Pick and Crunchy - Separate Days - pages 1-16

Scroll on or jump to the latest page in Pick and Crunchy - Separate Days...

to be continued...

January 15, 2012: Started posting pages for "Pick and Crunchy - Separate Days". This is a flashback short story, set during their High School days together before the talent show incident. I started this as a 24 Hour comic back in October of 2011, wrote, thumb-nailed the whole story then fully finished the first 10 pages. 

I've continued this short story both for fun and as prep for the next chapter of The Way of Sound. I hope you're having fun with it too!

• Update January 22, 2012: Added 2 more pages! Scroll all the way down to see the latest... 11 more to go!
• Update February 11, 2012: Added 1 more page! Scroll all the way down to see the latest... 10 more to go!
• Update February 20, 2012: Added Page 15! 9 More to go and Happy 4th Anniversary to Art Geek Zoo Comics!
• Update March 1, 2012: Added page 16! Rock on with the janitorial supplies, Pick!

Behind the Scenes - Refining Character Designs

 

As part of the work of developing the next story arc in Art Geek Zoo: The Way of Sound, I've been refining the character designs.

These character silhouettes help me make each character more recognizable and refined. While I'm keeping the essence of all the characters: Pick Wingvey is still a sincere penguin, Crunchy an acerbic green flying V guitar. Improving their "readability" will make it easier to put them in the kinds of situations I have planned for them in the next story arc. Another bonus about playing with the character silhouettes - I'm refining the characters relative sizes to one another.

Recognize anyone? Curious about anyone you don't recognize?

Happy New Year from Art Geek Zoo Comics!

2011 was quite a year of creative growth for me. Even though AGZ went on a bit of a hiatus... I've been up to quite a bit elsewhere. WOW do I miss posting comics weekly here at Art Geek Zoo but in order to have the time to help launch and grow Lean Into Art, grow my interactive design consulting (user interface, user experience, and game design), it's been necessary.

I can't wait to share more news and details - I'll get to regular blogging here before I get to regular comic posting but rest assured more comics are coming. Not the least of which is the epic huge next part of Pick and Crunchy's story. Here's a preview of some notes where I'm pondering Pick Wingvey's visual design:

 

And here's a few extra doodles of pick where I'm thinking about the various styles I've used for him and what might be next:

News! Intervention, Comics Are Great, and Lean Into Art

So much news to share!

Intervention!

I'm in Rockville, Maryland for Intervention: "Your Online LIfe, In-Person" this weekend. Excited to experience the tabling, the fun events, and to be presenting. Friday night 8PM I'll be presenting the new and improved version of "Storytelling to Make Your Comic's UI Awesome".

Comics Are Great!

On Wednesday the 14th I was a guest on the Comics Are Great! show. Had a fun conversation with Jerzy Drozd and later in the episode Eli Niberger about how making comics is only the first challenge of creating them. We talked about the various options for publishing your comics online and tradeoffs to consider when choosing between options like a comic portal, wordpress, posterous, tumbler, and more.

Lean Into Art!

Last but not least - the lovely yet giant project that I've been working on with Jerzy Drozd is called Lean Into Art. It's an online art center with a focus on visual arts and storytelling. We have free content available via a new podcast we launched, our art/creative/teaching journal podcasts. We've also launched live workshops available in December... and the big kick-off event: 30 Classes in 30 Days!

Each day in November we'll feature a new live class, time shifted class, or lab/roundtable. Join us for "an ultimate kick in the learning"!

AGZ News, Projects, Public Speaking Appearance

Change is inevitable. With Art Geek Zoo - it's a way of life. I mentioned in the behind the scenes commentary episode of the Polytechnicast that almost every comic I post here shows some evolution of style, technique, or both. 

What's coming next for the comic will continue that evolution. We'll be rejoining Pick and Crunchy and see how they deal with their assignment in Chromarch. What is unknown to me is exactly when I'll be sharing that story. AGZ isn't on hiatus - not yet - but the update schedule is now officially out the window.

Currently I'm focused on finishing some changes and improvements to this site, looking for a new UI/UX contract, preparing+updating workshops for speaking engagements, and working on a "secret project" that I'm incredibly excited about but have to wait a few more weeks to share the details. 

In other news...  

Do you make comics and think about making videogames with your comic's world and characters? If you're in the Twin Cities Minnesota area 6PM Thursday August 4th 2011, join us at the Nordeast Comics Summit! I'll be presenting "Making Videogames from Comics"!