest during the first day of C3.

So we're going to keep it short and sweet this week with just short comic, click on the image to open in a larger window, Enjoy.

Catch everyone back here next week.

-Jacot

Combining Visual Art Mediums

2010-06-22T21:00:00.001-04:00

Slight Change,

Do to unfortunate timing and some technical issues I'll be posting "The reason why there's not more Wookie Jedis" next week.

I ran into an interesting article that came out over this past weekend from The Boston Globe. It was about the great Art Spiegelman of MAUS fame. It appears the dance company Pilobolus has courted Mr. Spiegelman into creating a joint venture of Cartooning and dance. You can check out the amazing article here (or click on the image below.) Reading this made me smile. You see two years ago I had the pleasure of working with the Community Dance Project (CD Project for short, a project though Happendance) in doing the exact same thing, combining dance and cartooning. To read more about that project check out my old blog post here. The project with Pilobolus has gone the next step from what I had done with CD Project. Art has created an animation style "Seventh Dancer" to be projected with the other dancers. On top of that the dancers appear to take some time doing some silhouette/shadow work to "Interact" with the animation. I only hope I will get a chance to see this in video. I have a feeling it will be an incredible thing to witness.

Dancers from Pilobolus rehearse "Hapless Hooligan in 'Still Moving,'" a collaboration with cartoonist Art Spiegelman. (Matthew Cavanaugh for The Boston Globe)

It's seeing like this that make me wonder is there anything that art can't be applied too? What's the next meshing of art forms that's going to find a handhold? Never constrain yourself as to what you can create, the capabilities of creation are truly limitless.

On to another bit of subject matter, This is my birthday post, I'm officially 31 years of age today. Just as I expected it doesn't feel any different. But I digress.

The following is a poster I had way too much fun creating. It was for the 2010 Russel B. Nye Lecture at Michigan State University. This years Lecture was by Shelley Fisher Fishkin of Stanford University. She came and talked about American literature and how non-American scholars viewed it. Well, more particularly the prose on the body of work from the famous American author, Mark Twain. I think a quote I used on the poster sums it all up "The cultural conversation about Mark Twain that is most familiar to scholars in the U.S. happens in English. But writers have been reading and responding to Mark Twain in languages other than English for at least 138 years. This talk looks at what we can learn by seeking out and attending to writing on a canonical American author published outside the U.S. in languages other than English."

For the poster I wanted to create original art that would wrap the whole concept together. I created a quick illustration of Mark Twain with a strong shadow. Then I scanned in the piece, colored it, set up a background, and made my color choices. Now I still had incorporate the fact that this Lecture was based on non-English languages. So utilizing the shadow on Mark Twain I placed foreign book titles, that discussed the works of Mark Twain, in a slightly darker color. I really like this piece and wanted to share it sans text.

I should have all technical issues sorted out be next week and then I'll have a quick little Comic to share with everyone.

Until then,

-Jacot

Four weeks and counting.

2010-06-15T21:00:00.004-04:00

Welcome back!

I'm going to keep this post a little short this week... well shorter than normal.

I wanted to start off this post by just putting out a big thank you. Thank to Mike, Rob, and the crew from Top Comics for putting on this years Cherry Capital Con. Thanks to all the volunteers for helping to make it run as smooth as possible. The sponsors for helping get the word out and broadcasting from the con all weekend long. Thanks to all the exhibitors and and vendors for displaying fantastic art and wares everyone was able to witness/purchase over the weekend (though I'm not going to thank you for taking my money.) Lastly, thank you to all of the attendees from this past weekend, without you there wouldn't be a C3.

I had a fantastic time at Cherry Capital Con (C3). I got a chance to meet some incredible creators and touch base with many people I haven't seen or talked to since last years con. I had many great conversations with attendees including one who had the wonderful/unfortunate experience of Tony Miello and I recounting Ypsi Ink and Stein where we got on to the topic of Zombie Defecation. It's events like this that give me a chance to talk to people about my work. I really enjoy doing this stuff and I'm happy I can share it with others that may enjoy it as well. Speaking of sharing (well more of exchanging) I sold many prints this weekend to delighted attendees (many who couldn't help but pick up the Betty White vs. Wolverine), quite a few comics, and even managed a commission on Sunday (If I manage to get a copy of that commission I'll post it.)

Enough ranting and raving about C3... onto the art. With all art I post you can click on the image to view a larger version in a new window/tab.

Here's what I promised last week... Batman in color.

I also created a halftone/grayscalimage I wanted to share.

Now I'd like to take a moment to showcase one of my friends Dean Stahl. Dean is an incredible artist and creator who is constantly producing artwork and always impresses me with his new work. Earlier this year Dean started his own wrestling based web comic. You should take a moment to hop on over and check it out. Click on this link: http://www.headlocksandheadaches.com/ to check it out. I'm pretty sure Dean's work will keep you entertained. Dean also is the co-host of the podcast Ultra Friends Go! I just started listening to these and they're pretty darned good, it's a brand new show and has some technical difficulties to start with but they're getting better all the time. You can download it from Itunes or their website: http://ultrafriendsgo.com/.

Well that's it for this week (I guess it really wasn't that short,) be sure to tune in next week when I display the reason why you don't see many wookie jedi knights.

-Jacot

CHERRY CAPITAL CON and STUFF

2010-06-06T21:00:00.004-04:00

This year I will once again be attending the Cherry Capital Con (C3 for short). It's taking place this weekend June 12-13 at The Grand Traverse Resort in beautiful Traverse City, MI.

Here's a little blurb from the C3 website to set the tone for the show: "Cherry Capital Con (C3) is a comic book convention that celebrates the medium of comics, rather than a specific genre. At C3, all comics are equal; as are their creators and their fans. The organizers of C3 intend to prove to the world that comic conventions—just like comics fans and the comics, themselves—don’t have to be “this” or “that”. They can just be what they are…which is simply “cool”."

This is the second year of the show and if it is anything like last year the show is going to be amazing. It was one of the best shows I attended last year. The promotional material and coverage was absolutely amazing. This year appears to be even better with over three times the exhibitors. If you're in the area or willing to make a little road trip it'll be worth it. Of course it doesn't hurt that if you do come out you'll be in Traverse City, during the summer, looking out on lake Michigan... but who would want that? For more information about the Cherry Capital Con go to their website www.cherrycapitalcon.com or click on the banner to the upper left.

Speaking of C3 here's the new poster I'm working on for debut at the show.

I have been playing around for a while with this image concept and decided it was time to just get it out of the way. The piece will be in full color and I'll post the finished piece next week.

This past March I helped organize the third annual Michigan State University Comics Forum. We had twenty-six Michigan based comic related creators in this years artist alley. This included the amazing Guy Davis. Guy is an amazing comics creator some of his past work includes Bakerstreet, Sandman Mystery Theater, The Nevermen, B.P.R.D., and The Marquis. For more info on Guy Davis take a moment to enjoy his website www.guydavisartworks.com. Guy Davis was kind enough to be this years keynote speaker for the MSU Comics Forum. He did a fantastic job on the keynote and I wanted to give him a special "thank you" gift. Here's a piece I did of his character The Marquis.

I'm finishing up this image digitally with some tones. Once that's done I'll post it here. If you want to see how the MSU Comics Forum went then scoot on over to the following live blog - http://ievolvedintothis.com/?p=93.

That's about all at this point in time. I'll be back next week... same blog time... same blog channel.

-Jay Jacot

On Schedule... WOO HOO!!!

2010-06-01T21:00:00.013-04:00

Well this is the first post of the regularly scheduled programming on Tuesday nights, as promised.

I was trying to think of something good to go over, something… useful. Something that people could learn from. Now, as I was thinking about this I began to realize a lot of the stuff has already been covered by one of my good friends, Ryan Claytor. So I thought I would take a moment to pimp out his website http://www.elephanteater.com/... (insert shameless plug here, well maybe just the image from his new bookmark. Click on the image to open his website in a new window.)

At his website you will find his weekly postings, musings, and his shop for comics/merchandise. He just finished posting "And then one day #8" (his most recent issue, to be printed soon), be sure to check out all the instollments of "And Then One Day", they're worth the read. Ryan (at the time of this post) is mainly an auto-biographical comics creator. He's used his series "And Then One Day" to push the boundaries and provoke thoughts on the concept of Auto-Biographies and the comics medium. He currently teaches Comic Studio courses at Michigan State University and University of Michigan - Flint. Be sure to take a moment to check out his resources page it includes one of my favorite topics - Small Press Professionalism.

Now this doesn't mean I won't be posting my own musings and information on the Comics medium. There’s plenty of time for me to write about that in the future.

I previously mentioned information on some of the projects that I’ve been working on and I thought I would share an image or two of the concept work.

