Alan Moore and Me.

Hey, if any of you have heard of the most popular graphic novel of all time, Watchmen, you probably know that the creator, Alan Moore, kind of looks like wolf-man or something. He has an incredible amount of hair on his face and his head- it kind of looks like he's never cut it. Anyway, I was idly wondering to myself the other day- what would I look like with his hair?

   so I found some pictures and powered up photoshop and...

Wow, now I kind of want to never shave again. hooray!

Better Blog and Better Comic.

Well, my blog is a little more beautiful today...but only by a little. This was the only preset template that was orange, so this is the one I picked- I have decided, however, to manufacture my own template: a project that will take some time and thought and shall not be done for a while. For now we can stay with this one.



Secondly (for you comic lovers) I want to make a suggestion- check out Garfield minus Garfield. It is, according to the website,

"...dedicated to removing Garfield from the Garfield comic strips in order to
reveal the existential angst of a certain young Mr. Jon Arbuckle. It is a
journey deep into the mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a
losing battle against loneliness and depression in a quiet American suburb."

...and it is brilliant. Perhaps you might argue that it takes no effort to produce, but the concept of completely reconstructing Garfield by the removal of the title character is worthy of praise. True, some of the comics are confusing, some are downright weird, and most of them have a empty panel or two, but there is also some of the most sadly funny comics I have ever seen in this collection, and I will take G-G over the original any day.

Garfield Minus Garfield

Comic Time: Sophisticated Humor

For today's Comic Time I'm posting several farside-like gag cartoons written by myself and my brother in our younger, tenderer years. Our comic was called 'sophisticated humor' and most of the time that was an extreme oxymoron. I think some of them could be rather amusing- I especially like the one about the camel.

Sophisticated Humor

Work can get boring, so...

I do a lot of sitting in my truck at my job. I go wait for a detasseling crew, and if the crew is a hour late (an occurrence that is by no means uncommon) I have to sit in my truck for an hour. Do I bring a book? I really should, but thus far I have just ended up playing with my work phone. And what does a semi-artistic person do when he plays with a phone? He plays with the camera and whatever image manipulation tools the phone has (notoriously stone-age)

   And YOU benefit from that- I have made up a package of seriously groovy cellphone wallpapers and I'm offering them here gratis (as if I would charge anything for such things).  So if you have a cell phone, enjoy these offerings! If you have no cell phone, use them for whatever you like. You may even sell them, but I want royalties. 

 

Let's hope this works.

Wallpapers

Best parental advice ever.

I was sitting on lunch break...no, I was sitting on a bench, on my lunch break. I mean, the bench wasn't on my lunch break, I was. But then- if I was on the bench on my lunch break, was the bench taking a lunch break too? I don't know- it's all moot anyway. On this lunch break I picked up a friendly brochure that boasted that it would advise parents 'how to talk with your kids about smoking'.  inside the dubiously designed cover (I'm a designer- what can I say? The cover made me want to laugh and throw up at the same time) was a couple of paragraphs of helpful statistics (...and as my Dad says, there's Lies, **** Lies and there's statistics. And yes, he does censor that joke like I just did.) and a list of bullet points which were 'helpful tips to help you talk to your kids'. There were very helpful: such pointers as the Nikesque 'Just do it' to the sentences attempting to scare parents into submission to the idea of smoking as the Original Sin (I say that speaking against smoking is Racism: after all, the native Americans gave it to us, didn't they? I guess smoking is a greater sin) but the thing that really caught my eye was the last wonderful piece of advice, reproduced here for your enlightenment:

 And get this: the study cited as the source of this quotation was a study called "Do as I say..."

Unbearably cute.

Hey, folks. 

