FLUKE was awesome, got a lot of good books, caught up with old friends, met lots of new people, and sold more than I thought I would.

Saying I am behind on getting up old strips is an understatement.

I need to get a real website. Soon.

Should I do grad school in Atlanta?

sorry for not really posting much the last few months. It's been a horrible quarter in school for me, which is weird because I've grown so much as an artist this quarter and have accomplished many things I've never done before, but it was still horrible.

A small taste of the horribleness:

• Only got about 5 Rocket Tonics done, so my strip was only in the paper half of the quarter
• Had at least 3 (maybe 4) mental breakdowns all in the span of a week and a half early this month
• I majorly dislike my art history class and wrote the worst paper I have ever written in my life for that class.
• Found out some of my friends can be major asshats at times
• THE BIGGIE: Was in a bike accident and fucked up my right (drawing) hand! This fucked me up with finals, just drawing in general, with the Comixtravaganza, etc. and sent me into a state of depression because if I can't draw what's the point of existing? It's getting slowly better and I should see a doctor, but I have to wait until after finals because I have sooooo much work. :(

To leave things off on a brighter note (and to make myself feel better), and list the good things of this quarter:

• Valentine's Day (rest of the info here is personal ;) )
• I made/am in the process of making three awesome mini-comics that are making me push my own limits as far as mini-comic production goes.
• Actually used photo emulsion to make a screenprint
• Accomplished a TWO color screenprint
• Wrote some awesome poetry and got back into that
• Won the armor last week (it's an RA thing)
• Found out I had some pretty amazing friends
• Made 70 bucks at the Zine Fair and made lots of awesome trades
• I feel like I've entered the "next stage" of my mini-comic life, moving away from simple computer printed covers, saddle-stapled half size comics and moving towards screenprinted and hand-crafted works of art

Because lists are fun, here's what I want to accomplish next quarter, my last FULL quarter as an undergrad

• See a doctor and have this hand get better
• FLUKE
• Set up a website (and online store)
• Clean my room
• Get table for SPX and maybe team-up with someone
• A Rocket Tonic for EVERY week of the quarter, no missed weeks
• Rocket Tonic Quarterly #4 and collect the first three into a big volume
• Two minis by the summer (GL#4? 77 Samurai? others?)
• Over break reprint massive runs of Omnology, Zak and Sara, Boxcar Joe, and Beard
• Write a feature length script
• See my academic adviser
• Get a place with Andy and others for the summer and next year
• Actually post my comics up on LJ again
• Be happy
• More that I can't think of right now

So there is only a week left in the quarter that has been eating me alive. I look forward to spring break. It will be good, yes, good, and next quarter will be much better I feel, yes. I'll try to post all the old comics up during that week when I am not stressed. Thank you for bearing with me for the time being.

Turns out I still had a few comics from last year to post up still. And on top of that, I haven't posted in a month. YIKES! Lots of things have been going on, among them...

• Sequential Tart interviewed me a few weeks back. Thanks, Joey!

• I got a new bike today (me posting this comic late is semi-ironic, I guess). I am going to miss Mordecai-259, but he served well for over ten years. Life goes on...

• I printed Zak & Sara, but I messed up the covers, so I'm going back to reprint. Still trying to get the hang of screen printing. They should be ready in time for the Zine Fair on the 22nd.

• I caved in and bought Guitar Hero III

The dude from Jaws is dead. That sucks.

I think this is the last rocket tonic i did in 2007. I don't know, there mioght be one or two more that i forgot about. I'm back at SCAD now, so I'm going to get started soon on the 2008 rocket tonics. Should be fun. I am going to be super busy this quarter. I have to produce 70 pages of comics in ten weeks for my mini-comics class. so by spring, I'll have lots of mini-comics for sale, hooray!

true story.

it's hard to draw comics when all you've got is nubs.



in two days i leave woodbridge for a long, long time. hopefully that will get me out of my funk.

My red wool cap looks nothing like Waldo's! Mine is mostly red with some black lines and no fuzzy pom-pom on top! Waldo's is evenly red and white with a red pom-pom on top! get it right people or pay the price!

