WORKING HARD AT HARDLY WORKING...

  Well, I'm back at it again after a while off the grid, to use a John Connor euphemism (Am I correct in using that term?  Is it even applicable?  Oh, well, always wanted to use it in a sentence, so there!)...
  At any rate, I've been applying myself,  trying to get better at my "craft", playing with different ideas, working on my color palettes (limited as they are) and overall keeping myself busy with my characters and improving my design skills...
  No real paying job yet, I'm afraid, and no illusions of getting any in the field anytime soon, but attempting every day to muster enough inspiration and hopeless faith in my creations to keep it going, albeit not in a speedy fashion, as you may have noticed...

  However, since my last entry I've managed to pull together a new series of drawings that I've dubbed my "L.A.Aliens", and basically consist of several extraterrestrial creatures, mostly to humorous effect, that I've pasted to random pics I've taken from my urban surroundings here in Los Angeles...

  The topic of illegal entry or undocumented entities living amongst "us" is very latent in our society but seldom approached without the whole political baggage and/or nasty discriminatory postures normally associated with it...
  I though it could be very interesting, provocative and (why not?) even amusing to play with the idea that here, in our country, we always fear that which is foreign or unknown, always attempting to fend it off and surround ourselves with the familiar, without realizing that, unbeknownst to us, these alien elements are already here, all around us! (And thankfully so, I might add!)

  And so, this fellow came into being... The Interstellar Tagger, my first creature in the series...

  Also, a couple of my friends (which is to say, just one a-hole!) which had seen my "early years stuff" mentioned that I'd somehow departed from my original style and was doing mostly the humanoid animal shtick... 
  Of course, as I'd mentioned in earlier posts (way, way earlier!), the idea was for me to initially take baby steps, practice in a matter of sequential exercises and eventually, gradually, increase my graphic prowess...

  If that has been the case, I leave for you to decide... But I have began to create more complex pieces and intend to continue doing so in my hapless quest for artistic betterment (Is that even a word? Hope it is!)...

  So here they are for your dubious enjoyment...  All of them have already been posted to my Facebook account for quite some time under my pseudonym, L.A.NaNa, of course...

  Until next time...

  Bye! (Feel free to leave a comment... I'm dying out  here!)

 CIGARETTE BREAK

PLANETLESS

                                                 BIKINI

                                                  
                                                                    PRADASITE

                                                                           GNAT

                                                                          LOST

                                                                    POSTCARD

"THE PROCESS" starring QT-12

Well, it seems since forever since my last entry... It's actually been like four freaking months, but who's counting, right?
It's not like anyone is actually checking this shit out anyway...
Although I've received a couple of hits from Tunisia and Malaysia (No doubt some people surfing for the Arab Spring websites and gotten lost along the way)...
But I guess I'll keep it up, if not for any reason other than to keep myself insane... I mean sane... Yeah, sane...

Anywho, I'm still trying to learn as much as I can without any formal training and bugging my more accumen-bestowed friends online (It's actually just one guy really... By the way, thanks Birdy!) with my stupid technical questions and absolute show of ignorance on the subject of graphic design...

Still, I procrastinate... I mean, I percevere with my delusions and continue on with my quest to...  Well, not sure what that is either , or if it's even a quest... I guess it would more accurately be described as an aspiration, maybe a vocational persuit...

Okay, most of my drawing obviously start off as pencil sketches(Easy part), which I then ink (Harder part, 'cause it takes so much effort!), scan into my PC (With a very crappy scanner... Well, the PC is pretty shitty too, to be honest) and then  proceed to try quite precariously to color it with my extremely obsolete graphic software...

And that is what I refer to as "The Process."

And here's a bad video to illustrate... I created this robot for an idea I have for a comic book and did a series of coloring exercises, ran it through some filters and gave it a simple background... I named it QT-12...
Yeah, I know, totally lame...
The song's cool though (Love you Alpinestars!)...

Enjoy...

And that wasn't rethorical, but it might be sarcastic, depending on the circumstances and your reaction to my video... 

Bye!

OOPS-AMA BEEN TALKIN'...

