Bunny-pig stuffed animal

I made a bunny-pig stuffed animal to go along with the Adventure comic. He/she/it came out rather well.

#63 Adventure Page 1

Don't worry, I haven't forsaken color; there's a method to my madness, you'll see why this is in grey-scale in a few pages.

Happy Holidays from Bunny-pig

Happy Holidays! Bunny-pig will be showing up later in the Adventure comic, but since you've already seen him/her/it on the cover I figured it was safe to post another picture. I hope your holidays are relaxing and fun.

#62 Adventure Cover

I decided to do an experiment and challenge myself to make a comic with these limitations:

1. You CANNOT use a ruler.
2. You can't script it beforehand- you have to make one page at a time and see where it takes you.
3. You cannot use words.

I think it's good to challenge yourself to work outside of your usual box now and then. This comic is definitely different than what I usually do, and it provided a good break from my normal routine.

#61 Correction

Dan wanted to make sure I set the record straight. Duly noted.

#60 NaNoWriMo December

After NaNoWriMo is over it's time to set your novel aside for a few weeks and catch up on sleep. This month gives you time to recover from the late nights writing. Additionally, the time off gives you space to see your novel with fresh eyes so you can edit it in January (if you so choose). Either way, decompressing from NaNoWriMo is an important step, and the last step in the process of participating in NaNoWriMo.

#59 NaNoWriMo Thank God It's Over Party

CONGRATS NANO NOVELISTS! You've survived another November!

#58 NaNoWriMo Week Four

Week Four brings victory. You have done what few dare to attempt- you have written an entire novel! By the end of this week, you are officially a novelist.

#57 NaNoWriMo Week Three

By Week Three you've generally got a writing schedule down, and putting down the necessary 1,667 words a day feels comfortable. You're over the grueling halfway point of week 2 and well on your way to winning. The only thing between you and a finished novel is keeping up the momentum you've already got by working hard.

One Year Anniversary

This is the one year anniversary of Life Imitates Comics. I have put up one comic page- in full color- every Friday for every week for one full year (plus some extras here and there). To celebrate, here's another picture I made in MS Paint.

#56 NaNoWriMo Week Two

In week two, the reality of the situation sets in. You look at your novel and realize just how far away the finish line is, and how many other things you need to put off in your life for a full month to be able to finish. To make matters worse, your ideas start to dry up. Why did you think you could do this?

The 20,000-30,000 word period is, I feel, the hardest part of NaNoWriMo. The trick is to just get through it as fast as you can, since if you can get through week two you can get through ANYTHING else NaNoWriMo can throw at you. This is the week where perseverance matters the most; in week 3 things always gets better.

#55 NaNoWriMo Week One

The first week is exhilarating. Your progress is smooth and constant, and the words come easily. You know where you want this novel to go, and every day you get a little closer. It's about being inspired, and putting as many words on the page as you can in a first burst of energy.

#54 NaNoWriMo October

Although October isn't an official part of NaNoWriMo it is still a critical time in the life of your novel. This is when you dream, you make the decision to try NaNoWriMo, and your unconscious brews up the ideas and reserve you'll draw on next month. Without this incubation and commitment period your novel would never come to life.

Happy Cake Day

IT'S MY BIRTHDAY! I made myself a lovely cake in MS Paint to celebrate.

#53 NaNoWriMo Intro

Introduction page. This is the elevator pitch version of 'what is NaNoWriMo and why you should go sign up right now.' Did I mention you can get more information and sign up at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ ? I did? Good, now you have no excuse not to check it out. (Well, maybe you do have an excuse; you should probably try NaNoWriMo anyways, though, since excuses will be the death of any creative endeavor. Go ahead, forget them and try something crazy anyways.)

#52 NaNoWriMo Cover

National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) happens every November. It's a challenge to write 50,000 words- the equivalent of a short full novel- in a month.

I have personally participated in NaNoWriMo for about five years or so and won/reached 50,000 words three times (if memory serves). I wanted to introduce NaNoWriMo to more people, so I created a comic about what it's like to participate in NaNoWriMo. Each page covers what one week is like, and each page will be posted on the Friday of the week it represents.

I would recommend that everyone try NaNoWriMo at least once. Even if you don't cross the 50,000 word finish line you will STILL likely write more and get farther in telling your stories than you ever have before. If you do finish, then congratulations, you're a novelist! You can wow your friends and colleagues with your new-found title and, who knows, maybe even clean up that rough first draft into something beautiful and get published. It's worth it for the experience alone, and that goes double if you manage to stick to your writing and complete the challenge.

