A quick note: This blog will not be updated in 2010. Except for this post you see right now.
Withoutbones has been updated with some new work, and with it, a new blog.
withoutbones.com
blog.withoutbones.com
I wanted the blog to match the site, and also live in a subdomain of the site. 2007-2009 is a pretty good run for tswob. Update your RSS feeds. Farewell.
Favorite comics of '09
Was thinking about what I liked most this year, and since I'm bad with remembering when things come out, I had to look through my shelves and boxes. Here's a list of no set length of things I really liked that came out this year.
Beasts of Burden
This is currently only a mini series, but I think that there are plans for future minis or an ongoing depending on the sales of this one. I could be wrong. This is about a group of dogs and cats that use magic to hunt ghosts and spooky things like this. There are also 4 more short stories featuring these characters in the Dark Horse Book of... series.
King City
While not technically "new" in '09, this is a new size and new rerelease of this previously unfinished series. It will now finally get an ending too. So far it's only 3 issues in, but it's wonderfully drawn and full of unique story ideas and characters and world building stuff. Check it out.
Em and Gwen in: Magic Spell
This is a 2-part story that would take a little bit of leg work to get and read. Part 1 is free on the MySpace Dark Horse site, or in the MDHP Volume 4 which collects a lot of the MySpace content. Part 2 is printed in Bird Hurdler which costs $0.01 plus shipping. New Farel stuff. Magic in a real world setting. Talking birds. That's all you need.
Mouse Guard: Winter 1152
Technically only 2 issues of this series came out in '09, but the collected edition was also released, so I think that counts. Mouse Guard is a world where mice have little tiny swords and axes and go on adventures where they battle snakes, owls, and the weather itself. The world they live in is very interesting and I can't wait for more.
The Eternal Smile
I loved Same Difference and Other Stories. I loved American Born Chinese. Take the artist from one and the writer from the other, and you get this. Another great comic. Sorry I don't have a lot to say about all of these, but I loved them, and would tell everyone to check them out. This one contains a story that features swords. There might be a theme going in this list.
Wonton Soup Vol. 2: Hyper Wonton Soup 2 TwoTon Soup: The Quickening 2…Soup
The insane-o title for this one can barely prepare you for the insane-o story and art inside. The writer/artist on this one, James Stokoe, has a new Image series starting soon that features...you guessed it – Swords. And Orcs. Can't wait.
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka
Pluto is a re-imagining/re-telling/re-whatever of an Astro Boy story, The Greatest Robot in the World. They have translated/released 6 volumes so far this year, with 2 or 3 more coming in 2010. It's about robots that think they are human, or learn to feel like humans feel. It's about emotions and if robots are people or not. Kind of like BSG, but prettier and with a way better story. 100% less spaceships tho. Oh well.
––
Of the things I have read this year, those are my favorites. Here on my desk I still have a couple I have yet to finish that I think could be added to this list. Beast, The Marquis: Inferno, and The Mourning Star volume 2. I'll just edit them into the list if needed. If so, this'll be 10 comics... So, get reading.
Beasts of Burden
This is currently only a mini series, but I think that there are plans for future minis or an ongoing depending on the sales of this one. I could be wrong. This is about a group of dogs and cats that use magic to hunt ghosts and spooky things like this. There are also 4 more short stories featuring these characters in the Dark Horse Book of... series.
King City
While not technically "new" in '09, this is a new size and new rerelease of this previously unfinished series. It will now finally get an ending too. So far it's only 3 issues in, but it's wonderfully drawn and full of unique story ideas and characters and world building stuff. Check it out.
Em and Gwen in: Magic Spell
This is a 2-part story that would take a little bit of leg work to get and read. Part 1 is free on the MySpace Dark Horse site, or in the MDHP Volume 4 which collects a lot of the MySpace content. Part 2 is printed in Bird Hurdler which costs $0.01 plus shipping. New Farel stuff. Magic in a real world setting. Talking birds. That's all you need.
Mouse Guard: Winter 1152
Technically only 2 issues of this series came out in '09, but the collected edition was also released, so I think that counts. Mouse Guard is a world where mice have little tiny swords and axes and go on adventures where they battle snakes, owls, and the weather itself. The world they live in is very interesting and I can't wait for more.
The Eternal Smile
I loved Same Difference and Other Stories. I loved American Born Chinese. Take the artist from one and the writer from the other, and you get this. Another great comic. Sorry I don't have a lot to say about all of these, but I loved them, and would tell everyone to check them out. This one contains a story that features swords. There might be a theme going in this list.