First off… Space Teddy Roosevelt. This concept came from an old high school friend, Benjamin M. Sidou. Just the thought of a real life over-the-top character, such as Teddy Roosevelt, going on a space safari made me smile. The classic image of Teddy’s toothy grin framed inside a space helmet was too much to take. I started sketching some Ideas and this was actually the first piece I produced. I’ve cleaned it up a bit from my initial rough and am currently designing a mock cover to set the tone and direction for the project. I’ll post the final cover concept in a future post.

Now here's a little something from a great monthly gathering, Ypsi Ink & Stein. This is a monthly gathering of creator's and friends to have a good time and produce work in a highly creative environment. I was lucky enough to be able to attend this past month's Ink & Stein (it was moved to the same weekend as the Motor City Comic Con.) Once everyone settled in it didn't take long for the conversation to take a turn to the lower end of the comedy spectrum (pun intended, what do you expect after a long day at a convention?.) Of course this could have been due to the amazing company of Jay Fosgitt, Ryan Estrada, Adam Talley, Tony Miello, and Brett Pinson. With a line-up like that you can only guess what came next.

The subject: Zombies
The question: "Do Zombies Defecate?"

The debate started... Hilarity ensued... and here's what I threw into the "pot" of creativity.

Well that's about the end of this weeks segment.

Looking forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday night.

-Jacot

Time to dust off the blog.

2010-05-26T22:35:00.004-04:00

Well now... It's been a little bit since I've made a post. I figured it's about time to come back and dust off the old blog. I've really missed it and apologize emphatically for my laziness. A lot has been happening in the time I've been away.

- I've finally started working on the relaunch of Comics Obscura (something I need to do to keep the dream alive.) It should be launched by the end of the year with the first issue hopefully in early 2011. I'm going to build a solid base that the idea can flourish on. Over this past winter I finally started to deal with some issues (brought on by the Comics Obscura debacle from last June) that I didn't realize I had. It was part of the reason I disappeared from this blog for so long.

-The Tao of Snarky has gone back to the Drawing board for some reworking on the script and story to provide the best story possible, after working for so long with page restrictions we got into a compressed storytelling mode. It kinda felt like the story was being vomited onto the page when we started doing more than six pages at a time. It's all for the better trust me. I'll post more info as we work it out.

- I've started work on a story by Jeremy Dunckel titled: A Throne of Refuse. It's a dark psychological trip that Is a solid story. This is going to be the next sequential work I'll be publishing.

- Kurt Spatrisano is currently working on a script based on one of my story concepts. It's the tale of a soldier dealing with his emotions that plays of the concept "We never give children enough credit for what they can understand." I've been mulling this over for a while, earlier this year Kurt and i were sitting down and I brought it up, Kurt made some good comment about it and I asked if he would write it. I can't wait to get started on it.

- I've made a decision about my blog-posting irregularities. The blog will be updated every Tuesday night by 9:00pm (est) with a new post and new art. I figure this way I can devote some time to making your visit here as entertaining and enjoyable as possible (basically not leave a hastily scrawled post)

Now I have something to share. right before Motor City Comic Con I threw up a question on my Facebook requesting ideas to draw for a new print. There were many great ideas, one of my favorites being Space Teddy Roosevelt (project in the works, probably a web-comic,) but then something magical happened... Joe Foo made a statement "Betty White vs, Wolverine"... needless to say pencils and inks were done the next night and colors were finished the night after.

So without further ado... Betty White vs. Wolverine

I look forward to seeing everyone here every Tuesday night.

Thanks for joining me and entertaining my prattle.

-Jay Jacot

COMICS REVIEWED BY TONY ISABELLA

2009-10-19T18:53:00.005-04:00

Just quick little post...

I dropped of copies of The Chase: A Twist of Fate and the Tao of Snarky compilation to Tony Isabella while at Mid-Ohio Con. For those of you who don't know who Tony is or have never heard of him he's a fantastic guy who has put out some great work in his 31 year career in the Comics field and is rigorously reviewing new comics all the time.

To find out what he thought just click on the link at the bottom of this post.

While your at it check out Max Ink's website and Tony's review of Max's fine comic BLINK (shown to the right you can click through the image as well to go to Max's website).

The best part is that if you want to see some of Max's work in print he'll send you a free mini comic.

But, be warned... Blink is like a drug, once you get a taste you're going to want more... luckily Max provides. Damn the pusher man... and thank him all at the same time...

You'll also find a review of the :01 (First Second) crew's STUFFED!, this is a book I can't wait to read and just need to find the time to get down to my local shop and snag a copy.

http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/back20091019.shtml

-Jacot

MID-OHIO CON follow-up

2009-10-19T00:13:00.006-04:00

It's been two weeks since MOC (Mid-Ohio Con) and I'm just getting to the update, where does the time go?

Anywho...

First off big thanks to the Lansing Road Crew for MOC. They consisted of Rob Forest, Ryan Claytor, Dean Stahl, and Jonathan D Gordon. Getting there was easy... Getting Back... not so much. That's a story for another time though.

Let's start off info about the show with a huge "Thanks" and "Great getting to know you" To Justin Casteneda and The crew from Mutant Cactus.

Justin has put out two books so far When I Was Little... and When I was Little Too. These are great reads and take you back a step or two the Art is great and corresponds really well with the statements about when Justin was little. Be sure to to check out his blog (http://justincastaneda.blogspot.com) and his book's blog (http://wheniwaslittlebook.blogspot.com) for more information on his work.

The Mutant cactus crew came prepared with their slew of awesome buttons. They also brought another product to the plate... a comic called TALES OF AWESOME (Story by Derek Watson, Art by Robert Gant, and Lettering by Danny Cooper.) For the first book put out by the crew I commend them they did a fantastic job. The story is about a distopian future where Robots are built and programed to help clean up the mess humans have created. You can only see how well this could turn out right? Well check out the Mutant Cactus site (http://mutantcactusblogs.blogspot.com) for more info and snag a copy of ToA and some buttons while you're at it.

Speaking of Mutant Cactus while standing around peddling my wares Robert Gant took an opportunity to draw me as a zombie.

I think he captured the essence of my undead self.

I'll be coloring this piece soon and starting to use it as an Avatar on Facebook and maybe here as well. Especially with Halloween coming soon I think it's only the proper thing to do.

Below is also some commissions and sketches that I did over the weekend First of was a penciled Green Arrow, it was the first of the day and I was a little uncomfortable starting to work with it but in the end I'm happy with how it turned out.

Next up was a sketch of Hellboy. Now, I love drawing Hellboy but when it was requested to draw Hellboy drinking from a small Teacup, I was floored... I just love this image. It was done for John Scrudder who is associated with the project Cerebus TV, be sure to stop over and check out what's going on with our favorite Aardvark. (http://www.cerebustv.com)

Lastly was a commission I got before the doors even opened Saturday morning. It was requested for me to draw Batgirl from the TV show being attacked by an octopus underwater getting her Scuba Gear and utility belt taken off by the eight armed culprit.

I loved this challenge I completed the commission late Saturday in the lobby of our hotel while the rest of the MOC road crew was crashed out.

Good event, good friends, fantastic weekend...

I'm lookin' forward o next year.

-Jacot

MID-OHIO CON

2009-09-28T18:30:00.005-04:00

I'll be tabling at Mid-Ohio Con this weekend, if you're in the area or feel like making a trek stop on out and have some fun. You'll be able to find me in the Creator's Commons at table cc19 (http://www.bankstreet.com/mocfiles/moc_2009_floorplan.pdf)

New art Coming soon. I'm still doing some (and redoing) work I can't release yet.

-Jacot

Sesquicentennial Celebration of Lansing’s Old Town

2009-09-09T23:54:00.004-04:00

So last week I was tapped to do a poster for the upcomming Sesquicentennial Celebration of Lansing’s Old Town in Lansing, MI. Here's what I put together.

If you're around the Lansing area feel free to head on down to old town and partake in what old town has to offer, here's the text from the press release.

Sesquicentennial Celebration of Lansing’s Old Town All Events Are Free and Open to the Public

Saturday, Sept. 19: "The Lansing Sound: What Is It, Where Is It Headed?" With David Stowe, Rodney Whitaker, Larry Cosentino, and Mike Stratton, 1-3 pm, Perspective2.

Sunday, Sept. 20: A Program in Honor of Robert Busby. With the MSU Jazz Professors, 2:30-4:30pm, Creole Gallery.

Wednesday, Sept. 23: Found in Translation: Poetry from around the World. With Ruelaine Stokes. 7:30-9pm, Creole Gallery.

Thursday, Sept. 24: Premiere of the Specters of Lansing. A documentary by MSU faculty and students. 7:30-9pm, Studio 1210.

Friday, Sept. 25-Saturday, Sept. 26: UAW Art and History Exhibit. 10am-4pm, Studio 1210.

Friday, Sept. 25: Schooling: Tejano Style. With Rene' Meave of Los Bandits of Michigan and Juve Aldaco of El Grupo Aldaco. Reception to follow. 8-11 pm, Perspective2.

