Spike's Cartoons and Whinging

Templar: They are not talking about what you think they're talking about.

Or are they?

Surely, a mystery for the ages. Or just one for the next page.

I call pages like this "Grand Central Station pages," because I have to coordinate the interactions and expressions of more than three or four characters at a time. That can get overwhelming. Crowd scenes are fine, since those are just strangers. But pages like this are full of characters people know, or are going to get to know. Requires more. So, I can usually be heard muttering "Grand Central fucking Station." while I'm inking and coloring stuff like this. Aren't I dainty.

Y'know, I should stick up a "The story so far" synopsis page for this comic, with CBR downloads of chapters (Or rather, the one complete chapter so far) and summaries. That's probably important for comics like this one, with long-term plots. But that'll have to wait until I at least get Scip on the cast page. Poor guy.

While toning today's page, I got some Sprite up my nose. The drink, not the creature. To my credit, I didn't scream.

Templar: Because I won't be content until the cast size of this comic rivals The Simpsons.

New faces! Unless you look at the sketchbook. In that case, you might recognize them.

Pugs are sweet dogs, but I can't help but feel sorry for them. I don't think I have to explain why.

Also, photo!

I went out to dinner with the McClouds last Wednesday: Scott, Ivy, Sky, and Winter. In case you didn't know, Scott's basically a comics scholar and deconstructionist and stuff, and he's doing this Fifty-State Tour of appearances and speaking engagements and whatnot. While in Chicago, he and his lovely family made time for me and a bunch of other Chicago-area cartoonists and their various hangers-ons. I'd like to say the conversation was scholarly, but we mostly discussed crap films, car accidents, how bad our personal sites' traffic sucked. I also swore frequently in front of Scott's children. Because, you know, I forget sometimes. Fortunately, he didn't seem to mind. Or notice. Phew.

If you're insatiably curious about the identities of all the people pictured in this photo, I'll be reposting it much larger, and helpfully captioned, in the official McCloud Family Tour LJ community later today. But for now, sleep. Sweet, sweet sleep.

...

And hey, did you know Björk is basically the only person in the world who looks like Björk? Really. For the longest time, I thought she was indicative of something, and Iceland was a land full of dainty avant-rock pixie people. Turns out it's just a buncha norms. What a letdown.

Hey guys, whaddaya think of my new t-shirt design!?

It's totally original and not at all inspired by anything I've seen anywhere before, ever. I just have a wacky mind and march to the beat of a different drummer!

As you can see, I've made a copy for sale in fine art galleries, too. Anybody interested?

/meme

Original by Dean Trippe, who's holding a master list of participants.

Other awesome "inspired" persons:

Jamie

Jess

Losttoy

And maddest of props to sirve, for starting it.

Because yeah, not gonna let this one go. Nope.

Everybody else is doing it!

Link image time!

Wanna link to Templar from your own page? It's easy! And I have provided appealing imagery with which to do so!

Actually, I provided them about a year ago, but I they never see any use as far as I can tell. Maybe hiding them over on the links page wasn't such a hot idea.

So yeah, here they are on the frontpage (sorta) until I figure out a permanent home for them.

And just so this post isn't totally wasted on base self-promotion: That Todd Goliath/Goldman vs. Shmorky plagiarism thing is still going strong, and it's taken a few interesting twists. Todd's lawyer is mailing out cease & desist orders to prominent sites that've covered the story (Juxtapoz's and Wired's blogs have caved under the threat), Shmorky's reported the settlement Todd's offered him to make all of this go away was a miserable pittance, and at least two art retailers now no longer sell Todd's "work." What's more, the whole mess has been Slashdotted.

That's bad, by the way. Being Slashdotted. Bad for Todd, that is.

To catch up on the latest in What-Did-Todd-Steal news and information, check out this page. It also received a c&d, which the page's author promptly posted... But without removing the incriminating material.

It's not libelous if it's true, after all.

The original thread on the Someting Awful forum's got the goods, too, with reports of Todd sock-puppeting phony supporters in blog comments, and hacking the MySpaces of the people who sent him hate mail.

Todd's previously described himself as "not a web guy," and in my opinion, that's pretty true. A "web guy" would have the fuckin' brains to use different IPs for all of his sock puppet posts, and definitely know better than to host the taunting images he used in his hacks on his own company's private webspace.

What a thoroughly useless human being.

I know how INTERNET CRUSADE this sounds, but really, I hope you guys remember all of this and avoid buying any merchandise from either "David & Goliath" or "Fred is Red" in the future. Both companies are owned by Todd, and he makes millions of dollars every year ripping off small-time artists and cartoonists... and then has the nerve to act like a huge fucking dick about it when he's caught with his pants down.

This isn't cool. I know way too many creative professionals who work like dogs to promote their art for the idea of a carpetbagging grab-ass like Goldman to be even remotely funny.

Templar double-update!

Due to an avalanche of crap I'm sure no one cares to hear about, I only just now got both colored pages of Templar posted. There was some dumbfuckery about the way I initially put them up that made one page repeat, but that should be good 'n' fixed, now. Make sure to click back and read both pages.

I'd say something else, but I've got to go and get my Project Wonderful ads straightened out. The system seems to think they're not displaying, but I can see 'em right there.

Sigh.

Oh, and Pee Ess: Someone (not me) made a Templar Livejournal feed! You can subscribe, if that suits you. You wouldn't have to read my blog posts, anyway, so that's something, at least.