Wonton Soup Vol. 2: Hyper Wonton Soup 2 TwoTon Soup: The Quickening 2…Soup
The insane-o title for this one can barely prepare you for the insane-o story and art inside. The writer/artist on this one, James Stokoe, has a new Image series starting soon that features...you guessed it – Swords. And Orcs. Can't wait.
Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka
Pluto is a re-imagining/re-telling/re-whatever of an Astro Boy story, The Greatest Robot in the World. They have translated/released 6 volumes so far this year, with 2 or 3 more coming in 2010. It's about robots that think they are human, or learn to feel like humans feel. It's about emotions and if robots are people or not. Kind of like BSG, but prettier and with a way better story. 100% less spaceships tho. Oh well.
––
Of the things I have read this year, those are my favorites. Here on my desk I still have a couple I have yet to finish that I think could be added to this list. Beast, The Marquis: Inferno, and The Mourning Star volume 2. I'll just edit them into the list if needed. If so, this'll be 10 comics... So, get reading.
Science Preview 2
Some more work, some more panels. 25% of full-size. 1/2 of the panels.
3 more photos and I'll need a pro flickr account... xmas present, anyone?
currently untitled science comic preview.
this is the final linework for a big (10x15) 1-page black and white comic i've been drawing. i had done a sketch awhile back of a person talking but the word balloon was cut off by the bounding box of the comic panel. i thought it would be a funny way to do a silent comic. i have a whole script of dialog for this one, but i left it out so it would be a little more open ended. recently i've been thinking that i don't want it to be too open ended, so I think it'll get a title that is revealing.
this file is huge, but this is just a screenshot. full-sized and finished coming soon.
this file is huge, but this is just a screenshot. full-sized and finished coming soon.
Without About
Been thinking about minor changes to my site, withoutbones. Last night, I thought up this for the "About" section.
Which made me think a lot about family trees.
Which made me think a lot about family trees.
Tao te Ching, chapter 47
Without stirring abroad
One can know the whole world;
Without looking out of the window
One can see the way of Heaven.
The further one goes
The less one knows.
Therefore the sage knows without having to stir,
Identifies without having to see,
Accomplishes without having to act.
From the D.C. Lau translation
Without opening your door,
you can open your heart to the world.
Without looking out your window,
you can see the essence of the Tao.
The more you know,
the less you understand.
The Master arrives without leaving,
sees the light without looking,
achieves without doing a thing.
From the S. Mitchell translation.
I like the first one better.
Lorna visits
Lorna came to town this week. We ate a lot of food and walked all around Brooklyn. One night, we ate hand pulled noodles in soup and a pile of dumplings. Then we walked to Brooklyn Heights, and looked out at the city.
mach workup
working file, with some discarded marks and symbols and things. skulls are pretty common on these patches, but i couldn't make one that i liked so i stopped thinking about them. oh well.
mach-ers marks comp
this is an entry for the shirt.woot "flight" competition.
i like drawing little badges and insignia and such, so i made a couple for fake flight jackets. the bat one on the left is for a fighter jet squad called "the combats". other names, written on the paper next to me include "high five", "high plane drifter", "red six", and "flipped birds" which would be a blue-angels type group that flew upside down only.
vote on it here:
http://shirt.woot.com/Derby/Entry.aspx?id=36839
still life w/ cheese
saw this today, and forgot that i had seen it before. loved it then, love it now.
If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.
No curtains at my place anymore, so woke up at like 8:30. Making up flight jacket patches and listening to David Dondero. The sun shining in my window makes it hard to see the monitor. That's trouble.
pfs_gnome powered armor
in the fantasy worlds that i am pulling from for inspiration, gnomes are very clockwork/technology based. in PFS, i want to have hints of this technology, but not to the point where they have mastered it. I think that it should either be very very new, or so ancient that most of it is lost/broken/forgotten.
the pieces of remaining power armor are given to those in positions of defense. with the powered helms, the gnomes are free to communicate to each other. like walkie talkies. the lenses in these helms may also be of an advanced nature, but I haven't decided yet.
this guy is a gate keeper type guy.
--
i couldn't do an inked thing every day of october due to real life, so i stopped. but i like the format, and will keep exploring the PFS world in this way for now.
pfs_elf mage
this is an elvish mage/wizard/caster of some sort. he is standing in the rubble/wreckage of an elvish building.
gnomes live underground, and in the past young elves would stumble upon entryways to the gnomish dwellings. the young adventuring elves would think these were dungeons and would enter them with hopes of treasure. the elves ended up killing many unsuspecting gnomes this way and the gnomes have never gotten over it.
gnomish strike teams sack elf homes/towns/caravans/anything to the point where it looks like obsession and fun.