Check out this article from Newsarama!

Copyright issues are a real bitch, aren't they?

Take this recent semi-scandal between comic book artists Ben & Ray Lai and MIT. The Lai brothers put out a comic through Image a while ago called “Radix,” starring a hot chick in battle armor with mystical powers. Later on, they were surprised when an image that was an obvious swipe of their cover for issue #1 was all over the news as a conceptualization for a real-world, $50 million “Soldier of the Future” contract that MIT successfully won with the US Army.

The Lais were understandably upset to see that their artwork was used without their permission, and immediately issued a cease and desist to MIT to have them take the image down from their project website

MIT obliged, saying they had no idea the artist they commissioned had swiped the images, but the Lais aren’t satisfied. They claim that the very existence of this image calls into question their ownership of the armor design, which has hurt their chances to cash in on the Hollywood buying frenzy of comic book properties that kicked off when the Spider-Man movie turned out to be such a big hit.

But it’s also clear that there is some bitterness involved, considering that their art was used as part of a $50 million winning proposal, and they won’t be seeing any of that cash.
So the Lais are currently speaking with their lawyers… exploring their “options”…

What a mess!

First off, the proposal was in the area of 100 pages long. One would hope that the decision makers at the Army didn’t just look at the drawing and rubber-stamp their approval right away. What, did the competition all use stick figures? For all we know, the competition wrote Luis Royo a fat check to paint a mural of their super soldiers.

Second, it’s not like the armor design is the most original one ever made. It has basically the same lines as a typical superhero outfit, only it’s bulkier and made of metal rather than spandex. This is exactly the kind of design I used to crank out every day when I was a kid. I’m not saying there is nothing unique to Radix (since I’ve never read it) but if there is, it’s definitely not the armor design. The same goes for the specific pose and detail of the artwork. It’s nothing you don’t see every day on the stands.

Third, there is no doubt who owns the armor design, since neither MIT nor the Army is contesting the allegation that the art was swiped (any more). So if Hollywood isn’t pounding down the Lais’ door now, it’s because they’ve found some other hot chick in battle armor to make a movie about.

Fourth, it was an honest mistake (at least for those at the top). One of the faculty members commissioned his daughter to do the drawing based on his description, and she’s the one who used Photoshop to composite scans from Radix #1 into the final art. Before the bid was won, the art was only seen by a handful of people. It wasn’t until the news broke that anybody saw it, and it wasn’t until they got the “cease and desist” that anybody even knew there was an infringement, and at that point they stopped using the image (at least at MIT).

So, all that said, it was still plagiarism. Would this be treated the same if the bid had been lost and only those involved in the bidding process had ever seen it? The big money and the news blitz cloud the issue, but at its core it was still one artist using the work of another artist and putting her own name on it.

If this were the People’s Court, I would probably have the artist give her commission to the Lais and call it a day.

Here’s an interview transcript from CNN with one the Lai brothers.

(Thanks, kuch, for the link to this NYT article...)

I'm not sure what all of the confusion is about concerning the absence of a viable all-in-one Win32 system. There is a strong philosophical disconnect between Macintosh and PC thinking when it comes to prioritizing aesthetics versus economy for a desktop computer system.

PCs are there to "get the job done" in the fastest, most cobbled-together way possible. They're not fun to use. Nobody complains that they're not fun to use. Computers aren't supposed to be fun... they're for work, fool! If anybody does complain, they find themselves the target of ridicule.

People who buy Macs know what they’re putting their money into. I'm not sure PC manufacturers know just what that is. They always try to copy some surface aspect and then find it to be a total flop. PC all-in-one designs make the assumption that the user just wants a small case that fits the rough technical specs of an iMac, while Apple puts tons of resources into designing a machine that looks good sitting on the desk.

I'm not sure PC manufacturers even have the option of pulling off the same aesthetic appeal within the current environment. For one, as long as they rely on Windows as the user interface, it doesn't really matter how pretty the box is, the thing is going to be a kludgey mess to use. But there are other reasons.