I have a little cat on my computer who chases my mouse around. I don't quite remember where I got it- I think it may be a yahoo! widget- but it is undoubtably one of the neatest little programs I've ever seen. His name is Neko, he chases the mouse, scratches himself, and can eventually fall asleep in a little ball. Well, a little while ago I had Neko with his grey coat (you can pick several different looks, as well as behavioral settings) hanging out on my computer screen. I was doing something else for a few minutes, and I looked up and Neko had fallen asleep in the lap of a friend, who appeared to be stroking Neko's head-

Neko Napping

Well, this was just about the cutest thing I'd ever seen, so I snapped a quick screenshot, knowing that such a thing would probably never happen again. It never has!

SKETCHPAGE: Origins.

Hello, dear Lewis Lifers!

  We've seen quite a bit of 'li'l guy' or 'Killer' or 'Li'l Killer' recently, so I thought that I would post the original sketch for him. I was playing around with watercolor and just filling pages with random doodles...and this came out. Often when I'm sketching characters I include a speech balloon or two that kind of sums up their character or their purpose- in this case, when I drew this cute little guy holding a mean looking axe, immediately he seemed very much like one of those paradoxical persons who look one way and act quite the opposite.

 Anyway, a little while later he lost his name (boring) and he gained some legs (because I decided I'd had enough legless personnel in my comic) and appeared here!

  (He's changed his look a little, but if you check out the first comic he looks quite a bit like the original sketch!)

    Killer Origin page. 

13 Lessons learned from listening to an hour of Country.

The other day I was listening to country (because that's all they play at work) and I was amazed at how many insightful messages came out of the radio. So I decided to listen to an hour of country and write down all of the lessons on how to live I learned from it.

   And here they are.

-Love her and never let her go, even if she's just toying with you.

-Drinking is the most fun you'll ever have.

-Hold on 'till she's gone.

-'God is great, beer is good, people are crazy.'

-Just wait; He'll love you eventually (after he comes to his senses and realizes that his girlfriend has nothing on you.)

-The weekends are for women and beer.

-Manipulate women: It's good, clean fun!

-If you have enough stuff, you'll be happy!

-You worked hard this week- you earned the right to sink into a drunken stupor. 

-Work is the worst thing in life; weekends are the best.

-Use alcohol to get people to do what you want them to do.

-America isn't only a really cool country, it's the best. No contest, the best. Best. Bestest. Best-best (and Americans are the master race).

-Drunkenness is justification for everything, and it's all really fun!

Since country is full of such intelligent, important lessons, I strongly suggest that parents let their children listen to country.

Comic Time!

Welcome to the first 'Comic Time!' page. These are pages that have nothing to do with Lewis's Life, but just are random cartoon art.

   This is a little bank robbery scene. Enjoy.

P.S. This almost should be a sketchpage, because there IS a link to L'sL. Can you spot it?

Bank Robbery

SKETCHPAGE

Here is the continuation and summation of the brief, yet pithy 'Karn and Angelo' graphic novel. This work was created with the intent that the reader fill in the story that occurs after the four pages of this comic in their head. Actually, I just quit because that last panel looked terrible and I didn't want to redraw the whole page. Oh well.
Maybe I'll revisit Karn and Angelo someday- except their names would be switched.

L'sL connexion- You know this one (Karn). However, the last page has a stellar example of how all of my works are connected. That large black beast in the first panel is strongly reminiscent of a character named Andrews in my comic Tooth & Claw.

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/7204/karnandangelo3.jpg

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/725/karnandangelo4.jpg

SKETCHPAGE

It is now time for the first golB Lewis's Life SKETCHPAGE!


With these sketchpages of mine that I will be posting periodically I want to show you some of the background of Lewis's Life- there is quite a bit, if you dig back far enough. I'm not going to attempt to put it all in chronological order- (Never dated my doodles!) But almost anything I post as a sketchpage will have something to do with Lewis's Life. I'll post random doodles, my old 'newspaper format' comics, designs, graphic novel pages, source sketches for characters...the works. It'll be fun.


This first offering is the first two pages of a graphic novel that I started working on one day on a whim. I only ended up drawing four pages (I'll post the next two next week), but the ones I did finish ended up looking rather cool.