You can get more information about NaNoWriMo or sign up here: http://www.nanowrimo.org/ I hope to see some of you in the writing trenches!

#51 Joys of Airports 9

This is a good comic for debuts- now my mom can claim comic book fame if she so pleases. Next week- something completely different!

#50 Joys of Airports 8

Grandma and Bakka make their comic book debuts! Next week is the epilogue, then on to something new.

#49 Joys of Airports 7

Yup, the dinosaurs totally had planes. They also invented hats as an advanced ticketing system that showed not only that the wearer had purchased passage, but roughly where they would like to travel to. Cowboy hats denoted that the dinosaurs wanted to travel to where they cows were, most likely to Montana, since Montana means Cowland in dinosaur. The 'mo' in Montana used to be pronounced 'moo', and the cows were all tan, and once one pointed this out it was all obvious where the dinosaur wanted to go, which added an 'ah' of recognition. Hence, "Moo Tan, Ah.". It was a popular vacation destination for dinosaurs, which is why Montana now has a ton of dinosaur bones and dinosaur experts there to this day. This page is full of accurate history! I hope you learned something.

#48 Joys of Airports 6

Next week, I take the idea of the existence of a man with a cowboy hat on every plane to Montana to its illogical extreme.

#47 Joys of Airports 5

Security is annoying to go through once, so going through it twice was EXTRA fun (with 'fun' here meaning 'augh, why did I do that, nooooo'). What can I say, I couldn't resist the siren's song of the train

#46 Joys of Airports 4

The train sang and powered neon green fans that turned blue lights on as the train went by. It was AWESOME, right up until the bit where it threw me out of security without any warning. I thought just it went back and forth, none of this 'we'll just kick you out without warning' business. Still worth it, though.

#45 Joys of Airports 3

If I have to get stuck somewhere in a tornado, I want it to be in a windowless concrete kitchen. I can distract myself with culinary treats while freaking out because IT'S A TORNADO AAAAAAHHHHH WHYYYYYY.

#44 Joys of Airports 2

Why was he staring at me? I don't know. Maybe he was practicing for a staring contest. I heard they're adding that to the Olympics, and there's really no better time to train then during downtime on a plane where everyone is stuck staring back at you too.

#43 Joys of Airports 1

Oh airplanes, why are you so small and filled with crazy people? Also- it's my dad's comic book debut! This is what happens when you're family of or friends with an artist- they might randomly put you in their work without telling you.

#42 Joys of Airports Cover

The cover of my travelogue to Montana, made about the trip I took this time last year. One of the customers in the store I worked at asked why I'd want a bisoncopter, as they figured its navigation system would be problematic.

"Why wouldn't it work?" I asked.
"Because the copter would automatically travel to Buffalo."

AUUUUUUGH, why didn't I see that coming?!?

#41 Listening

Dan is Silly #2 will be in the store soon! Next up I'll be posting the comic I made about my trip to Montana.

#40 Only Ate Sugar Today

Since the back and front covers of Dan is Silly also double as one-page comics I'll post one this week and one next week. After that it'll be on to something new! Dan is Silly #2 will be posted in the store after the cover is up.

#39 Fine Dining

Dan was so excited about getting fast food, it was adorable.

#38 The Only Way to Travel 2

I only wish there I had a dinosaur train. Still, I suppose the maintenance of taking care of all the dinosaurs would be cumbersome, and a real train won't try and eat you for dinner, so I'll content myself to stick with real trains for now.

#37 The Only Way to Travel 1

Well, maybe not the ONLY way, I am still rather fond of the Bisoncopter (from Joy of Airports), but it certainly beats most forms of travel.

#36 P(i)ran(h)a 2

Dan would make an interesting yogi. At the very least, his ideas about the spiritual side of yoga would be hilarious.

#35 P(i)ran(h)a 1

This story has one more page which will be up next week.

#34 Dan's Search History

Oh Google auto-complete, you know Dan so well. >__>

#33 Text from Dan

Dan is a punny man.

#32 My New Major 2

Dan's Jedi Mind Trick worked so well I changed my major! Well... no, I didn't, but if I COULD have majored in unicorns I probably would have. Who wouldn't?

#31 My New Major 1

Here's Dan, demonstrating an expert usage of the Jedi Mind Trick. 