  Well, Osama Bin Laden is dead... Or at least he is according to our ever truthful and trustworthy Government...  So, we can all now breathe a sigh of relief (Or sickening cheers, as so many have done to express their hopelessly warped sense of patriotism)... The threat is over, all is well in the World... We killed a man...

  Never mind the increasingly suspicious way the whole affair unfolded,  I prefer to focus the intention of this humble Post to what occurred immediately after the alleged assault... That is to say, Absolutely Nothing.

  It has become painfully clear that our elected officials, up to and including the Executive, can declare wars,  order bombings into civilian populated areas, carry out assassination plots, and basically kill and destroy indiscriminately using our Armed Forces, and do so with little to no oversight, legal justification or accountability... 

  All they have to do is tell Us, the American People, whatever they want... and we'll believe it without question!  And if we don't, well...

   It truly has become a depressing state of affairs when you cannot speak your mind, count on the Media to inform the People with veracity and investigative reporting, or even have plain, old fashion common sense without it being tantamount to being labeled a "conspiracy nut", overly critical of the current Administration or down right unpatriotic...

OUT OF THE ZONE...

  Been out of the zone, trying to work on a new project...  Inspiration a bit scattered... Motivation a bit low to be honest... Looking for work like the rest of the world... Without success...

  Would like to get some classes/courses in graphics, but money's tight... A buddy of mine from Mexico hooked me up with a free program that I downloaded to my PC and I've been toying around with it, checking out it's tools and functions... Layers are still a bitch for me, but I keep trying... 

  So far so good, I suppose...even for an aesthetic neanderthal like myself...

  They closed a Borders near my area (Quite possibly the only one in east L.A., man!  Thanks a lot Corporate America...Glad to bail your ass out anytime!) and they were slashing prices on  everything, except the really good shit of course, but I was able to get one of those how-to books on Anime that wasn't too expensive (and a nice compilation on Harvey Pekar also)...
 And I hate Anime, by the way, but it's kinda informative about coloring techniques, character design and so forth... So, I'll just take the stuff that's useful and disregard the garbage,  just like I do with all constructive criticism.
  And keep on with my so-called... Well, whatever you call what I'm trying to do... I don't know myself...

  In any event, if things go according to plan (which we can rest assured they won't),  I should soon have the first installment of a short story  I've remarkably managed to finish writing  and a brand new blog where to post it too... Three cheers for me...

  So see you soon, if you even exist, whoever you may be, if anyone at all, figment of my imagination...

  To thee, I say Salud!






  



MEASURE OF A MAN...

                  The measure of a man is his mind...

                 http://mypoweranimal.blogspot.com/

MY POWER ANIMAL: MY NEIGHBOR, KING CHOLO...

MY POWER ANIMAL: MY NEIGHBOR, KING CHOLO...

MY NEIGHBOR, KING CHOLO...

  Living in L.A., as any born & bred  angelino will tell you, is being somewhat of an expert on social & cultural syncretism... Chances are, however, you'll have a tough time finding one capable of telling  you exactly what that means... and that includes me.

   I suppose this means, in some ineffable sense, that our unfair city is made out of many different factors (diverse ethnicity being the most obvious and most thrown around) which seem to incongruously fit together, albeit not always in harmonious fashion, but never in less than interesting or even fascinating ways...
  One could say that  L.A.'s the fusion of two seemingly irreconcilable principles into a third and completely new one...

  Chicano culture is a great example, amongst many others...


  Which brings me to my neighbor, the King Cholo, which is the name I've fondly given to this guy that lives across the street from our apartment...

  I don't know his real name, of course...

  Man, when I see this hommie walking through the neighborhood he is the very definition of badassery...
  Picture a muscle-bound-tattooed-mix of Gengis Khan, Nike's Cortez tennis shoes and Danny Trejo's  grandfather... All that's missing is the freaking  horse and a broad sword... Wait! No... More like a dragon and an Uzi!

  We have all sorts of imaginary stories about him...   
  We speculate that he's some kind of Homeboy Mafioso, an O.G. with a direct tunnel to Mexicali and a pallet of weed and/or cocaine bricks inside his garage...

  I know that's very unkind at best and downright offensive at worst, but intimidating figures always  have the quality of bringing out the cowardice in smart-ass jerky types like myself...