Saturday, Sept. 26: "Voices of Old Town: Variations on a History." A play by MSU faculty and students based on oral histories, 8-10 pm, Perspective2.

Sunday, Sept: 27: Architectural Tour, 2-4pm, MessageMakers.

Sponsored by the Program in American Studies, the Public Humanities Collaborative, Chicano/Latino Studies, and the Department of Theater at Michigan State University; the Old Town Business & Art Development Association; and the Old Town Commercial Association.

With generous support from the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University and the American Studies Association.

-Jacot

Lady Lindsay's Super Amigurumi

2009-09-08T01:03:00.002-04:00

So one day my buddy Jon Gordon's wife sent me a pic of a Wolverine she crocheted... Here I stood staring at my this image on my phone at this cute Wolverine with Pipe Cleaner claws.

I found this little figure very endearing...

Since then she's created many more Heros and Villains and has her own shop which can be found here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5358237

Be sure to click on over to check out her site. Each of the amigurumi are really well done and come highly recomended as gifts.

I've taken the liberty of posting some pic's from Lady Linsay's storefront... I really like the Daredevil and Bullseye... What can I say I have a little softspot for this hero-villain feud...

-Jacot

E.G.G. Pinup

2009-09-07T01:39:00.003-04:00

I guess with a title like that you might need a little more of an explanation.

E.G.G., or Ed G. Gunn, is character created by Rob Forest. He's a Hard Boiled detective that services Stark City as a private investigator.

Rob is putting out a new issue of EGG titled "The Trouble with Dames" with this new publication he asked if anyone would like to do Pinups for the book and to make a long story short here's what I did...

Check out Rob's E.G.G. blog here http://eggnoir.blogspot.com he's got a lot of great stuff on there including his unique style and his noir-ish homages. You should also find another pinup by fellow LADDie Jon Gordon.

-Jacot

Green Lantern Colors

2009-08-28T03:34:00.002-04:00

Just finished up Colors on the Green Lantern post I did a while ago. It's done in time for the Cherry Capital Con (www.cherrycapitalcon.com) which I'll be tabling at this weekend.

I've been having a lot of fun developing my coloring style and relieved as to how easy it's starting to come to me. Enjoy and let me know what you think...

-Jacot

Wolverine Colors are done!

2009-08-25T23:38:00.004-04:00

As promised here's the color version of the Wolverine Pin-up. I would of had this piece done and posted last night but was feeling a little under the weather. Here it is now though... Hope you enjoy (as always click on the image to open a larger version in a new window)...

I'm working on finishing some more posters before this weekend. the posters as well as this wolverine will be available for Cherry Capital Con.

I'm still toying with color everyday, any comment or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

-Jacot

Working on Wolverine Colors

2009-08-24T01:08:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to put up a quick post...

I'm getting things together and finishing up some color pin-up work. I'll be attending the Cherry Capital Con in Traverse City, MI this weekend and want to have some new posters to push.

I'm going to be posting my new posters here as I complete them. First the line art will be posted then the colors.

I'll be doing these until after the con. Then I've got to punch out some work and get a webcomic page setup over at webcomicsnation.com for Rick Schlaack's "The Empty Corner" I'm doing "grays" over his line art and setting up the webcomic page as well. We'll be posting new pages twice a week until the story is done. Then the story will be collected in a graphic novel.

Here's the line art for a Wolverine piece I've been meaning to finish for quite some time. This is all part of my "backlog" of work I want to get clear so there's no distractions with future production.

Be back soon...

-Jacot

Old Color Work

2009-08-19T01:18:00.002-04:00

Thought I'd drop a little line for everyone...

Here's some old color work I did from late last year... It's when I first started playing around with a "modern" Comic coloring style...

I've been working on some projects that I can't post here, I'm itching to show this work though and am currently waiting on permission to post the images... hopefully it comes soon.

Jacot

Samurai Colors

2009-08-09T03:19:00.003-04:00

Just finished a quick color job using some of the new techniques and theories... I stayed more realistic than design oriented with the color.

Let me know what you think

-Jacot

SAMURAI CONCEPT

2009-08-08T22:55:00.003-04:00

Here's a quick little piece I did at this weeks LADD meeting.

I'm setting the piece up for colors right now and will post them soon. Earlier today I had the opportunity to sit down with Jason Howard and get a little hands on tutoring with how he creates and approaches his colors. My mind was spinning with information that I had to get down on paper. I feel very focused and finally have direction to define my coloring style.

A lot of the previous post will be getting color soon, I have some jobs to get out of the way first. But they will be coming soon... I feel half on the verge of insanity with so much in my head begging to come out.

So without any further ramblings (so I can get back to work) here's the piece from LADD.

-Jacot

24 HOUR COMIC OFF TO PRESS

2009-08-04T22:06:00.007-04:00

Well I finally broke down and put my 24 hour comic in print. I will have issues back in time to go to the Cherry Capital Con in Traverse city later this month.

To find out more about my 24 hour comic experience click here or flow this link http://j2comics.blogspot.com/2008/11/first-post.html.

Here's the new cover I created for the publication. I wanted a simple yet strong design. I originally had the dark blue dropped out and replace with white to create a strong negative presence. However it wasn't rich enough in color, and really just appeared to be flat. Below you'll see the final for print.

As soon as I have this up on Indy Planet I'll let everyone know.

Bonus Material: Here's jam pages the LADDies did for each of the sponsors...

Decker's Coffee

Downtown Subs

Cottage Inn Pizza

Brannigan Brothers

Grand Art Supply

Issue 4 of Comics Obscura is out as well and as soon as I have that up on Indy Planet I'll get a post up about it, so stay tuned.

I'll be back with more posts soon, I'm trying to get permission to show some of the new pieces I've been working on for a client.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out the stuff let me know what you think.

-Jacot

Quick post from L.A.D.D.

2009-07-17T00:29:00.006-04:00

Here's a piece I was playing around with last night at the LADD meeting.

Less playing around and more real production coming soon... I've almost broken some bad old habits of mine.

-Jacot

It's been a while

2009-07-14T18:52:00.002-04:00

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted...

I've dropped the ball...

I've been keeping myself busy thought writing content for the new Comics Obscura Website including submission guidelines and new contracts for submissions.

I also took some time this past weekend and changed the setup of my office in our studio. It was some work reorganizing but in the end it's a good change and will help me stay on task with producing work.

I'll have some new stuff up soon as well as some updates on Knights of Columbus and Snarky work. I've been working a lot on my style, giving it a little refinement. i had some great words of wisdom from Jason Howard at the last LADD meeting and it's really pushed my work and how I'm producing it.

It's fun getting all the kinks out of my work and getting feedback about what people like and what they don't like.

Well gotta go do some more organizing... I'll be posting some art soon.

-Jacot

A Very Rob Snarky

2009-06-30T23:32:00.002-04:00

Heh... just checked out my friend Rob Forest's blog and got quite a surprise.

He gave his patent pending "Rob" touch to my dear character Snarky.

Hop on over to his blog and take a peak, his blog can be found at: http://eggnoir.blogspot.com/

For a more direct path to the posts click on the following links: Blogpost 1 - Blogpost 2

-Jacot

I'M BACK!!!

2009-06-30T18:44:00.006-04:00

Hey everybody...

Good news, I got rid of the Gremlin in my computer this means more art coming soon!!!

Someone once said "always to be sure to have a backup plan."... well I'm here to say (in regards to my computer and system) I have a backup plan, a contingency plan, and a backup to my contingency plan. Barring some unfortunate incident with hardware I'll should have minimized downtime.

So keep an eye out I'll have new art posted soon, and to make your trip here not totally wasted on my ramblings here's a little something new...

-Jacot

Falling...

2009-06-19T02:09:00.005-04:00

I've finally revisited this piece and finished the inks. It'll be going to colors in the near future. After more Knights of Columbus work.

Let me know what you think...

Now, I would have had this up earlier but I seem to have a small gremlin running around on my motherboard. I've got it cornered though, not much longer now till the issues resolved.

I just hope the gremlin didn't get wet...

-Jacot

Interviews from S.P.A.C.E.

2009-06-14T19:32:00.005-04:00

Thought I'd post a link to some interviews that I did during SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) in Columbus OH.

First is a video interview with the Underground Video Network

The other is an interview done with Comic Related. I really enjoy the Comic related crew and am currently working on creating an Artist Forum. Follow the link below to hear the interview.

I'm working on getting some new things together to post, it's been busy reorganizing everything and really solidifying the relaunch of the Comics Obscura website.

Until next time.

-Jacot

COMICS OBSCURA MEETINGS R.I.P.

2009-06-08T20:06:00.010-04:00

I'd like to take a moment of my time to address some recent events.

As of June, 7th 2009 the Comics Obscura meetings are no more.