#30 LoL Hats 4

HE SHALL CREATE MORE HATS! Really though, is there any other option?

Free Comic Book Day 2012

 FREE COMIC BOOK DAY IS TODAY! YAAAAY!

I will be signing and selling comics at the Million Year Picnic (99 Mount Auburn Street in Cambridge, MA) from 2-3 pm today. If you can't make it to the MYP but you still want free comics, the official Free Comic Book Day website has a shop locator to find a participating comic shop near you. If you ever wanted to get into comics but you weren't entirely sure which ones you'd enjoy... today's the day to try it out!

#29 LoL Hats 3

Karthus uses his ult! Karthus gets more gold! Karthus can build more items! WHATEVER SHALL HE CREATE?

#28 LoL Hats 2

From left to right, the characters in this comic are Karthus, Morgana and Vladimir. Dan wrote this one too!

In League of Legends players can buy and equip up to 6 items at any one time during the game. Certain items are better suited to different characters and play styles than others. For example, the hat that Karthus is wearing is a Rabadon's Deathcap, which is extremely useful for casters.

#27 LoL Hats 1

This is the cover to another League story. This one is three pages; hope you find it amusing.

#26 LoL Cassiopeia Page 4

IT'S SUPER EFFECTIVE! Well, it got one of the opposing team, at least, so that's... kind of like being effective?

Edit: Previous update lied, there will be more League comics after this.

#25 LoL Cassiopeia Page 3

Page 3 of 4. If you want to know more about Cassiopeia and what Miasma is SUPPOSED to do, you can read a lovely overview here. Did I mention this comic was written by Dan? It is! I think it's his first comic; not a bad start.

#24 LoL Cassiopeia Pages 1-2

League of Legends is a Multiplayer Online Battle Arena-style free online game where you control a champion and attempt to take down the Nexus while defending your own. This is the opening two-page spread to a four-page comic about the champion Cassiopeia and her, uh, unique ability. The champions shown in the first panel from left to right are Garen, Anivia, Cassiopeia on one team and Teemo, Ashe, and Singed on the other.

Extra #1: Going to DC!

Vacation will not stand in the way of timely updates! I will update on time all the time!

The mini-update-every-weekday thing was a rather successful and fun experiment. I'm glad I was able to produce enough content to do it. My official update day has always been every Friday, so although there won't be as much EXTRA content going forward for a little while, the normal update schedule will continue uninterrupted. I'm already planning on throwing in some surprise non-Friday updates, so there should still be plenty to look at in the weeks to come.

Why reduce the number of comics I'm making and sharing with the world? Well... I'm not, just rearranging my priorities a bit. I'm going to be taking the extra time that I would use to make little daily updates to work on my first-ever graphic novel. I'll post it page-by-page online once I've got enough of it done. I figure that's a decent reason to reduce daily-little-sketchy-fun-thing output. If not, well, I'm open to suggestions.

#23 Blossom Driving

Blossom is a good traveler. I wonder if he'd be a good driver? Perhaps it's a good thing we'll never know. This is the last of the cat comics for now... but knowing me, there will be more in the future. Next week- video game comics.

Comic Cats #36: Rice Cat

 

Rice Boy is a completed graphic novel (all pages are available online) by Evan Dahm. I learned about his work through a post by Yuko Ota on Johnny Wander (which I also parodied as a cat). It's great to find another great artist and storyteller through a webcomic, and it's even better when they decide to work together to create a new type of collaborative art blog. If anybody is interested in creating a beast and doesn't have a partner, let me know, it looks fun!

Comic Cats #35 Scott McCat

Scott McCloud is one of the few comic book characters that I've drawn here that is also an actual person. He draws himself into his books on the theory and ideas behind comics and their creation. If you want to make or understand comics on a deeper level, you need to read his books, no excuses. He is also the creator of the 24 Hour Comic challenge. The Challenge has inspired many a sleepless, caffeinated creator to create a complete comic with 24 pages in 24 hours. My favorite 24 hour comic is by a French artist named Boulet, who kindly put it all online. It's called Darkness.

Comic Cats #33: McCatdro

McPedro is the cactus that starts talking with the Irish accent when Hazel drinks too much in Girls with Slingshots. It's occasionally NSFW-ish, mostly in the "we're going to talk frankly about our love lives now" and "drinking is fun!" sort of way. Still, fair warning.