Yeah, I have no idea who that robot at the beginning was.


Link to L'sL: This guy, Karn, is basically Lewis with attitude and sunglasses. And steroids.

http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/2730/karnandangelo1.jpg

http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/8161/karnandangelo2.jpg

History of me, conclusion.

I was visiting my brother in Oklahoma, hanging out at his apartment and discussing weighty matters (and not so weighty matters). He has always taken a lot of interest in my 'career' as a cartoonist, and usually gives good advice: this time the advice was golden. He told me that I should start a webcomic. I liked the idea, and we decided to begin one together: The Voyages of the Hale-Bopp. I also at that time to begin a 'lame side-project' with zero expectations, just for fun: it was going to be for fun, and 'hale-bopp' was the serious project. I entitled the side-project 'Lewis's Life'. I had been messing with Lewis and a cast of characters in a much more conventional four-panel manner, but I decided that, given the unbelieveable power of the net, why constrict myself to four little panels??? So I rolled with it. Lewis quickly became the main project, and the rest, as they say, is history.

And as the history joke goes- a Bank Robber walked into a bank and pointed his gun in the teller's face and said "Gimme all the money in your drawer, or you're geography!"
"Don't you mean History?" She said.
"Don't change the subject!"
...
Buh-boom ching!
...

History

History of me, Pt 4.

Superguy and Torty soon fell by the wayside. I decided that the characters were lame and cliche and I didn't like them any more. So, I decided to move on to more sophisticated material- little monsters trying to eat each other in a fictional world. I created a comic strip entitled "Tooth and Claw', where small, vicious little monsters ran around and tried to eat each other. All the little guys called each other my their last names, and were very polite. I also still harbor the suspicion that they were British. Hmm.

Their names were Roberts, Andrews and Shultz.

They were all very good friends, had tea together, and never held the hunter's instinct against the others.It was an interesting little strip. I actually prepared a submission, photocopied that comics at the size they should be, wrote a letter the the syndicate...and decided it wasn't good enough just before I sent it in. My self doubt probably kept me from earning millions when I was 15, but at least I was tyrannous enough to myself to be motivated to improve (those who think they are the best they could be don't see any reason to work hard). I got better, but I just couldn't think up a good character...I was STUCK.

History of me, Pt. 3...

Wait.
First things firstly.
http://www.lewiscomic.com/
Ta Da! I'm still working on it, but there it is.

History of me pt 3.

Yes, those are Superguy and Torty. I just took a pen and dashed them out with no trouble- a testament to how much I practiced drawing these guys. I hardly ever got around to drawing comics with them, but I sure knew how to draw the characters! I was sure that the characters were the most important things- but I hadn't figured out that even with good characters you still needed to put them into comics for them to be worth something.

Yes, Superguy's real name was Kent Clark. And yes, he had a curl that appeared whenever he turned into Superguy. But I was just starting out: give me some slack (of course, I still am 'just starting out').
Fun Fact: Verne in his LB costume looked a whole lot like Torty (with his shell and everything). This wasn't purposeful, but it was fun when I realized it. Actually, I would probably go so far as to say that Verne is a kickback to the days of Superguy when all my 'people' we lizard people. Who knows, though- I'll leave the Psychological speculation to my fiance (Brilliant psychology major).

Bye!

History of me, Pt. 2.

First a little news: the new website is developing really well, and very quickly! I love the ease of Wordpress's use. I guess that goes to show you that sometimes it's just better to pay little money. I'll post a link fairly soon!


