I’m sorry to leave everyone hanging as far as updates these past few weeks. I’ve been at a struggle to find time to draw comics like I would want to, and furthermore, I’ve had a weird case of writer’s block. I even penciled/inked a couple of pages and threw them out because they simply weren’t working.  It’s like the feeling of trying to read a book while having your eyes a half inch away from the page: In the end, you don’t get the information and it makes your head hurt. It’s been good to take a step back and look at the story from a different perspective.  Anyway, I currently have five pages inked and ready to scan to go on to the coloring process. And, as I type this, I am looking up from a sixth page I am currently working on. I have thumbnailed much of the rest of this “chapter” so that the process should go a bit smoother.

I didn’t mean this little break to go on so long, but I think that updates should resume on Monday. Thank you all for being so understanding.

Just because there is no comic for today doesn’t mean I don’t have at least something to post.

I’ve been wanting to share this idea for a while. The thumbnailed picture features an idea I have had in my head for the cover to the first printed Filtered Fuzz book. I also may use it was a desktop wallpaper. It’s a very rough visual and idea, of course. I’m still not quite sure how it will be possible to make a book cover that is basically one big image look okay. But I think it’s a fun idea. It’s a project that I don’t have time for now, but want to tackle in the coming months.

As far as where I am on the next page, I am about 4/5ths of the way finished penciling the next page. I’ve inked one complete panel and am inking bits and pieces of other panels.

One year ago today, the comic went live.

There are a few things I want to say and people I want to thank for the occasion. First and foremost, I want to thank someone who is no longer here. My former SCAD professor, Jeremy “Sweetwater” Mullins died last month at the young age of 32. Even though he had been teaching only for a few short years before his life was cut short, his teachings and enthusiasm for comics and Web-comics in particular, had a huge impact on the lives of many sequential art enthusiasts.

His passing is something that I feel I am still dealing with and trying to cope with. I wasn’t sure how to blog about his untimely death and what he meant to me and this comic. I had always been interested in Web-comics, but it was after listening in on a lecture by Professor Mullins that I realized it was something I wanted to do and something that I could really be passionate about. Soon after sitting in on that lecture, I took his Getting Published and Self Publishing class and later I took Online Comics with him. During these classes, he helped me create my website. It is not a stretch to say that it is because of him this Web-comic exists.

I want to thank everyone who has supported me throughout the comic process… From my family, to my old professors and classmates, and to everyone who has ever commented and left words of support and encouragement. Every little bit has been a source of inspiration.

Though lately, between work and life, I’ve had trouble finding the time to work on my comic, let it be known that this is a project that I want to see through to the end. I am going to try my hardest to keep up with the 3 times a week update schedule. Filtered Fuzz is very important to me. I am far from being burnt out, but I feel like I need to take a step back and look at what I’m doing, as well as catch up with the comic buffer.  It’s not something I take lightly in doing, but I may take some time out from updating the comic. Only a week or two at the most.

That being said, I am now signing off to work on the next page. Thank you all for standing by me and the comic. I hope you are looking forward to the coming year as much as I am.

This is a pretty exciting time for me. I’ll be attending Heroescon in a little over a week from now. And yesterday, I was hired for a job at a local print shop.

I have no intention of letting my comic be a casualty of the circumstances of life. I truely enjoy creating and drawing my comic and I am not about to let it go. That being said, I am not sure how having a full time job will effect Filtered Fuzz, especially considering I am low on my comic buffer. I don’t start my new job until after I get back from Heroescon. I’ll spend much of the next week scrambling to draw more comics and build up some kind of buffer.

It may be difficult, but I want to put 110% into my job as well as my comic.

Whatever happens, rest assured that this is not the end of Filtered Fuzz.

For anyone who is going to HeroesCon next month, or for anyone else, really, would you be interested in buying original Filtered Fuzz comic pages?

The pages are large, drawn 10 x 15 inches. The finished product is sometimes quite different from the pencils/inks, as I sometimes do edit in Photoshop. There are a couple of cases in which a panel is actually missing (Such as panel one of page four) There are some pages that have heavy use of correction fluid, and I do not usually erase the blue pencil underdrawings. I am not saying this to belittle the artwork, but I do not believe in fooling my audience. If you are interested in buying the original art, I can and will scan and upload the original, pre-edited version.

As for now, I am not opening an online shop or selling the pages online, though I will bring them to HeroesCon if anyone is interested.

My order of postcards and business cards came in today and I am pretty happy with how they turned out. The business card also has two sides, but it’s the same picture as the postcard with some text. The thumbnail is cropped, so click to see a fullview. 

My next project will be to print out some color flyers with a sample of comic pages. If you have any particular favorite pages that you think I should feature or pages that you simply think would be eyecatching to someone who has never read the comic, I’d like to hear from you.

