Fair Warning
I'll be out of town for much of the week, so updates may be sporadic, but I'll try and have at least one comic for you before the end of the week, as well as this week's tattoo promo.
Labels: news
Fast Forward Challenge
So here's the deal, faithful masses: We've been spending far too long living in the past. There is no time like the present. It's time to march forcefully towards the 2010s! Change we can believe in. Etc etc. Even Lost has decided to give up their time-travel season and straighten things out, so it's time I did.
On March 19th, Dumbstruck will turn seven venerable years old. It will also mark the beginning of the end of the strip, as I long ago promised that, since the strip began with the Iraq War/Conflict, it will end with the winding down of the Iraq War/Conflict. Obama has promised to remove the majority of troops from the country later this year, so the strip will find it's natural, book-ended conclusion then. Here, then, is how the year will play out, for those of you keeping score at home:
By March 19th, I will be current with the strip. That's right-- six months will fly by in the span of the next six weeks! Most certainly this means a lot of good strips that I already have written and thumbnailed will be left on the cutting room floor as I draw and post only the best and most necessary strips. But fear not, because once the comic is over at the end of the year, I will begin releasing compilation books of each year, complete with all the strips that were left behind in the dust. I don't know how often these books will be released (every 4-6 months likely), but rest assured they will be attractive little numbers with full-color covers and creator and character commentary sprinkled throughout. You'll be able to have a nice little collection of my life's misadventures on your bookshelf with which to amaze your friends and impress your in-laws.
That's my nefarious plan, my darlings. I'll have some more fun and excitement for your eyeballs appearing on March 19th as well, but we'll let that stay a surprise for now. In the meantime, it'll be like fast-forwarding comics on your TiVo for the rest of the winter! Enjoy
Labels: dumbstruck, news
June 12, 2009: "Best Laid Plans"
A prime example of the idea that you can never be ready for something, you have to grab hold of it and try it before you're ready. That's how one grows. Perhaps this is the universe's way of telling me to stop dipping my toe in the waters and jump in already.
On that note, I had a great interview yesterday for an internship at a theatre company a really respect. Cross your fingers for me.
On that note, I had a great interview yesterday for an internship at a theatre company a really respect. Cross your fingers for me.
Labels: dumbstruck, economy, news
June 7, 2009: "These Kids And Their Video Games"
I'm posting this quite late in the day because I spent the first half of the day applying for multiple jobs and internships and arguing with my insurance company. How did I miss the fact that my current plan doesn't pay for any prescription medication until I've met by $1000 deductible!? Time to kick that plan to the curb.
Labels: dumbstruck, friends, news, wii
October 31, 2009: "Ghostly Ruminations"
No comics this week because I've been very busy planning a murder mystery party for this evening. It's a lot of work and a lot of writing too, when you do like I do and craft the story from scratch. I'll let you know how it went on Monday. Til then, Happy Halloween!
Labels: dumbstruck, news
March 23, 2009: "Last Summer Reunion"
For those of you in Chicago, this is the last weekend to see The Tempest, a show which the Chicago Tribune calls "an intriguing mind-scramble" and says "there's nothing new about high-concept productions of Shakespeare, but rarely does it work this well." So what are you waiting for?
Labels: acting, dumbstruck, friends, news
Now Playing: The Tempest
I tried valiantly, I was unable to complete the next comic this evening. It's sheer sized overwhelmed my tiny bit of free time. I'll have it for you Friday morning for sure. In the meantime, I promised you info on my current show, and here it is! It runs Thursdays through Sundays until the end of August. Also, the Chicago Tribune loves the show! Woo hoo!
Some sketches in the meantime...
 |  |
|
March 9, 2009: "On My Own"
This will likely be the only comic for this week. I'm in tech all this week for my next show: The Tempest, which opens Friday. I'll post more details tomorrow. But rest assured that this is the last comic about Panama. The next several will be about my ordeal trying to get home from Panama. :)
Labels: dumbstruck, news, panama, politics
March 8, 2009: "Parenting Lessons"
Wow. Two and a half weeks between comic strips. That's not good. The simple truth is that life has gotten in the way: a new work environment that's less friendly to artistic endeavors, plus a lot of rehearsing for my latest play, and trying to buff up my design chops in an effort to get more freelance work. I'm trying to teach myself Adobe Illustrator. Have you ever tried to do that? It's friggin' hard! Illustrator is the least intuitive program around. On the good side, though, more stuff in my life means more material for comics... eventually.
This weekend I'll try to crank out another strip. I enjoy doing these detailed environments and all, but I can't wait to get back to simple three-panel layouts with only two characters and implied backgrounds. Oh, the simple life!