Many people seemed to like the topper comic more than the main comic when this printed. I tend to agree with them. Actually, I really agree with them. A LOT. I like the idea of topper comics, so I think I'm going to keep doing them when they fit. I just hope I don't end up ripping off Maakies.

Recently I've been addicted to Mario Paint musical compositions, and these weird Canadian history tv commercials.

What are you addicted to this holiday season?

This was the first new Rocket Tonic of the 2007-2008 school year, so I guess the joke was that I disappeared all of summer (which was true), or something. Yes...something.

This is one of those comics that to me worked better in the sketchbook and not so much when I actually did it. I think if I had cropped the first panel a tad and made the 2nd panel really skinny and cramped and then made the last panel really long and even more spacious, it might have come off like I wanted it to. Oh well, no use spilling over cried milk. We learn from things that we do. Or at least, we should.

In ten hours I leave for western Georgia to pick up my little brother from army basic training. I'm the artist, he's the soldier. I'm the hippie, he's, well...the soldier. Opposites, but I still love the little guy. It'll be nice to have him back. So until Saturday I'll be MIA.

Wow, two months since I last posted a comic! I'm on a fucking roll, I am!

This one is a "lost strip" meaning I forgot I did it after it was printed, it got lost on my computer, and did not get numbered in my Rocket Tonic "master file". When I found it I freaked, because I am very OCD about numbering things and keeping them in order, so I had to look-up where in the sequence this one went, and then renumber all the strips that came after it. Ugh. But here it is, in it's proper place. Number 51.

I'm going to post all of the rest of the 2007 strips before 2008 rolls around. Hopefully in 2008 I can actually keep this damn thing updated on a more regular basis and stop being so flippin' lazy.

Oh, and I decided to go back to DeviantArt, but I got a new name, as I got sick of my old gallery. So go add http://rockettonic.deviantart.com/ to your watch lists or whatever. Does...anyone even still use deviantart anymore?

yes, it was the best week ever, and no, there will be no two-bit comedians providing commentary on said week. This ain't no VH1.

In no particular order:
- went bowling
- learned how to do emulsion screen printing
- won the armor (it's an RA thing)
- comix art forum
- comic workshop with kaz
- portfolio review with kaz (he loved my stuff!)
- mini-portfolio review with heidi arnold (she too loved my stuff)
- won a free comic for drawing the best moose-wolf with an over-sized head
- finally saw darjeeling limited
- and oh yeah, got the girl!

yes, it's been my best week ever so far. There are only two things that could bring me down, finals and not getting into the Sequential Art Anthology (we find out the results on Wednesday). I have lots to do before this Friday (when I return to the 'Bridge), such as:
- 5 page comic story that I'm having trouble laying out
- finish a rusty screenplay that Ib have not touched in 3 weeks
- math shit
- clean/pack
But other than these things, life is pretty much perfect for me. Comics, the girl, and bowling. What more could a dude ask for, man?

I'm going to post all the Rocket Tonics (and maybe some other work) up over break once finals are over. See you then!

Why have I not been posting comics on here? :(

This school quarter has been fucking amazing inspiration wise, but in terms of getting things done, it's been pretty down right poopy. I already had to turn in two things late to my Backgrounds and Props class (one time due to SPX, the other due to me getting the Anthology comic done). Missed three weeks of Rocket Tonic getting printed. Barely touched the mountain of comics I got at SPX. All around laziness.

Winter break is coming up in two weeks, so I'm going to try and get caught up on posting Rocket Tonics and other comics. Also going to form a plan to go through and read all the comics I got at SPX. I tihnk I'm going to try and do a Review-A-Day sorta thing over break. Maybe I'll even move on to the unread Fluke comics I haven't touched since April. Yes, APRIL! Ugh, this laziness is sickening at times. At least if I had mono or something I would have an excuse.

This break is going to be filled with a lot of comics, bowling, and drinking.

Off to SPX!

I don't have a table but will be roaming the floor. This is what I look like (I'm the one in the hat).

So if you see me, say hi.