Mac users are accustomed to Apple's monopoly over Macintosh hardware, and they're used to getting no respect from hardware vendors when it comes to device drivers. They know they can’t go to the store and grab just any commodity part, plug it in, and have everything work. So buying an all-in-one Macintosh system is not much different from buying one of their towers if you think in terms of building out a Frankenstein box.

At least, it's not as much of a difference as all-in-one means to the PC world. All-in-one PCs are almost as expensive as Macintosh all-in-ones, and they're far uglier. You don't get the usual PC advantage of being able to extend the life of the machine indefinitely by swapping in new parts over time. You're stuck with a box that can't be upgraded, in a market where constant innovation guarantees that your machine will become obsolete in no time.

In reality, most home users probably don't upgrade their PCs often, or maybe ever. But they do seem to get old faster because the hardcore gamers and office users keep pushing the envelope, and applications continue to be written with the expectations that more and more resources will be available to them.

It's a funny point to make, but I think innovation for its own sake has this side effect. Mac users can keep their computers longer basically because Apple's absolute control over the architecture stifles innovation and keeps the app writers from getting greedy with system resources. So again, people keep their Macs longer and get more back on their investment before pawning that iMac off to a third cousin and getting a new one.

I'm not trying to be a Mac bigot here. Both systems have their advantages, but I can totally see why all-in-one PC systems just don't cut it. It's just opposite of what the PC architecture is all about. We don't even call them "IBMs" any more! The PC philosophy just can’t be frozen in a little box and expected to stay put like a Mac can.

HFS! Check out this press release from LucasArts!

Sam & Max is one of my favorite video games of all time, and I've always been partial to the LucasArts adventure games (well, the non-Star Wars ones, anyway). There's also a sequel to "Full Throttle" on its way. It's about time!

I've tried all kinds of adventure games, but those old LucasArts games were the only ones I ever felt compelled to play all the way through. I dig their philosophy of designing games that can never be made unwinnable, no matter how lame the player (me) is. It's less realistic, but in the interest of making a game that is fun rather than frustrating to play, I think it was a good call.

I just hope those two sequels will run on my Win32 laptop, because they don't seem to be planning any Mac versions. No, I'm not bitching, just stating the obvious! My Mac rocks without any crummy games! Full Throttle 2 is coming out on the consoles too, so chances are that includes a version for my GameCube.

What am I thinking! I don't have time to play these life sucking games! I can dream, though...

CLICK TO SEE WHAT HAS OL' GUTHRIE HERE SO SPOOKED! (82k)

This was a failed experiment from a few nights ago that I attempted to resuscitate tonight. This is one of those cases where I wanted to draw something fun and quick, but the actual execution took longer than the idea was probably worth. It also served as a reminder of just how poorly noisy line art compresses in either GIF or JPEG! 82K for 400x400 black and white!? Highway robbery!

But no matter what, you just gotta love that cowboy! Any similarities between the crowd and any living persons is completely unintentional and I blame the Wacom, and that's the story I'm sticking to.

CLICK FOR GRATUITOUS ANGST! (53k)

Tonight, in an effort to acheive some sort of arty "emotional range," I set out to draw the weepiest thing I could think of, so here we are. This guy is obviously upset about something. Probably found a crease in his copy of Sandman #1 or can't find his Floodland CD.

I used a different "technique" than I've been using up till now, so it's even more rough than usual. I didn't use any linework, and just splattered a bunch of "paint" around to get the shapes and details. It turned out okay for the subject matter.

I'm finding it hard to maintain my required minimum angst level these days, but I will be strong. Weepiness is a core element of my being and I will never surrender! NEVER!

Jamie Zawinski, proprietor of the DNA Lounge (I think) wrote a cool summary of last week's "Wil Wheaton vs. Barney" event. Those who weren't there missed out BIG TIME!

It was awesome to see the part Pat played in all of this. I particularly appreciate this shot of the bastard handing out cease-and-desist orders to the crowd. I get those all the time, but it doesn't stop me from giving him shit.

Here's Pat's entry on the event.