  In any event, I'd have to say that I actually like my tough, barrio brother, even though our relationship hasn't passed the occasional "What's up, Jefe?" at the corner store during a beer run... After which I naturally  gallop home in a panic!

  I can't help but imagine him, the King Cholo, in other-worldly terms, like a mighty warrior marching through the quiet village, looking far off into his vast domain, knowing in his heart that it all belongs to him...Even our very cojones!

  And so, I say: Long live El Rey...
 
  Oh, and if ever I was to disappear after posting this, well... Let's just say the list of suspects is as short as my life expectancy if this guy sees my Blog!

                  (...Fat chance of that happening, right? Ha!)

MY POWER ANIMAL: VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL: TURBO'S VIRUS.

MY POWER ANIMAL: VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL: TURBO'S VIRUS.

VALENTINE'S DAY SPECIAL: TURBO'S VIRUS.

  Well, it's Valentine's Day and here at My Power Animal H.Q. (i.e., my tiny living room!) we'd like to take some time to say a few words about Love and Friendship and the way they affect us and those around us...

  Love truly Sucks...and True Friends are hard to find, even harder to keep and nearly impossible to count on when the proverbial shit hits the fan... 

  That is all... Thanks you.

  And now, a poem from Turbo the Turtle, Cyber Poet Virtuoso, entitled "Your Love is like a Virus"...

  "YOUR LOVE IS LIKE A VIRUS"

   Your Love is like a Virus,
   it eats away my Memory Banks
   while it corrupts my Data Bases,
   leaving just a Blinking Prompt.

   Your Love is just like Malware,
   it overruns my System's RAM...
   I must say it's such a Hard Drive
   Always Phishing for your Hand!

   I send my Messenger in a Bottle,
   Browse through Memories of You.
   I would gladly suffer Spam,
   if it meant True Love's Reboot!

   I give you my Password, Baby...
   this Love's been my Best Upgrade!
   It's been Scanned for all Infections
   And just awaits on your Command.

   Press the START button in your Soul,
   Let your Pixel Dreams appear!
   Promise not to Recycle Bin Me
   And I'll "Save File" all my Tears.

   You so utterly invade MySpace,
   leaving Me with Google Eyes!
   I just feel myself a-Twitter
   Every time your Facebook smiles.

   I just E-Mail... I Text... I Tweet!
   I Blog... I Pod, to No Avail!
   This Situation Mega-Bytes...
   It's gone way beyond the pale!

   Yes, Your Love is like a Virus,
   it breaks down all my Fire Walls...
   I try to keep my Safeguards up,
   but I can't prevent the Fall...

   This is an Error-Coded Love,
   there's No Memory Space left Free...
   I just wish Your Heart could have a USB
   that would Connect to Me...

             (Original version drawing, which I totally botched... I feel second 
                      version atop  is way better...I think, but what do I know?) 

    This post was dedicated to my beautiful wife, of course... but then she acted like a total bitch and, after already posting it, I had to take my dedication back... Love you always Baby...
   And to those Friends dear to me ( you know who you are)... Your in my Heart and in my fondest Memories of Youth...

                   HAPPY LUPERCALIA!

VOMBIES AND ZAMPIRES...

   As far back as I can recollect,  I've been fascinated by Zombies, or more accurately, by Monsters in general...
  My scariest memory of childhood in fact ( aside from my sister Laura  running around the house, growling, looking for us under the beds...and my Father and his belt, of course!) was a movie my Mom took me to see eons ago... I don't know the title and she probably doesn't either... But it featured this bearded-guy zombie with white eyes that was pulling a marble cross out of the ground in a graveyard... Needless to say,  I was scared shitless, hiding under her sweater whenever the scenes would get really creepy...
  I  now believe that, by the visuals,  it was probably an Italian film, on the lines of an Argento, but I can't be sure and I'm nowhere near as diligent or obsessive to actually do a search...

  But the imagery stayed with me forever...As did the fear...

