Credit, Credit Due

I meant to include this in my main ISIDTA post, but forgot. Probably for the best, since it needs a little more attention than being buried in the rest of my ramblings.

I wanted to take a moment to state how glad I am that Kit and I started I'm Sorry I'll Draw That Again twelve weeks ago. It's exactly what I needed to finally kickstart me into learning to draw after thirty years of saying I was going to start. Having a regular schedule of deadlines really helps me be productive. It's also much more rewarding to be doing this with somebody; you feel a comradeship as well as an obligation to not let the other person down. And by drawing each and every week, I think I'm improving my skills, and that's a good thing. It's also rewarding to look back and see a body of work online and a sketchbook with so many filled-in pages. Hurrah!

So my thanks go out to Kit FitzSimons for traveling along with me as my partner in I'm Sorry I'll Draw That Again, and to the whole crew at ISIDTA Headquarters in Lansing, Michigan. Can you believe we've been doing this for three months?!?

ISIDTA 12: Mexican Wrestler Batman

ISIDTA 12: Murcielago Contra Bromista (inks)
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Hey, I finished on time.

So this week I challenged Kit to an ISIDTA, er, Challenge: take your favourite comic book character, and put them in a different job. I did this because a) I know Kit always likes a challenge, b) I know Kit is more inspired when given a subject to work from, and c) I had already decided to draw Batman vs The Joker as if they were Mexican wrestlers.

The full picture can be seen here.

So here we have Batman and Joker as luchadors. I tried to draw them as if they were wearing typical lucha costumes that were modelled to evoke the Batman and Joker characters. El Bromista has a suit printed on his tights and tasselled "hair", and Murcielago has a sort of scalloped vest-thing instead of a shirt and has a faceplate on the front of his mask.

I did a bunch of sketches for this one, trying to design the masks as well as working out the positioning and perspective of the two guys and the ropes. I was pretty happy with the way the layout turned out. Sketches can be seen here, here, here, and here.

I tried to be a lot more careful with both my pencilling and inking this week, as I really wanted this one to come out nicely. Still, mistakes do occur, and this was the first week I tried to fix some problems I made in the inks. I used a white gesso that Jackson turned me onto, and it seemed to work pretty well. The ink was a little harder to control on the gessoed surface. I used it where I screwed up Murcielago's hands really badly, and where the ink exploded from the pen while I was trying to draw the ring ropes.

I eyeballed this picture of Brazo De Plato as I tried to work out my perspective for Murcielago.

Overall, I was very pleased with the way this worked out. I had originally conceived it as a painting, and I may actually go ahead and do a painted version at some point, with a crowd and whatnot. There are some minor problems; I should've striped the "coat" part of the tights, the legs gave me some problems, the torso looks a little flat, but overall I really like it. It could use some shading and a crowd, but it turned out pretty well like it is.

In an amusing coincidence, the same day I was drawing this, my mom came by where I work and dropped off this picture that I drew when I was but a wee lad. (I was a HUGE Robin fan.)

The pencils for this week's ISIDTA can be seen here.
The inks for this week's ISIDTA are here. They look pretty good on their own.
Kit's ISIDTA for the week is here.
My previous ISIDTAs are here.

ISIDTA 11: Midnight:30 semifinal

ISIDTA 11: Midnight:30 inks
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

Better late than never, I guess. The week just got crazy, too many demands on my time, and I got a bit stressed. You should've seen the hand in the final panel; I didn't notice until after I inked it, but it was about 80% too small. Amazing. I fixed it as best I could in photoshop.

I wish I could've made it much more detailed, with shadows of the slats in the blinds coming into the room, and more whitelining. Maybe later. The project just ended up involving much more work than I thought it would.

This was intended to be done in the layout style of the old drama Sunday comics like The Phantom or Mary Worth. I was also trying to do a good balance with the black, grey, and white fills, althought that was rushed as well.

You can see the full strip here.
You can see assorted sketches and pencils and whatnot here.
Kit was on time with his entry here.

