Okay. So my brother was a huge X-Men fan back in the 90′s. He accumulated a decent sized collection of a couple hundred books and now wants to unload all of that. Being the good brother that I am, I’ve decided to help him (and you good reader) by putting this list together for your collection needs.

http://andworlddesign.com/comicbooklist.pdf

Like I said, there’s a TON of X-Men stuff, but there are some other goodies there as well. Take a look and get in touch if you’re interested in some (or ALL) of them.

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I’ve started my vacation on the wrong foot. I’m still working. Not exactly the technical aspect of my job, but still I’m still thinking about the work–which is just as much an aspect of my job as the technical portion. I’m not complaining about it. That’s not what I’m typing all of this for. I’m typing because during my thoughts, I realized something; that I am still an employee.

I started my business to be a business owner. To be the boss. I wanted to be free of reporting to someone else. I wanted to make my own decisions and create my own set of rules for how to run a successful company. To that end, I still had to carry out the labor that comes along with it. What I failed to realize is that I was still acting as an employee. I assumed that my business, my company that I was the boss of was providing a service to my clients. In actuality, I have become a telecommuter who is tied to multiple companies. I’m an employee.

Don’t get me wrong. I still have freedoms wouldn’t exist if I had to punch a clock. But I’m also limiting myself. I have not been acting like a business. I’ve been acting like a worker- failing to consider how to make my business grow; failing to innovate; failing to reach any result except for getting the job done. I’m busy, yes. Making money, yes. But my business, if I can still think of it as one, is going nowhere in the process.

You see, growth for a business involves much more than earning more money (which for the past few years is the only way I’ve been measuring my success). Growth for a business takes it to new levels; creating new challenges, adding products or services, expanding markets, satisfying ever increasing needs. This is gained through working on the business and answering entreprenual needs.

On the other hand, growth for an employee is gained through promotion. The problem here is that, when you are the boss- there’s no where left to go. So I’m an employee with no way to grow. I absolutely have to start considering the needs of my business. And that is what I intend to do.

So I’ve been thinking about work. But the truth is…I’m positively excited!

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Not even sure what I was thinking when I came up with that title, but there it is. Okay, actually I know exactly what I was thinking, but it’s just not the most clever of titles. Obviously, I haven’t been able to post in quite some time and that’s good news. I’ve been extremely busy and I just haven’t been able to steal some time to just type stuff.

Fortunately, I have some vacation time coming, so all of my work has sort of come to a slowdown. For now. I’m sure when I come back in a couple of weeks, you’ll get a post about the vacation and then back into hibernation. Hell, I haven’t even seen twitter is some umpteen weeks. Does that account still even exist? I’d better check someday.

Anyway, I’ve still got some great lettering projects going, including the ever-famous Darkwing Duck which I’ve been telling a lot of you about.

Still rocking out letters on Cars,Toy Story, Muppets, Finding Nemo, and a few other goodies from BOOM! Kids. But I’ve also picked up work from a couple of other companies and these projects are VERY exciting. If you’re into fantasy worlds, kick ass art, and some good old, action packed stories– I’ve been working on a couple of titles that are sure to please. I’ve got to get some clearance from my editors– but in the meantime check out these two sites for some frame of reference to what I’ve been working on:

http://www.riftgame.com/en/

http://www.myspace.com/valora

Obviously, these sites aren’t comics, but what I’ve been working on is closely tied to them. Don’t you just love a tease? Anyway- I’ll be sure to explain it all as soon as I talk to the men in charge, but be excited–if not for yourself, then at least be excited for me!

In other news, I’ve working on some redesigns for the logo–which I feel is too stiff. I work in comics…where’s the fun? So look for new designs to pop up on the site really soon. Also got to finish up with a website that literally took months to get done. It’s the simplest site you will ever visit, but a lot of delays turned this into a stretch. It’s for a florist in NY, FlowerGirl NYC. Check it out, buy some flowers:

www.flowergirlnyc.com

Ahh, I know. I know. I’m boring you for no good reason. A lot going on and too much to talk about, which can be a good thing for a fan (not so good if your not). Anyway, for those of you headed out to Comic-Con this year–live it up for me. I’ll be in FL with the family. Like I said, I’ll keep you posted and you’ll hear from me when I get back.

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Get your free copy of the latest version of Toon Boom Animate by winning the contest at CartoonSmart.com. Click here for details!

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So I’m up against the clock, trying to turn in some emergency comic pages, and my Mac decides to get all funky on me. I’m zooming in on a page and suddenly– the ENTIRE screen starts to zoom in.
click on the image and check out the arrow in the upper right for a comparison

It was cool at first, but when I realized I was stuck and couldn’t zoom back out, I go into full panic mode. The thing NEVER gives me problems, so I don’t know what the heck was wrong. Nothing else to do but shut er down and hope that it goes back to normal. And it did. For a second and went right back to this freaky full zoom.

So after much cursing and button mashing, I decided to check on my laptop (good, reliable laptop) and see if this is a common problem. Apparently it’s not a problem at all. Nope, not a glitch, but a feature. To access freaky zoom mode (and more importantly, EXIT it) press COMMAND+OPTION+8.