Also, just a friendly reminder that every dollar you donate with the little Paypal button on the left is one less dollar I have to make through traditional day-job means and the more time I can spend bringing you comics on a more regular basis. Jus' saying. :)
This weekend I'll try to crank out another strip. I enjoy doing these detailed environments and all, but I can't wait to get back to simple three-panel layouts with only two characters and implied backgrounds. Oh, the simple life!
Also, just a friendly reminder that every dollar you donate with the little Paypal button on the left is one less dollar I have to make through traditional day-job means and the more time I can spend bringing you comics on a more regular basis. Jus' saying. :)
Labels: dumbstruck, friends, news, panama
Where's today's comic?" you ask? Well I won't bore you with excuses, except to say that this next comic is quite special, and I decided that it should be in color instead of greyscale. So I'll post it tomorrow morning in all it's splendor once I make sure it's perfect.
Labels: news
March 6, 2009: "An Actor's Life"
As promised.
So I read the second volume of Bryan Lee O'Mally's Scott Pilgrim series. People apparently love it. I can't say I do. Maybe it's just because I can't tell what's going on in all those love triangles when every single girl in this book looks exactly the same! Guess I'll go back to my Batman comics, thanks all the same.
So I read the second volume of Bryan Lee O'Mally's Scott Pilgrim series. People apparently love it. I can't say I do. Maybe it's just because I can't tell what's going on in all those love triangles when every single girl in this book looks exactly the same! Guess I'll go back to my Batman comics, thanks all the same.
New Comic tomorrow!
I'm almost done with the next comic. It'll be up first thing tomorrow morning. And hopefully another one on Friday morning. Things have been really busy for me. I'm losing my job this week and scrambling to find a new one. Yay, global recession!
Labels: news
March 5, 2009: "Practical Survival Kit"
I saw The Brothers Bloom this weekend. It's a quality flick. I recommend it.
Labels: dumbstruck, friends, news, panama
March 4, 2009: "Visitor's Scam"
I had a very laid-back and enjoyable Memorial Day/birthday weekend, which is my sole excuse for having no comic yesterday. I hope to have one for you tomorrow, and then I'm off to visit my family for a long weekend. Since I didn't get to visit them over Christmas, this visit is a necessity.
In the meantime, if you are in Chicago I cannot recommend highly enough that you see "Static," an audio play/tour by the Sanculottes company. It's part ghost story, part tragedy, part mystery. It runs for another two weeks (it's been extended by a week) and I have to say I loved it. It's one of the few things I've experienced that kept me thinking and pondering for hours after the fact. And it's only $10! Make it happen!
In the meantime, if you are in Chicago I cannot recommend highly enough that you see "Static," an audio play/tour by the Sanculottes company. It's part ghost story, part tragedy, part mystery. It runs for another two weeks (it's been extended by a week) and I have to say I loved it. It's one of the few things I've experienced that kept me thinking and pondering for hours after the fact. And it's only $10! Make it happen!
Labels: dumbstruck, news, panama
I'm not quite finished with the strip I'd planned to post today, so, to make it up, I'll post TWO strips for you tomorrow morning. How's that?
Labels: news
I was going to have a comic up today, but I went to see Star Trek last night instead. Believe the hype. It was worth it. It's true that it lacks the social, political, and philosophic medidations that previous Trek outings have marinated in (to varying success), but it's a great reboot and a great summer blockbuster action movie. I'll likely see it multiple times. Do yourself a favor and see it soon.
Labels: news
January 7, 2009: "The Return of Captain Awkward"
Finally, I have the Tag Cloud on the left menu bar working. Enjoy!
Labels: acting, dating, dumbstruck, news
Playing With Fire
I went to see my friend Adam in the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble's latest show Playing With Fire, which is a stage adaptation of Frankenstein. It's a great production, with fantastic costumes, makeup, and sound design, and some truly phenomenal acting. I was very moved by the ending. If you're in Chicago between now and April 12th, make it a point to see it.
I've leaving. I'm off on a well-deserved vacation to Panama I and won't be back for at least a week. Bon voyage, suckers!
Labels: news
November 13, 2008: "Gordan On The Phone"
Ah, a Gordan comic to inaugurate a new site design. Everybody loves Gordan! Actually no, people tend to like comics about him, but he's actually pretty irritating in person.
But anyway- yes, a new site design. Hopefully having everything flushed to the left will make it pretty on smaller, non-widescreen monitors. I've also pared down the sub-pages now that I have a separate site for my visual art portfolio. You'll now find the Dumbstruck archive link handily located in the top menu. And as soon as I can get around to trouble-shooting the widget, there will be a tag/label cloud in the sidebar. So drop me a comment, let me know how you like or if somethings not working for you!
But anyway- yes, a new site design. Hopefully having everything flushed to the left will make it pretty on smaller, non-widescreen monitors. I've also pared down the sub-pages now that I have a separate site for my visual art portfolio. You'll now find the Dumbstruck archive link handily located in the top menu. And as soon as I can get around to trouble-shooting the widget, there will be a tag/label cloud in the sidebar. So drop me a comment, let me know how you like or if somethings not working for you!