No that doesn't mean there's not a group of people who meet at Gone Wired Cafe Sunday nights it's just they are now known as Dark Corner Productions.

I'm very proud of everyone who has decided to form a conglomerate and wish them well on their endeavors.

I however will not be involved in the Sunday meetings any more, I have other projects which I can dedicate my time to which are much more personally and socially satisfying. By social I don't mean social gatherings but truly getting a chance to help out those that want to create and increase the output of quality work into society.

Now I'm left with a nearly insurmountable task... to recreate the Comics Obscura name.

You see the name Comics Obscura has become a Joke that's being slung across counters at comic book shops with laughter following the phrase "did the next issue of Comics Obscura come out this week?".

to give you a sense of how this became a joke here's the release dates of the first four issues.

Issue #1: December 16th, 2006

Issue #2: April 28th, 2007

Issue#3: February 23, 2008

Issue#4: May 20th, 2009

You'll notice publications taking longer towards the end, various creators were taking on more responsibility and using less time to produce. These creators were relied on for "submissions" into the first few issues of Comics Obscura as the stories were "to be continued". These stories were guaranteed a spot in each issue of Comics Obscura. This created a false "submission" guideline and caused many prospective contributors to turn towards other avenues to show their work to the public. This limited the amount of submissions being received and reduced the number of people coming to the meeting who want to produce.

Now during this time there were three things happening... stagnation, procrastination, and frustration. The frustration was on my part and I had enough of it. Last year after multiple failed deadlines mounting frustration and the loss of readership I made a decision.

The decision was to no longer be the leader of the Comics Obscura group. The group was left to their own devices, setting their own deadlines and organizing the comic. I had lost too much time focused on other creators work and I hadn't given enough of my time producing my own work. Unfortunately when it came down to finishing issue four I was once against tossed into the lead of organizing the publication and come deadline (by deadline I mean the absolute last date to have the publication submitted to allow enough time to print the issue and get it back in time for Motor City Comic Con) submissions were still late.

For a long time at these meetings I've made the statement that the publication known as Comics Obscura is me. The group was always another entity... It was supposed to be a gathering of like minded individuals to help each other produce work, not a business.

This brings me to another point: communication.

It seems no matter how many times I stated that the meetings and the Comic are two separate entities, it fell upon deaf ears. After reading a post over at my friend Rick Schlaack's blog it was finally recognized that just this past Sunday the Comics Obscura meetings and the publication are no longer affiliated. This came as a surprise to me, even a shock i would go as far to say.

When did this become an event?

Why was a separation of affiliation ever needed?

I don't know the answers to these questions but I guess sometimes questions are better left unanswered (though I have made comments on Rick's blog, fell free to read the post and my comments here, since this post the blog mentioned was pulled down the reply to the post being deleted can be seen here: http://thepenguin12.blogspot.com/2009/06/snafu.html Note - 6/19/09: the intial post that was once deleted has been reposted here: http://thepenguin12.blogspot.com/2009/06/times-they-are-achangin_18.html)

I have other things to say but will retain that information for another day, so in light of the separation of affiliation I would like to make an announcement...

I should actually say a solution...

The Comics Obscura Anthology is a short story comic now to be based entirely on submissions.

All stories must be 2-8 pages long and be "done in one" this doesn't mean you can have reoccurring characters it's only that the stories have to open and close in the allotted space (Kurt Spatrisano hit the nail on the head with this idea over a year and a half ago, luckily some of the creators took almost a year and a half to produce this last issue.)

The website is being reworked and relaunched later this summer (Until the website is relaunched all traffic will be directed to this blog for updates.) It will contain submission guidelines, contracts, links to contributors, links to purchase the various publications, links to purchase digital copies of the publications, and a new forum based around getting creative teams together. This last part is what the meetings on Sunday were partly about the other part was a gathering of like minded individuals getting together to help each other produce work. Now the meetings have become a new entity entirely.

Truly It's a new day for Comics Obscura and myself as a publisher and creator.

I'm looking to fill in the emptiness that was created from the deterioration of the Sunday night meetings as they became more of a social gathering and less about production. Many creators came out for one night and never returned. I'm looking to build a community of comic creators and have made many friends who are working hard to provide quality work and bring the comics medium to the public eye.

I also would like to begin a gathering/workshop one night a month that has guest speakers and creators who come in and explain their production and creation processes. I would like to leave enough time during these sessions for a Q&A panel involving each presentation to get the community more actively involved. I will probably be the moderator of each of the sessions.

Let me know what you think? I'd love to hear some feedback regarding these ideas and the events that have taken place.

Here's something I need to say: You, the person reading this right now, it's because of you that I create new work. Without you I wouldn't be able to produce the Comics Obscura books or any other publication under the Comics Obscura title. Even if you've never bought a single thing I've produced, it's because of you I produce these. If I ever loose sight of creating work you enjoy, please, let me know.

Keep your eyes peeled there's plenty more stuff to come.

-Jacot

KOC Digital Fun

2009-06-06T00:57:00.001-04:00

Working on some projects right now that I can't publish here... yet...

So I just wanted to toss this quick little diddy out there...

I played around with colors and toning as well as inserting a background.

Be back soon,

-Jacot

Portfolio Pieces

2009-06-03T11:58:00.003-04:00

Back in 2004 I applied to get into The Kubert School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. I thought I'd share some of my pieces that were submitted in the portfolio.

First will come the image and then the name and description of the piece as required by the portfolio submission.

(click on the images to open a larger image in a new window)

Sitting Woman

Pencil on Newsprint 18”x24”

12-minute study, capturing the female model sitting in a chair, with the pure enjoyment of the joke that was told. 2001

Glimpse of Beauty

Pencil on Newsprint 18”x24”

12-minute study, Female sitting in chair the position chosen on the subtleties of the face just past the hair. 2001

Anger in Ink

Brush pen on Newsprint 18”x24”

20 Minute study, Female model exhuming negativity, chose to capture this feeling and the hard lighting with fast harsh lines. 2001

Lazarus Design

Pencil, Blue Pencil, and Ink on paper

A conglomeration of multiple character sketches done in the preparation of a self published comic book. This character was to be one of two main protagonists. Pasted together using scans and Painter 7.0. 2002-2004

Morgan Design

Pencil, Blue Pencil, and Ink on Paper

A conglomeration of multiple character sketches done in the preparation of a self published comic book. This character was to be the main antagonist. Pasted together using scans and Painter 7.0. 2002-2004

Alastor Design

Pencil, Blue Pencil, and Ink on paper

Miscellaneous Comic Design

Pencil, Blue Pencil, and Ink on paper

A conglomeration of multiple character sketches that were to play roles in the story of a self published comic book. Pasted together using scans and Painter 7.0. 2002-2004

Agents of Fate Cover

Digital Media

This piece was to be the cover for the first issue of a self published comic book entitled agents of fate. All of the art on this piece were done by hand on the computer using Painter 7 and an Intuous 2.0 pad. This image is to represent the three main characters. Morgan stands in the middle, “The Thinker” represents Alastor, and the dragon statue represents Lazarus. 2004

Japanese Screen

Digital Media

Hand drawn on the computer using Painter 6 and an intuous 2.0 drawing tablet. This piece was created with the essence of the Japanese folding screens; each panel could be separated and held up as an individual piece. 2002

Unfortunately I was not able to attend the Kubert school due to lack of funding. However the experience was worth it. It made me realize I already had a lot of the skills that would havebeen developed at the Kubert School.

I started to look at my weaknesses and found many things I needed to work on. From there I started to teach myself various techniques. I referenced many great books for material and started dissecting comic pages to find various for storytelling devices.

It's a never ending process and I'll be a student of the Comic medium until the day I die...

But what a life it will be.

-Jacot

The Vendor Client relationship - in real world situations

2009-05-30T13:59:00.007-04:00

Sorry no images this time... just found something that I had to share.

So here I was perusing my standard blog reading material and I ran into this over at Tom Richmond's "The Mad Blog" (if you haven't checked out his stuff you'll probably recognize his work pretty quickly, especially if you know who Alfred E. Neuman is.)

I don't think I can say anything more than what Tom says about this video. It's a great piece of work, just click on the link below to Tom's blog and catch the video.

Let me know what you think!

-Jacot

Community Dance Project 2008: Silent Confessions

2009-05-30T00:11:00.005-04:00

Last summer I had a great opportunity dropped into my lap. Early in 2008 I was speaking with friend Matt Bebermeyer and we got talking about combining fine art and dance. Little would I know that this would turn into a fantastic project come summertime with the Community Dance Project (a fantastic project put together through Happendance)

I got partnered up with Andrew Amos to help combine dance and traditional art. Upon our first meeting we immediately went into the concept of providing imagery to help set mood for the dance. We quickly found that we were going to need to tell a story to make this work. we each brainstormed and soon had a concept: The five stage of grief. Now cam the hard part how to make it work. Well he ended up getting five dancers involved, one for each stage of grief.

