The End of My Life...

...In Comics! Boy I bet that was alarming for those of you who just saw that entry title, but need not worry I intend to live a full and healthy life filled with excitement and (mostly) good choices. What I do mean however is that this is the final entry in my blog "My Life In Comics" as you know it, and in the tradition of the comics I so admire, I will be rebooting the blog into something new. Later this week things are going to change drastically with this blog including title, focus and other things. To all those who have followed me this long, thank you for your support and your readership and I look forward to seeing you on the other side... of this reboot, see what I did there, I totally made it sound like I was dying again!

Round One Summary: The Presidio Trust

My and Blue One's time in San Francisco working at the Presidio came to a close on December 16th. The Presidio, a former military base located in the San Francisco bay area, has been apart of the National Park Services as part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area since October of 1994. The Presidio’s funding is unique to other national parks in that its federal appropriations diminish each year with appropriations ending completely after the fiscal year of 2012. In 1996 Congress created the Presidio Trust with the mission to preserve the Presidio and make it financially self-sufficient.

We had variety of projects during our time in SF amongst the numerous departments of the Trust. In addition to the community garden I mentioned in an earlier post we also bury a new irrigation line with the forestry crew, Built 17 Green house benches, renovated garden beds in one of the many neighborhoods in the park, helped operate the Dragonfly Creek volunteer event, and weeded more non-native species than you can imagine. Working with the Presidio has provided us with some very unique ISP (Independent Service Project) opportunities, like working on the famous Alcatraz, and resorting the natural beauty of Redwood Creek at Muir Beach with the Golden Gate Park National Conservancy. Seeing the need for more community involvement at Muir Beach Blue One put together their first community day for the new volunteer opportunity.

It wasn't all work and no play for the team though; We had taken full advantage of any downtime, exploring the various parts of the city like The Castro, Height Street, The Mission, Fisherman’s Warf and other famous San Francisco locations. Some of us even met music icons They Might Be Giants and Brian Wilson. It was also a great round for me personally because during the project I got to go to a comic book store signing by the creative team of one of my current favorite comics Batwoman. It was great getting to meet J. H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman, they gave me very helpful advise in pursuing a career in comics.

This project was also great for meeting AmeriCorps NCCC Alumni. Two of the interns at the Presidio, Laura who we worked with, and Marlene who we shared our housing with were both part of the team that last served the Presidio and both got internships shortly afterward. We also by chance ran into an AmeriCorps Alumni from almost 10 years ago. Turns out he and several other members from his class all live in San Francisco now. They treated us to a nice dinner of Pizza and stories of their years with NCCC. After the we finished our project we headed back to Sacramento for a few days of training and then I went home for a couple weeks as part of my winter break. The first illustration is of our project portfolio cover that I did, the second picture is the flyer (also by me) for the community day for the Red Wood Creek Restoration that we put together. I fly back to Sac town tomorrow where I'll be for a few more days of training and then we begin Round 2; working at Camp Mokule'ia, in Waialua, Hawaii! This will probably be my last post for a while expect big things to happen with this blog as well as other locations on the internet come next month so until then Aloha!

San Francisco and the Presidio Trust

So San Francisco has been absolutely wonderful. With the exception of a few rainy days the weather has been a much welcomed change of pace for me (usually this time of year I;m usually fearing for the coming snow if it hasn't already fallen yet.) Last weekend I was outside in a t-shirt and I forgot it was the middle of November, perfect space vest weather. Coming to SF I decided to take up the challenge of no shave november to be green (also I forgot to pack my razor and shaving cream.) and let me tell you, not shaving sucks. I always have a little scruff but never the creeper mustache and the shaggy neck beard thing I've got going for me right now, it looks pretty awful and totally uncomfortable, I'm pretty stoked for December 1st. I would also like to mention that before leaving Sacremento we had another Baseline physical fitness assessment and I managed to shave about 4 minutes off my previous run time putting me at 11 minutes and something something seconds. I also found out that the timed run in Vinton was only a mile while in Sacramento it's a mile and a half so I'm actually doing a lot better than I thought I was. I've also been continuing to try to be more adventurous in the kitchen with my team lately. I was successful in making my Mother's beloved cheesecake recipe and I was less successful in trying to make her potato pancake recipe after starting a small fire with the vegetable oil. I was however able to put it out very quickly by smothering it with flour, though not quickly enough to prevent the smoke detector from going off and having a visit from the fire department. I did however learn from the fireman that you do not want to use flour to smother a fire because apparently when the powder is in the air it is quite combustable, luckily this was not the case this time and I now know where the fire extinguisher is located. It hasn't been all fun and kitchen fires though, not to say I haven't been enjoying our work with the Presidio Trust. The Presidio is a formal military post turned national park located right on the bay, (the Golden Gate Bridge is literally in our backyard.) We have many assignments within the Presidio during our time here, during our first full week here we created raised bed garden boxes for a new community Garden for one of the neighborhoods within the Presidio. All this week we're working with the forestry crew installing a new irrigation pipeline within one of the areas in the park.
Before Blue One
After Blue One.