  Since then, of course, much has transpired... I've seen most of the Classics,  from Romero to Barker, to some modern faves like Zack Snyder, and I still find the time to read through Fangoria at my local Barnes & Noble... I'm very much endeared to the Genre...
   However,  it seems that nowadays it's all about the Teenage Vampire Sagas (Oh, Pleeease!) and the Zombie Cultural Overkill (Super Hero Zombies, for Christ sakes?!  Marvel, have a soul!), and it's just getting so ridiculous...

  And don't get me wrong...I freaking love Monster movies!

  But honestly, there's not much left of that awesome Legacy of Fear which Hollywood hasn't already cut and slashed to pieces with a corporate chainsaw and sold out in the best Slaughter House Tradition...

   And still to this day, and unbeknownst to my Mom,  whenever I'm alone in the dark  I'm always secretly plotting my escape routes or working on improvised household weaponry, in case of imminent Undead Armageddon... Or trying, unsuccessfully, to convince myself that none of it is real...

  Of course, the same argument could be raised  of Super Heroes and Comic Books in general, and the obscene commercialization they've been subjected to, but that's just another, yet similar story...

MY FACELESS BOOK...

  So, there, I've finally done it... More like I was pushed into it, mind you... In a sense...
  It wasn't a whim, not a capricious display of personal rendition... Not a decision hastily reached, not even an event easy to foresee... Completely, utterly not to my liking, in fact...

  But I did it ... I opened an account with Facebook...

  My shame knows no bounds...it's breadth is incommensurable.
  It's enormous...  
  I feel like a dirty penny you see in a dingy parking lot in the ghetto, which you try to pick up for luck,  just to realize it's actually a blackened piece of gum on the sidewalk...and then some gang bangers force feed it to you just for fun...
  I've followed both, the advise from a friend and a social trend...  Both are code-breakers, man...but the latter...phew!

  Damn, I followed a Popular Trend...

  As it were,  I've already had to open God knows how many accounts on the Web!   Shit, it's like you're  at a bank,  but the currency in this case  is You (which is totally depressing, if you think about it) ...
  By the time I finished handing over my virtual identity, that Zuckerberg  guy probably made another zillion... Cha-ching!

   Man, I scarcely deal with my own, real-life friends, and now I have to check out the pictures, profiles and little "clever" commentaries of their friends, and the friends of their friends, and the mutual friends of their freaking friends, and then some morons whom I "might know"... It's just too much!

   The things you gotta put up with in order to have your shit out there for all to see ( Like anyone actually does!)...

   Gimme a Faceless Book...and I'd gladly open an account ( Some of those people in there are really creepy, man! )...

   Uh, case in point... I'd like to share this picture of a very dear friend of mine... He's one of the primary reasons I realized early on in my life the importance of  levity, laughter,  and the fact that Cartoons are for Real...
  His nickname's also that of one of my all-time favorite Bands...
  Secret Added Bonus!

 

THE AFTERMATH...OH LORD, WHERE ART THOU?

  There's an Old Saying back in beautiful Mexico that speaks of ancient wisdom and a profound  understanding of causality and the futility of circumstance...
    Incredibly, this archaic adage is as poignant and relevant in today's world as it was back in olden days when the first men began to imbibe for recreational reasons and not just for their mere survival...
  The indigenous people there still say, in their native tongue: "Dios Mio,  si con la Peda te ofendi,  con la Cruda me sales debiendo..."
  In our times, these magical words of ageless wisdom  roughly translate into: "My God, if with my Drunken Spree I have offended Thee, with the Hangover Thou art in my Debt..."

  You gotta respect and revere the wisdom that comes  from the awesome Culture that brought us both Tequila and Mezcal... and their Beer kicks ass too!

  ...And here's a little video I dedicate to my wife...She took this  picture and made a clear point about my ever widening waist...
  Thanks baby, mission accomplished: I got so depressed and felt like shit...
  On the good side, it also illustrates how hard I work at this Blog, of which nobody gives a rat's ass about anyway...

          TOTALLY UNNECESSARY NOTE: I started my Diet yesterday... I really did!

TURBO the TURTLE, CYBER POET VIRTUOSO...

  So, I was having a very dull conversation with a friend on my messenger, right?   Blah this, blah that, whatever- ha-ha, and we start talking about something actually substantial, or at least that's what I thought, and suddenly it hit me...I had my character's profile... Hurray for me...
 