And away we go.

Lebonfon Printing has the money and the files. No turning back now.

Templar's first collection is a proof and an approval away from reality.

My face is officially rocked.

Templar: Not exactly a compliment.

Page!

Man, have I got a lotta email to answer. Sorry, guys. You'll get your responses tonight and tomorrow. But in case you can't wait:

- I'm listening to the Atlas Shrugged audiobook while I work because my brain needs something to do while I ink or color, or I'll talk to myself in an unintelligible, nonstop stream of embarassing nonsense the whole time. I chose Atlas Shrugged because everyone I know absolutely hates it, and I wanna know why. The curiosity is killing me.

I'm at the part where Mexico just got done annexing some copper mines and railroads from rich corporations and businessmen. I am not liking this book. I'm listening in shifts, breaking up the monotony with some Lois McMaster Bujold Chalion novels.

- If you guys wanna use terms or ideas from Templar in your personal creative projects, please, go right ahead. That's very flattering. It would be cool of you to give me credit in the footnotes or artist statements, though. And to send me a copy of whatever you do!

- No, Sparkneedle is not over. I just have no time for it. I haven't even touched on the important parts of the story, yet. Maybe someday, far away, I'll take a break from Templar to git 'er dun. But that's not gonna happen too soon.

- Even if I made it, where, exactly, do you guys plan on wearing a "LET THE COCK OF SCIENCE FUCK YOU" t-shirt? I can't help but see flaws in this plan of attack.

Back to work...

Templar: Pain begets truth.

No, really. Ask anybody.

This has been a busy week. I've been talking to the printer about proofs (on the way!), working on comics, and trying desperately keep up with the Todd Goliath vs. Shmorky clusterfuck. The latter usually won out.

In case you haven't heard, Todd Goldman, AKA Todd Goliath, basically traced a cartoon by Dave "Shmorky" Kelly onto multiple canvases, and sold the results for thousands in multiple fine art galleries.

He probably thought no one would notice, since Dave is "just" an online cartoonist. He thought wrong.

Online artists are wont to shit themselves with fury over any instance of "art theft" at all, even by thirteen-year-olds tracing Gorillaz liner art for their Elfwood galleries. They'll even take up banners in scandals that don't concern them, patrolling art archives and private webpages for "style theft," "pose theft," and other sorts of unjustifiable, hyper-vigilant esoterica. They can care too much, and they can make a lot out of nothing. So when it turns out some guy is genuinely getting the shaft, one hundred percent, by law, complete with price tag, you can only imagine the mushroom cloud.

Or maybe not.

The dust has mostly settled, but if you wanna pick the bones, this thread on the Something Awful forums (+3,300 posts at last count) is thorough, epic, and still charging ahead. Todd Goldman's publicist has posted, even. Brew a pot and prepare for a long read, and a few annoying surprises.

Like most of the creatively bankrupt, Todd's made a habit out of his "borrowing;" Online cartoonists Liz Greenfield and Jess Fink were snatched from, too, and print comic guy Roman Dirge popped up to elaborate on Todd's sticky-fingered acquisition of his work as well.

Not cool.

The whole mess reminds me of the short, short time I spent in art school. (I can't technically call myself a drop-out, because it was only a year-long program, and I somehow managed to finish it. But it was meant as a predecessor to an MFA program, which I didn't bother with.) While the experience wasn't a completely miserable one, it did teach me that there was very little exaggeration in the unflattering depictions and descriptions of fine art schools and their students. The Todd Goliath drama just brings the open and stinging contempt most of the faculty and students had for comics and cartoons flooding right back. I don't know if Todd actively socializes in fine art circles, but I wouldn't be surprised. Even with the popularity of Lowbrow art and related fields, too many artists feel work like Shmorky's (And Liz's, and Jess's, and Roman's, and mine, and maybe yours) isn't worth acknowledging, but possibly worth plagiarizing for the sake of "decontextualization." Because, y'know, that's real art.

Spare me.

Anyway, enjoy the comic. More later tonight.

Oh yeah, and PS: This just came out, and I have some stuff in it. I'm not sure what, though. I sent the authors a lot, they might not have used it all. Maybe the Barnes & Noble down the street has it so's I can check.

Templar: It's up!

Hooray!

Crud.

Well, the new Templar page is ready to go live, but Mosso (WCN's host) is doing a little server maintenance tonight. I'm dumb, I was warned. I just didn't plan for it.

The page should go up on Sunday. Sorry, guys.

Templar: I believe this is what people call "A character-defining moment."

Not that she wasn't pretty well-defined before.

I've been waiting to draw that bottom right panel for a year. Can you tell?

Oh, and while I got yer attention: Les "Jonny Crossbones" McClaine, incredible artist and all-around swell guy, turned me on to the best Photoshop plug-ins I've ever used: Multifill and Flatten. These have shaved hours off of Templar's coloring time. Hours. If you make comics and color/shade your inks in Photoshop, y'gotta give it a whirl.

But don't make the same mistake I did: Remember to set the "Multifilled Color" option in the Mutifill options box to white (the background color of your inked comic page, naturally.) For some reason, the default is set to blue. If everything works right, all of the areas to you need to color on the page should be flood-filled with random colors, and that should massively simplify the coloring process.

Good luck!

FYI.

Unless something goes remarkably wrong, Templar, Arizona: The Great Outdoors goes to the printer tonight.

Rock.