Now all we had to do was tell a story

I quickly surmised that each of the stages (dancers) needed a corresponding color.

Well this is kinda how the story came out. (in lieu of video I'll explain the story after each image.) During the production I queued the images to come up with each piece of music, one for each image. So kinda in the same respect you'll see the image first and then the events that took place. Just for informational posterity the piece is titled "Silent Confessions"

We start out at a funeral where one of the dancers is lying dead (this dancer will represent denial, color: orange) The other four dancers (each representing a different stage of grief) are standing above her body. Denial seems to get up and finds herself confined and doesn't understand why. The other dancers exit the stage

(Enter anger, color Red)

Anger confronts Denial and starts a very combative sequence where we find Denial defending herself from anger onslaught. Anger exits and Denial lays down at the center of the stage.

(enter bargaining, color: green; and depression, color: blue)

Denial is sleeping, Depression is fawning over her wishing he could be with her, bargaining is throwing herself and depression. Denial gets up and starts going about her day. Bargaining continues to throw herself ad Depression but he only sees Denial. upon getting to close Denial notices Depression and rebukes him, Depression slowly breaks down as his world has been destroyed. Bargaining consoles Depression but his worlds already come crashing down. Exit Bargaining and Depression (depression exits while convulsing) Denial lays at the center of the stage again.

(Enter acceptance, color: white)

Acceptance comes and stands over the lifeless body of denial. She starts playing with body in sort of a playful, comedish, morbid sort of dance that's a little disturbing but fun none the less. Denial is limp the entire time and eventually acceptance has had her fill of fun, she places the body back at the center of the stage.

(Enter Anger, Bargaining, and Depression to join Acceptance on the stage)

Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance all stand over Denial's body as at the beginning of the dance. Each stage of grief exits the stage exhibiting physical emanations of the stage they represent. Leaving Denial alone on the stage as the lights go down and the image fades.

It was really fun to work on this project and I hope to find a video of this to share with everyone but for now you must live with my images and rough story of the events that transpired. In the end we wanted to leave the audience questioning "Why was denial dead?" and "Who did it?"

It was a great experience that I was glad to be apart of. It was amazing to see the music, dance, and images blend so well together and tell a story.

Hopefully I'll get another crack at a project like this again soon.

-Jacot

Page 2 Colors

2009-05-25T11:46:00.003-04:00

So here we are, nice, brief, and as promised...

Page 2 colored by Jonathan D. Gordon...

(click on the image to open in a new window)

Enjoy,

-Jacot

Knights of Columbus Pages

2009-05-25T03:22:00.005-04:00

So it's Memorial Day weekend, and Jonathan D Gordon and myself made a plan...

To start work on our allegory of our trip to SPACE... with a few twists...

I won't go into to much detail but this is the first real work Jon and I have done together so we wanted to run a few tests...

Here's the first one...

Art by: Jacot

Colors by: Jonathan D. Gordon

Now with how well those turned out I turned to Laying out the pages for the story itself... Here's the first two I completed... the funny thing they're actually page 2 and 3.

Page 2: Art by Jacot; Limited Colors by: Gordon

Page 3: Art by: Jacot

Page 4 Art by: Jacot

Jon's working on colors for Page 2 as we speak... I'll post 'em once he's done...

One word... WOW.

-Jacot

MOTOR CITY COMIC CON 2009

2009-05-17T21:23:00.005-04:00

First things first... A huge thank you to everyone at this year's Motor City Comic Con it was a very successful event for me and I'm glad I got a chance to meet so many new people.

I was lucky enough to be placed around a great group of creators. To my immediate left was Rob Forest from E.G.G. Hardboiled Detective. To my right was Ryan Claytor of Elephant Eater Comics. Beside him Eric Wilmoth from Archetypal Images. Behind us Jeremy Bastian, whose book will be coming out shortly titled "Cursed Pirate Girl", and David Peterson of Mouseguard fame.

Joining me on both Saturday and Sunday was Jonathan D Gordan who started experimenting with using the Marvel Essentials Books as coloring practice (If he posts some images I'll link to 'em). The pages he colored turned out amazing!!!

Saturday went splendidly and was day of selling issues and prints (as well as one con sketch to a friend Steve Jencks of Lost Highway check out his stuff at www.dchighway.com). Saturday night found me printing more business cards and hunting through my house for more Hulk and Wolverine prints (I had 3 remaining out of 18 that I started with Friday).

Sunday was incredible, not as busy as Saturday but I spent most of my day doing con sketches for some patrons. Here's what was requested in order (each time they came back to check the progress new sketches were added on) Powergirl, a Hulk, a Wolverine, and a battle worn Supergirl. I was able to snap some photos of them before I said goodbye to these pieces and without further ado I present them now...

Thanks again everyone who attended, this was the best year yet that I've tabled at the Motor City Convention.

-Jacot

The Tao Snarky Compilation

2009-05-11T22:26:00.002-04:00

The Tao of Snarky Compilation is now available on Indy Planet.

Click here for more info or on the image below.

Hope you enjoy...

-Jacot

Saturday...

2009-05-10T02:11:00.003-04:00

So here I am after a great day of fun...

Ironically it involved Jonathon Gordon again.

Jon and I spent about six hours up at The Grand Cafe/Sir Pizza in Lansing "Old Town" district. I blue-lined three pages for the next issue of Snarky, almost completed the background for a new Snarky image (to be displayed here soon), and finished the day by seeing and absolutely amazing "reboot"of the Star Trek franchise.

Seriously, if you haven't seen Star Trek yet then make time in your busy lives to sit down and enjoy this movie. Well written from beginning to end this is a movie for "Trekkies" and people who have never seen a single moment of any Star Trek ever. Truly amazing, I'm only sad I can't watch the next instalment right now...

In other news I will be at Motor City Comic Book convention this weekend, look for my table, I should have Comics Obscura issue #4 back from Ka-Blam.com by the show, I also have copies of The Tao of Snarky Compilation still available. (Post will be made regarding both of these objects later this week).

Before Jon and I left The Grand Cafe I wanted to draw a quick little diddy...

To give a little background Jon asked me a question, "If you could only write and draw for one character in the Marvel Universe who would it be?" Without hesitation my response was "Hands down... Wolverine." followed shortly by..."Though I would really enjoy to give Cyclops the credit he deserves a a character and how much he's grown over the years." Now after saying this I was staring at my supplies and looking at my Copic gray tone markers and had an urge to work with them... A few minutes later I was gray-toning an inked Cyclops image... and here it is.

Until next time...

-Jacot

Free Comic Book Day

2009-05-03T19:36:00.003-04:00

Just a real quick update...

Thanks everyone who came out to Clem's Collectibles for free comic book day. It was a great chance to meet you and see some familiar faces...

Hope to see everyone again next time I'm up there.

One other thing...

I finished up a Green Lantern Sketch that a gentleman commissioned me for, so here' the first look at it for the public...

-Jacot

Images of SPACE

2009-04-25T21:42:00.010-04:00

So the following images aren't really from SPACE more of the time spent Saturday night winding down with Jonathon D Gordan while Ryan Claytor and Eric Wilmoth crashed in our hotel room...

Speaking of which here's a view of the pool from our window...

Don't worry John and I had a little pool party later on in the evening, little hard to float when there's no water... and having to navigate rebar to get to the pool.

Jon and I wanted to get a little closer look at this "work in progress" so we headed down to the courtyard (of course leaving Ryan and Eric to their dreams of cotton candy and unicorns. Love ya guys...)

Passing the aforementioned watering hole, sans water, Jon and I came across another thing of beauty that captured our attention and kept us going. You see there was a fence surrounding the courtyard and below you find an image of the beautiful fence... A Slightly reminiscent image of Shawshank... but, you know hey, beauty is beauty right?

That's merely the tip of the iceberg... Crossing under the overpass Jon and I saw another image nearly as striking...

A Waffle House, Strip Club, and Super 8 Motel (not pictured) all within 50 ft of each other... I love Columbus! (thought technically i think we were in a burb)

Jon and I spotted a bowling alley across the road so we went and rolled a few games (Jon laid down the law against my pathetic excuse for bowling.) After that we finally moved onto what our initial goal was... to purchase items that we forgot to bring with us, so back across the street we headed to the GIANT EAGLE (that happened to be right next to the previously mentioned trio: Bed, Boobies, and Breakfast) Upon entering the store we happened to stumble into some rather important political figures... here's a picture of Jon with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Soon after we went back and joined our well rested compatriots and plotted for the next day at SPACE (Thus closing this chapter of "The Adventures of Jon and Jay").

Just to settle the imagination of those out there reading this, by the time we left we only enjoyed one part of the previously mentioned trifecta imaged...

We woke up the following morning and managed to grab a bite at the waffle house before heading back to SPACE...

