07/14/2003
		07/14/2003

July 14, 2003 Author: vaz The Ramblings of a negative Man Good news and bad news Hello, Hello, it’s been a while since I've actually written anything for the rant. First off , the good news. I want to thank all the bidders in the auction, I'll try to set another one up for Wednesday. (got to make those bills you know) I'll be headed towards the post office tomorrow to send off the first batch of art. The Bad news. As you know I was using the money to try and make the san Diego comic con. Well we've made enough to rent a car and pay for badges. However that's about it. Logic Ninja and supernaut are almost broke (they don't make much, and have a lot of bills to pay) and vanishing is in the middle of moving and he doesn't make much of anything from his work these days. So it looks like we're only going to go for one day. Sorry about that everyone. I don't personally drive (long story, one element is that I don't want to buy an object that will pin me to this city) After discussing it at length, we realize there wont be enough money really to stay all four days, and keep us all fed for the rest of the month and the like. So I’m sorry bout that everyone. What I would like very much is if all my readers who are headed to the san Diego comic con, would please e-mail me and let me know whether or not it will it would be appreciated if I set a few hours aside during the con to try and sit myself somewhere and do sketches for you or just be there to meet you. If I get a big enough response I'll set a place to be, probably the food court or something. otherwise I'm just going to make the rounds at the con. I'll probably go and pitch UnderPower to editors and get laughed at. I should likely make business cards before I go. For your information We'll be headed over there on Friday. However we are going to prep for next years san Diego comic con. Originally I wasn’t intending to go to this one, but piro had brought it up to me, to see if I wanted to go to show a presence of web comic creators. It was a cool thought but to be honest, without a table or money to manage expenses, it's fool hardy. I really want to go now just to have fun. This past year and a half have been terribly disappointing for me. I'm no longer involved, I'm no longer moving, Nothing in our store sells, I may no longer be employed, the Fanime trip was personally and emotionally disappointing, and I won't be moving. Up until know I've been trying to put my life in some frame of order. I'm picking up the pieces, and trying to get back to some state of buoyancy. Lately I realize what a very good set of friends I have. and I think we can achieve some really cool and interesting things if we pool our talents. We just happen to live in a really shitty town and there doesn't seem to be any stable work anywhere near us. Anyway I’m going to SDCC and having fun damn it! I hope to some day still move to san Jose. And I'm doing my damndest to make this comic into something more. The amount I made in auctions fell just a hair short of what I normally make a month at the college. So I have every reason to continue those auctions. Let me take a moment to tell you how stressful doing and maintaining a comic of your own is. Now I can almost be certain that people like piro and other more well known online comic creators have it rougher. This is a 24 hour a day job. The art alone takes me anywhere from 4- 6 hours to complete. that's just the penciling and inking. Thumb-nailing and laying out the comic takes me an extra two hours. adding screen tones and text, word balloons and all the rest of the Photoshop takes me another 1 - 2 hours. depending on how complicated I want to be. I believe in quality, not quantity. I make damn sure I try and make the best damn art I can. Let's face it folks, there aren’t many web comics out there that try and give you the quality of art that I do. No I'm not saying ALL web comics out there suck. Nor Am I saying I’m he best damn artist out there, because I am not. I'm just saying I make damn sure I give you good art, as good as I can make it. I know I don’t always succeed, but life has a wonderful way of getting in the way. Now when I'm not slaving away at the art, I'm working on designs we can use for merchandise, new character designs for future story arcs and commissions. Then there are things like setting up the e-bay auctions, re-scanning art for the e-bay auctions. Then I have to spend time at the post office. Shit like this can devour my entire day AND night. And this is when I'm NOT working and going to school. One of the questions asked us at the web panel was “how much money” we make. these auctions are the first real money we've made since the donations we got during X-mas. We don't make a dime off cafe press. seriously. we haven't once yet gotten a check from cafe press. Café press has sort of become a non profit service to readers. When you have extraneous deals, like e-mailing back readers, or plotting out the comic. Oddly enough I understand that people think we don’t put that much effort into the comics plot. Well we do. Now this is just a small time web comic, Imagine what it's like for a bigger web comic? And you’re god damned right I don’t want a real job! Think about it. DO you want to work you’re ass off for a company or corporation that sees you as a nameless, replaceable nothing? no, fuck you very much. I do this because I want to. I do this because I want to draw for a living and tell people silly stories for a living. It’s not easy, not in this society or this economy.. The comic owns my life. Anyway I could go on and on about my depressions and hopes, but really why bother? :) We