CTI Wrap Up and Catch Up Part Four: Induction and Away We Go

November 3rd 2011 was a pretty magical day for me. Aside from it being my 21st birthday it was also the day we got officially inducted into NCCC as Corps members (again, for me.) The fact it was also my 21st birthday was actually a bit of a pisser because it's an NCCC policy that CMs and TLs are not allowed to drink within 24 hours of leaving and arriving to Spike and that's exactly what we did right after induction was over. Alcohol was nothing new to me though so I wasn't too bummed out, I mean I did work in a bar for almost 6 months (not that I ever got drinks from there) and my family pretty much shoves beer down my throat so I wasn't missing any life changing experiences here. What was however awesome was that during the ceremony the region director led the corps in singing happy birthday to me, how he found out I do not know but it's still pretty sweet to have 200 something people sing happy birthday to you. I just felt bad for the one girl who also had a birthday that day but did not get a song. After the ceremony I also finally worked up the courage to do something that I never do, and was successful in doing so, incredibly awkward, but successful. (I'm also being really vague on purpose so don't bother asking me to elaborate.) So after all was said and done CTI was over and Blue One was ready to hit the road in our over stuffed 15 passenger van and go on their first assignment, which is where I am now. Working with the Presidio Trust in San Francisco California. I've been loving it so far and you'll be hearing all the details in up coming posts.

CTI Wrap Up and Catch Up Part Three: Halloween

Halloween happened to be towards the end of CTI so naturally Class 18 had to throw a costume party. It's the first Halloween I actually dressed up for since high school, (Not some lame maturity high ground thing, I just hadn't really had the opportunity to until this year.) and I went as Ash from Pokemon. (cause if you don't already know from my numerous Pokemon related posts on this blog I really enjoy Pokemon.) By a bizarre and awesome happenstance there was also a girl in the corps who dressed up as Misty from Pokemon and together we won the costume contest. (Note the first time I've won a costume contest and it's also the first year that I did not make my costume myself.)

CTI Wrap Up and Catch Up Part One: Meet Blue One

So I've been with my team for a little while now and they're going to be the focus of many of my future entries so I might as well introduce you to them. Starting from the top right hand corner you've got Kameke from Texas, she's a sweet girl and a lot of fun, she often tries to stop herself from saying "ya'll" but when it slips out and she catches herself it's pretty funny. bellow her to the left is Terrin from Illinois, she also graduated high school as part of the class of 09 and like me hasn't started college yet. To the left of her is Chalynn from California, and she is quite possibly the funniest member of our team. She does all these little voices and characters at the most random of times and it always cracks me up. She's the one behind what has pretty much become our team chant, where she goes "Blue Whaaaat!?!" and we all reply "Blue One!!!" To the left of Chalynn is my roommate Aaron from Washington state. He's fresh out of high school but old at heart (so he tells people) He's super cool, he also reads comics so while we were in Sacramento we would walk to the local comic shop together. (a six mile walk total but it's okay cause we're beasts.) Below Kameke and Terrin is Whitney also from Washington, she's a pretty chill girl and also someone who appreciates Bowie. We always seem to loose her though, we could be going somewhere and turn around and she'll be missing. Below Whitney is Cody from Missouri, Cody's pretty cool he always wears these green sunglasses, I don't think I've ever seen him without them. Underneath him is Katelyn from Delaware. She has the most infectious laugh that reminds me of Marge Simpson and Guinea pigs (but in a good way.) To the left of Cody is Becky, my fellow Ohioan. Becky and I have pretty similar personalities which makes me wonder if it's an Ohio thing. And finally our Fearless Leader, Travis from upstate New York. Travis was a Corps member last year at the Pacific Region campus (where we're serving now.) he's kinda awkward, but that's okay because so's our whole team it's kinda our team word.

