Haunted Fire Studio

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Friday, January 2, 2009

Ipods, Real Superheroes, and the death of VHS

Happy New Year Everybody!

Here's hoping this economy starts turning around now.

On The Web

Anybody get an iphone for Christmas and now have an old ipod you don't know what to do with? Here are 10 ways to give the old music player a new life as well as some cool comic book related apps for your new iphone. Ya spoiled jerk.

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...Now that you've got enough gadgets to fill a utility belt, why not go the full nine yards, dress up in a crime fighting outfit, take to the streets and join the "reals".

"Behind the counter, the cashier giggles as Master Legend orders a beer. "Master Legend thanks you," he says, reaching out a gauntleted hand for the beer. When we go upstairs to the small dining room, the young couple at a nearby table stop eating and eye us nervously. Master Legend gestures wildly as he shows me the scar from the time he was shot while saving an old lady being mugged. "They got me here," he says. "But it was small-caliber. Not enough to take down a superhero!"

...
"This is more than bravado, say veterans. It may help as evidence after a Real has been arrested or even committed to a mental health hospital for evaluation. That happened to Mr Invisible’s equally short-lived predecessor, Black Owl, who last summer had to be sprung from a psychiatric ward by his teenage daughter who told doctors: “Dad forgot for a moment, when faced with police, just for a moment, that he did not have real superpowers. He could not just fly away.”
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Sound kinda geeky, or nerdy, or maybe even dorky? Well, so is the President-Elect... But which one is he? A nerd, a geek or a dork?

"A geek is someone who has the knowledge of the geeky type stuff and has social graces," Blum said. "A nerd is someone who has the knowledge but not the social graces and a dork is someone who has neither."

Thanks for sorting that out for us Blum.

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Speaking of Geeky... VHS is officially dead. The last major VHS retailer retires the format.

"It's dead, this is it, this is the last Christmas, without a doubt. I was the last one buying VHS and the last one selling it, and I'm done. Anything left in warehouse we'll just give away or throw away."

2009 will officially start the process of me bugging my kid with "I remember when".

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

New Comic Picks for 12/30/08

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Treats for Tummy Monsters!

Marlena has started a new blog, so that she can post about her new adventures in cupcaking and the bakery arts, called Treats for Tummy Monsters. She may still post here every once in a while to talk about her comic coloring, but for the full 411 on her personal thoughts and extreme danger baking you should check out her new blog. I drew a little cooking monster for it.

This will probably be my last update post before the holidays so let me take a time out to wish everyone a merry wintertime diety festival.

To celebrate here are some Christmasy-styled links!

This year, the internet seems to ablaze with Krampus, the German anti-Santa. In the States, a naughty child gets a lump of coal or nothing at all... in Bavaria, naughty children get the crap beat out of them with a switch by a horned demon... There are variations on this theme as there are several variations of Santa, but Krampus is a pretty interesting figure... and scary as hell!

To celebrate Nate Bellegarde has been drawing portraits of the lovable fear mongerer to the tune of "the Twelve Days of Christmas"
If we do ever adapt Krampus in the states, my child will have nothing to fear as he will be rocketing away from the glowy-eyed beast on this Millenium Falcon Sled

Don't get cocky kid.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

New Comics for 12-17-08

Thursday, December 11, 2008

My Brother and Star Wars

My brother has been doing creature concepts and background designs for the computer game Star Wars: The Old Republic. They posted some of his droid designs on the site and I couldn't be prouder.

How weird is it that we both get to contribute and add to franchises, that we loved as kids. The fact that my little brother is helping create characters and locals that will forever be Star Wars canon, BLOWS MY MIND.

Other things that blow my mind is the price of this freaking rad, ultra detailed x-wing model. WOOF!

If I had that much dough to spend, I'd save it up and buy something from the actual movie (search for Star Wars).

Okay so maybe there's a minor price difference there... but still... WOOF!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

New Comics for 12/10/08

Stuff that looked interesting to me:

Periodicals:





Graphic Novels:





Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Getting out of the gate.

Things are going slow but steady for Humanoids. I was sick for over a week last month, which put me behind right out of the gate, but last night I finished page 6 and I think I now have a pretty good handle on drawing the humanoids. The less I have to look at reference or character sheets the faster things go. The first book in a series is always my slowest. I have to learn how to draw all the major characters from memory and get a good sense of them in my head.... that can only happen from drawing them over and over again, trying to stay on model.

I am always surprised at how long... what I consider an easy page... takes me to complete. It makes me really dread the pages that look time consuming.

Speaking of time consuming, first issues also have the most establishing shots.

Damn you establishing shots...

Damn you straight to hell.
On The Web:

The magazine Comic Foundry stops publication. This makes me sad as I never even found one of these issues on the stands and an intelligent but fun comics magazine was one of those voids I felt needed to be filled, and from what I heard, or read, Comic Foundry did a great job of it. Oh well....

Sexy Pin ups from Archie Artist Dan DeCarlo

Some strange urban Star Wars photos from Cedric Delsaux
Shagtastic art for the 40th anniversary of the Haunted Mansion.
Comic Books are not movies.
Haunted Fire Studio