CageMatch 1-25-07

We had another CageMatch last night, The Darkness against Four String Samurai. It was wonderful to see Bret and Chris back; seems like they haven't been around in a while. And Ryan came back to coach them, which was EXTRA-cool. And Megan came with Ryan, so it was a wonderful night of reunions.

The video was a rush job, all done in one day, on my lunch hour and after work at Armadillo, with a little surreptitious photo-editing at work. I used "Darkness" by Human League for the first bit, which worked out quite nicely. The intro part for the Samurai segment was "Heartbeat Dragon" by Jake Shimabukuro, which I included for Paul's benefit, as it is played on a ukelele. The video finishes up with some stock radio music. The new Samurai logo is made from a cover to an old Flash comic I found on Easynews. It amused me.

The promo video for the show can be viewed here.
The team logo for Four String Samurai can be seen here.

Japanese Pranksters

Still working on the ISIDTA strip for this week. Things are really, really crazy this week. I finally decided to forego responsibility last night and go to sleep at a decent hour; I really needed that.

Anyway, in the meantime, amuse yourself with this. It made me guffaw like an idiot. This Japanese prank show goes to great lengths to build a spa on top of a ski slope. There's a real steam room and everything in there. There's also these special coin-operated massage chairs.

Things get funny pretty quickly, but be sure and keep watching for "Mission 2", the second part of the prank. I almost screamed.

ISIDTA 11 : INCOMPLETE

I suck.

I didn't finish my ISIDTA strip for this week. The weird thing is, I started much earlier than I normally do for the weekly project; I had the script done on Sunday, did sketches and layouts on Monday, and then when Tuesday came, it just took much longer to do everything than I thought it would. The lettering and panel layout alone took two hours. (And of course, the letters smeared badly in one place; hopefully I can clean it up in Photoshop.)

Anyway, I hope to somehow have the thing done tonight. I'm going to try and do pencils at lunchtime and ink it after work. It's not going to be quite as grand as I had hoped; the time crunch is just working against me. I also have to create a CageMatch video tonight for debut tomorrow. I have NO idea what that is going to be. First things first.

Anyway, I have uploaded some work-in-progress pictures for your amusement here. If you click through the pics one-by-one instead of using the slideshow feature, you can see my comments about each image. More later. Hopefully.

Hillel the Elder said some good things. For some reason, this one meant a lot to me, especially the part I italicized.

In Avot, Hillel stated "If I am not for myself, who is for me? and when I am for myself, what am I? and if not now, when?" The third part contains the admonition to postpone no duty, the same admonition which he gave with reference to study (Avot 2:4): "Say not, 'When I have time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any leisure."

One of the most important things to me is keeping my word. If I say something, I'm going to do it, come hell or high water, even if it costs me personally. Hillel's quote can also be a helpful motivator; if you start to put things off, you'll keep putting them off and either not ever get them done, or do them in a rushed and poor fashion. I'm horribly guilty of the latter, repeatedly, but hopefully I can remember the words of the sage Hillel and improve myself.

Quoted from Wikipedia.

Live Video Game

This is a pretty amazing video. It's from a Japanese show called Sasuke, which is a physical challenge show that makes things like Fear Factor look like a school dance. (BTW, I think Fear Factor is a pretty dumb show, and only watched it when my friends were on it.) Sasuke, in true Japanese style, is bigger, wilder, and more dramatic than anything American tv can put out on its own. Sasuke features a multi-stage obstacle course which is like no other obstacle course you've ever seen. Only two people have ever been able to complete it, and this video shows one of them, Makoto Nagano.

Watching Nagano go through this course is like watching a live, 3D version of a videogame like Tomb Raider or Prince of Persia. The obstacles are contrived and impossible, and Nagano goes through them like someone is precisely controlling his movements with flicks of the joystick and presses of the buttons. It's truly amazing to watch.

Sasuke is no relation to The Great Sasuke, who is pretty damn cool on his own.