Shopping for and Feeding 20 People

I recently did some grocery shopping and meal planning with my team members and leader. I was a little more involved this time with the whole meal planning process than with my last team. (basically anytime I had to cook, I made my homemade Mac and Cheese, which mind you, is good, but got old after a while.) This time it was up to me and fellow Ohioan and teammate Becky to shop for all the ingredients for the multiple dinners. This was no easy task, we had to stick to a strict budget (something I should do more often) and we had to figure out what was the best deal for our dollar. I've come to the conclusion that grocery shopping, especially for large groups of people is very frustrating, but also very rewarding. (Aside from getting food out of it there was a rather wonderful feeling of satisfaction when we managed to get all of our needed groceries while staying under budget.) Becky and I bought ourselves a massive tub of ice cream in celebration of our superior budget shopping (on our own dime).
The real trial, however, came monday when myself and two of my other teammates were challenged with the task of cooking one of the dinners for the two teams. (our own and Green 4) With our powers combined the we made three Lasagnas and they were tasty. This was a bit of a milestone for me, Aside from my mac and cheese I have never really made a successful meal for people before. (successful being that it actually tastes good and people don't complain about it.) I had tried to make Lasagna before for my last team but it did not go well... at all. This time however (with help) I have concord the staple of Italian cuisine that had once evaded me and my efforts were recognized, WITH PRAISE! (I enjoy praise :3)

Arriving In California, First Photoshop drawing

Yesterday I safely arrived in Sunny Sacramento California to begin me second AmeriCorps NCCC Corps year. The count down was pretty sucktastic, sorry, I had a cold for most of the days leading up to my departure and not in any condition to blog about it. So This image here, is a bit of a milestone for me, it's the first digitally colored art of mine that I've done without paint and with Photoshop! I'm for the most part self teaching myself how to use this program, with plenty of helpful tips from friends and family, and I'm sure I've done some of this stuff wrong, but I'll learn more as I go. The inspiration for this picture comes from the video for this song that a friend of mine put on facebook that I had stuck in my head for the longest time. (the video has a bunch of rollerskating girls.)

Count Down to NCCC Class 18: 11 days; The Evolution from Amateur to Free Lance Artist...

It's been a while since I last posted... again. This tends to happen a lot with me, but seeing as I'm going back into Americorps in less than two weeks I need to get back into the habit of updating regularly. So with 11 days to go I present to you the story of how I have entered the paid artists club. I recently received the pay check for the t-shirt design I did for Great Lakes a while back. I was paid with a 100 dollar gift card to Great Lakes and a 100 dollar check of real money (both things I enjoy.) The shirts aren't in print yet the graphic designer that GLBC hired, Amira, has been doing wonderful things with it, she's redrawn the whole thing from my design and it looks spectacular, (I like it far more than anything I was drawing.) It's still my concept but with her art. I wish I had a file of the current version to share otherwise I would but sadly I don't, hopefully sometime in the future though.

Explaining to Nick Toich What A Double Entendre Is...

Last week I was talking to my good friend Nick Toich on facebook and something came up in which I asked him if that was a double entendre. Having no idea what I was talking about Nick Toich was confused which then led me to trying to explain to Nick Toich what exactly a double entendre was. I first tried just explaining it to him with just the definition, which, did not work. I then tried using examples from within the context of our conversation. I think by the end of it all he understood what I meant and it was later established that what I had been questioning before was in fact not a double entendre which was just fine with me, it did however lead to this amusing picture. Also in case you were wondering I do always refer to Nick Toich by whole name, just because.

So Freakin' Hot

You can tell it's summer in Cleveland when the locals switch from complaining about how cold and/or wet it is to how unbearably hot it is, myself included. (we really don't get much of a spring here where the weather is just right and this year was especially rainy.) This being my first summer in my new home, I have quickly discovered that a third floor apartment with no AC are not ideal conditions for the summer months, right now in order to combat the heat I have a huge box fan pointed directly at me on full blast in my room. Life has been good other than the heat. Works going pretty good, going to see the new X-Men movie at midnight tomorrow with some of my co-workers, (looking forward to that.) I've gotten some new tunes that I've been listening to, a lot of Apples in Stereo the list is as follows;

The Apples in Stereo: Travellers In Space and Time, Velocity of Sound, The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone, Let's Go! (EP)
Beulah: When Your Heartstrings Break, The Coast is Never Clear, Yoko
Ok Go: Of the Blue Colour of the Sky Extra Nice Edition.