(From the trying-to-be-clever department)

A friend of mine was asking why so many interfaces are mapped to SCSI in the Linux world. Some people make some bogus argument that it acts as a handy abstraction layer that improves code reusability and reduces errors and blah blah blah.

Do not be fooled! This is just another example of software engineers overwhelming the public with heavy buzzwords in an attempt to distract them from the true goal, which is to prevent the obsolescence of one of the coolest acronyms the tech industry has ever produced. And make no mistake, cool acronyms are the primary product of the software engineering industry, and they always have been.

SCSI is one of the last great acronyms. It's kind of edgy, almost profane, and you can actually pronounce it. Just say it... "SCSI"... it just rolls off the tongue. Doesn't that feel good?

Now try sounding out "USB,", "IDE" or "IEEE 1394". They don't have the same ring to them, do they? And while we're at it, as Py once pointed out to me, why use the 9-syllable "WWW" in speech as an abreviation for the 3-syllable "World Wide Web"?

Acronyms are a dying art.

We need to hold onto SCSI for as long as we can. If I can't say "SCSI" at least once a week, I don't want to be a programmer any more! Luckily, I'm not alone. The kernel hackers are doing everything they can to keep it in use. True SCSI devices can die out for all we care. Even if it means we'll have SCSI sound, SCSI keyboards, SCSI mice, SCSI networking, and SCSI power switches, emulation will preserve SCSI forever!

Ted Rall: One Year Later, America's Leaders Take Stock

Recommended Editorial Cartoon reading from Ted Rall.

I also recommend "To Afghanistan and Back" by Rall. It's not going to answer any of your questions about the conflict, but it does a good job of showing what it's like to be a wartime journalist in the third-world, which I found interesting on its own.

Ted Rall is so bitter, so full of hatred and angst that I just can't help loving the guy's work. I've been following him for years, but he's really hit his stride reporting on the post-9-11 political scene. I'm glad we have guys like him getting all bent out of shape about this stuff. It makes me feel less alone (but not necessarily less powerless to stop what's going on).

The latest Tom The Dancing Bug rocks as well. Go read it!

All right, I did it! I've been saving up, and building up the guts to do it, and now the deed is done!

No, I didn't get the Yakuza-style tattoo of Genma Saotome on my back. That will have to wait.

I am now a Mac owner, thanks to my new Dual 867 MHz G4 tower and 17" Studio Display. Pat already outed me, so this is no big surprise. You can go to Apple.com and get a good idea just how much money I spent on this stuff!

So far, I'm very happy with it. The display KICKS ASS! and although I prefer the previous model's case design, the new G4 tower is quite a nice-looking and zippy little box.

The trip to the Apple Store in Palo Alto was filled with bad omens, however. I missed two offramps and then found a street fair blocking Univeristy Avenue when I got there, so I had to park several blocks away amid heavy traffic. Then, after I made my purchases and went to get my car I got lost again trying to find my way back to the store! Could there be some greater force warning me that this was the wrong decision? Or have the subliminal messages Windows XP has been beaming into my eyes through the LCD of my laptop for the last year successfully hijacked the navigation centers of my brain? Will the FUD never end?

Well, just got back from the Wil Wheaton vs. Barney fundraiser for the EFF, and of course, it rocked.

One thing that I almost forgot about the DNA Lounge was its net access, and Pat and Beej dutifully plugged my image of the day to a bunch of people, not the least of whom was Wil Wheaton himself. He said he liked it and wanted to post it to his blog, which was a pretty awesome outcome for what was just my lame drawing of the day... I was more afraid that he might see it than hopeful. I mean, how many charicatures of himself has the guy seen in his life?

The brawl itself was superb. Wil Wheaton's speech was pretty powerful, and the way he finished Barney off with the lightsaber at the end gives me a newfound level of respect for the guy. Barney had it coming to him after that dirty hug bait-and-switch move he tried eary in the match.

Pat makes a surprisingly good weasley lawyer. Okay, so it wasn't such a huge surprise! He hung out at the ropes waving his arms around angrily, and then ran into the ring with a stack of "cease and desist" notices to hand out to the crowd. There was a beautiful moment where he just tossed the rest of them in the air, and at that point, Wil Wheaton in berzerker mode chased him out of the ring with these letters still raining down. It was the purest form of performance art I had ever seen!

