What's he up to? - 2017 update

Yep, new year, new weird...no politics here. I consider my blog a politics-free haven.

A lot has happened to me lately, all positive; I have a lot to be grateful for. Here's a rundown on all the cool stuff I've gotten into within the past few months:

New Job! That's right folks, since October I've been working at Capital Imaging in Lansing, a print shop - ten years after graduating, I'm finally using my damn Graphic Design degree!!! I started out as a Finisher (stack, chop, fold, etc.), which was awesome...but at the beginning of January I was bumped up to Marketing Assistant, which is twice as awesome. Now I've got my finger on the proverbial pulse of the company, wielding my marionette sticks as the Puppet Master...well, not really. But still, it's pretty rad.
New Web! Along with the Marketing Assistant job, I've had a chance to take a crash course in WordPress and social marketing, skills I've tested out with Blind Alley Comics. We now not only have our own website, but peripheral websites for each of our series, and tangled links between sites, Facebook, and other social media type dealies.
New Help! Blind Alley Comics' inimitable President, Joe Haines, has managed to recruit some new help for our little enterprise. I'd like to give a shout out to BJ Lentz for his Facebook ninja-ing, and Laura for her amazing web marketing advice.
New Series! It's a super-secret new comic...all I can tell you is, it's an anthology featuring artists from several different states, including Ohio, New Jersey, and New York. You should be seeing this new title in stores beginning June 2017...I'll keep you posted!
New Cons! Well, two of them anyway. We're already signed up for MSU Comics Forum this month; SPACE in March; Fantasticon Lansing in April; and planning for Detroit Comix Party in June. More details on our website and FB page!

There's probably a lot more stuff I haven't mentioned...2017, despite all the troubles in the world, might be a personal new start. It'll be great. I'll keep you updated on developments as they unfold.

Rick Out!

Comments

The Problem with Reconstructing Deinonychus

So as you may know, I am partly obsessed with dinosaurs. Scratch that - there's a small lobe of my brain devoted to dinosaurs. I love em, God help me. I even have a super-double-plus-top-secret dinosaur comic maybe in the works...but you didn't hear it from me. Anywho... Part of my problem is in the reconstruction of said prehistoric beasties, namely those icons of American dino-obsession, Deinonychus ( Velociraptor to you Jurassic Park aficionados...it's not just a Hollywood bastardization, there's a complicated story behind it which I covered in this old post ). Now, we all know what Deinonychus looked like: wolf-size, sleek, toothsome head balanced by a long tail, grasping front claws and of course the eponymous "terrible claw" on its hind foot. The shape is burned into our collective unconscious; you could construct the most fantastic amalgam of different bits and pieces, but as long as you include the sickle-claw, you're golden. The devil, of

Artist Spotlight: Tom Eaton

I wanted to do a quick artist spotlight on Tom Eaton, best known for his work in Boy's Life Magazine. I used to have a subscription to Boy's Life when I was a kid; unfortunately I didn't keep any of them, as they just weren't...I don't know, not really worth keeping. I just remember it as being 90% toy advertisements, some "how to get along with others" advice, the same camping article reprinted 20 million times, and some half-funny comics. As the years went on, the advertisements got bigger and louder, the articles became less interesting, and the comics section got shorter and shorter. But there was one gem hidden in the midst of the mediocrity: artist Tom Eaton. He wrote and illustrated "The Wacky Adventures of Pedro" ( BL's burro mascot), "Dink & Duff", and myriad other comics, crossword puzzles, games, and short pieces. He was the magazine's resident cartoonist, and about the only reason I actually read the magazi

The Horrendous Space Kablooie!

Sorry, Bill Watterson, but I just couldn't resist using this one...all hail Calvin and Hobbes! This comic illustrates a point that confronts us when we attempt to speak about the titanic phenomena occurring in the universe every day. We can speak of a supernova exploding "with the force of x megaton bombs", or a star that "could hold a million of our suns"...but ultimately all this is meaningless. When the standard unit of interstellar measurement, the light year, is about 8.7 x 10¹² miles, human language (and thus, comprehension) just sort of...blanks out. Here's a lovely example: I'm currently watching a JINA-CEE video about novas in parasitic binary star systems . Essentially, a small, dense star (such as a neutron star) will form an orbital relationship with a larger, less-dense giant. The denser of the two will start vacuuming material off its host, adding to its mass; however, because of its size, it compresses the material into its "

The Penguin

Search This Blog