know very well already that I'm usually just a really un happy human being. And after a while, why the hell do you want to hear about that? Let's go on to other more interesting things, yes?? I have to take a moment to mention how very cool vanishing is. Aside being a very good writer (yes he writes, his writings are on the main site.. Bet you didn’t know there was a main site huh?) he's a very cool friend. He got me some books on audio tape. I have to take a moment to mention that I don’t have vacations. SO long as UnderPower exists I don't have vacations. Anyway as most of my friends now, at least I hope they know, that I love to read. Reading is a major way for me to relax. But lately I haven’t been able too.. well I haven’t been able to for about the past several months. So he was nice enough to give me some audio books. Which make my day, because I can draw AND have a book heard at the same time. It made my weekend. Oh and of course I mentioned before that I did some filler for tomodachi forever. Here's the link for it. I think it's a rather good one myself. Oh and since I'm usually the kind of nut that plans ahead, I have the next set of cons slated out. These are for next year mind you. definite: baycon in san Jose San Diego comic con -unconfirmed: Indy con in san Francisco Otakon In case you were wondering I am skipping anime conventions. Now before you flip out, allow me to remind you that I'm an anime fan. However as cons go, anime cons tend to be where I do my worst business. If I go to cons for fun, you’ll never get to meet me and have no chance to get art from me. and I've done comic and sci fi conventions before and do reasonably well there. Anime cons have a tendency to treat there attending artists like crap. I’ve never gotten that bad treatment from comic cons. Mind you they throw you anywhere at times, but they've never cut me form the dealers room. And let’s face it, the dealers room is an important draw. They get the most traffic. At otakon I was disgusted to see that they cut the artists alley from the Dealers room, luckily we had a few big name people who did signings there that drew in traffic. At Fanime the situation was worse and one major reason I never want to do it again. I had someone throw the moronic argument that "anime cons are more like parties, while comic cons are more about money." That's a silly argument simply because what gets a con going is money. If it wasn’t about money you wouldn’t have a dealers room. Comic cons by that same argument are more professional and I know that if I'm spending money at one of them I tend, more often then not, to get treated well. Anyway that's been my experience, and at least I don't have to deal with the stupid “in” squabbling of a bunch of self important ninny's who have an enormous ego of themselves because they’ve put together a con. Big fish in a little pond. Vanishing and I spent an uncomfortable hour or more sitting around some of these people. That’s what Fanime suffered and to a good extent otakon suffered. Anyway you have to understand, that if I'm working a con, then I’m WORKING A con. I'm spending money for a table and I need to make some profit to make back my expenses. But if I'm going as a fan then I'm just there to fuck around and the money I’ve lost is lost. But you'll never meet me if I'm just there to have fun. I won't be sitting at a table to sketch for you, and talk to you. And I do enjoy that. That was the best part of Fanime. Getting a chance to meet our readers. There is a good chance that baycon might be a bust for me. But Maybe I'll make some new readers there too. and at the least I can treat it like an honest to god vacation if I have too. San Diego comic con is where I'm going to have to bust my ass. Another thing I should mention dealing with cons outside of California. UnderPower is a two person show. I'm blessed by the aid of four very cool people who help run our forum and help us with ideas. But they don’t make much of a living and thus really can’t help us with things like cons. When it comes to cons usually it’s just me. Vanishing rather not deal with people, that’s just the way he is. Too a good extent I have trouble dealing with people too, but the career I’ve chosen requires that I interact with peoples despite my neurosis. I'm not fortunate enough to have people to help me with a booth. I don't have four people to man the table for me while I go mess around. It's just me. I’ll be the one spending 300 on a plane ticket, whatever much on a table and I'll be the one carting around the merchandise form the hotel to the table and manning the cash box. At Fanime I was lucky enough to have vanishing with me. But he can only stand people for so long so he would have to leave. Out of state cons it’s just me, and that's not easy at all. That's the reason I won't be doing any out of state cons unless I can drag a friend with me. and It's not cheap and my friends don't make shit. So any cons out of California will be iffy at best. That's pretty much it for now. Remember if you want to see if I can meet any of you while at SDCC, email me and if the response is big enough, I'll look for a place to set up an impromptu sketch and meet fest. Oh and no, I don’t charge for sketches that relate to UnderPower. If you read UnderPower and you approach me at a con, the sketches are free. I'm not Piro or Tycho and Gabe in that I do not have a legion of fans, so at this point I can afford to do free sketches and not worry about my poor hand falling off at the wrist. :) That's all for now cowboys, I'll let you know what's up for the comic con on Wednesday. later cowboys somewhere in hell. California 1:10 A.M