-Jacot

S.P.A.C.E.

2009-04-20T23:01:00.005-04:00

I'd Like to start by saying a big thanks to everyone who attended as well as tabled at SPACE (the Small Press and Alternative Comic Expo) In Columbus, OH this past weekend.

It was a great event and a lot of fun had by all.

Early Saturday morning Ryan Claytor, Jonathon D. Gordon, and myself set off in the incomparable squirrelly. We ventured just for a little bit before we picked up Eric Wilmoth in Howell, MI.

With four men and all their convention supplies packed like sardines in a tin can, with lite oil and one of those really neat keys to peal off the top, we started the journey towards to SPACE.

Upon arriving in the fabled land of Columbus we started the first day of two. On an hour and a half of sleep I proceeded to get a chance to meet some of the greatest people and talent available from the Midwest and east coast.

The second day allowed for a lot more camaraderie amongst exhibitors, I got a chance to actually move away from my table and see what was out there. I managed a few trades with other creators and some purchases. I'm finally going to get a chance to go over them later this week, I'll review some them and put some posts up here about my thoughts on the books and where they can be found.

But I digress...

The weekend was great and I can't think of better company than some of the LADDies (Lansing Area Drink and Draw participants) If you wanna find out more info about Ryan, Jonathon, or Eric just click the links to the left of the screen.

Once again thanks to everyone who I had a chance to speak with at SPACE you really made the convention for me.

Check out some pictures from SPACE as found on Comic Related here or follow the link http://www.comicrelated.com/display.php?item=1220&story=S.P.A.C.E.%20Walkin

Now I leave this post with a little piece I created at one of the last LADD meetings... Jonathon D Gordan is physically painting a copy and I'm digitally painting a copy once I hunt down the cause of some file corruption I've been experiencing.

Until next time,

-Jacot

MSU COMICS FORUM 2009

2009-04-03T00:50:00.003-04:00

Thank you to everyone who came out and made this a great event.

The Keynote speaker David Peterson did a wonderful job with his presentation regarding Comics as a medium. For those who missed it it should be available online soon on the MSU Comics Forum website.

It was treat getting a chance to meet new people and see many familiar faces at the artist alley, thank you to all the creators who were in attendance they helped make the forum what it was. A list of the guests for the artist alley can be found here.

Thanks to all the panel attendees and panelers (or is it panelees?), if you missed the panels they are available to listen to online here.

Congratulations to Chris Houghton who won the Original Comic Submission competition with "Station 8" if you've never seen Chris' work take a few moments to check out his blog. He's an amazing artist keep your eyes on him over the years, sooner than you think his work will be all over the place.

Thanks to all of the other submitters to the Original Comic Submission, there were many great entries, the top ten will be posted soon on the MSU Comics Forum website. The top 10 will also be collected in a publication to help promote the event for next year.

Speaking of next year...

Keep an eye out for announcements about the MSU Comics Forum 2010.

Thanks again to everyone who attended, those who were unable to attend, and those who supported the efforts set forth by the Organizers and Sponsors.

-Jacot

ST BALDRICKS DAY

2009-04-03T00:31:00.004-04:00

Well I did it...

I cut of my hair...

Took donations for children's cancer research...

Bagged 5 oz. of hair to donate to wigs for kids...

and here's the proof

WHO WANTS ME TO SHAVE MY HEAD?

2009-03-04T18:37:00.002-05:00

Alright here's the deal, there's this great event that takes place every year called St Baldrick's Day. Essentially people put up there hairy heads to be shaved and ask for donations to support pediatric cancer research. A great cause and a great event. If you wanna know more about the event here's the website www.stbaldricks.org to donate click here

This year yours truly is putting his mane of hair on the line and is looking for your support. (actual picture coming soon)

Sunday March 15th 2009...

At the Claddagh Irish Pub...

I will be a shavee.

Watch as the man known as "Jay" turns into something resembling Christopher Lloyd playing Uncle Fester in the Adam's Family...

To learn more about the event or to donate to a great cause click the image above.

Thanks for your support, your laughter, and even possible gasps...

-Jacot

MSU Comics Announcement

2009-03-02T18:22:00.005-05:00

ANNOUNCING THE:

Check out the website here for more info.

This will be a 2-day event with a keynote speech on Friday March 27th and panel discussions, demonstrations, and Artist Alley the following day March 28th.

Be sure to check out the "Comic Submission" portion of the site as well... You see theres giong to be a little competition for Comic Creators. Deadline, submission guidelines, and further information can be found here.

Hope to see you there...

Hulk Vs Wolverine

2009-03-01T00:10:00.005-05:00

Here's another poster I completed for last years Motor City Con...

First the inks...

Hindsight being what it is I really should have pushed this more with the release of the Hulk Vs. DVD launch...

Anywho, I really wanted to showcase digital painting style as opposed to the flatter "cartoon like" colors from the Hellboy piece.

Hope you enjoy it let me know what you think...

-Jacot

HELLBOY

2009-02-24T23:33:00.004-05:00

Thought I'd drop a quick line out there and post a little of my old stuff.

Last year before the Motor City Con i created some new posters. I really enjoy drawing Hellboy and did this little diddy...

Well after I drew this I scanned it in and threw some colors on it.

I really wanted to use basic animated flat colors for this piece...

Hope you enjoy it...

-Jacot

I've been away too long...

2009-01-20T23:30:00.003-05:00

How time flies through the Holidays...

I apologize to all for the tardiness of my posts, I have no one to blame but myself and the needs of the family (I tried to sneak that lil bit in there for ya)

Here's a brief update and some images will be coming soon...

1. Rick Schlaak is finishing inks on a new project entitled "Redtooth", If you haven't caught me mentioning Rick before he's the one who illustrated the T-rex (That I had the pleasure of coloring.)

Redtooth will be one half of a new book comic out from Comics Obscura this year titled "Split Decisions" The book will be twenty four pages in length with two separate stories being featured (the best thing about this is we're doing two different covers one for each story.)

2. I have some images from another LADD meeting coming soon just a few touch-ups and they;ll be posted here...

3. I don't know why I started this silly number system, I really only had time and 2 quick tidbits of info... Though without further ado

COMING SOON:

My post op surgery of Comics Obscura since issue# 3

SPACE

The 2nd annual MSU Comics and Graphic Novels event

Comments on Fairview St. and Full length motion picture by Michael McCallum, check out the trailer at fairviewstreet.com

Redtooth Images

Some other old images to be shared with the blogging world...

And much, much... er... well some more stuff as things continue to happen

-Jacot

L.A.D.D. Drawings

2008-12-07T11:17:00.010-05:00

These are a few days behind schedule so you'll have to forgive me.

First off "What is LADD?"

LADD, or Lansing Area Drink and Draw, is the artists who were involved at the 24 Hour Comic Day Event at Clem's Collectibles this past year (see my post about 24hr comics day hear).

We decided that we need to keep the creative forces in touch.

Hence, LADD was born...

Here are some of my sketches from this past LADD event.

First off a random monkey who ran out of poo...

Ryan Claytor suggested something about a curiously shaped back massager...

Here's my rendition (I don't think it's what he had in mind.)

A concept image of the "Chaos" element for one of my projects still in the works...

To close it all off here is total randomness. I started with the teeth and the head.

The fact that it was knitting was just something funny that popped in my head...

Hope everyone enjoyed them,

-Jacot

Ryan Claytor's Art Exhibit

2008-11-30T01:13:00.008-05:00

I thought I'd get up a quick post and this time...

wait for it...

It's not about me (that should bring an audible gasp.)

Some of you may have read information about Ryan Claytor here before (if not, shame on you, you should read some of my previous posts). However to get the low down about Ryan check out his website www.elephanteater.com. He's an amazing comics creator and if you've never seen some of his work he has some free previews on his website as well as the option to buy some of his work and/or merchandising i.e. Elephant Eater Comics the flamethrower*

(*not actual merchandise please read disclaimer before use.)

But I digress, here's the meat of this post.

Ryan's having an event at Gone Wired Cafe in Lansing, MI, Wednesday December 3rd. It's going to be a solo art exhibit showcasing some of his work.

Stop on by and get a chance to meet Ryan. He's incredibly friendly and I'm sure you'll be able to squeeze some good conversations out of him. I'll be in attendance and hope to see others there as well.

For more info on the event click here or on the image above. While you're there take some time to peruse his website and see what he has to offer. Be sure to check out the comics section and news. Ryan has a lot of great stuff to enjoy.

-Jacot

THE OLD BECOMES NEW: Comics Obscura Issue 3

2008-11-28T09:39:00.013-05:00

AH HA!!! I have returned...

Of course that's after recovering from my tryptophan induced sleep. And now back to the third installment of "THE OLD BECOMES NEW"

For this installment I'll be talking about Comics Obscura issue number three.

All in all this issue was probably the greatest learning experience.