Overall it was a great night for me. I had those random moments of depression I always get a clubs, where I feel really isolated and sink deep into myself, though. And I have no idea how anybody ever hooks up at these places. It's a complete mystery I may never unravel.

One thing is certain. The EFF knows how to throw a good party.

CLICK FOR MORE WESLEY'S BARNEY SMACK-DOWN! (71k)

This lovely image is in honor of tonight's EFF/CAFE fundraiser at the DNA Lounge featuring the real-life Wil Wheaton taking on Barney the Dinosaur (or an EFF lawyer dressed up like Barney). The stunt is based on an old on-line match-up between the two from years ago... I bet those guys never thought their little joke would get played out in real life, did they?

If you're reading this, it's probably already too late for you to go. Thanks to Pat (and a hard-earned $50 donation), I've got a VIP pass, Suckaz! Pat is, of course, the EFF's webmaster, and will be participating as one of Barney's Lawyers. I anticipate heckling the poor fool the whole way through.

The one thing that weirds me out is that I'll be hanging out with the other VIPs and the man, Wil Wheaton, himself. I'm not one of the huge Wesley Crusher detractors, but even if I were I wouldn't hold it against him, since he was just ACTING! But I'm also not sure how to act around celebrities. I tend to want to treat them like normal people, but they're at a disadvantage because I always know more about them than they know about me...

Anyway, enough with this dalliance. To the DNA Lounge at once!

No new art last night (again). Luckily it was just a promise to myself that I'd draw something every day. Clearly, I need a more realistic goal. I don't want to kill this momentum by turning it into a chore. :)

CLICK TO EXPERIENCE FREAK-FEST #1 (31k)

All right, this is very vintage me. I used to draw stuff like this every day. Just random characters, whose design was fueled by some combination whimsey, hormones and media mind control.

Drawing the "Leather Babe" character in this image reminded me of a large part of why I stopped drawing regularly years ago... my lame tendency toward the politically correct. I realized at some point that I was drawing these impossible women, which of course meant I was an oppressor of women everywhere. So I stopped drawing one of the most fun things there is in the whole wide world to draw. Well, not any more! Tomorrow: Amazon armies! (Not really)

Not surprisingly the Wacom tablet is getting easier to use every night. I'm starting to whittle it down to the same problems I always have while drawing. I have the advantage of unlimited redos, and as many layers of "blueline" as I need to rough out a drawing... but that can't make me any better at anatomy or composition, except through dumb luck...

Lou is my favorite of the three freaks, of course.

BEHOLD - THE (UN)ORIGINAL BATTLE CHICKEN! (21k)

Okay, this is lame but I felt the need to post something today to make up for my laziness last night. This one happened to be out, and I remember Pat asking me if I could scan it in, so here it is, only five billion beej seconds later.

As previously stated, I love drawing these birdie beasts of burden for a number of reasons. This one was scratched out on the back of the "visual" for that week's pub trivia at the Mayflower (though I can't remember which week that was any more). The front side is a photograph of one of those babies that was lost in a well, cruelly augmented with cybernetic implants by some insensitive git.

This also happens to be the one that Kathleen commented on, though I resent the implication that I am a one-dimensional, poultry-obsessed appliance!

Ugh... no new image tonight. My eyelids are tied to cinderblocks. I'm happy with the 8-day run, though. It's probably a lifetime record for me. I'm glad I started this weblog. Like any good weblog, it tricks the part of my brain that wants an audience into thinking that one is there, so that I can go places I normally wouldn't go.

Overall, it's the cheapest therepy I've ever had, and relatively effective too!

Please forgive this amorphous rant...

I'm torn. I like being me, but I hate having no real culture to call my own. Geek culture is the closest thing I have, but it's not like I couldn't be a Geek and have some other interesting background to cling to.