Labels: crazy, dumbstruck, news
My new show opens this weekend, for anyone in the Chicago area! Red Noses is an epic comedy set during the plague years, but which we've updated to the near future after an avian-flu type global disaster. This is the first time this massive play has been staged in Chicago since the Goodman Theater staged the American premiere 22 years ago. The show runs January 24th through February 28th, Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 and Sundays at 3:30. This Thursday and Friday are previews, so the tickets are cheaper. Click on the image above for more info. Come check it out!
I've been thinking about redesigning this main page for like a year now, but it's difficult since I don't constrain my comics to a particular width or shape or size. But having seen it on different sized monitors, I definitely want to get out of the whole "centering everything" business. I'd also like something where I can do little text posts like this one and not have them look out of place or wonky. So if anyone has any suggestions- or, better yet, blog designs that you think I could be inspired by, please drop me a comment.
Labels: news
It's been silent around this blog for the last three weeks, for which I apologize. I've been very very busy with freelance work and my latest show, which goes up on the 22nd. I'll give more details on that in a few days. In the meantime, I wanted to let you all know that I've taken my running list of "to-do" comics and weeded out about 75% of them. Not that any of them were bad, but rather I was getting tired of looking at this list stretch back into November. I've kept maybe a dozen comics to draw and post from over the past two months, and they're either the funniest or those dealing with my latest show and Christmas holiday. I'll squeeze a couple out over the next few weeks, and then really get back into the swing of things once my show opens. So watch the RSS feed for updates!
Hope everyone is having a good New Year.
Hope everyone is having a good New Year.
Labels: news
October 25, 2008: "Craving"
(click for archives)
Man, I'm so behind on these comic strips. The only reason I had time to put this one up is because my freelance gig was canceled until after Christmas AND my rehearsal was canceled last night because of a massive snow storm. My life is so crazy. I haven't even decided what to get/make for my family for Christmas. I'm sorry I've neglected you so. I'll make it up to you. I promise!
Labels: dumbstruck, friends, news, ups
**
**
***
***
I've been burning the midnight oil recently folks. I'm working on a freelance project that has the potential to be seen by a lot of people in a lot of professions around the world, and I didn't want to just list this site under my bio cuz it's probably not the very best site for selling myself and the things I can do. This is more of a site for my friends and loyal readers of Dumbstruck. So after much toiling: behold! I give you now Grab Bag Media.
Oh, and more comics coming next week. Enjoy your weekend!
Labels: news
October 14, 2008: "The Business Side"
(click for archives)
BREAKTHROUGH! I discovered that the Flash menu works at www.grabbagcomics.com, but not when you leave off the "www" and just go to just grabbagcomics.com! I haven't the faintest clue why that is. I'll do some investigating, and I have to change some of my own internal links, but at least I have finally found the culprit. If anybody has any theories on this, I'd love to hear them.
Labels: acting, dumbstruck, friends, news
October 13, 2008: "Trivial Matters"
(click for archives)
I'm gonna drop back down into October for a week or two with the strips, cuz I'm perpetually two or three weeks behind, doncha know. Also, until I can figure out why the top menu isn't working for some people, I'm putting a non-Flash menu at the footer of this page.
Labels: dumbstruck, friends, news
I've had several people tell me that the Flash menu at the top of the site is not working for them. It animates, but doesn't do anything when clicked on. I have been unable to duplicate this error on my own computer in either Firefox or IE and I haven't really found anything about this problem on the internet anywhere. If you're having this problem, would you please drop me a comment to this post letting me know your operating system, web browser, version of Flash player, whether you're running any ad blocker programs, and if you have this problem with any other sites, I would really appreciate it. Happy weekend! |
Labels: news
I was drawing throughout the night last night with the hope of posting a reaction comic this morning. Unfortunately, though the spirit was willing, the flesh was weak. It's also a pretty big comic. I'll post that comic this evening instead. :)
Labels: news
October 4, 2008: "Staying Creative"
(click for archives)
If anyone in Chicago is looking for something to do tonight, John Hodgman is doing a free reading from his latest almanac of interesting "facts" down at Second City at 7pm. I highly recommend checking him out!
Labels: art, dumbstruck, friends, news
October 3, 2008: "A Creative Refueling"
(click for archives)
As I told Anis, reading this poetry is like reading song lyrics; you really need to hear it to do it justice. To that end, you should check out Derrick Brown, Buddy Wakefield, Andrea Gibson, and-- especially-- this clip of Anis Mojgani. If The Junkyard Ghost Revival is coming to your town, make all necessary excuses to see them!
Labels: art, dumbstruck, friends, news