  I've had this idea for a Cyber Turtle who's kind of an ADHD freako, hooked on taurine and hi-tech gadgetry and is sort of obsessed with High Speed Internet...Clever, huh?  You know, 'cause he's a turtle... and it's their nature to be slow...and it's all ironic... O-kay.

  Anyway, it occurred to me during my chatting with my friend (His name's Freddy... there, you've been credited) that he would also be into poetry and cultural musing about life in the virtual world...and voila', out came Turbo the Turtle...
  I'm thinking I'll make'em a regular in My Power Animals...

  Just thought I'd share that with you...

  ...And this is a video of my dog Douglas, who's presently a political refugee at my sister's house in Fontana 'cause we're not allowed any pets in our apartment,  due to the fact that our neighbors are assholes... Isn't he adorable?  Hi Dougie, love you boy!

SPIKEE & SNOWFUZZ: A LOVE STORY

   Okay, is it just me, or are personal relationships the hardest thing ever to endure?   I mean, some exceptions aside,  like concentration camps and living under a republican administration (although, in all fairness, it's getting harder to tell them apart from democrats, am I right?), hands down, the most excruciating, painful and generally, all around, unpleasant thing we all must deal with in our daily existence is our interaction with our sex mates... Period!

   It's hard work, man...It takes effort, commitment and then more hard work on top of that... I don't give a shit what's your inclination... You know what I'm talking about...

   And it's not only our perception of our relationship, but that of anyone in direct contact with us... Our friends, our families, some right-wing nut bent on sending us straight to Hell, or a relative asking when are you gonna have kids already (on occasion, it's the very same person!)...
 They all get a say on what a "healthy" relationship is...and that's just a little too much  social pressure for my taste...

  ...And I guess that's what I tried to convey with this little panel...
  Sometimes you can be very alienated by the very person that's supposed to understand you more than anyone else in the world... Or just be totally alienated by the fact that, despite your seemingly insurmountable differences, you're perfect for each other!



  Note: The little guy in the corner is a very old character that's been with me for a long time... His name's Murph the Rat and this is his first cameo appearance...applause...then silence...now I'm sad...

ATTACK OF THE FAN BOYS or KISS ME, I'M A WOOKIE!

  What can I say about this cartoon?  I don't know about you, but I've always believed that Chewie was naked...Don't you?
  Anyway...  I'm not sure I'd consider myself an actual fan-boy, per se , but I definitely enjoy the whole tribal concept of being part of a following,  an ancient brotherhood that share and practice a series of rituals and dark customs, unattainable and incomprehensible to the common peasant...  An exclusive club of secret members who's mandatory right of passage is both to test the very knowledge of their chosen cadre as it is to show an unparalleled passion and commitment to it...
  It's not enough to know a particular film, series of films, video game, comic book or music/musician, etc. to DEATH!
  No, it's paramount that this knowledge, this personal mission  statement,  must permeate every aspect of your life and that of those in immediate proximity...
  In other words: Fan Boys rule...

    I was very young when I first was blown away by The Star Wars saga, and much has transpired since then...But , all obscene commercialism and fanatical following aside,  I always remember the first time I read those first words on screen and heard the thunderous score from J. Williams...
  It was Awesome...

  And then I saw James Cameron's Aliens and that was that!

You gotta Love Pop Culture...not just Pop jokes!

DARTH EGREGIOUS & THE POWER

  THE FARCE IS STONG WITH THIS ONE...

GIVE IN TO THE DORK SIDE...

                                        ...Even better...

     ...This is awesome...My first actual video...Cool track too...
                                        (Thanks Dan!)

POWAAAAH! ( Read out loud in Emperor's Palpatine's voice, please... )

  Thought I'd share this bear I just made on my endless quest to waste my time and that of others...I believe it came out quite cool and evoking...

  I'm sure the pixels show too much, but that's the crappy software I have to work with, so not much can be done about that...
  On the other hand it made me laugh, it's mildly ingenious and I reiterate its intrinsic coolness...Power!

PUNK PANDA!

