The Little Things

Tracy Yardley, the artist for Riding Shotgun contacted me by email today.
He had a lot of good things to say about the iManga I’ve been working on.
It’s by far the coolest email I’ve received in a while.
Little things like that make my job worthwhile and inspire me to do more.
Thanks, Tracy.

Mine Cave Exploration

A few weeks ago, I joined a website/Adventure Club called Extreme Things. Saturday. Erika and I joined them for a Mine Cave Exploration Hike in Altadena. Everyone seemed very friendly and we had a good time. Part of the fun for me was the hike, it involved a lot more climbing than I anticipated. Climbing is always a plus. We visited three mine caves, but I only ventured in to the second two. The first involved squeezing through a tight twenty foot crawl space. In essence, I would have only been able to use my feet to push myself through. I crawled through the ample entrance, the walls moving closer steadily. As I reached the point where my shoulders pressed against the rock and my movement became constricted, my heart began to race. I’ve always suffered from claustrophobia and Saturday wasn’t the day I would defeat it. Erika was tougher than me and squeezed inside, as did most of the group. There were two other cowards besides myself. I intend to visit the caves again and eventually force my way inside this particular cave, but it may take multiple attempts. The other two caves were much more spacious. The pictures are misleading, these caves are dark. Without a flashlight, you can see nothing, pure darkness. At some point, groups of gold-seekers dug these caves by hand and/or dynamite. They are rather large when one considers that, each a few hundred feet deep with two or three forks and various alcoves.

More Cave Pics Here

More Work-Related Video

Today in L.A. came through our office a week or two ago to interview the CEO and do a short package on the company.
If you want to see me sitting at my computer and scope some clips of my Riding Shotgun work, watch this video.
You’ll also get to watch a short commercial for a random industry not available to those of you outside of Los Angeles.
If you’re really lucky, it’ll be the high-pitched mattress salesman. Fun stuff.

12 Years Ill Spent Sale

Egads, for an undetermined period of time, 12 Years Ill Spent,
my atrocious 184 page comic collection will be available at a reduced price of $12.50.
This savings of one dollar and forty-five cents is yours to spend on whatever flavor of chewing gum or prophylactic you most enjoy.
Visit Fourchinnigan Publications to punish yourself with more information.

Riding Shotgun Debuts

Back in February, I was moved to a new department at work, the TP Digital department.
My new title became “Senior Motion Graphics Artist” and I am now responsible for creating what Tokyopop calls iManga.
Trying to describe what I do to people has been difficult and confusing for all parties involved.
Well, now you can go to Myspace and see for yourself.

Starting yesterday, TOKYOPOP TV debuted on Myspace TV.
Every Tuesday for the next four weeks, you can see my work on the Riding Shotgun iManga. I was (and still am) responsible for the direction and animation of each episode.
The fantastic coloring was all handled by my assistant, Kimie.
The story is a direct adaptation of the comic by Nathaniel Bowden and Tracy Yardley.

On Thursdays, be sure to check out the Bizenghast iManga done by my coworker, Kris.
He does some really nice stuff with the imagery of the series.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, you can see 3D CG versions of I Luv Halloween and A Midnight Opera. These were created in Hong Kong by a company named Menfound.

Enjoy (or don’t if that’s your preferences, punks).