PT Scarborough Is A Song

ptsias
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

So last Friday, PT and I were hanging out over at my friend Jackson's, and Jackson being the musical fellow that he is, and PT being the off-the-top-of-the-head guy that he is, it was decided that some music needed to be made. Jackson set up some mics and grabbed his geetar, and commenced to strummin'. PT plopped in front of the vocal mic and made up a song on the spot as the music flowed from Jackson's fingertips. It was (of course) hilarious.

Here we have the first hit single off of PT's debut album, Freedom of Batchelorism. This is a catchy little number entitled "Trashman's Trophy".

Only available through the unique mind of PT Scarborough.

NO MORE QUESTIONS!

"Macho Man" Randy Savage demonstrates why he is one of the most entertaining interviews in the wrestling business in this video clip. I can't stand Mean Gene, never have been able to. He thinks he's a superstar, when in reality his role is to be a microphone stand for the talent. When I was in wrestling, I never tried to upstage the wrestlers or make myself look good; I just started the ball rolling for the interview with a question or two and then let them run with it, only interjecting myself when I had to get them back on track.

Anyway, Randy Savage is GREAT here, saying all sorts of crazy things in his unique delivery style. Go listen to the video first, and then come back and read the following transcript (with Gene's contributions omitted.) It's poetry, baby.

180 degrees! Another 360! I'm a chameleon, yeah. Uh-HUH! Uh-HUH! Yeah! I'm talkin' about the beat goes on, yeah, and the beat goes on, yeah, and the beat goes on. And the videoscope and I am lookin' right into you right now, Macho Madness right now. Sugar is sweet and so is honey. Macho Madness is on a roll and it can't be STOPPED, no! Elizabeth understands what I'm talkin' about, yeah! Uh-HUH!

Unbelievable. Time distortion, space is the place Mean Gene Okerlund, go down that lonesome highway, YEAH! But don't be hypnotized, no. Reincarnation doesn't have to be. You can concentrate and you can know, mental telepathy, yeah!

But the beat goes on.

Let me tell you something right now. Talkin' about the greatest Intercontinental champion that ever lived. The Honky Tonk Man is out of line. Yeah! 'Cause I am the greatest Intercontinental Heavyweight champion that ever lived and I'm the greatest professional wrestler that ever lived, AND I'M LIVIN' NOW, YEAH! Right now, uh-huh.

He says I can't sing and I can't dance, but I can make romance. Yeah, right there at the fork in the road! I said "go right," Elizabeth said, "go left," I went RIGHT! And then, and then, I understand what the situation was. I went over to that one bridge, yeah, and then when I crossed that bridge I found out that I was on the right side and I said, "Elizabeth, FOLLOW me," YEAH! Because I'm going straight to the top! The stars, yeah, the stars, one shining star in the night. Shining...BRIGHTER than all the other ones! And I'm talkin' light years away, yeah.

Macho Madness, yeah, Macho Madness rollin', yeah. You thought so, but I KNOW so! And Macho Madness is comin' STRAIGHT at you, Honky Tonk Man, and LIKE it, yeah, 'cause I'm on a roll and I ain't stoppin', yeah! ELIZABETH GO RIGHT, AND I'M GOIN' LEFT!

NO MORE QUESTIONS!

Lettering In Illustrator

Here's a nice, basic guide to lettering in Adobe Illustrator. The crystallize tool is something I didn't know about, and the quick arrangement of the sound effect graphic is pretty cool.

A similar method is demonstrated well in this time-lapse video.

And off of those, I found this really nice video of this guy Gerry Alanguilan inking and colouring a large-scale work. There's a longer version with commentary here. The commentary is in a mixture of English and Tagalog (which is pretty cool) with handy subtitles in English. (BTW, he uses UNI drawing pens, points 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5 and 0.8 to ink his stuff.) I love his style.

