August 2004 Blog Archive

From www.gravyboy.com

August 31, 2004

I could have sworn I posted something more recently than the 24th.  Hm.  Maybe it was lost.  Let's pretend that's the case.

 

We may be heading down to Atlanta on Thursday night and will be at DragonCon on Friday (we hope).  I think the reasoning is to avoid the Labor Day traffic on Friday.   At any rate, we may be around Friday and Saturday if we can get in for a decent amount of money.   I'll be taking lots of pictures and those of you who are unable to make it can live vicariously through us...well, through our website anyway.  

 

I'm planning to do a decent site update as far as the graphics and art on the website goes.  Some of the art is actually kind of old and the characters have evolved since I've drawn them (Leigh Klass, the red-head in the header at the top of the page for example doesn't really look exactly like that any more...you'll meet her in Issue 1).

 

Speaking of Issue 1, we're still aiming for sometime in October and I'm still cranking out pages.  It'll be a full 22-24 pages, unlike Issue 0 which is 16.  So I've got a month left to get everything done...it's do-able.  

 

Catch ya on the flip side...whatever that means.

 

-Brian

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August 24, 2004

Almost September already?  What the crap?  It was just August first.  Oh well. 

 

Labor day weekend Marty and I will be at DragonCon in Atlanta, GA.  We're not going to have an official booth, mind you...since we're, oh, about $1000 short.  But we'll be handing out some free mini-comic previews and milling about.  This'll be our first year, so we have no idea what to expect...other than hugeness.

 

So if you're going to DragonCon...say hi to us.  Not that you'll have any point of reference for finding us.  The easiest way to find us will be to go up to EVERY SINGLE PERSON YOU MEET and ask if they know where the creators of that great new comic GravyBoy are.  

 

Eventually you'll run into us.

 

-Brian

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August 16, 2004

It's now mid August.  This means only 4 more shopping months until Christmas.  Unless you do all your shopping at Cracker Barrel, in which case you can start in late June, I believe.

 

I've complained about it before, but Cracker Barrel is insane.  Putting out Halloween stuff in July?  Yes, in July they had their fall stuff out.  I'm still stuffed with watermelon from the 4th of July and they're setting up cute little witches and Jack O' Lanterns.   Can we more blatantly say "We're just trying to milk as much money as possible from a holiday by disregarding established seasons and randomly starting to sell fall items in mid-summer"?  

 

Perhaps it just bothers me more than other people because I'm really big on keeping things compartmentalized in my life.  I don't want Christmas in July.  I don't want thanksgiving in April.  I don't want back to school sales a week after kids are done with classes.  Call me old fashioned.  Or crazy.  Whatever you do, keep the decorations in the closet until a month or so before the actual holiday.   

 

Let's not confuse the kids....or me.

 

 

-Brian

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August 11, 2004

So I was sitting here working on some pages for Issue 1 when I realized that I really feel sorry for Philbert...because when you get right down to it, he really is having a bad day.

 

Oh, how I don't miss middle school.

 

Middle school, the 8th grade in particular, was the most miserable experience of my childhood.  It was that year that I suddenly found myself a complete and utter introvert...and there's no creature more miserable than an introverted, awkward-looking 14 year old with protruding ears.  If middle school were the animal kingdom (and the presence of cutlery is the only things disqualifying it from that classification) I would be the straggling antelope...just waiting to be picked off by a prowling lion.  I was no Alpha Male to say the least.  Even the term Omega Male is way too cool sounding for the likes of me.  I was the Prometheus Male.  Each day forced to endure anew the tortures of that wretched place and age. 

 

These days when all my peers get together and we talk about growing up the consensus is always the same.  EVERYBODY had a bad time in middle school. Even the "cool" kids, I believe, were dropped into the middle grade gauntlet and pummeled by the hand of cruel fate.  

 

I know this is true because we were all forced to learn to square dance.  

 

Now that I'm in my late 20s, I look back upon the administration of the day, and with my arms outstretched towards heaven I cry..."WHY?  WHY?!?"

 

I remember being on the stage in the gym, behind the closed curtain, my class switching and swinging partners round and round...then, as soon as the music stopped, each of us gazing at the wall...the ceiling....the exit...our watches.  Praying for time to speed up...or to stop altogether...anything to free us from the next round of social homicide.

 

But no help came.  And although it's one of the most troubling/puzzling experiences of middle school in the late 80's, it did give me a chance to "dance" with the girl I had a crush on that first semester.  Granted, I was too shy to speak a word to her...and true, we both didn't really look at each other at all, what with all the spinning and swinging of partners, but it was enough to continue to fuel my ill fated crush for another month or so.  And really, it was that crush that made the first half of that hellish year bearable.  

 

But that's another story altogether. 

 

-Brian

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August 8, 2004

This weekend we had to go to the coast.  Sarah and I had a wedding to go to, and so we made a weekend of it.  Marty and his wife, oddly enough, went to the beach this weekend as well, ending up only 20 minutes away from us.  Another couple we know ended up in the same town as well, and I was invited to join in a Halo party...but my wife wouldn't have taken to well to me abandoning her on our vacation to go play Halo...so I had to opt out.  

 

Even so it was a good weekend and after staying in a nice bed and breakfast all weekend I feel the sudden urge to make my studio a little cleaner...I got used to being able to actually see the floor this weekend.

 

-Brian

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August 5, 2004

I've sent the first batch of pages off to the inker.  I'm sort of hitting a groove getting the pencils done, and hopefully issue 1 will be out in October sometime.  

 

At this time I would like to make a suggestion to certain companies who produce the paper that comics are drawn on.  It would be a good idea to make paper that doesn't bleed when inked.  

 

I thought this would be a given, but apparently I was mistaken.

 

-Brian

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