And my comic book reading list has been;

X-Men/ Avengers: Bloodties, House of M, Young Avengers, Uncanny X-men: The Birth of Generation Hope, Goodbye Chunky Rice, Wolverine: Get Mystique, and Wolverine Origins: Dark Reign.
A lot of Avengers and X-men related stories this time around which is cool with all the movies relating to the two series coming out lately. I really enjoyed Young Avengers more than I thought I would.

Goldilocks Syndrome of the Pants

This weekend has been all about wardrobe malfunctions involving my pants. Before I left for work Friday I noticed that my go to pair of black work pants had obtained numerous food stains and a truly wretched smell from the previous night. Having neither the time nor quarters to do a load of laundry I resorted to something I hope I'll never have to do again; I slipped into the only other pair of black pants I owned; a pair of slim cut black pants that I had bought once by mistake (the mistake being I thought I could do slim fitting pants) that I thought didn't fit me, and for the most part they did not. After much effort and a particularly rebellious fly I managed to get them on and let me tell you, I sure as hell wasn't singin' no Teenage Dream. They were so tight I could feel my sperm count go down with each step, I was afraid that I was going to Hulk out of them before the end of the night. I don't know how my friends who wear pants like that do it, let alone find them comfortable. As the night went on I broke them in some and they weren't so bad, though getting them off was no easy feet either.

The next day was the exact opposite problem, with usual pants now clean I was ready to wear them to work, only I forgot my belt at home and was having to constantly hike my pants up every 5 minutes for they were too big around the waist.

T-shirts and Cleaning

I drew this a while ago, so long ago that it has actually become relevant again because I cleaned my room again (sorta, it's quickly regressed back into it's previously messy state.) because my aunt and uncle came into town for a visit last night. Just a quick update on life before I head off to work, which has been keeping me super busy lately. (I've hardly had any time to draw. ):) T-shirts seem to be a big thing in my life right now, what with the warm weather. All of my current shirts are a bit too big for me now so I've been ordering some new ones lately, including one of Tim Fish's shirts and a Totoro Shirt to reflect my love for all things Studio Ghibli. I've also been approached about designing a T-shirt for Great Lakes Brewery by the Marketing director, to help promote their green city farming initiatives. This will be the first time that I'm actually going to be compensated for my work so it's a bit of a mile stone for me that I'm excited about. Unfortunately I do not know how much of this work (as it will be the property of Great Lakes Brewery) I will be able to share on this blog so until I get a clear answer about that I can't share any of the images. (worse case scenario there will probably be an image on one of their websites which I will simply provide a link for here.) Also I'm so close to getting that new computer, I'll probably have it by the end of this week. I've also found 3 of the 4 albums of my favorite band Beulah at the record store last Sunday so I've been jamming out to that a lot lately. "The Coast is Never Clear" and "Yoko" are quickly becoming two of my favorite albums of all time.

Socks and Hardwood Floors: A Very Risky Business

So I didn't actually do this but my parents are out of town for the weekend and I have the apartment to myself, I figured I'd do a tribute to this scene of a famous movie that I've never seen before. So an update on where I currently stand on all things considered; I've taken a short break from penciling The rest of Red Vag of Courage and The Girl I Can't Forget to do some inking coloring and lettering on the computer, which has been going great now that I've discovered a new approach to the coloring process on MS Paint that makes things go a Hell of a lot quicker (I've already got 5 pages of R.V.C completely done). On that note I also looked at some Macs the other day for my art so I can stop using MS bloody paint. The standard Mac book which my uncle suggested I get is about 950 bucks, steep but doable after a few pay checks from Great Lakes. My uncle has all the software I need already too so that saves me a ton of money. As far as music goes I bought The She & Him album "Volume 2" the other day and I'm pretty much in love it. I spent a good portion of today listening to Ok Go's entire music catalog which you can listen to for free on their website. As for comics I recently finished reading the series Local and Y:The Last Man both very good in their own ways (though the ending to Last Man was a little unsatisfying.) I've been on a real indie kick lately, I figured that's more along my writing and art style so I should learn as much as I can from these already well established pieces of Graphic Fiction. I've already thought of so many new ways to approach old ideas I've had just sitting in the cobwebs. (I'm of course not going to take on any new projects unit I at least finish the first Volume of Cliffhangers.) My current Comic reading list is as follows;
Demo by Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan
Rosario Vampire by Akihisa Ikeda
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
X-men: Magneto Testament by Greg Pak and Carmine Di Giandomenico
Storm by Eric Jerome Dickey, David Yardin and Lan Medina
Kick Ass by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.
X-Force/ Cable: Messiah War by Various
and
Exiles by Judd Winick and Mike Mckone

This is How I Dance When Nobody's Looking...