ISIDTA 10 : The Egg Toss

ISIDTA 10 : The Egg Toss (final)
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

So here we have another in the True Tales Of Ted series. I tried a few new things this week, most noticably, lettering it by hand. Boy, was that ever a mistake. My handwriting sucks. Anyway, I did enjoy using the rolling ruler to lay out the lettering guides. I used a Pitt ink pen to do the lettering and the borders. I really like Pitt's brush pen, but their other pens annoy me when it comes to doing anything long, like lettering or borders--the tip just doesn't agree with me; too rounded. The ink also doesn't flow for long enough, and it's not nearly as eraser-proof as real India ink.

I also put in more background items this week. I've noticed my stuff looks pretty empty, and felt it needed more detail. There's still a big empty space in panel six, but the rest turned out pretty good.

I was particularly happy with the circular panel at the end, and the "info graphics" action items there and in the previous panel. I thought my clothes and Ray's clothes came out well; I could've put some folds in Brian's though. And I like my one-point perspective bricks in the next-to-last panel. I probably should've put the start of the count-off in panel 5 ("1,2, 3...") in a balloon coming off the main balloon, for more drama.

I also did this on a much bigger piece of Bristol. I usually use 9x12, but this piece was 17"x22". I wanted to try a bigger piece so I could get more detail in there. Turned out to be a bitch to scan, but it was worth it. I also got to use my grandfather's T-square to lay out the panels.

The full picture is here.
The thumbnails for the piece can be seen here.
Some of the preliminary sketches are right here.

As always, Kit's ISIDTA for this week can be found here.
My other ISIDTAs are located here.

Tune in next week for more comics, hopefully showing a little progress in my artistic endeavours!

Making Fiends

This animated series is fabulous. Nice dark colours, interesting textures, great writing, amusing theme song, good vs evil, it's got it all! I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and buy the dvd versions, to support this fine work AND see the making of featurette. Oops, I just did. Yayyyyy!

I want to make an animated series as cool as this. Maybe I will. This one is very inspiring to me.

The Return of CageMatch!

Last night my CageMatch show returned to the DSI Comedy Theater after a two month absence. We took a break because, well, I needed the rest from producing videos each and every week (a lot more work than it looks), and because I had trouble motivating people to come in and participate as Challengers. So now we've moved to Thursdays at 8, and will only be on every OTHER week instead of every week, which is cool.

This week saw champions The Darkness defending their title against Zach Ward's one man show as "Silence Dogood". This was particularly interesting, as The Darkness is an all-spoken performance done in, well, the darkness, and Silence Dogood would be an all-action performance done, well, silently. I really wasn't sure what to expect of Zach's show, but it came off really well, with audience participation, a great music selection (Bolero), and some hilarious interactions.

Go watch the video first, and then come back and we'll talk about it.

This was the first video I had done in a while. I was planning on using Final Cut and my new Mac Pro system, but to be quite frank, I wasn't too excited about the premiere of CageMatch, and waited until the last minute to do the video, so I just defaulted back to iMovie. I did redo the "DSI identity" bits that open and close all the videos, to reflect the new round logo.

For a start, I didn't want to admit that CageMatch had closed down for two months. No, for storyline purposes, CageMatch is FAR too big a phenomenon for that! Instead, I came up with a fictitious world tour for the champions. This gave me an excuse to do one of my favourite things: making up group names and creating identity screens for them. I pulled out a map of the world, picked out some of the major countries, and searched Google Images for odd pictures. I wanted to get in a lot of important places in wrestling history, which is why Iran, India, Japan, and Germany are in there. I really wanted to have a team called the Grenoble Giants, but couldn't find a picture that inspired me. I did find this great picture when I looked up "giant", though. One of the funny pitfalls of this project, however, is that when I searched for names like "ninjas" or "sheiks" for my make-believe comedy groups, I kept stumbling over pictures of REAL improv groups! Like, repeatedly. Weird. Anyway, once I saw the pictures of the girls in red ninja costumes, I had to use that because I knew Corey would be amused by it. I love the name, Scarlet Sector Ninja, which just came to me as I was doing the voiceover.