I have an announcement to make. If all goes as planned, I will be sharing a booth at HeroesCon with my friend, former classmate, and all around awesome artist, Shazzbaa

HeroesCon is a convention in Charlotte, NC which will be running from June 19-21, 2009. I attended last year as a visitor, and while it’s a rather large con to be my first, I think it will be a great opportunity to expand my audience and to say hello to those of you who already read and enjoy Filtered Fuzz. Currently, I am still trying to decide what to bring to my first con. Of course, I am more focused on the promotional aspects and will bring lots of fliers, but there are other things I am considering. If you take a look at the header/banner at the top of the page, I’m sure you have noticed the felt cutouts. I would like to make these into clip on pins or maybe even hairbows if there were a market for that. I also want to make bookmarks, perhaps as an alternative to fliers, as bookmarks may be more practical and less likely to be thrown away. I also hope to print a few mini comics, perhaps with exclusive materiel. And maybe, I’ll bring along some of my original pencils/inks as well, though table space will be limited and I draw big (10×15).

Of couse, and as always, I would appreciate any reader feedback on the subject. Is there anything in particular you would be interested in buying or that you may think will be a good seller? Any ideas will be appreciated.

I am a fan of family entertainment. I don’t think it’s possible that I’ll ever “outgrow” it. I grew up with the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon back in the days they actually showed interesting cartoons and programs. I’m not saying everything is bad on TV today, but everything seems to be pushing kids to grow up faster and faster. There really isn’t much of anything between the preschool shows that really talk down to kids and the live action shows directed at young teenagers. What happened to Peter Pan and Neverland and growing up being the furthest thing from kids’ minds? Is it a sign of the different times we live in? Is being a kid and truly enjoying it a thing of the past? Being a kid no longer seems to have that appeal that it used to. Now kids seem to be focused on growing up and being as “mature” as they can be. To any kids that may be reading this: Don’t fall for it. Being a kid is a time for amazing opportunity and fun. And you shouldn’t let anyone, the twelve year olds wearing makeup on TV or your friends force you to grow up. Take your time and take it all in. You only live once, and you will have plenty of time later to worry about joining “the real world”.

I’ve been reflecting on recent animated movies and upcoming movies that have interested me. I must say, Wall-E was truly the best film I had seen in 2008. I adore the minimal dialogue. Sometimes, less really is more. Wall-E and Eve are both appealing characters and really connected real human emotion without being depicted as cartoony robots. The nod to classic musicals, namely Hello Dolly! was amazingly done, I believe. All to often, animated movies tend to throw in random classic rock or older music to appeal to the parents in the audience without any significant relevance to the plot.  This was not the case for Wall-E. Believe it or not, I actually had chills running down my spine to see the images of space coupled with Put On Your Sunday Clothes. I don’t consider myself a fan of romance, but that was the heart of this movie and it was incredibly done. Wall-E is indeed one of those rare movies that I could literally watch over and over, but it’s also something that needs to be seen to be appreciated. Just reading a review about it doesn’t give it justice. So if you haven’t seen Wall-E, I recommend it.

The other animated movie I saw this year was Bolt. I admit, I still have hard feelings over the fact that Chris Sanders (writer/director of Lilo and Stitch) was taken off this project and I wish I could see the movie he had planned. Bolt wasn’t a bad movie, and I wound up liking the characters more than I thought I would. (Rhino, the hamster and his fanboy ways irked me from the commercial.) But there were some snarky elements that really took me out of the film. I wanted to enjoy it, and for the most part, I did… But the way the agent acted and how the mom put up with it throughout most of the film, I just wanted to yell at the screen! I’m not a mother, but if that were my child, I would have stuck up for the kid from page one! But she just sort of… stood there. Anyway, it was a sweet little movie and I do recommend it. But not with the same enthusiasm as I recommend Wall-E.

Currently, I am really looking forward to seeing Pixar’s Up and Disney’s latest traditionally animated film, The Princess and the Frog.

Sometimes in life, things happen. Sad things. Let it be known that I am not here to be depressing. Far from it, I want this Web-comic, blog,  and entire experience to be a celebration, even if times are rough. Freckles, my first cat and best friend for fifteen years passed on yesterday. Here’s a picture of her from last year when I was experimenting with FilteredFuzz (Then called Two For the Show) in a comic strip format. I think she was nearly blind by that time, but she looked like she enjoyed it! If there’s one thing I could ask you to take away from this blog post, it would be this:

Life is short. But that’s no reason it can’t be great.

I was blessed to have Freckles for so many wonderful years. And I believe that yesterday, an angel just recieved the best cat ever.

The more I think about it, the more going back to the two days a week updates really doesn’t appeal to me. In fact, I think I’d really regret it if I did that at this point. That being said, I am not going to stop the Saturday updates now. I’m trying to increase my productivity and keep things running as professionally as possible. And I’d like to get the word out about the comic and really start promoting Filtered Fuzz. It would really be several steps back to limit myself to two days a week updates at this point.

However, I will be taking off around the week of the 19th. Don’t worry though. There will hopefully be some sort of new, interesting content up.