First off the printing.

While the traditional offset press was producing fantastic work the cost became an issue.

For those of you who are not aware about traditional offset printing the majority of your cost comes from setup. The setup usually consists of checking the files for consistency, developing the plates, mounting the plates on the press, aligning the plates (in multiple color printing), and checking ink levels as the pages go through the press. All of these things have to be done for each side of the paper being printed on. Of course this is all based off of a "camera ready copy".

A camera ready copy is the final piece ready to go to print and shot onto a negative to be "burned" onto a plate for the press. In the modern age Camera Ready is actually just a digital file in a specified format (by the printer) that requires no to minimal work (usually transferring the files to the plate making software) on the printers end to go to press.

Before I talked about cost mainly being in the setup that's because the actual printing is fast and not that labor intense (depending on the machine). You'll notice when getting quotes from printer that you'll begin to see what's called volume discount. This is essentially how you would lower the cost per unit of your print run this is because to have the machine print 3000 pages takes a little more time than it would take to print 1000. Most of the work is already done in the setup hence the cost is reduced the larger the print run.

For comics Obscura Issue 3 I decided to switch to digital print-on-demand through www.ka-blam.com. This kept my cost per unit comparable to the traditional offset prices of a lower print run. Overall the product was great we switched from a glossy paper to a standard bond paper (kinda like normal printer paper but a little heavier weight). If you're looking on printing 1 or 500+ issues for your own production you might wanna give them a shot. You can find Ka-Blam by clicking here.

Also issue# 3 brought up another interesting subject... Deadlines and dedication.

Previously all of the creators were really gung-ho about producing their work. Something interesting happened after issue 2... Everyone got lazy.

Now when I say that, I blame myself for part of it.

I had a lot of personal life events happening preventing me from staying focused on my work as well as dealing with new production issues.

However a lot of the artists involved lost focused and found other events in life to occupy their time. This took place because of that artistic hurdle of a continuing project. The simple thought of "I just wanna get this done and move on to the next part" took over and when they saw the next hurdle coming they would look elsewhere to bide their time. When this shift in attention took place it wasn't a conscious choice. The mind found something it was more interested in and the body soon followed. In a was it was a sort of escapism from what they had set out to do for themselves. Speaking of which it started to turn more to the artists no wanting to let me down, but this is a whole other subject for another time.

Comics Obscura was founded as a driven group of artists who came together to publish their works. I became involved taking the helm (due to my experience) and Comics Obscura bloomed into a professional quality production.

Taking the lead had its positives and negatives.

It was good to the fact that I started streamlining a lot of the digital process and post production work as well as expanding my studies on graphic narrative and visual storytelling.

However the downfall comes when trying to apply discipline. Communication broke down when deadlines weren't met and by that I mean personal deadlines.

Lesson: If you're going to tell someone that you are going to be done, be reasonable. If you're prone to screwing around and have other interests in life take that into consideration when setting a personal deadline. Delivering a product earlier that your deadline is better than stressing yourself out over missing the deadline.

Now that I've completely bored you until this point onto The Tao of Snarky installment three.

Issue three of Snarky is actually the first six pages of the first full issue titled The Tao of Snarky: The Cutting Edge.

For this issue I wanted to showcase my inks and not put in any tone work. I'm adding grays for the full issue but really wanted to give the pure white and black starkness of the panels a chance to shine.

The story takes off with after installment two so if you hadn't read that before scroll down and check it out.

I have a few favorite things about this issue and one right off the bat is the first page. The emotion that plays out on Snarky's face is one dread and complacency and when combined the words you get a sense of how he feels.

I'd love to here what everyone thinks is there favorite panels, phrases, or events from the sequential work posted and why. Not to geek it out (maybe just a little) but just to pick your collective brains and take a peak inside (without becoming a serial killer or spending the time in school to become a neurosurgeon) see how some of the work is coming across.

Well that's all for now one more main installment of THE OLD BECOMES NEW: After issue# 3. I'll delve into where Comics Obscura stands right now and some major changes that have taken place since then.

Later,

-Jacot

FOLLOW-UP: XcapeCON 2

2008-11-24T23:54:00.004-05:00

Wow, what a weekend...

Thank you everyone who stopped by, from new faces to old, it was great getting to talk with you all.

Hopefully everyone who attended had a good time. All of the exhibitors and creators really made it an enjoyable weekend.

Many memorable moments were had. From the quote "Toss it in the air like a baby." and carpooling with Ryan Claytor to rubber band wars at the end of Sunday.

Once again, thank you everyone for making the weekend worthwhile and great big ol' thanks to Brian Germain and Dark Elf Designs for putting on a great show.

I hope we all can stay in touch and not wait till the next con to try and play catch up.

Oh almost forgot one more thing "DARN YOU GALAXY COMICS AND YOUR $1 BIN!!!" between Ryan and I we easily took the equivalent of a long box home (for those who don't know what a long box is trust me it's a lot of comics.)

Keep an eye out for more stuff to come though XcapeCON I made some contacts with some other great creators and it looks like we're going to have some joint projects coming out soon.

Until next time,

-Jacot

DINOSAUR COLORING FUN!!!

2008-11-17T01:40:00.006-05:00

So I've had a little problem keeping on track with my projects...

This includes but is not limited to the much needed revamping on my business card. Finishing the layout for Snarky: the Cutting Edge Issue 1. Writing and creating the rough Layout for a new "one and done" 24 page comic involving an antagonist almost everyone can understand, the Nazis. And also getting a new publication for Comics Obscura off of the ground...

Wait a minute...

This is involving that new project.

So anyways after issue 3 a great artist joined our group by the name of Rick Schlaak. He's constantly amazing me while his talent grows by leaps and bounds every time his pencil or pen nib touches the page.

Now I'm not going to give to much of the project away but I have one word for you... DINOSAURS (as if you couldn't tell by the title of this post).

Rick recently sent me some preliminary sketches he scanned in. All of the images were absolutely remarkable, however there was one that jumped out at me and begged to be colored(not literally but that would have been a sight to see). So I did.

I can't explaining to much about the project so I'll stick to basic dictation

The first image is the original scan of Rick's drawing (as I said this guys got serious talent).

The preceding image is my basic flats.

The third and final image if the final colors (sadly I saved over the mid stage file between my color flats and final, I apologize, next time I'll have it ready to post and stored in a safe place.)

Click on the images to see the image in a new window.

Enjoy,

-Jacot

CONVENTION ALERT!: Xcape Con 2

2008-11-15T19:26:00.009-05:00

Come and join myself and many other artists and creators at this years installment of the Xcape Con in Flint MI Saturday November 22nd and Sunday November 23rd. Last year they had a pretty good turnout and with a full day only costing you $8 (in advance $10 at the door) you can't find a better price.

At the convention you'll find some of the greats like one of my personal favorites: William Messner-Loebs.

Now if you're not familiar with his name you might be familiar with his work. Just take a peak into your collection and you may be surprised what he's done. He was co-writer for the MAXX w/ Sam Keith, he wrote a highly acclaimed run on Wonder Woman, and one of my personal favorites that he wrote and illustrated... JOURNEY: The Adventures of Wolverine MacAlistaire. He's worked on many more projects than this of course but those are just to name a few.

The last project listed, JOURNEY, was just released this past summer by IDW. Volume 1 (from what I can find) collects the first 9 or so issues, Volume 2 is scheduled to be released early 2009. Click here to find out more about JOURNEY. It is a fantastic read and comes highly recommended by myself I just finished reading the last issue of the series (issue 27) the other day and truly enjoyed the story of “Old Joss”. Take a moment to read some of this book and stop on by to talk with Bill. He's always doing sketches (for a cheap price considering his skill) and usually has some products to sell. Some of the best conversations that Ive had at these events have been with Bill.

Another creator of note: Ryan Claytor of Elephant Eater Comics. Ryan's recently become one of my favorite creators, choosing his life as the subjects of his stories. Now anyone who's got the fortitude to put his life out there as the context of his work already has my respect. I just read the publication of his MFA Thesis and when I finished it felt like I just got done having a conversation with Ryan. He should have a few copies of his project “And Then One Day” on hand. These are collections of his autobiographical comics. Each of the collections are a must read, even if you're not into autobiographical comics. Ryan has chosen certain points that are destined to be enjoyed in this all ages format. As well as pushing the bounds and exploring new avenues for the comics medium.

I could go on and on about the guests at this event and make this post incredibly long (as if it's not already), here's some of note (in no particular order):

Matt Busch
Eric Wilmoth
Mark Bloodworth
Uko Smith
Matt Feazell
Dark Elf Designs
Marc Wolfe
Larry Lonzby
Gemma Keech
Jason Ball
Justin Faber
and Many more...

Stop by and take a moment to talk with some of these great creators and maybe purchase an item or two (because we all love it when you do that!) Also you can find a complete list of guests and dealers at the Xcape CON website: http://XcapeCON.homestead.com/

Hope to see you there!