I really liked Zach's team name of Silence Dogood, since it comes from an alias Ben Franklin used when writing articles. UNFORTUNATELY, Zach then revealed that he picked up the name through that most heinous of films, National Treasure. FORTUNATELY, that gave me the idea for the second half of the video. I found a huge picture of the Declaration of Independence on the web, typed up some text on the back, and printed it in colour on both sides. (Ah, the ridiculous lengths I go to for this ridiculousness!) Then I had loads of fun setting up the video camera in my workroom, laying down a green felt magician's pad as a base, and arranging various folders from my wrestling costume files for a setting. I did a lot of takes, but used this particular one for the video because I was so amused by the cheesy "hand acting" I did when I "discovered" the Declaration of Independence in the folder. Go watch it again. I think it's funny. And yes, I'm such an anal idiot, I went and put on a dress shirt for a video that just shows my hands, just so I could look more "authentic" as a researcher. Haw.

The identity screens of all the international Challengers, as well as the Silence Dogood logo, can be found in the CageMatch Flickr Set. BTW, the text at the bottom of the German team's screen was derived by typing something like "we always get our asses kicked" into Google's language translator. I tried typing it back in and retranslating it, and it came back all crazy. Try it if you like.

We'll be back in two weeks with another show and another Challenger. And don't miss the huge CageMatch extravaganza at the Dirty South Improv Festival on Friday, February 9 at 11:00. It's going to be an hour and a half of comedy competition, as three teams from around the country battle it out for the right to face the ten-time CageMatch Champions, Siegel-Prov! Mark your calendars now!

ISIDTA 9: The Sensational Intelligent Simian

ISIDTA 9: RespectTheApe_final
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

It's Wednesday again, and that means it's time once again for I'm Sorry, I'll Draw That Again! This week was going to be another episode of the staggeringly popular Tales From Tedland, but I was inspired to move in a slightly more shaggy direction.

The inspiration came from this page and this page. Kevin Church produces this blog I read regularly, BeaucoupKevin, and in the first post referenced here, he called for better treatment for simian characters in comic books. Les McClaine (he who produces the amazing Tintinesque Jonny Crossbones) followed up with the great picture you see in the second link.

So I was inspired to join the pro-ape bandwagon, even though my art pales next to these folks. Now, my idea of pro-ape may not be the same as the average person's idea of pro-ape, but to me, the best compliment I can give a gorilla is to make him into one of my favourite characters, a pro wrestler. To accentuate the positivity of the character (and the wrestltivity), I garbed him in the mask of a legendary wrestler, The Intelligent Sensational Destroyer.

I was fairly happy with this drawing, at least at this primitive stage of my art experience. The body is too small for the legs, and the head could be bigger, but I was very happy with the facial expression and the fur rendering. The fists could be bigger, but their pose is good. I had plans for feet, but I ran out of room on the page.

I did the colour in Photoshop using a method from the first part of a GREAT tutorial from Melissa Clifton. The initial sketch was done with a ColErase non-repro blue, then a tighter sketch with an everyday #2 pencil, then inked with the Tachikawa #44 and a School Pen for the details.

The full picture can be seen here.
The inks are here.
I really liked the sketches I made for this one, so if you'd like to see how this piece evolved, you can see poor scans of them here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Kit's ISIDTA should be right about...here.
My past ISIDTAs are here.

FREE THE GORILLAS NOW!

Battle Of The Animals

This may be the best desktop picture ever. From the download page of this awesome website. Check out this cartoon (which is how I found them in the first place.) This is cool too.

Alex-Mov

Alex Gets Published In Asimov
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

My friend Alex's first published piece for a big magazine came out this week in Asimov's Science Fiction. I wanted to commemorate the occasion, so I tilted the focus of the cover to reflect the true reason people are rushing to buy this issue. Go pick up a copy at your local magazine vendor.

Click here for the big version.