  Being from the 80's myself, I've always been amused by the current's generation arbitrary borrowing of iconic imagery, fashion and, dare I say it, even music...
  I always crack up when I see kids walking down the street with green hair, all spiked-up, covered in skull and bones parafernalia, tatooes and chains, in tight skinny-style jeans that don't even fit and listening to Metal/Punk bands and songs that are easily 20 years old...in some instances, older than their moms!
   Don't get me wrong, I'm all for nostalgia...I'm the king of melancholic remiscence...But that soundtrack?   It's from an old movie...Our old movie!  And it just seems that this generation should get it together and come up with their own beat, instead of plagiarizing the ancient talents from back in the day...

 
    Granted, it's tough for you kids out there with this celebrity obsessed media bombarding your asses 24/7, and the Hannah Montanas, Jonas Bros. and Justin Beibers (hope I spelled that correctly)...
  Tough luck, kids...Get yourselfs a culture of your very own, for god sakes...
  The one you're borrowing?
  It belongs to someone else...

APOCRYPHAL DIARY OF A GRIZZLY.

  I hope I'm doing this right, but I'm fairly certain I'm not... Well, this is my latest, perhaps dumbest creation... It's the first, hopefully, of many... hopefully not as dumb...

  His name so far is Grizz, but that's pretty much what you would call a "working title" sort of thing... Some friend/family types have confided in me that they can discern that it's the very poor depiction of a bear, so I'll proceed with that assumption...Hence the moniker, short for grizzly...What can I say? I'm the perpetual sucker for the obvious...
  How he came into being was that I found myself out of work as so many in these troubled times (frankly, it's not such a sob story--I'll cover it one day, if this thing goes anywhere), and consequently, had gobs of time in my hands, an exacerbated sense of loss and a very low threshold for personal fulfillment and purpose.
  You might say the ground was fertile for creative expression... Or further disappointment.
  
  Many, many...many years ago, in a galaxy far, far away a bunch of friends/acquaintances would kindly comment on my artistic prowess, to which I would shrug, fain indifference, act like it was no big deal...
  Truth be told, I was flattered, and thought how cool it would be to have any of my works actually published...
  Alas, time, a long period of substance abuse (honestly, can't say it's quite over yet), normal/everyday  family dysfunction, financial responsibility and, ultimately, marriage would stand in the way of my dream...
  Nah, my dream sound too ethereal... And ambition seems so shrewd and mercenary... My aspiration sounds more humanistic and has an altruist ring to it...
  Yes, all those factor got in the way of my aspirations... Or so I rationalized.

  Bullshit...Truth is, my biggest obstacle was myself.

 
  Guess it was time to get some real feed back and see if my shit was worth a damn...

  My first step was to begin using my computer for something else than just checking out porn and silly videos (I mean, not just...), and started checking out some graphic design software, and then something astonishing happened: I realized I'm a total moron and have no idea what I'm doing...
  As a matter of fact, I'm sure I'm doing something right now that anyone with medium level savvy in Internet functions would deem both neophyte and neolithic...but I suppose at this point, my sense of disorientation is stronger than my sense of... well, than any other senses I have!
 
 I began to toy around with those programs (the aggravation I suffered was epic!), trying to figure them out, messaging with more knowledgeable friends (short list) and basically pulling my hair in desperation until the PC would work out on its own, literally out of pity for me...
  And that's how I arrived at the illustration above...and how proud I was to have completed it.  Nah, no big deal...
  After a while, It ocurred to me that I could develop a sort of comic strip, or even post other projects that are a bit more complex...It would be a start...and here it is.
(The following are notes for my possible demographics)
  -To friends: Sorry it took me so long to finally put my shit out there to be trashed by all, but I'll follow your advise and delude myself into believing I got any talent whatsoever...Hopefully you'll all get off my back already.
  -To family: Uh,well...What can I say? Hi Mom...Hi Dad...You guys will probably never see this 'cause you're both PC illiterate, so there... To those of you who always believed in me, here's me trying...To the others, love you anyway...
  -To anybody else: You must've been google-ing something cool and accidently arrived here...It's okay, don't panic... but you're here, so might as well trash the place...Peace.

  And here's what I got so far...Remember: this is just an exercise....