American culture is weird. The melting pot has made it into a deadened shapeless mass. It's like in printing, where if you mix too many colors, it just comes out as flat puke-gray. That's how I feel. I'm a whole lot of nothing.

I look at people who were raised Catholic or Jewish, or are from 1st- and 2nd-generation immigrant families -- or whatever -- I hear lots of complaining, but it helps to define them, and gives them a place to run and hide when the existential weight of it all gets too much.

Sometimes I really wish I could have that feeling rather than feeling like such a blank slate all the time.

I remember one of the last things one of my ex-girlfriends said to me. She said "Don't worry, you'll find yourself a little white trash girl and you'll live out a happy little white trash life!"

Jeez, why couldn't she have just said I was lousy in bed and that she never really loved me like any halfway decent ex-girlfriend would do!? No need to leave behind the kiss of death like that!

So, anyway...

My only hope, being basically devoid of my own culture, is to leach it off of my friends and maybe someday marry myself into some.

CLICK FOR THE EXTREME PATENT EXCITEMENT! (40k)

I was talking to Beej a few nights ago about the ActiveBuddy patent, and how incredibly lame it was. I decided to try and comment on it via a comic strip, and this is what I came up with. The art is incredibly rushed, but I think I made the point I was aiming for.

Normally, icon-based would include Bapper as well, but I only needed one character so poor Mtn. Dewd "won" out. He just seemed the natural character to use since he gets dicked around so much in real life. :)

BTW, this is the first online comic strip I have done since 1998, when the last icon-based came out. Woo-hoo!

CLICK THE HELMET HEAD FOR FULL CAMP EXPOSURE! (78k)

Today's image is a confessional piece... it's me owning up to probably the single most embarassing recurring character from my late-80's art book.

The Scarlet Seagul was yet another old RPG character of mine from way back, this time for TSR's Marvel Super Heroes game. The most notable thing about him was his origin, which should sound familiar. Once a wimpy lab geek, "John Hammer" found super powers thrust upon him after being hit with an irradiated bird dropping, transforming him into a bulging Arnold Schwarzeneggar stand-in. He immediately used his newfound strength and agility to fight crime inside the flight suit he had been working on for the science fair. His character sheet lists Hank Pym and Shadowcat as his primary contacts within the Marvel Universe.

But, hey! What's not to love? SS has it all... a stylized comb/razor-sharp mohawk, wannabe Gatchamon bird helmet, Archangle wings and Tony Stark's own patented metallic leotard design. And who could resist those comfy-looking talon tabi boots?

I must never allow myself to forget.

I always had a hard time taking RPG characters seriously. My characters were usually pretty ludicrous, and my playing quickly devolved into comic relief, as I found it more and more difficult to keep a straight face. I once played an entire campaign as a drunk swordsman... a good five years before I bothered having a drink in real life!

I wonder why nobody ever asked me back to play any more RPGs..?

CLICK FOR TRENCHCOAT FUN! (21k)

This was another quick flight of whimsey. Frendo Preston was an RPG character of mine from way back (>12 years). The RPG was either TSR's Marvel Super Heroes or Teenagers From Outer Space... but you would swear it was from Paladium's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on how I drew the character... Hey, TMNT smacked me over the head in the late 80's as I dug back in time into the source material for the cartoon. It was bound to influence my style!

Frendo has always been a favorite doodle of mine because I love trenchcoats. Since the dawn of time I've always wanted one, but I resolved myself to the idea that I would never find one that fit me (one of the main disadvantages to being 6'7" is looking like your mother even gave up dressing you). And of course, now it's all passe to wear trenchcoats so the point is moot.

You'll notice in this drawing my two biggest weaknesses... guns and shoes. I can't draw either realistically. But hey, if Rob Liefeld could make a carreer out of Toaster Cannons and pointy little feet, then I can get away with my automatic cigar box!

Here's some sad news:

[NEWSARAMA] Chaos! Comics Files For Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

I've never been a big fan of Chaos! Comics, the publisher of "Lady Death," "Evil Ernie" and their countless spin-offs, but the publisher always filled its niche well as the place to go for hard-rockin' big-breasted in-your-face testosterone-flavored comics.