Classic Comix

One of the many books I bought for my learn-how-to-draw-someday library was Action Cartooning by Ben Caldwell. On it's surface, it looks like any of a number of the dime-a-dozen "draw cartoons TODAY!" books, but there's something about Caldwell's book that actually made it worth buying. His characters are more striking, the anatomic fundamentals are more solid, and the section on superheroic combat and motion were quite inspirational.

So when I found out Caldwell had a hand in a sort of "Classics Illustrated" project, telling the stories of high literature through the popular medium of comic books, I was immediately interested. Their version of Classics Illustrated is called All-Action Classics, and I like what I see. I'm definitely buying The Odyssey when it comes out (Andy down at Chapel Hill Comics is looking into it for me) and will probably pick up Tom Sawyer as well.

I particularly like the fact that the All-Action Classics webpage shares a lot of sketches and art with us. It's always fun to peer into the making of a comic book, and some of the designs here are fascinating. It looks like they're taking an animation-style approach to producing the comic book, such as painting full backgrounds and drawing out model sheets. When I get good enough to produce a full comic book, this is the approach I want to take to my projects.

Victims and Minions

This falls squarely into the category of "things I would not buy for myself but I really wish somebody would buy them for me".

ISIDTA 8: Pixellated Geekery

ISIDTA 8: pixellatedgeekery_final
Originally uploaded by TedHobgood.

This week's I'm Sorry I'll Draw That Again was inspired by one of our correspondents, the lovely young Katy, who writes "Please incorporate more video game nerdiness into ISIDTA next time. kthx." Well here you go, peachy princess! This is probably a little earlier in videogame history than you anticipated, but it is definitely video game nerdiness.

First, check out the strip here. Then come back and we'll talk about it.

Done? Good. So this is another episode of True Tales of Ted. Ray really did play that game all night, and every time he comes to visit, I still suggest we go to Sal's Pizza. There's nothing wrong with Sal's; it's one of the best restaurants in town. Amazing lasagna. The buffet is beyond compare. Ray's stomach was just rumbly that night. We still joke about it though.

As it turns out, the story is not 100% accurate. Apparently the "Laser Blasters" patch is awarded if you get a mere 100,000 points. You can see a picture of the patch here. If you got the million points mentioned in the story, you got this patch, which reflects just how disappointing the achievement is.

This was drawn on Bristol using my mom's old artschool nib holder, with a Tachikawa G Pen which is amazing but takes some control, and a Tachikawa School Pen for the fine details. I keep forgetting to mention a good tool tip I read about somewhere and now use all the time: you can clean your nibs by washing off the excess ink with warm water, and then spraying them with Windex to rub off the dried ink. Works like a charm.

Anyway, the pencils were done with a blue Col-Erase. I used the new inclined drawing board that I bought last week at Jerry's Artarama's year-end sale. I started the strip using this manga ink I bought at Jerry's, but that stuff dries almost immediately on the pen and gums it up, so I finished with trusty Speedball. The panels and lettering were done in Freehand. Laser Blast really sucks.

You can see detail from the piece here. There's an inside joke there that only Ray will get. (Ray: post a comment here if you get it.)

Kit's ISIDTA entry is here.
My past entries are here.
Corey has promised he'd have one up today. His'll be here; he doesn't tag, so I can't link to his set.

A Kinda Patton Christmas

So I went a little nuts on a Christmas present for my buddy Jackson. Last year, he had introduced me to Patton Oswalt and his standup comedy cd, "Feelin' Kinda Patton". We both think it's one of the best comedy albums ever, and half listened to it half a zillion times, to the point where we end up quoting it like a couple of Monty Python geeks.

Anyway, in one of the bits on the album, Patton is talking about Hollywood producer Robert Evans' autobiography, and he says, "if you can find the book on tape, GET IT." (Supposedly because the guy is outrageous and insane.) So I said to myself, I said, hey, that would be a good gift for my buddy Jackson. So off to eBay I go, and eventually I got it. Then I thought, wouldn't it be fun to try and find the other items that Patton mentioned on the album? It quickly got out of hand, and turned into a huge scavenger hunt for all sorts of wacky items.