Got 90 Grunge Lobster #2s and 35 Rocket Tonic Quarterly #3s, so buy some from me, or (even better) let's TRADE!

See you knuckleheads there!

So, The Small Press Expo, or SPX as the cool kids call it, is coming up something quick. I am tres excited, but I am also tres nervous, and tres sleep deprived. I had the genius idea of starting Grunge Lobster number two late Thursday, thinking I'd get it done and printed by Wednesday night. I forgot the fact that I still have school to do and a job as an RA. Got two pages (three if you count the cover) left to pencil and an ass load left to ink. So I am stressing.

Will I get it done or will this all be in vain? Will people like this as much as they did the first one or will the year and a half build-up/procrastination hurt it? Will it be crap because I rushed it? (To be fair, I did the first Grunge Lobster in the span of a day and a half, so...) Am I good enough to even be a cartoonist, let alone step foot into SPX? These questions race through my sleep deprived mind at 3:30 on a Tuesday morning.


So HOPEFULLY by SPX I will have Grunge Lobster #2 ready to go. I may or may not have the 4th Rocket Tonic Quarterly done by then, but don't quote me on that, as I need to check and see if there is enough material for another collection. There would be another Loose Ends portfolio zine, but I have not done enough Sequential Work since last spring to warrant one of those.

I need sleep, and after this weekend I will get some. This post is pretty dumb.

The current Rocket Tonics will be posted up after SPX, so chill, mutha ucka!

EDIT: Moment of self-doubt over (for the time being). I'm now genuinely getting just plain excited about SPX. Even if I don't get GL#2 done or if it sucks, fuck it, man. I'm going to be surrounded by some of the awesomest people in the whole fucking world for a whole weekend and it is going to be a blast no matter what! (I still need sleep though...)

This is it, the last Rocket Tonic of last school year. Next post: strips from this year begin.


( Cut down the alley, not across the street... )

So...who is going to SPX this year? I am. Hopefully I will see you there!

This was going to be two strips, but I turned it into one when it ran in the paper. Goooooo me!

Next post: The Spring 2007 Comixtraviganza! After that, I'll be caught with the old strips from last year, then I can get to posting strips from this year.

Meet Pranita.

If only love was as easy as cloning a female version of yourself... le sigh.

I once had a professional comic editor critique this strip last year. He said I should have flipped the last panel and had Parker the Asian blarfing in the other direction. What do you think?

Long time no see. Sorry 'bout the lack of updates. I've been doing the comics, just never got around to posting them. To be honest, for the most part over the last year comics became a chore. It went from something I loved to do to something I do to something that drained me so much. That was the last year, for the most part. Well...I think I'm back. I'm in love with comics. In love with making comics, with reading comics, with exploring what comics can do and what they can be. Basically back doing comics for the reason I decided to come to an art school to study the rt form. I think the past year in the chronicle of my life will be known as my "lost year" where nothing really happened. But I think I needed it, in order to remind myself why I do comics in the first place. So let's see where this takes us...I think the future is going to be good once again.

But back to post up old ass Rocket Tonics...

The following is my Winter Comixtravaganza comic. This was a rush job in order to meet the deadline. I was going to go back and re-work somethings and beef up areas, but I never got around to it, so fuck it. Better to cut loses now and move on to better things. So please be gentle, and know that some good stuff is coming up soon in the posts. But without further ado...

Oh, and remember Pransas? Well, he's back...


( lj-cut for HER pleasure )

apparently my friend graham from high school is dead...not the greatest news to wake up to this morning. i remember when we hung out in fairfax, discussed subscribing to porn sites and creating ironic designs and slogans for t-shirts. we almost got kicked out of chemistry class for being a dick to our teacher, but to be fair, she was a bitch and had it coming.







i haven't seen him in three years, yet this hit me like a sack full of bricks.

Oy, if I had a quarter for every time I heard this...I'd have like...six bucks! I could buy...six tacos with that money!

Sorry for not posting in the past few days. I had some personal bullshit that got in the way. Don't worry, it's not related to the above comic.

Note: I won't be going on that family vacation (it's a long story) so I'll be in Woodbridge until the 23rd, so I'll space out posting up the remaining Rocket Tonics.