It was a perfect formula! What the smeg went wrong!

It could be that the continuing snob-ification of the comics industry has helped to push Chaos! out of the market. Everybody (or is it just me?) has been flocking to the re-vamped, edgier Marvel books and scouring the Top Shelf and Fantagraphics backlist for our next comics kick... meanwhile, there was Chaos! still plugging away with their bad-girl-with-sword comics that in theory should never have gone out of style...

I hear that their titles fell in quality after their mainstay artist Steven Hughes unexpectedly passed away a couple years ago, which could be another reason for the drop in sales. But I think the loss of the 13-year old boys looking for an over-the-counter Playboy stand-in was a big hit... those kids are now too busy hoarding their money in anticipation of Dave Mirra BMX XXX to shell out $3-4 for a 22-page skin mag.

Which is too bad. I hate to see any comics publisher fall, and Brian Pulido always seemed to me to be an okay guy. There were rumors going around that he was going to sell the company to CrossGen in order to save it, but it turns out that that was never really an option.

Chapter 7 means they are calling it quits and selling everything they can in order to pay off their creditors. I guess this means Lady Death and Purgatory will be able to find a new home, since the niche they fill is now basically empty... they will have to return to disgust me yet again someday.

After getting our asses handed to us at trivia, Pat, Py, Adam, Beej and I went to 31 Flavors for Ice Cream and to chat some more about this insane world of IRC Bot patents and Ashcroft internment camps... then I stood in the parking lot chatting with Beej for like an hour about stuff before we thwarted hypothermia and headed our seperate ways at 11:30pm.

Man, I missed hanging out with my friends while I was locked in my latest warp-speed mega-project at work. It's become such an important factor in my overall well-being that I begin to suffer exhaustion from the lack of social recharge that results from too much isolation. Last weekend a bunch of us went to Lava Beds for an extended weekend, and it could not have come a second later.

I mention this because it wasn't too long ago that I considered myself to be an incurable introvert, with few friends and little need for anybody else. Maybe it was just some kind of self-induced, 28-year phase I'm finally growing out of.

Wouldn't that be great!

I had a horrifying realization tonight. I may actually like some of Madonna's music.

I thought I was just being ironically detached, singing along to "Like a Prayer" in my goth metal meat-grinder voice... but you know, I think she has talent, even if it's in finding the best people to surround herself with.

And though the point has been put across enough times to almost guarantee it's promotional spin, I really feel that she has grown up over the years in front of everybody. People criticize her for "reinventing" herself constantly, but I just see it as the same kinds of "phases" that we all go through. Of course, the grief she gets over this is just the price of fame...

So now I must crank up the Joy Division and cleanse these thoughts from my mind.

Tonight's output is wimpy because I am very sleepy, but it turned out okay for the ~20 minutes I spent on it. Genma Saotome is the father from the manga/anime Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi - but you already knew that!

Ranma 1/2 is bar-none my favorite manga series. I don't know how it plays in Japan, but as an American I particularly appreciate how it generally takes the piss out of gender politics, yet pulls it off in a pure, good-natured fashion. With our fidgety ways in this country, Ranma 1/2 should make me feel dirty, but instead it just makes me laugh.

Maybe tomorrow I'll come up with something original rather than ripping off the work of yet another creator!

CLICK SPIDEY FOR A LARGER IMAGE! (60k)

Kathleen probably predicted this centuries ago. How long could I resist my Marvel Zombie brainwashing..? Well, 4 days I guess...

But -- Oh, the humanity! I had such high hopes for this one, and so much went wrong! What possessed me to attempt such a difficult character so early in my Wacom tablet boot camp? I'm still having a lot of coordination problems, obviously. The webbing was a real challenge, and the head just kept coming out melon-shaped, so eventually I just went with it. It may be that I am permanently on the path of further cartoon abstraction, since this isn't anything close to what Stan Lee & John Buscema taught me all those years ago in "How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way"... I think James Kochalka, Brian Ralph and the rest have had an irreparable effect on my style. Hmmm... well I guess I can live with that.