So Jackson and I got together last night, and I told him I needed him to sit down for an hour. I started playing the Patton Oswalt album on the iPod, and opened the box, displaying the "A Kinda Patton Christmas" posters I had made. Then, when it came to a part in the standup routine where Patton mentioned an item, I'd pull it out and present it to Jackson. It was a hilarious success, if somewhat ridiculous. A photoset of all the stuff is available here. Be sure to look at the photos one-by-one instead of the automated slideshow, so you can read the comments for each item.

Then the evening progressed nicely, as Jackson served up some of his momma's pot roast (the perfect food for a cold rainy night), and then he gave me his presents, a cool old Sesame Street book that may be the first product they put out, a funny diagram of a whiskey bottle detailing it's effects, and best of all, an amazing painting of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves and Wooster. The expression he got on Jeeves' face is amazing; I shall endeavour to place a photo of this painting on Flickr soon. We also had some delightful homemade hooch, in the form of homemade hard cider from Jackson's brother.

UPDATE:
I emailed the Flickr link to Patton Oswalt, and got a response within minutes:

> Holy shit! That's amazing. I had no idea my album was the new ROCKY
> HORROR PICTURE SHOW.
>
> Thanks. This made my year.
>
> PATTON

And then I get this:

> I posted a thing about it on www.aspecialthing.com, in the Patton
> Oswalt Q&A Thread.
>
> PATTON

The exact thread he's talking about is here. It continues on the next page.

The Man In The Mirror

Judging from the blog entries that are coming into my inbox lately, the thing to do is to look back on the events of the past year. Normally, I don't mensch about a lot of personal stuff on here, but what the hey, it's just after midnight on January 1, and I'm getting drunk, so what the hey.

First off, I made my return to the DSI Comedy Theater tonight after a more-than-a-month absence, for what that's worth. We hada a New Year's Extravaganza, starting off with an all-star ComedySportz that I voiced. That went fairly well. I was happy with my stupid little joke, and was pleased with my nickname for Rene "Sweeter than candy from a Pez toy" Duquesnoy. The rest of the night went well for the theater; it was packed, there were two good Mr. Diplomat sets, a local band called The Never played (and they were really good), and the gang really got into their champagne toast at midnight with a whoopin' and a hollerin'. I left soon after that; I just don't feel like I really fit in with the group. I know my contributions are appreciated by some folks, but I don't really feel I do that much. The main problem is that almost all of the people I could hang out and talk to have left, and I feel like an outsider. It's remarkably like when I was in wrestling, and really felt like a part of the family until the guys started to get famous and didn't really pal around with me much anymore; or really, it's like high school again, where I was the weird antisocial oddball, and all the cool kids were always on the other side of the courtyard looking beautiful and having fun. I'm never really that good around people who are having fun; I'm much better in small groups or alone. I wasn't very social growing up, and it just feels alien to me to be around people who are in couples and enjoying themselves, or who are comfortable floating from conversation to conversation. So anyway, I left as quietly as possible. I think I was probably pretty rude to CeCe on the way out, but I wasn't really feeling very positive or diplomatic at the moment. Sorry CeCe.

But this was supposed to be a look back at the year. There were positives and negatives, as anybody's year would have. Let's see what springs to mind. I'll try to look at it with rose-coloured glasses in a sunny light.
In no particular order:

