A Quick One While I'm Away

Alas.
It seems apparent already that I'm a bit too busy and overwhelmed to keep up with the 100-theme project. Which isn't really any kind of excuse, but I am getting way too stressed, stretched, and generally depressed about everything else to justify the added pressure. I've been neglecting piano practice and yoga, much to the detriment of my emotional and physical well-being. And anyway, I'm still drawing all the time, working on improving the quality of the strip as well as my technique. So apologies for jumping the gun a bit there, I just need to recognize my own limitations.
On a different note, I've been feeling a bit schizophrenic about the Bu lately. I'm very conscious of wanting to do something new with each one, either a different layout/format or a different pictorial style. Which is all well and good, but I imagine it might be a little jarring from a reader's perspective. I am aware that given the fickle nature of internet-surfing these days, you have a better chance of keeping people interested if you maintain some degree of consistency, if not going quite so far as using recurring characters. I've thought about making it into a serial comic with a progressive storyline, but that just seems to close the door on so many ideas I want to explore... I love the freedom that drawing standalone comics affords me.
I've been reading as many different sorts of comics as I can get my hands on, and I can't escape the fact that serialized comics - both of the web variety (like QC or Girls with Slingshots or Sinfest) and well-known strips like Bloom County or Doonesbury (both of which I have tremendous respect for) are limited by their 4-panel formats. Their comics on any given day are rarely that funny. Sure, there's the occasional strip that makes me laugh out loud, but their real strength is in the cumulative development of the characters and the story and the fact that they can tell jokes everyday while at the same time building something big and lasting. I admire that. It's also worth mentioning that most of those strips update at least five days a week, so there's less pressure on each individual comic to be funny. Whereas a twice-a-week comic carries (at least in my mind) the responsibility to make up for those days in sheer brute comic force. And honestly, the urge to set up a 6-10 panel comic, totally self-contained, in order to explore whatever amusing thoughts I have, is just too hard to resist sometimes.
I know that the comic is still young, and I'm in no hurry to lock myself into a specific format. I'm just musing about it, and I'd like to know what you folks think.

Variations on a Theme/Birthday Pizza

So already it is clear to me that I will probably not be able to keep to the theme-a-day deadline I initially set for myself. I probably could do it, but that would be piling a little more stress on than is really necessary, especially since the project is so individually-oriented (my friend Joanne has undertaken to explore each them via haiku, for instance). That said, I'll aim instead for one every other day or so, with some leniency.
And now it is my 28th birthday, as of a few minutes ago. Not many words just now on this, as it doesn't feel like much to talk about. I dealt with the imminence of 30 in last years' birthday blog, and my feelings have not changed in that regard since then. We'll see how the rest of the day goes, but really I'm not anticipating much in the way of birthday goings-on. I'll go to work in the morning like any other day, help my boss move some stuff after, and hopefully have a relaxing evening after that. Ideally there will be more cartooning. And it wouldn't hurt to treat myself to a Reggie Deluxe before work, I suppose :)
At any rate, I've just finished another installment of The Mighty Bu, and am now going to get my 29th year on this planet underway properly by taking myself out for late-night pizza as a reward.

In Which I Add 100 Things to My Itinerary

Hello again! And so soon!
Well, I was milling around on the old internet just now, as I have been known to do from time to time, and I came across a drawing challenge on Alec Longstreth's illustration blog which caught my eye. I poked around a little bit (there's another example of it here). Basically, it is an exercise in drawing a picture (cartoon, watercolor, etc, the medium is unspecified) about a single theme each day for 100 days. That's really all there is to it. With such a wonderful list of themes to work through, I imagine that it will be a really fun experiment both in interpretation and varying styles. Again, this is not something that begins on a set day like NaNoWriMo, nor are there any real strict guidelines as to the timeline of it all. I'm going to aim for one a day. I invite any of you who like the idea of it to join me in the challenge. I'll be posting the cartoons in this blog as they are drawn, so expect a good deal more tiny posts from me in the coming days. I will probably also be documenting the whole thing with notes and assorted reflections, as I am wont to do.
Wheeeee!!


Update: here we go. One down, ninety-nine to go.

Our (New) Favorite Holiday

Why hello, Blogger friends. It's been awhile.
I surface again with my July contribution to Three on the Third, which, as in past months, has made for quite the busy day. I'd thought I would have a good deal more to say after having gone so long without blogging, but now that it comes to it there's not much that isn't already captured in these three little comics. Life is crazy and busy and full of practice and learning to be patient and a million other things. The Bu continues to grow and change, and so far I've been happy with what I've done (it's even gained a small readership, thanks in no small part to the kind folks over at the PSU Writing Center). I am more than a little bit surprised and delighted by this. At the least it is all the more incentive to keep drawing :)

So without further ado, I'll leave you (for the time being) with the 3 other comics I drew yesterday.