CLICK FOR MORE G-RATED FUN! (20k)

Second only to the Battle Chicken is the "random anonymous chick" drawing. If I'm on autopilot, this is the kind of thing I'm most likely to draw, which isn't too surprising since, well, all indications to the contrary, I AM A GUY! I try my best to draw "realistic" women, or at least as much so as my style allows for these days... if these pics are driven by some inner desire, it's more sappy than prurient.

If I keep my promise to myself that I will post a new drawing to this blog every day, then there will probably be many many "random chicks" on here before too long. And battle chickens. But most of all battle chicks on random chickens... or something like that... I gotta stop posting these things half asleep...

The color saved this image from the bin... I think... I'm doing all of this stuff on a laptop computer, so there's a chance the skin is all wrong. If the skin is bright pink or maroon or green and silver paisley, please keep this in mind!

BTW... does anybody have a suggestion for a better word than "chick"? I know some people find the word a bit offensive when used to describe women, but what I'm looking for is something that has the same weight as the word "guy" does for men... something that is less condescending than "girl" and less formal than "woman" or "young lady" or whatever... Most of the women I know use the word "chick" for this purpose, but I can understand why others would have a hard time accepting it.

I'm referring to a weblog entry from my friend Kathleen (the one who got on my case about the Battle Chickens) because her comments echo thoughts I've been having a lot lately. Go read it! Now!

This bizarre idea that life should flow like a narrative is, I think, the cause of more misery than most people realize. People who may otherwise be happy with their lot in life are feeling ripped off because they aren't getting the full John Hughes treatment.

But what can you expect? A work of fiction allows us to get into the "heads" of its characters in a way that real life can't match, making imaginary people seem more "real" than those of us who actually are real, but lack the required telepathic hookups. At the same time, fiction has the option of filtering out inconvenient ambiguities that come in a world where there are no real good guys or bad guys... if you watch "Friends" for 25 episodes a year, you probably do know those characters more than you know anybody in real life, because their motivations are so clear and their personalities so, uh... streamlined.

The real people I know are all inconsistent, with fuzzy motivations, and they never seem to be there just in the nick of time when I'm being chased down by a gang of alien thugs. Some friends you all are!

Just an experiment everybody has to try out I guess. What do I think I look like, rather than the haggard stranger I see in the mirror every morning and those poor souls at work have to look at every day... apparently I have no face.

A little bit about me.
This is the part where I officially go all out and talk about myself as if anybody should care... Just think of it as if you're eavesdropping on some psycho having a conversation with himself, and you'll probably enjoy it more.

Anyway, I was born in Southern California in 1974 and grew up primarily in the northern extremities of the San Francisco Bay Area. And by "grew up" I mean I managed to reach 6'7" before my frightening ascent into freakdom finally halted when I hit college. And by "college" I mean California State University, Chico, where I acquired a BS in Computer Science and almost but not quite a Masters in the same subject. Along the way I worked the student helpdesk and had a 2-year stint as an intern at Hewlett-Packard, all along putting out a weekly comic strip for the campus paper called "The Bastich" that had a parallel existence on the web from 1995 to 1998.

Now I work in San Francisco as a web developer for an interactive ad agency. My focus has been in building web sites and branded video games, but I also work on banner ads and other fun marketing stuff. I do a ton of server-side coding as well as plenty of client-side Flash, DHTML and Java coding... a combination that keeps the job satisfying overall.

Comics!
I'm a huge comic book geek... which should come as no surprise if you've seen the illustrations I've been posting to this webblog. I was going to be a cartoonist until I "discovered" computers and opted for a more secure future. Now I have a job where I can straddle the line between my two childhood goals, and play both technical and creative roles on a regular basis.

Music...
My favorite band is They Might Be Giants, the one band in the world I would consider flying across the country to see play... However, there are a lot of big contenders in my own little pantheon, including Talking Heads, XTC, Frank Black, James, and Placebo. 80's New Wave in general also dominates my listening time. I am just a complete sucker for cheese...