And with that, my day went back to it’s normal amount of chaos.

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Suddenly the Mets are making proper decisions. A key one being that designating Mike Jacobs for assignment and bringing Ike Davis in to perform at first base. Perform well I might add. It’s a bit premature, I know, but I get the sense that this guy is the new David Wright. He’s the hot young hand, executing at the plate and defensively. My big concern is the drops that he’s had going out for foul balls, but really-I’m impressed so far.

Mike Jacobs was a terrible decision and rectifying that with Davis has fostered more and more positive decisions: Reyes batting third; getting some speed up front; utilizing Takahashi – I am an excited Met fan. Going into the season, I heard a lot of the same groans. “Same old Mets;” “not this year, are you kidding me?” But suddenly you’ve got a lot of fans looking forward to the Phillies/Mets game coming up.

First place after 20? Not a guaranteed season, but we are in far better shape than most expected when we came into 2010. And we still have a ways to go, with a few key players to work into the lineup. That includes Beltran- a no-brainer- and Daniel Murphy. With Davis performing so well at first, what will happen with Murphy? I have never been a big Murphy fan, so I’d be glad to see Davis keep the spot and have Murphy as a role player. Even better, get some trade value out of Murphy mid-season (that’s just my opinion). But I’m happy to see the Mets step it up. We all know Jerry needed this…and so did the fans. Let’s play some more ball.

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I colored the illustration that I did the other day. Finally followed up on something…now for a background.

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In honor of Earth Day, I’ve decided to do an illustration of Avatar: The Last Air Bender’s Toph. Earth-benders, here’s to you!

Happy Earth Day!

If I have the time, I’ll add colors and a background soon.

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I read something a while back on a deviant art user’s page that talked about foregoing video games and other distractions in favor of improving his/her self. The user suggested that rather than leveling up some character in a fantasy world, we should be working to improve ourselves. The stats, hit points, or whatever that you spend hours increasing in a role-playing environment are meaningless when you consider that you could have spent those hours improving your real life stats. It was very inspired writing actually and I took it to heart – at least for a day or two.

I admit, I fall into traps sometimes. Actually, just recently I bought the new Final Fantasy game and have been spending a lot of time trying to do just what I was warned against – leveling up my character.

When I thought about all of the things I should have been doing and the hours I put in to the game, it seemed pointless really. Instead of logging in 20 hours on a game, I could have spent 20 hours on my portfolio. Or better yet, divvied those hours up between creating a new font, researching new tools for my business, learning new programs, and perhaps working out. Talk about leveling up attributes! It’s like learning new spells, buying new weapons, and building HP – only in real life.

And I know it’s not just me. Of course, not everyone’s vice is video games – but even so, social apps like Farmville and even just spending too much time on facebook can be very counterproductive. I’m not saying that it’s never cool to take a break. Just consider balancing it out when you feel like you’ve been goofing off way too long.

Just Say NO!

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I took my daughter to see Percy Jackson today as a belated birthday outing. I went in with no expectations, simply because I’ve been disappointed with the series as a whole. You see, I picked up the books for my daughter as a Christmas gift because I thought she would like to check out the movie as soon as she was done reading. I’m also a big classical mythology fan and I was intrigued by the premise as well. Even before seeing actual previews, the billboards for the movie had me pretty interested.

That interest has all but disappeared. After reading the first book myself (I tend to do that with the books I buy people), I can’t help but draw comparisons to Harry Potter. I know that the movie has been compared to HP up and down by critics, but I figured that had more to do with the choice of direction rather than the actual story. Boy did they have it backwards. The novel does an even better job of mimicking Harry Potter than the film does.

You have the three young protagonists who might as well be named Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Harry, or Percy as he is known in Riordan’s stories, is a 12 year old with lots of troubles in his regular life until he suddenly learns of this magical world in which he is destined for greatness. His two friends – the intelligent sassy lass named Annabeth and the comical yet brave best mate, Grover – help him out on a quest full of prophecies, mysteries, and dark lords who are returning. Throw in a training school and headmaster residing there (although in this case it’s a camp with an activities director) and you have a story befit for J.K. Rowling, right down to the names – Camp Half-Blood anyone?

Except the writing isn’t anywhere near as good. I can’t knock the author for trying. I’m sure it will amuse some youthful readers, but clearly some work needs to be done in here. Thankfully, the scriptwriter for the film version did a little editing to help it stand on its own.

The movie was quite a deviation from the book version. Although I’m usually upset when they change things from the book, in this case I was absolutely grateful. The title character is matured which makes for a much more believable hero. The story seemed better paced and the similarities between Percy Jackson and Harry Potter were non-existent in my opinion.

Okay, okay. I have to say right out- this is no Academy Award winner. The acting was bad, the dialogue equally so, and the choreography for the fight sequences could have been better. Even the CG stuff looked less than stellar. All I’m saying is that it was better than the book for entertainment value. It also had some promise. The actor playing Grover was great for comedic relief and I could see him picking up a few new roles.

All in all, I would rank it about a C. But maybe that’s with my jaded eyes. It’s enough for a family rental, but I wouldn’t blame you if you simply overlooked this one in favor of say…Harry Potter!

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