Battle On

In a recent post, Drew uploaded some of his doodles. He remarked that his rendition of a cat was a subconscious remembering of Alexandre from Home Movies. Coincidentally, I'm currently poring over archives of my past work for the Daily Nexus in order to find material worthy of uploading on my website that's currently under construction. That's how I noticed a little comic called "Mr. Pants" that Drew did draw many years ago and its resemblance to the recent doodle he done did days ago. Notice the similarities with the curled tail, the circular patch of belly fur, the triangular nose and the mustache-like snout. I think he was subconsciously remembering Mr. Pants rather than Alexandre.

I probably could have gotten this week's Hullabaloo comic finished, but I'd rather not rush it. I've had ideas for various miscellaneous comics that had to remain on the back burner. Fortunately, I needed something I could bust out for filler while I finish off the current Hullabaloo story arc.

In other news, this is my hundredth blog post. It's almost a fitting milestone, considering how I've recently been busy prepping for some big changes in all aspects of my life. I finally got some relative stability over the past couple of months, but I feel it's time to once again start exploring other possibilities. I'm content at the moment, but not exactly where I want to be for the rest of my life. It's almost a shame realizing how long I've been adjusting to life after college. At least now I've found my direction and drive.

So researching for this current story arc has caused me to watch more episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" than I'd be satisfied with for an entire lifetime. At first, I thought I disliked the show because of its overly soapy nature or its swiping of "Scrubs." Now I'm beginning to realize it has to do with the writing, and specifically with the dialogue. At times it seems to be trying too hard to be witty by coining new phrases and in-jokes. Add to that the nonchalant delivery of the dialogue by the cast, and it starts to get really annoying. It's not something unique to "Grey's" either. I've felt the same way about portions of "Clerks 2," "Juno" and the later seasons of "Buffy" and "Angel." I feel if "Grey's" scaled it back a bit, I might actually start enjoying the show.

Updating on Saturdays feels too close to the wire in regards to the contest I'm having with Megan. Plus, someone recommended I handwrite the text and draw the bubbles around them so that it would mesh better with the art. If I can get the strip done earlier, then I should be able to try those changes. We'll see if I can get things together for this upcoming week.

Also, I just started work on a personal website. Hopefully it will be ready for launch in April.

So here's the second part of the current Hullabaloo story arc. If you're too lazy to scroll down to the post immediately before this one, the girls are currently fighting over what to watch on television. Tress and Austin are debating between which show is better: "Screens" or "Grey's Filmography." Those shows are simply what "Scrubs" and "Grey's Anatomy" would be like if set within a movie theater rather than a hospital. Hopefully, I captured the spirit of the two shows and the looks of their characters/actors. I didn't want to do a giant "click" onomatopoeia to show the change in channels since it would waste too much space. I think the jagged panel borders have the right amount of subtlety to them. If this strip showed what "Screens" is like, then I'm sure you can predict what next week's comic will be about.

So it's been more than six months since I've drawn a Hullabaloo comic strip. Once again drawing these characters feels like meeting up with some old friends. I've done some subtle design changes to Honey, Austin and Tress a.k.a. the HAuT trio. Honey's hair is highlighted since it gives it more dimension as opposed to being completely filled with black in the past strips. I think I've come up with a nice balance for Austin's hair. It had gotten overly simplified over the years and I've been meaning to bring it back to the wildly curly nature of her earlier appearances. She has to live up to her "noodle noggin" nickname after all. I was tempted to highlight Tress's hair but the dominance of black matches her personality and implies that it isn't her natural hair color. As Ryan pointed out to me earlier, the remote control seems to function as a fetish for the lack of a phallus. There probably is some truth to that in my subconscious. Then again, there are plenty of objects that are simply shaped like dicks. The best kinds if you're to believe Seth from "Superbad."

In case you weren't aware, I'm currently participating in a little competition with Ms. Megan Horejsi. She's a friend and a former co-worker of mine. A subordinate if you'd like to be more specific. The two of us have agreed to post a minimum of one comic on our respective sites on a weekly basis, although that may change to a more rigorous schedule in the future. The winner is the individual that can keep up with the posting the longest. More info and updates can be found on There Will Be Ink.

In other Hullabaloo news, I'll be reposting all the old strips at some point since my UCSB U-Web account finally expired. Still not sure if I'll do it on this blog or just shell out some money for a new website. Hopefully it will be the latter since there's four years' worth of material to go through. I might even "remaster" the content for clarity and color.