1. Had eight good months of producing CageMatch at the theater. Made some great videos and had a blast doing it. Finally wound down around October due to lack of teams. Will be relaunching the show this month, but haven't psyched myself up for it yet.
2. Started drawing regularly. Kit and I started the "I'm Sorry I'll Draw That Again" challenge, where we each promise to have a new drawing/cartoon/strip/something up every Wednesday morning. This is a good thing, as I've finally stopped procrastinating and started doing something. I usually wait til the last minute, though, and am not getting the full potential out of the exercise. I do plan on taking an art class this year to help improve my skills.
3. Actually started selling stuff on eBay and clearing out the back room, so I can use it as an art/video studio.
4. Bought a ridiculously powerful mac with a ridiculously huge monitor so I can do better video projects.
5. Started working with PT on "Telegraph Road", a tv series he was interested in making. He viewed it as a comedy, but I convinced him to steer it into a more dramatic realm, and it's shaping up to be a very interesting project. We hope to premiere it towards the end of the year.
6. Filmed a speaking part in a wrestling documentary. Highspots.com is telling the story of my old wrestling promotion, OMEGA. It was nice to go back to the Southern Pines National Guard Armoury and put on the old Scott Sullivan suit. I'll be all over the dvd, introducing all the principals. I didn't get to tell nearly the number of stories I wanted to, and my contribution to the promotion will probably be glossed over, but it'll be a nice thing to see.
7. Got to hang out with my buddy Jackson more often, which is a big plus in my life. Just about every Friday, we get together to drink whiskey and make art. We also need to start our own "how to" podcast on woodworking.
8. My life plods along as steadily and as dull as ever, but some friends and family have had some unfortunate bumps in the road. Brantley's getting divorced, Jackson lost his job, my sister had some marital issues, and my father lost his job through some moral irresponsibility. Still, those people know how to live.
9. I dated a girl from OKCupid for a little while. I thought things would be pretty nice at first, but she quickly proved to be issues-filled. Still, we played nicely together for a while until the inevitable psycho explosion happened. Amusingly enough, it came about because she was hitting on Ethan Kaye.
10. Went to New York with the improv crew. Enjoyed the city, but got rather depressed just being around women I was attracted to that were finding amusement with other fellows. A little frustrating.
11. Still thought about Leesa almost every day and tortured myself for losing her. She was definitely my dream girl, and I was desperately in love with her. I just didn't have the spine to stand up and tell her how much she meant to me. Jesus, it's been what, four years now? Get over it, loser.
12. Was introduced the hilarious standup routine of Patton Oswalt. Jackson and I have elevated Patton to an almost Monty Pythonesque status. We've listened to the album a zillino times, and quote it endlessly. Have you head Oswalt's latest bon mot?
    
13. My boss, the Town Manager, Cal Horton, retired. That turned out to be a bigger blow than I had thought. His daily presence really perked me up. He was always an energetic, positive person; something I envied. He was also very sincere and appreciative, and made the atmosphere at work something special. Now I just really go in and put in my time.
14. November 2006 saw the one year anniversary of my Popular Culture Quote of the Day thingamabob. The people at work really miss it now that I don't do it consistently.
15. Created my first character animation, which turned out remarkably well. It was a CageMatch video for The Darkness vs Night Of The Living Improv, and the animated zombies were made via a technique Jackson taught me this year: linocutting. He christined the process to be "Linomation", and we'll be using Linomation to produce the opening credits for "Telegraph Road."
16. Ethan, Corey, and Dave all moved to New York City. I wish I had their daring and their willingness to reach for their dreams. I'm particularly envious of Corey's consistently positive attitude and dedication to improving himself. He's going to go far with skills like that.
17. Made a fool of myself a couple of times trying to flirt with women from the theater. Maybe more than a couple of times.
18. Discovered the wonderful BBC show "QI" featuring an old favourite, Stephen Fry, and discovered the delightfully simple Alan Davies. Made Alan Davies t-shirts for a few selected friends.
19. Began the daunting task of listening to all seven (?) years of I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again in a row. Funny, funny stuff. Jack Benny is next.
20. Felt very old.

Twenty is a good place to stop. Nice and round. Oh, and for no good reason, here's the joke I used tonight: "My uncle Bert has been doing some home improvement. He built a new deck, and renovated his kitchen...oh, and he put a second floor on the house. But that's another story."

I stole that from ISIRTA.

Anyway, I'm turning the comments off for this post. I'm not really sure why I'm even posting this whiney little diatribe, but it would just be embarrassing to see well-meaning "we like you" responses posted on here. I'm stuck.

Enjoy,
Ted