Outlook...
I have to say -- right now is one of the better periods of my life so far. The past year was a nice little stretch of hell between my own personal set-backs (layoffs, breakups, you know the drill) and of course all of the national ultra-disasters and escalating fear and loathing on a global scale...

But right now, I have a good job where I feel I'm carrying my own weight, an excellent group of friends, and a kick-ass family. Until my next personal disaster, I'm going to enjoy these good times while I can. I could use a bit of romance, of course... something that will take a lot of effort for me to bring back into my life, but sooner or later one of my hair-brained schemes will pan out!

BEHOLD THE MIGHT OF THE BATTLE CHICKEN! (70k)

It has been brought to my attention that I draw more than my fair share of "Battle Chickens" and the truth is I just can't get enough of them. They're about the easiest thing to draw in the world because they look cool and are almost completely immune to intrusive and annoying issues such as "anatomy" and "plausibility". In fact, I've noticed that including a Battle Chicken automatically grants the illustrator full diplomatic immunity from making any sort of sense at all. It's as if, once you decide to toss in such a baffling beast of burden, a disbelief-suspension field is created and spread across the canvas, and the viewer's mind simply quits trying to apply reason to anything he or she is seeing. Mobius and Vaughn Bode both used this technique to great effect, driving entire generations of teenagers to a life of drugs, psychedelia and Paladium RPGs way before their time.

This drawing is also a rare attempt at coloring... I'm mostly a black-and-white kind of guy, because as anyone who has seen my wardrobe will attest, I am not to be trusted with color. To make matters worse, I'm working on a laptop computer, where experience tells me what I see on the screen is highly suspect.

The Wacom tablet continues to grow on me. Coloring with the stylus was a breeze, freeing me from the paint bucket and all of its potential for aliasing away all of my happiness!

"CLICK ME FOR A LARGER IMAGE, EARTHLING!"

Welcome to my first weblog entry. What can I say, everybody else is doing it! I intend to use this weblog to post random thoughts and doodles as they come to me. This is still shaky territory since I'm hardly an extrovert, but it just looks so fun, I have to try it out!

Who the heck is this "GOLABUTRON?!"
Golabutron first appeared here, years ago, in an old online comic strip of mine called "The Bastich". He's basically just a wannabe over-the-top, megalomaniacal, Darth Vader villain-type who was going to invade the Earth some day. The funny thing is that I just now realized how drastically his design has changed since then, including a complete shift of his superfluous tubing from the back to the front of his head. Now he's gone from Darth Vader to the scumbag who ratted Luke and Obi-Wan out at Mos Eisley. How did this happen! I have no clue. Call it a theme. Anyway, I've always liked the name, so now it's the title of my weblog.

How WACOM has ruined my life
So my first doodle (above) was created with my brand-spanking new Wacom Intuos2 4x5" graphics tablet. I'm obviously still working on technique here.

This purchase is actually a huge step for me, as I've been kind of a ludite artwise for the past few years. I realized a while ago that I wasn't a such great artist, but that most of my enjoyment in illustration basically came from shoving lead and ink around a sheet of paper anyway... so I've never been big on 3D rendering or even vector art because it was always so detatched from the pacifying experience I yearn for. Staring at meshes is not what I really want to do right now.

Don't get me wrong... this isn't some debate on what is "art" and what isn't. This is the kind of thing you always hear blurted out in art classes: "It isn't art if you didn't make it with your own hands!" Well, I say thee nay! Art is so utterly in the eye of the beholder that I'm not sure there's anything in all of creation that doesn't qualify somehow. Every new technology is going to be challenged in this way. Just wait until the robots start writing music! What! You say they already are!? Well, eventually it will be just the robots creating art for other robots, so we may as well get used to it now.

Anyway, it's meaningful to me on some primal level to doodle, and I hope this new Wacom tablet will free me up to do cooler things without losing what I enjoy about this stuff in the first place.

But MAN, is it a pain to learn. It's better than using a mouse by far, but I'm still having major coordination problems across the board. Nevertheless, I intend to plow through this and become the Wacom Master.