Mike Wieringo passed away this weekend and that really sucks. I deeply admired this artist as I am sure most fellow cartoonists and sequential artists did. I first got into him during his amazing run on Fantastic Four and have been a fan ever since. He will be dearly missed. He died way to young (only 44). Sympathies to his family and loved ones.

This is actually what Devin and I do IN REAL LIFE!

There's a wicked storm outside and the whole house is a-shakin'! So my music choices of the day will reflect the mood of a rainy late summer day. Lot's of 90s songs on the nostalgic and slightly-depressing side of the meter.

Sadly, this isn't that far off from real life. By the way, if you haven't tried already, don't eat plastic. It tastes (and acts) like poisoned candy...

And here's a little treat: The trailer for Be Kind Rewind, Michel Gondry's next picture, and it looks like it will be amazing. But hey, it's Gondry, so you know it will be amazing.

Lookie, lookie, a reference to a Recall Stegosaurus song. Seagull Poop! You know you love it.

All my fellow Single-ites (that is to say, those who are single) out there can give me an amen for this one. We all have that friend who is like this. Fucking pecker head. But I regress...

I went to bed at 9AM this morning and got up at 3PM. I am living the dream. I don't know who's dream it is, but it's a dream alright.

You know, this one would have probably been funnier if I had posted it up when it originally ran in the paper. Remember this? I do. I HAUNTS ME TO THIS DAY! Like a GHOST!

Remember: Never Forget 01/31/07! Or else the terrorists win!


And oh yeah, Mormons teach us all about teleporting Mormon Jesus (now with Kung-Fu grip!), the origin of black folk, and that you too can become a god of a planet with your many, many wives. Also note near the end the frame with "Genealogy Work". Wink wink.

More back-logged Rocket Tonic is on it's way. I currently found the digital copies for all strips up to number 50. The search...goes on.

I want to go on record saying that the Summer of 2007 will go down in my personal history of being the most unproductive summer of my life (so far). I know, I know. I am a creature of habit and patterns. Most of my summers have been unproductive to some extent, but at least I sorta had something to show for it by the timje September and another school year rolled around. I've only gotten two Rocket Tonics penciled in the last two and a half months, and I did those in the last week. Yeesh, I know. It's bad. But a daily routine of heavy drinking, listening to audio commentaries on The Simspsons seasons 3 to 7 all day, going to bed at 4 am and getting up at 1 pm, despite what leading scientists may tell you, is NOT good for your system and only promotes further laziness. So...with that said...

I obviously have not been on here since February. Well, there was that one post in May, but that does not really count. I have not been posting, I have not been reading anybody's LJs. So if you put something noteworthy on your journal, I haven't seen it. If you feel that I just must see something on your LJ, tell me, and I'll look. David Yoder did. And I looked. And it made me sad that I have not been keeping up with the interwebs. It's not like I haven't had the time. I'm just lazy is all. I think it's part genetics. But that is the easy way out. Even if it is true.

first off, I need to post up the remaining Rocket Tonics up here. Everything from February to late May. That's a lot of comics. Won't do it tonight, because I still have to dig through my files and try to find them. They got buried under some crap. I am leaving for Cape Cod for the Mandatory Summer Family Vacation 2007 this Monday. Will have limited access to the web, if any at all. I go right from there back to Savannah on the 24th where I have to somehow survive through two weeks of RA training and a week of dealing with Freshmen. So that's about a month I won't be able to get to a computer to post comics. And I really want to post up all the back-logged comics before the comics for the next school year start being published. So...

This gives me five days to post up somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 or so comics. In five days. And I'm lazy. Very, very lazy. So let's see if I can get it done. Here's to hoping that I can post around five comics up tomorrow. Heck, if I can find them tonight you might get some sooner than later.

Ok, so hopefully you didn't read all that because it's pretty boring.

sorry for not updating since, fuck, feburary. i'll get caught up once school gets out and i get back home sometime next week. there are a lot of comics that still need to go online.


i need to sort my life out and get back with it. maybe the summer will be good to me.