Haven't really posted anything significant recently, I've been super focused on completing the first issue of Cliffhangers. So far I've got all the first draft pages of Immaculate done, (I'm probably going to redraw maybe two pages.) I'm currently wrapping up The Girl I Can't Forget and I'm progressing through Red Vag of Courage rather nicely. As for how my life is going, I finally got my new glasses and the job has been going pretty well, I like the work. Last weekend I received my first pay check and I worked my first Double shift. (and my legs were killing me all of Easter Sunday) I opened a savings account with my pay check for that new computer I've been meaning to get for my art and I used my tip money from the weekend for my basic needs and for my recent efforts to increase my swagger. (I ordered some new clothes online that'll fit me better and I got a new hair cut.) I also went to the library and went through my father's CDs to broaden my musical horizon. Here are some of the bands/artists I've been listening to a lot lately;
Billy Bragg, Jenny Lewis, Aquabats, Arctic Monkeys, Barenaked Ladies, The Dandy Warhols, Electric Light Orchestra, Feist, Hefner, Metric, Neko Case, The Pooh Sticks, Sondre Lerche, The The, Maroon 5, and Weezer.
I've checked out some Graphic novels that looked particularly interesting and are more in the genres that I tend to write about. I read Hope Larson's Mercury cover to cover last night and I'm currently in the process of reading Craig Thompson's Blankets. I highly recommend both for their amazing use of graphic story telling.

A First Day, Good News, and a Hell of a Party.

This past week was certainly eventful for me. Friday was my first day of work at Great Lakes Brewery restaurant as a busser, which has been going really well for me. The job is pretty simple, though it's a job that a lot of people depend on you to do right and though it's nothing glamorous I'm really liking it so far. The first day was a bit difficult without my glasses, (I couldn't always see if a table was ready to be cleared or not and being taught where everything is located is a lot harder when you can't see where everything is located.) But day two, after my dad gorilla glued my glasses back together, (which are now super annoying to wear with the large dried gorilla glue lump rubbing against the bridge of my nose.) was a lot easier and I've started to develop a flow for the work. My uniform is all black, a t-shirt (when my boss gave me my shirts he told me they were out of mediums but I was pleasantly surprised that a size small fits me just fine these days.) pants, shoes and an apron. Also as a perc from work I get 50% off food during my shifts which is good because they have got some good food. They also have a complementary post shift beer but alas, being the 20 year old that I am I can not partake in the consumption of the shift beer. That same day I also found out that I've been conditionally accepted into the Fall 2011 AmeriCorps NCCC class in Sacramento California. Being conditionally accepted means that as long as funding for the program remains available (which the republicans seem real gung ho about cutting it.) I will be part of the next NCCC class starting Oct. 6th. I'm so excited and surprised that I got picked, from what my staff contact through the whole applying process was saying it's not exactly common for there to be second year corps members, and the fact that I got in and at the campus I was really hoping for just makes it all the more better.
I then finished the week with going to Rob and Carri Jackson's annual book party. This year's book was The Divine Comedy, which I thought, prior to reading it, I'd like more than I did. But anyway the party was fun, the house was decorated to fit the three parts of the comedy, (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso) and all the food was Italian. Towards the end of the party Rob and Carri's youngest daughter was asking us all "Would you rather..." questions one option which seemed to keep coming up in these scenarios involved chanting "Butkiss Tort" on top of a building naked for everyone to see. A good time was had by all.

A Moment of Person Greatness Swiftly Followed By a Moment of Personal Fail

In loving memory of my glasses. You made it through Junior and Senior year, six months at the Cleveland Food Bank, several trips to Canada, ten months of NCCC, four job interviews, and several times of accidentally following asleep with you still on. Rest in peace my dear friends.

So today has been a day of mixed feelings; I found out that I got the Busing job at the Great Lakes Brewery Restaurant in down town Cleveland and then shortly after that my glasses broke. How did they break? I have no idea! I was just wearing them and was on the computer when they just all of a sudden snapped in the middle and fell off my face! I've always had the worst luck with breaking glasses, (One of the reasons I've been wanting to get contacts since I was 14.) but this is pretty ridiculous, I didn't even do anything this time! I kinda need them to because I am horribly near sighted and I'm discovering that drawing and reading things on the computer with my face basically pressed against the paper and screen has been really bad for both my neck and back. But hey employment! Whooh! Today's events have been illustrated with this drawing also serving as a tribute to one of my favorite comic series of all time Scott Pilgrim. If you know the series you'll get the reference.