The Penguin

Feature-length animated films are so ubiquitous now, we rarely stop to wonder where the concept came from. From the dawn of animation in the late 1800s until Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 , this art form was considered far too time-consuming and labor-intensive to extend beyond short one-reelers, shown as the opening act to live action movies. Disney changed all that. And aside from the bright anomaly of Don Bluth Studios, Walt Disney Studios utterly dominated the field right up until the 21st century. But what is less well-known is that, in the beginning, Disney faced serious competition from another animation group: Fleischer Studios. Brothers Max and Dave Fleischer developed their own distinctive style of animation and storytelling, one that was (at least at first) heavily influenced by a gritter, more urban humor and exciting jazz sensibility than Disney's rather tame offerings. And when Disney achieved success with its first animated feature films, Fleis...

I'm generally not one to speculate on the future; I think it's wrong to constantly sit around waiting for everything to get better - almost as bad as sitting around whining about the "Good Ole Days". The present is all we have, and whatever past we have to rectify, or future we plant the seeds for, can only be affected in the Long Now. At the same time, I'm not a Zen hardliner, living only in the moment - I myself feel like our current circumstances are pretty heavy. The kind of heavy where you just shut off the TV and the radio because there's so little you can do about it. That may sound like defeatism, but it's a much healthier response than chewing your finger-bones, venting your spleen online to non-people who can't hear you and don't care, or staying up at night worrying about all the things you can't control. Political awareness is one thing, but mental self-torture is quite another. So why don't we try a little fun exercise inst...

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 no...

One gets that weird apocalyptic feeling on your last day at work, whether you enjoyed the job or not. I admit to feeling a bit weepy, although that may have been the beer I drank at my going-away lunch (check out The Cosmos in Old Town, Lansing if you like great pizza). This also may have to do with the fact that, well, I was just sort of kicked out on my ass by the college...anyway. I've determined not to dwell on it. It's gone, it's done, I got the t-shirt. Time to move on. I've been sniffing around for graphic design jobs; I even applied at a print shop. I think my best bet is the print shop, between the two. Other than that I've got a couple other prospects lined up, it looks like, plus some good leads on commissions. In the meantime there's always Unemployment, although I hesitate to use it, as they made me pay it all back the last time I went on there...that was 2011, I think? And then two years later it's like, "Psych! That'll be $300.00, p...

Yes, comicsfans, once again Rick has overextended himself. Surprise surprise. Well, not actually ...just mentally. Trying to keep too many plates spinning, too many balls in the air, too many metaphors mixing, too many ideas and schemes in my head at the same time. That's perhaps the good thing about spending more time planning things than actually executing them: by exhausting myself with the run-through, I can talk myself out of a potentially expensive misstep. Basically I'm talking about things I need  to do, and things I want to do, and how to distinguish between them. Sometimes it gets a little difficult. I think everyone struggles with this problem to some extent. Here's what I need  to do: 1. Print The Human Cannonball #6 (due out this month) . 2. Get ready for SPACE (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo). 3. Help Joe edit Bone Boy #4 for April release. Wow...just three things?! Okay, here's what I want to do: 1. Get money. 2. Get more money. 3...

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...