-Jacot

THE OLD BECOMES NEW: Part 2: Comics Obscura Issue #2

2008-11-15T17:26:00.011-05:00

The early stages of production for issue two blended with a lot of marketing and getting our names out to the public.

Marketing included a Radio interview on The Impact's Exposure program (The Impact is a diverse commercial free radio station produced through MSU, look for the podcast on 1/9/07), a couple news articles one through The City Pulse (a local Lansing free paper), and an interview found in the The Lookout (a paper published through Lansing Community College). We also had a signing at Clem's Collectibles. Also we had out first review done after Issue 2 by Eric from ThePullBox.com

All of the creators were on a high from the welcomed reception of issue 1. It helped push the creation of issue 2. #2 was scheduled to be released in March of 2007 however production issues caused a postponement and the issue was finally released in late April 2007.

The production of issue 2 brought to light many problems about how the books were put together.

First timeliness and quality of finished art.

All of the artists were really good about getting their work done (I applaud them on that). Some artists took longer and we ended up dropping 2 artists for the second issue. However, I found myself touching up the pages of multiple artists digitally leading to a longer than anticipated production time on my part.

A lot of the touch-ups had to do with ink and the various types of pens that were used. The ink that was laid down on the paper would appear to be black (in contrast to the white paper) until you look closely at lines. When looking closely there's subtle variations, some inks appear brown or just a dark gray. During scanning the intense white light picks up the subtle differences of the inks and exposes the problems. Removal of pencil lines after the ink is laid down further degraded the line work exposing more problems (I think that pun was intended). This caused problems when digitizing the lines as they would appear to be broken, dirty, or incomplete. Many hours were spent just correcting the lines of the original art digitally to reproduce the original intentions of the creators.

Tip: If you're trying to create art specifically to be reproduced get a hold of a scanner and then run some tests. Use different inks, pens, and pencils on various papers to try and find the results that you are looking for. This can take a lot of time and I'd recommend speaking with various creators and artist about what supplies they use. Pick up tips and tricks to try and make life a little easier.

Well now that I've probably bored most of you...

Onto the meat of my sequential submission for Comics Obscura issue 2.

The second installment of the Tao of Snarky.

Brad and I went into this issue with the concept of six pages in and out. A few scripts in, some editing and re-writing later I put together the following pages (click on the image to open the pages).

I just love this story. I wanted to pay homage to Eisner's The Spirit where he used one page for the title and told the story using the next 6 pages. With The Spirit some of the stories linked into each other but there was always a definitive end to each installment.

For the art I chose to take a different path than the first issue. In the first issue the grays were done on the physical page using Copic brand markers. This issue I stuck with physical inks and digital grays. For the grays I used Painter 8 and literally painted the pages using the Oil Pastel brush. I also played around a lot more with panel structure keeping it a little tighter than the first issue and presenting some unique panels as well.

One panel really stood out to me for this entire thing an ironically that's the last image. It's the quintessential exiting panel, our hero walks off into the distance bidding the audience adieu.

Let me know what you think I'd love to hear some feedback.

Now you've seen some more of the past, and have no fear once I get this out of the way I'll start posting some new things. I've been delving heavily into digital color so I've got some new pieces coming up and info on some new projects that I'm organizing and putting some work into.

So enjoy, I'll have the third installment of “LOOKING BACK”: coming soon including the third installment of the Tao of Snarky and I'll go a little bit more into the production end of Comics Obscura that brought some major production changes including the decision to go to digital printing instead of the traditional offset press.

-Jacot

THE OLD BECOMES NEW: A look back on Comics Obscura issue 1

2008-11-12T00:31:00.013-05:00

Time for another installment…

I’ve forgone posting new elements and made the executive decision to post some old stuff first. If you have seen this before hopefully it’ll be new and exciting for you to see it in a different type of media (HA! Laughed myself stupid after writing that one!). If you haven’t seen this stuff before then enjoy.

First off the following pieces are from Issue 1 of Comics Obscura.

I’d like to take a minute (or so depending on how fast you read) to talk about the introduction.

This simple two-page story was used to introduce our narrator of Comics Obscura, The Obscurationist. Choosing to write a rhythmic alliteration of verses the art came shortly after. Each of the four panels found in the rows were one solid image broken into panels to initiate a sense of time and motion. Each of the panels is given pace by the text that accompanies them. You may find this has a very strong feel for oration, that’s how we imagined the Oscurationist to be (An actor, a used car salesman, a carnival barker, etc.)

I had a lot of fun creating these two pages. Hopefully you’ll enjoy as much as still do to this day.

Now on to my main piece from Comics Obscura Issue 1… The Tao of Snarky

The story is about a detective (Snarky) who’s stuck on a foreign planet. I’m not going to give you much more now because the four pages below will pretty much set the stage for the world of Snarky.

It’s a funny thing how it came about though...

I have been working with Brad DeMaagd for a while now trying to get a few projects off the ground. This all started as a fluke detective story to grease the gears on our finally tuned machine. We tossed ideas around about what to do for a first issue. We had about three scripts written each one taking well over our four page limit we wanted to hold ourselves to. Suddenly Brad one day says “Oh yeah, here this quick little write up I did of Snarky writing in his diary…” I took one look at it read it over and simply replied “This is our first Issue.” Funny how sometimes things just fall into place. So I went to work breaking down the diary entry and pacing it for the comic. Threw images together experimenting with different styles on each page for the layout and in the end was really happy with the first installment of Snarky.

Please enjoy this four-page tale.

All in all publishing Comics Obscura issue 1 was a real positive experience. We sold a large portion of our first issue with in the first four months. We got great reviews, the individual comics were well received and the quality of the product all around was amazing. Though without the other creators the issue would not have been half as interesting, or had so much to offer over a multitude of genres.
But alas I have begun to overstay my welcome.

I’ll be posting installments two and three shortly so check back again and read them for the first time again… (if that made any sense). Plus I'll delve into my role with Comics Obscura and how's it's evolved since the first meeting over two and a half years ago.

Hold tight to your panties or your respective undergarments... there is more to come!

-Jacot

First Post & 24 hr Comic Book Day

2008-11-07T23:51:00.004-05:00

Alright Ladies and Gentleman in the Digital world....

I've finally taken the first step into online blogging. Now to keep this horribly brief I feel for my first post I'll talk about a little project I was involved in...

INTERNATIONAL 24 hour Comics Day!!!

So I'm a little late getting this out there but I had a lot of fun on October 18th, 2008. For those of you who don't know what 24 hour Comics Day is just image this... 24 consecutive hours for an individual Comic Book Creator to create a 24 page comic. That's fully written, illustrated, and edited in the 24 hour period. Almost forgot... Only preparation is inadvertent i.e. supplies, resource material, things like that. To learn more just click here.

So now you know the premise, now here's the setup. Beginning at 10 am Saturday morning seven of us set off on the challenge at Clem's Collectibles in downtown Lansing, MI. The seven comprised of Dean Stahl, Dan Harris, Ryan Claytor, Eric Wilmoth, Jason Howard, Jonathon Gordon, and myself. We were all off to a good pace (except myself I had some errands to run right off the bat. After a quick run home to get a program for my scanner and a jaunt to Grand Art Supply for blue lead I was finally on my way. It was already 11am though... 1 hour down.) Through out the day many great and wonderful people stopped in to say "hi" and witness all seven of us creating. Around 3:30-ish in the afternoon I had twelve pages "blue-lined" and had to do some "plotting" to close up my story... Of course this was done over a pint of Guinness next door at Brannigan Brothers. Forty-five minutes, an interview, and a fun chat with a drunken guy later, I was back to the races.

Late in the evening tragedy stuck. We lost Jonathan Gordon to a previous sports-related injury, he unfortunately was not able to continue and had to bow out of the challenge. The six of us plowed on throughout the night. Dean Stahl was the first to finish he closed up his story at 19 pages around 6:30am, Ryan Claytor finished his 25 page expose around 7:30 (he thought he had 24 pages but merely ended up with 2 page 16's from my understanding). Dan Harris finished around 9:30am. I myself finished at 9:59am with about 40 seconds to spare. Eric Wilmoth and Jason Howard were unable to complete their comics in the 24 hour period (though it should be noted that Jason Howard had his entire comic penciled and was working on inks when the clock struck 10am)

All in all the challenge was worth it, the experience indispensable, and the camaraderie unmatched.

With out further ado HERE is my 24 Hour Comic for all to enjoy.

More posts and images will be coming soon (after all this is my first post in a developing blog), so check back often and feel free to comment, judge, rate, berate, disassemble, enjoy, praise, or tear whatever I have to say or create to shreds a.k.a. "Tear me a knew one." Constructive criticism is appreciated and welcomed.

Well that's all for now.

Until next time,

-Jacot