Now we transport back in time...
The comic I drew on that piece of slick white cardboard was called Superguy and Torty. It was a superhero comic about a lizard- man (sound familiar?) and his turtle sidekick Torty. It also had a bad-guy-lizard with a hood and a bad eye, and two high-school students (who seems old and mature at the time) named Burt and Punky. Burt was boring, but Punky was a Goth/hardcore/who knows what lizard man. He had a new hairstyle every comic, and, as he explained it, he just 'woke up that way'- Stylish Bedhead, as it were. (but his bedhead was in the form of Mohawks, beehives and spikes) My plan was for him to have a different hairstyle evey comic for the entire run, once I got my comic in the paper. Then Pierce in Zits appeared and I realized that Punky would seem unoriginal. How dare Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman gang up on a pre-teen that they knew could not pursue legal action!!! I was incensed.
'Superguy' lasted for quite a while...the characters grew and I actually got a comic published in a homeschool newspaper (My head wouldn't fit through the door).

....Hmm...I think I've come to a stopping point. I wanted to post some pictures of Superguy, but I do not have any currently. I shall have to conclude for now and come back with scans...

History

Today I have had a minor epiphany. I have come to the conclusion that the short-term purpose of this blog is to give you a history of my cartooning career. I'll post examples of previous work (I save almost everything, even the really horrid stuff), and explain how I got to where I am.

History of me, pt. 1

One morn when I was about 12, I was sitting in the car with my family waiting for...something... I don't remember quite what... but I had been waiting an unbearably long time (since I was 12, probably 8 Minutes), and I was incredibly bored (since I had the attention span of a gnat). I wanted to draw, but I didn't have any paper- a situation made even more unbearable by the fact that I had access to one of Dad's Really Cool Pens: pens that he always kept in the front of this shirt pocket. They weren't the regular roller ball pens, but they weren't plastic- of fiber-tipped pens either: they had metal tips that seemed to have little slits in the end to emit ink with a very beautiful line and even flow. I loved those pens so much that when I borrowed them I would occasionally 'forget' to give them back.
Earlier in the day (probably in a vain attempt to bribe me and my 4 siblings into giving her relative peace and quiet) my wonderful mother had bought a package of mini Butterfingers candy bars. We devoured them quickly, and lo and behold! underneath the sweets was a pristine, virgin expanse of white cardboard- perfect for a scrawny 12-year-old's artistic aspirations.
I requested one of the coveted pens and began to create.

To be contrived...

WELL-

Easter is here, and we are awash in...gummy worms. Yes, I went home and found out that my family has somehow contrived to receive 15 pounds of gummy worms in preparation for Easter!
As I look at the nutritional panel (pretty much an oxymoron on a gummy worms bag) I see that
1. The serving size is 11 pieces.
2. There are 56 servings per bag.
3. MY family procured 3 bags for Easter.

So...11 x 56 x 3 (pull up computer's calculator)...

This Easter we have quite a few worms...

...1,848 to be exact...


http://img412.imageshack.us/img412/5897/finishm.jpg

(Yes, I counted.)

Hello, friends, family and people I don't know.

It occurs to me that I have no idea what to put in a blog.
What is the purpose of a blog, actually? The name 'Web Log' is not very descriptive.
I do not intend for this to be a journal...with a resource like the Internet it is already far too easy to lay a private individual's life bare without the need for them to write their thoughts and feelings about What Kind Of A Day They Had for all to see (in my humble opinion). I do not want this to become a relatively pointless collection of random words that I beg you to appreciate for my sake- I want to give you a reason to read this blog. What is that reason? Well, I don't really know yet- perhaps I should have figured out the purpose of this blog before I started it...but that seems to be the way I end up operating. I know that this is supposed to be about Lewis's Life, but since questions probably aren't forthcoming, and I can think of nothing instructive to write about my work at this time, I am at a loss.
Rest assured, I shall contrive to produce a purpose in due time.

What is the purpose, anyway?

Welcome!

Hey!
After I tried for an hour or two to get blogger to add this blog to my website, I decided to stick to the blogspot site for now.

Anyway, temporary setbacks aside, the Official Lewis's Life Blog, golB, is now up and running! How far it will run, however, it still in question.

-The Gentleman Artist